pesto pizza

10.07.2011
The first day of vacation is today!!! I may have skipped a class and gotten coffee instead but hey, i'm on vacation now! Today about 11 of us took a bus to Madrid at 9pm and got there at 10. It took us about an hour and a half to get to the airport from the bus station because we were all confused about how exactly to get there and how to get the supplementary ticket that we needed to get to the airport...

We eventually found our way to the check in desk  but it was closed so we had to sleep on the floor by it. And by sleep, I mean lay on the ground with our backpacks as our pillows and freeze our butts off cause it was a concrete floor. And maybe got about 30 minutes of sleep. Right when we got to the airport (at about 1am) we all sat around a table and talked and then decided to attempt to sleep. We "woke up" at about 4am and hopped on the plane to Milan!

10.08.2011
We finally got to Italy! It took us from 6am (our flight) until 4pm to get to Cinque Terre. When we finally got here, we found the office to the hostel pretty fast  and then the owner showed us to our rooms. We had to climb about a million stairs with our heavy backpacks  to get here and it was SO tiring! After that we went for a walk around the city we are staying in called Riomaggiore and we sat at a little bay where you can rent row boats. We sat there for a good hour and decided that we were hungry so we went to a pizza place with the most amazing pesto pizza ever!!! I found out later today that pesto was actually created in Cinque Terre so that explains it. After dinner we got Gelato for dessert and decided that tomorrow we are going to walk all day through the 5 cities that make up Cinque Terre and back. We are going to have lunch and possibly dinner on the way back looking over the sea. I can not wait to take more pictures!!!

10.09.2011
Today was AMAZING! Prepare yourselves for this next sentence... We got up EARLY and went HIKING! ALL DAY! We hiked a ton and I am absolutely positive tat I would be completely fine if I never did it again.

In Cinque Terre we are staying in Riomaggiore, which is the farthest south of the 5 cities. We hiked from Riomaggiore to Manarola, then took the train to Corniglia because there was construction on the pathway. We stayed there for a bit then took the train to Vernazza and wandered around there for a while. We went to Monterosso al Mare and walked on the beach and took awesome pictures and then we ate at this little place near the beach. Let me just say AMAZING lasagna! But I think I like Dad's better...

Anyways, we took the train back to Vernazza and hiked to Corniglia, which took about and hour and a half. It was so tiring because about half of it was up hill and climbing stairs and bleh it was gross. All of the paths have a ton of steps and hills and stuff but I think the pathway to Corniglia from Vernazza was the worst one. Anywho, we took the train back to Riomaggiore, got gelato and watched the sunset over the water.

As we were walking back, we bought fruit, yogurt, and potato chips for dinner. Healthy, I know. After that, we walked back to the hostel and I took a shower. The views from everywhere on the trails and the cities were so gorgeous and looked like a postcard. I loved it! So amazing I just can't get over it!

10.10.2011
So, it is about 9am right now and Emma and I are at the train station. We caught the train to La Spezia at 8:37 and it took about 10 minutes to get here from Cinque Terre. We bought our tickets to Rome and it doesn't come until 10:06 and it's direct! Yay! We don't get there until about 2:16 so it should be pretty easy to find the hostel in the daylight.
I am so excited to see the Spanish steps and all of the amazing things in Rome. Cinque Terre was so beautiful and so surreal because everything looked perfect. It just didn't seem like it could be real. It just reminded me how small we really are! I cannot believe that I am in Italy right now! It's just so gorgeous and I can't get over it! I am going to be so sad to leave Italy but hopefully I will be able to come back at some point in my life.

planes, trains, taxis, and donkeys

Alrighty! So I just got back from my amazing trip to Italy and Greece and let me just tell you, it was SO worth however much I spent. I don't even remember and I do not care to know... So I kept a journal during my whole trip so that I could let all of you guys know what I did and I took 500+ pictures in a week. It was such a great experience even though it took a lot of money and traveling and sleeping in airports and whatever. It was so great and I was definitely wishing that Andrea, Amanda, Dad, and Mom were there if only to tell me the history of certain things, tell me stupid jokes, ask the questions that I probably wouldn't want to, and just make fun of people doing stupid stuff. So I am going to split this up into a couple of different blogs because there is a LOT to tell! So here goes!

P.S. I DIDN'T GET PICK-POCKETED!!! SUCCESS!

where the road meets the sun

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about home and how I miss my family, the food, understanding everything everyone says, and just being close to everything. How I can't just go downstairs and play with Sammy, or drive a short ways to hang out with friends, or even work. I miss it all a ton and I think about it a lot, which probably makes it worse, but I have also been thinking about how great this trip is! I keep thinking about how different my life here is from my life in the States. I have been needing to remind myself that I am going to learn so much more by being here in Spain than if I was just in a classroom in Minnesota at Bethel. I am in Spain! What better place to learn Spanish than in Spain? There is so much that you can't really learn from a book or a lecture, you just have to experience it to actually understand it. At first, I thought it was weird that people didn't allow friends in their houses, but now I get that it is just an extra opportunity to learn more about the culture (at least for me), and learn more about what goes on at every time of the day. In the mornings, no one is out until about 9 and the streets are flowing with seas of people, but if you were to walk around the city just 30 minutes earlier, there would be a total of about 2 people on the street, you and some random person (probably a tourist) wandering the streets. From 2 until 4 shops close for lunch and there is basically nothing to do but sleep or do homework (guess which one I choose!). At 4 on the dot, people just mozy around like they have all day to get to whatever they have to do. No one walks fast, no one is on a mission, they just walk slowly and take in the day, something I should probably learn how to do, but it's difficult because I HATE slow-walkers! The streets are busy until about 9 or 10 when people go to their houses for dinner (my dinner is always at about 10:30) and don't go out dancing or to bars until about midnight and they don't go home until about 5 or 6 in the morning.

Enough of my thinking for the day...... So this weekend I got to go to La Granja on Saturday to see the Royal Palace and a place where they make crystal everything. I got to see a guy make two blown glass bottles but that was about as interesting as it got, besides the amazing chandelier that we couldn't take pictures of. It was a replica of many chandeliers in the Palace in La Granja and was made entirely of glass and just a little bit of metal to hold all the pieces together. When we went to the Palace after lunch, we got to see people arriving to the wedding that was in the chapel attached to the Palace. I got my little wedding fix for the week and I loved it! I did take some creeper pictures of the bride because I love weddings and her dress was so unique and GORGEOUS! It was so amazing because you could tell that she was so happy and she was anxious to get in there and start her life with the man waiting in there for her. The wind was blowing her veil around and she barely stopped long enough to let her personal attendant fix it. I know, random tangent... but look how pretty her dress is!

Anyway, back to the Palace. The inside of the Palace was amazing. It was so colorful and the ceilings were almost all painted and the chandeliers in the rooms were so beautiful. But my favorite part was walking around the royal gardens for an hour and a half. The fountains were so interesting and there was so much detail and thought put into everything. It was so calm and it just kind of makes you forget everything and you just take in everything around you. It was so much fun and I think I got some good pictures.

I am starting to get really excited for this coming week because I am leaving for Italy and Greece on Saturday! I have to sleep in the airport on Friday night because there aren't any buses that leave Segovia really early in the morning and my flight leaves at 6am on Saturday. I am going to Cinque Terre from Saturday until Monday, and then I am going to Rome from Monday until Thursday. Then we leave on Thursday morning for Greece! and we are staying there until Sunday. I am staying on the island of Rhodes, which from the pictures I have seen I am gonna have awesome pictures to show you all when I get home! I can't wait to go! But, unfortunately, I will not be bringing my computer with so I won't be able to blog while I am over there (Sorry Amanda)!

I think that is all for now but I will write before I leave for fall break! I love you all!!!

just for amanda...

Alright, so Manda requested that I write about what I did yesterday. Yesterday I had class at 9am  so I woke up at 8:40 to eat breakfast and get ready. Then I went to a class then went home. Then I went to class at 12 and then came home after that. I had lunch and it was soup and then some meat and fruit for dessert. After lunch I went to my room, watched Mulan and did homework and then I went to bed. Oh, and I talked to Mia for a little bit. That would be all that I did.

Are you happy with that Manda?? :)

love you all!

MADRID!!!

TODAY!
Today we woke up, had an awesome breakfast at the hotel, and then left right away to walk around a bit and then go to the Reina Sofia, which is a very famous museum. I got to see many paintings by Picasso, and I thought that this was so cool because he is one of my favorite artists. On the floor that we were on, we got to see the progression of modern art which was really cool seeing how things slowly changed over time. It was so amazing to be in the same room as Guernica (one of the most famous paintings of Picasso). It was so big and so detailed and it was amazing to see the brush strokes and everything in it! I loved it!!! After the museum, we went to a pizza place called Pinocchio's Pizza and there was a ton of really good food. We got to shop after that during our free time and while I still had the opportunity, I got Starbucks. I miss Caribou!

Anyways, I am now at my house in good ol' Segovia, and I am happy to be out of Madrid. There are way too many people in those crowded little streets and I felt like a sardine. And I saw a woman trying to pickpocket people in the clothing stores and stuff. It was very interesting. Now I have to do homework and eat! LOVE YOU ALL!!!

9.17.2011
Today was the first day of 2 in Madrid. Today we got on the bus to Madrid at 8 so i had to wake up at 6 and be at the bus station by 7:40. Right after we got to Madrid, we came to the hotel but we couldn't check-in yet because check-out for the other people wasn't until noon. So, we went to the center of Madrid and walked around a bit to get to know the city.

We had lunch after that, and then we went to a museum called "Museo Nacional del Prado" to look at paintings by Rafael, Tiziano, Goya, Rembrandt, Velazquez, Greco, and a bunch of other famous artists. It was really cool, but I like modern art more. After the museum we got to shop and get dinner. I, of course, got McDonald's because I could. I missed those fries so much!!! AND I didn't buy ANYTHING! Yet. Then most of us came back to the hotel and got our rooms. They are so nice! My Bethel tuition if finally paying off a little! :)

Everyone is so tired from waking up early and then walking around all day and my feet and ankle hurt really bad but hopefully that will go away by tomorrow! We'll see what tomorrow brings!

Phew! Two days worth of info in one! I miss you all! love ya mom, dad, andrea, amanda, and mike!

Una cruz, El Escorial, y Valle de los Caidos

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while! I can't believe I have already been here for two weeks!!! Basically my week has consisted of wandering the city, doing homework, dancing, and more homework. I really haven't done anything worth mentioning this week, except for today. We went on our first "excursion" to El Escorial and Valle de los Caidos which are really close to Madrid. El Escorial was the first place we went and it was so cool! We weren't allowed to take pictures inside which I thought was stupid, but I followed the rules unfortunately.
Here is some of the outside of it:
To the left of this picture is the entrance to a school for children, and to the right of this is the entrance to the Monastery:

 This is the side that has the Monastery:

El Escorial is a palace, bacilica, and Augustinian monastery. The bacilica is so pretty! I walked in and it really looks a lot like Westminster Abbey when Will and Kate got married. It was so beautiful! AND! the good news is that they have weddings there for the cheap price of about 2,000 Euros. We actually saw a wedding there today, not the actual wedding but after when they were taking pictures in front. We got to go inside about an hour before the wedding and it was so pretty. I loved it. The ceilings were all hand painted by Cambiasso and Giordano and they were so cool! I can't imagine being on scaffolding and looking straight up to paint, and doing it well. The palace portion of it has not been used in many years and is now a museum basically. The only thing that I really thought was interesting was a room that has all of the coffins of the Kings and Queens because they have two requirements you have to meet to be in this room if you are a woman. First, you have to have been married to the King that is ruling, and second is that you have to have had an heir to the throne. I thought that their rules were interesting because many of the Kings had multiple wives but for all of them, only one wife was in this room because there is only one heir basically. Anyway, there was one King and Queen that basically had their roles reversed. Queen Isabel (Elisabeth) II was the ruler and her husband was not. So, in this room with all of the coffins and stuff, they have her with all of the men who were Kings, and him with all of the Queens. We were told that people suspected that he was gay because he was very feminine, and wouldn't  "have sexual relations" with Queen Isabel. But, they both had other people they went to for that..........
On a different note... we went to Valle de los Caidos (translates to Valley of the Fallen), which is the HUGE cross that is near Madrid.

It is as tall as 1.5 football fields if they were standing up. We didn't get to get close to it today but we got to see the "church" that is literally inside the mountain right under the cross. I put church in quotations because this was a place that Fransisco Franco ordered people to build, and was later buried there along with Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera. Every year on the day that Fransisco Franco died (October 20th) people would gather at this "church" to celebrate his life and basically worship him. There was a law passed that makes this illegal now, but people still go there to pray to him and such. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside again which really annoyed me. It was beautiful, but really intimidating because all of the sculptures were of archangels, but they were really dark and creepy basically. There wasn't really any sign of warmth in there which was odd to me. But, the one thing I thought of that I couldn't stop thinking about was that this would be the perfect place to sing with a choir! The acoustics were AMAZING!! Valle de los Caidos also happens to be a Benedictine Monastery so they are basically the choir that sings there during the Sunday church service. It was really cool to learn about and to go see, but I don't think I would want to go back to the "church" because it was so creepy. I really hope we get to go back and climb all the stairs to the cross though because that would be amazing to see up close. It is so cool to see, even at a distance. I'm really excited for this week because we get to go to Madrid for the weekend and I can't wait. I am really hoping for a McDonalds over there cause I need some fast food. HA! Who knew I would miss that!

Anyways, I can't wait to get my package of food from my momma! I miss you all and you better get skype so we can talk! Love you!

food, cafes, more food, and more cafes

HOLA!

So, I have been in Spain almost a week and it has been so much fun! I have been going cafes almost everyday and their coffee is so good! On Tuesday, the whole group went to Alcazar and got to take a tour of it. It is one of the castles that Disney got their design for the castle in the beginning of all of their movies.

It was so much fun. We walked up the center tower which for everyone was a struggle because there were 165+ stairs and they were about 1.5 times the size of normal stairs (in the second picture it is the tower that is the farthest to the left). Everyone was out of breath by the time we got to the top but the hard work was so worth it for the view that we got of Segovia and the landscape. It was gorgeous!

this is the Catedral from the top of Alcazar:

There was so much amazing architectural details in Alcazar so it made it really easy to get a good picture of basically everything. The part I liked most about it was all of the gold leaf on the ceilings... I took a ton of pictures of the ceilings because the designs were so intricate and beautiful that I couldn't just take one picture.

After that we just walked around the city and shopped a little bit.. You guys would be proud of me, I haven't even spent 100 doll hairs yet. Yesterday, I didn't have class but I woke up early and a bunch of us went to the mercado to shop. They only have it in La Plaza Mayor and it is only on Thursday mornings (and by morning I mean 10 until 2). It interesting seeing what everyone was selling and how cheap everything was. I got a really cute shirt there and a necklace. After that I went to a cafe with a bunch of girls from one of my classes and we did our homework there. It is such a different atmosphere here than in the US and I love it! Right as we were leaving, there was a big group of protesters that walked by chanting and drumming. They were protesting an amendment of their constitution I believe. It was pretty interesting and much more civilized and organized than I would have thought. That is basically all I have been up to lately. But I can't wait to travel around and learn more about the country.
Also, my family has 3 cats and the one that reminds me most of Bosco is named Bruno. He is adorable. Except, I am pretty sure that I am allergic to cats. YAY! This is Bruno :)

I hope all is going well at home! I miss you all! Love you!