Europe Trip Extravaganza: Part Deux

Greetings from Pareeee, France!

Since Toledo Bryan and I have had a busy one point five weeks.

After leaving Toledo we took an afternoon train (which we caught luckily) to Granada for our first ever CouchSurfing experience. Our hostesses magically multiplied upon arrival. From their profile, it appeared that we were staying in an apartment with two hostesses: Marie and Fatima. Turns out that two other girls lived with them as well, all students of the local university. Curiously, none of them were from Granada. One was from the Malaga area, one from France (Marie), one from northern Spain (go Basque region!), and one was even from Australia! I think she was happy to have us around for the English break from Spanish. They were all wonderful hostesses though and we had a good time our only night there talking before Bryan and I headed out to explore the city a bit with tour guide Jessica, a friend from Kappa Delta who studied abroad there for a semester. She and her roommate Katie were nice enough to show us around a bit their last night in Granada.

Turns out it was absolutely wonderful to meet up with them because they gave us possibly the best advice ever for eating in Granada: bars. At bars in Granada, you can purchase a delicious beverage, such as the "tinto del verano" (red wine and lemon fanta mixed with fruit; like sangria but better) and you get a FREE "tapa" (appetizer) with said drink! SOO awesome. Bryan and I took great advantage of this deal the following day for lunch/dinner and then we got frozen yogurt to top it off!

Also in Granada we saw the Alhambra. This is a really amazing area in Granada that was first built by the Arabs as a fortress to protect the city and then later taken over by the Spaniards as a type of palace or summer home. Since it was built by Arabs you can imagine the amazingly detailed architecture that went into this compound. Everything was so intricately carved and planned out! It was a really great place to visit, but so tiring to walk around all day!

After our one day in Granada Bryan and I caught a night train to Barcelona to meet up with my family. It was a fairly uneventful ride, and I was glad that I was able to actually get some sleep. I think the rocking of the train actually helped me fall asleep better, like a rocking crib almost.

In Barcelona, we saw many amazing sights. I'd already been there twice, but I always love going back to that city because it's a lot of fun and I love going up to Parc Guell. My mom especially enjoyed Barcelona, and I think that the rest of my family enjoyed it as well. I really enjoyed showing them Parc Guell because it's my favorite place in the city and it's just such a relaxing place to walk around and take in all of the sights and notice new things every time.

After about two days of treccing around Barcelona, we hopped onto our ship the Voyager of the Seas to embark on our Mediterranean cruise adventure! I'll update on that week later.

Europe Trip Extravaganza: Part 1

Sorry for the incredibly delayed posting... Not a whole lot has happened these past few weeks of school. I completed my semester abroad with two long days of finals and 5/5 A's. Too bad my GPA doesn't transfer back to UNL, just the credits for the classes that I've taken. No matter. All day Friday I said goodbye to various friends from my group as they boarded their buses. It was a very sad day because of that, and some tears were definitely shed, but I'm happy that I had such an amazing semester with some really great people.

On Saturday morning I said goodbye to Mama Cristina, and Sarah saw me off at the bus station before I headed out to Madrid to pick up Bryan. The ride was fairly uneventful and I spent the majority of the time in a dull stupor thinking about nothing in general. Once I arrived in Madrid I walked around the city for about 2 hours until Bryan's flight arrived and then I caught the Metro over to the airport to pick him up! Of course it was a wonderful reunion and I was very very glad to see him again after so much time! We headed to our hotel to check in and drop of our insanely heavy bags and then spent the evening walking around Madrid and enjoying a nice play in the Plaza Mayor and a delightful calamari bocadillo with wine and gelato to top it off. It was a very good evening. :)

On Sunday we walked around a great deal of Madrid, toured el Museo de la Reina Sofia (modern art, think Picasso), el Parque del Buen Retiro, and el Museo del Prado. We were incredibly lucky in that both museums were free on Sundays, so we only had to pay for lunch that day!

On Monday we didn't have much time to kill before our train to Toledo, so we walked to el Palacio Real intending to take a tour of the interior but it was closed for a state function but we were able to get into an exhibition of Carlos IV for free which was interesting and gave Bryan an idea of the palace and its splendor (I'd already taken a tour of it before). Then we grabbed some coffee and expensive orange juice (to make up for all of the free museums and tours we'd snagged so far) and headed to the train station. OF COURSE we arrived JUST too late for our train. The gate closes 2 minutes prior to departure and we arrived just as the train was leaving. But it was alright because we ran into my friend Kasey and her mom and sister on the way! Also, we were able to change our tickets to the next available train (2 hours later) for a tiny fee and all was worked out just fine in the end.

Monday afternoon we arrived in Toledo and essentially spent the afternoon and evening walking around the tiny medieval city after wolfing down and entire pan of paella because we were so hungry from not eating all day. We took some nice pictures and shopped at bit as well.

Okay, now you're all updated!

In Burgos

Welcome to Burgos! I had no idea before we came here how much history is behind Burgos. It was founded in the 8th century! Originally it had a high wall around the entire city with a bunch of entrances. This is the most famous one that still remains. I think there're two original entrances remaining.






















The river that runs through Burgos.


























The main cathedral of Burgos. It was built in three legs and is the third most famous cathedral in the world. (Or is it just Spain?)


























This plaque indicates that at this building (used to be a monastery) the first edition of La Celestina was written.


























A portion of the pathway of the famous pilgrimage that runs through Spain.






















If you can't read it, Burgos is 6.875 km away from Boston. We're so close!






















The measuring compas of Burgos.






















Burgos and me! That's the super famous cathedral behind me.






















Fun Fact: Burgos was the capitol of Franco's government during his dictatorship. This was his house.


























Some of the architecture of the famous cathedral.


























Sculpture by Salvador Dalí of the saint that killed the dragon in Barcelona. Yeah, that turtle head is supposed to be a man...






















At Genoveva's family's restaurant! Genoveva's grandparents founded it in 1912 and it's been a Burgos icon ever since. This place was AMAZING and they were so wonderful to us! The manager himself gave us a tour and when we walked through the kitchen they gave us ambrosial chocolate mousse desserts for free!


This is the whole group (sans Tim) in front of the famous oven that can cook an entire lamb! (Burgos is famous for it's lamb.)

Left to right: Alex, Jill, Ryan, Corey, me, lamb cook, Cristina, Kasey, Sarah.


























One of the tables in the restaurant.






















A broader view of the general splendor.


























Walking with a jester and boy.






















The home of Franco's dictatorship. This was the governmental building at the time.


























The inside of the famous cathedral. This is the ceilling of one of the towers! It was all so beautiful and intricately detailed.






















The famous golden staircase. Pilgrims used to enter through the doors at the top and walk down the stares when they'd bed down in the cathedral for the night. They had to close the doors, however, when people would use it as a shortcut to get to the other side of the building. Not a big deal, yeah? Well, they'd also be carrying fresh groceries such as live chickens and whatnot which would apparently sometimes get loose in the cathedral. So the church decided that that had to stop.






















The photographer and pretty stained glass windows.

Our 20 km Hike (that's 12.427 miles!)

To welcome us back from our über-relaxing vacation in Lanzarote, Mama Christina decided to take Sarah and I along with her and her mountain hiking group on a 20 km hike! It was sooo much fun, and the people were absolutely wonderful company (one woman bought me a Cola-Cao and another woman was a Brit that worked for the EU!), but it was definitely a smack in the face after having done nothing for a week in Lanzarote.

Here's us at the trail head!


























The "birth" of the river that we followed for a bit. The water was all these crazy blue and green colors - I could almost taste them!


























A shrine to the Virgin Mary carved into the rock.






















This horsey came up to say hello to us.






















The horses and snow-capped mountains that the more hardcore half of the group decided to scale. I was uncomfortable in the drizzly/chilly weather we spent the majority of the day in.


























The oldest Roman church in Spain. Also considered the most pornographic church in Europe. I couldn't see it very well, but there's two animals getting it on in one corner of the front, and a carving of a butt somewhere else, to mention a few reasons why it's gotten this reputation.

























The front entrance of the church. You may be able to pick out the butt in one of the little carving under the eaves, but I haven't been able to.

Also, while we stopped at this church for a short break, one woman decided to remind me that this church was built before the Middle Ages, when America wasn't even BORN yet. Yeah, I know that we're historically challenged.


























Summiting the short mountain that we literally walked over. At least it was way warmer than the last mountain Sarah and I scaled!


All in all it was a great - but looooong - day. We left the house at 8:30 am and didn't get back until 10:30 pm!

Encounters with Spaniards

So far during my stay in Bilbao, I haven't had too many chances to interact with locals except through my host mom Christina or some random encounters. These are my stories:

Old lady:
One day I was walking to the Metro station to catch a train to Deusto. It was a chilly day and rather windy, and this old woman was inching along the sidewalk. As I passed her she just randomly struck up a conversation with me about the weather! She was a very cute, sweet lady, and we had a nice 3 minute conversation about how unseasonably cold it was that day.

Poor old man:
Yesterday I was walking to the University for my afternoon class. As I crossed an intersection, and old man was crossing as well, but walking towards me. All of a sudden, he started leaning forward and speeding up, like he was trying to cross before the signal changed. But he wasn't just trying to speed up. It turns out that he had actually lost his balance and was trying to catch his balance again. Sadly, he fell flat on his face in the middle of the intersection. I was terrified that he had hurt himself so I ran up to him and another man behind him ran up to help as well. We asked him if he was alright and he kept clutching his chest. I was worried that he'd had a heart attack or something, but he was just rubbing it because he'd landed flat on it. We tried to get him to stop for a second to make sure he was alright or to know if we needed to call someone, but he just kept walking along and insisted that he was fine. The cool thing is that the entire street of pedestrians stopped to make sure that he was alright and that he didn't need any help. I thought that was very neighborly of everyone.

Card shop owner:
Yesterday I went to the only card shop that I have ever found to buy a few postcards. I'd been there before a few times and the owner is very nice and always talks to me. One time he even told me that he has a daughter studying abroad in New York City at a prestigious acting school. And he has fun correcting my Spanish sometimes. On this day, he remembered that I was the Kansan (not the Texan, aka Sarah my roommate) and decided to announce to the entire store that if anyone would like to meet a Kansan that today was their day! I thought that was very funny of him. And one man in the store even knew that the capitol is Topeka! I was very impressed with this random fact.

Random professor (?):
Today, while I was sitting on my computer in the cafeteria of Duesto catching up on my emails, this man asked me if he could sit with me at my table. I awkwardly said yes and he asked me where I was from. I told him Kansas and he told me that, no, he didn't really know where that was in the US but that he'd seen movies of the Border War before. No surprise there. No one ever really knows where Kansas is. He asked me what I was studying here and back home and I answered. I asked him if he was a professor here, but it turns out that he's not but was on his way to Bilbao to talk to "predelinquitos" (young children) about the author Unamuno. I told him that I'd read a book by Unamuno and we discussed it (very) briefly before he had to leave to go to his conference. It took me about a minute to tell him my name (Bailey just seems to be so confusing here unless you associate it with the drink Bailey's) and he told me that his name was José Antonio. I thought he was a very nice man and I appreciated that he spoke so clearly and was happy to explain words to me that I didn't know.

All in all, I've found that the Basque people can be rather reserved, but if you can strike up a conversation with you they're really very nice and hospitable people!

Hiking in Cantabria

Hey all!

This past Sunday I went hiking with my Mama Christina and roomie Sarah in Cantabria for one last hoorah before school starts back up for three more weeks.

This hike turned out to be a lot more fun than the last hiking adventure I went on at the beginning of spring break. We hiked almost 20 km in six hours!!! (That's almost 12 miles if you don't want to do that math...) I was so exhausted by the end, but so happy as well! We had to leave the house at 7:30 am, and didn't return until 10 pm! That was because the trail head was two hours away driving.

The weather wasn't spectacular - it was a bit chilly and rained briefly, but Mama Christina made sure that we were fully prepared. She practically packed the whole house! She equipped both Sarah and I with fleece jackets and raincoats to keep dry. I was carrying the backpack Sarah and I shared at the time when it started raining, so I definitely looked like a turtle with it tucked under my coat! And Christina outfitted me with an impressive bucket hat, so needless to say I looked ridiculous.

All of the people were incredibly friendly towards Sarah and I during the whole hike. This is a complete 180 turn from our last hike experience. All of the people were interested to talk to us and know where we were from and how we liked Bilbao and Spain. I found that a lot of people had traveled to the US at some point, but mostly to major cities like Los Angeles and New York City. A few people knew where Kansas was, including on British woman who'd been living in Bilbao for ten years while working for the European Union! I don't know much about the Union, but Sarah had fun talking to her because she's taking a class about Spanish/European politics and the like.

Once we finally reached the end of the trail, we stopped to eat. It was about 4:30 by this time so I was definitely starving because the trail mixes we'd all passed around definitely weren't sustaining me. We ate delicious sandwiches that Christina made and then relaxed for a bit and talked to more people in the group. I told one woman about my studies back home (Anthro and Spanish) and she was impressed when I explained the company that I worked for last summer and all that it does.

Eventually we drove back home and I could finally shower after getting all muddy and sweaty from the wet trails. Christina was kind enough to promptly wash our sneakers so they'd be clean again, and then we all went straight to bed!

Now I'm back in classes again for another three weeks. It's good to be back in the rhythm again, and it gives me something to do during the days. It also helps pass the time until Bryan and my family arrive in Spain!

Lanzarote = A Brit's Paradise

As promised, here are the photos from the Lanzarote portion of my spring break!

This is our small balcony that overlooked the ocean!






















Our pool! There were snot-nosed little Brit kids screaming and playing there All. Day. Long. but it was still a good place to tan alongside the topless mothers and leather-skinned tan fathers.






















Our kitchen! We made some incredible meals there... It was good to be able to cook what (and how much) I want!






















Our living room - probably within the first 10 minutes of our arrival because it certainly wasn't this clean the rest of the time.






















Sarah and my bedroom! Guess which bed is mine...






















Day #2's delicious salad lunch! We got really crafty with our salads over the week. I believe in this one we had tuna, tomatoes, cooked potatoes and carrots, and green olives!






















Alex completely covered in sand from all of the sunscreen we caked on ourselves before heading to the beach to avoid being burned. And we didn't have any towels (we thought the hotel would supply them and, let's be honest, we didn't have room in our suitcases) so we had to lie in the sand and get all icky.






















These are the lawn chairs that we could've used - if we wanted to pay 4 EU each. No thanks.






















The wonderful pasta sauce that we made! It had onions, potato, and carrots in it. Mmm! Mmm!






















The view from our balcony. All of the buildings in Lanzarote are white and under 3 stories tall by law (or you can pay triple the taxes). It was a very quaint town, but definitely hard to navigate because everything looked the same!






















Julie's camel friend! He/she kept nudging us as we walked along.






















Sarah and Alex riding their camel! It tried to bite Alex when they sat down on the seats without the trainer being their to help them. Apparently camels are very temperamental because they won't carry anyone with perfume on them either and they get really mad at them.






















Me riding our camel! I got to drive it as well because our trainer gave me the lead rope! Okay, so I didn't actually really do anything because our camel just followed Sarah and Alex's around, but I like to think that I played an integral part.






















All of the camels waiting for their turn to carry people. The Canary Islands have strict laws protecting the camels so they're not overworked. They're only allowed to work a total of 5 hours or carry 6 "loads" of people in one day. After either of these limits is met, they're walked back to their stables and allowed to rest until the next day. The average work day totals to about 10-15 miles of walking, when they're actually capable of walking 25-30 in the Sahara, so I'd say that they've got it pretty good here on the island.






















Our nudging camel friend again. He/she made funny noises when we walked up a hill.






















Julie and me riding our camel!






















Other camel caravans above us on the hill.



























The entrance sign to the national park and the symbol. It's a little devil because the inhabitants of the island believed that the 4 years of intense volcanic activity (back in the 1700s) was brought on by a devil.


























Artificial geysers at the restaurant that we visited that heats all of their food from thermal cracks in the ground over the volcanic activity below. They shot a loud spray of water out of them!


























Preserved blue and red volcanic lava. Usually it turns a boring brown color when exposed to the elements, but this lava was buried underground for awhile.






















Ever wondered what the inside of a volcano looks like? Here you go! This is the inside of a volcano that was blown open by an explosion.






















The volcano that was the epicenter of all of the explosions during those long four years. Over 12 towns were buried under 30-90 feet of lava.






















An example of the agriculture here (in this case a vineyard). The pits are dug into the volcanic ash to reach the super-rich soil below and the small walls serve to protect the plants from wind.