Toledo

I had only heard good things from people about Toledo, but to get there required taking a train to Madrid and then a high-speed AVE train to Toledo. We were originally going to make a separate weekend out of Toledo, but it didn't make sense to take the train to Madrid twice, so we decided to add a day onto our trip to Madrid last weekend. And it was well worth it!
As with most of our trips, they can't be simple. We took the train to Madrid on Thursday afternoon and then another one to Toledo. When we got the directions from the lady at the train station in Santander, she made it seem as though you went up the stairs from the first train (Madrid-Chamartin) and the high-speed station (Puerta de Atocha) was right there. She didn't mention that the two train stations were actually 7 kilometers apart. Once realizing this, we were told that since we had a train ticket, we didn't have to pay for a metro ticket (how you got between the two stations). So we found our way to the metro trains upstairs. We got on two trains and then immediately got off of them because we weren't sure they were the right one. After getting on a third one, we realized that all three of them would have taken us to Atocha. Of course, it was rush hour and the metro was really slow, so our hour in between trains was passing too quickly. About halfway through the trip, Tarah and I looked at each other and realized that even though the metro was supposed to be free, we were going to need a ticket to get off of the metro....then the panic set in. We had 10 minutes to not only get to our next train, but also figure out how to get past the sliding doors that needed a ticket in order to open. We got off the train and actually found it quite easy. We just slipped through the doors right behind people that put a ticket in. (When talking to our professor about this after the fact, he told us that it was fine and people ride the metro for free all the time. Didn't keep us from freaking out most of Thursday evening, though). After running through the Atocha station, we found our train and got on about 30 seconds before they closed the doors.
Once in Toledo, we found our way into the walled city and only had to ask for directions twice to find our hostel.

A view of the Tagus River that runs by Toledo.

You can see one side of the wall near the trees.

On Friday, we set out early to make the most of our one day in the city. We walked around and took a lot of pictures from near the wall. The old buildings and medieval wall are stunning. We visited the Alcazar, which they have turned into a history museum.

The Castle of San Servando that you can see from the Alcazar. 

We then went in search of lunch, but it was too early for lunch (only about 12:30), so we spent time in the shops looking at the Damasque jewelry, swords, and ceramic tiles, all made in Toledo. We tried typical Toledo food for lunch-deer meat for me and an assortment of sauces for Tarah, then found our way to the El Greco Museum. At the museum, we were able to see some El Greco paintings, but found that a lot of his work was actually in the Cathedral, so we went there next. Unfortunately, we didn't have much time left, so we only got to spend about an hour in the Cathedral, but the paintings were stunning! It was fine because we learned that there were even more of his paintings in El Prado, a giant art museum in Madrid.

One of El Greco's most famous paintings in the Cathedral depicting Jesus in red. 

A Relaxed Weekend?

After two busy weekends of traveling to Barcelona and then Granada and Sevilla, Jesse, Tarah, and I wanted to do something a bit less stressful for the weekend. Or at least, we planned on it being less stressful. My padres had told me that I should really go to San Sebastian, a town similar to Santander about three hours from Santander. It is known for its beaches and hiking. After touring a lot of really old places, a bit of outdoors time sounded great. We bought our bus tickets and booked a hostel that was in a park outside the city, but that we could take a bus to.
On Friday evening, we found ourselves at the San Sebastian bus station. Since it was kind of late and in the interest of saving a little money, we went in search of a grocery store to buy sandwich stuff for dinner and breakfast food for the morning, especially since our hostel wasn't near anything. After buying food, we walked to the bus stop. While on the bus, we had to check several times (and eventually ask the bus driver) if we were going in the right direction. The stops listed in the bus were in Spanish, but the ones listed on the hostel's directions and at the stops themselves were in Basque, which is nothing like Spanish (lots of k's and x's), and difficult to understand. We finally made it to our stop, much later than we had anticipated.
We got off the bus at the entrance to the park. As we were trying to figure out where we were going, large flashes of lightning illuminated the sky. The directions said to go to the left, but there were two left paths in the park. We asked two different people where the hostel was, but both said "No un hostel aquí"-meaning that there wasn't a hostel in the park. But we were sure there was. We chose to take the path up the hill in hopes there would be a sign somewhere. We got to the top of the hill and there were three forks...all to the left of the current path. By this time, it was raining quite a bit. We didn't have any idea where to go from there, so we pulled out the directions again. We chose a path and kept walking. Then it started to pour and hail and essentially flash flood. We abandoned our walk and ran back down the hill to a pavilion near the bus stop. The wind and rain were quite something! We tried calling the hostel and asking for the phone number of a taxi, but they only gave us 7 of a 9 digit phone number...not quite what we needed. We tried flagging down a taxi, but they were all full. We were able to get the number off the side of a cab, but when we tried calling, the operator was impatient that we couldn't give them an exact location (the bus stop wasn't good enough, apparently). Once the storm let up, we tried walking in the park again and saw another man. As a last ditch effort, I asked if he knew if there was a hostel anywhere. Lucky for us, Mikel did know! He had been birdwatching (in a storm...go figure) and would show us how to get there on the map. Once he showed us the path, it was dark and there were no lights or signs; we were not confident we could find it on our own. We asked him to try calling a cab for us since he could speak more easily. Unfortunately, they hung up on him, too. He was very nice and asked "¿Quieres un compañero?"And so he was. Our companion for a very, very long walk around the outside of the park to the hostel. All weekend, we referred to him as Mikel the Angel because we didn't think we would have found the hostel without him.
After our tiring Friday night, we had much more success on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, we got directions from our hostel to places that we could hike. We walked down to the beach and then from there found our way up a small mountain (very large hill)-Mount Ulia. We had walked for a really long time on a road (we thought there would be trails) and were about to turn around when there was a parking lot. We walked toward it and found that it was the entrance to the park we had been looking for all along. We first stopped at the benches near the top. We were so high up that we could see the fog floating at head height across the open field. Then we continued on the dirt trails toward the cliffs that looked out over the ocean. It was beautiful and well worth the hike! Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera, but Tarah had hers, so she has a lot of good photos.
After our hike, we found a gelato shop-it was well-earned! Hit the spot! We walked toward the center of town and made our way back to the grocery store. At breakfast, we realized that the hostel had quite a large array of pots and pans and cooking space, so we were going to take the opportunity and cook ourselves dinner since we all like to cook. We made ourselves a feast both Saturday night and Sunday morning. Saturday was ravioli and chicken with spinach, tomatoes, onions, and peppers, and salad (with no mayonnaise--a favorite of Spaniards) and cookies, of course. On Sunday, we had French toast (no maple syrup to be found, unfortunately), scrambled eggs, bacon, orange juice, and lots of fruit. So, so, so delicious!

Preparing our feast. 

Hiking toward the ocean. 

After checking out of our hotel, we went to Playa de la Concha, which is a pretty large beach in San Sebastian and one of the more famous ones in northern Spain.
Even though the weekend started out a little rough, it was a great adventure and very nice to have a relaxed schedule. A good break from all of the touring we had been doing.

Side note: The Monday that I got back (June 23) was El Día de San Juan-a big deal in Spain. There are large bonfires on the beaches and a lot of people jump over them (my padres specifically told me not to before I went down to the beach). It was really neat to see one of the fiestas while in Spain. I'm not sure if I'm going to make it to Pamplona for the Running of the Bulls, so this might have to suffice.

Second side note: I may have already written about how after the first weekend when I ate seafood paella and squid in Comillas that I told my padres that I really liked seafood. Well, as a result, I have eaten some very interesting things. Anchoas (anchovies), fish with bones that are big enough to crunch, but small enough that you can't pick them up, and tonight...baby eel. All through dinner, I thought it was worms or something of the sort, but I figured if the two-year-old granddaughter was sitting at the table with me and eating them, I could stomach them too. They didn't taste like much, but they had a very interesting texture. I don't think I'd choose to eat them on my own, but I can add it to the list of interesting foods I've eaten here.

El Sur: Sevilla Edition

Sorry this post is so late!
Our last stop on our trip to the South was Sevilla. And despite the oppressive heat (42 or 43 degrees Celsius, which is about 108 Farenheit), we still enjoyed it. We started our two days there with the Alcazar, which was once inhabited by the mayor of Sevilla. It was huge and we spent several hours there. The inside of the Alcazar reminded me a lot of the tiling that we saw in the Alhambra in Granada. I thought the gardens were more impressive in the Alcazar, though. They were bigger and even had baby peacocks! In the gardens is one of only four hydraulic organs in the world. This one used to play using only air, but has since been refurbished and plays with water each hour. Of course, we stayed until the turn of the hour to hear it play.

One of four hydraulic organs in the world. 

Gardens of the Alcazar (and Tarah).

Mama peacock and her baby. ¡Qué linda! (How cute!)

Fountain in the Alcazar. 

Inside the Alcazar. 

Next to the Alcazar is the Sevilla Cathedral. It is the third largest cathedral in the world behind St. Peter´s in Rome and St. Paul´s in London. And it was huge! It had nearly 2 dozen chapels as well as the main sanctuary. Christopher Columbus (or at least part of him) is buried in the church as well. We also saw the chapel where Ferdinand Magellan came to pray after circumnavigating the world for the first time. We also were able to climb the Giralda, which is the bell tower. The bells are huge! The tower provided a great view of Sevilla and it was easy to see how large the cathedral really is. After exiting the church, we went into the Orange Tree Courtyard (lots of orange trees, but unfortunately, they aren't edible), which is one of the oldest parts of the Cathedral left from the days when it was a mosque before a cathedral.

Inside the Cathedral

Outside the Cathedral

View of Sevilla and the top of the Cathedral from the Giralda (tower in the Cathedral).

We found a restaurant with air conditioning for lunch and cooled off for a while before heading out to see more. We made our way to Parque de Maria Luisa and Plaza de España, which were sprawling and gorgeous. I hadn´t seen much greenspace in Spain (in the cities, anyway) until then. By this time in the afternoon, it was really, really hot, so we went back to our hostel and took a siesta and cooled off.

Plaza de España

In the evening, we made our way to a section of town that the hostel recommended for cheap tapas and cañas (beers). The food wasn´t great, but it was definitely cheap, and the area was full of locals rather than tourists, which was really nice. Our goal had been to see Flamenco dancing on Saturday night, but everywhere that the hostel suggested was quite pricey, even with student prices. They did suggest La Carbonería, a small bar near our hostel that had free shows in the evenings. When we had passed by it on our way to dinner, it was closed. However, after dinner, we were looking at a map and trying to figure out where to find Flamenco, a lady stopped and asked if she could help us. We told her we wanted to find Flamenco nearby that wasn´t too expensive, and she too recommended La Carbonería, but told us the shows were at 9 or 10pm, (It was only 8:30ish at this point). So we made our way back toward La Carbonería (stopping for ice cream on the way), and arrived at 9:15pm. Luckily for us, the show didn´t start until 9:30, so we were just in time. It was a small, crowded bar. Although it seemed to be known only by word of mouth, there were definitely tourists there, judging by the lack of Spanish being spoken and the number of cameras. But nonetheless, we were able to hear some very traditional guitar music, singing, and Flamenco dancing. There were only three performers (guitar player, singer, dancer), but they put on a good show. Unfortunately, my camera battery died, so I don't have pictures.
Sunday was almost as hot, but we didn´t pack it quite as full. I went to Mass in the Cathedral and then we ate breakfast at a cafe (they had eggs for breakfast! Something we hadn´t had while in Spain. I´ve only had fried eggs or tortilla de patata for dinner. I have toast and wafer cookies for breakfast every day). We walked toward the river and saw the Torre de Oro (Gold Tower) that now houses a maritime museum, and also saw the bullring. We tried to find the Inquisition Museum, but no one seemed to know where it was, so we ended up just wandering the streets of Sevilla for a while. After lunch (at the same restaurant as Saturday because it was air-conditioned, relatively inexpensive, and the food was good), we made our way back to Parque de Maria Luisa for a little while, and then to the bus station that would take us to the airport.
We didn´t arrive back at our houses until around 11pm. It made for a very full and tiring weekend of traveling by bus, plane, and train, but it was a great weekend! Granada and Sevilla are probably my favorite cities in Spain (so far, anyway).

El Sur de España: Granada

Last weekend, a small group of us took advantage of our three day weekend (no classes on Friday) and went to the south of Spain. Ryanair doesn't fly to Granada, so we flew into Málaga on Thursday night, only to leave on a 9am bus to Granada on Friday morning. Luckily, as we quickly found out, there isn't a whole lot happening in Málaga, so we weren't missing out on a whole lot there. Tarah and I did run to the beach in the morning, though, so we could say we have touched the Mediterranean Sea. The bus ride from Málaga to Granada was only about an hour and a half and was very pretty. Mountains and orange trees. The bus had a display of the temperature and we could only see it continually rising. By the time we got to Granada around 11am, it was already at least 80 degrees.
We found our way toward the main cathedral in Granada and stopped for a cafe con leche (although what possessed us to order a hot drink, I'll never know). Once we had a bit more energy, we walked toward the Albayzin area of Granada, which is the part that has an Arabic influence. We wanted to find really good Middle Eastern food, but we essentially just walked up and down neighborhoods of the infamous white-washed houses. We ended up back by the Darro River where we had started as there was a full street full of restaurants. We knew we weren't going to eat for a while, so we all got the Menu del Día. Gazpacho, paella, warm bread, and hummus. And chocolate cream (actually, it was just pudding with whipped cream) for dessert). By this time, it was after 2pm and the sun was high in the sky. It was above 90 degrees, which was the hottest weather I've been in during my time in Spain. If it hits 70 in Santander, that is considered a hot day. We asked our waiter how to get to the Alhambra, our afternoon attraction. The Alhambra dates back to the 9th century! We could see it at the top of a hill from the restaurant, but weren't sure the fastest way to get there. Turns out the fastest way is to cross the river and make the steep climb up the hill. The climb was worth it though! We had tickets to see the Nasrid Palaces at 5:30pm, which meant we had about 2 1/2 hours to walk around Generalife (the gardens) and the Alcazaba (the fortress part). The gardens were beautiful with flowered arches and trimmed hedges. I really liked the cyprus trees that lined the walkways. We were able to climb up one of the towers in the Alcazaba, so we had great views of Granada. The palaces were huge. There were colored tiles on nearly every wall in shades of blue, green, and yellow. Throughout the palace and gardens were fountains and running water. You could definitely see the mix of Muslim and Christian influences in the architecture. After spending nearly 4 hours at the Alhambra, we found our way down the hill and to the train station for our late train to Sevilla. We were only in Granada for about 10 hours, but it was worth it to see Spain's most visited site.

Alhambra and fortess

One of the many water features in the Generalife.

The view from the fortress tower. 

Some of the many tiles that lined nearly every wall of the palace.

A garden in the palace. 

More to come on Sevilla!

Barcelona!

This post is long over due, but last weekend I spent a couple of days in Barcelona. We flew in Thursday night so that we could have all day Friday and Saturday to spend in the city. The only flight out on Sunday was at 7am (flying Ryanair, the super cheap airline), so that was when we left. But, we took advantage of our two full days and saw as much as we could.

La Boquería

On Friday, we started out with a breakfast of fruit and pastries at the famous La Boqueria market, a giant market in Las Ramblas, a bustling section in Barcelona. From there, we walked toward the water and saw the Christopher Columbus statue and the port, which had probably over 100 sailboats in the marina. We then walked to the Gothic Quarter, where we visited Santa Maria del Mar, a beautiful, old cathedral in Gothic style. There were some remains buried beneath the church and the inscriptions had skulls and crossbones on them. The pews had ship steering wheels carved in them and on the altar was a small wooden boat. Very nautical themed! We went to the Picasso museum and found out that our student IDs get us in for free! Even though the museum didn't have any of Picasso's major works, I loved the way the museum was set up. It was chronological with each room being a different time period in his life. It was interesting to see how his work changed from simple landscapes to the very distinct cubist style that he is so well-known for. We had a typical menu del día for lunch (2 courses, bread, a drink, and dessert for a reasonable price) and then set off to see more of the city. We walked by the main cathedral (we didn't think about the dress code and were all wearing shorts, which isn't allowed, so we couldn't see the inside). On our way to Parc de la Cituadella, we found a beach. Parc de la Cituadella was worth the walk!

Parc de la Cituadella

 It was huge and had a lot of greenspace, which was something there wasn't much of in Barcelona. After a very tiring day, we went back to the hostel for a short siesta. I tried my first Doner Kebob for dinner, which is essentially a pita stuffed with meat shaved off of the rotisserie right in front of you, along with lettuce and sauce. It was great! We found our way to the Magic Fountain, but not without accidentally getting on a train instead of a metro and ending up at the end of the line before realizing we were in the wrong place. The Magic Fountain was spectacular, though, and well worth the difficult time getting there. The show lasted about 30 minutes (and then it would replay) and there were great songs like ones from Pirates of the Carribean. It was a great ending to our first day.

The Magic Fountain

Inside La Sagrada Familia

On Saturday, we got up bright and early and made our way to La Sagrada Familia, the unfinished church designed by the architect Gaudí. We walked around the inside and outside, as well as a tower on the Nativity Facade, for about a two hours before our guided tour, which we loved and the whole place made a lot more sense after the tour. The inside of the church is huge and open and the stained glass covers the wall. There are some windows that are in the process of being finished, while others are completely finished and some haven't even been started.

The outside of La Sagrada Familia. 

Only 8 towers have been finished, but eventually there will be 18-12 for the apostles, 4 for the Gospel writers, one for Mary, and one for Jesus. The Nativity Facade on the outside is finished and has a lot of symbolism. It is covered in different Bible stories made of stone. The Passion Facade is unfinished, but has a lot fewer figures and they are done in a much different style since the Passion is a lot less lighthearted. The figures are simpler and look less lively. After spending a lot of time at La Sagrada Familia, we trekked across the city to Park Guell and Gaudí's house. By the time we got there, we were hot, hungry, and tired, so we probably didn't enjoy it as much as we could have, but seeing the green space in Barcelona was nice, and it was a great view of the city! For dinner, we met up with another group from our program and had dinner at a pizzeria. All in all, it was a tiring, but fun weekend!

Week #2 is Over Already?

It is hard to believe I've already been in Spain for about two weeks. Sometimes, it feels like I just got here. Other times, I feel as though I've been here for months since home seems so distant. Even though I'm taking classes, it is finally beginning to feel like summer. The sun was out all afternoon today, which is a rarity as it rains nearly every day here, and it was warm. I spent most of the day by the water (rough life, I know), but not actually swimming as I didn't have my swimsuit with me and the water is a tad chilly.

This is what I get to see every day! 

While walking to and from Mass at the Cathedral, we had to cross one of the main streets near the water. Today was a traditional festival and there were cows walking down the street with loud cowbells and ribbons. Lots and lots of cows. And baby calves, too!

Yesterday was our first of two group excursions. We visited the city of Bilbao, a city of about 350,000 east of Santander in Basque Country. In the last several years, Bilbao invested a large amount of money to revitalize the city through modern architecture, a tram/metro, and tourism. They did a great job and the buildings are all very interesting! First, we took a bus tour to see a few different places including their community center where there were 43 columns that each represented different cultures such as Greek, Chinese, etc, and were styled in that manner. There also was a pool above us that you could see into because the bottom was glass. We spent our free time in Casco Viejo (the older part of the city and ate typical pinchos for lunch (essentially little pieces of meat or cheese or fish on top of bread). We also wandered into a bakery and a meat store. It is definitely different to shop for food here. You can go to Lupa, the supermarket, or you can go to a series of stores-frutería, panadería, carnicería. In the afternoon, we visited the famous Guggenheim Museum. It is contemporary art and more abstract than your typical Picasso or Monet. They have an exhibit by Yoko Ono, the wife of John Lennon, which was cool. There was also a gelato shop across the street...that was definitely a good choice for the end of the day.

One of the columns in the community center. 

The streets of Bilbao look very European with the tall, colored buildings and flowers on the balconies. Like out of a movie! 

One of the churches in Bilbao. There was a wedding going on, so we couldn't spend much time inside. 

Carnicería. So. Much. Ham. There were also large pieces of meat hanging from the ceiling. 

Guggenheim Museum

A bridge next to the museum that is very modern. 

That's it for now, but I scheduled trips to Barcelona, Granada, and Sevilla for June, so more to come!

Embracing Spanish Life

I've been here less than a week and I've already found out that there's a lot of great things about the way Spaniards live. Daily siestas, food, family, the language, futból, more futból. Did I mention fútbol? They are definitely as crazy as everyone says. Last night, I watched the second half of the Real Madrid and Madrid Atlético game with my host parents. My host mom really likes Madrid Atlético. Unfortunately for her, Real Madrid came back from a 1-0 deficit to tie the game, and then scored three more goals in overtime. I learned some new words watching the game, too! If you were wondering, pelota is ball (which I knew, but had forgotten) and prórroga is overtime. Today, I went to see the local team, Real Racing, play, which was quite an experience. Spaniards really love their fútbol. Before the game, the fans lined up on either side of the street as the team buses entered. They had noise makers, flags, scarves, and flares and were all singing, chanting, and jumping as the players arrived at the stadium. Then, once we were inside the stadium, they were really, really loud about every single play. They made sure the refs knew when they didn't like a call, and would sing and chant during much of the game. It was definitely a different experience than Spartan Stadium. We could bring bags, umbrellas, cameras, noise makers, and probably pretty much anything we wanted. Even though the stadium was much smaller and more rudimentary, I think the fans were just as loud.
Some pictures of the game:

Flares inside the stadium...how is that allowed? 

Much of Spain is Catholic, but not many Spaniards actually practice. However, there are churches everywhere. I tried to find the Church of the Annunciation for Mass today, but instead found another church before I got there. They were already most of the way through mass, though. I then found two other churches and stumbled upon another only two blocks from my house, but it is brick and doesn't really look like the other churches here. I couldn't really understand much of what they were saying, but luckily, the structure of the Mass is the same no matter where you are, so I was able to understand what was going on. I know I learned the basic prayers in Spanish class in high school, so I should probably brush up on them.
I have gotten used to eating at 9pm or later now (I ate at 7:30 last week because mi madre had to go visit her mother in the hospital and I wasn't even hungry because it was so early), and take a siesta when I can. Unfortunately, I have class at 3:15pm, which is prime siesta time. All of the stores are closed from 1:30 or 2 to at least 4:30 or 5. So never plan on doing anything during that time. This weekend, my host parents' grandchildren were over, but since they are 2 and 4, they didn't really understand who I was or why I was there. I tried telling them that I am living here for two months, but they just told me that I don't. But I did appreciate their simple words, and mi madre has given me some of their books to read like a comic book version of Don Quixote. We have a lot of free time here during the week, so books will be great! And keep me thinking in Spanish, since I find that when I talk or read a lot in English, it is harder to switch back to Spanish.