Berlin: Un Cuento de Dos Ciudades

We spent the most time in Berlin; a complete week.  At first glance, it was a great amount of time where we could relax and get to know the city.  Compared to all of the other cities, however, it was a long period of time for sight seeing.  We were located in a great location as we were near Checkpoint Charlie: a border crossing between East and West Germany.  Although the countries weren't actually in power, the two countries had it manned until 1989 when the wall fell.

On our first day, we went and bought essentials: food (as to not spend too much money), shaving cream and a razor (because I had a beard or as close as I had ever gotten to having one), and we did laundry.  On the second day, we decided to do another walking tour of Berlin.  It was a tour that was supposed to last 3 hours that ended up taking 5.  We walked all over Berlin, which is a big city, and learned so much history about the Prussian Kingdom and, obviously, about World War II.  Berlin has an incredible history in such a short period of time and we didn't even mind that the tour ended late; it was free!  We even continued afterwards.

Our tour guide asked if anyone wanted to get beers after the tour and most of us said yes and we grabbed beers and headed towards the river right in front of the giant cathedral.  Our tour guide even called it the real Berlin experience because it is a common activity for young people and we were participating in it.  We found out that Berlin is an extremely international city.  Our tour guide was Irish and we met an Australian, another American, a Canadian, and two actual Germans.  It was an incredible night and a great way to start to our week.

The next night, we participated in a bar crawl after we climbed the Radisson Hotel to get the best view of the city.  This recommendation was actually made by our tour guide because you see all of the monuments for 10€ less than the famous Televison Tower and the TV Tower even shows in the pictures.  We timed it perfectly as when we were leaving the top it started to downpour and we ran to the metro.  By the time that we exited the metro, it had stopped raining and we made it back to our hostel to prepare for the bar crawl.  We stayed out until 4 AM which was late for some of us, but we had a blast.  It was incredible because while we were walking back to the hostel, the sun was coming out and we took a picture at Checkpoint Charlie with the lilac sky in the background.

We didn't think that we would want to do anything the next day, but we went walking by a strip of the Berlin wall that gave you an insight for Jews before and during the war and then the Berliners after the war.  It's incredible what other humans do to each other and this was in the 20th Century!

Now, if you haven't traveled with me, you might not know that I love castles and palaces.  I guess I just see them as potential future houses.  It turns out that a 40 minute train ride from Berlin is a town that has a garden of palaces that were either used by the royalty or used as summer homes.  We spent the majority of the day there seeing the gardens and the palaces, but we only went in one of them: the New Palace.  This was the last residence of the Prussian Kings before they were exiled to the Netherlands.  It reminded me a lot of Versaille and the Vienna Palace meaning that there was a clear sense of luxury and money put into the design.  It would make a great second house.

After the palaces, we decided to get dinner at the best kebab place in Berlin at a restaurant called Mustafa's.  It's lest of a restaurant and more of a stand and we're not talking about shish kebob, we're talking about pita bread full of shaved meat, lettuce, and sauces.  Well, in this particular stand, you bring your 3€ and not only do they include the original ingredients, they stuff it with peppers, eggplant, and add a spicy sauce.  It was one of the best kebabs I've had in my life and I ate them a lot in Spain.

Sometimes surprises happen and you just have to go with it.  This instance happened our last full day in Berlin.  We had climbed the Reichstag (German Parliament) and didn't know what we were going to do for dinner.  As luck would have it, one of the directors of my study abroad program saw that I was in Berlin and she invited us to Spanish tapas for dinner.  Obviously, I was over the moon.  This was an authentic Spanish experience where all of the employees are natives.  The food was magnificent and cheap.  It brought back memories of Spain and for a second I forgot in what country I was.  I even got to practice my Spanish although only sentences here and there as Emma doesn't know the language. I was in heaven.

REflecting back on Berlin, it was definitely a livable city as in I could see myself living there.  It would come in a close second to Spain as a place where I could see myself.  Maybe if they had more authentice Spanish tapas...

Praga: La Vengaza del Golem

Our next stop on our Eurotrip was Prague.  Prague was a top locale on my list because of all of the rave reviews from others that had gone there.  It did not disappoint as it has an enormous old part of the city and our hostel was inside of it.  It took five minutes to get to the main square that was so cool and quaint that we would just sit there to take it all in.

This trip started early as we got to our hostel at 9:00 AM when check-in was at 3:00 PM.  The hostel was so accommodating that they allowed us to drop off all of luggage, gave us breakfast, and wifi.  Reception even recommended a Free Walking Tour to pass the time that started at 11:00 and went until 2:00.  We took her up on that offer and went on the tour.  This decision turned out to be a great one as we got acquainted with the city from our very first moments in the city.  We toured the historical center of the city, saw the Prague Castle, and met the old Jewish section.  Our tour guide even told us the story about the golem created to protect the Jews but ultimately caused too much destruction and they had to destroy it.  We saw the synagogue where Rabbi Loew created and destroyed this clay monster.  I loved the story so much that I bought myself a little golem of my own.

After the tour we got typical Prague goulash with a pretzel.  We also wanted to try our palette with Prague beer as it is very well known.  We ordered the pilsner but got confused with our units and order 1 Liter each.  We were shocked to see how big the liter mugs were and even more surprised that it cost around $5.  Why's that? Well, the Czech Koruna is pretty weak right now and $1 is 24 czech koruna.  We were so happy! This city was the complete opposite of Geneva.

The next day, we decided to check out the Jewish museums, which is a string of synagogues and museums all under the same ticket.  It was a very emotional journey as the main reason that these buildings and artifacts were spared during the German occupation of the Czech Republic was because Hitler wanted to save this city as a tourist attraction for people who wanted to see an extinct religion.  Thankfully, it is used as a museum, but for a persevering religion with a rich history.  Doing these museums took up the entire day.  At night, we met a Mexican and a Venezuelan and went out with them.  I was so excited to use Spanish again.  Not having constant conversations in Spanish is definitely going to give me culture shock when I get back home.

The next couple of days were filled with sightseeing.  We walked around the main plaza that had my favorite attraction: the astronomical clock.  This enormous clock tells momre than the time; it tells you the position of the sun, the phase of the moon, and even the astrological sign of the moment all based on complicated math problems from 1410.  Yeah, it made us feel pretty stupid too.  I was so torn because I wanted the clock to be my souvenir, but after hearing the story of the golem, I changed my mind.

We also climbed up to Prague castle, the largest palace in Europe today.  We got another ticket that allowed us to go into many places including the lavish cathedral in the center and the palace itself.   We even entered a small street that resembled diagon alley and is where many famous Czechs lived.  Unfortunately, good weather didn't accompany us and we got a little wet.

After 4 days in Prague, when we had to leave, I decided that I could've studied abroad there, but it wouldn't be a city that I'd live in.  This little city is very touristic and caters to the tourists so much so that it was impossible to find a typical Czech experience.  I don't think we met even one Czech.  It was still a beautiful city though that I could have walked around for many more days.  Next off to Berlin!

Ginebra: Se Paga Triple Por Un Kebab

The beginning of our sibling adventure started in Geneva.  Emma and I had planned a massive Eurotrip through 6 cities in one month.  I was working in Spain and she had recently graduated from college.  Being in two different countries, we needed to time our flights to arrive at nearly the same hour to meet up.  We wouldn't have any wifi or smart phones to connect us; we had to rely on good old fashioned timing.  Emma did have to suffer through a 12 hour layover in Amsterdam, but all her exhaustiveness went away when we saw each other in the baggage claim on June 2nd.

Without saying anything, we both had one thing on our mind: food.  After checking into an Air bnb, we went to the only open restaurant on Tuesdays after 11:30 PM, McDonald's.  Here, we received our wake up call that Geneva was flipping expensive.  Our meal cost over $25, more than triple the prices in America and Spain.  This realization became the norm and we immediately became conscious of what we were spending.  Although we tried, it didn't help too much seeing as everything had unified prices.  We tried not to let this get to us, however, we had a budget and we couldn't drain it all in our first city.  In order to do this, we chose to do more walking.

Our first full day in Geneva, we walked the old district.  It was a great test for Emma's new FitBit as we were walking up and downhill all day.  The old town is also in between the center and where we were living so we went up and down several staircases.  We saw the first big church of Geneva which had reached the level of cathedral.  We passed through the gates and noticed it's massive size for such a small town.  After, we entered the oldest house in Geneva called Maison Tavel.  This turned out to be a perfect start to our trip as it gave us the entire history of Geneva starting from the Ice Age to current day Geneva.  Up to now all of this was free and we were learning a lot.  Then we went to the archaeological museum to see the remnants of the first church upon which the cathedral was built.

We also saw two very famous monuments of Genva: the flower clock and the Jet d'Eau.  The former is the second largest flower clock in the world.  A flower clock is exactly like it sounds except that the hands aren't made of flowers. It makes sense that they once had the largest in the world since Switzerland is known for its impeccable watches.  While looking a little above the flower clock, you see a never ending stream of water.  This is the latter monument: the Jet d'Eau.  Originally, a method of releasing the water pressure within Lake Geneva, it is now a principal symbol of Geneva.  It's incredible seeing this jet of water tower over everything and it even became a reference point for when we got lost.

Finally, we went to the Clock Museum.  This museum is dedicated to Patek and Phillipe, two famous watchmakers of Geneva.  They showed us a great collection of watches that were hundreds of years old and later showed us some of the most impressive watches that this famous pair made.  Finally, they told us about the most complicated watch in the world and how it works.  A lot of that went right over my head, but when I was watching the video, I thought I could reproduce the watch in my very own workshop.  And that's how we concluded our first day.  It turns out that outside of food, you don't really need to spend a lot of money in Geneva.  However, the second day, we did spend a little bit more. 

One of the few things that we did know about Geneva was the United Nations.  So we chose our second day to go to the Palais du Nations, the European center of the UN.  This didn't cost us money to get to as wee walked the long trek to the palace, however, we  we did pay the cover charge for the guided tour, which was totally worth it.  The Palace of Nations is such a beautiful building, and this branch of the UN deals with many humanitarian issues and peace efforts.  The tour was really informative and we enjoyed every minute.  On the way back to the apartment, we followed the river and then stopped to have lunch.  We took a break and watched the gorgeous aquamarine waters that reminded us so much of Lake Winnepesaukee.

The next two days we took really slow getting to know the beautiful city of Geneva.  Although not very touristy, it did have it's special nooks and crannies like the parks next to the river Rhone or the Mediterannean style Carouge.  We saw the sights less travelled and made living in Geneva affordable.  Our second stop was Prague!

Budapest y Estambul: Eres El Hombre Con Más Suerte y El Hombre Con Menos Suerte

Uh oh.  I did it again.  I went on a trip and I didn't blog about it.  I don't know what's gotten into me, I used to love writing about my adventures and reliving them through writing and photos.  Somehow, it's gotten away from me.  I could continue to make false promises, but that's not who I am.  It's who I was, but not who I am no, I swear.

And there were baths!

Anyways, the last trip I took was to two amazing cities and countries.  Over semana santa, or holy week, I went to Budapest, Hungary and Istanbul, Turkey.  Budapest was just like any European city that I had been to, but it had its quirks, which I will get into later.  Istanbul, on the other hand, had much more Islamic influence that was noted in much of the architecture.  That being said, it was also extremely European, even on the Asian side.

Having been to Vienna, I saw many similarities with Budapest.  For instance they have a similar looking palace and architecture.  Both cities also have a rich history, however Budapest was on the receiving end of many empires and cultures including the Austrians.  They also were sacked by the Ottomans and bombed by the Nazis.  After all of this damage, Budapest has become a cheap city with lots of buildings that represent its tough history.

The mosque

On that note I want to mention my favorite part of Budapest, the ruin bars.  These bars were once buildings: cafeterias, apartment buildings, theaters, that they were going to destroy, but someone bought them and made them into a bar.  That means that we were drinking in wide open buildings with different rooms.  Some places used these rooms to play different styles of music.  Some people used these rooms to make some quieter places outside of the loud bass of the songs.  There were some with a giant dance floor and some with giant figures hanging from the ceiling.  Each place was a different hipster's paradise.

Other than bar life, Budapest also has the second largest synagogue in the world.  This religious building is absolutely stunning from the outside.  Unfortunately, we didn't want to pay the steep price to enter, but I'm sure the inside would have been just as spectacular.  One site that we did enter was the palace.  Unlike Vienna, this palace didn't have much to offer.  The entrance fee was surprisingly cheap compared to the other palaces that I've been to in Europe and it's because there really doesn't remain too much from all the different eras.

One interesting sight in Budapest was the St. Stephen's Basicila, this large church that was right next to where we were staying in the Air BNB.  It was truly stunning, but what really stuck with me was the original hand of St. Stephen.  Yeah, they had it cased in a room and it looked just like you would expect a hand to look like after 1,000 years.

And this doesn't even come close to all that we saw in Budapest and we were there for only 2 and a half days!

We were in Istanbul for 5 days and boy was it worth it.  Budapest was similar to Vienna because they are both smaller cities that are easily walkable.  Istanbul, on the other hand, is a gigantic city with half of the city being on the Asian continent.  It isn't as easily walked, but that doesn't mean we didn't do it.

Looking at Asia from the European side

Istanbul has three main sections.  One is where we stayed, called Beyoglu, and then there is the Golden Horn with many beautiful mosques, and finally there's the Asian side, which doesn't have too much, but is an experience in itself.  Now, I'll rate each side and my favorite parts of each zone.

The Turkish drink tea with every meal

We started with Beyoglu.  Now, I said before about how Istanbul isn't as European, but I don't want to convey that it doesn't have a European feel because it does.  Especially in Beyoglu where there were many buildings that had the stature of European styled buildings.  The biggest difference for me was really the mosques.  I don't think I had ever seen a mosque in my life until I went to Istanbul and they were everywhere.  You could find them easily because they had at least on large pillar outside of a court yard.  This is where they used to climb to call the worship.  Now, they use speakers to call to worship.  It was strange being in a country where the primary religion was Islam, however that soon passed.

Anyways, in Beyoglu, my favorite part was definitely a palace.  For those non-histoy buffs out there, there were two giant empires that called Istanbul their capital.  These empires were the Byzantine and the Ottoman.  The Ottomans were the most recent one and they have many structures still standing.  That's not to say that the Byzantines don't.  In fact, many of the standing Ottoman structures still hold Byzantine architecture.  In this case, my favorite site was an Ottoman palace.  When the Ottomans got bored, they built a new palace and this was the most recent one.  It was amazing to see the luxurious life that they led.  The theme for this palace was gold and glass.  They actually have the largest chandelier in Europe! A gift from Queen Victoria.  Anyways, this was by far my favorite place that we entered and one of the more beautiful ones.

Blue Mosque

Hagia Sofia

The Golden Horn was the second zone that we visited and it was chock-full of mosques.  It even houses the Hagia Sofia, an old mosque that houses Byzantine art and the Blue Mosque, which was my favorite one.  It was so grand from the outside looking like a castle and mountains and the painted walls on the inside left you breathless.  What's great about mosques is that they are free to enter.  You do need to conform to their religious laws which means that you have to remove your shoes and women must cover their heads with scarves.

The Golden Horn also some of the oldest cisterns in the city.  Although they used to be used for water storage, they are a popular tourist attraction now.  I didn't realize it until I went down there, but I had read a book where the cisterns play a major role.  I was walking and I thought, this place seems familiar, almost as if I had been there before.  Later, I looked it up and I had read about it in a book!  Another fun activity on this side of Istanbul is the Grand Bazaar, a giant market that was built centuries ago and still exists to this day.  Now, they sell knock-offs for fractions of the price and just haggling is an experience in itself.  It was something I had never done before and I ended up buying presents for some of you back home.

Finally, the Asian side.  We spent a full day here and we quickly learned that there weren't many special monuments here.  We did have the best Turkish Breakfast here.  A Turkish breakfast consists of jam, honey, all types of cheese, olives, butter, bread, eggs, and meat.  All of that food was only 7€!  It filled us up for the day.  Right after we went on a walk and saw the few sights like a lighthouse in the middle of the Bosphorus Strait.  We were then told about the best place to see Istanbul and we took the 2 mile climb to see a jaw dropping view of the city, the one you can see above.  The hike was worth it to see such a beautiful city from amazing heights.  We walked around the Asian side some more and then went home.

And that was it.  Well, not all of it, but I can't write any more or people won't read it! So there you have it.  This was a trip I took a month ago and I just got around to writing about it.  I hope for those of you who have read this entire post that you've enjoyed it and if you didn't hopefully you enjoyed the pictures!

Los Últimos Diez Meses: Badajoz, Cáceres, Madrid, Needham, Lisboa, San Sebastián, Sevilla, Vienna, Boston, Nueva York, Almendralejo

Plaza Alta of Badajoz

Wow, has it been a long time since I wrote a blog post.  Since I'm going to cover a long period of time, I'm going to try to be short and sweet.

So I left you last year after my exciting Semana Santa adventures.  Well, May was also a very exciting month for me.  It was the last month of the program, and the weather turned warmer and the people went out more, and there were special events in Badajoz.

The first event was an international concert in Cáceres.  Cáceres, if you remember, is a city known for a well-preserved, old part of the city.  Well, in the walls of the medieval city they held concerts.  People packed themselves into the little plazas where they had squeezed in stages and bands from Ireland, France, Spain, Africa, and even a rapper from the United States took turns exciting the exciting the audience teaching us words in their native languages.

The other event was in Badajoz.  At the top of the alcazaba, or muslim palace on a hill, they put a giant stage.  A famous, Spanish Youtube sensation band performed.  You probably haven't heard of them.

And that was essentially how I ended my first year in Spain.  I had a great time teaching in elementary school, however, I really enjoyed teaching older kids in my private classes.  So, when I decided to return to Spain the next year, I requested a high school.  Although the schools understood, they were sad to see me go.  They actually purchased several gifts for me including a watch and a typical liquor from the region that tastes like amaretto.  Even my roommates got me this apron!

My class of 6th graders

I took my gifts and headed to Madrid for a few days before catching a plane back to Massachusetts.

Well, for the summer, I returned to my summer job as a supervisor of a local pool.  I did some typical summer travel, like going to New Hampshire and Maine.  Although being home was fun, I definitely missed Spain.  People that I met over the summer even told me how much I lit up when talking about the beautiful country.

In September, I came back to Spain.  Well, first I went to Portugal.  I flew into Lisbon, and I can't repeat how much I love Lisbon.  It's a beautiful little city with teeming with surprise so that every time that I go, I find something new.  This picture is of a well that leads to an underground cave system of a garden of some rich, dead guy.  I did a lot of walking and I returned to many of the beautiful sights that I fell in love with.

In October, I started working again.  I definitely feel more comfortable working at a high school and I kind of knew I would.  I have always thought about working in a high school somewhere down the road.  In the same month, I also went to San Sebastian.  San Sebastian is a really small city in the North of Spain.  My roommate from Granada recommended it to me, and I was more than happy when the opportunity arose.  It has a beautiful old city that leads to a cove with a beautiful beach.  They have delicious, albeit, "expensive" tapas and a crazy nightlife.  Although the official language is Vasco, everyone understood Spanish.  Although there had been a drop in temperature the week before, when we went, it was beautiful beach weather.  I enjoyed the beautiful city and it was the farthest North that I had traveled in Spain.

In November, I participated in a Color Run in Seville.  I had seen pictures of my friends in the States running in and I knew it would be something that I would want to do.  Essentially, it's a 5K where every kilometer, the people spray you with paint powder.  At the end, they had a concert and passed out packets of the paint powder.  Every 20 minutes, we tossed it in the air.  It was definitely an experience.

Vienna Town Hall

In December, I decided to travel outside of Spain.  This would be my first trip outside of the Iberian Peninsula since I studied in Granada three years prior!  I had planned a trip to Vienna the year before, but it fell through, so I decided to fulfill my desire from the year before.  I didn't know much about Vienna besides being a historical city, but I wasn't prepared for what I encountered.  December was the perfect time to go because there were Christmas markets everywhere.  Although very cold, and I got caught in the rain on both of the days that I was there, the Viennese have a great way to keep warm: hot spiced wine.  In every Christmas market, there was cheap hot wine and a unique coffee mug to drink it in.  I even brought one back with me!

We also did two walking tours and visited the castle, which was on par with Versaille in France.  For not knowing much about Vienna, I left knowing the entire history of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire.  Now if only I could remember it now...I'm just kidding, I remember most of it.

St. Stephens Cathedral and Christmas market

All in all, I had a great time in Vienna and although I was there for over 2 full days, I still feel like I got to see the city.  I can't wait for the next trip that I'm taking.  I'll be sure to write about it here after I go to Budapest and Istanbul...anyways.  Moving on.

In January, actually, in December, I also went back to the United States.  I spent a great holidays with my family and friends and did some sightseeing in Boston and New York.  This is where January comes in.  Before I flew back to Spain, I spent three days in New York.  This was the first time in about 10 years that I'd been to New York.  It definitely annoyed me when students would ask where I lived and then why I don't go to New York more often if I'm so close.  You don't want to know how many times I've fell for that!  New York is as beautiful as always, but I probably shouldn't have gone on the two days that it was below zero without including the windchill.  From JFK, I took a flight to Madrid (with a layover in Morocco) and I started work again.

In February, we have had two events so far.  The first was on February 2nd and I went last year.  Groups of people, schools, bars, and pretty much anyone makes a large pile of wood with a papier mache doll that represents a demon or a vice and then they burn it.  They had the evil minions from Despicable Me 2, the Joker, the Queen of Hearts, the Clown from that Steven King book/movie (It?), and lots of witches.  This is how they get rid of all of the evils from the past year, they set them up in flames!

The other event that happened in February was Carnaval.  Carnaval is the Spanish Halloween on steroids.  People gather in the streets and drink in costumes that they made, bought, or put together the night before.  I was one of those who bought the costume the week before.  I decided to be a banana because bananas are universal! It turned out that with a backpack, I became a Spanish cartoon character from the early 90's called Mochilo, or Backpack, probably because he wears a backpack.  I went out with my friends who went as Mexican Death and two old geezers.  We met up with more friends once we went out, and, as always with Carnaval, we had a phoenomenal time.

So, the past 10 months have been busy with work and play.  I got to see some incredible places and do incredible things.  Of this year, there are still 4 months left to fill with fantastic adventures.  I'll try to keep up with this blog more because I know I don't talk to many of you as much as I should.  Keep looking out for more posts!