It's Halloween!

So today is Halloween, and Madrid sucks for Halloween festivities. Only little kids dress up and there is no parade, no trick-or-treating, no candy.... They only have huesos de santo which are marzipan and a cream filling. They also make buñuelos rellenos which are fried dough with cream filling. The huesos de santo look disgusting but the others look pretty tasty. Who knows what Madrid's Halloween night has in store. I think we are going to go to the most haunted places in Madrid, like Plaza Mayor.

So I know I haven't updated in a while, so here is the lowdown of what has been going on.

The weekend after I went to Barcelona, I traveled to Vienna to see my parents. After being there a while, I was so grateful they allowed Laura to come with me. I would have been miserable. So the journey there started early (flight left at 8 a.m.) and when we arrived at the airport we were trying to figure out how to get to the city. Taxis = no, bus = perhaps, and train = perhaps. We asked one woman she said take the bus. When we went to the ticket office the guy at the counter tried to rip us off and say where the bus stopped was too far to walk from our hotel. Bull shit. He just wanted us to buy the train ticket. But to put it back in his face we bought the bus ticket. I think it was a lot easier taking the bus. It took at about 15 minutes. We got off and went into a cafe to get breakfast. After breakfast, I realized I lost my belt to my beautiful trench coat. That was a sign this trip was going to be horrible.
We quickly realized Vienna was FREEZING. I am talking like 4 degree Celsius. It also started raining. Luckily I brought an umbrella. We checked into our hotel, and took about a 4 hour nap. HAHA. We got up and walked around the city. It was cold, wet, and miserable. We eventually found this bar called Don's Bar. It was a Godfather's themed bar but they had hooka. Random? After about 20 minutes, we realized that this was an underage hang out.... We spent the entire time watching the free drama of 16 years olds. It was hysterical. We left around 10:30 and went back to the hotel room.
We got up early the next morning and tried to find a good place to have breakfast. We ended up at this really touristy market thing, but the waffles there were AMAZING. We then started walking to the Belvedere museum so we could see the Klemt exhibit. While there, I got a call from my parents. Apparently, their flight was delayed in Memphis and they missed their connecting flight in Amsterdam. This meant instead of getting into Vienna at 2 they would be there at 10..... If anything else could go wrong. We tried to keep occupied. After the Belvedere, we went to this really cool museum called Haus auf Musik. This museum was INCREDIBLE!! They spent a lot of money on it. I can’t describe it, but if you look at the website you will understand. After that, we went to the hotel to wait for my parents to call. Around 10 they phoned, and we journeyed to the hotel. Dinner was incredible. The best I have had since I left the states. We decided we would try to get my and Laura’s flight changed since I would only be seeing my parents for about 5 hours total.

We got up at seven the next morning to meet for breakfast. After breakfast we started calling the airline. No one answered for about an hour. So we couldn’t change it. We left at about 11. It sucked. I wanted to actually spend time with my family. When we got to the airport, the security check-in just put the icing on the cake. They threw away majority of the stuff my parents brought to me from the states AND the stuff I brought to Vienna. I apparently can bring in more that 100 mL of liquid to their country but I can’t take it out. Clearly the European Union really isn’t united. They seem to have different rules for each airport. I broke down and started crying in the terminal… UGH. So emotional!

The next weekend was pretty fun! We went out to Malasaña every night during the weekend! We met some Portuguese guys, a guy from California, and found a really cool Brazilian bar! They played Brazilian music, which was pretty cool.

Monday I started feeling sick. Like runny nose, cough. Just bleh. Well Thursday, I woke up with a terrible earache. I went to the doctor yesterday and he said I have a really bad infection. Pretty much my ear is so inflamed that I’m bleeding from my ear. It’s awesome…. I don’t think my body likes Madrid. The end. haha

PICTURES FROM BARCELONA!!

http://mersyearabroad.myphotoalbum.com/

BARCELONA!!!

Disclosure: Sorry this post is full of simple and run-on sentences and bad grammar. I am tired and wanted to make a post before I left for Vienna.

So this past weekend I went to Barcelona....

I missed that city so much. I think I will always like Barcelona better than Madrid.

The first day we took a 9 hour bus ride at 1 in the morning. It was terrible..... We got in at about 10 and walked to our hostel. We walked down this really cool street and found lots of little places to eat and shop. When we got to our hotel, the rooms weren't ready yet, so we put our stuff down and got breakfast. We came back around 12 and took showers. We took a little nappy and went around wondering. We walked up La Rambla and went to Barri Gotic. There we went to the Dali museum. This museum was actually a private collection of his pieces. I saw this museum when I came three years ago and wanted to see it again. That night we walked around and just took in the city. I feel the best way to see a city is at night. I think they just come alive and you see how beautiful it really is. While on our way home, we met Nicola and Lorenzo, two Italians. They were our best friends the whole weekend.
The next morning we got up early and walked around Montjuic. This is a really famous park near the coast. Daniel, a traveler from Brasil, came with us. We saw the Olympic stadium and this really neat place called Poble Espanyol. This is where two architects traveled around Spain and Portugal looking at architecture and created a little enclosed space that incorporated their favorite styles. It was really neat. Then we went back to the hostel. Laura took a nap and I started talking with this guy named Alex who was from Chile. I feel like the best way to meet people is in a hostel. There are people from all over the world here. That night we had dinner with Rhea, our suitemate from last year who was also in Barcelona for the weekend. It was SOOOOOOOO wonderful seeing her. We then met up with the friends she came with and walked around La Rambla. They left and we hung out with Lorenzo and Nicola. Pretty much we walked around La Rambla and Barri Gotic, found a couple of bars, but nothing special.
Saturday, we went on my Gaudi tour of the city. haha. Pretty much we walked the city and looked at Gaudi's architecture. He was such a character. We then went to Parc Guell. Guell was an apprentice of Gaudi. While we were climbing, we met this guy named Soren who was from Sweden. He was selling mojitos on the mountain. hahahah. We went to dinner with him and just talked. He had come to Barca for vacation and never left. That seemed to be the continual occurrence with the people we met. They came for vacation and decided never to leave. I wish I was an European Union citizen because I would do the exact same thing. After dinner, we went back to the hostel and got ready to go out. We met this girl named Marie Eve from Montreal and invited her to come with us. We were like Charlie's Angels. She was a red-head, me a brunet, and Laura the "blonde." hehe. So we met up with Nicola and Lorenzo and wandered around for a bit before deciding on going to club. Pretty much we got no sleep that night and had to leave Barcelona at 10:30.
Sunday we left and we both were very sad.... I grew to love Barca even more and Laura, experiencing it for the first time, came to love it. We think we might go back before we leave.... hehehe.

NEXT STOP: VIENNA TO SEE THE PARENTS!!!! YAYAYAYYAYAYAYAYYAYAY!!!!

Pictures!

So I uploaded the pictures!!! Go to:

http://mersyearabroad.myphotoalbum.com/

They are very, very pretty!!

Cuenca and Valencia

So this weekend was our first out of Madrid weekend. NYU Madrid did a sponsored trip to Grenada/Cordoba and a Valencia/Cuenca. We originally wanted to go to Grenada and Cordoba but we didn't get to the sign up in time. It was full when we got there. However, I am very glad we got to go to Valencia and Cuenca.

We started out at 8 in the morning on a bus. Buses are not comfortable, especially when you are trying to get your sleepy on. We arrived in Cuenca at about 11. Cuenca is mostly known for its being a heavily populated Muslim city in the past. There are some Moorish ruins there. Also, the first Gothic cathedral, Our Lady of Grace Cathedral, in Spain was built here. It's quite a cute town. My favorite part was the "labyrinth" that our wonderful tour guide Angél took us through. There are these little secret streets through Cuenca that he said are good during the evening times. haha. There was this one secret passage where there was a real life Romeo and Juliet story. There was this woman in one of these dark streets that always sat at a caged window. One day this guy comes by and starts talking to her. They fall in love by talking through her window. Well the guy has to go off to war, and when he comes back he sees her talking to another guy at the window. The men begin to duel and the Romeo character is killed. The girl feels so terrible she places herself in a convent. Romantic huh?

Now Valencia.

The hotel we stayed in was immaculate. We had a complimentary breakfast which was incredible. The location was perfect. The first night we went to an amazing restaurant called L´Hamadírada, which means hamadryad in English. Apparently these are Greek mythological creatures, nymphs, that live in trees. The food here was delicious. I had grilled squid. It was one of the best things I have ever eaten. My two friends shared a paella of black rice and baby squids. The reason it is black is the paella is cooked en tinto, which means it´s cooked in the squids ink. Sounds gross but it´s delicious!!!

The next day we had a walking tour of Valencia. We saw Roman ruins, an amazing cathedral, an old palace, the famous market there, and most importantly, the BEACH!! They fed us an amazing lunch at a restaurant on the beach, and after we had free time to lie out or go in the water. Although it is October, the water was still warm. I haven´t been to the beach in FOREVER. It was incredible. That night we went out for tapas and Agua de Valencia, which is cava, Spanish champagne, orange juice, Cointreau, an orange liqueur, and sugar (lots of it!). It was pretty taste. The reason there is so much orange stuff is Valencia is known for its oranges. I bought one at the Mercat we went to. It was the most tasty orange I ever had. After tapas, we met up with some more people and went to a free discoteca. haha We of course had to get our dance on. The played a remix with Martin Luther King, Jr.´s "I have a dream..." speech. I felt like it was disrespectful. Oh well. The Spanish are not known for being politically correct.

The next morning we went to the City of Arts and Sciences. This is a futuristic looking combination of buildings hosting the best Aquarium in Europe, an IMAX, Planetarium, Laserium, an interactive science museum, and an opera house. I was really wanting to go to the Aquarium, but we only had an hour to walk around everything, and the cost was 25 Euro. I didn't feel it was worth it to go in for an hour. I am sure I will return. Laura and I both loved it, so I am sure we are going to go back.

ALSO They speak a dialect of Catalan there, so it made me really excited to see Catalan everywhere.

When we came back I realized the sickness I was developing finally manifested itself, and I had to go to the doctor. Some type of infection, but know I have antibiotics and feel 80% better!!

This weekends agenda = BARCELONA!!!!!!!!! I AM SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO EXCITED!!!!!!!!

Pictures will be posted soon!! I promise!!

Wow.... I am really bad on the updates.

So. It is now October and I haven't updated in a long time. Sorry guys!!
Honestly nothing has really happened. I have just been experiencing the craziness that is Madrid.

Here are somethings that I have realized:
1. The majority of the women on the street are judging you for one reason or another.
2. The men are very nice. Mostly the old ones... womp. You know what that means. Here they are called viejo verdes, which is dirty old man in English.
3. The concept of being on time here is unheard of. They are late and everything just goes slower. Laura has been without her computer for almost a week. They promised she would have it back this past Tuesday. Oh well.
4. They love to stare. I mean even walking down the street people just stare at you especially the old ladies.
5. People are terrible drivers and pedestrians never have the right away. Even if you walk when it says to you can get run over. Scary.
6. No one knows where anything is. You ask them for directions and three people try to give it to you. This ends in confusion.
7. (AND MOST IMPORTANT) People here are rude. RUDE RUDE RUDE. I even had a Spaniard tell me Spaniards are not simpatico, or pleasant.

The past couple of weeks have been pretty hectic. Getting into a routine here is hard when you can't sleep. I think I have extreme anxiety as in my brain in the evening goes round in circles and keeps me awake. Meh. Hopefully the tiredness will ensue and sleep will come.

The most exciting things I have done lately are going out with my host brother and his friends and experience La noche en blanco. The white night was pretty fun. They close down the "Broadway" of Madrid for walking traffic and they have a huge dance-along in Plaza de Cibeles. The museums are open later than usual and are free. We went to the Archeology museum and saw lots of cool Spanish artifacts, like Visigoth crowns and ancient coins. We then walked around the city on Gran Via and just couldn't believe the amount of people that were there. In one of the Plaza's there was a huge dance-a-long going on. Quite strange. Europeans love to dance. The weekends mostly consist of going to the bar for tapas and drinks then to the discotecas.

I also saw Green Day here. I know...I know... obsessive but I had a perfect plan to get up on stage with them. I made a sign that looked like the Dookie cover and had the question "Can I sing Longview?" I remember in Nashville them letting people get up on stage to sing. Well little did I know that someone would rip the sign from my hands and throw it towards the back of the crowd. There was no way to get it back.... My purse also broke... womp womp. I realized if I had gotten the chance to go up on stage with them, the like stardom magic would be broken. haha. I took some really great videos and pictures though.

We went to Cuenca and Valencia this weekend.... That will be in a new post haha.