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The Greek Αλφα Βετα (Athens: Part Δύο)

2010-06-15T07:27:00.000-07:00

The next morning I got a sandwich from a kiosk across the street from my hotel, took a brief walk through the Voula neighborhoods, then got on the tram toward the center of Athens. The ticket at the tram was good for twenty-four hours on any public transport and cost only three euros. The trip lasted about thirty minutes and I caught a brief glimpse of the Acropolis through a block of concrete apartment complexes along the way. The tram ended at Plateia Syntagma (Constitution Square), which is in the center of Athens. The square is surrounded by many luxury hotels, department stores and the Greek Parliament. For this reason, it is a frequent location for protests. Here are some pictures of Plateia Syntagma. A stage was being set up for an Armenian benefit concert later that night:

Here's a strange fountain located just off the plateia:

I bought a koulouri from a street vendor near this fountain. This is similar to a bagel, but is much larger and covered with sesame seeds. The dough had a slightly sweet flavor. On the opposite side of the plateia stands the Greek Parliament. This was built in the 1800s and was originally the palace for the Greek monarchy (which is no longer in existence). Outside the building the guards protect the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in traditional uniforms:

Also visible from here was Mount Lykavittos, the highest point in Athens:

I walked down the street from here and took a brief stroll though some of the National Gardens:

I saw this turtle crossing a path in the park:

It got stuck trying to pass between that row of shrubs, so I had to help by pushing it through.

Not far from the park I passed by the Arch of Hadrian. In this picture you can see the Acropolis through the archway:

This arch was not built by the Greek civilization, but by the Romans, who had invaded and conquered Greece in 146 BC. The arch was built under the Roman emperor Hadrian around 131 AD. The Parthenon on the Acropolis is nearly five hundred years older than the Arch of Hadrian. The arch is located near the ruins of the Temple of Olympian Zeus. I went to visit the temple and bought a single ticket for all the ancient sites in Athens for three euros (extremely cheap).

The origins of the Temple of Olympian Zeus date long before the arrival of the Romans to Greece. It was begun in the 500s BC and completed nearly 650 years later in the 100s AD under the reign of Hadrian. The temple was a place of worship specifically for the king of the Greek gods, Zeus (whom the Romans later called Jupiter). It was slowly destroyed during the Byzantine and Ottoman eras when its stones were removed for other building projects. Here are some pictures, the first of which shows the Acropolis in the background:

I then decided to head toward the Acropolis, making my way down the edge of the area known as Plaka:

I entered the area of the Theatre of Dionysus, which sits at the base of the Acropolis. Dionysus was the god of wine and the patron of the theatre. Plays were dedicated to him here during his festivals. The theatre moved to this area around 500 BC, but the stone structure was built around 325 BC. It is one of the oldest open-air theatres in the world. As I looked around, I imagined these seats filled with spectators watching the plays of Sophocles or Aristophanes:

Climbing the hillside of the Acropolis, I was able to get some pictures of the theatre and the city:

Around this time it was nearing two o' clock in the afternoon and the Acropolis was closing (which seemed early to me). I walked back down to the base of the hill and planned to return the next morning. I instead visited the Acropolis Museum, the building of which was completed last year. It is a modernist building placed over the ruins of an ancient settlement at the base of the Acropolis, which is currently being excavated. The ground floor of the museum is glass and you can see the ruins below your feet. Here are some pictures:

The inside of the museum features several artifacts found during excavations around the Acropolis. These range from statues of gods and athletes to common household items like cooking utensils and children's toys. On the second-floor patio, there was a great view of the Acropolis (the building with the red-tile roof to the left is the Spanish Embassy):

Near this side of the Acropolis I walked past some upscale housing and some stray dogs:

I walked back to the foot of the Acropolis and walked around the Odeon of Herodes Atticus. This is a theatre built in 161 AD by the Greek nobleman for whom it is named:

I walked around the western slope of the Acropolis and came upon the Areopagus. This a rocky outcrop which is possibly named after Ares, the god of war. In ancient times, a group known as the Areopagus Council met atop the rock to judge cases of murder, arson, and sacrilege. Later, the Apostle Paul is said to have converted many Athenians from this summit around the year 40 AD. One of those converted was Dionysios the Areopagite, who is now Athens' patron saint. Here is a picture of the rock along with some views from its summit:

From Areopagus I walked around the northern base of the Acropolis toward Plaka. I walked past the medieval Church of the Metamorphosis and through some neighborhoods:

I wandered around for a while through these streets trying to find the hidden neighborhood of Anafiotika. It took a while as it wasn't clearly marked on my map. Anafiotika does not look like the rest of Athens, but more like the Cycladic Islands. After Greece gained independence in the 1800s, many stonemasons from the Cyclades (where the best Greek masons are said to have come from) moved to Athens to take part in the massive building projects. They founded the small neighborhood of Anafiotika at the northern base of the Acropolis. They built their houses to resemble those of their islands (small with white plaster and blue doors and windows) along with narrow, staired passageways. This was one of my favorite places in Athens. Here are some pictures:

At the entrance to this neighborhood was a line of Greek flags. I got a picture of this one as it was blown in the wind:

I walked down a steep hill past houses and cafes until I came to the center of the Plaka district. One of the first things I noticed was the Monument of Lysicrates:

Lysicrates was a choregos, a wealthy patron of the theatre, who ordered the construction of this monument around the year 335 BC in commemoration of one of a play he sponsored which had won first prize in a competition. I walked through more of Plaka and came upon a church named St. Catherine's, which had been built during the Byzantine era in the 1000s. Outside the church stood some ruins:

The interior of the church was having some restoration work done, but much of the decorations (icons and painted ceilings) were visible. It was a good example of an Orthodox church interior. Here are some pictures:

I had some sesame-flavored ice cream at a place near the Onassis Foundation. I walked through more of Plaka, enjoying the nice weather and the views of the many open-air cafes:

I eventually ended up in the district known as Monastiraki where this Medieval Byzantine Orthodox church stood:

I bought some souvlaki at a place called Savvas, which is supposed to be the best in the city according to some travel guides. I was sitting in a plateia in Monastiraki eating when a little bird flew to my feet and chirped. I threw it a piece of pita and it flew off, but soon returned for some more. The bird flew away again and repeated this until it finally landed on my knee and I fed it pita out of my hand. When I was finished I began to walk away, but the bird hopped around my feet chirping frantically. I shrugged and started to walk when it flew up in my face and fluttered around for a second before flying away to the top of a building. Here's the plateia at Monastiraki:

After this strange encounter I walked through the area of Psiri, which is full of shops and cafes:

I went to the metro at Monastiraki. This station was built alongside an underground excavation of a residential area. It also housed some modern art:

I took the metro to the neighborhood of Kolonaki, which is at the foot of Mount Lykavittos:

The Greek National Gallery, which houses many works of Greek paintings and sculptures from the Middle Ages to the present day is located in this area. Near the museum stood this giant modern interpretation of the sculpture of Nike of Samothrace made out of glass shards:

I got back on the metro and went to Plateia Omonias a large square in a commercial district. It was full of heavy traffic:

I went back to the metro, which had some amphorae on display (clay pots that could be rested upright by diggind holes in the ground). A grave that was discovered while building the subway was also displayed:

I returned to Plateia Syntagma for some night pictures of the Parliament:

If you ever want to see a protest, the best place to go is the Greek Parliament. Across the street stood this group of people protesting (as I later found out) the newly implemented austerity measures the Greek government has implemented to deal with the financial crisis:

I thought it would be best to stay away, so I walked around a corner by the Parliament and ran straight into this opposing group:

I crossed the road (where I took this photo) and watche for a while as the two groups faced each other. It was tense, but nothing happened beyond a faceoff. This was a reminder of the immediacy of history. The past is written upon all the stones in Athens, but here it was being written. Civil unrest has always been so commonplace in Greece that it's become as benign as morning toast. But this current economic situation in Greece, which is affecting the rest of the European Union and causing its member states to turn their blaming eyes upon Athens, has allowed the protests to concentrate into a more organized and serious matter. Many Greeks are rallying behind a single issue. And the situation would only worsen...

Meanwhile, not far from this scene, at Plateia Syntagma, there was the concert for Armenia and a little semblance of peace at the luxury hotels:

I walked through Plaka to get some night views of the Acropolis and along the way I came across this Orthodox Church:

The cafes and side streets of Plaka were more charming at night:

I finally reached the Acropolis:

On my way back to the tram at Plateia Syntagma, I came across this strange window display:

I took the tram back to my hotel at Voula and fell asleep almost immediately.

The Greek Αλφα Βετα(Athens: Part Ένα)

2010-05-27T15:04:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend of my birthday, I flew to Greece, a place I have wanted to visit for a long while. Greece has been in the news recently because of its poor economic situation and the many protests and riots surrounding it. While I was there, I noticed some of this, but it was not always on the surface. I visited the capital city, Athens, which was once the capital of art, philosophy, and splendour in the ancient Greek world. Athens has had a tumultuous history since its rise to prominence in the 400s BC. The city saw the rise of Alexander the Great to the north, then was later conquered by the Roman Empire. Athens remained a center of learning throughout the period of the Roman Empire. When Rome fell around the fifth century AD, its legacy remained in the east with the wealthy Byzantine Empire, which Greece was a part of. Much of the attention of the Byzantines turned away from Athens to its capital, Constantinople. Athens, and the rest of the Byzantine Empire split from the western world in terms of religion as well. While the west remained under the auspices of the Pope in Rome, the Byzantines followed a more traditional Christianity based on ancient traditions and fewer rituals. This became known as the Orthodox Church. The population of Athens declined, but the city experienced a revitilization in the 1000s and 1100s when most of its medieval Orthodox churches were constructed. As the Byzantine Empire declined, the control of Athens switched between the hands of various merchant companies from Burgundy, Florence, and Catalonia. In 1458, Athens, now sparsely populated, fell to the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire. The city and the rest of Greece remained under Turkish rule until the Greek War of Independence in 1833. At this time, Athens had fallen far from glory and consisted of only a few houses around the Acropolis. Nonetheless, the new Greek government chose the city as the capital for its new nation because of its symbolic place in Greek history. Athens grew rapidly over the following decades. It saw the rise of Ioannis Metaxas' dictatorship in the 1930s and was occupied by the Nazis during the Second World War. Heavy fighting took place within the city in 1944. A military dictatorship followed briefly after the war and, since then, the city has attempted to revitalize itself as a major European capital.

Many people who visit Athens admire the Acropolis and the surrounding area but complain about the run-down look of the rest of the city. Its true that the outskirts of Athens consist of mostly poured-concrete apartment complexes, but there is still some charm there, as well as a strange sense of familiarity. After a three-hour flight I landed at the Athens airport, which is about twenty minutes outside of the city, and took a little time to orient myself. I found some free maps of the city as well as some information which would direct me to my hotel at Voula, an Athenian suburb. I found the bus I needed and sat in the back. On the way there, the bus passed many familiar sights: billboards, movie theatres, large hardware and appliance retail stores, and weeds growing up alongside highway guardrails. I began to think about all of my travels and how, with each trip, my destinations seemed to feel less foreign. The bus dropped me off right outside my hotel:

The elderly Greek woman at the front desk spoke quite a bit of English. I learned later that she was one of two owners, the other being a British expat. The hotel was nice and had recently been remodeled:

Across the street was the last stop of the tram which traveled straight to the center of Athens. As it was getting late, I decided to stay in the area of Voula and look around. This was a new town, founded in the 1960s and it gave me a good sense of what suburban life is like in Greece. I walked through neighborhoods, spotting several stray cats and dogs (stray dogs are a common theme in Athens) and hearing children yell to their friends, "Yia su!" ("Hello!"). Here are some scenes of the Voula neighborhoods, which seemed far away from the Greek economic crisis forbiddingly headlined on every European newspaper:

I wandered past Voula Beach:

and a relatively new Orthodox church:

I then found a food stall and was able to use the limited Greek I had obtained from a travel book to order some souvlaki:

This contained lamb, lettuce, tomato, carrots, and tzatziki (a cucumber/yogurt sauce) wrapped in pita. All around this food stall were several kiosks (something which the Greeks seem to love more than other Europeans) which sold newspapers, soft drinks, and snacks. I then went back to my hotel for a good night's sleep before my full day in Athens.

The Return to Alcalá de Henares

2010-05-26T14:52:00.000-07:00

I returned to Spain from my two spring break trips and went straight back to my normal schedule of teaching and tutoring. The kids were excited to hear about my trips, and many of them did not know where Stockholm was. We had two student teachers begin at the school after spring break, Alba and Charo. They were both very nice and hung out with all the language assistants in the breakroom.

In the first week of April, we celebrated Kelsey's birthday. We started the celebration with some wine and food at Parque O'Donnell in Alcalá. This eventually turned into a very disorganized, but fun game of American football followed by my failed attempt to play a game of soccer with Jeff, James, and Kevin:

Afterwards we went to Kevin, Jeff, and James' apartment for a surprise party. We all pitched in for cupcakes and ice cream. Here's Kelsey soon after the surprise:

There were a lot of us at the party and Kelsey's friend, Sarah, who teaches in El Escorial, came to visit. Here Kevin, Sarah, and Lindsay enjoy the birthday cupcakes:

We then spent the night wandering through Alcalá from tapas bar to tapas bar, and then from club to club. The next day I introduced Kelsey and Lindsay to this movie:

The Room is definitely the worst movie ever made, but it is so bad that you cannot look away and find yourself laughing constantly at its misinterpretation of human nature. Both Kelsey and Lindsay were so entranced by the movie that we ended up inviting Jeff, James, and Kevin over to watch it again that night. Several other viewings have followed since then.

We also visited the Henares River on several occasions. On the second weekend of April we visited the river on both Saturday and Sunday. Sarah had come down to visit us again that weekend. We bought Turkish döner kebabs on Saturday and ate them beside the river, taking some time to relax. In this picture Lindsay, Kevin, Sarah, James, and I siesta by the river along with some Spaniards:

After our period of relaxation, James and I crossed the cold river to visit the ruins of the Muslim castle which Cody, Kevin, and I had visited last fall. The next day we returned to the river for another picnic. James and I went across the river again, this time with Jeff and Kelsey. We spent quite a bit of time exploring the ruins and admiring the view of Alcalá.

Swedish Fish (Stockholm: Part Fyra)

2010-05-26T10:26:00.000-07:00

The next morning I awoke, planning on going to the airport early and waiting for my flight, but I was surprised when I saw this scene outside:

The snow was a surprise to everyone. I decided to walk around the city for a couple of hours, taking pictures of the snow as I had enough time. Here are some things around Sergels Torg in City:

Here are some photos from Kungsträdgården:

I then walked to Gamla Stan where I got these pictures of the royal palace:

and these of Storkyrkan:

Here is Stortorget:

Here is the area between Gamla Stan and City:

Just as I entered City, I came across this eerie sight. I was unsure whether it was a living person or not as it was very cold and this was not moving:

I took the bus to the airport from the train station at City. I had a little bit of time at the airport, so I ate at a restaurant where I got this crab and caviar sandwich with a beer called Eriksberg:

I also bought some lingonberry and cloudberry jam for myself at the airport; some Swedish chocolate for Kelsey, Katie, and Lindsay; and some moose jerky for Cody. I left Stockholm with the feeling that I was leaving a comfortable place. I saw everything there was to see in the northern city, but I still felt as though I could have stayed longer as the city had a very welcoming atmosphere.

Swedish Fish (Stockholm: Part Tre)

2010-05-15T08:14:00.000-07:00

The next morning I ate in the bed and breakfast and spoke with the owners who told me a little about life in Stockholm. They said the Swedish tend to stay indoors during the winter months, but spend most of their time outside in the summer. They spoke of the Midsummer Festival and how, at that time of year, there are only a few hours of night with the sun setting well after midnight. I wandered around the area near my bed and breakfast on Kungsholmen, visiting this church courtyard:

and this police station flying the Swedish and European Union flags:

I was concerned about things being closed this day, because it was Easter Sunday, but this was not the case. All the shops were open and people seemed to be going about their everyday business. There was this Easter-themed display in the shopping center in City:

Also on display in the shopping center were several pictures of the recently married crown prince and his wife which declared 2010 to be the "Year of Love." This didn't seem to distract the Swedes from their daily routines either. I returned to Kungsträdgården in the heart of City and took some pictures of the Karl XII statue:

I also found this interesting doorway at one of the buildings surrounding Kungsträdgården:

From City, I walked through the area of Blasieholmen, past the National Museum and crossed a bridge to the island of Skeppsholmen. I took some photos from the northern coastline of this island:

I walked past the Admiralty House on Skeppsholmen:

and the Moderna Museet which has several sculptures by French sculptor Niki de Saint Phalles outside:

From Skeppsholmen I walked to the tiny island of Kastellholmen named after the castle where four cannons are located to salute visiting naval ships. The first building I came across here was the former Skating Pavillion which was used in the late 1800s by a club which organized skating on the frozen waters between Skeppsholmen and Kastellholmen:

Uphill from here was the castle, which was built in the 1840s over the foundation of an older structure:

On my way back, I stopped to admire the view of Gamla Stan from across the waters and to watch the swans swim near the shore:

I returned to Gamla Stan and walked along the shoreline behind the royal palace where I saw this statue of King Gustav III who reigned from 1771-1792:

Gustav III is one of the most colorful figures in Swedish royal history. When he became king, the role of the monarch was essentially that of a figurehead, yet he led a coup which resulted in the capitulation of the Swedish parliament and the return to an absolute monarchy. Gustav was inspired by the French Enlightenment philosophers, maintained an elaborate court, supported the arts, and led a long and costly war against Russia. He gained many enemies among the nobility thanks to his laws which restricted their role in the government. In 1792, Captain Anckarström of the Swedish navy, along with other members of the nobility, conspired against the crown. Gustav attended a masked ball at the Stockholm Opera House along with much of the nobility. During the festivities, the king was surrounded by the masked conspirators and shot to death by Anckarström. Gustav's son claimed the throne and the country was soon dragged into the Napoleonic Wars against France, during which much of the lands of the Swedish Empire were lost (most importantly, Finland). The statue of Gustav III is facing this view of the square beside the royal palace and Storkyrkan (the second image is of the large window on the steeple of Storkyrkan):

I walked through the narrow streets of Gamla Stan where I bought this soda because of its label. Here's a good tip to follow when travelling in Europe: don't buy an unknown soda because you want to try something new. It almost never turns out well. Europe isn't known for tasty local brands of soda (unless it's Fanta). This one was cinnamon flavored:

I came across many mysteries in Gamla Stan:

That cat's face was peering from several places through Gamla Stan. At the south of the island I came across this strange sculpture by Carl Milles:

I walked across the bridge connecting Gamla Stan to the southern part of the city, Södermalm:

I later visited the top of the tower in the first picture for some great views of the city. Södermalm has a much different feel than the rest of Stockholm. It's more like a neighborhood and includes many trendy bars and stores. The Globen sports arena (used primarily for ice hockey) is visible from the highest hill in Södermalm:

These telephone booths could be found throughout Södermalm. This one was near the Mosebacke Theatre:

Here is the back of the Mosebacke Theatre, which doubles as a restaurant, the seating of which is located on a patio above:

I finally came upon the street named Fjällgatan, which was the main reason I had in going to Södermalm. Fjällgatan is an old street, with most of the houses dating back to the mid-1700s. It is a good indication of what Södermalm looked like centuries ago. The area has a dark history, however. Before Södermalm was populated, Fjällgatan was known as Galgberget, or "Gallows Hill." This hilltop overlooking much of the city was where many criminals were hanged. As the population of Stockholm spread south, Gallows Hill moved and the area became a neighborhood inhabited by artisans and fishermen. Here are some pictures of Fjällgatan:

Behind this street is the Katarina Kyrka, which was originally built in 1695, but was recently restored after being severely damaged by fire in 1990. A graveyard surrounded the church with many of the tombs dating back to the time of Gustav III:

I returned to the northern coast of Södermalm where I crossed a platform linking the hill to the tall tower, Katarinahissen. I took several pictures of the city from here (including Södermalm's first electric sign, an advertisement for a now-defunct brand of toothpaste):

As I walked back through Gamla Stan, I came across this strange sight, Mårten Trotzigs Gränd, the narrowest street in Stockholm (three feet wide):

At the top of the stairway at the end of this narrow street was a marker indicating the birthplace of the artist Carl Larsson. On my way back, I came across a strange coincidence. This sticker for a Barcelona hostal I considered staying at earlier in the week was on an informational plaque:

The area that connects Gamla Stan to City offered some nice photos:

I walked to Kungsträdgården and went to the tunnel station for a tour of the different, elaborately-decorated stations. Here are some pictures of that station:

Another tunnel station was dedicated to the Swedish botanist Carl von Linné. The sculptures reminded me of Super Mario Brothers for some reason:

This station let me off in the west of Kungsholmen where my bed and breakfast was located. I decided to explore some of the area. My favorite part was this frozen river and two fairly new buildings at the coast which have been integrated well into the surrounding architecture:

I visited a grocery store near this area and looked around at all the Swedish products. I bought some of the famous Swedish gummies and headed back to the bed and breakfast. On the way, I passed this store specializing in one of Sweden's greatest exports: Swedish design (which is found worldwide in any IKEA):

I sat again in the dark, empty storefront of the bed and breakfast and had tea and gummies left behind by the owners before going to bed and thinking about my return to Madrid the following day:

Swedish Fish (Stockholm: Part Två)

2010-05-12T13:19:00.000-07:00

The next morning I woke up and got some coffee at the café portion of the bed and breakfast. The owner suggested I try a ham sandwich which had a sweet bread baked with lingonberries. It was quite good. The bread slightly reminded me of raisin bread. I then took the tunnel to a stop called Karlaplan and walked to one of the city's islands, known as Djurgården. On my way there I passed this church:

Here is a view from the bridge leading to Djurgården:

Djurgården has many wonderful buildings and places to visit. The first I came across was the Nordiska Museet, a museum of Swedish culture. I didn't go inside, but the exterior was impressive enough:

There were some cool houses near the museum:

Another interesting building on Djurgården is the Biologiska Museet, which was built in the 1800s, during the Romantic era. As a result, the building appears like a medieval Scandanavian wooden church:

However, the biggest and one of the most fascinating locations on Djurgården is the enormous open-air museum of Skansen, a collection of actual houses and farm buildings collected from all over Sweden. The museum gives a good idea of rural Swedish life in the past (from the Middle Ages to the 19th century) by creating a rural village atmosphere without feeling too touristy. Most of the people who visit Skansen are Swedish, so this helped make the place seem more authentic. One of the first things I came across was this runestone from the 1000s. It was written as a memorial to a Viking named Torfast. Runestones were monuments to those who died in battle or civic accomplishments:

I walked through a nineteenth century farmstead, formerly owned by a family named Älvros and got a photo of a Swedish squirrel (which, as you will see, looks a little different than its North American cousins):

The central area of Skansen was nearby with many food stalls and some gardens:

The little girl feeding the geese in the above pictures was soon after frightened by a honk from one of the birds and ran off screaming. Further away from this area was a reproduction of a Sami camp. The Sami (or Laplanders) are a people native to the arctic regions of Sweden and Norway. They are known primarily as reindeer herders and Swedish law gives only the Sami the privledge to control reindeer populations:

Close to the Sami village (and the above-pictured reindeer) was the Vastveit Storehouse, the oldest structure at Skansen, which was built in the 1300s:

Another popular attraction of Skansen is the wildlife refuge. The bear pit is the most popular attraction and I visited at the perfect time as early April is when the new bear cubs arrive. I watched one of the adult bears carry a fish atop a high rock, where it proceeded to eat. Here's a photo of that same adult bear on the rock alongside two cubs:

There was also an area with grey wolves. They were difficult to find as most of them sleep during the day. I found this one lying beside a slushy pond:

From the 1600s to 1901, Swedish law declared that farmers must provide housing for soldiers if necessary. This is a soldier's cottage from the early 1900s:

Through much of the era of the empire, Finland was a part of Sweden. Finnish culture differs greatly from Swedish culture and the Finns have a completely unrelated language. Despite this, during the Swedish Empire, many Finns lived in the lands that now make up Sweden. This is a Finnish settlement from the 1600s complete with a raised storehouse for drying grain:

There were plenty more cool areas in Skansen including the red Seglora Kyrka which was built in 1730 (last picture):

I then decided to get something to eat from one of the stalls. I decided upon a dish which consisted of flatbread rolled into a funnel and filled with mashed potatoes, reindeer meat, cream, and lingonberries. This was all served up with a tea-like drink made from (you guessed it) lingonberries:

The last part of Skansen I visited was a model village complete with workshops, factories, and general stores:

After leaving Skansen I visited another museum on Djurgården, the Vasamuseet, which is probably Sweden's most popular museum. The entire museum is dedicated to the battleship Vasa which was constructed in the seventeenth-century during the height of the Swedish Empire. The ship sank during a storm on 10 August 1628 on what was its maiden voyage, only making it a little more than three-hundred feet away from the port. Somewhere around fifty people died in the disaster. The sinking was due to a poorly-conceived balance in the hull. Over the centuries the wrek was forgotten, lying beneath the Baltic Sea. This would have been a normal wreck save for the low salinity-levels in the harbor and other chemicals which created an unwelcoming atmosphere to the bacteria and worms which eat away at submerged wood. Because of this, the ship remained in near perfect condition. In the 1950s that archaeologists discovered the ship and, in an amazing and dangerous project spanning several years, raised the ship and moved it to its current location inside the museum. And here it is, the Vasa:

The ship was quite amazing. It had been built for Sweden's warrior king, Gustavus Adolphus, and featured much ornamentation symbolizing his reign, such as the lion figurehead and the lions on the stern.

The museum also featured the remains of those who died in the accident as well as forensic models of their faces. This was a man given the name Filip. His actual name is unknown, but the bodies were named alphabetically.

Moored at the harbour outside the Vasamuseet was this icebreaker from 1915 named Sankt Erik ("sankt" is Swedish for "saint").

I walked toward City and stopped at a food stand where I had some meatballs, which were served with lingonberries:

From City, I walked south to the island of Gamla Stan. This is the central part of Stockholm and features some of its oldest and most important buildings. Here is the view of Gamla Stan as I walked in on the bridge from City. The building to the right is Riddarhuset, a private house for the nobility built in 1647:

Here are some street views from Gamla Stan:

One of the most famous buildings in Stockholm is Storkyrkan, a church built in 1306. The tower of the church was added in 1743 when the royal palace was built beside the church. The interior was closed due to restoration and church services were moved to a nearby church. Here is a view of the front of Storkyrkan from the narrow streets of Gamla Stan:

Here is the palace and a view of Storkyrkan from the palace's entrance:

I walked further into the streets of Gamla Stan and came across Stortorget. This is an old square with many connections to Stockholm's history. A jailhouse once stood nearby and for centuries a pillory stood in the center of the square. A well also rests in the square with a decorative cover added in the late 1700s. Stortorget is most closely associated with the Stockholm Bloodbath of 1520. During a war with Denmark, the Danish king Kristian II attacked the Swedish capital and overthrew Sten Sture the Younger, making himself king of Sweden. Kristian declared a truce with the nobility of Sweden who had fought against his invasion and organized a feast which lasted three days. At the end of the feast, the noblemen were locked in, arrested, and charged with heresy. More than eighty nobles were beheaded in Stortorget the next day. Today, due to urban revitalization, Stortorget is a quiet and beautiful center of the old city:

The narrow, winding streets of Gamla Stan were one of my favorite parts of Stockholm. There were many interesting side streets and one very important window display:

I then walked toward Evert Taubes Terrass, a terrace on the western shore of Gamla Stan's small, neighboring island, Riddarholmen. Along the way, I passed Riddarholmskyrkan, a church in which the Swedish kings and queens are buried:

I reached Evert Taubes Terrass where this statue of the twentieth-century troubadour, Evert Taube stood:

Also on the terrace is Birger Jarls Torn, a defensive tower built in 1527 by King Gustav Vasa. In the 1800s, local legends placed the construction of the building 300 years earlier, claiming it to be built by Stockholm's founder Birger Jarl:

However, the best part of Evert Taubes Terrass was the great view of the sunset behind the Stadshuset:

Swedish Fish (Stockholm: Part Ett)

2010-05-02T08:13:00.000-07:00

Scene One: A knight returning from the Crusades meets Death along a rocky, black and white beach and enters into a game of chess to save his life. Cut to scene two: A retired doctor walks down an abandoned street in shades of grey, noting that every clock has no hands. Scene Three: a peasant, mourning the murder of his teenaged daughter stands atop a hill and wrenches a solitary sapling from the soil.

Before last month, I knew very little about Sweden other than the existential films of Swedish director Ingmar Bergman. Who are the Swedes? Are they really as insular and depressed as these films would suggest? Who was Pippi Longstocking? What's a lingonberry? And what's the deal with Swedish Death Metal? I found answers to all of these questions by the time my long weekend in Stockholm was over. Answer key: a friendly and sober people; no; a fictional character created by Swedish author Astrid Lindgren; a fruit also called a cowberry, which grows above the Arctic Circle; and only the people from Gothenburg can understand.

I was intrigued by this country. I knew the Swedes didn't have as strong of a Viking heritage as their Scandinavian brethren in Denmark and Norway. I knew Sweden was once a major empire, one of the largest in Europe, before a disastrous war against Peter the Great of Russia in the early 1700s. I knew the country managed avoid major conflicts of the sort which plagued twentieth century Europe. I also knew the modern nation was a model for social systems across Europe. And I knew Stockholm was supposedly one of the most beautiful cities in the world, located on a series of islands in the Baltic Sea. So, I hopped on a plane and flew from Madrid to Arlanda Airport, one of Stockholm's four major airports. Once I got off my plane, I went to exchange money. Sweden is a member of the European Union, but not the Eurozone, which means they do not have the euro as their currency. I received somewhere around two-thousand kronors in exchange for my euros. Afterwards, I found the bus I needed to take to the center of the city. It was about a thirty-minute ride into central Stockholm. The bus driver spoke in both Swedish and English as he announced each stop. His English was quite good. I soon found that nearly everyone in the city spoke perfect English and sometimes addressed other Swedish people in their second language. I took the bus to its final stop at the central train station and from there walked about three minutes to get to my hotel. The weather was slightly cold, but the sun was shining. The river I crossed to get to Kungsholmen, where my hotel was located, was still frozen over. Here's my hotel:

The couple who ran the bed and breakfast were very nice. They showed me the different denominations of the kronor and told me the best places to visit in the city. I left the hotel and headed out for the central part of the city, which is known simply as "City" and is located on the mainland part of Stockholm. On the way, I took some pictures of the street outside my hotel:

I took the tunnel (short for tunnelbana, Stockholm's underground train system) to City and was amazed at how fascinating this network looked. It resembled some underground fantasy world. (I'll post more on this later as I took a tour of various tunnel stations). Once I got off the tunnel, I walked to the Nationalmuseum, which houses many artworks by Swedish painters, such as the amazing Carl Larsson. Once I finished this brief tour, I went behind the museum and walked along the shoreline, taking in the beautiful coastal views which, thanks to the city's layout over several islands, are visible nearly everywhere:

I walked down some streets and took first notice of the ubiquitous 7-Eleven chain, which I had not seen anywhere else in Europe. Somehow, Stockholm made this place seem very classy:

I also took notice of some cool ornamentation on the buildings:

I soon ended up at Kungstädgården, a square (or "torg" in Swedish) with some interesting statues:

Sweden produced quite a few wonderful sculptors in the twentieth century. The above statue is King Karl XIII. There is also an impressive fountain sculpted by JP Molin here:

Adjacent to this square is Jacobs Kyrka ("kyrka" is Swedish for "church" and is pronounced "chewrka"). It was built between the years 1580 and 1643:

I walked down the main road, past several department stores and the headquarters of the Swedish clothing store, H&M, before arriving at the Konserthuset, the Stockholm concert hall, which has an amazing sculpture, Orpheus, by Carl Milles in front:

The city was surprisingly highly multi-ethnic. I bought a hot dog from a street vendor and was informed that it was halal. There are many side streets which lead to small open spaces for outdoor restaurants in this area. Since it was still cold, these areas were often abandoned:

The modern area of Sergels Torg is nearby. It is a square built in the early 1960s with a glass obelisk which was placed there in the 1970s:

Also nearby was Klara Kyrka, built in the 1590s:

Near the church is this statue of a man smoking a cigarette. I'm sure it's supposed to be someone specific:

The Stockholm City Hall, or Stadshuset, was near my hotel. On the way there, I came across this little house:

The Stadshuset sits on the coast and is an enormous building, part of which is used as a reception hall each year for the Nobel Prize ceremonies. It was built in 1923 and is topped by the three crowns (Tre Kronor), which are the symbol of Sweden. Here are some views of the coastline of City and the island of Gamla Stan from the Stadshuset:

Here is the Stadshuset itself:

Two statues by Carl Eldh stand outside the Stadshuset by the water:

The "tomb" of Birger Jarl (which does not really hold his remains) rests outside the building. Birger Jarl was the Jarl (or chieftan) of Sweden who helped bring the various lands together in the 1200s. Tradition states that he also founded Stockholm:

I left the Stadshuset:

and went for a walk around City as the sun set. I came across the glass obelisk in Sergels Torg again as it was lit up from within:

Stockholm was strange in that the shops all closed at five in the afternoon and there seemed to be no nightlife at all. The streets (which had very little auto traffic anyway) and sidewalks were nearly completely clear of motorists and pedestrians after sundown. I found that getting around the city was very easy. I could walk nearly everywhere without using the tunnel or even a map. Stockholm is a beautiful city for walking anyway. I went back to the hotel, where the owner had left out hot tea and gummies (of the ever-popular Swedish fish variety). This was located in the front room which served as the café during the day. At night the lights were turned off an the only illumination came from a computer screen and the streetlights which shone through the storefront window. It was a peaceful place.

Is This Spain? (Barcelona: Part Quatre)

2010-04-21T15:25:00.000-07:00

The next morning I went to the Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria and got a breakfast of dragon fruit and a crêpe with melted chocolate. Not far off Las Ramblas, on a street called Carrer Nou de la Rambla, I saw the exterior of the Palau Güell, a palace built by Gaudí for his patron, the industrialist Eusebi Güell:

After this I took the metro across the city and visited a relatively new park called Parc de Diagonal Mar. The park was located in a residential area near the beach surrounded by high-rises and shopping centers. The artwork was quite bizarre:

Yet this is not the park for which Barcelona is most famous. I began my trek from this area to visit this other park. I started with the metro and took it to the northern part of the city where I had quite an uphill trek past graffiti:

and a strange fountain:

After walking up a steep hill lined with souvenir shops and convenience stores, I reached my destination:

Park Güell was planned by Gaudí and is one of the most imaginative spaces I have ever visited. It was built between 1900 and 1914 and includes two buildings at the entrance gate:

You can spend a lot of time in this park, looking at all of the details Gaudí used in the gardens and pathways. One of the most famous images from the park is the mosaic lizard the architect placed in the middle of the stairway leading up the park's main hill. Reproductions of this creature can be purchased in shops all throughout Spain:

At the top of this hill is a huge terrace, supported by a series of columns which seem to form a cavern:

Atop this hill was the house which Gaudí lived in between 1906 and 1926:

The garden outside his house featured many sculptures copied from decorative elements on his various projects, such as this one taken from La Sagrada Família:

Not far from this house were two ramps supported by columns which led to an even higher area of the park:

At this level, you could see much of the city out to the Mediterranean:

After spending a few hours relaxing at Park Güell, I returned to the Barri Gòtic near my hotel and found a museum dedicated to Catalonia's most famous artist, Salvador Dalí. The museum featured many of his sketches as well as his sculptures and decorative art objects for which he is not as well-known:

Most of his decorative items, like the one above, were based on his earlier paintings. Outside the museum stood this interesting cutout of the artist:

I walked back to the area of the Arc de Triomf and entered the city's central park, Parc de la Ciutadella. The first building I came across in this park was Castell dels Tres Dragons, which is now used as a science museum:

The park was filled with greenhouses, bicycles, and old schools and churches:

The Parliament of Catalonia was near the edge of the park:

One of the most famous landmarks in this park is the giant waterfall/fountain, Cascada:

After leaving the park I walked around Barri Gòtic, taking pictures of the alleyways:

The next morning I walked around the city before my flight left that afternoon. I saw this strange life-sized figure outside a shop:

I then walked back down Passeig de Gràcia and turned right on a street to visit Josep Puig i Cadafalch's Casa Terrades (or Casa de les Punxes), which resembles a medieval castle:

I then returned to the Palau Nacional and visited the the Catalan art museum. There was an impressive collection of Romanesque frescoes which were originally located inside stone churches in the Pyrenees Mountains. The paintings (which dated from roughly between 1000 and 1350) were endangered as the churches were crumbling after centuries of abandonment. In the late 1800s a group of art collectors organized a rescue of these frescoes. The paintings were removed and transported on the backs of donkeys down the mountains to their current location in Barcelona. Other artists in the museum included Miró, Picasso, Dalí, and Casas. Here are some photos of Barcelona taken from the front of the museum:

I walked down Montjuïc and took the metro back to Plaça de Catalunya where I took the bus to the airport. My flight arrived on time and I returned to Madrid in what seemed like no time. Catalonia left an impression on me. I didn't feel as though I was in Spain. Even advertisements for stores and businesses listed their web address as .cat rather than .es which is used elsewhere through Spain. The spirit of the Catalan people seemed different as well, more in tune with the "European ideal" which the EU is trying to stress now. Catalonia is a beautiful area and I would love to visit it again.

As everyone was still gone on their various trips, I was in Alcalá alone for a few days before I left on the next leg of my trip.

Is This Spain? (Barcelona: Part Tres)

2010-04-21T09:08:00.000-07:00

After I awoke the next morning and had breakfast the next morning I went to the Museu Picasso. Pablo Picasso was born in Málaga, but spent many of his formative years (before joining the Parisian art scene) in Barcelona. He produced most of his early artworks here, which were far from the cubist, surrealist, and abstract paintings he would later produce. Picasso returned to Barcelona many times in his life and painted scenes of the city. The museum housed many of his early works as well as his later cubist copy of Velazquez's Las Meninas. The museum itself was housed in a medieval palace. Here is the courtyard:

After the museum, I went down some side streets and came across a restaurant called Els Quatre Gats (The Four Cats), which Picasso and Ramon Casas used to frequent:

I ate at a restaurant next door called Set de Gòtic. It had an old-style interior with columns and candelabras on the walls. The owner sat at a table near me and spoke to his employees about their schedules while an old man drank a beer and smoked a cigarette while reading a newspaper. I ordered a fuet sandwich. Fuet is a thin and savory sausage from Catalonia which you can find throughout Spain, but this was the best I've had.

Down Passeig de Gràcia, I took some pictures of the fourth of the great modernisme apartment buildings, Casa Amatller, which is next to Casa Batlló and was built by Josep Puig i Cadafalch in 1900:

I also walked past Fundació Antoni Tàpies, which is dedicated to the contemporary Catalan artist who designed the structure atop this building:

On my way to Sagrada Família I saw this college:

Sagrada Família was probably the most impressive unfinished building I have ever seen.

It was begun in 1882 and could be finished sometime around 2026. Gaudí never planned on seeing the building's completion and the project went through many setbacks following his death, namely the Civil War and the economic turmoil which followed. Today, construction of the church is financed by the tickets visitors buy to tour the interior and Japanese investors. When it is complete, there will be a giant central spire, towering over the others, with a four-armed cross which can be seen in Gaudí's other works. This facade of the church was not designed by Gaudí, but by a later architect and is known as the Passion Facade:

As you can probably tell from the pictures of this side of the church, there are so many details, you are overwhelmed. The other side, designed by Gaudí himself, is even more spectacular. Before visiting it, I took the tour of the unfinished interior:

Here is the amazing Nativity Facade, designed by Gaudí, complete with various creatures:

In an adjacent building, now used as a Sunday school, Gaudí's original office is left as it was when he died in 1926:

After Sagrada Família, I decided to go to a hospital. That may sound strange, but this is a work of modernisme architecture built by Lluís Domènech i Montaner between 1901 and 1930. The hospital is called Hospital de Sant Pau. Domènech i Montaner believed that nature and beauty would expediate the healing process and placed many open spaces on the hospital grounds. The sound of tropical birds sounded from everywhere in the otherwise silent campus:

I left Hospital de Sant Pau and headed to the area of Montjuïc, a hill in the southwest of the city. Atop the hill is the Palau Nacional, which was built for the 1929 World's Fair and now houses the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya:

From the top of the hill, there was this great view of Barcelona:

Behind the Palau Nacional were many structures built for the 1992 Olympics. The most iconic of these structures is the Montjuïc telecommunications tower built by Valencian architect Santiago Calatrava:

There was also this lucky cat:

Also on the hill was the Museu de Joan Miró. It was closed and I later learned that Woody Allen was having a private tour of the collection while I was standing outside, looking at the schedule and taking pictures of this Miró sculpture:

I took a funicular back down the hill, then took the metro back to the area of my hostel where I saw this:

This is one of the paintings of Pez (which means "fish") a Barcelonan artist who's graffiti is all over town and is sought by art collectors. Not far from here is the Palau de la Música, built by Domènech i Montaner in 1908. Since it's crowded around other buildings it's difficult to photograph:

The Arc de Triomf was about a ten minute walk from here. It was built in 1888 as the entrance to the Universal Exposition:

The pathway which leads from the Arc de Triomf to the Parc de la Ciutadella offered some great night shots:

On my way to see the skyscraper Torre Agbar's illuminations, I came across this great, but confusing color-shifting window display:

After a long walk:

I finally got to Torre Agbar:

On my return I saw another Pez painting:

and back in the Medieval district, near my hostel, I came across this:

the remains of a Roman wall, among which was later built the Medieval palace of the Catalan king. This statue of Ramon Berenguer III, one of the Counts of Barcelona stood outside:

Is This Spain? (Barcelona: Part Dos)

2010-04-16T16:26:00.000-07:00

The next morning I had breakfast at a café near my hostel, some pastries and a coffee. I then walked down Las Ramblas toward the sea. I walked past this mosaic, a symbol of Las Ramblas made by the Catalan artist, Joan Miró:

I walked to Port Vell, then turned to the right where this modernist sculpture stood:

Not far from this stood the Museu Marítim, which is located within the gothic-styled 13th-century former shipyards of Barcelona. I was pretty excited about this as I'm fascinated by naval history and sea exploration. The museum was under renovations, and most of it was closed, but I got to see the two main exhibitions which intrigued me. Here is the exterior of this gothic shipyard:

Outside the museum there rested this device, which I soon learned is a life-sized replica of the first submarine to use a combustible engine, Ictineo. It was used for exploration purposes:

The interior of the building was quite eerie:

The replica of a 16th century warship used by the Spanish against the Ottoman Empire during the Battle of Lepanto was on display:

This lantern from a lighthouse was also on display near one of the large windows. The light passing through created a preternatural glow:

The museum also had an exhibition dedicated to Narcís Monturiol, the Catalan engineer who invented the Ictineo seen outside. The story of Monturiol was interesting. He lived in the late 1800s and supported revolutionary ideas, being a supporter of the First Spanish Republic and women's rights. He also had a passion for the sea and believed humans should explore its depths to better understand our world. He thus invented the Ictineo in 1858and a following submarine, Ictineo II. The legacy of this exploration was shown with several modern submersibles on display:

An engineering team is currently building a new submersible device which will hold three people and be used to explore the Mediterranean Sea, Ictineo III, within the museum.

I had some coffee and a Iberian ham sandwich at the museum's restaurant before leaving to explore more of the coast. Back at Port Vell, I saw some awesome boats:

Past Port Vell is a street called Passeig de Colom, which revealed some interesting sights, such as this statue by American painter/sculptor from the school of pop art, Roy Lichtenstein. He also made the sculpture of the brushstroke found in the courtyard of the Reina Sofía in Madrid:

I also came across the Museu d'Història de Catalunya, which I visited. The museum featured many artifacts of Catalan history from Prehistory to the 21st century. The museum had many interactive displays, such as a model of a Muslim irrigation system, which allowed you to turn a wheel which opereated a water-wheel that pumped water into connecting channels, and a pulley which let you lift the armour and weapons of a Medieval knight, giving an idea of the weight these soldiers were burdened with. A replica of a bomb shelter from the Spanish Civil War was a highlight. At the end of the museum was a room with displays on famous contemporary Catalans like film director Isabel Coixet and revolutionary chef Ferran Adrià.

I then walked to Platja Barceloneta, Barcelona's most popular beach. This sculpture on display is dedicated to the small box-like restaurants which once lined the beach:

Here's some more of the beach:

I backtracked, walking back to Las Ramblas and then to Plaça Catalunya. From here I walked down one of the city's most famous streets, Passeig de Gràcia. This is where much of the city's most examples of modernisme architecture, such as the 1902 Casa Lleó Morera, built by the architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner:

But the crown jewel of the Passeig de Gràcia has to be Casa Batlló, which was completed in 1906 by Barcelona's most famous architect, whose influence is felt through his many projects in the city, Antoni Gaudí:

Gaudí was supposedly inspired by Jules Verne's Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea when he designed this house, which seems to hint at marine landscapes and creatures inside and out. The interior of the house was incredible. Here is a fireplace:

and a light which seems to serve as the centripetal force in an overhead whirlpool:

The interior had some other interesting features such as this doorway with a column before the entrance:

and several arched hallways:

This all led to the roof which held several twisting chimneys covered in mosaics:

I left Casa Batlló:

then walked further down Passeig de Gràcia until I came to Gaudí's other famous house, Casa Milà, built in 1910. It is also known as La Pedrera, which is Catalan for "The Quarry" because of its stony appearance:

The house had a very interesting courtyard with irridescent features:

One of the original apartments was open for tours with period furniture and household items on display:

The attic of La Pedrera was a series of snakelike arches which supported the roof. A museum of Gaudí was placed in this area:

The rooftop was one of the most beautiful areas in the city. Words cannot describe it, so here:

From the roof I was able to see another Gaudí building, the as-of-yet incomplete church Sagarada Família:

As the sun set, I walked back down Passeig de Gràcia and took some photos of Casa Batlló lit up:

I also walked to Sagrada Família to get some night shots of it. I'll say more about it in my next post:

I went to a nearby restaurant called La Muscleria and had some muscles cooked in cider and garlic. It was served alongside a traditional Catalan serving of pa amb tomàquet (bread and tomato) which is toast rubbed with tomato and garlic:

Is This Spain? (Barcelona: Part Un)

2010-04-14T08:56:00.000-07:00

The Easter holiday in Spain is known as Semana Santa, or Saint's Week. Our first day of the break was Friday, March 26th. This was also the day I left for my first trip. I went to Barcelona, Spain's second-largest city and one of its most popular vacation spots. However, things are quite different here. Barcelona is the capital of the autonomous Spanish community of Catalonia, which is like an entirely different country. What do I mean by this? First of all, there's the language. Spanish is not the primary language of Barcelona and the rest of Catalonia. Instead, Catalan is used in everyday speech. Most of the time, this language is unrecognizable to Spanish-speakers. Catalan is a Romance language which sounds like a combination of French and Italian. The language even has its own letter, not found in any other language, l·l, which is pronounced as a stressed "l" sound. While all Catalans speak Spanish, they would rather speak their own language, especially since it is the strongest symbol of Catalonia and something which was outlawed during the Franco dictatorship.

Secondly, there's the history. Catalonia had a short period of Moorish control so the Arabic influences, seen in the architecture and heard in the language elsewhere in Spain, are less evident. In the early Middle Ages, Catalonia was controlled by France, then later gained its independence as its own country which had a brief period in which it controlled trade in the western Mediterranean. Catalonia was one of the last of the Iberian kingdoms to join the Spanish crown and throughout much of its subsequent history the region witnessed rebellions with the goal of gaining independence. Since the creation of the Spanish Constitution in the late 1970s, Catalonia has had more freedom with its own local laws and governing institutions.

All of this is key to understanding the people and the character of Catalonia. Most Catalans do not consider themselves to be Spanish and do not really have fond feelings toward those they do consider to be "Spanish." Signs of their independent character could be seen all through Barcelona. In many places the Catalan flag flew alone or alongside the flag of the European Union, without the accompaniment of the Spanish flag. I also saw the phrase "Catalonia is not Spain" spray-painted in a few places.

My flight arrived at El Prat Airport around four in the afternoon and took a thirty-minute bus ride into the city. I got off the bus at Plaça de Catalunya and walked to my hostel which was nearby and just off Las Ramblas, a long series of streets with a pedestrian walkway in the center. It was in a good location as it rested also in Barri Gòtic, or the Gothic Quarter, where the ruins of the old Roman city of Barcino merged with Medieval architecture and modernist-styled art galleries. I began my wanderings in this area, coming across this section of a Roman wall and the Catedral (La Seu), as well as the remains of a Roman aqueduct:

I walked down the narrow street you see to the right of the wall in the first picture. A man played a guitar on a little side street and was quite good. I walked a little further until I came to the entrance of La Seu's cloisters. I saw lush greenery through the gothic doorway of this old Roman street:

The cloisters, dedicated to Barcelona's co-patron saint, Santa Eulàlia, was probably the most impressive and atmospheric cloister I have ever walked through. With its tropical plants and animal life, it seemed to symbolize the region of Catalonia. Santa Eulàlia was a young Christian girl from Barcelona who became a martyr during the Roman persecution of Christians in the fourth century. Symbols of her martyrdom are placed throughout. Here are some pictures of this amazing place:

In the cloisters at all times live thirteen geese. These are meant to symbolize both the age and the different forms of torture used on Santa Eulàlia:

I left the cloisters, then wandered down this side street some more, intending to circle around and go through the main entrance to see the Catedral proper. I came across this Gothic overpass:

I also happened upon this Catalan flag flying solo:

The four red stripes on a yellow field symbolize an event in Catalan history. Count Guifré els Pelós (Wilfred the Hairy) was the person who unified the Catalan counties into one land. In the late 800s, he fought in battle against the Moors alongside the French army. When Guifré died, the French king dipped his fingers in the count's blood and ran them down the fallen nobleman's yellow shield, creating a symbol for the Catalan soldiers. I finally circled around, back to the plaça I started at, and faced the front of La Seu:

La Seu was constructed between the 1200s and the 1400s. The interior was quite ornate and overpowering:

I then left the Catedral and noticed this sculpture which spells out the original name of the city:

I then walked to a shop I had heard about which caters to writers living in Barcelona called Papirum:

I bought a leatherbound notebook and a pen here. I use the book to write my impressions and observations of the places I visit and the people who inhabit them. I returned to my hostel to drop off the book, then walked back to Plaça Catalunya.

From here, I walked back toward my apartment (and then past it), taking a stroll the length of Las Ramblas:

Las Ramblas has a plural name because it is actually a series of individually-named streets such as Rambla dels Estudis and Rambla dels Caputxins. Each individual section has its own character and the street vendors sell different items, such as animals:

and flowers:

One of the well-known stops along Las Ramblas is Mercat de la Boqueria, a covered market that has been at this location since at least 1217:

This odd fruit in the center is called dragon fruit (or strawberry pear, which is appropriate as it tastes like a combination of the two):

Here's some more of the market:

Here are a couple more buildings found along Las Ramblas. The second one is the opera house Gran Teatre del Liceu:

Down a side street off Las Ramblas lies this nice plaça, Plaça Reial:

At the end of Las Ramblas stands a column dedicated to Christopher Colombus:

Once you pass this column, you have reached the Mediterranean Sea and Barcelona's Port Vell ("Old Harbour").

This port was updated in 1992, one of the many urban renewal projects surrounding the Barcelona Summer Olympics which revitalized the city. However, the site has been used as a port since the Roman occupation in the first century AD. The Iberian tribe known as the Laietani, who traded with the ancient Greeks centered their settlement at this exact location. Now it is a harbour for recreational boating and cruise ships.

After visiting the port I had a falafel at a place called Pita House on Las Ramblas. I then returned to my hostel and planned for the next day.

Mountain Visits and Park Parties

2010-04-12T15:45:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted anything in a while as I've been extremely busy and went on a couple of trips over my spring break. Before I get into those trips, here's a little bit about some things I did the week before.

First of all, I went to the Guadarrama Mountains in the province of Castilla y León, near Segovia. I went one Saturday morning with Emma, Jackie, Becky, and Gavin. We took a train to the town of Cercedilla in the northwestern corner of the Madrid province. The town rested at the foot of a high mountain and we had lunch there at a small diner. We took another train further up the mountain. This train had been in operation since the 1920s and ran quite slow as it ascended the mountain. The higher we got, the more snow we entered upon. We opened the windows of the train and stood most of the trip, enjoying the view of the mountains. Here is a picture of the girls on this old train (left to right: Emma, Jackie, and Becky):

This is a shot taken from the train:

Once at the top (an area known as Los Cotos), we walked down some roads, watching as families sledded down hills. We took some excursions into the snow at the side of the roads, one of which resulted in Emma loosing a shoe in the snow. It was later recovered, but stuffed with ice. Here's a picture of Becky, Gavin, and I on one of these meanderings. You can tell by our faces how sure we were of our decision to walk though (in some places) knee-deep snow:

Only Jackie brought the proper footwear:

After getting wet feet, we walked to a ski lodge to warm up and have some coffee. Here's Gavin, Becky, and I outside this building:

It was nice to visit Los Cotos. Once there, you lost the feeling that you were in central Spain and so near a busy capital city. It was very quiet with a lot of fresh air (which is something of a rarity in the Madrid region).

Later that week we had our Easter celebration at school. For two days we worked doing activities with the kids. The first day we did things for the younger children, pre-school (infantil) to second grade. I was in charge of musical hoops, which we played similar to musical chairs in which the kids had to dance around a series of hoola-hoops and jump inside them when the music stopped. Few of the younger kids really understood how to play, but they were funny to watch. Later, I read the story, Peter Cottontail to the infantiles. I asked one group, which seemed to understand very little English, if they liked the story. "No," said one kid with a blank expression, which made me laugh.

The next day we worked with the older kids (third to sixth graders). I was in charge of trivia all day. I read a series of Easter-related trivia questions to the kids, who were split into groups of three as they vied for points. It was kind of scary how serious they took the whole point-earning thing, especially since their prize consisted of me telling their group that they won. This was always followed by shouts of "Toma!" ("Alright!") and "Jolín!" ("Shoot!")

Starting that week we began a new tradition of picnics in Parque O'Donnell, which is just a short walk from our apartment. (I'm still not sure why the park has an Irish name). It's a nice park with large areas of shade as well as some open spaces. Emma, Kelsey, Lindsay, Jeff, James, and Kevin came to this first picnic (Cody was on a trip to Brussels that weekend). Here we are preparing our meal (left to right: me, Kelsey, Lindsay, James, Kevin, and Jeff):

and a group picture of us from later in the night:

My Parents Visit Spain: Part Dos

2010-03-25T17:24:00.000-07:00

After our day in Segovia, I took my parents to see Toledo, the capital of the province of Castile-La Mancha, which I went to back in October. We left by train from Atocha and took a thirty-minute ride south of the city. When we stepped off the platform we were met with wonderfully warm weather. I had forgotton how beautiful the interior of the Mudejar-style train station was:

We got off a bus at Plaza Zocodóver, then walked up to the Alcázar. We stopped in some shops and looked at the Toledan crafts (swords and damascene). We returned to Plaza Zocodóver and looked at the shops selling marzipan. Here is the plaza:

We walked from here to a lookout point where you could see the river and the Alcázar in opposing directions:

This statue stood in front of the Alcázar:

The Alcázar was built in the 16th century atop the ruins of a Muslim fortress. It served as a military fort through much of its subsequent history and is most famous for its role in the Spanish Civil War. In 1936, Franco's Nationalist forces were besieged in the fortress. The Republicans held the son of the colonel commanding the troops inside the Alcázar and demanded the Nationalist officer surrender or his son would be killed. The colonel supposedly told his son to pray and to die like a hero as he refused to surrender. Some accounts claim the Republicans shot the colonel's son immediately after this while others claim he died later as a prisoner of war. Nontheless, the attempt at the siege failed and the building sustained heavy damage, being restored soon after.

After leaving the area of the Alcázar, we walked down some winding streets on our way to Toledo Cathedral (built from 1226-1493).

We finally emerged upon the Cathedral and spent some time in the plaza in front of it, taking pictures:

We went inside the Cathedral and saw some of its famous paintings including some by the famous Toledan resident, El Greco, along with Caravaggio, Raphael, and Rembrandt. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering through the streets of Toledo, passing the house of El Greco and arriving in the old Jewish quarter. One of the things Toledo is most famous for is the flourishing culture in the early middle ages in which Jews, Christians, and Muslims lived in peace for several hundred years. Beside the former synagogue stood this statue of Samuel HaLevi, a Jewish poet, theologian, and warrior from southern Spain who lived in the early 1000s:

We passed through some neighborhoods with horseshoe-arch doorways inspired by Arabic design. Not far from here I dropped my camera and the focus broke on it. My parents bought me a new camera as my birthday gift after this, for which I am extremely thankful. We left Toledo and returned to Madrid where we ate at a little bar near Museo Reina Sofia. I ordered octopus in marinara.

The next day I had to work, but met my parents after school and we went to Madrid. We spent most of the afternoon walking through Parque Retiro. I tried out the new camera here:

We admired the crystal palace and the pond in the park.

The next day I got off work and met Mom and Dad at the train station near my apartment. We went to lunch at a tapas bar I had never tried before which was away from the city center, past the Cathedral. We then walked around town some more before I left for tutoring. After that I met up with them at Plaza Cervantes and we took the train into Madrid. We visited the Prado and got to see most of the main exhibits: Goya, El Graco, Velazquez, and Bosch. After the museum closed, I took them to Malasaña, where we walked around the nightlife and ate at a tapas bar, which was very good. I ordered migas, breadcrumbs, sausage, ham, and potatoes fried together. After dinner, we visited the Belgian bakery nearby where Dad and I got a coffee.

The next day I met Mom and Dad at the train station after work and I took them in to see the apartment. We went to Madrid to see the Harley shop in the AZCA district. We got some pictures of Plaza Castellana from here:

After this we took the metro to Plaza de España and took pictures of the monument to Spain's Siglo de Oro (Golden Century) the 1600s, when Spain's economy was falling, but its cultural accomplishments thriving. The monument shows figures representing the Empire on one side and Cervantes and his fictional creations on the other.

We walked from here to the Egyptian Temple of Debod and took pictures as the sun set:
After the temple, we walked to the gardens of the Palacio Real and took pictures of the garden and palace grounds:

We then walked into the center of Madrid, heading to Plaza Mayor where we were going to eat at Museo de Jamon again. On the way there, we ran into Cody along with Nicole and Lindsay (friends of ours who were also visiting that week). They were leaving an Irish pub, celebrating St. Patrick's Day. We all stood outside Plaza Mayor and talked for a long while, noting how strange it was for us to bump into one another. We parted after this and Mom, Dad, and I went to eat. This was their last night in Spain and I was very sad to see them go. It was a lot of fun being with them and showing them the things I had been doing and seeing the past months.

My Parents Visit Spain: Part Uno

2010-03-25T11:23:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago my parents arrived for a weeklong visit. Their flight came in on a Wednesday and I met them at the airport and helped them get their luggage to Alcalá. We checked into their hotel in La Garena, then went for some tapas at El Tapón which was nearby. After this we took a walking tour of Alcalá. We got to see the main sights in the town including the old city wall, the Cathedral (which we went inside of), Calle Mayor, Palacio Arzobispal (where Christopher Columbus met with Queen Isabel on the subject of financing his voyage to the Americas), Plaza Cervantes, and Alcalá Universidad. Afterward we ate at an American restaurant near their hotel, Pinky Burger. They were quite tired from their long voyage over the Atlantic so they went to bed after this. It was great to see them and I was very excited about planning an itenerary for the rest of the week.

The next day I met them for lunch at Indalo in Plaza Garena. I took them over to the big department store in La Garena, El Corte Inglés (The English Cut). We looked at some of the strange European appliances there such as irons with a hose connected to a steam pump. Later that evening we went to Madrid. We took the metro from Atocha to Puerta del Sol where we saw many street performers such as the decapitated-head-on-the-table-man who scared passersby with sudden shouts and the street-sweeping-living-statue. Dad enjoyed watching these people get scared and took some video of it. After a look around this lively center of Madrid we headed down the street to Plaza Mayor where Mom and Dad took some pictures of the 17th century buildings. We went to Mercado San Miguel after leaving the plaza and saw some amazing things: local foods, giant chocolate egg sculptures, and a man making intricate designs in espresso foam with a stylus dipped in chocolate syrup. This was one of Mom's favorite places we visited. We ate at the Museo de Jamón on Plaza Mayor. We sat in the basement and ate next to a group of Italians. Mom ordered a roast chicken, Dad had a fried whitefish, and I had a plate of Iberian ham and cheese.

I had the whole of the next day off work. I met Mom and Dad at their hotel and we went to Casa de Hippolytus, the ruins of what was once the academy of the ancient Roman town of Complutum, which sat on the site of present-day Alcalá de Henares. The ruins were discovered not long ago and were better preserved than some of the excavated Roman houses in Rome itself. We and at Casa Rojas then went to the village of Chinchón via bus from Madrid. It was nice to visit the town again and to show Mom and Dad around. We went into a food store I had visited the last time. The same old man who had talked me into buying a bottle of anís last time took us around his shop and showed us all the local products. We bought some olives and almonds thanks to his salesmanship. After this we walked around Chinchón's Plaza Mayor/bull ring. We went into a bakery and bought some pastries from a woman who seemed rude at first, but warmed up to us soon. She asked us where we were from, then told us she had some apple, strawberry, and kiwi pastries ready to come out of the oven if we wanted to wait. She had several intricately designed breads on display, molded and twisted into flowers, wreathes, and the crest of the local soccer team, Real Madrid. She asked us to follow her around the back of the store where she took us to see the ovens and the fresh pastries she mentioned. We bought one of the strawberry ones. We walked through the town some more, stopping in another food shop. Out front an old man cut up cardboard boxes and put them in a bin. While inside the store I noticed him walk inside, grab a beer from the cooler, and return outside to continue his work. Dad bought some sunflower seeds here (a popular item in Spain). We walked from here to the castle atop the hill, then wandered around the outskirts of town before catching the next bus into Madrid. In Madrid we went to Gran Vía and walked up and down the crowded streets, looking at the art deco and art nouveau architecture. We also stopped by an outdoor market which displayed items from different regions of Spain. We tried some Manchego cheese (Spain's primary cheese export, made from goat's milk) and some cider (sidra) from Asturias (a province in the north). We then went to Paseo del Prado and ate at a bar. The bartenders here wore black waistcoats and bowties and were more concerned with whistling to dogs and watching the Barcelona vs. Valencia game than serving the customers, but they were funny stereotypes of Spanish waiters (two old men with wry looks and a younger man who seemed to be in training). They seemed to come straight from a Hemingway short story.

The next day we went to Segovia. We had to buy our tickets and catch the train at Chamartín on the northern side of Madrid. The train moved fast and got us to Segovia in thirty minutes. Along the way we viewed the mountains of the Guadarramas and the darkness of two tunnels as we passed beneath some mountains. From the train station we had to catch a bus into the town. We ate a chain restaurant called Pan & Company. We finished our food and coffee then headed out, seeing this 11th century church:

It was quite a bit colder in Segovia so we bought some gloves and hats at a store in town. As we walked down the street, we emerged upon this amazing sight:

This is the Roman Aqueduct of Segovia, constructed sometime between the year 50-110. This is one of the largest and best-preserved aqueducts outside Italy. It is over ten miles in length. An aqueduct was a marvel of Roman engineering which served as a plumbing system. It carries fresh water from a source (in this case the Guadarrama Mountains) to a settlement by means of a pipe located through the top of the gradually-declining sloped structure. The aqueduct was built without mortar. The Romans invaded in the first century AD and took Segovia from the Celtiberians, the ancient people who likely gave the town its name. Monuments such as this and the road systems in Spain are the legacy of the Romans, along with the Spanish language, which is derived from Latin. We climbed a set of stairs near the aqueduct and took some more photos:

We walked further into town from here, past a former mansion called La Casa de los Picos which is now an exhibition hall which features traveling displays:

We walked further down a street then emerged upon a Plaza dedicated to Juan Bravo, a rebel from the 1500s. Bravo was from Segovia and led a group against King Carlos I (Holy Roman Emperor Charles V) in the Castilian War of the Communities. The Comuneros, as they were known, fought against the king whom they saw as a foreign invader who imposed high taxes, and against the feudal system of lords and vassals. Bravo and his followers were defeated and executed in 1521. Here is the plaza dedicated to him:

We walked down some winding streets of the old Jewish quarter, past a former synagogue which had been converted into a church soon after the expulsion of the Jews in 1492. (The Spanish Jews, known as the Sephardim, left for the Netherlands, North Africa, and Brazil. They are still a major Jewish community in some places ).

We soon came upon the Cathedral of Segovia, Catedral de Nuestra Señora. From the street, the several spires rising from the back of the building look like a stone pine forest:

The cathedral was built in the late 1520s. It's front was impressive as well:

We then went inside this Gothic cathedral, constructed after the Castilian War of the Communities. We admired the stained-glass windows, the highly decorative and colorful altars, and high, columned vaults:

We then went to the Plaza Mayor and had coffee at a little café. From here, there was a good view of the Cathedral:

We walked past the Cathedral until we came to the Alcázar of Segovia, a large, fairy-tale style castle originally constructed in the 12th century and later renovated in the 1800s. The castle was originally a fortress. (alcázar is one of many Spanish words adopted from Arabic. It means "fortress," and also serves as the root of the name of Alcalá de Henares). It was later a royal residence and a military academy. Here is a view of the outskirts of the town from the high cliff on which the Alcázar stands:

Here is the Alcázar itself:

The inside of the castle was amazing. There were suits of armor:

Islamic-inspired ornamentation:

and weaponry:

Here is a view of the towers fromt the courtyard:

We then climbed a (at the time) seemingly unending spiral staircase to the highest tower of the Alcázar. The staircase was narrow and at times this was difficult with people coming up and going down. However, from the top there was a beautiful view of the city and the Cathedral:

There was also a good view of the castle spires and countryside:

We left the castle and headed back through town to the bus stop, getting another look at the Cathedral and Aqueduct along the way. We arrived back in Madrid and looked around for a place to eat before deciding upon returning to La Garena and eating at Gino's, an Italian restaurant. We finished dinner late (as most Spanish people do) and went to bed to prepare for the next day.

New Apartment and Malasaña

2010-03-06T04:16:00.000-08:00

Cody and I moved to a new apartment last week. It was really a last-minute decision. One of the secretaries at school asked if anyone was looking for an apartment, telling us that a friend of her's had one for rent. It is a two to three minute walk from our school, very large, and the same price as our last apartment (with utilities). The apartment is located a five minute walk from the town center and right across the street from a bank, grocery store, and the train station. It belonged to the mother of our landlord, Antonio, who passed away a month prior. He told us that everything stayed (including the furniture, television, dishes, and trinkets). He even bought us new dishes. Katie and Kelsey moved in with us as well as they had some problems with their old place. Antonio even bought two beds for them. Here are some pictures of the new place:

Last weekend I went to Madrid and visited a neighborhood called Malasaña. This is a trendy neighborhood popular with artists and musicians. It originally became a popular area during the Transition, the period after the death of Spanish dictator, Francisco Franco (1975-1980s). In Madrid the Transition produced a cultural movement called La Movida ("The Movement"). La Movida was a period in which many of the restrictions of the Franco years, now gone, transformed into a whirlwind period of sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll. American and British rock of the era was popular at the time, namely The Ramones and David Bowie. Both still have a large following in Madrid (The Ramones logo is seen quite a bit in Malasaña). A large number of nightclubs and bars opened throughout Madrid, but those in Malasaña were the most popular. Possibly the most internationally famous figure of La Movida was the Spanish film director Pedro Almodóvar. Many of his films are set in the area of Malasaña. Today the area consists of many cafés, trendy clothing and thrift stores, tattoo parlors, and music/book stores.

La Movida died out in the 1980s, but caused some major changes to Spanish society. For example, the new Spanish Democracy also gave more rights to women (during the Franco years, women were basically possessions of their husbands or fathers and relied upon their permission to engage in any social situation). This resulted in a new dynamic between men and women in Spain, as the concept of machismo had goverened Spanish society for nearly its entire history prior to 1975. Here are some pictures of Malasaña from a warm, sunny day:

The area of Malasaña is much older than the 1970s/80s, however. There are many nineteenth-century churches and plazas. The central plaza is Plaza del Dos de Mayo, named after the day on which began the popular uprising against the invading French army of Napoleon in 1808. The uprising itself began near the Royal Palace (quite a bit away from Malasaña) but it spread throughout the city and sparked rebellions elsewhere in Spain. The following day was equally notable as the French army responded to the uprising with a brutal attack on the citizens of Madrid. One victim of the French response was a fifteen-year old seamstress named Manuela Malasaña. Manuela was attacked by French soldiers during the chaotic fighting in the streets. She attempted to resist their attack and when the soldiers discovered she was carrying scissors they executed her for carrying a "concealed weapon." The neighborhood and one of its main streets are named in her honor.

The fighting against the French continued for years after this uprising. The common people took up arms to fight off the invaders. These people used hit-and-run tactics, attacking squadrons of French troops by surprise. This type of fighting was given the name guerilla, which is Spanish for "little war." Today the name is still used to describe a similar type of warfare. The British eventually arrived in Spain to fight the French at the same time Napoleon's forces were having a tough time, on the opposite side of Europe, in Russia. The French left Spain in 1814, but the politcal and social chaos from the years of foreign occupation bred more than 100 years of civil warfare and military coups in Spain.

Here is the statue from the Plaza del Dos de Mayo. The sculpted figures have become enmeshed in the bohemian atmosphere of Malasaña:

Here are some of the churches of Malasaña:

Here are some of the cafés and restaurants of Malasaña:

The last restaurant, El Carpincho, is Spanish for "The Capybara." A capybara is the world's largest rodent. It lives in South America and also goes by the name "grasscutter" or (my favorite) "Master of the Grasses," as it is known for consuming large amounts of grass.

I also came upon this building which housed a clothing store and apartments:

I walked from Malasaña to Gran Vía, which was particularly crowded that day. I walked down Gran Vía until I came to the area of the Royal Palace at Plaza de Oriente. From here I walked to the old area of Madrid, known as Bourbon Madrid. This is where much of the oldest architecture exists, dating to the 16th century when Madrid became the capital city. Prior to this, Madrid was little more than a small town with several monasteries and large hunting grounds favored by the Castilian monarchs. The area is known as Bourbon Madrid as the current ruling family in Spain (which has been the same family since the early 1700s) are the Bourbons (originally of France). The ruling family which established the area, however, were the Habsburgs (originally of Austria). Here is a Habsburg palace I had never seen until that day:

There are also some interesting back alleys in the area. The Mudejar style of architecture, which shows a heavy Arabic influence, is evident here:

I then passed the strange tapas bar I mentioned in an earlier post, Rey del Piminento:

I then walked to Plaza Mayor and took some photos in the sunset:

Plaza Mayor was constructed in 1617 during the reign of Felipe III. It became the center of Madrid and many ceremonies and events took place here. It was often used as a bullfighting arena. Felipe III's father, Felipe II, had enlarged the Inquisition during his reign and it was a powerful force during his son's tenure. The Inquisition came from the time of the Reconquista, when the Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula joined in an attempt to oust the Muslims who had controlled much of the Southern three quarters of Spain since the year 711. These kings believed they needed something to unify their cause and the most obvious symbol was that of the Catholic Church. In the final years of the Reconquista and the centuries that followed, the Inquisition sought to ensure that only one faith existed in Spain. The Catholic Church had most of the control over the Inquisition and thus gained more power than it did in other countries. In the years that followed the Reconquest (which ended in 1492, an important year for Spain), the Inquisition expanded as the Catholic Monarchs (Fernando and Isabel) wanted to ensure their dominance. That same year saw the forced expulsion of the Sephardim, the Jewish community of Spain. Jews could remain in Spain, but had to convert to Christianity, and the same applied to Muslims. Those who were suspected of practicing their old religion in secret were brought before the Inquisition. This consisted of a questioning by church officials, often accompanied by torture until the accused confessed. Following confession, an auto de fé was performed. This is a Portuguese phrase which means "act of faith." This consisted of a religious ritual in which a confessor's sentence was read. This was sometimes followed, in a separate ceremony, with a public execution (often burning at the stake or administration of the garrote, a typically Spanish method of execution which consisted of a device designed to crush the windpipe of the condemned). These executions took place in the center of Plaza Mayor.

In the following centuries, as the Protestant Reformation spread through Europe, the Inquisition kept such new Christian sects out of Spain. Those accused of reading works by Martin Luther, John Calvin, or other Protestant leaders were subject to the Inquisition. While Rome had its own Inquisition, which banned many secular books, the Pope never officially supported the Spanish Inquisition. While its influence rose and fell over the centuries, the Inquisition remained until the French invasion in 1808.

History is everywhere. You can walk past a building or down a street completely unaware of the lives that passed by, the ideas that that necessitated the construction of a landmark whose original purpose has been lost in time, or the laws and restrictions which governed the lives of a city's ancestors. Occasionally you will see something, a reminder left by some bureaucrat from the city offices, which will tune you in with history. Such as this plaque indicating the birthplace of cubist painter Juan Gris:

It can sometimes be difficult to understand how we are connected to the past. Yet here, you only have to look around to see how La Movida, Franco, Napoleon's invasion, the Inquisition, and the inventive artwork of people like Juan Gris have made Spain what it is today.

Parisian Splendour: Part Trois

2010-03-02T10:25:00.000-08:00

Sunday morning I woke up early again to arrive at the Louvre before opening hours (9:00). I knew from the line I had seen the previous day that it would get crowded fast. I took the metro to the museum and entered through the carousel, the underground entrance which also includes a shopping center. Arriving early was great as I got in without having to stand in line. The museum is massive, so I went to the most famous wing first, knowing it would fill up fast. One of the first works I came across was the Nike of Samothrace:

This Greek statue was sculpted sometime around 190 BC and originally stood in a theatre. It depicts Nike, the winged goddess of victory and thus likely symbolized some military victory. After this, I walked through a great hall of paintings. These included Renaissance works by Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, and the strange paintings of Giuseppe Arcimboldo in which fruit, flowers, and twigs form portraits. Off of this hall was an open room which contained one of the museums most famous possessions, da Vinci's 1506 painting, Mona Lisa. This was quite impressive to see in person and a throng of people already gathered around the portrait which was roped off so that people could not get within five feet of it, and was behind several layers of glass.

I then walked to the basement of the museum which serves as a smaller museum of the history of the Louvre as a palace. Here, the original medieval foundations are visible:

and this model of the original palace was on display:

Back upstairs I went to the hall of Greek antiquities and saw another of the museum's famous pieces, the Venus de Milo:

The sculpture is Greek and originates from around 130-100BC. The arms of the statue have never been found. It was discovered on the island of Milos and possibly depicts the Greek goddess Aphrodite (called Venus by the Romans).

I walked through more of the gallery and saw a small section of Spanish art which included paintings by El Greco, Velazquez, and Goya. I also saw some paintings by the Dutch artists Johannes Vermeer and Rembrandt. One of my favorite rooms was the collection of French Romantic paintings by Eugène Delacroix, Jacques-Louis David, and Théodore Géricault. These included David's The Coronation of Napoleon, Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People (a patriotic depiction of the feminine spirit of France, Marianne, leading Parisians in the 'July Revolution' of 1830), and Géricault's Raft of the Medusa.

From one of the upper floors I took this picture of the courtyard and glass pyramid in front of the museum:

Underneath this great pyramid in the entrance/exit to the museum is this inverted pyramid:

I left the Louvre and met up with Melissa and Nicolas in the district known as Le Marais. We met near the Centre Pompidou, the modern art museum of Paris which has an interesting, industrial exterior. (In the second picture, see if you can find a particularly French clown):

The museum was built in the 1970s. Outside is the Stravinsky Fountain by Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint-Phalle, although in this picture, the water is not flowing:

We went inside the Centre which also features a large public library. We walked through this for a while, past several people hunched in front of video screens wathing television streamed from America, England, Spain, Germany, and Italy. Hundreds of people sat at desks studying in the large, spacious floors of the library. It featured an enormous English-language section which included several rare American books.

Outside the museum/library, stood this typically Parisian apartment complex:

We then walked to the Jewish district of the city, located within Le Marais. This was an old disctrict with narrow streets and high buildings. Several traditional Jewish restaurants lined the streets. Sundays are particularly lively in this district as things that are closed elsewhere in the city are open there (Saturday is the Sabbath in the Jewish religion and thus the businesses in the area are closed on that day). We came across a school which had this plaque beside its door:

It reads roughly: "To the memory of the little children of this elementary school who were taken between 1942 and 1944 because they were Jews. They were the innocent victims of the barbaric Nazis who were assisted by the collaborationist Vichy Government. They were exterminated in the death camps. Never forget." In 1940, early in the Second World War, France fell to Hitler's Germany. The Nazis controlled the northern portion of France (which includes Paris) and established a puppet government under the leadership of the French general Marshal Philippe Pétain. Some brave French men and women joined resistance groups to undermine the Nazi influence in several ways including smuggling Jews and escaped Allied prisoners of war out of France. After the war, Pétain stood trial and was found guilty of treason. He was sentenced to death by firing squad, but President Charles de Gaulle commuted this to a life sentence due to his advanced age. (The ring below the plaque is used for hanging flowers).

We stopped at a restaurant and got a falafel and a Coke, then walked around the area some more. Here are some pictures of the Jewish district:

We left the Jewish District and walked around the Place des Vosges, the oldest square in Paris. It was constructed under Henri IV (who was involved in the French Religious Wars between Calvinists and Catholics and was assassinated) between 1605-1612. The place was used in the 1600s for military parades and royal cermonies. The houses along the place were some of the wealthiest places of residence and housed many famous Parisians, most notably Victor Hugo. Here are some photos. Notice the unevenness of the windows, which is mostly evident in the second picture:

We walked past this Medieval tower that was meant to be a church, but was never completed:

We then went to Les Halles, a shopping center. Mostly everything was closed because it was Sunday, but the area is significant because it was once the central market of Paris. It originated in the 1100s and merchants would come from all over selling their goods which included artisan products, food, and the exotic spices which once fueled the exploration of the world and produced wars. The markets closed in 1971 and were replaced with modernist architecture. The early 20th century iron shelters are the only relic of the once bustling center of the city:

Here is a modernist apartment complex (which I often associate with the Paris of the late 1960s) that stands on the edge of Les Halles:

Many Parisians (Nicolas included) hate the modernist architecture around Les Halles only because it obscures the splendor of the nearby Church of Saint-Eustache, a church named for the Roman martyr who claimed to have had a vision of the crucifixion appear to him between the antlers of a stag (this is the explanation for the symbol on bottles of the German liquer, Jaegermeister).

The church was constructed from 1532-1637. It was a famous site for baptisms with both the powerful (and corrupt) Cardinal Richelieu and the comedic playwright Molière being baptised here before its completion.

We walked through the adjacent neighborhood and came across a restaurant whose specialty was easily perceived:

From here we took the metro to the Eiffel Tower:

The Eiffel Tower is a 1,063 foot tall iron structure built between 1887 to 1889 for the 1889 World's Fair. At the time of its construction it was the tallest man-made structure in the world. It was designed by the French engineer Gustave Eiffel. Eiffel also helped construct the Statue of Liberty. Today it serves as a radio and television transmission tower and has become the most popular symbol of the city. (In 1912, the Austrian tailor Franz Reichelt fell to his death from the tower while attempting to demonstrate his haplessly-designed parachute suit).

After this, it was time for me to head back to the airport. Melissa and Nicolas rode with me on the metro until I got to the train which took me to the airport. We said our goodbyes there. I am truly grateful to them for acting as hosts and guides to their city.

When I got to the airport I learned my flight had been delayed, as it had been in Rome. I walked around the duty-free shop and perused French wines and cheeses. I picked up a copy of the free airport magazine and read an interview with Audrey Tatou as a collection of Parisians and Madrileños slept in their chairs around me.

The flight seemed much longer than the one into Paris. When I arrived in Madrid, the metro and train stations were closed, so I had to take a couple of buses to reach Alcalá de Henares. I arrived at my apartment somewhere around 4:30 in the morning. The next day of work was rough, but I caught up on my sleep during the rest of the week.

More to come soon as Cody and I moved to a new apartment and I discovered a very cool Madrid neighborhood.

Parisian Splendour: Part Deux

2010-02-28T02:59:00.000-08:00

The next day I woke up early to visit the Musée d'Orsay. I first went to a boulangerie and bought some pastries for breakfast, including this chocolate éclair:

After breakfast I used the two-day metro pass I bought the night before to travel to the museum. The Musée d'Orsay houses many famous artworks from the impressionists and post-impressionists, focusing on mainly the French artists such as Renoir, Degas, Monet, Manet, Toulouse-Lautrec, Cezanne (including his painting featured at the head of my blog), and Gaugin. The museum also had a large collection of the Dutch Vincent van Gogh including many of his self-portraits. A special exhibition of the strange Belgian artist, James Ensor was also at the museum. The building of the museum itself is interesting, as it was originally a train station built in 1900:

I also crossed the Seine to take some pictures of the outside of the Musée du Louvre:

The Louvre was originally the palace of the French monarchs since its original construction in the 1100s under King Philip II. The original medieval structure is no longer present as Francis I had the palace renovated in 1546. Once Louis XIV moved his court away from the intrigues of Paris to the new palace at Versailles, the former palace became a sort of storehouse for royal art collections. In 1791, during the French Revolution, with the overthrow of the monarchy and everything that tasted of the nobility, the National Assembly opened the Louvre to public viewings in the hope it would serve as a symbol of egalitarianism. The glass pyramids outside were constructed in 1988 by the architect I.M. Pei.

Here is a picture from a bridge on the Seine, near the Louvre:

I then met up with Melissa in the area of Montmartre. We walked past the famous cabaret, the Moulin Rouge, which originated in 1889 and was where the can-can and the striptease were born:

I stopped at a street stand and bought a crêpe with egg and diced ham. The stand served several different types of crêpes, with sweet and savory varieties. We then walked to the highest hill in the city (from which Montmartre gets its name) upon which rests the beautiful Basilique Sacré-Cœur (or Basilica of the Sacred Heart):

The Byzantine-style basilica was constructed from 1875 to 1914 and was meant to be in honor of those killed in the Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune uprising (both from 1870-1871). The uprising, a working-class uprising which attempted to establish a Communist system, was just one of many political revolts Paris has known since the original French Revolution.

We walked up the steps which lead to the basilica. At the top, there was a good view of the city:

We went inside the basilica which had some interesting modernist stained-glass windows. Outside, I took some close-ups of the building:

We walked through the neighborhood atop the hill of Montmartre, which are some of the most expensive in Paris. In the midst of the houses sat the last vineyard in Paris. Across from it was an old cabaret called Au Lapin Agile:

Melissa says she has walked past this at night before and heard songs carrying through the windows. We then made our way toward the Arc de Triomphe. On our way there, we saw this art deco metro station:

We took this metro line to the Arc de Triomphe:

Napoleon ordered the construction of the arch in 1806, but it was not completed until 1836, well after the Emperor's final defeat. It serves as a war memorial, particularly for the Napoleonic Wars. The walls of the interior list the names of all the places Napoleon invaded. Here is a wall listing some of those places in Spain:

The tomb of the unknown soldier (from the First World War) is also located here:

From here, the area of Paris known as La Défense is visible. The area was originally named after the defenders of the city in the Franco-Prussian War and is now a modern business district. The main feature of the district is the Grande Arche, a cubed arch built in 1989 which houses business offices and an exhibition hall:

We returned to the center of the city after this and went to Place de la Concorde, which is near the Louvre. The Eiffel Tower can be seen in the background of the second picture:

The obelisk in the pictures is a real Egyptian obelisk given to France by the Egyptian government. It stands on the exact location where the guillotine chopped off the heads of the nobility (most notably Louis XV and his queen, Marie Antoinette) during the French Revolution.

The guillotine was a French invention which did away with the problem of an axeman (who was not always accurate and would sometimes only cut the head off partially or hack the condemned in the back). The guillotine was meant to be a more humane method of beheading in which the razor-sharp blade, dropped down a track, cut the head off in one fast motion. (Scientists later discovered that the head remains conscious for a few seconds after such a swift decapitation). The guillotine became a symbol of the period which directly followed the French Revolution, known as the Reign of Terror, during which the Committee of Public Safety (under the control of Maximilien Robespierre) executed thousands whom they claimed had monarchist sympathies. Estimates range from 16,000 to 40,000 beheaded during this period in which paranoia ran so high that no one was safe from the "national razor," including Robespierre himself who went under the blade in 1794. The guillotine remained a viable method of execution in France until 1981. The last public execution by this device was in 1939, and the last actual execution with it was 1977.

With that gory bit of history out of the way, here is a great view of the Eiffel Tower from the Place de la Concorde:

After this I walked along the Seine and came across this statue of my fellow countryman:

Many of the American "Founding Fathers" like Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, who served as diplomats to France before and after the American Revolution, were popular among the French. They were inspired in their formation of the US government by the ideology of the French Enlightenment, that intellectual movement espoused by such philosophers as Rousseau and Voltaire, which stressed the use of reason over blind faith (faith in the authority of the noble classes as well as religious faith). The French Revolution took Enlightenment idealism too far and did away with anything that reflected the concept of a nobility or any form of religion (for example condemning the church and changing the names of the month because they were named for Roman gods and festivals, which is "just not reasonable.").

From this statue, I walked to the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris. This massive cathedral, whose height is supported by a series of flying buttresses, was constructed from 1163 to the mid-1240s. It is, of course, the setting for the French writer, Victor Hugo's 1831 novel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame:

Here are some of the cathedral's famous gargoyles:

Several interpretations of gargoyles exist. Some believe they were evil-spirit-deterring relics of pagan religions from the lands Christianity came in contact with; others that they were meant to frighten the commoners of the Middle Ages into repentance as a reminder of evil and eternal damnation; and still others believe they symbolized the fact that evil existed outside the church, but could not penetrate its walls.

In front of the cathedral stands this statue of Charlemagne, or Charles the Great, king of the Franks in the late 700s, early 800s who was crowned Emperor by the Pope and founded what was known as the Holy Roman Empire (which confusingly did not exist in Rome, but France, Germany, and parts of Eastern Europe). The Holy Roman Empire lasted until the 1830s, although by then it was a weak political entity and the title of Holy Roman Emperor meant nothing. Its lands too had diminished at the time to cover only the area of Austria and Hungary.

Charlemagne is also considered the first of the French kings (as Charles I). Many heroic legends were later written about him and his knights, similar to the legends of King Arthur in England.

I then retraced my footsteps along the Seine and walked by the Conciergerie:

The Conciergerie was originally a royal palace built in the 900s and heavily remodeled by successive kings until 1358. Today it is part of the Palais de Justice. It is most famous, however, as a prison. It became a prison in 1391. During the Renaissance it served as a prison for those awaiting the guillotine.

More to come soon!

Parisian Splendour: Part Un

2010-02-28T01:14:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I flew to Paris and met up with my friend Michelle and her husband, Nicolas, who live in the city. I worked with Michelle at the Dari-B some years ago. Nicolas was born not far outside Paris and met Michelle on a vacation in Florida. They showed me around the city and I had a great time, learning and finding things I wouldn't have had they not been my guides. When my plane arrived on Friday afternoon at Charles de Gaulle Airport, I took a train into the center of the city. The price was quite a shock, as a typical one-way train ticket into Madrid costs a little over two euros. Here, it was around €8.50. This is just an example of Paris' role as one of the most expensive cities in Europe.

I met Michelle in the city and we went on a walking tour before we met up with Nicolas for dinner. The first place we came across was Les Invalides, the former military hospital and chapel which now houses museums of French military history:

Les Invalides was commissioned by Louis XIV, known as the Sun King for his authoritarian rule and the manner in which his lavish court revolved around him, in 1670. The complex and the chapel were completed in 1679. The hospital was at its busiest during Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte's wars of conquest. The chapel today serves as a resting place for many members of the French military, and directly beneath the dome's spire is the tomb of Napoleon. Here is a photo looking out from the enclosure of Les Invalides onto Paris. The glass building on the left is the Grand Palais, an exhibition center built for the 1900 Paris Exhibition:

After this we walked toward the restaurant and came across a gothic church:

and this strange statue:

We then arrived at the restaurant, Polidor, where we met Nicolas. They had told me this was a traditional Parisian restaurant that was very "old Paris." When we arrived, the restaurant had not opened yet, so we went into its adjacent business, run by the same family, a wine cellar which specialized in collector's wine. Many of the bottles were old and sat high on shelves, covered in dust. When seven o' clock arrived, the restaurant opened and we went in. Michelle and Nicolas both advised we arrive early as it normally fills up fast. Here is a picture of the wine shop and the restaurant, the entrance to which is through a door on the far right:

The restaurant looked as though it had not changed its decor since the early 1900s. Mirrors in gilded frames lined the walls and the same menu they had been serving for decades was posted on one of the walls alongside the newer menu. I decided to go for the old menu which consisted of more traditional French food. For my first course I had foie gras:

It was very rich and buttery, and best spread upon the toasted bread that accompanied it. My next course was veal in a very thick and buttery (you can use that word to describe almost all French food) sauce:

For dessert I had sorbet in three flavors. The food was wonderful, served in small amounts, but very filling.

After dinner we walked along the River Seine. I took some pictures of the buildings at night:

We also saw Notre Dame de Paris from across the river:

I'll write more about the cathedral in my next post.

We then went to Shakespeare and Company, the succussor to the original English-language bookstore of the same name which was run by Sylvia Beach from 1919 until the Second World War. The original store was often frequented by writers such as Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and James Joyce. The new store was opened in the 1950s and hires young writers to work in the store. The store is crammed full of books of every genre and features and upstairs reading room which resembles a dusty attic with chairs and pillows. This is a picture I took of the shop the following night:

A Suburban Palace

2010-02-22T12:13:00.000-08:00

I've been busy lately traveling and haven't had time to post anything for a while. Here I will talk about my trip two weekends ago to the suburb of Aranjuez in the far south of the Comunidad de Madrid. It is a forty-five minute train ride out of the city to the town which is known for its Royal Palace (Palacio Real de Aranjuez). Once I left the train station, I headed down the main street from which I could see La Montaña, the hill upon which stands several modernist-style residences. After walking a short distance down the road, I came upon the palace:

The construction of the palace began in the late 1500s during the reign of Felipe II, the same king for whom the palace at El Escorial was constructed. Some of the same elements can be seen in the two palaces, yet the one at Aranjuez has much more ornamentation. This is largely due to the fact that it was not completed until the mid-1700s under the reign of Fernando VI. The palace served as a residence for the Spanish monarchs until Isabel II (who reigned from 1833, when she was three, to 1868, when she was ousted during a military uprising).

I toured the interior of the palace which was decorated with many objects belonging to the Spanish monarchs. On display were the carriages of Fernando VI, the ornate abanicos (the famous collapsible fans) of Isabel II, the automobile of Alfonso XIII, and the wedding gown of the current princess, Letizia. The rooms were quite impressive, especially a study known as the porcelain room in which the walls were made of porcelain with Chinese-themed ornamentation.

Outside the palace were the equally impressive palace gardens which included a stream full of ducks and geese, a man-made waterfall, fountains, statues, exotic birdcages, and various garden ornaments:

I was amusued for a while, watching this duck repeatedly submerge its head beneath the flowing waters of the falls:

I'll post more soon about my trip to Paris this past weekend.

The Country and the City

2010-02-12T14:45:00.000-08:00

I've gone on quite a few field trips with the students recently. Kristin's sixth grade classe took a trip to a driving school last week. Spaniards do not get their driver's license until they are eighteen, but they are taught the basics early on. Most of the time was spent with a local police officer who told the students about road signs, traffic laws, and pedestrian crossings. The stop signs in Spain are written in English, so the officer told the students the word STOP stands for "Siempre Tenemos Obligado Parada" (We must always stop). After this, the students took electric-powered go-carts on a track complete with traffic signs and stop lights. Many of the students complained that the carts did not move fast enough.

This week the whole sixth grade took a field trip to some of the high schools in Alcalá de Henares. High schools in Spain consist of two cycles which are in the same building, but separated from each other. The first cycle is seventh and eighth grades, the second consists of the grades we would consider high school, and the third cycle is an optional cycle which works similar to a community college in the US. Tamara went on the field trip as well. We toured the building which seemed very similar to an extraordinarily clean American high school except for the addition of a concession stand which sold coffee, soda, and candy all day. Perhaps this was a high school tapas bar. We visited another high school as well which was not as well laid out and resembled a prison. It had a French bilingual program rather than an English one. I had seen the school before from the bus, but had assumed it was a hospital judging by its size and enclosure behind a wall. In fact, I learned it is the largest high school in Spain and is used as a setting whenever Spanish movies and shows need a high school scene.

Last weekend, Cody was sick, so I did some exploring on my own. I decided to visit a small town in the north called Buitrago del Lozoya, which is named after the Lozoya River which runs from the Guadarrama Mountains. The weather was chilly that day. I took a bus from Plaza Castilla in Madrid to the small town. The wall that surrounded the medieval town was still intact in some areas:

I walked down this little alley and through a gate in the wall that led to a church built in the 1600s:

The church was unique as its interior showed signs of Jewish and Islamic influence with horseshoe arches and ornate wooden ceilings. Beside this church was a set of stairs which led up to the top of the city wall. The walkway of the wall was closed off, but from the top of the stairs I took some pictures of the town:

I walked from here to the alcazar, the castle ruins of Buitrago. The origin of this structure is not clear. It was once believed to have originally been a Muslim castle, but now, that is doubted by the local historians. It was probably built around the 1200s-1300s.

From the castle ruins, a path led outside the city wall and to a road which followed along the river. This was probably the best place in the town for pictures:

Buitrago del Lozoya is a very small town and despite the wall, ruins, church, and scenic river, there isn't much to do there. The town itself is run-down and few restaurants were open. But Buitrago is famous for something else. Can you guess? Perhaps this photo can help:

Yes, of course, this is the town where Pablo Picasso was from. No, wait, that's not right. This is the town where Pablo Picasso's barber was from. As a way of better connecting itself to the great modernist painter of Spain, Buitrago has a museum of some of Picasso's sketches. The museum, however, was closed that day.

I decided to go back to the bus stop, even though the next bus wasn't set to arrive for another hour. On my way there, I heard someone say my name nearby. I was shocked to hear my name spoken in such a small town 90 minutes north of Madrid and even more shocked to find that the one calling me was my Spanish roommate Alfonso who was with his girlfriend and her sister who was my age. They had been skiing in the mountains nearby before deciding to visit Buitrago. After the brief moment of us being surprised to see each other, they asked me when I was leaving, then told me to walk with them through the town. We walked around the wall and back to the church and castle ruins as I practiced my conversational Spanish.

They told me they would walk with me to the bus and wait there with me. We went to a small cafe near the bus stop and had some coffee at the bar where a man who appeared to be in his eighties told us about the local type of cheese and then apologized for not having any on hand. The bus arrived shortly after and we said our "see you laters."

The next morning I woke up early and went in to Madrid. I visited the Reina Sofía Museum again. I took this picture in the modernist courtyard of the museum:

After this, I got some lunch and took it to Parque del Retiro. I got quite a few pictures there.

While wandering through the park I found this odd fountain representing Satan's expulsion from Heaven called Fuente del Ángel Caído:

After leaving the park I headed back to the Atocha train station when I came upon a small parade:

Carnivale is coming soon and there are many celebrations of local saints, so I am guessing this is what the above was. Those involved played drums, clarinets, and the women clicked canastas as they stopped and danced. A crowd gathered around to watch and cheer as the paraders danced to the music. After the brief stop, they picked up the saint again and headed down Paseo del Prado.

At school we are preparing for Carnivale, which should be interesting. We are going to dress in costumes, as will all the children.

Travels Through the Comunidad de Madrid

2010-02-01T13:59:00.000-08:00

This past weekend everyone was either sick or away from the city, so I decided to take a few trips around the Madrid Community. The Madrid Community is the central "state" of Spain which includes the capital city and several miles of territory outside it. It is one of the smaller communities of Spain (in terms of area), but also one of the most populated (because of the capital city and other large towns such as Alcalá de Henares and Guadalajara. I thought I would visit some of the towns nearing the borders of the community.

On Saturday I went to Manzanares el Real, situated in the north of the Madrid Community. I took the train from Alcalá to the Chamartín train station which is situated in the financial district in the north of Madrid, AZCA. This is where the tallest skyscrapers in Spain are located as well as a new metal obelisk erected by the Valencian architect Santiago Calatrava:

I caught a bus at the underground bus station which is just below this obelisk (and even below the local metro line). I got on the bus which drove through a network of tunnels before emerging further north in Madrid. The bus made a few more stops in these outer areas of the city which contains several office complexes and large executive hotels for people coming to town on business. The bus continued past a military base and a police academy before completely leaving the big city behind. The snow-capped Guadarrama Mountains drew nearer as we crossed the Meseta Central (or "Central Plateau" which encompasses the majority of the Madrid Community and the Community of Castile-La Mancha to the south.). We passed several pastures spotted with grazing bulls, the symbol of Spain. After twenty minutes in the countryside, the bus passed through the relatively new-looking and very suburban town of Colmenar del Viejo. The town, which seemed pleasant enough, vanished as the bus once again entered rural territory. Ten minutes later we arrived at a lake at the foot of the Guadarramas where the town of Manzanares el Real rests.

Manzanres el Real is located near the mouth of the Manzanares River, the main river which runs through Madrid. (Don't let this last statement fool you. Central Spain is not known for its rivers, and the Manzanares is little more than a stream.) The town seemed very wealthy with many chalets and hunting lodges (in Spain and the rest of Western Europe, hunting is a sport almost entirely pursued by the upper classes).

The main attraction of Manzanares el Real, however, is the Castillo de Manzanares el Real. This is one of the most well-reserved castles in central Spain.

The castle was built in 1475 by a member of the wealthy and powerful Mendoza family, Diego Hurtado de Mendoza. The Mendozas were the same family of nobles who constructed the Palacio de los Duques del Infantado, which I visited in Guadalajara. When the castle was constructed, the city of Madrid was not yet the capital and only had a few hundred residents, and the nobles sometimes had enough power to rival the monarchs of the various Spanish kingdoms.

I spent a while walking around the castle, taking pictures of its exterior:

The castle is still technically owned by the current Duke of the Infantado, but in the 1970s he leased it to the Community of Madrid for a period of seventy years so that restorations may be made. I toured the interior of the castle which was almost entirely remodeled. There were many suits of armor on display:

The ladies waiting room was interesting. The room's layout was done in an Islamic style (a matress on the floor with plenty of pillows for lounging) which was apparently typical of Spanish drawing rooms for women until the 1800s. The clothing of the Mendoza family was also on display in the ducal bedroom:

A wooden stairway led to the gallery and the machiolated battlements. From here, there were some amazing views of the lake, town, and mountains:

You could also go inside each of the towers if you dared to climb the narrow and steep stairs:

To leave the roof of the castle, you can walk down one of the original spiral staircases located in one of the towers:

I then walked to the main plaza of Manzanares el Real where many people (and a dog) were enjoying the nice weather:

I went to the bus stop as the sun set and waited for the next bus to Madrid along with several fishermen and hunters who carried their poles and rifles with them. By the time the bus passed through Colmenar el Viejo, it was already dark. From the bus station I walked back to Chamartín and caught the next train back to Alcalá.

The next morning I awoke early and planned another trip for the day. At first I planned on visiting a town outside of the Comunidad de Madrid, in Castile-La Mancha, called Cuenca. A quick search online revealed to me that the train tickets to the town were sold out for the day. Instead I planned a trip to a town I had only heard a little about in a travel book, Chinchón. All I knew of the town was that it was located in the far south of the Comunidad de Madrid and that the Plaza Mayor was worth a visit. I set out with no expectations.

I had to take the train to the Atocha train station in Madrid and from there, the metro to a bus stop in the south of the city. This part of Madrid mostly consisted of high-rise apartment complexes with various restaurants, bars, and grocers on the ground levels. I boarded the bus to Chinchón and settled into my seat as music from the driver's CD (which I can only describe as the Spanish version of Tom Jones) played through the speakers. The bus left the city of Madrid behind in only a few minutes and the scenery changed into open plains which had been scorched by centuries of sunlight. These were intermingled with several large, irrigated olive orchards. The mountains of Toledo in Castile-La Mancha could be seen in the distance. The bus drove for thirty minutes through the countryside before passing through a small, rural town. We left this town, then drove another ten or fifteen minutes before reaching the outskirts of Chinchón where I stepped off the bus. As the bus entered the town, I had briefly glimpsed some castle ruins, but could not see them from where I now stood. On one side of the road sat the countryside, and on the other, several narrow streets. I had no idea which way to go, so I picked a random street and headed down it.

The narrow street seemed to envelop me as a walked down its winding path and I began to get a sense of this town. I felt transported into the past despite the few modern cars parked along the roads. I heard the Sunday church bells somewhere ahead of me tolling the hour. As I walked I passed the entrance to what looked like an authentic, rural restaurant which was closed for Sunday:

I wandered more through the winding streets, passing a very cool old Citroën,

before emerging upon a fifteenth-century church,

a clocktower,

and this view of the town with the Plaza Mayor and the castle ruins:

I then walked down an steep hill which consisted of even more winding paths and, passing under an archway, I emerged upon the Plaza Mayor. This was built in 1499 and consists of a large ring used in the summer as a bullring. The buildings which surround it were built from the 1500s to the 1800s and now hold restaurants where patrons can sit outside on the ground level or on the balconies:

I also saw this:

A burro taxi! Who doesn't love a burro taxi? I wandered around Plaza Mayor for a while, looking at bakeries and a shop which sold hollowed-out gourds. Chinchón has a certain rural, small-town feel to it. The food reflects this rural nature. In Madrid the food is a mix of the various regions of Spain: baby eels from the Basque Country, fabada from Asturias, paella from Valencia, and so on. But in Chinchón, the food is distinclty Castilian (the region of central Spain). You won't find hamburgers and pre-packaged seafood dishes here. The food is hearty and straight from the land: local vegetables, wild game, and beef raised just outside town. I sat at a terrace outside a restaurant and had a tapa of bull's tail, which is extremely tender and cooked in a thick mushroom sauce.

After eating, I wandered from the plaza and found some signs directing me towards the castle. I walked uphill to the outskirts of the town before coming upon the former residence of the Counts of Chinchón. The building was built in the early fifteenth-century and only the base remains.

There was also a good view of the countryside from here:

I walked back in to town and saw another plaza called the Plaza de la Chimenea:

I'm not sure what this chimney was originally for.

I went back to the plaza and wandered around. I found this shop which sold anís, a Spanish liquer made from the anis seed. Chinchón is one of the primary producers of this drink, which used to be distilled in the castle:

As the sun set I walked back up to the hill next to the church and took some more pictures:

As I stood waiting for the bus in Manzanares el Real the previous day, I couldn't wait to get back and look at my pictures on the computer screen. But as I left behind the town of Chinchón, I felt a little sad. It's a beautiful place, largely untouched by the tourism industry. Here the shopkeepers greet you with genuine smiles and tell you about their best products because they are happy to see outsiders. It feels like what Spain must have been like more than a century ago. It's a village which has maintained its own individual identity. That's something that seems to be vanishing from an increasingly modernized Western Europe.

Castilian Culture

2010-01-14T12:45:00.000-08:00

In Spain, there is a New Year's tradition that as the last twelve seconds of the old year tick away, you must eat twelve grapes, one with each second. The success of this difficult task will present the victor with good luck for all twelve months. Television commercials advertise tins full of twelve grapes. I did not participate in this tradition, but I was in Italy for New Year's and the tradition does not exist there. I think this makes me exempt.

On the Thursday before classes started again I went to Madrid and visited the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, one of Madrid's three major art museums. While the Prado focuses on art from the Renaissance to the 19th century and Reina Sofia, on modern art, the Thyssen has an interesting layout which starts on the fourth floor. The entire museum is a private collection of a baron and baroness and it is dedicated to the history of Western art. The top floor includes late medieval paintings and early Renaissance paintings with works by Caravaggio and Raphael being the primary exhibits. The third floor features late Renaissance Spanish art (especially Zurbarán) and the painters of the Low Countries, like Rembrandt and Rubens. The next floor down feautres art from 1700-1900 with paintings by several famous artists including Van Gogh, Goya, Degas, Winslow Homer, Gauguin, James Ensor, Caspar David Friedrich, and the strange landscapes of the American painter Thomas Cole. The ground floor included art from the twentieth century starting with Picasso, Dalí, and Miró, then moving on to later artists like Jackson Pollock, Balthus, Lucian Freud, and the pop art of Roy Lichtenstein. The newest painting was a portrait painted in 1998 by the American artist John Currin.

After the Thyssen, I got on the metro, deciding to visit the Madrid bullring, or Plaza de Toros de las Ventas. The ring was closed as the season does not open until March. A circus had instead opened up in front of the ring. The building was completed in 1931 and is built in the Mudejar style of architecture which evokes the Muslim architecture from Spain's past. A few monuments to slain matadors stood in front of the bullring. The origins of bullfighting are not entirely evident, but it is an ancient event from the south of Spain (Andalusia) which may have roots as a sacrificial religious ritual.

The first day back at school was accompanied by two or three inches of snow in the whole Madrid region. School was closed, but we still showed up and acted as a day care for the children whose parents had to work. It was a slow transition back to school mode for the kids as many of them had not spoken English for the entire break. The kids have been working on various projects for their classes such as posters of various ecosystems. One kid drew a giant penguin on his poster of the arctic and told me, "Look! It's very big. It's Guiness record."

Last Saturday a group of us got together to go to a soccer match in which James and Kevin's new roommate, Jeff, was playing. It was played in a Madrid suburban neighborhood called Vallecas. Emma, James, Cody, and two Minnesotan girls who live in Alcalá whom we just met, Katie and Kelsey, went to the match. In this first picture from left to right is Emma, Kelsey, and Katie. The next picture from left to right is me, Cody, and James.

After the soccer match, we all took the metro to the old part of Madrid and got drinks at a strange tapas bar near Plaza Mayor which I hope to return to many times because of its odd ambiance. It was called Rey de los Pimientos (King of the Peppers) and was covered with metal objects. A piece of paper taped to the building showed a photo of a snail and read, "Hay caracoles" or "We have snails." Inside, the bar was dimly lit and the walls were covered with decorations which reminded me of some American roadside collector's garage. A naked Barbie doll, spray-painted gold, was wired to the wall. Several dried gourds hung from the ceiling. A mounted goats head which had seen better days guarded the bar with an extra horn affixed to a wire dangling from its neck. Either a glamour shot or a missing persons photo of a young blond girl from what looked like the 1990s was taped behind the bar. And, yes, they did have snails. Lots of snails. All dead and covered in a thin, grey gravy behind glass among the other tapas (which included the titular peppers which the owner of this estasblishment reigns over). The woman who served us our drinks was equally odd. She was in her thirties, had red hair, and wore a pink t-shirt which had a wide enough neck to expose one shoulder (a la 1980s) and was emblazoned with a glittery picture of a kitten swatting at butterflies. She seemed to have a face like a doll, in that it was unblinking and unmoving with her head tilted to one side and her eyes constantly looking slightly downward and a strangely inert smirk. She never said a word as she gave us our drinks and free tapa (microwaved baked potato). We left after one drink, but the whole experience made me want to come back soon.

After the weird bar, we took the metro to Gran Vía and ate at a pizza place there which was quite fancy, but reasonably priced. I had a hamburger pizza which had an entire hamburger patty (whole), a fried egg, ham, and carmelized onions. After eating we were joined by Becky and Gavin, Emma's British and Irish friends who had joined us at the English tea room in Madrid months ago. We all then spent the majority of the night visiting different clubs. It was a traditional Spanish night, which we had all been planning on having. The Spanish stay out all night most nights, eating, drinking, dancing, and socializing and then get on the bus to go to work. The only difference for us was that we didn't have to work the next day. No wonder the Spanish invented the siesta. This first picture is, from left to right, Gavin, Emma, and Becky:

Here is a picture of "dancing." Left to right: Becky, me, and Kelsey:

And a rare picture of Cody on a dancefloor:

It was a fun night, but I was very tired the next day when Cody, James, Emma, and I met for lunch in Alcalá. I had a cold seafood salad called salpicón de mariscos for my first course. It contained onions, crab meat, shrimp, and squid with a vinaigrette. For my main course I had honey-basted pork ribs and for dessert rice pudding. It was all delicious.

This week the weather has started to warm up and the sun has come out, which is typical of late-January in Spain. I'm settled back in to teaching and tutoring. I'll post more soon.

Italian Interlude: Part Quattro

2010-01-11T10:55:00.000-08:00

The Yellow hostel was decorated with scenes from various movies. Our room had Tie-Fighters, Star Destroyers, and stencils of C-3PO and R2-D2. Our bathroom had a Blade Runner theme, if you call this

a theme. It was a regular hostel. Our room held six people total. We didn't really meet any of the people our first night there as they were either asleep or not present most of the time.

We walked downtown to visit Trajan's Market that day. This was a large covered market adjacent to Trajan's Forum. It was constructed around 100AD. Many eras of Roman history are present in this location as Medieval structures were built among the ruins. The open area of Trajan's market (already in ruins by the Middle Ages) was the location of peasants' huts in the 1000s to 1300s. Here is a picture of the entrance to Trajan's Market with the original roof still intact:

Here is a model of what the Market looked like originally (the semicircular hall being behind this structure):

Here is the Market today as seen from the top floor:

Trajan's Market once held a colossal statue of Emperor Trajan which is now lost. A few fragments survive including some pieces of the hand which the curators of the site have semi-reconstructed with a frame. Here is a picture to give you an idea of how enormous the sculpture was:

Here is a picture of a medieval tower, part of a church on the grounds of Trajan's Market:

Here is a picture from the semicircular hallway:

Here is a picture of the Market from the main level. Like other ruins, cats were everywhere. See if you can find the cat staring at the ruins in this photo. I didn't notice it when I took the picture:

Here is a Renaissance-era loggia located among the ruins:

After leaving Trajan's Market we walked to the Colosseum. The city moved the stage they had set up in front of the ampitheater for the New Year's celebration so we got some more pictures:

After this, we walked around the city some more. Here is a street near Piazza del Popolo, Via del Babuino, which had many high-end retail stores:

Later that night I ate at a restaurant where I ordered a pasta with lobster. The waiter was on hand to fill my water from the bottle sitting on the table as soon as my glass went empty. Which felt strange.

After dinner I walked past a wine shop which displayed several wines with famous figures from twentieth-century history (the majority of whom did not seem appropriate for wine bottles, but as a history major, I found it funny):

The next morning we walked past the Piazza Barberini again and visited a church called Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini. This is a church organized by the Capuchin Friars Order built in the early 1600s. From the outside it looked like an ordinary church, and the interior was equally unassuming, appearing like several other churches I've visited in Europe. However, once we walked into the basement
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These are the bones of the Capuchin Friars of Rome, collected between 1500 and 1870, with some peasants as well. There are more than four-thousand bodies in the crypt. The display was part of a death-reverence displayed by the church in this era. Depictions of death were meant to represent the transitory state of life. The friars visited the crypt as a place to contemplate life, among the fear of impending death, which was meant to precipitate repentance among non-Christians. There were five rooms all decorated with bones. The sign near the entrance was a Latin inscription translating to: "As you are, we once were. As we are, so you will be..." This was one of the eeriest places I have ever been. Europe has several other crypts like this, known as ossuaries, but this is the most famous.

After leaving the ossuary, I noticed another strangely dark item from the past:

This appears to be an image of Mussolini. Sometimes relics like this are left not out of a sense of nostalgia, but as a simple reminder of the reality of the past. Mussolini's National Fascist Party was dissolved following the Second World War by the succeeding government. A watered-down successor to the party still exists.

After this, I came upon something more cheerful, the Fountain of the Naiads in the Piazza della Repubblica. This was completed in the early 1900s by the sculptor Mario Rutelli:

From the Piazza della Repubblica, we walked to another piazza called Piazza Navona, which is one of the oldest in the city, dating back to the late 1400s. Many of the surrounding buildings are therefore from the Renaissance. Many vendors had set up stands for the Epiphany celebrations (which were the following day, January 6). This is the celebration of the baptism of Christ and the visit of the Three Kings. In Catholic countries it is the traditional gift-giving holiday, rather than Christmas. In Italy, the figure who gives gifts to the children is a witch called Befana. Many of the vendors sold puppets of her on broomstick and a woman was dressed as her in the center of the piazza. Many carnival games and a carousel also filled the plaza. Here are some pictures of the piazza with the Fountain of the Four Rivers, sculpted by Bernini in the 1650s with an Egyptian obelisk in the center:

Here are some pictures of the piazza with the Basilica of Sant'Agnese in Agone, also constructed in the 1650s:

Here are the two other fountains found on either end of the piazza. The first is the Fountain of Neptune, which was sculpted by Giacomo della Porta in the 1570s. The central statue of Neptune was later added by Antonio della Bitta. The second statue is the Fountain of the Moor, also sculpted by della Porta in the 1570s. The central statue was later added by Bernini.

We also saw this street performer in the Piazza Navona:

As you can see, he was a great fan of Michael Jackson. He used a radio to play "Smooth Criminal" as he performed a little dance with his Michael Jackson hand-puppet (patent pending).

I got a sandwich with some kind of spiced pork at Piazza Navona, then Cody and I headed back to Termini to visit the grocery store, Despar, so we could get stuff for breakfast as our plane left early. While at the grocery store, a girl dressed as the witch Befana who stood in the corner accosted us with several hand gestures and what seemed to be hexes. I replied with, "Non parlo italiano." When we returned to our hostel, we met our new roommates, two American girls who were attending college in Cadiz, Spain. We all visited the "Yellow Bar" on the ground floor of our hostel and talked about our experiences in Spain.

Cody and I had to get up at four in the morning in order to catch the train to take us to Fiumicino Airport. Our plane was scheduled to leave at eight in the morning. We got to our terminal and found out that the flight had been cancelled until noon because of an electrical failure on the plane. As we had no real need to be back at any certain time and, more importantly, no control over the situation, we sat back and watched as a Spanish woman harangued the mechanics and flight attendants for about fifteen minutes. We then watched the developments over the next four hours as the mechanics left to take care of more important things and the woman gathered a group around her and gave what appeared to be a speech designed to spark a revolution. They spoke among themselves in a circle, occasionally one would glance over his or her shoulder. For her second speech to her group, she sat upon the boarding-gate counter and spoke down to her followers, each of whom nodded gravely at certain points. She remained in this position as a Swiss man with gray slicked-back hair, a light brown trench-coat, and a briefcase walked to the counter to check the time for the next outgoing flight to Geneva, and paused to examine the rumbling ring of plebians, before turning to take a seat elsewhere. The group eventually retired to the nearby pizza restaurant where I follwed them and ate while the woman walked among the tables of her seated army.

I lost track of them after I left, but I later noticed smaller factions forming and the woman nowhere to be seen. She later appeared when we were boarding and asked someone why no one told her the flight had arrived. When we landed in Madrid, I saw the woman ahead of me saying a few farewells to her former companions.

We had arrived back in Spain on Epiphany (or El Día de los Reyes as it is called here). We had forgotten this was a major holiday in Spain and wondered why the train was so empty and all the stores closed. When we got back to the apartment, and I saw my Three Kings (or Reyes Magos) decoration on the balcony, it dawned on me:

I spent the next few days catching up on sleep an relaxing. After these days, and before returning to work, I made a tour of Madrid to see some of the places I hadn't yet visited to reacquaint myself with Spain. I'll post about this next.

Italian Interlude: Part Tre

2010-01-10T07:10:00.000-08:00

The next morning we planned to visit the catacombs, which lie along the Via Appia Antica (or Ancient Appian Way), an original road from the Roman Empire which runs outside the city. It was used originally for the military and became a heavily traveled and busy road. Now little remains there but scattered ruins. We took the bus to the city center and walked past the Roman Forum and Colosseum to get there. On the way we walked past the ruins of the Circus Maximus, a track used for chariot races which had been used as early as the Etruscan times (1200-550BC).

We walked to the road that turned to the Appain Way where we waited at a stop for a bus to take us to the start of the old road. We waited some more. Then we waited. After further waiting we decided to walk the way. We actually saw some interesting things along the way:

Here is a photo of some of the original Roman stone road:

One place along the way was a recently excavated site called Capo di Bove. It was a villa from the Imperial era and contained many baths. Some tile floors were still intact. The structure was similar in style to the Roman villa in Alcalá de Henares, Casa de Hippolytus.

While taking picture of Capo di Bove, a cat ran up to me and followed me around the site. Here's the cat trying to steal some pastries I bought at a little store on the Appian Way:

We saw the tomb of Cecilia Metella along the way. She was the daughter of a Roman consul in the Republican era whose husband, a wealthy noble, constructed a tomb for her. The tower of the tomb remains in good condition:

We then visited one of the catacombs, the Catacombs of San Sebastiano. Here is the entrance:

The catacombs are underground burial chambers from the Roman Imperial era. This one in particular (as well as most others) were for Christians who could not be buried elsewhere because of scarcity of land. Also the persecution of Christians during the early Imperial era lead to these burials in secret underground chambers. The Catacomb of San Sebastiano was used from the second century AD until the early middle ages. Its most impressive room included three structures which looked like houses carved from the rock complete with windows, front doors, and decorative paintings. Most of the bodies have been moved and none were visible (as is the case with the catacombs of Paris).

After the catacombs we walked back to the center of Rome. I got these pictures along the way:

That night we walked around the central area and I found a cool store that was advertised by its sign as an "Oddities Shop." It was close to the Pantheon and seemed like something out of a Ray Bradbury novel (especially as I couldn't find it to get better pictures the next time I was downtown). Mostly everything in it was expensive, but it was fun to look at. There was a giant wooden statue of a Tahitian god with red jewels for eyes (which looked like they glowed in the dim light). The walls and shelves were decorated with several tin toys from the early twentieth century, old travel advertisements, and antique, framed tarot cards. A black-and-white television played an old film of a magician performing traditional tricks (pulling rabbits out of top hats) and the back of the store sold supplies for magicians and had a fortune-telling machine with a crystal ball. Here is a picture of the store-front window:

The next morning I got some cannolis from a market near our place. These are pastries stuffed with sweetened ricotta chesse and chopped pistachios, sprinkled with powdered sugar, and had a candied orange-peel on either end. They were less sweet than the cannolis I've had in the United States:

The next day we moved from Plus Camping Roma to another hostel because we could only make the booking for seven days. The other hostel was in the central area, close to Termini train station and was called the Yellow. It was run by Americans and Australians. We checked our stuff there, then returned to the Pantheon where we were able to visit the interior. It was quite impressive and included several tombs such as Vittorio Emanuele II and Raphael. The most striking feature of the interior is the giant dome roof with the open hole in the center:

After visiting the Pantheon, we walked to Villa Borghese, a large late-Renaissance villa on the outskirts of Rome constructed for Scipione Borghese who was a Cardinal, member of the nobility, and an art collector. I wanted to visit the Galleria Borghese which has a collection of Bernini sculptures, but reservations had to be made several days in advance. Instead I walked around the villa, taking pictures of the gardens and buildings:

On the way back from Villa Borghese, we walked through Piazza Barberini where Bernini's Fountain of Triton is located:

We also walked down the Via delle Quattro Fontane, a street with an intersection in which each corner has one of four similar fountains:

Italian Interlude: Part Due

2010-01-09T14:41:00.000-08:00

Since Vatican City, located within Rome on the West side of the Tiber River, is a sovereign state, I can say I spent one day on my trip outside of Italy. On the third day in Rome, we took the bus from our hostel which dropped us off near the walls of Vatican City, but we had to walk a little way to get to our destination, the Vatican Museums:

The Vatican Museums hold an immense display of objects collected by the Popes since the 1500s. We entered the museums around ten in the morning and it was very crowded as the doors were closing early that day because of New Year's Eve. I heard innumerable languages being spoken throughout the visit. We first came upon a large courtyard with a sculpture by the contemporary artist, Arnaldo Pomodoro, called Sphere Within a Sphere.

The first room we entered was full of sculptures from ancient Rome:

An adjacent room held several well-preserved full-body statues of Emperors and mythological figures, such as this portrait of Caesar Augustus:

We walked upstairs to a display of Egyptian artifacts. From a balcony I got a picture of the opposite side of Sphere Within a Sphere:

The next room in the museum was the Rotonda, a miniature Pantheon which was lined with ancient statues including a bronze sculpture of Hercules:

This led to the Hexagonal Courtyard which held several statues, most notably Laocoön and His Sons, a work from the Hellenistic Period of Greek history (323BC-146BC) which has been attributed to various sculptors from the Greek island of Rhodes. Many consider it the greatest work of ancient sculpture. It depicts a scene from Greek myth in which a Trojan named Laocoön, who doubted the gift of the Trojan Horse, was killed along with his sons by snakes sent by the gods.

There were many paintings in the museum as well by the Italian Renaissance artists Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Caravaggio. Several hallways with ornate ceilings connected the rooms:

This all led to the Sistine Chapel. The chapel was filled with people all staring up toward the ceiling at the famous frescoes painted by Michelangelo from 1508 to 1512. According to the story, Michelangelo was reluctant to paint the ceiling which Pope Julius II had commissioned as he doubted his skill as a painter, being more focused on sculpture and architecture. There was so much to see that you could stand in one place for several minutes, looking at the same area of ceiling and continually notice something new to the eye. Around the walls were more frescoes, such as another by Michelangelo and older paintings by Raphael and Botticelli.

After the museum, we walked along the walls of Vatican City and eventually came upon St. Peter's Basilica and St. Peter's Square:

St. Peter's Basilica was built from 1506 to 1626 and replaced the original basilica built under Emperor Constantine. As we were walking along the plaza the Italian police arrived and had everyone leave as preperations were being made for the Pope's New Year's address.

We walked down the main street heading away from Vatican City and emerged upon Castel Sant'Angelo, which was originally constructed in 139AD as the tomb of the Emperor Hadrian. During the late Middle Ages it was used as a fortress by the Popes and is now a museum:

I also got some pictures of the Tiber River from here:

As the public transportation stops at midnight in Rome and our hostel was outside the city, we could not stay for the New Year's celebrations. We returned to Plus Camping Roma where several people shot off fireworks. The next day we went back to the central area of Rome and walked past the Ara Sacra di Largo Argentina, a collection of excavated temples from the Roman Republic. The area was now occupied by cats, as are several other Roman sites.

We then walked to the Pantheon which is not far from the main street in central Rome, Via del Corso:

The Pantheon was built around 125 AD under Emperor Hadrian, rebuilt from a destroyed temple for the worship of all the gods. It has been in continual use since then and today serves as a church and tomb. It was closed for services this day, so we went back another to see the inside.

We then returned to Via del Corso and made our way up some side streets to the Trevi Fountain. This is a giant Baroque fountain completed in 1762 by a series of sculptors. It drew a very large crowd the day we were there.

I bought some gelato from a gelateria next to the fountain. It was quite good and lived up to its praises I'd heard. Here is the display of gelato from this place:

Back to Via del Corso, we walked past several department stores advertising sales, then travelled up another side street where we found the Spanish Steps:

These eighteenth-century steps lead from the Spanish Embassy to the Trinità dei Monti, a sixteenth-century church. The obelisk seen in front of the church (as the other obelisks in Rome) is an original from Egypt. We wound back to Via del Corso and emerged at its end, Piazza del Popolo, a nineteenth-century piazza where several festivities were going on and a mime with a wooden gun ran among the people with a searching expression.

That night I ate at a little trattoria (a family-owned restaurant) in the city. I got a local version of pizza, called pizza capricciosa which has prosciutto, olives, artichoke, and an egg. It was wonderful. As seen in the picture, the toppings are not spread throughout the pizza:

Italian Interlude: Part Un

2010-01-09T07:20:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since my last post. I spent eight days in Rome, starting on December 29. It was an amazing trip. The weather was cloudy and rainy several days, but Rome has a certain quality that draws you in. While I was ready to return to Spain at the end of the eight days (living out of a suitcase for that long can be wearisome), I knew I would miss Italy and immediately wanted to plan a return.

Rome (or Roma as it's known in both Italian and Spanish) is a much older city than Madrid. While Madrid emerged as a city in the 800s AD, Rome already existed as a small village nearly 1,700 years prior. Madrid is the larger of the two cities, exceeding the population of Rome by 1.5 million people. There was much history to see in the city including the ancient ruins of the Roman Republic (510-44BC) and Empire (27BC-476AD), the remnants of the medieval city, Renaissance art and villas, monuments to the nineteenth-century wars of Italian Unification, and a few relics of the Mussolini dictatorship.

Cody and I left Madrid from Barajas Airport at six in the morning. Since the public transportation does not run all night and we had to be at the airport early, we stayed the night in our departure terminal. I stayed awake the whole night, wearing the swashbuckler goatee I had decided to have as a joke for the trip. Our airline was Vueling, a discount Spanish airline which offers flights all throughout the European Union. The flight lasted about two hours. When we arrived at the airport we took a shuttle to the main train station, Termini. From there I followed the directions from my hostel booking to our place. The directions told us to take the Metro to the stop called Valle Aurelia. Once there, the hostel was supposedly right down the Via Aurelia. The directions did not specify that our destination was located five miles down Via Aurelia and that Via Aurelia was nowhere near the Metro stop. After several hours of searching for maps and walking through the rain, we finally espied our place, Plus Camping Roma outside the city limits. We checked in to what looked like a typical camping resort found in the Ozarks, walked across the street to a grocery store called Panorama where we bought some food, then ate and slept until the next morning. Here is a picture of Plus Camping Roma:

After this rough start the rest of the trip went smoothly. There was a bus stop in front of the hostel which took us to the center of the city, at Piazza Venezia. When we got off the bus, the first thing we saw was the giant Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II, the first king of a unified Italy who took the throne in 1861. The monument also holds the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (from the First World War) and was built between 1911 and 1935.

To the right of this monument stood a large expanse of Roman ruins. The first we saw was Trajan's Column, which is part of the larger area known as Trajan's Forum. The column was constructed in AD 113 to celebrate Emperor Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars. Spiralling up the exterior of the column is a continuous frieze, depicting the events of the Dacian Wars. The interior of the column contains a spiral staircase which is now closed off. A statue of Trajan once stood atop this column, but vanished at some unkown point. In the late 1500s, a statue of St. Peter was placed on top where it still remains.

Here is a detail of the column's frieze:

After this, we walked past Trajan's Market, a large area of ruins adjacent to Trajan's Forum. The buildings seen above the semicircular ruins in the picture below were constructed in the Middle Ages. We went inside Trajan's Market, so I'll mention more about it later.

We next walked across the street to the area of the Roman Forum, the central location of the ancient Roman Republic:

We bought tickets to go inside the Roman Forum which were good for entrance into the Palatine and Colosseum as well. The Roman Forum, which lies at the bottom of the Palatine hill, was overwhelming. It included many ruins from the Republic and Imperial eras. One such ruin was the Arch of Septimius Severus, constructed in AD 203 at the behest of the Emperor for whom it is named:

The ruins of the Temple of Saturn (the Roman god of farming) stood nearby. These are the oldest ruins in the Roman Forum. The temple, from before the Republican era, was originally constructed around 500 BC. After the original's destruction by fire, it was partially reconstructed in the late 200s AD:

Here is a photo of the two ruins side-by-side:

Down an old road known as the Via Sacra stood the Temple of Vesta (goddess of the hearth). This was originally built in the 600s BC, during the Roman Kingdom (753BC-509BC). Like all temples to Vesta, the building was originally rounded as can be guessed by the picture.

Across from the Temple of Vesta stood the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina (named after Emperor Antoninus and his wife). This was constructed in 141 AD. During the Imperial Roman era, traditional worship of the Roman gods (a religion adopted from the ancient Greeks) was replaced by worship of the Emperor. Once an Emperor died, they could be deified by their successor and worshiped by the people. Once Christianity took over as the religion of the Roman Empire, the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina was converted into a church. Significant architectural changes were made to the structure in the meantime, but due to its continued use and care, the building remains in good condition. The church has since moved and the building is under the care of the city of Rome.

From here, we climbed up the Palatine hill where I was able to get a photo of the largest ruins in the Roman Forum, the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine, built in 308 AD:

We continued on to the Palatine, the high area where many of the nobles of the Roman Republic and emperors of Imperial Rome lived. (Our word 'palace' derives from Palatine). Around 44BC a series of civil wars erupted in Rome which brought about the downfall of the Republic. The grand-nephew of Julius Caesar, Caesar Augustus eventually took over as the first Roman emperor. During the early Imperial era, which was the height of Roman civilization, the power shifted from the area of the Roman Forum to the Palatine. On this hill now stand several ruins of imperial palaces as well as ancient orchards and vineyards.

The Hippodrome of Domitian, an Imperial-era stadium is also located here:

As we headed back down the Palatine hill, we could see the Colosseum:

We continued on our way to the Colosseum. It was built somewhere around 70AD and is the largest Roman ampitheater. Part of the external wall was demolished during the Renaissance for use in several buildings. It was built under Emperor Vespasian and was initially used for a variety of organized events which drew large crowds such as exotic animal hunts, military reenactments, and, most famously, gladitorial combats. In the later years of the Roman Empire, the Colosseum was used mainly as a theater. Some accounts claim the Colosseum was once flooded and used to stage a reenactment of a naval battle. We walked inside the entrance of the Colosseum between the two walls as seen here:

Inside on the upper floor of this outer ring was a display about Emperor Vespasian with several statues of him and his family as well as several pieces of the Emperor's propaganda (which in Imperial times had to be approved by the Senate). We then entered the inner ring of the Colosseum where the network of rooms which originally lied under the center are now exposed. Only one section of the original seating remains and can be seen on the left-hand side of this picture:

From one of the openings in the Colosseum I could see the Palatine hill and the Arch of Constantine, the largest triumphal arch in Rome, which sits outside the Colosseum:

The arch was completed in 312 AD to commemorate Emperor Constantine's victory in a civil war. Also in the Colosseum, this fragment of a sculpture was on display. It was discovered just last year:

When we left the Colosseum we walked past the Arch of Constantine to get some close-ups of it:

I got a sandwich of prosciutto and salami from a street vendor near here, then we headed back to Piazza Venezia. We saw that there was a free exhibition at the Monument of Vittorio Emanuele II and went inside. The exhibition was concerning Italian immigration to the United States and had several newspaper advertisements, personal photographs, and other items from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In another part of the monument (up several flights of stone stairs) was a museum of the Risorgimento (the Italian Wars of Unification). Throughout its history, Italy was a collection of several independent states. The wars, fought from 1848 to 1866 created the modern Italian state. A few places in the Italian Peninsula remain independent states such as San Marino and Vatican City. Many items from the wars were on display, including the sword of Giuseppe Garibaldi, the revolutionary commander and heroic figure of modern Italy. The museum led out on to a balcony of the monument where there were some great views of the city at night:

Christmas is Just Around la Esquina

2009-12-23T01:52:00.000-08:00

This past week we've been preparing the school for Christmas. Much of Spain has been preparing itself for the holiday as well. One of the most popular traditions in Spain is the Christmas lottery. It is difficult to walk down any street or into any workplace and not see some reminder of the lottery. This is not like an ordinary lottery, it is much larger, more complicated, and nearly everyone who enters wins something back. Individuals or businesses can buy a lotto ticket which has a number on the card. If an individual buys a ticket, they are the only one with that number. If a business buys a series of tickets, each person from the workplace who contributes money for a ticket has the same number on their card and will win the same cash prize. The payoff is always different, depending on how many people buy tickets that year, but it is always somewhere in the hundred-millions. On December 22, the numbers are announced on live television. This broadcast lasts two or more hours and consists of children drawing the prizes. One child draws a ticket number, while another draws the corresponding cash prize. To liven up the event, the children sing the number and cash prize rather than speaking them. Our school bought tickets (but the other assistants and I didn't put any money down) at twenty euros a ticket. They each won their money back, plus €100 (roughly $150). I wish I had bought a ticket now...

To get in the Christmas spirit, I bought a nice holiday sweater. I was hoping for something with reindeer and snowmen on it, but as Pilar told me, "You won't find that in Spain."

Most of the other assistants from our school left early. Emma and Carmen went home last week and Tamara left yesterday morning. Cody, Jacqui, and I are the only ones still here. Of our other friends, Kevin went to Morocco for the break, Liz went to Mexico with her family, James went home to England, and Priscilla went to Puerto Rico. This Sunday, we all got together before everyone parted and found a new restaurant in Alcalá. It was more expensive than where we usually eat, but the place was very cozy and the food was great. They gave us some tapas of olives and manchego cheese. For my first course I had Pote Gallego (a soup from the northwest of Spain consisting of potatoes, ham, veal, and spinach). For the second course it was a French dish of pork medallions in a Roquefort sauce with dried currants.

Last Friday we had a Christmas dinner at the school. We followed along with Spanish tradition and went to a bar for tapas before the meal with the teachers (lunch is the biggest meal of the day in Spain). We walked back to the school where the meal started with some tapas of sliced Serrano ham, shrimp in garlic sauce, and caviar on toast. We then had our first course, a bisque made from crab. For the second course I had fish. I'm not sure what kind of fish it was, and none of the teachers knew for sure, but it was very good. It was served whole (head and all, plus a very mean-looking set of teeth which made some assume it was in the piranha family). For dessert was tiramasu. Stangely enough for a school (but not for a Spanish school) beer, wine, cider, and cava were served. Afterwards, we all went to an Irish pub for a few hours.

At school, the children had been preparing for their Christmas Pageant which was held this Monday during school. All week they were practicing songs, they were singing songs in both English and Spanish. Some of the songs were "Good King Wenceslaus," "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," "Jingle Bell Rock," "Merry Christmas (War is Over)," and songs from Spain such as "Los Peces en el Rio" and "Veinticinco de Diciembre."

Yesterday was the last day of school before break. Cody dressed as (Elvis) Santa Clause and visited several classes (third to sixth grades):

The younger kids were visited by the Three Kings (or Reyes Magos), the traditional gift-giving figures of Spain. In recent years, the figure of Santa Clause (or Papa Noel) has entered Spain due to the influence of American culture. Other regions of Spain have some strange gift-bearing figures which are little-known beyond their borders. The Basque Country has the giant, Olentzero, who comes down from the mountains on Christmas Eve. He drinks a magic liquor which makes him shrink to fit down chimneys. In order to keep their kids asleep, parents claim Olentzero will cut their throats if he catches them awake. In Catalonia, the yule log takes a unique form as Caga Tió (Catalan for "poop log"). This is an actual log which is "fed" through the month of December at the dinner table. On Christmas Eve, it is covered with a blanket as the children beat it with sticks and sing for it to "poop them something nice." In the morning hazelnuts and candy will be found under the blanket behind the log. Catalonia has another odd tradition which has spread through Spain recently. This is the "caganer," a squatting figurine placed in the back of Spanish nativity scenes. This is meant to signify the profane in contrast with the holy. I bought one of these figures along with the Three Kings.

Jacqui, Pilar, and I went along with Cody from class to class. The younger kids were more excited and sang their Christmas songs for us. When Cody asked them what they wanted for Christmas, most of them, put on the spot, turned red and said, "No sé" ("I don't know"). One kid asked for peace and others made a safe generalization with the reply, "toys." (The music teacher, Arturo, wrote on the board, "Mr. Santa, I would like second prize in the lottery. As you see, I don't ask for much, only a little.") When asked if naughty or nice, most kids replied, "yes." The older kids weren't as excited and some brought up the school newspaper and pointed to Cody's picture, claiming, "This is you!" One kid asked, "Santa, it is true that boys and girls must be nice to get presents, but have you been nice?"

When we finished the tour of classes, Cody and I helped the gym teachers take down the stage used for both the pageant and a play about the Three Kings put on by a local theater company. The kids were still there when we arrived, getting autographs from the actors. When they saw Cody and I, they asked for our autographs as well.

After school, Cody, Jacqui, and I went to El Baserri and had lunch. I got chorizo in wine and a plate of eggs and blood sausage, seen here:

I have been planning some trips for the break (in addition to the Italian one over New Year's) and beyond. This week, as I have no school or tutoring, I will likely visit Madrid and some other places nearby. More to come soon!

Strange Monuments

2009-12-14T13:34:00.000-08:00

Last week was a short week as I only worked two days. The kids are getting excited for Christmas and are practicing for the Christmas recital which will take place next Tuesday during school. They are singing songs in English and Spanish. I have been studying Italian, just to get some phrases down for my upcoming Rome trip.

This week I visited an old hospital in Alcalá de Henares that was in operation in the 1400s until the early twentieth century. It has now been turned into an apartment complex, but there are some interesting things there, such as an old fount in the wall and the courtyard:

On Saturday, Cody and I went back to El Escorial to visit Valle de los Caídos (Valley of the Fallen), a massive monument in the Sierra de Guadarrama built with the superficial intention of being a resting place for those who died in the Spanish Civil War and a memorial to the conflict. It really serves as a tomb for the dictator, Francisco Franco.

We entered the town of El Escorial once again by train. It was a sunny day, so I took some more pictures of the palace of Felipe II:

From here, we walked down a street toward the bus station where we had to wait a short while for the next bus to Valle de los Caídos, which arrives every two hours. We rode a very nice bus there with a small group of Spaniards and a young French couple. Very few Spaniards like to acknowledge the monument as it is a reminder of the Franco Regime. Francisco Franco was the general of the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). The Nationalists were a collection of several far-right groups including monarchists, Carlists (who wanted the church to have a strong involvement in the state), and the Falange (the fascist party of Spain). They were aided by Hitler's Germany, while the opposing side (the Republicans) were aided (somewhat) by the Soviet Union of Stalin. (For this reason, many Spaniards have interpreted the Spanish Civil War as the first stage of World War II. Truthfully, they are two distinct conflicts.) Both sides committed horrible atrocities during the war, but the Nationalists won, resulting in the quasi-fascist dictatorship of Franco which governed Spain until 1975. During the dictatorship, many supporters of the Spanish Republic were imprisoned. Many of them were forced into labor during the construction of the monument (in a natural valley) which began in 1940 and lasted eighteen years. Some sources claim that fourteen forced laborers died during the construction. The bodies of most Republican soldiers who were buried in the valley were moved from the site at this time. The body of José Antonio Primo de Rivera, the founder of the Falange (which became the primary political party of Franco's Spain) was moved here. When Franco died in 1975, he was buried alongside Primo de Rivera. Many Spaniards view Valle de los Caídos as a monument to fascism and refuse to visit or discuss it. Despite this, it is an impressive sight (it can be seen from several miles away) and the location offers an amazing view of the mountains:

The site seems to have been more popular in the past, when Franco was alive and many of his supporters (and those afraid to to offer resistance) along with groups of schoolchildren came to see the monument. There was a restaurant, built in the 1950s style, the only other building nearby, which looked as though it had been abandoned for several years:

The inside of the monument is a basilica in which the bodies of the soldiers are entombed. However, there are no markers for them, only for Franco and Primo de Rivera. This part of the monument was closed for restoration, so I will probably return later to see it. I have heard that the chamber is dimly-lit and several giant statues of faceless angels leaning on swords line the path toward Franco's tomb.

Yesterday, our usual group went for lunch in Alcalá. I had a soup made with cuttlefish and potatoes seasoned with saffron for my first course. It was one of the best soups I have had here. My second course was equally delicious, a piece of roast suckling pig. For dessert, I had a prepared orange, which was split open and covered in a strawberry sauce. Later that night, we had planned on having a Christmas dinner for all of us who work at the school. However, everyone couldn't make it, so we decided to have a big dinner when we get back from Christmas break. Instead, Cody, Jacqui, Emma, and I went to the popular tapas bar, Indalo.

I had today off work, because I switched my Monday for Emma's Friday as she is flying back to England for the break on Thursday night. I went to Madrid and visited the Caixa Forum, a postmodernist-styled exhibition hall across from the Prado. It had a temporary exhibit on the Venetian Renaissance architect, Andrea Palladio. Here is the entrance to the Caixa Forum:

I also walked down the street on which the Spanish playwright (and contemporary of Cervantes) Lope de Vega lived. It is now called Calle Lope de Vega:

I also passed Cine Dore, an old movie house from the 1920s which still shows old films every night at cheap prices. I would like to go to this sometime: