The Guziak's Come to Spain!

WHEW! I'm back! After a month of traveling, I am finally "home" and settled in Salamanca. And what a trip it has been! From the cold, dark, snow-capped mountains of Norway to the black sand beaches of Tenerife in the Canary Islands, it has been quite a journey. 

This is going to be the monster posts of all posts.  I will do my best to condense it to a longer-than-average entry without making it too boring or over-detailed. So I will begin where I left off; with my departure from Norway and saying farewell to Thea until May, I wasn't really prepared to be going back to Spain. In fact, I didn't really want to go back at all.  Why was it that Thea got to go back to DU, where all our friends were going to have an EPIC New Year's reunion plus skiing all winter, and I had to go and suffer another semester in boring old Salamanca.  In frustration and desperation, I wrote: I had a post ready to publish, outlining all the reasons justifying why I should go home in March (instead of mid-May) and start spring quarter at DU.  Additionally, I sent out emails to my academic advisors and ISA directors.  It was my typical "I miss traditional college life," and "am I really getting what I'm paying for?" type doubts that I am plagued with when I start to second guess myself.

In retrospect; If only I wasn't so over-analytical! Because over the course of the next week, my tensions eased as I showed off Spain to Melissa and Dad, and I fell back in love with Spain. (And, as it turns out, snow has been at an all time low in Denver; Vail might not even be opening their back bowls this season! A real tragedy for all my fellow Coloradan  skiers). Much to my embarrassment, shortly thereinafter I sent emails to all my advisors saying "sorry, I've had a change in heart; I think I can do this whole study abroad thing after all!"  Disaster averted.

Speaking of making my life over-complicated: So I'm in the airport in Oslo, Norway, trying to check-in with Czech Airlines to get my ticket printed that will take me to Madrid...and nothing happens. The manager tried twice, but without success. The problem was: My booking never went through! I had no ticket to take me back home! How stupid could I be?! Between booking multiple plane, bus, boat, and train tickets, in addition to nights in hostels and activities to do, somehow, my return ticket to Spain that I purchased online never went through. So without really any other choice, I paid top-dollar for an flight from Oslo to Helsinki, Helsinki to Madrid; in my mind, the only thing justifying that purchase was that I would get to see my dad and sister at the other end.

Not only did I see them, I literally bumped into them crossing the street in downtown Madrid! Expecting me at much later time, they had left the hotel in search of dinner. And what did they find, but me!  It was the start to an unforgettable trip.

City #1: GRANADA  From Madrid, the three of us took an early morning, high speed train to the heart of Andalucia, to a town called Cordoba, then a connecting train from Cordoba to Granada (since we had waited until the last minute to book our tickets, there was nothing direct! Lesson learned: the sooner you book your tickets, the better!).  My initial reaction to the high speed trains? Well, I am certainly not traveling on a tight budget anymore!  What a luxurious way to travel after having suffered sore neck and bottom from all the stinky old busses I had ridden, where you can feel every single bump and turn.  On the train, people come around and offer you free headphones, newspapers---and there's even a snack car and bathroom a skip and a hop away! How wonderful.

Enjoying the views from the train!

In Granada, we were all in awe of the snow-peaked Sierra Navada's that rested over the city as we made our way to our hotel. However, we were in a huge rush to get to the Alhambra, since our tickets were only valid that afternoon, so naturally, we got extremely lost trying to locate our hotel.  "Because why take a taxi when you can find it yourself!" we told ourselves.  Well, after about an hour of wandering and asking for directions in Spanglish, we finally were able to drop off our stuff in a cozy three bed, fourth story room and embark on our next adventure: La Alhambra.

I've seen it before, back when I visited with ISA in November.  I've written about it before, so I won't go into boring details about the history.  Just know that it's VERY OLD and has a VERY RICH HISTORY...and is decorated with some very beautiful, old tile.  Which Dad loved.  He loved it so much that we spent the next week trying to find tile to match exactly what he wanted! All we could do was roll our eyes and stay patient!

Dad at the gardens of the Alhambra 

After our tour of the palace!

Our first night in Granada I was given the responsibility of ordering our dinner and, for the rest of the week, communicating in general.  Keep in mind that I hadn't been in Spain for about 2 weeks, and that I ordered dinner after a beer or two....so when our tapas arrived, they weren't exactly what we had expected.  When the camerero served us a plate of cold, slimy anchovies atop salty potato chips, Dad thought it was a hoot. For the rest of the trip, he would always joke, make sure you don't order me "fish on chips!"  Melissa and I tried maybe half and bite, and left the rest for Dad.  We preferred the tapas of dried jamon, seafood paella, or warm potato tortilla.  You can sure bet I didn't purposely order something like anchovies on chips!

Granada saw us ring in the new year and my 21st birthday. A Spanish tradition for good luck, people eat 12 uvas, or grapes, as the clock strikes midnight.  So, canned grapes in hand, the three of us headed to Plaza del Carmen to listen to live music and celebrate 2012 after an Italian dinner.  An Italian dinner which we were very lucky to come by; unbenounced to us, most restaurants were closed on New Year's Eve, and if they were open, it was typically 65 euro a plate for a three course meal!  For about 20 minutes we hungrily searched the streets of Granada, hoping that we would stumble upon something reasonable!  Luckily, we did. 

My birthday, January 1st, was spent church-hopping with Dad all over Granada before jumping on another train and heading down to Sevilla, where it was a little bit warmer and much busier!  That day, reading birthday cards and emails from family about how proud they were of me, that was the greatest gift of all.  As I've written, it hasn't always been easy being here; sometimes, I second guess myself and am unsure if this is the right decision.  Case and point, my final day in Norway, when I sent pleading emails to my school trying to come back. But reading about how excited everyone is for me, that is definitely encouragement to keep on going forward and to quit looking back.  Because before I know it, this too will someday be a distant memory!!!

Views toward the Alhambra

City #2: Sevilla

aka the city where you are most definitely going to get lost if you don't know where you are going.  With some of the most narrow, winding cobblestone streets Europe has to offer, it is a beautiful city full of old churches and colorful buildings.  However, take a wrong turn, and you could easily get turned around and walk 20 minutes in the opposite direction that you want to be going! We learned this the hard way. 


(Ok, so maybe we should have invested in a bigger, more detailed map.  And maybe it would have been a good idea to mark on our map exactly where our hotel was...)


Sevilla is home to the 3rd largest church in the world.  Having visited Sevilla one of my first weekends in Spain, I had opted out of seeing the Sevilla Cathedral since it cost 6 euro and since I knew I would be back again. But one could spend a year in that place and see something new every day.  Completed in 1506, it took over 100 years to build... "Let a church so beautiful and so great that those who see it built were think we were mad" was the attitude that the architects took during construction, symbolizing their wealth and power of the time.  This, my friends, is like the Disney World of Spain....at least in Dad's eyes!


Well, Melissa's enthusiasm didn't quite match that of Dad's, who could have spent 45 minutes admiring all the detail of a single chapel within the church (there are 80 chapels within the church). Cold and dark and full of tourists, it's easy to feel overwhelmed by the tall ceilings and ornate details on absolutely everything.

The main alter; an example of the immense detail

But we all enjoyed the views from the top of the tower.  We were lucky to have a week of sunny skies and if warm weather.  Looking down into the gardens of the Cathedral:

Views of the city below:

Alas, this wasn't the last of the churches...it was the first of many.  At the end of the week, we tallied all the churches, monasteries, and cathedrals we visited, and still couldn't remember them all! Grand total: minimum 15.

Getting briefed on yet another church

Delicious traditional paella dinner

Next on the agenda was flamenco! Without having done much research beforehand, we read up in our Spain guidebook about good places to see flamenco shows in Sevilla, since there are so many tourist traps.  We decided on a small yet well known flamenco bar where we could purchase our tickets day of.  After an early dinner of Paella and red wine, Melissa and I decided to rush over and save a few seats when the doors opened.  Dad had to wait to pay the bill and assured us that he would be follow shortly.  Well, 10 minutes passed, then 15.  Where could he have gone? The show was starting in 5 minutes, and the restaurant was only a couple blocks away.  I hurried back, retracing our steps, only to find Dad asking some poor waiter (in English) where this unknown flamenco bar was.  I came up just as the waiter was turning around, shrugging his shoulders, leaving Dad looking awfully confused and pretty lost.  Needless to say, he looked pretty relieved when I found him.  Though we had gone their during the day, by night the streets of Sevilla looked much different, and our flamenco bar was down a narrow street and around a corner past a small plaza and not easy to spot...it was an easy street to miss. 

Lesson learned. Sevilla, you are not an easy city to navigate!

More importantly, the show was wonderful.  

How would I describe it? Passionate, intense, sweaty, intimate. The female dancer was graceful, focused, serious, beautiful, with a strong body and long, thick curly black hair.  

She had such fierce passion and expression in her face, and we could see the beads of sweat trickle down her face as she danced for us underneath a red light.  

The male dancer was handsome, strong, muscular, while graceful and forward.  Equally as talented, equally as sweaty.  

The male singer could hold a note without pausing for a good 20 seconds, and the guitar players fingers made such wonderful music.  It was an hour and a half of trying to figure out how they could possible move their feet so quickly, and wondering, how did they learn to move their hands that way? 

 

Final stop in Sevilla: Plaza de Espana.  Built in a U-shape with great architecture and full of tile mosaics representing all the major cities in Spain, it wasn't the same without the fountain pouring out water in the middle, and it felt unnatural with white vans driving through to fix broken lamps.  But the water in the moat reflected all the beautiful buildings.  And the tiles! Dad went crazy about the tiles. So I would say it was a success. 

The Salamanca mosaic! 

Afterwards, we tried to make it back to the hotel from Plaza de España. I tried navigating us from the river and got us completely lost. You can’t act on intuition here because as soon as you make one wrong turn, you can easily get turned around 180 degrees and be walking the opposite direction, and by the time you’ve figured it out, you’re lost! 

Enjoying the warm sun along the river

THE TRAIN RIDE, taken from my journal entry:  Spanish landscape between Sevilla and Madrid: unlike anywhere I have ever been before. Steep, rolling hills uninterrupted  by any suburbs or strip malls. The hills are covered with small trees---everywhere. They’re endless! Crumbling stone homes rest on the occasional hillside. How you get to these old homesteads is unknown and where the roads lead to is a mystery.  I saw one old stone aquaduct---but nothing else around it. I wonder where it came from and what it was used for! 

It is quite rural here.  The train winds its way through the hillside and my ears keep popping because we go through tunnels that slice through the mountains. It’s so much different than the US, because the “New World” was just built up and developed and filled up by all the immigrants. You would think that a country as old as Spain would be filled up with neighborhoods and suburbs, but in fact the opposite is true.  Just different! 

On a side note: I love traveling on high speed trains.  This is so much more comfortable and relaxing than the bus! More expensive, too. It sure is fun to be traveling with Dad.

Last but not least: Salamanca
After two nights in Sevilla, we finally headed back to my stomping grounds up in northwest Spain, where the land flattened out and the temperature dropped a few degrees.  After almost three weeks of traveling, it was so nice to come back to my apartment, do a load of laundry and stop living out of a backpack.


Ok, so if the cathedral in Sevilla was like the Disney World of Spain, then the cathedral in Salamanca is like a 6 flags park.  Dad didn't just visit once or twice...no, no, no; we went there THREE TIMES before he finally had his fill of culture.  I couldn't believe it!


I saw Salamanca through new eyes as I showed it off to Melissa and Dad.  Just a week ago, I did NOT want to go back to this small, somewhat isolated, student city...but as I took them to my favorite restaurants, or down to the park by my house, or even just drinking cervesas in the plaza, I slowly fell back in love with Salamanca and remembered why I had wanted to study here so badly.

 Embarrassed to say that I had never visited this church before! Good thing I had Melissa and Dad here to do all the "tourist" things with!  It's hard to describe the ant-like feeling you have when you walk into these old buildings, and my photographs hardly do it justice. It still amazes me that these have withstood the test of time and are just as beautiful today as they were 500 years ago.

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Inside of the Cathedral Nuevo in Salamanca, I truly felt like I was seeing it for the first time as I showed Melissa and Dad around.  Here's a picture from me standing in the middle looking up to the dome above.

To keep myself busy this fall I would knit, so during the train rides, I taught Melissa how to make hats. Here's her first hat!

La rana:  the frog.  This small amphibian is one of the symbols of Salamanca.  Strange, right?  Well, on this building below there is a beautifully detailed façade over the entrance to the original university building.  Hidden in plain sight among the carvings sits a small frog.  The story is that, as a student, if you can find the frog, you will have great luck and pass all your exams.  Much to her dismay, Melissa could not find it.  Neither could I back in September... I'm not sure I know anybody that has, for that matter!

 Enjoying the sunset over the river, with the cathedral in the background.

Guziak's, meet my Spanish family.  One of my highlights from their trip.  I acted as interpreter as my American family sat down to share a meal with my Spanish family.  It felt kind of unreal.  Montse served us wonderful, delicious Spanish food, including 4 types of jamon, 6 types of queso, bread, and my favorite, Spanish tortilla.  Afterwards, I went right to bed; I was so exhausted from translating so much!

Dad, Felix, and Melissa

So what a surprise we had; there was a holiday!  Día de los Reyes Magos: the 6th of January is a huge day of celebration in Spain.  This is the day they celebrate the arrival of the 3 kings to Jesus' birth. Businesses were closed, school cancelled, and the night before, despite the cold, the plaza was packed full of families watching the parade go by.  Candy was thrown out to the crowed by kids dressed up as kings and angles standing in manger scenes built on the back of pickup tricks.  That night, kids put out shoes so that the kings will leave them gifts; in fact, this used to be more popular for gifts than actual Christmas Day.


Montse gave me a new scarf the next morning at breakfast.  How very kind!

 Watching the festivities in the plaza.  In the middle is a manger scene, which has been up since the day I left for Norway on December 17th.

The actual day, January 6th, EVERYTHING was closed.  Families gather together for big meals and celebrate, just like American Christmas.  The traditional cake they eat is called "rosca," and although we didn't find it to be all that good, it was still fun to try it! Here's a picture of Melissa outside the bakery with our wrapped up cake:

 And here's a picture of the small Jesus figure that Dad bit into; it's a sign of good luck!

All in all, it wonderful 10 day vacation.The night before Dad left, my bike got stolen...and is still MIA.  That was kind of a bummer. But hey, if that's the worst thing that happens to me this year, I can handle that.  Yes, it was a crappy bike, but it was MY bike....but better my crappy bike than my camera or passport!