Spring Break

     When the students taking part in BU Madrid Study Abroad Engineering program received our schedules for this semester, two things in particular stood out: the fact that we have 6 exams the last two weeks of school, and the 10 day spring break. Of course, I immediately blocked the 6 exams out of my mind until the latest possible moment so I could avoid a daily mental breakdown. But spring break stuck with me. 10 days in Europe, with the freedom to go anywhere? That's the stuff that dreams are made of. So the planning began.

     Before we knew that we were going to Spain, Alex told me that he had family in Italy, and wanted to visit them. So as soon as we knew we were going, he got in contact with them and set up a visit over Spring break. Alex's mother came over to the US from Italy when she was young, and about half of her family still lives in Gaeta, Italy today. Both of us were extremely excited to visit. Due to some planning complications that are too long to get into, I was to stay in Italy from April 11th (our first day of Spring Break) to April 16, then figure out something else to do for the rest of the trip. After what seemed like months of trying to decide on where to go, me and two other friends in engineering, Juha and Tommy, agreed to meet in Northern Italy on the 16th, rent a car, and drive to Croatia. We got many "oh good luck, don't get kidnapped and sold into slavery" comments from people who watched 'Taken' or 'Hostel' a few too many times and aren't as open minded about the Balkans. But we wanted to do something awesome and different, so we ignored them. 

     So that's a quick overview on how I decided to go to these places. Now off to Italy!

View from on top of the Vatican.

    Alex and I arrived in Italy on the Friday night, April 11th. Alex's cousin, Laura, picked us up from the airport. She is studying in Rome and lives there, so we stayed in her apartment the three nights we were in Rome. 

     Saturday was a very, very busy day of sightseeing. With Laura as our guide, we visited the Vatican Museum, St. Peter's Basilica, Piazza Navona, the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, and some other tourist attractions in Rome.

Me, Laura, and Alex at Trevi Fountain. 

Monument of Vittorio Emanuele II

Enjoying some fine Italian cuisine. 

     On  Sunday, we decided to visit the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. We got a tour through both, and although our tour guide fell asleep in the Colosseum (seriously... mid-sentence) we had a fantastic time.

Colosseum from the side of the Palatine Hill. 

Temple in the Roman Forum.

Arch of Titus in the Forum.

     We originally planned to leave Rome Sunday afternoon for Gaeta, but because of a strike amongst the Italian train conductors no trains departed to Gaeta that day. So we spent one more night at Laura's apartment, and in the morning we caught the hour and a half train to Gaeta. 

     

     When we arrived in Gaeta, Alex's uncle Bruno picked us up and gave us a quick introduction to the town. Gaeta is a small fishing / beach town on the western coast of Italy, about two hours south of Rome and one hour north of Naples. Since Bruno's English was rusty at best, we spoke an interesting mix of English, Italian, and Spanish to communicate. Spanish and Italian are similar in many ways, so speaking Spanish with an Italian accent actually proved to be the best method of communication. Bruno showed us Alex's mother's house, the beaches of Gaeta, and his restaurant. 

View of Gaeta from a coastal hilltop. 

Nice view a couple minutes away from the restaurant. 

     Once we arrived at the restaurant, Bruno told us he had arranged for some of Alex's family to come to eat with us. We explored the beach next to the restaurant for awhile until they arrived. They were all extremely happy to see Alex, and once they saw me it was like I was a member of the family too!

My new Italian family!

     After eating and chatting for a while, we left the restaurant and check into the bed and breakfast Alex's family booked for us. We chilled on the beach for the rest of the day until Guido, Alex's cousin, came to eat with us. He is the same age as me and is studying music in Rome, so he wasn't able to make the earlier family lunch. But we had a nice dinner and night out in Gaeta with him and his friends.

     The next day, Guido and his friend Mateo took us to Pompeii and Naples. Pompeii was amazing and surreal to walk around. Basically the whole structure of the town is still intact, and it is much bigger than I imagined it would be. Naples is notorious for being the trashiest city in Italy, but thankfully Guido knew the best places to go and brought us there. I can now say I've eaten at the birthplace of pizza, which is Naples' claim to fame. It was absolutely fantastic, the best pizza I've eaten in my life. 

Columns in Pompeii still standing. 

Bad quality photo of Alex, Guido, me, and Mateo in Pompeii. 

Mini-Colosseum in Pompeii. 

Nice view of Naples from a castle on the coast. 

Some real Italian tomatoes and mozzarella
from the Capostoso restaurant. 

Church of San Francisco di Paola in Naples.

     After such a great time in Italy, I had to leave Wednesday to meet Tommy and Juha in Trieste. I took a train from Gaeta to Rome, plane from Rome to Venice, and another train from Venice to Trieste. A long day of travel, but I successfully met them in Trieste. So the trip is halfway over and I'm still alive, things are looking good. Now off to Croatia!

     We awoke early Thursday morning and picked up our beautiful Fiat Punto from the car rental agency. We all felt that driving was such a relief after flying and taking the train everywhere before, because we had the freedom to go wherever we wanted and stop whenever. For the first leg of the trip, we drove through Slovenia to Rijeka, Croatia, where we stopped shortly to grab some lunch and go for a quick walk.

Juha, Tommy and I on top of the Punto. 

      After leaving Rijeka, we started our drive to the first place we booked to stay in Novalja, Pag Island, Croatia. We decided to take the coastal road so we could see as much as possible, and that decision definitely payed off. It is definitely the most beautiful road I have ever driven on, and the sights we saw were absolutely amazing. (Some of these photos are much better quality because they are from Juha's camera, not my crappy phone camera.)

     So after driving for a while and taking a ferry onto Pag Island, we arrived in Novalja. It took us a while to find our house, because the guy we rented it from didn't give us the full address, just the town name and house number. But that didn't stop us, we drove around until we found some people, showed them a picture of the house and asked where it was. Unfortunately, Novalja is quite far removed from the rest of the world, so most people only spoke Croatian. Eventually, we wandered into a roadside restaurant and showed the waiters the phone number listed on our house information sheet. He called the number, chatted for a while in Croatian, and then told us "Drive 5 kilometers that way [points], man in white shirt will wait for you on side of road!" Ok, we all thought, this is a little creepy but at least we aren't wandering anymore! So we drove 5 kilometers and believe it or not, a man in a white shirt was waiting for us on the side of the road. Take that, haters. He was the owner of the apartment we rented, and fortunately he spoke a little English. So we check into our apartment (which was amazing) grabbed some awesome dinner in Novalja, and chilled for the night looking at a fantastic view of the Adriatic Sea.

View from our first apartment in Novalja.

Nice sunset by the harbor in Novalja. 

Croatian cuisine.

     After a nice relaxing afternoon and night in Novalja, we left Pag Island to head to our next destination, Split. Split is one of the largest cities in Croatia and a popular destination for many Adriatic Sea cruise ships. We arrived there in the afternoon after stopping in Zadar, Croatia for lunch. The apartment we checked into was even better than our first, only ten minutes from the center of town and
five minutes from the best beach in Split.

Our apartment in Split and part of the view off the cliff.

The rest of the view off the cliff. 

      After we checked in, we explored the city and the nightlife in Split. Surprisingly, there were a ton of Americans, so we didn't have any trouble meeting people. The next day, we bummed about on the beaches, walked around Split, and hiked to the top of a hill to watch the sunset.

Us on Split hilltop at sunset.

     That was our last night in Split, and we went to bed relatively early because we had to drive all the way to Venice the next day to catch our flight back to Madrid. The drive back was long and uneventful, but it gave us a chance to reflect on our trip and how much we didn't want to return to homework and studying in Madrid. Overall, this spring break was probably the most awesome and adventurous thing that I've ever done, and I don't regret any moment of it.

    As I have just over two weeks left in Spain, and they are filled with finals, this will probably be my last blog post. I want to thank everyone for reading and keeping up with my travels. I have had an amazing experience in Spain, I have met a ton of awesome people, and I have been places I will never forget. Thanks mom for encouraging me to write this blog so I can have something to look back on and remember this experience. I'll see everyone soon! VIVA ESPAÑA!!!!

Mi viaje a Amsterdam

     Hello all! This blog post is going to be about my recent trip to Amsterdam, but before I start with that, here is the much awaited picture with my host family. 

     That's my host mother Isabel Menchón and her 16 year old daughter Elsa. We also have a live in maid, Empeatriz, but she was not there when this picture was taken. Me, Alex, Isabel, Elsa and Empe are the semi-permanent residents of the Menchón residence, but the house is like a revolving door. When I first arrived, there was a student from Brazil and another from the Netherlands staying here. They left after my second week, but there have been many more. Isabel is good friends with a woman who runs a language exchange program for students from all across the globe, and she offers rooms to students who often need a place to stay. They usually stay for about a week. There have been four Italian girls, an English boy, and a Venezuelan girl. It's nice to have others come to stay, it makes dinner table conversation more interesting. And Isabel makes us all speak in Spanish, so it can get pretty entertaining as well. 

Now onto Amsterdam!

     Right when me and Alex learned we were going to be studying in Spain, we had a short list of places we really wanted to visit. Barcelona, Italy, and Amsterdam were at the top of the list. Amsterdam is famous for certain vices, but I won't delve too deeply into those in the post. Ask me in person and I'll tell you everything you want to know. But I will say that although many things are legal there that are illegal in the United States, it definitely does not take away from the city. 

     Of all the places I have visited thus far in my trip and in my life, Amsterdam is one of my favorite. It is clean, well organized, and extremely modern. For a city that has been a major European center since the 15th century, I was extremely surprised at its modernity. It is cleaner than Madrid, and has the best public transportation system of any European city I have visited, all of which have better systems than cities in the US. Although that may have to do with the prevalence of biking here. Once I entered Amsterdam, the huge amount of bikers was the first thing I noticed. But they're not like annoying bikers that get in the way of drivers in the US. The roads are organized in the following way - a walking path next to the buildings, then inside of that a designated bike path as wide as the sidewalk, then lanes for cars, and then tracks for trams. The bikers are very well educated in the rules of the road, and nobody wears a helmet. They also all ride dutch bikes, which are heavier than normal bikes and have pedal brakes instead of hand brakes. 

    I traveled to Amsterdam with Alex, Juha, and Tommy, all BU engineers. We arrived in Amsterdam Friday evening, and quickly checked into our hostel and put down our bags. This was the beautiful view from my hostel window. 

    We were starving, so we then went to an amazing restaurant call Cafe de Klos that I would highly recommend to anyone visiting. Tired of suffering from red meat deprivation in Spain, the four of us split three racks of BBQ ribs, two racks of smoked ribs, a 20 oz prime rib, and a BBQ lamb shoulder. It was one of the best meals that I have ever eaten. Then after we ate, we went to a bar where I had the best beer that I have ever drank. It is brewed by Dutch monks who train for years to work in the brewery, and must brew in complete silence. Here is a picture of it for those interested, but unfortunately it is only available in a few places in the Netherlands. 

    After hanging out at the bar for a while, we headed back to the hostel to sleep  before our only full day in Amsterdam. The next day we visited the Van Gogh museum and the Heineken Factory during the day. Both were fantastic, especially the factory because we got free beer. 

Distilling tank at the Heineken Factory

Horse chillin at the factory. 

   

     Since the Dutch don't stay out as late as the Spanish, we got off to an early start that night. We signed up for a Red Light district pub crawl, and it was a ton of fun. We only payed once at the start, and were guided around to some of the best bars, pubs, and clubs in Amsterdam. It was a fantastic night. 

     The next day, we awoke a little late, and decided we wanted to rent bikes and explore more of the city before we had to catch a flight back to Madrid. Riding bikes around the city was my favorite experience in Amsterdam. We were able to see a ton of the city and ride along the canals in the sun for just over three hours before we had to head to the airport. I immensely enjoyed visiting this awesome city with great friends, and I would recommend that everyone visits Amsterdam at one point in your life.

The famous I Amsterdam letters in front of Museumplein. 

Tommy, Juha and I on our bikes!

A mitad de camino por mi Semestre en España!

     I am halfway through my semester in Spain! Going to class, studying, traveling, and exploring my temporary hometown of Madrid is the perfect recipe to make time fly... and speaking of recipes, I have had many requests to elaborate on the food here in Madrid, so I'll use this first portion of the blog to do just that.

     As I was told during my orientation at BU before arriving here, Spain is known for its odd eating schedule. From what I have observed so far, this oddity stems from other important daily events that are present in Spanish culture - siesta and nightlife. After eating lunch (which is the biggest meal of the day in Spain) at around 1 or 2, it is commonplace to take a break from work and take a nap. Many stores and restaurants close during this time, and then reopen around 4 or 5 PM. There is no definite reason for siesta, but after some research I found that the tradition stems from the stifling heat during the summer, and the laziness that accompanies eating a big meal in the middle of the day. Since Spaniards take this siesta, they tend to work later into the night than Americans, which leads to eating dinner later. At my house, my host family usually eats dinner at around 9:30 or 10 PM. This late dinner leads to going out later into the night, and staying out into the early morning. For teenagers and young whippersnappers like me living in Spain, a normal weekend night consists of meeting at a bar around 12 PM, staying there until 2, then going to the main destination of the night (usually a club, concert venue, or another bar) at 2:30 or 3 AM, and staying out until 5 or 6 AM. This means, of course, that you don't go to sleep until the sun is just peeking over the horizon, and after a long night I tend to sleep a while. On Saturdays and Sundays after a long night I will wake up around 12 AM or 1 PM, just in time for lunch!

     As you can probably tell, this is a vicious breakfast killing cycle. My sleep schedule has made eating breakfast impossible, even during weekdays. Most days as I walk out the door I grab a piece of toast or a granola bar, a piece of fruit, and a coffee if I'm lucky. Europeans in general do not eat big breakfasts, but Spain in particular has it out for America's "most important meal of the day". And they seem to be extremely healthy without it, days when I see an overweight person in Spain are few are far between. Maybe the lack of breakfast is why there is 27% unemployment here... but that's a discussion for another blog post. 

     The timing of the meals that Spaniards eat are different, and so is the food. I eat with my host family all but two meals a week, so the majority of my exposure to Spanish cuisine has come through them. There are about ten main meals that we rotate through each week, with a new meal every once in a while. I have never eaten so many vegetables in my life as I have here in Spain. For every meal the majority of the food on your plate is a starch and a vegetable, with a little bit of meat thrown in for taste. Some of my favorite meals are as follows - arroz con pollo (a bowl of rice with vegetables and some chicken mixed in), thin chicken filets (usually served fried with rice or french fries and a vegetable), ground pork patties (tastes better than it sounds, like a more flavorful hamburger patty) with soup (my favorite soup is similar to minestrone, but with only meat and vegetables), and Spanish omelets (eggs mixed with potatoes cooked in a frying pan like a pancake). We also have small steak and pork filets, usually served with rice or couscous mixed with vegetables on the side. The meals here are healthier than what I usually eat in the states, but the way the Spaniards eat seems less healthy. Since meals more spaced out, I am hungrier than usual before I eat and end up stuffing myself until I reach the point where I could birth a food baby. After almost every meal I leave feeling like a glutton, but knowing that it is going to be a while until my next meal. So I guess it balances out - I don't seem to be gaining or losing any weight thus far. 

     Compared to American food, Spanish food is a little bland. Spaniards do not use as many oils or spices when they cook, so the food tastes more natural but less flavorful. Living here, I have become more tolerant of different types of food and more adventurous in tying new foods. One of my favorite things to do it to go to an authentic tapas bar. Tapas are like appetizers, but instead they are served alone, not before a meal. My favorite tapas place in Madrid is El Tigre. You pay for your drink of choice upon arrival to El Tigre, and after that tapas is free and delivered to your table as long as you stay. It consists of anything from fried cheese balls (not like Cheetos, but actual balls of cheese lightly fried), to paella (rice and seafood dish famous in Spain), to beef, pork, and chicken served on slices of bread. Tapas bars are a great place to go to try new food without spending a lot of money. 

    Sorry for the tangential writing above, now onto my travels and experiences of the past two weeks!

    On March, I had the chance to visit Barcelona, a beautiful city in western Spain. Barcelona is the most popular tourist destination in Spain, and the third most visited city in Europe after London and Paris. What attracts so many people to Barcelona is the sun, the beaches, and the rich history and art that the city has to offer.

View of Barcelona from the top of Barcelona Cathedral

     The BU Madrid program does not organize a trip to Barcelona during our stay here, so I went with a few friends for a weekend. I realized as soon as we arrived that Barcelona is a much more "tourist friendly" city than Madrid (which is both a good and a bad thing). There are more buses going to and from the airport, more places to stop and get something to eat, more shops to buy Barcelona trinkets and memorabilia. The city, much more than Madrid, is geared toward attracting tourists and making sure that they have everything they need at a moment's notice. People were everywhere, in large tour groups, taking pictures, crowding the metro. It reminded me of the time the Kasper family visited Florence, it was a sea of tourists submerging the city. It made me realize how I have become accustomed to Madrid, and how I now almost see myself as a local, not liking the tourists crowding my country and cramping my style. This feeling is definitely not warranted, as I've only been here for two months, but nonetheless I noticed this change in the way I perceive myself in Spanish culture. In Madrid, I'm a study abroad student (there are TONS in Madrid) who is more accepted than the tourists, but still can't quite pass as a local. Maybe in a few weeks I'll convince the Madrileños that I'm one of them, and if I do you can be sure I'll let you all know about it.

     Right as we got off the plane from Madrid, we quickly left our bags at a hostel and began exploring the city. We first roamed the streets of Barca, slowly making our way towards the Barcelona Cathedral, the main cathedral in the city. Since this wasn't a BU trip, Ray Green wasn't there to feed us interesting facts about all the places we visited, but nonetheless it was an amazing Church to admire architecture and contemplate the mind numbing amounts of money the Catholic Church spent on houses of worship.

View of the other side of Barcelona atop the Cathedral. 

View of towers from atop the
Cathedral

Front view of the Cathedral.

Looking up at the dome from inside. 

The Barcelona Cathedral is oldest cathedral in Barcelona and the most central, but my personal favorite church and the biggest attraction in all of Barcelona is the Sagrada Familia. The Sagrada Familia was designed and partially built by famous Spanish architect Antonio Gaudí, who is responsible for many, many other structures in Barcelona, including the Park Güell and the Gaudí Houses. Construction of the cathedral began in 1882, and is still ongoing today. There were some periods where money was running low and construction was delayed, and I have my doubts that the cathedral will never be completed. The inside is complete, and is beautiful as you can see below, but the outside is not even halfway finished. The final product will be amazing to look at and will surely be one of the greatest structures ever built, but I doubt that it will be finished in my lifetime, if ever.

Sagrada Familia

Rear facade of the Sagrada, the outer feature
that is the most complete. Very detailed

Ceiling and pillars are awesome, looks almost
like the anthills in A Bugs Life (reference eh?)

Front facade of the Sagrada,
as you can see still not complete. 

Looking up into what will be the large tower
at the center of the cathedral. 

   

     After visiting the Cathedral, we visited other well known spots in Madrid like Park Güell, the Gaudí Houses, and Montjuïc. The weekend we were there was the primary weekend of Carnival, a celebratory spring festival where Spaniards and people all throughout Europe dress up (like Halloween) and party in the streets. Here are some pictures from the Plaza España where we saw an awesome light / fountain show and participated in the festivities. 

Cool fountain in Park Güell. 

Picture looking from the fountain into
Plaza España during the parade. 

Fountain and light show, with Montjuïc in the background.

     After a long day we headed back to the hostel and slept there, me and Alex in a room with 6 other random people. It was actually much more comfortable and secure than I thought. We stayed in a fantastic hostel that offered a bed, a locker, and free breakfast for only 12 euros a night.

     Sunday, we made the most of the short amount of time we had left and visited the Picasso Museum. I had a great experience because I often get lost in art museums and tend to not recognize the connections between different pieces of art and their placement in a museum. But this museum laid out in chronological order the works of Picasso and had great explanations on why he painted the way he did and how he evolved as an artist. After the museum, we explored more random streets of Barcelona, got food and relaxed in the sun before our flight home. This trip was one of the best that I've ever taken, and it was great to explore a city without any parental or educational supervision. I'll get the chance to do it again soon when I go to Amsterdam on March 21, so look forward to the next blog post! Thanks for reading and I hope that you enjoyed!

Me chilling by a fountain in a random plaza.