Winter trip- Santander, Barcelona, Berlin, Paris

Santander

Over winter break I took a trip around Europe I will never forget.  I never thought I would say a vacation that didn’t include a beach and margaritas could be the best vacation of my life.  But it was.  The trip started here in Santander with Brad, Steve, and Katie.  It was good to see familiar faces and be able to show them the life I have been living for the past few months.  I showed them the school where I teach, the beach, the sea lions and penguins, and a few delicious restaurants.  We ate lunch in one place that overlooked the beach and ocean.  One night we ate dinner in a typical Spanish “bodega” restaurant that served empanadas (fried dough stuffed with meat or fish), croquetas (fried ball filled with meat or cheese), more cheese, and of course, bread.  I took them to the plaza where we hang out on weekends drinking “cañas” outside.  Cañas are small beers that the majority of people order- cost about 2 euros.  One night we went to the store and bought baguettes, 50 cent boxes of wine, sausage, pasta, and goat cheese and made a typical Spanish dinner.  And of course I introduced them to the kalimotxo- a large glass of half wine and a half coca-cola, one of the most preferred alcoholic drinks of young people in Spain.  They were also able to experience a true Spanish piso (apartment)- electricity turning off if more than 2 things are plugged into the wall, cold showers, and paper thin walls.  So after giving them a taste of Santander, we were ready to go to Barcelona- the most beloved city in Spain. 

Barcelona

After a quick plane ride, we landed at our destination.  We set off to find our hostel- to say it was a challenge would be an understatement.   But that is another story.  The first thing we did was explore Las Ramblas, the large, crowded street that runs through the center of the city.  The street is filled with performers, tourist shops, and restaurants.  Because we traveled during the Christmas season, there were many lights hanging from the trees on both sides of the street, it was very pretty.  Gaudi, the famous Spanish architect, has some incredible work in Barcelona.  One of those places being La Sagrada Familia-  It was worth the 13 Euro it cost to enter.  It is a huge Catholic Church Gaudi started in the late 1800’s and is still unfinished.  It is has huge spires and is just a massive, beautiful building.  Besides La Sagrada Familia he has the “birthday cake” house- La Casa Mila.  We went and snapped photos of it, but did not go in.  Another awesome place is Park Guell.  The Park overlooks the city, and you can see La Sagrada Familia sticking up like a sore thumb.  We also saw the runway that the models walked down in an episode of America’s Next Top Model.  Another very cool place is La Boqueria- it’s a huge market with every type of food you could think of from fruit to fish to lamb brains.  Everyone in the market was walking around with freshly squeezed fruit smoothies, so we grabbed one of those.  After a long day we went back to the hostel to get ready for New Years Eve.  We hadn’t made any plans on where to eat dinner or where we were going out…so we ended up at a Chinese restaurant for dinner.   Afterwards, we went to where we thought the huge party was going to be- there were about 4 people within a mile radius.  So, we rushed to Plaza Catalunya where there were hundreds of people and champagne flying.  At midnight everyone with bottles started throwing their empty bottles into a “baracaded” area where there weren’t any people.  It didn’t take long before people were lifting up those baracades and running around with them…that is Spain for you.   After midnight we went to a shot bar with over 250 shots…you basically just randomly choose from the list if you wanted a “boy scout, creep show, harry potter, gato negro”, etc.  The rest of the night we spent in an Irish bar.  The next day Steve and Katie left early to head to Valencia and me and Brad checked out the beach as well as the Gothic neighborhood.  We saw some very intricate sandcastles, one being of La Sagrada Familia, and one being of Homer Simpson laying on the couch…nonetheless, they were both really good.  Barcelona was a very fun city, I can see why it is many people’s favorite city in Spain…but it was time to head to Berlin!

Berlin

We arrived around 11:00 p.m. into Berlin-Schoenefeld airport.  I put on every layer I had as I prepared myself to enter the freezing cold.  I had never been to a country where I didn’t know a word of the language, but that made it all the more exciting.  And German is just a cool language to listen to.  Of course once we arrived at the airport, we had no idea how to get to our hostel.  On the printout of the reservation there were some obscure directions.  We found the train station a few hundred feet from the airport…it was dark, cold, and not a person in sight.   We saw the train tracks and basically hopped on the first train we saw.  Somehow, we made it to our hostel- The Generator.  It was a building the size of a hotel overshadowing the train station, much unlike our hard to find, tucked away hostel in Barcelona.  When I kept hearing Germany described as “hip”, I had no clue what that meant.  But now I do…the words “The Generator” were lit up bright blue and attached to the back was a bar, also lit up with neon blue lights.  Upon entering the hostel, we saw the whole interior was also lit up by neon blue lights.  The lobby’s floors were made out of this weird metal- as Brad described it, it felt like we were about to play laser tag.  The numbers on the room doors ran vertical and took up the whole door.  This was my first taste of Germany and I liked it.  Since it was about 1 a.m., we had two choices of dinner: Burger King or a Doner Kebab place (gyros- obsessed with them in Europe).  We chose the Kebab place which turned into our late night dinner for the next three nights.  Of course we needed to try every beer in Germany while we were there so we ate a kebab and enjoyed some oversized beer bottles.

The next morning began our journey.  We may have spent the good part of our day trying to figure out the metro system and how to get to our destination.  But the adventure was fun.  Once we got to where we needed to be, we stopped for lunch at a typical German restaurant.  Feeling the need to try each country’s typical cuisine, I ate potato soup and we sampled more German beer.  The first thing we saw was the Kadave- one of the largest department stores in Europe.  We realized it was Sunday, and it was closed.  But nearby were Christmas markets that were so cute.  They were little brown huts selling everything from jewelry to crepes to hot wine.  The hot wine was delicious.  We walked around and took some photos.  We realized we weren’t too close to the area with all of the famous buildings.  However, we were very close to a church that was bombed in WWII, and saw the remains of it.  Afterwards we headed back to our hostel for a pub crawl the hostel was hosting.  It was a good time, they took us to some unusual places.  It was cool being able to walk to different pubs while passing massive, beautiful, famous buildings…. A little different than the pub crawls in Champaign.

The next day we saw pretty much the whole city.  We went on a walking tour with a funny Irish guy as our guide.  It was very cold, but it was definitely worth it.  We started at the Brandenburg gate.  The first, most important site he showed us was where Michael Jackson hung the baby over the railing…had no idea that was in Germany.  After that we saw the Berlin Wall as well as stood above the underground area where Hitler shot himself- pretty cool to see places I have read about for years.  We also saw the Reichstag but couldn’t go up in the dome because of terrorist threats.  I really liked the Jewish Memorial- it is a bunch of slabs of concrete that are different heights.  Our tour guide said it was built as a place for people to be able to come and eat lunch and enjoy themselves, rather than feel sad when looking at it.  It is a very controversial memorial though.  I also really liked the Berlin Dome Cathedral- from the outside it was intentionally made to look super old.  That night after the long day tour we wanted to find a typical old German pub.  We found a recommendation online, followed that person’s directions, and ended up in the middle of nowhere.  Finally, some nice German man on a bike pointed us to a German pub.  We made friends with the bartender and enjoyed the horribly translated English descriptions of drinks.  I don’t know why two random drinks even had English descriptions but the menu read: Black Death-“not only bad boys choose for a bitcher.”  Not entirely sure what that means, but of course Brad had to try it.   

The next day was Brad’s birthday.  We moved from our cool, hip hostel to an even cooler hotel.  It had a huge fish tank running up the center.  It had a really nice lobby bar/restaurant and elevators with glass windows so you could look out at the fish tank as you went up.  After getting settled there, we went back out and explored a little.  We went to the KaDave, the huge department store that was closed before.  On the 6^th floor they had an array of people cooking every type of food you could think of.  We choose a place where people were eating fish and potatoes.  The plates came beautifully decorated with different colored sauces and all.  Everyone sat around a huge grill watching them make it.  That place was fun.  That night we checked out the Sony Center, which is a huge complex full of restaurants, cafes, Legoland, a movie theater,  etc.  We also went out for Brad’s birthday dinner- It was super late after we woke up from a nap, so we ended up somewhere with sand for a floor and lots of tropical drinks- not too bad. 

Germany, to me, fit its stereotype perfectly.  Lots of tall people, stocky ladies with fuzzy hats, and sausages over a foot long sitting in regular sized hot dog buns.  I loved Germany and would definitely go back. 

Paris

Paris was just how I imagined it would be- narrow streets, lots of people riding scooters, quaint.  This time we were staying in a hotel, because it was cheaper than any hostel.  The doorman told us to take the “lift” up to our room.  I have never been in a smaller “lift” in my life.  The two of us could barely fit, but it felt like something I would see in a movie.  It was in an old, cute little building.  The room was pretty decent.  We headed out to get lunch- crepes of course.  I tried ham and cheese- I don’t know how they can eat those things for meals.  Nutella and Banana crepes on the other hand are to die for.  The first day we walked up to Sacre-Coeur, which is a Catholic church that is located on the summit of Montmarte, the highest point in the city.  The inside of the church was gorgeous and the view outside was incredible.  After that we went to see the Arc de Triomph all lit up.  Around the arc is about a 6 lane wide roundabout, cars coming from every direction.  I really don’t understand how I still haven’t seen an accident in Europe.  After that we went to see the Eiffel Tower.  It was lit up and every once in a while it sparkled- so cool to finally see it in real life.  After sightseeing we went and enjoyed some French wine at a few different places.  Only downside of Paris is that it is much more expensive than Spain and Germany. 

I would say we spent a good amount of time lost in Paris.  Once we found our destinations they were great though.  However, the map they gave us in the Paris airport was terrible.  Landmarks were miles from where they actually were, so that explains why we walked around for 2 hours one day looking for the Catacombs.  When we got there though…it was “cool”- Brad thought it was cool.  You walk down a narrow staircase very far below ground, and then walk through underground dirt tunnels.  Finally, you come to the bones…thousands and thousands of bones of dead people.  It was pretty disturbing and I could not believe they were real.  I think after a plague they buried people here because of overcrowding.  Skulls and bones line the walls and there are A LOT of them.  I was freaked out, but it was an interesting experience.  That night we just walked around and found cool little buildings/statues that are less famous. 

The next morning we woke up “early” to get in line for the Eiffel Tower.  We couldn’t go to the very top, but still we were very high up.  Cool views in every direction.  We also went to the Notre Dame Cathedral which is amazing.  One of the highlights of the trip was when we saw one guy, thug like, yelling at another young guy dressed in a suit.  I’m pretty sure he accused him of stealing “his” phone.  They were standing in front of us on the train, and the scary guy was standing behind the other one with his arms crossed just staring at him with a crazy face for about 10 minutes…I was scared.  Then Brad and I got off at our stop, and so did the two of them.   The one guy was following the other very closely behind him, and obviously the suit guy was very aware.  They were walking super close to the tracks, but our train was still there.  The train went “ding, ding, ding” as in the doors were about to close, and the guy in the suit dove into the train, getting stuck in the doors but managed to get in, and the guy following started screaming and yelling.  It was really like something out of a movie, pretty exciting.    

But that was the trip! It was a great time and being able to see three countries all in a row was so fun- to notice all of the cultural differences, see the different architecture, and try all of the different food and drinks was awesome.  I think everyone should definitely travel around Europe sometime during their life- okay, finally got my 3^rd blog done, wooo          

First Dinner out in Santander

La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona

Tradition to put these figures pooping (many times famous people) in nativity scenes..

Tapas bar in Barcelona

Las Ramblas in Barcelona on NYE

One of the "street performers" on Las Ramblas

Generator hostel in Berlin 

Hot wine!

Cute Christmas market in Germany

Sunset in Santander

Sparkling Eiffel Tower

Paris Seine River

Bones..

Santander

Boqueria in Barcelona

250 shot bar

Runway in Americas Next Top Model

Jewish Memorial in Berlin

Berlin Dome Cathedral

Read Black Death

Fish tank in our hotel

Interesting place haha

Germany obviously..

La Sagrada Familia sandcastle