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| Us with our Singapore friends outside FC Barca's Stadium |
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| After their first goal! |
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| Inside La Sagrada Familia |
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| View of Barcelona from '92 Olympic Stadium |
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Following the adventures of Spring
Break, it was off to Barcelona for the weekend with my friend Holly. It’s been
on my bucket list to attend a FIFA fútbol match so at the end of January, Holly
and I bought our tickets for the FC Barcelona vs. Palma Mallorca game! Our
seats were centerfield, second stands up. After buying our #10 Messi jerseys we
were ready to hit the stadium for a professional Spanish fútbol match!
We took the midnight train from
Granada to Barcelona, arriving into Barcelona early in the morning giving us
the entire day to explore the city! Our hostel was amazing as well; I’d
definitely recommend it to anyone traveling around Europe- the name was Equity
Point. The prices were cheap, breakfast was included, the facilities were super
clean and the staff was really personable! Plus, it was right in the heart of
Barcelona, a minute from the metro stop, giving us perfect access to tour the
entire city. First day, we did the walk-
through tour of La Sagrada Familia- the
church still in the process of being built. The end date for the construction
is set in 2026 for a section of the building while the final completion for the
entire church is 2040. That night we hit up an Ice Bar, which is on the coast.
The entire bar is made of ice, including our drinks. We had to wear thermal
coats and mittens in order to chill there. After this, we walked along the
coast for a while until we came across the discoteca- “Opium”. At first we were
hesitant to go in since they were turning away a majority of the people waiting
in line but of course we decided to give it a shot. Good thing we did cause we
made it in! Best part was we were standing in line behind a group of guys
dressed in suits and there we were me wearing yoga leggings and Holly wearing
an oversized Grandpa sweater. Somehow, the bouncer just asked us how many and
then showed us the way in. It was definitely a highlight of the night!
Once in we headed towards the dance floor where we spotted
the VIP section. My friend then makes it our goal for the night to make it into
the VIP section, which I thought was a completely unattainable goal but somehow
by the end of the night we had made it into VIP where there was free champagne
and fruit platters for everyone! That night will definitely go down as one of
the most spontaneous, epic nights of the semester!
Waking up
bright and early the next morning, we headed out for our first full day in
Barcelona. Prior to the fútbol match, we took the metro around the city and
explored more of Gaudí’s architecture as well as the food markets. We decided
for dinner to make our own pesto sandwiches using products from the market. After
buying all the ingredients we returned to the hostel where we met some boys
staying in our room who were from Singapore, studying in London. Ironically
enough, they had tickets to the game too so we decided to chill together before
hand and head to the game as a group. That’s definitely one thing I love about
hostels is the people you meet. Everyone’s so friendly and wanting to get to know
others. We stayed in a room of 12 others so it was super easy to meet new
people since there was a group of French students, Canadian travelers and the
boys from Singapore. It’s the perfect
way to widen your social network.
Arriving at
the game, outside the stadium was packed with people. Everyone was crowding
through the gates to enter the super store then the stadium. Finally entering,
we found our seats center field, two levels up. It was an incredible view with
the field and lights. The game resulted in a score of 5-0, FC Barcelona. They
played Palma Mallorca which is ranked pretty low in the scorings for teams so
it wasn’t a very competitive match but the overall experience made it all worth
it. With each goal, the crowd burst into cheers and went wild. The wave
continuously went around as fans created chants and cheers. We sat next to two adorable,
old men who spoke Catalan, the language of Barcelona. They kept trying to talk
soccer with us but unfortunately; we weren’t able to understand them. Best part was watching the teams warm up and
score each goal; their foot skills will put you in a trance watching them!
Following
the win, we met up with the Singapore guys to celebrate FC Barca’s victory. We
headed to the hostel to chill in the lounge until it was time to hit the
discoteca! The rest of the night was spent dancing and laughing with some new-
found friends!
The next
day we explored the city for our final day. We visited the Picasso museum as
well as Park Güell and then the beach. Unfortunately, the weather became
overcast while we were on the pier so the beach was pretty cold. We ate
empanadas for lunch while strolling near the marine area. It was the perfect
way to end one epic weekend in FC Barcelona, where the city’s motto (the fútbol
team’s motto) is where “Impossible is Nothing”.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Since it’s been nearly a month
since I’ve last blogged, I’ve had quite a few adventures here in Europe.
Starting back towards the end of March, I spent my spring break (the last week
of March) traveling around France and Spain with my mom and sister. They came
for 10 days, which was quite the adventure! Spending three months here prior,
it was nice to spend time with family. They flew in Friday night and we spent
the night exploring Granada with tapas, dessert with the padres and ending the
night at a local pub- I couldn’t have asked for a more chill night.
Sunday we departed for the city of
Paris! There we spent three days exploring the city, visiting museums, chilling
in cafes and of course trying to conquer the metro system. Since we always have
issues while traveling, we encountered a few problems flying out from Southern
Spain, which were brought on by the airline strikes occurring here in Spain.
Luckily, we made it out of Spain and arrived in Paris safe and sound. Within
the three days we had in this City of Love, we toured Notre Dame, Versailles,
the Louvre, several museums and of course the Eiffel Tower. Luckily, our second
full day there we had beautiful, sunny weather, which apparently is rare in
Paris. On the sunny day we literally walked the entire city of Paris (not
really but it felt like it). Due to
prior conflicts, we ended up not having a room booked for our last night in the
city. Thus, we kept our fingers crossed and spent a morning searching for
vacant hotel rooms. Fortunately, we found one! It was definitely nerve-racking
walking around the city not having a room to stay in for that night, thinking
we would possibly have to sleep at the airport, but luck was in our favor and
we found a room after only a few tries.
Midway through the week we were on
our way to Southern Spain (Seville) after our travels in Paris. Seville is
known to be the best place to celebrate La Semana Santa (literally meaning the
Week of the Saint or Holy Week in Spain) in the entire world. La Semana Santa
matched exactly my spring break luckily. Everyday there is a new procession
(parade), which follows the birth, prosecution, death and resurrection of
Jesus. Arriving to Seville Wednesday night, we had the opportunity to watch the
night procession. Walking to the site of the parade, the amount of people in
the city was unbelievable. It was beyond evident that thousands of people from
around the world travel to this city for the celebrations. At times, it was
impossible to even walk in the streets, as it was so crowded.
Finally making it to the
procession, we waited almost two hours for the parade to pass. In those two
hours we waited among Spaniards who waited away the time drinking cerveza after
cerveza (beer after beer) and eating bags of sunflower seeds. Soon, we heard
the drums of the band and the beat of the procession. In each parade, around 30
or so men carry a float with a scene representing a specific scene of Jesus’s
life. The floats can weigh as much as a semi-truck which makes these
processions that much more impressive as these men are marching to the beat of
the band while carrying this float on their shoulders/necks.
Leading the parade were the penitentes- individuals dressed
in the specifically colored cloaks to match the procession they are
participating in. The penitentes are often mistaken for KKK members since they
are dressed in the exact same attire. However, the KKK stole this outfit from
the penitentes as the pointy-hat outfits carry no negative significance for the
people of Spain. After the parade passed, the crowd dispersed to flock to
nearby tapa bars.
For the few
days we spent in Seville, we witnessed several of these processions in addition
to other festivals celebrating Holy Week. At times, it was a little
overwhelming since we would find ourselves in a crowd of a thousand people
without even trying. It was definitely a new way for us to celebrate Easter!
Returning back to Granada, we spent our last full day
together exploring the Albayzín area of the city. This part is known to be the
more gypsy, hippie region of Granada. It’s from here you can watch the sunset
over the city of Granada and the Alhambra. All in all it was the perfect way to
celebrate my spring break- traveling around France and Spain with my mom and
sister. Like always we had plenty of Amazing Race moments making it one
memorable vacation, definitely one for the books!
Friday, March 22, 2013
It’s been a while since I’ve had
time to blog. I’ve been super busy with traveling and then studying for our
examen parciales (midterms), which were this week. In total, I had 5 exams and
a presentation. Needless to say, I am a little mentally-exhausted. Though the
homework load here abroad is nothing compared to the stress of school back in
the states, homework is homework and I’ve become too adjusted to the Spanish
lifestyle. However, now it’s Spring Break, which I will spend traveling to
Paris and Seville with my family so it was the perfect motivation to study hard
this past week.
At the beginning of the month, my
friend Holly and I traveled to Berlin, Germany for the extended weekend. We
spent four nights in the city and it was amazing! We arrived Thursday afternoon
and spent the day exploring the city. Originally we were planning on taking the
train to Weismar, a city in central Germany, in order to pick a bus up to visit
the concentration camp, Buchenwald. However, when we went to the train station
it turned out we bought the ticket for March instead of February. Needless to
say we were rushing around for a bit trying to replace our ticket and rearrange
our plans. Luckily, everything worked out and we changed the date of the train
tickets to be the next day. Rearranging our plans, we decided to explore the
Brandenburg Gate, Jewish Holocaust Memorial, Raghstag, Topography of Terror,
the Berlin Wall, the Gypsy memorial, Berlin Tom and the Opera. We ended the
eventful day with dinner, where we ordered and discovered the amazing
Flammkuchen. It’s basically a German-style pizza but on special artesian-cooked
dough. It was so delicious, I highly recommend for anyone who’s traveling to
Germany!
After all the troubles we had with train
tickets, we finally made it to the concentration camp. As expected, the day was
somber as we toured the grounds. The most depressing part of the tour was when
we walked through the crematory. Though there was an eerie feeling throughout
the entire camp, it was especially prevalent there. The entire camp was covered
in about two feet of snow making it impossible to see the actual foundations of
the buildings. The majority of the camp was destroyed during air raids with
only a few of the main buildings still fully intact. The places where the camp
residents stayed are completely gone except for the few foundation bricks;
however, with those two feet of snow, those few foundation bricks were
invisible. This made it a little difficult to fully grasp the magnitude of the
camp since we could only see white on the grounds but the presence of the camp
still lingered.
For our last day in Germany, we
decided to have a chiller afternoon and visit the world’s largest zoo. It was
the perfect afternoon since we had spent the other days touring historical,
educational tours. The best part was when we were watching the lions in their
den. Holly was standing in the wrong spot at the wrong time and ended up
getting peed on by the male lion- it was definitely a highlight of the trip! The
other highlight was when I got neck-chopped by a German! It sounds scary but it
was actually pretty hilarious. It all happened when Holly and I were standing
on a street corner, trying to find a restaurant when I stuck my hand out to
point across the street. I hadn’t looked behind me before sticking my arm out
so I accidently almost hit a German man walking up next to me. Seeing he was
about to get hit, his instinct (I’m assuming) was to reflect my arm but in the
process he managed to make a striking motion with his hand, which ended up
hitting my neck somehow. I was so stunned that I was speechless. Holly said I
had a red mark on my neck for the rest of the night, of course that would
happen to me of all people. In the end, though slightly frightening at the
moment, it comes out to be a pretty hilarious, memorable story.
Overall, Germany was a blast! It
was filled with days of exploring the historical museums, sights and buildings
and nights of pub hopping. We had an interesting subway trip with a group of
Italians, met a Brazilian while waiting in line to enter the world’s best night
club and we spent our last night getting to know a German soldier. It was the
perfect trip and I can’t wait for the next!
Saturday, March 9, 2013
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