Europa

Day 90: Finally Home!

I MADE IT HOME! I am actually writing this post from the comfort (and ridiculously fast internet) of my own home! After 24 hours of traveling, I finally got to see my family at LAX and go home. Also, as promised, I want to do a Food Culture Round 2 post, because I actually took some pictures of Spanish food that we were served!

First, I will start with the churros con chocolate from the last post. 

Notice the huge cup of chocolate! And below are the crepes from a little shop right outside of my house. 

Next is a meal that our host mom would give us often and I loved. 

It was basically just a little salad of tomatoes and green beans soaked in a really good oil that we would dip our bread in. 

And this of course is paella, one of Spain’s most famous and delicious plates! It is made up of rice, beans, peppers, and chicken! It is sooooo good and we asked our host mom to make it for our last meal.  

Day 74-82: Berlin and Prague

I would like to start out by saying that this trip was definitely one of my absolute favorites. First off, it snowed almost the entire I was in both places. Now, I have been to the snow and played in it and what not, but never when it was physically snowing so that was really cool to see. Also, as you will see in some below pictures, it was so awesome to be in a place where it snows during Christmas! Everything looked like things I have seen in the movies or shows, just a pure winter wonderland! 

So Berlin was out first destination and we were there for about 3 days or so. I went with my friends Kellen and Connor but we ended up running into 10 or so of our friends from Granada, so weird! We stayed in this really cool hostal that must have been a hotel at one point because it was huge! Most of the days we just wandered around and explored and would do one or two big things. One of the very first things we did was see the “East Side Gallery” which is basically just a bunch of paintings and images that people had done. It goes for about a mile down the road.

I love this picture because you can see the snow actually falling! 

So we went to a German concentration camp about a 45 minute train ride away out of Berlin called “Sachsenhausen”. It was very surreal because we got to go into some buildings that still had the original bathrooms and beds that the Jewish prisoners were forced to use. Here are some pictures from it. 

So on a lighter note, the Christmas markets were amazing. They had some amazing food like the pictures below for a good price. 

So now onto Prague! It was about a five hour bus ride form Berlin, which wasn’t that bad, especially since it was totalyl worth it. Prague is definitly in the running for my favorite city in Europe! So so beautiful and so many things to see! The Christmas markets in the main plaza of Old Town Prague were so amazing! Again, had some great foods I had never tried before, including this cinnamon roll type of thing with Nutella inside!!!

One of my favorite things that we did in Prague was a pub crawl! Basically you ust pay one fee and get free drinks all night while the leaders take you to all the cool bars in town! At the the end we got to go to the biggest and coolest club in Prague with five different floors, hence the name Five Story. It was so cool because every floor had a different layout, different theme, and of course different music. There was an oldies floor, hip hip, radio hits, techno, and one I can’t remember.

And they had an ice bar inside! Everything was made out of ice, even the chairs and cups! We had to wear special jackets because it is so cold!

So even though it was a really long trip, it was amazing. Traveling to different countries and cities while abroad is such a privilege and one that I truly tried to take advantage of while over here. Only 6 more days left until I am home and I cannot express in words how bittersweet that will be for me, so I am just taking it one day at a time! 

Day 62-67: Italy

Sorry this took so long to update but my internet connection here gets worse by the day, I swear! BUT Italy was pretty awesome, even though overall I like Spain a million times more. After traveling to 5 different Italian cities, I feel like I have enough information to make that statement. So our trip started on Thursday morning around 9am. Luckily I was so tired Wednesday night, AFTER WINNING OUR INTRAMURAL SOCCER GAME, that I got a good night’s sleep. SIDEBAR: The soccer game was super tough because we only had 5 players, no subs and the other team was a bunch of huge guys with a bunch of subs. It was a super close game! First we were losing 1-0, then we tied it at 1-1. Then it was 2-1, and then we tied it at 2-2. Finally, with 10 minutes left we took the lead at 3-2 and after that just played hard defense the whole time and ended with a win!!! Okay, so back to Italy. We didn’t end up actually arriving in Venice until about 12:30 am, we we had traveled for over 12 hours that day, which was exhausting! Here are all the best pictures from the day!

My best friend Natalie who met us in Italy!!! 

I actually only travelled with Kellen and Connor to Venice, but there were a bunch o our other friends from Granada there too so we all met up!

This last picture is my absolute favorite. It was taken on this huge bridge that apparently is the most touristy spot in Venice, which makes sense because this view is stunning. 

After our 24 hours in Venice, we took a train to Florence on Saturday and stayed in a hostel. Hostels are so cool because you meet the strangest and most awesome people from all over the world. We met and shared a room with three guys, one from Denmark, Switzerland, and Argentina. The second night we stayed with my roommate from school so it was free! And of course it was lovely to see her! Florence was absolutely beautiful! The architecture was amazing! We tried to see the famous David statue but it was 11 euro and we decided it wasn’t worth it and instead used that money to have an authentic Italian dinner that night: pasta! It was so amazing and definitely met my expectations. Also, wanted to start with this picture because it was what the owner of the hostel gave us for breakfast! She was so adorable and nice and I am definitely going to recommend her to others! 

Sally! My roommate from last year :)

I love all these pictures because what we were doing was so unique! I don’t know if you can tell from the pictures but the bridge from the earlier pictures had these big platforms like five feet below and so we got some pizza (the best in Florence from what all the students told me) and just sat and ate and talked for a couple hours over looking the beautiful river. 

And a beautiful sunset to end our time in Florence! The next day we head out to Torino, where Natalie is studying abroad, to stay another night for free! Then the next day we went back to the airport and headed back to Granada. It was a really fun trip but I was ready to be home after 6 days. Also, it was weird how different Spain and Italy were. I just assumed that they would be similar but it was a whole new experience. First of all, the guys were so much creepier! A lot were cat calling and whistling with no shame while we walked down the street which was just annoying. Also, there was virtually no nightlife. Their night clubs, which didn’t even compare to the one’s in Granada or really Spain in general, were way too crowded and closed at 2 am! But we had fun just hanging out in the bars and meeting people! 

Next I am off to Berlin and Prague starting Tuesday! Apparently it is going to snow while I am there which I am not happy about…I am still trying to get use to being in the 40 degree weather that Granada has been offering up for the past week! But either way, it should be an amazing trip! 

Day 61: Soccer in Granada

I didn’t want to clog my other post with more pictures and things but the night that I got back from Sevilla, Cordoba, etc I went to a professional soccer game in Granada because we actually have a team in La Liga (the highest league) right now called Granada FC. We ended up buying tickets last minute, as in 30 minutes before the game started, and got really good seats for 35 euro! 

This is how close we were to the field! You could see the players super up close! It was such an awesome night, even though Granada ended up losing 1-0.

In Spain, soccer is basically a religion. Every single person you ask will have their favorite team, player, moment in a game, etc. One of the biggest rivalries in Spain right now is between the two best teams, Real Madrid (my personal favorite), and Barcelona. Both teams have some of the best players in the world including Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo, and Barca’s Lionel Messi. I really really wanted to get up to Barca or Madrid the weekend of a game but it was just too expensive and didn’t fit into my schedule. Another funny thing about soccer that I discovered here is that girls don’t play…A couple weeks ago I was telling my Spanish teacher that Connor and I had a game later that night, because we are on the intramural team for the program, and she was shocked. She was like “YOU play soccer?!” As if it were the craziest thing in the world. She told me that here in Spain, girls rarely every play soccer and that it is a male dominated sport! Obviously to me, it was weird since I have played my whole life. 

ALSO, our intramural soccer team is in the championship tonight!!!! I am so excited but also super nervous because our best player isn’t going to be there and another one of our guys has a broken toe. Last week we played an amazing team that had all super tall, athletic guys that had some great foot work. We ended up beating them 4-2, but it was a struggle. I was so proud of us! Hopefully tonight’s game will be a good one! Will definitely update everyone AFTER I GET BACK FROM ITALY! I am finally leaving Spain again for a nice 6 day Italian vacation! Hahaha kidding, but really we are leaving tomorrow morning and getting back on Tuesday! I am mostly excited, as I previously stated, to see my best friend of 8 years Natalie who is studying in Italy right now. I have to leave for my soccer game in a bit so this is all I got for now. Adios! 

Day 56-58: Gibraltar, Sevilla, and Cordoba

Last weekend trip with the whole program was so much fun! I am definitely bummed it was the last time we will all be together though because there are so many of us, it’s hard to see everyone, especially with crazy class and traveling schedules. But I almost officially have one month left and I can’t believe it!

So first this weekend we left early from Granada and went straight to Gibraltar, which was a good three hour bus drive. So for those who don’t know about Gibraltar it is actually a really unique place. It is located south of Granada, still in Spain, BUT it is part of the UK. It is basically a huge rock island type of thing that the English army used back in the day. It was a very weird change because everyone there spoke British English (with the accents) but also spoke Spanish so it was as if we were in London or something but could still practice our Spanish anywhere we went. 

So this man made waterfall was really cool because our tour guide told us that it is part of a process that takes the ocean water and rids it of all the salt so that people on the rock can drink it. 

Best view I could get of how high up we went, but the best part about the entire time in Gibraltar was the monkeys!

And finally my favorite monkey picture from the day

So Gibraltar was really cool and I am glad we got to stop there for the day but after we went straight to Sevilla where we would be staying for the two nights. We got there around 8pm, showered, ate at the hotel, and then just kind of hung out for the night because the next day our tour started at 9 am!

So here starts the full day in Sevilla where we got to see a lot of beautiful sights!

The six pictures above are from the Plaza de Espana! Here there are 50 beautiful tile works, one for each of Spain’s current provinces including a lot of the places I have been: Malaga, Madrid, Sevilla, Cordoba, and of course Granada as you can see in this two pictures of our little province! 

Next we went to La Catedral de Sevilla, the 3rd largest church in the world and the largest Gothic Cathedral in Europe. It was so beautiful but we couldn’t take pictures inside. We did however hike the 36 stories up to the tower to get some pictures from there, and what an amazing view it was! 

The second night we all went out to a discoteca that was really close to our hotel and it was super fun! Our next day we left early for a 2 and a half hour bus ride to Cordoba! I love the picture below because our tour guide told us that this little alley way called La Calle de Las Flores (Street of the Flowers) is basically the Statue of Liberty or the Mount Rushmore of Cordoba. Many people come to see it and it’s surrounding beauty. The picture didn’t come out as well as we could see it with our own eyes but the Cathedral in the background was beautiful! 

Now to inside the Cathedral. I couldn’t get a good picture of it because there were a million people but in the far back on the Cathedral is where Christopher Columbus is buried! 

This is basically the end of the pictures because my camera died shortly after this but as soon as all of my friends put up their pictures I will snag some to put into another random picture post but for now I need to finish a presentation that I have due tomorrow! 

Day 52: More Trips

Sorry about not writing as often as before! I had midterms for the past two weeks and have just been super busy with everything, but good news is I only have one left and then a couple weekends of fun trips! As I already stated, I am going to Italy from November 22nd-27th! But I think I forgot to mention that this upcoming weekend, the 16th-18th we have a trip planned through our program to Sevilla, Cordoba, and Gibraltar! I am really excited to travel to more Spanish cities as well as Gibraltar because that means more stamps on my passport! Also, I had a friend who went two weekends ago and she said you get to hang out with monkeys because they are just out and out on the streets, so that’s kind of cool, but also a little scary haha. On a little sidenote, that same friend is from Hawaii and she is super cool. She told me that her dad absolutely LOVES people from the mainland and that anytime I wanted to visit all I would have to do is buy a plane ticket….so I may have to take her up on that sometime! So back to trips, I am really excited about this last one because it will be my longest and my absolute last trip before I come back home (39 DAYS!) So…from December 4th-12th I am going to Berlin and Prague! I have heard so many amazing things about both of these places that I just had to see them for myself. I have had so many friends that are traveling abroad as well this semester that have told me it was one of their favorite places to go! They all took pictures in front of the famous John Lennon wall so that is something I am definitely going to do! 

More interesting things: So far this semester, NONE of our intramural teams have lost yet! We have two volleyball teams, and then one basketball and one soccer team. I am on the second volleyball team and then obviously the soccer team. So far our volleyball teams havent really been challenged, but this last week in soccer our team had a really really good game against a team that was totally stacked, some of the players we thought might have even been Spanish, which isn’t fair because its suppose to be through your program. Regardless, we came out on top with a 4-2 victory and I have to say, our goalie really saved the game for us with some amazing saves! Our next game, for the championship, is November 21st, so I will let everyone know how that goes! 

Lastly, here are some pictures from the weekend!

That’s La Alhambra behind us! So beautiful at night! 

Day 45: Halfway Point

Can’t believe that it has already been a month and a half in this beautiful country. I have already experienced so much culture in just the short time that I have been here. It has really opened my eyes up to how big the world is and how small of a Newbury Park bubble that I have been living in for the past 20 years. Not that that is a horrible thing, by all means, I absolutely love where I am from, but you all know what I mean! I still have so many more ideas for blogs coming up, but since it is halfway I have a bunch of midterms that I have been studying for! So far I already took two, those being for my spanish grammer/speaking and writing and then only 2 hours ago I had my Islamic culture class. I love how much I am learning about spanish and all the culture and history tied to it! Also, I wanted to devote this post to all the pictures that I found late or were from my friend’s cameras that I didn’t get to post at the time of the other blogs I made! And in no particular order…Enjoy :)

Day 43: Halloween

Coming here I was actually super super bummed about missing Halloween because it is one of my favorite holidays! Little did I know that its becoming increasingly popular over here, even though I only found that out a couple days before Wednesday. SO, normally at home I like to make my own costumes and what not, but that was harder to do here. 

Exhibit A: Halloween 2010. I got a red sweatshirt, cut out a bunch of circles from some black felt, and then made my little antennae out of a headband, little red puff balls, and some pipecleaners! If you couldn’t already guess, I was a ladybug. 

Exhibit B: Halloween 2011. It took me hours to get that shirt outlined and filled in perfectly! It’s hard to tell but our shoes have the same writing that the band members did in their video. But it turned out pretty good considering! We were trying to be the band LMFAO. I put a reference picturing below in case any of you don’t know them, which I assume is likely hahah

 ANYWAY, I am getting a little off topic here. So Halloween was a Wednesday night and thankfully we didn’t have school on Thursday because well, let’s be honest, Spain likes to party. So my friends and I went to a chino shop, bought a bunch of random stuff and made it work. I ended up getting a bunch of stuff to be a nerd for less than 10 euro! Here are some pictures from the night! 

Now I am obviously not in this picture but I just had to show everyone what a good job we all did in such a short period of time! I am particularly blown away by Jeff’s, the one in the green wig, costume! He was the Joker from Batman and it looked perfect. So you can compare…

We basically just walked around the city all night bar hopping and what not. It was so cool to see such an Americanized tradition making its way over to Spain and I was so happy to be able to celebrate it! 

Day 35-37: Tangier, Tetouan, & Asilah, Morocco

Disclaimer: This is a really long post. Well Morocco was quite the culture shock, I’ll start with that. It’s crazy how a whole different world is only a 45 minute boat ride across the Strait of Gibraltar, but that’s what Morocco was, a whole different world that we got to live in for a couple days. First of all, we just happened to be there the weekend that a huge Muslim holiday was being celebrated, and seeing as 99.9% of Morocco is Muslim, we definitely got a good feel for how the holiday is celebrated. Basically it is called “Eid al-Adha” or “The Feast of Sacrifice”, in which the Muslims sacrifice a ram because according to history, a prophet named Abraham was going to sacrifice his first born son at God’s command but God intervened and instead killed a ram because of the obedience Abraham showed. Sooooo luckily for us we got to see countless dead and skinned, headless sheep…but of course this is sarcastic. Literally, people were walking through the streets holding bloody ram heads by the horns, not to mention since it was raining the streets were covered in blood and the smell was definitely the worst thing I’ve ever smelled. BUT as gross as this all was, it was really cool to say I have been there to witness it all happened. I am especially excited to tell my Islamic Culture teacher about the whole weekend. I wasn’t sure if I should post the pictures from this whole thing but I am going to so you guys can see just a little part of what I experienced. 

This is just a small pile of the bodies from the streets..

Ram horn that was left behind

ANYWAY, let’s move on to other things..the food! The first day we were there we got to go to this little restaurant in a cool part of the city, one of the only places open because of the holiday. We sat at three different circular tables with the chairs only a foot or so off the floor. The whole atmosphere was very beautiful and intricate. Here are pictures of the restaurant and the food!

First the soup, then some meat and egg, and THEN a huge plate of couscous with beef and various vegetables for the table! We also got sweet Moroccan tea and a cookie after this. Also, while we were all eating and talking there were two men on the couches behind us playing some cool music!

 

So after lunch, our tour guide took us to a really cool shop with a bunch of different little knick knacks and things. I ended up getting a couple little things here! This was basically the end of our day in Tangier. 

That night we had dinner in our hotel and then just played cards and went to sleep. We were all really exhausted from all the traveling and we had to wake up early that next morning to head to Tetouan, a mountain town two hours away from Tangier. Here we met the cutest little old man to show us around the city. 

After lunch at a hotel in Tetouan, we went to a couple more shops that were selling blankets, scarves, and many more handmade things. Everything was very beautiful!

Later this night we went to a dinner inside a big tent type thing where they put on a show for us as we were eating! It was so awesome! They had a magician, a belly dancer, some balancing artists, and more! They even brought our friend Tyler up on stage to try and belly dance, which is easily one of the funniest things I have ever seen. The left one is a repeat from above but the other three were from the tent show! 

The next day we were up early again to head out to Asilah, where we got to ride the camals! This was one of the things I was most excited for! They are a lot bigger in real life that I was expecting so that was pretty intimidating but still awesome! 

I should first explain my pants. In Spain and then in Morocco they have these weird pants that are super thin and comfortable and come in all sorts of crazy designs, so I bought these in Morocco for 6 euro! Anyway, here are some awesome camal pictures!

Overall, the trip was so culturally eye-opening which is why I originally wanted to go on it. I know there probably won’t be another chance for me to experience something like this so I am so glad that I did. Hope you guys enjoy! 

Day 34: Food Culture

I finally decided I am going to write an entire blog about food. Unfortunately, I haven’t taken any pictures of most of the things I am about to talk about just because I feel it would be rude to whip out a camera at the dinner table haha, but I am going to make an effort to take more pictures when I eat out. The reason I even thought about doing this post was because recently I have had some weird, or I should say different, food experiences. One of the first ones that kind of caught me off guard was the other night at lunch with my host family. My host mom made all of us little personal sized pizzas which cheese and ham on top and it was so good! The odd part about it was that here in Spain instead of using a pizza cutter type of thing or ripping the pizza, she actually gave me a pair of scissors to cut my pizza. I was SO confused when I first sat down because the scissors were literally the kind that you would use to cut paper! Regardless, it was kind of fun!

Another really big thing here is churros con chocolate, which simply translates to churros with chocolate and is normally eating as a breakfast meal. When I first ate it, it wasn’t anything like I was expecting. The churros aren’t the cinnamon rolled ones that us Americans are use to, but instead are without cinnamon and a lot thicker and heavier! Also, the chocolate comes in a teacup and is thick and has the consistency of molasses!

A lot of the lunches and dinners that I get in my house are what I like to think of as Spanish versions of some American dishes. The other day we ate meatballs and potatoes in salsa. In Spain, salsa isn’t the typical Mexican type of salsa you’re probably thinking of. Here the word salsa can basically mean any type of sauce. Other things we have eaten are these vegetable salad type of things with different types of beans, tomatoes, and oil. Lots of pasta with marinara sauce and a bunch of different soup and rice dishes, all of which I have loved! Another odd cultural thing in Spain is that we eat french fries with forks! The first day we had patatas (the Spanish word for french fries) I began eating them with my hands and my host mom politely told me that here in Spain you use a fork to eat them.

Another very common thing in Spain is the bocadillo, which is basically a sandwich. Every Tuesday/Thursday I eat a bocadillo for lunch because my class schedule doesn’t permit me to come back to my house for lunch since I have another class too close to my break. I guess the main difference between a regular sandwich and a bocadillo is that bocadillos are painfully plain. It is normal for them to just be the bread and some meat and cheese. At home, when I think of sandwiches, I’m thinking all different kinds of meats and oils with cheese and lettuce and all that, but not here! Jamon and queso (ham and cheese) is basically a religion here! Hahaha just kidding, but people are obsessed with it, seriously. The other night my host mom made us fried jamon and queso! I can’t complain though, it was pretty good.

I am about to go eat dinner with my host family so I’m sure somewhere down the road I will be doing another food blog. Especially because I am going to start taking more pictures of them! Plus I need to explain to everyone the wonder of the shwarma kebobs, something you can find on literally every street corner! That one may even deserve it’s own post. Also, I am off to Morocco early tomorrow morning so I will have many pictures to share after the weekend! Hope all is well back in the states and I send my love!