And more

I just left Sevilla, one of the most romantic cities in the planet, so they say. And I loved Sevilla. We didn´t start off on very good terms, because when I arrived, Sevilla said to me, "Hello, I am Sevilla, and this is what I am all about!" and...yeah, what that means is that I got lost immediately. Sevilla, as I learned from the walking tour, was originally an old Jewish and moorish town, and to add protection for their Catholic-dominated city, they constructed labyrinthine streets all over the place. Some streets will be relatively straight, but from one end to the other, you will come across five different names for the street. By the end of my stay I thought it was funny, and a humorous challenge to get from point A to point B (C,D,E...), but when you get out of the bus station looking for your hostel and get lost within five minutes...not the best first impression.

But I loved Sevilla! The city is beautiful. There are lots of hidden plazas with orange trees and cobblestones, and fountains everywhere. The gardens, which were created for kings and queens, are also extremely well-kept, green, and refreshing. My favorite part of Sevilla undoubtedly was the Plaza de España. It is a giant, semi-circular structure adorned with mosaics of all the different provinces of Spain. There is a false river running through it, which brings added romantic air :). Also...little tasty tidbit for you: bring to your mind "Star Wars Attack of the Clones". I know, it was probably the worst of the series, but I remember the battle scene was really good. It was filmed in the Plaza de España! I have to admit I was sitting in this beautiful Spanish monument taking in the breathtaking architecture of this place...and I couldn´t stop thinking about "Star Wars." I got to visit a galaxy far far away!

I´m trying to decide which I liked better, Sevilla or Barcelona. It´s an easy comparison, two Spanish cities. But I realize that part of what made my stay in Sevilla so great was the fact that I met a lot of people in my hostel. I hadn´t met anyone in northern Spain because there aren´t any tourists in northern Spain, plus I had some unfortunate accommodation (in Burgos I was in a hotel, which for a backpacker, just felt plain wrong; and the hostel in Madrid was owned by a creepy old guy who would watch me walk to the bathroom, and there were drunk Europeans next door to me). In Sevilla I was greeted by a warm lobby with other English speakers and accidentally went on a tapas tour for free. As for Barcelona, for one thing, it was my first big European city, and for another thing, I was happy to see it again. It´s just something to consider when picking favorite cities. I really did love Sevilla because it was so beautiful, though.

This whole trip has gone really fast, so fast that I still can´t believe I´m actually in Spain doing this. I´m sure I will be quite satisfied upon my return, I´m not even worried about it. Part of me is tired out and looks forward to setting my clothes and drawing stuff in one place instead of a backpack, and the other part of me just wants to keep going forever.

How it´s going so far

Finally I can let you know how things are going! I haven´t had internet access for a while.

So I started for two days in the Barcelona area, which was so much fun and felt so good to be seeing the place I loved so much again. The people I stayed with were more than helpful when I booked all of my train and bus tickets and hostels. Although that was stressful, it has been nice getting to the stations and hostels and having my spot already there for me.

Picture me doing a large counter-clockwise circle around Spain.

From Barcelona I went to Zaragoza for the day. I had originally just planned it to be a pit stop before Burgos, but I wound up really liking it. I went for a run along the river, even though what I really wanted to do was bike, because everyone was biking and it looked like fun! The grand Basilica was very close to my hostel (which I had minor annoying difficulty finding), and when I saw it I said, "There´s no way the entry is free," and the entry was free! It might have been my favorite of the inside of churches that I´ve been exposed to because it was so huge. I wonder if religious people back in the days it was built just saw the world this way or something.

I was a little sad to have less time in Zaragoza, but I was excited to see Burgos because I´d seen pictures of THAT cathedral. However, when I was walking around Burgos, I just felt kind of...I don´t know. Off. It was there that I had a why-in-the-name-of-the-lord-am-I-here? days. I wandered down the streets for a while, because the churches of Burgos are more spread out than just the confinements of the city center, and then climbed up to a castle in a park for a view of my surroundings. Oh, that´s why I feel so far away...don´t old fairy tales and fables of castles and knights and magical happenings come from places like the UK? Where it´s always overcast and the hills are so green? That´s what the day looked like here in Burgos, and I´ve noticed even in Greece that whenever it´s overcast I feel even more like I´m in Europe and thus REALLY FAR AWAY from anything I´ve ever known.

I also got to witness a Catholic service in Burgos inside the cathedral. So I got to knock that off my list, even though it was in Spanish so it was hard to understand at times. I loved the way the church bells chimed the hour in Burgos, it was sweet and reminded me of singing. Fairy tale, I know.

Moving on. Madrid! I´m sorry to say that my arrival in Madrid sucked. I got in close to 11:00 PM and got lost on the metro, and when I came outside it was pouring rain. It took me a while to find the hostel and when I did I was greeted by a creepy old man and a tiny, smelly hallway. I couldn´t believe I had payed that much for that, no internet, and no breakfast. But the next morning I figured out what to do in Madrid and things looked up. I found the Plaza Mayor and got adopted into a free tour where I got to not only walk around Madrid but hang out with other Americans and speak English for the first time since Monday! Not only that, but...(anecdote):

A girl in the tour group ran up to me and said, "Do I know you? I think I know you. Do you know Emily Baker?"

One of my best friends growing up? I tried to remember Emily´s cross country friends or San Francisco friends from birthday parties, I still didn´t reconize this girl, though.

But she seemed pretty convinced. I asked, "Emily Baker from California, right?" thinking it was a common name. Yes, she seemed to know me. And then a millisecond before she told me her name, I recognized her. I was so weird. I´ve only met her, like, three times, years ago, I can´t believe she recognized me because if she hadn´t said anything I would have spent the whole tour with her and never recognized her in a million years. Makes you wonder how many people in all corners of the world know who you are, doesn´t it?

I really enjoyed my time in Madrid, even though it was so huge that I definitely didn´t see everything. However, I visited two museums, a flea market, and a giant park, and those activities were sources of some well-needed relaxation. Carrying around that backpack and hopping on and off public transit...tiring!

Now I´m in Sevilla. I know there is a whole lot to see here, too, but I don´t have plans yet. I will definitely elaborate on these posts, too, when I´m not being waited on by others needing internet!

Arrival in Spain

We´ll take a break from "Ya sahs" and instead say "Hola" for two weeks! After some crazy stuff, I arrived in Spain!

At first everything was just crashing around this trip: my bank deactivated my credit card so I couldn´t buy train or bus tickets, which meant I couldn´t book hostels, my chauffeur to the airport at 4:30 AM cancelled, and the Internet went down in my apartment. I kept waiting for my flight to get cancelled in order to go out with a bang.

But it didn´t, and I got my card reactivated (I TOLD them I was here, they weren´t supposed to do that) and all my tickets and hostels, and then I spent the night in the airport. I learned two things about spending nights in airports: number one, wear a thick scarf. Because if you have to sleep on the floor, you can at least fold it underneath your hipbone and hope for the best. Number two, wear a heavy coat. I sort of knew that airports were freezing, but I took it for granted until I slept on the floor of one.

I slept on the plane though. Unbelievable. I remember I saw the drink cart coming around and thought, "excellent, I´m thirsty," and the next thing I knew we were descending and I was still thirsty.

I was a little sad to leave Greece, even though it was driving me insane. I really do love it there, even if it drives me crazy. Funny how that works out, I know. I feel like this is going to be a short break and that when I return I can have a whole new outlook on it, like, now I´m prepared and now I can really live it up now that I (think I) understand it. In Barcelona, I had a few instances where I was confusing Spanish and Greek. I call that speaking "Spreek," trying to ask for stuff in Greek by accident.

So, Spain! Is still amazing. Everyone was really friendly, and I was so happy to be speaking a language I could get by with that I surprised myself with how well I spoke Spanish! It was really surreal to be walking around Barcelona again, especially since the last time it was overcast, and this time the weather was really nice. The sun stays out until 9 PM here. I saw the Placa again, las Ramblas, LA SAGRADA FAMILIA again...when the Sagrada Familia is completed I´m going to return to Barcelona to be there at the grand opening. It really changed my life last summer, made me look around more and appreciate how everyday things still make room for amazement. It will be one of the seven wonders of the modern world. I could barely bring myself to leave. But I realized, it´s okay to leave places, because you can come back to them. I´m not one of those people who lives like they will die tomorrow. I understand the notion, but I´m not dying tomorrow, so I don´t need to rush anything.

I also saw Parc Guell and the Gothic Cathedral for the first time. I read a blog once from a girl who backpacked around Europe, and she said something like, "We came across a beautiful cathedral that at first we thought was the Sagrada Familia," and I had thought, "Really??? How do you POSSIBLY confuse another cathedral with the Sagrada Familia?" But yeah...okay. It´s also a very very pretty church.

Overall, I believe that any city with personality has something to offer, and what Barcelona has to offer is imagination. It is not a city where you can get away with skipping things. When you walk down streets or catch the bus, you need to look at the buildings around you. Many of them are more than gorgeous, some are funky and some are elegant and some are just plain wild.

I stayed with Robert´s grandparents, which was also trippy...never thought I would be back there again. But, after sleeping on the floor of a freezing airport, I was just happy to have a bed in a safe place. I´ll be back there at the end of my trip, too, so I can go to the beach.

So begins my Spanish adventure. I am in Zaragoza now and I had a really good day in it. I will write about that tomorrow. I will post all of my Spain photos upon my return.

By the way. I GOT MY DRESS.

I keep changing my mind about which place in Greece is the prettiest. That's how you know you're in a pretty place.

There's a website called couchsurfing.org for backpackers who don't want the expense or solitude of staying in hostels. People create profiles and allow travelers to stay with them in their homes, typically on their couch, free of charge and otherwise just accommodate them for a few days. I made a profile hoping to get some help in Spain, not just to save money but to make friends. If that sounds too sketchy for you guys, don't worry, NOBODY has responded to my couch requests. Easter, you know? But I met someone else in Athens, at least, who I decided to meet up with and go for a walk with.

 A walk up a really tall hill above Athens called Lykavitos. It was sunny, by the way, the picture is misleading. It's too bad the Acropolis isn't one of the Seven Wonders of the World. My classmates and I were talking about that over possibly the best pasta I've ever had, and we concluded it's because it's just not big enough. But really, when you go to Monastiraki and you see the Acropolis standing above the city...it's pretty incredible.

Man, I have learned so many lessons on life from living in Greece. From my trips to Corinth and Thessaloniki I was very reassured that if you're feeling uncomfortable, people WILL help you. Growing up in suburbia and going to school in a place only slightly bigger, I've just always retained that faith in humanity. It makes me want to go out and work so that I can actually afford to help people--offer them food, drive them somewhere. I suppose the least I can do is cheer them up with my experiences in crazy Greece.

I leave for Spain on Sunday. Planning that has been painful. To say the very least! I am a spontaneous adventurer, but that is not working out for this study abroad experience. I will never put travel-planning off again after this. But I'm really really excited to go. I get two weeks, and all of the study abroad students here are going off somewhere, whether it be another country, a Greece trip, or a Eurotrip. For me, my decision is the perfect one. I've never been outside the States for this long, guys, I'm tired. I need a break from the language I can't keep up with, and everything being late, and the public transportation situation. Not that romping around the entirety of Spain by myself is going to make me less tired, but I feel that it is a well-needed break from the culture shock that Greece has so graciously provided. At least Greece gave me Greek time. I have been perfectly comfortable saying, "I'm too tired to handle this right now," and doing it later. Try it, it works.

I have also learned that it's okay to be American. Following the credo of Montesquieu, "There is more than one way to be civilized." The very least I did was get out there. I'm traveling in order to be entertained, but I feel like I'm very slowly lightening up as a person, too. I'm not forcing things on myself, I'm slowing down and observing things openly and uncritically. I have absolutely nothing against eating fast food anymore (big step up. Maybe alcohol's next, haha). And I'm not criticizing myself for being American like I was when I first heard myself speak Greek. America's inability to learn another language is, in fact, cultural, in some twisted sense. That's another thing I've learned, is that things don't have to make sense or come to some sort of conclusion. Sometimes I've wondered if by coming here, I would just figure everything in life out and come back knowing exactly what to do with myself. And what I've found is that yes, I have identified the things that make me comfortable...unchanging bus schedules is one of them. But to also just take time to let things happen and not hurt myself figuring out why...that makes me feel better about my life.

Beauty of traveling.

By the way, I WILL be updating this in Spain, for the sake both of keeping a travelogue and for letting you know I'm safe. I am extremely excited about this, even though planning it has proven difficult. That's another thing I've learned: travel plans AAAALWAAAYS go wrong. But I'm still excited and feel that this will be an enriching part of my study abroad experience and my life as a whole.

I have traveled to the center of the world

This is a picture of the center of the world:

 Zeus released two eagles, and they met here, in the mountaintops of Delphi. Now I think that our excursion yesterday was to the prettiest places I've seen here. It was really nice to get out of the city life and see that part of another country that one tends to neglect when touring: the outdoors. And where better a location for the center of the world?

I wish we could have stuck around longer. I would have greatly preferred a camping trip, actually. My dad tells me that the oracle at Delphi was discovered when a farmer herding his goats saw one goat fall into a hole in the ground. The oracle became a known destination for truth-seekers to go after the news that the goat had made some strange noises in the hole. The farmer must have thought that Apollo was speaking through the goat. The goat was replaced with a human named Pythia, whom travelers from all over Greece came to see. Archaeologists in later times discovered that it was psychedelic gas being emitted from the ground. Still, though, according to Greek mythology, Pythia predicted many many things that would happen and did happen. If I could go on a camping trip here I would wait for some prophetic gases to blow my way in the wind and then ask how to cure insomnia.

After the archaeological tour, we drove to the nearby ski resort town of Arachova. What is it about ski resort towns that are so cute? That they're small, to the point, have great views, and have the nicest people?

A lesson I have been taught by now is not to set my expectations TOO high. Just like the last excursion to Nafplio, there was some rushing. So even though out of the three excursions that study abroad has planned for us, Delphi had excited me the most, I remembered that it wasn't going to be my perfect experience. Even the four-course meal at the end wasn't perfect, for some reason I was not as full as I was in Nafplio. But it's okay. It's all okay. Perfection is not what I was looking for. I'm totally fine with it. Maybe that's why I'm so bad at planning things, because I expect the place to show me a good time, not my plans.

Aesthetic Life

I wish I brought my camera on my outing today. Sorry! I'll have to go back. I can say that the prettiest place I've seen in Athens was today, at the ancient agora. An agora is a marketplace, and when one of the other study abroad students heard we were going to the agora, she was disappointed to find that we didn't mean jewelry shops.

I'm trying to imagine how life could have flourished inside stone outlines now overgrown by grass and wildflowers. When in Thessaloniki checking out the stray cats at the Palace of Galerius, there were signs explaining how some areas were used as churches or baths or libraries, what have you...how do they KNOW that, I wonder. Same with here. That was a gymnasium? Oh...

Nevertheless, my exploration of the ruins were really calming and I think it might be my favorite location in Athens as of yet. Just knowing that Socrates used to roam around in there speaking to people made my day. Also seeing the ancient city right next to the modern busy cafe life of Monastiraki was fun, too. It's really pretty cool to wander around piles of pillars and stones with some designs or symbols, because there are just so many of them! In Egypt, for example, you can see the majesty of the Pyramids, but here in Greece, not only can you see the majesty of the Acropolis, but also the scattered remains of other places that seem to prove further the existence of ancient intelligent people. Plus, there's also more than one majestic monument other than the Acropolis of Athens.

That was today. On Saturday I stayed in. On Friday I finally did what I never do: walked around at night. Thanks to Ryan, I met some Chi Alpha in Athens! We met a few weeks ago at their new apartment downtown, and on Friday we went to the mall to see a movie. That wasn't cheap, by the way. After it was done, it was about 9:30, and we strolled down Syntagma and through the now empty Monastiraki and up Thissio. Everything was lit up even though the stores were closed, and the street vendors were trying to sell light-up toys, and people still ambled good-naturedly down the streets. It gave me another one of those "I'm actually in Europe" feelings. Must have been the lights and the cobblestone streets and swanky cafes and the fact that every single girl here is a fashion model. I felt out of place by not wearing a long wool coat and high heel boots.

Europe is the life. As much as I hate night life, I appreciated that the Europeans make such elegant use out of it. It's really only the Americans like us who hit up their nightclubs.

Sorry I don't write a whole lot anymore. I could, throughout the week, but unless you are interested in hearing complaints about unorganized school policies, Greek public transportation, or the employees at the supermarket yelling at me...in my opinion there are better things to promote about Greece :)