Semana Santa II: Praha, in the Old Country

Sunday afternoon we arrived in Prague. The mother country! Hooray! The architecture is a delight, just as I hoped. Most of the people do speak English, which is lucky because Czech is for me hard to grasp since it isn't a Romance language. We picked a good time to come-- despite the cold, at least it didn't rain much and the Easter markets were open.

Day 1
Our first meal was in a pretty authentic restaurant. It had tables separated, but all in a long row, and there were a good amount of families there probably celebrating the holiday together. At first I ordered just 3 dumplings, and Autumn did the same. They gave us a weird look. In my family, dumplings are fist-sized balls of dough. In Prague though, they are the size of baguette slices. Can't make a meal out of that! So I ordered it as a side dish for schnitzel, yumm. We also did some money exchanging this day. Czech korunas are at a very different rate than USD, euros, or British pounds, which are all relatively equivalent. I believe 100 euros was worth about 2200 korunas. We're rich!! Not really, bc according to our guide, 200 korunas buys a lunch and beer. For dinner we had kielbasa from a nearby Easter market. Comes with complimentary rye bread. :) Oh, I bought myself a decorated egg. It's life with me would be short: I wore it around my neck for safekeeping, and then leaned against the Charles Bridge. Oops. :\ Our first night we were quite tired, but didn't get much sleep being in an 8-person room with a mad snorer. It happens.

Day 2
We decided to take a Free Tour which was in fact, an excellent decision. We not only saw a lot of the city to get an idea of places to go, we also learned a lot of history. The 20th century was not a very joyous time in Prague. We strolled the Charles Bridge, where we were treated to their jazzy Bridge band, and did some souvenir shopping. We also saw the Infant of Prague, the inside of the church is very elaborate. Strudl was definitely eaten today, can't remember what else. At night, as per recommendation by our guide, Autumn and I went to see a musical performance. It was a string quintet that played a variety of classical pieces. Quite pleasant, and apparently the thing to do in Praga. In our hostel we had a 4 bed room, because that night our friends Diana and Meghan arrived. It was like our own hotel room, dobre!

Day 3

We repeated some of the attractions, now that our other travel companions were in tow. There was light rain while on the Charles Bridge, which made for some cute umbrella pics. Luckily, my strawberry umbrella is just precious. :P Lunch was at an Easter market, and I had what I dub the Czech pizza: fried bread, topped with shredded cheese and ketchup. And the kind sir gave me 2 for 1 since he claimed they were small. Yum! :) Later on in the day, we took another tour, this time in the Castle area of Prague. It's up a bit of a hill, and not only is there the castle but some churches and just another neighborhood essentially. We saw a changing of the guard ceremony, and stood in a place designed so that apparently you hear your voice extra loud or something. (Not sure, it didn't seem to work for me) After the tour they recommended a Monastery with national award-winning beer. Since the Czech Republic consumes the most beer annually, this honor seemed pretty legit. I tried the special Easter Beer, which did magically taste more springlike than the other brews I've had. Afterwards we strolled down Nerudovny Street. Here's a fun fact: Pablo Neruda got his name from a Czech author named Jan Neruda. 

Day 4
We all had lunch at a place with a new friend from the hostel. The tables here have their own beer spout or whatever it's called. On top of that, there is a screen on the wall which says which table has drunk the most beer so far. Clever marketing strategy, eh! The table near us had over 7 tallies (and 10 people, mind you), whereas we had 2. Woopie! Today was nice because we got to split up differently (9 days travelling together...everyone gets a bit annoyed heh). Diana and I went to the lock bridge, where couples put a lock around the rails to represent their undying love. Even I find it sweet! :) We also saw the Lennon grafiti wall, where the day before unbeknownst to us, Autumn had left her little mark within the heart. Other Prague classics we saw were the freaky baby sculptures, and an odd shaped building featured on postcards.

Day 5

Last day in the old country. Autumn and I had a few things on our final to do list for Prague, one of them being walking up a hill to a giant metronome, which represents the Czech people moving forward after communism (if I remember correctly), and also provides a nice view. Bueno, for the first time on the trip the rain really got in the way. My darling Converse have holes in the bottom near the heels, which is not conducive to rain. Being the former girl scout as I am, I was resourceful and put plastic bags around them. Sure, people stared at my fashion choice, but it served me well for maybe 15 minutes. Then I was just carrying around bags of water around my ankles  haha. We scaled the stairs, took in the view for a few minutes, and were then already wet and decided to go back to the hostel to dry off and remain that way until our flight. Waiting in the airport for our flight, there were some people speaking Basque. Although I didn't understand, I sure recognized it, and felt relief. We were almost home. :)

Kerryoke

If nothing else, I feel accomplished after last night. It was a lot of fun, but I wouldn't go so far as to call it "crazy fun." :P

First, I went with Kelsey to Pan Jueves, a little gathering of foods held by her group of friends every Thursday. Afterwards to celebrate some fellow American's bday, we went to karaoke. It was drizzling, and we almost didn't find the place, but finally reached it with success. In total there were 5 Spanish people our own age, 2 older Spanish women, and a dozen Americans from my program. Weird, I have never hung out with so many Americans at once this semester. The song selection was mostly "classsic" Spanish pop, with only 5 English songs. Unfortunately, I am not well-versed in Spanish pop, rock yes, but not pop. BUT ALAS: there was one 80s tune I knew quite well, translated as "Forget me and hit the road." Ah, yes, it's a duet between a man and a woman. So logically I asked one of the fellas in the group of Basques to sing along with me. It was awesome. Maybe it wasn't even that great, but in my head it was fantastic cos there I was on stage singing with passion in Spanish, and gesturing appropriately to the lyrics, with this guy I've never met before. Classic.

Here's the song.

Un finde fantástico

We interupt your Spring Break broadcast to recap this weekend, since it's fresher in my memory and was just splendid. My mom, aunt, and uncle came for a visit, which was sweet although confusing at the same time...family from home but I'm in Spain...hard to wrap your head around.

They got here Friday afternoon, and the weather really was not cooperating. It was rainy, but stopped just long enough for us to start walking to their  Pensión...five minutes later we were caught in the pouring rain. Gee whiz! So Friday was mostly a travel day for them, but we took a little walk around the town and had Kebab for dinner/lunch. It was early even by American dinner hour standards, but filling enough so that a Spanish hour dinner was not required. My aunt got me some cool purple shoes as a fashionable bday present.

At night I went to a concert with my bro and it was a great time. Berri Txarrak, my favorite current Basque band. Well...technically it's the only band I know that sings all in Basque. Of course I didn't know the lyrics, but I recognized some of the melodies at least. Also, I would like to note beforehand the lead singer was outside a bar approximately 10 feet from us, but we were too shy to ask for a photo I guess haha.The venue was bigger than a bar, but small enough to be personal. And it was packed with Basque youth. YEAH! Afterwards, I had the post-rock-concert-partial-deafness as we headed to a hamburguesería for a late night snack. Oso ongi!

Saturday my family went to Lourdes, France, so I  got some stuff taken care of around here blah blah blah. At night though, we all went to eat at a pretty fancy restaurant, where one of my Spanish Club friend's dad is the chef/owner. I ordered txipirones en su tinta, squid in its own ink. Classic Donostiarra, right there! Sometimes I forget that not all of my fam understands Spanish. Because the waitress/chef would talk to us and I would respond without thinking of translating to English. But anyways.

Yesterday was the summation of their visit--lunch at my host family's house. Man, I was looking forward to that for a while, and it was as grand as I had hoped! :D We went over around 11, my mom, aunt, host madre, Kelsey, and I went to the kitchen to commence preparations. My uncle and host padre took a walk, despite the crummy weather. It was so pleasant, all of us cooking together and gesturing or translating. At the end of 2.5 hours of prep, there were 2 chickens with stuffing, dumplings, jamón serrano, salad, tomatos, and of course pan. ñaaaaaaaaaam! In all, there were 9 of us at the table, chatting in Spanish, English, and a mix. Pero qué divesión! I was really happy to have both my families together at once, minus my daddyo unfortunately. We were allowed a post-lunch siesta, and then the 6 of us went on a walk of San Sebastián. We saw a good part of town, and even stopped for churros y chocolate. Then near the beach the Spaniards bid farewell to the Americans, and later that night I said goodbye to my family. By now they are in Barcelona. It was a short but pleasant visit, I do declare.

Semana Santa Parte I: LONDON CALLING

The first 5 days of Autumn and my spring break vacation were spent in London and thereabouts.

Day 1

Down at the (rebuilt) Globe.

We started at Notting Hill, as per Autumn's request, since she loves a movie of the same name. It is a posh neighborhood, and therefore nice to look around. Then we went to Portobello Road Market...couldn't stop singing the song about it from "Bedknobs and Broomsticks." For lunch, we found a little international food market. I had empanadas, mostly spicy chicken flavored. Mmmm! Then we saw some typical London tourist attractions: St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge (not to be confused with the dinky London Bridge), and the Globe Theater. We took an informative tour inside. Apparently in Shakespeare's time, they really packed them in on a regular basis. Since there wasn't internet, tv, cinema, etc, people went multiple times each week. At only 1 penny for the standing section, it was quite a bargain I'd say! Also we found out this summer they will have all of Shakespeare's works, each in a different language. Neato! That's one cool thing about London: the variety of cultures and langagues. It was nice to still overhear castellano. :)

Argentine empanada mmmmmmmmmm!

Tower Bridge

Day 2

Included a daytrip to Oxford, where Autumn's friend works in Christchurch Cathedral. It was great because he is a local, and super knowledgeable so we learned a ton about Christchurch. Oxford was the old, prestigious campus that I had hoped for, and we only saw 2 of the 30- or 40-something colleges. We had a yummy, proper English meal of fish and chips, mashed peas, and ale at a nearby pub, where Bill Clinton "did not inhale." Woohoo, famous landmark!

Stairs apparently used in a Harry Potter film, Oxford.

Dining all of Christchurch College, with portraits of noted grads

Day 3

Just casually walking into Platform 9 3/4, on my way to Hogwarts

Autumn's American friend joined us these days, which was a nice way to spice things up. We headed to Camden Town Market fairly early in the day to get to work. I didn't buy much, but enjoyed browsing. Might be my favorite place we saw in London. The shops and stalls seemed limitless: mostly jewelery and clothes, along with some souvenirs. Another sweet part of Camden Town is the shall we say "food court." So many international food stalls, if I lived in London I would eat a different cuisine for lunch everyday! Yummmm!! The first food stand I saw was appropriate: Peruvian. So for 6 pounds I got to try a bowlful of Peruvian cuisine in honor of my friend the cocinero peruano--yellow rice, flavored chicken, and flavored vegetables. Although usually I dislike veggies, these were very tasty. For dessert I bought a piña colada in the pineapple, just for the photo op jeje. Other nationalities represented include: Venezuelan, Jamaican, Spanish (!), American (served by a man with a British accent, pah!), Italian, Thai, and on and on. After dining and shopping, and a bit of haggling on Autumn's part, we went to Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station from Harry Potter. We rode up top a double-decker bus to take photos near Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, Parliament House, and Westminister Abbey. At night we went to M&M's world, which really is its own little world of chocolate and color.

Piña Colada in Camden Town

ñam ñam lunchtime

"posing" by the London Eye

British M&Ms World

BENNY. BENNY, BENNY, BENNY, & The jets

Day 4
Last full day in London, so we did anything else we missed out on. We saw Buckingham Palace where some youngster yelled in his little British accent, "WHERE'S THE QUEEN?!" We also made a return to Camden TOwn where I knew I could get some specific shirts for 2 pounds cheaper than in the city. Hey, every pound counts when they are worth nearly $2 each!

Then in order to catch our 7:30am flight (who booked that?! oops, me), we woke up at 3. Urrrg. From there we all walked a bit to a bus stop, took the bus to the main bus station, and an hour-long bus to the airport. There was quite a bit of drama on that ride. First, our ticket that we had printed from online didn't have a time or date. How does that happen!? Luckily they did let us on. Whew. Luego, the bus filled up after a few stops, even though people had tickets to get on. It's a flawed system, bc they sell a certain number online, yet ppl can buy tickets right there. Very nerve-wracking, and the busdriver had to decide who received the last 3 seats. :S

Also, randomly while in London I saw THREE people wearing Indians hats. Mindblown. The first encounter, I freaked out and asked the guy "But, how do you like them!? I'm from Cleveland!" He is a Londoner and visited the USA once, and ended up with an Indians hat. Took a picture with him as proof haha. Another girl was Dutch and said she bought it the day before because she loved the movie "Major League". How fun is that.

Fellow Tribe fan in London!

 En suma, we saw a lot of stuff in London, but that's because there is so much to be seen! It is a ncie place, but not my favorite. Too big for little old me.Next stop was Prague. To be continued....

Galicia

Just took an hour-long trip to Galicia, imagine that! In reality, it was just a visit to the little Galician Gastronomic Fest they are having in the square near my house. Galicia is the north-western autonomous community of Spain, with its own language gallego. Therefore, I assume Basques are on extra-pleasant terms with them since we both have the second tongue. Anyways, a main point of interest in Galicia is Santiago de Compostela, where people make a pilgrimage. San Sebastián is on the official Camino de Santiago--Way of Santiago. Galicia also seems to have some Celtic roots, although their language is more smiliar to Portuguese. Therefore there was a group of bagpipers out at the little Market.

A well-known Galician dish is pulpo, octopus. That's why under the little tent with bar, you could often hear the server shouting "pulpo!" because assumedly most ordered it. Other meat options were some kind of sausage and ribs. Although I didn't buy any, I basked in the warm, barbecue scent for quite a while. They had a fire going with a spinning grill to cook the ribs and sausage. Near that was a barrel of liquid, where a man put in the octopuses to soak. When they came out they were a deep red and given to a man to chop up. Mm, tentacles! They also had the "world's biggest octopus dish", with free samples--many people crowding around. By the time I got to it, there was only potatoes left. But hey, I enjoy potatoes so I'm not complaining. Too bad my camera was broken at that time. :| There was also a stall of pastries and one of cheese. The cheese didn't interest me as much as the bakery, obviously. Man, people get impatient waiting around. Let's all take a deep breath, because the 2 people working the bakery booth are running around all day trying to tend to customers. In my opinion, they are the ones who should lose their temper instead of customers who only had to wait 5 or so minutes. Tranquilo!! I am not one to get in their face, which usually means I have to wait quite some time. However thanks to the woman next to me, I was noticed after a bit of patient waiting. And my reward was the baker guy calling me "la chica joven y hermosa" jojojo! But that's probably because I was in a sea of old folks, like pulpos wrapping themselves around the ship aka the bakery stand.

The offerings were big slabs of cakes--and there was definitely something that could be tuna filled or bacalao filled. I avoided fish cakes and opted for a piece of chocolate and what I assume is a Santiago specialty cake.