Amsterdam
Valencia
Granada 1
Granada 2
5.11.2009
Less than two weeks to go! I've made lists of all the things I have left to do around the city (which is surprisingly short) and a list of the souvenirs I still have to buy. I'm going to try and get some chorizo (a type of sausage) and maybe some good cheese back with me, but I'll have to see what customs says when I get to the U.S. We start exams on Wednesday and classes officially end on Thursday. I have an exam this Wednesday and Friday and then two more next Monday and Thursday. This means I should have plenty of free time to get around the city and see the last few parks/museums/random things I've missed. And (hopefully) I'll get to spend some more time at the beach.
We had a lot of fun in Amsterdam! Amsterdam is a beautiful city, it's like some sort of Dutch fairytale. All the buildings are brick with brightly painted doors and shutters and there are flowers everywhere. Amsterdam also has canals, which I didn't know beforehand, but the bridges add even more character to the city. We saw the house that Anne Frank and her family hid in up until they were taken to concentration camps and the famous red-light district. Some of my friends went to a Van Gogh museum, but I saw a lot of his famous pieces in Paris so I didn't want to go. The weather cooperated really well, too, so we were lucky.
I haven't uploaded photos from Amsterdam yet, but when I do I'll post the link.
We had a lot of fun in Amsterdam! Amsterdam is a beautiful city, it's like some sort of Dutch fairytale. All the buildings are brick with brightly painted doors and shutters and there are flowers everywhere. Amsterdam also has canals, which I didn't know beforehand, but the bridges add even more character to the city. We saw the house that Anne Frank and her family hid in up until they were taken to concentration camps and the famous red-light district. Some of my friends went to a Van Gogh museum, but I saw a lot of his famous pieces in Paris so I didn't want to go. The weather cooperated really well, too, so we were lucky.
I haven't uploaded photos from Amsterdam yet, but when I do I'll post the link.
5.07.2009
I'm sorry I haven't written in a while! I think about it everyday, but it's getting harder and harder to keep up with this blog. I'll try to give as good of a summary as I can...
This past weekend I took my trip to Valencia and Granada and surprise! I went all by myself! I didn't mention it before because I didn't want anyone to worry but now that I'm back in Barcelona I can say that everything went PERFECTLY. I had a fantastic weekend all to myself. In fact, the only hiccups I had all weekend involved the Barcelona train station so I really can't complain at all. I took a train to Valencia Thursday evening, it was about three and a half hours. I found my hostel and checked in and I had a dorm room meant for six girls all to myself. Friday I spent the entire day walking around the city seeing the churches, plazas and museums. I even saw a movie when it started to get dark, just to kill some time. My train from Valencia to Granada left at 1am, so I had plenty of time to kill.
I spent all day Saturday and Sunday in Granada, a city that turned out to be my idea of a Spanish paradise. It's the Spain that I've been looking for, the Spain I read about in all of my textbooks before coming here. Granada is a relatively large city, but the historical center of it still feels like a pueblo. I had a great time just wandering around watching the people, smelling the flowers, and working on my tan! I ate some traditional tapas and seafood and tried just about all the pastries I hadn't seen before in Barcelona. Saturday night I even saw an authentic flamenco show in a great little hole-in-the-wall bar.
Sunday I spent almost the entire day at La Alhambra, the royal grounds and palaces of the Moorish royalty that thrived in Spain until the Catholics forced them out in 1492. I was amazed how well it was preserved, despite how my travel guidebook says they're nothing like they used to be. Apparently Napoleon used La Alhambra as a fort during the Spanish war for independence from France and he and his troops destroyed as much of it as they could. La Alhambra (and Granada in general) is filled with gardens and flowers in every available space. I felt like I could smell flowers and hear birds singing even when I couldn't see the flowers or the birds. How Granada became such a happy-go-lucky place I really don't know.
I really enjoyed spending the weekend alone, even if it meant a 13-hour train ride back to Barcelona. I could do what I wanted, when I wanted, how I wanted and for as long as I wanted. I took time to stop and read anywhere the mood struck me and found that I really enjoy reading near fountains. I had time to write in my journal and think about whatever I decided needed thinking about. (Like how two weeks from tomorrow I'm getting on a plane to the United States...) Silvia noticed right away how happy this trip made me and said it was the happiest and most excited she'd seen me after any trip this semester.
Tomorrow at about 7am we'll be on a flight to Amsterdam. No, I'm not traveling alone this weekend. Matt, Trent, Stephanie, Adriana and I rented an apartment for the weekend so we'll all be together. I might even see a friend from home who is studying in Holland and is thinking of coming to Amsterdam to see us tomorrow, that should be fun. I'll be back Sunday evening and will try my best to write again by Monday at the latest. Next week final exams start... I think I'll also try to start packing then, too! EEK!
This past weekend I took my trip to Valencia and Granada and surprise! I went all by myself! I didn't mention it before because I didn't want anyone to worry but now that I'm back in Barcelona I can say that everything went PERFECTLY. I had a fantastic weekend all to myself. In fact, the only hiccups I had all weekend involved the Barcelona train station so I really can't complain at all. I took a train to Valencia Thursday evening, it was about three and a half hours. I found my hostel and checked in and I had a dorm room meant for six girls all to myself. Friday I spent the entire day walking around the city seeing the churches, plazas and museums. I even saw a movie when it started to get dark, just to kill some time. My train from Valencia to Granada left at 1am, so I had plenty of time to kill.
I spent all day Saturday and Sunday in Granada, a city that turned out to be my idea of a Spanish paradise. It's the Spain that I've been looking for, the Spain I read about in all of my textbooks before coming here. Granada is a relatively large city, but the historical center of it still feels like a pueblo. I had a great time just wandering around watching the people, smelling the flowers, and working on my tan! I ate some traditional tapas and seafood and tried just about all the pastries I hadn't seen before in Barcelona. Saturday night I even saw an authentic flamenco show in a great little hole-in-the-wall bar.
Sunday I spent almost the entire day at La Alhambra, the royal grounds and palaces of the Moorish royalty that thrived in Spain until the Catholics forced them out in 1492. I was amazed how well it was preserved, despite how my travel guidebook says they're nothing like they used to be. Apparently Napoleon used La Alhambra as a fort during the Spanish war for independence from France and he and his troops destroyed as much of it as they could. La Alhambra (and Granada in general) is filled with gardens and flowers in every available space. I felt like I could smell flowers and hear birds singing even when I couldn't see the flowers or the birds. How Granada became such a happy-go-lucky place I really don't know.
I really enjoyed spending the weekend alone, even if it meant a 13-hour train ride back to Barcelona. I could do what I wanted, when I wanted, how I wanted and for as long as I wanted. I took time to stop and read anywhere the mood struck me and found that I really enjoy reading near fountains. I had time to write in my journal and think about whatever I decided needed thinking about. (Like how two weeks from tomorrow I'm getting on a plane to the United States...) Silvia noticed right away how happy this trip made me and said it was the happiest and most excited she'd seen me after any trip this semester.
Tomorrow at about 7am we'll be on a flight to Amsterdam. No, I'm not traveling alone this weekend. Matt, Trent, Stephanie, Adriana and I rented an apartment for the weekend so we'll all be together. I might even see a friend from home who is studying in Holland and is thinking of coming to Amsterdam to see us tomorrow, that should be fun. I'll be back Sunday evening and will try my best to write again by Monday at the latest. Next week final exams start... I think I'll also try to start packing then, too! EEK!
4.26.2009
There isn't much to report this week. Last Friday (about 9 days ago now) I slipped going down the stairs of my apartment and hurt my foot. After walking on it for almost a week, I gave in and went to the orthopedist on Thursday to make sure there were no broken bones. Luckily I didn't break anything so I don't have a cast, boot or crutches but I'm still hurting pretty bad. The doctor told me to stay off it the best I can and gave me some heavy-duty ibuprofen to help with the pain. Unfortunately, it's not easy to avoid walking in this city. The weather has been pretty great lately and it pains me to sit inside with ice on my foot while the whole world is out enjoying the sunshine. Especially since I only have four weeks (gasp!) left. I've been trying my best, but sometimes the weather and the lure of fun with friends gets the best of me. It's supposed to be rainy most of the day today... so maybe I'll actually stay home and not walk. In any case, it'll heal with time so it's okay.
Thursday was also Dia de San Jordi. He's on of the saints of Cataluna (the 'state' in which Barcelona is located) because of a legend in which he saved the princess from an evil dragon. When he saved her, her tears of joy mixed with the blood of the dragon and a red rose appeared. San Jordi gave the rose to the princess and began the tradition of giving roses to women on this day. Then, later in history Cervantes and Shakespeare both died around this time and it was named some sort of day to honor literature as well. So, now on Dia de San Jordi the men give the women a rose and the women give the men a book. Of course, many people don't follow this tradition too strictly because obviously women love books as well, but it's still an important day in Cataluna. All of the bookstores (of which there are gobs upon gobs in this city) set up tents outside on the sidewalks to sell their books and there are carts and tents set up to sell roses anywhere that the bookstores left space. Also, anyone with a balcony hangs the Catalan flag from it. The photo at the top is of our apartment building, just to give you an idea of what the city looked like that day.
Obviously with my foot the way it is we didn't do any traveling this weekend, so I don't have any new photos to share with you. This coming week I'll be traveling Thursday evening through Monday evening through southern Spain so when I get back I'll have TONS to post.
I missed a few calls after I'd already gone to sleep this week, they came up "Unknown" so I don't know who it was but I'm pretty sure it's somone who must've been calling my virtual U.S. number. Whoever it was can feel free to E-Mail me or call back, just remember that it's seven hours later here and after midnight I'm usually either asleep or trying to get to sleep. Calling before 5pm CST works a lot better for me.
More next week...
4.20.2009
This weekend I went with my program to a place called Vall de Boi, about four hours away from Barcelona and up in the Pyrenees Mountains. Saturday we visited two Romanic churches from the 12th century. There are eight of them in the area that are extremely well preserved. Sunday we spent a few hours at a national park in the mountains and did a little hiking. We had a very nice tour guide who taught us about how the park is run and what kinds of wildlife can be found in the area. One interesting thing I learned is that hunting, fishing and camping are not allowed in the national parks but they do let farmers use the land for grazing for their sheep or cattle. The weather was fabulous and so was the view. Visiting the park was the only thing we did Sunday then they drove us back to Barcelona.
This weekend I don't have any real plans set, but I think I might go to Tarragona and see the Roman ruins there on Saturday in the afternoon. Next weekend I'm going to two other cities in Spain that my program didn't pay for us to visit. I'll be visiting Valencia and Granada from Thursday through Sunday night and traveling by train... Even though I'm pretty sick of trains after taking so many through Italy...
I'll be heading home a month from Wednesday or four weeks from Friday, depending on how you want to look at it! Because of my crazy layover in D.C. I'll land in the U.S. on Friday the 22nd at about 8pm, but I don't leave D.C. until 12pm the next day so I don't actually get to SF until 8pm Saturday the 23rd. When I land in D.C. I'm going to see what I can do to get out of there earlier, but I doubt they'll be able to do much for me. In any case, I'm starting to get excited to head home. I know it's going to be sad to leave the city, but I miss all my family and friends back home!
Here is a link to an album I just added some photos to. I added photos from La Pedrera, an apartment building designed by Antoni Gaudi that was lived in during the early 1900s. I'll also post the link to my photos from Vall de Boi.
Viva Barcelona II
Vall de Boi
This weekend I don't have any real plans set, but I think I might go to Tarragona and see the Roman ruins there on Saturday in the afternoon. Next weekend I'm going to two other cities in Spain that my program didn't pay for us to visit. I'll be visiting Valencia and Granada from Thursday through Sunday night and traveling by train... Even though I'm pretty sick of trains after taking so many through Italy...
I'll be heading home a month from Wednesday or four weeks from Friday, depending on how you want to look at it! Because of my crazy layover in D.C. I'll land in the U.S. on Friday the 22nd at about 8pm, but I don't leave D.C. until 12pm the next day so I don't actually get to SF until 8pm Saturday the 23rd. When I land in D.C. I'm going to see what I can do to get out of there earlier, but I doubt they'll be able to do much for me. In any case, I'm starting to get excited to head home. I know it's going to be sad to leave the city, but I miss all my family and friends back home!
Here is a link to an album I just added some photos to. I added photos from La Pedrera, an apartment building designed by Antoni Gaudi that was lived in during the early 1900s. I'll also post the link to my photos from Vall de Boi.
Viva Barcelona II
Vall de Boi
4.12.2009
I don't know how I can possibly write about everything I did over spring break... I haven't even been able to get all the photos up yet, there are too many! I guess I can start with the general comments...
Italy is fabulous! Before we left the weather predictions were saying there was a chance of rain in every city we were going to visit for the entire week so we were prepared for some bad weather. By some stroke of luck, however, we barely saw a handful of sprinkles over the course of the week. Italy was all sunshine and cool breezes for us! We did almost all of our traveling by train and it got old after a while. From Milan to Venice, Venice to Florence and Florence to Rome were all about 4 hours or less. But, from Rome to Palermo, Sicily was FOURTEEN hours and it was miserable!!!! Our car was one of the only cars to have five of six seats filled so none of us could recline our seats or put our feet up! Sometime after 3am two of the passengers in our car got off at a stop and the other three of us got a few hours sleep where we were able to lie down before the ticket checker came by and woke us all up again. At that point I never wanted to get on a train again, so I was glad we were flying back to Rome instead of taking another night train.
The food was fantastic, as I'm sure you'd imagine. We ate a LOT of pizza this week. When looking for the cheapest meals, it turned out that a cheese pizza and a bottle of water was usually the winner. Most of the pizza had a thinner crust than what we eat in the U.S. but they give you a pizza the size of a medium pizza back home so it's plenty for one person. The desserts were great, too! I ate my share of cannoli and chocolate! The pasta was good, too... I think I had lasagna, spaghetti and tortellini at different points during the week and they were all yummy!
Let me see... highlights... Well, I'd already been to Venice and there wasn't much more I could see that I hadn't seen when was there before. But, I still enjoyed it because it's a beautiful city and truly one of a kind. When we were in Florence we didn't get to see much because it was Monday and we forgot that most public museums, gardens, castles, etc. are all closed on Mondays in Europe. So, we didn't get to go inside the Piti Palace or its famous gardens and we didn't get to go inside the museum that holds the original statue of David by Michelangelo and that was a bummer. Once again though, the weather was great and we were able to walk everywhere we needed to go and we saw a lot of beautiful architecture.
Matt and I had a few hours in Rome before we caught our train to Sicily so we walked through as much of the city as we could and completely overwhelmed ourselves. We literally just kind of "stumbled upon" the Colosseum as we were looking down a narrow street trying to find our way to the center of the city. It was pretty incredible how it just kind of showed up right before our eyes. I already mentioned how the train ride to Palermo, Sicily was awful, but our experiences in Sicily were interesting, too. Palermo is the biggest city and it was really strange compared to the other cities we've seen. It was very dirty and a lot of it seemed rundown. The traffic was AWFUL and we saw a couple stereotypical Italian men get out of their cars to yell things at the other people in traffic. We took a bus to a nearby town called Corleone which is the town "The Godfather" is based on and there's supposedly still a lot of mafia influence thriving there. We got dropped off right in the middle of their lunchtime so almost everything was closed and all the people were just watching us from their windows clearly wondering what the hell we were doing there. We walked for a little bit and then ended up sitting in a plaza waiting for two hours for the bus to come back and pick us up. As we were sitting there waiting all the old men of the town came to the plaza with their canes and their matching hats and sat on the benches talking to each other and watching us. We were convinced they were retired mafiosos. Apart from that I can only say that Sicily really does have the most incredible landscape I think I've ever seen. It's a great mixture of coastline, mountains, and green, rolling hills and plains. I loved it!
Then there's Rome... What can I say about Rome? I couldn't wrap my head around that city no matter how hard I tried. We had two jam-packed days of sightseeing and still couldn't see everything we wanted to. There are ruins strewn about around the entire city and all of them are tied to names and stories that seem like legends and myths to us. Much of the ancient city dates to before the death of Christ and some of those relics are still standing today. Most of the time we just walked around stunned and snapping photos. We went to see the Vatican on Friday and that was interesting as well. We got to see the inside of St. Peter's Basilica, the room of the tombs of the Popes, St. Peter's Square, and the Sistene Chapel. We weren't able to see the Pope speak because we didn't get tickets in time, but we were able to see more of Rome with the time we saved. The whole thing was really surreal.
Now we're back in Barcelona with three days left of spring break. Easter is HUGE here since the country is about 97% Catholic, so we get an extended break. Everything is shut down for the most part both today and tomorrow, but I'm hoping to get out and accomplish some sightseeing in Barcelona on Tuesday... or maybe a day at the beach, depending on the weather. Coming up we have a trip with our group to Vall de Boi this weekend; I'm not sure exactly what we'll be doing there but I know it involves the mountains and possibly some hiking. The weekend after that I think I'll be taking a day-trip to Tarragona which is a site with Roman ruins just outside the city. And beyond that I know I have a trip to Amsterdam planned May 8-10, but the rest of the weekends are up in the air. I'll be home in 6 weeks!
Photos from this week will be up sometime later today...
Italy is fabulous! Before we left the weather predictions were saying there was a chance of rain in every city we were going to visit for the entire week so we were prepared for some bad weather. By some stroke of luck, however, we barely saw a handful of sprinkles over the course of the week. Italy was all sunshine and cool breezes for us! We did almost all of our traveling by train and it got old after a while. From Milan to Venice, Venice to Florence and Florence to Rome were all about 4 hours or less. But, from Rome to Palermo, Sicily was FOURTEEN hours and it was miserable!!!! Our car was one of the only cars to have five of six seats filled so none of us could recline our seats or put our feet up! Sometime after 3am two of the passengers in our car got off at a stop and the other three of us got a few hours sleep where we were able to lie down before the ticket checker came by and woke us all up again. At that point I never wanted to get on a train again, so I was glad we were flying back to Rome instead of taking another night train.
The food was fantastic, as I'm sure you'd imagine. We ate a LOT of pizza this week. When looking for the cheapest meals, it turned out that a cheese pizza and a bottle of water was usually the winner. Most of the pizza had a thinner crust than what we eat in the U.S. but they give you a pizza the size of a medium pizza back home so it's plenty for one person. The desserts were great, too! I ate my share of cannoli and chocolate! The pasta was good, too... I think I had lasagna, spaghetti and tortellini at different points during the week and they were all yummy!
Let me see... highlights... Well, I'd already been to Venice and there wasn't much more I could see that I hadn't seen when was there before. But, I still enjoyed it because it's a beautiful city and truly one of a kind. When we were in Florence we didn't get to see much because it was Monday and we forgot that most public museums, gardens, castles, etc. are all closed on Mondays in Europe. So, we didn't get to go inside the Piti Palace or its famous gardens and we didn't get to go inside the museum that holds the original statue of David by Michelangelo and that was a bummer. Once again though, the weather was great and we were able to walk everywhere we needed to go and we saw a lot of beautiful architecture.
Matt and I had a few hours in Rome before we caught our train to Sicily so we walked through as much of the city as we could and completely overwhelmed ourselves. We literally just kind of "stumbled upon" the Colosseum as we were looking down a narrow street trying to find our way to the center of the city. It was pretty incredible how it just kind of showed up right before our eyes. I already mentioned how the train ride to Palermo, Sicily was awful, but our experiences in Sicily were interesting, too. Palermo is the biggest city and it was really strange compared to the other cities we've seen. It was very dirty and a lot of it seemed rundown. The traffic was AWFUL and we saw a couple stereotypical Italian men get out of their cars to yell things at the other people in traffic. We took a bus to a nearby town called Corleone which is the town "The Godfather" is based on and there's supposedly still a lot of mafia influence thriving there. We got dropped off right in the middle of their lunchtime so almost everything was closed and all the people were just watching us from their windows clearly wondering what the hell we were doing there. We walked for a little bit and then ended up sitting in a plaza waiting for two hours for the bus to come back and pick us up. As we were sitting there waiting all the old men of the town came to the plaza with their canes and their matching hats and sat on the benches talking to each other and watching us. We were convinced they were retired mafiosos. Apart from that I can only say that Sicily really does have the most incredible landscape I think I've ever seen. It's a great mixture of coastline, mountains, and green, rolling hills and plains. I loved it!
Then there's Rome... What can I say about Rome? I couldn't wrap my head around that city no matter how hard I tried. We had two jam-packed days of sightseeing and still couldn't see everything we wanted to. There are ruins strewn about around the entire city and all of them are tied to names and stories that seem like legends and myths to us. Much of the ancient city dates to before the death of Christ and some of those relics are still standing today. Most of the time we just walked around stunned and snapping photos. We went to see the Vatican on Friday and that was interesting as well. We got to see the inside of St. Peter's Basilica, the room of the tombs of the Popes, St. Peter's Square, and the Sistene Chapel. We weren't able to see the Pope speak because we didn't get tickets in time, but we were able to see more of Rome with the time we saved. The whole thing was really surreal.
Now we're back in Barcelona with three days left of spring break. Easter is HUGE here since the country is about 97% Catholic, so we get an extended break. Everything is shut down for the most part both today and tomorrow, but I'm hoping to get out and accomplish some sightseeing in Barcelona on Tuesday... or maybe a day at the beach, depending on the weather. Coming up we have a trip with our group to Vall de Boi this weekend; I'm not sure exactly what we'll be doing there but I know it involves the mountains and possibly some hiking. The weekend after that I think I'll be taking a day-trip to Tarragona which is a site with Roman ruins just outside the city. And beyond that I know I have a trip to Amsterdam planned May 8-10, but the rest of the weekends are up in the air. I'll be home in 6 weeks!
Photos from this week will be up sometime later today...
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