No, I didn't travel anywhere exciting this weekend, but I figured I'd make an update anyway. I did do a few interesting things. Last Wednesday we went on a class trip to the Prado Museum, which is one of the most important art museums in the world, never mind Spain. I saw paintings that I had studied in my art class, which was very cool, and some big names like Velazquez and Goya. Goya's are probably my favorites because he painted some pretty dark and twisted things, which are always more interesting to analyze in my opinion. If you want an example of one you've probably seen before by Goya, google "Saturn Devouring his Children." I would have liked to see some Dali because he's got some really cool paintings too (google "Swans Reflecting Elephants"), but oh well. Maybe next time.
On Friday I saw a play by Federico Garcia Lorca called "La Casa de Bernarda Alba." It was quite interesting, about a strict (and somewhat insane) mother and her five daughters who she won't allow to get married. It's all about the oppression of women and identities being formed by the males in their life. However, not once does a male appear in the play. It was a little difficult to understand because they were talking pretty fast, but I mostly understood what was going on. Everyone thought the ending was pretty powerful, but I found it a rather cliche because it's sort of a Romeo and Juliet -esque ending.
This morning I took a trip to Madrid to go to el Rastro, which is this huge open market they have every Sunday. It really is gigantic, and you can spend several hours walking around and never hit the same stand twice. Also, most things are quite cheap there, and you can bargain, so it's a great place to do some shopping, especially while the weather is still nice.
So it's been a pretty chill weekend for me, no running around Paris in the rain this time. Now I should probably get back to studying... next weekend I have a Friday excursion to the city of Cuenca. And I'll be done with midterms, hooray!
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Paris: When It Rains, It Pours
Bonjour! I just got back from an eventful weekend in Paris. It began at 5:00 yesterday when I woke up, caught the earliest train to the airport, and still had to run to catch the plane. It continued several hours later when we were in Paris trying to get to our hostel, and we got on the wrong metro line. Thankfully I caught our error and corrected our route, and after that we became experts on the Paris metro.
Anyway, we did find our hostel, which had the narrowest rooms I've ever seen and bathrooms outside in the courtyard (both odd and cold), and from there we started our walk to the Eiffel Tower. And proceeded to get caught in the rain. Without umbrellas. So we ran back to the hostel, grabbed umbrellas (at which point it stopped raining, of course), and tried again. The Eiffel Tower was amazing to see in person--it's huge! So we took some pictures. And, because when one thing goes wrong everything goes wrong, my camera batteries died. I had just changed them a week and a half ago, so I didn't bring any extras with me. So, camera-less, I trekked through the cold and blustery wind, with wet feet, complaining every block until we got to the Louvre.
We didn't have time to actually go inside the Louvre, but we walked around the outside, and it was beautiful enough to lift my unpleasant mood. The famous pyramid from the Da Vinci Code is interestingly incongruous with the rest of the old architecture, which, because my art history class is taking over my life, I was able to identify as Renaissance-era. We continued our walk toward the cathedral of Notre Dame, and on the way, I found batteries for one euro! Freshly armed with my camera, I went picture-crazy at Notre Dame. Thanks to art history, I could easily tell that Notre Dame is Gothic (my favorite style of architecture). It's a very cool building, and we got to walk around inside as well.
For dinner we had crepes, and they were delicious. Then we got some wine and cheese and sat in front of the Eiffel Tower at night, when it was all lit up. There we discovered that every hour there is a light show where the Eiffel Tower sparkles for a few minutes with flashing lights. The next day we actually went up the Eiffel Tower, climbing 668 steps to the second level before taking an elevator all the way to the top. It was amazing to see Paris stretched out below you from way up there.
So even though our trip started with a string of setbacks, it turned out to be a great whirlwind weekend in Paris, and I'm so glad I went.
Me in front of Notre Dame.
The Eiffel Tower.
Next weekend: studying for midterms. (What, were you expecting something cool?)
Anyway, we did find our hostel, which had the narrowest rooms I've ever seen and bathrooms outside in the courtyard (both odd and cold), and from there we started our walk to the Eiffel Tower. And proceeded to get caught in the rain. Without umbrellas. So we ran back to the hostel, grabbed umbrellas (at which point it stopped raining, of course), and tried again. The Eiffel Tower was amazing to see in person--it's huge! So we took some pictures. And, because when one thing goes wrong everything goes wrong, my camera batteries died. I had just changed them a week and a half ago, so I didn't bring any extras with me. So, camera-less, I trekked through the cold and blustery wind, with wet feet, complaining every block until we got to the Louvre.
We didn't have time to actually go inside the Louvre, but we walked around the outside, and it was beautiful enough to lift my unpleasant mood. The famous pyramid from the Da Vinci Code is interestingly incongruous with the rest of the old architecture, which, because my art history class is taking over my life, I was able to identify as Renaissance-era. We continued our walk toward the cathedral of Notre Dame, and on the way, I found batteries for one euro! Freshly armed with my camera, I went picture-crazy at Notre Dame. Thanks to art history, I could easily tell that Notre Dame is Gothic (my favorite style of architecture). It's a very cool building, and we got to walk around inside as well.
For dinner we had crepes, and they were delicious. Then we got some wine and cheese and sat in front of the Eiffel Tower at night, when it was all lit up. There we discovered that every hour there is a light show where the Eiffel Tower sparkles for a few minutes with flashing lights. The next day we actually went up the Eiffel Tower, climbing 668 steps to the second level before taking an elevator all the way to the top. It was amazing to see Paris stretched out below you from way up there.
So even though our trip started with a string of setbacks, it turned out to be a great whirlwind weekend in Paris, and I'm so glad I went.
Me in front of Notre Dame. The Eiffel Tower.
The Eiffel Tower at night.
Next weekend: studying for midterms. (What, were you expecting something cool?)
Monday, October 12, 2009
Athens (without a map)
This weekend was pretty epic. I spent 3 days in Athens, Greece. The first day we went on a walking tour and got to know the area, after which we wandered around without a map. That was pretty awesome because we did, in fact, find our way around (it's easy when there's a mountain with the Parthenon on top of it to use as a landmark), and by the end of the trip we were experts on walking to the Plaka and back.
The second day we saw everything. We got passes to all of the Acropolis, which is the site of all the major ruins. It was completely surreal (not to mention it was about 85 degrees with nary a cloud in the sky, in the middle of October). Anyway, we walked up to the temples, like the Temple of Hephaestus (the god of fire and metalwork), the Temple of Zeus, the Erechtheum, and of course the Parthenon. We also walked around the ruins of the ancient agora (marketplace), the ancient Theatre of Dionysus, an ancient library called Hadrian's Library, and the ancient cemetery of Kerameikos. So, we pretty much saw a lot of ancient stuff.
The ruins were amazing, and I can't describe how cool it was to stand in front of the Parthenon (even with all the scaffolding). After walking and sweating and walking some more, we went to the Plaka, which is the big market area with tons of shops. We also climbed this big rock that had a great view overlooking Athens. On the trip, I dined on gyros, greek pizza, chicken souvlaki (which is pretty much just grilled chicken kabobs), saganaki, and greek pastries. All of the pastries were absolutely swimming in honey, which might sound pretty tasty at first, but might also make you want to vomit if you eat more than two bites.
All in all, Greece was quite an adventure. I'd heard from various people before going that Athens was dirty and not that great, and that you should go to the Greek islands instead. I disagree. I thought Athens was fantastic, and while you can basically see everything in the course of one day, it's so worth it to go. But I'll let you be the judge of that after looking at some of the pictures I took.
The view from the rock we climbed
Erechtheum
Temple of Hephaestus
Temple of Zeus
And, of course, the Parthenon! Unfortunately, the other side is completely covered in scaffolding.
The second day we saw everything. We got passes to all of the Acropolis, which is the site of all the major ruins. It was completely surreal (not to mention it was about 85 degrees with nary a cloud in the sky, in the middle of October). Anyway, we walked up to the temples, like the Temple of Hephaestus (the god of fire and metalwork), the Temple of Zeus, the Erechtheum, and of course the Parthenon. We also walked around the ruins of the ancient agora (marketplace), the ancient Theatre of Dionysus, an ancient library called Hadrian's Library, and the ancient cemetery of Kerameikos. So, we pretty much saw a lot of ancient stuff.
The ruins were amazing, and I can't describe how cool it was to stand in front of the Parthenon (even with all the scaffolding). After walking and sweating and walking some more, we went to the Plaka, which is the big market area with tons of shops. We also climbed this big rock that had a great view overlooking Athens. On the trip, I dined on gyros, greek pizza, chicken souvlaki (which is pretty much just grilled chicken kabobs), saganaki, and greek pastries. All of the pastries were absolutely swimming in honey, which might sound pretty tasty at first, but might also make you want to vomit if you eat more than two bites.
All in all, Greece was quite an adventure. I'd heard from various people before going that Athens was dirty and not that great, and that you should go to the Greek islands instead. I disagree. I thought Athens was fantastic, and while you can basically see everything in the course of one day, it's so worth it to go. But I'll let you be the judge of that after looking at some of the pictures I took.
The view from the rock we climbed
Erechtheum
Temple of Hephaestus
Temple of Zeus
And, of course, the Parthenon! Unfortunately, the other side is completely covered in scaffolding.
Next weekend: crepes, berets, and people who hate Americans (but sadly no catacombs because people are stupid and vandals are even stupider).
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Wine and Monks
This weekend, I went on a school-sponsored trip to wine country. Yeah, I'm not kidding.
We left early Friday morning (so early for some, in fact, that we had to leave without two of our number and they caught a bus to meet us there). We headed north into the Rioja region, which apparently is famous for its wine. It's also on the edge of Basque country. The first bodega (winery) we went to was actually designed by an architect from Indiana, of all the exciting places in the world. I think it's kind of weird looking, but you can decide for yourselves:
Anyway, we got a tour of the place and learned how wine is made and stored and all that, but it was also all in Spanish so I don't remember all the details. Then we got to try one white wine and one red. I've developed a taste for wine now, so I liked them both.
After lunch (with, big surprise, more wine) we went to the second bodega, but I have no pictures past the first one because my camera battery died. Bummer. On this tour we went out and saw the fields of grapes and got to eat some of them, and in this one they also taught us about swirling the wine and smelling it. It was also in English. I think we all liked this one better.
In order to make up for the decadence of our first day, the next day we went to two monasteries. Slight change of pace here. There was no wine, but there was a lot of interesting architecture (which my History of Art teacher gladly pointed out and quizzed us on), paintings, and even a sarcophagus or two. I didn't actually see any monks, though.
All in all, a very successful trip, and my first foray into the classy world of fine wine. To give you a taste of how much wine they store at these places, here's a picture of me in front of some barrels. Now multiply what you see by about a thousand.
Yeah, that's a lot of wine.
Next weekend: Trip to the original home of the Olympics (to make up for Chicago's epic fail)!
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