Something Poland...

 I've decided that I like traveling across Europe, and since we've established this Steffi and her family took us to Poland...and Berlin after! Saturday was a big travel day, we got in the car around 6am and drove off to Berlin...with a stop in Poland first. 

There wasn't much to see in Poland, but we stopped at a Polish Bazaar for a couple of hours.  Now being the Spanish-loving snob I am, I was not very impressed by this market...the one in my town is just as good...if not better.  But it was fun to see the stuff that they had. 

Which included everything from underwear to guns and knives to food back to cigarettes.

 Sooo much sausage!

 Look at alll the cigarettes!! It was incredible!

Steffi and I weren't sure what we thought of the Bazaar..hence the looks.
After the Bazaar we went to lunch in a little Polish place nearby and I ate Schnitzel!!!  (ya know like in the Sound of Music song, except without the noodles)  It was pretty good!! 

 My Schnitzel!! 
It was kinda interesting...but more fun just to be able to say that I've been in Poland.  :)

This is me in Poland.  :)

Something Netherlands...

That would be 195km/hr or 118miles/hr!  I love the autobahn!!!
Thursday was my traveling day.  I started at 8am and began my trip to the Valencia airport.  Once there I spent all day sitting doing homework and listening to lots and lots of music and then I flew out around 7pm.  I arrived on time in Germany around 9pm and met Steffi and her friends in the airport!!  It was great to see her again and to be able to chat!  We drove home that night...on the autobahn!!!  That was super fun! :)  Steffi lives in Wermelskirchen, Germany in a cute little house.  That night we stayed up a little and talked about what we were going to do.

I found out that the next day we were headed off to the Netherlands.  Apparently from her house it is only about 1 hour or so to the Netherlands and a city there called..Maastricht  It was a cute city on the river and it was fun to be able to cross borders and watch the language change and just to wander around the town and say that I've been in the Netherlands.

So Steffi and I just kinda wandered around and took lots of pictures and

meandered into random churches,

ate huge fries,

took more pictures, and just had a good time.  (I also bought fresh stroopwafels...soooooo good!!!)  That day was super fun. We got back to Steffi's house around 7pm and had dinner and drinks and then Steffi and I talked for a long time, got caught up and headed off to bed because the next day we were headed off to Berlin...at 6am!!

 

Something relaxing....

So after the disaster of Friday I decided that it would be beneficial to spend the next 2 days doing nothing.  Therefore on Saturday I woke up at 12, went to the beach, ate lunch at 2 with my family, went to the beach 2 more times (pretty impressive huh :P ), watched a movie, and went to bed.  Sunday (Palm Sunday) I woke up, went to church.  (hehe, there was a skit in church and it was supposed to be serious, but I couldn't help laughing because at one point "Jesus" sang with another woman..who i have no idea which biblical character she was..or if she even was; then there was a break dance in the skit with 2 guys.  We've hypothesized that they were either the 2 criminals that died with Christ or just trying to worship with their break dancing...not sure which. either way it was very, very interesting.)  After church I at ensaladilla rusa (russian salad) and fried fish with my family and then took a 2 hour siesta.  :D  Then I worked on some homework for Tuesday and did some other housekeeping stuff that I'd been putting off.  Overall, I think this weekend was somewhat redeemed after Friday!  Now for all you who read my blog (even when it is ridiculously long) I just want to inform you that I'm off to Germany this week to spend some time with Steffi, the exchange student who lived with my family for a while.  So if I don't write for a while I'm seriously not committing Internet negligence (cough. Joel).  So don't worry, I will keep sharing my stories after I get back!!  :)

Something like Alexander's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day....

Today's Agenda: Bike to Pego
Yeah, bad day.  In fact, it was so bad that it gets it's own post.  So the day started off good, Josiah, Rachel, Kevin and I met at 9:30am and walked over to the tourist office for maps and then the bike shop to rent bikes.  The owner seemed really nice and even gave us a little discount.  Then we headed off.  The route that we were going to take from Denia to Pego involved an old train track transformed into a bike path.


View Larger Map
This picture shows our path. It was pretty crazy!!!!  So we're on this nice little path, it's gravel, but a very nice gravel, and easy to bike on.  Spirits are up because it is taking a lot less time than we initially though it would.  Then the true disaster began.  Kevin and Rachel were riding behind Josiah and I and they called out to us to stop.  We turn around and notice that Kevin is bending over his...flat tire.  We should have known to turn around and just forget about it, but we just were so excited about Pego.  So we sent Kevin and Josiah back to exchange bikes and Rachel and I kept riding.  Since the guys were not with us we did end up getting lost about 4 times, but between asking directions from like 5 Spaniards and just guessing we ended up eventually finding our way.  It took about 45 minutes to an hour for Rachel and I to get to Pego which included a little spill on Rachel's part, which may have been because I ran into her...oops.  Once we were in Pego and getting close to the part where the Natural park began we realized that Rachel also had received a....flat tire.  This meant that she had ridden the 2 hours to Pego and was now not going to be able to see it because she had to start back to Denia...walking.  About that time the guys caught up with us, Kevin had gotten a new bike so he was set to go.  We were kinda frustrated and hungry so we sat down and ate our lunch on a road between orange tree orchards.  After lunch Rachel began her long walk home and Kevin, Josiah, and I headed off to see the Nature Reserve of Pego.  We were super sad to leave Rachel, but she insisted, and we figured we were going to catch up any ways, since she was walking.  So off we went.  The first part surprisingly went rather smooth, the only glitch being that we accidentally missed the first turn off, and had to take another a little later on.

This dirt road lead us up to the river.  Now let me say, I've never been more disillusioned by a river in my life.  It was really ugly and there was trash in it, and it was a let down.  It did sound pretty though.

From there we decided to follow a terrible dirt road.  I'm sure if it could have been any worse I would have been off my bike instead of just bouncing around.  After a while of following this road, we stopped to look at the map and try to find a way back towards Pego...only to realize that we were officially not on the map anymore.  Now, we weren't lost, just north of the map.

So we took a path back south a bit and found the road that looked like the highway again.  At this point we just decided to head towards the sea...because we actually knew where that was!!   So we biked for like a few minutes and then saw a sign that said....Provincia de Valencia!  That was not such a good thing cause we live in the provincia de Alicante, which meant we were now like a looooooonnnnnggg way from home.  We decided continue in the direction of the highway we could sort of see and ended up finding another road along side it.

About now Kevin, Josiah and I are talking about how unfortunate all this is and kinda moping, so to life spirits I commented on how this dirt road wasn't too bad.  Wouldn't ya know it but like 10 seconds after that the road turns into the worst dirt road ever, I mean like even worse than before filled with potholes and rocks of all sizes.  Next we found a viewing deck of the marshlands....very uninteresting, all grass.

 (that's Pego in the background)
Continuing on the torturous road we next found a puddle, but we were able to bike around it.  Then, of course, as Kevin is thinking in his head "well it could have been worse"  there appears in front of us a HUGE puddle.  I'm talking like river across the road.

It was huge and we couldn't go around it so we ended up biking right through it.  Now we're really laughing cause this day is such a ridiculous failure that it just cannot get worse...hopefully.  We ended up finding some really crappy bridge to cross the river (boards laid across the metal frame of a telephone pole).

After this things went a little smoother for a while...we crossed another river (thankfully with a real bridge) and actually found the real road, which we almost got run over on...that was slightly scary.  Then the trip back to Denia went pretty well for a while.  We had about 20 min where nothing happened and our spirits were lifted a little.  Then, it happened.  Josiah and I stopped to wait for Kevin because he had been doing something with his bike (and we realized we were on the wrong road).  Kevin pulled up next to us, stopped his bike, and said "look" and pointed down.  There was ANOTHER flat tire.  Well, by this point we were so fed up with all the awful horrid things that had gone on that we just walked over to the right road and then hopped on our bikes (Kevin with his flat tire and all) and rode off.  In another 10 minutes or so we caught up to Rachel still walking her bike and Kevin and I got off and walked the last like 4 or 5 miles back home, hoping that our troubles were over.

Back at the bike shop we tried to express just how unhappy we were with our experience and how much of and inconvenience it was for us, but the owner was very unsympathetic.  He was upset with us for all the dead bikes and we ended up having to pay him 20 euros on top of what we had already paid.  It was ridiculous, but we were just sick of it.  After that we went to llao-llaos and ate frozen yogurt to help us feel a little better about the day.  So basically, it really was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day...except for the frozen yogurt, chocolate and company.

Something Sevilla.....

So to continue with the whole adventure every weekend I decided to head off to Sevilla this weekend.  After a very hurried lunch on Thursday our group met at the train station and began our long journey to Sevilla.  We arrived at our hostel after traveling for several hours by train, bus, plane, bus and finally walking.  That night we just decided to crash in our hostel because we were exhausted, so we made plans and then headed off to bed.

 

Friday morning we woke up early ate breakfast and headed out right away.  Our first stop was the Museo de Bellas Artes (Museum of Fine Arts).  It is located in a pretty little plaza and in a pink (or salmon-colored building)  This museum was filled with artwork by famous people like Velazquez and Murillo and also some more recent not as well known artists.  Now if you have ever seen me in an art museum you know that it is not the best thing.  I try to avoid them because I end up just mocking every painting....well I tried to admire....but it kinda failed.  I did like a lot of the work though and it was fun that I recognized the artists from my Spanish Art class here in Denia.  Hey....I actually am learning something here!!!  :)  After around 2 hours in Bellas Artes our dear friend Hannah left us to go meet with her friend who lives in Sevilla and the rest of us headed off to the rio Guadalquivir for some more exploring.  We saw some pretty sweet arte callejera (street art) and some pretty cool bridges, including the Puente de Isabel II (bridge of Isabel II) which is apparently pretty famous. 

From that we walked across the bridge to the Bull Stadium (Plaza de Toros de la Real Maestranza de Caballeria).  This was sweet, we got to take a tour and got inside the stadium and the museum.  It was sweet.  In a bull fight (corrido) there are 2 people on horseback and 3 people (toreros) on foot in the stadium.  An interesting (although very sad) fact is that before the horses wore protection approx. 15 horses would die every corrido.  That is like twice as many bulls, and after the corrido they would give the bull and horse meat out to the public; so the more horses and bulls that died, the better it was for the people!  How sad.  :( 

After the Plaza de Toros we walked a little further until we reached the Torre de Oro (Gold Tower) 

This was cool, but closed so we couldn't get in.  Apparently it's called the Torre de Oro because it was supposedly where the gold was kept for Sevilla. 

Then, since it wasn't quite lunchtime yet we headed in the direction of the Catedral de Sevilla and the Giralda.  This was by far one of my favorite parts of Sevilla.  The Cathedral is the largest Gothic cathedral in the world.  It has HUGE pillars inside and is just huge and Awesome in general!!!  I was so impressed by the size and grandeur of it.  Once we had explored the cathdral for a bit we went over the Giralda (which used to be the Alminar of a mosque, but was later converted into a bell tower.)  The Giralda has 34 + stories and there is a ramp in order to get to the top because at one point they brought horses/mules up there for some reason.  Once in the top you got a view of the whole city and the rio!

 It was super cool, especially when the bells chimed while we were up there!  :)  After that we found a place to buy food and had some lunch.

Oh, and we also found some flamenco dresses that Jenn and I tried on.  They were super sweet!!!!

Then we headed off in the direction of a bridge that one of our friends (Josiah) loves.  Now this would have been fun, but it was like 4pm and around 95 degrees, so we were hot, tired and it took forever to get there.  Once there we had no one around to explain to us the reason this bridge was so cool, so us girls were a little put out....but it was still cool none the less.  I later found out that the reason it's so cool is that it has no supports underneath, it is supported by the counter-weight of the large metal pole and the huge cables.  After that we headed back through town with a stop at the Basilica of the Macarena.  (side note: they don't dance the macarena there, well, not when we were there).

It was beautiful and very detailed.  After that we walked back to our hostel (with a stop for ice-cream from the mercadona).  That night we ate out at a restaurant and had some tapas, then we headed to bed "early". 

Saturday we woke up, had breakfast and then headed off to the Alcazar.  This was a palace/fortress built by the muslims and then taken over by the Spanish monarchs.  It had a really cool mixture of the two cultures with gorgeous designs in the walls.  It was sweet!!!!!  It also had Huge gardens.  We wandered around taking picture in them for a while before we left. 

The Plaza de Espana was next on our list.  This place is a huge plaza with a banco for every provincia in Spain. It has really cool tiling and is painted with some sweet colors!!

At this point we also had the privilage to meet Hannah's friend Amanda.  Amanda then became our tour guide for the rest of the day!  Then we ate lunch and wandered around the gardens next to the plaza de Espana then headed off to the barrio (neighborhood) next to the Cathedral.  It used to be the Jewish quarter of the city and it has narrow streets and is just a really pretty part of the town.  That evening Hallie and I decided to be cheap, so while everyone else went out to dinner we bought bread and cheese at the store and ate in our hostel.  Then to complete our evening we headed off to see the Giralda lit up at night.  It was beautiful, stunning, absolutely wonderful!  I forgot my camera, so I don't have a picture, but it was fantastic!!  I had an Awesome weekend!!!

Something Andalucian....

This weekend was great!  We had our last excursion together as a full group!  So we all hopped into our super cool Esteve bus and headed off to Andalucia, which is southern Spain.  The cities that we visited there were Granada and Cordoba! Now for a little history lesson.....The Muslims ruled in Spain (in particular Andalucia) from 711-1492 when the last ruler turned over the keys to Granada to the Catholic Kings of Spain.  This results in there being a ton of Muslim architecture in the city.

 Such as this alminar, towers where the Muslims called the people to pray at the mosques, when the Christians came in and tore down the mosques to build churches they left the towers and used them as bell towers.

and also lots of buildings had the arcos de herradura - horseshoe arches with the decorative tiles and brickwork.  When we arrived after our 7 hour bus ride to Granada we headed off on a guided tour of the Albayzin (Albaicin). The Albayzin is an ancient part of Granada and is very close to the Alhambra.  The streets were built curvy and random to help the people avoid enemies and also to enhance air circulation in the city, because it gets very hot there in the summer.  The buildings are painted white also to help with the heat.

  Near each of the churches in the Albayzin is a water tank built to hold the water for the mosques (now churches) and the people near that part of the neighborhood.  Many of the pools are connected by underground passages that would open to help circulate the water and keep it fresh.  After our walk we headed off to dinner with our professor to a Lebanese restaurant to eat coucous, hummus and some other dishes that i'm not really sure about.

Friday we began our day right with a tour of the Alhambra!!!  The Alhambra is both a palace and a fortress and was built in the 14th century for the Muslim sultans.  It was the place where the last sultan turned over the keys to the city of Granada.  There are several parts in the Alhambra that are important.  The fortress part is the furthest part and on the edge of the hill.  This part housed the soldiers and the towers used to look out over the city and guard the palace.  Carlos V who was a king of Spain also built a palace inside the Alhambra.  It was started in the Renaissance but never finished because Carlos V died before then.  It has some pretty cool arquitecture.  It is square on the outside and round inside.

After this we visited the Palaces of the Nasrid.  This is the most beautiful and well-known part of the Alhambra.  It is the palace where the sultans and their wives lived and is the most decorated part.  There are three palaces in this part, Court of Myrtles, Hall of the Ambassadors and Court of the Lions.  This was probably one of my two favorite parts of our trip.

 Patio de los Arrayannes

 Some of the architecture in the palace

Patio de los Leones: This was supposed to be my favorite part...but the fountain with the lions was not there (moved for protection against the elements) and the whole patio was being worked on so we couldn't even walk in it.  I was sorely disappointed but it was still fun to see the architecture and designs.

Next we walked over to the Generalife which is another palace on the outer-lying parts of the Alhambra.  It is most famous for its gardens and fountains which are beautiful especially right now with all the flowers!  It was soo cool to see!!!

 Main garden of the Generalife

 Another garden

  The water stairs.
We then had free time until that evening when we regathered for a Flamenco show!  this one was sooooo cool!  Now, I don't know if you all know, but I have been taking Flamenco lessons, well I found out that evening that...I suck.  Wow, they were soooo good it was incredible, I have some videos that I will post on facebook soon!  I was very impressed!

Saturday begin with our trip to Cordoba!  We again boarded good old Esteve and headed out for our 2.5 hour drive to see the Mosque of Cordoba.  It is sooo cool!!!  It has what they call a "bosque de columnas" forest of columns!  All the ancient arches and columns that the Muslims used still stand.  A sad part for me was the Cathedral that the Christians built in the middle.  It is a beautiful cathedral but it doesn't fit with the style and it looks so out of place, in fact, I didn't even take a picture I was so put out!  But the columns were sooo cool!

 Alminar: Tower where they call the people to pray

 Some cool architecture with an interesting blend of the Christian culture.

 Minrab: The place they kept the sacred books and where the priests prayed

The "bosque de columnas"  with the arches.  This was a newer part of the mosque, evident by the white ceiling and the lighter color bricks and paint in the arches. Lunch was next, which consisted of Hallie and I looking for a very, very cheep supermercado and buying bread, cheese and a carton of juice and sitting in the park to eat.  Delicious!

After lunch we all shoved our way back into Esteve for another trip to some ruins. Medina Azahara or Madinat al-Zahra are the ruins of a Muslim city from the 10th century.  This city only survived for 80 years before it was destroyed.  It was fun to see the reconstruction and stuff that was going on, but sadly much of it was closed off.  Our group liked the visit as it was very pretty and cool to see the ruins, but it was a little rushed and we are not really sure what the point of the visit was. If you recall there was a place very similar with ruins on our last trip to Madrid that was known as Segobriga and we weren't very sure what that visit was for either.  Therefore we have resorted to calling this the Segobriga of Cordoba aka Cordobriga.  (If you ask me in 10 years I will tell you that we visited Cordobriga...)

We headed back to Granada after that short trip and then straight to dinner!  This dinner we had seafood Paella!!!  I LOVE paella so much I think I could eat it for every meal!!  It was delicious and then we had Ice-cream for dessert!  Fantastic dinner!!
Sunday we just headed back on our long trip home in the bus where I actually did some homework and listened to a little Taylor Swift. (she's always good to bring along on a long journey!) Overall it was a great weekend with some beautiful weather!