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
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
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
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
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
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
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
Sunday, March 8, 2009
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
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
Monday, March 2, 2009
Lagos '09
That's right. Lagos '09. An expression I probably would never have used and will never use again. But that was the name of this past weekend, as coined by my new friend Liz.
At 6:40 in the morning, I left my house in pursuit of the bus station. It was still dark, and I walked by a group of boys who I had to assume were still out from the night before. I surprisingly was the first one at the bus station out of my friends--Papa, I hope you are proud of me. I was then met by Alli and Liz, followed by Mackenna and Flor. It was getting close to the time that the bus was supposed to leave, so we decided to go down and wait for it, even though Kate and Lauren hadn't shown up yet. We started to board the bus at 7:30, and finally, but just barely, we were greeted by Kate and Lauren. From there, we embarked upon our Lagos, Portugal adventure.
The bus stopped a few times and we finally got to Portugal at 11:30 (which was one hour behind [ahead or behind? I never understand those expressions of time] of Sevilla). So really the bus was about 5 hours. We didn't have anything planned for this trip, it was kind of going to be, let's do what we feel like when the time comes. It was nice to go into a trip with that kind of mentality, but because of that, I didn't even bother to look into things we could do, or look into phrases in Portuguese. Flor had a phrase book, which ended up being somewhat helpful, but it was definitely weird being in a country that we couldn't understand the language. I mean, I thought about it, but it didn't actually hit me until I crossed the border. Luckily, along the way some people spoke english, but even though Portuguese is a romance language, and even though some of the words spelled out look like spanish, that language was crazyyy to understand. It sounded like a russian spanish speaker. They have so many "sh" noises in their spectrum, and there was just not a way that I could understand it. Anyway, we were about to get off the bus when we realized that we didn't even know where our hostel was. Good thing Alli wrote down the address, because then all we needed to do was actually find it. The center city was actually pretty small, which was nice for us because we didn't get lost and everything was easy to find. We got to the hostel, where I paid 12 euro to sleep each night, and then walked around for a bit. The weather wasn't so great, and it was off-season, but we were all so happy to be there.
Saturday had much better weather and Flor, Mackenna, Alli, Liz and I decided to go on a boat tour to the famous geological/rock formation sites that make up the Algarve coast. We took a very small boat for an hour (no, it wasn't a three hour tour), and we got to see all of these beautiful rocks, caves, cliffs, and the ocean. It really did look like what you imagine a post card to look like--true to their word!
That's me driving our little boat.When we finished our little ride, we headed over to a small, quiet beach which was just as beautiful as the rest of the landscape. From there, we just hung out for a few hours, took some pictures, read, chatted, and whatever else you want to through in there. We met a stray dog, apparently there are a ton of stray dogs in Lagos, of all different varieties--that was very interesting/concerning to me. This one approached us and she looked preggers or something. She also had the body of a lab, but I swear to you her face looked like Whoopi Goldberg's hyena voice character in the Lion King. The same face, seriously. She was pretty sweet and wasn't really bothering us, just sitting with us, but then these three other dogs (who were with an owner) started getting all up in her face and her territory and she started to growl/make the scariest face ever, which is why she looked like a hyena, and that is when I got over her. But I still named her Whoopi and I thought that was crucial to my blog this evening.
EDIT: Due to popular demand (yes, apparently I have a popular demand!!) here is a picture I scrounged up of Whoopi. It doesn't show exactly her Whoopi face, but maybe it is good enough.
And finally, we got up to leave on Sunday--the hostel kicked us out at 12, but our bus wasn't leaving until 3 or 4. We weren't sure because Portugal was an hour ahead of Spain, so we figured that we would just go a little early. Well, we didn't go early enough because apparently the bus left at 1:45 and we definitely missed it. There were no other buses going anywhere near Spain/Sevilla, so we were forced to go back to the hostel and stay another night in Lagos. A few of the girls were pretty bummed, but there was really nothing we could do. So we hung out and did nothing for a while, got our rooms back at the hostel (luckily it was off-season and no one was there) and then we woke up at 5:15 to be on the bus (and make sure we got to the bus) by 6:30. The ride was an hour longer going back because we hit traffic and then I rushed to my second class after I missed my first one. Overall, the going back part wasn't great, but we had a fantastic weekend, even with the mess ups in schedules. And what's more is that I am so proud of myself for blogging about it immediately instead of waiting 2 weeks to fill you in on everything.
This Saturday I am going to Gibraltar!
LAGOS '09!
Haley
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