One of the big parties/festivals in Spain is Carnaval. The two best places to see it are in Cadiz, in the southern part of the penninsula and in the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa. We deicded to go to the Canary islands for the good weather and the atmosphere. I went with my friend Alissa and our Spanish/Italtian friends. They had booked the reservation for us and we got the flight and three nights in the only 5 star hotel in Santa Cruz, The Sheraton, but more commonly known as the Hotel Mensey.
We got up super early on Friday and caught the metro to the aiport. The flight is around 2hrs and 45min. Bascially the longest flight to go anywhere in Spain. We had decided to rent a car because it would make transportation and sightseeing a lot easier epsecially because we planned on going all the way around the island. We found out that because of Carnaval, all of the cars were gone. But we apparently managed to get the last one? A long toyota that they told us was diesel, but actually was gas...
Once we got into Santa Cruz we checked into the hotel and went for a walk and to grab some lunch. The Canary islands are an hour behind the pennisula time. The hotel is very interesting. The lobbies are very nice and the terraces are also very nice, but there are trying to expand the hotel and to the view from the back side of the hotel is all of the construction site. Not a very prettty back drop. The rooms were nice and ours had a terrace. The food in Tenerife is very cheap. We went to this Juice bar/cafe and we got normal sized sanwhiches for 2 or 3 euros. There is fruit everywhere and bright colors from the plants all over the place. There was a park right next to our hotel with is the recently remodeled Parque de Garcia Sanabria. It is gorgeous. It has tropical plants like hibiscus and torch and wild ginger, it also has bamboo covered paths and fountains and little art installments. There are lots of random bursts of color everywhere because of the Fuscia plants that are hung in random places.
We walked down some of the main parts of the town, but everyone was at siesta so we didn´t see too many people. There were a bunch of stands that sold costumes for carnaval. Alissa and I were very unsure of what carnaval exactly entails and over the course of the trip we decided that it is bascially a ten day halloween. People get dressed up in random costumes, bascially what we call halloween costumes and go party in the street for 10 days in a row. There are parades and other music things as well, but its one big dress up party. We had decided that we would go as FBI agents because we found some funny FBI shirts for all of us in a random store in Madrid. We also bought some of the traditional Carnaval masks.
To save money, we went to the grocery store and loaded up on sandwhich materials and drink mixing supplies which we loaded into our mini fridges. We took a nap and then got ready to go out and see the parade. The problem with this night was that as we were in the supermarket, it started to rain heavily. We found out later, as we were going out to see the parade, that this meant the parade was canceled. Later on in the night, we found out that it probably caused many people not to out because the street parties that we encountered were not very crowded. The street parties we did find were interesting because there were trucks that people had decorated in a certain way that each had their own type of music playing. The trucks were all in a row on a street. Try to image a street lined with taco trucks of all different kinds of tacos...There was also a place along the port that had carnival rides and carnival food stands. A big thing was the baked potato. And cotton candy. We also passed a soft serve truck and a California Ice cream truck.
The following day, Alissa was ill so I went with the boys to the beach Las Teresitas. It is an amazing beach. A huge cresent of sand and clear blue water with a break so there are pretty much no waves. One side of the beach harbors some colorful boats and the rest is open to swimming. I was soooo excited to be on the beach with sand and sun and water. That is definalty something that I miss in Madrid. There is no water close by. The water at the beach was kinda cold but I went in for a swim anyway and it was glorious. After the beach we went and collected Alissa from the hotel and drove half way around the island to Puerto de la Cruz. Which is a very very touristy area to be with a beautiful coastline. There were so many foreigners and all of the restaurants had their menus in 4 languages. I felt like I was in Waikiki but with out the Asians. All sorts of lobster red people and tourist shops and beautiful coast.
That night we were finaly able to see the Cabalgata, or the parade. We walked down to closer to where the cabalgata started which in the end was a good idea because otherwise we would have been waiting for ages even for the thing to get to us. They move at a snails pace. The first half hour or so was just different groups of people dressed up at different types of clowns. Their costumes were very elaborate and colorful, but after a while they all started to look the same. If they had drums accompanying them then they all played the same beat and kinda marched around. They were mostly groups of kids and there were even some who were really just todlers. Those ones were really cute. We saw various different Carnaval queens from the youngest one to the senior one. We saw some fire blowers and some people on stilts. When the parade of clowns passed we finally got to see the dancers with their huge feather get-ups, like the kind you see in pictures of Rio at Carnival. Their head pieces and feather things were HUGE. They must have been so heavy and the girls were wearing heels and dancing around. After a while we got tired of the slow pace. One of the queens had a fainting spell. We could never tell which was the actual Queen queen of carnival, but the one who fainted looked like she was queen of fruit... We got some sandwhiches for dinner and then hung went back to the hotel with the aim of going out later. No such luck. Spending the day driving around and being in the sun took its toll on us and we all passed out around midnight.
The next morning we took full advantage of being in a 5 star hotel. The way we first did this was to go to the full breakfast that they serve. It was amazing. They had spanish cold cuts and cheese and sausages and bacon and eggs and cereal and fruit and fresh juice and pastries. We ate so much food (partially so that we wouldn´t have to eat so much later). After we digested breakfast a little we hopped in the car and started driving around the island. We planned to hit two cities and see the Teide, the highest mountain in Spain. We ended up driving past the mountain and stopping in several small places. We went to see the oldest tree in the world. Its a Drogo tree. It looks like a tree. I thought it would be all witherd like an old man...but not so. We also tasted wines and banana flavoured liquer. Since bananas are everywhere banana flavouring is used a lot. We stopped by the coast before we climbed the moutains to get to Los Gigantes. Los Gigantes are basically cliffs that must have been the inspiration or the back drop for the Cliffs of Insanity scene in the Princess Bride. They looked exactly like that. We stopped by some beaches and then hit the big well known beach called Playa las Americas. It is made up of several nice cresents of sand. We enjoyed the beach and then went to get something to eat. We had planned to see what the Carnaval parties were like on the otherside of the island where a lot of tourists are but someone told us that everyone was going to go to Santa Cruz so after we finished our snack/dinner we drove back to Santa Cruz only to find out that nobody does anything on Sunday. We did make a complete loop around the island, which was pretty cool.
On Monday we ate a great breakfast and went back to Teresitas beach and sunbathed and swam. It was so nice and relaxing. We got some seafood for a late lunch and then drove to the airport. I think I am a fan of little fried fresh sardines.
Over all it was an interesting trip because we went to party and to see the island and were able to enjoy the island more because we were not hungover. I would really like to go back because it is a very calm place with lots of sun and really cool plants and cheap and fresh food. I keep forgetting that it is way far south almost more south than Morocco. Its probably the furthest flight from Madrid. Almost 3 hrs. In some aspects it was very much like Hawaii but it was missing the humidness and was a lot more landscaped. In other words, a European Hawaii.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Winter in Madrid
After Rebecca left and school started again, life in the winter has been cold, but pretty non-eventful. It snowed a handful of times again. The older kids at the school were supposed to go skiing one week, but it got canceled because of the road conditions.
Jan 31 is Peace day. I don´t know where this comes from, but its a holiday and the schools have the day off. Our school celebrated by having kind of a presentation where each grade presents something to do with peace and then they wore different colored headbands and created a huge rainbow.
We got two more assistants. One is to replace the older woman who was an assisant. She left to take a real teaching position. He is Texan, but has lived in Spain for 8 years with his spanish wife and kids. The other new one is from Washington and has spent a good part of the last 6 years in Spain studying or working. He did the Middleberry Masters program. It is interesting to have more assistants and to see what they think of being at the school.
Recently, the weather has been nice and warm and sunny. It abruptly changed one week and we went from freezing to warm.
I have a new flatmate. He is french and finishing his degree as a graphic design student. He learned his spanish in Colombia. I got the oven in my apartment fixeds so now I can make all manner of baked goods and reheat things and buy frozen foods. We finally also cleaned out our freezer. It took about two weeks for us to get all of the ice out.
I´m hoping the weather stays nice for a while and doesn´t start raining buckets or go back to freezing degree weather. For the Spring time I have lots of travel planned to hit up the big festivals of Spain.
Jan 31 is Peace day. I don´t know where this comes from, but its a holiday and the schools have the day off. Our school celebrated by having kind of a presentation where each grade presents something to do with peace and then they wore different colored headbands and created a huge rainbow.
We got two more assistants. One is to replace the older woman who was an assisant. She left to take a real teaching position. He is Texan, but has lived in Spain for 8 years with his spanish wife and kids. The other new one is from Washington and has spent a good part of the last 6 years in Spain studying or working. He did the Middleberry Masters program. It is interesting to have more assistants and to see what they think of being at the school.
Recently, the weather has been nice and warm and sunny. It abruptly changed one week and we went from freezing to warm.
I have a new flatmate. He is french and finishing his degree as a graphic design student. He learned his spanish in Colombia. I got the oven in my apartment fixeds so now I can make all manner of baked goods and reheat things and buy frozen foods. We finally also cleaned out our freezer. It took about two weeks for us to get all of the ice out.
I´m hoping the weather stays nice for a while and doesn´t start raining buckets or go back to freezing degree weather. For the Spring time I have lots of travel planned to hit up the big festivals of Spain.
Monday, January 26, 2009
A second shot at Barca and Reyes
New Years Day we all met up at El Tigre to grab some food. Rebecca and I only went once in the day, the boys went twice. On the second Rebecca and I caught an early flight to Barcelona. Although I´m not really fond of Barcelona because I find it too much like LA and too touristy, I decided to go with Rebecca to give it a second shot. The last time I had gone to Barcelona I think that it was overwhelming in the fact that the program constantly took us different places. Because we had a limited amount of time last time I visited it was a constant influx of info that was just a little too much to handle. This time I planned to walk around a little more to see what Barcelona apart from Gaudi was.
Our Hostel wouldn´t let us in when we got there so we wandered a little bit. Its a very large hostel that sometimes hosts groups. They give you free breakfast as well as free acess to the gym next door which also had a pool. Although it didn´t really have a common area or a lot of character, it was a pretty good hostel.
We went to see the Cathdral as soon as we got in and then tried to find the History of the city Museum, which for the life of us we could not find eventhough we walked around it a bunch of times. Every map we had gave us a different perspective of where we were in terms of how far away sights were from each other and how to get there. Some didn´t have all the streets labled and some were just plain wrong. We went to the very modern Santa Cristina´s Market which has a roof that looks like it came from the same architect that designed Barajas airport T4 in Madrid. We ended up walking past the Arc de Triompf and past the Natural history museum. We went for lunch at a Cafeteria after trying to find a place that wasn´t too horribly touristy. I had an amazing pan seared steak (it might have helped that I was REALLY hungry) and Rebecca had one of the largest Spansih tortillas ever. After lunch I went to the chocolate museum and she went to the Naval and Textile Museum. THe chocolate museum was cool because they give you chocolate with your ticket and then there is a history of chocolate and some impressive art pieces made of chocolate (see the pictures in the shutterfly album). The strange part of the museum was that it somehow got to talking about FC Barcelona sports club. And then went back to talking about chocolates. The museum is connected to a pastry school and they have demostrations in the same building.
After the chocolate museum I went back to the Natural science museum because they advertised something like a murder mystery inside. Turns out that its is a huge interactive exhibit where you get clues to follow about a case that they created and you have to try and solve the murder. They take you through genetics testing, and material testing, and testimonials from the suspects and forensics and shoe prints, and ballistics and everything that you see people do on CSI. If I had had more time it would have been really exciting, but I was in a rush to see that exhibit and go to the permanent exhibit. What is fun is at the end of the murder case exhibit, you don´t find out who did it. (well fun and frustrating) you say who you think did it and then your vote gets added into the votes of other people.
After I finished with the special exhibit I went upstairs to see the permanent exhibit. It was kind of like being inside some crazy old scienc professor´s laboratory because all of the animals that were there were very old, and looked like they have been through a lot. It also is freezing cold and smells like preserved critters. Some of their animals were very interesting. They had a whole row of gigantic birds and they had butterflies. They had the animal, its name, where it could be found and if it was extinct or endangered. They also had the species, homo sapian...which can aparently be found ALL over the world...;-)
After the Natural Science Museum, I met up with Alvar, our exchange student from ten years ago who we saw over the summer when he came with Google to Ca. He was home in Barcelona visiting his family for vacation. We walked up and down La Rambla, the large touristy street in Barcelona.
The following day we went very early to the Sagrada Familia. It is still as impressive and looksl like it still hasn´t changed in the two years since I last saw it. We went up the elevator to the top and then walked the stairs down. It was fun to get a different view of the cathedral. We also went under the cathedral to see the museum. After the cathedral we went over to Sant Cugat where our family friends live and had lunch with them.
Later in the evening we tried to get into a FC Barcelona football match, but scalpers were selling tickets at regular prices so we decided not to go.
The following day we had amazing weather for our visit to Parc Güell, the park commmunity that Gaudi designed but never finished. We definatley lucked out because the whole rest of the trip was more overcast and gloomy except for the day we went to Parc Güell. We went by way of public transit and had to climb up the hill to get to the park. There is a series of escalators and stairwells that lead up to the back entrance which give you great views of the city.
We took the AVE train back to Madrid on the morning of the 5th to be back in the city in time for the Three Kings Parade. There were so many people out for the parade that it was hard to see anything. I was able to watch part of it on TV and then we went out to see it live. It ended in Plaza Cibeles with a speech given by the Reyes and then fireworks. I was very happy to see so many fireworks in a short amount of time.
Our Hostel wouldn´t let us in when we got there so we wandered a little bit. Its a very large hostel that sometimes hosts groups. They give you free breakfast as well as free acess to the gym next door which also had a pool. Although it didn´t really have a common area or a lot of character, it was a pretty good hostel.
We went to see the Cathdral as soon as we got in and then tried to find the History of the city Museum, which for the life of us we could not find eventhough we walked around it a bunch of times. Every map we had gave us a different perspective of where we were in terms of how far away sights were from each other and how to get there. Some didn´t have all the streets labled and some were just plain wrong. We went to the very modern Santa Cristina´s Market which has a roof that looks like it came from the same architect that designed Barajas airport T4 in Madrid. We ended up walking past the Arc de Triompf and past the Natural history museum. We went for lunch at a Cafeteria after trying to find a place that wasn´t too horribly touristy. I had an amazing pan seared steak (it might have helped that I was REALLY hungry) and Rebecca had one of the largest Spansih tortillas ever. After lunch I went to the chocolate museum and she went to the Naval and Textile Museum. THe chocolate museum was cool because they give you chocolate with your ticket and then there is a history of chocolate and some impressive art pieces made of chocolate (see the pictures in the shutterfly album). The strange part of the museum was that it somehow got to talking about FC Barcelona sports club. And then went back to talking about chocolates. The museum is connected to a pastry school and they have demostrations in the same building.
After the chocolate museum I went back to the Natural science museum because they advertised something like a murder mystery inside. Turns out that its is a huge interactive exhibit where you get clues to follow about a case that they created and you have to try and solve the murder. They take you through genetics testing, and material testing, and testimonials from the suspects and forensics and shoe prints, and ballistics and everything that you see people do on CSI. If I had had more time it would have been really exciting, but I was in a rush to see that exhibit and go to the permanent exhibit. What is fun is at the end of the murder case exhibit, you don´t find out who did it. (well fun and frustrating) you say who you think did it and then your vote gets added into the votes of other people.
After I finished with the special exhibit I went upstairs to see the permanent exhibit. It was kind of like being inside some crazy old scienc professor´s laboratory because all of the animals that were there were very old, and looked like they have been through a lot. It also is freezing cold and smells like preserved critters. Some of their animals were very interesting. They had a whole row of gigantic birds and they had butterflies. They had the animal, its name, where it could be found and if it was extinct or endangered. They also had the species, homo sapian...which can aparently be found ALL over the world...;-)
After the Natural Science Museum, I met up with Alvar, our exchange student from ten years ago who we saw over the summer when he came with Google to Ca. He was home in Barcelona visiting his family for vacation. We walked up and down La Rambla, the large touristy street in Barcelona.
The following day we went very early to the Sagrada Familia. It is still as impressive and looksl like it still hasn´t changed in the two years since I last saw it. We went up the elevator to the top and then walked the stairs down. It was fun to get a different view of the cathedral. We also went under the cathedral to see the museum. After the cathedral we went over to Sant Cugat where our family friends live and had lunch with them.
Later in the evening we tried to get into a FC Barcelona football match, but scalpers were selling tickets at regular prices so we decided not to go.
The following day we had amazing weather for our visit to Parc Güell, the park commmunity that Gaudi designed but never finished. We definatley lucked out because the whole rest of the trip was more overcast and gloomy except for the day we went to Parc Güell. We went by way of public transit and had to climb up the hill to get to the park. There is a series of escalators and stairwells that lead up to the back entrance which give you great views of the city.
We took the AVE train back to Madrid on the morning of the 5th to be back in the city in time for the Three Kings Parade. There were so many people out for the parade that it was hard to see anything. I was able to watch part of it on TV and then we went out to see it live. It ended in Plaza Cibeles with a speech given by the Reyes and then fireworks. I was very happy to see so many fireworks in a short amount of time.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Feliz 2009!
After Christmas, my friend Rebecca from school came for a three week visit. I had another friend from work who was studying in Barcelona also popped over to Madrid for New Years. With Rebecca I did a free walking tour of Madrid which was entertaining and informative. We were not able to make it into the Palace but we went up the Cathedral and saw great views of the city. All three of us took a trip to Toledo (this is now my most visited Spanish city, that I haven´t lived in). It is still beautiful and interesting. We found a sword smith´s shop and played around inside for alittle and then we went to the great bridge of San Martin that goes over the river. Alex and I took a detour under the bridge to check out the generator and we ran into some guys fishing on the banks. They even had fish! Its funny how you can visit places multiple times and still manage to see different things, even in a town as small as the old part of Toledo.
My work friend Alex got us hooked on a tapas bar/sidereria called El Tigre. It is always jam packed with mostly young people because you can order a caña (small beer) and get a large plate of food. Usually if you order a drink they will give you a plate of potatoes or one item, but at El Tigre you get patatas bravas, croquetas, and little bread tapas all for the cost of the caña. If you have 2 or 3 people you can order 2 or three rounds of small beers and eat dinner for 5 euros. Its amazing and the food is pretty good. We are in the habit of going twice a week now. Sometimes its so crowded that you really feel like a sardine.
After our first El Tigre experience we were walking back into Sol when we run into hordes of people and some of my friends. Aparently on the night before new years there is a tradition called ¨pre uvas´, or pre new years. There is a traidition in Spain to eat 12 grapes with the first chimes of the New years for good luck. One ¨highly respectable´source says that the tradition dates back to 1909 when the harvesters had an over abundance of grapes and were able to somehow convince the Spanish to eath 12 grapes on New Years for luck. Some people argue that this would have been highly improbable, but never the less it is the traidition now. The younger people started doing it the night before new years so that on new years they could spent the time with their families. It was basically the same thing. However since we were tired we left our celebrating for the actual NYE. On NYE we prepared our grapes and I had Alex and Rebecca and a new friend from a hostel Sean and we had pasta. It was great to figure out how many people I can get into my small common area. Our coffee table folds out into a large table top. After dinner we grabbed our grapes and our bottle of fizzy beverage of choice and headed down to Sol. The police had set up barricades and weren´t letting bottles inside the blocked off area but we hit ours and snuck them in. Its much more exciting popping a bottle and drinking from it than from a cup at midnight. The place was packed, mostly with Italians and English Speakers. They had lights on the clock tower and at 12 there were amazing fireworks. the strange thing is that we didn´t hear the clock chime so we didn´t know when to eat out grapes. If you watch on TV you can hear the chimes but I guess when you are down there between all the masses you can´t really hear much except people and fireworks. After we watched the fireworks and made our way out of the masses of people we went back to my friend´s hostel and hung out and then went to another friend´s flat to hang out because all the clubs and most of the bars charged a huge cover fee (40 for the cheap bars and up to 100 or more for the clubs). It was fun to be with friends to ring in the New Year.
My work friend Alex got us hooked on a tapas bar/sidereria called El Tigre. It is always jam packed with mostly young people because you can order a caña (small beer) and get a large plate of food. Usually if you order a drink they will give you a plate of potatoes or one item, but at El Tigre you get patatas bravas, croquetas, and little bread tapas all for the cost of the caña. If you have 2 or 3 people you can order 2 or three rounds of small beers and eat dinner for 5 euros. Its amazing and the food is pretty good. We are in the habit of going twice a week now. Sometimes its so crowded that you really feel like a sardine.
After our first El Tigre experience we were walking back into Sol when we run into hordes of people and some of my friends. Aparently on the night before new years there is a tradition called ¨pre uvas´, or pre new years. There is a traidition in Spain to eat 12 grapes with the first chimes of the New years for good luck. One ¨highly respectable´source says that the tradition dates back to 1909 when the harvesters had an over abundance of grapes and were able to somehow convince the Spanish to eath 12 grapes on New Years for luck. Some people argue that this would have been highly improbable, but never the less it is the traidition now. The younger people started doing it the night before new years so that on new years they could spent the time with their families. It was basically the same thing. However since we were tired we left our celebrating for the actual NYE. On NYE we prepared our grapes and I had Alex and Rebecca and a new friend from a hostel Sean and we had pasta. It was great to figure out how many people I can get into my small common area. Our coffee table folds out into a large table top. After dinner we grabbed our grapes and our bottle of fizzy beverage of choice and headed down to Sol. The police had set up barricades and weren´t letting bottles inside the blocked off area but we hit ours and snuck them in. Its much more exciting popping a bottle and drinking from it than from a cup at midnight. The place was packed, mostly with Italians and English Speakers. They had lights on the clock tower and at 12 there were amazing fireworks. the strange thing is that we didn´t hear the clock chime so we didn´t know when to eat out grapes. If you watch on TV you can hear the chimes but I guess when you are down there between all the masses you can´t really hear much except people and fireworks. After we watched the fireworks and made our way out of the masses of people we went back to my friend´s hostel and hung out and then went to another friend´s flat to hang out because all the clubs and most of the bars charged a huge cover fee (40 for the cheap bars and up to 100 or more for the clubs). It was fun to be with friends to ring in the New Year.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Frohe Weihnachten!!
That's "Merry Christmas" in German.
My school put on a Christmas performance where all the grades performed something. Grade 1 sang a variation of Rudolph the red nosed reindeer and I didn't get a chance to see third grade sing Santa Claus is coming to town. They were really cute.
As soon as I was done with school on the 18 I went off to Munich with my friend Chelsea. We were there from the 19 to the 23. It was really really fun. I was amazed at the amount of good English that was spoken. Chelsea and I went wandering around to find all the amazing Christmas Markets that were around Munich. We did a free walking tour put on by this company called New Europe in Spanish because there were less people in the tour given in Spanish than then tour given in English.
Apart from the myriad of Christmas Markets that we stumbled upon, I particularly liked the Viktualien Markt. It is basically a HUGE open air produce and cheese and wine and meat market that operates year around everyday except Sunday. Essentially a really awesome farmer's market, but with out the super local stuff. A lot of what they had was imported, esp the fruits. There was also this interesting obsession with tropical fruit and in particular with pineapple. The only real problem we had was that is was absolutely freezing. I don't now if it was Temperature wise a lot colder than Madrid but it sure felt like it.
of course, one cannot go to Munich and not go into a Hofbrauhuas to see what it is like and sample the food and drink. We went to the largest most touristy one 4 times. Once, we went twice in one day. Because I was in Germany I felt like I needed to get the full experience and taste the beer (however they have a marvelous mix that is beer and lemonade, in Spain this is known as a clara). Those beer tankers are HUGE. The large amt of beer combined with the large amt of food they serve makes everyone round and jolly. I can see why the Germans are large people;-) Pork and beer and sausage with sauerkraut accompanied by a gigantic pretzel are the foods of choice in the HB. One of the more special types of pork you can get is what they translate to roast pig knuckle. However I have yet to figure out which knuckle it is and I suspect that it is the knee because it is quite large. But very very delicious. Even though the HB is scorned by some people because of how it caters to tourists I'm glad we went because it has quite the atmosphere. The ceiling has paintings of food (bread and pretzels and sausage) and there is a band in lederhosen and really cool hats playing what sounded an awful lot like John Phillip Sousa marches. (and i probably just committed a huge cultural faux pas by comparing traditional Munich tunes that inspire camaraderie to Sousa...) The fact that the HB wanted to lure tourists did not, to me, have a big impact on how they operated. There are obviously the regulars because they have their personal tankards locked up in their own personal cages and they are removed when the regular comes for a visit. The prices are not outrageous and the food is food that is found in other places as well. Also, apparently the Hofbrauhaus was also one of the gathering places for Hilter when he was trying to organize his followers.
What I also found very interesting about Munich is how its history is so linked to WWII. Almost every single landmark and important building in Munich had been bombed and destroyed during the war so almost all the buildings are in a sense replicas. Which is something that I find so strange. I guess that looking at a building that is fairly new and hearing about how 'old' is it is rather disconcerting. Our guide told us that the only things that were not replicas were the clock tower and the Government building tower because the bombers would use them as visual aid in identifying another target.
We took two day trips from Munich. One was to see the concentration camp in Dachau and the other was to a Monastery/brewery/distillery called Andechs in the town of Herrshing. Talking with my friends about our visit to Dachau, we all decided that visiting in winter added a different dimension to how we saw the memorial site. If we had visited in summer or when the weather was better it would have seemed like some sort of horrible disconnection because I think it is harder to grasp what the prisoners went through when the sun is shinning and the weather is beautiful. WE were freezing our butts off and we were dressed for the cold. We could hardly imagine being there in prisoner's garb standing hours on end for roll call during the dead of winter. Being so cold also led us to go through the Museum that was at the memorial site. It is HUGE and very interesting because it covers the entire history of the camp up until the point where it became a memorial site. After the museum we went through some of the barracks that they had then to some large memorial sites that had been erected on the grounds and then to where the had the crematoriums. I´m not usually very squeamish, but being by actual ovens where they burned people was very disturbing.
The other day trip to the Monastery/brewery/distillery was fun because it was nice to get out of the city. Chelsea and I decided that Herrshing is a quaint German village that would be great to visit during the summer because they have a lake and all sorts of cute little places. What was also nice was to take the train because you got to ride through some pretty cool countryside. When we got to the village we learned that we had to wait a half hour for the bus to take us up the hill to Andechs so we wandered into a ´bio´store where everything is organic/vegan/vegetarian/gluten, lactose, etc free. I bought some applesauce to take back with me because applesauce here is very expensive and ended up with a free mini bottle of organic wine from...wait for it-Spain! How random. Herrshing/Andechs ended up being a good place for free things because I ended up with a free cotton tote bag from the gift shop. Once we got up the hill we walked around the church building and almost everything else was closed. After the church we went for lunch in their cafeteria where the food is served cafeteria style with trays and servers behind the counter. I ended up getting an entire large pig knuckle and large pretzel (you can see my meal in the shutterfly album) that was amazing and good and HUGE. Chelsea and I liked this place because there were seemingly not a lot of tourists. There was no way that the amount of people inside eating matched the tiny amount of people outside looking at things. We shared a table with an older German couple who must have been wondering what I was up to with my gigantic meal. Although it was a tourist attraction, this place felt very local. I suppose that's one of the nice things about travelling in winter to cold places.
We missed going to the ´Disney´castles where you can take a horse drawn carriage up the hill and Olympic park and the BMW museum. We actually didn´t go to any museums, so I would need to go back. Munich is apparently one of the safest places in Europe to be, but also apparently the most expensive city in Germany. Their public transportation system is very interesting because nobody ever checks whether you paid or not. You can get onto a bus and not show your ticket. On several occasions we were unsure if we were even supposed to pay. For the train you validate you ticket once when you get it and then its good all day, but you validate with a machine and then nobody ever asks to see it and there is nobody ever around to check it again. A very strange system. Going to Munich was a lot of fun and I would really like to go back, especially during a warmer season.
My school put on a Christmas performance where all the grades performed something. Grade 1 sang a variation of Rudolph the red nosed reindeer and I didn't get a chance to see third grade sing Santa Claus is coming to town. They were really cute.
As soon as I was done with school on the 18 I went off to Munich with my friend Chelsea. We were there from the 19 to the 23. It was really really fun. I was amazed at the amount of good English that was spoken. Chelsea and I went wandering around to find all the amazing Christmas Markets that were around Munich. We did a free walking tour put on by this company called New Europe in Spanish because there were less people in the tour given in Spanish than then tour given in English.
Apart from the myriad of Christmas Markets that we stumbled upon, I particularly liked the Viktualien Markt. It is basically a HUGE open air produce and cheese and wine and meat market that operates year around everyday except Sunday. Essentially a really awesome farmer's market, but with out the super local stuff. A lot of what they had was imported, esp the fruits. There was also this interesting obsession with tropical fruit and in particular with pineapple. The only real problem we had was that is was absolutely freezing. I don't now if it was Temperature wise a lot colder than Madrid but it sure felt like it.
of course, one cannot go to Munich and not go into a Hofbrauhuas to see what it is like and sample the food and drink. We went to the largest most touristy one 4 times. Once, we went twice in one day. Because I was in Germany I felt like I needed to get the full experience and taste the beer (however they have a marvelous mix that is beer and lemonade, in Spain this is known as a clara). Those beer tankers are HUGE. The large amt of beer combined with the large amt of food they serve makes everyone round and jolly. I can see why the Germans are large people;-) Pork and beer and sausage with sauerkraut accompanied by a gigantic pretzel are the foods of choice in the HB. One of the more special types of pork you can get is what they translate to roast pig knuckle. However I have yet to figure out which knuckle it is and I suspect that it is the knee because it is quite large. But very very delicious. Even though the HB is scorned by some people because of how it caters to tourists I'm glad we went because it has quite the atmosphere. The ceiling has paintings of food (bread and pretzels and sausage) and there is a band in lederhosen and really cool hats playing what sounded an awful lot like John Phillip Sousa marches. (and i probably just committed a huge cultural faux pas by comparing traditional Munich tunes that inspire camaraderie to Sousa...) The fact that the HB wanted to lure tourists did not, to me, have a big impact on how they operated. There are obviously the regulars because they have their personal tankards locked up in their own personal cages and they are removed when the regular comes for a visit. The prices are not outrageous and the food is food that is found in other places as well. Also, apparently the Hofbrauhaus was also one of the gathering places for Hilter when he was trying to organize his followers.
What I also found very interesting about Munich is how its history is so linked to WWII. Almost every single landmark and important building in Munich had been bombed and destroyed during the war so almost all the buildings are in a sense replicas. Which is something that I find so strange. I guess that looking at a building that is fairly new and hearing about how 'old' is it is rather disconcerting. Our guide told us that the only things that were not replicas were the clock tower and the Government building tower because the bombers would use them as visual aid in identifying another target.
We took two day trips from Munich. One was to see the concentration camp in Dachau and the other was to a Monastery/brewery/distillery called Andechs in the town of Herrshing. Talking with my friends about our visit to Dachau, we all decided that visiting in winter added a different dimension to how we saw the memorial site. If we had visited in summer or when the weather was better it would have seemed like some sort of horrible disconnection because I think it is harder to grasp what the prisoners went through when the sun is shinning and the weather is beautiful. WE were freezing our butts off and we were dressed for the cold. We could hardly imagine being there in prisoner's garb standing hours on end for roll call during the dead of winter. Being so cold also led us to go through the Museum that was at the memorial site. It is HUGE and very interesting because it covers the entire history of the camp up until the point where it became a memorial site. After the museum we went through some of the barracks that they had then to some large memorial sites that had been erected on the grounds and then to where the had the crematoriums. I´m not usually very squeamish, but being by actual ovens where they burned people was very disturbing.
The other day trip to the Monastery/brewery/distillery was fun because it was nice to get out of the city. Chelsea and I decided that Herrshing is a quaint German village that would be great to visit during the summer because they have a lake and all sorts of cute little places. What was also nice was to take the train because you got to ride through some pretty cool countryside. When we got to the village we learned that we had to wait a half hour for the bus to take us up the hill to Andechs so we wandered into a ´bio´store where everything is organic/vegan/vegetarian/gluten, lactose, etc free. I bought some applesauce to take back with me because applesauce here is very expensive and ended up with a free mini bottle of organic wine from...wait for it-Spain! How random. Herrshing/Andechs ended up being a good place for free things because I ended up with a free cotton tote bag from the gift shop. Once we got up the hill we walked around the church building and almost everything else was closed. After the church we went for lunch in their cafeteria where the food is served cafeteria style with trays and servers behind the counter. I ended up getting an entire large pig knuckle and large pretzel (you can see my meal in the shutterfly album) that was amazing and good and HUGE. Chelsea and I liked this place because there were seemingly not a lot of tourists. There was no way that the amount of people inside eating matched the tiny amount of people outside looking at things. We shared a table with an older German couple who must have been wondering what I was up to with my gigantic meal. Although it was a tourist attraction, this place felt very local. I suppose that's one of the nice things about travelling in winter to cold places.
We missed going to the ´Disney´castles where you can take a horse drawn carriage up the hill and Olympic park and the BMW museum. We actually didn´t go to any museums, so I would need to go back. Munich is apparently one of the safest places in Europe to be, but also apparently the most expensive city in Germany. Their public transportation system is very interesting because nobody ever checks whether you paid or not. You can get onto a bus and not show your ticket. On several occasions we were unsure if we were even supposed to pay. For the train you validate you ticket once when you get it and then its good all day, but you validate with a machine and then nobody ever asks to see it and there is nobody ever around to check it again. A very strange system. Going to Munich was a lot of fun and I would really like to go back, especially during a warmer season.
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