Catching up and Las Fallas

Before I begin this post let me address the obvious lack of posts coming out of my blog. I understand the amount of post has been, to say the least, below average. I didn't realize how tough it would be to step back and keep track of my stay here.

The month of March flew by and I hardly notice it. It started out with an awesome trip to Burgos, Logroño, San Sebastián, and Bilbao. I traveled with 4 friends and we ate some amazing food at the tapas bars, drank some great wine and beer, saw some cool shit like the Guggenheim, and generally froze our asses off.

Throughout March I have been finding my groove in Madrid. The initial shock and awe has completely worn off. Plus I have found my favorite parts of the city. Malasaña is my top spot for going out at night for sure. The bars all have their own unique swagger, but they play the best music, are priced well for the city, and Malasaña is where a ton of young Madrileños go at night. Also having late night pizza places of doner kebabs doesn't hurt its rankings in my book.

Now that your caught up a little bit on the average stuff its time to talk about an awesome fucking experience:  Las Fallas in Valencia. Las Fallas is a fire festival. Each barrio designs and builds a ninot that are displayed in the streets during Las Fallas. Each night of the festival fire works are set off and people are out partying until the next morning. The last night consists of all of the giant ninots being set a blaze and burning in the street. I wasn't there for this night (average I know)

I left for Valencia saturday at 9 am. My bus was full of typical Spanish jovenes. Loud and Obnoxious. The yelled and sang the entire way there. I was running on just about 4 hours of sleep. Needless to say I was fucking pissed at these kids for ruining what was supposed to be optimal siesta time.

After arriving around 1 my fellow USACers on the trip and I went straight to the beach. Actually straight to the Super Market for alcohol and snacks which was on the way to the beach. Sitting on the sand for the first time this year was great, the fact that it was the Mediterranean Sea made it better, and being drunk really put it over the top.

Afterwards we ate some dank paella, and then the fun started to begin.

We Botellóned in the center of the city along with everyone else. The atmosphere was like none other. Ever where you look there are groups of people getting fucked up in public just like you. I have never seen so much drinking in the streets. To describe easily to my South Carolina people: Imagine you took St. Patrick's day in Five Points, mixed it up with the State Fair (without the gang shootings),  add the fire works from the 4th of July, and put that crazy mess into a real city. For everyone else read that as a lot of drinking, live music, bars, fried food, and people all in one place.

A highlight for me was setting off my first fire work, a roman candle, during the festival. In my drunken stupor I felt like Harry Potter casting spells from a wand with the classic Gruber shit eating grin plastered on my face.

Our bus left Valencia at 6 am sunday. At this point sleep was on everyone's agenda except for the aforementioned spanish youth who continued to talk the entire ride home. That afternoon I passes out, then woke for San Patricio's at night.

Until next the next post, keep on having average times out there everyone.
Gruber

Mash Up Post

In my quest to keep this blog interesting for the reader I feel as though I have been over looking some of my experiences and have not given them a fair chance to be heard. Also it has been a while since the last post, so I am going to throw a bunch of different happenings from my life together and hope that a half decent post comes out.

Jenny and the Mexicats

Item 1: Back in January I went to see a small band play here in Madrid. Their name is Jenny and the Mexicats (before you ask I have no idea what a Mexicat is just go with it). Jenny is a gorgeous blond brit who sings in English and Spanish along with playing the trumpet. They Mexicats are your standard Guitar, Bass, and Drums. I thought that the drummer was especially impressive because he was playing Cajón and a drum kit with his bare hands. The venue held about 100 people who were all dancing through the entire show. The band had a fun and relaxed vibe which definitely comes through in their music. Here is a link to my favorite song from the show. Its an acoustic version but the music video captures the essence of the band well.

Got to meet Jenny after the show

Item 2: Holy Toledo

Through the program I am doing, USAC, there are different field trips offered to different parts of the country. We recently went an hour outside of Madrid to the ancient city of Toledo. Toledo's historical importance stems from being a city where Jews, Christians, and Muslims all lived 'peacefully' before the Reconquista. Seriously click the link I am not going to try and explain that to y'all. 

For any of my fellow Jews who have gone on Birthright Toledo feels a lot like Tzfat. Small alleys, cobble stone paths, a ton of amazing views, and that ever present feeling that your in an ancient place. While we were in Toledo we saw a really old synagog, it was tiny but very ornate. Apparently the Catholics made their Muslim slaves build it for the Jews. (Don't quote me on that I could barely understand the tour guide and stopped listening to her after she called Passover the Jewish Easter...Spaniards right)

The main sights in Toledo are El Greco's masterpiece, which is hands down the most detailed and impressive painting I have seen in person, and the Cathedral of Toledo. The Cathedral is absolutely massive and has the most gold in its prize room I have ever seen. It also house 4 gigantic organs and some fantastic paintings. Under the main chapel or where ever the father sits is a crypt which is totally awesome and the part I found most interesting about this monstrosity of religion. 

I am not an atheists nor the most religious person, but I could not help felling resentment towards this Cathedral that was full of South America's gold and built with slave labour. It goes against what the Church stands for and I can see its historical importance but it is honestly a standing contradiction.

Anyways I should end that before I start a rant on organized religion and no one wants to hear that. As a reward for all of you who have read this far I'm putting all of the Toledo pictures down here. Enjoy.

I swear it gets better

~Gruber

1st shot of the city

Panorama of the City

City's coat of arms from the Hapsburg family

These tiles are scattered throughout the Jewish Quarter

Ancient Rabbi's pipe (Your not fooling anyone)

Ark of the Torah

Something Hebrew

Bible that is written in gold

A fuck ton of gold, don't really know what it is

The Cathedral

Santander

With a long weekend and the city life of Madrid starting to take its toll (mostly on my wallet) it was time to get out of the city, and head up to the coast. I spent this past weekend in the beautiful city of Santander, located on the Northern Coast of Spain, 6 hours away from Madrid by bus.

I left for Santander on friday morning. Due to ALSA, the Spanish bus company, having technical problems on their website I had to buy a ticket at the station. The bus I wanted was leaving at 12:30, so being conservative I left my apartment at 11 and took a 20 minute metro ride to the wrong stop. Unknowingly I got off and proceded to look around a random area of Madrid for 45 minutes for a bus station that didn't exist there. Luckily I found a lady who spoke english and she pointed me in the right direction. I arrived at the bus station with 10 minutes to spare, bought a ticket, and was on my way to Santander.

My first night in the city was hampered by rain. I met an old friend and went to a few bars but the city was dead, and left me hoping that the next day would be better for exploring the area.

When I woke up the next morning the sun was shining and the view of the bay with the snow covered mountains in the back was absolutely breath taking. I had no clue what I was in for the rest of the day.

These two shots were taken from outside of the city golf course. The picture on the left is an inlet created by 2 cliffs on either side. If you can imagine the beach in the bottom right corner stretching back another 100 yards, then add a stage at the head of the beach. My friend Pablo was telling me about the parties they would throw here with upwards of 300 people coming out (the picture I took on my Iphone sucked and was not worth showing in public). The photo on the right isn't really of anything special, I thought it looked cool, deal with it.

This next trio of snap shots all have to do with my favorite piece of history about Santander. There is a famous casino in the city called Casino Sardinero (bottom right). I am told that back in the early 20th century many a Spaniard would go there to gamble. Some would even be as brave to gamble their entire savings, daughters, and wives. Once they had sufficiently lost everything they had, the gambler would feel pretty depressed some would even say suicidal. The suicidal gamblers would drive up to El Faro (spanish for lighthouse) and proceed to drive off of the cliff. Because so many people participated in this messed up semi-tradition the city put a cross at the location of el faro (center below). Normally the crucifix is not one of my favorite images, but I could not help falling in love with this statue of a man holding on for dear life at the base of the cross. The imagery mixed with the location was hysterical to me.

Sadly though the tradition of suiciding in this area continues. A man as recently as 5 days ago drove off the cliff at el faro after his wife left him, took all of his money and the kids. The area he drove off from was blocked off by police barriers (bottom left)

I ended my day in the park located on the land of the King's old vacation castle. The park had one of the most depressing zoos I have ever seen. The lions cage was empty and the polar bears had also died off. On top of that the sea lions were kept in barley enough water to survive. They looked depressed and I didn't have the heart to take pictures. 

The last shot of the day comes from the cliffs of the park. The waves crashed onto the rocks as the sunset over the city. Racing Santander was playing a night game in the second division. Everything was peaceful. At the end of my stay in Santander I felt ready to head back to take on the hustle and bustle of Madrid.

I must also give a huge thank you to Carmen Zamanillo Peral, and Pablo and Rafa Chico for their hospitality. They really made this weekend special.

And as Always, I swear it gets better.

~Gruber

¡Fotos!

I know in my last post there wasn't anything for all of you visual learners to look at so take this short post as an addition to the first. Recently, I was able to take a good walk around El Retiro, a famous park here in Madrid, and snap some photos. Its still winter so none of the flora is in bloom, but there is still plenty of statues and monuments around. Once spring comes around I will be going back to the park a lot more, so expect a longer post with better pictures later in the semester.

Also in the middle of the park stands the Reina Sofia art museum. The Reina Sofia hosts small exhibits throughout the year. Gracias a Matt Albert for correcting my dumb ass, the museum in the Park is not the Reina Sofia;  just a small exhibit put on by the Reina Sofia in the Palacio de Veláquez. The exhibit now is done by Heimo Zobernig an Austrian artist. Zobernig is a modern artist who makes paintings and sculptures. Some of the works were actually pretty interesting to look at, others were commentary on modern art not being "art for art's sake"... I thought these works were complete shit. For me painting a canvas light grey and calling art is not that impressive no matter what it is making a comment on.

To sum up El Retiro: Beautiful, Massive, Moroccan Hash

These photos were taken with an Iphone so excuse the quality. #nofilter

I swear it will get better.

~Gruber

 Small stream in the park

Sculpture made out toilet paper tubes 

Monument to Alfonso XII

 Cajal

 Zobernig painting

 Why not Zobernig?

 One of the many gardens

 Oh yeah there are peacocks roaming freely around the garden

 More from peacock garden

Close up of Alfonso XII

First Couple of Days

To start I'm sure that you are thinking that this is just going to be another boring study abroad blog like the one Cory Levinson wrote, but his got him a girl to fly to China and basically take over his life so I figure whats the worst that can happen. Also to anyone who was to lazy to read the title that I have come up with (thanks Ethan Samarel) there is an emphasis on the word average. Don't come here looking for stories of me getting shit faced with players of Real Madrid or leading a protest against the austerity measures, looking at you Jesse Landy. This blog is doubling as my journal for my trip so you can expect some funny stories with my personal twist on them. I am also planning on doing different outlines on various aspects of the city such as the Prado, the Metro System, El Retiro, etc. If there is anything specific you want to hear about let me know and I'll do my best to give you the details.

Now for a quick recap of my first couple of days.

I landed in Madrid on the 9th and took a taxi to the orientation hotel. My driver was nice and made an effort to have a conversation with me and my broken Spanish. Once I arrived in at the hotel I passed out for a couple of hours and got up for my groups dinner. I met some other adventurous souls at the dinner and formed a small group to go out the first night. As you can imagine wednesday night was not a busy night, but we were able to bar hop and explore the city a little bit.

The next day involved some orientation on housing then in the afternoon I met my host family: Pepa, Jose Luis, and Monica. They are all super nice and helpful with my god awful spanish. I am planing on doing an entire post on them so I won't bore y'all here.

Friday night is a blur to me. I can remember seeing some transvestites in one bar and thinking "Toto were not in South Carolina anymore". Luckily I had some awesome year long students with me to show me around and get my ass safely on the right night bus at 4 am. I am planing a post on the Madrid nightlife once I actually experience some more of it so stay tuned for that.

As I say about my Spanish skills I will say about this blog.

It will get better, I swear.
~Gruber