jeff and bethany [barcelona, spain]

I didn't have much time to recover before Jeff and Bethany arrived in Barcelona, so I was a little worn out by the time they got here. It was a hard week for classes too. During the week we met up for a few breakfasts and dinners. We ate good meals and had good conversations. I took them to my favorite restaurant Mamacitas and we had a wonderful meal followed by an unexpectedly delicious desert: sliced oranges flambeed in white wine with a brulee on top and chocolate sauce. It was really delicious - just light and unexpected and fresh. One of the best desserts I've ever had, truly.

Friday we took a day trip to the town of Girona, about an hour and a half by train, and happened upon a really cool garden with ruins and a city wall that remained about a third of the way around the city. We walked the entire thing. Again, an unexpected find that was thoroughly enjoyed. After that we went home and cooked a Fish Feast of tuna and salmon that they had bought from the Boqueria Market that morning. We somehow managed to cook the whole meal perfectly and ate until we couldn't eat anymore. It was a really good meal, and homemade at that!

Saturday we went to the port and Barceloneta. It was a nice, relaxing day. At night we headed to Montjuic for the light show at the Magic Fountain. The fountains were built in 1929, which is really quite impressive considering they're still pretty, well, impressive. They play classical music and change the lights and the water - we all really liked it, maybe even better than fireworks we decided.

The visit flew by being so busy, but I was so glad to have them and my only regret is that I couldn't have been a better host! Seeing them made me a little homesick, but I'll be home all too soon I'm sure.

the old and the new [gernika & bilbao, spain]

After checking out and driving for a while, we stopped in Gernika (also spelled Guernica), which is the small and insignificant town that Franco bombed with Hitler's weapons during the Spanish Civil War, you know, just for the heck of it. It's an incredible tragedy and it was fascinating to see just how small and insignificant the town really was. All of the buildings are new because only about 3 buildings were left standing in the entire town after the bombing. I think it was important to know the story first and to have seen Picasso's Guernica to truly appreciate being there. There's really not much to see besides the town hall and their beloved oak tree, but this is what makes it so amazing - because its destruction was just so incredibly senseless and horrible.

Back in the bus we headed to Bilbao with a few scenic overlooks on the way, including the mouth of a river near the city of Mundaka, also known as surfer's paradise. At one time, you could ride a wave for up to 200 feet, but these waves have recently "disappeared." It was a straight drop from the mountain road to the ocean - quite dramatic and a little scary to be driving on in a coach bus. Beautiful though, especially under the descending Basque clouds - thick, gray, and back to normal.

Bilbao showed us the real Basque weather with drizzles and clouds - I would compare it to Holland... or Penn State. First we were dropped off for lunch and wondering in the old city. Once again, carnaval had brought out all the locals and the bars were packed with people drinking wine and eating pintxos. There were vendors outside selling antiques and all kinds of books and collectors' items. Small groups of men with big brass instruments were scattered around playing local music loudly and with much accompaniment from the crowd. I was smiling ear to ear.

After some cool finds in the vendors, I stopped at one of the packed bars for pintxos. I picked out three that looked good and squeezed into a space at the bar to eat. I cannot even begin to explain how delicious they were - I don't even know what they tasted like or why they were so good or even what they were, but it was the most flavorful, exciting food I have ever had. I went back and got two more and ordered a glass of wine. The bartender gave me some white wine that he explained was made in the area and very popular. The wine was refreshing and crisp, not too sweet, and a perfect partner to the pintxos. Squeezed in a crowd of damp locals with the upbeat music reverberating in the little square, I had the best meal of my life.

About to explode with joy for my love of the Basque country, we headed over to the Guggenheim Museum and continued to explode. It is easily the most intriguing building I have ever seen. It is so beautiful and modern and just interesting to look at. I escaped from the tour group and walked through the galleries, though I didn't have very much time before we had to leave for the airport.

It was painful to leave knowing that it would be a very long time before I return, if ever. The rocky coasts, the crashing waves, the blue water, the green grass, the sheep lining the hills, the old, the new - It hurts to think about, like thinking of a lost love. The Basque country will always be deep in my heart.

better off alone [hondarribia & san sebastian, spain]

In the morning we took a bus up to Monte Igueldo, a mountain next to the beach. It was extremely windy and cold but had some amazing views up the coast. Being up there looking over it all made you feel as though you ruled the land... spectacular.

Back on the bus I slept heavily until we arrived in our next destination: a coastal village called Hondarribia. It was very resort-y, aka clean, bright, and generally wealthy. However, off-season there are very few tourists so we were able to mix with the locals a bit. Being carnaval, there were a lot of people outside of cafes and in the streets. There were the old men in their berets (or "txapelas" in Basque - also the name of one of my favorite restaurants in Barcelona that serves Basque food). There were children playing. There were songbirds singing. And I'm not exaggerating - I could have filmed a movie.

I took off on my own to the beach and walked around for some pretty views. Nothing too amazing, but very pretty and clean. Remarkably clean, actually. I started to get hungry as I headed back to the town so I ducked in to one of the many bars serving pintxos, their version of tapas, and ordered calamari and patatas bravas. It was the best calamari I have ever, will ever have in my life. Enormous, thick strips cooked absolutely to perfection with crispy, fresh breading - I was in heaven. I ate every last crumb and smiled with satisfaction...

Back in San Sebastian I was forced again to play tag-along because I really wanted to go into the old city for carnaval. Unfortunately, we ended up at an Irish pub because it was "where the locals go." (I'm sorry, isn't it an Irish pub??) I had a few tequila shots to numb my irritation and enjoyed the few locals who stopped by in costume. (The picture shown above is from my brief encounter with carnaval the night before.)

blue water, green grass [getaria & san sebastian, spain]

I signed up to go on the IES trip to San Sebastian before I really knew anyone. I figured I would have at least one friend on the trip. I was wrong. Luckily, the beauty of the Basque country (or Vasco) made up for my lack of companions, and my only complaint was having to be stuck with anyone at all - I would have much rather done the entire thing alone. I met a handfull of nice people, but the rest just plain sucked.

Now, about the actual place... As soon as we flew in over the bright green rolling hills and bright orange rooftops I knew I was in love - yes, again. I forgot what green looks like, Barcelona being so dry, and I forgot how pretty it is. It was like driving into North Carolina in late spring - just so noticeably green. This is of course due to the large amounts of rain that fall in the Basque region, but we had what was considered an extremely lucky weekend and enjoyed the sun and a few fluffly white clouds.

The first place we stopped coming out of the adorable Bilbao airport was the small fishing village of Getaria. One of the first things you notice about the Basque is their strange language known as Euskara. Even linguists are stumped on its origins because it is so unique and unrelated to other languages in the world. Lots of X's... Anyway, Getaria was phenominal. It was small and colorful and had some unbelievable views of the ocean. Not to mention the mountains just rise right off of the beach. Like I said, blue water, green grass. I couldn't get enough of the town, but we were back on to the bus all too quickly to get to San Sebastian.

I suppose San Sebastian would be considered a city, but it seems more like a historically-enriched resort town to me. The beach is enormous, and in the shape of a shell that's split in half at high tide and one complete beach at low tide. It's famous among surfers for its incredible waves, though they weren't much when we were there. That's my one complaint (if one could complain) about the Mediterranean - no waves. We went down to the end of the wall that surrounds the cove to where it meets the rocky coast and watched the waves crash and explode into the air.

After that we did a short tour of the old city (standard old town), went back to the hotel for a nap, and then went out for some dinner. I had to tag along with some girls I didn't know, which was all going great until I realized I had encountered another group of 'I-really-just-want-a-hamburger' girls. The Basque region is renowned world-wide for its phenominal food and we got hamburgers. "I'm lactose intolerant." "I don't like seafood." "I think they only serve fish there." It took everything in my body not to begin pounding every one of them. After that I really wanted to stay in the city for the carnaval activities going on all around us but of course they wanted to go back to the hotel because it was raining. I just thought that made it better... I really missed Sam.

recap... [barcelona, spain]

I know, it's been a while. I'll start where I left off. The weekend started with meeting up with my friend Olly, the Aussi from London. I'll keep it brief for my own sake: I don't remember the order of things but here's what we did...

On Friday we went to Sagrada Familia (time two for me). It was just as beautiful as ever. Saturday we saw the first festival of the Castellers, or human towers, and Gegants, or giants. It was one of the coolest things I've seen since I've been here. Nobody does festivals like the Spanish, I must say. The towers consisted of a mass of large men as the base, smaller men next, then women, and then children - with a very tiny child at the top. They're amazingly fast at it and it's really fascinating to see. Building a human tower takes talent. We also climbed to the top of Montjuic (quite a hike) to see the Castell de Montjuic. It had amazing views of the city and was practically isolated, even on a Saturday. Relaxing, despite the hike.

Sunday we walked down to the port and the beach. The beach is by no means beautiful, though I've heard if you walk for a while they get prettier and prettier (not to mention nuder and nuder). There were some cool modern sculptures in the area. I'll be back for a tan, I'm sure. That night we bought some tickets to the FCB game on the streets from two guys. They were family passes so we got to sit level with the field behind one of the nets. Since that area is all family tickets, everyone there was really hardcore fans and they were getting into the game and being really loud and crazy - I felt at home! Definitely a great way to experience a game.

Add in a few dinners and cafes, and that was pretty much the weekend!

ready for the weekend [barcelona, spain]

I had a minor anxiety attack in Spanish class. Really, an hour and 45 minutes every single day is too much. Especially when I'm in a class that's way too advanced for me. I just had this uncontrollable urge to leave. It was pretty bad, but I get that way from time to time. Then I tried to go to the gym which continued to stress me out, so I just went home, skipped my Environment class, and returned for Spanish film a little more relaxed. Sometimes I just need to take a break and regroup.

By the time I got home it was pretty late, but I was feeling a lot better. I decided not to go out and get some rest to be ready for my Australian guest for the weekend. I'll finally do some more sight-seeing in Barcelona!

to sum up the past 3 days [barcelona, spain]

While I work to recover the weekend in Paris from my memory, I'm just going to sum up the past three days in this one because they were a little boring. Monday we got back from Paris just in time for me to haul my backpack to my film viewing at the IES center. It was a rather interesting film - Spain has very different taste from the U.S. - but at least it kept my attention. I finally made my way home after some confusion trying to get a new metro pass and nearly collapsed from exhaustion.

Tuesday I don't even remember too clearly, even though it was yesterday. I went to Spanish, which sucked just as much as it always does. I pushed the gym back a few hours in my schedule to go get some lunch at my favorite tapas place, Txapela, where I got 3 dinner tapas and 2 desert with tea and a bottle of water for just 10 Euro. (I know that doesn't sound cheap, but it is for Plaza Catalunya.) Then I went to one more class, decided against the one after that and went to the gym. I picked up some random stuff at Corte Ingles, which cost way too much for some lotion and toothpaste, did my grocery shopping, and came home. At night I discussed my post-finals travels with Jen, her brother, and her boyfriend on a conference call on Skype. I think we might be headed to Greece. Yay!

Today, Wednesday, was just like always. I went to Spanish (guess what - it sucked), the gym, art history, salsa class, and came home. Salsa was a lot of fun. We had a "substitute" salsa teacher who was a very attractive Dominican man who all the girls were infatuated with. Every time he asked "does anyone need help?" suddenly nobody seemed to remember the steps. It was a really good time. Lots of laughing.

So that sums it up, mostly just a week of catching up with life. Though I can't seem to ever catch up, but I suppose that's the excitement of being here. I'll keep updating Paris. I send my love to the States!

can't get enough [paris, france]

We got up around 10am and set out for our next exciting journey to the Catacombs, a little nervous. We stopped to have the worst breakfast ever, which stuck in our stomachs for quite a while. At the Catacombs we were a little nervous as the steps went down and down and down. It was kind of a creepy small tunnel underground. I wouldn't suggest it if you're extremely claustrophobic, but it wasn't as bad as I would have expected being a few hundred feet underground with 5 or 6 million dead people would be. It was really cool and we were really glad we ended up going.

After that we decided to go to Pompidou, the modern art museum that's constructed with all the "insides" showing (ie. pipes, et cetera). It just so happened that we were there on the first Sunday of the month, which is the day of free entrance to museums in a lot of Europe. There was a huge line which we cut a bit and got in pretty quickly. It was hard to find our way around with so many people but what we discovered was a really amazing view of the city. Probably the best we got the whole trip. You could see Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, and Montmartre, along with a bunch of other landmarks, all from the same balcony. The sun was just starting to set and it was really beautiful, in a romantic kind of way. We were jealous of all the couples. We went inside the one gallery they left open for the masses, which had hundreds of modern paintings, many of which were very very famous. I wish I could go back well-rested, with less people, and by myself so I could really enjoy all of it, but at that point we weren't really in the museum spirit.

We left, got some Paris t-shirts (for some reason you just want a million souvenirs from the place) and did a little bit of really cheap shopping. It was about the same prices as here, but for much better fashion. It made me realize that Barcelona is a bit of a "poser" city. They want to be as chic as places like Paris and London, but they just aren't. Barcelona - stop trying so hard.

Next we went to the Eiffel Tower to get on a boat tour. We of course pit-stopped to get some more pictures of the tower. Right when we got there it started the sparkling light show. It was magical, really. We sat on a bench and enjoyed the moment, and then strolled down to the river. The tour was so nice, but we were too stupid to go out of the covered part until the very end to get pictures. The view of Notre Dame was absolutely awesome and all the places along the river looked like they were created for marriage proposals. Once again, we envied all the couples.

After our tour, still on our Parisian high, we went to a restaurant near the Eiffel Tower and had a long and delicious meal. We toasted to us, to Paris, and to our parents for making it all possible. By the time we were done we forgot the metro closes early in Paris and had to sprint there, where we made the first train but not the second. We had to get out of the subway and take a taxi. But we did get one last look at the Arc de Triomphe.

Ahh, Paris.

tres bon [paris, france]

We got plenty of sleep and woke up at 9am to get out and see everything we could manage. First we walked up to Montmartre. We stopped at a boulangerie and got some good breakfast and then had coffee before walking up the steps to the top. It was cold but there were perfectly blue skies, so we got really lucky on weather.

At the top we saw the Sacre Coeur basilica, which was a very pretty clear white against the blue sky. It wasn't too impressive inside, other than being notably spacious. The view, however, was quite impressive. You could see the whole city, again the Eiffel Tower, and it was just like this little haven way up above all the buildings.

We walked into the rest of the neighborhood on Montmartre, where we discovered the very famous little square of artists not far from the Sacre Coeur. There were tons of painters all set up in stands right next to each other. The paintings were selling for quite a bit of money, actually, for an outdoor market. Maybe I'll move there to work... It was a really beautiful little neighborhood. We got some more crepes and walked to find what we thought was the Moulin Rouge. It turned out to be the wrong moulin but that's alright. It was pretty anyway.

We walked back down to our hostel and did some super-cheap shopping along the way. After re-charging our cameras we took the train to the Eiffel Tower. Once again we freaked out when we saw it. I felt like a child - it really makes you just want to skip or fly a kite or something. Difficult to explain except that it's the Eiffel Tower. So, needless to say, we took about a million pictures from every possible angle and then finally pulled ourselves away to see the Arc de Triomphe.

We walked for quite a while to get to the Arc, which was a tad anti-climatic at that point. From there we walked down Champs-Elysees. It would have been better if we had lots of money because it's mostly just your basic international designers. Really all I was thinking about was the song Oh, Champs-Elysees we learned in high school. We turned off of the road at some point and ended up at some museums, a palace, and a really beautiful bridge. We took more pictures and then decided it was time for dinner. We wondered to some random restaurant where we ironically ran into some friends from IES, who invited us to go out with them at night. We accepted and then had a really delicious meal before heading home to nap and get ready.

We eventually got to our friends' hostel after some somewhat frightning harassment from the locals. (By the way, the men are way worse in Paris than they are here.) At their worlds-nicer hostel we had some wine and then headed out for the bars. I'm not exactly sure where we went but there were a lot of bars and clubs in the area. We hung out for a little and then Jen and I got tired and decided to head back home. The taxi wasn't nearly as expensive as it would have been here, and the driver commented on the terrible area our hostel was located. Yes, we know.

paris 101 [paris, france]

We got up at 4:45 to leave by 5:15 to get to the airport for our flight. We had an interesting time with the check-in lady who felt the need to put our backpacks in plastic bags and then remind us that our bags "would be in plastic bags when we claimed them." Yes, thank you. I would hope so.

Our flight was fun because we're both a little afraid of flying, so we were both a little nervous. But it landed safely and slowly (unlike RyanAir which apparently "drops out of the sky"). In Paris we had quite a time figuring out the trains/metro because they all run out of the same station and it's a very complicated system.

We finally got to our hostel, Friend's Hostel, which was in fact in a "dodgy" area like the online review suggested. The entrance looked more like a strip club than a hostel, but you can't really complain for 18 Euro a night. Upon opening the door to our room we were immediately faced with the 4 beds - 2 bunk beds that squeezed perfectly in between the walls. It smelled kind of bad, but we were relieved to see Dior bags on the other beds, which we believed meant that we had female roommates. Later we found out that they were two Swedish guys who were in Paris for fashion week. Interesting, but at least I wasn't worried about them stealing my Target jeans.

We left and decided the Louvre was a good place to start the trip. It was enourmous and rather exhausting to get around but there was no line and not too many people there. Some people get week passes to see the whole thing, and I can understand why. There are so many famous paintings and statues in that building they can't even mark all of them as numbers on those little tour headphones, so people were just strolling past some of the most famous paintings in the world. It was incredible. The Mona Lisa was anti-climatic, as you've probably already heard, but at least I can say I've seen it. Plus there were so few people we could stand as close and for as long as we wanted to. My personal favorite was the Winged Victory of Samothrace. It's always been one of my favorite statues but it was really worth seeing in person. It's unreal. I mean, what you see is this figure draped in a sheer and flowing dress... something that just registers that way in your head, but then if you think about it - it's made out of stone. Stone. And you see a delicate, sheer fabric. Unreal.

After about 4 or 5 hours of some serious art history, we ventured out to the courtyard with the big glass pyramids. Good to see in person, hard to photograph. We walked a little bit and caught our first glimpse of the distant Eiffel Tower and nearly peed our pants. For some reason it was just so exciting to see. To me, usually when I see a place I've seen in a million photographs it's just kind of like "yep, that's really what it looks like," but this was completely different. It was like spotting a celebrity at a restaurant. It was just kind of there, hangin out on the Parisian skyline. Oh yeah, hey Eiffel Tower, what's up with you today? So cool. Go to Paris.

Next we walked along the Seine River and realized that Paris is the most beautiful city in the world. Everything looks like it was made to photograph. It is so beautiful it hurts to look at. You just can't stop. We walked to Notre Dame. Again, perfect. Not the most elaborate cathedral I've been in but it was very... gothic. Beautiful in a very simple way. All gray inside, no gold-leaf or big marble statues, but monumental. We had our first crepe nearby (with Nutella - truly changed my life) and then wondered until we found a good restaurant in what we now believe was probably the Latin Quarter (we were a little lost). We found a small restaurant/bar and experienced yet another wonder of France - the croque monsieur. It's basically ham in between two pieces of toast with cheese melted on top. There's variations of course; mine had an egg and Jen's had tomato. We were in heaven. It was the perfect way to end a perfect day in such a perfect city.

bangs [barcelona, spain]

Today I decided to skip the gym and get some bangs cut because... well, why not? They ended up a little shorter than I wanted, but I only spoke Spanish and hair grows right? It was a good change. I felt like I was starting a whole new life! Okay, maybe a new day? Anyway, it was a freeing experience. I really felt like I was free, and away from home. Good deal for a 5 Euro set of bangs.

The night consisted of packing for Paris - not too bad either!