Weekend in Madrid

After Valencia, we headed to Madrid via Ryan Air. That was my first Ryan Air experience, and needless to say it wasn't too pleasant. But hey--it's cheaper. Madrid was very cool--for being such a huge city, it's still clean and pretty. It's a lot more tourist friendly--everyone speaks English and for once, I wasn't the only blonde on the street. But I think I like living in Pamplona a lot better, because we definitely have to speak a lot more Spanish.

Anyways, we went to the Palacio Real, where the King and Queen of Spain live. It reminded me a bit of Versailles, minus the gardens and the gold everywhere. We're also thinking that this is where Lindsay got pickpocketed while standing in line....

After the Palacio Real, we walked to El Parque de Buen Retiro, a 300 acre park which is basically the Central Park of Spain. It was definitely the place to be on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon--everyone was sunbathing, rollerblading, or taking paddleboats out on the lake.

Our last stop of the day before dinner was the Reina Sofia, which was a really cool place to see. It doesn't feature many of the older works, like the Prado, but instead has Goya, Miró, Dalí and Picasso. Picasso's Guernica is there, which was cool--but even cooler, the museum had created a room of all his studies/thought processes leading up to the painting of the Guernica, so we really got to understand all the complexities that went into its creation.

Finally, we got a taste of home when we walked into an Irish pub, and lo and behold, the scores for the Mizzou/Cornell game were up. We saw the last two minutes of the game as Mizzou went on to victory. Perfect.

Las Fallas in Valencia!

So we're back from Las Fallas, having eaten plenty of famous Valencian paella and Valencian oranges. Las Fallas was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. The neighborhoods in Valencia spend a whole year crafting these elaborate scultptures (called ninots) which are made out of wood, paper-mache, and plaster. At midnight on St. Joseph's Day (March 19), they set off fireworks and light them all on fire. The one we saw was probably about 40-60 feet tall, and the heat from the flames was so intense that the whole crowd starting running backwards to get away. It's basically a firefighter's nightmare and a pyro's dream.

We got there the day before La Cremá (the burning), so we got to see the parade where everyone dresses up in regional/historical costumes. They basically walk all day in these elaborate costumes. They go all out, too--check out this dog in the traditional garb and hair piece.

Tourist in Pamplona

Hi there! This weekend was definitely the weekend of exploring Pamplona! A friend came in town from San Sebastian, so we got to play the part of the tourist.

Last night we went out for pinchos down in Casco Viejo, which is the really old/cool part of Pamplona. The streets are just filled with people eating their pinchos (like tapas) and drinking wine, and people move from bar to bar and get a pincho at each one. Today we walked back to Casco Viejo to explore and walked along the "Encierro," which is where the actual running of the bulls happens in July. At the end of the route is the bull-fighting stadium.

We ate lunch at Cafe Iruña, which is one of the cafes that Hemingway mentions in "The Sun Also Rises" and thus basically put Pamplona on the map. It was very cool to think that we were sitting in the same place that Hemingway sat. If you sit down for the meal, you get 3 courses (and each one of them is like a full meal in itself). I got paella, chicken cordon bleu, and then ice cream for dessert. First time trying paella, and I really liked it. Wanted to do flan for dessert but couldn't handle it after eating two meals in one sitting... :)

While we were in there, it was a little creepy because there was this guy, who looked like he had a mental disability of some sort, who kept roaming in between the aisles, despite having been told to leave multiple times. He left and then all of a sudden came back, grabbed this woman's money off the table and started walking out. All of a sudden, the police came in, talked to him and then escorted him out, but it was really weird. Also, I was surprised that the police were so nice...probably because they didn't want to make a scene in the restaurant. And it's really the first time I've ever seen the police in action in Pamplona.

Anyways, that's all for now!

Family Dinner

Hi everyone! So this is officially the first post on my blog...how exciting. I've been meaning to do this for awhile so that everyone can see pictures, but haven't gotten around to it, despite the fact I've been here exactly a month. Time flies when you're having fun.

We just had a "family dinner" tonight...the girls from Mizzou plus a girl from UNC all host dinner one night a week. Tonight was "southern food"--and it was pretty great...fried chicken, garlic mashed potatoes, bread, salad, and a Spanish twist with these huge delicious flaky cookies in the shape of a heart. My week is next week...I believe I'll be making fajitas. Mexican food is a rarity here--thankfully the last girl who lived in my piso was Mexican, and left behind a wealth of 20+ packages of refried beans and some hot sauce. My Spanish roommates aren't big fans of Mexican food, so I was left the inheritance. The rest I can get at El Cortes Ingles, which is a huge store similar to Macy's, but with a grocery store attached that features a lot of international food. Perfect. They also sell peanut butter there which will be helpful in the future...

I'm posting some pictures from the places we've gone in the last few weeks, mainly San Sebastian, Bilbao and the Guggenheim. While I'm definitely glad I went to the Guggenheim, the exhibition there right now is pretty weird. It's mostly anime of some questionable themes.

Next on the horizon...we are going to Las Fallas, which is a huge festival in Valencia that leads up to St. Joseph's day (which we happen to have off school!) The city creates these huge paper sculpture things and then sets them on fire. A girl who lived in Pamplona last year said it was the coolest festival she's ever been to, so I'm very excited. Then we will spend the weekend in Madrid exploring. After that, it's off to London to visit an ADPi friend, and two other ADPi's from Brussels will also be joining us.