Venice and Milan

Well I'm officially back home and lying on the couch, but my work on this blog is not finished! I have a real difficulty with keeping a legitimate journal, so other than my little list of things I've seen, this blog has officially taken the place of the way I will remember the fall semester of 2009.

In the middle of November, Elise and I embarked on a weekend trip to Italy. Both of us have been fortunate to have taken recent trips with our families to Rome, Florence, and a couple of other major Italian cities, so we decided that Venice deserved our full attention. To make things even better, our good friend, Miss Meghan Tilley, was studying in Venice and offered to host us in the spare beds in her dorm. Very generous and very very appreciated! We flew from Madrid to Milan late on Thursday night after class. After a bus to our hostel near the main train station, we grabbed a snack and then headed to bed. On Friday, we woke up early to have one of the best European breakfasts I've ever had. The best part may have been the cost (free aka included in the hostel price), but it was full of pastries, meats, breads, juices, hot drinks...quite a treat compared to the usual clementine and toast that I have been eating in Spain. From there, we took a train to Venice. I have really fallen in love with train travel--I guess it never hurts to ride through Romeo and Juliet's Verona, with the Italian Alps in the distance for the entire 2.5 hour train ride.

We met up with Meghan at the Venice train station. What a city that is! I had my own mental pictures of what it would look like, but it truly is a collection of islands way out in the middle of a big lagoon. We took a vaporetto (water bus/metro) to Meghan's dorm at the Venice International University on San Servolo island, put our stuff down then headed back to walk around St. Mark's Square and get a brief tour of Venice before the sun set. From there, we walked around a less-touristy area (very difficult to find on one of the main islands) and ate dinner. We got some great gelato at Grom's and then ate it in a piazza called Santa Margarita (where we even encountered some other Dukies!). Saturday, we went to San Marco (St. Mark's) to tour St. Mark's Basilica. It's amazing to see the water/flood damage that has occurred over the years, but it's fascinating to learn about the history that Venice has with the Middle East and Asia (much like how learned about Spain's history with Muslims from North Africa). The Basilica was gorgeous inside with a lesson in art history on the ceilings and a magnificent altar of gold and hundreds of precious jewels. Next, we went into the Doge's Palace (the Doge was a regional ruler, but lived and ruled like a king). The palace is right next to St. Marks...we saw some beautiful, giant rooms full of classic art by masters like Titian. We went downstairs into the prison/dungeon, crossing the Bridge of Sighs (a prisoner's last look at Venice) along the way. A trip up the famous tower (Camponile), a walk, a quick lunch, and more walking and shopping later (Murano glass, silk, Venetian leather and stationery), it was time for one of the highlights of my time in Venice. We went to the Accademia to see da Vinci's drawing of the Vitruvian Man (couldn't take pictures, but it's the drawing of a nude man inside of a square and a circle). It's smaller than a sheet of notebook paper, but it's one of the most famous drawings in history, so I loved seeing it.

Meghan had a few other friends coming in that evening, so we took a boat ride around the Grand Canal and under the Rialto bridge before a good Italian pasta dinner. Meghan, to our surprise, had bought chocolate, marshmallows, and some sort of cookie, so we took a candle outside and we had a little smore party to remind us all of home. It was tame, but a really fun night and I had to keep reminding myself that I was actually in Venice, Italy! The next morning, we took a train back to Milan where we saw the gargantuan Duomo, tried to see da Vinci's The Last Supper (but it was sold out until December!), and finally got to our hostel, found a good pizza place (as is tradition on my trips with Elise on the last night), then flew on back to Madrid the next morning!

Very very fun trip. Meghan was so kind to host us and show us around. It wasn't quite as exciting as Paris, but Venice was a city that I definitely wanted to see and it was a fun and memorable trip!

More Paris Pictures (post is below this one)

Paris

After another few days of class, our small group of Duke friends studying in Madrid (me, Elise, Kesh, Robert, and Liz) left on Thursday night for our flight to Paris! I have been fortunate enough to have visited Paris in 2000 with my family. For whatever reason, I had already gained an obsession with the city even at age 11 and had been hyping it up to my friends for the last several months. A few days before departure, I had gotten a bit nervous that as I had seen more European cities since my initial trip, Paris may not live up to my lofty expectations. Whew buddy, was I wrong!

I love Paris. I used to. I thought I would. And I still do.

Arriving at Charles de Gaulle late Thursday night, we found some other NYU students and even some Dukies and we all took the train together to the city. We got off at St. Michel - St. Germain (really close to Notre Dame) and walked to our hostel. The reception was closed, but our key was supposed to be at a nearby hotel, so we walked there (got my first of 7 crepes on the way), only to find that our key did not let us into our room. We tried all sorts of ways of inserting it, but we realized (at about 1:30 am) that we would not be able to get in. The owner did not answer the "emergency phone", so we started hiking around, eventually using a bartender's reference for a nearby cheap hostel for the night. Thank goodness it let us in, but the next morning we returned to the original hostel to find that that door had a problem, but we negotiated a much-discounted price for our stay. It was inconvenient, but worked out very well.

After a nice breakfast (hot chocolate, bread, nutella, cheese) at the hostel, we went to explore. We saw Notre Dame cathedral (started over 900 years ago!), the Georges Pompidou Centre (crazy, but a must see), and Shakespeare and Company (I fell in love with this English bookstore...comfy chairs, cozy store, lots of books). It was overcast, windy, and very cold, so we were glad to also find a great place for lunch. We ate at Le Rollin and I had roasted duck breast and wine. We got back to the fountain at St Michel just in time for our latest free tour (from Sandeman's...like in Munich). It was a very awkward group (some weird questions and just strange group dynamics), but we walked along the Seine River, saw Pont Neuf, the outside of the Louvre, and ended at Place de la Concorde (at the end of the Champs-Elysses). From there, we lucked out on finding that the Louvre was free for the last few hours of the day, so we hustled in, scrounged up a game plan and saw all the famous ones with time to wander a bit. We learned that if you took 30 seconds to look at each work in the Louvre (giant!), you would be there for 64 (or so) days straight! I wish I could be in Paris for that long. After that, we walked to the Eiffel Tower (very cold night), got a crepe there, hung out for a bit, then headed back for bedtime.

Saturday started with another quality breakfast in the hotel (the owner started spreading some rumors about us apparently!...that we were difficult on him...ha!). We took the train to Versailles where we lucked into another free admission (as students). We had a quality Versailles experience, walking through the vast gardens and seeing the entire palace. It is a phenomenal place. There is so much gold that it almost numbs you to the sight of it after a little while! Back in Paris, I finally had one of my life dreams come true (this one since we only got halfway up the Eiffel Tower with my family in 2000)...I got to the top of the Eiffel Tower! My feet and hands were numb up there, but the view at at Paris sunset was well worth it. From there, we headed to dinner (Elise found restaurants on a website I discovered called spottedbylocals.com...magical site), walking through the Trocadero, past the Arc de Triomphe, and down the Champs-Elysses, then through the Place Vendome (full of the Ritz Carlton, Cartier, and several designer shops and 5-star hotels). We ate at Le Tambour, a lively, cozy, warm (in temperature and in charm) restaurant right in the heart of the city. The waiting staff was a cheery group of large, older men and they helped me decide on ordering a fantastic steak covered in a cheese sauce, served with veggies and potatoes and the onion soup that I split with Elise. That with endless bread, water, and a bottle of wine for the table...in all honesty, one of the best meals I have ever had! Still, it must not have been quite enough because right before we got back to the hostel, I got another nutella crepe before bed! When in Paris...

Sunday had a tour of the inside of Notre Dame and St. Chappelle (some of the largest, most remarkable stained glass windows in the world). Then, we made it up to Montmartre (northern Paris, yes, where the Moulin Rouge is) and met up with a Dukie (who was also in New Orleans with me), Andrew Walker. He showed us around his district, including a wall that says "I love you" in every language I've ever/never heard of, Sacre-Coeur (where we also saw a guy doing soccer tricks while CLIMBING UP A LIGHTPOLE!). We saw one of Picasso's studios, places where Renoir sat or lived...very fun and Andrew was a great tour guide. We made it just in time to have a couple of hours at the Musee d'Orsay to walk around and see works by van Gogh and several other famous Impressionist painters. We had a fun dinner at a Japanese restaurant that night and a lively walk back to the hostel, passing through the Bastille area and Place des Vosges. One more crepe and it was time for bed again!

Monday, we saw Napoleon's tomb at Hotel des Invalides, another trip to Shakespeare, an attempt to register for spring classes at an internet cafe, then a fun lunch. Elise and I met up with one of her sister's good friends (Abby) who is studying law in Paris for the semester. We had a fun lunch (got another steak and some good wine!) at Le Vin qui Dances (The Wine that Dances) as the other guys had to begin their trip to the airport. Elise and I had a great opportunity to walk around the Latin Quarter of Paris (called that because of the universities that taught Latin back in the day), sit by the Seine, and yes, eat another nutella crepe (this was the best one). A couple of hours fighting through traffic in our airport shuttle (there was a train strike that day) and we made it to Charles de Gaulle. An hour flight delay, a flight, and a few metro rides later, I was back in my apartment in Madrid.

What a weekend. I absolutely love Paris and can't wait to get back someday (hopefully soon).

Thanks so much for reading this whole thing! Please leave me a comment to let me know what you think about this post or the blog in general!

Santiago de Compostela

I'll finish up some Madrid stuff later...probably closer to the end of the semester or when I get home (in just over two weeks!). I still need to catch up about a couple of the trips I still haven't talked about...the first was on Halloween weekend to Santiago de Compostela!

Santiago de Compostela is in the Galicia region of Spain. It is near the northwest coast...I was really surprised, after seeing the dry, brown land that surrounds Madrid and extends into southern Spain, to see such green and densely forested land that was still in the same country! It is supposed to look like Ireland and I guess that's appropriate because Galicia is one of the places where the Gaelic (Galician=Gaelic) people came from. I know that my grandmother's maiden name is Spain and I believe that we've figured out that that is Irish and used to be Spanish (de Spain...from Spain). So Elise and I took a weekend trip to the land of our ancient ancient ancestors!

Santiago is also famous because it is the end of the Camino de Santiago (journey/walk of St. James). He walked from somewhere in France all the way to the northwest coast of Spain. Today, hundreds of pilgrims do the Camino every year...we saw several throughout town with their giant backpacks, thick beards, walking sticks, and shells on their backpacks to signify the number of times they've finished the Camino. We took the hour flight from Madrid on a Friday morning and got to our hostel early that afternoon. I had been feeling pretty sick and weak for a couple of days, so we both napped and then started to walk around the city (not a big one!) to find the old town and a place to eat. I didn't have much of an appetite (so if you know me, you know that I was feeling VERY sick), but we stopped at a place where I got tea and a little pastry to get some energy. There was a beautiful garden in the old town, as well as winding streets and great little shops. We even got to listen to two great tenors singing in the street...they were fantastic! The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela is the main reason people go...it is giant! Gorgeous cathedral and one of the most interesting bits of info is that they have a giant, ancient air freshener (incense, I'm sure) that hangs over the pews because of the stench that the pilgrims gave off after their trek. That night, Elise and I went to dinner and got the local specialties -- pulpo de gallega (octopus tentacles!), shrimp, and pimientos de padron (fried little green peppers), and some great Galician wine. It was a great dinner (I wish I could have eaten more, but my stomach was still struggling) and we were certainly entertained by the lobster tank that we sat next to!

The next morning, we headed to the bus station to catch a bus for a few hours to Fisterre or Finisterre. It was known by the Romans as the end of the world (Fini=end, terra=earth) because it's about as far West in Europe as you can go (I think one city in Portugal may actually be a bit further, but you get the picture). We were on the bus with a bunch of stinky pilgrims (never thought I'd say that), but they were entertaining and we ended up finding one of the cloudiest, foggiest days...but it made the coastline look all the more like it truly was the end of the world. It was a pretty lousy day (rainy and chilly), but we had a good time walking around the town, getting a bite to eat (some of the biggest and best shrimp I've ever had) and enjoying the scenery and the fishing village together. That night (Halloween), we forgot our costumes (unless we were trying to look like American students studying abroad and taking a weekend trip, in that case, we nailed it) and were exhausted from the week, so we called it an early night, found a Domino's pizza for a taste of home and awaited our early morning flight the next day.

Flew back to Madrid to great weather, but it was really fantastic to get to Santiago, see some very interesting sights and enjoy the green landscape that reminded us both a lot of North Carolina!

More Madrid

I also finally got to go to El Escorial. Though Madrid has a royal palace, El Escorial is better known as the grand home of Spanish royals during the Renaissance period. It is about an hour's train/bus ride from Madrid and is a great day trip. I tried to go very early in the semester, but it was closed (I found that out at the front door) and the second time it was closed again (I found that out before I left Madrid that morning).

Robert, Kesh, and I went with a group of students from Vanderbilt to El Escorial while Elise was traveling with her sister. It's always fun to see a palace or castle (this place is a combination of the two...old Spanish architecture but gorgeous gardens and grand rooms), but the best part was that El Escorial is like an art museum, displaying just a fraction of the giant collection of the Spanish royals...complete with works by Titian, El Greco, Velazquez, and other immortals. Really cool to see.

After lunch, we took another bus to El Valle de los Caidos (the valley of the fallen). This place was important and interesting for two reasons -- it is a giant memorial/monument to the soldiers who died in the Spanish Civil War (early 20th century) and it is also the tomb of Francisco Franco. Franco was a fascist dictator who took power of Spain in the 1930s and held it until the 1970s. Though he kept Spain technically out of World War II, Franco also was a buddy of Hitler and let Germany bomb Spanish towns here and there. Though his policies were responsible for boosting the Spanish economy in the 1950s, he also really set Spain back technologically and socially...some of those affects are still seen today...it is only in the last 20 years that Spain is really catching up with the rest of the world. El Valle was really cool...great views in the hills of Spain...a giant cross on top of one hill with a tunnel-like church built into the hill. It is a very creepy church...it is very long and cold and looks like a missile silo. Still, it was interesting with its tapestries of the Apocalypse and the tomb of Franco. Very interesting and worthwhile day.

A bit more to come on Madrid in the next post...

MADRID

Well. Almost a month with no posts. Great job, Graham.

In that month (the month of no posts), I have gotten to travel to plenty of places like Santiago de Compostela, Paris, Venice and Milan, and Toledo, so that should keep me busy on this blog through the rest of the semester. First though, I'm going to catch you (that's a presumptuous 'you'...leave a comment to let me know you're still reading!) up on life here in Madrid.

I must begin by talking about the weather. It is absolutely phenomenal. It has gotten to the point where I rarely need to check online to see if it will be sunny. Every two weeks, we have one or two cloudy days and the rare rainy day. Though it has cooled off since early September, it is still in the 60s, sunny and clear just about every day. This past week (November, mind you), I wore shorts and sandals and walked to school all week. It is a magical, magical place.

In late October, I got the opportunity to go with Elise and Robert to see a Real Madrid futbol (soccer) game. Real means royal, so the team has some history with the Spanish royal family honoring the soccer club as the "royal" team of Madrid. Real Madrid is a team comparable to the New York Yankees -- huge global fanbase, the most championships in history, purchases the best and most famous players (Cristiano Ronaldo), and usually wins. We got to see Real play against AC Milan, one of its rivals. The stadium, Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, is about a 2 minute walk from our NYU campus, so we are very familiar with it. We paid some high prices for nosebleed seats (the stadium holds about 80,000, I believe), but it was one of our best experiences in Madrid. We arrived to the stadium about 45 minutes before the game started, ran across the street with hundreds of other people to a grocery store so we could make sandwiches (bocadillos) to bring in. Finding our seats at the 2nd row from the top of the stadium, we had a great view of the field (maybe not the players' jerseys) and the crowd...the home crowd looked a great deal like the Cameron Crazies if the Crazies were all 45 year-old Spanish men. The AC Milan fans were shoved in a corner at the top of the stadium surrounded by netting to keep them from throwing things onto the field! It was a very tense match from the beginning, with plenty of scoring, drama, faking injuries (come on, soccer), singing and shouting, but Real Madrid was upset by a score of 3-2. What a great time!

I'll continue this Madrid update in my next post...

Barcelona

The travel group got changed up a little bit the next weekend as Elise was traveling around with her sister. Robert and I found ourselves with a great opportunity to travel east to the Mediterranean coast to Barcelona.

Barcelona hosted the 1992 summer Olympics and reminds me of the Chicago to Madrid's New York. I'm not sure how accurate that is (and frankly, I've never been to Chicago), but it does seem to be Spain's second city. Not wanting to waste much time (or money), Bob and I went to the bus station in Madrid at midnight and took an 8-hour, overnight bus to Barcelona. I slept more than I thought (probably about 5 hours or so), but I was still antsy by the time we pulled up to the station. Another city brought us to yet another language (I know, me too. I thought everyone in Spain spoke Spanish...but Barcelona is in a region that speaks Catalan). Yet again, it sounded nothing like Spanish, but that was also sort of refreshing after only hearing Spanish for several weeks.

Significantly cooler than the mid-70s temperatures that we've had in Madrid, Barcelona looks pretty similar to the capital city that we've been living in. Getting off the Metro, we walked down Las Ramblas (a tree-lined street that seems to be Barcelona's Main Street) toward our hostel. We dropped our bags there, headed for breakfast and to see the Cathedral. Fortunately, it was a gorgeous cathedral, but unfortunately, I had hit a point that many European travelers hit -- Toomanycathedralsintoolittletime-osis. On our walk from there, we passed Barcelona's Arc de Triomphe and went to the Picasso Museum. I don't know much about Picasso other than he's famous for cubism, so it was fun to see his earlier works and his development over the years. Bob and I ate lunch at one of the piers (Barcelona is right on the sea...gorgeous beach) and then headed for a walk in the sand. The weather had warmed up, so we took full advantage of some sun on our shoulders and the opportunity to get some sand between our toes. After a nap at the hostel, we then hiked up a hill to a castle that overlooks the city. Gorgeous view followed by some Turkish food and a solid conversation and it was soon bedtime.

Saturday morning, we woke up to breakfast in the hostel and immediately headed to the sole reason I wanted to visit Barcelona -- La Sagrada Familia (Church of the Sacred Family). Designed by Antonin Gaudi, construction begun in the late 1800s and it is nowhere near being finished. It is the most bizarre building I have ever seen, but also has a very unique beauty to it. The tallest tower is just being begun, there are two facades done (the Passion and the Nativity), the inside is designed to look like you are seated in the shade of a forest. It is a marvel of design, architecture, and engineering. One of the coolest things I've ever seen...if you ever have the chance, do it! From there, we went on a long uphill walk to more of Gaudi's crazy architecture...we found another great overlook of the city and what looked like a Disney-inspired funpark by Gaudi. Crazy, but very cool. After that, we went to see a several hundred year-old church and walked in on a wedding! Check out the picture, but as soon as we walked up to the door of the church, it swung open and out popped the bride and groom. I shouted and cheered for them as I was busy snapping pictures and being pelted with rice and flowers from the wedding crowd (I had to dump rice out of my shoes afterwards!). From there, we hung out one more time around the yachts on the water (I've realized this semester how much I love being near water...lakes, ponds, oceans, fountains...it all works) and then headed to a Pakistani dinner to remind Robert of where he spent his summer and everything he ate.

Early to bed for a very early flight back to Madrid, then airport, and right on back to our beds for a much-needed nap! It was a blast to go to Barcelona (and I'd highly recommend it if you're in Europe), but I think I picked the right Spanish city for this semester!

Thanks again for reading this. Feel free to subscribe to the blog (free) and leave a comment please! I'd love to hear from you.

Lisbon, Portugal

Wow...another major delay in between posts. The only excuse for this one is that I just finished midterms. Thankfully, not much has happened...other than trips to Lisbon and Barcelona...and a fun couple of weeks in Madrid!

A couple of weekends ago, Elise and I caught a plane on a Friday from Madrid to Lisbon, Portugal. For those unfamiliar with the flight, it is pretty similar to the flight from Raleigh to Charlotte...the amazing thing was that it is an international flight! Upon our arrival, we found a bus to the city center and it pulled up right outside of the hotel the four of us would be staying in. Wait, four of us? Graham and Elise is four people? No way. We were meeting up with Elise's sister, Ashley, and Ashley's husband, Greg. They're in their mid- to late twenties...the four of us have a blast together, so it was bound to be a fun weekend. Greg was in Europe for business and Ashley came along, eventually taking a long trip through Spain with Elise. Ashley was still enduring a layover in London, so we met up with Greg at the hotel and grabbed some tea/coffee until Ashley got to Lisbon. We all freshened up a little bit and then Greg and I "led" the way to dinner. We got a recommendations for a great view and great restaurant...though we found ourselves to be mislocated (I misremember the claims of being "lost"). The four of us shared a bottle of wine, some nice bread and cheese, a fine meal, and most importantly, a great conversation. After a post-dinner ice cream (which the girls led us to), it was time for bed.

Saturday, we grabbed breakfast to start the day. It seems that it is a Portuguese tradition to offer food at a restaurant that seems to be for free. It is like how American restaurants put bread on the table...the problem in Portugal is that if you eat that bread, it is about a 5 Euro charge. Not fun..and we learned the hard way...a few times. Lisbon is surrounded by pretty good sized hills and is right on the coast. To me, it looked a lot like San Francisco (it even has a giant bridge that looks identical to the Golden Gate). We climbed up to the Catedral Se (by the way, Portuguese looks decently similar to Spanish, but sounds like complete gibberish), then hopped on a metro to Sintra. This was the point that Ashley's photography (she's a professional photographer...she didn't ask me to do this, but check out her site at ashleybuechele.com) really took off and Elise and I became the stars of the photo shoot.

Sintra was a fun little town about an hour's train ride from Lisbon. We witnessed the "cutest train station ever" according to Greg...we saw a precious dog, a funny little boy, and just all around cuteness. We took a bus to the top of a hill to see Palacio Pena and the gorgeous views of the water and surrounding wilderness (Portugal was very green). Next, we saw Quinta de Regaleira...it is a giant estate on a hillside, built by a rich man in the early 20th century...like the Portuguese version of Biltmore. There was a really cool well (the Initiation Well) that certainly didn't hold water, and we took a cave tunnel to find the entrance. Crazy place, but I'm glad we saw it. Back to Lisbon we went and we had dinner at Cafe Luso, where we had a fun dinner and watched a fado show. Fado is the traditional song/dance of Portugal...the music/singing sounds a bit like American soul music, but with a folk twist...and the dance is most definitely folky. For their grand finale, they even came to our table, but a giant arch in the hands of Elise and I and dragged us on stage to dance. If you know us, you know that we like to smile. Uncomfortable, mildly embarrassed, and overall just still in shock, there was a lot of smiling going on.

On Sunday, Ashley, Elise, and I got breakfast and then saw the Castle de St. Jorge...a very cool castle with one of the best views of the semester. We started exploring down the hill and found the Pantheon and further down to the water. We took a tram to the Monastery (by the way, the weather was absolutely gorgeous...we've had maybe 5 days of rough weather all semester) and saw some more of Lisbon's waterside area. We met up with Greg, got lunch, and took a train to Cascais, a beautiful little beach town about an hour outside of Lisbon. Finally taking time to slow down and relax, we stood in the cool water and chatted and got some sun for a few hours before I had to head back. Elise escorted me back to Lisbon via the train...even though my ticket was denied and I was nearly kicked off the train way before our stop. I tried to defend myself, but they wouldn't listen to me until Elise entered the discussion. Thankfully, she explained the situation and I just paid for the additional ticket when we got to Lisbon. Whew! Elise saved me!

A couple of hours and a flight back to Madrid later...and I still have a couple of trips to blog about! Please leave me a comment!

Salamanca!

Last week, my Wednesday class got canceled and since Elise doesn't have classes on Wednesdays, we decided to take a day trip to a city near Madrid. So far, our group has done really well with traveling around Madrid and seeing some of the fun sights within an hour or two of the city, so this time we went a bit further and took a train 2.5 hours to the city of Salamanca.

We caught the train from Madrid at about 8:45 am and slept most of the way to Salamanca. When we got there, the temperature had dropped to the high 50's (fahrenheit) and it was pouring down rain. Elise and I looked at each other thinking the same thing - "Seriously? So this is the day we're going to have?" We huddled under an awning for about 25 minutes as the storm passed. Though it was terrible timing, we both enjoy a good thunderstorm and hard rain...still, we were none too thrilled to have this happen in our first few minutes in a really fun city. Finally, the storm passed and it looked like our day would be fine to continue our tour.

Salamanca is in western Spain and is best known for its University (rivaling the quality of Oxford and Cambridge...it is where Cervantes studied), its Plaza Mayor (city square), an ancient Roman bridge (that looks like new), and a giant, gorgeous Cathedral (split into Old and New). Sadly, after seeing several Spanish cities (particularly Madrid), the Plaza Mayor was really nice, but nothing too extraordinary so we flew through it pretty quickly. We were both hungry so we stopped for a gofre...one of the best creations known to mankind (or at least to this man). It is a waffle covered in ice cream and chocolate sauce (we got white chocolate sauce)....quite a treat. With our new energy, we soldiered on and saw the Cathedral. It is easily one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen. If you ever see Elise, ask her and her answer will be that at first, my jaw dropped, but then I just started rambling for about 10 minutes about how I've seen good churches, but that was the best. It's columns, bold and strong, climbed toward heaven and flowed into each other to produce gorgeous arches and some of the best ceilings I've seen. Great place...and the rainy day made it better.

From there, we walked to the University and peeked inside one of its older buildings. It is fun to compare it to Duke...our dorms are named after former university presidents (Few, Keohane) and they had one dorm named after Cervantes (no big deal, just the writer of Don Quixote and the most important Spanish writer ever). Then, we walked down to the river (finally an impressive river! Most in Spain are little dried up creeks.) and over to the ancient Roman bridge. Another great thing to see...lunch came next (typically good Spanish lunch), a little bit more walking around, and then we caught a 7 pm train back to Madrid. All in a day's work!

Granada

I apologize for the time between posts...no real excuse.

...but if I had to come up with a couple, I'd say that school is hitting midterm season and I have quite the burden to see as much of Europe as I possibly can. Don't worry, I'm doing alright. I know, I know, it's a tough gig. No Bojangles, sweet tea, bbq, country music, Duke football/basketball (okay all of those are legitimate hardships I'm enduring)...but I'll find a way to survive and make the best of my tough position as a student in Madrid.

All joking aside, I need to provide an update on several trips...the first being the second half of the NYU trip...Granada!

Granada is one of my favorite cities of the semester so far. We took a few hours bus trip from Cordoba (where we heard the news that Madrid had been eliminated from the race to host the 2016 Olympics...sad news here) and got to Granada at night. Granada is a much bigger city than I expected...it's in the hills/mountains of Andalusia (Southern Spain) and is home to about a quarter of a million people. Again, Andalusia was once Al-Andalus...during the Muslim reign of Spain (didn't quite stay mainly on the plains...oooooh good one, Graham.). NYU-Madrid hooked us up with a very nice hotel...I was rooming with Robert and we headed out to get kebab (I've fallen in love with this Turkish sandwich/burrito and they're everywhere) and then a drink and some tapas.

The next morning, our group went to the Alhambra -- the most visited tourist site in Spain. It was the palace/castle/fortification for the Moors while they ruled Spain. It is one of the coolest things I've seen this semester. It was interesting to learn about one room specifically. The sultan used it as his meeting room for foreigners...he sat against the wall, where he was completely in the shadows and the visitor would walk in and see his silhouette, bright stars on the ceiling, and writing on the high walls that announced that the sultan ruled with God's blessing. Very cool place and it allowed for some fun pictures and great views. After that visit, we ate a good lunch and a few of us guys walked around the old city, seeing more views of the Alhambra (on its hilltop) until going to a flamenco show that night. The flamenco was very impressive and it's always fun to get a taste of the local traditions...even if they seem to be very aimed at tourists. That's what we're here for.

Had a little bit of time on Sunday morning to explore the cathedral and the spot where King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella are buried (they sent Columbus westward). Absolutely gorgeous cathedral...the best I had ever seen until I got to Salamanca. After that we headed back to Madrid...five hours on a bus through some of the rockiest, driest, most uninviting terrain I've ever seen. Still, I'm enjoying Spain even more than I thought I would. I thought it would be a fun place, but better as a good launching pad to other countries....but each city has a great spin to the Spanish culture and lifestyle that is really growing on me in a seriously good way.

Thanks again for reading and please leave a comment if you have a second!

Cordoba (with an accent on that first "o"!)

Last Friday, Robert and I went with a big group from NYU (it's one of the NYU-sponsored excursions) to Cordoba and Granada in southern Spain. Southern Spain was controlled for 800 years (in the Middle Ages) by Muslims from Northern Africa and was called al-Andalus (now called Andalusia).

Very fun trip. We started with an early morning at NYU, a 5 hour bus ride, and our arrival in Cordoba. Personally, Cordoba was an important place to go, but I'm glad we didn't spend a ton of time there. La Mezquita (the Mosque) is the focal point of the city...by the way, Cordoba used to be the largest city in Europe and possibly the world. La Mezquita is a giant building that surrounds a courtyard of orange trees. The inside is beautifully dark with red and white stripes adorning countless arches. After the Muslims were expelled from Spain in 1492 (big year for Spain), the building was converted into a cathedral. By converted, I mean that a cathedral setting was place smack in the middle of this mosque and chapels were built all around. We got to walk around the city some, but La Mezquita was clearly the reason for going to Cordoba...and well worth it!

Cultural note...so far I'm loving Spanish food. They eat a good bit of food and it's all very tasty, but I finally found something I'm not very fond of. Tortilla espanola is like an omelette with potatoes...and it's great. However, a popular sandwich in Spain is a tortilla sandwich (egg on white bread). It may sound okay, but when it's been sitting around for hours, is cold soggy, and just not quite what you want (even though your host was so kind to fix it for you), well, let's just say I found one thing I won't be ordering!

Thank you for reading! Please leave me a comment to let me know what you think!

Dachau

After our tour of Munich on Sunday, we took another guided tour, but this one took us away from the city, to the notorious city of Dachau.

Our tour group took a train for about 45 minutes (I think) away from Munich to the small town and then a bus for about 15 minutes to the visitor's center. The entrance to the former concentration camp is very unassuming...you would think you were going to a park, a library, or just some other regular part of any town. There is no pomp or circumstance (and rightly so, I think), but we started the tour at the remains of the old SS (Hitler's secret police) offices and the railroad. Our first bit of trivia was that the people being shipped to Dachau were not dropped off at the front gate, but were paraded around town (locals were encouraged to physically and verbally harass them) on the way to the prison camp. That set the tone for what we were about to see -- the Nazis did everything they could to humiliate, de-humanize, hurt, and make "life" miserable for the people (Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, criminals, political prisoners, outcasts, etc.) imprisoned at Dachau during World War II.

Our tour guide was great at setting the tone of respect for the lives lost at that camp. He asked for our respect and admired that our group took the time out of Oktoberfest to learn more about what terrors of which humanity is capable...all of this in hopes that it would never happen again. Dachau was the first Nazi concentration camp and originally set up in 1933 (and lasted until American liberation in 1945) for prisoners of the Nazi party (keeping opponents there helped Nazis run unopposed for whatever they wanted). Eventually, it became what we know now as a concentration camp...it was not a death camp, but a work camp. The prisoners were sent to different sites to do hard labor on Nazi projects, all the while they were mistreated, abused, and killed at the whim of the guards. Over 200,000 people were imprisoned there, with over 25,000 dying at camp and 10,000 at the work sites.

An example of the terrors at Dachau was the fact that all prisoners had to wear hats. If they were not wearing their hats, they were subject to beatings, torture, and probably death. Guards, whenever they wanted, would take a man's hat off and toss it into "no man's land". The prisoner had a choice...he/she could go get the hat and risk getting shot (it looks like an attempted escape), or take the punishment of not wearing a hat. The motto on the gates "Arbeit macht frei" (Work sets you free) turned into that punishment on a seemingly daily basis...an example of how this Nazi system dehumanized the people they took prisoner.

It was a moving tour, complete with a museum (following step by step what the new prisoners went through), a film, and a walk around the barracks, religious memorials, and finally, the crematorium and gas chamber. Officially, the gas chamber was never used, but several reports of it "working great" lead us to believe that individuals were killed in that room that was labeled "showers."

A very powerful experience. The motto is "never again", but unfortunately genocides and mass killings still happen (ex: Darfur). If you have an opportunity to go to a concentration camp or learn more about it, I'd highly recommend it. It's not a fun thing to learn or talk about, but it's important that we learn how things like that happen, so we can keep it from happening in the future.

Munich

After we finished at Oktoberfest, we brought our fun into a tour or two of the city of Munich. This was my first time in Germany and the first time I heard the language, my mind was blown! As culturally aware as I think I am, it's kind of hard not to laugh when you hear harsh, throaty German contrasted with the smooth, romantic Spanish that I've gotten used to over the last month.

Our group walked around a bit on our own, exploring Marienplatz (city center) and the surrounding areas, even climbing to the top of the Frauenkirche (big church). Worn out, we returned to our apartment Saturday evening, went grocery shopping, and had a good "The Big Chill"-esque night of cooking and eating dinner (although Liz and Robert did the cooking, we all enjoyed the food and had a blast sitting at the table together).

Sunday, we headed back to Marienplatz for a free tour. Yes, I said it -- a free tour of Munich. There is a company called Sandeman's New Europe Tours. The guides work completely on tips (there are some paid tours, but several European cities have free tours) and are young, fun, and very knowledgeable. If you're in Europe, find one of these! Anyway, we met up with our guide and group and walked around Marienplatz (where we saw the city hall and its famous Glockenspiel). We continued through other parts of the city, seeing the building from which Adolf Hitler ordered the destruction that occurred on Kristallnacht. Munich was a hub of Nazi Germany and it was fascinating (and terrifying) to learn of all that went on. On Kristallnacht (rioting and burning of Jewish businesses), most Jewish-owned businesses were destroyed. There are very minor memorials in present-day Munich...they don't call much attention to themselves, but one building has a plaque commemorating the perseverance of that family to restore its business over the years. There is also a great Jewish community center and memorial building that I wish we could have had more time for. I'll explain more in my post about Dachau, but Germany seems to be handling its past in a good way---acknowledging what happened and opening itself to show the world the capabilities of humanity gone wrong.

Our tour was great, then we went to Dachau (next post), but came back for dinner at the famed Hofbrau Haus (royal brewery). It is a giant beer hall, but the food was great too. We each got one beer, but I also got a roast pork loin with potatoes, all covered in gravy...and a pretzel on the side. Great meal (Germany food is very hearty).

At first, it seemed a little bit average, but I ended up really falling for Munich. It helps so much to get the history (even just a little bit) of a city to know why certain buildings and churches (which can start to run together in Europe) are unique and important. The tour really helped and I learned how interesting and fun Munich and Germany both are!

Oktoberfest

Well, it's been about a week or so since the last post, but I promise this one does not have the blood and gore of the bullfighting update...

This past weekend, I went with Elise, Matthew Keshian (Kesh), Robert (my roommate), Grant Guenther, and Liz Christenbury to Munich, Germany! We left on an AirBerlin flight Friday afternoon, had about a one hour layover in Palma de Mallorca (I've got to admit, we weren't going to complain if we got stranded there), then finished the trip to Munich. Upon arriving, we changed terminals to find Grant (who was flying in from his study abroad location in Glasgow, Scotland) and got on a train to head into the city. Over the summer (still too late for good hotel/hostel bookings for Oktoberfest weekends), I worked really hard to find a place for all of us to stay and ended up getting a really good deal on an apartment in a pretty quiet part of the city. It was perfect for us (big bed for the two girls, then the four guys were scattered on two cots and a pull-out sofa). We had a great little kitchen, a bathroom, and we were only about twenty minutes (via subway) from the city center!

A quick cultural update...Oktoberfest is a 16-day festival in Munich (Bavaria). Oddly enough it is held mostly in September. It was originally a celebration for a German royal wedding (in 1810). It is held on a fairgrounds (reminded me an awful lot of the NC State Fair that I'll be missing this year) called Theresienwiese. Giant tents (I mean, this suckers can hold thousands of people) are sponsored by the best local breweries and host traditional bands, traditional foods (pretzels, chicken, pork, etc.), and of course, beer.

We woke up early Saturday morning and headed to the 'Wiese for the opening of the tents at 9am. It wasn't much of a surprise to find tens of thousands of people had the same idea, but we slithered into a tent (Hofbrau) and found our own table upstairs. The rest is pretty much what we thought it would be. We ordered our giant beer steins (9 Euro a pop!), had them delivered by our beefy German waitress in her traditional dress (drindl, I believe) and enjoyed our drinks as we yelled "Prost!" (cheers!) to all of the honest men in honest leiderhosen. We were surrounded by Italians, French, Germans, and even a group of girls from Wake Forest University and had a great few hours of drinks, prost-ing, and just enjoying our surroundings.

After a few hours, we decided to find a different tent. We used the bathroom, then headed and grabbed a table outside of a nearby tent. We ordered another round and talked with a group of people from Oregon, and then a group of Germans who were about our age. It was a really great atmosphere for conversation (granted, some of these people were more friendly than they usually are) and we enjoyed learning a bit about the lives of German students.

Oktoberfest lasted just long enough for us. It was absolutely great, but we also had hopes of touring the city, so we spent a few hours, enjoyed the beer and the scenery and headed out to see Munich!