Oct 20-22 Madrid

We went to Madrid with our program a few weeks ago and it was awesome. The city is huge and everyone there speaks real Spanish, not Catalan like they do in Barcelona so it was much easier to understand everyone. We went to 2 museums, El Praido and La Reina Sofia and saw pieces of art such as Las Meninas by Velazquez, Guernica by Picasso, and Goya's Black Paintings. I am in a Catalunya and Spain Art class so it was really cool to get to see all of the paintings that we had been learning about in class! We also went on a tour of the Royal Palace where the King and Queen used to live. They still hold banquets and important ceremonies there. We also walked through the Real jardin Botanico, or the Royal Gardens. They were so beautiful, especially since there are not very many trees in Barcelona that change colors in the fall. It was fun to go and get a little piece of fall before heading back to summery Barcelona!

Oct 14&15- Seville

In Seville we rented a 4 person golf cart/bike thing to ride around Plaza Espanya which is the giant palace with gardens surrounding it. We went to Alcazar as well, which is a royal place in Seville with more gardens as well. It was really pretty but not as cool as Alhambra in Granada. We also went on a tour of a bull fighting ring that is still in use today. I learned that the bull fights began with matadors riding horses and getting the bulls to charge at them to see which horses were the bravest and strongest to use in wars. Matadors have to buy their own bulls before every fight and they cost about 3,000 euros. It takes about 20-30 minutes for the fight to be complete, and each matador fights 2 bulls. Matadors also have to buy their outfits which are made out of pure gold and cost about 20,000- 30,000 euros. The ring that we went to was made in the 1700's and there has only been two ties between the bull and matador since then, and one took place last year. In order for there to be a tie, the matador must wave a flag and the judge will then respond with either a black flag meaning that he disagrees and the matador must keep fighting, or with and orange flag meaning that he agrees and there will be a tie. We got to go into the room where the matadors go before each fight and there is a big altar where they pray before they go into the room. It was really cool to see it because the ring is still in use today, the last bull fight of the season was on October 12 and beigns again in April.

We found the best tapas in the whole world!

Us on our 4 person bike/golf cart touring the gardens

The blue uniform on the left is worth 30,000 euros and it is the one that the matador was wearing last year when the fight ended in a tie

Plaza de Toros in Seville

Alcazar in Seville

Plaza Espanya

The view along the river

 

                                     

Oct 12&13- Granda

We had a long weekend last weekend so a few of my friends and I decided to go to Granada and Seville, 2 cities southwest of Barcelona. We flew into Granada at 8 on Friday morning and took the train from Granada to Seville on Saturday evening and got flew back to Barcelona on Monday night. I asked one of the tour guides who works for our program where I should go while I was in Spain and she recommended these cities. She said Granada and Seville were very "Spain" with free tapas when you get a drink, bull fights, and flamenco dancing. Barcelona wants to be its own country independent from Spain so it was cool to see the differences between the cultures in the cities.

We were really hungry when we arrived in Granada and stopped at a cafe to get breakfast. Churros dipped in chocolate are very popular here, so we decided to get some. The whole language barrier thing turned out to be a problem because when we were telling our waiter what we wanted he kept saying "tres o cinco, tres o cinco" over and over meaning that we could only get 3 or 5. Since there were 4 of us we ordered 5. Something didn't feel right about our order but I didn't say anything. When our waiter came back he was carrying 20 churros and 4 mugs of chocolate to dip them in! Apparently he was saying that we could either get 3 or 5 each, not total. So we tried to power through 20 churros, but it was harder than we thought.

Since we had a huge sugar rish after that we walked around the whole city following a route that our hotel owner had recommended. It took us aorund the city and on top of a mountian where we could see Alhambra. Alhambra is a famous fortress constructed by Arabs in the 10th century. When the Arabs left in 1492, Alhambra was used by Christian rulers. Alhambra means "the red one" which refers to the color of the fortress walls. We walked around some of the gardens at night which was really cool to see, and then went back again the next day to see more! 

Me, Nicole, Dan, and Henry ready to conquer our 20 churros

View of Alhambra

Inside the Cathedral of Granada

The gardens of Alhambra at night

Alhambra during the day

Oct 9 & 10- Basketball Game and Chocolate Museum

The Barcelona Basketball team played the Dallas Mavericks for a preseason game on October 9th and we got cheap tickets through our program so some of my friends and I decided to go. The basketball stadium is up on a mountain overlooking the entire city. I didn't know who I was going to cheer for, but once we got there I realized that I still really wanted the Mavericks to win. Go America! Barcelona ended up winning, but it was still a lot of fun. The next day we went on a tour of the Museu de Xocolata (Chocolate Museum) in Barcelona. It was very small but we learned about the history of chocolate and how chocolate was first used in Spain. There were also a lot of statues made out of chocolate and I decided that my calling in life is to be a chocolate sculptor. The tickets were made out of chocolate too so that was a plus!

The Dallas Mavericks

FC Barcelona Regal

The Chocolate Museum!

My Chocolate ticket

Tom and Jerry chocolate Sculpture

Bambi Chocolate Sculpture

Smurfs Chocolate Sculpture

Jake, my roommate Marie, me, Priya, and Nicole outside of the museum

Oct 7 & 8- Mass at the Cathedral & Cook and Taste

I went to mass with my friend Nicole at the Barcelona Cathedral last Sunday and it was really cool. The service was in Spanish so I could only understand parts of it, but the Cathedral was amazing. The next day we went to a "Cook and Taste" with my study abroad program and learned how to make a 4 course Spanish meal with professional chefs! We made a red pepper and saffron soup, tortilla de patatas and pan con tomate which is very popular in Spain (it's like an omelet with potatoes and bread with tomato juice rubbed on the top with olive oil), paella which is a Spanish rice dish with vegetables and meat or seafood, and crema Catalana which is similar to flan. The entire dinner took about 3 hours and it was so delicious! We got to help out with the cooking, but our chef spoke to us in Spanish so it was confusing sometimes. She asked me something in Spanish and I didn't know what she said, so I just replied with "creo que si" which means I think so. Apparently she asked me if the water was boiling and she said, "Not I think so. the water is clearly boiling!" She was really funny, we had a great time. I have the recipes too so I can cook everyone Spanish food when I get back!

The Barcelona Cathedral

Us attempting to cook and speak Spanish at the Cook and Taste

My friend Priya and I cutting peppers for our vegetarian paella!

Me using a blowtorch making Crema Catalana with our chef