Aranjuez

Immediately after visiting El Escorial, the plan was to travel to Valle de Los Caídos, which is where Franco (the horrible dictator of Spain) is burried, but after consulting the taxi driver, we learned that doing so would be impossible. We explain why in the following video. Instead, I made the decision to travel to Aranjuez, a city about 45 minutes south of Madrid. We did this the same day as El Escorial, mind you. We were feeling extra adventurous. The following video is on the wa to Aranjuez.

After a few mishaps with taking the wrong train from Atocha in Madrid, we finally arrived in Aranjuez with just enough time to grab some dinner. Ha ha. It was worth the trip, though, because I love exploring new places. Once at the train station in Aranjuez, we took a bus (much to the endangerment of our health) to the city center in search of a plaza. Everyone was hungry, and Heather (once again) had to use the restroom. Here is part of our search for a restaurant…

Although we never found a plaza, we did find a quaint little Italian restaurant with a terraza, so we settled. It turned out the be an entertaining dinner. There was a family sitting near us at a table, and their son was hilarious. To us. I’m sure to his parents he was extremely embarrasing, but something about kids speaking Spanish makes the laugh anyway, and his wild antics were even more entertaining. Check him out. He’s the one in the lime green behind Katrina.

After a while, I think he got bored. So… he decided it would be a good idea to go inside the restaurant in search of a restroom, and comes out with a handful of straws. After depositing them in his glass, he goes back in for more. He did this about 10 times and each time, he would come out and say to his mother, “¡Otra paja sin pedir!” (“Another straw without asking!”). As Katrina says, “That boy is going to Hell in a hand-basket.”

After a glorious Italian dinner, we knew it was time to head back to the train station to catch a train back to Madrid. While waiting for a bus, Lauren decided to sing to us. Too bad we didn’t put out a container to ask for donations.

El Escorial

As the trip drew to a close, we had yet another free weekend- in fact, it was the one right before we left. Although we had been in Madrid for the majority of the trip, I hadn’t really gotten the chance to explore the smaller cities surrounding the capital city, so it was during this weekend that I took the opportunity to do so. First of the list? El Escorial.

I should probably mention that I have been to El Escorial before. When I went to Spain 5 years ago with a group from high school, we visited El Escorial. Guided tour. The works. However, this visit was a breath of fresh air. Going with a group is always stifling to me. I don’t know if it’s feeling like a tourist or having someone telling you what to do and when to do it that irks me most, so being able to do it on my own was refreshing.

El Escorial is located about an hour by train to the northwest of Madrid, in it’s own little town. For those of you that may not know the history, El Escorial was the palace of the king of Spain and also serves as a monastery as well as a crypt, housing many of the kings and queens of Spain. Being down in the crypt in the presence of such great rulers was really a humbling experience, and the amount of gold leaf was overwhelming. Unfortunately, videos were not allowed in the palace, so I was only able to capture the essense of the palace itself. I apologize for the sound quality of this one. The wind was blowing really hard.

The next video was taken in an interior courtyard right before entering the king and queen’s apartment.

Libros, Libros y Más Libros

Most of you know that I love books, but many of you may not know I have an obession. I think I make up for my lack of athletic skill with my intellectual obsession with reading. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again- I think books were God’s greatest gift to humankind. You can learn everything you need to know by reading.

Lately, my interests have shifted a little. During the summer,  I usually like to read what I call nonsense books- books with little to no literary value. However, having taken Spanish Civilization last semester and being in Spain, I decided to scour the bookstores of Spain for Spanish literature. I must confess that before this trip I had very few books in Spanish, but afterward, I have something resembling the beginning of a small library. I did buy nonsense books, but I also bought some Spanish literature.

The bookstores in Spain are absolutely fantastic. You won’t find a Borders or Barnes and Noble on the streets of Spain, oh no. But you will find little jewels like the following bookstore, tucked away in between two buildings or hidden in a small alley. It’s in these stores that you find the best prizes, and I searched for one in every city we went to. In this particular book store, I found some Valle-Inclán, Azorín, and Machado, along with some nonsense books. It took a little digging, but it was well worth it.

El Metro de Madrid

One of the things (that could be considered positive or negative) about living in a large city is that there is usually some sort of public transportation, and Madrid is no different. American cities offer very little public transportation- forcing the use of cars, which feeds our addiction to oil, but that is the subject of another blog. In Europe, though, very few people use cars for daily transportation. In Madrid, those that do live in the suburbs or are higher in the social hierarchy. For those that can’t afford cars or gas or don’t want to own a car, Madrid offers very reliable public transportation including a metro and buses that transverse the city.

While in Madrid, I rarely used the buses, but I begame intimate with the metro. You see, I lived in Herrera Oria, which is located about 40 minutes by metro from ENFOREX, the school where I studied. Using the metro wasn’t convenient, but it was necessary, and I grew used to my route, the people I would see every morning, and the entertainers stationed throughout the metro trying to earn a few euros. In fact, I kind of miss it now that I think about it. At first, the metro seemed foreign to me, but after a while, I felt secure. Knowing that I didn’t know what the day would offer me, I always knew that the metro ride to and from school would be the same, and that was conforting. Especially in a city where I knew very few people. Since I became friends with the metro and it’s many routes, I thought you should too, so without further ado, I present the metro of Madrid…

… and we met some friends this particular day as well.

Salamanca

The majority of the weekend in which we visited Segovia and Avila was devoted to Salamance. We made the journey to Salamanca on Friday afternoon, checked into the hotel (which was horrendous, but I didn’t care because I got a private room), and then spent the day Saturday exploring. This is a good place for me to make a comment about the organization of this trip. There were several things I did not like about the organization. Number one- when we signed up for this, it said all-inclusive weekend excursions. They were anything but all-inclusive. About the only thing that was paid for was the hotel. We had to pay for transportation, sight-seeing, etc. Number two- the guidance that was offered was little to none. When you sign up to go on excursions in a foreign country to famous sights, you expect someone to show you what to do and where to go. We got none of that. Those in charge basically were just like, “Okay this is what you need to see. Have fun.” We were offered very little assistance.

Anyway, on Saturday, the first thing I did was go to the cathedral. Our hotel was located across the river from Salamanca (one of the things that made me not like it as much), and the cathedral was located on the road to the center of the city. So, we stopped by. In the middle of mass. Having very little knowledge of Catholicism, I had no idea it was mass. I actually thought it was a wedding. HA! But, I soon discovered otherwise. You can see in the video that we entered right as it was starting, and actually got trapped inside.

After living the Cathedral, we stumbled upon (literally, it was an accident) the old University of Salamanca, one of the oldest in the world. Here, I filled up the memory on my iPod, so I had to cut the video short, but I think it’s worth posting, because the old classrooms are super neat… and I fell in love with the library. I wanted to go in so badly!

To finalize an awesome day, we made our way to the Plaza Mayor for lunch. There, we found a huge hot-air balloon that people were taking “rides” in. Basically, they lifted it about 50 feet from the ground and came back down again. Big deal…. but I must say, you wouldn’t find that in the United States, so it was pretty cool. I love plazas, and this one is no different.

Segovia: El Aqueducto y El Castillo

The same weekend that we went to Salamanca and Avila, we went to Segovia. Much like our stop by Avila, we didn’t have much time to explore Segovia. Segovia is well known for its famous aqueduct that dates back to times when the Romans invaded and took control of Spain. You can actually climb up the aqueduct and walk along it (much like the walls of Avila), but we had too much to see and didn’t get a chance to. We did climb up part of the way, though, and got some amazing views of the valley below.

After seeing the aqueduct and losing one of the leaders, we headed for the Castillo de Segovia. The path that led us there was one of winding streets and small shops owned by locals. Segovia is a small town (again, like Avila) and the people were super friendly. Arriving at the castle was awe-inspiring. In case you didn’t know, Walt Disney used the castle of Segovia to create the Disney castle, and it is aparent why. The inside is like something from a fairy tale and the outside, with it’s blue shingles, definitely resembles the Disney castle.

I ran out of video space, so I had to begin and new video.

The outside is stunning. I’m not sure if you can tell, but it actually sits on the edge (and I mean very edge) of a cliff, and we actually drove below it and took pictures. It’s even more stunning when viewed from down in the valley.

Flamenco en Granada

Flamenco, for those of you that do not know, is both a type of dance and a type of music. It is basically the “blues” of Spain, characterized by sadness and sharp dance movements. Although I didn’t know it, Flamenco origionally comes from southern Spain and because we were in Granada (a city in southern Spain), I saw it fit to go see Flamenco. We were told that you can usually find Flamenco in the lobby or dining hall of hotels on the weekends, but after searching for a while, we gave up. Instead,  I decided to go ask a hotel manager where we could go to see some authentic Flamenco. He gave me an address and we hailed a taxi which took us up to the hillside opposite that of La Alhambra, giving us a magnificent view of the compound at night illuminated with a million different lights. It was really a sight. I tried making a video, but it didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped.

The Flamenco was fantastic. I had never seen Flamenco live, and it was surprisingly enjoyable. I really didn’t care for Flamenco music before going on the trip, but after seeing the passion in the dancers and hearing the emotion in the voice of the singer, I like it much better.

Barcelona: Parque Güell

On our last day in Barcelona, we decided to go to Guell Park, which is famous for it’s architecture by Antoni Gaudi. Gaudi’s architecture is really unique, characterized by colorful mosaics and curves. However, getting to the park was an adventure in itself. We took the metro to the Guell Park exit and upon exiting, we saw a huge moutainous hill in front of us with about 5 escaltors taking people to the top. We really didn’t have the slightest idea if we were going in the right direction, but up we went. It was the right direction and the view from the top was gorgeous. I think we went in at the back of the park and getting to the main pavilion was a chore, but the nature trail that led down was amazing.

We finally found the main park entrance (where all of the Gaudi architecture is located) and my dreams came true. I had built up expectations after seeing all of the pictures of the famous dragon/lizard, the mosaics, etc. and I must say, it exceeded my expectations. Everything about the park was impressive. Really cool stuff.

Barcelona

So I just realized that I haven’t posted all of the Barcelona videos, so here they are. The first video is of this very cool musical group that we met on the boardwalk near the beach. Their music reminded me of something that would come out of the Carribean, so naturally I had to buy a copy of their CD.

The next day, we decided to head back in the direction of the port, but this time we decided to check out La Rambla and La Boquería. La Rambla is a very famous street in Barcelona that is extremely wide and has a abnormally large median where you can find vendors selling flowers, souvenirs, etc. There are also street performers and tons of people everywhere. La Rambla is especially known for pick-pockets, but we didn’t see a single gypsy or enounter any problems.

La Boquería is a fresh air market located right off from La Rambla. In fact, if you take the metro to the La Rambla stop, you come up right in front of the market. Although we didn’t get to go to La Boquería the day we explored La Rambla, we decided it would be worth it to return and check it out, and that we did. The colors in the market were astounding. Everything from fruits and vegetables to meat to nuts to deserts was sold there, and everything was vibrant. The venders yelling the prices and quality of their products made it seem surreal, and I had to get a video.

Ávila: La Ciudad de las Murallas

The city of Avila is an old one. This tiny city (well, it’s more like a town) is located to the north of Madrid in the rolling hills/mountains. It is well known for it’s famous walls that completely encircle the city. There are also some very interesting Roman ruins located here, but we didn’t have time to check those out. You see, when you go on a trip with a group, you usually have to follow a schedule, and our schedule left very little time for exploration in Avila. About 3 hours at the most. We came, and we went. However, we did have time to see the walls, climb the walls, and enjoy the view.

When we first got to Avila, we were starving. Breakfast that morning had been extremely light, so by 11 we were hungry. So, I head off in no particular direction to find food, not knowing that I was actually heading away from the walls, through which we were supposed to pass. This video was made right after we realized this and got back in the right direction. By this time, we still had not found anywhere that was open, but our luck changed after entering the walls. It was a little pricey, but the food was good.

After lunch, we decided to climb the walls, which costed a mere 2 euros (más o menos). After hard journey up some steep stairs, we were rewarded with an awesome view. You could see literally for miles, and it was a beautiful day. Sometimes you have moments when you just saw, “This is what it’s all about.” This was one of those moments for me.