Better Late than Never

July 3rd

After leaving Gijón and on the way to Santiago, we first stopped in Asturias and Cudillero, another city next to the water. It was a small town, but it had beautiful views of the water of the Bay of Biscay and green hills next to the coast. During certain times in the year, the tide rises so much that the water comes up into the streets and people have to use their boats to get around. I loved listening to the waves crash into the rocks along the coast, such a soothing sound.

We made another stop at Playa de las Catedrales (Cathedral Beach) in Galicia, and boy am I glad we did. Even though it was cloudy, cold, and misty outside, it was still a beautiful stop. The rocks on the beach are some of the most spectacular natural formations in Spain. Its name is derived from the shape of the rock formations because they are in the shape of arches in a cathedral. The rocks have been sculpted by the wind, waves and briny water. It was sure a sight to see and walk through.

In this northeastern region of Spain, the people speak different dialects: Gallego and Bable. They were very different than Castillian. We weren’t there long enough to try to talk to any locals, but the people I did hear talking, I couldn’t understand anything. Some of the words on the road signs were similar, but I did not know many of them.

July 4th

Santiago

The main thing we did in Santiago was visit the cathedral. I have never seen a mass so packed as I did that day with standing room only and apparently it is like that for every mass. I do not know much about Catholicism, but 2010 is a Holy Year, and many people make pilgrimages by walking 100 km or biking 200 km to the cathedral in Santiago. They walk from all over Spain and Europe to get there. They make it possible for persons from all different countries to do their confessional because they had confession booths all up and down the aisles with every language imaginable. We also waited in line to see the tomb of Saint James. The traditional pilgrimage to the grave of the saint, known as the “Way of St. James”, has become the most popular pilgrimage for Western European Catholics. The tomb is only open on years when July 25^th falls on a Sunday, and that just so happened to be this year. It hadn’t been opened since 2004, and the next time won’t be for another eleven years. All of this wasn’t much of a big deal for me, a non-Catholic, but the other people in my group that were Catholic appreciated it more.

July 5th

León

We visited the Panteón Real y Colegiata de San Isidoro and the cathedral of León. The cathedral had the most beautiful stained glass that I have ever seen. The stained glass consumed the walls, letting in amazing light through the different colors. It had a cobalt blue color that I loved, and apparently, nobody knows how to create that glass anymore. If that color is seen in stained glass today, it is only painted on. The cathedral was built in the thirteenth century, so the glass was not in perfect condition, but it was still very beautiful and delicate.

July 6th

Segovia

The first thing we saw when we drove into Segovia was Alcázar, the castle of Fernando and Isabel. This is the kind of castle you think of when you think of princes and princesses. Apparently Walt Disney thought so too, because Alcázar and another castle in Germany are what Snow White’s castle are based off of. It had elegant architecture and gardens.

Our hotel in Segovia was excellent, our window and balcony overlooked the Plaza Mayor. We were in walking distance of the Aqueduct. That evening, we walked down to see it, and it was incredible. The Acueduct of Segovia is one of the most significant and best-preserved monuments left by the Romans on the Iberian Peninsula. The date of its construction cannot be exactly determined, but researchers have placed it somewhere between the second half of the first century and the early years of the second century. There have been several restoration projects to try to preserve the aqueducts as the granite has experienced erosion through the years, as well as wear and tear due to pollution from heaters and automobiles. The fact that amazes me most about the aqueducts is that was built without any mortar, just block on top of block. How did they do that?

Our final tour was of El Escorial, a gigantic place. It was the largest building in the world until the Pentagon was built. In the past, the king and queen lived there, but not anymore. El Escorial contained a school, library, monastery and basilica.

Last Week of Traveling

Schedule for the last week of traveling:

June 30th:

Uruena and Book Town, San Cebrian de Mazote and Wamba

Each of these stops were honestly not all that interesting. The Book Town was a tiny little town that is only dedicated to making books now. They make paper and bindings and do calligraphy. We went to a museum that showed the evolution of paper starting from animal skins, etc.

We also went to another museum in this town that had musical instruments. I honestly don't know why we went here, other than it was the only other thing to do in this town. Sorry if this is boring you but I spent two hours in the museums so I don't feel too bad for you.

San Cebrian de Mazote had a church that was supposed to "Wow" us. I think we all missed out. He seemed disappointed afterwards because he was like, "No reactions?". He said that artists from all over the world would kill to see a place like this because it had architecture from several different types of architects and time periods. It was pretty, I guess.

The monastery in Wamba seemed like every other place we have seen until we saw the tomb of monks in a room off of the cloister. It was fascinating because it was a tiny room filled with bones on top of bones. I'll post a picture because I have never seen anything like it. (Although the internet won't let me upload pictures now)

Burgos

That night, we finally made it to Burgos which was a lovely city. The cathedral was actually very interesting and it was gorgeous. It had alabaster ceilings and statues and it was all built in a beautiful white stone. We really enjoyed what we saw of the city as well. The hotel we stayed at was very nice and served us a nice dinner. Luckily, I wasn't one of the girls that got stuck in the tiny elevator with their suitcases for around thirty minutes. They couldn't get out until help came. Needless to say, I didn't use the elevator after that.

July 1st:

Huelgas Reales and Cartuja de Miraflores

Not much to say about these two places, sorry.

Santander

The drive from Burgos to Santander was absolutely gorgeous. There were tiny little towns on the sides of the road with beautiful gardens, flowers, stone fences, and the locals worked in the fields. We were driving through the mountains so we saw the valleys and the tops of the mountains were covered by the clouds. Once we got closer to Santander, we could see the ocean and it was incredible. The mountains so close to the water makes a beautiful landscape. It made it even better that our hotel was right on the water. We could see the beach from the window and hear the waves during the night.

This was another great hotel, and we loved this dinner that they served. The salad was very fancy with crab and shrimp and lettuce and guacamole. It was great eating seafood when we could see the water outside the window. Then we had a steak that was so tasty, it's making my mouth water again.

July 2nd:

That morning, we got up and went straight to the beach after breakfast. We were a little bummed since it had rained the night before and little bit that morning, but it ended up being beautiful. After we buried Alex in the sand (the only boy on the trip) we got in the water and swan and rode the waves. It was neat when the sun was out and it sprinkled while we were out there swimming. It was much warmer than I expected as well as very clean and clear water without seaweed wrapping around my legs. Geez, I want to go back to Santander, we weren't there long enough.

Santillana del Mar and Altamira

Altamira is a museum that is a laser replication of the real thing which was close to where we were, but they don't let tourists in anymore. It was a cave that was discovered in the 1800s. The opening of the cave had been almost all closed when some rocks fell leaving only a small opening. Inside were paintings that supposedly date back to 18000 B.C. It apparently proves that there were people like us that were modern human beings that hunted and made tools to hunt and sew and they were even advanced enough to create art.

Gijon

Gijon was pretty disappointing to start out because we weren't in a great part of town and the hotel was not very nice and it was raining outside. We decided to go out to a sidreria. It was their form of Apple Cider. They apparently were the original makers of it--but it is quite different from what we drink at Christmastime. It is made from real apples, but then it has alcohol in it. The bartenders poured it into the glasses from way up high in the air to aerate it. We were supposed to drink it until there was only a little bit left, then pour it out into the drain on the ground to let the alcohol clean the glass where we put our lips because they reuse the glass. I tried it, but I did not like it one bit, ugh. I'll stick to the americanized apple cider.

Last Day in Salamanca

Tuesday, June 29th

Last day of classes! We made it through our four weeks of classes and earned 9 hours of credit, the easiest college credit I think I'll ever get. It was weird walking with Ali to campus for the last time. We have gotten so used to our routine and the surroundings. The afternoon on our last day of Salamanca wasn't anything special, we walked around the shops looking for last minute souvenirs, but we made sure to get some helado for the last time. It was so worth it: lemon and raspberry was a nice treat on the hot day.

I thought Feli might do something special for my last meal at her house, but I thought wrong. She yelled "Melanie, vamos a comer" and I walked out to the kitchen expecting something extravagant, but it was just a microwaved pizza. It was still good though, I'll never turn down a pizza. After dinner, we met up for another round of tapas for the next world cup game vs. Portugal. Feli didn't think Spain would be able to beat Portugal because of Cristiano Ronaldo who normally plays for Real Madrid. It turned out to be a good game, mostly because Spain won 1-0! It was very exciting once again with the atmosphere. The bartenders painted our faces with the Spanish flag and people were yelling, dancing, and honking their horns I would not be this into soccer if I weren't in Europe, but it's so fun here. After the game, we went down to the plaza one more time. It is really one of the most beautiful places at night with the floodlit lights, I'm going to miss that place.

Madrid

Saturday, July 26th

We left Salamanca early in the morning to spend the day in Madrid. Our first stop was at the Museo del Prado, an art museum. We spent 90 minutes in there with Dr. Torrico leading us around and pointing out things I would have never noticed. I'm not very art savvy. The main artists we focused on were Velazquez and Goya, but the place was just huge with art everywhere.

Madrid is so big, we really couldn't wander around too much over our lunch break because we didn't want to get lost. Our next planned visit, however, was at the Palacio Real, or the Royal Palace. I really enjoyed walking through the rooms at the Palace. They were each uniquely decorated with different color schemes and extravagant detailing. Some of it almost seemed gaudy with all of the gold and ornate chandeliers, but it was neat to see nonetheless. It was a rather quick trip, but we were all very tired after being in the hot sun.

Sunday, June 27th

Salamanca (or Spain in general) doesn't offer a lot to do on Sundays, but my host lady had told me about the 'rastro' that happens every Sunday by the river. A rastro is a flea market, and apparently this one was really big. Blake and I decided to check it out, so we caught a bus down to the market since it would have been a long walk. People were right, it was very big, it had rows and rows of tents with merchandise from shoes, clothes, underwear, purses, sunglasses, chainsaws, and even what is best described as garage sale leftovers. It was basically a whole bunch of crap. It was all very inexpensive, but nothing worth buying. It was crowded though, and Feli told me to make sure and hold onto my bag tight, because a friend of hers had her bag stolen a week or two before. While there, some guys called me Barbie, that was a first in Spain, I gave them points for creativity.

I ate lunch with Feli and her daughter-in-law and two grandsons, her son died from pancreatic cancer several years ago. I guess they eat there every Sunday, but I had been gone on excursions and hadn't met them yet. They were very nice, I had forgotten about the European greeting of the double cheek kiss, but I caught on.

Later on, a couple of us walked down by the river to and sunbathe and read our books, it made for a relaxing Sunday afternoon.

Quick Post

It felt good to have finished up our finals; I had a presentation and a final in my women's study class on Wednesday, Literature final on Thursday, and the last one was Grammar on Friday. We started our celebration by skipping our last two classes after our grammar final and we had one of our favorite things: chocolate con churros. We then walked around the shops before lunch since we had time, then retired to our apartments for lunch and a much needed siesta. We met up again later to walk through some more shops that we hadn't been to yet, then the whole group met in the Plaza for dinner. It was neat to be in the Plaza then for a little bit, because Spain was playing in the World Cup at the time, and all of the restaurants put up outdoor TVs for the outdoor seating. Spain scored while we were still in the middle of the Plaza, and we didn't need to actually see a TV to know it. The place erupted in cheers and it was electric and fun.

Dr. Torrico took us to a restaurant near the university, and we had a nice dinner there. My first course was an asparagus dish that was mixed with eggs. They put eggs with almost anything here it seems, only not with breakfast. It had an interesting taste, but actually quite good. Then I had a steak that was very tender and flavorful, and they come very thin, at least this kind of steak. Dessert was a tasty white chocolate mousse, an interesting texture and very rich.

Portugal- Days 2 & 3

Portugal- Day 2

Saturday morning we got up and had our first big breakfast of the trip, courtesy of the hotel. We felt spoiled to be able to have something besides toast. Okay, so the scrambled eggs were runny and there wasn't a ton of selecton, but to us it seemed like name brand goods when you are used to the off brand. We rode the bus about an hour to go to the Barrio de Belem where we saw the Monasterio de Los Jeronimos. Next we saw the Torre de Belem which is right on the ocean. We also saw the Monumento de los Navegantes which is also on the water. One of the coolest things we saw was called the Boca del Infierno or The Mouth of Hell. This is a cliff right on the coast where it's basically a bowl made of rock. It gets its name from the sounds the waves make during storms when they crash into the rocks. Apparently it sounds like screaming coming from the soals in Hell. It was actually quite gorgeous despite the name. Our last scheduled stop of the day was: the beach! We went to the beach of Cascais and enjoyed some rays and waded in the water which was still a tad chilly. It was nice for a while until the wind really started to pick up and the sand was blowing everywhere and getting in our faces. Needless to stay, I am still finding sand in places it shouldn't be.

We went back to the hotel and showered before going out to find a place to eat dinner. All the other girls wanted to ride the metro to a new part of town that we hadn't been to yet to eat, so we all went. After walking a little after we got off the metro, some of us didn't feel like it was a safe part of town, so half of us got back on the metro to hopefully find a place near our hotel to eat. It wasn't worth being in a strange part of town at night. So we got back by our hotel but couldn't find any place to eat. We walked and walked looking for something, but found nothing open except for a McDonald's. I never eat at McDonald's at home, but being since it was the only option, it had to do. It didn't even taste half bad. The McDonalds' here are always packed with people, and they look very trendy and modern inside. Nothing like back home.

Portugal- Day 3

Sunday, we just stopped in a couple of small towns that were on our way back to Salamanca. First off was Obidos, a cute little town that had a medieval section and typical little streets. It was fun to walk around for a little while. The next stop was in Batalha to visit the Monastery there. This was sort of interesting because now the cloister part of it is used for military purposes. I saw the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and I watched the ceremony of the changing of the guards. It was especially interesting since I remember seeing the changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the U.S. Arlington Cemetary.

Portugal- Day 1

Salsa dancing was a lot of fun on Thursday. The class was short on boys (of course) so us girls just danced together and we had a great time.

Lisbon, Portugal: Day 1

Friday morning, the bus for Portugal left at 7 AM. It took probably around six hours to get there because the bus driver has to stop every couple of hours to abide by the laws here. It was probably around four or 4.5 hours of actual driving time. The scenery, of course, was beautiful on the way there. Green rolling hills with trees, livestock, wind farms, and cute little towns were passed by the whole way. When actually arriving in Lisboa (Spanish for Lisbon), it wasn't exactly what I had pictured in my mind. It looked almost industrial and rather dirty. We checked into a hotel (it was nice to be out of the home-stay for a couple nights) and decided to explore the street around our hotel before we had to meet up with our tour guide. Again, we were all a little disappointed with our surroundings because there just wasn't much to do: no restaurants and harldy any shops. We went back to maybe get into the hot tub for a little bit and relax, but we quickly decided not to because a) it was luke warm water at best and b) it cost 7 euro per person. No thank you. So, we settled on watching some television that was actually in English! That was surprisingly refreshing.

We met with the tour guide and took our bus down to more of the "Plaza" area. Right away, we could tell we were going to like this place better than we thought. There were shops and restaurants and the area just looked a lot nicer. One part was right by the river and was very pretty. Our tour guide took us to the Plaza del Comercio and was telling us some facts about how there had been earthquakes and tsunamis in the past that had swept away part of the city when some of us were distracted by these five or six guys. They were taking pictures of the scenery, but they also seemed to be sneaking pictures of our group too. Sometimes acting like they were taking pictures of eachother with us in the "background". Altogether, we thought it was quite odd, but really didn't think much of it. After the guide was done talking, she told us we should walk down by the river and take pictures and just look at the view. Several of us had just walked across the crosswalk when we crossed paths with that same group of guys from before. Now it became quite evident that they had been taking pictures of us, but even more obvious that they were just looking at me when one of him came up and said "Foto?" and put his arm around me. He got on his tip toes and flashed a smile while the girls around me were cracking up. I got a picture on my camera too for good measure. Another one stood on top of a block to take a picture with me. I guess they had never seen anyone taller than them before--we think they were Italians. Anyway, it made for a good laugh.

Next, we walked all of the way up to the top of a hill to visit the Castle of Saint George. The view from up here was amazing with a mix of all of the apartment and business buildings but also the river and bridge that looked similar to San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. We explored through the castle that was in fairly good condition but also had pretty gardens in the middle. An added bonus was that a group was practicing for their concert later that evening, but we got to hear all of the music anyways. They were very fun to listen to, the lead singer had a beautiful voice and it was neat to hear it in Portugese.

After that, we were on our own to find dinner and our way back to the hotel. We did a little shopping on the way back down the hill before all the stores closed (they closed much earlier here than in Spain) and found a place to eat outside in the middle of the main strip. Our waiter was very nice and he spoke some English, so that helped quite a bit. He asked if we wanted anything to drink. I asked if the water cost money and he said yes, so I said no thank you. We all had some water left in our water bottles anyways. A little bit later, he came out with a pitcher of ice water for us! He was so great because he didn't charge us a penny. We were very thankful because this was the first time we have had ice water on our trip so it was a real treat. I tried some of my friend's cod that she got for dinner and it was quite good. Cod is something that they are known for here.

One more of a side note, when we were around shopping, another unusual thing happened. We were walking outside to find a place to eat when a man walked by muttered to us in a hushed voice and showed us something in his hand, "Hash, cocaine, coke?" Don't worry, we declined, and despite this incident, it was a very safe part of town.

We headed to find the metro station that would take us back to our hotel. It was a little scary at first because we had been in this very big city for only a couple of hours and we were supposed to find our way back using the metro and knowing absolutely no Portugese (except for thank you: obrigada). The tour guide had kept saying it was really easy, but she was speaking directions in very fast Spanish, and her accent is more difficult to understand than most that I have heard. Luckily though, it was very easy to find, and another local that spoke some English saw us trying to figure out the ticket machines offered a helping hand and we were on our way!