Gandhi's Top 10 Fundamentals for Changing the World
1. Change yourself
2. You are in control
3. Forgive & let go
4. Without action, you are not going anywhere
5. Take care of this moment
6. Everyone is human
7. Persist
8. See the good in people & help them
9. Be congruent. Be authentic. Be your true self.
10. Continue to grow & evolve
London tomorrow!
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Thursday, March 15, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
Emerson
"Though we travel the world to find the beautiful, we must carry it within us or we will find it not." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
I found this quote on StumbleUpon tonight, and I really like it. If there's been one great thing that I've learned thus far in my 2 and a half months abroad, it's that going to Paris isn't really about seeing the Eiffel Tower, just like going to Rome isn't really about seeing the Colosseum and going to Barcelona isn't about finally visiting the Sagrada Familia.
Rather, traveling is about the new people you meet, the new relationships you form, the experiences you encounter that prove to yourself that you are stronger, braver, and smarter than you had previously thought, and the new cultural understanding and appreciation you develop after getting to know people who have led a completely different life than you.
People have these checklists of things that have been dubbed important by other people or some travel expert somewhere sitting behind his Lonely Planet desk. They have to see the cathedrals, the museums, and every important piece of art since 500 B.C. I'm guilty of it, myself, as it had previously been one of my greatest life goals to "check off" all 1000 places in the "1,000 Places to See Before You Die" book.
But things are just that, things. And buildings are buildings. And the UNESCO World Heritage sites from the year 200 B.C...I'm going to go ahead and make the wild assumption that if they've made it this long, they aren't going anywhere within my lifetime.
So at the risk of sounding what some may consider childish and uncultural (actually I'd argue it's the exact opposite), I'm over the museums and the cathedrals. I want experiences. I want to meet people and learn from them and maybe even have some kind of small impact back on them.
Don't get me wrong, when I go to London this weekend, I'll probably get my picture in front of Big Ben just once. But all I'm saying is that if I don't, it won't be the end of the world. And you definitely won't find me waiting in line for a museum or cathedral or checking anything off the checklist in a guidebook any time soon.
Barcelona picture of the week:
HOW FREAKING CUTE IS THAT
I found this quote on StumbleUpon tonight, and I really like it. If there's been one great thing that I've learned thus far in my 2 and a half months abroad, it's that going to Paris isn't really about seeing the Eiffel Tower, just like going to Rome isn't really about seeing the Colosseum and going to Barcelona isn't about finally visiting the Sagrada Familia.
Rather, traveling is about the new people you meet, the new relationships you form, the experiences you encounter that prove to yourself that you are stronger, braver, and smarter than you had previously thought, and the new cultural understanding and appreciation you develop after getting to know people who have led a completely different life than you.
People have these checklists of things that have been dubbed important by other people or some travel expert somewhere sitting behind his Lonely Planet desk. They have to see the cathedrals, the museums, and every important piece of art since 500 B.C. I'm guilty of it, myself, as it had previously been one of my greatest life goals to "check off" all 1000 places in the "1,000 Places to See Before You Die" book.
But things are just that, things. And buildings are buildings. And the UNESCO World Heritage sites from the year 200 B.C...I'm going to go ahead and make the wild assumption that if they've made it this long, they aren't going anywhere within my lifetime.
So at the risk of sounding what some may consider childish and uncultural (actually I'd argue it's the exact opposite), I'm over the museums and the cathedrals. I want experiences. I want to meet people and learn from them and maybe even have some kind of small impact back on them.
Don't get me wrong, when I go to London this weekend, I'll probably get my picture in front of Big Ben just once. But all I'm saying is that if I don't, it won't be the end of the world. And you definitely won't find me waiting in line for a museum or cathedral or checking anything off the checklist in a guidebook any time soon.
Barcelona picture of the week:
HOW FREAKING CUTE IS THAT
Friday, March 9, 2012
Skydiving, Skiing, and the Hottest Men Alive - Interlaken
Last weekend I went to Interlaken (yes where they went in the Bachelor 2 weeks ago). I can't even explain how much I loved it. It's like someone took my favorite activities, people, and scenery and put them all in one place and called it Interlaken.
I had never even heard of Interlaken before I got to Barcelona, but when we went on our bike tour of Barcelona through a company called Bus2Alps, they gave away a free trip there. I looked it up online when I got home from the bike tour and booked my trip with a few friends through Bus2Alps that weekend.
Interlaken is in Swtizerland, and although it's absolutely amazing/gorgeous, it only has 10,000 residents. Although it has 4x as many visitors as residents every year (and therefore has it's fair share of hostels and hotels) I never felt like I was in a touristy city, and in fact, felt like we were the only Americans in the town. There are 3 official languages in Switzerland, French, German, and Italian, depending on where you're located in the country. The people of Interlaken speak German (but Swiss German, which apparently is a little different than regular German) but most of them also speak really good English, too, and we met a lot of people who moved there from Canada.
Anyways, enough historical facts. Here's what we did:
Thursday:
We flew into Geneva at 7:30pm and then had to wait 4 hours before we could board the Bus2Alps bus to Interlaken. We hit up a jazz cafe in the airport, looked at the prices, ordered chips and salsa because we felt bad (9 CHF) and then got the heck out of there. It was at this point that I realized Switzerland was going to be a very expensive trip. Switzerland is on the Swiss Franc (the conversion rate to the dollar is better than the euro, but not by much) and everything is EXPENSIVE. Even the chicken sandwiches at Burger King cost 15 CHF (approx. $17). It was at this point that I decided I was going to suck it up, ignore the prices for the weekend, and not check my bank account for a solid week after returning (for fear of depression). Four hours is a long time to wait in an airport, but 4 hours and 2 airport bars later we finally met up with the Bus2Alps group and were aboard the coach bus on our way to Interlaken (2.5 hour drive). We got to our hostel, Balmer's, and passed out immediately in order to prepared for our big day of skiing in the Alps the next morning.
Balmer's - our hostel
Friday:
I'm not sure how, but we got up bright and early at 7:30 Friday morning, got a quick breakfast, and headed next door to Outdoor Interlaken to rent all of our snow and ski gear. Surprisingly, it was cheaper even than skiing in Colorado. It was only 187 CHF for my lift ticket and rentals even though we had to rent EVERYTHING (coat, snow pants, gloves, helmet, goggles, boots, skis, and poles). The lift ticket gives you access to all the trains and buses your little heart desires and you can pick and choose which ones you take depending on where you want to ski on the mountain. It took about an hour to get to the top of the mountain, and when I got off, I was amazed at how pretty and enormous the mountains were (and a little terrified). I skiied with Jordan and Kat who grew up in Colorado and go to UC Boulder/ski and snowboard all the time soooo that made for a fun day of overcoming any fears/reservations I had about going down any and every run. Linda was supposed to snowboard with us too but got to the top of the run, looked down, and decided she'd rather spend her day at the hill's bar. haha. I was completely out of my league (training at Cascade mountain didn't exactly prepare me for the Alps) but I got through the day without crashing or dying! (although there may have been a few close calls). My binding came loose twice on my ski, causing me to semi-fall and both times someone skiied up to me with my ski within 10 seconds. They were so nice. Without really making a conscious decision to do it, I thanked them in a British accent both times because I was embarrassed that I semi-fell in the land of pro skiiers (who all seemed local) and decided to foot it off on the British rather than being the "stupid American that's never skiied in mountains and is way out of her league". Sorry England.
It was a perfect day of skiing. It was so warm, it felt like spring skiing, and I wished that I hadn't even rented a jacket. We skiied from 10-4 and then stopped in a little teepee bar that had been cranking the music all day at the base of the run. It was packed, everyone was awesome and so nice, and the German beer was perfect after a day of skiing. It's also worth mentioning that the Swiss guys we saw all day on the hill are the hottest bunch of guys I have ever seen in my life. Every single one of them. They were basically radiating. For all of these reasons, I decided that I am returning to Interlaken where I will meet my husband in the teepee bar (so he'll be hot, Swiss, ski, rich, awesome, and live in Switzerland). It's happening.
We got back to the hostel that night around 7, ate dinner in the hostel's restaurant (surprisingly good) and went to bed early. We were so exhausted.
Saturday:
I knew before I left Barcelona that I definitely wanted to skydive in Interlaken, so even though no one else that I knew was going, I decided to wake up bright and early for 8:30am skydiving. I thought at least other kids from the hostel would be signed up, but when the van and instructor showed up, he said I was the only one for that morning...awkward haha. What was more awkward was that when I got in the van, the first song to play on his CD was Bad Touch by Bloodhound Gang. He was from England and was a skydiving instructor in California for 10 years before coming to Interlaken 13 years ago. I couldn't believe that he literally made a living out of jumping out of planes. It was weirdly inspirational. Another thing I thought was cool was when he showed me the huge traffic jam from people trying to get to the mountain early to ski. It was nice to see a traffic jam of people going to ski, rather than a traffic jam of people going to work.
When we got to the skydiving place, I got all suited up and then had to wait by myself for an hour and half because the guy I was supposed to tandem jump with apparently got confused and instead went to the mountain to sky all day. There were a bunch of younger guys there who were training to be instructors and/or trick divers (I didn't realize then that they were all going to jump with me out of the plane) and a few of them tried to talk to me but only spoke German, so I just gave them my look of confusion/fear/awkwardness that I've pretty much perfected at this point and then we'd laugh and awkwardly walk away because neither of us could understand a single word of what the other one was saying.
They called in another guy to tandem with me, and when he finally showed up, we (meaning me, my tandem, and all the soon to be instructors/trick divers) all crowded into a little plane, straddling one another to make room, and were off. The plane ride was beautiful and since it was a perfectly clear day, I got to see Interlaken, the Alps, and a bunch of the other little mountain towns from 13,000 feet in the air. Strangely enough, I wasn't nervous at all up until this point. In my mind, these companies have a safety reputation to uphold otherwise no one would skydive with them, plus my tandem had been jumping for 20 years. So even though they only go over safety information for a total of five minutes (most of which I didn't remember by the time I was dangling over the edge of the plane), I never really felt scared...just excited.
When we got to 13,000 feet, my tandem attached four clips on my suit to his and strapped us together. Then he opened the door and told me to scoot to the edge of the door and hang my legs out with my feet wrapped around the bottom of the plane. We were the first divers, and after such a peaceful flight through the Alps, I had kind of forgotten what I was up there for in the first place. It was at this point that although I didn't really fell nervous, my legs started shaking out of control. It was weird. I paid extra for pictures and video since I heard that everything happens so fast and its hard to remember/pay attention to everything that's going on, so the trick diver who was videoing me stepped out the door first and hung on to the edge of the plane (while it's flying through the air) in order to videotape me as I jumped. crazy crazy crazy.
Seconds later, we pushed off from the plane and the 40 second free fall began. It was at this point that I realized that when Dave (my tandem) told me we would probably do flips at first, he wasn't kidding. I had laughed at him, thinking it was just something else to try and scare me (they do a lot of that surprisingly) but what do you know, as soon as we left the plane I was suddenly flipping through the air. I think I flipped around 3 times before we straightened out and I was able to let go of my harness and put my arms out.
Free falling was the coolest experience I've ever had. The perspective from 13,000 feet is so weird because you're so high up, that at times, it doesn't really even seem like you're falling. You're just...flying. I had the same exact face for all 40 seconds of my freefall. Just pure excitement/adrenaline/top of the world happiness. It looks like I'm screaming in the pictures, but it's impossible to scream since the wind is blowing up at you so fast...so I'm really just making that face haha
40 seconds later, I felt Dave tap on my shoulder (my queue to put my arms in again so he could release the parachute) and all of a sudden we were flying...flying...flying...PARACHUTE. The parachute shoots you back up into the sky and does a good job at making you finally come to the realization that you were just free falling to the ground at 120 mph.
We parachuted for about 5 minutes and Dave made sure to keep the ride interesting with lots of dives and turns. Despite Dave's antics, it was really peaceful and I just kept smiling the entire time.
5 minutes later it was time to land back in front of the skydiving place. Since it'd be pretty near impossible for two people to land/run together, tandems just land on their butts (which makes pulling your legs up a key step...that I almost forgot). We came in really fast, but then all of a sudden right as we were about to land, he pulled the parachute in really quickly and we landed unbelievably softly for just jumping from a plane.
I got up and already wanted to go do it again. Ahhhhhh so awesome. I have a video and 200 pictures and I still can't stop watching them.
After I got back, we grabbed lunch at a little restaurant across from the hotel called Utopia. We ordered bagel sandwiches and homemade french onion soup and after talking to the owner, Alexis, for a while found out that she was from New York! I said something about how much I missed bagels and was surprised that she had them and she told us that she actually imports the bagels from New York to Interlaken every week because nowhere in Europe has the right yeast, etc to make them the same. No wonder they were so good. After graduating from college in New York, she moved to Austrailia for 8 months and then met a guy from Interlaken and moved there to be with him 8 years ago. Ughh I want her life.
We rented bikes from the train station in Interlaken and took one of the bike paths that goes through the mountains and a bunch of little mountain towns. The lakes, mountains, towns, and meadows we came across were unbelievable. I couldn't believe a place like that existed on Earth and I had never even heard of it. We biked past a little barn of cows, with the doors open just inviting anyone/everyone to come in...so we did. Then we came across a tiny brewery and naturally had to stop in the adjacent restaurant to have a beer (the only people inside were 5 old German men smoking cigarettes and laughing at us as we tried to communicate with the waitress who also only spoke German). And the towns seemed to be still living the same life they lived 100 years ago. I'm obsessed. 3 hours later, we had to return the bikes so we could go back to the hostel and get ready for our next activity NIGHT SLEDDING.
When we signed up for night sledding we had no idea what to expect, but it came with a swiss fondue dinner at a mountain restaurant so we figured what the heck. Night sledding turned out to be way more extreme than what I thought, essentially dropping us at the top of a mountain (in the dark) with sleds and lights around our neck (so night sledding didn't turn into night bumper cars). Then the guide goes first and you sled down the zig-zaggy mountain...usually with minimal control. To give you an idea, it was a lot of sledding....sledding....sledding...bump came out of nowhere/flying through the air/landing...surprise! 180 degree turn...hit the snow bank...fall off sled...get back on as fast you can so the people behind you don't hit you...yeah you get the idea. I felt like I was in my own real life version of Mario Kart.
The ride down the mountain was about an hour long and at the end they take you into the this tiny little restaurant that serves you a traditional Swiss meal (salad, pork, and some kind of hashbrown potatoes that must have come straight from heaven) and then Swiss fondue for desert (smells really bad but tastes really good).
We got home around 10 and despite much peer pressure to go out to Metro Bar (the bar at our hostel but apparently the best night life in Interlaken...kind of scary) Linda and I chose to instead shower and eat chocolate in our room before going to bed early. I had absolutely no problem with this decision. We then had the pleasure of being awoken at 3am to another girl in our room puking all over the floor of our room (seriously...how do you get that drunk at Metro Bar. and why?!) The worst part was, it was right in front of the door, so we were baricaded in and couldn't even go down to the desk and plead for another bed for the night. Gross.
Sunday:
After a not-so-lovely night in the hostel, we woke up the next morning, grabbed breakfast, and set out on a walk to see the rest of Interlaken. We got second breakfast at a really cute little restaurant called Cafe au Paris and I had the best breakfast I think I've ever had (yes, it even beat the iHop International Crepe Passport...sorry Julia): waffles, homemade berry sauce, fruit, and homemade ice cream. I wish I had some now.
Broke after our weekend in the city for the rich (well I guess it's all relative to them since their minimum wage is 20 CHF) we picked up salads at grocery store and boarded the bus for the airport to fly back to Barcelona.
Upon returning home, I've looked up couch surfing, internships, apartments, and houses in Interlaken. I have to go back.
Afrojack, Madonna, and Akon OH MY
Last Tuesday night, Afrojack gave a free performance at one of my favorite beach clubs, Opium. I had known about for about a week and wasn't planning on going because I had a Spanish midterm the next morning at 9am and was going to be a good little student and study and sleep and stuff life that, but I put my name on the list anyways just in case.
So 9:30pm rolls around (I just woke up from one of my many naps) and I have yet to start studying and Cara knocks on my door asking to borrow one of my dresses because she decided 2 minutes ago that she was going. If you know me, you know it's not exactly the hardest thing in the world to convince me to go out, even after I've already made up my mind not too. Plus the promoters had just posted that a lot of celebrities were going to be in town for the cellular conference and that the night would be "interesting and full of surprises" THEN Calvin Harris tweeted that he was just arriving at the Barcelona airport...soooo 2 minutes later, I was suddenly going to Opium.
We got ready in 10 minutes (literally, record timing) and ran downstairs to meet everyone to take cabs over. Waiting in line outside was...interesting. There was a giant line of older business men/silver foxes in what I dubbed the senior citizen line. It was weird. I mean, I understand the show was put on for the cellular conference, but I just can't imagine my dad staying out until 5am at an Afrojack show (or any male over the age of 25 for that matter). Since our names were on the list, we got to cut the senior citizen line and go right in (perk of dealing with the sometimes annoying promoters).
Inside was awesome. I felt like I had somehow snuck into a party that I wasn't supposed to be at. There were guys in suits walking around with appetizers (that were completely unrecognizable to me... I think one was locks...served in little ice cream cone looking things, and one I think might have been snails, and god knows what else). My favorite appetizer though were the little steak kabobs. Yummmm steak kabobs.
Since we had gotten there early (around 10) we hung out on the couches on the outdoor terrace making fun of all the silver foxes trying to chat up the 21 year old ladies. It was disturbing but hilarious at the same time. When I have a husband, he will never be allowed to attend any sort of business conference in Barcelona. Lucky for the silver foxes, there were also some cougars that showed up, which was also a joke as they were completely overdone and a few were even wearing evening gowns. TO AFROJACK. You don't wear evening gowns to Afrojack. Ever. Not even if there's a FIRE (sorry, step brothers reference, couldn't help it).
I broke down and bought a drink (for the not so cheap price of 12 euro) and we got to the front right by the stage just as Afrojack went on. The show was awesome. Afrojack spun for a while and then Shermanology came up and sang live vocals which was sweet. I've never been to a show before with live vocals and she had an amazing voice.
So we're dancing, not really paying attention to much else when Afrojack gives a shout out to Shakira and Akon who (surprise) were dancing in the VIP section right to the left of us. It was surreal. We've been in that VIP section and now, casually, without any security guards or anything, Shakira, Akon, and then Madonna (a half hour later) were just hanging out there. Calvin Harris and Bobbi Brown came up on stage with Afrojack, too, and were just dancing around with their drinks. CRAZY.
We left early at around 3:30am and took a cab home where I preceded to bake a pizza and drink a liter of water so I could get my 4am study on. I set 9 alarms on my phone (literally) and went to bed around 6, just to get up at 7 with Cara and keep studying until my midterm at 9. I'm taking Spanish pass/fail (since it's my only Friday class and we fly out on Thursday for a lot of our weekend trips) so I wasn't too concerned, and our teacher is so cute and the nicest person ever and will stand over your shoulder and watch you take the test and point to each of your answers and either say "perfecto! muy bien!" (so you know you got it right) or "no es correcto" (so you know you got it wrong and have to change it). We got our tests back last Monday and I got an A! (so you can stop freaking out, Dad).
So 9:30pm rolls around (I just woke up from one of my many naps) and I have yet to start studying and Cara knocks on my door asking to borrow one of my dresses because she decided 2 minutes ago that she was going. If you know me, you know it's not exactly the hardest thing in the world to convince me to go out, even after I've already made up my mind not too. Plus the promoters had just posted that a lot of celebrities were going to be in town for the cellular conference and that the night would be "interesting and full of surprises" THEN Calvin Harris tweeted that he was just arriving at the Barcelona airport...soooo 2 minutes later, I was suddenly going to Opium.
We got ready in 10 minutes (literally, record timing) and ran downstairs to meet everyone to take cabs over. Waiting in line outside was...interesting. There was a giant line of older business men/silver foxes in what I dubbed the senior citizen line. It was weird. I mean, I understand the show was put on for the cellular conference, but I just can't imagine my dad staying out until 5am at an Afrojack show (or any male over the age of 25 for that matter). Since our names were on the list, we got to cut the senior citizen line and go right in (perk of dealing with the sometimes annoying promoters).
Inside was awesome. I felt like I had somehow snuck into a party that I wasn't supposed to be at. There were guys in suits walking around with appetizers (that were completely unrecognizable to me... I think one was locks...served in little ice cream cone looking things, and one I think might have been snails, and god knows what else). My favorite appetizer though were the little steak kabobs. Yummmm steak kabobs.
Since we had gotten there early (around 10) we hung out on the couches on the outdoor terrace making fun of all the silver foxes trying to chat up the 21 year old ladies. It was disturbing but hilarious at the same time. When I have a husband, he will never be allowed to attend any sort of business conference in Barcelona. Lucky for the silver foxes, there were also some cougars that showed up, which was also a joke as they were completely overdone and a few were even wearing evening gowns. TO AFROJACK. You don't wear evening gowns to Afrojack. Ever. Not even if there's a FIRE (sorry, step brothers reference, couldn't help it).
I broke down and bought a drink (for the not so cheap price of 12 euro) and we got to the front right by the stage just as Afrojack went on. The show was awesome. Afrojack spun for a while and then Shermanology came up and sang live vocals which was sweet. I've never been to a show before with live vocals and she had an amazing voice.
So we're dancing, not really paying attention to much else when Afrojack gives a shout out to Shakira and Akon who (surprise) were dancing in the VIP section right to the left of us. It was surreal. We've been in that VIP section and now, casually, without any security guards or anything, Shakira, Akon, and then Madonna (a half hour later) were just hanging out there. Calvin Harris and Bobbi Brown came up on stage with Afrojack, too, and were just dancing around with their drinks. CRAZY.
We left early at around 3:30am and took a cab home where I preceded to bake a pizza and drink a liter of water so I could get my 4am study on. I set 9 alarms on my phone (literally) and went to bed around 6, just to get up at 7 with Cara and keep studying until my midterm at 9. I'm taking Spanish pass/fail (since it's my only Friday class and we fly out on Thursday for a lot of our weekend trips) so I wasn't too concerned, and our teacher is so cute and the nicest person ever and will stand over your shoulder and watch you take the test and point to each of your answers and either say "perfecto! muy bien!" (so you know you got it right) or "no es correcto" (so you know you got it wrong and have to change it). We got our tests back last Monday and I got an A! (so you can stop freaking out, Dad).
Afrojack
Shermanology and Bobbi Brown
Get It Shakira
Shakira again
Akon
It was a little crowded...
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Carnival in Sitges
A couple weeks ago, on Fat Tuesday (the Tuesday after I got back from Madrid) we made a last minute decision to go catch a Stokes Travel bus for 20 euro and go to Carnival in Sitges (a coastal town about an hour away known for its Carnival celebration). Carnival is the equivalent of Mardi Gras back in the states, but Mardi Gras to the degree that I imagine only New Orleans could possibly outdo.
We went to the party store and got masks, boas, silk gloves, wings...the usual and caught the bus around 10pm. We were stared at by everyone while riding the metro and two women even stopped us and asked to take their picture with us. I'll take it as a compliment...
When we got to Sitges, they gave us each a box of sangria and set us loose. The town was crazy. Approximately 300,000 people come to Sitges the night of Fat Tuesday, and there's a huge parade by the beach, and everyone dresses crazy.
Here is what they looked like:
And here is what we looked like:
After the parade finishes (around 1am) everyone crowds the downtown bars and clubs and forms a giant mob of people that looks strikingly similar to this:
It was a very fun night that ended with me napping on the way back home in the bus (4am) only to wake up and find a spanish man in a mask and silk cloak watching me sleep (ok creepy spanish man). Surprisingly, the only casualty of Sitges was my spanish phone which was easily replaced the next day for 10 euro (the one benefit of having a phone from 1924).
We went to the party store and got masks, boas, silk gloves, wings...the usual and caught the bus around 10pm. We were stared at by everyone while riding the metro and two women even stopped us and asked to take their picture with us. I'll take it as a compliment...
When we got to Sitges, they gave us each a box of sangria and set us loose. The town was crazy. Approximately 300,000 people come to Sitges the night of Fat Tuesday, and there's a huge parade by the beach, and everyone dresses crazy.
Here is what they looked like:
And here is what we looked like:
After the parade finishes (around 1am) everyone crowds the downtown bars and clubs and forms a giant mob of people that looks strikingly similar to this:
It was a very fun night that ended with me napping on the way back home in the bus (4am) only to wake up and find a spanish man in a mask and silk cloak watching me sleep (ok creepy spanish man). Surprisingly, the only casualty of Sitges was my spanish phone which was easily replaced the next day for 10 euro (the one benefit of having a phone from 1924).
Class Blog
I've been meaning to do this for a while now, but here's the link to the blog/travel guide we're writing for our Marketing Cultural Heritage class. We just post about places we go in Barcelona (or anywhere in Europe, really). Easiest. class. ever.
http://artsnotes.com/barcelona/
And now for the Barcelona picture of the day...
the dog whisperer.
http://artsnotes.com/barcelona/
And now for the Barcelona picture of the day...
the dog whisperer.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Madrid and Toledo
Ughh still slacking. I posted 10 times in January and twice so far in February. Fail. BUT lucky for me I have an extra day in February (ayyo leap year) and lots of boring classes today so hopefully I'll catch up at least a little bit.
Two weekends ago, CIEE took our program (well half of our program...the other half had gone the weekend before) to Madrid and Toledo for the weekend. We left bright and early Friday morning, couldn't resist grabbing a mcmuffin at McDonalds at the train station on the way out (yum.) and took the high speed train to Madrid. I was glad CIEE payed for it because apparently round-trip tickets for that thing are 150 euro or something crazy like that. The train was really nice and surprisingly really comfortable. I turned to my Bon Iver playlist on my ipod and was asleep in less than 5 minutes.
I like Madrid way more than I thought I was going to. For some reason, I had this image in my head that it was going to be this huge, dirty city with no beach and no mountains. It was actually a lot smaller than Barcelona (at least the central area that everything is located in) and the buildings and plazas are a lot prettier and brighter than Barcelona. We could walk from one end of the town to the other so we never even had to buy a metro pass (obvious bonus since we have to take the metro everywhere in Barcelona). I also felt much less hated for not being local. And they speak SPANISH! as their first language, not Catalan. Lastly, and most importantly, they give you free tapas when you order a drink anywhere. So everytime you order a mug of beer or sangria (for 1 or 2 euro) you get a plate full of tapas. Heaven.
We were in Madrid for the start of Carnival. AKA: all the weird people come out and feel as though they have an excuse to be 12x weirder than they are on any other day. The street acts were just straight up creepy (see below) and strangely, there were Disney characters everywhere. It was strange.
Friday night, there was a big parade and ceremony to kick off Carnival and then a "performance" (I guess that's what I'll call it since to this day, I still have no idea what exactly I was watching) in Plaza Mayor. Basically there were a lot of crazy costumes, masks, the occasional firework, and people in spandex bodysuits (that covered their faces) climbing all spider-like and such on this metal structure.
After we had enough of the creepy spider people, we hit up a few tapas bars. One of our favorites was El Tigre. For 5 euro, you get a one liter mojito and plates on plates on plates of tapas. It was a typical tapas bar in that it was packed and there are no chairs or tables, just ledges along the wall. As it started getting later, they started pumping up the jams and the little tapas bar turned into a little dance floor. Even though I felt like I needed to run a marathon afterwards, it was a lot of fun.
On our way home, we had a brief Taken style moment when we accidentally ended up on a sketchy street and walked through a group of prostitutes that were...soliciting themselves alongside the street. What I can only assume to be their pimps were suddenly walking RIGHT behind us, quickly whispering to one another. I don't know if they were going to steal us or just steal Taylor's camera, but either way, I didn't feel like sticking around to figure it out and we "stopped to look at something" so they passed us and took the first street out of there. Sketch.
Saturday we went to Toledo. It was absolutely beautiful. CIEE gave us these headsets with this ridiculous looking walkie-talkie looking object to wear on LANYARD around our necks as we walked around. We didn't look like tourists or anything. After the first cathedral tour that lasted an hour and a half (and was probably the 37th cathedral tour I've been on since coming to Europe) we decided we weren't feeling the cathedral/museum thing and split off to explore by ourselves. That turned into a lot of shopping and eating, but eh I'm not complaining.
The extent of our Saturday night was eating at an amazing Italian restaurant (finally) and then a lot a lot of dancing at Joy, one of the local clubs just down the street from our hotel. We still weren't feeling the museum thing on Sunday, so instead we went to Parque del Retiro, rented a rowboat and floated on the little pond for a couple hours. Pure. Bliss.
Coming out of the park SURPRISE there was a protest of hundreds of thousands of people and SURPRISE the only way to get to our hotel (where we had to meet our group to go home) was straight through it. They were protesting labor reforms and spending cuts and it looked a little like this http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/19/spain-protests-labor-reforms_n_1287491.html
We all got separated and it was more than a little stressful since we were running late, thought we were going to miss the bus, I had no phone, and the people would. not. move. I was even speaking it my best polite spanish and it just wasn't happening. The only way to get anywhere was when they lifted up their hands to clap, and you had to duck under there elbows and get as far as you could before they stopped clapping. It was crazy.
Two weekends ago, CIEE took our program (well half of our program...the other half had gone the weekend before) to Madrid and Toledo for the weekend. We left bright and early Friday morning, couldn't resist grabbing a mcmuffin at McDonalds at the train station on the way out (yum.) and took the high speed train to Madrid. I was glad CIEE payed for it because apparently round-trip tickets for that thing are 150 euro or something crazy like that. The train was really nice and surprisingly really comfortable. I turned to my Bon Iver playlist on my ipod and was asleep in less than 5 minutes.
I like Madrid way more than I thought I was going to. For some reason, I had this image in my head that it was going to be this huge, dirty city with no beach and no mountains. It was actually a lot smaller than Barcelona (at least the central area that everything is located in) and the buildings and plazas are a lot prettier and brighter than Barcelona. We could walk from one end of the town to the other so we never even had to buy a metro pass (obvious bonus since we have to take the metro everywhere in Barcelona). I also felt much less hated for not being local. And they speak SPANISH! as their first language, not Catalan. Lastly, and most importantly, they give you free tapas when you order a drink anywhere. So everytime you order a mug of beer or sangria (for 1 or 2 euro) you get a plate full of tapas. Heaven.
We were in Madrid for the start of Carnival. AKA: all the weird people come out and feel as though they have an excuse to be 12x weirder than they are on any other day. The street acts were just straight up creepy (see below) and strangely, there were Disney characters everywhere. It was strange.
Friday night, there was a big parade and ceremony to kick off Carnival and then a "performance" (I guess that's what I'll call it since to this day, I still have no idea what exactly I was watching) in Plaza Mayor. Basically there were a lot of crazy costumes, masks, the occasional firework, and people in spandex bodysuits (that covered their faces) climbing all spider-like and such on this metal structure.
After we had enough of the creepy spider people, we hit up a few tapas bars. One of our favorites was El Tigre. For 5 euro, you get a one liter mojito and plates on plates on plates of tapas. It was a typical tapas bar in that it was packed and there are no chairs or tables, just ledges along the wall. As it started getting later, they started pumping up the jams and the little tapas bar turned into a little dance floor. Even though I felt like I needed to run a marathon afterwards, it was a lot of fun.
On our way home, we had a brief Taken style moment when we accidentally ended up on a sketchy street and walked through a group of prostitutes that were...soliciting themselves alongside the street. What I can only assume to be their pimps were suddenly walking RIGHT behind us, quickly whispering to one another. I don't know if they were going to steal us or just steal Taylor's camera, but either way, I didn't feel like sticking around to figure it out and we "stopped to look at something" so they passed us and took the first street out of there. Sketch.
Saturday we went to Toledo. It was absolutely beautiful. CIEE gave us these headsets with this ridiculous looking walkie-talkie looking object to wear on LANYARD around our necks as we walked around. We didn't look like tourists or anything. After the first cathedral tour that lasted an hour and a half (and was probably the 37th cathedral tour I've been on since coming to Europe) we decided we weren't feeling the cathedral/museum thing and split off to explore by ourselves. That turned into a lot of shopping and eating, but eh I'm not complaining.
The extent of our Saturday night was eating at an amazing Italian restaurant (finally) and then a lot a lot of dancing at Joy, one of the local clubs just down the street from our hotel. We still weren't feeling the museum thing on Sunday, so instead we went to Parque del Retiro, rented a rowboat and floated on the little pond for a couple hours. Pure. Bliss.
Coming out of the park SURPRISE there was a protest of hundreds of thousands of people and SURPRISE the only way to get to our hotel (where we had to meet our group to go home) was straight through it. They were protesting labor reforms and spending cuts and it looked a little like this http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/19/spain-protests-labor-reforms_n_1287491.html
We all got separated and it was more than a little stressful since we were running late, thought we were going to miss the bus, I had no phone, and the people would. not. move. I was even speaking it my best polite spanish and it just wasn't happening. The only way to get anywhere was when they lifted up their hands to clap, and you had to duck under there elbows and get as far as you could before they stopped clapping. It was crazy.
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