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!