Light Hearty Bavarian Meals and the most art I´ve ever seen in my life

Essentially, these characterize my last two trips. Not together, of course - the first would be Germany, and the art would be in regards to Madrid, where I went this past weekend. However, I´ve been slacking on the bloggage, so I´ll have to compact them into one big story.

First, Germany - we left Sevilla on Wednesday night (the 11th), and flew to Stansted airport in London for the first leg of our trip. Unfortunately we had to spend the night in the airport, but we were not dismayed - I snuggled up under an overhang on the nice tile floor to catch a few z´s. We left nice and early that morning for Munich (after I accidentally spent more than 2 pounds aka 3 euro aka 4.50 dollars on a tiny cup of coffee in a sleepy stupor), and arrived in the beautiful city around noon. Definitely a change from Spain! We broke out the gloves and peacoats, and started walking around. We had the good fortune to have a Munich insider available to us, because one of the guys on the trip has a random connection in Munich. So we met his friend Sabrina, who goes to school at the University of Munich, and she was really enthusiastic about taking us around. We hit up all the major sites - the Glockenschpiel clock tower, the opera house, the university, the English gardens, the church, and the outdoor market, which I loved - they were selling sausage, cheese, produce, honey, and christmas garlands that smelled like cinnamon and anise. We also saw the Hofbrauhaus, the famous German beer hall, which was absolutely ridiculous - huge Bavarian women carrying giant beer steins and plates of sausages amidst accordion and tuba music coming from a not-at-all-stereotypical band. Sabrina said that the Hofbrauhaus was for tourists, and insisted on taking us to a real restaurant - the Augustiner Bierhaus. The food was INCREDIBLE - though I´m not one for meat and potatoes, the shwine and knudel was delish.

The day was so much fun, and we basically got to see the entire city - we really power-walked the streets, which is protocol in Germany. Everyone walks very quickly, and it was repeatedly referred to as ´the land of punctuality;´so much, in fact, that it wasn´t even a joke anymore. We ate apples bought from vendors on the streets, munched on Milka brand chocolate the ENTIRE time, and enjoyed conversing in English for the first time in a while. I also accidentally stole a piece of cheese from a man at the outdoor market!!! However, he was really nice and understanding. Word of advice for future German travelers out there: samples in Germany = not always samples.

The next day we took the train to Fussen, a tiny town in the Bavarian Alps. The ride was so beautiful - I would gamble to say that Germany has some of the best landscapes in all of Europe, at least of what I´ve seen thus far. We rested up at our mountain lodge-like hostel, complete with huge old-fashioned wrought-iron keys, and the next day left for our tour of the fairytale castles up the hill. Apparently this prince Ludwig grew up in the first castle we visited, called the Hohenshwangau, and then decided to build his own castle, the Neuschwanstein. They were so incredible - very anachronistic and over the top, and located in the most beautiful mountain-scape. We spent about 7 hours hiking around the castles, taking tours, and taking pictures - we watched the sun set over the hills and got to see the castles lit up at night. When we returned to Fussen, which essentially shuts down at about 5 pm (downtown Littleton, anyone???), we managed to find the PERFECT restaurant for dinner, where I ordered a much-deserved hot chocolate and some potato soup in a bread bowl. The waitresses at that restaurant were also hearty Bavarian women, and instead of carrying around steins, carried around tiny barrels of beer that they would pour directly into their patron´s mouths while standing above them. This was quite a spectacle, and only reinforced my strong dislike of beer. Sorry Germany, I´ll just have apple juice. :0)

So now Madrid - I don´t have as many personalized stories, mostly because we just hit up the major sites. We took the 6-hour bus on Thursday the 19th, and immediately went to see the exhibits at the Caixa Forum and the Reina Sofia (which I loved - Guernica is AMAZING!!). Friday we hit up the Basilica de San Fernando de los Angeles, the royal palace, and the Prado, where we spent 4 hours. Saturday was relaxing - just shopping in the morning and the park in the afternoon, which I loved - the leaves were changing, the weather was crisp, and the sky was grey, which made it a perfect day. Sunday we went for churros and chocolate in the morning and walked through El Rastro, the famous Sunday market in Madrid. We completed our stay with a visit to the Thyssen-Bornemisza, where we spent another 3 hours! In summary, as is stated above, basically the most art I´ve ever seen in my life. I loved seeing all the culture and learning about the paintings (which was supplemented well by my knowledge from my Spanish art class), but overall, Madrid is not nearly as beautiful nor culturally Spanish as Sevilla. I was so happy to come home to my familia, the friendly Andalusians, and the wonderful weather!!!

At this point, I´ve gone on 7 trips - while I´ve enjoyed traveling immensely, each time it becomes harder to leave Sevilla and my family. So returning from Madrid was wonderful because I will, from here on out, be spending most of my time in Sevilla once again. The weather is getting crisper, the decorations are being put up, and the classes are winding down - I leave exactly 4 weeks from today, and I have a lot to look forward to in the time that remains.

Random Vignettes about the week

Last week I went to the Sevilla European Film Festival with some friends to see a French film by a Swiss producer. It was called Lourdes, and it was about a paralyzed woman who regains her capacity to walk. The festival was held at the old opera house of Sevilla, el teatro Lope de Vega, which I get to pass by every day after class. The outside, which is normally quite beautiful and impressive, was all lit up, making it even more beautiful and impressive, and we got to enter on a red carpet! However, there were very few people there, so it wasn't really a 'grand gala' of high society as I had hoped. Oh well. But the inside of the theater is even more elegant, and I loved the experience of the festival - they had a couple speakers come from all across Europe, and I enjoyed hearing their speeches in different languages and then in Spanish or English translations afterwards. Translating and lenguage confusion is a part of daily life in Europe, but it's something that we never get to experience in the US. I think that it's an absolute pity.

So about the film - it was pretty much the perfect movie to exemplify 'European film' - not too much dialogue, not really any soundtrack, a lot of straight-on shots, and generally fairly dry. Some parts were ironically funny, but not overwhelmingly a crowd-pleasing piece of entertainment. I did, however, enjoy interpreting the end - I feel that I actually "got it," which I suppose is positive. And funniest of all, apparently that was the film that won the festival! Well, at least I guess we got to see the best.

On Wednesday of last week, I had to get up in front of my regular university class to give an oral presentation about the geography of Austria (kill me now, please). I say this not out of a dislike for public speaking, but first and foremost because of the inanity of the project. I don't think I've had to do a country presentation per-se since I was about 10. And I say this secondarily because apparently I do have a fear of public speaking in Spanish - I was so nervous when the presentation began, but it was mainly because the professor only left me 15 minutes when I really needed 25. So I had to speak really fast, and try and cram everything in - but in summary, I think that the presentation actually went really well, from what I can remember. However, I barely know what happened because I went into fight-or-flight adrenaline mode, and didn't calm down for the next 3 hours. It was SO intimidating - speaking in front of a whole bunch of European students and native Spanish speakers. However, someone complimented me after class, so it couldn't have been too terrible! And now I feel hardcore to be able to tell the story. :0)

The funniest thing in the world happened during lunch the other day with the fam - so my hermanito Alfonsito REALLY dislikes basically all food products, but reserves a fiery dislike for garbanzos and lentils. This very day we were having garbanzo stew (which happens to be a personal favorite, the kid is crazy), and he would have none of it. Now, his complaining and verbal abuse of my senora is a pretty frequent occurrence on the gastronomic front, but today his parents got fed up and sent him to the kitchen. As he was leaving, my hermanita Beatriz said, "Don't we have the weirdest family in the world?" It was hilarious.

I am constantly reminded that I am in a predominantly Catholic country, from the millions of churches to the painting of the virgin mary in my room, to my newfound ability to explain the iconography of catholic saints and virgins. However, I am also constantly surprised by the predominance of catholocism in daily life - for example, yesterday we were told by our art professor that we are going to hell. To contextualize, he was explaining a painting done by some Spanish dude, and asked us if we knew what some churchy thing was in regards to storing sacraments and whatnot. Of course, the answer was no - the majority of us have not been brought up in Spanish Catholic churches. This prompted him to say that we were therefore all going to "el infierno" (hell), which was funny at first, but then it made me think. I don't like being told that I'm going to hell, even as a joke, because in this instance it actually IS what he believes. interesting.

Another interesting anecdote about class is breaktime - in our 2-hour lectures, we sometimes get a 10 minute break to relax and recharge. However, until today I didn't realize that this is mostly so that the professor and students can take a smoking break! I can't even imagine.

I'm sure I have many more engaging stories, but those are some of the funny observations that I came across this week. On to part 2 - adventures in Deutschland!

How Sevill-ized!

Posting twice in one week is a rarity indeed. But I had THE MOST AMAZING night last night, and therefore had to write about it.

So my friend in the program got invited out to a dinner party by a Spanish girl in his class, and he then asked me to come along too. So we got picked up by this girl Belen and her boyfriend Jose, and we all drove to a little town on the outskirts of Sevilla to meet up with some of their friends for dinner. We chilled at their house for a bit, and went to a restaurant and had peppers and tuna and shrimp with garlic, and cheesecake for dessert. So essentially there's nothing terribly exciting about this story, but it marked my first intimate social event with Spanish people my age! They were astounded that I was only wearing a tanktop and jeans in 70 degree weather - Belen was wearing a turtleneck and a coat, and as soon as we got back to the car, she yelled, "shut the door, i'm FREEZING!!!" Oh Sevillians. I told them that Coloradans wear flip flops when it's 32, and they now think we're crazy. :0) However, the best part is that we have another dinner date in a couple weeks when we'll be back in Sevilla - Mirella, Belen's friend, is going to make us homemade paella! Apparently she's an amazing cook.

So, in summary, it was pretty much one of the best nights I've had since coming here. I basically want to be best friends with Belen. I'm sad that we can't see them sooner, what with travels and MIDTERMS this week - yuckkkkkkkkkk. So I'm off to the art market in downtown Sevilla right now, and then I'm going to come home and study. But overall - que noche!

besitos!

Galicia adventures

Perhaps one of my favorite things about Spain is that the weekends are almost always longer than the week days...and this past week was one of those. Therefore, we decided to take advantage of that by hopping on a bus, a couple metro lines, a plane, and another bus to Galicia! Yes, we did take the overnight bus to Madrid on Wednesday night, but I slept the entire time. So anyways, we got to Santiago de Compostela on Thursday morning, and headed straight to our house. On this trip we opted to check out "couchsurfing," which is where you are put in contact with people who live in the city you are visiting who are willing to house students for free. With some luck we found a 45-year-old man named Marcos, who had a house just outside the centro that was large enough for the 6 of us. So, as we figured, this could either be a really awesome situation or a really awkward one. Well, we reasoned, at least we're not paying!

So anyways, it turned out to be amazing. Marcos was SO nice, SO cool, and SO generous - he let us cook in his kitchen, crash all over his amazing house (which was very well-decorated, all modern and edgy, which I appreciated very much), play all his jazz cds (again, which I appreciated very very much), and even threw us a party. And we had really deep and awesome dinner conversations - direct quotes include, "I don't believe in borders," "I let my last couchsurfers use my car to travel all over Galicia for a week," etc. etc. I seriously can't emphasize how cool this guy was. And the party was amazing - it was at some Italian dudes' house, and there were like 50 Erasmus (European study abroaders) students there. We met Italians, Germans, and Brazilians, and carried out lengthy conversations in which none of us were conversing in our native language. It was so much fun! Haha the funniest part was talking with the Italians - they really do gesture a lot, and kept hitting us by accident when they got carried away. :0) But I bonded with this one girl over our mutual love of indie rock, so I would say that it was a highly productive night overall.

Friday we took a day trip to Pontevedra, a tiny town located on the river slightly to the south of Santiago. We tried roasted chestnuts (which are all that they are cracked up to be...OHHHHHH), toured the museum, played with random cats we saw in the street, and ate falafel...? Haha it was an awesome day. We returned to Santiago and Marcos that evening, and showered after a tiring day - I bring this up because one of the funniest things about his house was his shower curtain, which featured a white background and a black profile of a woman holding a knife (psycho-style). It was a fast shower.

Saturday we took the train to the third city on our whirlwind tour: La Coruna, which is located on the coast. It was SO BEAUTIFUL - cloudy, green, and tranquil. We spent about 2 hours walking around the cliffs, looking at the ancient Roman lighthouse and the sculpture park. It seriously looked like Ireland, it was so lush - we then headed back to our hostel, run by a super nice elderly man named Gabriel. One of the most defining things about La Coruna, however, was the huge population of futbol fans - that weekend, Galicia was playing Asturias in the stadium in La Coruna, and all the Asturias fans had come to La Coruna to cheer on their team. Although the game would not take place until Sunday night, they were out shouting in the streets, banging on metal signs, and harassing the Galicia fans starting Saturday morning. EVERYONE was dressed in futbol jerseys, so we kind of stuck out. We went out to amazing seafood restaurants in the "restaurant zones," which are literally back streets of the city that are lined with ONLY restaurants. We ate pulpo a feira (octopus! they cooked them in the windows of the restaurants by placing them upside down in buckets with hot water, so there were just buckets of upside-down octopi with their tentacles hanging out everywhere), mussels, shrimp (not de-headed or peeled, which was difficult but worth it), calamari, anchovies...I love seafood. I could not get enough. And we tried Ribeiro wine, for which Galicia is famous - and it was amazing! My hope has been restored!!!

Sunday it rained, but we were not dismayed - we hit up the Casa Museo of Picasso, which was housed in the apartment where he lived for 5 years in his youth. We got a private tour by this really cute guide lady, saw the original linographs that he did in criticism of Franco, and saw the original armoire that he painted a million times. This description sounds lame, but it was unbelievably fun. Then we went to the Museum of Mankind, a life science museum for children...whatever, we had a blast sniffing in the smelly interactive part, tasting sour salts and coffee in the tastey part, and in general, running around like we were 10.

Monday, yet again, we hit the road - this time, back to Santiago (where our plane would depart later that evening). We explored an outdoor farmer's market, cooked lunch in Marcos' house (eggplant and sauteed mushrooms...yessss), and toured the inside of the cathedral. We met a pilgrim who had walked the route to Santiago from Portugal - as coincidence would have it, he's from Chicago! So we bonded over that and he told us about his European adventures. Santiago is such a small town that we would end up running into him 2 more times that day...but I loved Santiago. It was almost like a smaller version of Monterey, with gray and white buildings with tons of windows and little patios.

So we headed back to the airport on Monday night via bus, flew to Madrid, subwayed to the bus station, and took the bus back to Sevilla. We walked home at 7 in the morning as the sun was rising over the river - I then powernapped for an hour and a half, and went to class on Tuesday. Despite awkward travel time, the trip was incredible - my voyages are just getting better and better!

Now it's time for random Sevilla anecdotes: right now is the Sevilla European Film Festival, which is a week-long ordeal. Also, I ate Spanish m&ms for the first time yesterday! They have their own brand (of course) called Lacasitos. Except they are flatter and bigger and come in vintage colors, so I told my family they looked like buttons. They thought this was hilarious. Also, during lunch the kids asked me if I spoke French. I said that I can count and say the days of the week - we then spent the rest of the meal saying the days of the week in French, and they complimented me on my accent (?) We also had a lengthy conversation about difficulties with pronunciation in Spanish and English - that's another thing I'm realizing, that it would take years and years and years to become fluent, but I will never sound like a native speaker. Speaking of which, next week I have to get up in front of my university class full of Spaniards and give a 20-min presentation...so that should be fun! Oh, I had my first midterm today, and I dominated that - yes, I CAN write 4 pages on El Greco!

I am staying in Sevilla this weekend, thankfully, because I actually have quite the surplus of things to get done. However, I'm leaving for Munich and Fussen next Wednesday night. GERMANY!!!!...and the adventure continues....