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 museum while Jim wrote and Emilio had work. Ann and I loved the musuem because the building was beautiful and it had so many of his personal works. My favorite was his whole interpretation on "Las Meninas" the famous painting by Velazquez. It took us a good part of the morning. After touring, Ann and I went with Jim and Emilio back to Sitges. It got a little bit colder out by this time of the weekend but it was no big deal. That night Jim and Emilio encouraged us to see the night life. It was fun and not too late of a night on Spain's terms. We only came home around 4 am! That morning it rained so no beach for us. Instead we had the best catalan meal with Jim and Emilio for Siesta. They made us hand rolled pasta that was filled with meat and also calsotts. Calsotts are sweet onions that are seasonal. We dip them in a type of salsa that was awesome. I definatley did not go hungry this weekend. Sitges was beautiful and I honestly can't wait to return to Espana just to go to Barcelona again. What a perfect last hurrah!

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 France. The Palacio Real was created by a Spanish King that grew up in Versailles and wanted to make palace bigger and better then Versailles. I personally still like Versailles in France better.
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 went for dinner at a place that offered wine, bread, salad, entree, and dessert all for 12 Euros. I had the best fish I have ever had there. That night we met up with some of Lindsey's family friends where they showed us the night life of the city. By the time that was done, around 4 am, I was exhausted.
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 Europe. It's perfectly fine until you get lost or turned around or miss an exit. However one of those three is guaranteed to happen approximately every 15 minutes. This is what Stan, Lana, and I experienced when we made our trip to Portugal. However, I did enjoy Portugal very much even though a daily pepto bismal was required on days spent driving so that I wouldn't get severe heart burn.

After arriving to our destination in Lisboa (Lisbon), Portugal we were pleased to find that the Holiday Inn was up to our standards. We walked around a got a taste of some of the night air before retiring for the evening. We had an early start the next morning. Sunday morning we first saw a little flea market where I found a porcelain bowl for 5 Euros. From there we climbed up to see the Castle of Saint George and see breath taking views over the Atlantic. The Castle wasn't that big, but my mom really enjoyed the guitar player in the middle of the court yard. The entire city was very hilly and a mixture of old and new buildings because there had been an earthquake in the early 20th century. We made our way down and saw a beautiful cathedral. It was Palm Sunday so we got a chance to see their version of a procession into church to celebrate the beginning of 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 Spain. Our waiter spoke 5 languages and advised us well. However on the taxi ride home we nearly died because the driver thought it would be a funny joke to pretend to run over some locals. We freaked and he advised us they were his friends. Next he asked us where we were from. We 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 Chicago.

Monday was our spiritual journey to Fatima, Portugal. This is the location where three Portuguese children saw visions of the Virgin Mary. We thought the sight would be more compelling, but it was a tad bit commercialized with all the chapels and churches built on the sight. The other people around us where from all over the world. Many took the journey on their knees by crawling and praying to the chapel where the visions where scene. It was quite intense to see how others practice their faith, yet awakening for us three all at the same time.

After Fatima we had half a day left and decided to go see the Lisbon summer get away city, Sintra. This city is the real Disney World. Every single engineer of Disney World had to of been to Sintra to copy the natural romance of the city. This town is the home of the old royal family’s summer castle. This castle has views of all of Lisbon as well as the Atlantic Ocean. The castle was placed on top of the mountain and painted with different colors and the rest of the city trickling down the mountain side. Our first day there Stan drove up the mountain to get a view of the castle. We nearly saw our deaths when we tried to make a three point turn and full turn around on a one way road that was parallel to the mountain. The driving over this whole trip had been more than stressful and enough to make anyone need a strong drink. All in all that is one city we decided we have to make it back to, we loved it so much that we went back the next day and left for Spain much later than planned.

It might not have been such a good idea to leave so late cause we did not get into Sevilla, Spain until 8:30 pm. Then there we didn’t get to our hotel until 1:30 am. The whole city was impossible to get around because of the religious processions going on. It also didn’t help 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 Spain in Sevilla. Brotherhoods from churches all over carry different statues of Jesus, Mary, and different scenes from the Stations of the Cross. Usually 20-30 men carry these statues in a precise choreographed manner. There clothes consist of outfits that have hats that resemble the same style from the klu klux klan

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 Granada we saw processions that were almost the same. My parents rented apartment was right next to a church that hosted some of the processions. From our balcony we could see these fabulous processions everyday for the rest of holy week. The bells and drums never got old. For Easter we went to church in Cathedral of Granada where Ferdinand and Isabel are buried. My mother made homemade tomato sauce with pasta to celebrate my parent’s anniversary and Easter all in one day. It was nice for us to celebrate it this way because Good Friday is more celebrated in Spain than Easter Sunday itself. So for us it was one last mommy meal to hold me off until my arrival home.

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 Spaniard, for a wine and tappas tasting with Kelley's family. This was a 4 hour shindig and opened my mother's eyes to the world of cooking with olive oil. We tried 3 different oils along with meats and cheeses, gazpacho, olives, hams, and spanish food galore. Not to mention the 4 different wines too. This really got us into the mood of enjoying Spain and all the wonders it has to offer. My mom's oilve oil tastebuds will never be the same.
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 them kept commenting on how good the air smelled. So for a while we looked at the Alhambra, and listened to the hippie music. On the way back down we took a different route and saw the paseo de los tristes and did some shopping in the Moroccan styled shops. This paseo is a path of the sad because it used to be a place for people to visit a cemetery. However now it shows beautiful ruins on the side of the Alhambra and is no longer a cemetary as it was centuries ago.
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 before at the Mirador de San Nicolas. I tried to be the best tour guide, telling them everything I have learned about the Alhambra, considering this was about my 6th time being at the palace. I wore them out that day. On Saturday we started out trip to Portugal, more to come on that part of the trip.

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 Spain. These mountains are in the Province of Granada and south of the city of Granada. I truly had no idea what was in store for me. We arrived at our pueblo (town) that was our starting point. We meant our guide who never broke a sweat, and fixed our backpacks to lighten our load. At approximately 10 am we started a vertical hike to the next pueblo in the mountain range. The scenery was beautiful, except I didn't get a chance a see it until we hit horizontal paths (I was too busy counting the seconds until my thys would stop burning). Once on flat land we could take in the aroma of the fresh cherry blossom trees and fresh air. If anything I had allergies that weekend because I had never smelled air that fresh in my life. After going up and 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 Spain. I think it was because it was more green and if I looked to my left I could almost touch the clouds. It was absolutely beautiful. For lunch we stopped at a spot where there was natural carbonated water because of so much iron in the water. It tasted carbonated, but not as strong. We followed a path after to see some great lookouts, a shepherd and his sheep, and a 400 year old tree. I honestly could not of asked for a better birthday! More pictures and an update to come.
After I went out to a Italian restaurant and out with my friends. It was definately a night to remember!