I know what you’re thinking; it has been way too long since my last update...¡Lo siento! I have been SUPER DUPER busy with school and traveling lately. I’ll try and pick up where I left off. About a month ago I went on a week excursion with the “Grupo de Kansas”, which includes the 7 of us American students, our program coordinator, and my “Historia del Arte” professor. We left the day after I got back from London, Tues. Oct. 14, and were in Madrid from Tuesday through Saturday, spending one day in Segovia (A city about an hour outside of Madrid).
We got to Madrid, checked into our hotel and had a little “tiempo libre” so just about all of us took a siesta. You’d be surprised at how jet lagged you get on even a short flight, I think it was only about an hour and a half. When we woke up we took a stroll through “Madrid de los Austrias”, one of the neighborhoods in Madrid. We walked through the “Plaza Mayor” which was pretty neat because it is such a famous place that you see in a lot of movies filmed in Spain. It was a very relaxed first night, which was great because sometimes the hustle and bustle of traveling can be overwhelming because there is usually so much to see and only a limited amount of time so it’s always hurry, hurry, hurry. The following day was un día lleno de arte. Because we get school credit for the trip, we actually had to learn...yuck, I know! Haha :)
We ate breakfast and then headed to el Museo del Prado. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it is a VERY famous museum with works of art from phenomenal artists like...Velazquez, El Greco, Goya, Murillo, and Rembrandt. I am not a huge museum artsy person, but it was pretty incredible to see the original works from these people. I was especially appreciative of the religious art by El Greco. His earlier paintings were mostly biblical and absolutely gorgeous. We spent about 2 hours in the museum before we had a break for lunch. After lunch we headed to the Museo Reina Sofia, a contemporary art museum that is very famous as well. The art in general was very abstract and very different from the classic art at the Prado. The themes were less religious and much more political. Although I am more of a fan of classic art, I enjoyed seeing the “Guernica” by Picasso. It is a representation of the Nazi German bombing of Guernica, Spain during the Spanish Civil War. Seeing it up close was pretty powerful because although it was meant to represent the Spanish Civil War, it does a good job of representing war in general. It evoked emotion and in my opinion, that is what art is all about so Pablo Picasso gets 2 thumbs up from me! :)
We ended our day of art with a nice group dinner and then headed back to the hotel relatively early because the next morning we were off to Segovia, which brings me to my next topic...SEGOVIA, one of my favorite Spanish cities thus far! It was absolutely beautiful. I slept for about 45 minutes on the bus and when I woke up, I was pleasantly surprised by the sight of the hills of Segovia. As you can see in the pictures I posted on Shutterfly, the hills were so simple, yet so beautiful. From the bus station, we walked through the city center passing by quite a few old churches that had a lot of character. From a distance, we saw the Acueducto de Segovia, but it wasn’t until we were standing directly in front of it that I was in awe. I had learned a lot about aqueducts and functional architecture in my art history class and had seen projector slides of various ones, but seeing this one in particular was pretty amazing. It was very neat to be viewing something that was constructed in the 1st Century AD.
Next, we went to the Cathedral of Segovia, which was architecturally phenomenal. I am sure you agree if you’ve viewed my pictures online. The outside of the cathedral was beautiful yes, but the inside was absolutely breathtaking. It was by far my favorite cathedral in Europe, and I’ve seen A LOT since I’ve been here. Yes I am catholic and yes I am strong in my faith, but even if that weren’t true, I still would have appreciated the cathedral. I feel like anyone, religious or not, would appreciate it, that is just how amazing it was. As I was walking through it, I kept thinking to myself, I wish both of my grandmothers could be here right now. I just know that both my grandma and my abuela would adore the sight of something so old and religiously beautiful.
As if I wasn’t already in love with Segovia, after the cathedral, we visited the castle of Alcázar. It was awesome! It was a castle meant to protect the city so it was constructed on top of a hill on the edge of town. The inside was extremely elaborate, ceilings and all, but the best part was the tower. I can’t even remember how many stairs it took to make it to the top, but however many...it was SO worth it! (Although at the time if you asked me I don’t know what my response would have been considering I was panting, sweating, and trying to catch my breath...sad I know!) The top of the tower provided an awesome view of the landscape and of the city. To say the very least, I absolutely loved Segovia. It wasn’t a very small city, but it had a quaint feeling like one. Everything about it was very charming and the people I encountered were especially friendly! Unfortunately, Segovia was only a day trip so we returned to the bus station around 7 in the evening and I can honestly say that I didn’t want to leave, but I didn’t really have a choice so I got on the bus and headed back to Madrid.
Friday was another relaxing day in Madrid, we went to the Palacio Real in the morning and then had the entire afternoon free. The Royal Palace was pretty neat. The building itself was amazing and the furnishings and decorations inside were even better. It is pretty crazy to think that at one point in time, Spanish Kings and Queens actually lived inside this place! I can’t imagine calling a palace my home...¡Que Guay! During our free afternoon, some of my friends and I went to “Puerto del Sol” which is a commercial area of Madrid with insane shopping opportunities! Let me tell ya...Any girl would LOVE this area. It has every type of store possible, with numerous shoe stores, and when I say numerous, I mean like a shoe store on every corner! (I am pretty sure Spain in general is like the shoe capital of the world...I LOVE IT!) We did a little shopping and then returned to the hotel. Alison and I then joined Ben and Kyle and headed to the Real Madrid Futbol Stadium. If you haven’t already checked out the pictures, please do because even if you’re not a huge sports fan, it was pretty darn cool! We toured the field, the VIP section, the bench and locker-room of the players, the Press Room and the “museum” section which displayed multiple trophies won by Real Madrid, as well as the first uniforms worn by the players and other things that explained the history of the club team. The entire tour was pretty awesome and I’m glad I got a chance to experience a little part of “futbol” considering it is like a religion in this country!
We ended Friday night and our trip in general with a nice dinner and a little Spanish Rock Concert! We were in the Puerto del Sol area for dinner and there just happened to be a concert going on so we stayed a rocked out a little bit, lol! Overall, our Madrid/Segovia excursion went very well, with the exception that I lost the 4 rings I always wear in the Madrid-Barajas Airport. I was pretty upset at first, but then I realized that worse things could’ve happened so I didn’t dwell on it too much. Saturday morning was breakfast at the hotel and then back to Santiago...“Casa Dulce Casa”, until the following weekend of course!
My Shutterfly Page:
http://mexigurl14.shutterfly.com/
Let me just start off by saying that I am thrilled to write this blog entry and I’m sure you can guess why! Just in case your brain isn’t functioning today...I’ll just go ahead and tell you: It is because the week I am about to write about is the week Kim and Michael came to visit me in Europe!!! I can’t even express the excitement that I felt to see my sister and brother for the first time since August. They arrived in Santiago on Monday afternoon while I was in class and let me tell ya, I have never walked home from school as fast as I did that day. I think I probably made it in 15 minutes and it usually takes me anywhere from 20-25 minutes, if that doesn’t demonstrate my excitement to you, I don’t what would! :) Kim and Michael booked a room in the same building that I live in so the first thing I did when I got home was ask my “landlord” what room number they were in and then I went upstairs to greet them, it was fabulous! I was so excited to see familiar faces that I could have cried; I’m actually surprised that I didn’t. I had just enough time to eat lunch with Kim and Michael before my afternoon class. I had them try an Empanada de Atun, Croquetas, and Queso de Tetilla, all of which are typical foods of Galicia (the state that Santiago is located in). They both walked with me to my afternoon class at the South campus just to get a feel for my daily life in Spain and then they headed to explore Santiago while I went to my grammar and conversation class. I pointed them in the right direction of the cathedral (the main “attraction” of Santiago) and then met up with them later in the evening. We hung out and chatted (catching up was so nice) until dinner time, which of course is about 9-9:30pm in Spain. We went to the restaurant that my program coordinator took my group the first week we were in Santiago. It is a nice restaurant with authentic Gallegan food (I posted pics of the food in the initial weeks I was here). Kim and Michael were both very open-minded about trying pulpo (octopus), which made me happy because it is a must in the NW region of Spain. They both were neutral about it, thinking it wasn’t bad, but wasn’t great either.
On Tuesday, I had a test in the morning and an essay to write in the afternoon, so I sent Kim and Michael on a little day trip to A Coruña (which I’ve already told you about and posted pictures of previously). Unfortunately for them, it was rainy all day so they didn’t enjoy the beach and the sites of the coastal city like I did, but they still enjoyed the day (Who wouldn’t, it’s Spain for goodness sake :)!) Tuesday night Kim, Michael, some of my friends and I ate dinner at “Dolce Vita” an Italian restaurant that my friends and I love for 2 reasons...The food is delicious (and a change from the everyday Spanish food we eat) and the camereros (waiters) are pretty darn cute! :) (No worries momma, I'm still not in love with a Spaniard and I have every intention of coming home come December 21st.) The following Wednesday morning, Kim, Michael and I woke up early and headed to the bus station to catch our bus from Santiago, Spain to Lisbon, Portugal, which was about a 9 hour trip. Considering I am quite the frequent traveler nowadays (hehe), I am accustomed to being “in route” for that amount of time, but I think Kim and Michael were a little wrestles, lol...Who can blame them, 9 hours is a long time in a bus! For the most part, we all slept to pass the time quickly. I always try to save my “postcard writing” for long bus rides because it gives me something to do. So when you received your postcard and were wondering why the handwriting was so bad, that’s why...the chances are I wrote it while on the road. I don’t have much detail for you as far as the 9 hour bus ride goes, the only thing worth talking about is a 10 minute rest stop/bathroom break we had. So the way these long bus rides work is you stop about every 2 hours to use the bathroom, to get off the bus and stretch, and of course to eat. This particular bathroom break was in a small city in Portugal (I can’t remember the name) and Kim and I both got off the bus to use the restroom, which to our surprise (and disgust) ended up being a hole in the ground. I mean literally, you walk into the door that says ladies bathroom and it is nothing but a hole in the ground. I hate to be over-detailed, lol, but popping a squat over a hole in the ground is not fun at all! I think Kim would agree with me when I say “I am not sure what these Portuguese people were thinking!”
We arrived in Lisbon at about 6pm in the evening and by the time we checked into our hostel and got out to explore the city a little, it was dark so the first few pictures you will see on my Shutterfly are night shots. Our hostel was in an awesome location, right in the heart of Lisbon so we were able to walk most places which was great. I was excited for Kim because it was her first “hostel experience” (Michael studied abroad in Australia so he knows all about it), and what a great experience it was! We stayed at “Lisbon Easy Hostel” and it was absolutely fabulous in that the rooms were nice and clean, there was free internet access, free laundry service, 1 Euro beers and glasses of wine, little parties every night in the lounge area that offered free Sangria and shots, and the service was awesome. Every one who worked there was so helpful with suggested things to do/see and places to eat. One night, Kim wasn’t feeling so well so the lady at the front desk made her a cup of her special tea that always makes sick guest feel better, and of course, it was free as well!
Michael – I wanted to add a tid bit about how awesome the name of our hostel was and tell the story about “hitting the easy button”, but I decided that it was way too funny to be able to describe in words, so just know that I thought about it!
Our first night of walking around and exploring we got lost in the hilly streets of the city, but it ended up working out for the best because we ended up making our way to the top of a huge hill which gave us a pretty awesome view of the city. Of course it was dark so the pictures didn’t come out too well, but just so you know, it was an awesome sight! I learned from my trip to Oporto that the maps in Portugal are crappy, and our Lisbon experience reassured me that this was true. Because there are so many little hidden streets and alleys, they don’t name all of the streets on the map, just the main ones, and this makes it kinda hard to navigate around the city. Lucky for Kim and me, “Michael to the rescue” LOL. We had a late dinner on Wednesday night (the Portuguese don’t eat quite as late as the Spanish, but still later than us Americans are used to eating), and then headed back to the Hostel to rest up for the following days activities. On Thursday we took the “Lisbon City Tour” hop-on, hop-off bus to the various sights of Lisbon. We were able to see the older part, as well as the more modern part of the city. We walked through a park and took some scenic pictures first, and then we visited the “Campo Pequeño” which is a bull fighting ring/commercial center. Weird combination, I know. The upstairs part was an arena, and underneath was sort of a shopping center. The tour bus took us by the aqueduct of Lisbon, which wasn’t anything as amazing as the one in Segovia that I previously wrote about, but was still neat. We visited a cathedral that was beautiful, as all cathedrals are (at least the one’s I’ve seen). From there, the bus took us down the river, driving past the Lisbon, Portugal Suspension Bridge, “Ponte 25 de abril”. Right on the river there were quite a few historic sights we were able to see. There was the river itself, the famous bridge, the “Padrão dos descobrimentos” the “Belém Tower” and finally the “Jerónimos Monastery”. We were able to go inside and tour the Belém Tower, and as you can see from my pictures, the architecture was pretty amazing, and the views it provided were even better. The monastery was closing as we were arriving so we only got to do a quick walk through, but once again, the building itself (as well as the interior) was phenomenal. We ended up seeing a lot on Thursday and to top it all off, we ate at an incredible Portuguese restaurant recommended to us by a member of our hostel staff.
On Friday morning we woke up and headed to “St. George's Castle”, which is located at the top of a huge hill. Hiking up the hill wasn’t fun, but definitely worth it considering the amazing view we were able to see. From the castle we could see the city, the river, and the bridge we had gotten a sight of the day before, but from a different perspective. The castle pretty much consisted of walls and wasn’t the neatest castle I’ve seen so far, but because of the location and the view, it was fabulous! After touring the castle, we headed toward the train station and jumped on a train to Sintra, which is just right outside of Lisbon (about 45 minutes). Once again, Sintra was a recommendation by our hostel staff and boy do they know how to pick em’. Sintra was absolutely stunning. It was only a day trip so we didn’t have a whole lot of time to do/see everything we wanted to, especially because Sintra had so much to offer, but what we did see was amazing! We took a bus that took us up the mountain and dropped us off at the entrance of the Pena Palace grounds. From the entrance, we walked/hiked up the rest of the mountain until we actually reached the Palace. The entire exterior was gorgeous and the inside was extremely beautiful and very elaborate. (Let’s just say the kings and queens live for what they are, royalty!) Considering the palace was at the peek of a mountain, the view was amazing. It was a beautiful clear day so we could even see as far as Lisbon from Sintra. After spending time inside and eating lunch on the terrace of the palace, we decided to walk around the grounds inside the palace walls. It was a beautiful landscape with multiple little ponds everywhere. From here, we walked toward the Moorish Castle. It was nothing more than castle walls, but let me tell you, it was incredible. It was located on the mountain top as well and to be honest, it was a little scary. The castle walkways were very narrow and very very very high up. Michael isn’t a huge fan of heights but he was a trooper the entire time! The view and the experience itself are enough to make anyone overcome their fear of heights! The best part of the Moorish Castle was toward the end when we climbed up the highest tower of the castle to catch the most phenomenal view of all. Just imagine...here I am, standing in the wind at the top of this tower, located in this Moorish castle, which was located on the top of mountain, and as if that weren't sweet enough, my sister and brother were standing right next to me! At that point, life couldn’t have gotten any better! It was the perfect ending to a great day in Sintra! :)
We took a train back to Lisbon and finished off Friday night with a nice Portuguese meal. Saturday morning rolled around and it was time for me to say good-bye to some of my favorite things...Portugal, and Kim and Michael! They grabbed a cab to the airport while I took the metro to the bus station. My long bus ride back home to Santiago gave me a lot of time to think about things and never in my life have I felt so blessed! I am one lucky girl to have her family fly across the world just to visit her. I am so thankful for all the opportunities/experiences I’ve had and there is no doubt in my mind that 30 years from now I will look back on this trip and remember how wonderful it was and how many memories I made!
Thanks Kim and Michael for one of the best weeks of my life! :)
Check out Portugal pictures on my Shutterfly site: http://mexigurl14.shutterfly.com/
