Toledo

       We started the week off with some incredible group activities!  Tuesday we all dressed up a little and went and saw Carmen, which is a French Opera, that they have turned into a Flamenco!  Very cool costumes and absolutely incredible dancing!  It was very impressive and we all enjoyed it exquisetly!  On Wednesday, my friends and I went to La Biblioteca Nacional, which is the biggest library in Spain.  Right now they had an exibition with the original cuaderno (notebook) of Leonardo Davinci! And we got to see that and alot of his notes and drawings and learned a lot about his life!  He painted and wrote at the same time!  Supposedly the art side of your brain is completely separate from the writing one or something so he could do it!  He also wrote backwards and upside down! Bizar and incredible!  After we visited the library, we met up with our program at the    Nuevo Apolo theater and saw “La Ratonera.”  An English play called "Mousetrap."  It was absolutely fantastic and very entertaining!  It is a murder mystery and was acted out very well. 

Just read it and you will smile like I did! :)

Biblioteca Nacional De España

Eating a Napolitano, basically a sweet crosant filled with chocolate!

Me, Andrea, Katie W, Katie F, Julia, Dottie, Brittany, Michael

                We went to Toledo on Friday.  The city is well known for it´s cathedral, and for all of the metal work shops in the city, especially for swords.  When we got there we took a bus tour around the outside of the city.  Toledo was built pretty much on an island in the river.  The city is surrounded on three sides by the river, and it is elevated, so it really looks like a city on a hill, and you can´t get to it except at the entrance.  Very cool.

This picture is to the right of the previous picture

                The city is older and less modern, many of the streets are and arms width apart!  All of the major streets were covered with telas (cloth tarps) that were attached to the walls of the buildings to provide shade for those in the streets.  This is only done annually for Christmas, Easter, and Corpus Cristi which is latin for Body of Christ.  Corpus Cristi happens every first to second week of June and they were preparing for that and had many banners and other decorations also that were for that commemoration.  During the trip we did not see the commemoration but next week we will and I will talk about it.

               

                 First, in city we went straight to the cathedral.  One thing that sets this cathedral apart from others is a stone scene behind the Altar Mayor, or the alter nearest the principal representation of Christ at the front of the chapel, and were the preist perform the ceremonies.  Behind this, there was an incredible scene carved out of stone and plated with gold, that was lit up by a whole in the ceiling that was cut out after construction because the artist wanted his work to be lit up by natural lighting.  It is pretty impressive.  Also all of the wood carvings for the coro (choral area, and were the priests sit) was all mahogony wood! There was a lot of famous artwork in the cathedral as well.  I didn´t recognize any of them cause I am not an art or history buff, but it was very intersting.   

The hole cut out to let natural light in

Sorry that the lamp is in the way, but it is incredible!

                We went to another small chapel and saw the orignial “Greco.”  Again, didn´t mean too much to me because of my lack of interest, but nonetheless a learning experience.  Then we were free to explore the city for a few hours.  We went to a sword shop and looked at all of the swords, daggers and knifes that this man had made.  Also got to see so many other handmade metal crafts.  Esmaltes, which are enameled pieces i believe in english are so cool!  So many done by hand and are just so beautiful!  Plates with gold etchings of pretty much any kind of scene, earings, bracelets, necklaces, rings, cups, bowls, figurines etc.  Very impressive.  We also found a real leather shop and i got a real nice new belt of darker brown leather.  Some of the girls got some really nice purses made of real leather. 

Skinny streets! Some cars actually drove on some of these! They are nuts!

                It was just a day trip, but it was very fun and awesome to learn and experience Toledo! 

Ávila y Salamanca

       Last week we did several more Madrid walks.  The big one that we did took two afternoons to finish because there was so much!  It is caled the Gran Vía.  A really long street with important buildings for commerce, turism, and with historical significance.  Similar to the Magnificent Mile in Chicago there are lots of shops, theaters, movie theaters, retail stores, plazas etc.  Pretty cool street.  We learned about the architecture and historical significance of most of the buildings and it is so impressive and intersting to learn why a building is designed the way it is!  We also visited a park with a ropes course and had a bit of fun!  While in the city last week there were several protests with picket signs, loud speakers, whistles and shirts and THOUSANDS of people.  The biggest one was about the education in Spain. I guess the government wants to increase class sizes and decrease how many teachers are needed to cut down on bugets.  The poeple are not very happy about it.  It was interesting to be with a group of girls and going through a crowd like that.  I don´t know why but my instinct is to just stay away from bigs riots and stuff, but here are all these girls stopping and video taping and taking pictures and saying they want to join and stuff.  To me this just didn´t feel good at all.  We were all fine though, and the girls can do whatever they want, I just found my reaction so different compared to them.  I wonder why I felt so different about it than all the girls.   At the time we didn´t know what the protest was about and I guess my instinct is not to join anything that you don´t already know what it´s for.  And big crowds usually have more theft and higher chances of getting injured or something.

The protest

The Gran Vía

The Gran Vía

Puerta de La Vicotria

Puerta de España

      The bear eating out of the Madroño tree is a symbol of Madrid, (part of the coat of arms).

Puerta Del Sol

More statues of Don Quijote and Sancho Pansa

Just cool!

      The main train station that we go into from Alcalá de Henares is called Atocha.  It is a very large station and has lots of shops and a large indoor courtyard with ponds and plants and stuff.  Over the years people have thrown their pets turtles in the ponds and they have grown and multiplied!  Kind of cool!

      One day we stopped at a frozen yogurt place called Llao Llao (pronounced yow yow).  Super delicious!  One of their dishes is called a Sanum, and they put yogurt at the bottom, put a layer of granola, or carmalized cookies or some other grain of your choice, then three types of fresh fruit, like watermelon, pineapple, kiwi, mango, strawberry etc. After this they put another layer a grain of your choice, and then more forzen yogurt on top.  To top it off you can have a fruity syrup of your choice dumped on top of it all.  It was fantastic!!!

The Sanum

                On one of our walks, the girls really wanted to shop in H&M (a retail store) and they shopped for about forty five minutes and my room mate Michael asked them if they could help him pick out a few shirts / outfits for his Teach For America position this summer.  So they started and decided that I should be included as well, so the girls picked out some clothes they thought would look good for us Michael and I needed to showcase the clothes for them!  I wasn´t super comfortable with it to start but it turned out really good.  I really appreciated the girls doing that actually cause they said they really liked one of the shirts and a pair of pants that I tried on.  Since the price was very reasonable, I ended up getting them.  But shopping was so much better with the girls giving us real opinions on how we looked. 

                Friday we started our trip an hour earlier than usual so that we could get to Ávila and then Salamanca with enough time.  Ávila is a pretty city set on a hill, out in the middle of the “rolling plains” you could say.  What was so immpressive about Ávila is that it has wall or “muralla” (pronounced mur-aya) surrounding it.  There are only nine entrances commonly called “puertas” to the city and eighty-eight towers.  The city was never conquered.  The city is also known for the Basilica de San Vicente.  Very roman style.  We also visited the convent where Santa Teresa became a nun and where she saw Jesus Christ appear to her.  An interesting piece of Spanish history and culture.  Ávila is famous for their “yemas” which are sweeted egg yolks.  They were okay. I have definitely eaten worse things in my life.  

Convent where Santa Teresa saw Jesus

City wall of Ávila

Basilica de San Vicente

Ávila

                When we got to Salamanca we got quite a tour.  Our guide was like a walking textbook and was very long winded.  But we sure learned a lot, before we all tuned out a bit.  We saw the plaza mayor, and the linguistics university similar to the one we have in Alcalá de Henares.  In the facade they hid a frog and told students that if they could find the frog, they would do well on the final exams because they had patience, were observant and determined. It took me a while but I did find it too.  Just a tiny little frog amidst a beautiful facade of stone carvings.  When the students graduated they got to write there name in bull´s blood on one of the exterior walls, and you can still see them!

Entrance to the Linguistics University, try finding the frog!

Plaza Mayor in Salamanca

Plaza Mayor at night

Mis Amigos! Scott, Michael, Katie W, Amanda, Chantelle, Julia, Katie F

                We go to go on top of the La Vieja Catedral de Salamanca that had huge flying butresses with circle cut into the structure.  It was very impressive to me.  We walked on a balcony inside of the Catedral about eighty feet off of the ground! Pretty cool.  When we were outside we could hear acordian music and could see all the roof tops and we felt so much like we were in Europe!  Just like the movies!  That night we ate chinese buffet, which was really good.  A few of us walked around after that and saw this street performer that called himself the flaming flamenco.  He was definitely gay and kept approaching several men in the crowd, including Michael! So weird! But he was pretty fantastic with yo-yos and unicycles.  After that I went to bed cause of exaustion. 

On the roof of La Vieja Catedral de Salamanca!

Flying butresses

80 feet up!

Chinese food

                 The next day, Michael and I wore our new clothes the girls picked out for us, and both got complimented many times.  We went to a small town called Toro. We only saw a cathedral there called La Catedral de Santa Maria la Mayor.  A famous painting of the virgin was there that has a fly painted on her knee.  There was also a two foot Cristus made completely from “marfil” (ivory).  Very impressive.  We ate lunch there and that was it.

On the left is a bull, on the right is a lion

The view from the edge of the city, love it!

La Catedral de Santa Maria La Mayor

The Entrance to Toro

                We also stopped at Tordecillas and saw where Juana La Loca we locked up for the remainder of her life.  She was queen of Spain and was so crazy about her husband Felipe El Hermoso, that when he died they had to lock her up cause she was uncontrolable.  She lived a long life and even out lived her son Carlos I.  Intersting but a little uneventful. 

                That night when we got home, Michael, Dottie, and I went and saw a Spanish produced film.  There is definitely a reason that all of the movies Spaniards watch are American.  The film was horrible!  The music, sound, actual filming, the story, the transtions, everything! It was just bad! We were three of the six occupants in the room, and on a saturday evening!  Sunday evening we all went to our directors house and watched Disney´s "UP" in Spanish.  That was really fun.   

                Next Friday we go to Toledo, famous for their metal work (swords)!

El Escorial y El Valle de Los Caídos

          So last week I was so busy! On Tuesday we went to Una Corrida de los Toros (Bullfight), in Madrid!  Very interesting sport.  To be honest I did not really enjoy it but I will explain how it works.  There are three toreros (bull fighters) sometimes called matadores (literally "killers"), two picadores (literally translates to “pokers”) and several other toreros of lesser rank that serve a different purpose.  There are six rounds, each with a new bull.  Each torero has two rounds.  To start off each round, they let the bull go and the lesser toreros use their brightly colored capes to draw the bull towards them, and all basically take turns, drawing the bulls attention.  After maybe ten minutes of getting the bull's frustration up, the picadores come out on some pretty sturdy looking horses.  The horses wear a protective armor and are blindfolded.  The picadores have basically a ten foot spear, and the toreros work together to draw the bulls to the picadores so that they can poke the bull on the top of its back.  The crowd really likes it when the bull charges the horses and the horse has to push back in a battle of strength.  While that is happening, the picador is driving his spear deeper and deeper into the back of the bull.  After about five minutes of this, the picadores leave the arena. 

Other Toreros

Un Picador

The other toreros next take turns, without capes, running at the bull and sticking it with a hook like thing that then hangs on the bull.  Pretty dangerous, since the bull is enraged by now.  they run at the bull then at the last moment possible dart to the side and hook the bull as it runs by.  After the bull has been stuck four times, the real torero comes out.  The real toreros are dressed in very traditional costumes with the weird hats and the glittery jackets and tight pants with the long socks and dress shoes, all in very bright colors.  Their cape is red, and smaller.  They iniciate by going through a whole bunch of exercises with their cape and the bull.  Drawing the bull towards him while he stays exactly where he is.  The torero shows the audience how he has complete control over the bull by making the bull follow every move of his cape.  Finally, once he shows the audience that he can make the bull go anywhere he wants, and shows how brave he is by bringing the bull within inches of goring him, and many times the bull has even been close enough to rub its dripping blood on the torero´s tunic.  He then recieves a sword, about two feet long, thin and flat bladed.  Next, he is supposed to bring the bull to him and strike the bull behind the head in the spine, killing it instantly.  By this time the bull is significantly slower due to loss of blood and exurtion, but remember this is an 900 to 1300 lb horned beast running at you.  

Dominating the bull

At our match one of the toreros was somewhat horrible, and after six tries with the sword one of the lesser toreros had to come help him kill the bull.  After the killing, three burly looking horses yoked together, came out and dragged the bull out the arena.  Our other two toreros were much better, and killed the bull in one, or two hits in their matches.  Over all, very culturally educating, but I probably won´t go see another one.  Pretty gruesome.

The Final Stab

On Wednesday,Thursday, and Friday a group of us went and did Madrid walks, which are some walks that the BYU international studies program put together for us so see certain sites in Madrid.  We went and saw The Basilica de San Fransisco, La Catedral de Almudena, and La Chocolatería de San Gines established in 1894.  In the United states, many people go out to get a snack or treat together and chat.  Many times we go to a smoothie place like Jamba Juice.  In Spain there are no smoothie shops.  What you get here in Spain is churros and hot chocolate. Super rich, thick, and warmed chocolate that you dip your churros in! Way up my alley!

La Catedral de Amudena

Self Explanitory

Haley, chocolate, churros, Me

We also visited several parks and enjoyed walking through all of the beautiful trees and flowers.  We visited the Palacio Real and spent a whole afternoon there!  Huge! We did a tour of the inside, which was similar to the other palacios that we have visited, but the gem was being able to walk through the armory!  Hundreds of full suits of armor both for horses and men.  Swords, spears, weird cannon things, axes, pikes, bows, cross bows, lances and clubs. That was really cool.  It is eye opening to think that real people really wore those suits of armor, and it was an honor and a protection for them.  It is amazing how much the times have changed.

El Palacio Real

Royal Armory

Friday evening, we went to a puppet show for children.  An older couple performed several acts using just their hands and their mouths.  So they would put gloves on that hid certain fingers and only use certain fingers or a mask that hid all the face except the mouth and then put on eyeball glasses and stuff.  Mostly it was strange, but some of it was funny also.  I think the art culture is just different here. 

                I have run several times in the nature park behind my home this week and I have to share an experience that I had. The Henares river is right behind my house, and there are several clay cliffs that the river has carved out over time.  So on one of my runs, I had the desire to climb one of these clay cliffs.  Good idea, right?  Of course!  I loved it! So holding onto roots and grass blades mainly, I climbed this clay formation, and slipped a few times, but always caught myself and ended up at the top.  So pretty!  I was running near sunset and the sky was gorgeous! And I was above the trees and the houses!  On all sides but one was a thirty five or forty foot drop!  Invigorating!  So then came the harder part of getting down!  I go back over to where I came up and decided it would be a bad idea to go back down that way, as I could slip much easier and possibly hurt myself.  So I move a little further on and see some sturdy branches near the top of a tree and decided I should use the tree!  So I shimmy out on one of these branches and drop several feet and start getting a few butterflys in the stomache, but I kept going down.  I got to a junction in the branches that didn´t have any branches below.  Since I was now only about fifteen feet off the ground I decided to grab a horizontal branch, hang down, and then drop to the slightly sloped base of the mountain cliff thing.  When I was hanging there, I thought to myself “hmmm, this is a little higher than I thought!” But I said a quick prayer that I wouldn´t spain or break anything, and I let go.  I have to say that free falling is one of my most favorite feelings!  I can´t wait to go skydiving some day! I dropped down and landed fine.  The ground was somewhat soft because of the loose clay.  I didn´t sprain anything, and had an awesome adventure!

El Viaje

                Now finally to the goods.  On Saturday we first went to El Escorial.  El palacio real built by El Rey Felipe II, and is where he is buried.  I was very impressed by the library that had books from many cultures and many ages. The basilica was soo impressive!  I just felt like I was walking into the “mines of morea” from the Lord of The Rings.  The pillars are so big! The palace is built to over look the valley and the views are fenomenal!  It only took twenty-one years to build becasue El Rey Felipe II employed the three million workers from nearby Madrid to work on it day and night!  We had a really cool tour guide that really helped us understand alot about the palace and the royal families.  He even made some american jokes and was pretty entertaining.  There are over two hundred crypts for the royal family  inder the palace.  All of which are done in marble!  And the walls, the floor, the ceiling, the casskets, everything! So much marble, and gold and silver! I want marble and gold and silver in my home!

El Escorial

La biblioteca del Escorial

La Basilica

The royal crypts

          After El Escorial we went to El Valle de Los Caídos.  A huge cross is erected on top of a mountain, underneath which is a huge basilica.  It is a built into the mountain, and everthing inside it is on a x10 scale!  It is husge!  The halls, the arches, the gargoyles, mosaics, statues, the organ.  Walking down the hall to the main worship area, there are maybe ten to fifteen tapestries each with some of the organ pipes on either side of them, twenty to thrity foot gargoyles with swords and lances, the whole main chamber is probably as wide as two of my familiy´s house in Naperville, and at least two of them tall.  It is a huge dome, or cupela, all plated with one big mosaic.  Again all of this is built under a mountain, in the rock.  Very impressive.  Everything echoes in there.  I can only imagine how amazing the organ and singing would be in there!  But on the negative side, it was all built by the slaves and prisoners that Fransisco Franco, the dictator in the early 1900´s, had forced to do so.  All those that died while working on it are buried there, as well as special graves for Franco and his right hand man José Antonio.  Franco built it more for a memorial to him.  Now it is called what it is because of all that have fallen for Spain, including those who fell while building it.  The basilica overlooks the whole valley, and it is beautiful.

                                        
         To finish our Saturday excursion, we went to a small little castle called Manzanares El Real.  It has been restored completely, and the inside has been turned into a museum to show what most Spanish castles would be like in the era.  It was interesting, but no where near as big as some of the other castles that we have visited.  I did really like how the inside of the castle was a courtyard with the three levels of the castle surrounding it.  I made me feal like I was in a really nice home instead of a castle. 

          What a week!  I only have a few weeks left!  But we are making good use of our time!  My next post will have more on my most recent Madrid walks and our trip to Salamanca, and Avila!