Longest post ever, lamest funicular ride ever, and meeting Matt Damon. My trip to Spain.

Have you missed me?

I was completely ready to go through all of my pictures (and Kyle's....he took about 2000) to post them on here, but then I realized I needed to do my grad school applications.  Then a big grant for GLOW, then some meetings in Tbilisi.  So before heading back to site after arriving back in Georgia, I stashed away my camera in the office back in Tbilisi so I wouldn't even be tempted to look through them.  Good plan, because I literally did not leave my house for 8 days straight while I was being productive.  And now I'm hoping its pretty smooth sailing for my last 6 (!!!) months in Georgia.

So on to Spain.  As you recall from an earlier post, we were incredibly excited to have tapas.  They were quite a disappointment though.  Basically all the bars at night serve them. They are small (which we expected) but after walking around for 10 hours all day like the tourists we were, small was not what we were looking for.  We did end up having some really amazing meals in Spain (us Peace Corps Volunteers are really into our food when we're not in Georgia....cheers to no khatchapuri for a week!) as well as some really good beer and wine at each meal. 

Valencia mandarins, paella, Estrella Inedit!, olives, Iberian ham, hummus, and spinach gnochi. mmmmmm

Our trip started in Madrid.  The first thing I noticed when we all met at the hostel was just how much the guys had changed since I had left Arizona a year and a half ago.  yep, my two roommates who never wore anything but t-shirts and khaki shorts were now standing in front of me, wearing jeans and jackets.  yes, Steve actually can get cold, weird, right?

jeans!?!?

We spent three days in Madrid, wandering around some of their old town, wandering around looking for real restaurants, and visiting some of the museums to see Picasso, Goya, and Dali.  Two of these artists I really like, the third was on some major creepster drugs and I guess that's just not my thing.
We also took a day trip to Toleda, the old Spanish capital, where we saw the house of El Greco and some of his paintings.

bored, hungry, and waiting for Steve. 

a fountain in Madrid's huge park

all of the panorama's are from Kyle's new crack phone.

as are the self pictures of the 3 of us

After wandering around forever on the first day trying to find real food.  this also was ironically the only place to have the beer Steve found for me, Estrella Inedit, it's better than Blue Moon!

and it's beer served in a wine glass.  classy.

the palace

 

a tapas bar. 

some fun architecture

For Christmas Spain had really creepy Jesus baby pictures hanging everywhere.  They looked like a cross between a doll and a robot.

these were people who took garlands and made it into a costume, then added a snapping deer head.  They tried to bite you.

plaza mayor, complete with Sponge Bob

waiting for cars to pass by in Toledo

a synagogue in Toledo

El Greco's house, or what someone thought it looked like. 

Kyle had a funny story to tell us.  For those of you who know Kyle and his laughing fits, you can imagine how it took him ten minutes to squeak it out between tears and laughter.  it's about Koala's, you should ask him about it.

We moved on to Granada for our Christmas weekend.  We stayed in a really nice hostel where we got our own apartment, and where on Xmas Eve they served a free vegetarian meal for all of the guests.  Christmas Eve Day was spent at the Alhambra, which was my favorite place in Spain.  It was an old Moorish Palace grounds that the Spanish kinds added to over time, so the grounds are huge and the gardens are gorgeous.  We spent the whole day there, ad then headed over to the Old Town cathedral for a nice lunch.  Granada itself has a pretty center that is fun to wander around as well as on old Muslim quarter called Albaycin that is full of twisting roads and white houses.  We spent the next two days exploring these parts.

a beautiful cathedral in the center of Granada

flamenco dresses.  They only had them for little girls though, biggest disappointment of the trip!

the boys were not willing subjects of my photography

buildings however, had no choice.

an old market

another part of the cathedral

Christmas!

eating paella, a rice dish with saffron

churros with brandy chocolate

some kids playing, they probably had way too much chocolate.

people drinking Christmas Eve

in Charles' incomplete palace

it was square on the outside, circular on the inside. 

it was sunny, this is the best picture we got.

they know how to do courtyards

view of Albaycin from the Alhambra

palace of relaxation

i got them churchkhela (Georgian candy turd thing), balloons, butterfly stickers, and a keychain. 

presents!  I got ritz, reese's, and tea. 

we may have had some wine by now....

 We took the train from Granada to Valencia, where we were separated into boys and girls for the sleeper car.  I was alone with a woman who knew no English, and after a few attempts to speak Spanish to me, she gave up talking to me to sit in silence.  A few minutes later, she managed "where you from?" I answered and then asked her.  To my surprise, she was from Russia.  We started talking in Russian, and laughed at the randomness of being in the same cabin. We arrived in Valencia at 4am.  Our apartment wouldn't be ready until 1 or 2, so we took the metro out to the Mediterranean, where we watched the sunrise.  And it was so pretty we decided it wasn't even worth taking pictures!  (no, not really, Kyle spent about an hour trying to do a time lapse only to have his phone erase it).  After finding a Starbucks to crash in for another few hours, we checked in and then took a nap.  Valencia had a really bohemian feel to its Old town, and we found a really amazing art cafe/restaurant for dinner.  They also have a really modern looking science/conference center/museum area that we checked out.  The next day we had to catch a bus to Barcelona, so there wasn't a lot of time to explore, but we did manage to get some of the best oranges and mandarins I've ever had in my life, which made the entire stop in Valencia worth it.

the bohemia area had some really fun murals

this was the center, all white buildings

 We didn't have much time in Barcelona, just one day really, but we had enough time to criss cross the town looking at Gaudi's buildings and parks.  Unfortunately his work doesn't lend itself well to photographing.

spain likes its outdoor escalators.  So do I.

part of the Cathedral

door

meant to look like a forest

the columns had an interesting geometric construction

yeah, it wasn't any easier to look at in person.

 We decided to spend the last night in Spain on the mountain where the Olympics were held and where the guidebook said "you could spend a good few days on exploring."  We took the funicular, excited to do something not Gaudi related.  It started, went up the hill for literally one minute, and then stopped.  That was it.  The lamest funicular ever.  We got out and there was really nothing at all to do but look at the stadium.  We gave up and went back down the 'hill' to find a bar.  So ended our trip to Spain.

waiting on the way back from the finicular.

Oh yeah, Matt Damon.

I have a life long love for Matt Damon, so I was enthralled with these posters all over Spain.  It would have worked better if it had been smaller, oh well. 

A good ten day break from Georgia!