The Climb (not Miley Cyrus)

Married on Mount Krumpet (or some Mayan monument...?)

Puppy Jojo! Correction, elephant Jojo!

The RESPONSIBLE one of the trip.

Our favorite city! Alicante!

Donuts! Janelle says ew! Joel says yum. We woke up to strawberry donuts and they were quite delicious. This was around 11 AM!-the longest we have slept in the whole trip. What a great time to wake up, soon after we headed off to the beach for a day under the yet again hot sun. It was not as hot as yesterday, but nonetheless, it was HOT. For this reason, Janelle and Joel enjoyed the water quite thoroughly. Janelle did not get to see Muhammed today so she was a little upset, however, she still made the best of it :) After hanging around the beach for a bit and taking in our fair share of the sun, we returned to the hostel to wash up. We then made our way over to Burger King-yes another American establishment- and ate a delicious, cheap lunch. The two of us were feeling adventerous after the lunch, so we decided to finally go climb the "mountain" we have been looking at ever since arriving. We took some back streets and finally made our way to the beginning of the long journey. The slope of the first hill seemed to go on forever and the two of us were unsure but determined to make it to the top-plus we needed to get more scenery/"cute" (from Janelle) pics. The journey took us a while, but the views at each stop were breathtaking. "This is the best view I've had in my life" quote Joel. "I can see Champaign from here!" quote Janelle. We loved every minute of it (as we do every moment we spend together ;)) Then we went back down the mountain to rest after our journey of exhaustion. Janelle wanted to go get wine and therefore we went to the supermarket-Mercadona. Along the way, Joel decided to get a caramel and chocolate crape that ended up more on his clothes than in his mouth. Then they arrived at the supermarket and Janelle FINALLY bought her CHEAP wine after talking about it the whole trip. We returned to the hostel to bop around on the computer and talked to our sibling Jeffery. This was a pleasant time, but the two of us began to feel hunger again. PIZZA HUT! Janelle had picked up an advertisement for it on the way to the beach and it sounded delicious. We then followed all the directions and BAM there it was..blue?red? and DOMINOS???!?!?! An imposter. We assumed maybe it had been redone. Even though it wasn't Pizza Hut, we settled for Dominos. We then headed back to the supermarket and grabbed us some ice cream bars for desert. What a dinner! After enjoying our meal and watching TV in Espanol-where a black couple had a white baby-we began writing this blog. Now Janelle is laying on Joel's shoulder as she reads what he wrote. What a day. What a day.

A few notes from JNElly: First and foremost, Joel failed to mention an important part of our day yesterday when we were walking along the market purchasing gifts to bring home we stumbled upon a crazy street performer who was getting to the climax of his "magic" trick when he started yelling at the audience to leave because "THE POWER IS GONE!" He just kept repeating in spanish the power is gone the power is gone, which had Joel and I running for our lives. Rather entertaining. Second, Joel overexagerates anything he ever says about Janelle, especially when there are direct quotes. Third, Joely is the best little brother ever and I appreciate the fact that he enjoys writing this blog because if Janelle were to write the days would be far less detailed. Oh and last but not least, Janelle was overjoyed when she did not run into Muhammed again today. AND Janelle has NOT been drooling for alcohol all trip like Joel says. Thank you.

Note from JOEL: Janelle's last sentence=bs

Note from Janelle: Joel will be sleeping outside tonight.

Half Way Done...But Still Having Fun

Lil burnt after a long day in the sun! Sorry daddy!

Joel's dinner if he doesn't repect his elder AKA Janelle.

Janelle thinking "I hope that's not my reflection!!!"

Crack kills.Do it like the Alicantes do.

Our living room of our apartment!

Well everybody this marks the half way point of our adventure in Spain/Rome. So far we have had many laughs, cries, shouts, and smiles along the way(as you can see from all the pictures we've taken). Today was a perfect half way day too. We woke up at 10! That is the latest that we've slept in since being in Spain. It was amazing-although our room was so cold that our "see through" sheet did not provide much protection from the cold. We still enjoyed our stay at the hostel and the man there was very nice. We then trucked across the city of Alicante with suitcases and bags in hand. The walk seemed long with the hot sun beaming down upon us. But in reality, the walk was not that long and we were rewarded at the end of our journey. It turns out that at La Miligrosa, they didnt have any rooms left-even though we had already booked one-so they gave us "the apartment". Neither of us knew what this entailed, but we knew it was something good. She opened the door to our "room" and the light from heaven shone down upon it. Air conditioning. DVD Player. Four beds. Our own bathroom. Mini fridge. Microwave. Toaster. Anything else you can think of!! It was the best thing we have seen in our lives and we were paying the cheapest for this hostel that we had the whole trip! We almost died. But after cooling off, we undressed ourselves and went to the beach! PARTY TIME! Joel layed out a bit-payed the price with some burns-while Janelle went swimming-also payed the price. But it was all worth it. The beach was as beautiful as it could ever be. After swimming and laying a while, we went to lunch and met the nicest waitress we have had the whole time here. She bounced around, knew English, and was willing to wait on us hand and foot. We have even thought about returning just to see her again. It was fun though and we got way too much fried chicken that we didn't even eat half of it! It was still delicious. We then decided to go shopping for things to put in our mini fridge and walked all the way to El Corte Ingles-which we didn't even end up stepping foot in the building. Might we add that it was blistering hot and probably the hottest day experienced haha. But anyways, we returned to the beach after getting our groceries at side markets and enjoyed more time in the water to cool off. Janelle then met a boy named Muhammed and we will spare you the details ;) but you can ask her about it when we return. We then ate at a sandwitch place called "Bocadillas" or something similar to that and enjoyed caramel sundaes soon after along the beach. We are now in our hostel lobby-the only spot of the hostel that gets wireless-talking to an older man about Benidorm and the city of Alicante. Anyways, it was a great day of beach filled fun and we are hoping to share a similar day tomorrow (maybe minus Muhammed! haha)!

A Whole New...otra vez

Today, we woke up around the same time as usual, which how we keep waking up so early I'm not really sure, but everyone should be quite impressed. We then rushed to the train station because Joel thought that the train left at 9:05 when in actuality, it left at 9:18, better early than sorry I guess. But then we began our four hour train ride to Alicante-Joel's favorite. Along the way we made many stops in the middle of nowhere and neither of us could. figure out why they were such random stops, nonetheless, we made it to our destination after Joel's napping and Janelle's IPOD jammin . After taking our stuff and dropping it off at the new hostel-Pension del Encanto-we made our trip to lunch. The ladies at the restuarant that we went to were vicious and we tried to make the best of it. Joel ordered a cheeseburger and ended up with a chicken/pork/beef burger done quite rare...whereas Janelle wanted a ham and cheese sub but ended up with it in just a regular sandwich. Displeased with their lunch, they justified it with an Oreo McFlurry from McD's :) Well anyways, the hostel is pretty nice, we have to use three different keys to get to our room and air conditioning is included in the room! Anyways, we went down to the beach and Janelle wanted to take some pictures of us along the beach to show the true beauty of us :) and the city. We finally got to walk on a boardwalk that was closed last time we were here and we enjoyed the brisk, cool air running along our bodies (thought I would add some detail haha). Joel begged Janelle to go gamble at the casino since he cannot (age 17, not 18), and as usual Janelle refused the offer. When we left boardwalk, we went back to the hostel to chill for a little bit before dinner. We decided to get dressed up and go to our favorite pizza place here...yes, we have a favorite pizza place after the two days that we've actually been here haha. It tasted delicious and Janelle commented on the pepperoni, "I wish my life was as spicy as these babies! Wooh!" Joel shook his head in disapprovement. After we ate dinner, we took a nice walk along the beach and JOEL watched the topless women and children play. We then walked around the city for a while and wanted to get breakfast for the next day. It was 9:58, so we rushed to El Corte Ingles-the supermarket from before- and picked out doughnuts and orange juice. Finally, we were able to be rushed out of the store by the employees (literally) and began to head back to our hostel. Eventually, we ended up near the interstate because Joel had led us down the wrong way. Janelle also began to whine about her feet hurting from wearing sandals which she hates to wear but wanted to look nice for tonight. Both of our feet ached like the back of a 50 something year old father until we finally found our way back to the hostel. We are now watching TV in Spanish and preparing for our nice move to our favorite hostel tomorrow. We are also getting ready for the beach again! Hooray!

One Week Anniversary

Who is cuter?!

My baby boy.

Always happy in Madrid.

Banco de Espana.

One of the metro signs we see everyday.


It is the one week anniversary since the beginning of the trip! We are still having new discoveries everyday and loving every minute of it. Today we woke up pretty late(8 am haha), and had our delicious breakfast as usual. Then we booked our hostels for Rome since yesterday everything seemed to be booked but the site was messed up. It was fun though and our hostel for Rome doesnt seem too shady :) But then we actually started our day and began to walk all around Madrid. It was a blast. We even bought a churro along the way, but it didnt have cinnamon or sugar so we added our own American twist by adding the sugar on top and that made it quite delicious. We then went back to the Plaza Mayor again and it was quite amazing. Janelle has made our plans to return on the 18th for the huge Haagen Daas there. We had fun walking today because we got to many of the different metro stops including Sevilla and Banco de Madrid. The further we walked away, the more we were able to discover the new territory. We saw many different types of architecture and got some more beautiful pictures. Janelle hated walking around in sandals but Joel obviously embraced his typical sandal wearing. We loved walking around the city though and feeling all of the culture around us...okay maybe not the guys that like to gawk and hit on Janelle. We then went back to our hostel and had more of a chill day.





Janelle made her version of tortellini mezzaluna for dinner. It was actually good! Then we met our new hostelmates and they are two awesome Aussies. They like to make jokes and are quite funny. It turns out that Ausies were happy when Steve Erwin died-who would have thought?! But they are quite fun and Janelle and I have enjoyed their company. Tomorrow we are headed to Alicante and are excited to hit the beach again. I hope everyone is doing well! Questions, comments, concerns below

Back to Madrid

Pink guy was JNel's fav!

Our tickets! Only five euros!

Bullfighting arena.

Market.

We had to do it.

Plaza Mayor.

Atocha train station or "jungle" as Joel calls it.

GARGOYLES!

There is a fountain behind us...

What a babe! This looks photoshopped!

One wedding photo...better ones to come in rome.

Photo from our romantic stroll in the park.

The day started much later than usual (8:30!)as the two of us actually...strangely...slept. It was a morning like most of the others though with our delicious toast and cereal for breakfast. Janelle's computer was not working and Joel was doing everything in his power to try to fix it-to no avail. After realizing the computer business was going nowhere, they took off on a journey to nowhere in particular. We printed of our boarding passes for Rome and bought our train tickets to Alicante. But before buying train tickets, we went to the most amazing sight see(in Joel's opinon) since the start of their trip. We went to a public park and there were many cool fountains, greens, and other extravagent flowers and such to make the perfect setting. We had many amazing pictures to show the perfect views for the park. After the park was when we went to Atocha to print off our train tickets. It was a station unlike any other, there was a jungle inside, yes, a jungle. It was interesting and there were a billion and a half turtles living inside of it. But with everything of future importance out of the way, the two of us were hungry and on the prowl for something delicious. After passing up pricey (Spanish) restaurants, they had almost given up hope under the beaming sun at any chance of food; until suddenly, there it was, the most beautiful restaurant they had seen, Dominos! The two of us shared a delicous meal with pepperoni pizza and you can pretty much say we are getting the true taste of Spanish food...NOT. But, the two of us did discover after complaining for a week now that there is more Americanized food a block away from us, don't judge us :) We then continued to walk after lunch and passed by many souvenir shops. We then arrived at the most plaza in Spain, Plaza Mayor. The day was jam packed with walking and lots of traveling so we burned off the pizza-that one is for you dad. After that we came back to the hostel to cool down for a bit and then off we went to the bull fight. Joel found it entertaining for the first two "fights", but then it got old. Janelle thought that they were cruel and could see why the bull fights were "debated" in Spain. It was a good day for the most part. Now we are headed off to bed and hoping to have a good day tomorrow like the exploration day that we had today.
Note from Janelle: Spain is like a drug. The more you see, the more you want. I'm thinkin mom and dad should just pay for Janelle to stay here this year and I'll come back and work and go to school next year. Deal? Okay! We'll call it a "life exploration."

The Perfect Night in Alicante Unitl...

Janelle and Joel had the perfect night in Alicante. Perfect dinner, perfect room, what more could you ask for? The only problem that they had before going to sleep was their demon door that wouldn´t lock, until Joel used his superpowers(after 10 minutes of trying) to lock the darn thing...now the night was a success. But the story does not end here. The two of them were woken up at 3AM to ¨WWWWWWWWOOOOOOAAAAAAHHHHH!, Your sex is on FIRE!¨ which is the Kings of Leon song ¨Sex on Fire¨. Normally Joel is a fan, but not at 3AM when the people next door are singing as loud as they can. Janelle started laughing because this was her night of sleep...ruined. Then they proceded to BANG on the door and yell ¨Take that America!¨ It was a thrill. But then Janelle and Joel got back to sleep eventually and woke up around 8AM(better than their usual sleeps here), and went to walk on the beach together-cute, we know. Then Janelle and Joel returned to their hostel after the beach to shower in a HOT shower(even though Janelle took a cold one?), and pack up their things. It was amazing. They then walked around the town for quite some while because their train for Madrid left at 6PM. The two of them went to stores, restaurants, and a type of mall that was Janelle´s favorite called The English Cut(only it was actually in Spanish). But, there were so many more American places that they were loving it until they became hungry and got way out of wack. They needed food and apparently they had already passed everything until suddenly...TELEPIZZA!(aka heaven) This is pretty much Spain´s version of a Pizza Hut, so Janelle and Joel were obviously more than excited to eat there. Both agreed that it was the best meal they ever had-in Spain :) Then they walked around some more and Joel said ¨Let´s go to Fresas y Chocolate, it sounds delicious!¨ Janelle agreed so they began their 45 minute trek so Joel could get his strawberries and chocolate. Little did we know upon arriving that Joel had taken us all the way to ¨Fresas y chocolate¨= the nicest lingere store in Alicante haha. Both began to laugh and Janelle claimed this was Joel´s blonde moment of the trip, he agreed. This distracted them from the train station though so when they got back, it was time to go. They hopped on and shared their Sour Patch Kids which were delicious. They got back to Madrid and bought sandwiches from the same place as the first night here accompanied with Cheetos. Not the healthiest meals we´ve had so far here :) But nonetheless, it was a day well enjoyed in Alicante and both are excited to return in three days. Then they were so exhauseted, they went to sleep. NOTE: Sorry for not updating last night, Janelle´s computer is having difficulties which worries Joel, and the computers at the hostel are full for almost the whole night. We will upload pictures later hopefully. We will also try to keep you updated more when available and fix Janelles computer. Viva Espana!

Alicante - our new pride and joy

After dinner at our stroll on the beach.
Delicious dinner!

Daaaaa beach.

Our expedition for next week. Climb Mayan mountain.

Our new room!...only for the night :(

WOWZERS! Today was the day. Our day. This day was made for us. From the moment we woke up to a half naked man outside our door in the morning (who asked if we spoke english then two seconds later replied Chaio!) to the AMAZING dinner we inhaled at a nice pizzaria. Our day jumpstarted at 5 am as we loaded the train (actually we didn't even know til we got there whether we were taking a bus or train!) and started our journey to what is known as "Alacant" or "Alicante." Janelle and Joel arrived at Alicante around 11am with a blue, clear sky and just the skin on their backs-other than a backpack and clothes. They hopped off of the train and realized they had no idea where to go or how to get to their hostel. So, Janelle used her Spanish speaking "skills" and ended up finding out the bus and stop we were supposed to take to get to our hostel. They hopped off on boardwalk and saw the beautiful beach right from where they were standing-the two of them in shock. Janelle went into cardiac arrest from being so excited so Joel had to calm her back down by feeding her ice cream. Simple solution to all Janelles problems. The two of them then found their hostel(after ringing an old lady's doorbell to find out we were at the wrong place haha). Everything about the hostel was WAY beyond their expectations. A TV, HOT showers, clean bathrooms, TOWELS(which we haven't had the whole trip), and even air conditioning inside our room! It was heaven. They immediately decided to leave all their things in the room and walk down to the beach (barefoot; which was less than 3 blocks away), and hopped right into the water. They were put in awe by the warm sun and the perfect temperature of the sea(as Lane would say: "bath water"). After going to the beach for a few hours, they returned to the hostel for a siesta in the AC since they woke up so early. Then they went to dinner at a place hidden from the rest of town and enjoyed a delicious pepperoni pizza where Janelle and Joel got into a brief arguement about how much to tip the waiter because Joel is CHEAP. Mom and dad you're gonna love this: They enjoyed their first day in Alicante so much, they decided to stay here three days of next week! haha JNelly cancelled the hostel next week in Madrid already. It is amazing. We have big plans next week to go to another amusement park in Benidorm (near Alicante) as well as possibly attending a Midieval horse dinner show. Now we are tired and winding down in the lobby. Thanks for reading and we will keep you updated!