and now everyone speaks spanish

winter break in europe. do i need to elaborate any further?

first stop was lisbon which i will be returning to, especially since i now speak fluent portuguese. 

but i already talked about that so next stop barcelona, where i also happen to speak the native tongue, or both of them.  em and i got back around midnight and after saying hello to her host mom, we were back out on las ramblas looking to start our night. we met griffin, andrew, and ethan and did a lot of walking around. we were approached by drug dealers, prostitutes and samosa dealers many time that night and were almost attacked by catalonian rats. and there might or might not have been a guy trying to kill us. meh.

the next day i met up with sam and we went to the contemporary art museum. so freaking cool. we got to walk on glass, played with bocce balls and got to visit a real life boom boom room. there were some damn good skaters outside so we decided to go back the next day and have lunch there. unfortunately, skaters in barcelona aren't as hard core as we thought they would be. they go to school. so we only saw about 4 rather than the 50something that we saw the day before. eh. there at least were creepy man statues on las ramblas.

  

sam and i parted ways and i met em for an aperatif that just so happened to be followed by a second aperatif of sangria. oh the joys of sangria. everyone i know, get to perfecting it right now. i want copious amounts of it when i get back. hop to it.

while in barcelona i also managed to do sagrada familia. it's kind of surreal seeing something that you've wanted to your whole life. i remember way back during a summer course when i saw pictures of it thinking it was the most magnificent building on earth. seeing it in person only confirmed my 4th grade suspicions. i paid the extra fare to go up into one of the towers. just wow. i can now understand why they are trying to canonize gaudi.

lots of more things seen in barça, but it would just get exhausting to write and describe. suffice it to say that i'm going back no matter what.

the next stop on my trip was madrid. in short: madrid

i spent a lot of time sleeping in the hostel and in order not to be lame spontaneously asked a girl at the hostel to coffee and it turned out to be my best choice in madrid because it made madrid a lot more. lindsay (newfound canadian friend) and i went out for sangria later that night at a couple of bars. we talked endlessly, i got to make fun of her accent as it came out more and more with each glass of sangria, i arm-wrestled  a lithuanian guy with both hands (and obviously won), got kicked off a children's play structure by spanish police, and got asked to swing.  good way to say good bye to madrid no?

well. now i'm back. only six weeks until my next break. 

 

portugal, the country next to spain

it is sunday morning and i am quite sad that the weekend has passed by so quickly, because it means that i have to leave the best place on earth. lisbon, portugal for those of you that are not all that familiar kicks ass. emily and i just randomly decided to visit with no idea what there was to do or see. we only knew that they spoke a drunken form of spanish (confirmed).

i caught a 7 hour bus ride from aix to barcelona, met emily at 6am and made it straight to the airport to catch our 8am flight. i realized that this was going to be an amazing trip when trying to get through security, i saw the women in front of me crying to the security. upon closer inspection, i came to see that she was trying to get an 8 inch kitchen knife through security and onto the plane. she kept on begging to let her take it on board because it was a ceramic knife and could not really do anything with it. plus all of this was in spanish, which i so happen to speak fluently. suck it french.

as em and i are trying to find our hostel, we are approached twice, by creepy looking men looking to sell us weed and hash. this happened many more times throughout our weekend and the drugs offered ranged from weed to cocaine, all of which they can pronounce in perfect english.

the hostel that we're in right now is the best place i've ever been. there are bean bags, mancala, and macs. need i say more? the people who work here are too cool and i actually want to stay here and marry julie, a perky swiss flamengo dancer who works here and has a tongue ring that glows in black light. oh the conversations that you get in when you're hostel has a kegerator... the people that we've met here are all really chill and we've had a great time interacting with all

lisbon is a great old city with cobblestone streets, beautifully decaying buildings, and a great atmosphere. we went to a few churches, did a lot of walking around through side streets, and just roaming the city. yesterday, on our way back from a town called Belem, we decided to have lunch in a small local café. em got to sit next to an 83 year old portuguese man that was just finishing a bottle of wine as we arrived. he was cherry red, entranced by us, and kept on speaking in portuguese with us. he laughed out loud, made fun of emily and was too interesting. amazing time. he actually made em do math on the table. we are considering going back there right now and bringing him home.

there's been wine, free egg and toast breakfasts, getting to know people everywhere from australia to london to san francisco. we are about to check out though i really wish we could just stay here all week. off to barça in a few hours. in the meantime, we will be visiting a castle.

foo da fa fa

lyon happened this weekend. i finally got a chance to get out of aix and go to a different city without the program. gina and i made plans to meet up in lyon in order to avoid the fact that most of our friends were going to be off visiting their significant others while we were going be stuck in france with nothing to do on valentines day.
neither of us really knew much about lyon other than the fact that it is roughly between aix and paris and we chose it out of convenience. funny thing though, we came to find that lyon is actually a pretty cool place.
we spent most of the time being tourists, walking around and seeing the the sites. there was a huge cathedral up on a hill overlooking the city. it ended up being quite a walk but it turned out to be worth it as there were also roman ruins nearby. and even better, there was an english couple who kept on talking and it caused to to start speaking with english accents. we then went to the museum of fine arts which had a pretty decent collection of art. it took good long while to get through it, even after we tried expediting the visit by avoiding some areas.
after a nap we went out to dinner. finding a decent restaurant on valentines day is tough. especially when you don't really understand what the menu says and you risk ordering blood pudding, tripe sausage, or some other surprises. it took about an hour to find a restaurant, but it was well worth it. lyon is considered to be france's gastronomical capital, and i have to say that the food was delicious. always in the spirit of embarrassing gina, i asked the waiter on the side how i could ask my girlfriend to marry me à la français. i told gina this when i got back to the table and needless to say, she turned bright red. she avoided eye contact with the waiter and rushed us out of the restaurant. i got a bon chance from the waiter and a wink. i got props from a frenchman. baller.
all in all, it turned out to be a pretty good weekend. though i am a little disappointed that we didn't get to go on the ferris wheel. that's two ferris wheels that i've seen and have yet to get on.

and just in case you all want to know what france is really like:
voilá

to the coast

hey santi, what did you do this weekend?

oh i just went to the french riviera, visited Nice, Cannes, Monaco, and stayed in a hostel run by Germans who threw a discotheque for us.

saturday morning, all of us at the center loaded onto two tour buses and made our way towards the mediterranean. our first stop was Nice. one of the most gorgeous places that i have ever been to. there was a long boardwalk, pebble beaches, and just ludicrous views. after visiting the beach and walking around a bit, a group of us decided that we wanted authentic food, so we headed straight towards the buffalo grill. wings and burgers for our first meal on the côte d'azure. pretty legit.

we went to the top of the cliff that lies on a sort of little peninsula that allows you to see both halves of Nice. the view is more than amazing. i have a few of them up on my flickr, but they do not compare to what it's like up on that cliff. it makes sense that russian royalty and aristocracy from all around the world has been coming to this very spot for a long while now.

next we went to Eze which looks like a medival village. it is located high on a cliff overlooking the mediterranean. as i was walking through the narrow cobblestone streets i was expecting to find a few wenches and maybe a dragon or two.

we went to the hostel and had dinner before most of us made our way to the principality of Monaco. during the bus ride there, we learned that monaco is very strict on it's appearance, as the casino industry is one of the main sources of income (and oddly enough the citizens are not allowed to gamble). apparently they even have a secret police that's around to make sure that everyone keeps in line. we were told to dress nicely if we were 21 and inteded to gamble. i and a few others who weren't 21 just went dressed as we were and this turned out to be a small mistake. upon arriving, you see the Monte Carlo casino beautifully light up and the park in front it full of fountains gives it a good introduction. we tried to get into the casino to see what it looked like on the inside, but as we tried to get in, the doorman asked us for our passports. he hadn't asked anyone else who was dressed up nicely for theirs. eh. fuck it. after walking around for a while, my friend channon and i decided that we needed some drinks. one would assume being of legal drinking age that obtaining alcohol would be easy, but holy crap did we need to trek to find a bar. we had to climb uphill for about 20 minutes until we found a bar just to get a glass of wine.

once back at the hostel, entertainment ensued. there was a discotheque held in the cafeteria for us. at first it seemed very reminiscent of a middle school dance but then we all realized that there was a bar there. needless to say, things picked up quickly. it was a magical night that included shooting stars, texts, and katy perry.

the last stop on our trip was Cannes. it was a little of the same: beautiful beaches and great views.

all of the pictures are up on my flickr in case you're dying to see where i was this past weekend.

hyper bowl monday

experiencing one of the most american events in a foreign country is quite fun. it makes you appreciate them all that much more. i had the pleasure of being in aix for the super bowl. unfortunately for us, the game started at 12 am on a monday. the bar that we were all supposed to watch the game at got denied the permit to stay open until four so that we could watch the game. we then all met up at o'shannon, another bar that televises sports. i ended up going by myself because the two guys that live nearby felt that it was either too late or too cold to go out. tear.

you usually find a fair amount of americans at o'shannon, but this was a little ridiculous. i found some friends, ordered some a few pints (stella happens to be the house draft), and made new american friends. there was a projector showing soccer highlights in the main room full of rowdy americans. only until about 2 minutes before kickoff did they change the tv to the game. then we got to watch football with french commentary. awesome. for about two seconds.

at about 2:20, the bar turned on all the lights, turned off the tv, told us they weren't serving beer anymore. us americans, born dissenters, started singing the national anthem. it was a little sloppy, but we did our best. many people left, but a few of us stood outside the bar for a bit. all of a sudden, an english guy, james, that was befriended by a few of the girls in the program, offered up his place to finish watching the game. forward ho! about a dozen of us began to follow james, who walks at quite a brisk pace. we all assumed when he offered up his place that he lived nearby. false. it turns out that james lives about a mile outside the city, in a dorm. a dorm? but santi, aren't dorm rooms small and cramped? quite right. there were 15 of us in a single watching the superbowl on a 12 screen with rabbit ears, eating top ramen and chicken sandwiches that james so graciously prepared for us on his george forman grill. wine and the most extraordinary boxed sangria that i have ever tasted was also served. ha. james got a few angry texts and neighbors pounding on the wall, but he didn't mind. the game came to a disappointing finish for those of use who wanted the cards (or reds, if you're james) to win but it was entertaining, nonetheless.

then came time to leave which ended up being the most ridiculous part of the night, believe it or not. it proves useful to mention that i had no idea where we were. i just knew that we walked about a mile east or southeast of the center of town. everyone else went back towards the center, i on the other hand, not wanting to backtrack since i live directly south, decided that i would find a way to find my way home from the dorm. all i needed to do was head southwest. in the rain. at 4 in the morning. in a town that i don't know. easy.

i ended up jogging for about half an hour, up and down streets, down alleys and through parks. i could not find one single landmark or sign that could direct me anywhere familiar. i decided that it was now time to call a cab. i waited for twenty minutes and then came to the conclusion that i did not want to spend between 5 and 20 euro on a cab, depending on where i was, so i started jogging again.

turns out, i was 5 minutes away from my house.

and that's how we do the superbowl in france. i just wish wings were involved.