A weekend in Madrid!

Since we've been here in Madrid I haven't really spent much free time in Madrid. I'm not bummed about it or anything because we've been traveling all over the country and Europe! But it has been nice to have time to slow down and walk to different borrows of Madrid to take pictures or walk around, shop, or just sit outside at a cafe drinking sangria and reading. I've been able to explore more parks and neighborhoods, different cultures within Madrid. La Latina seemed pretty ghetto, and also had a big Muslim community. I happen to be exploring on Friday which is an Islamic holy day, so I saw everyone leaving their mosques. Chueca, everyone knows, is the gay neighborhood. Walking up and down the streets I saw gay pride flags hanging everywhere and couples of all kinds holding hands and being affection. Public affection is pretty much the norm in Spain, and it's not just holding hands. Often when I walk through parks there is at least one couple with the boy sitting down and the girl sitting on top of him with her legs strattling him and his hands all over her ass. I'm sure it sets a lot of pressure and standards for young Spaniards. I've come to think of it as, Spanish people just love a lot more passionately and don't care about who sees. That's nice.

I've explored GOYA a little bit, it's not that far from where I live. When Isabela was in Spain a week early she stayed with a woman who lives in that area, and I've visited her a couple of times with Isabela. The neighborhood is so much more tranquil and full of older people too; at least more than our neighborhood. Chamberi is a mixture of people, and I'm pretty sure we live next to the loudest ones in Madrid. They have no sense of time either so in the middle of the night we're banging on the walls for them to be quiet. Mostly Isabela though because her bedroom is right next to the noise source; but it can be heard throughout the apartment.

Last night I went to Fuerza Bruta with my friend Lindsay and it was so much fun! I had no idea what to expect but as soon as we got there the beats were bumpin and different color lights set a great atmosphere. We went into a mosh pit of people who were ready to enjoy the dance/water/performance art spectacular. Going with Lindsay was great because she worked on the set in NY so she told me where to stand to get the best view and we both just had a great energy for the show. The end was probably my favorite part, because it rained on us (inside the show) and we were just dancing and having fun. I love dancing in the rain. It reminds me of home.

I've also gotten back into drawing, which I don't think I'm as good at it as I used to be but it's just relaxing. It would be great if I could find some interesting ceramics to paint because even though that's something I'm definitely not good at, it's sooooo relaxing to me and I can enjoy it for hours upon hours.

I also went to a bullfight. NEVER AGAIN! It was interesting, but the fact that someone created a sport out of killing animals slowly and painfully, kinda makes me want to puke. The bull takes at least 20 minutes to charge a man with a colorful cape while people are stabbing him with special swords for points until finally the matador comes out and with one swift stab of a sword is supposed to kill the bull. Well, matadors can suck sometimes and they need to stab the already bleeding to death bull, at least a couple of times. Then once the bull is dead they cut off his horns and tail tie him to horses and the horses drag him out of the arena. The bulls I saw were younger than 2 years old, so they were a lot smaller than the normal sized bulls, but still very big. If a matador sucks at stabbing the bull and the knives fall out the entire arena boos. It was appalling, but interesting nontheless to see that part of Spanish culture. In the picture, those things the man without the cape is holding are what the knives-for-points look like. I don't know what the correct name for any of these things are. I don't care enough to find out, but there you go.

Anyway, we have another weekend here in Madrid before we travel again, to Paris! When we're in Paris we're staying with our friend Lais and Magda is going to come from Germany too! It's going to be a great little reunion. Next weekend is the weekend before my midterms but I am hoping to still go out and meet people and enjoy myself. I'll just bring my notecards with me. Dancing in the club with Spanish flashcards wouldn't be awkward would it? Or drinking at a bar while reading about Caravaggio's greatest works? That's not strange...

With all of this exploring and hanging out with different people, I am really FINALLY starting to love my time here more than I had before. I don't think that Madrid is any big deal compared to other places I've lived, but there's so many great things I could do with it. Thank God for all of these blessings and great friends I have to support me and love me through thick and thin. I hope my parents know how much I appreciate all of the hard work they've contributed so that I could have all of these blessings.

Barça 10/7 -10/9

Friday morning Isabela's mom flew in and shortly after I woke up we were off to the airport for Barcelona. First of all, combining my knowledge gathered while in Barcelona and before that in Valencia, I must say that Catalan is one of the weirdest languages ever. They use this letter a lot - ç - which I think makes the "shh" or "ss" sound. They also spell with these letters - gü qü - whereas Spanish doesn't really do that too often. While searching around we were looking for plazas and calles but instead we found plaças and carrers.

The first thing we did when we got there was walk around looking for our hostal. The hostal was really nice for a hostal, I expected something like the hostals we had seen on other trips, but this one was more like a hotel. That was nice to have our own room together instead of staying with strangers who get in at 5am and don't speak your language so when you ask them to turn the lights off or be quiet they just look at you doe-eyed.

In Barcelona we rushed around seeing all that we could in the short time we were there! We went to Gaudí's Casa Batlló, Casa Mila la Pedrera, and we spent a lot of time looking around the most amazing Sagrada Familia. The Sagrada Familia is still under construction and already stands about 120 meters tall right. Once the the Jesus Christ tower if built it will stand 170m tall as its final height, thats 558ft. Apparently it should finish being constructed in my lifetime, but it's still so beautiful without the finishing touches. It can be seen from almost any hill in Barcelona I think, it felt that way at least. Here are some pictures of the Sagrada Familia! I can't wait to go back when I'm an older lady and see this place finished, that is definitely something I hope I can do in this lifetime

If you can picture this being taller than the photo makes it, that's what it will be in the future. The cranes couldn't even reach the height

The picture above isn't so good, but it's the best I have. On the right you'll see a panoramic photo of the ceiling inside the Sagrada Familia. It was the only way I could capture it all at once.

Seriously, I don't think I have ever seen anything so beautiful. The first day we were in Barcelona we went on a bus tour to see everything all at once and then the next day we went on a Gaudi walking tour where we saw a lot of Gaudi's work and finished at the Sagrada Familia. The tour took us around the Sagrada Familia with awesome information about how each side has a purpose and a meaning down to the T! Then when the tour was done we had lunch and went inside the Basilica where we saw all of this amazing architecture. I have never seen a church like that before in my life. Gaudi was both crazy and a genius.

We walked a lot on Saturday, but not as much as Isabela and I normally walk I think. I've gotten pretty used to following her exploring methods. I always get lost and am in pain for some health reason, and Isabela is always knowing where we are and rearing to go on the next adventure. Sometimes it's hard for me to keep up, like the old lady that I am. I'm proud to say my feet have become pretty adjusted and I can follow her lead with a skip in my step now. Besides it's so much more fun when we see everything on her lists that she has everywhere we go.  I never have a list or do research, I don't even know what there is in a lot of places that we've been or plan to go. I had never heard of the Sagrada Familia before coming to Spain, who would have thought. I'm so culturally deprived! But I've also never traveled this much for pleasure before. I usually like to travel with a goal in mind, like volunteering or doing something for the community. Usually I feel guilty when I'm traveling for fun because tourists, other than contributing to the economy, don't really do much good for the local environment. Our trips are also not really like vacations for slowing down and relaxing, they are high speed, full of lots of things to do and see and not very much time to do it. If people could be tourists like we have been than everyone would only need two days in every city in the world. We always manage to see everything we want in a whole city within just a weekend.

While we were in Barcelona we went to the National Museum at night where we saw an amazing water show and had dinner. The water show was probably longer than we thought because we were told it started at 9p, but that was when it finished. Luckily we were early to the "9p" show and had plenty of time to enjoy it, and relax before heading in for the night. This was also where everyone went for the Sensation White party. It's a party where everyone wear's white and there's paint being thrown around. I don't really know much about it. As we were leaving we saw seas of people dressed entirely in white coming in and out of the metro, and busses. It was cool to see that many people matching.

Overall I had a great weekend with Isabela and her mom, just as I expected I would. It's been so nice this week having a mama here, even though she's not my mama. There's just something about mamas that is so calming and refreshing. The other day, Isabela's mom and I went to explore Retiro park and we came across a couple of gardens full of beautiful flowers and one garden specifically for different kinds of Roses from all over the world. I got some good mama advice about slowing down and relaxing more than I do. The whole day made me miss my mom. My mom has a garden and would love to walk around with me for hours and give me advice about life. I can't wait until November when I get to see her and my brother and dad when they come visit and take Isabela and I on a couple more adventures. Having a mama here also made me realize that Isabela and I take really good care of each other. I knew that before, but I didn't realize we're both so motherly towards one another. That's the great thing about living with someone that you love like a sister; there's always family close by.

Soul Searching in Berlin 9/29-10/2

This past weekend Isabela and I went to visit our friend Magda in Berlin. I have to say Berlin and Morocco are tied for my two favorite trips so far. Morocco because it felt good to be getting down to my roots by being around Arabs, and Berlin because well... Magda was there, but also because I've never been to Germany and there is so much history that I love from that country. I would like to go to Germany and Poland and see a lot of the places I've read about during the Holocaust and learn some Slavic languages while I'm at it, but I don't foresee that happening in the near future.

The three of us, along with Magda's friend Lindsey and some of her other friends too did all kinds of tourist and non-tourist things. Lindsey was super nice and treated us like we were long lost best friends, so I was happy to see that Magda has someone like that with her while she's abroad. She even made us sangria for before we out for the night, like a Madrid welcome to Berlin present haha. We all had a lot of fun together.

The first night Isabela and didn't get to Magda's apartment until around 1:30 am! Seeing her at the airport was like a breath of fresh air after all that traveling, so sitting on the train wasn't so bad just longwinded. The plane was late, and the train from Schöenfeld Airport to Magda's place took quite a while. Isabela told me that schöenfeld literally means beautiful field, so its ironic that perhaps where there was once a beautiful field there is now a cemented lot of planes.

After getting to Magda's we took about 20 minutes to change and go out to the German nightlife. The bar had music like a disco and people were dancing but it was more like just a bar. I thought the setting was very grunge and cool, it reminded me of the movie Uncle Buck when the niece is in the middle of the woods with her boyfriend and everyone's drinking beer and theirs a trash of fire in the background with a dimly lit atmosphere. It was like that. It was a lot louder though and there were people dancing. I even had a spontaneous dance-off with a drunk Canadian woman who could actually probably out-dance me any day. I also experience my new favorite beer called Augustener, and learned that German beer in general is one of the only beers I would ever drink.

After the bar Magda and Isabela and I headed towards getting falafel around 4am, when we were suddenly stopped on the street by a girl poking her head out of a bar with a DJ (and not very many people) and she yelled in English "Hey it's my birthday! Come in!" We all looked at each other really quickly and said why not, and went into this stranger's birthday party. They gave us free beer and took pictures with us. I don't remember the girls name, or anything much after that, but she was from Sardinia, Italy and lived in Berlin. I talked to her in Spanish since most Italians can understand Spanish, and she just responded in English. It was cool. Her brother and his friends were visiting and they were all celebrating together. Her whole crowd was pretty drunk, and the boys were a little bit sketchy. At one point, a drunken and seemingly homeless man walked in and just held up his arms in the doorway like he just scored a touchdown and was walking into his party. It was probably the funniest moment of the night, but he was kicked out.
After leaving and getting falafel, I face planted on Magda's floor and fell asleep.

The next day we woke up kind of late, and started cramming in the sites we wanted to see. We went on tours of the museums on Museum Island. We saw Renaissance art, Egyptian art, Islamic art, and some really old stuff from the Stone Age. I thought the Islamic art was the best. After museums, which I was happy that Magda came along too even though that's not really her thing, we went to get some food, and we relaxed for a while before heading out for the night and meeting up with our friend Ryan who was visiting from Prague. There was a big group of us that went out to the bar that night because Ryan had a group of friends he knew from Prague and Berlin. We hunted for food longer than we should have because its hard to find resolutions in big groups, but eventually we had eats and settled into a bar. After the bar we came back to Magdas and I passed out again. The nights were really cold and the days were like they are in Madrid, warm like summer. Apparently its supposed to get colder there very soon, so I was glad we weren't visiting later in the semester instead of the time we chose.

It was kind of funny because, I am a person who is always hot, so I would wake up in the middle of the night hot and sweaty and look at Isabela who is wearing layers of clothes and bundled up in a blanket.

Saturday, we woke up and got ready to go on a 3 or 4 hour walking tour. Magda didn't want to come, and I don't really blame her. She lives there and does all of that stuff probably all the time, so if I were her I would have gone back to bed. Isabela and I trucked onward seeing Checkpoint Charlie, the Berlin Wall, Brendenberger Tor (Brandonberg Gate), the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, and a parking lot that is built over where Adolf Hitler's bunker was that he killed himself in. We saw lots and lots of things and our tour guide gave out a lot of information.
The Holocaust Memorial was made very interestingly too. Every person could create their own opinion of what the blocks of cement lined in files and all different heights might mean. I felt like they were tombs, and when I went to the center where the tallest blocks were I felt like maybe it was meant to feel like you were in the Jewish ghetto. I'm not sure. Our tour guide pointed out that one of the rules of the memorial is to not step on the blocks, but if you are standing along the outskirts there are blocks that look like tiles as part of a sidewalk so its very easy to unknowingly break the rules; maybe it has something to do with humanity.
After the tour ended we met up with everyone, walked around a market, and went to lunch before taking time to rest and going out one last time.

Our final night was a girls night, Lindsey, Magda, Isabela and I all went to this club because it was free entry and we each had 3 free drink tickets. We walked in, and it was dead empty. We got there early to get in for free so it was only 11:30ish. The DJ was playing redundant techno music, and we fooled around a little but when we were ready to leave we ended up in another room. In this room there were double the people and there was a different kind of music playing. We kept going into the next room and the next room and we realized we were in a labrynth of rooms each playing different kinds of music. Finally, we ended up going between the hiphop/reggaetone room and the 80s/90s room until we decided to call it a night.

Some things about German men; They are mostly full of themselves and can be rude because of it, they pee anywhere and everywhere they want, and they are extremely rude and blunt when trying to pick up girls. Obviously that is according to how I experienced Germany, but it seemed to ring pretty true. In Spain guys smile, lick their lips, even whistle sometimes... but in Germany, they say "allo vant to fack." And while walking along streets guys would just stand next to each other with their junk out peeing like dogs, on buildings and trees. Isabela and I even saw a guy peeing next to the construction site for a church in the middle of the day with people walking all around.

I had a lot of opportunities this weekend to sit back and observe and take in my surroundings, which I think was good for me to slow down and reanalyze the way that I rationalize my experiences in my head. One night the three of us read information for our horoscope signs, as well as to see what our compatibility with each other would be. Even though my Scorpio sign sounded like a deranged, jealous, and passionate person who might become a killer; it was overall kind of accurate, just very extreme. I don't think I could ever be that violent. Anyway, it was nice to know that the three of us were compatible friends because otherwise it might have spoiled something by giving us preconceived notions.

Sunday we woke up really late, but had enough time to see some interesting things. We went  to the German version of Madrid's El Rastro market. It was like a bunch of thrift store and yardsale type stuff in a field. We walked around and I got a vintage leather backpack for 5 Euros. I guess it's not really vintage because they sell them everywhere, but it was cheap and looked old because it was used. For all I know it could have been around since the war! Maybe I'll create some kind of imaginary story for it to make it sound even cooler.

I learned a little bit of German. Hello, goodbye, can I have a beer, I love you, excuse me, and I'm sorry, tramp, this is good, and I think those are all of the phrases I've learned. I also learned that if I say things in a deep angry voice, quickly, and with a German accent, than I am kind of already speaking German. Magda even taught me how to read German a little bit, so I would ask her random questions about how to say stupid words. It was fun, I think I love the language a lot and it would be really cool to expand on that. Das ist ein gute idea. (According to google some of my German accented English is correct in German. What can I say... Ich ben gute.)

Overall, I had an amazing time and I can't wait until we see Magda again when she comes to visit in Madrid, maybe even before that when we all go to Paris.