Internet is finally working again. Here's something I wrote last week:
Last weekend my program took us all on a trip to southern Spain, to the city of Córdoba. We took a roughly five-hour bus ride through the mountains that separate Castilla La Mancha, in the center of which is Madrid, and Andalusía, derived from the Arabic name for the peninsula, Al Andalus, or The Land of Light. Córdoba was for a time the capital of the Al Andalus province of the Islamic Caliphate about a thousand years ago, and thus has a strong Arabic character to its architecture.
After arriving in the city we dropped off our things in the hotel and split up for lunch. I went with a group to a restaurant that specialized in bull’s tail, apparently a local delicacy. I ended up getting fish and a local soup instead, as I wasn’t feeling that brave at the time, a move I feel pretty comfortable with. My braver peers opted for bull’s tail, and they said it was good, but I think their assertions of this were a little forced!
We met back up for a tour of the Catedral of Córdoba. In the fifteenth century, when the Christian kingdoms of the north reconquered this city, the first order of business was to consecrate the enormous mosque as a Catholic cathedral. By the mid sixteenth century, the mosque had undergone some radical changes in architecture. Much of it preserves its original Islamic design, but in the center there has been built an enormous Gothic chapel with a cavernous cathedral ceiling and everything. It’s a really spectacular fusion of the architecture of the two Abrahamic traditions.
We left the Mosque/Cathedral to tour the Jewish Quarter and a synagogue, thus rounding out the big three monotheisms. The synagogue was a lot less imposing, but nevertheless still interesting. The Islamic rule of the peninsula was characterized at the time with a remarkable religious tolerance, and Christians and Jews were allowed to practice their own faith. Unfortunately the new Catholic kingdom did not continue that tradition of religious tolerance, and the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492 and the Muslims in the early 16th century. It was very interesting to see what’s been preserved and restored of the Jewish heritage in that portion of the tour.
Next up we saw the ancient Roman wall that used to protect the city, and the Alcazar, the castle where the Catholic Kings stayed when visiting Córdoba. This castle is for the most part in disrepair. A couple exposed excavations revealed the Roman foundations of the castle, buried under what’s left.
From there we split up and chilled until supper, provided by our program. Chilling resumed after supper, and in the morning we hopped back on the bus and drove just outside the city, where we toured the enormous archaeological excavation of Madinat al-Zahra, the palace city that was the seat of the Caliphate government in Al Andalus. It was a beautiful, clear, sunny day, and we got a bunch of pictures of the ruins.
Following the tour we went back into the city for lunch on our own, then back on the bus for Madrid.
My immune system seems to have a burning desire to face off against every germ on this continent, and a good deal of my time here has been spent cycling through various iterations of the cold. This week was my first decent bout of the flu, however. This was spectacularly unfortunate, because Monday was the day I had been looking forward to for months when Grandma and Grandpa Murto were visiting me in Madrid. Fortunately they have had their flu shots, so I met them at their hotel and we walked around some central areas of Madrid together, Gran Via and Plaza del Sol. We got a light lunch together and went back to their hotel. They were pretty tired from their flight, and I was spent from the whole flu business, so I left them in their room and went back to my apartment to take a nap (I didn’t have class on Monday). The original plan was to go out for supper Monday night, but my doctor here and my grandparents both insisted I stayed in and rested. With the exception of waking up to go to the doctor on Monday evening, I essentially slept until Tuesday, when Grandma and Grandpa visited my apartment. We went for lunch at a little restaurant about a block from my apartment. It was lovely, and afterward I walked them to their bus stop and directed them how to find their way back to their hotel. Our time together was much too short, but they only had a couple days in Madrid. Their tour group was continuing on to Toledo and Córdoba, and more of southern Spain and Morocco, and ultimately Portugal. I was really bummed to have to say bye to them again so soon, but I’m sure they’re having a pretty stellar adventure wherever they are right now in Spain.
I was feeling a lot better by Thanksgiving. Our program paid for our dinner at a medium-classy restaurant about three blocks from my apartment. I had steak and French fries. It was the most American thing you could get; no turkey, mashed potatoes, or pies were available. It was pretty good, but of course I miss my family. Thanksgiving is better spent in Indiana.
I feel like that essentially catches things up. Next week three of my classes have midterms, so I’m studying for those right now. Linguistics, Hispanic American Literature, and Spanish Foreign Policy. Should be a piece of cake.
I don’t know when you’ll be able to read this, because my Internet connection is nonfunctioning. Unfortunately you have to pay for it whether it works or not, so hopefully it will kick back in soon.
Bye.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Another Long Weekend
Friday was another national holiday, so today concludes the second long weekend in the past two weeks. Normally I would find this delightful, but frankly I've been somewhat frustrated lately with how little is accomplished in class at the school. Every lecture starts late, ends early, and isn't nearly as in depth as I feel my (and my parent's, and the federal government's) tuition dollars should buy. But that's how it goes in a laid back country such as this.
On Friday I went with my fellow Hoosier Danny and a girl from Texas to a flamenco show here in Madrid. It was the third such show I've seen, and was pretty good. A prized skill in flamenco dancing is the extreme rapidity with which the dancers can tap their heels against the stage in something of a human drum-roll, and one of the dancer's on Friday was so accomplished at this that the motion of his legs was blurred and he scooted across the stage like a cell phone placed on vibrate, ringing and sliding across a desk. This flamenco show was also accompanied by some excellent sangria.
Yesterday I went to the movies with some Spanish students. They wanted to practice their English so we saw "Death at a Funeral" in English, with Spanish subtitles. It was a fun movie, with its occasionally smart and dry British humor, but not necessarily memorable. Then we met up with some other American students and went to a bar called Las Cuevas del Sésamo, which was once frequented by Ernest Hemingway, amongst other canonical writers whom I don't recall at the moment. It was a delightful experience, very reminiscent of Rick's from "Casablanca." Low-key music was provided by a pianist in a bow tie, one table away from ours, lifted straight out of the 1940s. Immediately after leaving this bar, we tempered the high-culture weekend with a trip to McDonald's, because everyone seemed to be in the mood for some greasy food.
Today is for catching up on some reading, for both homework and leisure. Adiós.
On Friday I went with my fellow Hoosier Danny and a girl from Texas to a flamenco show here in Madrid. It was the third such show I've seen, and was pretty good. A prized skill in flamenco dancing is the extreme rapidity with which the dancers can tap their heels against the stage in something of a human drum-roll, and one of the dancer's on Friday was so accomplished at this that the motion of his legs was blurred and he scooted across the stage like a cell phone placed on vibrate, ringing and sliding across a desk. This flamenco show was also accompanied by some excellent sangria.
Yesterday I went to the movies with some Spanish students. They wanted to practice their English so we saw "Death at a Funeral" in English, with Spanish subtitles. It was a fun movie, with its occasionally smart and dry British humor, but not necessarily memorable. Then we met up with some other American students and went to a bar called Las Cuevas del Sésamo, which was once frequented by Ernest Hemingway, amongst other canonical writers whom I don't recall at the moment. It was a delightful experience, very reminiscent of Rick's from "Casablanca." Low-key music was provided by a pianist in a bow tie, one table away from ours, lifted straight out of the 1940s. Immediately after leaving this bar, we tempered the high-culture weekend with a trip to McDonald's, because everyone seemed to be in the mood for some greasy food.
Today is for catching up on some reading, for both homework and leisure. Adiós.
Monday, November 5, 2007
Fotos
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| Barcelona Weekend |
I apologize for the low resolution of some of these photos. The Internet refused to function for anything but the lowest setting on the last 3/4 of the album; it's remarkably finicky about that sort of thing lately.
A Long Long Weekend
Thursday was All Saint’s Day, and as Spain is a Catholic country we had the day off. Generally a Thursday off also means that Friday will be off, so I went with a couple other students in my program to Barcelona for the weekend.
Having learned our lesson regarding the unpleasantness of buses, Danny and I flew out Wednesday morning. We had to spend the night in the airport because Madrid’s metros shut down from 1 to 6 AM, and the flight was at 6. We camped out on the pews of the airport chapel.
Once in Barcelona, we caught a bus to the Gothic quarter, where our hostel was located. After checking out some of the shopping along the waterfront we got a stellar lunch in the Royal Plaza. Then we went back to the waterfront to peruse the aquarium, which is supposed to be one of the better ones in Europe, but didn’t quite live up to its hype (Danny felt Chicago’s was far superior, and I think I agree).
We walked around a bit through the central area to get a feel for the city. It had the same sort of feeling as Lisbon; it struck me as smaller than Madrid, although thankfully was far more navigable with a significantly less random street layout. We were pretty much spent after the uncomfortable night in the airport, but we met a trio of girls from Washington DC in the hostel, and the five of us eventually talked ourselves into hitting up a couple Irish bars that were decked out for Halloween.
Nevertheless, we got a decent amount of sleep before getting up the next day to meet Meghan and Melissa, the other half of our group for the weekend. They had taken the overnight bus after being unable to get plane tickets. We visited the cathedral in the Gothic quarter, which was impressive despite its façade being largely covered up by scaffolding in what I assume was a maintenance/restoration project.
Between the periods of wandering and eating at overpriced restaurants with rude waiting staff, we managed a hike up one of the city’s hills to a park designed by Gaudí. It was pretty neat, and we could see most of the city from its various observation patios. The city seemed pretty hazy at its clearest, and throughout the weekend I had the impression that the air pollution was substantially worse than Madrid’s, which is more than twice as large and situated in a more mountainous region. Even so, the view was nice.
After spending most of the afternoon in the park, we walked back down to the city and took a tour of an apartment building Gaudí designed, La Pedrera. It was pretty remarkable, but unfortunately few of my pictures turned out because the sun goes down so early here. The EU time zones strike me as pretty goofy, with sunset at about 6 PM after the clocks were set back last week for daylight savings. It seems to me that there’s plenty of room to scoot the clocks a bit for a little extra evening sunlight and economic activity, especially since they still don’t eat until 9 or 10 at night. It’s one of those little things about Europe that still seem somewhat odd to me.
We had a go at seeing Gaudí’s Temple of the Holy Family, the cathedral that’s been under construction for 125 years and is far from complete. Something of a wrench was thrown into the construction works when Gaudí was struck by a tram in 1926. The tram driver thought he was a hobo, and simply moved him from the tram’s path and continued on his route, leaving one of Spain’s most brilliant artists on the side of the road, where he died. I’ve heard that the final plans for the cathedral were in Gaudí’s head, and the work that’s carried on since then has been more or less a best guess sort of thing. Regardless, it’s pretty spectacular, and when it’s finished it’ll be a behemoth. Unfortunately they only turn on the exterior lights on certain days, so the journey was in vain (except for some excellent smoothies we got next door.) We came back the next night for photos. For some reason we didn’t try to go during the day, although I don’t see where we would have had time.
That night we went to a flamenco show before supper, and the next day we went to the chocolate museum. Apparently Barcelona was the city through which chocolate was introduced to Europe. Later that afternoon we visited another apartment building designed by Gaudí. Although not nearly as spectacular as La Pedrera, it was still pretty impressive. I didn’t realize until writing this presently what a prevalent theme Gaudí was for the weekend. At some point we also met up with Goshen College friends Lindsy Glick and Karla Maust and went out for drinks.
The bulk of Saturday afternoon was devoted to the Labyrinth Garden at the foot of the mountains on the west side of the city. Its serene and pensive atmosphere was very welcome after the exhausting pace of our tour of the city below. Also, the hedge maze in its center was pretty fun.
One of my favorite stops on the trip was to the City History Museum, which chronicled the two-thousand-year past of Barcelona. Unfortunately we were pressed for time and could not complete the entire experience, but what we saw was pretty incredible. Underneath the museum is a 43,000 square foot excavation of the original Roman settlement, with suspended walkways over the ruins of the buildings buried under Barcelona. I tried to sneak a few photos of the ruins, but, as flash photography was forbidden, few turned out.
Afterward we went to the beach and took a ride on the gondola over the harbor. This was definitely a letdown, as they cram as many people as possible into the little cars and I could see little more than the back of people’s heads throughout the journey. On the other side, on the top of a hill with cliffs on the Mediterranean Sea, was a stone fort that once defended the city from naval attacks. From here we watched the sunset and walked around the once-castle now-military museum (we didn’t have time to go in). Then we caught a light and music and fountain show, which was more loud than anything else. We had just enough time to snag a quick supper at Pita Hut before catching the last bus to the airport, where again we had to spend the night due to the early morning flight the next day. This day. I got back to Madrid early this morning and took an extensive nap.
So that was that. Barcelona was pretty nice, and there’s still plenty left to do if I ever get back, which isn’t unlikely since it’s only an hour away by air and will be 2½ hours by high-speed rail when the line opens later this year. I was surprised by how difficult communication was, since Barcelona, being the capital of the Catalonian province, speaks first Catalan and then Spanish. Sometimes the people there were a bit snooty about it. That more than anything makes me glad to be back in Madrid.
I’ll be holding off on travel now for a bit to conserve my dollars and their ever-dwindling buying power in the EU. Excepting a visit to Cordoba in two weeks on a trip with my program (which is paying for most of the weekend, hoorah). Immediately following that, I’m excited that Grandma and Grandpa Murto are visiting me in Madrid, something that I highly recommend of all of you.
Having learned our lesson regarding the unpleasantness of buses, Danny and I flew out Wednesday morning. We had to spend the night in the airport because Madrid’s metros shut down from 1 to 6 AM, and the flight was at 6. We camped out on the pews of the airport chapel.
Once in Barcelona, we caught a bus to the Gothic quarter, where our hostel was located. After checking out some of the shopping along the waterfront we got a stellar lunch in the Royal Plaza. Then we went back to the waterfront to peruse the aquarium, which is supposed to be one of the better ones in Europe, but didn’t quite live up to its hype (Danny felt Chicago’s was far superior, and I think I agree).
We walked around a bit through the central area to get a feel for the city. It had the same sort of feeling as Lisbon; it struck me as smaller than Madrid, although thankfully was far more navigable with a significantly less random street layout. We were pretty much spent after the uncomfortable night in the airport, but we met a trio of girls from Washington DC in the hostel, and the five of us eventually talked ourselves into hitting up a couple Irish bars that were decked out for Halloween.
Nevertheless, we got a decent amount of sleep before getting up the next day to meet Meghan and Melissa, the other half of our group for the weekend. They had taken the overnight bus after being unable to get plane tickets. We visited the cathedral in the Gothic quarter, which was impressive despite its façade being largely covered up by scaffolding in what I assume was a maintenance/restoration project.
Between the periods of wandering and eating at overpriced restaurants with rude waiting staff, we managed a hike up one of the city’s hills to a park designed by Gaudí. It was pretty neat, and we could see most of the city from its various observation patios. The city seemed pretty hazy at its clearest, and throughout the weekend I had the impression that the air pollution was substantially worse than Madrid’s, which is more than twice as large and situated in a more mountainous region. Even so, the view was nice.
After spending most of the afternoon in the park, we walked back down to the city and took a tour of an apartment building Gaudí designed, La Pedrera. It was pretty remarkable, but unfortunately few of my pictures turned out because the sun goes down so early here. The EU time zones strike me as pretty goofy, with sunset at about 6 PM after the clocks were set back last week for daylight savings. It seems to me that there’s plenty of room to scoot the clocks a bit for a little extra evening sunlight and economic activity, especially since they still don’t eat until 9 or 10 at night. It’s one of those little things about Europe that still seem somewhat odd to me.
We had a go at seeing Gaudí’s Temple of the Holy Family, the cathedral that’s been under construction for 125 years and is far from complete. Something of a wrench was thrown into the construction works when Gaudí was struck by a tram in 1926. The tram driver thought he was a hobo, and simply moved him from the tram’s path and continued on his route, leaving one of Spain’s most brilliant artists on the side of the road, where he died. I’ve heard that the final plans for the cathedral were in Gaudí’s head, and the work that’s carried on since then has been more or less a best guess sort of thing. Regardless, it’s pretty spectacular, and when it’s finished it’ll be a behemoth. Unfortunately they only turn on the exterior lights on certain days, so the journey was in vain (except for some excellent smoothies we got next door.) We came back the next night for photos. For some reason we didn’t try to go during the day, although I don’t see where we would have had time.
That night we went to a flamenco show before supper, and the next day we went to the chocolate museum. Apparently Barcelona was the city through which chocolate was introduced to Europe. Later that afternoon we visited another apartment building designed by Gaudí. Although not nearly as spectacular as La Pedrera, it was still pretty impressive. I didn’t realize until writing this presently what a prevalent theme Gaudí was for the weekend. At some point we also met up with Goshen College friends Lindsy Glick and Karla Maust and went out for drinks.
The bulk of Saturday afternoon was devoted to the Labyrinth Garden at the foot of the mountains on the west side of the city. Its serene and pensive atmosphere was very welcome after the exhausting pace of our tour of the city below. Also, the hedge maze in its center was pretty fun.
One of my favorite stops on the trip was to the City History Museum, which chronicled the two-thousand-year past of Barcelona. Unfortunately we were pressed for time and could not complete the entire experience, but what we saw was pretty incredible. Underneath the museum is a 43,000 square foot excavation of the original Roman settlement, with suspended walkways over the ruins of the buildings buried under Barcelona. I tried to sneak a few photos of the ruins, but, as flash photography was forbidden, few turned out.
Afterward we went to the beach and took a ride on the gondola over the harbor. This was definitely a letdown, as they cram as many people as possible into the little cars and I could see little more than the back of people’s heads throughout the journey. On the other side, on the top of a hill with cliffs on the Mediterranean Sea, was a stone fort that once defended the city from naval attacks. From here we watched the sunset and walked around the once-castle now-military museum (we didn’t have time to go in). Then we caught a light and music and fountain show, which was more loud than anything else. We had just enough time to snag a quick supper at Pita Hut before catching the last bus to the airport, where again we had to spend the night due to the early morning flight the next day. This day. I got back to Madrid early this morning and took an extensive nap.
So that was that. Barcelona was pretty nice, and there’s still plenty left to do if I ever get back, which isn’t unlikely since it’s only an hour away by air and will be 2½ hours by high-speed rail when the line opens later this year. I was surprised by how difficult communication was, since Barcelona, being the capital of the Catalonian province, speaks first Catalan and then Spanish. Sometimes the people there were a bit snooty about it. That more than anything makes me glad to be back in Madrid.
I’ll be holding off on travel now for a bit to conserve my dollars and their ever-dwindling buying power in the EU. Excepting a visit to Cordoba in two weeks on a trip with my program (which is paying for most of the weekend, hoorah). Immediately following that, I’m excited that Grandma and Grandpa Murto are visiting me in Madrid, something that I highly recommend of all of you.
Photos forthcoming.
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