The mountains are calling...

...and I must go. City life is great, but sometimes I miss the beautiful mountain air I enjoyed while living in Boone, NC. On Saturday, my friend Jessie and I took a quick bus ride north of Madrid to a town called Manzanares El Real. While there is a castle there, we instead chose to take a short walk down the road and hike through part of La Pedriza, a mountainous collection of giant stones that make a very steep hike with really beautiful views.

You might not be able to tell unless you know what you're looking for, but those familiar with Madrid's landscape will be able to see the Cuatro Torres on the horizon. (Those not familiar with Madrid's landscape may notice two goats in the shadow of a nearby boulder.) Even though Manzanares El Real is only about 35km (~21mi) from the city, it felt like we'd traveled much further away. This was the first real hike I'd done since I was at ASU, so even two days later my legs are a little sore. I guess I'll just have to get back in hiking shape while the weather is still nice!

Days like this renew my love for la capital. Though I live within the confines of the city-shaping M30 motorway, I can easily take a Saturday and find myself having a picnic on top of a mountain after less than an hour of travel. Menos mal that I'm not much of a beach person.

Hopscotch, before

You've taken 362 days to regain strength and increase stamina. You remember the quickest path from Tir na nÓg to Berkeley Cafe. You have this paper, a phone app, a pocket schedule, too many Google links and a dozen friends tugging you in different directions. There's a wristband on your arm, and your work colleagues don't understand why. It's Hopscotch weekend: Don't conserve energy. Expend it. Rest will come sooner than you'd like.

- Greg Lowenhagen, Hopscotch founder and director

Last year, the inaugural Hopscotch Music Festival was sort of like a going-away party. It was this great huge event all across downtown Raleigh that happened to fall during my last weekend in town before I took off for a year in Spain. This year, I'll have two weeks to bask in post-festival bliss, and I have no doubts that Hopscotch will wow and exhaust me just as much as it did a year ago. It all starts tonight!

Movin' on up

Remember my quaint, semi-frightening cave bedroom? Well, the first fortnight of camp ended and we all had to move into a room on the top floor of the monastery. Now I feel like a camper.

I am currently dealing with a slight sunburn on my back and shoulders after a poolside weekend, but the Colombian quarter of my heritage is already creating a magnificent tan out of it. Optimism!

Today was the first day of the second round of camp. Even though I know what I'm doing this time, I can't help but count down the days to going home (twelve, by the way). Fortunately we have a really nice group that will (maybe) keep me grounded until then.

M.I.A.

Okay, I admit it, I've been a bad blogger. But that's not entirely true!! In fact, while I've been neglecting my personal blog, I've been writing a professional blog. I'm spending the month of July in Uclés, Spain, working with a summer camp called Forenex. I'd originally applied to this program to work as an English teacher, but on the application I saw that the company was looking for someone to blog about the Forenex experience, so I spoke up about it in the interview and they chose me to come here and be the blogger. I've been blogging non-stop for the last week and a half, so I haven't had a lot of ganas to blog here too. However, I can't disappoint my adoring fans. Here are a few pictures of this really beautiful monastery that I'm currently calling home:

 

 

 

Click here for more Uclés pictures!

I will try to get into the pueblo for some more pictures and update you guys on that soon, too. Here's a preview: there is one shop called "Tienda" and one bar where the same old men hang out every night and not a whole lot else.

Conquering Iberia, Part 1

Sometime in March or April, I mentioned to my friend Bruno, from App, that he should visit Spain. A few messages back and forth decided it--he was coming. In mid-May, I had a visitor! The first weekend he was here, Bruno and I enjoyed a true Madrileño weekend and experienced the fiestas of San Isidro. We spent the weekend walking around Madrid and getting a tan while the locals dressed in their best chulapo outfits to honor their patron saint.

Monday came, and Bruno visited Barcelona while I worked that week. But then, that Thursday, we hopped on a plane to Lisbon for the weekend. I had been wanting to visit Lisbon for a while, so it only made sense for me to go when my Brazilian friend was coming to visit so I could make him talk to everyone for me. I gathered some last-minute advice from people who knew about Portugal and we were off. I was absolutely astounded by Lisbon! It was more beautiful than I imagined (though it probably helped that I didn't know anything about it) and the food was delightful. We spent our first evening walking around and seeing a few things here and there, and I ate feijoada for dinner, however I have to say I prefer the Brazilian style! Oops. Thursday night we went back to the hostel at a decent hour and got some sleep before starting our first big sightseeing day. Also, our hostel was fantastic and I would highly recommend it!

The next day we got up early and saw practically everything. Our first mission was to climb the hill up to Castelo São Jorge which sits high above the city. We spent a few hours there in the morning, climbing towers and warding off enemies, before coming back down to the city to visit Belém. I'd only seen the miniature Torre de Belém in Torrejón's Parque Europa, but the real thing isn't that much bigger! We spent a few hours lazing in the sun in Belém before stopping to fulfill one of our advised itinerary items: Pastéis de Belém.

These little custard tarts were so good. They gave them to us just as they were being made, along with packets of cinnamon and sugar to make them even more delightful. After eating these on a park bench, Bruno and I checked out the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos (a big beautiful monastery) where I left my soul. In Portuguese, the word for alm is alma, which is soul in Spanish. So, naturally, when I saw a box marked "almas" I decided to leave something behind. We then took a tram back into Lisbon proper and sat around to rest for a little while before walking around town, finding an acampada protest similar to the ones that are still going on in Madrid, and having dinner in the Bairro Alto at a Brazilian cafe... another excellent choice. After dinner, we went to hear fado, a type of Portuguese music that was traditionally known to be sung by sailors reflecting on their feelings of loss or life at sea, though now it just refers to a specific pattern of the song. We asked the staff at our hostel if they knew of a good place to hear fado that was not in Bairro Alto (thanks for that tip, Dee!) and they gave us the names of three places that were all in the Alfama neighborhood, so we decided to head that way after dinner and see what we'd find. We saw a few completely packed bars with people having dinner and being serenaded, but we'd just eaten so we wouldn't really be able to take up a table in any of those places.

A few turns through the winding, narrow passages of Alfama took us around for nearly an hour until we found one of the streets noted on our pink post-it of a travel guide. We began to head up the hill in search of some fado bar when suddenly we heard it a man's voice singing out over two guitars' accompaniment. We turned around, and there it was! The exact name and address they'd given us. We opened the door and someone inside gave us the last two seats in the extremely dark house and promptly brought us two very cheap and very delicious glasses of red wine while the man sang and the crowd sat mesmerized. After a few tunes, the lights came up and after about five minutes, a man announced the name of the next singer, and a woman at our table stood up and began to sing. Nobody in the bar spoke during the performances, everyone just sat and watched. Some closed their eyes, others sang along. I recorded.

[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/16517245"] (João Carlos, host of the evening, sings. A woman at our table sings along)

I wish I were more capable of describing our fado evening. Every time someone finished, someone new would jump up and impress me even more. I've never heard anything like this music before, and even though I got some good recordings through the night, all I wanted to do for days after the show was go back and hear it again. Bruno and I only left because it was past two in the morning and we'd been out since 9am that day.

On Saturday we went to Rio de Janeiro and San Francisco. We took a ferry across the river to Almada, where we then took a bus to the top of the hill to visit Cristo Rei and see the 25 de Abril bridge overlook. We went into the church at the bottom of Cristo Rei, but didn't take the elevator to the top because it seemed kind of pointless. Aside from looking up at the blinding sun to check out Cristo Rei, there wasn't much else to do up there except admire the view, so that's what we did for 30 minutes or so. I couldn't get past the fact that the bridge looked exactly like San Francisco (though I've never been there), so my good friend Wikipedia told me that it was actually constructed by the same company that did the Bay Bridge.

The rest of the day was very laid-back since we'd already seen most of the city, and we decided to just walk around to see if there was anything we hadn't yet discovered. We had lunch in Alfama again and got to see the ancient neighborhood in the sunlight. After a little afternoon break in the hostel, we went out to Bairro Alto in search of Lisbon's best caipirinha. We thought we couldn't find it, even though three different people gave us the name of this place and told us it was very near, so we almost gave up and just went into any bar to have one... but of course, there it was. Just as we'd found the fado place almost by accident, we looked over and found the bar we were looking for just as we'd decided to give up. And yeah, the caipirinhas were really, really good. We wandered a bit more around Bairro Alto before we headed back toward our hostel for a late-night kebab (it was the only thing open at 11pm!) and some delightful cans of Fanta Maracujá (passionfruit!) for our last meal in Lisbon. The next morning we sadly boarded a plane very early after a cab ride that felt like we were in The Fast & the Furious: Lisbon. Bruno did some day trips during the week and I worked, and then we set off to Andalucía...

(Click here to see the rest of my pictures from Lisbon!)

A Scottish Screamfest

For Semana Santa (15-22 April), I went with my roommate Leigh to visit Scotland. We stayed at her house just outside Glasgow and took a few day trips to other cities and spent some time in the Glasgow center.

While it wasn't like other tips I've taken (backpacking and sight-seeing like crazy), I had a really great time and got to see a lot. In fact, the trip really reminded me of vacations to visit my family in Chicago--we see some things, but we also spend time with friends and family and have nice dinners, see movies, etc. Eating local food is something I enjoy while traveling, but this trip took it to a new level. Leigh's mom made us all kinds of typical Scottish fare, and while we were out I tried haggis and it wasn't bad at all! I just can't think about what was in it.

In Spain, there's a huge rivalry between Madrid and Barcelona. In Scotland, a similar rivalry exists between Glasgow and Edinburgh. Leigh, of course, prefers Glasgow. As a tourist and outsider, I arrived with a clean slate and without any idea of what to expect from either city. So, my verdict: it's difficult to choose. Edinburgh was absolutely beautiful, with all the ancient architecture and the massive castle towering above the rest of the city. Glasgow was more comfortable, like a city you could live in. As a tourist, I preferred Edinburgh... but I wouldn't be upset if I found myself in Glasgow again, meeting friends for drinks or taking a walk down Buchanan street.

While in Scotland, we took a day trip to Loch Lomond where we found ourselves eating in a restaurant called The Kilted Skirlie. I ate steak pie, which is not what it sounds like, but rather some pieces of really delightful beef in a wine sauce with potatoes and veggies to enjoy. After a brief walk around the shores, we had some ice cream and eventually went back to Leigh's.

Our last day trip of the week was out to a town on the shore called Ayr. It was really warm and sunny that day, so we were able to kick off our shoes and take a short walk in the very cold water. While we were there, Leigh and I tried shouting to our friend Julie who was in Ireland at the time, but she said she didn't hear us. What a pity!

In the UK, chippies are a really popular thing. What's a chippy? "Chippy" is short for Chip Shop, or a place that sells fish and chips, among other fried heart attacks delights. Since I don't like fish, Leigh told me the best chippy meal in Scotland is a half pizza supper, or half a basic cheese pizza, fried, and accompanied with chips and an ice-cold Irn-Bru. Irn-Bru is a Scottish soft drink that, to me, tastes like liquid (American) Smarties. I don't like it, but for the sake of experience I had one with my lunch and it all worked out.

The rest of the story is best told in photos... click here to see all my Semana Santa pictures!

PS - The "Screamfest" in the title refers to the Scream movies... we watched all four while we were there. Hah!

Progress

Today, María and I split our class into two groups, boys and girls. I took the group of boys first and read them a story called The Lucky Duck. In this story, a boy has a toy duck that he loves, but loses one day, and many years later his son finds it in the attic at Grandma's house. The group of boys figured out that attic was ático, but when I read the story to the girls, they couldn't figure it out at all! I did my best to give hints. I said things like, it's a place in a house, very high up, above everything, sometimes you keep old things there, etc etc... and I even told them that it was extremely similar in Spanish. One very clever girl said to me (in Spanish), "Shana, we don't know! Just tell us the word!" Another girl then said, "yeah, we all know you speak Spanish!"

In my school, the director and people in the program ask that I speak no Spanish in front of the kids. When I'm in the classroom or anywhere near my students, it is supposed to be an English-only zone. Of course, in the teacher's room during break I speak Spanish with the other teachers, but all the kids are outside playing. I do try very hard to confine my Spanish only to these areas, or at least if they are nearby I have my back to them and speak a bit more quietly, plus the rest of the teachers know the rules, so they generally don't start a conversation with me in front of the kids unless they can understand a response in English.

My response to the second girl was one that I think only works because my students are in the first grade and don't doubt me yet. I said to them, "No, no, I don't speak Spanish. But I understand it very well. For example, I speak English. Do you understand me?" The group nodded in agreement. "Well, you speak Spanish, and I understand you. It's the same!" A few of the girls exchanged confused looks, but eventually one of them said, "...vale." (okay.)

But one girl was not convinced. She looked at me and said, "Sí, pero... you... Spanish... talk... very good."

Incredible!! It was difficult for me to keep my composure at this point, but I assured her that I did not speak Spanish.

I think they're on to me.

Un anuncio!

Nothing new has happened lately, just the usual school routine... but I have added a new page to the blog! Check it out at the top under '101 Cosas' or click here! I am adding photos to the list as they happen or as I find the ones I've already done.... wish me luck on finishing the list!

Let me stand next to your Falla

I recently read a post on one guy's travel blog which brought up the notion of keeping some things to yourself while traveling. At one point in Costa Rica he and his travel crew saw a group of extremely rare birds, a sighting which he kept to himself: "I didn't tweet it, flick it, post it, stumble, or dig." He goes on to explain that he found it exhilarating to be selfish with his time, keeping the moment to himself rather than focusing on capturing the moment to share with others...which leads me to my point. I took quite a few pictures of my trip to Valencia this weekend, but I think more to show that I'd been there than anything else. Some of my favorite moments of the trip were preserved on someone's camera, just not mine. Plus, given the state of my camera, I'm not very encouraged to take pictures anyway.

This weekend I went to Valencia with a group of friends from my school to experience the cultural phenomenon known as Las Fallas. Las Fallas is a festival in which all the different barrios of Valencia (and beyond) spend months out of the year preparing their falla, usually a satire on a certain theme, with characters, animals, you name it, sometimes standing as tall as entire apartment buildings. During the festival, the city comes to life in an extremely boisterous  manner with fireworks exploding every thirty seconds or so, ranging from magnificent displays of color and light to small petardos flying from the hands of small children and, more frequently, old Valencianos. Each afternoon of the festival has a mascletà, in which dozens of fireworks are lit and the Plaza de Ayuntamiento shakes and explodes with celebration; each day ends and the nights begin with a fireworks display over the river, the most impressive of which being on the night of the 18th of March, or La Nit del Foc, which fortunately got to experience--definitely one of the best fireworks shows I've seen. After we fought through the crowds which gathered to watch the display, we spent some time walking around Valencia to see as many of the fallas as we could before calling it a night around 5am. What most surprised me was how we could walk around quite calmly all night with the other thousands of people that had come to town for the weekend and not feel like we were staying out until an absurd hour. Regrettably, on our cab ride back to the hostel, our taxi driver informed us that Friday was the party night because after the fallas burn on the 19th, the festival is over and everybody goes home.

Saturday we all met around noon to have breakfast (I love Spain) and to make our way back into the center to experience the Mascletà. Unfortunately, we didn't plan very well and arrived only with enough time to hear the explosions, but not to feel them. I am pretty bummed that we missed this, as every single person who offered Valencia advice told me that the Mascletà was an obligatory part of Las Fallas que no se puede perder. After the Mascletà madness was over, we continued our walk around town to see many more fallas and have a late lunch. We then began our walk back toward the hostel and came across one of the many parades, this time with fire and people dressed as demons! It was considerably shorter than the other parades, but still very impressive.

Saturday night, however, was the end of the festival, and a big festival can only come to a close with an even bigger ending. Las Fallas always ends with all the fallas being set on fire. Around 10pm, the fallas infantiles are burned and then later, any time from 12-4am, the full-size fallas are set ablaze. We stuck around the second prize winner to watch it burn, and wow was it worth it. This falla was as tall as the apartments that surrounded it, and the flames reached even higher. We didn't stand close for the actual burning, but once it had burnt down until only the interior support beams remained, we advanced to feel the heat and take some pictures. Our night continued to look for some remainder of a fiesta, but as the taxi driver correctly predicted, there really were none. The music in the streets ceased and all that remained were charred bits of falla scattered throughout the botellón-filled streets. We called it a night around 430am and went back to the hostel.

On Sunday, Ángel and I managed to get out of the hostel around noon to spend an hour or so lying on the beach, taking in the warmth and eventually sticking our feet in the chilly Mediterranean. But what followed the beach was incredible...paella valenciana! I will admit, I was a bit apprehensive about eating rabbit at first, but as long as I just didn't think about whether I was eating rabbit or chicken, I didn't mind and actually quite liked it. Our delicious lunch lasted a few hours and we eventually hit the road back to Madrid around 6pm, only hitting traffic just outside Valencia.

One big Spanish tradition down... up next, Semana Santa in Sevilla? San Fermín? La Tomatina? Vamos a ver...

The Ides of March

The Ides of March, or the 15th of March, is the day that Julius Caesar was killed in 44BC, and due to Shakespeare's play, Julius Caesar, the Ides of March carry a sense of imminent danger and foreboding. However, for me, the Ides of March hold a much more pleasant sentiment-- today marks six months of Spanish living!

Six months ago, I left Raleigh and boarded a plane in DC to come to Madrid. The months have absolutely flown! I have done and seen some amazing things and met a lot of great people, and most importantly, I've learned a lot. I've learned how important it is to be open to anyone or anything in a situation like this--I'm away from home, my family, my friends, my habits, my native language (more or less)...in the past that's been difficult for me, because I've always had the same group of friends for a number of years at a time before having to start from nothing (okay, maybe starting from a few friends). Something I've found to be especially wonderful about Spanish culture is how friendly everyone is. I'm not the only person to notice this, either--search nearly any travel blog for thoughts on Spanish people and most will say the same thing. In my first week of work, another teacher got off the bus at the same stop and noticed me also walking to the school. She asked if I'd arrived on the same bus, if I was going to the school, and since then she's been one of my close friends and now we enjoy a chat on the way to and from school many times each week.

I've also learned the importance of comfort. However, I'm not talking about immediately changing into pajamas after the workday. It's easy to feel disconnected and uncomfortable in a place that is so far from what I'm used to. Now I know exactly how I like to do things and I know my daily routine as if it were a science. I've always been able to recognize when I need to be alone, and though it happens a lot less frequently than it used to, it is still extremely necessary sometimes. My general introvert habits have faded a bit since coming here and I tend to spend more time around lots of people than I used to, but I think it was necessary. While my Spanish has of course improved immensely, I had to overcome the fear of even trying to speak in order to improve. I'm no longer nervous about going shopping or calling my bank, and I have friendly, casual conversations entirely in Spanish every day.

An observation I'm not sure I can make at this point is regarding my old friends. I haven't been the best at staying in touch with everyone, but at the same time I know exactly who I'll email as soon as I book a ticket home and who I'll call as soon as I shake off the jet lag. I miss my friends, and of course I miss my family so much. I actually just got a package today from Uncle Dave and Aunt Michelle (thanks!!) and the package I got for Christmas really made me appreciate my family more than I'd ever imagined. I also don't think I can miss Christmas again. Even though I do a lot of the same things here as I would do at home--sit on the couch, cook delicious food, watch TV--I know it won't ever be quite the same. But even with missing my friends and family, feeling out of place from time to time, and sometimes not even understanding English, I'm happy. The past six months have gone by entirely too quickly and I hate to think that less than four months remain, but words cannot express how grateful I am to be here and to have really been able to settle in and feel like I am part of this magnificent city.

Mallorca, or why the chicken crossed the road

Last month I went on a weekend getaway to the island of Mallorca, the largest of Spain's Islas Baleares. It was such a nice trip! The weather was fantastic, and though it wasn't exactly "beach weather," there were times when I didn't have to wear my coat! I went with my friend Meredith and we spent our time day-tripping to some smaller towns in the northern part of the island and spending our evenings in Palma.

My favorite place in Mallorca was a town called Valldemossa. The views were breathtaking, the architecture was cute and ancient, and the roads were windy and made of cobblestone... but another town we visited, Deià, provided us with the most spectacular experience I've ever had. We saw a chicken cross the road! We were sitting on a stone wall waiting for the bus to take us back to Palma when we saw a small black hen walk up to the road, poke around a bit, and eventually begin the journey to cross the road using the crosswalk!! It turns out there was a small slice of orange on the other side that it went to eat. So now we know!

The weekend was full of walking and taking pictures, and the sights were truly amazing. Check out a few of my favorites below or click here to see the full album.

Mom's visit - Christmas 2010

I know this post is long overdue, so I will try to do a summary. Mom came to visit over Christmas  and we had a great time! Rather than trying to travel and see lots of Spain, we stayed in Madrid, shopping, eating, cooking, and seeing the sights for most of the time she was here. We spent one day in a mountain town nearby called Cercedilla, where everything was closed because apparently small towns don't function in the last week of December, and another day in Torrejón de Ardoz, where I work, to see Parque Europa and spend the day with Inma, one of the English teachers. She showed us around Torrejón all day and took us out for a delicious lunch before we came back to Madrid, exhausted.

For New Year's Eve, we went to Puerta del Sol to take part in one of the New Year's traditions--eating twelve grapes at midnight. Unfortunately, we couldn't find any seedless grapes so I only got through half of them! We were among the huge crowds and later went to a bar nearby for some drinks to ring in the new year.

So, please to enjoy some photos from her visit!

[slideshow]

Carolina, some day I'll come home

Today, I was sitting at home trying to figure out why my computer hates to stay connected to the internet when someone aggressively buzzed our apartment. I answered to find out that it was someone from Correos, coming to deliver some packages for me. Woohoo! I opened them to find the contents of the above photo--tons of great stuff from my family including some scrapbooks, travel items, and a really nice notebook filled with pictures and well-wishes from everyone at home. Needless to say, it was a teary afternoon, but I'm so lucky to have such a great family who constantly reminds me why I love them so much.

Superpuente

Heads-up: This is a near-transcript of the written journal I kept while traveling, edited to avoid becoming a small novel. Saturday, 04 December 2010 I'm writing this en route via the A2 from Düsseldorf to Berlin. So weird! Jennifer and I are having a superpuente in Germany right now. We arrived late Thursday night in Weeze and two of her friends, Mohammed and Edin, picked us up at the airport and drove us into town to our hostel. We met two other Americans at Barajas who were also on our flight, and they ended up catching a ride with us and staying at our hostel as well. Jen's friends took us out for really delicious kebabs and walked around with us the first night.

On Friday, Jennifer and I walked around Düsseldorf a little and had our first glühwein (mulled wine) in one of the many Christmas markets. The wine was good but extremely sweet and strong... I guess that's how the Germans stay warm in the winter! Later that day Mohammed and their other friend Selcuk met us at the train station in Düsseldorf and took us on a quick trip to Cologne, or Köln, which I really liked. The Dom, a large cathedral, was incredible! It was ancient and beautiful and we fortunately got to take a walk through it before passing through a Christmas market (of course) and walking along the Rhine river. We only spent the evening there before heading back to book another night at our hostel and go into the Altstadt, or old town section of Düsseldorf.  This area was so alive!

The rest of town seemed to disappear after sunset, but after walking through a ridiculous shopping district full of designer storefronts, the bars in this area couldn't seem to contain the partygoers. It was also very beautifully lit for Christmas, as seems to be the norm around here. Mohammed insisted that we try the pizza from a place called Lupo in the Altstadt because the Lonely Planet guidebooks say it's the best in town. It was good, but we all split a pizza with grilled tuna on it so of course I couldn't fully enjoy it... blech.  Once through the Altstadt we walked along the river to the big TV tower in the harbor. We went up the very fast elevator to the observation deck--168m high--before having  a seat in the cafe upstairs. I enjoyed a very rich hot chocolate while the four of us sat and talked, admiring the nighttime view of the city. Jennifer's friends were so nice and fun to hang out with, and it really helped that they were from Germany! Mohammed got us set up with a rideshare from Düsseldorf to Berlin (where I am currently writing) so we are currently in the backseat of a car with an adorable Russian couple on their way to visit their daughter in ballet school. Apparently public transport across state lines in Germany is extremely expensive, so the rideshare program here is really effective and ridiculously cheap--we're only paying 30 euros each to take a trip that would have cost about 100 each by train.

Oh yeah, the hostel in Düsseldorf, Backpackers Hostel, was great. Highly recommended for being cheap, clean, and a small breakfast included in the price helps! It was super comfortable, too. The beds were bigger than my bed in my piso and even the common areas felt like a friend's house. The funny thing was that a group of Spanish girls were staying in the room next to us, so when I woke up I could hear Spanish through the walls... very confusing. What's even more confusing at this point is how much German I already know, without knowing I knew it! (uy) Somehow I'm seeing and hearing words around town and I know what they mean... not just the ones that are obviously similar to English. Maybe it's time to learn German! 220km left to Berlin! Apparently the Russian guy is a guitarist and writes for a German guitar magazine. That's cool. He got really excited when I said I knew some guitar. Okay, we've arrived! Berlin is much colder than expected... and I think we were spoiled by the last hostel because this one is not nearly as cozy. After checking in, we made the very cold trek down our street, Schönhauser Allee, to have some lunch (rutabaga & beef soup) and later walk to Alexanderplatz to experience, what else, another Christmas market! We had another glühwein and our first bratwursts of the trip... yum. The main drawback of this part of the trip is that the two metro stops nearest our hostel are currently under construction, so we have to take a very crowded bus from the next nearest metro or walk about 20 minutes in the freezing Berlin air... as I write this, it's -5 C outside. Brrr!!

Monday, 06 December 2010 Yesterday was so busy! We saw pretty much every touristy thing Berlin has to offer: the Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate, Berlin Wall, Holocaust Memorial, and more.

On top of that we visited one of the bars that the Lonely Planet called a hangout for "punks, rockers, and other leather-clad folks" and I had a really tasty Czech beer called Staropramer Schwarz. One German guy working near Potsdamer Platz suggested that we check out the Kreuzberg neighborhood, so we went out that way and ate some pizza because we're still on Spanish time and 3pm is not German lunch time. Also, the 4pm sunset is really messing with me. After pizza we decided to stop into a dive to see what kind of beers were on tap, and wow was that an experience. It was the towniest of all townie bars, with the strangest mix of characters I've ever seen. The bartender looked like a 25 year-old Spanish guy, to our right was a old man falling asleep in his beer mug, and to the left was an old man dressed as a woman, but not doing a very good job at it. There was also a drunk woman dancing around the bar who at one point put her arms around me and Jennifer and asked us what our names were (in German) and we gave her Spanish names and spoke Spanish to each other because pretty much everyone in Germany speaks perfect English. When we left, the bartender said "hasta luego."

Now I'm sitting in a small restaurant somewhere near Friedrichstrasse. We just ordered lunch and made a poor mistake of ordering beers because they had red and green attached to their names, but they taste like cherry and apple flavored candies, respectively. Yikes. The couple at the table next to us just asked where we were from because they heard us speaking English and it turns out that they're from New Jersey and have the same travel plan as us so far--started from Düsseldorf, came to Berlin, and next heading to Prague. Funny!

After "lunch" we ran into another Christmas market. Hah. We took some photos and headed back to our hostel to pick up our bags before meeting our ride to Prague... but unfortunately I missed a text from him earlier in the day saying he'd had a car accident and wouldn't be driving to Prague. Ugh! In true Amazing Race style, I got on the computer and saw that there was a train leaving for Prague in about an hour and a half... so we took off for the main train station, bought some sandwiches and got our painful 60 euro train tickets (the ride would have only been 20) to Prague. So now I'm sitting on the train. It's freezing in here!

We'll be getting into Prague in about five hours, just past midnight, to begin our quick stop in the Czech Republic. I've really enjoyed Germany so far. Most of the people have been helpful when we needed it and there is just so much history everywhere that it's hard not to be fascinated. It is a strange feeling to be away from Madrid, even though I've only been gone a few days. I wonder if I'll feel relieved when we get back, like I'm going back home. When I think about it now, it feels like I'm away from home, but when I'm in Madrid I don't feel that way. It's incredible to think about what I'm up to... that Madrid feels like home after not even three months, but I still can't believe I am really living there! What am I doing there? What am I doing, speaking another language fluently enough to make friends and do everyday things... even now, our train sits at a stop in Dresden, Germany... what am I doing in Dresden? How did I end up on a random ten-day vacation in some European country? Sometimes I just can't believe this is where my life has gone, but I am so happy that it did.

Tuesday, 07 December 2010 First impressions of Prague: wow. This place is beautiful! Our hostel here is nice but it seems to have the same effect as the hotel mom and I had in DC... super-modern looking with tons of interesting and unique features, but that's about it. But it was super cheap! This morning Jennifer and I had a small breakfast in a cafe nearby before walking toward the river and seeing the Dancing Building. I am just floored by how ornate everything is here, from the architecture to the stones that make up the sidewalks.

We continued along the river until we reached the Charles Bridge which I guess is only famous because it is pedestrianized and has lots of morbid religious stuff on it. But still we crossed it and took pictures because it was very beautiful and found a small Christmas market (imagine that!) and tried the Czech version of mulled wine... spoiler alert! It tastes the same, just has a cooler name: svařák. We climbed through the Malá Strana neighborhood up to Prague Castle where we enjoyed some really nice views of the city and happened to arrive just in time to see the changing of the guard. It was nothing fancy but still nice to see. We decided not to pay the 350 Czech crowns to get in (about 14,50 euros) and instead walked around the neighborhood and back down the hills to have a tasty Czech lunch of beef goulash and potato dumplings, and the best part... a cold, fresh Pilsner Urquell. Fantastic.

Our after-lunch walk took us to the Old Town square where there was, of course, a Christmas market. Then we walked through an expensive shopping area with stores like Gucci and Hermes before going back to the hostel to warm up. We ended up chatting with one of the people staying in our room and then the three of us went out for a drink nearby. A girl working at the hostel recommended a bar nearby called U Sudu, which my friend Maggie also recommended! It was really cool inside. I think there were a total of three bars within this one, all connected by a network of caves and tunnels. A tiny puppy ran around the room we chose.We left to get something to eat and ended up having bratwurst at a stand near the bar that played hilariously bad American Christmas music. After that I suggested we try this bar that I saw on Three Sheets that just happened to be across the street from our hostel. It was an absinthe bar called Absinthe Time, with a huge menu of just absinthes before getting to the other drinks. We asked the bartender what she suggested and we ordered from her suggestions and had it prepared with fire, which is apparently the Czech way. I have to say, I didn't hate it! The fire melted sugar into the absinthe and made it bearable... in very small sips.

Thursday, 09 Dec 2010 On a train again... this one is super bumpy and old. Our second day in Prague was nice, but I am pretty sure we saw nearly everything there is to see on day one, so day two wasn't very eventful. Another rideshare fell through, ugh! This situation was so strange... the guy asked us to meet at one hotel at 6pm, but on the day of he asked if we wanted to leave earlier in the day. We agreed, having seen pretty much all of Prague twice, only to discover that 15 minutes before the time we were supposed to meet him, he'd emailed me asking to change locations to the other side of town. Of course we were on our way to meet at one place so I couldn't have possibly checked my email... irritating. We ended up going to the train station to find out we'd have to pay another 55 euros for a train ticket that wasn't leaving until the next morning, so we went back to our hostel to book one more night and leave early the next day. Jennifer and I took what remained of our Czech money and went for some beers to ease our irritation. We met some really weird kids in the bar at our hostel, too... one girl claiming to be Russian who grew up in DC but now lives in Prague, some other guy from Brooklyn who allegedly plays poker for a living and just travels around looking for tournaments, and another super weird 17 year-old kid from India who went to American schools... sure. Oh! and this morning our train was delayed 35 minutes and apparently we have to change trains once we arrive in Plzen. Uyyy.

Saturday, 11 Dec 2010 So much has happened! Our train from Prague to Munich was such a mess. We sat on the train with a bunch of other Americans who were super nice and entertaining, so it helped pass the time as our train made multiple stops and kept going backwards and just uuuf. When we finally arrived in Munich I felt so relieved. Czech is just so confusing! Our hostel in Munich was also only about five blocks from the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) so we finally felt like everything was working out again. The hostel was okay... no perks and not very clean, but at least our roommates were nice. After arriving in Munich we walked to the city center and ate a really delicious dinner at the Bayerischer Donisl. It was amazing... Jen had turkey schnitzel and I had pork with potatoes.

After dinner we walked a bit more and eventually found the Hofbrauhaus... or beer mecca! There were loads of tables full of people eating and drinking giant liter mugs of delicious German beer, all with a typical German band playing in the middle of the room. The problem was just how full the place was. We walked through the entire place looking for a spot, preferably not with old people who probably didn't want to talk to us, and we decided (with a bit of uneasiness on my part) to sit at a table with a bunch of younger-looking guys... but one was passed out on the table, hence my discomfort. They, of course, welcomed us to their table. Two were German, both named Martin, one passed out, one Swiss guy, one Maltese guy named Etienne, and one American guy named Chris who lived in Switzerland.  They were nice and everything was fine until Pass Out Martin woke up and started banging his head and fists against the table and glared around the room. Over the course of the evening he slept with his head on the table, lying on the bench, and eventually under the table for a minute. At one point the waiter came by and told him he had to leave, so when he left his friends told him to sleep under the table and later told the waiter that he'd left. Terrible idea. Pass Out Martin was so belligerently drunk that he tried to stand up under the table so of course the waiter noticed that the table was moving and had to bring over the boss and they had a long chat and eventually the two Martins left. So we thought. Somehow they found their way back in without getting caught and sat back down with us, but then they both started falling asleep!  The boss guy told them they had two minutes to leave and somehow they actually left and didn't come back. Who knows what happened to them? Then the Swiss guy left, and it was just me, Jennifer, and Chris and Etienne. We decided we wanted to go for another drink, but maybe not a full liter, so we left and went to a hip-looking bar where Chris bought us all some dunkelweiss beers. Not my favorite, but still nice to try. At one point we got into a conversation with two girls at the table next to us only to discover that one of them was from Madrid! Finally, I got to speak Spanish again! The weirdest part was that the two girls were also staying our hostel... and in our room! Crazy!

Friday morning we went to the concentration camp memorial at Dachau. The exhibit was incredible. There was so much information about all sides of the war, from estimated numbers of those who died in Dachau vs the registered numbers, some old Nazi propaganda, flyers, articles, etc. We walked through barracks and the main hall and kitchen area, in the square where there was a daily roll call, and around the perimeter to the crematoriums. We walked through the "showers" which were of course the gas chambers. It was pretty terrifying to know that I was standing in a room where thousands of people died. We walked through a room that used to house dead bodies before cremation. I passed a wall that was used for shooting lineups.

Most importantly, I did something that so many innocent people never got to do: I walked out of Dachau the same way I came in, through a gate marked "Arbeit Macht Frei," and I did it alive and unscathed, though a bit shaken. Dachau was an incredible, almost surreal experience. What happened during the Holocaust always seemed so far from me, so before my time and my culture and the life that I know, but going there and seeing all of that just made it so much more real and terrifying.

After a few hours in Dachau we went back to Munich and had another delicious German meal at a place called Augustiner. I tried veal meatballs (!) with potatoes and veggies. After another "lunch" we went to the hostel to get our lives together for today and tried to set up a rideshare to Frankfurt. The very very very helpful girl working at the hostel made phone calls for us and found us a ride! We rode the high of that success all the way to the Paulaner Brauhaus where I had probably the freshest beer ever. Delicious.

This morning we didn't have much time before our ride so we had a small breakfast at a nearby bakery and went to meet our ride. They didn't show up right away so of course we panicked a little, but they did eventually get there! So now I'm in the car to Frankfurt. Our drivers this time are two sisters in their mid-twenties who said they used to do the rideshare a lot and they really love the experience. They're really nice. Too bad not all the drivers along the way were like this! We should be arriving in Frankfurt in about an hour and then it's our last night in Germany!

Okay, now I'm in the hostel in Frankfurt. This place is pretty cool, in a really old building on a pedestrian square right across the street from the main train station. The room is nothing spectacular, but of course there are four Spanish people in our room! The hostel bar has a piano in it and someone is playing "Winter Wonderland" right now. We just got back from seeing all of "old" Frankfurt and my favorite Christmas market of the trip! There was a brass band on a rooftop playing Christmas songs... so wonderful. Other than that, Frankfurt is so commercial!

Skyscrapers and financial buildings are everywhere. But, more on the Christmas market: I had schnitzel, finally, and loved it. It was on a bun so I don't think I'll be hungry for days. We also tried Apfelweine, which was good and mostly tasted like green apple cider, but later we had winter-apfel schnapse and it was just spectacular. It was a warm shot of the schnapse and it tasted like hot spiced cider. If only airlines didn't have stupid liquid restrictions, I would have bought a bottle of it. After seeing pretty much everything in Frankfurt, we walked along the river for a little while before coming back to the hostel and being bothered by some weird dude in the bar.

Sunday, 12 December 2010 The weird guy kept bugging us for a while, and after talking with the Spanish folks in our room, the girl said she'd noticed him bothering every girl in the hostel. At one point last night some old guy came in the room claiming I'd stolen his bed, but I explained that there was nothing on or near the bed to indicate that it was taken, and he went on some rant about how people steal things if you leave them, blah blah blah, he went and complained and they just gave him another room. Hah.  I didn't sleep well because people kept going in and out of the room all night and I had to get up early, which is always how it goes. The best part about our hostel, however, was that it was right next to the train station where we needed to catch a bus to the airport this morning. Fortune smiled upon us again as Jennifer and I managed to buy the last two tickets on this bus for the jump seats right up front. We got to the airport with enough time for check-in and breakfast and no problems getting on with our backpacks.

Traveling was fun but I'm very glad to be going back to my slow-paced, relaxing life in Spain.

Click here to see more pictures from this trip!

Feliz Año!

I haven't forgotten about you, dear blog-readers. Since Thanksgiving, I've been around Germany and Prague and back, finished out two more weeks of school which ended with a fantastic Christmas lunch and party, Mom came to visit and we saw Madrid at Christmastime, celebrated the New Year in the center of Madrid, and last night I watched La Cabalgata de Los Reyes, or the Three Kings parade. So please brace yourselves for the massive update that is to follow...

Thanksgiving in Madrid

Dearest family and friends, I cooked a turkey. No, I can't believe it either!

Thanksgiving in Spain was hilarious and incredible. A group of the teachers at my school agreed to do Thanksgiving at María's house to experience some American culture. Jen and I did our best to advise them on the traditions and typical foods at Thanksgiving, so on Wednesday a few of the teachers went to buy some ingredients including a seven kg (about 16 pounds) turkey! We weren't sure if it would even fit in the oven (see above) but eventually it did. It cooked for a few hours and I patiently basted and re-basted it throughout the process.

Angel hilariously made four little flags, two Spanish and two American, and stuck them in the turkey once it was finished. Overall there were seven Spaniards and two Americans--Jen being the other one--and we made a turkey, stuffing, corn, green beans, peas, and mashed potatoes. Angel even made an apple pie for dessert that was really spectacular. Overall it was a lot of fun, even though after eight hours of speaking only Spanish I was completely exhausted! Everyone said they had a really great time and that they enjoyed celebrating my very American holiday... some even said they can't wait for next year :) As for now, I'll let the pictures do the talking:

[slideshow]

Hala Madrid!

It's a dreary, rainy Sunday in Madrid, after a chilly, mostly uneventful weekend, but quite a busy week! The above photo (click to enlarge) is from Wednesday night's Real Madrid v Real Murcia game. Madrid won, 5-1, but it was far from a dull blow-out game. Madrid scored within the first five minutes and the ref ended up throwing out Madrid coach José Mourinho and giving out eight yellow cards, one of which turned into a red card for Madrid defender Álvaro Arbeloa. It was really interesting to see the highlights after the game, since Bernabeu lacks a replay screen (perhaps an American indulgence but I still really wish there had been one). Mourinho was thrown out of the game--and suspended for the next two games--for badmouthing the ref and stepping outside the coach's area. The entire stadium went wild and started shouting at the referee, who is also notorious for making calls just like this one. Mourinho said in a post-game interview that this ref averages about six yellow cards per match, and considering the first card he gave out in this game was after only about ten minutes of play, many more cards were bound to follow.

Wednesday's game was part of the Copa del Rey, and since Real Murcia is in a lower-ranked division than Madrid, the tickets were absurdly cheap, only ten euros for seats on top! We'd originally planned on spending more for the "good" seats in the lower sections, since they only would have cost us about 20-30 euros each, but we bought our tickets too late and the upper levels were the only seats left. There isn't a bad seat in the house, really... the rows are pretty stacked and each row had a crossbar in front of the seats because they just know we're all going to be jumping out of our chairs every few minutes! The best part was that the upper levels have heaters on the ceilings, so even though it was freezing that night, we were nice and toasty. Overall I had a really great time and I can't wait to go to another game!

The next day at school, we had an excursion to the Parque Europa, a big green space in Torrejón with loads of European monuments in a miniature form. It does seem a bit cheesy, but I think the kids had a lot of fun. I was, however, exhausted after this trip. My normal day at school consists of talking to the kids or telling them to be quiet, but never actually trying to corral them into the room. This was not the case on Thursday. We had to shout so loudly just to get their attention and tell them what monument we were looking at. The first half of the trip I was with Inma, the English teacher, but halfway through I had to switch to be with Inés so that each group would have one teacher speaking English and one speaking Spanish. It's really incredible how easily the kids stop what they are doing to listen to someone speaking Spanish, but I understand that it's so much easier for them to tune out a different language... I was a student in language classes once!

As I mentioned in my last post, I am completely obsessed with the Spanish dish, pimientos de Padrón. Well, at the supermarket on Friday afternoon I saw a packet of these little green peppers that caught my eye, especially the part on the label that said the variety was "PADRON." Naturally, I bought a pack, brought them home, and attempted to make my new favorite dish. Success! They were delicious and just how I'd hoped they would taste. If you can get your hands on these peppers, all you have to do is wash & dry them, fry them in olive oil for a few minutes until they start to blister and shrivel a bit, and then sprinkle them with salt. Pick them up by the stems, take a bite, and hope that they don't pica!

I changed the memory card in my camera this weekend and discovered a long-lost gem--a picture of my first attempt at making a tortilla! After I returned from Spain last summer I was completely enamored with this dish (and still am) so I had some friends from my study abroad group over to my apartment for dinner and tried to have a nice tapas night. I saw this photo and thought, hmm, that looks a lot like the plates from my apartment, but I haven't made a successful tortilla in a long time... so I checked the info on the photo and it was dated 10-10-2009! Incredible! I certainly have something to live up to this time around. And if you're interested in sampling some of my favorite Spanish flavors, my friend Meredith wrote a nice blog post with a recipe for this dish in particular. My advice: don't be timid with the olive oil. You'll need it!!