Kathryn and Paul Go To Europe!
Hello!
Here we have made a blog for those that want to follow our trip. We will do our best to update plans and locations regularly so our whereabouts will be known. We will also update photos and stories along the way for fun!
3/18 PNW home
A final blog update: we have arrived back home! After 60+ hours of travel, we are safe and sound, quarantining ourselves here at home. The last month was so special and fulfilling and we are grateful to be back here with everything that’s going on in the world. Thanks for keeping up with us on this here blog, we had so much fun documenting our trip for you all. Til next time!
3/16: Lisbon ➡️ Newark
We have made it through security and are waiting for our flight in Lisbon. We should arrive to Newark around 14:30 today. The airport isn’t as crazy as you would expect, we were pleasantly surprised. Although, they are making announcements every few minutes to practice social distancing and good hygiene, which has been quite funny since there is almost no way to do that when you’re standing in line or sitting at the gate. We are loading up on snacks so we are more prepared when the land in the states and are looking forward to getting back home!
Boarding our flight for Newark now! And we bought a flight from JFK to Seattle from March 17 at 7am.
Travel plan, really revised (3/14)
Málaga, again! (3/7)
Our week in Paris with Thomas was incredible! We saw so many things and enjoyed quality time together. The only thing we didn’t enjoy was the weather. It was chilly and rainy all week and we started to realize that the remainder of our trip would have us going even farther north. We started looking at the weather on the islands of Greece to maybe skip the middle and go straight to the warm beaches but it turns out the latitude of Greece is still pretty far north and the temperatures would be in the high 50s at best. We talked about a few options and eventually landed on returning to southern Spain for at least a week. Aside from the weather, the opportunity to continue to practice Spanish, go salsa dancing, save some money, eat cheaply, and sleep in one place for more than a couple nights was so tantalizing that today, we find ourselves sunbathing in 75 degree weather. We are thrilled to be actually vacationing while we’re on this vacation.
Disneyland Paris! (3/6)
Disneyland Paris was just as fun as it sounds. We admired the quality of the rides and the multilingual nature that is apparently required by most places outside of the United States. A special thanks again to Thomas for providing us with something that we never would’ve done on our own.
In the evening, we headed back to the city to meet up with Drew. Drew is one of Kathryn’s oldest friend’s from home who has lived in France for about seven years and now lives in Paris. He invited a few friends out and we all spent the evening chatting and reconnecting and it was really a lovely time.
Also, on Thursday, we went to the top of the Eiffel Tower and on the way down we saw a rainbow over the city and it was amazing!
Paris! (3/2- present 3/5)
We arrived in Paris late at night and met Thomas at the bnb. It has been a fun (but rainy) few days here thus far. We met up with Kathryn’s high school speech partner and friend Drew who we learned so much from about Paris and his life (really wow), saw the Eiffel Tower, the Catacombs, Sacre-Coeur, Notre Dame, walked miles along the Seine, put a love lock up (cute), and ate lots of pastries! Tomorrow Tom is treating us to DISNEYLAND PARIS OMG!!! What a nice gift we are so excited. Sat he leaves and we are debating going back to lay on the beach in Malaga so that we can practice Spanish and do salsa every night since the beaches in Greece will still be cold. Updates to come!
Toulouse, France (3/2)
We had a relaxing weekend here and are headed to Paris this evening! We were able to go to a great museum with a really cool extinction exhibit, started soaking up a little French, and we indulged in too many hours of reality tv. We also got Kathryn a beautiful vintage French coat and consumed at least a few pastries.
Engagement Photo Shoot Pics Are In!
We will slowly but surely add more and more photos here from our shoot. (We received literally 380 photos so we have some sorting to do.)We are blown away by how they came out and how much care Toñi put into them and our whole time together. Hope you enjoy!
Toulouse, France (2/28-3/2)
We arrived to Toulouse last night and stayed in a very strange place way too far outside the city (which we didn’t realize when we booked it) and had every intention to get up and rent a car this morning to drive through the Pyrenees. But! It turns out we can’t read the French street signs and we don’t have the proper licensing so we had to choose another option. We’ve rented an adorable and affordable Airbnb in the heart of Toulouse and we get to spend the next few days exploring the city. It turns out it’s a very cool place called “la ville rose” (the pink city) because of the pink hue of the buildings.
Barcelona 2-26 to 2-28
We had an amazing time in Barcelona at Spain’s number one hostel. We went on a tour to an incredible lookout, went to a way too fancy club in the wee hours of the morning, enjoyed new kinds of drinks (vermouth over ice) and food (pinchos – little open faced ready to eat sandwich bites).
On the last night there we realized we were leaving Spain and became sad because Spain has been so amazing to us. Their clean streets, incredible food, amazing people, friendly language (for us), antique buildings all made for a nearly inexplicable experience. We will have to have good attitudes to go to France so we don’t carry the past with us!
More Málaga!
We ADORED Málaga and spent some wonderful time there. We happened to be there during the big Carnival celebration and got to see a parade and partake in the festivities. One day, we did a walking tour, where we learned that we were in Picasso’s hometown and that the city is so old, they used to use salt as currency which is pretty cool! It was so warm and sunny there that we even dedicated almost a full day to relaxing on the beach!
Málaga, round 2 (2/21-2/24/24)
isituation!
Torre Del Mar: Work Exchange (2/18-2/21/20)
We arrived to the Andalucían countryside excited to settle down for a bit, save some money, and learn some new skills. Turns out we wouldn’t make it very long!
Paul: my birthday was our second day there and I was quite low in spirits because our situation was less than ideal and we were far from the beach and had just had a huge high from our Seville trip AND I thought I had brought Kathryn to a weird place where all of a sudden we were working and camping (why?!) but she was so sweet about it all and made me smile and do fun things for my birthday. I am very grateful.
Málaga, round 1
From Seville we made our way down by train to Malaga for one night on the 17th so that we could be in Torre Del Mar for our work exchange on the 18th.
Seville
The best day, Day 2, (2/16/20)
WE’RE ENGAGED!!! Professional photos to come, probably by the end of the week which we are very excited about. We will send some to you all after we make our own social media announcements!
The proposal
Paul left a note for Kathryn to meet him in the Plaza de España, where he had a wonderful proposal planned in one of the most beautiful places we’ve ever been. He hired a photographer and we did a full engagement photo shoot around Seville for about three hours. The photographer brought her husband and their son to help (carrying our bags and translating). They were wonderful and we felt like we walked away with friends on top of everything else. Plus we got a VERY cool tour of the city from a family that was excited to show it to us while we did our photographs. After, we went back to the beautiful Airbnb Paul treated us to and rested and called parents and friends before taking a quick nap. Then, we went to an incredible traditional flamenco show and were blown away by the impressive artistry.
Day 1 (2/15/20)
Madrid
We spent two wonderful days in Madrid. The capital of Spain surprised us both with it’s stylish people, antiquated streets and buildings, and of course all of the bread, olives, pastries, and coffees we could ever desire. We are both dealing with some jet lag so our schedule was a bit off, but that seemed to work in our favor, as the city really comes to life in the middle of the night.
Madrid, Day 2 (2/14/20)
Our second day in Madrid, we woke up while the city was still asleep to discover that they pressure wash and clean trash off the streets every single morning. We were able to enjoy the Mercado San Miguel, the Museo del Prado (art museum), Plaza Mayor, an amazing look out at the top of a clock tower (un mirador). In the evening we got our first taste of the night life, and enjoyed it immensely.
Madrid, Day 1 (2/13/20)
After a short tour around the garden, we took the Metro to buy train tickets for our next stop and once they were purchased, we went back to the hostel to rest.
Travel Plans as of 2/12/2020
February 12- 0740 – Depart Seattle
February 13 – 0855 – Arrive Madrid
February 15 – Head to Seville
February 17 – Head to Malaga for one night
February 18 – Head to Bus station to get picked up by the folks at www.casamontesnegros.com for a two week work exchange on their tree farm/ cooking school just outside of La Axarquía, Spain.
February 29 – Leave the work exchange and start making our way up to Paris to meet my brother Thomas!
Kathryn and Paul Go To Europe! 