Trains, Flames and Automobiles
Trip Start
Jan 15, 2011
1
3
18
Trip End
Jun 27, 2011
Where I stayed
Albergue Zaragosa Hostel
Zaragoza, Aragón, Spain
Thursday, February 24, 2011
I hope everyone was able to dig out of the blizzard this past weekend without too much trouble. I can't believe how much snow has hit the Midwest this winter. I guess I chose the right time to jump ship!
All of last week, a few friends and I were trying to decide where we could go for the weekend. After all the events in Valencia and getting settled with classes, we felt the urge to explore somewhere new. We were originally thinking of heading to Barcelona or Madrid, but the prices are pretty rough so close to the weekend. With time running low, we searched random cities around Spain to find some sort of deal and ended up stumbling upon Zaragosa. I had heard of it, but wasn't at all familiar with the city and had never really heard of anyone talking about traveling there. After an 'extensive' Google images and Wikipedia search, we decided it would be worth checking out. We searched for trains and hostels, found some reasonable prices, booked the hostel, and planned to jump on a train that Friday afternoon after class.
However, on Thursday evening we were persuaded to look into renting a car instead of taking the train since one of my friends (Patrick) is from Austria, and therefore, has an international driver's license valid within the European Union. We were excited to turn the weekend into a European road trip, so we reserved a seven person mini-van that night and planned to wake up Friday, attend our classes, and meet at the airport to pick up the van.
**Side Note: I went to my Biomaterials class for the first time on Friday afternoon, which actually turned out to be very interesting and I somehow managed to line up a "tandem" with one of the Spanish girls in my class. A tandem is basically an informal study/tutor session where you use both English and Spanish in order to practice language skills while learning the course material. This is especially great because it's the only class I don't have any international friends in, so I'm the only native English speaker.**
So getting back to the Zaragoza trip, after class I met up with Derek and our friend from Chicago, Phil, and we set out for the airport to meet up with the others and pick up the rental. While on the subway to the airport, we received a call from Patrick saying that he wasn't able to rent the van anymore since apparently, in Spain, you must be over 25 to drive a vehicle with 7 individuals. To be safe, the three of us on our way to the airport got off at Valencia's main train station 30 min before the last train to Zaragoza departed, with the rest of our group still 15-20min away at the airport. Not to bore you with the details, the car rental fell through, and it was a race to make the last train, which we did, with less than 5 minutes to spare. We were waiting on the platform with all 7 tickets in hand as the rest of our group ran to the train...it was a close call.
Four and a half hours later, we arrived in Zaragosa, and took taxis our hostel. The hostel, by the way, turned out to be very accommodating and we received our own 10 person room upon arrival. The rooms were clean, bathroom was decent, and the whole place had a nice atmosphere as it was a newly renovated medieval style building. Overall, great first hostel experience, but I doubt we'll always have this kind of success.
We ended up going out Friday night, which was blast. We started with tapas (traditional dinner 'snacks' in Spain that generally consist of bread, cuts of cured pork, cheese, sometimes seafood, meat/fish pastes, etc. --see pictures below) and ended up going to a few of the local bars for drinks afterward.
Once we finally got everyone mobilized on Saturday morning/afternoon, we grabbed brunch from the supermarket and headed out to see the sights. Unfortunately, it was raining all day, but we equipped ourselves with rain jackets and/or umbrellas and braved the elements. The main attraction in Zaragoza is the Basilica of Pilar (explained below), so we started there. Then we spent the entire day walking around the city center and I don't think we missed a single historical attraction. After the long hike, we grabbed some dinner at a delicious Italian restaurant and went out for another night of festivities. Zaragoza is a city of approximately 600,000 and has multiple universities like Valencia, so there was no lack of student activities.
Our train left at approximately 3pm on Sunday, so we had enough time to tour a medieval Moorish castle, turned government building called the Aljaferia. It was very cool and we spent a couple hours walking around and having fun with our cameras. Then we took the bus to the train station and ran into yet another European travel adventure. When we got to the train station, the last train to Valencia was full. It never occurred to us that it could be full because the train to Zaragoza was almost empty. But, I suppose it's safe to assume that many more people travel to Valencia than to Zaragoza...oops. Well, we ran down to the bus station and found that the last bus leaving to Valencia departed 15 minutes later, so we RAN to the ticket office and asked for 7 tickets...good luck finding 7 open seats 15 minutes before the last bus leaves...but by some miracle, the attendant said there were exactly 7 seats left! We bought our tickets, hopped on, and spent the next 3 and a half hours sleeping on the bus. Would have been another night in Zaragosa or a pit-stop at another Spanish city for a day or two had we not made that bus.
Zaragoza was an amazing city and this trip was definitely a great way to start off our European adventure. I think the travel mishaps and snags along the way just add to the memories. If nothing more, they teach you a whole new level of patience. : ) I can't wait to see what else Europe has in store for us!
Disfrutad las fotos!
Miss you all!
Marc
Comments
Marc,
Thanks for the update and pics. Its great to know you're having a wonderful experience over there. I forgot to mention earlier that I almost bought a motorhome from a woman in "Valencia" who moved there from South Carolina. Guess what... it was a craigslist scam and I narrowly avoided being duped out of $15K. So, I too have some international adventures but yours sound so much better!!
Love ya!
Leanne,
So far, I have not run into any craigslist scammers yet, but I'll definitely keep an eye out for them : ). I'm glad you avoided that. Sounds like a very close call. I'm glad you're enjoying the blog and learning spanish at the same time! Hope you're loving the east coast!
Love,
Marc