Sandwich mountain for the day.
Mar 20, 2011
Las Fallas in Valencia
Let me first start out by saying that this day and a half event felt like a four day marathon. We woke up at around noon on Saturday and so began our adventure. My friend Matt Letcher and myself went over to the local grocery store to get some things. Namely food and wine. We Picked up 3 rolls of French bread, 3 packages of Salami, a loaf of sliced bread and a lot of cheap wine. There was a small group of 6 of us so we decided just to make sandwiches for everyone. The ended up being 9 salami sandwiches and 7 peanut butter sandwiches. To say the least, we were ready. We took the metro to our bus and we were on our way. The drive was not too bad, and we were there before we knew it. When we arrived, we had a bit of a walk to the city center and the main guy in charge of the group of about 100 people simply told us, meet back here at 4:15 am to leave back for Madrid. We didn't know where we were, nor how to get there once the festival was over. But on we went, and first got to the parade which we caught the end of. It was sweet. Tons of people lined both sides of the street where guys were swinging sparking wands, tons of fireworks, and women of 25 high stilts. It was impressive. Once the parade was over, we went to look for the floats. They were placed at most intersections within the city, so it was not that hard to miss a giant 20-50 foot high piece of artwork in the road. These floats were amazing. I am not entirely sure what they were made out of but the colors and design was awesome. Some had people and animals, some had cartooned looking people, many times animals were two put together. Like one where a bird head was on a horses body. The floats were amazing. While walking around, there were explosions of fireworks everywhere. We had to consciously watch where we walked because little kids were lighting them off everywhere. Now when I say little kids, I mean little. Like 5 year olds all had their own little lighters and would go to mommy or daddy to get more firecrackers, smoke bombs, and bottle rockets. This was something we were all a bit confused about, but pretty soon, we joined in the fun when Letcher found a box of firecrackers. We then were running around the streets lighting and throwing little firecrackers. It made for a fun time. After the firework fun, we were ready for the fires. The first one lit off and it was just a little one. About 20 foot high flames, very impressive and hot. We all were trying to imagine what the 50 foot high floats would even be like. None of us could really. Eventually we run into a massive float. We soon found out that it was the 2nd place prize winner which is very impressive because there were hundreds of them around the city. The way it works is people from each individual intersection pool in money and pay an artist to make the float for that intersection. So from my understanding, the more money, the bigger and better the float. There are judges and they pick the best ones. However, they burn them ALL except the first place prize winner. This means that the one we were at, the second place winner, was most likely the best one to watch burn. It was amazing. At about 11 they began preparing the float with a spiderweb of stringed together fireworks. This essentially would light the float and get the fire started. When they finally lit the float, it was almost like it's own little show. Beginning with a series of about 40 quick yet loud explosions all up and around the float, the show began. There were sparking fireworks, on the ground, on the float, and huge fireworks that lit up the entire sky above the float. It was truly a sight to behold. The fire was massive, it was hot, and all of our faces felt as though they were going to burn off. One the fire died down, we all eventually made it back to the buses, even though originally we had no idea where it was. However, the buses ended up being about 2 hours late so we were all standing in the middle of Valencia, with no where to go because it was 5 in the morning and just wanting to fall asleep on the bus and be in our beds. Overall, this was truly an experience I will never forget. The city of Valencia is very cool and I wish I would go back for a weekend. Next stop is Alicante for a long and relaxing weekend on the beach.
Sandwich mountain for the day.
The parade.
30 foot tall woman.
Mass crowds after the parade.
The group. Myself, Gretchen, Emily, Michelle, Letcher, and Kevin
One of my personal favorite floats. I couldn't being to describe it haha
Crazy float with cool characters.
Us and the kids who we were lighting off fireworks with.
2nd place winner. about 50-60 feet tall.
Float down the street burning. HUGE FLAMES!
Matt got an awesome lookout point in a tree.
The float burning. roughly 60-70 foot flames.
Sandwich mountain for the day.
Mar 16, 2011
Reina Sofia and El Escorial
This past weekend was pretty relaxed for the most part. On Friday, three of my friends and I went to Reina Sofia which is a contemporary art museum. It is one of the "Big Three" of Madrid, in addition to El Prado and The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. We saw some really weird stuff that makes you wonder how in the world the piece came to be displayed in a museum. One example is a video of a guy trying to teach a plant the alphabet? Again, I'm not sure what the significance of it was. But for every weird piece of "art" there were plenty more that were really cool and interesting. I enjoyed the abstract paintings the most. I loved getting the opportunity to see works done by Goya, Dali, and Picasso, among others. The most famous piece we saw was Picasso's "Guernica" which was commissioned by the Spanish government to serve as a Spanish Civil War protest. They also had pictures of the process, and each individual aspect of painting which was fun to look at. Saturday, we wanted to get out of the city for the day so we hopped on a train and headed to Escorial, which is just about an hour outside of Madrid. We were hoping to see San Lorenzo of El Escorial which is the enormous monastery of the city and the Valle de los Caidos (valley of the fallen). What we didn't realize was that it would take the entire day to make our way through the monastery, because it is just that big! It began with the museums that were inside. There was an Architecture Museum which took us through the construction of the building: how they did it, how long it took, what they used to do it. We also went through about twelve different rooms with various paintings which were interesting. I think all of them were from King Phillip's private collection which consisted of over 1,600 works. There was also a Hall of Battles which consists of fresco paintings depicting some of Spain's most important battles. Easily the coolest parts of the monastery were the Pantheon of Kings and Pantheon of Princes! This is where all of the kings and queens of the Habsburg and Bourbon dynasties dating back to Charles I. The pantheon was in an underground chapel, with the sepulchers surrounding you once you entered. The Pantheon of Princes consisted of a number of rooms with various niches containing the bodies of the children of the royal dynasties who never made it to the throne. The basilica was next and I have to admit that I think it was more imposing than that of Notre Dame because it was a lot more open. The dome is about 100 meters high and there are several frescos painted on the ceilings. We were all able to take some time to just appreciate it, light a prayer candle, and then headed over to the library which was what I had been really looking forward to (being a librarian and all). The library is one of the most beautiful in the world and seems like its covered in gold. On the ceiling is decorated with frescos depicting the seven liberal arts: Rhetoric, Dialectic, Music, Grammar, Arithmetic, Geometry, and Astronomy. There was also an original model of the universe according to Ptolemy which was really interesting. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures in the monastery so any pictures I did take were done inconspicuously and may not have come out as well as I would've liked. Other than that the trip was a success. I enjoyed the monastery and all it had to offer, and since it was free to get out there using the train to the suburbs, I hope to make it back there to see the Valle de los Caidos. Thanks for listening and tune in next time for my summary on the Las Fallas festival in Valencia that I'm going to this Saturday!
The Monestary
Reina Sofia
Carnival de Cadiz
This weekend, while our friends back home were celebrating Mardi Gras, about 40 SLU students and a total of five coach buses of college students traveled down to Cadiz for Carnival. There is a company called Europeanvibe that runs a number of trips during the semester so we went through them. We left Friday morning with a long seven hour bus ride ahead of us. The weather was pretty crummy here in Madrid so we were hoping that Southern Spain was a little warmer and rain free. We made two stops on what was a pretty uneventful bus ride, but the closer we got, the more excited we became! We knew we were going to be staying somewhere nicer than the usual hostel, but I don't think any of us were ready for the four star hotel we stayed in. Nice pool, full kitchen, full breakfast buffet, and a 10 minute walk from the beach are just some of the things we were spoiled with. As soon as we were checked in and had our bags in the room we went straight to the pool. The weather turned out to be a lot nicer than Madrid, but it was still very windy and a little chilly. The pool time was followed by a trip to the grocery store to pick up food for the weekend. I'm sure you can imagine the chaos that ensued in the store with hundreds of hungry college kids buying everything the was cheap and easy to make. My roommates and I made Spaghetti Bolognese! After dinner it was nice to relax and hang out somewhere other than a bus. That night we all walked over to a bar nearby for a lot of dancing and singing! The next morning we got an early breakfast which really hit the spot. Of course we took every kind of food in sight, because it rare that we get to have a breakfast buffet. We spent the afternoon at the beach and by the pool. The water was freezing, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to go swimming in the Mediterranean. The bus was leaving at 5:30 to take us into the city, so we had an early dinner and got into out costumes, which were all pretty impressive. My friend and I were Hula dancers, coconut bras and all, three of my other friends got cyclist uniforms to wear, cats, and other costumes. The actual Carnival scene in the city was unbelievable. There were hundreds of thousands of people all over. You couldn't go down a side street without having to weave in and out of crowds. There were people in masks, bands left and right singing songs about every possible topic, jugglers, mimes, and so much more. You couldn't help but keep your head on a swivel so you don't miss anything. Of course though, with that many people my friends and I went different ways and got a little lost, but we all made it back to the hotel eventually. Once we got back we went down to the beach to hang out, but none of us were willing to go in this time. Finally, we called it a night and went back to our rooms to sleep a little before breakfast. Sunday consisted of hanging out by the pool again while we waited for the bus to leave around 2. We were supposed to get back around 9, but the motor caught fire (right underneath me since I was in the back) and we were stranded at a rest stop for about four hours while we waited for them to send us a new bus to take us back. The delay was pretty frustrating, but we made it back eventually around 2:30 AM. Overall, the weekend was a ton of fun! It was quite different from my Morocco trip, and I think the fact that my trips are so different from one another makes me appreciate them that much more. Joe's friend is in this week so were going to try and show him a good time and will probably make a day trip somewhere Friday and Saturday. A couple options are Toledo or El Escorial so I'm looking forward to those! Over and out...
7 hour bus ride from Madrid to Cadiz
Moroccan Adventures!
So let me begin by letting you know that it will be extremely difficult for me to articulate exactly what this trip entailed. It truly was a once in a life time experience. On that note... This was our Winter Break so we had a 5 day weekend (I chose to not attend class on Friday). A bunch of our friends who studied here last year went on a Moroccan desert tour and said it was great so we tried it out. We left Friday afternoon for Marrakech, but we were immediately confronted with a problem. My friend/roommate Joe accidentally printed off the wrong boarding pass and was unable to make the flight. This was really disappointing, but we tried to look on the bright side and hoped he would make another trip somewhere else for the long weekend. Once we got to the city and to the main square we were immediately bombarded by all kinds of people and an atmosphere unlike anything any of us have experienced. There were constantly people trying to tell how to get somewhere, trying to sell us things, or just asking for a little something from our pockets. We even had to be careful taking pictures because a lot of times people who just happened to be in the picture would come up to us and try to charge us for taking the picture. After we found the hostel and got situated there, we went out to explore. Let me tell you, Marrakech at night is a sight to behold. There were monkeys jumping on people, everyone trying to get you to come to their stand to buy something, little kids even selling knick-knacks. That night we had dinner in one of the tents and tried a bunch of different kinds of food. We weren't sure what a lot of it was but I do remember the couscous and chicken, along with a lot of bread (this would be a recurring meal throughout the trip). While walking around I bought a hat that looks like it could have belonged to Indiana Jones and some cheap sun glasses so I would be ready for the desert in a couple days. We tried to go to bed early though so we would be well rested when we woke up at 6:30 AM to start the adventures.
The first day of the actual tour got off to a rough start. We were told that the driver would pick us up at the hostel, but he never showed up so we were left waiting at the hostel for 2 hours. We tried calling them, but didn't get a hold of them until the second call. We finally found out that they were waiting for us at the main square since the streets were too small for the van to fit through. Of course we tried to make the most of the situation, but I won't lie by saying we weren't a little worried we were getting ripped off. The tour guides actually went as far as calling one of my friends parents, which probably didn't make them feel too good. But in the end it all worked out and we were on our way to the desert. Overall, there was a lot more driving on the tour than we expected, but a lot of times this was good because it gave us a chance to nap or play those fun car games we all have come to know and love. Our drive began with going through the Atlas Mountains which was really cool and a little scary at times. The driver was a pro at going through them so he cut the turns a little too sharply for some of my friends. The first stop took us to Ouarzazate, which was very surprising. It turns out that the town has been used as a site for movies like Gladiator, Prince of Persia, Kingdom of Heaven and more. We were not expecting this at all and it was cool to get the tour of the town with a little cinematography lesson too. After this trip, we went on our way to another town where we got a tour of some of the families' fields, then went to an exhibition of the Berber rugs that the native Moroccan people make. At the end we all caved and got at least one. My roommates and I for next year split it and got a really cool orange one to hang up in our apartment. Another car ride took us to an old "well field." This is the best term I can come up for it. It consisted of hundreds of wells all interconnected underground. I asked to climb down it and to my surprise they let me. I climbed down all 40 metres with out a rope or ladder. In the bottom of the well, it was dark and I kept imagining a snake would attack me. We enjoyed a quick drum session and were on our way again. We finally made it to our hostel for the night around 7 at night. It was in a valley with a terrace and a great view. We had a dinner of chicken and couscous again and then hung out underneath the stars. Day 2 ended with exhaustion and a great deal of anticipation for what will come next.
These days were pretty similar with a lot of driving, stopping to see some sights, and lots of camel riding. Day three finally led to us riding the camels! This was the most anticipated part of the trip and none of us were really ready for what we were getting into. We met at a small town and had some more green tea. I can't remember if I mentioned this before, but the green tea we had was soooo good. It was sweet and we would have it almost anytime we got to a town or camp. The Berber people called it their "Berber Whiskey." So the camel ride was really cool, a lot better than walking, but very uncomfortable after awhile. We rode them for about an hour and a half. I named mine Jorf, because Joe was the only one not with us on this trip. Once we got to the dune by our camp where we would stay the night, we decided to get off so we could climb it to see the sunset. Unfortunately we decided to take the longest, steepest way up the 400 foot dune and got the most intense work out most of us have had since we got here. But it all paid off when we made it to the top finally and were able to see the sunset. We took a moment to take it all in and for the first time in our lives we experienced truly deafening silence. It was one of the coolest experiences of my life. Running down the hill after the sun was a type of enjoyment I haven’t felt since I was a child. We all looked like little kids giggling down the sand dune, falling periodically, and then continuing on. The night's activities included dinner of couscous, chicken, and steamed veggies again followed by a drum session by the fire. We all tried the drums and found out most of us don't have much rhythm. (but I did finally get the right beat at the end of the night) We hit the hay pretty early since we would be getting up at 5:30 to see the sunrise, and my friend Matt and I slept under the stars while the others slept in the tent. Let me tell you, it can get pretty darn cold in the desert at night especially when the wind starts blowing. But we made it through the night, and mounted our camels at the crack of dawn to see the sunrise which was another sight to see. The next day brought another car ride to the city of Zagora which was a really nice city and a big difference from some of the small ghost towns we seemed to constantly driving through. We were brought to more camels after this, and I picked a winner this time. Drooling and taking care of his business everywhere we went, Hans did the job and even trotted every now and then. That night was really entertaining because we stayed at a camp with people from all over. We met people from France, Sweden, Australia, and more. We were also in for quite the surprise… So do you remember how my friend Joe missed the flight? Well everyone was in the big tent waiting for dinner when Joe came strolling in! We were dumbfounded and immediately began asking questions. He explained his ordeal and even mentioned that he was in Marrakech during some riots. This made us even happier that we were in the middle of a desert. Dinner was followed by more drum playing and dancing by everyone. Unfortunately we had to call it a night early again because we had to be the first group out of camp in the morning. We had a seven hour car ride ahead of us to catch our flight back to Madrid. We made it with time and all of were looking forward to getting back. (Some of us decided it was a good idea to not shower so we kinda smelled) Overall, Morocco was quite the experience. I tried my best to articulate this experience as best I could. I loved my time in Morocco and it was eye opening in a number of ways. This is something I will never forget (along with all of my experiences here) and especially because I have no idea when I'll be able to do something like this again. This weekend is Cadiz for Carnival which is going to be insane. I have my costume picked out and I'm looking forward to seeing the Spanish version of Mardi Gras firsthand! Good night and good luck...
Main Square in Marrakech. Monkeys, hats, and riots!
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