I decided to review what I had written in my blog and something jumped out at me. I placed a sentence in the last post that could be perceived in a different way than I meant it. I said that there was nothing left for me in Champaign. When I wrote this, I did not mean people. There are many, many people I love there and I cherish the relationships I have created there. That being said, I don't see the kind of things I saw in Spain everyday. I loved Spain so much and I didn't realize quite how much I took everything for advantage. I guess I'll explain that I really don't like how America is formed. Again, don't get me wrong, the ideals are great, but I lose faith that the system is working when I come back and if everytime I flip through the a.m. radio stations I hear about how a government official knew about the Guantanamo Bay torturings. It was bad. Get over it. Obama stopped them and so what. I bet a lot of officials knew about it, but it's in the past and all we can do is stop it from happening.
--Another reason I dislike not just Champaign, but all of the United States is that the public transportation systems are awful. Being back in St. Louis, it is no better.
--I think the reason I'm saying these things is partially because I'm feeling a resentment for being back in the States. Theres that, and also I feel like I may be lashing out like a cornered dog. Before I left Spain I thought that I had everything to look forward to. Now I'm in a completely different situation trying to get a hold on my life which feels like it's on it's way out of my control.
--That's it. I'm done spilling my feelings online. I didn't want to do this, but I felt that if I didn't say everything explicitly I would risk the chance of being mistaken. Thanks again for everyone who has followed this throughout my incredible experience.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Re-entry
Well... I didn't crash and burn. That's the good news. Unfortunately there's a lot that has gone wrong. I went back and was excited all the way home. I didn't really get a reverse culture shock, but I did start noticing things that I wasn't fond of. I realized I started criticizing basically everything. Now maybe I was not living in reality while in Spain, but I really don't like a lot of things. So that I don't offend anyone I won't mention those things here, but one had to do with the amount of food consumed here and what that did to the people. Once I was back, I had really bad jet lag. I think it took me about 4 days to recover. Then I moved to St. Louis. I was so excited to go. I realized that Champaign really had nothing for me anymore. As soon as I got back to Champaign I was just waiting to leave. Now I'm writing this in St. Louis in my apartment for the summer. I have some homework that I'm shirking as well as unpacking. I really miss everyone now, and it's only been about 4 hours. I just feel like a wreck. I'm hoping that by the time I start work tomorrow and get a schedule going I'll get better. Also some friends might start traveling back to St. Louis.
---On a good note, Amanda and I are now going out. On a bad note, Amanda and I were living side by side in a different world, now we're just worlds apart. I've got to admit, it's nice to have her to talk to when it is so lonely here.
---For all of you who have followed this: Thank you. I had a great time and will never regret going, even if it means that the rest of my life will have to live up to that time. Also thank you for your prayers. I'm extremely grateful for having the chance to go and will never forget it.
p.s. Not to tease everyone, but if you check back by the end of summer, hopefully there will be an entry about sevilla and/or loyola (whichever one I forgot).
---On a good note, Amanda and I are now going out. On a bad note, Amanda and I were living side by side in a different world, now we're just worlds apart. I've got to admit, it's nice to have her to talk to when it is so lonely here.
---For all of you who have followed this: Thank you. I had a great time and will never regret going, even if it means that the rest of my life will have to live up to that time. Also thank you for your prayers. I'm extremely grateful for having the chance to go and will never forget it.
p.s. Not to tease everyone, but if you check back by the end of summer, hopefully there will be an entry about sevilla and/or loyola (whichever one I forgot).
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Barcelona
BARCELONA:
Day 1----
----- We woke up this day quite early to grab the metro and get to the airport. I was slightly unsure if we were gonna make it because the check in was really, really long. However, we did make it and found our hostel just fine after wandering around for a bit. Once we got to our hostel, we were able to receive a map of Barcelona (courtesy of Corte Ingles). We dropped off our bags and headed out to la sagrada familia while Tucker waited for Keene to arrive. My first glance of La Sagrada Familia wasn’t too impressive, but each time I came back I fell more and more in love with it. Now I consider the church to be my favorite and probably the best church in the entire world. It’s just a great blend of old style with new in Gaudi’s style of course.
-----When we were done we met up with the other two and grabbed a taxi to Parc Guell, Gaudi’s upscale neighborhood turned park. It was really phenomenal. When walking into the park it is really imperative that you think about the park as a neighborhood. It would be amazing to live there. There are some amazing walkways, and actually quite plain roads, but I think they were plain only because the houses Gaudi was going to build were going to be magnificent and colorful. The entrance buildings were so colorful I could not consider it any other way. I would continue talking about this, but it is pointless. I have no way to express in short terms how awesome it really was. It would probably take me 4 paragraphs or more to describe in detail, therefore I suggest looking at pictures on Picasa once they are up. We were on our way out of the park when we spotted a really cool poster maker that was Chinese. His style was Chinese too, but he used weird tools to finish his paintings. Since it was 3 € for a sign with a name on it, Amanda bought a Barcelona poster for her room. After we walked all the way back (downhill on the way that’s why we walked it) we decided it was time for a nap
-----When we woke up, we cooked pasta with hor d’ouvres of bread, cheese, tomatoes, and olive oil. For desert we ate kiwi and watermelon. At the end of dinner we met up with some Aussies that were pretty cool, although could be obnoxious. It was strange because they seemed like jocks, but were well educated. I liked listening to one of them, but I couldn’t really agree with him. After almost getting kicked out of the hostel for being too loud, we made our way to this club that a guy at the hostel got us onto the list for. He said we’d get in for free, but that ended up being completely false and we’re not sure why. Either way we left a little mad and went to find another place only to find out it was like the blind leading the blind. Amanda was sick of it and I didn’t care either way, so we went off on our own. We found La Rambla, walked down to the port and sat around until we got too cold. On our way back to the hostel we saw the cathedral at night, which was cool, but nothing compared to the Sagrada Familia. After the long walk we were ready for bed and that was the end of day one.
Day 2----
----- When we woke up the next day at 11 or 12, we decided to go out to la Sagrada Familia for lunch. Yesterday was beautiful, but the next three days were supposed to be poor weather, like raining all day. However, in usual Spanish style, the weather was just chubascos or intermittent showers and overcast, but they dramatized it. We were able to avoid the rain for the most part. When we went to la Sagrada Familia we ate at this place called Friss. It was pretty good and I was glad to be eating meat. I had a bacon and cheese sandwich and orange juice. The orange juice was literally oranges squeezed to make about 10 ounces of juice. Delicious. Next we walked down the street to the port. It was kind of a lazy walk and we weren’t too interested in making sure we saw every sight. I liked that kind of weekend much better. It was a relaxed weekend, not a go go go weekend. On our walk we almost got soaked, saw one of the corrida de toros and walked a bit along the beach, which was really cold. Originally I wanted to go into the water, but I didn’t have my swimsuit and did I mention it was cold? Maybe next time.
----- We were tired again, so went back to the hostel to nap. This was a really great trip because there were things planned, but it didn’t matter if we took a few hours in the afternoon to go to sleep. When we woke up it was dinnertime and rather than spend an hour searching for a place to eat and spend a bunch of money on a meal, we settled on McDonalds. It was obviously not the best food I could have found, but it was good nonetheless. After that we went to La Rambla to find a place to go out. Our failure was that we assumed we could just talk to promoters. This ended up being awful because we found one, who sent us to a creepy bar where the drink specials were not that great, and then it started raining. Basically the epitome of what our going out experiences were in Barcelona. I’m sure there is a great scene there, but we just didn’t find it. We did however meet up with this guy named Brandon and his friend Joel. Brandon was fine, but Joel was a bit weird. We found a small place on la Rambla to eat and have wine, but the wine was worth about 2 € and we paid 9. Not a great way to end the day, but I can’t complain about being in Barcelona.
Day 3----
----- This morning we went to buy a jersey over by La Rambla first thing. It had to be an authentic jersey for Amanda’s cousin, so we decided to go to the F.C. Barcelona shop we saw on the bus the previous day. I was expecting the jersey to cost about 65 €, but it was on sale for 50! What a deal! However, I did not want to buy one of those for that price, so I did not. They were also selling tickets for that day’s game, but the tickets were also 50 a pop. Since we declined the tickets, the next thing to do was to get breakfast (around noon of course). We headed down la Rambla to a Dunkin Donuts. It was ok, but I wasn’t too impressed. Of course we saw la Boqueria right next to Dunkin Donuts, but we waited to go to it after we got food. Once we went in the Boqueria we immediately regretted our decision, to eat Dunkin Donuts that is. La Boqueria was a phenomenal fresh food market that had everything. First thing we saw was fresh watermelon cut up that came with a fork for only 2€. From there it just got better, our mouths were watering, but we weren’t hungry anymore. We did however, purchase some bread since it looked soooo good.
----- Once we made our way through the market, we traveled by metro to the legendary Camp Nou. It is the home of F.C. Barcelona and is one of the largest stadiums in the world. The capacity is somewhere around 90,000 people, maybe 100,000. We didn’t stick around long though and took a bus back to the center of town to see another of Gaudi’s works, Casa Mila. The line was about an hour long and we didn’t really want to wait, but I wanted to look at one of Gaudi’s homes. We luckily got a student discount, but I was still not extremely impressed. One of the coolest apartment complexes I’ve seen for sure. Actually people still live there too. The top apartment is on display as well as the attic and roof. The attic was really interesting and so was the roof, but I didn’t like the apartment so much. I could see Gaudi’s architecture in the apartment, but I was hoping to see his decorating too. However, all we saw was a 1910 era middle class apartment. The other problem was that it was cold and drizzling on the roof, so we couldn’t stay and enjoy it completely.
----- Trying to recover from the cold, we walked all the way back to La Sagrada Familia. We weren’t going in, just going to buy a jersey for Amanda. These jerseys were a year old in a Souvenir shop, but they were still trying to be sold to us for 45 €. After some hard bargaining, like this guy told us yesterday it was 25, we got him down to 30, which I thought was reasonable. It was an authentic jersey, so I was impressed and Amanda loved it, so it turned out pretty well. After another nap we got ready to eat.
----- This night was very chill compared to the others. Rather than trying to go out again I thought I would just go to sleep. I was tired and not feeling up to trying to find something to entertain me. In that case we ate, watched the end of the Barcelona game and went to bed ready to go to mass in the morning… or so we thought.
Day 4----
----- Right before we went to bed the night before, we were told by Lauren that there were no masses at La Sagrada Familia. Disappointed we went to bed thinking we would just get up around 9 and check out. Once we checked out in the morning I checked the Internet and the website for La Sagrada Familia, because I was really sure of what I saw the day before. After a quick check it was as I thought, but now we had missed the Spanish mass. We couldn’t wait around until the 11:45 mass because our flight left at 4 and we had to catch a bus at 1:00. So we had to quickly head out to mass at 10:30 and we arrived 15 minutes late. I felt bad, but it was better that we got there than not at all. I absolutely loved it. That’s all I really have to say about that. If I could ever figure out what is wrong with my photo-uploading program you could see some pics, but as of now I will just say that it was beautiful. Also at the end of mass the priest invited all the different languages to come up to the microphone and say Happy Easter in their language. I think we heard about 15 different languages, but by far the best was when a little Argentinean girl went up and said Happy Easter after someone had already said it in Spanish. La Sagrada Familia is now my favorite church in the world.
----- We headed back to the hostel immediately after the mass, picking up some bocadillos on the way. When we arrived back at the hostel we quickly snatched our bags and walked to the bus station. We were just strolling when Amanda decided to check the flight plan. Our plane left at 3:05. That gives us 2 hours. Needless to say I started to get nervous. We had to catch a bus that took an hour to get to the airport and then check in. It was already 12:40. The busses left every 15 minutes, but still… we had to make a trip in an hour. We got to the bus station at 12:43 and walked down to the platforms when we saw our bus going away. That meant we had to wait 15 more minutes and take the next one. I was getting pretty nervous, but I was telling myself there was nothing I could do at this point except try, so that was exactly what I did. We got there with 20 minutes to spare before they closed check in for the flight. I didn’t think we’d get through the line, but we had to so we waited. Lauren looked at some self-check in machines and I was like good luck. You can only do that if you are an EU citizen. While Lauren was pushing buttons, Amanda and I were moving about 5 feet every 5 minutes. Lauren started walking back and I looked incredulously at her because she had a ticket in her hand. I was absolutely shocked, and unsure if it would work, but I was thought this was our best chance at getting on the plane. Sure enough, it worked and we placed another day on our lives because we weren’t worried anymore! Great flight home and a great trip!
Day 1----
----- We woke up this day quite early to grab the metro and get to the airport. I was slightly unsure if we were gonna make it because the check in was really, really long. However, we did make it and found our hostel just fine after wandering around for a bit. Once we got to our hostel, we were able to receive a map of Barcelona (courtesy of Corte Ingles). We dropped off our bags and headed out to la sagrada familia while Tucker waited for Keene to arrive. My first glance of La Sagrada Familia wasn’t too impressive, but each time I came back I fell more and more in love with it. Now I consider the church to be my favorite and probably the best church in the entire world. It’s just a great blend of old style with new in Gaudi’s style of course.
-----When we were done we met up with the other two and grabbed a taxi to Parc Guell, Gaudi’s upscale neighborhood turned park. It was really phenomenal. When walking into the park it is really imperative that you think about the park as a neighborhood. It would be amazing to live there. There are some amazing walkways, and actually quite plain roads, but I think they were plain only because the houses Gaudi was going to build were going to be magnificent and colorful. The entrance buildings were so colorful I could not consider it any other way. I would continue talking about this, but it is pointless. I have no way to express in short terms how awesome it really was. It would probably take me 4 paragraphs or more to describe in detail, therefore I suggest looking at pictures on Picasa once they are up. We were on our way out of the park when we spotted a really cool poster maker that was Chinese. His style was Chinese too, but he used weird tools to finish his paintings. Since it was 3 € for a sign with a name on it, Amanda bought a Barcelona poster for her room. After we walked all the way back (downhill on the way that’s why we walked it) we decided it was time for a nap
-----When we woke up, we cooked pasta with hor d’ouvres of bread, cheese, tomatoes, and olive oil. For desert we ate kiwi and watermelon. At the end of dinner we met up with some Aussies that were pretty cool, although could be obnoxious. It was strange because they seemed like jocks, but were well educated. I liked listening to one of them, but I couldn’t really agree with him. After almost getting kicked out of the hostel for being too loud, we made our way to this club that a guy at the hostel got us onto the list for. He said we’d get in for free, but that ended up being completely false and we’re not sure why. Either way we left a little mad and went to find another place only to find out it was like the blind leading the blind. Amanda was sick of it and I didn’t care either way, so we went off on our own. We found La Rambla, walked down to the port and sat around until we got too cold. On our way back to the hostel we saw the cathedral at night, which was cool, but nothing compared to the Sagrada Familia. After the long walk we were ready for bed and that was the end of day one.
Day 2----
----- When we woke up the next day at 11 or 12, we decided to go out to la Sagrada Familia for lunch. Yesterday was beautiful, but the next three days were supposed to be poor weather, like raining all day. However, in usual Spanish style, the weather was just chubascos or intermittent showers and overcast, but they dramatized it. We were able to avoid the rain for the most part. When we went to la Sagrada Familia we ate at this place called Friss. It was pretty good and I was glad to be eating meat. I had a bacon and cheese sandwich and orange juice. The orange juice was literally oranges squeezed to make about 10 ounces of juice. Delicious. Next we walked down the street to the port. It was kind of a lazy walk and we weren’t too interested in making sure we saw every sight. I liked that kind of weekend much better. It was a relaxed weekend, not a go go go weekend. On our walk we almost got soaked, saw one of the corrida de toros and walked a bit along the beach, which was really cold. Originally I wanted to go into the water, but I didn’t have my swimsuit and did I mention it was cold? Maybe next time.
----- We were tired again, so went back to the hostel to nap. This was a really great trip because there were things planned, but it didn’t matter if we took a few hours in the afternoon to go to sleep. When we woke up it was dinnertime and rather than spend an hour searching for a place to eat and spend a bunch of money on a meal, we settled on McDonalds. It was obviously not the best food I could have found, but it was good nonetheless. After that we went to La Rambla to find a place to go out. Our failure was that we assumed we could just talk to promoters. This ended up being awful because we found one, who sent us to a creepy bar where the drink specials were not that great, and then it started raining. Basically the epitome of what our going out experiences were in Barcelona. I’m sure there is a great scene there, but we just didn’t find it. We did however meet up with this guy named Brandon and his friend Joel. Brandon was fine, but Joel was a bit weird. We found a small place on la Rambla to eat and have wine, but the wine was worth about 2 € and we paid 9. Not a great way to end the day, but I can’t complain about being in Barcelona.
Day 3----
----- This morning we went to buy a jersey over by La Rambla first thing. It had to be an authentic jersey for Amanda’s cousin, so we decided to go to the F.C. Barcelona shop we saw on the bus the previous day. I was expecting the jersey to cost about 65 €, but it was on sale for 50! What a deal! However, I did not want to buy one of those for that price, so I did not. They were also selling tickets for that day’s game, but the tickets were also 50 a pop. Since we declined the tickets, the next thing to do was to get breakfast (around noon of course). We headed down la Rambla to a Dunkin Donuts. It was ok, but I wasn’t too impressed. Of course we saw la Boqueria right next to Dunkin Donuts, but we waited to go to it after we got food. Once we went in the Boqueria we immediately regretted our decision, to eat Dunkin Donuts that is. La Boqueria was a phenomenal fresh food market that had everything. First thing we saw was fresh watermelon cut up that came with a fork for only 2€. From there it just got better, our mouths were watering, but we weren’t hungry anymore. We did however, purchase some bread since it looked soooo good.
----- Once we made our way through the market, we traveled by metro to the legendary Camp Nou. It is the home of F.C. Barcelona and is one of the largest stadiums in the world. The capacity is somewhere around 90,000 people, maybe 100,000. We didn’t stick around long though and took a bus back to the center of town to see another of Gaudi’s works, Casa Mila. The line was about an hour long and we didn’t really want to wait, but I wanted to look at one of Gaudi’s homes. We luckily got a student discount, but I was still not extremely impressed. One of the coolest apartment complexes I’ve seen for sure. Actually people still live there too. The top apartment is on display as well as the attic and roof. The attic was really interesting and so was the roof, but I didn’t like the apartment so much. I could see Gaudi’s architecture in the apartment, but I was hoping to see his decorating too. However, all we saw was a 1910 era middle class apartment. The other problem was that it was cold and drizzling on the roof, so we couldn’t stay and enjoy it completely.
----- Trying to recover from the cold, we walked all the way back to La Sagrada Familia. We weren’t going in, just going to buy a jersey for Amanda. These jerseys were a year old in a Souvenir shop, but they were still trying to be sold to us for 45 €. After some hard bargaining, like this guy told us yesterday it was 25, we got him down to 30, which I thought was reasonable. It was an authentic jersey, so I was impressed and Amanda loved it, so it turned out pretty well. After another nap we got ready to eat.
----- This night was very chill compared to the others. Rather than trying to go out again I thought I would just go to sleep. I was tired and not feeling up to trying to find something to entertain me. In that case we ate, watched the end of the Barcelona game and went to bed ready to go to mass in the morning… or so we thought.
Day 4----
----- Right before we went to bed the night before, we were told by Lauren that there were no masses at La Sagrada Familia. Disappointed we went to bed thinking we would just get up around 9 and check out. Once we checked out in the morning I checked the Internet and the website for La Sagrada Familia, because I was really sure of what I saw the day before. After a quick check it was as I thought, but now we had missed the Spanish mass. We couldn’t wait around until the 11:45 mass because our flight left at 4 and we had to catch a bus at 1:00. So we had to quickly head out to mass at 10:30 and we arrived 15 minutes late. I felt bad, but it was better that we got there than not at all. I absolutely loved it. That’s all I really have to say about that. If I could ever figure out what is wrong with my photo-uploading program you could see some pics, but as of now I will just say that it was beautiful. Also at the end of mass the priest invited all the different languages to come up to the microphone and say Happy Easter in their language. I think we heard about 15 different languages, but by far the best was when a little Argentinean girl went up and said Happy Easter after someone had already said it in Spanish. La Sagrada Familia is now my favorite church in the world.
----- We headed back to the hostel immediately after the mass, picking up some bocadillos on the way. When we arrived back at the hostel we quickly snatched our bags and walked to the bus station. We were just strolling when Amanda decided to check the flight plan. Our plane left at 3:05. That gives us 2 hours. Needless to say I started to get nervous. We had to catch a bus that took an hour to get to the airport and then check in. It was already 12:40. The busses left every 15 minutes, but still… we had to make a trip in an hour. We got to the bus station at 12:43 and walked down to the platforms when we saw our bus going away. That meant we had to wait 15 more minutes and take the next one. I was getting pretty nervous, but I was telling myself there was nothing I could do at this point except try, so that was exactly what I did. We got there with 20 minutes to spare before they closed check in for the flight. I didn’t think we’d get through the line, but we had to so we waited. Lauren looked at some self-check in machines and I was like good luck. You can only do that if you are an EU citizen. While Lauren was pushing buttons, Amanda and I were moving about 5 feet every 5 minutes. Lauren started walking back and I looked incredulously at her because she had a ticket in her hand. I was absolutely shocked, and unsure if it would work, but I was thought this was our best chance at getting on the plane. Sure enough, it worked and we placed another day on our lives because we weren’t worried anymore! Great flight home and a great trip!
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Sevilla
Dear all:
-----I feel as though my blogging has gotten splochy at best over the last month or so. Gosh, it feels like it has been so much longer than that. This semester has gone by in a flash, but feels so incredibly long at the same time. I think now I'm just dreading coming home. Don't get me wrong, I want to come home. I want to see everyone, play my guitar, SLEEP IN MY OWN BED! Oh my how nice that shall be. After that, though, I feel as though I could come right back. It is just so wonderful here even with the little bits of stress I have from balancing homework, teaching and trips.
-----This entry of course is about a specific trip, my trip to Sevilla. It was kind of a last minute decision. I had wanted to go to the south of Spain to experience the culture and environment, but I didn't think I would have the money. After some budgetting I decided I could squeeze some pennies at the end of my stay here so that I could go, and I am extremely glad I did.
-----It was a rough trip to be sure. We left the bus station in Madrid at 1 in the morning, slept intermittenly and arrived at 7 in the morning (maybe eight, i don't quite remember, but I thought the trip was 6 hours). When we were on the bus there were some entertaining people, but they quickly went to sleep and I was left to struggle to find a comfy position and still not get to sleep. It didn't help that about an hour into the trip we went through some sort of mountain passage that was a little scary. The bus was turning quickly and all I could see was rock walls 10 meters in front of the bus looming ahead. The darkness was so deep all I could make out was another path of cars about oh, I don't know, 300 feet down a ravine. On the way back we had a day time trip, so I was able to see how beautiful the area actually was. It seemed to be a safe haven for trees and the only development present was a few pillars sticking out of the ravines poised for a bridge to be built on top of them.
Needless to say we arrived, after some scary stops including one in which Amanda and Kaelan were almost left behind. (As a quick side story, Kaelan and Amanda left the bus at a 15 min stop to pee and Natalia and I stayed on the bus. 5 minutes later the bus left and my heart about stopped. After about a minute Natalia and I realized that we were going to come back, we were just getting gas. However, the other girls felt the same way and started planning out how they were going to use 150 € to somehow beg their way back to Madrid) We arrived at Plaza de Armas (the bus station) and were able to find our way to where we were staying. Amanda and I stayed in a different place since I booked our room separately about 5 days before we left and Natalia and Kaelan stayed in a place closer to the city center. We were of course tired, but we couldn't check in until 12, so we decided to start checking out the town. Amanda and I walked out and saw the walls of the old city and then strolled towards the center of town. When we got closer we ended up taking a cab and then found where the other girls were staying, about 1 block from where we got the cab. When we met up we decided to do two things (after a small breakfast): El Real Alcazar and the Cathedral. I now believe, but am not certain, that Alcazar means palace in arabic, or is possibly another name for palace in Spanish. I just have this hunch because there was a palace in Toledo called Alcazar.
-----After breakfast we decided to walk since it wasn't that far on the map. It took us until the next evening to realize that it actually takes about no time to walk anywhere on the map and therefore the map was very enlarged. The first place we saw (after stopping to look at some ponies for Amanda) was the Alcazar. The Alcazar was not that impressive from the outside and I was not really looking forward to it, but it slowly grew on me through the visit. When we entered it was actually free for students, but we decided to buy two audioguides for 3 euro. We split up after a bit, but after awhile of exploring, we rejoined at the gardens. The inside of the palace was quite beautiful with water running through the middle of the main room and lots of mudejar or something like that. Both are architectural aspects used in many arabic buildings. It was very nice to see the palace, but the best parts by far were the palace gardens (that last part was really bugging me how to phrase, all this language studying is making my brain examine every sentence whether in Spanish or English). We walked through this old horse pathway under the palace and came out into the sun shining right onto a coy pond with a water spout pouring water from the roof into the pool. The fish were not pretty, but there were ducks walking around and everything was in bloom and smelling absolutely beautiful (yes I could smell even with my alergies!).
-----If there was one thing I took away from this weekend it was that Sevilla was Florida. Really. Everyone else kept thinking I was crazy, but it was exactly how I remembered Florida. Ok, maybe the architecture is different in that there aren't apartment buildings crammed everywhere with small streets and everyone speaks Spanish, but besides that it was! I attributed it to the smells. It smelled gorgeous and I think it was all the palm trees and orange trees (two things which Florida has too many of). And just look at the name! Florida. Flor=flower. ida= -ed. Flowered. I was smelling different flowers left and right.
-----Be that as it may, I was corrected several times that no, you are not in Florida David, no matter how much you want to be in the states right now. I guess it wasn't that much like Florida (although it most definitely was) because the next place we went was the cathedral. Interesting history of Sevilla (Seville if you haven't picked up on that one) is that it was conquered, reconquered, conquered again, left on its own, conquered again, abandoned, reconquered and finally taken over by aliens (although that last one is highly disputed to this day). This transfer of control had a large impact on the way things were built in Sevilla. Some things are sort of haphazardly placed together, and others are just one style next to another. The Cathedral is the former. It was once under moorish rule and therefore had an immensely tall mosque. Then when it came under Spanish rule, the mosque was allowed to stay, but then was surrounded by a huge church, so large in fact that it is the 3rd largest in Europe (behind one in England and something in Rome). Also, Columbus is buried there. Yep, I have now seen where a famous dead guy is. Well or so I thought. Apparently that is debated too. I don't know how they can't find out, but there was a mix up and now Columbus may still be in the Americas (Dominican Republic if I'm not mistaken) and his son is in Sevilla. Either way I saw the guy's tomb. Other than those two things (the tomb and the unusual mix of styles) this church felt like any other renaissance church in Spain: big, kinda gothic, and the exact same organ. Oh I almost forgot, probably because I didn't see it, but there was a painting there that something happened to. Great story, but I don't remember it. Something about it being borrowed or simply stolen, but not the whole painting. Just a piece.
-----Now the story gets blurry because I was very tired. What exactly happened next I don't recall, but one way or another... nope! Got it. We were in fact so tired that we went home. Yep to the place we were staying and passed out for two hours or so. Then I forget again. Ok, I think I got it. We went back into town and I was expecting to eat a little bit later, so all I grabbed was a cheeseburger (basically because it was available and 1 €. Then we found the other girls and grabbed a beer with them. When we left an hour later (after warding off any would-be musicians asking for money) and found a horse and buggy to ride. We were gonna barter, but then we realized we found a good price, the other guys probably wouldn't go lower, and the guy wouldn't barter. So for 10 € we were able to see all the historic places and get a nice, massaging taxi ride. I really didn't think I'd like going for a ride in a carriage, but this was nice. Very comfortable and relaxing. We got to see many things, but most notably Plaza de España (where I live, but in Madrid, not Sevilla). We didn't stop but I wasn't too interested. Evidently this site was used for the filming of Naboo in Star Wars. I was able to see it in a picture, but not in real life. It might have been nice to have known some of the history, but it did not seem too impressive anymore with a bunch of gypsies selling things and no actual business going on. Before that though, we went through the park and that was absolutely beautiful.
-----Again we were tired, so we split up, took a nap (which ended up taking a lot longer than we expected) and then went out again. We met up at this bar, but I had still only eaten a hamburger this day so I was starving. Natalia and Kaelan decided they could take us back to where they had eaten and I was fine with that. However, there were no seats, so I bought Amanda and myself some tapas that turned out to be aweful and some beer that was also aweful. Rather than spending anymore time there we left and started drinking some wine and bought a gofre and some churros. Best ever. Hands down. Maybe it was the slight drunkenness, the company I was with, and that I was in Sevilla on a balmy spring evening, but they were still really good. Next we headed off to the club we were recommended. It turned out to be an older crowd, but everyone started dancing flamenco after awhile and we got to watch and just have a great time. Amanda didn't feel good, so I took her back, but the girls told us the next day that there were two guys that started hitting on them (well two of many) and they got to learn some flamenco.
----------------------Day 2----------------------------------------------
Gosh, I really need to stay up to date on this. Now when I'm writing this it has almost been two weeks and I am leaving for Barcelona in three days. I'm gonna keep trying to write all of these things down. Maybe on the plane ride I'll write some more things such as my trip to Loyola because I can't remember if I did. I know there is a trip I skipped somewhere in there. I'll get it all down in the end.
-----So where was I? We awoke on the second day and were really tired. This day was almost a bust because we did just about nothing. Amanda and I got up and met the girls at a restaurant. The food was alright. I have pics, but not that many. After that we were still tired, so we went to the girls hostel while they did something or other and then we went shopping. Before we went in the stores (which ended up only being one, Zara, so I won't get into it), we grabbed some Ben and Jerry's (I had phish food, which was delicious) and wandered around a small market of clothes. After our quick stint of shopping we went back and slept. Amanda wasn't feeling good, so she stayed in, but I really felt like going out (especially because I was hungry).
-----I then met up with Natalia and Kaelan at their hostel and we first purchased a Sevilla guide book for Roberto (my roommate) and then headed off. Their hostel was kind enough to give us a few hot spots to go eat and party, so we kindly took their suggestions and found an excellent place for tapas near the Real Alcazar. I enjoyed the meal, but again it was hardly filling. I did try new things including albóndigas (which are meatballs) and jamón iberico (which is the more expensive ham cut from the leg). I wasn't much of a fan of the jamón iberico because I felt like it tasted too much like pine nuts rather than meat. I much more enjoy the meaty, salty taste of the jamón serrano (and it's can be 3 to 6 times cheaper!).
-----After our light dinner, the three of us walked across the river to one of the night life districts and enjoyed a few beers at a local bar. What began as one beer quickly became two and then a ron con cocacola (Rum and coke) because the bar was quite authentic. We felt out of place at first and that was why we were going to leave, but soon it just became too exciting. When we walked in it was an older crowd (30-50) and we were the only Americans (or foreigners for that matter). At the end of our first beers we were about to leave when some people started singing flamenco. If anyone has ever seen Volver, it was very much like when Raimunda (Penelope Cruz) sings in the restaurant, well except for the guitar. I understood most of the words and was so excited about the singing that I wanted to stay for more. We all decided to get another round and found out it was to become a good decision. After that drink the bar started thining out and half the lights turned off, but we stayed on and had another drink. This is when it started getting exciting. By this time we had realized that there were what seemed to be two families there, both comprised of 3 brothers of about the same age (33-40). We were commenting on one, when the eldest of the other family approached, soon followed by a group of 4 older men to hit on the girls. In Madrid I would have been iffy about this, but these guys were clean and well-dressed with unassuming smiles crossing their faces. After a little conversation it became obvious that these guys were just a bunch of fun loving people and when they addresed me (acknowledging my presence) I realized that they definitely were not Madrileños. Soon after, the eldest began to buy up a chino that was in the bar. A chino is a Chinese guy that walks from bar to bar selling useless things, or more often is a small grocery store owned by Chinese people. Anyway, there ended up being a stuffed monkey involved, three other stuffed animals, light up glasses, a light up sword and about 6 flowers, one of which came my way later in the night (and I don't want to know why). I could really go on forever about this because there are so many stories, but I have to go back to studying/applying for jobs.
-----Therefore, when you see me ask me about the one night in Sevilla. More specifically ask me about the three brothers, who we thought was gay, and the flamenco bar. There will be more to come, hope everything is well!
-----I feel as though my blogging has gotten splochy at best over the last month or so. Gosh, it feels like it has been so much longer than that. This semester has gone by in a flash, but feels so incredibly long at the same time. I think now I'm just dreading coming home. Don't get me wrong, I want to come home. I want to see everyone, play my guitar, SLEEP IN MY OWN BED! Oh my how nice that shall be. After that, though, I feel as though I could come right back. It is just so wonderful here even with the little bits of stress I have from balancing homework, teaching and trips.
-----This entry of course is about a specific trip, my trip to Sevilla. It was kind of a last minute decision. I had wanted to go to the south of Spain to experience the culture and environment, but I didn't think I would have the money. After some budgetting I decided I could squeeze some pennies at the end of my stay here so that I could go, and I am extremely glad I did.
-----It was a rough trip to be sure. We left the bus station in Madrid at 1 in the morning, slept intermittenly and arrived at 7 in the morning (maybe eight, i don't quite remember, but I thought the trip was 6 hours). When we were on the bus there were some entertaining people, but they quickly went to sleep and I was left to struggle to find a comfy position and still not get to sleep. It didn't help that about an hour into the trip we went through some sort of mountain passage that was a little scary. The bus was turning quickly and all I could see was rock walls 10 meters in front of the bus looming ahead. The darkness was so deep all I could make out was another path of cars about oh, I don't know, 300 feet down a ravine. On the way back we had a day time trip, so I was able to see how beautiful the area actually was. It seemed to be a safe haven for trees and the only development present was a few pillars sticking out of the ravines poised for a bridge to be built on top of them.
Needless to say we arrived, after some scary stops including one in which Amanda and Kaelan were almost left behind. (As a quick side story, Kaelan and Amanda left the bus at a 15 min stop to pee and Natalia and I stayed on the bus. 5 minutes later the bus left and my heart about stopped. After about a minute Natalia and I realized that we were going to come back, we were just getting gas. However, the other girls felt the same way and started planning out how they were going to use 150 € to somehow beg their way back to Madrid) We arrived at Plaza de Armas (the bus station) and were able to find our way to where we were staying. Amanda and I stayed in a different place since I booked our room separately about 5 days before we left and Natalia and Kaelan stayed in a place closer to the city center. We were of course tired, but we couldn't check in until 12, so we decided to start checking out the town. Amanda and I walked out and saw the walls of the old city and then strolled towards the center of town. When we got closer we ended up taking a cab and then found where the other girls were staying, about 1 block from where we got the cab. When we met up we decided to do two things (after a small breakfast): El Real Alcazar and the Cathedral. I now believe, but am not certain, that Alcazar means palace in arabic, or is possibly another name for palace in Spanish. I just have this hunch because there was a palace in Toledo called Alcazar.
-----After breakfast we decided to walk since it wasn't that far on the map. It took us until the next evening to realize that it actually takes about no time to walk anywhere on the map and therefore the map was very enlarged. The first place we saw (after stopping to look at some ponies for Amanda) was the Alcazar. The Alcazar was not that impressive from the outside and I was not really looking forward to it, but it slowly grew on me through the visit. When we entered it was actually free for students, but we decided to buy two audioguides for 3 euro. We split up after a bit, but after awhile of exploring, we rejoined at the gardens. The inside of the palace was quite beautiful with water running through the middle of the main room and lots of mudejar or something like that. Both are architectural aspects used in many arabic buildings. It was very nice to see the palace, but the best parts by far were the palace gardens (that last part was really bugging me how to phrase, all this language studying is making my brain examine every sentence whether in Spanish or English). We walked through this old horse pathway under the palace and came out into the sun shining right onto a coy pond with a water spout pouring water from the roof into the pool. The fish were not pretty, but there were ducks walking around and everything was in bloom and smelling absolutely beautiful (yes I could smell even with my alergies!).
-----If there was one thing I took away from this weekend it was that Sevilla was Florida. Really. Everyone else kept thinking I was crazy, but it was exactly how I remembered Florida. Ok, maybe the architecture is different in that there aren't apartment buildings crammed everywhere with small streets and everyone speaks Spanish, but besides that it was! I attributed it to the smells. It smelled gorgeous and I think it was all the palm trees and orange trees (two things which Florida has too many of). And just look at the name! Florida. Flor=flower. ida= -ed. Flowered. I was smelling different flowers left and right.
-----Be that as it may, I was corrected several times that no, you are not in Florida David, no matter how much you want to be in the states right now. I guess it wasn't that much like Florida (although it most definitely was) because the next place we went was the cathedral. Interesting history of Sevilla (Seville if you haven't picked up on that one) is that it was conquered, reconquered, conquered again, left on its own, conquered again, abandoned, reconquered and finally taken over by aliens (although that last one is highly disputed to this day). This transfer of control had a large impact on the way things were built in Sevilla. Some things are sort of haphazardly placed together, and others are just one style next to another. The Cathedral is the former. It was once under moorish rule and therefore had an immensely tall mosque. Then when it came under Spanish rule, the mosque was allowed to stay, but then was surrounded by a huge church, so large in fact that it is the 3rd largest in Europe (behind one in England and something in Rome). Also, Columbus is buried there. Yep, I have now seen where a famous dead guy is. Well or so I thought. Apparently that is debated too. I don't know how they can't find out, but there was a mix up and now Columbus may still be in the Americas (Dominican Republic if I'm not mistaken) and his son is in Sevilla. Either way I saw the guy's tomb. Other than those two things (the tomb and the unusual mix of styles) this church felt like any other renaissance church in Spain: big, kinda gothic, and the exact same organ. Oh I almost forgot, probably because I didn't see it, but there was a painting there that something happened to. Great story, but I don't remember it. Something about it being borrowed or simply stolen, but not the whole painting. Just a piece.
-----Now the story gets blurry because I was very tired. What exactly happened next I don't recall, but one way or another... nope! Got it. We were in fact so tired that we went home. Yep to the place we were staying and passed out for two hours or so. Then I forget again. Ok, I think I got it. We went back into town and I was expecting to eat a little bit later, so all I grabbed was a cheeseburger (basically because it was available and 1 €. Then we found the other girls and grabbed a beer with them. When we left an hour later (after warding off any would-be musicians asking for money) and found a horse and buggy to ride. We were gonna barter, but then we realized we found a good price, the other guys probably wouldn't go lower, and the guy wouldn't barter. So for 10 € we were able to see all the historic places and get a nice, massaging taxi ride. I really didn't think I'd like going for a ride in a carriage, but this was nice. Very comfortable and relaxing. We got to see many things, but most notably Plaza de España (where I live, but in Madrid, not Sevilla). We didn't stop but I wasn't too interested. Evidently this site was used for the filming of Naboo in Star Wars. I was able to see it in a picture, but not in real life. It might have been nice to have known some of the history, but it did not seem too impressive anymore with a bunch of gypsies selling things and no actual business going on. Before that though, we went through the park and that was absolutely beautiful.
-----Again we were tired, so we split up, took a nap (which ended up taking a lot longer than we expected) and then went out again. We met up at this bar, but I had still only eaten a hamburger this day so I was starving. Natalia and Kaelan decided they could take us back to where they had eaten and I was fine with that. However, there were no seats, so I bought Amanda and myself some tapas that turned out to be aweful and some beer that was also aweful. Rather than spending anymore time there we left and started drinking some wine and bought a gofre and some churros. Best ever. Hands down. Maybe it was the slight drunkenness, the company I was with, and that I was in Sevilla on a balmy spring evening, but they were still really good. Next we headed off to the club we were recommended. It turned out to be an older crowd, but everyone started dancing flamenco after awhile and we got to watch and just have a great time. Amanda didn't feel good, so I took her back, but the girls told us the next day that there were two guys that started hitting on them (well two of many) and they got to learn some flamenco.
----------------------Day 2----------------------------------------------
Gosh, I really need to stay up to date on this. Now when I'm writing this it has almost been two weeks and I am leaving for Barcelona in three days. I'm gonna keep trying to write all of these things down. Maybe on the plane ride I'll write some more things such as my trip to Loyola because I can't remember if I did. I know there is a trip I skipped somewhere in there. I'll get it all down in the end.
-----So where was I? We awoke on the second day and were really tired. This day was almost a bust because we did just about nothing. Amanda and I got up and met the girls at a restaurant. The food was alright. I have pics, but not that many. After that we were still tired, so we went to the girls hostel while they did something or other and then we went shopping. Before we went in the stores (which ended up only being one, Zara, so I won't get into it), we grabbed some Ben and Jerry's (I had phish food, which was delicious) and wandered around a small market of clothes. After our quick stint of shopping we went back and slept. Amanda wasn't feeling good, so she stayed in, but I really felt like going out (especially because I was hungry).
-----I then met up with Natalia and Kaelan at their hostel and we first purchased a Sevilla guide book for Roberto (my roommate) and then headed off. Their hostel was kind enough to give us a few hot spots to go eat and party, so we kindly took their suggestions and found an excellent place for tapas near the Real Alcazar. I enjoyed the meal, but again it was hardly filling. I did try new things including albóndigas (which are meatballs) and jamón iberico (which is the more expensive ham cut from the leg). I wasn't much of a fan of the jamón iberico because I felt like it tasted too much like pine nuts rather than meat. I much more enjoy the meaty, salty taste of the jamón serrano (and it's can be 3 to 6 times cheaper!).
-----After our light dinner, the three of us walked across the river to one of the night life districts and enjoyed a few beers at a local bar. What began as one beer quickly became two and then a ron con cocacola (Rum and coke) because the bar was quite authentic. We felt out of place at first and that was why we were going to leave, but soon it just became too exciting. When we walked in it was an older crowd (30-50) and we were the only Americans (or foreigners for that matter). At the end of our first beers we were about to leave when some people started singing flamenco. If anyone has ever seen Volver, it was very much like when Raimunda (Penelope Cruz) sings in the restaurant, well except for the guitar. I understood most of the words and was so excited about the singing that I wanted to stay for more. We all decided to get another round and found out it was to become a good decision. After that drink the bar started thining out and half the lights turned off, but we stayed on and had another drink. This is when it started getting exciting. By this time we had realized that there were what seemed to be two families there, both comprised of 3 brothers of about the same age (33-40). We were commenting on one, when the eldest of the other family approached, soon followed by a group of 4 older men to hit on the girls. In Madrid I would have been iffy about this, but these guys were clean and well-dressed with unassuming smiles crossing their faces. After a little conversation it became obvious that these guys were just a bunch of fun loving people and when they addresed me (acknowledging my presence) I realized that they definitely were not Madrileños. Soon after, the eldest began to buy up a chino that was in the bar. A chino is a Chinese guy that walks from bar to bar selling useless things, or more often is a small grocery store owned by Chinese people. Anyway, there ended up being a stuffed monkey involved, three other stuffed animals, light up glasses, a light up sword and about 6 flowers, one of which came my way later in the night (and I don't want to know why). I could really go on forever about this because there are so many stories, but I have to go back to studying/applying for jobs.
-----Therefore, when you see me ask me about the one night in Sevilla. More specifically ask me about the three brothers, who we thought was gay, and the flamenco bar. There will be more to come, hope everything is well!
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Spring Break: Berlin
I already said how we had some mix ups and a rough start to Berlin, but after that I felt like it only kept getting better. When we were forced to not sleep, we decided to grab breakfast. The café in which you could eat at the hostel cost 5 euro for a breakfast buffet and a glass of oj. That was amazing. It seems expensive for breakfast, but it had several delicious items including nutella, which thinking back now, I should have taken some packets for the road. There was also fresh fruit, granola, meats and some delicious cheese.
After the experience in Paris when I almost ostracized myself by becoming a drill sergeant, I decided to tone it down. This day we walked to the wall and then saw checkpoint Charlie, a famous gate in the Berlin wall. There is apparently an amazing museum, but after much confusion we did not go in and I didn’t bother making a fuss, because everyone was tired and on edge. The wall I have to say was quite disappointing. It was thinner than I expected and there was just a street. It’s been 20 years and there is no memorial at the most famous part of the wall, the only part (or one of maybe 3 parts) that is still standing. When we got there there were no tourists and the wall was fenced off for construction. Apparently they are finally getting around to creating a memorial there. After the slight disappointment, we tried to find a good place to eat. We were pretty much unsuccessful and everyone was about to kill me, so I was quite relieved when we found a bar that seemed good. I had the signature Berlin sausage, the currywurst. I’m not a fan of curry, so I didn’t love it, but it wasn’t bad. When we finished we made our way back to the hostel and went to our room. That was a glorious moment. The inside of the hostel wasn’t fantastic, but the space was well used and it looked nice. At that point that wasn’t really important though, because we quickly passed out. Rather than going out to sight see, we went to eat and some of us continued the night (because Berlin is hailed as the best night life in all of Europe). Our meal was fantastic, I had a shwarzbier with a pork dish that had mushrooms picked from a forest and what I think were turnips. The last part was a red vegetable that appeared to be a cabbage sort of plant, but it didn’t taste like what I thought it would taste like. It was sweet and almost a desert. The best part was this fancy restaurant was delicious and also less than 20 € for a meal. After our extravagant dinner, the guys went to the clubs while the girls returned to the hostel. We went to a street called Oranienburger Strasse and ended up starting at a bar and moving to the club next door. Of all the clubs in Berlin, we ended up at Zapata, a Spanish influenced bar. How does that happen? Quick side note: Berlin does not get dressed like Spain. I thought that they would look dressy euro, but slightly different, but they do not. Germany, or Berlin felt like America light. Almost every young person I saw looked like a punk rocker kid that I could see at school. However this dress continues into night. There are a select few clubs that are necessary to dress up to go to, but those are almost impossible to get into. The club I have in mind has had high profile customers like George Clooney. The next morning we got up, checked out at 12 and went to some more historical places. We saw the Brandenburg gate where Napolean took the statue on top and then Berlin reclaimed it about 5 to 15 years later (not sure on the time frame). In the same square sort of area we saw the American embassy and the hotel Adlon where Micheal Jackson held the baby out the window. Next we went to the Reichstag, which was my complete purpose for going to Berlin (well, maybe just one of the main reasons). It was quite impressive and it was very easy to see the ideas behind the architecture. Obviously the architect wanted to retain the history of the country, but show the new direction of the country. The outside has a giant dome of glass and all the windows are large, plain, pane windows. All this glass is there to represent no secrets in government. Along these lines, entrance is free and from the top of the dome it is possible to see directly down into the senate chamber. The line was long, so we decided to return later. Next we went to the Jewish Memorial. It is quite interesting with huge stones standing in a square and it is possible to get lost in the middle and find random people while walking around corners. I also had some amazing photos from there. Honestly it was one of the most fun parts of the trip. I know it sounds horrible, but we were practically playing tag in the stones. However, looking back I feel like that is sort of what the memorial is about. Underground is the musuem and above is a world full of decisions to be made, and find your direction out of the dissarray. Even through the destruction and devastation that is presented in the stones there is an openness to exlpore and there are voices of kids enjoying life. The memorial musuem was not as impressive as the one in DC, but the exit opens up into the middle of the maze of stones which I thought was very appropriate. By this time we were getting tired and weighed down from souvenirs, so we headed back to the hostel. After a few hours of waiting, maybe only one or two, we went back to the Reichstag at night. That was quite impressive, but I was surprised that the dome was open to the air. There are some pics on Picassa (or will be) of the Reichstag. When we left we went to a fabulous dinner under the S-bahn. It was not too expensive and quite an experience. I had a huge meal called the grill platter. It was absolutely phenomenal with almost every type of meat. Well... I think that's it. I feel drained. If I think of more stuff, I'll come back and post some more facts. We returned to the hostel, spent the night in the airport and flew home. It's good to be back.
After the experience in Paris when I almost ostracized myself by becoming a drill sergeant, I decided to tone it down. This day we walked to the wall and then saw checkpoint Charlie, a famous gate in the Berlin wall. There is apparently an amazing museum, but after much confusion we did not go in and I didn’t bother making a fuss, because everyone was tired and on edge. The wall I have to say was quite disappointing. It was thinner than I expected and there was just a street. It’s been 20 years and there is no memorial at the most famous part of the wall, the only part (or one of maybe 3 parts) that is still standing. When we got there there were no tourists and the wall was fenced off for construction. Apparently they are finally getting around to creating a memorial there. After the slight disappointment, we tried to find a good place to eat. We were pretty much unsuccessful and everyone was about to kill me, so I was quite relieved when we found a bar that seemed good. I had the signature Berlin sausage, the currywurst. I’m not a fan of curry, so I didn’t love it, but it wasn’t bad. When we finished we made our way back to the hostel and went to our room. That was a glorious moment. The inside of the hostel wasn’t fantastic, but the space was well used and it looked nice. At that point that wasn’t really important though, because we quickly passed out. Rather than going out to sight see, we went to eat and some of us continued the night (because Berlin is hailed as the best night life in all of Europe). Our meal was fantastic, I had a shwarzbier with a pork dish that had mushrooms picked from a forest and what I think were turnips. The last part was a red vegetable that appeared to be a cabbage sort of plant, but it didn’t taste like what I thought it would taste like. It was sweet and almost a desert. The best part was this fancy restaurant was delicious and also less than 20 € for a meal. After our extravagant dinner, the guys went to the clubs while the girls returned to the hostel. We went to a street called Oranienburger Strasse and ended up starting at a bar and moving to the club next door. Of all the clubs in Berlin, we ended up at Zapata, a Spanish influenced bar. How does that happen? Quick side note: Berlin does not get dressed like Spain. I thought that they would look dressy euro, but slightly different, but they do not. Germany, or Berlin felt like America light. Almost every young person I saw looked like a punk rocker kid that I could see at school. However this dress continues into night. There are a select few clubs that are necessary to dress up to go to, but those are almost impossible to get into. The club I have in mind has had high profile customers like George Clooney. The next morning we got up, checked out at 12 and went to some more historical places. We saw the Brandenburg gate where Napolean took the statue on top and then Berlin reclaimed it about 5 to 15 years later (not sure on the time frame). In the same square sort of area we saw the American embassy and the hotel Adlon where Micheal Jackson held the baby out the window. Next we went to the Reichstag, which was my complete purpose for going to Berlin (well, maybe just one of the main reasons). It was quite impressive and it was very easy to see the ideas behind the architecture. Obviously the architect wanted to retain the history of the country, but show the new direction of the country. The outside has a giant dome of glass and all the windows are large, plain, pane windows. All this glass is there to represent no secrets in government. Along these lines, entrance is free and from the top of the dome it is possible to see directly down into the senate chamber. The line was long, so we decided to return later. Next we went to the Jewish Memorial. It is quite interesting with huge stones standing in a square and it is possible to get lost in the middle and find random people while walking around corners. I also had some amazing photos from there. Honestly it was one of the most fun parts of the trip. I know it sounds horrible, but we were practically playing tag in the stones. However, looking back I feel like that is sort of what the memorial is about. Underground is the musuem and above is a world full of decisions to be made, and find your direction out of the dissarray. Even through the destruction and devastation that is presented in the stones there is an openness to exlpore and there are voices of kids enjoying life. The memorial musuem was not as impressive as the one in DC, but the exit opens up into the middle of the maze of stones which I thought was very appropriate. By this time we were getting tired and weighed down from souvenirs, so we headed back to the hostel. After a few hours of waiting, maybe only one or two, we went back to the Reichstag at night. That was quite impressive, but I was surprised that the dome was open to the air. There are some pics on Picassa (or will be) of the Reichstag. When we left we went to a fabulous dinner under the S-bahn. It was not too expensive and quite an experience. I had a huge meal called the grill platter. It was absolutely phenomenal with almost every type of meat. Well... I think that's it. I feel drained. If I think of more stuff, I'll come back and post some more facts. We returned to the hostel, spent the night in the airport and flew home. It's good to be back.
Spring Break: Prague/Praga/Praha
The morning bus from Vienna was not bad at all. I wasn’t tired, but found that I was able to sleep on the bus a little bit. Prague I found to be a bit dirtier than Vienna and not entirely enjoyable at first. After a day I got used to it and didn’t mind the filthy look so much. On a good note, the weather was better. Sure it would hail randomly while it was sunny out, but it was a good contrast to Vienna where we got soaked in the cold. I think the highlight of Prague could only be one of two things: the hostel or the prices. We began our stay with a nice lunch at a local place and wow was it delicious. I had a traditional dish for less than 10 dollars with a beer that was only 1 dollar (about 22 crowns). After that we returned to the hostel that had an absolutely amazing layout. The Internet did not work, but that didn’t matter because we basically had an awesome flat to ourselves. The first room had 3 beds, a kitchen table and a kitchen with a huge bathroom off to one side. Through a doorway near the kitchen there were two other bedrooms with two beds each. The whole place was absolutely wonderful and the best part was we were able to have a great time without breaking the bank. Sure I ended up spending a decent amount, but how else are you going to live? The two nights we were there we cooked dinner. I didn’t have much of a hand in the process (a very good thing too), but most of the group lent a hand to preparing the dinner. We all went to this supermarket called tesco that was in a mall. It had everything, and very cheap. We had pasta both nights, but also had crisped bread with tomato and cheese one night that I absolutely fell in love with. Rather than trying to find the nightlife of Prague, we relaxed at the hostel and drank and were merry. Since we were in Prague, we went out on a limb and decided to try the much-hyped absinth. Now I can say from experience that there are no hallucinations and it tastes like black licorice. I know I will not be going out of my way to find that again. I am disappointed that I didn’t try it, but there was this other drink called grog that Matt bought. We spent three days in Prague and walking around it was nice, but I wasn’t really impressed by anything. It felt like everything we did was just look at an old building and move on. Even if there was a history to the places we went, we didn’t know it. The St. Charles Bridge was beautiful and the town square was nice, but honestly I had the best times at the hostel living it up and chatting with everyone. Another highlight of Prague was the McDonald’s, easily the best in Europe that I have tasted. I bought a sandwich called the cheese and fresh (which doesn’t make much sense, but whatever) that came with fries, cheese curds, a drink and a muffin. I guess I paid for the amount of food (almost 9 dollars for the meal) but it was absolutely delicious and I was stuffed (without even getting my fries because I left the counter without them). The worst part of Prague was trying to get to Berlin. We had to take a night bus that left at 12 and arrived in Berlin at 430. What a pain. Not only was the bus station awful (no inside seating and it was in a shady area of town) but also it was almost impossible to sleep on the bus. There were several stops, including one in which a police officer looked at all our passports and searched some of the bags. I got enough sleep, but some people were slightly sick at this point, so they were unable to survive in Berlin. Since we arrived so early, there was no way to enter the hostel until about 8. Therefore, we waited in the bus station for hours until we could hop on the metro and arrive at the hostel. Once we arrived we could not move into our room because it was unavailable for check in until 2, which makes sense since check out is at 12. If we wanted to crash there we would have had to pay another night which I was like, uh no. Also the hostel misplaced our reservation. Our reservation was placed for Wednesday night rather than Thursday, so we technically had no reservation. However there was really no problem and after that the hostel became possibly the best in Europe.
Spring Break: Vienna cont'd
I’m writing this entry on the plane home from Berlin. We had a great trip, ending with another sleepless night, but of course I can’t sleep on airplanes, so this is how I’ll be passing the time. I believe I left off that we had gone to an Opera in Vienna (fantastic by the way). That night we decided to have our McDonald’s from another country. I must say, every McDonald’s I’ve been to in another country tends to outdo any in the States. In Vienna they had the best of Europe, so we could get the El Mac or the newyorker. Of course, we went with the newyorker and then as a side, we had some shrimp. The shrimp were not amazing, but not horrible either. That feast was quite good and quite filling, so we were ready to return. Back at the hostel, we drank some beers and watched youtube videos until we were ready for sleep. Fast forward to the next morning, we didn’t have much else to do in Vienna. We had been around and had seen everything that we needed to see. That day we went to the oldest Ferris Wheel, the oldest zoo and a palace that was supposed to rival Versailles. Let’s just say it didn’t come close, but the palace was nice and interesting nonetheless. The Ferris wheel was dull and expensive (8.50 € for a 10 min ride). Rather than buying a pass for that, we went to this really cool café that was hidden in away in a neighborhood not far from the wheel. I can’t remember the name, but the floor was curved and the outside was a strange mosaic. Inside I had a delicious strudel and hot cocoa. There are some pics of that place that will be up on Picassa. Everyone was pretty tired at this point, so the majority of the group went to the hostel and Andy and I went back downtown to buy a souvenir shot glass and look at times for ice skating. When we arrived at Stephenplatz (or something like that) I grabbed a shot glass and we hurried over to Vienna’s town hall or Rathaus. Previously we had seen that there was a skating rink that had a path into the park and lots of food, so we were thinking about going that night. It wasn’t that expensive, but when we got back to the hostel, we passed out. Once we woke up it became a mission for food rather than going skating, so there ended our time in Vienna.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Spring Break: Vienna
Wow, I feel overwhelmed when it comes to how much I have to write about on this blog. I have yet to begin the entry about Loyola, but I have to skip ahead because this trip to Wien has been so awesome and inspiring for writing. I was extremely tired from staying up almost all night the night before leaving watching Ratatoille and saying goodbye to Marli's hermano and tia (sister really, but calls her an aunt, like dude in english). I don't know why hermano (don't know his name something like Valdicci) came because there are no jobs in Madrid, but I guess it was worth a shot in his mind. Needless to say he didn't find one and is now returning to Brasil, why Tia is joining him I have no idea, but now we will go from 9 people living in the piso to 8 and Tia won't be cleaning. It may get a little dirtier, but I think it will be nice with all Americans and Marli because the others honestly complicated things. It's not that I didn't like the hermano, but I just thought he was a difficult person to read and never quite understood him. They were leaving at 6 in the morning like us, but there wasn't enough room in the car so we ended up taking the metro. It was not a problem and I will most definitely take the metro back to the airport even though I have so much luggage. Well, maybe not because if enough of us need to go it would be 11 euros or less for van service. Anyway, we made it there fine, had some jokes with our friends on the metro because they thought we were at the terminal and we were on the same train as them, and enjoyed watching the sunrise from the terminal. I was pretty much in a daze and was so tired that I passed out before the plane got to cruising altitude. I tried to stay awake during the beginning because I was expecting a meal, but it was a good thing I ate a sandwich and a granola bar cause you had to pay for food and drinks. Very strange being as it was an Iberia flight.
When we arrived it was cold and we had to leave the plane onto the runway, experiencing for the first time winter again. Shucks. Really. Madrid has been so amazing weather wise that I decided it was normal. Wrong. Vienna has really been depressing actually. lol. I don't really like using internet lingo, but this is a blog and it was meant to be funny. I mean I'm in Vienna right? I shouldn't be complaining, but it is dreary. Constant rain and hasn't been above 45 degrees. Now I'm done complaining, because I had the most amazing night here tonight.
I'm sorry I had to jump a little ahead in my story, but I don't want to forget how this was. Short detour (like all my stories), the rest of the group (Matt Wade, Calli and Bree Walvisch, Kelcey Towell, and Rachel Dratnol) bought tickets from a street guy as soon as we went downtown the first day, but I was like no way dude. Andy and I had been through the street selling stuff enough in Paris and I knew what I wanted to do while I was there. This guy sold the others tickets for a musical performance for 20 euro or so with one free champagne drink. Now what we did. We left slightly late, but thanks to my euro book I knew about a little used service at Staatsoper. I thought our "show" started at eight and we arrived at 710, so that was a slight issue, but nothing big. Ok, so now that you're dying to know what we did... we saw an opera called Onegin. FOR 3 EURO! Amazing right?! We got there slightly late which was unfortunate, but we only missed 10 min. We had a coat check for free and saw an amazingly high quality italian opera (i think) with english subtitles. I'll admit I was not interested at first because I have been jaded by the old buildings and the things you can do in Europe. However, by the end of the first act I was amazed and very into the performance. By the end of the opera I was dying for another performance. Simply marvelous. I'll continue soon, but I wanted to get that off my chest and onto "paper".
When we arrived it was cold and we had to leave the plane onto the runway, experiencing for the first time winter again. Shucks. Really. Madrid has been so amazing weather wise that I decided it was normal. Wrong. Vienna has really been depressing actually. lol. I don't really like using internet lingo, but this is a blog and it was meant to be funny. I mean I'm in Vienna right? I shouldn't be complaining, but it is dreary. Constant rain and hasn't been above 45 degrees. Now I'm done complaining, because I had the most amazing night here tonight.
I'm sorry I had to jump a little ahead in my story, but I don't want to forget how this was. Short detour (like all my stories), the rest of the group (Matt Wade, Calli and Bree Walvisch, Kelcey Towell, and Rachel Dratnol) bought tickets from a street guy as soon as we went downtown the first day, but I was like no way dude. Andy and I had been through the street selling stuff enough in Paris and I knew what I wanted to do while I was there. This guy sold the others tickets for a musical performance for 20 euro or so with one free champagne drink. Now what we did. We left slightly late, but thanks to my euro book I knew about a little used service at Staatsoper. I thought our "show" started at eight and we arrived at 710, so that was a slight issue, but nothing big. Ok, so now that you're dying to know what we did... we saw an opera called Onegin. FOR 3 EURO! Amazing right?! We got there slightly late which was unfortunate, but we only missed 10 min. We had a coat check for free and saw an amazingly high quality italian opera (i think) with english subtitles. I'll admit I was not interested at first because I have been jaded by the old buildings and the things you can do in Europe. However, by the end of the first act I was amazed and very into the performance. By the end of the opera I was dying for another performance. Simply marvelous. I'll continue soon, but I wanted to get that off my chest and onto "paper".
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Paris Day Two/Three
Day Two: This day after making Andy and Rob about kill me, I decided to make an effort to make the day seem much more chill. Today we did not wake up until 11 and then didn't leave I don't think until about 1, but we grabbed some hotdogs (which were two hot dogs in a baguette and then covered in cheese!) and some crepes. Then we walked through the snow to a Metro stop to head out on the Commuter train to Versailles. We took even longer than we were going to in the first place because we decided to get a few pictures of Notre Dame in the snow. It was really stunning, but cold haha. I haven't been that cold since I've come to Europe and honestly I hope I don't feel that again until I'm in Chicago or Champaign next winter! When we arrived in Versailles we walked up to it and it too was stunning. The snow had stopped, but the whole palace was gilded and covered in snow. People were also making snowmen on the front lawn of the palace. We hurried inside after seeing the outside because it was cold. When we were inside it was not that warm, but at least we weren't freezing. Versailles was so impressive. It was enormous. It felt like the Louvre all over again, but this time we weren't allowed into half the rooms. This time, however, the artwork was the walls rather than on the walls. Some spots in the palace had paintings and busts, but for the most part we just looked at the high ceilings and the walls. I just can't imagine how much that place would cost by today's standards. I don't think it could. All the brick work, gilding, and intricate works of art on every crown molding. Huh, maybe that's why they call it crown molding, to look like a palace... or I could be thinking too much into it and it just means the top of the room. I really don't think I could describe the palace in enough detail to get the point across of how beautiful it was, so I'll leave it up to the pictures. I will mention one thing though. I believe I took a picture of this, but look at the fireplace. They had several of these and they were so large that to have a fire, a whole tree would have to be burnt. I guess that was no problem though because they had a forrest out behind the palace that we never got to walk around because there was snow.
On the way back we were in no rush, so we strolled along and looked in all the shops for souvenirs, but none of them were nice. As a side note, I'm not suprised the shops were expensive because there were only about three of them and the surrounding area was very beautiful/upscale which means souvenir shops should not even be there in my opinion. We saw a mini mall though and stopped by a football (soccer) shop for a minute. I was surprised because right next to it there was a Games Workshop shop and for those of you who don't know what that is, don't worry cause you're not missing anything, but it is basically an overpriced model shop that I used to buy models from. After the sports shop we grabbed a bite to eat from a chain store in France and I bought a quish which was pretty good, but not anything spectacular. Then we decided to stop by the McCafe and grab a cup of joe. I didn't get joe, but I did grab a macaroon. That was interesting, but way over priced. It was the size of a quarter, but cost one euro. Basically I just wanted to try it. Now I'm satisfied.
We didn't get back until dark, but that was fine and the train we went back on was practically empty, so we had a little party in our tired state. When we got back to the Eiffle tower area, we decided to go check out the Champ Elysees and then the Arc du Triomphe. That was also impressive, but after seeing so much, we were practically blasé. The other problem was that we had seen all these sites and didn't really know much about them at all. Sure they were historical in some sense, but we maybe knew one detail of what I'm sure were imensely long stories. After doing a quick photo shoot atop the Arc, we headed back down the Champ and enjoyed a little car show and shopping without buying. I say car show because we went into about 5 different car manufacturer's stores and most of the stores had just concept cars and one or two real cars. So I feel like I've been to a European car show without having to pay! We also stopped by Louis Vuitton and I now know I will never, ever even think about buying that brand because that's all it is. It is a brand. Sure they have quality stitching and quality materials, but I don't care what kind of cotton you use, you cannot charge 250 Euro for a t-shirt. I also got a picture of Michael Jordan's hand prints from the Nike Paris store. After that we decided it was time to eat since it was about 10. We didn't feel like searching for a real nice place to eat, so rather than paying 300 euros for a meal at a nice restaurant on the Champ, we actually found another place on the Champ that was serving pizza. It was pizza like I've never seen. It was real Italian, cooked over a wood fire and the artichoke was crisped, yet olive oily. Superb. After that we just called it a night and went back to the hostel. Rob didn't do much, but Andy and I had a couple of beers including the Desperado which was delicious. I think I mentioned it, but I'll mention it again just in case cause it is worth mentioning. Desperado is the best beer I've ever had. I don't think I'd like more than one in one sitting, but it is sweet with a bitter aftertaste. I don't know how to describe food well, so you'll all just have to try it. I'm going to search Friar Tucks when I get back [of course when I'm 21 :)]. Oh, that last part is so depressing. I can't even think about it. Going home and being 21. 21 is almost harder to take then 20. Honestly I feel like I've about hit the ages where it gets progressively worse! None of them are saying you are more like a kid, but I want to stay a kid. There are definitely good things about getting another number on your birthday cake though.... I just can't think of them!
Sunday morning openned to our final day in France. This day was meant to be filler and if we had something else to do we would do it this day, so this was relaxing. We started at 10 because we had to check out by then. When we walked out we searched for a local cafe to have breakfast. We found one after we watched a tour boat head through some locks in the river. I really didn't think I'd see locks in the middle of Paris, but they have them! I even have a video of the first lock. It almost didn't look like the boat would fit, but once it made it, we were done and headed off to breakfast. At the cafe I had omelette du fromage, which was actually omelette fromage to my disappointment. Darn Dexter's Lab for teaching me incorrect French. After breakfast we headed back to the Latin Quarter to round out our trip. We found an eiffle tower for Andy's mom and then got back into the metro and headed back to the hostel to grab our bags and go home (Madrid). The End.
On the way back we were in no rush, so we strolled along and looked in all the shops for souvenirs, but none of them were nice. As a side note, I'm not suprised the shops were expensive because there were only about three of them and the surrounding area was very beautiful/upscale which means souvenir shops should not even be there in my opinion. We saw a mini mall though and stopped by a football (soccer) shop for a minute. I was surprised because right next to it there was a Games Workshop shop and for those of you who don't know what that is, don't worry cause you're not missing anything, but it is basically an overpriced model shop that I used to buy models from. After the sports shop we grabbed a bite to eat from a chain store in France and I bought a quish which was pretty good, but not anything spectacular. Then we decided to stop by the McCafe and grab a cup of joe. I didn't get joe, but I did grab a macaroon. That was interesting, but way over priced. It was the size of a quarter, but cost one euro. Basically I just wanted to try it. Now I'm satisfied.
We didn't get back until dark, but that was fine and the train we went back on was practically empty, so we had a little party in our tired state. When we got back to the Eiffle tower area, we decided to go check out the Champ Elysees and then the Arc du Triomphe. That was also impressive, but after seeing so much, we were practically blasé. The other problem was that we had seen all these sites and didn't really know much about them at all. Sure they were historical in some sense, but we maybe knew one detail of what I'm sure were imensely long stories. After doing a quick photo shoot atop the Arc, we headed back down the Champ and enjoyed a little car show and shopping without buying. I say car show because we went into about 5 different car manufacturer's stores and most of the stores had just concept cars and one or two real cars. So I feel like I've been to a European car show without having to pay! We also stopped by Louis Vuitton and I now know I will never, ever even think about buying that brand because that's all it is. It is a brand. Sure they have quality stitching and quality materials, but I don't care what kind of cotton you use, you cannot charge 250 Euro for a t-shirt. I also got a picture of Michael Jordan's hand prints from the Nike Paris store. After that we decided it was time to eat since it was about 10. We didn't feel like searching for a real nice place to eat, so rather than paying 300 euros for a meal at a nice restaurant on the Champ, we actually found another place on the Champ that was serving pizza. It was pizza like I've never seen. It was real Italian, cooked over a wood fire and the artichoke was crisped, yet olive oily. Superb. After that we just called it a night and went back to the hostel. Rob didn't do much, but Andy and I had a couple of beers including the Desperado which was delicious. I think I mentioned it, but I'll mention it again just in case cause it is worth mentioning. Desperado is the best beer I've ever had. I don't think I'd like more than one in one sitting, but it is sweet with a bitter aftertaste. I don't know how to describe food well, so you'll all just have to try it. I'm going to search Friar Tucks when I get back [of course when I'm 21 :)]. Oh, that last part is so depressing. I can't even think about it. Going home and being 21. 21 is almost harder to take then 20. Honestly I feel like I've about hit the ages where it gets progressively worse! None of them are saying you are more like a kid, but I want to stay a kid. There are definitely good things about getting another number on your birthday cake though.... I just can't think of them!
Sunday morning openned to our final day in France. This day was meant to be filler and if we had something else to do we would do it this day, so this was relaxing. We started at 10 because we had to check out by then. When we walked out we searched for a local cafe to have breakfast. We found one after we watched a tour boat head through some locks in the river. I really didn't think I'd see locks in the middle of Paris, but they have them! I even have a video of the first lock. It almost didn't look like the boat would fit, but once it made it, we were done and headed off to breakfast. At the cafe I had omelette du fromage, which was actually omelette fromage to my disappointment. Darn Dexter's Lab for teaching me incorrect French. After breakfast we headed back to the Latin Quarter to round out our trip. We found an eiffle tower for Andy's mom and then got back into the metro and headed back to the hostel to grab our bags and go home (Madrid). The End.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Paris Day One
So, this has been a long time but I'm going to start writing from about where I stopped. The problem is now I have to write what I did last weekend (I went to Loyola). Anyway, let's pick back up with the story. I have since changed what I thought, but I thought Rob was going to hate me forever for what I did, but more on that later. We arrived in Paris an hour after the flight, which was nice to see the country side. Once we were in the city, I became a little bit worried about our decision to go to Paris. I finally fully realized that I did not know any French. Well, I knew about three words, but wow that scared me trying to get around in France. We couldn't even find the metro at first. We were walking around, asking the people that we knew were on our flight, but they didn't know anything either. After asking for directions we found our stop, but apparently the directions were awful because we got off the metro about a mile away from the hostel. We got there and decided just to try some beer in the club downstairs. We were really tired, so that was all we could really do, and we had to get up early to see Paris. Oh yeah, we also went to mcdonalds that night, so I am now up to four countries that I have eaten mcdonalds in. Woo woo! Actually it may be 5, I don't remember if I ate mickyd's in Denmark or not. Anyways, we finally were able to settle down. The next morning we got up and decided to start as early as we could, which was about 10. That was fine because that allowed us to have breakfast and then a late lunch. First we went to Notre Dame. I was not extremely impressed at first, but the inside was spectacular. I liked exploring that Church much more than any other church I have gone to. The best part was the gigantic stained glass windows that were sparkling and shining throughout the entire church. Rather than heading over to the Latin quarter, we decided to go up into the tower of Notre Dame. Usually it costs 7 euro, which seems steep, but we ended up buying a two day pass for most of the museums in Paris. That may have been a bad decision because then we tried to go do everything possible. In two days. The first day I was like a slave driver, which I sort of regret, taking Rob and Andy to eight major spots in one day. After Notre Dame we went to Sainte Chapelle which I don't think anyone has heard of. It's on the same island as Notre Dame and is also a church. Honestly I don't even know the history of it. We basically went to see it because we were there and we could. I don't regret that though because this was an interesting looking church with the best stained glass window I have ever seen. I believe there is a picture on picasa, but I have sinced realized after last weekend (Loyola) that no pictures can describe what I've seen. The pictures are now mainly so that I can remember. Next we went to the Latin Quarter and looked around. Basically it was just a bunch of touristy shops and restaurants. However, we did end up going to a restaurant and it was amazing! I loved all the food I had there. I just wish I had that kind of food in Spain. Spain food is good, but not nearly the same as it is in France. Oh, I almost forgot in between Notre Dame and S.C., we grabbed some nutella crepes, which were also amazing! That warmed me up and it was sooooo good. After all this traveling all I want to do is cook. Hopefully I'll actually become a good cook after all the experiences I've had here. In the Latin Quarter we had a three course meal with escargot, lamb and chocolate mousse. Mmmm, that was delicious. After that relaxing meal we headed over to the Orsay Museum which was amazing. We saw so many beautiful, paintings that were really well known including ones by Monet, Manet, and Van Gogh. I absolutely loved the archictecture of the inside too. It was modern mixed with the old art, but perfect. Very well proportioned, which is my philosophy on art and arcitecture. After spending about an hour or two (which was probably too short even though the Orsay Museum was small) we tried to high tail it over to Napolean's tomb. Really we only wanted to go there because he supposedly has a tomb in which you have to bow down/over to see his tomb. We did get to see the outside, but I can't say I'm disappointed that we didn't get to see the inside since we did so much anyway that day. Oh, and then we went to the Louvre. By this time we were real tired. Like our second wind came at midday so we were on fumes. However, we decided to try it and I again was not disappointed, sort of. The problem was that there was really only one thing to do. We admired the cool pyramids outside, but I never saw the upsidedown pyramid. That was the only thing that reminded me of The Divinci Code. Well that and sort of the Mona Lisa, but that must be the most over rated painting ever. I was expecting this phenomenal painting, but it was miniture, like 3 feet by 2 feet. Also, everyone was crowded around it taking pictures and for what? It was not as good as any of the famous paintings in Orsay. Also, the rest of the paintings were not that impressive. The Louvre is huge, and yet all we found was the mona lisa and venus de milo. Pretty unspectacular for how many works of art were there. After the Louvre (which we only explored half of two wings in a speed walk, so you could spend a week there) we went to the Eiffle Tour to finish off a fun, amazing, crazy day. We went there at 9 or so, met a guy from Cork, Ireland (he didn't know you Matt) and then we went up to the top. It was cold in Paris, so nighttime at the top was a little too cold for me. However, I still got some pics and pondered life while gazing out upon Paris laid out before me. Something we never got to do was go downtown, or the new downtown. Paris has it's old town, where everyone is, but then there are a few city blocks that are about a mile or two from the Siene river that have skyscrapers and all just off on their own, but I'm glad no one ruined the old part of town with that. When we returned to the bottom, we decided to haggle with a bunch of well, I don't know where they were from, I guess they were African. These guys were crazy. I can't believe that they spoke so many languages. They honestly probably spoke English, French, Spanish, German, at least one asian tongue and their native language. We had the most fun with one guy who practically followed us all the way to the metro to get us to buy some towers. The whole thing was fun and we ended up buying 2 for 10 which was actually a great deal considering he started at 20 for one. In the stores we found them for 15 a piece. And that was just one day.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Paris 1
What an eventful weekend. I feel like I need another vacation from that vacation. We decided to purchase museum passes, but in order to make them worth our while, we had to visit about a million museums in two days (or about 8 if you want to count). While it seemed like a good idea at the time, I think I became a little too overzealous. I kinda pushed the three of us to exhaustion on the first day. Partly out of my desire to get the most out of Paris and the museum pass, and partly because it was just so exciting to be able to see so many amazing things. A word to the warning, there is actually so much I have to say about three days that I will end up splitting this post into two parts. The pictures are already on the sister website if you should decide to look at those first (although I have yet to write comments and do not know when I will get around to that).
Thursday was quite exciting. We ended up passing the airport on the metro and had to return the opposite direction, but we found it alright. Then we found out there is an airport supplement that was not liked, but unavoidable. Next we waited in line for about 45 min to an hour to get our passes, all the while fretting that our bags would not fit into the very strict requirements for luggage on a Ryanair flight. The reason we had to wait so long was that many people don't bother to weigh their luggage or make sure it fits into the dimensions of the carry on luggage and then the line has to wait for the trouble makers to sort out how to fit two suitcases in one and make it fit under the weight limits. The next two hours seemed to fly by as we ate a quick lunch, and got a gag line for the entire trip. Rob asked the lady at the register cuanto vale, which literally means how OK. However, it is also used as a way to say, cuanto cuesto, or how much does this cost. (how cost) When the lady didn't understand, Rob decided to say very slowly and deliberately cuanto... vale... Then the lady understood, but it was funny because we are the people who never understand Spanish, not the other way around. Next we had a scare as we saw boarding was in 30 min and we hadn't gone through security yet. We practically ran through security (where you do not have to remove your shoes) and then realized the plane had not even arrived. However, the plane ended up landing on time.
The flight there was definitely something to remember. We were all getting kind of nervous and excited at the same time. This was my first time to France and I think Rob's too, but none of us knew French. Rob and Andy had little phrase books, but I didn't know what that would do for me. Instead of worrying, we got absorbed in either movies or music. That is until the plane got rowdy. The thing that you have to understand is that Ryanair does not get the most respect from its passengers. Basically Ryanair is a school bus with wings. On our way there there was almost no one on the plane and this group of six guys that were having a party. Hanging over each other's seats, laughing and mixing duty free alcohol with drinks on board. That seems like an expensive habit, but at the same time, quite an experience. After there was a break in the selling of food by the stewardesses, we had some sort of bell ring that was like bingo, not just one chime, but a sequence. Anyway, apparently this signifies plane lottery. The stewardesses fill the aisle and begin selling scratch off cards for 2 E. I didn't want to play, but in the spirit of the trip, I indulged and I have to admit it was fun while it lasted and that group of guys definitely made the trip fun. Oh, and I didn't win, but it was fun nonetheless. Landing went fine, but it was COLD in France. Maybe it's because I'm spoiled in Madrid, but I was none too happy while walking outside. The first day it was alright, but the next I had to wear the heavy coat, which also did not keep me that warm. I cannot complain that much though, because now I can say I have been in Paris when it snowed and I got to see the Palace of Versailles in the snow. It was quite beautiful. Back to the story, Ryanair, being cheap as it is, flies into an airport an hour north of Paris and man is it bad. Beauvais is even worse than Willard (Champaign's airport) and Willard takes about two flights a day. I actually didn't notice how bad the airport was until I got back for the return flight, but I think this is quite a lot of nonsense to read and therefore I will continue later with the hostel and some of the sights (including the metro, for now I feel as though I should become a connoisseur of metros after Madrid's lofty claim of being the one the world longs for).
Thursday, February 5, 2009
One more thing
The weather here has been awful. Awful for Madrid that is. It has been somewhat windy and my teacher says it has rained more in the past week than it has in ten years. It's not that Madrid is a desert, it just never rains. Also, my friend Matt's blog stated that in Ireland you walk five feet and see five people smoking. I think that is most of Europe. Spanish people would love it if they invented the smoking helmet like a beer helmet. I'm sure if there was a hands free smoking device on the market Europe would go mad for it.
Livin' the life
This has got to be quick I'm sorry to say because I'm going to Paris in about 20 min. Well, I'm heading for the airport that is. We had some issues getting the flight booked, but it's all straightened out. Now I'll just know that a cheap flight with a low budget airline is not all it's cracked up to be. Last night I was able to book a round trip flight to Vienna for 100 dollars. That's pretty amazing I'd say. It's nothing fancy, but it isn't ryanair or easy jet.
Once I get back I'll write all sorts of things about Paris and explain how (hopefully) amazing the trip was. I'm not sure exactly what we are doing, just that we are going to arrive around 8 or 830 about an hour north of Paris then take a bus for another 1.5 hours to get to our hostel. As far as the things we are doing in Paris, I don't know. Obviously we are going to hit the big spots and then see where we go from there.
Funny thing about right now. The magic is starting to wear off. I always knew it, but I'm not sure that I've been able to convince myself that once you are in one place long enough (and this has only been a month) life can become boring and more of a hassle than fun. Life is what you make of it.
Once I get back I'll write all sorts of things about Paris and explain how (hopefully) amazing the trip was. I'm not sure exactly what we are doing, just that we are going to arrive around 8 or 830 about an hour north of Paris then take a bus for another 1.5 hours to get to our hostel. As far as the things we are doing in Paris, I don't know. Obviously we are going to hit the big spots and then see where we go from there.
Funny thing about right now. The magic is starting to wear off. I always knew it, but I'm not sure that I've been able to convince myself that once you are in one place long enough (and this has only been a month) life can become boring and more of a hassle than fun. Life is what you make of it.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Segovia and Toledo
I think I might regret not writing sooner because many things I think I may have already forgotten. Like usual here in Spain, I have done a million and a half things that were very new and interesting. Last weekend I went to Joy, which is a night club (unfortunately mainly american) that is in a theater down by Sol. Saturday and Sunday I went on day trips and during the week I tried to survive class. This weekend I'm trying to save money and get ahead in class because I'm going with my roommates Rob and Andy to Paris.
So Saturday I went to Segovia. Pretty cool small town that's only about an hour from Madrid. There are three main things in Segovia: a cathedral, a castle and a roman aqueduct. I've been spelling that last word wrong for the last week and spell checker's been harassing me so I finally looked up how to spell it. By far the coolest thing in Segovia was the Roman aqueduct. It was really impressive to see how ingenious the engineering was behind it and how large it was. The castle and the cathedral were also impressive, but I did not care for either as much as the aqueduct. The cathedral was quite large and had some cool organs, but I felt it was very threatening on the outside, maybe a sign of the time it was built. The castle did not feel like what I think of when I think of a castle. However, that I attribute to it being a Spanish castle and most of the ones I think of are probably French or English. Even though the castle or cathedral were too impressive, the views were. We went on a cold cloudy day, which seems like it would be bad, but as it cleared up in the afternoon, we had great views of the surrounding hillsides with cloud shadows and rays of sunshine streaming across the fields. One thing that cannot be forgotten about Segovia is there pig. Not just any pig, the cochinillo. Cochinillo is the Spanish word for suckling pig. Now that freaks me out a bit, thinking about the whole pig being laid out for you to eat. However, I told myself I had to do it. That is until I found out how expensive they were. Then I ended up settling for another place and eating cochifrito, which is the same thing, but cut into smaller pieces. I liked it, but not enough to go out of my way to find it, or even order it again for that matter. It was just for the novelty. For those of you who want to know what it was like, keep reading, others, just skip to the next ridiculously long paragraph. It was cut into small pieces that could be separated from skin and meat. However, the best part was the skin, crispy yet leathery, so it was best to eat them together. The process of eating the pieces was quite a hassle because there were so many little bones you had to watch out for. I missed most of them, but probably not all of them. Also, I got a treat and so did my roommate. Rob got one side of the jaw and I got a little white gland shaped like a kidney. Your guess is as good as mine as to what it was.
Sunday I went to Toledo. I was looking forward to seeing the difference between Toledo, Ohio and Toledo, Spain, and I must admit, they were quite different. The city is on one hill (at least for the most part and it is really only the old part of the city) and it is surrounded by a river and a wall. There are four bridges I believe, all of which are centuries old, to get from the surrounding hills to the center of the city. I have some nice pictures on Picasa of course which you can look at at your leisure. The city was very tiny and filled with small alleys and old churches. Apparently at one time there were something like 30 monasteries that basically made up the population of Toledo, which made many people not want to live there since they would be in constant fear of God watching them. Again there were many impressive views, but I was not too impressed by the town. It felt very old and like it was only a tourist spot. If there had been some other attraction, I could have lived there because it was so peaceful and austere. Here I decided I needed some cheese before lunch. The tour guide left us for too long and my brain started getting hungry and making bad decisions. I went in a store and asked for Manchego cheese. The woman told me 10 euros/kg. I was like ok, that sounds reasonable, I can pay 10 euro for a wheel of cheese that will last me a real long time. Well, turns out the wheel of cheese was 2 kilos, so I ended up paying 20 euro! I don't believe I will ever spend that much on cheese again (but one never knows). The church there was also quite impressive, but much more so than the one in Segovia. It followed the same layout, but this one had a room with a lot of gilded objects and old bibles, a room full of pictures of bishops dating back to the first century, and a lot of artwork by el greco. El Greco is Spanish for the Greek. He was named this because he had a name that was almost unpronounceable and he was the only Greek in Toledo. We got to see one of his famous paintings of someone being buried and I really have never liked a piece of artwork so much. There was a lot of meaning behind it and I was glad to have the tour guide along to help describe it (this was a school trip and that's why we had a tour guide, the Segovia one was just some friends who got together).
I feel like I had some more to say, but that's about all that happened this week. Class continued and I got an abono mensual for the metro (monthly pass). Now all I have to do is get through next week. Oops, I remembered. I signed up to teach a section of ESL thinking that there was a teacher and I was an assistant. Nope. I'm the teacher and I have to come up with lesson plans for people who don't speak english. Great. I'll tell you how it goes.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
My top ten lists
Top ten things I hate about Madrid:
10. Being the foreigner
---- I stand out like none other here with my blondness and my 6-foot-threeability, not to mention I believe I sound like a Chinese kid that is studying in the states.
9. The crosswalk chirps
----When you walk past several of them going at the same time it sounds like 100 kids are playing laser tag around you
8. Not being able to access certain U.S. websites
----Hulu is down, I repeat, Hulu is down. Why can't some network syndicated shows simply be broadcasted everywhere on the Internet? Apparently America figured out how to get money out of other countries since American made cars aren't fashionable.
7. The Metro
---- For being self dubbed "the metro the rest of the world dreams of" (I'll take a picture and post it) it sure is slow. The metro takes almost as long to get to school as it takes me walking. Not to mention that everyday I get on the circle line the train breaks.
6. The beds
----I'm happy to have one, but this is the first bed I've been on which I can feel the springs.
5. The one cent euro
---- They are the devil. I'm positive I got one today, although I still have yet to encounter it. It is wiggling it's way into the corner of my bolsillo (sorry wallet) and will stay there for eternity. It'll stay there not because I don't know it's there (they always haunt you) but because I know it will never be of use. I should have told the cashier I just didn't want it. We both would have been better off.
4. Unfriendly Friendliness
---- The people seem kind of standoffish. There seems to be an attitude of 'you are a pain in my side' but maybe that comes with a big city. On the other hand, if you know a person, they are overly friendly and get upset if you don't say hi to them. Also, there are some people who have no concept of personal space.
3. Creepers
---- Spain is full of creepers. I don't know what it is, but this place is a breeding ground for the creeps. Every time we go out, it tends to go from party to rescue party when all the girls are getting danced on by 40 year old men.
2. Crazy one way streets with crazy rules
---- For some reason Spain (and perhaps to a greater extent Europe) is obsessed with traffic circles. I'm thrilled I'm not driving because it is the craziest system. People can walk into crosswalks and the drivers have to stop (I dont like testing this one). Certain intersections have stop lights, but because of the buildings, there are traffic cops directing everything. Also, almost every street is one way (That would make finding where you're going almost impossible without a gps). Back to the traffic circles, they are absolutely crazy. No lines, just a free for all swinging around from lane to lane. Thanks but no thanks. With all the crazy streets, and all the traffic circles/roundabouts, Madrid is one of the most difficult cities to navigate (not to mention all the buildings are so high and so repetitive that it is difficult to find where you are for a couple of blocks).
1. Not not having nothing else to hate
Top Ten things I love about Madrid:
10. The Metro
---- For all it's problems, most of the trains are amazing. And it is ridiculously clean.
9. The Big city with a small city feel
---- When you look at Madrid on a map and when you think of it, big city comes to mind. I'm not about to say it isn't, but it really isn't. I walk to school only about 2 miles and I cover almost the entire city (extreme over exaggeration). However, from my point in the city, almost everything is within walking distance (at least those things that you want to see). So in my mind, this city of 3 million people (an exact, verifiable by census value) is quite small.
8. La limpieza
---- The cleaning crew. These people are awesome. It's like there is a gigantic swarm of cleaner fish following your every move. Literally I can go a block before I see another cleaning crew sweeping up the sidewalks and removing trash from trash cans.
7. McDonalds
---- McDonalds here is like McDonalds in heaven. It isn't fast food anymore (and according to the prices it almost isn't), it is über food. Instead of the mac, the have el mac. Sounds the same, but it isn't, far from it. It is on chibatta bread and is like the best patty ever.
6. Marli
---- Having a person to help you with Spanish: good. Having a mom to help you get around town, feed you at random and makes your bed: awesome. Having a practically random person come into your room and tease you about your ropa interior: priceless.
5. Food In General
---- There are always new things to try. Today I went into a supermarket for the first time and had fun just looking at the different things. I wanted to get some food for snacks and when I got to the cookie aisle I was like OREOS! And then I realized that they were almost 3 euros, for like 400 g. Instead I did some more looking and found these awesome Spanish-cheapo brand cookies for 67 cents! Now that's what I call a cookie! This Saturday a couple of us are venturing to Segovia, so I do believe I'll try something new... cochinillo. The whole idea of it kinda grosses me out, but I'll keep you informed.
4. The Bocadillos
---- Especially from school. Wow. There is a picture on picasa of what I'm talking about (or there will be real). These things are huge from school. And only two euro! Granted they aren't the most delicious, but for the money? What a deal. Otherwise they are just real good, if not filling. Probably the best was from a place near the Real Madrid Stadium. mmmm. bocadillos.
3. Rebajas
---- The sales here are awesome. Most people would probably tell you the clothes are way too expensive, but they are much better for the price here. Target and Walmart have cheap clothes, but they are cheap in quality too. The clothes here are made well and are cheap. It's like shopping at a Kohl's where almost everything is stylish. Note the stylish and not awesome. The clothes are cool, but so far I have had problems finding exactly what I need. Also, after January the sales may be over, in which case the prices will be high. SHOES though are always the same price: cheap. And although you can find expensive shoes, I find no need to when the quality and quantities are so high.
2. The Views
---- Everything here is old. Real old, and it is so amazing to see everything from the past mixed with new things like cars and buildings. Plus, from school there are awesome views of the mountains in the distance. Did I mention that there are cool old buildings?
1. Siestas
---- Back in the states we don't have this word. Basically it means relax, don't do it, when you want to get to it, cause whatever you may think, you really don't want to. Also, it isn't about being a procrastinator as much as not doing what can wait until tomorrow. If it doesn't get done, who cares? we'll do it tomorrow.
P.S. I just emptied my wallet to find that infernal penny. You may have guessed correctly that I was making some of that stuff up about the penny and you are right. It was just drawn upon from other's experiences, however, when I emptied all the coins, there was no penny. I searched and what do you know, it had lodged itself in the corner of my wallet, ATTEMPTING to stay there for eternity. Now all the suspicions are confirmed.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Whirlwind
What a week. This has been a huge over stimulation and now just feels like a blur. From what I can remember it was great, but now as school is beginning I feel like I need another vacation. Thank god I signed up for that retreat to Loyola. That is going to be much needed.
Today being inauguration day, I ended up going through the motions while thinking about how I could watch Obama's speech. Since I had class at 10, 12:30, 2 and 6:30. That last one was the killer that made me stick around until 7 and miss the speech. This wasn't a huge problem since I ended up doing a bunch of homework, but I still just wanted to go home and watch the inauguration live. Instead I rode the metro at 7 and was able to catch the speech online. Just as a quick note, I thought it was good, but I think I may be one of those cynics. Maybe I'll change in a few months.
Interesting story about today. I got lost. Not good anywhere in the city, but it ended up being on the outskirts of the city and oh what a pain it was. Now at least I know a little bit more about Madrid. The circle line has this habit of breaking down while I'm on the train, so of course the one day I'm running late, I got a broken train. This is one of those days when " Me levanté con el pie izquierdo." (Literally I woke up with the left foot, but means I got out of bed on the wrong side) Anyways, rather than staying on the tracks, I decided to hoof it from where the train broke down. First bad decision. When I surfaced I found a map and orientated myself and started walking. In the wrong direction. When I went full circle I figured out what I had done, but now I was really late and nowhere closer. I decided I was not going to pay another euro to go two stops, so I just kept walking and walking. Eventually I did find the road, but not until walking past several universities and through a park. After that the day wasn't horrible, but I just was worn out and lost interest in the day. These days are just so long that I am always tired when I get back. The only good thing is that I feel like I'm studying more than ever before. Hopefully will all work out. Vale, it's dinner time. Talk amongst yourselves.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Cold climates and Bad habits
This week has been cold. I say this and instantly regret saying it, but in my mind it has been. For the most part it has been around 30 degrees but now has increased to about 50 during the day, which is much more bearable. However, at night time it can still get pretty chilly. I was thinking about buying a euro coat (not that cheap, just style wise), but I after shopping at several stores with rebajas, I decided not to buy one. I was really looking for some light weight jacket that would serve the purpose for the slightly warmer months and look more stylish than a ski jacket. Rebajas by the way are sales. At first when I got here I thought they just had the sale signs up all year round like in Mexico. They signs seemed to be plastered to the windows, so it seemed like a logical explanation. After talking with Marli, I found out that actually the rebajas are just like we have in the US. The stores are merely trying to get rid of their winter stock. I was very surprised today when I saw Lacoste finally had rebajas signs up. That must mean we are nearing the end of the rebajas. I decided to see what a rebaja meant as far as lacoste goes, and as I expected, a button up shirt (or down if you prefer) was about 70 to 80 euro.
Shopping for me so far has been, I regret to say this too, shoes. I have basically turned in to a woman and now every time I go by some shoe stores, I feel the urge to go in. This may sound horrible, but you've got to understand where I'm coming from. In the US I wear tennis shoes. That's it. Here they wear dress shoes, well at least leather shoes. Therefore, I stick out like a sore thumb (which I don't really know how that would necessarily stick out) and these shoes are sooooo cheap for nice dress shoes. The other day I bought (what I consider to be) a really nice pair of leather shoes for going out for only 20 euro. That's about 30 dollars, and now according to my friends, I look very euro (I was wearing a thermal at the time, so that's why I attribute it to the shoes). Yesterday I was overcome by another store and wanted to indulge again. I know I would have loved these shoes, but I couldn't get over the fact that they might only be for play (even though these were only 15!).
This brings me to another point. Something I have always wanted stores to do in the US is done here on a regular basis. Prices are set with tax included (maybe a little more expensive), but there is little need for change. As of yet I have not seen a penny and I'm not even sure they exist. I do carry a lot of change with me, but each coin is worth a euro or two, which is actually a sizable amount.
Another interesting thing here, as in most big cities, is the street performers. Yesterday while shopping, we first passed a demonstration full of people protesting the palestinian/israeli war, and then we found street performers lining the streets. I also found out that people line the Plaza Mayor also. On a regular basis there are performers in the subway playing an accordion or something similar, but the ones in Sol are much better. I saw a statue of a soldier with a flower in his gun, a statue of a guy playing a guitar and a guy frozen in the wind. The most impressive was the guys with actual talent. It seemed like a bunch of business guys who just decide to go out and play on the weekends and pick up a bit of money if they can get it. The four of them were dressed well for a bum and that is why I think they were not bums, and they were playing classical music, which was quite impressive. I did not take many pictures of these people but some will be up sometime today.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Time Flys
Wow, one week is already gone. I've been absorbed in the new style of living and immersed in the new culture and have hardly had time to realize that this has been one week already. I've seen a lot of Madrid already. Definitely not all of it, but I've made a good start. From Alcala to Retiro to Sol, I feel like I've been all over. Now it's time to start exploring outward. Tomorrow I will probably be going to the Rastro (big time flee market, also breeding ground for pickpockets) and possibly see a Real Madrid game. I'm real excited about the latter half of that, should it come true.
It's definitely interesting seeing how I've been stripped of all that I know and then expected to function normally. Not only can I not speak the language (although I'm working on it) I've had to learn all new professors and figure out a new schedule. Here people do not go to sleep until about 12 to 1 or 2. When people go out it tends to be closer to 6 because that's when the metro starts up again. Sometimes I don't want to stay out that late, but something usually ends up happening that I can learn from, so I'm never disappointed.
Last night for instance, we went to Kapital, which is one of the best night clubs in Madrid. It is kinda far (about a mile or two away) but it was worth it. Kapital I'm pretty sure used to be a theater, but now is a night club. It has seven floor (although the definition of floor is loose). There is different music on every floor, but the best is the first. The first floor is the biggest and has dancers on the stage. A really cool part is that in the center of the ceiling there is a huge hole where a huge blast of CO2 will blow out and cool down the dance floor when the music gets to the right point. The only real weird thing was that there was a guy that came out onto a balcony and started beating a drum to electronic beats. Everyone else liked him, but i was kinda indifferent. I respected what he was doing but I couldn't really get into his beat for dancing. I definitely am not going back there without some girls and a promoter cause it was way too expensive. It was 18 euros to get in and that was only one drink. Talk about a rip off. However, many of the food items here are rip offs. I bought a sandwich today and it ended up costing 4 euros and all it was was bread and meat.
Apparently we are going out again soon, so this is going to be cut short and I might end up editing it. I'm just a little tired right now to be writing well. Today I rode the metro to Retiro and walked around Retiro, down to an anthropology museum, then to Kapital, then back towards sol in a roundabout way. Overall a good day, but there was a lot of walking. I was able to check out some different shops which was real interesting because the shops are extremely compact with escalators stacked on top of escalators. But more of this later. Hasta la vista.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
New notes
I made it to my first Spanish class today. What a pain. I felt sooooo stupid. I heard everyone else messing up, of course when it got to me I did the same things. I was not prepared for it, so I'll blame it on that, but I could tell the professor was like I am so done listening to you. I think I would have too, cause I wasn't saying anything of importance. I'll be ready for Monday, but this is definitely gonna be a learning experience.
After class I grabbed lunch from La Tienda Verde again. I've heard it's great, but I think I'm trying to figure out how to order what I want. Yesterday I ate a sandwich mixta, but that ended up being a ham and cheese sandwich made in a george forman. Still not bad, but I wanted something more authentic. I found the menu after I ordered yesterday, so I checked that today and decided, well I might as well start eating from the top down. Whatever I tried, it was ok, not phenomenal, but it was DEFINITELY interesting. I bought a mediano and the bread was good (of course like it had been stale for a week) but the interesting part was the meat. I'm pretty sure it was ham, however, the ham was marbled and dark, so the entire time I felt like I was eating cold bacon. Monday it'll be another sandwich (I don't have class tomorrow).
Since I didn't have a post yesterday here's basically what went down. I talked to some people and I think I know how to get an Abono mensual (monthly pass) for the metro. Also I figured out how to remove money from my account after walking around Sol and asking just about everyone what I could do to get money. It was fun though. I saw the city in a different light, as a person completely alone yet independent. When I returned home I asked Marli and she set me straight. There is an apartment across from the apartment that transfers money for free.
Yesterday I went to class, thought it was cancelled, found out it wasn't at like six, so at that point it didn't matter. Went home about two hours after the class was supposed to end and took some time at home before returning to school. My other class for the day was Organic Chemistry and when I made it back, of course the teacher REALLY didn't show up for this one. Therefore, my day was basically a complete waste. Some people went out last night, I did not. I did not have enough sleep and was ready to sleep. When the guys came home they apparently had a good time, but I was not up for it. Today I'll be going out most likely since I don't have class in the morning. Most importantly I need to find some girls to go out with because then guys don't pay cover. Pretty sweet, but now that classes have begun, I don't see the people I became friends with as much. We'll see. Hasta Luego.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Gettin' Down to the Nitty Gritty
Hola todos. I'm gonna try and write as best as I can. I just want to write because there are so many things on my mind, but man am I tired. I love the siestas here, but today we kinda missed it. We're gonna sleep a little before la cena but I'm gonna write... wow I'm rambling.
So just a few minutes ago, I finally started to realize how amazing this trip is going to be for me. I am already starting to think in Spanish and trying to speak as much as possible. It's tough because many of the students just speak in English, but there are many other opportunities to talk.
I'm so tired today because we went out last night to a place called Dubliner's. Pretty shady and the guy wanted to id us and we were all like, are you serious? We all look over 18, but the reason was cause there was nobody out that night. I did not have an id on me so we had to walk all the way back to the apartment and then back, but we ended up having a good time nonetheless. Today we heard that many things happen at Dubliner's that are not so good, but I don't really plan on returning to there that often. The promoter just offered a free shot, so we thought we would stop in for awhile (the shot was of course the cheapest stuff they had, but it was only so that we didn't have to buy many drinks). I know I won't be going out that often just to drink cause the drinks are all about 4 euros a piece. That means you get a pint of beer or two shots in a mix drink, but still, not cheap.
Por la mañana, we woke up at 8 and went to school, no issues this time (went to bed at 2 btw). We had a stupid orientation meeting that basically covered issues that we already covered, however when we got out it was snowing, so everything was good. I stopped at La Tienda Verde for the first time today. I was expecting a place to sit, but it is ridiculously small. The food however is reasonably priced and seems good. I only grabbed a snack cause I knew we were getting lunch in about an hour, but that was tasty.
In the afternoon, we went to a city called Acala with our group of students. It was pretty, but loooooong. We walked from about two to five and we went on a half hour train ride both ways. I didn't get to eat until the train ride back, but it didn't really bother me. I also got another passport photo for a metro pass and took lots of pictures in Alcala (not in that order). There is an interesting story about Alcala. Unfortunately I did not hear all of what the tour guide said but here's the gist: There was a university, and a castle. The castle was to keep the Christians out and was used by the moors. The university was moved during the reign of Franco and got changed to the University of Alcala when he died. Also, they have a stork problem. Yes, storks. Apparently you are not a citizen of Alcala until you have been pooped on by a stork. Also the nests weigh so much that they have to be removed each year so that they don't build up and cave in the roofs. There are some pictures that will be going up on the sister website soon. Hasta luego!
Monday, January 12, 2009
Hello Spain
Well, now I can officially say: the beds are bad. Not horrible, but not the most comfortable things on earth. I feel like I'm sleeping on a board with a one or two inch pillow on top. That made me wake up pretty early this morning, but I tried to just roll over. While I was foolishly attempting to fall back asleep, several things were running through my head: speak Spanish better, what to say to Marli, what did you get yourself into. The main one was probably the most serious, but every time I think about that I always feel better about the next day. I feel like I'm in trouble, but instead I change it to thinking, well your here, now what are you gonna do about it. It's not like I'm going home tomorrow, so I'm gonna have to adapt to the situation and enjoy every minute of it. I think today really helped with that. I got myself up with my alarm (8 o'clock) but was up earlier like I said. So I walked outside my room and "caught" Marli having a morning smoke and cafe. Really I just didn't know that she smoked. It seems like she just smokes in the kitchen and blows it out the window. So even though I really needed to go to the bathroom, I decided to talk to her and when I ran out of things to say I asked her about desayuna (breakfast). She took me to the salon (dining room/living room with tv) and showed me what we had. I ended up eating toast, and surprisingly enough, cereal. However, the cereal was chocolate oat clusters with solid chocolate chunks. Now that's what I call cereal! There was also peach marmalade and eclair like things, but I needed to get moving, so around 8:30 I started getting dressed.
Now the fun stuff. I am in a room with Rob and Matt. There are also two others, Ricky and Andy, down the hall. I was going to take a shower, but decided all I really needed was a quick wash, so I never even ended up in the shower. Meanwhile, I thought Rob was going to the shower and by the time I got out, the apartment was silent and I only found Matt. Marli then returned and said in spanish you are gonna be late. I was like whatever, ok lets go Matt. I asked him whether Rob had gone and he said I don't know where the other guys are. This was pushing 9 and we had to be there at 930, so with a 25 min metro ride ahead of us I said, let's go. The metro was nice. Really nice. Like clean and new and bright, almost makes you forget about pickpockets. Almost. Luckily nothing has happened yet, but there are lots of fun stories like ipods getting the cord cut while your listening to music and the ipod is walking off in the other direction. Anyway, we made it to our stop and said ok to the university. When we surfaced from 3- 50 foot escalators, we realized we had no idea where the university was in relation to the stop. After much confusion, we found a map and ended up arriving 15 min late. Later we found out Rob WAS still in the apartment when we left. However, when he came out of the subway, a house mother ushered him in the direction of the school, much like the way Ron Weasley's mom helped Harry... so he made it there before us.
The first day at school was interesting. We saw the three buildings of campus.... and went on a walking tour. Campus is nice though. Pretty location with so much around. It really is a great city. Everything is within walking distance or a metro ride. My roommate Matt actually rode the metro from the Airport (one shady situation, but no other problems). I will probably do that on the way back because it is 1 euro vs. 35.50. I now have a phone, but I'm not giving the number out here cause the rates are way to high to be receiving calls left and right. Back to what I was saying before, I'll be taking pictures of all around and labeling them for everyone. The tour today gave me a lot of pictures, but I didn't take very many because I figured that I'd be around that area enough to take a lot of pictures. So we traveled around the city with a huge group of people, I met a lot more of new people and caught up with some others. We ended up at Plaza de España, so Rob and I just walked back to our apartment, which was like a block away. So I guess a few of us are going to be going out in a few minutes and this post is long enough. Tomorrow I'll continue with whatever's on my mind.
P.S. A special thanks to Matt Feickert for enlightening me to Picasa by google. I'll be using that website to post pics and there will be a link on here. Right now there are only about 20 pics, but I'm having troubles with uploading. I believe the website is: http://picasaweb.google.com/dwetzel0
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)