Hola from Granada! I am sorry, owe you several blog posts that come from the few weeks before this one, but I figured I should not get behind on what's happening now. Well it's Spring Break and I'm in Spain! No more Italian for me! It's back to Spanish! I took Spanish for 8 years, but learning Italian this semester has made speaking Spanish was very hard. I have been saying si grazie instead of si gracias and come estai instead of como estas. What a mess.
On Friday, I hopped on a plane to spend spring break in Spain with Zoe, Chris, and Sadie. I arrived in sunny Barcelona, but of course my bag didn't arrive! Chris and I met Zoe at the bus station and went to find our hostel- for only 10 euros a night, this place was great! Very clean and high tech, but very close living quarters. There were also weird quirks about the hostel that we soon learned... Like that the overhead lights automatically go out at 12, that the sink was in the room with the shower (which was separate from the toilet), and that the water in the shower didn't stay on...we had to keep pushing the button every 30 seconds to keep the water going.
My return to Barcelona was bitter sweet. It reminded me how much I loved that city; everything about Barcelona is great. It's enough city to be city-city, but it has the resort town feel that calms the cityness down. Everything is bright and light and airy. In contrast, Milan seems so dark, rainy, dreary. I also love that Barcelona is so lively, both day and night. But I had felt like the last time I was in Barcelona I had came and conquered the place. I mostly remembered my way around the city and served as a tour guide for my friends. I was sad that I didn't get in touch with my old host mother- it would have been nice to see her again!
I took Chris and Zoe to Placa Catalunya and into the gothic district where we had lunch. Yumm yumm! Having alioli again makes me so happy inside- alioli is like a garlic mayonaise that pretty much tastes delicious with everything. Afterwards we strolled down Las Ramblas, stopped in La Boqueria (the market) and chilled by the Barcelona port. Being back at La Boqueria also reminded my why I loved barcelona so much- THE FRESH FRUIT! Its just to die for- I get fruit in Milan but there's no market that nearly compares to the deliciousness nor the price! We walked through Parc de la Ciutadella and saw the beautiful fountain there and then saw Arc de Triomf. Another thing about Barcelona that is so great is that it is a very young, lively, creative, and fun city. There were people slack lining, jamming and playing guitar and, juggling in the park. There were people roller blading through mazes they set up for themselves with cups. Everyone is just so chill and casual; its a great atmosphere.We stopped at a little pastry shop by the Arc de Triomf to kill some time before we picked Sadie up from the bus station (her flight came in later than our). Turned out that we fell in love with this pastry shop and came back every day. Chris got these donuts- 6 donuts for 2 euros!! They were amazing and we all feasted on them every day.
Once Sadie joined us, we went looking for our first dinner to kick off our vacation. The stress of midterms and the disorganization of our lives had put us in a slump for a while, so the commencement of our vacation was something to be celebrated. The thing about Barcelona is that food is really expensive, and we have trouble (although we do try) finding the local places that are cheap and still have good food. After wandering and looking for a while, we stumbled upon a restaurant serving 3.50 euro margaritas and mojitos- which in comparison to 8-10 euro drinks in Milan seemed like a steal. The restaurant was a super cute Mexican restaurant! Despite not being Spanish food, it was still great. We went to bed super early since we had a big week ahead of us.
I did not receive my bag until Saturday morning! We woke up on Saturday and headed to La Sagrada Familia, the most famous landmark in Barcelona- Gaudi's amazing church. Everyone was in awe at the gaudiness (lol) and decadence of the building. The line to get in was horrendous and the price was very steep. We decided that we'd try to get into Sagrada for palm Sunday mass the next day. In order to preserve our metro rides, we walked to passeig de gracia and looked at the ritzy stores and Gaudi's other famous buildings: la pedrera and casa batllo. We ended at Placa Catalunya again and feasted on food and fruit from la Boqueria.
Afterwards, we went to the Picasso museum. This museum was great when I was taking my art history class in Barcelona and learning about all of the artwork. I didn't remember much, but it was still exciting to see such masterpieces again. That is one of my favorite things about Europe, seeing the most famous artwork in the world. We concluded the day with squishing some sand beneath our toes at the barceloneta beach and drinking sangria. That night, i wanted to show everyone the magic fountain in Placa Espanya, so we had dinner on top of a mall, which used to be a bullfighting ring converted, which had an amazing night time view of the city. After dinner, to my surprise, the magic fountain wasn't working! What a bummer!
On Sunday we woke up early and headed to La Sagrada Familia to go to Palm Sunday mass. We had heard that it would start at 12 (we got there at 10 expecting to wait in line for a long time to get in), but no one told us it was required to get tickets and to get them way in advance. There was mass in the chapel below the main church, which we made it to just in time for. This was my first mass! It was interesting- kind of what I expected mainly because it was all in Catalan and some spanish, so I couldn't understand it. But I watched people do communion for the first time, so that was interesting. When we got out of mass, there was crowds of people outside sagrada, all with their palms, waiting to listen to the mass going on inside La Sagrada Familia and to see the archbishop and have him bless their palms. What a cool cultural experience. We didn't stay to hear the mass, but Chris waited and did get to see the archbishop.
Afterwards, we headed to Parc Guell which is one of my favorite places in Barcelona. We got off at my old metro stop, Vallcarca, on the green line, and walked to Parc Guell which is a schlep- it is up a huge hill! The view from the top was not great since it was a cloudy overcast day, but Parc Guell is still cool with Gaudi's funky architecture and amazing mosaics. We ate at a real local restaurant nearby and really feasted- for 12 euros we got 2 courses, a drink, and a dessert. Wow! Stuffed, we headed back to the beach to conclude our trip and were serenaded on the beach by a man playing the guitar and harmonica. Of course, our traveling luck, it began to rain. We headed back to our hostel, but because of the pouring rain, ended up stopping in Parc de la Ciutadella's community center and watched a basket game of cute Spanish boys. When the rain cleared up, we made our last trip to the donut shop and then had a light dinner at a local chain restaurant before boarding our overnight bus to madrid!
Oh what a mess. We booked this bus over a month in advance and were the only ones with tickets for the bus. We figured we'd be the only crazies doing an overnight bus for 7 hours. We figured we'd spread out and lie down. Nope- the bus was packed! None of us got much sleep since every few hours we'd make a stop, the lights would go on, and the loudspeaker would announce the stop. It was not the most comfortable way to travel- but it got us to Madrid and it worked out that we wouldn't have to pay for a hostel for that night. We got in at 5:30 in the morning! The metro doesn't even run until 6! We struggled to get to our hostel- no working wifi and no map of the city made it really difficult to figure out. We ran the wrong doorbells a few times, but finally ended up at our hostel. They nicely changed us to a room in a partner hostel that had a room ready for us right then so we could rest before starting the day. Good thing because at 6 am, that city was dead. Not a soul in the streets. So we wouldn't have anything to do anyway. Our room had absolutely no room to walk in, and it was a maze to get there. Through 100 corridors with no labeling- we were definitely in a building out of Harry Potter. We slept and rejuvenated before we began our Madrid adventure.
Of course, it rained and was chilly while we were in Madrid. Plaza Mayor was our first stop. We happened upon a group of people with an umbrella that said join a free tour! Naturally we signed up, but of course nothing is really free... the tour guides rely on tips as their wage. I introduced myself to the tour guides and said: Hi I am Erika. And one guide responded: Hi, I'm from Madrid. I was very confused. Turned out they thought I said: Hi I am from America. LOL. Our tour guide's name was Sebastian; he was cute!!.. He was very enthusiastic and very funny. He used everyone to play parts in Spanish history and explain the importance of buildings and monuments. It was a very thorough tour and we definitely learned a lot. I was the first victim of being used in his history-telling. It was very funny! Boy was it cold and rainy during the tour. During the tour, we saw the oldest restaurant in the world! That was very cool. We also saw the beautiful royal palace! So regal! When the tour was over, we walked to the Reina Sofia museum, which had free hours from 7-9! Reina Sofia is where Picasso's Guernica is held. This is what I was most looking forward to in Madrid. I cannot tell you the number of times that painting has come up in different classes that I've taken. But I had learned a lot about it in that art history class, so I really wanted to see it. The Reina Sofia is a huge museum and there were a lot of people there because it was free. The artwork was mainly modern art- some surrealist Dali, some Miro, some cubist Picasso, photography, and a lot more! It was a great museum, but we unfortunately only had two hours and we zipped through it. When I finally saw the Guernica, I was in awe! Unfortunately you are not allowed to take pictures of it. There was a huge crowd of people in front of it. Chris had never even heard of the artwork before, so when we got to it, he said "this piece of art seems famous." I said "Chris thats the Guernica!" OY! The Guernica is HUGE... GINORMOUS... ENORMOUS! So many intricate details that you can't appreciate in the picture on a computer screen. It's dark and twisted....as Meredith Grey would say. Powerful, disturbing, and enlightening!
We left Reina Sofia and went to dinner. It was our last dinner together! How sad! This was Monday night, which also marked the beginning of Passover. I tried so hard to find a seder for Zoe and I to attend. I emailed and called all the major synagogues. I did find a community seder at the JCC of Madrid, but it would have cost 40 euros per person! :( I was really disappointed Monday night because everyone's Facebook statuses were about pesach, Matzoh balls, and not eating bread. I told myself that I would try to keep Passover to the best of my ability here, but honestly that quickly failed by the next morning when the only options for breakfast are croissants and pastries. We had a very nice dinner on Monday, but being me (a picky eater), I struggled to find something on the menu. Everything in Spain has pork in it! And if it's not pork, it's seafood! Oy! Well, i decided to take a risk and order tempura cod. I don't eat fish, but I figured I should try it (when in rome...) Well, its slimy. Non mi piace. But I should get a lot of props for trying it!!
Tuesday we woke up and walked around Retiro Park. So beautiful. It's very large, so we didn't get to see it all, but we saw this beautiful clear sunroom building, the Palacio Cristal. Outside there was a fountain with a baby turtle and black swans! The swans had red beaks- so unique and very beautiful! Across from the Palacio Cristal was the Palacio de Velazquez. The park in general was beautiful; I just wanted to sit there and enjoy the park for the rest of the day. Afterwards we walked down Gran Via, the major commercial street in Madrid, and met up with a local girl, who is coming to spend next year at Skidmore and living with Zoe in Northwoods! We also met up with Chris's friend. The six of us walked to Placa España and then to Puerto del Sol to grab lunch. Lunch was very nice, but it took much longer than we expected. We expected to have time to go to the famous El Prado museum after lunch before our (Zoe and my) bus to Granada. But there wasn't enough time! :( Honestly I am really bummed that I didn't get the chance to go to El Prado; so much famous artwork is there! Las Meninas by Velazquez! Well, I just keep telling myself that hopefully I'll be able to come back to Madrid and go to El Prado. Zoe and I got churros and chocolate from San Griges Choccolateria before we left Madrid. To be honest, I didn't really like it. Neither the churros nor the chocolate was very sweet. Chris and Sadie went back to Milan to go to Macbeth at La Scala on opening night! While Zoe and I were off to conquer Granada and Sevilla!
I will update you on our adventures soon! WHAT LIFE AM I LIVING THAT I GET TO CASUALLY TOUR SPAIN FOR SPRING BREAK! It really is so amazing; I am so fortunate! I am so sad that I only have 2 months left in Europe!
Ok well wishing you all a good Passover and Easter!
Besos,
~E
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