Semana Santa Travels 2010

Hola all!

So, I've reaaaaaallly been procrastinating on writing this post just because I knew that this post would be quite long. However, I've decided to give the Reader's Digest version and if you want more details, we can go get coffee and chat or something (assuming that I know you and you're not a creepy stalker). ;) Haha.

Basel, Switzerland
Saturday, 3 April - Tuesday, 6 April

My trip to Switzerland was actually quite long and tiring. I took the 4 AM bus from Valladolid to the Madrid Airport, that takes about two and a half hours without traffic (and we obviously had absolutely no traffic that morning, haha). For some reason, I wasn't able to sleep on the bus, nor in the airport, and therefore was quite tired by the time I arrived in Basel just after noon. My friend, Mike, and his wife, Isaline, picked me up from the airport at took me to their adorable flat that totally reminded me of a chalet in the mountains. I met Mike four years ago when the two of us were counselors at the summer camp, Redwood Camp, in 2006. Last year, in May, I had the amazing honor of being invited to Mike and Isaline's wedding in Switzerland and had a blast (see my post about the wedding). Anyways, this trip was basically to visit them, get to know Isaline better (I briefly talked with her for the first time at their wedding for maybe 2 minutes), and to discover a different part of Switzerland (Last year, I visited Geneva, Lausanne, Montreux, Gruyere, Croy, and Romainmôtier-Envy).

It was such a wonderful weekend. I was truly able to relax, have amazing conversations and fellowship, and celebrate Easter with some wonderful people. I actually didn't end up spending Easter with Mike and Isaline because I preferred to attend an English-speaking church (they go to a German-speaking church), so I met up with one of Mike's friends, Raphael, and went to his church. I had actually met Raphael and hung out with him for most of Mike and Isaline's wedding the year before because both him and I were flying solo at the wedding and didn't know anyone else there. After the sermon, I was invited to eat Easter lunch at Raphael's family's house with about 9 other foreigners. We had spicy lamb, which was amazing and redeemed lamb for me (I didn't like it before). We all ended up staying at the house, talking and joking around until quite late. I couldn't have imagined a better way to spend Easter in Switzerland. :) After Easter, I was able to go on a nice bikeride along a river to the point where Germany, France, and Switzerland meet, and also visit the ruins of an old castle, and eat some fantastic traditional Swiss food. I am so grateful for my friends in Switzerland.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Tuesday, 6 April - Friday, 9 April

Tuesday afternoon, after a wonderful hike through the gorgeous Swiss countryside with Mike and Isaline (I swear, I'm in love with Switzerland), Isaline drove me to the airport, and I was off to Amsterdam. My time in Amsterdam started out on a fantastic note: some native Amsterdammers (haha, okay, Dutch) helped me find the train station and even paid for my ticket into the city when I had problems with the machine! I was blown away! I was cracking up on the train when I saw a girl take off her shoes, step into her rollerblades and roll down the aisle as the train began to slow down (she started going quite fast!), and then she climbed up the stairs in her rollerblades and sped off. That was my first introduction to the city of pedestrians on wheels... everyone who is anyone in Amsterdam either bikes or rollerblades. It's crazy! And they act as if they have the right of way. If you hear a bike bell, you sure as hell better jump out of the way or else a collision will ensue. Between that and the crazy trams that zip up and down the streets, your chance of getting out of Amsterdam alive greatly decrease.

Anyways, I also had a fantastic time in Amsterdam. It was a completely different experience because I was there all by myself, staying in a hostel, and in the middle of the Red Light District (aka. prostitutes in the windows along the streets). I found myself talking to everyone and anyone and making quite a few friends, the first being a gal from South Africa, named Lauren. She gave me my first experience in Amsterdam... a tour of the freaking crazy Red Light District at night. Honestly, after having heard so much about the RLD, I was quite prepared for nearly anything, and truly thought that I would see naked women in the windows. It was a bit less extreme (at first glance) than I had been expecting. My constant feelings throughout my wanderings there were a mix of shock, disgust, and sadness for the "sex workers" (the P.C. term the Dutch use for prostitute). There were windows with women (and cross-dressing men) in them, selling themselves, and widows that advertised "live sex shows", sex stores with disgusting gadgets and torture devices for people who are into S&M (and it was shocking and horrendous!), windows full of dildoes (don´t know how to spell that one, haha), and one that had a strap on dildoe for lesbian women, and just disgusting souvenirs in the stores... wind-up plastic people doing favors for each other, penises of all sorts, decks of cards with porn on them, oy, it was a bit too much for me.

That´s the Red Light District. However, if you go out of that area, the city seems somewhat normal, except for the "Coffe Shops" where you go to smoke or eat weed. FYI, my tour guide told me that eating weed (special brownies) has a much stronger effect than smoking it. Don´t worry, I didn´t indulge in any of the things going on in Amsterdam... well, except the museums, haha. I went to the Van Gogh Museum, which I loved (and I´m normally not an art museum type), and the Anne Frank House, which was definitely worth it. I met some great people at the breakfast table and through Lauren (A gal from Croatia, and another from New York, and some dudes from Germany and the States). We all hung out and gasped at everything that we saw. It was a ton of fun sharing that adventure with them. The gal from Croatia, Marina, was such a sweetheart. She made my experience at the Van Gogh Museum so much better because as we walked from painting to painting, she told me the sad story of his life and of the differences between the paintings (I prefer his paintings from him time in France). Here are a couple paintings that I really enjoyed: Landscape at Twilight, Olive Grove, Boulevard de Cliche, Almond Blossom, and Seascape Near Les Saintes - Maries de la Mar, among many others. I guess I just really appreciate the crazy lines, dots, and curves that Van Gogh used to create his amazingly unique (at least at the time) masterpieces. It's just too bad that he died before receiving any recognition for the genius of his work.

The Anne Frank House was amazing too. It was much bigger than I expected, and, unfortunately, the entire outside of the house was completely redone so that it looks completely modern. You would never guess that it was the Anne Frank House by just looking at the architecture. It was a very touching exhibit and I am so glad that I went.

So, after a few awesome days strolling the streets of Amsterdam and dodging the bikers, I was off to Brussels to meet with a friend who I hadn't seen since 2002. Crazy.

Brussels & Bruge, Belgium
Friday, 9 April - 12 April.

I arrived in Brussels mid-afternoon and was picked up at the bus station by my friend, François, and his Uruguayan girlfriend, Beatriz. I know Francois from high school when he was a foreign exchange student for a year at my high school. He was good friends with Eric Kim and Jimmy, so, naturally, I got to know him as well. Francois is a born and raised Brusseleer (not kidding, that's what people from there are called in English), and he met Beatriz in Uruguay when he went there to film a documentary. I stayed with the two of them, just outside of the center and had such a fun time with them. Like Isaline and Mike, they made me feel so welcome and right at home, and cooked some great meals as well. I had a great few days in Belgium. I was able to meet up with my friend, Marleen, who is a Dutch gal who I met in Barcelona last year when we were both au pairs. One of my days in Belgium, I went on a day trip to Bruge, which is a beautiful Medieval city that, unfortunately, has become overrun by tourists and cheesy and ridiculous tourist attractions. I have fallen in love with Belgian chocolate and beer. When I get back to Seattle, I'm definitely going to find a pub that carries Duvel beer, because that is now my favorite.

Done. Yes, I said that I would give you the Reader's Digest Version (and, trust me, that was it)... and I'm surprised that it is this long. In summary, I had a fantastic vacation. Even though I moved around quite a bit within those 10 days, I had plenty of rest and fun time that I never felt tired. I met a ton of awesome people from all over while sitting on public transportation: Two Mexican dudes, a guy from Sardinia (Italy), two hairdressers in Brussels (from Italy and Cuba), all of Raphael's friends at the church (mostly from the US), and all of the awesome people that I met at the hostel in Amsterdam. I absolutely love traveling, but mostly for the encounters and friendships formed with random people that I meet. There's nothing like meeting someone from another country and sharing stories with them... and for me, since I've begun speaking Spanish, it has been even more rewarding and fun being able to relate with other people in Spanish. Knowing another language opens so many doors and is so incredibly rewarding. I just hope to really keep it up after going home.

Speaking of going home. I'll be back in under 8 weeks. June 22nd! Mark your calendars! :)

This is good for now. I have had quite a few other things happen since Semana Santa, but those can wait for later... Semana Santa in Valladolid, Fiesta de Pan y Queso, Las Ferias in Sevilla, and my upcoming trip to London on May 8th.

Hasta muy pronto!

Take care,
Linnell

France, Italy, and San Jordi

Hola familia y amigos!

Hace muuuucho tiempo! I have quite a bit to catch everyone up on, so I’ll try to slim it down and give you the Reader’s Digest version. First off, I am very happy and proud to announce that just before leaving on vacation, I finished learning the Spanish conjugations! Haha, it definitely feels like quite the accomplishment because learning conjugations seemed never-ending. Now, I just need to practice the frustrating subjunctive and improve my vocabulary and start speaking in more complicated sentences.

Also, I uploaded a bunch of new videos onto my youtube page (WTLB8). Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/user/WTLB8

And I also have tons of photos to look through from my facebook page. I decided that flikr took too long to upload photos and wasn't very organized. The links to those albums are at the bottom of this post.

--------------European (France & Italy) Vacation Travels--------------

Biggest update: my European vacation! Before coming to Barcelona this last October, I had never been overseas and had only been outside of the States once to visit Victoria, B.C. with my university choir. My main hopes for my experience here were to learn the language, make friends from all over, soak in the culture, and travel. I’ve done pretty well learning the language, meeting tons of people, and taking part in and observing the interesting cultural happenings here, but I hadn’t done much traveling. Linnea, my old roommate and great friend, contacted me a while back asking when she could visit and travel with me. In January, we decided on the weeks surrounding Easter because my host family was going on a trip to New York during that time.

Time flew by and Linnea arrived in Barcelona on Thurs, the 2^nd of April. We had lunch together at my favorite Barcelona restaurant and and then went back to the airport and flew together to Paris, France a few hours later. We stayed in Paris for four whole days in a hostel located in the Latin Quarter of the city that had a really cool, young vibe with tons of good places to eat. Throughout those four days, we visited the Louvre Museum, Orsay Museum, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triumf, Catacombs, a popular and historic mall (that had a Barbie fashion show!!!), The Moulin Rogue, Sacre Coeur, Monmontre, Pantheón, Tuilleries gardens, countless crepe stands (crepes with Nutella and bananas are amazing and addictive!), and wandered other various areas of the city. We made a day trip to Versailles on Sunday, April 5^th and picked up a random Canadian (Montreal) guy at breakfast in our hostel. We ended up hanging out with him all day and then most of the Monday. That was a lot of fun and he spoke French, so he was able to translate and talk with people for us, plus he came up with the idea of having a French picnic under the Eiffel tower consisting of wine, cheese, and baguettes. That picnic night was my favorite night in Paris. On our last night in the City of Lights, Linnea and I met up with two people from our hostel and climbed the Eiffel Tower to watch the sunset and experience the view during the day, dusk, sunset, and night. It was beautiful and a great end to our stay in Paris.

We left Paris on a 6 AM flight to Rome on Tuesday, April 7^th. That whole day was spent in transit with busses and trains until we finally arrived in Cinque Terre, Italy at 5:30 PM. Once there, we checked in and watched the sunset, sipping on wine. We stayed in Cinque Terre for one full day and two nights and absolutely loved it. Cinque Terre in Italian literally means “5 lands/cities”, referring to the fact that there are five towns located along the Italian coast and connected by footpaths and train tracks. Cinque Terre is famous for its hikes (both hiking from town to town and up into the hills where all of the vineyards are), foccia bread, white wine, and pesto sauce. Linnea and I can attest to nearly all of those. The Cinque Terre is also rich in culture and history but lacks a bit in gastronomy (aside from what they’re famous for). We had a very restful time in Cinque Terre and found it to be the perfect transition between our busy stays in both Paris and Rome. This was definitely my favorite city of our trip with Paris coming in close second. We left on the morning of Thursday, April 9^th on train to Pisa.

The only reason we decided to stop in Pisa was because it was on our way to Rome on train. It was fun, but really the only thing to do there is walk, see the tower and “field of miracles” and then leave. That is exactly what we did, but we did have a bad experience in a restaurant with an Italian Mama cafe owner. She yelled at us in Italian for not including the €2/person required service fee for eating in the café even though we weren’t informed of it (or maybe we were, but it was in Italian, so we didn’t understand) and had horrible service. Linnea and I laugh about that now.

Anyways, after a few hours in Pisa, we left for Rome and checked into our hostel. We then stayed nearly three full days in Rome, touring all of the main sights such as the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, Vatican City, Pantheon, Roman Forum, Spanish steps, the shopping area, peeking into random churches, many gelato (ice cream) stands, and wandered the random and winding old streets of Rome. We really had a great time in Rome and really enjoyed the food and wine. I found it really funny when Linnea started complaining about the overabundance of pasta, pizza, and carbs in general. Isn’t that what Italy is known for? It was a very culturally enriching experience and we really enjoyed the amazing history of The Eternal City. It was also pretty exciting to be there during holy week and Easter. We were going to try and see the Pope during our stay and go to the Easter Sunday Mass, but found out too late that pre-ordered tickets were required for admittance. So, we decided that in order to avoid the crowds, we would avoid the Pope altogether and visit the Vatican when he was doing the Stations of the Cross in the Colosseum. That worked out very well. We left for Barcelona on Easter Sunday night and arrived just in time to catch the last trains to my house for a restful night.

The next three days we spent touring Barcelona with me playing the tour guide since I’ve seen most of the sights already. It was a lot of fun showing Linnea the city that I’ve come to call home these last six months. Linnea left early in the morning on April 14^th and I got back into my school/work schedule. It was so great to be with a good friend for the first time in six months and to be able to talk about anything, everything, and nothing. I’m definitely looking forward to getting back home and being with family and friends.

I have to say that the most helpful things during our traveling were the two travel books by Rick Steves that Linnea bought. I hadn’t heard about him and his self-owned company until Linnea told me about him. Rick Steves is a man in his 50’s from Seattle who started his own travel company a couple decades ago. It started very small with him publishing a few books and making low-budget movies available for free on TV stations like PBS. Eventually, as word got out, Steves and his company began growing in popularity because his travel books are top quality with great maps, directions, advice, and suggestions. Rick Steves is well known for encouraging the readers (mainly directed at North Americans) to travel off the beaten path and see the more rustic sights that Europe has to offer. Linnea and I are big fans of Rick Steves and made great use of his books and free audio guided tours of popular tourist destinations (Louvre, Notre Dame, Pantheon, Roman Forum, Sistine Chapel, and historic walks through neighborhoods). So, if any of you are planning on traveling soon, I would highly suggest Rick Steves. All of his books are written by people who have actually visited the countries and researched everything for themselves which is very evident through the quality of the products offered. Steves’ company is based in Edmonds and actually has a store with his books, audio guides, tour information, clothes, supplies (the money belt is very useful), and extremely helpful and knowledgeable staff. Haha, basically, Rick Steves is pretty awesome.

--------------Día de SAN JORDI--------------

This last Thursday, the 23^rd of April, Barcelona celebrated the day of Catalunya’s patron saint, San Jordi (Saint George). I mentioned this earlier in a post about Valentine’s Day and its lack of excitement and any commercial presence in Barcelona. This is because San Jordi is the much more exciting Catalan version of Valentine’s Day. I have to say that I prefer San Jordi to Valentine’s Day because it is so exicting and is much more of a festival than just a holiday. On this day, the main streets and plazas of Barcelona are filled with rose stands (some with the most creative colors and arrangements), book stands, and radio stations. Authors make appearances and take part in book signings, drawing huge crowds of people. The tradition of this holiday is for men to give women roses and for women to give men books, though in more modern times, books are being bought for both genders. The background on this holiday is quite funny. The myth of San Jordi is that he slayed a dragon, saving a princess from being eaten and from the dead body of the dragon grew a beautiful rose. Therefore the tradition of rose giving was started. The tradition of giving books began because April 23^rd is also National Book Day because authors Shakespeare and Cervantes (a Spanish author and therefore national hero) both died on this day. I found this to be a very beautiful holiday especially since both tourists and locals take part in the festivities. I am very glad that I was able to experience it.

--------------Almost finished--------------

Right now I’m preparing for my long weekend trip to Switzerland. The main reason of my trip is to attend a wedding at the oldest church in Switzerland, located about an hour north of Geneva. I met my soon-to-be-married friend, Mike, at a summer camp in 2006 when we were both camp counselors in Santa Cruz, California. When he found out that I was in Europe, he told me that I needed to see Switzerland and that I was more than welcome to attend his wedding. That summer of 2006 was the last time that I had seen him, so I was very surprised and excited to be invited. So, this is going to be an exciting trip both to see Mike again and attend his wedding and to test my map and travel skills while touring Geneva and Lausanne all by myself for three days.

If you’re still reading, I congratulate you. This post became much longer than the Reader’s Digest version I was hoping for. But I guess after a month of nothing, this huge novel of an update isn’t too overwhelming, I hope. Haha. Anyways, I have really enjoyed hearing from all of you through your e-mails and comments on the blog. Thank you for that. As always, I hope everything is wonderful with all of you back at home in the States. I miss you and am counting down the days until I return home… which is almost exactly three months from now.

Abrazos,

Linnell

P.S. I am still waiting on a response from the English teaching program and should probably find out about that sometime in the next few weeks. So, my plans for next year are still pretty unknown, but I’m okay with that. I’ll be content whether I get to stay another year here or go home.

P.P.S. PHOTOS!!!

Paris: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2409858&id=10707115&l=097816eb13

Paris & Cinque Terre: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2409865&id=10707115&l=672a2165a9

Cinque Terre & Pisa/Rome & Barcelona: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2409941&id=10707115&l=179fa47112

Barcelona: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2410221&id=10707115&l=fe76530749