A Spanish Sojourn

This morning, I reluctantly hopped in a 4:45 AM cab with a few roommates to Madrid's central airport only to endure a grueling morning of travel home to Rome (a 3 bus trek home from Fiumicino airport is always less than ideal).  Luckily, though I am feeling quite sleep-deprived, I am relieved to finally bask in the comfort of my own tiny twin bed after renting sheets of questionable origin from Spanish hostels for the past week.  During the weeks leading up to this one, our choice of destinations for Fall Break has seemed like such a magnanimously crucial decision.  It is almost impossible to pick a couple of spots to prioritize when I am living on a continent with a plethora of worthwhile must-sees.  After much research and back-and-forth with my suitemates, I decided on Barcelona, Madrid and Athens.  Unfortunately, when push came to shove, Athens' financial crisis and resulting strikes proved too dangerous a threat and we had to sadly give up this last leg of our itinerary.  Nonetheless, our foray to Espana was exhilarating, marked by an abundance of delicious and unique cuisine and a great balance of sight-seeing and agenda-less exploratory jaunts through the two remarkable cities. So, without further ado, a little recap of our trip!

Breathtaking Barcelona

My journey started at the crack of dawn Friday when I awoke to catch a 5 o'clock cab to Termini station, then boarded a TerraVision bus to the airport for a 9:40 plane to Barca.  If you can't tell already, I get anxious about traveling in a timely fashion, but I arrived at the airport nearly 2 hours earlier than necessary so I grabbed a John Grisham book to pass the time.  The only reason why I make mention of this little detail is that it has been such a long time since I've read for pleasure and it was really nice to have the opportunity, even on a germy metal chair by a cheap airport sundries shop.  

Fast forward to arriving at our hostel, HelloBCN.  I was very impressed from the bright color splashes of blue, red and green that adorned the walls to the high-tech wristwatch sensor keys we were handed to access our room.  After settling in (the other girls had already arrived and were scattered across the city at this point), I headed to a nearby café where I was promptly confronted with my complete inability to communicate in Spanish and the knowledge that a price of 10 euros for a traditional plate of fried unidentifiable meats and sparse avocado slices was far, far too much. Despite this little issue, the day picked up dramatically when I met Megan, Kate and Kristen at Mercat de Mercats, a fabulously wonderful annual wine and food festival that we were lucky enough to stumble upon.  We felt gloriously classy sipping on glasses of Cava, a traditional Spanish champagne, and fawning over the decadent array of sliced meats, wide variety of goat cheeses, prepared tapas platters, and piles upon piles of desserts.  From the traditional fideua (like paella, except with thin noodles, not rice) I snacked on to the sinfully sweet waffle drowned in milk chocolate from a billowing chocolate fountain, the food was an absolute hit.  We whiled away the day there and then headed back for a quick siesta before prepping for a traditional paella dinner at a restaurant by the water.  The sangria and seafood were not to be beat, although my stomach does not rest quite as easily with Spanish food as with my homey Italian cuisine.  Our night only got better when Megan found 30 euros randomly by a bus bench and then ended on a tippity top note when we proceeded to dance the night away at Opium, a glitzy beach-side club complete with a massive dance floor, an impressive international crowd and go-go dancers of all things!

Saturday, we took our time in the morning, then met Sara's cousin, who lives in Barcelona, for a tapas lunch and an informal walking tour of the city.  We strolled along Spain's equivalent of Via Del Corso, a chic, highly populated shopping street, and stopped by the fountain where Evanescence, that emo band that we all at one point listened to in middle school (don't be ashamed), shot one of their music videos.  The day's most gorgeous pitstop was La Barceloneta, Barcelona's lovely sprawling beach. The water was still warm enough for us to dip our toes in and we took the opportunity to snap the requisite cheesy jumping in mid-air photos.  By this point, we were all pretty famished so we stopped on a small side street for pinchos, small bar snacks traditionally from Northern Spain, which were absolutely out of this world.  Salmon cream cheese, croissants with sliced, cured meat and thick pieces of manchego, ham croquettes...you name it, they had it!  I was a bit deceived by the 1 euro, 80 centime price tag and went ahead to consume about five of the little delights, but hey! a hungry girl has got to eat!  Later that night, we enjoyed a tapas dinner in one of the city's wealthier districts (stuffed peppers, patatas bravas, I need to go fly back to Spain now...) and then ended our night at Sutton, a flashy nightclub popular with the locals.  We weren't back in bed until mid-morning, but you're only young and in Barcelona once, so why not go all out!

Our last full day in Barcelona was bittersweet--we certainly weren't prepared to wake up at eight the next morning and leave this young, lively city!  However, we made the best of our remaining time, meeting up with Sara's cousin for the "best hamburger in Europe" at Kiosko.  This burger did not disappoint.  It was about the size of my face, laden with caramelized onions and manchego cheese and a hefty dollop of goat cheese and accompanied by thick, juicy rustic fries.  In addition, you could try a variety of different ketchup combos and homemade chili sauce.  If you ever go to Barcelona, please don't miss Kiosko.  It is conveniently located right by a fountain that Shakira danced in last year (that's about the best I can do for you geography-wise when it comes to Spain).  After we got over the subsequent food coma, we went to see Gaudi's famous church and the most interesting houses that he designed.  This architect is particularly awesome because his work is legitimately unlike anything I've ever seen before...the pieces have a whimsical vibe that reels you in as you will see in the below photos.  I got to meet up with an Emory friend, Ali, for a quick coffee by the church which was a nice reminder of Atlanta.  Sunday night consisted of a trip to a forest-themed bar for the perfect sangria and another pinchos dinner.  After stuffing our faces, it was time to pack our things and prep for an early departure to Madrid.

Mercat de Mercats

Wares at the market

Sweet tooth? No problem.

Walking La Rambla

Another market...surprise, surprise!

By the Evanescence fountain!

The mean streets of Barca on a gorgeous day

Hola, Barceloneta!

Beach bummin'

Mmm mmm good

A classy night out

Kiosko burger

Gaudi's church

One of Gaudi's works...reminds me of Mardi gras masks!

Marvelous Madrid

After transit from Barcelona's El Prat to Madrid's Barajas airport, we zipped along the metro to Tirso de Molina, a stop just a few minutes away from Students Hostel Luis Velez, our new digs.  We quickly settled ourselves into our quaint room (complete with personal comforters and a turn-down service...we live large!) and made our way to a local plaza for a lunch of patatas bravas and ham croquettes.  While I was loving the fried goodness bite by bite, the overload of unhealthy nosh did a number on my stomach later on.  So we rested for the majority of the afternoon, then wandered over to a yummy paella joint for dinner.  The chicken and seafood were arguably inferior to Barcelona's, but the rice was creamier and richer.  I could spend all day dissecting our meals for you, but I'll spare my non-foodie friends and just say that we did pretty well on the meal front.  Our first day culminated in a 10 euro pub crawl where we visited three local bar-discos.  We enjoyed dancing to "Danza Kuduro," Europe's fave Latin jam, and also chatted up some local architecture students and a young traveler from Hong Kong.  All in all, we were not off to a bad start.

Tuesday, we decided to tackle some of our ambitious sightseeing agenda.  We purchased tickets for a "hop-on, hop-off bus" that toured the length of the city and provided audio on the informational highlights of each site.  We took our time on the bus, not rushing to get off at every turn, so that we could make a mental map of what we wanted to see later in the day.  We ended up spending a good deal of time at the Royal Palace, which provided the perfect backdrop for some classy tourist photos, and roamed the accompanying gardens, filled with symmetrically-cut greenery and regal statuettes. After another siesta (I could get used to those), we headed over to Taberna La Bola, a fire-engine red restaurant that Megan had researched.  A few of the girls got the tavern's famous stew, while Sara and I ordered ropavieja, a slightly sweet, tangy cow meat dish with fried chickpeas.  Megan knows how to pick her dinner spots!

On Wednesday, we knew not to waste our last full day in Madrid and in precious Spain so we grabbed a tasty lunch at La Finca de Susana, and then purchased tickets to the famous botanical gardens which we relished by leisurely walking around for about an hour.  From arugula to pumpkins, cabbage to blueberries, there was quite a fresh spread of edibles and an aesthetically pleasing array of colorful flowers and greenery.  After our breath of fresh air, we entered the Prado museum, which houses an awesome collection of European art from the 12th to 19th centuries, primarily Spanish paintings.  We also made our quota of church views during a quick tour of the Basilica San Francisco el Grande, a Neoclassic church that once functioned as the national Pantheon.  Still, our day of adventure was not over yet.  We enjoyed a fine red wine under the stars by the Temple of Debod, an ancient Egyptian temple that was donated to Spain in 1968 and provides the perfect overlook point of the expansive city.  The highlight of our Madrid excursion was found in the flamenco show we attended on our final night.  The singer and guitarists produced a beautiful melody to suit the dancer's impossibly fast rhythm of taps, stamps and twirls.  The experience was so pleasing and we felt we had captured a little bit of Spanish authenticity to save for always.  Later that night, we munched on stuffed trout and guzzled our last sips of wine knowing that our time was almost up.  Despite the brevity of the trip, it was an unforgettable experience and the perfect combination of tourist picks and hidden gems: I feel that we finally have the study abroad formula down in this respect.

View from our bus tour...stupid guard rail!

Love the building design here...such pretty muted colors.

The statues atop the building remind me of Roma!

Peek-a-boo view of the Prado museum

So ornate!

Palacio Real

The square by the palace...we lucked out with the weather here!

Cutest couple by the palace

A floral checkerboard at the botanical gardens

Lily pads inside the greenhouse

Love this city!

By Temple of Debod at dusk

Some intense flamenco-ing

The last few days of break await and, as I sit here under my comfy comforter in Rome, I hope that they will put me at ease with regard to navigating my own city.  Kristen, Megan and I aim to explore the international neighborhood and the Jewish ghetto tomorrow, but the promise of study abroad is that you never know what each new day will bring!

Baci,

Alexi