Varner Family Christmas 2010 – or, Get Me the Hell out of Germany; or, the World’s Longest Blog Post

Friday morning bright and early (or, not so bright but definitely early), I said goodbye to a sleepy Menchi and got to Barajas. I had the darnedest time trying to check in, since Dad bought my ticket to Venice with the credit card that I didn’t have, which apparently they require you to produce in order to confirm your identity. I ended up switching the payment method to my credit card, which means paying another 230 euro, but the original ticket should be refunded. We’ll find out.

A sneak peak of what's to come...

Get ready for my next blog post...if I ever make it back to the States!

Last days in Spain

Like many of us, I'm ready to go home. Not that I'm going home tomorrow, but the feeling remains the same. I love Spain, this semester has been amazing, I am so happy I decided to study abroad here, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Menchi has been a blessing - she is so welcoming and makes me feel so comfortable, and we get along great. I can definitely tell that my Spanish has improved, especially when I've been drinking. And, I've gotten to travel around Europe and will get to do more of that with my whole family when they get here tomorrow - none of us had ever been to Europe before.

This is one reason why I love Spain. Where else would you find these figures pooping as a Christmas decoration? They have EVERYONE - the king and the royal family, Hilary Clinton, and even the Dalai Lama. What the hell?

Also this is hanging in the hallway in our apartment and I just noticed it the other day. Apparently, Menchi's father did something worthy of getting a commendation from Franco. Huh.

And here is Menchi! Por fin, we took a photo together, using the trusty timer on my camera.

Nonetheless, I am ready to be back in the good ol' US of A. Being in Europe makes me appreciate the United States in a different way. I will miss the fantastic Madrid Metro and the high speed AVE train, but nothing can compare to not dealing with general strikes and soldiers with automatic weapons in the train stations. And like I said before, it's all about NORMANDY if you are ever feeling blue about the US. I promise, it's like the ultimate existential crisis anti-depressant.

Wednesday night the whole program went out and celebrated finishing our semester together with drinks and dancing. Thursday night, Ashleigh and I went to watch the aggressive prostitutes on Gran Vía one last time. And with that, I say hasta luego to Madrid and to Spain. I'm leaving, but I'll be back.

Hello Mother, Hello Father, Here I am at Camp Granada

As much as we enjoyed Sevilla, Granada totally blew our minds. First of all, our hostel was such an improvement. You know how you know it was classy? They gave us those Ferrero Rocher golden hazelnut chocolate balls upon check-in. Also, TV, private bath, balcony, and HEAT. Two stars well deserved.

We started out with a walk around the city, since we had nothing to do and our hostel wasn't ready yet. Paola, ever enchanted by the fountains, proceeded to take photos of almost every one we passed. Our hostel was close to the Cathedral, so we saw that, and the river, and some nice views of the Sierra Nevada mountains outside town. We walked through another Belen, found a Christmas market, and got more Spanish Christmas songs stuck in our heads (Campanas de Belen, all weekend long).

View from the river of the mountains

The Cathedral, which we walked past pretty much every day

Best. Streetlight. Ever.

On Monday, we had our tour of the Alhambra. We couldn't get regular tickets (they were all sold out for the long weekend) and so we bought the 30 euro themed guided tour (Ours was the Alhambra and Carlos I) so we could see the Alhambra anyway. Our tour guide was named Martin, and he showed us the most famous parts of the Alhambra (the Patio de los Leones, the Sala del Trono, the Washington Irving plaque) and a super secret Carlos I room, and Carlos I's unfinished palace. Then we walked back into the city, passing by the Cathedral, and went to the San Jerónimo Monastery, where Carlos I's wife (he was there on his honeymoon) stayed while he was in the Alhambra. How romantic.

Ceiling in the throne room

We had tapas for lunch because TAPAS ARE FREE in Granada! Just pay for your drink! We probably had too much to drink in the 3 days we were there just to get free tapas. Not that we ate nothing but tapas those three days, because Stacy and Laura were also in Granada with their families and we had dinner with them as well. We also walked up the Sacromonte (well, most of it) to get nice views of the Alhambra at night.

Finally, on Tuesday, we saw the cathedral, which was not as cool as I was hoping, and the Capilla Real (Royal Chapel) which had the tombs of the Reyes Católicos (Fernando and Isabel) and Juana la Loca and Felipe el Hermoso (Juana the Mad and Felipe the Handsome). No photos were allowed, but here is a taste.


We also walked back up that hellish hill that the Alhambra sits upon for the third time in three days to look at the exhibition of Matisse artwork influenced by the Alhambra, then walked back down through the Realejo neighborhood. Finally, with only 8 days left in Spain, this completely sums up my semester:

Where is? my beer, my tapa, my ham.

Sevilla, in which we froze because our hostel had no heat.

Looks like Paola and I chose the correct destination for the December Puente. After basically every flight to a destination north of Madrid cancelled (Gatwick, Amsterdam, etc) to ruin the weekends of all the kids in the program (not to mention once we got there we learned that there was an air traffic controller strike over the Puente) we decided to a) travel south to Andalucía (where it is warmer!) and b) travel on the ground (by train).

So we went on our merry way - first to Sevilla for two days, then onto Granada for three. We took the early train to Sevilla, and found our way to our hostel, which was a bargain and you could tell. We first visited the Alcázar, or old castle/fortress. We took a guided tour, and basically learned that half the palace was a bad copy of the Alhambra commissioned by a Christian king and the other half was built by Carlos I on top of the older part of the palace built by the Arabs. The gardens, however, were probably the most impressive part (it also helped that the sun came out and we were not quite so freezing as before).



Next came the cathedral, in which we wandered around the whole thing listening to our audioguía since Amalia was not there to point out all the important features. We saw Columbus' tomb, which was quite the imposing structure, and we visited the famous Patio of the Oranges, and then climbed to the top of the Giralda, or bell tower, or former minaret of the mosque that used to occupy that spot. Lovely views of the city and all we had to do was walk up 34 ramps, one on each side of the Giralda, and ten stairs.

Columbus' Tomb

The Giralda

The view

We got some other lovely views the next day from the Torre de Oro right on the river. We also had chocolate at Valor, got a teensy bit lost, got yelled at for eating pipas on a bench, bought Christmas sweets, walked through a belen (Bethlehem) market (where Paola got Spanish Christmas songs stuck in her head and, by extension, so did I), and had some DELICIOSO cous-cous with honey and balsamic vinegar at this little restaurant we stumbled upon on a street called Calle Franco.

Torre de Oro

We also saw the Plaza de España, which is about ten bazillion times cooler than Madrid's Plaza de España, because this one has a lake. The building is filled with government offices, and all around are these little tributes to major Spanish cities in tile. All the good ones are there, and there are little benches and even a map for the geographically inclined. Paola has family from Alicante, in Valencia, so she took those photos. I had to settle for Madrid, since that's the only city I can claim any sort of connection to.

Finally, we went to see the Virgen de la Macarena. We took a bus since it was on the other side of town, but it came highly recommended. It was...meh. I mean, maybe if I was any sort of Catholic I would have a bit more of a reaction. It seemed like pretty much any other Virgen, richly decorated and all, but nothing too special. I do like its name, however, and if I may make a suggestion, we could liven it up with a little song and dance number from the 90s... On the way back from the Macarena we had quite the Spanish lunch - standing at a bar eating tapas, feeling super authentic.

A bit blurry, but you get the idea.

We ended up catching the early train the next morning for Granada, because we felt like we'd seen pretty much all Sevilla had to offer. Also, we were cold and our hostel did not have heat. On to Granada!

"Thanksgiving" in Segovia

So let me begin by saying that our trip to Segovia yesterday (Friday) was FREEZING. Why am I suddenly such a cold weather wuss? Spanish cold weather got nothing on Boston, but I am nine months removed from my last experience of a Boston winter, and Spain made it doubly hard to believe winter was coming by staying in the 70s until late October. I should just be thankful it wasn't raining...

We started off the day stopping for a photo op of this view of the Alcázar, or castillo, or castle:


BU knows what is important to us - kodak moments. We flocked into a wet field to take advantage of this view, which was much better than the one from the entrance to the castle, as we learned later in the day. After that, we rode the bus into the middle of town and got out to learn all about the aqueducto, the Roman aqueduct that is the best surviving example of a Roman aqueduct in the peninsula, and possibly in the world.

We then went for the tour of the synagogue-turned-church and the Jewish quarter which has become synonymous with all trips we take with the program. This synagogue looked a lot like the one in Toledo, but was actually part of a convent of cloistered nuns. Have I mentioned that I am fascinated by nuns? Mostly just because a) I've never really been surrounded by so many nuns as there are in Spain and b) I am always wondering what the difference between various types of nuns are. Like, mostly it is about their clothes. Why do some nuns have to conform to the US stereotype of nun fashion (think Sister Act) and some get to pull a more Mother Teresa look together? Some super secret nun hierarchy? In El Escorial, Amalia explained to us where nuns got their distinctive dress: she said that widows got sent to convents back in those days (easier to pawn off an old and perhaps powerful woman on the church to control?) and what we now think of as nun fashion was actually widow fashion in the 16th Century that convents adopted.

In the patio of the synagogue - ducks!

Then came the part of the day that we had all been waiting for (alternatively with anticipation and trepidation): our "Thanksgiving" meal. Typical of Segovia, we had cochinillo asado, or roast suckling pig.
I probably should not say "we" here, as that is misleading. I did not have cochinillo asado - I had salmon, a nice big chunk that did not come with a face. As part of the ceremony of serving it, the chef José María had Nicole (who's birthday was most recent) help him as a volunteer. They cut through the piggy with a plate to prove how tender it was, and then to prove the plate was not doctored in some way, they broke it on the floor. And then he proceeded to portion out all the cochinillo by cutting it into pieces with a plate. We also had a special dessert of his creation, which was ice cream with chocolate sauce "flambeado" (I love that flambear is a verb) with alcohol and a jasmine-like herb. Oh, and there were peppermint flakes in the ice cream. It was a Thanksgiving Miracle.

Next, on to our last stop of the day, the visit to the Alcázar. It was an interesting mix of medieval/mudejar architecture on the inside and had the look of that one German castle on the outside (you know the one. Neuw-something). What I was not expecting was to see my first suit of armor inside.

Then, after a brief spell in the gift shop playing with toys and reading pop-up books with Amalia, we hiked back through the city and got back on the bus for the ride home, in which everyone slept. Later that night, my literature professor threw a party which he invited us to, so we got to see his surprisingly spacious apartment and he served us what can only be described as very nice tapas and jungle juice. Happy Thanksgiving.

Not a real Thanksgiving???

OLD NEWS. I haven't spent Thanksgiving with my family for three years running. The best substitute, of course, is spending Thanksgiving with friends, who are sometimes better family - stereotypes of awkward relatives, cheek pinching, and all that (not the case in my family, however, where I kick nonstop butt at Trivial Pursuit and we all watch football and eat olives off our fingers). Or, at least we did in 2006, the last time I was home for Thanksgiving. Instead, I've a) bummed around Michelle's Thanksgiving and hung out with her family and b) made spaghetti with my cousin. I am going to miss Thanksgiving with Michelle's mom's adventurous cuisine. Last year she made grapes filled with goat cheese and little nut pieces as hors d'oeuvres. Yum. This year, we are going to Segovia on Friday, not Thursday, and eating roast suckling pig, not turkey. Not quite as yum. In other news, how glad am I that I do not have to deal with the new airport scanners/groping and the promised boycott. Not that I would have to deal with that were I in Boston, since I wouldn't be going home anyway, but I like to look on the bright side.

Looking ahead, you may remember that I will be spending next semester in Washington, DC. You may also recall that I mentioned getting an internship offer in the last posting or two. I ended up getting the other offer as well and have officially decided to intern for Senator Merkley's office next semester. Just sent in my acceptance and the first of what is sure to be lots of paperwork. I talked to a couple other people in the program today, and it turns out that I am not the only one of us that is ready to go home. I mean, Madrid and Spain as a whole have been amazing, but I think 14 weeks is going to be quite sufficient and I am looking forward to my time in the EUG, starting something new in DC, and returning to Boston to my roomies and everyone (and everything - men's basketball) I've missed.

More Versailles-y than Versailles

According to Paola, who actually has been to Versailles, the Palacio Real at Aranjuez is "more Versailles-y than Versailles." I am inclined to agree with her solely based on the impressiveness of this palace, originally built by Felipe II but finished by the Borbones (they are French. Perhaps that explains it?) and used as a spring residence every year until the First Republic in 1863-ish.

Looks pretty Versailles-ish from the front, right?

Obviously, we didn't have the best timing when visiting this palace - it's pretty much winter here and the palace was habited in spring for a reason - its extensive gardens. There are about ten million of them, filled with fountains and benches and with a river running right through them (the longest river in the Iberian Peninsula, I'm told).

Eating lunch in the gardens

Fountain. One of many.

Not sure exactly what creature this is supposed to be...

The inside of the Palace was not too shabby, either. We paid all of 3 euro to go on the super special guided tour, that took us to rooms that the guide had to unlock with a key that looked original. We even felt very accomplished because we took the tour in Spanish and understood it all (mostly) perfectly. Much cooler than the Palacio Real in Madrid, if you ask me (although that could be because we didn't do the super secret tour...). And once again, no photos allowed inside, so I googled these two so you can see my favorite rooms from the palace:

Room decorated all in porcelain, with Chinese theme and lots of monkeys

Probably my favorite room, this one was decorated to look like the Alhambra in Granada.

This photo doesn't even do it justice. The Alhambra room was so impressive and overwhelming and now I am even more stoked for our trip to Granada in two weeks.

Nothing says cold fall day to me like holiday flavored coffee

Unfortunately, my local Starbucks didn't have pumpkin spice or gingerbread or peppermint lattes. Are those flavors limited to evoking holiday feelings in the US? Anyway, they did have seasonal beverages. I chose the Cafe Latte Praline, which was pretty delicious anyway.

Yum!

In other news, going to see Harry Potter this afternoon. I figure that seeing it at 6:30pm Madrid time is like seeing it at 9:30am in Oregon, so I'm only 9.5 hours late.

Ah, seasonal beverages and Harry Potter. Two definite signs of winter. There are literally only 4 weeks from today until I leave Spain. Not all is lost, however, since I get to spend almost two more weeks in Europe/Africa/the Mediterranean with my family before returning home. Then two weeks at home, then another semester "abroad" in DC. I got offered an internship with Senator Defazio this week, and had an interview with Senator Merkley's office yesterday, which went very well despite the six hour time difference and exigencies of my cheap Spanish cellphone (aka not the greatest sound quality). What I am most looking forward to, though, is my triumphant return to Boston!

Normandy/Normandie/Normandía - Day 3

If Day 2 was a transportation fail, Day 3 was a transportation win! We caught a bus to the Memorial in Caen first thing, which is a GIGANTIC museum. Of course, we only made it through one exhibit before it was time to move on, but it was the D-Day exhibit - the most important one, right? The striking thing about the exhibit (and the thing that reminded me of the different interpretations of the landings, even between groups on the same side) is that at the end, the conclusion was something like Normandy paid the price for the liberation of France, in terms of material damage and lives lost, etc. I wasn't sure what the point of this was: to complain about being first liberated? Would you have rather the Allies liberated somewhere else first and you had stayed longer under Nazi rule, perhaps subject to reprisals for enemy victories? Are you complaining that no other region experienced as much material and human damage? Blame that on the Nazis, who threw in their last reinforcements in Normandy and couldn't put up much of a fight in the rest of France. I mean, I'll be the first to admit that Allied bombing of Normandy was not very effective strategically for the number of bombs and the material destruction, but that assessment seemed...bitter? Anyway, I digress.

Photo from the Museum - This film is URGENT

We left the Memorial in order to catch a bus to Pegasus Bridge, which was one of the objectives of airborne troops the morning of D-Day. We learned so so so much from our personal tour: that Pegasus Bridge was the first bit of French territory liberated by the Allies on D-Day, that gliders and not parachutists were used, that the bridge over the canal and not the Orne is the more famous of the two objectives, and that Prince Charles was at the Pegasus Bridge on the anniversary in 2000 with current British paratroopers. The man who showed us around also introduced us to a British Veteran who happened to be there, who was perhaps 80 years old and had tears in his eyes. It was a privilege to speak with him about his experiences.

View of the bridge over the Canal (which we later learned was a fake!)

The REAL Pegasus Bridge, which the French Government replaced and then sold to the Memorial for 1 euro

Replica of the gliders used on D-Day

Wreckage of an actual glider (probs not one that crashed on D-Day)
By virtue of the fact that the gliders were launched before dawn and that securing this bridge took all of 10 minutes

Those two markers mark where the first glider landed. The bridge indicates where the bridge they were supposed to take was. Somebody deserves a medal for that landing.

The Veterans leave (fake) poppies every time they visit for an anniversary.

Finally, it was time for me to get back on a train to Paris, then on another train to Madrid. In the meantime, since I had two hours to kill in Paris, I stepped out of the metro to snap a photo of the Eiffel Tower (hell, I'm in Paris). Unfortunately, I have about seven that all look like this:

And that, my friends, was my trip to Normandy!

Normandy/Normandie/Normandía - Day 2

Enjoying my French Breakfast

Day two was our day of failed transportation. Originally, the plan had been to try and fit in the American Cemetary/Omaha Beach, Arromanche (which has a museum and is new Juno Beach, I think), and Pegasus Bridge. Well, thanks to BusVerts only running two routes per day, we only made it to the American Cemetary and Omaha Beach, and that was with a taxi ride.

Not that only doing Omaha/the American stuff was a bad thing, because we spent about 3 hours there anyway. We started with the museum, which tells both the general story of planning and execution of various aspects of the Normandy landings, but also highlighted some specific stories of men who are buried there (aka a giant weep-fest). The most striking part, however, was the cemetery itself. Basically, its this lush, landscaped green field with white crosses perfectly in rows as far as the eye can see. The visual/spatial arrangement of the crosses, even though its just in rows and columns, is impressive because from whatever angle you look at it from, they all look to be in correspondence with each other. There is also a chapel, which has a mosaic on the ceiling that depicts Columbia, or possibly Lady Liberty sending her boys off and the Marianne (female embodiment of France) comforting them/taking care of them in death.

Comrade Stalin is taking a photo of you

My favorite thing about the Battle in Normandy - Americans baffled by les bocages - giant hedges. Unfortunately, I did not get to see any in real life while I was there.
Dunno if that wooden post is important. I'd like to think so.

The mosaic in the chapel

Seems weird to smile in front of the cemetery sign. Oh well.

So, originally we had thought there'd be enough time to catch a Bus Verts back to Bayeux and then to Caen, and then onto Arromanches. Well, we did catch the bus to Bayeux, and there was a bus from Caen to Arromanches, but no bus to get us between Bayeux and Caen in time. So, we ended up eating lunch at this adorable cafe that said "Welcome to our liberators" on the door. Tartes Trois Fromage, cup of coffee, and Tarte Normande warmed me up since it had been raining like no other.


Back in Caen, we called it a day, eating leftovers for dinner and watching A Very Potter Musical, after we spent the day talking about a) Harry Potter and b) that new kid on Glee. It was a serendipitous event.

EDIT: Another thought I came up with that I think is pertinent to share.

From my Facebook: Sam and I agreed that its nice they have a German flag up there. We debated the politics of historical remembrance of WWII at each memorial. There was German family in the American Cemetery, and we wondered how they felt about the characterization of the war. We imagine some interpretations have now softened because of the advent of the EU and French-German cooperation. I think it's perfectly appropriate to have a German flag at the memorial to recognize that ordinary Germans (not dehumanized and lumped as Nazis/embodiments of evil) died there, too.