Week 2: Five Things I Learned This Week in Spain

This second week flew by so quickly. Every day was packed with new things to do: during the week, I visited el Museo Nacional del Prado for the first time and also got to explore two new neighborhoods, Chueca and la Latina. Then over the weekend, I spontaneously went to northern Spain with a new friend and visited León, Oviedo, and Gijón (new travels posts coming soon!). Here's what I learned this week:

{Plaza de Torros}

1. Exploring. This week has been a reminder that heading to the less-famous spots is sometimes the way to go. I finally wandered beyond Sol, where many of the au pairs often meet up, and found new neighborhoods, some cheap bars with good tapas, and the best view of the city I've seen yet. Likewise, the three cities I visited in the North aren't exactly the most popular tourist sites, and it was nice being able to escape the crowds for a while and see some lesser-known sights.

{admiring the buildings in La Latina}

{street art in la Latina}

2. The difference between alone and lonely. I went out exploring in Madrid by myself on Wednesday and really enjoyed being able to go where I wanted at my own pace. My plans with a friend fell through, so I walked around for a bit before exploring new neighborhoods. I got on the Metro and picked a random stop on the map and just went. I used to be really good at spending time by myself, but when I'm at home or at school, there's always someone around so alone time is more rare. I think it's important to have a good balance between introvert-extrovert and when I'm so far away from all my friends and family, it's nice to have a bit of space to enjoy time with myself.

{churros con chocolate from San Ginés}

3. Food. I came to Spain knowing that this trip was not going to be an endless food-venture; the country that prides itself in its jamón and seafood paella isn't exactly vegetarian-friendly. But I think I at some point this weekend I reached my breaking point. After all, there's only so much fruit, pastries, and tortillas de patata you can live on. Luckily, I found a vegetarian restaurant in Gijón and was able to enjoy just one meal on our trip that wasn't entirely white bread, fried potatoes, or fruit. And in about two weeks, I'll be able to eat all the authentic pizza, pasta, and gelato I desire when my family and I go to Italy.

{museum exploring}

{Catedral de La Almudena} 

4. Travel. With a five hour drive from Madrid to León, two hours from León to Oviedo, half an hour from Oviedo to Gijón, and seven and a half hours from Gijón to Madrid, I spent a lot of this weekend on ALSA busses, but I'm not complaining. For nearly all of the bus trips, we had decent wifi, ample leg room, and a trip that started and ended on time, which is much more than I can say for the Bolt Bus back home. 
Beyond that, while I haven't had the "traditional" hostel experience, complete with sharing a room with several strangers, I can now say I have experienced hostel life! Our hostels were easy to find online, fairly cheap, and centrally located in the cities we visited. I now feel much more confident planning my next trip around Spain.

{some greenery in Madrid}

5. Money. Compared to what I'm used to paying for lunch or drinks, everything here is so cheap! It's amazing to be able to get a beer, glass of wine, or full meal for the equivalent of a dollar. A new restaurant opened up in my neighborhood in DC and when I checked out their menu and saw a $7 sandwich I laughed; while this is a price I'm technically used to paying back home, I'd never pay more than 4€ here and in fact, I often pay just 1€.

All in all, it's been a busy week and I'm happy to be back in Madrid after a long weekend in the north. I found a quote somewhere that said, "Don't count the days; make the days count." While I can't help but do the former, I'm doing my best to make sure I do the latter as well. :) Have a good week!

~ V

Read also: Week 1

Today I almost died and then I became the Mother of Dragons

Well, kind of.

Today I went hiking and exploring with my host father and brother along with another family. We drove to Monte Abantos and later saw el Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial. 

{view of el Monasterio from our hike}

We started with a hike and climb that felt pretty steep to me. In reality, I guess it wasn't too bad. The three kids were all between 7 and 9 years old and they handled the hike with more grace and agility than I did, but in my defense, they do this sort of thing all the time while I really didn't know what I was doing. I kept stumbling and tripping and at one point I made the very foolish mistake of looking down to see the surrounding area. Needless to say, I became way too aware of how high we were. I think we were less than a mile above sea level, but all I saw were steep rocks and way too many ways to fall or slip to certain death. Everyone was ahead of me and I just looked at my host father and asked if I could just stay put where I was and wait for them to finish.

 {hiking trail we took on our way down; way easier than the way we climbed on our way up}

Looking back, it's actually pretty funny. Here are all these kids handling the hike without any problem, and then there's the gringa American behind them, slightly out of breath and irrationally afraid of heights and positive that she's going to die that day. I mean if you're going to die, might as well do it in Spain, right? But there I was walking along thinking, "I at least need to graduate college before I die. I at least need that damn degree." And while I like to think of this trip as more than some eat-pray-love overly romanticized bullshit, at that point I was like, "holy crap I'm going to die, and if there is ever a time to start praying again it should be now right?"

{el Monasterio}

Luckily my host father was able to reason with me and point out that I was literally a 30 second walk/climb away from where we were going to stop. So I told myself to shut up, stop embarrassing myself, and just go. So I didn't die today guys. I didn't break the fifth goal of my trip to Madrid and now I can continue to pay GW in my blood and soul, so all is right in the world again.

{exploring el Escorial}

{el Monasterio from the inside}

As for the Khaleesi moment, the highlight of the day for me was el Monasterio. My photos really don't do the view from our point in the mountain justice; the entire scene was so beautiful that I felt right there that this would be the highlight of my trip. Day 3 in a three-month trip is way too early to peak, but there are worse things in life. But going back to the Game of Thrones stuff, the monastery really resembles these scene in which Daenerys (or Baenerys, amirite?) Targaryen looks down at ~her people~ in yet another scene focusing on her and her unsullied. And trust me, I realize how ridiculously vague that sounds but in all honesty, I really don't pay enough attention to remember exactly when or where this happens in the show. So for the thousandth time, I'm drawing more attention to my stupidity on the internet but you know what, talk to me when you go to Spain and feel like you're going to die one second and then feel like the Mother of freaking Dragons looking down at her kingdom while waiting for her missing monster to return the next second and then we can talk.

Anyway, that's enough of my rambling, here are some more photos from our day:

{flowers: a gift from my host brother}

{a pond we found that had blue dragonflies, loud frogs, and these flowers}

{el Monasterio from the outside}

{mariposa}

Tomorrow I embark on my first visit to the city! Wish me luck!

~V

Arrived in Spain!

{downtown, Paracuellos de Jarama}

I'm in Spain. I've slept about 10 of the past 72 hours, but who cares because I'm in Spain. Caffeine is definitely helping me through the sleepless overnight eight-hour flight and the jet-lagged period that followed, but honestly I think I'm pretty much running on sheer excitement at this point.

I'm in Spain you guys. Holy. Shit. I couldn't be more excited or grateful or appreciative of everything that's allowed this to happen. I don't care that my brain is fuzzy from sleep deprivation or that it's so incredibly hot here or anything. It's beautiful and I'm here so who cares, right?

During the few weeks leading up to this trip, I got pretty nervous and anxious. I don't think there was anything specific I was worried about, but it all felt so daunting. But then on the drive to the airport, my mom asked me if I was nervous and I automatically replied, "Nope," and as I said it, I realized it was true. And now here I am, excited as can be. This is actually happening and it's already awesome.

Thus far, I've played a lot of fútbol with my host brother, made him a mediocre-at-best drawing that he thought was so good that he called me a professional, and ran errands around town. Nothing glamorous so far, but honestly at this point it's not too hard to make me happy.

I just sneezed and actually thought the words, "Oh my god, I just sneezed in Spain." 

Stay tuned for a time when I've settled down a bit and start to do fun things!

~ V

Tennessee Travels: Road Trip to Nashville

{fried chicken galore}

      During my week in the underrated state of Tennessee, my friend Saher and I went on two amazing road trips. This was pretty exciting in and of itself, since neither of us had previously been on a road trip without our parents and because we've proven to be pretty good at entertaining ourselves for hours on end (Saher spent a lot of our drive to Atlanta singing along to Broadway songs). But what was even more fun was being able to see new places (and old faces) at the end of our long drives.

{signs for sale in Pangea}

      On one of our trips, Saher and I drove down to Roswell to visit my cousins. We had an amazing home-cooked Indian meal and got to spend some relaxing time with my family, but decided to skip the sightseeing in nearby Atlanta. We had both been there before, and couldn't find much left to do or see, so after a quick breakfast at the legendary Waffle House (my first time there!) we headed back to Knoxville.
      A few days later, we headed to Nashville, which was easily my favorite of the three cities we visited on our trip. It has a much more indie vibe than what I’ve seen of the rest of the South, but still manages to keep that Southern charm. We started off our visit with a leisurely walk around Baylor University. 

{Belmont Mansion}

      Afterwards, we spent a lot of time shopping (and window shopping) before grabbing popsicles at Las Paletas and the most amazing dinner and dessert at Pinewood Social. We started off thrifting through Local Honey, but found nothing we wanted. Next we went to Pangea, which is one of the coolest shops I've ever been to, and I'm so glad we stopped by. I also loved A Village of Flowers and had to remind myself multiple times that succulents cannot be taken on planes.

 {local honey}

 {thrift shopping}

 {Pangea}

 {lovely flowers, lovelier words}

{baby succulents}

      After dinner, we drove around downtown for a bit before heading back. On a side note, there is a Kanye Avenue in Nashville, and I may or may not have screamed upon seeing so. But what's even better, THERE IS A KANYE AVENUE BAPTIST CHURCH (not to be confused with the Kanye Westboro Baptist Church), AKA THERE IS A PLACE WHERE YOU CAN FIND YEEZUS. Needless to say, I kind of love Nashville. Good food, cool shops, and Yeezus are really all I need in life. I don’t think I’d ever live in the South again, but Nashville is definitely worth traveling to.
      Here are a few more photos from our Nashville day trip: 

 {dinner & bowling}

{you know you're down South when}

 {vases galore at A Village of Flowers}

 {staircase between the salon and shop}

{Belmont Mansion}

 {walking around campus}

      What are your favorite spots in Nashville? Let me know!

Thanks for reading!

~ V