Izzy Hudgins Photography

Palma de Mallorca - Mallorca, Spain - Travel Photography

2011-11-22T18:51:00.000-05:00

For a last hurrah in Spain, we took a long weekend and went to Mallorca for my birthday. Mallorca is one of the islands of the Eastern coast of Spain, in the Mediterranean Sea. We stayed in Palma, the capital. On the first day, we just walked around the streets of Palma...

This area overlooking the water by the cathedral is really beautiful.

You had to pay to go into the cathedral - we normally bugger off if you have to pay but we decided we should at least see some things - however, we only had a card and of course, seeing as how we were in Spain, they wouldn't take it, even though they had a card machine. Poop on them. But the outside of the cathedral was pretty enough for me.

As the sun set, we walked away from the city center in search for our hotel.

And we got some pretty spectacular views.

The next day, we rented a car and headed south to find the beaches.

We drove through many a little town.

Here we found a lighthouse and the surrounding beach had stacked stones just like we saw along the Camino de Santiago.

All along the island are these cute windmill things. You can see them as you land.

We spent hours driving around looking for a pink sand beach that our friends Richelle & Luis told us about. Sadly, we never did find it. But we found, first this one on the left, which was a private little alcove beach, and then this one on the right. The one on the right was my favorite. It was soooooo pretty with the surrounding cliffs. You could even walk out on them.

It really wasn't quite warm enough to get in the water or sunbathe, which made me kinda sad, but it was nice to just sit out in the sand and listen to the water. The crazies that you see here are Germans and Northern Europeans - people who can really tolerate the cold!

On the third day, we drove east to find caves that I saw brochures for. These are the Cuevas del Drach. They say that these caves hold the largest underground lake. The tour takes about an hour. You walk through and marvel at all the stalactites and stalagmites and then at the end, you see a little classical music boat performance. Its pricey but totally worth. I was really amazed!

Afterwards, we headed back to Palma to see the Castle. We didn't make it in time to go in but we got to see a beautiful sunset over the city.

Sadly, this is the last post from our European travels :( We are all settled into Savannah now. It feels strange but good. Hopefully though, we will continue to hop around the country photographing people and visiting people! In fact, Thursday, we are spending Thanksgiving in GA with Martin's family, then driving to NC to spend a second Thanksgiving with mine. Then we will be roadtripping it up to Boston and then over to The Poconos, PA so if you wanna see us or schedule a portrait session, email me!!!

I wish everyone an excellent Thanksgiving with lots of loving family time!

Richelle & Luis - Engagement Session - Madrid, Spain

2011-11-19T11:23:00.000-05:00

He says that he loved her first. She says that she loves him MORE - because she moved to Madrid to be together. But if you spend only a moment with these two you realize - there's no room for arguing, the fact of the matter is - they are so EQUALLY in love. They've got that super special kind of love that is apparent in their tender, sweet moments...

In their conversation...

And in their little kisses...

I mean just look at how he makes her smile!

Richelle and Luis, I just adore you two. You compliment each other so well and you're just a joy to be around! Plus, yall look like models, I mean hello!?

We had so much fun walking around the Plaza Mayor area in Madrid.

Richelle and Luis, you guys rock with all your heart! I love calling you friends and I feel so honored to have documented your wedding day! Muchos besos!

Mark and Leo - Lovey Dovey Session - Chueca & Casa de Campo, Madrid, Spain

2011-11-16T15:20:00.000-05:00

You should remember Leo, hair and makeup stylist extraordinaire! Well, his boyfriend, Mark, who was one of our good friends from our first year in the program finally made it back to Madrid. Together at last! So we celebrated by doing a long and well deserved photo shoot. You see, Leo worked magic on my hair every time I hung out with him. He is a hair genius. Naturally, I paid him in photos. So here we go! We started in Chueca in Madrid where Leo's brother incorporated their names into a graffiti mural. Isn't that darling?

I had so much fun with these two. They are so freaking hot and stylish that it really made my job a piece of cake.

Don't you love this wall with the cityscape?

Then we headed out to Casa de Campo, a park in Madrid, for some golden hour magic.

Beeeeeeeeautiful! This turned into one of my favorite sessions Ever!

I love capturing these special intimate moments - this is why I love being a photographer!

How stinking cute are these two?

Leo - you are gorgeous. Yes, gorgeous.

And Mark!? So are you!!!

Mark and Leo, I love yall so much! Leo, you really know how to make someone feel so good and Mark, you are always so thoughtful! Yall are such good friends and it kills me to leave yall behind in Spain - I miss yall so much!

New York City!

2011-11-13T09:32:00.000-05:00

Our first stop in the states was New York City to visit my oh so wonderful big brother, Scott. He's got a beautiful apartment near Columbia University in Harlem. Being jet lagged and off schedule, we woke up toooooo early but had this beautiful sunrise view of the city from our bedroom window. What a spectacular first day back home.

Scott had to work so we went into downtown Manhattan for the day to sight see and window shop. We visited big things like Time Square, Rockefeller Square...

Grand Central Station...

Chelsea Martet....which quickly became my favorite place EVER. I mean look at this building - its so fun!!! Plus they have an Anthropologie so what more could you ask for?

I made Martin take me into the American Girl store. I was obsessed with these dolls as a little girl so even now I was amazed by everything in the store. Im only sad that most of the dolls I grew up with have been retired :(

The second day we headed into Brooklyn to visit our friends Drew and Katy. Im so so sad they moved to Brooklyn - they were some favorite friends in Savannah. I had never been to Brooklyn before - I love it. Its so much more green than Manhattan and more quaint and cute. We walked around with Drew until Katy got off of work. This is Prospect Park.

We had cheeseburgers for lunch at this awesome little place. And then walked across the Brooklyn bridge back into Manhattan.

Saturday morning, we were still so off schedule and woke up too early. While we waited for Scott and his loverly fiancé Lori (whom I adore by the way) to wake up, Martin and I went to Battery Park to take a peek at the Statue of Liberty.

We bought honey roasted cashews and made friends with this guy.

Later that day we went back to Brooklyn for the Brooklyn Flea. I love flea markets! Scott bought me an awesome graphic Tshirt from Gnome Enterprises - handmade in Brooklyn! What a sweet big bro.

Drew and Katy told us to make sure we tried the doughnuts from a place called Dough. I snapped this funny picture on the right of the policemen at the place. Those doughnuts were DELICIOUS!

Scott and Lori - we had a blast hanging out with you and Bella Kitty. Thank you for everything!!! And can't wait to show photos from yalls little portrait session!

Mini Sessions - Portrait Photography - Madrid, Spain

2011-11-09T23:34:00.000-05:00

I was super blessed our last month in Madrid. Many friends and families contacted me to set up their mini portrait sessions. I had so much fun photographing everyone and wanted to share a favorite or two from each session.

First, I met with our friend Cliff who wanted some updated headshots for his website. He owns MCH Training in Madrid, Spain - they offer classes and translations in English. You might remember him from his Oscars party last year. Doesn't he look so dapper? Cliff is an awesome guy. I'm so glad we got to know him these past two years!

Then, Mya contacted me via the facebook page Americanas in Madrid. If you are an American chica living in Madrid, be sure to join this awesome group of ladies! Mya wanted some relaxed portraits with her hubbie Victor and their dog Hugo. What a sweet, GOOD LOOKING family!!! I had so much fun hanging out with them in Retiro Park - and seriously, with these two, I could not take a bad picture. They are dentists so naturally they were full of smiles! The own the sleek Clínica Cloe in Madrid - if you are in need of a dentist - please check them out - they offer a very high level of service!

One of Sriroop's colleagues contacted me for portraits of her beeeeeeautiful daughter. We met near the Royal Palace at the Plaza de Oriente and played. They were super smart and brought balloons - this made for such fun photos! Here is my favorite:

Then my friend Andrew told me something that just touched my heart - he said, "Izzy, ever since I met you, I've wanted to hire you to take my picture." So I happily obliged! Andrew - you look HOT.

Most recently, I got together with one of my favorite teachers that I worked with this past year. Maria was the absolute best - she made me feel valued and kept me smiling! Im really really really going to miss her! Despite the cold and wind, she came into Madrid with her gorgeous daughter and hubbie!

I am still offering mini sessions this Fall - this would be perfect to get your family photos done for the holidays!!! Contact me to schedule your session!

Our last month in Madrid

2011-11-05T09:06:00.000-04:00

After we completed the Camino de Santiago, we had a fun filled last month in Madrid. First, our friend Molly and her boyfriend came for a visit. You may remember Molly from our adventures in France last summer. Like we do with any visitor, we made sure to take them to all our favorite restaurants, including La Musa in Malasaña.

Then several of Sriroop's buddies came into town from London for one of their 30th birthdays. We went out with them one night to Mi Madre Era Una Groupie in Huertas, a great little place that plays 80's and indie.

We stayed in Madrid for the month of October so that we could shoot our dear friends, Richelle and Luis', wedding. I took them around Plaza Mayor for their engagements, which Ill post soon, but was sure to catch a few details here and there of the city.

Here are just a few snapshots with friends. On the left you have Bea, my sweet sweet Spanish friend, whom I met with on a weekly basis to practice my Spanish. For two years, we got to know each other and really loved our regular walks/talks. I will miss her so much! And on the right you have the ever fab Leo who I could always rely on to make me pretty. Ladies in Madrid, seriously, if you need a hair or makeup stylist, this is your man.

While we lived with Richelle and Luis, we had Spanish cooking lessons. Amongst other things, we perfected our Spanish tortilla - its all in the flip!

Then it was my birthday! Leo did my hair and makeup and my friend Megan took a few photos of us in Plaza España. I worked with Megan last year and she dabbles in my many different art forms, including photography. She has a super natural talent for it - you can check out her work here.

Then we all went out for delicious noodles at El Rey de Tallarines near Plaza España. Food is great, but don't expect a lot out of the service.

We had the intention of a night of dancing but we went to our old apartment for pre-drinking and just never left. All that was important to me was spending time with our friends - and yall made it a great birthday!

Then I had a lovely time getting to know Laura and Eric for their engagement session in Madrid. We walked around the Huertas neighborhood and ended in the Retiro Park. Huertas is such a cute area of Madrid that is quintessentially Spanish - with its bars and tiled walls.

We wanted to spend as much time with Sriroop and our other friends as possible so one night we all went bowling...which always equals a good time!

Right before the summer I discovered the Americanas in Madrid facebook page. How I didn't know about it sooner I have no idea. It stinks because these ladies are so super cool and I would have loved to have known them sooner, but better late than never. Every month they have a get together and for October, we did a pumpkin carving. Notice how sadly small the pumpkins are in Spain. Also notice the black face stickers - complete with instructions on the back of how to carve the pumpkin. Ridiculous.

Here is Kristen, a very sweet sweet girl from Florida who I met before the summer. We got together for many a coffee and just chatted about all sorts of things. Im gonna miss that girl. But she's bringing her Spaniard over soon so I know we will hang out over here!

And don't worry, no pumpkin carving night would be complete without baked pumpkin seeds!

Then, like last year, we were invited by Sriroop to the American Embassy Halloween party. I went as Rainbow Bright, Martin as Michael Vick, Sriroop as Roman soldier dude and Andrew as a skeleton. We were the coolest there, clearly.

The very next day was Richelle and Luis' wedding in Chinchon - it was AMAZING! and I can't wait to share some photos. I have something special in mind so it might be awhile before I can reveal them so patience people patience!

We spent the next day out in Morata with our Spanish parents, Grant and Angeles, for his birthday cookout. We really owe so much to them. Grant was our only contact when we first came to Spain in 2007 and since then, they both have been such good friends.....and more than friends.....they really have taken care of us. I don't think we would have had such an amazing time in Madrid if it wasn't for them. Grant and Angeles - we appreciate and love yall so much! And cant wait to see yall next time you visit the states!

We are now in NYC and we love it. Yesterday we went to Brooklyn for the first time to visit our friends Andrew and Katy. Im distraught that they no longer live in Savannah - with us living in Spain, we never really got to hang with them so much :( But who knows, maybe we will follow their lead and move up here! I've got a TON of things to blog so check back regularly!

Laura & Eric - a beautiful engagement session in sunny Madrid!

2011-10-26T09:08:00.000-04:00

Laura contacted me through the Americanas in Madrid facebook page that I found, all too late, right before the summer. I really wish I had known about this group of girls all last year because they really are super fun. But great things have come from my short time with them - one of which has been getting to know Laura and her fiancé Eric. We met up one sunny afternoon in Madrid to do their engagement session - and I feel like we immediately hit it off. If they were nervous or unsure of what to do, it sure didn't show.

I mean look at these two - adorable, am I right?!

We started by walking around the Huertas area, a cool little neighborhood full of very typical Spanish bars and restaurants.

Calle Huertas is a pedestrian street and has famous Spanish sayings along the way. I love how this one on the right came out! Plus check out coy little miss Laura - no wonder Eric can't resist her!

I love when my couples jump right into their shoots and don't mind getting a little dirty.

Everytime I looked down at my camera, literally a "gasp" or an "awww" escaped my lips! Can you blame me?

We snuck into a bar for an outfit change and then headed towards Retiro Park.

Loooooooooove this one. Yall, Im seeing huge canvas hanging over your couch, just saying.

I love love love Fall, its my favorite time of year. So I was excited when the brown leaves in Retiro actually came out quite bright and pretty! Love Laura's beautiful red hair in these!

Also, Eric, I have to give you a shout out for being an awesome groom to be. He knew just what to do.

Im so glad we walked to the Crystal Palace, what a beautiful backdrop.

Hahaha this is when I asked Laura to give me her bedroom eyes. She must think Im crazy. But see, the pictures came out so GOOOD!

FAVORITES.

Laura, you're killing me here. So pretty!

The light - sigh!

Laura and Eric, thanks again, from the bottom of my heart for having me photograph you! I had so much fun! Hope your futures in Madrid and elsewhere are bright and sunny!

Days 29-31 - Camino de Santiago - Arzúa - Arca O Pino - Santiago de Compostela

2011-10-20T13:57:00.001-04:00

Coming in the final stretch of the Camino de Santiago, we had mixed feelings of "Im ready to be home already!" and "Man, this went by fast!" Day 29 brought us to the pueblo of Arzúa. We were still taking it slow, only about 20-24 km a day and to make it even easier, we passed through several towns along the way.

On the right is a tree that I thought looks so cool with all the vines wrapped around it.

On the right is Gail, I talked about her in the last post, she's absolutely amazing and was a real inspiration to - well Im pretty sure everyone on the trail at that point!

One of our favorites of the grain storage things. This one is painted with a fun design!

The next morning we set out for Arca de Pino - our last stop before reaching Santiago de Compostela! We had a unusually beautiful morning, free of the heavy fog that is normal in Galicia.

26.3km away!

One of the many fountains that you come to rely on for water.

A highway sign for Santiago and a cross in Arca O Pino.

Even though it was only about 17 km away, we left super duper early to head on to Santiago de Compostela. We heard that walking up to the city at sunrise was such a beautiful sight. Unfortunately as the sun finally rose, this is what we saw.......NOTHING, thanks to the fog. Hah, oh well.

We finally make it!!!!! It was still incredibly gray and foggy as we made it right into the city center and to the cathedral. So apart from a photo of us in front of the cathedral, we didn't really take any pictures. The city is LOVELY though so please be sure to check out the post from when we visited with my parents.

Here is a picture of us with our little Camino family: Shawn, Jorn, Jes, Byul, Martin and me! It really was an amazing day because we saw lots of people that we thought we had lost along the way. This was the best culmination of such a wonderful experience.

Upon arriving, we attended the pilgrim's mass at the Cathedral. On the right you can see their infamous Botafumeiro - its the largest incense thing in the world! After the service, they hoist it into the air and by heaving and ho-ing they are able to swing this thing across the nave of the cathedral. It was wildly impressive. Apparently the Botafumeiro normally lives in the cathedral's museum and is only taken out and used on very special occasions. So, special we felt indeeeed.

Here is a video I found on youtube of the swinging Botafumeiro:

And that concludes my posts about the Camino de Santiago! If its something that has peaked your interest and would like to do it, please read Martin's posts - they are MUCH more informative and helpful. You know Im only about the pretty pictures :) Next up, Ive got some lovely portrait sessions that Ive been working on during my last couple of weeks in Madrid. Plus, this past weekend we went to Mallorca - the fun NEVER ENDS people!

Days 25-28 - Camino de Santiago - Triacastella - Sarria - Portomarin - Palas de Rei

2011-10-18T11:20:00.001-04:00

Ahhhhh so nice to be back in the mountains again. The scenery is nicer and the temperatures more tolerable. Yes its more difficult to walk, but you can hardly complain when you have views such as this.

On this day we made our way to Triacastella, passing farmers with their cows, little churches...

and more beautiful views.

Until we finally arrived to this cute little town.

It has a pretty church and other pretty little architectural details. Plus we made friends with this puppy.

The next morning was super duper foggy as we set out for Sarria.

In order to receive your certificate of completion for the Camino de Santiago you must at least start 100km out. That point is Sarria so we expected to pick up a whole bunch more "pilgrims". I use the term loosely here because I don't think someone who only walks an eighth of the trail constitutes as a pilgrim. And pick up people we did. The trail became thick with annoying people who tried to complain about their feet hurting or getting ready in the dark. Boo freaking hoo!

Today was a very short walking day for us, we showed up in Sarria before the albergue was even open, so we sat outside and ate our sandwich. After we showered and washed our clothes, we took our usual walk around the city.

Here we found a monastery, but of course it was closed for siesta.

The next day we had a very pleasant walk to Portomarin. For this last stretch of the camino we decided to take it easy and slow, only going 20-24km each day.

We passed through this little town and this kitty started following Martin. When we stopped to take some pictures, the cat jumped and climbed up his body and perched on his shoulders and started loving on his neck, it was so cute.

Here is the little grain storage building that is so typical of Galicia....and some moo cows!

On the right you see too handsome Danish lads we picked up along the way. Im so glad we started talking with them because for the last several days of the camino, we walked together, ate together and stayed together in the albergues - they are so nice and funny and Im so glad we got to know them. By the end I felt like we had a little camino family!

When you get to Portomarin you have ALL these steps to climb to enter the city. Not really what you want to see after hiking for hours.

Later, we went back to the entrance of the city because there's 2 bridges. The tall one is the new one that is in use and the short one is the ancient one - rumor has it it used to be an open air brothel. Down by the bridges we met this really sweet big doggie!

Some more friends we made: Byul - a VERY sweet South Korean girl - everyone knew her as star because her name was hard to pronounce but we tried!!!! Love you Byul! And Shawn -if you remember I gave him a shout out earlier on the blog for a very sweet email that he sent us. He was doing the Camino with his 78 year old sweet lady of a mom who absolutely no one on the camino could keep up with. Seriously I tried once for about 30 minutes and it nearly killed me. She power walked the whole way every day and then walked all over the towns as her cool down. What an incredible woman, really. And her son Shawn is very sweet and was the total social butterfly of the camino. Too find him, all you had to do was walk down the street with the bars and there he'd be with a new bunch of people and he would know all their names, where they were from, what they did, how long they had been walking, etc. And he would remember it all too! Very glad we got to know you Shawn! And you better believe we will be coming for a visit!

The next day was another little short day to Palas de Rei. If you look closely you can see that at this point we only had 78.1 km to Santiago!

I only have ONE more post for you to conclude our walk across the Camino de Santiago! So, what do you think? Would you be interested in doing it too?

Days 22-24 - Camino de Santiago - Molinaseca - Villafranca del Bierzo - O Cebreiro

2011-10-12T11:16:00.000-04:00

We could tell that we were nearing Galicia because this morning was so incredibly foggy. We started to ascend and then you could see the layer of fog cloud above the earth - it was really pretty.

We climbed a lot this day - but thank goodness - we were so over the flatness of the Meseta. We came upon Cruz del Ferro - a very famous cross marker along the camino. Then we climbed a bit more and came to this cool little rest area. It had lots of fun signs and mementos and a bar with lots of refreshments for the pilgrims. At this point we were only 222 km away from Santiago! Almost 3/4 of the way there!

Since we were back up in the mountains, the views were breathtaking and the temps a lot cooler.

We then started a very steep descent, passing through a few pueblos.

Here you can see how rocky the path was.

And we finally arrived to Molinaseca which is a lovely little town.

If we were good on budgeting our money for the day, we treated ourselves to a much deserved drink.

Isn't this little town pretty!? There were lots of people out swimming in the river.

Many people went on to Ponferrada instead of staying in Molinaseca because its a bigger city. We set out the next morning and thankfully the sun was up by the time we got there because theres a cool castle there.

This day was pretty flat, a nice break on the feetsies from the day before. On the right is a structure that is typical in Asturias and Galicia - back in the day they kept their grains and crops in here to protect them from the elements and animals. Nowadays they are protected by the government.

We started passing through more vineyards and it was cool because apparently it was harvesting time. So you could see people out in their fields picking grapes and driving truckfuls throughout the towns.

Finally we made it to Villafranca del Bierzo and stayed at the albergue Ave Fenix.

The people at the albergue were super obnoxious so we spent our time walking around the town.

The next day we set out for O Cebreiro. The day started out easy and flat and we passed through a few towns, which make for good resting points. In the middle is a funny translation that we saw all throughout this region. We all know what tapas are - little bites of food that you either get free with your drink - or you order for a table of people to share. But literally the word tapa means lid in English so these restaurants were serving varied lids, hah!

But then we started to climb...

The houses in this region are so pretty!! Throughout the Meseta, the houses were adobe and falling apart and ugly - but these houses are made of stone and are beautiful!

There are TONS of grasshoppers hopping about while you walk. When they open, some have blue wings and some have red. We tried to catch this little guy opening up to get the color but we couldn't really catch it.

Here is where you officially enter the region of Galicia - where Santiago de Compostela is! Almost there!

We made it to O Cebreiro, a quaint little town that you can thrives off of tourism. You can also tell by the name that it has Celtic roots. Actually most of the region does - with weather to match....every morning was foggy and drizzly and blah. But most afternoons it seemed to burn off and we got pretty pictures once the sun came out. This town had lots of kitties to love on, I especially made friends with this guy.

Days 19-21 - León - Hospital de Orbigo - Astorga - Rabanal del Camino

2011-10-10T15:54:00.000-04:00

For a few days we started walking with another group of friendly Spaniards. We especially bonded while trying to avoid a certain VERY LOUD snorer. But most of them were only going to León so after our short walk into the city, we made sure to get a good group photo since we wouldn't see them again. We had already been to León twice so we knew we wanted to continue on to Virgen del Camino.

On the left is a building designed by Antoni Gaudí and on the right is a lovely building that we didn't even see last time we were in León. We took a break there before heading onto Virgen del Camino where we stayed for the night.

The next day was beautiful and we got lots of nice pictures on our way to Hospital de Orbigo.

Hospital de Orbigo has a beautiful bridge. A lot of these little towns have these bridges that are hundreds and hundreds of years old, its amazing! But this one is extra special, look how long it is!

I loved this albergue for one thing....they had kittens! I made a best friend and got some kitty love :)

The next day we were going to stay in Rabanal del Camino, but along the way we passed through Astorga - a biggish town with a Gaudí building - so we knew we had to stay awhile and check that out. On the right you can see a little stand someone had set up with provisions for the pilgrims. There are a few places like this along the way that have things like tea, cookies, etc and are for donation.

Here's Astorga - on the right is the Gaudí building - the Astorga Episcopal Palace. Inside there is a museum of religious artifacts found all along the Camino de Santiago.

And here is the Cathedral. We didn't actually go inside but the outside is lovely.

Before leaving we made sure to buy some Mantecadas - a pastry that is typical of the region - its a lot like pound cake - yum!

We passed through a few more small pueblos on our way to Rabanal del Camino....

This ended up being one of our longest days. I think in the end we walked 35 or so kilometers.

We averaged 25 km a day so 10 more was really quite painful.

We stopped in the town before Rabanal del Camino to stretch and take a small break and then finally made it there. We were absolutely too dead tired to do ANYTHING but shower and lay in bed till dinner time. Luckily the restaurant here was DELICIOUS!

Days 15-18 - Carrión de los Condes - Ledigos - Bercianos del Camino - Mansilla

2011-10-05T13:06:00.000-04:00

We continued through the Meseta, starting early to avoid the heat. Our next town would be Carrión de los Condes.

Here you can see our progress - in total we walked around 800km - and here we were almost at the halfway point.

We arrived and checked into a beautiful convent that served as an albergue for traveling pilgrims. The nuns were very sweet and the accommodations were fantastic. The stay was made even more awesome because we met up again with our Canadian buddy Richard and we all made jambalaya for dinner! On the right is a picture from the convent.

Before dinner though, we of course took a walk around the town.

We visited a beautiful old monastery that was still in the process of being restored...and it had the creepiest Jesus we had ever seen.

These middle days through the Meseta were light on pictures. The scenery during our walk didn't vary often, just flat straight landscape and the towns were very very very small.

This day we stayed in a pueblo called Ledigos.

The next morning we set out for Bercianos del Camino.

This part of the Camino was definitely the most boring because you are just walking along the highway. But thankfully someone planted trees along the way so that you have bits of shade. This is a lifesaver.

The church in Bercianos del Camino - very different from all the churches we had seen in the pueblos.

The next morning, on our way to Mansilla, we passed some very pretty things, especially so in that golden morning light.

We passed through a town that had a super fun looking bar/albergue with lots of bright graffiti.

In Mansilla, there's a funny statue with three very tired pilgrims. It really captures how you feel when you arrive!

Here's our albergue. We never really took any photos that show are routine once we got to the albergues. After showering, we immediately hand washed our clothes so that they'd have time to dry - here you can see everyone's clothes hanging in the sun.

Days 12-14 - Camino de Santiago - Burgos - Hontanas - Boadilla

2011-10-03T07:34:00.001-04:00

The next day our goal was Burgos, one of the biggest cities along the Camino. I had never been, so we wanted to get there early so we'd have lots of time to play. It was a short day, only 16 or so kilometers but due to several frustrating mishaps, we didnt arrive until mid-afternoon. Ill spare you the details but when you waste precious steps on the Camino, it can really keep your mood sour and your feetsies hurting. Here's a beautiful sunrise view of Atapuerca, the town right after Agés.

We started a very steep, rocky incline along a military base/zone. We were amazed at how crappy the fence was, you could SO easily walk right through that barbed wire. I guess no one is threatening the Spanish military. The path here was so rocky that bikers had to dismount and walk.

But once you got to the top, the view was breathtaking. I think this was one of my favorite moments, seeing this huge natural art installation.

There's a sign here saying that this view of Burgos is the prettiest view on the whole Camino de Santiago...its pretty, for sure, but I think there's better ones....

Like these sunflowers! And this mural is funny and so true.

We finally made it to Burgos, checked into our albergue and took a walk around the city. On the right is the view from the bridge.

And all along the bridge are these statues.

A lot of Spanish cities have these people statues all around - there's several in Madrid - but there were tons in Burgos. My favorite is the girl with the umbrella because there's actually water dripping from it.

The cathedral is pretty spectacular. After awhile, you sort of tire of churches and many of them just look the same but this one was special because of the ceilings. I had never seen ceilings that this before and I just loved the star designs.

Many people do the Camino in parts so some who started with us in Saint Jean Pied de Port or in Roncesvalles ended in Burgos. And some people use big cities to take an extra day's rest. So we wanted to make sure we got some photos of the folks we had met up to this point in case we didn't see them again. On left is a French couple who started on the eastern French border. That means they had already been walking for 40 days or so! In the middle is Stefano, the Italian I already mentioned. And on the right is a family from Colorado. The dad is in his seventies and had already hiked the Camino 4 times!!!

The next day stayed pretty gray and overcast, nice for walking, crap for pictures.

Also, we were officially heading into the Meseta - lots of flat boring landscape and stinky cow shit towns....just flat flat nothingness.

For some reason today, our feet and legs were especially sore and all we wanted to do was reach Hontanas so we could sit and rest! Unless you're walking in the woods, you can usually see the towns a few kilometers out, and once you can see your goal, walking becomes a bit easier. However, we kept getting closer and closer and closer to where we knew this town should be, but yet there was no sign of it. Here you can see a sign saying its 0.5 km away and STILL we couldn't see it. Torturous! Its because the town sits down in a bowl so you really don't see it till you're right in it.

Luckily, the sun decided to come out so we were able to get some nice pics and dry clothes!

The next morning we came upon ruins of a monastery. There were GORGEOUS! Unfortunately it was still quite dark out so it was hard to photograph.

We stopped in Castrojeriz for breakfast and to rest with our two new buddies, Richard and Jean Paul, two awesome guys from Canada.

It ended up being a spectacular day and we got tons of beautiful pictures.

Flat flat flat.....and no shade!....and you can see this part of the camino is lacking in girl pee pee spots.

We saw a shepherd with his flock and this turned out to be one of my favorite pictures that I took. (by the way, Martin took a lot of the pictures during the trip, didn't he do gooood?)

On the right is the albergue where we stayed in Boadilla. I thought it was one of the prettiest, especially with the view of the church in the background. However, the obscene amount of flies that are in these pueblos made it really hard to enjoy. The best part was the communal meal, it was delicious and a nice break from our sandwiches and pasta.

Days 9-11 - Camino de Santiago - Santo Domingo de la Calzada - Belorado - Agés

2011-10-01T12:59:00.000-04:00

We left Najera eaaaaarly in the morning as usual and set out for a little town called Santo Domingo de la Calzada. Since we left so early each morning, the first hour and a half or so of our walk was in darkness. But once the sun came up, the light was AMAZING.

On this day, we spotted an Italian guy we had seen here and there picking apples from a tree (there's tons of wild fruit that you can pick and eat along the way) so we started walking with him. His name's Stefano and he turned out to be one of our favorite people to bump into. He was always in such a great mood and so fun to talk to.

Here was a little resting point that many of us stopped at. We saw some Germans making a little memorial for someone they knew that died. Also, there was this hilarious sign - Don't Shit!

We arrived to Santo Domingo de la Calzada about mid day - we tried to stop everyday around 1:00 because it just gets to hot to continue...plus you need time to shower, wash your clothes and get them out to dry. Afterwards, we took a stroll around the pueblo.

This town has a medieval wall that is still intact.

Early the next morning we headed towards Belorado. Each region of Spain offers different signs along the way. Ones like these are helpful because it shows the cities along the way. Here you can see where we stopped in Logroño, then Najera and then Santo Domingo de la Calzada....on this day we changed regions into Castilla Leon.

The last city in La Rioja.

A very beautiful albergue.

Coming into Belorado.

We actually weren't sure if we were going to stay in Belorado or move on. So, we sat in this square and ate our lunch while deciding. I saw this little group of abuelos, so cute! Turns out, the albergue was cheap here and it was getting hot so we decided to stay. There was this little street with hand and footprints of famous pilgrims.

The main square. We saw signs everywhere announcing the town's onion festival. Unfortunately it started the next day. We were so sad! How cool would it be to witness a little pueblo's festival? Turns out we started like a day too early because all along the camino we seemed to miss festivals by only a day or two.

Some days you hardly pass through any towns at all and other days you pass through lots. This day was a day full of small towns - which makes the day go by easier and faster because you have small goals to reach and pretty things to look at.

Another very pretty albergue.

Also, my favorite parts were where we walked through the woods. Its shadier and cooler and I just love the sound of the wind through the trees. I had to soak it up because we were about to enter the Meseta - a big stretch of flat, hot landscape with NO SHADE!

We took a break in San Juan de Ortega because they had a nice church and a little cafe to rest at.

And then we made it to Agés. Again, we were unsure of whether to stay. We planned to keep going but one thing youll find out if you ever do the Camino is - you judge where to stay by where there's food. And unfortunately many of these little towns don't have any supermarkets. This one had the tiniest little store inside a bar where you pretty much had the choice of canned lentils or canned chickpeas. Well the lady at the albergue talked us into staying and she had a microwave so canned lentils it was. Good thing is, the Spanish really know how to do lentils!

The town, even though it was tiny and took all of 5 minutes to explore, actually was quite quaint and pretty.

I was completely wiped out this day because the night before I hadn't slept due to the unbelievable snoring going on in our room...and I promptly went to bed at 7 pm!

Days 7-8 - Camino de Santiago - Logroño - Najera

2011-09-30T10:22:00.000-04:00

A few days ago we received the most endearing email from our friend Shawn. He's one of the coolest guys we met while on the Camino, you'll meet him here on the blog later. I just wanted to give him a little shoutout here on the blog because his email really warmed my heart and made me feel special. Its really one of the best things about living over here. You get to meet so many people and even though you may only spend a small amount of time with them, you create special bonds and I feel 100% positive that we will keep in touch with these people and see them in other parts of the world. Just this past week, our Australian friend Molly was visiting with her boyfriend. We met her 7 years ago in Paris and have remained friends ever since. I really hope we can continue to develop relationships like this when we move back to the states....

So Ive got two more days from the Camino for you. On day 7 we headed towards Logroño, a biggish city - something we looked forward too because a city offers real grocery stores and internet cafes!

This part of the walk was especially nice. It was flat which was so much easier on the legs but you still had views of the beautiful mountains.

We passed by this little scene, Im not sure what the tires are for but it makes for an interesting picture!

This mural in Logroño is funny. The Camino is broken down into stages or "etapas" but this mural says you do the camino through tapas (delicious food) instead of stages....yum!

Here's our adopted Spanish group. Shortly after this, many of them went home. Many Spaniards do the Camino in parts so a lot of these guys only did the first week. A few continued and we got to see them through to the end!

Our goal for the next day was a little town called Najera. Shortly after the sun came up we started walking along this fence. For the whole length of it, people had created crosses using sticks, flowers, tubes of foot cream, etc. I loved coming across things like this that people leave. Its also a reminder that for many people, this is a deeply spiritual pilgrimage.

Gorgeous morning light!

All along the camino, you come across ruins of old hospitals that were built just to care for pilgrims. Later on, we passed by one that is still working. I can't imagine what is was like back in the old days to make a pilgrimage like this. I bet many people fell ill with disease. Thankfully nowadays all we have to fear are blisters or twisted ankles!

We passed through Navarrete which had a beautiful church.

We had to really take in all this green....we were getting close to the part of Spain known as the Meseta - which is basically super flat and super dry.

This was one of my favorite things. This little hut thing was apparently the site of an important battle but recently people use it as a resting spot. Inside people had left mementos of their journey or their time there with friends. It was really cool, so we decided to stay for awhile and have our lunch.

Finally we made it to Najera. This riverfront was right outside of our albergue so we spent the afternoon lying around and relaxing.

Days 5-6 - Camino de Santiago - Estella - Torres del Rio

2011-09-27T13:37:00.000-04:00

So, we are now back in Madrid. And I feel sooooooo behind on blogging and all things internet related! I can't believe that I was only able to share the first few days while on the camino.....I didn't expect the internet to be that inaccessible. Anyway, we are totally free for the whole month of October so I have no excuses for procrastinating further!

So, as became our routine, we left Puente La Reina while it was still dark. One of my favorite things about doing the Camino de Santiago was getting a beautiful sunrise each and every morning.

Here's an example of the type of marker we had to look out for. Either yellow arrows or the scallop shell.

After climbing over the Pyrenees and their foothills, we reached a big stretch of vineyards and wheat fields.

One of the towns we passed through en route to Estella. Many of these towns have medieval bridges. Isn't it amazing how incredibly old things are in Europe? I mean these bridges are like a thousand years old. Thats serious.

On our way into Estella there was this lovely fountain, one of many that you come to rely on to fill your water bottle - this one was beautiful, with lots of symbols of the camino.

At first, the monotony and the routine and the discomfort of walking the camino really got to me. I thought, why I am doing this with the last bit of my time in Spain instead of hanging out in Madrid, my home, with the people I love here. But this day was the first day where I really started having fun and getting into the spirit. And thats because of the people you meet. We got in with this big bunch of Spanish people and the were just awesome. We went to this bar just to have a drink and they just welcomed us to their table and starting feeding us and were totally interested in us two Americans in Spain. Afterwards, we would walk with them along the trail and meet for drinks in each town.

The next day was so pretty. Its so hard to go through each day and only pick out a handful of pictures, especially on days like this one where you can't take a bad picture. However, Martin and I really want to put together an exhibition when we get home, so Ill be saving the best pictures for that. However, these aren't too shabby, are they?

Here's Martin.

The endless golden wheat fields. They had already been harvested...but apparently September and October are hunting months so we saw many hunters with their dogs hunting birds in these fields.

Its hard to see them, but there were some people resting on and against these haystacks.

Vineyards.....we were about to enter the La Rioja region, the most famous region in Spain for DELICIOUS wine!

We reached Los Arcos but wanted to keep going on to Torres del Rio for the night. So we stopped for lunch and a nice little sit down in a park

Then continued on. All along the trail you will find piles of rocks that people leave, usually on the trail markers. But here we passed an area where people created these huge piles of rocks. You come across stuff like this a lot and its fun to see.

We finally made it to Torres del Rio. Most of the albergues make you take your yucky shoes off so its kind of a sight to see everyone's hiking boots all piled up together.

Hopefully Ill be able to keep myself disciplined on getting the rest of the trip posted on a regular basis, it took us 31 days in all so the task feels a little daunting right now!

Day 4 - Camino de Santiago - Puente de la Reina

2011-09-08T12:02:00.000-04:00

Hello!! We are finally in an albergue where they don´t rip you off on internet prices, hooray! This post is going to be just day 4 because I love so many of the pictures. Our entire time walking was just beautiful - we started out with a glorious sunrise coming out of Cizur Minor.

Then we started a very intense climb UP! Luckily we met a very sweet Danish kid who kept us company for a kilometer or two before running off.....we were the turtles of the bunch! We finally made it to the crest of the mountain and we got the most amazing view!! Plus this way awesome sculpture.

These are seriously the things that keep us going. Isnt that just sooo pretty?

Tired, we finally arrived to the town in which we stayed for the night, Puenta La Reina, named after its ancient bridge.

Up top you can see the bridge that gives the town its name, Puente La Reina and below is the albergue in which we stayed. An albergue is a very basic hostel that only pilgrims can stay in and they charge anywhere between 4 and 10 euros. Some are even donation.

Tomorrow we pass through Leon. We´ve been there twice already so we won´t stay the night there but before we move on, we will take our break in an internet cafe so I can get more caught up on the blog! These first few days seem like a lifetime ago, its hard to remember what we did, what we thought, the things we talked about ,etc.... Hope youve enjoyed the pictures!

Days 2-3 - Camino de Santiago - Zubiri - Cizur de Menor

2011-08-30T10:07:00.000-04:00

Hello my lovelies! I´m sorry to have kept you waiting so long for another update. I meant to blog a few days ago when we were in Logroño but that day kicked my butt and gave me a fever so I stayed in bed. I feel waaaaaaay better now and so am ready to share with you the next couple of days on the Camino de Santiago! On our second day, we left Roncesvalles early, caught another beautiful sunrise and headed towards Zubiri, our next town. Walking all day really clears your head and lets you notice all the small beautiful things around you.

Our walk was very pleasant in comparison to the previous day´s hike up the mountain! And by pleasant I mean very flat, our feet prefer flat!

With the morning fog and dew, the views were incredible.

Despite it being a much shorter day and the terrain being much more flat, we arrived dead tired. We immediately fell asleep upon hitting our beds. After our nap, we did our routine of a shower and washing clothes. Afterwards we walked around the town a bit before cooking dinner and going to bed promptly at 9.00!

On the third day our destination was Cizur de Menor, a suburb of Pamplona. Our journey this day was also really flat and shaded by forest.

I wanted to walk around and see Pamplona since I had never been before, but my feetsies just wouldn´t allow it. So I only really saw what was along the Camino. Fortunately, it gave me enough to deduce that Pamplona is a cute little city with lots to see! My most painful part of the whole walk so far was passing a little vintage store and not being able to go in!

After taking a big break in a park, we trudged on to Cizur de Menor and stayed in a very nice albergue!

We are now on our 9th day. The monotony at first really got to me, but we have started to become used to our routine, the physical challenges and we are meeting fun people so its really starting to get better and become fun! Hope to share more soon!

Day 1 of the Camino de Santiago - St. Jean Pied de Port - Roncesvalles

2011-08-26T11:47:00.000-04:00

Some people do the Camino de Santiago for fun. I´m still not quite convinced why. I thought I was ready for it, it sounded so much easier than our Appalachian Trail in the states, and it is...but our first couple of days were HARD! The Camino de Santiago is an ancient pilgrimage route across the north of Spain to the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, which supposedly houses the remains of the apostle St. James. There are several different routes and several different starting points but we chose to start in the modern day starting point of St. Jean Pied de Port, a small town in France near the Spanish border. Here are a few pictures of this quaint little town.

Bright and early the next morning at 6:30am we headed out, knowing that the hardest day on the trail laid before us. We hiked 26km up the Pyrenees to Roncesvalles in Spain. Despite the torture of the inclines, the aches and pains and the dehydration, we enjoyed some spectacular views.

All along the trail are markers showing the way and pilgrims lay stones on many of them.

Here was a beautiful place where many pilgrims chose to rest. There was a statue of the Virgin Mary, an example of many of the religious relics along the way.

After our intense climb up, we had an equally intense climb down. Who knew that descents are worse on the body?

Finally, dead tired we arrived to the monastery "albergue" in Roncesvalles where we enjoyed a shower and a good night´s sleep for the next day.

Leaving for the Camino de Santiago...

2011-08-20T15:00:00.001-04:00

So if you've paid attention on this blog, you know Martin and I are about to embark on a big adventure. Tomorrow morning we will catch a bus to St. Jean Pied-de-Port, a little town in France very close to the Northeastern Spanish border. Here we will start the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage trail across the northern part of Spain to the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. It's 760 km and will take us about a month to walk the entire thing.

Now, those of you who know me personally know Im not the most roughin' it type of girl so we will see how this goes! But Im excited to see what its actually like, see the beautiful views of Spain and to meet cool people along the way. Just to give you an idea of how little we are carrying. Here's my share of the clothes:

People, this is only one pair of shorts, one pair of boxers, a pair of leggings, a bikini, 2 t-shirts, 2 tank tops, 3 pairs of undies and 3 pairs of socks. Plus I have a rainjacket. Think I'll make it!?

But here's what I really need to pack!

Disposable cones so I can pee standing up! Must have now.

So, here's the deal. I have no idea how often we'll have internet, or how Ill manage to load a picture but hopefully every couple of days Ill be able to give an update with a little photo too.

Send lovely thoughts my way my lovelies, Ill need them!

Ljubljana, Slovenia - Travel Photography

2011-08-17T16:03:00.000-04:00

Our last city was the capital of Slovenia, Ljubljana...yeah try pronouncing THAT. The "lj" makes a sound that we don't have so its like impossible to pronounce it correctly but roughly its "loo-biyana" but with some slight j sounds in there somewhere. ANYWAY...I had no idea what to expect from Slovenia...but I LOVED IT. Ljubljana felt similar to the way Zagreb did - a small European capital that is quaint and friendly and very livable. We had two days for this city. You really probably only need one to see Ljubljana, its quite small, and there's lots of lakes close by so you can easily take a day trip, HOWEVER we were at the end of our trip, tired and close to having no money left so we decided to take it slow and enjoy 2 relaxing days in the city and hanging out with our couchsurfing hosts....phew worst run-on sentence ever...moving on...

This is around the area of the Triple Bridge. It's a wide open plaza with lots of nice buildings and statues...and of course three bridges. On the left you can see the Franciscan Church of the Annunciation. On the right is example of the Art Nouveau style that is popular in Ljubljana.

Nearby is the Dragon Bridge which is a prominent symbol of the city. On it are silly little sculptures. Have you seen the trend of putting your names and date on a lock and locking it to a bridge as a token of love? Its super cute and all over Europe - some people had locked theirs onto some of the sculptures.

This is Town Square.

And this is Saint Nicholas' Cathedral.

The inside is lovely with lots of pretty ceiling paintings and I love the pink marble.

Here's the front door, isn't it awesome?

There's this beautiful river walk. I really love cities that are on rivers. The view is just so lovely and its relaxing walking along or sitting outside for a drink. Wouldn't it be ah-mazing to have your apartment at the top of one of these buildings? With a river facing terrace? Divine!

We went home early that day to cook dinner for our hosts. After, we met up with one of their friends, who just so happened to be the most beautiful boy in Slovenia, and went to this outdoor venue bar thing to watch some music....however when we got there there wasn't any music so we just sat and drank and chatted. These are things that I love about couhcsurfing.

The next day we wanted to go to the Ljubljana Castle. We passed through the Triple Bridge plaza again.

Then walked up a big hill.

Passed a few cute things.

And arrived to the Ljubljana Castle!

The castle has amazing views of the city.

We spent all day up there. There's a museum, a few art galleries, a 3D history movie thing and you can climb up the tower. Also there's a restaurant and cute little reading area on the lawn - it was nice. After we walked around a bit more before meeting our host at work and saw some pretty buildings.

Here you can see the castle in the background.

On the right is the US Embassy. This is the best one we've seen - it's awesome!

So we are just lazing around in Madrid this week. On Sunday we leave for Saint Jean Pied de Port, a little town in France where we will start the Camino de Santiago. The Camino de Santiago is a trail across Spain from East to West, originally a pilgrimage to the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. If you remember, we went there with my parents - you can see that post here. It will take us approx. one month to hike....but more on that later!

Zagreb, Croatia - Travel Photography

2011-08-15T13:57:00.001-04:00

Our last stop in Croatia was Zagreb, the nation's capital. Martin told me that he didn't really hear many good things about Zagreb from people staying in the hostels. But I say, what do they know? Zagreb was my favorite city in Croatia. Now, let me explain....if beaches and partying is what you want, then by all means, GO TO THE COAST. But Im a dork and kinda lame and I really love a relaxing city where you can just meander and marvel at the pretties. For us, Zagreb had a really good feel to it. If you're a traveler, you know what we mean, you get to a city and almost immediately you feel good in it. It feels totally at ease and LIVABLE. I could totally live here.

Coming from the Plitvice Lakes, we got in kinda late, here's the train station in the pretty evening golden light.

Next day we explored...Here is the Ban Jelačić Square, the central focus of the city. You can see the Mandusevac Fountain which was built over a natural spring. Legend has it that this was the main meeting point for witches...creepy! Also according to legend, its how Zagreb got its name....The croatian word for "to scoop up water" is zagrabiti.

This is the plaza in front of the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Here you can also find St. Stephen's Chapel and this fountain, the Virgin Mary with Angels.

The Renaissance walls served as defensive walls against the Ottomans.

The Dolac Market - a huge market full of yummy looking fruits and veggies and some souvenirs, we bought raspberries!

Cute little streets!

St. Mark's Church. The coat of arms on the left has a black kuna on the bottom. The kuna is a marten weasel. Also, kuna is the nation's currency.

I was curious about the Croatian Museum of Naive Art, the world's first museum dedicated to his genre of art. I had never heard this term before, naive art, so I wanted to go in to see. Luckily our student IDs came in handy once again and we got in for only 3 euros. Like I guessed, Naive Art is created by artists without any schooling or training. They are self-taught and often depict peasant themes.
First painting is by Ivan Vecenaj.

Second two paintings by Mijo Kovacic.

"Big Autumn" by Ivan Lackovic....a favorite.

This is the artist that originally caught my eye and made me want to go into the museum, I love this artist, his paintings are so whimsical and happy - by Ivan Rabuzin.

After that, we went into the Museum of Broken Relationships. People from all over the world donate momentos from broken relationships. The items along with the story are exhibited in these museums. There are several locations around the world and I think they tour too. If you can go to one, GO, its really interesting. Here's some of my favorites.

The Croatian National Theater.

I read that the lightposts in a certain neighborhood were still gas, and at sunset, lamplighters still go around to light them. I just HAD to see this and take pictures! So about 2 hours before sunset we headed back over to the Cathedral to sit around and wait. BUT THEY WERE ALREADY LIT. Can you imagine disappointment? Damn you book! Sunset doesn't mean 6 in the evening in summer! Little guide books can't be trusted.

And because I didn't get a good picture earlier, here's a nice one of The Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

So, what do you think of Zagreb? TOTALLY livable, right?

Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia - Travel Photography

2011-08-13T15:40:00.000-04:00

Like I said in my last post, when we started researching for our trip to Croatia, we came across photos of the Plitvice Lakes and we KNEW we had to go! The Plitvice Lakes are a national park situated sort of in between Zadar and Zagreb, you can easily get there by bus from either of the two cities. You could really spend ALL day there, hiking around the different paths or row boating around the lakes. They even have multi-day passes. We only had about 4 hours so we picked one of the shorter routes, but the one that took us by the largest waterfall.....oh yes, this places is FULL of waterfalls!

These are the little boats that you can rent and paddle around the lakes.

Look at how CLEAR the water is! It was gorgeous, and look at all the fishies!

Isn't this place beautiful? I don't really think I need to explain.

Waterfalls!

Here you can really see how lovely this water is, the blue is just so pretty!

This is a favorite from the day.

This picture on the left, can you tell what it is? Its the water, well duh...but the bright part is the reflection and the green is all the plants at the bottom of the water, again, its so clear!

Here's a broader view of the lakes and the waterfalls....and the mountains!

And here is the big boy.

I don't recommend visiting Croatia in August - there's just too many people. There were so many people walking with us along the trails, that sometimes the line would just stop.....not so pleasant.

Also, there's lots of pretty plants, flowers and trees to admire!

I loved this one random red leaf....and the purple flowers were gorgeous!

How cool is this leaf?

So thats it. For all my outdoorsy friends, I know yall loved this post as much as we loved being there! Definitely put it on your to-do list! Its a beautiful place!

Zadar, Croatia - Travel Photography

2011-08-13T10:58:00.000-04:00

When we were planning our trip to Croatia, we definitely knew we wanted to visit the Plitvice National Park, which you will see photos of in the next post. Unsure of where we would catch a bus to this park, we decided we better spend a day in Zadar in the case it was easier to find a bus than in Zagreb, the capital. Zadar is a cute little coastal town, just like the others, but less touristy, a little quieter and for this it was a nice relaxing day.

The Five Wells Square, appropriately named for its five wells.

I love the lion on this gate - the main gate to the city.

This little plaza was really nice because there were two important buildings that were really nice - St. Donatus Church...

and St. Anastasia Cathedral.

St. Donatus Church is one of the best preserved examples of Dalmatian architecture.

One of the most unique things that Zadar has is this sea organ. This organ is driven by the sea and the wind and the sounds come out of these holes in the ground. We sat and listened for awhile and the sounds mixed with the rhythm of the waves was a pretty cool experience. There was a point where the waves got really choppy and the music became quite ominous. The people of Zadar are really proud of this first ever sea organ that unites nature and architecture.

This is a big round area of solar panels called The Greeting to the Sun. The sad part is is that we didn't stay long enough to see what the panels actually power. An after dark light show! How way awesome is that?! Too bad we missed it, but you can see it here on youtube.

So our trip is officially over. We had a great five weeks but I actually can't wait to get back to our apartment in Madrid. I plan to stay there, with the fans on and watch TV. We only have a week to be lazy before we start our one month hike along the Camino de Santiago. I still have to show yall a little more of Croatia - my favorite parts - and Slovenia which was pretty rad also. Hope everyone is having an awesome summer!

Split & Hvar, Croatia - Travel Photography

2011-08-11T14:22:00.000-04:00

After Dubrovnik we took another horrible non air conditioned bus to Split. Its another coastal town - a tourist hot spot. But is rather gorgeous! Look at those mountains!

The little old city is adorable, similar to Dubrovnik, with pretty architecture and tiny streets.

I love all the blue, green and teal colored shutters in Croatia.

We enjoyed a nice sunset over the Adriatic Sea.

These old towns are small and so you don't need more than a day to walk around and see them. So for our second day, we took a ferry to the island of Hvar....leaving the port.

The Cathedral of St. Stephan.

On our ferry ride back, we enjoyed yet another fabulous sunset!

Sorry to have not written much for this post....we are cooking dinner for our couch surfing hosts in Slovenia....and its not like you come here for my writing skills, I know that. Hope you enjoyed the pretty pictures!

Dubrovnik, Croatia - Travel Photography

2011-08-10T11:34:00.000-04:00

After, not the longest bus ride ever, but quite possibly the worst, we finally arrived horribly stinky and sweaty to Dubrovnik, Croatia. I think Croatia was possibly the place we were most excited to visit, but I have to say with it being near the end of our 5 weeks AND it being the height of the summer heat, I found it more difficult to enjoy myself. Plus, if you don't know, Croatia is the new IT place to be, it has become a highly popular destination spot and so it is absolutely CRAWLING with tourists and food and water is expensive. Also, being that we are traveling cheap, we couldn't even afford any hostels with air conditioning...so as you can imagine Ive been quite the grumpy gus lately. But all that said, Croatia is in fact quite magnificent as you will see in these pictures and the following posts.

The first day that we arrived we decided to relax. We walked to the beach that was very near to our hostel and took a very quick dip to cool ourselves.

We took advantage of the kitchen and made ourselves spaghetti while enjoying the pretty view from the hostel.

The next day we went into the old city. All of the Croatian cities we visited have darling "old towns" but I think Dubrovnik was my favorite. It was very quaint and labrynthine, sort of reminiscent of Venice, with lots of lovely details!

It has a beautiful waterfront were you can actuallly swim. I wish I had known this because I would have worn my swim suit. It was so hot and that water looked so inviting!

On the left you have a horrifying sight. European men, no matter how fat or how hairy insist on wearing speedos about two sizes too small. Its a shock to the eyes. To help you recover, on the right you have an adorable kitty!

Here you can see an example of all the tiny streets.

You can pay to walk around the city's walls, and if you are lucky enough to have a student ID you get a pretty hefty discount. Its totally worth, you get awesome views of the city.

I can't help it, I love how beautiful the doors can be over here!

A beeeeeeeeautiful sunset!

We ended the day with these little beauties...tiny donuts covered in cinnamon and sugar, made to order, can we say DELICIOUS!?

Belgrade, Serbia - Travel Photography

2011-08-10T04:58:00.000-04:00

Our first day in Belgrade we took it slow. Traveling sure does take its toll on you and since we are nearing the end of this journey, we are getting pretty tired of moving everyday, especially in this heat. So we just took a small stroll around the old part of town and then met up with a friend of our friend Nikko. He took us to see his favorite view from the Fortress and then we sat and relaxed with a few beers.

The next day we gave it a better go at walking around and photographing Belgrade.

There were these painted cows all over the center.

This is the lovely bohemian district.

There's lots of fun graffiti and wall art.

Then we went back to the Fortress to see it during the day. Its free all day to the public which is so nice, you can just meander through its pretty walls and gardens.

Too bad I can't take this place with me, it would be beautiful for photoshoots.

How fun is this watermelon bench!? I couldn't resist.

We walked past the zoo and all along the outer wall were these fun mosaics.

A few more sites around the center.

Then we made it a point to go back to the Cathedral of Saint Sava at night. Its said to be a symbol of Belgrade and that its most lovely at night. Its true - its so much more beautiful with its lights shining against a deep blue sky.

We are nearing the end of our trip now. We are currently in Zagreb, Croatia's capital. Next we spend a few days in Slovenia and then off to Milan to catch our flight home. Too be honest, Im exhausted and the idea of laying in our apartment for the one week before walking the Camino de Santiago seems like heaven! Ive still got lots and lots of pretties (CROATIA!) to show you so keep checking back!

Budapest, Hungary - Castle Hill, Matthias Church, Andrássy út - Travel Photography

2011-08-06T17:30:00.000-04:00

The third day we were in Budapest, we got up early to go see Castle Hill. Its this huge complex on top of a hill in the Buda part of Budapest. You can take a funicular up and down to save your legs.

Once a palace, this building is now the National Art Museum but since it was Monday, it was closed and we couldn't go in.

You have a great view of the Danube.

Then we went inside Matthias Church. Nowadays, if you have to pay to enter a church, we usually decline...because for one, its ridiculous to have to pay to go inside a church and two, after awhile they all look the same. But Im sure glad we went into this one. First of all, the church has the beautiful roof tiling that is typical of Hungarian architecture. But the inside, oh the inside!

Everything is painted with beautiful colors and designs, its so whimsical, I love it!

I love this window.

Then outside again, theres more cool castle-y things. Forgive my lack of historical knowledge, I just think castles are way cool.

The Parliament building. Hungarians wanted their Parliament to look like the one in London, just bigger, hah!

The Geleti Train Station.

Then we took a walk along the famous street - Andrássy út. The buildings along this tree lined street are just beautiful.

Oh, and then there's this: the House of Terror. Apparently tons of people were tortured and killed here. Their pictures line the building. Creepy.

Our last sight was Saint Stephen's Basilica.

Tired from a full day of walking, we climbed on board our last night train - to Belgrade, Serbia.

Budapest, Hungary Part 1 - Memento Park & Szczesny Baths - Travel Photography

2011-08-05T16:53:00.015-04:00

To say we were excited to visit Budapest, Hungary is an understatement. We have always heard amazing things about this city - that its beautiful and so much fun to go out in. We arrived, stinky and sweaty, to our very sweet couchsurfing hosts' apartment after a long overnight train ride. Them being a southern American couple, it was nice being treated to our infamous southern hospitality! After lunch, we took a stroll around. This is the Parliament building on the Danube.

Some pretty churches. Note the beautiful tiling on this first one.

I just love the restaurants and store fronts. There's just beauty in all the architecture here that you just don't get in the states.

We took a big walk along the Danube back to the apartment. Im glad we did because the next day was a nasty gray sad day, and in these pictures the sky is just so happy!

Budapest has got lots of pretty bridges: The Liberty Bridge

The Elizabeth Bridge.

The Chain Bridge.

The next day was super gray and drizzly so we thought it appropriate to visit Memento Park. This is where they have dumped all the communist statues and plaques from when Hungary was in the Communist Block.

Then, since it was such a dreary day, we decided to take advantage of the Hungarian bath culture. One of the most famous baths, the Szczesny Baths, are located in City Park. So we took a little walk around the park before going in.

This hour glass measures the whole year! Its suppose to be one of the biggest in the world, if not THE biggest.

On the lake in the park are all these sculptures, its really quite fun! And if the weather's nice, you can take a little paddle boat out!

This one was my favorite.

Then we finally went into the baths. The building itself is lovely!! Its only about $20 to get in and that includes a private cabin to get dressed. It was so nice to be pampered for an afternoon! We just hopped from bath to sauna to different bath to steam room to another bath again!

I only got pictures of the outside pool but most of it is actually inside. The outside pool is huge and has lots of jets to massage any sore muscles.

So I wish I could share more with you but between the hostels shitty internet and blogger being a big ole douche, it has taken me 2 hours just to post this post. If youd like to see more, go visit Martin's travel blog because he's got lots more info and more pictures too! Im so happy to be in Croatia, but Im hot and tired and ready for bed! Good night yall!

Brasov, Romania - Bran Castle - Travel Photography

2011-08-04T17:43:00.002-04:00

Im sitting here in our hostel in Dubrovnik, Croatia, enjoying our view of the Dalmation coast, listening to some lounge music and chatting with our new Australian buddies. A much needed relaxation after today's hell of arriving here. I love traveling, except for the whole, you know, traveling part. A 14 hour overnight bus, no thank you. Today we went and laid on the beach and cooked a quiet dinner here at the hostel. Im sipping a coffee so we can go out later and dance it up somewhere. Tomorrow we will explore the city center.

Ive got lots in store for you since Im so behind on cities but today's post will finish up our stay in the lovely Romania. After our short visit in Sinaia, we took the train a little further to Brasov, pronounced Brashov. We got in pretty late so after we checked into our hostel we just went and had a nice traditional dinner. The next day we took a day trip to see the infamous Bran Castle. This day actually ended up being a nightmare thanks to our driver but if you're interested in reading that nonsense, hop on over to the travel blog. Im going to keep it positive here and only show the pretty pictures! Bran Castle is known as being Dracula's Castle because Bram Stoker took his inspiration from Transylvania and the legendary bloodthirsty ruler, Vlad the Impaler. So, we of course decided that the Bran Castle was a must see.

Unfortunately after seeing Peles Castle, this one kind of pales in comparison. However, I quickly became fascinated with the doors. All of the hinges and handles and knockers were just so ornate and pretty. Must have doors like this! The wood carvings in these castles are absolutely incredible!

Also, many of the doors (and the doors of the cottages we saw in the village museum in Bucharest) have these lovely traditional paintings.

One of the rooms had these fun shields with different emblems or crests on them. This first one was my favorite and we ended up seeing it in different parts of Brasov as well.

So our driver totally screwed us and we didn't make it back to Brasov until hours later than we should have, meaning we only got about 2 hours to walk around the city. Shame, since it's such a cute little town.

The Black Church is one of the best known symbols and historical buildings of Brasov.

Pony fountain!

In several of these cities youll find lots of old grandpas playing chess or rummikub in the parks. I love that!

Brasov has nice streets, lined with beautiful buildings and outside eating.

Here's the big main square. We saw these guys above walking around and there was a little band playing with other festivities as well. Must have been some kind of festival?

After our quick stroll around town, we met up with our new Swedish friend Ludwig (he stayed at our hostel and went to Bran Castle with us) for dinner. And then we hopped on our night train to Budapest...

Sinaia, Romania - Peleș Castle - Travel Photography

2011-08-02T18:27:00.000-04:00

After Bucharest, we took a train to the small town of Sinaia in Romania. Before we left for this trip, we looked up several castles in Romania and this town had two, so we thought we would stop for the day en route to Brasov. Im so glad we did! This town is ski resort town but also houses the beautiful Peleș Castle, which might now be my favorite castle ever. Walking up to it I couldn't help but snap picture after picture. Isn't it lovely? I feel like its straight out of a Disney movie and I want to live in it NOW.

Peleș Castle is actually a palace but for some reason is consistently called a castle - I agree, it sounds better.

And its not actually that old. It was finished in 1914, taking 40 years to complete. It was the summer residence for the king.

They charged an additional fee to take pictures on the inside, but since we got in for so cheap thanks to our student IDs, we paid the fee. Im glad we did because the interior was pretty impressive. On the right is a main "hall" where you can see several floors above. I love the cool spiral staircase at the top right corner.

Here is the Armory - they have about 4,000 pieces - some weapons are encrusted in jewels! The ceiling has different crests or emblems.

Here is the library, complete with hidden doorway and staircase! Its the bookshelf in the middle.

The dining room.

These next two themed rooms I loved alot. This one was directly inspired by the Alhambra in Granada, Spain - so its got the intricate carvings thats typical of moorish architecture. And the lights look like the ones we saw in Istanbul.

And this one is the Turkish smoking room. I think in my future house I must have a room full of pillows and hookahs.

All of the bedrooms were accessed, not through a normal door, but through a secret door (via a big wardrobe) you can see the door in the bedroom on the left. The wood furniture on the right was crazy intricate and delicately carved from Indian wood.

Apparently the architects at the time were very fascinated and inspired by boats. You can see the the two ceilings here look like the hulls of ships or boats. The first is the Queen's painting room and the other is the ceiling from the prince's bedroom. I love that the chandelier is hanging from a door.

The outside and the grounds of the castle are just breathtaking - what a great view of the surrounding Carpathian mountains!

If youd like to read more history of the castle and get more room details, plus see more pictures of the town of Sinaia, please go read the travel blog!

We are in Belgrade, Serbia now. I had hoped to get my other Romania post done but its 12.23am so that just aint happening. Its time for bed folks. We've got a night bus to Dubrovink, Croatia tomorrow so it might be a little while before I post again, sorry Im so behind!

Bucharest, Romania - Travel Photography

2011-07-31T15:29:00.000-04:00

Upon arriving in Bucharest, I could tell that Romania was to become a new favorite country and it pained me that we only had 4 days. I know now that we MUST go back, absolutely! For two days, we wandered around Bucharest, marveling at the amazing architecture and eating some damn good food!
We started with the historic part of town. Here is the university:

You can find pedestrian streets with tons of restaurants and bars.

Our couchsurfing hosts recommended that we eat at this restaurant - Caru' cu Bere. Housed in a beautiful building, this restaurant has been around since 1879. The hostesses and waiters are dressed in traditional outfits and all of the food is traditional homemade recipes. The food was so incredible! I got minced meat stuffed in cabbage with sauerkraut and polenta. Never realized it before but polenta is basically grits. So I was a happy girl. And they eat it with sour cream, who knew sour cream on grits would be like the best thing ever? Then we got this delicious dessert called papanasi, a doughnut covered in blueberry sauce topped with sour cream and sugar, AMAZING! We loved the food so much we went back the next day and ordered the same thing.

This is the view around the Parliament building, which Ill explain later. We got there too late to go in so we had to go the next day.

Then we went to this village museum that our hosts recommended. It was a really interesting place - they had traditional houses from all the little villages in Romania, completely decorated in the interiors too. But what frustrated me is that most of them were locked so you couldn't see inside many of them. Still it was cool to walk around and see all the cottages - Melissa - I now have many ideas for OURS.

If all this adorable village-ness peaks your interest, then check out our hosts' non profit organization, Village Life. Her goal is to promote the development and preservation of rural communities in Romania through tourism. Village families will host you and teach you how they live - activities might include beekeeping, milking a cow or goat, making cheese, collecting medicinal plants, building furniture, etc. You can also explore the surrounding landscape. Its super affordable - about 20 euros a day for lodging and meals. I really really regret not having the time to go for a day! This is why we MUST go back to Romania! Please check out our friends website and help spread the word!

Here is the Parliament building - this thing is nuts. Back in the 80's, under the communist regime, Ceauşescu had this obnoxiously large building made and nearly bankrupted the country. You can read more about it on the travel blog. But basically at the time, he bulldozed one sixth of the city to build this sucker and its the second largest building in the world. We did a tour and only covered 3% of it. After they killed Ceauşescu, the people wanted to destroy it but it wouldve been more expensive to blow it up then to just finish it. I wasnt allowed to take photos inside but I sneaked a couple. Definitely check this place out online because its crazy lavish.

A russian church.

If youre interest in Romania is peaked, just wait for the next 2 posts - cute little towns with CASTLES! My favorite!

Sofia, Bulgaria - Travel Photography

2011-07-30T15:14:00.000-04:00

We took a night train from Istanbul to Sofia, Bulgaria - our first proper night train complete with beds and everything. But no one prepared us for the rude wake up calls for customs. And Im not just talking about a tap on the shoulder and show me your passport. NO. We had to wake up, disembark the train, walk and stand in lines at the Turkish customs. Then an hour later, we were re-awoken for the Romanian customs. We stood stock still on the tracks for what seemed like hours. Now we know what to expect!

Despite the long sleepless night and our hour and a half delay getting in, we finally arrived to Sofia and were greeted by our sweet couchsurfing host. That day we just chilled at her place, had a delicious lunch, took a nap and then went to a ska punk show in the park.

The next day we set out to see the city. So far in Europe, we can usually get by knowing Spanish - in that between our two languages we can decipher signs and words enough to know whats going on. But the Bulgarian language uses a completely different alphabet, the syrillic alphabet so we were at a complete loss! You can see some words on this building.

Some of the sights to see is the statue of St. Sophia, the mosque...

the synagogue....

the Presidential Palace...

and the National Art Gallery... which turned out the be one of my favorite things.

The building inside is just gorgeous. I was in love with this one photography exhibit. This guy travelled all over the world around the 1920's and took photos of the cities and the people. I wish I knew who the photographer was but of course the only poster for the exhibit was in syrillic and of course the museum doesn't have a website. grr.

Also, this painter is a new a favorite artist - Sultana Souronjhon

Yeah, just tried to google some info on this painter and NOTHING comes up. Whats with this!? Oh well, here's some more pretty interior pictures.

This is a little Russian church. The outside is soooooo gorgeous, it makes me really want to go to Russia!

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. The inside seemed to be gorgeous, all the ceilings were intricately painted, however the lights were not on so it was hard to see anything :(

The Eagle Bridge.

We are now in Budapest, staying with couchsurfers. We just cooked our infamous jambalaya for them - they have the most amazing apartment full of gorgeous chandeliers and antique furniture, Ill try and take some good pictures! Ive got lots of good things to blog about - Romania was AMAZING! But our internet has been very intermittent so SORRY! Hopefully tomorrow Ill get some of Romania done so keep checking back! Or go read Martin's travel blog because he's got more done!

Istanbul, Turkey Day 3 - Grand Bazaar & Dolmabahçe Palace - Travel Photography

2011-07-26T13:37:00.000-04:00

On our last day in Instanbul we went to the Grand Bazaar. After reading about all the fun things you could find, especially antique jewelry, and seeing friends' purchases, I was super excited to go.

I expected it to be a lot like the spice market we went to the day before, just on a grander scale. But it was quite different. Many of the "stalls" were actually like real jewelry or clothing stores. Other stalls were just selling quality knock offs. And of course there were many places selling your typical lights, ceramics, hookahs and scarves.

After seeing these all over the city for 3 days, I couldn't stop thinking about having one in our house, so we finally found a very nice, non annoying salesman and bought a beautiful turquoise lamp with 5 dangling lights. I love it! But it was quite the adventure getting it sent home. You can read about that fiasco here. Despite all the hassle, it was surprisingly cheap to send it to the states, about 33 euros via ship cargo. I was pleased.

After we made our purchase, we quickly left because most of the salespeople are just too annoying.

We met up with Hamza again to go the the Dolmabahçe Palace. He actually had to go meet up with a friend but kindly stood in line with us to get tickets. We were glad to have his company because it took over an hour! We figured this place better be worth it! Apparently, its better to visit this place in the morning versus afternoon. But, thanks to our student residency cards, we got in for only 1 lira a piece which is 50 cents! Thank you student IDs!

While we waited in line, we saw the changing of the guards. I adore this picture on the right. So lovely!

The wait was actually quite worth it. The inside grounds are super beautiful with lots of lawn to lay around on. Also in one part theres peacocks strutting around.

The palace is right on the water. Those sultans were pretty smart, what a fantastic view.

Since we arrived in the afternoon, we had to choose between seeing the administration building or the living quarters. We chose the living quarters - they were gorgeous, super lavish, and very influenced by the palaces of western Europe. Unfortunately you weren't allowed to take photos, so yall will just have to go visit for yourselves!

After the palace, we went back to the neighborhood around Galata Tower, the one we decided was our favorite. We had searched for this restaurant we read about, the Galata House, but it was closed for vacation until this day. It was an old British Jail turned residence turned jewelry store turned restaurant. The government gave it a special tourism license because of its historical importance. The restaurant has a reputation for having delicious Georgian and Russian food and a lively owner who sometimes plays the piano in the evenings. Unfortunately it was quite quiet the day we ate there but the food did not disappoint and neither did the service.

As we walked back to our hotel, we enjoyed one last sunset over the Bosphorus Strait. This city is enchanting, really.

That night we hopped on an overnight train to Sofia, Bulgaria, sharing our cabin with a sweet American guy who was traveling all over Europe. Despite being awoken several times for customs, night trains are so the way to go! We are now in Bucharest, Romania and I have to say that I wish we had several weeks to do Romania, I can already tell how much I love this country. Can't wait to share the pictures from here and our 3 days in Bulgaria!

Istanbul, Turkey Day 2 - Bosphorus Cruise & Taskim Square - Travel Photography

2011-07-24T14:53:00.002-04:00

On our second day in Istanbul, we met up with Alev's uncle Hamza. He decided that we should do a cruise down the Bosphorus Strait. While we waited for the boat to leave, we walked through this spice market. They had tons of things for sale - lights, scarves, spices, teas, etc.....I sure do love markets like this!

We boarded for our hour and a half ride to the Asia side of Instanbul and I took lots of pictures along the way.

A nice view of the Galata Tower.

There are several palaces and government buildings along the way.

The boat makes several stops at different "towns" in Instanbul.

Hamza told us that many rich people live along the strait, you can see many big, beautiful houses.

Here you can see the two continents - Europe and Asia - separated by the Bosphorus.

Finally we arrived! We hopped off the boat and had a nice seafood lunch, then hopped back on and returned to the European side for the afternoon.

After the boat ride, for which I was mostly asleep, we took a walk around.

Us in Taksim Square.

There were 3 Gloria Jean's on this one road. I was so excited. This was one of my first jobs, and one of my favorites - they have the best coffee! And now there are hardly any in the states. Seeing it definitely made me miss highschool!

We had to stop for coffee and tea to wake my ass up!

Some adorable street performers. You know a banjo gets me every time.

Oh Turkish Delight - you were one of the biggest disappointments of my life. Reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as a kid, Turkish Delight just sounded so magically delicious. But unless you like eating incense, its disgusting.

Everywhere in Istanbul are these little ice cream stands. We didnt actually try it, because both Alev and Hamza said its not that good but the guys are entertaining and put on a little show of tricks for you as they prepare and give you your ice cream.

We are cooking dinner tonight for our lovely couchsurfing host and her boyfriend in Sofia. Today was a wonderful day of just walking around the city. Hopefully I can get the rest of Istanbul up soon so I can get on with Bulgaria! Hope everyone is doing well this summer!

Istanbul, Turkey Day 1 - Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque - Travel Photography

2011-07-23T10:01:00.001-04:00

After two sleepless nights, one on the overnight ferry to Athens and then one in the Athens airport, we finally arrived to Istanbul. Despite our groggy first day, Istanbul quickly took its place as one of our all time favorite cities. It won't take you long to see why. Ever since we've known our friend Alev, she has raved about her home city so we knew we had to visit, unfortunately she and Baris couldn't make it this time to show us around. So Alev hooked us up with her awesome uncle. We were going to meet up with him on the second day, so on this first day we decided we should knock out the two famous mosques, the first - Hagia Sophia. In its time, it has been an orthodox church, a mosque and now a museum. I studied the Hagia Sophia in my art history classes but nothing prepared me for the beauty inside...

I was literally taken away.

I wish these pictures could give you a better feel of what its like to be inside, for me, all of these chandeliers were just magical. I really felt in another world.

We were unsure why everything was in arabic but Alev's uncle, Hamza, later informed us that originally, they used arabic as their written language and it was only 90 years ago that they switched to a latin alphabet. Can you imagine making the switch to a completely new alphabet? And then translating everything!?

The detail to the architecture just kills me, its incredible.

After taking a break in the shade, we went to the Sultan Ahmed Mosque - or more popularly known as the Blue Mosque. I wasn't sure that we would even be able to enter as there were signs everywhere saying you had to wear a long skirt and scarf. But they conveniently provided the women with coverups. At the time, the Blue Mosque was the only other mosque other than Mecca to have 6 minarets. In order to not seem arrogant, the Sultan ordered a 7th minaret to be built at Mecca. I thought that was a funny tidbit of info - I'll leave the others to Martin since that's what he does best.

The interior of this mosque is equally astounding, the majority of the interior is covered in tiny tiles and blue paint. Its breathtaking. It also has the low hanging chandeliers.

Since this mosque is still used for prayer, your visit is very limited, but I very much appreciate them opening their doors to tourists.

You can get a great view from the interior courtyard.

Later that evening we took a stroll across this bridge, naively thinking we were crossing into Asia for dinner - oh silly us. But the walk was beautiful as the sun was setting...

and we stumbled upon the Galata Tower. This area immediately became our favorite little area. Its got really cute little boutiques and lots of fun bars and restaurants, reminding me of our neighborhood in Madrid - Tribunal.

We are now in Sofia, Bulgaria. We took a night train that ended up being almost 2 hours late arriving. Our wonderful couchsurfing host picked us up at the station and just fed us a delicious lunch. Tonight we are joining her and her friends for a punk show. Oh couchsurfing, how I love you. Hopefully Ill be able to get the next 2 days of Istanbul up while we are here.

Athens, Greece - Acropolis, Parthenon, Erechtheum, Temple of Olympian Zeus - Travel Photography

2011-07-20T11:51:00.001-04:00

We spent our final day in Greece in its capital, Athens. I actually never heard much great stuff about Athens so I wasn't going in with any expectations. Other than it being unbearable hot, it was pretty nice. We got off our over night ferry at 5:30am so we took the bus out to the airport to drop off our luggage and freshen up a bit. Once we got into the city we decided we should hit up the Acropolis and the Parthenon before the real heat set in. It was already swarming with tourists but I think I got some good shots without those distractions! This first one is Martin's!

Here we have a HUGE amphitheater.

A nice view of the city.

Its amazing to me how so much of these structures are still standing and its so awesome to see all the details that I studied in all my art history classes - the columns are beautiful!

The Erechtheum

Don't you love these sexy ladies on the side here?

This here is my favorite corner of the Parthenon, although you probably can't see it in this picture, this corner still has a horse head and a dude "holding up" ceiling. Its quite marvelous.

When you pay to go into the Acropolis, your ticket is also good for 6 other things - which is good because the price is kinda hefty at 12 euros. So afterwards, we took a stroll around to see a few. Below is a church and the Temple of Olympian Zeus.

This is the Kerameikos - the area of the city where the potters worked - and where we get the word ceramics. Its now of course just a bunch of ruins but they do have a really nice museum with lots of artifacts.

A pretty church and one of my favorite pictures from the day.

On the right is the Parliament building. Outside were people protesting and camping out and other shenanigans.

After this, we were tuckered out completely so we went to McDonalds for cheap icecream and a few minutes of internet. Then we decided to just head back to the airport so we could sit in some nice air conditioning!
After spending the night on a cold hard floor - for the second night in a row - we finally boarded a flight to Instanbul! We are here now, today we went to the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque - both so unimaginably beautiful I could hardly stand it! But youll have to stay tuned for those pictures!

Crete, Greece - Chania, Heraklion, Knossos - Travel Photography

2011-07-19T15:39:00.001-04:00

From Santorini, we took a ferry to Crete. We got in late, ate a yummy dinner at a hip restaurant and stayed at a little dinky hotel in a really sketchy area for the night. The next morning we got up and picked up our rental car and headed west. We were supposed to have GPS but of course when we picked up the car, the guy was like "oh sorry".....yes well screw you. It took us as long to find our hotel outside of Chania as it did to drive there from the port city, Heraklion, which took 2 hours by the way. And at 7 euros a gallon for gas, you can imagine our frustration. Once we settled into our hotel, we set out for the beach. Then that evening we took a bus into Chania to poke around and have dinner. Here are some views of its Venetian Harbor.

We were again successful at picking out a wonderful restaurant. We again got the oven baked feta and then I had lamb in a tomato sauce surrounded by a cheesy aubergine puree. It was freaking phenomenal, might even rise up to my favorite meal actually! They even gave us free dessert and a shot of some liquor that I just couldn't get down.

The next day we drove even further west through the mountains, checking out all the little towns along the way. We decided that Crete is an outdoorsy island. There's a huge gorge where you can do an all day hike. Something Id like to do - but not in 95 degrees and flip flops.

We kept seeing signs on the road for ancient cities or ruins so we tried to follow them. But they were basically rock paths through what seemed someone's farm or olive orchard. We either only got a small pile of stones or nothing at all. You can read more about that on the travel blog because Martin writes a lot funnier than I do.

That evening we had to hunt down an internet cafe because of course the internet at our hotel wasn't working. Our couchsurfing hosts in Instanbul and Sofia baled on us last minute so we had to make other plans quickly and plan the next few stops on our trip. After that it was late, so we just grabbed a quick gyro in our little town and ate in on the beach.

Day 3 in Crete, we returned to the port city of Heraklion and went to Knossos, the Minoan Palace.

On the left is the grand staircase and on the right is the Throne Room.

These are copies of frescoes - all originals are kept in a museum in the city.

Then we strolled around the city until it was time to board our overnight ferry to Athens.

This is the Venetian Port and theres this castle fort thing. Im sure when Martin has his blog up to date he will have all the fancy historical information and names for you! So check there!

We are now sitting in the airport in Athens, spending the night here, yuck! We are catching a super early flight to Instanbul, I can hardly wait to get there, Ive only heard amazing things about this city!!! Cant wait to show you pictures!

Santorini, Greece Part 2 - Travel Photography

2011-07-16T16:36:00.000-04:00

We decided to save the northern part of Santorini for our last day, and so on our third day we drove around similar areas as on our second day.

We visited this little church where I had to wear a blanket over my legs to enter.

Right beside this church is a beautiful beach with a view of a great big cliff. We plopped down and spent the majority of the day napping and swimming.

Then we headed back to Thira's center to roam about some more and eat dinner. We entered a few of these churches. I love how the inside of the domes are painted.

We decided the first restaurant we went to was just too delicious to not visit again, so went and got the grape leaf wrapped lamb again. It was amazing. Also, we met the most adorable older Mexican couple. We chatted and laughed with them all night. I love that knowing Spanish opens up a whole extra set of doors and chance meetings and other fun experiences! This picture is a view from the restaurant.

The next day we drove north to Oia. First, we visited the Sigalas winery where we were able to taste over 10 different wines.

The lady told us that the vines used to be grown in this circular shape close to the ground so that the plant received more humidity and to protect it from harsh weather.

I thought the seating area outside was so lovely!

Here are the wines we tasted minus 2. We started before I could remember to take a picture. We prefer red wines usually but our favorite was actually a dry white wine. These wines are softer and thinner than the full bodied wines we are used to in Spain. But the whites are crisp and refreshing.

Here is the little buddy I made! I adore kitties and orange ones are my absolute favorite so when this little guy came running up I just couldnt resist some kitty love. I snuggled on him the whole time!

After the winery, we parked in Oia and took a walk around. We quickly realized that this was the more ritzy part of Santorini. However, I much prefer Thira. This part of Santorini seemed to resort-y, and the restaurants less cool, not really our thang.

But it was still quite beautiful. Oh Santorini, you are just too pretty.

After so much blue and white, it was nice to see this bit of coral color!

I really love this picture on the right. Its so serene.

So there you have it. Our wonderful stay in Santorini. Its quite touristy, in fact the island solely thrives on tourism, but its gorgeous and relaxing and the food and service is quality, at least in our experience. I recommend it! Now we are in Crete. We didn't do a whole lot today, so Ill probably just lump all the days into one big post. In the meantime, check out a few things we've learned so far over on the travel blog!

Santorini, Greece Part 1 - Travel Photography

2011-07-14T16:46:00.000-04:00

We have now started our 5 week trip throughout Eastern Europe, we are covering 8 countries and our first one is Greece! I have been hounding Martin ever since we moved to Spain to go to Greece, so we knew we couldn't leave this year without going. And here we are, hooray! Our first stop is Santorini. You can read all about our pain in the ass journey here plus other fun stories over on the travel blog. But here I just want to keep it simple and share some of my favorite pictures. These are from our first 2 days here. Theres so many, its hard to choose!
Our first day, we arrived late afternoon, so we just walked around the area we are staying in, Thira. We were on this little side street marveling at the beautiful flowery patios and blue doors, when this long line of colorfully decorated mules went running by!

Isn't this soooooo lovely! Id never leave my patio if it looked like this!

Im very intrigued by the graves here. They are so ornately decorated and each one has a little cabinet full of mementos of the person - love that!

Aren't the views just stunning?

Here you can see the volcano. Apparently Santorini was formed when this volcano erupted and the land around it sunk into the sea, forming an island and surrounding lagoon.

We sat down to a really nice dinner. First we started with oven baked feta with spices - because everything is betta with feta! (shhhh. Im a dork, I know) Then Martin got the Greek classic, pastitsio, which has always been a favorite at every Greek festival we've attended. And I got this most amazing lamb dish - grape leaves stuffed with lamb, feta, tomatoes, onions and peppers. It was out of this world!

Then we headed back to that great view to watch the sunset.

The next day we got an earlyish start, rented a four wheeler, and headed out for the island. We explored the southern part of the island where all the beaches are.

First we went to the Red Beach. You sort of had to climb over this mountain to get to it, but it was well worth it, look how gorgeous!

After a good swim and some sun, we set back out and found this lighthouse.

And then we headed to the Black Beach....well a black beach, as we found out today many of the beaches have black sand.....which really effing hurts by the way! These cliffs had the most intricate designs and cutouts in them, it was a really beautiful sight to have while swimming!

Back at Thira, we enjoyed another yummy meal of meatballs, and....wait for it....lamb....and...you guessed it....feta!! DELICIOUS! And then went on the enjoy another loverly sunset!

Tomorrow we have a half day here in Santorini and then we catch a ferry to Crete! Im hoping to be able to get part 2 of Santorini up tomorrow night at the hotel, so check back!

Featured! Megan's dreamy backyard wedding styled session - on Emmaline Bride!

2011-07-14T15:25:00.000-04:00

In case you missed it, ealier this week Megan's dreamy bohemian session was featured on one of my favorite wedding blogs, Emmaline Bride. If you remember, Megan and I wanted to created a styled session that reflects a more relaxed bride - a look very much inspired by nature and vintage pieces. Its one of my favorite sessions to date! So Im so thrilled to see it featured! Thanks again Emmaline Bride! Check out the whole post here.