OK, I’ll be quick about today. Basically…it can be summed up into our modes of transportation getting back to our flat in Swansea:
Taxi…to airport
Plane…to London Stansted
Bus…to London Liverpool St.
Tube…to London Paddington
Train…to Swansea
Walk…a long 30 minute hike up to our flat
And, we’re home! Well, “home”, but you know what I mean. Thanks for reading everyone, and I hope you enjoyed it. Our trip of a lifetime has come to an end. ☺
Monday, 23 April 2007
Day #28 - Ending at the Alhambra
Once again hard to believe, but today is our last actual day of the trip. This is it…
We started the day off bright and early – at 6:30 am! We got up, ate, and sped-walked a steep 15-minute hike up the Alhambra to stand in the ticket line, which was already a couple hundred people long by the time we got there. You see, at the Alhambra, you have to book reservations months in advance, which we didn’t do, so the only alternative is to wait in line the day of. It’s wasn’t so bad though, once the ticket office opened at 8, since the line kept moving. I think we got in right at 9.
Some background (courtesy of Rick Steves, of course): The Alhambra itself was the last Moorish stronghold in Europe, and over 2,000 people used to live within its walls. Then in 1492 – quite the prolific year here in Spain - the Christians defeats the Muslims, and seven centuries of Muslim rule in Spain came to an end. Sucks to be them.
Our first stop was the biggie: the Palacios Nazaries. This was the exquisite royal palace, with room after room of amazing Moorish architecture and decorations. Lots of patterned ceramic tiles, Arabic-scripted walls, and carved ceilings. We saw the Sultans’s room, the fountain of the lions - minus the lions (why does every museum we go to have the cool stuff under restoration?!), some cool reflecting pools, and some more cool hexagon-ily domed rooms with great views of Granada. We had to battle past countless tour groups of 80 year olds to see everything, but it was worth it. ☺
After the palace, we explored the other buildings inside the Alhambra walls, including the Alzcaba fort, with more city views, and Charles V’s palace, which had a big, circular courtyard. Finally, we checked out the perfectly-manicured Generalife Gardens, which had lots of stray cats for us to pet. ☺
We finished everything at the Alhambra around noon, and walked back downhill to finish up a bit more souvenir shopping. This is our last stop, after all. I got a bunch of good stuff for people here. ☺ We ate lunch at a fun little restaurant with a great menu del dia – we got salad and croquettes for first course, pork & fries and flamenquones and fries for second course, and oranges for dessert (which I think is a Granada thing). Muy bueno naranajas! Hahaha…right, Katie? We also ran into some other travelers who I recognized from Swansea! They were also study abroad students and had been on the Paris trip. How random is that? 3 random run-ins in the same trip.
This afternoon it was SIESTA time! Our first siesta done the right way, in the afternoon. We almost kept sleeping into the evening, but managed to wake up at 6. Happy hour again, which meant more delicious spring rolls and hanging out with our hostel friends. At 10, we decided to go on our hostel’s tapas tour, led by this crazy Dutch guy, Mateo. He took us to 4 different places, each with free tapas, which is almost unheard of in the rest of Spain anymore. We met some more cool people tonight – a Finnish couple studying in Valencia, an Iranian-American med student, and some random American college-dropout friends of Mateos. I had fun discussing the controversy of bullfighting with the Finns, as well as asking them what Finnish culture is like, and learning that they also have Swedish as a national language. Meaning, they spoke 4 languages each. Mateo spoke 5 – sure puts us Americans to shame. ☺ Katie and I also talked to the Iranian girl a lot, she was really interesting to talk to. We asked if her life was like Grey’s Anatomy at all since she was in med school. ☺ Unfortunately not, though she did have plenty of other good stories to tell.
And such ends our last night in mainland Europe. It’s been a good one, and now all good things much come to an end.
We started the day off bright and early – at 6:30 am! We got up, ate, and sped-walked a steep 15-minute hike up the Alhambra to stand in the ticket line, which was already a couple hundred people long by the time we got there. You see, at the Alhambra, you have to book reservations months in advance, which we didn’t do, so the only alternative is to wait in line the day of. It’s wasn’t so bad though, once the ticket office opened at 8, since the line kept moving. I think we got in right at 9.
Some background (courtesy of Rick Steves, of course): The Alhambra itself was the last Moorish stronghold in Europe, and over 2,000 people used to live within its walls. Then in 1492 – quite the prolific year here in Spain - the Christians defeats the Muslims, and seven centuries of Muslim rule in Spain came to an end. Sucks to be them.
Our first stop was the biggie: the Palacios Nazaries. This was the exquisite royal palace, with room after room of amazing Moorish architecture and decorations. Lots of patterned ceramic tiles, Arabic-scripted walls, and carved ceilings. We saw the Sultans’s room, the fountain of the lions - minus the lions (why does every museum we go to have the cool stuff under restoration?!), some cool reflecting pools, and some more cool hexagon-ily domed rooms with great views of Granada. We had to battle past countless tour groups of 80 year olds to see everything, but it was worth it. ☺
After the palace, we explored the other buildings inside the Alhambra walls, including the Alzcaba fort, with more city views, and Charles V’s palace, which had a big, circular courtyard. Finally, we checked out the perfectly-manicured Generalife Gardens, which had lots of stray cats for us to pet. ☺
We finished everything at the Alhambra around noon, and walked back downhill to finish up a bit more souvenir shopping. This is our last stop, after all. I got a bunch of good stuff for people here. ☺ We ate lunch at a fun little restaurant with a great menu del dia – we got salad and croquettes for first course, pork & fries and flamenquones and fries for second course, and oranges for dessert (which I think is a Granada thing). Muy bueno naranajas! Hahaha…right, Katie? We also ran into some other travelers who I recognized from Swansea! They were also study abroad students and had been on the Paris trip. How random is that? 3 random run-ins in the same trip.
This afternoon it was SIESTA time! Our first siesta done the right way, in the afternoon. We almost kept sleeping into the evening, but managed to wake up at 6. Happy hour again, which meant more delicious spring rolls and hanging out with our hostel friends. At 10, we decided to go on our hostel’s tapas tour, led by this crazy Dutch guy, Mateo. He took us to 4 different places, each with free tapas, which is almost unheard of in the rest of Spain anymore. We met some more cool people tonight – a Finnish couple studying in Valencia, an Iranian-American med student, and some random American college-dropout friends of Mateos. I had fun discussing the controversy of bullfighting with the Finns, as well as asking them what Finnish culture is like, and learning that they also have Swedish as a national language. Meaning, they spoke 4 languages each. Mateo spoke 5 – sure puts us Americans to shame. ☺ Katie and I also talked to the Iranian girl a lot, she was really interesting to talk to. We asked if her life was like Grey’s Anatomy at all since she was in med school. ☺ Unfortunately not, though she did have plenty of other good stories to tell.
And such ends our last night in mainland Europe. It’s been a good one, and now all good things much come to an end.
Day #27 - The beginning of the end... in Granada
Buenos dias, everyone! Katie and I are starting to freak out a bit with the fact that we moved on today to our LAST city of the trip…it’s so surreal to us that this whole thing has all been the same trip – Pisa and Italy just seem like ages ago to us. It seriously feels like a time warp or something. At the beginning, we never thought we’d reach the end, and now here we are, looking back at all we’ve done. It’s been quite the adventure. ☺
This morning we had a train for Granada at 11:50, so it wasn’t too stressful to catch the bus to the station and get there on time. Again, an easy train ride, we’re pros by now so it’s old hat. I usually just sleep the whole time anyway (err, unless you’re reading, Dad, in which case I mean I watch the scenery). ☺
We found our hostel in Granada, tucked away in some curvy backstreet right by the Alhambra. It’s called “Funky’s”, and so far it lives up to its name…our “private” room is actually attached to a 6-bed dorm that we have to walk through to get to it, and the bathroom door has windowpanes on it, that are only semi-tinted. Hmmm. But, the rooftop terrace is amazing, with great views of the city and lots of friendly people to talk to. This is definitely a true “backpacker” hostel.
We did a little sightseeing this afternoon – have to meet the daily touristy quota! – by going to the Royal Chapel. There we saw the tombs of King Ferdinand and Isabella, and said “thank you” to Isabella for sponsoring Columbus. Otherwise, we decided, things in America probably wouldn’t be the same. ☺ Outside the chapel, there was a really interesting old Moorish neighborhood, the Alcaiceria, that used to be a silk and jewelry market, but apparently now is all touristy shops. Lots of fun, dark, narrow alleyways to explore though. Good thing it was daytime. ☺
Back at the hostel, we had some cheap appetizers for “happy hour” – these amazing spring rolls that came with lots of greasy chips. We met a bunch of people too – a couple Austrailians (they’re everywhere), two people from Seattle, and a guy named Christian from Toronto. Most of them have been traveling by themselves, for a lot longer than we have – 7 months for one guy.
Katie and I decided to go for dinner tonight in the area of town called the Albayzin, which is a twisty hilltop old Moorish neighborhood, which instead of streets has mostly rocky footpaths that wind their way uphill. We wandered the backstreets until we found a good sidewalk restaurant with fish, which is what we wanted to try. We ordered a menu, and for my first course I tried gazpacho soup, another Andalusian specialty I had wanted to try. It was basically chilled tomato soup with herbs…which was not bad, but so hard to eat because I’m not used to cold soup! Then, our fish plates arrived…and they were whole fish. Yep, heads, tails, and all. It looked like they had been caught, just dipped in batter, and fried. We tried a little bit at first, unsure. There were 2 big fish, with all the bones to pick out, and a bunch of little fish, which we’re pretty sure were sardines. Then, there were some onion-ring-type things that I think were squid rings. Well, we sucked it up and ate all of our fish, trying not to think about it. I’ll admit that they were actually pretty tasty (minus the sardines though…which had this “weird” flavor). Again, a dining experience not to forget. ☺
On our way back after dinner, we stopped to admire the view from San Nicolas’s viewpoint. Right across the valley from us was the giant Alhambra, towering on the hill, all lit up at dusk. It was just gorgeous.
Back at the hostel, we had a low-key night, just hanging out with the people we’d met this afternoon on the rooftop terrace. One of the Australians played some Australian music on a guitar, and we all shared travel stories and ideas, and discussed such deep topics as why Australians also drive on the “wrong” side of the road. Well, that’s what I call it. ☺ To them, driving on the left is the “right” side of the road. Those crazy Australians.
This morning we had a train for Granada at 11:50, so it wasn’t too stressful to catch the bus to the station and get there on time. Again, an easy train ride, we’re pros by now so it’s old hat. I usually just sleep the whole time anyway (err, unless you’re reading, Dad, in which case I mean I watch the scenery). ☺
We found our hostel in Granada, tucked away in some curvy backstreet right by the Alhambra. It’s called “Funky’s”, and so far it lives up to its name…our “private” room is actually attached to a 6-bed dorm that we have to walk through to get to it, and the bathroom door has windowpanes on it, that are only semi-tinted. Hmmm. But, the rooftop terrace is amazing, with great views of the city and lots of friendly people to talk to. This is definitely a true “backpacker” hostel.
We did a little sightseeing this afternoon – have to meet the daily touristy quota! – by going to the Royal Chapel. There we saw the tombs of King Ferdinand and Isabella, and said “thank you” to Isabella for sponsoring Columbus. Otherwise, we decided, things in America probably wouldn’t be the same. ☺ Outside the chapel, there was a really interesting old Moorish neighborhood, the Alcaiceria, that used to be a silk and jewelry market, but apparently now is all touristy shops. Lots of fun, dark, narrow alleyways to explore though. Good thing it was daytime. ☺
Back at the hostel, we had some cheap appetizers for “happy hour” – these amazing spring rolls that came with lots of greasy chips. We met a bunch of people too – a couple Austrailians (they’re everywhere), two people from Seattle, and a guy named Christian from Toronto. Most of them have been traveling by themselves, for a lot longer than we have – 7 months for one guy.
Katie and I decided to go for dinner tonight in the area of town called the Albayzin, which is a twisty hilltop old Moorish neighborhood, which instead of streets has mostly rocky footpaths that wind their way uphill. We wandered the backstreets until we found a good sidewalk restaurant with fish, which is what we wanted to try. We ordered a menu, and for my first course I tried gazpacho soup, another Andalusian specialty I had wanted to try. It was basically chilled tomato soup with herbs…which was not bad, but so hard to eat because I’m not used to cold soup! Then, our fish plates arrived…and they were whole fish. Yep, heads, tails, and all. It looked like they had been caught, just dipped in batter, and fried. We tried a little bit at first, unsure. There were 2 big fish, with all the bones to pick out, and a bunch of little fish, which we’re pretty sure were sardines. Then, there were some onion-ring-type things that I think were squid rings. Well, we sucked it up and ate all of our fish, trying not to think about it. I’ll admit that they were actually pretty tasty (minus the sardines though…which had this “weird” flavor). Again, a dining experience not to forget. ☺
On our way back after dinner, we stopped to admire the view from San Nicolas’s viewpoint. Right across the valley from us was the giant Alhambra, towering on the hill, all lit up at dusk. It was just gorgeous.
Back at the hostel, we had a low-key night, just hanging out with the people we’d met this afternoon on the rooftop terrace. One of the Australians played some Australian music on a guitar, and we all shared travel stories and ideas, and discussed such deep topics as why Australians also drive on the “wrong” side of the road. Well, that’s what I call it. ☺ To them, driving on the left is the “right” side of the road. Those crazy Australians.
Sunday, 22 April 2007
Day #26 - A day in the park
Leisurely day today...and again a pretty decent day of weather. Hey, it didn't rain!
We slept in (because we can!) and then headed to the Alcazar, Sevilla's other main tourist attraction. Oh, and we got into the Alcazar free too - thank you Spain for actually having good student discounts! The Alcazar was a Moorish fort/palace back in the day, so has lots of Islamic-style art, which was really cool and a refreshing change from most of the art we've seen all trip. There were a couple palace buildings to tour, but for me the fun part was the amazing gardens surrounding the place – with countless fountains, blooming roses, splashing waterfalls, gazebos, palm trees, and green green everywhere. It was a photo-op heaven. :) We wandered around for more than an hour, goofing off "getting lost" in the man-made bush maze, stopping to watch the cutest ducklings run all over the sidewalk after their mother, and soaking up the sun. Not a bad way to start the day.
For our traditional large Spanish lunch, we searched for a place with a menu del dia, but everywhere here seemed to just have tapas. So, we found a random place with raciones, which are like plate-sized tapas, so more food. After several minutes staring blankly at the all-Spanish menu, when the waiter came we just pointed to what the people around us were eating, which looked good, and ordered that. :) Katie ended up getting chicken in a bechamel sauce, and I got flamenquones, which were ham and cheese, I think, rolled up and fried. I also had some pasta with what we think was spinach dip on it. Anyway, it was good. Dining here is always an experience, that’s for sure.
After lunch, we mosey-ed over to the Plaza de Espanya, which is a huge, empty square with a big fountain, which was apparently built for a World’s Fair in 1929 that never happened because of the stock market crash. The building hasn’t really been used or finished completely since then. We sat by the fountain, enjoying the only real sun of the day (the rest of the day was pretty cloudy).
Next we went to the park right across the street, the massive Maria Luisa park. We were going to just walk around it, but then saw some pedal-powered cars there that you could rent, so randomly we did that! It was kind of like a Flintstones car – had a steering wheel and handbrake and all - but instead you pedal. ☺ The owner, who spoke absolutely no English, gave us a bunch of instructions in Spanish and we just nodded like we understood…hope it was nothing important! We had a hilarious time navigating the park, avoiding a couple close encounters with the many horse buggies as well as the police. Haha. Not to mention the group of high school Spanish boys who liked to chase us and play Chicken in their car, or our near-crash when we attempted to go “off-roading”… The funniest moment though, was when a little Spanish boy came up to us and started talking to us. “No habla espanol”, I said, and he immediately started laughing. He went back to his friends and was pointing and laughing at us, when I realized I pretty much said, “The bike does not speak Spanish”. ☺ Whoops. OK, so my Spanish isn’t quite perfect…
After that, we grabbed a snack and went over to the TI for some more free internet time. (Where I blogged about Barcelona I think, I’m so far behind). Then, since we were close by to all the shopping streets, we just wandered around there for awhile, looking for more trendy European fashions that we had no room for in our backpacks. ☺ I only bought jewelry this time, which was good. The streets were really packed in Sevilla too, people definitely will just stroll even if they’re not shopping I think. The stores were really cool here though too, because they had so many selling traditional items like flamenco dresses, fans, and shawls.
We ate dinner at this unmemorable place out on a sidewalk table. I think we’ve eaten most of our Spanish and French meals outside, which I like. The best part of the meal tonight was the bread – have I mentioned how much bread we eat, since you get it with EVERY meal? Katie keeps swearing she’s going to give up carbs… ☺ The thing we do like though is bread with olive oil…we use soooo much oil with our bread every night that I’ve started just pouring it directly on the bread because it’s easier. ☺ We probably drink at least a couple jars each per week…
We were going to get waffle sundaes at Ben & Jerry’s tonight but they were freaking closed at 9! What kind of Spanish hours are those?! So, we settled for more McDonalds, getting Kit Kat McFlurrys again. Do you have those in the States? Well, you should, because they’re good.
That’s all for tonight!
We slept in (because we can!) and then headed to the Alcazar, Sevilla's other main tourist attraction. Oh, and we got into the Alcazar free too - thank you Spain for actually having good student discounts! The Alcazar was a Moorish fort/palace back in the day, so has lots of Islamic-style art, which was really cool and a refreshing change from most of the art we've seen all trip. There were a couple palace buildings to tour, but for me the fun part was the amazing gardens surrounding the place – with countless fountains, blooming roses, splashing waterfalls, gazebos, palm trees, and green green everywhere. It was a photo-op heaven. :) We wandered around for more than an hour, goofing off "getting lost" in the man-made bush maze, stopping to watch the cutest ducklings run all over the sidewalk after their mother, and soaking up the sun. Not a bad way to start the day.
For our traditional large Spanish lunch, we searched for a place with a menu del dia, but everywhere here seemed to just have tapas. So, we found a random place with raciones, which are like plate-sized tapas, so more food. After several minutes staring blankly at the all-Spanish menu, when the waiter came we just pointed to what the people around us were eating, which looked good, and ordered that. :) Katie ended up getting chicken in a bechamel sauce, and I got flamenquones, which were ham and cheese, I think, rolled up and fried. I also had some pasta with what we think was spinach dip on it. Anyway, it was good. Dining here is always an experience, that’s for sure.
After lunch, we mosey-ed over to the Plaza de Espanya, which is a huge, empty square with a big fountain, which was apparently built for a World’s Fair in 1929 that never happened because of the stock market crash. The building hasn’t really been used or finished completely since then. We sat by the fountain, enjoying the only real sun of the day (the rest of the day was pretty cloudy).
Next we went to the park right across the street, the massive Maria Luisa park. We were going to just walk around it, but then saw some pedal-powered cars there that you could rent, so randomly we did that! It was kind of like a Flintstones car – had a steering wheel and handbrake and all - but instead you pedal. ☺ The owner, who spoke absolutely no English, gave us a bunch of instructions in Spanish and we just nodded like we understood…hope it was nothing important! We had a hilarious time navigating the park, avoiding a couple close encounters with the many horse buggies as well as the police. Haha. Not to mention the group of high school Spanish boys who liked to chase us and play Chicken in their car, or our near-crash when we attempted to go “off-roading”… The funniest moment though, was when a little Spanish boy came up to us and started talking to us. “No habla espanol”, I said, and he immediately started laughing. He went back to his friends and was pointing and laughing at us, when I realized I pretty much said, “The bike does not speak Spanish”. ☺ Whoops. OK, so my Spanish isn’t quite perfect…
After that, we grabbed a snack and went over to the TI for some more free internet time. (Where I blogged about Barcelona I think, I’m so far behind). Then, since we were close by to all the shopping streets, we just wandered around there for awhile, looking for more trendy European fashions that we had no room for in our backpacks. ☺ I only bought jewelry this time, which was good. The streets were really packed in Sevilla too, people definitely will just stroll even if they’re not shopping I think. The stores were really cool here though too, because they had so many selling traditional items like flamenco dresses, fans, and shawls.
We ate dinner at this unmemorable place out on a sidewalk table. I think we’ve eaten most of our Spanish and French meals outside, which I like. The best part of the meal tonight was the bread – have I mentioned how much bread we eat, since you get it with EVERY meal? Katie keeps swearing she’s going to give up carbs… ☺ The thing we do like though is bread with olive oil…we use soooo much oil with our bread every night that I’ve started just pouring it directly on the bread because it’s easier. ☺ We probably drink at least a couple jars each per week…
We were going to get waffle sundaes at Ben & Jerry’s tonight but they were freaking closed at 9! What kind of Spanish hours are those?! So, we settled for more McDonalds, getting Kit Kat McFlurrys again. Do you have those in the States? Well, you should, because they’re good.
That’s all for tonight!
Friday, 20 April 2007
Day #25 - Sunny Sevilla
Today we took a morning train to Sevilla, again a super-speed AVE train that zipped us there in 3 hours. Once there, we had to take a bus closer to our hostel, and then walk a ways - which was brutal in the heat - it was actually 80 degrees here! (Finally, though, good weather!)
We found the hostel, then set off to explore the sights (the Catedral and Alcazar), which were literally two blocks away. We ate jamón sandwiches for lunch first outside in a park...enjoying the glorious sun. Then, we went to the cathedral, which is I guess the third largest in Europe. This means I have now seen all of the top 4 - St. Peters in Rome, St. Pauls in London, here, and Duomo in Milan. What's #5? I really want to know now!
Anyways, the cathedral was really cool. It had an intricate golden altar, a huge organ, cracking pillars, and coolest of all, Columbus's tomb, supported in the air by 4 statues. Inside the cathedral, as I read to Katie out loud from the Rick Steves book (yes, I am a dork like that), we were approached by some middle aged people who saw us, and were on a Rick Steves guided tour! Haha...Rick Steves fans, unite! :)
The cathedral also had a tower to climb (of course), with views of the city. This one had a ramp instead of narrow stairs though, which was nice. There was a good view of all the orange trees in the courtyard down below. Orange trees are everywhere here! (We hear that they're too bitter for eating though - they are only used for 'perfumes and cat food'). Haha.
We didn't have much else we wanted to see today, so we just wandered the neighborhood, finding Sevilla's bullring. We were going to go inside to see the bullfight museum there, but apparently they were filming a movie there that day - or so we think. Sort of confusing, but we saw cameras an a guy with a shirt saying "Actor" something, so that's what we assumed. So, instead of going there, we walked along the river, stopping to get some super-greasy churros con chocolate from a shady-looking sidewalk stand (for me), and a Kit-Kat McFlurry from McDonalds (for Katie). :)
To kill some time, we found the TI nearby which had free internet - hooray! After that, we just sat in the park for awhile, people watching, enjoying the sun, and seeing an interesting street performer who was wearing a costume to make it look like he was really two people dancing...I know, doesn't make sense unless you see a picture.
We ate a somewhat-earlier dinner tonight, at a more traditional Italian restaurant called San Marco. We split a 4-cheese pizza and a salad but were still hungry, so actually sprung for dessert too - which was amazing! Katie got a pistachio-chocolate mousse pie, and I got lemon mousse pie with strawberry sauce. Mmm mmm. :)
We actually managed to get our check in a decent amount of time, which was good, because we had a flamenco show to get to! We had bought tickets earlier for one of the shows which we had heard was pretty good. It took place in a small room with small uncomfortable chairs lined up in front of a small stage. There were 6 acts or so, each with two singers, a guitarist, and 1 dancer. Between each set, they'd switch dancers and usually singers. I could see why - the flamenco dancers definitely worked up a sweat after dancing for 20 minutes - it's quite the workout. The show was good, and probably more professional than the shorter show we'd seen in Barcelona, but something about it didn't feel as passionate to me. Maybe they're just more touristy here.
We walked back after the show, enjoying seeing the Cathedral lit up at dark. Sevilla, at least the part we were in, was really quiet at night, so we did what we like to do and got some sleep!
We found the hostel, then set off to explore the sights (the Catedral and Alcazar), which were literally two blocks away. We ate jamón sandwiches for lunch first outside in a park...enjoying the glorious sun. Then, we went to the cathedral, which is I guess the third largest in Europe. This means I have now seen all of the top 4 - St. Peters in Rome, St. Pauls in London, here, and Duomo in Milan. What's #5? I really want to know now!
Anyways, the cathedral was really cool. It had an intricate golden altar, a huge organ, cracking pillars, and coolest of all, Columbus's tomb, supported in the air by 4 statues. Inside the cathedral, as I read to Katie out loud from the Rick Steves book (yes, I am a dork like that), we were approached by some middle aged people who saw us, and were on a Rick Steves guided tour! Haha...Rick Steves fans, unite! :)
The cathedral also had a tower to climb (of course), with views of the city. This one had a ramp instead of narrow stairs though, which was nice. There was a good view of all the orange trees in the courtyard down below. Orange trees are everywhere here! (We hear that they're too bitter for eating though - they are only used for 'perfumes and cat food'). Haha.
We didn't have much else we wanted to see today, so we just wandered the neighborhood, finding Sevilla's bullring. We were going to go inside to see the bullfight museum there, but apparently they were filming a movie there that day - or so we think. Sort of confusing, but we saw cameras an a guy with a shirt saying "Actor" something, so that's what we assumed. So, instead of going there, we walked along the river, stopping to get some super-greasy churros con chocolate from a shady-looking sidewalk stand (for me), and a Kit-Kat McFlurry from McDonalds (for Katie). :)
To kill some time, we found the TI nearby which had free internet - hooray! After that, we just sat in the park for awhile, people watching, enjoying the sun, and seeing an interesting street performer who was wearing a costume to make it look like he was really two people dancing...I know, doesn't make sense unless you see a picture.
We ate a somewhat-earlier dinner tonight, at a more traditional Italian restaurant called San Marco. We split a 4-cheese pizza and a salad but were still hungry, so actually sprung for dessert too - which was amazing! Katie got a pistachio-chocolate mousse pie, and I got lemon mousse pie with strawberry sauce. Mmm mmm. :)
We actually managed to get our check in a decent amount of time, which was good, because we had a flamenco show to get to! We had bought tickets earlier for one of the shows which we had heard was pretty good. It took place in a small room with small uncomfortable chairs lined up in front of a small stage. There were 6 acts or so, each with two singers, a guitarist, and 1 dancer. Between each set, they'd switch dancers and usually singers. I could see why - the flamenco dancers definitely worked up a sweat after dancing for 20 minutes - it's quite the workout. The show was good, and probably more professional than the shorter show we'd seen in Barcelona, but something about it didn't feel as passionate to me. Maybe they're just more touristy here.
We walked back after the show, enjoying seeing the Cathedral lit up at dark. Sevilla, at least the part we were in, was really quiet at night, so we did what we like to do and got some sleep!
Day #24 - OK, we've had enough of Madrid
After another sleepy morning, we got up in time for some lunch...ah the wonderfulness of being on holiday. :)
We decided to eat lunch at a random restaurant with a decently-priced menu del día, which before had always worked out pretty well for us. However...this place was not the same. First, we ordered alcochofas for one of our first courses, which for some reason we thought was peas but ended up being artichokes...gross. The server was kind of mad when we didn't eat most of it. Then, after we were finished, we waited for the bill, as usual. Here, they never bring it to you right away, so you normally have to ask. However, here it seemed like they were purposefully avoiding us, bringing the bills to everyone else around us but not acknowledging us. It was ridiculous! After nearly a half hour of them ignoring us, we finally flagged them down, asking for the bill, and 10 minutes later had to physically hand them the money so they wouldn't breeze by us again. It was the worst cold shoulder ever...we left dazed, wondering what if anything we did wrong, or if they just didn't like Americans? Frustrating to say the least.
SO, moving on to happier things. This afternoon we went to the Royal Palace, which is Spain's version of Versailles, with room after room of tapestries, fancy wallpaper, mile-long dinner tables, and too-friendly guards...haha. They also had 5 Stradivarius violins, of only 300 remaining today. Overall, pretty cool.
Before dinner, we just wandered the shopping streets a bit...the whole area is packed with common clothes stores...Bershka, Mango, H&M, El Corte Ingles, etc. It seems like a pretty common pasttime here to just stroll the streets at nighttime too - the streets are always packed.
Tonight we did tapas again for dinner - going to cute little restaurant at a square close by where we got much better service than earlier. :) We shared several plates, of croquettes (our definite favorite), empanadillas (meat-filled pastries), and potato omelet.
Back at the hostel, we had a new roommate, a guy named Killian from Ireland. He was really fun to talk to, and compare stories of Dublin from St. Patrick's Day. We also told him stories about the U.S. and what Iowa is like...which I feel we have to do a LOT. :)
Tonight, we were ready to leave Madrid. Compared to Barcelona, it just didn't have the same feeling to it. Not as touristy, not as fun, not as much culture, not as pretty. And, bad waiters. :P
Time to move on...Sevilla here we come!
We decided to eat lunch at a random restaurant with a decently-priced menu del día, which before had always worked out pretty well for us. However...this place was not the same. First, we ordered alcochofas for one of our first courses, which for some reason we thought was peas but ended up being artichokes...gross. The server was kind of mad when we didn't eat most of it. Then, after we were finished, we waited for the bill, as usual. Here, they never bring it to you right away, so you normally have to ask. However, here it seemed like they were purposefully avoiding us, bringing the bills to everyone else around us but not acknowledging us. It was ridiculous! After nearly a half hour of them ignoring us, we finally flagged them down, asking for the bill, and 10 minutes later had to physically hand them the money so they wouldn't breeze by us again. It was the worst cold shoulder ever...we left dazed, wondering what if anything we did wrong, or if they just didn't like Americans? Frustrating to say the least.
SO, moving on to happier things. This afternoon we went to the Royal Palace, which is Spain's version of Versailles, with room after room of tapestries, fancy wallpaper, mile-long dinner tables, and too-friendly guards...haha. They also had 5 Stradivarius violins, of only 300 remaining today. Overall, pretty cool.
Before dinner, we just wandered the shopping streets a bit...the whole area is packed with common clothes stores...Bershka, Mango, H&M, El Corte Ingles, etc. It seems like a pretty common pasttime here to just stroll the streets at nighttime too - the streets are always packed.
Tonight we did tapas again for dinner - going to cute little restaurant at a square close by where we got much better service than earlier. :) We shared several plates, of croquettes (our definite favorite), empanadillas (meat-filled pastries), and potato omelet.
Back at the hostel, we had a new roommate, a guy named Killian from Ireland. He was really fun to talk to, and compare stories of Dublin from St. Patrick's Day. We also told him stories about the U.S. and what Iowa is like...which I feel we have to do a LOT. :)
Tonight, we were ready to leave Madrid. Compared to Barcelona, it just didn't have the same feeling to it. Not as touristy, not as fun, not as much culture, not as pretty. And, bad waiters. :P
Time to move on...Sevilla here we come!
Day #23 - A day in the life of a Madrileño
It was Sunday today...and we spent it the perfect way, doing all the things a typical Madrileño would probably do - went to the market, strolled in the park, and of course - saw a bullfight! I'll get to that interesting experience later...
First - after sleeping in plenty, we started the day wandering the El Rastro flea market, which is a huge street market taking up probably half a mile of city blocks. They had lots of handmade crafts, beaded jewelry, touristy stuff, and inappropriate t-shirts. :) The market was just packed with people, so it took us awhile just to navigate through it all! I ended up getting some pretty blue earrings for €3 and a new pair of sunglasses to replace my pair that broke in Monaco.
After the market, we walked through town (everything is so close in downtown Madrid!) to El Retiro park, which is the expansive, Central-park like place which gets really busy on weekend afternoons with families and kids. Today was no exception, since it was so nice and sunny out. We strolled through the park a ways until we found the lake area, which was definitely the place to be. It had rowboats to rent, sidewalk cafés, street vendors, and puppeteers performing puppet shows to audiences of hundreds of enthralled toddlers. :) So cute. We were hungry, so got some lunch at a lakefront cafe. I finally tried the Spanish specialty of tortilla española, which is a potato omelet, served on a baguette. It was amazing, the perfect brunch. :)
Right next to the park was the Prado Museum, where we headed next. The Prado is a HUGE museum, with famous works by Italian, French, and Spanish painters, and much more. Since we were a bit tired of Italian Renaissance paintings, we just stuck to the Spanish painters here: Francisco de Goya, Diego Velázquez, and some others. We really enjoyed seeing Las Meninas in person, which is Velázquez's most famous masterpiece, and what some consider the best piece of art, ever, because of it's visual tricks and use of perspective. (See a picture of it here) We also enjoyed de Goya's, artwork, especially his crazier paintings from his later "dark period". Is it just me, or do a lot of painters go crazy later in life? :)
From the Prado, we left and took the Metro to Las Ventas - the bullring! The subway was packed with tourists, and when we got there, we exited and it was right there. We bought some candy (Peachies, our favorite!) from a vendor outside, and went in to find our seats. The inside was so cool to see in person - one of those "Am I really here?" moments. The bullring is circular, so every seat is a good seat. The only advantage to more expensive tickets is that all the action happens in front of you...but as we saw later I think we were OK with not having that. :)
As we soon learned, the "sport" of bullfighting is very repetitive, done the same way each time. There were 6 bulls (2 bulls per matador), and each bull took around 20 minutes (to kill). Each bullfight has 3 acts: first, the bull runs out, full-steam ahead, and the matador uses his cape to size up the bull and tire him out a bit. Next, a man on a horse comes in, and spears the bull at the muscle at the back of its next. This is the most suspenseful part I thought, since the bull often rams the horse, nearly making it fall over. On the second bull, the man actually fell off the horse! He nearly was gored by the bull, but narrowly escaped... Next, the matadors assistants stab the bull's neck with a total of 6 barbed sticks, which further weaken the bull. Then, the matador steps in, in all his arrogant glory, and showily waves his cape at the bull. If the bull passes successfully close, the crowd cheers Olé. If he sucks, they whistle or do the slow clap. :) Finally, the matador takes a long sword and stabs the bull in the neck...if he's good, it only takes once. If he's bad (like the second bull), you have to sit there and watch him repeatedly try to kill it...not fun to watch. When the bull is dead, mules come in and parade him out...and the next bull comes out a minute later to repeat it all again.
And...that's about it. Gory as it sounds, it wasn't as bloody as you would think...just more surreal to watch and realize what you're seeing. The more that I've thought about it though, since that day, I realize just how wrong and disgusting I think it was. Watching an animal suffer is not my idea of entertainment...but in Spain, it's part their culture I guess, as controversial as it may be.
After the bullfight, we got some dinner at a restaurant we found called "Nebraska". We thought it was fitting. :) However, we did NOT order beef. :) I'm going to stay away from beef for awhile...
Tonight we met some more fun people at our hostel - some local Madrid ex-pats, two guys from Australia (who were kind of jerks though), and our new friend Manny, from Mexico. Meeting other travelers is definitely one of the best parts of the experience...make it memorable.
First - after sleeping in plenty, we started the day wandering the El Rastro flea market, which is a huge street market taking up probably half a mile of city blocks. They had lots of handmade crafts, beaded jewelry, touristy stuff, and inappropriate t-shirts. :) The market was just packed with people, so it took us awhile just to navigate through it all! I ended up getting some pretty blue earrings for €3 and a new pair of sunglasses to replace my pair that broke in Monaco.
After the market, we walked through town (everything is so close in downtown Madrid!) to El Retiro park, which is the expansive, Central-park like place which gets really busy on weekend afternoons with families and kids. Today was no exception, since it was so nice and sunny out. We strolled through the park a ways until we found the lake area, which was definitely the place to be. It had rowboats to rent, sidewalk cafés, street vendors, and puppeteers performing puppet shows to audiences of hundreds of enthralled toddlers. :) So cute. We were hungry, so got some lunch at a lakefront cafe. I finally tried the Spanish specialty of tortilla española, which is a potato omelet, served on a baguette. It was amazing, the perfect brunch. :)
Right next to the park was the Prado Museum, where we headed next. The Prado is a HUGE museum, with famous works by Italian, French, and Spanish painters, and much more. Since we were a bit tired of Italian Renaissance paintings, we just stuck to the Spanish painters here: Francisco de Goya, Diego Velázquez, and some others. We really enjoyed seeing Las Meninas in person, which is Velázquez's most famous masterpiece, and what some consider the best piece of art, ever, because of it's visual tricks and use of perspective. (See a picture of it here) We also enjoyed de Goya's, artwork, especially his crazier paintings from his later "dark period". Is it just me, or do a lot of painters go crazy later in life? :)
From the Prado, we left and took the Metro to Las Ventas - the bullring! The subway was packed with tourists, and when we got there, we exited and it was right there. We bought some candy (Peachies, our favorite!) from a vendor outside, and went in to find our seats. The inside was so cool to see in person - one of those "Am I really here?" moments. The bullring is circular, so every seat is a good seat. The only advantage to more expensive tickets is that all the action happens in front of you...but as we saw later I think we were OK with not having that. :)
As we soon learned, the "sport" of bullfighting is very repetitive, done the same way each time. There were 6 bulls (2 bulls per matador), and each bull took around 20 minutes (to kill). Each bullfight has 3 acts: first, the bull runs out, full-steam ahead, and the matador uses his cape to size up the bull and tire him out a bit. Next, a man on a horse comes in, and spears the bull at the muscle at the back of its next. This is the most suspenseful part I thought, since the bull often rams the horse, nearly making it fall over. On the second bull, the man actually fell off the horse! He nearly was gored by the bull, but narrowly escaped... Next, the matadors assistants stab the bull's neck with a total of 6 barbed sticks, which further weaken the bull. Then, the matador steps in, in all his arrogant glory, and showily waves his cape at the bull. If the bull passes successfully close, the crowd cheers Olé. If he sucks, they whistle or do the slow clap. :) Finally, the matador takes a long sword and stabs the bull in the neck...if he's good, it only takes once. If he's bad (like the second bull), you have to sit there and watch him repeatedly try to kill it...not fun to watch. When the bull is dead, mules come in and parade him out...and the next bull comes out a minute later to repeat it all again.
And...that's about it. Gory as it sounds, it wasn't as bloody as you would think...just more surreal to watch and realize what you're seeing. The more that I've thought about it though, since that day, I realize just how wrong and disgusting I think it was. Watching an animal suffer is not my idea of entertainment...but in Spain, it's part their culture I guess, as controversial as it may be.
After the bullfight, we got some dinner at a restaurant we found called "Nebraska". We thought it was fitting. :) However, we did NOT order beef. :) I'm going to stay away from beef for awhile...
Tonight we met some more fun people at our hostel - some local Madrid ex-pats, two guys from Australia (who were kind of jerks though), and our new friend Manny, from Mexico. Meeting other travelers is definitely one of the best parts of the experience...make it memorable.
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