Train ticket to travel the German countryside

Early morning in the metro station

East Side Gallery of the Berlin Wall

Brandenburg Gate

Berlin Tom

Remains of the Berlin Wall

Gate of the concentration camp, Buchenwald

Entrance into the concentration camp

Overlooking the city of Berlin

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! 

Rock of Gibraltar

Fisherman's way to the Sea

Spent the day in Gibraltar this past weekend. My friend’s parents were visiting and had an extra seat in their car so I tagged along for an unexpected daytrip to Southern Spain. Gibraltar, a 2.5-hour drive from Granada, is technically not Spain territory. It’s a British colony, a nation of its own with 30,000 residents called Gibraltarians. This colony is known for the Rock of Gibraltar and the Strait of Gibraltar. The rock was used for defensive purposes during past wars and for strategic tunnels during World War II.

Crossing the border, the guards barely looked at our passports and were yelling at us in English, which was a change coming from Spain. Parts of Gibraltar were beautiful such as the Queens Quay and Marina, the Rock, Main Street and surrounding coastline but I feel spending one day in Gibraltar is sufficient enough for tourists. The island is also inhabited by monkeys, which are scattered across the city, chilling on garbage cans, roofs, the Rock and just wandering around. If you traveled to the top of the Rock you were able to actually hold one but I stayed in the city center.

On our way back to Granada we stopped at a coastal city to spend some time by the Mediterranean Sea. We parked right next to the beach and chilled on/strolled the coastline. This was right during sunset hour so the ocean and beach was even more beautiful! We skipped rocks (attempted to), wrote in the sand, ran into some fisherman and explored the coastal line. This was my favorite part of the day, simply being next to the ocean with the waves and breeze. It was so refreshing to be in the open scenery since every day of mine is spent in the middle of a busy city.

This week Holly and I leave for Berlin, Germany on Thursday! I’m so excited to travel to Germany! The weather is supposed to be pretty cold (30º F or so) which I’m not looking forward to. So far, we have planned to visit a concentration camp (Buchenwald), the Berlin Wall (what’s left of it), Gardens and lots of museums. Just need to get through these three days of class (we don’t have classes this Thursday or Friday) and we’ll be off to spend the end of the week/weekend in Berlin! 

Entrance into city of Córdaba

Gardens of a Christian palace in Córdaba

Inside La Mezquita

View atop a Christian palace overlooking Córdaba

Be Thankful.

World's 3rd largest cathedral

Inside the 3rd largest cathedral

City of Seville (4th largest city in Spain)

Plaza de España

Roman ruins at Italica

It’s been another busy week here in Granada, Spain. It took some time to wind down from our eventful weekend in Córdaba and Sevilla. With our program, the entire group traveled to these cities of Southern Spain for the three-day weekend. We departed from Granada early Friday morning and spent the day exploring Córdaba. In this city, our tour included a walk through the old jewish quarters as well as a guided tour through the famous Mezquita, Córdaba is best known as it once served as the region’s capital for both the Roman and Moorish empires. The Mezquita is a well-preserved mosque dating back to A.D 784. Inside was magnificent with the arch doorways and columns filling each room. After exploring and learning more of the history inside the Mezquita, we ventured off and explored the city on our own. For a small fee we were able to visit an old Christian palace. From the outside it seemed like just another old, historic building but once we walked inside we were surprised to find its courtyard filled with orange trees, fountains, statues and flowers! The pools with small fountains were beautiful, especially since they came alive with bright colors. After spending a few hours discovering this section of Córdaba it was time to depart for Sevilla. We were to spend the night and next two days exploring the fourth largest city of Spain!

After arriving at our hotel, we had planned to head to a Flamenco show with the entire group. Since our group is that of 30+ students, we ended up splitting up and losing track of each other. As luck would have it, the group I was in didn’t have a clue the name of the flamenco club nor did we have any of the leaders who could guide us. So we asked the hotel manager who directed us to his favorite flamenco bar.  Up for the adventure we set out to find this random flamenco bar. Finally finding it, we walked in and sure enough there was the other half of our group! It was so ironic!

The flamenco bar was an authentic Spanish experience mixed with a lot of energy! Once the flamenco singers and dancer started performing the place quieted down as everyone was in awe by the show. Her dance moves were intriguing as she did quick, jerky movements following the singer’s beat. Traveling to Spain, you have to see at least one flamenco show due to its importance in the culture. The best shows are those done in the homes of Spanish families. For these, an individual has to be specially invited making it hard for tourists to experience an actual flamenco show.

Saturday was spent exploring the city of Seville. We began the day with a walking tour through various parks, which was followed by a tour in Seville’s cathedral- the third largest cathedral in the world! Inside, we saw the statue of where Christopher Columbus’s remains are kept. Only a small amount of his remains are known to be inside the structure since obtaining the remains was apparently difficult for the church due to the number of Christopher Columbus’s in Spain at the time. The best part of the cathedral was the view from its bell towers where we were able to look over the entire city, and see the bull-fighting arena in the distance. Seville is one of the only cities in Spain where bull fighting is still politically correct.

From the towers, we had two hours to explore the city on our own. One of my friends and I decided to find a coffee shop to grab a coffee and people watch. Being such a large city, the people- watching was fascinating! Simply sitting and taking in the scenery and people allowed us to see how diverse Spain is.

With the group, we went to Plaza de España, the location set for part of the Starwars film Attack of the Clones. At this plaza, they filmed a scene with Anakin and Padme on Naboo with the intention of making it seem like “another world”. The actual reason for its construction was for the Ibero-American Exhibition World’s Fair in 1929, held in Seville in order to strengthen the ties between Spain and Portugal during that time. The shape of the building represents the embrace of Spain. The plaza is separated into two parts by four bridges, each bridge representing one of the four ancient kingdoms of Spain (Aragon, Leon, Castile and Navarra). Between these two parts is a waterway, which you could rent a boat to explore. A few of us rented and with so many others having the same idea, it ended up to be bumper boats rather than rowboats, turning out to be more fun!

            To experience the nightlife in Seville, a group of us went out for tapas across the river. Since Seville is another city known for its student population, we knew others students studying here so we all met up for drinks and tapas. Another advantage of being in this city was we were able to walk around on the streets with open beverages- it was the perfect way to end our weekend in Seville!

            For our final day in this city, we explored the ancient roman ruins of Italica. Here we saw the layout of the ancient roman homes as well as the fighting arena (gladiator style). From here we boarded the bus and headed back to Granada. Overall, it was an eventful weekend filled with some interesting adventures in Southern Spain!

It’s been another busy week here in Granada, Spain. It took some time to wind down from our eventful weekend in Córdaba and Sevilla. With our program, the entire group traveled to these cities of Southern Spain for the three-day weekend. We departed from Granada early Friday morning and spent the day exploring Córdaba. In this city, our tour included a walk through the old jewish quarters as well as a guided tour through the famous Mezquita, Córdaba is best known as it once served as the region’s capital for both the Roman and Moorish empires. The Mezquita is a well-preserved mosque dating back to A.D 784. Inside was magnificent with the arch doorways and columns filling each room. After exploring and learning more of the history inside the Mezquita, we ventured off and explored the city on our own. For a small fee we were able to visit an old Christian palace. From the outside it seemed like just another old, historic building but once we walked inside we were surprised to find its courtyard filled with orange trees, fountains, statues and flowers! The pools with small fountains were beautiful, especially since they came alive with bright colors. After spending a few hours discovering this section of Córdaba it was time to depart for Sevilla. We were to spend the night and next two days exploring the fourth largest city of Spain!

After arriving at our hotel, we had planned to head to a Flamenco show with the entire group. Since our group is that of 30+ students, we ended up splitting up and losing track of each other. As luck would have it, the group I was in didn’t have a clue the name of the flamenco club nor did we have any of the leaders who could guide us. So we asked the hotel manager who directed us to his favorite flamenco bar.  Up for the adventure we set out to find this random flamenco bar. Finally finding it, we walked in and sure enough there was the other half of our group! It was so ironic!

The flamenco bar was an authentic Spanish experience mixed with a lot of energy! Once the flamenco singers and dancer started performing the place quieted down as everyone was in awe by the show. Her dance moves were intriguing as she did quick, jerky movements following the singer’s beat. Traveling to Spain, you have to see at least one flamenco show due to its importance in the culture. The best shows are those done in the homes of Spanish families. For these, an individual has to be specially invited making it hard for tourists to experience an actual flamenco show.

Saturday was spent exploring the city of Seville. We began the day with a walking tour through various parks, which was followed by a tour in Seville’s cathedral- the third largest cathedral in the world! Inside, we saw the statue of where Christopher Columbus’s remains are kept. Only a small amount of his remains are known to be inside the structure since obtaining the remains was apparently difficult for the church due to the number of Christopher Columbus’s in Spain at the time. The best part of the cathedral was the view from its bell towers where we were able to look over the entire city, and see the bull-fighting arena in the distance. Seville is one of the only cities in Spain where bull fighting is still politically correct.

From the towers, we had two hours to explore the city on our own. One of my friends and I decided to find a coffee shop to grab a coffee and people watch. Being such a large city, the people- watching was fascinating! Simply sitting and taking in the scenery and people allowed us to see how diverse Spain is.

With the group, we went to Plaza de España, the location set for part of the Starwars film Attack of the Clones. At this plaza, they filmed a scene with Anakin and Padme on Naboo with the intention of making it seem like “another world”. The actual reason for its construction was for the Ibero-American Exhibition World’s Fair in 1929, held in Seville in order to strengthen the ties between Spain and Portugal during that time. The shape of the building represents the embrace of Spain. The plaza is separated into two parts by four bridges, each bridge representing one of the four ancient kingdoms of Spain (Aragon, Leon, Castile and Navarra). Between these two parts is a waterway, which you could rent a boat to explore. A few of us rented and with so many others having the same idea, it ended up to be bumper boats rather than rowboats, turning out to be more fun!

            To experience the nightlife in Seville, a group of us went out for tapas across the river. Since Seville is another city known for its student population, we knew others students studying here so we all met up for drinks and tapas. Another advantage of being in this city was we were able to walk around on the streets with open beverages- it was the perfect way to end our weekend in Seville!

            For our final day in this city, we explored the ancient roman ruins of Italica. Here we saw the layout of the ancient roman homes as well as the fighting arena (gladiator style). From here we boarded the bus and headed back to Granada. Overall, it was an eventful weekend filled with some interesting adventures in Southern Spain!