…Is now the several pages’ traffic of my blog
Katherine and I began our journey to Verona at 6pm on Thursday night. It was raining in Granada, but we didn’t care because we were leaving for Italy! We headed off to the bus station with our tightly packed backpacks and my newly purchased Spanish version of Pride and Prejudice—Orgullo y Prejucio. I wanted something to read and I figured I know I can enjoy that book in any language, might as well learn as I read!
When we got to the bus station we made the necessary purchases (Fanta and candy) and got on our bus to Madrid. At this point, we were upbeat and excited for the journey ahead. Little did we know, traveling can be a PAIN. But we figure this was our test run and learned many valuable travel lessons on the way.
Lesson 1: Never forget Kleenex. You may suddenly develop a bit a head cold and need about a million. Thanks for remembering that Katherine!
The bus ride to Madrid is about 5 and half hours long. We were surprised to find that they play movies on the ride. Evan Almighty and Mary Poppins played and are still easy to understand when watched without sound and with Spanish subtitles.
Lesson 2: In Spain, it is normal for the buses to stop half way through the trip and take a half hour break for food and bathroom use.
Of course the driver spoke very quickly into the microphone, leaving Katherine and I dumbfounded when everyone started to get off of the bus after we parked at a gas station. I thought maybe the bus driver was tired and didn’t feel like driving anymore. However, a nice boy with dreadlocks nearby explained to us that it was a half hour for eating. Everyone got off but Katherine and I stayed on the bus thinking that we would just wait. When the bus was suddenly turned off and we were sitting in complete darkness, we decided to follow the crowd inside. Random point of interest: the gas station/ shop place sold Tamagotchi’s in a little dispenser machine! I seriously considered buying one (best 4€ spent yet), but the machine didn’t work. We kept an eye out for Dreads and followed his lead when it was time to get back on the bus.
After five long hours, we finally arrived in Madrid at the bus station a little after midnight. Immediately we looked for a taxi to take us over to the airport.
Lesson 3: Don’t assume everything is close.
The airport is about a half hour away from the bus station. And unfortunately no buses run between the two. This takes us to the next lesson.
Lesson 4: Account for additional travel and be prepared to spend more money than expected.
Half hour taxi ride and 40€ later, Katherine and I arrived at the Madrid Airport. To do what? Wait 5 hours at a café table of course. Napping while hunched over a table is not as much fun as it sounds. Eventually we got on our 6am flight. RyanAir is definitely at the bottom of the airline totem pole, but it’s cheap and safer than I thought it would be. We arrived in Milan at 8:15. We looked for a shuttle to take us the train station. It was a forty minute bus ride away (refer to Lesson 3) and 9€ (refer to Lesson 4). Once at the train station we needed to buy tickets for a train to Verona.
Lesson 5: If a ticket kiosk looks newer and more high tech, that is because it sells more expensive tickets.
Overlooking the small little ticket machines, we went to a nice one and accidently bought “Fast Tickets” for about 17€ each. The extra travel expense on this trip really added up. The good news is that after about 17 hours of travel and obnoxious amounts of wait time, we had got onto a train sooner (and it was a faster train) than we would have had we bought the 8€. Interesting fact: In Italy at the train station and airport you have to pay a euro to use the bathroom. We finally get to our destination to find that it is also raining in Verona. But at least we weren’t in DC when they had, how many inches of snow? 30? We met up with Katherine’s good friend, Britta, and walked to her apartment. Britta’s apartment was in a great location near central Verona. It was spacious, newly furnished, had Wi-Fi, and a great kitchen for cooking.
Lesson 6: Have friends with awesome places to stay when traveling abroad.
We traveled around as soon as we got there, umbrellas in hand, to see a bit of the city. First things first, Katherine and I bought calzones at a little shop. I had something with tuna and olives due to a slight mistranslation. It was still good though. We looked around at the lovely sites and lamented a little that we couldn’t fully appreciate the beauty of the city as the mountains were invisible. I was still impressed.
Leah (Britta's roommate), Britta, and Katherine smiling in the rain.
All of Verona was built on ruins. They are currently in the process of excavating it all without disrupting streets and buildings.
We stopped by The House of Juliet. (There is a movie coming out, Letters to Juliet, and basically it takes place in Verona and this site is the catalyst of the story line. It’s a really cool feeling to be standing in a location so well known. ) The path way to the courtyard of her house has two walls covered in love letters. Some of them (the ones in languages I could read) were really beautiful.
Apparently it is a custom to take a picture next to the statue of Juliet with your hand on her chest. It brings you good luck in love. So, of course, we felt the need to follow suit.
This city seems to be a city of love. As we walked across a bridge, we came across another city tradition. Locks with names of lovers written upon them are locked around chains on lamp posts throughout the city. The locks signify locking up the love.
After a good hour and a half of freezing from the wind and rain, we went back to Britta’s apartment, stopping at a grocery store on the way. APPARENTLY in Verona food is much cheaper than what were used to in Granada. A jar of Nutella in Verona costs about 2€. In Granada, it costs about 4€. And most upsetting of all, Kinder Buenos (1€ each), the best candy in Spain, was sold at this grocery store for a 1.50€ for a pack of three.
In all honestly, I considered filling my bag up to the allotted 22lbs for RyanAir with Kinder Buenos packages. Unfortunately, I refrained. We picked up ingredients for the homemade Italian meal (spaghetti noodles, wine, tomato sauce, wine, spices, wine, and more wine.) The wine in Verona is very inexpensive, but very good. I wish I could ship some home to my family.
Later we went out to a bar called Camelot.
There we met some locals and spoke a mix of Spanish, Italian, and English. Although, the Italians didn’t know Spanish well and they didn’t appreciate when Katherine and I spoke it out of habit. One guy kept saying, “please stop speaking Spanish!” and another “I was only in Barcelona for 8 days! I don’t know Spanish!” It was actually quite fun for me to know more Spanish than someone at least. It was interesting to talk to the locals…apparently one of the guys learned to speak English by listening to rap music. He spoke and understood English well, so I’m wondering where he found this grammatically and phonetically correct American rap…definitely not Lil’ Wayne. Proclamation of Love #2 occurred this night. I guess touching Juliet was helpful. Too bad he was slightly creepy.
The next morning (or I should say afternoon, we slept until 12!) Britta made us Swedish pancakes. Basically they are like crepes. It was amazing—Swedish pancakes with Nutella and blackberry jam. We did some more sightseeing once our bellies were all full. We saw the outside of a church, some of the streets, and Castelvecchio.
It was still a little rainy, but nice to look around. We went to the plaza and looked at the little stands. Carnival (the mother of all Mardi Gras celebrations) starts this weekend. There were lots of masks for sale. I wanted to buy one so badly to hang on my wall, but I figured there was no good way to travel with it. So I took a picture of my favorite.
The light blue one in the middle with the gold leaves. It is so pretty.
As we walked around we tried some gelato and it was phenomenal. Once we had finished being tourists, we returned to the apartment for a little dinner party. A lot of friends from Britta’s program came over and we ate a medley of food and tried a couple wines. Interesting Fact: In Italy they what looks like oranges, but are in fact grapefruit. Do not feel obligated to continue eating it like an orange. (Katherine…)
Sunday morning we had blue skys! Britta, Leah, and their program had a day trip early in the morning. We said our goodbyes, and then Katherine and I went out exploring on our own. The rain had stopped at last. We stopped at a little pizza place on the street and experienced Italy through our taste buds. The pizza was delicious. Not as creative as Antonio’s in Champaign (Macaroni and cheese pizza, tortellini pizza…) but it was definitely the real deal. Delicious. Then we went inside to see the coliseum in Verona. It was beautiful. After climbing to the top and scoping out the view, we sat down on some steps, taking in the sun, and talked. It was a very pleasant afternoon.
Although European women wear heels at any and all times, Katherine felt that perhaps wearing them to climb these steps was a bad idea...
Imagine it in use...
Then we began our long journey back.
We left around 3, got on a train (the 8€ one) and headed back to Milan. Milan had a snow storm right as we left it on Friday. Luckily for us it didn’t slow any of our travel. The train ride this time took about 2 hours.
Lesson 7: Don’t forget your iPod when you travel. Sometimes life needs a little bit of a soundtrack.
Once we got to the station, we got our shuttle tickets (clearly we were Pros at this point) got on the bus and an hour later arrived at the airport. There was an hour delay. But clearly waiting is our favorite part of travel. You know you’re in Italy when: There is a vending machine for pizza.
Yes, Let's Pizza
We got onto the airplane and I learned personally why RyanAir is the cheapest airline. In an attempt to fit another suitcase in the overheard bin, a steward put my backpack down next to Katherine. I took it and put it under the seat in front of me. He then turned to me and said something. It was in Spanish, but I was beyond tired to comprehend. So I smiled and said “It’s fine!” I assumed he wanted to shove it up there. He kept talking to me and finally said “give it to me.” So I did out of pure confusion. Then he walked away and said “It’s not her bag.” Some people around us and Katherine called out that it was mine. He handed it to me and I said oh that’s why I said it was fine. As he was walking away he turned to back to say in a snotty tone, “Its fine is not that same as it’s mine as far as I know.” Everyone’s mouths kind of dropped. So much attitude!
We landed at the airport and were eager for a taxi. A little too eager. A man asked if we needed a taxi and we said yes. So we followed him. We got suspicious as we walked farther away from the taxi area and to an open parking garage. When we approached his car was unmarked and had no money counter visible at all. I asked to see his license and he showed us something that looked as if it has been photo copied. He spoke English, which made me find him more trustworthy (but I remember the movie “Taken”), so Katherine and I said that we had to find someone and got out of there.
Lesson 8: Don’t be afraid to be rude for the sake of being safe and smart.
We got to the bus station at 12:30am FINALLY ready to go home. We had our tickets that we had bought last week. We bought open tickets so that we can go on any bus as we were unsure when we would arrive. We had been so excited and relieved to be almost home when we hit another bump in the road.
Lesson 9: An “open” ticket still means you have to exchange it for a selected time at the bus station.
Unfortunately for us it was 1am and the ticket windows were closed. There was a horrifying moment where we thought we would have to wait until the morning to go home. Since the windows were closed, we went to a electronic ticket machine and bought new tickets (more money spent…) and left at 1:30. Another 5 hour bus ride to Madrid—this time no movies.
Lesson 10: Don’t expect to sleep on the bus rides. Not comfortable. Also, be prepared for the man across from you to take of his shoes and put his feet up across from your face.
Finally got home at 7am Monday morning, I was so relieved to be back in Granada, in my apartment, and in my bed. It’s funny how this place has already become home to me.
~The Culture of Spain~
In my Culture of Spain class we have been discussing a lot the nature of the country. It is really interesting to find out that although Spain in 90% Catholic (only 30% practice) it is EXTREMELY liberal. Magazines and television openly have pictures of topless women. At Sierra Nevada the “dirty” humor section was across from the Disney Princess section.
I find this a little funny because the day I was flying out to Spain my mom told me to button up my shirt more for Spain. Hmm…probably not really necessary. It seems a lot of the liberal nature of Spain is due to Franco. He was so dominating and strict that in response to all his censorship, Spain does what it wants and loves the freedom to be liberal. Gay marriage, premarital sex, censorship, abortion all these things are, for a majority, accepted and not nearly as debated as in the United States. The United States is seen as very conservative. And from the locals I’ve spoken to, this conservative nature is frowned upon. I find this so interesting because in Europe, traces of America are everywhere—our music, our movies, our language (on shirts), and even so they think we are this overly conservative country. Clearly they don’t watch HBO. But anyway, I find this all so interesting. I try to keep as open a mind as possible and sometimes I wonder, is it better they way Europe does it? Personally, I don’t think America is only one or the other nature. I thought this was interesting and wanted to put it out there to hear some opinions!
Wednesday:
Yesterday Kelly and I had our first meeting for our Tarea Externa. We are teaching English to children. I was running late and knew I lived farther away than Kelly, so I grabbed my map and went out. I was nervous about getting lost. I was so proud of myself as I followed the map and everything was adding up side streets, landmarks, everything. But then the not-so-charming characteristic of Granada to not have street signs started to mess me up. I know U2 is all about Where the Streets Have No Name, but personally I think it sucks. After about 20 minutes I figured that I must be getting close. That is when I rounded the corner and in horror saw that I had ended up right back by the river and my house. I had somehow gone in a circle. I set off again, late for our meeting. This time I asked several people for help. I had lots of pointing on my map. “Estas aqui.” Looking at the map, I was right on track. A woman that had helped me was even going to same way as me for a bit. 10 minutes later I turn a corner—I am BACK at the river! I’m pretty sure I was in an episode of Twilight Zone. Or I thought maybe it was like the Truman Show…there was nothing else out there. So confused and lost, I tried again and this time sort of accidently found where Kelly had been waiting, at the “school.” It seemed that I had been heading to the wrong “colegio.”
Looking around we saw tons of high school students smoking and eating their bocadillas. Kelly swears that some of them were about 25. Not exactly who we were hoping to teach English to. Still, Kelly and I asked the front desk again for Emilio, our contact. When I asked, the receptionist looked at me and said who? Who is Emilio? Extreme frustration kicking in and an hour past when we were going to meet, Kelly and I looked at the map again. I showed her where I had been trying to go. That is when we realized that we, in fact, were at a High School and NOT at the school we needed to go to. Once we got directions, we walked around trying to find the real school we needed to go to. (All the while I’m cracking up while Kelly was saying, “It’s not funny! It’s not funny!”) Eventually we found the right school and got everything all worked out. I am volunteering in the 5th and 6th grade classroom on Tuesday and Thursday from 12 to 2pm. This weekend I am going to try to think of some fun games and projects to help the kids learn English. Any ideas???
Wednesday night after our Art class trip to a museum with Jose Guerrero’s work, (he is a Granada local) I waited for Kelly to finish up her next class because I was coming over for dinner! While I waited, I applied for four more internships. NBC started accepting summer internship applications AT LAST!
Last night I met Kelly’s senora, Lina. She is lovely—so bubbly, so talkative, PERFECT for Kelly. And let me tell you, Kelly has the sweetest set up ever. Her apartment is very new. She has her own bathroom and a room with tons of shelving, closet space, and a HEATER! After an EXTREMELY tasty and funny dinner, Kelly and I started studying for our Culture of Spain test. Of course, studying is difficult with friends. I just wanted to start talking to Kelly about all these other things! Ahem, so Kelly if you read this, I’d be more than happy to come over again for dinner….wink wink.
I took the test a couple hours ago. First test at CEGRI. It was alright. I knew most of the information just forgot a couple words and mixed some things up. Still, grades don’t matter when you’re in Spain, right? Right???
P.S. My senora just told me my eyes looked like Jennifer Aniston's. Kind of made my day after that test!
P.S. My senora just told me my eyes looked like Jennifer Aniston's. Kind of made my day after that test!
This weekend we are staying in Granada and I am really excited. In addition to writing a paper and working on a project for Tuesday, I have big plans to walk around and figure out where everything IS. Getting lost is not one of my favorite things.
And that is all I have for you to know,
For Verona, this week, Juliet and her Romeo.
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