Seventy Degree Weather!

In between my aforementioned trips to Germany, everyone at the Castle had their equivalent of Thanksgiving Break - five free days after Berlin! Kate and Jenna and I had been planning our extended travel break since the summer, and we chose Barcelona as our destination. I guess we could have tried to go a bunch of different places, but we really wanted the chance to settle in and get to know a city. All the traveling that we do every weekend is certainly nice, but it means we usually only get three days per city. The three of us had our hearts set on Barcelona, so we felt no need to try to cram a bunch of other stuff in. Instead of getting a hostel, we decided to rent an apartment so that we could have our own place and not have to deal with other people or terrible beds or dirty showers. The apartment we ended up getting was very nice and very clean and a lot more modern than we expected. The location was great - right near MACBA (the museum of contemporary art) and a few minutes' walk from La Rambla.We loved it because it wasn't in a tourist area - instead it was a mix between residential and small-time commercial. For a glorious five days, Paloma Street was our home! Here is the view from our balcony:

Since we were all so exhausted from Berlin, the first thing we did was nap. Majorly. Like, for a few hours. Then we dragged ourselves out of bed to get food before going and sleeping some more. So the second day we woke up finally rested and ready to do things! Mostly we explored the city, checked out La Rambla, and went to La Bocaria for food. The Bocaria was the most intense food-shopping experience I have ever had! It's a giant market that's known for its variety of food, plus it's cheap. We spent a good two hours there wandering around buying anything that looked good. I'm so glad the apartment had a kitchen - I had missed making food for myself. 

The next place we wanted to make sure we saw was Gaudi's Park Guell. It was incredible - one of the wackiest places I've ever been, for sure. But it was also very beautiful, and had a great view of the city. Of course that meant the walk up was a bit of an effort, but it was worth it. It was very crowded though, even in the off season, so I can hardly imagine what it must be like in the summer. 

Unfortunately, La Sagrada Familia is still under construction, and will be for the next 20 years or so I think? But we at least saw it. 

On another day, we spent a while walking around the city, and we were in the gothic quarter for a while. It wasn't too far from where we were staying, but since it was on the other side of La Rambla it seemed like a whole new place. Whereas our neighborhood was very residential, "real" Barcelona, the gothic quarter is the old, beautiful, more grand part. 

At night, we would often go to our favorite pizza place down the street, Pizza Original. The food was PERFECT - so simple and delicious and cheap. I still remember how the cheese and white corn empinadas taste, and it is a goal of my life to learn to how make them one day. Obviously the pizza was great too. And the guys who work there also happen to be some of the most beautiful men I have ever seen? But that was totally not why we went there almost every night!

We also checked out the famous absinthe bar, Marsella, where Picasso and his buddies would hang out. It was so crowded and so hot but it was fun. We met some really interesting people, and obviously tried absinthe for the first time. Tastes like licorice, just like everyone says. There was a coffee place down the street from the apartment that we got to know pretty well too - we deemed it "the revolutionary coffee place" beacuse it was filled with the type of people who sit around, drink their coffee, and talk about music, art, politics and love. I have now officially been a participant in the Bohemian revolution!

On our last day, we went over to Parc du Monjuic, which was actually a backup plan that ended up being one of the most amazing things I've done. Originally we wanted to take a day trip out of the city, but we realized that it would have been so expensive and that there were still parts of the city we hadn't seen. The train person suggested that we just take the tram to the Parc, and then the funicular takes you up the side, and you get out at the top and there it is - the entirety of Barcelona stretched out under you. The Pyranese are straight ahead, and you can see all the way to the ocean. Incredible. 

One side of the mountain had been turned into a terraced garden, which was right near the Barcelona Castle. While we were walking down the hillside through the garden, we had a perfect view of the castle, and it was amazing. The sun was going down and the sky turned some colors that I never would have imagined. The three of us sat in that garden for a long, long time just watching all the plants around us, the sky, and the silhouette of the castle. The weather was perfect - just the kind of warm night you'd expect in Spain. 

Leaving was terrible - we had come to feel so at home in our little place on Paloma. I know that there's a lot of Barcelona I didn't see, so I'm excited for the day when I can go back and finish exploring. I'll end with some of my favorite snapshots from around the city:

Right now I'm in the midst of studying for finals, so I can't promise the next post will be up before the end of the weekend. But I do have my last trip, Prague, to tell you about, and I promise it is a story for the ages. We leave THIS WEDNESDAY, which is unthinkable. Everyone is so sad, but at the same time I think most of us are ready to go home. I'm torn - I love it here, but I also miss a lot of things (food, horses, friends, cat, etc.) from home. I'll try my hardest to post before I leave though!

The Motherland

I apologize, but things are about to get very out of whack here on the good ol' blog. Since Paris, I've gone to Berlin, Barcelona and Munich, all in the space of about three weeks. As you can tell, there is a lot to catch up on! In order to make it a little easier, and to balance it out because I spent much longer in Barcelona than I have anywhere else, I am going to group Germany together and write about Barcelona next time. First up is Berlin, which is where our entire group went for our second official excursion.

It's really a very beautiful city, but what struck me most was the contrast in the architecture between old and new. There were of course a lot of buildings that are very old, but then right next to them would be some sort of new marvel of modern design. Case in point - next to the Brandenberg gate is one of the most abstract-looking buildings I have ever seen -the school of modern art. The Wall obviously had a huge impact on which architecture could be found where. One of my favorite buildings was the Berliner Dom, which is a giant church with (of course) a huge dome on top. We climbed all the way up there! 

To be honest, I have hardly any pictures from our three days in Berlin. Mostly this is due to being SO BUSY. Our teachers had us doing tours and museums basically all day every day. I just got tired of lugging my rather large camera around everywhere. By the end of the trip, my feet were busted and all I wanted to do was sleep forever. Which I did, in sunny Barcelona. But that's for the next post! 

We also got to go to the Reichstag, which has an amazing design and interior; all very modern and very beautiful. Another place that stood out for me was the Gefangnisgalerie, which is one of the cleanest, most neatly presented museums I have ever been to. There was some incredible art there, including my favorite Caravaggio. 

Of course the Brandenburg gate was lovely. However, they were doing construction for the Mauerfall Celebration later that night, so it was hard to get pictures that didn't involved scaffolding. 

I don't like to post pictures on here that I didn't take myself, so instead I will recommend that you all Google the Berlin Philharmonic Hall. It's an absolutely beautiful building that's fairly new, and I was lucky enough to go see a performance there of the Berliner Philharmonik. Simon Rattle is a hilarious and fantastic conductor, and the program was based around Schoenberg, whose music was perfectly suited to Rattle's mad-scientist type of thing. 

The Mauerfall Celebration (Wall Fall Celebration) was AWEOSME. So many people everywhere! A few of my friends and I got coffee and then camped out near the start of one section of dominoes. To celebrate the fall, Berlin created a bunch of big white "dominoes" that they sent all over the world to be painted by tons of people. Then they all came back and were put in a huge line where the Wall used to be, and then that night they were knocked down section by section. Really a perfect way to commemorate it, I think. There were concerts and speeches and all sorts of stuff. We stayed out forever just walking around the city enjoying the festivities. 

Two weeks later I was back in Germany, but not in Berlin. This time it was Munich, and this time Mom was with me! (The MOTHERland, get it??) We had a great little hotel in the city and spent the first day walking around Marienplatz and looking at all the stores and buildings and stuff. This city was much different - very old, very historic, very...wintry. I can hardly imagine summer in Munich. Especially since they were setting up for the Christmas market, and then we got to watch the famous Glockenspiel on Town Hall. 

Later in the day, we caught the bus over to Nymphenburg, one of the palaces of the electors of Bavaria. It was a huge, imposing place, but very beautiful. Also, there were swans everywhere!

The next day we ventured into the Bavarian Alps to go and see the famous Castle Neuschwanstein. The train ride there was absolutely stunning - it was literally like the train rounded the corner and there were the Alps! It's a bit tough to take good photographs out the window of a moving train, but I tried:

Eventually we arrived at Fussen, an adorable little town perfectly framed by the mountains.

From there we got a taxi up to the Castle. It was absolutely GORGEOUS. Just like a fairy tale, which is why Disney apparently based their Disneyland castle off of this one? Here are some various views of it and from inside:

We even got to take a horse-drawn cart up and down the mountain! Obviously I was thrilled with that.

After taking a tour of the castle, we went back down into Fussen to shop. Unfortunately, we hadn't realized that everything closes really early in this part of the country! Even though it was only 4, we couldn't find anywhere to shop, and just ended up walking around and having coffee. Not bad though, since the town was very pleasant. 

The train ride home was...not as good as the one there. It was crowded, dark outside, and we were tired. We were definitely thankful to get back into the city for a big dinner and then sleeeeeep. 

I'm really glad I got to go to such a beautiful part of Europe with Mom - we both had a lot of fun. Plus it meant I got to stay somewhere with a shower that worked! I'll end with my favorite picture of the two of us in front of Neuschwanstein:

Next time: my extended travel break in Barcelona!

The City of Lights, Love and Croissants

This past weekend's trip to Paris was something I'd been looking forward to forever. I'm glad to say that aside from a bit of a major mishap at the end, it did not disappoint in any way! It's really a city that lives up to all the hype (ahem New York) and doesn't seem to have the type of craziness that some other large cities have had that make me feel lost all the time. We had no trouble finding our hostel after we arrived, and its location was great - right in the middle of the Latin Quarter. This was great for a few reasons: 1) 10 minute walk to Notre Dame, the Louvre, and the Seine 2) right near all the best bars and places to dance 3) next to two different metro stops 4) not in the very middle of city, so it was still cheap 5) at the bottom of a hill from which the Eiffel Tower could be seen. Kate and I had the most adorable room - the building itself was so skinny and tall and windy, and so all the rooms were shoved in random places, the floors were uneven, and the ceiling was slanted. But we also had huge windows that looked out into the street and the walls were painted bright yellow and red. 

This is our room

Our view

After we got our things situated, we ate lunch at a great cafe right down the street and then got croissants at a stand next to it. This would prove to be the start of a wonderful tradition - buying a croissant or something every single time we passed that stand on the way to or from the hostel. Thankfully my friends are all as enthusiastic about baked goods as I am so there really was no question about it. 

Our first stop was the Pantheon, which was right up the street. It cost a bit too much to go in, but it was still nice to see. Very impressive. Plus you could see the Eiffel Tower from the front steps, so that was a great first view of it. Next we walked down to Notre Dame! It was pretty awesome to see it in person since it's what we've been studying in my art history class.

A wedding! 

We wanted to go to the Louvre next, but first we allowed ourselves to just wander around for a bit. Paris is truly a beautiful city with some stunning views of the river, but also just some amazing architecture. These are some photos taken randomly along our walk:

Lots of vendors were selling old books on the sides of the street

Next up: the Louvre. IT WAS AMAZING. The actual building, first of all, was great. We were there at night so my photos aren't that good, but I did my best. And then the art! Delacroix! Da Vinci! David! Cimabue! All my favorites were there, just ready to be looked at. Plus they let you take pictures. I didn't really take any of the paintings because I knew I wouldn't be able to do them justice, so I mostly have photos of the outside and of statues: 

That last one is of the Winged Victory of Samothrace - so powerful in person. After the Louvre we were so exhausted from appreciating all that art that it was time for crepes! Paris is famous for these for good reason. 

They were SO GOOD. Mine had Nutella and coconut on it. I miss that crepe, I really do. 

The next day Kate and I went to Versailles! It was very large and very beautiful, but very crowded. I think I would have enjoyed going through the inside more if I had had the room to see anything up close or take the time to really learn the history. As it was, we just kind of got shuffled through and then we came out into the garden. Now that part is definitely worth seeing - it's amazing to me how once Marie Antoinette said "I want a big garden" they gave her one that goes for miles in all directions. Simply stunning. Here are a few pics of the palace and then of the garden, and some overlooking the actual town of Versailles:

Kate and I spent basically all day at the palace and then exploring the town. We ate the best quiche ever made at a small cafe called "Tastes of the Seasons" and it's true - the quiche was made with seasonal fruits and it was amazing. We shopped some, walked around, ate some more, just generally enjoyed the great weather. Then we headed back into the city to meet everyone else at the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately it was here that my camera ran out of battery, so I snapped this picture before it died:

It took a looooong time to get to the top, and by the time we were there it was dark. But I'm glad, because the city looked gorgeous with all the lights! A lot like how we saw London at night on the Eye. This was absolutely incredible, and it was definitely definitely worth the money. We just stood there, staring out over the city, realizing how much was going on down there and how many people must have been looking up at us! 

After the tower we went out to our big French dinner. Delicious, of course. We went somewhere else for dessert, then we hopped on the metro to go see the Moulin Rouge. Montmarte at night is not the....nicest....place ever, so after we saw the giant windmill we basically left. There were some interesting encounters with locals, but for the most part we weren't sad to get back to the hostel. 

On our last day we went shopping on the Champs de Elysees and I bought an awesome giant scarf. Then our metro was late getting back and we missed our train home! This resulted in a major headache and a terrible four hours of traveling, but in the end we made it back to the castle just fine. 

Tomorrow we all leave for Berlin at 6am. I still have to pack! After Berlin we go directly to extended travel break, which means I'll be hanging out in my apartment in Barcelona for five days. I'm so excited! However, I won't have my computer for the next two weeks, so I don't know when the next blog post will be. Before I go, I will leave you with some pictures from our Halloween celebrations last night:

My pumpkin! We had a carving night and then a contest. I don't know who won yet though. 

My friend Sara's pumpkin at night - much scarier than mine. 

This is Rae, otherwise known as a disco zombie!

Chris is....something. A werewolf in women's clothes?

This was hard to take pictures of - some of the people from the town plus our faculty organized a haunted house that went all through the castle. It was so much fun! This is my art teacher, Rob, as our scary guide appearing in the window.

Halloween night was a lot of fun, even though we didn't get any candy. It was so nice of everyone to put the haunted house together - it was really a unique experience. 

It's time for me to finish packing for extended break....Then I guess I should go to bed if I have to get up at 4am. Hurg.