Minding the gap in London

So for the first part of spring break a few of us headed to London for a long weekend. Upon arriving we were tired, flustered, and utterly frustrated at realizing not one of us had remembered a converter (how am I going to do my hair??!). After narrowly avoiding getting on a train to nowhere, we enlisted planes, trains, and automobiles    to get us to our hostel. We found it on accident when I got off the train and walked into the first bar I saw and asked if the knew where St. Christopher's was. It was, of course, on top of the bar. Always a major plus.

It was an early night with an early morning as we hopped back on the train to get to a walking tour of London. We went from Green Park and took the short walk down to Buckingham Palace. I was surprised by the Palace and the stories surrounding it. The flag was raised, most believing that this signified the Queen was home. This had been the case for quite some time until Princess Diana's death. The Queen was away at the time of the accident, so the flag was down. This means that it was not put to half mass. People were outraged, and thus the tradition was changed so that there is always a flag flying at Buckingham Palace, whether the Queen is home or not. We continued on to (one of the) Prince's homes where we were able to get closer to the guards (and therefore take every opportunity to make them laugh). We could not walk up to them. That privilege was taken away when a Columbian student traveler walked beside a guard and mocked him until the guard punched him in the face. Pretty funny, but still a bummer.

We saw most of the staples on the tour; Big Ben, the London Eye, House of Parliament, and many, many, many, MANY statues and monuments. A few funny stories...there is a very exclusive Gentlemen's club in London (country club) and our tour guide went on to explain the thirty year waiting list that you cannot even get ON unless you know someone already in the club, and every year you are on the waiting list you still have to pay a fee. After he explained this a man in a suit walks out and bends over to tie his shoe. One red sock, one green one. Classic.

We were also told two stories surrounding the Buckingham Palace. One was of three German tourists who were out for the night and had been drinking. With no where to stay, they decided to camp out in Hyde Park. Somehow they mistook Hyde Park for the Queen's garden, which is guarded by a barbed wire fence. Common mistake? Anyways the guards were very surprised in the morning when three hungover tourists wandered up to them asking directions for the tube.

Another anecdote was one of the few attempts to break into Buckingham Palace. It was a homeless Irish man who was a drunk (really?) and had a history of mental illness; Michael Fagan. So one night Fagan decided that he didn't want to sleep outside and that he wanted to sleep in the Palace. He walked up to a window and smashed it. Silent alarms went off all over the Palace into the security center. The security guards saw all the sensors going off and thought to themselves, there is no way that all the alarms could be tripped at once so the system must clearly be malfunctioning. Reassured by these thoughts, they shut the entire security system off for  the Palace (band of geniuses). Michael Fagan had since decided that he was hungry. Upon finding the kitchen, he opened one of the Queen's finest wines. He also, in his drunken state, mistook dog food for fine dining. In an attempt to get the can open with a knife, he lacerated his arm. This was the time when he decided it was time to find a spot to lay his head. Searching through the 661 rooms that Buckingham Palace holds, Fagan found the perfect bedroom. The Queen's bedroom. He snuggled up in bed and frightened the Queen. While she was insistently pushing the alarm next to her bed, she put her training to use and tried to calmly talk to Fagan. When the security guards failed to arrive, she picked up the phone and called for a cigarette. The security guard said he would bring one right up, but wondered (aloud) why, because she didn't smoke. She responded that the cigarette was not for her, but Fagan, the drunk bleeding Irish man covered in blood and dog food laying on her bed. He was promptly arrested and removed. However when this incident occurred in the 1980s Buckingham Palace was considered public property. This means that Fagan was not charged with trespassing, and merely had to replace the broken window. Probably not too bad of a night for him.

We went on a pub crawl later that night in London and had a blast, and had to peel ourselves out of bed that morning to make it to Cambridge where I was to meet my cousin, Rosamund. We went to a few rugby games which were AWESOME (it was entertaining to see some real rugby played) and I was introduced to my new favorite drink...cider. We also stayed at Pembroke college and ate dinner there in a very Harry Potter-esque scene (cloaks, long tables...just needed the sorting hat ;) After much hospitality we returned to London just in time to witness the changing of the guard. The crowd was enormous and the changing of the guard was a sight worth seeing. Later that day we went on the London Eye, right around sunset, and got to see London from the sky. We also got to go to Abbey Road which was a MAJOR plus to find and I have to say it was soo awesome and if it had been warmer I would have definitely taken my shoes off to create a firmer imitation.

We left London very early on our last day...and I had less than 24 hours to unpack, regroup, repack, and head back to the airport to go to the Canary Islands....by the end of spring break I was recognizing airline attendants (happily).

Here is the link to my London album on Facebook!
 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2112143&id=1295933480&l=e241d1c4e9

I Amsterdam!

I don´t even know where to begin about this past weekend! From start to finish it was a blast…

My roommate and I left Thursday afternoon for the airport. After we watched the airport personnel battle a near flight cancelling conundrum (they messed up the terminals and it took about 8 suits to figure out what to do…) we were in the air. First experience on ryanair….no reclining seats, one bag no personal item. This was only the beginning of our trains, planes, and automobiles weekend. We landed in Brussels, met up with a friend coming in from Italy, hopped a bus, switched to a train. Somewhere near Rotterdam there was an accident on the tracks and we had to switch trains again. Thankfully when we finally made it to Amsterdam our hostel was within walking distance.

We stayed at Durty Nelly´s hostel which was the bomb. It had an awesome location and the staff was great. We checked in and went up to our closet, I mean room, that had four bunk beds and one bathroom. There were four other people staying in the hostel with us. We woke up early in the morning and headed out on a walking tour around Amsterdam. We went started in Dam Plaza, and we passed by a church (of course).  Out in front of the church in the cobblestone there was street art. It was a bronze set of breasts with a hand over one of them. The piece had been placed there anonymously at night and the police had removed it shortly after. However the locals liked the piece and requested it to be put back, and so it was.

We went through the Red Light district of course, which we were staying very close to. Not much to say about that, and so much at the same time. It was crazy to see.  

The tour brought us by a huge building where squatters were. It reminded me a little bit of Lisbon, because the side of the building was completely covered in art/graffiti. Our tour guide also mentioned that the Dutch are the tallest people per capita in the world. It was definitely noticeable, especially coming from Spain where I usually tower over everyone. Other highlights of the tour were seeing Rene Descartes´house. The tour guide told a story of how for two days, Amsterdam stood up to the Nazis. The Nazis had been patrolling the Jewish district in Germany and were arresting and brutalizing Jewish people on a Sunday when the majority of the town was out to go to the Jewish markets. Seeing the truth, Amsterdam led a two day revolt against the Nazis. Many died and it was unsuccessful, but it was the first protest against the Nazis. The tour ended conveniently right in front of the Anne Frank house.

We went inside and the house was so moving. Walking up the tiny stairs and seeing all the rooms is so hard to describe. There were parts of Anne´s diary all throughout the house, telling of how she longed to be outside and laugh and play, how she feared for her life, the days when they weren´t allowed to speak, how they showered once a week with the curtains drawn, how they got their food. I did not know that Anne´s father had survived the Holocaust. He helped renovate and open the house up and wanted it to be a launching place for people everywhere to stand up for human rights. There were videos of Otto Frank speaking of his discovery of his daughter´s diary, how he had no idea how deep her thoughts were and her observations. At the very end there was a quote of Anne from her diary that said,

 "I want to go on living even after my death! And therefore I am grateful to G-d for this gift, this possibility of developing myself and of writing, of expressing all that is in me. I can shake off everything if I write; my sorrows disappear; my courage is reborn. But, and that is the great question, will I ever be able to write anything great, will I ever become a journalist or a writer?"

The display was of all the languages that Anne Frank´s diary was published in.

There was a minor incident which required a three hour detour to the hospital (not for me, nothing serious…if anything, much entertainment came from that) and we went out on a pub crawl that night. It was so much fun, and let us see so much of Amsterdam at night…and early morning. On Saturday we were supposed to leave for Brussels, but we decided to leave at night instead of the morning. We went to the Heineken factory, which was AWESOME. It showed the history of the beer, and the process that it still undergoes. We were able to see all the ingredients, help brew it, bottle it, and even make a music video (hahahahah in DUTCH). It was really fun and very worth it.

We headed to the Van Gogh museum from there, and were extremely exhausted. It was cool to see, but we didn´t spend much time. I did learn about Van Gogh though. He only painted for about 8 years, and in those 8 years he had 900 paintings and 1100 drawings. The Van Gogh museum contains 200 of those paintings (not Starry Night obviously, that’s in New York…which we were unaware of). He suffered from multiple illnesses and even had himself committed into hospitals at times. He died at the age of 37 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest.

Right outside the Van Gogh was the ´´I Amsterdam´´ sign we had been searching for all weekend...score! Good photo op for the last few hours we spent in Amsterdam.

Late Saturday night we hopped a train to Brussels, which is a whole different world compared to Amsterdam. Instead of a night life with bars and women, we saw monuments and markets. After another planes, trains, automobiles, and accidents we checked into our hostel very late Saturday night. Sunday we had a list of things to see and set out, with a bus back to the airport at 230. We managed to get Belgian waffles in Belgium…SO GOOD. I had my chocolate and strawberry covered waffle for breakfast. We also went to a statue called Manneken Pis. It is a statue of a little boy peeing into a fountain….I still have to google the story on that one. We walked through a little market in a square near our hostel, and made it to the bus.

I can´t BELIEVE how much we managed to pack into one weekend, it was my favorite trip so far! Everyone was so friendly and helpful everywhere we went. There was so much to do and see and experience, and we definitely did as much as we could. I´ll put pictures up soon!

My friend Beth is studying abroad in France and is coming to visit this weekend….SOOO EXCITEDD YAYAYY…soon enough it´ll be spring break and i´ll be off to London and the Canary Islands…it´s going by too fast!

BRB - going to the netherlands

so i've been a little bogged down this week...being sick...midterms coming up (actual work? why whatever do you mean?) 

funny story...on the way to the doctor's office the cab driver asked me where i was from, how long i'd been here, yada yada...he could sense my hesitation in speaking spanish so he kept on asking me questions...what i like about madrid, where i've been, etc...he was forcing me to speak spanish (and laughing about it) and say things i wasn't used to saying (stuff different from "can i have" or "can we go to")..it was really funny as i scrambled to put sentences together. 

Another funny thing....a lot of spaniards have studied elsewhere, and therefore learned their english elsewhere. This means that when they switch to english, you never know what sort of accent you're going to get. My spanish teacher speaks english in an english accent, the doctor had a texan accent. It may seem a mundane fact but it is very entertaining.

So this weekend I am going to Brussels & Amsterdam, very excited! 

i promise i'm still in europe!!

so this is a little harder to keep up to date than i thought...but now i have plenty to say!

Last weekend I took a trip to Portugal! We had a bus at 6 am, so naturally we made sure we had zero sleep and were able to make it through the 7 hour bus trip without climbing the walls. As soon as we arrived in Portugal the scenery was beautiful. One of the first sightseeing trips we took was to a Cathedral (of course). The architecture had multiple influences, and it was, as most everything in Europe is, very picturesque.

We went to a famous bakery after the cathedral and ate pasteis. This is a pastry that is like fried dough with cream in the middle, a little chocolate on top, and cinnamon and sugar. Now I'm not one for pastries but WOW. It was SO good (and necessary, as this was my 6 pm breakfast). We were left to our own devices to get through Lisbon and find our way to our next meeting spot..

We somehow managed to get on a bus to the plaza (fare? what fare?); and there were a bunch of statues and it was right on the water. Right when you arrive in Lisbon there is a huge statue of the cross, and we were told there is an even larger one in Brazil. Anyways, it can be seen from very far away and looked majestic when lit up across the water.

For dinner I was determined to branch out and try new things. I ate green beans fried in egg, and potato soup. And it was good! It's a start anyways..There was also some live entertainment, which was awesome.

I have to admit it was a little frustrating at times. I'm at a point where I can understand (most) of what is being said to me, but I understand zero Portuguese. I felt like I was right back where I started on the first day of spanish class 6 years ago. This only proved to be a minor inconvenience though.

The second day in Lisbon we visited Cabo da Roca, the most western point in all of Europe. The coast was dazzling and looked like a postcard. I was definitely thinking of everyone at home at this spot, because I was the closest I will  be to everyone until May!!

We went to another city, Sintra, and (after some very steep hills) got on a bus to go visit a Castle. Now, the words I use to describe this bus ride will not do it justice. We were winding up a hill in the woods with HAIRPIN turns on a full sized bus! It took some serious maneuvering, skill, and luck to get up to the top; but once we did it was an unexpected scene. The castle we were looking at looked like it came out of a cartoon..literally! Apparently the creator (a King) hired a jewelry designer to help him build it. With an endless budget and apparently fully functional creative center, they went to work on this castle. There was every single type of architecture you can imagine. Gothic? Yep. Roman? Yep. Arabic? Yep. Neo-Classico-Moderno-something or other? You got it. I toured the inside and went through all the rooms of all the family, but nothing compared to the outside.

Funny story...while perusing some gift shops we bumped into a guy who spoke perfect English. Now when I say perfect, I mean there was nooo accent. He spoke it better than we did! We asked where he was born, raised, went to school, etc., and he said Portugal for all of the above. So how did he learn his English? By watching movies and playing video games. Now, none of us believe that Black Ops is now an educational tool, but it remains to be seen how this one person in a tiny little shop in Sintra somehow managed to speak with such an americanized tongue.

There were a few places to go at night, and Lisbon seems to be an earlier city than Madrid. Most of the bars were located in a spot called Barrio Alto, which was closed by 2 or 3 more or less. The clubs were along the water at a spot called Dockish (which I'm SURE I'm spelling wrong, but that is the phonetic spelling). At the beginning of this mini boardwalk there was a huge pool in the shape of Portugal, it was really funky.

On our final day we traveled to another sightseeing castle (which was definitely more about the sights than the castle). From the top you could see all of Lisbon. In the area there were also tons of peacocks, which was very random.

Everyone was very reluctant to get on a bus and go back to Madrid. We love Portugal!! The bus ride home was a little shaky, felt something like a three hour tour (except it was more like 9, serenity now).

So this weekend I have a friend from Springfield who is studying outside of Madrid staying with me. We're going to tour the city and whatnot. It is definitely nice to see a familiar face.

Next weekend is AMSTERDAM! Stay tuned =)

rapidamente....

just a quick update =)

there was no epic traveling adventure (this week). i spent the week exploring the neighborhood around my apartment and starting my classes! A few schedule adjustments later (wouldn't want to work toooo hard) and everything is set in place..

roommates are moved in (thankfully!) and all is going well..i went to an awesome restaurant for lunch the other day (Van Gogh) and am finding a balance between trying new foods and making sure i actually eat something

the night life is going well ;) we're definitely having a lot of fun with it. drinks are strong here! we went to a club the other night that had seven floors, each with a different type of music...so much fun!

There was an incident on the metro that I'm happy to report I managed to avoid...two men got on at one stop and were super close to my friends and I. I felt my purse moving and sure enough..they were trying to pick pocket two of us! he got my purse almost halfway open before I realized! they are swift, pero tengo vigilancia constante =)

 promise i will post some sight seeing ones soon!!

El primer fin de semana =)

holaaa....I've been in Spain for a week now and sometimes I feel like its been a day and sometimes it feels like a month!

I can't believe how much we've managed to pack into just one week. Last Friday we left for Sevilla. For the first time ever I packed for a weekend in a backpack (we had to walk and carry our things, so i downsized...travel baby steps). Suffolk had the entire weekend booked basically down to the minute.

We took a walking tour of Sevilla on Friday afternoon. We went to the largest gothic cathedral in the world. A cathedral is classified as "gothic" when it has pointed arches. Inside the cathedral there were two very different architectural styles, because half the cathedral was built by Muslims and half by Catholics. We walked up a tower that was 35 ramps high. Way back when, a man used to ride a donkey up to the top of the tower five times a day and yell, signifying it was time to pray. The view was absolutely breathtaking. We could see all of Sevilla, including a new bridge that is being built, and the second largest bull ring in the world (the first is in Madrid =) Inside the cathedral was also the grave of Christopher Columbus. The statue was of four soldiers carrying a coffin, and you can actually see the keyhole on the coffin that will open it up. Apparently Columbus has been buried in over three locations, but they kept being reconquered, so he kept being moved all over the world. Not exactly resting in peace, huh? But now he is in Sevilla along with his son and one other relative.

The walking tour took many hours, and we went to tons of cathedrals and landmarks. We visited the cathedral that was the inspiration for the "Macarena" song. Inside the church was the Madonna, which is dressed differently depending on the time of year. At one time the church was burnt to the ground on the inside, so at the entrance way you can see where the rebuilding started and the original frame stands.

We also visited the part of the wall that remains that guarded Sevilla. From here, you can see their first hospital in the distance, outside the city limits. This is because people were basically sent to the hospital to die, and it was actually used for three centuries before another was built (within the limits this time).

Later that night (yes this is all one day) we took Flamenco dancing lessons (i was muy cansado at this point). Our teacher taught us how important the hand movements are. I felt very clumsy during the lesson. However it was pretty funny to see everyone try it.

The next day we went to the Roman ruins that were in the city of Italica. The city was built so Italian soldiers had a place to call home in Spain. There was an amphitheater that housed about 25,000 people. There were also the foundations of many houses that are still visible. The floors of all the houses are mosaics, depicting different scenes or meanings. Of course, this is where my camera died for the weekend....

Next we continued to travel to basically a horse ranch/farm. We were met by flamenco dancers and waiters with drinks and snacks. I tried a lot of food. I'm not totally sure what all (or any) of it was, but I liked it! The food is a bit of a struggle for me, but I'm really trying to try new things with an open mind. After the Flamenco dancers performed, we went into another type of performance. Men came out riding on horses, and women were standing on the ground. They started to dance together! the horses were actually going in circles and twirling with the women, it was very impressive. The horses were actually crossing their legs to walk sideways, which I guess is a very unnatural thing for them to do. It was so crazy to see.

After arriving back at the hotel, I indulged in the "no fiesta sin siesta" rule. Later that night we went to another Flamenco performance at a famous club. Our teachers were actually the ones performing. The part of Sevilla that we were at was where all the bars/night clubs were so we wanted to stay there instead of walking all the way back to our hotel. It was a little early for the bars to be open, so we walked and found a McDonalds that served beer =) (yes, I had to throw this in).

The next day I ended up sleeping in (thanks McDonalds and RioLatina), and met up with the group at a restaurant called La Razza near a park. Inside the park we rented bikes and biked around. The park was very beautiful. It was interesting to see people walking around with their families, kids roller blading or biking. A very leisurely Sunday.

We ended up taking a horse and bugee back to our hotel (whom we talked down from 60 euro to 8 euro). We got a little tour of this part of Sevilla (different museums and former places for princesses, we heard about who had an affair with who).

Through out the weekend it continually hit me that, wow, I'm really in Spain right now. It really is still surreal that this is where I'll be for the next four months.

Classes start tomorrow, I need to be rested!! plenty of siesta time for me =)