Living the Andorrable life

During our orientation in September, the Madrid Fulbrighters had the pleasure of meeting the Andorran Fulbrighters. Since we haven't seen them for a few weeks, my friend Justin and I decided to pay them a visit during our first 4 day weekend. In case you haven't heard of Andorra (which a lot of people haven't) it is a small country located in the Pyrenees between France and Spain. So as you can imagine, it is basically like living within Yosemite Valley, but in Europe. The main activities include hiking and shopping. So that is exactly what we did (minus the shopping).

After our 12 hours bus ride from Madrid to Barcelona to Andorra, we walked around Andorra la Vella, which is the capital of the country. To give you a sense of the capital's size, it takes 20-30 minutes to walk from one end of the city to the other and only has 22,000 people. Nevertheless the town is incredibly adorable (thus the Andorran Fulbrighters use the phrase Andorrable to describe everything). On Saturday we hiked for about 5-6 hours and actually hiked INTO FRANCE. The pile of rocks below is the border between Andorra and France. They don't seem to have the strictest border patrol...

As we walked into France, we scouted a good spot to have lunch and enjoy the view. Unfortunately we did not get a passport stamp, but we did meet some Germans who were hiking into Andorra from France. Before we met them, we thought the water was too cold to swim due to the fact that it was 50-60 degrees outside. However they had been hiking for a couple of days and desperately needed a shower, so they took a dip into Arctic waters to freshen up a bit.

On Sunday, we took another yet shorter hike. It was cool, but not nearly as cool as hiking into France.   After some cheese and chocolate fondue, many Andorrable moments, and a whooooole lot of walking, Justin and I returned to Madrid absolutely exhausted. Still, it was good to know that Europe isn't all big buildings and busy streets. There is still some natural beauty left in this history continent. 

Cruising in Cataluña

Ahhhh! My blogging game as been slacking lately!

Well here we go, a couple of weeks ago I went to Barcelona to visit some family friends. Since I do not have work on Fridays, I decided to take advantage of this three day weekend to see a different part of Spain.

Although my trip only lasted 3 days, Barcelona seems like an incredibly different city than Madrid. Firstly, every prefers to speak Catalan, not Spanish. If you walk into a restaurant and start speaking Spanish, the waiter immediately knows that you aren't from Barcelona. Of course they all speak Spanish, but it seems like they identify more with the Catalan language. In my experience, the people of Barcelona preferred to speak Catalan, English, then Spanish. I really had to force the issue when I wanted to speak Spanish. But alas, I still had a good time. There is so much to do in Barcelona so I simply didn't have time to do everything. But I sure tried.

I hit the ground running when I arrived Friday morning. I left Madrid at 5:30 am and took the high speed train which is called AVE. I arrived to Barcelona around 9 and since my family friends were all at work or school, I decided to talk a walk around the city. I saw the Arc de Triomf (below), Antoni Gaudi's La Catedral, and a whole bunch of signs in Catalan. After walking around Barcelona for a few hours, I had a very relaxed day just chatting with my family friends and eating some quality food.

Arc de Triomf in Barcelona 

 Saturday included more exploring and eating. I got a personal tour of all of Gaudi's famous architectural masterpieces (albeit I didn't have enough time to wait in line and buy tickets, so my tours were of the outside of the buildings). Nevertheless, the experience was pretty incredible. It was a great introduction for when I go back to Barcelona next year. I realized that even on a slow day Barcelona is jam packed with people. So you really need to spend time waiting in line in order to actually see the inside of these masterpieces.

The outside of the La Sagrada Familia

Finally on Sunday we went to the beach for a nice little boat ride and to have some amazing seafood. I had the mussels, just in case you were wondering. It was actually the first time I ever tried mussels, and I've gotta say they were quite tasty. However I am pretty sure butter and salt can make anything taste like Heaven.

Next blog topic? Andorra, details at 11.

Until next time you stay classy, blog readers.

Hala Madrid!

So I went to my very first Real Madrid game a few weeks ago. I must say, even though we were in the nosebleed seats, the view was incredible. It was a completely different than any soccer game I've been to in the United States. First of all, there are no food stands. No one is eating food or drinking beer while watching the game. What do they do instead? They smoke, eat sunflower seeds, and they watch the game. In addition to not letting food be a distraction during the event, no one leaves their seat while the ball is in play. What this results in is 80,000 people "oohing" and "ahhing" in absolute unison, almost as if there was a script. Plus, just like in tennis, when a player makes a great play everyone claps in unison. It doesn't matter if the person plays for the opposing team or not. Everyone was there to enjoy the game and it was the most fun I've had at a soccer game, even though it ended 0-0.

Outside of el Estadio Santiago Bernabeu

Not too shabby for the cheapest tickets possible