Last Night in Madrid

We arrived in Madrid on Tuesday afternoon and checked into our hostel after a long, hideous taxi ride. No, the trip wasn´t long, we just had a super ancient cab driver that didn´t even know where Calle Jesus y Maria (our street) is. He didn´t have a map or anything - he circled and circled and finally asked someone on the street which way to go. It was ridiculous. Old, senile people get away with everything!

We haven´t really done a lot of planned activities while we´ve been here. It´s really hot, and for the first two days the air conditioning in our room didn´t work, so it was pretty miserable, particularly at night. They have free breakfast (toast, coffee, cornflakes!), organized hostel activities (drinking games, pub crawls, tapas bar hopping, flamenco dancer night, etc) where you pay a small fee and get to be entertained for a couple of hours.

We went to the Reina Sofia on Wednesday, which was amazing, and also amazingly long, and then we saw an authentic flamenco dancer with amazing solo guitarist in the sweaty basement of a pub, one street over from the hostel. Thursday was another sluggish day. We walked around... we went to the Palacio Real, a royal palace which was AMAZING, and went to the Museo del Prado for free. And it was mostly oil paintings with similar religious themes. I´m pretty glad it was free. I really only went so I can tell people I went to the Museo del Prado and saw works by Goya and El Greco and Dalí. But really, it was not amazing. The Reina Sofia is totally worth visiting, though.

Our bunks are fun. I get the top bunk! There are 10 girls in my room and I´ve made friends with a few of them. It´s hilarious trying to watch 10 girls passive-aggressively fight for bathroom rights but so far everyone has been really chill. I´m trying to shake this residual cough from being sick this week, I think it´s because of the drastic weather change from Oviedo (temperate) to Barcelona (muggy, sticky, oceany) to Madrid (dry, hot). I think Madrid is preparing me for Utah though.

I only get 15 minutes to use the computer at a time so I´ll wind this up, but I´ll be back in the United States tomorrow at 11:05pm MST. Hopefully the traveling will go relatively smoothly and I´ll be in Utah in no time at all. I´ll come back here and post some kind of reflection at some point, probably. ¡Hasta pronto!

Barcelonaaa

Yesterday we went to the Sagrada Familia. Not my photo, but it looks like this:

It was begun in the late 1800s and then Gaudí took over and went in an entirely new direction. When he got hit by a tram and died, construction ceased for awhile, but starting in the 1950s it has been under constant construction. We paid 9€ to see the inside, which was pretty disappointing, but it makes me feel less ripped off to know the money is going toward the continued construction on the building so it can finally be ¨completed¨after 100 years.

We also went on a wild goose chase to find Gaudí´s Palau Guell with no luck. Later we found out that it´s likely we couldn´t find it because it´s being renovated through 2010. Oops. This is what it looks like ordinarily (again, not my photo):

Then we checked out the Mirador de Colon, which is a giant statue of Christopher Columbus that you can ride to the top of and take photos of the entire city.

Then we did a 1.5 hour jazz cruise with 1€ sangrias. The trip was really cheap and really relaxing. There was a live saxophone player and everything.

We took some photos of the Palau de la Musica Catalana as well, but we didn´t tour the building. These, again, are not my photos:

Today we´re going to the beach and after dark we want to take photos of the Torre Agbar, a giant phallus shaped building near our hostel. This is what it looks like at night:

Greetings from Barcelona!

We arrived this morning around 8am. I had taken a delicious ambien and slept for about 10 hours during the bus ride, but the ride and walking around Barcelona has taken it out of us. We were able to drop our luggage off at the hostel at 9am this morning but we couldn´t officially check in until 3pm, so we went to the Museu Picasso, Boqueria market, and visited Las Ramblas.

There´s a bit to update on here... last Tuesday was Noche de San Juan, a giant fiesta at night. I have tons of photos, so I´ll post them once I get back to the United States (or when I have time here, but who wants to spend their time in Barcelona updating a blog and fighting with technological issues?) Anyway, there is a group of advanced Spanish students from the U of U studying in Gijón, and the annual tradition is to play a soccer game against them on the beach of Gijón, so that´s precisely what we did. I switched off between playing soccer and drinking beer with Nicole and Kim on the beach. Muy divertido. Pictures on that later as well.

My final grade in my class was a 90% so that´s pretty good. All in all I feel like I´ve learned how to understand conversational Spanish better, and through use of the language I´ve retained way more than I would have if I´d done a summer course in Utah. I hope to continue my studies in Spanish forever! I need to find Harry Potter (or something equally easy) in Spanish and start learning how to read the language better.

On Friday, we had a mini-espicha with our class and professors and it was pretty fun. Nicole and I took off a little early so we could buy flowers for our host moms and get ready for our bus at 7:30pm. We took off right on time and this morning wound up in Barcelona. We´re pretty exhausted so Nicole is napping and I´m about to go do the same, but earlier today after dropping our bags off at our hostel (we couldn´t check in until 3pm so we had to find stuff to do in the interim) we went all the way Las Ramblas, went to the Museu Picasso, bought 7$ margaritas (that´s the only time THAT is going to happen, jeez) and went shopping for food because we have an all-access kitchen here at our hostel. I´ll have to post photos of the hostel as well, it´s pretty swank. We also went to the Boqueria outdoor market today and bought bread and cups of 100% fruit juice (SO GOOD - kiwi pineapple and strawberry coconut I think) .

We have a private room with one double bed, a giant window, an oscillating fan, a nightstand, and a sweet Ikea closet. There´s unlimited internet but I can´t find the internet hole (aka USB) so photos aren´t going to happen for awhile. Maybe I´ll get to it in Madrid. Tonight we´re going to try to hit a free light and sound show at one of the plazas and maybe go to the beach with a bottle of champagne, cheese and crackers (how romantic! ha ha) and hang out.

We didn´t know our hostel was 100% alcohol free until after we checked in with our bottle of wine and 3 bottles of Mahou Negra (best beer ever, by the way) so we´ve smuggled them in and left them in tons of plastic bags in the fridge. I hope we´re not caught! But they´re labeled so I don´t think anyone will touch them. We´ll see... but we won´t be repeat offenders once our current stash is gone. You just can´t drink warm alcohol!

More later. Hope everyone is doing well.

Recipe: Patatas AliOli

Ingredients

* 7 medium potatoes
* 1 tooth of garlic
* ¼ l. of mayonnaise
* salt
* minced parsley

Cook the potatoes with their skin in water. Peel them, leave them in regular pieces and dust them with salt. Once cold, cover them with the alioli sauce, prepared separately.

Alioli Sauce: Mix the mayonnaise with the tooth of raw garlic and parsley, and mash into a fine paste.

Last week of school.

As my time in Oviedo draws to a close, my time thinking about Barcelona and Madrid increases. Right now, I have some rough ideas of what I would like to do during my short time there.

In Barcelona, where I will be from 27/6/09 to 30/6/09, I plan to see Gaudí´s architectural masterpieces - Papau Guell, la Sagrada Familia, and Parc Guell. Ideally I´ll take a day to see all of these, and Sagrada is 8€ but the others are free. There´s also a light and sound show somewhere in Barcelona late at night that I would like to attend. It´s probably full of tourists but it sounds like a nice alternative to sitting at a smoky bar, throwing back Mahous, Guiness, and (gag) San Miguel. I think it´s free, too, actually.

Las Ramblas is going to take another full day to get through, I´m sure. It´s a giant street in Barcelona with shops, cafés, performers, et cetera. Free to look, but I´m sure I´ll find some souvenirs to bring back home.

La Boqueria is a giant market from Monday-Saturday, formally known as the Mercat Sant Josep. I keep hoping for a fresh outdoor food market like the farmers market, but so far my experience with Spanish markets has consisted of bootlegged DVDs in Spanish, purses, flowers, anything but food. For me, market is synonymous with the feeling of a full belly, so it´s been a little disappointing... hopefully the Mercat in Barcelona won´t be a bust.

La Seu, Barcelona´s cathedral, is allegedly magnificent. It´s open daily before and after mediodia (ie. Spanish naptime) and I can pay around 2€ for a tour of the cloisters, or just go inside for free. I might just do the free unguided tour.

Museo Picasso is here! This is something I´m super excited about. It´s 9€ and it´s supposed to be in a location with a lot of fabulous architecture and beauty.

We should also have time to hit the beach. Our hostel is supposed to between Las Ramblas and the beach, so we may spend some time in the hot hot heat of la playa.

In Madrid, where I will be from 30/6/09 to 4/7/09, there´s tons of stuff to do as well:

Two museums that I absolutely MUST go to are called the Reina Sofia and the Museo del Prado. We can catch the Prado for free between 6-8pm, so we may do that, and the Reina Sofia is 6€. The Reina Sofia is where Picasso´s famous ¨Guernica¨ is located.

Those are the biggest things I´m interested in. Other than that, there are a couple of parks I want to check out. One, the Parque del Retiro, includes 330 acres, and the Casa de Campo is a giant park with - according to my tour guide book - PANDAS. I´m not missing a panda. There´s also a Campo del Moro. Stuff goes on there. Yeah.

We might also take a bus to Toledo if we have time on a random day before we leave. I´m all about wandering aimlessly around the city. (Fun sidenote: in Spanish, the verb for ¨wander¨ is ¨vagar¨- sounds like vagabond, yeah? That´s because the etymology of the word is from VAGARI. To wander, roam, be unsettled, spread abroad. That´s totally my game on vacation, yo.)

So there´s some things. What else...

Last week we canoed down the river Sella. It was amazing. My rotator cuffs were a little sore the next day, but it was really fun. The downside is that the life vests we were renting smelled like sour sweat. Once I get my own life vest, I spy a future hobby. Anyway, we only went about 7km, so the trip was only a couple of hours. We stopped halfway through to eat bocadillos on the bank of the Sella, and then we finished the trip. It wasn´t like white water rafting or anything dangerous. The worst that happened was that Nathan and Tommy pushed our canoe into a tree. Saboteurs! Then later, I was responsible for getting us stuck in another tree. Note: When heading for a tree with low branches, instead of shouting ¨DUCK!¨, put a little bit of effort into steering away from the tree. It was hilarious and a little bit painful all at the same time. :) The fun thing about canoeing is using your oar to push other boats when they´re in your way. That, or ram into them. Leave it to Americans to turn canoeing into a contact sport.

I didn´t get any photos of canoeing down the Sella, because of course it´s always a terrible idea to bring a camera into a wet environment, even if you have a waterproof bucket. Somehow I would manage to damage it. But I can google a picture of the Sella. Here:


See? Not so scary.

Last night I went with Nicole to ZARZUELA, the opera in town. I´m a little sketchy on the details, but opera is always in a different language, so it was nothing new. There were beautiful costumes and beautiful voices and attractive Spaniards in old timey gear. Me encanta. It lasted three hours and then I went home, ate two apricots, and went to bed.

Our last test is Thursday, we receive our certificates of completion on Friday, have a tiny espicha, and then I´m done with school.

Recipe: Fabadas

Fabada, the worlds' most famous bean pot comes from the wild mountains of Asturias. The beans are flavoured with all the local specialities like lacón, which is the cured front leg of a pig and oak-smoked fresh sausages.

Salt pork or cured beef make good substitutes. Cured sausages also go in, and give an incredible richness to the flat, white, fava beans that constitute the base of the Fabada.

* Serves 6
* Difficulty: intermediate
* Preparation time: 3 hours

Ingredients

* 1 lb 10 oz dried butter beans (or faves)
* 1 1/2 lb salt pork belly (or salt brisket or silverside)
* 1 1/2 lb smoked gammon knuckle or hock, skin slashed
* 6 black peppercorns, crushed
* 1 teaspoon paprika
* 1 pinch of powdered saffron
* 1 bay leaf
* 2 tablespoon olive oil (optional)
* 4 garlic cloves, chopped
* 1 lb chorizos or smoked sausages
* 6 oz morcilla or black pudding

Preparation

Choose a stockpot that holds at least 10 pint (6 liter). Cover the beans, in a bowl, with plenty of boiling water. Put the salt meat (pork belly, brisket or silverside and gammon bone) into the pot and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil, then drain the meat and return to the stockpot.

Drain the beans then add to the pot with the pepper-corns, paprika and saffron and bay leaf. Add 4 pints (2.3 liter) water. Bring slowly to the boil, then simmer very gently on minimum heat for 2 hours. A big pot on a small burner is best, and better still with a heat diffuser (such as the ones used to prepare paella). Check occasionally that the beans are still covered, but do not stir (or they will break up).

Remove the ham bone and salt pork, to cool a little. Strip off the skin and fat, and take about 2 tablespoons of chopped fat for frying (instead, we recommend using olive oli). Sweat this in a frying pan. Fry the garlic lightly, then spoon it into the beans.

Fry the sliced sausages and morcilla or black pudding (discarding artificial casings). Stir into the pot with the pan fat.

Remove all the meat from the gammon bone. Chop it, and the salt pork or beef, and return to the casserole; simmer for a few minutes. Check the seasonings (there should be enough salt from the meat). This dish is distinctly spicy, so fresh green cabbage goes well.

Bilbao Photos

It only took me 5 days to get around to uploading photos from Bilbao! Here you go:

fountain

bear/dog bushes outside the Guggenheim

various shots of the Guggenheim

umbrella statue thing down the river from the Guggenheim

another bronzey statue thing

recreational boaters in the river

tyler´s head in my shot of the river

a bilbao duck

or seagull, whatever

the only sunset i can find in spain. for you, andy!

mark, nicole, stranger, stranger, stranger, tyler, ieva

tyler and ieva in the funicular

nicole in the funicular

city skyscape from the top of the funicular ride

tyler and mark in front of a giant wheel

in a park-type thing at the top of the mountain, i found a statue that looked like a fingerprint

homeless people sleep in giant atm booths in bilbao

street view from tyler and mark´s hotel window

nicole

mark

tyler

i found this on a wall in bilbao

outdoor book market on saturday

this is some sort of statue thing with dangly lights

balls line the streets sometimes

we´re back to the Guggenheim

a painting of the previously shown flower dog bear thing

this is the giant bronze spider behind the Guggenheim, ew

the only outdoor exhibit, giant metal tulips

random sculpture/statue of ... crumpled paper, maybe?

fountain in the park

cacti

this is the common room in our hostel

ieva, tyler, ava, tiffany, kim, nicole, me

tiffany, ieva, mark

mark, tyler, ava, half of kim

javier, our bartender in bilbao

my bed, nicole´s bed, in our private hostel room

more common area of the hostel

out by the maritime museum on sunday

before we caught our bus back to oviedo, we drank coffee and ate a pincho here

this was a cool stained glass window in the train station