Monday, April 30, 2012

"Ese tipo gallego habla bien inglés": Still alive and kicking



Who's that angelic, handsome beast?

Hello all! So I’ve got another 5 day weekend on my hands, and the Galician weather (“choiva, choiva, e máis choiva….”) has set in pretty well, so I’ve got a few spare moments to update my humble little blog. I know it’s been a while and you’ve all been dying to know what kind of adventures I’ve been on, but I’ve got a good reason: Have you ever seen the movie Taken with Liem Nieson? Let’s just say it’s been an eventful month and a half…

To set the mood, a nice traditional Galician tune with some enchanting lyrics: Túa nai é meiga

So I know how it must seem to all of you, studying in Spain: just imagine me having to go to the beach whenever I want, staying out late enough to grab breakfast the next morning, going to at least one class a day during the week…but we need vacations here too! So we had a week off of classes for Semana Santa (the week-long Spanish version of Easter), which we used to its fullest potential to see what Spain has to offer.

Me and my girls started the week off in Porto, a nearby city in the North of Portugal, one of my favorite places to go. We’ve visited a few times before, but this is the first time I’d remembered my camera.
We only stayed the night- eating, drinking, being merry, shopping –and we caught a flight the next morning, and we were off to Madrid!
View from the other side of the river at night.

Panoramic from the cathedral.



A statue...and the sun!



I get out of the subway and step onto the Puerta del Sol, where the tourist season was in full-swing. There were tourists and street performers and peddlers EVERYWHERE!!! Despite that, I absolutely loved the city. We went to the market (got some really cool stuff!), enjoyed a bit of the nightlife (a Venezuelan named Jesús took care of us), and visited the museums and the park. I still have a giant to-do list for Madrid, so I guess I have to go back some time…
Shopping at the market!!!

Lunch break...then more shopping!

Two Spongebobs O.o

View from the balcony of my hostel.

The pond at the city park.


Next, I said bye to my friends and headed to Atoche train station, which has a jungle in it!!! Then I hop on the train to Toledo, former capital of Spain. Definitely a stark contrast to metropolitan Madrid, this was an incredible, historical city, sitting on the top of a hill. I did a lot of exploring here. After a 2 hour hike around the city, I found an abandoned mill with an awesome view of the Fortaleza. I also got a lot of my souvenir shopping done here, the city being known for its metalwork and desmaquillados. Also, I happened upon a special procession one night for Semana Santa: there was a sort of parade around the main square with drums and the processioners all dressed in purple capes and carrying lanterns and an image of the Christ- it was incredible!
View from my hostel in Toledo.

Looking out onto the hills surrounding the city.

Another cathedral...

Looking back onto the city from my hike.


Yup, pretty much...
Back on the train to Madrid: I was only in the city for a few hours before I had to leave again, so I posted up in a bar to have a copa or two until my bus left…at midnight. Yep- I took a bus from Madrid to Barcelona that ran from 12 o’clock midnight until 8 in the morning… I wouldn’t recommend it, to be honest.

In any case, I finally got to Barcelona! I actually liked the city a lot more than I thought I would, despite the numerous occasions that I got lost in her. I made my way to my hostel, located just off of las Ramblas, AKA: tourist central, AKA: hell on earth. There were a couple of awesome open markets nearby though that I enjoyed. And in order to avoid las Ramblas as much as possible, I did a lot of exploring, and coincidentally, a lot of getting lost. I went to Gaudí’s park, his cathedral La Sagrada Familia, the zoo, the botanical gardens, and the castle at Montjuïc. I ran into a lot of interesting people too… I met a prostitute in the Gothic Quarter (I had to decline her invitation: “¿Quieres follar?”), and a man in l’eixample handed me an invitation to this place: Bearcelona.
A little drizzle in a small plaza.

Sleepy guy.

Jealous Tony is jealous...

View of the city.


At the Botanical Gardens.

These guys aren't kidding around...

Panoramic from on top of the castle. Yeah, I said it: I'm on a castle.


And then I had to get up at 3am to head out to catch my flight back. I was changing in the shower room of the hostel, in nothing but my skivees, when a charming American with a baggie of grapes coming back from a night at the bars comes in and starts talking to me and we had a great conversation (I have some things to say about other foreigners though- see below). In any case, a bus ride, a flight, another bus ride, a train, and yet another bus ride later, I’m finally back home…at 11am. But all my friends were there waiting and we had a lovely Easter dinner together!

A few things I noticed during my travels: Tourists suck. The worst: Americans, Frenchies, and Germans. (I know I’m generalizing, but) Seriously, they were awful. I hear often enough in the States, “if you’re in America, you should speak American!” (which makes me want to vomit for so many reasons), but I witnessed on several occasions Americans getting upset that Spanish people were speaking Spanish to them…in Spain… C’mon, guys!!!




Also, a cool thing: being without my American/other foreign friends, the Spanish people were more apt to speaking Spanish with me. An even cooler thing- tons of them thought I was Spanish!! (It still surprised them, because 6’2” blond Spaniards are hard to come by, but nonetheless.) There were a couple of American girls at my hostel in Barcelona that were having trouble talking to the guy at the desk, and he said “you can ask that Galician guy over there- I think he speaks pretty good English.” Study abroad is working!

So after getting back, I haven’t really been doing much of anything exciting. Just the usual: going out, going to class, hanging out. I did go on a class trip to Guimarães, Portugal this weekend though, which has inspired me to plan a couple more (more budget-friendly) trips to other places in Galicia/Northern Portugal. We’ll see how that pans out.

Also, this past week was the Marvel Movie Marathon. A friend and I watched the Marvel movies (en español!) in preparation to watch The Avengers. It was EPIC!!! I highly recommend it (I mean c’mon, another chance to watch this guy in action: Chris Hemsworth)

Spanish Gnomes:
Haven’t seen these fun little guys around as much lately. Guess I’m going to have to start getting into more trouble again…

Café Count:

So this shouldn’t come as a huge surprise, but I definitely haven’t been keeping track of this so much lately… suffice it to say I have continued to drink a substantial amount of this life-sustaining liquid per diem. And while I was in Barcelona, I stumbled through this article (written in Catalán) that informed me of all the good things caffeine does for your body! ...I think.

The Ropa Española Initiative (REI):

I haven’t been keeping up with my shopping needs lately (traveling during Semana Santa put a considerable dent in my budget), but I’ll get back on my feet soon hopefully. But we’ll devote this edition to the bufanda, the scarf.
By some miracle, this wonderful article of clothing has escaped the feminine connotation that it has in the States: it’s quite normal for men to throw on a scarf here, an idea and custom I’ve taken to without hesitation. Just a couple of my acquisitions during my stay here:
Sporting my 3€ purchase with my flatmate
inside the Sagrada Familia.

Classy tíe-knot...rolling around on the
living room floor.

Nice nostril shot. But here's my 1€ scarf
I got in Porto!


And so, until I write again (I’ll try to be more attentive)

Sunday, March 4, 2012

"¡Soy una zanahoria borracha!": Carnaval in Spain


A ver...
Carnaval was incredible! And there is no way I can properly describe it via blog - you're just gonna have to book a flight for next year to see for yourself (I myself am planning on experiencing a Brazilian Carnaval next year, Godwilling).

Starting the festivities in Vigo- it was really just a weekend like any other at first, just with more glitter and costumes.  We scoured the various chinos (corner shops that carry literally everything... and they're always, without exception, run by Chinamen) around the city to find some sort of disfraz (costume). We had with our group various angels, a Zorro, a giant cookie, a pirate, a cowboy, some matchsticks, etc etc...  So we got ourselves dressed up and looking real nice and then we hit up the town. But like I said, it was a lot like any other weekend in Vigo, just with more cross-dressers, dinosaurs, Jokers, nurses, etc.

Map of Galicia, for your reference.
One of our awesome Spanish friends Ana took us to her hometown near Santiago de Compostela.  There wasn't much of a Carnaval scene there, but we got to take a good look around the city in any case.


This is another beautiful city in Galicia and a really religiously important one. I might have to do the migration one day... I'll start packing my hiking gear.  So we spend the day chilling in this giant cathedral, playing on playgrounds, climbing on statues, exploring watermills, etc. And then we take the night off to rest up for the coming night...


We hop on the train the next morning to head for Ourense, home of the most insane Carnaval known to man (or at least to this man).  Of course, we do the usual touristy stuff first - taking pictures on bridges, buying churros from the street vendors, getting made fun of by some super-stoned local, and so on.  And then night falls....

Upon disfrazarnos, we get glitter ALL OVER the place.  But there we are, dressed to the nines, I guess you could say, and we head to the restaurant, literally next-door.  And we feast and sing and be merry.  Then the night truly begins. By the time we leave the restaurant (and we're eating on Spanish time, so it's like 11.00, midnight now. Get it right, America), the streets are already filled with costumed Spaniards.  We file our way to our first concert of the night.  This plaza is filled with people- dancing and drinking and just having the best time!! Some of my favorite memories from this portion of the night: 1) Watching my friend, dressed as a black angel, chasing around a bunch of children dressed as cops. 2) Seeing another of my Spanish friends, dressed as a giant cookie, peeing on a church.  Beautiful.

By the time this first concert's over, I've already made friends with a Mario, a Scotsman, and a monk, and they show me around the festivities a bit more.  After a bit of exploring, we find the second concert of the night, and like magic, we run into a couple of my friends again (the child-chasing angel and the other angel who tried to get a short cross-dresser to make out with me earlier...).  I end up hanging out with the Scotsman for awhile, and we started talking to a clown.  After a long conversation (in Spanish), we finally introduce ourselves to her.  And upon learning that I'm from the States, she asks, "¿Hablas español?" (Seriously, lady, where have you been?) But I just go with it and say of course!! She goes on to ask me to say something in Spanish.... Really?? But I just said What do you want me to say?, and I just blew this clown's mind... at least I got a balloon out of it.

More music and dancing.  After about 6 or so (oh yeah, AM folks), the rest of my original group decided they needed to go home (weak).  So I found some new pals and starting checking out some more parties and concerts.  At one of the parties, I happened to run into one of my ISEP friends- completely by chance.  He was a matchstick.  Also, a really tall, Swedish dinosaur girl came up to me, but immediately lost interest when I told her "no soy sueco..." If I had a euro for every time they think I'm Swedish......
In any case - I barely manage to make it home before the sun comes up.  But the joke's on me- because we have to check out of the hostel by 11.

And it's not over yet!!! We make it back to Vigo for the last night of Carnaval.  Some of the other internationals found me on the streets and took me to a concert that was going on downtown.  It was great!! We ran into some carrots, one of which informed us: "Soy una zanahoria borracha!" Then they set up a few huge dolls of some not-so-popular political figures up to burn.

I love this place.

I did miss the Death of Carnaval party, but I'll be sure to make it next year.

So back to the "real world." My Portuguese professor informs me the day before: Oh hey, we're going on a trip to Portugal tomorrow for class! Like it's no big deal.  So we head on down to the Spanish-Portuguese border to check out the walled city of Valença.




Then, just yesterday, we hopped on a boat to go to Baiona, where they were having their annual Medieval Festival.  Yeah, that happens here too....but it was so much fun!!!

View from the boat on the way over.


Oh hey there
Islas Cíes in the background.





Lunch time!! Cheesecake and a Napolitana covered with white chocolate.

Short bathroom.
Fauno!







Spanish Gnomes:
Some more little gifts these guys have left me over the past few weeks:
1- Subscription to dating service (deleted immediately)
2- Phone numbers (To text or not to text...)
3- A messenger address (I'm gonna have to download that, I guess)

Café Count:





Well, now that this is happening, I think I'm going to have to find some sort of format to lay out all of the data... but for now:
Since last we talked (approximately 17 days ago) up until this exact moment (I just now finished another double at the café down the street), I have taken in 10 cups of single shots of coffee and a whopping 49 doubles. That's 108 shots of coffee, folks.  Now my heart rate's averaging something around 185 beats per minute and it's great.

The Ropa Española Initiative (REI):
A special this time in honor of Carnaval: it's the Máscara Veneciana


Picked up at a local chino, this guy was my costume for Carnaval 2012.  It might look a little strange next to a bear and a cowboy, but I quite enjoyed my weekend as a veneciano.  And I got to switch it up a bit with the neckwear - appearing with the bowtie, a skinny tie, and finally with a nice sequined tie (not pictured). Not to mention the copious amounts of glitter I poured on myself (and consequently, and body who happened to walk in a 5 foot diameter to me).

I chose to go a little simple this year (but c'mon - I love these masks... they're so classy!!), but I'll go full-out next year, I promise!

Alright- that's all for now, guys. Hasta la próxima
-Besos-