I just got back from our trip to Spain. It's quite nice to be back in the States, although I'm definitely missing Spain already! Read on to learn about all the awesome things we did!
Day 1: Our trip began at around 11:20 a.m. on a sunny Friday. Our first stop was San Jose International Airport, where we boarded our flight to Chicago. In fact, our flight to Spain wasn't until the next day, but we added Chicago to our itenerary since my father wanted to visit his late paternal uncle Chi-ming's family. Chi-ming is a younger brother of my late paternal grandfather Bien-chuan, making him one of my great-uncles. I met my uncle Peter (Chi-ming's younger son) and my cousins Eric and William (the children of Chi-ming's older son Da-wei) for the first time. Their family invited us to an amazing Chinese buffet, and needless to say, I was pretty stuffed that night. Our next stop was Eric and William's house. Eric and William had a lot of video games, but unfortunately, I didn't get to play any of them since we had a rather early flight to New York the following day. Anyways, we then went to my great-aunt Shu-ying's house and stayed there for the night. I later met my cousin Jennifer, who is Chi-ming's daughter Fei-bi's daughter. Jennifer also has an older brother named Frank, but he was not home during our stay. I hope all this genealogy isn't too confusing!
On the whole, our stay at Chicago, albeit short, was a lot of fun. It looks like we'll have to plan an exclusive trip to the Chicago area some time in the future!
Days 2 and 3: After breakfast, we paid our respects to Chi-ming at the nearby cemetery where he was buried. It seems Shu-ying had already reserved a spot for herself there. Wow, how depressing. I don't know about you, but I'd rather not see my name on a gravestone as long as I'm alive.
Da-wei drove us to O'Hare, where we boarded our flight to New York City. We arrived there after a three-hour flight, and it was finally time to head for Spain! After a tiring seven-hour flight, we arrived at
Barcelona. However, our flight was not without mishaps. Apparently, we had forgotten to bring the packet with the voucher for our hotel. To make matters worse, we could not remember its name! By a stroke of destiny, we ran into three young Spanish ladies (Naiara, Guiomar and Goizane) who were able to help us find the hotel we were looking for. We would have been in deep sh*t without their kindness. Those three ladies will always have our gratitude.
Despite all our troubles, there was still one more flight to go: Barcelona to
Madrid. Fortunately, this flight went pretty smoothly. We arrived at Madrid and checked into our hotel. I took a two-hour nap, which was pretty nice considering that I hadn't slept in about 28 hours!
We had dinner at a Chinese restaurant and took a stroll around our hotel afterwards. However, we were completely exhausted at this point, so we went back to the hotel for some well-deserved sleep.
Day 4: None of us were able to sleep for more than four hours due to jet lag, so we got up at 4:00 a.m. and explored the streets of Madrid. We then had breakfast before coming back to our hotel for a nap.
After our rest, we bought some tickets for the
Madrid VISION bus tour, which consisted of two routes, one that runs through historical Madrid and the other through modern Madrid. We have heard that the architecture in Madrid was very impressive, so we decided to go on the historical route first. However, three buses in a row were full, so we thought there would not be a spot for us. We tried to get a refund, but the store was unable to issue one. However, the next bus had many empty seats, and we were able to get on. The tour was quite fun and informative, so it turned out to be a good thing that we didn't get a refund! Our plan was to have lunch at one of the stops, but the food there didn't look very appetizing, so we continued with the tour. In the end, we didn't have our lunch until late afternoon! After the tour and another nap, we went to see a flamenco show at a well-known restaurant. I'm not a big fan of ethnic dances, but the show was extremely impressive. (During the show, the lead dancer swung her fan too hard and it flew out of her hand, almost hitting a guitarist in the face. It would have made a good "fail" picture had it actually hit him.) Afterwards, we had dinner at the same Chinese restaurant we ate at earlier. By the time we were finished, it was already well past midnight! (Lunch at 5:00 p.m. and dinner at midnight may seem crazy, but it's pretty normal compared to what goes on at Berkeley!)
Day 5: After breakfast, we took a five-hour tour to
Toledo, an old Spanish town about 45 miles south of Madrid. Since Toledo has a rich culture, our trip to Spain would not be complete without this tour. As I had expected, the tour was really fun, although the weather was a bit hot. To me, this was the highlight of the trip. During the tour, a German girl kept checking me out, so I chatted with her for a bit.
Had it not been for budget constraints, we would have booked a longer tour. (Our original plan was to take a train tour to Seville, but unfortunately, our time constraints did not allow this excursion. Nevertheless, Toledo turned out to be a lot of fun!)
It was 2:00 p.m. by the time the tour ended, so I was pretty darn hungry! After another really late lunch, we went back on the Madrid VISION tour. Since we had ridden the historical Madrid route the day before, we went on the modern Madrid route this time.
We then explored Madrid some more before having another late dinner, this time at a seafood restaurant. However, I don't think the €36 was worth it. The paella was too salty and the rice was undercooked. Finally, as we were paying the bill, I noticed that we were charged for the bread that was given to us without asking. Damn bastards.
Day 6: It was time to go back to Barcelona. Our flight was pretty early, so we had to leave right after breakfast. After arriving at Barcelona, we rode the train to where our hotel was. However, carrying all that baggage was a pain in the ass due to the lack of elevators in the train station. I think I'll opt for a taxi next time. While looking for the hotel, we discovered that we had stopped at the wrong station due to the woman at the airport information booth giving us incorrect information. In the end, we wasted almost an hour due to this idiot, and my father was pretty damn pissed off about this whole thing. After a brief rest at the hotel, we bought tickets for the Barcelona bus tour. This tour consisted of three different routes, but we only had time to ride one of them, so we picked the one closest to our hotel. Unfortunately, our driver was rather selfish and decided to let us bake in the sun while he leisurely ate his lunch under the shade. Geez, what the heck is with Spanish people?
We had a pretty nice dinner in downtown Barcelona, after which we rode the bus back to our hotel. As dusk approached, we started hearing a lot of commotion. It turned out that FC Barcelona had defeated the Manchester United F.C. in a recent soccer match, and people were celebrating FC Barcelona's victory. This was a pretty surreal experience.
Day 7: This was probably the most chaotic day of our trip. The breakfast at our hotel was really good, so we made sure we were full before starting our day. We decided to continue with the bus tour since we had gone on only one of the three routes. At one of the stops, we had lunch at a Spanish market, which was a pretty unique experience. After finishing the second route, we decided to take a break from the bus and ride the metro. This was when things started becoming hectic.
At one of the metro stations, a lot of people started pushing us while we were getting on the train. After we got off, I noticed that some tissues from my father's back pocket were sticking out. This means someone had tried to pick my father's pocket!! Fortunately, my father was prepared for this and had placed some tissues there as a decoy.
While we were strolling through central Barcelona, a group of three teenaged girls came and asked us to sign some sort of petition. Our gut feelings told us that these girls were up to no good, so we shooed them away. Chances are that they wanted to use the petition as a distraction while they did certain questionable things.
At this time, we found out that the third bus route was relatively short, so we finished the bus tour before coming back to the metro. Things became scarrier after this. At another metro station, my mother noticed a group of four young men trying to approach my father. Someone in the group then pushed the emergency buttons to stop the escalators. Right after this, my mother caught him trying to reach into father's pocket! Apparently, the guy pushed the emergency button in order to create a distraction. What a bunch of low-lifes. We immediately contacted security, but the folks there weren't very responsive - until my father said he was going to contact the U.S. embassy. Luckily, we didn't lose anything. We then took pictures of the
Agbar Tower before returning to our hotel.
However, we weren't done with our share of seedy people yet. After ordering some sandwiches for a late night meal, we noticed some suspicious-looking people gathering around us. At first, there was a man selling beer. Shortly after, another beer seller joined him, followed by two people selling business cards. Something certainly didn't add up. Why the hell would anyone buy business cards in the middle of the night? My father immediately became uneasy, so we quickly hightailed it back to our hotel as soon as possible. On the way back, my father noticed a man on a rental bike spying on us. Bike tours at midnight? I don't think so! This whole experience was really creepy.
Day 8: It was time to return to the States. After bidding
adiós to Spain, we boarded our flight to New York City. Our flight to Dallas was later than we had expected, so we rode the Subway to Brooklyn and bought some sandwiches there. We came back to the airport just in time for our flight. The jet lag was physically taxing, but I was able to get some sleep on the plane.
Day 9: Our flight to San Jose was at 12:40 p.m., but since our hotel was somewhat far from the airport, we didn't get to do much other than browse the airport shops. After flying back to San Jose, our family friend Wen-ching picked us up and drove us home.
This trip was one of the best international trips we have ever been on, but it was also exhausting due to jet lag. (I personally find jet lag to be worse when traveling eastwards.) Our main concern was pickpockets, especially after having heard so many horror stories about them. While we did encounter two pickpockets and several other suspicious situations, we didn't lose anything. It certainly helps to be alert. It's also a good thing we didn't run into any level 99 thieves!
(That's an inside joke for you
RuneScape people.) The language barrier posed difficulties at times, but people generally understood our questions and vice versa. I haven't learned any Spanish since 2002, but I was still able to put my high school Spanish classes to good use.
Despite the thieves and the seedy places, I think Spain is a great place to visit. I'd definitely like to go back there in the future.
I have to take two programming classes in the summer, so I should probably start preparing for them soon. However, I will be done with college once I finish those two courses!
Pictures from my trip are available
here.
May 31 update: Photos are online!
In other news...I just got Flickr Pro. This means I can start sharing a lot of my older photos!