BELchocoloatefrieswafflesGIUM

Casually decided to take a trip to Brussels with my best friend. We just went on Ryanair and looked at cheap flights. Oh the Europe life :)

Our hostel was whatever, but apparently it is located at the site where Van Gogh used to work.


First order of business was to buy hats and gloves because our giant jackets weren't enough. It was freezing!


Then we started our trek with our rain soaked map to see some sites.


The main square of Brussels is really cool. It is formed by the old guildhouses with architecture to represent their trade. For example, the boatsman's guild building was shaped like a stern at the top. Now the buildings are taken over by shops (most of them chocolate shops.)


There was also the museum, which was constructed to mimic a Hapsburg palace. At night they had a light show with lights on the windows and tower of the museum with random electronica music. And the square was decorated for Christmas time! Complete with tree, lights, and life-size nativity scene.


There is also a garden surrounded by 48 pillars with statues to represent each of the guilds.



Brussels is apparently the city of the comic book. Who knew? They have a comic book museum where they pay special homage to Tin Tin, the Belgian comic that became quite popular and which they are most proud of. They even have giant comic scene murals randomly throughout the city on the sides of buildings!


Good thing some of the comics in the museum had no words cause I couldn't read the original French...


We also made a stop by the European Union office. Brussels is the de facto capital of the EU.


And we pointlessly took the metro to the outskirts and this monument: the Atomium. It was built for Expo 58 world fair in Brussels and apparently is a gem of architecture but we were over it with a glance from afar. Sorry Atom.


We went to the museum of instruments where there is the largest collection of instruments in the world. The headphone tour had no words but just played the music of the instrument you were standing in front of. They had everything from juke boxes to old harps to Wii rock band.


The must see in Brussels is the Manneken Pis - a statue of a boy peeing. Oh Brussels, you are so random. When we finally found the statue it was super small.


OK. What we really did in Brussels was eat. Oh my god. Belgian waffles constantly. They really do have them perfected - perfectly fluffy with no parts that are too crispy. Does the fact that I got all mine with strawberries on them count as being healthy?


Every other store was a chocolate store. Not exaggerating. They all had tantalizing display windows and ... well we basically went in all of them. So incredible tasty. Beligum can take the crown of best chocolate in my book for sure. This was one of my favorite pieces. It tasted like a subtle version of a York mint candy.


Besides waffles, chocolate, and mussels (yes it rhymes) Brussels is known for its frites -french fries they fry for you upon ordering and top with a choice of sauce. I don't even like ketchup or anything but these with Barzil sauce were awesome.


Brussels also has lots of beer (yep, we just keep getting healthier and healthier huh?) We went to a well known bar called Delirium which was a college aged hang out full 3 stories of kids and decorated with different signs all over the walls. It was described as the place of 200,000 beers. The choices they had on tap included apple and cherry. I don't like beer. But the cherry one was definitely better than I thought it would be. I even finished my first glass of beer ever.


It's sister bar next door, Floris, had 50 kinds of Absinthe on deck. We did not go there. Too intense.

Another spot we visited was Theatre Toone, a bar that used to be a puppet theater. It was really cool with the old puppets display inside. It had a more mellow feel and older crowd.


Our second day we took a day trip to Brugge, a small city an hour train ride away from Brussels. Adorable!

Before we got to explore the city though we just had to get another waffle. This round version is called Liege. It is denser than the square Belgian waffle and tastes almost carmelized. The maple syrup it came with looked like thick chocolate fudge. Heaven.


Brugge was like a town out of a Christmas decoration model: Ice skating rink surrounded by colorful old shops and a bell tower.


The canal that runs thru Brugge (pronounced Broojjj) used to be a moat.


We climbed up the 300 something stair bell tower to work off some of the chocolate and get the bird's eye view of the city. Did you know someone sits there and plays the bells? He is a floor below and his keyboard is attached by metal cords to hammer like things within the giant bells above.


View.


Next stop: chocolate museum where we saw unbelievable chocolate art statues and a demonstration of chocolate making. We learned why Beligum is famous for chocolate: They used to be a major port of cacoa, they pride themselves on it, and they have regulations of the fineness of the chopped cacoa that eludes the taste buds creating a smoother flavor.


Of course we needed chocolate to go. So we walked down from street level into Dumon, a shop owned by a mother and her two daughters. Hand made chocolates! None of the chocolates on display had signs; they prefer to explain them personally to you as you choose. So cute.


Yummmmm!!!!


So that was Brussels and Brugge.


No wait. One more waffle.

gracias!

"GRACIAS!!!!"

And a hug.

That was how I was greeted by my Spain mom last Thursday morning aka Thanksgving aka el Día de Acción de Gracias.

What was the first thing I did on this American holiday? Went to the American food store in Madrid of course! This is one of two (supposedly the better one). All I know is seeing boxes of cake mix, bagels, Newman's salad dressing, pop tarts, sprinkles, goldfish, etc. etc. was awesome!


4 items = 20 euro = 30 dollars. Wow.



Next step: profesh decorations. Complete with turkey hands of course!



My Spain mom was super nice and made us a turkey. Mmmm! It definitely didn't taste like it was her first time making it. Here in Spain they stuff Turkey with fruit.



The stuffing we got from Taste of America in the box wasn't very good but the meal besides that was great! Much better than the program Thanksgiving dinner we had Wednesday at a fancy restaurant with the teachers where they just served us a bunch of alcohol to cover up the fact that they didn't know how to cook a Thanksgiving feast...

Here's Mia making some mashed potatoes. Her speciality.


We made everyone a leaf on which to write what they were thankful for.


Holidays away from home are definitely hard. But I am so thankful I had my Spain family and best friend.

the conquering of harry potter part I

Now don't get yourself in a hot mess of "You haven't read Harry Potter!?"

Of course I have read Harry Potter.

But sometimes I would rush thru them when they came out. Now I am sorta fuzzy on books 5-7. So, I made a goal before I came here to read them en español. It started off a slow process although it helped that I had some knowledge of the story already. Reading became much easier when I stopped looking up words and kept going with the context.

VICTORY!


890 pages! Done! Had to brag. Sorry bout it.

On to Harry Potter y el MIsterio del Príncipe (Book 6).

access denied.

Short version: unable to go to a doctor until we returned to Madrid, I walked on a stress fracture in my foot (which I got who knows how) in Lisbon for 3 days resulting in me being unable to walk on my left foot without it feeling like someone was stabbing it. Three doctors and a bunch of euros later I was on crutches.

It has been an intense week. What is more awkward than being the foreign student? You guessed it! Being the foreign students on crutches. As if crutching around our giant campus, a barely hadicap accessible metro system (elevators are only on certain platforms), and our group trip to Andalusia wasn't enough, Spain can't even have normal crutches! They are not sturdy because they don't square off under your shoulders. Instead they have these half circles of plastic that go under your elbow and knock into you, slowly creating bruises on your forearms. Awesome.

I thought life in Spanish was hard before? Try crutching a three hour walking tour of La Alhambra with plenty of stairs! But that wasn't the end of my lesson. When I was sitting on the bus at school on Tuesday (one of only 2 times someone offered me a seat on the metro or bus) three blind students got on the bus. Watching them get on, find their tickets, find the slot to put in their tickets, and grope through the crowded bus to find a seat, all while helping each other was incredible.

No matter what your situation you are always lucky in someone's eyes.

down south.

This weekend EAP Madrid headed down to southern Spain.

First stop: Córdoba. Why? The Mezquita of course. Built in the 8th century, this was the most important mosque of the city when the Muslim's had control of Spain. Of course, after those Christian folk got all reconquest-happy it was turned into a Gothic cathedral. The mix of architecture is incredible.




The majority of the inside is covered with these brick arches with alternating white and red stripes.


We also saw a Flamenco show. The traditional Spanish dance was so fun to watch! It is best described as a combination of tango, tap, ballet, and stomping with twirly big arm movements, plus a lot of clapping (substituted sometimes by the small wooden things they clack in their hands). There were two guitar players, two singers, and several dancers who came on for different numbers.


I guess part of Flamenco culture is the serious passion behind it. All the dancers' faces were extremely concentrated and almost pained until their ecstatic bow.


Stop #2 La Alhambra in Granada.

Fact: Most visited place in Spain.
Fact: 8 thousand tourists a day.
Fact: Residence of Muslim Royals.
Mystery: How did they finish all the intricate decorations in only 160 years?

This was one of the coolest places I have seen. It's a huge palace with tons of inner patios with perfectly trimmed bushes, fountains, flowers, and pools of water ground level. Unlike gaudy Christian iconography, Muslim architecture is not extravgant on the outside, all the aesthetics are saved for the inside and limited to vegtation and scripture.



I can't believe someone did all this with a small pick all over the walls.






I'm sure the south in the U.S. has some cool things too. Definitely not epic mosques. In fact probably no mosques at all... But I mean... the twang. That's cool! I guess... Speaking of, Andalusia(southern Spain)-ers have an accent too. They don't pronounce S at the end of words.

Well, Adio_!

let's go to visit our neighbor.

Long weekend? Olá Portugal!




When we landed in Porto the first thing we noticed was how lame their metro was. And no, we're not just biased because Madrid's metro is so baller. All five lines of Porto's metro run right next to each other (pointless) than break off at the end. You have to count which zones you are going into and swipe the card you buy passed these yellow guys.


I know what you are thinking. Yes, you can easily not swipe your card and never pay. But then this scary woman in a ticket costume will fine you.


Porto kind of looked like an older version of SF.



The river made for a neat water front town that would have probably been awesome in the summer. Not so much during the rainy season when you are literally the only ones out at 9 p.m. walking 2 hours to find a hidden wine tasting place that turns out doesn't even have wine tasting...



Portugal's traditional food includes a lot of seafood. For some reason though we just ate kabobs the whole time. We went to this lady's little kabob shop three times in two days. BFF!


After a three hour train we arrived in Lisbon. Did I mention we were staying in hostelworld.com's top hostel of 2008. So nice! Clean, decorated like an Ikea show room, countless information on the walls, and a super nice staff, complete with owner lady who welcomed us with hugs and made us milkshakes and pancakes. Lisboa Central Hostel. Stay there.


We visited Castillo de San Jorge, which was everything you want castle ruins to look like.


And is located on the highest point of Lisbon's seven hills.


Lisbon has 2nd largest aquarium in Europe (Second to Valencia, Spain. Sorry bout it.) Thumbs up to that !



We also went here, A Brasileria, the old stomping grounds of famous Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa. He wrote under heteronyms, which is kind of like a pseudonym, but instead of simply hiding his identity with a different name, the heteronyms were actually fictional authors themselves who he wrote through.


They have a statue of him where he used to sit all the time apparently.



Artsy.


So this is where early 20th century intellectuals kicked it.


We took a day trip from Lisbon to Sintra. The castle that inspired the central Disneyland castle was only a 45 min train ride away. It was different than others we've seen with its cool colored facades. It was foggy so we didn't get the blue sky in the background but it was definitely still cool.




Portugal is famous for its pasteles de nata, a pastry similar to cream puffs. But better.


We waited at the "best" pasteles place in the line out the door. You tell them how many you want (only 80 cents each!) and they come in a little to go box with powdered sugar and cinnamon.


Yum!


After 5 days I've established that Portugal is Spain's cool neighbor with neat stuff to see but definitely not as exciting as Madrid. We're just spoiled.