Listening to ABBA in Ireland

I never really know how to write about my more intense travels because I often try to do and see so much that it's overwhelming to even think about writing it all out. For some reason Emma, Meg, and I let our strange obsession with ABBA run wild during the last puente and their songs sort of punctuated our entire journey. So, dear reader, I now invite you to open your preferred music library and find ABBA's Greatest Hits album, Gold (I know you have it), and allow your four favorite Swedes to accompany you on an Irish expedition.

Friday, Track 1: Dancing Queen

Our mornings (when we had a room to ourselves, at least) were often kicked off by that great piano slide at the beginning of this track. We began our trip with an early morning out of Madrid, landing in Dublin and finding our hostel around 1pm. The weather was a bit glum (surprise) but the skies eventually cleared up and after lunch and a stroll through Temple Bar, Meg and I set out to find the Guinness Storehouse.

In a word: great. After visiting this and the Heineken Experience in Amsterdam I feel that I am allowed to judge and compare and generally consider myself an expert on beer tourism. My only qualm with the Guinness Storehouse is that they let you do a tasting too soon. Sure, I really wanted to have a Guinness within moments of landing, but you just can't give me a taste of the black stuff on the second floor and then tell me the Gravity bar is on the seventh floor! I can't really say what was on the next few floors because we snapped pictures and rushed through them to get to the bar where they teach you how to pour the perfect pint of Guinness. I made Meg be the group's guinea pig and we poured our pints and got our certificates. I tried to make a clover on top of my beer but I was more concerned about pouring a delicious pint and drinking it to make any beautiful artwork.

That night, we had a few drinks around Temple Bar, ate some dinner, and had an early night so we could get up early and start heading across the country.

Saturday, Track 2: S.O.S.

An early morning and a big Irish breakfast took us to the Dublin bus station to head out to Galway, where we'd arranged to rent a car and begin our Irish road trip. Bad luck #1 - we arrived at 1pm and the rental office closed at noon. And doesn't open on Sundays. And we were planning to bring the car back Tuesday morning. Now what? Our extremely helpful staff at the Barnacles Hostel gave us a few suggestions as we modified our itinerary and then went for a walk around town. Lunch was at the apparently famous (but not too famous because their website is in Comic Sans) McDonagh's so we could re-work our plans on a full stomach. After deciding to stay in Galway a little longer we walked through the town, found an open-air market, and had a few pints. We went out to a few bars that night after our hallway was invaded by a neighboring stag party from Dublin that sang to us before they went out.

Sunday, Track 3: Money, Money, Money

Must be funny. At breakfast Sunday morning, Emma asked me, "do you have my money?" Well, no. Of course not. Why do you ask? All of her cash was gone. Bad luck #2. I had been in charge of the bote the night before (bote is a Spanish term used for when everyone puts in the same amount of money to pay for something like dinner or a night of drinks) but I still had our change and nothing more. Then we found out Meg's cash was gone too. Fortunately my stuff was untouched, but it was really unsettling. My inner detective says it was the guy in our room who nobody knew (you're lucky I didn't see your face, guy) because he took cash from bags that weren't very easily accessible in the back of the room, while my stuff was right by the door. Anyone just sticking their head in the door would take what they saw first... not go to the back of the room hoping to find something. And yes, I KNOW we should have been more careful with where we left our things. We've all stayed in hostels before. Consider it a momentary lapse of judgment.

As I said, our hostel staff were super helpful and when we told them about it they dedicated quite some time to our 'case' and gave us a private room for the next night. Once again, we changed our itinerary. Instead of trying to get to some well-known spots in the area, we found a cheap bus out to Clifden and walked along the beach after a quick stop at a playground, because we are adults. We cooked dinner at the hostel that night and then played a game of Clue with a girl from CA in the hostel lobby. I won by default because the other three guessed incorrectly, but then so did I! One extra card (stupid Mrs White) threw us all off.

Monday, Track 4: Super Trouper

We took hostel guy Danny's suggestion to visit the Aran Islands and stay at his pal Dave's hostel, the Kilronan. A choppy ferry ride on a cold, dark, windy day brought us to the pier on Inis Mór, the largest of the Aran Islands. As per the hostel's directions, yes, you really can see it as soon as you get off the boat! We walked over to the hostel and found that we had our cute little room with tiny beds all to ourselves. We had been told that on the Aran Islands it's very common to rent a bike and see the island that way, but when we arrived it was the coldest, windiest, rainiest day of the trip so far... so we opted for a van tour instead. It was the same price and our driver was so knowledgeable about the island that in the end I think it was way more worth it. Even on a nice day we wouldn't have heard so many fun facts on a bike! Our driver took us to the most famous spots on the island, including Dún Aonghasa, an ancient fort atop 100-meter cliffs and my favorite spot of the entire trip.

Our hike was exhausting given the wild weather on our way to the top, but it all paid off as the clouds cleared and we enjoyed some incredible views. At the base of the fortress there's a tiny cafe that made the most delicious beef & Guinness stew I've ever had.

Highly recommended! That night we made some pizzas for dinner before having some pints in the tiny town where everybody knew everybody's name, just not ours. We were nearly proposed to by some gross old locals who sang to us to try to win us over, but it wasn't meant to be.

Tuesday, Track 5: Mamma Mia

At noon we were on a ferry back to to the mainland. At about 1:00 we were on a bus back to Galway center. At 2:30 we were on a bus to a very cold, rainy Dublin. Early the next morning, we were on a plane back to Madrid. Whew! Of course, I took way too many photos and I can only hope they convey the splendor of some of the things we saw. Click here to see them!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

...Christmas!!! Finally! It's Christmas time in Madrid and I could not be happier. Christmas is and has always been my favorite time of the year, because it really is The Most Wonderful Time of the Year. And this year, I am even more excited than I usually am, because this year I'm going home! Living away from my family in Chicago is something I've done since I was five years old, so for me, December comes, school lets out, and I go to Chicago for the holidays. It's normal, it's my tradition, and I love it. But last year, I didn't go home. Mom came to visit me, and we had a great time, but we both decided that it just wasn't the same... so away I go!

To begin the holiday season, at work we celebrate Día del Maestro, and in our school we celebrate in style. Our lunch began just after school ended last Monday and we all got to eat lots of delicious Spanish foods while we talked and discussed our patron saint of teachers. Like last year, we are again playing Amigo Invisible, or Secret Santa. In this lunch we drew names, and the game starts tomorrow! This is one of the things I will miss the  most about this school. There's such a buen rollo there. We all get along and enjoy staying at school until five or six in the afternoon just to hang out and have a good time.

On Sunday, a few of my friends came to my house for an early Christmas party. We also played Secret Santa - my friend Emma got me a few key pieces that every good hostess should have: a cute tray, napkins, tea, and a cute cupcake-shaped sugar dish. Everybody brought something to eat (I made mulled wine and spinach cups), we exchanged gifts, and watched Christmas movies all night. I think being of the Friends generation, I always imagined this was what "growing up" would be like.

Now there are only fifteen days between me and heading home for Christmas. How am I handling the wait? Well, on Thursday I'll head to Amsterdam for a long weekend (thank you, Spanish holidays) and then I'll come back to a week of work, a weekend of shopping for presents, and a trip or two on the Navibus, I'm sure. To help you guys aguantar until Christmas, check out my video from last year's lights and fireworks:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVzCliL1Pwk&w=560&h=315]

...and some photos from this year's Christmas decorations:

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Felices Fiestas!

Basque-ing

Puente - Spanish for "bridge," a puente is the word used to describe a regular weekend made longer by connecting it to a bank holiday on, for example, a Tuesday. In this case, my weekend was connected to Tuesday, the first of November, or All Saints Day, giving me and my friend Jessie four days to head up north and discover San Sebastián and Bilbao.

Stop #1 was San Sebastián, or in the local language, Donostia. This small beach town was super charming and full of history. When we climbed to the top of Monte Urgull, between the Bahía de La Concha and playa Zurriola (closest to our hostel) we got to visit a small exhibition within a giant statue dedicated to el Sagrado Corazón de Jesús full of history about País Vasco and Donostia.

Our hostel experience here was...odd. We arrived to find the owners of the hostel (a married couple) welcoming us with mini croissants and a chocolate bar, and the guy, Jaime, dressed in a stage turban, winter coat, sweatpants, black socks, and white jelly shoes. He referred to himself as the Sultan of Karpukala (apparently he'd recently been in some sort of play or something) and eventually posed for a photo in the middle of the tiny room with us. The "hostel" was nothing more than a room in the couple's house where they'd installed three-story bunkbeds. We chose this place because it was the cheapest hostel with availability, and though it was really strange, we were lucky to be sharing the room with a group of really nice people who made the stay that much better.

While in Donostia, we basically walked all over the entire town, stopping only for the occasional coffee or ice cream. We took a lot of photos on Monte Urgull and in the old town on our first day out, but unfortunately it was really overcast until our tourism day came to an end. On our last day in Donostia it was warm and sunny, so we just sat on some giant wavebreaker rocks in Zurriola, soaking up the sun before we had to catch a bus to our next stop.

Bilbao (Bilbo) is probably most well known for the Guggenheim museum. One of the travel books I read said that one could refer to history in Bilbao as BG and AG - Before & After Guggenheim. Apparently the construction of the museum really changed everything there, transforming it from an industrial district to a modern and diverse riverside city.

On our last morning in Bilbao, we took the funicular de Artxanda and got to see some incredible views of the city, the river, and the surrounding landscape. The old town in Bilbao was cute, and the Guggenheim was impressive, but this was my favorite part of the trip. Seeing a city in a valley surrounded by cloud-covered mountains reminded me so much of Boone. Of course, in Boone they don't speak Euskera... I only learned hello and goodbye (kaixo/agur) and thank you (eskerrik). Even though the signs were all in Euskera, they were also in Castellano, and everyone in Donostia and Bilbo speaks Castellano as well, so I didn't have any trouble getting around... just didn't get to learn any cool new words or phrases. Bummer.

In writing about Euskadi (Basque Country), pintxos must be mentioned. Pintxos are similar to tapas in that they are a small delicious snack to accompany your drinks, but pintxos differ from tapas in that they include a pincho - Spanish for spike - that is usually a toothpick holding the toppings together on a slice of bread, while tapas could be almost anything. You could look at it this way: pintxos can always be considered tapas, but tapas can't always be pintxos. Squares and rectangles.

We ate lots and lots of pintxos at every possible opportunity. I'll let the pictures do the talking:

Delicious!

Click here to see the rest of my photos from a weekend in the Basque Country.

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.

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...

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!

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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!

I think I'm getting the Black Lung, Pop

No, I haven't started smoking or become a coal miner. But it's possible that everyone else in this city has. Smoking, that is. Not coal mining, as far as I know. It's impossible to go almost anywhere in this city without smelling like an ashtray. I had to find a new place to hang my towel because it was hanging next to my scarves, which of course smell like smoke. Yuck. The sad inevitable day finally came: the end of my first month of teaching. And the end of the month means time to switch schedules with the other assistant, Jen. Now I'm working with Inma and first-grade groups A & B. They are fine, but I miss my other classes! The worst/best part about the switch is that my old students always give me hugs and shout my name every time they see me outside or in the hallways. It really makes my day when they start the sports-style cheer: Shaaa-na! Shaaa-na! Shaaa-na!

So, what have I been up to lately? I've started going to a conversation hour type of thing in which we all speak thirty minutes or so in Spanish before switching to English for thirty minutes, and back and forth for about two hours. After last week's session, a group of us went to the Feria de la Cerveza that was held inside the Plaza de Toros. They tried to set it up like Oktoberfest, with long rows of tables and giant beer mugs that hold a full liter!There was also a variety of different types of sausage for sale, but to me they just tasted like hot dogs and breakfast sausage.

I guess that's how it goes when you're trying to eat German food in Spain. Speaking of which, Jen and I are going to Germany in December! We have a long weekend, or puente, at the beginning of the month so we spent an evening looking at cheap flights all around Europe and found some cheap ones to and from Düsseldorf and Frankfurt, but our itinerary between the two stops is currently undetermined, so please send suggestions! We are hoping to see Berlin, Dresden, and Munich, but I am still very open to suggestions. Also, Mom booked her flight to Madrid for Christmas, so we will probably travel for a few days before or after New Year's Eve, which I have decided we must spend here to be a part of the NYE tradition in Puerta del Sol, where the madrileños eat twelve grapes at midnight--one for each chime of the clock.

Yesterday I had my first session teaching the teachers at my school! As part of my program, the school can choose to have the English assistants help with teaching English to the other teachers. On Wednesdays, they meet with an actual English teacher, but on Monday afternoons they meet with Jen and me and we split into two groups for an hour of conversation. Jen has had some experience teaching before and, well, she tends to talk a bit faster than I do, so she has a group of six teachers who already know a bit of English. I have a group of fourteen (!!!) teachers who know less English, but their levels range from a few who really don't know any English to a few who will probably move up to the second class once they feel more comfortable speaking English. One of the teachers in my class, María (not to be confused with the first-grade English teacher María), lives near me and we've gotten the chance to talk on the bus to and from school nearly every day, so it's nice to have a friend in my group to help me relax! The teachers have all told me that they're very nervous and embarrassed to speak English, but yesterday I was extremely nervous to teach them! The class went well and was mostly me getting to know them and answering their questions more than I was asking them questions. Jen and I will be meeting with the Wednesday afternoon English teacher sometime this week to discuss her lesson plans so we can sort of echo what she teaches and reinforce the ideas in practice. Listen to me, all teachery.

This weekend was known as "MTV Week" because the European Music Awards (EMAs) were held in Madrid this year. What does this mean? Parties, concerts, and more parties going on all week, all sponsored by MTV and all free! Well, sort of. A big stage was set up in the city center at Puerta de Alcalá where a bunch of Spanish artists played a show on Saturday, and on Sunday, during the actual EMAs, Katy Perry, Linkin Park, and 30 Seconds to Mars performed. Of course, Kanye West had to show up and do a song in the middle of one of the performances, and Jackass came out and crowdsurfed. My roommate managed to see Snooki and Pauly D from Jersey Shore at a hotel downtown, while I was out and about all weekend and managed to not see anyone. Such is my life. My friend Josh and I tried to go to the EMA afterparty that was held in Parque Retiro, but much to our dismay the doorman told us it was invitation-only, and since it was late on a Sunday night we couldn't stick around to see the celebs arriving.

Aside from celebrity-stalking, I spent most of my weekend with some people from the conversation hour, going out to lunch, visiting the Sunday morning market aka El Rastro, tapas-crawling on Cava Baja and around La Latina, and generally wandering around the city and speaking lots of Spanish. It's just so incredible how much better my Spanish has gotten, not that it was bad before, but I'm not nearly as afraid to use it as I used to be. At times I really miss my family, my friends, and my old routine... I am especially missing Raleigh's fantastic breweries. I haven't found anything to compare to Sweet Josie Brown, and the recent return of Aces & Ates has me feeling extremely nostalgic for tasty beers. But I guess that's why I'm going to Germany!

To be fair, what Spain lacks in amazing wintry brews, it certainly makes up for in fantastic food. I've recently become obsessed with Pimientos de Padrón, a dish of fried peppers from Galicia in the Northwest of Spain. There is a saying about the dish in the local language, Galego: Os pementos de Padrón, uns pican e outros non, which means: Padrón peppers, some are spicy and some are not. Padrón is a town in the community of Galicia where the dish originated. Usually, it tastes like sweet fried peppers, but sometimes you'll get a spicy one. I had some at a small bar near the Plaza Mayor a few weeks ago and have been crazy about them ever since. If you have the means, I highly suggest picking one up.

I have added lots more pictures to my albums online. Click here to see them, and until next time, un beso!

fotográfica rápida

I don't have much to update on right now, as nothing's really happened for the past few days! However, I'll be taking a few quick pictures as I walk around town, so if you'd like to view what I've done so far, click on the Photos link or on the picture below:

Puerta de Toledo