Sevilla

When you think stereotypical spain you think about you are thinking about Sevilla. I am talking about bright colors, warm weather, yummy tapas, flamenco dancing, and well a huge cathedral. I absolutely loved Sevilla. Sevilla is located in Andalusia (aka southern Spain).

Well where did we start here is a weekend recap start to end! here goes nothing....

Well day one upon arrival we discover the massive amounts of orange trees! Yes they are everywhere and all I wanted to pick one so badly but I didn't partially because I wasn't sure I was allowed to and number two some of them just didn't look to yummy.

one of the many, many plazas in the city filled with orange trees

Next up we made are way to our hotel! Yes we where officially done with hostels and well this was a very good life decisions. Most of the hotels in Sevilla have some historic meaning. I'm not really sure what ours was, but they are all historic sights. We stayed in the Santa Cruz district which was the old Jewish neighborhood. It was filled with small streets that where just big enough for a motorcycle.

Next up we went to tapas for a pre dinner - and ate delicious food! next up we went to an amazing tapas restaurant where we ended up devouring numerous amounts of tapas and freakish quantities of deserts in a matter of several minutes. They where presented on a lazy susan and well we took this as these where all for us... wrong!! After eating all of them we look around and found that the other tables selected the ones they wanted and well they took the rest back. Oppsie daisy. Then we went to that restaurants flamenco show! Which was very casual but a lot of fun.

A tapas menu out side one of the many tapas bars

The next day we went to a few of the flee markets around town and then off to a museum and then the cathedral. The cathedral was spectacular. I mean it is huge and when you walk up the tower you can see all of Sevilla, its absoutly stuning. It also has flying butresses! which is something none of the cathedrals have in Cataluna... so it was kind of exciting to see this.

The Cathedral

View from the top... aka walking a 33 story ramp that went around in a square!

While in Sevilla Will's mom rented an apartment (she was visiting Will in Spain) and well invited us all over for tapas before going out to dinner! We went up to the roof which was a patio set up and it looked over the cathedral and well this was one of the most spectacular views I have ever seen.

What else the next day was low key just walking around doing a little shopping... or window shopping in my case. It was poring rain and we all got soaked! because non of us bought an umbrella... I was having the time of my life running around in the rain! but hey... thats just me.

That night we went out to dinner at the muslim baths and well this was a gorgeous building as well... a small hole in the wall restaurant, meaning you could walk right past it, but once you got inside it is huge! and had a spanish guitar player right by are table.

Walking around at night

Sevilla was such a relaxing low key weekend, filled with strolling through plazas, passing various buildings, eating an un-normal (I don't think that is a word, but thats okay) amount of tapas.

This was one of the castles we past that is in sevilla.. I really don't know much about it to be honest.

Walking around we saw this building

These are the gardins that we went through on are way to the airport!

Ohhh! Also before I foget... one thing I loved about Sevilla is how there where horse carriages everywhere to talk you through out the streets!

Well this was my trip to Sevilla in a nutshell! If you are traveling to Spain you must go here it was absoultly amazing!

Thanksgiving

Well happy (belated) turkey day! as I am sitting in my room... trying to digest the massive amounts of food in my stomach I thought I would post my greatful list. Today we had a Thanks Giving Dinner with at John and Ines's aprtment where we ate massive amounts of food. I was in charge of apple pie. I had to make my own crust (yikes!) took me for ever to find shortning here, but I think I found something close.

So frist Thanks Giving away from the family was not all bread and butter... but I have so much to be thankful for...

here is my grateful list (in no order - its what came to mind at random) - written in short hand notes for parts because was on a "note" app on thanks giving day orginally

Family

Internal service plan
Internet/computer
Friends for moral suport to put up with psycho aka me
That I can hear aka that I'm not deaf so I cab listen to music, so I can talk on the phone. So I can hear listen to lectures books on tape, so I know what birds sound like, so I know what I love u sounds like, so I can appriciate glee
That I have sight, see everyone and everything around me, that I can not live in darkness, that I can read
That I'm litterate
That I can write
That I have two working legs
That I have two parents and sisters that love me

That I have all my family and friends
That I have a great host family
That I have ppl who put up with all my crazy
That I have a roof over my head
That I have food every night
That montse is a good cook
That barcelona has an easy metro system
That I know how to cook
That our house has a bath
That I have family who would fly half way around the world for me
That I have a coat to keep me warm
That we have a heater in our apartment
That there are so many taxis
For montse (host mom)
For my education and the oppertunity that comes with it
That I can get around barcelona with out getting lost
The 6
All my friends
Warm boots
Socks
That my jeans still fit even after all these months in Spain
That there are starbucks in Spain
That my mom dad sam and madi and me are healthy (apart from the common cold)
That i live close to a gym
That tswift has a new album and still relates to my life
That I will have people who love me and who I love
Spell check
Art work
Books - those ppl who r able to express the ideas in words that sometime I can't even fomulate in my head
Smiles
Text message
That i live in a safe neighborhood
That I have a warm thanks giving meal tonight
Nail polish
Fresh fruit
My exposure to art and arcitecture in Spain and Paris
Dance class
Modernist architecture/Barcelonas rich culture
Letters via snail mail
That I am close with my sisters and that we get along (most of the time)
That I will be with family over the holidays
That I learned spanish before comming to Spain
Cover up and concealer!!
Natrual sun light both that I can see it and feel it's warmth
That I have 3 large windows in my room back home

~ Much love and many thanks for everything ~

Happy thanks giving!

Modernist Era

Well this is a very, very, very over due entry! Seeing that we made this visit who knows how long ago. Any how this is going to be the modernist visit entry. Before I start showing pictures a quick (and when I say quick I mean very quick) art lesson...

The modernist era focused on mixed materials such as ceramic tiles, bricks, iron... etc. Modernist was at its high during the end of the 1800's and beginning of the 1900's in Barcelona and many buildings. Names of the 3 most important (aka 3 that stand out): Gaudí, Puig I Cadafalch, and Doménech i Montaner. Thats the end of the very quick history lesson. The end.

Gaudí's La Padrera (Casa Mila)

Casa Batllo

Doménech i Montaner

Hospital de Sant Pau (Yes this is a hospital! does anyone else have trouble believing this?!)

Palau de Musica Catalan

Doménech i Montaner's Casa Amatller (left) & Gaudí's Casa Batllo

Coffee, coffee, coffee

Well yet again I find that I would be a terrible journalist! Could you imagine if I had dead lines to make.. yikes. I have so much to write about and so many different entries so apologies if the words are limited and the pictures in excess. So this entry is going to be on coffee. Laugh if you want but I think coffee and various caffeinated beverages is essential to survival. If I haven't stated it before - I have two addictions in life... caffeine and chick flicks.

So let me go through the number of times I have coffee a day... on average I would say 2.. but today I will be up to 4! (don't worry not all of them where coffee, there was one starbucks hot chocolate and one will be decaf)

Times I have coffee:

- Most mornings during "descanso" I am too tierd to function... so I hop on over to the café near El Casal. I suppose I realized I was a regular when they told me I could pay the next day because I didn't have enough money on me! (Looks like I found my temporary Angelina's)

- Every tuesday and thrusday at this amazing café/pastery shop/chocolate-ria

- Each week Montse and I grab coffee (and sometimes a dessert) togeather at a local café. Love this girls time to catch up and hear more about her life!

A noobs (new be) guides to coffee in Spain

cortado: expresso with milk (a favorite of mine... I usually use about a packet or two of sugar in each... mildy ridculosu, but so yummy!!)

café solo: espresso (not really popular here... much more the favorite in Italia)

Café con leche: coffee with milk (this is most common in the morning)

Cappacino: well I think this is self explanitory

Café viernes: HEVENLY (express with whiped cream - and sometimes a little bit of chocolate)

Té: tea - which is more expensive then some coffee drinks... go figure

Now since I have cortados almost daily... here are a few pictures of some of them

Bonjour

Paris! oh Paris... I don't even know where to begin. Seeing that I just got back yesterday (monday) I am still overwhelmed by the whirl wind of a weekend. And oh what a crazy weekend it was! Not because it was filled with partying, but because I was in Paris. (I just love saying that). So anyhow let me begin...

Crossing over one of the many bridges in Paris

I woke up at the lovely hour 4:30 am, reminds me of my days in crew, and hopped in my cab and was off to the airport.... after a cup of coffee, an hour flight delay, I was in Paris! and so the weekend of sight seeing began. We hopped on the metro and were off to the Notre Dame. Immediately I think of the Disney movie... the Hunchback of Notre Dame with Esmarelda. Walking away from the Notre Dame we grabbed a crêpe, my first piece of food in France!

Us girls in front

Rose Window

Just a view from inside

After waltzing around the Notre Dame, which is truly gorgeous - I don't even think I can express how much I love gothic architecture, we were off to the Louve. Of course the movie that pops into my head now is... The Da Vichi Code. I did not even realize how large the Museum truly was and how gorgeous... here I saw the Mona Lisa! I am still in shock that I saw it! After wandering around about 1/4 (if that) of the museum we were off to lunch...

The Louvre

Enterance to the Louvre

Not to state the obvious but... the Mona Lisa

After lunch we made our way back to the hostel, everyone was exhausted at this point and nearly about to collapse. From here we made our way to dinner and found a delicious restaurant, La Cusine - I highly recommend it to anyone traveling to Paris.

After a good night sleep we were off to another full day! Starting at the Eiffel Tower, truly is spectacular - not overrated at all! We decided that we wanted to come back the next night to go up and see the city at night time.... which is spectacular. Unfortunately my little camera was out of batteries so I had to resort to my i-phone, looking even more pathetic next to the large cameras clicking away next to me.

Next it was off to the Arch de Triumph - which is in a huge round about at the top of Av Des Champs-Elysées, one of the main shopping streets in Paris! Here we grabbed lunch and then we made our way to the park in front of the Louvre. Here we people watched and saw countless fashion statements, couples, and just soaked up the fact that we were in Paris for the weekend.

Arch de Triumph

A little bit of Paris Fashion.... oh how I wish I could dress like this!

Then we were off too the next museum, Museo d'Orsay... here I saw Monet, Stewart, van Gogh, Renoir, and many others... then it was back to the hostel for us... and off to Steak Frets (round 1) at Le Realized L'entrcote

Next morning we went off to Ladureé aka one of the best bakeries that I have ever been to. It was filled with chocolates, pastries, cookies, and all sorts of unhealthy goodies that are absolutely to die for. If you ever have pictured a french cafe/pastry shop in your head - this is what you imagined.

Next it was off to the Rodin Museum... a huge park filled with status. I loved it here and honestly would be in heaven if this was my backyard. I could have spent the whole day just curled up reading a book in the sun here. Now for me to say I could spend the whole day reading in a place says a lot!!

Could you imagine if this was your house and backyard??

The Thinker

A house that over looks the garden from the side

Next up Luxunburg park... wow some more amazing people watching. It felt like fall here, with all the leaves and people bundled up in coats and boots.

Then Eiffel tower at sundown/night time. Well what can I say, the view is absolutely spectacular - but I think that goes without saying. After waiting in a rather quickly moving long line we saw the view of the whole city, and the tower light up on the hour! We even saw a someone get proposed to, how romantic! It makes me want to be proposed to a cute way...

View of the city

Then it was back to steak frets with some of the best lemon tart for dessert and then the river tour! Where we saw the city all lit up at night! and that sums up my whirl-wind trip to Paris.

View from the boat tour