Grateful for Granada

Mes Amigos! Qué tal?

Well I am officially halfway through my stay at Spain. When I told this to my host dad, Pablo, last night I gave him the sad puppy-lip and he simply goes, “Yes—time to look for your replacement.” Haha. I was like, “Will miss you, too!”

The weeks continually go faster, especially because of my daily routine to class and the gym—takes up a lot of my day—and then driving and tutoring my girls. And the weekends are certainly not any slower with travel!

This past week has been eventful and enjoyable. Thursday some of my girlfriends and I ventured out into the Madrid noches in order to experience the typical “all-nighter”—a common practice among the Spanish, where one begins drinking/bar-hopping around midnight, clubbing around 3 A.M., and sleeping from 7 A.M. until late afternoon. Sounded wholly unappealing to me. My SMCM friends know my tendency to start drinking fairly early and ending my night around midnight, not beginning my night then! But I did it and it truly did not feel like the “chore” I had anticipated. We enjoyed free drinks all night until we entered “Club Joy” in Sol. 12 € entrance fee, and then spent another 9 € on ONE drink, but it was so fun! There are no clubs in Frederick, (and I would never change that), so it was truly a different drinking experience for me. Everyone just…dances. The whole night. My body never stopped moving!

We left the club around 5:30 A.M. to find a snack—sometimes Sbarro pizza tastes better than all the patisserie treats in the whole world. After that, I lapsed into food/sleep-deprived coma and luckily wandered onto the right metro, which had just opened. The metro was busier at this time than times I’ve seen it during the day! As I’ve mentioned before…the city never sleeps. All in all, success! Will I ever do it again? No.

This past weekend I spent in Granada, with Laura, Kirstin, Kristen, and Rachel. Granada was a warm little city, split among hills and mountains. Of all the cities I have seen so far, it was the “hippiest.” The atmosphere reminded me a lot of SMCM, which was refreshing. We arrived around 1 P.M. on Saturday, ravenous as usual. I ate the most satisfying lunch of a kebab and a falafel wrap—others were not so impressed, (as usual), so we spent much of Saturday intermittedly finding snacks for the hungry. There was no agenda on Saturday because we had already planned on Sunday being our major sight-seeing day, so we did a lot of walking and shopping, enjoying the 60 degree weather and happy sunshine. I spent the most money on souvenirs here, because the shops had such different stuff from typical Spanish souvenirs. Because of La Alhambra, which I’ll describe later, the city takes on much of an Arabian theme, and so the shopping felt like walking through an Arabian fishing village market or something. Loved it. It was Kirstin’s bday, so we planned on a night out involving tapas. All the tapas in Granada come with your drinks, so it’s very cheap eating. Because of this, all the tapas bars are incredibly crowded on weekend nights—but that made it more fun!  A lot of ham sandwiches, and a lot of yummy sangria. However, instead of stimulating us, this feast made us sleepy so a lot of us went off to the hostel to seek sleep.

The hostel was amazing. From its deck we had a view of La Alhambra, and the room itself was quaint with an amazing shower. It was tucked away in a little side street, owned by Luis and his girlfriend who had just opened the establishment in October—made me want to own a hostel! And, best of all, they had CEREAL for breakfast! Oh how happy that made me. I miss my cereal.

Sunday was spent at La Alhambra and Hamman, the Arabian baths. La Alhambra is known as the single most important Arabic architecture in Spain, as well as the most beautiful and interesting. Beautiful it was! It rests on the top of a hill that splits the city in two, making the views the most incredible I have seen thus far. Granada rests at the bottom of the Sierra Nevada mountains, and so from La Alhambra viewpoint, you get a clear view of the snowy mountain caps. Like the Alacazar of Seville, there are many gardens, military walls, and interior that speak to the absolute mastery the Moors had over design and decoration. The history of the building is really interesting—I recommend Wikipedia, (aka this post is long enough already, so if you are actually interested, DO THE WORK YOURSELF!!!).

Hamman. When I say it out loud I stutter a little bit at those m’s because THAT is how good the baths and my massage felt. I decided to go all out and buy the most expensive treatment, which included a foam massage and a relaxing, oil massage, (I picked essence of amber as my oil), as well as a two-hour session in the baths. So, basically, the Arabian baths are these underground cave-like structures that royalty used in order to relax. No pictures were allowed, but you can look them up also—the architecture was awesome. There was a “cold room” with a cold pool of water and cold seats, a tea room with the yummiest tea, and one was allowed an unlimited amount of tea, (I had 12 cups), a hot room with a hot pool of water and hot seats, a warm room with a warm pool of water, a steam room, and showers. One is free to roam around, pick what pools they want to sit in, in whatever order they want to go in. The steam room followed by the cold room was my favorite sequence. Anyways, worth the money. I don’t think there is one person reading this who wouldn’t have loved it—so get your behinds on over to Granada and treat yourself!

Some conclusions:

Seville: favorite city to walk around and explore

Barcelona: city with my favorite sites

Granada: city with my favorite atmosphere

Safe return to Madrid, and now excited to see Lucy, who came back yesterday. As I sat down to lunch with Adela yesterday, I asked her what time I needed to pick her up and she informed me I would be doing no driving or teaching this week, as my students Alicia and Maria were skiing all week! The girls go to a French school, which regularly takes a weeklong break every few months—so I’m a free bird this week! Plan on seeing more of Madrid. And Friday, I leave for Cadiz, (southern coast of Spain), for the Spanish “carnaval,” (American Mardi Gras).

Hope everyone’s February is wrapping up nicely! Mom says the weather has been mild at home, so that’s good. Talk to you all soon, and thanks so much for reading this semi-sporadic post!

Missing and loving you,

Mary

 Our hostel deck!

 Me by the fountain in the city center.

 See what I mean about the shopping? This was my favorite but the lamps cost a fortune.

 Giant creature attacks Granada!

 La Alhambra garden...

 ...and again.

 Carnaval paraders!

 City view from Alhambra! Look at all those white houses.

 con Mary.

 Mountain view.

 con Mary.

This is the atmosphere I was talking about--laid back, no shoes, guitar strummin'!

Gaudí, will you be mine?

Happy Valentines Day, friends and fam!

This past weekend I was in Barcelona with a few of the girls I have met here—Kirstin, Kristen, and Rachel—and when one typically thinks Barcelona, (Bar-TH-lona), one thinks warm, sunny, beach town. In my optimism for this fantastical Barcelona, I packed no jeans, only leggings, no sweaters, and simply my leather jacket. COLD! Colder here than it was in Madrid, with highs in the low 40s. I’m such an idiot! Although the trip was wonderful, I so wish I had prepared better for the weather—it would have made the trip that much better.

Anyway, we arrived by plane at 8 A.M. on Saturday, took the bus into town, and met up with a friend of Kristen’s from home. She took us down Las Ramblas, the ultimate party and pickpocket street—also where Kirstin and I booked our hostel. The first thing we come to is this HUGE food market, called “Mercat de Sant Josep/La Boqueria.” EVERYTHING: chocolate, fruit, nuts, candy, vegetables, meats, etc. Now, the Spanish, as made evident by the pig legs hanging everywhere, are not as prude as Americans about their meat. Lamb heads with googly eyeballs stared at me from behind glass cases. Un-skinned rabbits hung gruesomely from ropes. No dogs, though, so that was a relief.

Further down Las Ramblas is Columbus Square, near where, apparently, Columbus is buried. (Remember my Seville post?? Every Spanish city believes they hold the dear remains of ol’ Columbo). And then you find the beach with its shopping malls, clubs, hotels, restaurants, and yacht clubs. Really pretty and sparkly. But cold so I didn’t get into the beach spirit. I want to go back in the summer! Who’s with me??

Kirstin and I were able to get into our hostel early, so everyone decided to siesta before doing some sightseeing. Hostel was nice and simple: an old apartment building. We had our own room and our own bathroom, and both the room and the showers were toasty. However, it wasn’t five minutes of lying on my bed that the support planks of my bed gave in and dropped to the floor. It’s official. Too many patisserie visits. So my sleeps weren’t as productive as I would have hoped, as my butt was almost touching the ground while my back and legs were raised up. You win some, you lose some!

Saturday afternoon we visited Gaudí’s unfinished temple: La Sagrada Familia. I knew absolutely nothing about Gaudí prior to this trip, and now I’m almost certain he is one of my favorite artists of all time. This temple was incredible. One side looked like it was modeled in more of a gothic-style—but kind of a mock gothic, because there was some uneven-ness about it, like he was making his own twist to the gothic-style. And the other side was much more stylized. One side (the gothic side) represents Christ’s birth, and the stylized side depicts Christ’s crucifixion. The inside is incredible. I’m glad Brandi Stanton insisted I pay the money to go inside! These tall pillars everywhere and cool-colored stained-glass windows—Gaudí intended to make the inside look like a mystical forest. Bummer we couldn’t climb the towers to the top, though. Apparently the view of Barcelona is really great from there.

An interesting little Gaudi fact: a car killed him as he was walking on some street. People didn’t realize who he was, so he was given a “pauper” funeral and burial with little to no attendance. When people realize their mistake it was a major embarrassment!

After La Sagrada Familia, we went back to our rooms in order to shower/get ready for the night, which we planned to be BIG! Napped a little more, we left to go eat around 9 P.M. We went to some little diner-ish place for dinner, nothing special, but we were able to pre-game at Kristen’s friend’s apartment, which was really fun because that is something we are not able to do at our host families’ houses in Madrid! At about MIDNIGHT we left to go out in the town. We got to a famous Barcelona bar called “The Dow Jones.” Funny, because it’s an American theme. There are screens all over the bar set up like the stock market screens, except these screens list drink names. As one drink grows in popularity during the night, the price goes up, so you want to order something else in order to get a cheaper drink. At random points in the night, the lights turn off and a red light blinks with a loud alarm, letting you know the stock market has crashed! Then every drink is dirt-cheap! Fun. We had really weird shots there.

We had planned to visit some nightclubs afterwards, because Barcelona nightclubs are some of the most famous in the world, but people were either too drunk or too tired. On the long way home on the metro, (I made some direction mistakes), Kirstin threw up on the metro. Not fun. But it happens to the best of us! It was a relief to be back in our broken beds by the time we got back to the hostel.

The next day we went to Gaudí’s famous park, “Park Guell.” By far my favorite sight I’ve yet seen in Spain. A sandy, eclectic park filled with Gaudí’s architectural designs. The best part was his swirly bench that rounded a nice viewpoint of the city. The viewpoint was not my focus however, but the tiling designs on the bench were so beautiful. Random colors, shapes, pictures, etc., covered every inch of the bench. I wish I could give a better description but hopefully my pictures will help. I literally walked around the benches two times because I found them so amazing.

After that, we found a crummy lunch place, (I swear, no one I travel with appreciates food like I do. I would be more than happy to stick out my hunger in order to find some yummy food places, but my travel-mates could care less! From now on, I’m doing research), and then we made the trip to Montjuic—a spectacular view of the whole city, as well as the beaches and the ocean. We went at sunset so that made the pictures really pretty.

I was pretty disappointed I didn’t get to go to the Picasso museum, but next time. We eventually went out to dinner at 11 P.M., true Spanish-time, and had wonderful tapas. I was happy to have at least one good meal. A famous tapa I think I have failed to mention is over-easy eggs mixed with noodles or rice. I like mine with tomato sauce because I think otherwise it lacks flavor, but people love it here!

Monday morning Kirstin and I snagged some breakfast from the food market, (kiwi and coconut juice mmm), and got on our plane home! Travel went so smoothly, thank goodness. J

Today is the inevitable Valentines Day. Haha. Planning on getting some major chocolate and churros tonight and pigging out! Hope everyone has a nice one. Thanks for reading my blogs—I know how wordy they get.

As always, missing and loving you.

Mary

 Las Ramblas Food market!

 Next to the spices--that one is for you, Andy.

 I kiwwed da wabbit!

 Barca Beach!

 La Sagrada Familia, gothic side. Forgot to mention: the plans state the cathedral will be finished in 2030! These predictions of completion change almost yearly. As said in a previous post, "manana manana."

 Stylized side.

 ...

 Forest-esque pillars and ceiling. 

 A turtle just for you, Gin!

 Dow Jones what uppp

 Me on Las Ramblas! Always, always buzzing. Either with late-nighters or early-morningers.

 A famous street-show in Barcelona--the human tower! See the little kid to the right?? He gets on top! So scary. Youtube it, apparently there are towers with way more people than this!

 Yikes!

 Me on my man Gaudi's bench.

 The bench arena at Park Guell.

 Way too cool. I want it!

 One of my favorite sections.

 Okay...maybe a little too obsessed...

 He designed this house, too! Inside and out. He actually did quite a few houses. Only saw this one, though. Called Casa Batllo.

 View of city. Red sky at night...

 Ocean-side.

My travelin' ladies! Rachel, Kristen, me, and Kirstin.

Loving the Vega Abads and Learning the Numeros

Buenos Noches!

If you’re looking for a break from big-city Madrid…visit Caceres. More specifically, visit Enrique Vega Abad and his family, because I’m pretty sure they would open their house to a fly if it smiled at them and appreciated the food they served.

Background: I mentioned this in the previous blog, but for those of you who might have missed it, Enrique, (or “Keque,” his nickname), stayed with my family during the summer of 1998. When mom found out I was going to Spain, she did a fantastic job of tracking Keque down by phone so that I could visit with him and his family!

After a scary early-morning walk to the metro, I got to my 8:00 A.M. bus to Caceres and later arrived in the city at noon. Because I was 8 the last time I saw Enrique, I expected to see a tall, gawky teenager with bushy brown hair meeting me at the bus station. However, I found myself face-to-face, (literally), with a short-haired thirty-year-old man! Still as sweet and kind as I remembered him, and that obviously runs in the family because even his dad rode the 2 minutes to the bus station to meet me!

The Vega Abads live in a small yet super classy flat. (Families living in flats is far more common in Spain than it is in the states—at least 3 of the girls I have met here live in flats with their host families). Everybody was there to greet me when I arrived—mother, sister, and grandma—and right away I was ushered into the kitchen for a snack. Keque, his sister, and his dad all speak English, but his mother and his grandmother didn’t—made me really want to know Spanish so that I could communicate with these lovely, warm women.  I gave Keque a bag of “Goldfish,” his favorite American snack, and a picture of my whole family. When I came back later in the day, Señor Vega had framed the picture and put it on the bookshelf!!! Ahahah.

When my snack of “pig” (his family calls all ham products “pig”) slices was finished, Keque had me on a tight schedule. Along with his sister, Elena, we went through the city of Caceres—both the old parts and the new. It was a mix of Segovia and Seville—not as many colors as Seville, but similar little cobbled streets and palm trees, and the old buildings themselves reminded me a lot of those I saw in Segovia. Anyways, because Keque literally took me to every part of his city, it all kind of runs together. I do know the city is protected by St. George, (ANDY), and St. Montana, (MOUNTAIN). Also, it was a Muslim military base for when the Catholics invaded. After we poked around for a little while and drank some clara de limons, we went back to his flat, ate a lunch of pig and pasta, and then I hardcore SIESTED! Passed out. It was great. Keque woke me up at exactly half-past four, (“we will go see museums, maybe have a coffee, then the mountain, maybe a cerveza, then some buildings…” haha), and we drove up to the top of the mountain that borders his city, where the statue of St. Montana stands, blessing the city and its people—quite a spectacular view, as you can see from my pictures.

We did some more museum touring, found a Spanish modern art gallery—loved it—and then headed back to clean up for dinner. We went to a little bar right outside their flat, had an appetizer of ham and olives, followed by queso and ham, and finished off with mochina—my favorite: pig blood. I am slowly turning into a pig. Proud Spanish fact: none of the pig is wasted—they even make a soup from the meat of the pig’s toenails.

Slept soundly and was woken up by the smell of churros! Sunday tradition. With coffee mmm…

Then Keque took me to Merida, a little town east of Caceres, famous for its Roman ruins. Awesome. If I don’t make it to Italia, at least I got to (kind of) see how the romans do! The trip to and from was beautiful—Spanish countryside is absolutely intoxicating. Keque pointed out the different trees—some olive, some cork, and, of course, the trees that house the acorns that all the delicious pigs feed from. We met up with his counsin “Nacho,” and his girlfriend for lunch, and then drove back to Caceres as I had a bus to catch at 19:00.

As I was saying goodbye I teared up because I literally felt love emanating off this family! They even gave me a DVD all about Caceres to share with my own family, and Señora Abad packed me a dinner for the bus ride home. Just goes to show that there are some truly beautiful people out in this wide world, and I’m very grateful I got to spend time with some of the most beautiful!

Other than that, my classes have started and I know my Spanish numbers, 1-100! My teacher is EXACTLY how I imagined her to be—a gorgeous, young Spanish woman who knows little English, which is good, because it forces my brain to work pretty hard. I nod and say “si” a lot. The only other person in my class is a German woman who took holiday here at the beginning of January, met the love of her life in Madrid, got married, and four weeks later is trying to learn his language…

What? This is stuff straight out of movies, people! I’m witnessing the influence for the next romantic comedy, just you wait and see. They’ll probably cast Kristen Bell to play my part.

This weekend is my trip to Barcelona, and today I booked three more trips: Cadiz for “Carnaval,” (the Spanish, two-week-long Mardi Gras); Casablanca, Morocco; and Lisbon, Portugal. Whoo-hoo!

Loving and missing you all. A lot. Email, facebook, skype, whatever you have time for—I’d love to hear from you!

Muy bueno y muchos amor,

Mary

 My tiny, tiny classroom.

 Keque and Elena in their Caceres town square!

 View from city walls.

 View from St. Montana mountain!

 W/me...

 Keque demonstrating how guards would use holes in the wall to shoot arrows at their enemies!

 St. Montana, in all his glory.

 I don't know why but I love this. His music was echoing all over the place because of the city walls.

 Too good--Proud Keque and his Caceres

 Okay, so looking at these pictures is reminding me of what I learned: so during Holy Week, the week before Easter, the people of Spain walk outside their doors to witness a march on Good Friday. People dressed in these terrifying robes walk around with a statue of Jesus as is after his crucifixion. It's a big deal. The whole town has to be silent except for one of these guys carries a giant rod around and stamps it rhythmically on the ground. 

 This was hanging in my room...joking! But seriously, HAM!!

 Countryside. These were the "cork" trees. Trunks are used for wine corks.

 Merida Roman ruins! So, this was the beast vs. man arena, where soldiers fought a beast, typically a lion, for the King's entertainment. If the King was unimpressed by the soldier's performance, he simply turned his thumb down and the solider was killed! My look of horror had Keque cracking up. And then I explained to him that I have Lichtinger blood, and thus I feel worse for the lions than the humans, and he looked so confused.

 Roman Theatre! There is a grand festival held here every Spring--big deal.

 Keque and I in the Merida square.

 Bonita view from a Roman-turned-Moorish city wall.

 Look at that sky!

Happy happy family. :)