No pasa nada

Not much to report on here. This weekend does not have any exciting travel news. I am staying in Madrid to get some school work done and get ready for Semana Santa in London and Southern Spain. I can tell you that my allergies are really bad right now. They say that it is expected to be a horrible allergy season because this area had a lot of rain this year. Yesterday I was doing work in the library and I the way home I was crossing the street and I was hit by a car, well tapped, his bumper just brushed up against my leg. The driver wasn't paying attention and stopped at the last minute. No pasa nada. In other news the time changes tonight so we will be back to the 9 hr time differnce for the West Coast and 6 hrs for the East.Have a good weekend.

Northern Spain

It was a holiday weekend in Spain so I headed up north with my host family. We stayed in their house there. The house and the area was beautiful. It was very green and things were a lot more spread out than in Madrid. It was extremely relaxing. The weather was a bit cooler but not too bad. The first day we went to a Dinosaur Museum in their small town of Salas de los Infantes. It was extremely interesting because I had no Idea that dinosaurs roamed Spain and that they have remains barried in the area. We took a few small excursions to small towns so that I could get the feel of how life is in the Spanish country side. We also visited a cloister of Santo Domingo de las silas which is famous for Gregorian Chants, and because it was a feast day they opened up vespers to the community so we attened. The following day we went to the largest city around which is Burgos. We walked around the realtively small city and visited the cathedral. I found the cathedral to be extremely interesting because the architecture style has been changed three times, Roman, Gothic, and Baroque, which each coresponding time period.The cathedral was beautiful and much larger than I had expected.


When we returned to the town Marile and her friend took me for an evening walk in which we visited a castle that was near by. Their friends have the keys so we were able to view it all by ourselves. I belive that it was built by the Romans. It is more of a tower and only part of it remains, but it was ontop of a hill so we watched the sun set from up top... magnificant.

The following day we made a 2 hour drive to the BASQUE Country, everyone thinks it is dangerous because it is home to the terrorist group ETA. This is my favorite part of Spain.... it was so gorgeous. We visited the city of Bilbao. The city was wondeful and I loved it. While we where there we visited the world famous Guggenheim Museum. We also walked around and a family friend that lives in the city gave us a tour. The next day we made our back to Madrid. It was a wonderful weekend and I am so thankful that my host family invited me to spend it with them.

2nd Day in Europe's hidden Jewel (Portugal)

Saturday began at around 8:30am (we had a lot to get done). We ate a quick breakfast hat was provided by our hostel. During breakfast one a girl gave us a crash course on Portuguese pronunciation, it is similar to French. Next we headed to the train station to go about 30 minutes north of Lisbon to the small town of Sintra.

Once we arrived in Sintra we took a bus up to the top of a mountain. This mountain is tall and extremely steep, making it difficult for most people to walk up so the bus charges a premium price of 5 euro, it was worth it. The three of us were a bit scared on the way up because there were many sharp turns and the driver seemed to be a bit careless. Anyhow we made it to the top. We went to the Castelo Mouros or the Moorish Castle which was built in 9th and 10th centuries. I think this was the highlight of my trip. We walked on all the walls that surround the fortress. It is in the hills so it is kind of looked like the Great Wall of China, only it was in Portugal. The views were absolutely spectacular. Words and even pictures do not begin to do justice to this experience. It was like being on top of the world, and I could have stayed up there forever. The only downfall was that it was warm so all of us were wearing sandals which made it a bit difficult to climb up and down stone stairs. Also, we were in a garden taking a picture and some wild plant attacked my foot and gave it stinging sensation. I had a first aid kit so I put some ointment on it and it was fine. When we were finished with the Castle we caught the bus going downhill and this was an experience all in its own. The driver was going down steep paths, but he did not really believe in using breaks so we were flying down the hill, probably much faster than we should have been. It was a tad scary for us because on side of the road it was like cliff dropping almost straight down. Thank God we made it back to the bottom.

Then we walked to a 19th century palace that housed some sort of a colt. It was sort of interesting, but at the same time creepy. There were all kinds of secret doors and passageways. In the library there were mirrors on the floor to give the appearance that the shelves went down to the floor below it and that you would fall through. It sort of reminded me of the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. However there was a beautiful chapel and gardens. The gardens covered several acres with greenery, including palm trees. We could not spend much time here because we wanted to make sure that we were able to make to the next stop.

So we got on the bus and headed for Cascais, a beach town. I loved this place, it reminded me of California. There many people on the beach playing, laying out in the sun, swimming, and of course surfing. We just walked along the shore and then at one point just sat and watched the ocean and the people. It was extremely relaxing, just what I needed. I was able to touch the Atlantic Ocean from Europe. We watched the sunset over the Atlantic and then we took the train back to Lisbon.

Once we were in Lisbon we took the Elevador de Santa Justa. It was built in the early 1900’s. It was designed by an apprentice of Gustave Eiffel, the architect of the Eiffel Tower. The elevator took us to the top were we had great views of Lisbon at night. Then we went back and had another wonderful dinner with friends at our hostel.

To see more pictures click here. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2056053&id=21204555&l=5579e8cc4a

Lisbon, Portugal- Day 1

This weekend I made a journey to Portugal not knowing what to expect. It was not exactly at the top of my list of places to visit in Europe. Words cannot express how wonderful it was. There is so much to write that I have decided to split it up into 3 entries, one for each day.

When we landed it was beautiful weather, sunny, clear skies and about 78 degrees. We took a bus from the airport to our hostel, Living Lounge. When I think of "hostel" the picture that comes to mind does not resemble this place one bit. It was gorgeous, so clean, just wonderful, better than some hotels I have stayed in. We put our stuff down and headed out to explore the city.

The first adventure was to walk to "Cais do Sodre". We found it and then took a street trolley down the road towards the Belem Tower. On the trolley you pay through a machine and there is no attendant or anyone checking tickets. So my friend Jeannie says," I the ride home I think we will save the 2 euros and not buy tickets." A few minutes later 3 officials get on-board and start checking tickets. Some other foreigners had a problem so the officials took their passports and wrote them a ticket. From that point we knew we always be buying a ticket.

The first stop was at a Monastery built in the 16th century with a combination of late-baroque and the Renaissance styles. It was quite beautiful. Then we headed across the road towards the Tagus River. On the river is a monument dedicated on the 500th anniversary of the death of Prince Henry the Navigator to acknowledge Portugal's discoveries throughout the world. Now looking out onto the river there is a bridge that looks identical to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, it is the sister bridge. It was commissioned to be built during the reign of a dictator in 1965, and is now named "Ponte 25 de Abril" (Bridge of April 25) which marked the day that ended dictatorship in Portugal in 1974. After admiring the bridge we headed down the river to the Belem tower. Torre de Belém was built in the 16th century to provide protection for the city and has been used for other things over the years. It is now a monument and we were planning on going up in the tower. When we got to the door there was a sign that said "Closed - workers on strike". So we were not able to go on top of it. After a few hours we decided to head back. This journey turned out to take much longer than expected.

First we waited for about 45 minutes for the trolley that would take us back, and it never showed up. So I asked a bus driver if his bus would also take us back and he said yes. So we got on and sat in Portuguese traffic for almost an hour. It turns out there was a fire that caused the traffic. In the meanwhile we were standing on a bus with no room to move at all. There was no air conditioning so we were dripping in sweat. We were so thankful to get off.

After Jill and I headed up to the Basílica da Estrela, the first church in the world to be dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. When we arrived we could not just look inside because they had just started mass. So we decided to go to mass and this way we would also be able to see the church. Well it was in Portuguese so knew what was going on, but did not know the words that were being said. It was interesting. During the sign of peace we picked up on how to say peace in Portuguese and so we said it to the others around us. Following mass we headed back to the hostel for dinner. The cooked us a wonderful meal and we met new friends, some from the U.S., others from Ireland, and some from France. This would soon become the closing of our eventful yet ejoyable first day in Lisbon.

Portugal here I come...

So toady I am headed off to Lisbon, Portugal. It was not at the top of list of places to visit in Europe, but we found some good deals and we figured why not. I will be there for the weekend. It looks like it will be beautiful, about 70 degrees sunny with clear skies.

Cooking Spanish Style

On Sunday our Program Director, Patricia hosted a cooking class at her house. We learned how to make a few typical Spanish dishes. The first is tortilla espanola, this is a must in Spanish culture. It contains onions, potatoes, and eggs (more of an omelette than a tortilla as we know it). It seems simple to make, but it is a bit difficult and the process is lengthy. Secondly, we made espinacas con piñones y pasas (spinach with pine nuts and raisins). This also took quite a while to make. This was may favorite dish out of all the ones we made. And of course we had to make the wonderful beverage to accompany our meal... Sangria. We put in a lot of fruit, as well as red wine, and an interesting twist, cinnamon. It was wonderful. For desert we made arroz con leche (Spanish rice pudding). This was extremely interesting to make beacue the milk, rice, cinnamon, and condensed milk is boiled with the peel of a lemon. I could only eat a little of this desert because I am not a big fan of milk. It was such a wonderful day in which we had another opportunity to enter into the culture. (Pictures of me will be coming soon.) Maybe I can try to make some of these things when I return because I have the recipies.

Restaurante más antiguo del mundo

That is correct; I ate in the oldest restaurant in the world. The Guinness Book of World Records has given this title to this restaurant. It was founded in 1725 in the heart of Madrid and given the name Casa Botin. It is said that the famous Spanish artist, Goya, washed dishes before he made it big as a painter. Hemingway ate at here and claimed to be the best. I went with my friends Jessica and Kondi and we had a wonderful dinner. I ate one of their specialties, cordero, roasted baby lamb. It was spectacular, so rich with flavor. I am not sure it was the best meal I have ever had, but it certainly was historic. Also the service in this restaurant was the best that I have encountered in all of Spain, top notch. After we were finished eating and just prior to us departing the waiter asked if we would like to see the original wood burning oven, which is still used today. So he showed us to the kitchen and we were able to go inside and see it. This restaurant was small, but quite charming.

Museo del Prado

Madrid is well known for its Prado Museum, which features one of the world's finest collections of European art. It contains over 1,300 paintings as well as other pieces that range from the 12th-19th centuries. Most of the artist are Spanish, some of the most famous include: Goya, El Greco, and Diego Velázquez.

This weekend I had two friends visit from DC, Jessica and Kondi. On Sunday I took them to the Prado (there is not an entrance fee on Sunday afternoons, always nice for college students). I was suprised by the amount of paintings and the wonderful quality in which they remained. I was a great experience to see some the world's finest paintings. I have seen some them in books like Las Meninas by Velázquez (the picture to the left). We were not able to see all of the paintings because we did not have much time, but I do have a good idea of what I would like to go back to see. Of course we were not allowed to take pictures, but I still enjoyed it.