"Never stop exploring," said a sign in a cute little coffee shop in the town of Tarifa, Spain (known as the kitesurfing capital of Europe - and no, I didn't try it). I spent this weekend in the laid-back windsurfer/kitesurfer filled town just an hour and a half away along the coast. The windy landscape was absolutely breathtaking with a mix of rocky cliffs and beautiful dunes, hills topped with numerous windmills, as well as grassy farm land sprinkled with grazing cows and horses. It is one of the southernmost points of continental Spain (other parts of Spain are islands further South), and you can easily see Africa across the Gibraltar Strait. I hope to take the quick ferry across to Morocco one weekend soon.
Look-out point just outside Tarifa. You can see some of the windmills and if you look closely, you can see Africa in the distance.
Beach of Tarifa
Kitesurfer's kite, Tarifa, Spain
Needless to say, exploring is exactly what I've been doing as of late. I've experienced so many new things this year and in the past few weeks have been traveling to some very different parts of Europe. A few weeks ago we had a week long vacation for school and, along with my friends Heidi and Jess, I jetted off to Geneva, Switzerland for a few days and then hopped over to Paris for the rest of the week.
Geneva was a beautiful city, with the Swiss Alps as a backdrop, majestic lake Geneva, Swiss chocolate, outdoor enthusiasts galore, and a very international feel to it. Unfortunately for me, everything was extremely expensive. There are expensive designer clothing and watch stores galore. There were also few hostels (all two of them were quite pricey, although very nice, safe, and even family friendly) and we had to switch to a different one after the first 2 nights. Eating out was also expensive. We stuck to falafel wraps (falafel/kebab/schwarma shops are a popular late night or any time option all over Europe, it seems), sandwiches and pasta made in the hostel kitchen. I had to oogle over the variety of international food, however, and even broke down and bought an empanada at a little deli owned by a Peruvian-Swiss man. It was great to reminisce about Peru and all the delicious Peruvian food I once enjoyed.
One night, while attempting to pub-crawl, we had the misfortune of wandering into what appeared to be a brothel. All people involved knew quite well that we weren't in the right place and we quickly made our way elsewhere.
During another discovery in our wanderings of the streets of Geneva, we came upon an American market, with all kinds of American foods, including pop-tarts, Gushers, marshmallows, Peanut Butter crunch, and A&W Root Beer. I was in heaven to the very last drop of that root beer.
on top of hill in Geneva, Switzerland
My favorite part of our stay in Geneva was taking a cable car to the top of a hill to see the view of the city below. It was really cool to see a bit of snow for my first time this winter. It was also my first time (I think) in a cable car like this.
A bridge over a river in Geneva
A swan on Lake Geneva. So beautiful.
Our first night in Paris was definitely memorable. Upon arrival, we realized that our hostel was less than attractive, but we did meet some very interesting people there. With new friends from Panama, India, Israel, Canada, and the U.S., we meandered our way through the Parisian streets to the Eiffel Tower, drinking champagne along the way. We danced, giggled, and took too many pictures.
Up in the Eiffel Tower at night
Paris is beautiful, with famous monuments around every corner, but it is filled with tourists and can be overwhelmingly big. We did our share of tourist-ing: we took the elevator to the top of the Eiffel Tower (first time in a diagonal elevator), visited the Catacombs, took a chilly boat tour on the Seine, visited the Louvre museum, and took our obligatory photos of the Arc du Triomphe and Notre Dame. My favorite part of Paris was probably the delicious chocolate eclairs; they may just have been the best thing I've ever eaten.
Notre Dame, Paris
The Louvre museum of Paris.
Making our way back to Malaga after our exhausting week of traveling was quite the adventure. We had our flight from Paris to Madrid at 6:55 a.m. on Saturday and so decided that we would sleep in the airport the night before. Unfortunately, we missed the last metro to the airport. We ended up taking another metro towards the airport in the hopes that we could take a taxi from the nearest stop to the airport. We were surprised when the train stopped and an announcement was made in French (which non of us understand). Some people left the train and we were lucky enough to meet a student who spoke English and explained to us that someone had left a suspicious item in a train station further down the line. Paris's craziest seemed to pop out of nowhere. There was a woman with no pants on on our train, people smoking cigarettes even though it is clearly not allowed, and we even had the good fortune to be sitting on a train car on which a man decided to relieve himself in the corner. Good times in Paris. Our adventure didn't stop there. When we finally made it to the stop we were headed to (nearly three hours later), we found a bus that would take us to the airport. I almost got motion sickness because of the driver's crazy driving, but at last we made it to the airport. Then, we waited some more, not managing to get any sleep before boarding the plane. When we arrived in Madrid, we had to find the metro to the bus station and wait a few hours before taking a 6 hour bus ride through the winding mountain highways back to Malaga. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper when I finally made it back to Malaga and slept for 15 hours straight. Oh, the joys of traveling!
This Sunday, I am running a half marathon in Malaga and I was quite proud of myself for keeping up with my training, through the ongoing stresses of living in another country and even while traveling around Europe. I can now say that I have gone running in five different countries (U.S.A., Peru, Spain, France, Switzerland - and more to come?)!
All smiles in Tarifa, Spain. Life is good.
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