Italica and Carnival

Two fridays ago, I visited Italic. This was the first Roman settlement in the Iberian peninsula (side note: the greeks named it Iberia, which translates to, the land of many bunnies). It was a dream come true. Ever since I was 9 or 10 I have wanted to visit Roman ruins. I read every scrap of information or literature about Greece and Rome when I was younger and finally seeing some in real life was so surreal. 

     The city was primarily a wealthy retirement community after the conversion from the republic to the empire. Emperors Hadrian and Trajan were born there and Julius Caesar was briefly a governor in the region. The homes of these people were massive. There were only a single story, but the ceilings were between 12 and 15 feet high (to combat the summer heat) and the dimensions of the house were easily worthy of a nice subdivision. 

     Easily the coolest part was visiting the amphitheater. We only got to walk around under the seats and on the arena floor. We did get to view the room were the gladiators waited to enter for battle. In this room, on the wall was a bronze plaque that had the gladiatorial prayer etched into it. 

The weekend before last, I went to Cadiz for the annual celebration of Carnival. I was expecting it to be rather wild; it was. We arrived there at about 10:00 and we were planning to leave the next morning at 5:30. So we all knew we were in for a wild night.

   The streets were filled with thousands of young people dressed in various costumes. The costumes weren't scary as much as they were either fun or political. My group of friends and I dressed up as a mascot from our favorite restaurant, Superlunes from Cien Montaditos. We were a hit. We won the costume contest on our bus and we received a bottle of champagne as a prize.

Locked Up Abroad

I must give credit for the ever so witty title of this post to Carey Mears. You will see the humor after the following anecdote.
   This past Saturday, I woke up at about one in the afternoon after returning home very late the night before from bar hopping with friends. I woke up and walked to the kitchen and exchanged pleasantries with Pepi. I then drank a coffee, a cup of chocolate milk, and ate some toast. I was promptly in bed again by 1:30. I slept until three and woke up to take my lunch, so I thought. I went to exit my room only to discover the mechanism in the door handle was broken and I was unable to leave my room. Pepi had informed me the day before she would be away until around seven or eight that evening. I was filled with dismay.
   I evaluated my situation carefully. I had half a bottle of water, some dried cherries, a few packs of skittles, and I had a window so thankfully the supply of oxygen wasn't a limiting factor in my predicament. I ended up passing the time by cleaning my room and watching the big bang theory until Pepi returned home around  7:00. She dismantled the door knob and I was freed from my Spanish prison.
   This coming weekend I am going to the third biggest Mardi Gras/Carnival party in the world, after Rio de Janeiro and the Canary Islands. I am pretty excited and a bit nervous. It sounds like it will be a very wild experience.
  I also signed up for a trip to Morocco in a few weeks as well. My first trip to Africa! My third continent.

Lisbon: A Successful First Jaunt in Europe.

Well I have successfully completed by first adventure to another city/country in Europe. I, and seven other amigos traveled to Lisbon (Lisboa) this past weekend. We began our escapade at midnight on thursday and travelled the seven hours to Portugal's capital via bus. Normally I think this would have been an ideal way to travel but I had a very special neighbor for half of the bus trip. This neighbor earned himself the fond appellation of "meat blanket". He was an easily 350 pound black gentleman who smelled like sour milk which wasn't even the worst part. I think he must have suffered from sleep apnea because as soon as he would doze off he'd begin to breath like Darth Vader having an asthma attack; people were startled.

My new friend departed half way through the trip and I could spread out in the now vacant seat next to me.

  We arrived at 6:30 local time, there is a one hour time difference from Sevilla. We began our day with the sunrise coming over the river mouth as we found our hostel in downtown Lisboa. We were lucky to be able to check in right when we arrived and stow our luggage away for the day. I was in a six person Hostel room by myself. 

  The first day was primarily a sightseeing day. We took a free tour around two districts. Lisboa had a massive earthquake in 1755 and most of the older parts/building of the city were demolished or were razed by fire in the aftermath. As a result many of the building aren't as old as other city's in Europe but the neoclassical architecture and monuments would fool the unsuspecting traveler. 

   That night, after enjoying the hot showers and other generous amenities of our hostel (only 12.50 euro a night!!!!!!!) only Carey and I were game to explore the nightlife of Lisboa. Everyone else was too tired from the long day of walking uphill (Lisboa is all uphill) and snapshots. I wanted to just go out anyways, "you can sleep when you're dead" as they say. So we went to the bar district and walked around and had a few drinks. It was fun even though we were both haggard and returned to sleep very early.

  

The next day was similar to the first because we took a free tour in the morning after indulging in the lovely continental breakfast at the hostel. After lunch we decided to split into smaller groups and conquer our differing desire's for the day. Marc, Carey, Rebecca and I decided to find the large park we'd seen on the map and the others elected to visit the replica of the giant Jesus that looks over Rio de Janeiro which was on the other side of the river. 

  After walking for about an hour we ascended the peak of the park; the whole park was uphill. We enjoyed the expansive view at the top. Marc came up with the excellent idea to jump from the balcony of the terrace that overlooked the city at the park's summit to create the illusion that we were hovering over the city. This proved to be a fun little exercise and the pictures are quite entertaining.

  That night at dinner will be one of my fondest memories of the trip. We ate dinner at the hostel and it was cooked by "Mama" the owner/operator of the establishment. The food was good and the Sangria was the best I'd ever had (it had a dash of cinnamon in it, que rico). We made some new friends from the hostel at the table and sat around for about an hour reminiscing on the weekend's adventures.

  We went on a pub crawl that night which turned out to be a wonderful investment of 13 euro. The first bar had a reggae band that also played a ton of 9's american rock along with Bob Marley. The next bar was bottomless beer and vodka drink for one hour with our wristbands; we took advantage of this VIP status with a strict consumption schedule. After this bar we were all prepared to enter the loud discotecas of Lisboa for dancing and whatever else such an atmosphere inspires. The first club was very fun and the music was great. The second club had a great light show with the DJ's music and was arguably the better club.

  The next morning we all rose at 10:00 sharp to check-out of the hostel. We got out on time, but they agreed to keep our belongings for us so we could enjoy the city a bit more until our bus ride at 2:00. We split up into smaller groups again and sought out lunch options of our choosing. 

   The ride home was restful and uneventful thankfully. We returned in time to watch the Super Bowl that Sunday evening.