Shades of Rose

This past weekend, I stepped out of Spain for the first time since I have gotten here, and into Lisbon, Portugal. To put it simply, it was absolutely beautiful there and I had a lovely time. In fact, it is probably my top trip since I have come to Europe.

My flight left on Thursday afternoon without mishap and I arrived in Lisbon in the evening. In addition to dealing with a significant language barrier for the first time in my travels, this was also my first solo trip. Nothing like doing all of your firsts at once. I managed to get myself onto the correct bus, but then got lost when it came to the tram. I got a taxi and, to my relief, the driver was an Irishman and spoke English. Actually, he was so reassuring that I started to become worried. He kept saying, "Doun't worry, sweethaht, I'll git yeh there in a jiff." After he repeated this several times, I started to wonder if I was actually being kidnapped. It didn't help that the Alfama Patio Hostel is in a very old part of the city that does not seem to be safe when you first drive through it. Praise the Lord, he really was just a nice man and I got to the hostel with no trouble.

I didn't do much Thursday night except for talk to my family for Thanksgiving, which was actually no small thing. It is hard to convey this across the Internet, but it was completely wonderful to see everyone via Skype and it really uplifted my spirit.

Friday dawned and I was up bright and early. After a wonderful breakfast at the hostel, (hard-boiled eggs and pancakes!!!) I set off with my list of things to do.

The highlight of my day was definitely the Castle (picture to left). This is Portugal, which means there is nothing blocked off, there are no side railings on the steep stairs up to the towers, and there are no guards telling you "you can't go up there." So I climbed all over everything. Of course, the views were incredible. And there were peacocks wandering around!

On Saturday, I decided to go on a day trip to Belem, which is a town about 25 minutes outside of Lisbon. First, I hit up the Feira de Ladra, the "thieve's fair," where I bought two much-needed leather belts and a fabulous leather purse. When I walked back to the tram stop, I ran into the two American girls and the dude from New Zealand who I had met at the hostel the night before. The Kiwi ended up accompanying me for the day in Belem, which was great. We got along famously and it was nice to have some company. It was an absolutely beautiful day, and we walked along the coast and then went to get some of the famous Portuguese pastries that Belem is known for. The shop there has been running since 1837 and one bite of their signature pastry makes you understand exactly why they have been in business for so long. It was delicious. Tired and satisfied, we hopped back on the tram and returned to Lisbon. The picture above is the Tower of Belem, and the picture below is me at the top!

But the day was not over yet! Saturday night was a free BBQ with homemade sangria and a live DJ. Spontaneous salsa dancing, delicious food, and then suddenly, a blackout! But that didn't stop the fun. Martin from Ireland picked up his guitar and we had a sing-along by candlelight. I learned that the only truly international songs are the following: "One Love" by Bob Marley, "I Want to Hold your Hand" by the Beatles, and "La Bamba" by who knows who. The DJ then invited us to his club in Barrio Alto, so we went off to dance the night away.

On Sunday morning, I did a last bit of furious sight-seeing by going to the Tile Museum and then up to the Chiado neighborhood. I absolutely loved the tiles in Portugal. To the right is one of my favorite patterns that I saw.

One of the other amazing things about Portugal was the colors the city. (Yes, now I explain the title of the post). When you looked out over the city, all the rooftops were rosy red. The streets were full of muted yellows and blues. In the churches, the marble seemed to have a rosy tint.

Don't worry Lisbon, I will be back.

La Sagrada Familia aka reverting to being a tourist in Barcelona

Today, I decided that it was high time for me to go and see La Sagrada Familia. (Please excuse the bad pun). For those of you who don't know, La Sagrada Familia is a very large church in the center of Barcelona designed by Gaudi. It was started in the 1880s and is still in construction. Gaudi's plans were for an absolutely enormous structure, with around 16 towers and multiple detailed facades. Unsurprisingly, Gaudi died before the work was finished, but he left enough sketches and small-scale plaster models for the building to continue far into the future.

After seeing so many Roman and Gothic-inspired churches throughout Spain, La Sagrada Familia is a breath of fresh air. It is certainly majestic, but also whimsical, colorful, and airy. A church structure that actually encourages joy. How novel!

I climbed the tower on the side of the Passion facade and was able to get a beautiful view of all sides of the city...and of the construction on the building. There were a few aspects of the building that I really enjoyed. The style of the various sculptures is really cool - very square and sharp, but still conveying emotion and movement.

I also loved the ways that the stained glass windows inside the church throw color on the walls. I have posted a few more pictures below.

Overall, it is a really cool building and I am glad that I reverted to being a tourist today to check it out.

The Dali Museum

This past Friday, we had a trip to the Dali Museum in Figueres and then a tour of Girona. As of now, Dali and Picasso have become my all-time favorite painters. I went to the Picasso Museum expecting Cubism, and came out understanding the breadth of talent that Picasso truly had. In the same way, I went to the Salvador Dali museum expecting Surrealism. What I saw was a genius of an artist - a sculptor, a decorator, a animation creator, and a designer. Dali has a huge breadth to his work and he was extremely creative! He was also very eccentric. Many people thought that he was certifiably crazy, but I am not so sure. He was always acting his persona in public. It is hard to know how he was in private, with just his wife Gala.

Above and to the left is a painting that Dali did on a very small doily. It is very tiny and it's a good demonstration of Dali's attention to detail with his work. Can you see the grasshopper? How about the fish? And the ant? The woman's face is his wife Gala. He used her as a model for much of his work. To the right is another painting that I really liked.

Check out this funky sculpture!

The components of the face, above and to the right, are actually life size objects set up in a room. The lips are a sofa. The eyes are paintings on the wall. When you climb up some stairs and look through the lens, it turns everything into one cohesive 3D face...of the American actress Mae West.

So basically, I loved almost everything that I saw in the Dali museum. I wish I could go back there and spend a bit more time looking at the paintings, but alas and alack, that will have to wait for a different trip to Europe.

After we finished with the museum, we took the bus into Girona. We had a brief guided tour of the city, where we learned about the Cathedral and got taken into some neat places with cool views.

The one other highlight of this trip was that I got to eat a very American style chicken sandwich and it was quite satisfying.

And that's it.

Besos!

San Sebastian y Bilbao

Last weekend, I took a trip to the north of Spain with my friends Jake and Kelly. We had a fabulous time exploring San Sebastian and Bilbao. Here's the story:

San Sebastian

We got on the bus very late on Thursday night and arrived 7 hours later in San Sebastian. Upon discovering that our hostel did not actually have 24-hour check-in, we chilled in a bar from 6:30 am until 9 am. This ended up being a great time for us to get to know each other a bit better. Once we dropped our backpacks at the hostel, we set off to explore the city. San Sebastian is in the shape of a horseshoe, with a small mountain at each end and with beaches curving around to connect them. We set off immediately to climb Mt Urgull. It was a GORGEOUS day, bright, sunny, and surprisingly warm. After hiking around for a bit and seeing the beautiful vista, we then proceeded to the center of town for lunch. The place we chose turned out to be great. Jake was brave enough to try squid in ink! Satisfied, we proceeded to walk along the beaches until we got to the other mountain. At this point, the temperature had reached 25 degrees Celsius...which is quite hot for November! I stuck my toes in the water. Ahhh. Once we reached the other mountain, we took the funicular up to the top. On the way, we met a kind couple from the area who gave us the names of some tapas places to check out. At 6 pm, we finally returned to the hostel for a very much-needed nap before dinner.

A word about language:

El Pais Vasco (the Basque country), has its own language, which is called Euskara. Euskara is not at all related to Spanish. In fact, it is not even a Romance language. It has been around since at least 1000 BC, although historians have not been able to put a definite date on its development. The oldest written samples of Euskara are from Roman times. When we arrived, we went to the tourism office to find a map of the city. They gave us a multi-lingual phrase book with a bunch of useful words in Euskara. It only took us a few glances to realize how unrelated it is to both Romance and Germanic languages.

For example:

Please (English)

Por favor (Spanish)

Si us plau (Catalan)

S'il vous plait (French)

Per favore (Italian)

Mesedez (Euskara)

No (English)

No (Spanish)

No (Catalan)

Non (French)

No (Italian)

Nien (German)

Ez (Euskara)

Anyway, this little phrase book came in handy and we tried out our Euskara wherever we went, sometimes with hilarious results.

Okay, so we have just had a rest at the hostel, remember? At around 8 pm, we went out for pintxos, which are little appetizers. The pintxos culture here is quite strong. On the weekends, the bars are hopping with people. The idea is to order just a few pintxos at each place and to stay on the move. We had all sorts of things, but the real stand out for me was the foie gras at La Cuchara de San Tomas. Let me tell you, it was one of the most amazing things I have ever eaten. We ate sheep's cheek, mushroom risotto, salmon with anchovies, you name it. And it was all delicious.

Bilbao

We took an early morning bus to Bilbao on Saturday. It was another beautiful day. I actually did not like Bilbao as much as the other cities I have been to in Spain. It is kind of a strange city. However, the thing that made it worthwhile was the Guggenheim Museum. We were there for almost 3 hours, and justifiably so. Why the architect chose to stick this museum in Bilbao, I am not sure, but there it is. This museum does not just contain art, it is a work of art itself. The building is fascinating. But the true highlight was Richard Serra's huge steel sculptures. This guy is a genius. The sculptures were so huge that you can walk around and through them. I am not sure I can explain anything about this, so it is worth a google. And that was pretty much what we did in Bilbao. Oh, and we ate more wonderful food.

Since I had not yet replaced my camera, I have no pictures of San Sebastian or Bilbao. However, if you look on my Facebook wall, I have been tagged in several pictures with Kelli and Jake, and my current profile picture is of me playing on the beach in San Sebastian.

And that's the update!

Besos!

Keeping the Budget

Sometimes, I get a little worried about how much money I am spending here abroad. It is kind of weird you know, I am just going through it at an astonishing rate. Traveling almost every weekend really takes money! It is also something that I don't do nearly as much at home.

However, the good news is that I did a thorough analysis this morning of my spending, and I have actually been doing quite well with my budget. I am right on track! I have spent a bit more on travel than I expected, but I have also spent less money day-to-day here in Barcelona. So I have upped my travel budget and lowered by day-to-day budget for the remainder of the trip, and I am confident that I will not come back penniless.

The most fascinating thing to me is that I have never been good at meticulously recording everything I spend. However, I think that I have sort of an innate sense of how much money I am spending. I just praise the Lord that he has given me this ability to keep a firm handle on my finances without having to be too neurotic about it. I am truly thankful.

Besos!

comment concerning last post

I apologize for the photos below getting all out of sync. They were fine in my draft!

Besos!

Sevilla, Granada, and Cordoba

Hello readers!

FINALLY, I have had some spare seconds to post. Well, actually, its more that I decided to ditch my homework for tonight and do this instead. No worries, I don't have anything due tomorrow that I haven't finished. Wednesday is another story.

So, I am going to try to make this concise as possible by splitting it into easily readable sections.

My Travel Companions

I originally planned this trip by myself, but ended up with 3 other friends - my good friend from the Arcadia program Kelsey, a Swiss-Spanish guy Etienne, and an Italian guy Vincenzo. I had actually never met Etienne or Vincenzo before the taxi to the airport, but they both are believers, which made me feel confident that it would be fine. And it was! The guys were great - they took good care of Kelsey and I, and vice versa.

Sevilla

Sevilla was our base of operations for the weekend. We stayed in a great Hostel called Oasis Backpackers. The place was great, but "oasis" might be going a little far. There was major construction going on in the plaza where the hostel is located, which meant lovely banging and drilling accompanied our mid-day siestas. Sevilla is a small town, so we could walk everywhere. The highlights were the Cathedral and the Alcazar. The Cathedral is HUGE and very beautiful.

Right next to the Cathedral is La Giralda, which is actually a tower that was built during the Muslim occupation of Spain in the 12th-ish century. Check out the view of the city from the top!

Another awesome place in Sevilla was Plaza Espana and the Parque Maria Luisa. On my last day there, I rented a bike from the hostel and went for a ride on my own down by the river and around the park. It was quite relaxing.

Two more highlights from here. Firstly, we got a recommendation for a good lunch place from the woman working the reception at the hostel. We decided to head there for lunch, and of course, it ended up being a solid 35 minute walk. The lady had told us to order "superserrano" for lunch and so we did. It was grilled chicken sandwhich with some sort of garlic mayonnaise sauce, roasted green pepper, ham, and tomato. Let me tell you, it was DELICIOUS. The total bill came to 16 euro - small cities are the best.

And lastly, I got to see flamenco! I read about this bar called La Carboneria, which has free live flamenco performances from local groups every night. It's not guaranteed that they will show up and who knows what time it will happen. Vincenzo and I got to the bar at about 15 min to 11:00 and ordered sangria. Right at 11, a woman and two men come out and take their seats. The music is simple. One guy playing guitar, the other guy singing from his very soul and clapping in rhythm, the woman clapping as well. The music reaches some sort of unspoken climax and the woman leaps up from her chair and begins to dance flamenco. Flamenco is unlike anything I have ever seen. It is not elegant or graceful, it is soulful and powerful.

Granada

We left for Granada early Sunday morning, at 6:00 am. The guys had the great idea of renting a car, which served two purposes. It was way cheaper and we got there faster. The main reason to go to Granada is to see the Alhambra. The Alhambra is a fortress combined with two castles. It was also originally built by the Muslims and was expanded over the centuries. As you can see from the picture, it is absolutely enormous!

This pic was actually taken from La Mirador de San Nicolas, a church with a beautiful view of the whole city. It was a cloudy, wet, and freezing day - don't let my happy smile fool you!

Cordoba

Monday morning brought the trip to Cordoba. This was originally unplanned, but I am so glad that we decided to go! Cordoba has the singular La Mezquita Catedral. Yes, that is really the name. It was originally a church, then it became a mosque, then back to a church. The only thing that the various rulers had in common was that they made it even larger. According to my art history teacher, in Cordoba, when a child is being bad, it is common for the mother to say, "Go and count the columns in La Mezquita. You can come back when you are done." This picture should help you understand why this is apropos.

The other highlight of Cordoba for me was the Alcazar. (Yes, these people were not very creative with names.) I will let the picture speak for itself. It was an absolutely balmy day, really incredible!

Overall, the trip was great and we all got along fabulously.

In further news, Wednesday night I will be attending my first futbol game (that's soccer). On Thursday night, I leave for a weekend trip to the north of Spain - San Sebastian and Bilbao!

Besos!

To be continued...

Dear readers, I just got back from a weekend trip to Sevilla, Granada, and Cordoba. I left right after the majority of my midterm exams were over and then came back on Tuesday night with another exam this morning. So, the long and short of it is that I have not gotten the spare second to post about my adventure, nor have I downloaded my pictures onto my computer. I would like to post with the pictures added in because I think it is more enjoyable that way. So. Please be patient until this weekend and I promise that the resulting posts about my trip will be much more colorful.

Just to give you a tidbit....what do you get when you throw together two American girls, a Swiss-Spanish guy, and a crazy Italian?

You'll just have to see won't you. :)

Besos!