This past weekend I went to Madrid. Finally.  It was strange to visit the capital of Spain as one of my last travel spots, but that’s just how the schedule happened to work out.  What did I think of Madrid?  Well, overall the city itself isn’t that exciting, especially compared to NYC.  It was more like a mini-Manhattan in most respects than a place that has its own specific and unique culture.  It was nice, though, to be in a larger city again and to have so many options at my fingertips–international food, for example.  We finally had cheap, non-Spanish food when we went out the first night for Indian food (curry!!!) and then later went out for Korean (bi bim bap, how you slay me with your yumminess).

An awesome part about Madrid was all the art and all the museums there.  We went to the CaixaForum (a contemporary art gallery exhibit thing), the Prado (the “most important museum in Spain”) that has all the Spanish painting you would ever want to see, the Reina Sofia (modern and contemporary art), and the Thyssen-Bornemisza (a collection of Western painting from the 13th-19th centuries with large focuses on landscape painting and impressionism).

saw Guernica! (in the Reina Sofia)

We also went to the Basilica de San Fernando, which is the site of the largest dome in all of Europe, and the 4th largest dome in Christianity.  Pretty impressive.  The Basilica is weird because it is literally only the dome and their aren’t any naves or aisles or anything like that.  It is completely and totally decorated with every form of painting, sculpture, engraving, etc. possible.

overstimulation

Made a visit to the Royal Palace, which unfortunately forbade photos inside. Sigh.  Lots of crazily-decorated, rooms, though, and some really strange rooms that involved asian fetishes or something of that sort.

the royal palace

the "asian" room

On Saturday we headed over to Toledo on a day trip.  The city is really cute and the streets are impossible to navigate because you always feel as if you are in a maze.  We managed to see the Conde de Orgaz painting by Greco (!). Ate some marzipan (apparently Toledo’s specialty), went to booksale, bought some gold (gold handiwork/artisanship is very popular there), and much more.

Parque del Buen Retiro in Madrid

We finished off the trip with some chocolate con churros and by going to a HUGE flea market called El Rastro!

yum

I can’t believe that I have less than a month left here in Spain and only a few classes remaining.  This semester flew by, and it was doubly deceiving because for most of the semester I felt like time was at a standstill because everyday was just hot, hot, hot, and sunny, sunny, sunny.  But now that “winter” has finally arrived in Sevilla (re: 50-70 degrees F), it’s like we jumped into a new season all of a sudden and now it’s time to leave.

Well, I’m going to visit one of my friends tomorrow in the city of Almería, located on the Costa del Sol, and we’re going to visit the natural park and possibly also go to the DESERT! Wish me luck. Let’s hope I don’t die of thirst!

]]> http://mementomomento.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/nearing-the-end/feed/ 0 mementomomento http://mementomomento.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/lisboa-lisbon-lisboa/ http://mementomomento.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/lisboa-lisbon-lisboa/#comments Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:40:33 +0000 Melanie http://mementomomento.wordpress.com/?p=195 ]]> Last weekend my friends and I went to Portugal’s capital, Lisboa (or Lisbon as we Americans call it).  The city is very different from Spain and it was a breath of fresh air, so to speak.  The first thing I noticed is that diversity actually exists there.  I hate to make generalizations about Spain and its culture, but really, after having lived here for over 2 months, I’ve gotten tired of hearing “china! china!” or getting weird looks when I walk down the streets of Sevilla and the other cities in Spain I have visited.  Anyways, as I was saying, it was really weird to finally see people of different races and ethnicities socializing with each other in a normal manner. (eeek, I feel as if this post has already ventured into the non-PC category but whatever…)

But on to some of the other things I liked.  I loved the city–how it looked, how it felt, the weather, etc.  The city is like a cuter version of San Francisco.  In order to get into Lisboa, you have to cross the longest bridge in Europe, and it reminds me of the Golden Gate Bridge.  The streets are super hilly and windy, covered with tram tracks, funiculars, and “elevadores” (basically elevators that take you up a steep hill so that you don’t have to climb it!).

We first went to the “modern/contemporary” neighborhood in the city which has the Park of Nations and the Oceanarium! It’s actually the 2nd largest aquarium in Europe, which is pretty impressive.

having fun with the fish

me and VASCO! Vasco (re: Vasco de Gama) is the mascot of the Oceanarium. He is super cute.

Also, throughout the weekend, I was able to eat bacalao (codfish) twice and both times were great!  The first time it was pan-seared and then served with garbanzo beans and the 2nd time it was fried with potato “chips”!  Bacalao has a chewy texture and is a pretty salty fish, and is also the popular/traditional dish of portugal. Total thumbs up.

The pastries there are also really good. We tried a bunch, of which I have no idea what their names are, and the famous pastry called Pasteis de Nata, which is, essentially, a chinese egg tart (dan taht)!  I also found another type of wine that is very good.  It’s called vino verde, but don’t worry, it’s not green. It’s sparkling white wine that works really well with seafood, especially the arroz con gambas, pescado, y pulpo (rice with shrimp, fish, and octopus) that we had our first night there.  The rice was like a combination of paella and risotto, but with more liquid broth, almost like a soup.

Some other quick details:  we went to the top of the city where the Castle is located. The view from the terrace is absolutely amazing, and you can see all the varying colors the houses are painted (green, white, pink, yellow, red, blue, etc.).  There, I also conquered a tower (no biggie):

We didn’t have too much time in Lisboa, unfortunately, because of the extremely inconvenient bus schedules, and there were so many other things that I wish I could have done, also.  Seguramente, I will go back sometime soon and spend more time there!  It’s an enchanting city and I still have yet to figure out what it is exactly that I loved about it.

Anyway, I’m heading out again for yet another adventure, and this time I’m going to MADRID.  Finally.  After traversing through small cities and towns, through hilly countrysides and quaint plazas, I’m ending my travels through Spain with some big hits.  First, this weekend (aka tomorrow, Thursday) I’m going to Madrid.  Then 2 weeks from now I’m heading off to BARCELONA and VALENCIA during the absolutely ridiculous 6-day vacation!

ciao!

In Santiago, we took a chance and decided to try CouchSurfing, which is a network that allows people to meet each other.  Hosts offer their houses/couches for free and the goal of it is to allow for cultural exchange and learning.  I was slighly skeptical of the system as it sounded kind of sketch, but it turned out wonderfully.  We stayed with Marcos, a man in his 40s who has hosted over 300 guests over the past 3 years in his beautiful 3-story house that was chock-full of modern art and a music collection like no other.

the living room

The city itself was pretty small, but some things it’s famous for are the Tarta de Santiago (a yummy almond cake), membrillo (almost like a thick jelly), a cheese called Tetilla (because it is shaped in the form of a woman’s breast…), and of course the cathedral.  The history behind the famous cathedral is that it’s rumored that the remains of Saint James (aka “Santiago”) are buried inside the church.  Pilgrims come from France, Portugal, and other parts of Spain each year in order to reach the church on foot or bike.

We also took a sidetrip to the city of Pontevedra, which all in all is pretty small and boring (although some would call it “quaint”).  I did manage to stalk some elderly people in the main plaza of the city, though:

The second city we stayed in was A Coruña, which was tons of fun.  One of the best parts was the Torre del Hercules, a little hill on the coast that has a large statue of Hercules (hence the name) and the oldest, still-working roman lighthouse in the world!  The place was absolutely beautiful and very, very green, which is why people call Galicia the “Ireland” of Spain.  The sky was perpetually overcast and threatened rain, but that humidity and tenseness added to the overall atmosphere of the city.

We also ate pounds of seafood there–pulpo (octopus), gambas (shrimp), mejillones (mussels), bocarones (anchovies), and so much more.  Galicia is also famous for its vino blanco (white wine), of which there are 2 main kinds: albariño and ribeiro.  Both of them were wonderful and very cheap and are good for seafood.  ahhh food!!!

Overall, I have to say that our trip to Galicia was so much fun.  The region is completely different from the hot and dry of Sevilla and Andalucia, and the food (seafood!) is so cheap.  It’s hard to recount everything that we did, since we were fortunate enough to have FIVE days of vacation (Spain is ridiculous…).

the weekend after I got back from Morocco, my study abroad program brought us to GRANADA for an overnight trip.  Granada is in Andalucia and is most known for its beautiful (and huge) Alhambra [palace].  P.S. fun fact of the day is that the word “granada” in spanish means “pomegranate” (!).

We first went to the Capilla de los Reyes Católicos, which holds the remains of Ferdinand and Isabella from way back when!  Unfortunately, photos were not allowed inside, but being the rebel that I am, I snuck in a few photos, albeit not very well taken nor framed:

We also ventured up to an area of the city known as the barrio La Albaicin, which has a spectacular view of the Alhambra. The viewing area/hill was chock full of people and hippies.  We were dropped off by bus at the top of the hill and then we walked down through the tiny, winding streets that were llena de convents and little shops.

At night, did some exploring and wandering, ventured into a bar for Sangria…

THEN we went to the Alhambra.  This palace is truly ridiculous and so unique.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  The Alhambra is essentially like a mini city inside Granada, enclosed by a large set of walls. Inside the walls, there’s an amphiteater, palace, military unit, and much more.  Gardens encircle everything and water is spread out throughout the grounds:

view of the city of Granada from the Alhambra

Since Granada, I’ve been really busy!  My friends and I traveled up north to the region of Galicia for FIVE DAYS (long weekends here are quite fantabulous) to Santiago and A Coruña, but I have to wait for another time to talk about my adventures there since I haven’t yet had time to upload any of my photos from the trip because of an onslaught (kind of) of 3 midterms.  However, my last midterm is on Wednesday, and for sure I will add something then!

bee tee dubs: I’m heading out of Sevilla again on Thursday for LISBOA (Lisbon) in Portugal =)

Some things stand out in my mind:

1) there are very few women in the streets.  there was definitely a very high male-majority, everywhere.

2) everyone there thought that Yue and I were Japanese…every five minutes some random guy would call out to us and say something along the lines of sayonara, arigato, japan, japonesa, etc etc.

3) everything is dirt.cheap.  We bought 1/4 kilo of nougat for like 1.20euro and had meals that only cost 2-3 euros, including amazing mint tea and bread.

FOOD.

mint tea (my new love)

4) we stayed in a very nice hotel for only $20/night.  It was essentially a beach-front resort with balconies that overlooked the port of Tangier!

the hotel we stayed in

view of the port from our hotel

The first night we were there we all felt slightly sketched out for various reasons.  First of all, when we got there, a travel agency tried to scam us out of 20euro when we paid for our hotel because they thought they could convince us that our confirmation receipt was “incorrect” simply because it “didn’t make sense that such a good resort-hotel could be so cheap.”  Long story short, we got ourselves out of that mess, booked it to the hotel, and paid the CORRECT amount.  Also, that night, when we were sitting in a park in the center of the medina, it was already pretty dark and not too many people were out.  Everything just felt very “OMG WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE”.  We managed to have some wonderful food for dinner, though and bought some really cheap pomegranates and clementines.

The second day, our only full day in Morocco, was really nice. We started off by going to the old palace (Kasbah) which has now been turned into a museum.  The architecture of the palace was so intricate and all the decoration reminded me of the stuff we see in Sevilla (wonder why…heh) but WAY better and much more beautiful.

the museum in the Kasbah

We wandered behind a random tour group into an alleyway and found one of the mosques in the city.

the mosque

The rest of the day consisted of pastries, food, more food, shopping, bargaining, and wandering around the crazy streets of the Medina over and over again.  We also had a run-in with the Tangier-an Mafia (…) but manged to escape with the help of some random local friends we made.

I don’t really know how to describe our experience in Morocco in a blog-entry.  I would actually need to sit down and think a long time before I came up with something that justified everything we did. Overall, though, it was just a LOT of fun and very beautiful.  There were some sketch moments, but I would say that the 5 of us are pretty street-smart so whatevs. lol

the main entrance to the Medina market area

the old armaments of the city (and now the local hangout for the mafia...)

the view at night =)

and so, sayonara until next time.

heading off to Granada for the weekend!

On Friday we decided to explore Salamanca and ended up at the New Cathedral, the Museo de Art Nouveau, the towers in the Cathedral that you climb up, and the Museo de Bellas Artes.

In retrospect, the cathedral was amazing and the exterior decoration was very different  from the Cathedrals I’ve seen in Andalucia.  But while we were there, the church kind of seemed like all the other churches we’ve seen throughout this semester…one thing that was definitely very cool was that we climbed up through the towers of the Cathedral and were able to walk along the inner balcony of the church and the exterior roof!

interior

exterior view (awkward photo)

from the roof!

The Museo de Art Nouveau was in a house called Casa Lis and had a lot of Art Deco, dolls, figurines, etc from the past 2 centuries.  They even had a section for “erotic” art…

the interior of the museum

–

Friday night we ventured out.  Everyone had told us that Salamanca is THE place to BE for a happening night life…but the truth = not so much.  Apparently, rules have become much more strict over the pas 2 years and I have to admit that compared to Sevilla, Salamanca cannot compare (at all).  Even at 3am, we kept awkwardly running into 4o/5o year old ppl and that is just not cool.  The bars and clubs were also awkwardly not crowded…

–

For Saturday, we took a day trip to the town of Segovia, which is about 3 hrs away by bus.  It was pretty painful in the morning because we had to wake up at 7am to catch the bus, but we somehow managed.  Segovia has an awesome aqueduct built during the 11th century.  The stones used for the arches are held together by NOTHING, which I still don’t really understand.  How does that work?  Magic?

the aqueduct

amazing! It looks endless

this is the Alcázar (palace). It's rumored that the castle for the Walt Disney icon is based off of this castle

the inside of the palace

We also ate HALF a chicken, each, AFTER eating a plate of pasta.  And then later we had dessert.  Oh, Menús del día… <3.  In the restaurant, we sat next to the oven where they roast the pigs:

–

Back in Salamanca, we realized how gorgeous the Plaza Mayor is at night!

hundreds of people just hang out here throughout the day and into the night

As a result of our Saturday night shenanigans…all three of us managed to miss our alarms Sunday morning and so we missed the early bus to the city of Ávila. But oh well.  We just ended up taking the one in the afternoon.  Why go to Ávila?  because of las murallas (the walls) that surround the old city.  They are amazing and just completely transport you back to the medieval era!

the view of the walls from the bus

we climbed up the walls! this is a view of the side of the cathedral from the top of the walls

What else is here?  Throw in some yemas (candied egg yolks that are specialties of the convents in the city) and roasted chestnuts (yum!) and we’re good to go!

For the last day (Monday), we wandered around Salamanca one more time to the Convent of San Esteban.  There were some questionable exhibits (re: colonization from the perspective of the conquistadors/church…) and the actual church portion was closed due to a military/religious service (bummer) but it was still awesome!

the exterior

and I’m out. going to Morocco for the weekend in five hours! I <3 Spain!

1) Last week we visited the Contemporary Art Museum here in Sevilla. It is located in an old convent and the current exhibition is about “Image Machines”.  They had all types of artwork involving photos, video cameras, flip books, lights, mirrors, optical illusions, etc.  It was awesome!

a sculpture in the museum

2) Last Friday, my roommate Katie, Yue, and I took a day trip to the city of Ronda, which is about a 2 hour bus ride away from Sevilla.  The city is part of something known as “The Route of the White Pueblos” (La ruta de los pueblos blancos) and is a beautiful city located in a valley with bridges spanning the two sides.  We had some amazing tapas and visited a palace, the house of “el gigante” (the giant), a museum of the Spanish painter Peinado, and the old Arab baths.  More than anything, it was just nice to walk around such a tranquil city.

the view of the valley below

3) Last weekend we took a trip with our study abroad program to the cities of Jerez, Cádiz, and Chiclana.  In Jerez we visited a wine bodega.  That was pretty interesting and we got to look through all the “signed/autographed” wine barrels that the bodega owns.  People like Picasso, Margaret Thatcher (…), the Clintons, etc. have given their approval.

signed by Picasso!

Unfortunately, we were only allowed to take a bus tour of Cádiz…so we essentially saw nothing and were only given a very long narration of the history of the city.  Must return there soon.

In Chiclana, we stayed in a really nice hotel/resort that basically looked like Florida and a retirement community for wealthy people.  The Germans move there often, apparently.

the resort hotel we stayed in!

I’ve actually been really busy with my first 2 weeks of school (for reasons that I will explain in a future post), but still managed to see all these things.  I’m leaving today for Salamanca (near Madrid) and will update when I get back!

Peace. (Paz).

Corridas de Toros (bull fights) are always done with 6 bulls and 3 toreros (bullfighters).  The 3 toreros on Sunday were Antonio Ferrera, Alejandro Talavante, and Daniel Luque.

Ferrera

Talavante

Luque

I would say that overall, the corrida de toros was a cultural event that I’m glad I went to.  It was pretty gruesome, but…  The ring has room for 12,500 people, and I would say that about 9,000-10,000 were there (guesstimation). It was very cool to see so many people and oddly felt as if we were at a football game, más o menos.  Everytime the torero did something “daring,” the crowd would yell bien! or muy bien! or olé!.  That was pretty amusing.  There was a super aficionado sitting next to us and he was very into it.   The whole thing lasted about 2 hours.

the opening procession. the men on the horses are known as picadores

this guy is called a banderillero and is holding really sharp sticks. He's getting ready to "pounce"...

this is Ferrera during his first round

look how many people there were!

Luque during his celebratory walk around the ring. Not to gross you out, but he's holding the orejas (ears) of the bull...

picture of the last bullfight. "action shot"

So each torero has a posse of helpers, including the picadores and banderilleros and some others.  In fact, I didn’t even think that the torero did that much because he only entered the ring/fight near the end when the bull was already weakened.  The torero uses a red cape, but his helpers used a neon pink and yellow cape (which, interestingly, matched the hot pinkness of their socks).

If you are so inclined, you can watch this video clip that I took (sorry, very low quality). But listen to all the people yelling and the band that just happened to be sitting right next to us!  Don’t worry, there’s nothing in it that should make anyone squeamish.  It actually just shows off the “skills” of Daniel Luque, the torero, whom the crowd went crazy over.  He’s only 19 years old…aka younger than ME…what…

Hope this post wasn’t too gruesome!

]]> http://mementomomento.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/oh-the-bulls/feed/ 0 mementomomento Ferrera Talavante Luque IMG_3417 IMG_3444 P9270067 P9270087 P9270134 P9270182 http://mementomomento.wordpress.com/2009/09/26/the-land-of-greek-yogurt-and-honey-ice-cream/ http://mementomomento.wordpress.com/2009/09/26/the-land-of-greek-yogurt-and-honey-ice-cream/#comments Sat, 26 Sep 2009 19:23:03 +0000 Melanie http://mementomomento.wordpress.com/?p=116 ]]> So we took a day trip to Córdoba today with my program.

The city was originally part of the Roman empire, but the reason why it’s so popular now is because of it’s mezquita (mosque) / cathedral that was built during the Islamic rule.  In 711 AD when the Muslims invaded and took over Spain, they began building the mezquita.  It is HUGE.  The mezquita existed for 5 centuries as an actual mosque, but when the Christians took over Córdoba during the Reconquista, they changed it into a Catholic church.  So nowadays, the building is a mixture of arabic and christian elements.

near the entrance. beautiful arabic columns

there are dozens of huge wooden doors surrounding the mosque that let light in.  apparently, when the mosque was originally in use, all the doors were left open so that the light would flood into the interior.  But now they remain closed and the inside is pretty dim:

In terms of the Arabic part of the building, there are hundred of arches made up of a combination of stone and ladrillos (red bricks).  The columns and capitals were taken from the existing Roman ruins in Córdoba and therefore do not match.  There are some made of stone, and others of marble.

awesome column taken from the Roman ruins!

intricate detail!

I loved the arabic half of the church the most because it was so different from everything else we’ve seen so far since I’ve gotten to Sevilla.  I feel like all we ever do is visit different, historic churches and mosques, but the mosque in Córdoba is like nothing I’ve ever seen.  I remember that in high school, I had to do a project on Córdoba where I made this intense like 30-page tour book…and let me tell you that seeing it in person is so different (aka SO MUCH BETTER).

the ceiling of one of the smaller side altars

my favorite picture of the trip. how do things this beautiful still exist, hundreds of years later?

Something I’ve never seen before in the churches I’ve been to in Europe (i.e. in Paris) is the straight-up combo of two completely different styles of architecture in the SAME building.  and it works so well, too.  Here’s a picture of part of the mosque that had the Christian part built on it:

half arabic, half christian

This church is actually the oldest Cathedral in Spain, and was built starting in the 1500s.  Everything is extremely intricate, and the interior is much, much brighter than the Catedral in Sevilla.

the ceiling

a view of the Christian tower. The original arabic tower is actually located inside!

We then walked around the city and through the streets.  one of the “picture-perfect” spots is from a courtyard on the Callejon de las Flores street:

you can see the mosque/cathedral from this angle!

We also saw the Jewish Synagogue–it is TINY.  It’s no longer in use.  The weirdest thing about it is that it was obviously very influenced by Arabic architecture (known as Mudéjar architecture).  It was built in 1350 and is one of only THREE synagogues that survived the Christian Reconquest.

interior of the Synagogue

We walked around the city. I failed to find a good souvenir ( =/).  BUT, my roommate got this amazing ice cream–the flavor was GREEK YOGURT AND HONEY. how awesome is that??

And then we left! :

the Roman bridge

the city of Córdoba

called "tumba elefante"

semi-defiling the tombs...

The city of Carmona was really pretty but I somehow failed to take pictures that day!!!  I blame it on the fact that we had to wake up so early.  Sometimes I feel like I would enjoy our program excursions more if they weren’t WITH the program and we could just go explore by ourselves…but in any case, we visited La Igleseia de Santa María, which was actually being prepped for a wedding later that day.

the interior

exterior

We stopped at a plaza in the center to have Churros con chocolate, but for some reason the shop was out of choc, so we had it with sugar instead.  Still pretty good!

plaza

Then we went to the Alcázar palace of Carmona, which has now been converted into a “Parador”–paradors are sites around Spain that used to be historical treasures and now function as expensive $$$$ hotels.  This was the sick view from the balcony of the Parador:

Kind of felt like being on top of the world.

Puerta de Córdoba

There is also a huge gate in the city, that was originally built during the Roman rule and is now known as the Gateway to Córdoba.

On Sunday we went to the barrio (neighborhood) of Santa Cruz in Sevilla to walk around.  The streets were REALLY narrow.  one of the streets, Calle Agua, even had grapes growing on the overhead trellis/rack thingee!

barrio santa cruz

view of the Catedral

Basically had a very unmomentous week, afterwards.  It was the last week of orientation classes so we didn’t do much and didn’t feel like walking around a lot…But orientation is finally over!!! and we’re starting real University class on Monday!

Good way to finish off the week:

restaurante Habanita!

…and I’m off for a day trip to Córdoba!