Hola amigos,
Just a quick update... I cannot believe this will be my final blog post! I am back in Madrid now after a wonderful 3 weeks full of travel. I went on a 5 day road trip from Madrid, to Bilbao, through southern France and the Pyrenees, to Barcelona, Valencia and then back to Madrid. It was an amazing trip - I got to see so many sides of Spain that I hadn't seen yet. I think after all of my travels throughout Spain, I have realized that it really has such a huge mix of landscapes and cultures. Our first day of driving, we left Madrid, drove through land that looked like Arizona, then drove through beautiful lush green that reminded me of Virginia, then up to the north coast to drive through mountains along the ocean. I am so glad I was able to see so many wonderful parts of Spain before leaving. We rented a Smart car, which actually worked out perfectly and was really fun! We tried our best to keep off of the toll roads, which was a great decision - we got to see so many little Spanish towns. The Pyrenees were just beautiful. It isn't tourist season here yet (starts in July), so it was pretty neat to see the chalet towns with mostly locals. And of course, it was great to return to Barcelona. I really like returning places... it really makes me feel like I actually live in Madrid. Valencia was also a lot of fun - we spent as much time as we could at the beach and walked around their really neat "City of Arts and Sciences", a museum complex designed by Santiago Calatrava. Ah what a wonderful trip. Somewhere along the way, my camera stopped working, which has been a bummer - so I have to rely on getting pictures from friends for all of June.
I then went to Paris for 5 days! Another absolutely beautiful city. I had such a good time there. Our hostel was in Montmarte, where Moulin Rouge is, which is such a neat neighborhood. We did a couple walking tours, got in free to all of the museums (EU residents under 26 wohoo!), went to Versailles and just enjoyed the city... which included getting banana nutella crepes :). I loved the musee d'orsay, which just has a BUNCH of impressionist paintings. I had a bit of trouble trying to pronounce anything French, but that just made it that much better to come back to españa. The World Cup kicked off while we were there, so we made sure we were able to watch some of those games.. including USA vs. England! It was really neat though, France played on opening night, so we went down to a FIFA festival that was just across the river from the Eiffel Tower... not a bad place to watch a soccer match!
Christina flew back to Madrid with me and on Monday night we left to do our leg of the Camino de Santiago. The camino is a pilgrimage that people have been doing for about a thousand years to Santiago de Compostela, where supposedly St. James's bones are buried. Over the course of 5 days, we hiked 115 km - so walking for about 7 hours a day. At night, they have cheap hostels or other accommodations set up in the small towns. It was basically like my trip out to the rockies, except you don't have to carry tents or cooking gear or a lot of food - much easier! Once again, I am so happy to have been able to see so many small towns. Galicia (the province that we were in, northwest corner of Spain) is absolutely beautiful and most people compare its landscape to Ireland. It felt so good to get out and HIKE.. and made me so excited to go up to the boundary waters in just a couple weeks! Most people walked about the same distance each day, so we got to know the people who were doing the walk also. We met a really nice Spanish guy and a great old German man. It was such a nice last trip for me... plenty of time to reflect on my life here in Spain, but also just time to be in the moment and enjoy the part of Spain that I was seeing. I would really like to come back sometime and do a different path - there are about 8 all leading towards Santiago. It is so neat because they have markers (sea shell tiles and arrows) every step of the way, so you don't need to have a map or directions or anything... you can just hike and take in what's around you. What a fabulous trip. The whole thing has gotten into a tourist business, so it was a bit of a quick change when we made it into Santiago to see tour groups who had purchased fake walking sticks all waiting in line for the pilgrims mass (which we unfortunately missed). Although I didn't do the walk for any "religious" reasons, it was touching to walk by the handfuls of churches along the route that had been built by pilgrims.
Well and now I'm back in the lovely Madrid and I feel at home... my feelings of almost being done are so mixed. I take my last exam and turn in a project tomorrow morning, and then I'm free as a bird to live as a Spaniard does for six days - enjoy the sun, futbol matches, my roommates' company and beer in the park. I leave here next Monday morning and will get into Chicago at 7 pm central time. After so much traveling, I think that the 15 hour day will be a piece of cake and then I will have my wonderful sister to greet me at the airport! :D The rest of my summer is pretty busy, mostly catching up with family and friends, with trips to the boundary waters, Madison, North Carolina built in. I will be back in Mahtomedi on the 4th, and I hope to see you all soon!
Go USA and España!!, Bonnie
Monday, June 21, 2010
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
The end of May
AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
...me becoming anxious/eager about the prospect of having only 4 weeks left here. I've had a wonderful last week and a half. Will got here just after I last posted, and we have had some nice adventures :) He has met most of my friends here, which has been a lot of fun! Last weekend, we went to Avila, which is a small city about an hour and a half northwest of Madrid that is known for its well-preserved medieval walls, built in the 11th century. The walls, which we were able to climb and walk (almost) on top of, are 2.5 km long and make a full circle around the old city. It was my first time seeing something so extensive! Although similar to the wall in Alcudia in Mallorca that I was able to climb on, the one in Avila is complete; this makes it much easier to imagine the city actually fitting inside the walls (... or better yet to imagine Monty Python and the Holy Grail taking place there!) Last Monday and Tuesday, I had to turn in my last paper and take 3 exams for my Reunidas (American) classes. They all went pretty well.. and I am soooo relieved to have them finished! I no longer have 8 hours straight of classes, nor do I have to wake up at 7:30 for class :) I just have two more days of class for my Complutense (Spanish) classes, so I'll be done with those this Tuesday. Only three things (assignment, paper, exam) remain for those classes and then I'm officially a senior.. that deserves another aaaahhhhhh!
Will and I just got back the other night from our quick trip to Córdoba, Sevilla and Lisbon. It was all fabulous! Córdoba has La Mezquita, a really famous old mosque (the one with hundreds of red and white striped arches and pillars). It was so overwhelming yet so intimate at the same time. When the Christians reconquered, they set up a cathedral smack dab in the center of the mosque, so it was a really interesting contrast. The entire building is 600 x 400 feet - maybe half of that is a closed-in court yard. Of the indoors part, most of it is the old mosque: low ceilings with the regular pattern of double arches and marble pillars. The focus was on the horizontal plane and being able to walk and walk.. and still be inside this haven. They said that when it was in use, 20,000 Muslims could pray inside of it on their Friday services. It was so large but wasn't overpowering. Then, in the middle, it opens into a beautiful cathedral that is so different: vastly tall and overpowering. It all brings up interesting contrasts of the religions and the interpretation of god.
After a few hours in Córdoba, we took a quick bus ride to Sevilla. I'm so glad I got to return there! The first time I went was after being in Spain for only 2 weeks, so this time I had a completely different view on Spanish culture. Sevilla is an absolutely beautiful city, and we spent our day and a half there mostly exploring, but also seeing the cathedral and the old fortress. The cathedral is the biggest gothic one in the world - this aspect of it was breathtaking. It houses what are supposedly Columbus's bones (they have somehow been DNA tested) and the world's largest pearl (which acts as the torso of the body of an angel on an insanely decorated crown). Also in Sevilla, we went to the Bullfighting museum. I am so glad that I went! Bullfighting is more traditional in Andalucia and the stadium in Sevilla is much older than Madrid's, so it was really neat to see their museum. I am considering seeing a bullfight before I leave. Our tour guide told us about a lot of the history behind the cultural practice; back in the day, the townspeople loved the days of bullfights because the meat of the killed bulls was given to the townspeople - so a bullfight meant food. Now, although they no longer donate the meat, they do sell it in markets. Apparently, they have the breed of the bull down just right so that it has enough grit but also has the right ratio of muscle and fat! Anyways, it seems to me that it is much better to acknowledge the bull's life and take it in a ceremonial fashion, than to systematically slaughter him. But at the same time, bullfighting is becoming less popular with locals and is slowly becoming a tourist-only activity. I keep going back and forth on this issue... we'll see what I decide!
On Thursday night, we took an overnight bus to Lisbon. Friday was an absolutely awesome day - we went "casteling" in Sintra, a small town 30 km outside of Lisbon. It is in the mountains and completely, ABSOLUTELY, breathtaking. We visited 3 castles - 2 recent (the last 200 years) and one from the Moors in the 8th century. The whole day was just so wonderful. The grounds of all of the places were just so fun to explore... minus the fact that the only shoes I had were flip flops! From the castles, you can see the ocean in 3 directions (there is a river/bay that goes inland toward Lisbon). Although none of my pictures come even close to showing the stunning views, I sure did take a lot. When we were back in the city, we spent our time mostly walking around. Lisbon is also very hilly, so there are a lot of really great views of the city and the ocean. In 1755, a big earthquake flattened most of the city, so a lot of it is rebuilt in grid pattern... but some neighborhoods remain with the haphazard narrow winding streets; the contrast of the two is so cool, and you can even see it from some views of the city. Apparently Lisbon's sister city is San Francisco.. and there is a bridge there over the large river/bay that looks just like the Golden Gate bridge. They also have a large cross (on the opposite side of the bay) that is like the one in Rio de Janiero.
I loved the vibe of Lisbon. It seems like a worn down city, but with people who love "keeping it real" and enjoying life. English is definitely received a lot better in Lisbon than here in Madrid; I even felt a bit like the Portuguese would prefer me to speak in English over Spanish. Lisbon is definitely somewhere I want to return to!
As for now, I'm spending a couple of days in Madrid. Tomorrow is my last day of class (for my Complutense classes) - I am really excited to be done with it! On Wednesday morning, my friend Amanda and I are going on our road trip through northern and eastern Spain... this is one trip that I have been looking forward to (hoping to do) for quite some time... it is going to be great! Although we still don't know our exact route, we're driving from Madrid, north to Bilbao, east through the Pyrenees to Barcelona and south along the Mediterranean coast to Valencia, where we'll turn back toward Madrid. I am so so lucky :) :)
Sending my love, Bonnie
...me becoming anxious/eager about the prospect of having only 4 weeks left here. I've had a wonderful last week and a half. Will got here just after I last posted, and we have had some nice adventures :) He has met most of my friends here, which has been a lot of fun! Last weekend, we went to Avila, which is a small city about an hour and a half northwest of Madrid that is known for its well-preserved medieval walls, built in the 11th century. The walls, which we were able to climb and walk (almost) on top of, are 2.5 km long and make a full circle around the old city. It was my first time seeing something so extensive! Although similar to the wall in Alcudia in Mallorca that I was able to climb on, the one in Avila is complete; this makes it much easier to imagine the city actually fitting inside the walls (... or better yet to imagine Monty Python and the Holy Grail taking place there!) Last Monday and Tuesday, I had to turn in my last paper and take 3 exams for my Reunidas (American) classes. They all went pretty well.. and I am soooo relieved to have them finished! I no longer have 8 hours straight of classes, nor do I have to wake up at 7:30 for class :) I just have two more days of class for my Complutense (Spanish) classes, so I'll be done with those this Tuesday. Only three things (assignment, paper, exam) remain for those classes and then I'm officially a senior.. that deserves another aaaahhhhhh!
Will and I just got back the other night from our quick trip to Córdoba, Sevilla and Lisbon. It was all fabulous! Córdoba has La Mezquita, a really famous old mosque (the one with hundreds of red and white striped arches and pillars). It was so overwhelming yet so intimate at the same time. When the Christians reconquered, they set up a cathedral smack dab in the center of the mosque, so it was a really interesting contrast. The entire building is 600 x 400 feet - maybe half of that is a closed-in court yard. Of the indoors part, most of it is the old mosque: low ceilings with the regular pattern of double arches and marble pillars. The focus was on the horizontal plane and being able to walk and walk.. and still be inside this haven. They said that when it was in use, 20,000 Muslims could pray inside of it on their Friday services. It was so large but wasn't overpowering. Then, in the middle, it opens into a beautiful cathedral that is so different: vastly tall and overpowering. It all brings up interesting contrasts of the religions and the interpretation of god.After a few hours in Córdoba, we took a quick bus ride to Sevilla. I'm so glad I got to return there! The first time I went was after being in Spain for only 2 weeks, so this time I had a completely different view on Spanish culture. Sevilla is an absolutely beautiful city, and we spent our day and a half there mostly exploring, but also seeing the cathedral and the old fortress. The cathedral is the biggest gothic one in the world - this aspect of it was breathtaking. It houses what are supposedly Columbus's bones (they have somehow been DNA tested) and the world's largest pearl (which acts as the torso of the body of an angel on an insanely decorated crown). Also in Sevilla, we went to the Bullfighting museum. I am so glad that I went! Bullfighting is more traditional in Andalucia and the stadium in Sevilla is much older than Madrid's, so it was really neat to see their museum. I am considering seeing a bullfight before I leave. Our tour guide told us about a lot of the history behind the cultural practice; back in the day, the townspeople loved the days of bullfights because the meat of the killed bulls was given to the townspeople - so a bullfight meant food. Now, although they no longer donate the meat, they do sell it in markets. Apparently, they have the breed of the bull down just right so that it has enough grit but also has the right ratio of muscle and fat! Anyways, it seems to me that it is much better to acknowledge the bull's life and take it in a ceremonial fashion, than to systematically slaughter him. But at the same time, bullfighting is becoming less popular with locals and is slowly becoming a tourist-only activity. I keep going back and forth on this issue... we'll see what I decide!
On Thursday night, we took an overnight bus to Lisbon. Friday was an absolutely awesome day - we went "casteling" in Sintra, a small town 30 km outside of Lisbon. It is in the mountains and completely, ABSOLUTELY, breathtaking. We visited 3 castles - 2 recent (the last 200 years) and one from the Moors in the 8th century. The whole day was just so wonderful. The grounds of all of the places were just so fun to explore... minus the fact that the only shoes I had were flip flops! From the castles, you can see the ocean in 3 directions (there is a river/bay that goes inland toward Lisbon). Although none of my pictures come even close to showing the stunning views, I sure did take a lot. When we were back in the city, we spent our time mostly walking around. Lisbon is also very hilly, so there are a lot of really great views of the city and the ocean. In 1755, a big earthquake flattened most of the city, so a lot of it is rebuilt in grid pattern... but some neighborhoods remain with the haphazard narrow winding streets; the contrast of the two is so cool, and you can even see it from some views of the city. Apparently Lisbon's sister city is San Francisco.. and there is a bridge there over the large river/bay that looks just like the Golden Gate bridge. They also have a large cross (on the opposite side of the bay) that is like the one in Rio de Janiero.
The gorgeous view from one castle (built in the 1800s) - you can see the old Moorish castle on the next hump in the background!
My friend Jacob and I with the Lisbon hills in the background
I loved the vibe of Lisbon. It seems like a worn down city, but with people who love "keeping it real" and enjoying life. English is definitely received a lot better in Lisbon than here in Madrid; I even felt a bit like the Portuguese would prefer me to speak in English over Spanish. Lisbon is definitely somewhere I want to return to!
As for now, I'm spending a couple of days in Madrid. Tomorrow is my last day of class (for my Complutense classes) - I am really excited to be done with it! On Wednesday morning, my friend Amanda and I are going on our road trip through northern and eastern Spain... this is one trip that I have been looking forward to (hoping to do) for quite some time... it is going to be great! Although we still don't know our exact route, we're driving from Madrid, north to Bilbao, east through the Pyrenees to Barcelona and south along the Mediterranean coast to Valencia, where we'll turn back toward Madrid. I am so so lucky :) :)
Sending my love, Bonnie
Thursday, May 20, 2010
and another quick update
Hey all,
I realize it has been awhile since I've updated. I've been pretty busy with school work and enjoying Madrid! Since I updated, I went to Mallorca with my roommate Vanessa and have been in Madrid since. The weather is finally beautiful - 80 and sunny for the next week!!
I also realize that I haven't really reflected on my time here much. I'm feeling a bit sad that my time is winding down... Everything here has just been so wonderful for me to be doing independently, and I have just been so happy. It has been really empowering being able to be happy here on my own, and makes me feel so adventurous about my future. I am really in love with Madrid as a place to live - it was such a good choice. I love my program; it requires a lot of independence, and it pushes us to really learn Spanish and put ourselves in new situations. I sometimes can't believe that I've been living in Spanish for the past four months! My roommates have really helped make my time here great - I'm so lucky to be able to get to know some Spanish girls. At the same time, I have realized how much I really do love my life that I have in Madison. I am so excited to have so many wonderful opportunities ahead of me. I'm thinking that after graduating next spring, I would still really like to go to Uganda or a latin American country for some time and probably take a year off, and then hopefully get my masters in public health somewhere! There are so many schools that I would love to go to... including the U of M and UW :)
All of my classes are going well - I am done with three papers, and after my three exams on Monday and Tuesday, I'm done with my American "Reunidas" classes! Woohoo! Today was our last session at the Prado - I was actually pretty sad. For that class, we go to the museum every Wednesday for a couple hours... and every week, I feel like I fall in love over and over again. After next Tuesday, I will just have one more week of my other two classes (last day June 1). For Geography and Gender, we have our final on June 22. For Cartography, I have to write a paper talking about some aspect of maps and their use in security and defense - I'm thinking of writing about maps used in colonization... that way, I could have lots of examples and other things to say to fill up the 10 pages!
It is crazy to think of my next 6 (5.5!) weeks: most days I know exactly what I'm doing. Will comes tomorrow (in 8 hours!!), on Saturday we're doing a day trip to my roommate's house in Avila, which is a town about 1.5 hours away that has really well preserved medieval walls. Then, next Wednesday, Will and I are going to Córdoba, Sevilla and then Lisbon! I am so excited to have him here in Madrid, and to travel with him! Then I have my last 2 days of class, and I am going on a road trip through northern Spain from the 2-6 of June. We're heading up to Bilbao, east through the Pyrenees (and hopefully southern France) to Barcelona, then down the coast to Valencia and back to Madrid. It should be absolutely fantastic! Then, June 9-14, I'm going to Paris with Christina and another friend. I am soooo excited to see Paris... the five days will be wonderful: filled with so many paintings, crepes and hopefully good weather! After Paris, Christina, my friend Amanda and I are doing the last leg of the Camino de Santiago, an old pilgrimage route through northern Spain that finishes in Santiago de Compostela, a city that supposedly houses the remains of St. James. We'll be walking for 5 days and it works out to be about 115 km - 65 miles! Then, I'll come back to Madrid and have a couple days before my exam on the 22nd.. and I'll finish off my last 6 days in and around Madrid. It is a lot to fit in, but I'm so excited about everything!
Mallorca was absolutely amazing. It is a good-sized island in the Mediterranean, and feels like a tropical paradise. The entire island is very touristy - lots of British and Germans.. one restaurant we went to didn't even have the menu in castellano! It was really fun to stay with Vanessa and her family - her mom was so welcoming! I was there Wednesday night through Sunday morning, so 3 full days. On Thursday, we hung out in Alcudia, the town where Vanessa lives. It has a beautiful port city with mountains in the background, and then a few miles inland there are old medieval walls and an old Roman theater. This island seriously has everything - mountains, the sea, beautiful beaches with palm trees, and history! Palma de Mallorca, the capital, has a beautiful old gothic cathedral, old bridges and old walls. Just seeing all of that, along with palm trees and beautiful aqua water, is like the perfect vacation combination. On Friday, we drove through the mountains (with Vanessa's cousin) on the northwest coast of the island. We ended up having issues with her brakes, so we had to opt out of our mountain adventure early and head to Magaluf, a town right near Palma de Mallorca. We rented a hotel room for Friday night - one block from the beach! For all I knew, I could have been in Mexico - English speakers all over the place, beautiful beaches, all night dance clubs. We had a really fun Friday night, and then spent Saturday on the beach and in Palma. It was such a nice relaxing vacation - compared to all of the other weekend trips I have done! It was sad to say goodbye to Vanessa... I realized that I will be saying a lot of goodbyes in the next month, as people start leaving. (One girl in my program leaves next Friday - she doesn't have an exam in June... people are slowly leaving throughout June, but most are staying until late June or early July.)
On a happier note, Ruth came to stay with me earlier this week! It was really nice to see her and hang out a bit more - made me even more excited for returning to Madison next year! Tomorrow is my good friend's birthday, so we have a whole day and night of birthday festivities to celebrate - and to welcome Will to Madrid!
All for now! Sending my love, Bonnie
I realize it has been awhile since I've updated. I've been pretty busy with school work and enjoying Madrid! Since I updated, I went to Mallorca with my roommate Vanessa and have been in Madrid since. The weather is finally beautiful - 80 and sunny for the next week!!
I also realize that I haven't really reflected on my time here much. I'm feeling a bit sad that my time is winding down... Everything here has just been so wonderful for me to be doing independently, and I have just been so happy. It has been really empowering being able to be happy here on my own, and makes me feel so adventurous about my future. I am really in love with Madrid as a place to live - it was such a good choice. I love my program; it requires a lot of independence, and it pushes us to really learn Spanish and put ourselves in new situations. I sometimes can't believe that I've been living in Spanish for the past four months! My roommates have really helped make my time here great - I'm so lucky to be able to get to know some Spanish girls. At the same time, I have realized how much I really do love my life that I have in Madison. I am so excited to have so many wonderful opportunities ahead of me. I'm thinking that after graduating next spring, I would still really like to go to Uganda or a latin American country for some time and probably take a year off, and then hopefully get my masters in public health somewhere! There are so many schools that I would love to go to... including the U of M and UW :)
All of my classes are going well - I am done with three papers, and after my three exams on Monday and Tuesday, I'm done with my American "Reunidas" classes! Woohoo! Today was our last session at the Prado - I was actually pretty sad. For that class, we go to the museum every Wednesday for a couple hours... and every week, I feel like I fall in love over and over again. After next Tuesday, I will just have one more week of my other two classes (last day June 1). For Geography and Gender, we have our final on June 22. For Cartography, I have to write a paper talking about some aspect of maps and their use in security and defense - I'm thinking of writing about maps used in colonization... that way, I could have lots of examples and other things to say to fill up the 10 pages!
It is crazy to think of my next 6 (5.5!) weeks: most days I know exactly what I'm doing. Will comes tomorrow (in 8 hours!!), on Saturday we're doing a day trip to my roommate's house in Avila, which is a town about 1.5 hours away that has really well preserved medieval walls. Then, next Wednesday, Will and I are going to Córdoba, Sevilla and then Lisbon! I am so excited to have him here in Madrid, and to travel with him! Then I have my last 2 days of class, and I am going on a road trip through northern Spain from the 2-6 of June. We're heading up to Bilbao, east through the Pyrenees (and hopefully southern France) to Barcelona, then down the coast to Valencia and back to Madrid. It should be absolutely fantastic! Then, June 9-14, I'm going to Paris with Christina and another friend. I am soooo excited to see Paris... the five days will be wonderful: filled with so many paintings, crepes and hopefully good weather! After Paris, Christina, my friend Amanda and I are doing the last leg of the Camino de Santiago, an old pilgrimage route through northern Spain that finishes in Santiago de Compostela, a city that supposedly houses the remains of St. James. We'll be walking for 5 days and it works out to be about 115 km - 65 miles! Then, I'll come back to Madrid and have a couple days before my exam on the 22nd.. and I'll finish off my last 6 days in and around Madrid. It is a lot to fit in, but I'm so excited about everything!
Mallorca was absolutely amazing. It is a good-sized island in the Mediterranean, and feels like a tropical paradise. The entire island is very touristy - lots of British and Germans.. one restaurant we went to didn't even have the menu in castellano! It was really fun to stay with Vanessa and her family - her mom was so welcoming! I was there Wednesday night through Sunday morning, so 3 full days. On Thursday, we hung out in Alcudia, the town where Vanessa lives. It has a beautiful port city with mountains in the background, and then a few miles inland there are old medieval walls and an old Roman theater. This island seriously has everything - mountains, the sea, beautiful beaches with palm trees, and history! Palma de Mallorca, the capital, has a beautiful old gothic cathedral, old bridges and old walls. Just seeing all of that, along with palm trees and beautiful aqua water, is like the perfect vacation combination. On Friday, we drove through the mountains (with Vanessa's cousin) on the northwest coast of the island. We ended up having issues with her brakes, so we had to opt out of our mountain adventure early and head to Magaluf, a town right near Palma de Mallorca. We rented a hotel room for Friday night - one block from the beach! For all I knew, I could have been in Mexico - English speakers all over the place, beautiful beaches, all night dance clubs. We had a really fun Friday night, and then spent Saturday on the beach and in Palma. It was such a nice relaxing vacation - compared to all of the other weekend trips I have done! It was sad to say goodbye to Vanessa... I realized that I will be saying a lot of goodbyes in the next month, as people start leaving. (One girl in my program leaves next Friday - she doesn't have an exam in June... people are slowly leaving throughout June, but most are staying until late June or early July.)
On a happier note, Ruth came to stay with me earlier this week! It was really nice to see her and hang out a bit more - made me even more excited for returning to Madison next year! Tomorrow is my good friend's birthday, so we have a whole day and night of birthday festivities to celebrate - and to welcome Will to Madrid!
All for now! Sending my love, Bonnie
Monday, May 3, 2010
Quick Update
And time is still just flying by here in Madrid... I can't believe we're already into May!! My last week or so has been great! On Wednesday, I went to the Spanish military's aerospace center for cartography and photography. It was really neat! They basically showed us around the entire place so we could get a sense of the process from taking the aerial photos, converting them into data, and then finally printing out maps of the areas with information on the airspace. So many of their machines are so old (like from 1980) though it was crazy. They all still worked, but they said that they were supposed to get updated about 5 years ago but because of economy stuff it just hasn't happened yet, haha. They were all sooo hospitable, it was amazing. They gave us breakfast and lunch (complete with beer and wine!) and even took our picture in front of the building and gave us each a copy. I was there for about 5 hours. Later on Wednesday, I celebrated my roommate Estrella's birthday, which also happened to be my other roommate Vanessa's last night in our apartment. We made dinner together and had a night of karaoke. I thought them some of my favorite 90's songs and they opened my eyes to more Spanish music than just Shakira, haha.
My señora's grandkids Alberto, Jorge and Pablo.. and me with a nice fake smile
This picture doesn't capture how awesome I felt standing up there. I climbed up that face all by myself!
Last night, I went to the Real Madrid game with a bunch of friends - it was so fun!! Real Madrid won in the last few minutes, which was really fun. It was so cool to see the fans, and just see the stadium - it was amazing and huge and fun to try to figure out the cheers!
Getting ready to leave for the game
Melissa and me at the park
On Wednesday, I'm going to Mallorca with my roommate Vanessa (she moved out last week). We're staying with her family and will be going all around the island - I'm so excited! The island is supposed to be absolutely beautiful, so it should be really fun. I'll be there until Sunday, and then I only have one week to finish all of my papers.. eeegggghh. I don't know how I'm going to pass my classes when I get back to UW and actually have hard classes. Most of my friends are having visitors in the next couple of weeks, so I'm looking forward to meeting everybody! My two close friends who have boyfriends/girlfriends from home are both having them come visit in the next couple weeks, so I'm getting a bit jealous of them. But, just 8 short weeks until I'm going to be home, which is just insane. I can't believe I'm over half done! And in 2.5 weeks, Will is coming!! It is all going to just fly by.
I hope everybody at home is doing great! Lots of love, Bonnie
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
muchas cosas... london, extremadura, florencia, MADRID
Hello folks,
I am just starting this blog as I sit on my balcony enjoying the 85 degree weather.. finally!! I can hardly believe it is the end of April. Time is just flying by, and I realize I have a lot to update you all on!
I just got back last night from a long weekend in London. I met Christina there, and we spent 4 days seeing as much of the city as possible. Luckily, everything ended up going just fine with both of our flights. All week, I was thinking that our flights would end up being canceled, so when I finally saw Christina on Thursday night it was a good feeling! London is so big... we were lucky to be able to spend 4 nights there, but I think I would need another 5 or 6 days there to feel like I had seen the things I wanted to. I really loved London - the atmosphere everywhere we went in the city was just great! It was nice to be in an English speaking country with some American comforts. I was really excited to find a number of foods... including VEGETARIAN STARBURSTS! Who knew that the ones they make in England don't have gelatin!?? I hadn't had Starbursts in probably 10 years, so I happily bought a pack-a-day for myself and brought some extras home with me. Maybe when I get back to the states they will be vegetarian there too? :D I also got a huge bag of dried basil, which I haven't been able to find anywhere here in Madrid. As far as eating food there, we had a lot of good stuff... including Indian! There were Indian restaurants all over the place, and although I'm not one to eat a lot of spicy foods, it was nice to get a bit of spice in my life. Word on the street was that a Chipotle was due to open April 2010, so naturally we had to go find it! We were SO excited... but it hasn't opened yet :( Just seeing the Chipotle sign hung up made me so excited to eat it first thing when I get to Chicago in just 2 months :D We did find a restaurant that is a Chipotle-wanna-be, and it was pretty good! It was great to get a burrito!
As for the touristy things in London, there is sooo much to do. I was amazed at how big the city was! We did two walking tours, which were both great. The weather was fabulous, about 65 and sunny, not the infamous London rain at all! We figured out that students can get awesome deals at shows, so we went to two! Friday night, we saw Avenue Q, a musical about a recent college graduate trying to figure out his life and living in NYC. The end of the story was him still not knowing what he was going to do... but at least he had made friends! I guess we'll just have to wait and see how my story compares to his a year from now. On Saturday night, we saw Wicked (a different version of the Wizard of Oz)! I've been wanting to see it for awhile, and it was just awesome to see in London! Both nights were a lot of fun. We went down to the walk along the Thames one night and saw Big Ben at night over the water - absolutely beautiful. Being there made me realize how much I really miss having a big lake or river nearby. Madrid has a river, but it is not that great, haha. As for museums, London has a ton! With everything else that we had to fit in, we were only able to make it to 4 museums - the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, Tate Modern Art Museum and the British Museum. The National Gallery was probably my favorite museum I've ever been in. They had really strong collections of art basically from 1300-1900, with a lot of paintings that I've studied. We were only able to spend about 4 hours there unfortunately; I could probably spend 2 days just in that museum. The British Museum is the home to all of the relics that the British have so kindly helped themselves to throughout the years.. including the Rosetta Stone and a dismantled Parthenon. Definitely another museum that we didn't have enough time to go through. The nice thing about London is that these museums are all free, and some even have free guided tours!
The bad thing about London is that every other touristy thing costs a lot - about 15 pounds (20 or 25 dollars). We decided that we didn't have enough time to spend in any of these - such as Buckingham Palace and The Tower of London - but hopefully I'll be back in London someday, because I would really like to be able to go to those. We also went to a couple of cool outdoor markets, where we got the best vegan ice-cream I've ever had (made with cashews for its base). As the weather was beautiful, we spent a bit of Saturday afternoon at Hyde Park. It is basically like Central Park, but it was really fun people watching. I don't think I will ever get enough of little kids with British accents. Christina and I tried to practice our British accents a bit, but I don't think I improved much, haha. We also went to Harrods, the craziest and biggest department store with everything you can imagine. It is such a destination that they even have a dress-code! My favorite department was "Pet Kingdom" where they had dogs painted all over the walls and they even had pets for sale... all of which seemed to be the most cared for (and expensive) dogs I have ever seen in a store. There was even a section of fossils and huge gems for sale. The fossils were so cool to look at; most of them were from Wyoming! The most expensive one I saw was this beautiful flower fossil that was at a going price of 30,000 POUNDS. The man working there kindly showed us where the more affordable fossils were, where I could have bought a small fish one for 500 pounds. Haha! Finally, no trip to London would be complete without a visit to Kings Cross station to see Platform 9 and 3/4! Christina and I tried to find Gryffindor scarves, but apparently nobody in London has Harry Potter pride because nobody sold them, not even the huge tourist shops! Either way, we had fun finding the platform. All in all, London was just great and it was so much fun to hang out with Christina for a few days!
I'm exhausted from the weekend, but no time to rest! I got back around midnight last night, and had a full day of class today. It is my roommate's birthday, so we're celebrating that tonight! Tomorrow, my cartography class has a field trip to a map-making facility for the day, so that will be fun! Thursday and Friday are going to be filled with paper-writing and hopefully seeing my señora. This Saturday, I'm going hiking in a big park in the mountains about half hour outside Madrid with some friends. Then Sunday I'll have to find time to get more homework done and then I'm going to a Real Madrid game! I'm really excited to see the stadium and just be at a game. Although I haven't been following them all that much, I love watching soccer and it will be a lot of fun with all of the fans. Next Wednesday, I'm going to Mallorca with my roommate Vanessa. Then I have one more week to write 3 papers (egghh..) but then I turn them in and will have some visitors - Ruth and Will! It is just crazy how much I'm going to fit into these next couple months... I feel like I have just about every day planned out. It is going to be hard to get work done since the weather just keeps getting better and better, but it'll work out!
I have some telling to do for other travels this past month. Last weekend (the 18th), I went to Extremadura with my program. It is a region southwest of Madrid that borders Portugal. It was wonderful! It was full of Roman ruins and old castles. It was really non-touristy, which was a nice change. I still can't figure out why it isn't touristy, as some of the ruins I even found more interesting than some in Rome. On Saturday, we spent the day in Mérida, which has a really well preserved theater and amphitheater (for gladiator action). They also have the 2nd longest Roman bridge, so that was really neat! Late afternoon we headed to Cáceres, which is another cool city with a really nice atmosphere. We did a night tour, because the city is really neat lit up at night. On Sunday, we went in a museum there and then headed to Trujillo, a small beautiful city on the way home. Trujillo had really great views of rolling hills with mountains in the background. I really liked the weekend - it was nice to be somewhere where we were the only tourists.
I am just starting this blog as I sit on my balcony enjoying the 85 degree weather.. finally!! I can hardly believe it is the end of April. Time is just flying by, and I realize I have a lot to update you all on!
I just got back last night from a long weekend in London. I met Christina there, and we spent 4 days seeing as much of the city as possible. Luckily, everything ended up going just fine with both of our flights. All week, I was thinking that our flights would end up being canceled, so when I finally saw Christina on Thursday night it was a good feeling! London is so big... we were lucky to be able to spend 4 nights there, but I think I would need another 5 or 6 days there to feel like I had seen the things I wanted to. I really loved London - the atmosphere everywhere we went in the city was just great! It was nice to be in an English speaking country with some American comforts. I was really excited to find a number of foods... including VEGETARIAN STARBURSTS! Who knew that the ones they make in England don't have gelatin!?? I hadn't had Starbursts in probably 10 years, so I happily bought a pack-a-day for myself and brought some extras home with me. Maybe when I get back to the states they will be vegetarian there too? :D I also got a huge bag of dried basil, which I haven't been able to find anywhere here in Madrid. As far as eating food there, we had a lot of good stuff... including Indian! There were Indian restaurants all over the place, and although I'm not one to eat a lot of spicy foods, it was nice to get a bit of spice in my life. Word on the street was that a Chipotle was due to open April 2010, so naturally we had to go find it! We were SO excited... but it hasn't opened yet :( Just seeing the Chipotle sign hung up made me so excited to eat it first thing when I get to Chicago in just 2 months :D We did find a restaurant that is a Chipotle-wanna-be, and it was pretty good! It was great to get a burrito!
Me on Millenium Bridge with St. Paul's Cathedral in the background
As for the touristy things in London, there is sooo much to do. I was amazed at how big the city was! We did two walking tours, which were both great. The weather was fabulous, about 65 and sunny, not the infamous London rain at all! We figured out that students can get awesome deals at shows, so we went to two! Friday night, we saw Avenue Q, a musical about a recent college graduate trying to figure out his life and living in NYC. The end of the story was him still not knowing what he was going to do... but at least he had made friends! I guess we'll just have to wait and see how my story compares to his a year from now. On Saturday night, we saw Wicked (a different version of the Wizard of Oz)! I've been wanting to see it for awhile, and it was just awesome to see in London! Both nights were a lot of fun. We went down to the walk along the Thames one night and saw Big Ben at night over the water - absolutely beautiful. Being there made me realize how much I really miss having a big lake or river nearby. Madrid has a river, but it is not that great, haha. As for museums, London has a ton! With everything else that we had to fit in, we were only able to make it to 4 museums - the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, Tate Modern Art Museum and the British Museum. The National Gallery was probably my favorite museum I've ever been in. They had really strong collections of art basically from 1300-1900, with a lot of paintings that I've studied. We were only able to spend about 4 hours there unfortunately; I could probably spend 2 days just in that museum. The British Museum is the home to all of the relics that the British have so kindly helped themselves to throughout the years.. including the Rosetta Stone and a dismantled Parthenon. Definitely another museum that we didn't have enough time to go through. The nice thing about London is that these museums are all free, and some even have free guided tours!
Christina and me inside a guard's little house-thing
The bad thing about London is that every other touristy thing costs a lot - about 15 pounds (20 or 25 dollars). We decided that we didn't have enough time to spend in any of these - such as Buckingham Palace and The Tower of London - but hopefully I'll be back in London someday, because I would really like to be able to go to those. We also went to a couple of cool outdoor markets, where we got the best vegan ice-cream I've ever had (made with cashews for its base). As the weather was beautiful, we spent a bit of Saturday afternoon at Hyde Park. It is basically like Central Park, but it was really fun people watching. I don't think I will ever get enough of little kids with British accents. Christina and I tried to practice our British accents a bit, but I don't think I improved much, haha. We also went to Harrods, the craziest and biggest department store with everything you can imagine. It is such a destination that they even have a dress-code! My favorite department was "Pet Kingdom" where they had dogs painted all over the walls and they even had pets for sale... all of which seemed to be the most cared for (and expensive) dogs I have ever seen in a store. There was even a section of fossils and huge gems for sale. The fossils were so cool to look at; most of them were from Wyoming! The most expensive one I saw was this beautiful flower fossil that was at a going price of 30,000 POUNDS. The man working there kindly showed us where the more affordable fossils were, where I could have bought a small fish one for 500 pounds. Haha! Finally, no trip to London would be complete without a visit to Kings Cross station to see Platform 9 and 3/4! Christina and I tried to find Gryffindor scarves, but apparently nobody in London has Harry Potter pride because nobody sold them, not even the huge tourist shops! Either way, we had fun finding the platform. All in all, London was just great and it was so much fun to hang out with Christina for a few days!
Big Ben and the Thames
I'm exhausted from the weekend, but no time to rest! I got back around midnight last night, and had a full day of class today. It is my roommate's birthday, so we're celebrating that tonight! Tomorrow, my cartography class has a field trip to a map-making facility for the day, so that will be fun! Thursday and Friday are going to be filled with paper-writing and hopefully seeing my señora. This Saturday, I'm going hiking in a big park in the mountains about half hour outside Madrid with some friends. Then Sunday I'll have to find time to get more homework done and then I'm going to a Real Madrid game! I'm really excited to see the stadium and just be at a game. Although I haven't been following them all that much, I love watching soccer and it will be a lot of fun with all of the fans. Next Wednesday, I'm going to Mallorca with my roommate Vanessa. Then I have one more week to write 3 papers (egghh..) but then I turn them in and will have some visitors - Ruth and Will! It is just crazy how much I'm going to fit into these next couple months... I feel like I have just about every day planned out. It is going to be hard to get work done since the weather just keeps getting better and better, but it'll work out!
I have some telling to do for other travels this past month. Last weekend (the 18th), I went to Extremadura with my program. It is a region southwest of Madrid that borders Portugal. It was wonderful! It was full of Roman ruins and old castles. It was really non-touristy, which was a nice change. I still can't figure out why it isn't touristy, as some of the ruins I even found more interesting than some in Rome. On Saturday, we spent the day in Mérida, which has a really well preserved theater and amphitheater (for gladiator action). They also have the 2nd longest Roman bridge, so that was really neat! Late afternoon we headed to Cáceres, which is another cool city with a really nice atmosphere. We did a night tour, because the city is really neat lit up at night. On Sunday, we went in a museum there and then headed to Trujillo, a small beautiful city on the way home. Trujillo had really great views of rolling hills with mountains in the background. I really liked the weekend - it was nice to be somewhere where we were the only tourists.
A bridge designed by Santiago Calatrava, who also designed the Milwaukee Art Museum
Ahh alas, I am going to post this and then update more to put up some more pictures from extramadura and FINALLY talk about Florence!
Love, Bonnie
Thursday, April 15, 2010
italia, continuada... and an update on madrid
Alright, alright... I am horrible at updating my blog. I've been quite busy with my Spanish life!
My past week in Madrid has been absolutely wonderful! The weather was beautiful last weekend, so I spent most of my time outside. I've been hanging out with my roommates a lot and getting to know them better - it has been a lot of fun :) Last Friday, they threw a party to welcome me to the apartment and for my American friends to meet their Spanish friends... que divertido! It was Spanish themed, so we painted a big red and white polka-dotted background for photo shoots, made paper flowers to hang up everywhere and wear in our hair... and drank a whole lot of sangria.
Saturday night was the Real Madrid vs FC Barcelona football match, so I went to a bar with my roommates to watch it. Most of the game it seemed as if Barca was going to win, so the fans were pretty quiet. It was still fun to be out and see everybody really into the game. The rest of the weekend, like I said, I spent outside... like on my terrace :) I got quite burnt, but I went and bought sunscreen, so hopefully I'll be set for the next couple months. Some of my friends and I took the Teleférico, which are suspended cable-cars that go over a big park in Madrid, we rented rowboats on a lake, and played a bit of soccer. I also saw my señora a few times last week! She has two new students, who are both really nice and go to Stanford.
I had an exam yesterday for the Prado class, so I went to the museum a few times to study and prepare. The test itself went well - I am really liking art history a lot. My other classes are also going well - I am beginning to work a bit on papers that will be due in the middle of May. In my mapping class, we're talking about the first maps of the New World, and the professor seems to think that we (there are 4 Americans in the class) know about and have seen all these maps that the Library of Congress has. Apparently the US government paid some ridiculous amount of money to buy a map made in the sixteenth century that is the first time the new world was referred to as "Amerigo". He made us promise him that we would try to go to the Library of Congress when we go home next year and see it for him. :)
I've been trying to figure out my travel schedule for the upcoming months, specifically about this summer. I have decided that I am not going to go to Uganda - for a number of reasons, but mainly because everything would be too rushed. I am sad that I am not taking advantage of this amazing opportunity, but also a bit relieved. I think that come the end of June, it would have been difficult to start up a big energy-intensive project in a completely new place. Also, being here, I don't have the time to adequately prepare for the project. I'm hoping that I will be able to go next summer (after graduation) or fall 2011, and stay for a couple months. So, I am still trying to figure out when I'm coming home, but I'm thinking sometime around July 1. I may fly into Chicago and spend a few days with Sylvia when there, and then head back to Minnesota to spend July with family and friends - hopefully with a trip to the Boundary Waters in there!
In my remaining two and a half months, I am going to be vvvvery busy. Besides school - which is going to pick up a lot from now until the end of May - I have some wonderful travel plans. This weekend, our program is taking us to Extremadura, which is a remote region of Spain. I'm really excited for the trip because it is supposed to be much (MUCH) less touristy than everywhere else, and I am curious as to what we're going to see. I know that one of the best-preserved Roman amphitheaters is there, so that will be cool! Next weekend, I am meeting Christina (friend from high school and roommate from UW) in London.. I can't wait. I already have a playlist of Beatles and Mary Poppins music to listen to on the flight, and I am going to watch Notting Hill before going. I'm really looking forward to spending 4 days with Christina and getting to see London! I'm so lucky to be able to see so many of my friends from home. It is kind of surreal to have people from my life at home mixed with my life here. Ruth, my roommate at UW who is studying in Sevilla, is coming to Madrid tomorrow. I love having visitors so I can show off a bit of the Madrid that I've been enjoying for (more than) 3 months now!
As for May, I am going to Mallorca, an island off the Valencian coast, with my roommate Vanessa. She is from there, so I'll be spending a few days with her and her family. The island is supposed to be beautiful! During the summer, it is pretty touristy, but she said that during May it will be fine. I'm really looking forward to spending time near the water - and hopefully at the beach if it is warm enough! My high school friend Will is planning on coming around May 20 and staying here in Madrid with me for a bit, and then I think we're going to go to Sevilla and Lisbon for a long weekend. It is so exciting being able to do such a wide variety of things in a relatively small area. It still amazes me how much the culture and physical landscape of Europe differs. I'm so lucky to have been able to see what I've seen.. but am even luckier that I still have a couple months left here!
Speaking of what I've seen... I still haven't written about half of my trip to Italy! I got together with the girls I went with last night to reflect on the trip, and we all came to the same conclusion: everything was fabulous.
I think I left off in the middle of Rome. Our second day in Rome was spent at the Vatican. We had reserved ahead of time our entrance time for the museum, so luckily we got to bypass the hundreds of people waiting to get in. I felt kind of bad, but at the same time can't believe how many tourists go to places without doing what everybody recommends, which is simply reserving your entrance time. Anyways, we spent about 4 hours total in the museum. They have a very large collection of Egyptian relics. It is hard to think back to the museum and remember what was there because the Sistine Chapel and Raphael's works shine out so much. They have Raphael's School of Athens, which is one of my favorite paintings. It is so neat to see frescoes in their original place - where the painters meant them to be. Thats one reason I really like visiting churches with built-in altars or frescoed walls... just thinking of the painters themselves planning around the lighting of the specific building, or who the audience is. At the end of the museum is the Sistine Chapel, which was amazing and I hope that everybody who reads this can go see. I love Michelangelo. After that, we got our mid-day dessert: crepes with nutella. Pure goodness. Then, we headed to St. Peter's Square to get in line to go inside the Basilica. The Basilica was breathtaking, but in a very modest way. The hour or so we spent there really brought to mind the unpresuming aspects of Christianity for me. We tried to climb the dome, but because it was Easter week they had weird hours. Oh well, I suppose it is just another reason to return to Italia :)
Well, that's all I have time for now. More on Rome and Florence later! Love, Bonnie
(Side note... As I was writing this blog, I bought my ticket home! I'm flying into Chicago on Monday June 28, and hopefully I can spend a few days with Sylvia before heading back to Minnesota. Wowhoo!)
My past week in Madrid has been absolutely wonderful! The weather was beautiful last weekend, so I spent most of my time outside. I've been hanging out with my roommates a lot and getting to know them better - it has been a lot of fun :) Last Friday, they threw a party to welcome me to the apartment and for my American friends to meet their Spanish friends... que divertido! It was Spanish themed, so we painted a big red and white polka-dotted background for photo shoots, made paper flowers to hang up everywhere and wear in our hair... and drank a whole lot of sangria.
My fabulous roommates!
Saturday night was the Real Madrid vs FC Barcelona football match, so I went to a bar with my roommates to watch it. Most of the game it seemed as if Barca was going to win, so the fans were pretty quiet. It was still fun to be out and see everybody really into the game. The rest of the weekend, like I said, I spent outside... like on my terrace :) I got quite burnt, but I went and bought sunscreen, so hopefully I'll be set for the next couple months. Some of my friends and I took the Teleférico, which are suspended cable-cars that go over a big park in Madrid, we rented rowboats on a lake, and played a bit of soccer. I also saw my señora a few times last week! She has two new students, who are both really nice and go to Stanford.
I had an exam yesterday for the Prado class, so I went to the museum a few times to study and prepare. The test itself went well - I am really liking art history a lot. My other classes are also going well - I am beginning to work a bit on papers that will be due in the middle of May. In my mapping class, we're talking about the first maps of the New World, and the professor seems to think that we (there are 4 Americans in the class) know about and have seen all these maps that the Library of Congress has. Apparently the US government paid some ridiculous amount of money to buy a map made in the sixteenth century that is the first time the new world was referred to as "Amerigo". He made us promise him that we would try to go to the Library of Congress when we go home next year and see it for him. :)
I've been trying to figure out my travel schedule for the upcoming months, specifically about this summer. I have decided that I am not going to go to Uganda - for a number of reasons, but mainly because everything would be too rushed. I am sad that I am not taking advantage of this amazing opportunity, but also a bit relieved. I think that come the end of June, it would have been difficult to start up a big energy-intensive project in a completely new place. Also, being here, I don't have the time to adequately prepare for the project. I'm hoping that I will be able to go next summer (after graduation) or fall 2011, and stay for a couple months. So, I am still trying to figure out when I'm coming home, but I'm thinking sometime around July 1. I may fly into Chicago and spend a few days with Sylvia when there, and then head back to Minnesota to spend July with family and friends - hopefully with a trip to the Boundary Waters in there!
In my remaining two and a half months, I am going to be vvvvery busy. Besides school - which is going to pick up a lot from now until the end of May - I have some wonderful travel plans. This weekend, our program is taking us to Extremadura, which is a remote region of Spain. I'm really excited for the trip because it is supposed to be much (MUCH) less touristy than everywhere else, and I am curious as to what we're going to see. I know that one of the best-preserved Roman amphitheaters is there, so that will be cool! Next weekend, I am meeting Christina (friend from high school and roommate from UW) in London.. I can't wait. I already have a playlist of Beatles and Mary Poppins music to listen to on the flight, and I am going to watch Notting Hill before going. I'm really looking forward to spending 4 days with Christina and getting to see London! I'm so lucky to be able to see so many of my friends from home. It is kind of surreal to have people from my life at home mixed with my life here. Ruth, my roommate at UW who is studying in Sevilla, is coming to Madrid tomorrow. I love having visitors so I can show off a bit of the Madrid that I've been enjoying for (more than) 3 months now!
As for May, I am going to Mallorca, an island off the Valencian coast, with my roommate Vanessa. She is from there, so I'll be spending a few days with her and her family. The island is supposed to be beautiful! During the summer, it is pretty touristy, but she said that during May it will be fine. I'm really looking forward to spending time near the water - and hopefully at the beach if it is warm enough! My high school friend Will is planning on coming around May 20 and staying here in Madrid with me for a bit, and then I think we're going to go to Sevilla and Lisbon for a long weekend. It is so exciting being able to do such a wide variety of things in a relatively small area. It still amazes me how much the culture and physical landscape of Europe differs. I'm so lucky to have been able to see what I've seen.. but am even luckier that I still have a couple months left here!
Speaking of what I've seen... I still haven't written about half of my trip to Italy! I got together with the girls I went with last night to reflect on the trip, and we all came to the same conclusion: everything was fabulous.
I think I left off in the middle of Rome. Our second day in Rome was spent at the Vatican. We had reserved ahead of time our entrance time for the museum, so luckily we got to bypass the hundreds of people waiting to get in. I felt kind of bad, but at the same time can't believe how many tourists go to places without doing what everybody recommends, which is simply reserving your entrance time. Anyways, we spent about 4 hours total in the museum. They have a very large collection of Egyptian relics. It is hard to think back to the museum and remember what was there because the Sistine Chapel and Raphael's works shine out so much. They have Raphael's School of Athens, which is one of my favorite paintings. It is so neat to see frescoes in their original place - where the painters meant them to be. Thats one reason I really like visiting churches with built-in altars or frescoed walls... just thinking of the painters themselves planning around the lighting of the specific building, or who the audience is. At the end of the museum is the Sistine Chapel, which was amazing and I hope that everybody who reads this can go see. I love Michelangelo. After that, we got our mid-day dessert: crepes with nutella. Pure goodness. Then, we headed to St. Peter's Square to get in line to go inside the Basilica. The Basilica was breathtaking, but in a very modest way. The hour or so we spent there really brought to mind the unpresuming aspects of Christianity for me. We tried to climb the dome, but because it was Easter week they had weird hours. Oh well, I suppose it is just another reason to return to Italia :)
Well, that's all I have time for now. More on Rome and Florence later! Love, Bonnie
(Side note... As I was writing this blog, I bought my ticket home! I'm flying into Chicago on Monday June 28, and hopefully I can spend a few days with Sylvia before heading back to Minnesota. Wowhoo!)
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Chronicles of Italia
Hello all! I'm back safe and sound from Italy and getting settled back into my wonderful Spanish life: only one day of class this week and beautiful 70 degree weather. Not bad :)
Italy was an amazing 10 day trip. Looking back, I'm pretty impressed that we were able to fit so much in! The whole trip was filled with seeing artwork that I still am in disbelief that I actually saw in person, indulging myself with wonderful food, and just walking around the cities trying to soak up the atmosphere. All of the cities were pretty touristy - more so than Spain feels to me. We got pretty lucky with the weather and logistically everything worked out. I went with 3 other girls from my program who all go to school in Indiana. It was really nice to be able to spend an extended period of time with a smaller group to get to know them each individually - most of my time in Spain has been with bigger groups and for not as long. I ate so much good pizza and pasta, and was happy to see that every gelato place had sorbet (vegan) for me. I tried nutella - a chocolate hazelnut spread - for the first time in Italy... and absolutely love it. People here say that they use nutella like Americans use peanut butter; I got over the non-veganness of it and am now in love. Most restaurants would have an inexpensive house wine that was usually from around the area, so that was great to be able to try that. I definitely noticed a difference when I returned to drinking my 1-euro box wine last night!
The first city we went to was Milan, which is often referred to as the business-capital of Italy. As a city that shows current Italian culture, it was a great way to start the trip! As Rick Steves said, people typically visit Italy for its rich history... but people go to Milan for today's Italy. In that way, it reminded me a lot of Madrid. It was less touristy than the other cities, but still had a lot of great things to see. da Vinci's Last Supper is there (which I didn't get to see because its booked-up months in advance), but I went to the church that it is housed in, which was a wonderfully humble-looking romanesque church. We saw so many churches when we were there, but I was happy to find myself continually amazed by each of them. The romanesque churches are so much simpler than the Gothic ones that Spain tends to have, and it is a nice change to have a church that is smaller, better lit and full of frescoes. That's not to say that Italy doesn't have any gothic churches - those had beautiful facades of white, green and pink marble. We got to climb on top of the roof of Milan's Duomo (cathedral), which was amazing to see. There were hundreds of little spires, and it made me wish you could go on the top of every gothic building.
Also in Milan, we saw one of Michelangelo's "Pietá" sculptures. A pieta is a work of Mary holding crucified Christ in her arms, and Michelangelo had many of them. We ended up seeing a few of his, which was really neat to compare. The one in Milan was his final work - he died while working on it. Because of this, it was really neat to see how he went about sculpting. As I learned after seeing his work in several museums, he generally worked front to back from a piece of marble/stone. He supposedly believed that god put the figure in the slab of stone, and Michelangelo was simply releasing the figure. As I later saw in Florence, he has a series called The Prisoners, who look like people who are trapped in the stone and trying to break out. It was really cool being able to see so many of his works, more on them below.
After Milan, we took a beautiful train ride to Venice. Venice was so great and relaxing. It really is a city built on over 100 islands that were fortified long ago to make them habitable, and they actually use the canals for their transportation - basically instead of roads. It was so peaceful to not have cars! We rode their public transport boats down the main canal a few times, which takes you through a lot of history of the city with all of the palaces and market places built for trading. The grand St. Mark's Basilica lies where the grand canal meets the open lagoon. It was a beautiful church that had marked Byzantine influence, so that was really neat to see and compare with the others in Italy. Venice was filled with a lot of gelato (sorbet for me), crepes with nutella and bananas, and exploring back areas of the city. We splurged and took a gondola ride, which was completely worth it and one of my favorite moments of the trip. Our gondolier, Giamba, took us down several smaller canals that you can't get to on public transportation. He finished by singing to us, and I'm pretty sure I teared up because I was so happy to be there on the water with this man singing romantic songs to us in Italian.. haha.
Alright I have to take a pause and post this now - I will finish up talking about Rome and Florence tomorrow! Love, Bonnie
Italy was an amazing 10 day trip. Looking back, I'm pretty impressed that we were able to fit so much in! The whole trip was filled with seeing artwork that I still am in disbelief that I actually saw in person, indulging myself with wonderful food, and just walking around the cities trying to soak up the atmosphere. All of the cities were pretty touristy - more so than Spain feels to me. We got pretty lucky with the weather and logistically everything worked out. I went with 3 other girls from my program who all go to school in Indiana. It was really nice to be able to spend an extended period of time with a smaller group to get to know them each individually - most of my time in Spain has been with bigger groups and for not as long. I ate so much good pizza and pasta, and was happy to see that every gelato place had sorbet (vegan) for me. I tried nutella - a chocolate hazelnut spread - for the first time in Italy... and absolutely love it. People here say that they use nutella like Americans use peanut butter; I got over the non-veganness of it and am now in love. Most restaurants would have an inexpensive house wine that was usually from around the area, so that was great to be able to try that. I definitely noticed a difference when I returned to drinking my 1-euro box wine last night!
The first city we went to was Milan, which is often referred to as the business-capital of Italy. As a city that shows current Italian culture, it was a great way to start the trip! As Rick Steves said, people typically visit Italy for its rich history... but people go to Milan for today's Italy. In that way, it reminded me a lot of Madrid. It was less touristy than the other cities, but still had a lot of great things to see. da Vinci's Last Supper is there (which I didn't get to see because its booked-up months in advance), but I went to the church that it is housed in, which was a wonderfully humble-looking romanesque church. We saw so many churches when we were there, but I was happy to find myself continually amazed by each of them. The romanesque churches are so much simpler than the Gothic ones that Spain tends to have, and it is a nice change to have a church that is smaller, better lit and full of frescoes. That's not to say that Italy doesn't have any gothic churches - those had beautiful facades of white, green and pink marble. We got to climb on top of the roof of Milan's Duomo (cathedral), which was amazing to see. There were hundreds of little spires, and it made me wish you could go on the top of every gothic building.
Molly and I on top of the Duomo in Milan... me with Rick Steves in hand
Also in Milan, we saw one of Michelangelo's "Pietá" sculptures. A pieta is a work of Mary holding crucified Christ in her arms, and Michelangelo had many of them. We ended up seeing a few of his, which was really neat to compare. The one in Milan was his final work - he died while working on it. Because of this, it was really neat to see how he went about sculpting. As I learned after seeing his work in several museums, he generally worked front to back from a piece of marble/stone. He supposedly believed that god put the figure in the slab of stone, and Michelangelo was simply releasing the figure. As I later saw in Florence, he has a series called The Prisoners, who look like people who are trapped in the stone and trying to break out. It was really cool being able to see so many of his works, more on them below.
After Milan, we took a beautiful train ride to Venice. Venice was so great and relaxing. It really is a city built on over 100 islands that were fortified long ago to make them habitable, and they actually use the canals for their transportation - basically instead of roads. It was so peaceful to not have cars! We rode their public transport boats down the main canal a few times, which takes you through a lot of history of the city with all of the palaces and market places built for trading. The grand St. Mark's Basilica lies where the grand canal meets the open lagoon. It was a beautiful church that had marked Byzantine influence, so that was really neat to see and compare with the others in Italy. Venice was filled with a lot of gelato (sorbet for me), crepes with nutella and bananas, and exploring back areas of the city. We splurged and took a gondola ride, which was completely worth it and one of my favorite moments of the trip. Our gondolier, Giamba, took us down several smaller canals that you can't get to on public transportation. He finished by singing to us, and I'm pretty sure I teared up because I was so happy to be there on the water with this man singing romantic songs to us in Italian.. haha.
The canal outside our hostel
Meandering down canals in the gondola
Next was Rome. Rome was crazy and filled with so many wonderful things to see. We were there for two and a half days. We got there late Monday night, and as our hostel was at the end of one of the metro lines, decided to stay there for the night to rest of up for a long day of sight-seeing on Tuesday. Tuesday we did old-time Rome things: we toured the Coliseum, walked through the Roman Forum and saw the Pantheon. I still can't believe we saw all of those things in person.
A dark picture, but me with the Roman Forum in the background
Alright I have to take a pause and post this now - I will finish up talking about Rome and Florence tomorrow! Love, Bonnie
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