The Hills are Alive...

After leaving Prague, I was off to Austria! My trip would only be for 3 days unfortunately, but I would get to see Vienna: home of the Viennese Waltz, and Salzburg: where the Sound of Music was filmed!!

In Vienna, I went to the Schonbrunn Palace. It was gorgeous! If you have seen Marie Antoinette, I parallel it to Versailles. Of course, I haven't actually seen Versailles so I can't be sure. The palace is extremely long and very regimented. The palace is rectangular and U shaped. It was a pale yellow and beautiful. Then it has acres and acres of gardens behind it, open to be walked through and explored. There is also the oldest zoo in the world (which I ran out of time to see) right on the property. half way up the hill behind the palace, there is a fountain that resembles the Trevi fountain. It is not as tall, but it is wide and shows Neptune, and I loved it. Finally, the Glorietta is at the top of the hill behind the palace. This is the same kind of architecture as the palace in my opinion, it is much smaller though and has a cafe inside where you can eat. The best part is the view! You can see the entire city of Vienna from that spot. 

I also went to the Spanish Riding School where they train the horses that do tricks. They literally skip and bounce on all 4s and balance on their hind legs, and do a bunch of moves to Mozart (who was from Vienna). In the morning you can go to their morning practice. I was extremely excited about this! It is only around 8 euro for a student (12 for an adult) when a performance would cost upwards of 80 euro. I went to the practice and was entertained a bit, but more so disappointed. There is no performance quality. They take the horses that aren't ready to perform and teach them the tricks from square one individually. Every 30 minutes, a new rotation of horses come out. The sad part is that this means you never see a horse actually learn the trick and do it. All you see is horses trying and failing to skip, bounce, and balance. Not as thrilling and I had hoped. I decided to just YouTube a performance when I got home. 

Also, while I was in Vienna, I checked out the cathedral, which oddly had its windows covered in colored saran wrap... and the Burg Garden which had a nice memorial to Mozart. Other than that though, I really didn't know what else to see in Vienna. I must say, it was my least favorite place I've visited so far...

After Vienna, I went to Salzburg. In order to prepare, I watched the Sound of Music and googled film locations. In the morning, I hiked up to the 11th century fortress that overlooks the city. It is beautiful and very picturesque, not so exciting from the inside though. If you run out of time, I'd say you can skip it. Then I hiked over to the other end of the Monchsberg mountain to go to the exact spot where they filmed the start of Do Re Mi. It was beautiful, except for the drizzle, but well worth it! 

Then I went down to the main part of town and checked out the cathedral and the cemetery which inspired the Abbey cemetery in the movie. It was beautiful! There were flowers everywhere. Definitely the least creepy cemetery I've been in yet. The very last thing to see was the Gazebo from the movie. I took the bus out to Hellbrunn Palace and got to see the gazebo from "Sixteen going on Seventeen". I was so cool! Surprisingly, the gazebo was actually built by Hollywood and donated to the city after the film. I had no idea.

After a thoroughly successful day in one of the most beautiful cities I've seen, I took the train to Munich. Time to return to Germany and just enjoy beer and the castle that inspired Sleeping Beauty's castle. No more sightseeing or being a tourist. I just wanted to relax. 

Bohemia!

Ahoy! (that's hello in Czech. Anyone else feel like a pirate? Or some chips ahoy cookies?!)

After visiting Berlin, I took a bus to Prague. Let me just say that the ride over made me excited for all of my future train/bus rides. Germany's countryside is beautiful! They grow mustard so there are bright yellow areas all over the hills which contrasts wonderfully with the vibrant green grass. I can't wait until I get to the alps and see those views!


The Czech Republic has a very different and constantly changing history. In the past century, someone that lived here and didn't move once would have lived in 8 different countries! That's because Czech republic is constantly being overthrown and then finding its independence. I semi knew about this before coming here, well I know Czech Republic used to be Czechoslovakia. So for those of you that knew that as well, way to go!


Czech Republic, way back when, was referred to as Bohemia. So whenever you eat bohemian food, that's what you're eating. It's probably rye bread, sausages, duck, etc. and is very heavy and meaty. When I was growing up, this is exactly what my grandmother would cook. I thought this is what "old people food" was. Turns out it's just Bohemian! I have to say, going to the Czech republic, which is where my Grandpa's parents are from, was so much fun! Mostly, I loved it because walking around Prague made everything about my grandparents make sense. Every store was crammed full of souvenirs and this gaudy crystal and chachkis (what most people call nick nacs), exactly like my grandparents home. Now that place was FULL. Also, I got some kielbasa (Czech Sausage) and it was fantastic. A little bit spicier than Polish sausage, and it was served with rye bread. I hadn't had rye bread in years, since my grandma was making holiday dinners, and it took me way back. 


The best part though was this old man in the main square. He set up shop and would play his saxophone and sing to his tape player. He was dancing around and having the time of his life. For those of you that have met my grandfather, Sarah Leibach in particular, you know he loves the harmonica. He chased us around the house playing "You are my sunshine" when Sarah and I were kids, but not before taking out his teeth. Scary experience when you're a kid and don't know teeth just come out like that. I have a video of the old man in the square (not my grandfather, sorry) up on facebook. Feel free to check out the Czech musical stylings. 


While I was in the Czech Republic, I was obviously still there alone, as I will be until June 1st when I meet up with my friend Anna. The advantage to traveling alone is that you can do whatever you want! Never needing to compromise or do something you don't care for. Also, you are never late. On my last morning in Prague, I was going to wake up early and go to the Karlstejn castle. It was refurbished in the 1800s and now is a bit more Eastern German style. It is much like Disney's Sleeping Beauty Castle and is gorgeous from the outside. However, in the morning before leaving to catch the hour train ride, I was moving slowly and ended up taking around 3 hours to slowly get ready and make a plan. You know what's great?! When you travel alone, it doesn't matter. Take all the time you need :)


Once I made it to the Karlstejn castle, everything is amazing! The view is gorgeous. It is on top of a hill about .5 km up and while it is a tiring walk, it is well worth it. The inside of the castle isn't as glamorous. There are a few different tours you can take, one includes the Holy Rood Chapel, a chapel that has precious gems in the walls and is gilded in gold. Now, I don't know what you are picturing, but I am picturing a church with old stone walls and small, shiny jewels in the wall, and flecks of gold, almost like pirates gold, in the wall. Beautiful! Well, turns out that what actually is there are large 4"x3" squares of Jasper placed in a repetitive cross-like pattern all over the walls. Also, it is only a room of around 20'x20' with half of it blocked off. While it was really cool to see, and I don't want to say it was bad, it wasn't what I imagined. The really cool part though was that the ceiling was covered in gold and had green Venician glass stars.


After seeing Karlstejn castle, I walked back down the hill and stopped in the 100 souvenir shops or so along the way. For it only being a 30 minute walk to the castle and being in a town of only a few thousand, they have more souvenir shops than they know what to do with. Bohemia is famous for their glass however. 


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemian_glass


Often times it looks just like Venician glass, so of course I spent some time wandering through shops and checking it all out. 


The main sights in Prague are St. Nicholas' Cathedral, the Prague Castle, and Charles' Bridge. The Cathedral was of baroque nature and was great to see. The best part was that they let you up onto the second level to overlook the entire cathedral. It was a whole new perspective from up there! The Prague Castle is on top of a hill and overlooks the entire city. It is something else and is filled with cathedrals, and royal palaces. Personally, I round it to be a bit disappointing, but that may be because I had already been touring Prague for 7 hours by the time I got there and I just wanted to be done... Finally there is Charles' Bridge. It runs over the Vltava River and connects Old town and Lesser town. (Great name right?) The Bridge was built in the 14th century by King Charles' IV and has a beautiful view of the city. This was something I really enjoyed, but of course it was covered in people selling chachkis. 


While in Prague, I went on the free walking tour. It was great! They gave out so much information, as always. I normally take notes on my phone because over a 4 hour tour I always forget names and dates. This time I did my usual thing and took notes, but there is so much history and everything has such odd names I missed a lot. Not to mention, I did get a bit confused at times with all of the conquering. What also didn't help was that I met some really great people, and talked during a lot of the tour lol. I met a girl from Ireland and her friends that live in Cali. Two of the guys I met are going to be in Munich while I'm there, so we might meet up and go to a beer garden together. Sounds like a success to me. 


Finally, I was going to go on this beer challenge. It is run by the same company as the free tour. The beer challenge starts at 6 and goes to around 4 different pubs and you get to try 3 really good beers while on the way. They tell you about the history of Czech beer and what it is all about. What I learned before going on the tour is that Czech makes Pilsner and that Budweiser was actually first made in Czech Republic in a city named Buswein or something of that sort. The Budweiser here is a bit different however and definitely tastes better: It isn't Bud Heavy or Diesel. However, when I went to go buy my tickets, I bought it for the challenge, and then was informed it wouldn't be going on. It was only Thurs-Saturday, and I leave on Wednesday... So I sold my ticket back. Then someone said that it is tonight, just it is only in Spanish. Well lucky me! I studied in Spain and speak Spanish!! So I bought my ticket back. 


Then I went to the meeting place at 6 and there were 5 other people there. None of us spoke Spanish as a first language lol. Everyone was like me, cooperating with the Spanish aspect since English wasn't offered. Well the tour guide spoke Spanish, but wasn't certified to give tours in English. To do that, he would need to go to Berlin and be tested. So, he said he would have to do it in Spanish. That's ok, I can practice and use my language. The guy asked everyone if it was ok, and 4 of us said Yes, and the last couple left. Only one of them spoke Spanish. Once they left, the guide said we need 5 people to do the tour and it wouldn't happen. He tried to be nice about it and showed us where the pubs were so we could go on our own, but the whole point for me was to hear about the history and have a group to go with. Solution: I would go on the next night, my last night in town. 


So I did, I went again on Tuesday. And guess how many people showed up? Guess. Yup. 4... Oh well, I guess it wasn't in the cards. Luckily I got my money back after some arguing and then went to a beer garden with people from the hostel. All in all, it was a great night and an excellent stay in Prague. I would highly recommend it to anyone, and definitely suggest you go to the Karlstejn castle over the Prague castle. 


Off to Vienna! Can't wait to once again be back to using the Euro. 

The Wall that Divided a City

Halo! (that's hello in German)

I have officially begun my month of backpacking through Europe. After all of the worrying over what to pack and where to go, I'm finally here! No turning back!

I arrived in Berlin on Friday afternoon and after settling in, I went around town and saw the Jewish historical museum and checkpoint Charlie. They both were great. The museum talked about the lives of Jews and the prejudices they have been living with since the middle ages. All those stereotypes of Jews not being as athletic and favoring being doctors and saving/managing money make sense now! Jews used to not be allowed to be craftsmen or athletes. Since the middle ages they've been restricted. Plus, it was illegal for Christians to lend money, but not for Jews, so they would become bankers quite often. Just the beginning of being bankers, doctors, and lawyers. Additionally, Jews had higher taxes, and were sometimes even given a body tax, normally only used on cattle. This encouraged Jews to hide their money. See, it all makes sense now!

Checkpoint Charlie is the last 'remaining' checkpoint from the Berlin wall. Since it is entirely a reconstruction, I gave it air-quotes. Even though the history of the Berlin wall is very recent, even in my lifetime (only by a few months), I knew very little about it. I thought it was a wall the simply went north-south to separate the 2 sides of town. Little did I know, it was actually a wall that encircled west Berlin. It did this because west Berlin was an island completely surrounded by the eastern powers. The east built the wall because people were trying to escape from the east and to do that they either needed to flee all the way to west Germany and cross the iron curtain, or just walk into west Berlin. I'm sure you guessed the latter was easier. So, the soviets decided to construct a wall to encircle west Berlin to stop this. On August 13, 1961 at 1 am soldiers surrounded west Berlin and did not allow anyone to leave or enter the city. People worked and went to school and dated people on the other side of the city, but after 1 am on August 13, 1961, they would not be allowed to see one another for 28 years...

Also, checkpoint Charlie was very important because the Americans ran the west side of the checkpoint and the soviets the east. This meant that during the cold war, the 2 opposing powers would be within yards of one another. One day, tension was especially high and the 2 powers brought out tanks and all the firepower imaginable. There was a standoff for 17 hours, as each side was ordered to not open fire until the other side did. After 17 hours, a negotiation was reached. Not a single shot was fired, but I'm sure if one had been, WW3 would have ensued.

My other favorite part of Berlin was the Reichstag or parliament building. This building was completely ruined in WW2, as many buildings were. Some were lucky and only have bullet holes, while the Reichstag needed to be completely reconstructed. The amazing part is how environmentally friendly it is now! The concept of the building is the same as before: old stone exterior with a glass dome ceiling, BUT the dome now is used to help power the building. There are over 300 solar panels and the dome has 1000 mirrors which reflect the sunlight into the parliament chambers. To reduce glare, they have a huge steel blind that circles the dome, parallel to the sun. Plus, at the top of the dome, there is an oculus which is completely open so there isn't stale air in the dome. How cool is that?! Over 1,200 tons of steel comprise this dome! Oh and best part: it's free. Yup, excellent start to my second day backpacking.

Also while on my trip, I went on a guided tour. It was fantastic and taught me so much about Berlin and germany's history. If you wanna know more, just flip through my facebook photos, I tend to include all of the historical info for each photo.

Now I know in the past I have tried new food on each trip. This time I did not, I just made my own meals, but I am going to Munich in a week and am going to have bratwurst and goulash and plenty of beer. Beer gardens here I come!

Next I am off to Prague. My grandpa on my mom's side is from Czechoslovakia, so it will be interesting to see some of his history. Wish me good luck!

Accents Galore!

Since spring break at my university is 1 week plus the Monday after Easter, and I have no class on Wednesday, Anna and I decided to elongate our break through Wednesday. It's my senior year spring break - go big or go home.

We wanted to hit up the British isles and decided it makes more sense to go to Ireland and the UK on the same trip, so we made that our spring break. Anna and I met up in London, as I was flying directly
from Lisbon, Portugal. We also met up with a friend of mine from my dance team back at school, Sarah. The three of us had a fantastic time in London and saw pretty much everything. We hit up all the major
sites and went on 2 guided tours. The first tour was themed around the monarchy and spoke about the royal wedding which would be 1 week later. The second tour was a Grimm reaper tour and spoke about jack
the ripper and the east end (dodgy end) of London. Both were amazing and I highly recommend going on tours with NewEurope when you travel. They do a great tour and each city offers a free 3 hour tour.

My favorite parts of London were st. Pauls cathedral and Big Ben. The cathedral is gorgeous and has beautiful glass mosaics on the ceilings. I fell in love with them when I saw them. I know I told you I loved
norte dame and that was my favorite, which it still is, but Sagrada Familia and st Pauls are so much more contemporary and crisp. I need   to stop seeing cathedrals, they are all too beautiful! Lol.

Big Ben isn't interactive like the cathedral. We didn't go inside or anything, but when I think of London, 1) I think of the parent trap, and 2) I think of Big Ben. The clock tower of parliament is so Gothic 
and regal. At night they light it up and it beams. Anna and Sarah quickly realized how much I loved it and would try to placate me and make sure we could see it nearby when we sat and hung out. Thanks guys!

Also, Sarah is incredibly passionate about music, especially the Beatles, so we took a photo of us crossing abbey road and Sarah even took her shoes off! It was hilarious and so different than typical tourist activities.

Some other things we did were take photos with the British guards, watch the changing of the guards (super crowded!), went to Westminster abbey, saw Les Miserables, and ate proper burgers with a pint. I'm
sure that last one may seem out of place and not exciting, but all of Europe has no idea how to make a proper burger, except the UK and Ireland! We quickly picked up on this and had burgers all the time.

After London, Sarah had to go back to Paris to resume her grad classes. Anna and I continued on to Scotland. We went to the capital of Scotland: Edinburgh, for 3 days. The most noticeable change was the
weather. In London it was sunny and around 75-80 each day, warmer in the sun. The sky was clear and blue. In Scotland, we got off the train and asked for directions towards the castle. This castle, which was a
half a mile away and on top of a mountain, was invisible due to the haze. The sky was grey and you couldn't see very far at all. Complete 180 from London.

We first went back to the hostel and checked in. That is when we noticed the second and third difference: one good, one bad. The second was the smell. Our hostel, and other buildings in the city, smelled
like horse manure and body odor. Lovely. It was quite overwhelming. The third difference was the sinks. In London, their sinks are TINY! Maybe 8 inches across and 5 inches in length. When I used them and
washed my face I got water everywhere. Here in Scotland, they went back to sinks for normal people, not my Barbie lol.

Even though the city didn't have the beat first impression, I loved it. (surprise surprise.) the people were great and had entertaining accents. We drank a bunch of cider and saw people wearing kilts! I love plaid, so we spent an hour or so looking at tartans and trying to find different patterns and asking about weddings.

For those of you that have seen Made of Honor, men do in fact wear kilts for their wedding. However, women typically won't wear an entire shawl of tartan (plaid), but instead a small bow or pin, if anything.

The best part of Scotland was st Andrews! We went there with really no idea what we were going to do, and ended up having a great time. We even were able to play 18 holes at the old course!

Ok well that's stretching the truth... We got to play 18 holes on the practice green. See, the old course has a system that is a lot like miniature golf, only difference is there are no statues or moats. Anna and I did that and it was a blast! We were goofing around and I almost got a hole-in-one! I know it's only putting, but who cares lol.

After we were in Edinburgh for 3 days it was time to pack up and spend the rest of our pounds. Ireland uses euros, thank goodness! Going from a 2.0 to 1.5 exchange rate always feels great.

Once we were in Dublin, we were so excited. We decided this was the frivolous end of the trip. Scotland and England were historical and educational and we loved them, Ireland was going to be pubs and
Guinness. We did tough it out and go on 1 tour in Dublin. Our tour guide said if all we take from the 3 hour tour is that there is more to Dublin than leprechauns and Guinness, then it was a success. Well congrats! I know there is also Jameson in Dublin lol.

We did do a few historical things. We saw some cathedrals, one where they found a mummified cat and mouse in the organ's pipes: Tom and Jerry. Also, we went to trinity college and saw the book of Kells and
the long room. The book of kells is a 1,000 year old book that is a rendition of the bible by Matthew, mark, Luke, and John. It had great colors and was standing the face of time quite well. We also saw the
long room. For those of you who have seen episode 2 of starwars, the Jedi library is a CGI version of the long room at trinity college. It was grand and filled with oak walls and medical books. The best part
in my opinion was the baru harp. Now, I didn't know I knew what this was, but we all know it: it's the trademark of Guinness! This harp is from the middle ages and looks amazing. I managed to snap a photo,
even though they are prohibited. The guard enforcing said rule took his job very seriously. Anna and I joked that he was a leprechaun due to how small he was and that he was EVERYWHERE!

Also, we went to the Jameson distillery and Guinness brewery. So much fun! Both had great tours. Guinness' was better in that they let you go at your own pace and even had a section on their previous
advertising. Jameson did give more booze at the end tho. At the Jameson one, I volunteered and got the opportunity to compare an Irish whiskey, a scotch, and a bourbon. It was pretty cool. At Guinness, Anna
and I got to pour our own pints! I attempted and only semifailed at drawing a clover in the head. I thin someone can nail it after a dozen tries or so. If only they would've let me keep trying. At least they gave me the best and smoothest beer ever! That'll have to do.

All in all, it was an amazing trip. A huge success in terms of senior year spring break. No drama or tension and a lot of fun. I must admit though, by the end of the trip, I was ready to go back to Madrid and
be in my apartment and be 'home'. I won't be traveling this weekend, and I plan on just hanging out and shopping. Sounds like a success to me!

Home is Where the Heart is

The month span from mid-March thru April has been the highlight of my semester so far! Brian visited me earlier, and my parents and brothers just visited me last week! Not to mention that I am now on spring break up in the UK and Ireland, definitely an exciting month.

When my family came and visited we met in Barcelona. Unfortunately they ran into many complications with flights and ended up being delayed, but everything worked out and we found each other after an hour or two. Once we were in Barcelona it was amazing! Honestly, we could have been in Kansas City and it would have been great; I just wanted to see them. We had a great time catching up and telling jokes. It felt like no time had passed at all. Since I only flew for 1 hour and didn’t change time zones, whereas they flew over 4,000 miles, everyone else was a bit tired. So we had a slower start than my typical trips, but people rotated staying awake and catching up with me. Later that night we saw a flamenco performance. It was very impressive and unique. Plus I was so glad I got to see it because, as you know, my attempt to see a performance in Cordoba failed.

Also while we were there, we went on a Gaudi walking tour. Gaudi is the most famous architect from Barcelona. He is from the late 1800s but did some wild stuff, even in the context of today. My dad describes his buildings as melting gingerbread houses. Gaudi loved nature and modeled his buildings after it by avoiding straight lines and using bold colors. The tour ended at Sagrada Familia, the church that Gaudi designed. It was like nothing I have seen before. It started being built over 100 years ago and is still not completed unfortunately. They are aiming to have it finished in 2026 for the 100^th anniversary of Gaudi’s death; I don’t really see that happening though because Spain works at a glacial pace and really enjoys their siesta.

Sagrada Familia was an incredibly ornate building from the outside and has 3 facades: the first for Jesus’s birth, the second for his death, and the third for the creation and eventual end to human life. The third façade hasn’t been completed yet, so I can’t tell you anything about how we will all perish lol. Entertainingly enough, the façade for his birth has a Cyprus tree at the top of it. Say what they will, it looks like a Christmas tree. Yes, that’s right: They put a Christmas tree front and center on a cathedral. The outside I found to be a bit over the top and much like other cathedrals, except for the tree part. The inside is what made me fall in love with Sagrada Familia. The inside looks brand new, mostly because it is, and has towering columns that reach the ceiling with choral seating all along the top. My favorite part was the stained glass. Look at my facebook, I can’t do it justice. But the windows create a sunrise and sunset, and once all of the windows are put into the entire cathedral, I definitely want to go back and see it. My brother Brian saw it 4 years ago, and back then it wasn’t completed on the inside. He said the changes from then to now are remarkable. I can’t imagine how it will look finished. I guess I just have to return to Europe. What a rough life…

One night Brian, Jeff, and I also went around to a few bars and ended in an Irish pub. I ended the night with a Guinness, and let me tell you, it was great!! I have been so excited to travel to Dublin and try the Guinness there. I hear that this beer doesn’t travel well, and is completely different, and infinitely superior in Dublin. For that reason, I have been telling people about my excitement and pumping it up in my mind. Well, while we were out I tried it in Barcelona. Even there it is so smooth! It is like a milkshake! By the end, it starts to be less smooth, but I really don’t care, it is like no beer I’ve had before. It has become my mission to drink Guinness whenever possible in Europe. I need to get my fill, obviously. Brian, Jeff, and I had a great night out and it was an excellent end to the weekend.

After we were in Barcelona, we went back to Madrid. I finally got to show off my city! When we were in Madrid, I got to show off my favorite aspects: the buildings, parks, and food. My favorite building in all of Madrid is Banco de España. It is gorgeous, and completely unnecessary. I took my family there during the night and day and both times they were blown away. Also, we walked along the main street: Gran Via, literally meaning the Great Way. At night it is a beautiful street that is lit up and filled with shopping and uniform wrought iron balconies. I have to say, I love those balconies. Since I do live in Madrid, I knew a bunch of things to see and dragged them around town. We were constantly busy, trying to fit in all of the culture, architecture, and food possible. To relax, we did a bus tour where I got to see the modern part of Madrid for the first time, and we spent our last day in Parque del Retiro. I have to say that was one of my favorite parts. It was slow paced and we just lied in the park and drank wine – sounds like a successful day to me.

Our last leg of the week and a half together was going to Lisbon, Portugal. This was the least glamorous part of the trip, but just as much fun because, let’s face it: I missed my family. As my family quickly decided, Lisbon is the well fed, well dressed city that lives in shacks. They rent control their housing, so everything is falling to shambles. Also, they are asking to get bailed out of their debt, so clearly their country isn’t doing that well.

While in Lisbon, we did a variety of things, and they were all new to me, even though I was in Lisbon back in February! My mom brought a Rick Steev’s book and we went on 3 guided walks and with them I was able to see an entirely new part of town. Also, the last time I was there, it rained almost the entire time and was quite chilly. This time, it was sunny as can be and around 85 degrees! I actually got a bit sunburned. To take a break from the sun, we stopped in for a wine tasting. We got to taste 4 wines a piece. My brothers chose the licorice wine for their 4^th wine, and both didn’t really like it, but enjoyed the tasting experience. My mom and I focused more on the whites and roses. I enjoyed mine, but when it came to the evaluation sheet, I was completely lost. See, I had never been to a wine tasting before. I have no idea what the jargon is and didn’t want to make a fool of myself or be completely useless. It turned out that my Dad and my brother Brian ended up tasting most of Jeff’s, my mom’s, and my wines and confirming or assisting us in our vocabulary and insights. There were times when they basically wrote the evaluations (slightly oaky with a lot of body), and there were times when I creatively thought of it myself (It is like licking a wooden box). By the end of the tasting, we were all very entertained and a bit goofy. I asked my dad to take a picture of the table (aka Brian, my mom, and I) and he literally took a picture of the table, legs and all. Thanks Dad. I also was able to get my mom to remake her puckered lips face after trying my wine so I could snap the photo and save that memory for a lifetime. If you’d like to see it, go to the Lisbon album on facebook, you can’t miss it.

As you all know, Japan had their gigantic earthquake a few weeks back. The earthquake was so large, it brought on a tidal wave and then a nuclear plant exploded or some such thing. Well, back in the 1700’s Lisbon experienced the same thing. They had a huge earthquake, brought on a tidal wave, and then the city went up in flames. This destroyed much of their architecture. Interestingly enough, the monastery from before then still stands today, however the entire ceiling has collapsed. This means that all of the archways in the cathedral are holding up nothing more than the sky. It is a beautifully delicate and different sight. You can check out my pictures on facebook if you’re interested. Oh and sorry for the abundance of photos. I do get a little photo crazy at times, but I figure they’re really for me!

Also while in Lisbon, we went through Castel de San Jorge. I walked through it last time, so nothing was too new for me, but I did enjoy showing it off to my family. It’s weird how even though I have absolutely no claim on this castle, I have staked a bit of my claim in it and was showing it off to the family. Well, if that is the case, then I did a great job because they loved it! They enjoyed seeing a castle that is completely accessible and still in great form. It was very interesting and probably the highlight of Lisbon for them. I know it was for me!

Finally, we took a day trip to Belem. There are 2 day trips you can take: Belem and Sintra. Since I went to Sintra the last time I was there and saw the castle and palace, we decided they could go on Sunday, after I left since they were staying a day longer than I was. Belem was a pretty city outside of town. It has a beautifully done monument dedicated to Portugal’s discovery of a quick route to India. Due to their discovery, they were the power house to spices for quite some time back in Europe. Also, there is a lovely monastery (which all starts to look pretty much alike at this point in the semester), and a tower and military museum. I would say if you only have time for one day trip, go to Sintra, but if you are spending 3-4 days in Lisbon, take the 2 day trips. The city itself is surprisingly quick and easy to navigate and it isn’t at all stressful or absurd to fit everything in.

On Sunday morning, I left at 7:00 am for my flight to London to start my spring break. My entire family was a gem and woke up to say goodbye to me. And when I say woke up, there is a wide variety: some ate breakfast with me, some walked me to the bus, and others sat up in bed and gave me a lovely hug and kiss on the cheek. Although they sound like a wide variety of commitment and effort, I have to tell you that each one meant the world to me. It seems silly to want such a meaningful goodbye when I will be back at home in Illinois in just 2.5 months, but I do! I know I will be missing my family for the rest of the semester, but don’t worry; I will still be having the time of my life and enjoying every minute! I’m a multi-tasker, I can do both.

Tune in next to hear all about England, Scotland, and Ireland! All filled with fun accents and English!

Córdoba, Spain

I know I told you all that I might be going to Burgos; that however did not happen. I won’t bore you with the details, except to say that Mel and Anna were meeting up with a friend and it just wasn’t going to work. So, instead, I went to Córdoba!

Córdoba is a city 5 hours south of Madrid by bus, and is in Andalucia. Andalucia is famous for its flamenco dancing and beautiful weather. I went for Friday and Saturday, and enjoyed 85 degree days. It was gorgeous. I didn’t wear a jacket the entire time I was there! Once I got off the bus, I walked to the hostel and dropped off my things. While I was there, I met another girl staying in my room, Tovah, and we ended up traveling around for both days. She is from Canada – Edmonton in fact – and is traveling by herself around Spain and Portugal for 3 months. We first went to Alcazar, the castle and beautiful gardens of Cordoba. The gardens were gorgeous, and had so many flowers! The castle gave you a scenic view of the city, and got us excited about all the places we were going to go afterwards.

After Alcazar, we went to the city wall, and walked across the Roman Bridge. From the far end of the bridge, you could enjoy a wonderful view of La Mezquita, the mosque-turned-cathedral of Cordoba. Before going to Cordoba, I looked up everything on wikitravel (very helpful website, I highly recommend it) and found that there are 14 old churches throughout Cordoba. Tovah and I decided to visit the 3 most recommended: Iglesia de San Miguel, Nicolas, y Trinidad. When we reached the first church, we went inside to get a nice look around. Turns out that church was still in use and there were a dozen older people (probably in their 70's) praying in the pews. So we got a quick look around and went on to the next church. Turns out the next church was exactly the same! By the time we reached the third church, we just got a nice look of the architecture on the outside and decided not to disturb the parishioners. All of the churches were of similar style: large, yellow stone bricks, rectangularly shaped, 1 bell tower about 4 stories tall. And even though each church looked similar, they each had their own bit of character and beauty. It was definitely a different feel than going to the touristy churches across Europe. 

We also tried to find the Street of Flowers (Calleja y Plaza de Flores). We failed miserably. All we found was a road filled with construction...

By the end of the day, Tovah and I were both quite hungry and we decided to go for some tapas. We found a restaurant called 101 Tapas and figured that was a good place. We were wrong, it was a GREAT place! They had the best sangria I have ever had. It was so smooth and quite strong, and had grapes and other interesting fruit inside. Plus, they had morcilla and croquettas for tapas. My favorite of the tapas was the apple pie though. It was really a flaky pastry filled with apple wine, but it was superb. Apple pie is one of my favorite desserts, and it isn't very big in Spain. I was so happy to get some. Plus, the waiter brought us out some apple wine to go along with it. I had never had any before, but it was very sweet, and delicious. I definitely couldn't have drunken another glass of it though. It was very sweet.

Later that night we met up with a native we had met. He said that he could take us to a flamenco show, which is really all I wanted to see, however turns out the place he normally goes to was closed. By the time we wanted to go somewhere else, it was too late. So unfortunately I didn't see any flamenco, but there's always next time!

The next day Tovah and I went to La Mezquita. Since it is free admission from 8:30 am to 10 am, you can guess where our entire hostel was at 9:45 am lol. La Mezquita is a gorgeous building. Back when the moors ruled Spain, they built this large mosque in Cordoba. However, when the Christians took over the expelled the Moors, and the Jews in 1492 [When Christopher sailed the ocean blue] they took over the mosque. Surprisingly, they didn't destroy the mosque. I'd like to believe it's because they recognized the beauty of the building, but who knows. Maybe there was some politics involved. Either way, the Christians kept the building, but decided to stake their claim on it by building a cathedral inside the mosque. If you look at my pictures on facebook, you can see what I mean. This mosque is huge though! It can house 20,000 people and comfortably. When you first walk in there is a large courtyard with trees and flowers and then you pass through there to enter the mosque. It was beautiful, a lot more beautiful than the cathedral in my opinion. The cathedral was, of course, gorgeous. It was traditional and had high, ornate ceilings. However, the mosque had a very ancient feel and built the same archway over and over and over. The archways were laid out in a grid system, and the geometry of the building was perfect. I loved being able to look down a row of arches and see the hallway that was formed.

Once we left La Mezquita, we went to the synagogue. It turns out there are only 3 synagogues left in all of Spain! Two are in Toledo and the third is in Cordoba. It's also because of the 1492 expulsion of the Jews. The Christians felt the need to tear everything down apparently. The synagogue is so quaint and old. It has white plaster walls that have been sculpted and is only 2 rooms. It is tiny! Probably smaller than my apartment... It was interesting to think about the difference in how ornate cathedrals are and how quaint the synagogues are. It was a completely different experience, and very simple but serine.

Finally we succeeded in finding the Calleja y Plaza de los Flores. It was beautiful! There were so many flowers and plants in there. I loved it. Also, while we were walking around town, we found some courtyards of people's homes that were filled with flowers! It was so nice to see plenty of greenery and enjoy warm weather even though it was only April 1st! I love the south of Spain.

Overall, it was a beautiful trip and exactly what I needed. To get away from Madrid and enjoy the warm weather of Spain was really refreshing. If anyone is ever in the South of Spain, I highly suggest you take a day trip to Cordoba and look at La Mezquita. It is a beautiful building that is one of a kind!

Hasta luego! My family comes on Friday and we are meeting in Barcelona! I can't wait to see them and take a million pictures!

My Week with Brian

U of I just had their spring break, and so Brian, my boyfriend – not my brother, came out to visit for the week. I couldn’t be happier. I was actually just starting to really miss people from home and greatly appreciated seeing a familiar face and getting to show off my new city.

Brian got into Madrid on Sunday morning at 5:45 am, and since the metro doesn’t open until 6:00 am and it takes just under an hour to make it all the way to the airport, I realized I couldn’t take the metro first thing in the morning and get there in time to pick him up. So, since a cab is some 30 euro (44 dollars!) one way, I decided to take the last metro at night and get there around 2:00 am and just sleep at the airport. I’ve done it twice before for when I myself and traveling, and this time was the best. I figured since I’m going to do this, I might as well do it right. I brought a blanket and used my coat as a pillow. I actually slept pretty well for 4 hours and then picked up my first visitor and took him home!!

While he was here in Madrid, my life was completely different. First of all, I myself don’t prioritize food, so I tend to eat pasta with marinara sauce or sandwiches every day. I’m quite lazy and don’t want to put in any more effort. BUT, Brian actually really likes cooking, especially for me, so we had some great meals while he was here. And don’t worry, he didn’t cook them all by himself, I helped and learned a lot! I am still so proud of what we made, so I hope you don’t mind, but I’m going to tell you about it (cause I honestly never cook.)

1)     
1) I learned how to neatly make an omelet. I knew the concept, its scrambled eggs with veggies inside. But, I never knew how people make it so neatly! When I make scrambled eggs, they are a million pieces and that’s not because I cut them up after cooking. So I learned the trick of how to make it just fold in half (apparently I was flipping too early and just poking around the stove too much). I also learned the beauty of ketchup on omelets. I never got it before, but it’s actually quite good! 

2) We made egg sandwiches. Those are my favorite. Toasted bread (we don’t have a toaster so we made it on the stove with olive oil – I highly recommend), eggs, cheese, and grilled onions. So yummy.

3) Seafood pasta. The seafood here is so cheap; it’s great. We got shrimp and mussels and made it with marinara sauce and pasta. It was excellent and there was so much there was enough for my roommate and still we had leftovers. We want to try to learn how to cook it with a white cream sauce, but that’ll come later. Probably when we’re out in LA.

4) We made morcilla and rice, my favorite! All of the translations say that morcilla is black pudding, but since I don’t actually know what black pudding is, I’m not sure of its right. But it is amazing! One of my friends has described it as a burrito, without the veggies and wrap lol. It is a sausage stuffed with meat and rice! It is from Burgos, (a city I visited back in February), and soo good. I want to find it back in America, because I am going to miss it greatly.

5) Meatball subs and steak fries! This is my pride and joy. We made meatballs from scratch. Neither of us had any idea how to do it, but thanks to Rachael Ray, we rocked it. It was messy with the eggs and breadcrumbs. You got to mix it all up by hand, very fun when all you have is time and no need to rush through cooking and eating. The steak fries were also awesome! We just bought potatoes and cut them up with some salt and pepper. The hardest part was that my kitchen at school doesn’t have an oven, but we just cooked both things on the stove on low and covered them and it worked surprisingly well. And then when it was time to eat, we put the meatballs and sauce and cheese on a fresh sourdough bread baguette. Let me tell you, best meal (partially because I made it) that I’ve had in a while.

Also while Brian was here, I showed him around to all the sights. He theoretically knew everything from my blog and my pictures, but seeing it himself was completely different. And of course, I made him take a picture with me everywhere we went. He quickly jumped on board and sometimes was more excited about it than I was! The best part was also that he doesn’t mind asking strangers to take our pictures. I hate doing that, mostly because my dad and brothers despise pictures and I just figure that everyone must… But my Brian is happy to ask strangers so we got plenty of good and bad pictures. It’s always funniest when you ask someone to get a picture of you with the building behind you and they decide that the foundation of the building must be what you meant, not the tower of the beautiful cathedral behind you. Oh well, there are plenty more strangers to ask for a second photo!

We also went to Segovia. I hadn’t been before, so it was new for the both of us. Segovia is a town about an hour and a half Northwest of Madrid by bus. It is home to the Roman aqueduct, a 2,000 year old piece of architecture! It is so impressive and takes the water from 17 km away and filters it and transports it at a 1 percent grade to the city. Let me tell you, Madrid loves it. Whenever you talk to them about traveling they mention the cathedral of Toledo, and the aqueduct of Segovia. They are very proud of their neighboring cities, as they should be!

Segovia also has a castle (alcazar) that is the highest point in the city. When at the top, you can see everything, including a picturesque view of the cathedral. We stood up there for a while, just hanging out and enjoying the scenery. It was truly beautiful.

Segovia is very much like Toledo, in that it has many small winding roads that aren’t meant for cars. It has a city wall, just like Toledo, and is not a large city. We walked around it and saw the many small, old churches, as well as the main square. Everything was quaint and a bit less touristy than Toledo. After seeing Segovia, am in quite the quandary trying to decide if I should take my family to Toledo or Segovia when they visit. We were going to do one daytrip, and now I love them both!

Also, while Brian was here, my school organized a ‘bull fighting’ trip. It is called Capea, and was a day of open-bar, BBQ, and the opportunity for each of us to fight a steer. Let me first explain, before going, I had seen a friend of mine did this last year when he studied here. He had a photo of him with the minibull and it looked great! Almost posed it was so perfect! So I figured that this would be quite tame, and I could go in, get my picture, and get out.

I was wrong. The first guy went in, and the bull charged, and the bull charged hard. He had horns, also something I wasn’t expecting, and the strategy at first was to outrun the bull. This was a bad strategy. One of the first guys to go, who was quite cocky mind you, outran the bull the first 2 times, but the 3^rd wasn’t so lucky. He was knocked to the ground. I will try to find the video online, because I know my description doesn’t do it justice. Check back in a day or two for the link.

 Of all the things we did while Brian was here, my favorite was the wine nights. We would get a bottle of wine, a fresh baguette, and a wedge of cheese – usually brie – and eat and drink while watching a movie or hanging with my friends. It was so much fun and so relaxing, the perfect way to end a night. I loved introducing all of the different wines to Brian, and showing him that if you buy a crappy wine, you can make it taste better by mixing it with carbonated water.

Overall, it was an amazing week, my favorite here by far. I got to enjoy my city and have never felt more proud of it, while getting to spend an entire week with Brian. Taking him to the airport on Monday morning was not ideal, but knowing that we had such a great week definitely helped. Not to mention, my family is coming 2 weeks later, so now I just have something else to look forward to and plan!

I might be going to Burgos next weekend with Anna and Mel, so we’ll see what stories I have to share with you then!

Hasta luego!