Gijon with mi hermanita!

Today, I am happy to inform you, we were much more energized and ready to go out and explore some different parts of Spain!  Lex was on her own for the first part of the morning (I had stupid classes and a test...which apparently I couldn't skip, weird I know!), so I sent her off with a map and some impeccable directions to go see a little church and a park near my apartment.  Then we met up at a bus stop near my house and set off for the bus station and then off to Gijon!

I had previously only been to Gijon at nighttime, so finding our way around was a little interesting...but completely by accident we discovered a part I didn't even know existed and was absolutely stunning.  The weather...well, lets just say it was not exactly what I had been hoping for.  It varied from freezingly cold with a brisk wind, to frankly quite hot when the sun was out and the wind died down.  We walked A LOT, but it was well worth the effort.

First we explored a little area below the wharf which was covered in rocks and little crevices (especially since the tide was so low).  We wandered around, skipping from rock to rock and just generally enjoying the absolutely stunning views from every angle.

Then, when we actually managed to find stairs back up to the wharf, we walked all the way back to the opposite side of the bay to stop and see this little church.  We really wanted to go in, but it was unfortunately closed for a funeral; a valid excuse I would say.

We had gotten a recommendation to hike up to this great park that overlooks the whole city, but after traversing the entire length of the bay practically twice, we were not feeling QUITE as much like trekking up as one might have hoped.  But, fearless adventurers that we are, we decided to refuel in a little cafe with some cafe con leche and a seat to refresh ourselves before plodding on.  We looked around for a while until we found a cute little cafe overlooking the pier (a different part of Gijon), and settled down with our cafe con leche.  While Lex went to the bathroom, I chatted up the owner about the weather etc, which resulted in us getting free donuts to dip in our coffee.  It pays to be polite and cheerful!

Finally, we felt energized enough to walk up to the park, and boy was it worth it!  You could see the entire bay from all directions, overlook the entire city, and have a viewing of an interesting sculpture perched at the top.  We knew that we wanted pictures together, but there were not a lot of people out and about (siesta-time combined with the frigid weather), so we quickly discovered how to put the timer functions on our camera to good use!  We only got one picture taken by an actual human being, and it wasn't even our best one!

We also stumbled upon a pirate ship, which NATURALLY we had to take some fun photos on.

Then we wandered down to the port part of Gijon, and took some pictures as the sun set.  It was really interesting how many different parts of Gijon touch the water in various ways.  We saw the bay area, which was then divided into cliffs, beach, and rocky areas as well as the port, which had a long walk way and then of course docks for boats etc.

Eventually we got a little too chilly and headed off to find a tiny cafe to grab some bocadillos before getting back on the bus.  All in all, a very successful day trip!  We grabbed some great pictures, and got to experience the beach and it's many facets.  Tomorrow: Llanes!! (p.s. sorry this blog entry was so long!!!!)

Lexa has arrived!

Lexa (my sister, though everybody knows that) has arrived!  It was obviously an incredibly long travel day, and she has been awake for 24hrs straight, but it was a MUCH simpler trip than mine, if I might add.

She did do the same trip as me though: Albany to Phillie to Paris to Oviedo.  It can be exhausting, but she managed to do all the changing with great skill and aplomb.

Paris, the part that was so very tricky for me on the way here, was quite easy for her.  She was met at the airport with someone holding a sign for her to direct her to gate G (which is incredibly difficult to find normally), and they led her exactly to where she was supposed to go!  So simple.

In any rate, we were going to go on a walk to try and tire her out so she could sleep off her jetlag tonight, but her tiredness has already hit her.  As I am writing this, she is curled up on my bed snoring away.  I am allowing 20 minutes, a quick shower to perk her up, some plain pasta with redsauce and a movie, and then into bed with her!  Plus, I have a huge test tomorrow which I would like to study for as well...we shall see.

Anyway, that is all for now.  Just know that we are safe and sound, and ready to head to Gijon tomorrow!

Sevilla: COMIDA :)

Apart from all the amazing sights, visiting Meghan, the experience of travelling, blah blah blah etc., the food was my favorite part of my weekend in Sevilla.  Since I was not spending any money on a hostel, and had taken a bus to conserve money as well, I decided to use my funds wisely on food.  I don't have a host family, as most of the students here do, so I often miss out on the food culture of Spain.  If I only eat out while I travel though, I can taste the different treats from all around Spain, a sound plan if I do say so myself!

Tapas, are ABSOLUTELY the way to go if you are in Spain.  They are not always free like in Granada, but they are very reasonably priced, large portions, and an easy way to try a bunch of different foods in one sitting.  You may not all be interested, but I am going to share all of the delicious delicacies that we tried in Sevilla.  I even have pictures!

Montaditos:

Montaditos are little finger sandwiches which are surprisingly filling, but you still order around 5 of them at a time.  It was a great way to try a bunch of different flavors to see if I liked them, without the pressure of a whole sandwich.  I had: salmon with cream cheese, lomo with alioli sauce, chicken with alioli sauce, tortilla with sauce, and crab with a red sauce.  In case you are wondering, lomo is pork tenderloin and ali oli is a sort of garlic and olive oil sauce (absolutely delicious).  All of it was fantastic, though my personal fave was the salmon and cream cheese.

This is the only picture that is not mine, but this is exactly how ours looked!

http://rephus.es/pensamientos/images/100montaditos.jpg

Tapas Round 1

For dinner, Meghan had wanted to take me to this great little Tapas place that she knew.  However, we sat outside, and apparently the patio was divided between two restaurants and we sat on the wrong side!  It turned out to be a great mistake however, because the food was amazing.  

We split all of our tapas no matter where we went, to try the most amount of things.  At this place we had grilled swordfish, potatoes with alioli sauce, potatoes with mozarella, and fried calamari.  We tried to do potatoes so that we would be full, but the portions were so big we ended up regretting that a little!  I wasn't sure I was going to be able to stand up directly after, so we sat for a while haha.  Again, everything was fantastically delicious!

Starting with the black dish and going clockwise: swordfish, potatoes with alioli, calamari, potatoes with mozarella.

Breakfast:


Each morning Meghan and I ate at this little cafe next to her apartment that she had always wanted to try.  We each tried new pastries and had some cafe con leche to prepare ourselves for the day.  It was really really good.  Eventually, I did hit one pastry that was not my favorite, but that is bound to happen!  One morning we tried a typical Sevillian dish called torrijas.  It is almost like french toast except with honey, white wine, and eggs as the base.  It was pretty good I have to say (and is in the picture below).

Tapas Round 2:


The second day for lunch we couldn't get into any of the restaurants we wanted to try, which once again worked out in our favor!  We ended up in this little tapas place, outside, and tried some great things!  We got cola de toro, which is a delicacy in Sevilla, and is literally the tail of the bull.  I know, it sounds vaguely unappetizing but it was absolutely delicious AND more importantly, a purely Spanish dish.  We also had potatoes with alioli (our fave), pravia de bacalao (fried cod), and croquetas de jamon (little balls of fried potatoes with ham).  Once again, everything was so good and we left incredibly stuffed as usual!

Bottom left: pravia de bacalao, left: croquetas de jamon, top: cola del toro, right: patatas con alioli.

Well I think that is FINALLY it for Sevilla! I promise!  Though there are probably going to be a lot more updates since Lex comes on Sunday, and then I leave for London with Meghan on Friday!  Such a crazy hectic awesome lucky time I have coming up!

Hasta pronto :)

Sevilla: Night 2

It may not sound like it, but we ran ourselves ragged.  We walked around the entire city, seeing the important things, but also wandering around in a relaxed fashion for the majority of the day.  So by the time we got home, we were pretty tuckered out! It was very hard the first night to muster to go see flamenco, but it obviously was very very worth it!  That being said, it was very hard to fight the urge to sit in Meghan's apartment and chill Saturday night.  Exhausted, in a food coma, we wanted to just sit on her couch and watch movies.  However, we rallied like champions and journeyed into the beautiful night.

I was absolutely enchanted with the river in Sevilla, a mere five minute walk from Meghan's apartment.  So when we needed a leisurely activity for the night, I suggested grabbing a drink by the river.  It was absolutely a picturesque and perfect night.  Spain knows exactly what aspects of a city to highlight.  Bridges, fountains, churches, etc are all lit up until late into the night.  It makes all the cities seem so much more exotic and sophisticated.  They are not tacky lights at all, just very, I don't know.  Let's just say I love them.

The other interesting thing about the river was how high it was.  I don't remember if I mentioned it already, but the South has been having quite a bit of rain recently.  In other areas it has caused serious flooding and casualties.  In Sevilla however, the river was quite quite high.  It was overflowing the banks at one point, spreading out onto the platform lining it.  Sidewalks along were flooded as well; you could just see the railings going straight into the water and a little further on pop out again.

This wasn't even the most dramatic part!

Meghan, perplexed by the flooding :)

So Meghan and I wandered the beautiful river, sat out at a table and just chilled.  It was just perfect.  I honestly am running out of adequate adjectives to describe the weekend.  But that is a great problem to have, I would say!!!

Coming up...the last of Sevilla: FOOD!!!

Sevilla: Day 2

So I have good news, better news, and some fantastic news.  I am not sure which order they really go in, but here goes: firstly, Lexa comes in less than five days!  I could not be more thrilled.  Secondly, I booked tickets to LONDON for the day after she leaves.  Thirdly, my computer is now fixed (I am currently on it now), so I have absolutely no excuse to not continue updating on Sevilla.  


Saturday started off rainy and blustery.  Apparently almost all of Spain was buckling down for hurricane-like winds (it ended up missing us), but the wind was still very intense at times.  Luckily, we managed to miss the majority of the rain while we went along on our outside activities.  

First up was the Gypsy Market in one of the main plazas in Sevilla.  It was really neat, tons of trinkets and touristy items.  I purchased some really great pillow cases for my apartment next year, and other touristy items (postcards etc).  We actually accidentally met up with some other girls from Oviedo who we had been planning on connecting with later.  They were shopping around as well until we continued on to the Alcazar!

Touristy carriage rides, though we did not participate.

The Alcazar is a castle/palace built by the Christians but in a style that imitated the Alhambra (I am like ninety percent sure that is right anyway, haha).  It was all of the same beautiful architecture and tiles that the Alhambra had, but obviously on a much, much smaller scale.  Unfortunately, the gardens were closed, but we could still walk around the edge and take some peeks.  

Entrance to the Alcazar

If you look really closely, you can see La Giralda in the upper right.

Meghan and I

The Oviedo girls: Me, Shani, Amanda, and Tess

I am just in love with the architecture!

All we could see of the gardens :(

After that, the weather really started going downhill, so we headed to go find some food.  I had so much good food in Sevilla, I have actually decided to dedicate an entire blog entry to the gastronomic delights that we were lucky enough to try.  Something for y'all to look forward to!  


We finally stumbled back to Meghan's apartment, exhausted, and settled down for a little respite!


Coming up...Sevilla: Night 2...A relaxing night on the river bank!

Sevilla: Night 1

After a small break to regroup in Meghan's apartment, we headed out to see some Flamenco.  I had always wanted to see some real flamenco, but it tends to be pretty expensive, especially in the tourist areas.  However, the good thing about going to visit a semi-native, is that she knew a local bar where we could see authentic flamenco for the cost of a drink!

It was one of the most interesting and amazing things I have ever seen.  There were two guitarists, one singer, and one dancer.  The guitarists were superb.  It is the kind of music that you could just listen to for hours and never be bored, never really think about anything, just be completely absorbed in the guitar.  The singer was pretty good as well, and the dancer was spectacular as well.  The whole thing was absolutely mesmerizing.

It was so nice to see the city in a relaxed fashion.  My favorite part of it all was just wandering around with Meghan, having her show me corners of the city that she has come to love.  Too often we rush around cities trying to take it all in as quickly as possible, but I very strongly believe that it is also important to stop and smell the roses, especially in a beautiful city like Sevilla.  

Coming up...Sevilla: Day 2...including the Alcazar, Gypsy Market, and meeting up with friends from Oviedo.

Sevilla: Day 1

So I am back from Sevilla!  There is so much to share and show you all, that I am going to try and break it up into many different sections, for perusal at your leisure. 

After a long (but manageable) 12hr bus ride down to Sevilla I was very ready to get off the bus to meet Meghan!  There was some concern, because I did not actually know which bus station I was going to...but it turns out she showed up at the right one!  It was late but of course, we stayed up late chatting and catching up.  


The next day, Meghan set out to show me around her city.  The south has been going through some serious rain and flooding (which they are not accustomed to), but being from the north I was used to it :)  We plowed right ahead though, and started off with the Plaza de España.  It is this huge plaza (well obviously) that was built for the Iberoamerican Exposition in 1929, purely for the sake of beauty.  It was not originally designed to house anything else, just to be looked at.  Now of course there are office buildings for the government etc, but it is still beautiful.  Around the inside there are tiles of all of the major cities in Spain.  I even found Oviedo!  

Next we stopped by the Catedral de Sevilla which was absolutely stunning.  In typical Spanish style, it was originally the site of an Islamic mosque, but they luckily kept at least a little part of it.  The Giralda is the main tower, and instead of tearing it down after conquering, the Christians merely added a spire on the top of what was already a gorgeous tower.  We were able to climb to the top of the Giralda and could see the entire city of Sevilla sprawled out below.  It was quite gorgeous.  The inside was stunning too, but we weren't allowed to use flash, so the pictures are a little blurry.  

Supposedly Christopher Columbus' tomb...though everyone claims that haha.

There was a mirror in the middle so that you could see the whole ceiling without bending your neck!  So of course we took  a picture. Naturally. 

View from La Giralda

La Giralda

Well I think that is long enough for right now!  Coming up next...Sevilla: Night 1 which may or may not include Flamenco...I guess you will have to read to find out! :)

¡ El que va a Sevilla pierde su silla !

The titular expression was used by my Gramatica professor when I unfortunately arrived late to his class a couple of Thursday´s ago.  The basic sentiment is the same as "if you move your feet, you lose your seat," but in this case is "he who goes to Sevilla, loses his seat," although it rhymes in Spanish.  I bring this expression up now a) because I like it and b) because I am going to Sevilla tomorrow!  Yay! 

It is another 12hr ride on the bus, but it definitely vale la pena (is worth the pain).  I am incredibly lucky to be staying with my good friend Meghan (from high school, who I also met down in Granada) and thusly saving tons of dinero (money) on housing.  I leave Thursday at 12pm (get in at midnight) and leave Sunday morning at 11am (and getting back into Oviedo just in time for a nights sleep before class on Monday).  I am pretty excited, not only because I found pretty cheap bus tickets (for about 100 euros less than the girls who are flying down), but I also get to see Meghan and have her show me around her city.  I have been so lucky with the amount of trips that I have been able to take here in Spain, especially after only having been here for (less than) two months!

In other news: I once again had to fix my sink, but actually became a hero in the eyes of my flatmate.  She was really scared and panicked, but I calmly showed her with my amazing plumbing skills.  Dell did call back, and I am now waiting for a technician to call me and set up a time for him to come and fix the screen.  I bought a spring Spanish coat, two new shirts, and sunglasses (my old ones broke) while the rebajas or sales are still going on. They last from right after christmas until the end of February. 

That´s all for now! I will be sure to update after I return from SEVILLA!!! Try and outlast the snow (if it´s causing you pain) and if not, just enjoy life! :)

61 degrees and balmy :)

The current temperature is 61 degrees here in Oviedo, and the people are out and about.  Sorry to those of you who are not enjoying the colder weather of the USA, I am not MEANING to brag (ok, maybe a little), but we have gone through our fair share of cold weather, and now we deserve this.

On my way here to the computer lab I saw: dogs being walked, children skipping down the street, old men sitting on park benches smoking cigars, and couples out on strolls.  The feeling of general happiness is palpable.  Even the sun has made an appearance for a couple of minutes per hour (it is northern Spain afterall, we can´t ask for too much).

Since the death of my computer, I was concerned that I would not have enough to occupy my days, but what it has forced me to do is engage in more Spanish activities.  Where before I would sit at my computer planning future trips, researching my future, or chatting with people, I now watch Spanish TV, read Spanish books, and just try and think in Spanish.  In the long run, I think this will turn out to be a terrific mishap for my Spanish.

I have been getting some requests for pictures of my costume for Carnaval, so I will post some here.  However, neither of them are very good pictures of me, so I am posting them smaller and ask that you please not enlarge them.  The other picture is not very good either, but is a picture of a portion of the crowd at Carnaval in Gijon, to try and give you some sense of the magnitude and variety of people walking around in costumes.

In other news, I have received my very first spanish test grade!  I don´t want to share it with you (cough, 95%, cough), but I was pretty pleased with the result.  While grades are obviously not the most important thing here, it still feels good to know that at least one of my tests has gone well so far.  Another personal test for me was watching two full episodes of ´´Ghost Whisperer´´ en Espanol and understanding almost all of it.  It still thrills me a little when I am able to do stuff like that, even though I should not be surprised at this point. 

That´s all for now! Best to all :)