Lisbon and Madrid

Senioritis I think has attacked again. It's creeping up into my schoolwork, presentations, tests, and apparently this blog. But before the parents start freaking out, we're okay. We're just lazy seniors who will graduate in t-minus two months. Eesh. But, my graduation invitations came in yesterday, so I'll send them out asap. The transit back to the United States could take well over two weeks, though, so expect them - just not anytime soon. In addition to that, the only other disadvantage to sending them from over here is the money it's going to take to send them over there. Here, a stamp is .78euro, so roughly $1.02 with the current exchange rate. But we knew studying abroad in our final semester wouldn't be complicationless so we're doing the best we can. Besides, I wouldn't trade this experience for anything, despite said complications. :)

Last weekend we went to Lisbon with Jason and Jenny and had a blast. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures because I thought I forgot my memory card in my computer. Well, I did forget but I also forgot that I had an extra card in my camera case. Beautiful weather, cute streets and the Portuguese all made the trip good, but what made it great was the hostel where we stayed. If you ever make your way down there, try to hit up Rossio Hostel. It's the best hostel we've been to, seriously. Every night we were there we all hung out in the living room, drinking Portuguese wine and playing cards, and met pretty much everyone else from all over the world. It was a great place to stay and I'd go back in a heartbeat if I'm ever in the area again.

That said, some parts of the trip weren't so great. I think we got ripped off by the Taxi driver the first night we were there (for some "baggage fee") but it's hard to counter when you don't know the language. Also, their cheap food tricked us a little. In contrast to the states (and the rest of Europe for that matter), they charge you for every single thing they put on the table that you eat. For example, if they put bread on the table and you eat it, you're charged extra. Not the same in Spain. They put all kinds of little finger foods on your table without asking you whether you want it and without saying it costs extra, and then charge you when you eat it. As such, we got charged 6euro for olives and other nonsense that we wouldn't have eaten otherwise if we had known. And we had lots of people trying to sell us drugs, but that's not such a big deal when you blow them off. But oh well, just something to watch out for I guess....

After Jason and Jenny left, we flew back to Madrid, where we had a 9 hour layover until we took the bus back to Bilbao. We took advantage of the time and explored Madrid for the better part of the day, and this is when I remembered the extra memory card, so we have pictures! Since we only had an afternoon, we really only visited the Palacio Real (royal palace), Puerta del Sol (a huge plaza in Spain) and Plaza Mayor. Here's a picture of the palace, but there are more pictures here. We didn't get around to the biggest thing we want to see (Museo Prado), but we're planning a spring break trip there during our two weeks off of school in April, so we'll catch it again.

So, we're back in Bilbao and absolutely loving the beautiful weather since it's stopped raining. After skies littered with clouds all through February (yes, pretty much every day) it's so nice to need to remember sunglasses in the mornings before school. Oh, the simple things. :)

Hope everyone's doing well! Y'all know we miss you.
-Bana

Salamanca, Spain

So this past weekend we took our first out-of-Bilbao trip to Salamanca, Spain - a small town a few hours southwest of here near the Portugal border. We took the Renfe train there, which was an interesting ride for our first time, even though it wasn't a high speed train (it took us five hours to get there). But, the ride was spacey yet cozy, and the scenery was unbelievably gorgeous on the way there as we rode past hours and hours of mountains and green Spanish countryside.

As for Salamanca - beautiful. The town itself is so clean, and in the old quarter at least, it was like walking through Spain centuries ago. Most of the area seems untouched by modernization, and walking through the old buildings made us wonder how they're so well preserved.

Even more, I think it's the first time we've experienced such a Spanish feel. Bilbao is beautiful, but it is a huge commerce town. Salamanca - not so much. Our first night there, we ate dinner at some really busy place in Plaza Mayor (one of the oldest plazas in Spain - that's what makes Salamanca so famous), drank wine with the locals at a bar not too far away from the plaza, and stood amazed at how beautiful the plaza looks at night with all the lights. Seriously, the plaza is absolutely beautiful during the day, but especially at night when every light is lit up and it seems the whole town is out for vino y tapas. We weren't the only ones taking pictures, which made me think that even in January this place draws tourists from all over the world. It makes me appreciate the fact that we could see it during a non-peak season, as opposed to sometime in summer when I'm sure it's packed with people on vacation.


Our little hotel straddled the old town and its outskirts, and it was maybe only a two-minute walk to Plaza Mayor. It was such a nice place, but extremely tiny. It seemed too nice for what we paid for it, but that may be just because it was in Salamanca. When we go to Paris in two weeks, we may not have such good luck. The only thing that was kind of irritating was the "double bed" which was really just two twins pushed together. But then again, maybe that's just a norm for Spanish or European hostels - I don't know. But despite that, it was a really nice and clean place with really nice staff.

The next day, we did some sightseeing around the old quarter, spending nearly half the day at the the two massive cathedrals - Catedral Vieja and Catedral Nueva - in the center of town. The cathedrals were indescribable. I don't think I've ever walked into anything so big. The gothic architecture was stunning, and it's hard to conceive how they could have constructed something with so much detail so long ago. There were lots of choir stalls and various religious statues inside, but it was the exterior architecture that really captivated me.


Salamanca is also a huge university town, with something like 1 in 3 residents of the town a student. The university, founded in 1218, has got to be one of the oldest universities still existing today. Also, the school is famous for its entrance facade, which Lonely Planet quite fittingly calls a "visual feast". In a massive and extremely detailed wall sculpture, there are all kinds of little figures chiseled into the facade - like skulls, angels, religious things and a bust of Fernando and Isabel - but there's also a tiny frog, which doesn't make any sense with the rest of the carvings. And there's just one. Apparently, they say that if you find the frog it'll bring you good luck, and students try to find the frog before a big exam so they'll do well. Cade and I tried and miserably failed, so we had to cheat and read where it was in our guidebook. A good thing, too - the frog is so eroded that it's hard to tell what it is anymore, but it's obviously still a frog. We zoomed in on said elusive frog and it's in the online album in the Salamanca folder.

To top everything off, as we were walking through the old quarter after sightseeing, there was some Spaniard who was just sitting on the side of the road playing soft Spanish music with his guitar. It was the most intense Spanish feel that I felt that weekend, and maybe since I've been here. I'd love to come back someday.

We took TONS of pictures, and they're all on our album.


We miss you all!!!

P.S. I just realized that since I still have my computer configured for Texas time, that it puts Texas time on all posts we make on Blogger. Therefore, it's not 5:45 here - it's almost 1 a.m., and I have class tomorrow morning at 9. Got to go!