Nick's visit & Sevilla!

Last week, Nick was here on his spring break, and even though I had classes, we still got to hang out and see some really cool things. On Saturday morning I picked Nick up at the airport in Madrid! We stayed in Madrid for the weekend, and it was actually sunny and warm for a change. Saturday night we went to el Museo del Jamón, and then el Museo del Vino, neither of which are actually museums. In fact, they are both restaurants- Museo del Jamón is a tapas bar, where we got drinks and 2 sandwiches-very delicious! Museo del Vino was more of a sit-down place-we each got a Menu del Día and I don't remember exactly what we ate, but I remember it being delicious. The next day we went to Starbucks and got a frappuccino (don't judge, Córdoba doesn't have a Starbucks so it's not like I go there every day) and then we walked in the Parque del Buen Retiro- it's this huge park behind the Prado Museum and it is filled with the coolest and weirdest trees and plants. These trees look fake, but they aren't.



After we walked in the park for a while, we went to the train station and took the train to Córdoba! We spent the week in (fittingly) Hotel Boston, a nice little hotel right in the center of the modern part of Córdoba known as Plaza de las Tendillas. We did quite a bit of walking around Córdoba, and we went to the Mezquita, the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos (The Christian Kings' Castle), Puente Romano (Roman Bridge) and other various adventures into parts of Córdoba that I had never been before! Somehow Nick managed to find his way around the city better than I can-and I've been here for almost 2 months! It's not fair.

On Friday we went to Sevilla for the day. The weather was GORGEOUS-probably 75 degrees F. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see very much in Sevilla, because the president of Spain, Zapatero, was in town for a meeting with his government ministers. They had the meeting at the Alcázar, so we didn't get to see it, which was really disappointing, because I've heard that the Alcázar has even nicer gardens than the one in Córdoba! Oh well, I get to go back in a few weeks when my family comes to visit! We did get to see the Cathedral in Sevilla. It's a huge gothic cathedral-the 3rd largest in the world! There is a really cool tower that people can climb up, but because it was a holiday in Madrid, everyone and their mother came to Sevilla for the day, so the line was really long! Another thing to do when I go back. The cathedral houses the remains of Christopher Columbus-supposedly. I forget exactly what the story is, but somehow his remains were confused with his son Diego because originally they were both buried in Havana, Cuba, the last remaining Spanish colony. After Cuba became independent, Spain wanted Columbus' remains back, so they shipped them back, but according to some, they shipped back Diego's remains instead, which Spain refused to believe. So for a while, both Spain and Cuba claimed that they had Christopher Columbus' remains. Recently, they did a DNA test with the remains in the cathedral in Sevilla and compared them to the remains of Columbus' OTHER son, who was definitely buried in the cathedral. The relationship between the DNA confirmed that the remains belonged to a father and a son, thus putting an end to the battle over Columbus.

So that was last week. This week was just another regular week in Córdoba...classes and dance and such. Semana Santa (Holy Week) starts today in Spain, so everyone is on vacation! Tomorrow morning I am going to LONDON to meet up with Courtney from Mount Holyoke! Can't wait!

Quick Entry

It's so weird to think that I've already been in Spain for a month. It still feels like I just got here. I finally have a routine for the week that is fairly consistent. I don't have more than 2 classes per day, and Monday-Wednesday I either have flamenco, sevillanas (another traditional type of dance) or both. I was really committed to trying some new things this semester, and look what happened-I end up taking 2 dances classes! I am trying something new though-tomorrow I am going to a cooking class to learn how to make paella! We cook for 2 hours and then we get to eat what we make. In the last cooking class they made sangria, which I was very sad to miss. But then again I was in Italy, so I wasn't that sad. On Saturday I am heading to Madrid again to meet up with Nick, who is coming to Spain for his spring break!

In other news, it has FINALLY stopped raining here in Córdoba! I think they are expecting another few days of rain in the near future before it really starts turning nice, but it's definitely a welcome change to see sunshine on the weather forecast for the week!

Well, I think that's all I have for the moment. A week from tomorrow we are going to Sevilla for the day, so I will be able to talk about that in my next entry! Hasta pronto!

Italia!

So this weekend I went to Italy with Alex, another PRESHCO student. We had a BLAST except for some minor transportation issues that resulted in us living in airports for a couple of days, eating way too much junk food and not sleeping. But other than that, we had a great weekend! We stayed at a hostel in Rome that was close to the train station, and since we got the "Roma Pass," we could take the metro as many times as we wanted for free within 3 days. In addition, we got free entry to the Colosseum, Forum, and Palantine Hill, all of which were really cool. Our tour guide for the Colosseum was less than entertaining...he kept pointing out really inappropriate things and making bad jokes. Here's me with a gladiator outside the Colosseum!



After we saw the Colosseum we were supposed to follow the same guide to the Forum, but we hadn't eaten lunch yet so we ditched the group and found a restaurant nearby that had really good pizza. After lunch we went back to the Forum to try to meet up with another group, but it didn't seem like there were any, so we walked around by ourselves, with the help of Rick Steves. We stayed in the forum until it closed, and then we went back to the hostel, where they had a pasta party! We got pesto that was quite delicious. After dinner, we saw the Spanish Steps, Trevvi Fountain, and we ate our first gelato of the trip! Unfortunately, in our eagerness for gelato, we went to a chain restaurant where only half of the ice cream was gelato and the other half was just regular sorbet. It was still pretty good though.

The next day, we took the fast train to Florence for the day! We went to the Accademia and saw David, which is bigger and far more impressive than I had ever imagined. The sculpture room was also pretty cool-hundreds of plaster sculptures that served as the rough draft before the actual stone or cement statue was created. We had lunch at Za-Za's, a really delicious restaurant that I have now been to three times in my life! I ate gnocci and a caprese salad, which were absolutely delicious! After lunch, we went to the duomo, which is the big cathedral in the center of the city. We elected not to climb the dome even though it was an option, because we were planning on climbing St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican the next day! After the duomo, we walked for miles and miles down by the river, crossing back and forth until we got to the Ponte Vecchio. We also went to Vivoli for gelato, which is one of the best (if not the best) gelato places in Florence :-D

On Sunday, we got up early to go to the Vatican, but not nearly as early as we probably should have. The line for the Vatican Museum (Sistene Chapel, etc) was 3 1/2 hours long and it went all the way from the entrance of the museum to St. Peter's Square! At first we weren't planning on doing a guided tour, but when we realized that the tours get to skip the line, (and since admission was free anyway since it was the last Sunday of the month so all we had to pay for was the tour) we decided to join a tour group. Definitely one of the best decisions we made on the trip. Our tour guide's name was Mateo, and he was excellent! He really knew his stuff and he was really passionate about it. I actually learned a lot that I definitely would not have learned if we had gone by ourselves. The museum was really cool in general, but of course the most amazing thing was the Sistene Chapel. They say that you aren't allowed to take photos in there but EVERYONE does-and some people even leave the flash on! Scandalous! What is perhaps most impressive about the Sistene Chapel is that Michelangelo wasn't even a painter-he was a sculptor! He had never painted anything before in his life! And since he was painting a fresco, there was literally ZERO room for error, because if you have to fix one spot, everything around it will be ruined. In fact, Michelangelo only made one error in the whole damn thing-in the first panel he painted, he made the people too small. What a travesty! So anyway, in addition to the Vatican Museum, we also went in St. Peter's Basilica AND climbed the dome! Check out this picture that I took from the very top: you can see all of Rome!



Later on, we went to the Pantheon and on our way we stopped for gelato. We saw this gelato place that was very crowded, so we assumed it must be good, so we went in. It was definitely the best gelato I have ever had in my entire life. Later on, we learned that the place we had been to was Giolitti, the oldest and most famous gelato place in all of Rome! Sweet!

And now the nightmare begins! The next morning we made it to the airport with plenty of time to catch our flight. Our flight was supposed to leave at 10:15, and we were at the gate by 9. Our tickets said that the flight was leaving at 10:15, but the board said 10:40, so we assumed that there was a slight delay, so we sat there, waiting for them to call our flight. At 10:15 we still hadn't boarded, so I went to ask the woman at the counter what time the flight would be boarding. Her response? The flight left 5 minutes ago! Aaaaaaaaah! Not only did they not announce the flight, we did not see any people lining up to get on the plane! It was probably because all of them missed the flight as well-I know of at least 20 people who were in the same situation as us, and all of them were very angry. So we had to find a new flight home. Easyjet only had one other flight to Madrid that day, and it was completely full, so we had to find a different airline and pay for a whole new ticket. We ended up with Vueling, and the plane wasn't scheduled to leave until 8:45 pm, nearly 12 hours later than our intended departure time. So what did we do? We sat. In the airport. All. Day. Long. When our plane finally left, we arrived in Madrid at 11:30 pm. Of course, there are no buses or trains at that hour, so we sat in Madrid's airport. All. Night. Long. At 6 am, when the metro opened, we left the airport and went to the train station, where we got on the first train we could get back to Córdoba! Oh man. We were traveling for over 24 hours straight. I'm so glad to be back in Córdoba again!