Episode 15, 06/05/2009 – BARCELONA BABY!

We got a 3 day weekend from school. And what does one do with a 3 day weekend in Spain but go traveling! The intended destination was Barcelona and we got a group together consisting of Rachael (our tour guide and den mother extraordinaire), Stephanie, Justin, Bobby, and myself. We booked plane tickets and a hostel a couple of weeks before and woke up at 4:00am for our epic journey into Cataluña. I should explain. They don’t speak Castilian Spanish in Barcelona. They speak this bizarre Spanish/French/other hybrid called Catalan. Being in the province of Cataluña, all of the street signs are primarily in Catalan and secondarily in Castilian (aka “normal” Spanish). It makes navigating the streets just THATTT much more confusing…

We got in around 9ish and wandered around to the hostel after taking a bus. The first day consisted primarily of dropping our stuff off at the hostel, checking facebook and etc. and then going to the heart of Barcelona: la plaza de Cataluña and a big long gigantic street called La Rambla (the area called “Las Ramblas”). Oh, first, I should mention we passed the famous “Monumento de Cristobal Colon”, which is one of about a million statues of Christopher Columbus in Spain. They certainly do love Columbus. Anyways, afterwards, we went forthwith to Las Ramblas. Las Ramblas sells anything that a tourist to Barcelona could possibly want to buy. Helado, Gelato, knockoff purses, Barcelona Futbol Jerseys, and prairie dogs…Yes, prairie dogs… It’s a very cool street. Even cooler, we went in to a very famous open-air food market called “La Boqueria” which has a delectable assortment of everything from fresh squeezed juices, fish with the heads still on, still-living snails, fresh bread, marzipan, sweets, and even vegetables! We took some pictures and resolved to come back with more time.

I should mention quickly about how one gets around in Barcelona. The metro is the quickest and easiest way to travel practically anywhere in the city. We bought what is called a “T-10” pass, which is a “cheap” (note the quotation marks) 10-time use card that all 5 of us shared well. It worked great. I can describe the Metro of Barcelona as a hybrid between the New York Metro in terms of busyness and amount of people (minus the cray-crays, thank God), but more structured like the London Underground. Thankfully, it DID have the punctuality and generally user-friendly feel of the London Underground, so I was pretty happy with our (and when I say, “our” lol I mean Rachel’s) ability to find where we were going. Speaking of Rachel, she was terrific! I gotta give a major shout-out to her supreme organizational/directional skills, especially in wake of certain difficult circumstances (stay tuned for THAT episode folks, lol).

In any case, back to Las Ramblas. Being tourists, we were obligated to do all the touristy things and take prodigious amounts of pictures while doing so. For example, we went to a café which served the excellent Spanish dish of Churros con Chocolate. Truly an authentic and delicious experience. We also sampled Gelato and Horbacha (as Rachel describes it, Soy Egg Nogg). We went into some tourist shops, we came, we saw, we conquered.

We followed the Las Ramblas rambling until we came to the centre of Barcelona, called La Plaza de Cataluña. The plaza itself is very big and very impressive, exhibiting of course the 1 block long Corte Ingles amoung other things. Oh, and among other things, remember way back in Episode 10 when I mentioned a little store called FNAC? Well, FNAC is essentially the Spanish version of Borders, but WAAAAYYY bigger and way better. I’ve managed to visit the one in Sevilla twice now, and what should my little eyes spot next to the block-long Corte Ingles but the gigantic FNAC Barcelona. Going in was an absolute must. I didn’t buy anything but it was still an excellent experience. We wrapped up our commercial/materialistic aspect of our Barcelona visit and returned to the hostel.

The hostel itself was excellent. For those of us who haven’t stayed in a hostel before, I’ll give a brief description. It is structured very similarly to a college dorm with the exception that there are 8ish beds to a room rather than 2. Our hostel was VERY nice. Nice beds, A/C, really cool common room (with comfy couches to boot), FAST RELIABLE INTERNET (thank GOD!), and cool people (more on that later). From what my memory allows, I remember that we rested a little bit, went out to dinner (I sadly can’t remember where…) and went to bed. This day was just the appetizer. Tomorrow would be the main course.

Episode 14, 5/30/2009 – La Isla Magica and one big holy dead guy.

Another one of those epic days. To start out with, we heard a couple weeks before about San Fernando (the patron saint of Sevilla) who was going on traveling display and stopping at the Catedral de Sevilla. What makes him important? He was crucial in taking back Spain from the Muslims and for being a perfectly preserved “immaculate” corpse for 800 years without embalming.

Naturally, us history/religion nerds HAD to see this one. We woke up really early and got to the Cathedral to see him. There was a short 30 minute mass that we sat in on that detailed the life and sanctity of San Fernando. It was quite cool because I believe it was given by the Cardinal, who, in his homily, compared San Fernando as a model to all Christians. The Catholic mass was also quite interesting, as it’s the exact same structure as English masses, only of course, the responses are in Spanish.

After the mass, we got a chance to see Fernando in his coffin up close. Indeed, he IS well-preserved. Not perfectly preserved, but definitely well-preserved for never having been embalmed. I can compare him to a really well-preserved Egyptian mummy. Leathery skin, plastered hair, sunken teeth, but with very intact body and facial features. It was creepy and really cool. Just being in the presence of a corpse that was 800 years old was mind blowing enough. But add that to the fact that he is one of the most revered saints of all time and it turned into a memory I will never forget. To top that off, next on our list for the day was a trip to La Isla Magica.

La Isla Magica is a Spanish theme park, and is also the best time of your life. I’m thoroughly convinced. Sarah G. came up with the excellent idea of going there on Saturday and I can say it didn’t disappoint. What makes Isla Magica interesting from a study abroad perspective is that it is about as Spanish as you can get. No, really. It was incredibly interesting. The “gimmick” of the theme park is that it’s all themed around Spanish history and culture. You had different “worlds” like Fuedal Spain, “American conquest” Spain, Pirate Spain, “Future” Spain (ala Epcott in Disneyworld), etc. the park itself is not very big and doesn’t have a very good selection of rides (probably only 3 actual rollercoasters), but it was quite fun, especially the water park aspect of it.

We got there and paid a reasonable 25 euros for an all day pass. We had our senoras pack us some “los sandwitches” so we wouldn’t get hungry and have to shell out lots of euros for food. Although, ironically, halfway through we all got thirsty and got granizadas (lemonade icee things).

There were some pretty cool/funny rides that I should share with you. I’m not too much for big/scary rides, but the first one I went on certainly fit the bill. It was shaped like a long curved plank and we rode on a platform which spun along the curved plank. It was truly terrifying lol and I regretted going on it during the initial ascent. Overall, it relieved me of my rollercoaster fears and allowed me to participate in all the other ones quite well.

Easily the most “Spanish” of all the rides was a humorous little attraction called “La Furia de los Dioses” (aka the Fury of the Gods). It was like a haunted house ride, only the monsters were all angry/disenfranchised Mayan gods. The ride was very jerky and did have some legitimate frights, and I was genuinely surprised by its awesomeness. Other than that, the majority of the park consisted of water rides, which was great by me. No gigantic wave pools or slides ala Carowinds, but it certainly had its share of log rides and whitewater rafting type rides. Going with friends was the best part. Everybody likes to get we together. The only disappointing thing was that we waited 30 minutes in line for this 3d movie that we THOUGHT was going to be about aliens on Mars. Nope. Turns out it was a haunted house ride from the vantage point of a cat. It was AWFUL, especially for people (like myself) who don’t like snakes, spiders, and possessed toys too much. And the ending (okay, I’ll spoil it), the cat was a ghost all along. It was incredibly bizarre and left us all wondering why we wasted our time.

Isla Magica is one of those places that is automatically better with friends, and thankfully we had plenty of that. It was terrific, because during the long waiting lines we amused ourselves by looking at goofy t-shirts and reminiscing/planning about our times in Spain. Isla Magica was totally worth it, and despite the blazing heat, we managed to stay cool and have a great time.

Episode 13, 5/28/2009 – Becquer is my homedog/Brownie con Sandy kind of day.

Today was a fun day. Being a major nerd, one of my favorite things to do when visiting a foreign country is hit up the museums of fine art. Sevilla has a very cool Museo de Bellas Artes which I was dying to get the chance to see. Though I have basically no outside education on Spanish art until the 19th century, the art class that I’ve been taking in school has given me a greater appreciation of Renaissance and pre-Renaissance art.

Our group walked to the museum and entered for the ridiculously low price of only 2 payments of $19.95….Or 1.50 euros. The place itself was smaller than I had expected, but in about an hour and a half, we felt like we did the whole museum justice. It had mostly Rennaissance art, which isn’t my #1 bag, but it sure had some great pieces. Mostly cathedral paintings that were brought to the museum, beautifully preserved. Lots of Virgin Mary’s and Catholic paraphernalia. Highlights for me was a famous St. Sebastian portrait, a sculpture of the severed head of John the Baptist, and a cool scene depicting the Last Judgment (can’t remember the artist).

Moving upstairs, we got into some of the more modern stuff, including lots of landscape portraits of Sevilla. It’s amazing how little the city has changed, really. In the 19th century, there was still the Torre de Oro, the Cathedral, the Plaza de Torros…Even the surrounding buildings don’t change very much. A highlight of the museum trip was easily the famous portrait of Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, my new favorite Spanish poet of all time.

Our literature class, for being as boring and unproductive as it is, has introduced us to some great literature. I identify strongly with Bécquer’s metric techniques and a lot of his thematic matter, besides the fact that he can rhyme well without seeming corny. He’s like the Spanish version of Byron, kinda. In any case, we got to see THE portrait of him. You know, as in the one that’s featured in all of the history books and literature anthologies? It’s mind-blowing to be so close to something that important and historic. Without breathing, I leaned in to see Bécquer a little closer. You can see the brush strokes that were used to give him his mustache. You can see the flush of his thin cheeks and the swirls that were used to darken his temples. And the fact that it has been preserved so carefully since the 19th century is simply astounding. I silently took a photo, the only thing I could do to possibly capture the feeling.

A faction of our group got separated from us during the walk to the museum, so we got in touch with them again and sought out a bar to watch the Champions League football game between Manchester United and Barcelona. We found this hole-in-the-wall bar next to the museum, which turned out to be one of the more authentic Sevillana experiences I’ve had so far. We ordered a light dinner. I mixed up my order with Stephanie’s and ended up having friend tuna slices, which were thankfully delicious. I ordered a rum n’ coke (which was more rum than coke lol) and we sat back and watched the game. It was cool because we were in a SPANISH bar with real Spanish men and women who were fans and who shouted and screamed and cheered like we do during our basketball games. It was exciting, and the game was a blast, especially with good friends to watch it with.

Afterwards, we went to Burger King (yes, Burger Kings exist in Spain) and tried a dessert that Katie and Sarah had been hyping up to us for the past week or so: un “brownie con sandy”. Yep….It’s supposed to be like a Pecan Sandy, but with a brownie instead…and the fact that it’s pronounced like “browneee con sahnndeee”. It’s quite funny. It didn’t disappoint either. It was quite good. The mix of hot hot brownie and cool cool ice cream. Something delicious that seems American, but still is authentic Spanish.

Episode 12: Attack of the Killer T-Shirts That Make No Sense!

Here it is, folks! My magnum opus of all video blogs. Enjoy!

Episode 11, 4/23/2009 – Cordoba, Muslims, Jews, and discotecas.

Our excursion on Saturday took us to Cordoba, an old Roman-turned-Visigoth-turned-Christian-turned-Muslim-turned-Christian city. It has a lot of history and one magnificent cathedral, which previously was a mosque under 3+ centuries of Islamic rule. Characteristic of the Catholics, when they take something over, they make it seem like it was always theirs to begin with. Minarets become towers with crosses on them and the mosque or mesquita becomes a very eclectic cathedral. The Islamic influences are evident (I mean, there’s Arabic designs on the walls), but the odd and kind of cool part is that smack dab in the middle of all of the Arabic stuff, there’s a Gothic-style cathedral with an alter and an organ and a chorus. It’s beautiful, but extremely strange.

After the excursion to the cathedralmosquething, we went into the old Jewish quarter to see a statue of some Jew…who was important as a doctor but whose name completely escapes me. Then we went into a synagogue which was more old than historic, if you know what I mean. It was about the size of a bedroom, but DID survive since the early 10th century. So it was impressive, but not beautiful by any means.

After that, we had an hour or two to explore the town of Cordoba, which was fun. I bought some gifts from the kitchy touristy stores. I also “seriously” considered buying a sword…until I realized that bringing it back to the states would be slightly tough. Oh well.

The night was a mixed bag. The bus ride back, I was able to sleep, but the rest of our group didn’t and consequently did really feel like going out. We went out anyway with the gran proposito of doing what is called in Spain a “botellón”, which is essentially a BYOB (no, not the System of a Down song) in the streets. It would have been fun, except for me and Stephanie were the only ones who bought anything …Haha, oh well. We planned to finally go to Buddha, the club extraordinaire that I’ve been telling you so much about. The best laid plans go astray. Our tired group fragmented and we ended up not being able to find Buddha. You may think that’s impossible, but I assure you, Sevilla is the most confusing city of all time. Getting turned around is a common occurrence, so we chocked this one up to fate. It wasn’t all bad, though. We drowned our sorrows in churros and chocolate and suddenly became much happier. Next time, though, will be the charm.

Episode 10, 5/22/2009 – Retail Therapy…It’s a good thing.

You may notice I’m skipping over the intense Seville Cathedral trip on 5/21/2009, simply because I realized that without pictures to guide me, my description would be meaningless, and also that I could go on for ten or more pages just describing what I have seen. In that case, I’d much rather explain the Cathedral on a person-to-person basis instead of writing about it. Know that is was the single greatest thing I’ve seen in Sevilla and it was absolutely speech-stealing in its power to marvel. Thus, I’m going to have to keep you in suspense, again. Mwhahaha!

I’ll skip to the next day, which was Operation: Find Gifts for Family and Friends. Being me, I made a list of all the people I wanted to buy gifts for (10+ people…that’s a lot). I went on my own to some larger department stores like El Corte Ingles and Media Markt (funny story: I have yet to see a consistent pronunciation of this). El Corte Ingles is hailed as being the Harrods of Spain, but I found it more like the Macy’s of Spain with a grocery store attached. The prices had Harrod’s ridiculousness but not the selection or the quality. It was mostly whack, so I was a little disappointed. Media Markt was Best Buy, but ironically, with cheaper goods than even in America. I bought a couple of things and then met with the group to go shopping in central city.

We went to Avenida de la Constitucion (as you’ll remember from my last blog post). Shops are pretty kitchy and touristy and some of us were too tired to continue on to the more elite shops further on. I found one or two simple things and we kept walking. Being that it IS Spain and something strange is always going down, we saw some cool and funny things. Religious processions are quite common, and we saw two passing through the center. These processions are easily recognized by their floats of the Virgin Mary, REALLY LOUD and obnoxious tinny brass trumpets, and people dressed up like KKK members….No, really. I’ll show you a picture. This particular procession (again, to the Virgin Mary) held up traffic for 10 or so minutes, but at least we got some good pictures.

The other interesting thing that we found was a wedding at the Cathedral. What a place to get married in! It was so nice and the atmosphere was so happy, I had to get pictures of the bride and groom. With my telescoping lens, I got some shots so good, I should have gone up to the couple and charged for prints. I’ll share some with you.

Shopping-wise I did find the absolute COOLEST shop called FNAC. It was like a Borders meets a Harrods meets a Hot Topic meets a Spenser’s Gifts, but much more expensive and high brow. It had an EXCELLENT selection of music, movies, videogames, books, pop-culture merchandise, and all very nice and clean and well-decorated. Everyone else was moving at a slightly different pace than my desire to spend 4 hours there, haha, so I resolved to come back another day.

After my group pooped out, I annexed to another group going out for paella for dinner. Paella, for all you Spanish n00bs, is a traditional dish of rice and meat (usually seafood), served in a steaming hot platter with spices. We went to this really bizarre restaurant called “Boston Burger” which had nothing to do with Boston or Burgers. In fact, when Christine tried to order a burger, they replied, “we don’t have them”. Very odd. The paella was only okay too…It was kind of a hack restaurant, really. But as they say, you live and you learn. Next time will be better. After putting the paella behind us, the group went out for desert and I went home.

Episode 9, 5/20/2009 – Just a walk in the park.

I’m a little behind on my blogging, and as expected, some things are beginning to run together in my head. Forgive me if some of this is not exactly chronological, but I promise I’ll be more up to date with it soon.

The day was pretty uneventful, but the night was interesting. Nick, David, Sarah, Rachael, Holli and I decided to go out and take a walk to central city, and we saw some cool things along the way that I thought I should share with you guys. First, the central city is like a gigantic spiderweb. If you look at it on a map, there is no set infrastructure plan. The streets are no wider than a mini-cooper and the tall building obscure one’s ability to find one’s way be sight alone. They all diverge in complex, sharp turns here and there with at least 3 changes to the street name in 100 feet or so. The best method of finding one’s way is just knowing in what direction the destination lies, and then meander towards it as best as possible. Needless to say, in this labyrinth of streets, there are all sorts of bizarre and interesting shops just waiting for study-abroad students to explore.

That wasn’t our goal for the night, however. We ended up wandering around, as we always do, and conversing. Nick, Rachael and myself were walking on a particularly weird and confusing street when a Spanish woman on roller blades made eye contact with us and started screaming and gesturing “Cuidado! Cuidado!” and gesturing us to the other side of the street. Quite confused, we hurried out of the way. A half-second later a train of roller-bladers come streaming down the street, all linking by hands-on-shoulders and shouting something that sounded like “ole!” It was quite funny, looking back. And that, is Spain in a nutshell.

As I recall in my mind, we ended up walking to el centro and getting ice cream and walking back. Again, the details are a little fuzzy, but that’ll be fixed once I get more regular with the blog posting.