Vacaciones de día de Acción de Gracias

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Week before last was Thanksgiving break. Looks like we will be having a Thanksgiving dinner with our professors after all, but it will be on Tuesday due to a series of set funny, but not funny enough to type out in full.

Ok, so a week off in Spain, what is one to do? Dionne and I traveled to Madrid and then Barcelona. In Madrid, we stayed in the Cats hostel...the first hostel experience for both Dionne and me. The hostel was nice, a converted palace still with inner courtyard in place. Plenty of bathrooms and hot showers, only drawback was that you had to keep holding the button in the shower for the water, it did get a bit annoying. We were in an 8 person dorm and met a lot of New Zealanders and Australians. Those nationalities seem to get around. My favorite encounter was with a very nice Mexican girl with whom Dionne and I talked a lot about sterotypes of each other´s countries. She was my favorite because after the end of the conversation, she looked at us and said, ´´Tell me something. So, is Elvis really dead?´´

Madrid was a very art-filled trip. We went to El Escorial on Saturday. El Escorial is the huge cathedral/palace/monastery built by Philip II at the begining of the 16th century. El Escorial is about an hour out of Madrid by bus and the name, escorial, translates to ´´slag heap.´´ And a beautiful slag heap it is. Slate is quarried in the area and the building´s roof tiles are made of slate, and I guess the name comes from something to do with all of that. But far from being a heap, El Escorial is an impressive Renissance building, all symmetric and perfect. It was an awefully cold day, and it started to rain, so we didn´t get to go outside and see the gradens as I had wanted (it got so foggy that standing outside you could no longer see the roof). But, the building alone is worth the visit. If you go, be sure not to walk right through the whispering room. The room is nothing special and not even labeled, but it is a square with a domed ceiling and you can stand in opposite corners and whisper into the corner very carefully and the person in the opposite corner can hear you perfectly. Rumor has it the room was used to confess lepers, but I have no idea if this is true.

Continuing in art and architecture, we went to the Prado (art from classical through 18th century), Reina Sophia (Modern Art), and Thyssen (a museum starting with Medieval stuff on the top floor and ending with current artists on the ground floor). Oh, and so you know, the Prado is free entry on Sundays. In the Reina Sofia Dionne and I tried to decide which art would look best as coffee tables in dorm rooms. There was a video playing in one room that was two deer in a blue room and then a white wolf in the same room. Dionne and I were hoping for some Discovery-channel type action, but it was just deer, wolf, nothing happening. We gave up watching when we figured out that the deer and the wolf weren´t even in the room at the same time.

A short flight to Barcelona put us at the begining of an adventure. So, we had reservations at a place called In and Out Hostel. At 10€ a night, it sounded like a good deal. The only directions we had to get there were, take metro to this stop, take the stairs up to the highway and we´re located just up the road. We thought it better to take a taxi directly there as we did have an address. So, we get a taxi in Plaça Catalunya and the driver begins to go through a book of street names and maps--not a good sign. He says it´s in a neighborhood up in one of the mountains that surrounds Barcelona and that it wouldn´t be possible to drive us there as there are a lot of dirt roads and he doesn´t to risk his taxi, etc. Whatever. So we ask if he can take us to the metro stop named in the directions. We finally get to said metro stop and were are indeed quite aways above the city. I asked a man at the station if he knew the address and he said that we were in the right zip code, at least. He also let me know that we were at the wrong stop and would have to go up one more stop. So, we go up one more stop. At this station Dionne and I, with all our luggage are faced with only one way of leaving the station, fortunately becuase there was only one choice, unfortunately because it was a very long staircase and carrying heavy luggage is no fun. So, we get to the top of the stairs and there is an In and Out hostel sign with an arrow pointing up the road. We start the trek up what turns out to be a very, very steep mountain road with hard swtich backs about every 100 meters. It was paved, so we were a bit angry with the taxi driver, but that is beside the point. After walking for about 15 minutes and after about 4 switchbacks, we start wondering if the signs are lying. A man walking down the hill tells us it´s just a little bit further and I ask him to help us with the luggage. He carries Dionne´s suitcase up to the next switchback and then says he has to be going. Lame. Anyways, we turn the final switch back and there is the hostel. It´s a nice building, clean, large nice furniture but Dionne and I have already decided it is way to far from the city center, 30 minutes away by public transport, the desk guy tells us. So, we make use of the free internet and book ourselves a 3 star hotel that´s not on a mountain. I guess this happens with some frequency as the desk guy didn´t look at all surprised after we told him the place was too far away from the city center for our liking.

Ok, round 2. Go down the mountain, go down the stairs, go in through the exit door on the train, and return to Plaça Catalunya. Get another taxi and drive for a bit longer than expected to the hotel. Upon reaching the hotel, the desk says it takes at least 45 minutes to get to city center via public transport. So, there we are. But, it is an awesome hotel with all the privacy, toilet paper, soap and linens you could ever want. We stayed. We were up on the 7th floor and our balcony had awesome views of the city and the mountains and even a bit of the ocean. Not bad at all. And, it was less than $30 per person per night, thank you hotels.com.

We went to the aquarium, but it wasn´t as good as I had hoped. Atlanta, Georgia and Omaha have better. But, well, we got a nice walk along the board walk to get out there and a walk through the ocean-front park to get back. We took a day to go out to Montserrat, an hour by train out of Barcelona and well worth the trip. The mountains are a soft sandstone and have been sculpted by the weather into all sorts of odd shapes. There is a monastery way up in the mountain (Dionne and I opted to take the gondla car up the mountain, there is also a train) dedicated to an icon that, according to legend, was found there in the 9th century. It is a black Madonna and child and dates from at least the 12th century. Dionne and I got to hear the Montserrat boys choir sing in the basilica and that was very beautiful. We then went up above the monastery via a cable train that is no kidding on a 45 degree incline going up the mountain. The cars are shaped like trapezoids to fit onto the track and hug the mountain. Looking straight down the track is scary, especially when coming back down. But anyways, up above the modern basilica are older chapels and foot paths all around. It was very windy so we didn´t stay up there too long, but the views are incredible and I recommend going off the path a bit, too. Back down in Barcelona proper we saw the Sagrada Familia, church designed by Gaudí that is still under construction, started in 1882. I´m glad we went in as seeing the church under construction from the inside was very cool. Pieces of mosaic that will be fitted into the ceiling were on the floor so we could see how large they really are. The ceilings inside the chruch are incredibly high and their sun burst patterns make them feel even higher. I thought it was very helpful that many of the statues are labeled as Saint James or Peter and that each section of the Façade of the Crucifixion has the corresponding bible verses below them. When I told this to my art teacher, he said he thought this was a good approach as not many people today know the traditional iconography of all the saints. Also not to be missed in Barçe is Park Güell, Gaudí´s attempted subdivision. It is a great place just to wander and play. Lots of caves and passages and places to hide. Also the plaza is surrounded by the largest continuous bench in the world. I love the bench because it is one huge mosaic with pretty pieces of tile and glass or all colors and patterns. We also walked Las Ramblas and wandered around the Gothic neighborhood. It is a confusing knot of narrow streets with all the doors occupied by small stores, a good place to intentionally get lost.

So, after our week-long adventure, we were starting to miss Cáceres a little bit. But no problems getting through airline security and we made it to Madrid just fine. We got stuck taking the ruta bus back to Cáceres (this bus takes nearly 5 hours when the normal takes less than 4). But, we made it back, safe and sound and now only two weeks till Christmas. I can´t believe it!

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Photos

Reina sofia
Dionne and me with modern art. best part is that it moves!

el escorial
the slag heap looking spooky in the fog

in and out hostel adventure
Dionne giving the hostel sign the whatfor

aquarium barcelona
dionne and me on the sea turtle. we were a little too big for the slide.

sagrada familia
under construction bible verses included

sagrada familia
bovedas modernas from the inside so tall

Monserrat
monserrat the sawed mountain

me on the mountain
it was really really windy