Church and Brunch

I went to church for the first time here. Couldn't understand a thing but it was still comfortingly familiar to go through the motions: sit, kneel, stand...  After church I got an American style breakfast brunch! we're talking 2 pancakes, 2 fried eggs, 2 pieces of toast, 2 pieces of bacon, OJ and country style potatoes. Yes, I was in heaven this morning. If I go again I will choose the french toast option instead of the pancakes because nothing can hold up to my Dad's pancakes. I should have know better  :)

I love and miss you all   - At

I saw the ocean!

Big news - I saw the ocean and walked on the beach for the first time since I have been here! We only had about 30 minutes of sun shine but it made me the happiest girl ever yesterday. The feel the warm sun on my face, wind in my hair, and the smell of the ocean all around - sheer happiness.

I took a trip down to Jerez yesterday with my interest group here and we went to a winery that produces Tio Pepe Sherry. The town of Jerez is the only place that manufactures "real sherry." It is equivalent to the sparkling wine vs champagne name game. Sherry can only be called that if produced in Jerez (Sherry is the old Arabic name for the town). The winery was cool but I came to one conclusion - Sherry is disgusting.

A big shout out goes to all my college friends who have spring breaks this week! Enjoy your fun in the sun, stay safe and come back with fun stories for me please!

I miss and love you all  <3 At

The barrels at the winery. 

 

Tio Pepe

The winery puts out wine and cheese for the mice - they have specially made little ladders for them too! 

The Beach! Ohhh how I've missed the ocean!

Attie fur aqui  = Attie was here  

The salt marshes on the way home - it was a very picturesque drive home.

Preparing for la primavera (spring!)

All the oranges are being shaken out of the trees around Sevilla. I am told soon we will have the heavenly fragrance of orange blossoms in the air. It's been a rainy week but you know what they say... April showers bring may flowers (fast forward that a little and you get Sevilla's "la llueve de marzo trae las flores de abril.") Doesn't have quite the same ring in Spanish...

This pic was taken by my friend behind the cathedral. I take this path to get to school on Monday and Wednesday. So scenic!  Also this street is filled with tapas places - all smelling so tantalizingly good on my walk home from class!

Friday I am heading back towards Cadiz to the town of Jerez to go wine tasting at a vineyard with my interest group. I'll bring back stories and pictures of course!

Love and miss you all - At

Cadiz Carnival ~ Gaga, Glitter and Glam

I got home this morning from Cadiz Carnival. Cadiz is a small town about an hour from Sevilla that hosts the world's 3rd largest Mardi Gras festival in the world. It last for over a week! It very different from the New Orleans festival though -there is NO earning beads here (thankfully!). Instead EVERYONE is in costumes. Some get really creative - I saw a set of 8 guys dressed at Rimmel London mascara brushes- and some are more chill like Brittany and my makeshift angel costumes.

The second you arrive in Cadiz you look out the bus window and see all the people on the sidewalks migrating down hill towards what you can only assume to be the town square. The bus starts to slow down and all of the sudden you turn the corner and there it is! Carnival!  It's packed with people. Colors everywhere. There are giant light masks in the streets hanging 100 ft above your heads and costumes of every shape and color swarming around you. You hop into the mass of people and head towards the city center. Once there you make friends! Everyone wants a photo with you, wants to talk, dance, sing, celebrate! "Oh Americanas!!"  Every once in a while a band makes it's way through the crowd of people and you break out in a dance you have your new spanish friends teach you the worlds the the song. Everywhere you look people are having the time of their lives and so are we!

I went with a 2 girls I know really well and we made friends with a group of 5 Spanish guys about  an hour into Carnival. It was so fun that we hung out with them the rest of the night exploring all the is Cadiz Carnival!  Antonio #1 -the gypsy, Antonio #2 -the pink hair, Manuel -Lady Gaga, Fran -the Crusader, and Miguel -the fireman. They live in  pueblo close to Sevilla and we are going to meet up with them next weekend here in Sevilla. They were so nice and made sure we got back to our bus safely and then headed off to catch their train. The 6 hours we were there flew by. Definitely a once in a life time experience for me and one that I will always remember.

Enjoy the pictures!  I love and miss you all  <3  At

Our best friends of the night!

Girls from school!

Pirates! Arrrrrgggg

I found Waldo!   known here as Walie

A good example of every single street in Cadiz during Carnival  - not the easiest to navigate with wings on your back...

Dance!

Impressive costumes  :)

Clown!

Antonio #2 and Lady Gaga  - they are cousins and Gaga is the brother of Antonio #1.

If you would like to know a little more about Carnival, check out this link!
http://www.donquijote.org/culture/spain/fiestas/carnaval.cadiz.asp

What's the plan, Stan?

Here is the general plan for my month of backpacking after school gets out. I am getting a Eurail pass so I will taking trains everywhere. I'm starting from Sevilla on May 13th, hitting Barcelona, southern France, and Italy (Venice, Florence, Rome). I will fly to Paris to meet Emma and Reuben May 25th, and after that I'll be going through Switz to Vienna (with a side trip to Budapest hopefully!). I will head back West through southern Germany (Munich and wherever my friend Evan lives...) on my way to Belgium and finally I will end up in Amsterdam where I leave on June 15th. A month isn't very long to see all of Europe but I am sure going to try my hardest! If you have any suggestions, by all means, send them my way! 

I love and miss you all  <3  At

First Impressions & Random Thoughts from Paris

~A list of impressions I made sure to write down~

·         The top 3 stereotypes I thought of as French were all disproved very quickly

1.       French people are rude – MYTH. I didn’t encounter a single rude French person. In fact I found them to be the nicest, most helpful people I have meet so far in Europe. I’ve got stories if you need proof!

2.       French people smoke all the time – I didn’t see it…

3.       Everyone walks a poodle –I didn’t see a single poodle in France = major disappointment.

·         The Eiffel Tower is the wrong color – shouldn’t it be gray, not brown?

·         Thank you Dad for sharing your impeccable homing pigeon skills and thank you Mom for teaching me how to read a map on our western trip- it came in handy!

·         I had been told the Mona Lisa is always a disappointment so I went in with very low expectations and I didn’t think it was disappointing at all. The opposite in fact. I thought it was very interesting to see in person, the painting was bigger than I expected, and the detail was amazing. She is definitely smiling; it’s just in the awkward smirking stage.

·         Hostels – not bad at all! I loved it

·         Brie cheese and wine in Paris – maybe we just got unlucky? Disgusting.  Bread=AHHHMAZING

·         Paris truly earns its nickname: The City of Lights. It absolutely glows at night, not to mention the brilliance of the sparkling Eiffel Tower.

·         Crepes = best invention ever. I got the basic sugar crepe but on our last day I spiced it up when we were in the Jewish Quarter and I got a banana and sugar crepe. Yummm

·         The Latin Quarter – The history behind the name is interesting. The university students, many from other countries, used Latin as their common language here up until 1900. It is a colorful, funky neighborhood on the Left Bank that houses on of my favorite places in Paris – Shakespeare and Co. Bookstore, where resident writers can sleep on one of the couches on the second floor if they get too tired to go home and interrupt the flow of words from their wavering pen. So cool. I could happily spend hours in this little crooked-floor, brightly painted bookstore. I bought Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. It seemed appropriate…

·         What I need to do next time: Night cruise down the Seine River, see a poodle, return to Shakespeare and Co. 

Please feel free to skip the next blog. It's huge and a more day by day account of my trip. Pictures are in the following post. Enjoy. 

I love and miss you all ~ At

Paris day by day: the novel

This is not for the light of heart. I called it the novel for a reason...

Prologue: Thank you to everyone who gave me hints, tips, and suggestions for my trip, especially Walter and Dee.

Day 1: Friday

We arrived into the city center by 10am and got to our hostel at 11. We dropped off our bags and set off. Our hostel, Caulaincourt Square, was in the neighborhood of Montmartre. La Butte Montmartre is the highest hill in Paris, atop of which sits the Sacre Coeur, a cathedral and the highest point in Paris. We were welcomed to the city with a 360 degree panoramic. My first impression: Wow, Paris is big!

We ate lunch at a chic little café in the neighborhood where the waiter was so nice and looked up the menu for us in English. Good thing too or else I was about to order a heaping plate of calves liver. No thank you! After lunch we grabbed a quick nap, needed after over 24hr of straight travel, and headed off to the most famous sight in Paris: the Eiffel Tower!

Strolling from the ends of the tower’s garden in early dusk we took in the impressive tower. My first impression was that it was the wrong color – I thought it would be a dark gray like the material it is made from. Wrong! It’s brown. Who knew?

We went up to the second floor and enjoyed the view past sunset and until the tower began to sparkle for the first time at 7pm. You feel like you can see the ends of the world from up there. Paris seems never-ending. One thing I must say is that it deserves its nickname the city of lights. After taking the elevator down we got to see an impromptu break dance session and then headed for our first crepes, right outside the Eiffel Tower and next to the Seine River. Here we watched the tower sparkle, reflecting of the Seine into a kaleidoscope of beautiful colors on the waves or this very choppy river. We strolled along the Right Bank to the metro (which we completely conquered without a problem) and headed back to the hostel, enjoying the accordion players that hop on and off the trains after any given station. Sadly the subway performers usually smell terrible, but the songs are fun and upbeat!

Day 2: Saturday

Up’n’at’em nice and early.  We headed to Versailles first thing in the morning after the best continental breakfast ever at the hostel. If I have one word to describe Versailles it would have to be GRANDEUR. Everything, and I mean everything, if not made from beautiful, rare marble is coated in gold. The famous Hall of Mirrors was impressive and seems like it would have been a great place to thrown a rocking party but my favorite part was the Pink Palace our in the gardens. It is a smaller version of the big place that was very airy and decorated with my favorite colors: yellow, green, and antique blue. It was precious, and being so modest myself, I would only need a small palace, not the big one. That would just be greedy. Marie Antoinette’s play village was precious as well. A little village with thatched roofs and a lake, I just want to play here with the youthful queen.

After seeing Versailles I can’t really blame the French people for revolting. This place had to cost a fortune! The gardens are beautiful and while not in full bloom now, they are still impressive. There is a huge man-made lake in the middle called the Grand Canal which used to house a full sized war ship in the days of all the Louis XIV-XVI. I couldn’t help noticing it would be the perfect place to waterski… Not sure how the French government would feel about it, but I’m game to try if anyone else is!

Back in the city we visited the Musee du Orsey which houses many famous paintings from Monet, Renoir, and Van Gogh among others. It was amazing and I preferred it to the Louvre which we went to on Sunday. Afterwards we grabbed a lunch of Quiche and continued on our day.  Quiche = delicious!

Saturday also consisted of strolling across the Bridge of Locks (Pont du Arts), where lovers write their initials on padlocks and lock them to the sides of the bridge.  Afterwards we tried to see the Mona Lisa but the cute old man at the ticket counter told us she was sleeping (aka we were too late on Saturday).

After taking the necessary silly pictures in front of the Louvre’s glass pyramid we strolled towards the Rouge de Paris Ferris wheel through the Jardins des Tuileries. Past the Ferris wheel, light up for the night, we started at the beginning of the Avenue des Champs-Élysées and window shopped our way down. I bought a headband at a store where I would have happily had every article of clothing in my closet. We grabbed a snack (crepe, duh!) and people watched as we continued towards the Arc du Triumphe. After visiting the Arc and taking in the light up Avenue des Champs-Élysées, we headed back home. We grabbed a baguette, brie cheese, fresh fruit, and wine to have a very French dinner. Sadly The wine, which came recommended by the nice man at the wine shop was gross in my opinion, but I enjoyed the rest of the dinner and of course it was all for the experience. “How French!” is more what we were aiming for than a 4 star dinner. 

Day 3: Sunday

We walked out of our hostel and ran into the quaintest little street market where vendors sold junk, furniture, and knick-knacks on tarps. I found a box of old postcards, some dating back to the 20’s. I bought 5 for a euro (not 1 for 2 euro like the sign said, the man was so sweet). I got 3 very old ones that have writing on them which I need my lovely big sis to translate for me, and 2 without writing, one of which is now on its way to a very beloved grandmother.

Sunday was a huge day. We hit the Louvre first. We saw the Mona Lisa, which I had expected to be disappointed at but I was the opposite actually. It was bigger than I expected and really neat to see in person. We also saw the Venus de Milo then headed off to Notre Dame. On our way we strolled across Pont Neuf, the “new bridge” that is now the oldest bridge in Paris. On the Ile de la Cite we found another street market; this time it was for selling birds, small pets, and flowers. What a fun surprise!

We took the mandatory pictures outside Notre Dame and then strolled through the church (mass was going on concurrently). I was surprised there weren’t more gargoyles! Off to the connecting smaller Ile Sainte Louis we got the best sorbet in the world. I got blood orange sorbet. Delicious.

Next we stopped in at Shakespeare and Co. Bookstore. PARADISE. I could easily have spent hours upon hours here. It’s a quaint little store right across the river from Notre Dame. It’s colorful and has books stacked on every surface possible with little wooden ladders that you use to get books from the top shelves. I would love to spend a whole day here… if only I had time to search out the best bookstores in the world. That would be the dream life.

Shakespeare and Co is tucked neatly into the Latin Quarter, the little Left Bank neighborhood where university students spoke Latin as their common language up until about 1900.  We grabbed lunch in the Latin Quarter (French onion soup, peppercorn steak, pom frites, and sorbet) and then headed off down to Luxemburg gardens. Through Luxemburg and down father away from the river we walked to the Catacombs. Now those were something to see. A giant ossuary was built in old limestone quarries in 1786 when Paris was constructing its sewer system. The city’s cemeteries were all emptied of their residents and the bones were put into the catacombs, up until 1860. Creepy and amazing, it is an interesting part of Parisian history to behold, you wander through thinking, wonder to whom that skull belonged to, and which of the millions of femurs belong with which skull.

From the catacombs we headed up towards the Bastille and saw the opera house then wandered into the Marais Neighborhood and into its small Jewish quarter where we enjoyed the colorful surrounding, the smell of falafels, and feasted on our daily crepe. At a small Jewish bakery we bought some challah to take home for dinner.

We finished our days sightseeing in the red light district so that we could see the famous Moulin Rouge. That was a very different side of Paris than we had seen thus far… bright neon signs unashamedly advertised what they sold inside. About 5 minutes here was enough for us and we headed home past the city’s most famous cemetery. Back at the hostel we feasted on our nightly bread and then I headed out for the airport at 10:30 pm. It was a perfect trip. We saw and did so much (as you can see if you actually stuck with me through all that!) 

I tried to just skim the surface here, if there is anything you want hear about in more detail, you know me, I love to talk so I will happily give you all the details in an email. 

 I love and miss you all  ~At