One Year Later: Operation Andalucia

“I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.” -Susan Sontag

A year ago yesterday, I returned from the best four months of my life in Madrid. I can’t believe that experience is already a year in the past, but I still think about it, talk about it, and miss it everyday. Pictures are posted all over my room, I continue to hang out with the friends I made there, and the knowledge I gained has changed my outlook on life and the world forever.

I realized yesterday I had never posted about my last weekend trip of the semester, so I decided to make a belated video slideshow to celebrate the one-year anniversary. It details my Madrid program trip to Andalucía, a region in Southern Spain, during Thanksgiving weekend 2011. We visited the cities of Córdoba, Granada, and Sevilla in four days. Enjoy!

But wait, there’s another motive behind this post besides to finally conclude the documentation of my adventures abroad and the reasoning behind the quote at the top. I will be traveling to ISRAEL in just TWO weeks!!! Thirteenth country, fourth continent I will have been to. It is a birthright trip specifically for communications students, so I plan to revive this blog once again to document my experience. I am extremely excited, as I’m sure you can imagine, and I can’t wait to share!

La Reina de la cocina

“There is no sincerer love than the love of food.” -George Bernard Shaw

As a little kid, I used to say I ate to live, not lived to eat. I obviously didn’t understand the definition of life.

Oh so much has changed since the days when I ate nothing but chicken fingers, cheese sandwiches on white bread, and ice cream. I’m now lactose-intolerant and can no longer stomach fried foods. Consequently, I am a much more adventurous and healthy eater. One of my favorite parts about studying abroad was trying all the amazing different foods as you probably have noticed because I always include photos of my meals on here.  Well get ready to be overloaded with food pics because this post is dedicated entirely to la comida española.

Every morsel of food shown in the photos of this post was made by “La Reina de la cocina,” the Queen of the kitchen, Carmen. I was blessed to have been assigned to live with the best cook in all of Spain. I know you think I’m exaggerating, but really, every night I came home to what tasted like the best meal of my life and then the next night I would sit down at the dinner table and think the same thing again. My food experience in Spain was what it was because of this amazing woman. We used to say her food tasted so good because it was made with love.

We’ll begin with a basic. Above is la tortilla española. You can find this at just about any restaurant in Spain. It is a common rookie mistake to look at a menu and order a tortilla thinking you’re going to get a flat round piece of wheat or corn flour like those in Mexico. As you can see, the only trait these two tortillas share is their shape. A traditional tortilla española is made from eggs, slivered potatoes, and finely chopped onions. It is like a cross between an omelette and a quiche and I miss it very very much. Tortilla was my go-to food at any Spanish cafetería, but no matter how many I tried, none could compare to my host mom’s.

While we’re on the topic of eggs, let’s discuss el plato cubano, the Cuban Plate. Two eggs over easy, rice, tomato sauce (sometimes containing meat like in this picture), and a slightly caramelized banana. This may sound like a ridiculous combination, but whoever came up with it is truly a genius. The components work as well together as peanut butter and jelly. This is an easy meal to put together if you have some leftover tomato sauce and want to try something different and delicious!

Paella is probably the most well known Spanish food and it holds a special place in my heart. Whether it’s made with seafood, chicken and chorizo, vegetables, I love it. It has to be made right though, so the saffron rice is cooked to the point when it has the perfect balance of softness and crunchiness. I would do crazy things for an authentic deep dish of paella right now.

If only Carmen didn’t hate airplanes…

Spanish food is made to be eaten, not looked at; so even though this chicken may not be very aesthetically appealing, I promise the moment it touches your taste buds you will reconsider. This is el pollo con la salsa de miel, chicken with honey sauce aka the most delicious chicken ever. This one’s a plate licker people.

Carmen served the chicken with los guisantes, peas. I have (or should I say had) never been much of a pea fan. Sure, I eat them when they’re put in front of me, but never before in my life had I eaten an entire bowl, asked for more, and then craved them on a weekly basis. The peas are cooked with olive oil, finely chopped onion, and el jamón serrano, Spanish serrano ham. Spain has a national obsession with ham. I’m pretty sure you can’t walk into a grocery store and find rows of ham legs hanging from the ceiling anywhere else but España. Spanish ham is nothing like American ham. If anything, it’s closest to prosciutto, but in my biased opinion it’s even better. It goes great on sandwiches, with peas, and even with melon (jamón y melón is a popular appetizer. It’s an interesting way to do sweet and salty).

I was always a plain pasta kind of girl. The pasta sauce above was my introduction to eating tomato sauce. The orange specks are actually carrots and the sauce is more oil based than tomato based.

In Spain, meals are typically three separate courses. The first course consists of vegetables, the second is some form of protein, and the third is dessert. A fresh loaf of bread is always served on the side. It was strange to Carmen that my roommate and I preferred to eat our vegetables at the same time as the meat. The above picture shows a variation of las judias verdes, a typical green bean dish. They are the best cooked green beans I’ve ever had.

When there weren’t cooked vegetables, and even sometimes when there were, Carmen would prepare me a small salad. Above is a huge salad she made when my roommate’s parents visited. Perfect with Spain’s famous olive oil.

This made for an interesting appetizer one day. I’m pretty sure it’s eggplant, even though it’s light colored, with chicken in tomato sauce on top.

Here are some examples of main courses. This was some kind of meat stew.

Pork with a tasty sauce.

Traditionally, Spain follows the Mediterranean diet, which consists of lots of olive oil, vegetables, and seafood. If you need to know anything about my eating habits, it’s that I could happily eat seafood every day of my life. Lobster has been my favorite food since I was two-years-old, no lie.

El pescado con la salsa verde, fish with green sauce, is one of my favorite fish dishes of all time. Once again, please don’t judge it by how it looks. My parents can affirm how delectable it is because I had my host mom make it for them when they came for a visit.

This is another combination of ingredients that you think wouldn’t work well, but do: rice, shrimp, hard boiled egg, ham, pepper, and apple.

Las lentejas, lentils, are a popular winter Spanish food. I had never really eaten lentils before, but I liked them in this soup.

Carmen loved making fresh vegetable soups and I loved eating them. This particular crema de verduras paired well with the sprinkled goat cheese on top.

This is traditional sopa castellano, Castilian soup. It had a unique flavor that’s difficult to describe. I especially loved the pieces of soaked bread and egg that were in it.

When it came time for our last meal in Spain, I knew exactly what I wanted to request: los garbanzos fritos, fried chickpeas. Carmen would take cooked chickpeas and heat them in a skillet with olive oil, onion, garlic, and el chorizo, Spanish sausage. I’ve always been a fan of hummus, but this dish takes chickpeas to a whole different level.

As for dessert, nearly every night until it went out of season, I would eat el melón. It came to the point when my host mom would say to me, “Amy, eres melón” “Amy you’re melon.” It’s different from any melon I’ve ever had in the U.S. Its formal name is piel de sapo, which literally means toad skin, but everyone in Spain just calls it melon. It’s sweet, juicy, and refreshing for those warm Madrid days.

A special treat was el bizcocho, cake. She made all kinds of varieties: fruity, chocolatey, lemony. This cake is famous among the women that work in the SU Madrid office.

 There you have a brief summary of my meals at Carmen’s throughout the semester. She’s the reason why I returned home weighing a bit more than when I had left, but I will never regret a single calorie.

Toledo…six months later

 “We travel, some of us forever, to seek other states, other lives, other souls.” -Anais Nin

Ok, ok. I know it has been forever and you thought I gave up on this blog and would never finish writing about the trips from the rest of my semester.

Well, you were wrong.

The truth is I have been in denial about being back in the United States and finishing this blog is proof that my semester abroad is over.

So I decided to take it slow and spread out my last few posts.

Now the issue is remembering everything, but the copious number of photographs I took has definitely come in handy for this!

In mid-November, I went on a day trip with school to Toledo, which is less than an hour by train from Madrid.  Above is the historical entrance to the city.

Toledo is unique because it was a place where people from all faiths lived together in harmony before the Spanish Reconquista.

One of the teachers from SU Abroad gave us an in-depth tour and brought us around to various religious and historical landmarks.

First stop, a mosque.

In Islam, people and animals cannot be used for decoration, so mosques are adorned with geometric patterns.

The mosque was eventually turned into a chapel when the Christians conquered the city.

We continued winding our way through this beautiful city as we stopped at its various religious icons.

The Cathedral of Toledo.

This is my friend Megan discovering new camera angles.

The inside was exquisite.

 

We were given some time to get lunch and explore.  My host mom had told me that Toledo is famous for its marzipan, which I had never tried before.

Let’s just say, it was love at first bite.

El Greco, meaning “The Greek” in Spanish because he was originally from Greece, was a famous artist who lived in Toledo.

We had the opportunity to see the above painting, “The Burial of Count Orgaz.”

Our last religious landmark for the day was a synagogue.

I loved the intricate patterns on this wall.

Right across from the synagogue was this incredible view.  Imagine living in one of those houses on the edge?

I seriously love Spain.

On our way back to the train station, we stopped by the most popular sweet shop in Toledo. Yes, that building is made of marzipan.

Marzipan is made from almonds, eggs, and sugar.  It is malleable and can be molded into shapes like the strawberries above!

I had a successful day in yet another beautiful Spanish city.

The following night, I went to see Breaking Dawn at an original version theater (the movie is played in its original language with Spanish subtitles) in Madrid with a couple other Twilight lovers.  The movie was awesome, but we had an unexpected intermission that makes for an interesting story.  If you know anything about Twilight, you know that it involves vampires and, therefore, blood.  During the climax of the movie, which was a fairly bloody scene, nearly everyone in the theater stood up and started yelling “médico, médico…” meaning doctor.  My friends and I just looked at each other unsure of what to do because even though I know enough Spanish to communicate my point, everyone else in the theater would be able to do a much better job.  I hated feeling helpless, but eventually someone went over to assist the person, who we couldn’t see from our seats, and the theater paused the movie. We weren’t sure if someone threw up, had a seizure, or fainted, but when we saw a man stand up and walk out looking rather woozy and embarrassed, we realized it had been the latter.  The theater rewound the movie and thankfully nobody else had any problems with the “gory” final scene.

“I just burped pesto and it tasted so good”

“Life is an unfoldment, and the further we travel the more truth we can comprehend. To understand the things that are at our door is the best preparation for understanding those that lie beyond.” -Hypatia

I’ll explain the title later, but let’s just say the last day of the Italy weekend getaway strictly involved two things, sightseeing and eating way too much food. Wake up call came early because we had tickets to visit Vatican City.

We went to the Vatican museum before proceeding to St. Peter’s Basilica.  There are a bunch of different exhibits and they have no free maps, so we felt a little lost at first.

We found some nice statues…

like this one that actually has eyes. It was freaky.

We wandered through lots of hallways decked out with art

and eventually ended up at our destination

the Sistine Chapel!

I’m not going to lie, I couldn’t believe that the above portion was only a very small part of the ceiling.

I’m pretty sure I wasn’t actually supposed to be taking pictures, but the place was so crowded it was impossible for the guards to prevent it.  I don’t even have a flash on my camera though, so I know it’s not ruining anything.

Next stop, St. Peter’s Basilica.

Hey, where’s Edward Cullen? Sorry, I had to. I’m a Twilight lover.

The line was pretty long, but soon enough we were inside.

Where St. Peter was buried.

Just some light shining into the exquisite building.

Although we were starving, we took a bus to the Pantheon before finding somewhere to eat.

I thought the ceiling was cooler looking than the rest of the inside.

Pretty piazza near the Pantheon.

We stumbled across this cute little restaurant and it was exactly what we were looking for.

The eating frenzy began with this beautiful appetizer that consisted of a tomato stuffed with goat cheese over pesto.  This is what prompted my friend Sarah to say, “I just burped pesto and it tasted so good” about an hour after the meal.  You can go ahead and judge, but Italian food really is that delicious.

For the main course, penne with spicy tomato sauce and seasoned sauteed spinach.

As for dessert, I stopped in every gelato shop I could find to see if they had the dairy-free dark chocolate flavor I had eaten in Venice and Florence.  After being told no at least three times, I discovered the best gelateria in all of Italy.  It had hundreds of flavors including EIGHT SOY FLAVORS!

It was a tough decision, but I went with chocolate, hazelnut, and pistachio.

Two of my friends and I were walking to a park when we saw this going on. We just so happened to be in the capital of Italy the day Berlusconi resigned! Talk about perfect timing.

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking through the park we had tried to find the day before. We met the rest of the group back at the hostel a couple hours later, grabbed our backpacks, and were off to dinner even though we weren’t even that hungry yet. A few of our friends back in Madrid recommended a restaurant called Andrea, which they went to both nights they were in Rome and befriended the owner. I liked how the place had their own wine labels.

This was the spiciest dipping oil I’ve ever experienced.

I ordered a salad, homemade gnocchi, and my friend and I split the chicken below.

Needless to say, after the gnocchi, I couldn’t fit much of this chicken into my stomach.

After dinner, we boarded a bus to the Rome airport.  We arrived at 10:30 p.m. and our flight wasn’t until 6:30 a.m. The airport shut down the departure waiting area at midnight, so we had to spend the wee hours of the morning on the freezing cold floor of the arrival area where there were about four seats for the one hundred people waiting. I woke up the next day with a cold of course.  Even though the Rome airport experience put a small damper on the trip, we successfully completed our mission to see three cities in four days. Ciao bella!

When in Rome on 11/11/11

“Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.” –Benjamin Disraeli

So I do realize that it has been almost a month since I was in Italy and I also realize this proves just how lazy I’ve been since I got home from Europe.  It’s hard to motivate myself to do things when I have all the time in the world and know I don’t have anything coming up in the future that will be worthy of a travel blog, so instead of rushing to finish my posts all at once, I’m going to spread them out a bit.  I just hope I can remember everything!

If you can remember this far back, the last place I wrote about was Florence.  I spent the last two days of the Italy weekend in one of the most historical places I’ve ever been, Rome!

We took a non-stop train into the city in the morning, checked into the hostel, and headed straight for some ruins.

Our stomachs got the best of us, so we stopped for lunch at a cute little cafeteria. I ordered this delicious idon’tevenknowwhattocallit filled with broccoli and ham.

On our way to the Colloseum, we stumbled across some ruins that we later learned are The Forum.

The white parts of the map were Rome’s territory at the empire’s peak #winning.

We bought our tickets online so we bypassed the swerving queue and went right up to the ticket window.

It was surreal to believe I was actually inside such a famous piece of history!  Here’s some interesting snapshots from the visit:

 

Archaeologists still dig up more and more pieces of history.

Our tickets qualified us for a walk through the Palatino and the Roman Forum as well.

By the time we finished everything, I was so ready for a nap and my feet were throbbing. Three days of nonstop walking and standing on uneven pavement really doesn’t do the body any good.

We passed by this carrot sculptor before we sat down to rest for a few minutes and decide our next move.

We took Rome’s scary metro to the northern part of the city in search of a park.  By the time we got onto a train (at least two passed by that were full) and unearthed at the other side, it was already getting dark.  We voted to skip the park and wander the side streets in search of an off the beaten path, authentic locale for dinner.

We found Le Segrete, or The Secret. Perfect.

My fettuccine with mushrooms was perfect as well.

My feet finally got the rest they so desperately needed to climb the Spanish Steps.

The view from the top was well worth the walk.

But apparently we broke the rules of the Spanish Steps when we sang as we were walking down…

It is forbidden to shout, squall, and sing.  How does one squall?

When I realized I would be in Rome for 11/11/11, I knew exactly where I would make the most epic wish ever because it happens to be the most epic fountain ever.

The Trevi Fountain!  Trust me, all of those movies do not do this place justice.  It is literally built into a building and the statues are larger than life.

Other people could sense the magical ambiance because we witnessed not one, but two marriage proposals!

We spent over an hour waiting at the fountain to throw our coins in at 11:11:11 on 11/11/11.

A few other people had the same idea, but I’m pretty sure all of them were also Americans.

I elected this fine euro coin to throw in when the clock struck 11.  Sorry, but I can’t tell you what I wished for!

Apologies and Excitement

“We travel to learn; and I have never been in any country where they did not do something better than we do it, think some thoughts better than we think, catch some inspiration from heights above our own.” -Maria Mitchell

I realize it has been a week and a half since my last post and I’m sorry!   Schoolwork has generally been second to traveling over here, but the “studying” part of study abroad has finally arrived.  I had three finals within the past three days and still have one more next Wednesday along with two papers due Monday.  Not to mention I will be back in the U.S. in less than a week, so I have a lot of packing to do and want to try to enjoy my final days here.  Moral of the story is I won’t have time to catch you up on the rest of Italy and my program trip last weekend to Andalucía until I’m back in the U.S. with no more tests or papers.  With how fast this semester is going, that’ll be here before we know it.

I do have a piece of semi-exciting news to share before I get back to a paper about Spanish theater (the class is the bane of my existence at the moment).  The Syracuse University Madrid program held two photography contests for students for the end of the semester and…

I WON ONE OF THEM plus a 50 euro (70ish dollars) cash prize!  I submitted ten photos to both the seminar (meaning the photos had to be from our group trip prior to Madrid) and the program (meaning the photos had to be from activities involving SU Abroad) contests and I was lucky enough to win the latter!  Here are the winning photos:

Mini waterfall at Retiro Park

Catching bubbles

La Roselada

A letter from the Spanish Royal Family that’s as old as I am

El bosque del recuerdo

The youngest member of our political walking tour group

Plaza de España, Sevilla

Mural painting

Walking up the tower in Granada

Butterfly bushes

If you want to check out the photos I submitted for the seminar contest and those of the other participants, click here!

Firenze

“Through travel I first became aware of the outside world; it was through travel that I found my own introspective way into becoming a part of it.” -Eudora Welty

I woke up Thursday morning in Venice with plans to get some breakfast on the way to catch the train to Florence from a station that was five minutes from our hostel.  Right when my friend Hannah and I walked onto the street, another girl in my group called to tell us our train to Florence actually departed from a different station and we would have to take a train from the closest station to get there.  While Hannah gathered up our other friends who were still getting ready, I ran down the street to find breakfast.  I’ve only actually skipped breakfast once in my life when I was around 7-years-old and decided at that moment that I never would do so again.  Nobody would make me toast without butter or cheese, so I bought a banana and hoped I would find something more substantial at the train station.

I met up with my friends on the street and we ran to the station to take the train to the correct one.  We had a few minutes before the next train left, so I went into the café and bought a prosciutto sandwich.  Not exactly what I crave at 9 a.m., but at least it had protein and carbs to keep my satisfied for the three hour train ride to Florence.

We bought our tickets, validated them, and power walked to the platform.  All the while I thought Hannah and Eric were right behind us.  When we arrived at the platform, I realized this wasn’t so.  I called Hannah because we had only a few minutes before the train left and she said they had gotten left behind, but were on the way.  Jess, Kayla, and I boarded the train and stood at the door continuously pressing the button to keep it open, so they could jump right in.  The moment they got to the platform, the door closed and stopped responding to the button.  The train proceeded to pull away as we watched each other’s sad faces through the window.  I swear my life is a movie.

Thankfully, Hannah and Eric were able to catch another train a few minutes later and we all made it to the second station on time.  The ride to Florence consisted of some great napping to relax from the hectic morning.  Three hours later (if you were with me in Italy you would know I am saying this with a certain accent), we arrived in Firenze.  We went to the hostel and dropped off our belongings because we couldn’t check in for a half an hour.

We were as hungry as a horse (get it?), so we decided to eat lunch while we waited to check in.  My friends wanted pizza and I wanted a salad, so I grabbed one from a restaurant on the other side of the plaza.  Lettuce, kiwi, pineapple, shrimp, and more for 5 euros.  It had great potential, but once I sat down with my friends and opened it up, I realized the lettuce was brown.  I decided to suck it up and eat around it…until I saw a little tiny bug on one of the pieces of shrimp.  I immediately marched back to the restaurant and had to convince the waitress that “No, it is not a part of the shrimp. It has legs.”  She handed me back my 5 euros, which I spent on an insect-free salad from a different restaurant.

We started off our sightseeing for the day with the Duomo.

There is historical significance behind this door that I am unsure of.

Beautiful cupola on the inside of the Duomo.

Kayla, Eric, and I decided to break off from the group to do our own extreme sightseeing.  No better way to get some energy for the  busy afternoon that lay ahead than a cup of dark chocolate gelato.

Before I get any further, I would like to give a quick shout out to my cousin Kristen down under.  Thank you so much for the Florence recommendations!  I never would have gone to the amazing church I am about to discuss if it hadn’t been for you :]  If only I had had more time in Florence to do every single thing you had told me about.  Miss you!

The Santa Croce Church, where some fairly famous people are buried…

Machiavelli’s tomb

Michaelangelo’s tomb

Galileo’s tomb

The Santa Croce Church had more to offer than the Duomo such as this quaint courtyard and of course the opportunity to “hang out ” with some of the corpses of some of the best Italian artists/physicists of all time.

We walked along the picture perfect river to Ponte Vecchio.

(From left to right) Myself, Eric, and Kayla in front of the famous bridge.

So. Many. Vespas.

More love locks. These are officially allll over Europe!

The Ponte Vecchio is the coolest looking bridge I think I’ve ever seen

and has the most spectacular view.

We crossed the bridge to go to the gardens at Palazzo Pitti, but they had closed at 3:30 despite that the hotel receptionist had told us everything in Florence closed at 6:30. We took a few pictures in front of the palace to try to make up for it.

With a few hours suddenly open in our schedule, we weren’t sure what to do with ourselves.  We had passed the Uffizi Museum on the way to the bridge and we were still close by, so we decided to give it a shot.

A tower next to the museum.

Entrance to the Uffizi.

Hallway because we couldn’t take photos of the paintings.  I probably wasn’t even supposed to take a photo of this…oops.  It was a nice museum, but having already been to so many European art museums in the past few months, I wasn’t as enthralled as I should have been.  You can only see so many paintings of religious scenes or royalty within a couple of months before your eyes glaze over.

We then walked across town to meet up with the rest of our friends in the leather market.  I was so tired and my feet hurt so badly that I refrained from buying anything.  If you know me, you know that’s a pretty big deal.  As a group, we went to the Accademia to see the David because our friends studying abroad in Florence told us it’s open for free after 7 p.m. on Thursdays…or so they thought.  We showed up and it was clearly closed.  The door is right below the flags in the above photo.

It was slightly disappointing to not be able to see the David, but my stomach had already been growling for an hour anyway.  We went to a restaurant called “Gusto Leo” that had been a recommendation from a girl that had thought the Accademia would be open.

However, this time she was spot on.  We walked in and were greeted with half-filled flutes of champagne.  The best had yet to come.

Potato pasta pillows with pollo in pesto perfection

My favorite meal of the trip.  The freshness of the basil and the homemade gnocchi made a world of a difference.

We rested for an hour in the hostel before meeting up with some friends at the Duomo to go to their favorite gelato place.  It was then time for a shower and bed because we had to wake up early to roam (hint, hint) to yet another city in the A.M.

Italian Getaway, First Stop: Venezia

“The world is a country which nobody ever yet knew by description; one must travel through it one’s self to be acquainted with it.”
-Lord Chesterfield

Italy: land of redwhite&green, pasta, gelato, talking with hand gestures, canals, ancient ruins, more pasta and gelato, tourism, and more.

Six of my friends and I had been planning our November vacation to Italy since the beginning of the semester.  I’m pretty sure we had the longest Facebook group message thread in the website’s history.  We spent weeks going back and forth discussing flights, hostels, trains, and tickets for certain sights.

We decided we couldn’t choose between Venice, Florence, and Rome, so we would just have to go to all three.  In order to do so, we had to make use of a public holiday that fell on a Wednesday and skip classes on Thursday to create our own extended weekend.  I’m usually not a proponent for missing class, partly because it’s a waste of a couple hundred dollars when tuition is as high as it is at Syracuse, however, Italy is a worthy excuse.

We flew out of Madrid Wednesday morning into Venice.  The above picture was taken through the airplane window soon after take off.  The flat cloud looked cool, but best of all, snowcapped mountains in Spain!  Seriously wish I could go snowboarding.

We arrived in Venice and took a bus/walked through town to our hostel.  Within the first five minutes, I knew Venice may become one of my favorite cities in Europe.

Our arduous hostel research paid off.  We had rooms with private bathrooms and no random strangers.  Plus, this was the view outside our window.

It was after 2 p.m., so we were all ready for lunch.  Apparently Italians are on an earlier eating schedule than Spaniards, so only two restaurants were open on the street the receptionist at the hostel had recommended.  I got a toasty prosciutto panini.  Thus, begins the Italian food fest.

Venice consists of 117 small islands separated by skinny canals and connected by bridges.  The city is laid out like a labyrinth, so navigating with a map is nearly impossible.  It was a day of adventure.

Apparently, Venetians really like dogs…

and dressing them.  This dog was one of many we saw wearing clothes.  I even saw one with a onesie that stretched around its hind legs.

As we walked toward San Marco Square, we made a few sweet pit stops.

My friend Kayla looking like a kid in a candy store.

We didn’t buy any candy, but gelato is a different story.

As a lactose-intolerant, I had zero expectation to be able to eat gelato in Italy.  I figured I could save the calories and eat more pasta.  Well I was completely wrong.  This dark chocolate gelato was dairy free and oh so delicious.

Another thing I was surprised to find in Venice were an overwhelminggg amount of masks.  They were seriously everywhere and if Ryanair wasn’t so strict on baggage, I would’ve bought one.  I’ve always wanted to go to a masquerade!

After weaving our way through dizzying side streets, we arrived in San Marco Square.

St. Mark’s Basilica

One of my favorite buildings I’ve seen to date because of the gold decor.

Town squares are popular all over Europe.  Why can’t we have anything like this in the U.S.?!

We could’ve climbed up this tower, but we decided to save the money for something else to be discussed later.

The square is a famous spot for pigeon chasing.

A nice man gave my friend Eric and I a piece of bread to feed the birds ourselves.

It was fun, but I didn’t want them actually flying onto me, yuck!

The sun sets sooner in Northern Italy than in Madrid, so we constantly felt like it was later than it was.  This photo was taken at 4:30.

Finally, it was the moment we had all been waiting for. THE GONDOLA RIDE!

We glided through the canals with our awesome 20-year-old gondolalier Marco.  He wouldn’t sing to us, but thankfully he didn’t mind me singing “On Top of Spaghetti”.

THE Marco Polo’s old house!  Apparently, the swimming pool game isn’t as well-known in Italy as in the U.S. because Marco was very confused when I asked him about it.

The gondola ride was everything I hoped and dreamed of.

We wandered around and did a bit of shopping.  Italian Murano glass is famous, so I bought a cute ring with a white and pink heart-shaped Murano glass bead.

We walked into a small shop and ended up befriending the owner.  He and his employees make all of the products by hand.

The friendly shop owner recommended a restaurant close by for dinner.  Even the packaged breadsticks were good!

Spaghetti with clams and spinach.  First pasta dish in Italy, check!

We had an interesting time finding our way back to the hostel that night, but we had fun with it. Finally, we were back in the hostel and headed to bed because the next morning we would already be saying goodbye to Venice and hello to another Italian city.

Family Fun

“And that’s the wonderful thing about family travel:  it provides you with experiences that will remain locked forever in the scar tissue of your mind.”  -Dave Barry

The Lipman family spent Halloween 2011 without decorations, candy, costumes, parades, etc.  I actually completely forgot it was Halloween until I was standing in the hour long line outside Madrid’s El Palacio Real and happened to see someone walk by with a Halloween balloon, a rarity in Spain where Halloween has only begun gaining popularity within the past few years.

Although not very Halloweeny, I had yet to actually see the inside of the palace and I thought it would be fun to do with the family.  Once we finally got to the front of the line (who knew there would be so many people there at 10 am on a Monday morning?), we decided to do a group tour.

The tour guide couldn’t have been more informative.  She took us into areas of the palace that are closed to the visitors who enter without a tour.  We saw many beautiful tapestries, exquisite architecture, and impressive paintings.  The palace actually has 2800 rooms!  Unfortunately, photography wasn’t allowed, but I happened to take these before I actually knew that.

That afternoon, we grabbed some lunch at my favorite sandwich place near my school and I went to class while my parents hung out in the library.

We had special dinner plans that night at El Restaurante de Carmen!  In other words, my señora Carmen invited my parents over for a delicious dinner of gazpacho, tortilla española (the omelette/quiche thing I’ve previously mentioned), and fish.  My parents couldn’t leave Spain without understanding why I constantly rave about my señora’s cooking.

Carmen doesn’t know any English and my parents don’t know any Spanish, so I had a chance to practice my translating skills.  We actually managed to have some great post-dinner conversation and it was nice to know my parents had finally met the amazing woman I had been living with all semester.

My parents planned their trip around November 1, All Saints Day,  because I knew I would have off from school and therefore would be able to spend more time with them.  A great part about Spanish public holidays, besides that there are so many of them, is going to El Rastro, Europe’s biggest flea market that I previously discussed here.  I got a pair of purple boots, a purple scarf (I was having a purple day), and flowery “genie” pants, which are really popular over here.

New camera anyone?

After our flea market escapades, it was time for the awaited paella.  We went to a restaurant called Marina Ventura near Sol.   We lucked out being able to snag a table without a reservation because by the time we left, it was packed!  We forgot that people actually celebrate All Saint’s Day here.

Mom and Dad with the bowl of paella mixta. So. Good.

With our tummies satisfied, we took the metro to Arguelles to ride El Teleférico!

El Teleférico is a gondola/mini cable car that goes from the outer edge of Madrid to a huge park known as Casa de Campo.

Here’s a taste of the beautiful views.

A sign of autumn in Spain!

We hung out in Casa de Campo for a little while to relax and enjoy the fresh air.

You can see Madrid’s amusement park above our heads.

Too soon, the day was over and it was time for dinner followed by goodbyes because my parents had to leave early the next morning.  We had a great extended weekend together and I am so thankful that they were able to come experience a bit of the country I have been living in for the past three months.  I can’t wait to see them again when I get back to the U.S. in just a few weeks!

The Lipmans Take Over Spain

“Rejoice with your family in the beautiful land of life!”  -Albert Einstein

I try to count my blessings everyday, especially since I’ve been abroad.  I’ve always known how lucky I’ve been to have an amazing family and group of friends.  However, when you’re 3,000 miles across the Atlantic and in a different time zone, you realize who is truly there for you even if you’re not physically right there with them.  I feel even more blessed to say that my parents decided to take that airplane ride over the big blue and pay me a visit!

At 7 a.m. last Saturday morning, I took the metro to the Madrid airport, but for once it wasn’t because I was departing to another European hotspot.   Instead, I was picking up my wonderful parents!  After greeting each other for the first time in two and a half months, we metroed to their hotel, which was located only five minutes from my apartment.  Because it was so early, no rooms were available, so they dropped off their bags and we headed out to find some breakfast.  We ate traditional Spanish churros, tortilla española (egg omelette/quiche sort of thing with potatoes and onions), toast with tomato paired with café con leche for the parents and fresh squeezed orange juice for me.  This turned out to be one of our cheapest meals of the week.

To kill some time before hotel check-in opened, we walked over to El Parque del Retiro, which is five minutes from my apartment.  Mom and Dad attempted to find a comfy bench to take a nap, but that phrase is quite contradictory when all of the benches are made of stone.

We did find los Jardines de Cecilio Rodriguez, which was one area of the park I had yet to venture into.

And I finally got to see the peacocks my host mom has been telling me about all semester!

My parents finally got to check in at the hotel and take a nap to curve the effects of jet lag.  We met up a couple hours later and I took them down to the central part of the city for lunch.  We passed by some famous Madrid landmarks on the way including El Palacio Real, which we toured a few days later.

We arrived at El Mercado de San Miguel, a famous food market, to find it packed to the brim.  My parents decided they weren’t up for the craziness, so we chose the nearest sit down restaurant.

It turned out not to be Madrid’s finest in terms of dining, so after deciding I didn’t like my seafood salad, I went back into San Miguel and found the empanada above.  No idea what was in it, but it was good.

I had a long to-do list made for my parents’ trip, so after lunch we decided to cross off La Reina Sofía, Madrid’s modern art museum.

Photo or drawing?

I’m not exactly the biggest modern art fan, so finding pieces like this in La Reina Sofía definitely made it worth the visit.

I’d blame this one on his jet lag, but he would’ve done that at anytime.

Picasso’s “Guernica” is the most famous piece in La Reina Sofía.  It represents the destruction left in the wake of a Nazi air raid in Spain and is one of the first pieces of art to showcase the tragedy of war.  In case you’re wondering why the photo is so crooked, there were two guards standing in front of the painting yelling at people for taking pictures.  Thankfully, I’ve gotten pretty good at inconspicuous photography and I don’t even have a flash on my camera, so nothing was hurt in the taking of this picture.

As we were about to leave, I remembered that you can go up on the roof of the building.  I thought of this at the perfect moment because the sun just so happened to be setting when we got up there.

We taxied back to the hotel and Mom and Dad decided sleep was more important than dinner.  They needed their rest for the busy days that lay ahead anyway.

Thankfully, on day 2 we all slept in a little bit to heal my parents’ jet-lag and my constant lack of sleep.

In the early afternoon, we walked down the street from my apartment to see the popular parts of Retiro Park that we had missed the day before.  The park is 350 acres, so it’s hard to cover in one day, especially when your parents are jet-lagged and just want to find a bench to sleep on.

We found the beautiful Crystal Palace in the middle of the park.

It was unfortunately closed inside for construction :[

We continued on to the famous pond, known as el Estanque.  I had saved the rowboat experience for my parents’ visit, but little did I know they are not fans of rowboats and opted out of it.  I guess I’ll have to go on my own one day.  We found a sunny, grassy area next to el Estanque to sit for a little while.

Who knew there are creatures living in the pond?!

If you happen to remember my post that had a homework assignment from the beginning of the semester, I talked about how Retiro is filled with street performers on Sundays.  A small crowd drew our attention to this guy.  I didn’t take him seriously with that outfit  until he started juggling a chainsaw and knives with a mask on.

My father felt inspired and decided to put on a little act of his own.  If you know him, this is not a surprise.

We exited Retiro at la Puerta de Alcalá.  “La puerta” literally means door because this used to be one of the entrances to Madrid.

The next couple of hours didn’t exactly go as planned.  We walked in the direction of El Museo del Prado, Madrid’s most famous art museum, and thought we’d find somewhere to stop for lunch on the way.  We ended up in what has to be the country’s most expensive sushi restaurant, which we didn’t realize until after we were already seated and had ordered edamame.  It was good sushi, especially considering I hadn’t had any since leaving the U.S., but definitely overpriced.

We left lunch around 4 p.m. thinking we could see the Botanical Gardens quickly before going to the Prado at 5, when it is free on Sundays.  However, when we walked past the Prado, the long line that wrapped around the block made us realize our only choice was to stand in line and wait.  Good thing we didn’t get in that line 5 minutes sooner because a bird pooped on the people standing right in front of us!  Luckily, a nearly bald guy took the brunt of it, so he just wiped it off his head.  It’s supposedly good luck right?

They began letting people into the museum at 5 and although it was crowded, I really enjoyed the paintings.  Las Meninas  (pictured above) by the famous Spanish artist Diego Valázquez was by far my favorite.  Valazquez painted himself painting the royal family.  The young girls are with their maids, while the king and queen are shown in the reflection in the mirror toward the top.  It makes you feel like you’re actually the king or queen!

My mom and I both laughed out loud when we saw that this Rubens painting is entitled “The Birth of the Milky Way”.

Two months prior, I had made dinner reservations for October 30th at El Restaurante Botín, the oldest restaurant in the world, according to Guinness Book of World Records!  We arrived at Botín in taxi and found a mob of people waiting outside the door.  My parents and I squeezed ourselves through the crowd because we already had reservations.

We started off with the traditional sweet and salty Spanish dish, jamón y melón (ham and melon).  I know it sounds a little strange, but I promise the Spanish know what they’re doing.

Our chosen refreshment: sangría.  I had been in Spain for two months and still hadn’t tried it.  The verdict: it’s sweet and there’s whole chunks of fruit in it.  What’s not to like about that?  Just watch your cup because my mom apparently likes to spill it all over people’s my lap…

I decided on el cordero, or roast lamb, for my main course.  My mom ordered an almond chicken dish (on left) and we shared some judias verdes, Spanish green beans.

Dad went traditional and ordered cochinillo, roast suckling pig.  I was thankful they didn’t serve the pig whole.

No dessert for the Lipman clan.  We walked off our meal in Plaza Mayor and Sol before saying goodnight.