Hasta la vista!!!

As I am writing this I'm sitting on the plane taking me from Malaga to Birmingham :

This is my goodbye to Spain. I arrived about five months ago and a lot has happened since the moment I got my huge and heavy luggage out of the car to get them up three floor in the pension; but it feels like it was yesterday. I have met so many amazing and interesting people in my time here and I have seen wonderful places!


Recently I have done a little trip to Seville, where I visited Raf and Ned again and which enabled me to see some other places in Seville. I was actually really positively surprised by the Alcazar Palace. Having visited the Alhambra and actually seeing it every day has made me a bit smug and I didn't feel that I missed out in not discovering the Alcazar when we first visited Seville. Not only was it free, but it was truly beautiful! The gardens were astonishing and the palace itself shows a magnificent architecture. For any visit of Seville, I would definitely recommend this place.

Two days and an exam later, I went to Madrid with Biggi. We stayed with a couchsurfer, who luckily lived in Chueca, in the city centre. The wonderful location enabled us to discover the Spanish capital by foot. The perfect weather made the Retiro park such an enjoyable experience and after that we were off to the Prado. As we had booked the tickets online, we weren't aware of the fact that students from the European Union could enter for free, but the angry counter lady didn't want to refund us the money. However any expense in Madrid was justified by the fact that we were living for free...

The Rastro Flea Market wasn't as great as I had pictured it, as I was comparing it to Mauerpark in Berlin.(Yes, Berlin might also have made me a tad smug) There were mainly tourists and only a few stalls actually had good offers, like the 2€ jumper I purchased. I was also disappointed by the Plaza de Toros. The corrida building is very beautiful indeed, but not only was the (free) taurine Museum closed for works, the visit of the arena also cost 7 Euros, which was clearly too much. As we walked back, we stumbled upon a calligraphy exhibition in the Casa Arabe, which made up for the failure at the Plaza de Toros.

But let's get back to the good parts of the city, as indeed I found the stay extraordinary. We walked around in a more alternative quarter of the city, where the amount and diversity of bars and cafés were astonishing. The presence of street art reminded me of my dear Berlin and I instantly felt homey. I will always be a big-city-girl...

Cupcakes in Madrid

I am now left with melancholic thoughts about Granada - So many people and places I will miss, and of course Miguel's Spaghetti Carbonara ;)
 
It is time to start a new life.

Capital Hopping

My year 2011 started with an amazing opportunity for me: rediscovering Paris. Indeed, being from Normandy, I have over the years developed hostile feelings towards this city. This was also due to fact that Paris has always been a stopover point for me: from one train station to another, or to the airport. Thus I was far from having the postcard image of Paris, that we like to see depicted in Hollywood films.

However last Monday I was off to meet two friends from Granada, Miguel and Diego, both of Latin American origin, touring through Europe during the Christmas holidays. I was going to visit Paris with them and try my best to act as a guide. Luckily I had my cousin Carole's support in that, so that we saw a lot during our first day there. When I say 'a lot', it clearly is an understatement. Those who know Paris will understand how much walking the following route entails: Starting from the Sacré-Coeur, we walked to Saint Lazare, then on the roof terrace of the Printemps to enjoy the view (my secret tip if you are visiting Paris!), then down the Avenue de l'Opéra, to the Louvre, along the Seine towards Notre-Dame, after seeing the inside of the cathedral: Beaubourg and Les Halles, back along the Seine, passing by the Louvre again, through the Jardin des Tuileries, along the Place de la Concorde with its mysterious obelisk, stopped by the Palais de l'Elysée, where Nicolas wasn't waiting for us with a cup of coffee (huge disappointment here!), further up the Champs Elysées to the Arc de Triomphe, then we walked to the Trocadéro, took the mandatory picture from the Palais Chaillot, 

then down to the Eiffel tower, then up the Eiffel tower, where it slowly got dark and we had a magnificent view over Paris, better than during the foggy day! then back to the Champs Elysées, until we found a coffee shop. This was the moment we finally took the metro to have some traditional French food (galettes, crêpes and cidre, I wasn't trying to trick them into tasting Norman food at all!).

Now for those who didn't quite grasp the distance, I checked on the map, we walked about 18 km with 3 degrees Celsius and a biting wind outside! We were truly exhausted!

Next day: The Louvre. After queuing a few times, we got our (under 26 EU Residents) free tickets and then our 6 hour visit started. I just like to point out that a lot of the things we saw were stolen, and I don't care that it is many years ago, they were still stolen. From Greek statues, to Egyptian tombs, to Mesopotamian lions, to French paintings and Italian paintings, Dutch paintings, German paintings and so on. There even was a contemporary art exhibition ( to my greatest enjoyment). If you can ever call a museum huge it's this one and after all the times I've been there, I still discover new things. What got me thinking this time is the nipple-pinching painting. Yes, you did read correctly nipple-pinching. (see below). The “Portrait présumé de Gabrielle d'Estrées et de sa soeur la duchesse de Villars” (Portrait presumed to be of Gabrielle d'Estrées and her sister the Duchess of Villars) was painted around 1594. The odd gesture still makes me wonder. The official version is that the pinching should refer to Gabrielle's pregnancy, fair enough. I am still trying to imagine the circumstances in which the portrait was painted: can you imagine posing like that for a few hours? Anyhow, such a representation would be more than shocking nowadays: it wouldn't even make it on US live TV!)

After the Louvre, it was time for me to go. My night train was leaving from Gare d'Austerlitz and was taking me to Madrid. The two (very intense) days in Paris reconciled me with this city and I was again able to see its beauty and I finally understood the fascination it provokes among visitors from all over the world.

The next day, 10am I was stepping outside the Metro in front of Puerta del Sol, Madrid. It was raining.

I only had a few hours to do all the necessary sight seeing. I realised later, that I was lucky to be there on Spanish Christmas, called Reyes Magos, (6 of January) because there were many people around even though most of the shops were closed. Full of energy, I walked from the Puerta del Sol to the Plaza Mayor, passing by really nice streets and buildings. After a little stop at the tourism office, I was on my way to the Cathedral and when I got there, I saw a lot of people crowding around what happened to be the Royal Palace. Curious, I went to stand with the people, waiting for whatever might occur. It took me little while to realise that we were all waiting for the Spanish King. I was quite impressed, first royalty I've seen, even if it was from far away. Then, once he was inside, the guards paraded around the Palace, it was very impressive!

Then I had a little walk past the Plaza de Espana, up to the Temple of Debod and then across the Plaza de Oriente back to the Puerta del Sol...

My very short stay was intense and definitely convinced me to plan a real trip to the capital, his time for a few days!

After five hours in the coach, I arrived in Granada. Finally, the familiar streets greeted me with their crowdedness and festive atmosphere. I have less than 2 months left in Granada and I really want to make the most of it!