I know that I finally can be considered a "local" in Spain (mostly Alcala) because:
1. Yesterday I was asked for directions - and I knew the answer and was able to articulate them in Spanish.
2. Someone asked me for a cigarette.
I must be giving off some serious Spanish vibes.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Arboles de Neon
Yesterday it was raining all day and not the best day to be walking around touring. On our way to El Escorial, we stopped at a castle on the way which we all would love to purchase at some point down the road.
We then went the basilica in Valle de los Caidos. Built in the 1940s, the basilica rests in the mountains and was enormous. The layout was of a cross and it was much gloomier than the other churches we have visited because there were no windows. It housed the remains of lots of the fighters involved in the civil war as well as the tomb of Franco that was in a different area we weren't able to see.
After those quick stops, we went to El Escorial to the Real Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial. This was one of my favorite places: it was the "summer" palace mainly for Philip II but today it is also a monastery and private college. It has the tombs of the majority of monarchs that ruled in Spain and a massive basilica. The palace itself was very plain and ordinary because as Philip II stayed there, he was said to be like a monk with all his religious practices. The most ornate parts of the palace were the wooden doors which were made from all different types of wood with incredible detail as well as the area which held all the tombs which was pure marble (ceilings, walls, floor - everything). There is also a library there, one of the best well-kept in Europe (something like 40,000 books, old old books). The most interesting that I can remember was when we were in the basilica the tour guide (also a walking advertisement) said that people can still get married in it for 1500 euro - which doesn't seem that much to me to be married in a historical basilica of one of the kings in Spain! He said it includes a childrens choir, use of the massive organs, the red carpet and flowers all over the alter. Sounds amazing to me! After our tour, we all sprinted back to the bus because it was so cold!
The bus dropped us of in Madrid because we found out about a Neon Trees secret concert. We were debating the legitimacy of it all but thought it would be worth it to check it out. Only a couple hours later were we touching the stage, being touched by the band and singing to our favorite singles. The night completely exceeded all our expectations. Even better, I stayed with Ashely to wait for one of the managers to take down a poster for me and we were just hanging outside when we saw Tyler Glen (lead singer) start walking up the sidewalk. Obviously, we smiled at him and started up a conversation about how we were students at BYU (the band started in Provo) and they started asking about our study abroad etc etc. After, Ashley and I were so star struck we couldn't believe it. They were all so chill and nice to us throughout the conversation - incredibly down-to-earth. When they started to walk away, the bass guitarist shouted over to us "Have fun, but remember who you are!"
We then went the basilica in Valle de los Caidos. Built in the 1940s, the basilica rests in the mountains and was enormous. The layout was of a cross and it was much gloomier than the other churches we have visited because there were no windows. It housed the remains of lots of the fighters involved in the civil war as well as the tomb of Franco that was in a different area we weren't able to see.
After those quick stops, we went to El Escorial to the Real Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial. This was one of my favorite places: it was the "summer" palace mainly for Philip II but today it is also a monastery and private college. It has the tombs of the majority of monarchs that ruled in Spain and a massive basilica. The palace itself was very plain and ordinary because as Philip II stayed there, he was said to be like a monk with all his religious practices. The most ornate parts of the palace were the wooden doors which were made from all different types of wood with incredible detail as well as the area which held all the tombs which was pure marble (ceilings, walls, floor - everything). There is also a library there, one of the best well-kept in Europe (something like 40,000 books, old old books). The most interesting that I can remember was when we were in the basilica the tour guide (also a walking advertisement) said that people can still get married in it for 1500 euro - which doesn't seem that much to me to be married in a historical basilica of one of the kings in Spain! He said it includes a childrens choir, use of the massive organs, the red carpet and flowers all over the alter. Sounds amazing to me! After our tour, we all sprinted back to the bus because it was so cold!
The bus dropped us of in Madrid because we found out about a Neon Trees secret concert. We were debating the legitimacy of it all but thought it would be worth it to check it out. Only a couple hours later were we touching the stage, being touched by the band and singing to our favorite singles. The night completely exceeded all our expectations. Even better, I stayed with Ashely to wait for one of the managers to take down a poster for me and we were just hanging outside when we saw Tyler Glen (lead singer) start walking up the sidewalk. Obviously, we smiled at him and started up a conversation about how we were students at BYU (the band started in Provo) and they started asking about our study abroad etc etc. After, Ashley and I were so star struck we couldn't believe it. They were all so chill and nice to us throughout the conversation - incredibly down-to-earth. When they started to walk away, the bass guitarist shouted over to us "Have fun, but remember who you are!"
Guys... trust me, it's this way
On Friday, we took a day-trip to Toledo. We took a bus tour at first and went to a spot across the river to get a beautiful landscape view of the entire city. Toledo is perched up on this hill surrounded by a river. It was incredible and a breath-taking scene.
We took the escalators to get up to Toledo and went to the cathedral. I will be honest and say that I have seen an incredible amount of cathedrals at this point and am having trouble recalling our visit to this one. However, I do remember the Baroque decorations. Our tour guide mentioned that the area behind the alter in most cathedrals are the darkest and the architects of this cathedral thought to put a large window to create for lighting. There were also several cardinals buried in this cathedral. People hung these red caps above the tombs. The “legend” is that when the caps fall, their souls have entered into heaven. Unfortunately, none of the caps have fallen, so they’ve been trapped for quite some time now. Something unique about this cathedral was that in a room it housed several original works of El Greco. His largest painting was of Christ and it was unique because he painted people in the background above Christ’s figure, which was looked down upon. There were also paintings there by Van Dyck and Carvaggio. After our visit to the cathedral, we went to a smaller chapel that has The Burial of the Count of Orgaz. It was a self-portrait with also the face of his wife as Mary and the face of his son as well as he depicted a two-world picture. We then had a little bit of free time where the “sisterhood” found a small courtyard to sit in the sun and leisurely eat our lunches. While we were there, Spanish boys around our ages started calling out from the windows and they came down to talk to us. Jenny thought it would be funny if she and Lexi just started speaking Gibberish instead of any English or Spanish. She did a fantastic job of keeping a straight face (can’t say the same about myself) and we walked off until Ashley’s conscious got to her and they walked back to try to apologize and talk to the Spanish boys. They had disappeared and Lexi tried throwing pebbles at their windows to get them to come down again. Eventually, they got their attention and cleared their conscious. As we headed back to the bus, we realized we had no idea where to go. Jenny and Ashley were positive it was one way while Lexi and I were sure it was the other. We split up and I am proud to say that we made it back to the bus long before Jenny and Ashley.
We took the escalators to get up to Toledo and went to the cathedral. I will be honest and say that I have seen an incredible amount of cathedrals at this point and am having trouble recalling our visit to this one. However, I do remember the Baroque decorations. Our tour guide mentioned that the area behind the alter in most cathedrals are the darkest and the architects of this cathedral thought to put a large window to create for lighting. There were also several cardinals buried in this cathedral. People hung these red caps above the tombs. The “legend” is that when the caps fall, their souls have entered into heaven. Unfortunately, none of the caps have fallen, so they’ve been trapped for quite some time now. Something unique about this cathedral was that in a room it housed several original works of El Greco. His largest painting was of Christ and it was unique because he painted people in the background above Christ’s figure, which was looked down upon. There were also paintings there by Van Dyck and Carvaggio. After our visit to the cathedral, we went to a smaller chapel that has The Burial of the Count of Orgaz. It was a self-portrait with also the face of his wife as Mary and the face of his son as well as he depicted a two-world picture. We then had a little bit of free time where the “sisterhood” found a small courtyard to sit in the sun and leisurely eat our lunches. While we were there, Spanish boys around our ages started calling out from the windows and they came down to talk to us. Jenny thought it would be funny if she and Lexi just started speaking Gibberish instead of any English or Spanish. She did a fantastic job of keeping a straight face (can’t say the same about myself) and we walked off until Ashley’s conscious got to her and they walked back to try to apologize and talk to the Spanish boys. They had disappeared and Lexi tried throwing pebbles at their windows to get them to come down again. Eventually, they got their attention and cleared their conscious. As we headed back to the bus, we realized we had no idea where to go. Jenny and Ashley were positive it was one way while Lexi and I were sure it was the other. We split up and I am proud to say that we made it back to the bus long before Jenny and Ashley.
San Miguel
We made a point throughout the week to get everyone to come with us to the San Miguel mercado again on Wednesday. Even though it was the night before many of our first Spanish exams, we decided we should go anyway (hopefully this gives you an idea of our priorities...) The group was a bit bigger than last time, but we were able to introduce a few girls to the San Miguel. They fell in love just like the rest of us! Walking around all the stands and getting little sampler sizes of everything satisfied all of our curious tastes. They have everything from sushi to Yo-Zone-like froyo (except they have Almond butter and Nutella as options for toppings - definitely suggesting that to Yo-Zone!) It was our fun "study break" adventure to Madrid.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Sugar High
On Sunday, we had stake conference at the Madrid temple. It was beautiful ground and interesting to see all the members of the church gather here. According to our religion teacher, Faustino Lopez, there are 44,000 Mormons in Spain - about 1 for every thousand people. His class is really interesting and he talks about when he converted, it felt like he was no longer a Spaniard anymore because everyone who is Spanish, is Catholic. It's just the way it is historically. The family I live with are mostly inactive and don't go to church at all except for Nieves. It's really interesting to see the church in this different culture. Although they are from different backgrounds, our classes and meetings still teach the same things and don't vary from ward to ward, stake to stake or country to country for that matter. It's just something interesting we've all noticed despite the language barrier.
The funny part of Sunday was as I was getting ready, my curling iron blew out - and the rest of the apartment's electricity. So now I've broken my straightener, curling iron and my blow dryer is on the verge of snapping. It was time for new ones but I would have liked to avoid breaking all of them!
Valentine's Day was not as bad as I thought it was going to be - it was actually one of the best Valentine's Days I've had (being single anyways.) I woke up to a package sent from my wonderful family with a nice card and some candy. Growing up my parents would always ackowledge the holiday and give Chloe and I treats. After classes, my friends and I headed to Carrefour (similar to a Walmart) to get ingredients to make sugar cookies at our director's house. Apparently they don't use baking soda here in Spain so we found some sort of conversion for baking powder for baking soda. If you use 3 teaspoons for every 1 teaspoon of baking soda the recipe calls for, you'll be fine. Well our cookies turned out delicious. Instead of the liquid vanilla extract we got sugar flavored like vanilla. We bought a bouquet of flowers for our director too. We headed over there around 7 and we each brought little treats including: sour candy, m&ms, oreos, principes (delicious Spanish cookies), huestitos, kit kats and then we ordered pizza as well. We made our cookies with questionable frosting because of the powdered sugar we found was bizarre. And after we gathered around my computer and watched Valentine's Day. It was so fun. I talked with different girls in the program and got to know them better. I love them allll!
It was late when we all headed home and Jenny, Lexi, Carly and I roamed the public transportation for about 40 minutes with the sketchiest bus driver ever. I'm pretty sure we fishtailed twice and he was trying to kill us. We couldn't stop laughing because we were so jittery from all the sugar we consumed. Apparently, the bus driver liked Katy Perry and played a song for us from his cell phone we all hadn't heard of. His driving made me feel so sick and we finally got home after staying on for the whole bus route for the 6 bus. Quite the adventure to end Valentine's Day spent with the girls I love!
The funny part of Sunday was as I was getting ready, my curling iron blew out - and the rest of the apartment's electricity. So now I've broken my straightener, curling iron and my blow dryer is on the verge of snapping. It was time for new ones but I would have liked to avoid breaking all of them!
Valentine's Day was not as bad as I thought it was going to be - it was actually one of the best Valentine's Days I've had (being single anyways.) I woke up to a package sent from my wonderful family with a nice card and some candy. Growing up my parents would always ackowledge the holiday and give Chloe and I treats. After classes, my friends and I headed to Carrefour (similar to a Walmart) to get ingredients to make sugar cookies at our director's house. Apparently they don't use baking soda here in Spain so we found some sort of conversion for baking powder for baking soda. If you use 3 teaspoons for every 1 teaspoon of baking soda the recipe calls for, you'll be fine. Well our cookies turned out delicious. Instead of the liquid vanilla extract we got sugar flavored like vanilla. We bought a bouquet of flowers for our director too. We headed over there around 7 and we each brought little treats including: sour candy, m&ms, oreos, principes (delicious Spanish cookies), huestitos, kit kats and then we ordered pizza as well. We made our cookies with questionable frosting because of the powdered sugar we found was bizarre. And after we gathered around my computer and watched Valentine's Day. It was so fun. I talked with different girls in the program and got to know them better. I love them allll!
It was late when we all headed home and Jenny, Lexi, Carly and I roamed the public transportation for about 40 minutes with the sketchiest bus driver ever. I'm pretty sure we fishtailed twice and he was trying to kill us. We couldn't stop laughing because we were so jittery from all the sugar we consumed. Apparently, the bus driver liked Katy Perry and played a song for us from his cell phone we all hadn't heard of. His driving made me feel so sick and we finally got home after staying on for the whole bus route for the 6 bus. Quite the adventure to end Valentine's Day spent with the girls I love!
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Just a typical weekend... in Andalucia
On Wednesday our group left for Andalucia – yes we missed two days of classes because travelling is a priority here. (Every time I talk to my parents, they’re kind enough to ask how my classes are going. Hopefully they’ve caught on by now that classes are the smallest portion of how I have been spending my time here in Spain.) We all packed onto a bus and headed to southern Spain.
Our first stop was Consuegra. We parked at the top of these hills which had the windmills Cervantes used in his tale of Don Quijote – when he attacks the windmills believing they are monsters. The view was amazing and we spent 30 minutes shooting and getting pictures. We then headed to our second stop – Cordoba. As we kept traveling further south, the weather got warmer and warmer. As soon as I saw palm trees, I knew I loved everything about southern Spain. That’s pretty much the same for anywhere I travel: if there are palm trees and it’s decently warm, I’m happy. Anyway there is this beautiful river that runs through Cordoba that we went over to get to the cathedral. La Mezquita Catedral was originally constructed by the Moorish and you could see the Arab design of the building. There were hundreds of these double arches with red and white painting on it. Here the 7,000 Muslims would come to pray. They would all lay on the ground with there heads down praying in unison. Our director, Cynthia, told us to imagine that many people in the building and the echo it would create – the image painted in our minds was astounding. The most interesting part about this was that when the Europeans gained back Cordoba they constructed a Catholic cathedral in the center of the building with an altar. So, the mix of the two uses of the building was interesting. We also went to these gardens outside the building in which Isabel and Columbus supposedly discussed his plans to sail to the Americas. It was a beautiful day and the gardens had ponds with fish, palm trees (of course), and tons of orange trees. A couple people picked oranges, peeled and tasted them, but soon discovered that they were not ripe oranges. We wandered around for a bit through the narrow, windy side roads. We got our gelato too and went into the stores that sold lots of little trinkets. After a few hours in Cordoba, we headed to our final destination for the next two nights – Sevilla.
Seville is my favorite city we’ve stayed in so far. It might be because we had the most time there, but I also really enjoyed the layout of the city. It was divided by this beautiful river with bridges to get back and forth. There were several restaurants lined along the sides of the river. It was a busy city but not overwhelming. Once we all checked into the hotel we dropped our things off and went to find a place to eat with everyone. We decided to keep things fairly cheap and went to get kebabs. We walked around for a while, but we were incredibly tired from the travelling that day and a group of us gathered in one of the hotel rooms to share American milanos and chit chat.
We woke up early and headed on a tour of the city – obviously of the cathedral and/or castle/palace that’s in every European city. Seville has the “world’s largest Gothic cathedral” which was actually huge on the inside – an architectural masterpiece. We were able to climb up the bell tower (which was ramps on the way up, not stair thank goodness!) We also went to the palace in Seville, El Alcazar, that was entirely inspired by Moorish design – Arabic writings and bright colors. The gardens in the palace were beautiful too that had a pipe pouring water from the roof of the palace into a pond. And there were palm trees, of course. After our tour it was such a beautiful day outside that we just wanted to find an outdoor place to eat and sit in the sun. We walked through the tiny side streets to find some gelato and sat at one the monuments by the cathedral and layed down at the stairs. I fell asleep for a while. As we were talking, we all started to realize how incredible this trip really was: we have seen all these monumental cathedrals, palaces etc and are able to travel to some of the most beautiful cities in Europe. We frequently talk about how grateful we are to be here this semester and enjoying all these experiences together.
After heading back to the hotel, I wanted to do something a little more active so I went with another group of students to rent bikes! This was a hard decision because we needed to “subscribe” for 7 days and the initial fee was 10 euros. I weighed it out in my mind and it didn’t take very long: was it worth 10 euros to ride a bike for an hour and a half along the river of Sevilla? Yes, absolutely. We got all the bikes right when the sun was setting and it was basically a dream come true – incredibly surreal. For anyone that knows me will know that I’m not incredibly comfortable on bikes especially in stressful situations – among traffic, lots of people etc. But everything worked out because there were designated bike paths on all the sidewalks that really helped me out.
Sevilla is also known for its fish. So, Thursday night we went to a casual restaurant along the river and ordered batter-fried grouper, cod etc. It was quite a romantic evening to share with 4 other girls. The best part was the stray black kitten that wouldn’t leave from underneath our table, or maybe the 2 euros Lexi was charged for ketchup. We wandered of course afterward trying to find the Plaza de Espana that is supposedly beautiful and covered in the tiles Sevilla is infamous for – every souvenir store has the most beautifully decorated, colorful tiles that I want to buy for my kitchen some day! Anyway, we walked around for 30 minutes and we were being pointed in all opposite directions, so we decided to head back to the hotel. I would say it was our first unsuccessful wandering experience, but I was tired enough that it didn’t bother me.
I woke up the next morning with Jenny and Brooke at 5:45am to go running. It was obviously still dark out and not cold at all. We didn’t think about it before but as soon as we left the hotel we realized we were going to run into all of the partiers who were still out and just turning around to head home. Boy, did we underestimate! It was almost scary because we were called after, yelled at, cheered on, sang to and even chased after! It was really, really funny and probably paid off because we certainly picked up the pace and laughed a lot. I ended up keeping up with the track stars (I was quite impressed with myself since I hate running) and we ran four miles in the early morning throughout Sevilla! It was a memorable experience. We quickly showered and packed up to head to Granada with the group.
We were barely in Granada for 24 hours so it’s hard to say we saw a lot but we did go to the famous Alhambra! Alhambra is the city where the imam lived during the Moorish rule – a city within a city basically. In Alhambra, there was a magnificent palace and gardens. All of the walls in the palace were intricately sculpted and decorated with Arabic writings and the beautiful tiles southern Spain has everywhere. After our three-hour tour of Alhambra, we walked around the main streets in Granada because there was lots of shopping. Everyone’s favorite store was called Pull and Bear, which had cute things at fair prices. I bought a shirt that says “Jump, Shout and Feel Free”: possibly the newest motto for my life. There was also an “Arab market” which had lots of random, cheap things and I was able to get a couple souvenirs and bags of herbal tea! For dinner, we walked in and out of the windy side roads again and found a tiny little restaurant tucked in the corner of this small plaza. We all got pizzas that were really enjoyable and tasted like they were made with mozerella cheese. We headed straight back to the hotel because it gets much colder in Granada at night than Sevilla because you’re higher up and closer to the mountains. There are even places to ski really close to Granada.
We woke up early again on Saturday to go running through Granada and ran down to this aquaduct-river-type-thing to see if we could watch the sunrise. We realized that the purpose of the canal-thing was for when all the snow on the top of the mountains melts. We had to be back at the hotel at a certain time so we didn’t have enough time to watch the sunrise but it was fun enough to see Granada in the early morning. Once we checked out of the rooms, we had time to either go to the Cathedral, which housed the tomb of Queen Isabel or go to the spice market again. We headed to the market to look for more gifts for our families and friends.
Saturday morning was the same morning I found out I didn’t get the internship I was hoping for this summer. I was really bummed because I had felt so confident in how I did with the interviews and I had gotten such a positive response back from the company. When I told my friends in the program, they were really comforting and helped joke around for me to get my mind off of it. I’ve really grown to love the girls I’ve met on the trip and their wonderful personalities. I’ve learned so much from them and have been able to work on my characteristics that I think need improvement. Spending time with these girls, we can always laugh and have a good time. Although I didn’t get the internship, they quickly helped me see life goes on and that this might be for the better. It was hard to not think about it on the long bus ride back to Alcala. We drove through this area literally filled with olive trees. As far as you could see into the distance were olive trees – it was incredibly overwhelming and after a solid 30 minutes of driving through it, very boring. I thought about how much I really dislike the taste of olives and have always pushed them off my plate before this trip. Now being in Spain, olives are one of the main tapas dishes and I’ve tried a few here and there at the various places we’ve been. Slowly, I see myself getting more acquainted with the sour taste. As I thought about my literal tastes changing I thought about how this trip has helped me to mature, easy-going and become more of an individual. I swear if I had been back in Provo and found out about the internship, I probably would have stayed in my room for the rest of the weekend. But life goes on, and I will have to make do with what I am given and try to make the best out of that. When life gives you olives, try one and maybe it won’t taste as bad as you think.
Our first stop was Consuegra. We parked at the top of these hills which had the windmills Cervantes used in his tale of Don Quijote – when he attacks the windmills believing they are monsters. The view was amazing and we spent 30 minutes shooting and getting pictures. We then headed to our second stop – Cordoba. As we kept traveling further south, the weather got warmer and warmer. As soon as I saw palm trees, I knew I loved everything about southern Spain. That’s pretty much the same for anywhere I travel: if there are palm trees and it’s decently warm, I’m happy. Anyway there is this beautiful river that runs through Cordoba that we went over to get to the cathedral. La Mezquita Catedral was originally constructed by the Moorish and you could see the Arab design of the building. There were hundreds of these double arches with red and white painting on it. Here the 7,000 Muslims would come to pray. They would all lay on the ground with there heads down praying in unison. Our director, Cynthia, told us to imagine that many people in the building and the echo it would create – the image painted in our minds was astounding. The most interesting part about this was that when the Europeans gained back Cordoba they constructed a Catholic cathedral in the center of the building with an altar. So, the mix of the two uses of the building was interesting. We also went to these gardens outside the building in which Isabel and Columbus supposedly discussed his plans to sail to the Americas. It was a beautiful day and the gardens had ponds with fish, palm trees (of course), and tons of orange trees. A couple people picked oranges, peeled and tasted them, but soon discovered that they were not ripe oranges. We wandered around for a bit through the narrow, windy side roads. We got our gelato too and went into the stores that sold lots of little trinkets. After a few hours in Cordoba, we headed to our final destination for the next two nights – Sevilla.
Seville is my favorite city we’ve stayed in so far. It might be because we had the most time there, but I also really enjoyed the layout of the city. It was divided by this beautiful river with bridges to get back and forth. There were several restaurants lined along the sides of the river. It was a busy city but not overwhelming. Once we all checked into the hotel we dropped our things off and went to find a place to eat with everyone. We decided to keep things fairly cheap and went to get kebabs. We walked around for a while, but we were incredibly tired from the travelling that day and a group of us gathered in one of the hotel rooms to share American milanos and chit chat.
We woke up early and headed on a tour of the city – obviously of the cathedral and/or castle/palace that’s in every European city. Seville has the “world’s largest Gothic cathedral” which was actually huge on the inside – an architectural masterpiece. We were able to climb up the bell tower (which was ramps on the way up, not stair thank goodness!) We also went to the palace in Seville, El Alcazar, that was entirely inspired by Moorish design – Arabic writings and bright colors. The gardens in the palace were beautiful too that had a pipe pouring water from the roof of the palace into a pond. And there were palm trees, of course. After our tour it was such a beautiful day outside that we just wanted to find an outdoor place to eat and sit in the sun. We walked through the tiny side streets to find some gelato and sat at one the monuments by the cathedral and layed down at the stairs. I fell asleep for a while. As we were talking, we all started to realize how incredible this trip really was: we have seen all these monumental cathedrals, palaces etc and are able to travel to some of the most beautiful cities in Europe. We frequently talk about how grateful we are to be here this semester and enjoying all these experiences together.
After heading back to the hotel, I wanted to do something a little more active so I went with another group of students to rent bikes! This was a hard decision because we needed to “subscribe” for 7 days and the initial fee was 10 euros. I weighed it out in my mind and it didn’t take very long: was it worth 10 euros to ride a bike for an hour and a half along the river of Sevilla? Yes, absolutely. We got all the bikes right when the sun was setting and it was basically a dream come true – incredibly surreal. For anyone that knows me will know that I’m not incredibly comfortable on bikes especially in stressful situations – among traffic, lots of people etc. But everything worked out because there were designated bike paths on all the sidewalks that really helped me out.
Sevilla is also known for its fish. So, Thursday night we went to a casual restaurant along the river and ordered batter-fried grouper, cod etc. It was quite a romantic evening to share with 4 other girls. The best part was the stray black kitten that wouldn’t leave from underneath our table, or maybe the 2 euros Lexi was charged for ketchup. We wandered of course afterward trying to find the Plaza de Espana that is supposedly beautiful and covered in the tiles Sevilla is infamous for – every souvenir store has the most beautifully decorated, colorful tiles that I want to buy for my kitchen some day! Anyway, we walked around for 30 minutes and we were being pointed in all opposite directions, so we decided to head back to the hotel. I would say it was our first unsuccessful wandering experience, but I was tired enough that it didn’t bother me.
I woke up the next morning with Jenny and Brooke at 5:45am to go running. It was obviously still dark out and not cold at all. We didn’t think about it before but as soon as we left the hotel we realized we were going to run into all of the partiers who were still out and just turning around to head home. Boy, did we underestimate! It was almost scary because we were called after, yelled at, cheered on, sang to and even chased after! It was really, really funny and probably paid off because we certainly picked up the pace and laughed a lot. I ended up keeping up with the track stars (I was quite impressed with myself since I hate running) and we ran four miles in the early morning throughout Sevilla! It was a memorable experience. We quickly showered and packed up to head to Granada with the group.
We were barely in Granada for 24 hours so it’s hard to say we saw a lot but we did go to the famous Alhambra! Alhambra is the city where the imam lived during the Moorish rule – a city within a city basically. In Alhambra, there was a magnificent palace and gardens. All of the walls in the palace were intricately sculpted and decorated with Arabic writings and the beautiful tiles southern Spain has everywhere. After our three-hour tour of Alhambra, we walked around the main streets in Granada because there was lots of shopping. Everyone’s favorite store was called Pull and Bear, which had cute things at fair prices. I bought a shirt that says “Jump, Shout and Feel Free”: possibly the newest motto for my life. There was also an “Arab market” which had lots of random, cheap things and I was able to get a couple souvenirs and bags of herbal tea! For dinner, we walked in and out of the windy side roads again and found a tiny little restaurant tucked in the corner of this small plaza. We all got pizzas that were really enjoyable and tasted like they were made with mozerella cheese. We headed straight back to the hotel because it gets much colder in Granada at night than Sevilla because you’re higher up and closer to the mountains. There are even places to ski really close to Granada.
We woke up early again on Saturday to go running through Granada and ran down to this aquaduct-river-type-thing to see if we could watch the sunrise. We realized that the purpose of the canal-thing was for when all the snow on the top of the mountains melts. We had to be back at the hotel at a certain time so we didn’t have enough time to watch the sunrise but it was fun enough to see Granada in the early morning. Once we checked out of the rooms, we had time to either go to the Cathedral, which housed the tomb of Queen Isabel or go to the spice market again. We headed to the market to look for more gifts for our families and friends.
Saturday morning was the same morning I found out I didn’t get the internship I was hoping for this summer. I was really bummed because I had felt so confident in how I did with the interviews and I had gotten such a positive response back from the company. When I told my friends in the program, they were really comforting and helped joke around for me to get my mind off of it. I’ve really grown to love the girls I’ve met on the trip and their wonderful personalities. I’ve learned so much from them and have been able to work on my characteristics that I think need improvement. Spending time with these girls, we can always laugh and have a good time. Although I didn’t get the internship, they quickly helped me see life goes on and that this might be for the better. It was hard to not think about it on the long bus ride back to Alcala. We drove through this area literally filled with olive trees. As far as you could see into the distance were olive trees – it was incredibly overwhelming and after a solid 30 minutes of driving through it, very boring. I thought about how much I really dislike the taste of olives and have always pushed them off my plate before this trip. Now being in Spain, olives are one of the main tapas dishes and I’ve tried a few here and there at the various places we’ve been. Slowly, I see myself getting more acquainted with the sour taste. As I thought about my literal tastes changing I thought about how this trip has helped me to mature, easy-going and become more of an individual. I swear if I had been back in Provo and found out about the internship, I probably would have stayed in my room for the rest of the weekend. But life goes on, and I will have to make do with what I am given and try to make the best out of that. When life gives you olives, try one and maybe it won’t taste as bad as you think.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Good Life
Today was just an amazing day.
After class I met with Grace and Sarah at the Cafe de Libreros. They go to U of A but are studying in Alcala. We have a good time "charlaring" and catching up. With all of us combined, we keep each other in the loop of local things going on, what to see and brainstorm fun ideas to do. We walked to the Cafe in the beautiful weather we've been having and sat had warm drinks with a muffin. The simplicity of the get together was all we needed to enjoy our afternoon. We talked about various things like a possible excursion to the Ballearic Islands my last weekend here, going to the San Miguel Mercado together next week, a graduate Masters program offered in Alcala to teach English, friends coming to visit etc etc. When we started talking about the graduate program we talked about how old we were getting. For me, I had always gone through high school saying to myself "oh yea.. I'll study abroad when I get older." And that's now! I can't believe that it has come so quickly. This passed weekend when I went to Paris it was the same idea. It was all a big blur because I had always thought to myself growing up that I would travel to Paris and throughout Europe when I was "older." That image of myself that I had growing up is now! This is such a major landmark in my development into a real, full grown adult...scary stuff. I'm not sure I can handle the thought of it! And even worse is that next fall I will be a junior... in college. That's just incredible to me.
We finally left the cafe after a solid hour and a half of chatting and I walked home in the beautiful weather. I absoltely believe that sunshine makes people happier - it has to be true because I can certainly tell a difference in my mood! On my way back to the house, I thought about how amazing it is to be here in Spain and going through all of these experiences. I have grown to adore traveling and seeing the many cities of the world - each beautiful and unique with its own unique store, cafe, cathedral or corner. I walked home listening to my absolute favorite song by OneRepublic on repeat - Good Life. There is a reason why it's been played over 80 times in my iTunes library :)
After class I met with Grace and Sarah at the Cafe de Libreros. They go to U of A but are studying in Alcala. We have a good time "charlaring" and catching up. With all of us combined, we keep each other in the loop of local things going on, what to see and brainstorm fun ideas to do. We walked to the Cafe in the beautiful weather we've been having and sat had warm drinks with a muffin. The simplicity of the get together was all we needed to enjoy our afternoon. We talked about various things like a possible excursion to the Ballearic Islands my last weekend here, going to the San Miguel Mercado together next week, a graduate Masters program offered in Alcala to teach English, friends coming to visit etc etc. When we started talking about the graduate program we talked about how old we were getting. For me, I had always gone through high school saying to myself "oh yea.. I'll study abroad when I get older." And that's now! I can't believe that it has come so quickly. This passed weekend when I went to Paris it was the same idea. It was all a big blur because I had always thought to myself growing up that I would travel to Paris and throughout Europe when I was "older." That image of myself that I had growing up is now! This is such a major landmark in my development into a real, full grown adult...scary stuff. I'm not sure I can handle the thought of it! And even worse is that next fall I will be a junior... in college. That's just incredible to me.
We finally left the cafe after a solid hour and a half of chatting and I walked home in the beautiful weather. I absoltely believe that sunshine makes people happier - it has to be true because I can certainly tell a difference in my mood! On my way back to the house, I thought about how amazing it is to be here in Spain and going through all of these experiences. I have grown to adore traveling and seeing the many cities of the world - each beautiful and unique with its own unique store, cafe, cathedral or corner. I walked home listening to my absolute favorite song by OneRepublic on repeat - Good Life. There is a reason why it's been played over 80 times in my iTunes library :)
Monday, February 7, 2011
Bonjour Pari!
This weekend we were able to free travel – and a group of us of course chose Paris! I had never been to Paris before and the idea of going was completely surreal to me. I had always imagined going later in life and never imagined I would go so soon. We would only be there for less than 48 hours so we had to cram a lot into such a small amount of time.
Late Thursday night we headed to Madrid. It’s difficult to get from Alcala to Madrid at late hours because the trains stop at 11:30 – kind of like the train system between New Canaan and NYC. Anyway we got to Madrid and went straight to Puerta del Sol to see who would recruit us to come to their parties. Sounds funny but people literally come up to you and give you different offers to their clubs. We ended up going to this place called “Moondance” – just as hilarious as it sounds. There was more lounging space than the other places we’ve been to… and a lot more creepers. We got there fairly early (12:45am) compared to when other people normally go out. Let’s say the early birds aren’t always the cutest. But Ashley and I had a blast – we always do, wherever we go. We left and headed to catch the bus downtown to the airport, on a strict schedule in order to prepare for any problems we may have encountered. Everything went incredibly smoothly and we got to the airport really early. I didn’t realize that some airports actually close when there aren’t red-eyes or anything coming in or leaving. There were tons of people just sprawled out on the floors sleeping. I said to Kip and Ashley that if I were a homeless person, this is where my hangout would be. We were also flying on the most budget airline out there and didn’t realize once the counter opened that seating was first-come-first-serve. Not only that, but we were shuttled on buses to the plane at 5am in the freezing cold – Ryanair proved to be what I paid for as I sat in a Mexi-packed bus waiting for the doors to open so we could all sprint to the stairs of the plane to see who would get first dibs on seats. 5am is not the time to be doing those kinds of things. Once on the plane, we all passed out on the non-reclineable seats. We flew into Paris – Beauvais which is about an hour outside of the main city. We hopped off the bus and began our adventure in Paris!
The weather was a bit overcast but warmer than I expected. It was a humid, stormy warm if that makes any sense. Our first frustration and pretty much only stressful situation was not knowing French when trying to buy our metro passes while there was a massive line behind us – we live such troubled lives. We stayed at the Peace and Love Hostel off of the Jaures metro stop. Peace and Love Hostel – there are no words to describe the love/hate relationship we all developed with this place. There was a bar at the bottom, which was its lobby and where we checked in. It was quite the task getting everyone situated so we were all together – and didn’t end up working in the end, but oh well. We dropped our things off and headed straight for the Louvre. I was awe-struck by the incredible buildings, fountains and the infamous glass pyramaids in the courtyard area. The entrance into the Louvre was amazing. We unfortunately didn’t have enough time to fully appreciate all of the artwork there, which I am mad at myself for, but granted we only had 48 hours to see as much of Paris as possible. I got to see the Mona Lisa, the Wedding Feast, Michelangelo’s The Captive and lots of other beautiful paintings. It was only about 1pm and we were already starting to feel the affects of minimal hours of sleep. As we walked through the Louvre, we ran into the other group of BYU students who were visiting Paris with us – such a strange coincidence! We made tentative plans with them since no one had cell phones. After we walked over to the Notre Dame. The walk there was enough to make me happy with the beautiful river and bridges we walked along. On our way, we ran into the other students from BYU who were staying at the hostel with us – another really weird coincidence. We stopped in a café to grab our first French meal, which was delicious.
The Notre Dame was like a scene out of a movie – which I’m sure there are a few movies. But anyway, it was massive. I didn’t understand because it seemed as though there were several services going on while tourists were walking through and taking pictures. There were beautiful paintings, sculptures, stained glass, tons of lit candles etc. You could even talk to a priest and have a confession right there. The enormity of the cathedral was just breathtaking. Once we left, we did our usual wandering and found a cute little souvenir shop where we bought our European looking hats! With them, we blended in so well. At the train station, a girl came up to me and started speaking in French asking for directions! Anyway, we were both very pleased with our purchases and we kept walking and found a beautiful courtyard with an outdoor ice-skating rink and carousal. But the best part was the crepe/waffle stand by the carousal where we got our first delicious treat. Kip, Ashley and I shared and indulged in a waffle with Nutella (delicious chocolate spread)! The scene couldn’t be any more European! We agreed to meet our other friends back at the hostel so we hopped on the metros. (In comparison to Spain, the metros were much, much older… and dirtier. But after travelling in several metro systems, I have noticed Spain has definitely kept there’s new and very clean. The one thing that I was impressed with were the public bathrooms they had on the streets! It was like a porter potty but extremely advanced – it would wash down the whole room after each person used it. Clean but inefficient, especially if you’re in dire need of the restroom and there’s a line.)
Once we got our group together, we headed to the Eiffel Tower! I had never imagined myself actually visiting the Eiffel Tower for some reason, so when I finally stood right in front of it, it felt like a dream. We arrived right when it had gotten dark and could see it lit up as we walked towards it. Every so often (hour or so), it would start glittering with all these different flashing lights – as if there were thousands of people taking pictures while on the Eiffel Tower. We decided it would be worth it to go up – the top was closed (most likely because it was too windy) so we got to go to the second level. Either way, we were incredibly high up and the view of beautiful Paris was stunning. On the first level there was an ice rink with blasting American music which was really funny. While we were walking around up on the Eiffel Tower, we met two other guys who were in Paris for the weekend. They were studying in Rome and they were from New Jersey and Boston. It’s always interesting to find other Americans while you are travelling, especially when they’re from relatively close to where you live, because you have this immediate connection being so far away from home. We talked about our amazing experiences in Paris and they told us of the popular places to go out at night. Usually I would have been thrilled to go out and meet them, however I was running on little to absolutely zero energy and all I wanted was to climb into my triple bunk bed at the hostel and go to sleep. We walked along the river right by the Eiffel Tower and stopped to get “sweet and savory” crepes. I got a ham and cheese crepe (sounds gross, but was delectable). And then to top it off, Carly and I got this dessert, which was similar to a donut, but the vendor put whatever you wanted inside and then grilled it so it was really warm. Of course I asked for Nutella inside. Indulging in Paris was probably a bad thing looking back, but it made for some great memories. Plus I figured, we walked literally everywhere and my legs were about to fall off. Anyway, we headed in the direction of the “arch de triumph” (sounds like…) which was a hike, but like Camille and Abby said, completely worth it. The street was lit up and at one end was the arch while all the way at the opposite you could see the Ferris Wheel. We soaked in the moment (and rested) on a bench. Strangely enough, the two guys who we saw at the Eiffel Tower hopped out of a cab right in front of us – another really strange coincidence. They did their best at trying to convince us to come out, but it was a lost cause. We finally headed back to the hostel – looking incredibly haggard. Ashley was limping, holding her bag of fruit and tired like all of us but we told her she looked like a homeless person. The bar at the Peace and Love attracted quite the crowd – all people I would not waste my time trying to talk to! The majority were older, strange looking men. So we headed straight to our rooms (after some confusion with rooming and after Kip being sent to a different hostel). Ashley and I spent the night with a really nice Polish girl who was in Paris for four days by herself! It seemed really lonely, but she was an art major and was planning on going to the Louvre and everything. We both fell asleep mid-conversation with her…
We woke up at 7:30 the next morning, showering and drying off using the bed sheets and headed out to the Catacombs!!!! May I add that the shower in the hostel was the funniest thing I have ever used. You could only stand up in it and bending down to try and get your shampoo was quite the task. An obese/overweight American would not have been able to fit inside of it – and I say that with absolute certainty. Anyway, I was so excited for the Catacombs! We probably spent over an hour walking through the whole thing and trying to take pictures with the skulls and bones. One man down there said that there were over 6 million people who were buried. The bones were all organized (mostly) by what type of bones and they were stacked high and wide – some piles were 28 meters back. It was just as you would imagine – dark and the paths were narrow. At one part, the ground above us was wet and dripping! But by the end I was tired breathing in dead-people fumes and was ready to see sunlight. It was so cool though! I loved every minute. I have always been interested in being able to literally see and touch history. After all, the fourth grade yearbook does have my aspired profession to be an archaeologist.
After we had only about four hours left in Paris! We headed to the impressionist museum (can’t recall the name – plus I don’t speak French) that houses Van Gogh’s work. Although I would have loved to see more paintings, Ashley, Kip and I decided we would enjoy walking around more – our usual wandering, exploring and discovering. We decided to walk over to the Ferris Wheel and we walked through this beautiful garden (on the way we were almost “conned” by these men who asked Ashley to try on this ring… interesting experience). By the Ferris Wheel, I finally saw (or felt like I saw) the heart of Paris. It was this major roundabout with a tall monument in the middle with this massive gold triangle at the top. There were so many of these big monuments that were incredible. We kept walking (in hopes to find Ashley a bathroom) and walked down the street that led to the Panteon (we presume). The negatives about traveling on your own is that you see lots of things that you have no information about unless you take the tours. So in other words, I saw many things that I don’t know the history of, but were beautiful to say the least. On this same road we walked passed Dior, Chanel etc. Ashley and I walked through Dior and I have never felt more inadequate to walk into a store. We knew we weren’t buying anything, the employees knew we weren’t buying anything and just stared at us as we tried to just touch all the overpriced, designer items. We headed back to meet the others at the museum and all went to grab our second French lunch together. I got this amazing bruschetta which was a toasted piece of bread with these small slices of potato, melted cheese and chicken – incredible. With only about 2 hours left before we had to leave we took the metro to the infamous church - I do not know the name of - that was on top of the hill and overlooked the majority of Paris. The view was stunning and we were able to sit on the steps outside and listen to this awesome street-performer play American songs on his guitar. There was this other guy too who stood on this pillar and was doing all these tricks with a soccer ball and would climb up a street lamp with the soccer ball balanced on a straw type thing on his mouth. The best street performance I’ve ever seen! We all got our last crepe and sadly walked back to the Hostel to grab our bags from the luggage room (we were shocked to see nothing had been taken). We left the hostel at 4:30, made a 5:20 bus to the airport (a miracle), found 5 seats in a row on the bus for all of us (another miracle) and made it to the airport with a comfortable amount of time to spare. We landed 30 minutes early in Madrid, had a little bit of trouble and confusion trying to catch a train back to Alcala because it was fairly late and ended up getting a 12:40am bus to Alcala. I climbed into bed an hour later incredibly content with my Paris adventure.
Late Thursday night we headed to Madrid. It’s difficult to get from Alcala to Madrid at late hours because the trains stop at 11:30 – kind of like the train system between New Canaan and NYC. Anyway we got to Madrid and went straight to Puerta del Sol to see who would recruit us to come to their parties. Sounds funny but people literally come up to you and give you different offers to their clubs. We ended up going to this place called “Moondance” – just as hilarious as it sounds. There was more lounging space than the other places we’ve been to… and a lot more creepers. We got there fairly early (12:45am) compared to when other people normally go out. Let’s say the early birds aren’t always the cutest. But Ashley and I had a blast – we always do, wherever we go. We left and headed to catch the bus downtown to the airport, on a strict schedule in order to prepare for any problems we may have encountered. Everything went incredibly smoothly and we got to the airport really early. I didn’t realize that some airports actually close when there aren’t red-eyes or anything coming in or leaving. There were tons of people just sprawled out on the floors sleeping. I said to Kip and Ashley that if I were a homeless person, this is where my hangout would be. We were also flying on the most budget airline out there and didn’t realize once the counter opened that seating was first-come-first-serve. Not only that, but we were shuttled on buses to the plane at 5am in the freezing cold – Ryanair proved to be what I paid for as I sat in a Mexi-packed bus waiting for the doors to open so we could all sprint to the stairs of the plane to see who would get first dibs on seats. 5am is not the time to be doing those kinds of things. Once on the plane, we all passed out on the non-reclineable seats. We flew into Paris – Beauvais which is about an hour outside of the main city. We hopped off the bus and began our adventure in Paris!
The weather was a bit overcast but warmer than I expected. It was a humid, stormy warm if that makes any sense. Our first frustration and pretty much only stressful situation was not knowing French when trying to buy our metro passes while there was a massive line behind us – we live such troubled lives. We stayed at the Peace and Love Hostel off of the Jaures metro stop. Peace and Love Hostel – there are no words to describe the love/hate relationship we all developed with this place. There was a bar at the bottom, which was its lobby and where we checked in. It was quite the task getting everyone situated so we were all together – and didn’t end up working in the end, but oh well. We dropped our things off and headed straight for the Louvre. I was awe-struck by the incredible buildings, fountains and the infamous glass pyramaids in the courtyard area. The entrance into the Louvre was amazing. We unfortunately didn’t have enough time to fully appreciate all of the artwork there, which I am mad at myself for, but granted we only had 48 hours to see as much of Paris as possible. I got to see the Mona Lisa, the Wedding Feast, Michelangelo’s The Captive and lots of other beautiful paintings. It was only about 1pm and we were already starting to feel the affects of minimal hours of sleep. As we walked through the Louvre, we ran into the other group of BYU students who were visiting Paris with us – such a strange coincidence! We made tentative plans with them since no one had cell phones. After we walked over to the Notre Dame. The walk there was enough to make me happy with the beautiful river and bridges we walked along. On our way, we ran into the other students from BYU who were staying at the hostel with us – another really weird coincidence. We stopped in a café to grab our first French meal, which was delicious.
The Notre Dame was like a scene out of a movie – which I’m sure there are a few movies. But anyway, it was massive. I didn’t understand because it seemed as though there were several services going on while tourists were walking through and taking pictures. There were beautiful paintings, sculptures, stained glass, tons of lit candles etc. You could even talk to a priest and have a confession right there. The enormity of the cathedral was just breathtaking. Once we left, we did our usual wandering and found a cute little souvenir shop where we bought our European looking hats! With them, we blended in so well. At the train station, a girl came up to me and started speaking in French asking for directions! Anyway, we were both very pleased with our purchases and we kept walking and found a beautiful courtyard with an outdoor ice-skating rink and carousal. But the best part was the crepe/waffle stand by the carousal where we got our first delicious treat. Kip, Ashley and I shared and indulged in a waffle with Nutella (delicious chocolate spread)! The scene couldn’t be any more European! We agreed to meet our other friends back at the hostel so we hopped on the metros. (In comparison to Spain, the metros were much, much older… and dirtier. But after travelling in several metro systems, I have noticed Spain has definitely kept there’s new and very clean. The one thing that I was impressed with were the public bathrooms they had on the streets! It was like a porter potty but extremely advanced – it would wash down the whole room after each person used it. Clean but inefficient, especially if you’re in dire need of the restroom and there’s a line.)
Once we got our group together, we headed to the Eiffel Tower! I had never imagined myself actually visiting the Eiffel Tower for some reason, so when I finally stood right in front of it, it felt like a dream. We arrived right when it had gotten dark and could see it lit up as we walked towards it. Every so often (hour or so), it would start glittering with all these different flashing lights – as if there were thousands of people taking pictures while on the Eiffel Tower. We decided it would be worth it to go up – the top was closed (most likely because it was too windy) so we got to go to the second level. Either way, we were incredibly high up and the view of beautiful Paris was stunning. On the first level there was an ice rink with blasting American music which was really funny. While we were walking around up on the Eiffel Tower, we met two other guys who were in Paris for the weekend. They were studying in Rome and they were from New Jersey and Boston. It’s always interesting to find other Americans while you are travelling, especially when they’re from relatively close to where you live, because you have this immediate connection being so far away from home. We talked about our amazing experiences in Paris and they told us of the popular places to go out at night. Usually I would have been thrilled to go out and meet them, however I was running on little to absolutely zero energy and all I wanted was to climb into my triple bunk bed at the hostel and go to sleep. We walked along the river right by the Eiffel Tower and stopped to get “sweet and savory” crepes. I got a ham and cheese crepe (sounds gross, but was delectable). And then to top it off, Carly and I got this dessert, which was similar to a donut, but the vendor put whatever you wanted inside and then grilled it so it was really warm. Of course I asked for Nutella inside. Indulging in Paris was probably a bad thing looking back, but it made for some great memories. Plus I figured, we walked literally everywhere and my legs were about to fall off. Anyway, we headed in the direction of the “arch de triumph” (sounds like…) which was a hike, but like Camille and Abby said, completely worth it. The street was lit up and at one end was the arch while all the way at the opposite you could see the Ferris Wheel. We soaked in the moment (and rested) on a bench. Strangely enough, the two guys who we saw at the Eiffel Tower hopped out of a cab right in front of us – another really strange coincidence. They did their best at trying to convince us to come out, but it was a lost cause. We finally headed back to the hostel – looking incredibly haggard. Ashley was limping, holding her bag of fruit and tired like all of us but we told her she looked like a homeless person. The bar at the Peace and Love attracted quite the crowd – all people I would not waste my time trying to talk to! The majority were older, strange looking men. So we headed straight to our rooms (after some confusion with rooming and after Kip being sent to a different hostel). Ashley and I spent the night with a really nice Polish girl who was in Paris for four days by herself! It seemed really lonely, but she was an art major and was planning on going to the Louvre and everything. We both fell asleep mid-conversation with her…
We woke up at 7:30 the next morning, showering and drying off using the bed sheets and headed out to the Catacombs!!!! May I add that the shower in the hostel was the funniest thing I have ever used. You could only stand up in it and bending down to try and get your shampoo was quite the task. An obese/overweight American would not have been able to fit inside of it – and I say that with absolute certainty. Anyway, I was so excited for the Catacombs! We probably spent over an hour walking through the whole thing and trying to take pictures with the skulls and bones. One man down there said that there were over 6 million people who were buried. The bones were all organized (mostly) by what type of bones and they were stacked high and wide – some piles were 28 meters back. It was just as you would imagine – dark and the paths were narrow. At one part, the ground above us was wet and dripping! But by the end I was tired breathing in dead-people fumes and was ready to see sunlight. It was so cool though! I loved every minute. I have always been interested in being able to literally see and touch history. After all, the fourth grade yearbook does have my aspired profession to be an archaeologist.
After we had only about four hours left in Paris! We headed to the impressionist museum (can’t recall the name – plus I don’t speak French) that houses Van Gogh’s work. Although I would have loved to see more paintings, Ashley, Kip and I decided we would enjoy walking around more – our usual wandering, exploring and discovering. We decided to walk over to the Ferris Wheel and we walked through this beautiful garden (on the way we were almost “conned” by these men who asked Ashley to try on this ring… interesting experience). By the Ferris Wheel, I finally saw (or felt like I saw) the heart of Paris. It was this major roundabout with a tall monument in the middle with this massive gold triangle at the top. There were so many of these big monuments that were incredible. We kept walking (in hopes to find Ashley a bathroom) and walked down the street that led to the Panteon (we presume). The negatives about traveling on your own is that you see lots of things that you have no information about unless you take the tours. So in other words, I saw many things that I don’t know the history of, but were beautiful to say the least. On this same road we walked passed Dior, Chanel etc. Ashley and I walked through Dior and I have never felt more inadequate to walk into a store. We knew we weren’t buying anything, the employees knew we weren’t buying anything and just stared at us as we tried to just touch all the overpriced, designer items. We headed back to meet the others at the museum and all went to grab our second French lunch together. I got this amazing bruschetta which was a toasted piece of bread with these small slices of potato, melted cheese and chicken – incredible. With only about 2 hours left before we had to leave we took the metro to the infamous church - I do not know the name of - that was on top of the hill and overlooked the majority of Paris. The view was stunning and we were able to sit on the steps outside and listen to this awesome street-performer play American songs on his guitar. There was this other guy too who stood on this pillar and was doing all these tricks with a soccer ball and would climb up a street lamp with the soccer ball balanced on a straw type thing on his mouth. The best street performance I’ve ever seen! We all got our last crepe and sadly walked back to the Hostel to grab our bags from the luggage room (we were shocked to see nothing had been taken). We left the hostel at 4:30, made a 5:20 bus to the airport (a miracle), found 5 seats in a row on the bus for all of us (another miracle) and made it to the airport with a comfortable amount of time to spare. We landed 30 minutes early in Madrid, had a little bit of trouble and confusion trying to catch a train back to Alcala because it was fairly late and ended up getting a 12:40am bus to Alcala. I climbed into bed an hour later incredibly content with my Paris adventure.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Date Central: Mercado de San Miguel
The passed two days here have been beautiful. The sun has been out; so around 1pm it gets pretty warm! I have been able to go run on this trail right by my house that reminds me a lot of Waveny but better (sorry to say!) because it follows right alongside this small river - it's very scenic. Yesterday, Carly, Ashley, Kip and I went into Madrid to see the tomb of Goya. I was really excited for this because he was buried among some of his frescoes. We ended up "wandering" again because we knew if we stayed on the train from Alcala it would take us right to the station we needed to get off at instead of switching metros. It turns out that taking the metro would have been a lot faster - lesson learned. We got to the chapel and the sanctuary was beautiful. The top third of all the walls and the ceiling were just covered inGoya's work. They were all very neutral colors except for this deep red he used throughout. It pictures hundreds of angels doing different tasks but all glancing in the direction of the altar where there was a crucifix with ornate decorations. His tomb was right on the steps of the altar. I was happy we finally went to see it - although it wasn't as time consuming as Reina Sofia or Prado, it was definitely intriguing to visit the "panteon" of one of the most famous artists in history.
Afterwards, we walked to the one and only Sol. There was a protest going on in La Puerta and we started wondering if Spain was soon going to add on to all the chaos going on in the Middle East. We thought how it would be cool to witness history and all that. And then, we thought how we would probably be sent home if it escalated - so we ended those tangent thoughts. We of course visited Haribo (although Ashley and I are getting quite good at saying "no").
My favorite part of the evening was when we went to check out Mercado San Miguel close to the Plaza Mayor. It is an indoor market which apparently is the place to be at night around dinner time! It was surprisingly very classy - not your intial thoughts of a market. Everyone had their glass of wine and were going around to the different counters getting plates of samples - cheeses, meats and other tapas. There were stands for potato chips and other random snacks as well. We walked around taking it all in and enjoyed a tapa here and there. It was one of the first places where I said "this would be the perfect place for a date." There were tables in the center and it looked like so much fun! We all promised that we would come back for dinner at some point.
As we walked back to Sol, we were talking about how we're starting to get used to the beautiful surroundings like the buildings, streets and everything! It's not good! As much as I want this to feel a "home," I don't at the same time because I don't want to take for granted how beautiful it is here.
Afterwards, we walked to the one and only Sol. There was a protest going on in La Puerta and we started wondering if Spain was soon going to add on to all the chaos going on in the Middle East. We thought how it would be cool to witness history and all that. And then, we thought how we would probably be sent home if it escalated - so we ended those tangent thoughts. We of course visited Haribo (although Ashley and I are getting quite good at saying "no").
My favorite part of the evening was when we went to check out Mercado San Miguel close to the Plaza Mayor. It is an indoor market which apparently is the place to be at night around dinner time! It was surprisingly very classy - not your intial thoughts of a market. Everyone had their glass of wine and were going around to the different counters getting plates of samples - cheeses, meats and other tapas. There were stands for potato chips and other random snacks as well. We walked around taking it all in and enjoyed a tapa here and there. It was one of the first places where I said "this would be the perfect place for a date." There were tables in the center and it looked like so much fun! We all promised that we would come back for dinner at some point.
As we walked back to Sol, we were talking about how we're starting to get used to the beautiful surroundings like the buildings, streets and everything! It's not good! As much as I want this to feel a "home," I don't at the same time because I don't want to take for granted how beautiful it is here.
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