The easiest way to acclimatize yourself to jet lag is to transition yourself weeks before you actually travel.
Going to bed at 7am in Madrid and waking up at 3pm= Going to bed at 1am and waking up at 9am back here in New York.
Or at least that's how I rationalize it.
Showing posts with label spain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spain. Show all posts
Monday, June 29, 2009
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Trip to Granada
The title made me think...I really don't care about special titles or anything. It's funny, on Facebook, every girl uploads photo albums with clever or witty names. Mine and most guys I've seen are something like "spring 09" or "Madrid." But this isn't about pointless creativity (if there is such a thing) this is about the trip to Granada.
So I got back a few days ago from my first trip this semester, we went to Granada. 30 euros roundtrip bus direct from Madrid to Grenada, it was about a 4h30minute trip. Heading out there, we had to leave at 730, which was the cheapest. They advised getting to the bus station at least 20 minutes early, and it was a 40minute Metro ride there, so we had to leave our houses at 615 or so. Granada, for those of you who don't know, is in Andalucia (southern Spain) and was the last stronghold of the Muslims in Spain. Very cool place. We spent about 10euros per night for a hostel there which was pretty much awesome, 3 of us to a room (3 beds of course), plenty of bathrooms on the floor, our own keys to the hostel and the room, etc.
Granada is a very interesting city, a mix of Spanish and North African culture. I thought it was close to the Mediterranean, but it's actually in the middle of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, or close by. It's a very hilly city. With the more recent influx of immigrants from across the strait of Gibralter, it's gaining even more Arabic influence. There's a lot of very cool artisan shops, most of them Muslim. I would have loved to buy some stuff had I had the money. Plenty of tea shops, too. At one point we went into a hookah bar. Excellent lighting, plenty of cool blankets and pillows, entertaining Arabic music, and of course hookah. Nice place.
Granada has plenty of stuff to see. Twice we went to the Mirador San Nicolas, a viewpoint over the city that tourists (and locals) like to go to, to watch the sunset. Some old guy told one of us “Bill Clinton said this was the prettiest sunset he'd ever seen, but then again, he's a politician, he's probably said that to every other sunset.” There was a lot of musicians there, some people walking around selling weed not-so-discretely. (It's legal to smoke marijuana in Spain, provided it's not in public and you only have an amount for personal use. Though people still do in public some places. Selling is still illegal, seems like a much smarter way to go about it.) Very cool place. On other days, we went to a couple other Miradores, or lookouts.
Of course the biggest draw to Granada, and perhaps one of the biggest in Spain is the Alhambra, a Muslim fortress on a hillside in Granada. The place is massive, it's a walled castle that has an entire village inside as well as several ornate palaces and gardens. I think it's one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Amazing place, it only cost about 13euros to enter. The main palace has a very bizarre policy that only allows you to enter in 30-minute windows. Obviously to control crowds, but I found it a bit odd because the Alhambra wasn't that full when I was there, and moreso, I thought the gardens and particularly the towers to be much more interesting.
Other sites in Granada are the Cathedral and the Palacio Real, where the Catholic kings were buried. You might remember Ferdinand and Isabel, who us Yanks know mostly for financing Colombus's trip to America. The same year, they conquered all of Spain, the last Muslim stronghold being in Granada. (They also kicked all Jews out of Spain, all 3 events happening in 1492) I guess as a final screw-you to the Muslims, they decided to be buried in Granada though they were both from Madrid and reigned there. I took a picture of the tomb, even though it was banned. I figure I'm in Granada once, and I'm paying to get in, so so it goes.
Granada is a college town, which is always cool, and an Alhambra town. It seems like every bar is named the Alhambra or some derivative, and the most famous beer in Granada is called Alhambra. (a bit ironic given Muslims are not allowed to drink alcohol) Very good beer, I liked it more than Mahou which is more popular in Madrid. We met up with a Tulane student who was studying in Granada for the full year, which was cool because he told us some good places to go. Plenty of students out there, we actually met up with some students from Marquette who are doing the same program as us in Madrid.
Tapas in Granada are even better than Madrid. In fact, the entire 3-4 days we were there I don't think we ever ordered actual food. No point in doing it, buy two beers for 3euros, and you get say a sandwich and french fries with it. Which brings me to a brief point about Spain. It's expensive, though Granada was kind of cheap. But it's expensive kind of like Canada is, because of fluctuations in the exchange rate. If $1=1euro, it would be quite reasonable. But our currency isn't worth that, so you're paying like $4-5 for a 2-3euro sandwich.
To quote my host brother, when you go to an unknown city and don't really know what to do, fiesta. And we did, plenty. It was pretty intense, I was definitely very tired after 3 nights of marathon partying and walking around the city. Nightlife in Granada was excellent, plenty of stuff to do. One of the more interesting places we went was this discoteca named Granada 10. It was pretty empty when we arrived because we were early (1am or so) but it was a former movie theater converted into a dance floor. Cool place.
I woke up at 945am Sunday after a pretty crazy night, took the bus to the bus station, and came back to Madrid. The Super Bowl was this Monday morning, 1am-4am here in Spain. I thought about watching, I heard it was a pretty good superbowl. But after 3-4 hours of sleep the night before and a very long (yet extremely entertaining) 4-day trip to Granada, I crashed at about 11pm Sunday night. Classes started the next day at 830am for me anyways, so it was a smart option.
So I got back a few days ago from my first trip this semester, we went to Granada. 30 euros roundtrip bus direct from Madrid to Grenada, it was about a 4h30minute trip. Heading out there, we had to leave at 730, which was the cheapest. They advised getting to the bus station at least 20 minutes early, and it was a 40minute Metro ride there, so we had to leave our houses at 615 or so. Granada, for those of you who don't know, is in Andalucia (southern Spain) and was the last stronghold of the Muslims in Spain. Very cool place. We spent about 10euros per night for a hostel there which was pretty much awesome, 3 of us to a room (3 beds of course), plenty of bathrooms on the floor, our own keys to the hostel and the room, etc.
Granada is a very interesting city, a mix of Spanish and North African culture. I thought it was close to the Mediterranean, but it's actually in the middle of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, or close by. It's a very hilly city. With the more recent influx of immigrants from across the strait of Gibralter, it's gaining even more Arabic influence. There's a lot of very cool artisan shops, most of them Muslim. I would have loved to buy some stuff had I had the money. Plenty of tea shops, too. At one point we went into a hookah bar. Excellent lighting, plenty of cool blankets and pillows, entertaining Arabic music, and of course hookah. Nice place.
Granada has plenty of stuff to see. Twice we went to the Mirador San Nicolas, a viewpoint over the city that tourists (and locals) like to go to, to watch the sunset. Some old guy told one of us “Bill Clinton said this was the prettiest sunset he'd ever seen, but then again, he's a politician, he's probably said that to every other sunset.” There was a lot of musicians there, some people walking around selling weed not-so-discretely. (It's legal to smoke marijuana in Spain, provided it's not in public and you only have an amount for personal use. Though people still do in public some places. Selling is still illegal, seems like a much smarter way to go about it.) Very cool place. On other days, we went to a couple other Miradores, or lookouts.
Of course the biggest draw to Granada, and perhaps one of the biggest in Spain is the Alhambra, a Muslim fortress on a hillside in Granada. The place is massive, it's a walled castle that has an entire village inside as well as several ornate palaces and gardens. I think it's one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Amazing place, it only cost about 13euros to enter. The main palace has a very bizarre policy that only allows you to enter in 30-minute windows. Obviously to control crowds, but I found it a bit odd because the Alhambra wasn't that full when I was there, and moreso, I thought the gardens and particularly the towers to be much more interesting.
Other sites in Granada are the Cathedral and the Palacio Real, where the Catholic kings were buried. You might remember Ferdinand and Isabel, who us Yanks know mostly for financing Colombus's trip to America. The same year, they conquered all of Spain, the last Muslim stronghold being in Granada. (They also kicked all Jews out of Spain, all 3 events happening in 1492) I guess as a final screw-you to the Muslims, they decided to be buried in Granada though they were both from Madrid and reigned there. I took a picture of the tomb, even though it was banned. I figure I'm in Granada once, and I'm paying to get in, so so it goes.
Granada is a college town, which is always cool, and an Alhambra town. It seems like every bar is named the Alhambra or some derivative, and the most famous beer in Granada is called Alhambra. (a bit ironic given Muslims are not allowed to drink alcohol) Very good beer, I liked it more than Mahou which is more popular in Madrid. We met up with a Tulane student who was studying in Granada for the full year, which was cool because he told us some good places to go. Plenty of students out there, we actually met up with some students from Marquette who are doing the same program as us in Madrid.
Tapas in Granada are even better than Madrid. In fact, the entire 3-4 days we were there I don't think we ever ordered actual food. No point in doing it, buy two beers for 3euros, and you get say a sandwich and french fries with it. Which brings me to a brief point about Spain. It's expensive, though Granada was kind of cheap. But it's expensive kind of like Canada is, because of fluctuations in the exchange rate. If $1=1euro, it would be quite reasonable. But our currency isn't worth that, so you're paying like $4-5 for a 2-3euro sandwich.
To quote my host brother, when you go to an unknown city and don't really know what to do, fiesta. And we did, plenty. It was pretty intense, I was definitely very tired after 3 nights of marathon partying and walking around the city. Nightlife in Granada was excellent, plenty of stuff to do. One of the more interesting places we went was this discoteca named Granada 10. It was pretty empty when we arrived because we were early (1am or so) but it was a former movie theater converted into a dance floor. Cool place.
I woke up at 945am Sunday after a pretty crazy night, took the bus to the bus station, and came back to Madrid. The Super Bowl was this Monday morning, 1am-4am here in Spain. I thought about watching, I heard it was a pretty good superbowl. But after 3-4 hours of sleep the night before and a very long (yet extremely entertaining) 4-day trip to Granada, I crashed at about 11pm Sunday night. Classes started the next day at 830am for me anyways, so it was a smart option.
Friday, January 23, 2009
My First Few Days in Madrid
The first day in Madrid was pretty surreal. I went to bed pretty early the night before, around 10pm or so, but jet lag is interesting. I wasn't tired or anything, but for the first week in Spain I kept waking up around 7am feeling totally awake. Those who know me well, know that I am not a morning person and that given the opportunity, I'll sleep at least until noon. Anyways, the first day was odd. It was snowing quite a bit in Madrid, the first significant snowfall in 30-40 years or so. It had snowed 2-3inches or so, the city was more or less shutdown traffic-wise. We had about 4-5 hours of orientation meetings and such, our program director picked us up at all of our houses and showed us the bus system and Metro to get to campus. I typically walk now, now that I know how to get back and forth. Takes about 30minutes to walk to my Facultad, or “department.” The Complutense has about 140,000 students, and each are divided into Facultades. They have a pretty strong degree of autonomy, each has its' own library and cafeteria. (You can order whiskey and beer in the cafeteria) Kinda like the relationship between Eastman and the UofR, though most of the Facultades are on the same campus. (Econ is not, it's out a bit in the boonies)
I live in a very cool area, it's pretty close to the Ciudad Universitaria (University city) so it's very studenty. There's a doorman in my building which is neat, obviously something I'm completely unaccustomed to. He's a very nice old guy named Alfonso. I live in the 3rd (4th in the US) floor on an interesting street (Gaztambide, look it up on Google Streetview) about 3-4 blocks from 3 different Metro entrances, a major transportation hub, etc. The ground floor of every building is a store, from bookstores to kebabs, and plenty of bars.
Most of the stereotypes about Spanish people are not true, of course. But everyone knows that. No one goes to bullfights all the time, not many people really know how to flamenco, etc. Siestas are an interesting stereotype, which is half-true. Students take them, so they can go out last night, but aside from that I don't think adults really do. It is true just about everything is closed from 2pm-5pm though, which is sometimes annoying. Most stores are open 9-2, 5-8ish. The one stereotype that has been completely refuted is that Spanish people are wine-drinkers. Spain obviously produces some fantastic wine, but the general idea I'd heard was Latin countries (France, Spain, Portugal) drank a lot more wine over beer. Not true at all. Beer is consumed all the time here, most people eat lunch or whatever in bars with food on the side. Or people just pop into a bar for a beer. People drink beer here easily as much as in the US, probably more commonly. And in Madrid, (and in the South) there is a wonderful thing called tapas. Every beer you order, you get a little snack for free. Could be french fries, nuts, sausage, even a sandwich. It originated hundreds of years ago, they'd put it on top of the beer to keep the flies out, as well as keep patrons from getting too drunk. Our Spanish teacher once said “Ever wonder how Spanish people drink so much but don't die? Tapas.”
The eating schedule is very different here in Spain, and I like it. A small breakfast around 9-10 (or whenever you wake up), and the big meal is lunch, around 2-3pm, which produces a serious food coma. Most places offer a 2-3 course meal for 7-8euros, at the cafeteria at school it's 4.70euros, and it's pretty good. Then dinner is something a bit smaller, around 9pm or so. Chicken and rice, salad, something like that. My senora cooks very well, it's delicious. Took me a bit for my stomach to adjust to the amount of olive oil they cook everything in, but it's quite good. Obviously a cosmopolitan city like Madrid has just about every kind of food. Spanish traditional food is plenty of meat, like chicken, eggs, plenty of soups, good stuff. Then there's stuff like paella from Valencia, which is a mix of rice, chicken, sauce, seafood (I eat it without generally) and vegetables.
Anyways, the first few weeks in Madrid I had the language-intensive orientation program, which I got 3 credits for. It was 3 hours a day; we were divided into two groups based on skill level, I was in the upper level which actually had huge benefits. We didn't really do any work outside of class, and the class itself was pretty fun, our teacher was very nice. It's nice actually being rewarded with less work for being “better.” Kinda like Spain's university system. In general, public schools (which cost about 800euros a year for tuition) are better than private schools. The idea is if you're smart, you shouldn't have to pay for school. The complete opposite of the United States, more or less.
What's my favorite thing about Madrid thus far? The public transportation system. Both the bus and Metro can stand by themselves, combined, it's just awesome. You can get anywhere you want in the city, quickly and for very cheap. For 42euros a month, you get an unlimited pass. A ticket for one way is 1euro, but you can packs of 10 for cheaper. It's just awesome. There is an anamoly though, Madrilenos are known for going out around midnight, 1am, or later, and coming back around 5-6am or later. This is true, and that's why we take siestas. But the Metro is closed from 130-6, so sometimes after pregaming in an apartment (going out in Madrid is not cheap, but pregaming is VERY cheap) the Metro is already closed. It is awesome though, very clean, very efficient, very extensive.
That's about it for now.
I live in a very cool area, it's pretty close to the Ciudad Universitaria (University city) so it's very studenty. There's a doorman in my building which is neat, obviously something I'm completely unaccustomed to. He's a very nice old guy named Alfonso. I live in the 3rd (4th in the US) floor on an interesting street (Gaztambide, look it up on Google Streetview) about 3-4 blocks from 3 different Metro entrances, a major transportation hub, etc. The ground floor of every building is a store, from bookstores to kebabs, and plenty of bars.
Most of the stereotypes about Spanish people are not true, of course. But everyone knows that. No one goes to bullfights all the time, not many people really know how to flamenco, etc. Siestas are an interesting stereotype, which is half-true. Students take them, so they can go out last night, but aside from that I don't think adults really do. It is true just about everything is closed from 2pm-5pm though, which is sometimes annoying. Most stores are open 9-2, 5-8ish. The one stereotype that has been completely refuted is that Spanish people are wine-drinkers. Spain obviously produces some fantastic wine, but the general idea I'd heard was Latin countries (France, Spain, Portugal) drank a lot more wine over beer. Not true at all. Beer is consumed all the time here, most people eat lunch or whatever in bars with food on the side. Or people just pop into a bar for a beer. People drink beer here easily as much as in the US, probably more commonly. And in Madrid, (and in the South) there is a wonderful thing called tapas. Every beer you order, you get a little snack for free. Could be french fries, nuts, sausage, even a sandwich. It originated hundreds of years ago, they'd put it on top of the beer to keep the flies out, as well as keep patrons from getting too drunk. Our Spanish teacher once said “Ever wonder how Spanish people drink so much but don't die? Tapas.”
The eating schedule is very different here in Spain, and I like it. A small breakfast around 9-10 (or whenever you wake up), and the big meal is lunch, around 2-3pm, which produces a serious food coma. Most places offer a 2-3 course meal for 7-8euros, at the cafeteria at school it's 4.70euros, and it's pretty good. Then dinner is something a bit smaller, around 9pm or so. Chicken and rice, salad, something like that. My senora cooks very well, it's delicious. Took me a bit for my stomach to adjust to the amount of olive oil they cook everything in, but it's quite good. Obviously a cosmopolitan city like Madrid has just about every kind of food. Spanish traditional food is plenty of meat, like chicken, eggs, plenty of soups, good stuff. Then there's stuff like paella from Valencia, which is a mix of rice, chicken, sauce, seafood (I eat it without generally) and vegetables.
Anyways, the first few weeks in Madrid I had the language-intensive orientation program, which I got 3 credits for. It was 3 hours a day; we were divided into two groups based on skill level, I was in the upper level which actually had huge benefits. We didn't really do any work outside of class, and the class itself was pretty fun, our teacher was very nice. It's nice actually being rewarded with less work for being “better.” Kinda like Spain's university system. In general, public schools (which cost about 800euros a year for tuition) are better than private schools. The idea is if you're smart, you shouldn't have to pay for school. The complete opposite of the United States, more or less.
What's my favorite thing about Madrid thus far? The public transportation system. Both the bus and Metro can stand by themselves, combined, it's just awesome. You can get anywhere you want in the city, quickly and for very cheap. For 42euros a month, you get an unlimited pass. A ticket for one way is 1euro, but you can packs of 10 for cheaper. It's just awesome. There is an anamoly though, Madrilenos are known for going out around midnight, 1am, or later, and coming back around 5-6am or later. This is true, and that's why we take siestas. But the Metro is closed from 130-6, so sometimes after pregaming in an apartment (going out in Madrid is not cheap, but pregaming is VERY cheap) the Metro is already closed. It is awesome though, very clean, very efficient, very extensive.
That's about it for now.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
My Flight to Spain
I was planning on writing in here and putting personal thoughts and whatever was on my mind, but that kind of faded. I had actually completely forgotten about this blog, but now that I am in Spain (it worked) I figured I should write stuff down. Not necessarily for other people, though they may be interested in my travels in Spain more than my musings at Tulane, but more for me. It's interesting to go back and read in the future. So without further ado......here I go. I plan on adding pictures in the future, intersplit once I have internet.
It was an interesting buildup to my flight to Spain, it was nonstop busy; the night before was Teo's 21st birthday, and as such, I was legally obliged to go out with him. I was a bit hungover the next day, which made packing a bit irritating. Moreover, my stomach decided to take an off-day, so I was feeling pretty awful all day. I think it was nerves getting to me.
I left Rachacha around 5pm, arriving in Detroit around 630 in the midst of a bit of a snowstorm. I had about 3 hours to kill, so I got some food and looked around the airport. I had never flown Northwest (or Northworst as my dad calls them) so I'd never been in Detroit's airport. It's pretty big, not surprising considering it's the home of a major airline. But they have a freaking train in the airport. A TRAIN. The moving walkways are not sufficient anymore.
I flew on KLM, or Dutch Royal Airways, who has a codesharing agreement with Northwest. The flight to Amsterdam was pretty uneventful; there was little turbulence. Unfortunately I was sitting right in front of the bulkhead, so I didn't have that much space. Didn't have anyone sitting in front of me though, which was a plus. The woman sitting next to me was an old British lady, who was getting pretty drunk. 4 Bloody Mary's, and a tiny bottle of Chardonay for dinner, she looked like she was about 100 lbs. Needless to say, she passed out pretty quickly. Rather than play the in-flight movie, the TV in front of me was showing details about the flight, like where we were, how fast we were going, etc. Pretty neat stuff. It didn't bother me it wasn't playing the movie though, I bought an eeePc a bit before leaving for Spain, it gets 7 hours of battery life pretty easily. (40gb SSD, a 24gb upgrade for no fee for choosing Linux over Windows. :) ) I had copied some movies and such over to the hard drive beforehand, so I watched Die Hard 2. Perhaps not the best choice of movies, as anyone familiar with the plot might agree, but a good movie nonetheless. There were a few raised eyebrows around me when one of the planes in the movie crashes and burns, with lots of explosions.
My original iterinary gave me about 45 minutes to make a connection in Detroit and Amsterdam. Thankfully, it changed, in Amsterdam I had about 1h30. I coulda made it in Detroit, but certainly not in Schipol, Amstedam's airport. (which is massive, by the way) It was pretty smart, each of the signs to the terminal showed the estimated walking time. I have no idea how their customs is situated, I randomly went through it while crossing terminals. Had I stayed in the same terminal (or the ajacent one) I don't know when I would have went through. Had my flight to Madrid left ontime, I would have barely made it. The flight crew took a while to make it through the airport as well, so we left about 30 minutes late.
I got into Madrid around 4pm local time. There was a pretty big mixup in communication on what I was supposed to do when I got there, I wasn't sure whether they, the host family or the program director, were picking me up or if I was supposed to go straight there. I assumed the first (wrongly) and didn't have the address with me. I had to pay like 5 euros or so to use the internet, so I grabbed the address from my email, and took a cab there. I got to the house around 6:30/7ish, I paid about 20 euros for the cab, which is pretty cheap compared to the US.
It was an interesting buildup to my flight to Spain, it was nonstop busy; the night before was Teo's 21st birthday, and as such, I was legally obliged to go out with him. I was a bit hungover the next day, which made packing a bit irritating. Moreover, my stomach decided to take an off-day, so I was feeling pretty awful all day. I think it was nerves getting to me.
I left Rachacha around 5pm, arriving in Detroit around 630 in the midst of a bit of a snowstorm. I had about 3 hours to kill, so I got some food and looked around the airport. I had never flown Northwest (or Northworst as my dad calls them) so I'd never been in Detroit's airport. It's pretty big, not surprising considering it's the home of a major airline. But they have a freaking train in the airport. A TRAIN. The moving walkways are not sufficient anymore.
I flew on KLM, or Dutch Royal Airways, who has a codesharing agreement with Northwest. The flight to Amsterdam was pretty uneventful; there was little turbulence. Unfortunately I was sitting right in front of the bulkhead, so I didn't have that much space. Didn't have anyone sitting in front of me though, which was a plus. The woman sitting next to me was an old British lady, who was getting pretty drunk. 4 Bloody Mary's, and a tiny bottle of Chardonay for dinner, she looked like she was about 100 lbs. Needless to say, she passed out pretty quickly. Rather than play the in-flight movie, the TV in front of me was showing details about the flight, like where we were, how fast we were going, etc. Pretty neat stuff. It didn't bother me it wasn't playing the movie though, I bought an eeePc a bit before leaving for Spain, it gets 7 hours of battery life pretty easily. (40gb SSD, a 24gb upgrade for no fee for choosing Linux over Windows. :) ) I had copied some movies and such over to the hard drive beforehand, so I watched Die Hard 2. Perhaps not the best choice of movies, as anyone familiar with the plot might agree, but a good movie nonetheless. There were a few raised eyebrows around me when one of the planes in the movie crashes and burns, with lots of explosions.
My original iterinary gave me about 45 minutes to make a connection in Detroit and Amsterdam. Thankfully, it changed, in Amsterdam I had about 1h30. I coulda made it in Detroit, but certainly not in Schipol, Amstedam's airport. (which is massive, by the way) It was pretty smart, each of the signs to the terminal showed the estimated walking time. I have no idea how their customs is situated, I randomly went through it while crossing terminals. Had I stayed in the same terminal (or the ajacent one) I don't know when I would have went through. Had my flight to Madrid left ontime, I would have barely made it. The flight crew took a while to make it through the airport as well, so we left about 30 minutes late.
I got into Madrid around 4pm local time. There was a pretty big mixup in communication on what I was supposed to do when I got there, I wasn't sure whether they, the host family or the program director, were picking me up or if I was supposed to go straight there. I assumed the first (wrongly) and didn't have the address with me. I had to pay like 5 euros or so to use the internet, so I grabbed the address from my email, and took a cab there. I got to the house around 6:30/7ish, I paid about 20 euros for the cab, which is pretty cheap compared to the US.
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