36 Hours in Cinque Terre, Italy

Well I guess it was actually more like 48 hours, but let me assure you I traveled very far for those 48 hours. Also, let me assure you, it was well worth it. When Katie found out that she was going to be in Milan for work this spring, we knew that we had to work out some kind of trip. After our adventure in Paris last year, how could we resist the opportunity for another European, sister getaway? So, after examining our options, we decided on the fabulously rugged and beautiful coastal region known as Cinque Terre (5 lands). This area is made up of 5 towns, Monterosso al Mar, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manorola and Riomaggiore in the Ligueria region of Italy on the Italian Riviera. It's famous for its natural beauty, gorgeous Mediterranean weather, and delicious food (it is the birthplace of pesto). Conveniently, there was a NYT article which we were able to model our trip after, and it was quite helpful:

http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/travel/05hours.html

Katie was already in Milan, so she only had a 3 hour train ride - my journey was much more taxing. I flew RyanAir for only 45 euros (for those of you not familiar, it's a horribly abysmal budget airline) and my flight left Madrid at 6:00 am. Since this was a Saturday morning flight, I made the excellent decision of just not sleeping since I eat out on Fridays and wasn't going to be home until after midnight anyway. Yay for going 36 hours without sleep. So after eating dinner and packing, I headed to the airport around 4 am. This is only the beginning of the journey. The catch to the 45 euros flight was that RyanAir doesn't actually fly to Milan Malapensa airport, it flies to Bergamo, a city about an hour outside of Milan. So I booked a 15 euro coach (still making the journey cheaper than it would've been on any other airline) and arrived in Milan's Central Station around 9:30 am. Katie showed up about an hour later, in typical Katie fashion, and I, in typical Allie fashion, had all of our tickets printed out and was ready to go. We grabbed some coffee and bought a few chocolates for the road and headed to our train!

Now, there's a small back story on the trains. I had quite the nightmare trying to book our train tickets. The website is just completely unnavigable and so confusing. I ended up just leaving it in Italian because I could make more sense of that than the awful English translations. After fighting with it for well over an hour, I finally got our trains booked into Riomaggiore, the town which we chose to stay in, but we had to change trains twice on the way there. I really enjoyed taking the train though, and the views through the countryside were amazing. We finally arrived at our hotel around 3 on Saturday. The hotel was adorable and had a little balcony overlooking the main street. After 11 hours in transit I was exhausted, but since we had limited time there, we had to get on the move immediately! We pretty much followed the NYT article word for word, with a few exceptions (at first we couldn't figure out the introductory hike that he suggested, so we saved that for the last day in place of paying 16 euros to sit in a pretty chair - no thank you).

Our first step was to explore the town a little and get a feel for things. We grabbed some crepes for a quick lunch and then headed up to the famous Lover's Walk, which connects Riomaggiore and the next village, Manarola. This path actually extends through all the 5 villages and is a fairly rigorous 5 hour hike, but the part which we did was tourist friendly and only took about half an hour. The views it boasts of the ocean are unbeatable. The weather was very nice - in the mid 60s and sunny. We then explored Manarola a little bit, which was remarkably similar to Riomaggiore. All the towns are somewhat alike and have a very antiquated feeling to them. They are not accessible by car and they're just so small and adorable that you feel like you've been transported back 200 years. After walking by a million delicious looking little stores filled with focaccia bread and pesto, we decided to stop for a while and have some wine to kill time before dinner (this trip was largely centered around eating). We shared a bottle of the unique Cinque Terre wine made with a blend of sweet white grapes (clearly, I am a wine expert now). We watched the sunset over the ocean and had really good catch-up sesh, since seeing each other at the wedding didn't really count because it was go-go-go wedding stuff the entire time!

When it was finally an acceptable time to eat dinner, we headed to the NYT restaurant suggestion Trattorio dal Billy. This restaurant was nestled up in the hills and had an amazing view! After convincing the waiters that we would eat quickly and be out of the way in time for the 9:00 reservation, they seated us. Here's where the fun begins. We started off with a Caprese salad and a new bottle of wine, this time red (don't worry, I'm still weirded out by the fact that I can legally order a drink too). Then we decided to just order a couple things and split them - we settled on the spaghetti with pesto and stuffed mussels. Both of these dishes were AMAZING. The pesto in Cinque Terre is to die for, as Ligueria is in fact the home of Pesto. The stuffed mussels were, however, my favorite food of the entire trip. At the time, I didn't even really know what I was eating, I just knew it was delicious. They're probably something similar to this or this, but in a really yummy tomato sauce. I'm determined to try and make them someday. So good. At this point, we were stuffed and our bill was rapidly growing - but who can say no to dessert (the amount of wine we had consumed by this point probably wasn't helping us make rational decisions, either)? I managed to talk Katie into the panna cotta, even though it doesn't explicitly have chocolate. However, by a twist of fate, it had a nice chocolate drizzle on it. Everybody wins! It was phenomenal. Then our waiter served us the traditional after dinner servings of limoncino, an Italian liqueur, along with glasses of some disgusting alcoholic concoction, which our water persistently insisted was Coca Cola Lite. Good one, garcon. We later discovered that it was probably either Grappa or Sciacchetra. Whatever it was, I don't reccomend it. Other than that, the meal was absolutely amazing. We almost wanted to go back there the 2nd night just because it was so delicious. Although we spent a lot of money on that meal, we definitely got some bang for our buck. After dinner, I was utterly exhausted, and we were both sufficiently wined- out, so we headed back to the room early and crashed (not like there's much nightlife in Cinque Terre anyway).

We woke up the next morning around 9 and made the observation of how nice it was that cars can't access the village so you only hear happy sounds in the morning. We were excited to head out for our first and only full day in the area! We stopped at the little restaurant outside our hotel for breakfast and had a delicious Cinque Terre omelet - pesto, basil and Parmesan cheese. Nom nom nom. Then we hopped on the regional train to the middle town, Corniglia. Here, the NYT article describes a path to a secret beach. After disembarking from the train, we avoided climbing the 300+ step staircase into the town, and instead searched for this secret path - it was not easy, and we're not really sure if we were successful. We walked along a coastal wall, which sported some beautiful views, and we walked by some cute little houses until we realized we were lost. We tried back the other direction, and found what it seemed the article was describing - and industrial tunnel with a metal gate - but unfortunately there was absolutely no way through this gate and the tunnel was visibly full of obstructions. Our thought was that maybe they closed it off since all the tourists started trying to come after reading that article - kudos to them. Either way, this trek defintiely wasn't a waste. There was a little staircase going straight down to the water and we sat for a little while on the very rocky beach (which could have been the secret beach - we'll probably never know). I'll take this opportunity to say that Cinque Terre isn't what you probably typically think of as coastal. Although all 5 villages have access to the water for swimming, Monterosso al Mar is the only one that has real beaches. The coast is very rocky and it's more of a hiker's paradise than a beach goer's. Either way, it wasn't very sunny yet and it was too cold to lay out at that point so not finding the secret beach was no big loss. I stuck my feet in and the water was quite cold, so we decided to move on to the next village for lunch.

Vernazza is probably one of the most popular villages in the area. It seemed a lot busier, and it has a little sandy patch of beach that plenty of people were laying out on. The restaurant NYT recommended was a little too pricey for us so we stopped in a little pizza joint and has some pesto pizza. Yum. We walked around the town a little and went into the Church of Santa Margherita d'Antiochia, which was built starting in 1318 (gotta have a little history on all my trips). After this, we climbed up a pretty intense staircase to get a good view of the area, and then, fortunately, we could justify getting some gelato.

After I had procured my delicious gelato cone of dark chocolate, coffee, and stracciatella, tragedy struck. We wanted to find a good place on the rocks to relax for a while since the sun had come out, and as you can probably predict after reading the first 10 words of this sentence, rocks + water + ice cream cone = Allie falling. Yep. I did a total cartoon style slip, and slid on my butt into some mud. So sad. I almost managed to save the cone, but the slippery mud was not allowing it and my perfectly flavor balanced gelato became a casualty of this horrible incident. Perhaps the universe is trying to send me a sign that I should eat less ice cream. Hmm. Anyway, my dress was completely covered in mud and I had secured a cut on my foot that was bleeding (don't worry, the wound was shallow at best). Fortunately, we had optimistically worn our bathing suits that morning! Katie cleaned off my dress in a waterfall as I went down into the frigid water to try and get all the mud off of me. It really couldn't have worked out any better, given the circumstances. Katie even shared the rest of her ice cream cone with me! I'm sure all the other tourists enjoyed observing this comical scene. So, we were pretty much bound to sitting in the sun waiting for my dress to dry until we had to leave at 5:50 to catch the last ferry to Monterosso. We took in a little sun and I think I might have actually gotten some color! By 5:30, my dress was as good as new, and we hopped on the ferry.

The ferry ride was incredibly short, but it was awesome to see a view of the coast from the water. We arrived at Monterosso al Mar at around 6 and could easily tell that it was much more touristy than the other villages. Like I said, it's the only one with real beaches and it has a much more resort-like feel. We wandered around for a while (this vacation involved a lot of wandering), and stopped in a little beach-side restaurant for an appetizer and pre-dinner drink - mixed bruschetta and Orange Campino. We then checked out the NYT restaurant recommendation, which we again found it a little too pricey. It's up on a hill with awesome views so they seemed to jack up prices. Also, it was dark by this point and we were not dressed appropriately to be seated outside, aka FREEZING, so we went back to the main street to find somewhere a little more casual and preferably indoors. There were a million to choose from, so we settled on one with outdoor heat lamps. We had a very similar meal as the night before, this time with stuffed squid, anchovies and mussels. The stuffed mussels were very similar, and the menu described the stuffing as eggs, cheese and a variety of spices. The anchovies and squid were delicious as well. Then we had some gnocchi pesto. Delish. We wanted to keep this meal cheaper, so we stopped there. It was now around 9, and even though the NYT article claimed that there may be some nightlife in Monterosso since it's more populated, we were freezing and decided to head back to our hotel in Riomaggiore. We stopped at another little restaurant there for dessert and had some yummy almond cream pie. We headed to bed early because we wanted to make the most out of our last day.

We woke up around 8, packed all our stuff, and headed out. After becoming more familliar with the area, we decided to try and figure out the first thing the NYT suggested, which was what seemed to be a little walk up through the vineyard above Riomaggiore to some viewpoint that was supposed to be amazing. We decided to stop quickly for breakfast, even though we knew we'd be eating an early lunch before having to catch the train at 2. This was probably the best decision ever, otherwise we actually may have died later. It ended up not being that quick, thanks to the wonders of European customer service, but nourishment was essential, as we would later learn. So after eating, we began climbing up the streets of Riomaggiore in search of the trail head to Santuario della Madonna di Monternero, and we found it, complete with a map showing us where to go. How great. According to the article, it was about a 15 minute uphill trek, but the viewpoint was well worth the climb. Now, Katie and I are both in reasonably good shape and I think we were both anticipating a nice stroll through some vineyards. This is now how it went down. I don't know what this guy's perception of time is, or if he seriously thinks that that was something that normal American can do, but let me tell you, IT WAS NOT EASY. After about 20 minutes of hiking uphill and having some old Italian man have to direct us from making a wrong turn, we weren't sure what we were getting ourselves into. Although the path was gorgeous, it was rugged, confusing, and essentially straight uphill. We were both winded and sweating. We figured it couldn't be too much further though. Wrong. After about 30 minutes, we passed a main road, and realized that maybe this was his starting point, and it would only be another 15 minutes from there. Wrong. Eventually, we became convinced that we were going the wrong way. There wasn't another soul in site, and at one point arrows pointing in the opposite direction began to appear on the path. Oh dear. After an hour, we were both ready to throw in the towel, until another hiker passed us. Around the same time, we caught a glimpse through the trees of the potentially incredibly view and it rejuvenated us. After another 5 minutes, out of nowhere, like a gleaming beacon of hope, the church finally appeared! What we both though would be a nice stroll, turned into a hike in which we climbed 1100 feet in what would've been about 50 minutes had we not stopped in confusion so many times. Not too shabby. And the views were amazing. You could see the entire 11 mile coastline and each of the villages. I'd say it was well worth being covered in my own sweat for the 11 hour journey home I had ahead of me. Nice visual for you there.

Going down was a lot easier, and took us only about a half an hour. By then, we were starving again and went into a little pizza shop for lunch. I had Margharita pizza and a delicious piece of Pesto Focaccia bread. We also, of course, had to have some gelato before leaving Italy. And that's about it. We hopped on the train and headed back to Milan, from where I had to leave immediately to catch my flight from Bergamo. It was sad to say goodbye again, but I'm pretty sure she's coming to visit in Dublin, so it won't be too long until we are reunited and can have another great sister trip! I got back to Madrid around midnight and crashed as soon as I got home.

As you can probably tell, this vacation was another one which was very leisurely. There weren't a lot of "sights" so we were able to relax and take our time, but I still feel like I did a good job covering the area. You really can't beat the natural beauty and delicious cuisine of Cinque Terre. I would go back there in a heart beat. Katie and I both agreed it would be an excellent honeymoon spot. Also, if I were to go back, I'd want to partake in more outdoorsy activities - the hiking possibilities are endless and it would be incredible to sail there (cough cough, Daddy, cough cough). Anyways, if you like delicious Italian food and beautiful coastal views, then you should consider a trip to the 5 lands.

Check out and mine and Katie's albums on facebook for the full photo experience, but here are a few highlights:

Riomaggiore marina


Enjoying our lover's walk

Surprisingly, there are lots of cactus in Cinque Terre...hm


Sunset view of our restaurant in Manarola


Amazing panna cotta


Detour on secret beach search...would I even fit in this car?


Pesto pizza yuuuum


Vernazza!


Tragic

Happy after my dress had dried


Finally, we made it!


We were a little delirious by now...


Most amazing view ever

Reminder: I do actually live in Madrid

So going through all of these blogs, I realized that it would be really easy to totally forget that I live in Madrid and have classes, and a job, and a life (sort of). SO, here are just some general life updates.

Classes:
Are still rubbish. I'm sure you all have heard enough of my groaning on this front, but it really hasn't gotten any better. Not to justify the absurd system of college finances in the U.S., but college is free here for a reason. The classes are really unstructured, and confusing. I feel it would be an insult to educators to call what my professors do "teaching." I mean I am learning, but most of it is self-motivated, because I actually do the reading and come to class, which is more than I can say for most people. Last week, my econ professor recommended that we do this review problem set, so I actually did it (what a concept), just to come to class to find out I was the only one. What?
Next week, I have 2 big projects, one for each of my classes, which are worth 30% of my grade. They are group projects, so we've been working on them, which has been an incredibly confusing process. The way things are done is just so different here and I don't really know what the expectations are, so I am just doing my best to let the Spaniards show me the way. Having to speak in front of large groups in Spanish should certainly be interesting.
That's definitely the one thing that the Autonoma has done for me, which I don't think the other program would have - my Spanish is improving a lot. I've learned a lot of vocabulary that I never otherwise would have, and it's been nice to get to interact with actual Spanish college students and not just other BU people. There are definitely pros and cons to the experience and I am trying my hardest not to let my frustrations get the best of me.

Internship:
Has started off very slowly. I was already frustrated enough with the fact that I started so late, and thus far I haven't been doing a lot. It's a lot of busy work. They are in the middle of getting audited so it's been lots of filing and organizing and making sure finances are all in order. I can't really make it sound interesting. I'm hoping that this is sort of just a phase because of the audit and now that's it over I can start doing some stuff that's more interesting. It's just different here because there's not much of an internship cultures. I feel like they just don't really know what to do with me. Hopefully, once I've been there a little longer and show them that I'm competent I will get a little more responsibility. Either way, I'm happy to at least be working and busy. Once again, this is definitely helping my Spanish get a lot better.

Host family:
All is pretty well on that front. My host parents continue to be very helpful and supportive and we get along well. I showed them the video from Julie's wedding and now they think that American weddings are crazy (I tried to explain to them, no it's really just her wedding - just kidding, but not really). Although I sometimes get annoyed feeling like I'm being watched all the time or like I'm in high school again living with parents, I've learned a lot about the culture that I never would have living with other students or on my own.

Segovia:
Oh yeah. The program took a day trip to Segovia last Friday and it was very interesting. Segovia is a little town, about 90 miles northwest of Madrid in Castile and Leon. The city is CRAZY OLD (we're talking like, BC times) and has a lot of historical significance for Spain. Queen Isabel was crowned there, for example. It was also once a Roman territory, and thus houses one of the famous Roman aqueducts. This aqueduct was constructed in the 1st or 2nd century, approximately, and was once over 10 miles long. It's pretty amazing how well preserved it is. There is also another beautiful Spanish Cathedral (the LAST Gothic one bulit in Spain, 1525-1577) and an Alcazar (originally built in 1122, but mostly reconstructed after a fire in 1862). It was a very nice little trip and the weather was amazing (spring has finally sprung!). I'll put some pictures below.

General life:
In general, life is good. I've been crazy busy traveling and am starting to get a little disappointed that I haven't spent enough time in Madrid. Fortunately, I still have 2 months. There's still a lot that I want to do, and now that the weather is nice I can force myself out of hibernation. After I have my presentations next week, I should have a good amount of free time until finals get closer. A few activities that are still on my must do list are the Reina Sofia museum, a bull fight, checking out the Tapas restaurant owned by Javier Bardem's sister, do a boat ride in Retiro Park, and actually go inside the Royal Palace. Those are mostly touristy things, which I'm actually kind of glad I haven't finished yet because I've been busy doing other non-typical tourist activities. There's a handful of other neighborhoods/restaurants/sights that I want to check out. You really never can run out of stuff to do here. My trips have all been so great though - no regrets there.

I went to Italy this past weekend with Katie and we had a GREAT time. That warrants it's own separate blog, which I will post soon. In other news, I have decided that I will be spending this summer in Dublin with another BU study abroad program. It took a lot for me to arrive at that decision, but due to how late I have finals here, my options for things to do back in the states were limited and in all honesty, I wanted to stay in Europe. I've always wanted to go to Ireland and I'm really looking forward to it, and you can look forward to another 4 months of travel blogs!

ALSO, I just remembered that I never posted about my trip to El Escorial. I guess I sort of blocked it out of my memory. NOT that it was bad - it was just SNOWING. We went a few weeks ago as a program trip and although El Escorial is actually awesome, the fact that I was frostbitten definitely put a damper on the trip. Just to give you a little run down, El Escorial is a historical residence of Spanish royalty about 45 km northwest of Spain. Construction began in 1563, as it was one of the constructions of Philip II as part of his propaganda campaign in the counter-reformation. It also serves a monastery and a school. Just like all the royal palaces (they really don't have enough), it was pretty incredible. It also currently serves as a pantheon for all of Spanish royalty from the Hapsburg and Bourbon dynasties since Charles I, with the exception of Philip V and Ferdinand IV. I didn't take too many pictures because my hands were frozen, but I'll post a couple below.

Alcazar


Aqueduct


Segovia is cute


Cathedral


Iglesia de la Vera Cruz


Hanging out at the Alcazar


Finally found the knight in shining armor...


I don't know why they needed an aqueduct when there's a river right there...


El Escorial


Snow is a trip ruiner

Basque Country: Where Hunger Goes to Die

Ok so I am definitely overdue for a blog (several, actually). I have been traveling every weekend in March so I have lot's of catching up to do since Portugal. I have not had the time since I got back from Julie's and Dan's wedding to blog...let alone do work for school...or anything else. Whoops.

So I'm going to start off with an exposition on the last trip that I took, which was to Basque Country. For those of you who have never heard of that, it's is one of Spain's 17 autonomous communities. It's in the north with a coast on the Atlantic and it borders France (don't worry, I didn't really know what it was either - it continues to amaze me how extensive of a knowledge Europeans have of American geography - I tell them I'm from Arizona and they actually know where it is!). Basque is a culture all it's own. If you're still drawing a blank, I can probably jump start your memory with the use of the term "ETA." The crazy terrorist group which was constantly in the news up until about a decade ago, was indeed a radical group with the mission of achieving Basque independence (ETA stands for Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, Basque Homeland and Freedom - yeah Basque language is crazy). Unfortunately, this is the reputation that Basque people get stuck with, even though this attitude represents only a small minority of people. Most Basque people, despite feeling culturally distinct from Spaniards (and French, as there is a Basque region of France as well), are perfectly content remaining a part of the Spanish nation. That's just how it is in Spain - state first, then country. Anyway, after visiting the infamous land of the Basques, I can say that this militant anti-Spanish attitude is definitely not the prevailing attitude. The thing I noticed the most if the beautiful landscape, the friendly people and the AMAZING FOOD!

So let's start from the beginning. My two friends who I traveled with, Shelagh and Natalie, and I managed to score some cheap tickets on Iberia to Bilbao. That's right, A REAL AIRLINE. Not crappy (although incomparably cheap) student airlines like Ryanair and Easyjet which charge you 40 euros for a bag, a printed boarding pass, or whatever else they feel like, have absurdly early departures and spend the whole flight trying to sell you crap that you don't want. It was quite nice. The flight was less than an hour and we got into Bilbao around 8:00 (I guess it was still an absurdly early departure time, but whatever). After arriving in Bilbao, we immediately left Bilbao (everyone knows that you only go there to see the Guggenheim - San Sebastian's where it's at). So we took the hour bus to San Sebastian (after Shelagh lost her ticket in a trash can and we had to dig it out - yuck - but the Spaniards (Basques?!?!) were very helpful!) and trekked for 40 minutes to the Old Part of town to find our hostel (spending money on public transport is not necessary). The hostel was bleh. When we got there, the women who runs the place wasn't even there. The beds were incredibly uncomfortable and the place was kind of dingy - but it's off tourist season, so what can you expect? It served for our purposes, which was sleeping for about 3 hours.

Our first step upon arriving, was to see the giant Jesus statue. Apparently this is a big thing. There aren't really many "sites" in San Sebastian, clearly. So we hiked up the giant hill to the big Jesus statue and got some awesome panoramic views of the beach - aptly named Concha Beach, because it is shaped like a shell. After that, we trekked around the shell shaped beach to head up Mount Igueldo on the other side. This time, we took the funicular, which was pretty awesome. The views from up there were even more amazing. Pictures really don't do it justice.
So after a fair share of mountain climbing and viewing, we headed down to the main attraction: eating. San Sebastian is famous for it's delicious food and tapas (or pintxos, as the Basque call them). It's a lot of sea food, ham products (we are still in Spain, after all), and cheese. It's pretty unique and just really rich and delicious. My favorite thing I had was probably black risotto, followed by beef cheeks in red wine sauce. That meal also included goat cheese with fig sauce. Sooo yummy. I also ate lots of squid, shrimp, and ham served in various fashions. Basque country is not lacking in the pastry department either. I had probably the best macaroon of my life and a specialty Basque pastry (Torta Vasco) which was like a buttery pastry with some sort of creamy almond filling. So good. My mouth is watering just describing all of this! After stuffing our faces, we just sort of wandered, got a little time on the beach and took a nap before dinner time. Lol, life is rough. That was the great thing about this vacation. It wasn't like going to a big, sight-filled city, where you're always in a hurry to see everything. We got to relax and take our time. With that in mind, we headed out that evening to check out the San Sebastian nightlife (there's not much) and we ended up hanging out on the beach. Yay for warm weather! Luckily, we were able to sleep in the next day.

Saturday had a pretty similar course of events. We ate, laid on the beach (yeah, I got sunburned), and then we headed to the aquarium, which was actually quite impressive. It had a nice mix of critters and naval displays to keep us entertained. It even had one of those cool tunnels that you can walk under the tank in and see all the fish (and sharks!). After this, it was time to head back to say goodbye to the beach and catch the bus to Bilbao.

Bilbao is a totally different story. It had a very industrial past and has just recently began cleaning itself up. We got in around 8pm and headed on the long trek to our hostel. We crossed the weirdest bridge ever, went through some kind of strange Disney themed carnival, and promptly discovered that our hostel was in the middle of nowhere (either that or some kind of industrial wasteland). I was seriously glad I wasn't alone. The hostel itself was actually pretty nice though (it even had sheets - major bonus). We were just glad to get to our beds and get some rest for Sunday.

We woke up the next morning, enjoyed our free hostel breakfast (aka stale toast, weird jam, and really bad coffee) and headed to the Guggenheim. Now, I was a little worried that the Guggenheim would be disappointing just because it's so famous, and sometimes those things get over-hyped. I had also heard that the art collection wasn't that great. However, I am happy to say that neither of those statements are true. It was awesome. Just as cool as I thought it would be. And the art collection was pretty impressive as well. The 2nd floor was closed (which was probably a good thing, otherwise we never would've left), but what we saw was a very nice mix of art based in and around the World Wars, and I really enjoyed it. I like looking at art from a historical perspective. And I don't even know how to describe the building. It's too cool for words. It has a fire sculpture in the pond outside. It's covered in aluminum which is in sheets thinner than tissue paper. Sooo cool. It's designed to be like part of the river and to blend as one as part of the city, so it's sort of fish like (Frank Gehry has a weird thing for carp - look it up). Anyway, I can't really explain it - I guess you'll have to go see for yourself!

After we were all museum-ed out, we headed down to old town for some lunch. The food here was really good as well. We had paella, grilled garlic shrimp and tortilla de bacaloa (cod omelet) and it was yummy. After that, we sort of wandered for a while until it was time to go. After a minor delay in the airport, I got back to Madrid around midnight. Not too shabby for a weekend. All in all, another great trip and a location I would also definitely recommend for future travels. Check out my friend Shelagh Mollohan's facebook for better pictures (it's not up yet, but hopefully will be soon).

Big Statue


A Sailor's Paradise!


Going up....


Up close and personal


Yep, I made it to the top

Beach


Prettiness


Coolest funicular ever


World's most amazing view


Mandatory tourist pic


Octopus!


Nemo!


Making new friends


The Googs!

Porto: A Weekend in Portugal

Last weekend, I went to Portugal with a couple of my friends (pictures already on facebook for those of you who stalk). Now, Portugal isn't exactly a popular tourist destination, especially for Americans, and I have to say that this makes me really sad because I LOVED it. I probably never would have gone there if I weren't in Spain and so close, because it's just one of the destinations that gets skipped when Americans come to Europe, but I'm so glad that I went. The culture, the food, the WINE, the weather and the people were all just great.

Ok so, details. Being the cheap college students that we are, we decided to go to Porto, instead of the capital, Lisbon. We had heard good things about both cites and the tickets to Porto were WAY cheaper (about 40 euros round trip). The other great thing about Porto is that it's not a huge tourist hub so the hostels are really cheap and nice. Seriously, the hostel we stayed in was AMAZING. It was really clean, cute, and the staff were very helpful in pointing out things to do. It was right in the city center, with a view of the Palacio de Bolsa, or the stock exchange which is a Neoclassical building constructed in the 19th century. It really couldn't have been better.

Now Porto is the 2nd largest city in Portugal, but it feels very, very small. The city proper has a population of about 220,000, but it has a very extensive urban area of about 1.3 million. It is located on the Douro river, about 5 miles from the ocean. It's historic center is also a UNESCO recognized World Heritage Site, and that's where we spent most of our time.

The first day, we arrived at the hostel, after a 50 minute flight (and about as long a metro ride) at about 10:30. After speaking with the manager of the hostel, we headed out to explore the town. First we walked by City Hall and continued to the Oporto Cathedral, which is of the Romanesque style and was constructed in the 12th century. We also entered the Clerigos Church so that we could go up the famous tower, the tallest structure in Porto (and what used to be the tallest structure in Portugal until the Vasco De Gama tower was built in 1998 in Lisbon). It is about 250 feet high and takes a steep climb of 240 stairs to reach the top. The views were amazing though. After that, we continued on to the city's biggest park (name unknown) where there is a huge pavilion and gorgeous views of the river. There was also a short detour in a playground during which we get really weird looks from Portuguese pre-teens.

After this, it was time to get some lunch. We went to a small bodega that our hostel recommended, but ran into problems with the fact that nobody spoke English or Spanish, and could not seem to understand our attempts to turn Spanish into Portuguese. That compounded by the fact that one of my friends doesn't eat pork or fish (she keeps kosher), sort of eradicated that option. We went to another restaurant, which we thought would be fine, and it was, until the bill came. Turns out all the bread they were bringing to the table wasn't actually free. They even charged us for butter. No jokes. You live, you learn. Then we headed back to the hostel to relax for a while. We had a really good mix of people in our hostel, a few from Brazil, one girl from Mexico studying in London and another American studying in Rome who was on spring break. I really enjoyed talking with them, and we spoke a lot of Spanish because it was easier for some of them. We went to dinner later, and turned in early because we know we had a long day ahead of us.

We woke up the next morning and checked out of the hostel. Here's where the story gets interesting. Our flight back to Madrid on Sunday left at 6am, so we had to take a taxi to the airport around 4. That being said, in all of our infinite, cheap, college student-minded wisdom, we decided not to stay in the hostel Saturday night. We never go to bed until at least 2 in the morning anyway (that's if you come home early), so why pay 17 euro to get only an hour of sleep? Flawless logic. Fortunately, the hostel was nice enough to let us keep our stuff there until we left otherwise it probably would have been pretty terrible. So, after that, we headed off to the beach. It was a trip goal to put our feet in the eastern side of the Atlantic Ocean. The city bus got us there in about 20 minutes and it was pretty cool. Definitely something I can check off my list. The water was FREEZING though. The American that we stayed with in the hostel said he went swimming...he must've been nuts. Then we went back into town and perused the local market which had a nice selection of fresh fruits (strawberries are finally in season) and we got some lunch. For lunch, I decided to try a Portugese favorite: the Francechina Sandwich, also known as the most artery clogging sandwich known to man. It is a toasted sandwich with a layer of steak and several sausages, covered in cheese and drowned in a spicy sauce. Yum. As per usual, my friends were awed by my food consumption abilities. Then we walked down to the river and explored the boardwalk shops and did a little souvenir shopping. One store we entered was ran by an Indian man, who was clearly enthused about the opportunity to get to practice his English. My friend Michelle, who is actually a completely white, Jewish girl, but has some darker features so sometimes gets people thinking that she's Spanish, was asked if she was actually American. The guy then proceeded to look at me and say "She, I can see, is truly American." Yep.

After that, we headed across the river to the biggest feature on the other side: wineries. Porto is famous for it's Port Wine. There are dozens of wineries lined along the river which offer pretty cheap tastings/tours. We went to Sandeman, which was founded by a Scotsman in 1790. All of the grapes are grown and wines made in the Douro valley, about 35 miles from Porto and then transported there to be stored and aged. All Port wines must age for at least 3 years but most of them age for at least 10. We paid 4 euros to get a tour of the cellars and tasting of 2 wines which were both DELICIOUS. One of them was the white Porto, of which Sandeman only makes one variation, and the other was a Tawney which is a light red. They also make a variety of Rubys. For some reason (maybe because it's so sweet that you just feel like you're drinking juice), I really liked the Port wine. I know that by American standards, it's usually only considered a dessert wine but they suggested lots of other ways to serve it. That was my first wine tasting experience, and I really enjoyed it.

By then it was dark out, and there wasn't much left to do except eat dinner and find ways to fill the night until leaving at 4 in the morning. One of the guys who worked in the hostel, a Brazilian studying in Portugal, took us out to various Porto night life spots and it wasn't hard to stay occupied until 4 in the morning. When we got on the plane, we all passed out (unfortunately only for the 50 minute flight) and were pretty much zombies the whole way back. I think I am still recovering.

So that was Portugal. In other news, things in Madrid are going well. Today, I FINALLY had my interview for my internship and I will be starting when I return from the wedding. I will be working at a company called Fundacion Autor (Author's Foundation) which works with authors, editors, publishers, art galleries, theaters and other cultural businesses to help promote the development of such industries. I'll be working in the Economics and Finance Department. I'm not really sure what to expect, but at this point I'm just happy to be starting since it has taken so long for her to find me a placement. During my interview, my supervisor told me that I'll also get tickets to plays and art shows and the like, so that will be awesome. Classes are going well, and the work load is starting to pick up a little as I have 2 big group projects early next month. My Spanish is getting a lot better, and I'm finally starting to feel like I'm becoming fluent. Other than that, I'm excited to see ya'll this weekend!

City Hall


Clerigos Church and Tower (yep, that's the tallest structure in the city)


Another beautiful panoramic view


Yours truly (p.s. I finally bought a non-North Face jacket so that I could attempt to blend in a little)


Park Pavilion


In the park


Famous rooster


So. Much. Port. Wine.


Beach!


If you zoom in really close, you can see America in the background


Franceschina, after I got to it



Palacio de la Bolsa (stock market)


By the river


Sandeman mascot (Spanish hat to represent the production of Sherry wine and the typical black cape of Portuguese students for Port wine)


Lots of wine


First wine tasting ever

La Vida en Madrid and a Very Madrileño Birthday

It's still hard for me to fathom that I've been here for almost 2 months. If you read my last post, then you understand why I still don't really feel settled in (although now I can say that at least matriculation is over, and I'm officially enrolled in my classes, YAY!) I have, however, been trying to make the most of my excess of free time. I've been exploring the different areas of Madrid via coffee shops, museums, and just wandering aimlessly. The weather has been pretty agreeable, but I'm still waiting for it to warm up a little until I start spending a lot of time outside.

One of my favorite Madrid neighborhoods that I've discovered thus far is Malasaña. It's supposed to be comparable to New York's East Village (whatever that means, Boston>New York) and it's famous for being the center of counterculture in Madrid. It's full of bars, clubs, restaurants, cafes and shops. I like it because it feels authentically Spanish compared to a lot of other places that we Americans end up hanging out.

After hitting one of the biggest tourist attractions, The Prado, a few weeks back, I recently checked out one of the sister museums, the Thyssen-Bornemisza. Along with the Reina Sofia these three make up the "Golden Triangle of Art." I REALLY loved the Thyssen. While it doesn't house as many famous masterpieces as the Prado, it has an incredibly diverse and unique collection. The collection was started in the 1920's by the German Heinrich, Baron Thyssen-Bornesmisza and was extended by his son until the son's death in 2002. Baron Thyssen's son (also Baron Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza), married Carmen Cervera, a former Miss Spain in 1985. She then began collecting art as well (I ain't sayin she a gold digger...). She is still alive and remains involved with the museum. The museum is divided into his collection and her collection, and each is organized in chronological order beginning with Italian Gothic works of the 14th century all the way up to Avant-Garde works of the last 50 years. It's awesome to walk through and see how art has changed over the centuries, and observe the transitions from movement to movement. Now I only need to visit the Reina Sofia to complete the triangle!

I also did manage to travel somewhat outside of Madrid in the past couple weeks. A couple friends and I took a trip to Aranjuez - a small town about 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Madrid. It was easy to get there because it is accessible by the Cercanías, which is kind of the Madrid equivalent of Boston's commuter rail, only (like the metro), much much better. So, about Aranjuez: in the 16th century, Philip II decided to be cool and turn it into a royal site and he began construction of a palace, which is pretty much the main (and only attraction) that the city has to offer. Other than that, it's very small (population of about 50,000). BUT the Palace was quite spectacular. I could definitely live there. Spanish Royalty has it made. I haven't actually been inside of the Royal Palace in Madrid yet but my friends told me that the two are pretty similar (because obviously everyone needs at least 2 enormous palaces). But really, it was beautiful and it was a nice little history lesson on Spanish royalty. Also, all the wedding dresses of the current female members of the royal family (Queen Sofia, Infanta Elena, Infanta Cristina and Prince Felipe's wife, Princess Leticia) were on display, which I thoroughly enjoyed looking at and judging for their fashion sense. It was nice to get outside the city, and I might actually go back there when it's warmer because another thing it's famous for is the Strawberry Train. This was the 2nd railway in Spain, constructed in 1851, and they pretty much just give you free delicious strawberries on the ride.

So I have been keeping busy. When the weather's nice, I'll go to Retiro Park with friends, or walk around in Puerta del Sol or Serrano or Goya or somewhere where there's cafes and shops and stuff like that. I know that there's a lot more that I still have to see but I've got time.

Speaking of time...oh how it flies (awkward segue). I can't believe that it's March already. We have a new baby in the family, and another year has gone for me. To be honest, 20 wasn't really a birthday that I'd been greatly looking forward to. It's depressing because your teenage years are over, and disappointing because...well we all know why (although being in Europe, that part isn't really relevant). I did, however, have a very nice time. It was another girl on the program's birthday as well, so a bunch of us went out to the infamous Cave Bar which provides birthday parties with a free bottle of champagne. I also celebrated with my host family, who made me a delicious blueberry cheesecake. Other than that, it was pretty uneventful but that's all I ask for. I'm really just excited to be in Arizona with you all in a couple weeks for Julie's and Dan's wedding. You should expect me to be completely jet-lagged, but I know that it will be worth it for some good family time. Oh yeah, and that whole not traveling until the wedding thing totally did not last. I'm going on a day trip to El Escorial tomorrow, and to Portugal next weekend, so prepare for some more travel blogs!

Palacio Real de Aranjuez


Courtyard at the Palacio


Vanity Shot


Gardens


More Gardens


Sweet Fountain


Delicious Birthday Cake

Caaave

The UAM: A Bureaucratic Nightmare

Ok so, let me just preface this by saying that I am in Spain. Spain as in: a very well-developed country, a respected member of the European Union (political and monetary), and the 12th largest economy in the world. That being said, one would expect that it might not be all the different from living in the states, in terms of standard of living and the use of technology. I've done at least a modicum of traveling in not-so-well developed places and the differences between those places and American life were astounding. Turns out, the differential between the U.S. and Spain is pretty astounding as well. I guess this blog is going to sort of be an amalgamation of some issues that I have been having...

My experience at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (UAM) has been frustrating, to say the least. I thought that all of my bureaucratic issues such as choosing classes, getting my credits to transfer, registering as a student and all that jazz was settled before I got here. Turns out that was NOT the case. Between trying to coordinate with my Spanish adviser at BU, trying to figure out the way the system works here, and the language barrier, picking classes was a total nightmare. Before I came, I thought that any class I took in Spanish would count toward my minor. NOT TRUE. It has to be either a literature class or a "cultural class" (definition up for debate), and fortunately, the program directors here basically told us not to take lit classes at the UAM because Americans never do well in them. Great. I was really freaking out for a while. And I was incredibly jealous of all the people in the program taking classes at the school which is exclusively for American students (Level I and Level II students, I am Level III, LUCKY ME!). After a few battles, I think I've finally got it figured out though.

Ok, after that rant, let me backtrack a little. Obviously I know that my generation (especially in the U.S) is incredibly spoiled by the merits of technology. We can pretty much do anything we'd ever need to do without actually leaving our houses, given we have an internet connection; for example, registering for classes. At the UAM, that's not how it works. If you want to register for a class, you have to fill out a piece of paper, get it signed by like a million people, go to the office of your school (only between the hours of 10-1 because GOD FORBID you interrupt the siesta), and wait for it to get approved. So, when I got here and realized I had to change all my classes I pretty much spent the first 3 weeks living outside of that office waiting for paperwork. Not cool. Seriously, the kid who works there knows me by first and last name. He randomly says hi to me in the hallways. And even once a class gets approved on your so-called "learning agreement," you're still not technically in it until matriculation, which is TOMORROW. Yes that's right, I have been here for nearly 2 months, and I'm still not even technically enrolled in my classes. I have to go there tomorrow morning and wait in what will probably be a ridiculously long line with other international students to turn in a stupid piece of paper. Oh. This actually leads me to a good segue into...

ANOTHER STORY about how they don't embrace the internet for all that in can offer!!! The UAM offers a non-credit Spanish class for foreigners as another way to help us improve our language. Great. I took a test, got placed in a level, and wanted to register. They said registration was a 9:30, but to come a little early because there would be a lot of people. I came at 9, was told to take a number and received number 53. So I waited. Finally, after about an hour, they called my group of numbers up. I walked up 2 flights of stairs, where OH HEY there were 30 people still waiting up there. There was literally one person just calling people into a room, one by one, and writing down what class they wanted. OMG PEOPLE this is 2011, the internet is calling you!!! I know that I sound so spoiled (and I know that I am so spoiled) but it was just ridiculous. The entire ordeal ended up taking about 3 hours.

Anyway, sorry about that tangent. Back to my other classes. After changing my learning agreement a million times and convincing my totally incommunicado BU adviser to let an econ class about Spanish macroeconomic policy to count as a cultural class (my persistence and ability to argue relentlessly and shamelessly have paid off), I think I finally have my classes figured out. I will be taking (assuming all goes well at matriculation tomorrow, which it probably won't) Spanish Macroeconomic Policy and Gender Anthropology in Modern Spain which both count as provisions towards the cultural requirement of my Spanish minor (I'm only taking 2 classes because I did the seminar at the beginning, and then I have my internship, which I haven't started yet either, but that's a totally different frustrating story). I'm actually pretty happy about my classes, because it looks like I will complete my Spanish minor while only having to take two actual Spanish lit classes (1 more when I'm back at BU) which is great for me. I had this huge debate with myself about whether or not I should even finish the minor, because the way the department designs it is for students who just want to read Spanish books and analyze them, which is not the part of Spanish that interests me. I just want to be able to speak it, and speak about things that may be relevant to my career. When I'm talking to some rich Chilean business man, he's not going to care if I can analyze Don Quixote. And neither do I. So I'm really excited about the Econ class because I'm learning a lot of good vocabulary.

So, other than the frustration of actually getting my classes in order, the 2 classes I'm taking have been going well. The Anthro class has lots of international students in it so the professor is really patient and easy to understand. I'm finding the subject material interesting as well - it's kind of an indulgence for me because once I get back to BU I'll be taking all econ and math classes until I graduate. And the Econ class I love. I'm learning a lot of the Economy of the European Union and Spain has such an interesting economic history. I'm the only international student in that class, but students have been really nice to me. We have a group project that's worth 30% of our grade, and people invited me to work with them right away (probably partially just because they want to take advantage of my English speaking skills). We also do these in-class exercises every other class or so and despite not being able to speak very well, I have been impressing people with my mad econ skilz (nerd alert). The first one we did, we were presented with a certain economic scenario and had to discuss if fiscal or monetary policy was the best way to deal with it; everyone in my group thought it was fiscal but I disagreed so I convinced them and we were totally the only group that got it right. Take that you crazy socialists - MONETARISM FOR THE WIN! Now I don't have any problems finding a group :)

The classes are certainly different though. Both my classes have a final exam which is worth 70% of your grade, and a project/paper worth 30%. No midterms, no homework assignments, no quizzes. Your whole grades rests on only 2 things. It's kind of nice in that you don't have a lot of work during the semester, but then if you fudge the final, you're screwed. The teaching style is also different - it's a lot more lecture based than classes in the U.S. You don't even really have to go to class. Literally, the first day my econ professor said "I don't care if you come to class, as long as you do the reading and take the final." Seems like you can either do the reading or come to class, which is kind of true in some American classes but not as many. Usually the reading just supplements the lecture and lots of profs require attendance. I guess that's what happens when education is free - you're not really paying for anything so why should you expect the professors to be extraordinary? Not to say that I don't like my professors, it's just interesting. I guess now I kind of understand better why there's so many foreign professors in the U.S.

So that's pretty much been my life thus far. As I mentioned earlier, I haven't started my internship yet for God knows what reason. They said they couldn't place us until we had our class schedules fixed which took forever obviously. And now I'm just waiting to hear about my placement and I am getting very impatient. All I have is classes on Monday and Wednesday right now - way more free time than I know what to do with. It's very frustrating, seeing as how I've been here for nearly 7 weeks now and I feel like I'm still settling in. I like being busy. Hopefully I will hear something soon, as I am eager to start working and getting even more exposure to speaking Spanish everyday.

Other than that, I've been trying to soak up as much of Madrid as possible, which I'll write a little more about in a separate blog. My host family has been great and my Spanish is getting better and better. I had a conversation with them a while ago that was probably one of the highlights of my life. We were talking about the differences in the Spanish/European education system when compared to American schools and one thing that came up was how college in the U.S. is so expensive while it's pretty much free here. Then I made a comment about how I was lucky because I got a scholarship. Then my host brother says something to the affect of "oh that's awesome, because isn't BU one of the best schools in the U.S"? My response was, "it's a good school but it's not like Harvard or anything." Then all I get is blank stares and "¿Qué es Harvard?" TAKE THAT IVY LEAGUE! Seriously, such a proud moment for me. Rock on, BU with your awesome international prestige. The U.S. World and Weekly News Report has nothing on international opinions. I'm probably more excited about that I should be, but I thought it was very cool.

Ok, that's all I've got for now on this subject, but I will be posting again soon about non-school related things, with a few pictures included.