On City Smells, the Vatican, and Night

Cities smell. Each city we've been in here has a very distinct smell. Most of the cities we visited in Spain were smaller, older cities, so they smelled like brick and horses and old wood and bread baking--not a strong smell at all. Occasionally we would catch a nasty whiff of garbage, but only as we passed a can. Madrid had a little stronger smell, but Barcelona topped them all. If you've ever been to Chicago or New York City or another big city, you know what I mean by the "city smell"--it just smells like a lot of people, a lot of exhaust, a lot of trash, a lot of sewage...basically, a city. Generally not everywhere smells, but the scent is in the air as you walk. Barcelona was like that, except it did smell everywhere; it was hot and dirty, and the entire city smelled like sewage (kind of like how, on band tour this year, when we went through Kansas, the entire state smelled like a feed lot). Rome was a welcome change. It was incredibly hot and humid, with weak air conditioning if any, but the city smell is much nicer--kind of like sausage, I think. I thought maybe I was just crazy, but now we're in Florence, and even though it's kind of a dirty city, it also has the same sausage-like city smell. Must be an Italian thing.


On a different note, the Vatican. (If you are Catholic and reading this, I apologize. Please do not be offended.) To put it plainly, I don't really like the Vatican. I guess to be more technical, I don't like the Vatican Museum (with the Sistine Chapel and tons of Raphael...). I did like St Peter's Basilica and the piazza there. Our visit to the Basilica was great--around 17:00, it was cooling off and a mass was being held, so we climbed the dome with an organ accompaniment. The Musei Vaticani, on the other hand, was an absolute nightmare. We got there early (7:30, our guidebook said it opened at 8:45) so we had a prime spot, half a block from the entrance. The day before we were in line three blocks back and left, walking past the rest of the line as it stretched almost all the way to St Peter's Square. We did not want to wait in a line like that, so we got up crazy early. We ended up waiting almost 2 hours. For some reason the museum didn't open til 10, but we just didn't know that. The museum itself has a lot of great stuff, but we saw mostly tour groups. I think every tour group in the entire world went to the Musei Vaticani that morning at the same time as us. It was actually miserable. Even the Sistine Chapel was completely un-fun, despite being beautiful and an amazing work of art, because it was so crowded and the security guard kept shushing people. Getting out of the museum was also a disaster, but that's another story.

I love cities at night. I love walking through the piazzas and the roads lined with pizzerias and trattorias (we keep seeing "trattorias," but we have no idea what it means, except that food is involved) and cute little cafes with tables spilling out into the road. I love seeing the monuments lit up. Old buildings are either creepy or magical in the dark, and here it's mostly magical. I love watching people stroll around with cups of gelato or sit and chat over their after-dinner cup of coffee. There's so much going on in the city at night, and I love to watch it. Anyway, it's definitely night here, so it's time for me to say Ciao!

On Traffic, Tourists, and other Things

Hello all! We are in Rome, the whole family together. Sarah and I met Mom, Dad, and Marie at the Roma airport just two days ago. It seems like much longer. It is incredibly hot here, so we are very glad to have air conditioning in our bedrooms.

I enjoy being back in Roma. It has been nice to revisit some of the places that I visited in Euroquest, now four years ago I think? Wow. Anyway, it is fun to know more about what we are seeing, thanks to Rick Steves... but there is so much more about the city that I want to see and can[t. Roma has this beautiful, touristy, religious, historical side, but we can also see the other side. We are constantly on the lookout for pickpockets. We see beggars everywhere. We just toured St Peter[s Basilica, which is beautiful, but was built by extortion of the people in the name of God. During lunch yesterday, we watched as illegal aliens, who sell bags and sunglasses on the sidewalks, literally ran from the police. They come here to find work, and when they can[t, they end up as these salesmen. It is a whole new side of Roma that I didn[t even notice my first time here.

Tourists are overwhelming. There are alwazs more of them, and they are alwazs videotaping and talking loudly and absolutely stomping over the culture. I hope that we are able to travel more sensitively.

I have a minute and a half left, so I will close... but I hope everyone at home is doing well! We will be ready to be home in just over a month. Love to all!

On concerts, rain, and a disastrous event

We are in Salamanca, a very cute little town, and we are staying in a real live hotel! It is definitely amazing. No elevator, which is nice because that means the prices are quite reasonable, but also not-so-nice since we are staying on the 4th floor (which in the US would be the 5th floor). We arrived here around 6 after a 2 1/2-hour train ride from Madrid which took us through a whole bunch of Spain that looked a whole lot like Nebraska. It´s raining on and off, unfortunately--the rain must have left Madrid two days ago and came here. Hopefully tomorrow will be nice. It´s quite chilly, though, so Sarah and I bought University of Salamanca sweatshirts...we only brought one night´s worth of stuff and left our big bags in lockers at the Chamartin station in Madrid, where we will return tomorrow. Now we are both cozy warm and full of school spirit. We are visiting the university tomorrow, so at least we have appropriate attire for that. The girl who sold us the sweatshirts was so nice; we were able to talk to her a little, even with our poor Spanish. She asked if we were ¨gemelas¨ (twins).

After dinner we walked to the Plaza Mayor to get to this internet cafe. We were hoping to get hear some of the local tuna music (which has nothing to do with the fish, but is just students who form groups and play for tips during the week and weddings on the weekends). We got a real treat--a community band with a few low strings was playing in the plaza! We enjoyed the two pieces we heard quite a bit, in spite of the fact that three loud men were sitting to our left, passing around a suspicious-looking bottle and a cigarette, and a woman was standing to our right with a very dandruffy and sweaty-smelling man. It was definitely an experience for all the senses--especially once the rain started again towards the end of their last song.

Now to the disastrous event--our dinner. It was nice, although fairly expensive for our budget, but the food was quite good. We both ordered roast beef, because it sounded delicious and the place seemed too nice to order two different things and share. The beef came with French fries and a flaming orange gravy, which I enjoyed but have no idea what it was. The real disaster was when I was experimenting with holding my knife European-style (more like a pencil... except that I am left-handed, so I never hold anything like that in my right hand). Instead of cutting the roast beef, the knife went flying over my shoulder and clattered hugely onto the floor. I really have no idea how it happened. I just know I had gravy on my shirt, both at the collar and at the waist, all over my napkin, a knife on the floor, and Sarah trying to stifle her guffaws across the table from me. When a nice waiter man came running from the other room with a new knife for me, her laughter reached a new level of riotousness and emerged as a snort. I calmly continued with my meal, trying to pretend I didn´t know her. The meal continued uneventfully. We had some interesting desserts... prepackaged, but good. I got a limon, which was lemon sorbet that was actually served in a lemon. It came in a plastic bag, which was interesting, but I really enjoyed it. Apparently Spain has lots of crazy ice cream, as Sarah read in the local newspaper today. However, the meal ended on a slightly disastrous note... After bringing us the tip, the waiter asked if we wanted... something. Neither of us had any idea what he was saying, so we just looked at him helplessly and smiled like damsels in distress, and he went away. However, he came back with two little glasses of something that looked potentially alcoholic in tiny glasses with an ice cube. Sarah tried it and thought it might not be alcoholic, so then I drank mine as well (I signed a contract with Northwestern that says I won´t drink while I´m a student there). It was like fruit juice, but with a kick... I really have no idea what it was. Pretty good, though. The biggest disaster, though, was when we didn´t have any small bills for a tip, so we ended up leaving just under ten percent (European tips are much smaller than in the US)... but it was mostly in small change, like ten eurocent coins. I felt so, so tacky. So we put down the tip and ran. At least finding the concert ended our evening on a good note (pun intended). We intend to have a very leisurely stay here, although it´s less than 24 hours. Our hotel room has a bathroom--and a shower, a tub-sized shower. It´s amazing. We both intend to use the toilet whenever we want to, and shower for as long as we want to. What a treat. Then tomorrow we will just be wandering around the town, seeing the university and the outside of the cathedral. We have seen many, many cathedrals so I think we´re going to skip the inside of this one, but apparently a 1993 remodel resulted in an astronaut being added to the cathedral carvings... this I have to see.

On mullets and Rick Steves

This is going to be a quick entry as my time is very limited. I just have two things to note. First, Europe has so many mullets that I just want to die. They are so so so gross. Men, women, children--people of all ages have mullets, sometimes vicious ones. Not cool at all.

Also, we are generally using Rick Steves´ guidebooks, and he has these walking tours that we take sometimes, around cities or through major sights--like through the Prado yesterday. And the only Rick Steves walking tour we have not gotten lost on was a five-minute walk down one street, through a plaza, and up another street. Every single other one we have gotten lost, sometimes hopelessly lost. In fact, in Sevilla´s Barrio Santa Cruz, we got lost on a walking tour one day, and the next day we were sitting in a plaza eating lunch and saw a couple walking around with a Rick Steves book saying "I think we missed that turn..." right where we had gotten lost the day before.

We are off to Salamanca tomorrow, where we expect to rest up quite a bit and hear the locals randomly burst into song! I´m pretty excited about that... I´ll let yáll know when it happens!

On pickpockets, pants, and potties

We are in Madrid-- this is our second day here, and we have 3 more days, one of which is a day trip to Toledo. Today we had a day trip to El Escorial, a palace outside of Madrid mostly known for housing the royal mausoleum, and Valle de los Caidos, a huge underground monument to and burial place for those who died in Spain´s civil war. It also has Francisco Franco´s grave. Valle de los Caidos was definitely more interesting.

We have also had some interesting pickpocket experience today. We are going to a flea market tomorrow that is supposedly crawling with them, so we weren´t expecting to have any encounters today. But my backpack was unzipped as we walked down the umbrella-crowded streets (it´s raining and kind of miserable today). I felt it happening, and turned around to see this little girl trying to pretend she hadn´t been trying to rip me off. Good thing I caught it in time--nothing was taken. Another fellow wasn´t so lucky. Half an hour later we were sitting eating dinner watching the pedestrians and saw a pickpocket duo just pulling stuff out of this old guy´s bag, under the cover of an expertly placed umbrella. Poor old man... poor now, I guess.

On pants... just wanted to comment that I don´t think my clothes are going to come from Sevilla, so I have one pair of pants to get me through the whole summer. I also have a skirt (I´m wearing that right now) and a dress, so I will be fine. My pants are drying right now as yesterday was sink-laundry day.

Also, I have never encountered so many different ways to flush a toilet. It is purely amazing. Sometimes there is a handle like most American home toilets, but that´s unusual. Sometimes there´s a button on the top of the tank, other times there is a button on the wall. Sometimes there´s a handle coming off the front of the toilet; sometimes there´s a thing to pull up. One hostel had a string hanging from the ceiling with a strap attached. Very interesting.

Time´s up! More later... Adios!

On forgetfulness, oversleeping, and hippies

Granada, Spain: Our hostel here, the Doña Lupe, has free internet access, so Sarah and I are both taking advantage of it. We have an early night tonight, because we are leaving the hostel tomorrow morning at 6 to catch a 6:50 train to Madrid. Considering the train ride is six hours long, it will be nice to get in earlier as opposed to later. Our flaming disaster of an entrance into Sevilla has at least taught us to arrive in a new city with plenty of daylight hours remaining.

I mentioned forgetfulness in the title. My family will not be surprized to find out that I mean me. Our train to Granada yesterday morning was not exciting at all until about an hour into it, when, while reading Why the Rest Hates the West, I suddenly remembered that I had not taken my laundry out of the closet. One pair of pants, two shirts, and a zipup sweatshirt constitutes roughly a third of my wardrobe. So once we made it to Granada, we tried calling the Hostal Redes to see if they could forward the clothing to our Madrid hostel. Since neither Sarah nor I could ever really understand what the ladies on the other end were asking, we have no idea whether or not to expect a package. But we gave them the address, and we will hope for the best.

My family may be surprized to find that oversleeping means not just me, but Sarah as well. We planned to wake up at 7:15 this morning to get to the Alhambra for our 8:30 reservation.

The Alhambra system is kind of interesting... you get a ticket with a 30 minute time slot, and you have to enter the main palace during that half hour, because they only let in so many people per half hour. Once you are inside, you can spend all the time you want. We woke up at 8:20, and had to get ready, get to the Alhambra, which luckily enough is literally across the street from our hostel, stand in line for tickets, and dash into the Alhambra complex one kilometre until we got to the palace, all before 9 am. We made it with a few minutes to spare and are pretty proud of ourselves. The Alhambra was a pretty cool place... Moorish culture at its peak.

I have to be quick here, as there is another girl waiting for the computer. Granada has a huge population of both hippies and gypsies, both groups squatters just above the city in some caves. We did not go to the caves, but we have definitely seen a lot of hippies and gypsies. Granada is filled with groups of hippies, wandering around or congregating around a guitar player. In the Albayzin, where we went yesterday, which is I think the Muslim quarter if I remember correctly, there were a ton of hippies. We had dinner right on this great plaza overlooking the city, with an incredible view, both of the city and of hippies. The musicial ones were pretty good, and others were doing handiwork sort of things. One girl was decorating leather belts with fabric paint, which I thought was pretty terrific. I wish I had gotten some pictures of the hippies. Locals call them pies negros, or black feet... guess why. Because of the pies negros, along with probably a lot of other things, Granada has a very different feel than Sevilla. Today Sarah and I spent most of the day in the city, which is down the hill from our hostel... a good twenty minute walk down a very very steep hill, so we are lucky to have a bus pass that will bring us back up the hill. Walking is much easier down in the city. By the Doña Lupe it is pretty much all hill. Tomorrow we head to Madrid, so I will try to post from there.

On jet lag and culture shock

This morning I hated Spain. I was tired, dirty, wearing dirty clothes, unable to communicate, and hungry. Somehow meals are not as fun when you have no idea where the next one is coming from or how ridiculously expensive it´s going to be. In addition, somehow our Eurail passes did not cover our train ride to Cordoba. Really I think the train agent was crazy, because we didn´t have to pay for the trip back. So I was very cranky. But after a hugely successful day trip to Cordoba (we saw the Mezquita--a mosque-turned-church-- AND a supermarket!) I was feeling much better. We had some strawberry ice cream, which helped even more, and when we returned, we found our backpacks waiting! I had the best shower ever, despite the fact that our shower has the square footage of a shoebox, and am now wearing clean (!) clothes, with my dirty clothes washed with real laundry soap and hanging in the shower. There is a semi-creepy man hanging out down here by the computer, but he´s talking with the man behind the desk, so I´m sure all is fine. I will tell more about what we´re actually doing when I have free internet access and there aren´t creepy men around, but for now know that we are both doing very well and are excited to spend tomorrow hanging out in Sevilla. We´re going to the cathedral, the post office, and the paseos--three long blocks where everyone just walks around, lots of good shopping and people-watching. Does it get any better?

On our arrival

Hello all! We are indeed here in Sevilla, after many (mis)adventures...

I don´t have time to elaborate on many right now, as I am on a slow computer here in the Hostal Redes, paying one euro for half an hour. So I will make this brief. Our flight from Boston to the UK was great--surprizingly decent food (although dinner was served at 10 pm US time, 4 am UK time); a handy travel kit complete with eye mask, ear plugs, toothpaste & brush, and a pen; a Virgin Atlantic shotglass, and flaming pink plastic silverware. The only thing they didn´t have on this flight was our luggage. So I am going to go upstairs and do a small load of laundry using bar soap and a hostel sink. Also, I must note that Starbucks is taking over the world--we saw at least 4, maybe 5. Also, Sevilla is full of small children who wear matching clothes. Very cute. More later-- stay in touch!