Pa´s Visit Spain

As soon as I got back to Spain from the states, it was time for another adventure. The day before I arrived back, the President´s Ambassadors group from Georgetown came to Spain for a week-long excursion through Madrid and Barcelona. As I was a part of this group and was able to go to both Greece and San Francisco while at Georgetown, I knew many of the people and wanted to show them around the country as much as I could. So I met up with them the night I got back (Monday night), and stayed with them until Saturday.

Monday night and Tuesday were spent around Madrid. This ended up working out for me, as my luggage was stuck in Paris for a while due to flight delays and other airline crap. The first night, I took them to my favorite Spanish chain, 100 Montaditos. It´s this great place that has 1 euro sandwiches and drinks on Wednesday night, and every other night still has great deals. So we went there and I introduced the group to tinto de verano, a tasty drink that mixes red wine with either lemon Fanta or soda water. Of course, they all loved it as much as I do.

On Tuesday, I spent my first full day back in Spain by traveling with them to Avila and Segovia. While these are both places I had already been to, it was still nice to spend the day with old friends from back home. We also were able to make it back to Madrid in time to see the parade for the Reyes Magos.

In Spain, instead of having a big Christmas celebration, they have a little Christmas and a somewhat bigger Dia de los Reyes Magos, or Day of the Wise Kings. Instead of Santa Clause bringing presents, one of the 3 reyes comes and delivers presents. Of course, the Spaniards have gotten somewhat wrapped up in Western traditions and this has changed a little, but the Reyes Magos are still important. In many cities, they have a parade with the wise men and other floats that throw out loads of candy. We got to see the one in Madrid, and it was full of many amazing floats and baloons and all kinds of other shenanigans. Candy was being hurled everywhere, and families came with ladders for their kids to get better views and better positions to catch the sweets. It was a sight to see.

At the beginning of the parade, they had this girl doing acrobats and only held in the air by hundreds of balloons. Pretty cool.

After the parade, we went out and had a great night on the Madrid town. While out, we didn´t really worry about the fact that we had to be up bright and early to catch the train to Barcelona.

The next morning, we boarded the high-speed train to Barcelona after a mere 3 hours of sleep. This was my first high-speed train adventure, and it was great to see the Spanish countryside racing by. Once we got to Barcelona, we didn´t have much time to rest. We were given the task of a scavenger hunt about the city. My group ended up abandoning the planned scavenger hunt and basically created our own adventure. We ate a great typical Spanish lunch with paella and salads and tortilla and made our way up to Park Guell, a cool park designed by Gaudi. It took us a while to get there, but the views at sunset were amazing and the Gaudi architecture there was unbeatable. I could have stayed up there all day.

Us eating lunch on our scavenger hunt adventure.

Part of my group inside of the Park Guell at sunset.

The next day, we spent the morning on a tour of the old city, including a visit to Gaudi´s Sagrada Familia church. It is probably the most famous building in Spain, a church that was started 100 years ago and is still unfinished. They say it´ll be done in 2025, but we´ll see... The church was amazing to see from the outside, but we didn´t get the chance to go in. Afterwards, we continued our day with a rainy visit to the sea so many of the group could touch the Mediterranean for the first time.

The Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's church that is supposed to be finished in 2025. Yeah, right.

Our last full day in Barcelona, Friday, was supposed to be spent on a day trip to Zaragoza. Unfortunately, after driving about an hour and a half towards the city, we entered blizzard-like conditions and had to turn around and come back. The roads were actually shut down, but our tour guide Mar (who was crazy and told pickpocketers near our group ¨If you touch my group, I´ll kill you¨ and yelled at an old man in the cathedral) lied to one set of police telling them that another set of police said we could turn around and go back. Way to go, Mar. So we headed back to Barcelona and were able to take in some more of the sights, including Gaudi´s famous house, Casa Batllo. We concluded the last night with a last hoorah out on the town. It made for a perfect ending to the trip with the PA´s.

Us in the snow storm at the rest stop. Buses had been there all night and people were waiting to leave, but our bus snuck out past the police after some smooth talking.
Me on the top of Gaudi's Casa Batllo.
Us having fun (probably a little too much fun considering how early we had to wake up the next morning) at the bar that strangely only served Budweiser. Wait, aren't we in Spain?

While the PA´s left early Saturday morning, I slept in and waited for my flight back to Madrid from the Girona airport. I went to the bus station, bought my ticket for the 1 1/2 hour bus out to the Girona airport, and waited in line to get my documentation checked for the flight. Since we rode the train there, I didn´t think anything about needing my passport. I figured the airlines would accept my national identity card from Spain since we were not flying out of the country. However, when I got to the window, the lady turns to about page 12 of the bylaws and shows me a sentence where it says no national identity cards are accepted. So I go ask the information desk if there is any way around it, and he tells me to tell them that I lost my passport and I can go the police in the airport and get a document proving that. I spend about 30 minutes with the police filling out a fake police report saying my passport was stolen, which they say will work for the airline. When I go back up to the airline windows, the lady tells me that that won´t work because I didn´t fly to Barcelona with RyanAir. For some reason that makes a difference. So after they´re really mean about the whole situation, I´m stressed out and just went to get back to Madrid and haven´t eaten all day, now it´s time for me to find another way back to Madrid. I end up having to ride the bus back into Barcelona, then get on another bus for 7 1/2 hours back to Madrid. Let´s just say, it was a miserable trip home. And I will never travel without my passport again. The whole point in flying back to Madrid was saving money, but I ended up spending just as much as if I would have taken the high-speed train.

I finally made it back to my piso in Madrid at 2 am, marking the end to a crazy, yet fun adventure with the PA´s in Spain.

In conclusion, Jon Elrod riding the lion.

home for the holidays

In attempts to once again catch up people back home on my life (although not many of you read this, we´re going to act like it´s more popular than it really is) and to generate some nostalgia in me for the motherland, it´s time to update on my 16-day return trip to los Estados Unidos.

On Dec. 18, I packed up my few belongings that I wanted to take back to the states (you know, those things that I brought thinking I was going to use/wear that sat in my drawers for 4 months) and my Christmas presents for friends and family (killing 2 birds with one stone: Spain and X-mas) and headed back to the good ol´ USofA with Jordan. Our plane ride back was rather uninteresting, minus the fact that we had half of the Harlem Globetrotters on our plane heading back home to their families after their European tour. After making it to Atlanta, we had our four-hour layover turn into a 7-hour layover because of snow in North Carolina (thanks, Charlotte). But it was okay, because I was able to eat some airport Qdoba as I savored being back in Eastern time.

It was great to see my family, my friends, and of course my dogs while I was home. The next few weeks were spent traveling, eating loads of deserts (my mom made food as if I hadn´t eaten while I was in Spain), and catching up on what I´d missed the past four months (including Jersey Shore. thanks MTV for your amazing trashy TV). Here are some of the highlights of my visit home:

1. Of course, seeing my family and getting to spend time with them. This includes great Christmas memories with both sides of the family on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

While I have no pictures actually with my family, I thought our Griswald-style front yard was worth noting here.
Catching up with some high school friends.

2. Archie, my amazing puppy. Well, he´s not really a puppy anymore, but I have spent more time away from him than with him since he wondered onto our fraternity porch last December, cold and malnourished. Now, he´s living the royal life at home with my family.

3. Spending lots of time hanging out with the great Jaffe family.

4. Going to not one, but two UK basketball games at Rupp Arena. One with Rebecca (thanks for the tickets, Layne!) and the other with Nelson. With Nelson, we got there 3 hours early and waited in line for tickets to the Erupption Zone (normally the student section, but sold for $5 on the day of to anyone during the break). We were numbers 180 and 181 in line and the guy said they thought they had around 175 tickets. Fortunately, they had 184, meaning we were able to get in and see the game from 10 rows back.

Our view from the 10th row or so at the UK game.

5. An amazing New Year´s party at Layne´s house. In attendance were all the guys I wanted to catch up with and see while home (minus Ryan, who unfortunately couldn´t make his way up from his wilderness job in Texas) and some of the girls.

The whole gang at New Year's.

6. A sad defeat of UL by UK in the annual rivalry game, but another good afternoon spent with friends from school and Archie´s playtime with TC´s new puppy, Wrigley (who dominated Archie, even though he´s about half his size. apparently I have a wimpy dog. all bark, no bite).

7. Getting a much-needed haircut. It´s amazing how much hair can grow in 5 months. I feared getting my haircut in Spain and ending up with a ¨Spanish¨ haircut, aka a mullet or something equally as hideous.

When I first got to Spain, I thought that I would stay around here and travel over Christmas break. I don´t know what I was thinking! It would have been so hard to be away from the states and all of the comforts of home for that long. Don´t get me wrong, I am enjoying myself here in Spain, but it was great to go home for the holidays.

In conclusion, Nelson Heard trying to mean mug. Oh, and look at the score in the background. Can we say blowout?

Madrid with Jordan

After Jordan and I got back from Rome, we had a week to spend in Madrid before going back to the states together. We filled the week with all kinds of stuff:
- A day trip to Cercedilla to go hiking. The weather was perfect, and you could see snow on some of the distant mountains.

Up at the lookout in Cercedilla. No one was there, so we were able to eat lunch up there by ourselves.

- A failed attempt to take a day trip to Toledo. We went to the train station to catch a train, but there were 70 people waiting in line for tickets. And the line was slow. We tried to then catch a bus, but went to the wrong bus station.
- Trips to both the Prado museum and the Reina Sofia to see Picasso's, Goya's and Valazquez's.
- A journey down to the main street to watch the red carpet at the Madrid premiere of Where the Wild Things Are and getting Spike Jonze's autograph.

Spike Jonze and the kid from Where the Wild Things Are.

- Seeing Chewbacca in Sol.

Yep, Chewwy.

- Jordan coming to my school and getting to meet my hellian class, who were out in full force. They were chanting, bowing down to me, and throwing stuff everywhere. Soon I will tape them for you all to see.
- An amazing Hanukkah dinner prepared by Becca.

The Hanukkah feast. Gracias, Becca.

Some of Madrid's many Christmas lights.

Yes, great times were had in Madrid, but I was so excited to head home for a couple of weeks for Christmas break.

When in Rome...

Wow, it's been quite a time since I last posted. And this time it's due more to business than lack of doing exciting things. In all actuality, the past 2 weeks have probably been the most exciting I've had since getting to Spain. One major reason for that was the visit of one Jordan Allen, a college graduate-turned Cracker Barrel 3(or 4)-star employee who luckily had nothing better to do than visit me in Europe. During his 2 weeks in Europe, we had many adventures, including a week-long journey to the hub of ancient civilization: Rome, Italy.
Since I had a long 5-day weekend and Jordan wanted to come, we took this chance to make my first Euro trip outside of Spain to Rome. After we made our reservations, we got the great surprise that Dustin and Bethany would be joining us. Bethany is doing the same Fulbright teaching grant I'm doing, only in East Germany. Her husband Dustin is just there along for the line, surprisingly studying Spanish at a German university. They are two of my good friends from Georgetown, so it was great to see them and have them join in on our adventure.
Jordan arrived to Spain on Wednesday morning (Dec. 2). I was able to get off work at the last-minute to pick him up from the airport. I had told him that I was going to be late because I had to work, so just to wait for me at the airport. But instead of waiting outside of the security area for me, he waited inside. After I walked the length of the airport 3 times looking for him for 2.5 hours, he finally decided to walk out of the baggage claim area and realized that where he had waited before was a place I couldn't get to. Eventually I find him and bring him back to my piso to wait for me while I go to work for 1 afternoon class. Right off the bat, adventure #1 out of the way. Later that night, I took him all around Madrid and tried to show him all the greatness that is Madrid so he'd love the city before going to see the amazingness of Rome the next day.
After a full day of class on Thursday (and by full day I mean 1 class), Jordan and I boarded a luxurious RyanAir flight on our way to Rome. On the flight, we had the fortune of sitting in front of a girl who talked literally the WHOLE flight to Rome. And she talked to a dude that was sitting next to her that she didn't even know. By the time we landed in Rome, I think everyone within a 4 row radius knew her life story.
After a short bus ride from the airport to Rome's main train station, we were able to meet up with Dustin and Bethany who had arrived earlier that day. Again, not an easy meeting. We waited for 15 minutes or so at the metro exit, only to realize we were at the wrong one. Instead of going to the normal metro exit where most people go, we walked to the shady exit about a block and a half away. But in the end, we found each other and they went with us to our hostel. Oh, and another great addition to the arrival story. While I meant to print out instructions on how to get to the hostel, it escaped my mind before leaving. So as our plane is taxiing in Madrid (the last minute possible, since I couldn't use my phone in Madrid), I was able to call Katica and get her to look up the hostel address for me. From there, we figured we could play it by ear and ask someone at the train station for directions to the street. Luckily this worked out and we got someone to circle the street on a map for us.
We made it to our hostel at about 9:30. The hostel we stayed in was actually a Bed & Breakfast called RitmoBlues B&B. There were only 4 rooms in the place, and our room was just a king-sized bed and it had its own bathroom. Pretty much it was a hotel. And Sabino, the B&B owner, lived right down the hall. It was a pretty sweet place, even though I think Sabino was worried about us being crazy partiers at first since we came in with Dustin and Bethany, who were staying at another hostel because our's was full.
The first morning, we woke up bright and early to head over to Vatican City. Again, us meeting up was a big ordeal. But an hour later, we went into the Vatican Museum to find Dustin and Bethany waiting for us there. When we get inside the Vatican Museum, Bethany is walking frantically towards the information booth. We see her and say hi as she tells us, "Hi. Dustin is being detained by Vatican security. We need someone who speaks English." So we look over, and yes, Dustin is standing against the wall with 2 Vatican security officers in front of him. Neither of them speak English, but they will not let Dustin move. Bethany is searching all over the lobby for someone to translate for them, and finally finds a guy at the information booth. He tells Bethany that the guard wants them both to leave the Vatican and not come back, but will not tell them why. Apparently Dustin went to get his checked backpack back from the bag check and they took off the security tag, which for some reason was a big no-no. After about 20 minutes of Bethany talking with guards, and finally finding one who spoke English, they had to apologize (for who knows what) and we were able to go into the Vatican.
The Vatican museum really was amazing. There was room after room of art, most of it painted on the wall itself. From works by Raphael to cool carpet tapestries by lesser-known artists, it was just amazing walking through there. We also got to see the Sistine Chapel. Even though we couldn't take pictures, the images of that room remain in my mind. It was not as big as I thought it would be, but it was still just covered with masterpiece after masterpiece from Michelangelo. There were also a lot of old relics and sculptures that I didn't know much about, but was still able to appreciate.

While you weren't able to take pictures in the Sistine Chapel, I got some other good ones. This is a Raphael fresco. He painted himself into the painting, too. He's in the right side right before the door frame arches wearing a beret.

After going through the museum, we moved on over to St. Peter's Cathedral. As we walked inside, it really was the most impressive church I have ever seen. The little side chapels were just as big as a normal church, and the main area was massive. It was really cool to walk in there and just know how much history was in that spot. We even got to see the catacombs down below with many of the old Pope's sarcophagi. I stood on the very spot where it is believed St. Peter is buried down below. I touched the foot of the St. Peter statue that millions of pilgrims have touched over the years. It was so cool just to be in that building. We didn't get to go up to the top of the dome because it was raining, but I was able to see all of the Vatican that I needed to see.
We continued on that night to see the Castle St. Angelo. Many of you all might remember it as the Illuminati Lair in Angels & Demons. So we went inside at night, got some great night pictures of the castle and of the view to St. Peter's, then called it an early night after dinner. We packed a lot into that day, so of course we were worn out.

Luckily I didn't wear my speed suit to St. Peter's.
The Jubilee Door inside St. Peter's. This door is only opened every 25 years and will be opened next in 2025.
The inside of the cathedral was amazingly huge. And underneath we got to see the catacombs where many famous Popes are laid to rest.

St. Peter's was amazing at nightfall, even with the rain.
A night view of Castle St. Angelo from across the river. The angel on top is lit up, leading the way to the Illuminati lair.

On Saturday, which was Dustin's birthday, we had an early morning at the Roman Forum and the Colosseum. These two places were probably my favorites by far. It was awesome to see so much history still intact after thousands of years. And to know that millions of people had walked on the exact spots that I was walking on. Even though it was Saturday, luckily neither site was too crowded and we were able to spend pretty much all day there. That night, we made our way over to see the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain. Those two spots were also really cool. We got to look up through the top of the Pantheon where there's the hole, and see the Trevi Fountain all lit up at nighttime. We liked it so much there that we'd make our way back there anoher night.

2 of the Fulbrighters in front of the Colosseum. If only Jordan Sanderson could have been there, we'd have all been together.
Dustin loves to play Frisbee, and on his birthday he got to throw frisbee in the 1,000's-year-old Roman Forum. Pretty cool.
The guys (Dustin, me, Jordan) inside of the Colosseum as the sun was setting.
The hole inside of the Parthenon. Architects have tried to recreate a building like this, but still can't figure out how they were able to build it.
This is another fountain we visited that night, Bernini's Four Rivers. It was where the fourth priest died in Angels & Demons.

On Sunday, we planned a more relaxing day of seeing the Pope and searching for the Appian Way. We started the day off right with a run. Jordan and I ran around the Colosseum and up to the top of Capital Hill from our hostel. The sun was rising and it was a great way to start. Before seeing the Pope, we threw frisbee for a while along the river. Apparently, the Appian Way part not so much. We ended up walking miles, only to get to the start of the Appian Way at night. What the Appian Way is is the road that people used to come into Rome in ancient times. It has a lot of cool stuff on it apparently, and we thought it was closed to traffic on Sundays. Apparently by the time we got there, it was opened back up to traffic. And the road was barely big enough for the two lanes of cars that were speeding down it, yet alone the four of us trying to walk down it. So instead of making it to the cool part of the road, we decided to trudge on back in the cold darkness and wait for a bus back into the city. It was fun, but sad that we never found it.

Jordan running past the Colosseum.
Running at sunrise on the Circus Maximus, one of the oldest tracks in existence.
Us waiting to hear the Pope talk. This is where we stood thinking we had an amazing spot to see the Pope come out of his apartment, which we thought was above St. Peter's...
But for some reason all the other people were looking to the side. maybe that's where his Pope-Mobile rides in...
But no, they were all right. His apartment is on the side of the Vatican. It's okay, we still got to see him.

Monday was Bethany and Dustin's last day there, so we stuck around the city center so they could catch the bus to the airport. We went to two different cathedrals, one with Bernini's grave and the other with the Saint Teresa in Ecstasy statue. They were both really famous churches, so I'm glad we got to see them. But by this time, all the churches kind of ran together. From there, we went to see the Spanish Steps and walked all the way up them. None of us are really sure of their significance, but they were fun to see. And then we went to Piazza d'el Poppolo, another really cool plaza with some churches and a big obelisk in the middle. They had a lot of artifacts there that they just took from the Egyptians. That was pretty much what the Romans did, took whatever they wanted from other cultures and made it their own. Good work, Romans. We had to say goodbye to Dustin and Bethany, which was sad. It was a lot of fun getting to hang out with them, and I can't wait to visit them in Germany. Too bad it's really expensive or I'd be there a few times over the next couple of months.

Jordan throwing a coin into Trevi Fountain on one of our return visits.

On Tuesday, after we said goodbye to D & B, Jordan and I took a day trip out of the city. We went to this town called Tivoli about an hour outside of Rome to see these two amazing villas. The first one, Villa D'Este, had a lot of amazing fountains and a really cool house. It was used by old Cardinals in Italy. The other villa belonged to Hadrian, and was thousands of years old. It took us a while to find this one, and we had to walk a lot to get to the cool parts, but it was worth it. The villa is thousands of years old, so you can imagine not many of the building were there. But the structures that were there were worth seeing, as were some old sculptures that were still partly intact. Even though it misted rain all day, we still had a great trip and I'm glad we went out there.

Jordan and I in front of one of the massive fountains at Villa D'Este.
Some of the remaining sculptures at Hadrian's Villa. These are thousands of years old. Pretty sweet.

On our last day there, we just had a very relaxing one. We started off with another run with the same course as last time, and still just as picturesque. We went to St. Paul's Cathedral where it's thought that Paul might be buried. And we went to St. Peter's in Chains, another big cathedral. From there, we relaxed in the hotel and went out for a final pasta dinner. We had to wake up at 4:30 the next morning to catch our bus back to the airport to get our flight to Madrid, so we called it an early night and left early Thursday morning. When I came back on Thursday, I went in for a short day of work and then got to hang out with Jordan and show him the city for the next week, which will be talked about in a later post...

And on an ending note, this one's for the parents.
Yes, it's the Disney Store in Rome. And yes, there was a line of about 50 people waiting to get in. Crazy Romans.