Sunday, May 31, 2009
Things I will miss about Granada
Jim and Emilio
Mirador de San Nicolas
Paseo de los Triste
Magnums Ice Cream
Kinder Buenos (chocolate)
Plazas
European Fashion
European children
Barcelona futbol
being able to walk everywhere
old Spanish senoras that walk arm in arm
the architecture
churros with chocolate
spanish ice cream flavors
schawarmas or kebabs
seeing all the rastas
european scarfs
speaking spanish
the family farm
bocadillos
tappas
tinto de verano
fanta limon
claras
olives
manchengo cheese
alioli sauce
hormiguerro ( a spanish night time show)
the gypsies on the streets with their stupid twigs
accessible travel
and so much more that I can't even think of......
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Back to barcelona
I could not leave Spain without one last trip to Barcelona and of course to see Jim and Emilio. This time I brought my friend Ann with me and got there early Friday morning. That Friday Ann and I toured Las Ramblas, saw everything Gaudi including the Sagrada Familia and Parque Guell. It was so relaxing and finally good weather. This semester was weird weather for Spain and it was finally a little bit warmer. Just strolling the streets was great. I noticed a lot more tourists this time in late April more than I did when I was there in February. When we came home from a great night, Jim and Emilio made a great dinner for us. We tried to keep the conversation in Spanish the best we could. After dinner and a great deal of wine we were ready for sleep because it was off to the Picasso museum Saturday morning.
That morning we went to the picasso mus
Discovering Madrid
At this point of our semester most of us were getting pretty exhausted. With only 3 weeks left of school, we had a lot of school projects and exams. I knew I could not leave Spain having not been to Madrid. Lindsey, Martha and I took a bus from Granada that was 5 hours long Friday morning. Upon arriving we found our hostal close to the street called Gran Via. This is the equivalent of our main streets and there is a street called gran via in every city. Our hostal had three beds with a shower in our room but no toilet. It was the weirdest set up, but the best we could find for the weekend. After getting settled we headed out to see the Plaza de Espana and the Palacio Real de Madrid. The Palacio Real was beautiful and supposed to be Spain's equivalent of Versailles in
The next day I separated from the group and went to Segovia for a day by myself. I knew if I didn't go there I would regret it. Segovia has one of the two castles that Walt Disney modeled the Disney World Castle off of. I went all over the city and saw the roman aqueducts, a beautiful cathedral, and of course the castle. It was a great day. On my little trip out there it was amazing to see the difference in the landscape from central Spain from the south. Everything was much greener and it seemed there were actual established suburbs of Madrid. Granada is definitely smaller and a whole other world in Spain compared to the other cities.
Saturday night we went to the Reina Sofia and saw Picasso's Guernica. It was awesome to see that in person because we learned all about it in my art history class. After we
Sunday before we left we took a stroll through the parque retiro and saw the Pardo museum. All in all the weekend was great and jam packed.
Week two with Stan and Lana
Rule number one: never rent a car in
After arriving to our destination in Lisboa ( holy week. At this point we weren't thrilled yet until we went to restaurant for some traditional Portuguese food with Fado music. The best place to hear this is in the Barrio Alto. We spent a 3 hour meal listening to different music that was beautiful. The women singing had low cut shirts and intense makeup. It is nothing like the Flamenco I have seen in
e said, “Chicago” and he responded with gun gestures and said Al Capone. We laughed because the Capone has been dead for about 70 years, but everywhere you go people still think the same about
Monday was our spiritual journey to
After Fatima we had half a day left and decided to go see the me of the old royal family’s summer castle. This castle has views of all of
It might not have been such a good idea to leave so late cause we did not get into the religious processions going on. It also didn’t h
elp that every street was one way too. I spent the whole night going back and forth in English with my parents and Spanish with the locals to get the correct directions since our mapquest was no longer useful with the processions on every street. These religious processions are known to be the best of all of
Im assuming now that the kkk has a derivative from this type of religious brotherhood but the two types are not related today. They can’t even see in front of them, but are directed instead. Training is required for months to perform this and the whole city comes out to see it. Along with the procession local orchestras accompany with intense music and drums that put the fear of God in you. When we returned to
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Week one with Stan and Lana
Well right before my second week off this semester, my parents came to visit for a two week vacation. When the arrived after a long time of traveling both of them were so thankful to be and the apartment that we rented. It had a perfect location in the center of the city and close to my school. The first dinner my mom made chicken legs cooked in olive oil. We made the best dues we could with what we had to cook with, but the meal was truly wonderful. I really needed some American mommy meanls. After they adjusted to the time after a good nights sleep I took them to meet Franciso, my favorite
That week I also took my parents to the Mirador de San Nicolas so that they could see the best view of the Alhambra. After they made the trek up there they loved it. Both of the
On Friday we went to the Alhambra. My mom got some good ideas for her garden and got to look up into the city where we were the day b
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Climbing a mountain on your twenty first birthday: priceless
So this weekend was hectic with the past couple weeks of school just not letting me have a moment to think. Friday at 8:30 in the morning we headed off to the Alpujarras mountains in down, and up and down some more we stopped and had lunch that consisted of us making little sandwhiches from local meats and cheeses. We stopped right by a great little waterfall and took everything in. After our meal we walked for about another hour and a half. It was so amazing it felt like we were in a Pocahontas movie or something. Around 5 o'clock we were done for the day just waiting for dinner.
I couldn't sleep completely that night because I knew that the next morning was my birthday and also because I knew I had such a day ahead of me. This day the first hour and a half was the most streneous becuase it was our climb to the mountain peak. Some of us girls found ourselves singing "Living on a prayer" by Bon Jovi because the song says that we are oooo we're half way there ooooo living on a prayer....this mind set was so necessary at some points. Once we got there everything faded because we could see the rest of the world below us.
We continued the day down a mountain that was part of the Sierra Nevadas instead of Alpujarras. That was my favorite sight I have ever seen in
After I went out to a Italian restaurant and out with my friends. It was definately a night to remember!
Sunday, March 22, 2009
¡Un día al campo!
The drive was about 20 minutes outside of Granada. We drove though so many olive groves that there was no way I could find my way back if I got lost there. The house itself was pretty cool. It had a standard layout of one great room with a large fire place. This was how it was when it was first built, the "Abuela" or grandma added a new kitchen and extra rooms on the first floor as well as a whole second story. We started the day out as the men did
After the meal, all of the men took a little nap and the women talked for about an hour. It was nice to be in this family atmosphere listening to Spanish gossip. What I have come to understand about people is that at the end of the day we are actually more alike then we are different.
Also after lunch two of the little grandsons, my little host brother included, wanted to go on an excursion out into the farm. Apparently they do this all the time.