Pamplona- San Fermin (Last weekend)

So Friday we headed out bright and early (7 am) after a night of going out to head to PAMPLONA for the fiesta of San Fermín. On the way there (it was a 6 hour bus ride), we stopped in the town of Burgos and looked around. Then, we were back off to Pamplona. The country side was beautiful! I very much enjoyed the ride. The "uniform" of the festival is white tops and bottoms, and a red scarf around your neck as well as a different type of scarf around your waist- and tennis shoes, for the streets are full of glass, a little bit of urine, a lot of alcohol, and a lot of dirt.

Friday night, we went to the city center to experience the chaos that was San Fermín. We stopped at Cafe Iruna, which is the cafe Ernest Hemingway often refers to in his novel The Sun Also Rises. Being an English major, I loved that. After eating, we joined the party.. The party, that is, consists of 200,000 + people all bar hopping and just enjoying life..and being SUPER super crazy. After 2 hours of sleep later that night, we woke up at 4 to get good spots to stand to see the running of the bulls... The encierro (or running) itself went by super fast- and we definitely saw many people get hurt.

After the encierro, we headed to our bus to go to the beaches of Biarritz, France for the day. WOW were they just gorgeous. I also had a DELICIOUS crepe but nothing like those of my Grandma's. I got tan as well :)

Saturday night, we joined the party again in our white and red garb. I won't go into details, but we had a great time. Its hard to explain thousands and thousands and thousands of people all raging, dressed in white and red, drinking on the streets and just being jolly and silly.

Sunday we headed home and stopped in a medival town on our way to Madrid, and when we got back to Madrid, went to the Plaza de Colon, and along with 30,000 other people, watched Spain win the WORLD CUP!!!!!! Madrid was absolutely CRAZY... people going wild in the streets, climbing on statues, splashing in fountains. I could not think of a more perfect way to end a more perfect trip :)

WORLD CUP WORLD CUP

SPAINS GOING TO THE WORLD CUP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (that's all)

AHHHH!!

Barcelonaaaa!!

So Friday morning bright and early, we jetted off to Barcelona for a nice long weekend. We get to Barcelona and check into our hostel. It was my very first hostel stay (all of ours in fact).. but it was a blast!! Definitely had a dorm atmosphere, and we rented a room with a private bathroom so we had absolutely no problems.

Friday, we went sightseeing.. We went to Parque Guell and La Sagrada Familia, two of Gaudí's works. La Sagrada Familia is still unfinished because Gaudí died while it was being constructed, and Barcelona has never hard the funds to fully finish it- plus there is the constant argument over how to finish it and what architect to use. We had an absolutely delicious dinner, but the sangria was disappointing. We hit up a discoteca later called Razzmatazz, but despite the name, did not enjoy it at all, and went for a night walk along the beach- very cool.

Saturday... we SLEPT IN (what a concept) and went to the beach!!! Great day. We had a very nice dinner and watched Spain win yet another World Cup game :)

Sunday we got up early, hit the beach for a few hours, and headed on our flight home. In the airport, we got in a heated debate over this issue: Do you tie your shoes with bunny ears or the other way? Apparently, bunny ears are NOT normal. Whatever. I proudly use the bunny ears.

One week left.... Don't want to think about it :( At least I am very tan now!

week in review!

So, crazy week that's of COURSE already flying by :( :(

Tuesday was the SOCCER game :-D ... Again, a mad house. I had a great time though.. As I've said in my previous posts, there's nothing better than thousands and thousands of people all together to cheer on their team and go crazy. The metro strike is still going on, so Jobie and I had to maneuver our way around the Madrid buses to get to the stadium. We also found a Spanish subway, but the food sucked.

Last night, we went to a club/cafe, I don't know what you'd call it, it had an open sangria bar, but other than that, it wasn't terribly fun, but when you're in good company, the less fun places still aren't awful!

Today, we had class (we have all this week) and then headed to the Prado again. The Prado awes me every time... For risk of repeating myself, that's all I'll say. All the stores sales started today as well, so Jobie and I did a lot of shopping, but I didn't get much at ALL because European fashion is vastly different. I tried to get my brother clothes from a Spanish store as a souvenir, but even if he did wore what I got him, he would look a little... metrosexual, to be politically correct.

We head off to Barcelona tomorrow!! AHHH!!! :-D... And when we return, we have one week left :(
There is nothing that makes me want to come home :( boo hoo. I wish we had even 2 more weeks- that would be perfect. All I miss are my fam :( A lot. I miss my friends too but even if I were in the states, I wouldn't be seeing a vast majority of them. Kevin and Hannah are visiting Andy and me when I get home, that's another exciting thing. And I miss Swenson's, and sleeping in. Surprising things I don't miss: my CELL PHONE and texting!! I don't miss driving, but when I'm at school, I don't miss it either. I'm going to miss things from Madrid like crazy. I've met the best people, stayed with the best host mom... :( Its been a great trip so far. And I still have time left!!! On to Barcelona! Everyone root for Spain in the soccer game this Saturday night!

when in Rome...

To begin with, it is impossible to add enough pictures to adequately encompass my journey. We woke up early Friday morning, hopped on the metro to the airport, and got on our plane. Flying Ryan air was definitely interesting, but for their cheap air fares, just fine. It is almost impossible to sleep on the flight because they keep announcing items they're trying to sell, annoying. So we were all very tired and cranky when we arrived in Rome. We had to take a bus to the city center, and there was so much crazy traffic, a usually 30-40 minute ride took an hour and 20 minutes.. with the driver jerking on the break every 5 seconds and accelerating like mad only to move 3 inches... It was terrible. When we get to the city center, we had NO idea what to do. After 20 minutes of trying to figure out the small Rome metro or busses, we decide to take a cab. We go up to a driver and offer him 40 euros for the 4 of us (taxis in Madrid are very expensive.) We were so lucky he didn't rip us off... The fare here ended up being only 10 euros!!

We check in our bed and breakfast and head to the Coliseum. It was very, very cool. Then we headed off to the Roman Forum, and after, maneuvered our way home using a crappy map the bus company gave us. Those who know me know I played no part in this maneuvering..My map skills are quite subpar. We then met our Italian friends we'd met in Madrid a few times for dinner. (We were smart and gave their information to our bed and breakfast owner just in case.) They really picked a gem of a restaurant...I highly doubt a tourist has ever set foot in the place. Their best friend also knew the owner, so we just got a ton of great, true Italian food and wine for a great price.

Saturday, we woke up early to go to the Vatican. Somehow, we beat the crazy long lines. St. Peter's Basilica was beautiful, as well as the Sistine Chapel. We had no idea you have to walk to an entire museum to get to the chapel...Also the entrance fees for both of these attractions are through the roof!! We grabbed lunch and then got the BEST gelato I've had to date. We made our way to the Spanish steps, relaxed and ate our gelato, and then went to the Trevi Fountain. I can't explain how fulfilled I felt at the fountain- it had been such a hectic day of go, go, go, and I just got to sit down, collect my thoughts, and realize I was in ROME and how lucky I was to be in such an awesome city.

We went to dinner, ordered pizza and a HUGE calzone, both of which were delicious. I also had a cannoli with ricotta cheese... mmm! We were so tired we didn't even have energy to go out, we passed out, caught our taxi at 530 the next morning, headed to the airport, and flew home!! After such a crazy weekend, it was so great to be back in Madrid. I took a nap in the afternoon, had paella courtesy of Consuelo, and slept and slept.

The metro/bus strike started today and will last until Wednesday. There were no problems today, go figure, and we woke up an hour and a half early just to get to class. Our bus came right away, and we got to class waaaayyy too early. Tomorrow though, there may not be any metros or busses at all running. It should be very interesting! I cannot believe I'm starting my fourth week :( :(

:) things could not get better.

So today we went to class. Had a stinky exam, and in our art class started learning about Goya. Our class and teacher have an ongoing joke about the island of Ibiza, which many people go to here, and it is a crazy party island which our teacher tells us has a lot of drug usage. So we have an hour left of our 2 hour class, and someone asks how to say fart in Spanish (clearly mature college kid), so our teacher writes it on the board next to her notes on the royal family. She then says "Que verguenza!" which means "what shame!" since theres words about passing gas next to her notes about rulers and royal families. She proceeds to ask us where we are all headed this weekend, and then give advice on each place. (People are going to Lisbon, London, Granada, and obviously Rome.)

So she starts talking about her kids visiting Ibiza and since we're joking around I start asking her all these questions about her son..starting by asking how old he was, and she just simply says .. NO. But then of course, like loving moms love to do, just starts blabbing about him. I was pretty excited to waste an hour of class just joking around, laughing, and learning how to say farts in Spanish.

We then decided to go to the pool, but wandered around for 30 minutes in the hot sun trying to find it. (There are a plethora of public pools here where you pay for entry.) We may have had to ask at least 20 people about it, and no one knew anything. Finally we found people who knew where the pool was and made it there. This is a public pool with PLENTY of kids, but sooo many of the older women went topless. Blech.

Anyways, I'm headed to ROMA tomorrow!! Must pack :) Adios!! Chao :)

so live your life

Just got back from going on my FIRST run here in Madrid! I am still shocked that I enjoyed it, even though its 90 degrees out. But sorry Mom, I still have yet to adore running.

Monday was an awesome day... We had class, then went to the Museo Reina Sofia, which is a museum of modern art. SOOO awesome to see Picasso and Dalí paintings, especially Picasso's most famous painting, Guernica. I snuck a picture from the other room since you're not allowed to take pictures of it.

Monday night, we headed back to the stadium to watch Spain play Honduras and WIN!! It was pure chaos and I loved it!!

Tuesday, we went back to the Prado and looked at Velazquez's works. I don't know why I actually enjoy these museums... I guess because every year in Spanish we learn about all these huge paintings and now I actually get to see them. After the Prado, we went to see a flamenco/ballet interpretation of Carmen. Audience style is soo different here. Everyone showed up last minute, and no one really clapped for a pretty artistic performance. The music was pre-recorded, which was odd, but the dancing was phenomenal.

Another strange cultural thing that's different from the US: Students live with their parents throughout college. No one here has an apartment or house with friends. Our teachers think in 30 years that will change, but not now. Also, I've never seen anyone really running outside here, maybe because of the heat, but today, people definitely looked at me like I was crazy.

We leave for Rome early Friday morning!! I can't waaaaiiiit and I need to pack :)