Family Visit: Part 1

12.22-23: Madrid

Oh, my jet-lagged family. Nothing like trying to find a coffee shop in the middle of the overpacked center of Madrid because people are so tired they can barely stand. After visiting the Cathedral and deciding the Palacio Real was too expensive for tours, my brother literally fell asleep at the table when we stopped for coffee near the Plaza Mayor. Jet lag? Jet lag. At least he didn't snore that time.

On Saturday, Jake was still in Madrid as well, so he and Cordis could at least keep each other entertained with football talk (of which I understand nothing, since I've been away from the sports news for so long!) and the new game they made up just for Spain–scarf spotting. Jake absolutely refuses to get a scarf… Cordis wanted to buy one while we were waiting in the train station when we left Madrid.

Trying Mom's scarf on...

Sunday was museum day. Lucky for us, museums are free on Sundays! We visited the Museo del Prado and the Reina Sofia for free. Win. Win win win. So I showed my parents La Guernica by Picasso, Las Meninas by Velazquez, Goya's dark period, the family portrait of Carlos IV's family where they painted in a faceless woman for Carlos V's wife (he hadn't married yet), religious paintings by El Greco, and we looked at a lot more art than I'd seen on our big group tours. Quite the day of paintings, but I guess four months in Europe makes you a lot better at surviving the art museums!

Prado Museum... may have gotten in trouble for this photo. Oops.

12.24-27 Salamanca

On the morning of Christmas Eve, we embarked on the train to Salamanca! Our hotel was right next to the Catedral Vieja, and the room Cordis and I were in had the best view of it. It made me so happy.

Merry Christmas!

On Christmas Eve, basically everything was closed, as could be expected in a largely-catholic country that takes a daily nap time break. It was like a ghost town. We managed to find a place that sold empanadas for lunch, and ate them in the Plaza Mayor.

I took Cordis scarf-shopping (since we didn't find one in the train station…) and we found a reasonably-priced one at H&M on Calle Toro. I'd like to just put this into the universe–I got my brother to go shopping at a store he'd normally avoid like the plague, a place that sells skinny colorful jeans for dudes. I feel that should be stated for the record. We did find a pretty spiffy scarf though, he looks very European (and enjoys saying so at every opportunity).

European Munchkin

Dinner was at a cafeteria I've walked past every day, so I finally got to see what the food was like! The Cafeteria Casino is delicious, just so you all know. We all got food we were quite pleased with, and since we eat really early by Spanish standards (we tend to be the first people in the restaurant after it opens…), we were able to get out of their hair before it was obnoxiously late for the employees to go home to their own Christmas festivities.

Christmas involved a lot of sitting around, walking around aimlessly, and sitting around some more. We bought snacks at the supermarket before, so we had a feast of pistachios, chocolate, and "gourmet" potato chips. And Fanta Limón, the drink I will miss so much when I go home! But more places were open for dinner at night (for the Spanish, Christmas Eve is very family-oriented, while on Christmas Day it seemed to be more acceptable to go out), so we found a place from Mom's guidebooks on Rúa Mayor, where we had fantastic food! I got some kind of mystery cut of pork, I still don't know what the menu item translates to, but it was delicious.

The next day we finally got to have our tourist day, soooo we did everything! We went to my favorite coffeeshop, the famous Mandala, for breakfast, where I discovered that my favorite coffee comes in a large size instead of the little baby one I usually order. Too bad I won't get to take advantage of that… but who needs that much caffeine anyway?

We explored the Cathedral and I showed my parents the human arm that's in one of the chapels along the sides. Main attraction. Still don't know why it's there.

After that, we went to the automotive museum, and I'm so sad Jake was too sick (and I was too busy) to make it to this, because he would've loved it. 100 cars, 60 motorcycles, and a whole lot of old stuff. The greatest delight for anyone who loves both history and cars. Like my dad!

Next, the Cathedral towers. Unfortunately, it was super foggy, meaning my family didn't get to see the amazing view from the top that I was hoping for. Plus they're restoring the bell tower, so there's scaffolding up all over the place. At least it's pretty enough that all this didn't totally ruin the experience! I love the top of these towers.

And then, they got to meet María! This was a little more difficult than when Jake met her, because my family speaks about 20 words of Spanish all together. But body language and gestures will get you halfway there! And I got to eat María's tortilla one last time (she makes the best tortilla!).

Both my mamas!!

And last but not least, we went to the building of the old Universidad. Sofia from ISA was a much better tour guide than I, but I remembered a fair amount of her stories from the tour I took before! Plus, my dad loves reading museum descriptions, even I learned some things.

Boyfriend Visit!!

Madrid

So a very tired Corinne picked up a very tired Jake at the airport on Saturday morning, and we managed to find our hotel in the city without too much trouble!
From there, we decided to explore the city, given that we had very little time in Madrid. We went to see the Puerta del Sol, Plaza Mayor, and the Cathedral of Madrid. Puerta del Sol and Plaza Mayor were insanely crowded, given that it was Saturday during the holiday shopping season. The Plaza Mayor also had a Christmas market set up, where they were selling everything from Nativity scene characters (they have really complex nativity scenes here…) to bubble guns. Because of this, it seemed like roughly half the population of Madrid was in this square. Extremely overwhelming.



To get away from the epic mass of people, we went to visit the Catedral de Madrid, and to see the Palacio Real. Unfortunately, the Palacio Real was closed for tours by the time we got there, but we did get to see the cathedral, one of my favorite parts of the city!



On our way back to the hotel after the cathedral, we spotted a Wyoming Cowboys sticker on one of the cars!!

That night was a bit of a trip. First, we both slept only two hours and felt like it was the whole night, and then I kept waking up every two hours… because I'd gotten food poisoning from either the terrible sandwich I ate earlier or the raspberries I'd bought afterwards to make up for the terrible sandwich. In any case, poor Jake's first night in Spain involved taking care of his sick girlfriend. Slightly unfortunate!

Toledo

Toledo unfortunately began with a missed train and a very grumpy Corinne. Not a good deal for Jake. Plus, I was still sick and Jake was jet-lagged. Not good conditions to travel in, not at all! I literally have no pictures of this day… Sorry team. I was pretty miserable. But we at least got to see some cool landmarks in Toledo, and had a pretty decent lunch in the city.

Salamanca

Sunday night we headed back to Salamanca, since I still had classes and finals during the week. I wasn't sure where to go for dinner after our bus finally got to town (I barely eat out because María cooks so well!), so we went to get kebabs at a restaurant called Isatis, where my friends and I go a lot when we're out in Salamanca. It's basically a gyro, for those of you who are wondering. But it's simple and only 4 euros, so we were happy.
It was also at this point that Jake started feeling sick… and we eventually decided (based on the ever-reliable internet) that he had strep throat. But because Jake's insurance doesn't carry internationally, we tried to get by on over-the-counter medicines for a few days. On Thursday we finally bit the bullet and went to the doctor's office, and she gave us an antibiotic for strep throat, after we'd navigated the maze of the Spanish medical system.
Before that though, he spent most of the days sleeping–which was a slight blessing for me because I still had finals to do (one of which was a surprise my professor dropped on me on Monday! SO much fun!). And I was a frazzled mess trying to get it all done, so at least Jake wasn't impatiently waiting for me to finish… Even if that did mean he was sick. Plus, he's now the only person from home who's seen where I have classes–that's cool, right?
We did make it to the big things in Salamanca though. The old university facade, the cathedrals (and towers), and the plaza of course. He also got to meet María, which was quite the experience! She's just so full of energy and he was still feeling sick… nothing like that mix of energy levels to make a visit interesting!

Segovia

OK, this is actually a good part of the trip, I promise! Jake was finally not sick, I was done with my finals and didn't have food poisoning, no one missed a train, and we got good food! There was a short chunk of time at the beginning where there was a chance of Jake getting sick on the bus… that's what I get for forgetting my boyfriend gets carsick. But we made it there without incident, and the hotel was right next to the bus station!
We made to all the big tourist spots in Segovia, those being the Alcazar, the aqueduct, and the plaza mayor. It's a small town. But I think this one was Jake's favorite.
The aqueduct was pretty simple–walk down the street and find the giant stone thing. Woo!





The Alcazar was really cool to see again. I didn't quite remember everything I'd learned on my tour (it was in October, after all) but I remembered just enough to make it a little more interesting! If y'all remember my previous post on Segovia, there's a painting in the palace of Isabella leaving the church after her coronation in Segovia, and in this mural no one actually has eyes, which makes it a little creepy. When Jake and I saw this painting, it was sunset and the castle was essentially empty, which made it a whole lot creepier. Two rooms later, in the king's bedroom, we saw a girl who looked just like Isabella from the painting, with similar hair and wardrobe. We're pretty sure we saw Isabella's ghost. (She did turn out to be a real person… but it was a freaky moment!)

In any case, the place was pretty great. We climbed the tower, which was a lot easier this time, I think because the weather wasn't swelteringly hot outside!
Plus, I got to have a little square of ponche segoviano in the Plaza Mayor again. I still don't know what's in this dessert, but I'm pretty sure it's magic. And possibly a whole pound of butter and sugar… But if you come back from study abroad rich and skinny, you did it wrong. So I'm going to eat my ponche!

Ponche Segoviano in a bakery

Plaza Mayor lights

For dinner, we found a pretty good traditional-Spanish place, and got a pretty great meal. The town was all decorated for Christmas too, it was so pretty!

Madrid (again)

Saturday morning we headed back to Madrid to meet up with my familia! Our day with them was kind of a repeat of Jake's first day in Madrid… but with better food at least! For dinner we went to a place recommended by the hotel where we had some super classy food that Jake and I never would've had if we'd been on our own. Yay for family vacations!

And on Sunday morning, Jake went off on the Metro to catch his flight, and I began my family vacation!

A Roma, Con Amor

Things that happen when I travel:

• My inability to sleep in a moving vehicle makes me really tired
• Being really tired makes me get lost much easier
• It rains

So after basically pulling an all-nighter in the chilly Madrid airport, then getting on my flight, then getting on a bus to the city center, I arrived in Rome. I eventually managed to find the meeting point my cousin Maggie had told me about, Castel Santangelo.

At this point, the weather was switching between pouring rain, and raining sideways. Thank you Rome. So Maggie called and gave me the combo to her school, so I could at least sit inside. At this point I happened to meet Spencer, Maggie's friend who was going to meet both Maggie and I (after Maggie had found me, theoretically) for pizza. But for some reason, Maggie had managed to get lost in Rome, so I just went to get pizza with Spencer, and Maggie met us there!

Also, this pizza was about the greatest thing I'd ever eaten. Partially because the Spanish do pizza wrong–it's like a loaf of bread with some sauce and some cheese and it just tastes strange. The Italians do pizza right. And I was starving. And it had spicy sausage, and good cheese aaaaand it was just the best.

Anyway, Maggie had class, so I went to find the hostel–and got lost in the pouring rain again. Oops. But I got some decent photos of the "wedding cake" as it's called–the giant monstrosity of the Piazza Venezia which is apparently not built on solid ground and has structural problems all the time. Apparently all the Italians hate it.

After a lot of series of unfortunate events, I finally found the hostel, and took a nap until Maggie was done with class. And then we went sightseeing! Unfortunately, it gets dark super early in Rome–something to do with which edge of the time zone they're on–so all my photos are nighttime ones. They're still pretty though!

So we made it to the Coliseum, walked past the Wedding Cake again, and ended up by Maggie's favorite church.

In Spain, churches are pretty, but they have nothing on Italian churches. There is so much color in there. Spanish churches, from what I've seen, have mostly sculpture, and it's usually in either gold or whatever stone the church is made of. This church was just covered with giant paintings, made by a much more skilled artist than I've ever seen in Salamanca, that's for sure.

We also decided to get gelato–which was absolutely delicious, especially when covered with a shell of chocolate. Can't go wrong there!

Right by Maggie's favorite gelato place is the Piazza Navona, which has a fountain from one of my favorite books, Angels & Demons. It was designed by Bernini, as is every landmark in the book, and is called Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of the Four Rivers). Basically, it's the fountain where the main character is almost drowned at the end of the book.

Next, we made it to the Pantheon–the architectural wonder which they apparently couldn't reproduce for hundreds of years because the art of making a dome with a perfectly circular opening was lost for a while. Those genius Romans…

And obviously, we had to make it to the Trevi Fountain–I threw in a penny for me, a euro María had given me, and a nickel María had found for Megan. I feel like that's asking a lot from the fountain though–we'll see how it works out!

We went to dinner that night at a little hole in the wall restaurant with a student menu. We got bruschetta, and then pasta with red sauce–so good! And strudel for dessert. I think it's a good thing I didn't end up going to Italy for study abroad–I would just eat all day long if I was around this all the time!

The next day, we started by exploring and ran across St. John's Cathedral.

Marked with an obelisk (apparently they had a bunch of these just laying around) so you can find the church easier!

We ate some pizza for a very early lunch (it was about 11 AM but we hadn't eaten breakfast, so why not eat pizza?), then set off for the other side of town–which included the Coliseum by day, a very pretty park, and then running into the shopping district. And a Mercedes christmas tree.

At this point, we went on what I am now going to call the Great Belt Hunt of Rome, because it took us roughly a thousand years to find me a replacement belt (I'd left my usual one in Spain, and my pants wouldn't stay up) at a decent price! Luckily, we had success, and could finally go get some dinner. Spencer & Maggie took me to anaperativo, the Italian version of tapas. This one was buffet-style, so they just keep bringing out new plates when one of them is empty, and you can just keep going back for more, even when you only buy one drink. They served a lot of pasta (shocker), except it was cold, which was kind of strange. But it all made for a pretty decent meal!

Saturday was our Vatican day. It began with more rain. And it was not raining when we left the hotel, so I didn't bring my umbrella. Poor life choice.

In any case, we finally made it to the Vatican, soaking wet, but at least there wasn't a line!

We looked at a lot of art (Maggie and I told a lot of jokes about how our parents aren't huge fans of art museums…), but it was really really good art. We saw a sculpture made by the same guy who did the Chicago bean–obviously a photo-worthy occasion.

Rafael's last work

My favorite part was the rooms Rafael painted, because there's a lot of stories behind all the paintings. And luckily, I had free tour guides who knew all these stories! Unfortunately, the photo I took of my favorite painting, School of Athens, turned out like this:

Which is pretty unfortunate. But at least it'll remind me that it was my favorite? 

Also, I broke the Sistine Chapel photo rule… But how could you not when it looks like this?

Sadly, St. Peter's was closed for the night, so we weren't able to tour all of the Vatican. Instead, we went to the grocery store for ingredients, and made spaghetti carbonara for dinner! Which I have no photos of. But it was delicious, I promise! I tried to be helpful, but I pretty much was just in charge of cracking eggs. In any case, we had a really great dinner for about 10 euro all together. Win.

Saturday night was also a night when the museums around Rome were open for free, and included free concerts. Maggie's program was taking them around to the museums, so I tagged along and got to meet all the other cool IES kids. Who were so impressed that Maggie showed me around Rome without getting lost, I'm thinking the fact that Maggie was lost when I showed up in Rome really wasn't that odd of an event. (She was still an awesome free tour guide though!!)

I got yelled at for leaning against an ancient monument while listening to the first concert… in my defense it was made of stone! We also went into Castel Santangelo and got to see the view of Rome from above, and I miraculously got a pretty great photo of St. Peter's from the top. Even in the rain!

Sunday, Maggie and I finally made it to St. Peter's. It is a very large place. It's hard to tell, because the scale is justso massive, but walking from the front door to the altar takes a lot longer than your average cathedral. Like, twice as long in some cases.

And the altar is six stories tall. SIX.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get very close to the actual Bernini altar at the front of the church, because they had it roped off for mass, but it looked super amazing.

We also managed to hit all vertical levels of the church, after accidentally stumbling across the crypt (there was an open door, of course we went to see what was in there!), and then deciding to climb the 551 stairs to the top of the cupola.

So after St. Peter's taught me how out of shape I am, we went back to Maggie's home stay to pick up my stuff, and went to look at even more churches. Mostly, we wanted to go see another Bernini sculpture from Angels & Demons, The Ecstasy of St. Teresa in Santa Maria Vittoria.

After we found the church and ooh'd and ahh'd, I finally headed back to the bus station. Minor loss of the day: standing in that bus line for an epic amount of time because they only had one person working the desk. Minor win: finding stick deodorant in the supermarket when I went to get a sandwich after buying my ticket. I still haven't stick deodorant in Spain, so I'm a little overexcited about this. I still maintain the stuff they sell in Spain doesn't work.

Anyway, one flight, a few new friends, a hotel in the middle of nowhere, a train, two metro rides, and a bus ride later, I am finally back in Salamanca, where it isfreezing but at least it's not raining!

So happy I made it to Roma though, it's totally worth being able to see a Shelton and catch up about our crazy family!! (We love you all!) Plus, the food was just beyond fantastic...