Blog time :)
I’m pretty sure I have lots to write about… but I’ll probably forget a lot. Soooo, let’s start with the happenings of last week. Two Tuesday’s ago (I know- long time), I went for churros con chocolate with Berta, our grad student professor from Western, and a few other girls. Mmmm… churros are like fried dough with sugar on top. I’d say that they might be the equivalent of elephant ears, except they are more in the form of small twists. Are you picturing this? Gooood… add to the mix chocolate that is melted just so that it can barely be considered a liquid. Dip the churro into the chocolate, and you get absolute perfection. Quality Spanish snack for sure. The next day, our class went to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. There are five Guggenheims in the world, with one being in New York City. It displays modern art, which I have to say is not really my thing. Too many black paintings with a single white spot or random paint splatters to mean a whole heck of a lot to me. But there was an exhibit by a painter named Henri Rousseau, which I really loved. He paints in what they call “naïf” style in Spain, but I think the translation to English would be “naïve.” Anyway, his paintings are really legit… the basis of “naïf” paintings is to portray things the way they are, kind of like through a child’s eyes. So there were tons of really playful paintings, many of them including jungle scenes. The next day, Thursday, marked a beach day :) And let me tell you- I LOVE me some Spain beach. Minus the topless women and naked children. Without a doubt, the beaches here are a haven for perverts and pedophiles. It’s like lady- put some clothes are your child, immediately. And no it’s not acceptable to wipe their butts in my direct line of vision. Just got to keep your eyes closed. But really, the beaches are otherwise beautiful. There’s just something a bit more magical about laying on a Spanish beach rather than Grand Haven or Holland. At night, I went out with a bunch of people to Plaza Canadio. That place is crazy busy/cool on Thursday nights. Everyone hangs out outside drinking around the plaza and in the surrounding bars. It’s like the ultimate weekly social event for people our age. Later in the night, I went to a bar to try a shot they call the “dragon.” Everyone has been raving about them, and of course, I had to join the club. The dragon is a shot that they pour into a tall, skinny glass. You cover it and swirl it around so that you get the alcohol toward the top of the glass. Then you light the top with a lighter, and it of course starts on fire. You put your hand on the top as soon as the flame goes down a bit, and it suctions to your hand. You shake it a bit as it is suctioned, and then take the shot and cover the glass immediately. After you take it, you uncover the glass and breathe in the fumes from the shot. :D Let’s just say that Kelly conquered the dragon.
A few short hours later, we left as a group for Segovia, Toledo, and Burgos. Overall, the three cities were very similar and kind of blend together in my mind, but I’ll try to organize my thoughts as best as possible. We had about a 4 or 5 hour trip to Segovia, I believe. We stopped first at our hotel, El Corrigedor, which was a bit older, but overall pretty nice. And there were 2 single beds in each room, so it was Ashley and I in our room. After we settled in a bit, we met our tour guide at the ayuntamiento of Segovia, which is right in front of the aqueduct. Can I just point out for a second how freaking amazing this structure is? It was built between the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D., runs over 15 km to the mountains for water, and looks brand new. Even more amazingly, it doesn’t have any mortar or cement holding the bricks together. They are held together solely by the pressure of the bricks making an arch around them. HOLYYY! It was used up until the around the 1950s. So like 1900 years! Pretty freaking cool. After that, we took a walking tour through the city Our final stop with our tour guide was at the Alcazar of Segovia. It’s part fortress, part castle, but has some really great history. Isabel and Fernando, los “Reyes Catolicos,” who forced the conversion of the Spaniards to Catholicism, among other things, were married there. There were some amazing views out into the countryside, and there was a moat, too! A real MOAT. Cool cool. Afterward, some of us toured the Cathedral of Segovia, which was gorgeous from the outside, but pretty much the same as every other church I’ve seen here so far. Haha… beautiful, but redundant. The unfortunate part about Segovia is that almost everything… all the bars, restaurants, EVERYTHING, closes by midnight. What the heck, people… we are in SPAIN. Needless to say, it wasn’t the best place for our group to stay. After everything closed, we hung out at the hotel, causing a big ruckus like a bunch of youngins. Kindaaa fun, actually :)
The next morning, we woke up to the best hotel breakfast EVERRRR. Well, probably not ever, but the Spaniards don’t eat much for breakfast typically, so it was heaven. Danishes, cereal, buns, croissants, meat, cheese, toast, yogurt, fruit, juice, coffee… yummm. Definitely a good start to the day. Next we took off for Toledo, which was another 2 hour ride or so. Interesting fact: this city is where they coined the phrase “Holy Toledo!” Pretty cool, huh? I’ve BEEN there. At one point, when Spain was the highest power in this part of the world, Toledo was the capital of Spain. It is known as the “city of three cultures,” because back in the day, there was an unusual tolerance and acceptance of the combined presence of Christian, Jewish, Moorish/Muslim cultures. It was a sweet city with a veryyy extensive history that reminded me a lot of Santillana del Mar on a much grander scale. We took a walking tour there as well, with temps apparently being right around 100 F. Lucky for us, there’s no humidity, so it was bearable. Another cool thing about Toledo is that it was built in the middle of a river that winds almost entirely around the city, which acted as a moat to protect the city from the enemy during early times. We saw both a monastery and a synagogue on our tour, both of which were very interesting. But my favorite faaaavorite part was seeing El Greco’s painting, “The Burial of the Count of Orgaz.” Please look it up… it has the greatest symbolism, and I couldn’t resist buying a print for myself. I stood there for at least a solid 10 minutes just staring. Lunch in Toledo was the Menu del Dia, or Menu of the Day, in which I got paella, carcamusas (some type of stew), ice cream cake, wine, bread, and water for just 14 euros. Yumm. Katie and I then took on the city’s shopping. I was on a quest to find the perfect piece of jewelry. One of Toledo’s specialties is this really cool black and gold jewelry. You can get the gold plated type for much cheaper than the real gold, obviously, so this was my aim. I found a bracelet that I love love loooved, but after seeing that the gold was rubbing off already, I settled for a couple of cheap rings and a small pair of earrings…in case you were wondering. ;) That night, we stayed in Segovia for another night. Once again, the bars were only open until around 12 or so, so we headed back to the hotel for the night again afterward.
The next day, we drove to Burgos. The main draw is the Cathedral of Burgos, which is absolutely beautiful. There is soooo much to learn about every room in that cathedral, but by that time, I was just about toured out, so I think I tuned out for a good portion of it. But the cathedral is just as beautiful inside as well. My favorite part was a figure of a man called “Papamoscas” that hangs in one corner of the church. On the hour, every hour, it opens and closes its mouth two times as it simultaneously rings a bell. “Papamoscas” means flycatcher, so this makes sense. What our tour guide told us after this all happened is that the irony of the situation is that WE are all the real Papamoscas because we were the ones standing there watching with our mouths open. Funnyyyy. :) We ate lunch in the Plaza Mayor after the 2 HOUR tour of the church, and our food/sangria was sooooo good. Afterward, we discovered that there REALLY isn’t much to do in Burgos, at least during siesta, and I am very glad that I am not staying there for a semester. Goodness gracious, Burgos. We walked to the castle which doesn’t hold too much appeal, other than a good view of the city. And then we arrived back home that night just in time for dinner and school the next day. Yayyy…
This past Wednesday we took our last group excursion to the Picos de Europa, or the Peaks of Europe, for the day. Super sucky for us, it was raining so it was full of fog and clouds throughout all of the mountains. :( We took a cable car to the top of the mountain. It was almost vertical, which would have been crazy awesome if we would have been able to see anything. But we made the most of it anyway. On the way back to Santander, we stopped in a small town called Potes for a couple hours. It’s a small town a lot like Santillana del Mar, except for maybe a bit bigger. It’s known for its orujo, a type of strong liquor. No worries, I bought a small bottle for everyone back at home to try! :) We sat outside, ate some lunch (patatas bravas and sangria…woo!), and listened to mariachi. And no, mariachi is not Spanish. Haha… just a little slice of Mexican in Espana. We stopped at another small town on the way back called San Vincente that had a lake with the cuuuutest little boats, which made it super pretty and idyllic. We stopped at the small castle there and grabbed some ice cream from my fave Regma, and headed back home for the day.
This weekend in Santander is Semana Grande, a weeklong festival that Santander has every year, with tons of restaurant booths, rides, music, and everything else that goes along with a festival. I’m excited to experience it all… Manolo says it’s the best week out of the year to be in Santander. And only 6 more days, and I’ll be leaving here. TOO weird to even think about. I’ll be home SO soon! I know after a couple days at home, I’ll be missing this place and all traveling I’ve been doing. Bittersweet feelings, without a doubt. But I’m excited to see all of you back home, too :)
Abrazos y besos,
ME
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Bulls bulls bulls :)
I SURVIVED PAMPLONA!!! Woooo!
San Fermin 2010 began for us as follows… we got to Pamplona at around 7 or so yesterday. Right when we got there, we made a quick pitstop to pick up the official red handkerchiefs for the festival of San Fermin. For those of you who don’t know, everyone that goes to San Fermin is supposed to wear head-to-toe white with a red handkerchief around your neck. And we were told not to spend much on these clothes because they would be ruined by the end of the weekend as a product of everyone throwing wine at each other. We walked into town and found the plaza de toros, where the “bullring” is. We found where the bulls enter each morning after the corrida. The actual corrida consists of 6 bulls being let loose with the runners on a course of sectioned-off streets in Pamplona that makes a total of 826 meters. The runners have to start behind a certain point, but as soon as the first rocket goes off, they run like hell. For most runners, as soon as the bulls reach them, they take off to the sides of the course so they don’t get trampled. But of course there are the crazies too. They usually end up run over :) We walked the entire route, ending at the bullpen where they start. They say the scariest part is the tunnel into the plaza de toros because it’s so skinny, and if you get stuck in there while a bull’s running through, have fun! Haha… When we were done, we enjoyed the crazy business that is Pamplona for 9 days each year. It was crazy… there were SO many people! Two hundred thousand people live in the city, but at least a million cram in it every year for San Fermin. Let’s just say there’s an extra person or two here and there. And of course everyone parties hard 24 hours a day. We met up with our crazy friends that had gotten there the day before, and were going on their second night without sleep, seeing as how hostels and hotels are booked months and years in advance. We watched some good break-dancing courtesy of Street Flow aka “Estreet Flow” and then headed to a park where we popped a squat with the whole 18 or so of us. And kalimochos (a mix of wine and coke) all around. Now here’s the best part… we got to watch FIREWORKS! For those of you who didn’t know, I LOVE fireworks, and I was pretty sad to have missed the Fourth. But now my summer is complete! :) And the fireworks show was AMAZING! Well done, Pamplona. GREAT show.
Next it was time to find some clubs for dancing :) All along the route of the bulls’ run there were a MILLION people flooding into the streets from inside different bars and restaurants. Pure craziness. I loved it… we found a good bar to dance. After a bit, we met up with the rest of the group since we had all been separated. Two of the guys, Mike and Trevor, left because they had decided they were going to do the big run. FYI, sleep is pretty much necessary if you don’t want to be trampled. Some of us decided to take a breather and found some benches to sit on. By this time, it was probably around 4 am.
As we were walking, we just see that people are just passed out EVERYWHERE. Seriously, any place you could imagine… it was pretty humorous, really. Homeless for a night :) Oh life experiences :) Unfortunately, we had expected it to be in the 90’s, but it ended up being a cooler day and consequently night. And by this I mean it was FREEZING. We ended up finding one of the only café/bars still open where we sat for a bit before needing to leave to get ready for the corrida. Basically, you have three options as far as this goes. A) You try to find a good place along the route to watch the bulls go by. The trick is finding a spot where you’ll be able to see well with people all around you. And you have to realize how fast it all happens, so you’ve got to pay good attention. B) You buy tickets for the encierro, the “enclosed” part, which is the bullring. Here you can see the bulls run in with the runners ahead and behind them at the end of the course. And the surprise for me was that they let out some younger bulls to charge the people at the end. A bit of a game, if you will. C)You run. And you better be fast, smart, and rested. Know that you have a definite chance of getting run over and that people do die. We were told in more or less words that we weren’t allowed to run with the bulls. Not in an explicit form, but implied well enough. We were told that our school health insurance doesn’t cover any injuries… after a kid from Western ended up in the hospital for 2 weeks 7 years ago. And one of our teachers even said she’d fail us if she heard that we ran. But that didn’t stop Mike and Trevahhh WOOOO. You only live once :)
Anyway, we opted for option B, because we felt that we’d probably see more action and we’d probably get a better view of it all. However, what we were told was that they often sell a bunch of tickets, but not everyone that buys them gets in. We took the risk. We got in line at 5 or 5:30 am, and got into the plaza de toros at around 6, as soon as they opened it up. Would you like to know the BESTBESTBEST freaking part?! Insert REALLYYY excited voice: WE GOT FRONT ROW!!! Holy poop :) Front row at the corrida de toros during San Fermin. Does life GET any better? Ummm… NO. On a side note, I guess you’ve got to take the good with the bad… some moron RIIIIIIGHT next to me snorted a line of coke with a five dollar bill just right there, like it was no big deal. What the heeeeck.
In the plaza, there was a band playing and the people were doing cheers and the wave like crazy. There were TVs so that we could watch the run progress outside. A bunch of people ran in acting like they ran with the bulls before it even started. Ahaha, the Spaniards did NOT like them. They paid for it with lots of cuss words and bottles/liquids thrown at them. But then the race did begin, and shortly after, the toros were in. HOLY CRAP. Did you know these things weigh like 2000 pounds? Like as much as a car? How would you feel about getting hit by one? Haha… no thanks! Trevor and Mike wore some classy Gilligan hats, and we were able to spot them. Pretty sweet, huh? Jamie and I decided to get down into where all the runners were that had jumped the fence to get out of the ring so that we could go into the ring and find the guys. Well let’s just say that we didn’t realize that a series of 6 baby bulls would be let out amongst the runners to do a little damage amongst some major idiots :) Ahaha Jamie and I got up close and personal, meaning that I was right next to an unconscious guy that was pulled out of the ring and had to be taken away on a stretcher. That was just the first of the many injuries I saw. We got to stand right up against the wall and watch each bull charge all the people. So close! I swear that if I would’ve been wearing tennis shoes, I would’ve been in that ring (of course, keeping to the outside) screaming like a girl, which is convenient, because I am a girl. Jamie got LOTS of good pics, which I’ll be stealing since I didn’t bring my camera into this craziness. Anyway, we finally did find the guys, who were super hopped up on adrenaline. Not going to lie, I’m kinda jealous. But I’m super glad they did it… they are alive, and they have the best story to tell for the rest of their lives.
The rest of the morning was pretty uneventful… we got on our bus at 11:30 am, and didn’t get home until 5:30 pm because we had to stop in San Sebastian for a couple of hours. This wasn’t such a bad thing, except that it was a bit of a tease. We walked to the beach, and I’ll just inform you now that it is the prettiest beach EVER! The water looks just like in the Caribbean, and the sand was completely PACKED with people. The weather was great, so I just wished that we had some time to enjoy its beauty a bit more. By the time I had gotten home, I had gone about 32 hours without sleep, and I was pretty dead. But props to me, I just took a two hour nap, then I ate dinner with the padres, and here I am now!
Overall, San Fermin did not disappoint. Actually, it did quite the opposite. I’m kinda wishing we would’ve went for a round 2… dang :) Crazy to think I only have two more weekends living here before I head back to Madrid. To be honest, I’m not liking it at all! But it’ll be good to see everyone back at home, too :) But as I knew it would be, this is really turning out to be the experience of a lifetime.
Abrazos y besos,
ME
P.S. In case you were wondering, I didn’t see inches of pee and poop. Really, it wasn’t THAT bad. Just some stray pee-ers here and there, but no big deal! But I’m not taking any chances... I'm still throwing away those shoes.
San Fermin 2010 began for us as follows… we got to Pamplona at around 7 or so yesterday. Right when we got there, we made a quick pitstop to pick up the official red handkerchiefs for the festival of San Fermin. For those of you who don’t know, everyone that goes to San Fermin is supposed to wear head-to-toe white with a red handkerchief around your neck. And we were told not to spend much on these clothes because they would be ruined by the end of the weekend as a product of everyone throwing wine at each other. We walked into town and found the plaza de toros, where the “bullring” is. We found where the bulls enter each morning after the corrida. The actual corrida consists of 6 bulls being let loose with the runners on a course of sectioned-off streets in Pamplona that makes a total of 826 meters. The runners have to start behind a certain point, but as soon as the first rocket goes off, they run like hell. For most runners, as soon as the bulls reach them, they take off to the sides of the course so they don’t get trampled. But of course there are the crazies too. They usually end up run over :) We walked the entire route, ending at the bullpen where they start. They say the scariest part is the tunnel into the plaza de toros because it’s so skinny, and if you get stuck in there while a bull’s running through, have fun! Haha… When we were done, we enjoyed the crazy business that is Pamplona for 9 days each year. It was crazy… there were SO many people! Two hundred thousand people live in the city, but at least a million cram in it every year for San Fermin. Let’s just say there’s an extra person or two here and there. And of course everyone parties hard 24 hours a day. We met up with our crazy friends that had gotten there the day before, and were going on their second night without sleep, seeing as how hostels and hotels are booked months and years in advance. We watched some good break-dancing courtesy of Street Flow aka “Estreet Flow” and then headed to a park where we popped a squat with the whole 18 or so of us. And kalimochos (a mix of wine and coke) all around. Now here’s the best part… we got to watch FIREWORKS! For those of you who didn’t know, I LOVE fireworks, and I was pretty sad to have missed the Fourth. But now my summer is complete! :) And the fireworks show was AMAZING! Well done, Pamplona. GREAT show.
Next it was time to find some clubs for dancing :) All along the route of the bulls’ run there were a MILLION people flooding into the streets from inside different bars and restaurants. Pure craziness. I loved it… we found a good bar to dance. After a bit, we met up with the rest of the group since we had all been separated. Two of the guys, Mike and Trevor, left because they had decided they were going to do the big run. FYI, sleep is pretty much necessary if you don’t want to be trampled. Some of us decided to take a breather and found some benches to sit on. By this time, it was probably around 4 am.
As we were walking, we just see that people are just passed out EVERYWHERE. Seriously, any place you could imagine… it was pretty humorous, really. Homeless for a night :) Oh life experiences :) Unfortunately, we had expected it to be in the 90’s, but it ended up being a cooler day and consequently night. And by this I mean it was FREEZING. We ended up finding one of the only café/bars still open where we sat for a bit before needing to leave to get ready for the corrida. Basically, you have three options as far as this goes. A) You try to find a good place along the route to watch the bulls go by. The trick is finding a spot where you’ll be able to see well with people all around you. And you have to realize how fast it all happens, so you’ve got to pay good attention. B) You buy tickets for the encierro, the “enclosed” part, which is the bullring. Here you can see the bulls run in with the runners ahead and behind them at the end of the course. And the surprise for me was that they let out some younger bulls to charge the people at the end. A bit of a game, if you will. C)You run. And you better be fast, smart, and rested. Know that you have a definite chance of getting run over and that people do die. We were told in more or less words that we weren’t allowed to run with the bulls. Not in an explicit form, but implied well enough. We were told that our school health insurance doesn’t cover any injuries… after a kid from Western ended up in the hospital for 2 weeks 7 years ago. And one of our teachers even said she’d fail us if she heard that we ran. But that didn’t stop Mike and Trevahhh WOOOO. You only live once :)
Anyway, we opted for option B, because we felt that we’d probably see more action and we’d probably get a better view of it all. However, what we were told was that they often sell a bunch of tickets, but not everyone that buys them gets in. We took the risk. We got in line at 5 or 5:30 am, and got into the plaza de toros at around 6, as soon as they opened it up. Would you like to know the BESTBESTBEST freaking part?! Insert REALLYYY excited voice: WE GOT FRONT ROW!!! Holy poop :) Front row at the corrida de toros during San Fermin. Does life GET any better? Ummm… NO. On a side note, I guess you’ve got to take the good with the bad… some moron RIIIIIIGHT next to me snorted a line of coke with a five dollar bill just right there, like it was no big deal. What the heeeeck.
In the plaza, there was a band playing and the people were doing cheers and the wave like crazy. There were TVs so that we could watch the run progress outside. A bunch of people ran in acting like they ran with the bulls before it even started. Ahaha, the Spaniards did NOT like them. They paid for it with lots of cuss words and bottles/liquids thrown at them. But then the race did begin, and shortly after, the toros were in. HOLY CRAP. Did you know these things weigh like 2000 pounds? Like as much as a car? How would you feel about getting hit by one? Haha… no thanks! Trevor and Mike wore some classy Gilligan hats, and we were able to spot them. Pretty sweet, huh? Jamie and I decided to get down into where all the runners were that had jumped the fence to get out of the ring so that we could go into the ring and find the guys. Well let’s just say that we didn’t realize that a series of 6 baby bulls would be let out amongst the runners to do a little damage amongst some major idiots :) Ahaha Jamie and I got up close and personal, meaning that I was right next to an unconscious guy that was pulled out of the ring and had to be taken away on a stretcher. That was just the first of the many injuries I saw. We got to stand right up against the wall and watch each bull charge all the people. So close! I swear that if I would’ve been wearing tennis shoes, I would’ve been in that ring (of course, keeping to the outside) screaming like a girl, which is convenient, because I am a girl. Jamie got LOTS of good pics, which I’ll be stealing since I didn’t bring my camera into this craziness. Anyway, we finally did find the guys, who were super hopped up on adrenaline. Not going to lie, I’m kinda jealous. But I’m super glad they did it… they are alive, and they have the best story to tell for the rest of their lives.
The rest of the morning was pretty uneventful… we got on our bus at 11:30 am, and didn’t get home until 5:30 pm because we had to stop in San Sebastian for a couple of hours. This wasn’t such a bad thing, except that it was a bit of a tease. We walked to the beach, and I’ll just inform you now that it is the prettiest beach EVER! The water looks just like in the Caribbean, and the sand was completely PACKED with people. The weather was great, so I just wished that we had some time to enjoy its beauty a bit more. By the time I had gotten home, I had gone about 32 hours without sleep, and I was pretty dead. But props to me, I just took a two hour nap, then I ate dinner with the padres, and here I am now!
Overall, San Fermin did not disappoint. Actually, it did quite the opposite. I’m kinda wishing we would’ve went for a round 2… dang :) Crazy to think I only have two more weekends living here before I head back to Madrid. To be honest, I’m not liking it at all! But it’ll be good to see everyone back at home, too :) But as I knew it would be, this is really turning out to be the experience of a lifetime.
Abrazos y besos,
ME
P.S. In case you were wondering, I didn’t see inches of pee and poop. Really, it wasn’t THAT bad. Just some stray pee-ers here and there, but no big deal! But I’m not taking any chances... I'm still throwing away those shoes.
Friday, July 9, 2010
A bit of an update :)
First off, I totally forgot to inform you all about Desiree, my madre’s granddaughter. I believe she is three, though she may be four. And sooooo freaking adorable. Anyway, she was over last Thursday with her mom and dad (EVERYONE hangs out at their parents’ house on a regular basis, regardless of age.) When I got home from school, I went in my room to clean up a bit before lunch. I turned around to see her little face peaking at me in the doorway. When she saw me looking at her, she disappeared. But she shortly returned. I asked her if she wanted to see pictures of my family, and she nodded. She was so superrr shy. I started showing her the pictures when my madre called me in for lunch. A minute after I sat down, she came in and gave me a kiss on my cheek. She ran out of the kitchen and came back another minute later saying, “Abrazo! Abrazo!” So I gave her a hug. Then my madre took her out of the kitchen with her so she wouldn’t interrupt me. What a flipping cutie! Anyway, the next morning my padre said he heard that she had given me a hug and kiss, and that she has never done the same to him. My madre said she was so surprised because she is so shy and never does anything like that, but that Desiree said she thought that I was “muy guapa,” or very pretty. Precioso :)
Alright, so this week has been another good one! Really good, considering the copious amounts of homework and studying that I’ve had to do in order to do a 20 minute presentation and an exam, among other things. Anyway, Monday night I went to watch my friend Nate, from Michigan State, in his play for class. Not quite sure I ever wanted to see him prance around in a dress, but hey, why not? When in Spain… In all seriousness, the play they put on alllll in Spanish went really well, so congrats to them! Tuesday night I engaged in some beach studying, my fave in case you didn’t know. And Wednesday I said forgetttt studying, and went to the beach ALL day before we all met up at Piquio, a bar by the beach for the Spain vs. Alemania (Germany) game. Of course, we all had our faces painted and were dressed for the occasion. Earlier that day, we had gone to the market for our culture class, and Ashley and I bought matching Spain bikinis for the beach. Best decision EVER :) So obviously the game was amazing, and we won. I’m really REALLY starting to get into this soccer business. And there’s nothing like everyone honking and singing chants and hanging out their car windows with flags on your 45 minute walk home :) So come Sunday night in Espana, you can guess what I’ll be doing!
Mmk… time for me to get ready for 24 sleepless hours in Pamplona for the running of the bulls. We were warned to wear clothes that we can throw away, because everyone throws wine around and there are inches of bodily fluid and fecal matter in some places. I’m attempting to mentally prepare myself as I write. Wish me luck!
Alright, so this week has been another good one! Really good, considering the copious amounts of homework and studying that I’ve had to do in order to do a 20 minute presentation and an exam, among other things. Anyway, Monday night I went to watch my friend Nate, from Michigan State, in his play for class. Not quite sure I ever wanted to see him prance around in a dress, but hey, why not? When in Spain… In all seriousness, the play they put on alllll in Spanish went really well, so congrats to them! Tuesday night I engaged in some beach studying, my fave in case you didn’t know. And Wednesday I said forgetttt studying, and went to the beach ALL day before we all met up at Piquio, a bar by the beach for the Spain vs. Alemania (Germany) game. Of course, we all had our faces painted and were dressed for the occasion. Earlier that day, we had gone to the market for our culture class, and Ashley and I bought matching Spain bikinis for the beach. Best decision EVER :) So obviously the game was amazing, and we won. I’m really REALLY starting to get into this soccer business. And there’s nothing like everyone honking and singing chants and hanging out their car windows with flags on your 45 minute walk home :) So come Sunday night in Espana, you can guess what I’ll be doing!
Mmk… time for me to get ready for 24 sleepless hours in Pamplona for the running of the bulls. We were warned to wear clothes that we can throw away, because everyone throws wine around and there are inches of bodily fluid and fecal matter in some places. I’m attempting to mentally prepare myself as I write. Wish me luck!
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Sorry sorry sorry this post is so late! It was a busy week at school ☺
Whew! Whirlwind weekend in Roma! It hardly even feels like I was there.
Let’s start from the beginning. We left from Santander airport early Friday afternoon and landed in Rome a couple of hours later. We needed to wait for two more people at the bus station and we were all hungry, so we chose a restaurant right across from the station. I experienced my first Italian pizza. SO good. Now if we could only switch Spanish food for Italian… ☺ Afterward we checked into our hostel, the Yellow. It was pretty nice, and super great because we had air conditioning. But I promise you that I’m not so spoiled that I can’t live without air, but let me just inform you of the temp for the weekend… 95 degrees. The. Whole. Weekend. Oh hey, no big deal. I LOVE sweat. Especially for pictures! ;) But I’ve heard that all of you in the U.S. are having the same sort of weather… but YOU’VE been hiding in the cool air!
Anyway…we left the Yellow for some city exploration, heading in the direction of the Colosseum. We wanted to hit that up first so that we’d have more time for everything else the next day. Unfortunately, when we got there, it was already closed. So we used the time as a photo opportunity for pics outside of the Colosseum, and then we continued on our way. We walked past a good portion of the Roman Forum. I had to mentally pinch myself the entire weekend to remind myself how lucky I was to be surrounded by pieces of history that date back to the beginning of known time. And I just loved to let myself imagine what life was like back then, with people living within and around the structures when they were first built. We walked around the city a bit more, and then decided to stop for dinner at a cozy little Italian restaurant. We sat outside where icicle lights were hung around the porch. We all tried different things, and Ashley and I shared some pasta that was AMAZING! It had mushrooms and a cream sauce more like alfredo… yummmm. And so continues my love affair with Italian food… After a long and leisurely meal, we ended up at the Trevi Fountain a little after midnight. Well, I mean… we stopped for gelato first, of course. ;) Such a great combination… pineapple gelato + Trevi= amore. The fountain was absolutely gorgeous lit up… every bit as great as I thought it would be.
The next morning I woke up at good old 6 am to get ready for the day. We were to meet up with the rest of the group and then head to the Vatican before it opened so that we could get in quickly since it’s only open in the morning on Saturday. Welp, skip that… we got there a little after it opened and waited a good two hours. It wasn’t all bad though… lines are an EXCELLENT way to people watch. I just prefer to do my people watching when I’m not in that kind of heat. Oh well… when we got into the Vatican, we checked out all of the museum right away. HOLY FLIP. I never knew a place could hold so much old, but unbelievably beautiful artwork. I was so much in awe the entire time. I think I could spend a whole other week inside there and still feel like I didn’t see everything. We ended up at the Sistine Chapel, which is so different than I ever thought it would be. But not in a bad way… I just felt more like I was in a huge room with floor to ceiling paintings than a real chapel. But I cannot even put into words how powerful Michelangelo’s paintings are. And I can’t imagine how he painted all of that in such a short time. I mean, it would probably take me 4 years just to paint a leg. MAJOR props to Michelangelo. By the time we got out, we were all separated into small groups. Katie, Ashley, Kathrine and I were hungry, but we wanted to see St. Peter’s Basilica before we left to eat. Unlucky for us, it was another two hours waiting outside to get into the Basilica, so we chose as a group not to stay. I have to say that it’s the one thing that I’m really disappointed that I didn’t get to see, but I realize that there is really only so much you can do in two days. On our way to lunch, we did the touristy thing and shopped for souvenirs, and then took the metro back to our side of town to find a pizza place I had heard of for lunch. When we got there, we saw that it was closed until dinner. Shoot. However, there was another place that looked really good just up the street. At this time, we were ready to settle for anything anyway because we were so tired and hot from the heat.
But let’s just say that we chose REALLY well. The pizza I had changed my life. Really… it was FANTASTIC. There’s really no need to say more. After leaving heaven, we headed for the Colosseum. We decided to take the guided tour for 4 euro more so we could learn as much as possible about the Colosseum. We wore little walkie talkies so that we could hear our tour guide. Fun little toy, I must say. Obviously, it goes without saying that the Colosseum is amazing. We learned all sorts of cool things, and I’ll include a few for the benefit of my Daddio. First…I guess I could have assumed this, but I never did… the gladiators were slaves that were required to participate in these fights. They fought other gladiators literally for their lives. They were practically doomed to die, because when they won a fight, they were destined to fight another and another until they died. Within the Colosseum, there was a winner’s exit and a loser’s exit. The dead body of the losing gladiator was carried through the loser’s exit, where there was a mortuary of sorts. There were two different types of events held in the Colosseum, hunts in the mornings in which hunters killed exotic animals from around the Meditteranean like tigers and hippos, and the fights between the gladiators in the afternoons. The fights between gladiators began way before that as some sort of funeral ritual, but they were brought to an end when Christianity reached Roma’s royalty and they realized that it was being abused. These events were free for everyone in Roma… the emperor at the time used these games as an opportunity to gain favor in the eyes of all the Romans. But of course there were all different levels of seats, which a person sat in depending on class. The senators all had very spacious seats with their names engraved on them. When senators changed, the name of the previous senator was ERASED from the cement block, and the new name was added. The original name of the Colosseum was the Flavian amphitheatre, named after the Flavian emperors that built it. It was given its current name from the huge bronze statue called Colossus Neronis that was located right next to the amphitheatre. Just a few basic facts ☺
As soon as our tour was done, it began to downpour, so we headed back to our hostel. After the rain ended, we headed out to watch the soccer game, Spain vs. Paraguay. Of course, Spain won ☺ I’m really starting to like this stuff! We watched the game at a nice restaurant and bar at one end of Termini Station. I shared a calzone with Katie that was SO good… not surprisingly. Afterward, we headed in the direction of a gelato place that the people at the desk of our hostel recommended to me. We had a bit of a trek through the Roman ghetto to get there, but it was very much worth it. I had two kinds- zuppa inglesa and chocolate, of course. The first one tasted a lot like egg nog with chocolate chips, but it worked for me. ☺ By the time we got home for the night, we were soooo tired from the long day that we relaxed for the rest of the night. We woke up at the same time the next morning to catch our bus back to the airport. After a beautiful airplane ride with a boxing team from Santander, we arrived back to our city.
Oh you know, just another great weekend in beautiful Europe ☺
Love you all and hope all is well!
Abrazos y besos,
ME
Whew! Whirlwind weekend in Roma! It hardly even feels like I was there.
Let’s start from the beginning. We left from Santander airport early Friday afternoon and landed in Rome a couple of hours later. We needed to wait for two more people at the bus station and we were all hungry, so we chose a restaurant right across from the station. I experienced my first Italian pizza. SO good. Now if we could only switch Spanish food for Italian… ☺ Afterward we checked into our hostel, the Yellow. It was pretty nice, and super great because we had air conditioning. But I promise you that I’m not so spoiled that I can’t live without air, but let me just inform you of the temp for the weekend… 95 degrees. The. Whole. Weekend. Oh hey, no big deal. I LOVE sweat. Especially for pictures! ;) But I’ve heard that all of you in the U.S. are having the same sort of weather… but YOU’VE been hiding in the cool air!
Anyway…we left the Yellow for some city exploration, heading in the direction of the Colosseum. We wanted to hit that up first so that we’d have more time for everything else the next day. Unfortunately, when we got there, it was already closed. So we used the time as a photo opportunity for pics outside of the Colosseum, and then we continued on our way. We walked past a good portion of the Roman Forum. I had to mentally pinch myself the entire weekend to remind myself how lucky I was to be surrounded by pieces of history that date back to the beginning of known time. And I just loved to let myself imagine what life was like back then, with people living within and around the structures when they were first built. We walked around the city a bit more, and then decided to stop for dinner at a cozy little Italian restaurant. We sat outside where icicle lights were hung around the porch. We all tried different things, and Ashley and I shared some pasta that was AMAZING! It had mushrooms and a cream sauce more like alfredo… yummmm. And so continues my love affair with Italian food… After a long and leisurely meal, we ended up at the Trevi Fountain a little after midnight. Well, I mean… we stopped for gelato first, of course. ;) Such a great combination… pineapple gelato + Trevi= amore. The fountain was absolutely gorgeous lit up… every bit as great as I thought it would be.
The next morning I woke up at good old 6 am to get ready for the day. We were to meet up with the rest of the group and then head to the Vatican before it opened so that we could get in quickly since it’s only open in the morning on Saturday. Welp, skip that… we got there a little after it opened and waited a good two hours. It wasn’t all bad though… lines are an EXCELLENT way to people watch. I just prefer to do my people watching when I’m not in that kind of heat. Oh well… when we got into the Vatican, we checked out all of the museum right away. HOLY FLIP. I never knew a place could hold so much old, but unbelievably beautiful artwork. I was so much in awe the entire time. I think I could spend a whole other week inside there and still feel like I didn’t see everything. We ended up at the Sistine Chapel, which is so different than I ever thought it would be. But not in a bad way… I just felt more like I was in a huge room with floor to ceiling paintings than a real chapel. But I cannot even put into words how powerful Michelangelo’s paintings are. And I can’t imagine how he painted all of that in such a short time. I mean, it would probably take me 4 years just to paint a leg. MAJOR props to Michelangelo. By the time we got out, we were all separated into small groups. Katie, Ashley, Kathrine and I were hungry, but we wanted to see St. Peter’s Basilica before we left to eat. Unlucky for us, it was another two hours waiting outside to get into the Basilica, so we chose as a group not to stay. I have to say that it’s the one thing that I’m really disappointed that I didn’t get to see, but I realize that there is really only so much you can do in two days. On our way to lunch, we did the touristy thing and shopped for souvenirs, and then took the metro back to our side of town to find a pizza place I had heard of for lunch. When we got there, we saw that it was closed until dinner. Shoot. However, there was another place that looked really good just up the street. At this time, we were ready to settle for anything anyway because we were so tired and hot from the heat.
But let’s just say that we chose REALLY well. The pizza I had changed my life. Really… it was FANTASTIC. There’s really no need to say more. After leaving heaven, we headed for the Colosseum. We decided to take the guided tour for 4 euro more so we could learn as much as possible about the Colosseum. We wore little walkie talkies so that we could hear our tour guide. Fun little toy, I must say. Obviously, it goes without saying that the Colosseum is amazing. We learned all sorts of cool things, and I’ll include a few for the benefit of my Daddio. First…I guess I could have assumed this, but I never did… the gladiators were slaves that were required to participate in these fights. They fought other gladiators literally for their lives. They were practically doomed to die, because when they won a fight, they were destined to fight another and another until they died. Within the Colosseum, there was a winner’s exit and a loser’s exit. The dead body of the losing gladiator was carried through the loser’s exit, where there was a mortuary of sorts. There were two different types of events held in the Colosseum, hunts in the mornings in which hunters killed exotic animals from around the Meditteranean like tigers and hippos, and the fights between the gladiators in the afternoons. The fights between gladiators began way before that as some sort of funeral ritual, but they were brought to an end when Christianity reached Roma’s royalty and they realized that it was being abused. These events were free for everyone in Roma… the emperor at the time used these games as an opportunity to gain favor in the eyes of all the Romans. But of course there were all different levels of seats, which a person sat in depending on class. The senators all had very spacious seats with their names engraved on them. When senators changed, the name of the previous senator was ERASED from the cement block, and the new name was added. The original name of the Colosseum was the Flavian amphitheatre, named after the Flavian emperors that built it. It was given its current name from the huge bronze statue called Colossus Neronis that was located right next to the amphitheatre. Just a few basic facts ☺
As soon as our tour was done, it began to downpour, so we headed back to our hostel. After the rain ended, we headed out to watch the soccer game, Spain vs. Paraguay. Of course, Spain won ☺ I’m really starting to like this stuff! We watched the game at a nice restaurant and bar at one end of Termini Station. I shared a calzone with Katie that was SO good… not surprisingly. Afterward, we headed in the direction of a gelato place that the people at the desk of our hostel recommended to me. We had a bit of a trek through the Roman ghetto to get there, but it was very much worth it. I had two kinds- zuppa inglesa and chocolate, of course. The first one tasted a lot like egg nog with chocolate chips, but it worked for me. ☺ By the time we got home for the night, we were soooo tired from the long day that we relaxed for the rest of the night. We woke up at the same time the next morning to catch our bus back to the airport. After a beautiful airplane ride with a boxing team from Santander, we arrived back to our city.
Oh you know, just another great weekend in beautiful Europe ☺
Love you all and hope all is well!
Abrazos y besos,
ME
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Short post time :)
Just loving on Spain a bit more! The weather has been absolutely beautiful. Just perfect! Yesterday night was the Spain vs. Portugal game for the World Cup (Villa Villa Villa, Villa Mara-villa!), and we went to a bar on the beach to watch it. Let me just point how much I LOVE to watch the games with the locals. They produce a very colorful vocabulary, that's for sure. But their intensity for the game is just awesome... and I'm sorta kinda sad I'll be missing the next game because I'll be in ROMA! Yeahhh baby! Okay, so Rome wins.
Today we took a group excursion to Santillana del Mar, the same town I went to with my aunt and uncle. We were only there for a couple of hours, and we went into the Roman church in the town that I didn't see when I was there earlier. Beautiful! I'm in love with the churches here, without a doubt. Berta, our teacher from Western, pointed out to us that the names of people from Santillana that died during Franco's reign were inscripted into the side of the church. Pretty cool. And inside was the tomb of St. Juliana. Also kinda cool. Berta told us that it's tradition for girls to eat a sabao (a kind of pastry) and drink a glass of milk if they want to get married... within the next year. Okay folks, I can't say as though I feel this desire whatsoever, but I decided to test tradition and had me some sabao and leche. Parents, start saving money just in case. Just kidding :)
Anyway, tomorrow's the last day of school for the weekend, and then ROMAROMAMAAA. Kind of excited, if you couldn't tell. ;) Until then/hasta luego!
Abrazos y besos,
ME
Just loving on Spain a bit more! The weather has been absolutely beautiful. Just perfect! Yesterday night was the Spain vs. Portugal game for the World Cup (Villa Villa Villa, Villa Mara-villa!), and we went to a bar on the beach to watch it. Let me just point how much I LOVE to watch the games with the locals. They produce a very colorful vocabulary, that's for sure. But their intensity for the game is just awesome... and I'm sorta kinda sad I'll be missing the next game because I'll be in ROMA! Yeahhh baby! Okay, so Rome wins.
Today we took a group excursion to Santillana del Mar, the same town I went to with my aunt and uncle. We were only there for a couple of hours, and we went into the Roman church in the town that I didn't see when I was there earlier. Beautiful! I'm in love with the churches here, without a doubt. Berta, our teacher from Western, pointed out to us that the names of people from Santillana that died during Franco's reign were inscripted into the side of the church. Pretty cool. And inside was the tomb of St. Juliana. Also kinda cool. Berta told us that it's tradition for girls to eat a sabao (a kind of pastry) and drink a glass of milk if they want to get married... within the next year. Okay folks, I can't say as though I feel this desire whatsoever, but I decided to test tradition and had me some sabao and leche. Parents, start saving money just in case. Just kidding :)
Anyway, tomorrow's the last day of school for the weekend, and then ROMAROMAMAAA. Kind of excited, if you couldn't tell. ;) Until then/hasta luego!
Abrazos y besos,
ME
Lo siento amigos for the delay!
A mi me encanta la vida Espanola ☺
This past week has been a good one! The weather has been GREAT, so I’m automatically happy, right? Yes indeed. Last Tuesday, Alex and I took the bus to meet up with some others at Bikini Beach for the day. First off, I’m not quite sure WHY they call it Bikini Beach, seeing as how a good portion of the women go topless. No gracias. But other than that, it was beautiful. And the best part is that the sun here stays high until about 9, so we can keep working on our tans until about 7 or 8 at night. Muyyyy bien.
Wednesday was the Fiesta of San Juan, AKA the best night EVER! This fiesta simultaneously celebrates San Juan and the summer solstice, or the longest day of sunlight of the year. Well the espanoles like to add a little more light to the mix and create the HUGEST bonfires ever on their beaches at midnight and fiesta toda la noche. I mean, the whooooole night. Did I mention that they can drink on their beaches? Or rather, no one stops them. In fact, pretty sure the policia join in. Anyway, of course we all had to participate in this. I mean, it goes without saying. We got to the beach around ten after having to wait a ridiculous amount of time to find a bus not completely filled with fellow beachgoers. But by the time we had arrived, the party had merely begun. By midnight, there was hardly a free space on the beach. And let me just say that Holland has nothing on the miles of beach in Santander. They lit the largest bonfire I have ever seen in my whole entire life, and we all had the best time ever. We left way early by Spanish standards at 2:30 am, because we had school the next morning. Poop. I wish it was the Fiesta of San Juan EVERYDAY.
Right after school on Thursday, we left for Malaga, which sits on the southern coast of Spain. Let me just begin the rest of this paragraph with this statement: Ryanair sucks. We got to the airport a little after two for our 4:30 flight. Let’s just say we didn’t get to Malaga (an hour flight) until midnight. Mmk, I’ll leave it at that. We were warned by tons of our padres that Malaga was an ugly city, but we were going for the warmer weather and beaches so that hardly mattered. This was definitely a trip planned during the rainy two weeks of Santander weather. However, I’m pretty sure that Malaga exceeded all of our expectations. If that city is ugly, I don’t even want them to come to America. Cripes.
Friday night, our group of 14 was separated into 5 different hostels. Three of us went to the hostel where most of the rest would join us the next night. The beach was just across the street from our hostel, so we had the perfect location. The next morning, we met the rest of the group at el Museo Picasso, which is full of donated pieces from Picasso’s family. Fun fact: both Picasso and Antonio Banderas were born in Malaga. We toured the Cathedral of Malaga and then ate lunch outside of it. The cathedral was absolutely beautiful, chockfull of gold ornamentation and original paintings. Oh, and the largest organ that I will probably ever see. That afternoon, everyone checked into our hostel and we hung out at the beach. We all had Spanish flag body paint on for the game, which we watched in our hostel as the hostel workers handed out free shots for each goal. After the game was won by the lovely Spain (WOOO!), we headed out for the night. Everyone on the streets was going crazy after the win, carrying the Spanish flag and waving it around or wearing it around their necks on their motorcycles. And EVERYONE honked. It was excellent. We wanted to see flamenco, and ended up in the basement of a museum of flamenco history. Here enters my favorite Malaga memory. Alright, so we didn’t technically see flamenco. What we did get instead was about 20 Spanish people sitting around a table and singing flamenco songs with a guitar. HOLYYY CRAP. Most amazing thing of my life. The passion that these people have for this tradition is unreal. One of the older men even got up for a few songs and danced. You can tell that he was the man in his prime. I was absolutely enamored the entire time, and so began my obsession with flamenco music. I even snuck some videos of this greatness on my camera, so I’ll try to post them on Facebook.
The next morning, we got up to walk 5 billion steps to the top of a castle. Hands down the best workout I’ve had since I’ve been in Spain. I loved every second of it. And the view from the top made it even more worth it. The castle was more reminiscent of a fort, or the ruins of one anyway, and it has been used for war efforts since before the 1600s. After seeing the castle, we walked to an old Roman theatre. That was sweet to see, since I feel like I’ve heard so much about them, but it was under a bunch of construction. Oh well. After that, it was time to head to the airport, where Suckair delayed us another hour. During this break, I enjoyed the best Pizza Hut ever, so Suckair is forgiven. And after the delay, we arrived home without any further problem.
All in all, escaping to Malaga was a very fun weekend with great people. And our padres were most definitely wrong… Malaga NO es fea.
This past week has been a good one! The weather has been GREAT, so I’m automatically happy, right? Yes indeed. Last Tuesday, Alex and I took the bus to meet up with some others at Bikini Beach for the day. First off, I’m not quite sure WHY they call it Bikini Beach, seeing as how a good portion of the women go topless. No gracias. But other than that, it was beautiful. And the best part is that the sun here stays high until about 9, so we can keep working on our tans until about 7 or 8 at night. Muyyyy bien.
Wednesday was the Fiesta of San Juan, AKA the best night EVER! This fiesta simultaneously celebrates San Juan and the summer solstice, or the longest day of sunlight of the year. Well the espanoles like to add a little more light to the mix and create the HUGEST bonfires ever on their beaches at midnight and fiesta toda la noche. I mean, the whooooole night. Did I mention that they can drink on their beaches? Or rather, no one stops them. In fact, pretty sure the policia join in. Anyway, of course we all had to participate in this. I mean, it goes without saying. We got to the beach around ten after having to wait a ridiculous amount of time to find a bus not completely filled with fellow beachgoers. But by the time we had arrived, the party had merely begun. By midnight, there was hardly a free space on the beach. And let me just say that Holland has nothing on the miles of beach in Santander. They lit the largest bonfire I have ever seen in my whole entire life, and we all had the best time ever. We left way early by Spanish standards at 2:30 am, because we had school the next morning. Poop. I wish it was the Fiesta of San Juan EVERYDAY.
Right after school on Thursday, we left for Malaga, which sits on the southern coast of Spain. Let me just begin the rest of this paragraph with this statement: Ryanair sucks. We got to the airport a little after two for our 4:30 flight. Let’s just say we didn’t get to Malaga (an hour flight) until midnight. Mmk, I’ll leave it at that. We were warned by tons of our padres that Malaga was an ugly city, but we were going for the warmer weather and beaches so that hardly mattered. This was definitely a trip planned during the rainy two weeks of Santander weather. However, I’m pretty sure that Malaga exceeded all of our expectations. If that city is ugly, I don’t even want them to come to America. Cripes.
Friday night, our group of 14 was separated into 5 different hostels. Three of us went to the hostel where most of the rest would join us the next night. The beach was just across the street from our hostel, so we had the perfect location. The next morning, we met the rest of the group at el Museo Picasso, which is full of donated pieces from Picasso’s family. Fun fact: both Picasso and Antonio Banderas were born in Malaga. We toured the Cathedral of Malaga and then ate lunch outside of it. The cathedral was absolutely beautiful, chockfull of gold ornamentation and original paintings. Oh, and the largest organ that I will probably ever see. That afternoon, everyone checked into our hostel and we hung out at the beach. We all had Spanish flag body paint on for the game, which we watched in our hostel as the hostel workers handed out free shots for each goal. After the game was won by the lovely Spain (WOOO!), we headed out for the night. Everyone on the streets was going crazy after the win, carrying the Spanish flag and waving it around or wearing it around their necks on their motorcycles. And EVERYONE honked. It was excellent. We wanted to see flamenco, and ended up in the basement of a museum of flamenco history. Here enters my favorite Malaga memory. Alright, so we didn’t technically see flamenco. What we did get instead was about 20 Spanish people sitting around a table and singing flamenco songs with a guitar. HOLYYY CRAP. Most amazing thing of my life. The passion that these people have for this tradition is unreal. One of the older men even got up for a few songs and danced. You can tell that he was the man in his prime. I was absolutely enamored the entire time, and so began my obsession with flamenco music. I even snuck some videos of this greatness on my camera, so I’ll try to post them on Facebook.
The next morning, we got up to walk 5 billion steps to the top of a castle. Hands down the best workout I’ve had since I’ve been in Spain. I loved every second of it. And the view from the top made it even more worth it. The castle was more reminiscent of a fort, or the ruins of one anyway, and it has been used for war efforts since before the 1600s. After seeing the castle, we walked to an old Roman theatre. That was sweet to see, since I feel like I’ve heard so much about them, but it was under a bunch of construction. Oh well. After that, it was time to head to the airport, where Suckair delayed us another hour. During this break, I enjoyed the best Pizza Hut ever, so Suckair is forgiven. And after the delay, we arrived home without any further problem.
All in all, escaping to Malaga was a very fun weekend with great people. And our padres were most definitely wrong… Malaga NO es fea.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Barca weekend
Mmk… let me just start this post out by saying I LOVE BARCELONA! Mmk, now that is confirmed, I’ll get back to it.
Last Thursday, Lauren, Jamie, and I left on a bus headed to Barca at 9 pm from the bus station here in Santander. And it was just a 9 hr 45 min ride, no biggie. Ewww. Not so lucky for me, some chica that I will dub “Afro girl” was sitting in my window seat, so I had to kick her out. I’d normally take aisle no prob, but aisle=no resting place for my head. So naturally, this was absolutely necessary. Afro girl just looked at me all innocently, and it took her a few seconds to get the picture. Afro girl, in response, was not happy. Not in an overt, I’m going to speak my mind, kinda way. Noooo… all night she opted to kick my arm off of the armrest whenever I used it, and then proceeded to replace my elbow with her own. To take it a little further, she put her elbow so far over the armrest that she elbowed me toda la noche. At one point, she completely leaned on me. As if I wasn’t smothered enough already. I not so secretly rejoiced when she got off two hours before we got to Barcelona.
Alright, well… got that out of my system. Back to the real story. We got to Barca at 6:30 the next morning. Howeverrr, we got off at the wrong bus station in Barcelona, so we took the metro to La Rambla, pretty close to our hostel. But let’s just say that we didn’t realize this and it took another hour and a half to find it. Two first impressions were as follows: a) What the flip language is this? But really, I kinda already knew, thanks to Pablo, my advanced linguistics/history of the language professor from last semester. They speak Catalan, which is a type of Spanish that has evolved over time very differently than the Spanish of most of Spain, which is Castellano. B) There is a STARBUCKS here. Needless to say, I paid 4.90 in euros to get my caffeine fix. And it was worth everyyyy penny. When we went to our hostel, we weren’t allowed to check in yet, but were able to leave some of our stuff in the locker of Jamie’s friend, who had already stayed for a night. We ate an early lunch, explored the city a bit, and walked to La Sagrada Familia aka the most beautiful church EVER. Of course, Antoni Gaudi designed it. They started constructing it in 1882, but it’s not expected to be done until 2026. Holy crap. How could it not be great? I could have stayed outside looking at it in all of its massive detail for hours. So if you check out my pictures on Facebook, I just have to say I’m sorry for the large quantity of photos from LSF. But I did you all a favor, and left some, only about 100, out. I also recommend you check out all the symbolism that this church’s architecture holds- I could write 5 pages on that alone. When we were inside, there were cranes and work crews just chipping away for another 16 years of their lives. The ceiling is massively high, and the stained glass windows are unbelievable. After checking out the ground floor, we paid an extra 2.50 euros to take an elevator to the top of one of the towers. HOLYYY MOLY. Have a mentioned I’m afraid of heights? I didn’t (hardly) even care. You could see miles and miles of Barcelona, as well as all the intricate detail of the upper parts of LSF. So freaking beautiful I cannot even do it justice with words. And my pictures may not be very good, as I was about to pee my pants. After crossing the towers on the newer part, called the Passion Façade of the church, we could see the towers of the beautiful older part, the Nativity Façade (see pics… it all makes sense.) The old and new parts blend together so magnificently, it’s such a wonder to see. So remember how I said we were at the top of the tower? Welp, you’ve got to get down somehow. Enter… 5 million steps down. Skinny steps. Spiral steps. Without a railing on one side. The side with a view ALL the way down. I’m scared of heights, right? Let’s just say I held onto my camera and that one railing for dear life. But it was SO worth it. Alllll the way down. I loved it to pieces. Let’s just say that if you ever go to Barcelona, La Sagrada Familia cannot be missed.
After LSF, we went back to our hostel to meet up with a friend of Jamie's and Lauren’s. When she got there, we headed to the beach in search of a good bar. It was a looooong walk there, but the bar we found was perfect. A little piece of paradise, for sure. It was right on the sand, and we drank yummy sangria while watching the sun set. If you couldn’t tell, I live a rough life here in Spain… ☺ Later that night, we walked the boardwalk in search of IceBarcelona, an ice bar where everything, including the shot glasses and couch, are made of ice. They give you warm gear to wear, and you go at it. When we got there, we saw it was 15 euro, or about 20 dollars, to get in. Dang it. Moving on...We kept walking down the beach, saw the casino, and headed back for the bars off of La Rambla. La Rambla is known for it’s street vendors, performers, and pickpocketing. The performers are OUTRAGEOUS… some are super funny and others keep crazily still like statues. We ended up at a bar near our hostel where we got free shots from the bartender (yay Spain!) and a wasted middle aged English guy talking our ears off. By 1 am, Jamie and I headed back early to our hostel to get some sleep, seeing as how we hadn’t slept the night before.
The next morning, we went to the Boqueria, a fresh food market on La Rambla. Such an awesome thing to see! We bought smoothies that were so goooood, and headed over to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast. We then took the Metro to Parque Guell, a park designed by Gaudi. He intended for this park to be a private village for living, but it has ended up being a municipal garden for everyone to enjoy. Lucky us ☺ A tunnel inside the park is designed to look like the inside of a wave. It does! And the intricate, colorful tiling throughout the park is remarkable. Only two houses were ever built there- one that Gaudi lived in later in his life, and another that is now used as a souvenir store. Both very sweet pieces of architecture. We left the park on the hill, and headed back to the hostel before heading out again for what turned out to be a crazy, fun night in Barcelona. We headed back in the direction of the beach, with the intention of buying cheap bottles of wine and drinking on the sand. We stopped at a bar on the bay for tapas and drinks. The tapas were delicious, and we watched the cruise ships leave at night. As we continued our journey, we ran into some Germans and ended up hanging out with them for a good part of the night. They took us to another club with a 15 euro entrance fee (what the flip, Barca?) , and Lauren, Jamie, and I decided to find a bar where we could buy multiple drinks for 5 euro, leaving their two friends to hang out with the Germans for the night. We ended up at Cheers, a Irish pub with live music. GREAT choice, We met two different groups of guys from England, both in Barca for stag nights/weekends (bachelor parties). They were all so much fun, and I got tooooons to drink for free. Could the night get any better? Free drinks and great drunken convos with new friends. ☺ Perfection. We got home at 4 that morning, which is still considered early by Spanish standards. But the night was a success.
I had to wake up at 7:30 to get ready for the ride home. No fun. Our bus left Barca at 10:15 am, and we returned to Santander at 8:30 pm. I don’t want to see another bus for a long, long time. Luckily, I’m in Spain, which meant that the scenery included the mountains, ocean, and miles upon miles of vineyards. I can hardly believe you can have that many grape plants in one region. Geeeeez… wine much? ☺
I got home veryyyy hungry last night to Concha and Manola gone, but when they got home, I feasted and caught up with them, and all was good. ☺ Only three more days of school until I leave for Malaga with some great friends! Good week ahead ☺ Hope you all are doing well… thanks for keeping up with my posts!
Abrazos y besos (y mucho amor),
ME
Last Thursday, Lauren, Jamie, and I left on a bus headed to Barca at 9 pm from the bus station here in Santander. And it was just a 9 hr 45 min ride, no biggie. Ewww. Not so lucky for me, some chica that I will dub “Afro girl” was sitting in my window seat, so I had to kick her out. I’d normally take aisle no prob, but aisle=no resting place for my head. So naturally, this was absolutely necessary. Afro girl just looked at me all innocently, and it took her a few seconds to get the picture. Afro girl, in response, was not happy. Not in an overt, I’m going to speak my mind, kinda way. Noooo… all night she opted to kick my arm off of the armrest whenever I used it, and then proceeded to replace my elbow with her own. To take it a little further, she put her elbow so far over the armrest that she elbowed me toda la noche. At one point, she completely leaned on me. As if I wasn’t smothered enough already. I not so secretly rejoiced when she got off two hours before we got to Barcelona.
Alright, well… got that out of my system. Back to the real story. We got to Barca at 6:30 the next morning. Howeverrr, we got off at the wrong bus station in Barcelona, so we took the metro to La Rambla, pretty close to our hostel. But let’s just say that we didn’t realize this and it took another hour and a half to find it. Two first impressions were as follows: a) What the flip language is this? But really, I kinda already knew, thanks to Pablo, my advanced linguistics/history of the language professor from last semester. They speak Catalan, which is a type of Spanish that has evolved over time very differently than the Spanish of most of Spain, which is Castellano. B) There is a STARBUCKS here. Needless to say, I paid 4.90 in euros to get my caffeine fix. And it was worth everyyyy penny. When we went to our hostel, we weren’t allowed to check in yet, but were able to leave some of our stuff in the locker of Jamie’s friend, who had already stayed for a night. We ate an early lunch, explored the city a bit, and walked to La Sagrada Familia aka the most beautiful church EVER. Of course, Antoni Gaudi designed it. They started constructing it in 1882, but it’s not expected to be done until 2026. Holy crap. How could it not be great? I could have stayed outside looking at it in all of its massive detail for hours. So if you check out my pictures on Facebook, I just have to say I’m sorry for the large quantity of photos from LSF. But I did you all a favor, and left some, only about 100, out. I also recommend you check out all the symbolism that this church’s architecture holds- I could write 5 pages on that alone. When we were inside, there were cranes and work crews just chipping away for another 16 years of their lives. The ceiling is massively high, and the stained glass windows are unbelievable. After checking out the ground floor, we paid an extra 2.50 euros to take an elevator to the top of one of the towers. HOLYYY MOLY. Have a mentioned I’m afraid of heights? I didn’t (hardly) even care. You could see miles and miles of Barcelona, as well as all the intricate detail of the upper parts of LSF. So freaking beautiful I cannot even do it justice with words. And my pictures may not be very good, as I was about to pee my pants. After crossing the towers on the newer part, called the Passion Façade of the church, we could see the towers of the beautiful older part, the Nativity Façade (see pics… it all makes sense.) The old and new parts blend together so magnificently, it’s such a wonder to see. So remember how I said we were at the top of the tower? Welp, you’ve got to get down somehow. Enter… 5 million steps down. Skinny steps. Spiral steps. Without a railing on one side. The side with a view ALL the way down. I’m scared of heights, right? Let’s just say I held onto my camera and that one railing for dear life. But it was SO worth it. Alllll the way down. I loved it to pieces. Let’s just say that if you ever go to Barcelona, La Sagrada Familia cannot be missed.
After LSF, we went back to our hostel to meet up with a friend of Jamie's and Lauren’s. When she got there, we headed to the beach in search of a good bar. It was a looooong walk there, but the bar we found was perfect. A little piece of paradise, for sure. It was right on the sand, and we drank yummy sangria while watching the sun set. If you couldn’t tell, I live a rough life here in Spain… ☺ Later that night, we walked the boardwalk in search of IceBarcelona, an ice bar where everything, including the shot glasses and couch, are made of ice. They give you warm gear to wear, and you go at it. When we got there, we saw it was 15 euro, or about 20 dollars, to get in. Dang it. Moving on...We kept walking down the beach, saw the casino, and headed back for the bars off of La Rambla. La Rambla is known for it’s street vendors, performers, and pickpocketing. The performers are OUTRAGEOUS… some are super funny and others keep crazily still like statues. We ended up at a bar near our hostel where we got free shots from the bartender (yay Spain!) and a wasted middle aged English guy talking our ears off. By 1 am, Jamie and I headed back early to our hostel to get some sleep, seeing as how we hadn’t slept the night before.
The next morning, we went to the Boqueria, a fresh food market on La Rambla. Such an awesome thing to see! We bought smoothies that were so goooood, and headed over to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast. We then took the Metro to Parque Guell, a park designed by Gaudi. He intended for this park to be a private village for living, but it has ended up being a municipal garden for everyone to enjoy. Lucky us ☺ A tunnel inside the park is designed to look like the inside of a wave. It does! And the intricate, colorful tiling throughout the park is remarkable. Only two houses were ever built there- one that Gaudi lived in later in his life, and another that is now used as a souvenir store. Both very sweet pieces of architecture. We left the park on the hill, and headed back to the hostel before heading out again for what turned out to be a crazy, fun night in Barcelona. We headed back in the direction of the beach, with the intention of buying cheap bottles of wine and drinking on the sand. We stopped at a bar on the bay for tapas and drinks. The tapas were delicious, and we watched the cruise ships leave at night. As we continued our journey, we ran into some Germans and ended up hanging out with them for a good part of the night. They took us to another club with a 15 euro entrance fee (what the flip, Barca?) , and Lauren, Jamie, and I decided to find a bar where we could buy multiple drinks for 5 euro, leaving their two friends to hang out with the Germans for the night. We ended up at Cheers, a Irish pub with live music. GREAT choice, We met two different groups of guys from England, both in Barca for stag nights/weekends (bachelor parties). They were all so much fun, and I got tooooons to drink for free. Could the night get any better? Free drinks and great drunken convos with new friends. ☺ Perfection. We got home at 4 that morning, which is still considered early by Spanish standards. But the night was a success.
I had to wake up at 7:30 to get ready for the ride home. No fun. Our bus left Barca at 10:15 am, and we returned to Santander at 8:30 pm. I don’t want to see another bus for a long, long time. Luckily, I’m in Spain, which meant that the scenery included the mountains, ocean, and miles upon miles of vineyards. I can hardly believe you can have that many grape plants in one region. Geeeeez… wine much? ☺
I got home veryyyy hungry last night to Concha and Manola gone, but when they got home, I feasted and caught up with them, and all was good. ☺ Only three more days of school until I leave for Malaga with some great friends! Good week ahead ☺ Hope you all are doing well… thanks for keeping up with my posts!
Abrazos y besos (y mucho amor),
ME
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