hola hola!
On Thursday night, I went out for Tapas with a few of my IES friends and some of my friends from the synagogue here. We tried to get into this place that a Spaniard would describe as "pijo," or preppy/upscale-ish, but it was too full. They asked Taylor to take off his beanie hat when we walked in, which I thought was rude. It was stylin'. We ended up going to this other place where we had awesome sangria and even better tapas. Afterwards, we went to a bar called Mañana No Salgo, or Tomorrow I Won't Go Out. We had excellent (expensive) drinks and had a fun dancing time too!
Salamanca's Plaza Mayor is almost as cool as Madrid's
On Friday the 13th IES took us to two small cities close to Madrid-Aranjuez and Chinchón. In Aranjuez, we saw their Palacio and then left. It was a cool palace, but there was hardly anything original inside, and our guide might have been the most angry lady I've seen in awhile. The coolest part was the room with the wedding dresses past queens have worn, including the current queen of Spain (I think?). After the tour, we walked through the gardens outside the palace. The greens, oranges, and yellows of the fall leaves were so pretty. We then boarded our neon green coach bus and drove to Chinchón. The famous part of Chinchón (besides for its funny name that my dad imitates really well) is its Plaza Mayor. Our guide spoke for awhile about the significance of all the balconies surrounding the middle, but I was concentrating too hard on trying to picture the bullfighting that they used to have in the middle of the plaza to absorb what he was saying. After our walking tour we went to lunch! We ate underground in what used to be a winery, and we toured the cave before sitting down next to a fireplace for a cozy tapas lunch. We arrived back in Madrid in the late afternoon. Went out for drinks with Clare, Megan, Ceci, and Kate at Moncloa, the university area near school.
Hanit and Me
On Saturday, I went to Salamanca with 9 friends that I met at the synagogue! Well, I actually had only met about 6 of them before the trip. It was a great group: Jean-David from Paris, Hanit and May from Israel, Alp, Ilay, and Bahar from Turkey, Sara from Sweden, Aron from Venezuela, and Lili from Hungary. That's right, I was the only American! Our common language was Spanish, so we mostly spoke in Spanish. We took the train from Madrid which only took about 2.5 hours. We arrived on the late side on Saturday night, so we dropped our stuff in the hostel (cheap-ish, a little gross but fine. funny man at the desk called jean-david juan-david) and headed into town. First order of business: food. We sat at different sections of the table for sharing purposes: the "orthodox" section, as they called themselves, because they keep kosher, the vegitarian section, and the "I eat whatever I want" section. Maybe you guys can guess in which section the three Turks and I sat? After din (delish) we walked into town. Salamanca is a university town, and is known for their university. The buildings reminded me a bit of what Penn looks like, except that these are hundreds of years older. Not only did the university buildings look like this with cream colored stone, but all of the buildings in the whole city did. Each street was made of stone, and I maybe saw five cars the entire weekend. Everyone walks everywhere because the city is so small and so are the streets! Anywho, we had a great time bar-hopping. We first went to this place called chupitos for 1-euro shots of every flavor you could ever imagine! The best place we went later was a discoteca called Camelot. It got more and more crowded as it neared 3am, and it was really fun to dance with these friends. On Sunday, we woke up and after a croissant and cappuccino breakfast we did some more touring. May, Hanit and I made it into the big cathedral just in time to do a quick run through before it closed for the day, and then we met up with the rest of the group. On the side of the cathedral, there are some secret additions that the artitect included--an astronaut, and even a frog on the side of a university building! It was fun searching the walls for these secrets.
Jean-David and I searching the wall for the hidden frog
It's Jazz Week in Madrid! On Monday night, I went to a jazz bar. Great music, in great company. :)
Tonight, IES took us to a Flamenco show at a place called Casa Patas. It's actually a very famous flamenco place and tickets sell for 30 euros, but it was free for us! Woohooo!! I got a front row seat, and oh, what a show it was. It felt so real-maybe raw is the right word. There was one man playing guitar, one drum man, and two who sang and clapped. There were two dancers-one man (over whom I might have been fighting with my friend sitting next to me...could not stop staring at his excellent ass that did not jiggle when he stomped his feet) and a woman, who was only 21 years old. Flamenco itself is a very sensual dance, but this show seemed so much more so right in front of my eyes. Each dancer and musician got so into the music and their dance moves, and my jaw was dropped the entire show.
Off to Paris tomorrow!
On Thursday night, I went out for Tapas with a few of my IES friends and some of my friends from the synagogue here. We tried to get into this place that a Spaniard would describe as "pijo," or preppy/upscale-ish, but it was too full. They asked Taylor to take off his beanie hat when we walked in, which I thought was rude. It was stylin'. We ended up going to this other place where we had awesome sangria and even better tapas. Afterwards, we went to a bar called Mañana No Salgo, or Tomorrow I Won't Go Out. We had excellent (expensive) drinks and had a fun dancing time too!
Salamanca's Plaza Mayor is almost as cool as Madrid'sOn Friday the 13th IES took us to two small cities close to Madrid-Aranjuez and Chinchón. In Aranjuez, we saw their Palacio and then left. It was a cool palace, but there was hardly anything original inside, and our guide might have been the most angry lady I've seen in awhile. The coolest part was the room with the wedding dresses past queens have worn, including the current queen of Spain (I think?). After the tour, we walked through the gardens outside the palace. The greens, oranges, and yellows of the fall leaves were so pretty. We then boarded our neon green coach bus and drove to Chinchón. The famous part of Chinchón (besides for its funny name that my dad imitates really well) is its Plaza Mayor. Our guide spoke for awhile about the significance of all the balconies surrounding the middle, but I was concentrating too hard on trying to picture the bullfighting that they used to have in the middle of the plaza to absorb what he was saying. After our walking tour we went to lunch! We ate underground in what used to be a winery, and we toured the cave before sitting down next to a fireplace for a cozy tapas lunch. We arrived back in Madrid in the late afternoon. Went out for drinks with Clare, Megan, Ceci, and Kate at Moncloa, the university area near school.
Hanit and Me
On Saturday, I went to Salamanca with 9 friends that I met at the synagogue! Well, I actually had only met about 6 of them before the trip. It was a great group: Jean-David from Paris, Hanit and May from Israel, Alp, Ilay, and Bahar from Turkey, Sara from Sweden, Aron from Venezuela, and Lili from Hungary. That's right, I was the only American! Our common language was Spanish, so we mostly spoke in Spanish. We took the train from Madrid which only took about 2.5 hours. We arrived on the late side on Saturday night, so we dropped our stuff in the hostel (cheap-ish, a little gross but fine. funny man at the desk called jean-david juan-david) and headed into town. First order of business: food. We sat at different sections of the table for sharing purposes: the "orthodox" section, as they called themselves, because they keep kosher, the vegitarian section, and the "I eat whatever I want" section. Maybe you guys can guess in which section the three Turks and I sat? After din (delish) we walked into town. Salamanca is a university town, and is known for their university. The buildings reminded me a bit of what Penn looks like, except that these are hundreds of years older. Not only did the university buildings look like this with cream colored stone, but all of the buildings in the whole city did. Each street was made of stone, and I maybe saw five cars the entire weekend. Everyone walks everywhere because the city is so small and so are the streets! Anywho, we had a great time bar-hopping. We first went to this place called chupitos for 1-euro shots of every flavor you could ever imagine! The best place we went later was a discoteca called Camelot. It got more and more crowded as it neared 3am, and it was really fun to dance with these friends. On Sunday, we woke up and after a croissant and cappuccino breakfast we did some more touring. May, Hanit and I made it into the big cathedral just in time to do a quick run through before it closed for the day, and then we met up with the rest of the group. On the side of the cathedral, there are some secret additions that the artitect included--an astronaut, and even a frog on the side of a university building! It was fun searching the walls for these secrets.
Jean-David and I searching the wall for the hidden frogIt's Jazz Week in Madrid! On Monday night, I went to a jazz bar. Great music, in great company. :)
Tonight, IES took us to a Flamenco show at a place called Casa Patas. It's actually a very famous flamenco place and tickets sell for 30 euros, but it was free for us! Woohooo!! I got a front row seat, and oh, what a show it was. It felt so real-maybe raw is the right word. There was one man playing guitar, one drum man, and two who sang and clapped. There were two dancers-one man (over whom I might have been fighting with my friend sitting next to me...could not stop staring at his excellent ass that did not jiggle when he stomped his feet) and a woman, who was only 21 years old. Flamenco itself is a very sensual dance, but this show seemed so much more so right in front of my eyes. Each dancer and musician got so into the music and their dance moves, and my jaw was dropped the entire show.
Off to Paris tomorrow!
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