train-ing

I have a love affair with trains.

 There is something about listening to your favorite playlist while staring out the window at beautiful scenery speeding by, that makes one feel so alive!

My love has escalated in Switzerland, as everything is so incredibly gorgeous. I could stare out the window endlessly. My only complaint is that things are just too close together. I'm never on the train for more than two hours. I could really live on the train, especially since you're free to bring your own bottle of wine and a few beers (this is not the case on the Amtrak, this is a whole other story- ask me and I will happily elaborate). The train is always such a pleasant experience, even if sometimes I cannot find a window seat. It always seems to work in my favor one way or another.

Plus it's an opportunity to meet interesting, wonderful people--- that is if you don't already have interesting, wonderful company ;)

I love trains, I love Switzerland. Life is grand.

swiss love

I'm in Switzerland. The amazingly, breath-takingly, beautiful Switzerland.

I am here visiting Alice, a good friend that I met while teaching at the orphanage in Tanzania. She is lovely and beautiful, as is Switzerland. I really am in love. (with both Alice and Switzerland ;)

Hiking in Oeschinensee

The country as a whole, is quite small, so it is really easy to get around and see everything. By easy, I mean it doesn't take long, however it can be quite pricey! The prices in Switzerland are very high, and train tickets and passes easily start to add up. Luckily for me, because Alice had a special pass, I could go with her everyday (an 24hr unlimited train/boat pass) for just $35 Swiss Francs. This was wonderful as most train tickets cost three to four times this price... the average around 100+ CHF!

Switzerland is an expensive country, but I think it's a pretty fair trade. After all, you can't see this just anywhere:

Here are 10 things I've learned about Switzerland:

1) Switzerland has four national languages: German (the majority), French, Italian, and some historical language that only old people speak now. (No, not English) They do learn it in school though.

2) They can drink in public and on the train starting at age sixteen.

3) Getting a driver license can be really expensive- one driving lesson cost around $80-$90 and you're supposed to take at least twenty. *Also if you fail your driver's test more than three times you have to go see a psychiatrist! Yes, a psychiatrist.

4) Every Swiss boy is required to go the the military each year when they're between the ages of 18 to 30.. exceptions apply, but woah.

5) Thrift Stores here give you a free drink every time you donate clothes. You can even donate one thing! So if you give away one sweater (in decent condition) they give you a coupon to buy a free drink! It's so exciting. (If you ever find yourself in Switzerland be sure to come to 'Heilsarme')

6) They don't have extracurricular activities in school. No sports are associated with academics. None.

7) Their university is free or at least mostly free, they don't pay more than $800 a semester.

8) They have Zebra noodles!

9) Hand ball is a big deal.

10) Fifteen minutes is "far away"

Goodbye Madrid.

Can't believe today is my last day in Madrid.

What an adventure.

I had such a lovely goodbye and will miss my family dearly.

Bianca and Zulma kept approaching Bea to ask her to trasnlate things into English and write them down so they could tell me. It made me smile. I vow to learn Spanish one day and come back and communicate fluently.

Now I'm off to Switzerland :)

Malasaña

Every city, every person has a story. (I just felt like saying that.)

 In other news: I found the heart of Madrid.. well my heart at least.

Malasaña is my favorite part of Madrid. With adorable book stores, coffee shops, quirky stores, and street art, it is all I ever need. It reminds me of Kalk Bay in South Africa, although with the ocean right there, Kalk Bay still holds #1 on my list.

Some of my favorite finds:

This fun store called Nest:

They have such a unique range of gifts, you can find something for anybody. Or in my case... yourself :)

J&J Books and Coffee: 

Joint books stores and cafés are all you really need in life. But this one in Madrid actually has used English books, which are impossibly hard to find in Madrid. English? I'll take it.

and Café de la Luz: 

Cute, no?

In May during the fiesta de San Isidro, they do yarn bombing in La Plaza Dos de Mayo. LOOK: 

please know these are not my pictures... but doesn't it look SOOOO fun!

I vow to return one May in the future accompanied by a posse of adorable children. Perhaps they'll be my own, perhaps not... But I will return. 

 Malasaña, you have my heart.

Just in time.

Today was a “just” day. These are one of my favorite types.

I caught the bus for Madrid just in time. Had just enough money. Arrived in La Puerta de Sol at just the right time to meet my group, that was just the right amount of people. I heard just enough stories in just enough places and had just enough coffee and wine to float through Madrid in ecstasy. I just caught bus 652 as it was leaving and I arrived home just in time for la siesta de la familia. Because honestly… after all of that beauty, my eyes just had to close.

The only things that weren’t just enough today were- the people , the energy, and the smiles- these were all MORE than enough.

There is something else that I can’t say more than enough:

The amount of beautiful, lovely, extraordinary individuals I have had the opportunity to meet while traveling and would have never have met otherwise never seizes to amaze me. Traveling opens so many doors and so many experiences and so many emotions. None that I would ever take back .

I would sit in a million long layovers, break down and cry in a thousand crowded streets, and dodge hundreds of creepy men. Because traveling has captured my soul and I cannot wait to head to my next destination and discover the beauty of humanity in all depths of the world. Traveling is everything. And this is just true.

Also I take back the creepy men part.. because some things are just too much!

In other news, Marcos as he walked out the door:  “Hola tat-a-lee” I just melted.

Some pictures from today:

Reflections of.. 

La Puerta de Sol

A book store next to the best place to get Churros in all of Madrid; open 22/7!

Meet Prince Phillip IV- one greedy bastard. 

I love this man. He sits in the same place everyday singing the same Neil Young songs. And I love him.

  

New friends :)

The Royal Palace or something

walking along, walking along...

OHHH and today I matched the flowers :)

To Madrid, with love.

Ten things I love about Madrid, Spain:

1) My beautiful family

2) Tapas: because seriously ever drink should come with food. It’s just the way it should be.

3) The people here in general (even the angry bus driver, perhaps he was having a bad day)

4) Street performers. They're everywhere (like the rest of Europe) but here I’ve seen some unique ones.. and they kind of make me smile.

5) Cute dogs (also very common in other parts of Europe) But jeez! I love dogs and here I cannot walk five steps without encountering five!)

6) The steez (read: style) of the Spanish people. So many colors!

7) The food!

8) European football/being here when Bale joined Real Madrid!

9) The Spanish siesta

10) AND Malasaña (I shall dedicate a blog post to this later)

Things I DON'T love about Madrid, Spain:

1)Recycling seems scarce here. Even Africa recycles. I don’t get it.

3)And THIS:

Yes, this is real. I may never sleep again.

When in Spain, eat meat.

Perhaps one day I look back at that month I ate meat in Spain, with disgust and regret.

Perhaps, not.

so. much. ham.

queso y jamónnnn

I’ll be spending two months in Thailand and Nepal being vegetarian again {Nepal wholly, as I’ll be in a Buddhist monastery and  meat as a means of consumption will not even be an option} I might as well eat, eat, eat. meat, meat, meat. todos los días.

Just no more pig ears, por favor. Never again.

911

Today is the 12^th anniversary of September 11^th. War in Syria rages on. And here I sit in a park in Majadahonda. There is a young women crying on the bench across the square. I can’t help but wonder the source of her tears.

An image comes to my head from my time in Tanzania. A mother mourning the death of her son. It was a cry I’d never heard before. So much pain, a loss there are no words for. Yet right after, she picked back up as if nothing had happened, each day as normal as the one before.

I couldn't understand this type of mourning. How could she be so unbelievable devastated, and then stand up and continue on as if nothing had happened.

I suppose we all mourn differently. Today my heart goes out to every life that was touched by 9/11, whether they reside in New York, the U.S., Spain, or somewhere else in the world. My heart also goes out to all the families and children in Syria who are suffering every day. Today, in this moment, I am sending the warmest wishes and condolences to every individual who has mourned the loss of a loved one, experienced the hatred and cruelty of another human being, or who has been left on a bench to cry. 

Yes, we're different. but we're also all human. And through that, we are all completely the same.

Feeling sad? 
 Watch this video. This is my Spanish family. This is love in it's truest form

The Heming[way]

I am currently at the coffee shop Café del Real, one of the many here in Madrid where Hemingway used to write.

On this backpacking trip, I’ve decided to choose a piece of literature for each destination. What did I choose aqui? Hemingway, of course. I'm currently reading The Sun Also Rises.

I met up this morning with a girl from Germany who is also au pairing and we ventured around the city doing both everything and nothing. She has travelled extensively and is really interesting. I love meeting new people and hearing their stories.

Now here I am silently reading and observing and sipping my wine.

Across the room, the sun in shining through the window, perfectly centered between an elderly couple holding hands across the table. The sun is bouncing off the woman's golden watch and reflecting on the wall next to me.

 They are in love. And so am I.

Whatever you say Hem, whatever you say.