Cathedrals, palaces and a little southern sun

Two weekends ago, we took our first real trip out of Barcelona.  I say real because we had to take a plane. Even though this was the first time back to the airport since arriving in Barça, we made it without getting lost! that's pretty impressive actually. anyways, we took off at 9am and landed in Sevilla about an hour and a half later.  From the airport, we took a bus to our hotel, dropped our stuff off in our rooms, and headed out for our first day of touristing.

Day 1: Sevilla 

(i just learned how to put pictures inside my post, so this one is going to be loaded. just warning you.  

This is the view from the top of La Giralda, explained later!)

The weather was beautiful as our group walked a couple of blocks to the Old neighborhood of Sevilla (yes, every city in Spain has one),  The guided tour of the historical area was very interesting, but also very long.  The first part of the tour was to get us a little bit more acclimated to our new surroundings, giving details not only about the history of the city, but also the best places to shop and eat, (Andalusia, the region of which Sevilla is the capital, is known for its delicious tapas!) of which we took full advantage :) after our lunch break, the second part of the tour consisted of 2 hours inside the Catedral de Sevilla (again, every Spanish city has one), the third largest cathedral in the world, after St. Peter's and St. Paul's.  It is the home to one of 4 tombs of Cristobal Colon (aka Christopher Columbus), and holds about 125 g of his ashes...so maybe an arm or a leg...The inside of the cathedral was more than impressive, and the history behind it was also very cool. We even got to see some royal treasure, including the keys to the city :)

Catedral de Sevilla from the back (la Giralda is the tower on the right)

After our cathedral tour, we were allowed to climb up La Giralda, a 12th century Arabic minaret that stands 343 ft tall.  Originally it was used to call the times of Muslim prayer, so instead of stairs, ramps were built so the guy could ride his horse cart up and down five times per day, instead of climbing the zillion stairs it would have taken to reach the top.  However, we still had to walk, even though horse carts lined the streets.  But the view from the top made it worth it!  From the top of the now bell tower you can see the entire city of Sevilla.  After our day of touring, we were pretty exhausted so we got dinner, and headed back to the hotel.

Day 2: Cadiz

On Saturday we boarded the bus bright and early to travel 2 hours southwest to the island of Cadiz.  This city is much smaller than Sevilla, which is much smaller than Barcelona.  Again we started the day with a tour, this time on a bus because it started to rain a bit.  Once again we ventured to the old neighborhood of the city...apparently this is always the coolest part of every city.  After about 20 minutes, we stopped at the only beach in this part of Cadiz, La Caleta.  It is situated between two 17th century castles, San Sebastian and Santa Catalina, the latter in which we actually walked around.  As the day went on, and the weather got nicer, we continued our tour on foot, hitting some major plazas and buildings of Cadiz (yes, this did include a cathedral, and another tower that we climbed).  For lunch we stopped at a place that served authentic Andalusian comida, all of which was fried and delicious!  After the tour was over, we walked around in smaller groups for a while, later ending up back at La Caleta to take some pictures in the sun.  All in all, it was a nice day on the little island!

Day 3: Sevilla (otra vez)

We spent our last day of the weekend back in Sevilla, exploring el Palacio Royal, where the king of Spain (yes, there is still a king of Spain) stays when he visits the area.  It was full of intricately designed rooms, hundred year old paintings and beautiful gardens, home even to a few colorful peacocks.  It was all gorgeous and the warm, summery sun made it that much better; I even wore shorts!  We spent a couple of hours walking around inside the palace and outside in the gardens, enjoying the lovely weather before we headed back to the hotel to grab a quick bite to eat and hop on the bus that would bring us back to the aeropuerto.  It was definitely great to get outside of Barcelona for a weekend and see what else Spain has to offer! 

Update to come soon (I hope!) from my weekend trip to Paris! Love you all!

The day I almost died in the metro.

Dear friends and family, sincerest apologies if any of you have been waiting in anticipation for my next blog. I thought i posted this last thursday, but I only saved it as a draft. however, its still a story worth sharing so...

Finally, I have another funny story to tell you. Today, I almost died. I know it doesn't really sound that funny,
but just wait. Technicalllllyyy, it was sort of my own fault, but i think its fair to blame them dumb metro control people who insist on checking passengers tickets to make sure no one is cheating the system.  It wouldnt have been bad, but the insistttt on doing so right as you get off the metro.  So here's the story, Andrea and I were heading to get lunch and instead of walking the 1/2 mile down the street, we decided to be lazy and take the metro.  As we're walking to get on to the train, we realized it was the wrong one. So we turned around to catch the right train, and were greeted by a line of metro police(the mall cops of the metro) asking to check the tickets of everyone on the platform.  It was a little annoying but not a big deal until I couldn't find my card, that was weird because I always put it in the same place in my bag.  I knelt down to dig through it, thinking I must have just shoved it in there somewhere when I went home to get some money for lunch.  As I was pulling everything out, the train behind us left, sending a strong gust of wind along the platform.  At that moment, I finally found my ticket; at the same time that the gust of metro wind found my 20E bill, so carefully thrown in my bag, on top of my school books.  I watched as the wind carried my money down the platform, in slow motion.  My first instinct, of course, was to run after it. so I did. until i realized jumping down on to the train tracks only to be greeted by the oncoming train, although daring and adventurous, probably wasn't worth it.  So there I stood, helpless and now 20E poorer. When the metro cops saw the look on my face, they asked what had happened, and after I explained my situation, they realized they had the chance to be heroes for the day.  And they all wanted in on it.  Literally 10 of them ran to the edge, searching intently from the platform for the prize. One of them spotted it while another ran to get the "dueno" of the station.  He came over, evaluated the situation and decided that, to the dismay of the hopeful faces gathered in the area, there was not enough time to grab the bill before the next train came, but if it was still there after the train left, he would go get it for me.  looked like i'd be 20E poorer after all.  30 seconds later, the next train pulled into the station at lightning speed, sending another gust of wind down the platform and covering the prize. time seemed to stop as the crowds moved on and off, the doors closed, and the train left.  everyone held their breath, while one brave soul peeked over the edge to see the damage.  he yelled in excitement, it was still there! the flimsy paper bill had withstood the violent gust from the enemy and hadn't moved at all, ni siquiera an inch! the manager of the station ran down the steps for the recovery, fumbled the ball twice, but finally returned the money safe into my hands...which i presently shoved right back where it had been before, just begging another metro tornado to rip it away from me once again (but thankfully that didnt happen).  Nowadays, i steer clear of the metro police, or just pretend i dont speak spanish when they ask me a question...

another update to come soon!

To Girona...and beyond!

This weekend, Andrea and I decided we needed to do something productive. So, instead of walking through all the shops in central Barcelona, we hopped on a train bound for Girona, a city about 100 km northeast of Barça.  It was our first time on the real train, RENFE (the metro doesn't count), and we were both a little nervous.  But we figured we were going the right direction when we started to see grass and gas stations, that's how you know you're leaving the city.  After about an hour and a half, we got off at the Girona station with zero sense of what to do next.  I had researched some attractions in the city and some neighboring areas, but conveniently left the list right on my desk next to my laptop on my way out the door.  So, we decided the best thing to do was get a map, yes, we are college students.  After ten minutes of contemplating between the tourist guide book (in french because there was no english) and the standard, un-foldable paper map, we decided the latter was the more economical and useful selection.  We purchased our map and were on our way into the city.

We walked for about ten minutes before deciding we actually might want to consult the map we had just purchased.  But of course it wouldn't really be a trip with Andrea and Keri without getting a little lost. Personally I think it makes things interesting, Andrea doesn't necessarily agree...side note...if someone asks us for directions to a certain place, we usually start with..."oh yeah. we passed it that one time we got lost. no, not that time, the time after that."...anyways, we sat down with our map for a few minutes, figured out where we were, planned a route and headed towards the Barrio Vell ('Old Neighborhood' in Catalan) in search of las murallas.  On the way, we encountered a river, lined with bright colored buildings, and of course had to stop on the bridge to snap a couple photos.  After a bit more walking, we found our way to la muralla de Girona.  The muralla is a stone wall, constructed between the 9th and 15th centuries, that surrounds the old part of the city.  We climbed the stairs and walked on the wall for about 40 minutes.  From the top you could see all of Girona.  It was such a nice day and it was really cool to get an aerial view of where we had just walked.  When we came down from the wall, we walked around aimlessly for a minute or two (because we had no idea where we were) before happening upon the Catedral de Girona, quite an impressive building.  We had been able to see it from the wall, along with the Torre de Girona, but up-close and personal was a much cooler view.

From the catedral we walked back down into the city area, grabbing lunch and some dessert on the way.  By the time we got back to the train station, we were exhausted and Andrea slept most of the train ride home.  All in all, it was a really great day trip!  Next weekend is Sevilla and Cadiz with CIEE so that should be fun! love and miss everyone at home! Love, Keri

PS. I put up about 100 new pictures from Girona.  If you want explanation of anything, just lemme know! :)

Dear Barcelona...love your beaches. Your fitness centers, not so much.

This, I admit, is not entirely true.  But let me explain. During CIEE orientation we were each given a card for a fitness center, The Holmes Place, that included a free trial AND a special CIEE student rate, 162 E for Jan-Apr., which seemed kind of steep for a special student discount.  However, Andrea and I decided to visit considering we had a free trial, and we might as well use it.  So we went to the gym to work out one night, and fell in love with it. It was such a nice facility, very classy, and had everything you could want in a gym.  But we decided that, since we would be missing out on our membership for all of January and half of April (when we have vacation), it really was too expensive for 2 and a half months.  So instead we thought we would look for other gyms to try...well, we had good intentions to anyways.  But on Sunday, after church and una 'cena fraternal', we decided to visit the beach.  It was a beautiful day, and the beach was more than impressive. we took tons of pictures and walked around for over an hour, taking our shoes off and walking in the sand.  I was in love...momentarily scarred by the very tanned naked man casually strolling along the shore, yes, but even that unfortunate event wouldn't deter me from returning to this beautiful place when the weather got warmer.  And then we realized, the weather is already starting to get warmer.  Spring would be upon us in no time, and we both decided it might be a good idea to hit the gym once or twice before pulling out the old bathing suits.  So, after classes today, (well. class. I was supposed to have 2 but the first one got canceled, 2nd canceled class in two days, and it's only the second day of classes. I think i like how they do school here in Spain... :D ) Andrea and I started looking for another gym to try.  I found one online that looked really nice and was advertising a whole month for free without promise of membership! just to be sure I called to get the details and see if we could try it out...yes mom, I called. and even spoke to the women in Spanish.  Sadly, their advertising wasn't quite accurate and the free month was only for people who were going to register.  So back to the drawing boards.  After a few quick searches, I found another gym that is apparently very impressive.  I plugged in a bit of info and got a quote for prices.  When i saw 13.62 E for the ONE package, i was excited.  However, after further investigation, we figured out that it meant you could go once a month, for 13.62 each month.  But after plugging in names and email addresses, we were awarded with a free pass for the gym.  Considering we had nothing else to do, and once again had a free pass, we figured why not try this gym too.  So we hopped on the metro and in no time were at DiR Barcelona.  It looked nice, not as chique as Holmes Place, but good enough for free.  Right after walking through the doors, we were greeted by an enthusiastic, fancy Spanish man, David (dah-VEED).  He pulled us over to the counter, explaining the memberships and everything about the gym, pulling out brochures with all kinds of information.  Then he wanted to know which one we wanted.  We were a little confused.  We told him we wanted to see the gym before we actually made our decision, thinking we could use our free passes and that would be that.  However, we were sadly mistaken.  Yes, David showed us the gym, we got a grand old tour all the way through. and then out. back to the counter again. without even breaking a sweat.  You see, the "free pass" we had received for the gym meant that the registration fee was waived for this month, making the registration for February only 47E.  Neither of us were prepared to, nor really wanted to, become members of the gym, but David insisted, telling us it was such a great offer.  Andrea wanted to know why, because we couldnt really see the wonderful offer, and he explained that usually the registration fee is 130E, so THAT'S what was free this month. but not next month...or the one after.  After trying to let him down gently, not refusing to become members, but insisting we would first have to talk to our parents about it, we booked it out of there, not turning back for fear that David might be crying.  So that ended up being a fail.  But, I had seen online that if you wanted to go to Holmes Place for one day, instead of getting a monthly membership, it was 15E.  It ends up being much more expensive paying that way, of course, if you go a lot, but we figured we just wanted to go to the gym and 15E was better than David and his 130+47E, any day. Plus, Holmes Place is on the next street over from DiR Barcelona.  So we hurried over there to get in even an hour of working out before it would be time for dinner.  We walked in and asked the receptionist how much it would cost for one day, just to make sure, and she confirmed the 15E...PERO, (there's always a pero) you have to get it for 5 days, not just one. There's a big difference between 15 and 75. at that point, we were just so fed up, we decided our exercise for the night was skipping the metro and walking home.  So, I was sitting here in my room, contemplating doing jumping jacks on my balcony and sit ups on my tile floor, when i remembered the Parc de la Ciutadella that we visited a couple weeks ago.  So now, we will finally get our exercise.  Tomorrow we're going for a run through the park at 8:30 am, that is, unless the metro randomly stops working or the park ends up being closed for the day.  But with our luck, who knows.  More exciting stories later. 

Sincerely,
Fitness Failure

Wind in the sails

So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” ~ Mark Twain

at the moment, I am feeling like quite the world traveler, although I still have yet to go anywhere of great merit.  Don't get me wrong, coming to Barcelona to study so far has been more than what I imagined, but everything was planned for me, all the details taken care of, which was a great thing for me, being not so detailed-oriented.  But when I bought the plane tickets for my first real viaje while being abroad, I felt like I could conquer the world.  Yes, i know this seems a bit dramatic, i mean all i did was pick a day, time and airport from which to leave and to return, but once I clicked the button to purchase the tickets, there was no turning back.  Now I have to figure out my own details.  I have to do the planning, and i'm not going to lie, that kind of scares me.  Now most of you know that I tend to be a little bit disorganized, and at times more than a little bit, and to be able to figure out all the details for these trips that we're planning, i'm going to need to be on my A-game.  

So, for this first excursion, the wind is blowing me in the direction of France...Paris, to be exact.  I will be spending three nights and four days in Paris with Jes and her friend Francesca for Jes' birthday.  They will take the train down from Maastricht and I will fly in from BCN, all three of us foreigners making our entrance into Paris at 10 am on Friday the 25th of February.  The plan is to meet at the Eiffel Tower (cliché I know, but hey, when in Paris...) and from there go exploring through the city.  I'm hoping since my French is a liiiiittle bit rusty (I know the alphabet, how to count to three and say fish...thanks to the little mermaid) that I can count on my trusty pal to translate for me.  We will be staying at Plug-inn Hostel, upon the recommendation of Francesca, since she has stayed there before.  

Although its still three weeks away, even the idea of going on this trip is making me nervous, I feel like a little kid on their first day of kindergarten: pretty excited, and glad to be going, but ready to pee my pants or burst into tears at the hint of any obstacle I might encounter (hopefully none of which will happen...however if it did, i'd have another story to add to the collection...and let's be real, its hard to not be entertained by the unfortunate, humiliating mishaps of a novice traveler such as myself).  

But alas, it is time for me to say buenas noches and get some sleep before my final tomorrow.  Hope all is going well for everyone, and that i haven't been boring you too much.  Feel free to leave suggestions at the bottom of the page. Besos. ~Keri

Caminata y Calçotadas

Took my first exam on Friday, and I think it went pretty well  :) I have a paper, presentation and final exam this week so lots of work to do before I finish this intensive class and finally start semester classes.

Saturday was a break from schoolwork and studying for another group outing, this time up a mountain, Tibidabo.  The day started out beautiful and only got better as we hiked, uphill, for about an hour and a half, to a little restaurant on the mountain.  There we ate a typical Catalan meal, starting with calçots, charred leeks that you peel and dip in some mystery sauce before eating them above your head. needless to say it was quite the scene. The meal consisted of calçots, pa amb tomacat (bread with tomato), salads, potato tortilla, grilled potatoes, grilled veggies, some sort of meat, and a lemon custard cake for dessert.  I then realized the point of the hour and a half walk prior to the meal was to make us hungry enough to be able to eat it all!  luckily, we took the ferrocarriles back to the city center. 

Sunday was another opportunity for cultural experience.  Andrea and I got up early to go with her host mother to the CaixaForum, a social cultural center in Barcelona that, at the moment, has exhibitions of artwork by Picasso and Dali.  I really liked the exhibit called Rutas de Arabia, which included at least 300 pieces of ancient art from Saudi Arabia.  They also played some documentaries about Bolivia and Colombia, all very interesting stuff. 

Today, we took a field trip with the program to Poble Sec, a barrio just south of my apartment.  We had been talking about the Spanish civil war in class and got to watch a great movie called El Lengua de las Mariposas.  But the point of the field trip was to see what the bomb shelters, bomberos, were like in Barcelona during the 30's.  It was a really cool tour of one of the shelters that was constructed into the side of the other Barcelona mountain, Monjuic.  

However, you will be surprised to know that I think I have been cured of the 'rebajas' disease.  After shopping with Andrea and my host mother in the rain last night, and again today for a couple hours, although today in the sun, I have been frustrated with the shopping scene one too many times to actually enjoy it now.  I'm guessing this is just a phase, and might not last long, but for now, i can't even look at another price tag or sale sign. 

well that's the update for now, and since all that unsuccessful shopping made me exhausted, I think it's time for a siesta! :) love you and miss you all!

a deiu!
~Keri