Lucy, you got some ex-Spaining to do.

Toledo. Click on it for gigante sized.

Day 13 - Jan. 14
My last day in London was spent primarily in the airport (awesome). I left the hostel at 6 and rode the subway for about 45~ minutes to the London City Airport (3 line changes and one with a daring long distance fast walk + jump between closing doors combo). When I got to the Light Rail, I noticed it was snowing fairly significantly and I started getting nervous.

Downtown Madrid

As I sat in the lounge of the airport, it felt like I was in gym class. I kept watching my teammates (flights) getting smacked in the face (cancelled) by speeding dodgeballs (the weather). Fortunately, my flight ended up being delayed for 4.5 hours instead of being cancelled (Odd to call that fortunate). I passed the time trying to not look suspicious to the men walking around with MP5 Machine guns and watching On the Road Again. It is a show where Gwyneth Paltrow and 3 friends travel around Spain exploring the gastronomic culture. It was crazy to watch it and realize that within a few hours I would finally be arriving in Spain.

Catedral de la Almudena

When I landed in Madrid, it was very rainy but warmer than England by quite a bit. I snagged a jamón y queso sandwich and took the metro to the hostel. It was a really nice and cozy place. I spent the first part of the night on my computer in the lobby, since it was rainy and already dark (Not great conditions for exploration).

El Palacio Real (big).

Later on,  I went to a grocery store for a snack and It finally felt like I was in a foreign country. Ireland and the U.K. were definitely different, but a change in language really emphasizes that you are no longer in Kansas. I meandered about the grocery store and looked at the totally different selection of food (abundance of ham products). Also, the carts are similar to wheeled luggage and you pull it behind you. I bought shaving cream and a razor and shaved off my sketchy facial hair and became quite a bit younger looking.

An epic plaza by the Palacio.

I spent the rest of the night chatting with some Italians, Brazilians, a Brit, and one guy from New Jersey (Unfortunately not DJ Pauly D). I hit the hay fairly early and prepared to finally meet up with the ISA group the next day.

Day 14 - Jan. 15
After a quick breakfast I took the metro to the hotel to meet my group. It was quite a change from 16 bed dorms in hostels to a 2 bed room in a 4 star hotel. Although, oddly enough, our hotels charged for internet, whereas nearly every hostel had free wifi (humorously pronounced weefee in Spain). It seems a bit backwards considering the difference in price.
I had a while to wait before our group arrived, so I wandered down the street until I found a plaza that had an excellent Don Quixote and Sancho statue. I almost accidentally walked into a live TV shot of a reporter at a food bank event and narrowly avoided Spanish TV stardom.

I wish nice places let you take pictures inside.

When I got back to the hotel, there were about 30 ISA kids with absurd amounts of luggage sitting outside waiting to check in. It made me pretty glad to have been limited by Ryanair's strict weight limits. Some people had two enormous wheeled luggage things and I had a messenger bag and a backpack. Let's just say, should a baggage-carrying foot race have occurred, I would have definitely been the champion.
I went upstairs and settled in and met my roommate for the semester (Chris) and a few others joined us at a cafe nearby for lunch. We went for a stroll through a large park and wandered a bit. On the way back, we stopped in a super small bar for refreshments and the owner brought us a free plate of paella (Stellar).

Toledo and the old castle.

That night we had a guided bus tour of the Madrid which included the biggest Spanish flag in Spain (Think Perkins in America big) and a Egyptian building from 200~ BC that was brought to Spain and reassembled. Next was an awesome meeting about safety and an opportunity to buy a prepaid cellphone (which still hasn't worked and I am currently using one a previous student left at my house). After the meeting we went out for tapas where I had some patatas bravas (literally courageous potatoes… and I must say, they were quite valiant).

Day 15- Jan 16.
This was the day of sightseeing in Madrid. We started out with a bus ride to the Prado art museum. However, our bus broke down halfway there, so we moved like a gigantic herd of cattle through the crowded streets of Madrid. Fortunately, it wasn't very far and the weather was great. We only had time to go through the Goya, Greco, and Velázquez exhibits, but they were awesome and a half. Plus we had a guide to throw out fun facts (I love fun facts).

Ayuntamiento is basically the city council/hall.

Afterwords we traversed the town on foot to the Palacio Real, which used to be the stomping ground of the kings and queens back in the day. It was absurd. I felt like I gained net worth just standing in it. In my long and luxurious life I have never seen such fanciness (Midwest, we got to up the ante). There was a room entirely lined with porcelain and another that took 27 years to make that had crazy intricate designs sewn into the walls. Every room had beautiful frescos on the ceilings and we only saw 27~ rooms out of the, wait for it… 3,418 rooms. It is the biggest palace in Europe and I wanted to sell everything in it to try to save the world economy.

Scenic, no?

Afterwords we were free to do as we pleased and so we headed back across town (couldn't get enough walking). We ate "la comida" (enormous Spanish lunch) at a restaurant and then went to the Reina Sofia museum. It is primarily modern art and the first room we went into was essentially a sensory deprivation chamber with repetitive noise and strange lighting. It was weirdness to the nth degree.

Apparently cars drive through streets like these.

We crossed a purposefully empty exhibit (modern art is a bit over my head sometimes) and eventually found the cubism exhibit and Picasso's Guernica. It was huge and amazing to see in person. There were also photos of the progression and evolution of the painting and a good amount of art from the era of the Spanish Civil War. We finished up by visiting the Surrealist exhibit which contained Dalí and a movie which was fantastically ridiculous.

This is the old Jewish quarter, before they were kicked out of Spain by los Reyes Católicos

At this point we were all way tuckered out and grabbed the metro back to the hotel. We hung out the rest of the night in the hotel and had cheap dinner from the Corte Inglés (imagine a bigger and less evil Spanish Walmart).

Day 16 - Jan 17.
After a feast of a breakfast at the hotel (I was used to toast and coffee from hostels), we hopped on the bus and left Madrid. Toledo is an incredibly beautiful city. It is surrounded on 3 sides by a river and used to be the capital of Spain. It is also a Unesco World Heritage site and is filled with crazy skinny streets. We started out with a panoramic view of the city from the opposite side of the river which had craggy hills (Craggy is a sweet word).

A cloister in Iglesia de San Juan de los Reyes

Next, we took at 2.5 hour walking tour and got to see huge churches, the oldest synagogue in Spain, and Greco's The Burial of the Count of Orgaz (Very very cool). Our tour guide was hilarious, knew tons of people around the city (population is only 80,000~), and kept making jokes (Everybody come closer…wait…  just the ladies). Seems slightly creepier typed out, but it made the tour more fun.

Toledo, Ohio probably doesn't look quite this good.

After our tour we grabbed some hamburgers at a restaurant near the plaza and it turned out that they were actually burgers of ham. Very strange but decent tasting. Fun Fact: Coca Cola is super awesome here (small glass bottles and real sugar). I fear I may develop a coke habit (rimshot). Sorry, bad joke, I know.
 Next, we all got on the bus and rode to the newer part of the city to our hotel. We chilled out on our balcony and watched the Barcelona ISA group arrive. The hotel was another 4 star and was pretty sweet (yet unnecessary).

As you can see, the city is neatly organized.

We had a 2.5 hour meeting and then set off in search of a restaurant. We found a cerveceria (bar and grill of sorts) and had tasty sandwiches. After a while,  I noticed a beer can display on the wall and low and behold… A Schell's beer can. I wish I had brought my camera with.

View from the main plaza.

Afterwords, we went back to the hotel bar and watched a Real Madrid v. Atlético football game on a huge projected screen. Unfortunately, the guys from the Barcalona ISA group were really living up to the loud annoying American stereotype. They even wanted to ask the bartender to change the Madrid football match to a NFL football game (Luckily, they lacked the Spanish speaking capabilities). It was sad to see it in real life and I was embarrassed.

Some folks from my ISA group. We have about 52 in total.

The next day we headed to Valencia, but I will save that for my next blog post. I will try to keep updating this as much as I can, but it is harder when I actually have stuff going on now. However, I will give it a valiant effort (like my potatoes).

Bonus foto:

This is a borrowed picture of the dining room in the Palacio Real. The table is twice what you can see here. Ritzy.

Londone.

For Aslan!

Day 7 - Jan 8:

National Gallery and Merwoman - Trafalgar Square

Our last day in Edinburgh was spent in a relaxing fashion. We ate breakfast and read the paper and then went to a Starbucks to wait for our train. We had two train changes and even though one of our trains was 20 minutes late, we got to Nottingham safely.

The entrance to the mall.

Taking a train along the Scottish coastline was incredible. There was one point where Hannah and I interrupted our movie (In Bruges) on my computer just to see what city we had arrived in. The view from our bridge was of other bridges and the river weaving through the buildings to the sea (I wish I had gotten my camera out). There was free wifi and electricity on the train which felt like the future (I am still not entirely sure how the internet worked). We made it back to the flat and chilled out until some of Hannah's flatmates arrived and then we went to the Program Director's house for tea and cake (British much?)

Awesome dancing rabbits in the mall.

Day 8 - Jan 9:

Statues outside Buckingham Palace

We basically hung out in the flat the whole next day. It was great talking to everyone about their experiences during their month long travels and seeing their pictures. In the evening, Hannah, Lauren, and I went to the Lion and sampled a few local brews that were written on a chalkboard (They change quite often). It was a lot of fun and I almost felt like a non-tourist for the first time in a while.

Poor guy didn't feel well.

Day 9 - Jan 10:
I woke up and had some scrambled eggs and walked to the tram to the train station. Having met Hannah as soon as I arrived in Dublin, it was immediately weird to be alone. The train ended up being way more expensive than I expected because I didn't buy my ticket ahead of time. I am not sure why this happened, as it hasn't happened to the Nottingham folks.

Buckingham Palace

When I arrived in London, I decided to walk to my hostel to save some money. However, I accidentally thought it was in Euston Square instead of Russell Square (At least the mistake didn't cost me money and was only a few blocks off). It wasn't too far of a walk and I found the street quite quickly. Unfortunately, the outside of the hostel is not very clearly marked. This meant that I walked about 5~ blocks down and back the length of the street with 50~ pounds of weight in my bags (multiple times). I resorted to asking a bigger hotel where it was and they told me it was a few minutes walk down and on the left. So I went down and back one more time without success. I returned to the hotel and asked to use the internet (Google Maps is the best) and he told me it was about 100 meters from the hotel (which isn't a few minutes walk by my standards). I discovered the hidden hostel and checked in. It felt amazing to take the weight off of my shoulders (mentally as well).

I love Goooold.

I grabbed pizza at a cafe for lunch and bought a 48hr. pass to a Big Bus tour. It was a double decker with an open top (somewhat chilly) and I rode the whole tour which was about 2.5-3 hours (Bus tours are a great way to see more of the city while learning sweet history tidbits). However, the tour didn't do a complete circle from where I got on and so I had to take a different bus back to the hostel. I grabbed groceries (PB&J's for the win), made dinner, and relaxed for the rest of the night.

There was a stone unicorn on another section of this wall.

Day 10 - Jan 11:
The next morning I took the same bus to get downtown (My pass got me to Trafalgar Square each morning for free). The entire day ended up being a gigantic photo expedition through London. Unfortunately it was incredibly overcast and dreary, which led to entirely white skies (bummer). I started out by wandering around Trafalgar Square (excellent statues and mermen/maids in the fountains) and then headed through an enormous gate to the mall which led to Buckingham Palace. I discovered a pair of guards with ridiculously big machine guns that had hunting knives attached to the barrels. They kept yelling and stomping a lot while I chuckled and took pictures (I'm mature). Sometimes I forget that I am in a different country with traditions and customs connected to a unique history. The plaza in front of Buckingham was packed with other tourists and had shiny golden fences. The statues were pretty sweet and a procession of soldiers with swords on horseback came through (I wonder how skilled at sword fighting they actually were).

It's all about the Big Benjamins.

Next, I strolled through St. James Park along the mall and encountered squirrels that were as friendly as the ones at Luther. I would have taken pictures of them, (They came within a foot of me) but my battery was already halfway gone and wanted it to last (it was only 10am). Westminster Palace (Big Ben and Parliament) was gorgeous and I took many many pictures.

Hey remember that time when I would only smoke Parliaments?

I headed to Westminster Abbey and spent the rest of the late morning there (Student discounts are awesome and add up quickly). The interior blew my mind. It was so incredibly beautiful and filled with so much history. It is where English kings and queens are crowned and contains the tombs of royalty and many others. I felt myself flashing back to my European History class as I looked at the tombs of Queen Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots. Interestingly, Charles Darwin and Sir Issac Newton are both buried there as well (In a science corner of sorts). It was surreal to stand near the graves of two minds that have had such an influence in the world of academics.

Westminster Abbey.

Afterwords I walked along the Thames and avoided two scammers who were trying to put things on me and then make me pay for them (I politely declined the leaf and "friendship" bracelet). Otherwise, the walk was great and after lunch I ended up at St. Paul's Cathedral. It was also magnificent and a bit cheaper due to upper level viewing areas being closed (due to weather). My budget didn't mind the lower price and I got to see the tomb of Admiral Nelson and the Duke of Wellington along with the Dome's beautiful artwork. The Millennium Bridge was close by and has a pretty neat design (It was featured in the beginning flying scene of Harry Potter 6).

It's named after Sir Benjamin Hall who oversaw its construction and was most likely big.

Next, I headed to Tower Bridge, which is iconic and used to require about 90 men to function (Now it is primary operated by computer). My tour bus pass included a boat ride on the Thames from the Tower of London (which is actually a castle), so I grabbed that and enjoyed the view as I headed back to Westminster. Fun Fact: The city of London is primarily the economic area by St. Paul's whereas Big Ben and Parliament are actually in the city of Westminster. I went over to the Parliament building, where a bobby (which are named after Sir Robert Peel who started Scotland Yard) told me that I could sit in on a debate in the House of Commons. I headed through security and got to listen to a discussion over the creation of a mandatory registry for home schooled students. It was really interesting to read the pamphlet and compare their system to our government (particularly the role of royal assent which has unelected control over bills passed). I also learned that there are two red lines that run through the chamber on each side which the members are not allowed to cross. These originated as an attempt to stop rivals from cutting each other down with their swords during debate. Interestingly, powdered wigs are still worn by officials in certain positions in government. Afterwords, I headed outside and took some night pictures and rode the bus back to the hostel.

St. Paul's Cathedral

Day 11 - Jan 12:

It is fairly large.

My last day in London, I grabbed my favorite "free" bus ride to Trafalgar and started out by visiting the National Portrait Gallery. It begins with paintings of royalty and progressed to photography exhibits which were pretty awesome. There were some photographs that were crazy beautiful and emotion-evoking. It made me wish that I had more subjects for practicing portraiture.

The color choice surprised me at first.

Next I ate lunch and headed to the much bigger National Gallery (Both are free). I spent the better part of my day in there and saw an amazing amount of paintings (I couldn't help thinking about their combined worth). I have found that I am a bigger fan of artwork from the more recent centuries when it becomes less than 100% religious (exaggeration). I particularly loved Van Gogh's Sunflowers and A Wheatfield, with Cypresses. They both have incredible textures from the paint and the Wheatfield was particularly eye-catching. I also happened upon a 35 minute presentation on Seurat's Bathers at Asnieres. It is a huge beautiful painting and was basically his first big work (Before his invention of pointillism). It was interesting to learn that the painting was essentially a flop until much later. I really enjoyed learning more about it's symbolism and connection to his A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (It is the other side of the same river, where more bourgeois people hung out).

It still opens up for ships, but I didn't get to see.

After my brain was filled to the brim with paintings, I walked up to Piccadilly Circus where I found far fewer elephants and tightrope walkers than I expected. It is actually London's version of Times Square and has huge electronic billboards and theatres everywhere. I took the bus back a bit earlier and am currently sitting in the hostel and planning for my flight to Madrid tomorrow. London was pretty awesome, especially in terms of history and I would enjoy visiting when it is a bit warmer. However, I cannot wait to get to Spain and to start using Spanish and experiencing their culture.

One more of Benny and the Jets... for good measure.

Losing £s - Scotland

The only picture I got of Glasgow from our hostel.

Cheers! I am currently sitting under a blanket in the living room of the Luther College Nottingham program flat and enjoying a more relaxed afternoon. Here is an update of all of my exploits in Scotland and a plethora of photographs.

St. Giles Cathedral - Edinburgh

Day 4 - Jan. 5:
As you know from previous posts, we had a 6~ hour delay for a 30 minute flight (We probably could have swam to Glasgow in that time). When we finally took off, I realized why Ryanair is so cheap. The entire flight they were peddling different goods and the seats felt like plastic (Leaving absolutely no room for my knees). However, flying into Scotland was gorgeous and the highlands were covered in pristine snow. Our train to Glasgow was about 20 minutes late, which was a bit stressful, but we eventually got to the city (The airport was actually 40~ minutes from the city).

Near Edinburgh Castle.

Our hostel was 3 blocks from the train station and was enormous (9 stories tall). It must have been an old hotel and only had 4 beds per room and its own bathroom/shower (Luxurious!). Hannah and I went to a grocery store a block away and got some frozen pizza and watched an almost artistically distorted version of "The Weakest Link." The TV split the image into blue, green, and red versions which were slightly offset.

Edinburgh had such beautiful buildings.

After cooking, we went up to my room to eat the pizza and found that I had another roommate who had checked in and was from London. He was about 30 or so and had just been hiking up in the highlands. We ended up chatting for about 2 hours about a wide variety of topics and ended up talking about politics and world events. It was really cool to have a British perspective on things (Such as his dislike for Mel Gibson and his movies critical of England like Braveheart/The Patriot). Afterwords we went down the bar that was in the ground level of our hostel and ended up meeting two Argentinean brothers who now live in Milan, Italy. We played darts with them for the rest of the night and it was great Spanish practice.

You could hear bagpipes almost everywhere (way too cold for kilts).

Day 5 - Jan 6:

The view of the North Atlantic from Sir Walter Scott Monument.

To save money on renting a towel (a pound or euro per hostel), I resorted to a cheat code (Thanks Ehler!) and used my sheets. Oddly enough, the Argentinean brothers were actually heading to Edinburgh as well and ended up staying in the same hostel. We walked with them to the train station and found out that the train we were supposed to ride had been cancelled. The snow in the UK has been causing tons of delays and there is supposed to be more this week (I'm hoping it doesn't interfere with getting to Spain). We asked the desk and found another station that had a train to Edinburgh and after 5 blocks of hurrying, we found it and were on our way.

Our hostel was in those buildings. Scenic.

Leaving the Edinburgh station, I looked up at the buildings and knew I would like the city. We walked up a curved hill (The first real elevation change in Europe, oddly enough) and quickly found our small cozy hostel. Our room in the hostel was called "the Fridge" and our beds were Guinness and Corona (All the other rooms had their own themes). We couldn't check in until 2pm, so we left our things in a luggage room and set off for the National Gallery which had some pretty cool arts (including spiral staircases surrounded by marble faces) and guards in kilts (hard to take them seriously).

Serene.

We walked around the city and explored for the next two hours. It is an awesome thing to enjoy photography and visit these places. Later, when we were about to climb a monument, we discovered that Hannah's billfold was not in her purse (including our train tickets to Nottingham). We headed back to a Starbucks we had stopped at and fortunately, someone had turned it in and not taken anything (good people exist). Then we went and checked into our rooms and enjoyed some free hot cocoa/coffee/tea and relaxation.

The coast was pretty swell.

We went to a pub from my guidebook for dinner and enjoyed a meal of a burger, chips, and a pint for only £3.50. It was a really cool place called The Tron and was primarily filled with university students. We hung out there for a while and watched British music videos (It is pretty expensive to do things at night and more difficult when you don't know the city that well yet). We ended up spending the rest of the night sitting by the fireplace in the hostel common room (soooo nice) and just chilling out.

I climbed down into the area by the boats and it was covered in seaweed and moss. Treacherous.

Day 6 - Jan 7:
To start out our second day in Edinburgh, we had a cheap hostel breakfast of croissants and then headed to the birthplace of Harry Potter for coffee. The Elephant house is where J.K. Rowling came up with the ideas of Harry Potter and Dumbledore on napkins. It was pretty wild to be in the place where one idea altered the path of her life so greatly. I tried to come up with some brilliant ideas while we were there, but I think she used up all the magic (rimshot).

Sunset with Edinburgh Castle on the right.

Next we headed to a photography exhibit of Craig Mackay in the National Museum. It was all portraits of famous Scots and people with Scottish heritage and was excellent. There was a video of interviews with the subjects and the photographer that showed a lot of Scottish flavour (UK spelling is great fun). Afterwords we headed back to the Sir Walter Scott Monument (The tallest in the world for a writer and 287 steps up). The top got super narrow and I had to turn my shoulders to get through the door at the top. The view was phenomenal and we got a greater grasp of where Edinburgh sits. It is right on an inlet of the North Atlantic with an extinct volcano and the Scottish highlands all around it. It was beautiful.

The views were pretty decent.

We decided to walk to the harbor after the monument and ate at a deli on the way (Amazingly delicious meatball sandwich). The walk was about 4 miles and it was nice to get into the smaller community feel of the area near the harbor.  It used to be a different town called Leith, but was absorbed into Edinburgh (Like Pac-man). There were sailboats abound and high snowy hills across the inlet (Photo-op-alicious). We took a bus back and walked up to Castle Hill in time to see the sunset (Glorious).

St. Giles Cathedral - I had never seen an open steeple before.

It was a great day filled with tons of photo taking and galavanting about town. We had dinner again at the Tron because it was close, cheap, and had good vibes. This time I had a bowl of chili and Hannah had a curry/chicken dish. We ended the night by returning to the hearth of the hostel to have some wine and relax and figure out our trains for the journey to Nottingham.

Don't worry, I was on a boulevard.

Cultural Fun Fact: English folks use the same words for different things. Por ejemplo, this sentence, "It is so cold out, I wish I was wearing pants." In the States, it might indicate that someone is wearing shorts or a skirt and the wind might be a bit brisk. However, in Great Britain, trousers = pants and pants = underwear. Imagine the unfortunate consequences and hilarity that comes from this difference. Today I was washing clothes in Nottingham and Hannah asked if I was cold (I was wearing shorts). I responded that I was a bit cold due to the fact that all my pants were in the washer, leading to laughter.

Edinburgh has a huge New Years Eve celebration and there were still lights and things up.

Pants… hahah.