9/14/10 Barca!!

Brief Synopsis of Tuesday:

Bus ride back to Barcelona.  Slept for a while, studied art history with Michael for a little bit, stopped in Tarragoza for lunch… I got a bocadillo with tortilla de patata, which was a safe choice because Diana wanted rice, but ended up ordering blood sausage stuffed with rice (it looks even less appealing than it sounds), and David got some sort of pig intestine.  It tasted fine in the beginning, but the after taste left something to be desired.  We got back to Barcelona around 7:00 pm which was when the exciting part of my day began….

            Daven, Emily and I had tickets to a futbol game.  FC Barcelona vs. Panathinaikos.  Panathinaikos is a team from Greece that is also in the Champions League.  Daven, Emily and I took the metro to my apartment and dropped off our bags.  They live on the other side of town so it was the easiest way to make it to the game on time.  We then walked a few blocks to the stadium, pretty much just following the crowds of people.  Getting into the stadium was so easy, and they don’t check bags at all.  I didn’t have a bag, but you could bring as much food/ drinks into the stadium as you wanted.  Daven had a bottle of water and they only made him take off the cap.  All our tickets were in the same section, but not next to each other.  My ticket row 19, seat 25 didn’t exist.  The seats only went to 23, but it didn’t matter because we met some kids from Luxemburg who told us we could sit wherever we wanted until someone kicked us out.  We all sat together and watched the first half from the top of the stadium.  Camp Nou is the biggest stadium I’ve ever been in, seating close to 100,000 people.  FC Barcelona dominated the game.

A few observations from a foreign soccer game: 

The opposing team had its own section and each side of it was line with security guards in orange jackets.  They were all on the other side of the stadium from us.  The crowd we were in was not as rowdy, as I expected it to be, but the Panathinaikos fans were chanting and singing the whole time.  During the whole first half, everyone stayed in their seats and no one was eating/ drinking much.  Unlike U.S. sporting events, the crowd was pretty sober and intent on watching every play.  I left 3 minutes before the 1^st half ended to get a bocadillo since I hadn’t eaten since lunch and it was about 10 p.m.  Unfortunately, I missed Barca’s 3^rd goal, but I did get a reasonably priced sandwich and the line for food and beverages was tiny.  Even once the half ended, the lines did not grow that much.  All the food was reasonably price.  I paid 4 euros for a bocadillo… much better that $4 for a water at Fenway.  Beer and soda were between 2 and 3 euro, which I thought seemed way more reasonable than in the U.S.  Despite the amazing prices, no eats or drinks at the game.  

            Second half, we moved down to see better, just finding some empty seats.  It was nice being able to see more than just the numbers.  It was fine that I didn’t bring a roster with me to tell who is who, because people in the crowd had all the jerseys.  All I did was look at the people in front of me to see which name matched which number.  The team ended up winning 5 to 1 and then we walked back to the apartment.  There were people and mopeds everywhere.  I was happy that I didn’t then have to get on the metro like Daven and Emily.

9/13/10 Last Day of Our Trip

Ok so… we started off with a breakfast that was a little disappointing compared to our breakfast at the last hotel.  Our first stop of the day was Cartuja de Miraflores, which is a monastery that combines the art style of the gothic and Renaissance periods.  The altar at the front of the monastery was so detailed with carvings of Jesus on the cross, many important Saints, carvings of Ferdinand and Isabella, and many biblical scenes.  I think this was my favorite piece of art on the trip.  I talked with Maica, the director of the program, about the different details and history of the altar.  She pointed out things that distinguished the different saints, like St. Peter holding the keys, St. Lucia holding a candle and many more fascinating details.  We returned to Burgos for lunch and a bunch of us got bread and meat from the market and made sandwiches in the market.

Monastery

Park for Lunch

            After lunch, we toured the Cathedral de Burgos, which also consisted of many different artistic styles.  This was by far the largest cathedral we visited.  I wasn’t feeling too well during the tour, so I didn’t take good notes, but it is fine because they repeated everything we learned on the trip about 20 times.  For dinner, a group of us went out for tapas.  I got tortilla Espanola (like a egg/potato/ onion pie) which was so filling for being the cheapest thing on the menu.  Lorenzo also ordered 7 stuffed muscles by accident, so I had two of those.  I also tried patatas bravas, which were like getting home fries with a spicy sauce.  The sangria was also really good.  Emily and I walked around for a few minutes after until we met some other people at another tapas restaurant.  I hung out with Emily, Diana and Jenna when we got back to the hotel and Emily regaled us with stories of life in rural Pennsylvania—including hunting with her dad, making wine and raising bees.  I went to bed around midnight in attempt to finally get rid of this cold. 

9/12/10 Leon, Astorga, Leon, Burgos

Another great breakfast at the hotel before heading on the bus to Astorga.  Astorga was about 45 minutes away and it followed El Camino de Santiago.  From the bus window, I could see lots of backpackers.  We were told that most of them had left from Leon that morning and were headed for Astorgas.  The symbol of the walk is a shell, so the people who are walking the path tie a shell to their backpack.  The two main buildings in Astorga were the Cathedral and el Palacio de Gaudi.  Gaudi designed the building, which includes architectural styles from all periods of history.  We went in the Palacio, which is now a museum.  Then we walked around the Cathedral.  Morgan and I went into the cathedral.   In the front part of the cathedral which was roped off, they were holding the Sunday morning service.  Although the building was quite old, they were pretty up to date and had flat screen TVs to watch the service from the back half of the building.  Tourists were allowed to walk around the back half of the building despite the service.

Palacio de Gaudi behind Roman walls

Cathedral

 

Another interesting event was occurring in Astorga when we were there.  There was a huge parade with groups of people dressed in matching shirts.  Each group had a really tall flag that they carried with a holster on a special belt.  The person who held the flag often swaggered back and forth, because it was so difficult to balance the tall, heavy flag.  Every so often, they would pass off the flag to another person in the group and sometimes it would fall because they couldn’t balance it.  Bagpipe music was played during the march.

            We left Astorga and returned to Leon for lunch.  Astorga was much smaller than Leon, so it would have been difficult to find a place to eat there, especially on a Sunday when everything closes.  We found a sketchy place for lunch, which was fairly cheap, but it took forever to get our meals.  I ordered a bocadillo con jamon.  Emily and I got gelado just before getting back on the bus!  There are gelato stores on every corner and it is so hard to resist the temptation of eating it.  It was a hot day though and was a nice and refreshing.  The bus left for Buros around 4:30.

            We got to Burgos and I went with a bunch of people to a park near a stream to play Frisbee.  I didn’t end up playing, because it was really windy, and I would have thrown it into the raging stream if I had tried.  Instead I sat with Anuche and Ruchee on the side of the park watching everyone else.  A couple was also sitting near us and they had a dog.  Ruchee started talking to them and ended up taking the leash from them to walk the dog.  The kids playing Frisbee played keep away from the dog for a while, but then Ruchee just sat near us with the dog.  As it got darker, we decided to try and find a place for dinner that was inexpensive.  We ended up walking to a pizza place Telepizza, which was gross.  I’d compare it to Domino’s Pizza.  I went to bed early after that (midnight), trying to make up for my lost sleep the night before.

9/11/10 Leon

Today we woke up and had an amazing continental breakfast at the hotel.  We left as a group for our tour of Leon.  Our art history professor came along with us on the trip, so he did all of our tours for us.  We started out in front of the original walls of the city, built by the Romans in siglo I B.C. (First century B.C.).  The Romans built their cities in very practical ways, with roads in a grid system, aqueducts and a sewer system. 

         We then went on to tour San Isidoro.  A church built in the 12^th century (A.D.), during the Romanesque period.  We learned about the architecture of the building and what aspects of it made it Romanesque, including the archways, the paintings on the ceilings without much perspective and columns with large capitals.  It is hard to summarized everything we learned, but those are the basic points.

We then looked around the Palacio de los Guzmanes, a palace built by the Guzmanes family during the Renaissance.  Built in a different time period, it had architecture unique to the time period, including family crests built into the building, an open courtyard and columns with small and simple capitals.  After these tours, we had a lunch break and I went with a few other people to a Turkish restaurant to buy a Donor Kebab. Morgan, Naoto and I walked to a park that we had seen earlier and hung out there for a while.  All the stores were closed for siesta, so the park was a perfect place to visit.

After siesta, the group met up again to tour the cathedral!  It was amazing to go inside.  The cathedral is from the pure gothic period or thirteenth century.  Architectural characteristics of this period include that everything is built upwards (towards the sky/ heaven) and the floor plan of the building is in the shape of a cross.  The stained glass in the church is a new feature for the time period as well. 

After our tour of the church, some people went to the Saturday afternoon mass.  I chose to go back to the hotel and I played cards.  I went to dinner with a small group of kids at an Italian resteraunt that overlooked San Isidoro, where we had visited before.  The food was pretty good and after dinner we went to different tapas places and hung out.  At the tapas places, there is no place to sit down usually.  A different atmosphere than the U.S., you walk in and order your drink/ tapas and then stand along the wall inside or outside.  There are small counters on the wall that you can put your plates and glasses on. 

Returning a little before midnight, 5 of us ended up staying up until 3 a.m., just talking on the 3^rd floor terrace of the hotel.  I have really enjoyed getting to know everyone in the group and it was fun to stay up and talk about pretty much everything from does life exist on other planets to the work of FBI agents.

9/10/10 On the Road...

Today we left for our 5 day trip across the north of Spain!  We all met in front of the University at 7:30 and piled onto the bus.  Tons of people had stayed up all night out at clubs partying, but I wanted to be awake for the bus ride to see the sights.  As soon as we got out of Barcelona, the towns were few and far between.  We drove on a highway and views included lots of uninhabited land.  A lot of the land was being cultivated, and there were rows upon rows of olive trees or grape vines, or various other plants growing.  Occasionally, a town would pop up in the distance.  Most towns had a distinct church in the center, but couldn’t have been home to more than a few thousand people.  I was surprised by just how rural it was.  Oh and lots of wind mills!

            The trip was supposed to take 13 hours (which it did), but it was not 13 hours of driving.  Apparently, there are rules that the bus drivers have to take a certain number of breaks during their drives.  After about 3 hours of driving, we stopped at a rest station for 45 minutes.  There was a long line for the bathroom, because another tour bus had pulled in just before us.  I met a few ladies on the bus who were from New Jersey and they were doing and art tour in Spain, painting and drawing at all of their destinations.  After another 3 hours of driving, we stopped for lunch in Taragona.  The town was one of those random ones, not too touristy, since you can only get their via bus.  I ate the lunch that my mom packed for me (two boccadilos, strawberries and and an apple) with Morgan in the park.  Then we wandered around the town.  The church in the town was of the mudejar style (meaning that the Muslims built it for the Christains).  Morgan and I decided that we wanted to see the church on the hill, so we navigated through some side streets and made our way up to it. 

After our third leg of the trip, a bunch of us played frisbee on a piece of grass by the rest station.  Playing frisbee made me miss my good old neighborhood days on Blake Farm.  I accidently hit a Mercedes Benz in the parking lot, and everyone had a good laugh that I picked the nicest car in the parking lot to hit.  We set off for our final leg of the trip and the highway was parallel to El Camino de Santiago.  El Camino de Santiago is a path for religious pilgramiges, and it goes across the north of Spain, and it starts in various locations throughout Europe. 

            We arrived in Leon just before the sunset and after settling in, we walked from the hotel into the center of town.  The cathedral was gorgeous.  It was illuminated and with its gothic style with many spires pointing upward made it unlike any other church I had ever seen.  

The group split up to find dinner and I wandered around with Morgan and Michael trying to find a cheap place to eat.  We had a stipend for the weekend which was manageable, but I definitely will chip in some of my own money to eat quality food.  We found a place that had three courses, a bottle of wine and bread for 12 euros each.  We ate outside and I enjoyed a salad with chicken, risotto and coffee flavored flan (muy deliciosa!)  We stayed there for about 2 and a half hours. 

There is definitely an upside and downside to the restaurant system in Spain.  The upside is that the tip is include in the meal, so you don’t have to calculate when you get the bill.  This allows for long leisurely meals, because the waiters don’t rush you out, so they can get more business and earn more tips.  The downside to this is, they don’t work for your tip.  You can’t expected to be greeted by a happy, smiling wait staff, because they get paid the same no matter how nice or mean they are.  After this meal, we walked back to the hotel and went to bed.  It got more chilly in Leon than in Barcelona… I had to break out the jeans and fleece.  Tomorrow we start our art history tours in Leon!

View of Montjuic from my Terrace

9/8/10

I woke up around 7:30 again and after getting ready, I took the metro to the university. It takes me about a half hour between walking, taking the green line and taking the red line. Today I took the green line to the purple line, which seemed a lot faster. The metro system here blows the metro systems in the U.S. out of the water (granted I’ve only been to the ones in Boston and D.C.) Unlike the T, you don’t look outside the window and see sparks coming from the rails. Also, in Boston, the T has its own traffic lights to follow, but here the is nothing stopping the subway from getting from one stop to another. Another feature that the metro has here is a digital sign above the platform that tells how long until the train arrives. They come about every 3 minutes, so the wait is not long at all. There are also plenty of signs that make it easy to know which direction your going in or need to go. Overall, I am pretty impressed by the public transportation here, as I expected to be.


I used the computers at the University before class to check my e-mail and such. I apologize for the delay in the blog, but I haven’t lugged my computer to campus yet, so as soon as I do, you will get all the posts that I’ve been typing on my laptop. Class was alright, I’m kind of getting bored of the orientation classes, so it will be nice to start up our other classes next week.

After class, I went home for lunch because we had a long break before our art class at 6:30. I ate with my host mom and her daughter. Her daughter must work nearby, since she comes over for lunch every day (Mom will you let me do that when I’m like 30? Just kidding). Pepita also brings her grandkids to school and picks them up afterschool for her daughter, but I haven’t met them yet. Pepita’s daughter whipped out a cigarette after we ate, which surprised me because I don’t think I have ever been inside a house where someone has smoked/ known anyone who has smoked. I assumed she would walk out onto the terrace with it, but she didn’t. Smoking seems to be very popular here, and I’m not sure if it is a European thing or a city thing. I think it is less about being addicted and more of a social thing here though. Pepita said her daughter only smokes after she eats, but she also said her son smokes like a chimney, so I haven’t made up my mind if is social or an addiction.

I took siesta, because I still am feeling a little down from whatever virus has decided to attack my throat. Me duele la garganta. After sleeping, I took the metro back to the university, but took about an hour to shop. I am looking for an across the shoulder bag. I might not get one though, because it might just be a European thing, that will never be in style back home and that I would ever use again. If anyone predicts this becoming a new trend, let me know and I’ll make the investment. Art history class was interesting because we moved on from the influence of the Greeks and Romans, to the influence of the Moors, and then we discussed different architectural features of the Gothic period. I am really excited to take our trip and look for architecture from the different periods that we have learned about. Dinner was good as usual. I had some potatoes, green vegetables (no idea what they are), white asparagus for the first time, eggs, and strawberries for dessert! Now that I’ve finished writing this I’ll do my homework. Also, if you have any questions or just want to update me on what is going on back home, feel free to e-mail me! kflagg@bowdoin.edu