alysonmaile.tumblr.com

BULL FIGHT

This was my second time attending a bullfight so my experience was about the same.  This time around, I was prepared to watch six bulls get murdered.  My first time going, I had no idea that the bull was stabbed, even more so killed!  There were six bulls in total, three matadors that each went twice.  I felt so bad watching the bulls get stabbed to death so I began to secretly root for the bull.  We sat near an old couple and when the matador was having difficulties stabbing the bull, the old man began to curse obscenities at him.  He was getting really upset!  Some of the women were the ones who were the loudest, yelling Ole! Ole! Guapo! Ole!  It was so strange!  Many of the other people left after the first few bulls were killed.  Brianna, me and some of the guys were the only ones who stayed until the very end. 

I think this will probably be the last bull fight I go to.  It was a good experience and I’m glad I went but the whole thing just seems unfair and unnecessary to me. 

SEGOVIA FOR A DAY :) (april 9, 2011)

On Saturday, we visited Segovia for an excursion!! As you can imagine, I was so, so, so, so, so excited to be back!  The aqueduct was mind-blowing as usual.  The streets were so busy and full of tourists and the weather was sunny and amazing (78 degrees).  It was the perfect day!  We visited the plaza mayor, the cathedral, and the alcazar (snow white’s castle).  While we were in the plaza mayor, guess who I see briskly walking across?  Nati!  My host mom from the summer!  I ran up to her and she recognized me immediately.  We talked for a little while and she told me that I better visit her so I said I promise I will in May.  It was so nice to see her again, I couldn’t stop smiling.  For lunch, we ate at Jose Restaurant (Nati’s grandson’s restaurant) where I had a ration of cochinillo.  Just my luck, I got the piece with a leg and the tail (testicle included).  Nevertheless, it was delicioussssssss.  I showed Brianna the school I went to and we took some photos by the nice view.  We then decided to go get some ice cream and then walk to the top of the aqueduct where we saw the most amazing view!  It was a long day and the hot sun ended up giving me a pretty bad headache so I slept on the bus on the 1.5 hr ride home.  It was one of the best days ever!  I miss Segovia already, haha.

BARCELONA (march 18-20)

This was my second time going to Barcelona and it was just as fun!  I went with two Spanish friends, Nuria and Dani, and we stayed at Nuria’s uncle’s apartment.  On Friday we walked all the way up to the parque Guell which was so beautiful!  It was full of scenic points, and funky tile decorations.  I loved how there was so much color integrated with nature and stone.  We then walked through some streets of Barcelona and visited la Pedrera.  That night we went to a discoteca called Razzmatazz and got to see an indie concert of a popular Spanish music group called Dorian.  They were so good (even though I understood absolutely 0% of the words)!!  On Saturday we visited la Sagrada Familia (designed by Gaudi).  The detail in every part of the church was just amazing.  I even saw lots of palm trees and fruits incorporated into it.  We walked around through some unknown streets and ended up at a really nice beach where we found a MEXICAN restaurant and ate lunch :).  I loved how the streets were always so busy, no matter what time of day it was.  Everywhere we went it was so lively!  Anyways, we walked around some more until we ended up in a plaza where they was a Sardana dancing performance.  We then visited la catedral del mar and la catedral de Barcelona where we watched some of the locals doing their own Sardana dance!  It was so cute seeing all the old people hold hands in a circle and jump/dance around. :)  We woke up bright and early Sunday morning to catch our flight back to Madrid!  This second time around I really enjoyed because I got to see completely different parts of Barcelona that I hadn’t the first time.  My first time we spent most of our time at the beach and on las Ramblas which are tourist congested places.  This time I got to see more of the neighborhoods and got to see more of the hustle and bustle of the people that actually live there and now my impression of Barcelona is a nicer one. :)

ROME, ITALY (March 11-13, 2011)

Day1 (friday): We got to the airport bright and early and flew into Rome!  We took a bus tour around Rome to get a quick look at some architectural ruins, important monuments, and the coloseum.  Rome was impresionante!  It was so beautiful, left to right with ancient looking buildings everywhere.  After settling into our hotel, some friends and I decided to walk around Rome to see the outside of the Vatican, St. Peter’s Square, and walk along the river to check out the main bridges.  Everything was breathtaking!  Unfortunately, we weren’t able to see the Pope (el Papa) while we were at the Vatican….He comes out only on Sunday and Wednesday afternoons.  We ate at a pretty expensive restaurant where I ate risotto con gambas (rice with shrimp)!  It was soooooo yummy. 

Day2 (saturday): We woke up bright and early to go on our walking tour—after first having the best breakfast buffet of my life.  Our tour guide spoke in Spanish and he guided us around the whole city!  We saw the piazza de popolo, some fountains, the roman forum, the trevi fountain, and the spanish staircase.  The piazza de popolo (a plaza) was one of my favorites because it had a huge fountain, an egyptian basilica, and tons of venders selling all different kinds of artwork.  The ambiente was nice. :) The Trevi Fountain impressed me so much!  I had no idea it was so big!  I almost couldn’t believe I was there, after seeing it in so many movies and seeing so many photos.  Brianna and I threw a coin in (closed our eyes and threw it with our right hand over our heart and left shoulder) as we made our wishes.  After the Spanish Staircase, we grabbed some pizza to-go and headed to the Vatican to get inside before it closes.  Everything in Rome closes at 4:30pm—SO INCONVENIENT!  Luckily, St. Peter’s Cathedral was free and there was no line.  We went inside and it was amazing.  I don’t even have a wide enough vocabulary to explain it.  It was just so big and full of so much detail in every inch of the cathedral.  We then hurried to the vatican museum to walk through it quickly and see the sistine chapel.  Lucky for you, I snuck a photo even though any form of photo taking was prohibited!  It was really a great sight to see, imagining that Michelangelo had to paint the whole ceiling and walls as he lay down. That night, a few of us grabbed some pizza to-go (again) for dinner as we walked to Campo de Fiori where all the nightlife was!  It was an interesting experience considering the Italian men were so agressive and kind of creepy. 

Day3 (sunday): Brianna and I woke up really early in the morning to go check out the architectural ruins and walk around in the inside of the coloseum.  We saw ruins that were once houses, palaces, baths, and pools.  In the coloseum, we saw the stage and the part underneath where they would keep prisoners and lions.  It was incredibly cool!  We had to hurry out of there, though, because we were checking out of our hotel at 11am. 

FOOD!!!!!!!!

The first two pictures are from this Mexican restaurant called Las Manzanitas!  API took us to dinner one night and we all went nuts.  The Spanish diet is quite bland if you ask me so all of us went NUTS with the hot sauce!  We had the best nachos ever, weird greenish gray chicken, taquitos, fajitas, beans, rice, everything delicious.  Oh how I’ve missed Mexican food…

The next two photos are of my lunch on Saturday.  It’s called cocido completo and the region of Madrid is known for this dish.  It consists of garbonzo beans, carrots, all kinds of meet (ham, chicken, beef, chorizo sausage), morcilla (blood sausage), and sometimes bone barrow (like in this picture).  It was my first time eating bone marrow.  I felt a little uneasy but it tasted pretty good—it was just weird pulling the little piece of bone marrow out of a huge chunk of bone.  Cocido completo is basically a huge stew of weird meats and things but SO SO SO delicious!

The next few picture are of what I ate on Sunday.  For lunch I had a plate of some unknown vegetables called acelgas (not in my dictionary) with hard boiled eggs and some other thing that was sort of like cabbage and garlic? I also tried some peppers from the north of Spain.  It was a little frightening cause my host mom said some are really spicy, some aren’t at all!  Nevertheless, it was tasty.  For dinner, we ate pulpo a la gallega which is octopus made in a style that the region of Galicia is famous for!  It was served on a plate of potatoes and onions and some red seasoning on top—so delicious! 

Also, a weird thing I’ve noticed: Spaniards have jamon (ham) flavored chips and also paprika flavored chips……..so strange…..

CARNAVAL CELEBRATIONS!

This past weekend was the ending of Carnaval!  Lent is about to begin and Carnaval was basically a month long celebration!  It was basically Halloween on steroids.  Throughout the whole weekend, people were walking around the city, even on the metros, dressed as clowns, hippies, butterflies, prostitutes, nuns, everything you could possible think of! 

On Friday was the inauguration which consisted of a musical dance performance and a speech by the King of Carnaval (I didn’t understand any of it, though).  Then there was a huge fire/story telling ritual in the plaza mayor which ended with huge fireworks!  I was right under it all!  That night we went to a cave bar which was an artificial man-made cave that drinks streamed out of the ceiling of the caves—pretty darn cool. 

On Saturday was the huge parade down la calle de Castellana which is the biggest street through Madrid.  This was the best parade I have ever seen!  There were clowns doing flips, people on rollerblade stilts, a glow in the dark band, hip hop dancing nuns, people from different parts of Latin America, electronic dinosaur people, acrobatic people hanging from a huge wheel rolling down the street, everything amazing!  I have never seen a parade so cool in my life.  We walked all the way from the Retiro Park to Fuencarral which is a really, really long walk.  It’s the only time of the year you can walk on these streets because it’s usually filled with cars zooming past—a really cool experience!  Walking around that night was interesting, too.  There were a lot of drunk people young and old (and when I say old, I mean really old) walking around the streets, dressed up in all kinds of things!  Some people were dressed as egyptian goddesses, spiderman, the KKK, bananas, other fruits, babies with diapers, witches, everything. 

All in all, being able to celebrate Carnaval was one of the coolest experiences ever because I’ve never really experienced a celebration so animate and lively as this!  It was so cool!

TENERIFE, CANARY ISLANDS

A few weekends ago, some friends and I went to the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands! It was truly a paradise!  Walking barefoot around the beach, warm weather, the beach always in sight, I was in heaven!  I will admit, though, that pretty much everything I did, I could have done at home in Hawaii.  Nevertheless, it was nice to escape from the wintery weather here in Spain :)

On the first day, Friday, we got in early in the morning, walked around the area a little bit to get accustomed, checked into our hotel (since the hotel was surprisingly cheaper than a hostel), and went straight to the beach!  We met up with everyone who had been there from the day earlier and layed out on the beach as we planned out our weekend.  We decided to go banana boating which was basically a speed boat that pulled a literal blown up “banana” more like a sausage.  Eight of us sat on one as the man pulled us all around the atlantic ocean (my first time in this ocean!).  As he made sharp turns (a lot of them, too) our bodies were propelled off the banana, slamming our faces and bodies into the ocean—SO MUCH FUN!  I cannot express how amazing this 20 minutes was, we all had such a blast.  The water was freezing but that was the last thing on our mind.  After some more time at the beach, I felt dehydrated so I drank some water from the tap at our hotel—bad idea.  I got pretty suck from it (nauseous and such).  The waiter at our restaurant we had dinner at said DO NOT DRINK THE TAP WATER HERE!  Que pena :(

Anyways, on Saturday, we woke up bright and early and trekked along the beach toward a small cafe that apparently had the best fish and chips for only 3.80€ (I was skeptical).  We got there, and let me tell you, I had the best fish and chips I have ever had in my life!  It was so fresh and their tartar sauce is so different—garlicy which I loved. :)  After lunch we all got ready for Siam Waterpark which is the biggest waterpark in all of Europe.  They had a ride that you slide through a see through tunnel that goes into a tank of sharks.  Of course you don’t really see the sharks because your eyes are closed the whole time but the idea was pretty cool.  We spent practically the whole day there..It was so much fun!  That night we decided to walk the strip of where all the nightlife is supposed to be.  We came across some interesting and crazy people, but all full of good vibes.  It was a fun night of dancing, bull riding, and getting home just in time for our flight the next morning! 

Lisbon, Portugal

Day #4: On Monday, we had to say good-bye to Lisbon!  We woke up early, had breakfast, took pictures of the hostel (since it was a nice day!), checked out and explored some more until the flight back.  Here are some photos I took on the last day of the hostel like the terrace which was the coolest ever since it was on the roof!  We said goodbye to everyone at the hostel (met some of the nicest people), and the hostel dog named Tejo.  Then we went to the Puerto do Sol one last time since it was a nice day!

Overall, Portugal was so beautiful— a lot more than I ever expected!  Everything from the nature, the people, the buildings, the roads, and the monuments were so pretty!  I had so much fun and I’m glad I decided to do this weekend trip :)

Lisbon, Portugal

Day #3 (part 2): We explored more of the castle for maybe an hour or so but eventually had to leave since we had to meet the rest of our tour group down at the city.  The walk down was SOMETHING ELSE!  The pathways were really horrible and difficult (for me, anyways) to walk down.  Slowly but surely, we got the to bottom to find out we were lost.  Again with all the dead end roads, we backtracked a lot and thanks to Dani’s navigational skills (definitely NOT mine) we got back down to the main square of the town.  By this point, I was sweaty (gross!).  The walk down was definitely really pretty though, with lots of nature, flowers, trees, more remains of chapels and other buildings—all that good stuff.  We then went to Cabo do Roca which was an area that reminded me of the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland!  It was basically a bunch of cliffs with rocks and raging waves below.  It was a nice place to sit down and relax and enjoy the sun (which eventually did come).  We also bought some Castanyas which are basically huge walnuts baked in a little firey pot so they’re soft and warm.  I see these stands all over Spain and decided to finally try some—I liked them!  Anyways, we then went to a beach along the coast which was so beautiful.  It’s the most western point of all of Europe—so my first time seeing the Atlantic ocean:)  We got there when the sun was setting so it was perfect!  The beach is a lot different from those in hawaii, cause there was flying foam everywhere and the shore was so long.  Then we went to a town called Cascais which was beautiful!  I couldn’t fit any more pictures in this blog, though, but it was basically a harbor full of little boats and more colorful buildings and apartments around the shore. 

By the time we got back to the hostel, it was nighttime.  I was really satisfied with the tour because it was so cheap!  We got to see so much more besides Sintra and my homesickness went down a couple notches because I got to see the beach :)  We had dinner at this small restaurant that was more like a holl-in-the-wall where we had Bacalhau a Bras and Nata (traditional portugese food).  Dinner was amazing (As nervous as i was for getting fish) and the portugese wine was good too!  The lady spoke only portugese, though, and although I was lost in the conversation, Dani understood her a tad bit since it’s somewhat similar to Spanish.  Thank goodness for that! 

Lisbon, Portugal

Day #3 (part 1):  On Sunday, we lucked out!  Our hostel was giving a 15€ tour to the town of Sintra plus a little more.  We got to Sintra and walked around the town which was beautiful—full of pastel-colored apartments, tiles decorating the outside, white-washed buildings—EVERYTHING AMAZING!  There was also a lot of nature throughout the town with a beautiful national park, little waterfalls, remains of lookout points and little buildings.  We went to the castle of Pena which was amazing.  The hike up was something else, but totally worth it.  It’s the first colored castle I have ever seen!  Walking through it was almost like a dream with cobblestone pathways, colored walls, spiral staircases that lead up to the coolest view.  We ate our sandwiches on one of the terraces of the castle which was the coolest thing.  It was a lot colder than I anticipated because we were so high up into the mountain.  The view, however, was breathtaking!  You could see so much forest, natural life, and the city of Sintra amongst it all. 

Lisbon, Portugal

Day #2 (part 2):  After lunch, we caught the bus to a town called Belem!  The bus ride was about 30min long but definitely worth it.  Once we got there, we walked past Jeronimo’s monastery and got to go into the cathedral for free.  The monastery which takes about 2 hours to look through everything costed 9€ so we decided against it.  We walked on along the road and saw Lisbon’s Monument of Discoveries which was so cool!  It was this huge thing with a cross on one side, and a bunch of important figures on the other side.  Since we had probably walked a million miles at this point, we decided to take a breather and hang out by the river.  After that, we walked on some more to see the Tower of Belem (torre de Belem) which is basically a tiny tower/castle built in the river…..amazing!  Luckily but unluckily we got there when the sun was setting which is also when it closes so we weren’t able to look inside.  That’s okay, though, it was still able to be appreciated from the outside!  We then went on with are trek back to the bus station.  We stopped at a bakery called Pasteis de Belem which is famous for their little pastries with custard on the inside……so yummmmy!  We ate four of them along with some hot milk :)  I unfortunately didn’t get to take any photos of them cause we were in a hurry.  We waited in line for a good 20 minutes to be seated and there were about a hundred people waiting to be served. 

That night at 8pm, our hostel was hosting a barbecue for only 8€ with chicken, pork, pasta, salad, sangria, and potatoes.  The food was soooo yummy!  They also had a live DJ which played pretty much only portugese/techno music that I didn’t understand a word of.  Nevertheless, the dinner was good and we got to eat on the terrace on the roof! 

Lisbon, Portugal

Day #2 (part 1):  On Saturday, we decided to explore some of Lisbon!  Unfortunately, weather.com said it’d be pouring all day so we were as prepared as we could possibly be.  It’s a good thing my boots turned out to be waterproof!  We walked all the way up to el castillo de san jorge (St. George’s Castle) which is at the top of one of the highest hills (once used to watch over the city).  The castle, in my opinion, wasn’t aesthetically pleasing as others I’ve seen but it was still amazing to see!  We walked along the top of the castle which seemed so dangerous to me without railings on the side to keep you from falling off but we’re in Europe so I guess it’s not a big deal, haha.  We then walked all the way back to the center of the city to go up the Santa Justa elevator and walk around the city.  We ended up getting lost, thinking that as long as we follow the roads that go down, we’d end up to the bottom—bad idea.  There were so many dead ends!  Anyways, then we went to the Praco do Comercio which was so pretty with a big statue and a wide square area with the Tejo (tajo) river on one end.  The river was so dirty, though.  Despite the constant pouring rain, the first half of the second day went really well! 

Lisbon, Portugal

Day #1: On Friday we arrived to Lisbon at around 4pm.  It was pouring rain (but at least not too cold).  The hostel we stayed at was called alfama patio which was the best hostel I have ever stayed in!  They offered so much more than the usual hostel like a kitchen to use with frozen pizza, drink, sandwiches, pasta, etc. for a really cheap price.  They even had a yard area with a tent, benches, a hammock, and a terrace on the roof with tables and seats!  Each night they also offered home made dinners for only 5euros so I was just amazed.  We decided to walk around until dark to explore some of the city since Adriana, the guy working at the hostel, recommended it for the view at the top.  We found a market, bought some chips to snack on, and then went to El Miraudor which was a look out point to see some of the Alfama neighborhood in Lisbon!  The Alfama neighborhood is the older part of town, but still so beautiful with lots of apartments that have tile decorations (called azulejos) on the outside :) 

1st photo: My lunch on Saturday.  I was totally grossed out at first but after peeling off the skin, taking out the spine and bones, it was really tasty!  The potatoes especially were so yummy :)

2nd photo: This one is of my host mom Mercedes and my host sister Violeta!  I love them both and they make me really feel like I’m at home!  Violeta and I do our nails together, brush our hair together in the morning, and she follows me around as I do my make up and get ready to go out at night.  Que mona! 

3rd photo:  I drink green tea almost every night (especially cause I have bronchitis or something of that sort) and my host mom always gives me these little sweets/chocolates with it…..so yummy! I almost like them more than the tea! 

TOLEDO - the city of three religions!

This weekend, our program went on an excursion to Toledo.  Turns out, Toledo is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen in my life!  It was almost like a fantasy the way it looked with houses and buildings along hills and mountainy land.  There were tons of castle remains, Roman aqueduct remains, barricades, etc.  We saw buildings of different styles of architecture influenced by the Arabs, Jewish, and Romans—it was so interesting!  The exterior of the Toledo cathedral was the most beautiful from the outside…and I’ve seen tons of cathedrals!  It’s crazy to think that these buildings are so old and people had to make them by hand (without the technology we have today).  I wonder how long it would take…..Anyway, the city was beautiful, and now one of my favorite cities ever!  I wish we could have stayed longer….for maybe a weekend or something.