Semester in Switzerland: November 2011

My future home (hopefully!) Madrid

Plaza Mayor

This past weekend I spent in Madrid with all of the SMU girls at Franklin, and we met up with many more SMU kids in Madrid. We arrived late Friday night, ready to go out and get some drinks and tapas, and unfortunately the weather was not in our favor! We were greeted by some cold rain drizzle. But that didn't stop us- we went to a bar called El Tigre where you get massive drinks and an even greater amount of tapas for 6 euros. In Switzerland if I was to get a sangria that size, and 1 plate of tapas it probably would have costed the equivalent of 20 euros. The bar was completely packed, it was hard to move around, and there were Americans everywhere! I also happened to see one of my friends from high school in the bar without even planning it. I am constantly reminded how small the world actually is over here.

Sol

The next day we woke up and walked around the city from 11-7. The weather was cloudy, but no rain during the day. We got to see the Plaza Mayor, a palace whose name I can not remember, the Prado, and Retiro park! On one of the main Metro stops for tourists, Sol there are many people who dress up as characters to make money after they lost their jobs. This dude on the left is one of the examples of the people that appear to not have heads!

Palace

The Metro system in Madrid makes it extremely easy to get around and the day went off without a hitch. For lunch we stopped in a restaurant and got stuck at the tiniest table for 7 people and it was so short you couldn't even fit your legs underneath it. It was really tasty food. After lunch we saw the Prado, a very famous art museum in Spain. My freshman year I took an Art History class as one of my general ed classes, and at the Prado I got to see at least 7 of the pictures we studied and it was unbelievable how magnificent they were in person.

Across from the Prado

Posing like Goya

Retiro entrance

After the Prado we had to stop by Starbucks for an energy boost and then were ready to walk through Retiro Park. After my trip to New York last spring break I fell in love with Central Park.. but Central Park has nothing on Retiro!! So beautiful. It probably also helped that we were walking through it at dusk and all the colors on the trees were incredible and ahh I just love Madrid! What isn't available in the picture of the lake in Retiro is all of the paddle boats that were on it just moments before this picture was taken! I can't imagine spending a day in that park on the paddle boats, going for a run, or just sitting and watching the little kids ride bikes. It was phenomenal!

Absolutely incredible

Lake in Retiro

Glass Palace in Retiro

Churros con chocolate!

For dinner that night the woman at the hostel told us her favorite bar and tapas restaurant that we wanted to check out. She wrote down the name of the place, and the address and gave us a map. It was in a completely Spanish part of town and there were no tourists around and it took us 45 minutes to find where the restaurant should be- and to discover that it no longer is there! Very unfortunate. It was now 9 o clock we were all starving ready to eat and we had to stumble into a restaurant which only led to communication confusion between us and the staff! We ended up getting a lot of different appetizers and splitting and after that we took off for the classic dessert to have in Spain; Churros dipped in Chocolate. The place we went to was packed and it took about 15 minutes in line to get the churros and chocolate and they weren't quite what I expected, but they were still wonderful. We then went to a bar known as "Cave Bar" in English because the inside is decorated to be like the inside of a cave. It wasn't as crowded as El Tigre which was nice but unfortunately we had to get up at 545am to catch the metro to get to the airport, so I wanted at least 2 hours of sleep so we didn't get to stay there for long.

I may have only been in Spain for 48 hours, but I can not express how much I loved Madrid and the culture and the scenery and everything!!

Jenny and Megan in Lugano!

The night I returned from Turkey, Jenny and Megan (friends from high school) came into Lugano to visit me and see Switzerland! We had a wonderful weekend staying in Lugano, and it was exactly what I needed after my trip, friends and relaxation!

On Friday we slept in and when we got up we went to a chocolate factory about 20 minutes away and got to see a portion of the factory in production but at the end got to buy wonderful amounts of chocolate for very cheap prices! 2KG of chocolate for 10 francs to be exact!

That morning we also walked around Lugano and explored parts I have never seen before. I never realized how truly beautiful this town is!

We had a lovely dinner that night at Zalals, the pizza place right below my dorm and then made a plan for the next morning to get up and go see Bellinzona and the castles!

The castle has a little pond, and I have always wondered what it would be like to climb on the rocks on the other side of the little stream, so we all decided to try to leap to the other side and see what it was like! Jenny caught me in action trying to get over, but what she didn't get a picture of was Hillary actually pulling me across!!

San Sal across the lake

Our original plan for Saturday was to hike San Salvatore, but once we got up in the morning we had no desire to do it and thats when we made the quick change to Bellinzona. However on Sunday, we were determined to climb San Sal! I have been here for 3 months and never climbed it, so I figured now was better than never!

We made it!!!

Overall it was an absolutely wonderful weekend and its amazing what quality time with good friends can do to a mood. I can't wait until December when I get to see them again!

Turkey

I am so sorry I am extremely behind on my blog posts! I am going to try to do 3 in a row, but Turkey, which was 3 weeks ago will probably be very vague! Internet in Turkey was a struggle to get, and although all of our hotels had wireless, it barely worked in the rooms.

I left for Turkey on a Saturday in October for my Academic Travel class. There were 27 kids, and our professor and when we got to Turkey our tour guide. My first impression of Istanbul is it is giant. On our second day being there, we walked around town for a couple hours, got to see some cool places and went on top of a tower and could see for miles in every direction, and all of it was Istanbul! In fact, on the last day there before we left for the capital of Turkey, Ankara, we went on a cruise down the Bosphorous strait, which lasted for 2 hours and when we got off the boat we were still in Istanbul.
Non detailed list of what we did in Istanbul:
1. We got to see a lot of Mosques. Most of them were designed by architect Sinan and are extremely beautiful buildings covered in colorful tiles on the inside. I have never seen so many shades of blue in one place ever before.
2. Spice market- We saw this our second day there, it is basically a preview of the Grand Bazaar and gave us some practice at haggling!
3. Hagia Sofia- incredibly beautiful. The upstairs of the Haiga Sofia had wonderful mosaic artworks of Jesus, and Mary and many scenes, and one of the ones we got to see is known as one of the most beautiful mosaics in the world.
4. Of course we went to the Grand Bazaar, and of course I got ripped off! But not before the man told me that he felt bad for my future husband because "I am stubborn, and a pain in the ass!" Grr.. Mean Turkish man!
5. Before the Grand Bazaar we got to go to a Turkish Carpet store and see many different types of Turkish carpets, and I even got to tie a knot in a silk rug that was being made, and will be worth $15,000 when it is finished. We got to see the woman that makes the carpets and watch her make a couple knots. This particular rug was going to take about 18 months, and she works on it 3 hours a day.
6. Sheesha bars. Every night there were at least 10 people that went out to a Sheesha bar and then out to the clubs. I was actually plagued with sickness for about 3 days there due to the pouring rain and cold we were walking around in, so I only went out with the group twice, but we got to experience Turkish culture.
7. Protests in Taksim Square. I was extremely scared when I saw hundreds of people marching through the streets protesting the bombings between the Turks and Kurds that were happening while we were there, but eventually I was calmed down and realized it was cool to see that peaceful demonstration two nights in a row.
8. 2 Different castles, one with an Asian influence and the other with a European influence.
9. The underground sistern where they used to keep water for the town, and at the bottom of one of the columns when they mostly drained the sistern, they found 2 Medusa heads- one is upside down and one is sideways.

The next Friday, we took off for Ankara where we saw the mosoleum for Ataturk, one of their great leaders. Saturday we went to Konya and saw a tomb and met with a Dervish and heard him talk about their beliefs and got to see part of their ceremonies. Sunday we took off for Antalya. Along the way we stopped at one of the best preserved Roman amphitheaters as well as an old Roman town. It was really cool to see those things and think about the people that used to live there- but at that point everyone was super excited and restless to get to the all inclusive resort! Turkey was the only academic travel that had the privilege of going to an all inclusive for 3 days and having a vacation! The only reason it worked out is the owner of the hotel chain in Antalya was a prior student of the professor and gives us a great deal. I spent 3 days laying on the beach, laying by the pool, eating so much food and playing pool at night or going to the discoteca in the hotel! That Thursday we came back to Lugano, to cold weather!

Tying a knot

Overall, Turkey was a great experience and I am so glad I got to experience that country and culture. The people were wonderful and nice, as long as you stayed in the right places!

Some pictures: