Madrid, Barcelona and Ibiza - Spain

We arrived in Madrid pretty late at night after our flight was delayed. I'll always remember the taxi drive from the airport to our hostel in Madrid. The sun was setting, it was huge and a bright coral colour - at that moment it was the most beautiful sunset I had ever seen. I was in awe. 

 Once we got to our hostel (which was more like a hotel - and was right on the main street of Madrid) we got some dinner and planned our next day. We decided to go to Warner Bros Movie World! 

So we got up early the next morning and caught a tube and a bus out to the middle of nowhere where the theme park was. Josh was SO excited if you can't tell by the picture below and he had a right to be. It was such a good day!! 

We went on SO many roller-coasters, some a bit too jumpy than others. We got drenched on a water ride and then had burritos for lunch. The best part of the day was the haunted house. It was an extra 3 euro to do it but now we know why - it was INSANE. Probably the best haunted house ever. The whole time we were huddled together screaming and crying of laughter/being scared. God it was good. 

With Superman..

That night we went out to have our first real Spanish meal- tapas, sangria and paella. It was SO SO good. Everything tastes so fresh in Spain! 
We then did a bar crawl around Madrid. The last place we went to was this expensive discotech that had a male and female dancer on either side of the DJ. There were even grandpa's raving in the joint. It was pretty cool!

 

The next day....well the next afternoon we did the Madrid walking tour. There wasn't too much to see but the history was really interesting. Josh, Ness, Christine and I then went to see the Real Madrid football stadium. I didn't know much about the club other than that it's rich and Christiano Ronaldo plays for them. But I really enjoyed it - there was so much to see! 

The main square in Madrid

After that we got fro-yo. It was amazing. That night I had the most amazing meal of my life at this random, pretty empty restaurant. We had tapas again (some amazing meatballs, some egg and chorizo thing, croquets and I'm not sure what else..) with Paella and Sangria. Paella is THAT GOOD. 

That night the final of the Confederations Cup was playing (Brazil vs Spain - pretty awesome that we were in Spain at the time) so we found a place that was playing it on the big screen. Unfortunately Spain lost. 

The next day we left for Barcelona! Once we got there we were wandered the city for dinner and had (yet again) Paella. We later found a cocktail bar that gave free shots with every cocktail. The guy loved us! After a few of those we went to the famous Razzmatazz nightclub and found out that Pendulum was playing that night (randomly)! It was awesome! The mosh was not. 

The next morning we went to the main street of Barcelona 'La Rumbla' and ate at the huge fresh food markets. It was amazing! Fresh juice, crepes, seafood etc everywhere! We chilled on Barcelona Beach for the rest of the day, had Paella at a restaurant near the hotel and had a cute family bonding night playing cards in the hotel room till 3am. 

The next morning we went back to the markets for breakfast and then said farewell to Brendan who was heading back to Aus to set up his new life in Sydney. It was truly sad losing a part of the #eurodeals2013 crew. 

To cure our depression, we decided to do some retail therapy, so we pretty much spent the day shopping! After dinner we all went to the movies (yes, we found some playing in English). Christine and I saw Monsters University while the rest saw superman or something that they thought was crap. Monsters University was too cute. 

The next day was our last in Barca. We went and saw the La Sagrada Familia (so cool) and Of course we decided to hit up another beach for the day, had a nice dinner by the sea and then caught a plane to Ibiza! 

We got into Ibiza pretty late at night, grabbed a 1am snack and went to bed! The next day we went swimming. The beach right near us was really nice and the weather was amazing. 

We decided for that night to get tickets to the biggest nightclub in the world - Privilege! After chilling at a random beach party, we got to Privilege at about 1.30am. It was a BIG night club. But it was pretty boring (doof doof) music until about 3am when it went dark and big stage light up and out came so many Disney characters, circus performers, a singer, models etc etc. It was crazy and fun!! Nothing you would ever see in your life. It was the true Ibiza experience. 

The next day we lazed on the beach again until the afternoon where we hit up a zoo party. This was a party held in an abandoned zoo! That ended at around midnight and we were so wrecked by then that we got some food and went to bed. 

The next day was our last day in Ibiza! We went to the other side of the Island called San Antonio and Ness, Jas and I did Parasailing! It was so relaxing and fun! The views were beautiful. 

That afternoon we all ate lunch together and watched the Wimbeldon final at a cafe in San Antonio. We then went for an afternoon swim and wandered around to a famous spot for watching the sunset. It was MAGICAL. 

Our final night in Ibiza ended in fro-yo and a 2am flight to London! Spain was amazingggggggg. 

Interlaken and Geneva - Switzerland

We landed in Geneva at around 10.30am on Wednesday 26th of June. From the airport we caught a few (very scenic) trains to get to Interlaken, a small town amongst the Swiss Alps, known mostly for the adventure sports you can do there. 

View from our hostel room

Once we checked into our hostel, Laura was off to do her bungee jump! Josh, Bren and I decided to go on the 'Harder Bahn', an insanely steep train (surprisingly close to a 90 degree angle) that took us up to the top of a mountain (altitude 1321.31m). There is a big viewing deck up the top which gives a view of the whole of Interlaken. Also, if you looked straight ahead, amongst the many other mountain peaks you could see the top of the huge snow-covered Jungfrau mountain, the tallest mountain in Europe. It really was one of the most beautiful views! 

It almost looks flat...but this is uphill - so steep

Interlaken

You can see Jungfrau to the left of Bren's head just above the clouds

We then went and had lunch at an Irish pub because it was the cheapest food we could find. Switzerland is RIDICULOUSLY expensive. At Maccas it's $15 for a McChicken meal! What jokers. 

We then went to meet Laura who was high as a kite after her bungee. We roamed the main street of Interlaken and got a hot chocolate before heading home. 

The next day we all had some kind of sport planned. The boys left in the morning to do white water rafting and Laura left to do sky diving. Unfortunately the weather wasn't good enough to do the sky dive so she joined me for a kayak. We were kayaking for about 10 minutes and I tipped over into the FREEZING cold Interlaken river....that wasn't the greatest experience but it was pretty hilarious. 

The river..

So I went home to have a warmmmmmmmmmmmm shower and then Laura and I went to this AMAZING swiss chocolate shop called 'Laderach' and bought a feast to drown my sorrows. After a hot chocolate and another Irish pub lunch, we packed up our stuff and caught a train back to Geneva. 


 

We arrived to a rainy Geneva late afternoon. After some dinner at a pub, we went back to the hostel to watch more of the Confederations Cup and play a bit of monopoly deal. We were all pretty tired from our 'sporting' adventures. 

The next day we got up early to go for a tour at the United Nations Headquarters. It was pretty cool to see! Especially all the different gifts each country has given the UN and being able to sit in the rooms where huge decisions where made. 

                        

We then walked down to the Geneva lake to see the big garden clock and the fountain (which pretty much looked like the one in Lake Burley Griffin - I think one was inspired by the other?) 

After an expensive McDonalds lunch, we searched for Swatch watches and chocolate and were successful in both quests. I bought myself a new swatch watch! 

god I was white back then...

Switzerland was beautiful, it was just so scenic but super expensive (except for their watches). Our quick trip to Switzerland ended that night when we caught a very delayed plane to Madrid! 

Venice, Florence and Rome - Italy

The five of us flew on a pretty empty plane to Venice on the. It's hard to believe we had been to 7 countries in just under 3 weeks! We caught a water taxi to our hotel...well the canal near our hotel. And after a bit of searching we found the hotel in a very narrow street. We then went exploring before going to a restaurant called 'San Trevaso' which was recommended by our hotel. I had the best damn prawn pizza EVER! It was a great first real Italian foodie experience. 

We pretty much only had that day in Venice as we were catching a train to see my relo's for lunch the next morning. So we decided to wander around Venice with no real purpose other than to soak up what it had to offer. We got lost many a time in the tiny streets, hit a few too many dead ends, crossed the Rialto bridge about a thousand times and sweat off a few kilos in the heat. We finally made it to St Mark's square and it was beautiful. 

After our long day of exploring, we decided to have a drink. After walking out of a cafe full of rude Italian men, we found a cute little cafe and had a hot chocolate. 

On the Rialto

At about sunset, we went on a Gondola ride. There were several moments where we all thought we were going to fall into the canals but somehow our Gondola man kept us afloat. It was really nice.

We then went on an adventure to find one of the top rated pizza place's in Venice as stated on trip-advisor. By the time we found the place it was closing. As disappointed as we were, we still managed to find some good italian food for din din. Our first and last night in Venice ended in gelato and a ridiculously long walk home after getting lost a few times. All in all, I really liked Venice :) 

My fav photo of the trip

The next day we caught a train to Treviso, about half an hour away from Venice. Both my Nonno and Nonna are from Treviso and I really wanted to see the area and some of my family. My dad's first cousin Franco and his daughter Vanessa picked us all up. They both spoke pretty much no english and I barely speak Italian soooo it was a tricky start. Luckily Franco's other daughter Nikoletta could speak pretty good english so she was our translator for the afternoon. 

Franco took us for a drive past Nonno and Nonna's old houses and then we went back to his house for a HUGE lunch consisting of pasta, meat, veggies, fruit and two types of cake...look we were pretty full. It was really great to meet them all (And we didn't even meet the whole family). 

That afternoon they dropped us back at the train station so that we could catch a train to Florence. 

The Fam

We arrived in Florence around dinner time, so we grabbed a bite to eat (I had a yummy meat cannelloni) and then we walked to the famous Space night club to check out what it was like. We decided to save our big night for the next night... 

The next day was Florence sightseeing day. We pretty much grabbed a map from our hotel and tried to go to most of the big icons on the map. Let's just say we saw a lot of churches that day. 

But really, we did see some cool things like the spectacular main cathedral of Florence - Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore in the Piazza del Duomo, which had this cool crypt underneath. Then we walked to the Palazzo Vecchio (the town hall) and climbed the tower to see this amazing view over the city. While we were up there the palace bell began to ring. It's really cool hearing/seeing all of the many church bells go off at the hour. 

Outside the Palazzo Vecchio are all these replicas of famous statues such as the statue of David. Lucky we saw that because we didn't get a chance to see the real thing (the lines were crazy long that afternoon). 

Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (Duomo)

Palazzo Vecchio

View from the Palazzo Vecchio tower - the Duomo (it's HUGE)

We then went for lunch and I had such a good meal. For entree to share, Josh and I got this Italian bread topped with Tuscan sausage and melted cheese. Man that was so good. Then I had gnocchi for lunch. Not as good as Nonna's but still really good! 

That afternoon we did more sightseeing including; the Pitti Palace which had nice gardens and a costume museum of old royal clothes and; the Ponte Vecchio (old bridge). 

Pitti Palace

Costume Museum

Ponte Vecchio

Randomly found a Da Vinci Exhibition...

After some amazing gelato we decided it was time to get ready for a big night out. After dinner we found a place called 'fish pub' that was playing the Confederation's Cup soccer (it was Italy vs someone) and had 5 shots for 5 euro. Perfect for the 5 of us. We ended the night at Space...danced a bit....lost Jas for a bit. The usual big night out. 

At Space!

The next morning we were off to Rome! 

We got into Rome just after lunch and were finally reunited with the Ness and Christine :) We all caught a bus into the city and did a walking tour of the Colosseum (with sunburnt Paolo) and the Forum (with nice guy Tom). 

Inside the Colosseum

The Forum

We then went to see the beautiful Trevi fountain which was packed with tourists like ourselves and then got a gelato to enjoy on the Spanish steps. We waited forever to catch a bus home in which an older smelly bogan couple were having a domestic. The woman had armpit hairs as long as a girls fringe. It was gross. To top it off, we got off at the wrong bus stop. BUT it was a fantastic day in Rome. 

Trevi!

Spanish Steps

The next day we got up early for another sight-seeing day! We went inside the amazing Pantheon, walked to the Piazza Navona, saw the Italian law courts and the Saint Angelo building, all on the way to the Vatican.  One peice of advice - if you're going to have lunch before the Vatican - don't eat near the Vatican. Too touristy and possibly had the lamest pizza ever (I do realise that every meal has been either pasta or pizza - but hey it's Italy!) 

We had a guided tour through the Vatican museum, Gallery of Maps, Gallery of Tapestries, Raphael's Rooms and then the Sistine Chapel. We then wondered through the HUGE and BEAUTIFUL St Peter's Basilica (with no Pope in sight). 

Pantheon

Inside the Pantheon

Vatican

Vatican Garden

Raphael's Rooms

Sistine Chapel

St Peter's Basilica

After that we were pretty pooped so we wandered Rome until we found a Gelato shop and a park and we lay down and ate and things were good. We looked at our map of Rome and decided to tick off a bit more sight-seeing. We finally made it back to the Piazza Navona to have an apple spritz at a bar and some dinner at La Scalletta (Josh and I shared smoked mozarella, carbonara and veal saltimboca - holy moly it was good). 

The night doesn't end until we find gelato and we found the biggest gelato place ever (which had Kit-Kat and Kinder flavours mmmmmmmm) 

Me as Pinocchio...

The next day I slept in until lunch (sight-seeing is tiring). Josh and I then went to meet our good friend Lotte at the Trevi fountain (big mistake - too many tourists as mentioned above). Once we found Lotte we went exploring for a trip-advisor top rated take-away pizza place. Yep, trip-advisor was right. It was reallllyy good. 

Again we went for a drink and then enjoyed gelato on the Spanish steps until it was time for Lotte to go home. Josh and I walked back to the Piazza Navona to meet Bren and Laura and on the way walked through what is probably Rome's most expensive shopping streets. WOW how I wished I was rich. 

At the Piazza there is a church and we thought we may as well check it out. Seriously, these random, not well-known churches are AMAZING inside. Everything in Rome is just so huge and grand and it's out of this world. As you may know, the night ended with Pizza, gelato and an early night in for an early flight to Switzerland. Man I LOVED Rome. Oh and all of Italy too!!!!