La Siesta

Before I got to Sevilla one aspect of Spanish life I was interested in being a part of was the siesta. I had heard that the siesta was becoming less of a tradition. I chose this city to study in as opposed to Madrid or Barcelona because Sevilla supposedly has not changed with the world as quickly as the bigger cities. After a week I am very happy with my decision to be here.

In Sevilla the fiesta is exactly what you read about. One minute you will be walking around an the plaza is abuzz and the next minute the tables and people are nowhere to be seen. The shops drop their metal doors and you honestly don’t recognize the place anymore. Come back in 3 hours and again people fill the area drinking beer, wine, and coffee.

The two pictures below are from a plaza around 1:30.



The pictures here are from a plaza the same day at 4:30. This particular restaurant doesn’t remove their tables but if you sit down you won’t get service for another hour.



And this is the weekly schedule for a barbershop. They are open from 9:00 to 2:00 and then 5:00 to 9:00 weekdays.


Back home I have never been one to get much sleep. This life is starting to catch up with me though. When I meet friends out it's usually at 10:00 and we end up being out until 3:00. Then I get up at 8:00 because I cant sleep any longer than that and do the same thing the next day. If I can figure out this 2 hour nap midday my life and health would be drastically changed. One day it will happen. Probably sometime around my last week here.

Friday Afternoons

I could get used to this at 1:00 on Friday afternoons. Everyone out
for a midday drink to get the weekend started.

Dancing Machine

Okay, I feel the need to describe to you how I am feeling about being back in class and the struggle to understand this language. I have no better analogy than to equate it to my dancing. That's right, dancing and Spanish are related in my life.

Raise your hand if you have seen me dance before. How bad was it? I know it's bad because people actually laugh at me as I am dancing. It's kind of embarrassing. I have become a much better dancer over the last few weeks. If LA wants to refute that she can, but since she probably doesn't read this I guess you are going to have to take my word for it: I'm a good dancer now.

Some people know how to move some parts of their body independently of others. I cannot. When I danced before (because now I am good) if I moved my legs my entire body moved like some lump of mass in one direction. It's very ugly. I could not understand how to not be so rigid.

Learning Spanish is the same way for me. I have a mathematical and systematic mind. I can understand computer code and the derivative of 2x. Foreign languages are not as systematic as I would like for them to be. There are parts to Spanish that do not translate directly to English. I have trouble wrapping my mind around that just like I have trouble telling my body to move in an eye pleasing fashion. I hope that in the next couple weeks I can relax my mind to not make this language a set of rules, but something that just flows. Kind of like my new dance move: The Heisman. The chicas love it here.

2 Down, 40 To Go

A plaza this morning around 11:00. Everyone is out for a coffee break.


Two days of classes are in the books. I am not sure I have ever felt this stupid in my life. I am in the second dumbest level and nobody else in my class has ever had Spanish. Of course they all know 3 languages which helps them move at the rapid rate our teachers seem to be moving. Right now it is just getting my mind back to student mode which it hasn't had to do in years. I'm starting to question whether six weeks will be enough time, but I expect myself to pick up the pace by the end of the week.

Outside of class I love Sevilla. Last night we were going out for someone's birthday and around 11:00 there were still families in the plazas watching their kids play with their neighbors. This community seems to be very connected to each other. I'm not sure it is a place I could live for a couple years, but it grows on me everyday.
Kids playing in La Plaza Alfalfa and the parents around hanging out with each other

I have yet to make friends in my classes, but I made a friend my first night in the hostel which has provided me the ability to do things at night. When I checked in the first day I met Lily. She is here from Seattle and will be teaching English in Cadiz. Lily is the opposite of me in that she can strike up a conversation with anyone and get groups together. Last night I met some of her other friends and we went over to Triana (across the river from Sevilla) to celebrate. The crowd consisted of Tito (Chicago), Caro (Germany), Jenny (no idea), Joe (Australia), Weng (Australia), Lily and me. I had my first sangria last night. It was homemade and very good. It could be a troubling drink in the future as the fruits hide the amount of alcohol it contains.

I am living with Encarna and her daughter about 20 minutes walking from the school. Encarna has breakfast ready when I wake up and dinner on the table when I walk in from class. She is very sweet and patient with em as I try to get out questions in Spanish. She loves TV. When I am eating dinner she is watching some kind of Spanish game show. Last night it was Pasapalabra (Password) and it must have been good because Encarna was loving it.

That's my life so far. It feels like I am finally falling into a daily routine. When I get the opportunity I will put up more pics of this city.

Alicante Harbor

Can you tell I am in need of someone to talk to?

Justin - The New Aussie Friend

The great thing about staying in hostels instead of hotels is the people you meet. I have probably run into twenty different nationalities over the last few weeks just in the hostels. I made a good friend in Alicante that I briefly mentioned before.

When I first got to my hostel I went to my room and Justin was in there resting. He was here the night before so he knew a couple places to go and watch the Barcelona-InterMilan game on TV. We went to a bar called Austin (the owners also own another bar nearby called Dos Gringos) and sat in the alley, where they set out tables and chairs, with the rest of the crowd. After getting to know him we realized how similar our stories are. He is a 27 year old living in Sydney working in construction and decided one day to travel. He bought a round the world ticket and is at the tail end of it.

The great thing about making friends like this is learning on a personal level about other cultures. The most rewarding aspect, though, is seeing that regardless of where we were born the events that led me to Alicante were the same events that led Justin there. And halfway between our countries we were able to share similar stories...in Alicante, Spain...in an alley.

This is the group that hung out the last night in Alicante. Three Aussies, a German, A Canadien, and I lived like Spaniards and stayed with the rowds until 4 am. Justin is on the left.

Hostel de Sal in Alicante

If you ever make it to Alicante you have to stay in the Hostel de Sal. The staff was great to hang out with and it is within 5 minutes walking to great food, pubs, cafes, and most importantly the beach.

The Hostel de Sal is on the left. Emilio is sticking his head out to grab me because I forgot to pay. He became a good friend while I was there and made the stay much easier.

From the terrace of the hostel towards the Mediterranean

These plazas are everywhere and around 12:00 they will fill up with people for lunch and then throughout the day. This particular plaza was just around the corner from the hostel

From the terrace looking down on a plaza where the young school kids have recess and play after school

El Castillo de Santa Barbara

This is the castle in Alicante. It took about 3 minutes to run to the bottom from my hostel and then 20 minutes up. I could see forever in any direction and had no idea how bug Alicante was until I went up there.

This is where I realized how big Alicante is. This is from the castle looking inland

I hiked to the top on an old path not in use anymore. At one point I looked down and hiked down to the old road that is now closed. Thats where I took this picture

Above and below are the harbor and beach from the top of the castle


El Castillo from the harbor

Alicante - My Break From Crazy Traveling

I rolled into Alicante around 6:00 and was immediately disappointed. It was raining and the only reason I came here was because of the beach and the great weather they normally have. The 20 minutes walk to the hostel in the rain did not do much to lift my spirits. The minute I put my stuff down though the sun came through and attitude immediately changed. I walked around the town for a couple hours to get acclimated and found it to be very welcoming.


The Barcelona v. Inter Milan game was on last night so at 8:45 everyone walked to some pub or cafe (they both serve coffee and beer so I don't really know the difference) and staked their claim to a seat for a few hours. The area I am in has a bunch of narrow streets like the picture to the left. There are pubs all along these streets. For the games they put a widescreen TV outside and set up tables and chairs for people to sit and watch the games.

It didn't take long to meet a few friends here in Alicante. I walked into my room and met Justin from Australia. He is taking some time off work and has already seen South America and now is doing Europe. He knew of where to go to watch the game so I followed him out. At the pub during the game we met some more people. Isabel and Natasha were at the table next to us and they are both from Denmark. They left home a couple months ago to move down here and find work. They were letting us in on how to get hooked up with a job around here. Also sitting next to us were Georgina, a Brit working for a tourism company, and Vittka from Belgium. Vittka is in Alicante studying under the same program I will study under in Sevilla. It's really great to listen to other people's stories about how they end up in places. Not sure where we are going tonight but it's good to have some people to hang out with.

Again this morning I walked around and enjoyed the sites. I would not say Alicante is a gorgeous town. But it is fun and the people are so nice. They are helpful and they do not get impatient with my incomplete spanish. I went running today for the first time in 3 weeks. There is a castle right by the hostel which made it easy to run up. From the top you can see all around Alicante and out across the Mediterranean. I did not take my camera, but before you yell at me know that I plan on running again tomorrow with my camera. The views are amazing.
This is the castle taken from a pier built out in the Mediterranean with restaurants, shops, and a casino.

I know everyone's wondering whether Spain really has nude beaches. Alicante does not have nude beaches because you are required to wear bottoms. Tops on the other hand are apparently a personal preference. No pictures to prove this so you're going to have to take my word for it.

The Mediterranean Sea is gorgeous. It is not cold at all and I think I could have stayed in there all day if there were any kind of waves. I am looking forward to getting back out there tomorrow.

LA Took Off Today

LA and I parted ways this morning. We thought it best to go our separate ways after this long amount of time of being together. Some might say she got tired of me singing Right Said Fred as I clipped my toenails in the sink. Others would say it was the fact that I would cut to the front of every line proclaiming, "I am American and better than you. I will be next." As for me I think it was because today was the date on her plane ticket. We can agree to disagree.

I already miss not having a travel partner on the trip. Enjoy the little things in the States for me LA! Like peeing in public for free, asking for a refill, and paying nothing for a packet of ketchup. "Are you telling me ketchup does not come free with a $12.50 'value' meal at McDonald's?"

16 Day Recap

Monday we spent the entire day in Paris. Of the 16 days of our travels only four of those we were not traveling. We spent time, more than 2 waking hours, in the following cities:
Barcelona
Nice
Genova
Rome
Padova
Venice
Salzburg
Munich
Zurich
Lucerne
Interlaken
Paris

That's 12 European cities in 16 days. Not too bad.

I'm not an easy person to travel with when I am in control of the trip. I like to keep my options open every day. I also like to see everything in a short amount of time so there is time to relax. LA played into this perfectly. She went along with the issues that come with keeping options open even though that is against her nature. Some cities we would ride the train into at 6:00 at night and not know where we were sleeping. LA kept saying that everything will work out and everything happens for a reason. Funny thing, it always did work out.

It was four miles out and four back from the sites in Paris. That was a typical day for us. After 16 days of being with someone nonstop we had a good balance of talking and being silent. There were no awkward silences and I never thought to myself "I wish she would just be quite" (not saying she never thought that of me though). I also have to commend her for carrying that pack of hers. It weighed the exact same amount of mine, yet she is half the size of me. She never once complained. Even when our walk was a couple miles to the hostel.

Good times people. I recommend this type of trip to anyone with a desire to do it.

Paris

Memorial at the Arc de Triomfe

We pulled into Paris on Sunday night with just enough daylight left to get to the hostel and see some of the sites. We got our exercise in between the 8 miles of seeing sites and 30 minute walk to the OOPS! Hostel. OOPS! is right. It was the most expensive hostel we stayed in (more than Switzerland) and also the smallest room.

The day we got there we immediately got directions to the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomfe. Both were very impressive and I am glad I have seen them. I wouldn't say that I was in complete awe of either, though. Maybe it's because it is the end of the trip.



That night we (smelled) met Kathe who was one of our roommates at the hostel. There is no way of saying this nicely: Europeans really do have a unique stench. When you walk into the room it almost knocks you down. We had to open the window and the temperature was in the 50s in Paris. Do we as Americans smell in a way that is offensive to other cultures?

On Monday we walked to the Louvre and Notre Dame. I've heard people say that you cannot see the entire Louvre in one day. LA and I beg to differ. Now we didn't stop and examine every work of art, but we got through there pretty fast. There was one wing we did not go into. We both decided that if we ever had a desire to look at Iranian art we would get together in front of a computer and google it.



The Notre Dame is gorgeous, but we both left with a sick feeling in our stomachs. LA's words were something to the effect of "I've never felt so bad walking out of a Catholic Church." Ditto. It was that interesting. I just don't want to be there when the tables get turned over. More on that sometime later.

Switzerland

I really wish I could tell you great and funny stories from Switzerland. To be honest this was the most relaxing country we visited. We enjoyed the landscape of the Alps and easy going ways of the Swiss people. We did not enjoy the cost of everything. You know it's bad when the dollar menu is replaced by the three dollar menu.

We moved around visiting 3 different cities in 3 days. We heard such great things about each that we had to see them.

Zurich is a big city and we spent the least amount of time there. It has a great mix of old and new. We walked about 30 minutes to our hostel which turned out to be the place to be at night. The bottom floor was a restaurant bar and we actually passed the hostel twice not thinking check-in would be at the bar. When we returned from dinner the place was packed, in fact there were 25 people outside on the corner hanging out and enjoying drinks. I was able to sit and talk with a couple of them about.

The next morning we took a train to Luzern. Places to stay were so expensive we decided to just make it a day trip. We did a walking tour around the entire city, but I don't remember much about it except for the beauty of it. What stole my memory was at the end we were able to get free Swiss chocolate. Your knees buckle at tasting some of this chocolate. I might even take the stance that Swiss chocolate is worse for short term memory than three shots of tequila. It's that good.

That night we ended up in Interlaken. This is the place we were able to relax. The hostel was incredible. They had free washer/dryers, free wi-fi, and the best hot chocolate in the world. LA will back me up on that. We hiked about 6 miles around Lake Brienz on Saturday. There was a great place to relax on rocks and throw apples and zucchini at various targets.

We actually a progression of 6 pictures here of me trying to get in the picture by beating the 2 second timer on my camera.
Friday night we ran into a pub that had live music outside. We noticed the really cheap beer ($1.20) and the free soup and thought this must be a Friday night thing. Turns out it was the pub's 50th anniversary so they were selling beer at prices from 1969. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Yes, they charged $1.20 for draft beer in 1969. How does anyone afford to stay in this country?

After the hike on Saturday we both took a nap and then turned on College Gameday and watched college football from the hostel room. Between the hike, naps, and college football all intertwined it was a day we needed to unwind. Thank God for those days.

Salzburg, Austria

We woke up in Salzburg on Tuesday ready to explore but not really sure what we were going to see. We knew this was the home of Mozart (well, not anymore, hes dead) and partial filming of the Sound of Music but we didn't really expect to love the area as much as we did.

It was really just the setting that was amazing. The city is set between the mountains with a fortress overlooking it. A river runs right through the middle of the city and sort separates the old town from the new town. This has been typical of these European cities. I guess it's similar to being on the other side of the tracks in America.

We walked around the old part and enjoyed the atmosphere. We saw a horse drawn carriage driven by a man with a great Austrian moustache, walked in the ticket booth of the 2009 European museum of the year, and looked around Mozarts home for as long as we could until someone asked us for our tickets.


At Mozarts home LA also took in the garden and I stole some fruit.




The best part was taking in the scenery. On the way to the train station we walked down a bank and sat by the river for a couple hours. It was that amazing we wanted to just enjoy it.

2 Americans and 4 Japanese are on a Train...

Let me set this up properly. Some trains have compartments with six seats apiece in them. This particular train was like that. The cab consisted of me, LA, an 80 year old Japanese couple, and two 60 year old Japanese-German women. Yeah, these ladies were Japanese, but have lived in Germany over 40 years.

I need to go back to previous train talk between me and LA. We were talking about being funny and I said that I don’t feel the need to be humorous because I am usually surrounded by people funnier than myself. Anyone around me in the year of 2007 knows I was really funny then, but that was one year. I told LA that my knack in humorous conversations is to say the thing that normally puts an end to the conversation. Let me get back to the Japanese.

Apparently the first hour on a train is Japanese nap time because all four of them were out. But when they wake and we get to talking LA has these people rolling. The couple doesn’t know English but hand motions are universal and they loved her. One of the ladies asks if I would grab the bags for the older couple that can’t speak English. LA looks at the old lady and basically, like in charades, jokes with the old lady that she must get the bag down and carry it on her back. I thought this couple was going to lose it, they were almost falling out of their seat.

What do you think I do? I try to add to the moment and say something funny. Any guesses as to what happens? The laughter subsides (shocker) and the Japanese-German corrects my English. That’s a bad day.

Hofbrauhaus...You win...You always do

If you’re ever in Munich one thing you have to see is the Hofbrauhaus. It’s a famous beer hall in Germany where everyone sits at picnic-type tables and listens to the German band play German drinking songs. Occasionally a couple guys and girls in Oktoberfest clothes come out and show the patrons how Germans dance to this type of music.

It is a huge place and when you walk through it is kind of intimidating because you need to pick a seat with other people, but the question is what nationality will it be. There were plenty of Asian tables, but we already had the train ride with the Japanese and a German beer hall and Asians weren’t the right mix. We wanted to find some German guys that would be able to teach us German drinking songs, but it seems like these guys come prepared and bring the right amount of people to fill up one table. We actually run into a couple from Boston and we sit down next to them. They wouldn’t be able to teach us any songs but it was nice to speak with Americans for a while.


LA convinces the woman we are sitting with to get up with her to dance near the band. The second they get there some German guys run up there to dance with them. The one that grabbed LA, whom I assume works for the sanitation department based on his smell, teaches her a few Germanic dance moves. After the song we were talking with a group of his friends. They were asking us what we were doing after this and if we wanted to go to a disco or maybe hang out at a hostel bar. At this point it’s midnight, we have been there a couple hours, and I would rather smell like this German than go to this disco. And we are sure as hell not having them come back to our hostel. LA was messing with them, I found out a few moments later, and telling them we were definitely coming. They went to the bathroom and LA said she would watch their beer and the second they turned the corner she said “let’s get out of here” and we made a break for the exit. We ran about a quarter mile until we knew they wouldn’t see our direction.

This is the second time I have been to this Hofbrauhaus and I hate to admit that it beat me again. This time we didn’t get kicked out, though. I learned the last time they don’t seem to like it when you try to play the band’s instruments when they are on break.

Pics from Venice

Whoops - I meant this is where the pics from Venice should be. I left my camera in my bag in storage. What a place to forget a camera. But really other than the beautiful streets, canals, and architecture what would I have needed a camera for?

Vatican

We felt like we saw almost everything we wanted to see on Sunday except for Basilica di St. Pietro (St. Peter's Cathedral) in the Vatican. We were planning on heading to Venice this morning (Monday, September 7th), but we couldn't miss being this close to the Vatican and not seeing it.

The battery in my camera died so I only got a couple pics.



This piece of marble lists every Pope in the history of the Catholic Church. My camera died before I could take a photo of people touching the feet of St. Peter. Probably some kind of significance there

Rome-Day 1

If you want to see all that Rome has to offer and you are cheapskates like LA and I you are going to do a lot of walking. And you better have a good map because Roman streets are anything but on a type of grid system. It’s Sunday in Rome and the plan is to start out at Mass in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore (St. Mary’s Cathedral). This huge cathedral was constructed sometime around 432 A.D. We got there around 9:00 and left about 9:50 after Mass got out. The cathedral was gorgeous and littered with paintings and statues.This was my first Mass and I am sure I will write about it sometime soon.

On to the Colosseum which is about 15 minutes away. If I am in awe of one thing it would be the architecture and engineering that went into this building in 80 AD. It is obviously not a complete building anymore as the seats and a quarter of the exterior are gone, but stanfing in front of it is breathtaking. The battles that went on inside there and the noise the noise the crowd made upon a gladiator in triumph must have bellowed out and been deafening even to the people outside on the streets.



Here are some pics of other sites we passed. Probably should know the names, but have forgotten since Sunday.

The Forum shown in the picture above and below are from the Roman Forum. This is the original Ancient Roman civilization. The architecture still amazes me. The colosseum was built 400 yards away.




Our last stop was at the Pantheon. This buiding was built in the early 2nd century. It was built as a temple to the Roman Gods in 27 BC. This building is over 2000 years old and kept up better than any other building in Rome’s history. The Oculus, an open dome in the center of the building, is still the world’s largest unreinforced concrete dome. It was left open so when animals were sacrificed the smoke had a place to rise to the Gods.



After the Pantheon, around 2:00, we decided to hike back to the hostel. We would have gone straight to the Vatican but LA was falsely told it was closed to tourists on Sunday. This was actually good though as it would be our first time this trip to relax and slow down. We went to the grocery store and looked at all the street vendors’ stuff. I had the best slice of pizza for dinner from a small store on the street.

There is one thing LA has been talking about since we took off from Atlanta. She wants real gelato in Italy. Tonight was the night for that so we set out for the “perfect” gelato. Granted she has never had gelato, but surely Rome is where it’s perfect, right? We walk around in no certain direction for 20 minutes and stop in four gelaterias. Each time she takes a 2 second glance and says, “Nope, that’s not perfect.” She says the gelateria will have an ice cream cone on the exterior wall which will be the sign that it is perfect. I have yet to see this from any type of restaurant, especially a gelateria. Sure enough, 5 seconds later we come to a shop on the corner that has an ice cream cone on the wall. She gets her nutella based gelato and we stand outside. “This is perfect.”