Brussels and Amsterdam

Brussels = food. Demasiado comida. The center square is beautiful, lined with gold crusted buildings that house beautiful little chocolate shops. All the surrounding streets are filled with chocolate shops, bars and restaurants, and waffle and frites stands. The chocolate shops all give out free samples, therefore we all completely overdosed on chocolate. We walked all over the city, which isn't too big and found the famous Mannekin Pis, the Peeing Boy statue. We walked out into the African quarter of Brussels and on our way out hit the famous Antique flea market. We also made it to Delirium village, a well known bar area of the city, and went into the Delirium cafe, with countless types of Belgian beers.

From Brussels we did a day trip to Amsterdam. I wish we had more time there, but we made do with what we had. The entire city is gorgeous, everyone travels around on bicycles, I was almost run over a number of times. We went to the Anne Frank house in the morning, a very worthwhile visit. Afterward we went down to the Van Gogh museum, which was a pretty long walk, and when we got the and found out it was 14 euro to enter we decided not to go. Oops. We wandered back into the city center and found the open air flower market, the most awesome cheese store ever, an area called Begijnhof (antiguamente for women who neither wanted to marry nor enter a convent) and walked into the Red Light District.

Chocolate shops all ready for Easter

The beautiful city center

Waffles = Amazing

Begijnhof, still functioning as a community today

Flower Market

Cheese!

Mussels in Brussels!

YUMM

Drinkin' a Pink Killer in the Delerium Cafe (probably not looking my cleanest)

Paris

I've been to Paris before, though only for a few days, so I thought I wouldn't really want to hit all the big sites again, however it was actually pretty cool to check out what Paris has to offer after 5 years. The first step was figuring out the metro system, which, once deciphered, was clean and punctual and easy to use. For the rest of the time we walked...and walked and walked and walked. Our first day we started at the Arc de Triomphe, walked down the Champs Elysees, passing some very grand buildings along the way. Then we got the the Louvre, my favorite part were Napoleon's apartments. Our next day we did Versaille in the morning. A friend of mine kept saying that as they were building it, wasn't anyone thinking, maybe this is just a little bit excessive? After we went to the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame. At night we went out in Montmartre decided to go into a bar because they advertised 2 euro beers (everything in Paris is usually way more expensive). It turned out to be a very local place where I ended up meeting a few Parisians. We spoke a mix of English and Spanish, some of them were better at one or the other language. They kept telling me how exotic my "New York accent" sounds, which I think is ironic coming from people who speak such a beautiful language. Our next morning we had to catch a train to Brussels around 1, so we spent the morning wandering Montemartre. We went to Sacre Ceour, a beautiful cathedral, and the surrounding streets filled with cafes and boutiques. It felt like a completely different city than the rest of Paris, much smaller and calmer. 

In the Louvre! (Makes me think of Aunt Leenie's kitchen)

Napoleon's Apartments

The yogurt in France is the best yogurt I've ever eaten

Marie Antoinette's bed (Not so fun fact that I remember from my last tour: when Marie Antoinette gave birth, there were 200 people in the room to watch, the room is not very big, so they had to break the windows to let in air because she couldn't breathe.) 

Sacre Coeur

Back to Bloggin'!

WHEW! Finally home after 9 days and 4 countries, it's great to be back in Sevilla. Roughly our travels went like this; 2 days in Paris, staying in a hostel in Montmartre, on to Brussels for a half day, then a day trip to Amsterdam, back in Brussels for a day, off to Dublin for a day, then to Galway the next day, a day trip to the Cliffs of Moher and back to Dublin, then back to Sevilla on a 6:30 AM flight. Sounds insane, but it was pretty awesome. The group I ended up traveling with changed size throughout the trip, at some points it was way too many people, but we got a serious amount of touring done anyway, and it was a built in party where ever we went! I am very happy to be back in Sevilla, I just had possibly the greatest shower of my life. I also tried to explain to my senora this morning that I'm going to try to avoid bread for the next week, I think she kind of gets it...

Takin' Off

Tomorrow morning I have my flight at 8AM to Paris, then to Brussels by train, possibly a day trip to Amsterdam from there, then to Dublin (where we'll be spending a day in Galway) and then back to Sevilla. I was originally going to fly out today, but there's a nationwide 24 hour strike protesting a recently passed law limiting the rights of workers. I was afraid my flight wouldn't take off....if there weren't any workers...so I changed it to tomorrow morning. Now it's just how to figure out packing for 10 days in a suitcase that weighs less than 10 kilos...hmm. Anyway, I won't have reliable internet access for the next 10 days, so there probably won't be any blog posts.

Today in my Women Writers class we talked about the influence of the Franco era in literature in Spain, which was a very interesting conversation, but all I could really think about was "Francisco Franco todavia esta muerte" (Francisco Franco is still dead). Not fair.

Mas Flamenco!

My friend took this picture on her phone, I look like I actually know how to dance!

Miercoles

Just thought I should update today, it's a typical Miercoles, pretty relaxed. Last night we did a walking tour in my Antonio Machado class. First Rafa, mi profesor, took us to El Ataneo de Sevilla, a society of intellectuals to which the Machados once belonged. We only saw from the outside, but it's a place where hoy en dia, they hold art expositions and charlas (discussions). Rafa told us that he's part of El Ataneo de Madrid. Then he said he had a surprise for us, so we walked to Plaza de Encarnacion and he took us up to the top of the Metrosol - Parasol, the big mushroomy thing in the middle of Sevilla. The views from the top are incredible, and since we just change the clocks, the sun was still setting around 9. It was gorgeous. 

Today I'm going to hang out with my intercambio a little later, I hope he brings his dog! I miss my Mitzvah. Then I have Sevillana class. I'm going to be a part of a desfile for trajes de flamenco. It's basically that we're modeling flamenco dresses, it's pretty embarrassing but it's fun to get all dressed up. Yesterday we had our first practice, pictures of that to come too. After class I'm going to meet up with another amigo of Kaci's, his name is Santi. Last night I texted him to make plans for tonight and he said "Porque no estas de fiesta?" (why aren't you out?)...Spaniards are always partying. Liz and I will meet him tonight for a cerveza. =) Demasiado intercambios? Hombre, por favor, jamas! 

Goofballs in Granada

The little one in the middle is my Sevillana teacher, she's adorable. Hay mi ninas! 

My dress is morada (purple) with complementos amarillos (yellow accessories) 

Views from the top of SETAS

 

Hola a Todos!

Lo siento, no he publicado algo en mi blog hace mucho tiempo, he estado muy ocupada! (I'm sorry I haven't posted anything in a while, I've been so busy!). It was a crazy week last week, I met a lot of Espanoles and slept very little, but it was so much fun! On Friday I went to the strangest event/fiesta ever, but I had the time of my life. It was called Rebel Bingo, and the concept of it was bizarre, but it was basically bingo mixed with electro concert mixed with a highlighter party. I had a blast, but only slept 2 hours because I had to leave so early for Granada the next day. In Granada we did a 3 hour walking tour of La Alhambra, then had free time and Liz and I got to meet up with Lucy, who is studying there for the semester. We met up with her and a few of her friends and had a more relaxed night checking out a few of the different bar options in Granada. On Sunday we toured the Capilla Real, which houses the tombs of Fernando and Isabel, Los Reyes Catolicos. We had free time to explore a Moroccan market nearby and then we were on our way home. They whole thing went by in a blur, needless to say, a full night of sleep was very welcome last night.  

Rebel Bingo

En los jardines de La Alhambra

With Luce!