When in...

Hola to all you friends and family of mine!! I decided to write a post FINALLY because I actually had time to sit at the computer for once. I know you all must be in shock that you're getting this update from me because it seems like I have basically dropped off the map since, well I guess the end of March or the beginning of April. I can't believe how I have not been able to write on this blog for some time now. And while I know you would all love a really in-depth review of everything, we know that would take me about 2 days to write it all down (non-stop), so I am just going to give you a good overview of my life over the past few months. It probably won't be that interesting, since I can't put in all the little anecdotes or many pictures, but it's something, right? Maybe...

I last wrote about my big spring break trip, when I went to Paris, Brussels, and Prague with Alli. When I got back, a few days later I went with API for the weekend to this area in Spain called Extremadura, which was more out in the countryside--a place you generally wouldn't see/ go to if you went to visit. It was probably my favorite API outing--we went on a five hour hike from one town to the town we were staying at, where we stayed at an old monastery that was kind of creepy but also super fantastic. After not being able to walk for 24 hours or so after the hike, we came back and I met up with my mom! Many of you know that my mom came to visit me at the end of April (another reason why I wasn't able to blog much, so much constant traveling!!!) It was so great to see her (I know you're reading this too mom) and we spent the first two days in Sevilla. I showed her around a little bit, and then she got to meet my host family, which was probably one of the greatest experiences. My mom remembers some spanish back from her high school days, and apparently my host mom has been learning english (something I did not know at all!) and the two of them tried to communicate in the opposite language and I was having the greatest time trying to help them out. We went out for tapas together with Elisa (my host sister) and my roommate Jessica and it was fantastic.

So then my mom and I headed off to Switzerland. We stayed in Zurich and took some tours to places all over, like Leichtenstein, a town they referred to as Heidiland since it was where the story supposedly took place, Luzern, and Freiberg (in southern Germany). We had a great relaxing time together!

By the time I got back, I had another week off of school for this huge festival called Feria. It primarily takes place in Andalucia and everyone has their own feria, but I think Sevilla's is pretty big. There was this whole area taken over by these tents that were called "casetas" and were basically public and private bars for fiestas. There was also a hugeeee carnival area with all these rides (many of them very sketchy looking) but all the kids were having a great time. The popular drink of Feria is called Rebujito, which I'm sure you'll all love this, is white wine mixed with a sprite-like drink (if not sprite itself). yeah, there's not much more to say about that! haha, Anyway, it was nice to have that week off from school and just hang out and enjoy the cultural aspect of the city.

But by then the last few weeks of the semester approached and things had to get done. I went with API to the beach one day, which was beautiful, but came back with this gnarley sunburn on really awkward parts of my body. I guess that happens with really white skin, but it put me in more of a mood to attempt to study for my finals. Well, I didn't really study that much for finals. My finals/my classes were a joke. I had no will power to study for them, and I'm sure I still did fine (well on all of them but one, which was ridiculous, but I don't know my grades yet). Regardless of that, while I love school, this experience has been more about traveling and living than studying. So I managed to do a little bit of studying but a lot of living, and that was worth it.

And all of the sudden my finals finished, I had to plan what to do next, and I had to say goodbye to my new friends and Sevilla. That part came up so quickly that I didn't really process it that well. I quickly said goodbye to everyone and then was off on a last-minute tour with a company called Contiki around eastern Europe. There is so much I could start writing about Sevilla and my friends and everything, but right now I'm just trying to attempt to let you know where I've been all this time. Sorry.

Alright, so the Eastern Road. I flew to Berlin the day my program ended and by the time I got to the hotel I was supposed to meet my tour, they had already had their meeting and gone out to dinner. So I took the night to relax and get everything together before meeting my two roommates (Kayla and Courtney) for the next 13 days. I saw the schedule and saw that we had to generally be on the bus around 8:00 am everymorning and freaked out a little bit. This whole semester, I never really woke up before 9:00 am at the earliest (unless I was traveling) to start my day. So to have to wake up at 6:30 all of the sudden, everyday--well that was just crazy! But I did it somehow and my two roommates were proud of me.

We did a day in Berlin, then we drove down through Dresden (for lunch) and moved down to Prague. Prague was the only place on the tour that I had actually been too, but I still saw different things than the last time and had a great time. We stayed in Prague for two days, and the group and I pretty much all bonded at this point. From there we went to Vienna for a night and moved on to Budapest. All the places we had been so far had been really hot, and I think it was probably the hottest in Budapest--Kayla and I kept making jokes that we were in the Sahara--who knew!! After Budapest, we drove through Slovakia for lunch and then into Poland where we spent two nights in Krakow. We drove up to Warsaw for the last two nights and stopped in Auschwitz on the way which was an incredible experience. And then before you knew it, we were back in Berlin, getting off the bus and going our separate ways. It was a pretty packed and fast 13 days but it was such an awesome experience. There is really so much I could talk about just for this tour because we did so much, but there's just no time now to do that.

Now that we were in Berlin, Kayla, Courtney and I decided to crash with our friend Eileen who became our fourth roommate. Eileen had a single room reserved in the hotel and man it was a pretty small room, but the four of us shared that bed and it worked! Kayla went back to the UK and Eileen, Courtney and I decided to rent a car and drive to Amsterdam. We drove a Skoda around the audobons of Germany and made our way to Holland. The drive was a lot of fun and super easy until we hit the actual city of Amsterdam. That was so stressful driving in this city swaped with more bikes than cars, weird one way streets with trams going through and small street signs. We laughed about the whole thing later, but we were all freaking out. Eileen drove because she knows how to drive a stick. Courtney knows how to drive a stick too, but she is from Australia and wasn't used to driving on the right side of the road (and shifting with her right hand) and I was the map/leader, which eventually gave me the nickname of Moses. Love ittt.

We found our hotel which happened to be in the middle of the red light district which was hilarious. It was so ridiculous (the location and the aesthetics of the hotel) but it ended up being so awesome and completed our trip. We had a good time relaxing after a really fast paced tour with little sleeping, and we pretty much laughed the whole weekend.

I said goodbye to Courtney and Eileen on Sunday morning where I flew to London to meet up with Kayla again. We stayed in a huge hostel and ventured around London for a few days. I needed to be in London by the 3rd because that's when Matt and his friend Mike flew over here! Kayla went home and I went to the airport to pick up the boys and now I have started the last part of my European adventure! They needed to catch up on sleep/jet lag/time changes, so we took it slow and did some fun things around London, like a bike tour and started our "where's waldo" project, which is really "where is matt/mike/haley in europe!!" it's going to be awesome, and I'll post pictures when we are finished.

So we spent some time in Londontown and then on Saturday we headed off to Dublin, which is where I am right now, typing this all to you. We have had such a fun time so far on our trip, and last night was just fantastic because we met a bunch of locals. So far, I would have to say that the Irish are some of the most friendly people ever.

And that is where I am right now. Sorry that there were not many fun stories in there, it was pretty much me just telling you every place I have been recently, and why it is that I can never find the time (nor the internet access) to blog again. I hope that everyone is doing well back at home or wherever you are, and I still have two more weeks to go! Next we are going to Brussels, Frankfurt, Stockholm, Dusselldorf, Munich, Paris, Nice, Barcelona, and then I go back to Paris to fly back to the United States on June 24. I can't believe it's coming up so quickly already. There is so much to say about that, but no time right now! I must go to sleep. I hope you enjoyed this very short but super long summary of my travels.

Hasta luego!!


Haley

Armegeddon Part Two: Brussels, Belgium

Alright I made it to part 2! This post is going to be shorter for 3 reasons. 1. It's late and I have to wake up early to go to Extremadura tomorrow (another region in Spain). 2. We were only in Brussels for 1.5 days, 3. We really didn't do that much in Brussels besides eat.

Well, there you go! I just summed up my Brussels experience in one sentence. We went into Brussels not having any clue of what we wanted to do there besides eat.

April 5: Sunday--We woke up and say goodbye to Andrew as we packed up all our stuff and headed towards the metro. Andrew, his friend, and Kira all suggested to use to take the bus to Brussels instead of the train. I think because it was Sunday, the bus cost 25 euro instead of 19. That was a deal to us! So we made it to the bus station, and 2.5 hours later, we were at Brussels North station.

We stayed at a friend of Alli's who wasn't going to be home until later that evening, so we didn't really know what to do with ourselves. The bus station was in kind of a boring area, so we decided to take the metro to the stop that we were supposed to go to for Jeff's house. The metro system was interesting/different in Brussels. We bought a ticket but saw that we never had to check it anywhere, so we never bought a ticket again. Hey, free is fine with me! We went over to the stop we were supposed to get off at, but then we had no clue how to get to his house anyway. After probably 30 minutes of walking around with our huge backpacks, we decided to try to make it to the center of town instead, so that we could eat some lunch, since it was already close to 4 or 5. We took the metro to the center stop, but apparently went the wrong way from the center and had no idea where to go. We just kept seeing a pretty isolated city around us and had no idea where we were. Finally, I saw someone in a USC shirt, asked if they spoke english (and it turned out they were spanish!) and he directed us to the cute-center area, which was really not far from where we were, we just happened to go in the opposite direction. So we got to the place we needed to be and walked around some more (so much walking with our backpacks) to try to find food. And then we did it: we made it to the Pitta street that we had heard about only the day before. Apparently, there is a street in Brussels purely devoted to Pitta type foods. We plopped down at the first one we could get into and had probably the best meal of our whole trip. It was just a pitta with chicken, tomatoes, cucumber, and that cucumber/garlic sauce and it was sooooo good.

From there, we hung out in the center and went around eating and drinking some more. I tried some belgian beer (Leffe, to be exact), we tried some belgian chocolates (delicious!) and then, the best of all--belgian waffles! OHHHH those waffles were so good. They were truly different than any "belgian waffle" I've had in the states. Yeah, I put that in quotations because now those are fake waffles to me. These waffles were made out of a dough instead of a batter and were so sweet (even plain, without anything on top).

Then it was time for dinner and although we had been eating all afternoon, we figured we would eat again in the center before we made it to Jeff's house. Andrew's friend recommended one of the Pitta places to eat a Dürüm Kebab, which was a little different in how they rolled it and what they put in the kebab. He also suggested Andalouse sauce (which I thought was funny because I am studying in Andalucia), which tasted pretty much like thousand island. Needless to say, part 2 of our greek-style eating was delicious!

April 6: We woke up the next morning and went to a flea market for a few hours. It was really fun and I got to bargain with so many french speaking people, even though, when it came down to it we eventually spoke in Spanish or English. This day was really purely devoted to walking around and eating and shopping since we didn't feel like doing much, so I'll keep it short. We ended up going back to the center, eating at the first pitta place (soooooo good!!!), frolicked around, got some free belgian chocolate samples, had another waffle, and saw Manneken Pis, one of Brussels' famous statues that was literally no more than 3 feet tall--kind of a let down. Here are some pictures.

Pitta Street

My Leffe beer and I

One of the many delicious pittas--this was with greek style gyro

Brussels

Manneken Pis

We took the metro back to Jeff's and hung out for a bit. We were talking about getting to the airport the next day, and Jeff said it was easy to get there. Then we checked the reservation and he saw that we were going to Charleroi airport, which he said should not even be considered a Brussels airport! Good thing we checked, because he had to call a friend to see how we could make it there. We found out that we had to take a bus from the metro station and that it was an hour away...greatttt. So that meant that we had to wake up at 4:45 the next morning--we weren't excited. We decided to grab a bite to eat, but we didn't want to take the metro to the center so we just walked down Jeff's street. We weren't finding anything and kept walking, and all of the sudden we saw a McDonald's and Pizza Hut. We saw those two restaurants in the center and thought it was weird that Brussels put the two together so frequently. We kept walking and realized that we were in the center! We couldn't believe that it was soooo close to us and we had been taking the metro the whole day (in a big loop I might add because it didn't go directly there). But now I see why it didn't go directly there because there was a huge shortcut in the middle to walk there! We laughed about that for a while, and then I convinced Alli to go back to Pitta street (yes, our 4th time there!!) but we ate at a new place and we ate different foods, but those four meals were probably some of the best on the whole trip. I already miss greek food..so sad.

Anyway, that's Brussels for you. I told you it was going to be short and filled with food. Now I have to go to sleep, but I'll write about Prague when I get back from Extremadura this weekend.

Buenas noches,
Haley

Armageddon Part One: Paris, France

I am about to embark upon a big blogging task. I just finished my 10 day trip and I am going to try to blog about it as concisely as I can. I am also going to break it up into three separate posts, one for each city, because I'm sure I'll get fed up with writing so much all in one sitting. I don't remember if I mentioned this in the last post, I'm sure I did, but Alli and I got sick of calling it Semana Santa (the holy week that we had off from school to make this trip) so that's why we started calling it Armageddon. Here's a recap of my spring break viaje.

April 1: Alli and I woke up at 6 am or so in order to make it to the train station by 7:30. Alli and I took the high speed rail from Sevilla-Madrid, but by the time we bought the cheap tickets online, we couldn't get the same train. I don't really know how that worked. I purchased my ticket, and then I went to get her ticket on my computer (her computer wasn't working for some reason) and by the time the transaction was going through, none of the same cheap tickets for the 9:45 train were available. We decided she was either going to have to pay more, or she would have to take an earlier train. She took the 8:45 train. We went together anyway just to make sure everything was going smoothly, since we had never taken the AVE (the name of the high speed rail). Well, I don't think I've ever taken that kind of train but we both loved it. It only took 2.5 hours to get to Madrid and it was such an enjoyable ride. I mean, I slept for a big part of it, but I would do that again in a heartbeat.

From there, we spent the day in Madrid. We hadn't really planned anything out, but we knew that it was way too early to go to the airport, since our flight to Paris wasn't until 8, so we took the metro to a park that we found on the map. The metro in Madrid was pretty efficient and huge, but I still preferred Barcelona's. We enjoyed the sun in the park in Madrid, ate our bocadillo's that we packed for ourselves so that we didn't have to bother with buying food, and took some naps. When we were really bored and realized that we were just going to sit and pass the time, we decided to change locations and pass the time at the airport.

We got to the airport and checked in and the lady wanted us to check our backpacks because she said they were too big. We knew they weren't too big, but she asked us to make sure by putting them in that little metal crate that most airports have to restrict size. I couldn't believe that she actually made me put it in there! I mean, we all generally know what the size is, but you know that that little crate is ridiculously small and no luggage really fits in there. And on top of that, you know how much room there actually is in those overhead bins and that some piece of luggage bigger than that metal crate would definitely fit. So my backpack clearly didn't fit, and she wanted to charge us 20 more euros to check it. We said helllll no and decided to move some stuff around in our bags. When we went up to check in again, no one said anything to us and we walked to security. However, in security they made us put our backpacks into the crate again!! They fit this time because we made them, but we couldn't believe that they kept doing that to us. Especially because after all of that hassel, by the time we got on the plane you could have fit three of my backpacks in that compartment. Whatever, sorry to bore you with those details but we decided that since only Madrid made the beginning of our trip so annoying, that we do not like the Madrid airport anymore.

Hahah, okay so wooo from there we went to Paris! We landed around 10:30, and by the time we got through customs, found the RER (which was the bigger form of metro system in Paris--since they do have a regular metro system too) to take us to the city, transferred to another tram to take us a few blocks down, found Hana's apartment, found a payphone to call Hana's apartment, and finally got into Hana's apartment, it was 1:30. What a few hours that was, but what was better was that there was no panicking going down and no getting lost. Everything went very smoothly, it just took a very long time to get from Charles De Gaulle airport to southern Paris! Alli and I stayed at my Berkeley friend Hana's apartment Wednesday and Thursday night. She's studying abroad there right now and it was perfect to be able to crash there.

April 2: Well, now that I've gotten through the boring stuff, our first full day (Thursday) was indeed full and super amazing. Alli and I made our way over to Versailles, a place that I have always wanted to go to after learning about it in 10th grade Core. We had to go on the RER again and the stop dropped us off right there. Alli and I saw a ton of people hopping over the gates, and since we were going to have to pay more to get another ticket, we decided to be rebels and hop over too. I know, we are super cool. Well we decided to stop for a coffee at a little shop right before Versailles and had our first langauge barrier moment. The whole time we were in Paris, we didn't know whether to speak in English or Spanish. English because apparently everyone knows English, or Spanish because it's way closer to French. Well, we went the half French/half English route and somehow we were able to communicate with the bartender, except when it came to the check. He said some sounds about how much it was. I heard 4 something, but the something was what I didn't get. So we all laughed because everyone knew that we weren't understanding each other, and then he wrote down the price on a coaster. This first encounter was very surprising to Alli and I because this bartender was just sooo nice to us. I mean, you hear of the French being particularly snobby or pretentious, so we were gearing up for the worst, but most everyone we spoke to was very friendly. This put the Spanish in 1st place for being assholes. The Spanish are mean people sometimes--just beware! hahaha.

So, Versailles!! It's everything you expect it to be and more. Phenomenal is the word I have chosen to describe most of the things I saw in Paris. The feeling that came over me when I was experiencing these historical and beautiful places was one of awe. It was so fascinating to tour around a place with such an intense history, one that I learned about so long ago and only remember bits and pieces of now, and one with such immaculate beauty.


When we entered, we walked into this exhibit of period costumes, which was beautiful. Some of those ladies had the tiniest little bodies! There were many paintings and actual replicas of costumes depicting the fashion of the era. Alli and I both wore leggings and tennis shoes because we knew we were going to be doing a lot of walking around that day and wanted to be comfortable, but just imagine the people in these costumes and they all usually went on walks because there was nothing else to do!

From there we went into the palace where our audioguides gave us a mini tour through many of the rooms of Versailles. I could go on and on about each room we visited, the designs, the furniture, the artwork, etc, but I guess the most important room that I will share with you was the Hall of Mirrors, of course. I'm sure you all know about it, as it has stirred up quite the fame, but it was so amazing to actually be in it rather than see pictures. Well, you're going to see pictures, but you can just imagine how cool it was to be there.


After the Palace, we went out on the steps overlooking the massive gardens and ate some lunch. Then we walked around the gardens a bit more and headed over to Marie Antoinette's chamber and toured her not so small house and her huge gardens as well. We barely covered a dent of the greenery in Versailles, but if I lived there I would go all the time because it was just so wonderful to walk around in (and the gardens were free!)


Marie Antoinette's Chamber

From her gardens

What a beauty.

April 3: Friday morning, Alli and I woke up, packed up our stuff, said thank you and adios to Hana and headed 5 metro stops north to Andrew's apartment. From that moment on, Alli and I used the metro at least 6 times a day. It was crazy how much we needed to use it/how great of a system it was. I think I'm really getting my metro system fill (especially since LA doesn't really have one). But the french system was really good. It went all over the city and got us literally everywhere we needed to go. Anyway, Andrew is a friend of mine from middle school who let us crash on his couch for the next two nights. He has been studying in film in France and lived in the latin quarter, which was pretty hip. Alli and I dropped off our stuff and immediately became tourists.

We walked to Notre Dame.


Then headed over to the Eiffel Tower to have a picnic lunch. And while there, we met up with my friend Kira from high school who is studying abroad in Paris too.


Alli and I took another funny picture in front of the Tour Eiffel.


Ate some crepes and walked over to the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs Élysées, and then went back to Andrew's apartment, where we then went to dinner and ate some savoury crepes, which were super delicious.

That night, we went with Kira to the bridge Pont Nouf, which is where a lot of people go when the weather's getting warmer. Kira said that she had been in Paris since January, and this was the first time she was going to go to Pont Nouf because it had been so cold. She also told me (whether or not she is right, I kind of don't care) that one of those last Paris scenes of Sex and the City was filmed on this bridge. The last time I was in Paris (last year for all of five hours), every bridge we passed, I shouted out, "look, it's the Sex and the City bridge!" (you can ask my mom, Rochelle, and Samantha if you need proof). So I'm glad I made it.

April 4: Our last full day in Paris. We woke up and got started immediately! We went straight to the Lourve and I actually went in this time! (again, instead of last time when I was only there for five hours). I could go on and on about how amazing it was to be in there, but that's one of those things you'll just have to see for yourself/understand. I saw such amazing works of art. Even the building itself was beautiful. And yes, I saw the Mona Lisa. But there was such a variety of works of art, from Ancient Mesopotamia to 19th century England. It was magnificient.


Then we had a lunch break. I saw a picture on facebook of these desert things that I couldn't figure out what they were, but I knew they were French. So when we got to France and after I told Alli all about it, we found them! They weren't hard to find. They were macaroons, but a little different than the macaroons you're used to eating on passover. They still had a little bit of the same taste/texture though. Anyway, they came in so many different colors. We tried them a few times and I wish I had taken a picture of how pretty a lot of them were, but here is one little picture.


Next, we went to Père-Lachaise, one of Paris' biggest and most famous cemetaries that houses so many famous french poets, artists, composers, musicians, etc, and Jim Morrison. We saw Jim Morrison's grave, which wasn't that impressive compared to every other grave there. The grave stones were basically little houses or huge pieces. They were beautiful. We just walked around for a while because there were so many beautiful things to see.


Finally, we went up to Montmartre, one of the highest places in Paris that overlooks the whole city. We got off the metro and saw a bunch of people waiting for the elevator. I looked to Alli and said, this means there are going to be a lot of stairs. We decided to take the stairs anyway. I think I counted almost 200 stairs, and that was JUST to get out of the metro! That does not include all of the stairs and hills that we then had to go up just to get to Sacre Coeur! But once we got up there (after a little rest) it was so amazing. Well, it was as amazing as it could have been on a gray day, but I'm sure on a clear sunny day it's even more beautiful.


We headed back to Andy's and had dinner which was Chwarma Poulet (or chicken shwarma). That was basically the start of our mediterranean food kick that I will continue about in the next post, but it was seriously delicious. I had some amazing food on this trip!

Well, I tried to keep it on the shorter side, or what I could do for 3 full days of sightseeing in one of the world's most famous and fantastic places. I will write about parts two and three tomorrow! Enjoy!

Haley

Haley Weiner Barcelona

Yeah, I tried to make it a play on words. Vicky Christina Barcelona was a huge hit here, and yeah I finally went to Barcelona!! (my thoughts about the movie can be discussed with you individually later if you actually care).

This past weekend, my study abroad program took us to Barcelona. Oh, by the way I hope this will be a shorter post since I literally don't have much time to write it. We all had to make our way to the airport by 8:15am Friday morning. I think there were about 20-30 of us all together. I don't think I've ever been on a plane where I know half the people already. We had to fly because driving there from Sevilla is probably more than 9 hours. I don't actually know how far it is, but on a bus from Sevilla to Madrid, it's 6 hours and that's long enough. So we arrived by 11ish, got to the hotel and immediately went on a bus tour. It was a pretty long morning, so understandably I could barely keep my eyes open on the bus. Everything was so beautiful, but I just needed a nap! But I did pay attention to the important things, so don't worry.

We drove around and saw some of the sites used at the 1992 Olympics, Montjuic--the hill overlooking the city center and the port, La Sagrada Familia--a church built by Gaudí, a famous artist/architect who died while trying to finish this last work. I'll have to put up pictures later or something, but it was unlike any church I had ever seen before. He's from the modern era, and everything was just so unusual and beautiful. We didn't get to go inside, but I took some good pictures.

Then we stopped at Park Güell, another thing inspired by Gaudí. It wasn't so much of a park, like grass everywhere and such, but it was beautifully decorated with lots of mosaics, tiles, benches, and columns, everything Gaudí-style.

We drove around a little bit more and ended up at Las Ramblas, one of the bigger shopping areas in Barcelona. It was filled with the typical stores that I've seen all over Spain (and the world) and then lots of boutiques and cafes and restaurants. We decided to go back with the bus to get to the hotel, which was so far away, and we took a nap. I understand that the program has to do things that are affordable, and Barcelona is an expensive city, and while the hotel was really nice, it was so far away from anything. That was probably my only complaint, but it wasn't even that bad of a complaint because that forced me to use the metro, which was a beautiful thing. The metro system in Barcelona is probably one of my new favorite systems. It was so easy and efficient to use, I learned it in about 10 minutes. Everything was clearly laid out, the prices weren't bad, and you couldn't really get lost. I used it a bunch of times over the weekend and it made me happy. Oh, metros.

So later that night I met up with a friend from Berkeley, who also went to my high school and who also went to my elementary school. Some of the girls in my group and I ended up meeting her and her two friends at this mexican restaurant in the center-ish area. The girls from the program and I have been dyinnnng for mexican food. It just seems non-existent in spain. Who knows why though because mexican food is so delicious! So we were all excited to eat mexican, finally. We had a super long dinner (because nothing goes fast in spain) and while the food wasn't authentically mexican, it did the job. The place was called "La Rosa Negra" which is one of the reasons I wanted to go there, just to be able to tell my friend Hilary that Dirty Dancing Havana Nights called my name in Barcelona.

Saturday morning we awoke to one of the best Spanish hotel breakfasts we've had. It was filled with all sorts of fruit, croissants, jamón, cereal, cheese, and even omlets. I don't know why I felt like sharing that with you, but it was a delicious breakfast. We continued on our day with a tour of the Palau de la Musica Catalunya, which was a music house that has been around for 100 years now and has housed many famous musicians. It's privately owned and therefore lavishly decorated to the point where I wasn't allowed to take pictures. It was filled with mosaics and stained glass windows and lights and it was super wonderful. It finally inspired me to make a mosaic something when I get back home to the states.

We went from there to a church called Santa Maria del Mar, and then had plenty of free time, where Mackenna, Flor and I walked around the Gothic quarter, stumbled upon a lomography store (which was so beautiful to me) and ended up at the Picasso museum. While most of Picasso's most famous works weren't there, we wanted to go anyway. Being in that museum was like seeing a whole different side of Picasso than I have ever seen before. His earlier works were so much different than what he turned into, and I had never studied it. So it was great to see his transition, and then my favorite room was this room devoted to one subject--he made 20 or so copies of a famous Velazquez piece called "Las Meninas" and they were more in the style of that which you think of when you think of Picasso today. It took Mackenna and I a while to figure it out, but once Flor told us, the room opened up to us in a completely new light and it was beautiful.

Later that night I went to my friend Sarah's apartment for dinner, where she and her friends cooked Mexican food!! (she was the one I met up with the night before). I was so excited to keep eating mexican food, so that's the only reason I'm writing about it right now, but it was fantastic, not only eating mexican food, but cooking together and having a great time. Then we went out to this bar called "La Oveja Negra" or the black sheep, which is one of the oldest bars in Barcelona and it was pretty sweet. Flor and Mackenna met us there, and Flor said that she had heard that people like Hemingway used to frequent the place when they were in Barcelona (which was another reason we went). So, she asked one of the waiters and he had no idea what she was talking about, so that will be a mystery to us all.

Finally, sunday was just one of those days. We had to check out of the hotel by 12, but we weren't leaving Barcelona until 5, so we walked around Las Ramblas, and for some reason, even though I am living in Spain, I forgot that EVERYTHING but restaurants are closed on Sundays. So that was so much fun. Alli and I ended up walking around the city, got some great gelato, and then found ANOTHER cheap mexican place. What a wonderful weekend for me and mexican food. We had a great time.

Okay, so that was probably more of a bland blog, and I hope you forgive me, especially because of the lack of pictures. You see, it's 12 am here and I have to wake up in about 6 hours. I wanted to make sure I wrote about this blog before I left, otherwise you never would have heard about my trip to Barcelona. But I'm sure my next blogs will be better. Tomorrow morning I am taking a high speed train to Madrid where I will fly to Paris for 4 days, then I will hop over to Belgium for two days, and then I am going to go to Prague for 4 days. This trip, as Alli and I have coined it, is called Armageddon. I don't even remember when this occurred, but as you can probably guess, while it's not the end of the world, it's the trip to end all trips. Whatever, I've got so much to do before I go, so I'm going to end this post now and go enjoy my spring break!!

Hasta luego,
Haley

The beautiful things about Sevilla and Spain

I decided to begin to keep a list of things I like about Spain, Spanish culture, and Sevilla (maybe also just Europe). I will probably expand on this list as more things come to me, but I wanted to post it now to let you all know about things that I’m actually enjoying (or not enjoying) about the place in which I am living.

Things that I enjoy:
1. Manchego—a brand or type of cheese specifically created and probably only found in Spain that comes from Sheep’s milk (qué es eso, eso es queso, qué queso es, manchego!) <--that's the commercial advertisement that Elisa taught me back in the day. You write the letters queso on your five fingers and you spell out all those words; it's pretty fun)

2. Chorizo—a type of slice sausage I believe, I actually don’t know what it is but it reminds me of a thicker pepperoni or maybe a strange type of salami. It’s not either of those things, but maybe you can just imagine.

3. Jamón Ibérico—the pride and joy of Spanish ham. Once I was told a story that after the dictatorship, the Spaniards take advantage of their pig, in that they eat literally every part off the pig. This part I think is still regular ham, but it’s Iberian ham, special to the peninsula (really?). It has a distinct taste, but once you know it, you love it.

4. Pescaito Frito—the Andalucían way to pronounce fried fish, which is their famous course down here (more than the former three). I mean, what else is there to say about fried fish? It’s salty, it’s a white fish, and that’s basically all there is too it, but it’s delicioso!

5. Rioja—Spain is part of wine country over here in Europe. While I have not had many glasses of wine since I’ve been here, I only have had the chance to try a few, but Rioja is one of them. One of the most popular types around here, and it tasted pretty wine-y.

6. Cruzcampo—since I’m on the subject of drinking, I’ll have to put Cruzcampo in here, although I certainly have had better beers in my life. But this beer will hold a special place in my heart because it is typical Spanish and it is EVERYWHERE. So is Mahou, but Cruzcampo is better.

7. Kinder—Why are my posts so far only about food? Well, I need to remember the good food too, if I ever come back. Kinder chocolate is not specific to Spain. I think it’s actually German, which means it’s all over Europe, but I’ve heard that they stop selling it in the summer. I don’t understand why. But Kinder chocolate, the many types that exist, always have that sweet milk chocolate flavor, and then some kind of milk cream in the center that adds so much wonderfulness. There are also types that include hazelnut cream too—even better. Any type of hazelnut cream (you can find that in nutella, which we have in the states) is just delicious. Types of Kinder: the regular bar, Kinder Bueno (a wafer-ish thing), Kinder Sopresa (for the kids, even though I just had to have one too-it’s in an egg shape and inside is some strange toy), and Happy Hippos (a wafer in the shape of a hippo with hazelnut cream on the inside). Those are the only ones I know of, but I’m satisfied.

8. Orange trees—Finally, onto something that isn’t food. Well, I guess oranges are food, but you are not supposed to eat the oranges off of these trees. Don’t worry, everyone really wanted to in the beginning just because they looked so pretty, but after enough people warned us not to do it, I didn’t try one (and none of my friends did that I know of). So apparently these oranges are very bitter and terrible, and I guess they probably would be when half of them probably are fertilized with beer and pee from people walking around bars at night (well just the ones by bars I guess). But you get the picture. They are purely for your viewing pleasure and I think maybe some are used to make jams or something. It’s nice though to walk around and there are orange trees everywhere.

9. Cathedral—On that note, it’s awesome to be in a city with an extremely historical Cathedral. I made a post about that already, so I won’t get into specifics, but it’s amazing to walk by it almost everyday and sometimes even forget what is there. I have to remind myself constantly what a historical and beautiful building it is and not take it for granted now that I live here.

10. Benches/Parks/Rivers—Something my friend told me about was that Spain was full of benches around the city. People just sit down and enjoy the day whenever they feel like doing it. And the same goes for the beautiful park by my house, and especially the river. The Guadalquivir river plays a big role in Sevillian culture. People are always hanging out by the river. People are always even in the river (doing crew and stuff, not swimming). But the atmosphere around the river is just wonderful. If there wasn’t a house in the back of my house, I could see the river from my roof. Whenever I want, I can just walk over there and see tons of people riding bikes, hanging out with friends or family, having a drink or just relaxing. Saturdays and Sundays are the best. They really take weekends seriously! The streets are packed with families enjoying each others company and soaking up the sun. It’s a beautiful thing to see people enjoying life so much.


Things I may not enjoy:
1. Coffee—Well, this of course isn’t a great one to start out with. I mean, I love the coffee here, but their motto is quality over quantity. They have very rich and flavorful coffee, but it comes in the tiniest cup. Even though they tell me that it would probably be wayyy too much coffee if it were in a normal sized mug (at least) because it is so rich, I think it’s a mental thing that’s really stopping me from enjoying it. It’s just never enough. I want a 16 oz size cup of that stuff and no one will give it to me. I drink it in about 5 minutes and I’m left wanting more. I apparently can’t be satisfied by that little cup, even though it packs all the coffee in there.

2. Conversations—The speed of spoken Spanish, or in another manner, the impatience of Spanish speakers to let me finish my slowly drawn out (but maybe almost grammatically correct) sentence and cutting me off before I can finish. What’s up with that. Why do you feel the need to say everything for me and not let me finish speaking? And why do you have to then say what I am thinking so quickly that I can’t understand it and then we are both at a loss?

3. Pretzels—They simply do not exist here. Why is that? Pretzels are like gifts from the earth in the form of deliciousness. I know that Spain isn’t a snacking country, like the US, but I mean, PRETZELS!! You just can’t go wrong.

4. Bocadillos—Or sandwiches. They aren’t bad, but they are no supersandwich in the US. They usually consist of some sort of bread, ham and cheese. You know, I finally started to get into putting everything on a sandwich, and how I miss that now. No lettuce, no tomato, no sauces (well they love mayo here), no nothing. But it’s okay because there’s plenty of other food to eat.

5. Salads—which brings me to another topic. They don’t have big salads here! Or none that I have seen. I think this point is more important than the sandwich point. When it comes to salads I could careless about the sandwiches. I just want a big salad, maybe with dressing instead of olive oil, but I’m still okay with the olive oil, and TONSSSS of things in it. More than just pre-washed lettuce, but some variety of light and dark greens, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, maybe some cheese, olives, onions, beans, I don’t even know what else but anything else you can put into a salad, do it! I think I’m going to eat at the former Intermezzo everyday when I get back to Berkeley.

This is my short list for now. I wanted to post it before I left for Barcelona this weekend because I knew I would forget.

But yeah I'm going to Barcelona! Woooo.

Besos,
Haley

A Canarian Adventure

Hola a todos! Here I am again, at the blog, hopefully about to write some great stuff, but we'll see how it goes.

This past weekend, I visited the Canary Islands! Now, I said last time that I think I was the closest I've been to Africa when I was in Gibraltar, and mileage wise, I think that still wins over the Canary Islands, but man was I close!! As I took off from Sevilla last Wednesday, March 11, I saw so much African land and it made me so happy. About two hours later, I landed in Tenerife, one of the more popular, I would say, islands, and really the only direct flight from Sevilla. It was in Tenerife that I met up with my friend Pablo who is from the Canary Islands and the reason I traveled there in the first place. Pablo and I then took a much smaller plane (Rochelle, I think you would have freaked out) to an island further east called Lanzarote. It was one of those planes that you have to walk out to, that do not have anything covering the propellers, and that have their own stairs attached to the plane. Here's a map and here's the plane.


While we were in the air, I could barely see anything. And when we got to Lanzarote, we still could barely see anything. This, I was told, was called Calima. The Calima in the islands is something that happens about 2-3 times a year, so it's not so common. Lucky me to have encountered it. While I am a little bummed about it staying around for my whole weekend, I was kind of excited to actually experience it. So, you all must be thinking now, what exactly is Calima? Well, let me tell you what I can gather. Calima is the dust/sand blown over by heavy winds across the ocean from the Saharan Desert. In theory, it sounds both bad and good, like I just explained--like, ew gross, dust?? But at the same time, how cool that I was experiencing African air! And that brings me back to my point about my close proximity to Africa. I mean, I was sharing the same water and the same air--it was fantastic! It was like I was in Africa, especially because a lot of the girls from my program went to Morocco over the weekend; we were basically in the same place! haha. Anyway, the calima was so interesting because it really blocked the sky. You couldn't see much blue in the sky and could hardly see the sun, even though it was still bright outside. It was like looking at the sky when there is so much fog or there are so many clouds, but there really weren't any clouds in the sky. And the best part was that when you looked at the horizon over the ocean, about a little ways up from the water, you could actually see a yellow line span across in the distance, and that was the calima. I have a picture, but I don't know if you'll be able to tell what it is.


Onto other things, Lanzarote was designed/planned out by one man. I don't know his name, but one of his ideas was to only paint the houses white and they could either have green or blue trim. It gave the town I was in such a nice feel. Of course, there are houses that are different colors, but there aren't many. Here's a typical Lanzarote house.

On Thursday, we went to the beach, which is were that calima picture was taken, but it's not like it was that far because Pablo's house, in Playa Honda (which means deep beach, or beach of my old car...hah, just joking), was about a 5 minute walk to the ocean. I think he told me the town was about 5,000 ish people, which was only a bit more than my high school! So, after going to the beach, we hung out at one of his favorite restaurants that is on the main Avenida along the beach. We sat outside for a while, not really watching the sunset since the calima was in the way, and decided to eat. There is a point to this story. Something I have been told about Spanish food is that they really love their seafood, whole. I haven't really witnessed much of it, except for a rough encounter with heads-still-intact shrimp, but this was another great one. Pablo ordered fish, and this is what he got.

Isn't that just great! I mean, he loved it, but I thought it was hilarious. I on the other hand got a pasta, but it happened to be one of the most delicious pastas I've had in so long! Oh, a side note, I ate a salad. It was a real salad. There was lettuce, and spinach leaves, cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, onions, cheese, and dates! It was probably one of the most delicious things I've also had here. I love salads. Oh don't worry, there are salads in my house here. Yeah, for meals sometimes, when she puts "ensalada" on the menu, that means pre-washed lettuce in a bag and olive oil. While I'm happy to have lettuce at all and eat something green every now and then, you maybe can understand why I was so happy about that particular salad.

So Friday, we had a great day. Pablo doesn't know how to drive. I know how to drive, but I don't know how to drive manual. Pablo decided that I really needed to see the island since I was there, and so we rented an automatic car. Yes, that's right, I drove a car around a European/Spanish island. Some of you out there (aka my parents) might be frowning upon this idea, but look! Everything's okay! I'm okay! Nothing was hurt or injured and we lived! It was such an exhilirating experience, driving around. I really thought I wasn't going to drive until I got back to the states, so I tried to drive as much as I could, but it was pretty nice driving on these roads. I don't know if it's all of Europe or just Spain, but roundabouts are super popular here. That was the only thing I really needed to get adjusted to, how to merge, how to signal, and which way to go. But after doing that so many times, I think I finally got the hang of it! They use the roundabouts way more than traffic signals, and traffic seemed to flow pretty nicely I might add. Another thing is that I don't think I could ever get lost in Spain. Everytime you get to a roundabout or really any street, there is always a sign that tells you which city is in which direction. It's like impossible to get lost there! Alright, anyway, we headed north and stopped at La cueva de los verdes. This cave, not far off from a volcano (by the way the island is full of volcanos, none of them I believe are active anymore) and the cave was formed by lava passing through to the ocean. They called it "de los verdes" because an indigenous group of people named "los verdes" lived there. When the tour guide spoke in some sort of english, she said, "the greens" which made me think, oh some jews lived here! But Pablo didn't get the joke and I thought I was funny, just imagining a group of jews with the last name Greene, hanging out, you know. So, the caves were awesome, they went down so deep and the rocks were just incredible. At one point, the tour guide took us over to this huge hole and looked at me and asked me to throw a rock down there. For some reason I didn't want to, so some old man did, and as he did, there was a huge splash and it turned out that it was a very small and shallow pond that reflected the ceiling immaculately. Of course it freaked me out and I jumped back, so I'm glad I didn't throw it, but it was pretty awesome once I realized it. But still, once the water settled, it looked just like a hole again.





So, we continued driving around and went towards the north to a town called Órzola, and from there, drove through many other little towns, through mountains and of course, due to the weather (it actually was cloudy at that time) we couldn't really see much. Apparently, there are great views of the mountainside/landscape and of some huge craters, but at one point, the clouds were so thick that I could barely see in front of me. We stopped a few times at some really pretty places, I don't know where they were, but it was beautiful.




The next day, we had to use up the rest of our car rental, so we drove to the south side of the island. Now, while I don't remember many of the names of the places we went to, I will try to supplement it with a few pictures. We headed through some mountains until we got to the coast and I saw one of the many black beaches. The black beach comes from the lava, and the south/west sides were mostly black because of recent (as in a couple hundred years ago) lava flow. It was so sublime to see. I think I love volcano things, they just amaze me. After that, we went to this place called "Los Hervideros" which was made up of beautiful volcanic rock that spread out over time--the part of the island that was only recently added and is filled with caves and rocks of all shapes and sizes since immediately clashed with the water. From there, we saw so many volcanos as we drove on, many of which have turned red (due to oxidized iron, yeah I learned something about science at one point in my life), and we ended up at this place, I don't know if it has a name, but it reminded me of Roswell (which I think only Erica, Matt, and maybe my Mom will understand that reference). I don't really know how to explain it, so I will put up some pictures, but the sides of the mountains just looked so unusual to me. And it was right on another black beach!








Finally, we went to Famara, a town on the north end of the island that is supposed to be very beautiful. It was very beautiful indeed, but part of its beauty is being able to see La Graciosa, a very tiny island that is super close to Lanzarote. Unfortunately because la calima still remained, we could barely see it, even though it was so close. While we were there, I tried some mojo, which when I wrote that out the first time made me laugh because I know you're all going to read it as mojo, like Austin Powers mojo, but it's really pronounced moho, if I remembered the name correctly. It's a typical Canarian salsa (as in sauce, not just mexican salsa) that was delicious.

From there, we returned the car and just hung around the town. We ended up hanging out with a friend of his later that night who just took in an abandoned puppy, and the only reason I am telling you this little story is because I was so excited to play with a puppy that it was ridiculous. But I had a great time!! She was no Goby though.

Well my friends, that roughly concludes my trip to the islands! And I think that was a pretty long post, but it was long because of the pictures, so I hope you enjoyed looking at them.

I'm not going anywhere this weekend because it's my birthday! Yes, I am turning 21 and I couldn't be more excited about it. I am even more excited about the package I received today in the mail, with so many birthday greetings from my friends and family. I was SOOOOOOO HAPPY to read your cards and it made me feel so good, so thank you so much for thinking of me, sending mail to my mom and being so creative! I had a smile on my face the whole day (because I obviously couldn't wait until my real birthday), but I'll open them again on March 20 to seal the deal. So, I'm sure I'll talk to you all, but thank you again and I love you!!!!

Say goodbye to the 20 year old Haley... hahahah

Haley

Pangaea: those were the days...

When I finally got back from Portugal, I got a little cold. So, after a week of staying inside the house and not doing much besides going to school, I went to Gibraltar.
I decided to start putting up maps of the places I go, so you know where it is that I'm actually describing. Anyway...

For those of you who do not know what or where Gibraltar is, I am here to tell you!! Gibraltar is a territory of no more than 6 square kilometers at the southern tip of Spain. It is actually under British rule, as it has been since the 18th century, and Spain has been trying to get it back ever since. So in essence, I was in a British territory yesterday (Saturday, March 7), where they use the British pound sterling (but still accept the Euro) and speak english (while most people speak spanish still, anyway). And what Gibraltar is most famous for, of course, is it's huge, enormous, I don't know what other word to use for how large it is, rock. But before I get to it, it is also the way in which the Muslims came into Spain in 711 and conquered the territory for 800 years. And finally, it is on the north end of the Strait of Gibraltar, overlooking the most northern mountains of Morocco.

So, we got to the border and hopped into small buses to take us up the rock. The rock is made up of limestone and I believe was an island for sometime, but now it's narrowly connected to the peninsula. We stopped first at Europa point, which was a light house that I believe can span 7 miles worth of light, and when I finally realized our British tour guide was measuring things in miles, I was ecstatic because it's still so hard for me to measure things in meters.


From there we went up about 1000 more feet (or was it meters? now I don't remember) and hit up St. Michael's Cave. The rock is filled with caves. "Over 140 have been discovered so far. St. Michael’s Cave is a Cathedral Cave long believed to be bottomless, probably giving birth to the story that Gibraltar was linked to Africa by a subterranean passage over 15 miles long under the Straits of Gibraltar." I copied that from my information guide because I was too lazy to reword it. (some laziness, right? I know) But anyway, this cave was also turned into an emergency hospital during WWII, although it was never used. Now they use it for concerts sometimes. I tried to take some pictures inside, but it was pretty hard lighting to get anything good. I'll see what I can show you.


Finally, we went down to what they call the "Apes Den" because Gibraltar is the only place in Europe where there free living/wild monkeys. They call them apes, but they were definitely little monkeys. They love food too, so they were climbing on people's shoulders for photographs if they were given food. Or they stole things right out of your hand, like a girl's icecream, or some guy's bag of doritos. They were pretty harmless though, and awesome to get that close to.


It was a pretty short trip, but it was soooo amazing being there. Everything was awesome--being in the caves and being close to the monkeys. It was a great day too, which apparently is a little rare for Gibraltar during the winter. Also, there is one airport in Gibraltar and because the place is so small, when a plane flies onto the runway, they have to close down the main street because the runway crosses that street! That was great to find out. Here's the runway:

Yeah, so it was fantastic and I hope that was a shorter blog for you all. I've been hearing about some of you out there that can't get through a whole blog of mine because I write so much. Well, I'm just trying to give you the facts!! haha. Just joking.

Forecast for the week: I head to the Canary Islands. I thought Gibraltar was going to be the closest I would get to Africa (and considering mileage it might just be) but these islands are one more step south. woooo

Haley