PARIS

Since time is of the essence and since I really don't have any free time right now, I'm going to another quick summary of Paris. Ranking my top 3 experiences.

1. Drinking. Going to happy hour is extremely popular in Paris, much more so than in Madrid. It is much more than a pastime or addiction for some, it is a way of life. I am fortunate enough to have a number of friends abroad in Paris this semester/year, friends that  you might say are in the know concerning this aspect of Parisian culture. After having been out until 4 o'clock Thursday night/morning, we followed Friday up with the same thing. A group of my friends from Davidson met up to go to happy hour at bar and then go to dinner. My fraternity brother, Joel, chose well when he took us to one of his favorite's, which just happens to be open 24 hrs a day. I wasn't sure what to order until I saw Gin Fizz on the menu. My friends had mentioned how great it was and I knew that I needed to try it in all of its/my alcoholic glory. It proved to be the perfect beginning to a great night. The bar itself was incredible. It was 8 stories, located in the Latin Quarter and drinks were in the neighborhood of 11 euros, which is pretty normal for any bar nice or crappy in Paris. (Thank you happy hour.) From there we found a little restaurant to have dinner, where everyone will be glad to know that we rehydrated with water! Unfortunately the carafe was rather small and I only had 2 small glasses. Not good.

From there, Joel gave us a tour around the city we visited Notre Dame, the Hotel de Ville, the Mareis, and a few other sites before meeting up with my friend from Saint Stephen's and Davidson, Katherine, who is living in the Mareis near the Pompidou. We met up with her, went to a typical French cafe, and began our cigarette-smoking, wine-drinking marathon. For starters, we began with a bottle of the wine of the month, the cheapest thing on the menu. We drank that, drank another and then headed to her apartment, which was about 4 minutes away. In her apartment, we drank another, hanging out, talking, and still smoking a little. To put things in perspective, by the time we met up with Katherine, our group had dwindled down to three people. In other words, three people were doing all of this drinking, smoking, joking, and toking. (Kidding.) By the time we left Katherine's around 3:30, we had each had our own bottle of wine and had each smoked at least half a pack of cigarettes. Not bad for a day in Paris, I suppose.

So this is where the hydration part comes into play. I hadn't hydrated myself much or really at all Friday. I had had a small bottle of Evian and maybe four thimbles of water what the French might call a glass. So the next day, I woke up not feeling so hot. At first, I was fine and then I was blah. (Barfing sound.) So I barfed, felt well afterwards and decided that we should still go sightseeing in the morning. The moment that the metro doors shut, I knew that sightseeing had been a bad idea. I gave Caroline a wince of we-need-to-get-off-asap, which she aptly understand and we both quickly disembarked at the next metro stop. Unfortunately by the time I was walking through the metro, I had already started blah. (Visualize barfing in a Parisian metro station) I barfed in the hallway, in a garbage can, and on the stairs. Not bad. Talking about the event afterwards, Caroline told me that nobody really seemed to pay any attention to the scene, indicating that its really nothing to unusual for Paris. So this time, after I had barfed, I was sure that I was well. I all I needed was some food. So we went to a crêperie and I had a fanta and sugar crêpe. Everything went fine, and I didn't barf again. Although, I ended up being incapacitated for part of the day, it really didn't hinder me too much although we did joke about taking a picture of me barfing at all of the major sights in Paris. I'll have to work on that one for the next time. 

2. The Building Covered in tropical plants. After my second barfing incident, we headed to the Eiffel Tower and then to this building covered by tropical plants that I really wanted to see. I know that reading it sounds fairly lame, but this building was designed with a special irrigation system that has permitted its entire facade to be covered in mosses, vines, and shrubbery. It's incredible especially considering a majority of the plants are not native to France and cannot usual survive in that climate.

3. Cafe Marly. Cafe Marly is right outside of the Louvre with sights of the Eiffel Tower and the Tuileries. It was by far the best meal I've had any where this semester. The lamb was as tender and as tasty as any that I have had. The gravy was delicious and the mashed potatoes rank right up there with Grandmother's. If you go to Paris it is a must, it is also open until 2 daily.

Something Forgotten and a Madrid Update

I seem to have forgotten to post a few particularly exciting moments in Belgium. 

The first night that I was in Brussels, there was this huge baptism party with people running around in the streets covered in food. It seems a strange tradition - to follow up a baptism with a pseudo-food fight. So Caroline and I were walking around (after having crêpes) and some girl ran up to us asking if we wanted to pay 50 cents to break an egg on this girls head for her recent baptism. I was sort of shocked and a little concerned that this was another pickpocket ploy, but no sooner had I began to question this girl covered in food when a Belgian couple came over and asked if they could crack the egg on her head. It seemed legitimate enough. So, we paid and began the egg-cracking process, which is more difficult than you may imagine. Since we did not want to cause any bodily damage and give our newly christianized friend an egg-sized lump on her head, proceeded to tap the egg on her head, to no avail. Caroline gave up not wanting to hurt the girl and I took over. A few taps later and the egg had been cracked after a rather forcefully slap of the fist. She smiled bid us adieu and continued off into the night raising money via egg cracking. (Definitely ranks up there as one of the top 10 experiences of my life.)

So here is the update on Madrid.

This past weekend was relatively low-key. I went to Toledo for the day with my art history class and ended up visiting a church, a cathedral, two synagogues both of which were built by Muslims, and a mosque. Mazapan, the local specialty, was incredible.

Another food related note - I've become a huge fan of blood sausage.

 

Recent Travels

This past week was a whirlwind trip that took me all over the low countries, seeming more like two weeks worth of travel than just a few days. Instead of summarizing my trip, I'm just going to jot down the highlights, good beer, near robberies, etc.

1. Belgium is probably the most underrated country in Western Europe. I guessing being between Paris and Amsterdam, people usually just skip the scenic, beer-filled country to arrive in either the appealing sex and drugs in Amsterdam or the culture, art, and fashion in Paris. So, I arrived in Belgium around 10:30 and started the sightseeing. In a single afternoon, I crammed in visits to the Palace of Justice, the National Gallery of the Beaux Arts, and numerous Art Nouveau buildings. A particular highlight was going to the house of Victor Horta, the famed Art Nouveau architect. I had learned about his house in my Modern Architecture class and was really impressed to see it in person. I had forgotten that it was in Brussels, so it was a nice surprise to realize I had the opportunity to see it. The National Gallery was also extremely interesting. A particularly important painting, "The Death of Marat," which corresponds to one of France's most turbulent political periods, was extremely fascinating. More artists with work at the National Gallery included Peter Brugel, El Bosco, and Roger van Der Weyden.

After the National Gallery, I decided to walk to what seemed like a fairly safe, interesting park nearby. When I arrived near the entrance, there were two people with clip boards trying to collect signatures to help the poor children. When the woman approached me, she asked me to sign her form. I immediately said, "No, no, no" with a Spanish accent and proceeded to enter the park.  I was in an area that was overlooking all of the park, and therefore I wanted to take a picture. The woman had returned to where she was a 3 or 4 meters away from me and I figured that I was done with her. Well, upon seeing me take a picture, her friend came over and began to ask me to sign the form to help the children. He kept asking and I just wanted to get rid of them, so I put my camera in my jacket pocket and began to make up some bogus name and address to put on the form. When I was about halfway finished fabricating an identity, I realized that the woman that had first approached me was now extremely close to me, close enough that I felt her rummaging around my pocket with the camera. See, I had not zipped the pocket and the cord was hanging out of the pocket; I was an easy target. Anyway upon this rapid realization, I threw the pen and the clip board in the air and just started walking relatively quickly away. Of course, they both yelled at me; I had foiled their robbery. 

That night, my friend, Caroline, came to Brussels to travel with me. We went to the historic town square for dinner and had potage, French for vegetable soup, and beer. I had the large Affligem blonde, which was incredible. It's only been around since 1074, almost 1000 years. (The butter with the bread was also the best I've ever had.)

2. I've always wanted to go to Germany and so it was great that we were able to work that into our trip. We to Cologne and Dusseldorf. Cologne is famous for the cathedral, which really is pretty amazing. After all of the cathedrals and churches that I have visited in Spain, this one topped them all. Never have I seen a church such high ceilings. We  paid the 2.50 euros to climb the bell tower, I think it was around 12 stories, easy. We walked around the city for a few hours, ate some pretzels, and then headed to Dusseldorf  for the rest of the day. Dusseldorf was one of my favorite sites this trip. The Rhine river runs through heart of the old part of the city. There were old churches, municipal buildings, and restaurants. We still had not eaten by 3 and found a great place to eat that served schnitzel. I had a jaeger schnitzel, which was surprisingly similar to the jaeger schnitzel I've had at home. I also had an Alt, the locally brewed beer. After lunch we continued to explore and went to the more modern area to see the famous office complex by Frank Gehry. At 6, we took the train to Amsterdam, where I also had a Beck's. 

3. We arrived in Amsterdam around 8:30 and took the street car from the central train station to our hotel. After having wandered the streets lost, we found the hotel, checked in, and hurriedly left in an attempt to find some grub. We had read that Surinamese and Indonesian are both pretty popular in the Netherlands, as they were both colonies. We ended up finding an Indochinese restaurant. And although we were the only customers inside, it proved to be a very good meal. I had a spicy beef stew dish with prawn chips, green beans, and rice. The iced tea ranks right up there as one of the best that I've had. Sweetened perfectly, ice (which is rare in Europe), and lemon. After dinner, we decided we would peruse the read light district. The map that the hotel had given us was unfortunately not very helpful. From my travels as a young child, I remembered that it was near the waterfront. Amsterdam is surrounded by water, so that didn't help either. Fortunately, I recognized that a group of guys around my age was speaking Spanish. A group of twenty-year olds would know, right? So, I asked and they told me that it was hidden near the central train station. At first I believed them, but when they started laughing I was more or less convinced that they had been drunk and therefore were lying. So we returned to the main square to have a coffee, beer, etc. Before we ordered, I heard another group speaking Spanish, and so I asked them. This time, however, I used the phrase zona roja, which literally translates to red neighborhood. They seemed to understand and they too told us that it was near the central train station. With that, we went to the train station and continued searching. It wasn't for another hour or so that we actually found the red light district, after I had gone inside the train station and asked the information desk where it was. 

After we had had our fill exploring the city, we began to walk back to the hotel, which was probably 3 miles away from the red light district. About halfway there we decided that a taxi would be a worthwhile investment, since we had been walking since 7 in the morning and it was then 2 at night. Although we knew exactly where we needed to go, we flagged a taxi and told him that we knew we were close to the hotel, but we still wanted to use the taxi. He said everything was fine, we got in the car, and then he started to go in the opposite direction of hotel. I'm not stupd, and I told him to pull over right away. I was not going to have him charge us 40 euros to go a mile. We had not been in the car more than a minute when we told him to pull over, but somehow the fare managed to be 7 euros. I felt a ripped off. We got out, and began our trek to the hotel anew. It's really fairly simple to navigate in Amsterdam, even if you happen to be drugged out of your mind, drunk, lost, or an idiot, all you need to do is follow the tram tracks that would correspond to your line.

The next day was jam-packed. We went to the Van Gogh Museum, the Rjiks Museum, the Rembrant House, the Heineken Brewery (which was unfortunately closed for renovations), the flea market, and the flower market. We also managed to have lunch at a Surinamese restaurant and also found time to take a scenic canal boat ride. For dinner we had thai food; the red curry was great.

That night, I had best beer I've ever tasted at a random bar down some random side street. It was a dark beer, way better than Guinness. The name was something like Higden Jan, unfortunately I cannot fully remember. I know that there was something with an H and then the second word was Jan. I guess I'll have to keep trying beer until I find it again.

4. The next day, we went to Haarlem. Sound familiar? Think Harlem, NYC. Remember Manhattan was New Amsterdam before the British purchased it from the Dutch. I'm really glad that I was able to get to a small town in the Netherlands. While Haarlem is only 15 minutes away by train, it is far enough away to experience a different aspect of Dutch culture. Haarlem has an old town square, a famous church, a modern art museum, and the Frans Hals Museum. The highlight from this excursion was the lunch. We went to a neat off-the-beaten-path cafe full of locals. Caroline and I both had a toasted rosemary bread with a melted goat cheese, pine nuts, and a little honey, over arugula. It was hands down the best meal I've had in europe so far. All for 7 euros. Sorry, I forgot to take a picture. I was more focused on eating.  

As an aside, I've also decided that Flemish would be extremely easy to learn. I've already taught myself a few things. For example, ijs and lijn translate into ice and line. IJ makes an I sound. Simple.

5. Bruges is the most idyllic city in Europe. I haven't been to Switzerland and I hear every town is pretty picturesque, but so far Bruges takes the cake. Bruges is in the Flemish speaking area of Belgium. Word can't really describe how postcard perfect it was. I did however buy a great Belgian beer shirt as well as some assorted Belgian chocolates.

Behind

Sorry, I've been so perezoso or lazy with posting lately. Between the slight increase in school work and my busy life, there has not been too much time to write.

Here are the last few days in a nutshell:

This past Thursday, I did a little more exploring in Madrid. I spent the majority of the morning reading Harry Potter and then went to the Palacio de El Pardo around 3 after lunch. It was the first time that I used the bus system here in Madrid and fortunately for me I did not have to make any changes in order to get to my final destination. All I had to do was walk about 2 minutes to the metro/regional and city bus station. El Pardo is an interesting little suburb about 20 minutes from Madrid. The palace was another one of the Bourbon's hunting lodges surrounding Madrid. The building itself has had a very interesting role in Spanish history as it was more recently the residence of Franco for 21 or so years. It was particularly interesting to visit Franco's bedroom. There were two small twin beds next to each other and what appeared to be a desk in the corner was actually a small altar. The lid of the desk opens up and reveal a rather large Christ figure, whilst a small stool flips over for a place to kneel and prayer.

This past weekend, I went on another planned excursion with Hamilton this time to Salamanca, the towns of Castillo de Rodrigo and Almeida of Portugal, and Avila. The towns were really very incredible.

Salamanca is a vibrant college town with students not just from all over the Spain, but from all over the globe. There is a relatively interesting cathedral and a number of old university buildings that date back to the 12 or 14 the century. I cannot remember exactly. After a tour of the town Friday, my friends and I went out for tapas later that night. I had found what seemed to be an interesting bar in my Spanish guide book. The Bar was MoMo and the food was unbeatable and not too pricey. A sliced egg plant, proscuito, and parmesan cheese over a toasted slice of bread was probably the best tapa that I have had.

The next day, we visited Portuguese frontier and two very charming border towns. It was interesting going to Portugal in order to see a part of Spanish culture. Since Portugal was part of the Spanish kingdom there are many sights - castles, convents, and church - paid for and built by the Spanish. The first town was Rodrigo de Catillo. As suggested by the name, there was an old Castle. What I found more interesting in this town was the small chapel dedicated to the pilgrams making there way to Santiago de Compostela, the location of Saint James´s tomb. It was additionally interesting that I could actually understand a little bit of what our Portuguese tour guide was saying. Portuguese, while it may look similar to Spanish on paper, is completely different from Spanish in pronounciation. Next, we went to Almeida. The town itself is not too exciting, however the fortress surrounding the town is incredible. The fortress itself makes a shape of a star, which is pretty neat. 

After returning to Salamanca later that afternoon, a few of us went out for tapas. This time we discovered a slightly cheaper bar in the heart of the Plaza Mayor. To start, I asked for a caña or a beer on tap and then chose my first tapa, a toasted piece of bread laden with squid legs and shrimp. I had a few more tapas and a few more beers and left having paid something like 3 euros. Another interesting thing about the bars in Spain is that when you've finished using a napkin you are more than welcome to throw it on the ground. It's not uncommon to walk into a bar and see the floor almost entirely covered by napkins. While I'm on napkins, I want to mention that the paper napkins here are less like paper and more like wax paper. None of us Americans seem to understand it as the napkins really don't do anything.

The following day on our way back to Madrid, we went to the town of Avila, one of the best preserved medieval towns in Europe. The old wall surrounding Avila still protects the town. Unlike what happened in other medieval cities throughout Europe, the townspeople of Avila decided to keep the walls intact, which has paid off in a age huge from a tourism perspective. Avila is the only city in Europe to still have all of its town walls intact as they were in medieval times, which puts Avila's fame second only to the Great Wall of China. I also had the opportunity to try one of the region's typical sweets - egg yolk and sugar. The part candy - part desert really did look just like an egg yolk in its paper wrapper. To no surprise, it was a little gummy and the flavor was a little eggy too. I liked it and will be trying to find a box of the sweets to bring home to the States for Christmas.

I'm waking up tomorrow at 5 to fly to Brussels. This weekend should be crazy (and safe). No worries. I'll be headed to Brussels, Cologne, Dusseldorf, and Amsterdam. You'll have to check back Monday or Tuesday for another post. 

The Neighbor Living Above Me.

There seems to be one major experience that I have yet to report - the neighbor living above me.

The neighbor living above me is either mentally retarded or is an old decrepit woman who has dementia. Since I have arrived in Spain, I have been so lucky to hear the moans and gibberish talk of the woman/person/thing living above me. This neighbor has bouts of crazy that last for hours. Finally after a month, I've decided that the sounds are coming from the room above mine.

When I got back from my weekend trip with Hamilton today, I was surprised to hear the chanting, singing and praying of what sounded like a whole convent in my neighbor's room. (Clearly, this person has some sort of problem if there are bands of nuns coming to swing the rosary and pray.) 

So far, my neighbor's antics have been an unbeatable cultural experience. Furthermore, if this is what universal healthcare is going to be in the States, a do-it-yourself rest home where the mentally insane are left without care, I'd prefer to keep our system the way it is.

More Madrid

This week has been a little low-key. I guess you could say I'm moving from tourist to Madrileño in lifestyle, nonetheless a number of bizarre and interesting things have occurred since I've last posted.

The first - After my class in El Prado on Tuesday, I decided to walk to the Sol and go to the famous pasteleria and buy a sweet treat. (They have great OJ as well.) So, I bough my chocolate napolitana, a chocolate croissant, and proceeded to the nearest metro station. I bought my ticket and headed toward the entrance. Just as I was passing a few of the ticket machines, I heard a clatter of coins. I stopped, looked around, but there was no one anyone near this particular machine that had suddenly released the coins. I waited a few moments just to make sure that no one had actually bought a ticket and had forgotten to collect the change. No one returned and with that realization, I swooped in, collected my prize, and quickly headed to the platform. In total, I had found 10 euros.

The second - After having eaten french fries nearly every day for two weeks, I finally told my señora that I would prefer something else. I was trying to explain to her that my family has had a history with heart problems; she continued to reassure me that she only uses olive oil. Something she says is good for the heart.

The third - I've started a tradition of going to an Indian restaurant every wednesday after my class that get out at 8. My friends and I go to this relatively cheap, moderately hippie section of town where there is more or less an oasis of Eastern delights. Next week, we are going to a hookah bar after dinner.

The fourth - I'd like to hunt in Spain. Not having class today, I decided I wanted to find a hunting store in Madrid. I figured that this being the largest city, there would have to be some pretty good places. (As a confirmation, there are indeed some pretty good places to spend loads of money on hunting related items.) The name of the store I went to is called the Diani Viaji, which sounds more Italian than Spanish. Anyway, the store was great - a refreshing breath of conservative, old, aristocratic Europe. The walls were lined with shotguns or escopetas from all over the world. I was more interested in the Spanish makes, like Ugartechea, which rung up around 1500 euros. Not a bad buy considering that it is a local, custom-made gun. This seemed to be about the best buy in the store, as hunting garb ranged from 800 euro hunting jackets to 150 euro hunting pants. I did smile to myself a little when I saw my African hunting boots priced at 300 euros. (We paid something far far cheaper. I want to say they were something around 80 bucks.) I ended up buying a Spanish cook book for wild game. It's in Spanish, so some deciphering via dictionary may be required, but I figured I could use it on our game from the States.

The fifth - I'm happy to say that I have read my first 626 page book in Spanish. (Harry Potter 7) Nonetheless, is is somewhat of an accomplishment and I have decided to read the entire series before I return home.

The sixth - I went to another palacio today. I have a monthly metro/bus/tram pass now, so I can literally go anywhere the metropolitan area with ease. So, I decided to go to el Palacio de el Pardo, which was a royal hunting palace of the Bourbons and more recently was Franco's place of residence. The trip was fun and it was additionally nice to have my own adventure in Madrid by myself. 

The seventh - I believe I have found the cheapest tapas bar in Madrid. Tonight my friends and I went to El Tigre for tapas. You could not ask for anything more authentic than this. The bar was packed when we got there and we had to push our way in. The atmosphere was lively, but relaxed at the same time. For 1.80 euros I had a grand old vaso of vino tinto and a heaping plate of varios tapas. I will likely be returning there within the week. I figure if I go there with frequency, I'm bound to make more Spanish friends than I could want.

The eighth - Tonight, I have also found the prostitutes. As I was walking to my metro station, a number of Hispano-Caribbeans of African descent tried marketing themselves to me with phrases like "Eh, Chico." It was sort of like the time when we were propositioned by a prostitute in Cape Town. This time, however, there were something like 7 women lurking on the doorstep of an old building.

Again, if any of you feel the need to visit Madrid between now and December, feel free to request my services. I would be more than happy to give you a tour of all the above mentioned  sites and then some.