Funny Little Madrid-isms

The Madrid “skyline” – Literally 4 skyscrapers. Isn’t that cute?

Tiny olive oil! Seriously, the price of this stuff makes me want to cry just because we pay SO much for it in the states, and they use it like water here because it’s so cheap.

Segovia

Saturday we had the chance to take a high speed train to Segovia for the day.  It could not have been a more perfect day!  80 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, and a light breeze = perfection.  Segovia is the second city in Spain besides Madrid that I have had the chance to visit. We took a day trip to Toledo last Saturday and were able to walk around the small town, check out the beautiful cathedral, and admire the stunning architecture.  However, Segovia was definitely my favorite of the two!

After we took a bus downtown and started walking for a few minutes, the first thing you see is the AMAZING Roman Aqueducts.

After getting a map we decided we wanted to find the cathedral and the Alcazar (castle).  All of the roads are cobble stone and sometimes your forget that they are in fact roads because everyone just walks on them and cars rarely drive through.

Here is the Cathedral of Segovia!  We didn't have time to go inside but the outside was gorgeous.

After walking a little bit further we found the Alcazar!  This castle is what Walt Disney used as inspiration for the castles he created in his movies! It looked just like something you would picture a princess living in.

Inside there was an armory room and lots of armor, weapons, cannons, etc.

Almost all of the rooms had beautifully detailed ceilings with very intricate designs on them.  

I thought this was interesting.  This is the image of King Alfonso who was king right before the current king of Spain.  Notice the outfit....

And here is the picture of King Juan Carlos. Totally modern in a simple suit.  It's amazing how quickly things have changed.

Gorgeous views of all of Segovia from the top of the castle.

Mountains in the distance.

Segovia was breathtaking!  I am so glad I had the chance to see it.  I'm really looking forward to exploring more Spanish cities and seeing how different they all are!

Corinne

The Spanish Super Bowl: La Copa del Rey

Friday night was the final game of the Copa del Rey in which Barcelona went up against Athletic de Bilbao. You might be saying to yourself, “alright, there was a soccer game in Spain. Those happen all the time.” You’d be right, but there’s some extra political significance thrown in because of the teams that were playing. A friend of mine suggested this article to explain it a bit better. Basically, people from Barcelona are Catalans and those from Bilbao are Basques (both named for the region and language used there), so it was kind of crazy that these two very distinct regions of Spain were playing against each other in the KING’S Cup. Each has a high sense of pride for its own region in comparison to its feeling of being part of the country, as a whole. At least, that’s what I have gathered. You’re allowed to form your own opinions!

What I wanted to share was our blind American participation in one of the biggest soccer games that Spain has to offer. Honestly, how we didn’t find out that this game was happening until the day of, I’ll never know.

My roommate & I met up with a friend of hers near the Athleti fan area. It was already a mess before the game even started.

Red & white stripes as far as the eye could see!

We never actually passed through the entrance to Athletic Hiria, the Athelti fan section, but I can assure you it was completely packed & there’s no way we would’ve seen the huge screen very well.

Because the tent area was so crowded, we actually ended up at someone’s apartment watching the game in a pretty calm setting. Even so, it was easy to see how passionate everyone was about their respective teams. I’m not big into professional sports in the states, so I can’t accurately compare the fanaticism of each country, but the energy was palpable all day long. When we got back from class, there were already people wearing jerseys, flags, scarves, and anything else that represented their team; there was plenty of drunk yelling and whistling happening around our apartment, and probably all over the city; and after the game (Barcelona won), the Athleti fans could not have looked more depressed. I kind of had to feel bad for them. It’s amazing to me how much passion and loyalty people can pour into a sport, but it’s a feeling that unites people, even in this particular situation!

- Alexa

Parque del Retiro

Last week it was hot. Over the weekend it was cold. Now it's gorgeous outside, so in honor of that, here are the pictures of the biggest outdoor green space in Madrid: el Parque del Retiro.

So many boats out!

Still haven't figured out how this was possible

Robyn & Liz enjoying the day!

 They had fireworks in the park during the Feria de San Isidro (a holiday only celebrated in Madrid), which ended May 14th. We managed to make it back to the park to see the end of the last show.

Retiro really is gigantic, so I personally have probably only seen a tiny part of it. It's an even better reason to go back and check out what else is hiding in those trees!

- Alexa

Toledo

Toledo, Spain. Not Ohio.

It's a much smaller city if you can believe that.

Yesterday, me and 20 of my closest friends took a trip to Toledo, Spain with our program advisor Mike McDermott. It was 30 minutes by train and there was not a lot to look at between Madrid and Toledo but my eyes were closed most of the time anyway.

We arrived at the train station and it was small but had a lot of nice things to photograph. Including these people:

After we did our photo shoot at the train station we ventured to the center of the city and then we just walked through very narrow streets shared by tourists, cars, and mopeds.

The main attraction in Toledo is the Holy Catholic Cathedral. It's amazing. Large works of art throughout the Cathedral. This is my personal favorite:

I tried to include the people just to give an idea of how tall the painting is.

We walked around some more and had our first not so great experience with food here in Madrid.

Then finally, we made it to this area that was made to be photographed:

Overall it was a fun trip and it makes me eager to go to more cities in Europe.

-Rhian

Living in Madrid

We've been in Madrid for 4 whole days now and are starting to be fully settled. I thought I would give a look inside one of the three apartments that CBA is providing for us. Welcome to our adorable 6-person apartment in the neighborhood of Chamberí!

View from one of our fourth-floor windows of the rest of the apartment

The hallway to some of the rooms when first walking in the door.

Living room to the left

Our cutesy little kitchen

One of the single rooms

It's safe to say that we're living comfortably. The neighborhood is really nice, as we've been told, and seems safe. There's a supermarket close by, the closest metro stop is about 3 or 4 blocks away, and it connect to three different lines, so it's been super convenient. Basically, I'm a big fan of where we've been placed!

Pictures of Parque del Retiro to come soon!

- Alexa