One Month Later...

Ok, so it hasn't been quite a month since my last blog post, but enough has happened in these past few weeks that I could be writing blog posts for the next year.

Because I could write page after page on my spring break trip and the places I went, I've decided to structure this post to give you all a little snippet of each city. I'm including some of the more important and humurous things that I learned at each city, along with a few of the 1100 pictures that I took that best depict it :)

Valencia, Spain (During the fiesta, Las Fallas)

1. Spaniards know how to have a fiesta--I've never seen streets so filled in my life.

2. Fire is fun

3. Coastal Spain actually gets cold

4. Saving money comes at the cost of comfortability
5. Doner Kebabs are the best things in the world

I thought only a video could show and explain what Las Fallas is all about. This is during the last night of the Fiesta, where they burn the paper mache figures. These "Fallas" are placed all over the city, and this was one of the last ones burned. It's actually one of the smaller ones and not many people showed up to watch, but it gives you the idea :)

Paris, France

1. $$ -- And I thought Spain was expensive...

2. I don't like the Paris Metro

3. Not to be hypocritical...but tourists do really bother me

4. Those French kings knew how to live (Versailles)
5. Crepes really are what they're cracked up to be, especially with Nutella

Prague, Czech Republic

1. Mexicans know how to cook

2. Shops, shops, shops

3. I wish I lived like a real international student

4. Those sugar-coated round bread things are AMAZING

5. Most beautiful city I've seen so far

Krakow, Poland

1. Underground bomb-shelters and tunnels make good cafe's and bars

2. Auschwitz-Birkenau. Yeah.

3. Milk bars! State-subsidized "bars" that sell soups and misc. traditional foods. The most bland and ugly places you'll ever see but the food is ridiculously cheap and very good.

4. Knowing people that know people who know people can come in handy

5. Communism was ridiculous

Budapest, Hungary

1. Hungarians know how to relax--Turkish baths

2. Nazi and Soviet control = bad

3. Budapest is actually 2 cities: Buda and Pest

4. I like impressionist art

5. I've never felt more like Leonardo D'Caprio in the Titanic when I went to an Opera at the State Opera House and was one of the underdressed tourists with a good seat in the middle of all the upper-class snobby rich people.

Malaga, Spain

1. Southern Spain beaches are exactly what you think they are

2. I love beaches and oceans

3. I'm in love with Picasso

4. I need to come back to Southern Spain

Here is a video that shows a typical "Procesion" of Semana Santa here in Spain. The processions run almost all night, every night during Semana Santa. The "Imagenes" which are carried by a large group of people, portray images that represent Easter. They are marched through the streets, and watched by many as seen in the video. This particular procession occurred at about 3AM on good friday, when the streets were still filled with people of all ages watching the processions.

So overall, my trip was amazing. I'm giving the best city award to Budapest, due to it's modern feel, beautiful scenery, cultural depth, and nice people. I really wish I had more that I could say to explain my trip, but that would just take too long. Plus, it gives you a good excuse to talk to me after I come back :)

The last week in Salamanca has been lovely. Every day has been clear skies, a high temp of about 75 degrees. Every afternoon this week I went outside to do some activity for a large amount of time. Tourists have taken over the city, the Plaza Mayor is filled with people relaxing and having an ice cream cone, and I haven't felt more content with my day-to-day life in a long time.

I have lots more to say about this weekend, but I think this post is sufficient for now. I miss you all!

Nick

Eurotrip 10!

Hello Y'all,

I thought I would give a quick update before I head off tomorrow for my spring break trip. Last weekend I stayed in Salamanca for the first time in a while. On saturday a bunch of us got together to do a scavenger hunt of sorts. We had a BLAST. There were 3 teams, each having a list of tasks that were worth a certain amount of points. Some of the more humorous tasks included:

-Ordering Paella at McDonalds

-Using the sentence "Estoy emarazada" in a conversation with a Spaniard (Commonly mistaken for meaning "I'm embarrassed", it actually means "I'm pregnant"

-Asking someone in the Plaza Mayor where the Plaza Mayor is

-Having a 3-minute arobics class in H&M (clothing store)

-Singing "It's Raining Men" in Zara Home

-Talking to a restaurant manager and saying that you quit

-Eating a whole lemon

-Putting 13 tissues in your mouth

-Opening an umbrella in Stradavarius (a clothing store)

We captured all of these tasks via pictures/videos which turned out to be very entertaining. Overall it was a great time, and a really good chance to go out and explore Salamanca by doing crazy things.

On Sunday we traveled to Segovia, which is a small city of about 50,000 north of Madrid. Its main attraction is it's Roman Acueduct, which is is one of the most significant and well-preserved Roman monuments in the Iberian Peninsula. It dates back to the 1st century. Segovia is also home to a castle with stunning views of the surrounding mountains. It was a quick day trip, but I enjoyed it thoroughly.

And finally, after weeks and weeks of booking flights, bookings hostels, doing research, spending lots of money, and creating a well-organized itinerary, my spring break trip is finally happening. Tomorrow I will be leaving for a 16-day trip across Europe. My friend Bruce will acompany me until Prague, where we will then depart ways until meeting up again in Malaga. Here are my stops:

Valencia, Spain: During which the city is hosting one of the biggest fiestas of the year, Las Fallas. The fiesta is a week-long party full of fireworks, music, festive bonfires, and all-night partying. 9.75 million euros are spent on the "fallas", which are gigantic (some 15m high) sculptures of paper mache on wood which are set on fire on the last day. Sounds fun, right?

Paris, France: I don't think this needs explaining.

Prague, Czech Republic: I've heard very good things, although I don't know what we're going to do there :)

Krakow, Poland/ Auschwitz: Krakow is the second largest city located in the south part of
Poland, containing a lot of history, art, and culture. It also contains a lot of history regarding Polish Jews and the Holocaust. The Auschwitz internment camp is just a short bus ride, and the Jewish Quarter is one of the more popular places to visit in the city.

Budapest, Hungary: Known to be one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, Budapest is the capital and largest city in Hungary situated on the Danube river. It is known to be a city of relaxation, as it hosts over 80 geothermal springs, and has an endless amount of cultural attractions.

Malaga, Spain: Do I need to say more than, 75 degrees, and the beach of southern Spain? No. But I will anyway. Malaga is on the southern tip of Spain, and is one of the best cities to witness Spain's "Semana Santa", which takes place on the week before Easter. Every day there are religious processions and events that fill the streets with people. Oh, and did I mention there's a beach?

Salamanca, Spain: Back home for Easter Sunday.

So...here I go!


Nick

Ok, I Guess It's Time for an Update...

Whew!

What a last couple of weeks. At first I had troubles with all the free time that I had here in Spain, but now I find myself not having nearly enough! With all these trips, I need a few days to recover, and then I get about 1 free day before having to plan for the next weekend trip. In between all that, school, and learning Spanish in various ways. But not to worry everyone, I still take time to enjoy this "lazy" Spanish lifestyle in which I am living :)
Two weekends ago I spent 3 days in Rome, Italy. What a beautiful city! After going, I have a tough time imagining that other cities I will visit can top Rome. There is an unlimited amount of history, art, and culture in Rome. I also really enjoyed visiting the Vatican City, where we also got a chance to see the Pope greet everyone in St. Peter's Square on Sunday morning.

I couldn't quite grasp how old Rome really is, and how some of the things I was seeing/touching were thousands of years old. I had a great time learning about the Roman history--I knew very little before the trip, which I sort of regret.

Check out my Flickr page for Rome pictures.

After taking a few days to catch up from Rome, I was already preparing for a trip to Barcelona, Spain this last weekend. Barcelona was a very interesting city. Despite having a few travel difficulties (which I'm embarrassed to explain), I had a very enjoyable weekend. Barcelona is a very modern city, springing to life after hosting the 1992 Olympics. It's full of architecture by Gaudi, art museums, beautiful parks, and a pleasant Mediterranean shoreline.

After 3 nights of a combined 13 hours of sleep, I returned to Salamanca at 12:00 on Sunday more exhausted than I've ever been. And of course, woke up at 7:30 the next morning for class :)

Besides traveling, I've gotten into a pretty good day-to-day schedule in Salamanca. As of a few weeks ago, I've been tutoring the daughter of one of my program director's friends which has proved to be a challenging but rewarding experience. I also meet a few times a week with Spanish students to practice Spanish/English. And on Thursdays I've began taking up salsa dancing lessons. My goal in mind is to be able to move my body like my instructor by the time I return--that guy is like the male version of Shakira.


Today during my break I went to the plaza mayor where I often go to spend my 1 hour break in between classes. I usually just find a spot to sit and watch the hundreds of people that pass through, meeting people or just going for a stroll. An older gentleman pulled up to my bench on his bicycle and took a seat by me. We began to talk, his first sentence being, "Buenos dias, te gusta Salamanca?" Immediately recognizing that I was a foreign exchange student studying here (though he thought I was German), he began to ask me about my life here. Turns out Antonio spent his younger years traveling to China, Japan, USA, South America, Australia, India, and of course Europe. He told me the only place he hadn't been was New Zealand. Our conversation went on, and all of the sudden I looked at the clock, realizing I was 15 minutes late for class. We shared the common interest of just coming to the Plaza Mayor to sit and enjoy the sun and the people. He told me that he goes there almost every day, and would enjoy it if I came and enjoyed him for a "copa", or cup (of coffee, wine, or beer) every once in a while.

I would say this definitely made my day, if not my entire week. Just talking with someone who has had the experiences that he has had, and realizing that simple things like sitting in the Plaza Mayor and taking a step back to observe where your life is at right now can be very interesting. It's people like Antonio who just enjoy talking with people and learning about them and their backgrounds that really make living in Spain a great experience. I really have enjoyed my time here in Salamanca and am trying to take advantage of very moment I have.

The cool thing is that I still have two months left :)

I miss you all back home. For those of you going on Pay It Forward Tours, have a blast and rake an extra leaf for me or pack an extra meal box for me. For those in F-M, fill an extra sandbag for me :)


Nick

Sevilla and Burgos

It’s crazy how time flies and all of the sudden I haven’t done a blog post in 10 days. After the first two weeks that I was here, I thought I had been here a month, and now I feel like I’ve been here for a year. It amazes me how you can get used to such a different day-to-day routine. The first couple weeks here I had a hard time picturing being here for 4 more months, but now my daily routine is all that I know, and it doesn’t phase me one bit.

Last weekend our program traveled to Sevilla, Spain which is the 4th largest city in Spain. It’s located in Andalucia, which is the southern province of Spain. Andalucia, in my opinion, is the stereotype that people give Spain. Beaches, warm weather, nice people, white houses, flamenco dancing, etc. I found all these to be true….except for the warm weather. The whole time we were there it was about 40 degrees or less—for those of you still in Minnesota, no I haven’t forgotten about what the weather is like, but when you walk outside for hours at a time and go “inside” to buildings that don’t have doors, it gets a little chilly :)

The trip was fun. I don’t think I enjoyed it as much as I had hoped because the city just didn’t seem too exciting. Someone told me it’s much more enjoyable in the summer just due to the atmosphere, but there didn’t seem to be much to do. One of the highlights for me was the flamenco show. Without going into detail, Flamenco is a very popular style of Spanish song/dance. There are many different types but it typically is VERY emotional. The show was in a small courtyard of a hotel, with about 50 spectators. I was absolutely amazed by the show. The amount of emotion expressed by the faces and movements of the singer and dancer cannot be described by words. We couldn’t take pictures or videos but I’m almost glad we couldn’t because there is no picture or video that could come close to describing what we saw.

One of the other things I enjoyed was seeing the Plaza de Toros, which is the oldest bull fighting plaza in Spain. It had a museum that showed the history of bull fighting. The topic of bull fighting in Spain is extremely controversial, and I really enjoyed learning about the history of it.

On Sunday morning, my friend Britni and I went on a walking/picture-taking adventure throughout Sevilla. It felt like we were walking through a ghost town as we saw very few people, and those who we did see were walking to church. It was such a peaceful and relaxing walk, and a good time to reflect on our trip so far. We stopped by a few churches that were hidden in the non-touristy part of the city, and also got to witness a group of people preparing for the Semana Santa processions. Sevilla is known to be one of the best places to spend Semana Santa.

The last week I spent catching up on some things. It turns out, as I expected, that once you being traveling every weekend, all the free time that I have during the week is needed to catch up. I didn’t think I would get to the point of needing a list of “things to do” while I was in Spain. Luckily , I have all of today to catch up on things like my blog, research for future trips, schoolwork, reading, etc.

Yesterday I took a trip with my friend Christine to Burgos, Spain. Burgos is about the size of Salamanca and is located north of Madrid. It is actually the location of the NDSU study abroad program and also home to one of the most well-known Roman Cathedrals in Spain. With the train schedules, it turned out to be a 22 hour trip, of which about 30 minutes I spent sleeping on the train. I thought it would be a good idea to test my limits a little bit on lack of sleep during trips, and also get a chance to take the train. Despite being a long, cold day, the trip was very enjoyable. I always love getting to know people on a personal basis, and I’ve learned that there’s no better way to do that than to travel with them.


Christine and I visited a castle located in a wooded area (even with snow!--reminded me so much of Minnesota) on the outskirts of town, the most beautiful cathedral that I've seen thus far, an art museum with the absolute worst modern art I’ve ever seen, some tapas bars and cafes, and also got the chance to go to a flamenco show. Burgos is a very beautiful city, similar to Salamanca, but after visiting I feel like I made the right choice by studying in Salamanca.

Next weekend we’re heading to Rome for 3 days on our international excursion for our program…I guess you could say I’m excited.

I feel like my vocabulary and descriptive writing beings to falter the longer my blog post is…so I’ll stop there. I hope you enjoy some of the pics I’ve put up. If you have any questions, I’ve started to put descriptions on the pictures on my flickr site. Until next time!

Nico

Portugal! A Quick Update

I've been quite busy lately and haven't had much time to update my blog. Last weekend I traveled to Porto, Portugal and this weekend we had midterms. About the time I have a chance to catch up on things, here I go traveling again this weekend to Sevilla, Spain. Sevilla is the 4th largest city in Spain and is located in the southern province of Andalucia. I was looking forward to the warmer weather but unfortunately it's supposed to rain most of the time we are there :(

The trip to Porto was very enjoyable. We flew from Madrid which meant we traveled 3 hours east to go 1 hour west which put is in Portugal (Salamanca hasn't turned out to be the best place to travel from). Porto is the second largest city in Portugal and is situated on the Douro River near the Atlantic coast. The Douro River Valley is internationally known for it's production of Port wines. That being said, we had a chance to take some of the famous port wine tours that are in Villa Nova de Gaia, which is located across the Douro River from Porto.

We also had a chance to visit Foz do Douro, which is a seaside community known for it's beaches, cafes, and shops. It was nice seeing the ocean for the second time in my life (the first being in Costa Rica), and the beach area was absolutely beautiful. I thought I remembered hearing somewhere that it was once one of the most dangerous beaches in the world due to its waves and rocks and...stuff (I obviously no nothing about the ocean and it's vocab). Anyways, it was beautiful, and we all really enjoyed walking around the beach and stopping to picnic on a nearby grassy area.

I found the whole Portuguese language thing quite interesting. As you may know, Portuguese is very similar to Spanish, but they prefer not to speak it. This was our first experience with a language barrier and it turned out quite interesting. We are all accustomed to saying things like gracias, hola, etc.-- some of which is the same in Portuguese, but some not. We were told by numerous natives to not speak Spanish, but it definitely slipped out of our mouths by habit. At one of the wine tours, someone responded with "gracias" and one of the workers told us to not say that unless we want to get killed (obviously he was joking but he explained more afterwards--turned out to be a really awesome guy). Luckily many people spoke English, but it was interesting trying to understand Portuguese. For me, understanding Portuguese would be like the following for English speakers..

-"bla bla bla when bla bla bla here bla bla bla ok?"
-"uh...sure"

So it was quite the experience. But I enjoyed the different culture, the cheaper prices, and of course the beauty of the seaside--oh, and the women were pretty cute, too...just sayin'

ANYWAYS...

here are some things that I've thought of for my "You know you're living in Spain when..." list

You know you're living in Spain when...

1. The dogs are dressed nicer than you
2. Everyone from ages 2-100 wear scarves
3. The milk is warm
4. You ask for a "cafe" and you get 2 ounces of espresso
5. Any woman over the age of 50 wears a $4000 fur coat
6. The least amount of space between parallel parked cars is 14 inches
7. Every child looks like a GAP model
8. There are pig legs hanging in a window every 5 stores
9. A bar or restaurant without the smell of smoke would just be weird
10. If you run outside (or probably do any exercise) in shorts, people stare
11. When 20 minutes of walking somewhere seems normal
12. When cars actually stop at the line where you're supposed to stop at a crosswalk
13. When you walk around at 7AM and still see groups of drunk people in the street.
14. When your English grammar deteriorates and you begin to say elementary phrases or spell things like you would in Spanish.

That's what I have for now.

I won't have time to put up pictures from the last week until after I get back from Sevilla, but if you'd like to check out my pictures from Porto, check out my flickr site at www.flickr.com/photos/nickjwelch

Miss you all!

Nico

Trip to Ávila

Hello All,

My wonderful "vacation" continues...

Actually, last week was a pretty uneventful week. I mean, of course I'm in Spain so it's always exciting but compared to the last few weeks there wasn't too much going on, besides me fighting a sore throat and runny nose. I met up with some of the Spanish students who I've had intercambios with to get coffee and chat, and have had a little more homework lately too. I feel that I'm getting accustomed to the language but still have a lot of learning to do.

This weekend we had no trips planned so some of us decided to go to Avila, which is a city of about 50,000 people about an hour south of Salamanca. The town is known for it's medieval city walls that were constructed in 1090. The city is also the birthplace of Santa Teresa and holds a lot of history about her. Overall it was a very nice day trip (despite the cold weather in the morning--maybe I'm getting used to this "mild" Spain winter?).

None of us really knew anything about the city or what there was to do but between wandering around and trying to talk to locals (I felt like every person we encountered was a tourist), we kept ourselves busy. Also, one thing that has made my list of "You know you're in Spain when..." is "You know you're in Spain when you see more animals being worn on people than anywhere else." See picture below.

Yesterday I spent some time planning out trip to Porto, Portugal which is next weekend. There's a lot to plan for between travel, hostels, and things to do. But I'm really excited to go and look forward to traveling out of the country for the first time. Porto is known for the internationally famous "port wine" and also it's location along the Douro river near the coast. It should be a fun trip and I and can just about imagine the looks that we will receive when we forget we're not in Spain and try to speak Spanish. Apparently the Portuguese don't appreciate being talked to in Spanish ;)

So hopefully I'll be back next time with some fun stories from Portugal. This is the point in my trip where things start to get busy, as I'll most likely be traveling somewhere almost every weekend in the coming month. So I guess I'll just sit back, and start enjoying the ride :)

I hope everything is wonderful for those of you back home. Feel free to drop me an e-mail if you wish, I'd love to hear from you.

Hasta Luego!

Nicolas

Trip to Madrid and Mi Cumple!

Hola amigos,

Here I am no longer a teenager, having spent my 20th birthday in Spain. I couldn't have asked for a better day though. Here are some of the highlights: Sunny and 45 degrees, mid-day coffee with friends, an afternoon run (which turned out to be 5 miles--about 3 more miles than I'd hoped since I haven't ran in about 3 months. Also, apparently seeing a person in shorts when it's 40 degrees out is unheard of because I had plenty of stares and people shouting things like, "Hombre, hace frio!" = "man, it's cold out!"), anyways, other birthday events included a cerveca with the only two guys in our program, and a 3 course dinner with all of my friends. Overall, I had a great time and am glad I got to spend my birthday in Spain with my new friends (who apparently can't even pose for a picture).

I also spent the last weekend in Madrid where I met up with Isaac. It was my first time traveling alone and so I had a few nerves. But it all ended up going smoothly, thanks to the luck I had by choosing the 2 correct metro train directions (I had no clue how the metro system worked--even in the US).

Ike and I wandered around Madrid and on Saturday we took a tour of the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, home of the Real Madrid futbol team. It was a pretty amazing stadium and really cool being on the field. I don't know the first thing about "soccer" but just by being in that stadium you get a sense of how important "soccer" is to Spain and how much tradition is there. I guess I'll have to learn a little about futbol.

We also went to El Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia where they have some of the famous artworks of more modern artists like Picasso, Dali, etc. I really enjoyed this museum just because a lot of the surrealism was so radical and different and also the fact that a lot of the art spoke to the political and social aspects of 20th century Spain. I was really looking forward to seeing Picasso's Guernica in person, and it was as amazing as I thought it would be. I even got to sneak a photo by waiting until the 3 guards were off preventing other people from taking photos (It was actually kind of a rush, I was nervous).

Ike and I were walking around El Retiro (I like to call it the central park of Madrid) and were walking by the pond and had to stop and listen to these kids. They were very intrigued by the fish in the pond and we enjoyed listening to their spanish phrases like "Eso es el mas grande de todo el mundo!"

Ike and I then went to a nice restaurant and had some paella, and then did some shopping and hung out the rest of the night. Overall it was a very enjoyable trip and I think a good "warm-up" for some of my bigger trips coming up.

Otherwise I've still been enjoying every minute of living in Salamanca. I really have come to like the city and the university.

And I guess the time has also come for many students to begin planning trips. I feel a little overwhelmed with everyone trying to plan different trips on different dates and everyone asking where I'm planning on going. I have a slight idea but at this point, I can't say where I'll be headed in the next few months besides the planned trips with our program.

What I do know is that this weekend I'm heading to a city very close to Salamanca with about 50,000 people called Avila. It's known for it's medievil city walls, which are absolutely beautiful. It should be a good day trip for Saturday.

In two weekends I'm planning to travel to Porto, Portugal with 5 friends. Porto is the second largest city in Portugal and is internationally known for its production of "port wine". The planning process is still in the beginning stages but plane tickets have been purchased--I'm pumped!

That is all for now.

I miss you all,

Nico