Surprise Surprise....52 Days in and We Still Make Mistakes

Today, we didnt get up very early or efficiently. Were getting to old for this. After a sufficient lunch we had alot of errands to run, and we were dreading it. We had to book our hostel for Amsterdam, write directions down for Prague and Berlin, print off our boarding passes for our flight and pack up our things. You make look at this list and think...well that would take 15 min. WRONG!

Nothing goes real easy, this is something we have come to accept and embrace. However, this one seemed ridiculous. 52 days in and we are still making silly mistakes. I go to write down the directions for our hostel in Berlin. We have a routine of how we like to plan out our travelling and I was just maintaining course. We were stoked because we were staying at a Wombats. The best chain of hostels we have stayed in thus far. We booked it at the beginning of October knowing it would fill up fast.
So, I go to look up the hostel and see an email saying from hostelbookers saying "Rate your stay at Wombats Berlin." Thats weird, we havent stayed there yet. I find the confirmation email and almost fall off my chair. "Your currently booked for two nights: Oct 5 and 6 at Wombats Berlin. Enjoy your stay!" O shit. Its October 19th. We needed Wombats for Oct 20 to the 25.

STEF!!!!!

What?!

LOOK!!!!

Noooo

Ya!

Thats about how it goes. Then Christie walks in the room and gives the "I dont know if I can handle this today look." We are still not sure as to how this happened, we think it might have been the dodgy wifi in Roma that screwed us over. But, 52 days in after an intial "Shit!" we sigh, all sit down at a computer and get to work. We will figure this out.

We did, Christie came up with the idea to call and pull the " So sorry, we didnt know...we have no where to stay!!" and it worked. Kinda. They fixed us in and only charged us 16.50 as a no show fee....we were expecting 90. However, we would have to find a place to stay for the 20th...Wombats can not accomdate till the 21st. While it was a bit tricky finding a decent hostel for three girls, on short notice, with the upcoming weekend....we found a good one. The rest of our errands went much smother and with ease.

After fiddling on the computer I remebered an early conversation between me and Stef.

Stef: " I love kebabs"

Karina: " Me too"

Stef: " I wonder if their good for you or bad for you"

Karina: " It cant be that bad, they are soo good"

Stef: " Still, I wonder."

For curiousity sake, I looked it up online. This is when the love affair with kebabs ended. Kebab meat has around 400 to 500 calories and is almost all fat. A kebab can be anywhere from 900 to 1200 calories. Kebab is like a lover who has been lieing to you the whole time. The relationship seems great, then it all comes crashing down when the truth comes out. Its then you are disgusted at yourself for not seeing through that lie. Needless to say, no more kebabs....we have switched to Falafels. (veggie and tofu)
That night we went to Puorto del Sol to go on the Mad Rid tour. For 18 euro, you get tapas, a bit of history and a flamingo show. You can also do the pub crawl after, but we decided to pass on that. There was only us girls and a couple from India on this thing as well as a tour guide. This was good, because none of us were really in the mood for talking. They took us to a tiny resturant and we sat and she explained the Tapa story. Of course, we already knew it from our walking tour.

They brought the tapas, cheese, olives, ham/cheese thing, meat, stuffed mushrooms. Which were all very good. Then we got to talking about where we all were from and such. Our tour guide was so sweet and kind. She is from Venezula, shes been all over the world, and recently did a 10 meditation in the far south of Spain. In this, you can not speak, look anyone in the eye, mediatate for 10 hours a day, only eat 3 small meals and be isolated from everyonne else. Can you imagine? Jail systems use solitary confinement as punishment. And shes paying to do it! She says its the most incredible experience of your life. You learn so much about yourself, you have time to clear your head, plan your future. Its amazing what the body can due when you push yourself to do it. I admire her, I do. But I could never do that.

After, we walked around and went to the square by the flamingo place. This square is famous for bullfighters. Many of the celebrity bullfighters stay at the hotel in the square, and people all comee here to drink after a match, to talk about the event. Then we went in. Now, orginally we thought it was going to be a show. You know, theatre seating and that kind of thing. Its this older style building with tables, dim lighting and a small wooden stage in the middle. All around are mosaics of flamingo dancers and colorful picutes of Spainish landscape. Its quite nice.

Our tour guide explained a bit of Flaminco to us. It is unknown exactly how it came to be what it is now, but they do know it is a couple things incorpated together. The music comes from the Moors (arabic), which you can tell by the singing. To the ear, you would think the singer is singing arabic. Then, the guitar and is played lightly and with many cords to a 12 beat rhytm. Thats from Jewish times. The dancing and costumes is from the Gypsys. All together, you get flamingo. Interesting right? Anyways, We got a seat and got ready to enjoy the show.

Two women come on the stage and a male. They are wearing a traditional gypsy clothing. Long skirt, scarfs, flower pattern, and hair back with a flower in it. The male, is in a long trousers with a velvet jacket and scarf. Then the singer and one guitar player. The singer starts, he is wailing into the mic, he pushes himself to continue the note without breathing. Already, he is putting his all into this song. A song about pain, love, and loss. The guitar player lightly runs his fingers up and down the guitar, playing a melody so sweet. Slowly, the dancers start clapping....slowly....entering into the music.
The first women stands up. She paces around the floor. You can see in her face, she is skeptical about this creature, about the music. As if she is on guard, she stride along the floor with her hands raised in defense. Then, as if she cannot fight it, she burst into a dance. Wailing her arms and stomping her feet. You can see the fear in her eyes. She does not want to give into the temptation of the song. With a final jerk, she composes herself. Breathes, and continues to stride along the floor. Shes weary, dreading the emotion that is waiting for her. The song plays on, speaking to her of her hardships in life. She puts on a brave face and makes her self bigger then she is. Hands in the air, grandous gestures, twirls and streached out poses. As always, you cannot escape the music. Again, she is thrown into a fit of ectasy. It is as if her body is filled with so much energy she can not get it all out. She stomps and jerks about the dance floor. Spinning and moving around. This time she can not fight the urge. She is fully engaged in the music. She loses herself in the melody, a grin comes across her face as she spins and hops around. The music is loud, her fellow dancers are clapping and cheering her one. Then as she is about to climax she throws her hands in the air, looks forward, then back and collaspes in the chair. She sits there, breathing heavily, with a look of exhaustion and pleasure on her face.

The Flaminco is a intimate dance. And every dancer seemed to be telling a different story through their movement and the music playing. It was incredible. The energy that flows through the room. It is like nothing I had ever seen before.

After, we went back to the hostel. Our flight to Berlin was at 745, but you have to be there two hours before your flight. So we had to get up at 400am to make sure we got there in time. Gross, I hate those kinds of early mornings. We get back to the hostel and there is already two girls asleep in the room. Then one girl is awak on the other side of the room with the light on. Shes on her cellphone. But there is a common room that she could be sitting in. Of course, we are to nice to say anything...so we just crawl into bed and try to sleep. Its hard to sleep when you have a light glaring in your eyes however. Finally, she gets up to go to the washroom and I turn off the light hoping when she gets back she will get the hint.

This girl, is just starting her backpacking. So she is new to the game. However, when there is people in the room sleeping......you would think it was common sense to be respectful and turn off the light. Nope, the girl comes in and turn the light on again and starts looking at her clothes. Seroiously? At 1 in the morning...you just going to look at a shirt and be like " Wow, I forgot about this shirt...this is a nice shirt....maybe ill wear it tomm...o but what would I wear it with" Im not kidding....she just staring at her shirt. Finally, Stef says to her " Listen, its one thiry in the morning...there are five girls trying to sleep, will you PLEASE shut off the light? Thanks" The girl looking stunned that someone would be upset at her for having the light on. Jsut kinda...looks at stef....then at the gground....awkwardly gets up...shuts the light off and leaves. How can you possibly be surprised by that. Anyways, we didnt get alot of sleep....people in and out of the room and such. But we got up in time and made it to the airport.