There are really no words to describe Paris. No exaggeration, it was everything I thought it would be and more. Even though I only had 48 hours to see one of the largest cities in Europe, I feel like it was worth the trip. And even though all the museums were closed (just my luck to be in Paris on Europe’s labor day) I made the most of the experience. A lot times I have the most fun just wandering around cities exploring and enjoying being in the moment. I walked down the Champs Elysees. I ate crepes by the Eiffel Tower. I had a glass of bordeaux at Place de la Bastille. I got to see Sacre Coeur and Notre Dame. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

J’adore Paris. I will be back.

A few weeks ago my program had an overnight trip to Madrid. On the way we stopped to see the old windmills in La Mancha (where Don Quixote “lived”).

I’ve been to Madrid before, but it ended up being a lot of fun. We went to the Museo del Prado, Palacio Real, Puerta del Sol, and Playa Mayor. We had the whole night free to get dinner and enjoy the city. I went to TGI Friday’s and got buffalo wings and loaded nachos. I have to admit that after months without my favorite American foods it tasted really good. I felt disgusting after eating though. My diet here is extremely healthy – I’m eating better than I’ve ever eaten in my life. It made me realize how bad my favorite greasy foods actually are.

The next day we went to Toledo (as in holy Toledo). It was a gorgeous medieval city. I love walking down streets that are hundreds and hundreds of years old. We went to the cathedral (that used to be mosque that used to be a visigoth temple) and a historic synagogue. We didn’t have free time, but it was fun anyway.

It’s been forever since I last posted, I know. My only real excuse is that I was busy with midterm exams and work. Other than that I’ve just been out having too much fun!

My exams all went really well, thankfully, and even though I had a lot of homework over break, Semana Santa (Holy Week), I was still able to relax and enjoy the time with my mom. Honestly though, I don’t think I shut up for five minutes while she was here, from the time she stepped off the plane to the time she left. I was so excited to explain things to her and show her around the city. I was her personal tour guide/translator for the week!

Our motto for the week was “What happens in Spain stays in Spain,” although I don’t think there’s anything we want to be kept secret! As I like to say, we ate, drank, and were merry. Good food, excellent wine, and even better company! We walked a LOT, even more than what I’m used to. While I couldn’t get tickets to the Alhambra (I felt guilty, but they were completely sold out for WEEKS before Semana Santa), I took my mom all over the city to my favorite places: pub quiz at Hannigan’s on Monday night, teterias, tapas bars, cafes, shops on Recogidas, churches… the list goes on and on. We also took a day to go to the beach – Almuñécar specifically. And my “two moms” – host mom and real mom – finally got to meet one another!

What really made the week specially were the processions of Semana Santa. Most of the main streets in the city were closed down at night for the processions, which made getting around a little more difficult than usual. Definitely worth the inconvenience though. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Outside the Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum

Last weekend I took my first ever trip to the UK: a friend and I went to Glasgow, Scotland for the weekend. It was also my first experience with Ryanair, which was surprisingly a very good one. Our tickets from Malaga to Glasgow (Prestwick, about 40 minutes outside the city, the only inconvenience) were dirt cheap, as was our hotel. We stayed at the Glasgow City Hotel (Best Western) because the hotel we were originally supposed to stay at didn’t have a room available for us. It all worked out to our advantage because we ended up being staying in a great place. Our room was super comfortable. I definitely enjoyed taking a long, (consistently) hot shower with no time limit. In Spain I try to keep my showers to under 5 minutes, with the water running for about 3. As much as I’ve gotten used to the quick and efficient showers, it was nice to be a little spoiled and not have to worry about how much water I was using.

Anyway, we got to our hotel early in the evening on Friday. We didn’t really do much besides go out to dinner and relax in our room after a long day of traveling: bus from Granada to Malaga at 7am (meaning I was out the door at 6), shuttle bus to the airport, 3 hour flight to Glasgow, then a 40 minute drive from Prestwick to Glasgow. Needless to say, it was a long and exhausting day.

We spent all day Friday sightseeing. Even though Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland, I still thought it was pretty tiny. Or at least tiny enough to hit all the major tourist attractions in one day. By the way, the “Hop On, Hop Off” sightseeing buses are an amazing deal. It was £8 for a 48 hour pass. Basically you just get on the bus at any of the stops, take a seat, and get off whenever you want. Then when you’re done at the museum, church, etc., you just wait for the next bus and get on again. Much easier than trying to figure out the city bus/subway system, plus they take you all over the city AND give historical explanations/random facts about different places.

Even though it rained on and off all day and was freezing cold (typical Scotland weather), Friday was a fun day. We started off going to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. Half the museum is art, the other half is social history/anthropology/archaeology. Surprisingly there are a lot of famous and influential Scottish artists from the beginning of the 20th century. The “Glasgow Boys” apparently introduced a unique style of impressionism to Scotland. After leaving the museum we went to the Cathedral of  St. Mungo, the patron saint/founder of the city. Afterwards we went to the People’s Palace and Winter Gardens. The People’s Palace itself is sort of a museum dedicated to the social history of Glasgow, and the Winter Gardens are in a huge greenhouse attached to the palace. We had lunch at the cafe in the garden, which overlooks the oldest public park in Europe! (I think it dates back to 600 ad if I remember correctly, I’m not positive though.)

Even though there was supposedly a lot of snow in the highlands, we decided to sign up for a bus tour of the highlands for Friday. It was only £28 for the tour, and in my opinion it was definitely worth it. A lot of the day was just driving around the countryside but it was fun to see lochs, sheep, and the really pretty hills and mountains. Our bus driver, from Edinburgh, was really funny. I ended up being the only American in our group of 8 (we took a mini bus) because my friend got sick and stayed behind. We stopped to see a little church in the country, and when we went to get back on the bus the driver made fun of me because he had seen me start to head for the wrong side of the bus. He just laughed and said “Forget where you were?”  Unfortunately I didn’t get many (good quality) pictures of the countryside from the bus.

Part of the tour included a tour of The Famous Grouse whisky (spelled without the “ey,” only Irish whiskey is spelled that way) distillery. I’m not that interested in whisky, but it was fun and I actually learned some interesting stuff. At the end of the end of the tour we got to sample whisky. The tour guide at the distillery asked the very diverse group how everyone said “cheers” in their native languages. There were people from Russia, Japan, Spain… a ton of places. I’m pretty sure I was also the only American, which is a really rare event. I’m usually surrounded by Americans, even in Spain. I ended up having lunch with the other people from my bus: a grad student from Australia studying in Paris, two brothers from Japan, a guy from Germany, and a brother and sister from England.

I also learned on this tour that traditional Scottish food is… interesting (aka gross and terrifying). Our bus driver suggested that we try the “haggis with neeps and tatties” (haggis = pudding of sheep intestines/other organs, neeps = turnips, tatties = potatoes). A couple of the guys who tried it said that it was really good. I probably would have if I hadn’t been told what it was. It’s the same way with morcilla in Spain. I usually just eat what my host mom makes and don’t ask questions; even when she tells me that name of a food I still don’t know what it is. Then I discovered that morcilla is blood sausage and I can’t look at it the same way now.

After the distillery we drove a little further and went to Stirling Castle in the town of Stirling. The Elizabethan history geek in me was so excited because it was the main residence of the Stewarts, the family of Mary Queen of Scots (Queen Elizabeth I’s cousin). It’s amazing to go somewhere that’s been standing for hundreds and hundreds of years. Even in Spain I love being surrounded by so much history. There are churches, monuments, etc. that are older than the U.S. by hundreds of years. It’s so incredible.

The Bowling Green in Stirling Castle

We had to wake up at 3:30 on Sunday morning to get the 4:30 bus to the airport, the only bus that would get us there in time for our flight at 8:00. Because it was a Sunday and because our airport was so far away from the city (thanks Ryanair!) it was our only choice. Either that or take a very expensive cab. Even though the traveling part of the trip was hell and took up almost 2 full days, it was a really fun time. I never thought I’d end up in Scotland, the same way I never thought I’d end up in Portugal. I think I’m done with European travel. The conversion from pounds to dollars was horrible: I spent so much money without actually buying that much. I’m really glad I decided not to study in the UK! It made me happy to get back to using euros. If anything I’ll probably take a weekend trip to Morocco in April.

Glasgow City Chambers

Plaza de España

Two blog posts in one day! I’m on a roll! Actually, more like I’m trying to catch up on things I’ve been putting off. I’m leaving for Glasgow, Scotland first thing tomorrow morning and I’ve been too busy lately to update my blog.

My birthday wasn’t the only fun thing that happened last week. On Friday my program had a day trip to Sevilla, about 3 hours away from Granada by bus. We left Granada at the crack of dawn, the only bad thing about the trip (well, that and the traffic we were stuck in on the ride back). I wasn’t too hopeful about the weather because it was raining in Granada when we left, but by the time we got to Sevilla it was sunny and warm.

Overall it was a perfect day. We went to the Plaza de America, Plaza de España (where scenes from one of the Star Wars movies was filmed), and the cathedral. The cathedral was incredible. It was actually built on the site of a former mosque so you can see the Arab architecture, particularly in the tower. I walked all the way up the tower and was out of breath by the time I got to the top.

We had a really good meal at a nice restaurant: fried calamari, salad, paella, and flan. And of course, vino. I don’t know if it was the wine, the sun, or a combination of both, but everyone was in a really good mood after lunch. We went to the Alcazar, a palace with Arab-inspired architecture (called Mudejar) that the royal family still stays in. It was a lot like the Alhambra with its gardens, fountains, and spacious rooms. I could easily live there year-round.

By the time we left the Alcazar it was almost time to get back on the bus to go home. Fortunately, we had time to relax at Starbucks, which I know was a highlight of the day for most of us. I won’t even talk about the bus ride back: let me just say that it was completely frustrating to sit in bumper-to-bumper traffic because of water that had flooded the road. What happened to Andalucia having a desert-like climate? Anyway, that was probably the only bump in the road (so to speak) of the day. I would definitely go back to Sevilla again.

I’ll be in Glasgow until Sunday afternoon… I’ll be writing about it and posting pictures when I get back!

My actually birthday was busy but fun. I got to sleep in because I don’t have class until 3:30 in the afternoon on Tuesdays and Thursdays (jealous?) and don’t have to be anywhere before 11 on Tuesdays, which is when I go to English classes at a high school. It was supposed to rain on my birthday (the weather has been HORRIBLE) but I got the best birthday present of all: sun! The half hour walk to the high school wasn’t so bad with the nice weather; plus, the 12-year-olds in my group sang happy birthday to me (in English!) when they asked me how old I was and I responded “20 today.” I’ve enjoyed having conversations with the students: they’re all really funny and nice.

After lunch and class I made time to skype with the familly. It was awesome because I’d received a huge 10-pound package from them that morning filled with Valentine’s Day sweets and birthday cards and could thank them in person. Around 6 I went to a tetería in the Albaicín neighborhood with some friends from the program. I ended up ordering té iraqí, which is flavored with roses! When we finished, a bunch of people decided to go a tapas bar for a pre-dinner snack. It was my birthday so I couldn’t refuse! Finally I made it home for dinner around 10. My day didn’t end there though! I met up with more friends at 11 to go to a really swanky, upscale bar in Puerta Real, called Aliatar. Drinks were a little pricey – my mojito (first ever!) was 7 euros – but it was worth it. Plus there was live music. All in all it was a long but awesome day.

]]> http://elizabethkinney.wordpress.com/2010/02/24/feliz-cumpleanos/feed/ 0 elizabethkinney 100_2440 birthdayaliatar http://elizabethkinney.wordpress.com/2010/02/18/constelacion-bogart/ http://elizabethkinney.wordpress.com/2010/02/18/constelacion-bogart/#comments Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:07:18 +0000 elizabethkinney http://elizabethkinney.wordpress.com/?p=70 ]]> For the past couple weeks I’ve been walking the red carpet every day on the way to school. The Retroback film festival was going on (February 2-14 I think) and the red carpet lined with movie posters (all of which featured Humphrey Bogart) was part of the publicity for the event. I saw “Casablanca” last Saturday, “The African Queen” on Sunday (“La Reina de África” en español). Even though I’ve gotten much better at Spanish already, I was so glad that the movies weren’t dubbed and instead had Spanish subtitles.

It was nice to go back to the movies on Sunday because it let me get out of the house for a while. Sundays are usually pretty boring; usually I’ll go out for coffee and a pastry, church, and do homework. Since none of the stores are open, people literally window shop. It’s kind of fun though, especially if the weather is nice. Plus all the walking around the city is great exercise, one of the reasons I’ll never need to join a gym here.

In other news, my classes officially started last Tuesday. So far so good! I’m required to take POE (Producción Oral y Escrita – Spoken and Written Spanish) and the GRIIS program seminar, leaving me with space for two electives. I really like both the courses I chose: “Political System of the European Union” and “Spanish Culture and Civilization.” Both of the professors are awesome and really funny. My culture and civ professor was talking to us about the course and said we’d be learning about Spanish wine so he’d be bringing some in for us to “sample” (keeping in mind that the class is from 11:3-1:00). Best of all, they’re going to count towards both my Spanish and IR majors. They’re also completely in Spanish, which I was intimidated by at first. Fortunately, it’s really not as difficult as I’d thought it would be! I’m really glad that I chose to do the intensive course, though, because it definitely gave me more confidence in my regular semester classes. I’m also convinced that I have the best schedule ever: there are never classes on Fridays for anyone, so automatic three-day weekend, and I only have one class on Tuesday and Thursday from 3:30-5 in the afternoon!

I knew when I came to Granada that I wanted to travel around Europe on long weekends, but I would have never thought I’d end up in Portugal even though it’s right next to Spain. Over the weekend my roommate Sam and I took a trip to the Lisbon, the capital city. We took an hour and a half bus ride to Malaga and then got on a plane to Lisbon. I had such a great time and was so impressed by the city. The people were all extremely friendly and most – luckily for us – spoke English. When they didn’t we were able to get by with Spanish. They got the gist of what we were saying. With the exception of one cab driver who we suspect ripped us off on the trip to our hotel from the airport (he charged us 17 euros and dropped us off in the wrong part of the city), everyone was super helpful and curious to know what we thought of their city. When we told one waitress that we were studying in Spain, she said that we should study in Lisbon next time!

Before I go any further, I want to make note of the fact that I flew on the smallest plane I’ve ever been on. It was only an hour and 20 minute flight, but my first thought was still “you’ve gotta be kidding me” when the bus pulled up to the side of the plane. There were literally 9 passengers on the flight! I had both an aisle seat and a window seat all in one.

We got to Lisbon on Thursday afternoon after traveling all morning. After finally finding our hotel, conveniently located on top of a huge hill (seriously, I’ll never complain about the hills in Granada again), we checked in and relaxed for a while before heading out to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. I was definitely craving some American comfort food, especially after the long day of traveling and the mishap with the taxi driver.

The hotel, Residencia Mar Dos Acores, was perfect: it was really inexpensive, included breakfast and wifi, and most importantly, it was CLEAN. Even though the walk up the hill was awful every time and the bathroom was tiny, it was really close to public transportation (both bus and metro stops) and the staff was multilingual and very helpful. They were happy to give us directions to places and even called a cab for us when we checked out.

On Friday morning we took the metro to the outskirts of the city to visit the Oceanarium. Apparently it’s the largest oceanarium in Europe! I’m not a huge fan of zoos but this place was amazing. They had a huge aquarium in the center of the building surrounded by rooms with animals and plants from different parts of the world. Afterwards we decided to take a ride in the sky buckets in the park next to the oceanarium. The view wasn’t as great as I’d thought it would be, but it was something fun to do nonetheless!

After visiting the oceanarium we enjoyed an awesome seafood lunch. I love the irony of going to an aquarium and then having an entire fish, head and all, served to you on a plate! I got bass and it was amazingly fresh and delicious. Lunch was kind of expensive (but so worth it, especially the dessert) so we saved money by having Hard Rock leftovers for dinner. After trying in vain to get to the neighborhood where there are supposedly a ton of bars and clubs, we ended up at an Irish pub near the center of the city. It was so packed that we ended up having to share a table with other people (who were really nice and, no surprise, spoke English fluently). At least we got a table though, because there was live music! Hannigan’s in Granada should take a cue from them and start having performers, it was a lot of fun.

Saturday was a perfect day, both for weather and sightseeing. We started off going to the Feira da Ladra, a huge flea market that takes place on Tuesdays and Saturdays. It was basically a giant yard sale: a lot of antiques, clothes, toys, jewelry, etc. Then we headed to the opposite end of the city to visit Monasteiro dos Jeronimos (Jeronimo Monastery) where the explorer Vasco da Gama is buried. The monastery was gorgeous, both inside and out.

After the monastery we went to get a really cheap lunch (falafel pitas for only 3 euros!) and STARBUCKS. It’s been forever since I’ve had American-style coffee, especially iced coffee. It was fun just to sit in the park and relax. We also went to Belem Tower, a 16th century fortress/watchtower right on the water. It was 4 euros to go up and we didn’t want to spend the money so we just took pictures of it from outside.

Dinner on Saturday night was amazing. We found a great, affordable restaurant called Beira-Gare in the center of the city. Both of our meals were under 8 euros and we got a LOT of food. Steak with a fried egg, rice, salad, and french fries. I still can’t believe I ate everything on my plate. I also ordered a glass of wine, but little did I know that there is no such thing as a glass of wine at a restaurant in Lisbon. I learned this the hard way when I was brought an entire half-bottle of red wine. Fortunately it wasn’t that expensive so I didn’t feel bad about not finishing it.

Sunday was a pretty relaxing day. We went to the Calouste-Gulbenkian Museum: first to the building where the modern art is housed, then to the main museum. The collection was really small and limited but admission was free and it was something fun to do for a while. Plus, the weather was awful: it literally rained all day. We spent a lot of the afternoon watching tv at the hotel because there wasn’t much else to do in the city. Surprisingly there were a lot of American/British programs. I got to watch many episodes of What Not To Wear, something I haven’t done since coming to Spain. There was a channel that was basically the equivalent of TLC. It had reruns of Say Yes To The Dress, Jon and Kate Plus 8 (pre-divorce), and Miami Ink. It was fun to just chill out and enjoy being on vacation.

I discovered that literally NOTHING is open in Lisbon on Sundays, not even cafes and restaurants. I’m used to retail stores being closed in Spain, but restaurants?? We were able to find an open cafe for an afternoon snack and coffee (we saved money by eating a lot at breakfast and skipping lunch) and I got to try a Portuguese pastry, pastel de nata! (picture below) It was a problem when dinner time rolled around and we had to walk a mile in the rain before we found a place that was open. Fortunately the food was good enough to make up for it: salmon with potatoes and salad.

We left Lisbon on Monday morning. As much as it was a fun trip, I was homesick for Granada. It was so great to pull into the bus station in Granada and feel like I was back home.

Random facts about traveling to Lisbon:

• Before getting to Portugal, I was kind of cocky about the language and figured it wouldn’t be a problem at all. I almost bought a phrase book but figured I could do without it. Even though most people spoke English it still would have been nice to have so I could say SOMETHING to people instead of giving them blank stares when they spoke to me in Portuguese. It was really interesting because I can read Portuguese almost as well as I can read Spanish, but the pronunciation is so different. So if you go to Portugal, just buy a guide book. Then you’ll at least know how to say “Do you speak English?” and “I don’t speak Portuguese” instead of just responding in English.
• I’m really glad I did a little research on food and eating out before I went because I read somewhere that in Portugal the appetizers at restaurants are NEVER free. Not even bread! At every restaurant we went to they brought us several plates of appetizers (olives, cheese, bread). You’re supposed to just send back the ones you don’t want – whatever you eat you pay for.
• Lisbon is a really international city. All the menus are in at least six languages. There were tourists from all over Europe which was really cool.

Can’t wait for the next trip: Glasgow, Scotland!

]]> http://elizabethkinney.wordpress.com/2010/02/10/lisboa/feed/ 3 elizabethkinney 100_2276 100_2325 100_2287 100_2319 100_2368 100_2380 100_2428 100_2366 http://elizabethkinney.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/la-costa-tropical/ http://elizabethkinney.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/la-costa-tropical/#comments Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:13:32 +0000 elizabethkinney http://elizabethkinney.wordpress.com/?p=46 ]]> Sunday was one of my favorite days in Spain so far and the perfect way to end a great long weekend. Our group plus a group of students from another study abroad program had an excursion to the southern coast of Spain; specifically, Almuñécar and Nerja. We had to get up early but it was definitely worth losing sleep. It was such a relaxing day, from coffee by the beach in Almuñécar to sticking my feet in the water in Nerja. Seriously, it felt like Cape Cod in May or June! I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves:

I definitely want to go back to the coast, especially when it gets warmer in March and April.

Unfortunately, I had to come back to Granada after a day of relaxation to study for a placement test. Your score on the test determines the classes you can take. Thankfully, I can still take all the classes I had planned to take! It’s such a relief to be done with it. I’m really glad that I chose to do the intensive course before the start of the semester, though. The grammar review, while boring, was just what I needed to prepare for the placement test.

On Tuesday I went to the high school that we visited last week. It was a great experience! For the first hour we (the students in my program) were all paired off and placed with groups of 4-5 students around 16-17 years old. I was with the most advanced students who spoke English VERY well. I was really impressed to say the least. Their assignment was to interview us, take notes, and then write an essay for their class. They had lots of fun questions like “What’s your favorite movie?” but also thought-provoking ones that surprised me a little, like “What stereotypes do Americans have of Spanish people?” They were really awesome to talk to and even gave us directions to a cheap movie theater. For the second hour I was placed with a group of four (very typical) 15-year-old boys. They were less advanced than the first group and I really had to be conscious of my vocabulary and rate of speaking. They wanted to know a lot about American teenagers, what my favorite foods were, if there were lots of hot girls in Boston, and if I had a boyfriend. It was funny because whenever they didn’t know how to say something in English they would ask one another in Spanish. Then they finally caught on that I knew what they were saying, haha. Overall it was a fun experience and I’m looking forward to going back next week.

Tomorrow morning I’m off to Lisbon, Portugal for the long weekend before the start of classes. My flight leaves from Málaga at noon so I’m taking a really early bus from Granada. It’ll be a long day but most definitely worth it. I’ll have a new post and pictures up next week!

In other news, I had my first flamenco class on Wednesday afternoon. It’s an introductory level class that goes for 4 weeks, 2 classes a week (Mondays and Wednesdays). I am by no means a dancer, but I love the music and thought it would be something fun to do. There’s so much time between lunch and dinner that I get hungry and/or bored just hanging out in the apartment. I figured I’d do something productive and fun with my time. I discovered that it’s REALLY hard though, because even though the steps aren’t complicated, there’s a lot going on at once.

Speaking of being productive, a group of us are going to a local middle/high school on Tuesday afternoon. We get to go to an English class to give the students an opportunity to practice speaking with native English speakers. I’m really excited for that because I’m sure I’ll learn a lot of Spanish at the same time. The Spanish I speak now is really formal “classroom” Spanish but I’m sure that will change by the end of the semester.