So today is my last day in Vitoria before leaving for my three weeks of traveling through Germany and Italy during my winter break. I will be spending the week of Christmas in Stuttgart, Germany with my friend Alli from Amherst and her parents who are now living there. I am very excited to experience all of the Christmas markets that Germany is known for this time of the year. I am also looking forward to be able to spend my Christmas with an American family and be able to speak English once again. I hope I don't forgot all my Spanish when I come back!
Right before New Years I will be flying to Milan, Italy where I will meet up with another friend of mine from the states who I went to OWU with, Mary. She is also an Auxiliary in another region in Spain and I will be traveling through some of Italy with her and two other Auxiliares from her city. So far we are planning on visiting Milan, Venice, Florence, Bologna and then flying out of Rome when returning back to Spain. I am a little sad to not be returning home for Christmas however I am so excited to have this opportunity to see all these new places in Europe.
As I mentioned in my last blog I went to Barcelona a few weekends ago over a long weekend. I absolutely loved it and it is probably my favorite city in Spain! All of the pieces of Architecture the architect, Gaudi, has created are amazing and without his work the city wouldn't be the same. I spent the weekend in Barcelona with with one student from Vitoria who is from Belgium along with two other Auxiliaries from different cities in Spain. One is if from Texas and the other is from England. We didn't know each other too well before going but decided to go together because we all wanted to see Barcelona. It worked out fine because we ended up having a great time with each other. We got tickets to ride on a double decked tourist bus two of the days we were there. It was great because it gave us a great view of the city and it made it easy for us to travel from one site to another . It was cool being up so high while riding along the beach and through the palm trees. Barcelona is such a large city with so much to see and I still feel like we didn't get to see everything but we were able to see many of the things Barcelona is known for.
The things we saw consisted of two of the most famous house created by Gaudi, La Perdera and Casa de Batllo. The architecture on the outside of both of the houses were both amazing along with on the roofs of the houses. There is seriously nothing like it. The two other works created by Gaudi that we saw consisted of La Sagrada Familia and La Parque Guell. La Sagrada Familia is a huge church begun by Gaudi and has continued to be worked on after his deaths by many other Architects. It is still not finished but the thought, planning and symbolism he had put into the construction has been continued by many others. We also took an elevator to the top where we could see the view of the city. The height and the temples of La Sagrada Familia stand out in the city and can be easily seen from higher elevations in the Barcelona. La Parque Guell is a large park on a huge hill. Unfortunately by the time we arrived to the park it was starting to get dark so we were unable to get an accurate feel for the area however the size and pieces of architecture in the park were really cool. This just gives me another reason to return to Barcelona!
We spent our first full day in Barcelona in a region called Montjuic. It is a large hill in Barcelona separate from the rest of the city which gives a really nice view of the city. There we visited a castle, The National Museum of Catalunya Art, The Olympic Stadium, El Poble Espanyol and the Magic Fountain. In the Olympic Stadium, the finals of the Davis Cup was being played there between Spain and The Dominican Republic. You have no idea how much I would have loved to get to tickets to see it. If only I had know it was being played there when we planned this trip! The Poble Espanyol is a little enclosed in area that consists of Barcelona's Plaza Mayor which is a type of plaza you seen in many cities in Spain. There were many small typical Spanish side streets with cute little houses. The magic fountain is a large fountain which has performances in the evenings with the water coming out in different colors with music playing in the background. We saw a Disney performance which was cool because we knew most of the songs they were playing.
Below I have posted some pictures from all of the major cites in Barcelona.
Parque Guell
The Magic Fountain
La Perdera
La Casa de Batllo
La Sagrada Familia (Outside)
The Port
The Olympic Stadium with my roommates
(I forgot to mention that Francesca and Julia both came as well)
It has started to feel a lot like Christmas in Vitoria. There are many lights in the streets. They have installed an artificial ice skating rink in the main plaza in the center of Vitoria, Plaza de la Virgen Blanca, with a Christmas tree in the center. Yesterday a few of us went skating which was fun. On Thursday one of the English teacher's at my school, Fernando, took me to the Christmas Market they have one day every year before Christmas. It was in the Plaza de Espana right next to the Plaza de la Virgen Blanca and consisted of my different vendors of typical food from Spain and the Basque Country during the holidays. Another popular thing during these markets is to have a bunch of live turkeys in a cage for sale. It was fun to see that but a little sad knowing that many people would buy them and bring them home to eat. Its nice how all of the teachers I work with are very supportive and want me to experience everything Spain has to offer.
Skating in La Plaza de Virgen Blanca with Lisa, another Auxiliary from Germany
This past week in class I talked about the different Christmas traditions in Spain and we listened to typical Christmas Carols and songs. It was definitely something my students enjoyed especially the class I had on Friday where they started singing along to them as well. When leaving class many of my students said Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to me in English which was cutel. Talking about Christmas in American and listening to these songs definitely has began to hit me that I will not be going home and participating in a traditional Christmas with my family but I have realized I will never have an opportunity like this again to travel through Europe.
Feliz Navidad y Feliz Ano Nuevo!
