Barcelona es de Puta Madre

 The past week has been full of adventures all around Spain.  For fear of this blog entry being intolerably long, I will try to keep my anecdotes brief and entertaining.  

Last Friday, at an ungodly early hour, my friend Heather Scott and I boarded a plane headed for Barcelona.  While the flight is only about 50 minutes, plane tickets were cheaper than train tickets and comparable to bus tickets.  We landed in Barcelona, took a cab to our hostel, and prepared ourselves to explore an entire city in approximately 40 hours.  Our hostel In Barcelona was my first true hostel experience.  Communal bathrooms, twelve beds in one co-ed bedroom, and an extra fee to have sheets on your bed.  Ew.  High maintenance Emily aside, I ended up liking the hostel experience.  We met young and interesting people from all over the world and had culturally enriching experiences.  (Even though none of the electrical outlets worked, thus preventing me from using my hair straightener...)  Here is a picture of our bedroom in the hostel. 

 The first thing we did in Barcelona, on the advice of many many people, was go to La Sagrada Familia.  La Sagrada Familia is one of Gaudi's most famous works in Barcelona. It's a giant temple that has been under construction since 1882 and it's not expected to be completed until at least 2025 ( time for completion varies depending on different sources of information).  

The cathedral was absolutely breathtaking.  Heather and I spent more than three hours there, just admiring the detail.  The stained glass windows are the most recent installation of la Sagrada Familia.  My parents didn't even get to see it when they went to Barcelona two years ago.  

After la Sagrada Familia, we went to Parc Guell, another one of Gaudi's artistic wonders.  The park reminded me of a scene out of the Grinch Who Stole Christmas because the buildings looked almost like cartoons.  Parc Guell is famous for Gaudi's mosaic artwork. 

Friday night was filled with exploring the city, getting horribly lost, and eventually ending up at a gay bar.  We woke up early Saturday morning and headed to the market on La Rambla.  The market was beautiful, with isles and isles of fresh fruit, nuts, chocolates, meat, flowers, and vegetables.  We spent an hour just walking through the market and buying some snacks to eat.  Heather was in heaven in the chocolate section. 

The we walked down to the Barcelona harbor and a saw my first Spanish body of water.  We didn't have time to go to the beach, so this was the closest that I got. 

 Saturday night was an adventure all on its own.  After dinner, we wanted to go to a fun place for drinks, dancing, etc.  But neither of us knew of a fun place to go.  We had an inspired idea to hail a taxi and ask him to take us to a fun place where young people go out.  Good music, dancing, etc.  Without hesitation, we were off, weaving in and out of pedestrians like he really knew where to go.  After much anticipation, we stopped in front of the Hard Rock Cafe, Barcelona.  Thank you, Mr. Cab Driver.  What an interesting and exotic place for American tourists to go.  After that, we went back to our original plan of wandering the streets listening for music.  

Monday morning we boarded a plane back to Madrid.  We had Monday and Tuesday off because of Columbus Day, which is a huge deal in Spain.  They call it the National Spanish Holiday and everything is closed.  So Tuesday we decided to go to the quaint mountain town of Buitraigo, about 90 minutes outside of Madrid.  To make a long story (and a very long afternoon) short, our guidebooks lied.  I do not think that Buitraigo has ever seen tourists before, nevertheless Americans.  We brought lunch for a picnic because we were under the false impression that it would be possible to leave to city and actually get into the mountains.  WRONG.  There is a huge Moorish wall surrounding the city.  Where there is no wall, there is a river.  The guidebook also said that there is a Picasso museum in this town.  WRONG again.  This "museum" is a room in the basement of a house.  Picasso's barber donated all of the artwork that he was given by Picassi to this "museum."  If I were a painter, I wouldn't give very many pieces to my barber.  Picasso had a similar idea. 

The city was pretty, but we took the 10:30am bus there and had to take the 4:30bus home.  We saw the entire town in less than an hour, ate our picnic for another hour, and were ready to leave by 2pm. We sat in a coffee shop until they kicked us out and then we sat at the bus stop.  Our adventure to Buitraigo was different than we had originally planned, but we created memories all the same. 

La Corrida de Toros and OKTOBERFEST!

Hello! I am terribly sorry that it has been so long since my last blog post.  I have been very busy and blogging is more time consuming than I expected it to be.  To fill you in on the past two weeks, I have to start with one of the most disturbing and cultural activities that there is here in Madrid. La Corida de Toros (a bull fight) is the most stereotypical Spanish thing to do.  And since I fully support being a tourist, (and the flashing "American" sign that is constantly above my head) I attended a bull fight.  I had NO IDEA what I was in for.  I thought that the matador would shake a sheet at a bull for a couple minutes and that would be that.  WRONG.  During every bull fight, the matadors kill six bulls.  One at a time.

  First, they taunt it a bit and get it really angry.  Then a man on a horse comes out and stabs in in the back so that the blood starts to run.  

Then they put these colorful hooks in its back to make it more angry.  Then, the real matador comes out to finish him off.  And they do that exact same process six times!  During the first bull fight, I was mortified by all the blood and really felt sorry for the bull.  And I don't even like animals.  During the second and third fights, I thought it was pretty interesting to watch.  By the fourth, fifth, and sixth bull fights, I was bored and tired of watching the same thing over and over again.  It lose its shock factor I suppose.  But I took lots of pictures and affirmed my status as a tourist. 

 

I also visited Madrid's modern art museum, La Reina Sofia.  I enjoyed the modern art museum much more than the Prado museum, especially since I was able to see Picasso's Guernica.   I have studied this painting in school before and it was truly amazing to see it in real life.  The painting takes up an entire wall and it is an impressive sight.  Pictures were not allowed in the museum, so here is my sad attempt at discretely capturing Guernica:

 

 

Notice the arms of my fellow museum attendees.   The picture was taken from hip-height to avoid being yelled at in Spanish by the mean security guards.

School is going well.  I finished the month-long intensive on Wednesday and started my full course load today.  I am still getting a fell far my classes, but right now I feel like they will be hard.  I am taking Spanish classes with native speakers and I feel that I am not even close to their level.  

 

Also, On Thursday, I moved to a new homestay.  I had been having some issues both with my roommate and with the host family, so I was relocated to a new family and I love it here.  At my old house, I shared a tiny room with another girl and we had very different sleep schedules.  In my new house, I have my own room which is bigger than the room that I used to share.  Also, the food at my new house is amazing.  My host father is from Syria, so we have a variety of food.  I could not be happier with my new homestay. 

This past weekend, I ventured to Munich, Germany for Oktoberfest.  I met up with a large group of DU students who are currently studying abroad all over Europe and we had an amazing time.  On Friday night, we walked from our hotel to Oktoberfest to get the lay of the land.  Oktoberfest is a city all on its own.  There are amusement park rides, stores, food, and of course, beer tents.  

The beer tents are giant temporary structures that hold 3,000 to 6,000 people.  In order to get a table in a beer tent, you need to arrive early and wait in line.  We got to the Augustiner beer tent at 6:45am, ready for the day.  We got a table in the tent and had our first beer at 9am, when they opened the doors. 

 

The rest of Saturday was filled with great food (giant pretzels and amazing half chickens) Meeting new friends (I talked to people from all over the world, including a couple who don't speak a word of English OR Spanish...) and a lot of laughter.  

 

 

Also, I bought a hat, which was clearly not a decision made while I was entirely sober.  It reminded me of the Harry Potter Sorting Hat and I loved it.  My mom says that I should never wear hats.  I am starting to agree...

 

 Next weekend I am off to Barcelona for a weekend trip with some friends from my program in Madrid and I am sure that I will have some good stories about Barca.  I promise not to wait too long before I write again.  Dos Besos!