Wednesday all of us ISU students went on another school trip, this time to Salamanca. Salamanca is north of Caceres, it was about a 3 hour bus trip. When we arrived, it was raining. And cold. And windy. But the city was still really cool and we still did the whole day as planned, even though we weren't the happiest students to be there.
The first place we went to was the university there. It's the oldest university in Spain, built in the early 1200's. A lot of very famous Spanish people have studied or taught tere. That was really neat, and the buildings and library were very pretty. In the courtyard of the university there is a huge facade that has lots of different statues and sculptures on it. There is a hidden frog somewhere on the facade, and the story is that if you find it, you'll have good luck. I found it, but this was after I stared at the wall for 13 mintues, asked someone to show me where it was, still couldn't find it, asked someone else and then finally saw where it was hidden. So after all that, I don't think I'll get much good luck out of it.
We went to the Plaza Mayor of Salamanca. It was one of the coolest plazas I've seen in Spain. It was in the shape of a square, completely enclosed. I guess they used to have bull fights there. All around it were arches that lead to restaurants, cafes, and shops.
We also saw the Cathedral. There are actually two cathedrals, an old one and a new one. Our tour guide said that the old one wasn't good enough, so they had to build a better one. But the two are both connected. The inside was cool, but really dark. The alter was the most simple and plain alter I have ever seen. Usually the alters have huge gold statues and stain glass behind them, but this one had nothing. It was weird to see that.
We had free time to eat and go shopping. We left around 6:30 or so and made the trip back to Caceres. Good time. :)
Friday, March 26, 2010
Saturday, March 20, 2010
More life in Spain...
So I haven't updated this in awhile... Spain is still amazing. The weather is getting warmer, and it finally stopped raining every day. The temperature is in the 60's now, it's so nice.
Steph has traveled the past couple weekends, so I’ve been in Caceres by myself. It’s been fun though, I’ve gotten to know the city a lot better, and I’ve spent a lot of time with my host moms. On the weekends they don’t work, so they make me lots of different typical Spanish food for breakfast. One morning they made migas, which is basically fried breadcrumbs, with dried red peppers and pieces of bacon. It was so good! Another morning they had some of their friends over and we all ate churros and chocolate. Last weekend we had a very typical Spanish breakfast of toasted baguette slices with onion and vinegar. Very yummy.
Steph’s mom and sister came to visit her this past weekend. They arrived in Caceres on Saturday. Our host moms took us all out on a tour of the city. I learned so much! I didn’t realize how much I didn’t know about the place I’ve lived in the past couple months. Our moms told us a lot about the history of the city, but also about the traditions. For example, there is a statue outside the cathedral that if you kiss his foot, you’ll find love. There is also a small very old church, where tradition says that if you take a friend there, she will get married. I told my host moms NOT to take me there any time soon haha.
Our mommies then took us to a really good tapas restaurant. It used to be a palace, but now it’s a very upscale restaurant with only tapas. The inside is really cool, the ceilings are arched and the walls are brick. There were no chairs, everyone just gathered around high tables and shared tapas. Steph, her sister, and I all got coke, our moms got wine, and we ordered tapas. This was the best food I’ve had in Europe so far. We had potatoes with some sort of sweet sauce, migas with fried eggs, and meatballs dipped in a thick orange sauce. It was soo good. I think Steph’s mom and sister really liked it too.
After that we all went up the mountain outside the city. Most people walk up there, but our moms drove us. On top of the mountain is a statue of the Virgin Mary. The story is that she appeared on that spot to a shepherd, so they built a church and the huge statue that overlooks the city. The view was amazing. We could see all of Caceres, all the old buildings, the church, the palm trees in the streets. It was awesome.
Monday was Steph's birthday. Our host moms made a special lunch for us to celebrate: paella, which is a very typical meal here in Spain. It took them awhile to make, we didn't start eating until 4:30pm. They brought it out in a huge pan. It took up basically the whole table. Paella is rice with a mixture of seafood: calamari, mussels, clams, shrimp. There was more stuff in there, but that’s all that I recognized. It was interesting to eat. It was actually a lot of work, because we had to pull apart the shrimp and clam shells and everything. When we got done, our plates were filled with empty shells from the assortment of sea creatures. It was delicious though.
They also made tiramisu for Steph’s birthday, and we had apple champagne that is made in the Caceres. It was really good. I was so full after that meal I could barely breathe. Steph and I said we're going to have to wear sweatpants for my birthday lunch…
School is good. In one of my classes we had to write 6 sentences, three of them true and three of them false. Then we had to read each sentence to our classmates, and we had to guess which were the truths and which were the lies. That was fun. In another class we play tabu once a week in Spanish. It gets pretty competitive… This week we each have to teach a 4 minute class about our major to the rest of our classmates. So somehow I have to teach everyone about journalism and do learning activities… in Spanish… that should be interesting, I’m absolutely not looking forward to that.
This week I’ve been busy watching NCAA March Madness. I was hoping the Spanish ESPN would show some of the games, but so far all I’ve seen on the channel is soccer and the World Handball Tournament. Really Spain?? So I’ve been following basketball on CBS.com. I tried to explain the whole bracket competition to my host moms, but I think they now believe I have a gambling problem. They couldn’t believe that I was betting on 32 games all in two days! I tried to say it wasn’t for money, but I don’t think I did a good job explaining it… Oh well.
One more week and I go to the Canary Islands for spring break! I’m very excited. I’m hoping to get a tan, although that won’t help with people still mistaking me for Spanish. Last week I was walking home from school with all the obvious American signs: I was wearing my sorority letter t-shirt, tennis shoes, I was listening to my ipod, and I had a backpack. All things that you would never see on a Spanish girl. But I still got stopped by a chaperone of a group of Spanish students asking me where the museum was. I can't win...
I'll have more stories to tell later this week, we're going on another school trip to Salamanca on Wednesday. Hasta luego! :)
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Pictures of Paris
On the plane heading to Paris!
Our hostal room. It was hard to fit the whole room into one picture because it was SO BIG but I did what I could... :)
The view from our hostal room window.
The Lourve!
Venus de Milo
Mona Lisa. It's smaller in person...
More from inside the Lourve.
Statue of Julius Ceasar.
Outside the Lourve.
Notre Dame.
Inside Notre Dame.
Luxembourg Park.
Legit French crepes!
Outside the Opera.
Moulin Rouge.
We look soo French.
The Basilica.
Outside the Basilica on top of Montmartre.
The view from the steps of the Basilica.
Painters' square.
The Arc of Triumph.
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Eiffel Tower!
Waiting in line to go up the tower.
View from on top. Paris is unbelievable at night.
Amazing. :) Best trip ever. Monday, March 1, 2010
PARIS!
I just got back last night from the most amazing weekend in my life in Paris, France! It was sooo awesome I can't even describe it, but I'll try! :) This might be a long post...
We left Caceres on Thursday afternoon. It was me, my roommate Steph, and another ISU student, Page. A 4 and 1/2 hour bus ride later we were in Madrid. I wanted to take the metro to the airport, but we were going to be pushing it to be on time for our flight, so we took a very expensive taxi ride to the airport in Madrid, only to find out that our flight was delayed an hour. Apparently, France is having air strikes, so the airports are short on workers and all flights are either delayed or cancelled. So we left Madrid around 10pm.
The flight was good, and it was awesome to fly over Paris at night. It's so huge!! The lights seemed to go on forever. After we landed, we took an even more expensive taxi ride to our hostal.
Ok, our hostal: First of all, it was far from the center of the city with all the attractions and touristy stuff. You could call it suburbs, or slums maybe, of Paris. Second, the name was "Peace and Love Hostal." Third, the website told us that there was a bar in the hostal. What it should have said was there was a hostal in the bar. Seriously. We walked into a cute little bar, checked in with the bartender, and the rooms were upstairs. At first I was a tad bit unsure about the whole situation. But the bar was nice, and the people there all spoke fluent English, and were so friendly. They looked after us and gave us transportation advice and everything. So we ended up loving the place.
When we got our keys, the bartender/hostal manager told us it was "a bit of a hike" to our room. That hike turned out to be a narrow winding staircase 6 floors high. I thought I was going to die walking up there! Our room was... small. Like the inside of a car small. Like the size of a dressing room small. Like having to step on my bed to go into the bathroom small. But it was still nice, and hey, it was cheap.
Friday morning we went to the metro station by our hostal, and after playing sharades with the woman at the ticket office who spoke absolutely nothing but French, we bought a ticket. Next step was to figure out where to go. We stared at a map of Paris for 20 minutes, got on a train, then switched at the next stop because it was going the wrong way, changed lines and got on the wrong train again, then finally ended up at the Lourve.
The Louvre was everything I thought it would be, but bigger. It was huge! We saw Napoleon's apartments, the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo statue, The Coronation of Napoleon painting, The Wedding Feast at Cana, among others. It was very cool.
From there we went to Notre Dame. The inside is cool, but dark and not pretty. It was so weird seeing in person what I had only seen in the movie The Hunchback of Notre Dame. We couldn't go to the top though, because the tours had closed for the day. But it was still neat seeing the inside, the altar, and everything. After that, we went to the Luxembourg Park, but it had just closed right before we got there, so we couldn't actually walk through it.
Day 2: We were a lot better with the metro system, and took trains to the Opera first. I was really excited to see the Opera, but when we went inside, they said the auditorium was closed because of some rehersal. I was so disapointed! (See a pattern? We were begining to think we were cursed, everything we went to was closed)
We then walked to the northern part of the city, and got to see the outside of Moulin Rouge. Then we went to one of my favorite places of the trip: the Montmadre. It's a really big hill, with soo many tourists. There are a lot of souvenier shops and cafes, and a "painters' square" which is a park full of artists and easels and their works. There were musicians all around playing the guitar and singing, and tons of people were sitting on the steps where you can see the entire city of Paris.
The best part was the Basilique du Sacre-Ceour (Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Paris) at the very top of the hill. It's absolutely beautiful, but what really made it neat was that inside, you have to be completely silent and cell phones and cameras aren't allowed. It was sad that I couldn't take any pictures, but it made the place seem so special because everyone was quiet and respectful.
From there, we went to the Arc de Triomphe (Arch of Triumph). It's in the middle of a "star" of 5 main avenues of Paris that go out from it. We had to enter from one of the avenues and go in an underground tunnel to get to the Arc. Under the Arc is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, with the eternal flame. Steph and Page paid to go up on top of the Arc, but I didn't.
After that, we made our way to the highlight of the trip: the Eiffel Tower. I was sooo excited! It was a long walk there, and we kept seeing the top of the tower getting closer and closer. When we finally got there and could see it up close, it was breathtaking. We crossed the Seine and walked underneath it, and I was just blown away. I couldn't believe that I was actually there! There were soo many people! Underneath it, and all around the Champ de Mars was just packed with people and music and food. It was incredible.
We waited for it to get dark, then we stood in line for an hour waiting to get tickets to go up. The elevator was really scary, and I'm not even scared of heights. All you can see is the city of Paris getting smaller and smaller, and you look around you and see just skinny iron structures holding you up.
We only went to the 2nd level, but it was amazing. By then it was night, and all of Paris was lit up on all sides. The Seine was gorgeous, and I could see the Arc of Triumph, Champ de Mars, and the Trocadero. Every hour on the hour, the Eiffel Tower lights up in flashing lights, which makes it look like it's sparkling. Soo pretty!
After we went back down, we went accross the river to the Trocadero, which is just a building but has steps in front of it. So after climbing the steps, we could see a perfect view of the Eiffel Tower. It was raining, but we didn't even care. I didn't want to leave! We bought crepes (the most amazing thing I have ever had in my life) and took the metro back to the bar, I mean hostal.
Sunday morning, we left to go back home to Caceres. Ok here's how our traveling went: We had to take the metro from our hostal to the end of the line, which was about 45 minutes. The metro to the airport was shut down for some reason, so we had to take a bus from the last stop to the airport. The bus was packed, and it was a long ride. When we finally got to the airport, we walked inside and saw that the entire place was a disaster! The whole air strike business turned the airport into chaos.
We got in line to check in with only an hour until our flight, thanks to the metro/bus situation. The line was enormous, and we soon realized there was NO way we would make it in time. So I flagged down a woman, and practically begged her to help us. She did, either because we had no luggage to check or because I was so charming. So she took our passports and went off for awhile, then returned with our tickets.
We ran through security, then of course I was singled out and had to have my backpack personally searched. I finally got done and we sprinted to our gate. Once we got there, it was announced that our flight was delayed. Go figure.
Soon they announced that our airplane was ready, and we were just waiting for the bus to come pick us up and take us to the plane. I don't know why, but it took 2 whole hours for them to find a bus for us. I could have walked to the plane and back 17 times in the time it took the bus to arrive at our gate.
So anyway. We FINALLY took off. We arrived in Madrid, and had to take yet another expensive taxi ride because we didn't have time for the metro. We arrived at the bus station with 10 minutes to spare before our bus left for Caceres. I really think I can't just take a normal flight anywhere, it seems like I have bad luck whenever I travel. But oh well, we made it. We got home to Caceres around 10:30pm.
It was an amazing amazing amazing trip, and I'm going to remember it forever. I'll hopefully have pictures up soon!
We left Caceres on Thursday afternoon. It was me, my roommate Steph, and another ISU student, Page. A 4 and 1/2 hour bus ride later we were in Madrid. I wanted to take the metro to the airport, but we were going to be pushing it to be on time for our flight, so we took a very expensive taxi ride to the airport in Madrid, only to find out that our flight was delayed an hour. Apparently, France is having air strikes, so the airports are short on workers and all flights are either delayed or cancelled. So we left Madrid around 10pm.
The flight was good, and it was awesome to fly over Paris at night. It's so huge!! The lights seemed to go on forever. After we landed, we took an even more expensive taxi ride to our hostal.
Ok, our hostal: First of all, it was far from the center of the city with all the attractions and touristy stuff. You could call it suburbs, or slums maybe, of Paris. Second, the name was "Peace and Love Hostal." Third, the website told us that there was a bar in the hostal. What it should have said was there was a hostal in the bar. Seriously. We walked into a cute little bar, checked in with the bartender, and the rooms were upstairs. At first I was a tad bit unsure about the whole situation. But the bar was nice, and the people there all spoke fluent English, and were so friendly. They looked after us and gave us transportation advice and everything. So we ended up loving the place.
When we got our keys, the bartender/hostal manager told us it was "a bit of a hike" to our room. That hike turned out to be a narrow winding staircase 6 floors high. I thought I was going to die walking up there! Our room was... small. Like the inside of a car small. Like the size of a dressing room small. Like having to step on my bed to go into the bathroom small. But it was still nice, and hey, it was cheap.
Friday morning we went to the metro station by our hostal, and after playing sharades with the woman at the ticket office who spoke absolutely nothing but French, we bought a ticket. Next step was to figure out where to go. We stared at a map of Paris for 20 minutes, got on a train, then switched at the next stop because it was going the wrong way, changed lines and got on the wrong train again, then finally ended up at the Lourve.
The Louvre was everything I thought it would be, but bigger. It was huge! We saw Napoleon's apartments, the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo statue, The Coronation of Napoleon painting, The Wedding Feast at Cana, among others. It was very cool.
From there we went to Notre Dame. The inside is cool, but dark and not pretty. It was so weird seeing in person what I had only seen in the movie The Hunchback of Notre Dame. We couldn't go to the top though, because the tours had closed for the day. But it was still neat seeing the inside, the altar, and everything. After that, we went to the Luxembourg Park, but it had just closed right before we got there, so we couldn't actually walk through it.
Day 2: We were a lot better with the metro system, and took trains to the Opera first. I was really excited to see the Opera, but when we went inside, they said the auditorium was closed because of some rehersal. I was so disapointed! (See a pattern? We were begining to think we were cursed, everything we went to was closed)
We then walked to the northern part of the city, and got to see the outside of Moulin Rouge. Then we went to one of my favorite places of the trip: the Montmadre. It's a really big hill, with soo many tourists. There are a lot of souvenier shops and cafes, and a "painters' square" which is a park full of artists and easels and their works. There were musicians all around playing the guitar and singing, and tons of people were sitting on the steps where you can see the entire city of Paris.
The best part was the Basilique du Sacre-Ceour (Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Paris) at the very top of the hill. It's absolutely beautiful, but what really made it neat was that inside, you have to be completely silent and cell phones and cameras aren't allowed. It was sad that I couldn't take any pictures, but it made the place seem so special because everyone was quiet and respectful.
From there, we went to the Arc de Triomphe (Arch of Triumph). It's in the middle of a "star" of 5 main avenues of Paris that go out from it. We had to enter from one of the avenues and go in an underground tunnel to get to the Arc. Under the Arc is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, with the eternal flame. Steph and Page paid to go up on top of the Arc, but I didn't.
After that, we made our way to the highlight of the trip: the Eiffel Tower. I was sooo excited! It was a long walk there, and we kept seeing the top of the tower getting closer and closer. When we finally got there and could see it up close, it was breathtaking. We crossed the Seine and walked underneath it, and I was just blown away. I couldn't believe that I was actually there! There were soo many people! Underneath it, and all around the Champ de Mars was just packed with people and music and food. It was incredible.
We waited for it to get dark, then we stood in line for an hour waiting to get tickets to go up. The elevator was really scary, and I'm not even scared of heights. All you can see is the city of Paris getting smaller and smaller, and you look around you and see just skinny iron structures holding you up.
We only went to the 2nd level, but it was amazing. By then it was night, and all of Paris was lit up on all sides. The Seine was gorgeous, and I could see the Arc of Triumph, Champ de Mars, and the Trocadero. Every hour on the hour, the Eiffel Tower lights up in flashing lights, which makes it look like it's sparkling. Soo pretty!
After we went back down, we went accross the river to the Trocadero, which is just a building but has steps in front of it. So after climbing the steps, we could see a perfect view of the Eiffel Tower. It was raining, but we didn't even care. I didn't want to leave! We bought crepes (the most amazing thing I have ever had in my life) and took the metro back to the bar, I mean hostal.
Sunday morning, we left to go back home to Caceres. Ok here's how our traveling went: We had to take the metro from our hostal to the end of the line, which was about 45 minutes. The metro to the airport was shut down for some reason, so we had to take a bus from the last stop to the airport. The bus was packed, and it was a long ride. When we finally got to the airport, we walked inside and saw that the entire place was a disaster! The whole air strike business turned the airport into chaos.
We got in line to check in with only an hour until our flight, thanks to the metro/bus situation. The line was enormous, and we soon realized there was NO way we would make it in time. So I flagged down a woman, and practically begged her to help us. She did, either because we had no luggage to check or because I was so charming. So she took our passports and went off for awhile, then returned with our tickets.
We ran through security, then of course I was singled out and had to have my backpack personally searched. I finally got done and we sprinted to our gate. Once we got there, it was announced that our flight was delayed. Go figure.
Soon they announced that our airplane was ready, and we were just waiting for the bus to come pick us up and take us to the plane. I don't know why, but it took 2 whole hours for them to find a bus for us. I could have walked to the plane and back 17 times in the time it took the bus to arrive at our gate.
So anyway. We FINALLY took off. We arrived in Madrid, and had to take yet another expensive taxi ride because we didn't have time for the metro. We arrived at the bus station with 10 minutes to spare before our bus left for Caceres. I really think I can't just take a normal flight anywhere, it seems like I have bad luck whenever I travel. But oh well, we made it. We got home to Caceres around 10:30pm.
It was an amazing amazing amazing trip, and I'm going to remember it forever. I'll hopefully have pictures up soon!
A few pictures of Granada and Cordoba
Granada
Beautiful view of Granada.
The inside of the cathedral in Granada. Gorgeous!
The alter in the cathedral.
Day 2: Moorish ruins in Cordoba. It was raining...
The outside of the Mesquita.
Inside.Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Granada/Cordoba
This past weekend I went on a school trip with all the other ISU students to the cities of Granada and Cordoba in Spain. I was really looking forward to it, because it was the first trip that we got to take all together as a large group. Usually we just travel in small groups.
We left at 6:30am Friday morning. We went on a charter bus to Granada first. The trip was long, and I couldn't sleep for any of it. When we arrived at 2:30 in the afternoon, we went straight to the Alhambra. The Alhambra is a palace and fortress built in the 14th centurty by the Moors. It reminded me a lot of Alcazar in Sevilla. It was really pretty and had amazing sculpted ceillings and big rooms. But for those of us who went to Sevilla, it wasn't as impressive or big as Alcazar, so we weren't as blown away by it as the others. Still cool though.
After that, we went to the hotel. It was so nice to stay in an actual hotel for once, instead of the cheap hostals we usually get when we travel on our own. Dinner was at 9:30pm. We walked to a restaurant that had a huge buffet. I was really happy, because there were lots of options to eat besides meat (yay for Fridays...) We ate sooo much. I hope they were prepared for a group of 30 Americans coming to a place that said "Take as many plates as you want."
The next day we went to the Capilla Real, or the Royal Chapel. I got to see the remains of King Ferdinand, Queen Isabella, their daughter Queen Juana and her husband Philip (Felipe). That was really cool. I also saw King Ferdinand's crown and robes.The church was really neat too. The structure behind the alter was amazing, but it had a lot of gruesome statues of different saints being killed... Kind of gross.
Next we went to the Cathedral. Ok, so I've been in a lot of cathedrals, in Mexico, Ecuador, Italy, Spain. But this cathedral is the most BEAUTIFUL cathedral I have ever seen in my life. It's huge, and built almost circular. It's a combination of different styles of architecture, so it's white and marble with stained glass windows, not dark and musty like cathedrals usually are. I absolutely loved it.
We had free time after that, so we went and got lunch at an outdoor restaurant. Then we walked around the city. Granada is full of foreigners, but not the touristy type. There are a lot of Brazilians and Africans, and people from Eastern Europe. It was fun to see lots of different people. Oh and in this city, they don't have stray dogs, only stray cats. I'm not kidding. There were tons of cats walking around all the streets, it was so strange!
We got on the bus around 4 to go to Cordoba. It was supposed to be a 2 and 1/2 hour bus ride, but that turned into almost 3 and 1/2 because our Spanish chaperones had no clue where the hotel was, and had to keep getting on and off the bus to ask random people on the streets. We all kind of learned to get used to the chaperones not really knowing what was going on most of the time...
This night we stayed in a hostal, but a nice hostal. It was built like a maze, we had to go through 3 hallways and 2 staircases to get to our room. I shared the room with Steph, and our room was actually smaller than our room in Caceres, which I didn't think was possible. Plus the toliet was literally underneath the sink in our bathroom, which was interesting, and our shower water was so scalding hot I expected it to boil. Oh well.
That night we went out to dinner at 9:30. In the restaurant, we all sat at one long table. We were served about 8 courses of tapas. Tapas are very popular here in Spain. You can buy any drink and get free food with it, like appetizers. So we were given pitchers of water and wine, and lots of courses of appetizers set on the table for us to just divide up and share. We had salad, fried egg plant, croquetes, and other kinds of food that I can't describe because honestly I don't know what they were. We were there for over 2 hours, I didn't think they would ever stop coming out with more food. I was soo full.
Sunday morning we went to Al Madinah al-Zahra , which was an Arab Muslim medieval town. We got to climb through the ruins, which would have been more appreciated if it wasn't raining the whole time.
After that we got more free time, so we went and ate lunch at a nice restaurant. Then we had ice cream at Burger King (yes, we really did) and met the group again at the Mezquita, or the Great Mosque of Cordoba (I looked it up in English). It was originally a mosque, but it was turned into a cathedral. So basically, you walk into a huge mosque with lots of open space and pillars, but there is a big alter and pews directly in the middle of it, and Catholic statues and paintings in the connecting rooms. It was so neat.
We left soon after that. Most everyone slept on the bus on the way home (except for me. again). We got home around 11pm, and we were dead tired. I still had homework to do, and class Monday morning. But it was soo much fun.
Tomorrow night I leave for PARIS! I am sooo excited! I'm going with Steph and another girl. Our bus leaves at 3:30pm to Madrid, then our plane to Paris is at 9. We'll be there until Sunday, so I'll have lots of stories to tell. Also, I finally booked my flight to the Canary Islands for spring break. So all is well. :) I will hopefully get pictures up soon, but I have to steal them from other students because my camera died Friday afternoon of the trip... oops.
We left at 6:30am Friday morning. We went on a charter bus to Granada first. The trip was long, and I couldn't sleep for any of it. When we arrived at 2:30 in the afternoon, we went straight to the Alhambra. The Alhambra is a palace and fortress built in the 14th centurty by the Moors. It reminded me a lot of Alcazar in Sevilla. It was really pretty and had amazing sculpted ceillings and big rooms. But for those of us who went to Sevilla, it wasn't as impressive or big as Alcazar, so we weren't as blown away by it as the others. Still cool though.
After that, we went to the hotel. It was so nice to stay in an actual hotel for once, instead of the cheap hostals we usually get when we travel on our own. Dinner was at 9:30pm. We walked to a restaurant that had a huge buffet. I was really happy, because there were lots of options to eat besides meat (yay for Fridays...) We ate sooo much. I hope they were prepared for a group of 30 Americans coming to a place that said "Take as many plates as you want."
The next day we went to the Capilla Real, or the Royal Chapel. I got to see the remains of King Ferdinand, Queen Isabella, their daughter Queen Juana and her husband Philip (Felipe). That was really cool. I also saw King Ferdinand's crown and robes.The church was really neat too. The structure behind the alter was amazing, but it had a lot of gruesome statues of different saints being killed... Kind of gross.
Next we went to the Cathedral. Ok, so I've been in a lot of cathedrals, in Mexico, Ecuador, Italy, Spain. But this cathedral is the most BEAUTIFUL cathedral I have ever seen in my life. It's huge, and built almost circular. It's a combination of different styles of architecture, so it's white and marble with stained glass windows, not dark and musty like cathedrals usually are. I absolutely loved it.
We had free time after that, so we went and got lunch at an outdoor restaurant. Then we walked around the city. Granada is full of foreigners, but not the touristy type. There are a lot of Brazilians and Africans, and people from Eastern Europe. It was fun to see lots of different people. Oh and in this city, they don't have stray dogs, only stray cats. I'm not kidding. There were tons of cats walking around all the streets, it was so strange!
We got on the bus around 4 to go to Cordoba. It was supposed to be a 2 and 1/2 hour bus ride, but that turned into almost 3 and 1/2 because our Spanish chaperones had no clue where the hotel was, and had to keep getting on and off the bus to ask random people on the streets. We all kind of learned to get used to the chaperones not really knowing what was going on most of the time...
This night we stayed in a hostal, but a nice hostal. It was built like a maze, we had to go through 3 hallways and 2 staircases to get to our room. I shared the room with Steph, and our room was actually smaller than our room in Caceres, which I didn't think was possible. Plus the toliet was literally underneath the sink in our bathroom, which was interesting, and our shower water was so scalding hot I expected it to boil. Oh well.
That night we went out to dinner at 9:30. In the restaurant, we all sat at one long table. We were served about 8 courses of tapas. Tapas are very popular here in Spain. You can buy any drink and get free food with it, like appetizers. So we were given pitchers of water and wine, and lots of courses of appetizers set on the table for us to just divide up and share. We had salad, fried egg plant, croquetes, and other kinds of food that I can't describe because honestly I don't know what they were. We were there for over 2 hours, I didn't think they would ever stop coming out with more food. I was soo full.
Sunday morning we went to Al Madinah al-Zahra , which was an Arab Muslim medieval town. We got to climb through the ruins, which would have been more appreciated if it wasn't raining the whole time.
After that we got more free time, so we went and ate lunch at a nice restaurant. Then we had ice cream at Burger King (yes, we really did) and met the group again at the Mezquita, or the Great Mosque of Cordoba (I looked it up in English). It was originally a mosque, but it was turned into a cathedral. So basically, you walk into a huge mosque with lots of open space and pillars, but there is a big alter and pews directly in the middle of it, and Catholic statues and paintings in the connecting rooms. It was so neat.
We left soon after that. Most everyone slept on the bus on the way home (except for me. again). We got home around 11pm, and we were dead tired. I still had homework to do, and class Monday morning. But it was soo much fun.
Tomorrow night I leave for PARIS! I am sooo excited! I'm going with Steph and another girl. Our bus leaves at 3:30pm to Madrid, then our plane to Paris is at 9. We'll be there until Sunday, so I'll have lots of stories to tell. Also, I finally booked my flight to the Canary Islands for spring break. So all is well. :) I will hopefully get pictures up soon, but I have to steal them from other students because my camera died Friday afternoon of the trip... oops.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Observations
Having lived in Spain for 3 weeks now, I have a few random observations to share with you about life and culture here.
1) Everyone here thinks that I'm Spanish. Everyone. People come up to me on the streets and ask me for directions. Store and restaurant owners don't look twice at me. If I'm with a group of ISU students, people will approach me and ask if I'm their teacher or something.
2) The traffic lights to indicate "walk" or "don't walk" are lighted green stick figures that flash a skirt every second (like the signs for restrooms). So I guess men and women are both allowed to cross the street here.
3) Enrique Iglesias is not famous here. People only know him at all as the famous singer Julio Iglesias' less talented son.
4) I fail at any electronic appliance here. Hair dryer, straightner, space heater, cell phone. My host moms actually think it's really funny.
5) People on the streets don't believe in keeping to the right of the sidewalk, walking in single file, or moving at all when passing another person walking. You actually have to morph into the wall of the nearest building or throw yourself into moving traffic to get past them on the narrow coblestone sidewalks.
6) No one is subtle here. They will come up to the other ISU students here and be like, "You're tall." or "I think you're pretty." or "Are you from Dublin?" (except no one says stuff like that to me, because of #1 on this list)
7) Every single person on the street has a dog. And they apparently have no Picking Up Poop Policy, so you have to be very careful when walking on the sidewalks, and whatever you do, DON'T cut through the grass.
8) Churros and hot chocolate is the best thing in the world. Hands down.
9) Public restrooms are usually 1 for 5 with toliet paper, toliet seat, soap, working hand dryer, or a functional lock.
10) I have small feet in the U.S., but here, it's impossible. The girl working at the shoe store actually laughed at me when I asked for my size. She thought I was joking. She said, "Ummm no, cariña (sweetie)." Awesome. So not only am I apparenty Spanish, I'm like a little Spanish child.
1) Everyone here thinks that I'm Spanish. Everyone. People come up to me on the streets and ask me for directions. Store and restaurant owners don't look twice at me. If I'm with a group of ISU students, people will approach me and ask if I'm their teacher or something.
2) The traffic lights to indicate "walk" or "don't walk" are lighted green stick figures that flash a skirt every second (like the signs for restrooms). So I guess men and women are both allowed to cross the street here.
3) Enrique Iglesias is not famous here. People only know him at all as the famous singer Julio Iglesias' less talented son.
4) I fail at any electronic appliance here. Hair dryer, straightner, space heater, cell phone. My host moms actually think it's really funny.
5) People on the streets don't believe in keeping to the right of the sidewalk, walking in single file, or moving at all when passing another person walking. You actually have to morph into the wall of the nearest building or throw yourself into moving traffic to get past them on the narrow coblestone sidewalks.
6) No one is subtle here. They will come up to the other ISU students here and be like, "You're tall." or "I think you're pretty." or "Are you from Dublin?" (except no one says stuff like that to me, because of #1 on this list)
7) Every single person on the street has a dog. And they apparently have no Picking Up Poop Policy, so you have to be very careful when walking on the sidewalks, and whatever you do, DON'T cut through the grass.
8) Churros and hot chocolate is the best thing in the world. Hands down.
9) Public restrooms are usually 1 for 5 with toliet paper, toliet seat, soap, working hand dryer, or a functional lock.
10) I have small feet in the U.S., but here, it's impossible. The girl working at the shoe store actually laughed at me when I asked for my size. She thought I was joking. She said, "Ummm no, cariña (sweetie)." Awesome. So not only am I apparenty Spanish, I'm like a little Spanish child.
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