Toledo!

So after stuffing our faces with tapas the night before, we arose pretty early Saturday morning and walked to the train station.



Our destination was Toledo. This little city is about a 30 minute train ride from Madrid. Like Granada, you instantly feel like you're seeing the real Spain when you're there. I don't really remember all of the history, and I would botch it if I tried... look it up on Wikipedia. Trust me, you might be amazed :)

It's one of those cities that you immediately feel cozy in. I think there are only about 80,000 citizens, and it has definitely maintained that village/small town vibe. Unfortunately, it was REALLY cold and windy that day, so parts of the tour weren't very enjoyable and I didn't "absorb" it like I should have. I really should have done this a long time ago because now I can't remember much! I'll just let the pictures do the talking :)





The next to last picture is most of the group at lunch in Toledo. It was in this restaurant that I discovered a hole in the crotch of my favorite pair of jeans. Awesome.

The trip was really fun though. Now I'll leave you with the view from the room Porschia and I were in.

That crazy lit up roof is the roof of a club in Madrid. We were told that it's "where all the pretty people go."

Madrid

I'm trying to be enthusiastic as I write this post, but it's hard. I'm going to finally write this post because I know some people still want to see pictures from Madrid, and I don't think I can write my other posts until this one is done.

So, the morning after our Thanksgiving feast those of use in the KEI program boarded a train to Madrid. We got to ride the really fast train that my dad has been talking about since last Spring, but I was unaware of this until we arrived in Madrid. It was a little anti-climatic.

While in the city and the few days after I didn't think I liked Madrid. However, now that I think back on the trip, I think that it's a nice place. Maybe this is due to the fact that our group felt more like a group of friends than we had before. We finally got used to being around each other and could just hang out together.

We arrived in Madrid before lunch and had some free time to look around. Well, were were supposed to have quite a bit of time to look around, but it took some people a really long time at the bank, so Porschia, Chenell, Hunter and I left them. We only made it as far as KFC. It was gross and Chenell got sick, so I don't have especially fond memories of that lunch. After lunch we all headed to the famous Prado museum. I wasn't allowed to take pictures, but I did get some before we headed inside.
I have no clue which street this is, but I like the picture.
I'm pretty sure this is the front of the Prado. I don't really remember.
I got a few excellent pictures of Porschia, but I'll keep them under wraps... I think she would appreciate that.
I thought this church was pretty.
Juan-our tour guide at the Prado and in Toledo.

After the Prado, but before the tapas tour, a few of us stopped at a cafe for drinks. I was really cold that weekend, and we wanted heat! I'm not sure what happened to the rest of the group.
Caroline + cafe con leche = happy. Sorry for showing you a sideways picture.

Then, we met up with everyone for the tapas tour. Tapas are a much bigger deal in Madrid (and the rest of Spain) than they are in Barcelona. I didn't like them at all until this weekend. Genevieve took us to five different tapas bars so we could try all of their specialties. By the end of the night we were FULL! I didn't get many pictures of the food. It was almost gone by the time I could get my camera out.
Hunter and Jonathan getting ready for a night full of food.
According to the Guiness Book of World Records, this is the oldest established restaurant. In. The. World.
I was excited about my newfound love for tapas. Matthew wasn't putting up with any of my shenanigans.

This is the only picture I have of any food from that night. Patatas Bravas. Hunter was a happy man after eating in this bar.


Coming soon... Toledo!

Czech Me Out!

So, it's the afternoon, and I need to be writing a very long paper about La Movida. What better time to write a blog post about Prague! This post will be very very long. Our internet is working well at the moment so I have to make the most of this opportunity.

Oh, and I'm listening to Christmas music. I don't like Christmas music unless it's a hymn. Something must be wrong.

By the way, did you know that you can listen to the radio on iTunes? I remember doing it once in high school before anyone really cared what iTunes was. I rediscovered it today. Oh, the things you overlook...

"Hang your stockings and say your prayers because Santa Claus comes tonight..."

My internet just started going in and out, so this post could take a llooooonnnnggg time to write.


In the beginning of November, Porschia and I took a trip to Prague. I had wanted to go to Prague for several years, so I knew this was one trip I had to take while I was living in Europe. Sure enough, Prague met and exceeded my expectations. I have to admit, I was initially a little nervous and scared I would be let down because it was already dark when I arrived. And it was 4 PM. I don't think it should ever be dark when you arrive in a city for the first time. Especially at 4 PM. However, everything is clearer in daylight and I fell in love the next morning. The city is beyond beautiful. It's so strange to walk into a building and then realize people have standing in the same spot since 1200. It's cool to observe history firsthand.

We hopped on the bus and then on the tram to get to our hostel. I observed 3 things during this first hour.
1. I don't think I have ever been as confused as I was in my first hour of hearing and seeing nothing but Czech. People talking, advertisements, announcements...
2. Czech people will STARE AT YOU ALL THE TIME NO MATTER IF YOU STARE BACK. I put that in caps because at the time, my thoughts were in caps too. It was odd to say the least.
3. There was no need for us to buy those tram tickets. No one pays anyway.

Then we arrived at our hostel, which I've already written about. I just want to emphasize again that this is the best hostel in the world.

We we to eat and walked around for a long time that night, but I chose not to take my camera. I wanted to kick myself about halfway through the night because I knew we were seeing things that I might not see again. And, when you're seeing it with fresh eyes, your pictures always come out better.

Friday morning we woke up and tried to make it to the free morning tour, but Oma (at the hostel) insisted that we have tea and toast. We were late. So, instead we decided to do a little sightseeing on our own and catch the afternoon tour.

Note: When you are in Prague (because you should go), take the Free Prague Walking Tours. Each one only a couple of hours long and you will get a good feel of the city and the places where you would like to spend more time. The guides work for tips, of which about 100-200 korunas is the norm. (That's still less than $10!)

And that's pretty much how our weekend was. We walked around A LOT, and we ate. Porschia and I found out that we travel really well together. We both will pretty much walk until our feet fall off to make sure we see everything, we don't like staying in dirty hostels, and we don't want to sacrifice good food in order to save a few bucks.

Now, what you've all been waiting for.... PICTURES!!! (I took 396, so it will be hard to pick just a few)

I had to have a picture with the astronomical clock. It really was a bit of a disappointment. Unless you're there at noon, it only chimes. At noon the two blue doors at the top open, and little puppet people pass by. I remember a show that used to come on the travel channel. It took 5-6 college aged kids and sent them around the world to just video their adventures. The first episode I saw was in Prague, and all I remember about it was the puppet people passing by the doors.


Walking towards the gateway to the Charles Bridge. All of the streets are tiny and cobblestoned (is that a word?)


One of many statues on the Charles Bridge.


This nice, wholesome work of art is by the Czech artist David Cerny. I'm just going to copy and paste the description from his website. The idea is disarmingly simple. Two bronze sculptures pee into their oddly-shaped enclosure. While they are peeing, the two figures move realistically. An electric mechanism driven by a couple of microproccesors swivels the upper part of the body, while the penis goes up and down. The stream of water writes quotes from famous Prague residents. Visitor can interupt them by sending SMS message from mobile phone to a number, displayed next to the sculptures. The living statue then ‘writes’ the text of the message, before carrying on as before. He has several other works in Prague including one with babies climbing up the building, a man hanging from a window, and this...


Moving along...

This is the world's smallest street. It really is an official street. At the bottom is a restaurant, and there is a traffic light to let you know when to walk. Apparently people get stuck in there a lot.


Lennon wall. The graffiti on this walls started when John Lennon was killed. The city repainted it several times before deciding to "Let It Be."

I'm pretty proud of that one...


The main courtyard to the BIGGEST CASTLE IN THE WORLD!!!


This is inside the castle. The whole castle is like a big city. I don't know why blogger stopped rotating my pictures for me.

The president lives in this part of the castle. When the flag is up it means he is home. It was up. We hung out for a few hours.


How beautiful is this city!

One night Porschia and I decided to go on a riverboat cruise. The website told us, "Do not compare it to riverboat cruises that you might find in London or Paris and you will have fun." The next two pictures were taken from the boat. Low light + moving boat = more than a few blurry pictures.


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The church in Old Town Square.


The old gunpowder tower... or something?


Caroline, Charles Bridge, Prague Castle


Watch out, Reuben! Porschia has a new man!


The Charles Bridge and Prague Castle in daylight.

My next little story and photo montage concerns our Saturday lunch. We had been told to to to a beer house called U Fleku. The building has been there since the 1400s, and it is the place to go to experience Czech culture. The Czechs are especially proud of their beer. So, we went to U Fleku to have some traditional Czech food, and had to have the beer because they don't serve anything else... seriously. You don't even get to choose what kind you want because they just put it in front of you. Before we finished we saw at least 3 people either passed out or carried out the door... and it was NOON! I must say it was a good experience though. There were musicians playing Czech folk songs and everyone sang along, the food wasn't great but wasn't terrible, but it was the kind of loud boisterous environment that you only see in movies. I loved it.





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Wenceslas Square to one direction...


...and the other direction. It's large. The entire time I was trying to remember the song, but it was only after I came back that I did.


I think this is the national museum... or library...

And that's pretty much it! I'm tired from uploading all of those pictures, but I have one more. I woke up during the flight back to Barcelona, and this is what I saw from my window...


Isn't God good?

The BEST hostel in Prague!

Before I write my post about Prague, I have to give a review of the hostel we stayed in.

Porschia and I found our hostel on HostelWorld (I told you I love it!) Once again, the most important criteria we had was its cleanliness rating. One we found Prague's Heaven and it's 99% cleanliness rating, we were sold! The price was pretty good too!

So, we arrived at Prague's Heaven at around 5 Thursday evening and were greeted by the nicest people. The hostel only has a few rooms but it's really cozy and has been updated. The bathrooms looked like they were remodeled recently. They showed us to our room (we got a private room) which was SPOTLESS! No kidding. I don't love staying in hotels anyway, but this room and bathroom were cleaner than many hotels that I've stayed in before. I've stayed in nice places before, but youth pastors and field trip organizers aren't the best at picking winners, you know. My mom would have been okay staying here... and that's saying something :)

The staff were really helpful in showing us where to go and places to see. In the mornings and afternoon Oma (one of the owner's mother) would greet us with breakfast or hot tea to knock off the chill. She didn't speak much English, but she was the cutest thing ever. If you have to be somewhere at a certain time, build in about 20-30 minutes for morning time with Oma :)

The only semi-negative thing I have to say about Prague's Heaven is it's location. It is not located in the middle of the tourist attractions (Charles Bridge, Old Town Square, etc.), but it's really not a problem. The tram system runs 24 hours a day and is really efficient. It took maybe 10-15 minutes to get to all of the action.

If you're making a trip to Prague, try to stay at Prague's Heaven. I promise you won't be disappointed!

Where to Stay: Granada Hostel edition

After searching around on HostelWorld (which I highly recommend), Jonathan and I decided on Mochi Guesthouse. It combined the main two things we were looking for: a high cleanliness rating (me) and it was fairly cheap (Jonathan). So we booked two beds in the co-ed dorm and away we went! (By the way, the co-ed dorm thing was a little weird for me.)

I have since stayed at nicer places, but my time at Mochi Guesthouse made for a good first hostel experience. On the upside you could use their internet and kitchen as much as you wanted. The beds were very comfortable and clean and the people running it were wonderful! Takashi deals with all of the customers and is fluent in several languages. He was very helpful and easy to talk to. We hung out some while I was waiting on Jonathan. His mother owns and lives in the guesthouse. She only speaks Spanish so she didn't interact with guests much, but she did wake up at 5 AM to call a taxi for me!

On the downside, it is located in the heart of the Albaicin area and about a 10 minute walk to all of the action. If Jonathan had not been with me I would have felt very uncomfortable walking back and forth at night. There were some girls traveling alone that did it, but they must be braver than I. Also, Granada is in the mountains and it gets very cold once the sun starts going down. There was no heat, but the bedding was thick and I actually slept very well.

While I'm sure there are a lot more options (both better and worse) for staying in Granada, I would recommend at least looking at the Mochi Guesthouse. It worked for me!

Thanksgiving in Spain!

Most of my time here in Spain is spent with non-Americans. So, when we would lament our missing out on Thanksgiving last week, we were met with lots of questions. I ended up getting 2-count them 2!- Thanksgiving meals from these questions. The first one was with my small group at the church I'm attending here. Really it was a Thanksgiving celebration/going away party. Our friend Tim left us for sunny south Spain. He brought Christmas pudding to our Thanksgiving meal... silly Brit.


A portion of our delicious meal!


The guest of honor and I. We're awkward.


This is Heather. We met through our blogs AND she helped us get engaged. She's alright I guess... JUST KIDDING!!! I'm not sure why this is sideways. Blogger usually flips it for you.


The whole group. My camera was the last one, and everyone was tired of taking pictures. You can't see everyone's face.


Then the next night, Porscia and I cooked a feast for my roommates and a few other people. Also, it was Chenell's birthday, so we celebrated that too.


It's not the best picture, but it shows everyone. L-R: Marina, Me, Chenell, Porschia, Jonathan, Hunter, Chris, Anna


This is part of our feast. Porschia made the meats, chicken and beef tenderloin. I made the sides, homemade mac & cheese, broccoli and cauliflower salad, dressing, and caramelized sweet potatoes. And Chenell made rice.


Porschia and I really tried to find normal cake mix so that we could make cupcakes for Chenell, but all we found was flan mix... GROSS! We ended up buying an ice cream cake from Consum (my grocery store of choice). Then she kept trying to make a speech... 2 or 14 times. We had to make her stop because the candles were melting her cake.

It wasn't Thanksgiving with the family, but it was about as good as it could get. I really enjoyed not only sharing some of my culture with people, but I really enjoyed the time we spent together. I really do have a little family here :)