Y más.

On Tuesday we continued our Barcelona adventure by going to Park Guell, then the Born area near the Cathedral. We ate lunch at Petra, which was as tasty as ever. We also encountered the "place setting charge" that would come back to haunt us later (restaurants charging you to sit down at their tables). At Petra we all shared cous cous salad with mango and raisins, cold carrot and grapefruit soup, pork leg in a caramelized sauce with potatoes, a beef patty with vegetables, and chicken coconut curry with rice. 

After Petra we walked around the Santa Maria del Mar church but could not really figure out how to get in, so we left. We did some souvenir shopping in Born and I finally went in to Happy Pills (a cool candy store). We walked to the Cathedral and under the bridge thing with a skull underneath. We walked through the Boqueria and saw giant animal tongues and sheep heads and penises. 

We walked from the Boqueria to Barceloneta and had drinks on the beach. The sun was setting so it was a little more chilly than I would have preferred, but it was very nice anyway.

We then went to Espai Sucre, the famous gourmet dessert-only restaurant. We got there at 8:30, but it did not open till 9:00, so we went next door for drinks. That place, called Firo, charged us a 1.50 euro place setting charge and the waiter had a very rude attitude. It was weird because they were almost empty and if we weren't sitting there drinking wine they wouldn't have gotten any money. 

But anyway, we finally made our way to Espai Sucre. The meal was so deluxe and long and involved that I will have a separate post about it. When we got back to our apartment the other ladies played Hearts, but I was too tired and fell asleep.

Wednesday we got up a little on the late side, so we went to the Bagel Shop for breakfast again, and then to Sagrada Familia. After hearing my spiel about Gaudi, we headed for Montjuic. Once at the top we walked through a sculpture garden and admired the views, but no on was that enthusiastic about Joan Miro and we just sat and had diet coke and tortilla for a while.

From there we went to the Museu Picasso and did some more souvenir shopping afterward. We went back to the apartment, ate some cheese and bread, and went to Travel Bar. I wasn't sure what time the kitchen closed (turns out it is 9:00) but luckily we got there at 8:45, so we got some burgers to share. We did pretty well in Trivia considering my expectations for our success. (We got 26 points/4th place...should have studied up on our current music.) 

Today is Thursday, their last day here. More updates later...

¡La familia!

As mentioned, Liz (my mom) and co. arrived on Friday. Unfortunately, my aunt Julie's flight was delayed, so she came in later than expected. So I met up with Liz, Kathleen and Evelyn (my sister) at the airport before we all headed to the hotel. Our hotel was in Poblenou, a neighborhood north of Ciutadella Vila Olimpica. We went to the beach area by the Universitat Pompeu Fabra and had lunch at the square crepe restaurant under the giant Frank Gehry fish. We also saw Shoko and Carpe Diem, which were recently recommended by the Times.

Kathleen and Evelyn went back to the hotel and Liz and I went to get Julie from the airport. All of us came back to the hotel, then everyone but Evelyn went to my home stay señora's apartment to meet her, get my things, and have some drinks and snacks. She gave us lots of really good meats and cheese--fuet, jamón dulce, some kind of sausage from her village, manchego, etc. She also served red wine and cava. It was funny to translate everything the whole time. She wanted to fix Kathleen up with her son. Too bad Kathleen's married already. She said she was sad to see me go, but we exchanged contact info for the future.

I met up with mis amigas Patty and Caryn at Cerveseria Catalana that night, and Julie, Liz, Patty and I ended up having dinner. The tapas were just as good as the first time! I really highly recommend that place. I also tried their lemon mousse cake and I have not stopped thinking about how good it was.

On Saturday we ate at the breakfast buffet and moved all our belongings to the apartment we are now staying at, located at Passeig de Gràcia and Diagonal. It took a while between going to the office to get the key, going back to the hotel, calling a cab to get our tons of luggage, and finally getting everything upstairs. We went to Els Pollos for lunch. I was a little mad because although everything was as delicious as ever, they did not tell us that the menu del día was only Monday through Friday until we were paying! That night we went to the fountain light show at Plaza Espanya, but sadly Julie's wallet got stolen in the metro. She took all the precautions. The pick pockets in Barcelona are just too professional I guess. 

On Sunday we went to Figueres to see the Dali museum there. It is where he is buried and the museum was designed by him. It was really crazy and cool and unlike anywhere else in the world. One of my favorite things was a brooch he designed that looked like a ruby heart and somehow actually beat like a (anatomically correct) heart would. The train was pretty long and it was raining, but otherwise it was a nice time. After getting back to Barcelona we went to Els Quatre Gats, the restaurant frequented by Picasso. We didn't really like it because it had a very snobby attitude to it and seemed really touristy, but the food was good. We went from there to a wonderful gelato place I had been to once before called Dolcevitaly. The gelato was fabulously good, and the Italian guy running the place was very flirty. 

Today, Monday, we met up with my friend Mike at the Bagel Shop for breakfast. We walked around a lot before going back to the apartment, where Kathleen did laundry, everyone played cards, and I napped. From there we went to La Rambla and walked to Plaza Real and Plaza Sant Jaume and tried to go to Petra, but it was closed. So instead we went to Taller de Tapas, which was still very, very good. 

We also went to Cook and Taste tonight! It was the same recipes as the one I had been to before, but this time I made the gazpacho instead of the tortilla. I think everyone had a lot of fun. We met a young Australian couple living in London, a mom and middle school age son from Holland, and two guys who went to Carnegie Mellon traveling together. 

Tomorrow we will have to catch up on everything that was on the itinerary and has been skipped. And try to watch the Barça-Chelsea game!

La última semana.

A summary of my last week with my friends in Barcelona.

On Monday, April 20 I finished my final paper for my Spanish Cinema class. That night I met up with Carlota, my Spanish friend/GA for drinks before going clubbing at Apolo. Apolo ended up being my favorite club in Barcelona. I loved the music, I loved the vibe, I thought the people were great. The only drawback is that it gets suffocatingly hot. (Like an Austin 6th street club I suppose.) But it is still my favorite! Plus, we went to Anti Karaoke beforehand, and performed Bohemian Rhapsody! Anti Karaoke is supposedly karaoke for people with talent and you have to sign up weeks in advance etc. But they let our group of five go up anyway. 

Anyway I had a fantastic time Monday night and took my last final in Spanish on Tuesday. After finishing the exam, I went to the beach, but because of a mix up met with my friends just as they were leaving. So instead we ended up hanging out and playing ping pong and Uno and cards for a while. A bunch of people went on a boat cruise, but I took a nap. Tuesday night was a last night of beer pong at Travel Bar. It ended up being a very late night with a little too much party.

Wednesday was another great day of beach with really lovely weather. I went swimming in the Mediterranean off the Barceloneta beach for the first time. I also had really good stir fry that I shared with my friend Julie. That night was the farewell party put on by the CIEE program. They rented out a club called El Dorado and brought in Pizza Hut. I thought the pizza was pretty lame. Plus it was cold and gross flavors like macaroni and cheese. The coolest thing happened though. There was a photo contest with three categories: our own experience, the most artistic, and we are the sexy ones. My photo for 'we are the sexy ones' won! So I got a Barcelona 2010 calendar. Yeeeaaahh.

Thursday was the last day that everyone was together. I packed in the morning, then headed over to the beach. It was a Catalunya holiday called Día de Sant Jordi, or St. George's Day. On this day in Barcelona men give women roses and women give men books. It is sort of like Valentine's day. There were people selling roses on literally every street corner. The Rambla was completely full of book sellers and roses. It was a really cool holiday to experience. 

It had been a talked-about goal all semester to swim to a huge pile of rocks off the shore, so Mickey, Mike, Austin, Willie, Joe and I finally swam out to the rocks on the last day. It was pretty great to accomplish something we'd talked about for so long. Thursday was one of the warmest days of the whole year so the water, although cold, felt great. I also got to eat the good take out stir fry again. After the beach we walked down La Rambla and saw the Sant Jordi festivities. I had left my calendar at the club the night before, so I went to La Casa, the CIEE office building, one last time to get it. I ended up having dinner a friend of mine cooked and meeting up with everyone at Travel Bar. It was fitting to have our final night at Travel Bar since we were regulars there all semester. 

On Friday everyone went home, but I stayed in Barcelona to meet up with my mom, Evelyn, my aunt Julie and my cousin (sort of?) Kathleen, who arrived that morning. Their visit is the subject of the next post.

Where the olive trees grow.

The belated post about the rest of my spring break after leaving Belgium on Monday, April 6.

When I arrived in Athens, I figured out how to get on a bus and headed for the city center. It was really odd having everything in Greek and realizing I would be completely helpless if no one spoke English. The bus ride took an hour but I finally made it to the square I was headed for. Luckily, my friends Ally and Patty had arrived a few days earlier and were able to meet me and take me to the hostel. We stayed at AthenStyle and I liked it a lot. We met Caryn at the same place I got dropped off and then all of us went to this very cool Greek sandal shop. The man who runs it has apparently made shoes for lots of famous people like John Lennon and Sophia Loren etc. 

After we all go outfitted with our custom leather sandals, we got picked up by Caryn's dad's friend and his wife who live in Athens. They took us to a really nice restaurant and we enjoyed the first of many wonderful Greek meals. We had Greek salad, salad with bread, bean salad, eggplant dip, fava bean dip, oven roasted eggplant, three kinds of bread, tzatziki, feta, and grilled feta in foil. Then we got the entrees! I had grilled lamb and fries. For dessert (and on the verge of bursting) we shared a panna cotta, a fruit plate, and two kinds of cake with ice cream.

We got up very early the next morning to get on the ferry to Ios, the island on which we stayed. The ferry took about seven hours, most of which I slept. The weather was not very good. It was chilly and rainy. The ferry was very deluxe, with large semi-reclining chairs. When we got to the island, a guy working for the hostel (Francesco's) named Alex came and picked us up. We loved Alex! He was super nice and would later come to get us at 2:00 in the morning when a different ferry dropped us off. Anyway, after unpacking we went in search of food and made a discovery: all the businesses on Ios closed during most of the afternoon. So do not go looking for a restaurant during that time! Luckily, after walking all the way back to the port, we found a place open. 

There wasn't a menu. Instead, a guy just came up to us and told us what they had in the back. We asked if we could take a look before deciding, and he said sure. We decided on chicken and potatoes with lemon, Greek salad, fava beans, and eggplant dip. It was all very tasty. Sadly, Caryn came down with a stomach flu our first few days, and could not eat. 

View from our hostel terrace:

On Wednesday we went to the main beach, Mylopotas. It was totally deserted since it was the off season. We again had trouble finding food places, but thank goodness Ally had made us all peanut butter sandwiches earlier that morning. We didn't go in the water because it was a little too cold, and it was very, very windy. We met some fellow travelers back at the hostel from South Africa, Israel, and Japan who were studying in Hungary. What a strange combination! They were nice. 

We had a lot of wine and took naps. It was very relaxing! That night we all went out to dinner at a Thai restaurant, and we met a half Thai, half Greek girl who Patty spoke to in Thai. Very cool.

Thursday was probably the most eventful day. We took a ferry (about 1 or 2 hours) to Santorini, another island. There we got to ride donkeys to the top of the mountain! It was not very organized. We simply came up, paid, they put us on the donkey, and the donkey took off at a trot. There wasn't a guide with us until the very end of the trip. I am in general not very comfortable with animals, especially those that are larger than me. But it made for some great pictures. 

We met up with some people we knew, saw the famous sunset, and ate gyros at a place called Lucky's. Lucky (whose card said "Lackey") was a bit weird, but he ended up giving us some free food and lots of free beer, so it was ok. We went to the bars at night. There was really cool music at this one Scottish bar and we ended up dancing with these high schoolers from New Jersey who were on a class trip. Hah.

Friday was a day of total relaxation. We spent all day on the private terrace coming off of our two rooms. Caryn and I went out to lunch while the others sunned and had lemon chicken (me) and tomato chicken (her). Then we got free cake for dessert. Seriously, I felt like everywhere we went in Greece we got free stuff! That night we went to the Ios bars again, and met some Canadian guys who were staying at our hostel.

Saturday was our last day. We went out to some very good brunch and listened to music with the Canadians and chilled. Then Alex took us to the port and we went back to Athens and then to the airport. It was a bit of a hassle getting home as the flight was super delayed, but I made it. I had a fantastic time, and got to hang out with three of my favorite girls. Nice!

Boogie in Barça

Since I never mentioned how the birthday festivities went, here it is. I had a wonderful time! First I met up with 10 buddies at a restaurant called Mesón David in the El Raval neighborhood. It was super cheap--like 3 euros for an entire plate of food. I ordered far, far too much food as I thought, "Surely this price, being so low, is for a tapas portion." Wrong. Caryn and Patty brought me a tiara and a sash saying Reina de la Fiesta, and everyone wore these cute animal party hats. Then at the end of dinner they surprised me with an ice cream cake with sparklers in the shape of the number 20, and everyone in the entire restaurant sang happy birthday to me. It was amazing. 

After dinner we went to Travel Bar for one last night of Trivia together. Unfortunately it was probably our worst score ever, but we were in a festive mood nonetheless. I got to meet my friends Jess and Emily's families who were in town. (They were all super nice! And Emily's parents hosted cocktails at their apartment and took us all out to really good Mexican on Thursday, so special thanks are extended to them!) I ended up getting free drinks from my friends and from Colin, a guy who works at Travel Bar who we have seen every week. It was an awesome night. 

On Friday a group of amigos and I went to Malalts de Festa, a discoteca with a more Spanish clientele than the usual clubs we frequent. It was really far away, so we took the red line on the Metro to get there. Very sadly, my wallet was stolen out of my purse. I still have my passport and drivers license, and I had emergency money stashed in my room so I will make it until Friday when Liz and everyone arrives. But still, what a huge bummer!

The club was tropical beach party themed, with all the bartenders (male and female) dressed in thong bikinis and tiny shorts. There were two rooms, one playing house and one playing Spanish language music. I actually liked the Spanish music a lot, and the place had a fun vibe. The only drawback was how far away it was.

When we left the club at about 5 a.m. we went to the beach to watch the sunrise. I think we were all a little delirious in our sleep-deprived states, but it was still a cool experience and a lovely view.

On Saturday I went with another group of amigos to watch a light and water and music show at the giant fountain in Plaça de Espanya. It was really amazing. The music ranges from classical to pop hits over the ages to a Disney song mix in Spanish. 

After the fountain I ended up meeting up with the rest of the crew and going to a bar called Ovella Negra. It was a bit out of the way, but really big and quite fun and cheap. We went from there to Razzmatazz, a very famous large disco. It has 5 rooms with different kinds of music. (Although when I was there it seemed like more than 1 room played techno. And we never made it to the hip hop room.) We spent most of our time in the lower floor, which played lots of rock that I recognized--Fratellis, the Strokes, White Stripes, R.E.M., etc. I had an absolutely great time at Razzmatazz and felt the price (15 euro plus a drink) was totally justified.

Tipped off by Caryn, I went today with mi amigo Austin to what I think was an Earth Day food and crafts festival at Arc de Triumf. There were tons of stalls devoted to artisan cheeses and spreads and sausages and jewelry and clothes and bags and art and falafel and vegetarian food and children's clothes and lots of other things. There was a stall where you could get your hair put in dreadlocks (amusingly called rastas in Spanish). There were also lots of organizations represented like PETA type groups, Falun Gong, lots of mystic energy spiritual stuff, lots of massage places, and--disturbingly--one advocating natural gynecology with large photos mid-birth. It was really hippie-ish and I had a lot of fun.

I also went to a bullfight that evening at the Monumental stadium. While interesting and cultural, I found it pretty disturbing. The bull comes into the stadium already wound up from having a knife with a ribbon stabbed into his back. Then a few of the fighters wave around yellow and pink cloths. The matador comes out and stabs the bull in the back with these sort of hard tassel things (six or so of them). Then the bull is really tired out and the matador stabs him, mortally wounding him. The bull collapses and one of the lesser fighters comes over and stabs him in the brain, finishing the job.

The costumes were cool. I think that might be the only positive commentary I can give. The second bull started violently spewing blood from its mouth after being stabbed, which was particularly unpleasant. 

I can't believe it's already my last week! Tuesday is my last final, then Wednesday is the farewell dinner, and most of my buddies go home Friday. I am sad to see things ending. But I will make the most of my remaining days, and make a point to keep in touch with everyone. 

Hoy por ser el día de tu santo...

Today is my 20th birthday. 

I have my day pretty much all planned out. I am going to breakfast with some friends, heading to the university for some last minute studying before my art history final at 3:00, going out to dinner, going to Trivia, and then dancing. 

One of my favorite songs in Spanish is Las Mañanitas. It is kind of a traditional Mexican serenade for a girl on her birthday, so I am singing it to myself right now!

Estas son las mañanitas 

que cantaba el Rey David

Hoy por ser el día de tu santo, 

te las cantamos a tí

Despierta, mi bien, despierta

Mira ya que amaneció

Ya los pajarillos cantan, la luna ya se metió

Belgium's for me!

I spent Friday April 3 through Monday April 6 visiting the Rullo family (my mom's cousins) in Belgium. I arrived fairly late Friday, so after being picked up from the airport we just ate dinner back at their house, located in a suburb of Antwerp. On Saturday we got up and visited Carrie in the hospital and met the newest newborn member of the family, Natalie. She is precious! Steve then drove me into Antwerp so I could do my sightseeing for the day. Carrie had mailed me a detailed itinerary, guidebook, bus ticket, and map, so I was completely set. 

I started off at the Centraal train station. The interior is beautiful, making me wonder why all public transportation buildings are not built to be architectural works of art. From the station I walked down to a major pedestrian area called the Meir. The buildings lining the street were lovely, and the place was bustling with Saturday morning shoppers. I went into the giant Stadsfeestzall mall and saw the enormous champagne glass-shaped bar. 

I made my way to a street called the Wapper and visited Peter Paul Rubens' house, Rubenshuis. It was super cheap (only one or two euros), and included an audio tour. The house was very serene and full of interesting period furnishings and paintings. The commentary was actually quite fascinating and I know more about Rubens now than I ever did before.

From there I went to the famous asymmetric Antwerp Kathedraal, located just off the main square or Grote Markt. I stopped for lunch at Mockamore and had a delicious bagel with cream cheese, mozarella, pesto, pine nuts, sundried tomatoes, and rocket. 

I also sampled the famous Belgian fries at a random frituur, or fries house. I found that they tasted pretty much like normal french fries.

Walking toward the river, I decided to stop in the Ethnographic Museum since I had extra time and it was free. It was a motley collection of non Western peoples' artifacts and costumes and the like. I made my way along the water to a castle-like building called the Steen. I walked around an outdoor (once again free) boat museum. Finally, I ended my day with a treat: a Belgian waffle topped with strawberries and cream. It was dense, chewy, intensely sweet, warm, and fantastic.

On Sunday I headed from Brussels, or as it is called there, Bruxelles. (Brussels is in French speaking territory and Antwerp is all Dutch/Flemish.) I ended up taking a hop-on, hop-off bus tour since I had limited time and the city is very large. 

My tour took me to the Place Royal, where many of the top museums are located, to the Sablon, then the Palais de Justice. Brussels looks and feels a lot like a mini Paris, thanks in part to the many grand buildings. We drove to the buildings that make up the governing bodies of the European Union, including European Parliament. The sessions are held in Strasbourg, but all the preparation for the sessions takes place in Brussels. The bus audio commentary said that the division is close to 3 weeks in Brussels, 1 week in Strasbourg.

We drove through several parks, including the Parc du Cinquantenaire, all the way up to the Atomium and royal residence of Laken. The Atomium is a huge structure modeled after an atom built for a world's fair. Laken is where the royal family lives. 

The tour ended near the Grand Place, or main town square, so I got off there to have lunch. The square is incredible. All the buildings (each of which represents a trade guild, like shipbuilding, hatmaking, shoemaking, etc.) are super ornate. It was a very sunny day and I rather liked sitting at a cafe enjoying my meal of filet du porc with mustard and potatoes. 

I walked around the streets surrounding the main square and saw the famous statue of the boy peeing. I bought some chocolates and my second waffle. I also visited the Cathedrale St-Michel.

When I arrived Antwerp I met back up with my mom's aunt and uncle, Ginny and Jim. Carrie came home from the hospital and we had a great traditional Flemish beer-marinated meat dish. I had to get up early the next morning to catch my flight, so my visit overlapped with theirs only briefly, but I had a great weekend and loved getting to see everyone. 

Aventuras

I went out to dinner Monday night with my friend Caryn's family at a restaurant called Cerveceria Catalana. It is apparently very recommended by guide books, Trip Advisor, hotels, etc. But although it has a slight foreigners-eat-here vibe, I thought it was really fun and really delicious tapas. Ladies who are coming at the end of April, we will be going here!

We ordered the usual patatas bravas, which were done very well without the sauce being too spicy. We also ordered a montadito, or Catalan open face sandwich bite. We got the four cheese one, although I am not sure which four cheeses since the bleu seemed to dominate the others. 

A bacon and date sandwich with melted cheese was fantastic. 

We also ordered mini hamburgers (the number one sign of catering to tourist palates) but they turned out to be excellent. They are even smaller than sliders and come adorned with only a mound of sweet caramelized onion. 

The tortilla de patatas was a little more on the soft side than what I would have prefered, but I have yet to eat a tortilla I did not like and this was no exception. Slices of manchego cheese, garlic and oil braised shrimp, fried small green peppers, sautéed mushrooms and asparagus, brie with blueberries, and lots of wine rounded out our meal. Thank you so much Mr. and Mrs. Ganeles!

In other news, we won Trivia this week! Unbelievable! Sadly I missed the exact moment of victory, as I had to leave to catch the metro home, but I was there to answer all the questions. (My own personal contributions were that the Pogues play Fairytale of New York and that the capital of Somalia is Mogadishu.) We won 125 euro worth of vouchers for the bar we play at (Travel Bar), which works out great as we go there several times a week.

I am off to Belgium tomorrow. By some fluke my flight time got changed from 7:30 am to 6:00 pm, so I will not be walking around Brussels tomorrow as planned. The real treat for me anyway is getting to see family, so I will make do with the change.

On Monday I head for Greece, where I will be vacationing for Semana Santa. For the next week or so, adios amigos!