Pictures: Spain

I've got my pictures from Spain up! Well, some of them. You can only have 200 pictures up on Flickr with the free account, it turns out, so I've had to ruthlessly cut out some of them. Anyway, they're up, so go check them out!

Switzerland and France: Bern and Paris

Monday morning, we got up to catch a 6:30 train to Milan (don't worry, I slept for most of it!) and from Milan on to Bern, Switzerland. We got to take a train through the Alps and saw a bunch of little Swiss towns. It was fantastic!

I'm pretty sure that Bern is my favorite city from that trip. It was quite compact and clean. I just loved it. Monday we didn't do much. We got to Bern around 2 or 3, checked into our hostel, got some Swiss francs, and went to a grocery store to grab dinner. We met an Australian woman in the hostel who is a teacher back home, and explained the Australian education system to us. That was pretty cool. Also, it was lovely to meet a math person who doesn't lord this fact over us poor humanities people. Because math is clearly SO much more practical. Anyway, we also met a group of guys from St. Thomas, traveling during their interim. We watched the Italian Job and Boiler Room with them and talked for a little. It was nice. They told us about how they had a big party when the new pope was named. At least St. Olaf isn't THAT weird!

The next day, we went to the Bern Munster, after taking a picture of the crazy statue outside our hostel. It had an ogre eating babies. Who makes a statue of that and sticks it in the middle of town? I mean, really. Anyway, the Munster was pretty amazing. It was quiet and sunny and someone was practicing the organ (which always makes a church visit much nicer). Above the main doors, however, there is a sculpture depicting heaven and hell. It's pretty hilarious, because it looks kind of like what we Americans see as that sort of Germanic folk-art sculpture, that's always cheery and whatnot (like in cuckoo clocks), except that the figures are being roasted alive. It's quite the disconnect.

After that, we swung by the bear pits. They were pretty much the cutest things ever. I really kind of wanted to cuddle with them, but then I thought about how they would probably eat my face if I tried. They're pretty lazy bears, too. They just sit around and wait for people to throw fruit at them. If they can't catch the fruit with minimal effort, they just let it fall and ignore it.

We spent the afternoon at the Swiss Alpine Museum. It was interesting, but they couldn't decide if they were glad they were out of the past (because life in the Alps was so hard) or not (because all these stupid tourists are ruining the environment). So they just held both opinions. I really wanted to tell them to just make up their minds already, because you can't have it both ways.

That night, we didn't do much. We hunted down the ticket counter of the train station to buy our tickets to Paris, and I wasn't feeling well, so we watched Sideways (which annoys me, in general. I don't like people like the characters in the film. There are better things to spend your time and money on than wine and food. Really.) and went to bed.

We had to get up relatively early again the next morning to go to Paris. We got in around 1 or 2 and checked in to our hostel, then went out to the Pantheon. I got to see murals about Saint Louis and Clovis and Charlemagne (which makes me a happy history student) and I got to see the tombs of Rousseau, Voltaire (who I love), Dumas, and Hugo. And Marie Curie. So that was pretty cool. Oh, and Foucault's Pendulum, which was also cool. After that, we went to Notre Dame and wandered around there for a bit, before stopping at a grocery store and heading back to the hostel.

The next day, Catie and I split up. She went to the Musee d'Orsay and I went to the Musee de Cluny, which had all sorts of religious art. It was pretty amazing. I got to see tons of tapastries, including La Dame et La Licorne (The Lady and the Unicorn, a series of 6 tapastries about the five senses) and some pretty cool miserichords. Miserichords are little ledges they put on the undersides of the seats of the quire (or choir) of a cathedral, so that you could lean against them and still look like you were standing during mass. They would carve neat little symbols into them. I like medieval art because, well, firstly, because I like medieval stuff, and because it's mostly decorative art and has a purpose. After that, we climbed up to the top of Notre Dame. The views were amazing! Then, we went to Sainte-Chapelle. This is the chapel Louis IX built to house the crown of Thorns, apparently. there was tons of beautiful stained glass, depicting stories from the Old Testament, mostly. There was a window for Judith (who's in the Apocrypha, and cuts off the head of Holophenes. It's a pretty amazing story) and Job. It was cool.

That night, we walked down to see the Eiffel Tower. It was lovely, but really far away and I refused to take the metro (I was running out of Euros and didn't want to take out more money. Anyway, what good are feet if you don't use them?). After that, we came back to the hostel, booked a train home, and ended up going out with some people we met from Los Angeles. So that was nice.

The next day, we got up and went to the Arc de Triomphe. Then, we went to the Opera Garnier, where the Phantom of the Opera was set. It's so ornate! It's really hard to believe until you see it. Then, we did some shopping, went to take pictures of Thomas Jefferson (though that was mostly me. But can you really pass up taking a picture of one of our Founding Fathers anywhere? No. If you can, they should take away your citizenship.) and got to the Louvre by 6:00. See, on Fridays after 6, if you are under 26, you get in for free. The problem was, this was literally the last thing we did on our trip. We were tired and didn't really care anymore. I, at least, just wanted to be back in Norwich, where I knew what's going on and had my own bed and shower and could be gloriously alone for an entire day if I wanted. So we didn't really appreciate the Louvre the way we felt we should have. I think it's too huge for anyone to really appreciate it the way they ought, though. Same with any giant art museum. There's just too much. Anyway, so I got to see the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo, as well as a bunch of Egyptian stuff, some statues from Ancient Iran, and a really cool room on Coptic Egypt. When we were done, we went back to the hostel and I collapsed.

We got up early again the next morning to catch our train to London. It was weird, because the sun hadn't risen before we got into the Chunnel, so I couldn't tell we had even gone in until we got out of it. You have no idea how absolutely wonderful it felt to be back in England. Even looking back on it now, I love this country so much more for having been gone for so long. I don't stick out quite so much. Anyway, then we took a train to Ely and from there a train to Norwich (which was much cheaper, incidentally, than buying a day-of ticket from London to Norwich, AND I got to use my young-person's railpass. Yay!).

So now I'm home, settled into a new class schedule and back into eating pasta and eggs and potatoes every single day. I'm glad I am.

Sheffield

I'm visiting my roommate Allie in Sheffield right now. We're having a good time. We went out to the Peak District yesterday, and we climbed a giant mountain. We got stuck in 70 mph winds at the top--I'm surprised we didn't blow off! Also, Allie fell down 5 times. The Peak District is really cool--you should go. Anyway, so that's why posts have been scarce (also, my friend Liz visited last weekend) and why I haven't put pictures up...sorry! And next weekend I'm going to London with Allie. I'll try to get things finished up by then!

Italy: Venice and Rome

Venice was fantastic. I absolutely loved it. I spent two days just wandering the streets, looking at all the glasswork in the shop windows and popping into every church I passed. It was great. I went into one church that had an exhibit on Vivaldi and instruments from his time. Where were St. Olaf music majors when I actually needed them? Nowhere. I also went to St. Mark's Basilica and the Doge's Palace. Now, I had already been to the Palacio Real in Madrid. I thought I knew what I was in for when I stepped into the Doge's Palace. Nope. There is absolutely no way of comprehending the splendor of the Doge's Palace until you get there and see it. It was crazy.

I also met a few Canadian girls when I was in Venice. It was really nice, because I was there by myself and when I met them, I had someone to talk to. I went out to dinner with them one night and we ended up sitting around talking about world affairs for three hours. Fun times!

After three days in Venice, I took off for Rome. The first day in Rome, I went to the Vatican Museums. That was the day I was there by myself. I felt really guilty about going by myself, because I was meeting Catie's family the next day and they all really like art. But they didn't end up going at all, so I'm so glad I went! The Vatican Museums were amazing. First, I practically ran to the Sistine Chapel so I could get there while there was still room to breathe. It was pretty amazing, but I'm still convinced that Michelangelo was on some sort of drug when he painted it. I don't care if he is Jesus, NO ONE has that many muscles in his arms. I also randomly stumbled on the School of Athens in the Raphael rooms (because I don't like to actually READ my guidebook, and so didn't know it was there). I turned the corner, and, all of a sudden, OH MY GOD! It's Plato! Yay! So, yeah. I spent 5-6 hours in the museums before I went to St. Peter's. St. Peter's was also really cool. It was huge. There were a lot of people there, and I felt kind of bad being a tourist with limited interest in the current religious significance of the basilica. Oh well. I feel worse when I'm in smaller churches that have fewer tourists. I also got to see the tombs of some of the popes. None of the medieval popes, which I would have liked better, but I did see John Paul II's tomb and Pius XII (known to me as the "Holocaust/evil pope), as well as the tomb of the Stewarts, a line of Catholics in England pretty close to the throne. It was interesting.

Saturday, Catie's family came in from Florence. I met them at the train station and we moved to our (nice) hotel. A real hotel! We set out for the Colosseum, picking up a Roma pass on the way (which is a good plan, though--for 20 Euro, you get entry to 2 museums/sights, discounted entry to any included sights after that, AND free transportation. Oh, and you get to line-jump). However, once we got to the Colosseum, it started to pour. We walked over to the Forum, but could barely see anything through the rain. We ultimately ended up walking back to the hotel, hanging out there until setting out for pizza.

The next day, we wanted to go to St. Peter's for the Pope's blessing (even though I'm really not a fan of the current Pope--he's a bit crazy and I tend to fall on the side of Brazil in their little dust-ups). However, we decided to cut through a park to get there. Guess what? It started to rain. And rain. And then we got lost. So we missed the blessing. We did go see the Pantheon (which has a poured concrete dome from 2,000+ years ago. We still don't know how they did it. Unfortunately, it's now a church instead of a Roman temple) and the Spanish Steps. I got to see John Keat's house and Lord Byron's house. It was pretty cool.

The next morning, we took a train to Bern. We had to get up at 4 AM to catch our train to Milan at 6:30.

Italy: Genoa, Cinque Terre, and Bologna

We got into Genoa at 10:00 that night. We found a helpful cab driver who took us to our hotel and I negotiated things in Italian. I was feeling confident and proud of myself. Then, we found out we couldn't get in to the hotel. We hit the button to get buzzed in, but no one was around. We tried calling, but our cellphones weren't working. We didn't have phone cards to use the pay phones (pay phones in Italy no longer take change). We found an internet cafe where we could use a phone, but there was no one around. We were tired and cranky and cold with no place to sleep. Finally, we started walking back to the train station, intending to sleep there for the night. However, we ran across another hotel, and dropped in to see if they had any rooms. They did, and the guy at reception spoke English and was very helpful. So we were able to take a shower and sleep in a warm bed that night.

The next day, we got up and went out to Cinque Terre. It was absolutely stunning. We hiked between four of the five little towns. You're just going to have to wait for my pictures instead of having me describe it. I literally cannot. (so much for being an English major!) While hiking between the third and fourth town, we got lost, and ended up wandering around after dark, having no clue where we were going. So that was fun. We found our way back to the town we set out from and then just got a train back to the first town to have dinner. I had a giant pesto pizza--it was excellent, but really oily. I noticed this all through Italy. The food was excellent, but usually had too much oil or something and so it made me feel vaguely ill. We finally got back to Genoa late that night and went right to bed.

The next day, we went to Bologna. The train there was crazy. Firstly, it was 4 hours or something on the train. Secondly, on our second train, we didn't have reserved seats. It was so packed that people were standing in the aisles for two hours! It was ridiculous. We finally got to Bologna and walked to our hotel. It was a half hour walk from the city center--in other words, a long way away from where we wanted to be. Since we had gotten in at 3 or 4, we didn't head into the city, but found a grocery store and watched CNN International. Finally! News!

Our day in Bologna was really nice. We went to the basilica, which is only half done in marble and has walls/windows that just end halfway through, and we wandered around the city center. All the sidewalks are covered, so if it rained, you wouldn't have to get wet. That evening, we went to see National Treasure in Italian. It was really exciting, because I was able to understand far more than I expected. I loved it.

We didn't do much for New Year's Eve: we watched a movie and we watched a concert taking place in Rome. Personally, I prefer a quiet New Year's, so it was fine by me!

The next day, we got up early. I went off to Venice, and Catie went to Florence. But that's another story.

France: Marseille and Nice

After many delays and difficulties, we finally arrived in Marseille at around 1ish. This seems to be an unfortunate habit. Luckily, our hotel was very close to the train station, so we were able to get there quickly and go to bed.



We got up the next morning, intent on taking a ferry out to Chateau d'If. Apparently, the dungeon was where Alexandre Dumas had Edmond Dantes held as prisoner in his Count of Monte Cristo (which is a book I need to read again...). You know, where he befriended an old guy who was trying to dig his way out, but died, so Dantes hid in the body-bag when they chucked it into the sea so he could escape? It's a good story. Unfortunately, the ferry is closed on Mondays, so we couldn't get there. We did go to a fort--I'm not sure which one--, the Abbaye St-Victor, and the Basilique de Notre Dame de la Garde. That was quite the impressive church. It was done in stripes of white and peach, with gold mosaics covering the ceiling and a little nook filled with paintings of ships and shipwrecks. On our way back, we had to walk through a bad part of town. At one point, some guy started shouting at us in French. I didn't even really realize he was shouting at us until he started following us, still shouting. We quickly walked back to our hotel (fortunately we didn't get lost!) and eventually lost him. It was really scary.



Anyway. That experience somewhat tainted our opinions of Marseille (although for the most part, it was pretty nice. It wasn't very touristy at all though, which is still kind of out of my comfort zone in non-English speaking countries. It makes me feel guilty). Then, we hopped on a train and went to Nice. Catie spoke with a French woman on the train, who was doing a graduate degree in Paris but was originally from around Nice, I think. I wasn't really paying attention, but I caught parts of their conversation. It was very interesting, and she was very nice.



We got in, talked to the Tourist Information office about church services, and checked into our hotel. There were a few other people staying there: John from Ohio and Michelle and Anna from Ontario. By some stroke of luck, I believe we all got in on about the same day and all left on the same day. It was great to have one place to stay for four days and have the same people the whole time--none of this moving around stuff. Anyway, we ran out and went to a grocery store (Monoprix, our second home while in Nice), then came back, changed, and went to church. We went to Mass at a strange little (relatively) church where they didn't dim the lights at all (and the interior was blindingly white) and they had people come up and put roses and carnations in the mesh seas of some giant map. Basically, even though I know how a church service is run and I had some clue what was going on, I was completely lost. It is quite possibly the most surreal experience of my life: to simultaneously know what's happening and have no clue what's going on. Also, the priest gave a very involved, very dramatic sermon that had him shouting and gesticulating as if Jesus was returning then and there. I was really interested by his actions, but I didn't know what he was saying. I had a hard time not giggling through the service. Fortunately, we escaped afterwards without having to talk to anyone. That would have been awkward.

Christmas day, we woke up late, sat around, went down to the beach, and hunted down free Internet. The sky was cloudy, meaning the sea was also grey. It was absolutely haunting. You could barely tell where the horizon was. We sat there for a long time, just listening to the waves. I loved it. That night, we watched some TV. The next day, I went to the Musee Matisse (featuring the works of, you guessed it, Henri Matisse) while Catie went to another museum (I forget which--contemporary art, I think, so not really my tastes. At all). Here again I had to suffer cat-calls on my way up the giant hill. It was a really long walk. In the rain. The museum was pretty cool, though, and it had some really interesting pieces. I didn't realize that he had designed a chapel (though now that I think back, that's more because of stupidity on my part than lack of information), and there were more Roman ruins nearby. I met Catie back at the hotel and we went back down to the beach with Anna and Michelle. See, Catie and Anna had a genius plan: they were going to go swimming! So we all went down--I took pictures and served as a general witness. They said it was cold, but not too cold (I mean, it was 50-60 degrees out. It can't be that bad) and really salty. I sat on the beach (again) and picked up rocks. I also devised my own theory as to universal human traits: laughing at babies who eat lemons and uncontrolable urges to throw rocks into bodies of water. Everyone does this. Anyway, I carried around a bunch of rocks for the rest of my trip. And I wondered what made my bag so heavy!

The third day we were in Nice, we climbed up Le Chateau, the ruins of an old fortress/palace made into a park. That's 400 steps up, people. Surprisingly, it wasn't that bad. The park was lovely, and I got some great pictures. There are all these yucca-ish plants all over the Mediterranean coast, and people have carved their initials and other phrases and symbols into them. This makes me unspeakably angry. The plant didn't do anything to you! It was just sitting there! It's really cruel, I think, to carve things into a living being that can't defend itself (if it could, I bet you'd quit real fast, now wouldn't you?). Anyway. We went back down and ran back to the room, where I promptly took a 3 hour nap. Yeah. Nice was great. Then we watched more TV. Okay, I know it sounds really pathetic, all the time we spent hanging out in the room, watching TV, sleeping, reading, and so on, but it was really nice to take a break and just take things slow. I loved it.

The next day, we took a train to Monaco. We didn't do much except wander around and take pictures and marvel at how much money people have. It was fun, and really interesting. They have public escalators everywhere so you don't have to climb the hills. We went back to Nice to grab our bags and headed off to Genoa.

Pictures are giving me issues today, and I don't really want to work through why. Sorry! I have to get some homework done--my dear friend Liz is coming up from London to visit for the weekend, and I won't have any time to get little things done. Have a great weekend!

Spain: Barcelona (And Figueres)

Casa Batllo, aka Casa dels ossos (House of Bones in Catalan)

We got up on Wednesday morning and caught a train bound for Barcelona. The train ride was great. Possibly my favorite part of travelling is the train and bus rides, where you just sit and watch the countryside out the window. There are no demands on you to find out where you are or where you are going, no stress of figuring out what's going on--just sit back, relax, and take in the scenery. You get to just sit and be for a few hours. Anyway, we passed through orange trees and tunnels opening onto cliffs dropping down into the sea. I loved it.

Once we got to Barcelona, I wasn't entirely sure whether I liked it or not. Our hostel was kind of crappy. Usually, hostels provide blankets and pillows, but not sheets or towels. That's fine--I (or rather, Mom) made a sleep sheet before I left and I carry it around with me so I don't have to pay extra for sheets. However, this hostel charged for blankets as well. I think that's absolutely ridiculous and completely unacceptable. There was free internet, but the computers rarely worked, and there was no common room or anything. Fortunately, there was a kitchen, and (a crappy) breakfast included. So if you're ever in Barcelona, do NOT stay at Sun and Moon hostel. It kind of sucks.

Christopher Columbus

Anyway, we were still exhausted, so we hung around the hostel for a bit before heading down to the port to check things out. The port is beautiful. There's a statue of Columbus there, despite the fact that Columbus was neither Spanish nor Catalan, and he's pointing at Africa, for some unknown reason. I love this. Not only is there a statue of him in some random Spanish city he has no connection with, but he's pointing in the completely wrong direction. Way to go, guys, way to go. Although, apparently, he wrote his journals in bad Spanish mixed with Catalan and Portugese...and later on, in Latin and Greek. We just sat on a bench by the port for a while, listening to the water. It was lovely.

Santa Maria del Mar

The next day, we got up and toured Barcelona. We went to the basilica Sant Maria del Mar, the cathedral/basilica Le Seu, a park, and Barcelona's Arc de Triomfe. We also went to the history museum of Barcelona, which was really interesting. The museum was built over some Roman ruins, so you got a audio guide that would explain all the different parts--the little church, the laundry shop and where clothes were dyed, the fish-monger's shop, and the wine factory. It was pretty cool. There were also remains of frescoes and mosaics (and mosaics are now pretty much my favorite things ever). After that, they talked about the medieval Barcelona, and you know me--I was enthralled. I don't remember a thing I learned, though, except that they talked about Charlemagne and the Carolingians, because it was a really long time ago. We also did a bit of shopping, because I needed a black skirt, as we planned on going to a church service on Christmas eve, and I felt it was inappropriate and a bad reflection on Americans to show up in jeans. Do you know how hard I looked for this skirt? Apparently, there are no reasonably priced, decent black skirts in all of Spain. It was the most annoying thing ever.

The day after that, the 21st of December, we took a train up to Figueres, the home of the Teatre-Museu Dali. Figueres was the birthplace of Salvador Dali, and where he chose to set up his museum. I expected it to be an odd place, but not quite as strange as it turned out to be. A lot of it was too weird for me to really appreciate. However, I really like how he plays with perception, and there was an exhibit on some jewelry he made that was really cool. I also got to see his tomb. That night, when we got back to Barcelona, I finally found a black skirt.

La Sagrada Familia, Passion Facade

Saturday, we devoted nearly the entire day to the works of architect Antoni Gaudi. This man was absolutely insane. First, we went to La Sagrada Familia, a cathedral he designed. Work started on this cathedral in the heat of Catalonian Romanticism, when use of the Catalan language and pride in being Catalan was at it's height in the late 19th century. Construction began in 1882. It still isn't finished. It, in fact, won't be finished until 2026 at the earliest. That's 140+ years of construction on ONE CATHEDRAL! Good lord, people, can't we hurry things up a bit? Of course, part of the problem is that Gaudi died before completion and now people are bickering about whether or not certain parts are true to his vision, and also some crazy Catalan anarchists destroyed part of the cathedral and Gaudi's workshop suffered hugely during the Spanish Civil War. Personally, I didn't like La Sagrada Familia that much, because it was way over the top and too cluttered. Not my tastes, really. But I thought the idea of making the columns in the nave look like trees was pretty cool.

Roof of Casa Batllo

Next, we headed over to Casa Batllo, which is a crazy house that kind of looks like a sea monster or a dragon from the outside. I loved Casa Batllo. Inside, there are few straight lines and it's all designed to be very organic and look kind of like the sea. The roof is apparently supposed to evoke St. George killing the dragon. And it's a decent sized dragon, too, not these wimpy little ones that you see in so many depictions of St. George! Anyway, this, I think, is my favorite Gaudi.

Park Bench at Parc Guell

Finally, we went up to Parc Guell, which also contains a lot of Gaudi stuff. There's his park bench, which is the longest in the world (quite a distinction, I know), two of his houses, some arches, statues, mosaics, and so on. Wikipedia tells me that part of Cheetah Girls 2 was filmed there. Aren't you glad you know that?

The next day, we tried to get a train to Montpellier, but we missed the early one, so didn't end up leaving until 5:30 or so. It was annoying. Anyway, I was tired, and really sick of Barcelona, so I hung around and read. Soon enough, we would leave Spain behind.

Hm. Those are monsters of blog posts. Sorry--I have a lot to share! Anyway, I had my first class of 2008 today, a history class on Norman and Plantagenet England. Basically, we're covering the 11th-13th centuries of English history. The instructor seems really cool, and I'm excited for it. Plus, I know quite a few people from my Anglo-Saxon England class anyway, so that's good.

I love the first week of class. The entire semester holds so much promise. I'm going to do my work ahead of time! I'm going to do extra readings! I'm going to read all those mid-nineteenth century novels I've always meant to read! I'm going to learn another language! I'm going to travel every weekend! And then we get to the second or third week and I'm already behind and stressed and tired and don't want to do anything anymore, and I feel like I've already shot the entire semester. College. Isn't it fun?

Spain: Granada and Valencia

The Albaicin

After a beautiful bus ride, we finally arrived in Granada at around 7 PM. After trying to find our way to the hostel in the Albaicin, the old Moorish part of town, we settled in and then headed out on a hostel-led tapas tour. See, in Granada, tapas come free with a drink, whereas in other parts of the country, you pay extra. We ended up meeting a group of guys currently living and working in Barcelona (but originally from London, France, Belgium, and Germany), and stayed out with them until 6 in the morning. It was interesting, to say the least. They were actually really nice guys. Anyway, we got back to the hostel, went to bed for about two hours, got up, found out that there was, in fact, no hot water for our showers, and went out touring anyway.

A Bridge in Granada

We walked through the Albaicin for a while, gradually making our way over to the Alhambra. Apparently, there's a saying that goes, "Si mueres sin ver la Alhambra, no has vivido".

Doorway to the Alhambra

Well, you could say that about a lot of things, and while the Alhambra was stunning, I'm not sure that you haven't lived if you miss it. Now, if you die without seeing, say, the Alps or Venice or something, I'd be much more likely to agree. This may be simply because I was exhausted when we went. Anyway. It was beautiful, despite the long walk uphill to get there. On our way down, we were accosted by a woman telling "fortunes" and handing out little bits of herbs. Catie fell into her trap and the woman read her palm very cheerily, until she found out that Catie had no change and I only had two euro to give her. Then she got a little angry, but nothing too bad--just the stink-eye. It made me angry, though.

The Alhambra

We also wanted to go visit the cathedral and the chapel, but they were closed. Catie was hungry, so we tried to stop for something to eat. However, by this time, we had left the touristy area, so fewer people spoke English and she had a hard time communicating with the waitstaff at the place we visited. Everything they had had meat or eggs, which she doesn't eat, which they didn't understand. So we left, called our hostel in Valencia to see if they had another open night, and caught and 8 hour bus to Valencia. I slept for most of it.

Valencia

We got in well past 1 AM. We caught a cab to the hostel, which scared me, because I was convinced that they were going to try to cheat us. But we got there all right, even though I left my sweater in the cab (and I'm still mad about that). Once we got there and checked in, we crashed. We got up late the next morning, too.

Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciencies

We spent most of our day in Valencia at their Science museum. That was pretty cool. We saw an exhibit on the sea where you could lift anchors, and I could lift all of them. We also saw Los Alpes on Imax. Watching that made me really excited to get to Switzerland, let me tell you! After that, we went to the cathedral, which allegedly holds the Holy Grail (really, they say it's the Holy Chalice, used at the Last Supper. Equally crazy, really. I've just realized, though, that if we had gone to the cathedral in Genoa, we would have gone to three alleged resting places of the Holy Grail). However, being rather slow people, apparently, we could not get out of the cathedral. They had locked the doors, and some guy tried to tell us this in Spanish (or maybe Valencian. I'm not sure, but if it were the latter, we have some excuse for not understanding). When we told him we didn't understand, he laughed at us and then just started shouting. Finally, he pointed to the real exit.

We ran to the grocery store to make soup for our dinner and went back to the hostel. There, we met an Australian guy who currently lives in Stockholm. I talked to him for a good two-three hours, just about travelling and politics. It was pretty cool. This is why, even though they can be obnoxious sometimes, I love hostels. I've met so many interesting people just by chance.

Spain: Madrid and Cordoba

In the Plaza Mayor

Spain was, to be entirely honest, a disappointment. I was personally expecting Spain to be the easiest country for us to navigate, because Catie and I both know some Spanish. Turns out that's not the case. Also, we wore ourselves out with too much running all over the place and too little settling down in one place for a few days. Anyway. On to the stories!

We flew out of London Friday morning. That meant we left Norwich Thursday night and spent the night at Catie's friend's place. The only thing is, we flew out of Gatwick, which is way in the South. Catie's friend lives on the north side of London. So we get to her place at 9, maybe 10 o'clock PM, talk for a little bit, and then realize that, in order to reach Gatwick at the appropriate time, we have to get up at 2:30 to be out of the house by 3:30AM. So we decided that there was no real point in going to sleep and watched a movie instead. Now you have to realize, this was right after the end of term, when I had two big papers and my creative writing portfolio to hand in. I had, again, gone off traveling on less than 7 hours of sleep in three days. I need to start planning better.

We got to the airport after wandering the streets of London for a while, trying to figure out why the bus we thought we were supposed to take was nowhere to be seen. We found our way to the hostel, then set out for El Museo del Prado, one of two art museums we visited. I liked El Prado. There was an interesting exhibit of 19th century Spanish art, with some historical paintings I liked, and I also got to see some paintings by Durer and Botticelli, along with a really cool painting based of Dante and crossing the River Styx into Hell. That day, we also went to the Plaza Mayor and looked around a market there. They sell weird things in markets in Spain. Fake wigs, strange toys, and so on. I don't understand why you'd buy them.

Our hostel was nice enough, but there were some people in our room who were only in Madrid to party. So we would go to bed at a decent hour, and they would come in at around 5 or 6 AM. Then, we'd get up between 7 and 9 when they were sleeping. It made things difficult.

The Palacio Real

The second day in Madrid, we went to the Palacio Real. This was pretty interesting. It was from the 16th or 17th century, so it was incredibly ornate. One room had wall coverings of porcelain! And the armory was pretty cool, too. They claimed that there were "tense relations" between Spain and England during the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. No kidding?

After that, we went to the Templo de Debod, which was given to Spain from Egypt in 1968. It's pretty random--just sitting in one of Madrid's many parks. Then, we went to the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, a modern art museum. I really enjoyed that one, because there were some works by Dali and the Reina Sofia is also where Picasso's Guernica currently resides. Why it isn't actually in Guernica, I don't know.

The next day, we got up, checked out, and took a train to Cordoba. I really liked Cordoba. It was warm, there were orange trees everywhere, we saw statues of Seneca and Maimonides.

Me and my old bud, Maimonides

Here I must digress for a short while and explain something. Almost everywhere we went, I was reminded of someone we read in the Great Con (or who I knew from history or literature). I feel, sometimes, that this whole year is an extension of the work I've done in Con. People, it never ends. Anyway, we saw the Alcazar and the Mezquita, and wandered the old ghetto. It was wonderful to just walk around the old part of town. Then we took a bus to Granada. That bus ride was absolutely gorgeous--hills and olive trees everywhere, and we saw four castles just sitting up on hilltops. But I'll save Granada for another day.

Roses in Cordoba

Psst!

(Hey, I finally put up pictures from Durham and York. Yeah, from November. Go check them out...)

Basics

Here's something to tide you over.

Trip Basics:

Countries: 4
Languages: 5
Currencies: 2
Cities: 19
Books read: 2
Pictures taken: 800+
Churches: too many
Mosques: 1
Palaces: 4
Castles: 2 or 3 (does the Medieval Louvre count?)
Forts: 5
Parks: 5
Museums: 15 (I think)
Roman Ruins: tons
Stairs: thousands

Favorites:
Country: Switzerland
City: Bern
Language: Italian
Church: Munster, Bern
Palace: Doge's Palace, Venice
Museum: Vatican Museums, Rome
Ruin: Colosseum, Rome
Climb: Notre Dame, Paris
Hike: Cinque Terre
Park: Park Guell, Barcelona

Home Again!

I have finally arrived safely back home in Norwich. Trust me, I'm exhausted. My trip was absolutely wonderful, but a month is a long time to be unsettled like that. Stories to come!