The Past Two Weeks in a Nutshell and Shutterfly

Hi All,

I have decided to make a Shutterfly account so that I can upload all of my pics so that everyone can see them and I don't have to spend time piecing out ones I think you all will like. I will continue making posts on the blog and add pictures that are important to me and I will use it as a way to explain where the albums on Shutterfly are coming from. Fell free to ask questions about the pictures and I will respond via the blog so everyone can get the extra info.

Currently I am sitting in my hostel in Bilbao waiting to leave for my 19 hour bus ride back to Cádiz. Why 19 hours you might ask, because I am traveling from one of the absolute most northern parts of Spain down to one of the most southern parts. Ironically the one stop that I make in which I have to change buses is in Granada, where I will be heading on Thurs.

While talking with my friend Dorotia today I realized that I have visited 8 cities for at least a day in the past 11 days. I woke up this morning feeling exhausted and my eye was twitching. I told Dorotia and she said that it is obviously from be uber tired and that wiped out from my extreme travels. I have loved every city that I have gone to and at the moment am unable to say which one is my favorite. Salamanca's cathedrals straight up shocked me with their extravagance and detail. Segovia's aqueduct was incredible and I could not believe that it has stayed complete for as long as it has without any form of glue or cement holding its rocks together. Covadonga was the perfect nature fix and was shockingly beautiful. I have never been so close to so many cows, and ones with horns and bells, in my life. I also had one of the best meals so far in Spain there. The girl in that album is Pilar and she was in Cádiz with me and will be in Granada as well. Her dad's family is from Spain and she comes here every summer so she is completely fluent in Spanish and has relatives that she has been staying with over this break. To my delight I was able to stay with them as well and also go to eat with them. Her uncle and aunt are known in their family for making delicious food and I was so grateful to be able to try traditional Spanish style cuisine but Dennis, you still hold the cake in eye as best chef. I got to spend a day in Salinas, the little beach town that they actually live in, and it was really cool. Because it is along the northern coast there are these huge drop-off cliffs that just end straight onto the beach. Although it was foggy for the two days I was there it reminded me of Big Sur or other places along the coast like that. I also got to explore Oviedo, the main town near Salinas which had some cool older architecture as well. I had the best eggplant sandwich yet there. Eggplant and fired eggplant is super big in Spain and usually they serve it by itself but at this little cafe we went to to get wifi they had put it in a sandwich with cheddar cheese, something that I had not even seen in Spain, and added a little bit of spice to it that tasted like horseradish. It was a good way to start our trip out to Covadonga.

Then there was Santiago de Compostela, the ending place of the pilgrimage that thousands of people make each year to visit the tomb of St. James. The cathedral there was very impressive as well as was almond tart that is specific to that area. From there Dorotia and I decided to visit Finisterre, or "The End of the World." Before Columbus set sail the people of Europe literally thought that this coastline was the edge of the world. When we finally got out to the edge we understood why that thought might have crossed people's minds. It was incredible and we had fun speaking only Spanish the whole time, a feat for both of us. It was also during this walk that we saw some of the most vibrantly blue water I have ever seen in my life. I find myself saying this a lot but my pictures just aren't going to do the real colors justice.

The past few days have been spent in Bilbao, the capital of the Basque region and home to the Guggenheim. When I first got in at 11pm the receptionist at my hostel told me that I had come at the right time because this whole week was the most exciting week in Bilbao, Festival. She said that a free concert would be starting at midnight and that I should go check it out. Dorotia and I decided to go, at least for a little bit and quickly decided that we wanted to leave because it was hard rock, like nothing I had ever experienced before. We walked along the river up towards the other festivities when I decided to head back and pass out. The next day we went out to Guernica, the site of the first bomb dropped by Hitler in Spain, at the request of the lovely Dictator Franco, and the inspiration for Picasso's famous Guernica painting. We quickly found out that it was going to be a short day in Guernica for it only took us about an hour to walk around the entire city. We did get to see the ancient oak tree that has been preserved as a marker of the site where the Basque community leaders would meet to make important decisions. It was pretty cool. Inside the museum near it there is also one of the most amazing stained glass works I have ever seen. It depicts a meeting of Basque fisherman below the special tree. We were so pooped though that we passed out as soon as we got on the bus and woke up super deep into the city in Bilbao which was not at all where we were expecting to end up. But because we were already there we decided to push through without a siesta and explore the Casco Viejo, or the older part of town. We saw more old churches and the cool buildings and apartments that line the river that winds through the city. After a nice little nap we reunited to join in the activities of Festival starting with eating the BEST sausage/chorizo sandwich ever. Earlier in the day, without knowing that it was commonly sold in Bilbao, let alone a specialty, I had been saying how much I wanted a chorizo sandwich, so I was pretty freakin excited to see and smell them as soon as we reached the festivities. To accompany our sandwiches we bough our own little bottles of the locally made and specialty sidra, or hard cider, and had ourselves a nice little dinner on the curb. Festival in Bilbao is crazy. It is like a huge fair but in the streets of the city and much more wild. Spain is known for having churros with chocolate, usually a cup of warm chocolate in which you dip the churro, but in Bilbao at Festival they apparently coat the churros in dark chocolate. YUM! As we started to enjoy our churros the biggest firework display I've ever seen began and scared the S*** out of me. I knew that there were going to be fireworks but I just was't prepared for them to start the instant that I began eating the best churro of my life. Needless to say, Dorotia and I had a wonderful night in Bilbao along the river, eating good food, watching a spectacular firework show.

Today I went into the Guggenheim. The outside and the architecture of the building in general were by far the best and most exciting parts of the museum but there were some exhibits that were worth seeing. The huge flower puppy dog outside was one of those things, along with the bubble tower and the gigantic spider. Inside, the exhibits were a little freaky. Not my style of art. I couldn't take picture of them but I did snag a few of my favorite, which was a permanent installation of huge copper pieces that form a kind of maze. There was also an exhibit that displayed the art project of kids who were learning how to express ideas and events through art. That was pretty cool as well. But overall, the Guggenheim was not THAT amazing. The outside is though.

If you couldn't tell with how long this blog entry is I have had some time on my hands finally and in a place that had internet connect. I am sure I am forgetting things I have done but right now I am going to go eat another one of those amazing chorizo sandwiches before I leave Bilabo and get on my 19 hour bus to Cádiz. I hope you all enjoy the pictures on Shutterfly. Here is the link http://rachelsplaces.shutterfly.com. I miss and love you all.

Rachel

The Last Few Days

Good Morning,

Today I am leaving for Oviedo, a town in the North of Spain, and will be going out to Salinas to stay with my friend Pilar, who was in Cádiz with me and will be going to Granada, and her family. Every summer she comes out here to visit her family so not only is her Spanish really good, she is also extremely familiar with this part of Spain. Her family is letting me stay with them for free, which means I have a little more money to spend on the next few days at museums and things. I am planning on taking a day trip out to the national park up here called Picos de Europa. It was the first national park in Spain and is one of the most visited national parks in Europe. The exact place that I will be starting my hike from is Covadonga (in case you want to google map it). After taking some time away from the huge crowds that are all over Spain right now because of the Pope being in Madrid, I will go back to Pilar's for another night and then head over to Ribedesella to see one of the oldest caves in Spain, Cueva Tito Bustillo. While it is not the one in Altamira, the one that most people know of, it is supposed to be amazing and I will actually be allowed into the cave. The Paleolithic art is very similar to that in Altamira and there are stalactites and stalagmites throughout the cave as well. After this little adventure if I have time I will try to make it over to Altamira before going to Bilbao for the night. In Bilbao I will obviously go check out the Guggenheim but I think my friend Dorotia and I are going to take a day trip out to San Sebastian to see the beaches and some of the touristy
attractions over there. Finally, on the 23rd I will get on a bus at 8pm and start the day long trip back down south to Cádiz to pick up my luggage and will then go to Granada on the 25th. I check into my program on the 26th and start classes the following monday. While it seems as though I have tons of things to do in the next few days, I know that everything is going to continue to fly by. I cannot believe that my two week break is already half way done and that I will be in Granada shortly. So far during the past week I have been speaking more English than Spanish because most of the people that are staying in the hostels speak languages other than Spanish but they do know English. While traveling with Dan, Reid and Dorotia I have realized that a huge majority of the world speaks some degree of English and that while this is nice and great, in terms of communicating with people, it also means that when I am tired of dealing with pushy European people I cannot bad mouth them cause more likely than not they will understand what I am saying. Like I briefly said before, I am ready to not be around tons of tourists that, apparently, don't know how to walk properly, read street signs, or, like a woman this morning, know how to use the most basic coffee pot to make coffee. I think this woman wanted me to make it for her even though she is like 55 and should know how to figure out how to use a coffee maker. Sorry for the rant. I just realized that it is 9:00 and my bus leaves at 9:30 so I gotta go. Pics will have to wait a few days.
Love you all!

I Made It to Santiago de Compostela.

Hello Everyone~
Just so you all know that I am safe, I did make it to Santiago de Compostela and am at my hostel about ready to pass out. I slept for maybe 20 minutes on the bus ride because I was so interested in the book I was listening to on my ipod and cause I was enjoying the chance to see the different types of land that we were going through. I am continuously surprised by how similar the weather and different terrains are to California. There are times where I feel like I am in Santa Cruz, others Huntington or Mammoth, and still others where I feel like I am in Bakersfield (that is only a comment about the heat Malloys). Anyway, I am super tired and am going to go to sleep and maybe get a full nights rest. I love you all and will spend some time uploading more pics tomorrow.
Rachel

Salamanca

Hiya,

So my bus ride went well for the most part, I woke up a few times feeling as though my neck would never function the same way again, but other than that it was really easy and went by pretty fast. While some people have said that I should take buses or trains during the day so that I can see the countryside, I feel that traveling at night is better because a) I don't have to pay for a hostel that night and b) I can sleep for most of it so it makes the 8-12hour rides go by faster.

When I first arrived in Salamanca it was 6:45 am and it was still dark so I just hung out in the cafeteria reading and watching t.v. until it was light enough to walk to my hostel. I got a little lost but I got to see the city as the sun was just coming over the ancient buildings that are all over the place here. Anyways, I have only been here for a little more than 24 hours and I have already taken over 300 pictures. Obviously I cannot post them all, I wish there was a way that I could, but it just takes so long to load so I am going to post as many as I can. Actually, does anyone know how photo bucket or something like that, in which I could post all of my pics, works?

Oh, I forgot to mention that later in the day I was out walking around looking at the outside of the Salamanca University and this little old man came up to me and told me that I wasn't going to be able to find what I was looking for (you will see it in one of the pictures) that far away from the building and so he walked me closer and then proceeded to tell me the entire history of the building and all of the amazing facts about it. I ended up spending almost three hours with him walking around the city and listening to him talk about the history of the buildings, the city, and many other things. He is so knowledgeable about the history of this city and told me that it is because he just loves history and art. But he also has friends that are professors of history, art, and art history at the University so I am sure that is part of it as well. He also was a teacher so there you go. Alrighty, here are some pics.

This is the museum that is attached to the San Esteban Church

This is the San Esteban Church. I went inside it later with the little man I met and this is what it looked like. I wasn't supposed to take pictures because there was a service going on but it was so spectacular that I couldn't help it.

 I thought this was cool even though it is a sewage thing. 

This is a Roman bridge that crosses over a lagoon area.

The New Cathedral

Side View of the New Cathedral

This is backside of the New Cathedral.

Up-close pic of what is above the door of the New Cathedral. All of the following pictures are from inside the New Cathedral.

 This is the Plaza Mayor.  My hostel is really close to here. Well, my hostel is really close to everything here.

This is the other side of the Plaza Mayor. These buildings surround the Plaza so it is pretty much enclosed by them.

This is the top of Palacio Monterey.

This is the Palacio Monterey.

This is the San Benito church. Yesterday I found this on my own and then Miguel brought me back and showed me something that I never would have noticed. 

 This is the Casa de las Conchas, which means the house of shells because all of those bump looking things are shells. Now it is a library. But the inside views are spectacular.

This is from the inside plaza area. The picture on the right shows the Clerecía, which is an amazing church.

Almost all of the palaces and churches have gargoyles or mythical creatures surrounding the tops.

Ok, I have many more pics that I want to upload but I need to go get a snack. I'll post some more later. The internet access that I have at this hostel makes uploading much easier. Hope you enjoyed these ones so far though. 

Rachel

Hello!

Hi ~
So, I am so sorry that it has taken so long to write anything to you guys. I have had very little internet access the past few weeks and have only been able to quickly check emails and things like that.

The girls in the pictures are Alison and Rosellen. They are by far my two best girl friends here. Reid is the other person that I love the most and I will post a pic with him soon.

So today is my last day in Cádiz and we are all getting ready to leave. It is really crazy and somewhat surreal that I have already been here for a month and that all of the people that I become really close with are now going separate ways. Some people are going to Italy, others to Portugal, a couple to France and then some of us are traveling throughout Spain. Originally, I wanted to go out of the country and explore Europe but I have realized that I am in Spain to be in Spain. And now, I am super excited. I am starting my travels by going from Cádiz to Salamanca. It is a little bit north and west of Madrid. I am leaving tonight the 12th at 9:10 on a bus and will arrive tomorrow morning at 6:30ish. I will be staying at a hostel called Revolutum. It is close to the city center and that is where I will be spending most of my time. I am super excited to start going to museums and cathedrals and things like that by myself cause going with people that don't want to be there is not fun.

Classes ended well and I will get my grades in a few weeks, but I am sure everything turned out well. The culture class was interesting but it was a little long to sit through every day but I learned a lot about Spanish history. I do feel like the classes were in no way challenging but I am about to get my but kicked in Granada. For my culture final I had to write a free response about the artwork of an artist that we learned about and it took me a really long time and I am sure that there were a bunch os silly mistakes. I am going to start studying more and more once I am in Granada because I don't want to struggle with writing essays later on in the year.

Here are some pictures.

This was the sunset that we saw as we drove back from kayaking.

I went to the tallest tower in Cádiz and got to take all of these amazing pictures of the city from 45m in the sky.

I love you all and am going to upload some more pics in a few hours.

Pictures

Pictures

Bolonia and an Olive Oil Mill/Tasting

Hello again. Here are the pictures from last weeks cultural excursion. We went to a city called Bolonia which consisted of an entirely white washed community on the side of a hill that looked out over the aqueduct. At the top of the hill was the ruins of the old castle/fortress. Then we went to an olive oil mill and got to walk around and learn about the process of making different kinds of olive oil. And then... I got to taste it will some freshly baked bread. A nice surprise of fresh local cheese, their home made wine, and some nice prosciutto to help enhance the flavors of the olive oil. They also brought out an amazing tortilla, not the kind that any of you are thinking of. The closest thing I can think of is a quiche but that isn't really right. It is a fluffy egg thing with cheese and potatoes usually. Sometimes they put onions, bell peppers or chiles in it also. No matter what they decide to put in it they are usually quite good but these ones were absolutely amazing. I hope you all can enjoy the pictures without getting to jealous or hungry. LOVE YOU ALL!

Oh... I forgot that I also got to go to a special/private presentation on Flamenco with my culture class on Thursday. It was one of the coolest things I have done so far. I have never felt so much emotion come through a singers voice or the music itself. The guitar player was incredibly talented and the singers voices were like nothing I have ever hear, except for things online, which in no way do the singers justice. I will try to upload a video but it might have to be its own post.

Love,

Rachel

I have been trying to upload pictures for over an hour and this is the only one that cam all the way through. Sorry. I will try to get more up in the next few days.

A quick hello

Hi Everyone,

Sorry I haven't posted any pictures for a while. I have been having trouble accessing the internet and then I got a cold a few days ago so I just slept all day yesterday and am trying to get the little work that I have to do for my classes done in the next few days. But pictures will be coming soon. Promise.

Rachel