Friday, April 24, 2009
Spring Break - Day 4
Monday, last day in Madrid, still gorgeous. We went to the palace in the morning. It was really beautiful, there was an entire room covered in porcelain. Probably the grandest palace I've seen. After that we went back to the hostel for a tapas tour. Tapas are small dishes you usually have for lunch. Apparently, back in the day the drinking water in Spain was contaminated so they drank wine instead. They ate when they drank and they put the plate on top of their glasses like a lid. The word for lid in Spanish is tapa, hence, tapas. Our guide was very nice and Swedish. She'd only been in Madrid for 2 months taking a year off between high school and college, which is typical in Europe it seems. 18 year olds in Europe definitely have more freedom than 18 year olds in America. I don't think travelling all over America would be half as easy as all the travelling I've done here. After the tapas tour Becky and I were both pretty tired, we had a drink with each tapa...there were 4 tapas. We had some churros and chocolate which were quite tasty and just shopped around the Plaza Mayor area for most of the rest of the day.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Spring Break - Day 3
Yes, another gorgeous day and no alarm. We planned to go to the Prado Museum because it was supposed to be free on Sundays, but signs said that was not the cfase. We decided to go to the botanical gardens right next to the museum instead. WE had another picnic there and enjoyed the weather more. After spending quite a while there it was time to get our tickets for the bullfight. The ticket office was supposed to close at 4 and I was afraid we wouldn't get there in time, again, that learning curve. We rushed there and even though it was after 4 we got our tickets just fine. It was an hour and a half until the bullfight but we didn't want to take any chances so we went to the stadium right away. Our seats were much better than we'd expected for what we paid. Turns out you pay more to sit in shade and the distance from the ring isn't the important part. Now, I went in knowing that bullfights are violent but I didn't know the extent. First, they have the bull chase pink capes around the stadium, then they bring out a man on a horse and the bull charges the horse and the man stabs the bull with basically a big poking stick. After that, some of the men with the pink capes stab these barbed pinata-looking sticks into the bull, it ends up with maybe 10 of those in its back. Finally, it's time for the matador and his red cape. There's a period of the sterotypical bullfighting business and then, the matador gets a special sword, gets the bull to stand still using his cape, and gives a hopefully fatal stab. There are 3 matadors for the fight and they're each supposed to kill 2 bulls. The first matador got injured by the bull though. He could still walk and managed to kill the bull, it was on the news the next 2 days, I was like "hey, we were there!" Really though, kinda serves him right. I probably won't be going to another bullfight, but it was definitely interesting and I can appreciate it as a cultural experience.
After the bullfight we had some tortilla espanola bocadillas for dinner, which is just an egg and potato quiche-type thing on a baguette, it was tasty. I also managed to find Kilometer 0, woohoo! Back at the hostel, after getting ready for bed, one of our roommates started talking to us and invited us down to the hostel bar for a drink. Hanging out in the hostel bar was fun, one of the guys, pretty drunk, climbed under the curtain they put in front of the bar after it closed and got himself kicked out, kinda uncalled for I think since he didn't do anything back there. After all this, we ended up going to bed around 3.
After the bullfight we had some tortilla espanola bocadillas for dinner, which is just an egg and potato quiche-type thing on a baguette, it was tasty. I also managed to find Kilometer 0, woohoo! Back at the hostel, after getting ready for bed, one of our roommates started talking to us and invited us down to the hostel bar for a drink. Hanging out in the hostel bar was fun, one of the guys, pretty drunk, climbed under the curtain they put in front of the bar after it closed and got himself kicked out, kinda uncalled for I think since he didn't do anything back there. After all this, we ended up going to bed around 3.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Spring Break - Day 2 (still in Madrid)
More amazing weather and no alarm clock. We decided to go to the grocery store and get some food for lunch rather than eat at a restaurant. I got a 1.5 L bottle of water for 40 or 60 cents, usually you pay 2 euro for 0.5 L, so that was great. We had a picnic in Plaza Mayor after discovering that Plaza del Villa wasn't really a picnic-having place. Next, we went to the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, which is free after 2:30 on Saturdays. This is the museum where Guernica is kept. It's HUGE, we saw a temporary exhibit and the floor with Guernica and were ready to leave, there were two more floors. We didn't want to stay inside on such a nice day though. Afterwards we had no plans so Becky got a Starbucks and we just sat outside for a long time. Then we went up to Puerta del Sol, it wasn't much to see, especially since it had a big construction wall around it. I searched for Kilometer Zero for a while, in vain. Km 0 is the marker from which all distances in Spain are measured, kinda cool I thought, but apparently nobody else cares because there wasn't a mass of people around it. Oh well. There was supposed to be a "paella party" at the hostel so we'd planned on that for dinner. Well, it turned out to be buy-a-drink-and-get-a-scoop-of-paella party, at least it was good paella and I had some sangria. During this we were chatted up by a film major from Ithaca University. After dinner, sitting in the common area, another guy started talking to us. Apparently Becky and I are very approachable people.
It begins...Spring Break
To cover my entire spring break in one post would be absurd, I think I'll do it one day at a time as that's how my journal is formatted. This means 17 posts will be coming your way, prepare yourself. I'll set you up with a basic overview of the trip: Madrid Friday, April 3 through Monday, April 6; Barcelona Tuesday, April 7 through Thursday, April 9; flew into Rome, day trip to Florence Friday, April 10; Rome Saturday, April 11 and Sunday, April 12 (Easter Sunday); Naples and Pompei Monday, April 13 and Bari (Italy) Tuesday, April 14; overnight ferry to Greece and a bus ride from Patras to Athens, then Athens the night of Wednesday, April 15 and Thursday, April 16; Paris Friday, April 17 through Sunday, April 19
Ok, now you're all set...
Day 1
Well, spring break started out wonderfully when I missed the shuttle bus to Charleroi Airport. My learning curve when it comes to time management is about the same as a doorknob's, I just never learn. No worries though, I caught the next bus and made the flight with time to spare, even after spending some time trying to stuff my purse into my carry on because of Ryan Air's ridiculous one bag policy. No problems finding the hostel in Madrid and the weather was BEAUTIFUL! I fell in love instantly, narrow streets, cobble stone roads, colorful apartments each with a little balcony and shutters, exactly what Spain should be. It was quaint even while being the largest city in Spain. Our hostel used to be a "palace" or something fancy so it was really pretty inside. It had free internet too, always a plus. After we (Becky and I) checked in, we headed out with no real direction in mind - the hostel didn't have maps. We found a nice place for lunch and some Spanish fare - chorizo and iberico ham, I'm a big fan of cured meat. After that we went to Plaza Mayor, Madrid's version of the Grand Place. It was such a nice day, we got some ice cream and just sat soaking up the sun. Then, after buying a map, we got a free one, of course. We had no desire to go indoors so we went to Parque de el Retiro for some R & R. I'm so used to go-go-go on these trips that it felt weird just to sit around and do nothing, but it is spring BREAK afterall and the rest of my trip was going to be busy.
We went back to the hostel before dinner, we'd talked about bull fighting earlier and how it would be really amazing to see one while we were in Spain, so we decided to look up prices. It was pretty reasonable, so we got tickets, more on this later...After that it was time for dinner and we went on a hunt for paella - not hard to find in Spain. In Spain, they eat dinner much later - at 9:30 or 10 - so we were there around 6 or 7 and the restaurant was completely empty. The paella was good, it's a rice dish with some vegetables and usually seafood and maybe meat, ours had seafood and meat. A good day one.
Ok, now you're all set...
Day 1
Well, spring break started out wonderfully when I missed the shuttle bus to Charleroi Airport. My learning curve when it comes to time management is about the same as a doorknob's, I just never learn. No worries though, I caught the next bus and made the flight with time to spare, even after spending some time trying to stuff my purse into my carry on because of Ryan Air's ridiculous one bag policy. No problems finding the hostel in Madrid and the weather was BEAUTIFUL! I fell in love instantly, narrow streets, cobble stone roads, colorful apartments each with a little balcony and shutters, exactly what Spain should be. It was quaint even while being the largest city in Spain. Our hostel used to be a "palace" or something fancy so it was really pretty inside. It had free internet too, always a plus. After we (Becky and I) checked in, we headed out with no real direction in mind - the hostel didn't have maps. We found a nice place for lunch and some Spanish fare - chorizo and iberico ham, I'm a big fan of cured meat. After that we went to Plaza Mayor, Madrid's version of the Grand Place. It was such a nice day, we got some ice cream and just sat soaking up the sun. Then, after buying a map, we got a free one, of course. We had no desire to go indoors so we went to Parque de el Retiro for some R & R. I'm so used to go-go-go on these trips that it felt weird just to sit around and do nothing, but it is spring BREAK afterall and the rest of my trip was going to be busy.
We went back to the hostel before dinner, we'd talked about bull fighting earlier and how it would be really amazing to see one while we were in Spain, so we decided to look up prices. It was pretty reasonable, so we got tickets, more on this later...After that it was time for dinner and we went on a hunt for paella - not hard to find in Spain. In Spain, they eat dinner much later - at 9:30 or 10 - so we were there around 6 or 7 and the restaurant was completely empty. The paella was good, it's a rice dish with some vegetables and usually seafood and maybe meat, ours had seafood and meat. A good day one.
OK, first thing's first, Han-Sur-Lesse, Dinant and Geneva
As I said I would, I kept a journal over spring break so I wouldn't forget anything, good for me. I can't jump into that right away without telling you about this weekend first though. Alrighty...
Another ISA excursion with the same van from the previous weekend. Sabine's francaphone uncle drove both times. We started at the caves at Han-Sur-Lesse. They were really impressive and there was even a river inside (which we were supposed to have a boat ride on, but didn't). When we arrived in Han-Sur-Lesse it was raining, by the time we went into the caves it had stopped and by the time we came out it was even sunny. Encouraged by this we had lunch outside. I ordered fondu de fromage, but it was not the bowl of hot melty cheese I was expecting but rather 2 blocks of fried cheese which my host family often makes in far more massive quantities. They were good, but not worth the money at all and I really don't understand how restaurants can charge what they do for them. Oh well, another learning experience for me.
After lunch, we headed for Dinant. Driving in was really cool, we went in through this narrow passageway between 2 cliffs, it looked like they'd chopped out a massive chunk of what used to be one cliff just so a road could pass through, that's probably not what actually happened but it looked like it. Fun fact - Dinant was the homtown of Adolphe Sax, inventor of the saxophone, so there was saxophone-themed stuff all over the place. Our destination was the citadel situated on top of a cliff, naturally. On the drive to Dinant it had already rained and become sunny again, that happened another two times that day. The weather was crazy, basically. The citadel tour was pretty cheesy overall, they used manicans to set up displays and didn't seem to really take care of them. After the tour we rode down the cliff in a cable car (in the rain) and had a snack in a cafe (while it was sunny) and returned home.
The next morning I had to get up early for my flight to Geneva. I'd booked the flight in January and wasn't very excited about going anymore, I wouldn't have if easyjet allowed you to cancel your flight. I booked the tickets with Maren but she wanted to do her own thing so it really ended up being another shot at travelling solo. I tried to walk to the Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum, but ended up overshooting it by a lot and then taking another wrong road for a while. My navigation skills are amazing. No big deal, I don't mind walking. I finally found the museum, I learned a lot about the ICRC. For example, I'd never heard of the red crescent but I learned that it started during WWI when muslim Ottoman soldiers were offended by the crosses. I thought that was really interesting. After all my walking I was ready for a nice trip on public transportation to St. Pierre's Cathedral. Besides the steeple, it's not very impressive from the outside nor on the inside either. I did learn that John Calvin preached there though. The cathedral redeemed itself with its tower tourists can climb. It was really windy but the view of the lake and the alps was amazing. This was also during the only sunny part of my trip, it never rained but it was overcast. After St. Pierre's, I wandered into Place du Bourg-de-Four at the heart of Old Town in Geneva and decided to have some REAL fondue for dinner after my previous fiasco. I was in Switzerland, afterall. I wasn't sure what to do after dinner, I wandered down to the lake, looked around a few souvenir shops, there's not a lot to do in Geneva. The grey was really starting to wear on me too. After a while I decided to head back to the Place du Bourg-de-Four because I liked it there, can't argue with cobblestone streets, order a drink in a cafe and read for a while. For the third time that day though, I got seriously turned around for a long time. I accomplished my goal in the end.
Day 2 - I didn't get lost this morning. I started my day at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, they give guided tours. My tour guide was from Mexico and really enthusiastic about the UN. I was in a much better mood than the day before and enjoyed the tour. It was interesting to see all the gifts given to the UN from different countries. After my tour, I headed to the Art and History Museum, however, in planning my day the night before I forgot to take into account that most museums are closed on Mondays, including this one. I walked around for a long time after that trying to find or think of something to do. In the end I decided to ride the bus into France because it was so close. The view of the alps on the ride was amazing and I could now say that I've been to France.
Much more to come soon.
-Lauren :)
Another ISA excursion with the same van from the previous weekend. Sabine's francaphone uncle drove both times. We started at the caves at Han-Sur-Lesse. They were really impressive and there was even a river inside (which we were supposed to have a boat ride on, but didn't). When we arrived in Han-Sur-Lesse it was raining, by the time we went into the caves it had stopped and by the time we came out it was even sunny. Encouraged by this we had lunch outside. I ordered fondu de fromage, but it was not the bowl of hot melty cheese I was expecting but rather 2 blocks of fried cheese which my host family often makes in far more massive quantities. They were good, but not worth the money at all and I really don't understand how restaurants can charge what they do for them. Oh well, another learning experience for me.
After lunch, we headed for Dinant. Driving in was really cool, we went in through this narrow passageway between 2 cliffs, it looked like they'd chopped out a massive chunk of what used to be one cliff just so a road could pass through, that's probably not what actually happened but it looked like it. Fun fact - Dinant was the homtown of Adolphe Sax, inventor of the saxophone, so there was saxophone-themed stuff all over the place. Our destination was the citadel situated on top of a cliff, naturally. On the drive to Dinant it had already rained and become sunny again, that happened another two times that day. The weather was crazy, basically. The citadel tour was pretty cheesy overall, they used manicans to set up displays and didn't seem to really take care of them. After the tour we rode down the cliff in a cable car (in the rain) and had a snack in a cafe (while it was sunny) and returned home.
The next morning I had to get up early for my flight to Geneva. I'd booked the flight in January and wasn't very excited about going anymore, I wouldn't have if easyjet allowed you to cancel your flight. I booked the tickets with Maren but she wanted to do her own thing so it really ended up being another shot at travelling solo. I tried to walk to the Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum, but ended up overshooting it by a lot and then taking another wrong road for a while. My navigation skills are amazing. No big deal, I don't mind walking. I finally found the museum, I learned a lot about the ICRC. For example, I'd never heard of the red crescent but I learned that it started during WWI when muslim Ottoman soldiers were offended by the crosses. I thought that was really interesting. After all my walking I was ready for a nice trip on public transportation to St. Pierre's Cathedral. Besides the steeple, it's not very impressive from the outside nor on the inside either. I did learn that John Calvin preached there though. The cathedral redeemed itself with its tower tourists can climb. It was really windy but the view of the lake and the alps was amazing. This was also during the only sunny part of my trip, it never rained but it was overcast. After St. Pierre's, I wandered into Place du Bourg-de-Four at the heart of Old Town in Geneva and decided to have some REAL fondue for dinner after my previous fiasco. I was in Switzerland, afterall. I wasn't sure what to do after dinner, I wandered down to the lake, looked around a few souvenir shops, there's not a lot to do in Geneva. The grey was really starting to wear on me too. After a while I decided to head back to the Place du Bourg-de-Four because I liked it there, can't argue with cobblestone streets, order a drink in a cafe and read for a while. For the third time that day though, I got seriously turned around for a long time. I accomplished my goal in the end.
Day 2 - I didn't get lost this morning. I started my day at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, they give guided tours. My tour guide was from Mexico and really enthusiastic about the UN. I was in a much better mood than the day before and enjoyed the tour. It was interesting to see all the gifts given to the UN from different countries. After my tour, I headed to the Art and History Museum, however, in planning my day the night before I forgot to take into account that most museums are closed on Mondays, including this one. I walked around for a long time after that trying to find or think of something to do. In the end I decided to ride the bus into France because it was so close. The view of the alps on the ride was amazing and I could now say that I've been to France.
Much more to come soon.
-Lauren :)
Friday, April 3, 2009
Christine's Visit, Breendonk and Antwerp, Villers-La-Ville and Waterloo
I'm heading off for Spring Break in a few short hours and I didn't want to leave you all hanging for another 2 weeks. So I'm going to try to be more brief than usual as I purge my camera's memory card in preparation of the pictures to come in the next 2 weeks.
Before leaving, way back in December and even before then, I'd talked with my other friends who are currently abroad about how we were going to meet up in Europe and have adventures together. My friend from Creighton, Christine, and I had talked about Europe at lunch all through last semester. Naturally, I was excited when she suggested coming to visit as it would be the culmination of all our talks. I took her around Brussels and even to a brewery and we indulged in a couple of Belgian delicacies, i.e. gaufres and frites and beer at the brewery. The weather was even sunny. The next day was another ISA excursion which Christine joined. This time to Breendonk concentration camp and Antwerp. Breendonk was FREEZING and it just made me so glad to be able to live in safety and comfort, I thought about how people lived in those conditions every day in thin clothing, starving, exhausted, tortured. It was a good precursor for Auschwitz later. Fortunately, it was a sunny and relatively warm day in Antwerp. The day kinda focused on Rubens, first we saw his painting in the cathedral and then we saw his house and studio. After that we went on a "ghost walk" which I thought was going to involve gruesome Jack-the-Ripper-esque tales but ended up being completely suitable for even an 8 year old. It was pretty cute, actually. There were a lot of people in Antwerp and festivities for the first day of spring. I enjoyed it. After arriving back in Brussels Christine and I went out for a drink and not to the usual haunt but to a very different new place that I'd stumbled across the day before and I'd remembered it was in my tour book. We were the youngest people in the place by far, but that was ok. We had a good long talk and lost track of the time, those kinds of talks are the best kind.
As we had rented a van for the trip and would have it for the next week, Sabine decided to have a Sunday excursion to the abbey at Villers-La-Ville and Waterloo. Christine had to leave for France in the morning, but I was very happy she got to visit. The abbey at Villers-la-Ville is a mass of ruins from around the 1200s maybe. They were beautiful, especially the church. After that we headed to Waterloo to see the site of the famous building which is something I'd wanted to do for a while. Really, it's just a big man made hill with a statue of a lion on top and a few cheesy tourist trap exhibitions. None-the-less, it was enjoyable and interesting trying to picture fighting with horses and rifles and bayonets taking place in that exact place a couple hundred years ago. I'd never been to a battlefield before either.
I'm sorry I've been so bad at keeping you all up to date here, but all the pictures are up on facebook and photobucket. I have much more to report on Han-Sur-Lesse and Geneva but that will have to wait. Spring break is upon me and I'm really excited to see the places I'm going to, more so than I have been for my other travels. I'm really hoping everything goes smoothly over the next two weeks. I'm bringing a journal with me and I'll do my best to actually write in it so I don't forget any details and I can report back to you when I come home. Until then...
-Lauren :)
Before leaving, way back in December and even before then, I'd talked with my other friends who are currently abroad about how we were going to meet up in Europe and have adventures together. My friend from Creighton, Christine, and I had talked about Europe at lunch all through last semester. Naturally, I was excited when she suggested coming to visit as it would be the culmination of all our talks. I took her around Brussels and even to a brewery and we indulged in a couple of Belgian delicacies, i.e. gaufres and frites and beer at the brewery. The weather was even sunny. The next day was another ISA excursion which Christine joined. This time to Breendonk concentration camp and Antwerp. Breendonk was FREEZING and it just made me so glad to be able to live in safety and comfort, I thought about how people lived in those conditions every day in thin clothing, starving, exhausted, tortured. It was a good precursor for Auschwitz later. Fortunately, it was a sunny and relatively warm day in Antwerp. The day kinda focused on Rubens, first we saw his painting in the cathedral and then we saw his house and studio. After that we went on a "ghost walk" which I thought was going to involve gruesome Jack-the-Ripper-esque tales but ended up being completely suitable for even an 8 year old. It was pretty cute, actually. There were a lot of people in Antwerp and festivities for the first day of spring. I enjoyed it. After arriving back in Brussels Christine and I went out for a drink and not to the usual haunt but to a very different new place that I'd stumbled across the day before and I'd remembered it was in my tour book. We were the youngest people in the place by far, but that was ok. We had a good long talk and lost track of the time, those kinds of talks are the best kind.
As we had rented a van for the trip and would have it for the next week, Sabine decided to have a Sunday excursion to the abbey at Villers-La-Ville and Waterloo. Christine had to leave for France in the morning, but I was very happy she got to visit. The abbey at Villers-la-Ville is a mass of ruins from around the 1200s maybe. They were beautiful, especially the church. After that we headed to Waterloo to see the site of the famous building which is something I'd wanted to do for a while. Really, it's just a big man made hill with a statue of a lion on top and a few cheesy tourist trap exhibitions. None-the-less, it was enjoyable and interesting trying to picture fighting with horses and rifles and bayonets taking place in that exact place a couple hundred years ago. I'd never been to a battlefield before either.
I'm sorry I've been so bad at keeping you all up to date here, but all the pictures are up on facebook and photobucket. I have much more to report on Han-Sur-Lesse and Geneva but that will have to wait. Spring break is upon me and I'm really excited to see the places I'm going to, more so than I have been for my other travels. I'm really hoping everything goes smoothly over the next two weeks. I'm bringing a journal with me and I'll do my best to actually write in it so I don't forget any details and I can report back to you when I come home. Until then...
-Lauren :)
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