Spring Break con Mis Padres!

Sunday April 25^th

April 1-19^th was a blast! While many friends back home were finishing up classes, I was taking an extended Spanish siesta also known as my spring break.

A few friends and I went to for the first leg of the trip to Sevilla. We met up with a friend from high school who is studying in Leon, Matt, as well as a friend I went to high school and middle school with who happens to be studying in Sevilla, Mindy.

Sevilla, besides being one of the most “romantic cities” in Spain is also knows for its high crime amount. I read this in my Frommer’s guide to Spain while flying to Seville, got off the plane, proceeded to get dropped off by a bus at 11p.m. right in the area where they said to avoid late at night. Apparently that was where muggings have been reported. I decided to walk it alone instead of getting a taxi since the directions said it was only a twenty minute walk…. This turned out to be one of the worst decisions of my trip as I now have two broken ribs, am in a sling, and have 200 less euro to my name L. Lol jk sometimes stories need some spice. I ended up getting some directions from some very nice Spaniards, made it to the hostel fine and hit the hay for the night.

The next three days we took part in a tour of the bull arena, the Sevillan Cathedral and many tours of the local tourist shops(there were tons of them). The park I was nearly mugged at during the day is actually amazing! It used to be the queen’s private gardens, but is now open to the public. As for some of the highlights of Sevilla, The Guadalquivir River was great for paddle-boating for a few hours, as well as an early morning run. Again, the cathedral was AMAZING! The goal of the builders was to have visitors think they were crazy after it was finished. I think they’re crazy, its massive!

After Sevilla I took a bus up to Madrid and met one of the Sevillan pro-basketball team’s physical therapists. He was a really cool guy, it gave me a good chance to speak Spanish, and we’re now friends on facebook!

I meet my parents in Madrid at the airport the next day and we stayed with some friends of ours in Madrid the Guerras for the next few days. Just like last time, their hospitality was amazing. We had a two and a half hour 6 course meal with them and their relatives! After filling our bellies we proceeded to the Retiro as well as the Museo del Prado.

After Madrid, on Monday morning, we hoped aboard a train to Cordoba. We decided not to rent a car, which turned out to be a great idea. In Cordoba we took a taxi to our hotel very close to the Christian Mosque. While in the taxi, we went through a few of those European metal barriers that protrude from the road. You need a pass to get through them. As we walked back we saw one vehicle had tried to make it through while the barrier while it was down. You can imagine how his car looked afterwards. Some highlights of Cordoba were the Christian Mosque that was originally built in the 6^th century, the Alcazar which is the Arabic word for palace, got lost in town and found a great restaurant where we proceeded to have another two hour Spanish lunch!

The next morning we went to Granada by bus. We made it to the hotel, then on up to the Alhambra or Red Castle. This place is amazing for its gardens, and walled fortress that rises above the rest of the castle. This is one of my favorite places in all of Spain! I definitely recommend it. The view is amazing as its all built on a large hill. After the Alhambra we found another place to have another great Spanish dinner with a hilarious waiter. Another five course meal cost us 8.50 euro per person!

The next day we stayed in Granada and spent most of the day having café con leche, shopping and being lazy. I think this was Mom’s favorite day of the trip. That night we took the TrenHotel to Valencia. A 7.5 hour trip through the night was made so much better with beds and a few drinks. My dad and I ordered the usual, a few beers, and Mom ordered a bottle of wine! Actually she had no choice, she asked for a glass of wine, but it turns out that the entire wine bottle was her only option!

We only spent twelve hours in Valencia, but they were twelve hours well spent. We went to La Cuidad de Artes y Ciencias and I finally got to go inside and check out the exhibits! We checked out the sciences building as well as L’ Oceanografic exhibits in La Cuidad. Afterwards we took a walk down to the Mediterranean Sea, then made it back for our train ride back to Madrid for the night in time for a great Spanish dinner with Pablo and Paloma at the Guerra residence.

The following morning we woke up early, went to the train station to get tickets for the 10a.m. train to Toledo, which happened to be sold out. We eventually made it to Toledo on a 12:30 train. This roadblock ended up not hindering our day trip as two of the main attractions were closed. The Alcazar was closed because that museum as well as another one were swapping exhibits. Apparently it has been closed for 4 years! Now that’s Spanish time for you. We ended up seeing the cathedral of Toledo, which had a great presentation as well as a 500 pound monstrance! We did some more shopping, had another extended Spanish lunch and went home for another great Spanish dinner.

The last trip we took from Madrid was to Segovia, which really made me think of Genovia from Princess Diaries (don’t tell anyone I said that). Pablo and his wife, Alicia came with Mom, Dad and me. We saw the summer home of the Spanish royal families as well as the Segovian Alcazar, then went out for a Spanish lunch, or more of a Spanish feast! After being fed we walked the city some more, sat down for some more café con leche out on the terrace overlooking a the city, and headed back for the night.

The next morning I woke up, Pablo and I took my parents to the airport after a crazy busy week of fun. It was really great to see them! They made it back safe and sound, without any Icelandic volcanoes/ash getting in their way. My roommate was another story. I’ll let him tell that one. I didn’t know where he was for a few days, somewhere in Europe…

Enjoy and God Bless,

Kyle

Spring Break with A Bang

My spring break started March 30 during Holy Week. Almost everythign was closed in Spain during this time. My parents showed up on Good Friday. We did some sightseeing in Valencia over the next couple of days. Went to the Oceonografico, which is just a big aquarium. The aquarium itself wasn't that impressive, but the the dolphin show was very good. It was like sea world good. We also went to the Cathedral for mass on Sunday to see the cup of Christ, or what is claimed to be the Cup of Christ. It is a vey beautiful cathedral.
After we got bored with Valencia we went to Denia, to our apartment down there, thank you Tina and Danny. The resort was small, but very nice. Unfortunately it was not lay on the beach and take in the sun weather, but we did have fun there. We saw the Castle there and and went to a pub to get Jamie his first guiness. We also went to a resturaunt and I ordered cuttlefish, which turned out to be actually very good. We got it again latter, my brother and I that is. From Denia we took the train to Alicante and walked around there. We also went to a castle there too. It was a little bit bigger than the one in Denia. We gabbed the train back to Denia for the night and then went back to Valencia and dropped our luggage off before we went to Toledo.
Toledo was amazing. It is an old midevil city that looks pretty much like it did when they were dumping their waste out the windows. There were swords everywhere and a lot of gold and jewelry. The city is famous for the handmade jewelry. Don't bring your girlfriend there, or you will be broke by the time you leave! The cathedral there was absolutely amazing. Unlike anything that I have every seen. We went to a resturaunt and my parents and my borther ordered spaghetti with baby eels, one of the most disgusting things I have every seen. Well we then took a train back to Valencia and we had to take first class on the train which is well worth it. We got served snacks, juice, wine, and liquor.
When we got back to Valencia we went to the American bar and had a drink there. The following morning, my parents left and I did some laundry and cleaned a little. Then on Momday I left for Fatima, Portugal. It was very relaxing. Not the best weather, but very nice. I got a very cheap place that was literally right across from the shrine an it had room for 3 people even though I only booked for one. I then left for London. There I met Mike and we went to some pubs and saw the H.M.S. Bellfast, a british naval ship. Then it happened, the volcano in Iceland erupted and all flights out of the UK were grounded. My flight was rescheduled for Monday so Mike and I decided to go to Cambridge and see the American WWII cemetery there. We went walking down some random path and through some small villages. We checked out the college, which is very beautiful. Then we came back to London in time to have some tea with some of Mike's friends. We actually didn't have tea, just champagne, finger sandwhiches, biscuits, and the you know, the usuall. Then I found out my flight got canceled all together. So I am sitting in London right now trying to figure out how I can get back to Spain within the next month. I will let you know how it goes.

Ireland & Las Fallas

Hello All,

Sorry it has been a very long time since I have been on here, I apologize, it's just hard to blog when you are always on vacation. :) Well, March 12 Kyle and I left for Ireland. We spent 5 days there, including St. Patrick's Day, and then came back to Valencia for Las Fallas. Our first night of our Ireland trip was spent in the Bristol airport because we got in late and flew out early, bad choice, but something every student abroad does at least once. When we got into Dublin, we went downtown to catch the tour bus that Kyle signed us up for. This was a very nice tour. We went south of dublin and saw the 40 foot, which is on the coast where people go swimming everyday all year long supposedly to keep them looking young, also saw James Joyce Tower, and much of the country side. One of our final stops was the ruins of an old monastery. All that was left of it was a tower, the walls to the church, an out building, and the cemetery. We also walked some of the park around it. Then we went into the Wicklow mountains and went to a viewing area overlooking Guinness Lake. It's called this because it is shaped like a pint glass, has a very dark color, and Guinness actually trucked in 30,000 tons of white sand to create the frosty top. Then we got back on the bus and all had a shot of Jameson together. In short this was the tour which actually lasted about 8 hours. Well worth it.

The following day we went to the Guinness Storehouse and Jameson. That took up our entire day. The Guinness Storehouse tour was self-guided and we were able to pour out own pints of complimentary Guinness and then received a certificate proving that we are Certified to Pour Guinness. lol The "tour" ended in the 360 degree viewing area at the top of the storehouse. Overall, an excellent tour. The Jameson tour was not self guided and was actually very short. I was not all that impressed, but I did learn a little bit from it. At the end we were given a glass of Jameson whiskey either, straight, with ginger-ale, or with cranberry juice. I took the ginger-ale, it was surprisingly very good.

Our third day in Dublin was spent walking around the city looking at the old buildings and taking tours of some of them. We went into City Hall and they had an exhibit on the history of Dublin and Ireland, very nice. We also took a tour of Christ Church Cathedral and St. Patrick's Cathedral. We were even allowed to go down into the crypt of Christ Church, which was pretty sweet. We also went to the Wax Museum, which was quite interesting. They had some interesting figures in there. Anything from the Ninja Turtles to Pope Benedict XVI. We tried to get into Dublin castle but by 2:00 all the tickets were already sold out.

Our last day in Dublin we spent at the St. Patrick's Day Parade. It was not your typical parade. For example one of the floats was a big turtle with a DJ on top with his mixing board playing techno, that was it. And the majority of the floats were pushed. After the Parade we went to Hurling Match and a Gaelic Football Match. Hurling is a lot like lacrosse and Gaelic Football is like soccer accept more physical and you can use your hands and run with the ball, but you have to dribble it or bounce it off your foot every so often. It was really sweet to watch and we sat next to some Irish guys whole explained to us what was going on. I would have preferred the Rugy game Ireland vs. Wales, but those tickets were a little bit out of my price range, cheapest being 250 euros.

After the games we caught our plane to London-heathrow, slept in the airport again and then got our flight to Valencia. When we got to Valencia, we took a siesta and then were ready to begin the Fallas festivities. Lucy and Lauren came down from Madrid for Las Fallas and we sat in our apartment until about 1 in the morning pre-gaming, but that actually ended up being all the game that Kyle and I had for that night thanks to the house drink Kyle and Eddy decided to make which was made up of anything and everything that they found in our liquor cabinet. The following night was much better. We went out and watched the "floats," more like statues cuz they were never in a parade and never moved from their location, that each neighborhood made burn and then went to the big one in Plaza Ayuntamiento. I am pretty sure that they were all made up of very little wood and a lot of Styrofoam. The floats were located in very small places in downtown so the firefighters were present for each one watering down the surrounding building so that they did not catch fire. This is something that you would never see in the States. If Obama saw this, he would shit his pants. The rest of the weekend was very nice and relaxing.

I just got back from a vacation with my parents around southeastern Spain and am in the process of preparing for my next trip in which I leave for in 2 days. When I get back from that one I will do another blog, maybe.;)

God Bless,

John