Paris: La Primera Parada Para Las Fiestas

Wow, this seat hasn’t been sat in in a while. Let me roll it back and forth a few times. Ah, this is the familiar chair I used to write these blog posts in. I can’t believe I’m back! I’ll thank Emma and mum for bringing up journaling on our trip. I didn’t have the means to write this while on the trip, so after being back for a week, I thought that I would journal about the family’s trip to Europe (and former EU-nations)! Unfortunately, “family” does not include my new husband as he had to work, but we still endeavored into the city of love with 3 full couples as tribute, and me, the 7th wheel.

Our story starts before even getting onto a plane. Emma and I had planned the trip and in order to maximize time, we scheduled a train right after we landed in London to Paris. At the time, this seemed like a good idea, but as the trip approached, I got increasingly nervous that something would happen and we’d miss the train and start our trip off to a poor start. I wasn’t able to sleep on the flight because of it, which is unlike me because I can fall asleep anywhere. My fears were unfounded and we booked it from the plane, through customs, where he had to collect our forced-checked bags, and then made it on the Tube to St. Pancras where we boarded the famous Eurostar to dive beneath the English Channel. I would say that it was super cool, but this is where I fell asleep. It was a smooth ride from London to Paris.

Now, our original plan, to maximize time, was to go from Gare du Nord station to a suitcase drop off location right next to the Louvre so we could see the museum on our first day since we got to Paris around 1pm. The poor start that I feared did not occur, but another fear that we should have been aware of did darken our door. In trying to get from Gare du Nord to the Louvre, we used Paris’ metro system as it is quick and affordable. What we didn’t anticipate was that a family of 7 with their suitcases, jet lagged hobbling around the station made us perfect marks for pickpocketers. Our train came and a rush of people boarded. My instincts from traveling and being a commuter is to push all the way in away from the doors, so that’s where I went with three of our group. The three that remained were my mom, dad, and sister, who stayed by the doors. The two groups were now separated by a group of people where we could see them but couldn’t talk to them. All of a sudden, I hear Emma yell, “I’ve got your suitcase!” Which alerted everyone with me that something was going on. We couldn’t get towards my family so we watched as onlookers, hearing my dad yell, then seeing him smile and shake a guy’s hand. At the next stop they got off, and we only had a few more stops to go. Once we got to the Louvre stop, we disembark and Emma turns to us, “Dad got his wallet stolen.”

Apparently, many distractions were aimed at my dad: they were playing with his suitcase, they spilled soda on him, they apologized and shook his hand, and then got off at the next station. In all of the commotion, my dad’s wallet was stolen. Thankfully, he had stored his phone and passport separately. All in all, they got 50 € and tried to put $7,000 of expenses on the credit cards, which were immediately flagged by the credit companies who froze the cards. A bumpy start to the trip, but it definitely could have been worse. Anyways, this is why, instead of heading to the Louvre on the first day, we went straight to the AirBNB.

Our first night included a delicious dinner at the AirBNB’s recommendation and a walk around the Eiffel Tower and the Christmas Market. We pulled names for Secret Santa and these Christmas Markets, as there were markets in each of the three cities, served as great places to get presents. We pulled names on day one and were going to give the gifts on the last day of our trip.

Day two was an aggressive day from the get go. We had to accomplish two major sites because they both would be closed the following day, Christmas. You think they would keep them open for all of the tourists, and there were so many of us, but alas, we had to fit them both in the same day. These two sites were Versailles, a 30 min train out of the city, and The Louvre, another reason we had hoped to include it in our first day. Nevertheless, we were determined. We woke up early and went west to Versailles, walking around the gardens before our ticketed time to enter the palace. Now, I had been to Versailles when I was in Paris 12 years prior, but it still amazed me at the grandiosity of the rooms and the art. The hall of mirrors lived up to my memory as well, but some of the best views were the ceilings. Each room had a Greek god looking down on you from above. I’m still in awe at the luxury of it and understand why the French rose up against the monarchs.

We didn’t give enough time for rest and took the train back but going past our stop and continued on towards the Louvre. Traveling pro tip: there are ticketed times slots for the Louvre. They sell out and can be inconvenient if you don’t know what time you’re going to get there after seeing Versailles. There’s also a line for those that just show up. This line is often shorter and you can get in with the ticketed holders. Although not guaranteed, I can say that our experience had us waiting about half an hour and then we were in! The Louvre was our oyster.

I had not visited the Louvre before, so I was eager to see all of the must-sees. We beelined for the Mona Lisa, knowing that we wouldn’t stand in line, but to see it from afar was good enough. Then we moseyed around the massive building. Some of the highlights included sarcophaguses (stolen), the Crown Jewels (not stolen), and Hammurabi's Code (stolen). The Code was interesting because it was something we’ve been taught since middle school as being the oldest evidence of written law. It even includes an early version of innocent until proven guilty. After walking both buildings, we were exhausted and headed back to the AirBNB to rest before dinner. All in all, we walked over 28,000 steps and saw two of the best monuments of Paris. 

The painting that hangs opposite the Mona Lisa. Pretty impressive, right?

Despite the amount of steps, we still decided to go out for a nice drink at a rooftop bar near the AirBNB. Our AirBNB was close to the Eiffel Tower and, because of the hotel’s location, the 11th floor overlooked the Eiffel Tower. Pretty cool! We took the elevator and entered the bar. On our way in, we saw a sign that had 230€, but didn’t take too much notice, that is, until we ordered. The drinks were slightly expensive, but we could see the Eiffel Tower, so it justified the price. That’s what started freaking us out, if the drink prices were reasonable, could that 230€ have been the cover or a minimum? Well, if that was the case, we were going to get our money’s worth. We went twice out on the balcony to get the photos of the Eiffel Tower that we had paid for. We also ordered a second drink, but because of the poor service, instead of the pour service, we didn’t end up getting it. Nervously, we asked for the check, and to our surprise, we paid only for the drinks we ordered, so a view of the Eiffel Tower for only 21€, not too shabby. It turns out that the 230€ was for VIP service, so we were spared of an expensive tab.

Honestly, that could be a 230€ view.

We had to get creative with our third and final day, as it was Christmas and not much was open. Before heading out, we celebrated my brother’s birthday as best we could while abroad. This included two birthday cards, one that was for someone turning 25 and the other for someone turning 3. Hey, we scrounged up what we could find.

Just because it was Christmas Day didn’t mean that we had to sit at home with our family. I know that’s what it means normally, but we were in frickin’ Paris, so we did some site seeing. Using the public transportation, which had scarred us on our first day but had treated us well throughout, we went to the Arc de Triomphe and Sacre Coeur. I had never seen the Arc up close, and man, is it impressive with all of the detail and the sheer size of it. I was also impressed at the 12 way intersection, one of my worse nightmares. If they work like any of the rotaries in the US, there must be so many accidents with people not knowing what yield means. Sacre Coeur is also an impressive beast of its own. It sits atop a hill about 3.5 miles from the Eiffel Tower. What always strikes me is how white the building is. It is said that after rainy days, the church shines even brighter. We lucked out as it had been spitting that morning.

From Sacre Coeur, we went back towards the neighborhood we were staying at, catching the Louvre pyramid lit up at night and the Christmas Market that was right beside it. This market was packed with people that we could barely move. Once we had did one length, we exited and went back to our familiar Christmas Market. It was there that we got beer, mulled wine, and chicken shawarma. I was reminded that shawarma is so plentiful in Europe. It’s much harder to find in the US.

There was no going out on this night as we had to catch a train to Brussels early in the morning. The Ubers were ordered to pick us up at 6:30 AM, we were no longer risking the metro while carrying our suitcases. We’d learned from our mistakes.

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!

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.