Niadsfkljljgds... and Amsterdam

Marta and I left for the Netherlands (I'd been calling it Holland and that's actually not technically correct) just a few hours after I got back from Spain... I had just enough time to write a blog, repack and get 4 hours of sleep before we left for Milan to catch our flight. On our way to the airport we missed exactly one bus, one train and one shuttle to the airport, and yet still managed to make our flight. Miraculous!

We flew into Eindhoven and took the train to Nijmegen, where we met up with Marta's two friends, Teresa and Margarida. Nijmegen is a cute little country town which I never once managed to pronounce correctly. Honestly, even now I have no idea how to say it. Teresa told me about a thousand times but I always just referred to it as Ni-something or Niblahblahblah. Silly dutch.

Even though it's impossible to pronounce, I love Dutch, mostly because it sometimes sounds like a very funny version of English. Kid's bookstore? Keender booken! 5 minutes? Fiven meenooten! (Spelled phonetically, of course). There's something about the way the language sounds that's just so... endearing, I guess. It has a very energetic rhythm to it which makes me smile, regardless of what the person is saying. For example, when a waitress started yelling at us about not moving tables in the restaurant, I couldn't stop thinking about how cute she sounded.

Sadly, Keender Booken was closed (I think it's actually spelled Kinder Boeken but that's just not as funny) but I did manage to find a copy of "De Kleine Prins" in another bookstore later in the trip. The woman at the counter informed me not-so-politely that "lots of people collect copies of The Little Prince from around the world." Pshh. Stronza.

We spent a few days in Niblahblahblah, and then took a day trip to Amsterdam. I thought I had a pretty good idea of what it would be like - after all, Amsterdam has quite the reputation. As it turns out, I was completely wrong. I mean yes, there are "coffee shops" on every corner, and by "coffee shops" they mean "pot shops"... but the city itself is gorgeous, surprisingly tranquil and not at all the messy, chaotic, constant party town that I had in mind. I was very relieved.

Instead, the city is filled with tiny canals and quirky dutch architecture. At first, I couldn't figure out what made the buildings look so odd, and then Teresa explained to me that it's because they're all slightly tilted to one side or the other. They almost look like they're dancing, which is where their unofficial title comes from - "the dancing houses of Amsterdam." Ahhh, it all makes sense now!

*** EDIT: Jose's comment proves that I'm the worst blogger ever. Geez, man. How could I throw out a juicy little tidbit like "Dancing Houses of Amsterdam" without any kind of explanation? I should be ashamed. So, to clarify, the houses are slanted slightly to one side because the ground in Amsterdam is so unstable. Almost all of the houses are built along canals, where the soil is very soft. For this reason, they're built on underground wooden platforms which tend to shift and sink over time, which in turn makes the houses tilt. That's actually also why the houses are so tall and narrow. They're built in such a way that they are supported by the houses surrounding them - each one kind of leans on the one next to it. Kind of like dominoes, but potentially much more disastrous.

I had a thought when I was looking at a group of particularly smushed-together houses along one of the canals... I think those houses must be really creaky. My apartment here in Bologna is pretty stable and still makes creepy noises at night when I'm home alone. I imagine that if the houses are leaning up against each other, there must be a great deal of pressure which would create some awfully creepy noises... I don't think I'll ever go to a sleepover in Amsterdam.

Ok, there you go! You all learned something, and I feel like a better blogger. What a deal. Here's an extra picture which shows the tiltiness:

Yet another quirky aspect of Amsterdam - there are clogs everywhere. How cool is that? I was tempted to buy a pair of clog slippers but settled for this photo instead.

The two tourist attractions that I found most interesting were the Anne Frank house and the Van Gogh museum. I remember reading The Diary of Anne Frank when I was much younger, and it was the first time that I really understood what had happened during the holocaust. At the time, I was just a little younger than Anne Frank was when her family went into hiding, and I also wrote in my diary constantly. I could really relate to her, which made her story even more moving for me. It was amazing standing in her room, looking at the posters that she'd described, and at the desk where she sat and wrote.



The Van Gogh museum was amazing, too. It was a different experience than the Picasso museum in Barcelona (obviously) but again, it was interesting to see one museum devoted to just one artist. We were able to see the progression of his work as he started to become more and more impressionistic, and we could see how well his paintings reflect what was going on in his life at the time of each painting. Each painting's style, colors, brush strokes reflect what Van Gogh was feeling at the time. It's so interesting to see. During periods of his life when he was relatively content, his paintings were light and optimistic. His painting of the almond blossoms, which is one of my favorites, was painted at the birth of his first nephew. As his mental health deteriorated, his paintings became increasingly dark and erratic (Starry night, anyone?). The museum also had excerpts of several letters from Van Gogh to his friends and family, in which he discussed his paintings, theories, ideas and inspirations. It was interesting reading the artist's own words about his work.

We happened to be in Amsterdam on Valentine's Day, which may have also contributed to the peaceful feeling in the city. There were hearts and flowers everywhere, but I think my favorite part was this crazy little man, playing songs for love in his little boat. I couldn't stop laughing - he would play his musicbox with one hand and a trumpet with the other, while his boat spun in circles in the canal. Then he'd stand up and wave flowers in the air, shouting to his audience in Dutch. Again, very quirky.

The best part of the trip was getting to know Teresa and Margarida. I'd met them both before but this was the first time we really got to know eachother and we had a great time, especially when taking goofy pictures...


I returned home in time for my classes on Monday - I missed over a week already so it's probably about time that I started learning something. Personally, I think I've learned quite a bit in these past 2 weeks of traveling, but my Psycholinguistics professor might disagree and I doubt that I could impress her with my newfound knowledge about Van Gogh.

I might try, anyway...

6 Days in Spain

I am absolutely head over heels in love with Spain. I'll just do a day-by-day account of my trip because I'm too overwhelmed and wouldn't know where to start otherwise!

Day 1
Susan and I arrived in Granada in the evening and met up with our couchsurfing hosts, Unai and Merchi. They are a beautiful Spanish couple living in a tiny little apartment right beneath the Alhambra. After we got settled in, Unai took us out for tapas which changed my life. Seriously, if you haven't had tapas, you're missing out. For next to nothing (usually around 1.50), you get a drink and a small appetizer. With each round, the tapa gets better... so we were faced with the irresistible temptation to keep eating and drinking in pursuit what I like to think of as the ultimate tapa, the holy grail of tapas, the best tapa in existence. Unfortunately Susan and I did not reach this goal, because we got too full and too drunk to continue and went home to get some sleep. Next time, my friends. Next time.

Granada, by the way, is beautiful. It's so beautiful, it's a little absurd. I spent most of my time there wandering around in a constant state of amazement at how pretty everything is. Beautiful architecture, amazing murals on the sides of buildings, fountains, open piazzas, street musicians and flamenco dancers, ancient cathedrals, sunshine, blue sky, surrounded by mountains... and then all of this is made even more beautiful by hundreds of orange trees which line every street and fill every garden. I heard that in the spring and summer when it gets warmer and the oranges ripen, the entire city smells like fresh, sweet oranges. Mmm. See what I mean when I say that it's just absurd? How can one place be so perfect?


Day 2
We wandered around Granada in the morning and ran into an American named Eric. It was a really strange coincidence, actually. When I was searching for couchsurfing, I made a request to sleep on Eric's couch and he e-mailed me back saying he was sorry but he already had a bunch of friends staying with him. Then I happened to see him on the street in Granada and recognized him from his photo online! He recognized me as well, greeted Susan and I with a big American bear hug and took us on an impromptu tour of the city. He's lived in Granada for the past several months and works as a tour guide, although you can hardly call it work! He made fliers advertising free walking tours and put them in all the hostels and hotels in the city. Every day, he leads a group of tourists around the city and shows them all his favorite places... basically walking around a beautiful city for 2 hours a day, and making more than enough money to live in Granada. He also eats for free at several awesome places in the city because he advertises on his tours. Pretty incredible life. He said it's a really easy thing to set up, so I might try it out in Bologna when the weather is a little nicer!

After hanging out with Eric for the day, we met back up with Unai and Merchi in the evening. We all went to a free showing of "Nosferatu" - a 1922 silent film based on "Dracula." It was really awesome, with live musical accompaniment. The musicians did all the sound effects with just a group of 5 stringed instruments - doors opening and closing, screams, wind, rats... everything!


I think the best part of the film was Dracula's striking resemblance to everybody's favorite zombie rock star:


Later on (after a few drinks, and inspired by Dracula and/or Michael Jackson), Merchi delivered her best rendition of "Thriller" on the streets of Granada! I know she'd kill me if she saw this... Here she is, our beautiful hostess in all of her glory:

Day 3
We got up early and headed to Spain's number one tourist attraction, the Alhambra - a moorish palace and fortress built in the 1300's. I thought that Lisbon's castle inspired my princess fantasies but this place was almost too much for me to handle. We spent hours wandering around the dozens of rooms, gardens, pools - there was even a labyrinth. Each room was more beautiful than the last and I couldn't stop thinking things like "this is my bedchambers" or "this is where my maids live" or "this is where I keep my pet tiger...." Yes, I know. I'm sick. Okay, brace yourselves: photo attack of Alhambra!!


At the top of the Alhambra, Susan and I took what may be the most epic polaroid in history. It was a little embarassing, striking this pose in front of the tourist who was nice enough to take our photo... and of course, the hundreds of other tourists at the top of Alhambra... but hey, it came out great. We gave it to Merchi as a gift, something to remember us by.


Of course, before I gave it to her I wrote a note at the bottom: "THRILLED to meet you"... because I'm cheesy like that.

We spent the rest of the day with Eric and his visiting American friends. We planned on going to a flamenco show, but since it was sold out, we went out for a night of tapas instead. I think we came significantly closer to the Grail this time, but just barely missed it. We were planning on leaving on an overnight bus to Madrid but Eric convinced us to stay for one more night. It didn't take too much convincing, actually, he just promised that the next day would be sunny and gorgeous, a beautiful day in Granada.

Day 4
Eric was right and it was one of the most beautiful days I've ever seen. We went on his official walking tour in the morning, which was amazing. He was hilarious, knew all kinds of historical facts, and even recited poetry that was written about Granada, in Granada and by the Sultan of Granada. He showed us places we'd seen but never really noticed, like this really cool house, for example. The old lady who owns it wins the porch-decorated contest every year! :)

The tour ended at El Mirador, with incredible views of Granada and Alhambra, and with an impromptu photo shoot with our gracious host/guide.


After the tour, we spent the rest of the day lounging around on Eric's terrace with all of our new friends, enjoying the Spanish sun, blowing bubbles, playing with a toy dinosaur named spot, musing and playing guitar.

It was hard to say goodbye to our new friends but we left in the afternoon and caught a bus to Madrid. Since we got a pretty late start, we decided to just stay in Madrid for dinner and then head to Barcelona.

We hit a slight snag when there were no seats available on the last bus from Madrid to Barcelona. So, we did what any true travelers would have done, and slept at the Madrid bus station. It smelled like urine and the man sleeping on the next bench was suffering from a cough that sounded very, very contagious but I slept pretty well, all things considered...

Day 5
We got to Barcelona in the afternoon and since we hadn't found couchsurfing, we decided to check into a hostel rather than spending another night in Spain's four-star bus stations. Ten euros per night isn't too bad, and we found a great hostel not far from La Sagrada Familia - Gaudi's famous cathedral.

I'm no expert, but I'm fairly certain that Gaudi must have been taking some kind of psychadelic drug when he designed some of his famous buildings in Barcelona. There was one building called Casa Milà (also called La Pedrera) which resembled something out of a sci-fi movie. The name means "the stone quarry" which I could see, but it also reminded me of vertebrae... As I was admiring it, I had an incredibly vivid daydream of myself as a kind of half-lizard person, climbing up the side of the building. I know it's weird, but that's just the kind of thought that Gaudi inspires. (Also, I've been reading a book about an iguana-woman which might have something to do with it.)


Oh, I left my camera charger in Granada, so all the pictures from Barcelona are either google images or were taken on Susan's camera. Bummer, I know, but I lose things a lot so I'm used to it by now... Merchi is mailing me the charger so I should have it pretty soon.

I also loved Casa Batllo, which looks a lot like a mermaid palace. Yes, of course I imagined myself as a mermaid swimming in and out of the windows. Why wouldn't I?


You should look at the full-sized version of this photo - the amount of detail is pretty amazing.

Aside from Gaudi's incredible, crazy architecture, my favorite part of Barcelona is probably La Rambla. It's a long, wide street built for pedestrians, lined with shops and cafes, as well as a really awesome fruit and vegetable market. There are hundreds of street performers, living statues and people selling everything from cans of beer to live chickens. It leads to the Marina, where we had a great dinner of paella and sangria before returning to our hostel for the night.


Interesting story: I've actually been to Barcelona before! I went when I was 16 with my choir, it was the last stop on our tour of Spain. Our hotel was right on La Rambla - an amazing location. However (and this is so tragic), before I got the chance to see the city, I drank with some friends, got busted and was banished to my hotel room for the rest of the trip. I think it was the second time I drank in my life, haha - what luck. All I saw of Barcelona was the alley outside my window, passing tourists and a McDonald's on the corner. Luckily, this time, drinking was allowed. :)

Day 6
We spent most of our last day in Barcelona on the beach, since the weather was amazing. The It was obviously too cold to swim, but we spent hours collecting seashells, taking photos and playing tug-of-war with a crazy puppy who had a taste for Susan's scarf. It was a perfect, relaxing day and just what we both needed.


After the beach, we went to the Picasso museum which was a really cool experience as well. I know Picasso for what most people know him for - crazy surrealist pieces, cubism, maybe a couple of blue period pieces. This museum showed his work from the beginning of his career (13 and 14 years old) to the end, and there was such an incredible amount of variety that we may as well have been seeing the work of 50 artists instead of just 1. I'd never seen his early works, which are all extremely formal - it was amazing watching it evolve into the Picasso that I'm familiar with. It was also great seeing the museum with Susan who is an Art History major, who needs a tour guide when you have your very own walking encyclopedia of all things artistic?

Since Susan's 21st birthday is later this month, her dad gave her an early birthday present and told us to treat ourselves to a fancy dinner on our last night in Spain. Muahaha... excellent....

So, we did. We went to a beautiful seafood restaurant right on the beach in Barcelona and ordered starters, a paella course, and entrees. The server looked at us like we were insane and said "No no, es mucha comida para dos personas. Mucha mucha comida..." She clearly didn't know who she was dealing with - we went to a five day food festival for crying out loud, we know how to eat! So, after some argument we convinced her to bring us our meals and as a matter of principle, polished off every last bite (including every piece of bread and every single olive). It was an amazing meal. A huge plate of fresh squid rings as a starter, shellfish paella (which was so delicious that it was practically a religious experience), bakalau with clams and garlic sauce, and some of the best shrimp I have ever eaten (like butter, delicious shrimpy butter) - accompanied by two bottles of wine and two desserts. I think we showed the waitress what we're capable of, and went home proud, full, drunk and happy. Of course, we made a detour and ran around on the beach for a while - it was a full moon and beautiful outside so we couldn't resist.

I had never really eaten much seafood before this trip, but tried a little bit of everything. My favorite thing was by far the squid (something I had never tried in my entire life) and Susan had to explain to me how to eat mussels:

Me: So... what are mussels like?
Susan (mouth full of mussels): Delicious!
Me: How do I do it?
Susan (mouth still full of mussels): You just scoop out the middle part and eat it.
Me: ... but do I chew it?
Susan (impatient, wanting to eat her mussels): Yes, Kalen. It's like, a food.

Barcelona was amazing, and I loved it but I think I've been enchanted by the "good vibes" (Eric's words) of Granada. Even with the beach and seafood and incredible food, Barcelona couldn't compare to the amazing few days I spend in Granada. There's something special about that place, and I can't wait to spend more time there. I think I might follow Eric's lead and try the life of a tour guide for a little while. Also, bonus points: I think I understood about 80% of the Spanish that I heard. It's similar enough to Italian that I can understand just about everything, but can hardly speak at all. I think I'll pick it up pretty quickly.

Once again, I have chosen blogging over sleeping and I'm leaving in 4 hours for Holland. I have a feeling it'll be another awesome adventure.

¡Viva España!

A Sunny Day in Bologna

Finally. Finally.

Last month was too long. It was too cold, too dark, too sad. It was too much of a lot of things, actually, and I was so relieved when that blessed day finally arrived... February 1. Goodbye January, ya big jerk!

It's a little ironic that I was so happy about that day, because Feb 1 is my brother's birthday. He would have been thirty years old, and I would have given him so much crap for it (lots of gray hair jokes, and the phrase "old fart" definitely would have been frequently used I wanted to bake his favorite cake, black forest, but since I couldn't find cherry pie filling (a key ingredient), I settled for brownies. I burned them, and they actually tasted more like burned chocolate cake then burned brownies, but it's the thought that counts, right? Brownies don't really exist here so I think the spirits of Italy burned my brownies to prove a point or something - it couldn't possibly have anything to do with the fact that I'm a terrible baker. Actually, I managed to salvage them by scraping off the burned parts and covering them with sugar in order to hide the damage.
Yes, more pictures of food. As always...

Anyway, even with the start of a fresh month and a fresh semester, I was still feeling a little down. I've been doing yoga, getting lots of sleep, taking care of myself, but the dreary weather must be contagious. When I woke up this morning though, I was shocked, shocked to see sunlight coming through the cracks in my window... I didn't believe it at first but when I opened the window I saw something that I haven't seen in weeks. A blue sky. So blue, brilliantly, perfectly, happily blue.

It was just what I needed. Such a simple thing, sunshine, and I missed it so much.

Walking around Bologna was so different today than it has been in the past few weeks. People weren't hurrying to get out of the rain, they weren't cold and wet or grumpy. Piazza Maggiore was filled with people and I ran into a lot of my friends on the street. People were riding their bikes again, and going for walks just because they felt like it. Here's the one picture I managed to snap before my camera battery died!
I walked more today than I've walked in the past month... of course that could also be because I had 3 classes on opposite sides of the city, with a 2 hour break in between each class.

Ah yes, classes started on Monday. So far I'm taking Psycholinguistics, Sociolinguistics, and History of the Italian Language. I may or may not take another class, it depends on how I feel. A few interesting classes start in March, including Italian Dialectology and History of Italian Cinema... but I think I'd rather travel the world. Again, we'll see.

Speaking of traveling the world, I'm leaving for Spain in the morning. A few weeks ago, my friend Susan (of the infamous food festival weekend) said "ya know, I think we should travel more"... so 10 seconds later, we booked tickets to Granada. We're flying in tomorrow morning and coming back from Barcelona on the 11th, so we have 6 days to make our way across Spain. We found couch-surfing in Granada but after that we're going wherever we feel like going. Should be wonderful. I get back to Bologna on the 11th and will have about 18 hours here before I leave again for Holland on the 12th... it'll be quite an adventure.

I have so many travel plans on the horizon... after Spain and Holland, the next trip is on March
9 - to Stockholm. I literally paid 5 euro (round-trip) for the ticket. Europe is amaaazing. My sister is coming on March 26 and staying for 17 whole days... I plan on showing her everything in Italy. Everything. She leaves on the April 12th and then Harry's spring break begins - we're planning a trip to Morocco. It makes my head spin, in a good way! Other places I'd love to go include Berlin and Moscow but I'm already dizzy so I'll give it a while before I start planning those trips...

Well friends, loyal readers (Melissa), I love you all very very much but my train leaves early in the morning and I'm stanca morta. Goodnight, all!