Cadiz

Before I even begin this latest post on Cadiz, there is a quick story that I have to tell. Its about how I became a superstar here in Granada. Last thursday there was a freak heatwave. After weeks of cold weather, last friday was around 27 or 28 degrees celsius. I'm not entirely sure how warm that is in fahrenheit but its close to 70 something. It was a beautiful day. My friends and I went to the plaza and bought ice cream. We were enjoying our ice cream when a news crew comes up to us and asks to film us. We say of course, why not? Later that night, we were on the Granada news and now we are international superstars. Just thought that was a pretty great story.

Now its time to try and tell the tale of Cadiz. This last weekend was the Carnaval a Cadiz which is basically the big party for fat Tuesday. Instead of one weekend, its the entire month of February but the party isn't always in the same place. Some weekends, the party is in different cities. Well, my friends and I decided on a whim to go there. We all bought costumes becuase you have to have something to wear otherwise you stand out as a loser. So I found the coolest ski suit that I have ever seen. Its one piece, neon orange and pink, with stars all over it. I also found some pink sunglasses to wear with it. I looked pretty hot, not going to lie. My friend Peter found a suit almost like mine. Together we probably were the best dressed in Cadiz.











Saturday, we boarded a bus full of college kids from all over the world. Everyone was dressed up and ready to go. We left at noon and arrived in Cadiz at five. Booking a hostel wasn't a problem because no one was planning on sleeping. We planned on staying up all night and leaving at eight in the morning. Which might have been a little early because the party was still going when we left.
Cadiz is on the coast near Portugal. It was an amazing town. When we arrived, we watched the sunset over the atlantic while drinking sparkling wine. Good times, good times. Once the sun set, we headed over to the plaza where everyone was gathered. There was a stage with performers and singers. We didn't know before we left but the way to do things was to get into a huge group and dress alike. There were groups of nuns, priests, chickens, cows, saddam husseins, terrorists, and everything else you can imagine. I went around for at least an hour just taking pictures with groups of people.





For dinner we decided to eat at a very spanish restaurant. You may have heard of it. Its called El Rey de la Hamburguesa or Burger King. It was delicious. But since we were up for so long, at around 3am i bought a sausage hoagie from a random street vendor who cooked it right in front of me. Hmm, so good. Since I'm already on the topic of food, I might as well tell you about the churros. In Spain, churros are not the crunchy, cinnamon covered sticks that we have. They are fried dough that you dip into chocolate. They are incredible. The problem is that there was a huge churreria (churro stand) and it was so packed full of people that we couldn't wait that long. They sure smelled good though.





Everyone gathered in the plazas. We spent most of our time in the plaza in front of the main cathedral but we also wandered around and found some other packed plazas. There was one with a huge monument in the middle. Hundreds of people had hopped the little fence and were climbing all over it. So of course we had to do the same. We took a few minutes to sit and relax after climbing the monument, when suddenly some random guy fell on top of us. He was apparently trying to climb up to the next level which was not such a great idea, especially since he was pretty intoxicated. We were fine but we asked him if he was ok and he just ignored us. He stood up, crossed his arms and looked out into the crowd like we didn't exist. It just made the whole experience even funnier.



I forgot to mention the beach. In the middle of the night, we all went and found a sandy beach. It was really pretty. There was a huge rock that we could climb on and everyone wanted to run through the water. Since I'm from California, I knew that it was not the best idea to have sandy feet when you had to walk around the street for five more hours. I tried to reason with them but they wouldn't listen. So I figured that meant I didn't have to listen to them whine the rest of the night. Oh, the picture is of me doing a cartwheel on the beach. Pretty sweet, huh.



From six to seven was probably the longest hour of my life. I just sat on a chair and watched people order churros until I could go back to the bus. Finally the time had come for us to return to the bus and we were so happy to have "comfy" seats. I got a good hour of sleep on the bus and then passed out when I got home. Such a great time.

Barcelona

Now its time for the second half of my latest vacation. Our flight out of Madrid left at six in the morning which was a problem since the metro stopped at 1 and a taxi was thirty euros. Our solution to this problem was to show up five hours early and then just sleep in the airport. I don't think marble floors ever felt as comfortable. With almost two hours of sleep, we arrived in Barcelona and had to wait another three hours for out hostel to open. We found a dunkin donuts and pigged out on donuts and coffee with all of our luggage at our feet.
Hours later our hostel opened and we were anxious to see how we did playing hostel roulette. We ended up scoring a clean and fun hostel right off the main street of the city. SWEET! Our roommates were from france, belgium, austria, germany, and turkey. Luckily they all spoke english.
In Barcelona there are so many sites to see that we never had a dull moment. On our first day we went to see the Cathedral Sagrada Familia which was designed by Gaudi. It was really interesting. We were too cheap to go inside but from the outside it was so impressive. Gaudi's style is love or hate. I tend to be on the hate side. He packs in so many different styles and decorations into each part that it gets to be a little too much. Even though I thought it was little on the ugly side, it was really cool to see. His other building are scattered around the city. Some of these were pretty interesting too.



My favorite Gaudi place that we went was the Park Guell. Gaudi designed this massive park on a hill which overlooks the whole city. There are caves, giant pillars, and almost everything is decorated with mosaic tiles. One of the coolest parts was the giant snakelike bench that winds its way around the park.




We also went to the olympic village where they had the olympics, I think it was in 1992. Not really sure. Even though it was empty when we were there, it was easy to imagine it full of people.

My favorite part was when went to see the giant fountain at night. They call it agua magica or the magic water show. The fountain lights up and music plays. It was incredible. Of course we walked almost three miles just to get there but it was definitely worth it. I don't think I have ever seen such an enormous fountain. We also bought bread, chease, and wine for dinner. I felt super european.


One night we went to see the mediteranean. I wish it had been warmer cause I wanted to jump in. Hopefully I can go back later and maybe lay out on a nude beach. Just kidding. Or am I?
Other random things we did was walk under the Arc de Triunf, not the french one, there is one in Barcelona as well. Who knew? We saw tons of awesome buildings, amazing fountains, and ate lots of amazing food. Paella and falafel are the bomb. One falafel place lets you put as much topping on it as you want. Lets just say that is a bad idea when you let a broke starving college kid help himself. I had to use a fork to eat my falafel pita.


Oh! I forgot one of my favorite parts. There was an open market near our hostel and it was huge. Fruit, bread, chocolate, seafood, meat, and everything else you can imagine were there. The weirdest part was walking through the seafood section and realizing that most of the food was still alive. Signs were waving as crabs or shrimp crawled under it, bubbles were appearing from clams and other shelled creatures, and huge squids were sprawled out on ice. It was so cool. I wanted to buy something just to say I did it but I have no idea how to cook squid.

Just Madrid

First off, I fixed the problem with the comments. Now everyone can leave a little something for me to read. Sorry about that everybody.
Now down to the post. This might be the longest post yet and I know what you are all thinking, thats not possible. Well, just wait. I went to the two biggest cities in Spain, Madrid and Barcelona, and I have a lot of stuff to talk about.
My entire program went to Madrid, all eighty of us, and we went nuts once we got there. After finishing our intensive language course, we were ready for some fun. We got there and did some serious sight seeing. Our first stop was the Royal Palace or the Palacio Real and it amazing. Whats crazy is that they still use a lot of the rooms that we saw whenever the King meets with important people. Did anyone else know that Spain still had a King and Queen? It was definitely a surprise for me to hear that.


After the palace, we went to the Prado Museum which is the best classical art museum in Spain, and it might be second only to the Louvre in Paris. I saw Goya, El Greco, Velasquez, and tons of other artists. There were so many that I forgot who was who. I really loved Goya and Velasquez. Goya's later works were really dark and twisted and Velasquez' most famous painting "Las Meninas" or the Maids of Honor was awe inspiring from up close. I think that my favorite paintings from this museum were Velasquez' "Las Meninas" and Goya's "The Dog".


After the Prado we went to Hard Rock Cafe for a long awaited burger. It was delicious. I don't think I have ever had such a good american burger. Satisfied with our huge meal, we walked to another museum, the Reina Sofia. This was a more modern museum with tons of work from Dali, Picasso, Miro, and tons of other modern artists. Looking at all these paintings was exhausting, especially when you are looking at surreal painting that don't make any sense. I think my brain was fried by the end of the day. Seeing Picasso's "Guernica" from less than five feet away was awesome, even though it was a insanely confusing painting. Dali's stuff was even weirder but really fun to look at at the same time. They had all kinds of other artists there and so many cool things to look at.


The next day we took a bus to two towns outside of Madrid. I don't remember the first town's name but it had an enormous monastary. There were dozens of chapels inside of this building with hundreds of rooms. The building was shaped like a grill because the patron saint was martyred by being cooked alive on a grill. Pretty intense. It was strange seeing grills all over the building. Anyway, our tour was just of one side of the giant square and it lasted for a few hours. At this monastary, they royal family is buried in tombs deep beneath the main chapel. It was a little creepy walking down there. Besides the kings and queens, there were places for the rest of the royal family in different parts of the building. Don Juan, the ladies' man, was buried here as well. You can see him below.



After the monastary, we drove to Segovia. It was a beautiful, picturesque european city. There were two huge sites to see. The first was an enormous aqueduct that ran right through the city. The other was a castle that Walt Disney claimed to have inspired Sleeping beauty. Both of these were so incredible to see but by this time I think I was a little toured out. I have some amazing picture though.
Well, I was going to try and put both Madrid and Barcelona on this post but I cannot write anymore. I will try and get my barcelona post up soon. Hope you enjoyed this one. Leave a comment!