Thanksgiving in Spain

Thanksgiving was definitely a different experience here is Spain, since obviously it´s not celebrated here since it´s an American holiday. It just felt like a normal day and several times throughout the day I had to remind myself that it was actually Thanksgiving, because without getting together with family and eating turkey and all that other wonderful Turkey day food it just wasn´t the same. Although I had part of the family gathering aspect, because Danielle came to visit! I was very excited that we were together for Thanksgiving and we also got together with my study abroad "family" for dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Definitely not very Thanksgiving-like in the sense of the food, but in terms of getting together with great people and having a good time, it was perfect.

Following that, Danielle and I had a really fun weekend together in Salamanca. I showed her around Salamanca and we actually saw some things that I hadn´t seen before which was awesome. One of them was that we went up to the tower of the cathedral, which was amazing, especially because we went at sunset and the view was breath-taking. D just left today, which was sad, but we get to see each other in 3 weeks so it won´t be very long. I can´t believe that I only have 3 weeks left in Spain! And 9 days out of that time I´m traveling to Ireland and England, which I´m super excited about, but it also means that actual days in Salamanca are very limited. I will just have to make the most of them, and I am looking forward to going home and seeing family and friends. It´s going to be bittersweet to go home, and I know I will really miss Spain once I leave.

Granada and Córdoba

This past weekend my friend Jess and I took a trip to Granada and Córdoba, two cities in the south of Spain. I´d wanted to go to these two places for awhile because they both have important cultural landmarks that I´d heard a lot about and wanted to see for myself. It was a great trip, and although we spent a lot of time on trains and buses since we only spent a day in each place, it was well worth it and I had a great weekend.

We went to Granada first, which is known for the Alhambra. I’m not exactly sure how to explain it for those how have never heard of it, but it’s basically a particular part of the city that was built by the Arabs when they occupied Spain centuries ago. (Wikipedia describes it as a palace and fortress complex, which seems about right to me.) It was a lot bigger than I expected before I went there, but I knew almost nothing about it except that it was a famous Spanish landmark, so pretty much everything surprised me, except for what I´d already seen pictures of. It´s a beautiful place that I highly recommend to anyone traveling in Spain, and I´m so glad I went because I don´t think my semester would have been complete without seeing both the Alhambra and the Mezquita. Since words can´t do justice to the beauty, here are some pictures to give you an idea (although pictures don´t completely do it justice either). I took over 400 pictures during the entire trip, so obviously this will only be a very small sampling of them. 

These pictures are of the Generalife, which is one of the areas of the Alhambra.

 

The following pictures are of the other section of the Alhambra, which has the Palaces

Palace of Carlos V

Palacio Nazaríes (i don´t know what that translates to in English)

The room where the famous lion statues are supposed to be but it was closed for repairs :(

Other than seeing the Alhambra, we basically just wandered around Granada for the rest of the day until it was time to catch our bus to Córdoba. We had some confusion with our directions (apparently Google maps doesn´t know Spain very well) but we eventually got to the station with time to spare and made it to Córdoba just fine. And with very slight direction problems again, we made it to our hostel.

So onto day 2, in Córdoba. The main attraction was the Mezquita, which is an old mosque that was converted into a cathedral when the Christians reconquered Spain. The original architecture is still there though, and it´s gorgous on the inside. When we first got to the Mezquita, it wasn´t open for visitors yet, so we walked around and saw the Puente Romano (Roman Bridge) and the Alcázar de los Reyes Católicos (Castle of the Catholic Kings). Here is a sampling of the pictures from that day. 

First glimpse of the Mezquita

There´s me!

Courtyard

Castle

The Castle had the most beautiful garden

Inside the Mezquita. Pictures really don´t do this justice

This one is probably my favorite picture from the trip. I got a postcard that looks almost exactly like this, which makes me proud of my photography skills haha

So that´s basically it for my weekend. I leave to go to Ireland and England in a week, which I´m so excited for! I´m finally getting to go to two countries I´ve wanted to go to my whole life. It should be awesome! I´m also visiting two friends who are studying in Norwich, England, so that will be fun too. I will do my best to write about that trip when I get back from it, but once I get back it´s basically time for finals so I might not have time. I´ll do my best though.

Germany!

I can now add Germany to the list of countries I have been too (and if you count airports I can also add Switzerland, because of my layover in Zurich). I am slowly but surely becoming a world traveler. :) So my journey began with waking up at 4:30am on Friday to catch a 6am train to Madrid so I could make it to the airport for my flight at 10am. Other than a slight delay my flights were fine and I arrived in Hamburg on schedule. Two observations I made almost instantly about Germany (and the short time I spent in Switzerland): 1) almost EVERYONE in those two countries speaks English, and 2) it is very strange to be in a country where I don't know a single word of the language. I think the only thing I knew how to say in German when I arrived was Guten Tag, and it didn't increase much while I was there. When I first arrived in Spain I was a little thrown off hearing so many people speaking a different language, but I could understand at least a little of what people were saying. In Germany it was completely a mystery to me what people were saying. A few people attempted to speak German to me but I just said 'what' and they immediately switched to English.

But anyway, more about my trip. After 12 hours of traveling, I finally arrived at Chaz's appartment (for anyone reading this who doesn't know Chaz, she is one of my friends from Goucher who is studying abroad in Luneburg Germany for the semester). We walked around the town a little but mostly just had a relaxed night. I immediately loved the feel of the town. It was very cute and European-looking and cute, and I really liked the buildings. After being in Spain for so long I've gotten used to how things look here, and it was really cool to see a different style. I was so excited that I was actually in Germany, it felt unbelievable. Then we went out for dinner and I got schnitzel just because it sounded so German, even though I didn't know what it was haha. And since it was Germany I just had to order beer with dinner. Here are some pictures of food and the town:

Then on Saturday we went to Hamburg for the day and walked around the city a little. One of the highlights was seeing a church that was bombed during the war and never rebuilt. Now it's used as a monument and museum about the war. We also bought tickets to take an elevator to the top of the tower where you can see all around at the city below. It's about 4000 meters up, which is really high, I'm not exactly sure how much that is in feet. But in the elevator on the way up I started to get kind of scared, and I'm not usually afraid of heights. Here are some pictures.

I took a bunch more pictures in Hamburg, so here are a few of my favorites.

That night we went to a Halloween party and I met a bunch of Chaz's friends, who were all really great. Even though Halloween isn't very big in Europe since it's an American import, it's gaining in popularity and lots of people were dressed up. Most of them were Americans but I saw a few Germans dressed up too. I decided to dress up as an 80's person since I just threw on a random assortment of clothes and decided I looked sort of 80's haha. I had a great time at the party and then we went to a club and danced for a few hours. I had a blast!

Sunday was pretty laid back since most things were closed and the weather was kinda dreary. Then Monday I left :( and it took me 15 hours to get back to Salamanca because I hadn't bought a train ticket for the return trip since I wasn't quite sure what time I would get to the train station and the only train that had spaces left was 4 hours after I got there. The wait in the station was horrible. But now I know that I should buy a ticket in advance even if I'm not exactly sure so I don't have the same thing happen again.

Now that I've taken two trips I want to travel to many more places, but money is beginning to be an issue so I won't get to do everything. I'll just have to make sure I make it back to Spain as soon as possible. Also, Danielle is coming to visit next week, and I'm super excited!!