Portugal

Portugal was great! I went to Lisbon and Sintra. I saw the Cathedral, Monastery, Palace, Botanical Gardens in Lisbon. In Sintra I saw the Palace and Castle. I was there over their independence weekend so there were some festivities in the Botanical Garden including home made products like honey and jam. There are this super amazing pasteries made in the Belem section of Lisbon, I had like a million of them...SOO good! I did some shopping at H&M and tourist shopping. Overall, it was a fun, non-stressful weekend of travel.

Semana Santa

Alright so for Semana Santa (Holy week) my parents came to visit me and we went to Vienna and Prague. They left Chicago on Thursday April 2nd and arrived in Madrid on the morning of April 3rd then they took a bus to Burgos to meet me. We visited the Cathedral, my school, my dorm, and walked around my the historical center. I showed them my favorite places for cafe con leche and we had some churros. Overall, it was a very good day. The next day we took the bus to Madrid in the morning. Our hotel was in an amazing location right in then center next to Puerta del Sol. We went to some museums, El Prado and La Riena Sofia. We also walked around the park, El Reterio, because the weather was AMAZING, super sunny and warm just like my entire vacation (great luck). Then we walked to Plaza Mayor and through Sol. The next day we got up and went to see the Royal Palace and just as we were leaving we heard tons of noise outside and saw a huge processional leading into the Cathedral (it was Palm Sunday) and at the end of the processional were the King and Queen of Spain. Then we walked back to our hotel and got a cab to the airport to go to Vienna! We arrived in the evening in Vienna got checked into our hotel (my bed was a couch covered in sheets). Then we walked to the Cathedral and got dinner (the food in Vienna and Prague was AMAZING). The next day we made our way to the Hofburg complex, on the way we saw this really famous chandiler maker's shop and stopped inside, really pretty. We went to the The Imperial Silver and Porcelian Collection, the Sisi musuem, and the Imperial apartments which was all really cool but a bit of informaiton over load. We took a short break for some ice cream! Then we went to the Imperial treasury which is also in the Hofburg complex. The evening we went to this show, which turned out to be super tourist and horrible. The next day we went to the Spanish riding school in the Hofburg complex to watch the morning practice because there are no shows during Holy week. On the way out of the complex we walked past the parlament house and another government building (the name of which I cannot remember). Then we went to watch this clock that has figures that move with the minutes and at noon there is a procession of all the figures, so we watched that. Then we went shopping and afterward we went to the cathedral, including going up one of the towers (the smaller one for two reasons 1) it had a lift, 2) the taller one was closed). That evening we went to the Opera, which was AMAZING! We saw Arabella and there were little screens that had the english translation of the script. My two favorite parts were when, the man guy (the one Arabella falls in love with) says right after he got a letter, he was attacked by a she-bear...but no worries he got away hehe. The other part was near the end when Arabella came downstairs to talk to the guy she loves and says that she couldnt sleep or drink her glass of water knowing he was all alone. Pretty amazing stuff hehe but the signing was out of this world. Ohh and my mom and I sat in the 3rd row and my dad in the 5th, super cool! The next day we went to the Schonbrunn Palace, the summer palace of the Hofburgs, which is a bit outside the city. We walked around the beautiful gardens to The Gloriette, which is this crazy pretty stone building where Queen Maria Theresa had her breakfast when she stayed here, which was a lot because it was a wedding gift for her from her father. The grounds also include a Zoo and a maze. We had lunch at the Gloriette and then walked back to the Palace and got a guided tour through the rooms that are opened to the public. The other rooms are rented by people as apartments. The next day we took the train to Prague, it was about 3 to 4 hours long. After we got checked into our hotel, we took a walk around and stopped at the Communist musuem which was enlightening beyond the actual material that was displayed. First of all, it was pretty much a collection of junk in a very dingy couple of rooms in the same building as a casino and with a McDonald's right nextdoor. Also, a lot the information talked about how the communist regime used propaganda to stay in power but the whole musuem felt like a lot of propaganda in the other direction. Overall though, it was a very interesting experience. Then we continued walking to Wenceclas square which is very long and narrow and filled with shops. At the one end is the Czech National Musuem and at the other is the road that leads to the Old Town. After dropping by our hotel for a jacket, we headed to the Old Town square. On the way we pasted this crazy bar outside of which some guy (definetly American) said very loudly to another man "I thought 2 grams ususal cost..." It was ridiculous because the guy basicly announced it to the entire street hehe. In the old town square there was a dance show going on. The rest of the day we simply walked around the square and popped into some tourist shops. The next day we had a guided walking tour. It started up in Prague castle where we walked around and saw the different buildings including the palace, the Cathedral, the Basilica, and the Convent. After walking around the Castle grounds we walked back down the hill and walked through Wallenstein Palace grounds which have the Czech Parlament building in it. Then we walked across Charles Bridge which was crowded with people and had beautiful statues on both sides. We walked past the New Town Hall building and through the old Jewish quarter and to the Old Town Square and then to Wenceclas square where our tour ended. After lunch, we headed back up to Prague castle to go into the Cathedral because the line was too long earlier in the day. After the Cathedral, we went into a musuem called the Story of Prague castle which had very interesting arftifacts dating to well before the Middle Ages. Then we went into St. George's Basilica and from there through Golden Lane and into the Mideval dungeon which had old tools for torture. The next day we went up the Astronomy Tower in the Old Town Square. After that we went on a tour of the Municipal House, which was very beautiful. And then went next door to go up Powder Gate. The next day, Easter, we went to church in the Cathedral at Prague Castle, the Cathedral was so empty and the service was obviously in Czech so I understood none of it. After Church we walked through the Castle gardens which had been closed the other day we were at the Castle. Shortly after that we went to the airport and took our flight back to Madrid. We arrived in Madrid very late at night, went to the airport hotel and went to sleep. The next morning, I left for Burgos and my parents left to go home.

Camino de Santiago

This past Saturday as a part of BU's seminar class we walked an hour of the camino de Santiago which leads to a city where Saint Jame's bones are buried near the Atlantic coast of Spain, it is one of the three holy sites for Catholics. The Camino is really imporant as far as the development of the north of Spain. Most of the towns that ran along the camino's path were built for the pilgrims in the middle ages including Burgos the town I am studying in. First we drove about twenty minutes west to a very small town which we walked through in about 5 minutes that is just there for the pilgrims there are houses, lodging, and resturants on either side of the actual road but not much else in the surround area. Then we drove another 10 minutes and got out to walk for about 1 hour to where an old hospital is located and then we drove another 15 minutes to another small camino town where we had lunch and then got a tour of the wine cellars from the resturant owner (because our director appears to know everyone). After that we got a tour of two different churchs from a priest, one of the churches was locked and he had to open the door with two super huge keys ( the really old fashion ones) and it has made me decide that I want to redo the door of whatever house I buy so they have keys like that (so I can be like "wait hold on, let me just get my very large key out" hehe). After this we drove back to Burgos.

Barcelona Barcelona

On Wednesday March 18th Michelle and I left on our epic journey to Barcelona...We got in late on Wednesday night and basically had dinner and then went out with our hostel to a very nice bar where we got a free vodka drink and champagne. I met a guy from Wisconsin and there were a bunch of other guys from MIT (in Boston like BU). Thursday we went to the Sangrada Familia, a church by Gaudi that is still being built, and then to the park he designed. Both of these sites were crazy beautiful. There were tons of little school childern on class trips in the park and they were all holding hands with their buddies and then there was one part of the park that had art on the ceiling so their teachers had them all lay down in a circle to look up at it. Super cute! In the park as we were just chilling in the pretty weather we ran into a group of French guys and one of them was dressed up as a bird. The guys dressed as a bird insited on taking a picture with Michelle and I and then after he left, him and one of his friends, who was drinking a beer, joined a jogger for about two minutes through the park. It was beyond funny! That night we went out with the hostel again to a club on the beach! It was a really nice club and actually played rap music instead of house :) There wre also these three guys that were clearly payed by the club to dance but were soo second class to anything that you would see in the US...everything was very obviously planned out but still interesting to see.
Friday we went to see one of Gaudi's houses and walked along a main road. The house was built crazy cool with the most amazing roof ever and the top floor apartment was all done up from the time period of the last owners. In the afternoon we went shopping. As we were walking we past a rather small but intense protest in front of one of the Zara stores. There were guys yelling and playing the drums and there were signs everywhere saying things like if you have any dignaty do not go into Zara today and Zara hates families. It was crazy intense but it was only in front of this store so like five blocks away there was another Zara with no one protesting. That night we saw the new Pedro Almadovar movie staring Penelope Cruz called Los Abrazos Rotos (The broken hugs). It was very good and I understood most of what was going on, although I plan to see it again and I am sure I'll get more out of it.
Saturday, we went down to the beach but it was crazy windy and very cold. We had a pinic lunch and sat by the port and then walked to the Gothic quarter of town and looked at the cathedral. That night we went out to a club that played house, salsa, and reggetone but the people that came out with the hostel that night were crazy awkward and so it was my least favorite night in Barcelona.
Sunday we went to the national art muesum, which was closed but was beautiful on the outside. Then we went and saw the Olympic stadium and another art muesum which houses exhibits, there was one painter and then an arcitect. Finally we went to the "Spanish town" which was horrible and hardly worth mentioning. Then Monday we got up and started our epic journey back to Burgos. Overall, it was a great time but because the weather wasnt as warm as I had hoped the trip was about a day too long. Although I still love Barcelona Barcelona!!!

Madrid madness

Ok so March 7th through 9th Bre and Ashleigh came to visit me. We met in Madrid. So after the longest metro ride ever and checking into the hostel, we decided to get tapas, the favorite was tortilla patas which is like a potato omelette. Then we part took in siesta since all of us had basically stayed up the entire previous night. After siesta we got up and went to Sol, which is near where a lot of shopping and resturants are. We wandered around for a while and got more tapas, and chocolate con churros. We also walked through the Plaza Mayor. On Sunday we went to the gyps flee market which was massive and amazing!! Then since it was crazy sunny and warm we went and sat near the Royal Palace and watched some street flamingo dancing. We then walked back to Sol and sat outside and had some sangria. That night we went to two different bars then hung out at the hostel waiting for Bre and Ashleigh's cab to the airport. It was a short, relaxing and crazy fun weekend with my sisters!!
The next weekend Michelle, Jill and I went to Madrid for the Fall Out Boy concert on Friday night. It turns out that the concert was sponsered by undereighteen.com so basically we were like some of the oldest people there. The first opening band was a spanish band with lots of screaming there was one member whos job it seemed to be was just scream at random intervals. After them was The Sounds who were crazy bad ass. Their lead singer was a woman and I would much rather have ran into the entire Spanish band in an alley than her. The first song they sang had a line that said "We're not living in America and we're not sorry" but the song didn't diss the US and even really talk about...it was just kind of a random and awkward song. Then Fall Out Boy played and they were pretty good, better than I expected. One of the songs all the lights went out and their guitars light up and one of the members was like SHIT FACED and kept talking to the crowd but pretty much Michelle, Jill, and I were far more entertained by his comments than anyone else and we are pretty sure that is because no one else really understood what he was saying. On Saturday we took the bus down to Toledo, which is about 1 hour north. Toledo use to be the capital of Spain, back in the day because its on a huge hill. We went to an art museum for El Greco because he lived many years of his life in Toledo. Then we went to the Cathedral and a synagogue with a small museum. We walked around a lot but Toledo is super small so it was easy to see a lot of things. Many of the tourist shops sold swords because it is a typical trade of Toledo. Mazapan is a typical dessert from Toledo and we ended up buying a small box of that, it was a very doughy cookie. For lunch we found a nice patio and had some pitchers of sangria and just sat in the sun :) Then we took the bus back to Madrid and we went to a bar that night where Michelle and I had two shots of Absinthe each. Then on Sunday we returned to Burgos!

Message for Cousin (Amanda)

Message for Big