Casillas primas en Espana

So I am officially on spring break! Before I head to Portugal I wanted to update you all on my last week of adventure with my cousins!! This post is just going to be brief because there is too much to talk about in detail!!

SO last Tuesday I took the bus to Granada to meet up with my cousins Erika, who is living in Granada with her boyfriend Manu, and Rocio, who decided to visit us for her spring break :)

Wednesday: We visited Cordoba, an inland city about 2 hours from Granada. The weather was so nice, pretty hot actually, and we explored the old town with our tour guide Pepe, Manu's older brother. We visited the amazing Mesquita, which has Roman, Arab, and Spanish architecture combined into one huge Cathedral/Mosque. We ate some good tapas, saw some old churchs, bridges, plazas and headed home for a non-eventful St. Patty's Day at home.

Thursday: Manu had a business lunch in the coastal city of Almeria so we tagged along to see the city and visit Manu's sister and niece, Caty. So the four of us girls walked along the beach, ate amazing seafood, shopped, and bar hopped all day. I tried my first mojito & I officially love them!It was such a cute Mediterranean city, I can only imagine how wonderful it would be in the summer time.

Friday: Granada was finally explored! Erika first took us to the Cathedral and the chapel and burial sight of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. We had lunch at her favorite tapas bar, complete with amazing seafood and Claras (half lemon soda/half beer). We shopped for souvenirs, walked past her old apartment right outside the center of town, and went to an old church on a hill for an AMAZING view of the famous Alhambra. We then went to this hole in the wall tea/juice place with a terrace where we had a beautiful view of the whole city and the Alhambra. Friday night we went to a bar for some drinks and headed to a small club for some dancing!

Satuday: Manu's parents live in the "pueblo" outside of Granada. We visited the small little town in the mountains and were served the best paella ever!! After our huge meal, we all took a siesta and later walked around the pueblo to look at the amazing views of the countryside covered in olive trees. It was great to see what the simple life of so many spaniards, something completely different the my usual visits to big cities in Spain. Once back to Granada, it was time to fiesta! Manu's sister, niece Caty, and nephew Pepe (from Almeria) were awaiting our arrival and went out for drinks and food. (I was so spoiled this trip with amazing food!) We then went to this awesome gay bar, complete with a tranny performance of course. We then headed to a club where we stayed until 6:30am ---definately my latest night in Spain so far.

Sunday: Getting out of bed was a struggle for everyone, but by 4pm we were up eating breakfast/lunch haha. Manu, Erika, Rocio and I had a scheduled visit to La Alhambra at 5:30 and were late of course. We literally parked the car and RAN for at least 10 minutes to the entrance where we luckily let in!! I was so glad that we made it for our visit because it was BEAUTIFUL. The palaces, gardens, and views were incredible. I took hundreds of pictures because everyewhere I looked there was something beautiful that had to be remembered! Our friend Santiago (Santi) made dinner for us and of course it was delicious. I definately gained a few pounds this trip..oops. After dinner, Manu dropped us off at the bus station and we took the 1am bus back to Madrid!

Monday: I get off the bus around 6:30am, get home around 7:50am, and get to school for 9am class. I napped and met up with Rocio and Erika in the Plaza Mayor. We took Rocio to the usual tourist spots: Sol, Retiro Park, and Gran Via for some shopping. We went for dinner and drinks around 10 and then I headed home to do homework...

Tuesday: After my long day of class, Rocio and I went to see the Royal Palace and the Cathedral (Erika was on her way back to Granada). I took her to my favorite market for some bread and brie cheese and then we made our way to the Museo del Prado. It was my second time, but it felt like the first. It is so big and full of amazing art, we were bummed when they kicked us out at 8pm. We headed back to my place for dinner, homework and to pack up Rocio :(

Rocio left at 5am Wednesday morning and I was sad to see my primas leave after such an amazing week together. But on a poitive note, my spanish has slightly improved! Erika and Manu helped alot, and I'm now considering visiting them again next month!

Now I'm off to Portugal with Rachael and then in 1 week I will be in Ireland with John! So excited for these 2 countries, I've heard they are both so beautiful!

Fiesta en Valencia!

My school took a weekend trip to the city of Valencia, Spain's third largest city located on the Mediterranean coast. We were lucky enough to visit during the city's most celebrated holiday, Las Fallas. It is a unique, crazy, and HUGE fiesta that has expanded from its original holiday of St. Joseph's Day (March 19) to a 2-week long party filled with loud firecrackers, food and fire. (right: churreria & a big falla in background)

The holiday originated from the celebration of the carpenter Joseph by forming bonfires to clear out all junk wood and materials from the previous year. It was like a spring cleaning for the Valencians and over time more and more people participated. Las Fallas literally means "the fires" in Valencian (yes they have their own language) and has become an important tradition in the city. The focus of the fiesta is the creation and destruction of ninots/Fallas which are huge cardboard, wood, paper-machè and plaster statues. The fallas are extremely lifelike and usually depict satirical scenes and current events. The labor intensive fallas, often costing up to 700,00 euros(!!!), are funded by neighborhood organizations and takes the artist almost the entire year to construct! There are hundreds of fallas, some displayed at several stories tall, are located in over 350 key intersections and parks around the city. (below: fallas!)

So basically they celebrate for 2 weeks with parades, displaying the fallas, firecrackers being set off EVERYWHERE, and finally on March 19th at midnight when the whole city is filled with people, they turn off all the street lamps and the plus-300 fallas are set to fire and burned!! Then they have a huge arial fireworks show to complete the fiesta.


Unfortunately we didn't visit for the main event of the burnings, but I was able to see the Folklore parade on Saturday night and Sunday I experienced Mascletá, an amazing fireworks and firecracker display which is set up in the main plaza of the city. The Valencians love the noise and energy related to firecrackers so there is a huge emphasis on them. The Mascletá was like nothing I have ever experienced, the streets were jam-packed with people and and the noise HUGE noise and speed, creating a giant cloud of smoke in the streets. I loved every second of it, I wish I could have stayed for the actual burning of the fallas!! (left: crowded plaza, above: smoky skies after Mascletá).

So the weekend consisted of lots of exploring the city. The weather was really nice, I loved seeing the sun finally. Friday we walked around town admiring all the Fallas being set up all around the city. In the evening, Rachael, Chrissy and I drank wine in our hotel room and of course we were hungry so we set out to find a bar to get some tapas. We found some and they were delicious! The bartender loved us, he even gave us hats and wanted pictures with us haha. Saturday we woke up early and visited the Mercado Central, a huge market in a beautiful old buliding with the most wonderful displays of fruits, veggies, nuts, and meat (pictured above). Valencia is famous for their oranges so I bought one of those, some cheap almonds, and we shared a basket of strawberries :) Then we went to the Museo de Fallero, a collection of the fallas over the last century, one is spared every year. We then saw the City of Arts and Sciences (pictured left) which was an area of several modern buildings, all white with an amazing display of modern architure. We finished our day at the Oceanographic, Europe's largest aquarium! (pictured right) I loved watching all the fish and other animals like dolphins, penguins, walruses, sharks, and 2 beluga whales!!! That night we had a famous Mediterrean paella and watched the parade. I also had my first experience of churros and chocolate, buñelos, and spanish horchata (so much tastier than Mexican horchata)!!

Sunday the whole group went on a bike tour of the city and it was so much fun. We rode through old town all the way to the City of Arts and Sciences then rode back through Valencia's enormous park that runs through the entire city in the dried up river bed! (left: biking through the river bed park) It was such a beautiful day! Then we went to old town for Mascletá and finished the day with another paella before heading home!

I can't wait for my next Spanish cuidad visit this weekend:

Granada to visit mis primas!!

Paris: La Plus Belle Ville

Of course I am slacking on the posts again. I am just so busy I can't help it :)


So last weekend I was in Paris, the most beautiful city (title of this post in French), visiting one of my best friends, Jordan "gnome" Houston, from Pleasanton and San Diego State. Jordan is a crazy little thing so we were destined to have a great time. It was a big girls' weekend with 7 girls visiting: Me, Megan, and Britney from Madrid and Cassie, Bree, Brit, and Katie from Barcelona, everyone from SDSU except me.


(left: Eiffel Tower with Megan) After Meg and I figured out how to transport ourselves from the airport to the city center/Jordan's dorm, we went out for our first Parisian adventure. It was pure chaos with a group of this size so the night was kind of a failure. Megan and I were completely sober which just amplified the cold and our frustration, so we decided to call it a night early in order to have a productive day of sightseeing.


Friday I experienced my first French croissant for breakfast and then my first EVER crepe for lunch! It was delicious and cheap and it was so neat how they made them right in front of you at their little street vendor set ups. Everyone refused to wake up so Me, Megan and Britney went on our own to see the Eiffel Tower. "Wow" is all I could think when I saw it. It was huge and the color was much more brown than I expected. Once we took pictures, went for snacks and drinks and bought some postcards, the other girls finally met up with us for our second Eiffel Tower photo shoot. We then made our way to the Arc de Triomphe (pictured above: Me & Jordan) which was WAYYYY bigger than I expected. The sun was setting at this point so we went to the Basilica of Sacre-Coeur which was this beautiful white church on a hill overlooking the entire city of Paris. It was a gorgeous view and we had a great time enjoying the performers and entertainers. Once it was dark and absolutely freezing, we made our way down the hill and to the Moulin Rouge which was just as amazing as I imagined! It was in this crazy area of sex shops and strip clubs and there were so many normal people walking around haha! Apparently that kind of thing has no affect on the French people. We bought some paninis for dinner and went out to a cool Scottish bar (?) that night. On our way there, we walked across the Seine River and were able to the Eiffel Tower sparkling in the distance. Such a beautiful city!! (above: overlooking Paris from the Basilica)


Saturday was pretty much a repeat of Friday in the sense that nobody would get up in the morning besides me, Megan and Britney. We bought some more croissants for brunch and went to the Lourve which was fanstastic! Even better than fantastic if that's possible. The building itself is amazingly huge and old and beautiful. We got in for free as students (score!), so we decided to do the audio guided tour for 6 euro. It led us through a large portion of the museum and it focused on the three main masterpeices: the ancient Greek statues of Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory of Samothrace, and of course our Italian fave, Mona Lisa! Everything was so amazing, I could have stayed there all day. I appreciate art so much here, it really helps define culture and history.














Then we were off to visit the Notre Dame Cathedral, a huge Gothic stlye church which of course was beautiful like everything else in Paris. We also went to a cute cafe for lunch consisting of bread, salad and soup. French food is very good!! We then met up with the other girls for some shopping :) I bought one cheap shirt even though it was hard stopping there. We went for drinks and relaxed before heading home to make microwaveable dinners. For our last night, we ended up at this really fun bar/club and at around 3am me, Britney and Megan called it an "early" night because we had an early flight to catch. Its probably safe to say that we got 2 hours of sleep, definately woke up still tipsy and successfully made it back to Madrid in one piece!

(above: all of the girls at the Siene River with the Effel Tower in the background!!)

Paris is so amazing, I definately plan on making it back again one day. 2 days just isn't enough to truely enjoy it. And the French people aren't really that bad! Their language is too beautiful to not like them and for the most part they were all very friendly, even to the loud obnoxious Americans :)