This past weekend, the weekend before Valentine's day, Mel, Anna, and I went to Paris. It was wonderful! A girl on my dance team, Sarah Erxleben, is going to grad school in Paris and speaks French fluently. Luckily for us, she was more than happy to show us around and take us out and such. It was perfect!
We saw the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe on Friday. Apparently Paris has a nasty habit of being overcast, much like London, but knowing that Mel and Anna and I were coming, she opened up the skies and it was blue and beautiful all day on Friday. I didn't even need the coat that I carried around all day. So we climbed up the stairs of the Eiffel Tower; our workout for the day. It was amazing. The view was incredible, and we got an idea of where everything was and where we would be going.
That night, Sarah took us to Sarce Couer, which is a basilica near our hostel. It was beautiful, and of course had steps leading up to it. We drank wine and ate cheese and it was really fun. Sarah brought brie and Camembert cheese, both of which I had never had before. The brie was so tasty! I'm going to have to work my way up to the camembert though, its a real cheese and I'm still a noob.
The next day, we went to Notre Dame. It is the most beautiful cathedral I have ever seen. I know I loved the cathedral in Toledo, and then I loved the cathedral in Burgos and for each one I said that it was the most beautiful one I had ever seen, however, I doubt this one will be topped for quite some time/ever. The arched ceilings and stained glass were stunning. And both of the other churches I saw were over the top. They had gold plated walls and their jewelry on display, and everything. I found Notre Dame to be beautiful with amazing detail, but to still be humbling. It was the perfect combination and definitely my favorite classical European aspect of my entire study abroad trip thus far. I would say the only thing that beats it in any aspect, is the Eiffel Tower, cause I mean, come on... its the Eiffel Tower!
We also went to the Louvre, and it was astonishing! I had no idea the Louvre used to be a palace and I had no idea how big it is. People say that it is large and you could spend days in there, but honestly, you could spend months, maybe years! It is incredible. Unfortunately, I'm not much of an art fan myself, so it was a bit wasted on me. But, I did see Napolean III's apartments, and they were luxurious and by far my favorite aspect of the Louvre. I guess the good thing about it being so big, is that of course it will have something for everyone.
All in all, it was a wonderful weekend. The not speaking the language part was a lot more difficult than I imagined, but we got by. We also learned that we are going to learn some key phrases each time we travel, such as "do you speak English" "where is the" "bathroom" and "thank you".
It was an amazing trip, and I can't thank Sarah Erx enough for everything she did!
Au revoir!
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Madrid
So after going to Burgos, I realized that I keep traveling elsewhere, but haven't really enjoyed Madrid yet.
For that reason, a bunch of friends and I went to some plazas around Madrid, and we went to the Rastro, which is this shopping event that goes on every Sunday. The Rastro has everything. It is just booths that are set up in the street and it goes on for miles it feels like. It seriously just takes over. People crowd there to buy things from purses and gold trinkets, to rubberbands and magazines. It is such an odd compilation, I can't do it justice. Some of the booths seem legitimate. They are themed and maybe even hand-made. Others look like someone cleaned out their attic and brought all of their crap to the Rastro.
I think the biggest surprise was the people selling their items. I expected people to be in your face, bargaining, pulling you over to their booth. It was exactly the opposite. They would sit their, sometimes with their back to you. Which is especially surprising because Spain is at a 20% unemployment rate right now... And when you wanted to buy, no one would bargain. The price listed was it.
It was still such an experience and I got my first satchel bag. Anna recommended it, and she was right, once you get a satchel bag, you never want to go back. It is the most convenient thing!
Well I hope everyone is having a blast! Keep reading for Paris!
For that reason, a bunch of friends and I went to some plazas around Madrid, and we went to the Rastro, which is this shopping event that goes on every Sunday. The Rastro has everything. It is just booths that are set up in the street and it goes on for miles it feels like. It seriously just takes over. People crowd there to buy things from purses and gold trinkets, to rubberbands and magazines. It is such an odd compilation, I can't do it justice. Some of the booths seem legitimate. They are themed and maybe even hand-made. Others look like someone cleaned out their attic and brought all of their crap to the Rastro.
I think the biggest surprise was the people selling their items. I expected people to be in your face, bargaining, pulling you over to their booth. It was exactly the opposite. They would sit their, sometimes with their back to you. Which is especially surprising because Spain is at a 20% unemployment rate right now... And when you wanted to buy, no one would bargain. The price listed was it.
It was still such an experience and I got my first satchel bag. Anna recommended it, and she was right, once you get a satchel bag, you never want to go back. It is the most convenient thing!
Well I hope everyone is having a blast! Keep reading for Paris!
Burgos!
Sorry I haven't been keeping up with this, I didn't realize before how much time is involved in documenting a trip... The last place I had left off was I had moved into my apartment with Mel, but we had no internet, and my classes were all screwed up. Obviously, my first priority was the internet; I mean who goes abroad to learn?! So Mel and I delved into finding internet. We tried asking anyone and everyone for help and worked on this for a few days. Finally we had a brilliant idea! We just went over to a neighbors and asked them if we could pay them to use their internet for the next 5 months. The woman that lives above us was so helpful and said yes! Sooo on February 1st a 9:32 pm Mel and I got internet. I don't think we had been so excited in a really long time. (If you want confirmation, you should look at our facebook statuses that day.)
Then the next thing I needed to worry about was classes, which you will all be glad to hear worked out. I now have classes Monday, Tuesday, Thursday. That's right, no class Wednesday and no class FRIDAY! Now I have 3 day weekends, along with most of my friends so we can travel together. And Wednesdays are a nice break in the middle of the week to get me away from the "oh so demanding" school work I have.
With all of my classes and my apartment all taken care of, Mel, Anna, and I decided to take a little trip. I should probably rephrase that, Anna decided to take a little trip, and Mel and I invited ourselves...
Anna met a woman on her flight over to Spain that lives in a city 2 hours north of here, Burgos. The woman was ecstatic for Anna to come visit, and naturally Mel and I asked if we could tag along. So, on Saturday morning, bright and early, we took a bus over to Burgos. Let me tell you, this trip was so much fun! The woman, Laura, picked us up and took us out to breakfast, her treat, and then started showing us around. We saw Plaza Mayor (main plaza for the city) and their cathedral, which is gorgeous - completely Gothic and over the top - and another church, and she drove us around the city. It was great. We learned that all older Spanish cities were fort cities and were surrounded by "Muralla" or a big city wall, so we also saw that. (Pictures of all of these things are on my facebook by the way, you should check them out if you haven't).
The best part of the trip was after sight seeing though. See, Mel and I live in an apartment, just the two of us, so we don't get the typical Spanish dinner experience like Anna does. Apparently the dinner we had is what Anna gets EACH NIGHT! But, it was great. Laura, the host, made us tortilla de patatas (an egg, potato, and onion dish. Very traditional for Spain), sandwiches with avacado (my favorite!!!), her home made jelly, her own orange cake, a bunch of fruits from her family's farm. So much great food it was unbelievable.
The most interesting part wasn't that she made all of this food for us, it was more the presentation. She just wanted to give us everything. She brought out a sweet food that looked exactly like green olives if you ask me. They were in a jar with juice, same color, maybe a little bigger, but then we tried one and they were not olives, they were so sweet and amazing! So we asked her what they were, and she told us but problem was she didn't know the name in English and we didn't recognize the Spanish word. So we talked about it and she then brought out prunes and said that the green things were prunes before they're dried. I got all excited, because I had just talked about this last week with my dad and was like, "They're DATES! I know it, I just talked about this with my dad, THEY'RE DATES!". Well I was wrong. Laura immediately shot me down. She then brought out some dates, and showed me the difference. So then we talked about these green things some more, and finally Laura's husband whipped out the dictionary. Turns out they were plums! I still don't know why they were green, but they were amazing!
But all of dinner was like that, we mention something, and Laura goes and gets it and force feeds us this amazing food. It was wonderful and I was so full. Good thing we had breakfast with her in the morning too. She made us crepes with her home made plum jam and hand squeezed orange juice. Let me just say, going back home to the apartment where I would be eating pasta and sandwiches wasn't as exciting as one would imagine...
Oh and I forgot to mention another type of food you must get if you ever are in Burgos: Morcilla. It is so good, its a type of sausage that is moist and sweet and if you put pickled red peppers on top of it (all of which Laura sent us home with), it is superb.
All in all, The trip was beautiful and fun. I got the true Spanish experience an a part of me wishes I had chosen a host family now... Oh well, I'll have to just enjoy my freedom and enjoy all the money that I'm saving :) What a rough life lol.
Then the next thing I needed to worry about was classes, which you will all be glad to hear worked out. I now have classes Monday, Tuesday, Thursday. That's right, no class Wednesday and no class FRIDAY! Now I have 3 day weekends, along with most of my friends so we can travel together. And Wednesdays are a nice break in the middle of the week to get me away from the "oh so demanding" school work I have.
With all of my classes and my apartment all taken care of, Mel, Anna, and I decided to take a little trip. I should probably rephrase that, Anna decided to take a little trip, and Mel and I invited ourselves...
Anna met a woman on her flight over to Spain that lives in a city 2 hours north of here, Burgos. The woman was ecstatic for Anna to come visit, and naturally Mel and I asked if we could tag along. So, on Saturday morning, bright and early, we took a bus over to Burgos. Let me tell you, this trip was so much fun! The woman, Laura, picked us up and took us out to breakfast, her treat, and then started showing us around. We saw Plaza Mayor (main plaza for the city) and their cathedral, which is gorgeous - completely Gothic and over the top - and another church, and she drove us around the city. It was great. We learned that all older Spanish cities were fort cities and were surrounded by "Muralla" or a big city wall, so we also saw that. (Pictures of all of these things are on my facebook by the way, you should check them out if you haven't).
The best part of the trip was after sight seeing though. See, Mel and I live in an apartment, just the two of us, so we don't get the typical Spanish dinner experience like Anna does. Apparently the dinner we had is what Anna gets EACH NIGHT! But, it was great. Laura, the host, made us tortilla de patatas (an egg, potato, and onion dish. Very traditional for Spain), sandwiches with avacado (my favorite!!!), her home made jelly, her own orange cake, a bunch of fruits from her family's farm. So much great food it was unbelievable.
The most interesting part wasn't that she made all of this food for us, it was more the presentation. She just wanted to give us everything. She brought out a sweet food that looked exactly like green olives if you ask me. They were in a jar with juice, same color, maybe a little bigger, but then we tried one and they were not olives, they were so sweet and amazing! So we asked her what they were, and she told us but problem was she didn't know the name in English and we didn't recognize the Spanish word. So we talked about it and she then brought out prunes and said that the green things were prunes before they're dried. I got all excited, because I had just talked about this last week with my dad and was like, "They're DATES! I know it, I just talked about this with my dad, THEY'RE DATES!". Well I was wrong. Laura immediately shot me down. She then brought out some dates, and showed me the difference. So then we talked about these green things some more, and finally Laura's husband whipped out the dictionary. Turns out they were plums! I still don't know why they were green, but they were amazing!
But all of dinner was like that, we mention something, and Laura goes and gets it and force feeds us this amazing food. It was wonderful and I was so full. Good thing we had breakfast with her in the morning too. She made us crepes with her home made plum jam and hand squeezed orange juice. Let me just say, going back home to the apartment where I would be eating pasta and sandwiches wasn't as exciting as one would imagine...
Oh and I forgot to mention another type of food you must get if you ever are in Burgos: Morcilla. It is so good, its a type of sausage that is moist and sweet and if you put pickled red peppers on top of it (all of which Laura sent us home with), it is superb.
All in all, The trip was beautiful and fun. I got the true Spanish experience an a part of me wishes I had chosen a host family now... Oh well, I'll have to just enjoy my freedom and enjoy all the money that I'm saving :) What a rough life lol.
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