Day Three: In Which I Don't Post on Time and Start what I'm sure will be a trend

We started off today wandering around the neighborhood of our little hostel. Breakfast was had at a café in the nearest Plaza, where we discovered that breakfast here is very light and usually bread-based. Rachel tried toast with crushed tomato and Roquefort sheep cheese, which was "bad ish but very interesting with a good aftertaste." I had eggs and bacon, no bread. It seems to be easier to eat dairy free here than gluten free, although both are pretty doable!

We stocked up on breakfast food from a little store, and brought it back to our hostel. Seems like it's gonna be more cost efficient to have breakfast in our hostel rather than go out. Too much bread…

After breakfast we wandered around the little streets, just going where we felt. Rachel took lots of pictures of dogs, and we stopped at a viewpoint, and got lost and then found. At lunchtime we stumbled upon a literal hole-in-the wall place, and had some competitively-priced and very delicious Moroccan food- I’m honestly not even sure exactly what it was apart from that it was veal and almonds and apricots and dates, with an amazing sauce and sesame seeds. The room we ate in just seemed like an offshoot of a random house, with very homey décor and a chill atmosphere. The other people in there with us were speaking Italian, and another table was speaking French. The owner/waiter/cook was super nice and fluent in what seemed like 5 languages.

On our way back to our hostel to recover a bit from the sun and avoid the hottest times of the day, we met a random dude from Senegal who was very friendly and chill. I think he approached us because we definitely look cool/alternative/hip young people. Anyway he asked us if we were looking for the tourist viewpoint and I was like no, we found it already. So then he asked us if we smoked, specifically weed, and I'm like a little, not much. And he laughed and asked us where we were from, and he thought that was cool, and definitely got gay vibes which was awesome :) and then I had probably the coolest moment of my life as me and the dude shared a manly high five.

Honestly so far everyone here has been really nice! Very welcoming. And very supportive of the gays- there's graffiti right outside our place that says down with the heteropatiarchy, in Spanish of course.

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In the afternoon we wandered around the more Arabic quarter, and checked out some of the market stalls. I started feeling the classic beginning-of-trip mini mood downer as I realized that looking forward to something like a trip for so long can only put unrealistic expectations on it… But I definitely felt better after we stopped at a Kebab place in Plaza Nueva and I got some food and drink in. Turns out it's quite easy to get dehydrated when you're sweating constantly!

I managed to find where my hostel was last time I was here three years ago with school- honestly it looked a little different than I remembered. I think I had glamourized it a bit- it smelled a lot like cat pee! It was still really nice though to see that area and walk around all the shops. I definitely will be stocking up on some nice earrings and perhaps a tapestry before we leave. Lots of time to figure out what I want to buy though.

Day Two: In Which we drink The Best Coffee EVER

(Alt Title: In Which we Stay in the Hotel form Mamma Mia)

Today has so far been much calmer than yesterday :)

We woke up in our hotel room feeling pretty well rested, checked out easily with a quick stop for wifi use in the living room, and headed out t o a café we found on Google maps. It was so so lovely, well-priced, and the food was amazing! I'd forgotten how good the food is here. They do so much with simple ingredients. We both got potato tortilla, a beautiful mix of egg and potato cooked to perfection. And the coffee!! Damn good coffee. Sweet and creamy and bitter but not too much. And the whole breakfast was 9 euros for both of us. 

We stocked up on snacks for the bus journey at a supermarket and headed to the Metro. The transit infrastructure here is very efficient, and it was super easy to find our way via train to the Madrid Estacion Sur where we caught our bus to Granada. And after being frustrated for a bit that I didn't have my own music, I listened to the provided media music for a bit and it was better. Rachel is an art nerd who paints on busses, and I love them :) They painted a portrait of our God-tier coffee from earlier. I snacked on my dried giant puffed corn. Standard stuff.

I'm feeling a lot more settled now, and looking forward to what is sure to be a really lovely and amazing trip. Yesterday was rough, but that's the hardest travel day we have the entire time.

The oranges we bought in Madrid taste amazing! They're like little jewels. Fragrant bright jewels of fresh fruit flavour to break up the monotony of savoury salty snacks.

Cool thing: on the metro, there was an ad on the inside walls of the subway tracks so that it showed through the windows of the car. It was very clever because although it wasn't animated or moving at all, the individual frames whizzed by the framed windows so fast it looked like animation! It was similar to a zoetrope.

I am writing this sitting in our amazing hostel in Granada!! We made it! We did it!

We arrived in Granada and bused on a busy commuter bus to the (thankfully) right stop. Then we walked for what Google told us would be a ten minute walk- it was not. Because it was the steepest hill I have ever seen. Very aesthetic, very cool and cobblestoned, but I couldn't really take any of that in because I was walking in sweltering heat dragging a rolling suitcase behind me on 4 hours sleep and three travel days. So y'know, standard stuff.

Eventually we got to the hostel, and met up with the owner. We texted her through WhatsApp to meet us at the place, as there is no formal check in service. It's only 4 rooms with guests so it's quite cozy and cute! Definitely a converted home. It's nice, I actually feel more at home here than I would in a fancy hotel. Shared toilets, showers, microwave and fridge. Very comfortable bed. Small room but honestly it doesn't need to be bigger than it is- there's a beautiful common area courtyard and living room downstairs.

Lidia the owner was super nice, she gave us a rundown (in Spanish- All my understanding has come back!) of all the best places to see in Granada and marked them on a paper map for us. We gifted her a box of maple cookies from the airport in Vancouver and she really appreciated it- I'm glad we thought to get them! She also seemed very excited that we were staying for thirteen days, we'd get to see all of Granada. That's the plan, I said :) All in all a really nice intro.

First thing we did was shower- but the shower water sprayed everywhere and it got onto the bathroom floor and there was an inch of water that we mopped up with towels. Only later did we realize there was another, better shower that wasn't absolutely terrible, AND there was actually a dedicated mop. Honestly story of my life.

Since then we've just been relaxing, eating our snacks, using wifi, and promoing Hall of Wonders voting. Speaking of which, if you haven't already today, go HERE and vote for us ;) ;) ;)

I'm feeling good, relaxed. READY for a good night's sleep!

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Rachel's editorial:

"I'm not gonna comment on this one."

"Why?"

"I feeeeel tiiiiiireddd"

Europe with Rachel: Day One, in which chaos ensues.

We are off! After a lovely ride to the ferry from Sheila we are waiting for the 10 ferry to Vancouver. Last time we were both here was on the way to a concert in Vancouver- it’s funny how knowing we’re going far this time makes it so much more exciting!

We’ve just purchased a Yerba Mate for a whopping $5.50 from a vending machine. Worth it though for the bit of  sustenance in my body. And the caffeine.

I am excited :))) and nervous.

The minute we go travelling we turn into social media influencers- I start my blog again,
take tons of photos, and update friends and family constantly via text. Rachel is going to try a
travel vlog to document further, inspired by my mom’s recent vlogs from her and Nana’s trip
to Scotland. They are also taking one second of video a day to cut all together at the end- first
one is me toasting with the Yerba Mate.

Here I am blogging to my faithful followers- of which there are less than five. Influencer-dom 
will be mine yet!! 😎😼

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Oh my god.

So, big update time.

We've been travelling now for about 30 hours, exhausted, delirious, still alive.

I had a whole bunch of good blog content I had typed up on my phone as we were on our
nine hour flight from Vancouver to London, BUT that is now probably lost due to factors
you shall soon hear about…The Lost Post included golden comedy moments such as
Rachel Doesn't Know French, We're Really Tired, and We Thought This Flight Was Five
Hours But It’s Nine.

This comedy post was lost because, halfway through the flight, my phone started lagging
 so I turned it off- only to find that I couldn't turn it on again. No matter what I did…
I thought probably we could figure it out at the London Gatwick airport during our 8 hour
layover, so I didn't panic.

Unfortunately we could not figure it out. After a good 5 hours of button pressing, buying
new cables, software downloading, research and forum help, I determined my iPhone
was stuck in a DFU loop- otherwise known as, the phone was unresponsive to anything
and could not be fixed by buying $70 iPhone system recovery software online. Which I did,
unfortunately, and it didn’t work, so I will be asking for a refund…

So my phone is essentially a brick. I did have a good cry about this sitting on the stone
floor at Gatwick, feeling miserable and sorry for myself. But I calmed down and realized
basically the only data lost would be photos, so as long as the world can live without
random photos of Rachel being a goof, I should be ok. If a little bummed out. The
phone is still under warranty though so there's that.

Suffice to say the next phone I get will not be an iPhone.

Overall it's not a bad month to not a have a phone- Rachel has one with roaming
for emergencies, and I couldn't have used my Canadian number in Europe anyway,
so no one will be texting me. I also have paper copies of any tickets I may have
needed my phone for too, cause that's the Hocking gene in me. I will really miss
listening to my music though. Now I just gotta share with the R-boi. And- I'll lose
my streak on Duolingo!! :(

So, not great. But there's more.

Because we were at Gatwick for so long, they couldn't check our luggage for our
next flight when we arrived. A friendly clerk told us we could go through customs
with our cheked bags and check them in in an hour, and gave us free security fast
passes to get to the gates faster after that. BUT, turns out he was mistaken, and there
was no GatwickConnects desk past customs. Which makes sense if you think about
it, but we were all very confused (him included). So we were stuck with our checked 
bags for 5 hours in the before-check-in arrivals area of Gatwick. It was during this 
time when we camped out on a clear section of the stone floor and I had my phone-fixing 
escapades. After much stress and anxiousness on all fronts, as well as some calming 
food and rest, we checked our bags. Plus side though: the fast passes we were 
given cut our security time down from maybe an hour to about 5 minutes!! Biggest win of the day.

4 hours later after a 2 hour flight delay due to them needing to switch planes entirely,
we are now just descending into Madrid. Our hotel is one metro stop away and I feel
like a half human full of delirium. So tired. Sooooo tired.

We're exhausted, but at least the air travel portion of our journey is done!! Metros
and busses are a lot less tiring.

Just arrived at the hotel for the night- it's lovely and has a bed and it's so nice to be
out of airports.

This whole thing has been such a whirlwind that I can't believe we're actually in Spain…
The hotel clerk was nice but I didn't realize just how much Spanish I had forgotten!

Your Sleeeeeepy and Crazy-Ass Friend,

Eva

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Rachel's editorial:

What a day, what a day. Eva covered most of the day's events in their saga. The only
note I have to add is that in the London airport I accidently purchased chocolate coconut
milk and it was shockingly delicious.

I am tired and ready for tomorrow to be better.