El Papa

I spent the first week of April travelling through Italy with three of my friends from the program. It just so happened that our spring break was during Easter, and it just so happened even more that I was in Rome for Easter Sunday. We got to Rome late Thursday night and were staying until Sunday afternoon, which meant we had some time to kill Sunday morning. The Vatican puts on a big show for Easter and we found out that the Pope would be speaking to the crowd in St. Peter's Square on Sunday morning. We figured that the chance to see the Pope speak on Easter doesn't come very often, so we decided to head over to the Vatican and see what would happen. 

The obelisk in the square has a compass sort of set up with each direction marked on the ground. This one points straight to the Basilica.

This photo from Saturday shows where the expensive seats are. 

That's the obelisk I was writing about a second ago.

It rained a lot on Sunday morning. Not great. However, we did get a pretty good place to stand. We actually had some pretty good luck. The Swiss Guard had informed us that we would need to get there around 7 am in order to see the Pope. Well we didn't do that. We took the packed metro over to the Vatican City and there were people everywhere. The streets were throttled and we just sort of followed the crowd in the general direction of the square. We arrived at around 10 and I had been thinking we wouldn't even get close to being able to see him. Well we got there and the square was only about half full. Maybe the rain helped us out with that. Once in the square, we could see these large projector screens and hear the Mass that was going on inside the Basilica. 

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Apparently these Easter songs are pretty common. 

After a little over an hour of waiting, the Pope and his entourage came outside and they gave a Mass to the people in the fancy seats. We could see it happening from all the way in the back. And wouldn't you know it, the second he came out is stopped raining. Crazy. And then the Pope did something really cool. He hopped in his Popemobile and drove through the middle of the crowd. He zigzagged around and got within 20 yards of us.

After the ride, he and some other important people went upstairs to a balcony that overlooks the crowd. From there, he proceeded to address the crowd in Italian. I don't know a lick of Italian, but the words like hope and love are pretty similar to the Spanish ones, so I could sort of follow along. He also talked about conflicts in Africa and Syria. 

After his message he blessed the crowd. Is being blessed by the Pope the kind of thing you can put on a resume? It should be. It felt a little like that scene from O Bother, Where art Thou? where Delmar gets baptized in the river and all of his sins are warshed away. It was pretty incredible to see all the grandeur and it was an unforgettable experience. While Florence was my favorite city, my time in Rome was capped off well.

Mascletá

I have made a couple references to the Masletá on here, and I thought I would write a little something about them because they are insane and I have some good footage of them. At the beginning of Fallas in the second week of March I walked to the Puente de Flores (bridge of flowers) to watch my first Mascletá.

Very pretty.

 I was told that Fallas brings large crowds to Valencia, but nothing could have prepared me for it. I don't think I have ever seen that many people cram the streets in person before. Thank goodness there wasn't a stampede. My phone even lost service because there were so many people in the same area all gumming up the signals. 

I was also unprepared for how loud it was. I was told it would be loud, but no one around me had earplugs so I figured it couldn't be that bad. I was wrong. The bombs (that's pretty much what they are) shook the ground and my bones. It was cool, but I legitimately had ear pain by the end of it. And everyone else seemed to be doing just fine. Crazy people. 

These pictures don't really do it justice. How bout some video. 

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Now imagine this happening every single day for three weeks straight. You can hear it from across the whole city. It got old after a while. These next videos are from another Mascletá in a different place. My host brother's father has an office overlooking the plaza where they do most of them and I got to go up there one day and watch. Very cool. 

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I might have ear damage. It was a great view and the people were packed in tight.

The mascletá was a great experience, but I'm not sure I would do it again any time soon. 

El Recorte

On the first Sunday of Fallas, I bought a ticket to go to the Plaza de Los Toros and see a bullfight. I had been wanting to see one since I got to Spain and this was my chance. Not to say that I was super invested in watching a bull bleed to death, but it's a part of the culture and it seemed like something I should do. The plaza itself has a cool looking Colosseum, which is where the bullfights takes place.

 (not my photo)

Well I didn't see a bullfight. Unbeknownst to me, there is more than one way to entertain a crowd with a bull. My friends and I arrived at the plaza and found some seats at the top and the place was packed. We sat in the top row and the crowd was abuzz. When it started, these people on horseback ran around a bit and then the bullfighters were introduced. However, there were 20 of them which seemed odd. And they were dressed in athletic type clothes and not in Matador outfits. 

We later found out that what we attended is called El Recorte. It is a different type of bullfight where the bull doesn't die and instead these mad men just leap and dive out of the way of charging bulls. They don't have spears or anything; they just stand in front of the bull and move out of the way at the last second. It was pretty incredible. Every time a bull charged I was certain I was about to see a man die. 

Here we have some bull antagonizing.

The man came out in 5 waves with 4 of them in each wave. So there were 5 total rounds of bull dodging. And it never really got old. We even got to see a guy get mauled. Incredibly, he leaped right up and sprinted to the edge of the arena and flopped over the side. But he popped right up and I couldn't even see any blood. 

(This video doesn't work in Safari if you have JavaScript turned off. 

If that is the case, the link to the YouTube page is here.)  

You'll want to watch this video until the end. We kept thinking that an actual bullfight would eventually start but it never did. I'm not sad at all that I didn't see a real bullfight because I got this sweet alternative. I know some people that saw a real one and they said the experience was traumatizing. I kinda lucked out with this one. 

Hot Takes

I've been is Spain for almost three months now. That pretty much makes me a local, más o menos. And one great thing about Spain is that you don't tip people here. I'm not really sure why, but you don't have to hand over extra money to a waiter or cab driver. This appeals to me greatly. I'm not going to pretend to know anything about the intricacies of driving taxis or waiting tables, but the less money I fork over the better. 

Italy is apparently not aware of this. I never took a cab in Italy, but I did go to restaurants a number of times. After not tipping for a few months, it drained my soul to spend those few extra euros. It's going to be an unpleasant reverse culture shock when I get back to the US and have to start tipping again. Just one more reason why Spain is the bomb. There was a time or two when I didn't tip at an Italian restaurant, but that was only because they added on a three euro surcharge. Like, come on, that's basically already a tip. 

And another thing. Next time someone tries to tell you that the USA isn't the greatest country in the world, remind them that water is free at home. I never appreciated that until I came to Spain and Italy. Being the cheapskate that I am, I have rolled into restaurants and food places countless times and ordered food and "just a cup for water". No extra charge, no problem. In Europe that would cost me 2 euros. I'm not made of money. I don't usually eat out in Valencia, but it was a nuisance on my trip.  I'm not too proud to admit that I smuggled a bottle of water into a restaurant once or twice in Italy as well. Rome was nice because it had free public drinking fountains sprinkled (haha) around the city, but even so it felt a little sketchy and I'm almost certain pigeons poop in that water. 

And another! My first impression of Valencia was that is smelled like a toilet. The entire city reeks of urine (a smell I now hold near and dear to my heart). I have a postulation as to why it smells that way. There are no public bathrooms in sight. If you aren't home and you need to use the bathroom, you have three options. Hold it, enter a business and pay to use their restroom, or piss in the street. Take a guess what lots of people choose to do. It doesn't help that drunk people already don't seem to mind where they pee. During Fallas, the alcohol flowed and the urine flowed faster. These eyes have seen things that can't be unseen. I once watched a dad pull his little boy's pants down and have him pee in the middle of one of the busiest plazas in Valencia. I gave him a stink eye but people walked right on by like he was watering a plant. Florence advertised public bathrooms, but you have to pay at least a euro to use them. The heck I was gonna do that. (Side note: these countries refer to bathrooms as water closets and abbreviate them with W.C. Italy and Spain both do it, even though they are English words. Weird.) I'm not going to type here and act like I haven't urinated in a park or two in my day, but that is a far cry from walking to the other side of a car and going right on the door. Which I have seen.
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Back From Spring Break

I spent April 2 -12 on a trip to Rome, Florence, and Barcelona. I had a blast and got to see so much cool stuff, which I will get to writing about on here. Additionally, I will try to dive into some deeper stuff with stronger takes and attempt to avoid "this is a picture of ____".

Ignoring that, here is one of my favorite photos of the trip. 

On my last night in Florence, my friends and I walked to the Piazzale Michelangelo. It is this hilltop park area with a beautiful view overlooking the entire city. We sat up there in a large crowd of people while a cover artist played Peter Frampton songs. It was magical. Feel free to click open this link in a new tab and listen to Baby I Love Your Way while staring longingly at this photo. Ugh take me back. Florence is the best best best. 

From the left, this is Michael, Aren, me, Amanda, and Kendall watching that sunset. They were in Florence with me and I guess they are ok. They all go to UVA. Note how the three guys are wearing Ray Bans. Hand made in Italy baby. That's class right there. 

Where Does the Time Go

Welp. It's officially been a month since my last blog post. Man, March went by fast. I know I've been slacking, but I have been pretty busy and our spring break in the middle of the month threw a wrench into my schedule. But I typed something up for HSC and I figured I could post that here as well.

            I am now a little over two months in to my stay in Valencia. It’s kind of hard to believe how quickly the time has flown by. I feel as though it was just the other week that I was sleep deprived and stumbling through a Spanish department, listening to this new Spanish woman explain to me where I would be sleeping and eating. Now I have eclipsed the halfway point of the semester and suddenly the end is in sight. I suppose this happens to me every semester, but being in another country for it really puts some things into perspective.

            Valencia just finished up the celebration of Las Fallas and it was quite the spectacle. Every year in the middle of March the city hosts one of the largest festivals you will ever see. Las Fallas originates from prehistoric fire burning festivals that took place around the Mediterranean. In the 18^th century, guilds started forming in Valencia and each of these guilds had their own patron saint. The carpenter’s guild honored San Jose, and they would construct humongous wooden statues and place them in the street. At the conclusion of their celebration of San Jose, they would burn these statues and signify the start of summer. Valencia continues this tradition every year and when the Spaniards party, they party hard.
     There was not a moment to rest during Las Fallas, and even if you wanted to there was slim chance of that happening. Every day at 2pm, the city would set off these delightful bombs called la mascletá. Imagine a fireworks show, but with less emphasis on the fire and more emphasis on trying to knock down buildings. I could hear them from all over the city. I actually went to watch them a few times and while it was impressive, my ears hurt for a while afterwards. In addition to la mascletá, people run around the city at all times of the day with incredibly loud fireworks, setting them off like mad people. And if that was not enough, the daily marching bands parading through the streets were not to be out done. I’m not saying I hated it, but after a month straight of this racket I wasn’t exactly sad to see it go either.

       

This might be a video of a light show. Maybe it didn't actually upload correctly.

            One of the best parts of Las Fallas was the seemingly limitless number of churro and buñuelo stands that packed the streets. They sprouted up overnight and offered these delicious treats for only a euro. A churro is sort of like a donut stick, and a buñuelo is more of a funnel cake in donut form. We had a week off from school during the thick of the celebration, which was March 15^th to 19^th. Before this week, lights had been put up all over the city and the large wooden statues, called fallas or ninots, were hauled out and constructed everywhere. There were over 100 of the statues and they were just plopped in the middle of the street.

One of my favorite ones here. They just blocked off the road and it practically popped up overnight. 

 On the evening of the 19^th, the falleros (people who constructed a ninot) gathered with the fire department and burned them to the ground. It was almost a little sad to watch months of hard work disappear into the night. But that’s the way they do things so I didn’t get too choked up about it. My friends and I would walk around the city to look at them and enjoy the atmosphere. The teachers here told us that the population of Valencia is usually around one million people and during Las Fallas the population swells to two million. There were times where I was standing in such thick crowds I literally couldn’t walk across the street.

This is the same one as above, just engulfed in flame. That bad boy got hot. 

            My favorite part of Las Fallas was the nightly firework shows. These weren’t the jarring bombs of the mascletá, however. I got to see the most incredible fireworks I have ever seen each night at midnight during the four main days of celebration. They would fire them over the río (a former river that has been turned into a park) and it would last for almost a half hour. They lit up the whole sky and were amazing to see. At one point there were fireworks that exploded into smiley faces. Las Fallas was an incredible, exhausting experience that was unlike anything I could have expected. I’m going to have to give some serious thought to returning for another celebration in the future. 

More Madrid

The next day in Madrid we did quite a bit of walking. Madrid is considerably larger than Valencia, so even though it felt like we had walked forever we only covered a small portion of the city. We went to the historic places and parks, and saw things like the Royal Palace of Spain. 

I think this monument is a memorial for the Spanish War of Succession.

 The Royal Palace and it's gardens

 It turns out Madrid is home to some of the freakiest street performers I have ever seen. Outside the palace there was this man playing a guitar, but his torso was inside a box and it looked like he just had a tiny human skull for a head. I would have a picture, but one of my friends tried to take one of him and he started cursing at him. So I laid low. 

I think this is a famous square. There were many more street performers here, all crazy in their own way. There was a man/woman in a bird costume that ran around and there were also men who were painted to look like metal and in incredible poses while snowboarding and riding motorcycles.

We then went to the Mercado de San Miguel, which was this large building with glass walls that packed in a lot of different vendors. There were all kinds of foods and drinks and desserts. I got a donut and it was delish. 

I thought this place was just going to be a museum about beer, but it also turned out to have a very nice bar. Twas here that the Paulaner and I discovered each other. 

In the middle of Madrid's train station there happens to be a jungle of sorts. Birds fly in through openings in the ceiling and it's full of water and turtles. Very neat.

I also got to go to El Museo del Prado and El Museo de la Reina Sofia. However, I was not allowed to take pictures inside. I got to see some really cool painting from de Goya that I studied in school and of course I saw Guernica. It's a lot bigger than you would think. 

Madrid

A few weeks ago, I hopped on a train to Madrid and spent a night in the capital city. Valencia has a train station that took us straight there in a little less than two hours. I really liked the train ride; it was comfortable and quiet and really fancy. It was just like an airplane and there was even a train car ahead of us that had a bar in it. 

We got off the train and had a bit of a hike to get to our hostel. Unlike Valencia, Madrid is actually a pretty hilly city. And it is enormous. So we had our work cut out for us. Did you know Spain is the second most mountainous country in Europe? I didn't. This is the exterior clock tower of the train station.

Maybe an agricultural building?

More train station.

I don't remember anything about this fancy building but it looked cool.

I think we couldn't actually check in to the hostel for a while so we got on a tourist double decker bus and took a trip around the city. They had 12 different languages you could listen to the tour in and even some languages for kids. The kids Spanish version talked about stuff like cats and playgrounds. 

That stadium is where Real Madrid plays. Neat.

We weren't allowed to take photos inside El Mudeo del Prado, but I think this statue was outside of it. I saw some cool paintings from Fransisco de Goya in there like Saturn and The Third of May of 1808, which I really enjoyed.

This is a beer and tapas. Tapas are delicious little Spanish snacks.

Our hostel was this brightly colored interior that tried a little too hard to appeal to youths. 

There was an indoor swing set. 

Stay tuned for more Madrid photos in part II!