La Sagrada Familia and Pablo Picasso

Stairs at La Sagrada Familia

The second day consisted of two ever so popular tourist attractions, but I now understand why they are so popular. I think they are certainly underrated actually and need more attention/hype. These two places are La Sagrada Familia (which Alex struggles with remembering) and Pablo Picasso’s museum. La Sagrada Familia is a one of a kind cathedral designed and constructed by, once again, Antonio Gaudi. This place is unlike anything I have ever seen in my life. The structure, color, shapes, design, you name it, are SO exotic. After looking around and reading the information boards placed sporadically around the cathedral, I learned that nature influenced his ideas and designs tremendously. The inside was supposed to look like a forest. The spiral staircases were meant to simulate a shell. The thought process blows my mind. This church has been in construction since 1892 and it’s not expected to be finished until 2030.  The church presents a great depiction of “the relationship between man, nature, and religion through its architecture and façade sculptures”. Climbing one of its towers gave us a unique view of Barcelona. Yes, we had to pay for this but it was well worth it because we climbed the tower that Gaudi had constructed and completed before dying. This was awesome. We also were able to see close up views of the church’s exterior detailing. The amount of steps we had to climb down did not even seem real. I thought there was a mirror at the bottom reflecting up making the climb down look so much longer but nope! It was all real. The stairs represented the inside of a spiral shell so I was right! It was almost hypnotizing. I would come back to this cathedral over and over again if I could. It’s a structure that you can never get sick of EVER. After La Sagrada Familia, Alex and I took a quick metro ride to the Picasso museum which is free on Sundays after 3:30pm. SO many people were waiting on line. Alex originally did not want to stay, but I talked her into it which probably was her favorite thing the entire weekend.

The museum features Picasso’s painting from when he was 13 years old just starting his painting career all the way till his later life creating ceramics. The museum itself was a historical building with Gothic style architecture. There were an excessive amount of rooms. I never imagined Picasso to have that many works of art especially on display at once. Unfortunately photography is prohibited, but I was able to take a picture of one of the courtyards. This museum was the last stop of our tourist attractions in Barcelona. We left early Monday morning so we laid low the night before and I did some homework. I cannot wait until I sift through my photos! I am positive there are a few worth framing!

Barcelona with the Cousin

As I said goodbye to my parents on Saturday (Nov. 24^th), a whole new adventure was about to begin with my cousin, Alex. The two of us were off to Barcelona! Neither one of us had been there before which made the anticipation extra exciting. We booked a flight which was probably the best way to travel to Barcelona because the flight is only one hour and twenty minutes whereas a bus is around eight hours and a train is five hours. We also flew with another airline other than RYANAIR!!! Woooo. This meant we had to use terminal four instead of terminal one which is the usual terminal to travel out of. At security I completely forgot to take my laptop out of my backpack so the security lady asked me to put it back through separate once again. At this point I already had my boots on and she did not tell me I needed to keep them off until I asked her. I got mad because she literally watched me put them on only to tell me to take them off again. I then proceeded to ask her if she spoke English and she said no why do I need to speak English? So then I told her because you work in an airport with people coming from all over and everyone else that works here speaks at least a little bit of English. She continued to argue saying “But we’re in Spain”.  Eventually I stopped talking and put my stuff back through the X-ray machine with no problem. The funny part is that during this whole argument, Christmas ads and music was playing on the speakers IN ENGLISH! Anyways, a few hours later, Alex and I arrived in Barcelona. We checked into our hostel and got straight to sightseeing. We walked towards Las Ramblas which is a busy street with a lot of vendors. We stopped at the market as suggested by the receptionist at our hostel and had some amazing fruit smoothies. I also advised Alex that she needed to try jamón serano which is cured ham (ham preserved with salt and not cooked at all so essentially raw pig sushi). She loved it! I personally am sick of jamón. It’s everywhere including the flavor of a bag of Lay’s potato chips. In one of the shops we met a store-owner who can speak eight different languages. That is crazy!! We walked all the way down Las Ramblas to the water. The harbor was gorgeous with a ton of sailboats docked instead of the average motorboat or yacht. After that we shuttled our way via metro to Parque Güell which is a world famous park designed by Antonio Gaudí.

  The time of day we picked to visit was perfect because we were able to view the whole park during daylight, then watched the sunset from one of the various mountain views which overlooks the entire city of Barcelona. At the park we ran into this little boy who could not have been more than two years old. He said a mouth full of words in Spanish to us, but I couldn’t really understand. As he walked away with his family, I said adios! He said adios back and his family told him to blow us a kiss so that is just what he did. We blew him one back of course. This was the cutest thing ever. He melted my heart, but I am sure we did not melt his… While watching the sunset from the highest point in the park, these Asian people asked me to take their picture. Their way of thanking me was with a bow. I felt so special getting bowed to! I thought this only really happens with high authority people. Anyways, when exiting the metro to come home, we ran right into Casa Batllo. Casa Batlló is the result of a total restoration in 1904 of an old conventional house built in 1877.  Gaudí used for it the typical constructive elements of the Modernisme (Catalan Art Nouveau) that include ceramics, stone and forged iron.  Even though it was highly criticized by the city during construction for its radical design that broke all the bylaws of the city, in 1906 it was awarded by the Barcelona City Council as one of the three best buildings of the year. This was an awesome surprise!! It was lit up beautifully. After the park we went home, showered, and concluded the night with dinner and a taste of the night life! 

 

The Remainder of My Fam's Time in Madrid

Throughout the week I brought my family to all the major tourist spots worth visiting. We rowed boats in parque de retiro, ate dinner at the oldest restaurant in the WORLD, saw the cathedral and palace at night along with the Egyptian ruins of Templo Debod which are being preserved in Spain. 

Retiro Park

El Botin - oldest restaurant in the world

Templo Debod

We even did a little shopping in between! One night I took them to el Mercado de San Miguel which is an upscale version of Redding Terminal Market in Philly. I made them all try some paella which is a traditional Spanish dish and a MUST HAVE when you are in Spain. 

Paella from the market

 When my cousin Alex arrived a few days later from Boston, we all went out to one of the top flamenco dances/dinners in the WORLD too! The amount of muscle needed to flamenco dance is outrageous, not to mention how sweaty you ge3t from the nonstop small, but quick movements with your feet. Attending a flamenco show really submersed us in the Spanish culture. This was an excellent idea. Our waiter even allowed us to stay for the second show for free! Every show is different which is what makes this place so special. You never know what you’re going to get.   

Flamenco dinner

The next day I took everyone outside of Madrid to a small town called Toledo. I had been here before with Gloria so I knew what to expect. In fact, this was one of my favorite towns outside of Madrid that was not extremely far away. The trip there was about 45min which is very accommodating. From the moment we left the bus station in Toledo, my family fell in love with the town. I took them on the same route Gloria took me on and actually remembered where everything was extremely well! We headed towards the cathedral and purchased our tickets. The cathedral at this time was surprisingly empty so we did not have many people to move around and obstruct our observations. We quickly glimpsed through it and Alex was fascinated by all the Greco paintings in one specific church. After that, I took my family to eat lunch at the same place I previously ate lunch at. At first I almost forgot how to get there but had a general idea of where it was located and stumbled upon it once again. Lunch was delicious. The waiter hardly spoke English so I did my best to converse in Spanish. He was waiting on every single table in the restaurant which caused him to forget to charge Alex for her second glass of wine!  I even saw someone eat there that I knew from SLU Madrid. What a small world. After lunch, we had a specific set time to climb the bell tower of the cathedral. My mom already had it in her head that climbing all the steps would be a challenge when in reality, there weren’t very many steps at all!   Low and behold we all made it and got to see the panoramic views of Toledo. Once we finished climbing the bell tower, we headed back to the bus station but did a little shopping along the way. Alex and my family bought pottery and my sister bought some earrings. This day was an overall perfect day. We even ate dinner at my house with my señora. 

 She LOVES hosting people and having dinner parties so she went to town. She actually asked me what my favorite foods are that she has cooked for me and cooked them again that night for my family. I chose ride with walnuts and raisins, croquettes, and stuffed mushrooms. They were all thoroughly impressed by how exquisite her platters looked and how rich the food tastes. You would never know that she is vegan and vegetarian. Most of the foods taste like the real thing! We all spoke mostly in English but I, of course, talked to Gloria in Spanish since that is what she prefers and understands better. There was no better way to end my family’s trip to visit me in Spain than with a home cooked meal at my señora’s house.

Toledo

 

The Family Arrives in Madrid!!

Sunday marked the big day: the arrival of my family! After a short night’s sleep, I woke up bright and early to meet my parents and sister at Madrid’s international airport. The timing was great. I waited at the “lounge” doorway they exited through. I snagged a spot front and center so they could not miss me. In fact my friend Jaclyn from high school had her parents visiting her too! Except she did not come to the airport. Her mom walked through the door and says, “Julianne!” Not paying attention, I looked up in surprise to see Mrs. Gerson. She told me Jaclyn wasn’t meeting up with them at the airport and proceeded on to her limo driver. After seeing a few happy reunions (which made me tear up), I finally was reunited with my own family. I made them a sign that said “iMom, Dad, and Laura, bienvenido a Madrid! Which means welcome to Madrid in Spanish. Instead of taking an expensive taxi ride to their hotel, I introduced my family to the Metro System here in Madrid. They commented on how clean it was especially compared to NYC subways. Once they were settled in the hotel, we headed right to the market, “El Rastro”. This place was mobbed with people, most likely because we did not go first thing in the morning when you probably should go because there would have been less people.

El rastro

 I didn’t even get close to any booths/tables to see merchandise nor did I feel comfortable going into my purse for money. I’ll have to go another time first thing in the morning to even see what’s really good and not good! After we had enough of the markets, I escorted my family to Plaza Mayor to get a glimpse at a cool site but a huge piece of history. The plaza was setting up the Christmas market which looked awesome. I’ll have to go check it out now since it just opened a few days ago! Nap time rolled around and my family was ready to crash after being on the move for almost 24 straight hours. I went back to my senora’s house to do homework. Eventually it was dinner time, so we went to this Italian chain called Gino’s which was PHENOMENAL. I had never been there before and would really like to go back! I had Rigatoni Alfredo. But the funniest part is that I was the only one with the English menu and did not realize it until my mom and Laura kept asking questions about certain plates. I finally said to them, “Why are you asking so many questions? The menu is in English”. It’s pretty ironic that I, the only Spanish speaker, was handed the English menu while the rest got the Spanish menu.  The food was great and everyone was happy with their meals including the dessert. This was SUCH a delicious way to end the first night spending time with my family in Spain.

Gabriel's 1st Birthday!

Last Saturday marked my senora’s grandson’s first birthday! Soooo to celebrate the special occasion, everyone flocked to her vacation home out in the country on the lake. Gloria and I actually left on Friday with her sister, Carrie, who drove us there. The home is beautiful and newly renovated. She also keeps the place spotless and extremely clean which I loved! I had my own room while she and Carrie shared a room and her daughter, Glo, and her husband had a room to themselves too. We spent Friday cleaning up a bit, cooking and getting situated for the party the next night (Saturday night). The weather was SO amazing, Gloria her sister and I had lunch outside on the patio. No jackets needed here! After lunch I sat down and got some homework done. Sure enough, Gloria’s daughter and son-in-law showed up with Gabriel, the birthday boy! He is adorable and has the curliest blonde hair out of anyone else in Spain. Later that night, Gloria, Carrie and I watched the second twilight movie in complete Spanish with no English subtitles because the remote was broken. 

About fifteen minutes into the move we all fell asleep including Bastet (the cat) who was sitting on my lap. At the same time we all woke up laughing because of what had happened and decided to just go to bed. It was actually pretty early too, maybe 11:15pm or 11:30. The next day was fiesta day! This was the real day of preparation. In order to have a good start we sat down and had a complete family breakfast Spanish style with tortilla (Egg omelet with potatoes essentially). I even was spoiled and had real cow milk instead of soy milk! Anyways, I did more homework after that and Skyped with my parents because they were arriving in Madrid the very next day. Once that was over, some people started to arrive (Gloria’s other sister and Alex, her one and a half year old grandson). Alex knows Spanish and English, but to keep teaching him English, his grandma only talked to him in English. I thought this was cool and a smart thing to do at such a young age. Alex is the third child out of four boys who are ALL bilingual in Spanish and English. While Alex and Gabriel were playing in the ball pit, the rest of us cleaned up and continued getting ready. 

Alex (Left) & Gabriel (Right)

A Spanish birthday party is very different from a birthday party in the U.S. Gabriel’s birthday party was only a cake/dessert party with opening gifts. We literally had about 7 cakes and pies. The amount was INSANE, but it made sense because there were a lot of people there. In fact I talked to almost all of them and kept getting compliments on my Spanish!! Some of them thought I was a cousin or related to Gabriel in some way, shape, or form, but nope. I am just the exchange student. Another interesting thing is that they do not sing happy birthday. They sing two other songs which are in Spanish but I have never heard before. Anyways, we all had an excellent time celebrating Gabriel’s first birthday. Instead of handing out “goodie bags” to the kids, everyone received a big square plate to fill up with the various cakes to bring home. This is the Spanish form of goodie bags and such an interesting concept.  Gloria even made a special cake with the sole purpose to be taken home. Overall, I had an excellent time, met some really nice family members and got to practice my Spanish!

First Official Visitors!

This past weekend, my friends in Florence came and visited me after I visited them the previous weekend. I gave them the typical walking route tour of basically all the famous hotspots in Madrid for example, Retiro Park (rowed boats), Banco de España, Puerta de Sol, Plaza Mayor, Mercado de San Miguel, Palacio Real, Catedral, Templo Debod and other places as well. One surprise for me was the wall of flowers in honor of the Virgin Mary. I'm not quite sure of the full meaning but it was quite the site. There is always something new going on in Madrid which is one of things I love most about living here. You never know what you're going to find around the corner! We made extremely good timing considering we did all of this plus lunch in the middle in just a little over half a day.  We ate lunch at 100 Montanditos which is easily the cheapest place to eat any meal in Madrid. These franchises are located EVERYWHERE and their 100 variety small sandwiches do not exceed 3 euros in price. That night my señora cooked a HUGE delicious dinner for everyone and set up the table in a fancy manner with her crystal wine glasses and china plates. My friends were all extremely impressed with her performance and the food. Once again it was a meal that I had never had before since she never repeats a meal twice (unless my roommate and I really like a meal and ask her to do so!).  As far as nightlife goes, Zach and I tried to take them all to Teatro Kapital (7 stories high club in Madrid) but we got there too late. The line was so long and if you get in before 1am you do not have to pay. Since we clearly were not making it in by 1am we left and went and did some other fun spontaneous activities! They had chocolate and churros for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed them. The next day was shopping day for them!! In Italy the clothing is apparently so much more expensive so Mary, Alex and Lucia went crazy shopping because Spain clothing is the cheapest I’ve actually seen in all of Europe so far. I bought one shirt and a few little gifts but nothing like they did. My favorite store is Lefties. Frankly, I could buy the entire store. Good thing my parents are coming this weekend which will enable me to deposit a lot of my clothes in their suitcases instead of mine! But actually I do not have that many clothes. Rather, I have very little compared to almost everyone else abroad. If you want me to get you something from Spain let me know!!! I do not mind it at all!