Monday, April 8, 2013

Parents in Pamplona

I had all this plans to keep blogging over the course of my Spring Break. However, I learned that the cruise ship would not have free wifi so I opted out of hauling my laptop over the Mediterranean. Then I was too tired most of the week to mess with blogging from my little iPhone. I am now slowly catching up on my blog posts.

This first one will be devoted to my parents' arrival in Pamplona. My mom always said that if I went abroad she would come to visit. So when I found out my Spring Break, she started planning a trip to visit. Somehow, she managed to talk my dad into coming as well and for us to take a cruise around the Mediterranean. Good job, Mom! It was a fantastic week and so fun to see my parents again.

One of the ways my mom got my dad to agree to the trip was to make this their 25th wedding anniversary trip--just a year early. Works for me! They flew into Barcelona on a Monday and spent until Wednesday looking around the city on their own. For obvious reasons. My last day of classes was on Wednesday, so they got a train from Barcelona and arrived in Pamplona in the evening. They had wanted to see where I live and meet Carmen.

I had told Carmen about their coming as soon as I knew about it myself. She was actually really looking forward to it as well. She came to the train station with me to pick them up and then went with us to the hotel. The next day, she helped me show the parents around the city and then made all of us a huge lunch. More on that later.

While we were at the train station, I told Carmen to look for a red head and that would probably be my mom. She got a laugh out of that. After we met up with my parents, I had to try my hand at being a translator. The hardest part was that all of them would talk to me at once so it was hard to keep things organized and know who to talk to. It was a fun challenge.

In the taxi, Carmen told me to put my seatbelt on, which my mom loved. My mom was so glad to have met Carmen and they seemed like they got along really well. They were able to communicate even with the language barrier. I think Carmen understands a little English and my mom knows the Spanish that rubs off on you from living in America.

After the hotel, I took my parents to the old part of the city to get some pintxos and look around. If you've heard of tapas, pintxos (pronounced peen-chos) are the Basque version. Very tasty. We went to the little bar that has the best tortillas in Pamplona, or so I've been told, and they were excellent. Then I took them to the Casco Viejo for some more typical pintxos. The problem was that it was raining, of course, and we only had my umbrella so we cut the trip short. They were tired because of jet lag anyway.

The next day, we met up in a little café that we had found the night before that was close to their hotel. I took them to my university to show them around and then we got their luggage to take back to where I live. We dropped off the bags and picked up Carmen to go to the old part. We walked around some of the prettiest and historical parts of Pamplona. There are several fort-like parts of Pamplona that still remain. Pamplona is close to France so it has seen several French-Spanish battles.

About 12 or so, Carmen left us to go to the house to prepare lunch. We had a couple more pintxos and café con leche at a bar she recommended as a snack because lunch wasn't until 3. They were all very delicious. After that, we walked around some more. I took them through a few of the shopping areas and by a few cathedrals. We looked at a pretty museum building as well. Then it was getting to be the time to head back, so we headed to the Cuidadela, which is the historical citadel located between the old city and where I live. What was funny is that, a week later in Barcelona, we saw one that was like a giant version of the one in Pamplona. It's cool to see the similarities in architecture.

Lunch was a big ordeal. Normally, Carmen will give me a soup or salad and then a main dish and fruit or yogurt for dessert. She pulled out all the stops for this lunch. She served a potato salad, soup, stuffed peppers, bread, and torijas for dessert. I might be forgetting something as well. It was so much food. She also served wine with lunch and a delicious dessert wine after lunch. THEN she made us all café con leche. She also pulled out special tableware that I didn't know she had. All in all, it was very nice.

After lunch, she called us a taxi to take us to the train station. We took a train from Pamplona to Barcelona. We would be catching our cruise the following evening.

To be continued... ;)

Friday, April 5, 2013

El Camino in Cantabria

Yes, my title is in Spanglish. In my defense, so are many things in Spain thanks to globalization.

This past weekend, I went with a couple girls from my classes to the northern coast of Spain in the region of Cantabria. This trip was quite different than the others I've been on for several reasons. One, we rented a car instead of public transportation. Two, we didn't step inside a city once after leaving Pamplona. Three, well, I think you can just see from reading the rest of the post.

Upon reflection, I really didn't know what I was getting myself into when I agreed to go on the trip. When they first told me about it, they said we were going to Santander, which is a city, and going to a cathedral. Well, we did go to a church and we were close to Santander. In reality, we went to several different pueblitos (villages) and didn't go to Santander at all. Which turned out just fine.

To begin, I'll tell you a little bit about who I went with. I traveled with three other girls--all American. Two of them, Claire and Mary Ellen, are in my Spanish classes and are just here either for the year or the semester. The other girl, Libby, is a full-time masters student here and permanently lives here. I met Libby at an event called "Theology on Tap" which is a semi-regular meeting to talk with priests about various theological issues. It was kind of funny, because none of us are the same age (28, 26, 23, and 20) yet we had a ton of fun. I'm getting into the years where I have friends who are of varying ages than me.

Before starting the trip, Libby sent out an outline of the plan. You see, the other three had kind of planned the trip and I was invited at the last minute. I was just along for the ride. We were going to do a part of the Camino de Santiago (The Way of St. James) and then go see this church that's pretty famous in the Catholic world. Libby had done the Camino de Santiago a few years ago and so she took us to her favorite part.

Santiago, or James, is credited with Christianizing the Iberian Peninsula. His Camino (walk) is something pilgrims (peregrinos) have done for centuries. They traditionally began from their houses and walked the hundreds of kilometers it takes to get to Santiago, which is in the Northwest of Spain. Now there are numerous routes you can take. The most common is the Camino Frances, which begins in France and goes to Santiago. We did a part of the Camino del Norte which is the route that goes along the northern coast of Spain.

We all met up in Mary Ellen's apartment Saturday morning to head out. Her apartment is conveniently located right next a car rental place so all we had to do was get in the car that they had parked outside of her apartment. It was this rather small VW, but we all fit in there comfortably. The standard car in Spain is manual/stick-shift. Luckily, Claire knew how to drive a stick so we were good on that account.

The fun thing about a car is that you have so much more freedom. We were able to listen to whatever music we wanted, stop when we wanted, and have our own schedule. Mary Ellen and Claire burned us a couple CD's to listen to, which was fun. If we hadn't had a car, we wouldn't have been able to randomly stop and watch a calf being born (more on that later).

The other three girls are good Catholics and once we were on the "autovia" or interstate, they did a rosary meditation. I had never seen that before and it taught me more about the Catholic faith. I now know how the "Hail Mary"s work and just more about the structure. It's been fascinating. The closest thing I know to compare the rosary meditation is to that scene in Gone With The Wind where the O'Haras are praying and Scarlett has that epiphany about Ashley. Which isn't probably the best comparison.

When arrived in Cantabria, we stopped in a little town called Galizano. We went to a little church/cathedral and looked around. The girls sang a few Catholic hymns and we did a praise song that I would know.

After that, we went to a cafe, got some coffee, regrouped, and then went to the car to get our stuff. Then we set off. We followed the Camino to the coastline and saw some of the most gorgeous scenery I've seen in my life. I think Cantabria is one of my new favorite places.

We spent most of the day by the ocean. We found a nice place on the rocks to eat our lunch. Then we climbed up this steepish cliff to get back out--there was really thick grass to hold onto so the climb wasn't hard--and then walked around some more.

We reached another part with a glorious view and stayed there to relax for a bit. I had brought my Kindle so I read a little bit (I was working on reading The Host in Spanish because of the movie). After a while, it was starting to be the time to head over to the albergue where we would be staying. So we walked back to Galizano, got in the car and drove to the little pueblito a couple kilometers over. The reason we didn't walk is because the only way to get there is to walk along a narrow, mountainous highway and we didn't want to do that.

Once we arrived in Guemes, the other publeo, we parked the car behind another church and then walked over to the albergue. Libby thought it wouldn't look great if we pulled up in a car to an albergue specifically for peregrinos. This was an albergue donativo, meaning that if we showed our peregrino credentials we could stay there for free/by donation.

The albergue was surprisingly nice and all the workers were extremely friendly. Once more people arrived, we were given a tour by the priest who runs it and he told us the history behind the place. Then we had a very nice, Spanish dinner. It was a great experience and we met really interesting people.

On Sunday, we left the albergue to head to Garabandel, the church that the other girls wanted to go to in the first place. It's a big Catholic attraction because there have been "holy apparitions," or visions there. The town of Garabandel was so quaint and adorable. It kind of reminded me of the "little town" from Beauty and the Beast that Belle lives in at the beginning of the movie. Except people say "Hola!" instead of "Bonjour!" We went to a Palm Sunday service there. My only problem with it was that it was absolutely freezing the whole service. You know something isn't quite right when you can see your breath inside a building.

On a side note, on our way to Garabandel, Claire spotted what looked like a cow giving birth. She pulled over the car and went over to check it out. Mary Ellen and I stayed on the other side of the road and watched Claire trying to get pictures with her iPad and Libby watching a little ways away. When the ranchers got the cow inside, we decided we better head back, but then one of the ranchers stuck his head out and hollered at us to see if we wanted to come watch. So we ran over there and watched that cow birth a calf. I can't say that I'd seen that before. It was kind of scary to watch because the baby was born in the wrong direction (feet first), so they had to pull the calf out.

Anyway, after the service, we talked with some Spanish people that were there and we ended up going to lunch with them. That was a lot of fun. I always love meeting Spanish people and getting to speak Spanish. After all, that's a reason why I came to Spain!

Around 4-ish, it was time for us to go. Yes, that was when we finished lunch, the Spain schedule after all. It ended up being a 6 hour car ride back to Pamplona, so it was good we left when we did.

All in all, it was a great last-minute weekend trip!


Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Barcelona and Beiber

Hello readers! This weekend I went to Barcelona for a Justin Beiber concert. Now, those of you who know me well probably know that I'm not really a fan of Beiber. So why would I go to a Justin Beiber concert? Well, a girl from a few of my classes (Nicole) had an extra ticket and invited me to go. Since it's Barcelona, how could I refuse? It was a great excuse to go.

My trip to Barcelona began as most of my trips have begun (I'm developing a pattern apparently). I left class, ate lunch, grabbed my stuff and the food Carmen packed, and headed off to the bus station.

On my way to the bus station, I saw this bus playing music drive by. Then another followed by a crowd of running/biking and chanting Basque people. I recognized the design on the buses from a banner that I'd seen hung around Pamplona which help me know they were Basque. It was really interesting because there some people running while pushing strollers. Them Basques are fit!

I met up with Nicole in the bus station and we then waited for our bus. The trip was largely uneventful. It was about a 6 hour ride with a 15 minute stop halfway. I was able to finish the book I was reading and start reading the Host in Spanish. I couldn't justify rereading it again without reading it in Spanish and I want to reread it because the movie is coming out. Nicole and I also had plenty of time to chat and get to know each other better.

We arrived in Barcelona at about 11pm and took the metro to our hostel.  Barcelona has this nice system of a 10-trip metro card (that's shareable incidentally) instead of only having the option of buying per day (as it is in Paris). We got off the metro and found the hostel without too much difficulty. I had learned my lesson from Portugal and was careful to know exactly how to get there. I bookmarked the map on my phone and we used it to get us there.

Now, I made the mistake of leaving my passport at home. This was intentional because I figured I wouldn't need it since we'd still be in Spain. I have a fear of losing my passport and not being able to go home/get my identity stolen. Maybe someone told me this, but I really don't remember if they did, but I should have made copies of my passport and taken it with me. The receptionist said I should at least take copies of my passport if I'm traveling within the country and don't want to bring my passport. Good idea. It'll be good to have the copies if I ever lose my passport as well. Luckily, she let me stay anyway and I emailed Carmen for the info. She scanned it for me the next day and it was all fine. You live and learn.

We got up early the next morning so we could have a full day seeing the city. We took the metro to the city center. The stop where we got off is called Diagonal, which fueled my inner Harry Potter nerd. I went Diagonally! Anyway, right as we emerged on the street, I saw a Starbucks and had to make a stop. I really miss having large to-go mugs, so I always take advantage of a Starbucks when I can. Plus I hadn't had my morning coffee and my throat was hurting.

After I had my Starbucks fix, we starting walking around. I had brought my Rick Steves' Spain book with me and there were several self-guided walking tours in the book. We followed the tours the best we could through, the Gaudi apartments, Las Ramblas, the waterfront, and the old part of the city.

To the left you see (I feel like a tour guide) an example of a Gaudi apartment. Gaudi was a talented architect and you see his stuff all over Barcelona.


The Rick Steves' self-guided tours were very informative. For instance, in the cathedral in the picture to the left, the charcoal marks you see are from when revolutionaries burned the furniture in the cathedral in protest to the cathedral's support of the dictator Franco. This is the cathedral, Santa Maria del mar, or Saint Mary of the sea. Sailors used to come in and leave replicas of their ships at the feet of the statue of Mary for luck. Very interesting.

Nicole and I spent the morning talking only in Spanish, but then we felt awkward because Barcelona is in Cataluña and they're a little anti-Spain right now. If you haven't heard, Cataluña is trying to secede from the the union  so to speak and become their own country. Catalans speak their own language and have a distinct culture. In fact, I felt like I was in a foreign country because all the signs were in Catalan. The impression we got is that it's better to just speak English in Barcelona.

Since we were on a budget, unfortunately we didn't go into any museums or anything, but since I'm going back with my parents for a day we can hit the things that I want to see. It was very nice walking around the city and seeing the sites that Rick Steves recommended. We visited several cathedrals, nice parks, and other interesting sites. On of which was La Boqueria which is a giant market and I bought a yummy fruit drink/smoothie thing that the receptionist at the hostel said is something you have to try. It was quite good!

For lunch, I got a kebab and Nicole got some pizza and then we sat back the waterfront and had a nice picnic. It was extremely windy, but it was also very relaxing. Then we slowly started making our way back to the hostel for the concert.

As we headed back to the hostel, we saw a group of people doing a video of the Harlem Shake on the metro. The Harlem Shake has gotten a bit old, but it was still cool to see someone making a video of it.

When we got back to the hostel, we switched around our stuff and got what we needed for the concert. Then we were off!

Once we got to the concert, we saw an enormous line of people already there. I used my height advantage and saw a T-shirt vendor so Nicole could buy her T-shirt. Then we got up towards the front and waited for the doors to open. They were supposed to open at 5:30, but they didn't open until 6:30, when the concert had pretty much started. Nicole and I were lucky that we were able to get in and see the first performer, Cody Simpson. A lot of people didn't get in until Justin Beiber, which is lame because they missed Cody Simpson and Carly Rae Jepsen. I would not have been happy if I had missed her. Bad organizing, Barcelona.

It was funny to hear the Spanish girls cheering. They pronounced Justin Beiber differently. Like Ya-stine Beeeber. At first we didn't know what they were saying. Moreover, just the way they said cheers were different. We did do the wave though! That was cool.

When Nicole and I got into the pavilion, we didn't actually sit in our seats. We found a spot near the stage by the railings and watched Cody from there. After he was done performing, we had to move on. I left Nicole to use the restroom and fill up my water bottle. When I went back into the hall, I went to where we had been standing before to see if Nicole was still there. Instead of Nicole, there was this large crowd of Spanish girls asking this guy for an autograph. I didn't recognize him at all, so I assume I was a Spanish star or soccer player or something. I stood there trying to figure out who he was but then the people he was with took him somewhere more obscure and then I went back to our seats to find Nicole.

We ended up watching Carly Rae Jespen in the front row of the section where our seats were, but not our seats. She sang "Call Me Maybe" and "Good Time" with Cody Simpson, which made me very happy. Those are the only two songs I know by her. She was so cute on stage, very bubbly and excited to be there. She did a great job.

After Carly Rae Jespen was done performing, the people whose seats we were in showed up and so we went back to ours. However, there were people in ours so we went back to the area where we were when Cody Simpson performed and sat in some seats there. Then we found some seats in the bottom section right near the stage from the side. We stayed there the whole night and were really close. It was awesome.

Honestly, I couldn't hear Justin Beiber singing very well over the crowd of Spanish girls cheering and singing and he just wasn't singing all that clearly. However, it was a great show. He danced with his dancers and the dancers were really good as well. Each song had a theme. He even did songs where he played the guitar, drums, and piano each. All in all, it was a great show.

When the concert was over, we headed back to the hostel. The bus ride back was absolutely packed, but one of the girls was playing Beiber music on her iPad and a lot of people were singing along. It was kind of cool.

When we got back, we pretty much went straight to bed. One of the annoying things about this particular hostel was that you had to pay deposits for pretty much everything you wanted to use. We had to pay a deposit for the room key and another for a towel. Therefore we only got one room key and had to pay if you wanted a towel. We got the money back when we checked out, but it's so you don't steal them. I also bought a lock for the locker in our hostel. Anyway, we shared the key which was kind of a pain but we didn't want to get another one.

On Sunday, we were planning on going to La Sagrada Familia for mass, but you had to pay to enter and wait in a long line so we went somewhere else (see picture to the right). La Sagrada Familia is a Gaudi cathedral that is still not completed so they overcharge for everything to get the building done. However, it is gorgeous, even from the outside.

After the mass, we went to La Sagrada Familia to look at it. I wanted to go in, but there was a huge line, so I'm thinking I'll go with my parents. Maybe we'll buy advance tickets online.


I checked my Rick Steves book for more things to do and I saw that it's really easy to hop on a bus and get to this really pretty park (Montjuic) that has an art museum. We saw that we had 25 minutes until the bus came, so Nicole went to Subway to get lunch and I got a tea from Starbucks. That took a while and we finished just in time to run and catch the bus.





The book didn't explicitly say what stop to get off at so we just kind of watched for landmarks nearby. I saw in my book that it was near Plaza de Espanya so we got off there. Well, the plaza was packed with people. Turns out we had stumbled upon some kind of run that ended in the park we wanted to go to. We worked our way through the crowd and climbed up to where the museum was. It's actually a castle that has been turned into an art museum.

We were up high enough that we had a beautiful skyline view of the city. It was there that I realized that it was Saint Patrick's Day--I saw a girl wearing shamrocks and otherwise dressed spiritedly. Saint Patrick isn't a saint that is widely celebrated in Spain. Only in places that have been Americanized/Irishized.

By the time we made it to the top, it was kind of time for us to head back to catch our bus to Pamplona. Got to the bus station area early enough for me to get lunch and Nicole to eat her subway. After that, we headed back to Pamplona. I read more of the Host and worked on homework for my literature class.
Now I'm back in Pamplona! I'm looking at taking a quick trip with some friends to Santander this weekend. Santander is a coastal city northwest from Pamplona. We're going to rent a car and do a little of the Camino de Santiago. Tell you more about it when I'm done!


Monday, March 18, 2013

The ordeal of printing something

People ask me what I miss from the States or cultural differences. Well, one thing I miss is the free and easy printing back at Presbyterian College. 

I think I took printing for granted at PC. You can just go on one of the many computers in the library and print like you're at your house. I remember that we all started complaining when we had to enter our usernames to print. Well, at least you don't have to pay and go through the complicated process here.

Today, I have an assignment due for class. It's not necessary to print it, but I typed it all and wanted to print it. The problem is that, to print, you need to have a card for the printers. However, for my trip to Barcelona, I emptied my wallet of random cards that I wouldn't need to in Barcelona. Naturally, that included my printer card. In my rush to get out of the house this morning, I forgot to restock my wallet. 

I have spent the last hour trying to print one assignment for my class. There's a box by the printer that looks like you'd be able to put in some coins and print. Well there are only two options on that box: buy a card or recharge your card. It costs 2.50 euros to buy a card, which I didn't want to do because I have one already.

I tried to go to my professor's office to print the assignment, but he wasn't there. I was at a loss for what to do. Then I remember that there is a copy room downstairs. I went down there and asked if I could print. My Word document was on Dropbox and, guess what, they don't have Internet down there. So I had to go e-mail it to them and then get it printed. So complicated!

I write this to my friends back at PC. We have got it made with our printing system. 

Just thought I'd share. Over and out! 

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

A Navarran Day Trip!

I think I made up the word Navarran, but I like the way it sounds. Anyhoo, this Sunday, some students who are on the international committee decided to organize a day trip to a few locations in Navarra. We went to the Irache Monastery, Larraizar Winery, and Las Bardenas Reales.

I actually didn't know about the trip until my French friend, Clara, told me about it after Spanish class. I get about 10-15 event invitations every week on Facebook, so I've gotten to the point where I don't read them anymore. They're usually either from PC (my college back home and naturally I can't go to those) or party invitations, which happen practically every day so the novelty has worn off.

When I got home after Spanish class, I checked the event and saw that I still had time to sign up. It cost 25 euros, but that included absolutely everything--the food, the wine, and all the transportation. All of which get really pricey really fast here. It was an excellent deal.

We met up Sunday morning at 10:00 in front of the Edifico Central (the campus' main building) and headed out. It's always funny to me that Europeans think 10:00 is really early. For us, 10:00 is an excellent time. 6:00 is really early. Everything on the Portugal trip started at 9:00, which was fairly normal, certainly not ridiculously early. It's just funny.

First stop was the monastery, which was about a 45 minute ride. The monastery dates back to the 8th century. I wish we had been able to have a tour guide or someone who knew a lot about the monastery. As such, we basically just walked through it and took pictures in the courtyard. We couldn't spend a lot of time inside as a mass was going on.  If it had just been me, I'd have stayed for the mass, but since it was a huge group we moved on. We then walked around the monastery and got a nice mountainside view of the pueblo (village) in which the monastery is located.

After we had taken our fill of pictures, we walked back to the bus and they distributed our bagged lunch to eat at our leisure. It consisted of two bocadillos (sandwiches), an apple, a can of Pepsi, and candy. I kind of munched on the food throughout the day. When we all had our food, the students led us down the hill a little bit to a wine and water pump--no joke. There weren't any cups so those of us who had water bottles filled their bottles with wine. I tried someone else's before filling mine and it was too strong for me, so I just refilled my bottle with water.

A little while later, we hopped back on the bus and continued on to the winery. There the women working there led us on a tour through the winery. We watched a video from the owners explaining a little about the monastery. It was in Spanish, but I understood a lot of it. The woman giving the tour gave the tour in English. I wish she had done it in Spanish, but I think a lot of people in the group don't study Spanish here so they wouldn't have been able to understand.

Side note--it truly fascinates me that English is the unifying language for everyone. I have a group of friends who come from all over Europe, with their native language certainly not being English, but they talk with each other in English. They learn English in school and therefore know it very well. All of the international events are conducted in English, so hopefully you can speak English! I suppose they think it's more likely that most of the people will speak English than Spanish, or at least be able to speak both. A lot of the exchange students here are studying business or communications and their classes are in English. They don't even really need to speak Spanish besides the basics. That was like me when my family lived in Germany. I went to an American Department of Defense School where all my classes were in English. I took a German class like we take back home, but I only learned a little German.


To go back to the trip, after the video the woman took us out to the vineyards and explained the growing and harvesting process. The first vineyard section we saw was the experimental part, where they try out new growing techniques. Then we went through a gate and into the bigger part of the vineyard. I wish it had been growing season! I could imagine how gorgeous it will be when the leaves are green and the grapes are growing. As such, we still had a beautiful view of the pueblo and other mountains.

After touring the vineyard, we walk into the back area where they make the wine. She explained the process and then we went to where the wine is stored. My friend Clara told me that the wine on the top is the newest and the oldest is on the bottom where you can try it. Very interesting. After that room, the tour was finished and she took us upstairs for the wine tasting. I was excited, because I've always heard of wine tastings, but I'd never actually done one.

Before we could try the wine, however, she taught us the "proper" way to hold a wineglass and to taste wine. You have to hold the glass at the stem with your first three fingers and taste the wine by swirling it around in  your mouth to get all the flavors. Too elegant for me. We tasted two types of wine that they produce at the winery. They were both really strong for me and I didn't like them too much. But the cheese and bread they served with the wine was excellent! I'm a fan of cheese.

Once we finished the wine tasting, we got back on the bus to head to Las Bardenas Reales. The Bardenas Reales is a desert in the south of Navarra. One of the James Bond movies was filmed there. I don't know which one because I've never seen a James Bond movie, but fun fact!

Anyway, It was about an hour long bus ride from the winery and an hour and a half or so to get back. I took a nap on the bus. I've found that wine makes me really sleepy. I had that problem in Portugal when the Fado singers were performing, I struggled to keep my eyes open! I blame the wine. And the exhaustion from sleeping on a train the night before and touring a city all day.


The Bardenas Reales was my favorite part of the trip. I've never seen anything quite like it in real life. I imagine that's kind of what the West looks like with the Grand Canyon and deserty areas. It was absolutely gorgeous. We went to two different sites. Basically all we did was walk around, explore, and take pictures, but it was glorious. Clara and I both agreed that it would be great to spend a whole day there and have a picnic.

 The first sight we went to is hard to explain, but I have a picture so hopefully you'll understand. The only picture I've included from the first sight is the one that kind of looks like a desert statue or something. See all the sand dunes? Clara and I walked around those and explored a little (on the right of the picture). Then we rejoined the rest of the  group who were in the left area and took more pictures.

After that, we climbed back on the bus which took us to our second location. It consisted of the part in the picture above and the mountain below. The group was kind of free to do whatever, but a lot of us climbed the mountain first. There was a staircase, which made it pretty easy to climb. The only problems with the staircase was that a few of the steps had fallen off so you had to navigate around that. I guess when it rains, the steps get loose in the mud. Eek! Glad it was dry that day. It's funny how Europe is just like, if you're too stupid not to be careful, then don't climb the mountain.

The view was absolutely spectacular. You could see for miles. I kind of felt like Simba sitting with Mufasa in The Lion King, because there were large shady parts covering the land. "You must never go there, Simba." I don't think Spain has elephant graveyards though, wrong continent.

After the mountain, we climbed down and climbed onto the structure/mountain/thing in the first picture I have up there. Again, awesome view.

It struck me as odd how different everything looked in the Bardenas. As you can see in the picture of me that Clara took, there are green parts along with the sandy parts. On the bus ride back, I saw a few hills that looked perfect for a golf course. There were also hills of sheep that looked like a scene from Scotland. Some of the landmarks looked like the Outback in Australia and the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Truly amazing.

We left at about 6:00 and rode back to Pamplona. It was a nice full day and a lot of fun. I wouldn't mind going back to the Banderas. It would just be a matter of transportation, which can be tricky.


I had no idea that Navarra had a desert before coming here. The things you just happen upon.

That's all for now, folks! Until next time.






Monday, March 11, 2013

Hey, Lisboa!

All righty! Here is my overdue blog post about my trip to Lisbon, or Lisboa, as it is in Portuguese (I'll probably switch between both names). Sorry it has taken so long, but I was abnormally exhausted when I got home last Monday and I had an extremely busy week at the university afterwards. I think once I finish the blog, you'll see why I was so tired and why I took Saturday off this past weekend.

To begin, Pamplona is a great city, but it's not a hub for travelling, so normally I have to catch a bus to another city to travel to where I want to go. This time, I caught a bus to San Sebastian to be able to take a train to Lisbon.

It was a rush to get out of the door. I was catching an afternoon bus (4:00) to San Sebastian, but my Spanish grammar class doesn't get out until then. So I left class early, at 3:00, in order to get home, grab my stuff, and eat. Of course, on the day that I don't have time to eat slowly, Carmen cooks me something really good. Ah well.

But speaking of Carmen cooking, she had prepared me a bag of food to get me started on the trip. It consisted of three sandwiches, some fruit, crackers, and a bottle of water. So nice!

On my way to the bus station, I realized that I had left my phone charger at home. I considered just letting my iPhone die, but then too many people wanted me to check in with them for me to be able to do that, as in my mom and my host mom. Plus, my iPhone is my camera so I wouldn't have been able to take any pictures.

When I got to San Sebastian, I had a couple hours before I had to catch the train. I found the train station, got my physical tickets (I'd ordered them online), and then went to go find a phone charger. I figured it would be pretty easy to buy one since so many people have iPhones. And it was. I had to try a few shops, but I eventually found one an Apple store. It was really weird that I just stumbled upon one. I'm used to those being really rare and hard to find.

After that, I returned to the train station. There wasn't any wifi in the actual station, so I had to go to the next one over (for more info, see my post about top secret wifi). When it was time, I got on the train.

I found my train tickets for a heavily discounted price online via Logitravel.com. I basically got round-trip tickets for less than the price of a one-way ticket. It was awesome. However, as they were so cheap, they were the basic tourist tickets, as in, I sat in a seat the whole way there. And it was a 8-10 hour night train. I got a lot of reading done, at least! Luckily, the guy sitting next to me got off in Salamanca and I was able to stretch out on the seat and sleep the rest of the way.

The train arrived in Libsoa promptly at 7:15 in the morning. I was supposed to meet my friend Mary Catherine at 8:15 in her hotel. Luckily, it was only a 20 minute or so walk from the train station, so I had time to make a few wrong turns and still get there early. However, I had printed off a map back in Pamplona, so I really didn't have too much trouble finding the place. The cool thing about the iPhone is that the "Maps" app doesn't need wifi to tell you where you are, so I was able to keep my bearings very well.

As I said, I arrived at the hotel early, so I found an outlet where I could charge my phone and sat there reading until Mary Catherine showed up. She took me up to her room so I could leave my backpack there. They had a great set-up in that hotel. She was sharing the room with 2 other girls, however they had plenty of space. It was sort of 3 room in one, even though there were no doors separating the rooms, the curve of the rooms separated it into 3 distinct parts. There was a bed right as you walked in and then two more the back room area, which looked like your typical hotel.

After that, I went with Mary Catherine to get some coffee and fruit from their complementary breakfast area. I had eaten my last sandwich for breakfast, but I never say no to coffee or fruit. We saw the professors who were in charge of the group and, to my surprise, one of them was Dr. Campbell, who I had had for a general education history class the semester before. I, of course, knew who the other professor was, Dr. Heiser, but we had never been formally introduced, so I introduced myself and thanked both of them for letting me tag along.

Once I was finished with second breakfast, Mary Catherine and I went down to the lobby to meet up with the rest of the group. I pretty much recognized everybody (PC is a small school, after all), but Mary Catherine was the only one that I was actually friends with before the trip. There was a group of soccer girls on the trip, a few guys, Dr. Heiser's daughter, and one of mine and Mary Catherine's sorority sisters who is a freshman this year.

The first thing we did was walk to the highest point of Lisboa, which is St. George's Castle or Castelo de S. Jorge. It consisted of a medieval castle/fortress, a little museum, and nice places to look around. I took some really nice pictures up there. It was fun, of course, to explore a castle. It was kind of strange how many cats and peacocks were hanging around the castle. We all got a kick out of the male peacocks showing off for the female ones.

Visiting places like the medieval castle, reminds me that I'm in Europe and not America. The first reason is obvious. America is too new to have medieval castles and landmarks. However, the other reason is that America focuses so much more on safety that places in Europe. If you fall and break your neck, well too bad. You should have been more careful. In the US we have such a problem with lawsuits, that the more dangerous parts of the castle would have been blocked off.

After that, we went to a cathedral with cool cloisters that the other students had learned about in their classes preparing for the trip. A couple of students did a presentation outside of the cathedral, explaining the history behind it. I could tell you some of the history, but I just can not remember the name. Sorry. Anyway, we were also really distracted by a gypsy lady who was walking around behind the two students presenting and begging passersby for money.

For us to see the cloisters, they made us pay. For some reason, making people pay inside a church for things bugs me. I guess, I'm used to churches asking for donations, but actually making people pay is different. Especially while a mass is going on. I guess cathedrals have morphed from a place solely for worship into a tourist attraction that happens to still have worship services. This one was also selling souvenirs, like the cathedrals in Paris.

After the castle,  we headed down and went to a Fado museum, which is a type of Portugese music. We were going to a Fado dinner that night, so the professors wanted us to learn a little about it beforehand.

We split up for lunch and had a free afternoon afterwards. I learned that I have a really good sense of direction for places that I've already been to. I was able to find my way back to the shopping center, bank, and hotel. Mary Catherine and Emily, our sorority sister, were with me and I'm pretty sure that thought I was going to get them lost, but I did good. I was real proud.

We went shopping for a little bit after lunch. Then we went back to the hotel so I could get my backpack and Mary Catherine and I set off to find my hostel. It took us three hours to find it. It was in a really out of the way place and no one knew where it was. We asked for directions like 10 different times, got told different things every time, and eventually tried to find it by taking a taxi. However, the taxi driver didn't know where it was either, so he took us to the right street. Then it took us about 15 more minutes to find it from that street. I was so afraid the hostel would be really sketchy, since no one knew where it was, but it actually was very nice. Just in a really weird place.

On top of all that, Mary Catherine and I had to navigate through a giant protest several times to get to where we wanted. Spain and Portugal, along with Greece, have the worst economy in Europe right now. There are protests all the time. We definitely had an adventure that afternoon.

After I got settled into the hostel, we headed back to the hotel to have a quick break before dinner. I noticed that the hostel didn't provide towels and as I hadn't brought one, Mary Catherine and the other girls graciously let me use their shower. As I hadn't showered since the day before (night train, remember?), I was really feeling the shower.

The professors had invited us to get drinks on the rooftop before heading out to dinner, so once I finished my shower, I met up with the rest of the group. We all tried different drinks and tasted each others. I got some kind of Brazilian mix thing. It was very good, but cinnamony so some people didn't like it. I love cinnamon anything, so I loved it.

We walked to the Fado place and sat down for dinner. It was probably one of the fanciest dinners that I've ever been to. There were several courses and plenty of wine. Intermittently, a Fado singer would get up and perform for us. They were all really great singers. I really enjoyed how strong their voices were. I was also amazed at how much I could understand. Portugese and Spanish are extremely similar  I could understand about 30% of the song.

The dinner cost more that I want to say, but all in all, the cultural experience was worth it. I will say, however, that travelling with professors is much different than travelling with friends. Professors have much more expensive tastes than students on a budget. The other students on the trip had already paid up front, so it didn't matter in this case.

Eventually we were too tired to stay any longer, so we headed back for the night. Once we neared where my hostel was, Dr. Campbell sent some other students to walk me back, which was very comforting since the hostel was in an out of the way location. When I got back, I utilized the free wifi of the hostel and then crashed. I talked a little bit with the girl who was sharing my room, but I was too tired to talk for too long. I did learn that she's another American who is studying in Madrid for the semester. She came down to visit Lisboa for a weekend as well.

The day started early, and I headed out to meet the rest of the group at the hotel. My hostel provided breakfast, which was nice so I didn't have to worry about that. However, I did make a stop at Starbucks on my way to the hotel. Worth every penny.

Our first stop on the agenda was Jeronimos Monastery. It's a gorgeous macdaddy monastery designed by a monk ages ago. It was actually supposed to be bigger, but they never completed it fully. I think it was big enough. We spent some time looking around in there.

Once we finished touring the monastery, we walked through an outdoor market on our way to Belem. I hope that Pamplona gets more outdoor markets when the weather is better. I really love looking around at the goods.

Belem is a part of the city dedicated to the Age of Discovery. Fun fact: Belem is the Portugese word for Bethlehem. There is a landmark that honors the explorers. There is also the Belem Tower which used to serve as a check-in point before ships could enter the city. It was quite lovely. We climbed up the top and had a nice view of the harbor.

After looking at the harbor, we went by El museo de coches (I think I said that in Spanish and not Portugese... whoops) or the Museum of Cars. Now, we Dr. Campbell said this, I groaned inwardly. I'm not a car person. However, it turned out to be about carriages that famous and royal people had ridden in. They were all ornate and gorgeous. I didn't mind looking at them at all. Glad the museum was not what I expected.

For lunch, most of us went to this little kebab shop next to the hotel. Since living in Germany, I've had a love for doner kebabs. In my stay here, the kebabs I got in that little shop were the best (I got a falafel kebab for dinner as well).

After lunch, we had a free afternoon again. A lot of people went to an art museum, but I decided to stay back and study for an exam that I had on Monday. I found a little outdoor cafe and sat watching the city. It got to be really annoying, however, because people would shamelessly come up to the tables and ask for money. It really bugged me, because I was trying to study and they made me feel bad.

Once everyone got back, we all took naps. I had to take a quick one because I had to catch my train. I took a 30 minute nap and then took another shower. I said goodbye to Mary Catherine and headed to the station. I had a little freakout at the station, because I thought I had the wrong train, but it's because the signs are really confusing for trains and only say the final destination, not the other ones. So it was fine. I got on my train with no problem.

I decided that for the ride back, I would try to upgrade my ticket to get a bed. So once the conductor asked me for my ticket, I asked if there were any beds open. There were! He showed me to a compartment with two bunk beds. It was very tight (tourist class), but it was a bed. He took my ticket and said that I would be charged the price difference. Well normally these beds costs 90 euros and the seats 50 something euros. Well, I had gotten mine for a discount, so I was afraid that they'd charge me a lot, but I really wanted a bed so I would have paid it. However, they only charged me 25 euros, which was so much less than I was expecting. I gratefully paid it and sleep great the whole way back.

It still amazes me how smooth my return trip went. I got the train bed, I easily caught my bus back to Pamplona in San Sebastian, and made it back in perfect time for my exam. The only stressful part was that I had to catch a taxi, which was a pain. I'm pretty sure he charged too much, but I didn't have time to question it. I had an exam to take.

There you have it! My trip to Lisbon in a nutshell. It was a great time! Sorry it took so long to post.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Los coches

Okay, I'm no car person, but I have a hankerin' to write a blog post about cars.

Cars are one of the first things that make you realize that you're not in Kansas anymore, I mean, America. It was one of the first things I noticed as I landed in Europe in January and that still strikes me every once and a while.

Why are they so different? Firstly, the style is just different. They are smaller and somehow look distinctly European. Moreover, you don't see as many new cars as you do in America. Europeans, in many areas, buy things to last. Many Americans buy cars, and other things, to have for a few years and then buy the next big thing. Furthermore, there aren't very many SUVs and minivans. The roads are so narrow that it's impractical to have one, so they don't.

I may have said in an earlier blog post that Carmen doesn't have a car. Until this week, I thought she didn't. Well, surprise! She has one. She rarely uses it because she prefers to take the bus. It was also broken until this week. It's been broken for over a year and she finally got it fixed this week. I went with her to pick it up, which was fun because the place where she got it repaired was in a barrio I hadn't been to before.

After she picked up her car, she had to get it officially checked out. In Spain, you have to annually get your car checked out by certified mechanics to be able to legally drive. If your car checks out, you get a sticker to stick on your windshield saying that you're cleared to drive. We don't do this in America, so I thought the process was really fun.

Once we got through the really long line, the mechanic started the process. He was kind of grumpy. I could tell Carmen didn't like him much. Anyway, he started telling her all these things she needed to do. Like, "headlights," so she turned on her front lights. Then "break lights," "signals," "windshield wipers," etc. He went through the list. When he got to the emergency lights (the red triangle on the dashboard), Carmen didn't know what he was talking about so I pressed it for her. She had forgotten where a lot of things were in her car because she hadn't driven in a year.

After that, there was a wheel test. Then they lifted the car up and looked under. I guess they do all these things in America, but it's not mandatory and you're not usually with the car watching.

When that was finished, we went to the giant supermarket. Except "supermercado" isn't the same as our version of "superstore," they call it "hípermercado" which would translate as a hypermarket. Kind of call, huh? Anyway, one of the interior lights wouldn't turn off and Carmen couldn't remember how to turn it off so she just popped it out and pulled the plug to turn it off. I would have sat there looking for the switch, possibly for a good fifteen minutes, and never think to do that. I thought it was really funny.

We also went to get gas, which was a different experience for me as well. For one thing, there is a gas attendant. Unless you live in New Jersey or Oregon, you have to pump you're own gas in the United States. So that was different. Then, I tried to compare gas prices to ours, but I failed. Not because it was in euros, but because they fill up their tanks based on liters, not gallons. We really need to switch to the metric system. No one else uses the one we use and it's a pain to have to convert everything. I have to convert temperature, my weight, my height, serving sizes, and the list goes on. So annoying. But, I digress.

I've also noticed that they have "Stop" signs. That say "Stop" on them, in English. Not "Parada" or another form of the Spanish verb for stop. Very interesting.  

Pamplona has a lot of traffic circles. I don't know if that's a city thing in general or maybe it's more common in Europe than in America. Not sure. Just an observation.

You also definitely have to be a much more vigilant driver here. People cross the streets without looking. Drivers only signal sometimes (Carmen included). Overall, it's a more assertive way of driving.

It's also really rare to have an automatic car. Most people still drive stick shift. I asked Carmen how to call that in Spanish and she just said "car." If there is a word, she doesn't know it. If you have an automatic car, then you classify it, but the norm is the manual/stick shift. Which is the opposite in the United States.

Anyway, I just thought I'd write something about cars, even though I know virtually nothing about cars.