Last one? Maybe?

So, depending on how seriously I take finals (little joke there), or how much having someone visit me the weekend before finals distracts me...this could be the LAST BARCELONA BLOG ENTRY. It's actually getting that late. Wows. I'll probably throw one in the night before I leave or while I'm in the airport (Barcelona, free internet? I'm just SO funny tonight). But anyway, if this is the last, bye bye bye!

Continuing on with my springlike adventures, at 6AM I took a plane from Venice to Amsterdam, sitting next to a kid who had just come back from Ibiza and smelled like hangover. He was very nice, though. As much as I hate flying, this flight was actually pretty nice. A couple from Amsterdam was sitting in front of Hangoverboy and I, and told us that we better go to Vondelpark while we were there.

Best advice ever.

I have a theory that the merit of cities can be loosely based on the number and quality of their parks. There is just NO way to start out your introduction to a city by checking out their best park, and if it also happens to be the best park in the WORLD (and a two minute walk from your hostel) then you're pretty much set. The weather was also spectacular, so you could just walk into this absolutely huge park with TONS of people just milling around, but nobody's rushed or unhappy, just all out enjoying the great weather. Even the bums with beer cans in plastic bags (no picture, sorry). Another great thing about Amsterdam (get ready to hear that phrase a million times) is that it's kind of too small to have a separate tourist and local area. So you got to see the people with their suitcases peering around confusedly, and the people zooming around on their bikes in their work suits.

About bikes. I thought it was funny that I saw little business women in heels riding MOTORCYCLES around Spain? Wait until you see a 6-foot dutch man dressed like a CEO riding his bicycle through the middle of the park, chiming his little bell at people going too slowly. People in Amsterdam do NOT screw around with their bikes. I honestly could have spent hours just watching bike traffic, it was so entertaining.

Apparently I failed to mention earlier that I flew in on my birthday, and the lovely and aforementioned (see: Rome) Sarah Kane was SO kind as to meet me in Amsterdam. Or so kind as to try. Because of course, the SIM card on my phone stops working as soon as I get into the Netherlands. Obviously. After the man at the Phone House tried to sell me a new SIM card I finally remembered that Skype existed. Crisis averted, but Nora's birthdays continue to make sure she's unhappy for at least an hour. Just in case anyone was worried.

Anyway, the weather continued to be SPECTACULAR the whole time we were there, Sarah's friend from school studying in Utrecht came to visit and told us some in the Dutch culture ins and outs, and we had some amazing food (BAGELS. And french fries dipped in mayo...by dipped in I mean drowned in). The Rembrandt house was amazing, they had a huge collection of his etchings, and (close your eyes mom and dad) the Red Light District was just a whole other WORLD. Then I hopped on another train to Paris, where I arrived and passed out at my hostel, skipping the Eiffel tower that I had planned for my first night.

Which pretty much sums up my time in Paris. I had prepped for this one: I bought the museum pass and a day-long unlimited metro pass. Unfortunately I decided that since I paid for one day of metro I shouldn't use it the other day, and should walk everywhere.

Which would be fine except Paris is HUGE. By the end of the first day I'd knocked off half of my list, seen some ridiculously famous art, but returned to the hostel with feet that hurt so much I could not even come close to bringing myself to stand in line to go up the Eiffel Tower. I promise I thought about it, then realized that whenever I stood still my ankles started shaking. So back to the hostel, where I ran into a boy and I knew in HIGH SCHOOL who was staying at the same hostel as me. WHAAAT.

Having the metro pass improved my second day significantly. I got to shuffle off to the all the museums I wanted, be impressed by how developed my metro-reading skills have become, and even ordered a chocolate croissant and half a baguette in "French" (don't worry that I originally wanted the whole baguette).

Probably my highlight of Paris was the Rodin Museum.

Back to my park theory, there is a sculpture garden all around the (beautiful) building that the museum is in, so you get to go in, see models and molds for all of his AMAZING sculptures, and then go outside and see the real things in the middle of one of the most beautiful parks ever. It might have been my favorite museum ever.

THEN I hopped on an overnight train to Port Bou, Catalonia (there was a girl with her CAT and it sat in her lap the whole time and the guy next to me thought it was hilarious how much I was freaking out), where I got to watch the train to Barcelona leave as I walked into the station, and notice that the next one didn't leave for another two hours. As THAT train moved through the province more and more hungover old people (St. Jordi's Day, the Spanish equivalent of Valentines with the added benefit of being the day before Easter, had just happened) piled onto the train, finally I got out into the blazing sunshine, screwed up buying a metro card, and knew for sure that I was back in Barcelona :)

How many wolf boobs can you see in 4 days?

Back from Spring Break! And ima just JUMP into it. In Spain they call it "Semana Santa," which means holy week, 'causeit's the week before Easter! Pretty much everyone gets time off, andthere are supposed to be all sorts of cool festivalsall over Spain.

However, due to my (lack of) religious awareness and the interest of my program in making sure we REALLY get the most out of our time in spain (again, lack of, don't even get me started), I, wanting to save as much monies as possible, scheduled my spring break really early for a RIDICULOUS trip all around Europe, for as much art exposure and seeing the places I wanted to that I could manage in 10 days. It wasn't until later that I realized Easter was happening, which I thought could be cool in Spain, and then was informed that Semana Santa even existed. The point of that anecdote is that I left wishing I was going around Spain for a week, not overly excited and a little scared about what was going to happen in my 5-city craziness of a Spreak.

The beginning of my trip kind of confirmed this. When I got to my first city, Siena, it was gross and cloudy. Also, Italian and Spanish tourism is EXTREMELY different. In Spain, wherever you go there is usually a tourist office IN the train station.

I don't even know if Italy HAS tourist offices. Anyway, I gave up on getting a map, and decided to take the bus up to the city center. I got on the bus, asked awkwardly (I HATE speaking english in other countries) if I could buy tickets on the bus. The driver told me no, closed the door (with me inside), and drove away. After the most terrifying free bus ride (cut to images of Italian police bringing me to jail) of my life, I booked it out of the bus at the next stop and started wandering around Siena. About halfway through, due to their abundance, I decided to take pictures of all the wolves with human babies that I saw, which will grace this post with their presence. Keep in mind, these aren't even all the ones I saw.Even if my experience wasn't of the BEST city in Italy, after I calmed down a little I got to kind of like Siena. There's this one square that you will CONSISTENTLY find around the corner, wherever you are, which is really comforting if you're really lost. (I'm always really lost) Then it started to rain. Terrified to take the bus again, I walked as quickly as I could back to the station, and ended up getting absolutely SOAKED. Not fun. From Siena I took the train to Florence and got really lost (you'll find this is a common theme) trying to find my hostel. I finally did, made some dinner and passed out.

Florence's weather was a little nicer, no rain, and even if I was cold a lot of the time, it is a LOVELY city just to walk around and see all the random statues and churches you run into. Also, the first thing I did the first day was to go to the Galleria Academia and see the David. It's a tiny museum, so I didn't get a map (also a common theme), and I'm so glad, because the statue is at the end of this hallway full of other Michaelangelo statues, which had my full attention as I turned the corner, and it wasn't until I randomly looked up that I saw it.

Ever since my first "no foto!" experience, and just because it forces me to actually look at the art, I've stopped taking pictures in museums, so I don't have any pics of the David (I DON'T get the obsession with taking pictures of famous things that wont look ANY better in a photograph - maybe I'm just bitter about my inability to handle crowds thus my inability to enjoy seeing REALLY famous art), but I'll throw in some from the Uffizi's plaza.

I LOVED how Florence was just full of art everywhere you went, no matter how backwater of an area it was. Anyway, the David really is such that it would NEVER look that amazing in a photograph. I really never appreciated it that much before. Even Michaelango's (am I spelling that wrong?) other statues really did look WORSE than it. Obviously not because of the artist, just because it's so beautiful. And WAY bigger than I realized. Ah I could go on and on. But don't worry, I wont. Also, for Steve's picture of the day, I include the apron I almost bought for his wife.

The rest of my stay in Flo was about the same: some wandering, some art. The Uffizi was a little overwhelming for me, but at the Palazzo Strozzi there was an exhibit about Picasso, Miro and Dali, probably the three most famous Catalan artists. The english newspaper of Florence, (little plug here) the Florentine, was the host for "Slow Art Day" that centered around this exhibit. In the interest of this already too-long post (and I'm barely halfway), here's an article that ARTNews wrote about Slow Art, if you're curious. I did that, and I really liked it. Not only was the tea they gave us afterward LOVELY but it was just an interesting take on looking at art that I TRIED to incorporate into the rest of my trip, though I'm not sure if I did it justice.

Also, the exhibition itsself, even if I wasn't SUPPOSED to see all of it, was REALLY well done. They organized it by topic and explained the whole organization in a way that made it really clear what they were trying to show. Also they had the contents of one of Picasso's workbooks where he did sketches for Demoiselles d'Avignon. SO cool! I also went out to dinner for the first time, hoping to waste time before my 2AM train to Venice.

Yes, 2AM. No, it was NOT a good idea. The dinner however, was recommended by my hostel, and was DELICIOUS (it's Italian food...), and was run by this man and his wife (there MIGHT have been one other helper back in the kitchen but I'm really not sure). She didn't speak English, or Spanish, but she understood "vegitarian," and aside from that I figured everything would be good, so she just recommended things in Italian and I said "si" (is that even Italian?). HE did speak English, and after a while came and greeted me, gave me a free glass of wine, and came back to check on me about 40 times. It was such a nice experience, he was so friendly and she WOULD have been and the food was GREAT.

Then I went to the train station. It was full of Italian teenagers. Then they closed the train station, and we all had to wait on the platform, or in the sketchy area under the platform where all the bums were hanging out.

This Iranian woman and I pretty much just stood there and went "it's so cold" for an hour or so. Then I got on the train, to my compartment.

Compartments have six seats, and five of them were already full. Full of LARGE men. Like, no less than six feet each, and never less than 200 pounds. I felt like a hobbit, and must have looked much MORE ridiculous as I went to sit right in the middle of them.

Then I GOT to Venice after way less sleep than I had anticipated (who could have called that? That's right, anyone but me), and realized that my hostel didn't open until 8.

So Venice was essentially just a ton of picture taking. That's what I did while I was waiting for it to open, then they told me I actually couldn't check in until 1 and my bed wouldn't be ready 'til 4. So I went and took MORE pictures. Then some more. Also some gelato. Okay, a lot of gelato. It kept me going. Venice, though, is LOVELY. I couldn't have taken so many pictures if I didn't have so much to work with! :) People said it might smell, but all it smelled like to me was GELATO.

And then I went and bought some. Also, while trying not to fall asleep in the middle of St. Marco's I wandered to the front, right before the Palm Sunday procession. That's when I realized it was Palm Sunday. But it was cool to see, and the security guards were HILARIOUS to watch trying to keep this huge crowd under control. Or maybe I was just deliriously tired. Anyway, I fell in love with Venice, went back to my hostel, had some free dinner, which I think was exactly what I had had the night before but with olives (have I blogged about Mediterranean olives yet? If i haven't I SHOULD have), watched some YouTube videos with some other kids there, and passed out before my 6:30 departure to Treviso Airport.

And THAT was Italy. In a very small, stressful, beautiful nutshell.

I can't do homework anymore. No brain.

So THIS weekend (i decided to do this by weekends cause it makes me do them) I STAYED in Barcelona (Well, Catalunya). The only other IES field trip I signed up for was this weekend, which stopped me from going to Berlin with my roommate, which was lame. BUT anyway, our field trip was to an area of Catalunya called La Garrotxa (that spelling took a WHILE), where there are VOLCANOS!

This = Volcano. I don't remember the name, though the guide did write it down on a little whiteboard for us.

The volcanos were not that exciting...well they weren't erupting, and our guides actually ended up getting us so lost we didn't REALLY make it to the top. I think. It was a little silly. But we got to go weed-whacking and I got a little bit of adventuring down which was NICE. I really can't wait to get back to NH and walk in the woods for hours and hours (yeah, I'm a city girl, can't you tell?).

ALSO, before we made our perilous hike up to the not top of the volcano, we visited this WICKED cool cooperative, that is first and foremost a social service (totally not the right phrase but hey, I'm tired) project, to give jobs to the mentally handicapped. They are the third best-selling yoghurt company in Catalunya (which is the only place they sell), and they have everything a company needs to make yoghurt in the...place...I don't know what call it - facility? including cows and machinery.

We pet BABY COWS.

The cool thing is they've taken out some part of the machinery just to create jobs for mentally handicapped people to do.

There are actually no unemployed people with mental disabilities in La Garrotxa. And the unemployment rate in Spain is something terrifying (I wanna say 21 but that sounds insane so I'm probably making it up - maybe it's 12 - or 3 or 1000 or 42), so that's REALLY good. Also, their yoghurt (KDubs are you reading?) is DELICIOUS. Like, the best I've ever had. Like greek yoghurt but without being so rich you can't really take it. I could go on. And on. Regarding yoghurt.

THEN I got back to Barcelona and guess what I did for the rest of my weekend. Go on. Guess.

My friend Holly. At the BEACH.

Yeah that's right. Unfortunately, sunscreen is SUPER expensive in pharmacies and all the other stores were closed today, so I tried to make it through the day with only the tiny tube of sunscreen I brought in my carry-on. It's a blotchy mess. Ah well. Worth it, I haven't been so relaxed the whole time I've been here. Though, I cannot wait until I'm on a beach where huge groups of Pakistani men don't walk around with coolers SCREAMING about how they have "colafantacervezaagua." I almost fell asleep SO many times, just to wake up to their dulcet tones. Ugh.

Anyway, hows the flood season going? :)

NO MORE FOR A WHILE. I'm going to be wander vaguely around Europe for a week and a half after finals for one of my schools, which are happening right now. AHHH. Then a post-craziness post(s?) and MAYBE a post-Sarah Kane, pre-returning one. You never know what I'll manage.

Well that's not a lot of time...

OKAY. Two days ago I hit the month mark. Wow. Just wow.

But let's not think about that. Let's think about THE CAPITAL OF SPAIN. Because it is beautiful. And the people there are REALLY nice.

Anyway, my friends and I organized a kind of last minute trip to Madrid for last weekend (Last minute meaning I had to stay in a different hostel each night. blech.). So the day before I went to Sants (Barcelona's EVIL Train station) for three hours so that I could activate my rail pass and get a reservation on a train to Madrid.

About trains. I love them.

Planes are so difficult: you have to go through security, get there an hour early (meaning you wait around for a while), deal with horrible lines, Ryanair customer service, all that fun stuff. Trains are so EASY. You get your ticket, you put your bag through a little scanner, you wait for about 10 minutes, and then you get on the train.

Then you get to your destination, walk out of the station, and there's the city. Okay, you don't see it quite from that angle, but you get my drift. So nice. I'm so happy I only have two more plane flights left in Europe. And then I go home and have a million more. Oh well. They have Southwest at home. SO because of my newfound train-derived freedom I walked off in the completely wrong direction, and it took me at least two hou

rs to GET to the hostel where my friends were waiting for me. Oops. Luckily this gave them time to plan out an ABSURDLY busy day, so I dropped off my stuff and we were off.

Out of the list they found of the 10 must-sees of Madrid, we did all but one that first day.

And it was lovely. We found a place with 2.50 euro beers that come with free tapas, and promised the slightly sketchy guys we'd come back for lunch the next day, which we did, and tried Calamari sandwiches. Don't try them if you don't like salt. Luckily I do :). The next day we finished up our list of must-sees by convincing ourselves that the Botanical Garden was the Retiro and being offended that we had to pay to get in. Luckily we can READ so we figured it out, and went to the Retiro later, where two different spanish couples basically had sex in front of us. Huh.

Though SOME people might think that the botanical garden was a

mistake, just because we didn't actually want to go there, let me set you straight. It was BEAUTIFUL in there, the trees looked a LITTLE sad but the Tulips and Daffodils absolutely made up for it. The best part, though, is while we were walking along, minding our business, we saw these guys:

WHOA. First, they blew some bubbles and danced around.Ya know, no big deal. Except you're in SPARKLY GOLD SPANDEX! So we took some pics and kept walking, and when we got back, there were a couple children around them, either loving it or absolutely terrified. Then the fairypeople started walking off and gesturing for us (okay, probably the children, but we were THERE) to come with them. What we were SUPPOSED to do? They frolicked over to a fountian full of balls full of gold raffia and started playing with them, except now they had some gold rattles that they were playin around with as well. It was BIZZARE. And awesome. I loved it. :)

After that, I went to Toledo for a day trip on my own, which was nice, but the city is VERY dirty and it was rainy. Also, there is SO much to do there, so many different museums and churches, but very few of them are free, and I got there so late most of them were closed. Sad. I DID go to the El Greco house museum, which was very cool, and had one of his Apostleries(?) okay I don't remember the term at all, but it's just his depiction of all the Apostles and Jesus. I liked it a lot. Also, if the people in Madrid were nice, the people in Toledo were even nicer. I went into one store and the woman waited on me while her ADORABLE daughter just ran around and around with her husband. It was so much more ALIVE than the places you have to buy crappy cheap tourist stuff in Barcelona. But I guess that's what I get for buying crappy cheap tourist stuff. Also, they had suits of armor EVERYWHERE and I would have bought Andy a sword but I don't think airport security would be very happy about that. Probably that would even be stretching TRAIN security. :)