The last two weekends

Hola a todos!

The last 2 weekends have been incredibly fun-filled and packed with things to do. I can sincerely say I am busy all day every day, and especially so on the weekends. I would not have it any other way. I can't believe I've been here for almost two months, but when I reflect upon all the things I have done in such a short period of time, I can't help but smile.

So two weekends ago, on March 7th, my roommate Seema and I went to our Spanish friend Jose's birthday party. It was so much fun-- we all went to this gorgeous park, parque de alamillo, and all of his friends brought a different dish and we had a picnic/potluck/celebration in the park. They had homemade tinto de verano (red wine& lemonade) and other drinks, too. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and it was a great opportunity to interact with locals. Every day I am luckier and luckier for this special opportunity.



Us with the birthday boy!



The park is a vastly green and huge area, just on the other side of a remarkably tall, modern bridge.

We spent the whole day with Jose and his friends and started to feel like we had a true understanding of the Spanish culture.

That night, Alexis (another roommate), Seema, and I went out to dinner with Alexis' dad, who was in town for the weekend. It was so nice to see visitors, even if they weren't mine.

Last weekend (March 13-15), we took a group excursion to Lisbon (Lisboa), Portugal. It was one of the coolest cities I've ever been, with a tinge of San Franciscan hills, bridges and water.

We took a bus from Sevilla to Portugal. It was not a bad bus ride at all, I sincerely was concerned it would be painful and boring but it's always entertaining with Alexis and me making jokes and laughing for hours- she's the greatest. The bus ride was only 5 or 6 hours, and since we had gotten home from a disco at 6 am and had to leave for the bus at 8, it was a nice way to get some sleep.

We got to the hotel and it was beautiful--Vila Gale Opera was where we stayed, right under the main bridge, called the puente 25 de abril-- april 25th bridge. It's huge and resembles the Golden Gate a whole lot. Our hotel was music themed and each floor had a genre. Alexis and I were on the poprock floor and in the SPICE GIRLS room.

Anyway, we left the hotel shortly after putting our stuff down and getting settled.We took a bus into the main part of the city, the centro comercial (commercial/business center). The bus dropped us off there and from there we walked up to the highest part of the city, St. George's castle-- which overlooks all of Lisbon and the water. It was a stunning view and the crazy trek uphill was worth it.







After having a field day at the castle-- from climbing up narrow staircases to standing at the top of the castle overlooking the city, we headed back down into town. We had the evening to ourselves and we found a cute lunch place in the middle of town-- all over the place waiters waited outside, trying to appeal to the crowds by displaying all their menus in many languages. I was awed that the Portuguese could speak fluent English, Portugeuse, Spanish and a lot of them French as well. The Portuguese accent is very difficult to understand, as is the language- but they were very nice about speaking in English to us.

We were exhausted from the traveling and the sightseeing that we ended up going back to the hotel and not going out after dinner. Oh, strange thing, cabs are mostly white or beige mercedes in Lisbon, and our cab driver was a police officer by day, cab driver by night. The cab rides are adventures in themselves, as the drivers just speed through plazas and don't yield to anything-- not signs, not pedestrians, not cars. It was an experience to say the least.

The next day we had breakfast at the hotel (it was quite nice to have American style breakfast--buffet with amazing fresh kiwi, pineapple and other fruits, scrambled eggs, etc.) and head out for the day. We visited the barrio of Belem, which is a beautiful, historically rich sight.We visited the Jeronimos Monastery which was stunning and had a beautiful church inside as well as the tomb of Vasco de Gama. After the monastery we went back to the bus to visit the gorgeous torre de belem -- belem tower, which looks like a huge sandcastle right on the water. was built in the early 16th century in the Portuguese late Gothic style, the Manueline, to commemorate Vasco da Gama's expedition. It was a defense fortress as well.

Climbing to the top of the torre was another adventure-- it had only one staircase going in both directions, so it took some skill to figure out how to wait to go up or down. It was a narrow, spiral staircase that was such a cool experience.







After the torre de Belem, we went to the monument of the discoveries-- to commemorate Portuguese explorers and discoverers. In front of the unbelievably huge monument was a map that marked all places that Portuguese explorers and discoverers set sail from and where they ended up. The Monument to the Discoveries was inaugurated in 1960 during celebrations of the 500 year anniversary of the death of the Infant D. Henrique (Henry the Navigator). It evoques the maritime expansion and is designed in the shape of a caravel, showing Henry the Navigator at the prow holding a small caravel, as well as many relevant heroes of Portuguese history (Vasco da Gama and other explorers) There was also a huge compass outside of it that was a gift to Portugal from South Africa I believe.

The magnitude of how huge this monument is is inexpressible.

After these visits, we had a panoramic bus tour of Lisboa, and we stopped at these lush green gardens of one of the city's parks. Then we had free time, and we did some shopping (a HUGE and incredible H&M, among other retailers), and stopped for lunch at a restaurant called Sul. Little did we know, the lunch place that only had 5 lunch options--written on a chalkboard out front-- would be one of the best lunches we'd had in all of Europe. We sat upstairs in the quaint, wood-decorated restaurant.

After lunch we walked around the Bairro Alto, the hip part of the city that's filled with bars and vintage shops. Pastry shops line the streets all over Lisboa, as it is famous for its pastries, most specifically pastel de nata-- its a flaky crusted pastry filled with cream. We went to a pasteleria (pastry shop) and each tried one of the aforementioned. The guy working there spoke fluent English and suggested we go to a town outside the city-- in his words "it's a fairytale, you must go."

After picnicking with our pastries in the middle of the city's main plaza, we got to the train station and took a train into the small town, called Sintra. It WAS a fairytale. It was surrounded by castles and palaces and the center was a forrest filled with trees and flowers. It was a tiny village town with little dive restaurants and cafes, souveneir shops and churches. We were so glad we made the choice to go there. It was surrounded by the mountains, but it was also a coastal town so it was the best of both worlds! It started getting cold when dark fell, so we went back to Lisbon on the train and headed back to our hotel.

We went out to dinner right next to where we had lunch at a fabulous Indian restaurant. The street we ate dinner on was the main nightlife street so as soon as we got out of the restaurant the streets were crowded with people with drinks in hand who spilled out of the bars doors. We stopped at a couple of bars and watched the Portuguese drink-- and damn, do they drink-- and enjoy their nightlife. Here in this barrio-- bairro alto, all the young people enjoy the streets and chug their beers.

We decided to go to the discoteca portion of the city, which happened to be right across from our hotel. It was a section called "Las Docas," which was right on the water where all the boats were. It was a legitimate selection of 11 or 12 discotecas, irish pubs, bars, and restaurants-- each with its own character, that's for certain. They were crazy with strobelights and dancing, all of them 2 or 3 floors high. It was really fun going out in Portugal, but I love Sevilla and Spain's nightlife the best.

We left the next morning to head back to Sevilla after an incredible weekend.

Well, sorry for the novel, but that's just 2 weekends worth of stuff- I can't even begin to imagine what I am going to have to say when it's all said and done.

I am going to Amsterdam on Friday and going to the Van Gogh museum, Rembrandt's house, Anne Frank's house, Heineken factory, and the tulip festival!

until next time,

Lauren

the first month recapped

Ok, so I haven’t written in forever and I apologize. I just feel so overwhelmed (in the best way) being in this city. I try my hardest to take full advantage of everything around me and all the opportunities that present themselves that I haven’t had a quick minute to sit down and write a thoughtful blog entry.

Here’s a recap of the last month:

-Classes: I have 5 of them: History of Spain; U.S.-European Relations since WW2; The European Union; Advanced Spanish and Women and Literature. They are all relatively easy. In Spain, so much of class grading is centered around participation and attitude. Public education is almost entirely paid for for Spanish citizens, so it’s definitely less competitive and much more focused on the education as opposed to the studying.

-Day trips: We spent a day in Italica, which is an ancient city just outside of Sevilla. It is one of the first Roman colonies in the Iberian peninsula. The foundations of the houses they had are still standing, as are the mosaics and artwork that were in their homes. There is a huge ampitheatre that was once covered in marble, but, like the Roman coliseum, as the years went on, people starting using the marble to make their homes. The coolest thing I saw in Italica was footprints etched into marble. The fact that humans lived there over 2,000 years ago, and there is clear cut evidence they were there, just amazes me. We also spent a day in Ronda , which is one of my favorite places I’ve seen. Ronda is built into cliffs and surrounded by the Sierras on all sides. It is a very old town and has the largest bullfighting ring in all of Spain. We went to Carnaval, which is like a mix of Halloween and Mardi Gras, down in Cadiz, a coastal town an hour and a half south of Sevilla. It was craziness, close to a million people packed the streets of a town that only has a population of 30,000. It was insanity but definitely a cool thing to experience.

-Sights: Not everyone can say they’ve lived in a city with hundreds and thousands of years of history. Every day when I walk past the 500+ year old Cathedral, I am amazed that I get to not only visit it, but also enjoy its beauty every day. The Cathedral of Sevilla is the third largest in the world. It is remarkably huge in size, but even larger in beauty. When you walk in, the ceilings seem endlessly high, there is stained glass on the walls, and hundreds of years of history to be enjoyed. Christopher Columbus’s tomb is there! Directly adjacent to the Cathedral is the Giralda. The Giralda is a huge tower that is 34 flights (but not stairs, they are ramps) high. You can see it, and the top of the Cathedral, from all over the city. We walked all the way to the top of the Giralda, and the view is unreal. You can see the entire city from the top. The reason why there are ramps and not stairs is because the servants of the kings would ride up on horseback and ring the bells (which are still rung today) to signal that mass was starting. There are other amazing sights, but I’ll explain those later.

-Weather & customs: Weather is very similar to Southern California, which is very nice. It rained every day for the first two weeks or so, but it has cleared up and has been unbelievably beautiful. When it’s nice out, the locals crowd the streets and spend their entire days outside by the river, in the park, walking, or just sitting at an outdoor restaurant or bar. They really take advantage of being outdoors, and that is evident in the fact that their homes are humble in size and not so important--as they are really just a place to sleep and eat meals. Smoking is ridiculously commonplace, as most restaurants and all bars and discos allow it. Every night we come home with our clothes reeking of smoke, but it’s just another part of the life here. All shops and markets are closed on Sundays for religious reasons, and mostly everywhere closes for the middle of the day for siesta and then reopens.

Discotecas/Bars: Let’s preface this by saying that there are more bars on each street than there probably are total in most towns. There are at least 10 cervecerias (small bars) on every street, as the people fill the tiny space for their Cruzcampos or Mahous (the local brews). People overflow and bring their drinks outside to enjoy the evening air and the company of their friends. My favorite places to enjoy an evening start at one of the following districts:
Alameda de Hercules: the Bohemian scene, a strip lined with trees that is full of dive bars and hippies. I haven’t seen one other group of Americans there when I have gone.
Arenal: Arenal is another hippie type scene, but it’s a much more relaxed area. It has several small bars and smaller discotecas that are crowded as the people dance to funky music and oldies. My favorite bar is in Arenal, it’s called Elefunk. It’s small but has a dance floor in the center, and fishbowls hang above the bar.
Betis: Betis is the street right on the river, and just a block down from our apartment. It’s the American scene, as its 1 Euro shots at a bar called Big Ben attract the foreigners. Betis is charming but it gets kind of old, we normally just go to Big Ben for an hour and then head out to another district.
Plaza Alfalfa: MY FAVORITE DISTRICT. The streets are FLOODED with people, and the bars are tiny and packed with people. Rebotica has 5 euro mojitos that are bigger than like a supersize coke. Bar Nostrum has pitchers of all different “aguas” including Agua de Sevilla, which looks and tastes like chocolate milk, but it’s alcoholic. I love it here because it’s so alive and there are so many people.

After hanging out around one of these districts--which might I add people don’t even normally go to their first bar until 12:30 at the earliest--we head over to a discoteca. Some discotecas are three or four floors, each floor playing different music genres. Others are one story but have huge dance floors and side areas with couches. Discotecas do not even nearly get crazy until around 2:30 or 3.

What's on tap for March:
Lisbon, Portugal March 13-15
Amsterdam, Netherlands March 20-23
Cordoba & Granada, Spain March 27-29

That's all for now!
-LP