New Photo Links

*Thanksgiving dinner photos

*Around the Town photos

*Ciutadella and Porto Olimpico photos

*Cavalcada de Nadal photos (christmas parade)

*Palau de la Musica Catalana photos
pretty much all purse-snuck..no photos allowed!

*Sagrada familia photos

*Navidad things photos


Funny Christmas Traditions:
Cagatio:
Explained, From a website:
"Spaniards don’t typically give gifts on Christmas day, that is reserved for the Three Kings Day (Los Reyes Magicos) on January 5th. Instead Catalans have a very strange tradition called the CagaTio. Literally meaning (politely written) pooplog, the cagatio is a log that is dressed up to look like Santa Clause, with a face drawn on it and everything. Before christmas you are supposed to feed the log Turron (chocolate nougat) and place a blanket over its backside. On christmas day all the children gather around the log and take turns beating it with a stick while singing a song. It goes something like… Cagatio, tio de nadal, no cagas arangadas, que son saladas, caga turrons, que son mes bones… (pooplog pooplog, pooplog of christmas, dont poop dried sardines, they taste really bad, poop out turrons, which we like much better). After everyone has had turns beating the log, the blanket is removed from the backside of the cagatio and small presents are revealed. Its supposed to be magic for the little kids. Isnt that the wierdest tradition you have ever heard?!"


Caganer:
The caganer- In Catalonia, as well as in the rest of Spain and in most of Italy and Southern France, the traditional Christmas decoration is a large model of the city of Bethlehem, similar to the Nativity of the English-speaking world, but encompassing the entire city rather than just the typical manger scene. The Catalans have added an extra character that is not found in the manger scenes of any other culture. In addition to Mary, Joseph, Jesus, the Shepherds and company, Catalans have the character known as the Caganer. This extra little character is often tucked away in some corner of the model, typically nowhere near the manger scene, where he is not easily noticed. There is a good reason for his obscure position in the display, for "caganer" translates from Catalan to English as "pooper", and that is exactly what this little statue is doing — defecating.

Another writing-less photo link:

*London Photos

PARIS

I may write some nonsense. For now just photos.

*Paris Photos

Italia y Otras cosas

ITALIA

I’ll start at the beginning. We had a Ryanair flight around 9pm from Girona to Ciampino. Girona is like an hour away from Barcelona and a 22euro roundtrip bus ride. We were delayed at the airport about 45 minutes, got on a plane, waited some more, and then were told that there was some kind of problem they were “looking for a solution for”. The Italians onboard got what seemed like a more in-depth explanation. Eventually we switched planes. Reassurance.. Anyway, then we got to Ciampino, which, is not Rome. It wasn’t too bad though.. 50euro taxi ride for 4 of us at like 1am. Omar, the hostel guy, had stayed up and waited for us. We just went to bed since it was late.

In the morning we were woken up by the vocal stylings of R Kelly and people chatting over breakfast. A friendly Australian let us know that the Pope would be coming out that day, so we made our way to the Vatican to get a glimpse. We were in the back of the crowd, but we still saw him give part of a speech and.. some songs. Yes, he sings. Afterward we went to the Vatican museum(sistene chapel etc). Oh, PS, this whole time it was raining, and we had one umbrella among us. Tons of people were selling umbrellas on the street for up to 10euro, but eventually after everyone had them we talked one guy down to 2euro. Anyway, what else.. Ah yes, bus tickets in Italy have to be bought at newsstands, and then validated on the bus, but it’s more or less the honor system. We scammed all of our bus rides in Rome. More on that later.

Other things we saw include: Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, Palazzo Chigi, Trevi Fountain, the Colliseum, Arco de Tito, Palatino, Santa Maria della Concezione(temple decorated with human bones..), the Spanish steps, the Basilica, aaaand a Reggae club. Hooray Omar. Italian people are so much nicer than Spanish people. Catalán people anyway. We made more friends during our first day there than we have the whole time here. People are so friendly and helpful, and always willing to point you in the right direction-even if you’re foreign.

Italian food is magnífico. Much better than Spanish food. Well..most food is better than Spanish food. Although I do admit, there was a Doner Kebap across the street, and we did hit that up. To give you an idea: giant fresh sandwiches stuffed full with all sorts of veggies, a similar vegetable pizza, gnocchi with mushrooms, 4 cheese macaroni, risotto with seafood, wine, homemade feast of bread-cheese-salami-proscuitto-spicy oil, etc etc.

The second city(but literally 4^th) city we went to was Milan. We actually flew into Bergamo(Bergamo? I know) which is an hour away from Milan. Another special thanks to RyanAir. So yes, Milan after an unexpected hour long bus ride. Anyway, Milan is kindof..unremarkable. But there is Duomo, the largest gothic cathedral in Italy, which is beautiful, and..shopping. Expensive shopping. Expensive food. And—who’d have guessed it—Erasmus parties. Aww, just like home.

Back to the bus ticket scamming. As we were on the (what we didn’t realize at the time was the wrong direction) bus, we came to a stop and noticed a bunch of police officers(uhh, public transport officers?) standing around. When one popped his head in and asked for a ticket that we didn’t have, they made us get off and started questioning us. We played dumb. Billete? What? We just got here… (5 days ago..) Anyway they didn’t speak much English or Spanish, but got the point across that “Now you must pay the penalty. 35 euro each.” We probably only collectively had about 10 euro, so, that wasn’t happening. After frantically looking around at each other and playing the ‘dumb american’ card (as I tried not to laugh the whole time), they let us go with only having to buy bus tickets. Heh. Lexi was escorted to the closest Il Giorno stand and bought some. 1 euro each. I think it helped that we were going in the wrong direction. Yessss.

If you ever go to Milan, don’t stay in the Hotel Medusa. You will get woken up by the crazy linen lady yelling at you in Italian while trying to figure out which beds to change. Due! Due! No parlamos Italiano! If you go to Rome, and are slightly laid back without being bothered by general grossness, stay at the Navigator Hostel. Good times.

*Roma Photos

*Milano Photos

Otras Cosas...

I just walked to the library, and on the way I noticed a sign in the window with a picture of a phone and a ham, one was free, but I didn’t look close enough to see which. It was in the ham store though..so..I don’t know. Free phone? Free ham? They love their ham here.

Speaking of phones.. I briefly got to play with a HTC Touch. Hot.

I finally bought a coat. Good choice. Coats are swell, when it’s cold. Popsicles are for the summertime.

I read the Fountainhead. Loved it. I just checked out 3 random classics for the Paris trip. I’m also going to London next weekend(helloooo broke-ass-ness) with Esmeralda, because the flight was cheap and she has friends there to stay with.

My new battery arrived, which is how I am enjoying my laptop in its literal sense of the word. On my lap. Sin enchufar. Looks like it will last about 2 and a half hours. However it still makes weird noises on battery power. Oh well.

Off to Paris! Bon voyage! Le garçon est sur la table!

Second time we went to Park Guell, a week or 2 ago, nicer day and more time for photos.
*Parque Guell (part 2, better)Photos
*Panorama Video

Various

Luisa told us (or a lady at the library told us?) to go to this water exhibition. Woo! The history of water in Barcelona or something. We just went for the hell of it, and because it was in the Torre Acbar, which as one teacher said- "some people say looks like a suppository".
*Water Exhibit and Torre Acbar photos

Afterward, we wandered around La Ribera and stuff for a while, stumbled upon an art fair type thing, and also a ton of old people in a plaza doing a traditional dance. We don't know what it's called though. We also found a bagel place. YAY!
*Wandering Photos
*Old people video

This is one of the Gaudi houses, now it's one of those untouchable historic monuments like the pyramids and such. I don't remember how she explained it. But it's amazing. There are a couple families that rent apartments in it(no idea how much that must cost..) and there's also a bank at the bottom and a museum on top.
*Casa Mila Photos

Updates:

-It's cold. Not Michigan cold, but Barcelona cold. I have no idea what degree it is.. but anyway, I should have brought a coat. Oops!!
- Going to Italy on Tuesday. WOO!!
- Going to be broke soon. WOO!!
- Lexi and I got haircuts and a boniato yesterday. Boniatos are yams. Haircuts.. you're on your own.
- We did this intercambio program with students from a tourism school on monday. It was slightly awkward, they outnumbered us like 4 to 1.. so we got together in groups of 3-4 spaniards with 1 american. And chatted. About.. fast food, and how Americans only eat hamburgers. That's what europeans think anyway. However we did meet some cool people, and we're planning to all get together this weekend. Should be fun.
- I have some pictures from the Casa Milá and from Park Guell, but I haven't gotten the chance to upload them yet. However, I did finally buy a new laptop battery, which means in 10-15 days I will be able to steal internet more frequently and easily.
- I found a spot near our house with decently strong enough wifi to make calls.. so I am trying to slowly make the rounds of friend llamadas without looking like an idiot by standing in front of a bank on the phone for too long. Meh.
- That's about it for now.. Hopefully I will have pictures up sometime this weekend. And I'm sure I'll take 1000 in Italy... Ciao!

about two things

first-
Dia de la Hispanidad was Friday. Lexi and Jonathan and I wanted to go shopping but everything was closed. So we wandered around, ended up going from Universitat to Barceloneta(which is pretty far..) and saw some cool stuff. And accidentally went to a wedding. Oops!!
*Walking around photos

second-
Lexi and I had another slightly unsuccessful trip, to la Sagrada Familia. It was closed. But still amazing. So we took pics on the outside. It was started in 1882 and is supposed to be done in 2026. That wiki page has a picture of the model of it completed..crazy.
Then we went to Hospital Sant Pau, part of the Barcelona modernism route. It's like a little village with colored roof tiles and mosaics on the walls and all kinds of coolness. We both want to get sick or injured so we can go there. Knock on wood. Anyway, my camera battery died that day so I went back today for pics. Here are both!
*La Sagrada Familia and Hospital Sant Pau photos

Ooh.



Secondly, we bought tickets to Paris for €.02. That's right. One centimo each way. After taxes and such.. it was like €35. But still.

Thirdly, we finally went to the beach this weekend. It was nice. But crowded. And people go around yelling "aguacocacolacervezabeer?!" or just "beercervezabeer!" or any combination of beverage words. And little ladies come around and go "Hola, massage!" or "Masaje!" or "Massagee?! 5 euro! Very nice!" It's funny. And awkward.

Fourthly(edit), aaaaand I'm locked out on the balcony. HA!!!!

Palms is getting us a cat tomorrow!!! Hooray! I can't wait to meet you kitty formerly known as josie!!

Various

- I think I'm getting over my fear of shrimp feet.
- I was eating a pudding and Luisa came up and dipped a cookie in it for me and stuck it in my face.
- I just helped her with Excel again, and with making folders. She is amazed.
- Beach tomorrow.
- Trying to organize a trip the week people are going to Morocco. I'm thinking Munich->Zurich->Milan, or Vienna->Zagreb->(Trieste?). I also want to go to Helsinki. Paris.. Rome... pshh, Those can wait. Greece probably won't happen yet because it's hella expensive.
- Spanish people are not good walkers, in general. Well, old spanish people. Like the ones who stop and eat ice cream in the middle of the sidewalk.
- Gelato is everywhere.. I'm not going to be able to go back to regular old ice cream.
- Luisa just unplugged my computer. Hasta luego!

Vall de Boi

This weekend we took a bus trip to Vall de Boi, a picturesque region to the nor...west... I don't know. The camino took 4 hours, not bad on the way there. We first went to a church from the 11th or 12th century, which wasn't as cool as all the other things we've seen, but there was a bell tower we got to climb up in. And by climb I mean climb. The "stairs" were more like 7(?) long steep ladders. Deadly. Not really. Anyway, it was a pretty view. Then we just went straight to our pyramid-like hotel, where our hearts filled with promises of a heated pool were broken. Well there was a wedding going on, so walking by it to get to the pool was extremely awkward. And the pool closed at 8, and was kinda small and un-noteworthy. I don't think anyone went swimming. Anyway. Then we went to eat at a place with almost american-like food, and then a sports bar to watch the Barcelona game. They are doing awesome by the way. The next morning we got up early to go to a national park(Parque Nacional de Aiguestortes y Estany de Sant Maurici or something). Pyrenees!! It was pretty. We went on a little hike. Hooray. The cool part was riding up a moutain in 4x4s. Jurassic Park style. Love it. PLUS, there were cows, and mountain goats(!!!). The only goat we saw though was from really far away and it was just a little white speck. All the cows and goats had bells on them though, so random bells would ring from all directions. If I had pissed off a mountain goat and gotten headbutted, it would have been worth it. But I didn't have the chance. Oh well. Next time. Oh yeah, so, then we pretty much just left, and had to stop at like 4 different little cities on the way home to try to eat. Disaster. Most of the places were closed for siesta, or full, or didn't want to serve so many people. Or any people. Restaurants here are weird, they never want anybody to eat in them. Whatever. At least you aren't required to leave a tip. Then we got home. That's about all I have to say about that.
*Vall de Boi Photos

Mercat de la Boqueria and Rambla del Mar

Mercat de la Boqueria
Aka Mercado for us non-Catalans.Lexi and I went a few days ago after an unsuccessful trip to el Palau Guell. Anyway- This is a huge outdoor market off La Rambla, with all kinds of fruit, vegetables, eggs(I know..), candy, fishs, ummm..lentils...figs...whatever. You'll see. It's very colorful and reminds me a little of the Farmer's Market in LA, only, with no restaurants, and lots of raw fish, so, I guess it doesn't remind me of the farmer's market at all. Nevermind.

*Photos del Mercado and YES they have chocolate hedgehogs. aww. mitch.
*Yes, Some were alive. Creepy. (video)



Rambla Del Mar
Naner told me about this before going. It's huge, so I don't know if this is the part he meant. But La Rambla is a huge touristy street where they even sell hamsters. Anyone? I'm down. Also Korean Squirrels. And ferrets and chinchillas, obviously. There were like 2 animal stands I didn't see though, maybe they have hedgehogs. Anyways at the end there is a huge dock-boardwalk type thing that was built around when the Olympics were here. And we went to hang out there for a bit.
*Rambla del Mar photos

* ~ * La Mercé * ~ *

This weekend was the celebration of la Mercé, or the saint of Mercy. The legend goes that some summer about 400 years ago the city was plagued by locusts and everyone prayed to Mercé to help them. The plague ended, so every end of September they celebrate the saint and the end of summer with a holiday and a weekend-long festival with tonnnns of events. Most of the concerts and stuff go until like 5am. There was a circus in the park, more than 4 huge concert stages(including an MTV stage) at the forum, fireworks every night, concerts and events in almost every plaza(and there are a ton of plazas), parades, special events, and hooray-the metro was open nonstop all weekend.

El Correfoc(Fire Run)

I had no idea what to expect. All we knew was that devils run around and shoot fireworks at you and you have to cover your hair and wear long sleeves. That is, if you plan to be in the front row. I didn’t plan to be in the front row..however, of course, we were all right there in it. At first there were a bunch of us sitting up on a big scaffolding but some policia came along and kicked us off. The street was hella crowded. So the firework-devil people(they were really just giant sparklers) came along in waves, followed by drummers. There were also some giant dragons that ‘breathed’ sparks and flames, wheeled all around in circles and down the street. It was actually really fun. And scary, and hilarious.

*El Correfoc Photos

*Correfoc Video

Las Castellers (Castle-Builders)

There were teams from all over the country coming to compete in this competition. It happened in la Plaza St Jaume, which was of course absolutely packed. We didn’t really know where to look, until over in the crowd we saw a big mountain of people forming. After another minute or so, on top of that was a carefully constructed tower, with adults on the bottom and itty bittys on the very top. They all wore some kind of wraps around their waists, which were for each other to use to step on and climb up with. As soon as they got about halfway built, a little band nearby would play some simple drums and horns. Once they finished, people would just kindof take turns sliding down each other to the bottom. One of the towers was right next to us, you could see the people at the bottom shaking towards the end. It was intense. We saw about 3 towers total, however I think there were more after we left. People here are crazy. But the teamwork and the practice and all that goes into that is amazing.

*Castellers Photos

*Castellers Video 1 Video 2

Birthday Celebrations

Lexi’s birthday was sept 17. Luisa’s birthday(as we just happened to find out after a neighbor got on her case about water pipes and she started crying..aww) was a couple days later. She said we’d celebrate them both Sunday, so we did. After we showered and were both still in pajama-ish clothing, Luisa took us to a little pastellería to pick out a cake. We got one with a chocolate village on top.. complete with a little clown. And trees, and a couple people. And mushrooms.

Luisa made us paella for lunch, and then we had some cake and cava(the Spanish champagne). She also got candles, 71 for Luisa and 20 for Lexi. It was adorable.

*La torta de la mejor calidad & Lunch Photos

Giants Parade

For some reason here they really like big giants. There was a parade of them, which I didn't get many good pictures of. But here they are. And a few of us at Rambla del Mar with the italians and our roses.

*Giants Photos

*Giants Video

Hilariousness in the Plaza Catalunya station:

*An extra, for Dustin, or any Mitch Hedberg fan I suppose

La Merce!!!!!!!!!!

Two exciting wifi-related things

1) HotSpot@Home is now available for employees. Which means.. my original plan of using my regular phone on wifi for free just might work :D
2) There's wifi in Lexi's room somehow.... YAY!!!

More on Luisa

Luisa is hilarious. She is a little stubborn too. Like when I tried to tell her I like cold pizza for lunch(suggestively..as in an occasional break from bocadillos when I'm not home), she was like "No. I don't like it. It's not the same. I throw it away." She cleans our rooms every day too.
Also she has her alarm set on news radio super loud and always sleeps through it. Awful. But in general she's great. And Lexi and I sometimes talk in English about ridiculous things at the dinner table just for fun. I know, I know, I'll stop.

Spain in general

Little dogs- theyre everywhere. I have like 20 pictures of little dogs. So cute. A lot of them don’t even need leashes.

Culture- its great. People don’t have a lot of room in their houses/apartments so everyone meets together outside in public places. Madrid has a giant beautiful park, and when we saw it it was just packed with people hanging out. In Madrid more than Barcelona, there are tons of places with café tables outside and at almost all hours of the day and night they are full. There a little public playgrounds everywhere too.

Efficiency- you’d never realize how wasteful you are until you’ve been out of the US. The hotels have a little slot next to the main light switch for your keycard, and when you leave the room and take it, all the lights turn off automatically. Also most bathrooms have individual little lights for the stalls, and they are on timers. The toilets don’t use much water, and usually you can choose how much of a flush you need. Most escalators slow down when no one is on them. And if a store has an escalator, a lot of times its only one upwards escalator. Also the doors of the metro trains don’t open automatically unless you push a button.

**edit: apparently i dont know the difference between elevator and escalator. fixed.

*Little Dogs

*Misc Friends pics

University of Barcelona

This place is over 400 years old. That’s older than anything in the US. There are stray cats all over the campus, there are little fish ponds in the courtyard, and the hallways are mostly open air with arches all around. Very cool. Most of the rooms don’t have windows or air though… J

We haven’t started the Language classes yet, but we have culture classes in the afternoons already. There are 5 total, 4 of mine are literature :( but Lexi has all of those too. The other one is Cine Español, which should be great, since we meet every other week to watch movies- the first one we watched was El Laberinto del Fauno (if you don’t recognize it: Pan’s Labyrinth).

*UB Photos

Codorníu and Sitges

This Saturday we went on a little day trip to a beach town about 45 minutes away. We stopped in at Codorníu, a vineyard where Spanish Cava(champagne basically) was first made. It was slightly boring, but the good part was taking this little train all around the caves(of course riding the train was more fun than looking at hundreds of thousands of dusty bottles of wine). And then we finished off the tour with a tasting, one of the better parts as well.

We spent a few hours on the beach at Sitges, which was my first time to the Mediterranean. At the end we were all sunburned and covered in sea salt. We also walked around a bit in the town, got some gelato, etc.

*Sitges Photos *couple new ones

Since Then

We’ve gone on a few more little city tours and such, including el Barrio Gotico, which is an old crowded neighborhood with some great little stores, gelaterias, and chocolate places ;) Also the Picasso museum, which was really great, they even had little paintings he did as a child. It showed all of the eras and the different styles he has done, including a few months where he did around 60 renditions of Velasquez’s ‘Las Meninas’.

There’s a little pizza place by campus with about 10 kinds of pizza at a time, you can buy little slices and eat them on a little cardboard thing. Which we find kindof pointless. But they also have relatively cheap beer and it’s a fun little place to hang out.

One night after Luisa made us lentils(yum) and pork(fried of course), we were chatting for a few minutes about men and novios and stuff. After a moment of awkward silence when the conversation was done, Luisa says: “Pues. Ya hemos cenado, y yo voy a poner una peli. Un Porno!!” (ok, we’ve eaten, now I’m going to put on a movie, a porno!) After laughing for like 5 minutes straight and Luisa trying to backtrack a little, I figured out that she was talking about Brokeback Mountain (she had recorded it). She watches a lot of little soap opera-type things, most of which are dubbed over. Lots of soccer games too. After dinner she always asks if we want fruta o helado(ice cream) but always tries to get us to pick helado. She's also always talking about not buying stuff at the department store but going to the "Chinos" (chinese stores??) because the shoes and such are cheaper.

*Barrio Gotico
*Piso(apartment) Photos

Barcelona

We finally got in at around 6pm, and those of us with host families were greeted by them by the ISA office. Alexi and I met Luisa, our 71 year old señora. We loved her immediately; she is adorable and incredibly sweet. Right away she grabbed some of our luggage and went to get a taxi(we almost had a hard time keeping up with her). That night she took me prepaid phone shopping(even though it was right before 8 and the stores were closing), and she was all excited to show us the bus and the metros and around the block. There’s an internet café right down the street, it’s 1 euro an hour, and .15/minute to call the US. She has made us a small variety of foods, it’s mostly usually either pasta or some really thinly sliced fried chicken/fish/pork. It’s always good, we’re just worried about engordeandonos with all the fried stuff.. plus she always gives us a tooonnn of food. She makes us lunch too, for when we’re at school or going somewhere, which is usually a ham and cheese bocadillo, fruit, a little bread with nutella, and a bottle of water. Yesterday there was a little montaña de galletas too. and by that I mean a little mountain of cookies. We always give like half our food to jonathan though.

Anyway, the first night we all met up at the plaza Universidad(2 metro lines away, takes about 15 minutes), and ended up going out to las ramblas. La rambla is a huge pedestrian street with a ton of little stores and vendors. Its really cool looking, and really touristy too. I still haven’t been there in the day when everythings open, but at night it was packed and still really pretty. A few days ago was el Dia Nacional de Catalunya (Catalunia is basically the state Barcelona is in, but they’re really proud of it and a lot of people want it to be independent). Anyway, apparently we slept through all the cool stuff that happened. That was the first day we got to sleep in.. soo.. we slept until 1. but also, Luisa probably didn’t know all of what she was talking about. I helped her with a spreadsheet, we went over to the internet café, hung out for a bit at Melon District(apartments where some of our friends live) and came home for dinner.

The next day we took the language level test, which everyone was super nervous about, but it wasn’t really a big deal after all. We got a tour of the university, did some shopping, and then a bus tour. We went to Montjuic, which is a mountain overlooking the city and the sea, and got a really gorgeous view of the whole thing. Then to Parc Guell, which is where Gaudi lived, and saw all of the tiled benches and crazy houses and such. Later on we went to an Erasmus welcome party(L’auberge Espagnole anyone?), met some Americans who thought we were Spaniards, and met some Spaniards who were pretty cool.

*First Barcelona Photos

*Montjuic

*Parc Guell

Toledo

Not ohio, way better. The first night in Toledo we got to the hotel and just chilled out. The place had a beautiful resort-ish pool. We went on a walking tour of the city, and had the most hilarious guide. From the outside, Toledo has these castle-like walls, and there are a few main entrances. The streets are all small, wind-y, and crowded. The main plaza Zocodover has a bunch of little restaurants and shops and Marzipan. Our guide explained that Toledo has ‘santos, cantos, cuestos, ?, sabios, y encantos.’ Which is ‘saints, stones, hills, knowledge, and charm’ or something like that. I added ‘gatos’ to the list, because there are a TON of stray cats. We saw one sitting on a motorcycle looking at a bird. Aww. He also taught us that when Japanese people take pictures, the photographer says ‘Ichi tas Ichi’ and everyone else goes ‘niiiiiiiiiii!’. In spain, he said it’s boring, people go ‘pataaataaaa’ or ‘luiiiiiiiiis’ or ‘whiiiskeeeeeeeey’.

Also, he told us a couple little traditions. If you want a girlfriend in Toledo, you go to this place and ring a bell, and then go somewhere else to pray. If you're a girl and you want a boyfriend, you poke yourself in the ass with a pin and then go drop it off by this little virgin mary. Hilarious.

We were in toledo for the last night of this jazz festival, which was out in the street at night and right in front of one of spain’s biggest cathedrals. Really cool. After all that, we had to take a taxi home, but it was a little too late for them to be out everywhere. So we started walking, and of course, there was a thunderstorm. It was great though, we were running through the streets and got soaked. A lot of people from the group are from California, where apparently there are no thunderstorms. When we finally got taxis and got back to the hotel, everyone hung out on the balconies and watched the storm. The next morning, we left for Barcelona.

*Toledo Photos

Valle de los Caidos and el Escorial

On the way to Toledo, we stopped at a few historic places. And by historic, I don’t mean the 200 year old American kind. (however this next part is fairly recent) I didn’t know much about Spanish history, and I still don’t yet, but where we went was a very controversial place right now. El valle de los caidos is a huge monument and a gigantic cross that are almost in the middle of nowhere, and overlook a beautiful valley. It’s a very peaceful place. The design is really simple, its just big squareish stones and not too many extras(except the cross, which has gargoyles and such). We were all wondering how it was constructed before they had modern equipment, since it’s far away from the cities and kindof a pain to drive to. We also didn’t know exactly what it was or what it was made for. After we were done admiring it, we sat down for a little history lesson. Maite, the director, explained that the Spanish dictator Franco, who died in the 70’s, was not allowed to be buried with all the Spanish kings in el Escorial(a small city where they’re all buried), since he wasn’t a king. Because of that, and because of how highly he thought of himself, he bought a ton of land in a much more elevated part of the country, and had basically all of the people who lost the civil war construct this giant monument where he wanted to be buried. It’s really controversial right now, because most Spanish people hated Franco, and a lot of them also had relatives who spent years or even died building that monument. Aaaand then we all felt bad for thinking it was so cool. After that, we went to el Escorial, a very cute little city, and saw the palace where the kings and all of the royal family are. We even got to go down into the crypt(suuuper creepy)(photos not allowed of course but I sneaked some), and passed by the rotting room, where the royalty/etc stays for 25 years before actually being put in the crypt. There were 3 people in there now with 15 years to go. Gross. My favorite part of the building was this room where you can stand in one corner and whisper towards the wall and the person standing in the opposite corner will hear it. It's creepy.

After all that, we headed to Toledo.

*Valle de Los Caidos Photos

*El Escorial Photos

Madrid

We stayed in a pretty nice hotel in Madrid, and I didn’t know it at the time but it had a pool. Oops. Even though we were exhausted, some of us decided to go out and explore the first night. We went out for tapas, which are basically like Spanish appetizers that people go eat at 10/11/so before actually going out. We would later find that almost every single place we went in Madrid had just about the exact same menu. Bocadillos, which are sandwiches, would disappoint almost any American. They usually just had ham on them. OR cheese. Or some kind of sausage. The tapas places also had calamari, croquetas(fried potato balls with some other stuff in there), chorizo(spicy sausage), and a few other things that, well, we never really did figure out what they were. Some dude stopped us on the street with a little coupon for free chupitos, which we then found out are shots. we went to a few little bars and clubs in Madrid, and by little I mean little. Theyre everywhere, just small. And of course being Americans we were usually all together in a big group and stood out like a sore thumb. Is that a phrase? Anyway, it took a few nights for us to get used to the swing of things. Tapas at 11ish.. bar at like 1-2ish.. etc. We wanted to get out to this 8-level place called El Capital, but didn’t end up making it. We also discovered $1 boxes of sangria. Since we weren’t with our host families yet, we had to buy almost every meal (except free breakfast at the hotel).

There were some really cool things in Madrid, including el Museo del Prado and el Palacio Real. As I’ve told a couple people, I don’t understand why they make such a big deal about the Sistine chapel because almost every ceiling in the palace and a few in the museum were painted, and they are absolutely amazing. Some of the rooms in the palace had porcelain walls and ceilings (believed to be smoking rooms), and all the design was incredibly intricate.

*Madrid Photos

The Trip...

Going alone on the plane was slightly scary, although I’ve done it before, it’s usually not across the Atlantic ocean with a ton of Europeans. On the first flight they played Mr. Bean’s holiday. They also came around before/after meals and gave us hot towels. Just like that one movie, I don’t remember which, I had no idea what to do with it. My first taste of crazy food was a little packet of snack cracker-things, which had a bunch of flavors from very spicy to something like a corn pop. I liked it though. Following tradition, I got tomato juice on every flight. We also got two meals on the flight to Frankfurt, one which was kindof like a chicken lean cuisine, the other a breakfast of some rolls and lunchmeats and cheese. At the time, I had no idea how much of that I’d be eating…

I got to Frankfurt and I was the only one in semi-bright clothes and flip flops. Oh well. There were little T-Mobile phone booths everywhere. How cute. I had nothing to do for a few hours, I just exchanged some money and wandered around aimlessly. The flight to Madrid was only about 2 hours, and the plane was a lot smaller. We were met at the airport by Jane, one of the group leaders, and all arrived one by one, Real World style. At that time we were all incredibly tired and just wanted to go shower/sleep/etc.

*First Photos