So I'm sitting at my internship....boss left and I have to read the Civil Code of Spain...which is a little tough to say the least. So what do I do instead? BLOG! yay! hahah enjoy:
Wednesday the 10th the Trinity program treated us to a night at Camp Nou, the ever-famous soccer (fútbol) stadium in Barcelona! It was Barca v. Ceuta which apparently wasn't a very big game - only about 1/3 of the stadium was filled (which was still nothing to scoff at considering the amount of people that actually is haha). This also is in comparison to the game tonight which is Barca-Madrid - needless to say I'm pretty sure all of Barcelona is going to shut down around 10 pm tonight because everyone will be glued to the television.
ANYWAY. We met at this little bar near Les Corts and got some tapas before braving the cold and heading out to the game! It didn't even start until 10 pm, which for me was crazy! It was quite funny to see people trying to sneak in with beers and food from the outside - one guy literally tried to jump the turnstyle with the guard right in front of him...epic fail. haha
We managed to score better seats in the front row of the first balcony which was super cool and we were right in front of the Ceuta goal, so we had a pretty good view of everything that was going on. Within the first 5 minutes, Barca scored, and that was pretty much it for Ceuta. They scored once but Barca kind of buried them 4-1. It was a really fun game, there were fans right below us who came SUPER prepared with flags and drums and all that stuff, and at times they were more entertaining to watch than the game haha.
Barca won (obviously) and everyone was quite happy leaving the stadium...except me. Because before my eyes I saw thousands of people running to the metro and knew it was going to be a COMPLETE mad house...but with not other option, I braved the crowds and somehow pushed my way into the sardine can that was the metro car and made it home by 1 am. On a school night. I was dead the next morning.
Hahah anyways, it was quite a good time despite the crazy metro! Hope to get back there before I leave :)
Next up: Cook and Taste!
Monday, November 29, 2010
Saturday, November 27, 2010
But I will still tell you one thing we're better together
So for those of you gagged at the cuteness of the title...I stick my tongue out at you :-P. For those of who awed, two thumbs up :-) haha
Nick came to visit!!!! I got to the airport like an hour and a half before his flight came in because I was too excited...haha :) After getting him checked into his hotel, I sadly had to go to class, but it was probably for the best because I'm pretty sure he would have fallen over from exhaustion haha.
That night was Laia's birthday!! We met her, Ana, Irene, Carla, and Irene at this cute little restaurant called La Flauta and had a fun time making nick try spanish foods. Quite entertaining :)
The next day was our Gaudi themed day. We went to Casa Milá (La Pedrera) and got to see all of the amazing rooftop structures he built for the Milá family. There's also a little Gaudi Museum in the house which shows details about how he designed all of his buildings and where he got his inspiration, so as a Gaudi fan, that was pretty cool! After that, we made the treck up to Parc Güell (and it is quite a treck) much to the protests of our aching feet. But alas, the beauty of the park and being able to show Nick my favorite place ever in the world superseded mundane foot pains haha. We walked around and explored parts of the park that I had actually never been to, which was really cool! That night we went to a nice Italian restaurant and celebrated our anniversary :)
Saturday we went to Montjuic, a beautiful mountain with a fortress on top that has beautiful views of the city. We walked around there for a while taking lots of pictures (much to his dismay haha) and enjoying the scenery. Then we took the gondola down and headed to La Rambla where we made fun of the crazy street performers and walked around La Boqueria too! We walked down to the beach and grabbed some lunch on the boardwalk overlooking the ocean; it was a GORGEOUS day! The weather the entire time he was here was INSANE. A few days before, it had been freezing (I was wearing my antarctica mittens) and then he gets here and it's 70 and I'm wearing a tank top on the beach. insane.
THE POPE CAME SUNDAY! It was crazy. The entire city shut down and you couldn't even get on some metro stops because of his visit. We had decided to go to Barrio Gotico that day, but, as always, I forgot that Sundays here are barren wastelands because everyone just closes up shop and doesn't work...soo that made shopping in Barrio Gotico a bit difficult for us, but we made the best of it and enjoyed the day. We met Almudena for coffee and then had a truly american dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. Let me tell you, I needed a true burger and fries like you wouldn't believe. Needless to say, this trip wasn't the best for my diet...but oh well, it was delicious :-)
Monday we went back to look for some gifts in Barrio Gotico and also went and visited the outside of Sagrada Familia. We would have gone in, but the line wrapped around the block, and there was NO way we were doing that...but that's cool! I had class for a bit but then we met Laia and Eduard to go KARTING! It was crazy, you get dressed up in these cool suits and helmets and drive around in this tiny car around this winding track - it was awesome haha. Then we had an amazing dinner, care of Angeles, and stuffed ourselves silly until we basically couldn't move.
Tuesday I was a mess and all but held on to his ankles so he wouldn't leave. But all good things must come to an end (oh yeah, and we both have classes...) soooo I had to let him get on the plane against my better judgement.
And so I went back to my daily life here in Barcelona, writing papers about Spanish philosophy and learning about Spanish parliament, all the while wishing I had a time machine to go back just a few days...
yeah I see all you non-romantics rollin' your eyes. :-P haha
Next Up: BARCA
Nick came to visit!!!! I got to the airport like an hour and a half before his flight came in because I was too excited...haha :) After getting him checked into his hotel, I sadly had to go to class, but it was probably for the best because I'm pretty sure he would have fallen over from exhaustion haha.
That night was Laia's birthday!! We met her, Ana, Irene, Carla, and Irene at this cute little restaurant called La Flauta and had a fun time making nick try spanish foods. Quite entertaining :)
The next day was our Gaudi themed day. We went to Casa Milá (La Pedrera) and got to see all of the amazing rooftop structures he built for the Milá family. There's also a little Gaudi Museum in the house which shows details about how he designed all of his buildings and where he got his inspiration, so as a Gaudi fan, that was pretty cool! After that, we made the treck up to Parc Güell (and it is quite a treck) much to the protests of our aching feet. But alas, the beauty of the park and being able to show Nick my favorite place ever in the world superseded mundane foot pains haha. We walked around and explored parts of the park that I had actually never been to, which was really cool! That night we went to a nice Italian restaurant and celebrated our anniversary :)
Saturday we went to Montjuic, a beautiful mountain with a fortress on top that has beautiful views of the city. We walked around there for a while taking lots of pictures (much to his dismay haha) and enjoying the scenery. Then we took the gondola down and headed to La Rambla where we made fun of the crazy street performers and walked around La Boqueria too! We walked down to the beach and grabbed some lunch on the boardwalk overlooking the ocean; it was a GORGEOUS day! The weather the entire time he was here was INSANE. A few days before, it had been freezing (I was wearing my antarctica mittens) and then he gets here and it's 70 and I'm wearing a tank top on the beach. insane.
THE POPE CAME SUNDAY! It was crazy. The entire city shut down and you couldn't even get on some metro stops because of his visit. We had decided to go to Barrio Gotico that day, but, as always, I forgot that Sundays here are barren wastelands because everyone just closes up shop and doesn't work...soo that made shopping in Barrio Gotico a bit difficult for us, but we made the best of it and enjoyed the day. We met Almudena for coffee and then had a truly american dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. Let me tell you, I needed a true burger and fries like you wouldn't believe. Needless to say, this trip wasn't the best for my diet...but oh well, it was delicious :-)
Monday we went back to look for some gifts in Barrio Gotico and also went and visited the outside of Sagrada Familia. We would have gone in, but the line wrapped around the block, and there was NO way we were doing that...but that's cool! I had class for a bit but then we met Laia and Eduard to go KARTING! It was crazy, you get dressed up in these cool suits and helmets and drive around in this tiny car around this winding track - it was awesome haha. Then we had an amazing dinner, care of Angeles, and stuffed ourselves silly until we basically couldn't move.
Tuesday I was a mess and all but held on to his ankles so he wouldn't leave. But all good things must come to an end (oh yeah, and we both have classes...) soooo I had to let him get on the plane against my better judgement.
And so I went back to my daily life here in Barcelona, writing papers about Spanish philosophy and learning about Spanish parliament, all the while wishing I had a time machine to go back just a few days...
yeah I see all you non-romantics rollin' your eyes. :-P haha
Next Up: BARCA
Friday, November 26, 2010
Effin' Brugge - Planes, trains, and automobiles
Sorry guys! I've been crazy this past month with midterms, visits, and traveling that I haven't had a whole lot of time to post! Don't worry though, I promise to catch up this weekend so I can chronicle my last month here (EEP) and try not to forget anything!!
SO this post shall be about Brugge, Belgium. For those of you who haven't seen the Colin Farrel movie, you won't get the reference in the title, but don't worry, just know I'm not swearing without a purpose haha!
Alrighty where to begin. So I had to get up freakishly early on Friday morning to make a 6:45 am flight to Brussels from Barcelona. This entailed getting a cab and then getting on a night bus for over an hour to make it on time, so needless to say, I was up at four. Not fun. But alas, I got there safely and started wandering around the airport trying to figure out how on EARTH I was going to find Nora because a) our phones didn't work in Brussels and b) even if they did, I didn't have her number. Good planning? I think so. haha
Luckily I waited by the arrivals gate and jumped up an down like an idiot when I saw her so she pretty much couldn't miss me. We hopped on a train to Brugge and spent another hour catching up while admiring the Belgian countryside.
When we got to Brugge, we checked in at the Hotel Nicolas which was actually a surprisingly nice hotel for what we paid. We had our own room (always nice and so much better than a hostel) and free breakfast every morning, so we were pretty pumped. After dumping our bags, we had to get lunch because neither of us had eaten and we were pretty much eating ourselves. We went to the main market square (which was GORGEOUS) and found a restaraunt that served mussels which are apparently very typically Belgian with, of course, FRENCH FRIES. Had a lovely lunch and then made our way to De Halve Maan Brewery where we had a lovely (albeit very cramped) tour of the brewery and had a nice belgian beer (the best in the world if I had to elect one). There were all of these funny signs throughout the tour telling you to go backwards down these tiny flights of stairs because they were too steep to go down normally. It was quite a laugh. We also got to see a gorgeous view of Brugge from the top of the brewery which was a gorgeous picture opportunity.
After some delicious beer, we went on a boat tour along the Bruggian canals (bruggian? is that a word? haha well it is now!) which was beautiful and took you around to all the major tourist sites in the town (the Church of our Lady, the old Hospital, the nunnery, etc.). After freezing down to our bones, we got some true belgian hot chocolate. It was possibly the most delicious thing I have ever tasted. They literally give you a huge saucer of hot milk and pure dark chocolate chips and a whisk and you make it yourself. It was FANTASTIC! haha
That night we walked around the square and had a nice dinner and called it an early night.
The next morning we decided to go up to the belltower...366 steps up to the top and no elevator....it was a climb to say the least. The stairs were so narrow that you had to stop and let people come down before you went up and visa versa...it was very tiny haha but the view from the top was beautiful and it's one of those things you can't go to Brugge without doing.
Next we made our way to the Church of our Lady which has one of the only Michael Angelo's that left Italy. It was a beautiful statue of the virgin mary and Jesus and the church itself was quite beautiful too. Then we made our way to the nunnery which had beautiful leaf covered grounds and a gorgeous church as well. We took some pictures by the canals and enjoyed the nice fall day in the nunnery.
After a nice holy visit, what better to do than, of course, GET MORE BEER! haha clearly. Are you seeing a pattern yet? After a nice healthy lunch of belgian beer and french fries (yep, that was lunch haha) we went to the Groening Museum which was supposed to house what the call the "Flemish Primatives," major artwork from famous Medieval painters from Belgium. While the paintings were beautiful, they all depicted religious scenes (every...single...one of them....) and we were pretty holy-ed out by that point.
So we decided to take a nap. I know it's lame because we were in a new place and we should have been out exploring, but we were exhausted. We had another nice dinner and then called it a night. Yeah, call us lame, but we had fun so there :-P
Our last day in Brugge (tear :-( haha) we went to see the windmills which, apparently to Nora, were a bit of a disappointment. we walked to the outskirts of the city to see them and apparently they weren't old or cool enough for her haha. I thought they were pretty nice, but we'll move on.
Then we went to the two most historically relevant and socially necessary museums in the city: THE CHOCOLATE AND FRIES MUSEUMS. Yes, they have both and yes, we visited both. They both showed the process of making each product and then gave you a free sample at the end, which was a lovely way to end our trip to Brugge.
We got on the bus to take us to the train station and then made our way to the airport to go our separate ways. After an 15 minute bus right, and hour train ride, a 2 hour flight, another hour bus ride, a half hour on the metro, and a 5 minute walk, I FINALLY made it home and crashed after a great weekend with one of my favorite people.
So there's Brugge!!! Next up: NICK'S VISIT :-D
SO this post shall be about Brugge, Belgium. For those of you who haven't seen the Colin Farrel movie, you won't get the reference in the title, but don't worry, just know I'm not swearing without a purpose haha!
Alrighty where to begin. So I had to get up freakishly early on Friday morning to make a 6:45 am flight to Brussels from Barcelona. This entailed getting a cab and then getting on a night bus for over an hour to make it on time, so needless to say, I was up at four. Not fun. But alas, I got there safely and started wandering around the airport trying to figure out how on EARTH I was going to find Nora because a) our phones didn't work in Brussels and b) even if they did, I didn't have her number. Good planning? I think so. haha
Luckily I waited by the arrivals gate and jumped up an down like an idiot when I saw her so she pretty much couldn't miss me. We hopped on a train to Brugge and spent another hour catching up while admiring the Belgian countryside.
When we got to Brugge, we checked in at the Hotel Nicolas which was actually a surprisingly nice hotel for what we paid. We had our own room (always nice and so much better than a hostel) and free breakfast every morning, so we were pretty pumped. After dumping our bags, we had to get lunch because neither of us had eaten and we were pretty much eating ourselves. We went to the main market square (which was GORGEOUS) and found a restaraunt that served mussels which are apparently very typically Belgian with, of course, FRENCH FRIES. Had a lovely lunch and then made our way to De Halve Maan Brewery where we had a lovely (albeit very cramped) tour of the brewery and had a nice belgian beer (the best in the world if I had to elect one). There were all of these funny signs throughout the tour telling you to go backwards down these tiny flights of stairs because they were too steep to go down normally. It was quite a laugh. We also got to see a gorgeous view of Brugge from the top of the brewery which was a gorgeous picture opportunity.
After some delicious beer, we went on a boat tour along the Bruggian canals (bruggian? is that a word? haha well it is now!) which was beautiful and took you around to all the major tourist sites in the town (the Church of our Lady, the old Hospital, the nunnery, etc.). After freezing down to our bones, we got some true belgian hot chocolate. It was possibly the most delicious thing I have ever tasted. They literally give you a huge saucer of hot milk and pure dark chocolate chips and a whisk and you make it yourself. It was FANTASTIC! haha
That night we walked around the square and had a nice dinner and called it an early night.
The next morning we decided to go up to the belltower...366 steps up to the top and no elevator....it was a climb to say the least. The stairs were so narrow that you had to stop and let people come down before you went up and visa versa...it was very tiny haha but the view from the top was beautiful and it's one of those things you can't go to Brugge without doing.
Next we made our way to the Church of our Lady which has one of the only Michael Angelo's that left Italy. It was a beautiful statue of the virgin mary and Jesus and the church itself was quite beautiful too. Then we made our way to the nunnery which had beautiful leaf covered grounds and a gorgeous church as well. We took some pictures by the canals and enjoyed the nice fall day in the nunnery.
After a nice holy visit, what better to do than, of course, GET MORE BEER! haha clearly. Are you seeing a pattern yet? After a nice healthy lunch of belgian beer and french fries (yep, that was lunch haha) we went to the Groening Museum which was supposed to house what the call the "Flemish Primatives," major artwork from famous Medieval painters from Belgium. While the paintings were beautiful, they all depicted religious scenes (every...single...one of them....) and we were pretty holy-ed out by that point.
So we decided to take a nap. I know it's lame because we were in a new place and we should have been out exploring, but we were exhausted. We had another nice dinner and then called it a night. Yeah, call us lame, but we had fun so there :-P
Our last day in Brugge (tear :-( haha) we went to see the windmills which, apparently to Nora, were a bit of a disappointment. we walked to the outskirts of the city to see them and apparently they weren't old or cool enough for her haha. I thought they were pretty nice, but we'll move on.
Then we went to the two most historically relevant and socially necessary museums in the city: THE CHOCOLATE AND FRIES MUSEUMS. Yes, they have both and yes, we visited both. They both showed the process of making each product and then gave you a free sample at the end, which was a lovely way to end our trip to Brugge.
We got on the bus to take us to the train station and then made our way to the airport to go our separate ways. After an 15 minute bus right, and hour train ride, a 2 hour flight, another hour bus ride, a half hour on the metro, and a 5 minute walk, I FINALLY made it home and crashed after a great weekend with one of my favorite people.
So there's Brugge!!! Next up: NICK'S VISIT :-D
Monday, November 1, 2010
Long Time No Post...eep!
Hey all,
So so SO sorry I haven't posted (it's been 15 days according to Emily M) which is way too long! There wasn't too much to post about before but now there's a cornicopia of tellings to impart onto all my readers!!!! annnd awayyyy we gooooooo!
Sooo last weekend we went to Montserrat which has to be one of the most beautiful places in all of Spain. We took a train up the mountain to where there are hundreds of spectacular rock formations which have been widdled away by the rain over the years. They all have names and look like different shapes: one's an elephant, another a giant, etc. etc. The mountain is home to the Virgen of Montserrat who was apparently discovered in a cave on the mountain and is now the protector of the mountain. A monastery was built on top of the mountain and still exists today, although you can't visit because it's against monastic law.
After a bit of a setback, we took a tour of the beautiful church and saw a short exhibit on how the monks live their lives on Montserrat. There's a school up there as well where young boys (yes I know it sounds creepy but it's not I promise) go to learn different types of music, most particularly singing. Each day they sing the song of the Virgen of Montserrat to the congregation and it's apparently very beautiful although we weren't lucky enough to hear it.
The tour was really beautiful and the only thing that could have made it better was...um, duh, FOOD. We went to this restaurant overlooking the valley and had a spectacular meal which was a fantastic end to the day. Then we walked back and saw our train arriving and had to try and run on full stomachs to try and catch it...needless to say we failed haha.
We took another train halfway down and then walked to another trainstation and then switched to another train and...ugh it was a long long way home, but we finally made it and it was definitely worth it!!! I had a fantastic time and will definitely be taking the padres back!
Coming up next, BRUGGE (aka paradise.)
love you all!
So so SO sorry I haven't posted (it's been 15 days according to Emily M) which is way too long! There wasn't too much to post about before but now there's a cornicopia of tellings to impart onto all my readers!!!! annnd awayyyy we gooooooo!
Sooo last weekend we went to Montserrat which has to be one of the most beautiful places in all of Spain. We took a train up the mountain to where there are hundreds of spectacular rock formations which have been widdled away by the rain over the years. They all have names and look like different shapes: one's an elephant, another a giant, etc. etc. The mountain is home to the Virgen of Montserrat who was apparently discovered in a cave on the mountain and is now the protector of the mountain. A monastery was built on top of the mountain and still exists today, although you can't visit because it's against monastic law.
After a bit of a setback, we took a tour of the beautiful church and saw a short exhibit on how the monks live their lives on Montserrat. There's a school up there as well where young boys (yes I know it sounds creepy but it's not I promise) go to learn different types of music, most particularly singing. Each day they sing the song of the Virgen of Montserrat to the congregation and it's apparently very beautiful although we weren't lucky enough to hear it.
The tour was really beautiful and the only thing that could have made it better was...um, duh, FOOD. We went to this restaurant overlooking the valley and had a spectacular meal which was a fantastic end to the day. Then we walked back and saw our train arriving and had to try and run on full stomachs to try and catch it...needless to say we failed haha.
We took another train halfway down and then walked to another trainstation and then switched to another train and...ugh it was a long long way home, but we finally made it and it was definitely worth it!!! I had a fantastic time and will definitely be taking the padres back!
Coming up next, BRUGGE (aka paradise.)
love you all!
Friday, October 15, 2010
This is applause that never ends, it just goes on and on my friends...
Helllooooooo!
I've had some coffee and I'm a little hyper, so bear with me! haha
Alrighty, CHOCOLATE MUSEUM TIME! Helena and I met up Tuesday for our excursion to God's gift to earth and it was awesome. Here's a list of all the awesomeness that went down that day.
1. I had no cash so I had to pay with a card, but to do that, I had to spend more than 10 euro. Which meant I HAD to buy chocolate so I could get into the museum. It was necessary. Sigh, poor me :-)
2. Our ticket was a chocolate bar. Enough said.
3. They had Don Quijote made out of chocolate.
4. They had the Pieta made of chocolate.
5. Most impressive and best of all? UP made of chocolate. Yep. It was fantastic.
We spent about an hour meandering the little museum and took lots of crazy pictures with things made out of chocolate. All in all, a success I should say. Then we grabbed some falafal and called it a trip :-)
Yesterday (Thursday) we went to see a concert at the Palau de la Musica. The ensemble performed pieces by Mozart and Hayden and it was a really beautiful concert. The only problem was that the people WOULDN'T STOP CLAPPING! I mean it. It was insane, we were all looking at each other like "why is everyone still clapping? It's over..." But it wasn't. They did about 3 encores (which were beautiful, but long) and I'm pretty sure we all wanted to yell "STOP CLAPPING!" by the end haha. But I digress, it was a really nice night and we had a lovely cultural experience that was definitely worth the incessant applause haha.
Today, we went to Montjuic (or sort of went to Montjuic...). Essentially, we got there, realized we had all already been to the castle, and decided to meander our way down the mountain instead of spending more money to see it again haha. We ended up walking through this trippy cactus garden that lead us down the mountain and out on to the main street. From there, we headed to La Rambla and went to buy some snacks at La Boqueria which is always so much fun to visit :-) After some delicious chocolates and fruit, we went to the Museum of Contemporary Art which was very strange, but pretty cool. I'm still undecided as to whether or not I actually LIKE modern art. I can definitely appreciate it and take it in cordially, but to me, drawing a line on a piece of paper and putting it an frame doesn't realllllly count as art. Just sayin.
Anyways, we started to head back to the Metro when we stumbled across the most fantastic bakery ever. We shared an encimada (a pastry that was this time, but isn't always, filled with pumpkin and covered in powdered sugar, aka HEAVEN) and gushed over the fantastic find we just encountered. Great times had by all. After that, I hopped on the metro and made it home for dinner :-) A very long but productive and fun day!
Well now I'm FINALLY caught up on my life! I hope you guys enjoyed! :-) Miss everyone, hope you're reading haha
Love y'all!
~Amanda
I've had some coffee and I'm a little hyper, so bear with me! haha
Alrighty, CHOCOLATE MUSEUM TIME! Helena and I met up Tuesday for our excursion to God's gift to earth and it was awesome. Here's a list of all the awesomeness that went down that day.
1. I had no cash so I had to pay with a card, but to do that, I had to spend more than 10 euro. Which meant I HAD to buy chocolate so I could get into the museum. It was necessary. Sigh, poor me :-)
2. Our ticket was a chocolate bar. Enough said.
3. They had Don Quijote made out of chocolate.
4. They had the Pieta made of chocolate.
5. Most impressive and best of all? UP made of chocolate. Yep. It was fantastic.
We spent about an hour meandering the little museum and took lots of crazy pictures with things made out of chocolate. All in all, a success I should say. Then we grabbed some falafal and called it a trip :-)
Yesterday (Thursday) we went to see a concert at the Palau de la Musica. The ensemble performed pieces by Mozart and Hayden and it was a really beautiful concert. The only problem was that the people WOULDN'T STOP CLAPPING! I mean it. It was insane, we were all looking at each other like "why is everyone still clapping? It's over..." But it wasn't. They did about 3 encores (which were beautiful, but long) and I'm pretty sure we all wanted to yell "STOP CLAPPING!" by the end haha. But I digress, it was a really nice night and we had a lovely cultural experience that was definitely worth the incessant applause haha.
Today, we went to Montjuic (or sort of went to Montjuic...). Essentially, we got there, realized we had all already been to the castle, and decided to meander our way down the mountain instead of spending more money to see it again haha. We ended up walking through this trippy cactus garden that lead us down the mountain and out on to the main street. From there, we headed to La Rambla and went to buy some snacks at La Boqueria which is always so much fun to visit :-) After some delicious chocolates and fruit, we went to the Museum of Contemporary Art which was very strange, but pretty cool. I'm still undecided as to whether or not I actually LIKE modern art. I can definitely appreciate it and take it in cordially, but to me, drawing a line on a piece of paper and putting it an frame doesn't realllllly count as art. Just sayin.
Anyways, we started to head back to the Metro when we stumbled across the most fantastic bakery ever. We shared an encimada (a pastry that was this time, but isn't always, filled with pumpkin and covered in powdered sugar, aka HEAVEN) and gushed over the fantastic find we just encountered. Great times had by all. After that, I hopped on the metro and made it home for dinner :-) A very long but productive and fun day!
Well now I'm FINALLY caught up on my life! I hope you guys enjoyed! :-) Miss everyone, hope you're reading haha
Love y'all!
~Amanda
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Catch-up Time! FIJAROS - es muy dificil para entender.
Hey guys!
Sorry it's been a while! After Madrid, I needed a few days to recover, and then once I did school started getting crazy and I just completely forgot to write! So bear with me, I'm going to do a few posts a little late haha...
This one shall be about Toledo and our final day in Madrid....enjoy yourselves :-)
Alrighty soooo Friday night we went to an AMAZING flamenco show at this little bar a little ways from our hotel. They served fantastic food and we got to sit right in front of this little stage where all throughout dinner dancers and singers performed for us. The dancing was INCREDIBLE, kind of like tap dancing but with more arm work. Those ladies were jacked man. It made me feel pretty terrible about my flabby chicken arms. Anywho...
That night we went out to a club near the hotel which was pretty fun. The dance floor was packed and every now and then a huge cold blast of fog would come down from the ceiling. It was pretty crazy but a really good time!
The next morning we got up for another wonderful breakfast at the hotel (I'm telling you guys, it was spectacular haha) and got on a train to Toledo. Unfortunately for us, it was pouring rain. Helena and I made a mad dash to Corte Ingles (Spanish Macy's essentially) so I could get a sweater and an umbrella. After a nice half-hour train ride, we arrived in Toledo to more rain. We made our way to the old part of the city, which was spectacular despite the lousy weather, and went toooooo (you guessed it) A RESTAURANT. Seems like that's all we do, huh? But really, we don't...ok we kind of do, but whatever, we like being fatty fatty fat kids, ok? (no really, that's just me :-) haha) Had another fantastic meal full of way too much food and the best desserts I've had in Spain. So great.
After a lovely lunch, we met up with our tour guide who's name escapes me but who we'll call FIJAROS because that's ALL he said all day. No joke, every other word was FIJAROS (concentrate, look at this, etc.). Also, I think he thought we were stupid because he kept saying "Es muy dificil para entender" ("it's very difficult to understand") that these buildings could be thousands of years old....uh, no FIJAROS, it's not that difficult, pretty sure we can wrap our heads around that one. Haha anyways, we made our way through the city which is very old and full of history. The streets look like something out of a movie, it's really gorgeous. We got to see the Cathedral which was really breathtaking (I took some pictures even though we weren't supposed to ;-) haha) and had a ton of paintings from famous artists like Velazquez, El Greco, etc. which amazed me because although Toledo is famous, it's a pretty small town that you wouldn't expect to be harboring such famous works.
After the Cathedral, we made our way to the Synagogue (it was a very religiously diverse weekend) which had once been a Mosque. All throughout the city there are stores selling swords and figures of Don Quijote (who has become my best and most present friend these past couple of weeks) because Toledo is what was known as La Mancha (aka, Don Quijote de La Mancha?...yeah). So that was cool to sort of relate everything back to what I'm learning in class and all haha.
After the Synagogue, it really started coming down on us. We walked around a little more, exploring and getting to see beautiful views of the city, but it got to the point where our shoes became sinking boats and we had to call it quits. After a cold and wet ride home, we made it back to the Hotel for a nice hot shower and a much needed nap.
Helena and I decided to find the creperia that we went to our first night in Madrid so that we could get some delicious crepes for dinner. We went to Placa del Sol (one of the main plazas) where we (mostly I) thought we knew where we were going. Lets just say I was wrong. So wrong. Sorry again Helena. But anyways, after walking around in the rain for about an hour or so, we FINALLY found it! YAY! Hahah we had Nutella and walnut crepes (yes, for dinner, that's right, you're jealous) and had a fantastic time taking pictures of our glorious victory.
The next day (after a bit of a long night...) we got up groggily and decided to explore the city before our train left at 3. We walked around Plaza del Sol, got lost and somehow found our way back to a main street, and ended up grabbing tapas at this really cute place near our hotel. All in all, a beautiful relaxing day in Madrid. After that lovely stroll, none of us wanted to leave Madrid (although Barcelona rocks ahaha) because we felt like we had so much more to see! But alas, our train was calling and we had to be on it. So away we went, back to BCN our lovely home for a nice Sunday evening en casa.
Stay tuned, tomorrow: Chocolate Museum and Palau de Musica!
Love you all :-) adios chicos!
Friday, October 8, 2010
Artsy Fartsy Time
Hey Y'all!
Greetings from Madrid, the center of Spain and cultural mecca of all things art! We arrived yesterday via train around 6 o'clock and went "bar hopping" for tapas in a bunch of cool restaruants around Madrid. Had some chill time and called it a relatively "early" night so that we could get up for breakfast this morning.
Holy. Crap. I missed Continental Breakfast. I mean don't get me wrong, I love me my cereal,but sometimes a girl just needs some GD EGGS in the morning. Which is exactly what I had, along with an assortment of other goodies :-) Magic in breakfast form.
Anyways, after a wonderful start to the day, we went to the Museo del Prado which is THE art museum in Spain. We walked around for a good 3 hours, seeing famous works by Goya, Miró, and, my personal favorite, Diego Velazquez. I saw Las Meninas and was amazed. I remember learning about it with Señora Rogers in junior year and ever since I´ve wanted to go see it in person. His technique is a lot stranger than I remember, but the detail in the faces and the subtle meanings and messages hidden in the painting were so amazing to see in person. Needless to say, it was a truly amazing experience.
After that, we had a wonderful lunch in this little place called La Comunista which is apparently really really popular here. The food was fantastic and I was once again a very happy camper :-)Then we made our way back to the hotel for a quick nap before La Reina Sofía at 4 o'clock.
Let me preface my experience at the Reina Sofía by saying that I'm not a big fan of cubist art. I know it's impressive and a different style and paved the way for other artists and all, but to me, I just don't really see the appeal. But I must say, Guernica is one of the most stunning works I have ever seen in my life. This mural is ENORMOUS and really really powerful to behold. It depicts the bombing of Guernica by the German Lufftwaffe that was APPROVED by Franco which ended up killing hundreds of innocent people. Pablo Picasso, through strange images and metaphoric symbols, shows the horror of the event in pure black and white, and the effect is stunning. I have pictures that I'll post when I get back to Barcelona. Really amazing.
We also got to see some more Dalí and some other very famous pieces that are all jumbled in my head right now because I´m exhausted. But anyways
I have like 2 minutes left on the internet, so I must say adeiu, but I'll try to post more tomorrow!
Love you all! MWAH!
Greetings from Madrid, the center of Spain and cultural mecca of all things art! We arrived yesterday via train around 6 o'clock and went "bar hopping" for tapas in a bunch of cool restaruants around Madrid. Had some chill time and called it a relatively "early" night so that we could get up for breakfast this morning.
Holy. Crap. I missed Continental Breakfast. I mean don't get me wrong, I love me my cereal,but sometimes a girl just needs some GD EGGS in the morning. Which is exactly what I had, along with an assortment of other goodies :-) Magic in breakfast form.
Anyways, after a wonderful start to the day, we went to the Museo del Prado which is THE art museum in Spain. We walked around for a good 3 hours, seeing famous works by Goya, Miró, and, my personal favorite, Diego Velazquez. I saw Las Meninas and was amazed. I remember learning about it with Señora Rogers in junior year and ever since I´ve wanted to go see it in person. His technique is a lot stranger than I remember, but the detail in the faces and the subtle meanings and messages hidden in the painting were so amazing to see in person. Needless to say, it was a truly amazing experience.
After that, we had a wonderful lunch in this little place called La Comunista which is apparently really really popular here. The food was fantastic and I was once again a very happy camper :-)Then we made our way back to the hotel for a quick nap before La Reina Sofía at 4 o'clock.
Let me preface my experience at the Reina Sofía by saying that I'm not a big fan of cubist art. I know it's impressive and a different style and paved the way for other artists and all, but to me, I just don't really see the appeal. But I must say, Guernica is one of the most stunning works I have ever seen in my life. This mural is ENORMOUS and really really powerful to behold. It depicts the bombing of Guernica by the German Lufftwaffe that was APPROVED by Franco which ended up killing hundreds of innocent people. Pablo Picasso, through strange images and metaphoric symbols, shows the horror of the event in pure black and white, and the effect is stunning. I have pictures that I'll post when I get back to Barcelona. Really amazing.
We also got to see some more Dalí and some other very famous pieces that are all jumbled in my head right now because I´m exhausted. But anyways
I have like 2 minutes left on the internet, so I must say adeiu, but I'll try to post more tomorrow!
Love you all! MWAH!
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