Ok, now for a post about a location a little more educational and culturally enriching than the last. GRANADA! I sort of had a little bit of a freak out, realizing I’m only here in Spain for a little bit longer, and I still hadn’t visited Granada, the city that my friends boasted to be their favorite of all of Spain. So, my roommates and I planned a spur of the moment trip to Granada. Four roomies plus one of our friends. We stayed in an awesome hostel, owned and ran by a boyfriend/girlfriend couple who bought this sweet home/shack in the upper hills adjacent to the Alhambra (palace of Granada), with views like no other. They had breakfast for us in the morning, did a free walking tour in Granada, owned an adorable puppy and kitty, and said they used to have Donkeys and goats on the property as well. The hike up to the hostel was enough to leave us out of breathe by the time we reached the top, but every time we made the climb, it was so worth it to overlook the beautiful city of Granada.
(me on the the balcony of our hostel. The Alhambra behind me)
(us taking a photo of ourselves in a street mirror)
(In any restuaruant or bar in Granada, when you order any drink, it automatically comes with Tapas, a type of appetizer food, for free!)
(one of the hippie-type markets of Granada, these are homemade genuine teas)
(Anna and I in one of the beautiful city gardens)
(At the Palace of the Alhambra)
(Beautiful gardens of the Alhambra)
We also got the opportunity to view Flamenco put on by the International School of Flamenco. It was incredible! But I wasn't allowed to use flash so my pictures didn't turn out so well.
Next adventure: Wine Tasting
My friend Carmela had her mom visiting this week so we were doing all sorts of fun things to keep her busy. We went an hour out of town to do a wine-tasting experience at SilvanoGarcia winery. It was such a fun experience! We were taught about the history of the winery, which has been around since 1925. We learned about how the wine was made, why certain techniques were used, why certain types of wood were used for the barrells, and we learned how to properly taste the wine. They also had an "aroma" room, where we were able to smell about 40 different "aromas" which could be found in wines. At the end, they tested us on it, and we all failed miserably, but it was still fun!
(me testing out the different aromas)
(Enjoying tasting a glass of Silvano Garcia Dulce "Moscatel 2009 Young White wine")
Pillow Fight!: So a few international students at our university organized a massive pillow fight on Thursday. Why? Who knows. But it was the greatest thing ever! I've been studying like crazy lately trying to finish my research papers and studying before finals, and this was the perfect study break. Here's a video, if any of you need a good laugh.
I know that it appears I am always traveling, going here and going there, and maybe I am, but I promise I’m doing other things too! It’s just that the traveling is the most interesting part to write about. Life in Murcia, well… it gets a little redundant after a while; the town isn’t all that huge after all. But I’m surely used to the life of towns that are way smaller!
The most recent trips I’ve taken were to Ibiza and Granada (two extremely different cities). Ibiza is actually an island off the coast of Spain. It’s famous for its clubbing scene, known to make Vegas look lame and Cancun even lamer. This isn’t the type of trip I would normally plan out for myself, but our university actually has a program that plans trips out for the international students, and this was one of them. I wasn’t sure if I could handle 6 days in a city known for its “club scene”, something I hadn’t even experienced in the US yet, but my friends and I all decided that everyone in college needs to have at least one crazy spring break, and why not a better time than while we’re studying abroad in Spain! The week that our trip was planned was for a week when international students from all over Spain were all going to be there. Clubs opened up exclusively for us Erasmus (the name for exchange student program in Europe) students! Here’s a synopsis of the week.
Ferry boat to the island with 2,000 other exchange students in Spain. The “ferry” was more like a cruise. There was a boat party, complete with DJ and lights and a pool party on the deck. Here’s the pool before we even left the port:
Beautiful beaches of Ibiza:
(we rented a paddle boat complete with a slide, here's me jumping off the back of it into the Mediterranean)
Oashua outdoor beach party:
Paradis water party (There’s an empty pool in the middle of the dance club, and at 5 am, water pours from the ceiling to fill the pool, making a crazy sudden beach party)
Getting back to our hotel at 7 am after the Paradis water party club.
Club Space: Summer school party.
Ferry boat to Formentera island!
(Glass bottomed ferry ride... us looking out onto the sea floor)
Gala Nights outdoor club, complete with a foam pit dance floor!
So it looks like a crazy crazy time, and it was, but 6 days of late late nights and tanning on the beaches under the hot sun can sure wear you out! Overall, it’s safe to say that Ibiza wasn’t necessarily one of those educational or cultural-enriching trips, much like a lot of my other ones, but like I said, everyone needs to have at least one crazy spring break in their lives. Ibiza holds the title for some of the funniest days I’ve ever lived, thanks to crazy people popping out of foam, getting lost in club Paradis, Mozzarella stick cravings, some of the craziest and most fun Mexicans holding true to the tequila tradition, a kid named Carlos who was the true epitome of Ibiza, us Americans going down in Erasmus Ibiza trip fame for our whistle blowing at all the parties, learning new Spanish drinking songs.. and hearing them WAY too much, almost going overboard on a crazy ferry boat ride, failing miserably at finding the beach … on the island of Formentera (it was a complicated island ok), caterpillars, and so many other shenanigans. Ibiza is for sure a one-time experience. I definitely won’t be going there again; But I’m so glad to say that I have been! The island, in its peak season, is home to dozens of celebrities, famous events, some of the world’s most famous clubs (with entrance fees of 50 euros and up… per person!) I’m glad our university was able to set us up with a great place to stay, things to do every day, free drinks and entrance to the clubs, and so much more, for a really really discounted price. Gracias ESN Murcia!! My recomendation for anyone interested in checking it out someday: Do it, but only do it once. Go with lots of friends when all of you are single. Expect to spend a lot. and have fun!
Semana Santa. When we got back from Germany, we had made it back in time to see the end of "Semana Santa", a two week celebration throughout Spain (one week prior to Easter, and the week following Easter). Although we missed some of the largest festivals while we were in Germany, we did get to witness Entierro de la Sardina (burial of the Sardine). This is a celebration of the end of having to eat fish and the ability to eat real meat again. So at the end of Semana Santa, there are several parades every day, although the parade for Entierra de la Sardina is one of the largest. There are about 15 floats at the end of the 2 hour parade filled with thousands and thousands of toys (mostly soccer balls). The "workers" in the floats chuck the toys out into the crowd. You literally have to be watching what you're doing at all times because you probably will get hit! I saw several children crying from getting stuff thrown at them. At the end of the night, majestic music is played at they set a giant paper/plastic/cardboard sardine on fire, and then throw it into the river. Welcome to Spain!
(This is one of the daily religious processions. The outfits are different colored every day. Yes, their hats are cones, but these outfits have been around WAY longer than those of the KKK, so don't make any assumptions)
(During the Entierro de La Sardina parade)
(Here is one of the floats chucking toys out!)
(This is the actual burning of the Sardine. Epic music included)
Volcano. Ok from my last post, it had said I was heading to Dublin for a weekend of fun. WELL, that was before this crazy volcano in Iceland spewed its ashes everywhere and cancelled enough flights that it was considered the “worst disruption of flights in the history of aviation travel”. Bad timing. So my flights were cancelled and we found out only hours before going. Yes, my roommate Anna and I were disappointed, but we figured it was probably better that we didn’t go; if we did make it to Dublin and THEN the volcano erupted, we would have been stuck there for over a week. Sounds great, but that surely would have been expensive and really difficult to catch up on school.
Academics. I’m still getting used to the school system. Students tend to show up randomly and whenever they please. Teachers are often 15 minutes late to their own class because they were outside the building smoking or were “hungry” and had to get some lunch first. My friends Megan and Carmela share a political science class with me in which we struggled to write a 5 page paper in Spanish over a 500 page political science book in Spanish that we were supposed to read over spring break (but we were in Germany so we know that wasn’t going to work out). We instead ordered the English version of the book online, and the transaction didn’t go through, so we struggled to write the papers without the English version or having read the Spanish version at all. Well, after turning in the papers, the teacher asked who hadn’t completed the essays. Several students raised their hands and he gave them extensions without asking a question. We also realized that students in the US write papers way different than students here in Spain. We had each written a 5 page paper straight through. Every Spanish student had sectioned off their paper into areas with separate titles. After reviewing all the essays, the teacher later preached to the class how much of a disgrace the essays were and even called out individual students for their embarrassing work. He later posted every student’s grades in an email sent to the class. Well, us girls did well enough to pass, yet it was still embarrassing that every other student could see our grades. The best part was that two weeks after we had to turn in the essays, we found out that the bookstore had finally charged our cards and the English version of the books showed up at our apartments the next day. Only in Spain.
Weather. For living in the “sunniest city of Spain”, promised to have next to no rain, we sure did have a long period of time with lots of cold weather and rain. But alas, the sun has finally stopped playing tricks on us and it has warmed up! We had several days of 90 degree weather which were perfect for doing some class readings while on the rooftop terrace or for hitting the nearby Alicante beach. Beautiful beach!
Apartment. My roommates and I have recently realized that we’ve been stuck in a sick and twisted joke of an apartment and we can’t get out of it due to contract. Sure, when we first arrived the fake wall that split the living room in half so the landlord could make more money was quite frustrating, and the oven that didn’t work was annoying, and the fact that all of our furniture is from off the streets, and that even the light covers have been removed from all the lights in the house was quite strange, but nothing has compared to the ridiculous crimes our landlord has tried to pull on us. We are already paying more than any of our neighbors around us, and have a living room half the size (due to the wall put up to make another “room”), have furniture 50 years older and straight from the streets, have an illegal set up for the gas that gives us hot water, the oven is broken, and there’s nothing in the entire place worth any value (even the pots and pans which have metal scraping off of them every time we wash them), yet somehow our damage deposit was twice as much as everyone else we know… 500 EUROS (aka $750). And our landlord (who lives in France) has used every opportunity to take our money from the damage deposit. We had some close friends over last weekend for my friend’s birthday. We planned a potluck lunch for everyone on our rooftop terrace before we got rained on. Everyone moved down into our apartment, but it was 3 in the afternoon, there was no music playing, no games, no singing, just hanging out for some eating. Well, our landlord was called when we had tried to go up on the terrace because one of the neighbors was concerned it was a “fiesta”. Regardless, when the landlord showed up, he proceeded to yell at me and Anna on the bottom floor of our building, wouldn’t come up to witness there was no such “fiesta” going on, though instead told us 100 euros will be taken out of EACH of our damage deposits, and he stormed out of the building without letting us say a word. He’s also trying to kick us out of the apartment before our contract ends… although wants us to pay as if we were staying until the end. Needless to say, we’ve been having some unique experiences in this apartment. Although our landlord is relentlessly cheap , money-hungry, and mean, and our apartment is quite stingy and cheap itself, I have to say I have some of the most amazing roommates in the world, and living in this apartment has been worth it just for the reason that I’ve become so close to them.
(All the roomies together!)
Visit from friend. I recently had my friend Magnus from high school come visit me for a week. He was our exchange student from Norway for a year at Prosser High School. I hadn’t seen him in 3 years and when he offered to come visit, I had to say yes! It was great to see a familiar face, and although Murcia didn’t have a ton to keep us entertained, he did get to see the great life of Spain, meet my friends, visit the beach of Alicante, experienced one of La Universidad de Murcia's on-campus parties, and went to Murcia’s largest concert of the year with us. It was a fun and entertaining week!
(My roomies, myself, and Magnus at the on-campus party)
Concert. Murcia’s largest concert of the year! It’s called SOS 4.8 and is hosted by one of the well-known brands of beer in Spain: Estrella Levante. It was a 48 hour concert that was 15 minute walk away from my apartment. It was filled with art, guest speakers, poetry, smaller bands, and of course some of America’s, the UK’s, Spain’s, and other countries well known bands. Franz Ferdinand and Fatboy Slim were two of the headliner bands! Their concerts were absolutely ridiculous! There was roughly 40,000 people who attended the SOS festival, and it was clear. I’ve never seen so much trash and garbage in my life, or been pushed around so much in the “mosh” section. Saturday of the concert was my friend Carmela’s 21st birthday, so we gave her a list of things to “complete” while at the concert. Besides giving her own concert to people on a picnic table, dancing with kids from our class, getting serenaded by Spanish men, and getting us free pizza to share, she was one of the most entertaining 21 year olds I’ve ever witnessed. My 21st is this Saturday… doesn’t seem quite like there’s much to celebrate when it’s in Europe and the drinking age is already 18 and not enforced. BUT, nonetheless, I’m excited for one more year of my life and am celebrating how amazing this past year has been!
(Franz Ferdinand Concert at SOS 4.8)
(Isabella, myself, and Megan at the concert)
(The birthday girl Carmela performing a Spice Girls song on a picnic table with only a couple hundred people in the area watching)
Culture shock. Yep… people said it would happen, I just expected it to happen sooner. It took a while, but yes, I have actually gotten quite frustrated with Spain on several occasions and have had many thoughts of “well if this were in the US, that would never happen”. It’s a bad habit, but sometimes I can’t help it. Siesta time during the day has actually gotten a little frustrating, as well as the fact that everything is late/cancelled/postponed. Us girls are getting exhausted of the hoots, hollers, and whistles that is so “socially acceptable” here. So even though this culture shock is frustrating, I think, that the reverse culture shock, when I miss everything from Spain, will be even harder to cope with, because I won’t know the next time I’ll be back here!
I can't believe how fast this experience has gone by already. I have two months left and a mountain of things I want to do, see, and accomplish before then! The thought of me going home is bittersweet, thinking of seeing all my amazing friends and family who I've missed so much... though also leaving behind 6 months of my life here in Spain and some amazing new friends who I'll miss dearly. Well, my next adventure is 6 days in Ibiza, Spain, an island that's said to make Vegas look like a child's sandbox. The university actually planned the trip for the exchange students, so I'm quite excited to see what it has in store. And it comes perfectly 2 days after my 21st birthday. Until next time, hasta luego!
Spring Break 2010. 2 weeks of break. 10 days of it traveling through Germany. 4 girls. 3 cities.
Let me start off by saying that Germany is by far one of my favorite places I’ve ever been to. As I’ve grown accustomed to Spain’s lack of concern for schedules, disorderly, untimely manner, it was a nice break to be in Germany where everything is on-time, according to schedule, orderly, and everything is done according to rule and line. Also, Germans are incredibly nice and helpful, aaaand incredibly humble and modest. After getting off a metro line, us four girls would pull out a map, and immediately we had 3 people ask us “do you need help finding something?”, or “can I help point you in the right direction somewhere?”. This was common in every single city we visited. It was great, even in the touristy cities, locals always seemed to find us and offer their help. Also, we attempted to learn the phrase “do you speak English” in German (Sprechen Sie Englisch). I would say 9 times out of 10 the response would be “yes, a little”. We would proceed explaining a complicated question about how to get from one area to another yadda yadda…and the person we asked would always understand perfectly well, and respond in perfect English. “A little English”. Wow. Very humble people. Well here is the tale of three cities . Munich. Bamberg. Berlin.
We began our journey by sleeping in the airport for our early morning flight to Munich. Once in Munich, we dropped off our luggage at our hostel and went exploring!
MUNICH- a few things we did:
Englischer garden. One of the world’s largest urban parks. Complete with a nude area, running track, stream, and a huge beer garden in the center: famous during Oktoberfest.
Pub-Crawl. I don’t know the next time I’ll be in Germany so I couldn’t pass up the chance to do a pub crawl in the city famous for Oktoberfest! Our pub crawl guides led us to some of the largest beer gardens in the city, had us try the Pope’s favorite beer (he has it sent to him in Italy.. and they say if it’s the Pope’s favorite beer, it must be God’s favorite beer), learned some crazy German drinking songs, also learned the importance of “Prost!” in Germany (the equivalence of our Cheers), and were taught some silly German traditions… including how men with crushes on women will still, to this day, plant a maypole in her yard. If she dances around it, it means she likes him. If her family leaves beer by the maypole, it means get lost. Strange tradition.
(Megan and me with our "small" beers)
We also did a walking tour of the city. We saw some of the historic locations where Hitler had brought the Nazi party to power and had tried to lead a march to Berlin to overthrow the government. He was met by police force who shot fire at Hitler, his 600 SS officers, and the 3,000 followers. Hitler’s body guard leapt on top of Hitler and took 11 bullets, saving Hitler. Three SS officers were killed. The march was not successful, although later when the Nazi regime had taken power they constructed a memorial in the wall of the street where the 3 SS officers were killed. The memorial was always guarded by SS officers and citizens were required to do the Nazi salute to it when walking by, or their name would be recorded on a list. The second time their name was on the list, they could be executed. Citizens began finding new routes to avoid walking past the memorial and saluting, although SS guards soon caught on and began executing them as well. Today, the SS officer memorial is gone, and there is a new memorial of golden bricks on the side street where citizens began walking to avoid the salute. This was just one of the hundreds of small tributes that are within the city for those who were killed during WWII.
Famous beer hall. We learned in one of Munich’s largest beer halls that back in the day, bathrooms were never installed, only “vomitoriums” (if you can imagine what that was for). As women weren’t allowed into the beer halls, and as men didn’t want to lose their seats in the incredibly packed and popular beer hall, they had drains built under each table. I’m sure you can imagine the point of them. Apparently the wealthier men would bring canes to help direct their pee to the drain. At the end of the night, the women working at the beer hall would dump the empty kegs (now filled with water) into the beer hall, “cleansing” it and pushing all the leftover liquids into the street. GROSS STORY. Our tour guide taught us a lot of these little-known facts about Munich.
Hostel experience. This was our first time staying in a large room in a hostel (to save money). It was a 12 person room, so 6 bunk beds. The hostel was amazing complete with kitchen, bar/restaurant, complimentary all you can eat breakfast, WiFi internet, large bathrooms, big living room areas, and some of the nicest desk-workers I’ve ever met. You could say it was more like a hotel, but you share rooms with lots of guests. Our first night in Munich we learned there was a soccer game: Manchester vs. Munich and it was in Munich. A few of our roommates were visiting from Manchester to watch the game. Well…Manchester lost and us four girls spent the night listening to a rage of 4 English guys come home yelling and falling all over the place. We also heard an orchestra of snoring all night, a huge THUD from one of them falling off the top bunk (which has a railing) in his sleep, and just a whole lot of shenanigans. It was an interesting first shared room hostel experience. They apologized the next day and explained their adventures.. which were quite hilarious.
Day Trip to Neuschwanstein castle:
2 hours of a train ride there was so worth it to see the original castle that Disney has based their Magical Kingdom Disney castle off of. This castle is nestled into the foothills of the Swiss Alps in beautiful Bavaria, Germany. The king who built it hired an artist to design it, not an architect. He wanted it to look perfect in pictures, as it does. Here’s some of our pictures!
(view of the castle while standing on a bridge between the gap of some mountains)
(view of the nearby lake andAlps from inside the castle)
(Go Cougs below the Castle)
(This is the postcard I bought. It's also the view if you hike up to the top of a nearby mountain! We didn't exactly have our hiking equiptment handy, so we settled for the postcard. Beautiful view though!)
Bamberg, Germany:
Bamberg, Germany is one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites because it was one of the few towns to not get damaged during the many wars of its time, especially WWII. It also is famous for its gorgeous Bavarian architecture, 1000 year old church, and the city hall which is placed in the middle of a river.
Student travelers alike have all heard of couchsurfing.com. It’s a website of a community of people who want to learn more about other cultures, other people, and want to share something that they have with other people. They do this by letting people stay in their homes for free while traveling, and in return, they are able to stay at others homes for free when they travel. Sure, it sounds a little sketchy. I thought so too. Although, after much research, we realized it’s very safe. Every person has to contribute money to the site, be verified with an address and as an actual person, have references, and every person who has every stayed with you or traveled with you will write a review explaining their experiences as either positive or negative, so you know if the person is a great host or not by reading these reviews. So we decided to dive in and found a sweet woman willing to let 4 people stay at her place. Her profile had impeccable reviews and her pictures showed that she had horses. After conversing with her for several weeks, we were actually quite excited to meet her and see her city!
We were picked up by Roswitha and her boyfriend at the train station. They brought us to their favorite diner to eat and drink typical “Bamberg Beer”, brewed in the same building. Roswitha brought us to her home where there were two large beds for us 4 girls to share. She let us stay in her home alone as she stayed with her boyfriend a few houses over. In the morning, they both picked us up to bring us to her boyfriends’ place for a perfect breakfast. Her boyfriend, Christian, took us girls on a complete tour of the city while Roswitha was doing a 10 mile run with her horse. Here are my favorite parts:
(Typical German Currywurst sausage with fries)
(City Hall in the middle of the river)
(this church celebrated it's 1,000th birthday 3 years ago!)
That afternoon, Roswitha and Christian hung out with us at the stables behind Christian’s house where we were given the opportunity to ride Roswitha’s horse Lilly. Lilly, like her owner, is incredibly nice and is actually trained to work with the handicapped. We had so much fun! Roswitha and Christian also let us watch movies at their place (movies that we learned a lot from like The Cove.. I totally recommend it), took us to the castle and church overlooking the city on Good Friday, had us eat typical Good Friday dinners at the café that is part of the church, and got us food for our 7 hour train journey to Berlin. All in all, I learned many things from them. They not only taught me a lot about German culture, Bamberg in general, horses, and food, but I also learned a lot about Dolphins, technology, and above all… the generosity of Germans and how hospitality and generosity can go a long way in life. These were two of the nicest and most interesting people I have ever met and I am so thankful I got the opportunity to meet them. It has given me an incredible perspective of couchsurfing.com and I hope that in my future travels I meet people just as incredible through the site.
(Me riding Lilly with Roswitha guiding)
(And Lilly does tricks... kind of!)
Berlin- a city rebuilt:
We took 7 ½ hours of train rides to get to the city. Aaaand ohh Berlin. Where to start? Berlin is a city with a lot of ancient history, although much of it has been erased as the bombs of WWII have destructed tons of the ancient buildings. Many have been restored to the best of their ability, although much of the city is still, to this day, in ruins from the scars of war. The new thriving culture is alternative, artsy, and very unique.
Hostel: Our hostel was up the creaky stairs behind a graffiti filled door. At first, we were skeptical, although as we approached the floor of our hostel, our anxiety was relieved by a huge sign that said ALOHA HOSTEL, covered in lei’s, and we were kindly greeted by the owner, a young Brazilian who was living in the hostel with his girlfriend. We were immediately upgraded from a 10 person room to a 4 person room, just because the 4 person was empty. The hostel was COVERERED in bright paint, flowers, neon pillows, and was just an overall fun environment. There was free internet and computers to use and pancakes and a full breakfast out for us every morning. The owners were great! They not only were able to answer all of our questions and help us find things, but they also liked hanging out with the guests in the living room or by going out with them at night. We met a lot of really cool people at the hostel, especially our new Finnish friends!
Walking tour of the city:
There was an incredible amount of history and pictures I took during this walking tour and of Berlin in general. So to make it easier, if anyone is interested in checking it out, here’s my facebook album of Berlin with captions under the pictures. It’s easier this way! http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=46076&id=1581690006&l=8962579c4f
Alternative “Anti-Pub Crawl”: We saw the flier in the hostel and were sold. This tour took us to some of the funniest and craziest places in Berlin that you would never had heard about otherwise.
-Started out at Yesterday Bar where the décor is as hippy chic as possible. Filled with flower power, peace signs, vintage signs, and anything else that makes you feel like saying, “Peace!”.
-Went to a rock-gothic scary bar. Filled with skeletons, burning barrels of flame, dark rock music, and an interesting crowd. We loved that it was different for us though!
-Next stop: KingKongKlub, a bar filled with stuffed monkeys all over the ceiling, silly dancing Germans, and some interesting music.
-Ping Pong Bar! It was a strange hole in the wall sort of place: a grungy building with no décor. It did however, have a large ping pong table in the middle of its only room. Every person got a paddle and was given the opportunity to try to hit the ball when it was their turn, then you rotate around the table. If you mess up, you’re automatically out. Most of us pub-crawlers were out fast as the local legends of the bar got sneaky and were trying hard to get us out. It was funny to see how 30 people quickly got down to three, when things got real crazy!
-Absinthe bar. Yes, it’s illegal in the US but not in Germany, and this bar had 180 different kinds. You’re supposed to dump a sugar cube into a shot of absinthe, pull it out with a spoon, set it on fire, then wait for a little bit, then dose the sugar with water to extinguish the flame, then immediately drop the sugar cube into the drink and mix. WELL, the German locals all laughed as two of us in the group managed to light the drinks on fire accidently. The drink is meant to be sipped, but half of our group shot them instead, immediately leading them to regret that decision. The 80% alcohol drinks were ridiculously gross, but the bar was fun and funny to say the least.
-Bombed out Train station dance club. So this train station had been bombed in WWII and was never restored to that function. Instead, the entire place has been turned into multiple dance clubs, a skate park, a karate/dance lesson place, a café, an outdoor movie theater, and art and graffiti showcase, and the bomb shelter of the station has been turned into a rock climbing wall. Pretty amazing place overall.
Alternative Graffiti tour of the city: This tour was just as intense and amazing as the walking tour of the city. Check out my facebook album to see all the pictures. The tour lasted about 5 hours but taught us SO much about the new culture of Berlin.
(my favorite graffitti!)
Checkpoint Charlie and the Berlin wall: Of course I can't talk about my adventures in Berlin without mentioning these key aspects. The entire city still has remnants of the city divided. Transport tends to run either on the East or the West side. Parts of the wall still remain. East Berlin has different "walk" and "don't walk" pedestrian signs than West Berlin. East Berlin has painful monuments demonstrating moments of when the wall was up. Check out that facebook album for complete photos. Checkpoint Charlie was the main crossing point between the east and west sides of Berlin. Although now, it's just a tiny hut in the road, it once was a massive barrier. To cross from one side to the other would often prove to be very difficult, but there are some amazing stories of people who successfully smuggled their friends or family onto their own side, including a man who built a fake hollowed-out plastic cow and put it in with a cow trailer. He successfully brought many members of his family to the West side this way.
(True Coug in front of Checkpoint Charlie)
Daytrip to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Once off the train stop closest to the camp, it takes about a 20 minute walk to arrive at the camp. The walk is completely necessary to put someone in the state of mind to see what they are about to, and also to reflect on it on the walk back afterwards. It was an incredibly hurtful and difficult place to be in, but I think it’s something that everyone who goes to Europe should do. Some of the concentration camp is still in original form. Many other parts have been converted into extensive museums illustrating thousands of personal stories from just that concentration camp alone. I only took a few photos because I don’t feel like it’s the kind of thing that a photo can even explain. It’s just something everyone needs to do for themselves in their lifetime if they get the chance. Here is the one of the photos I did take.
(entering the gate with the sign "work will set you free")
It’s hard to explain everything that I saw and experienced in Germany. I want to share it all, but I know this is already an incredibly long blog. BUT, I also think I will leave some things out so that if anyone gets the opportunity to go to Germany, they can experience some of it themselves. I totally recommend it. After four days in Berlin, we flew to Frankfurt for our connecting flight to Spain. While we thought we would have 10 hours to explore Frankfurt, we realized the airport was almost 2 hours away from the city, and our funds were already low, so we decided to camp in the airport all day. At 8 am we arrived in Frankfurt and at 8 pm we flew out of Frankfurt to Alicante, Spain. Once in Alicante, we had to spend the night in the airport AGAIN as the last bus to Murcia had already left. Exhausted, yes. But so worth it. I love Germany! Now I’m back to the grind of school… minus by Dublin trip planned for this weekend ;)
Yesss… I have taken another trip somewhere and want to share it with you all! I know… I’m obsessed with travel. 4 huge buses filled with international students from Murcia took off towards Valencia, Spain for a 24 hour journey (I was literally awake from 6:30 am on Friday until 6:30 am on Saturday when we returned to Murcia).
Valencia is the hometown of the world famous festival known as "Las Fallas", a festival to celebrate the Saint Joseph. Although the festival includes a mountain of activities, the main event is the “fallas” (or huge statue-like figures) created. Every neighborhood of the city spends an entire year fundraising and planning to create both a small human-sized structure of a scene (called “las fallas infantiles”) and a huge several-story high structure with built in firework/firecracker mounts to be burnt later. The figures are made of wooden frames with styrofoam and plastic, painted and sculpted by the help of professional artists who’ve made their home in Valencia for this reason alone. The themes of these structures are usually a "jab at anything or anyone unlucky enough to draw the attention of the critical eyes of the those creating the fallas"- this could be movie characters, political actors, making fun of tourists themselves, ironic or puzzling made-up characters, etc. At the end of the festival on Friday night, all of the fallas are burnt simultaneously, leaving only the first prize falla left standing. The festival is one of Spain's largest and includes hundreds of fireworks in each neighborhood, the world famous Valencian Paella dish, festivities of all sorts, markets of all sorts, and a mountain of both tourists and locals flooding the streets to enjoy “Las Fallas”. Here are some of my pictures and videos!
(Giant sized Falla in the middle of one of the neighborhood plazas)
(This is a falla infantil... or "infant sized" falla. Each neighborhood would have a huge Falla plus one of these small ones)
(Music, dancing, crazy people... overall a great time!)
(Representing WSU Cougars in front of one of the main Fallas in Valencia)
(Here I am eating Valencia's famous and traditional rice dish called Paella. For this festival it is made in huge skillets fit to feed dozens and dozens of people. Typical paella of Valencia includes rice, seasonings, seafood, often rabbit or other meats, vegetables, saffron or food coloring, snails (optional), and beans. Although, there are dozens of variations. All I know is that I love Paella!)
(Very crowded festival. Here there are dozens of markets set up on a random street with a huge falla in the background)
(1st place winning Falla. This one won't be burned at the end of the night)
(incredible details for styrofoam, plastic, and paint. Detailed view of the winning Falla)
(this was too funny not to post. No wonder Europeans are so in shape and skinny!)
(Most of the fallas were actually quite comical, and although I didn't get what they were trying to show in the fallas, they were still entertaining to look at)
(Here is a giant figure covered in hundreds of roses to represent the "virgen". This figure is made annually in the Plaza del Virgen).
(Here is a Falla Infantil burning in a small neighborhood. At 10 pm all of the "fallas infantiles" are set on fire simultaneously with fireworks in each neighborhood. There are literally dozens and dozens of these fallas throughout the city!)
(We arrived over an hour and a half prior to the 1 am fireworks show and Falla burning to get this standing spot that we did, and we were still far from the main Falla to be burnt. Here is the back of the main Falla in the main plaza moments prior to burning to pieces)
(All of the big Fallas were burnt to the ground at midnight, followed by fireworks. The only exceptions were the prize winning Falla and the Falla in the middle of the main plaza. This Falla was set to be burnt at 1 in the am with a HUGE earbusting fireworks show. It was incredible to see this Falla burn down, but also heartbreaking because it was a huge and beautiful piece of art that took an entire year of fundraising and planning).
Las Fallas in Valencia are definately a one of a kind experience. Parents were teaching their 3 year olds how to play with sparklers and put off miny fireworks. My ears have never rang so much after experiencing fireworks constantly during the entire day which would remind me of being in a city being bombed, followed by the most intense fireworks show I've ever seen that literally would bring the word "bombing" to mind. Valencia....where else do people spend a year creating something so beautiful and unique and then celebrating the explosion of it into flames? Only in Valencia. The festival had amazing food, marketplaces, vendors, dancing, music, paella, artwork, Fallas, fireworks that made 4th of July look like child's play, and more people in one place than I have probably ever seen. Overall, I highly recommend others to go and am SO glad that I went even if it meant standing and walking around ALL day because the town was too packed to have any open seats at restaurants. So worth it.
My two weeks of spring break officially start Thursday for me. I'll be staying in Spain for a few days to experience the infamous Semana Santa and then will be off to Berlin, Munich, Dresden, and Bamburg for 8 days in Germany!
