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Archive for June, 2011

8th June
2011
written by Justin

We couldn’t wait to get back on the road to see Barcelona.  We had heard that it was a really cool, funky city – but we were even more excited to see John & Cynthia who decided to meet up with us there and tour the city!  It was unfortunately not fated to be as easy as it sounds.  After our wonderful date at El Buey, we went right back to the dorm and crashed; we woke up in the morning and realized that we still had one more night left in Madrid before our bus left for Barcelona.  No worries, I said, and went down to the desk to ask for another night at our hostel.  They were full!  It was quite a surprise to me since not a single room we’d been in there had ever been full and now they tell us there is not even one more bed for us to take the next night.  And we had to check out in an hour!  So I ran back up to the dorm, awakened Hazel, and started looking for another place to stay.  I wanted a private room to ensure we got some good rest before going out on the town in Barcelona, and booked it at a nearby hostel.

So we got on the Metro, made it to our proper stop, and began walking looking for the street.  Did I mention that streets change names nearly every block in some parts of Madrid?  We ended up taking a wide circle around the hotel, with all our worldly possessions on our back.  It was frustrating!  We were both afraid for our personal security, since we looked like (er, were) lost foreign tourists with all their worldly possessions on their backs.

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7th June
2011
written by Justin

Hazel decided that for my birthday she would get me a nice night out in Spain – complete with Flamenco Dancing!  This has been something I’ve been really into since I saw a show in Ithaca back in 2005.  So I was stoked!  It turned out to be the perfect evening.  We started out the night at the restaurant “El Buey” – a favorite Hazel found on SpottedByLocals.com, a site that’s half TripAdvisor and half blog with entries by locals from the area.  We love this site!  Anyway, back to our date.  The specialty of the house is cook-it-yourself OX!  They bring 1kg of ox tenderloin sliced thinly (along with patatas fritas of course) and ceramic plates heated to a really high temperature.  Meat goes on plate, and voila!

El Buey

El Buey

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5th June
2011
written by Hazel

So even though we had just arrived in Madrid the day before we decided to take a little bus ride out of the city (about an hour) and head to Toledo.  We spent most of the morning running around to every bus station in Madrid, buying our onward tickets to Barcelona and then trying to find the right bus, but we eventually found it and had an uneventful ride out to Toledo.

And we were glad we went because the town was really beautiful!  We had a nice fixed menu lunch and walked around the town all afternoon.  We explored the Jesuit church and went up the bell tower to get some great views out over the town.  The town is made up of lots of narrow, winding streets with cool stone buildings lining them and was so scenic for a long walk.  The cathedral was pretty pricey to go into, so we ended up just walking around the outside, but we got some good pictures of the stonework.

Entrance to the town

Entrance to the town

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1st June
2011
written by Hazel

We had a fairly easy flight getting to Madrid from NYC and a very easy trip to our hostel on the (very clean, very spacious) metro.  The time difference and lack of sleep on the flight caught up to us though, so we took a nice nap for a couple of hours.

Since then we’ve managed to have some tapas (delicious!), wander around a bit, plan the next day or so (think we’ll head to Toledo and we’re going to see a flamenco show!), and see an incredibly awesome live jazz show just two blocks from where we’re staying!  We’ve also been pleased because even though the language here is a little different than in South America it seems like we can understand people pretty well and they can understand us.  So all in all, Spain has been good to us in the first 12 hours we’ve been here.

Awesome Jazz in Madrid!

Awesome Jazz in Madrid!

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1st June
2011
written by Hazel
Dr. DeWitt the veterinarian!

Dr. DeWitt the veterinarian!

We had a very fun and joyful stop in Ithaca, NY to watch Justin’s sister Jessica graduate from veterinary school at Cornell University.  It’s good to have a doctor in the family!

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