Sin Locura No Hay Amor

Now to my last week in Granada..

We celebrated Bryce’s Birthday on May 19^th the following night, after the first half of finals week was over. Seeing as it was his 21^st, a historic birth year in the US, we wanted to take him out to the bars. We first all met up at EVL’s. It was our last big shin dig with everyone because Bryce was leaving 2 days later and the rest of us less than a week later.

We then made our way to our favorite tapas bar in Granada, Poë.

Our plan was something on almost everyones bucket list: Absinthe. For those of you who don’t know, absinthe is an anise-flavored spirit. If you’ve seen Moulin Rouge it was the little green fairy when they did it. It is supposedly illegal in the US, but that is if it contains the herb wormwood which is said to be hallucinogenic. We ordered 6 absinthes, it was quite a production:

getting pumped up

then they light the sugar and a drop of alcohol on fire first

getting ready to add it to the absinthe

we were nervous! haha

It finished flaming and we let it cool.

about to try it!

getting ready..

Go!

anddd agua time!

Like many other experiences, I am glad I tried it, but can say I will probably never do it again. It tasted like black licorice and was extremely strong.

After that we headed to another thing I can cross off my bucket list! A gay bar! It was fun. Kind of a nice change because you didn’t have to worry about guys constantly starring or bugging you.

Before we left I bought Bryce his birthday drink, a Cuba Libre, or as they call it in Spain, Cubata. Seeing as it was his 21^st and he didn’t seem nearly as intoxicated as he should have been, I figured he could use one more drink for the night. In the end I guess this did the trick. We all headed home after this and Bryce informed me the next morning that he “worshipped the porcelain god” for about 2 hours last night. Oops…

The next day we hung out at the park then back at EVL’s. It was such beautiful weather. The rain finally stopped pouring and I was loving it.

Sunday we decided to finally do that free street art walking tour with a local hostel. It was A TON of walking, but in the end a great tour.

We saw some awesome street art:

on the way to the grocery store..

Toured a gitanos (gypsie) cave:

He is originally born and raised in Mexico as you can tell by the chile ristras in his cave

he gave me jasmine incense from India

he got this porche from some Germans visiting Granada

Other pretty vistas:

And at the end of that we headed to our friend Mardi’s flat for a BBQ on her amazing terrace overlooking the Alhambra:

Our last couple days in Granada consisted of studying and final taking. We made sure to stop by all our favorite spots one last time:

one last hike to the monastery

last glimpse of EL Camborio in the daytime

my favorite sign in Granada

Granada’s “biggest” tapas bar:

sandwiches and french fries

Went up to San Nicholas for sunset. One last night of dancing at Mae West:

the roomies out for one last night of dancing

Patrick did a handstand

Did I mention its in a mall? haha

One last Doner Kebob:

One last look at our favorite dress shop: ( wish I could have had this dress for Prom, always wanted a purple prom dress).

And one last time at the Granada bus station: ( billboard inside the station)

I love Alhambra beer because they seal the top with an aluminum foil covering! So ahead of other canned beer companys!

As most of you know by now, I am safely at home in Albuquerque. My flight back was fairly easy and travelling alone was not as bad as I thought.

Looking back at the last four months, I really could not have asked for anything better. I’ve been back for almost 2 weeks now and it almost seems like it was all a dream. Never again will I have such a laid-back, travel-filled, culture absorbed 4 months in my life. It will always be something I am very thankful for and will think back to frequently. I conquered one of the biggest fears in my life, living, learning and relying on mostly myself, in a foreign country for 4 months!

Here are some of the good and bad things I have been documenting about Spain throughout the semester:

Things I love About Spain	Things I dislike about Spain
You can look out your balcony and see a man riding a donkey on the streets and then “park” it outside a tapas bar at 11 pm any night of the week.	Dog shit on the street (Bryce’s shit split will forever be remembered)
Open bar on Wednesday nights	Stare downs by the locals
Proof that I do indeed have calf muscles, thanks to all the walking!	You have to pay to use tennis courts
No worry about drinking and driving	Customer Service is much less of a business priority and often unheard of.
Comedor, Bread, pastries, gelatto. I could go on and on…
University offers us an end of classes celebration of free tapas, cerveza and tinto
Law that bans smoking cigarettes inside public restaurants put into effect 23 days before I arrive!!!
I accidentally chose the only city in Spain that provides free tapas with every drink you order.
Walking to the Alhambra for a casual picnic lunch. Who can say they picnic at a UNESCO world heritage site on a daily basis.

 

 

 

 

I could really go on and on about my love for Granada.. But those are the highlights.

As the title of my blog says, “Sin locura no hay amor”, this translates to:  without a little craziness, there is no love. I would pass this phrase (painted on a wall) everyday on my way to school. It is something I really have come to like. Yeah there is some insane, stress filled situations and people in life, but that’s what makes it all so exciting and unique. With every struggle, you become stronger.

Thank you all for reading along and for all the support and encouragement you have provided over the last semester! Although I will not update anymore, I will keep this blog site up and available for viewing. It has been a wonderful adventure. Spain will always have a special place in my heart and I look forward to the day when I can return and make more adventures.

Con mucho amor,

Lauren

The new American addiction: Eurovision

I failed to tell you guys about a few more interesting things that happened while we were in Gibraltar!!

After we took the monkey on our back pictures we were walking to the van to head down the rock. Lizzie was in front of me walking. I then noticed a monkey to the right of me look at her and for a brief instant I saw a little gleam in its eye. I knew at that moment that its little monkey brain was thinking “hmm it would be fun if I jumped onto her shoulder, her side braid looks interesting”. Less than a second after I noticed this, there it went. It jumped on Lizzie and was just chilling on her back. I had tried to warn her I said, “Lizzie!” and she turned around , about a half second after it landed on her back  she started to freak out. She grabbed its body and pushed it off.

This was all just hilarious. I couldn’t stop laughing. Everything turned out okay except the monkey scratched her arms and neck a little bit. Just superficial scratches, nothing deep. As Ashley was watching this action take place she continued walking to the van and proceeded to almost step on a baby monkey in her way. We then decided we had had enough of the monkeys of Gibraltar. Luckily, it was time for our departure down the rock from monkeyville.

Ashley also got pooped on by her favorite animal, a bird. Luckily, no animal related accident happened to me. I think the rock of Gibraltar figured my family had enough excitement when my Uncle Bill came to Gibraltar in the late 80’s and got bit by a big angry mama monkey when he was trying to pet the babies…

I also forgot to tell you about Eurovision!! The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and then casts votes for the other countries’ songs to determine the most popular song in the competition. The Contest has been broadcast every year since its inauguration in 1956 and is one of the longest-running television programs in the world. It is also one of the most-watched non-sporting events in the world, with audience figures having been quoted in recent years as anything between 100 million and 600 million internationally.

I was invited to EVL’s to watch it because it is an annual tradition for Emily to watch (she is from England, so it makes sense). We headed over right after our return from Gibraltar. I didn’t know what to expect, so I was mildly surprised when I saw how cheesy it was. It’s like American idol, but on a whole different level of weird. What really did impress me though, was how well these groups could sing in English! Most of these countries had Non-English speaking Official languages!! Eurovision was being hosted in Berlin this year.

Azerbaijin ended up winning, take a look at their song and singer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CExB3lGgSL8

Spain’s song was alright, nothing to get excited over:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvau5-7oEh8

And the countries that we think got robbed (mostly because of the awesome unicyclers), Moldova!! And Hungary!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaBxvZCjxBw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szJeiCnqv_U

It was a good experience..

What do you all think of the performances??

One last blog on my last week in Spain coming soon!

Hasta Luego Amigos,

Lo

Border hopping, Seeing new continents, Church and monkeys, lots of monkeys

So begins the story of our day trip to Gibraltar. This story is not going to have any exclamation points because I am typing on a keyboard at my school and the exclamation point key is not working, stupid Spanish keyboards.

Lizzie Ash and I took a renfe train at 6:45 Saturday.

Sunrise over the Sierra Nevadas

Our stop

We arrived in La Linea, a small town near the border. For those who dont know, Gibraltar is at the very south tip of Spain, it is a British territory.  The territory covers 2 square miles of land and is known for its huge rock, “the Rock of Gibraltar”. Also monkeys, I will get to that later..

We took a taxi from the station to the border which was the most simple border crossing I have ever done in my life. It was the first time I walked between two countries to cross the border also. They barely glanced at my passport and let us through.

almost at la frontera

Miss World was from Gibraltar, surprising

aerial view of Gibraltar. See the landing strip for airplanes

and we are in. walking across the TARMAC, yes the tarmac haha.

take offs and landings happen here

i love their wordage on signs

just a tourist photo opp..

we found a tour company that was offering van guided tours up to the rock, which was way cheaper than buying a tram ticket up. Our first stop on the tour:

See the outline of the Atlas mountain of Morocco in the back.. thats AFRICA yay

We also saw the most southern point of Europe.  9 miles of Mediterranean Sea seperate Europe from Africa.

According to Greek Mythology,Hercules had to perform twelve labors, one of them was to fetch the Cattle of Geryonof the far West and bring them to Eursytheus ; this marked the westward extent of his travels.  “the pillars which Pindar calls the ‘gates of Hades’ when he asserts that they are the farthermost limits reached by Heracles.”

According to Plato account, the lost realm of Atlantis was situated beyond the Pillars of Hercules, in effect placing it in the realm of the Unknown. Renaissance tradition says the pillars bore the warning Nec plus ultra (also Non plus ultra, “nothing further beyond”), serving as a warning to sailors and navigators to go no further.

According to some Roman sources, while on his way to the island of Erytheia Hercules had to cross the mountain that was once Atlas. Instead of climbing the great mountain, Hercules used his superhuman strength to smash through it. By doing so, he connected the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and formed the Strait of Gibraltar. One part of the split mountain is Gibraltar and the other is either Monte Hacho or Jebel Musa. These two mountains taken together have since then been known as the Pillars of Hercules^. However, held that instead of smashing through an isthmus to create the Straits of Gibraltar, Hercules instead narrowed an already existing strait to prevent monsters from the Atlantic Ocean from entering the Mediterranean Sea. thanks wikipedia. and Hence, the 9 miles of seperation part..

I saw the Pillar of Hercules

us in front of the view of Morroco

and now its time for MONKEYS

our first view of one

the monkeys came to Gibraltar from immigrants who brought them Africa they think. They live in one area of the rock and are fed and pretty tame.

las cuevas de san miguel. they got nothing on carlsbad though. These caverns were thought to be the Gates of Hades that connected to Africa.

me an my cousin, Malcom

so typical

our tour guide and his friend.

top of the rock in the background

then we got pictures with the monkeys. haha

he was grabbing my sunglasses. lol

Gibraltar and across the Med is La linea in Spain

mischevious little guys

then we got to see a plane take off. it was pretty cool. they have limited runway so they have to take off before the yellow line, much similar to the planes on military carriers, but these are commercial jets. They have about 4 flighst coming in and 4 taking off every day.

it went down to the end,

turned around

and HIT IT

prison that is still used today

we went back to the main square and had fish and chips and, since it is a british territory, they had Dr. Pepper. ohh how i missed itªª

On our way back to the train station our taxi driver was cool and we blasted “I get knocked down, but then I get up again” and Lady Gaga, all of us singing and having a good time. I am glad we only spent a day there though, because there wasnt much else for us to see. It was a great day in Gibraltar and a great way to kickoff the last trip of the semester.

there is our train coming back for us to head home to Granadaª

The following morning, Ashley and I finally went to a catholic mass. We had been wanting to go to at least once while here, but didnt have the right shoes, dress, weather, etc.. So we dressed up and went.

It was interesting. All in spanish of course. we were probably the only ones in the church between the ages of 12 and 30 years old. it was a 1:30 mass, but still youd think there would be some young people. Spain is very much like the U.S. they say they are catholic, but they never really go to church. I just assumed they would i guess. I mean, they do have some sort of catholic procession or fiesta it seems like every other week here.. So when it was time to get comunion, instead of orderly forming lines and going up by pew to receive it, they have a free for all and everyone crowds around the priests. it is different. I understood “el padre es la puerta” and other things. Its more than I pay attention to at home, so I considered it a success.

one of the random catholic festivities on our street i was talking about. this took place on sunday too i think.

Later in the day we went to Garcia Lorca park for some relaxing:

it was the most grass Ive seen in all of Granada

laying in the shade. I MISS GRASS

the shade was provided by... OLIVE TREES OF COURSE haha

and public displays of affection PDA, is not considered awkward or inappropriate when hanging out smoking hookah with friends at the park, as they spaniards demonstrate.

and you know our famous landlady who Im always talking about, Carni? Ive been wanting to get a picture of her for weeks, and i finally did.

she was watching the fireworks and parade thing that was going on. She is so cute and reminds me of my Grandma Nina.

BEAUTIFUL platform of our lady of Fatima or something i think

they threw lots of rose petals down from the roof of the building across from our flat.

Well this will probably be my second to last blog I write of my semester abroad in Granada. I will most likely write the last one when I am home. I leave in one week!! Going to enjoy every day I have and try not to be on the computer much. I have a lot to see and get done in my last week. Miss you all, but the end is in sight! Almost done with this crazy adventure that I love.

Besos y abrazos,

Lauren

“Tienes huevos plasticos?”

Well we (Steven, Valerie, Ashley and I) almost spent the night in the hallway our first night back in Granada! We got home and attempted to open the door with our keys, but it wouldn’t open. Turns out, our landlady (Carni) had decided to lock the door with the deadbolt key this time, which had never happened before. Ashley and I had both taken the two extra keys off our key chains about 2 months earlier, not knowing what their uses were and deeming them “useless”.  Well they had a use as we found out by not being able to unlock the deadbolt that night.

After having Valerie and Steven go get food because we technically weren’t supposed to have other people stay with us, we rang Carni’s doorbell. It was 11 PM, and although she is about 75, we figured, hey this is Spain and everyone, even the older generation’s stay up late! No such thing, she didn’t answer. We were getting desperate and were already pretty tired from 10 hours of travel. So we came up with the idea that we may be able to break into our place by climbing through the neighbor’s window. So we rang their doorbell. The man who answered was very nice, but he didn’t like the idea of us climbing through the window. So he went downstairs and rang Carni’s doorbell. He didn’t have her telephone number, nor did we. Luckily the neighbors next to Carni heard this entire racket and opened their door. They phoned her and luckily she answered!!! She was asleep but eventually she came out and helped us inside our place. I was happy to get to sleep in my own bed that night!

The next couple days we showed Steven around the city.

One of the easter processions we ran into in Granada for the last part of Holy Week. It was a childrens procession (the children are the ones carrying it)!

traditional “mantillas” dress

Calle Beso! (Kiss Street)

pizza and movie night at Patricks

Sunday was Easter and we decided to have a big potluck at mine and Ashley’s flat. Each person brought a different dish to contribute and with Steven, and Emily’s two British friends in town, we had a total of 11 people over! A couple days before we left for our big trip I went to Hiper Euro (the 1 euro chino shop) and was hoping to find some plastic colored eggs like Lucas and I used to use to have egg hunts back in the day. I went up to the owner of the shop and asked “tienes huevos plasticos?” (Do you have plastic eggs?) He then gave me the weirdest look I have been given by a chino here… hahaha! So that was a negative…

Thanks to my Aunt Tisa, who sent me a colored eggs kit in her care package, we colored eggs and then had an egg hunt with the only thing we had, real eggs. Unfortunately we had to have the hunt inside out apartment because it was raining outside. Fortunately, we found all the eggs and I think I was even then winner!

typical holiday: the guys watching futbol the girls coloring eggs haha

we never colored brown eggs before..

Steven hid the eggs

we waited like little kids in the hallway outside

I made red chili to contribute to the potluck, it was the first time in my life and it came out pretty good!! We had an assortment of other food:

my chip dip, emily's pasta, and valerie's potato salad

Lizzie made spaghetti, Ashley made pinto beans and I made red chili

Bryce made us cupcakes from scratch! They were vanilla chai something or others.

Couple days later we went up to San Nicholas, which is the “best sunset in the world” according to President Clinton. It was alright, it had been a bit overcast the last couple days so I think it probably could have been better, but it really made me miss the sunsets in ABQ and the beautiful Sandia mountains at sunset too.

Other than going out to dance, watch futbol games and what not, I’ve been doing school stuff lately so it’s been a bit uneventful..

Ohh I do need to update you all on Comedor:

Chicken and vegetables, some kind of soup, PEPSI! an apple and bread.

May 3^rd was Dia de la Cruz, which is a celebration in Spain where the locals of each city compete to see who can decorate a cross the best. There is horse-back riding, drinking and traditional Sevillana dress-up. We even got to see a couple Flamenco performances.

they wore flamenco type dresses

watching a Real Madrid vs. FC Barcelona futbol game

5 de Mayo was probably the best one I have ever had! We decided to have a class field trip with our professor and Cultura y Civilizacion de Hispanoamerica class (Latin American Civ and Culture –some 300 level anthro class). We went to the nearby Mexican restaurant!! I ordered a Coronita, which is just like a Corona, but they add the -ita for some odd reason. There was a one man mariachi band and we requested la cucaracha haha. For dinner I got chicken quesadillas which I’m not even going to try to compare to New Mexican standards.. But the best part was at the end of our meal when we all took the complimentary tequila shots!! I did my first tequila shot with my favorite professor at the CLM, Maria!!! I really don’t like tequila, but the waiters gave us slices of orange with cinnamon sprinkled on it to chase the shot with, very delicious!

My favorite professor, Maria on the left. We were preparing for the tequila

The next day, H&M opened a store in Granada. I honestly don’t know why they didn’t already have one here years ago because of the huge student population. I executed HUGE self-control and did not buy anything. I’m already at least 8 pounds overweight on my luggage which is going to cost about 100 euros to mail home..(about 150 USD).

Fantasia de choco y avellana

 I went on my last hike here in Granada with Emily. It was a beautiful spring day and we walked pretty far, up into an olive grove and pretty views:

olive farm

even saw some sheep with tails!

Last week our school was having a party to celebrate end of classes and provided us free tapas, cervezas and  tinto de verano (limon fanta and wine mixture). This was quite surprising because UNM would never do this. We saw an Indian dancing performance later which was a pretty good experience haha.

our university had the event catered too!

I got home from that and saw a message on Skype from my mom. She asked me if I was alright and was worried. Apparently there was a 5.3 magnitude earthquake in a small town called Lorca, about 120 miles east of Granada. We didn’t even feel anything, although there were supposedly aftershocks all the way up to Madrid. Some girls at my school said that they felt their bed move and stuff fell off the wall of their houses, but Ashley and I didn’t feel a thing..

Okay guys, time to go! Rafa and Djokovich battle it out again today for the Rome tourney. So I have a date with Bryce and our TV. 12 more days till I’m home! Miss you all.

Stay tuned for Gibraltar trip and Eurovision festivities– coming Friday!!!

Con mucho amor,

Lauren

The NYC of Spain (aka Barcelona)

Monday afternoon of Spring Break our group split up, Valerie, Ashley and I were catching a flight to Barcelona and Lizzie and Emily were meeting Bryce later to ride a 12 hour bus to Lisbon, Portugal.

We got into the city around 9 PM and once again pretty easily found our hostel using the metro system. Just like in London, I loved the metro in Barce!! It was a lot colder here compared to Sevilla. The high for the days was only around 18 and it was pretty overcast. Catalan is the language spoken here, which is a mixture of French and Spain Spanish (as they like to call it Castellano). It’s fairly easy to figure out when reading it, but when people speak it I have difficulty. Luckily, everyone also knows Spanish and many speak English.
We had an American dinner at Hard Rock Café, it was the best! Free soda refills, coleslaw (which I don’t normally even like), BBQ pulled pork sandwich and fries!!

The next morning we woke up bright and early to get to Sagrada Familia at its opening time to avoid long lines. I usually don’t have good luck on a regular basis, but someone was rooting for us, because today our timing was PERFECT.
We stepped off the metro and boom! There it was. Sagrada Familia is a Gothic Roman Catholic Cathedral designed by Antoni Gaudi. Its construction started in 1882 was delayed due to many things, one important thing being the Spanish Civil War. It is still being completed today and is “estimated” to be finished in 2020. I think the completion will be more like 2025 seeing as this is Spain and they have no concept of doing things in timely manners..

It was by far my favorite church I have ever been in! Gaudi was a genius and so ahead of his time. He died in 1926 but his ideas were so modern! His use of light was amazing:

the pillars are supposed to be like trees in a forrest.

The stained glass inside was beautiful, and I even noticed that “Cala” was written on one of them:

I think the “Cala Manda” is a phrase in Latin or Catalan.

We finished up at SF and Ashley wanted to go to the souvenir shop across the street to look for a magnet and shot glass. We walked out of the store 5 minutes later and smelled some smoke. I thought to myself “Hmm I guess those construction workers are welding away up there”. 2 minutes after that we noticed fire trucks, police and ambulances!

They had evacuated everyone out of the cathedral!! We were so lucky to have the timing we did, because we had literally just finished seeing SF. We found out later that a 65 year old mentally unstable man had tried to light the sacristy on fire and luckily they caught the flames before it got bad. Who would want to light this magnificent, beautiful piece of architecture on fire??!!

Making our way back to the hostel to catch the free walking tour, we noticed we were running out of time before the tour started. We got off the metro and didn’t realize where we were. (Later we came to find that we just walked the wrong direction on our hostel street). I was thinking, okay it’s about time something doesn’t go right, we are having WAY too good of luck! So yeah we were 5 minutes late at the point when we realized we were walking in the wrong direction. LUCKILY, I saw some of the British dudes that were staying in our room walking down the street with some other guys and a girl leading the way. It looked like the tour group! I asked the Brit, “are you guys on the walking tour with the hostel?” He said ya! So we joined in and didn’t miss out on that like we feared! The tour was great, like always. I learned:

this is a picture depicting the famous Barcelona castellers (human towers). The ugly, plain building behind it is (ironically) the school of architecture.

Protesters are hard to out-scream, as our tour guides face clearly shows his frustration for the lady who was protesting something about Alzheimer’s behind him:

There were some air bombings that took place and unfortunately a lot of the casualties were of school children taking refuge at the school nearby:

this memorial is in Catalan

We were exhausted by the end of the day and decided to make some pasta at the hostel and hangout.

guess which room they put us in??? 5-0-5!!

Casa Batllo, Parc Guell, Beach and futbol game were on our list for the next day. Like Sagrada Familia, Casa Batllo was designed by Gaudi, its located in a pretty posh part of town, which happened to be like one block down from our hostel (yeah, go figure?). Gaudi didn’t really believe in straight lines and he incorporated a natural, almost forest or animal-like feeling into his house.

All of the door knobs, chairs, etc were SO ERGONOMICAL! They were designed to fit your hand, body or whatever else comfortably. HE WAS SO AHEAD OF HIS TIME!!

At one point I kind of felt like I was in those play houses (Toontown I think?) at Disneyland. Because everything is sort of funky looking and misshapen. Disney probably stole ideas from him..

a hollogram of Gaudi

Parc Guell was next and we climbed (in flip flops) up a massive hill that reminded me of San Fran.

But it was worth the walk because I had the best tortilla Espanola bocadillo. In this park there was more of Gaudi’s work. Beautiful structures to look at!

Up next was the beach!! It was our last day in Barce and I could not go without seeing the Mediterranean. After walking quite a ways, we made it to the sandy beach of Barceloneta!

We hung out shore side for a bit, it was too cold to get in without a wet-suit on. On our way back to the hostel we strolled along Las Ramblas, a famous street where there are lots of souvenir shops and tourists.

F.C Barcelona themed refrigerator anyone?

That evening we ordered pizza and stayed in at the hostel to watch the Real Madrid vs. Barcelona game. It was a lot of fun because we met some friendly Aussies (actually I’ve never met an Australian that wasn’t nice)! Madrid ended up winning, which wasn’t good for Barcelona, I’m sure the citizens were angry.

Thursday morning we checked out the Picasso Museum, which was pretty neat, I enjoy his early work better than a lot of the cubism he got into at the end.
I found out that while I was here in the city, Nadal was playing at a tournament!! Although we didn’t have time in our busy schedule to thoroughly stalk him as I dreamed, I was pretty dang happy of the thought that I was within 30 miles of him! That’s a start.

We flew back that afternoon and met up with our friend Steven in Malaga airport (Ashley’s UNM friend who we hung out with in London). He was going to be staying with us for 4 nights over Easter holiday. More pictures of that to come and our adventures since! Sorry, I know this is late but I have stupid 5 page single space papers and powerpoints to write!
Hasta Luego,
Lauren

Semana Santa con Los Sevillanos (Not KKK Activities)!

Just returned from a wonderful 6 nights of travel! This trip, by far, was the luckiest, smoothest one we have been on! Oh where to start? We traveled by bus from Granada to Sevilla last Thursday afternoon. Originally, Sevilla was my first and foremost city I wanted to travel to, but upon arrival in Spain, we figured the best time to go would be during our Spring Break or Semana Santa as they call it here. I will explain more about that later.
Sevilla was beautiful! Located off the Rio Guadalquivir, which connects to the Mediterranean, making this an important trade city centuries ago. It was nice and warm, about 30 degrees (~85)!!
Ashley and I were staying at a separate hostel from our other friends we travelled with, Lizzie Emily and Valerie. It was eerily easy to find our hostel compared to the ones in London and Madrid, but we figure it’s because we are becoming professional European travelers (Uh huhhh)!
We dropped our stuff off and headed to their hostel. But not before taking a picture from the rooftop terrace:

As we walked by the famous cathedral, we noticed all the seats set up for the processions of Semana Santa:

streets close to the cathedral were set up for processions

Holy Week, known as Semana Santa in Spain, is a huge deal. Sevilla has the most well-known celebration in the WORLD. Starting on Palm Sunday, each fraternity or brotherhood of the city hosts their own procession. The processions are made up of bands playing music, children or men carrying candles/and or crosses, women wearing mantillas, and typically a paso, or platform of Christ and another of the virgin, which typically comes last. Semana Santa marks the arrival of spring in Sevilla with a week- long celebration that fills the streets, churches, bars and restaurants.
Oh and I almost forgot, the people who “parade” in these processions, called penitentes wear very interesting costumes, very similar to KKK uniforms. Yes, it was a bit disturbing at first, but if you think about this, the Catholics were doing this LONG before the KKK was invented and it’s just their custom.

For our first dinner in Sevilla, we spent it at the hostel eating paella and drinking tinto de verano on the roof, SO SPANISH!! After, we grabbed a waffle and gelato and walked along the river to find this beautiful bridge! My favorite in Spain so far. Apparently the river walk was also a place for botelloning (drinking outside on the streets). There were many groups of people enjoying drinks in their typical loud Spanish manner. We also made some friends who were walking alongside us at one point calling us putas. They were drunk maybe 16 year olds. It was quite funny because here we were wearing shorts, capris, etc and they were wearing mid-drifts and short skirts stumbling all over. We just laughed which spurred them on further. We told them we could understand them (in Spanish) and then they asked where we were from, I figured hey, they are messing with us, lets mess with them. I told them I was from Ireland, Emily was from Mexico (she’s British) Valerie was from Tokyo (haha), etc.

The next morning we took a free walking tour of the city, which was great because we would have never seen the things we saw or learned what we did without it! The most interesting thing I learned was that Queen Isabelle was the brains and King Ferdinand was the beauty. Although he had a lisp, which is why a lot of Spaniards lisp, because he did and they wanted to sound like him. Isabel is rumored to have had an affair with Chris Columbus too!

my favorite street in Sevilla!

Like the bear symbol in Madrid and the pomegranate in Granada, Sevilla has “No Do” symbols all over the city:

The infinity sign is shaped like a skein of wool, in Spanish this is “Madeja”. This makes the motto read “NO madeja DO,” which is a pun on “No me ha dejado,” meaning… “She has not abandoned me”.

This refers to the city’s support for King Alphonse X in the war with his son Don Sancho in the 13th century. Others say this refers to Ferdinand III who uttered the words upon entering the city and freeing it from Moorish rule in 1248. This motto is seen in the city flag and throughout Seville, inscribed on manhole covers and on street signs and many other places.

We tried visiting the Cathedral later that day, but it was closed.

We ate at a restaurant called Coloniales, excellent Tapas!

Alcazar was next. Compared to what we have in Granada, this place sucked. Another Moorish fortress, but much smaller and less grand than our Alhambra. Luckily it was only 2 euros with our student discounts or else I would have been majorly disappointed. Here are some pics:

Although the Alcazar did make for good photos

The group at Alcazar

Next stop: The newest structure introduced in Sevilla (2011) The Metropol Parasol. This was designed by German architect Jürgen Maye. It looks like a giant waffle in my opinion, but it was pretty cool and very unique!

 

They have weird advertising techniques!

Back to the hostel of EVL, we enjoyed Sangria and Pizza, met up with Lizzie’s friend Matt who is studying abroad in Sevilla, and then found a bar to watch the REAL MADRID vs. BARCELONA game!! (they tied 1-1).

Up next was Plaza de España!!! One of my favorite monuments so far! Maria Luisa park outside of it was beautiful!

Plaza de Espana

Star Wars episode II was filmed here too!!

love the Spanish flag in the background

The Barcelona girls!

The tribute to Granada!

our shadows! my hands with the camera sort of make the infinity sign!

Here is a clip of the scene from the movie:
Plaza Espana featured in Star Wars II

Since it was Palm Sunday, we saw our first procession!

penitentes

This lady behind us was bored..

the fraternity symbol

que monos!

There are ~40 men (sometimes women) under the platforms carrying them in a swaying motion!

The virgin

So many people around though! I was getting tired of hundreds of humans being so close.

That afternoon was pool time. The hostel of EVL has a small pool on the terrace. It was so nice to relax in the sun!

We saw the last super platform from the roof:

That night we ventured out to the gypsy neighborhood of Triana across the river. The walk was nice. But by the time we reached the barrio de Triana we were starving and found a Chinese restaurant to eat at! I had delicious noodles beef and veggies which were only 3 Euros!! Walking back was an adventure!!

I remember my mom and Dad telling me about all the thousands of people they encountered in the streets of New Orleans for Mardi Gras a couple years ago, well I’m assuming Sevilla was probably worse. It was the most people I have ever had to navigate around in the streets!!! Semana Santa is about moving your way around the center of the city and through the crowd in search of the best spot to catch a procession or float, all the while testing your knowledge of the winding streets of Sevilla. Luckily, we had our professional street navigator, Emily with us, who guided us through what should have taken 15 minutes any other time of year to walk, in an hour, but could have easily been 3.
We saw our last procession in Sevilla from EVL’s hostel room. It was cool to have a balcony view of the streets without being around all those people:

Monday morning was time to see the World’s largest gothic cathedral! It was beautiful:

turquoise rosary

wax on the cathedral floor from the processions entering the church

Los Sevillanos claim that at least 10% of Chris Columbus’ body is buried here in the tomb..

And Chris Columbus supposedly got Syphilis from the Indians in the Americas and brought it back to Europe.. ultimately that is what he died from..

We climbed the famous Giralda tower (33 ramps, but not as bad as the climb to the top of the crown of the Statue of Liberty).

“Semana Santa is a mixture of smells: orange blossoms or azahar, incense, candle wax and cheap cologne of the person standing on your foot because there’s no room to spare. Semana Santa is torrijas, wine, beer and the bocadillo in some bar you swore you’d never go to until you were dying of hunger. It’s valuing the comfort of a good pair of shoes you put on 10 hours ago. Semana Santa is exercising restraint as you keep from pushing over that mean old woman next to you who just took your space.”

This concludes a great visit to Sevilla! I truly loved it, but was glad to get away from all the people who were continuously entering the city for more of the Semana Santa celebrations to follow. We later found out that it rained a crapload later in the week, so many of the processions were cancelled! Once again luck was on our side!! I needed some Northern Spain time, aka BARCELONA! Stay tuned for Barce blog (coming sometime next week).
Mucho Amor,
Lauren

Yup. Its Tourist Season

Thought I would update you all before this week gets too crazy and I run out of time to blog.

Thursday we went out for tapas, which was nice. I haven’t actually gone out for tapas too much after my mom left because it’s cheaper to just eat dinner at home and buy drinks from the mercados. We went to two different places and they served yummy tapas at both, it was a nice Spanish night. The next day we had school (yes on a Friday, absurd!).

The comedor did not disappoint this week, oh except for the croquettas, they are soggy and gross compared to what I am spoiled with with my grandma’s.

I had veal for the first time! it was pretty tasty. those are fried zuchinni and a mini pizza, croquettas, bread, apple and alhambra beer

Party at Patricks

Ya know those doner kebobs I am always raving about? Here is a picture of one and us enjoying them after a night of fun!

My favorite lamb doner kebob!!

Saturday Ashley, Valerie, Emily and I went to a beach town about an hour and a half away called Nerja. There were a lot of British ex-pats vacationing there. It was a cute little town, the smallest one I’ve been to in all of Spain. I realized that so far we’ve only visited cities with tons of people; I think I am in dire need to see some small towns here! But the day was nice. I took plenty of snacks and drinks to eat, we marked off our beach spot and plopped ourselves down for a day of relaxing and tanning on the beach. I got a mint chocolate chip gelato too!

Delicious. By the mid afternoon it was getting pretty warm, so we took a dip in the Mediterranean. Ohh that was cold!! The beaches here aren’t as fine-sanded as the ones in Cali, Hawaii and Mexico, but it refreshing nonetheless.

A lake on the way to Nerja

My first view of the Mediterranean!

We found cans of Dr. Pepper! Spain does not have Dr. Pepper, but because there are so many ex-pats in Nerja they have specialty items

our towels

I have found that Cala means "cove" so this translates to beautiful cove apartments

we tried to coordinate jumping at the same time, didn't really work out haha

This was at the end of the day before catching the bus back. We are much tanner!

We headed home on the 7 o’clock bus much MUCH tanner. You all may not recognize me when I get home. I haven’t even had spring break yet and I am already this dark??! I think I may be very close to being black by the end of this outdoor themed summer!!!

The tourist season is upon us! Every time I step foot outside my flat, I am bombarded by people! I am getting a little more frustrated trying to walk the streets with this many obstacles in my way. I have come up with a people-ranking totem pole for Granada:

1. The locals (of course)

2.Students studying abroad and living here

3. Tourists

So with this information, I have gathered that the locals have more patience with the students than with the tourists! We have moved up in the world! Haha! Ashley and I have gotten asked for directions from both people who speak English and Spanish and I am proud to report that we can most of the time successfully deliver them!! I feel like I actually am getting used to this city, feeling more and more like a local every day, as you can tell with my impatience with the tourists. It may be about two weeks before I get to update you all again! Because our Semana Santa is coming up and like I said in the last post, we have a guest staying with us! I’ll be thinking of you all on my travels and hope to catch up when I get back home to Granada! When I do return, I have about 4 weeks left in Spain!

Besos y Amor,

Lauren

Hay cambios en la puerta, Hay todo un mundo fuera, Es hora de salir!

I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted, but I’ve been busy with midterms and projects. My midterms went well, I got 4 A’s and 1 B when you translate the Spanish grading system over to the U.S. one. Ashley and I worked on a Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera presentation for our Anthro class (Latin American Civ. And Culture). I also interviewed my friend Alberto for my Spanish linguistics class.

Since I’ve been concentrating on school work, I will have more pictures to post than stories this week.

Ashley and I decided to go on an impromptu adventure and we found lots of gorgeous street art:

If you want to see my favorite Spanish commercial, click on this link!!

I love the Despierta song at the end, it’s so fun and motivational (get up and do things with your life!)

Hmm we were supposed to go out of town last weekend, but our school decided to dis-enroll us from the trip so we get to the meeting spot at 7:30 AM and find out our names aren’t on the list. That was a little disappointing because that means I probably won’t get to Ronda for this round of Spain..So we ended up just staying in town and going dancing that night.

The Spain Soccer team (world champions as of summer FIFA cup 2010) were in Granada for a EuroCup qualifying game!!! So we decided to go watch the Spain vs. Czech Republic futbol game. They were showing it in a plaza nearby on this huge mega TV screen. There were tons of Spaniards watching and it felt like we were actually at the game. Spain ended up winning too, which we were relieved about because they were down the first half and we didnt´want to be around a bunch of angry,sad Spaniards after the game.

We went to a plaza to watch the Spain vs. Czech Republic game on a big screen

Big Screen!

Last weekend, Doug, my second cousin, came to visit me after his Morocco biking adventure!! I was very excited to have family in town and I loved showing him my favorite places in Granada. I wish that more family could come visit, but I only have 7 more weeks here! Time is running short and I will be gone for 1 of these weeks for Semana Santa in Sevilla and Barcelona. I showed Doug my school, made him dinner, we went to Alhambra, skyped my grandma, Aunt Barbara, mom, dad and lucas, toured the Nasrid Palaces (part of Alhambra) at night, ate yummy food and tapas and wine, and toured Alhambra on rainy Sunday. We had a lot to do, but took time to relax and get some great photos:

Doug came to visit. This is outside my school

Mom It's your street! This is up in the Albaicin

On a balcony of my school

We enjoyed some Alhambra beer

Near my favorite fountain

Yup, that is what you think it is. haha

Going the wrong way in the Alhambra

Doug took Ashley and I out for dinner. It was delicious!

Gazpacho for the first time!

I ordered Piononos (bottom) Ashley got some caramel cake thing and Doug got ice cream

Alhambra tour at night

Another cute doggie

My favorite area of the Alhambra Palacio

My camera has some cool color filters

Generalife Palacio

I took him to a teteria (tea place)

a store in Granada!

Doug left me with these words of advice that my Great Grandma J used to say:
“donde no te entras, te asomas!”
SEE and discover everything you can!

Today (April 6th) it reached 29 degrees here!!! (84 F) Its been super hot but I am excited to finally wear my summer clothes that I packed and expected to start wearing in March!!!Th people here are still dressing like its February though, they have long sleeve shirts on and pants and boots and light scarves, they are crazy! Of course they look at you weird if you wear shorts or a skirt without leggins or tights, but I get stared at even if I am in ¨appropriate¨ attire anyways, so I have decided to give up and dress how I want.

We did an intercambio last night, which is where you go and speak with other people who are tyring to learn other languages. I spoke to two guys from Granada in spanish and they spoke to me in english to work on our languages and help each other! It was a lot of fun and I am proud of myself for doing that activity! I plan on going every Wednesday night athat I am here in Spain. (sorry for these typing errors, I am at school and this keyboard is a little different than what we have back home).

I have good news from home. I made it into the UNM School of Medicine’s Paramedic Program! This means I will attain my B.S. in Emergency Medical Services. The year-long program starts in the Fall and continues through August of 2012. It’s going to be very intense, rigorous 17 credit hours per semester, which will allow no time for an outside job. I am very excited for the next step in my undergrad, it will provide me with the experience and knowledge I need to get into the Physician Assistant program for my Masters. The medic program will be a much different workload than what I have here in Spain. Now that I know this, I am going to enjoy this luxury of free time I have even more, gotta live up this last part of the semester and the summer before the real work starts!!

This leads me into the next trip planned! This weekend me and a big group of friends are going down to Nerja (about 2 hr bus ride) to relax on the beach of the Mediterranean!!! The Friday after that we leave for 3 nights in Sevilla and 3 nights in Barcelona!!! Then return to Malaga where we will meet up with our friend Steven (the one we hung out with in London) and return to Granada where we will enjoy the rest of Semana Santa activities and Easter at “home” with our guest!

Half Way There

The week after we got back from London was probably my favorite one in Granada! This week marks the halfway point of my semester abroad. In some ways it has gone by very fast and in others very slow. My goal for the last half is to expose myself to as many challenging spanish-speaking experiences as possible. I have learned a lot since my arrival, but I need to put it into use so that I can gain the full understanding and knowledge and be able to communicate with it not only in 6  months time, but hopefully the rest of my life!

My new favorite place to have lunch is the “Comedor” of the Universidad de Granada. It’s a cafeteria type place but specifically for college students! The best thing about it is that lunch is delicious and its only 3 Euros!!! Best deal in town because we get 2 main dishes, bread, dessert, water and wine or beer. That’s right, you read that correctly, they serve alcohol with their cafeteria lunch on a college campus! I love Spain! Haha. This is what my first weeks meal looked like:

first main dish was beef stew and second main dish was rice and chicken. Mini baguette, strawberries and wine!!

And last weeks (I forgot my camera) we got pork paella, chicken thigh and breast with roasted peppers in olive oil, mini-baguette, banana and a tiny alhambra beer (like 6 oz).  I didn’t drink all my beer because I had an essay midterm to write 2 hours later and didn’t need the drowsiness.

I plan on going there almost every Tuesday for the rest of my time here!

The next night, we met up with our friend JT, who we had met in a hostel in Madrid. He was in town for a couple days. We met him at Hannigans with some of his other friends he had made at his hostel and at the bus station. It was a very varied group! David was from California, the Doc (neurosurgeon) was from Brasil, there was a Canadian girl from Quebec, another girl from Australia, and me and Ashley.They were all pretty awesome, down-to-earth people just travelling around Europe, seeing the world. Turns out it was open-mic night, and JT, who has several songs available for purchase on ITunes, sang and played for us. David, who had only learned a couple songs on guitar years ago, decided to debut his skills also. As they were getting ready to sing for us, the doc tells me “JT’s talent is music, mine, I can intubate someone really fast, in less than 5 seconds.”

JT on the left, David on the right

The Canadian on the left Australian on right the doc is standing behind the Aussie

Thursday was St. Patricks Day, which the Spaniards weren’t very enthused about, but of course with the strong American student presence here in Granada, the pubs and clubs were marketing it up.

But before we celebrated, we went to a Tango Festival, this was supposed to be the biggest tango festival outside of Argentina, so I was excited to see some great dancing. I was a little disappointed. The show mostly consisted of a lady singing about Tango with short little spurts of one couple dancing it every other song.

They were amazing dancers. The girl had pretty shoes too

This lady sang forever.. "te quiero Tangoooooooo..."

To celebrate the Irish holiday, we went to Hannigans of course!

It was packed, people were spilling outside into the street and entrance area beause there was no sitting, let alone standing room inside.I had a pint of Strongbow because I can’t stand Guinness. We stood around talking with other people outside and enjoying the night. This is when the first police activity I have seen in Granada happened. A stupid drunk hippie looking girl decided to go dance in the street across from Hannigans, and a car drove by but she jumped in front and danced around not letting it pass. They honked, but she ignored it. That’s when the driver of the car got out and used excessive force, in my opinion, to grab her and push her out of the street. Some of the people that were drinking outside Hannigans saw this and got upset with the guy’s shoving and someone threw a bottle at his car. Then other guys ran over to try to be night in shining armor’s for the stupid drunk girl and I thought a fight was going to break out. Luckily nothing came about and the guy got back in his car and drove off. This was when we decided it was kind of cold to stand around and we would have a better vantage point of the activities from our balcony at home. We sneakily ran off with the glasses our drinks were served in. So I ended up pulling an Aunt Meg and now am the proud owner of an awesome Guinness Pint Glass! I guess the policia got news of the almost fight and they eventually showed up like 10 minutes later. They were discouraging people from congregating and drinking outside Hannigans, and shooed people off. We had left just in time!

From our balcony

Friday night we went to the huge Botellodromo de la Primavera. The only way I can describe it is: 20,000 people age 18-25 drinking in a public park. The fiesta started at 3 PM too, by the way, and was still in full swing when we arrived at about 11 PM.  It’s a big celebration here for Granada and people come from all over to go. We showed up to the event which actually sort of just took place in the parking lot behind Hipercor with our cameras and drinks. Being the classy ladies that we are, Ashley and I bought a bottle of Rioja white wine which we were sharing. The great thing about this party was that there were no other Americans! Only Spaniards. Lots of drunk Spaniards. We talked with a couple of them, which was a good time because they were saying ridiculous things and thought we were all from Mexico and our friend Valerie was from Tokyo. We eventually stumbled upon some unopened bottle of Tinto de Verano!! I guess someone got too drunk and forgot they brought those 2 bottles, because the seal was unbroken on them!! The 4 of us shared those also.

Botellodromo de la Primavera

Some of the guys we were talking to

Just some of the participants

Oh Spaniards..

I was taking a picture and he decided to step in front and make a face

The place was trashed everywhere!

The unopened Tinto we found!

I had the best doner kebob yet that night. We went to our usual place by Lizzie, Emily and Valerie’s house and this time I ordered double lamb kebob! It was similar to the gyros back home, except no pita bread!! Delicious!!!!Saturday was a lazy day spent studying but Sunday we made American pancakes! Unfortunately we didn’t have maple syrup to eat them with, but it was still a nice brunch. If you go to a restaurant and try to order pancakes here they bring you crepes, which just aren’t the same.

My gift to myself after midterms. Spanish candy is very good. I especially like the turtles on the right, they are gummy and filled with jelly.

Well this past week I had midterms, so it was kinda boring and uneventful. The exams weren’t too bad. I think I’ll find out all my grades next week. Next Friday my second cousin Doug is coming to visit after his Morocco bike adventure,  I am excited to see a familiar face!! We are doing Alhambra and I hope to take him to some of my favorite restaurants and a teteria (tea place). Hope you all have a great weekend annnnddd an early- HAPPY 50^th BIRTHDAY to my Dad!!!!! I Love you so much Dad and miss you!

Love,

Lauren

“Mind the Gap Please”

I absolutely LOVE London!!! It was so nice to take a break and go to an English speaking country. We flew out of Madrid and arrived at Stanstead, where we exchanged money (I love British Pounds). We arrived to our hostel after riding a bus and the “tube”. It was the biggest hostel I have seen so far! It can house over 800 people! The staff were really nice and we our room wasn’t too bad. Here are some pictures:

Notice anything strange? RyanAir doesn't have a row 13 in their Boeing 757's!

I had the bed without the bunk

 

We found a diner that had fish and chips, well chicken and chips for me, and then went straight to bed. As we were getting ready to sleep, one of our roommates asked us “why are you sleeping? Are you going to the ministry of sound?” we told him we were tired and he seemed very disappointed and then asked us where we were from, etc. His name was Enrico or something and he was from Venice. Another dude entered the room and he was bunking above Ashley, I don’t remember his name, but he was from Scotland and a really cool guy.

We woke up bright and early Saturday morning and met Ashley’s friend Steven, who she had met at the dorms freshman year and was now studying abroad in a small town outside of London. Oh and an exciting thing was that it was SUNNY! This is very rare for London, so we were ecstatic. Steven said us Spain girls brought the Sun haha.

As soon as we stepped off the tube onto the street, BOOM! There was BIG BEN!!! It was crazy to just all of a sudden be in the middle of such old history and famous monuments!

We then walked over to Westminster Abby and toured inside. It was pretty cool, but then again I don’t know too much about British History, so a lot of the info we learned just went in one ear and out the other. I did get excited that Charles Darwin’s tomb was inside! Another thing that was cool to think about was that I was inside the place where the royal wedding is going to take place in a little over a month! The Brits are very obsessed with this and we saw tons of souvenirs with Kate and Williams pictures everywhere.

Westminster Abby!

 

 

Couryard inside the Abby

Next thing we did was the free walking tour, which was done by the same company as the one we saw in Madrid. It was once again very interesting and informative. We learned that you can tell if the queen or the royal family is currently “home” in the palaces according to the flags that is being flown. They were not home this weekend. We passed by Trafalgar Square, The National Gallery, and Houses of Parliament. We were EXTREMELY lucky and arrived at the station just as they were changing guards!! They only do this every other day from August to April, so it was great timing! It reminded me a little bit of the guard changing at Arlington.

Changing of the Guards

Our tour guide

One of the many tube stations we were at

Buckingham Palace!

The future site of the 2012 Olympic Sand Volleyball competition

The park where the Pelicans eat the pigeons

I then had the first meal that I wasn’t satisfied with in all of Europe, I ordered Mac and Cheese, which the menu made to sound mouth watering and cheesy, but it was bland and I think they may have used about 1 once of cheese total. Yuck. But hey my luck has been pretty good to go this long without a good meal!

London Eye was next. We bought our tickets and had a “4D experience” before boarding the huge “Ferris wheel”. The 4D thing was similar to the Soarin’ over California ride, except we didn’t get to sit in moving seats. The London eye was built in 1999 and is a little expensive, but awesome! We boarded at about twilight, so we got to see an aerial view of the city just as it reached nightfall. The Thames river, royal palace, London bridge, London aquarium were all illuminated and beautiful!

London Eye

The tram car above us. There are about 30 cars total I think

Royal Palaces

the group

London Eye at night and the Aquarium to the right

We were all three getting really hungry, and my friend Ariel had said that London has the best ethnic food; I really wanted to try Indian food for the first time!! After asking our hostel where the best place to go, we set off. Brick Lane was the said street that has a variety of ethnic food, but we ended up not finding it. At this point we were getting desperate and our feet were really hurting (we did TONS of walking), so we decided to go to this Pakistani restaurant. GREAT DECISION! The food was delicious! This is my new go-to food when I need to clear my sinuses and don’t have access to green chile. Here is a picture of what we ate:

Our Pakistani dinner. Pork and Lamb stuff, rice and a delicious sweet bread type thing on the left

 

Walking back to the tube with full stomachs, we were content. It was then time to turn in for the night again. Yup we are lame non-partiers when we travel. But it’s all good with me. I would rather see as much of the city and sights during the day and have those memories which will last me a lifetime, then waste the day away to go out at night and drink, where I won’t remember much. Besides, we can do that in Granada. Haha.

King's Cross Station was under construction so they had move the platform, but we found it!!

Sunday we decided to catch up on a little sleep and meet up late at noon. We had the free continental breakfast they offered at the hostel (cereal and toast with jelly), then met Steven to go to the British Museum. There were exhibits from every continent and I personally liked the Egyptian and Grecian ones the best. Oh I did get lost for a while! I was reading a particularly interesting section about diseases that the Egyptians suffered from. And I guess I lingered there longer than I thought, because Ashley and Steven were nowhere in sight. This museum is huge too! So I tried wandering up and down the mummy exhibit to see if they would backtrack to find me. Nope. I had a small dilemma. As soon as we had to turn our phone off for the plane to Stansted, I couldn’t remember my PIN number to log in, so no working phone in the UK… I knew Ashley’s number by heart, but had no way to contact her. After about 30 min of not seeing them I decided to go to the information desk and ask to use their phone. They wouldn’t let me because it was an international call. So I went outside the museum to use the red public pay phone! I was able to contact Ashley and we met at the museum entrance. Hopefully that one minute call will not be more than 5 or 6 dollars…

British Museum

The Rosetta Stone

They had a Chinese Jade exhibit at the Museum, Dad this reminded me of you

huge jade stone

We had lunch at this French restaurant and I ordered a French cidre beer with some salmon cakes. I have been getting more and more used to eating seafood that it’s almost normal. Granted, I don’t order much fish filet stuff, but I really like the clams and squid I’ve had.

French cider beer (sorry dad)

 

London Bridge!

Next up was getting ready for the Yellowcard and All Time Low concert!!! This was the reason I came to London, the night I had been waiting for about 3 months! We easily navigated the tube down to Brixton with some Smirnoff Ice’s in hand (which we were able to drink as we were walking down the street to the venue)!  The o2 academy was huge! It’s like 80 times the size of Sunshine theater in ABQ. The stage was nice and we weren’t too far away. Yellowcard got on and I was ecstatic. They played a lot of their new songs though, which was a little bit of a bummer because I just love their old stuff so much. They were really popular from about 2001-2005 with their most popular hit, “ocean Avenue”. The Brits in the audience were all pretty cool, they seemed younger though, like high-schoolers, and they don’t get as wild and crazy as we do in ABQ. They just sort of nodded their heads and put their hands in the air, nothing too exciting, which made me miss the intimacy and electricity you feel at the Sunshine shows like 3Oh!3 or Cute is What We Aim For.

O2 Brixton Academy

Getting ready for Yellowcard to go on

Yellowcard!!!

Then All Time Low came on, and they were better than I expected. They are a fairly new band from Brooklyn.

 

All Time Low

It was definitely worth it to go up to England. I was impressed with the buildings, weather, and most of all people. They are all very nice. Our return trip to Granada was definitely a little harder to endure. We took a taxi from our hostel to the train station then a train to the airport, then a taxi to the other Madrid bus station, then the 5 hour bus to Granada’s bus station, then a taxi to our flat!!! WHEW we were tired.

The tube station we based out of which was closest to our Hostel. I love European transportation!

Dang I know this was long, but I had a lot to tell you guys! More interesting stuff has happened in Granada since we got back, but I will save that for the next blog! Hope you all enjoy St. Patty’s day and the First Day of Spring. Take Care.

Love,

Classic England

Lauren