España

Our first stop in Spain was sunny Barcelona. Being jet lagged after our flight from New York, our time here seemed too short. However, we enjoyed wandering through the cobblestones streets, catching some rays of sunshine on the beach and drinking sangria.

We decided that for Europe we would lease a car, so we picked up our brand new Citroên on our way out of Barcelona.

 

We then drove through the north of Spain, past what seemed like an eternity of wind turbines, to Pamplona. This town was electric with the running of the bulls festival. Every person walking the street was dressed in red and white and most of them were carrying an alcoholic beverage. We got up early to watch the run and I have never seen so many drunk people at 8am! I think a large majority of the participants only decided to run because as a result of Dutch courage, and because they were still partying from the previous evening. It was hard to believe that a spectacle like this happens in a modern western society. When we were in the stadium it felt like we were watching gladiators with the audience baying for blood. Just watching the run I got an adrenaline rush, I think the people running are crazy. Anyway, after seeing it live, James decided, to my relief, that running was not for him. It really is a crazy festival, and there were nightly fireworks displays which were incredible, they even put New York 4th of July celebrations to shame!

 

Our final stop in Spain was San Sebastian, a city on the northern coast famous for food. Here we experienced the Spanish bar food culture enjoying sangria and wine while sampling pinchos (tapas) from the bar top.

 

In anticipation of the Tour de France we spent about 100€ on camping gear on the way out of Pamplona. This allowed us to stay in a gorgeous campsite just outside of San Sebastian overlooking the sea from a cliff top.

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New York, New York!

 

Our first night in New York, we walked down to Times Square! After our laid back time in Costa Rica, it was a sensory overload; so many people, so many lights and so much noise. I felt my heart speed up just from standing there, it was amazing for us to see for the first time but I after a few trips back there I can definitely understand why locals choose to avoid it.

 

Times square was our first taste of New York, but in a week here we tried to sample as much as possible. Our days here were much more action packed than our days in South America.

For the first few days we used a New York pass to fit in some of the main attractions and tours. We started with a food on foot tour in Midtown where we were staying, this was helpful in showing us some good, cheap places to eat for the week. In the afternoon we went on a tall ship cruise on East Bay to check out the skyline and Statue of Liberty views. To see the city lights we went up the Empire State Building after dinner.

The next day we headed downtown to get a walking tour of Wall street and surrounds. My favorite little story on this tour was regarding an angry mob pulling down a statue of King George in a downtown park in order to melt it down for bullets to shoot the British. In the afternoon we checked out some modern art at MoMa and Guggenheim museums.

The Wall Street Bull

And, from a different angle... Supposedly this will bring financial luck

Guggenheim Museum

For the final day of our New York Pass we visited the American Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Met was amazing, such a huge collection, you could probably spend a week looking around it. We also went up to the top of the Rockefeller center for more views of the famous New York sky line. Then we decided to go check out the listings of half price tickets on Broadway. Luckily, we were able to get tickets to "A Street Car Named Desire", unluckily we had to go straight from the booth to the show so I didn't get to go put on a nice dress.

 

Unplanned, we just happened to be in New York for Independence Day. This meant that the city was a bit quieter than usual for the week that we were here, since many locals go away. It also meant that we got to see some fireworks! We spent the day going for another walk through downtown and having a picnic in Central Park. We did consider going to the 4th of July Hot Dog Eating Competition on Coney Island, but in the end we decided it was probably best avoided. Finally, we followed the masses to watch a lot of red, white and blue fireworks in the evening.

Enjoying a picnic in Central park

Thursday we decided to head across to Brooklyn. It was nice strolling through this neighborhood. There were some really cool cafes, shops and galleries. It was also nice to have some New York cheesecake for lunch and walk across the iconic Brooklyn Bridge even though it was sweltering in the sun.

 

That night we went to Citi Field to watch the New York Mets take on the Philadelphia Phillies. For anyone who doesn't follow American sports, this was a baseball game. I didn't really expect to enjoy this too much, but we got really lucky, with the Mets taking the lead and winning in the last innings. I was up, screaming and clapping with all the Yanks - Let's Go Mets!

On our last Day in New York we did some shopping, mainly window shopping but still fun. Our favorite line being, "on our next trip to New York..." Then to finish off a very frantic week we enjoyed cocktails on a rooftop bar and had one last evening stroll through Central Park.

 

Costa Rica - Pura Vida

Volcano Arenal

It was time to leave South America and head to lush Costa Rica. This little country is all about volcanoes, beaches, rainforests and of course the wildlife. Although smaller than Tasmania in size, it contains 5% of the worlds biodiversity. 

We started our trip by visiting the Volcano Arenal. Unfortunately we didn't get to see any red lava but we still got a nice view of the volcano over the lake.

Lake Arenal

Next stop was the cloud forest of Monteverde. Here we saw the forest canopy via a zip line. A nice way to see it if you have a guide doing the braking for you, which I did after freaking out a bit on one of the first lines. The much braver James also did a Tarzan swing 50 m high.

James getting ready for the Tarzan swing

Monteverde Cloud Forest

 

From here, we headed to a small town on the pacific coast next to the Manuel Antonio national park. This park had a picture perfect beach that included cheeky, food stealing monkeys, laid back sloths in the trees and sun baking iguanas on the sand.

Sloth at Manuel Antonio national park

From the Pacific to the Caribbean, it was time to soak in some Rastafarian lifestyle in the town of Puerto Viejo. Like the inhabitants of the town, we just relaxed here, enjoying the sand and sun.

 

Up north on the Caribbean coast is Tortuguero, named after the 25,000 turtles that choose the particular beach to nest at. The place was originally settled to hunt the turtles but now it is all about protecting them and showing them to tourists. It is a tiny town accessible by boat or air only. We were lucky enough to go on a night walk and see several turtles on the sand including one in the process of laying her eggs. We weren't allowed to take photos of the turtles, however we did get pictures of some other wildlife we saw here.

Going for a canoe ride in Tortuguero

Our last stop in Costa Rica was at another volcano. Here I got to see into the crater of a volcano, something I missed out on in Chile.

Top of Volcano Poas

James using a poor mans umbrella