Due to scheduling complications, I had to take a total of 3 trains over about a 17hr trip from Paris to Madrid. Kinda uncomfortable at times but at least I more than break even with my Eurail Pass. And I get one more trip on the Barca-Madrid AVE!! The movie wasn't as good this time, bu at least I was back in a land where they spoke castellano.
I got back to Madrid at around 4pm, and again I felt a breath of fresh air being back on familiar ground. I checked into my hostel in Sol which was nice enough, despite the fact that I had to share a dorm with 3 other dudes. But whatever I was only there for one night barely.
It was just about the worst weather I remember witnessing in Madrid. Rain, clouds and everything. But I had last-minute shopping to do damn it! I shop I did, for some Filipinos for the road, and more souvenirs. If only the weather was better, I would've walked down Gran Via on last time.
The hostel was for sure awkward and loud as hell. I was reluctant to sleep in my dorm, prepping all the stuff I had to before the flight. But finally it got quiet and I figured I should sleep a little before heading to the airport.
7:30!!!! AAAAAAAAAHHH damnit! I was supposed to get up at 6:30am! I slept through my cell alarm, and ended up waking up to the loud-ass alarm of one of my awkward dorm-mates. Luckily just about everything was prepped and ready to go. I grabbed my stuff and busted outtta that mother. Took the metro to the airport, grabbed my stored luggage, took a shuttle to the other terminal, checked in luggage and got to my gate that still wasn't boarding yet. Call up George Clooney, cuz I got this airport shizz down!
On the plane to London I started hearing some English-speakers. It started hitting me that I wouldn't be speaking spanish/castellano any more, at least not when I had formal busy-ness things to handle. I already start to miss it.
So here I am on another long flight, this time going in the opposite direction. Remembering way back on that first flight, I'm reminded of how so freaked out I was the whole time. I was so anxious and felt like such a newb at everything. This time, I couldn't be more calm, feel pretty relaxed, not a worry at all. I don't know if was that I'd finally gotten the hang of flying on my own, that I was just tired and jaded by it all, or just the thought of finally being home. En todos modos, in a way I almost felt like the title of this blog was not as true for me as it was when I started it.
I arrived at good ole' SFO safe and sound, minus one piece of luggage that got stuck in London, but I got that back the next day. All that I care about now is that I'm home, where I can get some food and some sleep.
Madrid, te quiero. Espana, deseaba conocer tu y tu tierra mas. Y todavia, quiero conocerte mas. 2.5 meses es mucho tiempo, pero no es mucho tampoco. Me voy a echar de menos tu calles, tu sonidos. Espero yo para nuestro proximo encuentro. Vale vale. Chao. Adios. Hasta luego.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
La vie en rose - says nothing about the smells
So after a long train ride, with some very pretty views of the French countryside, we finally make it to Paris at around 11pm. We take the metro to Monmartre, where our hostel was as well as the Sacre Cour and where Amelie took place.
Unfortunately my first views of Paris weren't as picturesque as I thought it would be. Maybe it was the fact that it was late at night and Monmartre isn't exactly the Champ-Elysses, but the streets were dirty and certain areas, especially in the metro, definitely smelled. But I suppose its understandable, its an old city and you shouldn't expect everything to pleasantly wonderful.
But that is absolutely no excuse for the WHACK-ASS hostel we were staying. It was relatively cheaper than others, but if we knew it was this bad we would've paid more MUCH MORE for a better one. Our room was dimly lit, the floors covered in cheap flimsy red carpet that was not nailed/glued in all the way, the walls had a creamed colored cheap wallpaper. Seriously looked like a gross, ghetto version of The Shining. Not to mention the strange stains on the bed blankets, the 3 hangers in the closet, and the horrible view of the maid's closet down the hall. There's also the bathroom issue, in which the toilet with no toilet paper was down the hall and the shared shower for all 6 floors was tiny, not the cleanest, and flooded. Why, God, WHY!? Luckily for our last night we upgraded to an infinitely better room with its own bathroom but still...why?!
So aside from that, Monmartre is an interesting neighborhood. Lots of little shops. you can tell this is a working class, and immigrant, neighborhood. Lots of souvenir shops which is definitely appreciated.
So here's the list of major sights to see we hit up in Paris:
The Louvre - definitely is a must. But there was no way we were going INSIDE. Lines were infinitely long. And just seeing the building and seeing how huge it was, we could only imagine how much art would be inside it. That equals way too much than we could handle. But we took some great pics of the pyramids outside, despite the gray clouds hovering about. And unfortunately no roseline, no kneeling down above the tomb of Jesus' supposed babymama.
The Seine River - walking along the Seine is typically Parisian, at least in my mind. The bridges were cool, with all the locks that people leave on them. Pretty cute.
Shakespeare and company bookshop - Cool english-language book shop, as seen in Before Sunset. Pretty famous and they stamp the books that they give you. Couldn't help but get an Almodovar book from here.
Notre Dame - I didn't find no Quasimodo, but the place sure is pretty.
The Latin Quarter - Where the Sorbonne is and all the Frenchie university students are. Nice little neighborhood, shops, random comic/manga shops too. I guess for all the anime/manga nerds of the university? Also found a little theater to watch a Hitchcock film and kills a few hours until dinner. By the time it was done, the sun was setting, and made the streets look like what I'd expected from Paris, even just for a while.
Sacre Cour - Walkable distance from the hostel, so we hit that up at night. Great view of the city and the Effiel Tower.
Les Invalides - Where Napoleon was buried, and a bunch of other dudes
Musee Rodin - cool statues
Effiel Tower - as cliche as it is, it was very pretty. Though it serves nothing but to look at it and to look from top of it, it does its job well. Didn't go up it, but I touched the base of it! That's all I wanted
The Champ-Elysses/Arc de Triomphe - Lots of fancy stores on this famous street, including a HUGE Louis Vuitton store that had a line to get inside. Was only there for a little while if only because of how Audrey Hepburn spoke about it in Sabrina.
Spread out amongst these many sights there was also lots of walking and lots of talking. Talking and speculating about life as we know it and the terrifying fact that we'll soon be facing the real world, both coming back home and graduating how many months from now. I wouldn't expect any less from us, me and Katie, we think waaaay too much for our own good.
There were also many tasty foods and pastries, including yet another variation of the hot dog. This time its called a 'hotdog frommage' pretty much a regular hot dog in a baguette-like bread and covered in cheese. So horribly good.
So Paris is where Katie and I part as she continues to explore Europe and I return to Madrid for my flight home. Ciao Paris, until next time with more time and more monies. It's been interesting.
Unfortunately my first views of Paris weren't as picturesque as I thought it would be. Maybe it was the fact that it was late at night and Monmartre isn't exactly the Champ-Elysses, but the streets were dirty and certain areas, especially in the metro, definitely smelled. But I suppose its understandable, its an old city and you shouldn't expect everything to pleasantly wonderful.
But that is absolutely no excuse for the WHACK-ASS hostel we were staying. It was relatively cheaper than others, but if we knew it was this bad we would've paid more MUCH MORE for a better one. Our room was dimly lit, the floors covered in cheap flimsy red carpet that was not nailed/glued in all the way, the walls had a creamed colored cheap wallpaper. Seriously looked like a gross, ghetto version of The Shining. Not to mention the strange stains on the bed blankets, the 3 hangers in the closet, and the horrible view of the maid's closet down the hall. There's also the bathroom issue, in which the toilet with no toilet paper was down the hall and the shared shower for all 6 floors was tiny, not the cleanest, and flooded. Why, God, WHY!? Luckily for our last night we upgraded to an infinitely better room with its own bathroom but still...why?!
So aside from that, Monmartre is an interesting neighborhood. Lots of little shops. you can tell this is a working class, and immigrant, neighborhood. Lots of souvenir shops which is definitely appreciated.
So here's the list of major sights to see we hit up in Paris:
The Louvre - definitely is a must. But there was no way we were going INSIDE. Lines were infinitely long. And just seeing the building and seeing how huge it was, we could only imagine how much art would be inside it. That equals way too much than we could handle. But we took some great pics of the pyramids outside, despite the gray clouds hovering about. And unfortunately no roseline, no kneeling down above the tomb of Jesus' supposed babymama.
The Seine River - walking along the Seine is typically Parisian, at least in my mind. The bridges were cool, with all the locks that people leave on them. Pretty cute.
Shakespeare and company bookshop - Cool english-language book shop, as seen in Before Sunset. Pretty famous and they stamp the books that they give you. Couldn't help but get an Almodovar book from here.
Notre Dame - I didn't find no Quasimodo, but the place sure is pretty.
The Latin Quarter - Where the Sorbonne is and all the Frenchie university students are. Nice little neighborhood, shops, random comic/manga shops too. I guess for all the anime/manga nerds of the university? Also found a little theater to watch a Hitchcock film and kills a few hours until dinner. By the time it was done, the sun was setting, and made the streets look like what I'd expected from Paris, even just for a while.
Sacre Cour - Walkable distance from the hostel, so we hit that up at night. Great view of the city and the Effiel Tower.
Les Invalides - Where Napoleon was buried, and a bunch of other dudes
Musee Rodin - cool statues
Effiel Tower - as cliche as it is, it was very pretty. Though it serves nothing but to look at it and to look from top of it, it does its job well. Didn't go up it, but I touched the base of it! That's all I wanted
The Champ-Elysses/Arc de Triomphe - Lots of fancy stores on this famous street, including a HUGE Louis Vuitton store that had a line to get inside. Was only there for a little while if only because of how Audrey Hepburn spoke about it in Sabrina.
Spread out amongst these many sights there was also lots of walking and lots of talking. Talking and speculating about life as we know it and the terrifying fact that we'll soon be facing the real world, both coming back home and graduating how many months from now. I wouldn't expect any less from us, me and Katie, we think waaaay too much for our own good.
There were also many tasty foods and pastries, including yet another variation of the hot dog. This time its called a 'hotdog frommage' pretty much a regular hot dog in a baguette-like bread and covered in cheese. So horribly good.
So Paris is where Katie and I part as she continues to explore Europe and I return to Madrid for my flight home. Ciao Paris, until next time with more time and more monies. It's been interesting.
Friday, June 11, 2010
TORINO - more Italian bulls!
Finalmente! Ya he terminado con mis examenes! Y tambien no estoy enferma . La unica cosa que yo quiero hacer es relajar...
Examenes as always are stressful. Art exam analyzing Guernica - yeah cuz that's doable in 1.5hrs. All-nighter finishing cine paper on La Mala Educacion (which coincidentally my professor actually does NOT like). PLUS a so-called "recitation" of a poem for lit, in which our professor started late and kept us for an extra 1hr to finish up. But now I'm done!!
All I have to do now is pack up all my crap, shove it in a locker at the airport and get my but to Italy.
After the crowded early-morning metro ride dragging along a backpack and 2 roller suitcases (a few people actually had some pity on my poor soul and offered to help me up some steps), left my stuff in a locker and headed over to gate. On the way over I realized such a weight, both physical and mental, had been lifted up off of me. I had no hefty luggage, no tests, no hw, no deadlines, no pressure to face from here on out. I was already sick, what's the worst that can happen? I was on my way to the gate, I was way early, I knew how to get from the airport to the city. Whatever happens I can deal with it. I was calm. Plus the vending machine popped out 2 bags of cornnuts for me instead of one - I'm taking that as a good omen. This'll be a good trip. It has to be.
I finally get to Torino and meet Katie for the second time. Again, we get a little lost getting to the hostel but its a-okay. We decided to walk around the city center a bit and grab a bite to eat. We knew little about Torino which I think worked to our advantage. Little to no expectations, letting whatever happens happen can be a very good thing. We learned our lesson from Barcelona.
The city is pretty calm, older but very clean and pretty. No tourists thank god. Very conducive to my want for relaxation. And what a wonderful discovery to find that arab/turkish food is ubiquitous in Italy as well, as we found kebab places all over. Not only that, but they have a peculiar thing called a pizza kebab - PIZZA KEBAB. A wonderful discovery indeed. Seriously, why haven't kebabs and shwarmas caught on in the States?
Next up on our very loosely planned trip is the National Cinema Museum. A.k.a. the best museum everrrrrrrrrr! God I'm a geek, but I don't care. There were no lines, no crowds, and relatively cheap student entrance. Film memorabilia galore, original posters (though they be in italian), set-ups and stages dedicated to different film genres/aspects of film. Showing a few clips of movies, they showed the end scene and the oh so famous speech from Casablanca, which I could probably recite from memory. <3333333333
After my reluctant departure from the cine museum, we decided to walk around the center of town on the way to the Egyptian museum - this time the key to Katie's heart. Torino is actually very beautiful but simple at the same time. Open spaces. Felt like I could breathe better, compared to the hustle and bustle of Madrid, and that of Barcelona even.
Being above ground and using the trams also help, instead of being down underneath the ground in metros. Best part of the tram system? Just about no one checks your ticket nor does anyone validate their ticket, hence basically free tram rides!
Last day we went to the Royal Palace, but the only tours they had were in Italian. Definitely spent too much time in those rooms listening to their histories in Italian. We busted outta there, had a last few walks around town and ate bomb-ass cannolis. We made our way to the train station with time to spare, no running out to the platform for us!
Overall, we liked Torino. We didn't expect much, but got a lot back. Good bye Torino! And Italian, which is close enough to Spanish for me to kinda understand. Onto Paris, second to last leg of my European trip
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