Pictures from Antwerp, Salzburg, and Munich

the main plaza in Antwerp

My friend, Mary, and me!


At Hitler's Eagle's Nest in Germany. We're overlooking the Bavarian Alps

This time we are at the castle in Salzburg, Austria looking out over the town

Another one from the Eagle's nest

A view of Salzburg


Looking out at Salzburg

At the Hofbrauhouse in Munich, enjoying Germany's finest

Looking down on the main square in Munich

Munich

Dear loyal followers:
I would like to formally apologize for not keeping up with my blog this semester. I just kept putting off writing about each trip, and after a while I just stopped trying. So I will try to summarize the last two months for you:

My best friend, Nicole, came to visit me in March for her spring break trip. We had a ball in Madrid, and she came with the group on our excursion to Andalucia. We went to Granada (saw the Alhambra) and Sevilla. We both bought amazingly beautiful tapestries to hang from our walls. It's one of my favorite purchases i've made on this trip.

When she left, it was back to normal Salamancan life for us. We had 11 days of vacation for Easter week, and I went to Italy with 4 other girls. We went to Rome, Venice, and Florence. It was such a wonderful trip! Great food, amazing buildings, such history! We even took a bike ride through the Tuscan countryside and visited a winery. Without a doubt, Italian food is my favorite. And I bought a fierce leather jacket to remember Italia by.

When we got back from Italy, we had barely a moment's rest and we were back on the bus heading North to visit Cantabria. We saw prehistoric cave drawings in Altimira. I think Cantabria is the most beautiful part of Spain. We spent one night in a Parador at the bottom of a huge mountain called Picos de Europa. In the morning we took a cable car (yikes!) to the top of the mountain to see some of the most breathtaking views of nature I've ever seen. Then we drove another hour to Santander. Santander was fun cause we got to dip our toes in the ocean. It was all just so pretty everywhere.

The last two weeks in Salamanca were very sad for me. I have had so much fun there, and to say goodbye was hard. But I didn't have time to be too sad, because my mom and dad came to visit for 15 days right at the end of my program. After I took my finals and said goodbye to Raquel (YAY) I met up with my parents in Madrid. We then went to Valencia for three days, and I got food poisoning from crappy train station food. I got to see the inside of a Spanish hospital. And it was free! Gotta love socialism. Our last stop was Barcelona, where I got to show them around. See previous post for info about barcelona.

And now I am in Antwerp, Belgium...
I am living in an Apartment with the 21 other students. It's actually really nice and comfortable. I can tell that this group will be just as amazing as the one from Salamanca. The people are all really fun, and there's actually MORE boys than girls!

Oh yea, I'm going to Paris tomorrow for the weekend. You know.
More to come later I PROMISE.

The best weekend ever in Barcelona

Since I never have access to internet when I write my blogs, this entry is actually a week late. I went to Barcelona the last weekend in February, and I'm just now getting around to posting this. oh well, it's still all true!

The group went on an excursion to Barcelona this weekend and WOW was it amazing! Getting there was a little rough, but after the ten hour bus ride (yuck), we settled into our lovely four star hotel around 7:30 pm. The hotel served us dinner at 9, and everyone was so excited because the food on our excursions is a nice break from the food our Spanish madres make us back in Salamanca. Well, the first course comes out and it’s plain noodles in a bowl for each of us. We all looked around like, “sauce?” And then the waiters came out of the kitchen with large bowls of red sauce-looking stuff, so we were relieved that they also brought out pasta sauce. Wrong. It was ketchup.
Cold ketchup. And it’s not just that it was cold ketchup in a gigantic bowl. It’s that they brought out three bowls per table. And I would estimate that there were two or three entire bottles of Heinz Ketchup emptied into each one. And the waiters were pretty dumb, too. Whenever anyone in our group would ask for anything, be it butter, or a clean plate, or salt, the waiter would give major attitude before grudgingly entering the kitchen to get it. “But WHY do you need butter?” they would ask us. So rude! The rest of the meal was lovely, though, because I asked for the vegetarian option instead of the pound of beef that everyone else got. It was delicious!

After dinner, a bunch of people were getting ready to hit the clubs, but a few of us decided to not go wild on the first night, and instead took the metro into the heart of Barcelona and went exploring. I had been to Barcelona for a day trip 4 years ago when I studied abroad in Tarragona. The first step I took out of the metro hit me with memories from that trip. La Rambla—the main street going from the center of town down straight to the water—is just like the rambla in Tarragona. Only at night it’s like a circus, complete with prostitutes, drug trafficking, and little men in golden jumpsuits promoting new clubs. We literally had to navigate our way around the men trying to sell us single cans of beer from the six-packs they were swinging around. The rambla ends because it hits the Mediterranean Sea, and we went walking on the docks where all the little sailboats were sleeping. I think that the reason this weekend was so much fun is because of the company I was in the entire time. Ally is just like me, in that she loves to plan ahead and be prepared on excursions so that we can squeeze as much out of the little time we are in each city. She always has the guide book and the perfect place to go, and she’s wonderful at gently nudging us in that direction.

Anyways, we stayed out for a few hours, and on our way back to the metro I almost had a heart attack when I saw the Bicing Bikes. Let me give some background for those that don’t know me/didn’t talk to me last semester…Last semester I was in a class called COB 300. It was worth 12 credits, and involves working in a group of 6 students all semester long to propose a business by writing a business plan. COB 300 is known around JMU as being the class the ruins romantic relationships, deprives sleep, and generally destroys the physical and mental health of all who take it. Well, MY group’s brilliant business plan was to produce and sell bicycle-sharing equipment to universities across the US. We got the idea from the European cities who have bikes available as a type of pubic transportation. I had COMPLETELY forgotten that one of the cities we studied was in fact Barcelona, and when I saw those red and white bikes, I squealed in delight and demanded that all my friends take pictures of me with the bikes/on the bikes/hugging the bikes. Seeing them only confirmed my belief that we had the best and most realistic business plan.

But I digress…The night ended as I drifted to sleep in my perfect 4-star bed dreaming of bicycles and la rambla.

In the morning we started touring the city. Barcelona is in a region of Spain called Catalunya, where they speak Catalan (a mixture of Spanish, French, German, and alien). A major part of the Catalan culture, and a great source of pride for the region, is Antoni Gaudi, one of the most famous architects Spain has ever seen. Gaudi’s buildings are like manifestations of dreams—he uses no straight lines or 90-degree angles. Instead, he goes nuts and uses every ounce of imagination to create the most beautiful buildings in the country. On Saturday morning, our group visited Park Guell, Gaudi’s attempt at creating a suburb outside the city center that eventually became a public park. The park is full of gingerbread houses topped in colorful fruit-like bursts of mosaic colors.

It also has the Room of a Hundred Columns, a marketplace supported by columns encrusted with mosaic tiles. I could have spent the whole day there, because it finally felt like Spring and there were so many things to see on the different pathways hidden throughout the park.

After the park, we went to see a panoramic view of the city from Montjuic, a small mountain where the Olympic Stadium was built for the games of 1992. However, there was too much fog and humidity to see the city, so instead our trusty guide, Jesus, took the time as an opportunity to buy tickets to a soccer match that was taking place in the stadium that night. As much as I love sporting events, I passed on the game, but about half our group ended up going that night. After the stadium, we hopped on the bus and went to the Picasso museum, which is hidden in the Barrio Gotic—the Gothic Quarter of the city. The streets were so narrow you could touch buildings on both sides of you. In the museum, we viewed some of Picasso’s most important works, including my favorite, “Las Meninas,” which is an interpretation of Velazquez’s painting by the same name. The free afternoon started when we were finished in the museum, so a group of my friends and I decided to walk back towards la Rambla. Hannah and I had decided earlier in the week that we were going to save a ton of money by buying our own groceries and making PB&J sandwiches and salads (which also happen to be good ol’ American food that we have been missing). I decided to separate from the group because they wanted to go to the mall, where I had been 4 years earlier on my trip here. But Hannah had the peanut butter and I had the bread! So I stopped in the middle of the street, sat down, and made myself a sandwich right there. I don’t care if I looked crazy, desperate times called for desperate measures!


The three hours that I spent by myself were VITAL. I hadn’t realized it, but I had not had any time to myself the entire time I’ve been in Spain. It’s fun to meet new people and socialize with them, but I really needed a break. I spent the afternoon wondering around, and the Rambla was waaaay different during the day. Instead of drugs and sex, street performers were asking for money in exchange for entertaining the tourists. I saw some of the dumbest performers of all time. I woman dressed up like a princess would take a picture with you if you payed her a Euro. THAT IS NOT TALENT! And this poor man who had lost his lower limbs was also asking for money, but no one was paying attention to him because he wasn’t dressed like a princess. I gave HIM my euro instead, and silently condemned those who were clapping for the idiot sitting on a toilet seat covered in white paint. (Again, not talent). I stumbled my way into the outdoor marketplace, which consisted of row after row of booths selling fresh vegetables, fruit, fish, meat, cheese, nuts, chocolate, beer, you name it, it was there. It was such a sensory overload.

I think I stood in one spot on the outskirts of the marketplace for a whole minute before I decided to go further. I stayed for like an hour just walking around and looking at all the things that were in front of me.


After my sweet alone time, I met up with the group at the Xocolate Museum (that’s how they spell chocolate in Catalan). I didn’t go in, but a few people from our group went through the museum and saw statues made from chocolate depicting famous things from history. I led everyone BACK to the market after the museum visit, because we all wanted to buy groceries for dinner. In 20 minutes, Hannah and I darted through the market looking for exactly what we needed. And it was so cheap, which really shocked me.

After all this, we got BACK on the metro and rode to la Plaza de Espana, which is very close to the soccer stadium. Only we went because Ally had told us about this “magic fountain” that performs every weekend night. When we got there, we could see these huge spouts of neon-colored water jumping up and down to music in the distance, so we hurried over to it watched this crazy show for half an hour. It was water, color, and light choreographed to some of the most random music, including Beyonce and Alicia Keys, some old country music, and Spanish pop. Let me just say how difficult it is to take a picture of someone in the darkness standing in front of a bright light. But we managed.


When we got home, everyone was exhausted. We had spent 12 hours walking through town. And the best part of the day was yet to come, because Hannah and I had planned the best dinner ever. We made salads with our trappings from the market, with aged gouda and a sweet little baguette on the side. It kills me just thinking about how good that dinner was!
We ended the night drinking tinto con naranja—red wine mixed with orange fanta. I know that it sounds gross, but it is delightful if you give it a chance!

The next morning I had a great wake up call. I got onto the elevator to go to breakfast, and when it opened on the main floor, an enraged man kicked a huge glass vase straight towards me. I’m sure that he did not intend to hit me with it, he was kicking it at closed elevator doors when he started. But the doors opened half way through and there I was, where I received shattered shards of glass all around me. I wasn’t hurt for those of you on the edge of your seats, so don’t worry. I was just shocked, so I didn’t step forward and the elevator doors tried to close, but they couldn’t because huge chunks of glass were in their way. So there I am, standing in a puddle of glass and barely breathing from confusion, when the man ran out of the hotel. I finally woke up out of my stupor and asked the lady at the front desk what that was about, and she said he was pissed because his laptop had been stolen and he wanted the hotel to find it. I think he’s just a jackass who left his car door unlocked the night before, and was trying to blame it on other people. The rest of breakfast passed without incident, and we were on our way to the main event: El Templo de La Sagrada Famila. Sagrada Familia is Gaudi’s most famous and important works.



It is still under construction, even 90 years after Gaudi died (incidentally, he was run over by a trolley train right in front of la Sagrada Familia, and killed on the spot). The church is one of the most unique buildings I have ever seen. It is huge and ugly and beautiful all at once. Each side of the building has a different theme and style of architecture. A person could look at that building all year and see a different thing hidden in all of the decorations every day. After seeing the outside and the inside, our group took the elevator up to the top of one of the towers and crossed the bridge from one tower to another, where we got to see a beautiful view of the entire city. It was awesome, but really high up so some people got a little scared. We made our way back down using the spiral staircase.
When we left la Sagrada Familia, we went to another one of Gaudi’s buildings, called La Pederera, which was an apartment building for the super wealthy back in the early 1900’s. Gaudi designed every piece of furniture, every chandelier and lighting fixture, and the entire building. The most impressive part of the building was the roof, which is famous for the crazy chimneys that Gaudi designed. They look like modern art sculptures, not chimneys. We hung out there for a while and then had free time again, which is when the best part of the weekend happened: Bike riding.
A group of about 9 of us walked to a park by the sea and rented bikes. We rode along the Mediteranean ocean and it was the most peaceful and blissful hour of my life. I would ding my little bicycle bell at all the people on the street and yell “hola!” at them. It was just plain fun.

This weekend was by far the most fun I’ve had since I’ve been here.

Observations about Spain...

Observations about Spain:
• No one smiles or makes jokes in public. That’s when you know Americans are near: if you hear people acting silly in public.
• Fashion is way more important than comfort. Wearing stilettos on 700-year-old cobblestone roads is commonplace, whereas tennis shoes are considered fashion suicide.
• The diet here consists of wine, beer, pastries, white bread, ice cream, oil, pig products, and cigarettes. No one exercises. And yet everyone is skinny and lives to be 100.
• Mullets are popular. Gross.
• PETA hasn’t made its way over here yet, so all the old ladies wear gigantic fur coats. Even when it’s 40 degrees.
• Women wear their shorts and miniskirts in the dead of winter, but it’s ok because they wear stockings with them, so they don’t get cold.
• No one knows what romaine lettuce looks like.
• The only way to cook is with olive oil. Even if it’s rice. Or a head of cauliflower.
• Stores specialize too much. I have passed stores that sell ink cartridges for printers. And only ink cartridges. But not printers.
• It rarely snows in Madrid, so when it does the airport closes even for a light dusting and people talk about the “blizzard” for the next month.
• People live at home until their mid-thirties in order to start their career before committing themselves to a spouse and family. Most women become pregnant after the age 35, which is when pregnancy in the US can be considered “high-risk.”
• Dogs rarely have leashes when they go for walks. But they never run away. And it’s inappropriate to give loving affection to pets. Their owners tell you to stop hugging and playing with them because they’re “just dogs.”

Weekend in Madrid

This weekend was the excursion to Madrid. We left Salamanca early on Friday morning and arrived in Madrid around 10:30 am. We got off the bus at el Museo del Prado.

The Prado is full of historically significant paintings by Velazquez, Goya, Rafael, and el Greco. I am taking my first art history class this semester, so I don’t know anything about art at this point. All the names and titles of the works of art are familiar, but I can’t tell what style anything is or why they’re considered masterpieces. Jesus was our tour guide through the whole weekend, and he did a really great job of explaining each of the important pieces to us. A lot of the art that we focused on were criticizing the government or society.

At 2:30 we finally got to our hotel to eat our packed lunches and drop off our stuff and relax for an hour. After our siesta, we went to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. There were paintings by Picasso, Van Gough, Renoir, and Matisse. The best one (in my non-professional opinion) was “Guernica” by Picasso. There are photographs of the canvas at each stage in its production, and it was really cool to see how picasso’s mind worked. After spending the afternoon there, we went to the hotel for a quick change of clothes and then went to see a play. Although the word “play” is not correct at all.

We went to see the new show by this performance group named Mayumana. It was incredible. I would explain it as Stomp, Blue Man Group, and Cirque de Sole. Google it. There were like 12 people in the group and they had more talent than 200 normal people. We were trying to figure out how in the world they cast that show, and we decided that first a person must be able to play percussion. Then, they must have the fitness of an Olympic athlete and be able to dance nonstop for 2 hours. Then they must be able to sing acapella and play guitar. Incredible. Everyone’s mouths were hanging open the entire time. They didn’t stop dancing or making music the whole time. At one point, one of the cast members came on stage with a video camera and filmed one of the other actors playing a few notes of a song on guitar, then put it on a loop and filmed everyone playing different instruments and put the video on a loop and it was AMAZING I can’t even explain it. I wish I knew how to play an instrument!

The next morning, we hopped on the bus and drove to the Palacio Real—the royal Palace. It was so beautiful inside and out. It was built in the 18^th century and used by Spanish royalty until 1931, when the civil war broke out. It has over 2800 rooms and is four stories above ground and 6 below. All the walls in each room are covered in silk and golden tapestries. Statues of lions are placed all around the palace to remind the inhabitants how much power they have (in case they forget, I suppose). I loved the chandeliers in each room. Each and every room had a unique chandelier. And one of the kings who lived there was obsessed with clocks, so there are over 600 clocks throughout the palace. The entire place was so grandiose and overwhelmingly lavish.
The most amazing thing in it were the Stradivarious instruments. There were 2 violins, 2 violas, and 2 cellos. These instruments are revered the world over for the amazing music they produce. Stradivarious, the man who made them, went to the grave with his secret of how to make the instruments. Music aficionados love the sound, and these particular ones are used once a year in concerts for important heads of state. After touring the inside, we hung out on the main patio and took pictures in the sun.
The weather was perfect all weekend long. It is finally Spring! Everyone in Spain is baffled by this year’s weather. It’s apparently the coldest and longest winter ever. But I think that it’s finally over, and the sun was out and we walked around without jackets during the day.

We ate lunch at the hotel and then had the rest of the day to ourselves. 12 of us decided to take the metro to Puerta del Sol, a famous and popular area of Madrid that has a little bit of everything—shopping, architecture, the Plaza Mayor, restaurants, and a bunch of nutty street performers. We wanted to see the Plaza Mayor, so we walked to it. It pales in comparison to Salamanca’s Plaza Mayor. They are two very different styles, and Madrid’s is much smaller and more modern. I think it was built like 400 years after Salamanca’s. People were just sitting on the ground enjoying the day and hanging out. I can’t wait for the temperature to raise a little more in Salamanca so we can do that, too. After seeing the plaza, we decided to go to the huge park in Madrid—Parque Retiro.

The park was my favorite part of the day. It was so relaxing, and the sun was just about to set so everything looked even more beautiful than usual. We walked to the lake in the middle of the park, and couples celebrating valentine’s day had rented little row boats and were rowing around the lake, or having picnics on the grass by the water.


There is a huge statue with Roman columns on one side of the lake where street performers are always playing drums. The crowds that formed were dancing with their children, and it was the perfect temperature. We relaxed there for about an hour, but it got cold when it got dark, so we walked back to the metro, about 25 minutes back towards the Plaza Mayor.

Similar to D.C., Madrid had statues of bulls scattered all over the city. Each bull is painted by an artist that represents a different part of Spanish culture. We found some interesting ones.

That night, we all decided to go out. A big group of us took the metro back to Puerta del Sol, where the good clubs and bars are. One of the boys with us was pickpocketed. His wallet was stolen from the front pocket of his jeans. It was horrible. He called his parents in the US and had them cancel his credit cards.

Nightlife in Madrid is so expensive compared to Salamanca. Most clubs have a cover charge that can go as high as 15 euros. We wandered around for a while until we found a smaller club with no cover charge and stayed there for a few hours. It was fun, but too expensive! After a few hours of dancing we took taxies home and crashed into our beautiful 4-star hotel beds.

The next morning, we all woke up bright and early and rode the bus for an hour until we arrived in Escorial. Escorial is a small town between Madrid and Salamanca that is home to the famous monastery and palace. We have learned in our art history class that the building is an architect’s dream, because the man who designed it was obsessed with geometry and above all, symmetry.

We had a lovely tour of the building, and I actually loved it. A lot of students thought it was boring, but I liked it because it had some historical treasures in it. The building served as a monastery, the royal palace, a library, and a hospital. King Phillip II built the palace/monastery using New World gold during his reign in an effort to steam the Protestant tide. By building the monastery and the royal home in the same place, he was displaying how linked the Catholic church was to the people of Spain.


The thing I loved in the palace was the library. The ceiling was painted with by Italian artists and depicted the great thinkers from every time period, and every subject ranging from mathematics to religion to philosophy. The book cases were full from top to bottom with gold-leaf books. And since the new world had just been discovered, there were maps drawn in the 15^th and 16^th centuries of the world. I loved looking at them. The entire bottom 4^th of the world was one large land mass named “Austrailious” because no one knew what was down there. I just love old things like that!

The weekend was a blast and I can’t wait to go to Barcelona in another week!