Thursday, November 25, 2010
PreThanksgiving
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Belgium continued
After one of the better breakfasts that I had at a hostel we headed off to an art museum called Groeninge Museum. My super hipster Bruges map that I picked up described it as a museum of art “called ‘Flemish Primitives’, but actually they were imitated all over Europe. Why?” Although the description provided some answer along the lines of realistic techniques and surrealism, I got stuck on the “Why?” This art did not appeal to me in the least. Painting after painting of Jesus on the Cross or Mary weeping or some sinner repenting did not keep me interested in the least, not to mention the so called perfect proportions and realism showed hands the size of heads and feet distorted to awkward angles. Now I realize art is subjective, but really I just felt subjected to an hour of torture as I walked among these medieval examples of
the Bible ruling all. It probably goes without saying I spent the better half of our duration at the museum sitting in the lobby reading Harry Potter 2 in Spanish.
After what felt like an eternity, we left the museum and said farewell to Bruges as we hopped on the next train headed back to the capital. We explored a bit more of the city, made dinner in the hostel and then found a theater showing the Harry Potter 7 movie. We bought our tickets and went back to Grand Place, having a few hours to kill before the show started. We wandered the old streets, passed by more and more chocolate shops that made my mouth water and sought out Manneken Pis, the most famous statue in Belgium, comparable to their version of our Statue of Liberty. Now, what it lacked in size it made up for in spunk. It was this really tiny fountain of a little boy or cherub or whatever peeing into the water below. The boy was probably no more than a foot tall, while the entire piece couldn’t have been more than 8 feet tall. Impressive, right? Well there was a crowd around it standing taking pictures, so it must have some type of elusive draw.
Anyways, we headed back toward the theater, wanting to get good seats for the show. On our way we encountered what I could only describe as if Slope Day had a parade. A mass of drunk college students blasting club music passed down the streets riding in the backs of semis or following alongside them, all dressed up in their given outfits. People were peeing everywhere, no matter whether they were male or female. I guess it makes sense their most famous statue is of a boy peeing in public.
Anyways, we passed through the crowds toward the theater. After standing in line for a bit, the usher came out of the theater, removed the velvet rope and basically allowed everyone to run for the doors in mass madness. People bolted toward the door, eager to get a good seat. Feeling a little too mature to follow the mass of people, we casually entered the theater and sat down in what was probably the nicest movie theater I had ever been in. The walls had frescoes of safari scenes and there was a giant gold sun at the front. The seats were super comfortable and didn’t flip up if you left. It’s the little things that count.
Well, the movie was great and left us with questions mounting, but we had more of the city to see. After stopping back at the hostel we searched for some bars. Now, I like maps and guides as much as the next guy, but it comes to the point that if you don’t look up from these things, you are going to miss the entire city, and this is what I felt our friend Alex was going to do. For the entire trip he had the map from the guidebook in hand, telling us where to see, where to eat etc. At that point, Josh and I were a little fed up with Alex. We tried to tell him that even if it wasn’t in the book it would be okay, and even told him that he had to pick a bar to visit without the aid of the map. Sadly, after a few minutes of walking he went back to the map (I think he thought we didn’t notice) to select a bar. We hopped among some bars and finished our night with some of the best fries I have had in a while. They were probably average or just a bit above, but I haven’t had many fries since being in Spain, and the sauce was killer. It was this spicy mustardy mayonaissey sauce that went great with the fries. I want to find out what that was so I can make it back in the states, because it was just so good.
Day 4: Brussels (What? A day without travelling?!!?)
We took advantage of our only full day in Brussels right off the bat by seeking out some waffles for breakfast. We had noticed that around Manneken Piss was waffle Mecca, so we went back to the peeing statue and found a great hole in the wall walk up place. It wasn’t nearly as good as the first waffle I had in Bruges, but it was still great.
Content with an actually filling breakfast we made our way toward
the Cantillon Brewery/Museum, famous for its Gueuze beer. The tour was interesting and we got two samples at the end of the tour. To be honest, as involved a process as making Gueuze beer seemed to be, I really wasn’t a fan of the beer. It was very sour, almost like a beer with lemon juice added. My palate probably isn’t developed enough to appreciate the flavor, but I probably won’t order that type of beer any time soon (although it beat Keystone by a mile).
On our way back from the brewery we stopped by this falafel place aptly named Mr. Falafel. If you visit Brussels anytime soon, I would for sure recommend this place. For only 3.50 euro you get a pita with 4 pieces of falafel. This sounds like a terrible deal, I know, but then you see the open bar with all the fixing you could want for your falafel pita. Dozens of toppings, sauces, and vegetables are just waiting to fill that toasted pita of yours.
Not knowing what to do, we wandered some more, seeing one of the cathedrals, the Palace of Justice, the Royal Park and the Congress Column, and this plaza near the Musical Instruments Museum that had a great view of the city.
We got back to the hostel after stopping at a Chinese Supermarket for dinner fixings, and I was happily surprised to see the Wisconsin – Michigan football game on all the TVs. I watched the game, feeling a little bit like I was home, while the other guys prepared dinner (I helped out between plays of course). We ate our chow mien (it could have been better), watched a bit of Iron Man, and headed out again to take advantage of our last night in Brussels. We only went to two or three bars including this bar called Kafka that had quotes from his books in German scrawled across the wall, got our last thing of fries and returned home early.
Day 5: Brussels > Charleroi > Santander
Tired and not having any real plans for the day, we slept in until we needed to check out. We split up in the morning, Alex headed for another art museum (no more medieval portraits for me!) while Josh and I wandered more of the city (you picking up a theme here?). We stopped back at the waffle place for one last Belgian waffle and then headed toward a fl
ea market in the direction of the train station where we had to catch the bus back to Charleroi. This flea market was everything that Rastro wasn’t, it was disorganized, unregulated, and just a collection of other people’s junk (which could become someone else’s treasure?). I tried to find some decent sweaters or flannel without any luck (apparently only women wear sweaters and only giants wear flannel), while Josh tried to find some leather jackets (in an attempt to become more badass, perhaps?). Cold and disheartened from our flea market failure we headed back to the train station to catch the bus to the airport, but not before happening upon another market. This market was great. It had a ton of fresh fruit and all the vendors were shouting to get your attention. It felt alive in comparison to the really subdued Ithaca Farmers’ Market. Either way, I finally found flannel that I liked, and it only cost 5 euro! Score? I think so. I bought my flannel and returned home with flannel and Belgian chocolates in hand.
Belgium!!! Days 1 and 2.
Heeding some advice from a friend, I am going to write this blog entry in English first. She feels like my entries could use some emotion or creativity, which as an engineer I already have trouble with, and writing in Spanish just adds to this. Now don’t worry (Diego) I will still write in Spanish too, but I will probably be more in depth or maybe relay some of my humor through the English version, but all you Spanish speakers will have to deal.
So as you probably know, if you are an avid reader of my blog, which I am sure most people are, I visited Belgium this past weekend. Yes, Josh and our Austrian friend Alex headed for the land of waffles, chocolate, beer and fries to spend five cold days exploring the capital of the European Union and a city probably most famous for being interesting to only people who are slightly retarded and grew up on farms.
Day 1: Santander > Charleroi > Brussels
We rushed out of an evening class to the Santander Airport. Not enough time to walk to the bus station and take the bus, so we had to spring for a taxi. Let me say this is indicative of the costs of Belgium compared to Santander, I just had to prepare to spend my money. Anyways, we made it to the airport with time to spare, about an hour and a half before the flight (essentially I missed the flight in my mind) and the Austrian was hungry so we hung out outside of security so he could eat a sandwich. With 30 minutes until boarding I started to get nervous. We were still on the other side of security and the line was growing, snaking back and forth. I made the Austrian shove the rest of his food into his mouth and we made it through security just in time to… stand in line to board the plane for about another half an hour. Well, better safe than sorry.
After having advertisements for Ryanair’s fresh food or electric cigarette or whatever else they were trying to market to me, we touched down in Charleroi, or “South Brussels.” We took an hour bus ride to Brussels’ south train station and then a metro ride up to around our hostel.After what was basically a three hour trip, half plane, half public transportation, we arrived at our hostel. I have only been to five hostels in my life as of yet, but I can easily say this place was one of the nicest hostels I will stay in. The beds were comfortable. The kitchen was well equipped. The lounge was decked out with flat screens, great local art, a modern fireplace and a bunch of computers. They even showed Wisconsin football and Iron Man on the TV.
We dropped off our things, and despite being tired from travelling, we headed out to Grand Place, the main square in Brussels. Pretty much all roads lead to Grand Place, and we pretty quickly made it there. To quote my friend Jamie, I really had a “Wow, I am in Europe” moment when I got there. The place was seriously beautiful. It looked exactly what I thought a European square should look like. Every building was perfect, fitting in with the Gothic, neoclassical, or whatever style architecture style (help me out Adrianne) that permeated the area. We sat down to soak in, I don’t know, the “European-ness” of the square for a moment before heading towards a bar. Everything was pretty much closed, a huge change from Spain. We ducked into the first open bar we found, had a beer and went home.
Day 2: Brussels > Bruges
We headed to Bruges pretty early in the morning. We took an hour long train from the north station to Bruges and headed to the hostel. If you have never seen “In Bruges” before, you probably didn’t catch the reference I made earlier, but the movie starred Colin Farrell and was about how he hated being in Bruges. He stated had he been retarded or grew up on a farm he could have liked the city. I loved the city. I am not sure how much this speaks to my mental capacity, but I didn’t grow up on a farm.
Anyways, the city is so picturesque, with canals and bridges throughout the city. We explored the city pretty easily on foot and walked into different chocolate shops, over dozens of bridges and found the best waffle place that we visited in Belgium. We returned to the main square and went up the belfry, basically a tall clock tower. The views were amazing from up there. You could see the entire medieval town from up there, but the climb was a bitch. It was 366 steps. The way down was actually worse. I felt like I could fall down 40 stories with one false step. But check out the view!
We ate dinner at our hostel’s restaurant and drank some beers we picked up in a store and then headed out with a guy we met in our room. He was from Seattle and was travelling Europe while working for a wine company. He was a pretty cool guy and came to a Celtic bar with us to hear this band belt out 90s ballads and then to another place close to our hostel where the bartender brought me a banana flavored beer in a half coconut cup. It was delicious, but I felt kind of like a woman after it. Oh well, no worries.
Oh, I forgot. Before we tried going out that night we went to a few theaters in Bruges to see if they were showing Harry Potter because it came out early in Belgium. We found out that the only theater showing HP7 close by was actually out of town, so we decided we could wait to see it in Brussels. I was okay with this, but it would have been nice to see it earlier than the Cornell girls who went to London to see the movie. They are far more obsessed than I am and it would have been ironic had we gone to a non English speaking country only to see the movie before them.
Days 3, 4 and 5 to follow.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
San Sebastian con Chloe
14 Noviembre 2010
El fin de semana pasado mi amiga Chloe, quien está estudiando en Paris, me visitó. Conozco a Chloe de escuela secundaria. Pues, ella vino por un tren y nos reunimos en San Sebastián. San Sebastián es una ciudad bellísima situada en un cabo en el océano en País Vasco. Nos quedamos en un albergue se llama Urban House que está en la Parte Vieja de la ciudad.
Cuando llegamos al albergue, llamé a la puerta y cuando alguien contestó, empecé a hablar español, explicando que estabámos allí para hacer check in. La persona respondió, “¿Hablas inglés?” pero no la oí y continué a explicar porque estábamos allí. Después de un rato abrió la puerta y entramos el edificio.
Al llegar al albergue, una chica Australiana confundida preguntó en inglés si tenemos una reservación. Respondí, “Yes, it’s for Wachtl.”
Otra vez me miró confundida y me preguntó, “Do you speak English?”
Un poco molestado, respondí, “Yes, it’s under Wachtl.”
Obviamente no comprendió que estaba hablando inglés y de nuevo me preguntó, “Do you speak English?”
A este momento pensaba que la situación era un poco rara. Estaba en España y después de tratar de hablar español e inglés todavía ella no me comprendió. Mi amiga y yo empezamos a reír un poco. “Yes, my reservation is under Wachtl.”
Había algunas otras personas en la sala y un chico dijo, “He is speaking English.”
Pues, respondió, “Oh, well it’s too early to check in now. But you can come back in an hour or so and check into your room. I’ll get you a map and you can drop your stuff off under the benches over there.” Continuamos a reír un poco, porque la situación era tan ridícula y nos preguntó, “Why are you guys laughing?”
Dije que no estábamos riendo de ella y salimos para ver la ciudad y esperar hasta la hora que pudimos entrar nuestra habitación.
Caminamos para la playa y era tan bellísima. La playa era en la forma de un medio círculo protegida por una isla y colinas en ambos lados de la playa. Era muy limpia y prístina. Pues, caminamos en la playa y nos sentamos un rato antes de regresar al albergue. Eran las once y media, más o menos, más de una hora después, y las habitaciones todavía no estaban listas, pero pusimos nuestras mochilas en la habitación y fuimos al acuario.
Nunca había visitado un acuario antes (si no cuentas la vez cuando fui a Chicago para ver el acuario y tenía 3 años más o menos y no puedo recordar), entonces, era muy interesante. Había tantos tipos de peces y tiburones y tortugas y animales como eso. También el acuario tenía una parte que era como un museo naval. Tenía modelos de barcos famosos y algunas cosas raras como trajes de equipos de regatta. Parecía como si ponían todo que relacionó al agua que pudieran encontrar en el acuario.
Pues, después del acuario subimos una colina grande que tenía vistas bellísimas de la ciudad, pero la atracción de verdad era una estatua de Jesús. Estaba situada en el techo de un “castillo” que estaba encima de la colina. Era tan alta pero, si estoy siendo honesto, no es una estatua muy impresionante. Es verdad que siempre se puede ver la estatua, pero he visto mejores.
Bueno, al ese momento teníamos mucha hambre. Bajamos la colina y comimos. Después, puesto que teníamos demasiado sueño a dado que viajar, dormimos un rato hasta la noche. Otra vez dimos un paseo por la playa y también fuimos a ver la catedral de la ciudad. Nos sentamos en el parque un rato y regresamos al albergue para dormir de nuevo, pero después de hablar con algunos viajadores. Me sorprendí de que cuantas personas hubiera allí que solo estaban viajando algunas semanas. Había una chica de Sudáfrica, quien ya había estado viajando para un mes, una chica de Sur Korea, quien ya había estado viajando para unas semanas, y un chico de Australia, que estaba en como su tercer mes de viajar. No podía imaginar cómo podían viajar para tanto tiempo solos, me sentiría tan solo.
Pues, nos despertamos tarde, desayunamos y fuimos a la otra playa. Había tanto viento que las ondas eran altísimas. Había hondas en el río que chocaron sobre las paredes. Quería ver algunos surfers, pero solo había uno nuevo surfer que no podía levantarse en la tabla para más de un rato.
Después, fuimos a la estación de autobuses pero perdimos el primero autobús, entonces buscamos unos postales (estoy comprando postales de cada lugar que visito para enviar a mi hermana, pero todavía no he enviado ninguno, soy un hermano malo, ya lo sé) y tomamos el autobús siguiente.
Llegamos a Santander un poco tarde. No podíamos ver mucho de la ciudad, pero fuimos a la playa y cocinamos la cena. No salimos porque el autobús de Chloe salió a las 7 por la mañana. ¡Qué lástima! Pero nos disfrutamos la viaje y viendo alguien que conocíamos de los EEUU.
La próxima viaje: BELGICA
14 November 2010
This past weekend my friend Chloe, who is studying in Paris, visited me. I know Chloe from high school, and we have kept in contact since graduating. Well, she came in an overnight train and we met up in San Sebastian. San Sebastian is a beautiful city situated in a cove on the ocean in Basque Country. We stayed in an hostel called Urban House that is in the old part of the city.
When we arrived at the hostel, I rang the bell and when somebody answered I started to speak Spanish, explaining that we were there to check in. The person responded, “Do you speak English?” but I didn’t hear her and I continued to explain we wanted to check in. After a moment the door opened and we went into the building.
Upon arriving at the lobby of the hostel, a confused Australian girl asked in English if we had a reservation. I said, “Yes, it’s for Wachtl.”
Again, she looked confused and asked, “Do you speak English?”
A little annoyed, I responded, “Yes, it’s under Wachtl.”
Obviously not understanding that I was speaking English, she asked me again, “Do you speak English?”
By this time I thought the situation was a little weird. I was in Spain and after trying to speak English and Spanish she still did not understand me. My friend and I started to laugh a little. “Yes, my reservation is under Wachtl.”
There were some other people in the room and a guy said, “He is speaking English.”
She responded, “Oh, well it’s too early to check in now. But you can come back in an hour or so and check into your room. I’ll get you a map and you can drop your stuff off under the benches over there.” We continued to laugh a little at the ridiculousness of the situation and she asked us, “Why are you laughing?”
I said we weren’t laughing at her and we left to see a bit of the city and wait until we were able to get into our room.
We walked to the beach and it was so pretty. The beach was in the shape of a half circle, protected by an island and hills on either side of the beach. It was really clean and pristine. So we walked on the beach and sat in the sand for a bit before returning to the hostel. It was around eleven thirty, more than an hour later, and the rooms still were not ready, but we put our bags in the room and went to the aquarium.
I had never visited an aquarium before (if you don’t count the time I went to Chicago to see the aquarium when I was three and can’t remember), so, it was really interesting. There were tons of fish and sharks and turtles and the like. The aquarium also had a part that was kind of like a naval museum with models of famous boats and some other random things like team uniforms for regatta. It seemed as if they put everything that they could find related to the water in the aquarium.
So after the aquarium we climbed this huge hill that had great views of the city, but the main attraction was the Jesus statue. It was situated on the roof on a “castle” that was on top of the hill. The statue was huge, but if I am being honest, it wasn’t very impressive. Yes, you can see the statue from everywhere in the city, but I have seen better.
Well, at this moment we were really hungry. We went down the hill and ate. Afterwards, since we were really tired from travelling, we took a siesta until it was night. Again, we walked along the beach and then also went to see the cathedral. We sat in a park for a while and then went back to the hostel to sleep again, but only after talking with some other travelers. It surprised me how many people they were that were just travelling, for a month or two. We met a girl from South Africa who had been travelling for over a month, a girl from South Korea who was on her second week and a guy from Australia who was on like his third month of traveling. I couldn’t imagine how they could travel for so much time alone; I would feel so lonely after awhile.
Anyways, we woke up pretty late in the morning, ate and went to the see San Sebastian’s other beach. It was super windy that day and the waves were huge. The waves going up the river were crashing over the walls which are several meters high. We wanted to see some surfers, but there was only one beginner surfer who wasn’t very good and couldn’t stay up on his board for very long.
Afterwards we headed for the bus station, but we missed the first bus so we looked for some post cards (I am buying a postcard from everywhere I visit and sending them to my sister, but haven’t sent any yet, I know, I am a terrible brother) and then caught the next bus.
We got back to Santander a little late. We couldn’t see much of the city, but we went to the beach and then cooked some dinner. We didn’t go out because Chloe’s bus left at 7 the next morning. What a shame! But we enjoyed ourselves quite a lot and it was nice to see someone from home.
Next up: BELGIUM
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Overdue Update
Thursday, October 21, 2010
La Lista de Deberes // To Do List
Friday, October 15, 2010
Madrid Days 3,4 and 5
Porque la noche antes salimos hasta las cuatro por la mañana, queríamos dormir un poco y tener un domingo relajante. Pues, fuimos al Rostro, una gran marqueta en las calles de Madrid. Era un día perfecto por el Rostro. Hacía calor y había sol, aunque weather.com nos dijo que haría frío y llovería todo el tiempo que nos quedaríamos en Madrid. Se vende todo que se puede querer, suvenires españoles, ropa, muebles, electrónicas. Porque Josh y yo tenemos diferentes interesas de las chicas cuando vamos a compras, nos separamos de ellas. Compré un cartel de un matador y anduvimos por las pequeñas tiendas.
Porque hacía tan buen tiempo, compramos comida por un picnic y fuimos al Parque de Buen Retiro. Después de almorzar, damos un paseo por el parque y fuimos a Gran Vía. Viendo todas las tiendas, Kristine quería ir de compras otra vez, entonces, nos separamos para ver el Templo de Debod. No sabíamos que era el templo, pero cuando llegamos podríamos ver todo la ciudad de allí. Teníamos una bonita vista del palacio y la catedral. Después de un rato, nos juntamos con Kristine y fuimos a Arabia para comer comida marrueca.
Una parte de nuestro grupo tenía dudas de Arabia. Primero, estaba un poco lejos de donde estábamos y nos perdimos en el camino. Y cuando llegamos, era cerrado. Teníamos que esperar una media hora para entrar, pero todos eran alegres que esperaron. El restaurante era decorado en tema de moros y la comida era excelente. Podría comer su falafel por el resto de mi vida si tuviera que hacerlo. Contentos y llenos, regresamos tempranos para preparar por el día siguiente.
Madrid y Toledo: Día 4 – 11 de Octubre
Como puedes adivinar, fuimos a Toledo por la mañana del cuarto día en Madrid. Toledo está menos de una hora de Madrid y era el capital antes. Por eso, tiene edificios más antiguos que hay en Madrid. Una muralla y un río rodean la ciudad antigua. Como dicho antes, hay muchos edificios antiguos. El más impresionante es la catedral. Es grandísimo y tiene tantas estatuas y esculturas bonitas pero costaba 7 euros para entrar. Porque somos estudiantes económicos y pobres, no entramos. Pues, caminamos por las calles estrechas por unas horas y regresamos a Madrid.
Hillary y Caitlyn querían visitar una tienda de lana y después fuimos a la Ópera para intentar de conseguir billetes a la obra. Pablo nos dijo el primer día en el tour que se puede conseguir billetes baratos a la Ópera si vas 90 minutos antes de la obra. Obtuvimos billetes por 16.40 euros (usualmente 164 euros) por una ópera se llama El acenso y la caída de la ciudad de Mahagonny. Después de una cena de Turquía, fuimos a la ópera. Me sentía un poco afuera de lugar porque llevaba flanel y pantalones vaqueros pero estaba entusiasmado por mi primera ópera.
Adivinamos en qué idioma sería. Esperaba sería en italiano mientras Hillary quería sería en alemán. Por desgracia era en inglés. Trataba de una ciudad fundó en avaricia y sexo donde hombres podrían conseguir cualquier cosa que quería. Había una escena en que más de veinte parejas fingieron practicar el sexo. Le etapa era llenada con basura que crecían durante la obra para representar el fracaso de capitalismo. Era muy interesante, pero todavía quiero ver una ópera tradicional. Quizás Caitlyn, Hillary y yo regresaremos a Madrid para ver Figaro el próximo Abril.
Pasábamos nuestra última noche en otra cervecería, charlando sobre tapas y vino.
Madrid y Segovia: Día 5 – 12 de Octubre
Salimos de Madrid en coche temprano por la mañana. Otra vez el GPS nos dirijo equivocado a una autovía pequeña. Tardamos tiempo conduciendo por las montañas al norte de Madrid, pero era un camino muy bonito. Llegamos en Segovia a las 11 más o menos, pero Kristine quería regresar a Santander temprano y no teníamos mucho tiempo para ver mucho. Vimos los acueductos que tienen casi dos mil años y todavía están de buen condición. Josh y yo intentamos de encontrar la catedral y el alcazar que parece como una castilla de Disney, pero nos perdimos en las calles y teníamos regresar al coche en poco tiempo.
El resto del viaje era bastante aburrido, pero puedo asegurarte que voy a regresar a Madrid y Segovia otra vez.
Madrid: Day 3 – October 10th
Since we were out so late (until after four) the night before, we wanted to sleep and have a relaxing Sunday. So we slept in and went to the Rostro, a large market in the streets of Madrid. It was a perfect day for the Rostro. It was warm and sunny, even though weather.com told us it would be cold and rainy the entire time we would be in Madrid. They sell almost anything you could want, souvenir from Spain, clothes, small furniture and decorations, and electronics. Because Josh and I have different interests from the girls (especially when it comes to shopping) we split up. I bought a poster of a matador with my name on it and we walked through the little stalls.
Because it was so nice out, we bought some food for a picnic and went to the Parque de Buen Retiro, their version of Central Park. After eating lunch, we went for a walk through the park and went to Gran Via. Seeing all the stores, Kristine wanted to go shopping again, so we split up and went to the Temple of Debod while Kristine went shopping. We didn’t know what to expect at the temple, but when we arrived we had a great view of the city. We could see the palace and the cathedral. After a while we met up with Kristine and went to Arabia for some Moroccan food.
Part of the group had doubts about Arabia. First, it was kind of far from where we were and we got last on the way. When we arrived it was closed. We had to wait for half an hour before getting in, but we were all happy we waited. The restaurant was really cool on the inside, with a very relaxed Moroccan feel and excellent food. I could eat that falafel for the rest of my life if I had to. Happy and full, we went back early to prepare for the next day.
Madrid & Toledo: Day 4 – October 11th
As you could probably guess, we went to Toledo in the morning on our fourth day in Madrid. Toledo is less than an hour drive from Madrid and used to be the capital before. Due to this, it has many more old buildings than Madrid. A large wall and a river surround the old city. As said before, there are a lot of old buildings. The most impressive is the cathedral. It is gigantic and has tons of beautiful statues and sculptures, but it cost 7 euros to go in. Because we are cheap and poor students we just walked through the narrow and winding streets for a few hours and went back to Madrid.
Hillary and Caitly wanted to visit a yarn store, and after we went to the Opera House to try to get tickets for a show. Pablo (our tour guide) told us on the first day that we could get cheap tickets for the opera if you go 90 minutes before the show (it is actually more like 4 hours before the show). We got tickets for only 16.40 euros (normally 164, what a great deal) for an opera called The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. After a Turkish dinner, we went to the opera. I felt a little out of place because I was wearing flannel and jeans, but I was still really excited for my first opera.
We tried to guess what language it would be in. I hoped it would be in Italian while Hillary wanted it to be in German. We were all let down (oddly enough) when the first words were in English. The opera was about a city founded in greed and sex where men could get whatever they wanted if they had the money. There was one scene where more than 20 couples faked sex on stage. The stage was filled with piles of trash which grew throughout the show to represent the failure of Capitalism, or something like that (despite it being in English, I read the Spanish subtitles to better understand it and still didn’t know everything that was going on). It was really interesting, but I still want to see a traditional opera. Caitlyn, Hillary and I might go back to Madrid to see Figaro in April.
We spent our last night in another pub, talking over tapas and wine.
Madrid & Segovia: Day 5 – October 12th
We left Madrid early the next morning. Again, the GPS took us the wrong direction through a small country road. We lost time driving through the mountains to the north of Madrid (and Caitlyn almost lost her breakfast), but the drive was beautiful. We arrived in Segovia at around 11, but Kristine wanted to get back to Santander pretty early, so we only had a half hour in Segovia. We saw the almost 2000 year old aqueducts. It was amazing they are still standing and are in great condition, even without the use of mortar. Josh and I tried to find the cathedral and the alcazar that looks like a Disney castle, but we got lost in the streets and had to return to the car.
The rest of the trip home was pretty boring, but I can assure you that I am going to go back to Madrid and Segovia (possibly for an opera).
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Madrid Days 1 and 2
Bueno, probablemente sabes que Cristobal Colon descubrió America y los EEUU celebran ese con una fiesta el 12 de Octubre. Pero, ese era algo para celebra por los Españoles también. Encontraron una tierra nueva para utilizar y colonizar, entonces, el 12 de Octubre es un día de fiesta aquí también. Por eso, no tuvimos clases el 11 o 12 de Octubre, dándonos una oportunidad para explorar nuestro país nuevo. Decidimos que Madrid es la ciudad perfecta para empezar nuestra exploración.
Madrid: Día 1 – 8 Octubre
Consideramos volar a Madrid, pero Kristine tiene un coche en Santander y pensamos que sería más fácil y quizás más barato (no fue), entonces Kristine, Josh, Hillary, Caitlyn y yo nos echamos en el coche y empezamos nuestro viaje para Madrid a las 3 por la tarde después de nuestras clases. Teníamos mapas, un GPS, y un libro de guía, estábamos preparados por todo. Pues, seguíamos la direcciones que el GPS nos decía, porque siempre puedes depender en tecnología. O quizás no. El GPS nos dirigió a una autovía pequeña que pasaba por las montañas. Perdimos una hora antes de que corrijamos nuestra ruta.
Bueno, llegamos en Madrid antes de las diez y encontramos el albergue, La Posada de las Huertas. El albergue está situada en una calle de peatones muy cerca a la Puerta del Sol, los museos de arte, y mucho de que querrías ver. Era muy cómodo y limpio y todos quienes encontramos eran muy amables. Encontramos unas chicas quienes estudiaban en Sevilla en la habitación de las chicas. Hablábamos un rato y después fuimos a una plaza muy cerca al albergue.
En la plaza, se llama Plaza de Santa Ana, entramos en una cervecería donde Hemmingway le gustaba pasar el tiempo. Comimos unas tapas y bebimos sangría y regresamos bastante temprano al albergue.
Madrid: Día 2 – 9 Octubre
Nos despertamos bastante temprano para ir por Madrid con un guía. Después de un desayuno gratis de tostada con mermelada, leche y una manzana salimos con nuestra guía, Pablo. Porque estaba lloviendo, Pablo llevaba un paraguas que parecía como una mariquita. Nos llevó a la Puerta del Sol para empezar nuestro tour de la ciudad.
Primero vimos la estatua de un oso y un árbol que representa Madrid. Pablo dijo que representa Madrid porque al oso le gusta comer la fruta del árbol porque es alcohólica y le gusta pasar lo bien, como los ciudadanos de Madrid. Caminamos a la Plaza Mayor, por unas calles pequeñas históricas y pasamos edificios antiguos como el Palacio y la Opera. Pablo nos explicó que un rey con problemas de la mente quería ser recordado por algo, entonces movió el capital a Madrid de Toledo. También Pablo nos contó la historia de Madrid, incluyendo historia de las diferentes reyes como los Asturias y los Borbones y la Inquisición. Explicó las diferencias entre los estilos de arquitectura que se puede ver por la ciudad y como los Moros, los Judíos y los Cristianos todos tenían impacta en la historia de Madrid. Después de casi cuatro horas en la lluvia, el tour terminó y Pablo nos llevó a un restaurante para paella y sangría.
Porque todavía estaba lloviendo cuando terminamos el almuerzo, los de Cornell decidían ir a la Reina Sofia mientras Kristine regresó al albergue para descansar e ir de compras.
La Reina Sofia es un museo de arte moderno y tiene colecciones grandes de Picasso y Dalí. Probablemente es más famoso por tener la Guernica, una pintura cubismo por Picasso que representa la destrucción de un pueblo del norte de España que ocurrió durante la Guerra Civil. Solo vi una fracción de las colecciones, pero me gustaba mucho de que vi. Había una serie de fotos de personas de cada edad hasta 100, muchos retratos de Picasso y Dalí, y otras obras interesantes. Pasamos la tarde en el museo, regresamos al albergue y juntamos a Kristine yendo de compras.
Después de una cena hecha en el albergue, fuimos en un Pub Crawl con otras personas del albergue. Fuimos a tres bares y una discoteca. Era divertido, pero teníamos demasiado sueño que al fin de la noche solo queríamos dormir.
Well, you probably know that Christopher Columbus discovered America and the US celebrates this with a holiday on the 12th of October. But, this was something to celebrate for Spain, too. They found a new land to utilize and colonize, so the 12th of October is a holiday here, too. So, we didn’t have classes the 11th or 12th of October, giving us a great opportunity to explore our new country a little. We decided that Madrid was the perfect city to start our exploration.
Madrid: Day 1 – October 8th
We considered flying to Madrid, but Kristine, our Norwegian classmate and friend, has a car in Santander and we thought it would be easier and cheaper (it wasn’t), so Kristine, Josh, Hillary, Caitlyn and I got into the car and started our journey for Madrid at around 3 in the afternoon after our classes let out. We had maps, a GPS, and a guidebook, we were prepared for everything. Well, we followed the directions of what the GPS told us, because you can always depend on technology. Or maybe not. The GPS directed us to a tiny two lane highway that went through the mountains and small towns. We lost an hour before we corrected our route onto the main highway.
Well, we arrived in Madrid a little before 10 and found our hostel, La Posada de las Huertas. The hostel is situated on a small pedestrian street nearby Puerta del Sol, the art museums, and basically everything you would want to see on your first trip to Madrid. It was really comfortable and clean and everyone we met was really friendly.
We met some girls who were studying in Seville in the girls’ room. We talked with them for a little while before we went to a nearby plaza.
In the plaza, Plaza de Santa Ana, we entered a bar where Hemmingway used to like to hang out. We ate some tapas and drank sangria and eventually headed back to the hostel pretty early.
Madrid: Day 2 – October 9th
We woke up pretty early to go on a guided tour of Madrid. After we ate a complimentary breakfast of toast, jelly, milk and an apple we left with our guide, Pablo. Since it was raining, Pablo carried an umbrella that looked like a ladybug. He brought us to the Puerta del Sol to start our tour.
First we saw the statue of a bear and a tree that represents Madrid. Pablo said it represents Madrid because the bear likes to eat the berries that grow on the tree because they are alcoholic and the bear likes to have a good time, just like the people of Madrid. So we walked to Plaza Mayor, through small historical streets, and past old historical buildings like the Palace and the Opera House. Pablo explained that “a retard king” wanted to be remembered for something, so he moved the capitol to Madrid from Toledo. Also, Pablo told us some history of Madrid, including things about various kings like the Asturias and the Bourbons and the Inquisition. He explained the differences between the styles of architecture that you can see throughout the city and how the Moors, Jews and Christians all had their impact on Madrid. After almost four hours of walking through the rain, the tour ended and Pablo brought us to a restaurant for paella and sangria.
Because it was still raining after we finished lunch, us from Cornell decided to go to the Reina Sofia to escape the rain while Kristine returned to the hostel to rest and go shopping.
The Reina Sofia is a modern art museum and has large collections of Picasso and Dali. It is probably most famous for having la Guernica, a cubism painting by Picasso that represents the destruction and bombing of a small town in the north of Spain in Basque country that happened during the Civil War. I only saw a small portion of the collections, but I really enjoyed what I saw. There was a series of photos of people of each age up to 100 years, a lot of paintings by Picasso and Dali, and other interesting pieces. We spent the afternoon in the museum, returned to the hostel and joined Kristine shopping.
After a quick dinner made in the hostel, we went on a pub crawl organized by the hostel. We went to three bars and a night club. It was fun, but we were so tired by the end of the night that we just wanted to go back and sleep.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Confusión y comida china // Confusion and Chinese Food
Sí conoces a mi amiga Adrianne, ella puede decirte una cuenta de cuando fue a Wendy’s para pedir unas Frosties. No recuerdo los detalles exactamente, pero el punto de la cuenta es que pidió, decimos, dos Frosties chocolates medianos. El cajero era un hombre de India y tiene un acento como puedes imaginar. Pues, cuando Adrianne pidió dos Frosties, unos problemas seguían. Sigue una imitación de la conversación que tuvieron.
A: Dos Frosties chocolates medianos por favor.
H: Dos Frosties vainillas grandes.
A: No no no. Dos Frosties chocolates medianos.
H: Un Frosty chocolate mediano y un Frosty vainilla mediano.
A: ¿Qué? No. Dos Frosties chocolates medianos.
H: Vale vale. Un Frosty chocolate mediano y papas fritas.
A: No. Dije dos Frosties chocolates medianos.
H: ¡O! Lo siento. Dos Frosties chocolates, un grande y un pequeño.
A: ¿En serio? No. Dos Frosties chocolates medianos.
H: Sí sí sí. Tres Frosties chocolates medianos.
A: Casi. Pero solo quiero dos.
H: Vale. Entonces, dos Frosties chocolates pequeños.
No puedo recordar cómo termina la cuenta, pero consigues la idea. Pues, anoche traté de pedir comida china por teléfono y lo mismo ocurrió. Estaba diciendo el número de teléfono a una mujer y no podía entenderme.
Y: Seis tres cuatro.
M: Seis cuatro ocho.
Y: No. Seis tres cuatro.
M: Seis cuatro ocho.
Y: Erm… no. Seis tres cuatro
M: Seis seis cuatro
Y: No no no. Seis tres cuatro.
M: ¡O! Sí, seis seis ocho.
Y: No. Seis tres cuatro. Como, uno dos TRES.
M: Ah sí. Seis tres tres.
La conversación pasó como 5 minutos y finalmente lo dejé. No creo que tenía mi número correcto, pero la comida llegó sin problema y probaba muy bien. Pero una nota, ¡la comida no vino con galletas de fortuna sino pan china! Y pan china parece como styrofoam. Prueba bien pero todavía, no lo mismo.
Viajes planeados que vienen pronto
- Madrid, Segovia y Toledo
- Oviedo y Leon
- Burgos
- Brussels, Bruges y Ghent en Noviembre
If you know my friend Adrianne, she could tell you a story about when she went to Wendy’s to order some Frosties. I don’t remember the exact details, but the point of the story is that she ordered, let’s say, two medium chocolate Frosties. The cashier was an Indian man with a thick accent, like you can probably imagine. Well, when Adrianne ordered two Frosties, some problems ensued. What follows is an approximation of the conversation that they had.
A: Two medium chocolate Frosties, please.
H: Two large vanilla Frosties.
A: No no no. Two medium chocolate Frosties.
H: One medium chocolate Frosty and one medium vanilla Frosty.
A: What? No. Two medium chocolate Frosties.
H: Okay okay. One medium chocolate Frosty with French fries.
A: No. I said two medium chocolate Frosties.
H: Oh! I’m sorry. Two chocolate Frosties. One large and one small.
A Seriously? No. Two medium chocolate Frosties.
H: Yes yes yes. Three medium chocolate Frosties.
A: Almost, but I only want two.
H: Okay. Then, two small chocolate Frosties.
I can’t remember how the story ends, but you get the idea. Well, last night I tried to order Chinese food over the phone and the same thing happened. I was saying my phone number to a woman and she couldn’t understand me.
M: Six three four.
W: Six four eight.
M: No. Six three four.
W. Six four eight.
M: Um, no. Six three four.
W: Six six four.
M. No no no. Six three four.
W: Oh! Yes, six six eight.
M: No. Six three four. Like, one two THREE.
W: Ah okay. Six three three.
The conversation lasted probably 5 minutes and finally I let it go. I don’t think that she had the number right, but the food arrived without a problem and it tasted good. But one note, the food didn’t come with fortune cookies, but rather Chinese bread! And the bread looked like the stryofoam. It tasted good, but still, not the same.
Trips coming up soon
- Madrid, Segovia and Toledo
- Oviedo and Leon
- Burgos
- Brussels, Bruges and Ghent in November