off on a tangent

I'm going crazy with the blog posts lately but it's what I do when procrastinating because there's always something to write about.  I officially finished my midterms today and for the most part they went decently.  My grades here won't be reflected at all in my overall GPA, and I need a C or better to get transfer credit, so I'm really not stressing much about my classes in general.  I'm using this semester as somewhat of a break from all of the intense studying I do for certain classes at SNC, and I just figured out my schedule for next semester and it looks like I will have a lot to do (Another accounting class, yuck.  That's one career path I have definitely ruled out).  


Sometimes the simplest things here turn out to be the most hilarious.  During my spanish economy class this morning, the conversation somehow ended up turning into a comparison of how spanish people interpret the noises that animals make compared to how they sound to Americans.  I never really thought about the difference, but it took me back to 8th grade when my spanish teacher told us that the owls in Spain say "quien," which is literally the translation of the word "who."  I eventually came to realize that the owls here don't actually say that.  My professor thought it was the funniest thing that our word for the sound that roosters make is "cock-a-doodle-doo," and he kept saying it over and over with his great spanish accent that makes his english impossible to understand.  I wish I had a recorder for that.  The spanish word for a rooster sound is "ki-kiri-kí."  The word for dogs is not "woof," but "guau guau" instead.  


Gotta love those spontaneous off-topic discussions! (My professors here certainly do.)

oh, by the way...we're hiking up a giant rock

Two hours south of Valencia there is a moderately sized touristy city called Calpe.  It is known for the enormous rock that is located in the bay area amongst its perfect beaches, marinas, and tourist activities.  

It's called the Penon de Ifach and it's almost 400m tall.  It's now been turned into a nature park and, for good reason, only a limited number of people are allowed to climb to the summit at one time.  

We were told that the hike would be difficult, and I was still unaware of the fact that we were indeed planning on going all the way to the top of this thing.  The first part wasn't too bad- a long inclined, switchback path.  Then we arrived at the cave.  I couldn't see a thing while walking through it, there were ropes on either side to hold on to because the floor was really jagged and uneven rocks.  When I exited the cave, I saw what looked to be a "path" but really it was just a ledge on the side of this mountain with a couple ropes to hold onto.  I was pretty nervous at this point, but of course kept going.  

It was the craziest hiking I have ever done, but it was all worth it in the end when we got to the summit and saw the amazing panoramic view of Calpe from 400m in the air.  We hung out up there for awhile, trying not to think about the journey back down.  We had a visitor all the way at the top of this mountain- a cat who was very eager to eat some of our food.  Not sure why or how that cat was hanging out at the very top of this rock, but it was definitely well-fed after we left.  

After we made it back down the mountain, it was time to find the parade that takes place in Calpe every year called Moros y Cristianos.  As the name suggests, it is basically a fiesta celebrating the history of the Moors and Christians in Spain.  There's marching bands, floats, and people dressed in elaborate (very expensive) costumes from the Moorish and Christian histories.  There were people dressed as pirates, the Knights Templar, and other different Arabic outfits.  It's hard to explain the costumes they were wearing, and my pictures don't really do them justice.  They were basically the most detailed articles of clothing I had ever seen.  

group picture on top of the world

2600 years later and still standing

I had absolutely no idea what to expect when traveling in Greece.  The only type of Greek knowledge I had previously were some miscellaneous greek letters that were used in math and science class, and the fact that I have seen "My Big, Fat, Greek Wedding" close to a dozen times.  I've always wanted to go to Greece, but I never thought I would actually get the opportunity.  Sadly, I can't say that I know any new Greek words after my two days there, partly because almost everyone seemed to speak English anyway.  

Just to clear this up right away- we were pretty frightened when we first got to Athens and started making our way towards our hostel.  We took the metro from Syntagma Square (a very popular, busy area of Athens) and then walked the remaining few blocks to our hostel.  Immediately we noticed that we seemed to be the only three females in the entire area, which obviously other people noticed as well.  I also became aware of the strong odors of the city- which I now realize are probably from the hundreds of stray dogs that roam the streets.  

I was shocked when I saw so many large dogs sleeping on the sidewalks, walking down the streets, running through traffic, and just following people.  I didn't understand this, but they were all pretty healthy looking- like they have all been well-fed.  And they were all large breeds of dogs like labradors, or other mixes.  I had no clue what to do when one came up to me so I kind of just skirted around it, apparently they are pretty friendly though.  Something else unusual about them is that they all have collars because when the summer Olympics of '04 were held in Athens, the government thought it would appear better to tourists if the dogs looked like they belonged to someone.  This seems very odd though because why would so many dogs with collars just be hanging out on the sidewalks? 

Our first night in Greece we were shown to a traditional Greek gyro hang-out spot by a friend of one of the girls I traveled with who is studying in Athens.  Sadly I did not have my camera with me to document the mouth-watering gyro and greek salad that I ordered.  It reminded me of something that would be on Man vs. Food- the cooks sliced the meat off of a huge rotating tower of meat and loaded the pita bread with many other delicious things (including french fries).  The Greek salad was enormous and topped with a slab of feta that was more appropriate for 3 or 4 salads.  I had never tried a gyro before this, but I'm very glad that my first one happened to be in Greece :) 

Now that I had eaten more feta in one night that I had in the last two years, it was time to plunge into our pan of Baklava.  Yes, we bought an entire baklava "pie," I suppose you could call it.  And we literally dug into it, since we had no utensils in our 15 euro per night hostel room.  It was probably one of the sweetest things I have ever eaten, (and most hilarious to watch) dripping with honey, topped with pistachios, and full of mysterious and delicious baklava ingredients.  I have yet to figure out what exactly baklava is made out of, but I know for a fact that I will never find any exactly like this again.  

Theater of Herod Atticus- still used today

Day 2 we were on a mission to be the ultimate tourists of Greece.  We woke up bright and early to get to the Acropolis (which means "upper city"), and it was a good thing we did because we were able to beat the crowds and the heat.  It turned out that because the Acropolis had been closed to tourists previously because of strikes and other reasons, it was FREE to get in the day we went.  The Acropolis was completely the opposite of everything else in Athens.  It was quiet, clean, and smelled like nature.  

Erechtheion

The Parthenon has been undergoing reconstruction for about 30 years, which has led us to respect the ability of Greek architects even more.  The reason for the reconstruction (not surprising after almost 3000 years) is because it was once used to hold Turkish gunpower (doesn't seem like a great idea), and it was partially blown up in the 1600's.  It's amazing that these structures like the Parthenon and the Erechtheion that were built in 400 BC are still in such good shape.  Looking at all of these ruins, wandering through the Agora area and seeing things that archeologists somehow know are "greek gymnasiums" or "ancient bathtubs" made me wonder about how everyone always wants to travel to look at these ancient buildings, and how when they were being built the architects probably never dreamed that they would be being attended to 3000 years later.  I also wonder about the architectural work of today, what have we built that people will be swarming to take pictures of in the year 5000? 

For the sake of this turning into an even longer novel than my Rome post, I won't go into extreme detail about everything we did between this and the Olympic stadium.  We meandered around some more ruins surrounding the Acropolis, saw the "gateway to Olympieion," and ate some yogurt and cheese pie, which wasn't at all like the name implies.  I expected it to be cold, but apparently a "pie" in Greece is always hot, it was more like a quiche than anything else.  

Time for the best part of the day! (Being the track nerd that I am, according to my coach..) The Panathenaic Stadium- renovated and completed entirely with marble in 329 BC, it is the only stadium in the world constructed completely with marble (leave it to the Greeks).  The stadium hosted the original modern-day Olympics in 1896 where it had a capacity of 80,000 people.  It was also the host of the archery competition and the marathon finish for the 2004 Olympics.  

As you can probably tell from the picture, the track is not standard size whatsoever.  The straights are 185m long, instead of the usual 100m.  We took an audio tour of the entire stadium and listened to a man with an accent taking us on a journey through time, and we literally walked the same path through a tunnel where the athletes entered the stadium. The stadium was amazing and I'm so glad I got to see it- and also run on the track! 

Greece was definitely a culture shock, I was especially unnerved to see all of the guards on the streets carrying considerably large guns.  I'm assuming they are stationed in case there is some kind of spontaneous strike or uprising.  There were also the traditional guards of Parliament and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier as well.  These guards were a bit scary as well, but mostly because of the expressions on their faces.  They stand perfectly still, wearing pretty ridiculous outfits, but every half hour they do a marching routine called the changing of the guards.  It's very official and traditional, and they way they walk is over-exaggerated.  I have a video of the entire thing, but the blogger video up-loader has yet to work.  

6 days, 4 flights, 3 hostels, 2 buses, and 1 train left me feeling like I had just run a marathon (or two).  I appreciate Valencia, its cleanliness, relatively level sidewalks, and the fact that I know where I am and can communicate even more now.  My trip was a great experience, but I was extremely relieved to be settled again.  The blogging never seems to stop either- I went on a day trip to Calpe last weekend which will be my next story to tell :) 

benvenuti a roma!

Rome is one of those places that everyone has their own image of, even if they have never been there.  It is so well publicized and famous that if you finally get to go there personally, there's already an idyllic picture in your mind of what it should look like.  That's kind of how I felt when I first got there.  I had all these thoughts about how pretty I had heard the city was and after reading Angels & Demons and seeing the movie I knew a good amount about a lot of the big touristy areas, but I think all of my expectations of Rome exceeded how the city actually is.  For one thing, it is extremely crowded- mostly with tourists.  It's hard to walk around in the touristy areas and even in other areas as well because of how old the sidewalks are.  After one day (we did walk more than the average tourist probably walks in Rome) my legs were definitely feeling the crooked, ancient stone streets. 

free pasta dinner that our
hostel offered- amazing

Our hostel was definitely unique.  It was probably the most ancient building on this small side-street, and when I say ancient I literally mean a crumbling, brown, cardboard-looking building stuck in between two newer-looking buildings. Of the 3 hostels we stayed in, this was the only one where we met and talked to other people traveling.  This hostel seemed to be mostly students or young people traveling, there was a girl from Australia in our room who had been traveling for seven months! She basically went to most countries in Europe and also to Africa.  I don't think I could survive 1 month living in hostels and from my backpack let alone 7.  The other two people we met, who were really friendly and outgoing and ended up coming with us to eat gelato, were from England and Canada.  The girl from England had been traveling for 2 years because when she went to New Zealand she loved it so much that she stayed for a year, and is planning to go back and work there. The guy from Canada was basically just going with the flow of traveling and didn't really have a plan for where he ended up.  That lifestyle seems insane to me, since I always like to have some kind of plan, but I'm sure it's also very liberating and gives you a great opportunity to meet tons of people. 

We did a lot the first day we were in Rome.  The first thing we saw was the Colosseum, which is every bit as impressive as the pictures make it seem.  It's interesting that one of the main attractions in Rome is a place that was originally used to watch gladiators fight, watch lions kill people, create rivers between animals and victims, or any other type of gruesome entertainment that the Romans came up with.  

The next stop was the Trevi Fountain, where throwing a coin into the fountain means you will have a fast return to Rome.  We'll see how quickly my 1 euro cent coin gets me back to Rome.  If that happens I'm making a point to witness those crazy Michelangelo-designed uniforms worn by the Swiss Guard of Vatican City, which unfortunately was the one thing on my list that I did not see.  The fountain was pretty impressive with all its intricate stone designs, and it was located in a somewhat small area which was neat because it felt like it was hidden within the city.  After the fountain we saw the Pantheon (not to be confused with the Parthenon- which we eventually saw in Greece).  

pretending to be columns in Rome

Day 1 was concluded with our second traditional Italian meal: pasta made from scratch.  I'm not even sure how we found this restaurant, but we stumbled upon it hidden in a not-so-touristy part of the city.  It was called La Carbonara and has been operated by the same family since 1906.  The walls were covered with either shelves of wine or messages and signatures of all the people who have eaten there over the years.  The pasta I had was delicious, and included fresh tomatoes that seemed to have so much more flavor than any other tomato I've ever eaten.  We were sitting next to a couple who had been traveling around Italy for a couple weeks, and La Carbonara had been their favorite place so they decided to come back on their last night. The workers were really friendly and helpful, and also spoke english, so we had them recommend things to us. 


There's no correct place to bring this up so I'll just throw it in randomly.  The great toilet flushing mystery. I have never seen so many ways to flush a toilet as during my 6 days traveling.  Every new place was like a challenge- where will the toilet flusher be.  The one that baffled me the most was the string hanging from the ceiling (I was absolutely convinced that there was no way to flush that toilet), but I also experienced pedals on the floor and levers on the wall.  

typical Vatican hallway

Day 2 in Rome we woke up at 6 a.m. to start the hour-and-a-half walk to the Vatican Museums.  We were very dedicated tourists.  I don't think I ever slept past 7 a.m.  The Vatican Museums were ENORMOUS.  Epic would also be an appropriate word.  There are around 1200 rooms in the museums, but only 600 are ever open to the public.  I was so overwhelmed when I first got there, we had no idea where we should start.  Good thing it basically leads everyone on the same general path, ending with the Sistine Chapel.  I've never seen so many sculptures, tapestries, frescoes, or decorated ceilings in my life.  There literally isn't a space on the walls or ceilings that doesn't have some type of painting or other work of art.  There was one room full of only sculptures of animals, and hallways of statues on either side, a tapestry hallway, and artifacts from all over the world.  The Sistine Chapel is hard to describe, there was just so much anticipation before finally arriving there because there must have been about 100 signs that kept saying "Cappella Sistina" with an arrow, yet it took about 3 hours to actually get there.  The frescoes designed by Michelangelo, Bernini & Botticelli inside were beautiful (we weren't allowed to take pictures), and it was kind of a strange feeling being in the same place where Conclave is held, since it's such a monumental event.  I wish I had known more about the specific paintings on the walls when I was there- eavesdropping on tour groups only gets you so far...

Time for what I was most excited about - St. Peter's Basilica & Piazza San Pietro.  I may have been as excited as I was about it because of how much Dan Brown talks about it in Angels & Demons, but it was for good reason.  It is the most impressive work of architecture that I have ever seen and the way it is designed (thank you Bernini) makes it even better.  It just seems flawless, with the two enormous arcs of columns, an Egyptian obelisk in the center, and St. Peter's Basilica facing la Via della Conciliazione, which connects the piazza to Castel Sant'Angelo.  

I did not take this, but I wanted to show the entire piazza and all of its grandeur. 

I was also excited about Castel Sant'Angelo because of everything I had read about it thanks to Dan Brown.  It used to be used by the Popes as a fortress, and in Angels & Demons it was seen as the church of the Illuminati.  There is also a secret passageway that led from the Vatican to this castle that was used by Popes if their lives were ever in danger. I loved Ponte Sant'Angelo, which is the bridge leading to the castle and is decorated by stone angels all the way up to the castle.  

at Ponte de Sant'Angelo

I loved being able to see all of the things I had read about in person.  Oh, Robert Langdon, you've taught me so much about architecture, art, and symbols :)  (For those who don't read Dan Brown- Robert Langdon is a fictional character)

Now that I have officially written a novel about Rome, it's time to travel even farther back in time, to a place where I hoped I would only need to know the words "feta" and "baklava." 

everything leans in pisa

My 6-day adventure began in Pisa, well actually it began with a four-hour bus ride to Barcelona.  It was the first of many, many ways of transportation that I took while traveling.  The ride was all along the coast of Spain, which made it very pretty because we could see the Mediterranean for a lot of it.  I saw a cemetery that was built as terraces up a huge cliff. 


Our flight took off for Italy 45 minute late, so we didn't leave until about 10:30 pm.  RyanAir is pretty unique.  For one thing, we paid about 10 euro total for the flight to Italy, and I also had my first experience of walking outside and right next to the plane on the ground in order to board.  When we got to the Pisa airport, we got off the plane and immediately onto a bus shuttle which proceeded to drive us about 50 feet to the door of the airport.  We found this very amusing because the plane was still right behind us when we got off the "shuttle" bus.  

Our hostel had a shuttle service that picked us up- an old Italian man that drove way too fast down extremely narrow streets.  Nevertheless, we arrived in Plaza Giribaldi alive.  I've never stayed in hostels before but it is definitely a good place to experience culture.  It was pretty weird when the other girl sleeping in the room started talking in her sleep in a different language.  

"Tuttomondo"
Piece of contemporary art
by Keith Haring
given to Pisa as a gift

We had one full day to explore Pisa, which is the perfect amount of time to eat some quality Italian food and take ridiculously touristy pictures at the tower.  Our hostel offered a free walking tour in the morning which was a great idea for us since it was either that or wandering around wondering what everything was. It took about 3 hours, but we learned all about the architecture of Pisa, the national heros, and it's rise and downfall in the Middle Ages.  Our tour guide was fun to listen to because she spoke English in an Italian way, so words like "changed" she would pronounce as "change-ed" and with that Italian emphasis that everyone knows.  

I had the best margherita pizza in Pisa at a cute little restaurant with a man playing Italian music.  We were all about the cheap food, so when we saw an entire pizza for 4 euro that pretty much sold us.  There are so many pizza and gelato places in Italy- I would not recommend going there if you have no self control when it comes to eating food.  Everything is displayed so you can see it as you walk by, which is almost cruel sometimes especially when you're starving after walking for hours at a time.  I stopped wanting to look at things after awhile because it just made me want to eat more gelato.  

Finally, we arrived at the Leaning Tower along with every other tourist in Pisa.  I think everyone goes to see the tower just to be able to take a picture of themselves holding it up.  It was pretty funny to watch people do their poses of holding up the tower and watching the people with the cameras try to line up the shot correctly. The area around the tower was very pretty, and the weather was perfect that day.  There are 3 other buildings in the same area as the tower- a cathedral, a baptistry, and another miscellaneous building that I can't remember. The leaning tower definitely steals all of the attention.  On our tour we learned that the tower isn't the only building that is leaning in Pisa.  Because of the land Pisa is built on, many other buildings aren't completely straight either.  In order to control how much the tower leans, they had to remove earth from underneath the tower so it would gradually fall in the other direction. 

Definitely could eat
this every day

We decided that the best gelato of our trip was the gelato we had in Pisa- and it also happened to be the cheapest! (1.50€ for 2 flavors) Nutella flavored gelato might be one of the most delicious things I've ever tried- the U.S. should really work on making some. 


Overall, I really enjoyed Pisa because after being in a city as big as Valencia for so long, it was nice to explore a smaller and quieter place where you don't always have to be on the lookout of getting run over by a bicycle.  We were there for the perfect amount of time, but had to leave way too early on a 5:45 a.m. train to Rome- next post coming soon!

¡la feria de la tapa y fuegos artificiales!

After being in Valencia for over five weeks now, I've learned to be adventurous and open-minded when it comes to trying new food.  La Feria de la Tapa was the perfect place to work on being more adventurous and I was definitely rewarded for this.  The festival was basically 20 different booths all with 3 different varieties of tapas (basically one-serving appetizers that are very popular in Spain).  I definitely have a sub-par knowledge of food vocabulary, which I am reminded of whenever I pick up a menu.  It might as well not even be in Spanish, but a completely different language altogether.  They didn't really teach us how to talk about "fancy" food in school; we stuck to the basics- eggs, cheese, chicken, fish, bread, fruit, milk, etc.  I now know that langostino means lobster, berenjena is eggplant, and bechamel is some kind of delicious cream sauce that my host mom puts on top of pasta sometimes.  

Langostino tapa

The first tapa I tried was called (get ready for this) piruli crujiente de langostino en crema tibia de queso y champiñones.  Translated, roughly that means some type of encrusted lobster in a cheese and mushroom sauce.  It was probably one of the most delicious things I have tried while here, there were just so many flavors packed into one tiny portion of food. I can't remember what tapa #2 was called, but it was bread with a slice of some type of really creamy cheese, topped with raspberry jam. It was really different from anything I had ever eaten before, but the cheese and raspberry was a good combination.  The tapas were only 1.20€ each, and some of them were almost meal-sized, such as the hamburguesa (not really a surprise). 

Right after the tapa fair, as my friend an I were making our way home, the fireworks scheduled for that night began.  We thought they were supposed to start at 1 a.m, but it ended up being midnight.  I think I'm going to struggle to explain how epic these fireworks were.  Basically, they took fireworks to a whole new level that I have never seen on any 4th of July celebration.  It was like an hour-long grand finale.  I've never had to plug my ears during fireworks in the U.S. before, but it was completely necessary to do so here during the GRAND grand finale.  The noise ricocheted off all the buildings, making it seem even louder.  Valencians love their huge displays of loud noises; I can't think of any time where there would be fireworks that START at midnight in the U.S. and continue until 1 a.m.  I am truly living in the city that never sleeps.  

The fireworks were choreographed so well, and there was such a variety of fireworks that I had never seen before.  Every color you can imagine, ones that hung in the sky like ropes after they had gone off, ones that literally looked like jellyfish bobbing in the ocean, stars, hearts, ones that looked like meteors flying everywhere, and not slowing down for almost an hour.  It was ridiculous and even worth the fact that I may now lose my hearing one year earlier.  

fútbol es la vida

It has been a very busy week, mostly because fall break starts tomorrow so I have had a ton of work in all of my classes that professors always try to squeeze in before vacations.  Today I gave my presentation about fútbol as a political ideology and as something more than just a game- and it went very well.  I definitely picked a good topic because it was really interesting to research as well.  

I didn't realize there were so many articles about globalization and soccer and how soccer has preserved nationalism despite the fact that the world is "shrinking" each day because of all the different types of media and connections.  I also learned about the history of some of the teams in Spain, such as Real Madrid and their connection to Franco and how those fans are much more conservative than FC Barcelona fans, who represent the Catalan region of Spain, which is more liberal and "rebellious" at times.  When trying to find pictures for my presentation it was funny seeing all of the crazy things that the fans wore during the World Cup (interesting fact- the World Cup final had 700 million viewers, compared to the 2008 Olympics which had 600 million.) and how differently and creatively each country was portrayed.  I can't wait to go to a fútbol game in Valencia- my friends and I are planning on going in November when we have more down time, but I can't remember the team Valencia will be playing. Valencia is currently #1 in the Spanish league, which makes it even more exciting! 

I leave for Italy on Monday, which is hard to believe.  Two friends and I are taking a bus to Barcelona (which takes about 4 hours) on Monday, followed by another bus to the Girona airport which is outside the city of Barcelona.  From there we will fly to Pisa and hopefully not be too wiped out.  Since there is pretty much just the Leaning Tower in Pisa, we are hoping to take a train to Florence for a day, it's only an hour away.  The logistics of this trip have been crazy, but now I feel like I can plan anything and it will be a piece of cake :) 

I'll probably write more after this weekend because there are a bunch of festivals happening in Valencia, and I might be going to la feria de tapas (tapas fair), which has delicious written all over it.

l'umbracle (like broccoli)

Last night I took the next step trying to immerse with the Spanish culture- the nightlife aspect.  I prepared for this by taking a 3 hour nap in the afternoon, and that seemed to do the trick. 

I went with a group of friends to a disco, and the reason that I haven't previously done this is because they don't open until 1 or 2 a.m...and I'm pretty much ready to sleep by then even though the rest of Spain is just starting to get lively.  The place we went to is called L'Umbracle, and it's located right in the City of Arts & Sciences museum, which is awesome because it's such a pretty area of the city and perfect on warm nights like every night here is.  The disco itself is on and below the Calatrava bridge.  There's palm trees, glowing purple chairs, and everything else is white.  

Usually there would be a 15 euro cover charge to get into this place, but luckily we happened to meet two guys from London who had 10 free passes to get in, but the passes were only for girls so that's why they gave them all to us.  It was fun talking to them because their London accents were awesome, (one kept saying "wicked") and finding other people who speak english here is also cool.  They had overheard us talking english which is why they stopped us.  
I had fun going to this disco, but it definitely is not going to be a regular thing for me.  My host mom just laughed when I told her what time I got home, I also explained that it's difficult for me to stay awake until 5 a.m which she also found funny.  She tends to ask me if I'm going to go out every night, even during the week, so I finally had a story for her today! 

Wednesday night I went to a place called El Toro y La Luna to watch flamenco.  At first we thought it was just going to be a bunch of old guys playing their guitars, but then 2 flamenco dancers started.  It was very intense dancing and also intense guitar playing, everything very fast with short, quick movements.  It was fun to see this more traditional side of Spain, and the men were amazing at guitar.  I took some videos of the dancing that I will try to post in the future, but they take a long time to upload.