The Adventure of a Lifetime

I am finally starting my blog for all of you curious readers out there. As most of you know, I am now living in Seville, Spain, the beloved city that I once studied in three years ago for a semester. For the last three years I have thought of little else than getting a job and moving out here. It’s all I talked about to my friends and family, and all I dreamed about as I laid awake at night, and now I am living the dream!

Before I talk about my time in Spain I want to fill you in on how this adventure began:

Getting here was much more difficult than anyone had anticipated. I applied for a teaching job last January and waited five long months for a response – in May it finally came! However, it was not good news: I had been wait-listed. In my mind this was as a rejection; I assumed that no one ever got pulled off of the wait-list. For days I cried and wallowed, but a week later I received the acceptance letter! And not only was I accepted, but I was given a job in SEVILLA, which of course was my first choice city. God is so good.

I then decided to join Adam on his backpacking voyage through Europe in August. I had one month in the summer to quit my job, pack, and get everything organized before I left. Needless to say, it was hectic and exhausting. Adding to the stress of getting ready to go, I broke my foot one day while running! I of course had no health insurance, and only 5 weeks for it to heal before I spent a month walking on it with a heavy backpack.

Things continued to go downhill the day of our departure – I had a tearful goodbye with my family, knowing I wouldn’t see them for a year, then it was off to the train station and Chicago after that! We first went to the Spanish consulate to pick up my passport and Visa which had just been finished a week before, only to find out it wasn’t actually at the consulate, but at their other building. They said they would have it ready by 1:30 that afternoon, so Adam and I met up with my sister Sarah and her boyfriend Jordan for lunch. We had a wonderful time, and then hopped on the metro back to the consulate with plenty of time to retrieve my passport. We then hopped off the metro, and realized we got off at the wrong stop and were now lost! Oh yeah, and the consulate closes at 2:00! We split up in different directions, sprinting everywhere to try and find out where we were and where the consulate was. It was about 90s outside, we were carrying 35 pound backpacks, and I was running on a broken foot with a cast. I was crying and looking like a crazy person as I madly and blindly asked people for directions without stopping.

After a lot of frantic running around, crying, and praying, I found the consulate…but it was already 2:15! I was definitely panicking. In my head I was seeing Adam getting on the plane without me, and me having to pay a thousand extra dollars to take a flight out the next day. But wait! Standing outside of the building just about to leave were three of the workers! I went up to them with my sweat-and-tear-stained face and begged them to open the doors and retrieve my passport for me. Whew, it was close, but I got the passport and we made it to the airport! My very good friend, Steve Terborg, was able to pick us up downtown and bring us to the airport in plenty of time. I made my final phone calls before turning my phone off forever, and we boarded the plane!

We spent the next 30 days traveling to 6 different countries and 11 different cities. We began our journey in Paris, and continued to Heidelberg and Berlin (Germany), then Lucerne (Switzerland), Ljubljana and Bled (Slovenia), Split (Croatia), Florence, Pisa, Rome, Nice, and back to Paris.

Through our hostels we were able to meet incredible people from all over the world, some of which I am still in contact with. We went to famous monuments and museums, fun bars and restaurants, beaches, castles, churches and cathedrals, saw fireworks, and went scuba diving (in Nice)! We went to the top of a mountain in a cable car, then luged down it. The weather was perfect and beautiful. It was almost always hot and sunny; though it rained a few times (it rained almost the whole time we were in Lucerne!). We spent hours and whole nights on trains getting from place to place. Thankfully Adam planned ahead and downloaded a whole season of Scrubs and some movies on his iPod. We also did a lot of cross-word puzzles together and read all the books we had stuffed down the sides of our bulging backpacks.

I was excited to practice my French and Spanish during our trip. In Paris I found out just how much of my French I actually remember from Calvin…not a whole lot. But what I did remember came in handy when we had to buy metro tickets from the teller, or when ordering at restaurants, etc. It was basic French, but I was so proud of myself for remembering certain words and phrases, and for having the confidence to try to communicate with the people there in their language. We also met some Spaniards at our different hostels – I even met a girl who is from Sevilla when we were in Berlin! We have kept in touch through Facebook, but have not seen each other here yet.

Everyone we met was so kind. You always hear negative things about French people, but honestly they try to be so helpful and are so pleasant to you. We also thought that the Berliners were probably the nicest people in all the countries we went to.

I’ve included some pictures of our European Adventure. Traveling for thirty days just fed my passion for seeing the world even more. Even though parts of the trip were very physically challenging, and even painful at times, I would love to do this every summer. There is so much of the world I want to explore, and cities and countries I would love to return to to discover what I missed before.

I will be posting the rest of these pictures on my Facebook soon, but for now enjoy this sneak peak! :)

This is Adam and I on the flight over to Europe. We were so excited to begin our adventure!

Our first stop was Paris! We took two bike tours (one at night and one during the day) 

and got to see and learn about so many different things

We loved the quaint little Heidelberg. We went to a Christmas store, and I was in Heaven! 

I bought a fun German ornament as a souvenir

In Berlin we did another bike tour and went to Checkpoint Charlie. 

We also saw the Berlin Wall and went to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp.

This is part of the mountain (Mount Pilatus) we went to in Lucerne. 

This is the luge track! It was so much fun!

We tried new food in every country, but we especially loved our Slovenian lunch in Ljubljana.

We took a beautiful boat ride on the lake in Bled, Slovenia

 

After Bled we were on our way to Split, Croatia. Our hostel was RIGHT on the sea!

Getting our heavy backpacks on to go from Croatia to Italy - 

we took a ferryboat to Italy, and a train to Rome.

This is the Ponte Vecchio bridge in Florence (and the new dress I bought there!)

We took a day trip to kick, push down, and hold up the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

At the Trevi Fountain in Rome.

We went to the Colosseum multiple times, but I especially enjoyed it at night.

 

 

 Our last stop before returning to Paris was Nice. 

Adam gave me the perfect going-away present - a book about us! :)

The water felt great and was so clear!

These are just a few of my 1,000 pictures I took while traveling. :) I will post more on Facebook - but don't worry, I won't put them all up!

Stay tuned for more updates from my new fabulous life in Spain!