I had a great, relaxing weekend in Alicante. A lot of people were out of town travelling this weekend so it was just me, Taylor R and Jen in the apartment. I took advantage of the opportunity to NOT go out and took full advantage of day time. With all the travelling coming up in the next few months I can already feel my time in Alicante getting smaller and smaller. It was nice to have a full weekend to just spend time in this city. It’s been a little over a month now and I still have to constantly remind myself that I’m NOT dreaming. Contrary to what I thought might happen, I haven’t gotten tired of ANYTHING about this city. The people, the food, the castle, the beach, every street and little shop.. love it all!

I’d compare how I feel when walking around Alicante to nothing short of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgVNgYXFi_Q

Friday we had a field trip in class. We went to a museum in Alicante called the Marq. It was two tram stops away so only about 5 minutes. We met our teacher at the station and it was great to get to learn how the tram works .. so easy! The tram system is relatively new and the station is spotless.. it was really nice. I’m not a huge museum person but this one was kind of cool (and I’ll take a field trip over class any day). It seemed brand new and had a lot of interesting history of Alicante. My favorite parts were two rooms that had a movie of how Alicante looked thousands of years ago, to how it looks now. They made the images kind of blend together so you could see the transition and it was really cool. The best part is that we were done with the Museum at 12:15… a whole 45 minutes early (we NEVER get out of class early). I had all my stuff with me so we were able to go straight to the beach. The weather was amazing .. 70s and not a cloud in the sky. This was the first day I decided to go full-bathing suit on the beach instead of clothes. A lot of people had been in bathing suits when temps were in the 60s but I decided that wasn’t for me – but 70s I can handle! Me, Taylor and Jen relaxed for a few hours and headed back to the apartment around 5. It was sooo nice out and not to hot so obviously I obtained a pretty substantial sunburn (typical). Mediterranean Sun: 1, Megan: 0. I think maybe I’ll put on sunscreen next time! (Sidenote: the sunburn actually isn’t that bad and had turned into mostly tan by now .. I WIN!!!)

Friday evening Jen and I went up to the Castle to watch the sunset. I’m not sure why its taken me so long to do this, but it was amazing! I think the view may be even better at night. The whole city lights up as well as all the trails leading up to the castle .. its hard to capture on a camera but its definitely breathtaking and something I will be doing more often.

on the way up

Birds everywhere!

The castle lit up at night

Saturday we woke up early and got ready for another long day at the beach. I packed my bag, made a lunch, and of course, prepared the 2 gallon jug of Sangria. It was another beautiful day [it is so perfect here that I feel like my vocabulary is becoming limited: beautiful, amazing, awesome, pretty, cool, incredible, breathtaking. Time to break out the thesaurus?? None of these words do this place justice!] Taylor and I made some friends with 2 guys from London  who bought us personalized friendship bracelets HAHA...thanks I guess? They were really nice and fun to talk to for a while. After entirely too much Sangria, Taylor, Jen and I decided it would be a good idea to play paddle ball in the water. It was freezing but I didn’t really notice at that point. The water was even more clear then I thought it would be! Even waist deep I could see my feet (even if I couldn’t feel them). Cant wait til it warms up enough to float on a raft out there!

Today I planned on waking up early to take some pictures around Alicante and hopefully make a little excursion to another beach or town outside of Alicante. However the weather had other plans and I woke up to clouds and rain L I spent most of the morning doing more trip planning. My end of semester trip to Italy and Greece is almost finished and Sprink break is coming along. So ready to be done booking everything! After spending the whole morning inside I realized the rain had stopped and the sun came out! I headed out and walked along the beach and got some decent pictures of the city. I realized I’ve been writing all these great things about it but haven’t actually shown you guys what it looks like! I couldn’t cover all of it today but I got some good pictures of a few places. Enjoy! 

Mercado Central 

Explanada de Espana (runs parallel to the marina)- there are folding chairs along here for people to use. Spaniards don't socialize in their homes so on nice days everyone (especially old people) will pull up chairs and hang out with their friends. 

The marina (the colorful building to the right is the casino)

This guy builds the exact same sand castle every single day from scratch. I'm also 99% sure he sleeps on the beach and has not showered in months (years, even)

La Playa

beautiful, clear water

There are free concerts here every sunday

Little market on the explanada

This weekend we visited Granada with USAC. There are a few included excursions with our program and this was one of them. We left Friday morning at 10 am (yay for no school!) for our 5 hour bus ride to Granada. Granada is located near the southern tip of Spain, just north of morocco. However, it’s actually a lot colder than Alicante because it is in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Temperatures during the weekend were in the 50s.

The drive into Granada was actually one of my favorite parts about the trip. The weather was perfect and we drove through the Sierra Nevadas. We had beautiful views of the snowy mountains the whole way into the city so that definitely made it a little less boring.

Once we arrived in Granada we had an hour to get settled in the hotel. I shared a room with Corey and Zoe.. the hotel was really nice and had the typical Spanish set up – one twin bed and a queen bed (aka 2 twin beds pushed together). After we got cleaned up we headed out for our walking tour of the city.

The tour led us up to el Mirador (“the viewpoint”) where we stopped for some beer and sangria and amazing views of the Alhambra and the Sierra Nevadas

Walking back from El Mirador

Palm trees AND snowy mountains

This weekend I also discovered one of the greatest food creations of all time: Kebaps (“kebabs”.. but different from the US) Kebaps are really popular in this area of spain (including Alicante). They are actually a turkish food but we have a pretty good mix of Mediterranean food around here.  You pick the type of meet you want (lamb, chicken or beef) and the toppings (usually lettuce, tomato and onion) and they top it with 2 types of sauces, one white and kind of like a garlic yogurt sauce and one red tomato/pepper sauce. They come in the form of pitas or platters and they are AMAZING. I am not even going to make public how many of these I had (they are huge.. and I had multiple throughout the weekend) but I am definitely not regretting it. I think I could eat them every day. I don’t know why I hadn’t tried them before Granada because they are all over Alicante (what was I thinking??) but I’m so glad I finally did. LIFE. CHANGING.

Saturday morning we went for our tour of the Alhambra, Granada’s most famous landmark. It was BEATIFUL. The Alhambra consists of 3 complexes – the fortress, the palaces and the generalife (gardens) Our tourguide was great .. a typical little Spanish woman and SO funny.

“Men from Granada like to sit in their arm chair and have their woman bring everything to them .They except women to always say yes, yes, yes. That is why I have dog instead.. because I say no.”

After the tour we were all exhausted and headed immediately for Kebap King, one of the best Kebap restaurants. We stormed the tiny place and devoured our kebaps in seconds .. so yummy. After a little siesta we headed out for Sangria and tapas.

Saturday night was probably the best part of the weekend. Some friends and I went to the Banos Arabes (Arab Baths). I don’t really know the best way to describe it but they are a series of pools inside a building (with Arabian décor). There are lots of candles, dim orange-y lights, aromatherapy, mint tea and massages. The whole place has marble floors and little water falls. After you shower, you go in the luke-warm pool. It was about 5 feet deep.. after soaking there for while you move to the hot pool (102 degrees), about 2 feet deep, then the small cold (VERY cold .. 68 degrees!) then repeat again. There was also a steam room, and hot slabs of stone to lay on (my favorite) you pay for an hour and a half session and since it was recommended my USAC we decided to check it out. It was AMAZING.. so relaxing and peaceful. It was basically silent besides trickling water and soothing music. I could do that every night. Cameras weren’t allowed but here are some pictures from the website.. its hard to really explain what it is without pictures but you can get the idea! 

Hot bath

Hot stones 

Medium bath

You can see more about the baths at http://www.hammamspain.com/ (Granada) they have a pretty good website with alot of pictures!

Hasta Luego!

Rock Climbing!

Sunday I went rock climbing just outside Alicante with my friend Corey. If you had asked me a month ago if I would be rock climbing the day after my 21st birthday I would have laughed in your face. But since being in Spain I've been more willing to do a lot of new things, so when I got a flyer for it from USAC I thought .. Why not? 

I literally didnt know the first thing about rock climbing and Corey and I clearly had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. Its a good thing though, because had I known I probably wouldnt have done it and I'm SO glad I did! 

Here is what I expected from this little rock climbing excursion:

1.     Beginner level rock climbing. Since they handed this flyer out to study abroad students, I thought surely it would be more of a friendly little beginner level activity. I envisioned something closer to leisurely ‘hill-climbing’ with lots of breaks and places to rest.

2.     Bi-lingual instructors. We went on the trip through a program called Tremuntana that runs a bunch of different adventure type activities around Alicante. USAC hands out information on some of their excursions each week. I assumed that since USAC gave us all the information that the instructors were used to having lots of Americans and would be able to give instructions in English.

3.     Minimal heights. Again, I thought this would be a novice level activity, so I did not expect to be tackling extreme heights.

4.     Indoor rock wall style climbing. I envisioned being attached to a long rope and propelling and all that good stuff.

Here is what actually happened:

1.     Extremely instense – completely vertical, scaling the side of a mountain, clutching rocks until you wear the skin off your fingers rock-climbing!

2.     Spanish-only instructors. Not only did I not know a damn thing about rock climbing but the 2 instructors spoke no English whatsoever. I couldn’t understand any of the instructions on what to do (at which point I was questioning what made me think this was a good idea) Luckily, there was a Spanish woman in our group who spoke fluent English and she was able to translate the important stuff for us.

3.     Ear-popping, oxygen altering, don’t-look-down-or-you’ll-puke, kind of heights!

4.     Side of a cliff-style climbing. We had a harness and 2 straps with hooks on them that we hooked to cords running up the side of the mountain. Once one cord came to an end, you had to un-hook then re-hook and keep climbing. Different from what I expected but not hard once I got the hang of it!

As you can see, this little rock climbing excursion was leaps and bounds from my expectations but it was INCREDIBLE!!! Never in a million years did I ever envision myself thousands of kilometers in the air clutching to the side of a mountain for dear life and doing it all without vomiting or peeing my pants (which is a good thing because Corey and I were leading the group most of the way up.. could have gotten messy) The whole time I had so much adrenaline that I couldn’t even think about how tired I was or how terrifying the situation was. There was no way out of it so I had to block it out of my mind. There were a few points where we could stop along the way (spots on the side of the mountain where just a few people could stop at a time.) I preferred to not take long breaks though, because it made me antsy and gave me more time to think about how high up we were and all the possible things that could go wrong. Several times I envisioned falling and getting pinned under a rock and having to cut my arm off and wondered how I would do that since I didn’t have a pocket knife or any type of survival materials except some water and a ham sandwich. As you can guess, I made it through with all my limbs still in tact.

Our instructors, though hard to understand, were great and loved us… people just get a kick out of Americans here and I’m sure we were especially entertaining since we spoke little Spanish and didn’t have any idea what was going on. They were so nice and took pictures for us along the way that they put on a disc for us when we got back to the office. One of the instructors even gave us a ride home which was definitely a welcome invitation since I could no longer feel my legs.

Rock climbing was definitely one of the greatest, if not THE greatest, things I’ve ever done! Few things will top the feeling of getting to the top of the mountain and standing up and checking out the view. I am NOT a heights person so I felt especially good that I made it through and didn’t wimp out. I’m so glad I am in Spain because it’s made me take advantage of so many opportunities I usually wouldn’t think about doing while at home. This was definitely one of those unforgettable things I’m going to take back with me .. and I’m sure I’m going to have a lot more of these as the semester goes on! 

Taking a short break about half-way to the top!

just finished and checking out the view ... worth it!

We made it!!!

Corey and I at the top!

Mis Cumpleanos!

Brace yourselves America I'm officially 21!!!

My birthday celebration was great! I was definitely a little sad before hand wishing I could be home celebrating with my friends (actually .. I wish my friends were HERE to celebrate with me!) Turning 21 in Spain is not as big of a deal but we definitely made the best of it and I had an awesome time!

We celebrated Friday night to ring in my birthday at midnight with 10 of my friends starting at a Mexican restaurant for margaritas. I had a yard-long margarita among other things and delicious chimichangas for dinner. The servers were great with helping us celebrate and even gave us a free bottle of tequila .. ME GUSTA! Instead of bringing out birthday cake or some type of dessert, I got a pepper with a firecracker stuck in it. I was ok with it because those margaritas were definitely enough sweets for the night. Also it meant I got to carry around a giant pepper all night and have people sign it. Maybe a birthday tradition to bring to the US? After margaritas we headed out to the Barrio and made the rounds and thanks to my doting friends/roommates ended up safely in my bed around 6:00 am.

Corey, me and Zoe

Everyone who came out to celebrate with margs!

Ringing in my 21st at midnight

On Saturday I woke up at 12 hangover free, a true 21st birthday miracle! We spent the day relaxing and drinking home made sangria on the beach ... this is the life :)

My first attempt at homemade sangria..
a success if i may say so myself

Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday and made my birthday so fun!!! Cant wait to celebrate more with everyone in the states!

Spanish Cuisine weeks 2 and 3

I am behind on my Spanish cuisine updates!

Last week’s meal is going to be hard to top. We made Fideua (which is cooked exactly like paella, but using pasta instead of rice because it is faster and easier to do in a short class period) it has shrimp, muscles, onions, red peppers and calamari. We used a pan bigger than my kitchen table at home. It was so awesome. We also made Spanish tortilla, which is a really popular dish here. It is made with eggs, potatoes and onions and is DELICIOUS. Dessert was really healthy. We dipped slices of french bread into a mixture of milk, sugar and organge and lemon shavings for flavor. Then we dipped the bread in sugar and deep fried it. Once it was done frying we dipped it in sugar again. Obviously, it was amazing. I haven’t been full like that since thanksgiving … I could even go out with everyone after class because I physically couldn’t move. Sleep was the only option but it was sooo worth it.

This past class was not really as good. We made 2 kinds of soups… not sure why they didn’t spread out soup on separate days but whatever. One soup had slices of fish (bones included) and shrimp, jarred white asparagus (mushy and kind of flavorless) peas (one of the few foods I don’t really like!) chicken stock, onions and hard boiled eggs. It was a strange combination of food. Not bad, but not something I would make again either. The other soup had chorizo, canned diced tomatoes, onions and some other things that I can’t remember. It would have been great but it was a little too soupy for me. If we had left out the water it would have been great with just chorizo and tomatos. The saving grace of this week is that we made churros and chocolate. Whats not to like about fried dough and melted chocolate? Even though this weeks meal wasn’t the greatest the class was still a lot of fun. I love chef nuno even though I only understand about every 10^th word that comes out of his mouth. As usual, I just smile and nod.

Barcelona: Bombas, Besos y Botellas de Vino

This past week my Aunt Sharon and Aunt Maureen came to visit. It was so fun! I met them in Barcelona Saturday. I caught a 6 am train all by myself (not without some nervousness) and after walking 20 blocks in the wrong direction trying to find our hotel, I finally found it and met up with my aunts who had gotten there earlier than expected. We went out for lunch right away and had the first of many delicious meals of the week.

One of the best meals was at a place called La Bombeta, a place that specializes in a heavenly food creation called Bombas. Bombas are like a combination of mashed potatoes and donuts, minus the sugar. It is basically mashed potatoes rolled into a ball and deep fried. Then coated in a garlic sauce and a spicy sauce. It is literally one of the best things I have ever eaten in my life.. and we went back the next day to have them again!  (im getting hungry just thinking about them)

Sighhhhh...

The next day was our only full day in Barcelona. We went to la Segrada Familia, the famous cathedral in Barcelona. Segrada familia was designed by Antoni Gaudi, a catalan architect with a really distinct style. He started the project in 1883 and died in 1926 when less than a quarter of it was finished. Construction remains on it today and will probably never end. You can see the different styles of architecture on different sides of the cathedral so that’s pretty cool.

Later we went to Parc Guel, a famous park in Barcelona also designed by Gaudi. It was the coolest place! Everything from benches to rooftops were decorated with brightly colored mosaics. I could have walked around there all day! Lots of people were selling things like jewelery, scarves, artwork, etc. All the sudden we heard someone shout and within seconds all of the vendors disappeared. Apparently you aren’t allowed to sell stuff there so when the cops come they have to hide. The park went from being packed with vendors to completely empty in a matter of seconds. It was the craziest thing. I tried to get a picture of everything sprinting out of the area but they were too fast!

Monday we drove down the coast to Alicante. After a 15 minute beautiful but white-knuckle drive on the side of a mountain, we decided it would be safer and more efficient to take the highway. I was perfectly find with that decision because I didn’t know how much longer I would be able to hold in my breakfast. The turns were so sharp and the road was really narrow. Cars were going so fast around the turns .. it was terrifying! We made a few stops along the way and had a really good lunch of muscles, calamari, fideua, and leche frita (LOVING the 4 course meals here). Here are some pictures from the town where we got lunch:

me and mis tias in front of the roman ruins

roman ruins!

I had such a good time in Barcelona!!!! there is so much to see there but I think we did a good job seeing as much as possible in a short time.