Paris and Amsterdam!!!

Last Wednesday was a national Holiday in Spain (Día de la Hispanidad - Columbus Day) so we got to miss a day of class. Two girlfriends and I decided to take advantage of the day off and make a long weekend for travel to France and the Netherlands!

PARIS

We arrived to a freezing cold Paris on Wednesday afternoon and had to pay 15 Euros to take a bus into the city. We had checked the weather before hand and the temperature didn’t seem like it would be that cold, so we mainly packed shorts and short sleeved shirts. It has barely been below 80 degrees in Sevilla, so we just could not imagine a neighboring country would be so cold. WRONG! We got off the bus in the city and wandered for a minute, shivering and completely lost (none of us speak a WORD of French) and feeling pretty pathetic. It was actually quite funny (looking back now). We finally found a bus map and figured out where we were, and then found a metro station to take us to our hostel called "Oops!" on the Avenue des Gobelins. The hostel was pretty cozy and clean and the walls and shower curtains were, accordingly, green. We made it to our room with plans to take a ten minute power nap and then explore the city – we ended up sleeping for about two hours.

After we finally dragged ourselves out of bed we layered on as much clothing as we could and went to the nearest supermarket to find food for dinner. Then we headed to the Eiffel Tower! The tower was built in 1889 as the entrance arch for the 1889 World’s Fair. A while back I read a book about the World’s Fair (called The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson – an excellent book which I highly recommend) so it was awesome to be there. The Eiffel Tower is the most visited paid monument in the world and for about 40 years was the tallest man-made structure in the world (until the Chrysler Building was built in New York). It was dark by the time we got there. We had heard that it lights up every hour on the hour, so we arrived in perfect time to see the entire thing sparkling with lights. It was incredible! We sat across the street from the tower and bought some delicious crepes (the guy gave us one for free!) and then opened our stash of cheese and wine. We were approached and engaged in conversation by the park-worker Nielson, whom we since have affectionately dubbed “no-tooth-Nielson.” After some strained conversation, we escaped back across the road to the Eiffel Tower where we opened our second bottle of wine. We were having fun and talking and drinking next to the tower when some police came up to us. One pointed to our bottle and said, “Alcohol?” We all looked at each other and kind of shrugged, ready to accept defeat and have the bottle confiscated. Instead, the police made fun of us for drinking cheap wine!! They were very good looking policemen and came back to talk to us a couple more times before we left. We finished our bottle, went to the middle of the tower to see the view from underneath, and then walked briskly back to the metro station (which apparently closes at 2 am so we had to take a taxi). We saw the tower light up three times in all. Definitely one of the most memorable nights of my life.

The next day we woke around 11 am and hopped back on the metro – to the Louvre! The Louvre is the most visited museum and one of the largest art museums in the world. The actual building that the museum occupies is the Palais du Louvre, a former royal palace. The entrance is in the main court, underneath the Inverted Pyramid  (it took us forever to figure that out). We told the lady at the ticket booth that we were students studying art and architecture, advice we were given by some girls we met under the Eiffel Tower, and showed her our visas – and we got in for free!

We saw all of the most popular pieces in the collection:

• Venus de Milo or better known as Aphrodite, Greek goddess of love and beauty – one of the most famous and ancient works of Greek sculpture.
• Winged Victory (or Nike) of Samothrace - 2nd century BC marble sculpture of the Greek goddess Nike (Victory). One of the most celebrated sculptures in the world - notable for its convincing rendering of a pose where violent motion and sudden stillness meet.

• The Mona Lisa - Leonardo da Vinci - considered to be the most famous painting in the world. Once stolen for two years. Most famous for the ambiguity of the expression and the monumentality of the composition. It was one of the first portraits of a person depicted in an imaginary landscape. 
• The Dying / Rebellious Slave – Michelangelo
• Rebellious Slave shows human resistance to the chains of bondage and the temptation to submit to the inevitable.  
• Dying Slave said to depict " that moment when life capitulates before the relentless force of dead matter" 
• Great Sphinx of Tanis - One of the largest sphinxes outside Egypt. The creature was a symbolic representation of the close relationship between the sun god (the lion's body) and the king (the human head), and was the "living image of the king", demonstrating his strength and his close association with Ra.

My favorite was Antonio Canova's statue Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss, a masterpiece of its time said to exemplify the Neoclassical devotion to love and emotion.

After the Louvre, we stopped in to a little café and had lunch - the food was okay but not that great - and then we began our long walk to the Arc de Triomphe. During the walk we stopped into a little chocolate boutique and tried some delicious designer chocolates by Jean-Paul Hévin, passed by L'église de la Madeleine (a Roman Catholic Church designed to glorify Napoleon’s army), and may or may not have seen the President of the French Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy, leave his house (at the Palais de l'Élysée).

Finally we reached the Arc after about an hour of walking, and we saw it at sunset, which was magnificent. The Arc de Triomphe is one of the most famous monuments in Paris and was made to honor the French men that fought and died in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Underneath the Arc, on the first floor, is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which has the first eternal flame in Western Europe and burns in memory of the dead that were never identified in the wars.

Finished with our touring for the day, we took the metro back to our hostel to find KIT in our room! We thought we had the (4 bed) room to ourselves so we had spread our stuff out, and when we came back we found the sweetest guy from Malaysia perched upon one of the beds. We got ready for the night while talking with Kit and then headed out into the cold, destination: Moulin Rouge. We got to the metro and were trying to find out what stop to get off on when we met some French Firefighters (they didn’t speak the best English) who told us that there would be nothing at the Moulin Rouge (it may have been already 1 am by then?) So we followed them to this Australian Bar – which turned out to be TONS of fun! (Side note – French men are incredibly attractive)!!!

The next morning we slept in a little, went to eat lunch at an awesome Chipotle-like burrito place called Boca Mexa, and walked along some back streets heading to the Notre Dame. Shopping was surprisingly very difficult. But it was a beautiful day and a great walk. The Notre Dame was awesome! It is widely considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic Architecture. I loved it so much – I’ve been in a billion cathedrals all over the place but the Notre Dame is, as of now, my favorite of them all. The entire beauty of it was in the architecture and not focused on lots of expensive “things” inside. It felt much less pretentious than a lot of the other cathedrals. It was just very simple and beautiful.

After the Notre Dame we went back to the hostel to grab our bags then left to catch our 5:25pm train to Amsterdam. We were thoughtlessly riding the metro until one of us realized that it was 5:07pm – and we were still two stops and a line transfer from the train station. We RACED through the metro and through the station, wildly asking for directions and making a couple wrong turns, until the hall opened up into the largest and most packed train station I’ve ever seen. We slowed our pace as the feeling began to sink in that we had missed our train (which meant that we would have to buy new tickets at a much more expensive price) until we saw a sign - trains to Amsterdam delayed by 30 minutes. Such crazy luck!!! It still took a minute to find our entrance and we had to walk forever to get on the train...it was such a relief to be finally sitting in our seats.

AMSTERDAM

The train ride was almost 4 hours long and when we arrived to Amsterdam we were SHOCKED at the cold!! It was insane! We stayed with a friend of Leah’s (one of the girls I traveled with), and he had pizza waiting for us when we arrived at the house. We hung out for a little bit and then grabbed a cab and headed to the Red Light District. Amsterdam was beautiful at night. The buildings all have different shapes and there are colorful lights strung everywhere along the edges of houses and bridges – I felt like I was in a big Gingerbread house! The Red Light District was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. We walked by glass door after glass door displaying women (all of whom were actually very beautiful) who were doing their best to seduce men to enter. Leah’s friend walked us through a house that had a different girl standing at every door trying to get us to come in. One saw us and said “Ladies Night Special!” We all felt so sad and had to keep reminding ourselves to just take it for what it is. We stopped into a bar opposite some windows – we watched a creepy man wearing a hoodie and glasses go into a pretty blonde girl's door. She shut her curtain and after a little while she emerged, opened the door, and ushered him out. He looked flustered and thanked her a bunch of times. Then she closed the door, flipped her hair, and was ready to go again. We left the bar and were ready to walk home.

I slept awful that night because it was SO cold! But the next day we woke to a beautiful sunny day and breakfast at the table. After we ate we rented bikes and rode around the city. I hadn’t ridden a bike in forever and it took a little while to get used to…people there are professionals! And they expect you to be good too. I tried my best but ended up riding wobbly in some heavy, zipping bike traffic. It was a terrifying experience. We found a cute little park and sat in the sun for a while, and then biked into town (even more terrifying) and had some wonderful hot chocolate. From there Leah went with her friend to visit his family, so Erin and I walked around town for a long time, ate some delicious little sandwiches, managed to unhook our bikes and ride back to the house, and then got some dessert and sat on a bridge and people watched. It was the perfect day! We met Leah back at the house and the three of us went out for a couple drinks while the boys went off on their own. We popped into a couple little bars, which were cute and VERY social, and then went to meet the boys. Earlier in the day while we were walking around, there was no one out and we wondered what on earth everyone was doing. Well, when we met the boys at the Cooldown Café, we found out. I’m pretty sure the entire town was packed into that little place! We spent the whole night dancing to the widest mix of music I have ever heard and ended up back at the apartment around 6 or 7am.

The next day we slept in, took our bikes back (one of the seats got stolen in the bike area – not our fault so we didn’t get in trouble, though the man at the counter was kind of upset) and went to find the bus to the airport. There was a marathon going on in the city and EVERYTHING was shut down…transportation was absolutely impossible! We ended up having to take a taxi, which was pretty expensive, but it got us there in plenty of time to grab a little food and hop on the plane.

Overall, the trip was awesome! We had such a great time. We thought that people in Paris wouldn’t like us much because we are Americans, but what we experienced there completely shattered that stereotype. Everyone we encountered was SO kind and helpful! People were interested in us - they wanted to know where we were from and how we liked Paris and about our traveling. We talked to quite a few people and not one was unkind. Amsterdam was a little different…people were nice but we ran into the normal few that are a little grumpy. And we dealt with some especially awful people at the airport. The crime rate is generally low in Amsterdam despite their extremely lenient crime, drug and prostitution policies, but at night I felt kind of uncomfortable and held my purse pretty tight. It was just different than being in Spain or France - not better or worse - and I think it’s definitely a place to get used to. It was extremely beautiful during the day though and we had the best time there!

This trip = forever one of my best memories in life.

Lisbon, Portugal

Last Friday morning, bright and early, we met (after being slightly lost and late, along with 50% of the group) to depart for Lisbon, Portugal. It took around 6 hours to get there and it was an incredibly long and uncomfortable bus ride. Because of the laws here, bus drivers get to stop every couple hours or so, so as soon as we would get comfortable they’d make everyone get off the bus for a 45 minute stop. Very frustrating when all of us just wanted to get there! We arrived in the afternoon and some people went to walk around the city – I took a wonderful and much needed nap. 

Later than afternoon we had a little tour of the city which included a visit to Castelo de São Jorge, a Moorish style castle which overlooks basically the entire city. It’s been changed and renovated many times since it was built around the 2^nd century and is now one of the main attractions in Lisbon. Portugal is extremely beautiful (I like Lisbon a lot better than Aveiro, which is where I went in Portugal the first time) and the sights from the top of the castle were incredible. Our directors took us for a walk around the city after the castle, and then we dispersed for the evening by the river underneath the giant clock tower. 

We departed in the evening to try and find a place for dinner, which turned out to be quite difficult. I asked a porter at the hotel where he would recommend (somewhere close, inexpensive and with good food) and he directed us to the “Arkoth Café.” So we followed his direction and walked for FOREVER until finally we asked someone how much closer it was. Turns out he was sending us to the Hard Rock Café! (Which was neither inexpensive NOR close.) We ended up finding a little place alongside the street and all 15 of us piled into this tiny glass hut with a huge pumpkin adorning the entryway. The food was pretty good and the servers were nice. We had to speak in English while we were there – a lot of them speak English. And Portuguese is, in my opinion, NOTHING like Spanish. Also, apparently if you speak Spanish in Portugal, they will hate you. It took all of us a little bit of adjusting.

After dinner we went out to Bairro Alto, which means “Higher District” in Portuguese and is in the center of Lisbon – it’s the “heart of Lisbon’s youth and culture.” The streets were PACKED with people!!! Every street you look down seems absolutely impassable. There are tons of bars and clubs along the streets, but being social and drinking in the streets is much more common than people actually going into the bars. We sampled a couple of the bars but ended up just walking around for a long time, going to an 80’s club (which was surprisingly fun), and left around 3am (things start to close down around 2am).

[Side Note: While we were there we had a lot of people try to sell us drugs (which we were warned about ahead of time, though they were more persistent and frequent than expected). Apparently violent crime isn’t uncommon in Lisbon and drug trafficking, graffiti and vandalism is a problem in the city. Found that out after I got back. I didn’t feel unsafe in the city, but I’m definitely glad I wasn’t out alone at night.]

Saturday morning they had a Cathedral tour scheduled, but a lot of us were tired from the night before so we decided to skip it and sleep in. I woke up around 2pm – before almost everyone else – and began what ended up as one of the BEST days of my life! We slowly assembled and then finally found a little café for lunch (after unsuccessfully attempting to eat at multiple other places and not getting service. A lot of the Portuguese people were actually very unkind and unwilling to help us. You could tell it was an American thing). The food wasn’t that great but the conversation was so it turned out to be pretty fun :)

The streets on Saturday were lined with tons of tables, with vendors selling everything you could think of – art, jewelry, clothing, antiques, trinkets, etc. After lunch we spent a couple hours meandering through the mass of people from table to table. The weather was beautiful and I got some great souvenirs :) We stayed until the section started to close and then decided to walk down to the river to watch the sunset. Randomly, on the way to the river, we encountered the Spanish National Rugby Team!! One of them asked us where McDonald's was and while we were talking suddenly more and more of them kept coming, until we were completely surrounded by probably the most attractive Spanish men I’ve found since I've been here. They invited us to join them, but unfortunately McDonald's wasn’t the most appealing option, so we continued our walk to the river. It was very peaceful and we sat on the rocks in the sand and watched the sun go down over the largest suspension bridge in the world (which has a very similar color as and is often compared to the Golden Gate Bridge).

On our way back, we stopped into a Fashion Week expedition and walked around for a while, which was interesting and fun. We also re-encountered the Rugby team sitting in the main plaza outside McDonald's! We talked to them for a while but had to run to meet the rest of the group to go to dinner at 9. For dinner we chose this little place called “Os Tibetanos” which was right by our hotel. We found out when we got there that it was vegetarian, and we couldn’t read anything on the menu, so we just chose a bunch of food and tried a little of everyone’s…and it turned out to be the most delicious meal ever!!

After dinner we went out again for the night, with a smaller group this time, and found a little bar where some guy with crazy hair was playing guitar. After a couple drinks, one of the girls in our group got up and asked the guitar player if he knew “The Girl from Ipanima” – then she took the microphone and sang it!! And it was beautiful! We were all floored. It was so much fun! After she finished one of the guys in our group and I wanted to dance so we started dancing – and then EVERYONE started dancing (in this tiny little bar)! It was a great time. We stayed out pretty late and I ended up getting back around 6am.

The next morning the bus left at 11 (after a pretty unappealing breakfast) and we had another long ride back. We stopped at the same place for our 45 minute break, and I didn’t have any money left so I laid outside in the grass and enjoyed the peace and the warmth of the sun. It was kind of dry, there wasn’t much around and the trees were crazy looking – I said I felt like I was in the Lion King and then everyone started singing songs from the Lion King. Great way to end a great weekend :)

It’s surprisingly comforting to be back in a country where I can read the signs and actually communicate with people. Portuguese isn’t very appealing to me, so its music to my ears to be hearing Spanish again. Oh, by the way, YESTERDAY WAS MY BIRTHDAY! It was so exciting to celebrate it with my friends in Spain. My Madre here made me a huge and delicious lunch and this incredible apple pie type thing to celebrate – it was so special. The girls and I went to dinner on the river to celebrate and then we sat on a ledge and drank wine and ate my birthday pastries. A bunch of other people from the group came by to hang out and wish me happy birthday too. I couldn’t have asked for anything better!

...and TOMORROW we head to Paris!! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!

It's officially October 6th in Spain, and since I can’t be home with you on your birthday, this post is for you :)

Dad, since I was a little girl, you have always been the person that I admire most in this world. You are my rock. You are my core. You raised me to know the importance of hard work, to be confident in myself, and to never limit my aspirations. You have given me all the most valuable things in life that I could never find through success or money or achievement. All the fun things we have done have enriched my life in so many ways and I have such exciting and wonderful memories with you :) You give me the best advice, which I do and will always listen to, and you have always supported me in anything and everything I have ever dreamed of doing. Because of you, I am strong enough to be where I am today. And because of you I am the person that I am today! You are my heart - I love and I miss you so very much! Happy Birthday to my strong and handsome Daddy!

WITH LOVE from,

Your Baby Girl

Settling into Sevilla

I have to admit - I'm absolutely awful at keeping up with a blog. It’s just so hard! It’s been almost a month since I wrote last and SO much has happened. I’ll try to keep the details to a minimum!

I did get to go to the fire station at the Jerez de la Frontera airport for an evening, which was great fun. Richard gave us a tour of the station, showed us the control room, demonstrated how to slide down the fireman pole, and took us for a ride in the fire truck (I got to spray the water!). We also met all of his firefighter friends and I got to dress up as a firewoman. When he answers the phone in the control room, he always says, “Bombero, Dígame!” So now it’s a joke between the two of us and every time I see him I say it – except, of course, I am “BomberA!”

My fourth day in Sevilla, Richard invited me to dinner with himself and his girlfriend and his two best friends. One of the friends was Joaquin (who hails from Brazil). The place where we ate was very fancy and they kept ordering food and food and more and more food and I was thinking "OH MY GOSH how am I going to pay for my part of this?!" and then “la cuenta” came and Joaquin paid for all of it. Turns out that his dad is the secretary of the largest and most successful bank in Spain and he is, for lack of a better term, loaded.

Also turns out that he has lots of different residences...including an apartment on the beach in Málaga. I had mentioned that I wanted to go to the beach since I had nothing to do before school started (before I knew he had a HOUSE on the beach) and he convinced Richard and Estelle (Richard's girlfriend) to stay at his place there for three days. So we did! The apartment is part of a hotel so the boys got a separate hotel room and we girls stayed in the apartment. It had such a cozy bed and the most comfortable pillow I've ever used in my entire life.

We got there at like 4 in the morning and went for a walk on the beach, which was very peaceful and the stars were incredible with all the lights turned off. Then the next day we had lunch at the port and the bill was 180 Euros. WHAT!? For lunch!? And that's how the entire three days went. Incredibly fancy restaurants, some of the best food I've ever eaten in my entire life, and the most delicious desserts and amazing wine. We slept in late every day and went to a movie one night (which was in Spanish…and excellent!). The boys didn’t like being on the beach very much because they said it was too hot so usually it was just me and Estelle. It was such a luxurious and fun three day vacation and I returned tan (maybe a little burnt), full of good food, and exhausted.

After Málaga I went back to Madrid to meet my new group for the Sevilla program. We did all the same things and I did when I first arrived to Spain – visited the Prado, went to Toledo, toured the Cathedrals. I thought I would be bored but I actually enjoyed it way more the second time. The tours were in English so I understood everything about the history of the paintings and the buildings and we got to see things that we didn’t the first time around. I like my group a lot and the ISA directors in Sevilla, which should come as no surprise, are fantastic and extremely helpful (and fun!).

We started school last Monday, and I am taking three advanced level language classes (though I consider myself by no means advanced in Spanish) and an International Marketing class. It’s rough having class for three hours straight every morning, and then two hours every other evening, but siestas help a lot and we don’t have class on Friday so the weekends are wonderful. My marketing teacher got his degree in the States and is one of the smartest and most funny teachers I’ve ever had. Makes two hours of class go by much faster… (well most days).

Last weekend a group of us went back to the beach at Cádiz. I feel so experienced because I’ve already been to all of these places and know exactly where to go! :) It was, again, a lot of fun. Not as many topless women this time. The water was freezing, but good company can compensate for just about anything.

Last Sunday a group of us booked plane tickets to Paris and Amsterdam for 6 days! Here is my travel schedule (basically every weekend) for the rest of the time I’m here:

-Lisbon, Portugal (this weekend)

-Paris and Amsterdam

-Morocco (5 days sleeping in a tent - or in the dunes if we prefer, which I’m DEFINITELY doing - and riding camels and 4 wheelers)

-London

-Córdoba and Granada

-Ronda

-Italy, Greece and Germany (TBD)

Some of the students here are doing a whole year abroad. I have had a great time but after being here this long, I know I wouldn’t be able to do it. I haven’t really felt homesick yet, but I was extremely homesick in a dream the other day…strangest thing ever…and it was the most awful and hopeless feeling. I know I’m going to enjoy every minute of the rest of my time here – I have SO much still to look forward to – but I’m definitely going to be ready to be home with my family and friends at the end of the year!

More after Portugal!