A trip to the coast

CIEE, my study abroad program, is great for many reasons, one being that they have day trips and weekend trips for the students pretty regularly (I don’t have to pay out of pocket for the trips so it feels like a free trip, but really, they’re included in the program fee).  Las Saturday was the first of the four main trips, and we left for Cádiz early in the morn.  Cádiz sits on a peninsula in the Atlantic coast of Spain and is the oldest town in Europe, so there’s a lot of really old stuff to see there.  We spent the morning on a walking tour of the Old Town with our guide Safari Hat Fernando, seeing the Catedral, the roman theater, the many plazas, some churches, and the market in town.  

the two towers are of the Catedral- the rest is a bunch of old buildings
that I don't remember the names of...sorry

la Catedral

view from the top of the Catedral

It would be a crime to skip seafood so close to the sea, so a group of us went to eat seafood after our tour.  Some Spanish boys came with our group, and we let them order for us.  So I’m not entirely sure what I ate for lunch, but I do know I ate shark, cuttlefish, these little guys that are like calamari but still have the eyes in them, fried shrimp (but if you made fried shrimp like you make a corndog), little fish that were still whole, and something else that used to live in the ocean.  

in the market.  looks like lunch!

lunch bunch.  I loved whatever it was that I ate!

Can’t take a trip to Cádiz without a stop at the beach!  There are a ton of beaches in Cádiz, but we went to the Playa de la Caleta.  It’s in the old town, and it looks a lot like Havana, Cuba (according to Fernando, but I mean, I’ve never been there).  Movies set in Cuba will often shoot in Cadiz if they’re not allowed in Cuba.  We had perfect beach weather: it was almost hot, the water was almost cold and oh-so-blue,  and I survived the afternoon with only a light pink tinge to my skin.  It was a beautiful afternoon at the beach!  

Playa Caleta- Die Another Day was filmed here-
no sign of James Bond, unfortunately

Sadly, it came to an end all too soon, and I arrived in Sevilla in time for dinner, which happened to be fish.  It was a wonderful way to spend my last "free" weekend- real classes on the following Monday!

hasta luego,

Marion

Two weeks later

Guess who’s back? I’ve been out of the country for exactly one month today, and I can’t decide if it feels like much longer or much shorter than that.  While I sort that out, here’s the run down of the past two weeks:

Friday was the last day of my two week intensive grammar class.  My class of 13 chicas was taught by the lovely Magdalena, and we learned a LOT.  Every day we began class at 9 am and started a discussion on whatever Magdalena wanted to talk about, be it the history of Spain, the political implications of the burka, the best beaches, or the geography of Spain.  The bulk of our time was spent learning “colloquial phrases”, i.e. how to insult Spanish boys (intensive grammar, right?).  Thank goodness the class was ladies only- Magdalena is quite the feminist, and I’ve learned how to say some pretty offensive things about the menfolk.  After an hour or two, we walked to a cafe around the corner and chatted about classes at home, our favorite movies, her daughter, or whatever comes up that day.  We returned to school for the last half hour of class, when we sometimes talked about grammar, and she assigned homework (read the newspaper or learn a joke).  Besides a short essay for our final exam, that was pretty much my first two weeks in class.  Obviously it was an enjoyable class, and I learned the Spanish of the young people.  Class ended at noon, leaving the afternoons free for siestas, exploration of the city, and cultural activities like…

entrance to La Alcázar

La Alcázar is the royal palace here in Sevilla, and is the oldest functioning place in Europe.  The king and queen weren’t there when I visited, but they still let us look around a bit.  When Spain was ruled by the Muslims, this was their fortress.  It was overtaken during the Christian reconquest (Sevilla was reconquered around 1200-1300), and the Christians continued construction.  It’s interesting though- with its construction spanning multiple centuries and cultures, the Alcázar doesn’t feel choppy.  It fits together almost seamlessly, and it’s not weird to see quotes from the Quran next to Renaissance architecture.  For example:

Christian on top, Muslim on the bottom

A peek inside...

inside - multiple room pic...pretty slick, right?

a room with lots of wall-sized tapestries

The Alcázar building is amazing, but the prize jewel is its gardens.  They are beautiful!  But due to a delayed tour, a growling stomach, and lunch waiting at home, I only got to visit the very beginning of the gardens.  Don’t worry, I’ll be back to check it out soon.  

just the beginning of the gardens

the baths at the Alcázar, where rainwater is collected

And later, a visit to...

La Catedral- a look of its side from the outside

La Catedral de Santa María de la Sede de Sevilla (or just the Catedral) is largest Gothic cathedral in Europe (but the biggest by volume, if you care about that) and sits right in the middle of Sevilla.  It was built on top of the Muslim mosque after the reconquest of Sevilla (because the mosque was falling apart...and the  Christians were in town now).  Its construction lasted 100 years, and the famous quote from the construction of the Catedral is this: Hagamos una Iglesia que los que la vieren labrada nos tengan por locos.  Basically they wanted to build a church so that people who see it think they were mad men.  Well, they did a good job because the place is insane!  Seriously, I was speechless for most of the tour.  The ceiling is SO high, the multiple organs are encased in beautifully carved wood, each chapel has incredible art, and the altar- huge, gold, and stunning.  I don’t really know how to describe it, so here are some pics that don’t do it justice.

the silver altar 

the main altarpiece in the Catedral.  There are more
 than 30 scenes on this altar.  Crazy.

looking up

tomb of Christopher Columbus- he may or may not be here.

Christ of the Mercies/Cristo de la Clemencia
stunning

And no trip to the Catedral is complete without a visit to the Giralda!

La Giralda from the entrance of the Catedral

The Giralda is the tower that stands next to the Catedral.  It is one of two parts left from the mosque that was there beforehand; the other is the orange tree patio outside of the Catedral:

orange tree patio

  We began our trek to the top and 34 ramps later, we’re standing in front of these views:

here's la Plaza de la Maestranza, or the bullfighting ring. ole!

It's been an incredible few weeks in Sevilla.  The culture here is very different than anything I’ve ever lived in before (duh), and although I still talk to Americans (here and at home), it feels like a different world and a different life over here. But I'll save it for another post!

hasta luego,

Marion

First week in Sevilla

Trying to catch y'all up on my first couple of weeks in Sevilla.  They've been quite busy, but let's begin with the first week, and later I'll have pictures and more Sevilla-ish stuff for you (what a tease).  Here we go!

I arrived in Sevilla Monday afternoon (Sept 5), after a super early morning, two late flights, delayed luggage, and miscommunications in the airport concerning my visa and a boarding pass.  The people from CIEE (my study abroad program) are waiting for me, and they take me to the bus, which is parked on the side of the highway.  Later I learn that they were leaving the airport after being stalled for two hours when I arrived, so I hike to the highway to get on the very full bus...embarrassing, but still very nice of them to stop.  They take us to a hotel for orientation and we have lunch.  It’s then that the lack of sleep, late flights, not understanding the language, and realizing that I truly do not know ANYONE here, catches up with me.  I barely make it in my room before I have the what-the-heck-was-I-thinking culture shock breakdown.  But I’m able to pull myself together in time for dinner with my orientation small group.  I make it through introductions before I’m told I’m sitting with the wrong group...oops.  [Note: this is when I decide that I might as well take advantage of the fact that no one knows me, so I won’t be embarrassed about the mistakes/dumb things that happen this semester.  Talk about freedom!] So I go to my real group, and we have quite the dinner.  We’re only allowed to speak Spanish at school events, and trying to get to know each other when we’re all half asleep and can’t communicate makes for a whole lot of awkward silence.  But by the end of the night, I’ve made some new friends, and I’m starting to think that I just might survive the semester.  And great news!  After dinner, I take a walk with a group of girls, and guess who’s in the group?  Kelly!  Ok, I didn’t know who Kelly was either, but turns out she was an exchange student at Tupelo Christian Preparatory School when I was at Tupelo High.   We didn’t know each other in high school, but we’re basically from the same town...well, she’s originally from South Korea, but she claims Tupelo, too.  It was such a blessing to meet her, and we’ve become good friends now.  Tupelo kids always stick together. It wasn’t until I met here that I realized how much I appreciate a connection to home.  In hindsight, I can laugh about the first day (especially the frazzled emails my parents received during the breakdown), but I definitely was caught off guard by such a rough landing in Sevilla.

The next two days of orientation consist of city tours, meetings, activities, delicious tapas, incredible flamenco, a language skills interview, and getting to know my small group.  Good thing our awkward dinner on the first night was not an indicator of our group, because we’re a pretty fun group!  But, my time in the safety of the hotel ended Wednesday afternoon when I move to my home stay.  My señora Carmen and her husband Miguel pick me up at the hotel and take me to their apartment in Triana.  Triana is a barrio in Sevilla, across the river from El Centro, where all the big and important stuff is.  Carmen is a great cook, and both of them are so kind and patient with me, and are quick to help me finish a sentence or explain the bus system to me.   This doesn’t mean it’s not difficult and uncomfortable to move into a strange home basically blind, and figuring out how I fit in here is an ongoing process.   But every day it gets a little easier, and I’m beginning to feel a bit more comfortable here.  The end of the week is more meetings, scheduling classes, tapas and flamenco, and making new friends.  All in all, a good week.  I’ve explored the city (intentionally and unintentionally- my natural instinct is to walk away from where I want to go, rather than towards it), sweated through the blazing heat, adapted to the schedule, walked miles and miles, taken siestas, gone to the neighborhood bars,  and realized that all us americanos here have a lot more in common than I would have guessed.

Hasta luego (as the local folks say),

Marion

Interlaken

Final countdown before España!
After changing trains in Zurich and Bern, we arrived in Interlaken mid morning.  Sleeping on the train was fine, especially when we woke up to the sun rise over the beautiful mountains and small Swiss towns.  Interlaken is a small town, and it was really relaxing after days in the big cities.  After some lunch, we stop in a park at the base of the mountain we’re going to hike.  Correciton- we slept in the park.  We were so tired that we just fell asleep in the middle of the day in the park.  I definitely got sunburned, but it was a small price to pay for a nap.  

naptime in the park

Then, we begin our ascent up the mountain.  I’m not sure how far up we made it (definitely more than a third, maybe close to half way), but I was DYING at this point, and made the decision to call it quits.  One thing I’ve learned on this trip is that it would be good for me to invest in some serious physical endurance, especially when climbing mountains is involved.

quite the hike-I know we definitely made it further the clearing on the right

half of Interlaken and the lake

Besides Thai food for dinner and a bit of laundry, that was our day.  We get up early the next morning for our canyoning adventure.  It’s pretty chilly and rainy outside, but that doesn’t stop us!  Our guides drive us to the top of the canyon, we put on our wetsuits and helmets and being our adventure by repelling down the 150 foot canyon wall.  I was not entirely confident in my repelling skills (read: I was real scared) and apparently my expression of horror the whole way down was priceless.  We make our way through the canyon with lots of sliding and jumping and climbing and zip-lining.  The water was FREEZING, like take your breath away cold, but it felt so good.  We had a blast!  At the end of the adventure, they gave us local swiss cheese, bread, tomatoes for sandwiches.   When we get back to Interlaken, we head into town to find a small snack...ok, more gelato.  We’re sitting in the shop making plans for the afternoon when we hear a rumbling in the distance.  And then everyone starts running to the streets.  We decide to join in, and there is a HUGE herd of cows walking through the streets!  They all have the huge bells and flowers around their necks, and there are so many of them.

Switzerland's "running of the bulls"-

So we run after the parade to their final destination (no one else is really doing this, but this is very exciting!) which is near a wrestling tournament set up in the middle of town.  The place is covered with people so we join them to watch the action.  There’s a huge stadium where the wrestling takes place, but we sit outside where they have a live feed on the big screen.  We watch for a while and then strike up a conversation with a man near us, and he explains the event to us (sorry for the history lesson, but I had lots to learn about Swiss wrestling): 

a look at the crowd in the stadium

It’s called Schwingen, which is a type of folk wrestling.  The tournament (Schwing) only happens every 5 years and it lasts two days.  Each wrestler represents a different town or area of a certain region of Switzerland.  It used to be an informal thing in that the participants didn’t train for it (but they usually had physically demanding jobs that prepared them for it), but now the wrestlers train for the event.  There are different matches going on at the same time, and there are five piles of sawdust that they wrestle on.  They dress in plain clothes, but they all wear the same shorts over their pants.  To win the wrestling match, a wrestler has to have a hold of the shorts of the other and pin both of his shoulders to the ground.  And there is a point system for each type of move and things of that nature.  Also, there is a rock throwing contest.  Seriously.  Apparently this rock was stolen by one region of Switzerland when it split from the other forever ago.  Legend has it that it’s the same rock, but who knows.  They just see who can throw the rock the farthest without falling down.  The prizes are all housed in a tent right near the stadium.  I think everyone leaves with a prize, and it can be basically anything, like a herd of cattle (which is the grand prize that ran through the streets) or appliances or what have you. 

the finals! 

So that was really neat,  because we got to experience some serious Swiss culture and we didn’t even plan it!  It begins to pour so we end our Swiss day then, and I get ready to leave the group for SPAIN

Vienna

Part two of the trip!

We leave our roommate and the hostel at 6, catch the bus to Vienna and arrive at noon.  After dropping off our bags at the hostel, we cross the street to the Naschmarkt.  It’s like a farmer’s market but it’s open all day, every day, and they have tons of fresh vegetables, fruits, olives, meat, candy, and nuts, and then some small retail booths.  We eat lunch at one of the restaurants in the market.  I order the chicken kebabs, which came with rice and tzatziki sauce.  I wish they would bottle the tzatziki sauce- seriously, I would drink it by the gallon, it was so good!  We wandered around Vienna (hardly consulting our not-so-good map) searching for the famous sights.  We found Karlskirche and the Opera House, but we couldn’t quite find the Hofburg Palace, which we heard we should not miss.  We stop at Stephansdom, a huge cathedral in Vienna, and go to the top of one of the towers in a TINY elevator operated by a large man.  It’s overcast, but we can see lots of the beautiful city.

I think this is the top of the Parliament 

 We leave and finally find the Hofburg, which we see at this point is HUGE and basically, impossible to miss.  THIS is what we’d been looking for!  There are horses, museums, gardens, buildings, fountains and statues- you know, your basic palace.  

a small part of the Hofburg grounds

With plans to return tomorrow, we have some traditional schnitzel and apple strudel for dinner (Vienna’s fried chicken and apple pie, except they probably came up with it first) and try to walk to the train station to get tickets for the next part of our trip.  But we get very lost in the dark and rain, so we call it a night, determined to get the tickets in the morning.  One of our roommates in the hostel is from South Korea, and we visit with her for a while.  She was so kind, she gave each of us a good luck gift-a silver lining after being lost in the rain!

The next morning we wake up to get train tickets and to begin our bike tour of Vienna.  Our guide is an older man who is very nice (but unfortunately, not the other guide that looks like Bradley Cooper).  The tour was a perfect way to see the city, and we saw so many things we would have missed if we had walked by ourselves.  Vienna is quite the biking city, and it was nice to travel like the locals instead of being run over by them.  I don’t know exactly where we went or everything that we saw, but I’m pretty sure we hit the big sights.  Maybe more importantly, our guide took us to what he called the best ice cream shop in Vienna.  I’m thinking he was right, because it was superb.  And I even branched out and got a scoop  of chocolate/coffee and hazelnut (Dad, coffee ice cream is good stuff.  Maybe that’s the best way to start liking coffee-start with ice cream).  After the bike tour, we went to the Hofburg to see the museums, but decided to go to the Schönbrunn Palace when we saw the ticket prices and got caught while casually strolling in to the museum.  The Schönbrunn is the summer place for the royal family in Vienna, and it is beautiful.  We walked right to the back of the palace and walked through the garden to the huge Obelisk Fountain, and then to the top of the Gloriette that overlooks the whole backyard.   

view of the gardens, fountain, and Gloriette from the back of the palace

the top of the fountain, as seen from behind the fountain

the palace from the top of the Gloriette

We stayed for a while, and honestly could have made a whole day of it, but we had other things to attend to-gelato.  Taking Uncle Rob and Aunt Linda’s advice for gelato in Vienna, we had to go to Zanoni and Zanoni. Considering both the ice cream/gelato I had, I would definitely say it was a tie.  I mean really, how can you choose?  After dinner, we grab our bags from the hostel and stop at the Parliament building on our way to our night train.  On summer evenings, there’s a huge screen set up in front of the Paliament where they show operas and other sophisticated things.   It was very swanky, very much not a jeans-and-tshirt-and-eat-food-with-your-fingers event.  They served food and drinks in real glassware and everyone was dressed up (and not carrying luggage, in case you were wondering).  I think the opera we watched was called The Hunter’s Bride in some language that was not English.  It was so cool, and I wish we could have stayed longer, but we had a train to catch!

our classy evening

We make it to the train where we shared a compartment with a surly teenage Austrian vampire, who thankfully got off an hour after we left.  He was sooooooo annoying and continued to talk about American politics when clearly none of us wanted to. Thankfully, he left us with an empty compartment as we made our way to Interlaken!

Let's start at the very beginning

Hola!  It’s been two weeks since I’ve left the States, and figured it was time to get this show on the road.  Here’s the plan for the semester:  travel for a week, then semester in Sevilla, and then travel a week at the end.  I’m thinking the blog will be a way for me to share what I’m learning and doing this semester, and also a way for me to keep track of everything.  Since I haven’t posted so far, I’ve decided to try to keep it short.  Ok, it’s not short at all, but I divided it into sections so you can read whatever parts you chose whenever you want. I plan to have posts on Spain later this week, but for now we’ll just catch up on the first week. ¿Vale?

Prague

I started out the semester traveling a week with my friends Elizabeth and Brandon.  Brandon and Elizabeth are friends from high school, and Elizabeth and I met at Ole Miss.  We planned early on to travel together for a week, and then I would go to Spain and they would make their way to Scotland, where they’re studying for the semester.  We started our trip with two days in Prague, because we’ve heard it’s the place to go in Europe.  

After a long flight from the US, we arrive in Prague at 10 in the morning and head out to explore the city.  We are so jet lagged at this point, so we decide the best way to stay awake is to keep walking.  And that’s what we did all day.  We walked across the Charles Bridge, up to the Prague Castle, around the Town Center, and along the Vlatava river.  It’s a beautiful city for sure- the best way I know to describe it is that every building is a piece of art.  Every view looks like it’s from a Disney movie; it’s a little surreal. The weather there was sublime, and we spent most of our time in Prague enjoying the sights and weather outside.  

on the Charles Bridge

We eat local food at a pub for dinner (learned that Czech sausage and pickled cheese is probably not my thing).  And we finish the day off with some gelato, which became a daily necessity for our trip (we need energy for all of our walking, right?).  

The next morning we head to Lennon’s Wall.  There weren’t many signs or advertisement around it, it’s just a wall on a street.  But the wall is so cool!  There are layers and layers of graffiti and messages on the wall in tons of different languages, and I bet you could look all day and still not see everything on the wall.  

Lennon's Wall

Brandon, Elizabeth and me at the wall

Next on the list is the Petrin Tower, which is a much smaller version of the Eiffel Tower that sits on top of a hill overlooking the city.  The view from here is incredible!  This city looks like it’s from a fairytale.   We ate lunch at a Monastery on our way down the hill.   

Prague Castle

view from the Monastery

At lunch, we decided that we want to see Vienna, too, although we love Prague. We go back to the hostel to make plans for our new trip, and we get to meet our new roommate!  His name is Ian, a single, middle aged man from Holland who likes to tango and bike.  Not going to lie, it was a little awkward, so we peace out and head to the Vyšehrad, which is a castle that overlooks the city.  This is probably my favorite place we visited in Prague.  It was breathtaking- it had a park, and graveyard, and the beautiful Basilica of St. Peter and Paul.  There was a walk around the perimieter of the castle with a view of the whole city and the river.  The view is stunning especially as we watched the sun set.  

view from the Vysehrad

The Basilica of St. Peter and Paul

another view...one of my favorites

We ate dinner back in the main part of the city, and I decided to go Czech for our last night and get the beef goulash with bread dumplings- it was so good!  After dinner, we decide to sneak along with the pub crawl that leaves from the hostel (it was really expensive, so we decide to follow it for a while instead of actually joining it).  The first pub was really neat, but the pub crawl itself was kinda lame (and that's saying something if I think it's lame).  Fingers crossed that Ian’s not back already, we head back.  He comes in a few minutes after we arrive, apparently to see what we were up to.  According to him, the tango in Prague is not all its cracked up to be.  But when he saw that we were not doing anything with him, he left and we got ready head to Vienna bright and early!