5 Places I Want to Revisit

Recognize any of them?

Thanks to Who Needs Maps for nominating me to do this little challenge. I enjoyed reading your list! This is something that I think about ALL the time. I think most travelers do. It is difficult to narrow my list down to 5 but here we go:

5. Austria

While on vacation in Munich, Germany we went on a day trip to Salzburg, Austria so I could be a classical music nerd and see where Mozart was born. This town blew my mind with how beautiful it is. I would love to spend more time in Salzburg and time traveling around the rest of Austria.

View of the town from the castle

Mozart House

4. Krakow, Poland

Poland has always been a country that I had been interested in visiting. I was really excited when some friends that I met on a trip to Morocco asked me to go to Krakow with them. Out of all the places I have traveled to this is still one of my favorite ones. Krakow is a really relaxing city with great architecture, history, food and people. I would love to go back.

Fire breathing dragon statue

Sunset on the river

Perogies yum!

3. Brussels, Belgium

Some cities in Europe have a map targeted at young people that has travel tips from locals. We picked up one of these from the airport and it really surprised me that more than one person said that Brussels is a very ugly city. uh….no! I thought this city was really cool! The main square is gorgeous. This is a very walkable city  and there is so much to see and do. PLUS this country is known for chocolate, french fries, waffles and beer. What more could you ask for?

fattening heaven

Main square

2. Morocco

After traveling in Europe it was nice to get a change of pace and see a country that is totally different from what I was used to. I went on a 5 day trip to Morocco and loved every minute of it. Since I went with a tour group I got to see a lot of places and stay in some really nice hotels. The highlight was camping in the Sahara Desert. If I could go back to Morocco again I would start in Casa Blanca and see where else I ended up. And hopefully get a chance to practice my (very low level) Arabic, إن شاء الله

Sunrise in the Sahara Desert

Leather tannery

1. West Bank, Palestine

One of the most interesting and eye-opening trips I have ever taken. There is so much history and politics packed into this little place. I was in Bethlehem for Christmas in 2012 and was able to see some of the most famous religious sites of the 3 main monotheistic religions. I’m not religious at all, but even for me it was really cool! The food is amazing and the people are warm and welcoming. I would hop on a plane back to Palestine in a heart beat.

Apartheid wall outside Bethlehem

Jerusalem

Hiking in a valley between Bethlehem and Jericho

Now for the fun part! I am nominating…
Venga, Vale, Vamos
Itsy Bitsy Planet
A Brit and a Southerner
She Dreams of Travel
Wife With Baggage
I’m excited to see what you guys write! Booked.net - Top Destinations to Go There

Valencia’s Royal Gardens in Photos

The other day my friend and I decided to go on a walk. She suggested the Royal Gardens (also called Viveros Gardens). I have lived in Valencia for a little over a year and this was my first visit. I will definitely be back soon for a relaxing day away from the buzz of the city.
(click on the pictures to see them full sized and as a slide show)

Road to Almería

I’m going to take you back 3 years to when I was first applying to come to Spain. Filling out the application and having to decide on the top 3 places I would like to be placed was incredibly difficult. I thought about Salamanca which is where I studied abroad but ultimately decided to try something completely different. I wanted to live in a big city so I requested Cataluña, Andalucía and Aragon, hoping to be placed in Barcelona. In the end I consider myself very lucky not to have been in Barcelona because their language assistants didn’t get paid until January!

I remember the day I received my placement letter perfectly. All that month I spent most of my time sitting by the window waiting to see the mail man come. As soon as I saw him round the corner I would run out the door to see if he had my letter. The day it arrived I remember dropping everything to read it in the street. It was like being accepted to college all over again! It had some general information and midway through it had the address of my school written like this:

CEIP Concordia
C/Italíca S/N.
(04110) Campohermoso (Almería)

At this point I had no idea how to read a Spanish address so I didn’t know if the town was Campohermoso or Almería. The first thing I did when I got back inside was to do a Google search for Almería. You cannot imagine my excitement when I saw the little red dot pointing to the southern coast of Spain. Thoughts of becoming a beach bum began to race through my head.

I later found some very limited information on Campohermoso, turns out it is a farming town where most of Spain’s cucumbers, melons and the famous Raf tomatoes come from. Luckily, I was able to live in Almería just a 7 minute walk to the beach! It was great; I had really nice roommates, great coworkers and lived in a perfect little beach town.

Always a beautiful sunset on the beach!

Dia de los Reyes Magos: Three Kings Day in Spain

The Christmas season in Spain is a lot longer than in the US. Dia de los Reyes Magos is the official last day of Christmas. This holiday is celebrated all throughout the Spanish speaking world. It is the 12th day after Christmas and is called Epiphany in the Christian calendar. On this day, the Kings called Melchor, Gaspar and Baltazar arrived to Bethlehem bearing gifts for the baby Jesus.

In Spain, preparations for this holiday start weeks before. Children write letters to the kings telling them what presents they would like. As the day gets closer the bakeries start redecorating their windows with Roscon de Reyes or a Kings Cake. This is a circle shaped sweet bread often filled with a cream. The top of the cake is decorated with candied fruits which are meant to represent the gems on the King’s robes. Inside the cake, there is a a bean and/or a baby figurine. The person who finds the baby is supposed to host the next party, and the person who finds the bean has good luck for the whole year! Like I mentioned in my post American Christmas vs. Spanish Christmas, most Spanish families have a Nativity scene in their house. The night before Three Kings Day, the three kings are placed in the Nativity scene. Children often will leave out some hay for for camels and some candies for the kings.

Just some of the people waiting for the parade to start

Beautiful sunset!

The most exciting part of the whole holiday is the Parade! In all of Spain’s history, this is the longest standing parade. In Valencia it starts at the port where the Kings arrive by boat. A few hours later, the actual parade starts with the kings in the Turia River bed and they go all through the old town and end at the Plaza del Ayuntamiento. It starts around 6pm, but people are in their spots as early as 12pm! It pays to have a spot close to the street during this parade because all the floats have candy and small toys which are thrown out to the crowd. The parade lasts about an hour and a half and includes music, dancing, costumes, animals, elaborate floats and of course the Kings!

Umbrella, AKA candy catcher

This man and his helpers were collecting the rest of the cards for the kings, there were lots to collect!

So, who gets to be the Kings? This is usually decided by who has had something exciting happen during the year. It can be sports stars, politicians, people from the neighborhoods who have done good things for the schools. Really anything that makes the public recognize you as a good person can get you nominated for a spot as one of the Kings. For this reason, something that is incredibly taboo in the US is completely alright here. The last king (and most people’s favorite), Baltazar, is traditionally a Spanish man done up in black face. It was definitely a huge shock the first time I saw some pictures!

Here is a little compilation of all the videos I took during the parade. The last three videos are of the kings!