London, England

Sitting here writing this blog post, I am killing two birds with one stone - knocking out this daunting task for the second time this week, as well as keeping a watchful eye over a pot of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese on Mamá's scary, gas stove.  She has left for the weekend to go to her country house in Zaragoza, Spain, so we have decided to risk it and use the kitchen or the first time this semester.  Nancy B. sent me some Velveeta Mac and Cheese in her care package, which I am saving that for a later date!!

Last weekend was a long one in Spain, we had Thursday off of class due to All Saints Day, which made for a full 4 day weekend.  Bearing that in mind, we booked that weekend for London, which we expected would be well-deserving of the extra time - and were we correct!!  The city was amazing.  Every part of it was captivating and exciting.  The people were friendly, the food and beer was fantastic, the sights were breathtaking and the English language was such a welcomed change (something I did not expect to say as Spanish major, but boy was it nice!).  I could have done without the misty, cold, London weather, but that was to be expected.  

Dan and I arrived early on Thursday morning, after taking a 4 AM cab with Ross to the airport.  Ross was going to Rome, after visiting London this summer with his family.  We got to London and took a 1.5 hour bus ride into the city center from the crappy airport that the discount airlines fly into - so basically, we save a little on the fare and spend 20+ euros on transportation to and from the airport... Since the rest of our group would be arriving later, Dan and I had virtually the whole day to ourselves to explore the city and get our bearings.  Although, we didn't do anything that we would not repeat, since Lauren would have killed us.  London is her favorite city of all time.  When we arrived, we ended up convincing the hotel, which we would stay in on Saturday and Sunday nights, to store our two measly backpacks for the day, since we did not want to be weighed down by them.  They were reluctant to do it, but the nice concierge stepped in and helped us out.  Freed from the bags, we started waking towards the river from the Victoria Station area and after stopping at McDonalds for some delicious chicken nuggets and stumbling upon a mass for the religious holiday in Westmister Cathedral, we walked smack-dad into Westminster Abbey and Big Ben!! We were shocked and easily spent an hour or more walking around and taking pictures.  We crossed Westminster Bridge for beautiful views of the  House of Parliament and the entire city down the River Thames.  The London eye was just to our left, so there was plenty to see.  Once we had taken shots from every angle, we decided to go find a little English pub to weather the inclement weather which had moved in (our only rain of the entire trip, very atypical for London).  We found a nice place called The Clarence.  The bartender was friendly and chatted with us, while offering us samples of several English ales.  I learned that a real ale, pulled from the tap, is not really fizzy nor really cold, very different from a lager.  We had a few beers there... then had to leave to meet Lauren at the underground metro - called "The Tube" in London.  We returned to The Clarence for some more ales and a traditional English meal.  Dan ordered the Fish and Chips and Lauren and I got a really good Chicken Pie!!  We even saw a little mouse run across the floor of the restaurant.  At home, disgusting; but in London, quaint and traditional feeling.  Haha!!  To explain the lodging situation would be a very long story, so in a nutshell, our friend Amanda and five of our girl fiends from SLU had arranged to stay in a hotel in London using Amanda's mom's reward points.  Their hotel was upgraded at the last minute, to a presidential suite with 3 king beds, 3 bathrooms and countless other amenities.  Amanda messaged and said to cancel the hostel and stay with them for free - so we did!!  Upon arriving there, it turned out there was mistake and the presidential suite was not offered, but due to the confusion, they still offered her a very large Balmoral suite, with several free cots and some wine.  Dan and I ended up on the just-too-short couches, but hey, it was free and filled with friends, so we made due.  

The Houses of Parliament and Big Ben!

Jordan, Brenna, Emily, Callie and Lauren in the Balmoral Suite!

On Friday, the three of us went first to the Tower of London.  A very old fortress that dates back centuries and has played a major role in battles, English monarchs and historical events.  We discovered that you could pre-arrange tickets online, so we did and ended up jumping a line of hundreds of people and saved money!!  Quite lucky!   The inside was very cool, but swarming with tourists.  It was midterm in England, so all of the schools were on a week long break and evidentially flocked to the city for "holiday" ugh... We ate lunch in the tower, which we stole from the breakfast buffet at Amanda's hotel.  First, we took a tour with a traditional Beefeater, one of the Royal Guards of the tower, and learned a lot about its history and significance.  Then, we waited in another long line to enter the stronghold of the Crown Jewels - all of the monarchy's riches.  There they are kept in a massive safe-room, which can be entered for viewing the jewels, though photography is strictly prohibited.  We meandered though, looking at the massive diamonds, some over 500 carats and the size of my fist!!  Crowns, rings, plates, flatware, scepters, and orbs - many of which are still used in coronations and official ceremonies today.  Dan, along with Annie, could not bare to miss this great photo-op and snapped pics "discretely" left and right inside the room.  As we were leaving, a guard chased us down yelling "Camera Check" and demanded to see Dan's camera, watching as he was forced to delete each and every photo and video of the jewels from his memory card!  HAHAH!  He was shaking in his British boots and Lauren and I could barely hold back our laughter.  What a shame, but a good lesson - do not mess with Her Majesty's riches.  We toured the tower complex a bit more, then crossed the famous Tower Bridge to the south bank of the River Thames.  The bridge was incredible to see in person, this was the one displaying the Olympic Rings last summer.  The south bank boasts impressive new construction and architecture and was named the "Queen's Walk".  We made our way back into the city and to Trafalgar Square and Picadilly Circus at night, which were very cool all lit up. We finally got a seat at a great bar and the bartender would not serve Lauren, since she did not have proof of age, aside from a photocopy of her passport - isn't this Europe??  So, we left and ended up just going back to the hotel to sleep, since we had trouble getting ahold of the other girls.  We were ready for bed without a doubt!

The White Tower - The Tower of London

Tower Bridge

Closest I got to the Queen... 

On Saturday, our friends were leaving London and going to a smaller town in the country, so we had to change hotels.  Luckily for us, to another one, which Dan's dad booked with more hotel points.  We were two for two in terms of hotels this trip!  This same hotel recognized us this second time around and were more than willing to store our bags for the day.  We headed straight for Buckingham Palace to catch the 11:30 changing of the guards.  Well... we were not the only one's with that on our agenda and since in the winter, they only do the full ceremony every other day, I think the crowd was almost doubled.  We managed to weasel our way up to a gate, right as the police were separating the crowd and making a pathway for the procession.  We found ourselves next to a couple very nice American ladies, who were happy to speak to us about the U.S. and even happier for our American-style respect of personal space!  We talked the whole time - well I did... haha!  They were very interesting and one had been a high-end watch buyer for Tiffany and Co. and had been to London, I think she said 50+ times, and had seen the changing of the guards over a dozen. They gave us their email address and wanted us to send them some photos (which they took with my camera from a better vantage point) and also to remind them to talk to their friend who owns an Irish pub in Boston and is the largest distributer of Guinness in the city, with the hope of her getting us a private tour of the Guiness factory in a couple weeks.  How cool!  After the ceremony, we got some photos of the palace, spoke to a guard who said that the Queen was out at a private residence (go figure) and then moved on back to Trafalgar square for photos in a Traditional London phone booth and with the famous, giant, bronze Lions of the plaza.  We stopped into a cafe for hot chocolate and a breather, then continued to St. Paul's cathedral.  We had intended to go up the cathedral for incredible views of the city, but it was closed for a confirmation, so we headed back across the Thames, using the very modern pedestrian bridge, which is seen in one of the Harry Potter movies.  We walked past Shakespeare's Globe Theatre on our way to the Borough Market.  This is a famous market in London on Saturdays with every imaginable food item.  I had a burger type thing with onions and English mustard (which is unbelievably strong/spicy) and Lauren had a thanksgiving plate on a bun, which was also great!  There, we met up with our friends Jordan and Sara, whom we had been with the nights before and were now going to squeeze into the hotel with us.  We left the market and stopped into a cool little pub on the river.  They left later for a Michael Jackson show (wish I had gone), while Dan and Lauren and I stayed to continue with the ales and to argue about languages and anything else imaginable before returning to the hotel, back along the Queen's Walk, with more beautiful night views of the city and the Tower Bridge... 

Changing of the Guards

Buckingham Palace babayyy

On the tele

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

St. Paul's Cathedral in the Distance

St. Paul's and London Bridge (not falling down) from the Queen's Walk

Tower Bridge

Sunday, was another busy day.  The five of us woke up and went straight to the train station (across the street) to arrange travel to the town of Windsor, the home of Windsor Castle.  Two train rides and a couple hours later, we were walking down the quaint streets of the town and staring at the impressive castle, which the royal family still frequents.  The castle is the largest one still in use today and was actually expecting Her Majesty's arrival (as they said) while we were there, but she never showed up.  We guessed her private helicopter or military escort must have been delayed... The castle was awesome!  So much more interesting when you can imagine people living there, state dinners being served there and foreign officials being entertained there.  We had lunch at a cool little restaurant and I finally broke down and ordered the famous Fish and Chips of London.  It was wonderful!!!  Seriously the best beer-battered fish of my life.  The rumors are all true!  From Winsor, we went back to London city to check out Harrod's the world-famous shopping center, but since it was Sunday, it was closed by the time we arrived.  Regardless, it offered impressive window displays and beautiful lights.  Next, we took the metro all the way to to King's Cross Station, from Harry Potter, to get a photo with the Platform 9 3/4 from the movies.  There is a goofy little set prepared there for tourists to take photos and pretend to be where Harry Potter entered the magical world.  Before going back to go to bed, we stopped into Shakespeare's Pub near the hotel to burn our remaining British pounds on snacks and drinks, when unbelievably the entire rest of our group walked into the same bar for the same reason!  We all sat and laughed and shared our stories, until it was time to hit the hay for yet another, miserable, early-morning departure for Madrid.  

Windsor Castle

Harrod's

I was super sad to have to wake up and go to the airport on Monday morning (gets worse each week), but I was even sadder to leave the wonderful city of London.  I highly recommend it and cannot wait to go back.  The time is flying here.  Only 3 trips and 6 more weeks left before I will be home for Christmas.  I hope all is well over there.  Cherio!

Sevilla, Spain

Two weekends ago, Ross and I took an impromptu trip to the famous, Spanish city of Sevilla. Sevilla is located in southern Spain, a 6 hour bus ride from Madrid, in the region of Andalucia. It is known for being home to the birthplace of Flamenco music and dance, due to its historic gypsie population, as well as the third largest gothic cathedral in the world and tapas at every turn. 

We left on a night bus from Madrid last Thursday night at 1 AM, scheduled to arrive in Sevilla at 7:30. The bus ride was nice, but we did not get as much sleep as we had planned and were super tired upon arriving in Sevilla. We made a pit stop  half-way from Madrid and as I was inside using the bathroom (maybe around 4AM) the bus pulled away to refuel. So, as you can expect, I walked out of the rest-stop with a few other people, all in a panic looking for the stupid bus! Fortunately, someone had been through this before and remembered that the bus refuels and then returns for the people who left. Whew! Crisis averted! 

First, we went to our hostel, The Traveler's Inn, to store our bags and inquire about checking in early for a little shut-eye before beginning our day. They took the bags, but could not offer us a room until midday since the place was full. Therefore, we were forced out into Sevilla bright and early to explore and to get our bearings. We stopped for some coffee and pastries near the hostel, then navigated through the windy, cobblestone streets to the historical center with the cathedral and other attractions. We actually ran into some fellow SLU students who had been on our bus, they were burning time to catch another bus to Morocco for a weekend in the desert!  Instead of going in the attractions, we decided just to tour around and save the admissions for the next two days. However, our next stop, the Torre de Oro, (the golden tower) was open and worth entering. It was an old lighthouse situated on the river, which now houses a maritime museum and can be climbed up for views of the city. For the record, Christopher Columbus is from Sevilla and there is much dedicated to him, his crews and the discovery of the Americas. We opted to take a bus tour of the city afterwards, since we were tired and it seemed like a great way to feel out the town without having to walk. It was a hop-on-hop-off tour, though we never really hopped off!!  It toured us around, highlighting the major sights and areas. We returned to our hostel for a much needed siesta and then after a few hours, went back out for an early tapas dinner.  Afterwards we visited the beautiful Plaza de España. This huge building and extravagant plaza was constructed for an international exhibition in Sevilla, but now attracts visitors for the architecture and beauty. We left there, passing through the old Tobacco factory, which once processed all the tobacco entering into Spain from the New World, but is now home to the University of Seville.  Later we stublmed across a tapas and wine bar called Vinela, which came to be one of our favorite stops in Seville.  They had fantastic Rioja, red wine and really good breaded shrimp tapas.  

Cathedral of Sevilla

Torre de Oro

Plaza de España

On Saturday, we got moving early, took advantage of the free breakfast at the hostel and went straight to the cathedral to begin seeing the sights that we had just glanced at the day before. Bathe cathedral was incredible, we took a look at all the small chapels, the impressive treasure room, loaded with gold and jewels, as well as the tomb of Columbus, while trying to eavesdrop on some Spanish tour guides to pick up a little information. The place was swarming with Costa cruise ship passengers (seriously, the cruises haunt me!). We ended the tour of the cathedral by climbing the tall bell tower for unmatched views of the city. It required walking 35 ramps and then 17 steps, but was really cool at the top and worth the workout.  Next, we stopped for a small lunch of some tapas and beer, then proceeded to the Royal Alcazar. This structure was once a Moorish fort, but was later inhabited by the Spanish royal family. It was rather empty, but boasted impressive architecture, mosaics and gardens. After burning some time there, we moved on to the Plaza de Toros of Seville, the bullring, which my mom told me to check out (she did some Seville research for me).  The tour of the ring was interesting, we got to see the hidden areas of the ring, where the bulls enter, where the royal family sits and where the matadors pray before each fight, as well as  a couple museum exhibits of bullfighting paraphernalia and art.  My sociology teacher had informed me that an interesting area, called Tirana, was situated just across the river in Sevilla, this place was once home to the city's gypsy population and therefore became the birthplace of Flamenco music and culture. We walked into Tirana just for a drink and some sightseeing, but walked back to the city center after nabbing a couple nice Cruzcampo beer glasses from the unfriendly bar. It has become a game to collect as many of these unique glasses from all around Europe as possible. Dan is undoubtedly winning, since he has no shame or fear of embarrassment, but I am not that talented of a clepto (now, hotel toiletries on the other hand, that's my expertise!) As it turns out, upon returning to Madrid, only one of our two glasses was even printed with the beer logo... I am fairly certain the good one is mine. Haha!  After Tirana and making a run for it with out hot glasses, we walked back along the river to our standby, Vinela, for some more wine and shrimp.  There, we decided to look into changing our return bus ticket for the following day, Sunday.  We had planned to take the same 1 AM bus home from Sevilla, but at that point felt like we had seem most all of the city and could afford leaving earlier in order to get back to Madrid as a more reasonable time.    Luckily, the lady at the bus station was super-friendly and helped us choose a new departure time of 5 PM with nothing more than a 1 euro fee to change.  Afterwards, we regrouped again at the hostel and headed out for a visit to the world largest wooden structure for the evening, Metropol Parasol.  This place was designed by a German engineer and takes up most of the plaza that it sits in.  It looks like six large mushrooms, and houses shopping, restaurants, a pedestrian plaza and a observation deck on the top.  There was some sort of festival going on, with live music and tons of people.  For just 1.30 euro we took an elevator to the top of the mushrooms for a scenic views over Seville, including the Cathedral and other buildings lit up at night.  It was awesome!  Before leaving, we stopped into the tapas bar up there, Gastrosol, for a couple beers and croquettas tapas as a snack, since we intended to find something good for dinner later.  We left Plaza de la Emancipación and headed for Plaza Neuva, an areas bustling with bars and restaurants.  After walking around for some time, we settled on Ginos, a nice italian place, since we were tapas-ed out and ready for a big plate of pasta.  I got a really great pesto with green noodles and we washed it down with three glasses of red vino!  Before going to sleep in the hostel, I had an interesting conversation with a couple Australian girls staying in our room.  We were talking about the differences between American English and Australian English -- they say things like sunnies (sunglasses), rubbish (trash) and thongs (flip flops), that we just don't say!  Too funny!  

Tomb of Christopher Columbus

View of Sevilla from the Cathedral Tower

Royal Alcazar

Plaza de Toros de Sevilla

Metropol Parasol

Ross and I atop Metropol Parasol

Sunday was spent simply by checking out the few places that we had missed in Sevilla.  We headed west from our hostel, after eating breakfast, to an area called Macarena.  Despite ho badly I was actually looking forward to doing the Macarena there, I never heard the song nor had the chance. Bummer!  There is a an awesome church there devoted to the Virgin Mary and it has an extravagant altar with a larger than life size Mary mannequin/statue/doll thing set into the ornate golden facade.  Even though mass was about to start, we were able to walk behind the altar in a line of tourists to enter the chamber where the Mary stands and view her from behind, while looking out over the assembling congregation.  It was pretty cool!!  They had creepy mirrors set up, so that you could see around her head and get a look at her face from the back.  We left there, walked back to the river, through a couple interesting plazas and just happened to stumble upon an awesome place for lunch.  Going along with the tapas theme, this place specialized in pinchos, which are a form of tapas, where some sort of meat, cheese, etc. is prepared and served stop a slice of french bread.  The place was self-serve, so we could fill up a plate with various pinchos and then get charged based upon how many toothpicks we had in the end. Very cool and fun idea!  We ended up walking back though the town center and the cathedral to a small plaza near our hostel, which was loaded with people hanging out drinking beer on the nice Sunday afternoon.  So, we grabbed a beer and spent some time there before collecting our bags and hitting the long road back to Madrid!  

Virgin Mary of Macarena 

For such an unexpected and quick trip, Sevilla turned out to be a travel great destination and a whole lot of fun!! 

Palma de Mallorca, Spain

This last weekend, I traveled to the beautiful, Spanish island of Palma de Mallorca with Dan and Lauren.  The island is well known in Europe for being a popular tourist destination (especially for the Germans and the English) and I have really always wanted to go there.  It is located off the western coast of Spain in the Mediterranean Sea.  This trip just fell into our laps as we were looking for cheap flights and found roundtrip tickets to Palma for around $50, which we could not pass up!  It was a refreshing change of pace, since for the past several weekends we have been taking incredible, but somewhat stressful, trips to various cities around Europe and getting caught up in the hustle and bustle of touring and traveling.  Mallorca was more vacation-like with a just quick 90 minute flight from Madrid, along with a warmer, beach destination to call home for 3 days.  We were able to forego a bunch of "obligatory" sightseeing and focus on exactly what we wanted to do and see!

The Island of Mallorca 

On Thursday afternoon, with our discount Ryanair plane tickets in hand and our backpacks full of beachy clothes, the three of us made the now routine trek from the city of Madrid out to the airport via the metro system.  We sailed through security and landed at our new-found favorite airport watering hole of a large, pre-flight San Miguel beer.  Ryanair would be like the crappier version of Southwest in the US -- very low prices, free-for-all seat assignments, and additional fees for everything, and non-stop advertisements and solicitation during the nerve-racking flight.  I am a pretty relaxed flier, but the roller coaster ride to Mallorca put me on edge and nearly sent white-knuckled Dan face-first into the barf bag.  After a rough landing on the island and a long and slow bus ride into downtown Palma, we were getting closer and closer to our Hotel Dalí.  I had booked the place online due to its price and had no idea what to expect or where to find it.  We encountered a super-friendly, older lady on the bus who offered us some recommendations for the island and gave me three croissants from her purse for me and my "amigos".  After making it to the hotel's area by bus and walking around for 45 minutes, we happened upon the Hotel Dalí and checked in.  I already didn't trust the receptionist, since on the phone he had told me he didn't speak English and instructed us to get off the bus about 3 stops away from the actual hotel, then upon checking in he turned out to be British and requested all the payment upfront.  Desptite feeling cornered and pissed off, we payed the bill and made out way up to the three person room, only to be shocked at how nice it was, complete with free breakfast, a modern bathroom, balcony and (distant) ocean view -- all for only 60 euros a night! We ate dinner at a little Italian place near our hotel and then got some beers to enjoy on our balcony before calling it a night.

On Friday morning, we put a dent in the free breakfast buffet, then headed back to to the airport to rent a car, per the recommendation of Bettina (who has traveled to Mallorca several times) and multiple travel websites.  The car rentals are relatively cheap on Mallorca and offer much more flexibility and freedom to explore the island.  The three of us split up to find the best deal on an automatic, small car and ultimately settled on Goldcar, which offered us a nice, blue, Ford Focus - perfect for the Americans.  We were so excited to drive for the first time in months, but equally as nervous to drive in a foreign country with the confusing metric system, odd road markings and vicious drivers.  Needless to say, we made it to south east coast with Lauren behind the wheel, just in time to catch a perfect afternoon on Es Trenc beach.  We caught the tail end of the high-season and the weather was borderline beach-appropriate, so it was hot in the sun and cold in the shade, but we enjoyed relaxing in the sand and Dan even braved the cold ocean water.  We had lunch and sangria at the beach restaurant, then another little siesta, before heading back home to the hotel to regroup for the evening.  We planned to eat dinner downtown, so we got dressed and I drove us through the city to the historic center of Palma.  We did some sight seeing at the awesome, gothic cathedral and old streets, then settled on a unique Spanish Tapas place for dinner.  It was great!  We all chose various small dishes, "pinchos," and split larger ones, "raciones." I took the waitress' suggestion of one pincho, the Gulas and Cangrejo Gratin.  I knew cangrejo meant crab, but the rest I was willing to risk.  When it arrived, I tasted delicious, but contained these strangely colored, noodle-looking things, which I had to ask the waitress about.  After our discussion and some consultation with my dictionary, I learned that gulas were young eels and I had had basically multiple mouthfuls of little baby snakes.  ugh... luckily, I had a whole glass of Rijoa red wine to wash it down and help laugh it off!

Dan and Lauren with our Ford Focus

El Trenc

Gothic Cathedral of Palma

Las Gulas, Young Eels

We decided to beach it again on Saturday, since there was relatively nice weather and we figured we should get all that we could.  We chose a small, secluded beach in Portals Nous, really near our hotel.  After driving there, walked down a rocky cliffside and set up camp on the beach.  Lauren and I went straight to the siesta-ing, while Dan proceeded to play in the ocean and roll around in the sand like a little child.  He ended up "building" a huge hole (castle) in the sand, covered himself from head to toe in sand (which later ended up in the Ford Focus) and successfully attracted every little kid on the beach to trample around our area.  Luckily Lauren and I found a nice beach bar with Coronas to keep us happy until play-time ended.  We packed up and headed to the yacht harbor of Portals Nous for lunch.  I check out the Tahini Sushi restaurant, which was another recommendation of Bettina's, but didn't quick fall within our budget... so, among the multi-million dollar yachts, Louie Vuitton luggage and Range Rovers of the harbor, we settled on a pizza joint and split a big, delicious pizza, before returning to the car to move on.  Our next stop was the further south town of Magalouf.  It it much larger and more commercialized, but had a really big and deserted beach.  We assume since it was later in the day and beginning to cool off, most people had headed in.  We had the beach to ourselves and relaxed there for about another hour.  For dinner, we returned to Palma and due tot he disappointment of Tahini Sushi, we scoured the town for a more affordable sushi place.  We put our name on the list at Wasabi Sushi, had a beer while we waited and ate another great meal!  It had begun to rain pretty hard in Palma, so after misplacing the car for about 25 minutes, we made it home to watch some American TV for the first time since being here and went to bed.

Portals Nous

Dan and his friend

Sunday was our final day on the island, so we decided that since the weather was cooler and wetter, we would take a road-trip around the island to tour a little before having to leave.  We began with the highly recommended, picturesque village of Sóller.  Dan drove there and after getting screwed by an unexpected 4.50 euro fare to use a stupid tunnel into the city, we made it to the port.  It was breathtaking!  A quaint little town, surrounded by mountains, with a bustling harbor lined with cafés and restaurants.  We walked around the harbor, took some pictures of the ocean views and then stopped into an outdoor restaurant for a pitcher of sangria and some hamburgers for lunch.  Filled up, we left Sóller to head down the western coast to the town of Port Andratx.  The drive took over two hours (little did we know), but it turned out to be beautiful with winding, cliffside roads and incredible ocean views.  We were able to stop along the way for photo-ops and interesting sights.  We made it to Port Andratx, toured the streets with beautiful homes and walked down the piers of the harbor, loaded with mega-yachts.  It began to rain once again, so we sought shelter in a cafe for some cheap sandwiches and dessert, before heading back home to Hotel Dalí.

Sóller, Mallorca

My favorite photo of the weekend... 

Oceanside Drive

Port Andratx

We had to wake up this morning at 3:30 to drive to the airport and return the rental car before flying out at 6:30.  We landed in Madrid before 8, but were delayed taxying by really thick fog in the city and then delayed again by metro system strikes, which caused disrupted transportation service throughout the city and people backed up by the hundreds at many stops!  Once home, I hit the hay for another couple hours before going to class at 2 this afternoon.  I have no upcoming travel plans for this week, but am happy to be back in Madrid, refreshed after a wonderful weekend on the beach in Palma.  I cannot wait to return there again someday! 

OKTOBERFEST - Munich, Germany

We returned on Sunday from a whirlwind weekend in Munich, Germany for the World-famous Oktoberfest!!  I had heard from countless people that if you are studying or traveling in Europe in the Fall, it is worth the effort to get to Munich and experience the World's largest beer fair! Needless to day, it was definitely worth it.  Despite the expense, the shoddy accommodations and mobs of drunken people, it was an unforgettable, experience of a lifetime.  I highly suggest it :)

Ross and I flew out of Madrid on Thursday night, while Dan and Lauren and other friends from SLU were not heading there until Friday.  Once we got to the airport and through security, we parked ourselves at a bar for a couple beers before the flight, just to wet our whistles for the wild weekend ahead.  After, we stopped into a McDonalds for a pre-flight snack and utilized the "express" system here in Europe.  Keep and eye out -it has to be on its way to the States.  They have these touch-screen computer kiosks, which will accept your credit card and take your order from the McDonald's menu.  Then, literally before the machine can print out a ticket, there is a woman standing behind the counter with your order.  I did it for a vanilla ice cream cone and Ross had chicken mcnuggets.  Tasted just like home :) well.. actually better!  We ended up running into a few friends from SLU Missouri at the gate, all of which we were on our same flight.  The roughly three hour flight from Madrid to Munich was uneventful.  I wrote my blog post from last weekend, listened to some good'ole Central Illinois Country music and lamented over not receiving any free drinks or snacks with my $400 plane fare.  ugh!  Once in Munich, we boarded a tran, the S-bahn, from the airport into town, then got on a small tram wich took us to the location of our tent village.  Since Oktoberfest literally fills up the city of Munich, accommodations were next to impossible to find for the event.  Many of our friends stayed in a larger tent village, where you actually sleep in tents, on the ground and freeze your ass off each night.  Luckily, Ross and I found a cheap place called, The Tent, which had large circus tents filled with bunk beds for only 23 EUR a night.  We stayed there all three nights along with Ross' roommate from home, Peter.  The first night, we were in a non-heated tent, then we moved to a "heated" tent, but honestly I could not tell the difference.  I slept in my full clothes, covered in three blankets (like the ones made of felt, which people use for horses) and my face was freezing each night.  Before going to sleep, we got back on the tram to find a burger king, which we had passes, since all the food at the village was shut down and there was nothing else nearby.  The was a fast-food filled day, but the food quickly improved!

The Tent...

On Friday morning, we had planned to make our way to the Theresienwiese park, where the Oktoberfest is held, since we had been told to get there early, in order to get into a tent and get a seat.  Each brewery represented at Oktoberfest has a distinct tent, huge tents, which hold thousands of people  and turn into huge parties.  But the difficulty is getting into the tent.  Once the place fills up (around 11 AM) they close it off and you must wait, sometimes for hours, to be let inside to take a seat.  Luckily, we got there early enough on Friday to walk right into the very famous Hofbräu tent, which is known for it's American and Australian visitors.  Not sure what to do, we took a seat at a big bench, and instinctively a woman (beer wench) with 10+ high liters of beer came over, slammed them on the table and sold them to us for 10 euros.  haha!  At the tent village, we were told that the US Embassy had asked the workers to warn US citizens of the strength of the beer, since it is stronger (~8%) and there is much more of it in a serving, one liter can equal nearly 5 normal cans of beer in the US.  Watch out!!  We began to make friends with the people around us as the tent and tables filled up.  We had a father and his two sons from Canada to the left and a couple Aussies to the right.  They made the experience more fun and exciting.  Dan and Lauren got there a little later and had to try to catch up big time on the several hour head start that we had. haha!  As the day went on, it became more and more of a party, with people singing, standing on tables and drawing attention to themselves as the stood up and chugged their entire stein.  Ugh!  We left the Hofbräu tent around 2 PM (not early enough) and stumbled to another one down the way, after getting kicked out of a couple tents for not having a reservation.  We ended up at the Paulaner Tent and found a spot outside in the biergarten between some Spaniards, a german man and another German family.  We made great conversation with them and enjoyed the rest of the night.  I had to cool down the beer consumption by switching to a radler, which is a german beer and lemonade/soda mixture.  It is a little sweeter and really, really good!  By the time the tent closed, we had surely had enough, so we all headed out of the Oktoberfest (not before picking up some authentic brats for the road) and returned to our respective tents!

The Beer Wench with the Hofbräu tent in the background

In the Hofbräu Tent

In the Paulaner Tent 

On Saturday, we followed the same routine, woke up shivering at the tent village, ate the European breakfast they offered and boarded the tram for Oktoberfest.  We arrived there around 10 AM, just like the day before, but we definitely underestimated the effect of a Saturday on the crowds.  The place was already bursting at the seams and the tents were crowded and shut down.  We stood in line at the Hofbräu tent again to try to get inside and meet up with our friends, but to no avail.  We got fed up after about an hour and moved on to a less popular tent.  Once the tents are full and closed, people wait in huge swarms at the gates for the prospect of a beer wench (waitress) coming to grab a couple lucky people to sit at openings at her table.  We got lucky at the Löwenbräu tent after waiting for only about 30 minutes a spot opened up and we were able to get the waitress' attention and she agreed to let us past the guards and into the seats.  From the the same story repeated with masses of beer and interesting conversation with our neighbors.  Dan and Lauren arrived later and were stuck at the gate too, but they found an opportunity to make a run for it past the guard and into the biergarten to meet us.  Intense!  Finally after awhile, our friends Callie and Emily were there too, stuck and the gate, and we were able to convince the gaurd to let them in by showing them the "space" at our table.  Regardless of the difficulty, we were all there together and had a blast.  We ordered some food.  Lauren and Ross these big roasted chickens and I has some weißwurst (white sausage), which was weird and not my favorite, along with a giant, salty pretzel.  More friends from SLU got in some how and joined us even later, adding to the party and excitement in the biergarten.  We had a lot of fun that night, with crazy French people, regrettable photos and horrific, bathroom issues, but we survived the fest and made it out alive.  Dan and Ross attempted to steal beer steins from the tents and actually made it back to Madrid with a couple, but not without having some shatter and others get confiscated by the police.  haha!  Upon returning to The Tent, we discovered that Peter's locker had been broken into and his things stolen, along with four other's people's belongings.  They had cut through his smaller lock, but fortunately he had his valuables with him and therefore only lost his backpack and clothes.  Regardless, it made for more work the next day.

Lauren and her hänchen 

Inside the Löwenbräu

Shannon, Kacie in their traditional faruline attire

Emily and I with the brews

On Sunday, our final day in Munich, we opted to not return to Oktoberfest, but rather to go see a bit of the city and the historical center of Munich.  First, we returned to the main train station for the police station there and Ross and I waited over an hour while Peter filled out a police report for insurance reasons.  Afterwards, we visited the Marienplatz, the town square, which is home to the new town hall. After we walked to a couple famous churches and the royal residence of Munich.  We stumbled upon an awesome farmer's market/festival with stall after stall of fresh produce, brots, jams, etc.  We ate a couple sandwiches, then had to take cover due to some torrential downpours that passed through,  Afterwards, we started heading back to the train stations and stopped for a beer in a small cafe.  The airport was packed we arrived, but after a little confusion with printing our boarding passes, we made it through security, browsed the airport stores (for which I am a sucker) and Ross and I had a final german meal of schnitzel and fries.  It was s good conclusion to the exciting weekend in Germany, besides making it back to Madrid on a Sunday night was a nice change of pace from rushing back and straight to class on a Monday morning.

Marienplatz

Now that we are here, we are planning to stay for a couple weeks in Madrid to relax and reconnect with the city in which we live, but never actually see after about a month of weekendly travel.  Whew!  I am looking forward to that!

Navarra, Spain

Last weekend, I traveled to the region on Navarra in the northeast corner of the county of Spain. The trip was mandatory for my Spanish 418 class, Spanish Culture and Civilization. It was refreshing to be staying in Spain and seeing some of the incredible sights here in this country, however I have to admit, I was not looking forward to the trip, since I really knew no one in my class and couldn't imagine enjoying a weekend with a bunch of strangers. Boy was I wrong!! The trip was a blast and it was a breath of fresh air to be out of my circle of friends, to meet new people and to have a unique experience. We are spoiled at SLU since so many people here are from Missouri that we can always find someone we know, someone who is not Spanish and someone who speaks English!!  Aside from this, the trip was a SPANISH class trip, so we were encouraged to speak the language as much as possible, our tours were in Spanish and our teachers spoke to us in Spanish. So it was a great time!! 

We left on Friday from SLU's campus and boarded a bus for our roughly 5 hour ride to the town of Roncesvalles.  We were scheduled to leave at 9 AM, but three kids were late so we were forced to wait until nearly 10 for two of them to show up. I made a point to get up at 7:30 and to run there at 8:50, but had I known we would just wait around all day, I would have just slept in until 9.  I only knew a few people from my class and sat next to this kid, Jesse, from Wake Forest.  He was from the other section of the 418 class, which I found out is taught by my Spanish 420 teacher, Dra. Ángeles! She is an awesome older lady, super fun and spunky! She took to Jesse and I and talked to us all the time about the different sites, etc. They dropped us off in a hole-in-the-wall little town to scavenge for lunch. A few of us went against the grain and headed away from the nearest restaurant to find something different. It turns out the town was closed down for a "fiesta" holiday and eventhough they had countless bars, we were only able to find one real restaurant for lunch. A common thing in Spain is the "menú del día" or menu of the day, which is like a small scale cruise ship meal, in which you choose a first course, main course, and dessert, along with wine or beer. We did that for 10€ each, had a great carbonara and fried chicken, as well as an entire bottle of chilled red wine (weird), which Jesse and I got to split! Haha!! Ángeles later told us that if they serve you cold red wine in Spain, it is usually poor quality. Either way, it hit the spot, we got back on the bus and made our way to Ujué. The purpose of the trip was to observe the influences of the Romanesque and Gothic movements in Spain's architectural history, while traveling a portion of the famous Camino de Santiago. More on that later. Ujué was a cool little town, with interesting architecture and windy cobblestone streets. We got a tour of the cathedral and it's architecture, as well as the area around the church. Afterwards, we were back on the bus heading north. This stop-and-go travel brought back memories of being in Europe with Jenna in high school! We arrived in Roncesvalles around 5 in the afternoon. This old town was made famous during the Middle Ages as pilgrims from around the world flocked to it as the first stop in Spain on the Camino de Santiago.  This is a famous pilgrammage typically made by Catholics, beginning someplace in France and entering Spain in Roncesvalles, then continuing westward for over 750 km to the town of Santigo de Compostela where the body of Santiago is buried. It gained fame during the Reconquista in Spain and is popular again today as thousands of pilgrims come to Spain to make the Camino, both for personal achievement, as well as penance. The town consists of about 5 buildings, one of which is a huge hostel where we stayed. We all quickly made our way to the little bar/restaurant for a beer before dinner.  Ángeles and our actual teacher walked by and she said "no te emborraches" (don't get drunk) with a feisty wink.  haha!  Afterwards, she proceeded to dink several glasses of wine with us as we ate dinner and got to know each other better.  So fun!   This was the night when the whole group really got together and made the trip fun!  We had enormous rooms in this hostel with living rooms and kitchenettes, so we bought bottles of liquor from the bar and had a party with almost everyone in one of the largest rooms. We had people from SLU, Wake Forest, Saint Joseph's, Baylor, Kansas and more!  The drinks made me attempt to command that everyone spoke in Spanish, saying "¡mando que todos hablen en Español!" but it didn't work too well!  Haha! 

Paisaje de Ujué, Navarra, Spain

La Fiesta de Roncesvalles

The next morning, Saturday, began with a tour of the the cathedral, chapel and crypt of Roncesvalles, not to mention several nauseous estudiantes.  The second stop was a monastery quite a ways outside the town. There, we got a comprehensive tour of the building and the grounds from a girl who spoke a mile a minute, which kept us laughing the whole time.  Luckily, Ángeles was there to translate from crazy Spanish to useful Spanish for us to at least learn something.  We found out that the monks that live there are 4 or 5 of an order of only 200 still in existence in the world. They are reprimanded for speaking incorrectly, they can only shave three times a year and are only allowed to bathe their extremities, not their whole bodies.  They are completely self-sufficient and spend their time farming, gardening, reciting 120 daily prayers and tending to the hotel, which is inside the monastery.  What a life!!  Our final stop for the day was the slightly larger town of Estella.  We had a walking tour of the town that afternoon and saw three more churches, taking note of the architectural influences (románico y gótico), as well as the specific arches (de medio punto y apuntado). We ran across another town fiesta, in which little kids were "play" bull fighting with a young bull on a leash while their parents watched and cheered them on.  Wild!  Since we were in a larger town, we planned to go out to an Irish bar near out hotel, so we bought some wine and beer for the hotel, ate dinner in the restaurant and hung out in the rooms until we got kicked out for being too loud.  The Irish bar was fun!  And once again, I found that excellent beer, Desperado's, which has been stalking me here in Europe.  A couple of us met a really interesting couple outside the bar who we talked to for a long time about Spain, Spanish language and our studies. 

La Corrida de Toros para los niños

On Sunday, we visited a winery on the way back to Madrid.  There, we got a really awesome tapas lunch with endless wine from the famous Rioja region of Spain.  We had ham, cheese, croquettes, bread and peppers to nibble on and got surprisingly full!  We then got a tour of the winery's "bodega" or cellar as well as an explanation from one of the employees on the basics of wine and the difference between the different categories: joven, crianza, reserva y gran reserva.  Afterwards, we stopped to purchase some of the local wine and boarded the bus for home. We had to stop a couple hours for a mandatory 45 minute break for the driver.  Not 20 minutes after that, we found ourselves pulling over yet again in a deserted parking lot and our professor, Aitor, saying "tenemos que parar por un problemita con el autobús..." (we need to stop for a little problem with the bus..). Before we knew it we were all out of the bus watching the driver climb inside the engine compartment to fix something... Surprisingly it worked and we made it home safely to Madrid. 

Las Viñas de Rijoa

The next day in class, Ángeles asked if I had drunk all three of my bottles of wine yet. Haha! No! I do have them earmarked for gifts, but at this rate, they could be gone by the end of the month.

Right now I am on another plane (I think my 11th flight of the trip..) on my way to Munich, Germany for zee Oktoberfest. This should be an interesting and exciting trip!! 
Keep in touch.  Missing everyone badly. Hope all is well at home!