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Grand Teton National Park: Part 1

It was pouring rain when I left Chicago so I skipped the idea of public transportation and grabbed a taxi to O’Hare.  Despite the thunderstorms the flight was only delayed about half an hour, and the trip was uneventful otherwise.  Landing at Jackson Hole is awesome.  The view of the mountains is amazing, and they actually have signs up asking you to refrain from taking photos while you’re outside since you have to exit the plane onto the ground to go inside.  After picking up my rental car I didn’t even have to drive half a mile before getting a glorious view of the Grand Tetons.  I pulled over at the park entry sign and started a photo carousel that was still going by the time I left, then headed into the park.  Thank goodness for buying the National Park Pass in advance, I’ve already gotten my money’s worth out of it just on this trip.  The drive to Headwaters Lodge & Cabins at Flagg Ranch only showed as an hour and a half from Jackson, but it took me about 3 hours to get there because I stopped at nearly every turnout/observation point along the way.  It was a gorgeous, clear day, so the views were spectacular!

By the time I got to the campground it was about an hour to sunset, and I had a bit of a surprise when I checked in.  The “basic cabin” I booked was actually a camper cabin, which is a huge difference. A camper cabin means no electricity, no heat, no linens…just a plywood 10×10’ box with windows, a bunk-bed with mattresses, a small table, and three small drawers.  Now, that’s not a huge problem, I’ve camped many times before in the cold and I was looking to get away; however, I just flew with a carry-on/personal item so of course I didn’t have things like sheets, blankets, towels, or a pillow.  Fortunately the staff at the campground were fabulous, apparently this happens a lot, and they let me borrow some blankets, a sleeping bag, pillow and a towel for free. 

After getting settled I drove back over to the nearest Grand Teton observation point to watch the sunset and chat with folks, then headed back to the campground to join in a stargazing event with an aspiring astronomer who pointed out constellations in the absolutely clear night sky. Just FYI, Flagg Ranch does fun little events daily and keeps the info posted on their board in the Lodge. It was nearly midnight by the time I got back inside, so I went to bed. It got chilly that night, and I am ashamed to say that living in the City has made me soft! I survived though 🙂

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Travel Safely Part 1: Avoiding Pickpockets

Barcelona has been getting a lot of bad press recently because of all the petty theft, and it is a legitimate concern. I even got an email from the U.S. Embassy while I was there saying they are aware of the rising problem and more Barcelona police were being dispatched to tourist areas. But to the people saying they want to cancel their trip because of it, please don’t! You just need to be aware and prepared. Hopefully my experiences and suggestions will be useful to those going soon:

– Get a cross body security bag. I got this Travelon Bag off Amazon and this thing is legit. It’s heavy duty, cut resistant, has RFID protection, and the outward facing zippers have clip locks on them. It’s also pretty cute and comes in all sorts of colors.

– Phone theft is the most common thing I hear about, so I got a wrist strap and a finger holder for my phone. They’d have to break my hand to get my phone off me, so not an easy worthwhile target for a thief looking for a quick score.

– I kept 20 euro in a front pocket to use as needed, but the rest of my money as well as my wallet/passport stayed inside the locked purse and I never opened the locked part in public.

– I was traveling solo, so I tried to look for obvious tourists to hand my camera to for photos. Bonus points if they were clearly experienced and taking photos of each other with good angles and stuff on their own. Then I would offer to take a photo of them together in exchange. We all left happy!

– Most importantly though, don’t be afraid to be rude. Don’t feel guilty about it. If someone is bothering you, or making you uneasy, you don’t owe it to them to stay in the conversation. You can leave without their permission. You can walk away without saying a word of goodbye if you have to. Or if you must, you can look them right in the eye and let out the loudest, screechiest, most T-Rex sounding wail right into their ear then stomp off with impact-tremor inducing ferocity. Whatever you gotta do to stay safe.

And that’s it. I walked everywhere, I bought a 3 day metro pass and took trains/buses all over and never once felt unsafe. So go and do the thing! Barcelona is gorgeous, and a half day trip to Montserrat is TOTALLY worth it. I did mine with a company called We Barcelona, and would definitely recommend. Have fun!

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Barcelona, Spain

Barcelona Day 1 – Arrived safely and checked in to the hotel. Got changed and walked to Sagrada Familia then got some paella at a local restaurant. Then wandered over to Palau Macya, Placa de Tetuan, Arco de Triunfo, Placa de Catalunya (watch out for pigeon poop!!), and then to Hardrock Cafe to get my traditional local pin 🤩 I decided to brave the metro and went to Placa Alfons el Savi where they had this really cool tree and parakeets everywhere. By that point I was beat. I went back to the hotel, took a lukewarm bath, and went to bed 😴

Things learned: Skittles are apparently here and is a big deal at every supermercado that has them. No one has on/off manners everyone pushes through. Thank goodness for learning public transportation in Japan and having it reinforced in Chicago, public transportation here is easy to navigate. Garbage management is great, trash cans at every corner.

Barcelona Day 2 – Woke up early and grabbed a basic breakfast and coffee at the hotel (why is Spanish coffee so much better??) then grabbed a cab to my tour meetup point. The taxi driver took me to the wrong place, and when I gave him a 20 for a 10 tab he didn’t have change. It was kind of a cluster, but he was apologetic and eventually got me there 🤣 Hopped on a private small group tour bus to Montserrat. It. Was. Amazing. We got there early when the morning mountain mist was still hovering, and it had cleared up by noon. Our tour guide for We Barcelona group, Mayka, was superb and took us to all the sweet spots, the best photo op areas, and knew a lot of the local history. We took a tram waaay up, then did a hike down around the mountains. Afterwards we went inside the main big monastery, and Mayka recommended a tasty local treat…a kind of creamy cheese you mix with honey. Then we took the cable cars down to the base of the mountains and headed back to Barcelona. After we got back, I was feeling peckish, and of course my hotel is in an area with a bunch of Japanese restaurants. So I got miso ramen from a ramenya, then went back to the hotel to rest my feet a little. Went back out to Plaza Espana and saw the Placa d’Espanya, Torres Venicianes, Font Magica (but it was turned off, allll of them around there were off 😭), and then the Pavello Mies van der Rohe. The pavilion was super cool, the motto “less is more” really applied, and everywhere you looked was a new angle formed by the walls, floors, ceiling and statue. I sat around and people watched for a bit while eating some sort of chocolate wafer things I got at a convenience store (European chocolate is SO much better) then headed back to the hotel for a shower and bed.

Things learned: The 90s never really left here and the clothing on some of the women shows it and I’m all there for it. There must be a high Japanese population here, lots of Japanese restaurants, manga book stores, figurine/collectible shops everywhere.

Barcelona Day 3 – Slept in a bit then headed out for the best cup of chocolate cappuccino I’ve ever had (cappuccino nero) at a local cafe. Seriously why does chocolate in America suck compared to here?? Then I made my way to the We Barcelona eBike tour. Our guide, Arnau, was great. It was a relaxed ride and I appreciated giving my feet a rest from walking. We went through the Gothic Quarter and saw a gorgeous 14th century church called Basilica de Santa Maria del Pi, passed thru La Rambla, met a gigantic fat cat called El Gat de Botero, went down to the water and saw the Columbus statue, then went to the fountains by Arc de Triomf where there was also a mammoth statue for some reason, plus a bunch of other places. Then we went to Sagrada Familia which included going inside. Y’all, it was so amazingly beautiful and rainbow colorful and the stain glass and the design and all the nature and animal integrations and ahhhhhh! It was so pretty! I even managed to be there when they played the organs and it just echoed everywhere, definitely go inside it’s worth it! On our way back we stopped at Casa Batllo and that area. Afterwards I went to the hotel to shower and change then headed to Park Guell and climbed up for the great city view. Gaudi was kind of a crazy guy, I like him. That whole area was cool, but honestly you don’t need to pay to go inside. The park outside the paid area was cooler, imo. I took the Guell bus which drops off at Line 4 of the subway and took it straight to the beach, where I put my feet in the sand and Mediterranean water and found some cool rocks. I stuck around until dark then took a bus to the hotel, then grabbed a burger to finish off the day.

Things learned: Graffiti is a real problem here, which sucks because they paint historical features and stone. I think people between 16-29 only come here for Instagram photos; that being said, if you want a good photo look for the obvious Instaboyfriend and ask. Everyone here hates bicyclists, same as in America 😂 Store hours are weird, things open and close seemingly at random so check in advance.

Barcelona Day 4 – I only had the morning to do anything, so I put on a dress and walked to Sagrada Familia to grab some postcards and exchange a bit more money for a cab to the airport. Then I wandered over to a local dog park/playground and did some people watching and laughed at the dogs having a blast in the water. It was pretty lowkey, but to be honest I was tired today 😂 I caught a cab to the airport a bit early because I wanted to wander the shops. The problem is, you can’t seem get to the shops once you get through security to Gates D/E. I mean, supposedly you can but the elevators and stairs I found only went to level 2 and not level 1, and they don’t tell you either way and nothing is marked and there’s no one to ask. Your only food options are an overcrowded and horribly laid out Burger King and a panini place. The only way to get water is through a vending machine or standing in the 30 minute line for either fast food place. Telephone signals are spotty at best, and air conditioning is nonexistent even on a 90 degree day. I gave up on getting downstairs after walking the length of Gates D/E twice and resigned myself to Burger King. BCN is a terrible airport if you’re using Gates D/E, not as bad as Newark, but still awful. It can’t be avoided though, so grab a $2 bottle of water, a book, and a fan if you have one. Also, after being in a completely enclosed, stuffy, boiling airport for hours the boarding process was a total mess, no one told you anything. Apparently I needed to get a “security sticker” on my passport, then we went all the way down to a bus that drove us out to our airplane. It was quite the adventure 🤣 I’m back home safe now.

Things Learned: You can buy beer anywhere, vending machines, cafes, even at Burger King and it’s available at all hours. Censoring isn’t really as big a deal here, they play music with all of the swear words and will show animals being straight up killed with blood and everything on TV. The locals seriously have no concept of personal space and will smash right into you. I don’t think they’re doing it to be rude, they really just don’t seem to pay much attention to anything around them…even worse than Americans. When a toddler is throwing a tantrum here everyone basically ignores them and keeps walking and I think that’s great. They don’t coddle or try to bribe the kids to stop, and they don’t lose their temper and yell at the kids either. They just keep walking and talking to the kid as if it’s not happening at all, everyone does. The kid quickly realizes they aren’t getting what they want and stop. I didn’t see a tantrum last more than a minute or two with the local kids.

Overall, I give Barcelona a 8/10 and honestly could have used another full day. I didn’t get to see the Picasso Museum or ride the cable car from the beach to the mountain church. That leaves something for next time I guess!

More photos are on my Facebook Page: Miss Chrystine