Internet could go out at any time, so I'll keep this short and sweet, and update it more tomorrow. We hit all the major sites in Milan today, and did so in a nice and relaxed manner. I still have a bit of a cold, so we got some cold medication, so hopefully I'll be able to sleep it off. Tomorrow, we're taking a train to Ancona, from where we'll take a ~22 hour ferry to Patras, Greece on the way to Athens. Here's to hoping WiFi is better on the ferry!

I woke up this morning with a wicked runny nose, worse than it has been the past few days. Sucks being sick while traveling, but it's awesome having Sahna to take care of me :) It's not too bad though, so everything is still mostly going as planned. Today was a pretty special day because we had a reservation to go see a highly sought-after masterpiece - The Last Supper.

We woke up around 8:30 and got ready to head out to reach our reservation at 10:30. Unfortunately, around 9:15, Sahna remembered that we're supposed to actually get there about 15-20 minutes before our reservation, or else we lose it! This is a pretty big deal, especially when you have to reserve your spot at least a month in advance in order to get in. Sahna was legit and actually called in last month at 3:30 AM Texas time to get the reservation in the first place, so this minor slip-up was more than forgivable.

So we scrambled down to our free Italian breakfast (most delicious 5 minutes of my life), checked out of Eurohotel and walked to the Pta Venezia Metro station. Unfortunately, it took us a while to actually find the entrance to the station, so we lost another bit of time there. After asking around, we finally found it, and rushed to purchase our 48-hour Metro pass (5.50€ per pass, definitely worth it since it's 1.25€ for a single ticket - it's paid off after 5 one-way trips). Metros are freaking awesome, because we got halfway across central Milan in under 10 minutes, and got to street level near Santa Maria Delle Grazie just after 10 AM. So we had under 15 minutes to get to the ticketing office. Fortunately, we had snagged a tourist map from Eurohotel the night before, and got our bearings after a few minutes.

Relieved that we made it on time to see The Last Supper

Let me take a second to tell you all something pertinent here. Sahna and I get into a lot of petty arguments about how I always walk faster than her. She's a slow walker under normal circumstances, but I get bored of walking so I like to get to my destination quickly by walking fast. Sometimes, when Sahna gets mad at me for walking so fast, she speeds up and goes into her "fast" walking mode which is whatever is faster than the speed I walk at. I noticed she only has two speeds: slow and fast. Today, however, was a day of discovery. I found a third speed: Sahna's 'I'm late for the Last Supper' speed. I had never seen anyone walk with so much purpose and determination as I did today. It was a sight to behold.

With Sahna turning on the afterburners, and me struggling to keep up (oh how the tables have turned), we somehow managed to reach the ticketing office with 15 minutes to spare, panting and dripping sweat. We were so happy to just be there that we unwittingly paid 3.50€ each for the most worthless audioguides for the Last Supper. We got much more useful information out of our Italy guidebook and the available English information mounted on the sides of the halways than we did from those audio guides. For future reference, save your money and pass up those audio guides.

We did NOT take this picture........or did we? Yes, it's the ACTUAL painting, and it was awesome.

They take security and preservation of the Last Supper VERY seriously over at SM Della Grazie, so we were taken through two de-humidifying chambers before getting our 15 minutes inside the dining hall which houses the masterpiece. It was truly an amazing sight, and sadly they wouldn't let us take pictures to preserve its delicate state. But that didn't stop us! Sahna snuck a picture in as clandestinely as possible, making sure not to use the flash (that's what does the damage anyways), so here it is! Of course, Sahna complained and felt bad that it wasn't a "perfect" shot, but I was happy that we got to take something of ours away from our visit.

As I said, the audio guides were dumb, and I barely learned anything from mine. Our 15 minutes in the refectory ended, and we walked out feeling awesome that we just saw something so iconic. We then found our way to the Leonardo da Vinci National Science and Technology Museum. We got in for a reduced rate of 7€ for being under 26, and walked around for a bit to see some cool (but not mind-boggling) stuff. The only truly mind-boggling thing there was just the sheer variety and ingenuity of da Vinci's inventions and research, especially in the field of human anatomy. Everything else was just kinda "meh, seen it before."

After the museum, we headed back to Eurohotel, picked up our bags, and walked over to Hotel Arno, our home base for the next two nights. We walked up the 4 flights of stairs to get to the Hotel (which is in a building very similar to the older apartment buildings in Mumbai and what is probably more typical of local Italian culture), and found that they're filming a movie in the hotel right now! This was cool at first, but then we found out it was just a student movie, and then it got annoying to have to be quiet all the time and tiptoe around all these wires and dodge crewmembers in the hallways. Anywho, we checked in and then headed down for lunch at the pizzeria next door.

The pizza here was DELICIOUS. I had a Prosciutto e Funghi Pizza and Sahna went with a Margherita pizza. Both of these were delicious and definitely more healthy than Dominos. We spent a good hour and half here working on finishing our huge pizzas while planning our rail reservations for the rest of our time in Italy, including our ferry ride to Greece.

After lunch, we went to the Castello Sforzesco - a castle in Milan that Leonardo da Vinci used to live in at one point. It now has multiple museums, one of which houses Michelangelo's last (and unfinished) Pietá, the name for a sculpture of Jesus. We weren't supposed to take pictures here again, but this time we didn't know until after we took the picture you see here. Fortunately for us and the statue, we kept the flash off again cause Sahna is considerate like that. We saw some other cool paintings and sculptures too, but I wasn't very interested in them. Sahna apparently thought a painting was famous so she wanted a picture next to it. We did see a ton of swords and cool knight armor, though.

We then took the long and scenic stroll down to the Arco della Pace, or the triumphal arch (in my mind, Milan's version of the Arc de Triomphe). It was cool, and there's a funny story behind the horses on top of the arc. They originally faced the opposite direction in honor of Napoleon, who they thought would be impessed and bring the ideals of the French Revolution to Milan. But when they found out he was just another crazy conquereor, they turned the horses around so that their tails would face Paris instead.

After that, we came back to the hotel, recharged a bit, got more annoyed by the loud movie crew who had now moved into the hallway right outside our room. We did some more rail research, and then headed to the station to make our reservations, and were mostly successful. We'll see how it works out when we leave on Monday to get a ferry from Ancona to Patras on the way to Athens.

We then ate at McDonalds (which is wicked expensive here, by the way) because we needed a break from trying all different kinds of foods when we both weren't feeling too well, and now we're back. Thankfully, the film crew has wrapped up for the night, so I hope some peaceful sleep is in the cards. More Milan sightseeing tomorrow!

So today, we're in Belgium. And we had some fine Belgian beer. And as I write this, I'm a bit inebriated.

Every person with a culinary interest has wondered what it would be like to take a cooking class in France and I can't believe I got to experience this today! Abhinav and I got a reservation with Cook'n with Class for this morning at 9 am. Cook'n with Class is rated on TripAdvisor as one of the top "Things to Do" list in Paris. It's a culinary school for tourists taught in English and comes highly rated. It is a bit pricey, however, so we were hesitant to put the money down. But, I'm happy to say that we were not disappointed and did not regret paying a little more to get a once-in-a-lifetime experience in Paris.

Fortunately for us, the location was a 5-10 minute walk from our hostel, which meant that we actually arrived 5 minutes early. We were the first ones there so we got a little extra time to get ready. We signed up for the baking class since I've always wanted to know how French criossants were made. Chef Briony was with us for our class and she was excellent!

We had a mother and daughter (Judith and Rebecca) from Australia and a gentleman (Rob, who worked for MTV in Canada) join us for our session. It was refreshing to talk to other tourists and actually have a conversation about things like SXSW with another English-speaker. There was also a fellow Houstonion in the cooking school who was a chef working in France! I guess you can find Texans anywhere :)

We made Foccacia bread, criossants, Danish pastries, Pain du raisin, and chocolate pastries all from scratch! French bread making is NOT easy! I tried rolling out some dough and I'm pretty sure that when I get home and try to recreate the dough myself, it will not be pretty. (Mom, get ready for a messy kitchen when I come back home!) Nevertheless, I am super excited to try all the recipes in Texas and force my little brother to eat everything that I create so it won't go to waste, lol.

Cook'n with Class offers a nice touch to its customers in that it gives variations of their recipes that would better suit the country where they are from. The flour is different in France than in the US (the milling process is different), so the chefs and Cook'n with Class take that into consideration when they email you the recipes after the class is over.

The morning went by very quickly and before I knew it, it was 12:30 in the afternoon. The class ended with Abhinav and me stuffing ourselves with PLENTY of freshly baked French food and then walking out the door with a bag full of leftovers... I can't even describe how delicious everything was! Freshly baked bread is AMAZING! I'm not sure how much butter I consumed in a span of 30 minutes, but I'm sure it was not a healthy amount, lol.

After our cooking adventure, Abhinav and I headed back to the hostel to look up the nearest "laverie" (aka laundromat). It's been a week since we've washed our clothes and it was definitely time to get some clean clothes before we left France to start the next phase in our Europe backpacking adventure.

On a side note, here's an update on how my packing and clothing decisions are faring on our trip: I'm definitely running out of toothpaste (we only brought 2 travel-size tubes of Colgate Total) and I'm already almost half-way through my bodywash (it was 3 fl. oz.). In addition, we should have packed more shampoo and conditioner... We only bought 6 fl. oz. of each and I'm thinking we should have brought more. Don't forget floss! I forgot that and it's a bit annoying to not have it when you need it... In terms of weight, I'm happy, but I could have done without the huge converter set that I brought with me or the big jar of peanut butter. Those are just added extra weight that you might need if you're traveling to Asia, but definitely not needed if you're going to Europe where you can find cheap, delicious food anywhere and where small converters will do the job. The number of clothes that I packed is perfect for our purposes, so I'm happy with that. In terms of the Northface Terra backpack, it is a bit uncomfortable for me when I'm walking long distances. Now, I'm not sure if that's because I'm not buckling it up correctly, or it's just my back with weird problems... I guess I'll figure that out in another week or two as I continue to make adjustments to the straps to figure out the most comfortable position/setting.

So, back to laundry... We bought some laundry detergent at a local store and then made our way to the laverie. Thankfully, they had some instructions in English, but we still had to pull out the phrasebook to help us set the settings on the machine, which were in French. Each load in the washer costed us 3€, which was pricier than I expected, but I guess it's worth it to not smell bad for the next week :) A load in the dryer only costs .5€ though, so that was nice. After putting our clothes through 2 cycles in the dryer, they still weren't dry. So, we took everything out, went back to the hostel, and then hung everything up on our bed posts, hoping that they would dry in time for our train tomorrow to Brussels.

Next up on the agenda was a 2-hr Tour de France introductory wine tasting course at Ô Chateau Paris Wine Tasting Bar next to the Louvre. We had a very experienced wine maker take us through the process of how wineries make wines, the difference between Champagne and sparkling wines, how to taste wine properly, the truth behind food and wine combinations, and what sort of wines I should explore/best suit my taste buds at the moment. Apparently, I'm a sweet person :) In terms of French wines, I like Burgundy red wines that are viscous and full-bodied, and white wines from Northern France with a sweet or fruity flavor. Since I've never taken a wine tasting course, I don't have much to compare it to. But, from what little I know of wine, I loved the course and learned A LOT, so Ô Chateau was perfect for me. The only thing I would warn against is that they might assume you drink wine regularly and expect tasters to drink wine at a faster pace than they should. This was not good for me, if you know what I mean, lol. But, Abhinav and I both managed pretty well by keeping ourselves well hydrated with water and our stomachs full with the bread that they provided. We finished an entire bread basket easily, haha.

After our Tour de France, we took the metro to the Trocadero station in Paris, to get a GORGEOUS view of the Eiffel Tower. It was one of those breathtaking moments, like when you suddenly see the bright shimmering magnificence of the Taj Mahal when you turn the corner to get past through the visitor's gate. We saw the Eiffel Tower at Trocadero an hour before sunset and had the same reaction. We tried to take a good picture, but tourists just weren't on their game that day I guess, lol. After admiring the view from Trocadero, we walked towards the Eiffel Tower and marveled at how gigantic it was.

When you get to the Eiffel Tower, there are four entrances to go up to the various levels, each at the individual legs of the tower. Depending on the day, each entrance indicates whether they have elevator access only, elevator and stairs, or stairs only. We made sure to get into the line with elevator access since we'd done our fair share of climbing stairs at Notre Dame and Arc de Triomphe :) I'm not sure if you can climb the stairs all the way to the summit. I know that some people climbed to the 1st/2nd levels and then took an elevator up to the summit, but I can't be sure of anything else. While we were waiting in line, we looked at the ticket counter sign and saw that the summit was closed for congestion! I was very disappointed when I read that.

Nevertheless, we rallied our spirits and bought our REDUCED price tickets (YAY!!) that were 6.90€ (as opposed to 8€) and got to the 2nd floor of the Eiffel Tower around 9:30 pm. The view from the second floor was stunning, so I wasn't too disappointed about not being able to go all the way up. But, things just kept getting better because when we went up to the 2nd floor, we saw another ticket counter selling tickets to the summit! Abhinav and I immediately got in line for that and each paid 5.20€ for our tickets to the very top of the Eiffel Tower.

Side note: bundle up and bring a JACKET when you visit the Eiffel Tower because it is very cold and windy up on the 2nd floor, and even more so at the summit.

After waiting in line for about 20 minutes, we reached the summit at night, just when all the lights turned on in Paris. The view was fantastic. No wonder the Eiffel Tower is so highly praised. There was a high school group from America at the summit and we overheard them recording a boy ask his girlfriend to the prom from the Eiffel Tower. That was pretty cute. The view from the summit, although we were freezing cold, was amazing and we took plenty of pictures, especially when the Eiffel Tower started sparkling with flashing lights.

Who knew that there was a Ben & Jerry's on the Eiffel Tower?!?! For those of you who know me, you know how much of an ice cream lover I am and I did not pass up the chance to have Chocolate Fudge Brownie flavored Ben & Jerry's at the Eiffel Tower. Ice cream is always good, but to have it at the Eiffel Tower was another treat in itself :) I completely savored each and every bite!

By this time, it was 11 o'clock at night and we were exhausted. We took the metro back to the hostel and passed out. On another side note, the metro in Paris is VERY easy to use. Each ticket costs 1.70€ and, if you buy 10 together, it's 12€, so it's an affordable and easy way to travel. The system map is very easy to read and use as well.

So, overall, our last day in Paris was everything that I hoped it would be. It was sparkling, informative, and extremely fun :) Tomorrow, we head to Belgium for one of Abhinav's much-anticipated activities on our trip: beer tasting in Brussels. He'll write about experiences in Belgium soon!

After an incredibly eventful Day 1, we were just hoping that Day 2 would be just as amazing. And I can safely say that we were not disappointed. I was completely knocked out last night at 10 pm, so waking up at 6:45 am this morning was no problem at all. Unfortunately, our tiring day yesterday meant we couldn't really plan for today as well as we wanted to. This meant going into the monstrosity known as The Louvre with no set plan - a recipe for disaster. As Sahna scrambled to put together a last minute itinerary, we scarfed down our (free!) croissants at the hostel, and ran out to the Metro. 

Today was an exhausting day, to say the least. Exhausting, but exhilarating! Our plan was to see Versailles Palace and Arc de Triomphe. I thought it might be a little ambitious since it would just be Abhinav and me against all of Paris' major tourists on a Sunday, but we did it - and had time to do more, surprisingly!

The line for the entrance to Château de Versaille

The day started out pretty well. We had a delicious FREE breakfast at Le Montclaire, our hostel, and then headed off via the metro & RER (line C) to get to Versailles. For those of you who want to visit Versailles, DO NOT VISIT IT ON SUNDAY! The lines are atrocious, even if you already have a ticket or a Paris Museum Pass!

Here's the skinny on Versailles: There are two lines at Versailles: one to buy tickets (if you didn't buy them ahead of time or have a Paris Museum Pass) and the other to get into the palace after you purchase a ticket. The worst days to go are Tuesdays and Sundays. If you do have to go on a Sunday (like we had to do because they're closed on Mondays), be the first one in line. We made the mistake of arriving at 10 am and had to wait in line for 2 hours before we got into the palace. This was actually a short wait time! There was a stupid guard who merged two lines (which snake around the entire plaza, by the way) so we actually lucked out and moved up about two rows in 15 minutes, screwing over about 200 people who should have been ahead of us in line. At least the weather was nice outside and not sweltering hot, so we were thankful for that.

Hall of Mirrors!

Once we got inside, we got the free audio guides in English and went through all the wonderfully decorated rooms with amazing architecture that Abhinav loved :) I've been wanting to see the Hall of Mirrors ever since I learned about it in the 10th grade and it didn't disappoint. The only thing that surprised me was that the mirrors were pretty old so the reflections weren't as clear as you would expect from a modern mirror. Other than that, the entire palace and the gardens were gorgeous!

After our 2 hour visit to Versailles, we decided to grab a bite to eat on a little side street next to Versailles. We had some French sandwiches and 2 "Coca-Colas" that quenched our thirst. But frankly, I'm getting tired of eating sandwiches for every meal in THE city of wonderful cuisine. I made it a point to try something different later today for dinner, as you will soon find out. It was interesting, to say the least.

Arc de Triomphe from the Metro entrance

So, after our lunch at Versailles, we decided it was time to head back to Paris and finish up everything else that we wanted to do today. On our way back on the RER, we found out that you need the RER entry ticket in order to exit the station too! Luckily, Abhinav had his ticket in his pocket (where everything he gets inevitably ends up), so we may or may not have left the station on the same ticket...

We then took the metro to Ave des Champs-Élysées and then went through an underground tunnel to get to the Arc. Our AMAZING museum passes covered our ticket fare and allowed us to bypass the huge ticket line to start the 284-step climb up to the top. The climb up was not bad at all. There were two breaks in between so you barely felt out of breath on your way up. The view at the top is well worth the trip up. The Arc de Triomphe is the center of where 9 streets (1 of them being Ave des Champs-Élysées) merge, so when you go to the top, it's a pretty view. We also got to see the Eiffel Tower for the first time!

Whoa...

The climb down the top was not fun for me at all. I felt supper dizzy on my down because of the winding staircase and the narrow spaces. I clutched that tiny metal railing shamelessly and I did not let it go the entire way down, much to the amusement of Abhinav. I almost had a heart attack when Abhinav dropped my Paris Museum Pass down the middle of the winding staircase too... It was not a good feeling. But, he ran down the stairs and found that the ticket officer had picked it up, so we got lucky and  didn't waste our 35€! When we got down, there was some type of boy scout ceremony going on, but we weren't allowed to see it :(

Toyota concept at the showroom on Ave des Champs-Élysées

We were pretty tired at this point... But, we decided to push ourselves a little more and take a walk down Ave des Champ-Élysées and I'm glad we did! The stroll down the street from the Arc was fun and relaxing. We stopped to see a lot of concept cars and I took some pictures next to famous designer stores, the biggest I've ever seen (which isn't a surprise since Paris is the fashion capital of the world!). I'm a huge dessert fan and I almost passed out when I saw a HUGE Häagen Dazs with INCREDIBLE looking desserts on their menu. We didn't get a chance to sit down and enjoy one because our wallets were feeling pretty light that day already, but if you go there, try to take advantage of it!

We got back to the hostel and had a good Parisian meal. I had a Steak Tartare (which is something that you apparently have to try in Paris) while Abhinav had chicken and mashed potatoes (it tasted pretty American too lol). The Steak Tartare tasted like potato salad to me, which I don't particularly like. Hopefully, I'll have better luck with trying new foods in Paris throughout the rest of the time that we're here in this city...

After our adventures today, we had no trouble falling asleep and getting over our slight jet-lag. It was an incredible day and I can't wait to see all the things we have planned for tomorrow! 

Sorry for the lack of a proper update yesterday! We had a pretty full day, granted a majority of it was spent on two different trains and in a small town with no easily accessible internet. But, let me back up and fill you in on what we did.

Our first long-distance train in Europe!

We woke up and were lucky enough to find that it wasn't raining outside! We thanked our lucky stars, packed up, and headed to Chamartín station to catch our 8 AM train (and got there a lot faster than we did the day before). The train and cabin were really nice, even in second class, and there was even a really spiffy little snack bar in the next car! The views from the window were incredible, and it's unfortunate that we can't really capture the beauty of the scenery in pictures because of the glare of the lights on the window. Also, the battery of the camera was dying, so I didn't have much room for experimentation with the flash and positioning of the camera. But believe me when I say that the scenery in Spain is beautiful...one of the scenes out the window looked exactly like the Windows XP default wallpaper, except more lush and real.


We got to Hendaye, a small French town just off the border of Spain and France, and immediately headed to the ticket office to reserve our seats to Bordeaux, and then Bordeaux to Paris, and Paris to Brussels. The first of these were free, but the next two turned out to be more expensive than expected (18€ and 27€ per person, respectively). So I'm expecting a very good experience since we're paying so much, especially on the high-speed Thalys train to Brussels.


Once we got our reservations, we walked around Hendaye for a bit looking for the port. But we got lazy halfway through, and decided to head back to the station, grab some lunch, and make sure we get on the train. We stopped by a small bakery and got some really delicious baguettes with various cheeses and veggies on it. The train arrived soon enough, and as we boarded it, we were greeted with a strong smell of what I can only describe as sewage...mmm. Luckily enough, the smell wore off after a while, but I'm sure that was only because we just got used to it (and smelled like it ourselves).

The train filled up really quickly in the subsequent stations, so we were pretty happy to have two seats together and could comfortably catch up on our sleep. We got to Bordeaux at around 7 pm, checked into the hotel, and planned our late-evening tour of the town.

I spy a Sahna at the gate to Rue Ste-Catherine

Unfortunately, most of the tourist attractions were closed at this point, so we explored the city with a stroll down to Rue Ste-Catherine. Rue Ste-Catherine is a historic street with it's own arch gate, and is lined with local restaurants and stores. We took in the atmosphere, and stopped by a small restaurant called Le Cheverus Café (recommended by the Lonely Planet guide).


The dish I ordered, Émincé Poulet (literally "thinly sliced chicken"), was delicious, but Sahna's salad wasn't so great. We also experienced first-hand the more "hands off" service approach at a French restaurant. Compared to waiters in the US, waiters at French restaurants leave you be until you seem to be ready to order the next part of your meal. No "How's the food?" or "Do you need anything else?" until the waiter deems you're finished with your course. Just an interesting observation by Sahna (backed by information from our guidebooks). Unfortunately, at one point, our waitress got so hands off that she straight up forgot to get us the coffee that she had convinced us to order. So we ended up waiting an additional 30 minutes and then deciding to pay the bill and head out, sans café. I also apparently tipped more (10%) than I'm supposed to in a European restaurant (5%). Meh.

Ridiculously cool (and free) public toilettes

We then made the one-minute walk from the restaurant to Cathedral St André, which had a huge gargoyle on top of one of its towers. It was too dark to take any good pictures, unfortunately. But we DID take a picture of a super futuristic looking public bathroom. It was so cool looking, and it was free!! This blew my mind. We then made the 30 minute trek back to the hotel, planned for the next few days in Paris, and now here we are!


What's on my mind now is getting reservations to Milan from Brussels. Our original plan was to do Brussels-Zurich-Milan on the same day. Unfortunately, it seems you can't make reservations from a country that doesn't run a specific rail company (in this case, EuroCity and Cisalpino). So we are likely to not get a reservation between Zurich-Milan, especially since we're trying to make the reservation a few hours before the train departs. We'll plan the contingency plans a bit more tomorrow...

So, as you might have guessed from the title of this post, we had to deal with a change in plans this morning.

We're in Madrid!

Let's start with the flight. It could have been better. We took a flight from Houston to Newark, and the same plane from Newark to Madrid. We booked the cheapest flight available to us, and, ironically, we paid the price. The quality of service and comfort was nowhere near even some of the domestic flights I've been on on Southwest and JetBlue, for instance. If I wrote out all the complaints I have, it would be one big wall of text, so I'm going to go ahead and list them neatly:

• The seats barely reclined, so you went from your seat practically leaning forward to a normal seat when you "reclined." NOT fun on a 4 hour and then a 7 hour flight.
• I couldn't watch any of the movies or shows on the screen in front of me (to distract me from the discomfort) because my headphone jack was all sorts of messed up. We had the same seats on both flights.
• At least there were outlets where I could charge my laptop and watch some shows and play games on it. BUT the one by my seat wouldn't work! Only the one at the end of the row did. Luckily that person didn't need to use it.
• The flight attendants always seemed to be in a hurry to get your problem/question/concern out of the way and weren't very polite. They basically gave me the "tough luck" talk when my headphone jack wasn't working. Sahna said she was pretty certain she saw a couple of empty seats in First Class....just sayin'

We're in Madrid! At Barajas Int'l Airport

So while the flight was not the best experience, once we landed in Madrid, it's been a lot nicer. Immigration was quick and painless for both of us (I have a Schengen visa, Sahna just has to flash her American passport...) and the information personnel were very friendly. We even talked to an Indian guy with a heavy Bengali accent who showed us to the right bus stop for the "yellow color" bus. The bus was really comfortable, and we were able to figure out where to get off due to some planning from Newark airport.

We found our way to Cat's Hostel, checked in, emailed our parents, and promptly fell asleep to catch up on the sleep lost on the flights. This turned out to bite us in the butt, cause when we walked down to the Madrid Atocha station to book our trains for Madrid-Hendaye-Bordeaux for tomorrow at 8am, we found out there was only 1 seat left...So right off the bat, we've hit bump numero uno (when in Spain...). We ended up reserving the train from Madrid-Hendaye for Friday April 22 instead. Luckily, the Hendaye-Bordeaux TER train doesn't require reservations and has multiple departures Friday evening, so we should be OK on that front (fringers crossed).

Estación de Atocha and it's indoor rainforest

There is a sliver of hope that we might be able to still catch the train to Hendaye tomorrow as a last
minute add-on, so we'll show up to the station early in the morning to try and switch our reservation to get back on track. But in the more likely scenario that this doesn't happen, we need to find a hostel that will house us for tomorrow night. Fortunately, our reservation in Bordeaux can be cancelled until 6 pm tomorrow, free of charge.

For now, all we can do is recover from the hectic travel, get some grub, and get ready for an interesting day tomorrow. Worst case scenario: we get to explore Madrid a little more than we expected!

P.S. My first meal in Madrid: A Whopper from Burger King. I'm so American...

Welcome to the first installment of Hostel Hopping in Europe, a blog that chronicles our backpacking trip through Europe!