The one with Sandy in Sevilla

Cathedral

We have been chilling in Zafra for the past few weekends, so we decided that we wanted to take a little trip to get away.  Sevilla is less than two hours away by bus, and we have been several times to go to the airport.  We hadn't gone to actually see the city, so we decided two days and a night there were just what the doctor ordered.  Before Marissa's Christmas break flight to Albania she had to stay in Sevilla the night before, so we knew that the hostel would be okay.  It was the first true hostel that I have stayed in, four sets of bunk beds in a room with a bathroom out in the hall.  It was actually okay.  There was a kitchen down the hall and a glass of free sangria at night.  Plus on Saturday morning there was free breakfast :) I made Marissa and I crepes and nutella with orange/pineapple juice, toast, and coffee.  Not bad for 12 Euros a night, so we'll probably be heading back to the Garden Backpacker any other time we need a hostel in Sevilla.

Anyways, Friday was rainy and gross, so we dropped off our bags at the hotel before heading over to the Cathedral and Giralda (bell tower) to check it out.  It was cool and definitely provided a drastic contrast from the last Cathedral we went to, Sagrada Familia.  The best part was probably the views from the bell tower, even though it was rainy and foggy.  Next we headed to Triana, a neighborhood in Sevilla, to meet up with Rebecca, our friend who recently  moved to Sevilla from a small pueblo.  We went to a local place and got some tapas to share, paella, croquetas caseras, bacalao, patatas with this spicy sauce, and this giant calamari thingy.  The bacalao (cod) and the patatas were my favorites; that sauce was to die for!

From the top of las Setas

Rebecca decided to come with us for the rest of our afternoon, so we made some stops looking for some new boots for her.  Then we headed to las Setas, a cultural center that is shaped like giant mushrooms.  It was really modern and reminded me of Gaudi.  Finally we check out the Alameda, which is a long plaza-type thing with Roman columns on both ends.  By this point, it was dark, so we said goodbye to Rebecca and headed back to our hostel.  We at the bocadillos we had packed for dinner and then snuggled into our pajamas for some Criminal Minds and Castle.

On Saturday, we got up and made breakfast.  During breakfast, we met a girl named Alexis who is an Auxiliar in Madrid.  Then we headed out to visit Alcazar, a Moor Palace used during 1000-1500 or so.  Alexis happened to be heading there as well, so we walked over together, chatting.  Alcazar was cool, but a little bit out of context for me, just  because I didn't really know what was going on.  It was also ruined for me when I looked down and realized that my hand was swelling.  Three of my fingers were increasing in size for no apparent reason, and it was definitely disconcerting.  I'm still not sure what is going on with that, but I might be seeing a doctor, so I will let you know...

We wanted to get on the four o'clock bus back to Zafra, so we headed over to Plaza de Espana to check it out.  It was gorgeous!  There were all these fountains, and mosaic tile pictures of all the capitals of the regions of Spain.  We were happy to see Badajoz and Zafra represented :) Best of all, it was warm!  I even took off my scarf and my coat.  I CANNOT WAIT UNTIL SPRING!! It wasn't that much further south, but for some reason it was insanely warmer.

After picking up our bags at the hostel, we headed to the bus station.  I didn't get a picture, but along the way I had an AHHH-MAZING bocadillo de chorizo frito (sandwich of fried chorizo)!  I already knew that I really liked chorizo, but this took it to a whole new level.  The United States needs to get on Spain's level, because the chorizo here is from another world good! Finally we got on the bus, where I promptly fell asleep, as usual, and then we were home.  Another successful trip! Today we were glad to have a day of nothing though.  Sometimes I just need those days.

The one with the Farm Book!

Me and my cute kids!

For the last six weeks, I have been working with my two youngest students on learning animals. The last two weeks we focused on farm animals, and so we created these awesome books about the farm. The goal was also to subtlety work on practicing the "There is" construction. It went pretty well, and I even had the older one reading it by the end!! I gave him some homework, that he has to read it to his parents.  I let them take their books home, but mine is pretty awesome! Take a look at the cover :)

The one where we actually ATE at the restaurant

So Marissa and I go to Restaurante Ramirez all the time, like the weeks where we don't have trips, I am there probably five times a week.  In general, all we ever get is a cafe con leche and occasionally toast with peach marmalade, which is DELICIOUS! They don't mind; I think they think we are funny, sitting there for an hour or two on our laptops doing who knows what or talking to "ourselves" while we are actually FaceTiming/Skyping friends and family.

Paella mixta

The point is that this weekend, we actually ate there for dinner on Saturday night.  In Spain, the best deal is usually the menu del dia, which consists of two courses of some sort, plus usually bread and a dessert and sometimes a drink as well.  All of this for around 10 Euros and I am a happy girl, so after some consideration, we asked about this.  Marissa and I both got Paella Mixta for primero plato, and then she got croquetas and I got pork for segundo plato.  What we later learned is that they don't typically do menu del dia at dinner time, mostly because the big meal of the day here is lunch.  But because they know and love us there, they let us order it :) Our favorite waiter, who I think is named Manuel, even had to come over to tell us how happy he was to see us and express surprise that we were doing something different, i.e. eating! lol  So cute.  We had made it a goal to ask one of the waiters his name, because he keeps trying to speak to us in English to practice.  We finally did it, and it is Fran, which is a little different, but now when I walk in, he says, "Hello, Sandy!" and it is pretty great.  We may even try eating dinner out again for reals!  Mostly we haven't before because we weren't paid until right before Christmas break, so we had been on austerity measures.  Now we are out in full force!! Which really means that we haven't changed hardly anything.  What can I say?  I am a naturally frugal person!!!

The one with pasta and love ;)

We hadn't gotten together with Masha since before Christmas break, so we were dying to know what had been going on in her life.  Masha had an adventure of her own, heading to Switzerland for Christmas and then Russia to spend New Year's with her Grandma.  She also got an awesome surprise while she was in Switzerland...this guy that she has been facebook/salsa friends with for years and that she finally met in early December surprised her out of the blue by coming to the Salsa convention that she was attending in Switzerland.  He flew all the way from London for literally one night of dancing to be with her.  So basically I may not have found love while here in Spain, but she has, and it is totally AWESOME!  She reciprocate the awesomeness by getting Cirque de Soleil tickets in London for his birthday, which was so generous and amazing of her.  It is something that I have always wanted to see but never really been able to...someday!

All in all, we had a great night of homemade wine (by someone else), spinach and artichoke pasta (made by yours truly!), and some fantastic pastries from the pasteleria down the street.  I enjoy any opportunity to cook for company and try out a new recipe!  It was soooo good, not that I was expecting otherwise, considering how I feel about Spinach Artichoke dip.  We ended the night early with some Apples to Apples, in which Masha definitely creamed us.  Yay for friends just chilling in Zafra! After such a busy Christmas vacation and with our big Carnaval trip to Amsterdam coming up, we have been taking it easy.  Next weekend, as a quick getaway, we are taking a trip to Sevilla to finally see some of the sights we keep missing out on the way to the airport.  

The one with all the Antoni Gaudi

Our second and final day in Barcelona, we wanted to get a greater taste of the Gaudi architecture so important to the modern feel of Barcelona.  We headed to Casa Mila, otherwise known as La Pedrera, first because it was only a few blocks from our hotel.  I love how fluid and unique it is.  Each of the balconies was hand-crafted and is a completely unique design.  The whole house is designed without the use of straight lines, which is super cool!

Next, we walked over to Casa Batllo, which includes several unique designs.  The roof resembles a dragon, with scales and a spiky tail.  The actual house is reminiscent of fish and leaves.  You can kind of see the bony appearance of the windows over Marissa's shoulder.  

Casa Vicens, a bit out of the way, was the first house designed by Gaudi.  This is really obvious when you consider its lack of Modernism characteristics.  It shows some of the exploration that Gaudi made early in his career, but lacks the really "out there" appearance of some of the other houses and Sagrada Familia in particular.  The yellow tiles actually have small flowers on them because when Gaudi originally came to check out the site, there were yellow flowers growing there. A family still lives in the house today, though they bought it for something like $20 million!

Casa Calvet was the last Gaudi stop of the trip.  It definitely represents a calmer, more toned-down version of Gaudi, but this is because it was designed for a wealthy family in one of the most upscale neighborhoods of Barcelona, where his more outrageous designs would not have been accepted.  Nonetheless, Gaudi is still present in the curves of the balconies, the unique columns at the base, and the strange figures on the top of the building.  I think if we could do it again, we would try to see everything in chronological order to really get a feel for how Gaudi and his architecture evolved...next time, I guess!

Next we headed to see the Mercat Boqueria, which was filled with lots of yummy foods to buy!  This is the main downside to living in a small pueblo, the food choices!  There seemed to be every fruit and vegetable in existence in this market, and I was having terrible food envy.  More strangely, there seemed to be every meat product available as well.  What you are looking at right now are tongues (cow I think), sheep's head, hearts, and liver, I do believe.  There were also whole rabbits, skinned and unskinned available for sale.  It was creepy but also kind of awesome.  We also headed over to Mercat Santa Caterina, but it was not as impressive after the first market, and we were getting tired and hungry, so it was enough.

After a quick stop for some stir fry noodles (DELICIOUS!) at Wok to Walk, we headed down to Rambla de Mar to watch the Three Kings come into the harbor.  In Spain, January 6th is Three King's day, the day in which the Three Kings come and bring all of the children's presents.  It is pretty awesome and a lot like their version of Santa.  My students tried to claim that the three kings coming was much more believable and credible than Santa, but I think they just don't know how awesome Santa really is!

After some resting in the hotel and packing to go home, we headed back out to check out the Three King's Parade in Plaza de Catalunya.  Let me just say that we seemed to be missing some key cultural knowledge to understanding most of the floats in the parade.  One of the key parts to the parade is that the floats throw candy for the children to collect, but it is actually super dangerous.  In Malaga this year, a six-year-old was run over and killed by a float (going slowly) while he was chasing after some candy.  So sad and terrible.  Sometimes Spain isn't very safety conscious, and the kids LOVE sweets! The parade was ruined a bit for me when I realized that the guy behind was totally touching me inappropriately and pretending that the crowd was knocking him into me.  I scared us both when I went to pull my jacket down only to find his hand lightly around my waist.  People, man!  Oh well, he will live infamously on my blog for the rest of his days.  

After the parade, we grabbed a quick dinner, tried to order salads, only to realize that a greek or italian salad doesn't always include lettuce.  We went home to sleep for four hours, but then it was time to get up to go the airport at 2:50 AM for our 6 AM flight!  We got back to Sevilla without problems, but because of Three Kings' Day, the buses were limited.  We had to wait until after 1 PM to get a bus back to Zafra.  Suffice it to say, we were SOOOOOO glad to be home!!  It was an awesome Winter vacation, but I was definitely ready for it to be over.

The one with the Sagrada Familia (Barcelona)

A few months ago Marissa and I were looking into our winter break plans when we decided that maybe we should take a mini-trip at the tail end.  Spain is a lot bigger than it seems, and so we decided to head for the Northeast to Barcelona.  I had heard really great things about the city, so I didn't want to miss it!  Maybe it seems a bit premature to already be worried about not getting to see certain cities and places during my time here, but we don't have many breaks left this year, so more of our trips are going to need to be relatively local.

Anyways, I arrived in the middle of the night, about an hour after Marissa's flight got in.  It had been a long day, and I was glad that she had already sorted out checking in to the hostel.  It was strange because the hostel's reception was in a building a couple of blocks away from the actual rooms.  The room, at Hostal Eden, was acceptable, nothing great but functional.  The only real problem was with noise.  There was a happening club downstairs that really gave a special beat to my sleep that night, and then in the morning around eight someone was doing construction right outside our window.  At least it was somewhere to sleep, and it was relatively warm. 

Because of our late night, we were slow going in the morning and didn't leave until around 11:30 for Plaza de Catalonia.  We got a map and found a little cafe to eat breakfast.  Finally we headed to the metro to find Parque Guell, a park designed by one of my favorite artists/architects, Antoni Gaudi.  Too bad we made it all the way to the end of the metro line and exited before we realized that we were supposed to be going the other direction.  Way to go, Ipod.  We finally made it to Parque Guell around 2 and looked around.  It had some beautiful views of the city and was a good first site as we made our way into the world Gaudi's buildings.  

The only other stop we had planned for the day was to the Sagrada Familia.  I don't know if I can even begin to describe its awesomeness.  Of everything I have seen in Europe these last few months, this is probably my favorite thing I have seen.  Designed in the early 1900s, it is a perfect unity of a sacred place (a church) and nature.  Gaudi, a part of the Modernist movement, was fascinated by nature, and so his design is reminiscent of trees, making use of natural light as much as possible.  He loved curves, spirals, and other fun things.  His design was so ambitious that even now, much of the cathedral is not finished.  The goal is a 2050 finish, which I would love to see.  If you ever get the chance to see it, DO! Because it is worth it.

 

After going back to the hotel for some relaxation, we found a nice hotel for dinner where we enjoyed some paella marisco (seafood paella: a traditional rice dish from Spain).  It was quite good, but probably not as good as the paella we enjoyed at Feria here in Zafra.  For desert we got some ice cream, which was yummy, but mine had an unexpected addition of a piece of glass.  Luckily I wasn't hurt or anything, but it was definitely a surprise.  Spain is different from the US in that way, customer service just isn't the same, so I didn't say anything.  Sometimes there is just glass in your ice cream; it happens.  

The one where 2013 begins with a bang!

January 1st, in addition to being the beginning of 2013, a year that is sure to be AWESOME, was a day of even more sight-seeing. Because it was a holiday, most of the sites and museums were closed. We had planned in advance and saved the free/outside places for this day. Our first stop was the Trevi fountain, which was very crowded, probably because many other people had the same idea as us. Then we headed to the Pantheon, which was impressive. On our way to the next place, we somehow ended up back at the Trevi fountain, which was good because we had forgotten to throw the required coin in to ensure our return to Rome.

Next was the Spanish Steps, which were completely inundated with people. There was an extremely fascinating concert by what I think was a marching band. There is a large New Year's parade in Rome that has bands from across the world and of which this band was probably a part of. We were tired and we wanted some pics on the steps, so we found somewhere to plop down, eat our sandwiches, and enjoy the music. After the required pictures, we did some errands finding some postcards and seeking out some more gelato, which was absolutely delicious, thank you! Finally came the part I was most anxious to take part in, seeing the first Hobbit movie. IT WAS AWESOME!!! And it was in English, with Italian subtitles, which only were a hindrance when the characters spoke elven or orc. Finally we headed back to a quiet dinner in our hotel room and some Friends episode clips on YouTube.

The next day was our last day in Rome. We still had one more free site/museum with our Roma pass, so we selected Musei Capitolini. I wanted somewhere more in line with Ancient Rome rather than more Renaissance paintings. Capitolini includes many of the statues, artifacts, and ruins found at the nearby Palatine Hill area. It also has some unique viewpoints through some of the original archways down onto the Palatine Hill area. I highly suggest it to those who want more Ancient Rome!

Look! I found Big Foot!!

Next we headed over to Vatican City, where we had reservations at the museum for 1pm. Unfortunately, I was already tired by the time we arrived. The museum has some cool exhibits, but I found it suffers from a lack of context. For example, there is an exhibit on ancient Egypt, but why? It seems rather random, rather like showing off a personal collection without explaining the meaning behind the objects. The Sistine chapel was very well done and exemplary of the time. Katie and I said that the drawings there and on the similar ceilings seemed like a page of doodles by those with talent. Rather haphazard but nonetheless works of art.


Then we headed to the other side of Vatican City to see St. Peter's basilica. There was a singing group a bit ahead of us in line which entertained us for a while. St. Peter's was worth the wait, and I am glad to have see the biggest church in the world. Before we knew it, it was time to pack up and find one last dinner to close out this leg of my trip. We ended with pasta and more pastries, but sadly these could not compete with the ones we had in Florence.

I left early in the morning for one of the Rome airports, with Katie departing later for a different one. It was sad to leave her, but at least I am secure in knowing that we had a trip of a lifetime together! I spent the whole day traveling, first to Madrid, and then by bus to Barcelona, where I finally met up with Marissa at nearly two in the morning for the final stop in my winter adventure!