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!

Mérida, Monfragüe, Semana Santa, Lisboa

Where to begin?  Well, the oldest ruins I've seen since I was in Rome.  Mérida, another city in Extremadura, houses tons of Roman Ruins.  The most notable of these is the amphitheater that is in near perfect condition.  This is because the smart people of Mérida, for one reason or another, thought that their ruins were threatened and decided to bury nearly the entire city underground to protect them.  Years passed and people forgot so think about how excited they were in the 19th century to discover this massive Roman theater.  They even use it nowadays for shows!  Merida also has a museum full of statues and Roman artifacts.  The reason why there are so many artifacts is because Mérida was the retirement place for Romans back in the day, just like our Florida.  I learned about Mérida from orientation and it lived up to expectations.  The cool thing about Extremadura is that it has cities that represent Roman, Medieval, and Moorish cultures.

I also went to the closest Portuguese town called Elvas.  Elvas looks similar to Badajoz as it has a wall and a castle and a little town at the bottom of the hill. It's actually much smaller than Badajoz, but it has something that Badajoz doesn't have: an aqueduct! We also got to see reindeer and eat Portuguese pastries.  I'm sure that my family remembers how delicious they were!  Here is a panoramic view of the main plaza of the town.

 

 Also, at the end of March and early April, the weather started getting better and we started going out more.

That picture above is from the bridge looking out towards the countryside.  I was running and I had to stop because it was such a beautiful day with not a cloud in the sky.  Speaking of good weather, my friends and I went to one of the two national parks in Extremadura.  This one is called Monfragüe and is located in the north of the other providence, Caceres.  It's honestly one of the most beautiful, natural places that I've seen.  They have this cliff that houses the nests of vultures.  These aren't the vultures that you see in movies, but beautiful, brown vultures that don't look like their heads are shaven.

I also tried watching the lunar eclipse.  The one they called the blood moon. I only got to see it turn into a banana eclipse.  I luckily only had to wake up at 6:00 in the morning, but the reason why I didn't get to see the luna de sangre was because the sun was rising around 7:00.  When I left, it was only yellow. But I imagine that it must have been beautiful for the people who saw it turn full on red.

After going to Monfragüe, I went back to Lisbon.  I had been itching to go back ever since I left and this time I looked for any excuse to get back.  When I found out that my friend was traveling during my week off, I pushed for her to visit Lisbon, which became one of my favorite cities of Europe.  I'm not entirely sure why, but it just has this awesome feel of being a big city in a really small area that I like.  Also, it's right on the shore so maybe it reminds me a lot of Boston.  Regardless, I went back and met up with my friend, Julia.  I was a proud tour guide the first day, reminding myself of all of the cool facts that I had learned on my first trip to Lisbon.  The second day that we were there we did something I hadn't done before.  

 

If you will recall, I talked about this giant Jesus statue that was the protector of the city and I believe it's the national monument of Portugal.  Well, the story goes that Portugal had a dictator until 1974 who was really cruel to the people and eventually he was overthrown in the Portuguese Revolution.  He was dictating (I know that's not the real word) during World War II and prayed to God that his country not enter the war.  If that came to pass, he would make a statue in honor of Jesus.  As luck would have it, Portugal remained neutral during the war and Salazar, he even has the name of someone evil, commissioned the Jesus-Building-Project.

This actually was my favorite sight from my first trip to Lisbon that I was excited to climb to the top and look over the city that I had also come to love.  I bought a little token from my first trip of this statue because he is the protector of the city.  For those of you world travelers, this Jesus is a smaller replica of the one that you find in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.  It turns out that the Lisbonians copied a lot of things from well known places.  The bridge into the city is a shorter version of the well-known bridge in San Francisco.  Those sneaky Portuguese.

As you can see, I'm enjoying every minute of my life here and trying to make the most of it.  I'm enjoying it so much that I am going to come back next year to continue the adventures that I've come to love this year.  Teaching has been an absolute pleasure and I'm not referencing my the program I'm in.  I'm talking about the academy that I work for.  Unfortunately, I am no longer working for them because the person I was covering for just came back after her maternity leave.  The academy, however, told me that if I return to Badajoz next year, they will offer me a position, or if I land in some other part of Spain, they will write me a recommendation for whatever position I want.  I was really tough leaving these students, but now I have experience to bring towards whatever I do next year.

I hope you sifted through all these words, or more importantly the pictures, and enjoyed catching up with me.  I return home in a month and two days, not that I'm counting, to spend three months working.  As always, my thoughts are with my family who I wish I could be with during this time.  I love you guys.

Los Carnavales: Capítan España contra los Espantapajaros

This past weekend, as I stated before, was Carnival.  I have been to one Carnival before, in Cadíz,  and although I did have a great time two years ago, this Carnival did not disappoint.  The best way to describe this amazing experience is going day by day.

Friday:

Friday we went out to eat a place called Crónicas Carnivoras.  This is known to be a cheap restaurant with great food.  And not just great food, but portions that would blow your mind.  The name means die-hard carnivore and everything on the menu is meat.  I was not anticipating when we ordered three tapas, or small portions, and it was enough to fill up four people.  After eating great food and having a beer, I only ended up spending 5€.  This was the start to Carnival.

After, we went to this plaza to do a botellón, which is when everyone gathers together and drinks in the streets and plazas.  I love this because it gives you a chance to meet people and you aren't in a cramped environment.  Contrary to what I've told you, this night we did not dress up.  It was a start to the celebration so people gathered and talked and sang murgas.  Murgas? you ask, those are songs that groups write that are supposed to be funny and usually take hits at current problems like the government, the crisis, and what have you.  In the gazebo, they played videos of all of the different murgas.  This is only ONE of the competitions that Badajoz held this weekend.

We stayed up until about three and then headed to bed.  We knew that the next day would be a lot more exciting.

Saturday:

This was the first night of costume festivities.  People spend all day preparing their costumes.  Some families with younger children walk around town, go to bars, or hang out in plazas during the day while the youth stay inside and rest.

The real fun started around 11 after we had all prepped our costumes.  I borrowed the costume of a friend and paraded myself as a hippie.  Amor y paz, tío.  People work really hard on their costumes and usually end up spending a lot of money, so I went ahead and bought some glasses and an afro because, because, because Carnaval.  My other friends dressed up as a jester, Batman, an elf, Superman, a sailor, and all other kinds of things.  Really, Carnaval is like Halloween on steroids.



We left the apartment and gathered in one of the major plazas and boy were there a lot of people.  We found a spot and started drinking and talking and looking for great costumes.  I clearly had to take pictures with all of my favorites.  At about 3 AM we went to another plaza where a club had a DJ playing music outside.  We were with hundreds of other people dancing in front of the cathedral.  It was unreal.  We even got lucky with nice weather.  It was in the 50's the whole night.

An interesting thing that I noticed happened around 6 AM.  We were on our way home when I saw this group of drummers.  They played music really loud at 6 AM.  AM in the morning.  I was blown away.  It turns out that this group of drummers isn't the only one and that the next day they would have a competition known as los comparsas.

Sunday:

Although I had had a late night, I really wanted to see the comparsas.  I wasn't entirely sure what it was except that it was a parade of sorts.  There weren't any floats or balloons, but what I saw truly blew me away.

Here we were on the sidewalk and all of a sudden a mini-float passes with a sign that shows the name of the group.  Then, immediately behind it is a group of dancers all wearing the same costume.  Some of them were themed like pavos, turkeys, or Michael Jackson.  These groups were dancing to music that we could hear a little further back.  Next comes a cart that houses all of the drums.  The same drummers from the night before were now playing intense percussion music for the dancers.  It was incredible how good they are.  One group even played their rendition of Animals, a popular club song.


I was honestly amazed at how awesome this was.  There were so many people involved and so many people watching from the side.  Kids were already dressed up in costumes as the clapped along to the music.  Us older kids didn't dress up on Sunday though.  I was so exhausted that I slept for most of the day and wished for Monday.

Monday:

Monday.  Monday was crazy.  Again, the festivities didn't start until the night.  My costume this time was as Capítan España instead of Captain America.  I even made a shield that resembled that of Captain America.

This night was essentially a repeat of Saturday night except that it was really, really cold.  This was the day that I wore the costume with less insulation.  That didn't stop me however.  We went out and went to the plaza.  We met a bunch of different people with the icebreaker, "Hey, nice costume."  It was honestly another spectacular night.  It ended at 7 AM and on the way back we noticed my favorite burger place with an outdoor stand.  We payed 3€ for a giant burger and left with smiles on our face.

Tuesday:

Today has been another recuperation day which I needed so badly.  Now, I'm sitting here writing this blog post and not looking forward to working tomorrow.  Luckily, this is a short week as I only have to work for two days.

Wow, I wrote a lot.  This should tide you guys over for a little while.  I hope you can see just how much I love this holiday and how much I love Spain.  Again, you see this sense of community and friendship between Spaniards.  It's incredible.

Until next time, ¡Hasta Luego!

Propósitos en El Nuevo Año

Wow, it's been a while since I've written anything.  So several things have happened since we last talked:

My family came and visited me.  We spent a week traveling around the south of Spain.  I think they enjoyed, but I know for a fact that I did.  We went to Toledo and bought swords, we went to Granada and saw the Alhambra.  We went to Gibraltar, although they didn't let me in because I forgot my passport.  Then we went to my city of Badajoz.  Now, Badajoz doesn't have much to offer.  It is known for being a strategic city that has been through a lot.  It lies practically on the border of Portugal and has been fought over for centuries.  This means that a lot of the buildings and monuments were destroyed over the years and sadly what remains isn't much.  Well, that's the city I live in.  Fortunately, they say one positive thing about Badajoz, Aquí, se come muy bien, or here one eats very well.  Their food has some Portuguese influence and obviously a lot of Spanish influence, so I made sure that my family got to try some of the local cuisine.  Obviously they were not disappointed.

I did go home for a week and that was probably the best decision I've made since I've been here.  I got to see all my family and friends and it reminded me all of the good that America has to offer.  I can't wait to see everyone again this summer.

Then I returned to Badajoz and resumed my life as it was before.  I went to the elementary school during the day and did my private lessons at night.  Some of the classes remained 20 minutes in one direction, fifteen in another, and half an hour for the class that paid the most.  I didn't like all of the traveling, but I endured it for the money.  Well, just as luck would have it, an academy was looking for a new employee to work about 8 hours a week.  An academy is an after school place where they give classes in English.  It was called Britannia and they gave me a chance for an interview.  They have a very interesting style of teaching which comes at students from all sides: grammar, vocab, reading, writing, listening, and conversation skills.  They had a teach leave and they needed a replacement.  I knew that if I were to take this job, I would have to drop the rest of my classes, but because they paid really well and they were in a central location, I took it and now I couldn't be happier.

This job is much more like a teaching position that the teacher's aid position in the schools.  I have to plan a one hour lesson for each class every week and focus on listening and dictation skills.  I've had them make commercials, listen to Mumford and Sons, and even find out the difference between football, football (soccer), and rugby.  Doing this job has made me like teaching.  Furthermore, it's with older kids and adults, the age group that I really wanted.  There's another American there and we are the complete opposite because she likes the younger kids and I like the older ones so it works out perfectly that she gets the younger kids and I got the older ones.

Right after I accepted this job, I went to a town/city called Almendralejo for an even called the Candelas.  Essentially, different groups come together and make these floats or dolls that they end up burning at the end of the night.  They do this to clear all of the bad things from the city and also as an excuse to drink and eat fresh, from-the-pueblo food.  Spain does not disappoint with it's parties and this one was a blast.  What I love about this country is their sense of community.  Everyone of all ages gets together to watch something burn and then the go and hang out in the streets for hours.

(Side Note: One thing I noticed here is that people will talk to everyone.  If you're in an elevator or running on a treadmill people may come over and start a conversation.  Not a chummy conversation, but they talk as if you are best friends.  The people here are so friendly that they talk to complete strangers.  If my dad knew Spanish, I'm sure he would love living here.)

Community is so important to them that it makes me rethink how individual and closed we are in America compared to here.  Not that it's bad because sometimes we need our space, but the fact that everyone in the city comes out on one night is just incredible.

Finally, last week I went to Las Grutas de Aracena with my friends.  This is an underground cavern full of stalagmites and stalactites.  Now, I had been to a cavern before, but this one was so much bigger and so much prettier.  It had underground lakes and so many rocks in different formations.  It was awesome.  Then we stopped in a castle on the way back, but it was closed.  We walked around the back and to our surprise, it was open.  So we broke into the castle and took a few pictures.  Though very well preserved, this castle served as a protective stronghold that would warn other castles if invaders were coming.  Inside, there was not a lot to see, but it was still really neat.

So that's my quick summary of these past few months.  Right now we are celebrating the festival of carnaval.  Carnaval was one of my favorite experiences from study abroad so I am sure I will have a lot to say about this event.  Badajoz is supposed to be in the top 5 best carnavals in the world and I've been excited to see it ever since I found out.  Here's a little taste of things to come.  A toddler dressed up like Edward Scissorhands: