Liverpool

HOLA!

Lo siento for the wait! But now I'll make it up to you...

Among the many trips that were booked during long nights in an "internet bar" (great decisions were made there, I can tell you), one of them was to Liverpool and Ireland. I've always wanted to go to Ireland, for obvious reasons, have you ever seen a picture? The Liverpool stopover? Yeah, that was kinda done for economical reasons... so cheap! So after a horrendous travel schedule (I've found there's a reason RyanAir's tickets are so cheap, it's because all their flights are at 3 in the morning), we finally arrived in Liverpool.

The first thing I thought as the plane was landing was 'holy crap! It's sunny! In England? How can it be?' My second thought was "wow. look at all those smoke stacks and factories.' Ok I'm being unfair, Liverpool does have its charm. It just also is still recovering from a horrendous post-World War II economic decline. But its coming along very nicely, I'll say that.

Liverpool is probably most famous for some band that had a few hit songs a while ago (hint: an insect). So of course I was excited to see where they were from. We got off a bus stop called Penny Lane! The airport is called John Lennon International Airport, and there is a big, yellow submarine when you walk outside.

Not that they're proud or anything. Unfortunately we really weren't in Liverpool that long, more like half a day and that night. But we found a beautiful pub called The Phillharmonic, and I mean really, the most beautiful pub ever.

I would not have been surprised to see Winston Churchill and Dumbledore playing chess in the corner. It simply oozed with good taste and faded grandeur. So because we were in a proper British pub, I went up to the bartender to ask him what he recommended to drink. It went a little something like this: "Hi, what would you recommend me to drink? I don't really like heavy beers." Him: "Of, hugh aveint tryd dah best kyinduh. Lemme paw hugh sumfin spesha n hugh tell me wha hugh fink." I literally could NOT for the life of me understand what this man was saying to me. I asked him to repeat himself 3 times. "Aaaeeuoogghh so hugh donna speak Liverpuddlian, duye?". I thought I spoke English, and last I checked that's what they spoke in Liverpool. But no, I was sorely mistaken. After having some poor gentleman at the bar finally translate for me, I sat down with a huge pint of something very austere and British sounding, and actually pretty good!

We then scarfed down a huge meal of something called "sticky chicken" (that's what happens when you don't eat for 10 hours), and decided to go onto another bar. One of the things we noticed about Liverpool: there are not a lot of girls. Really! I think I spotted about 20 the whole time we were there. Everytime we walked anywhere, everyone's heads swiveled :"girls!". Weird. So if anyone back home is frustrated with the Mary Washington ratio, and doesn't mind having to learn Liverpuddlian, have a go in Liverpool.

The second bar was nice enough, although we all first thought it was a Gentleman's club (no, not that kind), so that we had to ask if we were even allowed to be inside. They just laughed. I got myself a nice, tall glass of Pimm's. I LOVE Pimm's. Then we met this guy, Daz, who lives in Liverpool but is originally from Umbria. Talking to him confirmed my realization that I could not speak the language here. But with my friends translating, it wasn't that bad. He couldn't believe that there were Americans there. "Wihyy fo fooks sak wood hugh caom to Leeverpool?" Why, to meet people like you, my classy British friend.

The next morning, it was onto Dublin. A short, but cheery and brash visit to the home of the Beatles, the famous football team, and a language so strange that I could spend the rest of my life watching them talk. Except not, because then I would have to look at their teeth.

Barcelona!

Hola a todos!

Get ready for one long entry! One of the major upsides of studying abroad in Europe is the wealth of opportunities we have to travel. Almost every weekend we're all off doing something. And all the flights are so cheap! In America, in order to go anywhere interesting (or so I think) you need to pay at least $400. I bought my ticket to Barcelona with my friends for 40 euros. Because we booked it so last minute (literally the week before) we didn't have much of a plan, but we had so much fun anyway. I knew what I wanted to see... Gaudí! But besides that, we didn't really have any idea. The first day there we had half a day to explore, and we stumbled upon a free exhibit in Casa Milá, one of Gaudí's buildings.

When we went, we were lucky to see an exhibition of Javier Mariscal's work. Whoa, baby, they like their modern cubism in Barcelona, don't they? He literally covered every medium. We walked into a room and all the walls were covered in his sketches, ranging from as mundane as a city scape, to a satorial on the custom of bull fighting (where the bull was chasing the matador with a pitch fork). Another room had sculptures, another furniture, another a movie, a moving figurine telling a story, he really did everything. And he designed the mascot for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics! I wish I could have taken pictures, but they weren't allowed in the exhibit. But here's one in the foyer!

We had a late lunch that day in (what we thought was) a small sidewalk cafe, but travellers beware!, it's a 20% charge to sit outside. So we decided to trudge into the small, dark interior, which actually ended up being a cavern with skylights. It was huge! It just kept going and going, with rooms and floors in all directions. Apparently a lot of restaurants in Barcelona are like this. They look like a mom and pop place from outside, where they seat the tourists who want to eat outside, and then all the Spaniards sit inside in a luxurious interior. Another thing that helps is when you're traveling with a group of girls, is you end up getting a lot of free stuff. All we ordered were drinks and our main meal. What we got was drinks, pan con tomate, ensalada, our main meal, and when he asked if we wanted desert and we declined, he smiles, nods, and puts down a tray of ice creams on our table. We all stared at each other as if waiting for the people from Punk'd to jump out of the bushes. This just doesn't happen in Europe. We were very skeptical when we received the bill, but nope! Everything was free!

The next day we went to Las Ramblas and el Bari Gotic (the gothic neighborhood). I'm not going to lie, I really didn't like Las Ramblas. As in REALLY didn't like it. So many people, everything was so expensive, all these street performers are creepy, there are pickpocketers crawling up the wall, and they have these awful pet stalls where they keep baby animals in cages so that fat tourists can poke their chubby fingers in the cage and scare the shit out of them with their cameras. Yes, as you can tell, I was not a fan. We turned right into market that was absolutely lleno de people. It was ridiculous. I subconsciously grabbed my purse and just about stuffed it down my shirt. Turns out my instinct was right, apparently the market is notorious for thieves. In the beginning, we were all oohing and ahhing at all the brightly colored fruit, some of which we'd never seen before, nuts, candy, and bread. Then we reached the fish section. Ok, still cool even if a little stinky. And then we reached the meat section. Oh. My. God. I left the market immediately, let's just leave it at that.

I liked the Gothic neighborhood so much more. It was all windy roads and alleys, ancient buildings, and churches popping out in the most random places. At one point we reached a sign that said that in that exact spot was where the ancient Roman wall had once said. Way more down my alley. The shopping was much more reasonable (I got a little caftan for 3 euros!), and we got to see some beautiful churches! There was even a little cheese market in a square we turned into (no, papi, I did not get you any cheese. It stunk too bad).

Our last day we made our Gaudí day. All Gaudí all the time. We started off going to La Sagrada Familia, the famous church everyone thinks of when they think of Barcelona.

It was pretty cool, but the lines were ridiculous to get in, so we consoled ourselves with lots of pictures, and then moved onto Parque Güell, which looks as though Willy Wonka designed it.

The weather was beautiful, so despite all the tourists, we still really enjoyed ourselves. I stood in the exact spot where they filmed Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and then spent the next hour tourist watching, which is very amusing. Oh well, I have to tell myself there's a reason so many tourists go to one particular place, it must be because it's worth it.

So much more to tell, but my fingers are falling off, so I think I'll leave that for another entry!

Las Alpujarras

Hola a todos!

I'm sorry I've been delinquent at writing! It's so tough with the unreliable internet and all the travelling. But I'm here! After lots of traveling! I'm going to try and recount the highlights of the last couple weeks. First up, Las Alpujarras! It was drop-dead beautiful. My friend Jessie and I decided (completely spontaneously) to buy tickets to Pampaneira, one of the towns in the region. After a (very) perilous journey, with half-blind gentleman driving the bus and poor Jessie almost throwing up next to me, we finally made it there. Me being a complete idiot, I decided the perfect outfit to go hiking in was shorts, a white blouse, and Sperry's. I don't want to talk about it. Well, apparently it was really warm in Granada that day, but in the Sierra Nevada mountains... not so much. But I quickly forgot about it when I saw the towns. It looks like somebody picked up a Greek village and dropped it down in the middle of a temperate zone.

So the whole idea is to get there, do a little bit of shopping and eating, and then hike onto the next village. Las Alpujarras are famous for the hand-woven rugs, and I REALLY wanted to get one, but figured it would be too heavy to cart around. So I consoled myself with a hippy-looking purse that everybody now claims looks like a Peruvian bag. Whatever. Oh, and on a side note, we turned the corner, and look what we saw!

The cutest thing you've ever seen! A woman told us to take one, and I almost did, but it would be problematic trying to sneak it on to the plane going back to the US. The next town was Bublion, which was much quieter, but still pretty. After all the hiking we were doing, the toast with jam that morning really wasn't cutting it. I almost took a bite out of a cow walking by. So imagine our faces when we get to Bublion and not seeing a single restaurant open, after just leaving Pampaneira which was brimming with them. We almost cried... until we turned the corner and found a little alpine lodge that served food! Salvation! We had an incredible meal of Alpujarran meat, roasted potatoes, and pesto pasta.

Yes, I was in heaven. But it was short-lived. This is the point where the cold became intolerable, and I caved and bought an 8 euro hippy sweater. I'm pretty sure everyone thought I was a traveling minstrel. When we finally ended at Capileira, our bodies were screaming for siesta (hey, I can't go a day without one now). So what did we do? What you should always do while exploring random villages. We found a church courtyard, and fell asleep there in the sun. It was way less sketch than it sounds, I swear. Anyway, I woke up to the most beautiful sight I've ever seen.

It is currently the background on my computer. I can now literally say I slept in the clouds. The day ended when we finally took the bus from Capileira all the way back to Granada as the sun was setting. Ahh, perfect.