In case you weren’t aware, I’m back in California, where I’ve been for four weeks now. As much as I adored Spain, I’m not missing it yet because I’m still excited to be back, and I’m just elated to have had the amazing experience I had.

Watching Spain win the World Cup was absolutely incredible. I’ve never been so passionate about a sporting event and team in my life, and I had some really fun experiences watching the games while I was still in Spain and then back in the U.S. I even got to celebrate the championship with real Spaniards in a bar in Vegas! I’m so proud to have called Spain my home for almost a year.

My last day in Spain, I hand-wrote a farewell entry that got lost amid my (still not unpacked) suitcases, but hopefully I’ll post that eventually. For now, I’d like to continue writing about my trips.

In early May, to celebrate my friend Connie’s birthday, we took a trip to the north of Spain to see Santander in Cantabria and Bilbao and San Sebastián in País Vasco (Basque Country). Our flight was delayed by a day thanks to the Icelandic volcanic ash, but we were able to rearrange our schedule, and the next morning we flew out to Santander, which, unfortunately, was cold, rainy, and windy, but we still enjoyed exploring the beach city (and attempting to not get blown into the ocean). As it was Sunday, and most small towns in Europe shut down on Sundays, there wasn’t a lot to see in town, but we saw an old cathedral, walked along the beach, checked out a European Union Day that was going on, and took a funicular to catch a great view of the city and the ocean.

View of Santander after taking the Funicular.

We next took a bus to Bilbao, a city I’ve wanted to visit since I saw it on a map of Spain in 8th grade and giggled about the similarity of the name to Bilbo Baggins. Eight years later, I was still giggling about it. After settling in at our hotel, we took the metro (one of the nicest, cleanest metros I’ve seen, second to Madrid’s, of course!) to the Museo Guggenheim. Oh my gosh, stunning. It’s similar to the Disney Concert Hall in L.A. (both are designed by Frank Gehry), but it also has beautiful green hills and a river behind it, and the light was hitting it perfectly when we were there at sundown. We saw the lobby but didn’t pay to go into the museum since it was closing in less than an hour, but we stayed in the area for a long time, taking pictures, listening to live jazz music, eating dinner at a kebab place across the street, and watching the sunset. I’m not big on architecture, but I fell in love with the Guggenheim. Back at the hostel, I had a nice phone conversation with family back home, chatted with the Dutch guy working at the hostel for a while, and worked on that 50-page paper before heading to bed.

The Guggenheim.

We spent the next day in Bilbao exploring the rest of the city, like the cute main area filled with shops and restaurants. Then we took a bus to our next destination, San Sebastián, another beach city along the northern coast. It’s a small town, but we walked along the ocean and saw the cathedral and shopping area. We had a nice, private hostel room, which was lovely until a drunk Spaniard wouldn’t stop pounding on our door late at night wanting to make friends. Annoying, but funny.

Bilbao.

San Sebastián.

Our last day of the trip, we saw a bit more of San Sebastián and checked out a few pintxo bars, where the bars are covered in small dishes you can choose from and eat tapas-style. We had some delicious pintxos (best tortilla española I’ve ever had, and that’s my favorite food!) and talked to a few people, making it a great way to end our northern Spain trip.

Pintxos!

Fortunately, our flight home wasn’t delayed, so we took a bus back to Santander (the countryside in Basque Country and Cantabria is beautiful and green!) and a flight back to Madrid. I loved getting to explore Spain by visiting its various regions, and I had an awesome time on our trip to Cantabria and País Vasco.

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I’m sure I’ll think of a million more items to add to this list, but, for now, some of the things I’ll miss most about this place:

• Feelings triumphant when I speak Spanish well
• Traveling almost every weekend for ridiculously cheap prices
• Cobblestone streets
• Botellones (and in general being able to hang out in parks all night without the police assuming you’re doing something illegal)
• Awesome public transportation and the best metro I’ve ever seen
• 100 Montaditos and its €1 Wednesdays
• Kebab restaurants on every corner
• Tortilla española
• Taking a bajillion photos
• Meals that last hours because people sit and relax and socialize
• The general laid-back atmosphere
• My EAP friends
• Churros con chocolate

Churros con chocolate

• Giving dos besos when greeting people
• Chinos (the stores, not the people)
• Toques, even if regular phone calls are way more convenient
• Using the word “vale” about every other word
• Lots and lots of fabulous parks
• Streets being packed even at 4am
• Warm summer nights
• El Rastro
• People being really passionate about fútbol
• Being a short walk away from my friends’ pisos
• Plaza Mayor

Plaza Mayor

• Having only 12 hours of class a week and virtually no other responsibilities
• Frequently being called “guapa” by old ladies and creepy men
• Sangría as an alcohol alternative for lightweights
• Engrish shirts like Blanco’s “I’m in subconsciusly coastline”
• Cheap crema al cacao (store-brand Nutella)
• Being able to walk everywhere important
• Sol
• Strangers sounding less stupid because of the language barrier
• Everything being much later, like dinner at 10pm and being able to go to sleep late and sleep in
• Old people who are active and always out and about
• Jaywalking
• Being neighbors with the Royal Palace
• Colloquial terms like “joder,” “hombre,” and “coño”
• The street signs, each with their own individual artwork

A street sign. They may make it difficult to navigate the city, but they’re so cute!

• Being able to act awkward/stupid/whatever with the excuse that it’s just because I’m foreign
• Constantly meeting new people from all over the world
• Planning trips
• Tapas, especially the free ones they serve with drinks
• Flamenco music (even if it’s not as common in Madrid as it is in Andalucía)
• Always feeling pretty safe at any time of day
• The majority of buildings, even unimportant apartment buildings, looking like architectural masterpieces
• Walking anywhere and seeing cute restaurant after cute restaurant, unique store after unique store, instead of long stretches of houses or office buildings like we have in the U.S
• Knowing that this is the best time of my life

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I’m so unbelievably close to the end of Spain, and I can’t really wrap my mind around that fact. Maybe it’s because I spent two weeks in California for Christmas and then came back, but I feel like I’m again just going on a short trip home before returning to Madrid for another extended period of time. It hasn’t hit me that I’m truly leaving, but perhaps that’s for the better so I don’t spend my last few days wallowing in despair over leaving this amazing place.

I really wish I were a talented enough writer to successfully convey my love for this place. When I first arrived in Madrid in 2006, I wrote in my journal that I felt that I was happy and floaty and in love while walking around the city, and I still feel that almost every day.

Yes, I am looking forward to going back to California, and I’m extremely lucky to have such a great place and wonderful friends and family to return to, but, at the moment, it’s hard to get very excited when I’m living in this dream world. It definitely helps knowing that I can come back in a little over a year if I choose to do the Spanish Ministry of Education’s Cultural Ambassador Program.

Madrid has been even better than ever these past few weeks. The cold has finally gone away (though we’re still getting a lot of rain), I survived finals, which weren’t bad, I’ve been doing some more traveling, my mom and sister came to visit this week, and I’ve been having a lot of good times with friends.

The World Cup has been really fun to watch in a country that’s so passionate about fútbol, though, unfortunately, I’ve had to miss Spain’s three games so far due to an exam, traveling, and a wedding reception. But they play Portugal in the round of 16 on Tuesday night, so I’m super excited to go to a bar to watch that.

If I don’t write again before I leave, see you in California!

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I said a few posts ago that one of the reasons I wanted to be in Spain in the spring was Semana Santa. Another was Sevilla’s Feria de Abril, the city’s major spring fair and one of the biggest festivals in Spain. Plans for the trip kind of came together at the last minute, but on the Saturday of the week-long festival, I met my EAP friend Robin, my Spanish conversation exchange friend Francisco, and his Spanish friends José and Almudena in Sevilla.

We started by walking through the Barrio Santa Cruz and visiting the Plaza de España, which I’ve mentioned visiting in my previous trips to Sevilla, and then we returned to our hotel to rest before heading out to Feria.

Robin, Francisco, José, and Almudena in Plaza de España.

Feria was amazing. Sevilla’s fairgrounds are lined with casetas, tents run by individual families and organizations where people eat tapas, drink drinks (especially manzanilla wine), hang out, and dance Sevillanas, a flamenco-style dance. Most of the casetas are private, open only to people who know the families, but a few are public, and you can always listen to the music and watch the dancing from outside the tent.

It’s a bit dark, but Robin, Francisco, and me at the entrance to Feria.

A caseta.

Row of casetas.

There’s also a section that looks like a typical American carnival, with rides, cotton candy, games, etc., although I’m fairly certain these rides would result in a million lawsuits if they existed in the U.S. Things are so different when a country isn’t as litigious as the United States.

Ridiculously dangerous carnival ride.

We walked around the carnival side for a bit and then returned to the casetas, where we stopped in one and drank some manzanilla while listening to flamenco music (I love love love flamenco music). We then left the tent, walked around some more, and tried to dance Sevillanas. Though I clearly have no future as a flamenco dancer, it was fun trying to make up flamenco dancing.

Robin and Francisco dancing Sevillanas.

Spain really does throw the best parties and festivals, and Feria was a perfect example of this. I loved that tons of people, from infants to people in their 80s, were out past 3am, enjoying the music, the warm night and the festive atmosphere. And it was especially great getting to experience this very Spanish tradition with true Spaniards. I really can’t describe just how great Feria was, but I really, really loved it, and if you ever have the opportunity to see Sevilla’s Feria, go.

Robin and I had taken buses to Sevilla to meet up with the others, but we drove back in their car, because they were amazingly generous, letting us stay in their hotel, making us dinner, and driving us back to Madrid. Before leaving Sevilla, we stopped by the Real Betis soccer stadium. On the way home, Robin and I thought the others were joking about making a detour to Córdoba, but the next thing we knew, there we were in Córdoba, so we spent a few hours exploring the city. The drive was super fun, singing along to music, demonstrating American/English accents for our Spanish friends, and generally enjoying each other’s company. We dropped Almudena off in her small town in the outskirts of Madrid, which was adorable, and the surrounding countryside was gorgeous.

Countryside near Madrid.

Though it was a short trip, it was one of my favorites of the year. I love Sevilla, I love Andalucía, and I love Feria. See the rest of my photos here.

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Look at me, finally getting all caught up on this blog! I hope you aren’t suffering from Kirstie overload, because I’m back to write about my trip to Amsterdam in April.

The trip started off a bit rocky: we spent the night at the airport (to avoid paying for a taxi since the metro wasn’t open early enough for our flight), which left us all exhausted because it’s not exactly easy to sleep on cold tile floors in noisy public places, Ariel had problems getting to the airport the night before and ended up lost in the middle of nowhere until he finally stumbled upon the airport a few hours later, the next day Ariel realized he had left his passport at home, so he had to catch a later flight, and I was dealing with some personal drama. So when Connie and I arrived in Amsterdam, I was initially in a horrible mood, but we found an American/British store down the street from our hostel where they sold Cherry Coke, my favorite drink, and my mood did a complete 180 as soon as I drank it. And I later found out that Cherry Coke, which isn’t sold in Spain or most European countries I’ve visited, is sold throughout the Netherlands! Most people in Amsterdam have marijuana; I have Cherry Coke. I think there must be drugs in it, because it made me insanely happy. Or maybe I’m just crazy.

Anyway, our plans got changed around a bit because Ariel wouldn’t be arriving until the next day, but Connie and I started by taking a train to the nearby town Haarlem. There wasn’t a lot to see, especially because it was Sunday so everything was closed, but it was very cute, and we got to see a windmill. Connie went from there to some big flower garden in another city and I returned to Amsterdam where I napped for a short time (thank goodness) and then visited the Anne Frank house because Ariel and I had bought tickets for that day ahead of time. Seeing the house was incredibly powerful, moving, and thought-provoking (and I was in just the mood for something powerful, moving, and thought-provoking). Being in the house makes her story seem all the more real, and it’s horrifying that innocent 15-year-old girls like her were victims of such tragedy. I mean, that’s kind of a “duh” thing to say, but, like I said, it’s all the more real when you actually see her house. I really love this quote by her:

“It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.”

Windmill in Haarlem.

On the way back from the Anne Frank house, I had a conversation with some random, sort of crazy but really nice, Dutch guy who stopped me and talked to me about life in Amsterdam. I know you’re always told as a kid to not talk to strangers, but one of my favorite things in Europe is the crazy conversations you have with strangers on the street. That’s kind of fun anywhere, but it’s especially great when you get to talk to people from foreign countries and learn about their country and culture (and sometimes practice languages, too, like the time I had a conversation with a crazy, drunk Italian guy in Madrid).

Our first night in Amsterdam.

The next day, Ariel arrived, and the three of us walked around Amsterdam together, seeing things like the flower market, the Sex Museum (a bit too much for Connie and I to handle), Cannabis College (a tiny museum-like place with scientific information about marijuana), and the Red Light District (by day, it’s a lot tamer, of course).

A flower market.

Clothes made of hemp at Cannabis College.

The following day, Ariel and Connie took a train to The Hague to see the painting Girl with a Pearl Earring, but since that didn’t interest me, I stayed behind and had a relaxing day, visiting a few cute shops I had seen on the way to the Anne Frank house and walking through a really nice park called Vondelpark. I also experienced Febo, a chain of, well, I guess you could call them restaurants, where you put money into a slot and get meals out of a machine. Definitely an experience.

Febo. Oh, Dutch people, you’re so crazy.

Connie and Ariel returned from The Hague, and Connie rented a bike for about an hour before having to catch her flight back to Madrid, and then Ariel and I revisited the Red Light District by night. It’s fascinating, because prostitution is legal, so prostitutes rent out booths (that literally have red lights). Most prostitutes I’ve seen elsewhere are kind of creepy, ugly, and trashy, but prostitutes in Amsterdam are surprisingly attractive. Maybe because there’s more competition because it’s legal? Who knows. But it’s definitely interesting to visit a place where there’s a lot less stigma surrounding sex and drugs. People think of Amsterdam as some crazy, sinful city, but, in my opinion, it’s to the contrary. There are still lots of tourists looking for Vegas-like wild times, but making marijuana and prostitution legal seems to lead to a healthier attitude about the two. It’s like how some teenagers like to drink just because it makes them feel cool and rebellious, and once they hit 21, they calm down because it’s no longer exciting and dangerous. I’m a very tame person, but Amsterdam, to me, seemed lovely and tranquil, not crazy and sinful.

The Red Light District is surprisingly pretty.

Anyway, the next day, our last day in Amsterdam, Ariel and I rented bikes, the true way to see Amsterdam since that’s how most locals get around, and we rode around the town and through parks. We stopped for lunch at the Pancake Bakery because pancakes are a specialty of Amsterdam (or maybe all of Holland? I don’t know), though their pancakes are more like crepes that can come with meats, vegetables, etc. They were huge and delicious. We continued biking for a few more hours, which was really nice, I had my last Cherry Coke of the trip, and then we returned to Madrid.

Delicious pancake.

Riding a bike through Vondelpark.

I really liked Amsterdam. I loved that English is spoken everywhere (it’s nice to have a break from constantly having to speak a foreign language), it’s a small town that’s easy to get around on foot or bike, I saw more cute guys in my four days there than I have in my life, everything’s very laid-back (and I don’t mean because of all the marijuana), and people seem really friendly. Most of my trips are short, so we spend a day in each city and rush from sight to sight, and I actually like this form of travel because it keeps things interesting and forces you to take advantage of all the time you have, but we were in one small city for four days on this trip, which meant we had a lot of downtime to leisurely explore the city and get to know it. Ariel and I both commented on the end of the trip that it almost felt like the place had become our home because we knew the area around our hostel so well. Amsterdam was one of my favorite trips of the year (which is saying a lot), and I’d love to go back again. See the rest of my photos here.

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