On the road again...

Hola mis amigos!

Happy Monday!  Well it’s back to work now for me, and I actually am motivated to get stuff done and do well.  I haven’t done a lot of real “work” this semester, and I think it’s about time I fulfill my role as a student who is studying abroad, as opposed to vacationing abroad.  This may be a little late (the week after midterms end), but better late than never, right?

Anyway, I got home last night from a wonderful weekend trip to Granada with Victoria.  Granada is the most visited city in Spain, so of course, I had to make sure I saw it.  The biggest attraction is La Alhambra, which is a giant palace that was built by the Muslim Arabs in southern Spain, and then taken over by Ferdinand and Isabella when they reconquered Spain in 1492 and expelled all the Muslims.  As you can imagine, there is a lot of history in Granada!

For this trip, we took a 5-hour bus ride leaving Madrid on Friday morning at 9:30.  The bus system is easy to use and much less expensive than taking the AVE speed trains, although busses are considerably slower.  But for college students, price is the bottom line sometimes.  The scenery on the way to Granada was beautiful—lots of hills, valleys, and orchards.  When we finally arrived in Granada, we got directions to our hostel.  We took the city bus to the cathedral and then wandered through the streets, discovered many plazas, and finally found our hostel.  Thank goodness Victoria’s señora gave her a map of Granada because it would have been significantly more difficult without that tool!  Granada was apparently busy this weekend because we had to book at two different hostels for the two nights because there was nothing available for the second night.  But we stayed at the Funky Backpackers Hostel, which had been recommended by some of our friends, for Friday night.  It was very different from the hostel Madeline and I had in Dublin, but this one was also good.  Our room of 6 girls had its own bathroom and a mini kitchen area with dishes and a fridge.  After checking in and dropping off our bags, we decided to do a little exploring.

Plaza in front of the cathedral

Plaza right by our hostel

Me in front of Funky Backpackers... the sign says "funky" :)

Using the handy map Victoria had, we wandered through the city.  We first stopped at the cathedral steps to rest and enjoy the sunshine for a bit.  Then we headed to Plaza Nueva and got some ice cream.  The map makes the city look a lot bigger than it really is, so we actually ended up walking all over Granada.  We found the spot to catch a bus to La Alhambra and then found our second hostel where we would stay Saturday night.  Most of the time, we came to an intersection and just picked a street to follow.  It was awesome because we were rewarded with so many amazing views.  There wasn’t a wrong direction to go, even when we got a little “lost”!  Around 6, we decided to head back to the hostel to rest and freshen up a bit before the tapas tour at 8:30.  Our hostel offered several free tours, and one of them was a tapas tour, so we decided that would be a good way to get some dinner and maybe meet some people.

The cathedral

River

Me in a plaza in front of La Alhambra (up on the hill)

Amazing view of La Alhambra, with the Sierra Nevada mountains in the background and palm trees up close!

When we went downstairs for the tour, several of the other girls from our room were going on it, as well as some Spanish guys (I don’t actually know if they are Spanish, but they were speaking Spanish, so I’m just assuming).  Our tour guide was a native from Granada.  He took us to the first place and then set us free.  It was very interesting—totally different from the tapas tour that I did with Dad, Maggie, and Michael in Sevilla.  Our guide for this tour hung out with his friend and all of the Spanish guys and did not talk to or advise the rest of us.  But that’s okay.  We got “tinto de verano” which is like sangria, and then little tapas.  Victoria got pork with pineapple, which was excellent, and I ordered chicken in Thai sauce, which was good but spicy.  The tour was somewhat boring though, since it was taking so long and we were tired.  So, we decided to go to the second place and then go home.  The next bar was a little better—I had a glass of white wine, and the tapas consisted of some pasta and a Panini-like sandwich.  Pretty yummy.  After that, we headed back to the hostel and went to bed.

On Saturday, we had to wake up very early (6 AM) to go to La Alhambra.  We did not buy tickets in advance because our trip was organized a little last minute, so we had to get to the ticket office early to make sure we could get in.  We got up to La Alhambra at 7:10, and the ticket office doesn’t open til 8, which we knew, but it was not very fun waiting in line.  It was basically still night because it was so dark and cold.  Both Victoria and I wore dresses and just a sweater, so we were unpleasantly chilled.  But we persevered and finally got our tickets.  Then we warmed up a bit with some coffee and donuts.  At 8:30, we went into La Alhambra.  The site has a limited number of guests per day, and a strict schedule of when people can be in different places.  We were assigned to visit the Palacios Nazaries (the main palaces) at 9 AM, so we first walked directly to the Palacios entrance.  The entire complex is beautiful.  The construction is amazing and offers wonderful views of the city.  Unfortunately, I didn’t learn that much about La Alhambra because I was not on a guided tour, but it was still awesome to see everything and take pictures.  And if I am so inclined, I can research La Alhambra very easily thanks to the Internet! I definitely enjoyed seeing La Alhambra and would highly recommend it to anyone who is planning to visit Spain.

Awesome views of Granada

Me in Puerta del Vino or "Wine Gate"

In Generalife

Spectacular

Me on a balcony :)

A view of the cathedral from La Alhambra

This is the view we had from our room at White Nest Hostel--looking right at La Alhambra!

After our half-day visit to La Alhambra, we walked back to our hostel, got our bags, and then found a little convenience store and picked up lunch.  We had sandwiches, an orange, and potato chips.  Cheap, easy, and good.  :)  Then we walked to our second home for the weekend, White Nest Hostel.  When we got to the hostel, we checked in and only spoke Spanish; we were very proud of ourselves for that!  In this hostel, we had our own room, which was very nice because we were exhausted from the early morning and walking all over La Alhambra, so we had a nice siesta for a few hours.  We decided to save money again and went to a supermarket to get food for dinner.  The hostel has a little kitchen that is available for anyone to use, so we made pasta and had some super sweet strawberries.  It was a good dinner and fun night.

Sunday morning we slept in until 9 and then got ready for the day.  We checked out of the hostel and then went on a free walking tour of Granada.  Our guide, Aric, is from Australia and is living in Granada to work on his music (he plays guitar).  He said he works several jobs (does 2 different tours of Granada, teaches guitar lessons, tutors people learning English) but really likes it.  That seems like a life that is far too unstable for me, but if he’s happy, that’s great.  The majority of the tour was close to or exactly the way Victoria and I walked on Friday, which was cool.  Apparently, we did a good job finding the best things in the city!  One thing we did not do on our own but got to do with the tour was walk in an aqueduct.  Aric showed us the river, which is water from the Sierra Nevada mountains, so it was freezing.  But we took off our shoes and socks and walked in the river, climbing into the aqueduct.  It was really cool and something I never expected to be doing that day!  At the end of the tour, we had tapas with the group.  Then we retrieved our bags from the hostel and went to the bus station for our 3 PM bus back to Madrid.

The trip home was uneventful, and I spent the rest of Sunday getting some work done.  I have been sick for the last few days with a cold/cough, and today is probably the worst it’s been.  Needless to say, I have felt better and definitely been in better moods than I am today, but I am actively trying to be a “happy” person.  It’s a struggle when I don’t feel great though...

I would like to give a special Happy Birthday message to my favorite 13-year-old in the world—EMMA!!!!!  :)  Love you so much and can’t wait to see you!

Hasta pronto, mis amigos.

Elizabeth

Birthday!

Hi guys!

It’s my birthday!  And I have to say, I think this is the warmest birthday I’ve ever had (weather-wise, at least!).  It’s been a lovely week in Madrid, which is great, even though I wasn’t here Monday or part of Tuesday, and I’m leaving tomorrow morning for Granada.  Oh well.  :)

Anyway, the past two days have been kind of a whirl wind—getting back from Dublin, taking a really difficult Spanish midterm, writing a long paper for Positive Psychology, planning and celebrating my birthday, and getting ready for another weekend trip.  Yesterday was a normal but busy day—took my Spanish midterm, hung out in the sunny courtyard, went to philosophy, went home and wrote my essay.  Yesterday, for dessert, Maria served strawberries and pineapples with honey on them; I had told her that my favorite fruit is pineapple, and then she gave me some for dessert!  It was delicious.

Last night, I struggled with writing my essay for psychology.  I was just not inspired and definitely not motivated.  Plus, I procrastinated to the extreme, so that didn’t help.  When I was about halfway done, and midnight rolled around, I took a break to open the letters and packages I received for my birthday.  I got cards from both sets of grandparents, two girlfriends (thanks Molly and Emily!), and one from each of my immediate family members.  I was really feeling loved, but it also made me miss home a little.  The packages from my grandparents and my family were awesome.  It’s always nice to know that someone is thinking about me!

This morning, after insufficient sleep, I got up and met with Maria for another English-Spanish exchange.  I was so tired though, and I don’t think it was a very beneficial conversation for either of us.  Then I went to school, printed out my essay, and went to class.  In Positive Psych we discussed “flow” today, which is the feeling of being totally immersed and involved in an activity—to the point where you are not even in the real world.  To get a taste of “flow,” we learned how to juggle using scarves.  It was totally ridiculous looking, but extremely fun.  I haven’t done that since grade school, so it made me feel like a 20-year-old kid!  :)

Today was the first “field trip” for my art history class and we went to the Prado.  We were supposed to meet at 3:30, so I left school at 2:50, but I still can’t figure out that area of Madrid, so I ended up going down the wrong street and had to ask a policeman where the Prado is.  Luckily, I wasn’t too far off track, so I was only a minute late.  But we only spent an hour in the museum because people have class afterward.  It’s a long trek out there for not much time in the museum.  And we don’t get in free, which is disappointing.  Anyway, it was cool to see some of the artwork that we’ve talked about, but now that I’ve been to the Louvre, I doubt anything else will compare.

After the museum, I went back to school and met some friends for our weekly “after class sangria Thursday” event.  Lisa bought me a chocolate egg and Victoria paid for my sangria.  That’s a nice thing about birthdays.  :)  I got home a little after 6 and waiting for me in my room was a beautiful bouquet of flowers from Abi and Maria.  There are 20 flowers—one for each year of my life.  Maria also gave me a lovely copy of Don Quixote in Spanish and wrote a dedication in the cover.  I am so blessed to have been placed in this home.

yay flowers!

To further celebrate my birthday, I went out to a few bars with some friends tonight.  I had a good time, but am completely wiped out from the stress of midterms and lack of sleep.  And in the morning (early in the morning, ugh), Victoria and I leave for Granada, so I gotta pack and then sleep.

Birthday ice cream in Sol with Victoria and Madeline

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week.

All my love,

E

The Emerald Isle

Hi friends!

I’m going to start this post by letting you all know that I will be moving to Ireland in the near future!  Okay, probably not, but that would be cool.  I found, during my weekend in Dublin, that Ireland is a place that I would be able to live.  I have often thought that I would not be able to or want to live in Spain for longer than this semester.  It’s not that I don’t like it here; I just don’t want to settle here indefinitely.  But Ireland, well, that’s a different story.  I think that because the culture is much more familiar to me, I like it more and felt comfortable enough to be able to live there.  It also helped that everyone spoke English.  Communication is much easier in my native language, and when communication is easier, I can meet people and make friends much more easily.  And that’s how it went in Ireland.  Here’s the story of my weekend…

On Saturday, I got up early to finish packing and take the metro to the airport.  Madeline and I met on a metro platform and then went to the airport together.  We flew Ryanair to Dublin, and later learned that an Irish man with the last name “Ryan” was actually the one who started the airline, which is committed to having the lowest fares.  Thank you, Ireland.  Anyway, on the plane, before we took off, the pilot came on the loudspeaker.  About 2 seconds into his announcement, Madeline and I jumped and looked at each other because he had an Irish accent and we totally loved it!  What a good way to start the trip.  When we landed in Dublin, the sun was shining and everything was green and lush.  The grass definitely is greener in Ireland!

From the Dublin Airport, we took a bus to the central bus station, and then walked to our hostel, which was just a block away.  Our home for the weekend was Isaacs Hostel, and we stayed in an 8-bed female dorm room.  That was my first time in a hostel, and it was actually very nice.  We had breakfast included in the price of the hostel, the room was decent, there were several lounges to hang out in, and the location was great.  After we saw our room, we paid for a locker to store our bags and then found a place for lunch.  Following the receptionist’s directions, we went to O’Shea’s for lunch.  There was a soccer game on TV, so there were a few people in the restaurant watching the game.  After waiting a long time, a waitress came by to take our order—I got a “Dubliner,” which was quite similar to an Italian beef sandwich.  Delicious!

Our hostel with bright red doors and windows

After eating, we hopped on the above-ground tram to go to the Guinness Storehouse.  The tour was less of an actual tour of the factory and more of a self-guided exploration of the Guinness museum.  We learned how to make Guinness, saw all the ingredients that they use, and learned about the history of the beer and the Guinness family.  The coolest thing I learned was that the founder, Arthur Guinness, took out a 9,000-year lease on the water that comes from the Wicklow Mountains to use in brewing his beer.  You would definitely need to have a vision and a good business plan to secure a 9,000 year long lease!  At the Storehouse, we got a free sample of Guinness Draught, which I enjoyed, and then a free pint of Guinness Stout.  The stout is served in the Gravity Bar, which is the top floor of the storehouse and offers panoramic views of the city.  It’s a really cool place, and great for enjoying my first Guinness!  It was very interesting to watch them pour the Guinness because it is truly an art in Dublin—it takes 119.5 seconds to properly pour a Guinness!  And then you have to let it sit until it’s completely opaque and black all the way through.  Very interesting.  In the Gravity Bar, Madeline and I actually ran into some other SLU-Madrid students, so we chatted with them while drinking our beers.  It’s a small world.  :)

Outside the Guinness Storehouse

Me in front of a waterfall of water from Wicklow Mountains

My first Guinness

Pints of Guinness Stout!

We left the Storehouse around closing time (I think it was 6:30) and headed back to the hostel.  Isaacs had a deal on Saturday night serving dinner (a burger and a pint of beer) for 5 Euros, so that’s what we did for dinner—saving money!  The food was good, so it was a no-brainer for us.  We ended up eating dinner in the lobby area at the tables, and we sat with two guys from Sweden who are currently working in Dublin.  They were interesting and really liked the U.S. so we had a good conversation.  We also met our roommates—4 girls from Wisconsin who are spending the semester in Sevilla and were in Dublin for the weekend.  There was also one German girl, but she left Dublin early in the morning, so we didn’t really get to know her too much.

Around 10, Madeline and I left Isaacs to explore the Temple Bar area and see the pubs.  On the way, we stopped a group of people to ask for directions.  To be more exact, Madeline asked, “Do you guys know where you are?” to which they responded, “Yes, we live here.”  So, we made friends, and they ended up showing us around for the whole night.  Their names were Rob, Warren, and Ian, and they are all in their early 20s.  They are in a band and had just gotten back to Dublin from playing some shows.  They took us to a nice pub where we chatted and listened to music, and then we met up with some of their other friends for one guy’s birthday party.  All of the people we met were so nice and friendly; it’s definitely easy to talk to Irish people!  When we left around 1 AM, Warren even walked us about halfway to the hostel to make sure we knew how to get home.  They definitely exemplified the quote by William Butler Yeats: “There are no strangers here; only friends you haven't yet met.”

We got up on Sunday around 8:30 to get ready and have breakfast.  At 10:20, we left for a free walking tour of Dublin.  The premise of this business is that tours should be available for everyone, no matter what your budget, and the guides are paid whatever you think they deserve (in terms of a tip at the end).  Interesting idea, but I’m not sure how well it works.  I don’t think I would be willing to work for “free.”  But we had a very nice tour of Dublin from Helena, who is 20 and attends Trinity College.  She was very knowledgeable and interesting, so I learned a lot and saw a ton of the city.  After the tour, the group had the opportunity to go to a pub called O’Neills for a discounted lunch, so we of course took advantage of that.  I had traditional fish and chips, which was great.  Also, fun fact: in Ireland, they have real Diet Coke, not the lame Coca-Cola Light junk.  It was awesome.

Part of Dublin Castle

Georgian building, medieval tower, and Gothic chapel all next to each other

The green that used to be part of the river called "Dubh Linn" or "black pool" -- where the name Dublin comes from

Christ Church Cathedral

View down the River Liffey looking towards the Ha'Penny Bridge

Trinity College

After lunch, we took a coffee break at Starbucks to warm up (the day was rainy and windy, so we were pretty chilled).  Then we wandered through the Temple Bar area, which is fun in the daytime and nighttime.  I took a picture of Temple Bar, which is exactly like the poster of the bar that I had in my dorm last semester!  But now, I have a picture of Temple Bar with ME in front!  I also got a Hard Rock Café Dublin shirt.  :)  Then we headed back to Isaacs to relax a bit before going out.

When we went out on Sunday, we stayed in the Temple Bar area, which is admittedly more touristy, but was very fun.  We met so many people and got to listen to some great music.  Over the weekend, I fell in love with Irish music.  It is so fun and just makes me want to get up and dance!

Me in front of Temple Bar

Irish music!

Anyway, we were out late that night, but still got up early for our bus tour on Monday morning.  Before getting to Dublin, we booked a day trip to Wicklow (where the Guinness water comes from!).  We caught the bus and met our awesome tour guide for the day, an older gentleman named John.  He was actually part tour guide, part life-lesson philosopher, so it was a very entertaining, and sometimes thought-provoking, trip.  The drive to Wicklow was about an hour, and then we got to enjoy the incredible scenery of Ireland.  It was stunning.  The sights were amazing, and it feels peaceful and lovely there.  It even smells clean, fresh, and serene.  Simply wonderful.  We also saw a bridge where one of the scenes from P.S. I Love You was filmed.  That is one of my favorite movies, so it was totally cool to place the shot and envision it.  The Wicklow tour was wonderful and makes me want to go back soon to see the rest of the Irish countryside, especially further out west.

Madeline and me in front of the bridge where the scene from P.S. I Love You was filmed

Entrance to Glendalough, a monastery founded by St. Kevin

This tree is literally bejeweled by the raindrops

Picturesque scenery

Amazing, despite the rain!

When we got back to Dublin, we decided to have a more relaxed night.  We ended up at Temple Bar for several hours listening to the bands.  I just can’t get enough of the music!  And we decided that we should take advantage of our time in Ireland… we can sleep when we’re dead! We stayed out until about midnight and then had to get up at 4:30 to get ready and catch the 5:15 bus to the airport for our 7:20 flight.  Thank goodness there was a Starbucks in the airport!

And that was my brief but amazing trip to Ireland.  I definitely want to go back in the near future because I had such a good time, met lots of wonderful people, felt genuinely at home, comfortable, and happy there, and want to see more of the countryside.  Those are all good reasons to go back, agreed?!

More Irish music

Madeline and me in Temple Bar -- we never wanted to leave!

All right, I hope everyone has been having a good week!  Tomorrow feels like a Monday for me, but it’s already Wednesday, which is fantastic!

Lots of love from Madrid,

Elizabeth