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.

Cuaresma begins

So yesterday kicked off the Lenten season, also known as Cuaresma in Spanish. I have decided that a my Lenten sacrifice I will not be speaking English, except with my family because they do not know Spanish. This is quite a challenge since my firends here are from the U.S. and we usually speak English. I did good job yesterday so I hope that I can continue with it.

There is not much else that is exciting. I have been doing a lot of work for my classes. I have a lot of reading espcially for my Economics class. I have started to put together a dictionary of important economic terms in Spanish. For example GDP, Gross Domestic Product is PIB in Spanish, Producto Interior Bruto. Also I cannot believe that I have been here for over a month already. Time just flew by me. I am finishing the third week of class out of 12 weeks... Yeah 25% completed.

Segovia- Aqueduct and Castle

I went on a day adventure on Friday to Segovia. It is about 1.5 hours outside of Madrid. The trip began with us going to the train station and finding out that the ticket price had doubled since the night before. So we decicded to take a bus instead which left from the other side of town. We got on the Renfe Cercanias (it is a mix between metro and commuter rail). The line we went on goes in a loop, but we did not know that the direction we were headed was a lot longer than the other direction so we passed through deserted areas that probably were not even in Madrid. So we arrived in Segovia and our first stop was the aqueducts. They were absolutely marvelous. These aqueducts were built by the Romans at the end of the first century and do not have mortar or braces holding them together. They reach up 11o feet off the ground... just amazing. There was a road that used to go through it, but it is closed because the air polution was harming the aqueduct. I think this is one of the oldest thing I have seen.

After we headed to the Cathedral which was built in 1525 and is in gothic style. I was not my favorite. I decided that I would like these types of cathedrals a lot more if they did not have the gates every where. It looks like a prison inside. Other than that it was similar to the one in Toledo.

Next we headed to Alcazar. It was built on a Roman temple and expanded several times. It was later used as prison for 2 centuries and then a royal artillery school, in which there was a fire that gutted the place in 1862. It was immediately reconstructed. The silhouette is believed to have been a
model for the Walt Disney logo. This castle was neat... not too extravegant. There was also a huge museum about the school with all kinds of knights and weapons and stuff. The best part was that we got to climb 159 stairs to the top of the tower. There were so many great views. I would just like to say that Spain is so diverse in its landscape. On one side of the castle there are hills with lots of pine trees and directly on the other side there are cliff and cayons and desert type of vegetation.

Segovia was our best day trip yet.

Weekend Expedition to Granada

I don't even know where to begin with this one. Well I went to Granada this past weekend. The bus left at 8:30a and it took over 6 hours to drive there. It was not too bad, I was able to see the countryside and beautiful part of Spain. Then we arrived to what we were told would be a hotel and it ended up being a 7 person room in a hostel (luckily the other 6 people are my friends). Oh forgot to mention on the bus ride there we made friends with 3 Italian students (I love when they speak Spanish because it is with an Italian accent). They thought that I looked like Zach Efron After arriving we took a little walking tour around the city and we saw some cool buildings, plazas, churches, etc. Following that we had dinner at a Moroccan restaurant that was realitively inexpensive and the food was amazing. We had a pitcher of sangria which was different because it had sticks of cinnamon in it, a little different flavor. After dinner we took a bus up small roads to a look out place on a hill. From there we were able to see the famous Alhambra at night with all the lights... so amazing. Then we went to a Flamenco dance (I think that I am bit sick of the Flamenco now). I call it an undergroud speakeasy because it was in a cellar of a neighborhood and they served us sangria or beer, it was a bit sketch. I ended up falling asleep near the end of the show and then one of the dancers took me by the hand to dance with her. I guess she has never seen a white boy try to dance.

On Saturday we headed up to the mountain where the Alhambra is located. Our tour began at 1:30. It was absolutely spectacular. The entire thing was just unbelievable. It only took 20 years to build. It shows the great influence that Moors had in Spain. I am including a link so that you can see some more pictures. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2054555&id=21204555&l=bec20 There were also so many beautiful gardens and fountains (water is something that is extremely valued in Arab culture). I am so glad I was able to see it because it was the most memorable thing I have done yet. Everyone needs to see this because you will just be amazaed by it. The Alhambra is so huge. I thought that is was 2 rooms and 1 garden, but it is giant. It took us 2.5 hours to walk through it and we did not even see all of the gardens. Following the Alhambra we just went back and realxed for a while. The leaders of our group organized for us to go to a discoteca that night. We even went through the VIP entrance. It was a cool experience.

On Sunday we just realaxed. We had the entire day free to do as we pleased. However it was Sunday and nothing was open, not even the super mercado, El Corte Ingles. We did kind a few little tourist shops that were open. I got my name written in Arabic, well that's what he said he wrote, but who knows. Then in the afternoon we made our trek back to Madrid. Overall, it was a great weekend.