¡Listo!

(I confess that I can't really keep up with this thing, effectively.  I hope you'll forgive me.)

When my parents were planning their grand Spanish adventure, I had recommended a couple places for them to go visit that I had already been to (Granada, Córdoba, Ronda) and others that I had not been to yet (Cádiz, Madrid).  On that note, Meagan and I got to spend (almost) an entire weekend with them in Spain's capital city!

Background on Madrid: it is the 3rd largest city in the European Union (based on the size to population ratio).  It is the epicenter of all Spanish economic and political history since the Renaissance and re-conquest of Spain, to good and bad degrees.  It is a very financially-based city, as in most of the way it gets its wealth is from deals with other autonomous communities of Spain, member states of the EU, and banks.  Lots and lots of banks.  It is also where "Castillian Spanish" is most stressed as the "correct" way of speaking, much like Catalan is in Barcelona.  For this reason, it can be perceived that some madrileños have cultural chips on their shoulders.  However, this is not really true.  Overall, Madrid is a very nice city: very pretty, friendly, open, and ornate.

The one qualm I have with Madrid is that it's kind of lackluster in terms of an atmosphere.  Sure, people go out in La Puerta del Sol or Parque del Buen Retiro or Plaza Mayor to sit and chat; there's certainly a buzz.  But the buzz is much more relaxed than the buzz of Barcleona or Paris.  It's a very high-society buzz.  Maybe that was because of our centralized location, but even with people strolling the streets at night looking for bars, night-life hot-spots, or outdoor gatherings, the buzz was...controlled, if you will.  It's hard to explain.

This is not saying that I didn't enjoy Madrid.  I did!  We did lots of cool things.  Right off the bat, we headed over to the Royal Palace and got to take a tour inside there.  The palace is huge!  You might say, of course it is, but I might say, you say that now but wait till you see a palace.  Granted, we had seen palaces before (Reales Alcázares in Sevilla, La Alhambra in Granada), but none that were the least bit modern (and by modern, I mean built shortly before, during, or shortly after the Enlightenment).  Not only was the outside extravagant, but it also looked over this magnificent view of a valley right next to the palace.  (Pictures below.)  And of course, the inside of the palace made all four of us want to live there.  Peculiar/awesome things:

• The throne room was full of chandeliers and brightly-colored rugs and fabrics, but what was weird about it was that it was a giant rectangle, and instead of the thrones being at one short end of the rectangle as you would expect, they were situated against the long wall, right in the middle.  It was odd and kind of off-putting at first.
• The dining room was humongous, with a table for 70 or so people.  Crazy.  
• Inside the palace was a series of Stradivarius string instruments (!!!), decorated with inlay in the perfling (outer rim) of each one.  I couldn't stay in there too long for fear I might have done something I would've regretted later.  

I would have pictures of the inside (especially of the violins), but they were unfortunately strictly forbidden.  So here are a couple pictures of the outside:

Last Tuesday, when my parents were here (!!!), we decided that we'd go to Cádiz, a city in the southern part of Andalucía famous for its huge celebration of Carnaval (the Mardi Gras of Spain), for the beaches in it and the surrounding area, and for its magnificent location.  Here's a picture of it from the air:

A picture much like this one will be adorning a wall in my room next year.  Seeing this spit of land from the air is amazing.  (Even better are the satellite images of the peninsula.)  In one of the places we went, there were actually drawn progressions of the development of the city, dating as far back as the first century, maybe even B.C.  I don't quite remember.

Which brings me to some interesting facts about Cádiz.  It is thought to be the oldest, continuously-inhabited city in the Iberian Peninsula, and possibly all of Europe, with a history that goes back all the way to the Phoenicians and later, the Roman Empire.  The Romans actually had quite a few strongholds in Spain, such as Cádiz and Itálica, which I blogged about back in January.  Cádiz functioned as one of the most important ports in Spain, functioning as starting points for some of Christopher Columbus' voyages, as well as a home base for the Spanish fleet.  It endured lots of hardship at the hands of others, namely raids, attacks, and occupation.  At one point, the English burned it down.  But it remained strong.

Because it's not very big, we were able to make a fairly decent day trip out of all the sights to see in the city.  And it was great!  We saw the famous cathedral, went up the Torre Tavira (which is still the tallest point in Cádiz and has been since the 17th or 18th century -- I'm not sure which), made it to one of the castles on the waterfront, touched the Atlantic, and got back to the train station in time for our trip back home to Sevilla.  The only downside to the whole trip was that it was (a lot) colder than we expected it would be, and it was not very nice weather.  That is to say, it wasn't very sunny.  So a lot of the pictures I'll post are dark and grainy.  But oh well.

My personal favorite part of the entire day was going up in La Torre Tavira and looking out over everything in the city.  Its oceanic isolation really makes you feel like you're on the cusp of the earth, with everything laid out like puzzle pieces on a glass table.  That may seem overly florid, but it's crazy when you can see it.  To be nerdy, it made me feel like I was stuck in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.  (If you don't know what that is, I don't blame you.  But that's what it made me feel like.)  My parents really enjoyed the tower too, as is evident by this photo:


Other things we enjoyed: THE FOOD.  In the torre, which has a camara obscura that shows you a real time picture of all the things going on in the city, there was a man that presented the show and talked in really, really good English.  So we asked him where we would recommend us going to eat.  Now, Marisol told me before I went that I needed to try some seafood there, because evidently, it's really good.  (Naturally, since Cádiz is practically in the ocean already.)  He recommended the Garbanzo negro, a nice little tapas bar right outside the tower.  So we went -- and found out he was right.  We had really good seafood croquettes, potatoes with a mojo picón sauce, some really good olives, et cetera, et cetera.  But the best part of the whole meal, at least for me: arroz negro con chocas.  (Or something like that.  I don't remember exactly.)  This translates to: "Black rice with diced squid."  I, for one, am a strong advocate for exotic food.  But what I found out this was turned out to be beyond even my imagination.  The rice is black in this dish because it has been tinted with squid ink.  (!!!)  And it was SO GOOD!  Oh my goodness.  If you ever see it anywhere, especially if you come to Spain, I recommend you try it.  I'm setting you up to be let down later, but seriously.  It was one of my favorite things so far.

I realize that the paragraph about food is the largest in this post, but I guess that's okay.  The city was pretty quiet while we were there, which was nice.  We could relax a little bit, take everything at our own pace, and just take it all in.  It's nice to be able to do that once in a while.

Overall, Cádiz to me seemed really eclectic.  Old, but new at the same time.  Rustic but loud and outspoken.  Traditional, yet ready to break free.  I could only imagine what Carnaval must've been like: tons of people gathered on this tiny spit of land at the edge of the continent, partying until the sun rose once again.  Kind of crazy to think about, right?  I'm surprised the peninsula didn't sink.

I hate publishing more than one post a day, but since I've been incredibly busy and preoccupied lately, and since I'm leaving to go on another trip tomorrow night, I might have to.  I've been meaning to do this specific post for awhile, but am just now getting around to it.  It'll be short, but hopefully interesting!

So.  Something I did not expect from my home-stay experience, other than a crazy host mother (in a good way, of course), is that the house would function as a sort of extended-stay hotel for other exchange students as well.  When Chris (my roommate) and I both got to Marisol's house for the first time, there was already another student living with her.  His name was Fran, and he was from Germany.  I'm not sure where in Germany, though.  Anyway, he was cool, though very reserved and often just in his room when he wasn't out hanging around Sevilla.  The coolest thing about Fran is that we could communicate in two different languages, because he knew quite a bit of English as well as Spanish and German.  (We also assumed that he could speak Russian since evidently he has a very serious relationship with a Russian girl -- and he has small businesses in Russia too.  Crazy.)

When he left, it was sad for us, but it was sadder for Marisol, since he had stayed with her longer.  But we didn't have to wait for very long until the next European students came to visit.  This time, they were too students traveling with a big group of others from their school in France.  (At one point, they told us where they were from, but I couldn't really understand what they said, nor could I write it down for you if I tried.)  When they arrived, Marisol asked me if I wanted to go pick them up with her.  Naturally, I said yes, because it was exciting.  However, we quickly figured out that Sylvain and Brice (sp.?), both 16, spoke almost no English nor Spanish.  I had to help them buy cigarettes at one point, which was a minor bump, but when I had to explain the rules of the house to them, I got the blankest looks I've ever been given.  It was scary, actually.  Never in my life have I been more grateful to be able to communicate in more than one language than when I had to try to communicate with them.  Unfortunately, French is beyond my comprehension.  Even the simplest of words/vowel and consonant sounds.

This past weekend, Marisol got too more students staying with her, who also happened to be traveling through Andalucía.  (I don't really know how she signs up for these things, but I guess she seeks them out or maybe gets recommended to others by our housing coordinator, Ángeles.  Oh well -- it's how she makes her living.)  They had been here since Friday or Saturday; I don't know because I was in Madrid.  (Another blog post for later!)  And Chris was gone too, in Lagos, Portugal.  So Marisol was left with two more French students for a whole weekend on their own.  We feared for her, given how communication went last time.  We also feared for the French kids, seeing as how Marisol was about ready to punch through a wall when she couldn't communicate with Sylvain and Brice.  Luckily for everyone, Alejandro and Pablo Emilio (as they introduced themselves to me), both 15, knew a lot more Spanish (and English) separately than either of the other two did put together.  They were really cool, but I still didn't get to hang out with them very much since they had plans to go on excursions to places like Córdoba and Granada when I didn't have class.  (And when I didn't have a paper to write or a test to study for.  For the same class to turn in/take on the same day.  UGH.)  Oh well.  Here's a picture of all of us together (which, by the way, took 10 minutes longer to take than it should have due to Marisol's perfectionist-like fussing):

Anyway, as for more boarders, Marisol mentioned something about Italians, but I'm skeptical that they're still coming, because Ángeles didn't say anything about it when I met with her on Tuesday.  Though she did mention that I will probably be getting my own room when the Summer Session Tar Heels come to stay in Sevilla.  (YES!  Yay, privacy!)  So I suppose that's something to look forward to.

I'll post later too!  I promise!

Nick

I know I'm a little behind.  But I have an excuse!  My parents have been here for the past couple of days and I'm loving that they are here!  Of course, we're taking every opportunity to spend time together.  As such, blog posts would be hard to write.  So excuse me for this post about Meagan's and my beach trip last Saturday to a nice little town called Matalascañas.  (That literally means "Kill the sugarcanes."  We think.)

Getting there: we went to the farther bus station from where we both live to get tickets, and they ended up being pretty cheap!  I don't know how coach companies do it in the U.S., but in Spain at least, they usually leave you with a vuelta abierta, which means that you can choose to come back at whatever time you want, provided there are buses running then.  That option is also cheaper, so we went with that.  The bus ride wasn't too long, maybe about an hour and a half each way.  The drive wasn't the prettiest either, but we did get to drive through Spain's main national park, of which they are very proud.  It's called Doñana National Park, and from the looks of it, it seems pretty cool!  We only saw a very small portion, and it probably wasn't the best portion to see (mainly because it was the roadside part of the park, which is never as pretty as the more secluded areas).  But it was still cool!  Evidently, Doñana is where they grow most, if not all, of their strawberries.

To go back a little bit, before setting off the night before, I asked Marisol's (my señora's) friend Antonio for advice on where to go and what beach to visit.  45 minutes later, I had learned that the two best parts of the beach are (1) by la piedra, which is the ruin of an older lighthouse that crumbled to the ground after the beach eroded back to where it is today.  Advantage: cool landmark!  Disadvantage: lots of people and short beach.  The other part he described to me was (2) near a part of the town called El pueblo andaluz, in which I discovered that Marisol used to have a piso (apartment)!  (I later told her I knew that and she kind of blushed.  I don't really know the story behind this, but I think she shared it with her brother.  I don't know why that fell apart, though.)  Advantage of this beach: very long beach and not as many people.  Disadvantage: no guarantee that the bus would go there to drop us off or pick us up.  (Obviously, that was a pretty big disadvantage.)

When we got to Matalascañas, we figured it would be easier to just go to the short beach, even though there were a lot of people.  That didn't stop us from having a great day!  We really wished that the ocean had been warmer, though.  We only got to put our feet in before running back to the sunny sand to warm them up again.  (It was really cold.)  Other (cool?) experiences: got to see la piedra, which translates directly to "the stone," but didn't get to touch it (because the ocean was so cold); had our first/second nudist experience when a woman decided to remove her top; saw my first open chiringuito, which is a dive-ish beach bar; and found out that Spain has public bathrooms on the beach that only cost 20 cents, but I'll be damned if there were any open ones.  I guess it was the off-season.

Here are some pictures for your enjoyment!

Overall, the trip was fantastic!  I foresee many beach trips in the future, maybe when the water gets warmer.

ATTENTION: If you are between the ages of 18 and 25, get yourself a visa and get yourself to Europe.  For citizens (permanent or temporary, which includes visas) of the European Union, there is a such thing as a Young Person's Discount, which applies if you are between those ages previously mentioned.  (Unfortunately, it's only for the EU instead of all 18- to 25-year-olds.)  I know this is easier said than done, but really, you need to capitalize on this opportunity if you can.  For example, this weekend in Paris (yes, Paris), Meagan and I both got into the Louvre and the Musée d'Orsay for free.  That's right, THE LOUVRE FOR FREE.  We simply had to flash our visas and they were more than happy to give us tickets.

But if you can't do that, you should still visit Paris, if you're over here.  Visiting the city is almost a prerequisite if you're coming to Europe.  And I will tell you right now: it is worth it.  And even though it's the most expensive city in the European Union, perhaps in the world (although I find that hard to believe after having visited NYC twice and having been financially gutted both times), you can still survive it by hardly spending anything.  (The discount mentioned above certainly helped.)

And while I'm sure it would be wonderful for me to describe the entire weekend to you, I'm not going to do that.  I know I sort of did it with Barcelona, but we weren't really there for a whole weekend.  We weren't even there for a whole two days, really.  And that post was long.  So!  I'm going to rein in my unwanted talent for superfluous description and stick to the highlights of the weekend, good or bad.

Starting with: the airport bus.  Sevilla has a really proficient bus system.  They go everywhere over the city and they're usually pretty reliable...unless, evidently, you're trying to get to the airport on a Friday night.  The airport bus is really quick and efficient, and it only costs 2,40 euro, which is much cheaper than taking a taxi.  However, taking a taxi is exactly what Meagan and I had to do after the bus never showed up after waiting for the better part of an hour.  Granted, we got to the stop pretty early, but there's still a big difference between 2 1/2 hours before take-off and 1 1/2 hours before take off.  The ironic part is this, though: once we finally flagged down a taxi, got in, and got situated, we look out the rear windshield, and a bus that looks awfully like the airport bus pulls up to the stop.  We kind of hated ourselves for that decision, since we had to pay 22 euro instead of 2,40.

But all's well that ends well.  We got to the airport with plenty of time, got through the (strangely) busy security line, and got on our plane to take off.  Everything on the flight was in French and heavily-accented and hard-to-understand English, but that didn't matter, because we were going to Paris!  (Though, it was hard to tune out the entire field trip of French elementary schoolers that continued to run up and down the aisle playing with their friends.)

The next morning we got up bright and early to go to the Louvre, where, given the hour, hopefully there would be fewer people.  Turns out we were right!  We were able to get inside the museum fairly quickly (and, let me say again, FOR FREE) and get to exploring.  Of course, the museum is famous for being the king of all museums, but let me reiterate: this place is HUGE.  It is chock-full of so much art and history that you wouldn't be able to find in very many other places.  Examples of things inside the Louvre: a section of an ancient Egyptian tomb, a section of an ancient castle's moat, the Code of Hammurabi, and of course, paintings like the Mona Lisa and the Wedding at Cana (which is huge, by the way).  And the Louvre lets you take pictures!  Here are some examples:





At that point, we were pretty hungry and grumpy from not having eaten yet.  So we sought out a cafe that wasn't too expensive and found success!  Breakfast in French is petit déjeuner, and we got to have half of a traditional one: toast with jam and butter, served with coffee or hot chocolate.  While it was good, it was one of the last times we wanted to spend money at a cafe, so we went grocery shopping!  And by grocery shopping, I mean bread shopping.  If you go to Paris, I highly recommend buying two or three baguettes (depending on who's with you) and just munching on them all day.  Couple that with some strawberries, some cheese, and maybe some juice or wine, and you're set for at least two meals if you can stand having the same thing for both meals.  Meagan and I did this and we were set for the day.

So we proceeded onward with our exploration of the city!  One of my favorite parts was visiting Le jardin des Tuileries.  And my real reason for doing this was because a part of Mussorgsky's symphonic work, Pictures at an Exhibition -- which is divided into movements based on paintings he saw at...an exhibition, of course -- is based on these gardens.  (You can listen to it by watching this video; the Tuileries movement lasts from 0:29-1:37.)  And the gardens certainly weren't a letdown!  It was very grassy and beautiful, with statues and ponds and rows of trees everywhere!  We had a lot of fun watching everyone run around.  Also a plus: evidently, we went on a day where it wasn't very crowded.  So props to us!




Later, we braved the metro once more (we had bought the Paris Visite pass, which allows for unlimited rides on any public transportation system for 2 days), all the way from the Arc de Triomphe to the Cathedral of Notre Dame.  Which is situated on an island in the middle of the Seine, by the way.  I didn't know that until I was on the island.  Of course, many memories of Disney movies came flooding back to me as I saw the belfries and attempted to take good pictures of the gargoyles on the top of the cathedral.  (Pictures below.)  Meagan and I didn't go inside because the line was horrendously long, but that was fine by us.



Up until this point, we'd had really good weather, considering Paris has a reputation for being rainy.  But on our way to the Eiffel Tower, evidently the clouds opened up and rain started to pour.  So we had to change our plans a little bit, find somewhere to eat our groceries inside, and then go back later.  Well, that turned out to be a good choice!  Of course we were always going to go see the Eiffel Tower at night, but this just made it so that we saw it at night first before we saw it in the daytime.  And it was beautiful!  It was kind of difficult to take pictures, but we managed.

Later, we walked under the tower, where the finish line for some kind of race was, and saw it from underneath.  The views you get from underneath are crazy!  Also, the Eiffel Tower is always packed with people, either tourists, street vendors, or maybe the seldom Parisian.  Know this, though -- there are street vendors EVERYWHERE!  And all they sell are robotic pets, Eiffel tower trinkets (like statuettes and key-chains), and plastic glow-in-the-dark paratrooper type things.  There was one guy, though -- and this merits a story -- that was selling roses.  As you would expect, Meagan and I were approached by this man, who promptly told us that one rose was 3 euro.  I told him that it was too much, and so he asked me how much I was willing to pay, so I said along the lines of 1 to 1,50.  And while his price didn't go down that much (2 roses for 5 euro), it was perfect.  One rose for each of us!  So we got to hold our roses while the Eiffel tower sparkled above us.  It was wonderful!  :-)



But enough gushy details.  Later, we went back up to Montmartre where we were staying, and passed by the Moulin Rouge.  Which is funny, because the Moulin Rouge is in the middle of the Red Light District of Paris, and there are tons of tourists there trying to take pictures.  (Also, funny: because we didn't realize that the Moulin Rouge was a block away from where we were staying, we also didn't realize until we got there that we were staying a block away from the Red Light District as well.  Things you learn by wandering.)  My recommendation for you in regards to the Moulin Rouge is to see it, but then go to the crepe place on the corner of the street directly to the right of it (if you're facing it).  So good and so cheap: a Nutella crepe was only 2 EURO.  I REPEAT, 2 EURO.  This is cheaper than we found in any other part of the central part of Paris.  It was a deal.

The last thing I'll mention before I leave you wanting more details is in regards to the Musée d'Orsay, the other main art museum in Paris.  While the Louvre was cool (and humongous) and had amazing things in it, the Orsay was more interesting, in my opinion.  We honestly found that the Louvre's size was a hindrance, simply because it's impossible to see all of it at once unless you're really dedicated.  It's hard to appreciate that much art and history in such a large quantity.  The Orsay was better: it wasn't as big and it had a lot more modern-day art, such as Impressionism.  For example, Monet's Water Lilies is usually here (we didn't see it, because we think it was on loan), as well as Edgar Degas' ballerina collection.  All of it is amazing, and the museum itself is quite cool too.  There's a gigantic clock hanging above the main entrance (also the exit), but you don't see it until you turn around to face the exit.  Unfortunately, they wouldn't let us take pictures in the Orsay.  When we were about to leave, I wanted to buy art postcards, but they were pricey for postcards and we didn't exactly have a budget that allowed for excess spending.  ("Excess spending?!" you say.  "You were in Paris!"  Yes, but I was in Paris with a strict budget.  We still had to buy food for Sunday.)  Anyway, if I had bought postcards, I would've gotten one by Cézanne, who I am quickly coming to realize is my favorite Impressionist painter; and I also would've gotten this one (below), which is probably my favorite painting in the museum, for no reason that I am aware of except that I like it.  It's called The Snake Charmer, by Henri Rousseau:



Other adventures included walking down the Champs-Élyssés, standing under the Arc de Triomphe, and sitting outside the Palais du Luxembourg on our way back down to the bus that would take us back to the airport.  It really was a fantastic weekend.  Hope you enjoyed the pictures!


Nick