What Happens In Madrid...

Stays in Madrid. (but there are still photos on facebook)

And therefore, this post will be lightly censored. I leave it to the reader's imagination to fill in any gaps of further adventures that are not being included in this post. This past weekend I went to Madrid and it was...interesting. It was my first time taking RyanAir, which in itself was an interesting experience. RyanAir flights leaving Marseille have their own terminal, which has the feeling of being in an airplane hanger rather than an actual airport. But the plane was nice enough (737), and the flight was smooth enough with the exception of one thing; when you’re on a RyanAir flight they try to sell you things the whole time. Whether it was food, cigarettes, or cologne, during the entire flight there was someone of the PA system reading off a catalog. But I was able to put my iPod on, tune out, and get some quality sleep.

As we were leaving the airport in Madrid, my friend Marc-Adam realized that he had lost his iPod, so we had to go back to the terminal to try to look for it. As it was already past 10PM, the girls decided to go do their makeup in the airport bathroom, so we could go out as soon as we got to the hostel. After a 30 minute metro ride to the hostel, we showed up around 11:15. Everyone quickly got ready, and we went to meet my friend Alex's friend. As we were waiting around in a plaza, an American (Sam) came over and started talking to us. He was wearing a Chai necklace, and we found out that he's teaching English in Spain for the year, and was meeting his friend, whose birthday was that day. Coincidentally, we were all planning on ending up at the same club, and he asked if we wanted to go to an apartment party. The party was mostly English teachers, which meant either Americans or Anglophile Spaniards. We met a lot of interesting people, and it was nice hearing so much English in a country where none of us speak any of the language.

Eventually we headed for the infamous Kapital night club. This club is 7 stories, with each story being slightly different. The top 2 are lounges, the 4th and 5th are dance floors, and the bottom 3 all center around one massive dance floor. Interesting side note: when we asked Sam if we could buy beer anywhere, he took us to a woman standing on the street corner holding a bag and asked her for beer. She took one out of her bag and sold it to us for a euro. These people are all over the city, waiting to sell you cheap beer. This was good, as drinks were incredibly expensive in Kapital. There was an 18 euro cover charge, which included one drink, but it was well worth the experience. We ended up meeting up with Sam and his friend again, and they had bought a 300 euro private room overlooking the dance floor for his birthday, so we stayed there for a while. It was an absolutely crazy atmosphere...words can't describe it. We didn't get back to the hostel until 6:30 AM.

The next day we got up and headed out to explore the city. I had heard about a company called Sandeman's New Europe, and was excited to try it out. Sandeman's runs free English-speaking tours in most major European cities (as well as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem). The tour guides work entirely on tips, and (I've heard) they're all very relaxed, funny, and knowledgeable. We met at Plaza Mayor, which is a big open square filled with street performers, artists, and people dressed up like Disney characters. Our tour guide was an English guy named Jake, and he was great. We were in a group of about 40 (he said it was the largest he's ever had), but he was loud enough for all of us to hear him. He was funny, and had lots of great historical anecdotes and myths about the places we saw. He definitely knew what people would find interesting and wouldn't. The tour was about 3 hours, and it felt like we hit most of the major tourist sites: churches, castles, theaters, the palace, etc.

One interesting thing I noticed is that despite being a free tour, the tour guides do alright for themselves. There was a tour through the tourism office that was being offered at 4 euros per person. Sandeman's is a "free" tour, but the tour guides mention at the beginning and end that they only get tips for their time. Our tour guide was very good, and at the end people were giving him anywhere from 3-10 euros. I'm sure that despite being a free tour, he made more off of us than he would have anywhere else.

After a much-needed nap at the hostel, we went out for the night. None of us were feeling like repeating the previous night, so we decided to skip any clubs and check out Madrid's famous Tapas bars. These bars are all over the place in Madrid. Tapas is a type of appetizer, and usually you pay one low price for a drink and the appetizer. The type we got were different meats, and you ate them on a baguette. After leaving the tapas bar, we inadvertently walked into what must be THE American pub in Madrid. I don't think I heard a single person in the bar speaking Spanish, and they had NHL hockey on TV. Very weird feeling. Anyone walking in would've thought they were right back in State College. We finished the night at a hookah bar, before heading home for some much needed sleep (but not before being accosted by prostitutes).

Sunday morning we had a few hours before we had to be at the airport, so we decided to check out what our tour guide had told us is the largest flea market in Western Europe. Every Sunday an entire section of Madrid is flooded with vendors setting up booths to sell their goods. Hand-made crafts, art, second-hand goods...anything you can imagine you can find there. We spent over an hour walking around, and it was unlike anything I've ever seen before. Think Chinatown on crack.

The only thing I bought that day wasn't at any of the vendors, it was at a camping/outdoors store. I'd heard it be recommended to get a sleeping bag liner for staying at hostels, and a few of my friends had them. Hostel sheets are almost always kind of gross, but a sleeping bag liner fixes that problem. It's basically a sheet that's been sown up, and intended to line the inside of a sleeping bag. However, it can double up as a buffer layer between you and the sheets of carnal pleasures past. It folds up into a compact carrying case, and fits easily into a backpack. I feel much better having bought one. Next purchase: a micro-fiber quick-dry compact towel!

In comparison with my trip to Cassis, I felt much better prepared for this trip, while still feeling like a rugged traveler. Compared to some of my friends who checked bags, I pulled off a very minimalist approach. Just my backpack, travel-sized toiletries, and a few changes of socks, underwear, and shirts. I wore the same jeans the whole time, and didn't shower, but felt pretty comfortable, and no one complained about the smell. I really like the sense of freedom I get from walking around in a city I've never been to with everything I need in one small bag. I think that's a basic human feeling, as people have been walking the earth for centuries.

"Whatcha mean, walk the earth?

You know, like Caine in Kung Fu, walk from place to place, meet people, get into adventures."

A Day (Weekend?) in Cassis

Check out the pictures from my trip here

This weekend was my first REAL excursion (i.e. not planned by the program I'm on). While going someplace further in Europe like Amsterdam had been brought up, a few friends and I settled on Cassis, a small town on the Mediterranean less than an hour south of Aix. There were going to be four of us going on the trip, until we found out that the bus left Aix at 8 A.M. This obviously meant cutting down on the nighttime activities Friday night, which some of the group were unwilling to sacrifice. However, around 11 P.M. Friday night my friend, Mckenzie, and I decided to suck it up, cut our night short, and wake up early for the trip to Cassis. It turned out to be the right decision.

Cassis is known mainly for its calanques. The dictionary definition of "calanque" is rocky inlet. Between Cassis and Marseille, there's a series of these rocky inlets running along the coast which are absolutely gorgeous. These back-to-back inlets create stunning peninsulas that you can hike on. There are three close enough to Cassis to be within reasonable hiking distance. While these three are the popular destination, some brave souls actually make the 7+ hour hike from Cassis to Marseille and see them all.

So Saturday morning I dragged myself out of bed, grabbed a backpack with little in it but my journal and camera, headed outside and caught the bus where I met up with Mckenzie. We had an hour stop in Aubagne, a small town that was quite lazy early on a Saturday. After a 2nd bus ride (total transportation cost: 7 euro) we arrived in Cassis, and headed for the Office de Tourisme. From the moment I saw the town's port, I realized that it is what I've always imagined a Mediterranean Provencal town to be like. At 10 A.M. on a beautiful, sunny Saturday, it was very picturesque. The woman at the tourism office gave us a map of the town, and pointed us in the direction of the calanques, although she was a bit surprised we didn't have a car. The walk to the first calanque was about an hour, which gave us a good chance to see a bit of the town on our way there. The whole place has a very Greek island feel to it, and is quite a contrast to Aix-en-Provence. Along the way we passed a beach, where dozens of people were lined up sunbathing, and one brave woman was actually swimming.

We finally made it to the first peninsula, and the view was absolutely amazing. In a 270 degree view we could see all of Cassis, a magnificent cliff branching out into the water, and the Mediterranean Sea. The first calanque was relatively flat, with perfectly smooth, flat rocks down by the water. We had bought a typically French lunch before heading out (baguette, cheese, wine, and oranges), and sat on the rocks enjoying our lunch watching the Mediterranean crash inland.

Satisfied with lunch, and excited to see what else Cassis had in store for us, we headed out for the second calanque. The hike became a bit steeper, and the second calanque was much higher than the first. At the actualy inlet, there's a beautiful beach and grassy area that feels very tucked away in the surrounding hills, like its own little oasis. Wanting to experience everything we could before the last bus left for the day (at 4 P.M.) we hurried on and trekked to the top of the second peninsula, which had a more stunning view than the first. Not only could we see the same things as before, but we could see the first calanque, and see how far we had hiked. At this point, we realized that to make the bus, we would need to hike back immediately. However, we still had yet to see the third calanque, which the lady in the tourism office said was the best. Both of us were bummed about leaving so much unseen, so we made an extremely spur of the moment traveling decision, and decided to stay the night. We called the tourism office, asked for the cheapest hotel, and decided that for 50 euro split between two of us it was worth staying. The feeling of freedom and spontaneity that resulted from this decision is, in my opinion, the essence of travel.

With renewed vigor, we headed for the third calanque. This trail was much steeper than the previous two, and we found ourselves climbing over rocks and walking up steep hills. But by the time we made it, it was absolutely worth it. The point that we arrived at was much higher than the previous two, and was hundreds of feet above the inlet below, where there was another beach. We made our way out onto a rocky outcrop, and sat looking down at the ant people below us. It was one of the most magnificent views I've ever seen. A huge valley spread out below us, with cliff faces staring back at us from the other side, and a view of the Mediterranean over that. Absolutely stunning. After enjoying the view for a while, we decided to head back to the grassy area in the second calanque and rest for a while (this was after 5-6 hours of hiking).

As we were finally heading back into town, the sun was setting across from the giant cliff. Neither words nor pictures can truly do it justice, but the whole cliff face was glowing an intense orange that phenomenal. When we got to town we went to check into our hotel. The hotel was pretty small, but it was right off of the main street and we could see the port from our window. The room was kind of small, but we didn't need much. Luckily there were two beds and Mckenzie, being the gentleman, let me take the big one. We realized that we could fit 4 or 5 people comfortably in those 2 beds, which might be nice for future trips (would mean each person only paying 10 euro). The one downside to our spur of the moment traveling is that we had nothing with us. Only the clothes on our backs (which after 7 hours of hiking were kind of gross) no deodorant, toothpaste, or contact solution. So we went exploring, and after visiting a super market and a pharmacy found enough basics to survive the night comfortably. We then went to get dinner to bring back to the hotel, and found a pizza place. We almost weren't able to pay for our pizza though. We each only had 100 euro notes, so Mckenzie tried to pay with a debit card, which the guy said no to. Then we asked if 100 euro notes would work, and he laughed at us. We were able to scratch together enough coins though, and with the fruits of our exploration headed back to the hotel. After polishing off the pizza while watching The Simpsons in French, we passed out pretty hard for a few hours, and woke up at 9 with the intentions of checking out the casino. After showering and getting changed (back into the same clothes), we headed for the casino.

When we got to the casino we found out that French law requires non-EU citizens to present a passport to get into casinos. Neither of us had ours, and so we were turned away, but not before the guy at the front desk told us there was nothing else to do at night in Cassis. He was right. As much as I loved the sights of the day, Cassis made me appreciate the thriving nightlife in Aix. The town was like a ghost town, with 2 bars open. Neither were too exciting, so we retired for the night.

The next day we found out that there was only one bus back to Aix, at 4 P.M. This was much later than we'd planned on staying, but we decided to make the most of it. There is a chateau up on a hill overlooking the town, so we decided to check it out. We made our way up to the top, and found that the chateau is a private bed and breakfast, fenced in and locked up, which didn't really stop us. We made it into the inner courtyard, where we found a magnificent view of the town and surrounding area. When a lady came out and started asking us how we had gotten in (in French), we played the ignorant American card. (in very loud English) "What? I'm sorry I don't speak the language. What? We're just taking pictures!" until she smiled at us and left. Our next stop was a nearby vineyard, which we found closed on Sundays. We were able to take some cool pictures through the fence, but ultimately left disappointed. Finally, we headed to a nearby beach which was very rocky, but pretty nonetheless. There were people snorkeling, and so we watched them while enjoying a snack.

Feeling like we'd seen all that Cassis had to offer, we decided to head back to the first calanque to hang out and have lunch for a few hours. After another typical French lunch, Mckenzie took a nap on the rocks while I wrote in my journal, looked through pictures, and sat watching the boats go by. It was a beautiful sailing day, and I wanted so badly to go jump in a boat by myself and take it out. Before we left, we each wrote messages and sealed them up in a bottle which we threw out to sea. I'd never done it before, and it's kind of a cool feeling.

So, that was my big adventure of the week. I really liked having the ability to just decide to stay an extra night, and it was nice being able to just pick up and leave the hotel, but there's definitely some things I'm going to start keeping in my day bag, just in case:

• Extra shirt, socks, and underwear
• Contacts case filled with solution
• Travel-sized deodorant
• Passport
• Pills (tylenol, dayquil, nyquil)
• Flashlight
• Pocket knife
• Bottle Opener
• Lighter
• Cards
• Sharpie

I'll be better about that next weekend, when I'm in Madrid! Until then, classes classes classes.