Das ist gut, ja?

First, a quick summary of last week: Monday, stayed in. On Tuesday I saw Benjamin Button, and while it was long and too Big Fish-like, it was not a complete waste of three hours. (I know we talked about it ages and ages ago, Adelina, but I only got around to seeing it last week!) Trivia on Wednesday night, as per the usual. Still no victory title, but we did much better than usual on the geography section, having studied up on European geography trivia online just beforehand.

Now for the weekend. Amsterdam is both one of the loveliest places I have been and one of the seediest.

I arrived very late Thursday night (almost midnight) and after much hassle with the trains etc. met up with Tim, the friend of Patty (my traveling companion) with whom we stayed. We went back to Tim´s dorm room and hung out for a while, ate stroopwafels (delicious Dutch cookies), and went to sleep.

On Friday, Patty and I walked from Tim´s place to the area near the Westerkerk and Anne Frank´s house. We first stopped and had Dutch pastries and coffee for breakfast. Patty had an apple tart and I had a raspberry tart, both of which were basically fresh-tasting, sweet fruit on top of shortbread. We also tried another variation on stroopwafel, this time toffee flavored. Still very delicious. We went to the Anne Frank huis (quite sad, as one would expect) and the Westerkerk (in English, western church). The church is supposed to have great views from the steeple but it does not open until April.

We walked to Dam square and saw the Nieuwe kerk. We met up with Tim again and got falafel. We also saw this really pretty nun's sanctuary called Begijnhof. There were lots of pretty flower. We then went to a coffee shop and chilled for a bit. I had a tosti (Dutch toasted sandwich) at the coffee shop and it was quite tasty. I definitely ate too much this weekend and will have to cut back this week as a result. After the coffee shop we went grocery shopping for dinner and ended up with a bunch of really good focaccia. I also had a strawberry yogurt smoothie.

We went back to the dorm and made a dinner of vegetables, pork, and tomato sauce over fusilli pasta, and shared a bottle of wine. That finally ended the food intake for Friday. We just hung out listening to music for a while. Patty and I practiced dancing to Ave Maria by David Bisbal and Single Ladies by Beyonce. It was a very relaxed evening.

On Saturday we got up and headed over to Museumplein. We stopped on the way for pancakes. The pancakes are halfway between a crepe and an American pancake and were delicious. We got one with strawberries, powdered sugar, and whipped cream, and one with bacon and apple and cinnamon. They were both fantastic.

After breakfast we went to the Rijksmuseum. Unfortunately we had to wait about an hour in the queue to get it and then had to pay a whopping 11 euro entrance fee. This would not be so whopping if the museum was gigantic, but they are under constructioin and the collection is incredibly limited. I did see quite a bit of Rembrandt and a few Vermeers, however.

After the museum we spent time in the park nearby, trying to take pictures with the giant I Amsterdam statue thing. We headed to the Van Gogh museum, but the queue made it so that we had an hours-long wait ahead of us. So instead we went back to the dorm to meet up with Tim. On a side note, we saw these lizards in a park on our way through this one area:

I was completely convinced that they were real. My first thought: Wow, I can't believe there are so many komodo dragons right here in this little fenced-in park. Next thought: Wait, the lizards are escaping! Oh my god, there are a bunch of them outside the fenced area, near those people! Next thought: Doesn't anyone care that these lizards are escaping? They're huge! Someone could get hurt! Finally: Wait...are they statues?

Tim, Patty and I ended up going to an Indian restaurant and had a good curry dinner. 

We headed from there to the Red Light district. It was a bizarre experience. It was filthy, covered with trash and puke and who knows what else. There were these giant public urinal things overflowing with pee. This is as good a time as any to mention that the entire weekend we saw Scotsmen in kilts on every single street. The Netherlands played Scotland Saturday night, so they were all there for the game. Kilts and St. Andrew flags were everywhere! All the bars were playing either the Proclaimers or the Fratellis!

Getting back to the Red Light district, it was so strange for me and Patty to walk down these alleys with prostitutes in all the windows, being the only girls in the street not for sale. (And almost the only non-Scottish people in the street as well.) I knew what to expect, that the prostitutes would be in the windows with red lights behind them, but it was surreal experiencing it in person. The other surprising thing was how hot and young some of them were! Certain streets had very attractive, very very young girls. We also passed the big black women and older women and fatter women and all the other genres, but they fit more into my idea of what a prostitute looks like.

Anyway, Sunday morning I had the worst stomachache of my life and could hardly move, so I did not do any sightseeing in the morning. I did however try another Dutch food staple: bitterballen. These are little deep fried meat and potato balls eaten with mustard. They were very much like croquetas. I also had one more tosti before leaving the city, a mozzarella and tomato sandwich. Got back to Barcelona Sunday night.

It is Monday evening and I am still at UPF. I will leave soon to go home before having dinner with some friends of mine. This week is short because I don´t have class Thursday afternoon or Friday. Next week starts spring break, so I will be headed to Brussels and Antwerp Friday through Monday, then jet to Athens for my Greek holiday.

Bom dia, Lisboa.

This weekend I went to Lisbon with two amigos, Austin and Mickey. The three of us got there Friday (at slightly different times, since I had a different flight) and headed to our hostel in Baixa. The hostel was incredible. It is supposedly a "boutique hostel," and it was really beautiful and high quality. It is called Living Lounge Hostel and I would highly, highly recommend it.

We left the hostel and walked around Baixa to the Praça do Comércio and took in the nice views of the river by sunset. We walked up to the Bairro Alto area as well searching for the Botanic Garden. This involved talking to people in Portuguese, and when we finally did arrive, the garden had been closed for some time. Disappointing, but we carried on. We bought cheap carbonated sangria at a grocery store, then went back to the hostel for their "Happy Hour," with 50 cent beers. We met a group of nice American boys, most of whom attend Cornell, and realized that they were our roommates. (There were 3 of us and 5 of them staying in the same room.) We headed from Happy Hour to a nearby restaurant and had dinner. 

From dinner we went to the Bairro Alto again. The streets were completely filled with young people drinking. In Spain drinking in the streets is incredibly common and called botellón. We bought some cheap beer and ended up wandering around the bars, popping in to dance briefly in some of them. At one point we saw a big group of student-age people wearing black costume suits carrying instruments. I stared at them for a while, hoping they might decide to play, and they seemed to catchy my drift. They offered to sing a traditional song, and I gladly agreed to be their audience. (Austin and Mickey were not as interested.) They sounded great and the whole episode was so random and so cool. 

We decided to search for a disco we had heard about called Jamaica. It took forever to find it, and just before going in we met a group of German kids (and one Swedish girl). Instead of going to Jamaica, we turned around and went to get a drink with them. They all were really nice and had excellent English and Spanish. People in Europe are so multilingual.

We ended up going home after having one drink with them because we were all exhausted. The next day we partook of the very good free breakfast and walked to Alfama, another district. There we saw several of the major churches, including the São Vicente and the Sé. We also spent quite a lot of time wandering around this famous flea market that is behind the church on Saturdays. Austin and Mickey bought some cool bohemian shirts and I got a scarf and silver bangles. We had planned to see the Castelo São Jorge, but opted instead to go to the beach. 

We took the train to Carcavelos, the beach recommended by the hostel. It was really fun to hang out on the beach, and the weather was beautiful and sunny. A guy on the beach was playing guitar and everyone around him was singing songs in Portuguese. I think Portugal is a very musical country. I found myself trying to capture for the rest of my life in perfect detail the feeling of lying in the sand in my swimsuit, hearing the waves of the ocean and the melody of the guitar, feeling the sun warm my skin, knowing that I was happy and young and complete. 

The beach trip ended and we boarded a train back to the city. We went straight to a grocery store and bought some vinho verde (Portugal's fabulous white wine) and a bottle of port. Because you can't go to Portugal without trying Port, right? We went back to the hostel and set to work. I cut up the onion, mushrooms, and bell pepper for our sauce and set the table. Austin boiled the farfalle pasta, pan fried the chicken breasts, and cooked the sauce. Mickey washed the strawberries, cut up the chicken, and did the dishes. It ended up being delicious and best of all cheap! However, we had a lot to drink, as Austin and I shared the bottle of wine and the three of us killed the bottle of port. (Port has double the alcohol of wine.) 

We ran into the Cornell boys again and went up to the room to hang out with them. Lots of fun chatting and more drinking ensued. We made it to an Indian restaurant, but we were not very hungry having just eaten a huge pasta meal and that ended up being the last stop of the night. On Sunday morning we woke up and had breakfast, then Mickey and Austin headed to the airport. I went to the Castelo that we had intended to go to the day before. It was a cool fortress at the top of the city, so the views were amazing. The weather was lovely and the whole place was really peaceful and full of flowers. It was the perfect end to the trip. Lisbon is an incredible city with lots to do and beautiful things to see. I hope I go back someday.

Las Fallas de Valencia

Last weekend I went with 7 amigos to Valencia, a city three hours south of Barcelona by train. It was the weekend before Las Fallas, a major festival in which giant combustible structures are built and then set on fire later in the week. We saw the fallas all over the city throughout the weekend. A lot had animal themes, many were sexual (i.e. naked women), and a lot of them looked kind of sinister or weird. 

We had to get up very early Friday morning to catch the 7:00 a.m. train. I slept almost the whole way but did manage to see some of the beautiful Costa del Sol views out the window. After arriving we headed straight to our hostel, the Purple Nest. The hostel was really awesome. We all got to stay in the same room together (like in Dublin). After dropping our stuff off, we went exploring. There was a rough goal of getting to a vegetarian restaurant recommended by Caryn's guidebook, but we basically were just wandering. We made it to the Mercat Central, apparently the largest food market in Europe. After many hours of wandering through confusing, winding roads, we found the vegetarian restaurant. I thought the food was just ok. It was really full of vegetables...obvi.

After that we decided to venture to the Botanical Gardens. Strangely, these gardens are like a cat refuge, and the place was FULL of cats. We saw many black cats (even one with only a single eye) on Friday the 13th. The place was really serene and the weather was beautiful. Lots of people had easels set up and were painting.

We headed back to the hostel to figure out a plan for the rest of the day and decided to cook a Mexican food feast. I miss Mexican food so much! I guess you don't know what you've got till it's gone. Four of us went to the grocery store and by hook or by crook scrambled up the necessary ingredients. Patty was the head chef and the rest of us her sous chefs. We ended up with guacamole, ground beef cooked with onions and cilantro, chips and salsa, tortillas, rice, beans, and cheese. And wine. Wine in Spain is literally cheaper than water at less than 1 euro a bottle. It was a fun group project and the best part was of course enjoying the fruits of our labor. We cooked everything in the large and well-equipped hostel kitchen--another reason the hostel was awesome.

After all that we headed to our room to hang out and ended up going to a bar, where we sampled the local cocktail of choice, Agua de Valencia. This is a potent (think jungle juice) mix of cava, fresh orange juice, and vodka, rum or other liquor. We turned in shortly thereafter because Joe was falling asleep at the table.

Saturday morning we awoke and went to a place we had spotted the day before called Spanish Bagels. Bagels are another American food sorely missed, and while Spanish Bagels would not have made the cut, it was pretty good for the bagel-starved. I had a bagel with yummy pesto, mozzarella and tomato. We went straight to the beach from there and had a nice long time soaking up the sun. Only Austin and I were brave enough to go swimming in the ocean, and afterwards we were indeed very cold. (Although while in the water it didn't seem too bad. All the summers swimming in the Atlantic have made me tough.)

We headed back to the hostel after the beach and ate Patty's fried rice, made with the leftovers from the night before. Delicious. We just goofed around for a good long while, getting progressively more borrachos. At the suggestion of Caryn's infallible guidebook we went to a GREAT smoothie place that mixed alcohol into the smoothies. The smoothies were really fresh and fruit-tasting. We went from the smoothie place to a tapas restaurant pretty far away and had patatas bravas (the standby, but good buy (haha)), fried camembert, awful "samosas," and cocktails. From there we went in search of a reggae concert but were unsuccessful. Instead we ended up at a giant techno concert near the hostel. It was absolutely massive and filled with high school aged kids. We managed to sneak in through a break in the security fence toward the back.

The entire weekend was characterized by sudden loud cracks, shooting sparks and cries of "¡Cuidado!" as children of about 8-13 years old threw firecrackers all day and all night. This included at the densely packed concert, where people would throw them into the crowd. Obnoxious! We ended up buying two fireworks of our own, but as is so often the case with fireworks, they were over so quickly that I hardly remember enjoying them. But they were cool while they lasted. 

On Sunday we went to a futuristic museum complex (the largest in Spain) called la Ciudad de las Artes y Ciencias. We went to the science museum part and saw some cool exhibits, but not nearly up to HMNS level. It took a while to get here and back because we had to figure out the buses, which were not on the normal schedule because of the festival. We collected our things from the hostel, headed to the train station, had a quick bite to eat and said our adios to Valencia. Friends, sunshine, beach...the life. 

Sláinte, Dublin.

Friday evening I took off with a group of 13 people for Dublin. (The group split into two smaller traveling parties of 8 and 6 later on.) We flew out of Girona with Ryan Air--an airport and an airline I do not much care for. But there were pretty much no problems and we made it to the hostel without much trouble.

We stayed at Abbey Court right in front of the O'Connell street bridge. It was really nice to look out the window and see the flowing Liffey river. It was my friend Joe's birthday and we started celebrating as soon as it turned to midnight (Barcelona time) on the plane. The flight attendant came on the PA system and said, "Happy birthday to Joe, who is celebrating his 21st birthday." It was awesome.

On the way to the hostel we encountered a drunken, random singing girl called Natalie who was singing the catchy opening to the Rihanna song Disturbia, substituting the beat with the word "Dub." As a result, we all sang this constantly the whole weekend long. On top of this, she informed us that Dubliners are sometimes called "Dub Dubs," a fact confirmed many times over by natives we met.

We started boozing pretty much immediately, heading from the hostel to a bar called Fitzsimmons. I had some Guinness and ordered a hard cider, called Strongbow. It was really good. The first song to come on was Chelsea Dagger by the Fratellis. I took a movie on my camera but I must have accidentally deleted it. It felt great to be drinking Bulmers in an Irish bar shouting "Da-duh-dum-da-duh-dum-da-duh-duh-duh-dum-da-duh-dum-da-duh-dum-da-duh-duh!" This will only make sense if you know the song. This was however the only local (sort of) music, and it soon switched to the usual hip hop.

When we got back to the hostel the conversation turned to these cage cubbies/drawers underneath the hostel's bunk beds. For some reason earlier in the day Joe and I had joked that these cages were suitable for holding pets, children, and women. When my pal Caryn heard this she decided to try to fit into the cage/cubby/drawer. She succeeded, and the hilarious result is on Facebook in video form. After Caryn got out of the cage, someone said, "I bet Nicole could fit in there too," and for some strange reason I felt compelled to test this theory. Hence I climbed into the cage. I made the mistake of going in head first and leaving my feet exposed to merciless tickling, so the entire video is pretty much me shrieking hysterically.

On Saturday morning we got up and took the train to Howth, a small nearby fishing village. This is where most of the pictures up to this point came from. It was super cute but also cold and windy. There were several sea lions swimming in the dock, which was unexpected and exciting.

We walked around for a good long while before ending up with some fish and chips. Being the resident fish and chips expert I deemed them tasty and authentic. (Although they were served in sacks instead of take away containers, so I just had to dump salt in the bag and shake it.)

After Howth we headed back to Dublin proper and ended up at the Guinness Storehouse. It was a massively touristic experience, but it was still fun to learn about how Guinness is made. The building is huge and shaped like a pint glass.

You get a small sample of the draught and a free pint at the top.

I had never before seen Guinness poured from the tap (at least not that I remember) and was really startled by the coffee-esque coloring as it comes together into the familiar dark color. I like Guinness but I just couldn't finish a whole pint. Luckily Joe was happy to drink it for me.

After the Guinness factory we headed for the hostel. I took an ever-so-brief nap before getting up to start our second night in Dublin. We had dinner at a pub and the food was surprisingly delicious. We had the waitress bring out an apple tart with candles and sang Joe happy birthday (for at least the third or fourth time).

After dinner we went back to the hostel for some partying and drinking games. I ended up turning in earlier than almost everyone else, so I missed out on the truly wild late night hijinks, but I got to hear the funny stories later.

On Sunday we walked over to the campus of Trinity College. It looked a lot like the Ivy League schools. We got very lucky and the majority of both days was sunny and dry. It drizzled a little but it basically did not rain heavily when we were outside. We intended to see the Book of Kells but did not want to pay the steep price of admission.

From there we went to Dublin Castle, which according to a guidebook is more "higgledy-piggledy Georgian palace" than castle. There we ran into a random tour guide named Connor who was amazing. He told all the historical stories so interestingly. For example, the statue of Justice above is actually a quiet condemnation of the British legal system. The statue is not blindfolded as she should be and the scales tip when it rains.

We piggy backed off Connor's tour for a while and headed to Christ Church Cathedral. By this time I was numb with cold and looking forward to lunch.

We went to a place suggested by Caryn's guidebook, nicknamed The Bible because it has the best recommendations ever. It was a "supremely feminine hideout" bakery. I had a delicious potato, onion and cheddar tart with a couscous salad and focaccia, as well of lots of wonderful cream tea. The place was adorable.

Now for the sad part of this tale. I lost my phone at the hostel! This was my (almost) brand new phone that I had received as a gift before going to Europe. I could not be more disappointed. It was very important to me and held both monetary and sentimental value.

I was interested to see whether there would be a lot of anti-British sentiment, and I think there was certainly an element of it here and there. I told some Irish guy I was English and he jokingly said he would have to hate me, and another guy confessed he was part English and made a "Shh, don't tell!" gesture. And on the tour of Dublin Castle a lot of the stories related to British oppression. But overall it didn't seem like too big of a deal.

This week I have another midterm, but I will definitely have time for a little fun. (I got a high A on the Spanish final, so no worries Mom and Dad!) Beer pong and trivia are in the works. This weekend we travel to Valencia. Stay tuned.

Los días felices

The Barcelona beach.

This week I neglected regular updates because I did not take any trips and I had two midterms. I had Spanish on Tuesday and Art History on Wednesday, and my Spanish oral evaluation on Thursday. So I can say I am doing a little of the 'study' in study abroad. I have not gotten back any grades but I have a good feeling about all the tests.

While finding time to study, I also found time to go out! I finally tried out a bar called Chupitos in the Barceloneta area. It is small and hot inside, but they have what seems like 100 different shots, all for 2 euro. I tried three with my group of friends. The Boy Scout involves pouring liquor over the bar, setting it on fire, and toasting a marshmallow over the flames. You take the shot and chase it with the toasted marshmallow. Yum. The Harry Potter has an orange slice covered in brown sugar set alight. Also very good. The Bob Marley was a red, yellow and green (Rastafarian) mix that tasted fruity and minty. The bar is most famous (or infamous) for the Monica Lewinsky, and shot you drink out of a dildo covered with whip cream. 

I also attended the regular Wednesday trivia night, but we had our worst score yet and there were hardly any people at the bar. It might have had something to do with the weather, which this week has been miserably cold, gray and rainy. 

The exciting thing I did over the weekend was go to a wine tasting at the Torres family vineyards in the Penedès region, specifically Vilafranca. It was actually a strange series of activities. We started out in a safari-like train that drove us around the shriveled wintery grape vines with audio commentary in English running. We then drove into a pitch black warehouse that projected images on the walls of monks making wine, complete with monk chanting on the speakers. After the train tour we went and watched a video about where the living members of the Torres family reside and the history of the family. Lastly we went into a large room where they projected giant images of grapes throughout the seasons of the year and emitted an odor to go with each season, i.e. burning wood in winter, flowers in spring, etc. 

At the actual tasting, we tried a white, a rosé, and two reds. It was fun learning about wine and trying to discern the different elements of the bouquet and flavor profile. After the wine tasting we took the bus to Sitges, which I got to see by daylight. It was totally cleaned up and you would never know that it was home to such a wild party. To continue what has apparently become a crêpe series, I had a chocolate one with whip cream. It just couldn't compare with Paris. 

This is a meat shop with one of the most common sights in Spain--giant disembodied cured pigs legs. People keep these in their kitchens and just slice off a piece whenever they want some ham. 

One more food adventure. I satisfied my Asian food desire by eating at a place called Udon and serving--you guessed it--udon noodles. I got a big bowl of the tempura udon. The noodles were toothy but soft and delicious and I had my first carrots in ages. (Carrots not being a big staple at my homestay. On a side note, today's simple but really good meal was butifarra sausage and white beans. Very traditional Catalán.)

Next stop: Dublin. Cheers!