Blogs from Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, Europe - page 5

After spending the night in an overpriced Barcelona hostel and having sent out a million couch requests, I took the bus to Zaragoza without being sure I would have a host. I just hoped at least for a cheaper hostel and a less crowded city. The bus was pretty nice, although there were some rules that I thought were kind of weird... you can't eat and you can't take off your shoes (which I did anyway). I had forgotten to bring my book up above, so I ended up taking a 2-hour nap, which was super nice. When I woke up the landscape was dramatically different - in Catalunya it was mostly green with little villages and stuff, but in Aragon it was all kind of unforgiving. There were cliffs and weird little hills and huge ... read more

This past weekend I went to Zaragoza...its about 4 hours away from Madrid. I was there for 3.5 days; left school early on thursday, skipped class on friday ( I only had one ) and then came back on sunday. I went for 2 reasons; first, some friends that I met here in Madrid live there and wanted myself and two other kids to go. The friends are from Turkey! two girls, and extremely nice. Being here has made me so much more accepting of foreign people and has made me realize that it is ok to be different (I used to get frustrated with Chinese students at Tech when I was working). Second reason for my trip was because tomorrow, Monday, is a national holiday in Spain. Actually its a religious holiday that the state ... read more

Ola, So I finished up working at the Mission on August 14th, and I felt like a vacation was necessary. I decided that I would head to Spain for a couple of weeks. I flew into Madrid on Sunday morning, and then took the train to Zaragoza. Zaragoza is located in the north east of the country on the Ebro River and it was founded by Octavian, the adopted son of Julius Caesar. I arrived in town and checked into the hostel. The hostel was cool, especially the basement bar. The basement bar is the only surviving part from the Inquisitor’s house when he lived there during the 16th century. It was made of brick and consisted of vaulted ceilings and was a great place to enjoy a drink. I walked around town for the rest ... read more

Danes je bila torej na sporedu Huesca, mestece severovzhodno od Zaragoze na začetku Pirenejev. Do tja naju je v eni uri popeljal bus, ker sva vlak zaradi jutranjega kofetkanja v blinji pekarnici zamudili. Ni bilo take škode, ker niti vlak ne vozi dosti manj, 40 minut. Na postaji je bilo mnogo agencij, ki so oglaševale potovanja v Romunijo (v romunščini), saj je v Zaragozi oz. kar celi Španijo še pa još Romunov, bivajoč po principu s trebuhom za kruhom. Iz dokaj hladne in vetrovne Zaragoze sva torej prispeli v to sončno in toplo vas z 80 tisoč prebivalci in univerzo, na kateri študira Albertov mlajši brat Carlos. Nina še nikoli ni bila tu, tako da sva imeli odlično poenoteno izhodišče. S postaje sva jo najprej ugali do turističnega biroja po calle Zaragoza (itak!) in e prvi ... read more

Tole špansko sonce očitno hudo vpliva na naš bioritem, ker sva z Nino spet korektno zabluzili do desetih in preden sva se skidali ven, je bila ura skorajda poldne. Šli sva z busom najprej do palače Aljaferia, mogočne srednjeveške utrdbe pod Unescovo zaščito, v kateri domuje parlament. Arhitektura in notranja ureditev je plod španskega oboevanja Arabcev, potem ko so jih e sunili ven - očitno se jim oni niso kaj prida dopadli, njihov stil gradnje pa zelo. Notranje dvorišče in sobanski ornamenti tako sila spominjajo na nekaj junega in občutek imaš, da si sredi turških term. Le pomarančni vrtovi (Polonca, še ena stvar za tvoj backyard!!!) nekako dajejo vedeti, da smo v sončni grande Espana. Po kakšni uri lutanja med hladnimi kamnitimi zidovi sva jo ubrali na Ninino univerzo, ker je morala vrniti knjige v knijnico. ... read more