La Vida Española

paris.

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 20:42:35 GMT

Um, I’m leaving Europe in 5 days. What? The semester is long over, and all of a sudden the three+ weeks of travel is practically over. I’m updating from Munich, but since I’m so far behind in my journal I can’t tell you about Munich until, well, I’m not sure. I’m here to post some pictures and what not from Paris. Now mainly I’m just going to be reading my travel journal and transferring some of the interesting tidbits from that onto here, but with pictures. Besides, pictures are more fun to look at.

Simply put, Paris was amazing. Okay, so everything we’ve seen these past 3 weeks of travel have been amazing and everything different in their each own way. Paris is a city full of life, energy, a bajillion things to do, and freaking awesome crépes (try the chocolate banana). It is also exhausting- we were on the go practically all day, and I’ll admit it, by the end I was promising myself never to enter another museum again in my life…. But really, it was so much fun.

We bought the museum pass, which cost 45 euros for 4 days ,and gets you in practically every where, and you get to skip almost all the lines. It was definitely worth it. The first day we basically explored the Ile de la cite, which is right smack dab in the center of Paris… in the middle of the Seine. But I already wrote about this in my last entry I believe.

Our second day we caught a train out to Versailles, where Louis the 14th, 15th and 16th lived. We had a couple problems in the metro station, because well, we don’t speak French and can’t read the signs. Speaking of which, we felt extremely weird after being in a foreign country for 5 months and being able to communicate easily (Spain) to being put in another foreign country where we had absolutely no ability in their language, and it feels awful to have to speak in English. But anyway, we eventually got to where we needed to go with the help of a nice French woman who helped us with directions (Contrary to what’s commonly thought in the US, all the French people I met were extremely nice. But that was my experience).

The palace at Versailles was HUMUNGOUS! (Do you like the caps?) Extravagant would be a good word to describe it I think. We were there pretty early in the morning and there were already a ton of people there- so that kind of was a draw back while touring the palace, but I think I actually like the gardens of Versailles better. It was a beautifully sunny day and I put on my iPod, turned on my Amelie soundtrack (Cheezy, I know, but I said I would listen to Amelie in France, and I DID) and walked around. I got myself some great icecream and sat down on the grass in front of the water and watched people rowing their rowboats (sitting down on grass was a new concept for me, considering in Spain you’re just supposed to look at the grass in the park… silly Spaniards.)

We got back to the city, and because we had our museum pass we decided to do the Sewer Tour for shits and giggles. Hahah, get it? Yeah, sorry. Anyway, it was, um, interesting? We definitely wouldn’t have done it if we didn’t have the museum passes…. But it was kind of fun just to walk around a sewer. Now we know the number to call incase we ever drop our keys in the Paris Sewer… I feel prepared.

And yes, it smelled.

Afterwards we went to Centre Pompidou, which is a modern art museum. It was so—so.

Looking at the rest of my journal, I seemed to have slacked off, but I’ll try and remember what we did. I don’t really have days written down, sooooo, these take place over the rest of our time in Paris (we were there for 4 nights)

The Louvre. It was gargantuan. Enough said. We were there for maybe 4 or 5 hours and didn’t even see a 1/3 of it. Well, I only saw 1/3 of it, I’m not sure how much Kelsey saw. What we do when we go to the museums is set up a meeting time and place to meet back, because we both have different paces and different interests in the museums, so this way we can see what we want when we want, and if, when we meet up, we still want to see more, we can set another time to meet up. It worked out really well. So, anyway, I saw the usual things at the Louvre, the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, and I spent a whole lot of time in the Egyptian art area (partly on purpose, partly on accident- I kind of got lost).

I actually liked the Musée d’Orsay better than the Louvre- it focused more on the impressionists and had some really cool paintings. (It has Whistler’s Mother. Y’know, from Bean (the movie).

Musée Rodin was also a neat stop- we saw the Thinker and all. The Museum is right next to the place where Napoleon is buried/entombed, so we went there afterwards. It actually was one of the more interesting places, because they have a world war museum there as well, which we spent several hours going through (it was, to me, more interesting than the art museums, even though I liked those too.)

We climbed almost everything you can in Paris.... The Pantheon (really cool), Notre Dame, Arc de Triumph, Eiffel Tower, etc. Pretty much from all these vantage points you can see how huge paris really is. It stretches almost as far as the eye can see.... it's huge.

We met some really great people at our hostel too, some french canadians, some germans, and we had a great time going out with all of them... meeting people at hostels has been one of the most fun things about traveling through europe (especially when you get past the lame "How long have you been in Europe? Where are you going next? What's been your favorte?" part)

Anyway, I think it's time for pictures....

Notre Dame, after our 11 hour bus ride.

Part of the facade

Me being creepy and taking pictures of strangers. I don't think they saw me.

From the top of Notre Dame

The Place in front of notre dame

the Seine river

San Chappelle's Church... very cool.

San Chappelle's had some amazing stained glass...

The Conciergerie, where Marie Antoinette was imprisoned.

The real Marie Antoinette in her cell.

Notre Dame from the Seine

In front of Versailles

In Versailles

chapel

out the window toward the gardens

fountain in the gardens

Sewer tour!

Arc de triumph

Pompidou, the modern art museum.

one wing of the louvre.

Venus.

Some Monet en L'orangerie museum.

The pantheon of Paris.

Yes, I'm a nerd. Guess who's tomb this is... Jean Jacques Rousseau. poli sci, what what.

more pantheon

Sacre Couer. Or something like that. Sacred Heart.

The thinker.

Napoleon's tomb

Palacio at Invalides, near napoleon.

We saw a military funeral procession here...

It's Whistler's MOTHER!

More at D'Orsay

a little van gogh.

Orsay.

what's this?

On the eiffel tower.

And that's Paris!

Hopefully I'll get swiss pics up soon... I'm off to amsterdam in the morning. and then SEATTLE/TACOMA for a few days, and then home. I am excited/sad/excited. I'm ready to not be living out of a backpack (which is actually starting to stink... not going to lie...

San Sebastian

Mon, 11 Jun 2007 13:21:47 GMT

Heres pictures from San Sebastian:

the beach near our hostel... unfortunately the weather wasnt conducive to swimming.

Parte viejo.

the ayuntamiento

San sebastian, himself.

we hiked a little.

pintxos... amazingly delicious.

Im in Gimmelwald switzerland right now... and it is probably the most amazing place ive ever been.... ever. my whole body is sore from hiking but its been worth it. im on a public computer so i cant upload any of my pictures yet (from either paris, geneva, bern or here) but hopefully well get some wifi soon.

euro extravaganza continued

Wed, 06 Jun 2007 21:19:24 GMT

So here's the journal entry that I wrote on the first day that we were in Paris, that I tried to update... I'm just copying and pasting it here. It's about everything up into our first day in Paris.

Okay! It’s time for an update! We’ve been out of Granada now for a little more than a week and it’s been a blast! It’s been a lot of fun, but also extremely tiring. Barcelona was a blast. It’s the second biggest city in Spain, but it isn’t overwhelming- it’s super easy to get around, whether by walking or (more easily) by the metro, it’s pretty clean, and the people were pretty friendly. The only thing that you had to watch out for was petty theft, but luckily we didn’t have any problems- although we did run into Tara (who was part of our group in Granada) and she was robbed in the Metro; someone came up to her and “spilled” something on her backpack and then suddenly people appeared with tissues to help offer to clean her up. She took off her purse to start cleaning her backpack and then her purse was gone…. Tricky. (She was able to go to the embassy and get an emergency passport within the day, and she cancelled all her credit cards).

Our first day in Barcelona we walked around the city a little bit- we walked La Rambla, which is about a mile long tree lined paseo through the city… it reminded me a little bit like the paseo in Granada, only much bigger and with much more street performers. There were street performers seriously every 20 feet- some of them were really interesting, and some were, well… They were trying hard. There were also little stores selling flowers, some selling pets (bunnies, turtles, and pigeons??)

We walked up through L’Eixample and saw the Manzana de discordia (which means the block of discord) which includes one of Gaudi’s houses that he built, and another modernist building. Further up Passeig de Gracia is Gaudi’s other house, which is really cool.

The hostel I was staying in was pretty neat- however I was staying in a room with 12 beds, and it was pretty difficult to sleep. Well, let me rephrase that: it was actually quite easy to fall asleep, however when everyone came back in from partying at 6 in the morning and turned on the lights and started shouting, it then became difficult to sleep. It was a weekend, so it was understandable, I guess.

26 MAY

We went to La Sagrada Familia, the church that Gaudi spent most of his life on, which is still yet to be completed ( I think it’s supposed to be done in about 30 years, if they keep up the pace their going). It was AWESOME. Such amazing architecture. All the facades were very intricate, but so different from anything I’ve ever seen (and let me tell you, Ive seen a lot of cathedrals and churches in Spain). The inside is also very cool- the modernists got a lot of their inspiration from nature, so the pillars looked like tree trunks and then they branched off to hold the ceiling up.

We went to Parc Guell which is in the northern part of the city, and big surprise here, it’s another of Guadi’s projects (Barcelona is the city of Gaudi). It was originally designed to be a gated housing community, but when that failed, the city of Barcelona bought it and turned it into a park. We relaxed up there for a while and enjoyed the views of Barcelona and the Mediterranean Sea- we had wonderful weather during our time in Barcelona.

Barcelona also has a great market that kind of reminded me a little of Pike’s Place, called the Boqueria, where there were tons of fruit, veggies, fish and sheep heads on display up for sale. We bought some food to bring back to the hostel to cook (because we’re poor) and we had some great pasta almost every night.

We went to the Palacio Nacional where we sat on some steps and watched the Magic Fountain, which is a huge fountain in front of the palace that has colored water and music and light displays. It was alright.

27 May

We went to the La Pedrera house of Gaudi and toured around inside. It was huge! Guadi really liked to create a lot of open space in his designs, so everything in the apartment is connected, more or less through sliding doors, etc. We were able to go out on the rooftop terrace which was so wacky… I don’t even know how to describe it.

The Picasso museum was located right by our hostel, so we stopped back there and toured that around a little bit. Probably the most interesting thing there was his reproductions on Vazquez’ Las Meninas…

Payed for some way too expensive Mojitos at a Cuban bar.

28 May

We spent a lot of time down at the waterfront, walking along the beach, playing on rope towers and just having fun.

Later we went to the Palau de Musica Catalana which was also really really neat- there is a huge stain glass sun that comes down from the ceiling over the concert hall.

Went out for tapas (which are unfortunately not free anywhere outside of Granada), but they were amazing. It was a Basque bar in Cataluña (explain that one to me), but they have all the tapas out (but they’re called Pinxtos) and you eat as many as you want, but each one has a toothpick in it. When you’re done eating you count the toothpicks and then they tally your bill. Nifty.

29 de Mayo

Flew from Barcelona to Bilbao. The Basque country (Pais Vasco) is gorgeous. We got in pretty late, but in the morning it was green, lush, hilly and just completely different from the rest of Spain. The hostel we stayed in was very quiet, which was a nice change from BCN. We caught the train into the city, because we were staying kind of in a little suburb, I guess you could call it. Bilbao is a city completely transformed, full of modern architecture, it’s quaint and quiet, but sleek and trendy at the same time. We walked along the river; and there were bike paths everywhere and people seemed to be a lot more active. We crossed a really cool bridge and went to the Guggenheim museum. I remember seeing pictures of the Guggenheim when I was about ten years old or so, when it was first built and I remember wanting to go there, because the design is just crazy. So it felt really cool to be there in person. As for the exhibits in the Guggenheim, there wasn’t a whole lot of different things; there was a really cool German artist called Anselm Kiefer who used all sorts of mediums in his paintings. There was a Spanish artist who didn’t really impress us, and then there was a huge metal sculpture by Richard Serra which was really spectacular.

Of course it was raining while we were in Bilbao- it definitely reminded me of Seattle in that aspect. We sought shelter in the casco Viejo of the city, which is the old part and went to a couple churches and then returned to the hostel.

May 31 to June 1

We caught a bus to San Sebastian, bypassing Guernica, which was a little disappointing, but it was a little out of the way, and we didn’t know what we were going to do with our stuff. We got into San Sebastian around 3 or so and of course, it started raining on us as soon as we decided to walk from the bus station to our hostel. We found it okay. San Sebastian is a beautiful city situated right on the bay with amazing green/blue color. There’s a river that’s also splitting the city in two that we had to cross to get to our hostel. We explored San Sebastian for a little bit, sitting in the port, walking through the old part of the city. Supposedly San Sebastian has the highest concentration of bars where ETA sympathizers go, but we didn’t run into any problems. We did run into a friend of Kelsey’s who she had met in Morocco, so we hung out with her for a while (turns out she was staying in our hostel too) and we climbed this hill, where we saw a Jesus statue that overlooked San Sebastian. The view from the hill was gorgeous, as expected, and it was great to be in the rain, surrounded by trees and the ocean… it smelled amazing.

We met some really cool people in our hostel; a couple from Canada who we hung out with a lot, and then a guy from Argentina who moved to India when he was 18 after reading The Mahabharata to find truth and meaning for his life. He really was interesting. He lives in this “monastery” thing, I’m not really sure what it was. But he wakes up every morning at 2 AM and does a 27 km pilgrimage and chants and meditates and then he comes back and works on translating the books into Spanish, and then he does yoga (he was telling us this all in Spanish, so it may be a little rough), talks with his guru and then does another pilgrimage around all the temples of his village. And he’s only 23 years old. I couldn’t imagine doing anything like that. He was really nice and pointed out that this was “his truth” and that what is true for him isn’t always what’s true for anyone else, which I thought was really interesting.

Our bus from San Sebastian was supposed to leave at 2 AM, so we went to the bus station around 130 and of course, it was raining, and 2:15 comes around and our bus isn’t there yet. I should point out that when I say bus station, I really mean outdoor bus station, with no information, so we were clueless as if to our bus is going to come or not, and we’re cold. Finally our bus comes and we get on board and show the driver our tickets that we had printed off. Turns out we needed to have exchanged the papers we printed off for real tickets from the office (which had closed at 9:30 PM), but we got things squared away and hopped on. The bus lasted about 10 hours, and I slept for maybe 5 of them. We got into Paris this afternoon at noon and managed to find our way to the hostl (we’re staying in Montmarte, near the Sacre Couer in the northern part of Paris). Let me tell you, I hate riding metros with my big backpack… it’s a hassle. Luckily I have Kelsey there with me so we can guard each other.

We had a busy afternoon- we went to the Notre Dame; the inside didn’t impress me. I mean, yes it’s cool and yes it’s beautiful- but I hate to admit it, after 5 months in Europe, I’m a little jaded with cathedrals. What did impress me was going up the towers and seeing the gargoyles and the city of Paris. We had amazing weather today- sunny and hot. Notre Dame is on the Ile de la cite, which is in the middle of the Seine, and that’s where we spent most of our day today. After Notre Dame we went to the Ste. Chapelle, which was really cool, full of stained glass. We bought a 4 day museum pass for 45 euros which is going to save us big bucks, considering each museum is about 7 bucks a pop, and we’re planning on going big here. We went to eh Palais de Justice and the Conciergerie which is where Marie Antoinette was held prisoner. We also went to an archeological crypt under the Plaza (er… Place) in front of the Notre Dame which showed all the foundations of when Paris was a Roman city. Then we went to the Ile St. Louis and walked through that and hopped over to the Latin Quarter to see La Sorbonne and headed back to the hostel for a Pasta dinner, of course.

Anyway, and that’s where were at today! Sorry that it is so scattered… mainly I’m just trying to type in highlights and I’m not really doing a great job at making it interesting- but that’s what the photos are for! I’m having a great time though!

Street performers on la rambla, barcelona

gaudi

we ran into rachelle and took jumping pictures

la sagrada familia, gaudi

isn't that ceiling cool?

Parc Guell... looks like a gingerbread house

the fountain at the palacio nacional

more gaudi

crazy roof top

these are chimneys

Barcelona's Arc de Triomf

at some park

my last paella... look how sad the shrimp is

we weren't in spain. we were in catalunya

the beach

BILBAO

the river in bilbao

The guggenheim

And that's that!

I still have lots of pictures to upload, from San sebastian, but I'm tiiiiiired. Time to relax. hopefully I'll update soon!

Sat, 02 Jun 2007 21:55:43 GMT

The internet isn't letting me post this long journal entry that I had typed up about Barcelona, Bilbao and San Sebastian....

so, hopefully i can get it up later...

anyway, I'm in Paris, I'm exhausted, but i'm having a wonderful time! Good night!

Sat, 02 Jun 2007 21:51:06 GMT

test....

Barça!

Fri, 25 May 2007 15:01:08 GMT

I made it safe and sound from Granada to Barcelona! I managed to fit almost everything in my backpack. And by that I mean, I left a lot of stuff in Spain and packed my backpack to the "backbreaking" capacity. It´s great.

Catalán is a little tricky. While strikingly similar in some aspects, the menu at McDonalds killed me and got a laugh from the cashier.

Okay! Off to explore!

el fin.

Wed, 23 May 2007 10:29:20 GMT

Last night Randall and I woke up at 4 AM to the craziest thunderstorm I have ever seen. It was pouring down rain and there were flashes of lightning every 5 seconds with almost instantaneous thunder indicating the eerie proximity of it all.

But then we woke up and was clear, the sun was shining and it was completely different.

I've finished all my finals. As I complete my time in Spain, my sophomore year has come to a close. Half way done with college; it has gone way too fast. Completely done with Spain.... even faster.

Finals all went much smoother than expected. This semester definitely has not been as challenging academically as PLU, and I'm excited to get back to some harder work (even though I'll whine and complain about it once I have to do homework).

I will never be back at the Centro de Lenguas Modernas. And this is soooooo weird. When will I be back to Granada? I'm leaving a couple really great Spanish friends and I don't know if I'll ever see them again. I'm leaving friends from different parts of the USA, who I know I'll probably never see again. People come and go through out your life, but the thing is that some make such a lasting impression, that they will never actually leave you. They'll be there in your photos, in your memories; somehow they'll make you smile when they're not there, and you'll look like a lunatic smiling and laughing to yourself as you recall a funny memory that you once shared. But who knows, maybe someday you'll run into them again in the future.

AGHAGHAKJFLKSAHFKKASHDFKLHSADFKJLAJSFD. Sorry. that's how I'm feeling inside. Excited. Crazy. Bittersweet. Happy. Sad. Sick (sore throat). Energetic. Lethargic. Seriously, the end of a semester abroad messes with your mind. But it has all been so worth it.

Where oh where has the semester gone?

Sat, 19 May 2007 14:06:12 GMT

As I'm writing this I still am in disbelief that I will be leaving Granada in 6 days. This place that I have called home for 5 months. In some ways I'm ready to move on: I miss home, I miss Alaska (where there are not cars honking outside my window 24 hours a day), I miss family and friends; but in other ways I'm not ready to leave: I have had a wonderful experience here, I've learned so much, I've had so many opportunities and adventures. This last week has been a whole spectrum of emotion. I'm excited to travel Europe for 3 weeks, sad to leave Granada, eager to be back in the USA, etc.

The weather has been sunny and hot- currently it's 88 degrees according to weather.com and yesterday it hit 90. I'm spending many an hour at Parque Garcia Lorca laying out on the grass, studying for finals which are coming up next week.

Last Thursday was our last day of volunteering at the elementary school. I actually don't think I've ever mentioned this in here. Every Thursday I would volunteer in a 5th grade class helping to teach English. It was so much fun- the kids were a blast and every time we entered the classroom the were excited to see us. It was sad to say goodbye to them.

We had our last group excursion last weekend, to Ronda and Grazalema, two smaller cities about 3 hours west of Granada. They were really really cool. I took pictures that are going to be below. We did some hiking in Grazalema, which was fun.

Ronda

It's situated on this huge gorge.

our hotel in Grazalema

Grazalema

Some PLU friends who were studying in Germany for the semester came and visited! (and brought along some of their friends from other schools).

Tonight we have our group goodbye dinner... oy.

portugal!!!

Wed, 09 May 2007 17:54:44 GMT

So, about a week and a half ago we had a 5 day weekend, so I gathered some friends (or rather, they gathered me) we rented a car and hit the road, west to Portugal!

All I can say is that it was gorgeous, we had a blast, and the beaches of Granada have got NOTHING on Portugal. We were in a huge, but cheap hotel, cooked all our own food (which was delicious) and just had a great time hanging out.

Enjoy.

The view from our hotel balcony

The first of many glasses of wine during the weekend.

Looking out of our balcony: "Is that?... OMG, it is! an Ostrich!!!"

The beach across the street from our hotel

Welcome to the hotel presidente, such a lovely place.

Our first puesta del sol de modo portugues.

Boardwalk, boardwalk. Kind of.

unreal

the view from our hotel in the other direction

Reppin´the 907.

There were lots of little caves you could walk through

Then we drove to Lagos for a day trip, which was spectacular

We ate a lot of fruit

Good bye portugal :(

El fin de abril

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 14:24:44 GMT

Yesterday was beautiful weather. After lunch I took my homework for lit class (We're reading the play "La Casa de Bernarda Alba" by Federico Garcia Lorca) and went to Parque Garcia Lorca and laid down on one of the park benches and read. People were running, juggling, singing, playing instruments and just generally enjoying the wonderful day. It was gorgeous. And hot.

Also, Po, Swanny and David (our friends from Dijon France) came back to Granada for a week so we've hung out with them the last 3 nights; they're such a blast to be with- hysterical. They're headed back to Dijon today. Sad.

On Friday I'm going to Porti Mao, Portugal for an extended weekend. Here's to hoping for good weather!

La corrida de Toros

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 15:51:20 GMT

On Saturday we went to a bullfight. It was definitely not what I expected, at all. I was nervous before going; I mean, I knew that I wanted to see one because it would be a really great cultural experience, but it wasn't until about 20 minutes before the bullfight started that I realized that I was about to see 6 bulls get killed. And that killing meant blood, and I don't do blood.

We piled into the Plaza de Toros, along with hundreds of other Spaniards. The bull fight was being held to benefit Down's Syndrome, and there were many parents bringing their kids who had downs, many adults with downs, along with everyone else. We found our seats. There are two sections in the Plaza: Sol y Sombra, or Sun and shade. The spots in the sun are cheaper than the spots in the shade; but we were on the sunny side. Which actually wasn't too bad, because it was partly cloudy that day.

The band started up and the energy in the Plaza was tremendous. As the bullfighting began, I didn't really like it. But seriously as it progressed it became more and more exciting. It really is somewhat of an art form. It was something that I really enjoyed, surprisingly.

Here they come

Warming up?

El Banderillero

Ortega Cano

ole!

Enrique Ponce

After the Torero has killed the bull the crowd waves white pañuelos to rate the torero. The torero is then awarded with either one of the bulls ears, two of the bulls ears, or ears and tail, depending on how well he did.

Finito de Cordoba

El Picador durante el tercio de 'varas"

Banderillas

El Fandi

Daniel Luque.

It was 3 intense hours; definitely an unforgettable experience.

Morocco

Sun, 22 Apr 2007 15:54:56 GMT

Holey moley. It's almost May. I can't believe it. The time is going by way too quickly...

Yesterday we had a group excursion up to the Alpujarras, several small pueblos up in the Sierra Nevadas. They were neat little towns; with all the houses painted in white. The Alpujarras is actually where all the Muslims went when they were expelled from Granada in the 1500s. Thus there is a lot of Moorish influence, that coincidently we saw while in Morocco last weekend.

Which is what this post is about... Morocco! It was AMAZING!

We left on Friday afternoon, on a bus out of Granada with an organized group that we had found. We drove down to Malaga and then along the coast until we got to Algeciras, where we caught the ferry across the Strait of Gibralter (unfortunately we didn't see the rock... to hazy). The ferry ride lasted about an hour, and before you knew it we were in Africa! But we were still in Spain. How does that work, you may ask? There are actually two Spanish cities left in Africa: Ceuta and Melilla, which are remanents of the Spanish empire; so while we were on the continent of Africa, we were still in Spanish territory. We crossed the border from Ceuta into Morocco where we exchanged our Euros into Dirhams. 1 Euro= 10 Dirhams.

The difference in Africa is amazing. There were definitely parts of the cities which were more "european" with big buildings, etc. But then right along side, you'd see a boy herding his herd of goats through the city. It was so interesting. The women wore head scarves, although not all of them. And there were very few women with their faces completely covered.

We got to our hotel in Tetouan, where they served us the most amazing tea ever. It was extremely sweet, and probably the best tea I've ever had. Our hotel was kind of on the outskirts of the city, where there was a lot of construction, but what I noticed is that there seems to be a ton of construction going on with in the cities as well. It will be interesting to see what changes will be going on in the next twenty years- because there was construction every where.

We woke up in the morning and had a breakfast buffet. There were these crepe like things which were amazing.
We boarded the bus and went into the city to the Medina, which is the old part of the city where the outdoor market is. On Saturdays the Berber women ride their mules into the city from the mountains to sell their veggies and crafts. We were getting information from our guide, Jamal, or as he referred to himself "El Julio Inglesias de Marruecos" (He gave most of the tour in Spanish; but he also spoke English. Along with Spanish and English, he spoke French and Arabic, which it seemed like most of the people in Northern Morocco spoke those 4 languages. It was so interesting. Arabic and French are the national languages, but with its proximity to Spain, its not surprising that so many spoke it. Speaking of Arabic: I only learned three words:
Hello Assalaam aleykum
Thank you Chukran
No La

Anyway. The Medina was so cool- narrow streets winding around like a labirynth. Definitely would've been easy to get lost. Full of people selling everything you can think of. Chickens, meat, bread, vegetables, shoes, jewelery. Everything. It was extremely busy. WE had lunch in the Medina in a small restaurant, where they served us the amazing tea again, but also the best shish kebab I've ever had. It was delicious. We also had a huge serving of cous cous and chicken.

We went to Tangier in the afternoon, which is a much larger city. On the way there we made a stop where we could ride camels. It was just a quick ride... but really fun. Such goofy animals.

We later returned to Tetouan back to the hotel because we had to wake up early the next day. On Sunday we woke up at 6, and made it out of the hotel by 7 to drive through the country side to Chef Chaouen. Oh, that's anotherthing, the Moroccan countryside is GORGEOUS! The north (which is the only part we wer) was mountainous and extremely green; greener than Spain green. I was completely surprised. It was not what I expected at all.

Chefchaouen is a smaller city up in the mountains, and the city's symbol is a blue door. Walking though town you notice that almost all the doors are blue... I can't remember the exact significance of this but it has to do with Islam. It was a really neat town.

I'm just going to skip to the pictures, because they're just a lot better at telling the story then I am.

We're finally in Africa. It's so exciting I can't hold the camera steady.

View of Tetouan from my hotel room

A plaza in downtown Tetouan... very modern, no?

One of Tetouan's big avenues

Getting to the Medina- a big contrast from the rest.

Berber women... I wish I had taken another one... less blurry.

We came out of the Medina and saw the Royal Palace, and this was a mosque nearby

In front of the Palace... it was bright out. The weather was amazing throughout the weekend.

Back in the Medina... dyes

Mules... no room for cars here!

Walking though the medina... Yeah, we definitely stood out like sore thumbs... There was a lot of staring going on, but everyone that we encountered and talked to were very nice.

Waiting their impending doom

Pots and pans man

Entrance to Arab baths

Then we went to this old carpet place where they showed us about 8,000 carpets...

so cool, huh!!

Me with camel. And a fez.

Waiting for the camel to stand up.

Where the Mediterranean meets the atlantic

Morning number 2 over Tetouan

Drive to ChefChaouen

ChefChaouen... they painted a lot of the walls of their buildings with blue on the lower half, and white on the upper half

With the blue door

Carrying her clothes to wash them at the river

A lot of the men wore these tunics... Reminded of starwars anyone?

Running of the goats

The clothes washing station on the river

mosque.

And that was my African trip! Really short, but a jam packed weekend. It was a lot of fun, and an amazing experience. Definitely want to go back.

3 weeks in Europe

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 15:48:32 GMT

Kelsey and I have finalized our plans for our super awesome mega trip at the end of the program.

And here it is revealed to you:

May 25-May 29 BARCELONA, ESPAÑA

Fly from Barcelona to Bilbao

May 29-May 31 BILBAO, ESPAÑA

Bus from Bilbao, stop in Guernica, and get to San Sebastian for the night

May 31-June 2 SAN SEBASTIAN, ESPAÑA

Take a night train from San Sebastian to Paris, France

June 2-June 6 PARIS, FRANCIA with trip to Versailles.

Train from Paris to Geneva.

June 6-8 GENEVA, SUIZA

Train from Geneva to Bern

June 8-June 9 BERN, SUIZA

Train to Gimmelwald.

June 9-12 GIMMELWALD, SUIZA

Train to Lucerne.

June 12-June 14 LUCERNE, SUIZA

Train or bus to Munich

June 14-June 16 MUNICH, ALEMANIA

fly from Munich to Amsterdam

June 16-June 20 AMSTERDAM, PAISES BAJOS

Fly Amsterdam-New York City, transfer to Newark-Seattle, stay a night or two in Tacoma, and then ALASKA.

(Not really sure why I listed the countries in Spanish, but if you didn't get it: Spain, France, Switzerland, Germany and Netherlands. )

Italia

Tue, 17 Apr 2007 17:17:44 GMT

Oooh boy, it´s been a while since Italy and I haven´t even put up my pictures yet! I´m horrible at keeping this thing updated. New things are happening all the time: Speaking of new things, I went to Morocco last weekend!!! It was amazing! Hopefully I´ll get an update of that later this week, but I´m not making any promises.

Here´s pictures from Italy!

We got into Venice in the evening, a day after we had planned due to a misconection in Dublin. We arrived at the Venice airport and took a bus to as far as the bus could go, where we then boarded the vaporetto (which is basically Venice´s city bus system- except they´re boats, so a city boat system?) and rode it to our stop. We were staying kind of in this monastery/culturalcenter/hostel like thing near this church which was pretty interesting. We got some pizza- with an egg in the middle. Weird. But surprisingly good. The picutre above is the view out of our hostel window.

The church where our hostel was behind/connected to.

We woke up kind of early because we only had the morning/early afternoon to walk around Venice. It was so cool! It really is bridges and canales everywhere!

We first found our way to Piazza San Miarco, or something like that (should´ve updated earlier, when I had everythng fresh in my mind... oops). There were tons of pigeons there... and stands where you could buy food to feed them. Then they would attack. Look at this woman´s face: she´s obviously in pain:

The cathedral of St. Mark.

Yep, there are gondolas. Lots and lots of Gondolas. But they´re expensive, so we didn´t go on them. Vaporettos work just as well, and they´re a lot cheaper.

At the Grand Canal, on Ponte Rialto.

On Ponte Rialto

Ponte Rialto. We were eating lunch in an outdoor cafe here. mmmm, Italian food. So good.

Then we rented a car and drove from Venice to Montespertoli a little town 30 minutes south of Florence. The drive was gorgeous- rolling green hills, Tuscan countryside. Fantastic. And we only got lost a couple times! Damn Fi-Pi-Li.

We were staying in a villa in Montespertoli, which was really cool. It was really in a perfect location (that is, if you have a car) to go to Florence, Pisa, San Gimignano and Siena (which is exactly where we went).

View out of teh window of the villa. Yeah, so it´s not exactly swimming season yet.

More view.

More view

The next day we went to Pisa! Let me tell you, driving in Italy is crazy (well, at least for us it was). But we eventually found our way there.

We just started walking, and there it was. The leaning tower of Cheese-a, er, Pisa. Unfortunately we weren´t able to climb to the top, because we didn´t have time but we were able to take the obligatory cheesy pictures.

I couldn´t hold it up by myself, so I called for Shelby´s help.

We also went into the Cathedral there.

After Pisa we drove to the coast, Marina di Pisa, and ate dinner at a restaurant on the sea. The town was actually pretty quiet, and most of the restuarants were closed, becuase it wasn´t "high tourist season". But the one we found was really really good. Once again, Italian food kicks the butt of Spanish food.

The next day we drove into Florence. It was raining, but not too hard. We walked to the Duomo and waited in line for maybe an hour to get in, where we finally climbed to the top.

There was this really funny guy drawing chariactures who was pretty hilarious:

We tried to go to the Accademia in order to see the David, but the line was set at 3 hours long- 3 hours we didn´t have. I guess I´ll have to come back next time. So, we saw the fake David instead!

We walked down to Ponte Vecchio.

The next day we went to San Gimignano and Siena, two towns/cities south of Florence. San Gimignano is a small walled town with tons of towers. I guess they used to be private towers that families built to show their wealth.

Dad and I climbed to the top of one of the towers (after the Duomo experience, Mom and Shelby decided to pass. coughcoughwimpscoughcough.

After San Gimignano, we went to Siena.

And that´s that!

On Friday, Mom Dad and Shelby left the Villa at 4 AM while I slept in, because my flight wasn´t until 9 PM out of Rome. At about 10 AM the owner of teh Villa took me to the plaza in Montespertoli where I used the minimal Italian I knew to buy a bus ticket to Florence and ask where the bus was. Caught the bus to Florence, had a couple hours to kill, so I walked around a little more, sat out in front of the train station and read my book (Corelli´s Mandolin) and then caught the train from Florence to Rome. It was a really sweet train ride, really comfy, and fairly quick 1.5 hours. Got to Termini in Rome and caught the train to the Airport, where I had another several hours to kill. Finished my book, then bought The Alchemist and finished that, which was really good. Caught my flight, which was a little late, and arrived to Madrid at midnight, where then I booked it to the Metro and arrived to the bus station about 20 minutes before my 1:30 AM bus to Granada. At the bus station I ran into some friends from Granada who were returning from their trips as well. Got back to Graná at 630 AM and promptly fell asleep.

It was a really really great Spring Break. Surprisingly enough, Semana Santa wasn´t such a big deal in Italy as it is in Spain (where there were processions almost everyday in Granada, which I was lucky to see one on the saturday before easter). It was a lot of fun to see family. And Italy is definitely one of my favorites now.

Hopefully Morocco pics soon!

Granada Pictures

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 15:41:08 GMT

I´m back from a great Semana Santa in Italia with Mom, Dad and Shelby!

I´ll be uploading pictures and writing about our Italian trip soon, but here are the pictures Granada the days before the Italian trip

We went up to the Parque behind the Alhambra, el Carmen de los Martires.

One of the old doors to the Alhambra area.

Walking back down into Granada after the Alhambra (youcan see the cathedral).

Then we went back to the Alhambra another day and actually made it in!

(Didn´t really work... but I kind of like it... It need a longer exposure)

El Generalife

Inside the Generalife (the gardens of the Alhambra)

Palacio Carlos QUinto

From the Alcazaba

Deja Vu

Sat, 31 Mar 2007 19:55:50 GMT

So, I'm thinking that I need to update my journal a little more frequently; I need to record more of the regular day-to-day shtuff. This week has been a great one! Mid-Terms are over! They went really well, I do believe (I haven't gotten my grades back yet, so hey as for now, I'm happy believing what I want). Probably my hardest test was for my European Union class. I feel that I studied pretty hard for it, but I didn't quite remember all the schemes of the Politica Agricola Comun (the PAC in Spanish... and maybe the CAP in English? See this is the dilemma with this class: I'm learning all the terms and what not in Spanish and if I ever have to answer a question about them in English, I will not know how to say it. ) My mid-term for Civilizacion y cultura Espanola was fairly simple: I had to write an essay on a theme that we've studied, so I wrote about the different cultures that have influenced Spain and the different "dynasties" that have inhabited Spain (from the Iberios, the Celtas, Tartesos, Fenicios, Griegos, Romanos, Vandalos, Visigodos, Moros, Cristianos, etc. etc.) and then answer 5 short-answer questions. For my class on Actualidad Sociopolitica we just had an in class essay where we were supposed to discuss the civil values of spain and how they have changed (and why) since the death of Franco (the role of the Church, implementation of democracy, views toward citizenship etc.). I actually took my Literature mid-term 2 weeks ago (but still haven't gotten my grade back) so all in all, I only had 3 mid terms this week (I didn't have a mid term for my Produccion oral y escrita class).

Also on Wednesday my parents and sister arrived! I met up with them in Plaza Nueva Wednesday Evening and we walked around the city for a little bit. We walked up to the Alhambra, walked down through the Realejo, I showed them my school, then we went and got some Italian food for dinner and went to Los Italiano's Heladeria (ice cream).

On Thursday I brought them back to meet Esperanza (my host mom) and she had made tea for us and had set out some sweets. It was really kind. Afterwards I took them to the Capilla Real and the Cathedral, and then we caught a bus up to Mirador de San Nicolas in the Albaicin, where the view of the Alhambra was amazing (yes, it still continues to amaze me). There were a ton of people at the Mirador: it seems like Tourist season is upon us... yikes. I'm not used to tourists until summertime... The streets of Granada are packed. Later that night we had a buffet at their hotel and then the women went to sleep (mom and shelby) so the men (dad and I) went out for some pints of beer. Ha ha. It was a lot of fun.

Yesterday we went up to the Alhambra to walk around a little bit (we hadn't gotten tickets to enter the palaces of the Alhambra because we had thought they were completely sold out, but there are parts of the Alhambra where you can walk around sin tickets, so we were just going to go up there to walk around ) and then we found out that there were tickets available, so we bought them. We still had to wait for a while because the tickets were for 5 PM and we were there at 1 PM. So we walked around, went back to town, got some lunch (some really GREAT indian food) and then made our way back to the Alhambra. It was just as amazing seeing it the second time. But this time I got to see the Generalife, which I hadn't seen the first time. Gorgeous. The weather was wonderful.

Which brings me to today: I'm in Dublin! Surprise. We left Granada at about 9 AM towards Malaga where we were going to catch our Air Lingus flight to Dublin, and then fly from Dublin to Venice. But, it wouldn't be a typical Zach European trip without unplanned adventures. We weren't able to get on the flight to Venice, so we're at a hotel in Dublin for the night. We'll be up tomorrow morning to hop on a 6 AM flight to Venice.

I'm excited for my second trip to Italy!!

Caracoles

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 20:08:43 GMT

So, my ventures in Spanish cuisine have been okay so far. Nothing too extreme, besides that calamari in it's own ink incident. But so far so good. I'll admit, the food is a can be bland; but the spaniards do have their redeeming dishes.

And then, came the snails. "Caracoles" if you will. As my roommate said, "My mom told me to never eat anything that carries its house around on its back".

Our host mom knew it wasn't something we were accustomed to, so she asked us if we wanted to try them. Sure, why not? We're in Spain right? Besides, it will make a good story later. So we nervously waited at the table for Esperanza to bring us our, gulp, snails.

She brings in the plate and there they are. In their shells. You can't really see the snail itself, except a little appendage thing. She demonstrates how to eat it: You take a tooth pick, stick it through the appendage, and pull the snail out of the shell, which fortunately makes a really appetizing squishing noise, the snail comes out, and you pop it in your mouth.

We each grabbed our respective shells. Randall fumbled with the toothpick, "unable" to spear the appendage. Yeah right, I thought, as I speared mine and pulled it out, he's stalling. So there it is, hanging in all it's snail glory (which isn't too pretty), and Esperanza cheers me on "Mételo en la boca!" I hesitate, but pop it in. It's.............. squishy, and once you get past the fact that there's a snail in your mouth it is surprisingly not bad. Better than the mushrooms she gives us, at least. It was actually kind of spicy.

Randall finally got his out, popped it in. Not bad.

I only ate two, Randall ate 3.

And one day later, we're still alive.

hallelujah.

Madrid, Toledo and Segovia

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 17:54:03 GMT

Wey! I forgot to post the pics from Madrid, Toledo and Segovia. We´re going to take a step back in time to the week before Dublin. Our group took us to Madrid for 5 days! It was a lot of fun. We went to the Prado, to the Museo Reina Sofia (where I saw Picasso´s Guernica!!!!!! IT was HUGE!!! We also saw lots of really cool Dali), we went to El Escorial ( a building built by Felipe 3... I think. Anyway, it´s where they bury all the kings and queens of spain, then we went to this monument that was supposedly built ¨to honor all the spanish that died during the spanish civil war. Actually Franco forced political prisoners to build it. And Franco´s grave is now there, along with 40,000 unnamed soldiers, but Franco´s grave is the only one with recognition. And there´s a creepy basilica. We also went to Segovia for a day trip, and it was such a cool city! There is an ancient Roman acueduct that goes throught the city. The same evening, back in Madrid, we went to a play by Federico Garcia Lorca, called La Casa De Bernarda Alba- it was really good. Sad, but good. The next day we went south to Toledo, which was also a very cool city (I know, I´m getting boring with my descriptions, ¨So and so was a really cool place!!!¨ but this is what happens when you wait 3 weeks to post an entry. So, in that case, I´ll just go to the pictures!!

We went on a guided paseo through the town. There was probably was something interesting about this building, but I just thought it looked cool.

The cathedral of Madrid.

Plaza Mayor of Madrid. This plaza has been used for everything: from bullfights to decapitations. fun!

Puerta del Sol

I thought this building looked cool. Heck, every building in Europe looks cool. Okay, that´s a lie, but a LOT of buildings in Europe look cool.

In the Parque de el Buen Retiro. We spent a lot of time walking around this park. There was a marching band from the USA there.

From our hotel

El Escorial in the morning

There is a monastery next to the Escorial.

This is a sun dial of sorts inside the Escorial

Pretty cool, huh?

descending down into the crypt

Okay, so it´s not the sistine chapel, but I thought it looked neat.

In the library of the Escorial. This isa model of the solar system, with the earth at the center. Claro.

At the Valle de los Caidos, the monument that Franco built. This cross is HUGE.

And this is inside his church. Creepy creepy man.

This screams "inviting" to me.

creeptastic.

Franco´s grave

good riddance.

HUGE

I gotta give it to the crazy Fascist: he knew how to pick a beautiful location.

Palacio Real- royal palace

We went in... it was´t that great.

Back at the parque de el buen retiro

The cristal house in the parque

This is in Puerta del Sol. This is where everyone gathers to ring in the new year. With each ringing of the bell, they pop a grape into their mouth. 12 bells, 12 grapes. lots of spaniards looking like chipmunks.

We got to see a Falange protest. Right next to our hotel!

The aqueduct in Segovia.

They say that Disney copied the design of this castle... I´m not sure.

The castle was inhabited for a while, then it was a military school.

WE climbed to the top

viva españa!

Kelsey valiantly leading the way down!

From afar

Another cathedral!

adios segovia

Then we went back to madrid for the play. Also there was the Lunar Eclipse that night. I tried to get some shots, and these are what came out.

Toledo

We saw a really neat El Greco museum.

cathedral of toledo

inside the cathedral

the ride back

The bells at the Escorial

Sacromonte Sunset

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 19:42:32 GMT

A couple days ago, my roommate Randall, and my friends Rachel and Joey and I walked up through the Sacromonte, climbed to the top of the hill, scaled the 1,000 year old wall at the top of the hill and watched the sunset over Granada. It was beautiful.

Randall climbing the wall

Up in the Sacromonte, there are caves that are built into the hill. The gypsies used to live there, but now the caves are inhabited by hippies.

The hippies are pretty good landscapers.

calamari in it´s ink. mm mm good.

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 21:51:33 GMT

To the north!

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 11:54:46 GMT

I was ready. My bags were packed. I had my camera, my homework and even a horribly practiced Irish accent. I had my cliché Irish pop punk music (Flogging Molly) ready to go on my iPod (along with some Enya, and Sinead O’Connor to mellow things out a bit) to put me in the Irish mood. I was ready for Ireland. I had my itinerary all planned out: Catch the 9 AM bus to Madrid (5 hrs), allow an hour to get to the airport on the metro (9 stops, then a line switch, then ride it to the end of the line), and arrive 2 hours early for my 5:30 flight to Dublin. I would get in around 8:30, catch a bus to the city center and meet up with Annie there. Then we would go out to a pub to catch some live music. Friday would be reserved for exploring the city. The plan for Saturday morning included waking up bright and early and catching a 7 AM bus from Dublin to Doolin (on the west coast). We would arrive by 1 PM, in time for lunch and then a walk along the coast to the cliffs of Moher. Later we would return to the hostel after a spectacular day, and head out for dinner and music at a pub nearby. The next morning we would catch a bus back to Dublin and relax and walk around the town some more. On Monday I would wake up, go to the airport, catch my flight at 2:30, land in Madrid by 5:30, ride the metro to the bus station and catch the next bus to Granada and get home by midnight.

That was the plan. I was ready. Unfortunately Ireland wasn’t ready for me.

What happened? Well, Ryan Air happened, Bus Éire Ann happened, Ennis Ireland happened, and a 9 km trek through the rainy countryside happened. (It made for an unforgettable weekend. Stressful? A little. Frustrating? Sometimes. Fun? You bet.)

I was able to check off the first two activities on my list relatively easy. Sure, a 5 hr bus ride is a long haul, but it was the 4th time that I’ve done the Madrid-Granada route, so by then I was used to it. (I actually kind of look forward to the stops at the café in Ciudad Real for the much-needed bathroom stop as well as café con leche and napoletinas). I started and finished “Into the Wild” by Krakauer. In a way I identified with Chris McCandless, the kid who, after college, dropped everything and started his own adventure across the country and in Alaska. Granted, I wasn’t exactly roughing it (for I didn’t really have a risk of freezing or starving to death in the wilderness), I felt an amazing sense of independence; I had been able decide to just drop my life in Spain for the weekend, hop on a bus, travel 400 km to a major city, navigate the system and fly who-knows-how-many kilometers away to Ireland, where I was going to travel across the country in two days, and then return to my home in Spain. All by myself. In typing it, it doesn’t seem that impressive, but while in transit I felt I was doing something huge. I didn’t have anyone to turn to; were any problems to appear I would have to resolve them myself (and they did appear), I was entertaining myself (at least until I got to Ireland, in which I had the help of Annie); I don’t know, I can’t really explain it. It’s this feeling where I know if I want to go anywhere in the world, essentially I know that I am capable of making it a reality; If only money weren’t a requirement. Although after reading Into the Wild, I guess money isn’t a necessary. But then again, he also ended up dead in a bus out of Healy….

But anyway, on that happy note, I’ll return back to my adventure. I arrived at Madrid Barajas International Airport at 3:30, 2 hours early for my 5:30 flight. Which would be great until the Ryan Air agent told me, “Hay un retraso. El avión despegará a las 11:30 (pm).” Great. What was once 2 hours early now became 7 hours early in the blink of an eye. What was I going to do for 7 hours? I had finished my book. I realized that I could’ve gone to my volunteer work that morning as well as class (I was skipping a test in my Hispanic Literature class; Don’t worry, I took it when I got back). So I wandered around. I’ll tell you what: I know that Madrid Barajas Airport Terminal like the back of my hand, so if you have any questions, I’m your man. I bought a Spanish book and a magazine to keep my occupied. That worked for a while. Finally I boarded the plane. I sat next to two really friendly girls from France who were studying in Madrid: Marie and Leila (Keep these two protagonists in mind, as they will be important later). I was very tired so I tried to fall asleep, which proved to be impossible (who ever heard of airplane seats that don’t recline? But hey, I paid 60 Euros for a flight, so if the seats don’t recline, so be it; I’d sit on the wing for 60 Euros). There was some turbulence going on, so I thought I’d listen to my iPod, y’know, to have the soothing voices of Norah Jones or Damien Rice calm me down. But my iPod, while fully capable of functioning, battery charged and all, decided not to play any sound. At that point, I was exhausted and I just wanted some Norah and Damien (yes, we’re on a first name basis). But the turbulence passed and all was well.

We landed at Dublin International Airport at 1:30 in the morning. Needless to say, there was not going to be a bus that would go to the city center at that hour. The girls (Marie and Leila) and I waited out for taxi and caught our cabs to our respective places. After a harrowing taxi drive (I will never get used to driving on the left side of the road.) I was dropped off at Annie’s apartment. I paid my 25 Euros, thankful to have arrived, albeit 7 hours later. It was great to see Annie. She’s living in an apartment with 4 other girls who are all pretty nice. We constructed a mattress on the floor of Annie’s room from the cushions of her couch and I quickly fell to sleep.

Let me start Friday’s description by saying that I think Dublin has the most bi-polar climate I have ever experienced. It changed about 12 times that day. And I’m not even kidding. Okay, so one thing was consistent: the wind. However, the sun was shining brilliantly at one moment, without a cloud in the sky and then all of a sudden a hurricane would appear out of nowhere and soak the city for 10 minutes, while the people headed for cover in the stores, and then it would leave and life would turn back to normal.
We spent Friday walking around the city. We walked through St. Stephen’s Green, a decent sized park south of the River Liffey, where we sat around and I took in all the greenness (I’m a little deprived of green in Granada). Then we walked down Grafton Street, which was full of people. It’s kind of the shopping center of Dublin. So we quickly escaped the masses of people for a walk around Trinity College. A real college campus! A wave of hunger hit us, so we made like Americans and went to Eddie Rockets “Ain’t no Finer Diner” and had the most amazing cheeseburger and milkshake. It was so good. Once we had our fair share of calories we headed out, and walked some more. We went to a memorial for the Irish that had fought in the revolution. We saw the GPO (general post office) where there are still bullet holes in the columns. Later we went to Temple Bar and walked the cobblestone streets. We went to a photography gallery (and weren’t too impressed), and eventually made it back to the apartment. For dinner we went to a fish and chips place and then made our way to an Irish pub for a Guinness. We called it a night at about 10 PM, because we were planning on waking up at the crack of dawn (5:45) to make it to the bus station by 7 to catch a bus directly to Doolin, which according to the Bus Éire Ann website, would actually exist.

It didn’t.

So we selected our second best option: Catch a bus to Limerick, and from there we would catch a bus to Doolin. We caught a 7:30 bus to Limerick and arrive around 11:30. We went to the information center in the bus station to ask the guy what time the bus left to Doolin. I swear he wasn’t speaking English, his Irish accent was so thick, but I understood enough to realize there wasn’t a bus to Doolin until 5:30 PM. Oh goody. But we could, if we wanted to, catch a bus to Ennis, a city a little bit closer to Doolin and kill time there, then catch the bus to Doolin from Ennis at 6:30. Why not? We thought.

We got to Ennis an hour later. While on the bus we briefly, but seriously, entertained the notion of hitch hiking to Doolin. We decided against it, not because images of us ending up dead in a ditch were flashing through my head, but because we thought we’d probably end up with worse luck and end up stranded somewhere in the middle of nowhere. And I also heard Mom’s voice telling me not too. We got to Ennis where we walked from the bus station into town. It was a neat little town, in reality. We went and got some pizza, as our stomaches were starting to digest themselves. Afterwards I attempted to call the hostel, for they were expecting us to arrive at 1 PM, however I didn’t have success. We walked around town for a while, hopping from bookstore to bookstore (they had a lot) (and we’re also nerds who like to kill time by going to bookstores…). Once we had exhausted all our bookstore options we walked around town some more and found a river/stream where, apparently all the pigeons, swans, ducks and geese in the world were hanging out. Somehow we managed to entertain ourselves for a good hour watching birds and evading angry geese (one started to stalk us. You haven’t felt real scariness until you’ve been stalked by an angry goose.) It started to rain on us, so we decided to head back to the bus station where we raided the vending machine and ate our boredom away. It didn’t really work; we just felt disgusted afterwards.

We caught the bus at 6:30 and got into Doolin at 8 PM. The bus driver was really really nice. He dropped us off right in front of our hostel, where we dropped off our stuff and headed to O Connor’s to get some food and beer. There was live music going on which was really fun to watch. My ¼ Irish self enjoyed it immensely. There were even some kids riverdancing. Seriously, how cool is that?

Saturday morning we woke up at 8 AM in order to check out of the hostel by 9. It was a foggy morning and was misting out, but we decided to walk to the Cliffs of Moher from the hostel. The guy at the hostel told us it was a 6 km walk, he told us it was doable as we had good walking shoes and it wasn’t raining too hard. We started out our hike out of the town and along the coastline. We passed through rolling hills, old farms, stone castles etc. It was quite pretty.

An hour and a half later we were debating throwing ourselves off the cliffs, if we could actually find them. We were soaked head to toe, completely wet (it’s a good thing we didn’t bring more than one change of clothes to Doolin! Oh wait…) and were cursing like the Irish. Who’s bright idea was this to walk anyway?

Pause. Rewind. Let’s go back about 2 weeks:

Setting: The mid hours of the morning, outside of an Al-Andalus Kebap shop, on some alleyway in Granada Spain. The weather is clear, a little brisk.
Characters: 4 weary Americans, done dancing for the night, hungry and ready for bed. 1 Irish ex-pat who the Americans have run into randomly throughout the semester wandering the streets in the night. He goes by Patrick, but to the Americans he is known as Patrick the Prophet, for he is an enigma. He appears and vanishes for weeks at a time. He has wisdom and insight on life.

Patrick: Oh, you’re going to Ireland are ya? Where ya stayin?
Zach: We’re going to Doolin to see the Cliffs of Moher.
Patrick: Oh the cliffs are wonderful. But listen to me. Don’t take the bus there like all the tourists do. Walk there from your hostel in Doolin. It’s worth it.

Back to us being on the verge of miserable: We were practically about to curse Patrick the Prophet, but how could we? You just don’t do such a thing. Had it been sunny it would have been an AMAZING walk. And we weren’t exactly miserable; just on the verge of miserable. It was still a beautiful hike along the coast, and we enjoyed it for about an 80 minutes, but by the 90th minute we were wondering if the Cliffs actually existed and whether or not they were a big joke and leprechauns were going to hop out of the trees and say, “ah HAH! Fooled you!”

But finally we saw a sign. With the most beautiful words I had seen in a long time: Cliffs of Moher Visitor’s Center Up Ahead. We had arrived! (also turns out, The Cliffs are 9 km from Doolin, not 6 like we had thought) Might I also add that at that point we had about 20 Euros to our name. We bought lunch in the visitors center with and some mochas. We made a trip to the bathroom where we tried our darndest to dry our clothes with the automatic hand dryer (Anyone seen the movie “Bean”? Remember that scene where Bean gets water on his pants and tries to dry them off? Yeah, imagine that.) So that didn’t work to well, so then we went to the unisex bathroom (with a lock!) where I actually removed my wet clothing to try to and dry them. No luck.

We resigned ourselves to the fact that we were going to be wet and cold for the rest of the day, and decided to make the best of it. The cliffs were gorgeous. They made everything worth it. The land just ends and drops off into the sea. We stared at the cliffs and shivers when up and down my spine (Oops, those were actually real shivers. Did I mention that I was cold?) There was no way that we were going to walk back to Doolin, so we caught the bus back to Doolin, caught the bus to Ennis at 4 PM and as we were pulling into the station in Ennis, the bus to Dublin was about to pull away, but thanks to our amazing bus driver, the bus stopped and we were able to get on! We got back to Dublin at about 8 PM (at around the same time we were finally dry).

On Monday I got up and said my goodbyes and walked to the bus station. Somehow I got suckered into giving a homeless guy 4 euros for a sandwich. I don’t really know how that happened, because that’s not something I usually do. Ever. He had a good sales pitch, I guess. Hope he actually bought a sandwich and not crack… I got on the bus to the airport and everything seemed like it was going fine. I was waiting in the gate area. It was 1:50 PM about time to board. The plane was visible on the tarmac from the window, but there was no ticket agent. This is a predicament I thought. All the passengers where lined up, so I queued up too. I feel a tap on my shoulder and It’s Marie (remember the French girls who I sat with on the way to Dublin?), she was out of breath and upset. I asked her where Leila was. Well, apparently on their taxi ride to their friend’s house in Dublin, the taxi driver didn’t know where to go (and Marie and Leila don’t speak English) and so they got really frustrated as the meter was up towards 50 Euros and the taxi driver was driving in circles saying that the place didn’t exist. They ended up stopping and the girls found where they needed to go, but out of haste Leila left her purse in the Taxi with all her belongings: her passport, her credit cards, etc. They spent the weekend trying to find it; they called the taxi place, but nothing had been turned it. So the spent more time at the French embassy where Leila got a form from the embassy that supposedly would let her get back to Madrid, however when they got to the airport the agent at Ryan Air told her that she couldn’t get on the plane, so Marie had to fly back alone. While I had my own frustrations during the weekend, all in all, I had a fun time. It sounded like that had a weekend from hell. We boarded the plane and took off around 3:30 PM (an hour late) and I sat by Marie on the plane again along with some other students from the Czech Republic and Finland and we all shared stories. It was good international student bonding time. The plane landed in Madrid around 7 PM and I made it via metro to the bus station by 8 PM. At this point I was just ready to hop on the bus and get back to Granada and go to bed. I went to the ticket window and here’s what went down:

“A qué hora sale el próximo autobus a Granada?”
“A las once y media (11:30 PM)”
“ah....joder”

At that point I wasn’t surprised, I was used to having big chunks of time with waiting for transportation to leave. So I bought my ticket, took a seat, opened up my Hispanic Literature book, to study for my test that I would be taking the next day.

Finally I got on the bus at 11:30, promptly fell asleep, and we arrived in Granada at 4:30 in the morning. I waited out of the bus station 30 minutes for a taxi, and got home around 5 AM. Woke up at 9 to go to the Centro to take my test (which I think went really well), and that was that.

All in all, it was a great weekend (filled with its setbacks and all- they made for a great adventure, and for the most part we were able to look at the bright side of things). I definitely want to go back to Ireland.

Now that you’ve completely my novel (or just skipped to the end) here’s the pictures!

A house in St. Stephen's Green

No idea who this is.

art?

Grafton Street.

Trinity College

All the signs are in English and Irish.

Over the River Liffey. The weather has already started to take a turn for the worse.

Dublin's hideous millennium memorial. They started it before 2000, but didn't end up finishing it until 2003. Locals call it the "stiletto in the ghetto".

Then it got sunny again. This is at the memorial for the Irish fighters.

Back at St. Stephen's green. (yes, we always look this good)

Now we're in Ennis! Look how naively happy Annie looks!

This is us showing how happy we are to be in Ennis!

So happy that we resorted to taking pictures of waterfowl for a good hour.

Bird attack!

I call this one "Duck Duck Goose"

The goose that was giving us the evil eye. It was seriously scary. This doesn't capture the horror at all.

Finally! In the pub in Doolin!

Sunday morning: a perfect day for a 9 km hike through the Irish countryside.

At the start.

We were told to take a right at the castle. So cool!

As to the purpose of a barn without a roof, I'm not really sure. But it looked cool!

This is what Annie and I looked like after an hour and a half

We're here!

Pretty!

Dang!

Cool!

Well, that would suck.

And then the clouds party, the sun came out and all was better. No, we just stood infront of a picture inside the visitors center.

O' Briens! (that's the 1/4 irish of me)

Our hostel

See Doolin? See the cliffs? we walked that.

You've studied in Granada Spain when...

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 19:02:46 GMT

So, I joined this group on Facebook called "You know you've studied in Granada when..." and it lists a bunch of little random facts.. You may or may not get all the references, but these are little tidbits of my everyday life here, more or less.

We all know the ins and outs of Spanish culture...Here is just a glimpse...

1. The mullet, made for men and women alike.
2. You know what a Rebaja is.
3. You've eaten more fish in one week than in your whole US life.
4. You know a Doner Kebap = heaven @ 4am
5. You have seen people in 50-degree weather in winter coats and scarves.
6. You know the meaning of a COPA GRANDE
7. You have had chupitos with the bartenders on Calle Pedro de Alarcon, Granada...
8. You prefer the taste of lukewarm nata leche... VIVA PULEVA!
9. When you know how to the use the metro when the map is in Spanish.
10. You have a lisp...
11. You have stolen internet.
12. You watch a dog take a crap on the sidewalk and the owner doesn't clean it up.
13. You have encountered numerous people haciendo un monton de pis in the streets.
14. You have encountered tiny children wandering the streets.
15. Carneval=Halloween but more fun ☺
16. You learned what the real meaning of paper-thin walls are and you officially feel too close to your vecinos now
17. You can spot other Americanas miles away...North Face anyone?
18. You got drunk off wine.
19. You are a huge fan of the Menú del Día.
20. You are a bigger fan of tapas gratis...only in Granada baby!
21. You’re life span has been shortened 5 years because of the second hand smoke.
22. You have seen a cigarette box that says ¨smoking can cause a slow and painful death¨
23. You have learned that deodorant is obviously not necessary.
24. You have seen a vending machine with thongs and beer
25. You have had a staring contest with a stranger in the streets.
26. You’ve watched Simpsons, multiple multiple times.
27. You have trouble speaking both English and Spanish.
28. You’ve left the house to go out at 1am.
29. You know what a true dulce is.
30. You have never been to a store between 1430 and 1730.
31. You have fought with the lock on the door and have only won half the time.
32. You take forever long showers in hotels b/c the shower is bigger than your box of a shower
33. You’ve had bread everyday for every meal.
34. You know what Tío means
35. You know what Joder means.
36. You can take showers in a 2 ft box called a shower.
37. You jump when you hear the words Vamos A Comer
38. Your dinnertime is about 2130.
39. You know what Corte Inglés is.
40. Spanglish is part of your daily vida
41. Fútbol is amazing.
42. You’ve learned amazing Spanglish…I’m :dar-ing, haciendo-ing, caminar-ing, comer-ing, beber-ing
43. You know where the closest McDonald’s is and you use it in directions you give out.
44. You know that the la Alhambra really is the 8th world wonder...
45. You love spanish tortilla.
46. You have gotten wine in a personal-size
47. You know what the Chinos are, and when they are open...24-7
48. You have seen buildings that are older than our country.
49. You know you must either choose Barcelona or Real Madrid ...(for a spaniard) the world depends on this very question...
50. You have seen Pizza boys on Mopeds...TelePizza!
51. You’ve been surprised to see a ¨big¨car.
52. You love the Farmacias that sell hard drugs...but you hate their damn neon green crosses.
53. olive oil...on everything! Seriously...
54. You have seen old people out at 2 am
55. You know the difference because tengo calor y estoy caliente.
56. You have been stopped at the plaza and asked if you speak English.
57. You have walked an hour to school
58. Old women and fur coats...Que Guay!
59. Vale, pues, venga
60. It’s not hasta luego, it´s hathalego...
61. You write on graph paper and not lined paper.
62. You have found the horrible truth that double spacing is not normal.
63. You have learned the true meaning of a cell phone bill.
64. Yelling is not yelling...it’s just excited chatter.
65. Personal space = 0cm.
66. You know these boots really are made for walkin...
67. You know fichas are a rare commodity.
68. You know what a café con leche GRANDE is, and love it.
69. You know to not go to Camborios until oh say 4 AM in the morning...
70. You have seen porn on TV under news.
71. Where are the Power Bars!!! :(
72. Stepped in caca de perro...muchos veces...
73. You study Perfecto but never ever use it in a conversation
74. You know the tough decision of whether you want Cruzcampo o Estrella.
75. You’ve come to love giving "Dos Besos" multiple times a day...

Hiking- It's all about the nalgas de acero

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 18:16:25 GMT

On Saturday, Kelsey and I caught a 8:30 bus out of Granada (for only 1.15 Euro!) to Güéjar Sierra, a little pueblo about 30 minutes out of Granada. From Güéjar Sierra we set out for a morning/afternoon hike in amazing weather!! The pueblo is so different than Granada: tiny and tranquil. There were a bunch of elderly people walking around the tiny, steep streets. Each one of them greeted us with a "buenas" (the shortened greeting of buenos dias). We had didn't really have too much of an itinerary in mind, we knew of some trails and but first we just explored the city a little bit. Eventually we decided to cross the river to hike up some of the mountainsides. Behind us was a old man, on his daily walk to and from the city. He was hiking faster than us, even though he probably was 70 years old or so. As we were quickly shedding our clothes, for the sun was high and strong that day, he asked us "No tenéis frio?" Aren't you guys cold? We got into a conversation with him and he pointed out a route for us that would take us to the top of a mountain with some ancient ruins. We thanked him and headed off. It was gorgeous. We could only hear the birds and the wind. No honking cars. No shuffling of pedestrians. It was a good break. Once we reached the top, we had our bocadillos (our sandwiches) amongst the ruins, and relaxed at the top. We made it back to the Ayuntamiento (city hall) in time to catch the 3:00 bus back to Granada. A really good day.

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Before we headed up the mountain we walked a little bit out of Güéjar Sierra. It's located near a dam on the Río Genil.

We passed a guy herding his sheep.

Our intended destination. Not as daunting as it looks. But I'm still sore, so thats good.

A mini- break for some rock climbing.

A really neat bridge. We think it's an aqueduct. And we have no idea how old it is... but it seemed pretty weathered.

At the ruins.

Looking over the city.

yeah, there's definitely a drought.

So it was a little chilly up there.

Kelsey and I

At the top

Conquered.

Bridge again

The mountain... I'm not really sure what it's name is.

And that's that.

Good times.

I'm off to Madrid, Segovia and Toledo on Wednesday.

Carnaval de Cádiz; ¡Qué locura!

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 19:24:11 GMT

Imagine Halloween on steriods, only with less candy and more alcohol, music, dancing, political commentary and a city packed to it's capacity with people, young and old, dressed in crazy costumes and you will have Carnaval.

What an experience. On Saturday morning we caught a bus out of Granada at 10 am and arrived in Jerez de la Frontera, a city about 50 kilometros outside of Cádiz, where we were going to stay that night. The ride to Jerez was 4 hours and was beautiful countryside with winding roads, grassy hills and valleys. We got to the hotel in Jerez and were surprised to find out it was a 4 star hotel (not bad for a deal of 50 Euros. It included the bus ride both ways, transportation to and from Cadiz, the hotel, and an amazing breakfast the next morning). We were able to get our settle down for a little while, eat some food and relax. At 5 PM we all boarded the bus, dressed in our costumes to head into Cádiz. It's a small little town, on kind of an isthmus sort of a thing, with the Atlantic ocean on one side, and the bay of Cádiz on the other. The experience can't really be described in words, so here are the pictures.

The drive on the way to Jerez- it's actually green!!

Us all costumed up and ready for the night. We kind of went the cheap route on costumes; Courtney is a pirate, I bought a Zorro mask and silver hair paint, Tara is mother nature, and Laura is a cowgirl.

On the ride from Jerez to Cádiz. So green.

There were busfulls of people dressed in costume. Even the Pope likes Carnaval.

Plaza de la Catedral, where the majority of the people amassed.

We were able to see the sunset over the atlantic ocean.

One of the many plazas

All the alleys were jam packed with people!!

More people

Probably the coolest costume I saw... Shrimp!

Drinking my, uh, apple juice...

Tara, Courtney, and Laura with wild animals

There was a crazy Spanish girl who gave us free sangria, so we took our picture with her.

At 3 AM (the height of the party) we headed back to Jerez to get some sleep before returning back to Cadiz in the day.

Several glasses of water, an aspirin, 5 hours of sleep, and an amazing breakfast later we were ready to get back to Cadiz

Our hotel

Some dancers

Catedral

During the day, you can't walk a block without running into a group of costumed singers. It's so cool!

Nor can you walk a block without seeing some strange seafood. Urchins, anyone?

The coast

I found this wharf thing that leads out to a castle.

At 5 PM we left Cadiz for Granada.... beautiful

La puesta del sol.

One of the singing groups- they were amazing! We watched them for about 20 minutes

And that was my weekend.

Fri, 16 Feb 2007 14:53:26 GMT

73 degrees. In the middle of February.

Sheesh.