Salamanca: Day Trip, University town

The University of Salamanca is the oldest university in Spain and the entire town is built around the university: the art is fabulous, prices lower than those in Madrid and apparently has a great nightlife (though I was only there during the day, as the day trip with my USAC program).

Took some random pictures of the Cathedral and other stuff in the city; it's a beautiful city to explore, though small.

Here's the outside of the Cathedral of Salamanca.

Our tour guide had some really cool things to point out: for example, the art from the Middle Ages isn't nearly as pretty as the art from ancient Greece or Rome, mostly because there was so much war and turmoil in the 1200-1400's that no one had time to create great work (with some exceptions?).

There are two little additions hidden on the architecture in Salamanca that are famous: an astronaut on the outside of one of the Cathedrals (at least I think it was a Cathedral) and then a frog sitting on the skull on the entrance of the University. It was fun searching for them!

Also, the 23rd of April was The Day of Books (death-day of Shakespeare and Cervantes, they even died the same year!) and it was cool to see all the book vendors. Esp. for a bookworm like me :)

Yeah, that's not what we like to call "PC"...

I don't even know if this is enough for an entire blog entry, but I just thought I would comment.

There are stores around here which have gas-station like food (kind of like 7-11), cheap-o clothing or cheap-o shoes, and they are run primarily by Asian people. So when you want to go to a store like this, Spanish people say, "Necesito ir al chino." (I need to go to the Chinese person's.)

Regardless of whether the person is Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc.

Then there are an extraordinarily large amount of black people who will sell pirated DVDs or purse/ sunglass knock-offs in the Metro stations, etc. They are called "morenos" (browns) or "negros" (blacks) and I've heard some elderly people (one in particular, in Valencia) be extremely racist towards some younger black guys.

The "immigrant part" of Madrid is the area near Lavapies, which is kind of sketchy (every time I go there my host mom warns me) but is the only place with good Indian food so there you go. For those thinking about going to Madrid I definitely recommend checking it out, but more so if you are living in Madrid for an extended period of time... It has a lot of ethnic food hard to find anywhere else in the city.

On a sad note, there is no bubble tea. I have spent a ton of time wandering around Lavapies (not at night though, I'm not that dumb) and Nuevos Ministerios, looking for Bubble tea. While there is nothing on Google Maps if you type in "Bubble tea" or "boba" or "pearl tea", I found a blog written by a Taiwanese girl giving a bubble tea location... when I went there (and it took me over an hour to get there) it turns out the Chinese supermarket closed a couple years ago. Sadness!

But I will be going to London next weekend to visit my bestie from HS, and I KNOW they have Bubble tea there; my bestie has already scouted locations!!!

Katie a la valenciana

Valencia, being on the Mediterranean coast and a 10euro roundtrip flight away from Madrid, seemed like the perfect place to reunite with some of my fave people: Kara, my bestie from Gonzaga, and Lindsey, my bestie from my super tightly knit all-girl's high school. So we booked a hostel for two nights and spent the weekend exploring, visiting the huge beautiful "Ciudad de las Artes y Ciencias" (we visited the Science museum, 6.38euros, over the famous Aquarium, 21euros, because we only had 2 hours), going to the beach, exploring, and eating more oranges than I have ever eaten in my life.

Valencia is known internationally for two things: paella and oranges.

Below is a picture of Kara with her paella de carne. There is no picture of me with paella because, of the six people eating at the restaurant, I was the only one to not order paella. (I'm sorry but the BBQ pizza just sounded soooo goooood.) But yes, paella is delicious.

"Agua de Valencia" is not, in fact, water. (Big surprise, I know.) Instead it is orange juice with champagne, vodka and sugar (though I guess some versions just have champagne and OJ?) But if you get fresh squeezed Valencian oranges, as displayed below, it is seriously the best drink ever. Mostly because you can taste the perfect amount of pulp... ahhhhh, heaven.

Saturday we decided to take an excursion to a city, Cullera, about 30 minutes by train outside of Valencia (5.80euro roundtrip) which I was told by the tourist information lady had a great beach, Playa del Faro. She was not wrong. It wasn't super busy (hot enough for us but not true summer weather just yet) and there were NO international tourists. Also. It is normal for women not to wear their bikini tops at the beach. Us prudish Americans did... for the most part ;)

There are plenty of historical sites in Valencia that I'm afraid we did a poor job of tracking down, but what I really needed after all the craziness of museum trips and running around from city to city and classes was a mini vacation with some of my best friends. And Valencia was perfect- the beaches of Alicante are apparently even better, but really, when you are hanging out and catching rays, the company is the most important part, isn't it? ;)

Dali Museum in Figueres

So, as mentioned in multiple other blogs, my second favorite painting of all time (after Fragonard's "Le Verrou") is Dali's "Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening". Usually it is on display in my current hometown (Madrid) at the Thyssen Museum, but it is currently on loan to the Dali Museum (he designed the museum himself out of an old theater; it's the largest surrealist object/ building in the world?).

A normal person would probably wait for the painting to come back to Madrid in early May then pay the 5.50 Euro entrance again. Instead, on my second trip to Barcelona, I grabbed my good friend Naomi, hopped on the train (23 Euros round trip! and they didn't even check the ticket coming back! Rip-off....) to Figueres (about 90 minutes outside Barcelona) and go see the only thing that Figueres has to offer in terms of tourist destination: the Dali Museum.

To summarize, if you like Dali's work (which I do, that man was genius.)(also, insane.) then it is definitely worth the trip. We lucked out with the weather (the walk would have been miserable in the rain) and the Dali museum is a pretty cool destination (if still pretty crowded). I won't bore you with the details of all the museum, but here is the link to the Dali Museum in Figueres.

The two things I will post:

My second fave painting of all time. It was just so cool to be standing in front of it! :)

Here is a 3D art piece (if you can tell?). I am taking this picture from behind a lens that puts it all together, but really its a sofa-like pair of lips (about my size), a 3D nose, 2 pictures of city landscapes and a really weird surrounding wig?

Paris (and Nantes): Whoa, Deja-Vu.

Mkay so recap: I lived in St. Gemain-en-Laye when I was little (for 2.5 years) so that's where I learned French, and then junior year of HS I studied at the Sacred Heart school (called La Perverie) in Nantes (which is 2 hours by train west). So most of (all of?) this stuff I have seen before: Spring break was less about doing tourist-y stuff and more about seeing friends and familiar sights :)

I did NOT spend enough time anywhere: got into Paris at midnight on Monday, I went to Le Mans to see my old HS roommate (from La Perv) for 5 hours on Tuesday, continued on to Nantes where I stayed with a friend from La Perv (and saw many of my fab friends, some who even drove home to see me:)) and then spent Wednesday afternoon through Friday afternoon in Paris. While my highlights were seeing lots of old friends and visiting places from my childhood, here was my spring break in France 101:

Group of students I studied with at La Perverie!!!

Nantes, which is a beautiful city, does not have that much going on tourist-wise. I like it better that way, and people in Nantes are so friendly ! (Yes, Parisians do have a reputation for their... rudeness? coldness?) But it's a pretty big town/city with quite a lot going on. Passage de Pommeraye is definitely worth a look.

PARIS:

The Louvre

So the Louvre (for the under-26 crowd, I'm so glad I get to travel and still get discounts, etc.) is free. And beautiful. And has TONS of tourists. But I don't care because I got to see my favorite painting of all time. It's Fragonard's "Le Verrou" ("The Lock") and while the explanation of why I love it so much is fairly long, seeing the painting live is my #9 lifetime goal (that's a Top Ten Goal!! So a biggie!) When we turned the corner I literally gasped with excitement. SUCH a pretty painting...

LE VERROU!!! AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

The Louvre also has, of course, the Mona Lisa, da Vinci's Madonna of the Rocks, a Delacroix collection, Michelangelo sculptures, etc. But you can read about it on the Louvre's website.

Effiel Tower: It opens at 9:30am, so GET THERE at 9:30am. The crowds get insaneeeeeee. And honestly, climbing it is 100 times more fun then getting in a cramped elevator, though that is the only way of getting to the third floor. But still, the best part of the 3rd level is the view, and the Eiffel Tower is the pretty part of the Parisian skyline anyway... Still. I remember climbing the stairs all the time when I was little. Then my brother and I would watch the movie in the little cinema on the first floor (mini- documentary about the history). And he would have a fit of joy when he saw the Superman clip...

Should mention: for students, elevator to the third level (which is actually two elevator rides) is 11 euro. Gross.

Miss Haley and myself after finishing with the Eiffel Tower.

Notre Dame

We got to go to the Notre Dame on Holy Thursday (Thursday before Easter, for those with little to no Catholic education ;)) which was really cool. Great weather, too. And the Notre Dame is the only place in Europe I've seen thus far that allows you to actually light a candle in remembrance of someone (though it is 2 euros, versus 20 cents to turn on the fake candle)

Beautiful day, gorgeous Cathedral.

Food

(Not a location, but it might as well be. I am positive I gained weight in France.)

I LOVE FRENCH FOOD. And they have sooo much chocolate in breakfast foods. Here was my breakfast in Nantes: (right to left)

Hot chocolate

Pain au chocolate

Sable de chocolate (it's really just a chocolate cookie)

And yes, I ate almost all of it. When buying the sable and the pain au chocolate, the woman at the boulangerie seemed to think I was ordering both for me and my friend ... so when Scott started to order his food, she got confused and said, "Oh I'm sorry! I though she [me] was ordering for the both of you!" I simply reassured her, "No, it's ok, I'm just fat."

Foods I didn't get to eat but would have if I had time: escargot (snails are yum), croque monsieur, moules frites, hot chocolate at angelina's (near the Tiulerie), quiches. etc. FRENCH FOOD IS SO BOMB.

Finally, my old home

St. Gemain-en-Laye is HOPPING, but with absolutely no tourists. It's a pretty big town, 20 minutes by RER outside of Paris, and on the Friday that I went there was the huge market, so it was super busy with all native French people. It was so weird being in the Monoprix I used to push my mini-shopping cart around in (it's weird what you remember), staring at the Chateau (now museum of archaeology) you used to run around inside, and though I didn't get to visit my old school (apparently it was shut down?), it was amazing to be in a place with so many memories. As a four year old, though, you really don't appreciate the fact that you are lucky enough to live in another country (next to what I consider to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world) and learn another language. So it was a truly beautiful experience getting to visit a place that, on more than one occasion (St Gemain and Nantes), I called "home".

Top right window in the picture... I think that was my parent's bedroom? And the living room was the other two windows on that level? Max and I had a bedroom on the other side of the building...