The Traveling Scholar

Alright, kiddos. I’ve clearly been slacking on updates, but in my defense our internet has been awful at the last few spots we’ve stayed at! While S. and I are in Ireland right now, I’m gonna try to catch up on the Spanish-soaked days of our adventures. Barcelona was great and Andorra was even better, so I’ll have to rewind and start from the beginning. Let’s go back – waaaaay back – to Barcelona.

S. and I arrived in Barcelona the evening of the 23rd, checked in at our hotel, and had time to grab dinner at a nearby eatery before heading to bed. While I’ve been to Spain before, Barcelona was unique in the sense that the citizens speak Catalan (and Spanish). The flag of Catalunya graces many a balcony and Catalunyan patches sit at most tourist shops. We ended up staying in E’ixample at Hotel del Comte and saved tons of money! While we looked at places in the Las Ramblas area, our place was about a 15 minute walk from there and we grabbed a killer room for about $100 a night. Only downside: the internet was super in-and-out.

In any case, with limited time in Catalunya’s capital, we opted for some Hop On/Hop Off bus action to make the most of our time. Barcelona is a city loaded with sites and one that I felt couldn’t be seen on foot in the time we had. For anyone that is also hitting up this city with limited time, I would totally recommend the Hop On/Hop Off buses. There are a number of them that run throughout the area and hit up all the main sites within a short period of time. When we woke up the morning of the 24^th, we headed down to Catalunya Square and jumped on one of three bus lines to begin our sightseeing adventure. Here’s a bit of a photo tour of our trip… so many sights!

Catalunya Square

Some views of the city.

The Columbus Monument!

FC Barcelona’s stadium — holds 100′000 people!

And, of course, loads of Gaudi’s masterpieces strewn across the city:

La Sagrada Familia (pictured above) was one of the top must-sees on my Barcelona list. I have always questioned it’s ‘beauty’ as such (I think it looks like a melting candle), but the fact that construction is still underway after having been started by Antoni Gaudi in 1882 is incredible to me. There’s certainly something awe-inspiring about it!

After our hop on/hop off tour, we headed back, got ready and headed out for paella and sangria to experience true Spanish cuisine (we were informed that true Catalonian cuisine wasn’t anything too special).

In true S-squared fashion, day two in Barcelona was time for us to hang out on the beach! We spent most of the day soaking up sunshine and relaxing before heading out semi-early. I have to say that thus far, Barcelona’s beaches are some of the best we’ve seen! They were a bit crowded with it being a summer Sunday, but the beaches were big and sandy! To top it off, we were able to rent chairs and an umbrella for 17 euro for the entire day. Bliss.

All in all, I liked Barcelona, but I wouldn’t go much further than that. Many of my friends who have visited are obsessed but I’ve enjoyed a number of our other trips more. The beaches were great and it was so much fun practicing Spanish for a few days but our time in Andorra was so incredibly amazing that it kind of blurs my memories of Catalunya. Stay tuned, though — more on that tomorrow!

Happy travels,

… is awful.

I thought my EasyJet experience a few months back was questionable but today was my first ever experience with Aer Lingus and it was quite possible the worst airport experience of my life! S. and I went to check in only to find out that my carry-on was too big by Aer Lingus standards (never been a problem with EasyJet). My option, if I wanted to carryit on, was to pay 245 euros in overweight fees (15 euros per kilo). With that clearly being out of my price range, I had to re-pack my luggage, putting all of my carry-on items into my checked luggage and throwing out my most favorite carry-on of life! Even after that, we were 5 kilos over on weight and I had to pay 75 euros in overweight fees… 75 euros.  Ridiculous.

After that hellish experience, we rushed to make our flight only to find out that our flight was delayed… indefinitely. They had no information for us at all until nearly four hours after our scheduled departure when they informed us that we were preparing to board. In return for our time we got five euros in ’snack money’. FIVE EUROS. Really?

All around awful experience. I will NEVER fly Aer Lingus again and would advise against it at all costs — EasyJet, despite it’s downfalls, has provided me with much better service throughout the year! In any case, we’re safe and sound in Ireland and I clearly need to update my blog. Our internet has been incredibly shitty for the past four days so updates have been few and far between!

Love from the Emerald Isle,

S. and I are the train now after saying goodbye to Napoli and zipping through the Italian countryside to Tuscany by way of Roma. With our Eurail passes in hand, we paid €10 each for a ‘reservation’ fee and jumped on the train just in time for an 11:50A ride to Firenze. The views are nice; green and lush. There are trees as far as the eye can see and a few country-style houses scattered throughout for effect.

I like the train. I like the train much better than I like flying, despite the sometimes-long rides. This journey from Naples to Florence will take us about 3 hours, with a stop in Rome but no changes (thank God – we don’t want to haul luggage again). A flight would be shorter, of course, but then we’d have to get to the airport early and deal with the hassles of airport security and getting a transfer to the city center. With the train, we arrive about a half a kilometer from our St. Lorenzo area hotel. I’m excited about Florence; the art, the sightseeing, the wine-tasting. Also, I’m even more excited about Florence after the amazingness of the Amalfi Coast. Being in Agerola for three days reinforced by love of Italia. I fell in love when L. and I were in Rome in November and I was hoping that all of Italy would be as wonderful. The Amalfi Coast was equally amazing although entirely different. The views were astounding and the areas were quaint.

When S. and I booked our hotel in advance, we were unfamiliar with the towns of the Amalfi Coast but for the information that we got through Expedia. Agerola is situated much higher than Amalfi, Ravello, Positano, Maiori and Conca dei Marini and the views are pretty great in certain areas. Also, while it was warm, the weather was a bit cooler due to the high elevation. The only downside was the town’s small size; there are but a few restaurants and the town is comprised of primarily the 70+ pensioner crowd. That was fine by us since the cost of our B&B was far less than it would have been in Amalfi. Plus, the family that owned our place was amazing. They were beyond friendly and helped us out through the entire trip. Also, while the bus ride down to Amalfi is long and windy (not for people that get car sick), the views are pretty incredible (although, admittedly, making that journey twice a day sucks).

Amalfi is cute with pretty amazing views although it’s rather touristy. It is Amalfi after all and when people head to the Amalfi Coast, it would seem logical to stay in the city that the coast is named after. While the city was charming and loaded with quintessential tourist shops (selling all things lemon), the prices were for food and basics were much higher in Amalfi than in Agerola and the city wasn’t as beautiful as Positano. Granted,  when we arrived in Positano after our long, sweaty hike, the city seemed like an oasis in a desert: water, gelato and ocean to calm our souls. Relief aside, I found the city absolutely gorgeous. With our love of the Amalfi Coast setting in almost immediately, S. and I talked about nabbing a villa for a couple of weeks during the summer (next year or the year after) and bringing the fam away for a couple of weeks in paradise. After exploring the towns, we both felt that Positano would be the perfect location for our imaginary villa; the town in itself is beautiful, there are beaches to lay out and cool off, cute restaurants, cafes and gelaterias plus there are ferries that take you to Amalfi in about 30 minutes, granting easy access to the neighboring coastal cities.

All in all, as we leave Agerola, I find myself content with our stay there. Where in Malta, I didn’t really want to leave and in Athens I couldn’t wait to move on, Amalfi was perfect. We had just enough time to experience the things that we wanted to see. While we could have stayed longer and explored other nearby cities (Pompeii, Vesuvio, Sorrento, etc.), I feel ready to move on to Florence to practice my Italiano and meet new people. I have also rediscovered my love of Italy: it’s amazing country; my favorite, in fact, with its diverse cities and regional personalities. After expiercing the history of Rome and the grit of Naples (juxtaposed with the beauty of the Amalfi Coast), I’m ready to move on to the artsy and foodie side of Italy.

Viva Italia!

Xoxo,

Sorry for the lack of internet access, kiddos. Finally got online & have been able to post my blogs from the last few days, starting with numero uno:

It’s nighttime now and the sun has gone down in Agerola, where S. and I are staying for our three days in the Amalfi area. While we’re not far from the town of Amalfi, the drive takes nearly an hour due to the twisty, windy roads that lead down to the waterfront. The roads are intense. We arrived in Napoli at around 2:45P and (somehow) managed to get down to Agerola after a number of bus changes and miserable attempts at speaking Italian.

I had heard that Naples was a questionable area and all of the tales rang very true during our hour waiting for the SITA bus. The roads were dirty, the people (that we interacted with) were borderline creepy and for one of the first times since my move to Europe, I felt uncomfortable being a girl in a city. Soon, however, we met K., another English-speaking traveler from Australia, and joined forces in to make our way to the town of Agerola (she was staying there, too, though in a different B&B).

After jumping on the SITA bus to Amalfi via Agerola, we arrived an hour later at San Lazarro in the quaint (‘tranquilo’ is how our new friend Sebastiano described it) town of our B&B, Nido degli Dei. The roads weaved in and out, higher and higher while the views of the Amalfi Coast grew below us. The drive is not for the faint-hearted; the roads are narrow and the bus drivers are quite skilled at horn-honking to ensure that cars coming the opposite direction are aware of their presence. The views were exactly as I had imagined them, though I’m not sure that there’s a word that sufficiently describes it. Beautiful. Gorgeous. Dramatic. Breathtaking. Perfection.

It’s places like this that reignite my desire to travel and reinvigorate my soul. I know that seems rather dramatic (I realize this even while typing it), but it’s the truth. We have yet to head into Amalfi and the neighboring towns of Positano and Ravello but even the area that we’re in now is glorious. The views are spectacular, the area is relaxing and the weather is perfect. S. and I had dinner at a tiny, hole-in-the-wall restaurant in town where the food was incredibly inexpensive but 100% delicious (€5 for an entire veg pizza)! It was a perfect place to re-energize after a long day off travel.

Tomorrow we’re heading to Amalfi to explore and check out the town and the next day we’re doing the walk of the gods. I’ve been here for about five hours and am already obsessed! This is definitely my kind of place – pure, unadulterated beauty in an otherwise chaotic world. I can’t wait to see what the next three days hold!

Love from Agerola,

See all of the pictures of the Amalfi Coast here.

Yesterday was our last day in Malta and though S. and I had planned on doing the South tour offered by Malta Sightseeing (we did the North Tour on Monday), we decided to save the cash and plan our own sightseeing tour. The only area that we really wanted to see on the tour was the Blue Grotto. I was able to see it during my trip in December, but only from a distance since the water was too rough. St. Paul’s Bay, where we were staying, was literally on the opposite side of the island, so public transportation required some coordination. We had to take a bus from Bugibba to the main bus terminal in Valletta before switching for another bus that heads down to the south of the island to the Blue Grotto.

After about an hour of transport, we made it in one piece and got some amazing views of the grotto from the top. We headed down to the bottom of the hill to jump on a boat to check out the water up close. The area is famous for it’s clarity and the blueness of the water and the boat tour did not disappoint. Note for students: Malta’s not the most student-friendly when it comes to student discounts. 7 euros for a boat tour for all adults, no discounts to be had.

You can see from a distance how blue the water is:

Here’s an up close shot. I’ve never seen water so incredibly blue! When we put our hands in the water, our hands looked blue — intense.

After our Blue Grotto cruise, we headed back to our hotel by way of Zurrieq and Valletta before getting dropped off in St. Paul’s Bay. We had just enough time to pack up our stuff and head to the airport for our 5:15P flight. With the layover, flight time and time change, we ended up in Athens at 12:45A. We jumped on the bus (the X95) to Syntagma Square (for a mere 3.40 euro each) at 1:30A and were settled into our hotel at around 2:30A. Fortunately for us, our hotel — while not the best location — has free wi-fi, breakfast and fairly comfy rooms. Check back tomorrow for pictures from our trip to the Acropolis and the surrounding areas!

Love from Athens,

S. and I hopped on the tube on Sunday at 415P to make it to the airport for a 7P flight. We were excited and ready to get on board AirMalta to get settled into our St. Paul’s Bay area hotel. As fate would have it, however, our 725P flight was delayed. By three hours! In return for the inconvenience, AirMalta equipped us with £20 restaurant vouchers so we could grab a  few drinks in the bar to ease the pain. And that we did. We grabbed dinner, drinks and did some airport shopping before jumping on our flight at 1030P. With the delay, the flight time and the time change, we ended up landing in Malta at 230A. Through customs we went, heading over to the taxi stop to grab a cab to St. Paul’s Bay. With our flight being so heavily delayed, there was no way I could legitimately be okay with my family coming to the airport to pick us up! For €26, we grabbed a cab and sped (we questioned whether our driver was drunk or if that was typical Maltese driving) through the streets of Malta. Finally, we made it in one piece to the Crown Hotel, passing out at around 4AM.

The Crown Hotel, while well located, is not the four-star hotel that they claim to be. It’s nice, mind you, and the staff is helpful, but no internet, a ‘TV’ that doesn’t actually work and rooms that are poorly ventilated were a bit of a turn off for us at first. The rooftop pool though? Glorious, and the views of Malta are awesome:

Considering we only paid £32 per night (total!), I can’t complain. While it’s not a four-star, it’s certainly worth more than £16 per night. It’s right down the street from a darling promenade and a McDonald’s that has free Wi-fi (how American, right?)

Today was our first full day in Malta and we made the most of it. Though I planned on sleeping in (after not getting to bed until 4A), I found it nearly impossible to sleep despite my ridiculously heavy eyelids. Instead of laying in bed staring at the ceiling, I jumped up at 830A, took a long shower and prepped for a day of beach bum wonder. After S. showered, we packed up our bags and headed out to explore.

The views down the street from our hotel are breathtaking. Most Maltese people I talk to have so many wonderful things to say about the island (they’re biased of course), but seeing the cerulean waters definitely made me understand a bit of why they’re obsessed. Beautiful is an understatement. Never have I seen water so blue and so clear; we could see straight to the bottom. Colorful little boats bounced in place on the water which just added to the overall charm of the area. After searching tirelessly for an elusive bus stop (it took us about 45 minutes to find the right area), we were en route to Golden Bay.

We actually unknowingly posted up at Tuffieha Bay (still gorgeous) and soaked up a bit too much sun while enjoying the welcome Vitamin D. A few hours later (and a few shades darker), we departed after having lunch on the beachfront. We headed to the sandy beaches of Golden Bay to check out the water sports. Kayaking, snorkeling, SCUBA, parasailing and jet skiing are available at the bay and are definitely an awesome way to spend a hot afternoon. After a bit of debating, S. and I decided to give parasailing a shot. Neither of us had ever done it before and while it was a bit pricey (€40 per person) the experience was incredible. We floated high above the Maltese shoreline and circled aroud Golden Bay, Tuffieha and another neighboring inlet before splashing into Mediterranean.

After our parasailing fun, we jumped on the bus back to St. Paul’s Bay to clean up and grab dinner. We made a stop off at the rooftop pool of the Crown Hotel to splash around a bit (and soak up some unnecessary sunshine) before heading back into our rooms. After cleaning up, we headed down to the Promenade to grab dinner at Angelo’s. The food was awesome and the views were amazing. Though it was reasonably priced, the service was a bit iffy (our waiter was a bit of a dick head)  and we had to correct a few… ‘additions’ to our bill before paying inflated meal  prices.

Now, we’re heading to bed. Tired, a bit sunburned and ready to get some real sightseeing in tomorrow. Plan of attack: Take the bus to the Sliema Ferry area and jump on the hop on/hop off sightseeing bus to see the island in its entirety!

Love from Malta,

As you already know, I have planned to spend the month of July traveling around Europe with my cousin, S., whilst working on my dissertation. I’m so incredibly excited to be able to take advantage of my time here, and doing it with my cousin is just icing on the cake! We decided to get Eurail passes for the majority of our unplanned travel, but the first two legs of our trip involve flights, so we decided to get those pinned down while flights are cheap!

After trying to map our journey (country by country; we’re going to figure out the cities as we go!), we decided that Malta would be a good starting point for our excursion. A few days in the Mediterranean sunshine, a bit of sightseeing and a bit of family. [Check out my previous Maltese excursion here, here and here.] Plus, as it’s an island, we decided to get the flights out of the way initially and then stick to rail for the remainder of the journey. We booked our flights to Malta through AirMalta and got a pretty decent deal: £120 from LHR to Malta. Now, I realize that EasyJet has much better deals (I found a one way ticket for £80ish, but I took the following facts into consideration when booking:

1) Easy Jet flies out of Gatwick (or Stansted or Luton) vs. Heathrow. Heathrow has the added bonus of having a tube line that drops off there. For £5 I can take the tube to Heathrow vs. the £18 that I would have to spend taking the tube to Victoria and Gatwick Express to the airport.

2) Luggage! EasyJet allows one piece of hand luggage and everything else is charged (£9 in advance, £18 at the airport) which is inconvenient; AirMalta will allow the extra luggage that I’m bringing and save the headaches.

3) Flight time: The flight times with EasyJet weren’t so great. Mind you, our flight with AirMalta gets us to Malta shortly before midnight but it’s better than a 5A flight the day after my cousin gets to London.

In any case, between the flight times, luggage, airport issues and added benefit of not having to fly a discount airline for once, we went for it! We snagged a great hotel in Buggiba, Malta for the four nights (three-and-a-half days) we will be in town. Total cost for a four star hotel near the beach? £149 for both of us; less than £20 a night each! That’s less than I pay in London for my current shoe box of a room! After getting the Malta trip nailed down last week, we decided it would be best to get the second leg of our trip under control as well. After discussing countries that were on our must-see list, we both agreed that Greece was a must! Since it’s the furthest point of our journey, we decided to make that the first stop of our mainland trip and the departing point for our Eurail adventures! For a mere $112 we snagged a flight on Aegean Air from Malta to Athens. What a steal!

I have heard amazing things about Greece: from the history and culture of Athens to the serene island of Santorini and the party haven that is Mykonos. Certainly, if we had the time, we would see everything! Unfortunately, time is of the essence and we needed to be able to see as much as possible in four and a half short days. We decided to book a hotel in Athens for the entirety of the trip, using it as a sort of home base for the rest of our Greek sightseeing. Though we’ll likely spend two of the days exploring Athens, we want to allocate at least one day to Santorini to get a feel for the islands. If we feel semi-fulfilled with a couple of days in Athens, I’m hoping to use that extra day to hit up a nearby city (though I’m not 100% sure where that’d be yet… Delphi, perhaps?) or another island. Like I’ve mentioned before, Greece was one of the top 3 places I wanted to see in my time here (along with Rome, Italy and Istanbul, Turkey) and I am so incredibly stoked to actually have this booked! I have fantasized about this trip for years (probably since I was eight) so I’m hoping that it’s half as amazing as I’ve imagined! Another bonus: for five nights in Greece, I snagged a great little hotel (3 star about a mile from the Acropolis) for £173 total! Again, talk about a steal. Can you beat a Greek excursion for £18 per night? Did I mention that breakfast and wi-fi are included? Cha-ching!

Less than one month until this madness begins and I can’t wait! Until then, I’ve gotta stick to studying for my exams (they start in 10 short days)! It will be such a relief once this craziness is over…

From London,

I’m sitting in the airport right now, eavesdropping on native Spanish-speakers in an attempt to make out their conversation. If only they could speak a little bit slower, I think I could actually understand most of it… Despite having some issues grasping the right words over the past three days, I’m actually impressed with the amount of Spanish that Lindsay and I recalled from our high school Spanish days. The thought of leaving Malaga in two short hours is so depressingly sad… the three days we spent in Marbella were amazingly relaxing. There are very few places that I have visited this year that I would say, with confidence, I would certainly visit again in the future. Costa del Sol is definitely one of them – pure, unadulterated relaxation, breathtaking views, gorgeous weather and a laid-back vibe that transported me back to California for a moment. Although we didn’t do much (our days primarily consisted of waking up, laying on the beach for hours, eating paella and drinking sangria), I can’t possibly recount the amazingness of our three-day adventure in one blog post. So, we’ll start with Saturday: day one of our adventure.

We decided to book our flight for Saturday morning instead of Friday night so we could make use of the public transportation in Malaga; there’s always something a bit disconcerting about arriving in a foreign land late at night, unsure of where to go or with whom to speak. So, after waking up at 430A and jumping on an early morning tube, we made it to the airport by 640A to jump on our 8A flight. Off to Marbella! Two and a half hours later, we landed in sunshiney Spain. Though there’s a bus that goes directly from Malaga to Marbella, the buses are few and far between, picking up at the airport once every two hours. Not wanting to waste our time at a bus stop in Spain, we found two travel partners to share a taxi: €70 total and a great investment; we were in Marbella an hour later, checked into our hotel and getting settled.

The view from our room was not too shabby — pretty amazing actually. And our hotel, Aparthotel Puerto Azul, was such a perfect fit for us: beach front, awesome staff, cute balconies, spacious bathrooms and a kitchenette (which sadly went unused). After unpacking, we headed down to the beachfront restaurants to grab a bit to eat at Ole, a little place with glorious outside seating, sangria and paella. After a long lunch, we took our newly purchased ‘Costa del Sol’ (read: ‘Hi I’m a tourist’) towels down to the sand to soak up some sunshine. Despite the fact that it was around 5P, the sun was in full force. We ended up staying out until around 8P and then headed back in to re-group and head out to grab dinner in Old Town Marbella.

The Old Town was nearby, fifteen or so minutes from our hotel, and despite the fact that we didn’t even head out until 1030P, the weather was still amazing. We ended up in the Plaza de los Naranjos, a cute little part of town with some amazing restaurants and awesome outside seating. We had more paella and sangria (and some interesting conversations with the wait staff) to finish off our night before heading home! Though I’d always heard that people in Spain start their nights late (late dinners, late clubbing, etc.), I never really understood how they had it in them to head out so late at night. After that first night, I totally understood. There’s light out until 10P and the weather is glorious. Even though the clock says 930P, it feels like 4P and the weather just begs for you to stay out! So amazing. Needless to say, I was hooked after day one. Day two brought a lot more of the same, but I’ll catch you up on that tomorrow!

Love from London (though I’m wishing it could still be Marbella!),

Wanna see all the pics from Marbella? Click here!

My cousin, S., is coming to London from San Diego to hang out with yours truly. About a year ago, we sat around and talked about how fun it would be if she could visit this summer so we could travel around Europe together, suitcases in tow, laptop at the ready, seeing all that Europe had to offer. Well, flash-forward 12 months and here we are! S. has booked her flight to London (arriving the 2nd of July!) and we are planning an oh-so-exciting tour of Europe.

My initial idea was to choose 5 -6 places and just fly from destination to destination (courtesy of discount airlines), staying in inexpensive lodging. She mentioned the Eurail pass and I completely disregarded the idea. Now, though… as I calculate flight costs (and the dreaded ‘extra luggage fees’ imposed by easyJet) plus the costs of getting from the airport to the city center, I’m beginning to think that a Eurail pass is just what we need. The Global Pass, which is available at their website, is €429 for a 21 day continuous pass (€535 for one month) and provides access to 21 countries that are part of the scheme. Based on the current exchange rate, that’s roughly $575 for unlimited travel for a 3-week period. Not really all that bad.

The thought of summer travel has gotten me seriously excited. First, instead of being relegated to one major city (e.g. Rome or Barcelona), we can travel to a number of fun cities within a country and spend just a couple of days at each (unless the place calls for more, of course). When you’re spending loads of money flying to a destination, it feels wrong to leave after two days. So, that being the case, we don’t have to decide between Rome, the Amalfi Coast, Florence and Cinque Terra — we can see everything! The same can be said for Spain. Why only visit Barcelona, when there’s Seville, Madrid and San Sebastian to see? Plus this opens up the options of seeing places like Switzerland, Croatia and Austria; places that we may not have specifically chosen to visit, but would be a nice stop along the way, even if just for a day. An added benefit? The time that we’ll be traveling on the train can be spent working on my dissertation — it’s the perfect time to catch up on readings and get some work together!

Eeeee (that’s the 5-year-old in me screaming with excitement)! I can’t believe I didn’t actually give the Eurail pass its fair due before! Considering the great experience I had with Thalys during our trip from Paris to Amsterdam, I should have been first in line for this thing!

How’s this for a plan?

I seriously can’t wait… Is it July yet?

You may remember my post from a few days back where I posted, with certainty, that my flatmate and I were headed on a mid-May vacay to the Balearic Islands. Well…. change of plans. After discussing our schedules, we discovered that the flight timetable for Menorca didn’t align with our needs. Rather than give up on the idea of vacation, though, L. & I spent a good two-plus hours in my room looking up potential beach vacations. We discussed everything from Croatia, Lithuania and Tel Aviv (!) to Cyprus, Corsica and Corfu (and about a million things in between)! We decided though, that the idea of Spanish sunshine was too tempting and focused our sights on Costa del Sol, scouring the towns that dot Malaga in the South of Spain. We decided upon the glamorous seaside town of Marbella (would you expect anything less?)!

We had to book our flights (fly into Malaga) and hotel stay separately, but still managed to snag a semi-good deal. Since we’re going for vacation purposes (rather than traveling/sightseeing), hostels were out of the question. Let’s be real — they’re normally out of the question, but this time we wanted a decent hotel and a flight that fit our schedule (not a 5A flight). Even with our diva-esque requirements, we managed to get the whole package including our oh-so-glorious beachfront hotel for around £200. This is a thousand times better than super-touristy Barcelona in my book and I’m so excited to add Spain to my passport stamp collection! Plus, it’ll be so nice to get out of city life (and the little ‘work’ cloud that hangs over my head) in London and head out to a beachy destination with a friend. There’s something so awesome about being around people that you can be 100% yourself with (gotta hang onto those people when you find them)!

So, we’re off next weekend to sunshine, sand & sangria. What a lovely combination.

Cheers to friendship!

Want to read more about super-chic Marbella? Check out the Frommer’s guide!