je suis un americain qui mange des americains

this wednesday was our (elizabeth and my) last day in barcelona. we tried to make plans to go to valencia or the dali house, which is a ways outside of barcelona and houses all types of salvador dali's art. both of these would have been very much fun, but all the plans fell through so elizabeth and i decided to go back to zaragoza while cindy stayed another night in barca. before we left, we got up wednesday morning and went to the picasso museum. picasso spent a fair amount of time in barcelona, so the museum had art, mostly all paintings, from throughout his entire life (even some really crappy sketches from when he was ten). it was really interesting-we stayed the whole morning.

the view from our hostel in barcelona


some epic statue we passed

after the museum, elizabeth and i attempted to get a bus back to zaragoza but ran into a bit of confusion. the attendant at the bus station we went to told us that the bus we needed only left from a different station in town, so we had to take the metro across town. once there, the clerk sold us the wrong ticket and more confusion ensued. we luckily found our bus just as it was leaving. and on the way out of barcelona, it made a stop to pick up people at the station we were at earlier that day. dumb dumb dumb.

we got back to zaragoza that evening in time for the futbol game between barcelona and manchester united. almost every spaniard seems to be a barca fan, at least when they're playing the british. we met michael at a bar that claimed to be tibetan to watch the game and had some tapas bravas. they're basically fried potato slices drenched in mayonnaise and some salsa-like dressing. tapas is a big tradition around here-you go from bar to bar ordering big plates of unhealthy food like tapas bravas and have a drink, then go to the next bar. after the game, we walked to a mussel place where i had fried kalamari and tried mussels for the first time. a bit slimy for my taste, but still pretty good.

thursday we woke up with the intentions to go check out this really old moorish castle in zaragoza. it's really impressive how well the exterior of the castle has survived since the times that muslims ruled the region. elizabeth and i packed a little lunch and picnicked on this hill overlooking the castle. that was really nice. unfortunately, after we finished and tried to go see the inside of the castle, a guard hola'd us down to tell us the castle was closed. so we tried to navigate the city bus system back to cara and michael's and failed pretty horribly. we ended up riding a bus to the end of its line and wandering around some slightly shady suburb for half an hour. getting lost is always a little stressful, but as is usually the case things worked themselves out in the end.

we got back to the apt and some other american students studying in zaragoza came by so we took it pretty easy for the rest of the night. elizabeth and i got up friday morning and took a cab to estacion delicias (DELICIOUS). elizabeth got a ticket to madrid to go stay with lauren for a couple nights before she flies back to the states sunday. i got a train ticket to barcelona (again) to begin my long trek to france. i would have liked to see lauren, but madrid was the opposite direction from where i needed to start heading. it was also a bummer to part ways with elizabeth, since i won't see her again till mid-july. but hopefully we'll figure out a good skype schedule. once i'm in vichy i'll be getting on that and the internet in general more regularly.
the voyage to france did not go as well as it could've. i just kind of hoped that all the trains that i needed would line up and i could be in clermont ferrand by friday evening. i was going to stay with alex, a friend who studied in oklahoma last year. but i didn't quite make it. i went from zaragoza to barcelona and then to montpelier, france because it was the only train going to france in the near future. that train ride was pretty amazing-the pyrenees were on my left and the mediterranean was on my right. but on the way to montpelier i discovered that there would not be a train from there to clermont until 6am the next morning. oops.

i met someone who was planning to stay the night and she gave me the address of a hostel in town. i was also told by some friendly locals that i should try this sandwich place that makes 'americains.' i wasn't sure if they were making fun of my nationality, but i went and ordered one and it was pretty good. if you've ever eaten at fat sandwich in norman, oklahoma, i think this stand is where that place gets its inspiration. the sandwich was a baguette stuffed with ground beef, cheese and mayonnaise and topped with french fries. but hey, it was only 2 euros.

the hostel i stayed at was on rue des ecole laiques. it was part of an organization called hostelling international, which meant i had to pay an extra couple euros for a membership. the total price was under 20 euros, but it was not a great stay. there wasn't really anywhere definitely safe to put my things, so i cuddled with my backpack. also, the shower was the most frustrating experience i've had in a while. you push the button for water, and before you can say fils de pute it was done. for real, i counted. it was four seconds of water per push. anyway, i am now waiting in a mcdonalds (free wifi!!) for my train to clermont ferrand. i'll be there this evening.

espagne!

DISCLAIMER: first post, so it's kind of long

so this is my third night in europe, and i have yet to post anything, so i'll go over my trip thus far. the flight was long, and it was pretty hard to get any sleep. i had a four hour layover in newark--it was pretty lame aside from the fact that i could see the new york skyline from the airport, which i'd never seen.

i landed in madrid monday morning spain time and took a bus to zaragoza. there i met up with elizabeth and cindy at michael and cara's apartment. michael's friend clay from kentucky was also staying there, so it was pretty crowded but it was good to see michael and cara after them being in spain all semester. we walked around zaragoza and saw some of the sites:





this is the teatro romano-the city was apparently founded by augustus ceasar, so there's still some remnants of the old roman city.

after that we tried to go to some improve comedy show, but due to some scheduling error the group had showed up early and left because nobody was there to watch. so we went to a bar where they have a full jazz band set-up and random groups of people will grab instruments and break into a jazz freestyle, pretty entertaining.

thte next morning elizabeth, cindy and i woke up and took a bus to barcelona. waiting for the bus = the best stinkeye i've ever seen:


we got to barcelona and checked into the travelers' hostel on passeig de gracia. it's a pretty nice hostel--free breakfast and internet, clean rooms and a bar/restaurant thing. it was originally pretty cheap too-15 euros-but the second night we tried to book the same room again it had gone up to something like 24 euros. the staff is not terribly consistent or organized here.

barcelona is made up of two main types of architecture, the gothic areas and the things designed by gaudi in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. one of his buildings, the casa battlo, was turned into a museum and was just down the road from the hostel we stayed in:


the first day in barcelona we mostly walked around the area of our hostel. we ate at some italian place because of a relatively cheap meal that included two courses, bebida (drink) and dessert. apparently most of the time meals here are full two-course meals. the second day we got up and took the metro to parque geull, which is a huge sprawling park on the north side of the city designed by gaudi. most of his stuff is pretty bizarre--it looks like some combination of dr. seuss and pan's labyrinth. we didn't go through the entire park, but we saw a pretty good view of the city and i picked up a souvenir for my sister (trying to get as much souveniring out of the way now so i can send it all home with elizabeth when she leaves).





then we went to another of gaudi's creations, the sagrada familia. on the way we randomly came across a museum that had a free display of special effects used in movies, mostly masks and dummies. there was a lot from guillermo del toro, like the eyeball monster and the faun from pan's labyrinth and the big hand from hellboy. it was a pretty interesting exhibit, especially for free. it had a warning that it was not appropriate for children under 13, and apparently also not for cindy (she was too scared to go in).

the sagrada familia is a ridiculously huge cathedral that is still not finished. construction began in the late 1800s, and it's expected to be finished around 2020. it is definitely the most imposing building in the city and the biggest church i've ever seen. there is an insane amount of detail around the exterior of the entire church, sometimes to the point of being overwhelming. there's also a museum within the cathedral that has lots of original sketches and models of the structure.




we stopped for lunch in some little diner that had good a good patata stew-ish dish followed by really nasty steak and fries. it was a mixed experience. after a brief siesta at the hostel, we took the metro out to the beach. apparently the beaches in the city are crap compared to some farther along the coast, but we didn't really have time to go too far. we crashed on the beach for a while, which was really nice after walking around all day. i saw the mediterranean for the first time:


afterward, we tried some sangria (barcelona is supposed to be well-known for its sangria) and had doner kabobs for dinner. they're like a flatbread or pita stuffed with meat and vegetables. in zaragoza i had one with pollo, here they were all lamb. they're really delicious and cheap, and i'm told they're a staple of european, or at least spanish cuisine.


tomorrow, we're probably going back to zaragoza. the rest of this week is not quite planned out yet. also, i am healthy, well-fed and soon to be well-rested, so worry not. expect more posts soon.

on y va

i'm about to leave for the airport!!! add me on skype (matthew.j.pierce) or contact me on facebook while i'm gone. however, please kindly DO NOT send me text messages, as this will incur large fees.

see you soon spaniards

c'est proche

i'm flying out of the states this saturday. by sunday morning, i'll be in madrid. i've got a week in spain, probably mostly in zaragoza, then it's off to vichy for a month. i can't wait. i'll start making real posts once i get over there.