Glenn Miller/Segovia/Bodegas

On Friday we had a “cultural” activity, and we went to see the Glenn Miller Orchestra in Salamanca! I’m not sure how it relates to the Spanish culture, but it was great! It was mostly brass instruments, with a piano, drums, and a huge bass. They played some songs just as instrumentals, but they had like four different singers that would come out too. They had awesome energy, and were all goofing around on stage. It was great- my friend and I were talking about how we want them at our wedding the whole time.

On Saturday, we went to Segovia for the day! They’re famous for their aqueducts. I think Jesus said it was the best preserved one in the world, and I believe it. Those things are amazing- they’re arches built without anything to hold them together. The amount of engineering and precision it would take to make them is amazing, and the fact that they’ve been standing- just balanced perfectly- for hundreds of years is incredible. So they were really pretty. Segovia is also famous for its tostón, which is basically a baby pig that’s served whole. They were really expensive, but I don’t think I would’ve tried it anyway. They reminded me too much of the fetal pig I dissected in high school. We also went to this really cool castle that looked like the ones from like fairy tale movies. Yet again, pretended I was a princess the whole time. We climbed the biggest spiral staircase of my life- and that’s saying something after the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona- up to the top that overlooked the mountains and fields- absolutely gorgeous.

We went out Saturday night despite the fact that we had an excursion the next day. I think everyone’s panicking a little that we have such little time left! It was a fun time, and probably worth being tired the next day.

On Sunday, we went to a pueblo that’s about an hour away called Toro. We visited bodegas, which are wine cellars/factories and learned a little about the process of making wine and saw the big vats and stuff. After that, we had a wine tasting and learned about the different components and how to taste wine professionally. It was really interesting, and I’d love to take another class to learn more. They also paired them with food so the components of the food would bring out the taste of the wine more. It was fun, but at some points I was a little confused because I did NOT smell what she was describing. At one point she described the same wine as smelling like a bakery with fresh bread and strawberries with milk. Wasn’t really getting that, but the wine was good!

This week I’m working on a 15 page paper that’s due next week for my Latin American Civ class. I’ve never even written a paper that long in English, so this should be interesting! I’m really regretting taking that class now, but oh well. We’re going to Cantabria this weekend, which is in the north of Spain. I’ve heard a lot of good things about this trip, so I’m really looking forward to it! 

Budapest

So for St. Patty’s Day weekend, I was planning on going to Dublin for the longest time. But when I started to plan it, the plane tickets were ridiculously expensive so my friends and I started to look for some other options. First we were set on going to the Canary Islands, and then the flights for that shot up too. So randomly, my friend Kyle says “What about Budapest?” And we booked the flight within the next hour.

Nine of us went, and we were pretty nervous about the language barrier because Hungarian is a freakin weird language, but all we could do was write down a few phrases and hope people spoke English (which they did). We got into Budapest pretty late on Friday night, so we took cabs from the airport to our hostel, which was the best hostel I will probably ever stay at. It was right around the corner from the Danube River, and we could walk everywhere from there. The decorations were awesome, and people who had stayed there in the past had written on some of the walls, so there were different languages and handwritings everywhere. The guy who owned it, Andrew, must have been around 70. He was insanely nice and showed us everything we needed to know. He went out of his way to help us with everything including food recommendations for every meal. On Saturday, his daughter had a baby so he brought us in a bottle of wine and we all toasted.

On Saturday, we basically just walked around the whole city. We saw the Parliament building (which is huge), St. Stephen’s Basilica, and the synagogue. We went to a little island, and tried the typical plate of goulash for lunch at a restaurant that overlooked the river and the Parliament building. We got some drinks and snacks and sat by the river for a while, just soaking it in. It’s a really beautiful city. I didn’t really know anything about it before I went, but it’s divided into two parts- Buda and Pest. It also still seems very communistic. There’s still a Communist district and a Jewish district of Budapest, it’s weird. I had no idea that the Nazi party had such a big influence there, but the Hungarian Nazis basically did the same thing that the Germans did. There was a monument by the river- replicas of the shoes of the Jewish people that were shot into the river. It was really depressing, but beautiful. There were a few pairs of kids’ shoes, which was terrible to see. How someone could kill a child based on anything, let alone the religion that they haven’t even had a chance to explore yet, is beyond me. That night we went to what our hostel owner called the third best bar in the world. And it was really cool, and huge. But I’m not sure if that statistic is true. We just hung out, it was relaxing and a great time.

On Sunday, we woke up and went to an awesome bakery around the corner for breakfast. Then we went to the baths! Apparently Budapest is famous for its healing baths, so we had to check them out. We went to the oldest and biggest one. It was a gorgeous day, and there were three big baths outside. They were basically just like heating pools full of hairy Hungarian people in speedos. There was a whirlpool in one of them, and as we were all getting whooshed around this whirlpool, giggling and bumping into Hungarian men in a Budapest bath, one of my friends says “This is the most surreal thing that’s ever happened to me.” And that was probably the best description ever. Later we went inside to explore the indoor ones. These too were absolutely packed with people, and were basically like hot tubs with no bubbles and they smelled TERRIBLE. I think it was the chemicals or something that was supposed to be healing but they smelled like sulfur and eggs. So that was an adventure. I’m glad we experienced the baths, but they were honestly pretty gross.

After that, we went to a museum called the House of Terror, which was in a building that used to be the headquarters for the Hungarian Nazis (I think). It was very disturbing, even though most of it was in Hungarian. The basement was basically filled with torture chambers and jail cells. Pretty terrible stuff.

Even though it’s a big city, a lot was closed on Sunday so we decided to stay in that night, and we played cards and hung out. On Monday, we got up and just kind of walked around again before making our way to the airport. We flew with Ryanair, which is sketchy and doesn’t give you seating assignments, so we had to get to the airport super early to get a seat in the front of the plane so that we could make it to our bus that left 30 minutes after we landed. Somehow this HUGE Spanish family got in front of us. They were hilarious- and so typical. They were very unorganized, pissed off the people who were checking tickets, and just yelling the whole time. It was great. They got the first spots on the plane, but we pushed through the clan and made it to our bus on time.

Budapest was gorgeous, and I’m so glad I got the chance to go, but I don’t think I’ll be putting it on my list of places to go back to. 

 Hanging out by the Danube River with an amazing view of the Parliament building

Paris, Je T'aime

We left for Paris on Thursday afternoon- took the bus to Madrid and then a two hour flight. We got into Paris at around 11:30 pm, and were all too tired to do anything except go to sleep. I still can’t figure out why traveling is so exhausting- you just sit there! I think it was the first time the program had booked this particular hotel because it was not what we were expecting. It was pretty gross, actually, and very sketchy but we didn’t spend much time there anyway so it was fine.

On Friday, we had breakfast at the hotel and put our museum pants on. First we went to the Louvre, which I was excited about because it’s one of the most famous art museums in the world and the Mona Lisa is there! The building itself is HUGE (it used to be a royal palace) and so gorgeous. There we saw a ton of classics, and Jesus (our program director and tour guide) wasn’t really allowed to show us around, so we got to see exactly what we wanted to see and take the museum at our own pace, which was nice. We had break for lunch, and I had an amazing to-go crepe with mushrooms and cheese (yes, I now like mushrooms). Jesus told us that there was a garden nearby where Monet painted, so we were all freaking out and walked a pretty long way to find it. And even taking into consideration that it was a garden in the winter, I don’t think Monet painted there. It definitely wasn’t what we were expecting, but it was nice to walk through Paris more. After lunch we went to the Museu d’Orsay (I think that’s how you spell it in French?) I’m more interested in contemporary art, so this was my absolute favorite. This building was awesome too- it was built in an old train station.. So cool! I got to see a lot of the artists I studied in Caff’s class in high school like Van Gogh, Degas and Monet. Exciting stuff.

We finished with the museums and had a whole evening of free time! Which was amazing because they usually have things planned from 9am-11pm, no exaggeration. So a few of us had planned to go on a bike tour, and we had just enough time to find the place. Fat Tire Bike Tours- I highly recommend it if you ever go to Paris. We took a night tour, and it was such an amazing feeling to ride a bike through Paris. It was a little scary. Actually a lot scary, because we had to ride in the streets with the cars and their aggressive Paris drivers. We rode past a lot of the major sites, and it was really cool to see them at night. We stopped on the island that was the original Paris, and got ice cream from a place that’s apparently really famous. They had a really good apricot flavor, I need to find that again! We stopped on a love lock bridge, where the tradition is to write your names on a padlock, attach it to the bridge, and throw the key in the water. It was actually really pretty and cute. After about 2 hours on the bike tour, we went down to the river to take the boat tour which was included! Our tour guide brought wine for everyone to share, and it was absolutely gorgeous. Everything that you’ve heard about Paris is true, it has to the most romantic place in the world. Like almost ridiculously romantic- everything. Anyway, after the tour, we went back to the hotel and just went to bed.

On Saturday, we went to Notre Dame in the morning! Yes, THE Notre Dame. Needless to say I fantasized about being Esmeralda all day. It was very beautiful and extravagant, as are all the cathedrals we go to. There was a mass actually going on while we were walking through it, which was cool to see. Imagine having that life- “Oh, yeah I’m just going to the mass at Notre Dame.” or “Meet me at the Eiffel Tower to go out!” Crazy. Next, we went to the Sainte Chappelle cathedral, which pretty much just has like walls and walls of stained glass. Each big section had scenes telling the stories of a whole book of the Bible. It was breathtaking, to say the least. We had a break for lunch, when I’m pretty sure I had another crepe (I actually don’t think I ate anything but crepes the whole weekend). After lunch we went to the Eiffel Tower! It’s freakin unbelievably gorgeous. And we went up! It was actually really freaking scary on the way up- we took an elevator that has windows, and it moved pretty fast! We got to the top, and even though it was extremely cloudy, it was the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen. I can’t believe how lucky I am.

Afterwards, we walked around a little to try to find something to eat, and stumbled on the Arc de Triomphe, which is another really famous landmark. We looked at it for a little while and then found the metro to go back to the hotel for the sole purpose of getting crepes from the place across the street. I think the guy who worked there knows all of our names, we went there so much. A few of us went back out to a few bars, and we tried talking to some of the people there. That’s another thing- it was the weirdest feeling ever not knowing anything that these people were saying. I’ve never been in that situation before- when I came to Spain, I knew enough Spanish to get by. But the words I know in French are bonjour and merci and that’s about it. So it was interesting trying to communicate- all of us would accidentally speak Spanish, which was pretty hilarious. We got a little bored with the bars- we didn’t really know good places to go, so a few of us just got a bottle of wine and sat by the river and just talked. It was really, really beautiful and fun.

On Sunday, we walked to the Sacre Cour, which is apparently a famous cathedral. I didn’t go inside because they were having mass when we got there, but the view of Paris from the front of it was really pretty. The coolest part was the plaza full of Parisian painters. There were like 50 artists there with easels, painting and selling their work. I wanted to buy something, but it was all pretty expensive and would’ve been hard to transport. But so cool, and amazing artists.

We left Paris on Sunday afternoon, and got back to Salamanca at around 11, all of us half dead from exhaustion.

My whole weekend was pretty much a movie. Paris is definitely going on my list of places to go back to, but hopefully next time it will be with my husband or something, cause that place is just too much to be there with friends. Seriously so romantic. Paris, je t’aime <3

 

 ^Fraaandss- Veronica, me, Katelynn, Emma, Jamie

 

 ^^ On top of the Eiffel Tower!

 

Te Amo, Barcelona

Last weekend I went to Barcelona with eight other people from our group. I know I describe everything as amazing, but I literally cannot express to you how much I loved this city, so get ready for a lot of "amazing"s.
On Friday we took a bus to Madrid, a metro to the airport, and then a one hour plane ride to Barcelona. Once we got there, we took a bus to the city center and walked through Las Ramblas, which is the most famous and amaaazing street in Barcelona. It's full of street food, vendors, people, and culture. After we checked into our hostel, which was pretty close to Las Ramblas, we walked around and walked down to the beach! It was pretty late when we got to Barcelona, so we took a night walk on the beach and I stuck my toes in the Mediterranean! We met up with my roommate Veronica's friend from Chile who is getting his Bachelor's in Barcelona, and he took us to this really cool hole-in-the-wall bar where we just hung out and talked for a while.
We were all pretty tired, so we went back to the hostel to get some sleep. In the hostel room, there were six beds but only five of us. Since it was like 2:30 am when we got back, we were like oh, they probably won't rent out this bed tonight. So we go to sleep and at about 4 am, this man stumbles in, turns the light on for like 15 minutes, and collapses into the bed below me (we had assigned bunk beds). I kept my eyes closed cause I didn't want to interact with him/ I was half asleep. So as soon as this man falls asleep, he starts snoring the LOUDEST snore that any of us had ever heard in our lives. Picture the loudest snore you've heard and multiply it by ten- and that was this guy. It was actually surprising that a human being could create such a noise. There was literally a monster under my bed. Haha so I waited for awhile for the snoring to calm down, but oh no. This man must have not slept for days because the snoring continued at the same volume for the whole night. At one point me and two of my friends were awake just dying of laughter at the unlucky/hilarious situation. For the few seconds that he calmed down and snored a little more gently, my friend whispered "There, there now, sleep gently, great beast." Died. It was hilarious, but not hilarious because I slept for two hours that night. Haha so the next morning, I'm climbing down out of bed and I look at this man-- he's probably about forty years old and is wearing only.. wait for it.. a tshirt and a diaper. That's right folks, a diaper. I can only imagine what other hostel stories I'll have by the end of this trip!

So on Saturday we woke up decently early and went to see the Sagrada Familia! Which is a temple that's been under construction for over 100 years, designed by the famous architect Gaudi. It is absolutely incredible, and pretty funky! The designs are all inspired by nature, and the columns inside look like trees, and there's just so much detail everywhere. And the fact that it's ever changing and that Gaudi left plans for 40 years more worth of construction for after his death is crazy! So we spent awhile in there just looking at everything, we went up a tower where there was an amazing view of Barcelona. We took a lift up, but had to walk down a hugeeeee, long spiral staircase that was pretty trippy. It was one of the coolest things I've seen so far.
Next we went to a park with a bunch of buildings designed by Gaudi, which was also very cool. Afterwards we walked around Barcelona, and some of the group went to see the Barcelona futbol game. While they did that, a few of us sat on a boardwalk-like area (but without the tacky shops and rides) and watched the sunset over the water while listening to a band playing on the street and drinking sangria. The band was pretty good, and the coolest thing was that strangers started dancing with each other. We just sat and watched people, and I fell in love with it. I think that what I liked most about it was that at least for me, it seemed to be defined more by the people and the culture than by the historical monuments.
Needless to say, I didn't stay at that hostel again, and we went to Veronica's friends apartment for a while to eat mozzarella and tomato sandwiches and hang out. They all spoke in Spanish the whole time, and it was harder for me to understand them since they had Costa Rican accents, but it was cool to hear them all talking in slang and stuff, and Veronica helped me. Later, we all met up again and went hole-in-the-wall bar hopping. It was really fun, but I was absolutely exhausted from the monster under the bed extravaganza, so we went home and got some sleep. We woke up the next morning and went to the Picasso museum, which was luckily free just on the day that we went. The rest of the day was pretty much filled with traveling back to the apartment, back to the main part of the city to catch the bus to the airport, then going back to Madrid and finally back to Salamanca, where we arrived at about 10:30.

Such a good weekend full of street food (doner kebaps galore), culture, and fun. Before I came to Spain, I was having a kind of quarter-life crisis, and questioned whether or not I wanted to live in the US (which would basically make my whole undergrad and grad career a little pointless). But after spending some time in Salamanca, I thought I had decided that although I loved it, I would rather live in the US.. After going to Barcelona, I'm questioning it again. I can see myself living there, it was that amazing. So, if I don't come back to the States, you know where to find me! ;)

In Salamanca this week, I had almost the amount of work that I usually have at JMU, so it was pretty busy but I got everything done and tomorrow I leave for PARIS! Is this my life? I can't believe how lucky I am.

 ^^Interior of La Sagrada Familia

 ^Outside of Sagrada Familia

^Veronica and me on the top of the tower


<3 Besitos