Last 2 Days in Madrid

We spent the last two days shopping. And we visited the Museum Prado and walked by the palace. Otherwise, I raided this sock store called Calzedonia that has really cute tights and for fairly cheap prices. I'm not sure if Mango is a Spanish brand or not, but there were a lot of those. Shopping in Madrid was definitely better than in Amsterdam, although perhaps I still haven't found the right place. Our hostel was overbooked, so they gave us a free upgrade to a private room. We figured out how to get the bus to the airport, and the bus had the worst translation ever; in Spanish, they would say, la promixma parrada es..., then in English they would say, the proximate parrada is... Anyhow, we got to the airport fine, and I am on my way back to Amsterdam!

Granada

We arrived in Granada in time for dinner (well, Spanish dinner time--we ate at 9:00 pm) since we heard that the tapas in Granada were really good. Here, you get free tapas whenever you order a drink. The free tapas are pretty good, but not as good as the ones you would order from a menu. Instead of a hostel we stayed at a really cheap hotel (though it was called Hostal Atenas), in which we got a private room for 30 euros. Just 5 minutes away was Plaza Nueva, an area with a lot of bars/tapas places. We went bar hopping for tapas. I like how sangria here is bubbly; when I get sangria in new York, it usually is just wine instead of wine mixed with champagne (at least I think champagne is what is giving these sangrias their bubbles...). I finally tried habas con jamon...it tastes exactly how it sounds like, it is just peas and ham, nothing too spectacular. I also had cod and friend calamari. All tapas were around 2 euros each, as was the sangria. There weren't a lot of people on the streets, perhaps because it is thursday? I am used to NY, where party areas are pretty full, even on Monday. We might have been in the wrong area too. Regardless, we didn't want to stay out too late since we had to get up early to visit the Alhambra.

After hearing horror stories of troubles with tickets, I took great care in planning our Alhambra visit. They only allow 8100 visitors daily, and tickets usually sell out. Luckily I booked ahead--even when booking a week in advance, there were les than 800 tickets left, and only a few time slots open for viewing Nasrid's Palace, which is the highlight of the Alhambra. The Alhambra, according to my guidebook, is one of the greatest accomplishments of Islamic architecture, and nothing can quite prepare you for seeing the real thing. I had worried that my soaring expectations of it would ultimately leave me disappointed, but as my book said, no description or hearsay could really convey how amazing the palace was. In the photo above I have a close up of one of the walls--everything, from door to ceiling is intricately hand carved in this fashion. Granada was apparently the last stronghold for the muslim rulers, until it it conquered by queen Isabel and king Fernando. Unfortunately, one of the main rooms, and the signature lion fountain was under construction, so while we could see it, it was marred by equipment and workers.

After seeing the palace, I had thought that I had gotten through any ticket issues that could arise. There are morning and afternoon time slots, and you must enter the palace within the specific 30 minutes allotted on your ticket. Somewhere in the palace I dropped my ticket, so when I tried to enter the fortress, they would not let me in. Apparently, each ticket holder is allowed to enter the fortress and the palace just once. While I had my receipt of ticket purchase, and my friends had their tickets, the guard would not let me in, and directed me to customer service, who told me that I would have to find my ticket! So, I had to talk to the personnel, who radioed each other to see if anyone had found a ticket. The entire process took at least 30 minutes, and eventually I heard a guard on the radio say, "I see it!" I guess he then retrieved it, and another guard said to give it to a Japanese girl that was looking for it. I went and picked up a ticket, but it wasn't mine; someone else had dropped their ticket too, but they had already entered the fortress, so I had to run back, and it turned out hey had found two tickets. I eventually got my ticket, and entered the fortress. The fortress and the palace of Charles V were just ok, I guess I was jaded from Nasrid's palace.

As we walked out to the bus stop, it began to rain. We took the bus to albaizin, an old neighborhood with winding, narrow paths. In it was a lookout point, the Mirador de San Nicholas, which offered a beautiful view of the alhambra and the city. Nearby, we ate expensive but very delicious tapas--Ella an Tessa said they were the best tapas we had had so far, though I disagree. I still like the place we went to in Seville, despite the terrible service.

After returning to Gran Via, the main road, we had one of the worst crepes that I have ever had while we waited for the rain to stop. We then proceeded to Capilla Real, where King Fernando and Queen Isabel are entombed. They were the first rulers of the Spanish Empire. Isabel of Castille married Fernando of Aragon, uniting those areas, and they proceeded to persecute and execute non Christians, eventually conquering Granada and some other territories, I presume. We didn't realize this until after we had already entered; Ella was not pleased about having paid an entrance fee towered maintaining the graves of these antisemetics. I suppose if international criminal law had existed then, they would be guilty of genocide. Although, they were targeting all non christians, not just Jews, so according to the reasoning of the ICTR in which victims need to be identified as what they are, not what they are not, I suppose...well I am on vacation, I shouldn't be thinking about classwork :p

Now I'm on the bus back to Madrid! It has stopped raining, but there is a forecast for snow...

Cordoba

On the bus over we had the ambitious plan of waking up at 8:00 so we could get into the mosque for free for the early morning silence from 8:30 to 10:00. After which, we would take a tourist bus to the Islamic palace at 11:00. Alas, despite both me and Tessa having set different alarms, we failed and slept until 11:15. In a good mood from our long rest, we set out for the mosque (admission is 8 euros).

The tourist attraction are all clustered together. We walked through the juderia, the medieval Jewish quarter, and had brunch at an open air restaurant. I had tapas of paella, calamari in garlic mayonaise, tripe and chorizo, and eggplant blossoms. After, we arrived at the mosque; it was a beautiful building, but we were worried that we would not have enough time to go in, so we just walked around outside.

We had wanted to visit the synagogue, but it was closed. Instead, we went to a small museum dedicated to the Spanish Jews. Clearly the Spanish were not particularly nice to the Jews...during the inquisition, they purged the county of all non Christians. The museum was also a nice way to see what some of the older houses looked like from the inside.

It was a pretty easy day overall. We got tea at a cafe called Marrakech, which was decorated in a Moroccan style. The tea was fantastic, but he pastries tasted like they had been sitting out for days or even weeks! After that, we headed back to the hostel to collect our belongings and go to the bus station for Granada.

Sevilla Day 2

It was a pretty tiring day. Since I am training for a half marathon I got up early to go running; my friend Ella who is training for the full marathon came with me. Since Seville is quite small, the lady at the front desk of the hostel suggested that we run around the city center. Seville has a nice system of bike paths, and the run was enjoyable until I got really bad cramps; I guess I'm not quite used to running outside yet. We ended up completing a little less than half of the loop and turning back because we were worried about getting lost (and I didn't feel well).

Upon out return, we went back to the cathedral an entered. I have seen quite a few cathedrals, and this one was one of my favorites. I guess most of the larger cathedrals take my breath away when I enter--it's not that I am surprised, since I usually expect stained glass, alters, arches, buttresses, but seeing it still shocks me each time. Perhaps the memory of how pretty it is still can't prepare me for actully seeing it again. We climbed up the tower, which interestingly did not VCR stairs, rather it was a series or perhaps 30 ramps that wrapped around the inside of the tower. From above, the view of the city, particularly the orange trees, looked like something out of a painting of a different time period--horse drawn carriages below (for the tourists, i know) and birds perched on the cathedral spires, it was like a fairy tale :)

After leaving the cathedral we went to the Fortress, which was just okay on the outside, but stunning inside. I'm not sure what type of architecture it is (Islamic?), but the detail was so intricate. Unfortunately we missed the free walking tour, so we didn't get a lot of history. That day my feet were hurting so I wore my running sneakers, which looked terrible with my outfit...anyhow, I managed to hide my feet in photos.

Plaza d'Espana was another palace like building, with a moat and tiles depicting all the cities of Spain. We contemplated renting boats for the moat, but got lazy. This would have been a great place to sit and read a book. Clearly quite romantic too, since this young couple was displaying their affection very publicly on one of the tiled benches.

The day left us exhausted and somewhat exciting for our rest on the bus, but it turned out that the ticket man issued our tickets wrong--we had purchased ticket for "tomorrow" yesterday, but he had issued them for yesterday. Since it was the same man, he knew thy he had made a mistake, but then started yelling at us for not double checking the date yesterday; the bus was empty, it would have been easy to let us on, but both the driver and the ticket man decided o be jerks and made us purchase another bus ticket to board on the next bus--so we each lost 10 euros an two hours of time.

Nevertheless, we arrived on Cordoba at midnight, and a policeman advise that we take a cab since it was not safe to walk at night; since he went with us to the cab station, the people couldn't screw us over with the prices. Just to make sure, I asked if the prices they listed were in total or per person, and they laughed and said "of course in total, this isn't Tokyo." Weird comment, but oh well. Everyone seems to think I'm Japanese, since I guess they get a lot of Japanese tourists.

Sevilla

I can't remember the last time that I've seen hills so moist, lush, and green. Looking at then actually makes me thirsty. Perhaps I am being dramatic, but I also feel like it's been ages since I saw a sprawling blue sky and the sun beaming overhead. It rains a lot in Amsterdam :p. Spain (at least Andalucia) is covered with these vibrant, grassy green hills, but they are rather low so that the horizon still manages to look like it stretches far into the distance.

I slept for about 3 hours during the 6 hour bus ride, and arrived feeling energetic but extremely hungry. I really enjoyed the paella yesterday, so I had paella again. It´s odd that I would like it so much, since I don´t particularly like rice. My friends got this tapa surprise, which was five random tapas. I was kind of jealous, so I made a mental note to order tapas later. As we walked to the hostel, we got lost among the tiny, winding streets. Manhattan is a grid, and Amsterdam is built so that you can basically walk along a canal and eventually run into a main street, but Seville is like a maze. It is however, a very charming maze, with bright buildings and streets lined with fragrant orange trees. Well, to be honest, the trees are only fragrant occasionally--a few times that I tried to breath deeply, I ended up inhaling car exhaust. I wouldn´t consider Seville polluted at all, it´s just that the cars that go by seem to run pretty poorly. We walking by the Cathedral, but didn´t go inside.

Our hostel was clean and had free sangria, which I thought was pretty decent quality. We booked a flamenco show. Flamenco reminds me of tango, since the people´s faces are so serious and the movements are very structured and intense. I really liked it, although 90 minutes was too long for me. While I love watching any type of dance, I think the optimal show time for me is 30 minutes. Maybe 45.

After the show, we went to a tapas bar called el rinconcillo (I think that was the name...) It claims to be the oldest tapas bar in Seville, and was established in the 1620s. The tapas were all very good. I had spinach with garbanzo beans, pork cheek, ham croquettes, and flan with candied pumpkin. I also got gelato crema sevilla, which is essentially cinnamon gelato.

Madrid Day 1

It was a but overwhelming when we arrived at Madrid after living in tiny Amsterdam for so long. The directions to our hostel from the airport involved a bus and a metro, while in Amsterdam almost everything is walkable from central station. The city center of Madrid was enormous. Our hostel was located in Puerta del Sol, which I guess is a good location. All we did was eat, but for me that is a good day. After dropping off our bags at the hostel, we looked for a lunch place. Having read my lonely planet guide, I remembered that a lot of places have good lunch deals. All the cafes that we walked by were cutely decorated, so it was hard to choose; ultimately, we went to the place that had the most people. Upon seeing us, the owner opened up the menu to the English page and gave it to us. I am excited to use my Spanish again, since it has gotten really rusty since I left Ecuador. We flipped through the menu and found the lunch special, which, for only 11 euros, was really great compared to Amsterdam. For that price I got paella mixto (rice flavored with saffron and cooked with assorted seafood and chicken, originally from Valencia), lomo a la plancha (grilled steak), and leche frita. The leche frita looked like a block of tofu to me, so I couldn't help but feel like I was eating tofu instead of dessert. While I have had paella before, this one was really amazing; I'll have to figure out how to cook it. The steak was mediocre, but very fatty, so it's hard for me to dislike fatty meat :p. After doing some shopping (not that we have any room in our luggage), we went back to the hostel. Note though, Madrid has much better shopping than Amsterdam, and a lot of cute boutiques. Our hostel was full of a bunch of Irish teenagers (I thought they were British at first), who blasted trashy europop and took shots all night. It was inconsiderately noisy, but I was so tired that I fell asleep immediately anyway. Now I am on a bus to Seville, which according to a book I was reading at the hostel, is famous for oranges, women, and flamenco.