Hi friends, Felices Pascuas!
This past week we didn't have school because of Holy Week and my mom and I did some traveling. If you have been reading my blog during the semester you know how much I can write about different weekend trips... so I'm going to try and give a shorter version of the last week. As always pictures will be on facebook soon and if you want to know more just ask!
On Saturday the 16th, Shannon and I flew to Lisboa (Lisbon), Portugal to meet up with my mom who landed a few hours before us. It was super easy to get from the airport to the hotel (something Shannon and I aren't used to at all) and we ended up not having to pay for the bus. That night we walked to the oldest part of Lisboa and had a nice, traditional Portuguese dinner accompanied by green wine. The next day, Sunday, we did our main touring using a Lisboa card that provided us with free entrance into certain museums and a metro pass. We started at the Cathedral (the oldest building in Lisbon), followed by St. George's Castle, and then went to church for an English mass but there were very misbehaved children and we couldn't really hear much. Next we headed to Jeronimos' Monastery but stopped a nice market before we entered the Monastery followed by Belem Tower (with the narrowest steps but an awesome view!). Belem Tower is actually sitting in the water and you have to take a little bridge to get there. After about eight hours of touring, we ate some lunch/dinner depending on the schedule you are used to and wandered back towards the hotel. We did a little grocery shopping (so we could make PB&Js) and had a little dessert on the top floor of the hotel (with an awesome view of the city!). On Monday we took a train to Estoril beach and had a really tough day just laying on the beach, soaking in sun, and working really hard. That night for dinner we had Pizza Hut because Shannon and I sometimes miss American food. Shannon left really early Tuesday morning for Oviedo and my mom and I left middle of the day for Barcelona.
Tuesday night in Barcelona we walked La Rambla (a street filled with shops) and ate a Spanish dinner. Wednesday we walked around the city for eight hours (my feet hated me after that) but we saw alot! We went to the top of Montjuic for a lovely view of Barcelona, saw the famous Christopher Columbus statue, did some shopping, went to the Aquarium (the second biggest in Europe), and went the Picasso museum (which has his painting of Velásquez's Las Meninas (personally I prefer Velásquez's version which we saw in El Prado during our orientation week in Madrid)). On Thursday we did a six hour highlight tour (on a bus- yay!). The morning was all about Gaudi and we got to see Parc Guell, a few of the houses he designed, and La Sagrada Familia! It was awesome especially since the week before break we were studying Gaudi in my art class. I can give you more information about Gaudi if you want. Then in the afternoon we saw more highlights of the city (some of the monuments we saw on foot the day before), learned some history of the city, saw the Olympic stadium, and went to Pueblo Espanol (a reproduction of buildings of all over Spain). We went back to the hotel and took a siesta after all that and then went out for dinner. On Friday we went to a little mountain community about an hour outside of the city called Montserrat where the Virgin Mary was sighted. It was a beautiful, beautiful place to visit (and get away from the world if you wanted to). On Saturday we flew to Oviedo. I was definitely missing my little Spanish city. Shannon and I took my mom around to the main highlights of Oviedo, we went for chocolate con churros (a delicious dessert), and out to a Sidreria to try the Sidra (the traditional drink of the Asturias). My mom got to meet my host parents too. On Easter, the three of us went to mass at the church Shannon and I normally go to and then my mom and I walked to the park that I like to walk to on the edge of Oviedo before going to have lunch with Shannon's host family (who have sort of adopted me). It was a really great Easter.
My mom got a good taste of Spain and my life in Oviedo I think. She tried most of my favorite foods here- tortilla, fabada, paella, chocolate con churros...
This morning my friend Lily drove my mom to the airport really early. I can't believe I only have a month left here- I'm not ready for this semester to be over!!!
Besos,
Ana
Monday, April 25, 2011
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
We came, We saw, We wandered
Hello friends!
First I want to thank everyone, near and far, for making my birthday wonderful.
This weekend, I traveled to Amsterdam and Paris- it was quite the weekend. On Friday night we took a flight out of the Oviedo airport at 11PM to Barcelona and then at 6:45 AM we took a flight from Barcelona to Amsterdam. There were six of us from Temple, Felicia, Jenna, Dana, Kiersten, Shannon and I. It was a long night but most of us managed to get a few hours of sleep on the uncomfortable airport benches. When we arrived in Amsterdam at 9AM we all took a train to the central train station. On Saturday we went to the Van Gogh Museum all together before Shannon and I went off on our own a bit (since the other girls were staying for the whole weekend they did the other museums later). We did the Heineken experience and toured the Anne Frank house. The Heineken experience was actually a lot of fun, they told us about the process of making the beer and gave us some of the history. The Anne Frank house was a great thing to be able to see. I of course cried when we watched the video of her dad talking about her diary. I thought it was awesome that we got to see her actual diary and that there was a specific exhibit on her sister, Margot. It is sad and hard to imagine eight people hiding in that space. After a long day we checked into our hostel and when I handed the person at the front desk our reservation he started talking to me in German because of my last name. Luckily he also spoke English.
On Sunday morning Shannon and I took a train from Amsterdam to Paris and all I have to say about arriving in Paris is that we had an adventure trying to get out of the train station and to our next destination, Versailles. The Palace of Versailles is the biggest palace in Europe and it was very elaborate but don't think you are going to get good directions to Marie Antoinette's estates...at least not in English. We never found them but we made a solid effort. We also decided to buy metro passes which was a very good idea since we were able to get around for all three days with them and the metro is relatively easy to figure out. We went to mass on Sunday night at Notre Dame, it was amazing to say the least even though we were both very tired and not feeling 100%. After mass we made the long awaited trek to our hostel which was located in the Montmartre area of Paris. We stayed in a six person room with four other girls who all turned out to be really awesome. One of the girls, Julie, was on a two month trip around different parts of Europe. She is from Norway and can speak four or five languages. You wouldn't have known that she wasn't a native English speaker. The other three girls...wait for it...wait for it.... WERE FROM MINNESOTA!!!! They are students at the U of M and currently studying in England. Yup, so that was awesome.
Anyways on Monday we headed first to the Louvre. Now if you want to talk about a maze of a museum, the Louvre is a great example- Shannon and I were lost in Ancient Egypt for a solid half an hour at least. There is SO much art, we spent a couple of hours there but we barely scratched the surface I think. We did get to see famous works like the Mona Lisa. After we headed to Sainte Chapelle church- I have never seen such beautiful stained glass in my entire life. The entire chapel is stained glass- definitely check out my pictures on facebook for that. After we headed back Notre Dame where I lit a candle for my friend Kevin who talked about studying abroad in Paris. The Notre Dame treasury also houses the relics of the crown of thrones, pretty cool huh? I think Notre Dame was probably my favorite thing we saw in Paris- it was so beautiful words can't really describe it. Then we headed to the Pantheon but we couldn't go inside because it was closed until today. After we headed back to our hostel for a study/dinner break. We made arroz cubano because we missed Spain so we thought we should make ourselves some Spanish food. Monday night we went to the Arc of Triumph and had an amazing view of the city; however, that view was put to shame by the view we saw a half an hour later at the top of the Eiffel Tower. We went all the way to the top, I was personally not really a fan of the height but the view was pretty epic. I think Shannon fell in love with Paris on the top of the Eiffel Tour the way I fell in love with Galway so in a few years you will know where to find us in our respective cities.
Tuesday we had a light day but we did enjoy snacking on a French baguette with a jar of nutella...no judgment please. We went first the the Sacre Coeur church and then to the Moulin Rouge, and finally to the Musee de Orsay. However by this point we were pretty close to done enjoying looking at art. We spent some time just sitting on a park bench studying for our art test. Then we took a train and a bus to the airport. On the bus we met a really cool Australian family who was very happy to find some more English speakers. Our flight landed in Santander at 9:30 PM and our bus didn't leave until 3:30 bringing us back to Oviedo at 6AM. It's all part of the adventure I guess.
Pictures will be posted within a day or two.
Besos
Ana
First I want to thank everyone, near and far, for making my birthday wonderful.
This weekend, I traveled to Amsterdam and Paris- it was quite the weekend. On Friday night we took a flight out of the Oviedo airport at 11PM to Barcelona and then at 6:45 AM we took a flight from Barcelona to Amsterdam. There were six of us from Temple, Felicia, Jenna, Dana, Kiersten, Shannon and I. It was a long night but most of us managed to get a few hours of sleep on the uncomfortable airport benches. When we arrived in Amsterdam at 9AM we all took a train to the central train station. On Saturday we went to the Van Gogh Museum all together before Shannon and I went off on our own a bit (since the other girls were staying for the whole weekend they did the other museums later). We did the Heineken experience and toured the Anne Frank house. The Heineken experience was actually a lot of fun, they told us about the process of making the beer and gave us some of the history. The Anne Frank house was a great thing to be able to see. I of course cried when we watched the video of her dad talking about her diary. I thought it was awesome that we got to see her actual diary and that there was a specific exhibit on her sister, Margot. It is sad and hard to imagine eight people hiding in that space. After a long day we checked into our hostel and when I handed the person at the front desk our reservation he started talking to me in German because of my last name. Luckily he also spoke English.
On Sunday morning Shannon and I took a train from Amsterdam to Paris and all I have to say about arriving in Paris is that we had an adventure trying to get out of the train station and to our next destination, Versailles. The Palace of Versailles is the biggest palace in Europe and it was very elaborate but don't think you are going to get good directions to Marie Antoinette's estates...at least not in English. We never found them but we made a solid effort. We also decided to buy metro passes which was a very good idea since we were able to get around for all three days with them and the metro is relatively easy to figure out. We went to mass on Sunday night at Notre Dame, it was amazing to say the least even though we were both very tired and not feeling 100%. After mass we made the long awaited trek to our hostel which was located in the Montmartre area of Paris. We stayed in a six person room with four other girls who all turned out to be really awesome. One of the girls, Julie, was on a two month trip around different parts of Europe. She is from Norway and can speak four or five languages. You wouldn't have known that she wasn't a native English speaker. The other three girls...wait for it...wait for it.... WERE FROM MINNESOTA!!!! They are students at the U of M and currently studying in England. Yup, so that was awesome.
Anyways on Monday we headed first to the Louvre. Now if you want to talk about a maze of a museum, the Louvre is a great example- Shannon and I were lost in Ancient Egypt for a solid half an hour at least. There is SO much art, we spent a couple of hours there but we barely scratched the surface I think. We did get to see famous works like the Mona Lisa. After we headed to Sainte Chapelle church- I have never seen such beautiful stained glass in my entire life. The entire chapel is stained glass- definitely check out my pictures on facebook for that. After we headed back Notre Dame where I lit a candle for my friend Kevin who talked about studying abroad in Paris. The Notre Dame treasury also houses the relics of the crown of thrones, pretty cool huh? I think Notre Dame was probably my favorite thing we saw in Paris- it was so beautiful words can't really describe it. Then we headed to the Pantheon but we couldn't go inside because it was closed until today. After we headed back to our hostel for a study/dinner break. We made arroz cubano because we missed Spain so we thought we should make ourselves some Spanish food. Monday night we went to the Arc of Triumph and had an amazing view of the city; however, that view was put to shame by the view we saw a half an hour later at the top of the Eiffel Tower. We went all the way to the top, I was personally not really a fan of the height but the view was pretty epic. I think Shannon fell in love with Paris on the top of the Eiffel Tour the way I fell in love with Galway so in a few years you will know where to find us in our respective cities.
Tuesday we had a light day but we did enjoy snacking on a French baguette with a jar of nutella...no judgment please. We went first the the Sacre Coeur church and then to the Moulin Rouge, and finally to the Musee de Orsay. However by this point we were pretty close to done enjoying looking at art. We spent some time just sitting on a park bench studying for our art test. Then we took a train and a bus to the airport. On the bus we met a really cool Australian family who was very happy to find some more English speakers. Our flight landed in Santander at 9:30 PM and our bus didn't leave until 3:30 bringing us back to Oviedo at 6AM. It's all part of the adventure I guess.
Pictures will be posted within a day or two.
Besos
Ana
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