I never thought I'd say this but... thank god for the rain forecast. I know I'll probably wonder why I ever desired such a thing when I am actually enduring said rainy weather during my last two weeks in Madrid, but with all this gorgeous weather and these pesky essays due early next week, I think rain is the only chance that I'll actually get work done. And it would be good, you know, to not fail my vacation semester abroad simply because the weather is too beautiful.
But anyway, the weather here really has been beautiful. Since last weekend it's been in the high 70s and today it was 85 degrees and absolutely gorgeous. I'm still puzzled, though, when the weather is like this and yet I still get weird looks from Spaniards for wearing dresses without tights. GASP. I clearly must be out of my mind. But as it's supposed to be a ridiculously hot day again tomorrow, I guess they will just have to get over my bare legs.
Today we went to a production studio to see a filming of a Spanish sit-com, Aida. Which sounds like fun. In fact it was, for the first few minutes. After about ten minutes of watching, I was convinced that working in TV production could be a pretty fun job. However, an hour in, I had changed my mind - it's actually a very long and repetitive process. We watched one scene get filmed approximately ten times. It was kind of fun to see up front though, even if we had no background in the show itself.
Craving of the day: bagel and cream cheese.
Other random facts:
The courtyard neighbors have sung "Happy Birthday" three separate times this afternoon/ evening.
My host "sister" is doing Spanish-style jazzercise in the living room (from what I can overhear).
It appears that the above neighbor can only play one ONE song on the piano. It is the only song that I have heard all semester long. Couldn't he at least play "chopsticks" just to mix it up?
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
It's been awhile...
Only 3 and a half weeks left! Therefore I thought I should squeeze in another post or two, especially since I've been delinquent ever since spring break. So, here are some highlights and thoughts.
Two weekends ago Eric and Papa visited! The weather did its part and showered us (figuratively) with sunshine and warm temperatures - perfect for sunbathing in el Parque de Retiro, the largest and most popular (and manicured) park in central Madrid. I even got a bit of a tan in the little time we spent there! We stayed in Madrid for 3 days before heading to Barcelona, which was absolutely beautiful and had lots and lots of delicious food. I really enjoyed the tapas-style lunch; it was a delicious change of pace, since mostly my lunch consists of homemade sandwiches. After 3 days in gorgeous Barcelona [of whose metro system I'm a huge fan], we came back to Madrid for a final night and went out to dinner at a restaurant called Bazaar, with my friend Paige's family. It was absolutely delicious, although not traditionally Spanish. [Although at this point in my trip, I'm starting to view that as a pretty good thing].
It's kind of unfortunate that at this stage in my stay I still didn't have anywhere in particular that I wanted to show off about "my city". I know I've traveled a lot and there's only so much to see in Madrid, but I regretted that I've spent so much time at school, traveling and at home that I didn't know "the best restaurant in town", but I was excited that their being here allowed for a lot of exploring that I hadn't really done since the first few weeks when I arrived. Also, the beautiful weather that's finally peaking through certainly increases my motivation to walk around aimlessly!
Anyway, after a fun week, they left on Monday morning, and very greedily, they seem to have taken the good weather with them! It's been showering (literally, with rain) ever since. (Today's looking up, though...).
So that also kind of killed my plans for my "first exciting weekend in Madrid in nine whole weeks!", in which I was going to explore! and eat out! and do lots of other unspecified Spanish things! But... I didn't really want to wander around anywhere with the spitting/pouring rain.
But on Sunday, Paige and I went to see Alice in Wonderland (or, Alicia en el Pais de Maravillas)! Spanish theaters are a bit different, since when you buy your ticket you also pick your seat, like a real theater. Upside: Ordering your ticket in advance means you don't have to show up 30 minutes in advance to get the good seat. Downside: Americans (me) forget that Spanish theaters act in this way, and when we try to buy seats 5 hours before the movie, we get seats in the second row! It actually wasn't that bad, though, once I got used to looking up. It was however, the only cinema in Madrid to screen the movie both in English and in 3D, so the crowd was mostly inevitable.
Other random things... I have 19 pages of papers due in about 2 or so weeks. All of a sudden my classes want to pretend they're real! And assign work! (Okay, so I got two of the assignments more like 2 weeks ago... but still.) I've also gotten back into running after getting my running shoes two weeks ago, and it's a lot different now that the weather's a bit warmer. Before, the only runners were die-hard athletic men who looked at women exercising as if we were aliens. However they have since been replaced by older men who probably needed to jump on the exercise bandwagon several years ago, younger average guys, and even some other girls! (Besides my roommate!) And, yes, the cute guys who now play tennis in the middle of the park don't hurt either...
I'm enjoying my time here, but nevertheless I'm still excited to come home in three weeks! I really am getting excited for drip-coffee and cottage cheese. I know the second craving sounds strange, but after looking all semester and failing... I've come to really want it!
Two weekends ago Eric and Papa visited! The weather did its part and showered us (figuratively) with sunshine and warm temperatures - perfect for sunbathing in el Parque de Retiro, the largest and most popular (and manicured) park in central Madrid. I even got a bit of a tan in the little time we spent there! We stayed in Madrid for 3 days before heading to Barcelona, which was absolutely beautiful and had lots and lots of delicious food. I really enjoyed the tapas-style lunch; it was a delicious change of pace, since mostly my lunch consists of homemade sandwiches. After 3 days in gorgeous Barcelona [of whose metro system I'm a huge fan], we came back to Madrid for a final night and went out to dinner at a restaurant called Bazaar, with my friend Paige's family. It was absolutely delicious, although not traditionally Spanish. [Although at this point in my trip, I'm starting to view that as a pretty good thing].
It's kind of unfortunate that at this stage in my stay I still didn't have anywhere in particular that I wanted to show off about "my city". I know I've traveled a lot and there's only so much to see in Madrid, but I regretted that I've spent so much time at school, traveling and at home that I didn't know "the best restaurant in town", but I was excited that their being here allowed for a lot of exploring that I hadn't really done since the first few weeks when I arrived. Also, the beautiful weather that's finally peaking through certainly increases my motivation to walk around aimlessly!
Anyway, after a fun week, they left on Monday morning, and very greedily, they seem to have taken the good weather with them! It's been showering (literally, with rain) ever since. (Today's looking up, though...).
So that also kind of killed my plans for my "first exciting weekend in Madrid in nine whole weeks!", in which I was going to explore! and eat out! and do lots of other unspecified Spanish things! But... I didn't really want to wander around anywhere with the spitting/pouring rain.
But on Sunday, Paige and I went to see Alice in Wonderland (or, Alicia en el Pais de Maravillas)! Spanish theaters are a bit different, since when you buy your ticket you also pick your seat, like a real theater. Upside: Ordering your ticket in advance means you don't have to show up 30 minutes in advance to get the good seat. Downside: Americans (me) forget that Spanish theaters act in this way, and when we try to buy seats 5 hours before the movie, we get seats in the second row! It actually wasn't that bad, though, once I got used to looking up. It was however, the only cinema in Madrid to screen the movie both in English and in 3D, so the crowd was mostly inevitable.
Other random things... I have 19 pages of papers due in about 2 or so weeks. All of a sudden my classes want to pretend they're real! And assign work! (Okay, so I got two of the assignments more like 2 weeks ago... but still.) I've also gotten back into running after getting my running shoes two weeks ago, and it's a lot different now that the weather's a bit warmer. Before, the only runners were die-hard athletic men who looked at women exercising as if we were aliens. However they have since been replaced by older men who probably needed to jump on the exercise bandwagon several years ago, younger average guys, and even some other girls! (Besides my roommate!) And, yes, the cute guys who now play tennis in the middle of the park don't hurt either...
I'm enjoying my time here, but nevertheless I'm still excited to come home in three weeks! I really am getting excited for drip-coffee and cottage cheese. I know the second craving sounds strange, but after looking all semester and failing... I've come to really want it!
Monday, April 5, 2010
The Rest of Semana Santa
Or Settimana Santa, as it's said in Italian. Let's see... the rest of the week was a little more action packed and with a lot more people around so I didn't really spend the time to write down things as they happened... but I'll try to recall as much as possible.
On Tuesday we walked around Venice basically all day. We didn't really have an itinerary so we wandered around basically the whole main island, visited Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square), saw the crazy pigeons (people buy bird seed and the birds just flock and land on them). It's actually pretty disgusting in my opinion, but fun to watch from a distance. Other than that I kept being unimpressed with the food and gelatto though, which was a bit disappointing. The day was very tiring with all the walking and the rainy/cold temperatures. That night we decided we needed more of a plan, so we looked some things up and on Wednesday we visited the Palazzo Ducale, which was a really interesting museum, and took a water taxi down the grand canal (in lieu of a gondola tour) and visited another museum that I cannot remember at the moment. We also went inside the basilica and wandered around even more. The whole time I just kept being upset with the gelatto (this was a big deal to me, you can see.) No one else that I was with understood my frustration, though, not having had proper gelatto, and they had no idea that it was different from the ice cream that we kept being served. (It's okay though, because I enlightened them when we arrived in Florence.)
Thursday morning we took a 9am train to Florence. By this time I was much more of a train aficionado, so it was much easier than my Monday experience! Unfortunately our tickets had non-guaranteed seats so we ended up sitting in the passageway for the entire three hours (so no sleeping!) but it was fine. We got to Florence a little after noon and I directed us all to our hostel (about a 15 minute walk). That afternoon we braved the line for the Accademia museum and saw Michelangelo's David. We also visited the Piazza Signoria, which was very close to our hostel, and has a lot of sculptures. It was also here where I got really excited because I had finally found real gelatto! That night we went to a restaurant (Il Teatro) right on the same street as our hostel on recommendation from my friend. It was pretty delicious (finally!) and the waitress was extremely nice and ended up cutting 15euro from our bill!
Friday morning we awoke bright and early to get to the Uffizi museum at 9am (we were apparently extremely ambitious when we pre-booked the tickets!) The Uffizi is overwhelming with the sheer amount of art it has, but I really enjoyed it, and ended up going through the whole thing in about two hours. After that we crossed the Ponte Vecchio (famous bridge with shops built right onto it) and headed up to Piazza Michelangelo, which is located on a hill overlooking the entire city. Sadly it started raining when we were up there, so we headed down to get some lunch and then head to the Duomo. We went inside the cathedral and the Baptistery, but unfortunately the actual dome was closed until today. We then headed back for a nap. After that we tried to visit the Bobali gardens, but it was already closed, but it made for a nice evening walk! Anna and her friend Julienne got in that night, so I moved my things over to the hotel (which was conveniently only five minutes away from my previous hostel) and then the eight of us went out to dinner at another recommended restaurant, El Gatto e Volpe. Also very delicious, and with an extremely friendly wait staff. They gave us all a free glass of wine(!) because we had to wait so long even when we had made a reservation. Only downside was that it seemed to be more frequented by American college students than actual Italians.
On Saturday, the group I'd been traveling with moved on to Roma and Julienne, Anna, and I went to Tuscany for the day! We started off with a horseback ride through the Tuscan fields, which were beautiful. I only wish I'd gotten to concentrate on the scenery a bit more; but my horse was not happy playing follow-the-leader and I ended up concentrating much more on him. We then had a delicious traditional Tuscan lunch/ wine tasting and ended by going to a small town in Sienna. We got back around 5:30 and wandered around the piazzas and bought some cheese and crackers to snack on. That night we went to ZaZas (a place that had been recommended by about 6 different people!). I had seafood pasta (with squid, clams, and mussels, yum!) that was absolutely amazing. I would definitely go back.
Sunday, Anna and Julienne got up early to go to 7:30 Easter mass in the Duomo and to go to the Uffizi. I chose to sleep in since I was feeling like I was getting a cold, and had already seen the Uffizi. We all met back at the hotel, and planned on seeing the procession and cart explosion (something involving fireworks that takes place in the Duomo Piazza), but we had been told the wrong time and arrived too late. We spent some time wandering around the outdoor markets/stalls and went to a late Easter lunch at a place called Nicoleto (or something close to that). I had pear-stuffed pasta with gorgonzola sauce (it sounds weird but it was delicious) and the best tiramisu ever. Afterward we went to the Pitti Palace (home of some of the gigantic Medici heirloom collection) and the Boboli gardens despite the torrential downpour and our superbly soaked feet/pants. That evening we bought some more cheese/wine/salami/ and pizza and had a little feast in our hotel, since the weather made it seem awful for venturing out. The pizzeria was delicious and they gave us free glasses of beer while we waited for our pizza!
This morning I got up bright and early to get a cab at 6:40... and catch a 7am train that connected to a shuttle bus that brought me to the airport. Luckily the connections went smoothly and I got to the gate with over an hour to spare. And I randomly saw a group of Colgate students on the train platform!
Now back and trying to organize and re-energize myself before an exciting week with Eric and Papa!!! And also to enjoy the gorgeous Madrid weather!
On Tuesday we walked around Venice basically all day. We didn't really have an itinerary so we wandered around basically the whole main island, visited Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square), saw the crazy pigeons (people buy bird seed and the birds just flock and land on them). It's actually pretty disgusting in my opinion, but fun to watch from a distance. Other than that I kept being unimpressed with the food and gelatto though, which was a bit disappointing. The day was very tiring with all the walking and the rainy/cold temperatures. That night we decided we needed more of a plan, so we looked some things up and on Wednesday we visited the Palazzo Ducale, which was a really interesting museum, and took a water taxi down the grand canal (in lieu of a gondola tour) and visited another museum that I cannot remember at the moment. We also went inside the basilica and wandered around even more. The whole time I just kept being upset with the gelatto (this was a big deal to me, you can see.) No one else that I was with understood my frustration, though, not having had proper gelatto, and they had no idea that it was different from the ice cream that we kept being served. (It's okay though, because I enlightened them when we arrived in Florence.)
Thursday morning we took a 9am train to Florence. By this time I was much more of a train aficionado, so it was much easier than my Monday experience! Unfortunately our tickets had non-guaranteed seats so we ended up sitting in the passageway for the entire three hours (so no sleeping!) but it was fine. We got to Florence a little after noon and I directed us all to our hostel (about a 15 minute walk). That afternoon we braved the line for the Accademia museum and saw Michelangelo's David. We also visited the Piazza Signoria, which was very close to our hostel, and has a lot of sculptures. It was also here where I got really excited because I had finally found real gelatto! That night we went to a restaurant (Il Teatro) right on the same street as our hostel on recommendation from my friend. It was pretty delicious (finally!) and the waitress was extremely nice and ended up cutting 15euro from our bill!
Friday morning we awoke bright and early to get to the Uffizi museum at 9am (we were apparently extremely ambitious when we pre-booked the tickets!) The Uffizi is overwhelming with the sheer amount of art it has, but I really enjoyed it, and ended up going through the whole thing in about two hours. After that we crossed the Ponte Vecchio (famous bridge with shops built right onto it) and headed up to Piazza Michelangelo, which is located on a hill overlooking the entire city. Sadly it started raining when we were up there, so we headed down to get some lunch and then head to the Duomo. We went inside the cathedral and the Baptistery, but unfortunately the actual dome was closed until today. We then headed back for a nap. After that we tried to visit the Bobali gardens, but it was already closed, but it made for a nice evening walk! Anna and her friend Julienne got in that night, so I moved my things over to the hotel (which was conveniently only five minutes away from my previous hostel) and then the eight of us went out to dinner at another recommended restaurant, El Gatto e Volpe. Also very delicious, and with an extremely friendly wait staff. They gave us all a free glass of wine(!) because we had to wait so long even when we had made a reservation. Only downside was that it seemed to be more frequented by American college students than actual Italians.
On Saturday, the group I'd been traveling with moved on to Roma and Julienne, Anna, and I went to Tuscany for the day! We started off with a horseback ride through the Tuscan fields, which were beautiful. I only wish I'd gotten to concentrate on the scenery a bit more; but my horse was not happy playing follow-the-leader and I ended up concentrating much more on him. We then had a delicious traditional Tuscan lunch/ wine tasting and ended by going to a small town in Sienna. We got back around 5:30 and wandered around the piazzas and bought some cheese and crackers to snack on. That night we went to ZaZas (a place that had been recommended by about 6 different people!). I had seafood pasta (with squid, clams, and mussels, yum!) that was absolutely amazing. I would definitely go back.
Sunday, Anna and Julienne got up early to go to 7:30 Easter mass in the Duomo and to go to the Uffizi. I chose to sleep in since I was feeling like I was getting a cold, and had already seen the Uffizi. We all met back at the hotel, and planned on seeing the procession and cart explosion (something involving fireworks that takes place in the Duomo Piazza), but we had been told the wrong time and arrived too late. We spent some time wandering around the outdoor markets/stalls and went to a late Easter lunch at a place called Nicoleto (or something close to that). I had pear-stuffed pasta with gorgonzola sauce (it sounds weird but it was delicious) and the best tiramisu ever. Afterward we went to the Pitti Palace (home of some of the gigantic Medici heirloom collection) and the Boboli gardens despite the torrential downpour and our superbly soaked feet/pants. That evening we bought some more cheese/wine/salami/ and pizza and had a little feast in our hotel, since the weather made it seem awful for venturing out. The pizzeria was delicious and they gave us free glasses of beer while we waited for our pizza!
This morning I got up bright and early to get a cab at 6:40... and catch a 7am train that connected to a shuttle bus that brought me to the airport. Luckily the connections went smoothly and I got to the gate with over an hour to spare. And I randomly saw a group of Colgate students on the train platform!
Now back and trying to organize and re-energize myself before an exciting week with Eric and Papa!!! And also to enjoy the gorgeous Madrid weather!
Venice: The Trip In/ Or, A Series of Unfortunate Events
I started off Monday with the expectation that I'd spend the morning walking to some of the other towns, and make it back to Riomaggiore with time to collect my bags from the hotel lobby and make it on to a train that would then connect to Milan and then Venice. Easy, right? I thought so, too, until I seemed to have the absolute inability to do anything on time or efficiently. I ended up getting a train ten minutes later than I originally intended, and just when I got to La Spezia (where I would switch for the Milan train) the Milan train was already boarding and set to leave in 5 minutes! And I didn't have a ticket. However, the ticket office was able to give me a different route with one extra exchange that would actually get me in sooner than I'd originally planned for. Crisis number one, averted. At least for the time being. This train is set to leave in 30 minutes, giving me plenty of time to get a snack. I go out on the platform about 5 minutes before my departure time, just as the train is arriving. I'm a little confused, since the track has two trains listed for two separate departure times (one is mine at 3:12, the other is to Florence at 3:40), but I at that point didn't really notice it. So I board the train... only to realize I hadn't validated my ticket, which is a 50€ fine. So I get off the train, validate the ticket, reboard. Now it's 3:25... 3:35, and I'm getting really confused. Of course there is no conductor or anyone else in sight. I'm also pretty sure the other train had not come through at all, unless it was early somehow and left before it's scheduled time. (Which seems unlikely as it seems to me that Italian trains either run on time or late.) Anyway, it turns out that this train also goes to the station I need to get to, so I stay put. Finally get to the station... (after accidentally getting off a station too early because of similarly named stations; think Newark Penn versus New York Penn), and it turns out that I am WAY too late for my train, which was the only one of the afternoon/evening. Of course. At least I realized that I would have already missed it even if I hadn't gotten off one stop too early by accident, so that mistake doesn't even count. Oh and I slept through one of my connections by accident (waking up and realizing just as we were pulling away). So basically I was really on top of my game on Monday. So I'm at this station, with no connecting train, so it's back to talk to the ticket window, where the woman behind the counter is extremely skeptical of my missed train situation. She's staring at my ticket and her computer screen for a long time without saying anything. For all I know, she's checking something that says that the 3:12 train (the original mystery train that I never saw) was perfectly on time. Which it could have been. Elise and I had trouble with the somewhat confusing train schedule when we first arrived as well. But finally another guy comes in, who tells her that its fine so she gives me yet another ticket with a new way of going (at this point I'm also pretty sure that I'm much closer to Florence than Venice... maybe I should just skip Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday and head straight to Firenze?) Good thing: I don't have to pay to get my ticket switched. Bad thing: my new ticket doesn't assign me a seat number, so I'm essentially standing for 90 minutes. Finally got in to Venice around 10:30. Luckily everyone else had already arrived so they were able to give me directions/ come meet me on my walk. Long day but all worked out! And I got to be a train pro... sort of. Not really. Actually not at all.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Semana Santa Part 1: Cinque Terre
Friday, March 26th
On Friday morning I awoke bright and early to catch my cab. (Scratch bright; it was still pitch black, actually). My cab arrived at 4:30am, being as it was the middle of the night I made it to the airport in less than 15 minutes. But crazy was I to think that just because it was still the middle of the night and Spaniards don’t seem to like to “madrugarse” that the airport wouldn’t be crowded. After all, even when I travel on Thursday and Friday at late morning or early afternoon times, I barely waste time in lines, and definitely not in security. But welcome to Semana Santa; the place was packed. I of course was flying Ryanair, the most dirt-cheap budget airline of them all, so it was of course situated in the least convenient location. I stood in line for about 35 minutes just to check my bag through but had to go to yet a different desk to get my travel documents approved because I am not an EU citizen (horror of horrors), which involved a couple more useless minutes. (Because, of course, it wouldn’t make sense for ALL the check-in desks to have the official document seal/stamp/what have you. That would be far too logical.) So, then I have to run all the way back to security, which for the first time ever actually resembles more of a EWR line than anything I have seen here. So I go through that… make it through by 5:35. [Note: my boarding time is 5:30; the plane is set to depart the gate at 6am. Note also: the previous statement about Ryanair being the cheapest and therefore most inconvenient airline ever]. As you can guess, the gate couldn’t possibly be anywhere close to the security check. So walking very fast for ten minutes I reach my gate, which is already mostly boarded, and I’ve broken a sweat, and it’s still barely light outside. Excellent. Now for some much needed sleep; no wait – the seats don’t recline and they make announcements every 15 minutes! Whoopee! Anyway, the rest of the travel was smooth, made all the necessary connections, and met Elise at Milano Centrale. Unfortunately we didn’t have seats together on the 3-hour train to Cinque Terre, but that was fine. Once we made it to La Spezia, one of the towns close to where we were staying in Cinque Terre, we had a little trouble with the train schedule, but we finally made it onto the correct train. (And then the conductor came by to check our tickets and told me it was a 50€ fine for not stamping my ticket. Luckily I was able to explain that I had had no idea and I avoided it – because the first stop was mine – but seriously, what a terrible system! A. How am I supposed to know to stamp it if no one has told me and there are no signs? B. What is the point? I’m already holding the ticket. Can’t they just print the time/date on the ticket itself?? Oh, Italy). Our hostel was nice but extremely cold!
Saturday, March 27th
On Saturday Elise and I slept in a bit and then got breakfast (Latte and omelets!) in our beautiful little town. (Which is literally one long street up an extremely steep hill.) The houses are old and a bit crumbling but all in bright colors. This town has no water access – it’s built on cliffs.) We began the hike through all the 5 towns. The first two connections were supposed to be easy and short, basically strolls, and then next two more intense. We were unsure whether the third or fourth was technically the most difficult (my online guide said the middle one, as did Elise’s mom’s memory; Elise’s guidebook and the km to average time to complete chart on our map said the fourth). We weren’t actually able to come to our own conclusion because the last trail was closed due to a landslide. It was a little gray, but the hikes and views were excellent. The first was a half mile on a paved walk way – part of it through the tunnel of love, with graffiti and murals inside and pad locks adorning the railings as a symbol of couples “locking in” their love. It overlooks the ocean the entire way. This path brought us to Manarola, a town also situated on cliffs and even smaller and unobtrusive than Riomaggiore (the town in which we stayed). On to Corniglia – the second hike was more on a nature path, but still fairly easy. Some older Italian women were walking it in heeled boots. Corniglia was also beautiful; each town is similar but has it’s own characteristics. This town was slightly bigger, and there were small twisting streets filled with pizzerias and foccacerias and a big tower at the top of the hill that we could climb and see the entire town below and the cliffs and oceans. Then we started the long climb (it ended up taking us about 80 minutes, although we stopped for a snack at one point and stopped many times to take pictures). This one was indeed harder, with lots of ups and downs, less old ladies in heels – less, not none – and paths through olive groves. Eventually we descended down down down into Vernazza. This was probably the biggest town yet, and still beautiful, and the first one on the water. There were lots of ocean-side restaurants and pizzerias and souvenir shops. We spent quite a while there before catching a train to Monterosso, the last and largest of the towns. We arrived in Monterosso around 5p and it definitely has a different feel from the others. First, there was much more beach. Second, there was a parking lot full of RVs. At first we couldn’t figure out what was so special about this town, we walked up and down the street and frankly didn’t see much of anything. Eventually, though, we realized there was a whole other section around a bend that we couldn’t see, and this led into restaurant/hostel/bar area. It was cute, but it actually took us a while to find a place we deemed suitable for dinner. We finally found one – and I had a steaming plate of penne with spicy tomato sauce and shrimps. Although I would have preferred my shrimps to be shelled for me! It was quite a chore. Mostly it was delicious because we were absolutely freezing. In fact, after we took a train back to our town (the warmest part yet), we stopped at a bar on the way up the hill to our hostel to get some steaming tea and hot chocolate.) Not much of a night life here…
Sunday, March 28th
Today we woke up a bit earlier – 8:30am. Actually, it was 9:30, but we had forgotten about the time change. We checked out of our hostel and I checked into my new hotel/hostel even further up the steep hill. Then we went to the train to take it to Monterosso where we planned on spending some time until Elise had to catch her train at one. It was on the train that Elise remembered the time change. We spent some time wondering about it, and asking our Canadian seat neighbors, who had no idea what we were talking about. Turns out she was right though, so we only had about an hour or so before she had to catch her train home, so we got an early lunch. (This time I got vegetable stuffed pasta in a cream/cheese “nut sauce”). Since it was finally absolutely gorgeous and sunny, I went back to Riomaggiore to get my swimsuit and book so I could lay out on the beach. The trains don’t run extremely often though, so in the time it took me to go back, change, and catch another train, an hour and 15 minutes had past and the sky was more hazy. I still spent the afternoon reading on the beach however. (And getting a hazelnut gelato!) Around 5:30 it started getting cold though so I have returned to my hotel to decompress, get some warmer clothes, and hang out before going in search of food.
This is definitely the type of place that you can be in and out of in a little over 24 hours – unless it’s summer and you have all the swimming/sunning/boating opportunities. I plan on having another lazy morning tomorrow – my train tomorrow is at 2:15, and I’m hoping that I will have an easy connection with the rest of my group when I finally reach Venice at 9:30 tomorrow night!
On Friday morning I awoke bright and early to catch my cab. (Scratch bright; it was still pitch black, actually). My cab arrived at 4:30am, being as it was the middle of the night I made it to the airport in less than 15 minutes. But crazy was I to think that just because it was still the middle of the night and Spaniards don’t seem to like to “madrugarse” that the airport wouldn’t be crowded. After all, even when I travel on Thursday and Friday at late morning or early afternoon times, I barely waste time in lines, and definitely not in security. But welcome to Semana Santa; the place was packed. I of course was flying Ryanair, the most dirt-cheap budget airline of them all, so it was of course situated in the least convenient location. I stood in line for about 35 minutes just to check my bag through but had to go to yet a different desk to get my travel documents approved because I am not an EU citizen (horror of horrors), which involved a couple more useless minutes. (Because, of course, it wouldn’t make sense for ALL the check-in desks to have the official document seal/stamp/what have you. That would be far too logical.) So, then I have to run all the way back to security, which for the first time ever actually resembles more of a EWR line than anything I have seen here. So I go through that… make it through by 5:35. [Note: my boarding time is 5:30; the plane is set to depart the gate at 6am. Note also: the previous statement about Ryanair being the cheapest and therefore most inconvenient airline ever]. As you can guess, the gate couldn’t possibly be anywhere close to the security check. So walking very fast for ten minutes I reach my gate, which is already mostly boarded, and I’ve broken a sweat, and it’s still barely light outside. Excellent. Now for some much needed sleep; no wait – the seats don’t recline and they make announcements every 15 minutes! Whoopee! Anyway, the rest of the travel was smooth, made all the necessary connections, and met Elise at Milano Centrale. Unfortunately we didn’t have seats together on the 3-hour train to Cinque Terre, but that was fine. Once we made it to La Spezia, one of the towns close to where we were staying in Cinque Terre, we had a little trouble with the train schedule, but we finally made it onto the correct train. (And then the conductor came by to check our tickets and told me it was a 50€ fine for not stamping my ticket. Luckily I was able to explain that I had had no idea and I avoided it – because the first stop was mine – but seriously, what a terrible system! A. How am I supposed to know to stamp it if no one has told me and there are no signs? B. What is the point? I’m already holding the ticket. Can’t they just print the time/date on the ticket itself?? Oh, Italy). Our hostel was nice but extremely cold!
Saturday, March 27th
On Saturday Elise and I slept in a bit and then got breakfast (Latte and omelets!) in our beautiful little town. (Which is literally one long street up an extremely steep hill.) The houses are old and a bit crumbling but all in bright colors. This town has no water access – it’s built on cliffs.) We began the hike through all the 5 towns. The first two connections were supposed to be easy and short, basically strolls, and then next two more intense. We were unsure whether the third or fourth was technically the most difficult (my online guide said the middle one, as did Elise’s mom’s memory; Elise’s guidebook and the km to average time to complete chart on our map said the fourth). We weren’t actually able to come to our own conclusion because the last trail was closed due to a landslide. It was a little gray, but the hikes and views were excellent. The first was a half mile on a paved walk way – part of it through the tunnel of love, with graffiti and murals inside and pad locks adorning the railings as a symbol of couples “locking in” their love. It overlooks the ocean the entire way. This path brought us to Manarola, a town also situated on cliffs and even smaller and unobtrusive than Riomaggiore (the town in which we stayed). On to Corniglia – the second hike was more on a nature path, but still fairly easy. Some older Italian women were walking it in heeled boots. Corniglia was also beautiful; each town is similar but has it’s own characteristics. This town was slightly bigger, and there were small twisting streets filled with pizzerias and foccacerias and a big tower at the top of the hill that we could climb and see the entire town below and the cliffs and oceans. Then we started the long climb (it ended up taking us about 80 minutes, although we stopped for a snack at one point and stopped many times to take pictures). This one was indeed harder, with lots of ups and downs, less old ladies in heels – less, not none – and paths through olive groves. Eventually we descended down down down into Vernazza. This was probably the biggest town yet, and still beautiful, and the first one on the water. There were lots of ocean-side restaurants and pizzerias and souvenir shops. We spent quite a while there before catching a train to Monterosso, the last and largest of the towns. We arrived in Monterosso around 5p and it definitely has a different feel from the others. First, there was much more beach. Second, there was a parking lot full of RVs. At first we couldn’t figure out what was so special about this town, we walked up and down the street and frankly didn’t see much of anything. Eventually, though, we realized there was a whole other section around a bend that we couldn’t see, and this led into restaurant/hostel/bar area. It was cute, but it actually took us a while to find a place we deemed suitable for dinner. We finally found one – and I had a steaming plate of penne with spicy tomato sauce and shrimps. Although I would have preferred my shrimps to be shelled for me! It was quite a chore. Mostly it was delicious because we were absolutely freezing. In fact, after we took a train back to our town (the warmest part yet), we stopped at a bar on the way up the hill to our hostel to get some steaming tea and hot chocolate.) Not much of a night life here…
Sunday, March 28th
Today we woke up a bit earlier – 8:30am. Actually, it was 9:30, but we had forgotten about the time change. We checked out of our hostel and I checked into my new hotel/hostel even further up the steep hill. Then we went to the train to take it to Monterosso where we planned on spending some time until Elise had to catch her train at one. It was on the train that Elise remembered the time change. We spent some time wondering about it, and asking our Canadian seat neighbors, who had no idea what we were talking about. Turns out she was right though, so we only had about an hour or so before she had to catch her train home, so we got an early lunch. (This time I got vegetable stuffed pasta in a cream/cheese “nut sauce”). Since it was finally absolutely gorgeous and sunny, I went back to Riomaggiore to get my swimsuit and book so I could lay out on the beach. The trains don’t run extremely often though, so in the time it took me to go back, change, and catch another train, an hour and 15 minutes had past and the sky was more hazy. I still spent the afternoon reading on the beach however. (And getting a hazelnut gelato!) Around 5:30 it started getting cold though so I have returned to my hotel to decompress, get some warmer clothes, and hang out before going in search of food.
This is definitely the type of place that you can be in and out of in a little over 24 hours – unless it’s summer and you have all the swimming/sunning/boating opportunities. I plan on having another lazy morning tomorrow – my train tomorrow is at 2:15, and I’m hoping that I will have an easy connection with the rest of my group when I finally reach Venice at 9:30 tomorrow night!
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Otro sabor de la vida española [Another taste of the Spanish life]
Last Friday I jumped on a plane to meet Keegan (in from Barcelona) in the small summer-resort town of San Sebastián, on the northern coast of Spain in the Basque region, or Pais Vasco, as we say en español. Although the weather when I left Madrid was misty and gray and somewhat cool, the weather in the north was warm. In fact, it was downright balmy, with the wind from the ocean blowing warm air. We flew in under blue skies so I had spectacular views of the mountains on our descent into the airport. When we landed, it looked like we were almost going to land right on the water. (In fact, the five year old a couple rows in front of me was quite sure of it). I met Keegan in the airport and we decided to take a taxi (although more expensive) so we wouldn't have to wander around aimlessly once we arrived. Turns out we only slightly helped ourselves out – the main part of the old city is unreachable by car, so our taxi driver let us out as close as possible and pointed us in the right direction. Nevertheless, we weren’t exactly clear on where we were going and the map that I so preparedly printed from google maps seemed to be unaware that instead of 4, there are actually about 20 streets in this section. It was a good way to see almost the entire section of the city though, and we did finally find our hotel. We watched the sunset on the boardwalk, and I just kept marveling at how beautiful it was. I’m surprised Keegan didn’t get sick of me right then and there. We capped off the night by sampling pintxos, the local food that the region is famous for – mini tostada/sandwich/seafood/ or skewer concoctions that are sold for about 1-2€ apiece. We tried to do it as the natives do, stopping in at 4 different places and having a drink and a bit to eat at each. And there were so many! We probably sampled a total of maybe 10 places and there had to be over 50 to choose from right within walking distance.
Saturday, we began our morning with a quest for coffee. For the record, not as easy as one might think! I also do miss the lack of “breakfast places” in Europe, it’s kind of a problem. Eventually we found this random hole-in-the-wall kiosk looking café that turned out to have the best cappuccinos. First of all, they were cheap (about 1.40€ each), and they were topped with a little bit of chocolate and cinnamon, Probably the most delicious coffee I’ve had here in a while, and the slight sweetness was a nice touch. Then we walked around a lot again, down the entire sections of beach that line the city’s coast, and also did some exploration of el centro. It was grey, almost downright muggy, and so eventually in the mid-afternoon the clouds did let some water down, but not too much. I never even used my umbrella. That night we tried to find a proper restaurant online (using the very unsteady wifi connection and Keegan’s laptop – all a race against time because Keegan hadn’t brought her charger), when I stumbled upon an Asian fusion restaurant. Okay, not exactly Basque, but I’ve found that I treat most Asian restaurants in Spain as “questionable” and this one looked delicious, not to mention that we were both craving it. So we went there, had a nice bottle of white wine from Spain, and left there to try out a few more of the bars (and yes, tapas). We actually ended up wandering upon an outdoor concert! – Though only for the last two songs.
Sunday was equally gray, and a little colder, and also a little bit sad when I realized that there was a casualty from the night before - my sweatshirt! But note how warm it must have been, because I had been carrying in on my arm all night – it was far too warm to wear and apparently warm enough to forget it without noticing. Oh well. We did a little more poking around and headed to the airport around 3p. It was the perfect break because, most importantly, it followed right after midterms, but also because San Sebastián is the type of place that you get the most out of just by wandering around, sightseeing whatever is on hand, and enjoying the food and the city. It was so nice to be in a town where there wasn’t this pressure to see all there is to see, especially since I know my next 11 days, starting Friday, will be go go go.
Also we had another gorgeous day in Madrid yesterday – it was beautiful and warm and all the trees are budding and the flowering ones smell amazing! A few of us went to the main park – Parque de Retiro – yesterday and wandered around and rented a rowboat. We also had lunch at this “vegetarian-friendly” restaurant nearby (quite rare for Spain), and the waiter significantly comped our bill! (All good.) More good: my laundry is finally finally finally being done! I might even have clothing to wear tomorrow! (Walking naked around Madrid is slightly frowned upon, I’ve found…)
Saturday, we began our morning with a quest for coffee. For the record, not as easy as one might think! I also do miss the lack of “breakfast places” in Europe, it’s kind of a problem. Eventually we found this random hole-in-the-wall kiosk looking café that turned out to have the best cappuccinos. First of all, they were cheap (about 1.40€ each), and they were topped with a little bit of chocolate and cinnamon, Probably the most delicious coffee I’ve had here in a while, and the slight sweetness was a nice touch. Then we walked around a lot again, down the entire sections of beach that line the city’s coast, and also did some exploration of el centro. It was grey, almost downright muggy, and so eventually in the mid-afternoon the clouds did let some water down, but not too much. I never even used my umbrella. That night we tried to find a proper restaurant online (using the very unsteady wifi connection and Keegan’s laptop – all a race against time because Keegan hadn’t brought her charger), when I stumbled upon an Asian fusion restaurant. Okay, not exactly Basque, but I’ve found that I treat most Asian restaurants in Spain as “questionable” and this one looked delicious, not to mention that we were both craving it. So we went there, had a nice bottle of white wine from Spain, and left there to try out a few more of the bars (and yes, tapas). We actually ended up wandering upon an outdoor concert! – Though only for the last two songs.
Sunday was equally gray, and a little colder, and also a little bit sad when I realized that there was a casualty from the night before - my sweatshirt! But note how warm it must have been, because I had been carrying in on my arm all night – it was far too warm to wear and apparently warm enough to forget it without noticing. Oh well. We did a little more poking around and headed to the airport around 3p. It was the perfect break because, most importantly, it followed right after midterms, but also because San Sebastián is the type of place that you get the most out of just by wandering around, sightseeing whatever is on hand, and enjoying the food and the city. It was so nice to be in a town where there wasn’t this pressure to see all there is to see, especially since I know my next 11 days, starting Friday, will be go go go.
Also we had another gorgeous day in Madrid yesterday – it was beautiful and warm and all the trees are budding and the flowering ones smell amazing! A few of us went to the main park – Parque de Retiro – yesterday and wandered around and rented a rowboat. We also had lunch at this “vegetarian-friendly” restaurant nearby (quite rare for Spain), and the waiter significantly comped our bill! (All good.) More good: my laundry is finally finally finally being done! I might even have clothing to wear tomorrow! (Walking naked around Madrid is slightly frowned upon, I’ve found…)
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Has Spring finally Sprung?
So it's finally a gorgeous day - bright blue sky, temperatures in the low 60s - the type of day the rest of you probably imagine as a typical Madrid day. And no, this weather isn't typical; Madrid's on about the same latitude as New York City and Princeton. And after two weeks of rain, and then a week of sun but low temperatures, I am more than ecstatic about this beautiful weather. Some of the cafes and cervezerias on my street are even putting out tables and chairs on the walkways where I didn't even know enough space existed. It's making me extremely excited to be ending my weekend travels in the next 3 weeks and spend the end of my semester enjoying the warm weather and eat outside in the plazas or the parks. Unfortunately, I can't advantage of this amazing weather currently, because of these horrible things called midterms that my school is holding, to make us feel that we are attending some semblance of a university institution. If they could simulate productivity and inclination to study for me as well, I'd be set, but unfortunately I have to come up with this studiousness on my own. We'll see how that goes. With all this complaining I suppose I should stop using this post as a procrastination mechanism, but look how productive I'm being! This weekend I'm heading up to San Sebastián, on the Northern coast in the Basque Country (País Vasco, en español) for a quick weekend with Keegan, hopefully the nice weather will stay around for that! More next week, hope everyone's well!
Food craving: grilled chicken
Food craving: grilled chicken
Monday, March 8, 2010
Morocco Photos!
Saturday night dinner
Market during the day
The girls in front of the minaret
Minaret Koutobia
The narrow streets
Orange trees abound!
A close up of the ornate architecture
Marrakech Market at a distance
[There are more on facebook...]
Salaam Alaikum
As of Sunday evening, I have officially: been to the African continent, been to an Islamic country, finally gotten customs stamps! (Okay, so there were probably more firsts than that, but that's all I can come up with right this second.)
This weekend I visited Marrakech, in Morocco, with a small group of students from my program. I say small because it was only a fraction of the entire group, but there were still about 35 of us or so, plus three of the program coordinators. I was really excited to go before the trip, but also a bit nervous because I didn't know what to expect, especially with regards to customs of dress and covering up. And so the adventure began.
Thursday afternoon we all took the metro from IES to the airport to meet the group, after checking in and going through security, we had plenty of extra time to wander aimlessly around the airport shops, which was fun, and we finally boarded the plane around 4:30. I was randomly assigned a seat in row 1, in the bulkhead, and it was the most leg room I have ever seen! I could have sat on the floor in front of my seat with my legs fully stretched out! The flight itself was short... only about 2 hours, and around 5:30p (Marrakech is an hour behind Madrid) we began our descent.
The first views of Morocco are very different from flying into Barajas (in Madrid) or Newark. While you could definitely see a city, it's not at all built up (in fact kind of run down), and all the buildings are orange-colored stucco-type structures. On the tarmac you simply deboarded and wandered inside the airport, where there is immediately a customs check. After the customs check we were able to get our checked luggage, but not before another uniformed man checked our passports again. (In case we had, you know, changed our identities in the 10 meters between the customs booth and the doorway). Finally, we collected our luggage and headed for the coach bus which transported us the ten minutes from the airport to our hotel. (Which was very nice, by Moroccan standards. They served us tea while we checked in, which was delicious. They also serve the same sweet green tea after all meals.) Then we took a night bus tour of the city, and ended in the market square of the old city, which they toured us around for about 15 minutes and then let us free.
As soon as they told us we had free time, we all just sort of stood there, shell-shocked. The market was intensely crowded with both Moroccans and tourists. There were tons of shops and stalls around the edges, plus side streets with restaurants and shops, and in the center were dozens upon dozens of food vendors, women drawing henna, men with monkeys and cobras, all vying for our attention (and most importantly, our money). Finally we decided to break off into smaller groups, deciding staying together was important, but that it would be impossible to navigate the crowds with a large amount of people in tow. My group of five decided to brave the crowds and find a food stall at which to eat. Immediately we were surrounded by calls to try the various foods and overeager vendors rushing to show us menus. We resisted the first few and decided on #75. (The food looked fresh and the drinks were free!) We had delicious chicken, lamb, and vegetable kabobs, as well as cous-cous with vegetables and spiced olives with this circular/ flat local bread. It was all amazing. Afterward we wandered around all the stalls, looking at everything for sale and chatting with the vendors. Although it was a little overwhelming, the bartering aspect and all the cacaphony was at the same time extremely fun. We finally returned to the hotel around 10:30, walking the 30 minutes back from the market since the weather was so nice.
Saturday morning we awoke and began our touring at 9:30, visiting a minaret, tombs, an herbologist selling spices, and various other places. In the afternoon we had free time, so 10 of us returned to the markets to brave the vendors again. We first went to lunch on a rooftop terrace, followed by dessert on the street. Many women sit in the square selling trays of cookies, so we finally decided to get some. They were delicious - like macaroons, only not as dense and chewy, more like actual cookies. We then returned to the hotel for a couple hours before heading out to a restaurant closer to our hotel - the Lebanese Cafe. There Paige and I split hummus, tabouleh and falafel (with Lebanese flatbread). Unfortunately they almost forgot about one of the boys' meals so it ended up being a verrry long evening. We tried some delicious Moroccan white wine though! (Can't remember the label). Afterward we joined up with a few others who had been eating at the same restaurant with a different group, and wandered over to the train station, where we got dessert at a rooftop cafe. It was about 65 degrees and absolutely balmy and beautiful. We returned to the hotel around 11p.
Saturday we all met at ten (after breakfast in the hotel, which was amazing because there were OMELETS, which I have been missing), and went to ride camels! It was so much fun! It was a bit precarious to get on them, because we were two to a camel, and when the camel gets up it first stands on its front legs, then back, so the person in the back (me) feels like they might almost fall off! I believe Paige and I handled it very gracefully, however. Afterward we had more time to explore on our own, so this time we headed back to the hotel since we had braved the market twice already, and it was raining. Luckily it cleared for a bit so we all sat out by the pool... and when it clouded over again we went for lunch, which was quite the long ordeal and concluded in four separate receipts. (A single dessert, four other people's desserts, our beverages, our food). By then it was already 4p (and raining, again. It had of course been beautiful for the duration of our meal), so we reconvened in the hotel. We kept hoping it would clear so we could check out some gardens we had heard about.... but the weather refused to help us out. At 7:30 we all as a group went to a dinner at a Moroccan style Medieval Times. For those of you who don't know what that is.... we basically went to this strange, disneyland type palace with food (this part was delicious) and then a spectacle. I didn't really get the point of the second part of the evening, which included some guns and some horses and a belly dancer, but the food was at least good. And we got to see some guys do some really interesting tricks on galloping horses, but that was about it. Also a scary large bug bit my leg and it was really painful... but nothing happened so that's good.
Sunday, the weather was of course hot and beautiful again, because we were leaving. After a quick breakfast, we returned to the airport, standed in long lines, and ran to our flight! But we made it! And now I'm back in Madrid, preparing for my midterms this week and next, and also my exciting weekend in London that lies ahead!
This weekend I visited Marrakech, in Morocco, with a small group of students from my program. I say small because it was only a fraction of the entire group, but there were still about 35 of us or so, plus three of the program coordinators. I was really excited to go before the trip, but also a bit nervous because I didn't know what to expect, especially with regards to customs of dress and covering up. And so the adventure began.
Thursday afternoon we all took the metro from IES to the airport to meet the group, after checking in and going through security, we had plenty of extra time to wander aimlessly around the airport shops, which was fun, and we finally boarded the plane around 4:30. I was randomly assigned a seat in row 1, in the bulkhead, and it was the most leg room I have ever seen! I could have sat on the floor in front of my seat with my legs fully stretched out! The flight itself was short... only about 2 hours, and around 5:30p (Marrakech is an hour behind Madrid) we began our descent.
The first views of Morocco are very different from flying into Barajas (in Madrid) or Newark. While you could definitely see a city, it's not at all built up (in fact kind of run down), and all the buildings are orange-colored stucco-type structures. On the tarmac you simply deboarded and wandered inside the airport, where there is immediately a customs check. After the customs check we were able to get our checked luggage, but not before another uniformed man checked our passports again. (In case we had, you know, changed our identities in the 10 meters between the customs booth and the doorway). Finally, we collected our luggage and headed for the coach bus which transported us the ten minutes from the airport to our hotel. (Which was very nice, by Moroccan standards. They served us tea while we checked in, which was delicious. They also serve the same sweet green tea after all meals.) Then we took a night bus tour of the city, and ended in the market square of the old city, which they toured us around for about 15 minutes and then let us free.
As soon as they told us we had free time, we all just sort of stood there, shell-shocked. The market was intensely crowded with both Moroccans and tourists. There were tons of shops and stalls around the edges, plus side streets with restaurants and shops, and in the center were dozens upon dozens of food vendors, women drawing henna, men with monkeys and cobras, all vying for our attention (and most importantly, our money). Finally we decided to break off into smaller groups, deciding staying together was important, but that it would be impossible to navigate the crowds with a large amount of people in tow. My group of five decided to brave the crowds and find a food stall at which to eat. Immediately we were surrounded by calls to try the various foods and overeager vendors rushing to show us menus. We resisted the first few and decided on #75. (The food looked fresh and the drinks were free!) We had delicious chicken, lamb, and vegetable kabobs, as well as cous-cous with vegetables and spiced olives with this circular/ flat local bread. It was all amazing. Afterward we wandered around all the stalls, looking at everything for sale and chatting with the vendors. Although it was a little overwhelming, the bartering aspect and all the cacaphony was at the same time extremely fun. We finally returned to the hotel around 10:30, walking the 30 minutes back from the market since the weather was so nice.
Saturday morning we awoke and began our touring at 9:30, visiting a minaret, tombs, an herbologist selling spices, and various other places. In the afternoon we had free time, so 10 of us returned to the markets to brave the vendors again. We first went to lunch on a rooftop terrace, followed by dessert on the street. Many women sit in the square selling trays of cookies, so we finally decided to get some. They were delicious - like macaroons, only not as dense and chewy, more like actual cookies. We then returned to the hotel for a couple hours before heading out to a restaurant closer to our hotel - the Lebanese Cafe. There Paige and I split hummus, tabouleh and falafel (with Lebanese flatbread). Unfortunately they almost forgot about one of the boys' meals so it ended up being a verrry long evening. We tried some delicious Moroccan white wine though! (Can't remember the label). Afterward we joined up with a few others who had been eating at the same restaurant with a different group, and wandered over to the train station, where we got dessert at a rooftop cafe. It was about 65 degrees and absolutely balmy and beautiful. We returned to the hotel around 11p.
Saturday we all met at ten (after breakfast in the hotel, which was amazing because there were OMELETS, which I have been missing), and went to ride camels! It was so much fun! It was a bit precarious to get on them, because we were two to a camel, and when the camel gets up it first stands on its front legs, then back, so the person in the back (me) feels like they might almost fall off! I believe Paige and I handled it very gracefully, however. Afterward we had more time to explore on our own, so this time we headed back to the hotel since we had braved the market twice already, and it was raining. Luckily it cleared for a bit so we all sat out by the pool... and when it clouded over again we went for lunch, which was quite the long ordeal and concluded in four separate receipts. (A single dessert, four other people's desserts, our beverages, our food). By then it was already 4p (and raining, again. It had of course been beautiful for the duration of our meal), so we reconvened in the hotel. We kept hoping it would clear so we could check out some gardens we had heard about.... but the weather refused to help us out. At 7:30 we all as a group went to a dinner at a Moroccan style Medieval Times. For those of you who don't know what that is.... we basically went to this strange, disneyland type palace with food (this part was delicious) and then a spectacle. I didn't really get the point of the second part of the evening, which included some guns and some horses and a belly dancer, but the food was at least good. And we got to see some guys do some really interesting tricks on galloping horses, but that was about it. Also a scary large bug bit my leg and it was really painful... but nothing happened so that's good.
Sunday, the weather was of course hot and beautiful again, because we were leaving. After a quick breakfast, we returned to the airport, standed in long lines, and ran to our flight! But we made it! And now I'm back in Madrid, preparing for my midterms this week and next, and also my exciting weekend in London that lies ahead!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Give me your stamp of approval!
I just got back from my long weekend in Strasbourg visiting Anna! (And coincidentally, Jane, too!) Thursday was a very loooooong day of traveling. I flew SpanAir to Frankfurt, and unfortunately they made me check my bag, since their weight limit is 6! kg. Which is roughly 13lbs. Which is nothing. [Actually checking it wasn't really a problem, in fact it was kind of nice not to lug it around, but complications to follow, of course.] It was a easy flight, and I arrived in Frankfurt around 4:30p. Since I flew in and out of Frankfurt and took a bus through Germany to Strasbourg, I feel I can count that I've "visited" Germany, right?
[Speaking of visiting many countries, and to comment on the title of the post, I am extremely sad that traveling within the EU doesn't yield a traveler any customs stamps! I guess they figure if one of their brethren let us in originally, we can't be half bad. But how am I supposed to show off all my worldliness if my passport doesn't reflect it?? Although I suppose it does make traveling easier.]
Anyway, here's where the checking a bag thing became a problem. The woman who checked it in Madrid told me it was checked through to the bus station in Strasbourg. I was pretty sure that wasn't right, so I asked her specifically if that was what she meant. Her answer: yes. Reality: no. So I find the bus pretty quickly, and there's actually a 5:30 one that I can jump on, even if I'm scheduled for the one 3 hours later, which is perfect. Then I ask the driver about my bag, who confirms that I do in fact need to transfer it myself. Duh. So I go back down to baggage claim... and the carousel says that off-loading is complete... and there are no bags left circulating around. So I go to some guy, who points me to another desk, who points me to a baggage carrier, who finally knows what I'm talking about, although he directs me to a completely different carousel than the one that matches my flight number. He was right (luckily), but why it would have ended up 6 carousels away is anyone's guess. Very clear. Unfortunately it was 5:25 by then so I couldn't make it back to the bus, so I ended up spending 3 hours in the Frankfurt airport. It's a very nice airport, though, so that wasn't too bad. FINALLY I took a bus and arrived in Strasbourg at 11pm. After walking back to Anna's room at the foyer/boardinghouse, we decided to go out for a drink at a bar, met a friend of hers from the university, and chatted.
Friday we wandered around Strasbourg a bit, but it started raining so we ducked into an adorable restaurant in the German quarter called Le Gruber. It had very authentic Alsacien food - we shared a tarte flambée (an extremely thin-crusted pizza with gruyere, ham, and onions), onion soup (most delicious ever, not salty!) And something with a German name that I don't remember that had choucroute (sauerkraut), spaetzle (potato-y noodles) and ham. It was all extremely delicous, and then I went with Anna to a yoga class! It was really good and I'm thinking of looking into classes in Madrid now! After that we wandered around for a bit and got delicious smoothies (pineapple and mango with fresh-squeezed orange juice and mint!) before rushing to our cooking class! That was definitely the most exciting - the two of us, plus another friend of Anna's - and lots of French people! We split up into four groups and spent time learning how to make four different appetizers: little tarte flambées, an amuse-bouche of smoked duck w/chives and spices and apple w/balsamic reduction, puff pastry with all sorts of fillings, cheese sticks, and crab w/ginger and beets deep-fried as a croquette. (I kept the menu and recipes of course! I'll be sure to cook you all French delicacies when I return.) We rounded out the night making chocolate chip cookies (they were very melty in the oven and came out extremely flat, I think because there is no packed brown sugar in France, but they were still chewy and delicious!) and watching a movie.
Saturday, I accompanied Anna on her program field trip to Schirmeck. We visited a very cool interactive museum about the history of the Alsace-Lorraine region and then went to a DELICIOUS lunch. Afterward we visited a monastery on top of a mountain with spectacular views of the valley. Then we went on a "hike". At least, I thought it was supposed to be only an amble through the woods. I hadn't even known about it so I didn't even have sneakers with me! While it might be a pleasant walk with some slight inclines and steep steps occasionally in normal weather, here it was still snowy/slushy and icy so it became a very interesting walk indeed. I have never felt more uncoordinated while hiking in my entire life. Also we lost our gropu so after wandering for 45 minutes, we had to go back the way we came! It was kind of more like rock climbing/scampering. I'm not sure the boots I was wearing are going to make it home from Europe alive...
We got home around 7, and then met Jane (and Maddy and Julia who were traveling with her) at 8:30. We wandered around looking at menus for a bit, and ultimately decided to go to Le Gruber again! This time we got three different tarte flambée (traditional, traditional with chevre, and one with olives and tomatoes). I also had a delicious tarte a l'oignon, plus desserts (chocolate mousse and apple streudel (or apfelstreudel, on the menu) and of course a delicious bottle of Riesling. Afterward, we went to a bar that's on a boat docked on the quai. It was really cool looking, and fun to be on the water (Check out my photo album on facebook!)
Sunday we had a delicous breakfast and wandered around again and took lots of pictures. We visited "Le Petit France" and went to a pub for lunch, an establishment recommended by Biere Magazine, according to the sign on the door. I figured I was the closest I would be to Germany this trip, so I decided to taste a local brew (Erdinger Hefe Weizen): tasty!
I had to depart Strasbourg at 5p... just in time to get back to my apartment by 1:30a and get up for school on Monday at 7p! Eventually I'll get around to sleeping...
Unrelated: I watched a film screening at school today of a film called "Tesis" [Thesis], a Spanish film directed by Alejandro Amenábar - it was very good and I think I understood almost all of it, give or take a few words! (okay, so there were Spanish subtitles as well, but still).
Next fun adventure: I'm going to Marrakesh in 2 days! Can't wait to tell all about THAT!
[Speaking of visiting many countries, and to comment on the title of the post, I am extremely sad that traveling within the EU doesn't yield a traveler any customs stamps! I guess they figure if one of their brethren let us in originally, we can't be half bad. But how am I supposed to show off all my worldliness if my passport doesn't reflect it?? Although I suppose it does make traveling easier.]
Anyway, here's where the checking a bag thing became a problem. The woman who checked it in Madrid told me it was checked through to the bus station in Strasbourg. I was pretty sure that wasn't right, so I asked her specifically if that was what she meant. Her answer: yes. Reality: no. So I find the bus pretty quickly, and there's actually a 5:30 one that I can jump on, even if I'm scheduled for the one 3 hours later, which is perfect. Then I ask the driver about my bag, who confirms that I do in fact need to transfer it myself. Duh. So I go back down to baggage claim... and the carousel says that off-loading is complete... and there are no bags left circulating around. So I go to some guy, who points me to another desk, who points me to a baggage carrier, who finally knows what I'm talking about, although he directs me to a completely different carousel than the one that matches my flight number. He was right (luckily), but why it would have ended up 6 carousels away is anyone's guess. Very clear. Unfortunately it was 5:25 by then so I couldn't make it back to the bus, so I ended up spending 3 hours in the Frankfurt airport. It's a very nice airport, though, so that wasn't too bad. FINALLY I took a bus and arrived in Strasbourg at 11pm. After walking back to Anna's room at the foyer/boardinghouse, we decided to go out for a drink at a bar, met a friend of hers from the university, and chatted.
Friday we wandered around Strasbourg a bit, but it started raining so we ducked into an adorable restaurant in the German quarter called Le Gruber. It had very authentic Alsacien food - we shared a tarte flambée (an extremely thin-crusted pizza with gruyere, ham, and onions), onion soup (most delicious ever, not salty!) And something with a German name that I don't remember that had choucroute (sauerkraut), spaetzle (potato-y noodles) and ham. It was all extremely delicous, and then I went with Anna to a yoga class! It was really good and I'm thinking of looking into classes in Madrid now! After that we wandered around for a bit and got delicious smoothies (pineapple and mango with fresh-squeezed orange juice and mint!) before rushing to our cooking class! That was definitely the most exciting - the two of us, plus another friend of Anna's - and lots of French people! We split up into four groups and spent time learning how to make four different appetizers: little tarte flambées, an amuse-bouche of smoked duck w/chives and spices and apple w/balsamic reduction, puff pastry with all sorts of fillings, cheese sticks, and crab w/ginger and beets deep-fried as a croquette. (I kept the menu and recipes of course! I'll be sure to cook you all French delicacies when I return.) We rounded out the night making chocolate chip cookies (they were very melty in the oven and came out extremely flat, I think because there is no packed brown sugar in France, but they were still chewy and delicious!) and watching a movie.
Saturday, I accompanied Anna on her program field trip to Schirmeck. We visited a very cool interactive museum about the history of the Alsace-Lorraine region and then went to a DELICIOUS lunch. Afterward we visited a monastery on top of a mountain with spectacular views of the valley. Then we went on a "hike". At least, I thought it was supposed to be only an amble through the woods. I hadn't even known about it so I didn't even have sneakers with me! While it might be a pleasant walk with some slight inclines and steep steps occasionally in normal weather, here it was still snowy/slushy and icy so it became a very interesting walk indeed. I have never felt more uncoordinated while hiking in my entire life. Also we lost our gropu so after wandering for 45 minutes, we had to go back the way we came! It was kind of more like rock climbing/scampering. I'm not sure the boots I was wearing are going to make it home from Europe alive...
We got home around 7, and then met Jane (and Maddy and Julia who were traveling with her) at 8:30. We wandered around looking at menus for a bit, and ultimately decided to go to Le Gruber again! This time we got three different tarte flambée (traditional, traditional with chevre, and one with olives and tomatoes). I also had a delicious tarte a l'oignon, plus desserts (chocolate mousse and apple streudel (or apfelstreudel, on the menu) and of course a delicious bottle of Riesling. Afterward, we went to a bar that's on a boat docked on the quai. It was really cool looking, and fun to be on the water (Check out my photo album on facebook!)
Sunday we had a delicous breakfast and wandered around again and took lots of pictures. We visited "Le Petit France" and went to a pub for lunch, an establishment recommended by Biere Magazine, according to the sign on the door. I figured I was the closest I would be to Germany this trip, so I decided to taste a local brew (Erdinger Hefe Weizen): tasty!
I had to depart Strasbourg at 5p... just in time to get back to my apartment by 1:30a and get up for school on Monday at 7p! Eventually I'll get around to sleeping...
Unrelated: I watched a film screening at school today of a film called "Tesis" [Thesis], a Spanish film directed by Alejandro Amenábar - it was very good and I think I understood almost all of it, give or take a few words! (okay, so there were Spanish subtitles as well, but still).
Next fun adventure: I'm going to Marrakesh in 2 days! Can't wait to tell all about THAT!
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Salamanca... ¿capillas?
This past Friday/Saturday, my program took an overnight trip to Salamanca, home of the oldest university in Spain. (Naturally, I bought a souvenir T-shirt.) I'm sure it has lots of other significance, but my tour guide only really projected to the 4 people standing closest to him (and it was creepy to have him give a tour only directly to you when you did stand up front), so I'm afraid some of the culture and history was lost. Nevertheless.
We arrived on Friday after a nearly 3 hour bus ride and checked into our very nice hotel. After that we did lots of tours around Salamanca, strolling around the historic district. We first visited a large cathedral, which was amazingly vaulted and tall. Although I've seen a lot of cathedrals in Europe, this one seemed especially ornate, with lots of the molding painted in bright colors. And it was so tall! We went up into the balconies and it still seemed to be really high-ceilinged even though we were already about 3 stories up. We also toured around the edges looking at the artwork adoring each of the small capillas, or chapels. Some of them were very strange, with portraits of a crucified Jesus with his feet resting almost on the ground, which was covered in bones and skulls. We then went up into the Jeronimo Tower, which gave a beautiful view of the entire city. (I forgot my camera, but hopefully I'll be able to steal some pictures from my friend.) It was so cool to be up on the rooftops (although I found that I really, really, truly hate stone spiral staircases). The moldings on the outside of the cathedral were also really interesting. Apparently they were renovated several years ago, and there is now a tiny astronaut hidden among the rest of the more traditional molding. Another interesting site was a building completely covered in conch shell moldings. There is also a very large obsession with frogs, due to the fact that one is hidden in the facade of another important building. (They're very in to hiding random objects in fine art, it seems). Last we visited Casa Lis, a museum filled with late 19th-20th century objects - art nouveau and art deco collected by a native Salamancan patron, with a passion it seems, for figurines. The museum also included an expansive collection of wide-eyed porcelain dolls. (Creepy).
After the touring we were given some free time. I went out to lunch with several friends, followed by the largest Ben & Jerry's sundaes I've ever seen. To kill time between the tour end (6p) and dinner at 9:15, we all went back to the hotel to rest. (It was really cold to be walking around the streets once the sun went down). It was really nice to be able to all gather in one place since when we leave school we either have to go to a specific place in order to socialize, or just go home, which is very isolating. It was nice to not be out at a cafe and just have free time with friends. And laugh. A lot.
We had a delicious dinner at the hotel followed by a tasting of the Salamancan night life. Although not quite the craziness of Madrid, we still had lots of fun. We ended up meeting up with some French and Italian girls who were studying abroad in Salamanca and they showed us all the best bars (in their opinion). We went to a crowded local bar where I sampled the Spanish drink "Agua de Valencia", which is a combination of sparkling wine, vodka, and orange Fanta. (I found out the ingredients post-consumption, which I think was a good thing considering that sounds like the most unappetizing cocktail ever. But it was really good!) We then went to a bar that serves only chupitas (shots), most of which have wild names. My favorite was one with honey and rum.
Saturday, we toured the historic part of the University, although I must say I got bored of looking at room after room of classrooms that look like chapels. Some of them had cool murals on the ceilings though. We had more time to explore, and my group of friends decided to go for Chinese food (yes, I know, authentic of us). The food, however, was not very authentic, although the women running it were actually Chinese...? We arrived home, extremely, tired on Saturday, and I stayed in the rest of the weekend because I was getting a cold. (And then we happened to learn words relating to colds/sickness in Spanish on Monday!) But I'm better now, and very psyched for my upcoming trip to Strasbourg to visit Anna. (And very relieved that the Lufthansa strike didn't seem to affect my flight plans!).
Also... I'm currently uploading pictures, so they should finally finally be up very soon.
Food I'm currently craving: tabouleh
... do they eat tabouleh in Morocco??
We arrived on Friday after a nearly 3 hour bus ride and checked into our very nice hotel. After that we did lots of tours around Salamanca, strolling around the historic district. We first visited a large cathedral, which was amazingly vaulted and tall. Although I've seen a lot of cathedrals in Europe, this one seemed especially ornate, with lots of the molding painted in bright colors. And it was so tall! We went up into the balconies and it still seemed to be really high-ceilinged even though we were already about 3 stories up. We also toured around the edges looking at the artwork adoring each of the small capillas, or chapels. Some of them were very strange, with portraits of a crucified Jesus with his feet resting almost on the ground, which was covered in bones and skulls. We then went up into the Jeronimo Tower, which gave a beautiful view of the entire city. (I forgot my camera, but hopefully I'll be able to steal some pictures from my friend.) It was so cool to be up on the rooftops (although I found that I really, really, truly hate stone spiral staircases). The moldings on the outside of the cathedral were also really interesting. Apparently they were renovated several years ago, and there is now a tiny astronaut hidden among the rest of the more traditional molding. Another interesting site was a building completely covered in conch shell moldings. There is also a very large obsession with frogs, due to the fact that one is hidden in the facade of another important building. (They're very in to hiding random objects in fine art, it seems). Last we visited Casa Lis, a museum filled with late 19th-20th century objects - art nouveau and art deco collected by a native Salamancan patron, with a passion it seems, for figurines. The museum also included an expansive collection of wide-eyed porcelain dolls. (Creepy).
After the touring we were given some free time. I went out to lunch with several friends, followed by the largest Ben & Jerry's sundaes I've ever seen. To kill time between the tour end (6p) and dinner at 9:15, we all went back to the hotel to rest. (It was really cold to be walking around the streets once the sun went down). It was really nice to be able to all gather in one place since when we leave school we either have to go to a specific place in order to socialize, or just go home, which is very isolating. It was nice to not be out at a cafe and just have free time with friends. And laugh. A lot.
We had a delicious dinner at the hotel followed by a tasting of the Salamancan night life. Although not quite the craziness of Madrid, we still had lots of fun. We ended up meeting up with some French and Italian girls who were studying abroad in Salamanca and they showed us all the best bars (in their opinion). We went to a crowded local bar where I sampled the Spanish drink "Agua de Valencia", which is a combination of sparkling wine, vodka, and orange Fanta. (I found out the ingredients post-consumption, which I think was a good thing considering that sounds like the most unappetizing cocktail ever. But it was really good!) We then went to a bar that serves only chupitas (shots), most of which have wild names. My favorite was one with honey and rum.
Saturday, we toured the historic part of the University, although I must say I got bored of looking at room after room of classrooms that look like chapels. Some of them had cool murals on the ceilings though. We had more time to explore, and my group of friends decided to go for Chinese food (yes, I know, authentic of us). The food, however, was not very authentic, although the women running it were actually Chinese...? We arrived home, extremely, tired on Saturday, and I stayed in the rest of the weekend because I was getting a cold. (And then we happened to learn words relating to colds/sickness in Spanish on Monday!) But I'm better now, and very psyched for my upcoming trip to Strasbourg to visit Anna. (And very relieved that the Lufthansa strike didn't seem to affect my flight plans!).
Also... I'm currently uploading pictures, so they should finally finally be up very soon.
Food I'm currently craving: tabouleh
... do they eat tabouleh in Morocco??
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
I'm ready for bed...
Wednesdays. The bane of my existence. This isn't so much due to what I'm doing, but rather to the chaos and stress that ensues. As usual, the day starts at 7am (which is basically ungodly, because the sun still refuses to rise much before I walk out the door), and I'm out of the apartment by 8am. This is mostly due to my roommate's tendency to be on the early side of punctual (my preference is on-the-dot punctuality), but it works. History is... history, 80 minutes of dates. Today we had "discussion". I said something that I guess was blatantly wrong (I guess my Spanish comprehension of articles isn't so good, so I didn't even get marked for participation. ¡Que desgracia!) Then followed my 3 hour Almodóvar film class.
Today was the first day that we actually watched a movie: "Entre Tiniebles". (In English it's called "Dark Habits"). It was the second of Almodóvar's films, in 1983. Due to sound difficulties in the large auditorium, we were rerouted to a class room with a small television on which to watch it. So although the professor put on Spanish subtitles, it was still difficult to read because it was both tiny, and scrolled quickly. However, I'm pretty sure that language barriers aside, I still would be left extremely confused. This is what I got out of it: A woman named Yolanda is a whore/drug addict living with her boyfriend, who then dies of an overdose in the first scenes. Yolanda, escaping the police, who are looking for her because of drug trafficking, goes to a convent. The convent has some crazy nuns, two of whom do cocaine/heroin. They also have a tiger in the garden. I'm pretty sure some of them are also lesbians and that the Mother Superior is in love with Yolanda. Also, all the Sisters have ridiculous names in Spanish that translate to Sister Manure, Sister Viper, Sister Dirty Street Rat, and Sister "Lost". [Correction: Wikipedia (a highly reputable source) has informed me that Yolanda is actually a "cabaret dancer", but somehow I've managed to hit all the major points. I don't know how that's possible but I guess half the dialogue doesn't really matter after all?]
After the movie we had a "15 minute" break before discussion. However the break was more like 25 minutes, as usual, because the Spanish aren't really all for punctuality, and our professor always gets coffee or food. Today he got an Amstel and a sandwich... even though it's completely normal for Spaniards to have a copa at lunch, it struck us as very bizarre, because a professor would never ever drink a beer straight before teaching a seminar. (At least, not openly).
Unfortunately though, he let us out 10+ minutes late. And I have a class at the Prado Museum (at least a 30 minute metro and 10 minutes of walking), that is supposed to meet 5 minutes before class officially starts, at 3:55. So even though we left straight away, we were running extremely late. (Okay, so the three of us sort of spaced out and didn't pick the most direct route, but I'm pretty sure that the other way wouldn't have saved us more than ten minutes, which wouldn't really help.) So we frantically call/text everyone we can think of in our class, trying to alert them. I was late last time as well and had to pay 8€ to get in... definitely don't want to repeat that. Meanwhile we have to change stops at the point at which we couldn't possibly be further underground. We try and sprint up the escalators, but they're all the extremely tall ones, and oh yeah, there are 5 of them. In a row. It was like we were trying to crawl out of the Earth's core or something. Once back (still underground) in mobile range, we receive a text message back: "Your tickets are under the trash can, next to the police car". Sounding completely absurd, we finally arrive late at the Prado and start frantically looking at trash cans, most of which look very sturdily bolted to the ground. Also the police car has moved. Finally one of my friends spots some tickets a few feet away from a trash can. [Just to be clear on the mental image: three 20-year-old Americans running, completely out of breath, looking around frantically and diving for 3 white tickets just blowing around on the ground, and then bolting towards the door]. We made it though! And once we talked to our professor, she didn't even seem mad. Maybe it was because we looked so pathetic and red-faced and exhausted.
After looking at El Greco and Velázquez paintings for 80 minutes, I finally finally got to take a braek. Although home sounded good and I was planning on going for a run, I agreed to go with my friend to meet some of his Tufts friends (who are studying in a nearby town) at a cafe near the museum. (And anyway, who needs a run after sprinting up escalators and down city streets looking like a moron? In heeled boots, too!) It was nice to try out a new cafe and wander into a different section of Madrid, and they also knew of a place to get cheap and delicious strawberries! (I still can't get over how cheap the produce can be here... an avocado for the equivalent of 2USD? And ripe? How can it be?!) And after a VERY long day, I returned home 12 and a half hours later... and had a dinner of chicken in a light onion-y gravy sauce (delicious) and a soup of rice and chicken broth (eh), and of course, bread.
Now to book some hostels for my upcoming trips. I am going to be traveling the next 8 weekends straight. Dios mio.
Today was the first day that we actually watched a movie: "Entre Tiniebles". (In English it's called "Dark Habits"). It was the second of Almodóvar's films, in 1983. Due to sound difficulties in the large auditorium, we were rerouted to a class room with a small television on which to watch it. So although the professor put on Spanish subtitles, it was still difficult to read because it was both tiny, and scrolled quickly. However, I'm pretty sure that language barriers aside, I still would be left extremely confused. This is what I got out of it: A woman named Yolanda is a whore/drug addict living with her boyfriend, who then dies of an overdose in the first scenes. Yolanda, escaping the police, who are looking for her because of drug trafficking, goes to a convent. The convent has some crazy nuns, two of whom do cocaine/heroin. They also have a tiger in the garden. I'm pretty sure some of them are also lesbians and that the Mother Superior is in love with Yolanda. Also, all the Sisters have ridiculous names in Spanish that translate to Sister Manure, Sister Viper, Sister Dirty Street Rat, and Sister "Lost". [Correction: Wikipedia (a highly reputable source) has informed me that Yolanda is actually a "cabaret dancer", but somehow I've managed to hit all the major points. I don't know how that's possible but I guess half the dialogue doesn't really matter after all?]
After the movie we had a "15 minute" break before discussion. However the break was more like 25 minutes, as usual, because the Spanish aren't really all for punctuality, and our professor always gets coffee or food. Today he got an Amstel and a sandwich... even though it's completely normal for Spaniards to have a copa at lunch, it struck us as very bizarre, because a professor would never ever drink a beer straight before teaching a seminar. (At least, not openly).
Unfortunately though, he let us out 10+ minutes late. And I have a class at the Prado Museum (at least a 30 minute metro and 10 minutes of walking), that is supposed to meet 5 minutes before class officially starts, at 3:55. So even though we left straight away, we were running extremely late. (Okay, so the three of us sort of spaced out and didn't pick the most direct route, but I'm pretty sure that the other way wouldn't have saved us more than ten minutes, which wouldn't really help.) So we frantically call/text everyone we can think of in our class, trying to alert them. I was late last time as well and had to pay 8€ to get in... definitely don't want to repeat that. Meanwhile we have to change stops at the point at which we couldn't possibly be further underground. We try and sprint up the escalators, but they're all the extremely tall ones, and oh yeah, there are 5 of them. In a row. It was like we were trying to crawl out of the Earth's core or something. Once back (still underground) in mobile range, we receive a text message back: "Your tickets are under the trash can, next to the police car". Sounding completely absurd, we finally arrive late at the Prado and start frantically looking at trash cans, most of which look very sturdily bolted to the ground. Also the police car has moved. Finally one of my friends spots some tickets a few feet away from a trash can. [Just to be clear on the mental image: three 20-year-old Americans running, completely out of breath, looking around frantically and diving for 3 white tickets just blowing around on the ground, and then bolting towards the door]. We made it though! And once we talked to our professor, she didn't even seem mad. Maybe it was because we looked so pathetic and red-faced and exhausted.
After looking at El Greco and Velázquez paintings for 80 minutes, I finally finally got to take a braek. Although home sounded good and I was planning on going for a run, I agreed to go with my friend to meet some of his Tufts friends (who are studying in a nearby town) at a cafe near the museum. (And anyway, who needs a run after sprinting up escalators and down city streets looking like a moron? In heeled boots, too!) It was nice to try out a new cafe and wander into a different section of Madrid, and they also knew of a place to get cheap and delicious strawberries! (I still can't get over how cheap the produce can be here... an avocado for the equivalent of 2USD? And ripe? How can it be?!) And after a VERY long day, I returned home 12 and a half hours later... and had a dinner of chicken in a light onion-y gravy sauce (delicious) and a soup of rice and chicken broth (eh), and of course, bread.
Now to book some hostels for my upcoming trips. I am going to be traveling the next 8 weekends straight. Dios mio.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
A Weekend of Freedom
With the admonition to not use the gas and 32€ each as a food stipend, my señora left me and my roommate and I to our own devices on Thursday evening. With a quick exchanged glance, it was clear that this one and only rule was to be quickly ignored. Having had enough "typical" central Spanish food, we were ready for pasta and vegetables, vegetables, vegetables. Maybe some more vegetables possibly, if we could work them in. Here it seems that vegetables are best when cooked so far as to lack nutritional content and the product bears no resemblance to its plant origin. (Think purees and overcooked mixed veggies in various sauces.) So naturally salad was number one priority on our menu.
Feeling extremely local &/or independent, we perused the local shops for vegetables, pasta, and of course, large chocolate bars. The perfect to complement to any fresh, delicious meal.
The stoves here are typical European stoves, meaning you have to start the gas and then light it with a match. Of course the knob has no indicator as to what setting you should hold it for lighting, as opposed to "high", the only indicator being the sound of the gas escaping. So I hedged my bets and lit the match, figuring at worst I'd have it all the way up and become disfigured. Couldn't be that bad. It certainly did woosh and burst into large blue flames, but it was much more controllable than the finicky stoves we take camping that actually might combust upon lighting. And it was quite exciting to be cooking our own food, however simple.
After a delicious meal we went out to our favorite local frat - I mean bar. With as much poor quality beer as one can drink for 5€, loud 90s pop, and a high quantity of bodies per unit space, t could easily be confused for a local college fraternity. We met some other Americans (Dartmouth boys visiting from Barcelona), but all in all it was a quiet night.
Friday, we continued to embrace our very American culture. Since we didn't have to speak Spanish for the entire weekend, it also seemed obvious that we shouldn't partake in the culture.
Thus the decision to go to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner that night. I was equal parts embarrassed and tempted by this restaurant choice. Obviously, it didn't seem right to be going to such a clearly American restaurant when I should be spending my remaining three months making the Spanish culture my own... but the temptation of a real, well-cooked hamburger won out. Come on, chipotle pepper salsa and guacamole on a burger? As if I could resist that. (Also, it was nice to have some meat that didn't look exactly like the animal it had just come from.)
On Saturday night, again had dinner at home. This time it wasn't nearly impressive, or healthful for that matter. We got dinner from a cerveceria called 101 Montaditos, which serves mini bocodillos (sandwiches) with about every possible filling you can think of: ham and cheese, ham and tomato, Spanish tortilla, cream cheese and salmon, brie and onion... the list goes on - 1o1 in total - some more normal and some seemingly bizarre, but all delicious as far as I've tried. Okay, so like 10% of the menu. This restaurant is also conveniently located on the bottom floor of the building next door. This meal we complemented with our exciting find of tortilla chips and salsa. Okay, so this might sound so exciting, but considering it took us 3 different major supermarkets to find these items, it really was. I was so shocked when I saw a whole row of different types of tortilla ships on a shelf. [And anyway, you try asking for chips and salsa in Spain. "What, you want sauce and potato chips? What the hell are you eating??"]. Thus our delicious dinner of mixed Hispanic foods.
So we're sitting eating dinner, when suddenly we hear the click of a door opening followed by the doorbell. I'm almost sure that these two noises are supposed to come in the opposite order, as they tend to in the U.S., and both of us just sort of sat there, frozen. "¿Hola?" Obviously it wasn't our señora, who had called earlier to check up on us and tell us she'd be home in the evening, nor was it the landlady who occasionally comes by, her voice distinctively tinged with a Russian accent. So we go into the kitchen, where we find the across the hall neighbor, just coming to "check on us" and make sure we were okay, and didn't need anything, and weren't scared. [Well, no, I wasn't, but now that you just barged in without announcing yourself I might be]. Luckily that seemed to be all she wanted to say, and showed herself to the door. (Before she could realize we were doing something verboten, say, like having more than one light on in the apartment... oops).
We continued the night by going out to Sol, the heart of tapas bars and night clubs. It was even more packed than usual, and even more bizarre-looking than usual, because it's carnaval. Half the people out were dressed in costume. Having no real agenda for the night out, we let ourselves be led by the local promoters, following anyone who promised entrada gratis or a free drink. (The combination of the two being the best). The first place we go turns out to be extremely weird, but we got free pear-flavored drinks out of it. The second had free entry, but we really only used it for the bathroom. It was then that we decided to join a local pub crawl. It was an event based in one of the local hostels and a fellow IES student had a friend visiting and doing this "tour", so we joined on. Being that the leader of the tour was both high and drunk by the time we showed up, we got to reap all the benefits (a free drink at each bar/club we attended) without paying the tour fee. We rounded out the night with churros y purras con chocolate before getting a cab back at 5am.
Needless to say, most of today has been about sleep. Oh, and some homework. [Turns out, if you already get bored reading 40 pages for class in English, Spanish doesn't make it much better.]
Random question: Why can milk be stored on shelves, unrefrigerated until opening here? It seems highly questionable.
Food I'm craving: Actually none. Must be all the salads I finally got to eat over the weekend.
Feeling extremely local &/or independent, we perused the local shops for vegetables, pasta, and of course, large chocolate bars. The perfect to complement to any fresh, delicious meal.
The stoves here are typical European stoves, meaning you have to start the gas and then light it with a match. Of course the knob has no indicator as to what setting you should hold it for lighting, as opposed to "high", the only indicator being the sound of the gas escaping. So I hedged my bets and lit the match, figuring at worst I'd have it all the way up and become disfigured. Couldn't be that bad. It certainly did woosh and burst into large blue flames, but it was much more controllable than the finicky stoves we take camping that actually might combust upon lighting. And it was quite exciting to be cooking our own food, however simple.
After a delicious meal we went out to our favorite local frat - I mean bar. With as much poor quality beer as one can drink for 5€, loud 90s pop, and a high quantity of bodies per unit space, t could easily be confused for a local college fraternity. We met some other Americans (Dartmouth boys visiting from Barcelona), but all in all it was a quiet night.
Friday, we continued to embrace our very American culture. Since we didn't have to speak Spanish for the entire weekend, it also seemed obvious that we shouldn't partake in the culture.
Thus the decision to go to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner that night. I was equal parts embarrassed and tempted by this restaurant choice. Obviously, it didn't seem right to be going to such a clearly American restaurant when I should be spending my remaining three months making the Spanish culture my own... but the temptation of a real, well-cooked hamburger won out. Come on, chipotle pepper salsa and guacamole on a burger? As if I could resist that. (Also, it was nice to have some meat that didn't look exactly like the animal it had just come from.)
On Saturday night, again had dinner at home. This time it wasn't nearly impressive, or healthful for that matter. We got dinner from a cerveceria called 101 Montaditos, which serves mini bocodillos (sandwiches) with about every possible filling you can think of: ham and cheese, ham and tomato, Spanish tortilla, cream cheese and salmon, brie and onion... the list goes on - 1o1 in total - some more normal and some seemingly bizarre, but all delicious as far as I've tried. Okay, so like 10% of the menu. This restaurant is also conveniently located on the bottom floor of the building next door. This meal we complemented with our exciting find of tortilla chips and salsa. Okay, so this might sound so exciting, but considering it took us 3 different major supermarkets to find these items, it really was. I was so shocked when I saw a whole row of different types of tortilla ships on a shelf. [And anyway, you try asking for chips and salsa in Spain. "What, you want sauce and potato chips? What the hell are you eating??"]. Thus our delicious dinner of mixed Hispanic foods.
So we're sitting eating dinner, when suddenly we hear the click of a door opening followed by the doorbell. I'm almost sure that these two noises are supposed to come in the opposite order, as they tend to in the U.S., and both of us just sort of sat there, frozen. "¿Hola?" Obviously it wasn't our señora, who had called earlier to check up on us and tell us she'd be home in the evening, nor was it the landlady who occasionally comes by, her voice distinctively tinged with a Russian accent. So we go into the kitchen, where we find the across the hall neighbor, just coming to "check on us" and make sure we were okay, and didn't need anything, and weren't scared. [Well, no, I wasn't, but now that you just barged in without announcing yourself I might be]. Luckily that seemed to be all she wanted to say, and showed herself to the door. (Before she could realize we were doing something verboten, say, like having more than one light on in the apartment... oops).
We continued the night by going out to Sol, the heart of tapas bars and night clubs. It was even more packed than usual, and even more bizarre-looking than usual, because it's carnaval. Half the people out were dressed in costume. Having no real agenda for the night out, we let ourselves be led by the local promoters, following anyone who promised entrada gratis or a free drink. (The combination of the two being the best). The first place we go turns out to be extremely weird, but we got free pear-flavored drinks out of it. The second had free entry, but we really only used it for the bathroom. It was then that we decided to join a local pub crawl. It was an event based in one of the local hostels and a fellow IES student had a friend visiting and doing this "tour", so we joined on. Being that the leader of the tour was both high and drunk by the time we showed up, we got to reap all the benefits (a free drink at each bar/club we attended) without paying the tour fee. We rounded out the night with churros y purras con chocolate before getting a cab back at 5am.
Needless to say, most of today has been about sleep. Oh, and some homework. [Turns out, if you already get bored reading 40 pages for class in English, Spanish doesn't make it much better.]
Random question: Why can milk be stored on shelves, unrefrigerated until opening here? It seems highly questionable.
Food I'm craving: Actually none. Must be all the salads I finally got to eat over the weekend.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Paris: City of Lights
So I STILL haven't figured out how to load pictures in a faster manner than just one slow jpeg at a time... but I promise that will be my homework for the weekend!
Last weekend I took a little 'voyage' to Paris. I left on Thursday afternoon, giving myself plenty of time to get on the metro, make all my connections, and wait in the long security lines. I left my apartment with 2h45m before my flight was set to depart. I had a feeling I was leaving too early, and I was right. Less than an hour and a half after setting foot outside my building, I was sitting in the terminal, waiting. This included an extremely slow meander through the airport after running into some fellow IES students who were headed out to Lisbon for the weekend. Security, compared to the ridiculousness that generally ensues at Newark Liberty, was practically non-existent. (Bonuses: of spending WAYYY too much time in the terminal: a. I bought chips in a vending machine and someone had left a packet of Oreos just sitting there. Two for one! and b. I figured out the Easy Jet boarding system [read: chaos] before I actually had to line up myself.)
Easy Jet, as it happened, was "easy" enough for me, but I can easily (sorry, that's definitely a pun. I hate puns..) see how it would be awful. I ended up getting to the terminal before the 5p Lisbon flight had even begun boarding. I have no idea how they get two flights, 1 hour apart, out of the same terminal with any efficiency, but it happened. Basically they have you just line up and you're on a first-come first-serve basis, with those in the front of the line choosing their seats first. They also didn't announce the line, people just sort of all noticed a line forming at the same time, and stood to join. Highly efficient. However, the flight itself was efficient and landed just when it was supposed to.
It was SO strange to see the lights of the Eiffel Tower only an hour and a half after boarding the flight, as opposed to after a grueling, uncomfortable red-eye. Now for the navigating to begin. I had with me the address of the apartment that I was staying (Kristen's), the train I needed to take, and the metro stop I needed to connect with. But when I followed the train station signs (for 15 minutes), I had no idea where to actually buy my tickets. Oh no! The horror of actually conversing with a real, live human! Luckily, my French kicked in easily and it was very simple to converse with the information agent and figure out where the tickets were sold. (Although I had a strong inclination to thank him with "gracias" and ended up going "gra...merci". Maybe he didn't notice. The woman at the ticket booth also spoke with me easily, and even though I had started the conversation in English, I switched to French at one point and she followed suit. I wasn't expecting this; most of my exchanges with the French previously resulted in them switching to English with any hint of a non-native accent. There's definitely a pervasive sense of English in Paris that isn't found in Madrid. Nevertheless, most of the time I was frustrated by the switch to English any time a shop keeper heard Kristen and I conversing in English. Most frustrating was the ticket agent at the airport on my trip home, who spoke to me in rudimentary English the minute she saw my American passport and acting like it was I who was the idiot. I wanted to quip at her that I understood French perfectly well, but it didn't really seem like that would make her any less rude.
Anyway, I navigated the French metro system and found my way to the stop closest to Kristen. (Using the metro in Paris really made me appreciated Madrid! The French metro is extremely smelly and the metro maps/connections are so unclear compared to Madrid. I just blindly followed Kristen's directions since the metro map I had been given was painfully unclear.) We walked around her arrondisement (neighborhood) and ended up heading back to her place to make a delicious pasta. I was SO excited to cook, since I'm not allowed to in my homestay.
Friday we wandered around allllll day, saw Notre Dame and the Centre Pompidous, and went to get what is supposedly the best ice cream in the world. It was pretty good, even if the servings were the opposite of generous. That night I met up with Anna, also visiting a friend in Paris, and a combined group of us all went out to a delicious dinner. It was kind of expensive, but well worth it for the amazing food. I also, out of character, was the only person to order a dessert: peche melba, a ice cream, peach sections, raspberry sauce, whipped cream conconction with toasted almonds and deliciousness. That night we went out to a French club called L'Arc.
Saturday we went to the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, and did more walking, and went to Montmartre to see the chapel Sacre Coeur and eat delicious crepes (jambon et fromage) and french fries and café au lait. (It was a scrumptious combination, if you were wondering).
....And then we went out for Sushi for dinner.
The Colgate french study group in Dijon was in Paris for the weekend, so we got to see Jane!!! That night we went out to a bar near Kristen's apartment with Jane and lots of other people from their program. Sunday morning we forced ourselves out of bed at a reasonable hour to go to a local open-air market. Everything there was SO SO fresh - meats, vegetables, breads, fruits, cheeses, fish! Kristen did some of her regular grocery shopping and we also got lots of delicious veggies and bread and cheese for a late lunch before I had to leave. I also found a wallet! (Which I'd been looking for ever since I arrived in Europe!)
Definitely a very exciting weekend... I hope the rest can compare!!
[Food I'm craving: scrambled eggs]
Last weekend I took a little 'voyage' to Paris. I left on Thursday afternoon, giving myself plenty of time to get on the metro, make all my connections, and wait in the long security lines. I left my apartment with 2h45m before my flight was set to depart. I had a feeling I was leaving too early, and I was right. Less than an hour and a half after setting foot outside my building, I was sitting in the terminal, waiting. This included an extremely slow meander through the airport after running into some fellow IES students who were headed out to Lisbon for the weekend. Security, compared to the ridiculousness that generally ensues at Newark Liberty, was practically non-existent. (Bonuses: of spending WAYYY too much time in the terminal: a. I bought chips in a vending machine and someone had left a packet of Oreos just sitting there. Two for one! and b. I figured out the Easy Jet boarding system [read: chaos] before I actually had to line up myself.)
Easy Jet, as it happened, was "easy" enough for me, but I can easily (sorry, that's definitely a pun. I hate puns..) see how it would be awful. I ended up getting to the terminal before the 5p Lisbon flight had even begun boarding. I have no idea how they get two flights, 1 hour apart, out of the same terminal with any efficiency, but it happened. Basically they have you just line up and you're on a first-come first-serve basis, with those in the front of the line choosing their seats first. They also didn't announce the line, people just sort of all noticed a line forming at the same time, and stood to join. Highly efficient. However, the flight itself was efficient and landed just when it was supposed to.
It was SO strange to see the lights of the Eiffel Tower only an hour and a half after boarding the flight, as opposed to after a grueling, uncomfortable red-eye. Now for the navigating to begin. I had with me the address of the apartment that I was staying (Kristen's), the train I needed to take, and the metro stop I needed to connect with. But when I followed the train station signs (for 15 minutes), I had no idea where to actually buy my tickets. Oh no! The horror of actually conversing with a real, live human! Luckily, my French kicked in easily and it was very simple to converse with the information agent and figure out where the tickets were sold. (Although I had a strong inclination to thank him with "gracias" and ended up going "gra...merci". Maybe he didn't notice. The woman at the ticket booth also spoke with me easily, and even though I had started the conversation in English, I switched to French at one point and she followed suit. I wasn't expecting this; most of my exchanges with the French previously resulted in them switching to English with any hint of a non-native accent. There's definitely a pervasive sense of English in Paris that isn't found in Madrid. Nevertheless, most of the time I was frustrated by the switch to English any time a shop keeper heard Kristen and I conversing in English. Most frustrating was the ticket agent at the airport on my trip home, who spoke to me in rudimentary English the minute she saw my American passport and acting like it was I who was the idiot. I wanted to quip at her that I understood French perfectly well, but it didn't really seem like that would make her any less rude.
Anyway, I navigated the French metro system and found my way to the stop closest to Kristen. (Using the metro in Paris really made me appreciated Madrid! The French metro is extremely smelly and the metro maps/connections are so unclear compared to Madrid. I just blindly followed Kristen's directions since the metro map I had been given was painfully unclear.) We walked around her arrondisement (neighborhood) and ended up heading back to her place to make a delicious pasta. I was SO excited to cook, since I'm not allowed to in my homestay.
Friday we wandered around allllll day, saw Notre Dame and the Centre Pompidous, and went to get what is supposedly the best ice cream in the world. It was pretty good, even if the servings were the opposite of generous. That night I met up with Anna, also visiting a friend in Paris, and a combined group of us all went out to a delicious dinner. It was kind of expensive, but well worth it for the amazing food. I also, out of character, was the only person to order a dessert: peche melba, a ice cream, peach sections, raspberry sauce, whipped cream conconction with toasted almonds and deliciousness. That night we went out to a French club called L'Arc.
Saturday we went to the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, and did more walking, and went to Montmartre to see the chapel Sacre Coeur and eat delicious crepes (jambon et fromage) and french fries and café au lait. (It was a scrumptious combination, if you were wondering).
....And then we went out for Sushi for dinner.
The Colgate french study group in Dijon was in Paris for the weekend, so we got to see Jane!!! That night we went out to a bar near Kristen's apartment with Jane and lots of other people from their program. Sunday morning we forced ourselves out of bed at a reasonable hour to go to a local open-air market. Everything there was SO SO fresh - meats, vegetables, breads, fruits, cheeses, fish! Kristen did some of her regular grocery shopping and we also got lots of delicious veggies and bread and cheese for a late lunch before I had to leave. I also found a wallet! (Which I'd been looking for ever since I arrived in Europe!)
Definitely a very exciting weekend... I hope the rest can compare!!
[Food I'm craving: scrambled eggs]
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Vague Ruminations
Some firsts:
First day I saw a Spanish lady wearing Uggs. I was shocked.
I saw my first seeing eye dog. He was on the metro, and he was lying down in the middle of a very crowded metro car. I wonder if he gets stepped on a lot that way.
Speaking of the metro, and its crowded-ness factor: I'm really surprised I don't hate it. Usually when there are crowds and traffic jams and people walking every which way (okay, I know I walk into people sometimes, but this is different), I usually proceed to announce that I "hate people". But somehow here it's different, maybe because it's somewhat to be expected. Nothing says "good morning" like being pressed up against someone a little too close.
Also, the metro is PDA central. On the platform, benches, in the train cars themselves. I'm all for a little affection but yesterday after spending 5 stops with an older couple making out (lots of noisy sound effects included), I was ready to applaud when they parted ways.
Riding the metro has also caused me to start giving people a once-over from the bottom up. Even though Spaniards seem to be more okay with making eye contact in the metro than New Yorkers, I find myself starting at the shoes and looking up, whereas in the states I never really notice past the shirt. (Maybe also because people wear more interesting shoes here, and I try and guess Americans by their footwear. It doesn't usually work. Except for Uggs.
Another difference between New Yorkers and Madrileños. Here, no one ever really seems to be in a hurry. Yes, sometimes it's extremely crowded when I get off the metro and people are definitely pushing and moving, but it's not really urgent. Drives me nuts when I'm actually going to be late! Also, everyone reads on the metro. I have a hard enough time learning to keep my balance without holding on to a pole... I guess that will be a goal for the semester.
Another thing that I've had to get used to here: the sunset. Even though I'm basically on the same latitude line as Princeton, the sun sets here a lot closer to 7:30 or 8pm. But in the morning, when I have to wake up at 7am, it's pitch dark, with the sun just starting to come up around 8 when I leave for school. Luckily when I emerge from the metro 35 minutes later it's a bright sunny day.
Today I was also informed I wash my hair too much by my señora. I didn't even have a reply for that except, "um, okay". Or rather "vale", as they say in España.
Foods I'm craving: frosted mini wheats
First day I saw a Spanish lady wearing Uggs. I was shocked.
I saw my first seeing eye dog. He was on the metro, and he was lying down in the middle of a very crowded metro car. I wonder if he gets stepped on a lot that way.
Speaking of the metro, and its crowded-ness factor: I'm really surprised I don't hate it. Usually when there are crowds and traffic jams and people walking every which way (okay, I know I walk into people sometimes, but this is different), I usually proceed to announce that I "hate people". But somehow here it's different, maybe because it's somewhat to be expected. Nothing says "good morning" like being pressed up against someone a little too close.
Also, the metro is PDA central. On the platform, benches, in the train cars themselves. I'm all for a little affection but yesterday after spending 5 stops with an older couple making out (lots of noisy sound effects included), I was ready to applaud when they parted ways.
Riding the metro has also caused me to start giving people a once-over from the bottom up. Even though Spaniards seem to be more okay with making eye contact in the metro than New Yorkers, I find myself starting at the shoes and looking up, whereas in the states I never really notice past the shirt. (Maybe also because people wear more interesting shoes here, and I try and guess Americans by their footwear. It doesn't usually work. Except for Uggs.
Another difference between New Yorkers and Madrileños. Here, no one ever really seems to be in a hurry. Yes, sometimes it's extremely crowded when I get off the metro and people are definitely pushing and moving, but it's not really urgent. Drives me nuts when I'm actually going to be late! Also, everyone reads on the metro. I have a hard enough time learning to keep my balance without holding on to a pole... I guess that will be a goal for the semester.
Another thing that I've had to get used to here: the sunset. Even though I'm basically on the same latitude line as Princeton, the sun sets here a lot closer to 7:30 or 8pm. But in the morning, when I have to wake up at 7am, it's pitch dark, with the sun just starting to come up around 8 when I leave for school. Luckily when I emerge from the metro 35 minutes later it's a bright sunny day.
Today I was also informed I wash my hair too much by my señora. I didn't even have a reply for that except, "um, okay". Or rather "vale", as they say in España.
Foods I'm craving: frosted mini wheats
Monday, February 1, 2010
Reading and Writing and 'Rithmetic
Today was my first day of classes! As per usual, I awoke at 7 in order to leave the apartment at 8 for my ridiculous commute. (And here I thought my ten-minute sprint to class last semester was a trek).
My daily commute to school is something like this:
Leave the apartment and walk 3 short blocks to the metro. [I like to pretend this part takes 5 minutes, but by the time I call the elevator, go downstairs, enter the metro and actually make it onto the platform, it’s more like ten.] Then I go two stops, and transfer to a different line. This one’s always crowded and so here’s where my mastery of climbing huge amounts of stairs comes in handy since the escalator is just a giant mess. It takes about 5 minutes to switch/ however long it takes for the metro to arrive. Then it’s 7 stops [this is about 15 minutes] to the closest stop to school, followed by a 10-minute walk. It’s quite the morning.
Anyway, classes. I had three today – Art History, Contemporary Spanish History, and Spanish. Although Spanish seems kind of redundant given the fact that my whole day is conducted in Spanish. Nevertheless that professor seems cool and promises us that we’ll be bilingual and have the ability to speak completely grammatically correctly by the end of the semester. Plus, it’s the class I thought I’d be in. (It turns out I was in the highest class during my orientation, right below native speakers… so it’s nice to be somewhere where I actually have equivalent abilities!) The history class was a little bit of lecture, which was actually easier than I thought since he wrote all the important things on the board anyway. Art History was just reading the syllabus but we have our first class in the Museo del Prado on Wednesday! Tomorrow I have my political science, but I’m pretty sure I’m not going to get Colgate credit for it, so I need to find something else to take! Also, it doesn’t seem like I’m going to have a ton of homework… I’m afraid I’ll forget how to do school senior year! Oh no!
¿Qué más? Nothing really. It’s extremely bizarre to not really be able to use the kitchen (except the microwave) but I finally bought some sandwich stuff so that I can stop spending quite so much money on lunch! Also, I have yet to really see raw vegetables as any part of the diet here, which is extremely weird to me.
Most importantly – I’m going to Paris for the weekend! I can’t wait!
Sunday, January 31, 2010
A Weekend in Madrid
It's the close of my four-day weekend before starting classes tomorrow. At first I was upset that I hadn't known further in advance about this long weekend, considering I could have planned a trip, but since I realized there are only so many weekends in a semester and I already have so many places I want to go, I realized it was better to spend the weekend getting acclimated to the city I'm supposed to call "home".
Although the days of Thursday and Friday of my long weekend weren't of much note (lots of catching up on sleep), on Thursday night I did end up going out to this huge club in the heart of Madrid called Kapital. I wasn't even planning on spending a late night out, but with mentions of free entry and free drinks for girls, I figured I didn't have much to lose (except cab fare). It's important to note here that Kapital is a commitment. With what I'm sure is thousands of patrons and 7 separate floors, it's quite the adventure. Each floor has it's own theme. The 6th is the mojito lounge (where I spent my free drink), the 7th is allegedly a hookah bar (although I saw nothing to suggest that this was true), the 4th a hip-hop club, the 3rd another bar, the 2nd overlooking the first, and the first a gigantic dance floor. It's quite a lot to take in. And yet somehow in this mess I managed to find the only other person from Colgate studying in Madrid this semester here as well! (Molly) A little uncanny to say the least.
Yesterday I went to "take in a little culture". A few of us went to la Reina Sofia, which is a modernish art museum, hosting lots of works from the early 1900s and forward. Lots of Picasso, Dalí, Miró, etc. I saw Guernica up close, but wasn't allowed to take a picture. But some pictures will follow (when I finally upload them from my camera) I promise! After that we went to the Temple of Debod, which is an Egyptian temple that got relocated to this park in Madrid. The park itself overlooks a sort of cliff, so you get a beautiful view of part of the city. (Again, I promise pictures to follow).
Today, I went to "El Rastro". El Rastro is a giant flea market/ street market type deal. It's ridiculously crowded with both vendors and shoppers, and you can find nearly anything. Anything ranges from the typical: Pashminas for 2 euro, bags, earrings and other jewelry, whimsical clocks, artwork, pet cages. There was a guy making Matador posters right there in his stall (although I can't decide if this makes them more or less authentic), as well as lingerie, socks, and even shower heads. One of them was in packaging extolling its Vitamin C powers. I didn't enquire... Also, there was a random guy walking around with a placard reading "SIDA: Saber o Morir" [AIDS: Know or Die], and handing out little flyers. I guess a lot of Spaniards prefer the "morir" option, because they were littering the street all around this area like confetti This (El Rastro in general, not the pamphleteer) I don't have pictures of because it's pickpocket central and I thought carrying less was better. Also, it was amazingly crowded. However the nice thing is that at 5'7" i could still see over a lot of the crowds' heads, so it made it feel a little less squished. I definitely can't wait to go back and actually buy some things.
This evening, I went to a movie. The movie theaters here have assigned seating, so when we bought our tickets we had to also choose what row we wanted (nine). We saw "Up in the Air", which I'd already seen, but it was nice since I already knew the plot and some of the dialogue, so I could really focus on the Spanish and try and understand it without worrying about actually following the main idea.
So goes my weekend, tomorrow I have to wake up at 7am to make it to class before 9! I feel like I'm back in high school....
Hasta Luego!
un abrazo!
Although the days of Thursday and Friday of my long weekend weren't of much note (lots of catching up on sleep), on Thursday night I did end up going out to this huge club in the heart of Madrid called Kapital. I wasn't even planning on spending a late night out, but with mentions of free entry and free drinks for girls, I figured I didn't have much to lose (except cab fare). It's important to note here that Kapital is a commitment. With what I'm sure is thousands of patrons and 7 separate floors, it's quite the adventure. Each floor has it's own theme. The 6th is the mojito lounge (where I spent my free drink), the 7th is allegedly a hookah bar (although I saw nothing to suggest that this was true), the 4th a hip-hop club, the 3rd another bar, the 2nd overlooking the first, and the first a gigantic dance floor. It's quite a lot to take in. And yet somehow in this mess I managed to find the only other person from Colgate studying in Madrid this semester here as well! (Molly) A little uncanny to say the least.
Yesterday I went to "take in a little culture". A few of us went to la Reina Sofia, which is a modernish art museum, hosting lots of works from the early 1900s and forward. Lots of Picasso, Dalí, Miró, etc. I saw Guernica up close, but wasn't allowed to take a picture. But some pictures will follow (when I finally upload them from my camera) I promise! After that we went to the Temple of Debod, which is an Egyptian temple that got relocated to this park in Madrid. The park itself overlooks a sort of cliff, so you get a beautiful view of part of the city. (Again, I promise pictures to follow).
Today, I went to "El Rastro". El Rastro is a giant flea market/ street market type deal. It's ridiculously crowded with both vendors and shoppers, and you can find nearly anything. Anything ranges from the typical: Pashminas for 2 euro, bags, earrings and other jewelry, whimsical clocks, artwork, pet cages. There was a guy making Matador posters right there in his stall (although I can't decide if this makes them more or less authentic), as well as lingerie, socks, and even shower heads. One of them was in packaging extolling its Vitamin C powers. I didn't enquire... Also, there was a random guy walking around with a placard reading "SIDA: Saber o Morir" [AIDS: Know or Die], and handing out little flyers. I guess a lot of Spaniards prefer the "morir" option, because they were littering the street all around this area like confetti This (El Rastro in general, not the pamphleteer) I don't have pictures of because it's pickpocket central and I thought carrying less was better. Also, it was amazingly crowded. However the nice thing is that at 5'7" i could still see over a lot of the crowds' heads, so it made it feel a little less squished. I definitely can't wait to go back and actually buy some things.
This evening, I went to a movie. The movie theaters here have assigned seating, so when we bought our tickets we had to also choose what row we wanted (nine). We saw "Up in the Air", which I'd already seen, but it was nice since I already knew the plot and some of the dialogue, so I could really focus on the Spanish and try and understand it without worrying about actually following the main idea.
So goes my weekend, tomorrow I have to wake up at 7am to make it to class before 9! I feel like I'm back in high school....
Hasta Luego!
un abrazo!
These boots were made for walking
Before I left for Spain, I got lots of advice, commentary, and general travel dither (both solicited and otherwise). From this I gleaned Alexandra's TOP 3 Pre-Departure Word of Thumb: 1. There will be no toiletries that one could possibly find to be useful or in any way comparable to American versions in this otherwise first-world country, 2) There will be lots and lots of walking and feet generally will rebel and 3) It will be EXTREMELY cold and it will eat at you because you will be spending so much time outside (walking). Each of these I wrote off for various reasons (the practical: "there's no room in my suitcase for extraneous toiletries", and the egotistical: "hello, I go to Colgate! This walking will be a breeze.") [The same "I go to Colgate" excuse applies to the cold as well.]
Well, I was right about numbers 1 & 3. Everyone here thinks it's cold, but generally it's about 45 degrees. Number 2 well... I was unprepared for just HOW much extraneous walking I would do in the course of a week. And yes, I even got a blister. (Although I blame that on my new shoes that I had to break in.) But I'd also like to thank my daily training last semester (running up the Persson steps every morning to slide in to class right before my professor) for making the daily commute to school that much more bearable. (The escalators in the metro at 8:30a are ridiculous and sardine-cramped. With my Colgate hill-walking training, I can run up all the hundreds of stairs! -- At least currently, my steady diet of bread, bread, bread might inhibit this eventually).
Well, I was right about numbers 1 & 3. Everyone here thinks it's cold, but generally it's about 45 degrees. Number 2 well... I was unprepared for just HOW much extraneous walking I would do in the course of a week. And yes, I even got a blister. (Although I blame that on my new shoes that I had to break in.) But I'd also like to thank my daily training last semester (running up the Persson steps every morning to slide in to class right before my professor) for making the daily commute to school that much more bearable. (The escalators in the metro at 8:30a are ridiculous and sardine-cramped. With my Colgate hill-walking training, I can run up all the hundreds of stairs! -- At least currently, my steady diet of bread, bread, bread might inhibit this eventually).
Monday, January 25, 2010
Why you shouldn't bring fruit from foreign countries...
On my second day in Spain, I come to the terrible realization that my laptop hard-drive has crashed. I try in vain to shut it down and restart it about 7 times, as if this will somehow magically awaken it. Needless to say, that didn't quite work. Which of course meant that I had to go fix it, which of course meant that I would have to speak to shopkeepers in Spanish, which of course meant that I put it off until today, Monday, 5 days after. So today I go to school, use their computers to write down 3 possible Apple stores, and start my adventure. Little did I know that a saga would ensue...
The first two are part of the popular Spanish department store, El Corte Ingles, and they apparently only sell Apple merchandise, but don't fix it. [Side note: usually I can't stand the amount that people get in your face and ask if they can help you, but of course the minute I need help and can't find anyone, I'm in Europe, where apparently no one does that.] The third place, FNAC, an electronics store, assures me that what I've described is indeed a failed hard-drive, and I must replace it upstairs. So I go upstairs and ask and they tell me to go back down. And again. So instead I go to the model laptops and look up yet another store, this one just an "authorized solution expert", whatever that means.
This store is in a very residential area, far from the upscale Times Square-esque streets closer to school, and as all reputable Apple stores are, this one is situated in the back of an alley, up a sketchy set of stairs that look like they belong to a fire escape. After waiting in line for 10 minutes, I ask if she can help me with a hard drive problem. She asks me to try and boot it up and while I am I explain, in my extremely eloquent Spanish, of course, that all that happens is the screen turns white and I get a file folder with a question mark blinking at me. Except I really say "the screen is white and I get a box with a question mark symbol", and she assures me that I have to replace the hard-drive, which I explain is annoying since I just replaced it ten days ago. Meanwhile, my computer starts completely normally and loads everything fine. Must be the magic of the Apple store vibes.
But I now have a working laptop AND an internet connection! So expect more adventures soon...
The first two are part of the popular Spanish department store, El Corte Ingles, and they apparently only sell Apple merchandise, but don't fix it. [Side note: usually I can't stand the amount that people get in your face and ask if they can help you, but of course the minute I need help and can't find anyone, I'm in Europe, where apparently no one does that.] The third place, FNAC, an electronics store, assures me that what I've described is indeed a failed hard-drive, and I must replace it upstairs. So I go upstairs and ask and they tell me to go back down. And again. So instead I go to the model laptops and look up yet another store, this one just an "authorized solution expert", whatever that means.
This store is in a very residential area, far from the upscale Times Square-esque streets closer to school, and as all reputable Apple stores are, this one is situated in the back of an alley, up a sketchy set of stairs that look like they belong to a fire escape. After waiting in line for 10 minutes, I ask if she can help me with a hard drive problem. She asks me to try and boot it up and while I am I explain, in my extremely eloquent Spanish, of course, that all that happens is the screen turns white and I get a file folder with a question mark blinking at me. Except I really say "the screen is white and I get a box with a question mark symbol", and she assures me that I have to replace the hard-drive, which I explain is annoying since I just replaced it ten days ago. Meanwhile, my computer starts completely normally and loads everything fine. Must be the magic of the Apple store vibes.
But I now have a working laptop AND an internet connection! So expect more adventures soon...
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