Alright, so I promised that I would write about my past weekend's experience sooner or later and since midterms begin next week on Thursday (wish me luck please!!!) I figure now is a good time so that I don't forget and never actually do it.
Where to begin....Saturday morning sounds about right! November 7th, 7:45am. Entirely too early to get on a chartered bus and drive for 4 hours to the region of Extremadura if you ask me! It's approximately 4 hours to the west of Madrid. It's actually very pretty, but, thanks to historic narrative of one of the teachers within our program, I can tell you that at one point Spain was cutting down all the trees and using them for various projects, in Spain and elsewhere also, so apparently it's not quite as scenic as it used to be. So on these long bus rides, we stop every 2 hours for about 20 minutes for bathroom breaks and whatever else you might need to accomplish during that time. The first 2 hours was nice and quiet; most people slept, I however, crocheted. Typical me, right? After the break however, our teacher proceeded to lecture us on the country side and give us an entire 2 hour long history lesson on what we were going to see the NEXT day! Now, that's all well and good if you're a history teacher and you warn us that you're going to lecture, but we weren't prepared for it, and we were prepared to nap for another 2 hours since we had been told we had 4 hours for sleeping!! Additionally, while history can be interesting, learning about different kinds of trees and the lifestyle of these people in the country is not something that college students are prepared to hear at 10am from an ART teacher! Either way, it was a long long bus ride, regardless of the history lesson from the art teacher.
First place we arrived at was a city called Mérida where we got to tour ruins of an amphitheater and also a gladiator ring from when Spain was part of the ancient Roman Empire. Parts of the ruins had been reconstructed so that visitors could see, more or less, what the structures had been like at a past point in time. Even so, it was very interesting to see structures from such an ancient time. In America, we don't have the same type of historical monuments since our nation's history only goes back so far. Spain has so much more history to share and, for me, I really enjoyed seeing those ruins. I also learned more than I could have even dreamed about the building process, the people that came and destroyed the structures, the purpose of the particular building structure used and whatnot from the art teacher. Somehow, he managed to talk for about 2 hours straight without taking a breath, needing to cough, or taking a drink of water just so that he could over educate us. While yes, I know that it was a tremendous advantage to have that wealth of knowledge with us on the trip, it wasn't expected and since we didn't have the same experience in Toledo, it was a big change. But yes, it was, ultimately, very informative.
From the ruins, we proceeded to walk around the rest of the city and see what was left of a Roman temple, which in reality wasn't much and they were in the process of trying to restore the temple so there wasn't very much to see of it. We also saw their "Plaza Mayor" and were given time to eat lunch and explore. Almost every city or town in Spain, thus far at least, has a Plaza Mayor. The Plaza is basically the main meeting point for the city or town where people would, and still do to a certain degree, come to do business and commerce. Typically they're gorgeous areas in a square or rectangular shape. In Mérida, there was a fountain in the middle of the plaza with restaurants around the edges.
After lunch, along with our trusty tour guide/art teacher who went with us everywhere, we went and toured what at one time was a Roman aqueduct and reservoir. It was along the edge of a beautiful river and was made of stones that had been brought from whatever stone structures were to be found at the time, including tombstones, all of which could be deciphered as you walked along the wall. (Yes, I saw several tombstones in the wall, complete with inscriptions) We also got to go down into where the water was stored after it was naturally filtered through the stones, sand, and the entire process.
From there, we went to the Roman Museum and got to see some of the original pieces of the various ruins. Lots of human sculptures and there was also an entire section for mosaics. Most of them had faded, but you could still see how intricate they had been at one time or another and some of them were HUGE, taking up three stories of wall space. These beautiful mosaics were intricate tile compositions that were used on the floor and walked on daily! Something so beautiful was created just to be walked on! Can you imagine?? I guess it's kind of like the rugs that are bought nowadays, but they aren't nearly as intricate!
After all this touring around, we were ready to get back on the bus and rest our feet during the hour or so drive to Cáceres. Upon arrival, we were grouped into rooms and released for the rest of the night. I went with a group of friends to find a bar and watch the Real Madrid vs Atletico Madrid game. It's a big game, especially for Madrileños. Real Madrid is the big, financially backed Madrid team, featuring Cristiano Ronaldo for you soccer/futbol fans. Atletico Madrid is the club team, also well know, but not nearly as financially backed and therefore without the well known and good soccer players. Regardless, they played Saturday night and we stumbled, not literally, upon an amazing bar in which to watch the game. By some stroke of luck, we found a bar that had a beer tap of house beer at EVERY table! It was 5 euro for a liter of beer, which included a free tapas/small sized portion of food. An amazing deal that made for a very memorable night. In the end, Real beat Atletico 3-2 with Atletico coming back to score both of their goals in the last 10 minutes of play.
In the morning, we got a free buffet style breakfast with plenty of options of healthy food and beverage, including fresh squeezed orange juice!! By 9:15am we were back on the bus, only to be dropped off 5 minutes later at the Plaza Mayor of Cáceres. Although there was no fountain, it was right next to what had been a palace from the 16th century so it was a fair trade as far as I'm concerned. For the next two hours, we walked, with the tour guide of course, through the palace. There was a cathedral, palace walls, a church, a building that is now being used as city hall, or the equivalent, along with a building that had been converted into a museum of a cistern. The cistern was down a set of stairs and, though musty, was gorgeous and had had gothic arches included in its structural design. Very pretty! (Of course, there are pictures! Not to worry!)
From Cáceres, we got on the bus and traveled approximately 2 hours or so, in which direction, I couldn't tell you to save my life, to the town of Trujillo. Guess where we started from...? That's right, the Plaza Mayor! Good job! You're such a fast learner! :-) One of the buildings along the Plaza was that of Pizarro who had it built with his riches acquired after his exploration in the Americas. From the Plaza Mayor, we walked up a large hill to the top of the city to the site of a castle. A rather large castle at that too! Go figure, right? Haha However, since it's on the top of a hill on an already windy day, it wasn't the smartest idea to forget a hair tie since my hair proceeded to whip me in the face, especially my eyes, for the entire afternoon. Nonetheless, it was gorgeous and there was a view of the entire country side! (As always, there are plenty of pictures!) After the climb, we were given free time to descend the hill and find food and explore. A very cute town overall, although rather small. After Trujillo, we got back on the bus and were granted silence for the entire 4 hour bus ride home. Again, I crocheted, but also managed to be social with those who were awake in the back of the bus.
Never had a shower and sweatpants felt so comforting after a windy, dirt-blown weekend. Even though Monday was a holiday for the providence of Madrid, I didn't go out Sunday night but rather relaxed and got a good night's sleep!! Especially since the beds in the hotel in Cáceres were like rocks, as were the pillows, sleep felt amazing. Even though my bed in my piso isn't as soft as I would prefer, it was nice to get back to "my" bed and have some level of padding supporting my body.
So, for the most part, you are all up-to-date on the happenings of the last two weeks! I hope that I didn't consume you're entire day with my adventures! From now on, hopefully there will be shorter adventures. I should have some excited adventures the beginning of December however since I will be in Roma visiting a family friend, Alessandra, from the Sat the 5th through the Wednesday the 9th. Until then, no fun adventures, just day to day stories since midterms will be occupying my life for the next week and a half! Eeekkk!! Please keep me in your prayers and think happy thoughts for me! Spanish professors grade very differently from in the United States so hopefully all will go well!
I miss you all!!
Ciao!
Friday, November 13, 2009
Monday, November 9, 2009
To Begin the Journey...
So, here's a trial "post" so that everyone can see what I've been up to in the most recent week. To try to update you all at once since my last massive email, and unfortunately the only one, would take an entire chapter of a book so in an effort to bring you up to speed, I'm just going to update the last 10 days or so.
I promise that as time permits, I will share what has happened since the massive email-novel of Sun, Sept 6 but since I'm a horrible traveler and haven't kept you up to date on everything during the last 2 months, this will have to suffice for now! Please, forgive me!
Let's start at the beginning of November, shall we? Ok, how about Halloween/Dia de los Muertos aka October 31, you'll thank me! (well, if you like stories about excursions you will and that's why you're reading this, right?!)
Part of the deposit for going on this amazing trip to Spain included excursions with the Study Abroad program to various regions of Spain. October 31st was the first of our excursions and we travel approx an hour south/southwest of Madrid to a city called Toledo. (ever heard of or said "Holy Toledo!" Yep, that's the city!) So we had to meet the chartered bus at 8am on Saturday morning. Since I probably hadn't discovered at the time of the massive email-novel of Sun, Sept 6, allow me to enlighten you to the fact Spaniards party hard and late/early. Many return when the metro reopens at 6am (after closing at 1:30am) and yes, I have done that a few times, but not this particular night. I was smart and went to bed at the early hour, according to most Spaniards, of midnight. Yes, that is early. Most, some of whom I can occasionally hear outside my window, don't go to bed until 1 or 2 am. Plus it takes approx 45 minutes from my piso (large apartment/flat) to get to school/the meeting point for excursions.
Now that we've established that, we arrive at Toledo at about 9am and pick up our tour guide for the day. On our way to see various parts of the town which is very spread out on various hilly sections of the landscape, we went to a lookout point so that we could more or less see where it was we were going to be visiting. (Don't worry, I took pictures and they will be posted sooner or later!) It's a beautiful area, more or less isolated feeling, kind of like most of the cities/towns of Spain that I have seen so far. After stopping at the look-out point, we went to a place where they made swords and engraved almost anything with gold and silver, BY HAND. It was all done by trades-people who intricately hammered the gold or silver into the item. It was an extremely detail oriented task to say the least. Following that stop, we proceeded to walk through the majority of la ciudad vieja, or the old city. By old city, its not just the older part of the city, but also the part of the city that existed prior to the Inquisition by Isabella and Ferdinand. During the walking tour, we stopped and visited a monastery, a synagog, and a cathedral. All are beautiful structures (with pictures to come!) and we learned about the history of each of them from our tour guide. At one point of the day, we stopped and went into what appeared to be a trap door in the middle of town but what was really an opening to an old well from olden days. Several of us joked as to whether or not it was safe to go into an opening in the middle of town, but it turned out to be just fine!
After exploring Toledo, we got back on the bus and went to a town called Consuegra which is where the windmills made famous by Cervantes' Don Quijote are located! We were there for about an hour or so. I'd always seen pictures of windmills, but as far as I can remember, I don't think I'd ever seen one and been able to touch it so that was super cool, especially because there was the mental picture of Quijote fighting with a windmill and slashing a sword through one as though in battle! That would make any inanimate object entertaining! After Consuegra, we got back on the bus came back to Madrid. Just a day trip, but one much enjoyed and, like almost anything in Spain, historical!
My Halloween day was not yet over though! Along with a friend from the program, Amanda, I went and saw the Backstreet Boys live in concert in Madrid! Yes, that boy band that was popular back in the 1990's still exists and amazingly has new music out, none of which I had heard though. They went on at 9:30pm and we got back from the excursion at about 7 or so, but at the other end of the city. After a quick stop at Amanda's, we headed to the concert to pick up our tickets and find our seats with plenty of time to see the end of the opening act's performance, or so we thought! I knew and had noticed that Europeans listened to a lot of American music, but the degree of its popularity hit me when I went to try to find the end of the line to get into the concert. Amanda and I followed the line for approx 9 city blocks, at minimum to get in line, probably close to 3/4 mile!!! We had gone in a giant circle and had almost made our way back the metro station where we had gotten off at before we found the end. Once inside, we raced to our seats, running up escalators only to find the opening act just finishing at 9:30pm, we heard music and had assumed that the Backstreet Boys had already started but were pleasantly surprised! The concert itself was amazing!! By the end I had absolutely no voice left from screaming and singing and the like. Upon exiting, however, I became aware of the popularity and the seating capacity of the venue. We both had to use the bathroom so we stopped at a bar to use the services, as they're translated, and have a beer since if you use the bathroom, you have to buy something and beer is cheaper than water. When we arrived at the metro, we were suddenly aware of how many people in the city buy the monthly metro pass. Although the concert took place on Oct 31, it ended and we got to the metro by about 12:30am, which is no longer Oct 31, but rather Nov 1; an entirely new month which means a new monthly metro pass must be bought, or an individual ride or whatever type of ticket you prefer. Before we could discover this important detail however, we had to wait for at least 20 minutes to get INTO the metro's entrance! We were able to go down the stairs, however at the point, we had to wait along with MOBS of people through the first walk way to enter the doors to the inside portion, the second walkway to go down another set of stairs, the third walkway to get to the doors to enter the ticket area, and then the fourth walkway to get to the entrance where you go through the turn style with your ticket. This would normally take a matter of minutes, usually less than 3, but needless to say, it was not so simple that night. After we finally managed to get through the turn style, we made it to the metro platform only to be joined by enough to make anyone, regardless of their definition of personal space, claustrophobic. And once on the metro, it was even more crowded since there were already people on the metro itself. This sensation lasted until we made it past the downtown portion of the city where it finally opened up. Although it was Halloween and we were being encouraged to go out and party, we decided to call it a night since we'd been going nonstop since before 8am that morning.
An amazing but extremely long day, needless to say.
As you can see, my descriptions are rather detailed, so for now, I will stop and will continue later with this last weekends excursion to the region of Extremadura. It was a 2 day trip and therefore will be rather lengthy and would hate to bore you! Besides, you have better things to do with your life than sit there and read about my adventures all day!
I hope that you all enjoyed the massive novel-blog of Mon Nov 9! Until the next time! Ciao! (yes, they use the Italian word in Spanish, it threw me off for a while!)
I promise that as time permits, I will share what has happened since the massive email-novel of Sun, Sept 6 but since I'm a horrible traveler and haven't kept you up to date on everything during the last 2 months, this will have to suffice for now! Please, forgive me!
Let's start at the beginning of November, shall we? Ok, how about Halloween/Dia de los Muertos aka October 31, you'll thank me! (well, if you like stories about excursions you will and that's why you're reading this, right?!)
Part of the deposit for going on this amazing trip to Spain included excursions with the Study Abroad program to various regions of Spain. October 31st was the first of our excursions and we travel approx an hour south/southwest of Madrid to a city called Toledo. (ever heard of or said "Holy Toledo!" Yep, that's the city!) So we had to meet the chartered bus at 8am on Saturday morning. Since I probably hadn't discovered at the time of the massive email-novel of Sun, Sept 6, allow me to enlighten you to the fact Spaniards party hard and late/early. Many return when the metro reopens at 6am (after closing at 1:30am) and yes, I have done that a few times, but not this particular night. I was smart and went to bed at the early hour, according to most Spaniards, of midnight. Yes, that is early. Most, some of whom I can occasionally hear outside my window, don't go to bed until 1 or 2 am. Plus it takes approx 45 minutes from my piso (large apartment/flat) to get to school/the meeting point for excursions.
Now that we've established that, we arrive at Toledo at about 9am and pick up our tour guide for the day. On our way to see various parts of the town which is very spread out on various hilly sections of the landscape, we went to a lookout point so that we could more or less see where it was we were going to be visiting. (Don't worry, I took pictures and they will be posted sooner or later!) It's a beautiful area, more or less isolated feeling, kind of like most of the cities/towns of Spain that I have seen so far. After stopping at the look-out point, we went to a place where they made swords and engraved almost anything with gold and silver, BY HAND. It was all done by trades-people who intricately hammered the gold or silver into the item. It was an extremely detail oriented task to say the least. Following that stop, we proceeded to walk through the majority of la ciudad vieja, or the old city. By old city, its not just the older part of the city, but also the part of the city that existed prior to the Inquisition by Isabella and Ferdinand. During the walking tour, we stopped and visited a monastery, a synagog, and a cathedral. All are beautiful structures (with pictures to come!) and we learned about the history of each of them from our tour guide. At one point of the day, we stopped and went into what appeared to be a trap door in the middle of town but what was really an opening to an old well from olden days. Several of us joked as to whether or not it was safe to go into an opening in the middle of town, but it turned out to be just fine!
After exploring Toledo, we got back on the bus and went to a town called Consuegra which is where the windmills made famous by Cervantes' Don Quijote are located! We were there for about an hour or so. I'd always seen pictures of windmills, but as far as I can remember, I don't think I'd ever seen one and been able to touch it so that was super cool, especially because there was the mental picture of Quijote fighting with a windmill and slashing a sword through one as though in battle! That would make any inanimate object entertaining! After Consuegra, we got back on the bus came back to Madrid. Just a day trip, but one much enjoyed and, like almost anything in Spain, historical!
My Halloween day was not yet over though! Along with a friend from the program, Amanda, I went and saw the Backstreet Boys live in concert in Madrid! Yes, that boy band that was popular back in the 1990's still exists and amazingly has new music out, none of which I had heard though. They went on at 9:30pm and we got back from the excursion at about 7 or so, but at the other end of the city. After a quick stop at Amanda's, we headed to the concert to pick up our tickets and find our seats with plenty of time to see the end of the opening act's performance, or so we thought! I knew and had noticed that Europeans listened to a lot of American music, but the degree of its popularity hit me when I went to try to find the end of the line to get into the concert. Amanda and I followed the line for approx 9 city blocks, at minimum to get in line, probably close to 3/4 mile!!! We had gone in a giant circle and had almost made our way back the metro station where we had gotten off at before we found the end. Once inside, we raced to our seats, running up escalators only to find the opening act just finishing at 9:30pm, we heard music and had assumed that the Backstreet Boys had already started but were pleasantly surprised! The concert itself was amazing!! By the end I had absolutely no voice left from screaming and singing and the like. Upon exiting, however, I became aware of the popularity and the seating capacity of the venue. We both had to use the bathroom so we stopped at a bar to use the services, as they're translated, and have a beer since if you use the bathroom, you have to buy something and beer is cheaper than water. When we arrived at the metro, we were suddenly aware of how many people in the city buy the monthly metro pass. Although the concert took place on Oct 31, it ended and we got to the metro by about 12:30am, which is no longer Oct 31, but rather Nov 1; an entirely new month which means a new monthly metro pass must be bought, or an individual ride or whatever type of ticket you prefer. Before we could discover this important detail however, we had to wait for at least 20 minutes to get INTO the metro's entrance! We were able to go down the stairs, however at the point, we had to wait along with MOBS of people through the first walk way to enter the doors to the inside portion, the second walkway to go down another set of stairs, the third walkway to get to the doors to enter the ticket area, and then the fourth walkway to get to the entrance where you go through the turn style with your ticket. This would normally take a matter of minutes, usually less than 3, but needless to say, it was not so simple that night. After we finally managed to get through the turn style, we made it to the metro platform only to be joined by enough to make anyone, regardless of their definition of personal space, claustrophobic. And once on the metro, it was even more crowded since there were already people on the metro itself. This sensation lasted until we made it past the downtown portion of the city where it finally opened up. Although it was Halloween and we were being encouraged to go out and party, we decided to call it a night since we'd been going nonstop since before 8am that morning.
An amazing but extremely long day, needless to say.
As you can see, my descriptions are rather detailed, so for now, I will stop and will continue later with this last weekends excursion to the region of Extremadura. It was a 2 day trip and therefore will be rather lengthy and would hate to bore you! Besides, you have better things to do with your life than sit there and read about my adventures all day!
I hope that you all enjoyed the massive novel-blog of Mon Nov 9! Until the next time! Ciao! (yes, they use the Italian word in Spanish, it threw me off for a while!)
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