Day trip!

Sept. 27th

This weekend we took a day trip over to la "cuidad encantada," or Cuenca. We drove two hours just for this view:

They're called the casas colgadas-"The hanging houses." Original, right?

This is me hanging over the edge of the bridge :D

I'm not going to lie- it was kinda a let down after our other trips.

No worries, though. We're leaving again on Thursday for another vacation. 

The Catholic side of Spain

September 19th

Spain is a hard-core catholic country.  To me it seems like the mindset is that "We're catholic; our family has always been catholic; and our children will also be catholic." This makes for some pretty awesome tourist sites-cathedrals, churches, and monasteries.


So this weekend we saw all these things when we took a three-day trip to the northern section of Spain, Castilla y León.

First off, one of the first things you need to know about Catholic Spain is the Camino de Santiago- the Road to St. James. The tradition says that around 814 AD the tomb of St. James was discovered in Galicia (Top left corner on the map.) A church was built on that spot, and as the news spread people from France, Rome, Spain, England, and other parts of Europe began making pilgrimages to "Santiago de la Compostela."

Santiago de la Compostala is still one of the most popular pilgrimages in world.

Pilgrims can be recognized by the seashell they wear somewhere on their clothes, and in the older days they usually looked like this.

Now they look like this:

Anyway, so specifically we went to two places along the Camino de Santiago-León y Burgos.

León

In León we saw the coolest cathedral. La Catedral de Santa María de Regla. It was built in the thirteenth century and in the gothic style that came from France. To me, it looks a lot like the Salt Lake Temple

                               

And it also has about 1800 sq. meters of stained glass-one of the largest in Europe. The cool thing is that it's mostly all original. Over the years, much of the stained glass in other cathedrals has been destroyed, but not here.

I really liked all the symbolism in the cathedral:

      

You can't see it very well, but the 12 flower petal-like things depict each of the 12 Apostles.

The cathedral was positioned so that the brightest light shines through these windows-it happens to depict the Godhead.

It started raining right when we finished the tour, so we waited in this patio-like area for it to clear up. 

This is my friend Rachel.

The next day, on the way to Burgos, we stopped at two cute churches along the Camino de Santiago. 

Burgos...

Next stop-Burgos. Burgos happens to be one of my favorite places we've been to so far in Spain. I basically loved the cathedral...which looks like this:

This was actually just a tiny little "relief" on one side of an altar, but I really liked all the details. This was probably one of my favorite pieces of art in the Cathedral.

This is the biggest orignal stain-glass window in Spain. León has the most, but Burgos has the biggest. 

  But we found the best part of Burgos when we least expected it.

1) Around 5 o'clock-just in time to wake us up from our siesta...

Sorry it's side-ways

2) This randomly in the street...

3) And this...which was epically awesome...

It turns out that the week we went to Burgos happened to be the week of "Las Ferias." So we were witnessing plays in the streets and random festival-like parades because of that. But, we loved it because to us it was so random.

Also Burgos is the birthplace of the legendary "Mio Cid." The story goes that he helped big time with the Christian Reconquest (taking back Spain from the Moors AKA Arabes. This took about 800 years by the way.) Cid is a genuine Spanish hero.

 "Mio Cid."

Yay for vacations in the middle of the semester :D

Extremadura: Just like Idaho

It's true... It's a bunch of farmland, mountains, and John Deere Tractors.

Extremadura is on the far east side of Spain-closest to Portugal. It could be called Extremadure because it's way out in the boonies of Spain, but I decided it's called Extremadura because it's extremely hot.

Anyway, we visited three cities while we were there: Mérida, Cáceres, and Truijillo.

Mérida

The best examples of Roman Architecture in Spain are here:

The Roman Amphitheater-It's been around since about 17B.C!!

This is where the gladiators fought. And also me and Isabel.

But we made it out alive--only to pose as Muses next...

We also saw the Roman Theatre, and after walking around for what seemed like forever, we ran into the Temple of Diana

                                               

Oh, and we found out that in Extremadura, the siesta is still going strong. We got kicked out of the Museum of Roman Architecture BEFORE 3 so by three, there was nobody in the building--or the street.

                                

We're not in Madrid anymore!

Our next stop was Cáceres. Here this city can boast one of the most well-preserved "barrios" in the country. Looking at the skyline of the "old" Cáceres, there's not one modern building. So cool!

  

There's also a huge wall that surrounds the entire old "barrio." We enjoyed climbing that and of course taking pictures-of each other taking pictures.

                          

Trujillo

Our last stop was Trujillo. It's the home of Francisco Pizarro: the one who conquered Peru. And for that, the city has this monument set up for him:

We also climbed the castle here...

...mostly pretended like we were storming the castle, and thinking about how awesome it would be to wake up to this view everyday:

Oh, I forgot to mention that along the way up the hill to the castle, we decided to taste some prickly pear that happened to be waiting for us on the side of the path...

Surprisingly it was pretty good, but the only drawback is that you have to be super careful of the pricklies. 

Basically, our first trip was a success!! More to come!

Una adventura...AKA Spontaneity

I've recently decided that my life needs more Spontaneity. That's one of the reasons I came to Madrid, to become more carefree. Well, maybe it's the relaxed atmosphere or that fact that I am more than 4000 miles from home and no one knows me here, or maybe it's my roommate Jen. It don't know, but today Spontaneity definitely happened-with a capital S.

Here's what happened:

(Me and Jen sitting on our beds, computers on, and just talking)

Me: Wow, we've already been here for two weeks!

Jen: Two weeks? What? So why I am sitting here in this room?

Me: umm....

Jen: Want to go to Madrid?

Me: Sure!

Both of us jump up, get ready in about 7 minutes, and within 20 minutes we're on a train into Madrid, and 30 minutes or so later, we're walking around the Puerta del Sol. The whole time I kept thinking, "We're in Madrid!" I was actually really impressed that we went by ourselves...

We totally rocked the Metro, too, by the way. We didn't get lost, and we didn't get robbed. Go us.

Also, there's this market called the Mercado de San Miguel that has EVERYTHING. It's super overpriced, but we walked by the candy/chocolate section and just had to get truffles!

She kept asking me to take another and another because she didn't think they turned out well. Well I'm just gullible or a blonde I guess because I didn't notice she was making weird faces.

I LOVE IT!

The pain of power convertors

Voltage convertors aren't much of a tricky business, but they smell and just get annoying after awhile. This one didn't want to stay still.

Also, I'm afraid we're going to start a fire.

Soy una madrileña

Here's what it takes to become a madrileña (a citizen of Madrid)


1. Blend in in Madrid: Check.
Today we finally visited the city! We did a walking tour of Madrid, and almost the first thing that came out of our guide's mouth was, "Don't be afraid." Apparently, you only are a target for theft if you stand out--by looking scared/nervous that someone will steal from you.  I didn't get robbed.








2. Visit the Puerta del Sol: Double Check
The Puerta del Sol is near the middle of Madrid and is one of (if not the biggest) shopping centers in the city. It's also the center of arts--plays, theatre, movies--and also of government. It's basically one big street/plaza with little streets branching off. We spent hours walking around the many streets, going through shops and killing our feet. 

King Charles III

McDonalds in Madrid

3. See the Plaza Mayor: Check Plus
We really only just walked through this place but it's sooo cool!! It's been used as a place for markets, bull fights, public executions and of course soccer games.

4. Savor Churros y chocolate: Check but willing to do this again
We found a quaint little chocolate shop on one of the side streets off the Puerta del Sol. Apparently it's famous for its chocolate. So the churros are basically fried dough, then you dip it in a thick chocolate drink. It's fabulous!! (And it was gone in no time)

5. See the old style cathedrals that dot the city: Check
There are so many cathedrals and convents in old Madrid!

6. Enjoy tapas: Check Check Check
Tapas is unique just to Spain, and it's fabulous. People like to drink here-vine, beer, you name it. But our guide told us that they don't drink just to get drunk (like the Americans he said), but that drinking is part of their culture. It's leisurely. And classy. And they rarely get drunk. So tapas are basically food that comes with your drink to prevent you from drinking too much and getting drunk.  Each bar has its own unique types of tapas. So the thing to do is bar hop and try out the tapas at several places. We did that, too.




We went here first...

To eat these...

Alveoli(or something like that), similar to potato salad

Then we went here...

For these....

Yes, I tried the olives and the shrimp-two things I cannot stand!

Finally, we went here...

For these....

Cod-I didn't eat one bite!

7. Live in Madrid: CHECK!
That's a given, I suppose. And since I live in a suburb (Alcalá de Henares), I live in Madrid. Our guide told us that the people are very accepting here, and that they have claimed people (authors, poets, actors) as madrileños simply because they lived in Madrid for a time. If that's all it takes, then soy una madrileña!

Things I have yet to do:
Go inside the Prado Museum
Tour the Palacio Real
Visit the Parque Retiro