France and Spain a whirlwind tour...

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Sorry I haven't posted in awhile but here is a saved archive I meant to publish (tho not in it's entirety)

After a great time in Rome, yet again...I took the train to Nice, France where I finally got to utilize my french for once! Basically I explored the old town, saw the Matisse museum and relaxed on the beaches of the French Riviera. I decided to take a day trip to Monaco and saw Monte Carlo...the perfect place to experience a lifestyle that many of us will never experience. I frolicked among the lambourghini's, aston martin's and other obscenely nice cars that were parallel parked just casually on the street. I went into the famous casino and used the bathroom because I couln't afford the 10 euro covercharge. However the bathroom was an awesome experience that reminded me of Tokyo with the button you can push to get a new toilet seat and all these automatic deals...pretty much a tricked out bathroom...

Barcelona

Again I couchsurfed in Barcelona with a man named Jaume who has a one bedroom flat and a bathroom along with three CS'ers he was hosting the first night. Later on in the day, we found out that some people were desperate for accomodation so we ended up having 12 of us there the next night! Crazy especially since there was hardly any room for us to stand. One bedroom and one bathroom for 13 people total was not going to be pretty. Luckily he had a second flat so we split it up...however the group of us met up at night after a day of travel to hang out.. 8 of us piled into Jaume's car and watched a fountain show downtown and then returned to his second flat where we had pizza, beer and sang English language songs together. It was hilarious as I was the only native english speaker and everyone else was from Denmark, Austria, France, and etc...So finding a common bond with songs was amazing as we belted out tunes from Oasis, The Beatles and Eric Clapton of all people. One of the girls Alejandra from Mexico and I raced around the city looking for Gaudi's buildings (he's superfamous for his strange architecture) We had a great time and both vowed to come back together in 30 years when the famous La Sagrada Familia (huge unfinished church) was finished.

Sevilla

I arrived in Sevilla in Southern Spain which was preparing itself for the Anunciation Day...a religious holiday. I ran around the city going to the usual cathedrals, palaces and etc...My spanish is non existant so communicating was more than rough especially with the lack of english speakers. Knowing the names of mexican food doesn't get you far here since there isn't a Chalupa in sight. However one can get really creative with communication especially after two months of travelling. Anunciation Day was celebrated with a parade/procession towards the cathedral with the virgin mary statue on a platform and many priests blessing her and then they had a service in the cathedral of which people were trying to make their way into... Spanish people I have learned are pushy and very outspoken so it was a riot watching them all try to enter the cathedral at once....

Sevillla is famous for flamenco...so I met two German girls and we decided to watch this beautiful type of dance at a local bar... We enjoyed drinks and watched a women stomp and dance gracefully onstage with two men playing guitar and belting out beautiful spanish words that I wish I understood...

The next night I bought a ticket to a bullfight...however it's a misnomer because there is no fight persay...basically it's the matador spearing stakes into a bull's back as it angrily attemps to ram the matador for 10 minutes. Not at all glamourous...but not as bloody and gory as I thought it would be.

I think my spanish had improved at this point as I had become friends with two older couples who gave me a poster of one of the matadors of which I was to wave when he entered the ring...They somewhat explained to me who was in the ring and etc and taught me when to wave my white handkerchief to the matador who is like a god to these people. Luckily the death of the bull is quick after the matador pulls out his sword to kill it... Strangly enough I started to get into the whole atmosphere of it all and was clapping and cheering with the crowd... However I do wonder what they do with the 6 bulls after the fight...

Sevilla was wonderful experiencing the culture of it all...it's as if I stepped back in time...



Madrid

I met my last CS host Salvatore...we went to dinner and had tapas (the spanish are famous for having thse warm appetizers that are to die for) and a great bottle of wine...needless to say we were both in a great mood that night..that unfortunately set me back $25 😞 But it was worth the company and the great food...especially since Salvi knew every bit of Spanish history... We had a great time hanging out all weekend as if we knew eachother forever! We cooked dinner together and explored the sights of Madrid which is a beautiful city and doesn't get enough credit! I went to the famous Prado museum but wasn't really impressed by the old works of art until I went to the Modern Art Museum and happily drowned myself in the Picasso's and Miro's... We went to this bar called Grise that had awesome drink specials... lets just say I had a little too much so the walk home was fairly entertaining... I had a wonderful time being a Madridian and was sad that it was my last official trip stop...

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