Traveling (in general)

We're on our way to Rome!
(sort of.)

We're actually.. quite literally.. on our way to Madrid via bus. Via very-expensive-yet-comfortable-express-bus. Via very-expensive-yet-comfortable-express-bus-which-has-wifi. (Nice.)

Not much to say. It's 11:30 pm. Another half an hour before we get to the bus station, and another very-slow-metro-ride to get to the Airport.

I never properly gave an account of the stresses involved in my return from Paris last week. I wanted to forget about it. I'll give one now, on the subject of traveling.

I was in Paris all alone- quite content. I had 6 hours at my leisure and planned on regressing to my Hostel to pick up my backpack about 1.5 hours before my bus was to leave to take me to the airport.
I got lost on my way, of course, and went out of the way to get a crepe so that I was feeling a bit antsy by the time I was on the METRO that would take me to the Paris Bus Station.  It was one metro line. Metro Line 1 to be percise. But it was a slowwww Metro line. Much slower than I bargained for..and I began to stressssss and stresss. I still needed to by my bus ticket for the proper bus that would take me to the airport 2 hours early for my flight.  And I had no idea if there was another bus- they time the buses to coincide with the airlines. I was sure I'd figure something out if I missed it... but I would have rather not had to worry.

I started counting the seconds between Metro stops. About 1.5 minutes from one stop to the other. 90 seconds, give or take a few.  This counted the opening and closing of doors. I figured I would have time. I *did* have time.. i got to the bus station and got my ticket and was scolded a little bit by the ticket-man for being kind of not-early but i had 5 minutes to spare once on the bus. No biggy.

And I get to the airport, go through bag checking and security (Takes an hour) and worry about getting a good seat on the plane and low-and-behold it's been delayed.

Let me put this in better context:
My flight was to leave at 7:10 pm from Paris and I was to arrive after 9 in Madrid.  I was then, it was planned, to go to the Bus station in Madrid (A metro line away) and make the earliest bus possible to get to Salamanca. I had 3 plausible bus lines I could easily make: a 10:00, a 10:30 and an 11:00.   I had prepared for this.  I gave my self more than an hour to get to the station in due time.

This is what happened:
My flight was delayed. UBER delayed. Uber-over-an-hour-delayed. Which would put me in Madrid right before 10. Which would give me about an hour to navigate myself out of the airport and into the Metro and then to the bus station where i would by my ticket and get on the bus.
Major Stress.

I got on the plane. I sat near the front so i could get out in due time. I figured I was safe. I had an hour. I could do it in an hour.

I bolted off the airplane. I flat-out-sprinted down the terminal complete with backpack and heavy coat. Sprinted. Gasping-for-breath-kind-of-sprinting.

You know who I simply can't abide by? People who use the cool airport-moving-walk-way-things  but who decide to just stand on it and chill. They block the pathway so i have to break my sprint.

You know what's pretty cool? Sprinting down the cool airport-moving-walk-way-things. You go SO Fast. But  I was too stressed. I arrived at the METRO and put my coins in the thing... took too much time for my liking, but I got on the first train and was horrified as I saw the number of stops were between that station and the transfer station.  I started counting seconds again. It did not bode well. The Madrid METRO trains are rather.... insufferably slow.

As soon as the door opened, I sprinted down the station to find the tunnel that connected the two lines. It was longer than I could ever have imagined it to be. (Longer than I had remembered it being 2 days ago, that is.) And escalators and stairs were conquered with record speeed... and I probably looked like a frazzled and crazy person.. but I felt the pressure to make that 11:00 bus. If I didn't make that 11:00 bus, I would have been stuck in madrid allll night by myself.

I arrived at the New METRO pickup and waited. I waited a painful amount of time. I had so many.. unpleasant thoughts go through my head along the lines of ... "you know... this probably isn't going to work. You always think that things are going to turn out just fine, don't you? It's like.. optimism. But it's dangerous to be this optimistic, because... things don't always turn out perfectly. They really don't. There is every chance in the world that you won't make this bus, and you'll be stuck in Madrid.. and you really just have to deal with this."

And the METRO came, and it was SLOWER than the one before it. The minutes disappeared. 5 minutes left by the time it arrived at the station. I sprinted Faster, getting anxious and hysterical by now, down the tunnel following the AUTOBUS signs. I arrived at the gate and put my ticket in it, trying to get out to go to the bus station.  It wouldn't accept my ticket. I was freaking out by this point, speaking horribly incoherent spanish.

Katherine: "It won't work!!"
Guard: Tranquilla. what do you want.
Katheirne: I need to get to the bus station.. i'm going to miss it...
Gaurd: what? what where?
Katherine: I'm late, i'm going to miss it.
Guard: *points in opposite direction. that doesn't have an exit gate*
Katherine:Oh.

I took a picture of it while on the way to Rome. Lol.

SO i have to climb uber stairs, and I see my bus! and I run up to it, 2 minutes left by now, and say "Please please please wait for me to get a ticket, where do I buy tickets?" and the bus driver shrugs and points at his watch. And then points up more stairs.

I sprint up those stairs, to the ticket man.. am practically crying by now because I want so badly for it to work and i'm so close.. and the ticket man.. is incredibly difficult. He tells me there's not time. I tell him to please hurry. He is insufferably slow. Glacierly slow. Molasses on a glacier kind of slow. And he asks for my card.. i give it to him all the while saying "Please hurry"(in spanish) and he says "This doesn't work" after a minute, in a very rude and unsympathetic sort of way. I then realize that i can give him cash, do so, take my ticket and run downstairs (past departure time by now.)

I get turned around, can't find my bus.. start runnign to every bus asking for the one that goes to Salamanca.. they point. There are 2 buses and both are about to leave. I go to one, they won't accept my ticket. (The ticket master of death gave me one for the next morning. :Lkajsd;lfkjasd.) and I go to the second bus, and he takes pity on my sad and pathetic face and lets me on.

It wouldn't have been a huge deal if I hadn't come from france that day. I was exhausted. I had not eaten much at all, had walked all day, had been on my own, was just... so tired. And i got to Salamanca at 2am and the kitchen was closed and I ate crackers that I had in my room and thought about how lucky i was.

It turns out that my travel buddy was in the same situation as me: She was suppose to catch a flight out of paris 9 hours earlier than my flight. She didn't even make it to the first bus station in Paris. She got lost on the Paris metro. I felt horrible, especially considering I had no idea of this until 2 days after. My travel buddy ended up getting on MY flight (The late one) after paying 100 Euros. And then she didn't make it to the Bus station in time and... had to stay in Madrid over night. I didn't see her at all.

Traveling. Scary and stressful. I'm with 4 others so i'm not worried this time at all. If i get stuck in Madrid this time, I'll be in good company.

Anyway. that's that stressful story. I'm going to Rome, though, so expect more later.

Paris

NOTE: pictures are warped, but you can click on them for full effect, I think


Day 1: 

We, that is to say, Hyuen and I arrived in Paris around 2:30 p.m. on Friday the.... 6th. And we got there via autobus after a smooth flight from Madrid (where we slept on the floor of the airport, on chairs of the airport, and on the plane, and on the bus.... probably a total of 5 hours of sleep.. not awful.)

Anyway, after going to our Hostel and unpacking and taking a quick shower we headed off to the Louvre. Hyuen's camera actually worked.. in that.. she could switch her settings and actually SEE what she was taking a picture of.

My camera, on the other hand, is broken and I cannot do any of the above. These things considered, I took a few pretty photos of the Louvre.

Oh, before the Louvre, however, we went down the Opera Boulevard and saw the Opera de Garnier... the phantom of the opera opera. And.... apparently there are actual sewage system passageways underneath it so that reclusive people, like phantoms, can hide.

[Until Hyuen gives me some of her pictures, I won't be able to illustrate all of this. nor do I have pictures of myself. Ah well.]

LOUVRE:

I saw the Mona Lisa, of course. And..... she was beautiful. And I just wanted to stare at the portrait for awhile, but while I was taking it in two girls approached me and asked me to take a photo of them in front of it. Sighhhhhhh.

And what else. We walked a lot that night afterwards.... to our Hostel which took about an hour. We walked along the Seins... past Notre Dame and other pretty churches.

Day 2:

Huyen and I split up in the morning: She went to Versaille Palace and I explored the city on my own. I got caught up in the Latin Quarter.. just walking around impulsively. I also forgot my camera that day. But I took notes in a notebook of what I did, trying to keep track of streets I went down and such. I went into St. Paul's Cathedral- I noticed the chairs were different in French churches.. compared to in Spanish ones. They were individual wicker seats, connected by a plank of wood.. and the chadeliers were super low from the ceiling, very touchable if you were to stand on one of the wicker chairs. There were also two organs.

I found myself wandering in the St. Paul Village which had a secluded sort of Antique Market Place that was hidden in an alleyway. There sort of old and quirky looking French people were selling old letter presses (For typing, I imagine... you know.. metal alphabets?) and old post cards.. thousands of old post cards... I was going to by one for each of you, but I couldn't decide and I got stressed out trying to pick the perfect one so I just left.... and  lots of table cloths and lace and glass figurines. One of the vendors was playing cool jazz music and it was quite picturesque.

Afterwards I walked along the Seins.. over the Seins to the other side and saw people doing Yoga in a park. I found another church, listened to someone tune an organ.. I walked past a University that looked rather old and saw that they were giving tours of it. I didn't want a tour, and when I went inside i tried to figure out if the entrance was free. The inside was surprisingly modern... black retro sort of front desk.. chic lighting. I'll find a picture for you.. aha! it's called "College des Bernardins"...

well.. this is the inside of it anyway. I can't find a picture of the modernish classrooms that clash with this. but know they exist. Anyway, it was interesting because the old-lady-French-woman at the desk took pity on my inability to speak French, and gave me a an unofficial look-around at the University Classrooms for free. She seemed sheepish as she tried to explain things in broken Frenglish. She sort of pointed, and tried to say something, and I'd  try to reply in French, and I'd nod to pretend I understood so she wouldn't feel bad. And it was very awkward, but still very nice of her to personally show me around and point. "Class" "Study" "No class.. umm..... porquoi.. umm" and I'd finish "Oui, samedi je comprende" .

Interesting and nice.

I'm consulting my notebook. Ah! I walked past the University of Paris, was disappointed in its locked and fenced campus, so I went to a sculpture garden along the Seine. And then I found an entrance to the Jardin de Plantes and... saw a Wallaby and Ostrich and was very surprised. They were in a fenced in area. There were lots of Wallabies, actually. I don't know why I'm capitalizing Wallaby. Proper Wallabies.

OH! And I walked up and down many streets with lovely and tres cher cafes, but it was beautiful and lovely. And I saw a farmer's market where they were actually preparing raw meat. There was a Turkish booth where they were selling pita with all sorts of spread, including Hummus. I was sorely tempted. There was a booth with brightly colored table cloths that I almost bought also, but remembered the dining room table in Chico is too big. There was also a honey booth with 40 types of honey in little glass jars with a pretty piece of cloth underneath the lid. It also had beeswax candles. All of this plus the normal fruits and vegitables and bakeries.

I think the bakeries were the best part. I never bought anything from one, but whenever i'd pass one I'd go inside to get out of the 3 degree C weather and to get a whiff of the lovely and comforting aroma. mm.

I got lost a bit in the Latin Quarter, stopped at a cafe and had a Quiche Lorrain (expensive and unexpectedly full of ham, but still good) and I sat and watched people out of the window. I then met up with Huyen after trying to find her for 20 minutes in the designated meeting spot- failing because she misunderstood me- and ended up calling her cell phone on a payphone. Everything worked out.

We, together, went on a 3.5 hour FREE walking tour where we learned about Henry IV, Napoleon, the Louies, the Siene, the start of Paris the Isle-of-Paris (I love Paris), the Louvre, etc. We walked all over the main sights and listened to a hilarious man from Liverpool make awkward and witty bantering about French History and it was very enjoyable.

After the tour, Huyen and I walked down Champ de'Elysees  and climped the Arc de Triomphe which has more than 250 spiraling stairs which I sprinted up. I will eventually post pictures from this. But the view was amazing and although it was entirely freezing up top we stayed there for awhile watching the Eifel Tower's celebratory-Laser-show as well as the traffic of Paris.

We next went to the Red Light District to see the Moulin Rouge and it was pretty epic looking. We FINALLY ate dinner, consisting of a crepe a piece and then went back to our hostel very tired from our 13 hour walking day.

Day 3

In which I was completely alone in Paris. Huyen had a 10:30 am flight (mine was to be at 7:10 pm) and so she left at 7:00 am and I wandered around Paris by myself.

I had an agenda for the day, and started the morning off at 8:30 by going to see Notre Dame up close. While meandering from the Metro Stop walking towards the Cathedral, a man approached me and asked me something in French, to which I replied "je ne parle pas francaise"

Man: What time is it?

Me: oh! Neuf.

Man: no no no.. Nueseur (trying to do this phonetically)

Me: oh

Man: Anglais?

Me: No.. de.. Etats....... unis...........

Man: *looks entirely shocked*

and then he asked if i was going to Notre Dame, to which I replied yes (all in French) and he took me over there and started telling me that he was a mime in a spectacle that was going to happen later on in the day... and someone was going to climb up the tower. we had a nice conversation that consisted of him saying things, and me saying 'oui' and then we parted ways.

It was cool because this makes 3 mimes that I've "conversed" with in Europe so far.

Anyway, I went into Notre Dame while mass was going on. I listened to the Cantor- she had perfect pitch it seemed... very enchanting and lulling and eerie. And the Organ piece during communion was entirely creepy and cool. It was very epic, the whole thing.

hmm hmm. After Mass I METROD very very far away to where the tiny statue of liberty was, behind the Eifel tower. It was tiny and I didn't get a good picture of it. But I made quite the pilgramage towards the Eiffel Tower along the Seine, past boats and boat cafes, past running-french-people and lots of business buildings and trees... and watched the Eiffel Tower get larger and larger and taller and taller. So epic to look up at. I tried to get a picture in front of it, and failed.. but here is my attempt as well as some neato photos of it.

Um... and then I tried to see Napoleon's tomb- too expensive.. but I went around the museum of war or wheaponry or something that he is buried in. Cool photos that might be posted later.. but here is one

And lots more walking ensued. I didn't make it to the Musee d'orsay because the line was about an hour long and I didn't have time. I had to be at my Hostel at 3 so i could properly Metro to the bus stop by 4 and I still wanted to visit the Amelie village. (Montmartre). Getting to Montmartre .. i can't spell it..? It was difficult. I walked the wrong way out of the Metro station for about 20 minutes before figuring it out, and ended up taking the Metro back to save time.

I was practically running up the 100 or so stairs to the big church on top of the hill.... so much exercise that day..... and wheezing I finally made it... and it was so beautiful. Here's a favorite picture...

And the little town of Montmatre was easily my favorite thing.. it was too bad I only could pass through it. But there were lots of art displays.. cobble stoned pathways... adorable cafes, colorful everything. People kept asking if they could paint my portrait..there was a park and lovely art shops and ivy covered cottages... and I wanted to stay longer but couldn't.

I instead went back to the Hostel, feeling so pressed for time, and ran to the Metro with my luggage and barely made it to my bus. This event forshadowed the rest of my voyage to Salamanca, but that will be for tomorrow's post. I don't want to taint this one with stress.

This was long, but necessary.

J'aime Paris

A Paris

Bonjour mon amies,

Je vais aller a Paris!

Itinerary:

Salamanca Time

Wednesday November 5:

8:30 p.m. Go to Bus Station in Salamanca

bus to Madrid arriving at 11:30 p.m.

Via Metro, arrive at airport whenever. Sleep at airport. (Gross).

Thursday November 6:

10:30 Am: flight to Paris

arrive in Paris at 12:40 p.m.

Bus to Central Paris: 1:00 p.m.. Metro to Hostel

JE NE SAIS PAS.

Sunday November 8:

4:10 p.m. Bus to airport

7:10 p.m. Fly to Madrid

9:23 Arrive in Madrid

10:30 Bus to Salamanca

1:35 am arrive. gross.

THINGS I SHOULD PROBABLY NOT FORGET TO PACK/DO

1. Passport

2. Broken Camera. (Scowl.)

3. Ipod

4. Quodlibet

5. Cellphone that won't work in Paris

6. Traveler's Checks

7. Other Money

8. Pillow for Airport

9. Tooth Brush

10. Charge Ipod, Camera, phone

11. Buy Umbrella

12. Check Weather

13. Download enterntainment from internet to amuse me whilst i'm in Airport sans internet

14. Diary

15. Books

16. Study Guides for the Two Midterms I have upon return

OH good. it will be raining. Il fait pluuuuuus. no no. that's snow. I forget how to say rain.

17. Go over basic french

18. Bring Itenarary

19. TOWEL. (oh Ford Prefect).

FYI

I posted entires about Madrid and Segovia and the Bull Ranch. They are embedded below as I back dated them.

SEGOVIA

MADRID AND PRADO

Horse Back Riding

Today ... Sasha, Anne, Matt, Alison, Araceli, Kelley, Janneth and I went horseback riding in El Campo. And it was terrifying for some reason. Trust me to get the horse who's the weird one. Good lord. It would walk slowly, nibble the ground, then realize that it was worlds behind the horse behind it (Named Amigo) and the go at a full gallop to catch up. Down a hill. Over rocks. And then it would practically crash into Amigo and I'd have to make it stop by pulling the reigns and then it would flail it's head because it was upset at me telling it to stop. And I hated it. And it foamed at the moth... froth.... lots of foamy white froth which would fly through the air when it would flail it's foaming mouth and land on my arm.

Also we had to go through rivers. 3 of them. I didn't know we were going to do this. And.... every time my horse would decide to chill and just sort of meander down stream a bit. And It was awful. It took ages to get it to get out of the river, and when it did it decided to climb up the river bank at full speed into a branch which was going to hit my head except I blocked it with my arm.

Horses.

OH, but where we road our horses.. it looked just like Bidwell Park. Uncannily like Bidwell Park.

Segovia/Bull Ranch

THIS IS WHERE WE WENT ON OCTOBER 24 and 25:

(Catch up)

October 24: SEGOVIA:

is a town a few hours from Salamanca:

Segovia is known for it's Castle and Aqueduct. The Aqueduct, built in the late 1st Century (!!!!) was used by the Romans to bring water into the city.

There was also this cool Castle that the Disney Castle was modeled after. Called the Alcazar Castle, it was originally built by Arabs and was converted by King Alfonso the 11th C.

Pictures:

.

We next traveled to the Palace Grounds, a bit aways from the Catedral and Aqueduct . It was beautiful. Finally we found some autumn, after days of Salamanca which only yields tall tall old old buildings. I really was pleased to have some greenery. and yellowery. There was also a labyrinth which was kind of dying and dead but it was pretty cool.

We also went to this Bull Ranch- the 24:

It was about a 30 min. drive from Salamanca, and we arrived at the ranch, piled into Safari-like Cars and drove around the ranch right up near the bulls. We saw baby bulls, mommy bulls, Castrated bulls, Weak bulls, and bulls which were going to die. A common thing I yelled at them was "I'm sorry you are going to die." Poor Torros.

Here are some Pictures:

Big Bull

Harmless Bulls:(aw.)

Scary Bull:

Family Bulls:

Still Slacking on the updating ughh...

This week happenings:

School. i suppose I'll make this an update about classes.

My classes:

1) Literature:

Is very very difficult as it is in Spanish and most of the people in the class either speak fluently or have taken Spanish for 4 or 5 years. So far we've been studying poetry.. medieval poetry. And most of the topics are surprisingly crude, as a lot of the poems are religious based.

Example: There is a type of poetry called Cuaderno Via, and we studied a poem of this type written in the genre of Mester de Clerecia. In historical context, these poems were very important because they were a mechanism of religious scholars who wanted to educate people who were illiterate. They were spoken, written in verse, had biblical context, and were painstakingly difficult to write. (Apparently). Rhyming sequennces I guess were hard.

Anyway, our Proffesor read one of these poems aloud to us, and the story was about a Friar who was going on a Pilgrimage to Santiago... it was actually a story about a Miracal that happened to the Friar but it was such a strange, strange story. I thought I completely mishearing or mistranslating it until I sat down with the poem and a dictionary and found that I was correct. The story goes something like this: A friar wants to go to Santiago for a Pilgramage, but the day before he goes he sleeps with a woman he is not married to. So on his pilgramage the devil (or many devils) decide to play a trick on him and disguise themselves as Santiago (The saint...) and tell him he has to dismember himself if he wants to be forgiven. He does so and dies of blood loss. And then the Virgin Mary and the real Santiago decide to help the friar because he was tricked and they forgive him and he lives the rest of his life completely devoted to God. He is not tempted to commit adultary anymore as he has not the capacity for it.

Strange strange strange.

All of them are that strange.

My Professor is entertaining, though. He speaks too quickly for me to understand, but he does well at using gestures to describe what is going on. It's diverting.

We are now learning about tragedies, I think. I'm not sure. I have to use my dictionary again.

2. Language

Is just a normal grammar class. (By the way, because you don't use subjects in Spanish sentence because the verb conjugation indicates the subject.... I am inclined to drop it in English. "Is just a normal grammar class." It's weird.).

Anyway, I don't care for my Professor too much. She is very nice and patient and is amused by our horribly rowdy and disrespectful class, but she doesn't teach very well. It's ok, though, because I can figure out the rules eventually. I like grammar a lot. I can understand it, I just am bad at implementing it in my speech.

3. Translation

SO DIFFICULT. We are learning allllll of the verb forms and tenses and it's so complex and I love it. But I am definitely not able to incorporate it into my speech. It's far more advanced than my own spanish speaking level, but it's a learning class. We really aren't graded, we are just practicing translation. There is no pressure, so i'm just absorbing what I can. I'm learning more grammar there than I will learn in my actual grammar class. The professor is very hyper and crazy and dramatic. It's hard to take her seriously.

4. European Union

This class is taught in English. The Professor is an old Spanish man who is very wry and is the one Spaniard who i've encountered who has a sense of irony and sarcasm. (Doesn't exist here, normally.) His poking fun at some of the more-obnoxious members of our group is amusing to watch, especially because his comments tend to go over the heads of those he is mocking. It's very clever.

About the class, though. The European Union (27 member states) seems like a good thing. It unifies most of Europe in such a way that there is transparency amongst its member states and there is no potential for war over, say, the economy or territory because the economy and the land is shared amongst its member states. It does, however, seem to take away the sovereignty of the people within individual member states. I don't know if I value sovereignty. The EU requires that its nation states be democratic, not apply the death penalty, and generally follow what is thought in Western Civilization to be "humane rules".

It's thought provoking. Yesterday we watched videos of people protesting the EU because decisions made to make it more Federal (less sovereignty for the people) were not passed by the people directly. There was no referendum, so people feel like they have no say in the matter. It's complex.

Random facts about the EU:

12 stars of gold on a blue field simply because 12 is a historically sound number. (27 member states now.. so the number has nothing to do with the member states).

The national anthem is "Ode to Joy"

Current President of EU is from Portugal

They are about to pass a new treaty called "Lisbon Treaty" because they finally got Ireland and Poland's signatures. They are waiting on the signature from the Czech Republic.

5. Spanish Cinema:

Is very fun and diverting, and i love our Professor. He is very guapo and intelligent and makes watching movies very fun. He has a good and unique sense of humor. So far we've watched a movie called "La nino de sus Ojos" and "Bienvenido Mister Marshall".

The first movie was about Spanish film makers making two versions of the same film: One in Spanish, one in Germany. (For about 3 years in the 1930s, film makers actually filmed the same movie with two different casts in order to market it to other countries... they didn't figure out dubbing.) It was pretty funny seeing an epic Spanish love story with German voices. It was also a movie about the role of the Spaniard in the context of WWII. The main "actress" in the Spanish version of the film was played by Penelope Cruz and she was seduced by Gerbils... awkward and gross.

The second film was an old Spanish film that had the same sort of charming tone as our old movies. It was about a small Peublo whose inhabitants were preparing for the Americans to come visit and give them gifts because of the Marshall plan. It was nostalgically hilarious and had very subtle humor. My friend Justin and I decided that Blazing Saddles was heavily influenced by it.

You really should watch this: It doesn't require English because the spanish in it is Slurred because it's a dream. It's not even real Spanish. This scene is the Mayor's dream the day before of the American's visit. Thus it's supposedly in American style.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmXpvQePlyw&hl=es

It really, in my opinion, is sort of their impression of our westerns. Anyway, enjoy.