Hasta luego Baeza

Well this is my last post from Baeza.  I'm catching the bus out of town in two hours, heading north to Madrid to stash my luggage.  Tomorrow morning bright and early, my friend, Lucia, and I are catching a flight to Italy for two weeks of backpacking adventure complemented by loads of pasta and gelatto.  I land in Chicago on June 15th, so next time I write....I'll be stateside, readjusting to American life.  See you all soon!

Jolly ol' England

So two weekends ago, we were blessed with another puente (read long weekend) here in Baeza, and I figured what better way to celebrate no school and no yelling kids for 5 glorious days than to head back to what is rapidly becoming my most visited country: England!  This time, though, I had someone to visit, my friend Mercedes from college who is currently completing graduate school at Brighton University.  So boarding a plane for the (I calculated this) 8th time in a month, I flew off for London on a Thursday afternoon.

Mercedes was kind enough to come meet me at the Gatwick airport at midnight, which I am grateful for since I'm sure on my way from the airport to Eastbourne, where she's living, I would have become incredibly and irreversibly lost.  That is why maps and friends who know where they are going are my best friends when I travel.  Anyway, that night was reserved for sleeping and the next day, we had a relaxed morning and then caught the train to Brighton so she could show me the sights.  May I observe here that the train system in England is infinitly more convenient and easier to get to than the train in Spain.

Our first stop was the Royal Pavilion, built for the drinking, womanzing, and gambling Prince of Wales George IV in 1787.  He later became the King of England for a short time before his death.  The Pavilion itself is a wonderfully fantastic place to walk around since it is heavily influenced by architecture from India, complete with minarets.  The inside is decorated far differently from what one would expect from an English building.  My favorite part was the dining room where the chandalier consisted of one gigantic dragon carrying the framework in his claws and a few other dragons at a lower tier with the lights in their mouths.  Back in the day when the lights were candles, it looked as if the dragons were breathing fire.  Awesome! 

Afterward, we stopped for lunch at Bill's, which is restaurant in a converted warehouse.  Of course I had to be healthy and have pancakes with fruit.......with ice cream and tons of syrup as well.  Delicious, if not particularly nutritious.  Next was some shopping and exploration of the city, wandering among the streets and shops, eventually making our way to the beach and boardwalk.  Sadly we only stayed there a short time, but it was so cold with the wind blowing in off the ocean that my nose went numb.  Then it was back to Eastbourne for some fish and chips.  Later we met up with some of Mercedes friends who are also studying at Brighton and are in the international program.  We sat on the beach for a bit, listening to music and then headed off to find a pub to while away some time.

The next day, it was off to the Isle of Wight via Southampton where we caught a ferry to the island.  Given all the connections we had to make between trains, buses, and ferries, we had superb luck and never had to wait more than a half hour for any sort of transportation.  Upon arrival to the island, we decided that we should just go visit the Osbourne House before making our way inland to our hotel.  So we stopped by the tourist info center to ask where to go, and happened to hear the lady giving directions to other tourists going the same place.  It sounded relatively simple so we set off without a map and with her directions firmly in our minds.  We took the footbridge (actually another ferry going across a tiny river between cities) over to East Cowes and then started off on foot, Mercedes lugging her bag and me with my backpack.  After about 20 minutes of hiking alongside the main road, feeling like hobos or hitchhikers, we were feeling pretty tired and wondering if we'd gotten the directions wrong.  Turns out we were only 100 yards away from it!  How good is that for a directionally challeneged person like myself?  So we spent the afternoon checking out the Osbourne House, residence to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert who considered it a summer "cottage."  The word cottage does not do the place justice....it is big, but for a royal house, the rooms inside are remarkably small.  We saw the house, some of the estate, and the Swiss cottage where the royal children learned to clean, garden, and cook.

The Braunstone Hotel in Newport, where we stayed that night, was a cute little place with gorgeous rooms and a pretty delicious English breakfast (kudos Mercedes!).  Being in Newport on a Saturday night, Mercedes and I expected there to be bustling activity, but things were pretty quiet there.  We managed to find the oldest pub on the island, where we had greasy pub food for dinner, which was so good, then we walked around a bit, saw the town, and found the movie theater.  We ended up seeing X-Men Origins: Wolverine.  My first English movie in a theater not dubbed in Spanish since September!  Needless to say, I was incredibly excited and it made my night.  

Newport

The next day we walked around West Cowes for a bit, then began our trip back to Eastbourne.  That night we met up with her friends again for a pub quiz at the local pub.  Being internationals, we were at a slight disadvantage, especially when one entire category had to do with British cities.  That was a tough round.  But we did pretty well.  Then that night, I took the train to Gatwick and spent the night there because my flight left early in the am.  I'm getting pretty used to staying in airports and killing time, exploring all the different corridors and whatnot.  Didn't get any sleep, but eh, didn't really want any.  Eventually I made it back to Baeza, ready for another week of school with my crazies.

Speaking of school, it's hard to believe that I only have three weeks left before I'm finished.  This past week, my 6th year students asked me if I was coming back next year.  To their dismay, I said no, and truthfully, I'm not even tempted to come back next year.  It has been a great experience and I love the kids here, but I'm ready for another adventure, another experience, another type of challenge.  So now I'm filling out applications for jobs when I return to the States.  I forgot how tedious applications are, but I'm making headway.  Wish me luck!

As always, here's a link to my facebook album:  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2052989&id=11400089&l=21a075ad46 

Barcelona!

Well I'm plumbing the depths of my memory with this post, and my memory has never been that great, but I'm going to do my best to tell you all about my trip to Barcelona which was about a month ago.  The weekend after getting back from Kenya, my friend Lucia and I packed up our bags and hopped on a plane again, this time headed north to the famous city of Barcelona, home of the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi, and the Catalan language.

We didn't actually make it to the hotel until nearly midnight, whereupon we dropped our bags and promptly went down to reception to ask if they knew of a late night bar where we could have a drink to unwind after a long day of travel.  The next morning we made our way into the city and met up with a group of people to go on a bike tour through Barcelona.  We had a big group of people, proabaly around 30 of us tooling around on bikes, cutting off pedestrians, and trying to avoid being run over by cars.  But it was a great way to see the city, the back alleyways, and enjoy the sunshine.  We stopped by the Sagrada Familia, the infamous cathedral of Barcelona that has been under construction since 1882 and still has a ways to go before it is finished. Designed by Gaudi, from the front it looks like a fairy tale castle, but from the back is much more linear and geometrical.  We didn't go inside the cathedral because you have to pay an exorbitant amount of money and truly, the interesting stuff to look at is on the outside.  

For lunch, our tour stopped at a cafe on the beach where we enjoyed sandwiches and wine while watching the sailboats float by on the waves.  Biking through the city is the ideal way to see the sights I think.  We got to see the Arc de Triomf, the old Roman walls, a building torn down by Hitler and then painstakingly rebuilt stone by stone, plus we got to hear all the stories behind the buildings, the little stories that make up the essence of Barcelona.  

After the tour, Lucia and I made our way north to Parc Güell, a garden designed by Guadi which was originally meant to be a housing project for the elite of Barcelona, but due to its ecclectic design, never gained much popularity as a place to live.  Located at the top of a hill, on the way up to the park it felt as if we had blundered into San Francisco.  We even had to take a few escalators to the top.  We wandered around there for a bit looking at the plaza, the houses, and the famous benches, when we ran into a friend of ours from Cordoba!  Sometimes life just surprises you.  Veronique was in Barcelona for a reunion with some friends and we had no idea she was going to be there.  What are the odds that we would be in the same place at the same time in a city as large as Barcelona?  So we walked around with Veronique and her friends for a bit before heading off on our own again.

Me, Lucia, and Veronique

Our next stop of the day was the Palau de la Musica, a concert hall which has Guadi-esque overtones, but was designed by an entirely different architect.  We bought tickets to watch a concert of Catalan music complete with traditional dances.  It was very fun to see and listen to and we snuck a few pictures even though technically pictures were prohibited.  It was just too tempting not to.  When the concert ended we quickly made our way across the city to the Magic Fountain of Montjuic, an enormous fountain which has a lights display complete with music twice a night for spectators.  We didn't get there in time to hear the music, but we did get to see the lights on the water and it was very peaceful to sit on nearby steps, just watching the colors play across the water.  Then it was back to the hotel for some chill time.

The next day we got up early and went off to search for some more of Guadi's famous houses. We saw Casa Battlo, a house which looks like its balconies are made from large skulls and the supporting columns look like bones.  Then we saw the Mila House which looks as if the stones were frozen in the midst of a ripple, with cave-like balconies.  It was astounding to see buildings which look as if they came straight from a child's storybook.  Then we stopped by the Olympic Park from the 1992 Summer Olympic games and toured around the area for a bit seeing the stadium and the basketball arena.

After that we went back to the beach for some delicious paella followed up by some gelato before making our way back to the airport for our flight back, which was an adventure.  We thought we were early when we got to the bus station, but then discovered we were at the WRONG bus station and had to go 20 minutes across town to the other one.  We barely made it on our bus to the airport before it pulled out of the station.  We cut it close and I seriously thought we were going to miss our connections, but we were successful!  

Here is the web address of my Facebook photo album for some more pictures.  

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2052886&id=11400089&l=f0c9a5c289