The Unbelievable

One of the many beautiful squares of Lisbon.
A view of the city from a top the Castelo de Sao Jorge
Post scuba diving on the western coast of portugal!
Jumping picture in one of the coves in Lagos
one of the many beautiful vistas of the Lagos coastline
Ian and myself ecstatic to be where we are
another scenic vista of the Lagos coastline
one of the beautiful beaches in Lagos

Lagos and Lisboa, Portugal: Magnificence at its best

Having passed out on my flight to Lisboa after a late night on Thursday at Oveja, I landed on Friday morning in Lisboa and proceeded to the bus station to meet up with Ian and Mikel who had braved a 14 hour train ride to the city. Although we were supposed to meet at the bus station to head to Lagos together, I couldn’t find them and thus just took the next bus that was leaving. After a smooth 4 hour ride to the coastal town (on which I slept the entire way), I had arrived in the beautiful coast town of Lagos. I met an American on the bus who happened to be staying at the same hostel that Ian had booked us in (ironically called ‘The Rising Cock’) and walked to there with him. I checked in and called Ian from skype to find out that he and Mikel were near and that we indeed would meet up (up until this point I wasn’t sure what was going to happen). We dropped our stuff off, changed into our bathing suits and headed to the coastline for what was to be a marvelous walk along the cliffs that Lagos sat on. Words cannot describe the vistas that we saw. Please see the pictures for a better idea or even google image Lagos to fully understand the beauty that we experienced. It was truly a surreal experience and was so wonderful to be back in nature after really only having visited cities for the past 2 months. This coastline was some of the most beautiful nature that I had ever seen. We walked along the coast for 2 hours before stopping for lunch at a restaurant that overlooked the cliffs. After lunch we continued on and hiked down to a beach for a swim. The water was cold but we toughed it out and went for a swim through some caves and caverns that were right off the beach. Everything was going wonderfully until we got too shallow and freaked out after scraping ourselves on a lobster trap (though at the time we had no idea what it was) and swam quickly back to the shoreline. We walked along the coast, popping in and out of caves before deciding we should head back up, watch the sunset and head back to the hostel. After a quick rest, we headed out for dinner which was delicious and since it took so long got some free treats. I ate bacalao with potatoes, a traditional coastal Portuguese dish. Exhausted from a long day of traveling, we headed back to the hostel and passed out for the evening. Ironically, we were staying at what was known as the biggest party hostel in the town of Lagos. Oh well, the next day was going to be huge as I was going to be going scuba diving!

I woke up early Saturday morning, downed some of the famous crepes from Mama and headed outside to meet up with the dive company that I had emailed the previous afternoon. Elmar, a friendly German who had been living and diving in Lagos for 15 years and now owned Blue Water Divers, met me in his old school jalopy and we headed out. Unfortunately, the ocean on the coast that I had walked the previous day had swelled up and it wouldn’t be possible to go diving there. Our other option was to drive around to the western coast and try our luck there. I figured I might as well give it a try and we loaded up the truck and headed out. It was a beautiful drive through the Portuguese countryside and eventually we arrived at our destination. Fortunately, the ocean wasn’t too rough on this side and so we donned our gear and headed in for our adventure. The water was much colder than I expected and was around 65 degrees Fahrenheit. The first dive was magnificent. We had a maximum depth of 55ft and a bottom time of 70 minutes. The equipment that we were using was unlike anything that I had ever used before and took some adjusting to but once I found neutral buoyancy, it was smooth cruising in this dark and mysterious sea. We swam through beautiful caves and caverns which the sun shone through, saw numerous octopi (huge ones and one inked at us twice!), multi-colored starfish and oddly enough blocks of hardened marijuana. Apparently, a drug trafficker had dumped a bunch of marijuana trying to enter into Portugal and Elmar had found it and turned it in to authorities. However, some still remained and had been hardened by the salt water but still had the scent of the herb as we found out when we exited the water. We took a short surface interval and headed back in for our second dive. The second dive was just as spectacular and we stayed down for 60 minutes with a maximum depth of 45 ft. We saw multi-colored urchins and more caves, octopi and large schools of fish. It was an experience that I will never forget and treasure forever. Exhausted, we headed back into Lagos and I went back to the hostel for a quick nap before dinner with Ian and Mikel. We tried our luck at going out in Lagos but decided it wasn’t worth it and took an early night in Lagos since we were going to head to Lisbon in the morning.

We woke up early and downed a bunch of Mama’s famous crepes and headed to the bus station. After a nice bus ride that took us along the coast and through the countryside we arrived in Lisbon. It was kind of a shock being in a city again after relaxing in a beach town for the past two days. We grabbed a delicious lunch and worked our way through some of the most famous sites in the city. We began by touring the Se Cathedral and walking through the old Alfama neighborhood before heading up the hill to catch the view from Santa Luiza Belvedere and explore the Castelo de Sao Jorge. We packed a ton into the day before I headed to the airport to catch my flight back and Ian and Mikel headed to the train station for their trek back. Portugal was beautiful and I definitely hope to make it back there at some point in the future.

Barcelona: La vida loca

Fortunately, the Monday after Amsterdam was a holiday which gave me some time to recuperate from a fun filled yet exhausting weekend. Tuesday classes were decent but the highlight was visiting Mediterraneo at night with sir Fil. We were treated again by a working Mar and indulged ourselves throughout the evening. Mar sang along with many other magnificent local artists and we stayed out late until the night. Feeling as though I finally knew Barca well enough, I attempted to walk home (and this place isn’t exactly close to my resi) from Med. I got off to a good start but took a wrong turn at some point and although on the correct road, I ended up walking in the opposite direction. Frustrated and exhausted at 4am, I took a cab home and passed out. Wednesday marked another evening of ultimate with the fall league that I had joined here in Barcelona. My team again played well but fell short for another consecutive week. I clearly impressed though as I was invited to play with both of the local club teams here in the city. Thursday came and classes passed fairly quickly and for some reason everyone in the program decided it should be oveja negra night (a local joint near my resi). I of course attended but when it got to be close to 4am, I had to head home as I needed to catch an early flight to Portugal that same morning. It was nice to spend a few days in Barcelona before heading to Portgual with Ian and Mikel on Friday.

Dutch treat...photos from Amsterdam

Obamaphant! one of the elephants on display in the park was decorated as Obama. Pretty amazing artistry right there.

The I amsterdam sign! People were constantly climbing all over this.

Just some of the tons of bikes we saw during our time there.

If you look carefully, you can see that this house is only the width of a door!
Me with one of the beautifully decorated elephants outside the Van Gogh Museum.
And yes, I was one of those people climbing all over the I amsterdam sign.
A view from one of the main canals in Amsterdam during our walk to the apartment.

I AM AMSTERDAM!

Amsterdam was an indescribably spectacular trip (unfortunately I am not going to get into all the gruesome details but if you so care, please ask me in person when you see me next and I will give you all of them; furthermore, while I will post some photos here, I would recommend you looking at the photos on facebook as there are many great ones there). Having not left Spain in 6 or 7 weeks, it was nice to get out and explore another country. I barely made my flight with my friends after meeting the Mayor but once on the plane, I quickly passed out for the short flight to the city of Amsterdam. After landing in Schipol, we exited and took the train to the central station. We decided against taking the tram to our apartment (since we were going to be 6 people, we decided to rent an apartment instead of trying out luck at a hostel, this turned out to be one of the best decisions we made) and began our walk. We stepped out of the station and were immediately confronted with thousands of bikes, a trademark of the city. It was also much cooler (in the 50s) than we had experienced in Barca and we were definitely refreshed by the cold breeze coming off the water. We walked along the Amstel river before turning down one of the main streets. After arriving, we checked in and relaxed in the room for a bit before deciding to wander around. We stopped at Kandinsky coffee shop and enjoyed some tea and typical Amsterdam treats before wandering around to find dinner (where I ate the most delicious and grand shwarma meal of my life). Thus began my food journey in Amsterdam. It was late and we were exhausted so we headed back to the apartment where I laid down and later passed out for the evening.

Saturday morning we woke up early and headed to this pancake shop that had been recommended to me. It was incredibly delicious. I started out with a pancake covered in blueberries, powdered sugar, caramel, and bananas. I wish I had ordered two of them they were so good (but don’t worry I made it back to this place numerous times). After we hit up the tulip museum which described the way that tulips came to Holland and why they were so famous. Afterwards, some of my friends went to the sex museum but I decided since we were so close to the Vincent Van Gogh museum that I would head there instead. On our way there we stopped in Vandel park and climbed around on the IAMAMSTERDAM sign (which I had forgotten was there until I saw it). We cruised around the park for a while and then got in line for the museum. We wandered around staring at the paintings for roughly 3-4 hours before deciding that we should explore some more before the sun set for the day. In the park was an elephant exhibit of elephants that artists from around the world had decorated. We played on the elephants and again on the sign before trying to decide what to do for dinner. I had a craving for Indonesian food as I had heard it was marvelous in Amsterdam (since Indonesia had been a Dutch colony for many years). Unfortunately my friends didn’t quite agree so after some short arguments, my friend Matt and I indulged in some delicious Indonesian. I promised my friend Laura we would get pancakes and waffles at Sara’s pancakes again since she didn’t get to go for Indonesian. We indulged ourselves at Sara’s and I had a giant nutella and banana pancake as well as a waffle covered in cherries and a chocolate milk. It was amazing. I hadn’t eaten this well in a long time as I had had a hard time finding good food in Barca. Next we all met up back at the apartment and reconvened before wandering down to the famed red-light district. We wandered around before Laura and I decided to share a window for a quick peep show. I can for sure say that that moment was the beginning of our friendship. The sex show was definitely sleezy and not something I would do again but when in Amsterdam you must at least try it out. Life is all about those experiences right? We stopped in a coffee shop for some dessert before continuing our journey through the surprisingly classy prostitution district. Even the prostitutes were surprisingly attractive. At one point, we passed a covered door and as we walked by it opened and a well groomed man in his 60s walked out. Looking at him awkwardly he told us that “she was a good one, I would recommend her” before scurrying off. We couldn’t stop laughing as it was the first person we had seen walk out of one of the doors. We poked our heads in a typical sex shop before walking back to the apartment and passing out.

We were up early again Sunday and made our way to the Anne Frank Huis in an attempt to beat the long line we had seen there the day before. We waited in line for a short while before entering into what would be a very moving experience. We took the tour of the house and stopped in all the rooms to ponder what really happened in this historic building and to try to comprehend what it must have been like to live there during the terror of the war. Eventually we decided we couldn’t handle much more and moved on to indulge ourselves once again in Sara’s waffles and pancakes (again I got one of each). Afterwards, we headed back to the apartment to regroup and picked up some traditional Amsterdam brews (blueberry and brisket to be exact) on the way. Matt, Hank, Laura and I went to rent bikes and began our cruising around the city. Riding bikes through the canal areas and on the main roads was a definite highlight of this amazing trip. It felt like we were flying as the bikes were so smooth and the city is so biker friendly. We biked to the park outside the Van Gogh museum and indulged ourselves in numerous waffles before walking around and taking more pictures with the elephants. On our bike back we stopped and picked up more Indonesian food which we gorged ourselves on in the apartment. After our dinner, Matt and Laura departed for the airport while the rest of us went out to explore again. Fixing for a milkshake the entire weekend, I finally got an amazing one at ben and jerry’s. After another long day we headed back to the apartment, watched tv and crashed since we had to be up at the crack of dawn for our flight back to Barca. All in all, it was indeed a completely brilliant weekend.

Cook&Taste and meeting the Mayor...photos!

These pictures are kind out of order but here is me with my finished tortilla de patatas! It was incredibly delicious yet surprisingly even more fun to make.

tortilla de patatas still in the cooking stages

Our gourmet chef explaining to Fil and I how to properly cook the tortilla.

Fil and I displaying our magnificent onion chopping skills.

Professional photo shoot in a double room at my residencia, Melon District. The girl in the photos with me is Lenka from Prague who was also there to meet the Mayor.

Lenka and I speaking with the Mayor. A really nice guy, his popularity has decreased among the people in recent months.

Barca: Basketbol, Frisbee, Cook&Taste, and meeting the Mayor

Barca the week after Sevilla provided a lot of excitement for the week leading up to the much-anticipated Amsterdam trip. On Monday, after an exhausting day of class, Fil , Hank and I headed to the courts near my resi to play some ball. The courts were full of absolute ballers and upon seeing these 6’5” guys and taller dunking over one another we were pretty intimidated. We agreed that we were gonna challenge them nonetheless and even discussed that we would have to play the games of our lives to stay on. Well we did. 3 consecutive games in a row we grinded out wins. It was incredible. I was sinking 3’s like it was my job. Fil was controlling the lane and playing big D and Hank was taking on the man of the courts, a 6’6” Brazilian baller. We were pretty impressed with ourselves and left the courts on a huge high. Exhausted, we all parted ways and headed home. The next day we weren’t so fortunate, as Fil and I tried to get in on a game of full court but got there too late and so only got to play one on one in the dark. No worries, we parted ways after a while with Fil staying to shoot around a bit more while I needed some good rest. Wednesday was another athletics filled day with game day for my ultimate Frisbee fall league. My team played an epic game and they even started calling me “super jay” since I played the entire time and scored and threw a majority of our goals. Unfortunately, the team chemistry still wasn’t there and we conceded a hard fought game to De Puta Madre. It was a beautiful evening in Barca and was so nice to play ultimate outside with people from all over the world.

Thursday marked my groups chance to partake in Cook and Taste, an activity organized and paid for by the program. Wow. One of my most incredible evenings in Barca for sure was here. We met Jofre at the metro near Jaume and walked to the gourmet kitchen for our chance to cook and then eat traditional Catalan and Spanish dishes. See pictures below for a better idea of the evening. We cooked paella, gazpacho, pan con tomate, tortilla de patatas o tortilla Espanola (this is what I made), and crema catalana. We joked and sipped wine while we prepared our food with the guidance of a gourmet Spanish chef. My group ended up spending roughly 4 or 5 hours at this place wining and dining ourselves with the delicious treats we had labored over. If you are ever in Barcelona, you MUST do this.

Friday morning I didn’t have class so Laura and I decided to work on our project for class. We explored Poble Nou (the barrio in which we live, more to come on this in later posts) for an hour or two, snapping photos and conversing with locals before I had to head back to the resi to grab my bag and head to the airport. On my way up to resi, I noticed a large crowd dressed in business suits and formal garb standing in the lobby/entrance area. I realized that it was the day that the Mayor of Barcelona, Jordi Herrer, was coming to visit and christen the new residencia. On my way through the gates, the director of publicity for Melon District stopped me and asked if I had a few minutes to meet and chat with the Mayor. I told her that I wanted to but had to leave for the airport. After a few minutes she convinced me to stay for a short while. A short while ended up being an hour and a half (I missed my chance to take the bus to the airport but was fortunate enough that Melon paid for me to take a cab for 30euros to catch my flight). I gave 3 or 4 interviews to various radio, television and newspapers before meeting and chatting with the Mayor for 5-10 minutes in spanish. It was definitely a testament to how far I had come with my speaking ability and was slightly overwhelming seeing as I have never even met the Mayor in DC where I call home. It was a lot of fun and during the Mayor’s speech, I was mentioned! I also featured in various newspaper and tv specials and appeared on the front of the website for the city of Barcelona. You can see the pictures below!

Sevilla and Cordoba pictures

One of the most beautiful parts of the Real Alcazar, this was the swimming pool the King built for his mistress. Definitely something I want in my house one day. This is one of the most beautiful and peaceful rooms of any palace I have ever seen. Elissa thought appropriately to call this 'the birth canal' for its arches and other attributes.

The extremely talented flamenco dancers in action.

The Cathedral in Sevilla lit up at night was absolutely beautiful. The building on the right side of the image is the Giralda tower.

The famous arches of the Cordoba Mosque which remained even though it was turned into a Cathedral.

View of Cordoba from across the river after getting off the bus.

View of Sevilla from the top of the Giralda tower.

Return to Sevilla and adventures in Cordoba! (October 2,3,4)

October started off with a bang as CIEE took us to Sevilla. Rather fortunately, I had already visited this lovely southern Spanish city just over a month earlier so I had a good idea of what to look forward to. Also, Nicky G, a friend of mine who I’ve known for many a year, was studying there so I would get the chance to see the city from the side of a semi-local. We arrived at El Prat early in the morning for our short 1.5 hour flight down south. Having slept very little the night before (such is the life of a barca boy), I passed out immediately on the plane. Upon arrival at the airport, we took a bus to our hotel, Hotel Alcazar, and checked in to our rooms, mine I shared with Fil. The hotel was very old and beautifully decorated and well located as well, just on the other side of the Palacio Alcazar. The touring started immediately as we met our guide (who was friendly but a little bit on the boring side) and headed over to the Catedral y Giralda, two of the most famous sites in Sevilla. Christopher Columbus and some family members as well are all buried inside the Catedral and the view from the Giralda tower was magnificent (see pictures). An overwhelming and huge cathedral (one of the largest and oldest in Europa), it was nice to revisit it as it was impossible to absorb it all the first time I was there. After the tour ended, I met up with Nick and we started our adventure. We got free fanta at a local festival and then walked to some of his favorite shops and stores. We both got 5 euro futsal shoes at this sports store for the game later that night. After, we grabbed a quick bite at a local street fair (which are apparently very common in the small streets and neighborhoods of Sevilla) before heading back to Nick’s residencia (where surprisingly there are only Spanish students and it is located in a house) where I met some of his flat-mates. He wolfed down his meal and we ran 2.5 miles to the concrete field where we would be playing futsal that evening. The futsal game was a blast. I had been playing a little in Barcelona but the speed and skill of the players at this game was spectacular. It was quite the workout and so much fun. After, we ran back to our respective places to shower and get ready for some nightlife. After one of the fastest showers of my life, I met up with nick and we headed down to the club street to try our luck at Aqua (apparently the premier place in Sevilla) with some of his Spanish friends from the resi. Unfortunately, we got rejected (my first time at a club in Spain) because one of his friends was holding a drink, something that is apparently taboo in the club world. Instead we headed to Buddha which turned out to be an absolute blast. The club was 3 main floors, the middle of which lead out to a balcony where there were Moroccan style beds that you could lay and sip a drink in the warm late summer breeze of the city. It was decorated with an Indian/Middle Eastern feel and was pretty packed. We danced for a while on the second floor before heading upstairs which turned out to be pretty empty. We lived it up, taking advantage of the space to dance (we went pretty crazy) and even engaged in team dance offs with some Spanish guys and girls that seemed to know what they were doing (but don’t worry, we took them down). At around 4:30am, we both decided it was time to go and I took a short cab ride back to my hotel.

Waking up Saturday at 7:30am to get ready for the trip to Cordoba was pretty tough after such a late night out, nonetheless, it happened. Fil and I quickly got dressed, wolfed down some breakfast, and hopped on the bus for the trip out. I quickly passed out seeing as I didn’t get much sleep the night before. In Cordoba, we started out passing by the outside of the famous mosque-turned-Cathedral and headed into the heart of the old city. We took a tour of the call, the old Jewish neighborhood and one of the last three remaining synagogues in Spain. Most of them were wiped out during the expulsion of the Jews after 1492. It was a very spiritual experience that I enjoyed tremendously. After, we walked through some more of the small streets typical of the former capital during the Muslim regime and explored the former mosque. The mosque, which is now a Cathedral, was absolutely beautiful. Having an appreciation for Islamic art, many of the elements of the old mosque remained in this cathedral. After finishing up our tour of the museum, we ate some traditional Andalucía tapas and then hopped back on the bus back to Sevilla. After a quick rest in the room, we headed to see flamenco with the program. The performance was magnificent. We sat in the front row in front of the stage. The show took place in an old converted Jewish synagogue/home. It started with a man dancer who was then joined by a female dancer. Their form and skill was unbelievable and well exceeded the performance that I had seen my previous time in Sevilla. Having not eaten in a while, we made our way over to San Miguel where I enjoyed delicious pasta with seasonal mushrooms before hurrying out to meet up with Nick. Nick and I met up at his residencia and one of the workers at his resi took us to Club Mojito, a salsa dancing club in the heart of Sevilla. We tried our luck at the tough dancing style and enjoyed ourselves tremendously. We were fortunate to have his friend to help us out and also to get some lessons from some of the older women in the club. Exhausted after a long day, we left and strolled through Betis street and the river area before I headed back to the hotel.

Sunday we were up early again for our tour of Real Alcazar. The palace is absolutely magnificent (see pictures below) but it was disappointing to have to rush through with the tour. I was fortunate enough to have gotten to go at my own pace when I visited there with Elissa only a short month before. After relaxing in the gardens for a while, we grabbed a delicious shwarma meal and went to the airport for our flight home.