Last Day

Well I head home in about 12 hours. This has been such an amazing adventure and I have met so many cool people. Thank you for the prayers, thoughts, and support along the way. I have been truly blessed and I am so excited to share my stories over Christmas break! It's going to be so different next semester and I can't wait for another chance to run Granada!

As many of you noticed, I had a running bucket list. I've been trying to keep track of all the cool stuff I did this semester. And trying to think of more for the next one. If you have any suggestions for travel, tell me!!

I have..
Put my feet in both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Mediterranean Sea.
Ice skated on Europe's largest ice rink.
Watched the sunset over the most Western point of Europe.
Seen the President of the Czech Republic.
Seen the history of the Nazi, Communist, and Hungarian nationalist control of Budapest
Seen the Spanish riots of 2012
Watched, from front row seats, one of the best soccer teams in the world.
Been to the bar with the most amount of beer on tap in the world.
Been in the second largest club in Europe.
Walked where Hitler, Stalin, and Kun once walked in Budapest and Prague.
Watched the opera in Prague in Mozart's Opera House.
Seen the plaza where Star Wars II was filmed.
Traveled Europe by plane, train, bus, and car.
Been in 6 countries in 2 months.
Shopped at the famous European Christmas Markets.
Been inside the Alhambra- a fortress and palace of Spain.
Seen Gaudi's works up close and personally.
Had mussels in Brussels.
Had fish and chips in a pub in Ireland.
Tried Guinness beer.
Seen the oldest bull fighting ring in Spain.
Seen the birthplace of Picasso.
Seen the place where Columbus was buried.


I have made new friends, improved my language skills, and lived abroad for a semester. Wow.

Roomie

Well I'm down to two full days here. It's so weird thinking about how soon I'll be home! I'm happy to report that I'm 3 finals down, 1 to go, and I'm pretty sure I passed! Impressive, I know, since many are under the impression that I played hookey all semester. Which I did a little, but I learned a lot!

I figured I should show who I've been living with, since now I'm about to leave. Anna is my roommate, conscience, sister, and for all intensive purposes best friend. We met freshman year at USD and have been together since (despite the differing sororities!). We have gone on every single trip together, except Ireland and Morocco, and we have had so much fun together. I wouldn't have wanted to live with anyone else for these 3 months. We have the traveling thing down to a science. What I forget, she remembers; and what she needs, I usually bring. For example, I bring the blow drier, she brings the straightener. I bring the cash, she brings the credit card. I bring the map, she brings the itinerary. It's a beautiful thing. My cousin Kevin is going to Germany next semester and I can't wait to see what traveling with him is like! I feel like I should apologize in advance. Kidding Kev.

So here she is. The crazy lady I've been living with.

It's gonna be weird having to make new friends next semester. I might have to be nice to the new kids. Ew.

And here is the house mom. I don't know if I've officially introduced her, but her name is Conchi. She has a dog named Nani and a granddaughter named Alejandra. Alejandra is just adorable. There are no words for dark hair, dark eyed, two year olds that throw temper tantrums in spanish. When she comes over after "school" she lets herself into our room to show off all the stuff she did. And she's learning english, so we sing with her and quiz her on colors and numbers. I have learned so much from *trying* to communicate with her. She finally realized that we don't usually understand when she starts talking super fast so one day she grabbed my hand and pulled me down on the floor with her and said very slowly, "Quieres dibujar conmigo? Me gusta azul." Do you want to color with me? I like blue. It was the sweetest thing I've experienced here.

Conchi will get all dressed up and fancy and go out with all her friends. She stays out later than we do- consistently! I'm not kidding when I say 3am is early for her to get home.

Conchi has been teaching me some spanish recipes, which I am forever grateful. And she has been so nice about including us in her "real life". She takes us out with her friends, and I have to say, some of my favorite nights have been doing tapas with Conchi. She has this long fur coat that just makes her think she runs the world, and watching her strut her stuff to the best bars in town never gets old. Her Saint's Day was December 8 so she had the whole family over for dinner. We got to meet her daughter and son-in-law, and her son and his wife. It was so fun! I couldn't follow most of what they said because they all yell over each other, but I had a professor who was teaching us some "street spanish", so I definitely picked up THOSE words. Told you I was learning.

Her dog is one of those that barks at parked cars. I feel bad saying it, but I really don't like her dog. It's borderline hate. But the thing is just too dumb to be angry at. Anna is in love with her. Nani (the dog) sleeps with her at night until Conchi comes home, and she hangs out with her on the couch while we do homework. One night, the dog literally laid across Anna's chest while we watched TV. I'm contemplating an intervention.

It's always an adventure here. I never know what Conchi is going to do next, but it's been so fun. Anna and I are always up to something so it's definitely been a successful semester. It's hard to think about it ending, but I can't wait for Christmas at home!!

Tapas

Tapas are one of the best parts about Spain. You can get a full meal plus drink for under 3 Euro! I've been on a personal mission to find the BEST tapas in town and the BIGGEST in town. Mostly so that now I know all the best places to bring the family when they come. Here we go.

Tapas are different for every place you go. Sometimes they are cheaper if you order at the bar and sometimes they have outdoor seating with a different menu. Sometimes you can choose the tapa that you want and other places just have the house tapa that everyone gets. It's luck of the draw really, when you get to choose your tapa you can pick something you like, but usually the house tapas are a crowd pleaser. Also, customer service does not exist in Spain. Or anywhere in Europe really. You have to call over the waiter if you want a drink and you have to ask for the check. Sometimes we'll just sit waiting for 20 minutes until they decide to come over. It's super frustrating.

Best tapas- Still under discussion, but I definitely found the best area. It's actually right outside my door. We live near the college, so between classes all the college kids come out to get tapas which means cheap and good. The best croquetas, pizza, and fish are all in my area. Croquetas are a fried roll filled with usually ham, cheese, and mashed potatoes and I realize that sounds weird but they are so good! They kinda look like a mozzarella stick, but shorter and thicker.

However, there's another place near my plaza called D'Cuadros. You can choose your own tapa and while they aren't super big, they are way good. And most aren't fried so that's a refreshing change.

Croquetas again

I got an empanada, Anna got nachos

With two drinks we were pretty full. The food was great!

There's also these two restaurants called Casa Lopez and Poe. They both speak English as their owners are Swedish and English respectively, but they probably have the best tapas ever. They're pretty small portions and a little more expensive than normal, but they are to die for. Casa Lopez has this ginger beer and I paired it with their curry vegetables and oh my gosh. There are no words. Poe's owners create their own menu so it changes ever once in a while. They have the best spicy food in town, actually, probably the only spicy food since spaniards don't like spicy.

Poe's curry chicken and rice.

Ok now for the most tapas. I have found two that are just blow your mind big. Bella y la Bestía (Beauty and the Beast) was one of the first places Anna and I got tapas. They don't let you choose what you want, but for each drink, there's a new tapa.

The first one- sandwich, fries, AND pasta. It's not a real spanish meal if it's not straight carbs.

The other one is L'Antiguo. We didn't take a picture here but I wish we would have. They gave us a plate the size of a serving platter with a grilled ham and cheese, a mountain of fries, and fritos with ketchup and alioli sauce. Holy moly. We couldn't even order a second drink to see what the next tapa was. We just rolled ourselves home after that one.

Alioli sauce is called 'the poor man's ranch'. It's a white sauce made with mayo, a little mustard, lots of garlic, and of course oil. It's so good. And you can put it with everything- fries, meat, potatoes, croquetas, sandwiches...

Tapas in the 'other' category are the tea houses. We go for tea maybe once a week and if we go at the right time we get a free crépe!

It looks weird, but it's filled with chocolate. Go with it.

I have a running list of the best tapas, most tapas, best mojitos, best tea house, and best chocolate con churros so I'll keep you posted. My family is going to be spoiled with the best in town when they come! I'm also thinking of creating a 'go-to' sheet for them. I'm all for trying new things but if dad just points at something on the menu, he could end up with Morcilla- which is pig blood sausage. And it's exactly as gross as it sounds.

Gypsies

It's been a pretty quiet weekend. This is the first time in 7 weekends that I've been in Granada! From October 26 to December 3, I've spent all of 14 days here. That's insane. But now, I'm on day 5 of tapas- which is a little embarrassing and a little impressive if you ask me. Tapas are literally the best invention ever. If you order a drink (coke, beer, wine, mixer) you get free food! (like an appetizer) Depending on the bar or restaurant, it can be huge plates of food for two people or just a small plate of olives. And it only costs 2-3 Euro, depending on what you get. Mixers are more, but usually coke, wine, and beer are around 2 Euro. I've been taking lots of pictures of the tapas we get so I'll post them later!

I promise we didn't just eat all weekend. We went hiking to watch the sunset a few days ago! We went up behind the Alhambra and hiked around there. It's a nice lookout and has a great view of the city.

So peaceful

Made it to the top!

The sunset was beautiful.

Naturally, every time we do something there's an absurd story that goes with it. I think we have signs on us like "Please make my life difficult".

We've always heard of the gypsies that live in the caves on the way up around this area, but we've never seen them. A girl in our program was invited inside a cave and had tea with some gypsies- it sounds so cool but we've never done it. So as we're walking up our hill this lady comes out of this cave and says "Come look at my museum! Come inside and take pictures, sit down, come look at the museum!". I'm thinking, cool but no way. I'm here to hike, maybe on the way down or something.

Anna is already in the cave.

So I follow. We get inside and it's the smallest flamenco cave I've ever seen. Lamest museum ever! The lady offered us beer and I just said no thanks. It's 3:00 in the afternoon! Seriously? I really don't want or need a beer right now. No thanks, no thanks, no thanks.

Anna already has the neck gone. She's sitting down and enjoying her gypsy beer.

So Miranda (another girl with us) and I politely take a beer and sit down. Anna is just loving life. "You guys this is so cool! We're making memories! We're drinking beer in a gypsy cave right now!"

Neither Miranda nor I have touched our beers. I have never been so uncomfortable in my life. It was so sketchy! I was convinced they had been spiked and that Anna would start foaming at the mouth any minute.

Once Anna finishes her beer, I set mine on the table and we leave. The gypsy lady comes up to us just as we're walking out and says we each owe her 2 Euro. Now there's no way I'm going to pay for a beer I didn't want, didn't ask for, and didn't drink. So in spanish I explain that I'm not going to pay her. And she starts freaking out. We owe her money! The beer isn't free! You took pictures in my museum! Oh my gosh, she was all up in our business and pushing us for money.

Anna quietly puts her head down and hands over 2 Euro. Tail between her legs, but so proud of herself for drinking beer in a cave that she can't even feel bad about it.

By now I was so scared and mad that I just grabbed Miranda and walked away from the lady. She yelled after us about money or something, but we were too busy focusing on getting as far away as possible to listen to what she said. I kept looking behind us to see if some gypsy was chasing us to push us off a cliff or to put a curse on us. The last thing we need is some freaky voodoo throw down. But we survived. I guess that's one way to get the heart rate up.


We are in our last days here.. in 10 days I will be home! That's so weird to think about! I can't wait to show all my pictures, recipes, and cool stuff from here. I'm so thankful I get to come back. I don't think I would be ready to leave if I didn't know I had more time coming.. and money ;)

See you soon!

Prague? Czech. Traveling is nothing Budapest.. I'm always Hungary when we get there.

As you can see, we had some fun with the puns this week. I went to Prague and Budapest from Tuesday to Sunday.
This was by far the hardest but most worth it trip. The language barrier was ridiculous. We do not speak anything even close to Czech or Hungarian. It was terrifying. I almost started crying again. ALMOST. I didn't.

Heads up, there's a lot of history in this post. There was way more WWII stuff here than I was expecting.

Here's where we went. Also, I got my passport stamped in England and Germany, and our train went through Slovakia so I'm counting them!

It was a looooooong trip. Tuesday night we left around 8pm, spent the night in the London airport, had a connection in Germany, and finally arrived in Prague on Wednesday around noon. We were exhausted but only had a day and a half in Prague so we had to get going.

Please don't judge me, but Prague is WAY over-romanticized. I mean, it was pretty but I wasn't overwhelmed. Maybe it was the time of year? It rained the entire time we were there and it was so cold. So so so cold. And humid. It was the wet cold that just chilled you to your bones. It got dark around 4 and then it was just eerie. We realized that the history of what went on was still right at the surface.

I haven't learned much about central Europe in my history classes. I'm pretty sure it wasn't because I wasn't paying attention either! We went on a walking tour of the city and here's what I learned:

WWII started in Prague in 1938, but I learned in school that it started in 1939! What gives? Nazis actually invaded Czechoslovakia in 1938 and stayed until 1945. Prague was under communist control until 1989. But really, it wasn't until the mid-late 90's that Czechoslovakia actually started becoming a democracy and independent country. It's still a work in progress- the 2013 election will be the first time their president will be elected by popular vote of the people. Normally it's the two houses of Parliament that choose. Fun fact, one candidate, Vladimir Franz is causing quite the scandal. Over 90% of his body is tattooed or pierced. And he's the popular one right now, the word on the street is that he'll win. I'll keep you posted.

Check it out. This is from his official page.

I just don't think I could take him seriously as president. Or maybe I'd just be scared of him. It's laugh or run away.

Since Czechoslovakia is one of the countries between Germany and Russia, they had two layers of dictatorship. When Nazi Germany had control, all of the Jews were taken out of Czechoslovakia, and then when Soviet Russia had control, all of the Germans and anyone with a semi-German sounding name were told to "go home"- many had lived there for generations. They are still trying to recover.

There was a very important Nazi leader named Reinhard Heydrich who was assassinated by two Czech men. Hitler went on a rampage when he found out. The cities that the two men were from were destroyed - completely flattened. Hitler said he wanted it to seem like they never existed. Thousands lost their lives because of it.

This is the Cernin Palace which both Hitler and Stalin used as a headquarters in Prague.  The last president before the communists took over mysteriously "fell" from the top story in 1948. Odd coincidence.

Speaking of presidents, we saw the current president of the Czech Republic! He drove past us while we walked through the palace where his office is.

We saw the John Lennon wall too. John Lennon really has no connection to Prague or the Czech Republic, but the people took the lyrics about peace and love and just dedicated a wall to him. Why it's only John Lennon, I have no idea. In 1988 the young adults in Prague would write on this wall all of the things about the government or communism or current issues, that bugged them. This led to the "Lennonism" movement and a huge clash between hundreds of students and the police on Charles Bridge.

The wall. It's just some random wall in this obscure part of town.

With THE John Lennon. The original drawing of him was covered up by graffiti years ago. A new picture of Lennon appears once the old one gets covered up.

On Charles bridge.

We saw the Astronomical clock, and it has a little "show" every hour. It's just people that stick their heads out the top and play trumpets. I want to know how many hours that shift is. It has to be cold sitting in the top of a tower waiting an hour to play a 30 second tune over and over and over.

They had these outdoor food vendors in every square, so naturally we tried to try all of the food they had. We tried the hot wine, ham, sausage, and trdelnik. It kinda reminded me of the Rendezvous to be honest. Hot wine is just wine.. heated up. It was not good. I like my wine white, sweet, and cold. It was none of those. Trdelnik is a pastry with cinnamon and sugar on it. It's cooked over a fire and it was really good!

Hot wine and Trdelnik

The sausage. Also, I bought this pink hat/scarf thing because it was so cold! Cute right?

Prague is famous for its goulash. I was so excited to try it! All I wanted was some soul food- a pasta dish with red meat sauce. I'm kinda craving food from home so I couldn't wait.

This is not the goulash of prague in any way.

I ordered the beef goulash. What I got was a plate of beef similar to steak tips in a paprika sauce, with green peppers, onions, sausage, and those two bread things. The one on the right is like stuffing, and the one on the left was I don't even know. It was REALLY good. Totally unexpected, but good. It was also very heavy. The plate wasn't very big but I didn't even touch the bread.

They call it goulash. They don't even know what they're missing.

Thursday night we went to the opera!! I feel so cultured. It was awesome. Probably #3 activity, behind the soccer game and what we did in Budapest (which I will say later). It was in German, with Czech and English surscripts. The inside was so pretty! It reminded me of Phantom of the Opera on the inside, which made everything that much more exciting.

Chandelier

The seats in half of the house. We were on the very top, so you can't see the 5 levels below us.

So that's Prague. I would have liked one more day, but I think we hit all the important stuff! Early Friday morning we took a train to Budapest. Little did we know it takes SEVEN HOURS. I have a confession. I am not cut out for road trips. I do not have the patience, nor the attention span to sit for that long. The plane ride over here almost killed me. The four hours to Vermillion is about all I can handle, and even then the last hour from Sioux Falls I have the radio blaring, windows down, and am dancing to keep myself entertained. Yes, I'm THAT person.

Budapest was crazy. I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't this. Budapest is modern and busy and so beautiful and just so fun.

We started Friday night by going out with our hostel on a boat ride down the river that splits the once separate Buda and Pest. The city by night is amazing. We had a perfect view of the palace and castle and parliament from the river.

The Buda Castle

This is the view from the boat. Wow.

Saturday we took the city by storm. Since we were leaving Sunday at 6am we had only Saturday to see everything possible. 9am and we hit the streets. The city is divided into 26 sections and I think we walked through 7 or 8. It was a lot.

Szechenyi Chain Bridge
Story with the bridge- the man who made it was so confident in its perfection said that if anyone can find something wrong with it, he would throw himself off it.
The lions have no tongues.
The story goes that he actually did throw himself off because of this overlooked detail.

Hero Square - In the center is the Millennium Monument, and around the bottom of it are 7 statues for Arpád and the seven chieftains of the Hungarian tribes who conquered the land. The circular area around the back are men that "left their mark" on Hungarian history. And the statues on top of the circular thing stand for War, Peace, Work and Welfare, and Knowledge and Glory.

Hero's Square. 

As we were leaving Hero's Square we come to this bridge and next to it was this bright light. We veered toward it and it's this giant ice skating rink! We had heard about it, but didn't know where it was. Turns out, it's the largest ice skating rink in Europe. Naturally we had to test it out so Anna and I headed in. I can't even describe how big this thing is. There were hundreds of people out there. It was so big that both two ends were roped off- one side for a thrown together hockey game, the other for little kids to have an area where they wouldn't get trampled.

This is easily #2 on the Awesome Adventures in Europe list. And I gotta say, I'm a pretty good ice skater. Turns out having the City Area behind my house all those years really paid off. I should have been in hockey! Ok, I wasn't that good. I didn't fall down though! That has to count for something!

It was a little embarrassing. Anna and I always end up doing really coupley things together. So we get out on the ice and there's all these cute couples holding hands and laughing and gazing lovingly into each other's eyes, and it's all Christmasy and romantic with the lights and the music.. and then there's Anna and me. Now Anna has only skated twice in her life so she was holding my hand for dear life. And we weren't moving very fast so people had plenty of time to notice the two chicks holding hands, which technically wouldn't be a big deal in western Europe, but we were in central Europe which had just left communist hands so it was a little weird. Oops. At least we got some good pictures I guess.

It was massive!

Successful lap!

I'm doing a thumbs up for the record, and Anna isn't falling, she's just catching her balance.

Saturday night we went to the House of Terror- which is exactly as scary as it sounds. It's a museum which shows the horrors of the Nazi, Stalin, and Hungarian control. It's located on Andrássy Boulevard, which is one of the most beautiful streets in Budapest. Our hostel was exactly perpendicular to it, on the other major street in that section. It had offices in the upper floors and torture chambers in the lower. They would bring prisoners there to interrogate, detain, and/or torture.

It's serves a memory to every single victim of the house, and it calls out all of the people involved in any way with the happenings there. It was so awful, all throughout the building are names and pictures of the people that were tortured or killed there, and then there's one room lined wall to wall and ceiling to floor with photos and names of all the people that tortured or worked there or made decisions that caused the suffering of innocent people. Some of them are still alive.

I honestly didn't know anything about Hungary's history. So here's what we got (This is just me summarizing, so I really hope I have all of this right. Correct me if there's a mistake!) - The Arrow Cross Party ran things previous to the Nazi invasion, and their ideology was Nazi-ism, so there wasn't a huge difference. Hungary formally joined Germany in the Axis forces in 1940 but sometime in 1941 or 42 they made a secret pact with the States and UK. When Hitler found out about it around 1944, Hungary was formally invaded by Nazi forces. Between 1941-44, of the 825,000 jews living in Hungary around 250,000 survived - less than one third of the Jewish population. This is really all I knew about WWII. I thought it ended with Hitler dying and the Jews being released.

Then the Soviets took over.

The Soviets naturally targeted any and all Germans. Abductions and deportations happened in two waves- first all Germans, then it was just unlucky people were were kidnapped. Since there was no one left of the Jews, Slavics, Gypsies, anyone not of Aryan race, smaller sects of Catholics, Jehovah's Witnesses and disabled, the Soviets just started taking people off the streets. There was a story of a lady who took her three kids to get groceries and she was taken from the market in broad daylight. There are also records of a quota of prisoners needed from each city. They didn't care about demographics, they just needed numbers. They were at large from about 1945 - 1949.

This was horrifying to me: The last Soviet advisors left Hungary in 1989, the last soldier left in 1991, and the last Hungarian POW returned home from Russia in 2000.
Perspective- I was born in 1991.

The State Security Authority (AVH) came in 1949, (even thought the Soviets were still in control), and they specialized in terrorizing the entire country. No one in particular, just anyone they could. They had a "legion of informers" which monitored everything that citizens did - their thoughts, conversations, and daily habits, which seems very "Big Brother" to me. I remember reading 1989 and it seems very similar. Until the fall of communism in 1990, the AVH had considerable control of the government and political system. After that, many of them were killed or went into hiding. It's rumored that those who stayed in the city joined and strengthened the mafia.

We got to walk through the levels of the building- through the offices, meeting rooms, and torture chambers. It was awful. The rooms were so small. One of them had the single gallows used to hang people, one had a ceiling that was so low I had to completely bend over and there was no space to stand up, one had the whips and sticks and studded bats, and there were so many more.

We realized while watching the videos that hey, the podium where Hitler is talking to the masses is right in front of the building we're in right now; and the street where Soviet troops are marching is right in front of our hostel; and wow, the AVH had spies about 3 blocks from here. It was so surreal to think that the most sadistic men in the world were working and planning right where I'm standing.

I know that was pretty heavy. I'm still working through all of it. It's just crazy to me that Hungary is still getting over the era that I was born in.

I gotta say, the public transportation in both cities was unbelievable. It was efficient and easy to understand. I guess one good thing came out of communism. Fun fact, ok scary fact, we couldn't use the taxi's in Prague or Budapest because they're run by the mafia. Remember who joined the mafia? Yea. Scary stuff.

Well that was our weekend. I'm going to get a massage or something after that.