Weekend Getaway/Scavenger Hunt

Work is going well, but it leaves us exhausted at the end of the day. When the weekend creeps up on us, we look forward to sleeping in, contacting family and watching terrible American tv shows online.

It was high time we took another vacation, so we made plans to visit another part of Spain. A few of my students and friends highly suggested that where ever we plan to travel, we stay in a Parador. Paradores are government-owned buildings in Spain that have been made into 4 star luxury hotels. Many paradores were formerly castles and monasteries, but others are modern buildings. These places have affordable prices for hotel rooms--especially for young people. It was the first time I have ever seen a discount for people over 18 and under 60.

I cursed myself for buying train tickets that departed from Madrid at 8:45 in the morning, but we reached our train with little time to spare. The train ride takes about 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Salamanca is now a large modern city, but if you take a cab from the train station, you'll reach the historical area in a few minutes. Here's a picture of a rather interesting sculpture that greeted us upon exiting the Salamanca train station. It looks like a scary unicorn.



We went straight to our parador to check-in. Most of historical Salamanca has signs like this: red calligraphy on golden sandstone. Quite a nice touch. The parador itself was actually a modern building and not an old castle. Still, it was quite beautiful. Here are pictures of the main lobby and our room!









This last picture is our shower faucet. We thought it was worth pointing out because the knobs had specific temperatures you could set the water to (in Celsius, of course). I've never seen anything like it!

From our room, we had a great view of the city! The big building on the hill is the old and new cathedral.



The cathedral is pretty interesting-it's two cathedrals built into one another. The first one, the Cathedral Vieja (Old Cathedral) is more plan and was built in the 12th-13th centuries. In the 1500s, King Ferdinand V decided to add a new cathedral to the edifice in order to house more worshippers. The Cathedral Nueva was the built with a mixture of Gothic and Baroque architecture. When you walk inside of it, you can take some amazing pictures of the city.



Before we went to Salamanca, our students informed us that we had to find the astronaut that is sculpted on the entrance to the New Cathedral. Apparently, while constructing the New Cathedral, they wanted to have pieces commemorating more modern achievements. It doesn't quite fit in with the traditional saint portraits and decor, but it was still challenging to locate...kinda like a Where's Waldo for art and architecture. A spotted him after a few minutes.



After checking that off our list, we proceeded deeper into the city and found a building called Casa de las Conchas-literally, House of the Shells. A knight named Rodrigo Maldonado built the edifice in the 16th century. The shells are a symbol for the Order of Santiago, a Spanish military and religious order. The building is now a public library.




We proceeded farther north, where we found Salamanca's Plaza Mayor. It was built by King Felipe V as a sign of gratitude for the city's support during the War of Spanish Succession. At one point in history, it used to hold bullfights. It is very similar to Plaza Mayor in Madrid, except that the entire square was constructed with golden sandstone, which is said to look lovely at dusk. Unfortunately, it was quite a cloudy day and we weren't able to judge it for ourselves.



We saw this tower through the trees and knew it was something important. In fact, it was Torre de Clavero, a tower that is the remains of a palace from the 1400s.



Whenever we walked from our parador to the city, we would have to cross the Puente Romano. This is a Roman bridge that was built over the Tormes river in the 1st century AD. It's definitely the oldest site in the area. It's simply amazing to see such a conglomeration of artifacts from different centuries that makes Salamanca what it is today.



We had only been in the city for 10 hours and we had already accomplished a lot; however, there was still one major landmark we had yet to discover-the university entrance. This is one of the most famous aspects of Salamanca. It's the oldest university in Spain and one of the oldest universities in Europe (dating back to 1218!) When we entered the historic city, we did find university buildings, but we failed to find the entrance. The next morning, we headed to the front desk of our parador to discover where the entrance was. Their directions helped us to find the gate in no time.



When you visit Salamanca, this is the main attraction-specifically, the ornate entrance, which has a portrait of the Catholic monarchs. Our students informed us that we had to find the frog hidden in the entrance. There are many stories about this frog: some say that if you find the frog, you will pass all your exams, others say it brings good luck, etc. A was able to find the frog, sitting on the skull. Can you see it?




We then proceeded back to Madrid, elated with the items we accomplished! We had a wonderful trip, but we were happy to return home!

Are you ready for some Fútbol (Americano)?!

I realize that it's been a few weeks since I've posted anything. Last night was of course the time-honored Super Bowl in the U.S. Usually, it's very difficult to watch football games here in Madrid; all the bars show soccer matches, since that's what the customers want to see. Once, A and I headed to an Irish bar to watch some of a Ravens game. The bartender later changed the channel once an important soccer game was about to air that the majority of the barflies wanted to see.

But yesterday was a day for the United States of glorious America--it was the Super Bowl! Of course because of the time difference, this meant the game would be starting at 12:30am for us, but it didn't matter. Many ex-pat Americans (and a large number of Spaniards) flooded the Hard Rock cafe in Madrid to watch the much-anticipated face-off between the Saints and the Colts. Although I only learned which teams were playing about 15 minutes before arriving at the restaurant, I was excited to watch football.

After living in Spain for several months, I have become more patriotic about the U.S. I was impressed with Queen Latifah's performance of "Oh Beautiful" and I loved hearing Carrie Underwood sing our national anthem. One of my American friends who joined us made me put my hand over my heart like I was in grade school again. It's amazing--I'm not even a big fan of football (I usually pester A and try to understand all the complicated calls), but that night, I became nostalgic for home.

Unfortunately, we missed the most important part of the Super Bowl--the commercials. Apparently, they showed UK commercials instead, which lacked the vulgar, stupid, senselessly violent characteristics that I have grown to admire in my American advertisements.

We stayed in the bar until a little after 2am. We had initially planned to stay awake all night for the game and then attend work the following day, but we became quite tired after The Who performed. It was a smart idea to leave early, especially since we had a full day of teaching Monday.

While we watched the Super Bowl, one of my friends was interviewed for an online Spanish newspaper. Here's the link to the page. If you click play on the picture, you see the guys interview a few people including a young woman who speaks English (my friend, of course). You can see my curly hair in the background as I am watching the tv and the delicious food passing by.

We are traveling next weekend! Can't wait!

Temple of Doom

After our adventures in Africa and late-night antics with friends, we resumed teaching. It was quite difficult to adjust to our teaching schedule again since we really relished sleeping in until 11am, but all good things must come to an end. Our weekend was pretty low-key as we recuperated from a rather busy week.

Last Friday, I began taking Spanish lessons from a woman who lives downtown. I thought that this would be a good opportunity to focus on my personal language issues and improve with a native speaker. Her price was perfect, so I scheduled a class. The teacher is a bit older and she speaks Spanish very softly. She mumbles her words, which makes it even more difficult for me to understand her. To put it in perspective, think about how difficult it is when you strain to hear what your grandmother is saying in a language you are comfortable with--now imagine that it is a foreign language! I'm not sure how to proceed; perhaps I'll keep with this teacher for another week and see if things improve...

Since we didn't have much of an eventful weekend, I thought I'd post up some pictures we took while our friends came to visit Madrid. Our friends' desire to see Spain influenced us to finally go to Plaza de España and see the Templo de Debod. This is an ancient Egyptian monument given as a gift to Madrid. Spanish engineers rescued the temple, which was in danger of being ruined by the Aswan Dam flooding. The temple was built in the 2nd century B.C. I had been recommended to visit the site at dusk, which made my pictures more beautiful! It' quite an awesome sight in Madrid.





Hope you have a good week!

In and Out of Africa: Part Deux

Our half day tour wrapped up quickly. We proceeded to eat at a fine Moroccan establishment and quickly looked into a textile store where they had someone working a loom to weave a rug. Here's a photo of said loom.



The afternoon was so much fun, we requested Khalid to give us a full day tour the next day. This time, we had to wake up early. We began to walk down the busy streets filled with shops and customers. Here's a shot of the typical market streets.



That day, we were able to see the big stuff, such as the tannery, one of the more popular attractions to Fes. We walked up several small stairways and came into a large showroom filled with leather bags/shoes/jackets etc. Needless to say, the place smelled like a barn. Here's a picture of the immense merchandise.



We went over to the balcony where we had a great view of the tannery; here, you can see all these vats of dye for the leather.





The group of white vats is a dye made of ammonia and pigeon poop (ew). The owners showed us a wide variety of leather--camel, goat, cow etc. Our friends bought a good deal of leather so they can make purses at home (I forgot to explain that I was with a bunch of creative artists who have a full understanding of how things are made, while I think it's magic).

We also had the opportunity to enter a house that was under renovation. They took us to the roof and we were able to see a lot of the city. Look at all the satellite dishes on top of houses! Apparently, you can buy a satellite and then you have 2,000 channels of tv for free!



What's really interesting about Fes is the immense amount of stray cats in the area. Most people in the community leave out milk and food for the cats and the cats all look very clean. Khalid explained to us that Fes families do not own dogs. Apparently, Muslims believe that dogs are dirty and to have a dog in your house means that angels won't enter your dwelling. However, if any of the stray cats enter your house, it's a sign of luck. Here's a picture of a cute kitty before she scurried off.



As the day wore on, we walked on over to the Royal Palace, where the king has his ambassadors stay. We aren't allowed in the palace, but I was able to take a picture of the front.



It was very beautiful. As we were finishing our tour, Khalid took the boys and showed them a jellaba dance that the men do at night. The boys tried to sing along, but their Arabic was shoddy;).

The next day, we had to leave Fes and head back to Spain. We left with a heavy heart--and heavy bags. One of our friends went to the post office early that morning in order to ship their souvenirs back to the States. The rest of us were going to meet him at the train station, where our train was to depart at 10:50am. When we arrived at the train station, we were surprised that we couldn't find our friend, so A and I boarded the train in order to get our seats. As we waited for our friends, the time of departure loomed closer. At 10:43am, A looked at me and said,
"I'm going to go back to the station and try to find them." I became very scared that he would get out of the train and I would be going to Tanger by myself. I looked at A nervously and said ok. Those next few minutes made me crazy. Finally, within minutes of the train's impending departure, the rest of the gang came into the compartment and we were off.

Our next destination was Tanger, a city on the coast of Morocco. From here, we headed to a ferry, which would take us back to Spain. We were really excited about the ferry because we were hoping to see the Rock of Gibraltar while we sailed. Unfortunately, things went differently. First, it was raining. When we arrived at the ferry station, a man came to buy our tickets. It was quite odd. After we paid for our tickets, we received our papers, but they were wrong. All of us had tickets with names such as "Fatima" and "Jamal." I was sure that we would try and board only to have the authorities notice that our passports were wrong and we would be arrested. Somehow, we were able to board. Our ferry was scheduled to depart at 6:30pm, but the rain and wind was so rough that we were delayed and departed near 8pm. It was already pitch dark outside, so we lacked any visibility. The ferry began to disembark from the dock and both of our friends instantly became seasick. For the rest of the ride, A and I were on the cafeteria level while our friends were one floor above, trying to breathe fresh air. I didn't realize that the wind was so harsh; our ferry cut through strong waves, making the vessel sway dangerously. Every now and then, the water would splash to our window, it got so high. I started to remember a story I read where the people died after their ferry capsized and I grew fearful for the umpteenth time that day. A man came scurrying about the room unwraveling small garbage bags and handing them to every table. Even though we didn't speak the same language, we all understood that these were our "complimentary barfbags."

The waves died down as we left Africa. We ventured outside, but could only see small amounts of city lights. The ferry was so crowded that we had to walk over many people who were sitting on the floor or sleeping. We looked like a group of refugees fleeing our home country. Finally, we docked in Spain! We were quite relieved to exit the ferry and get back on dry land! We planned to take a 10:30pm bus to Malaga, where we had hotel reservations, but we found out that we missed our bus and there were no more buses until the morning. We were recommended to stay in some cheap hotels close by so we went searching. We checked into a small hotel where our toilet was in our shower. Gross.



We were in Algeciras, an Andalusian city with strong Moroccan influence. We looked for food in the area and could only find Moroccan food, which made our post-seasick stomachs queasy. We decided on buying some items from the grocery store to make sandwiches. The next morning, our friends left the hotel early in order to travel to Malaga, where they were renting a motorcycle and journeying around the Spanish countryside. A and I chose a more lazy route; we slept in, bought tickets and took a bus and train back to Madrid. It was a scenic ride home. Even though many of my pictures came out fuzzy from the movement of the bus, here's one with windmills. I've never been so relieved to get back home to Madrid!

In and Out of Africa: Part One

After New Year's, some friends from NYC came to town. A's good friends from art school dropped by (or "popped in," if you're British) and we showed them around for a couple of days.

The four of us then traveled to Morocco! It was a wedding present from A's friends, since they were unable to attend our wedding (quite a nice present). Unfortunately, we weren't on the same flights; our friends had to take a flight hours before ours. Here's a picture of Morocco from our plane. Quite majestic.



We decided that we would meet at the Ben Youssef Mosque in Marrakech. I feel that the main theme of this trip was "Oh, God. Am I going to die here?" I say this because we had many rather odd and scary situations happen to us yet we survived unscathed. A and I arrived in Marrakech, a city known for it's amazing culture and highly experienced thieves. Our cab driver explained in broken English that he could only drive us to a certain point near the Mosque; we would have to walk the rest of the way. After we paid our fare and memorized our driver's vague directions, we found ourselves lost within minutes. One Moroccan helped us get to a mosque, but the wrong one. Another took us to the correct location, only to berate us for money. We gave him only a few coins. Many people in Morocco will help you out, but then demand an atrocious amount of money for their services. I'm sure that most tourists would simply play the men with bills, but we gave the excuse that we are students.

As we waited in the square, I became nervous. I didn't know exactly where I was and we would be an easy target for other Moroccans to bother and swindle. In addition, if we didn't meet our friends here, we had to go to the train station and we weren't sure where we could get a cab. Before I hyperventilated into a stupor, I saw our friends exiting the museum section of the mosque. We were saved! They said we had to get through the marketplace in order to get to a main road and to the train station. We followed our friends, relieved that we would be able to get through the rest of the city with our friends (who had a few more hours experience in the chaotic place). Unfortunately, the marketplace was such a complicated labyrinth that even Theseus would not have been successful in solving! If you don't understand my last sentence, read some Greek mythology. Anyway, our friends were trying to remember their steps with landmarks such as leather pelts hanging on the walls. Even though we got lost, there were shops for clothes, electronics, jewelry, trinkets, and also a cage with a falcon! After a half an hour of feeling completely lost, we found the major square that led to our destination. In this square, many Moroccans were relaxing under umbrellas. Some had animals like monkeys or snakes. One man tried to lay one of his snakes on our friend, but he ran like the dickens. Here's a photo of the square.



We began to journey to the train station, when we stumbled upon a restaurant called La Maison Arabe. One of our friends had heard of this restaurant in a magazine. Apparently the magazine had stated that this was a restaurant worth flying to just for their chicken dishes. We decided to have lunch at this highly-vaunted establishment. My shot is a bit obscured by the foliage, but it was a beautiful courtyard.



Most of us ordered the chicken tagine, which is absolutely delicious! The chicken is cooked in this unique-looking pot with apricots, olives and other wonderful things. Here's a picture of my dish before I devoured it.



After our lovely meal, we headed on over to the train station. We took a train from Marrakech to Fes, a former capital of Morocco. We arrived in Fes around one in the morning. Fortunately, we had the foresight to hire a cab driver ahead of time, who would escort us directly to the hotel. He had to park on the street and then guide us through a maze of streets. Once again, I began to wonder how in the world I would be able to exit the hotel since I was utterly lost. The hotel was called Dar Houdou. It is basically a house that the owner renovated and opens to clients as a hotel. The house only has 3 rooms, which is quite nice, since you don't feel there's a crowd of guests at your lodgings. After sleeping in, I took some shots of the hotel.





The last photo is a picture of the courtyard in the hotel. I took the picture from the second floor. After a wonderful sleep, we awoke close to noon and started our half day tour with Khalid, a native of Fes. He first took us to the Blue Gate, which is a popular attraction. The blue symbolizes the purity of water.



Khalid escorted us around town, showing us a madrassa (school) and a bronze metal shop. A and his friend were specifically interested in learning more about the large covering the men wore. Khalid explained that it is called a jellaba, but A and his friend had already renamed it the "snuggie." Our guide took us to a shop where the boys tried on jellabas until they found the perfect fit. Here's the boys with our tour guide in their fancy new attire.



While the cashier rang up our items, I noticed a small decorated outfit in the store that reminded me of the nice Indian outfits my parents would make us wear for special occasions. I asked Khalid about these outfits, expecting them to be for attending weddings or some sort of formal ceremony. Khalid explained that they were for a ceremony--that of the boy's circumcision. Apparently, some boys are circumcised a little after infancy and they are adorned with this outfit for the event. I was surprised that I never saw any young boys or men look at the outfits and resort to screams of terror.



Speaking of getting "cut short," I must wrap up this first part of my post. I am currently organizing photos for the second half of Fes and our journey back to Madrid. More updates to come!

Holidays with the Family

Even though A and I didn't have to teach for the last few weeks, we've been pretty busy with holiday festivities and family gatherings! My family came into town and celebrated Christmas with us! It was their first time in Spain, so everything was a new experience. It's great because even a trip to the market is interesting to them;).

It's funny...as a tourist, I go out and try to see all the important sights, but now that I live in Madrid, I realize that I haven't actually toured many of the famous landmarks in my ciudad. One of our first stops was to the Royal Palace in Madrid, which is the largest European Palace. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take photos inside, but here's a picture of the front.



It's an extremely decadent building filled with large rooms covered in decorations. The king does not live there now, but it was home to Spanish royalty for hundreds of years. After our tour of the palace, we headed on over to the Prado to take a gander at the art. My sister was especially excited to see Velasquez's "Las Meninas" painting. It's huge and there is always a crowd around it. When we went home, I was able to get a great picture of the dome near Banco de Espana at night.



My family was enjoying Madrid, but they also wanted to make a trip to one of the more ancient cities. We decided on a whim to spend the night in Toledo. After we called a hotel and ordered our train tickets, we threw some clothes into a bag and headed out to the famous medieval city. We checked into a nice hotel where we had balconies with our rooms. Here's the view from our room!







After we dropped off our things in the hotel, we set off to explore the city. Here's a picture of one of the typical streets in Toledo-small and downhill-with my parents leading the way. We were very worried the cars wouldn't be able to drive through these small passages, but they succeeded unscathed.



My family came to Toledo equipped with a travel book that had recommendations on how to see the city. That evening, we packed ourselves into a small train and had a tour of the city. I have to note that this was not a real train-it was one of those small ones you see when you go to an amusement park or on the boardwalk of a beach. We crammed ourselves into the train and even though I cursed under my breath about how bitterly cold it was, we were able to see the beautiful city lit up at night. This picture is a bit fuzzy, but it's the old palace at night.



When we got back to the hotel, we had to take several night pictures.



I love how the houses glowed at night.





The next day, we toured the major sites. We went into the Cathedral, which is the most impressive edifice to visit. Unfortunately, you are not allowed to take pictures inside. The sacristy has a wealth of art-especially some great El Grecos. Other than the fact that it was very cold, the Cathedral is a must-see when you are visiting Toledo.

We also took my family to the monastery San Juan de los Reyes. I know I posted pictures when I went a few months ago, but here's another one.



The visit went by in a flash. Suddenly, we were helping them pack up and researching whether they would have any security problems getting home. My family flew on KLM from Amsterdam back to the US and there was a terrorist attack attempt only days earlier. The family was able to arrive home safely, though they did experience severe security inspections while in Amsterdam.

Of course, yesterday was New Year's Eve and we celebrated it here in Madrid. To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of New Year's, so we stayed at home and followed the traditional Madrid customs. When the clock bell at Puerta del Sol strikes at midnight, you have to eat a grape for every chime (and a swig of champagne). We watched the crowd gathered at Puerta del Sol on tv (much like when we would view Times Square) and we began to eat the grapes. I wasn't able to keep with the strokes and I maxed out at 5.

Happy New Year!