The food is never ending and the views only get better

Indian dinner

This past week I went on a field trip to the Prado museum – one of the most well known museums in the world with paintings by Van Weyden, Bosch, Goya, El Greco, Velázquez, and more.  The museum is huge and would take days to be able to soak it all in and see everything.  Like I’ve said previously it’s been really cool seeing all of the paintings of the artists I studied in the past.  One of the works that I love is by Diego Velázquez – an important painter in the Spanish Golden age in the early 17^th century.  The name of the work is Las Meninas which is a painting done for King Philip IV.  It not only shows the reactions of the workers in the painting, but also a self portrait of Velázquez painting the King and Queen, which you can see in the mirror in the center of the painting.  The daughter has come into the scene disturbing the area, which is why the workers are curtsying to the King while also trying to care for the daughter.

Tandoori Mix Grill

Indian beer

After the Prado, I had my first Indian dinner … in Spain I know.  I have never had curry before because it wasn’t anything particularly served in my household.  But I tried naan which is like a cracker tortilla like thing with garlic and pesto on it which was good.  We also had chicken buhna, chicken korma, tandoori mix grill, lamb vindalo, and mango lacci.  The tandoori mix grill was what my friend and I ordered because we had never had it before.  It was the color of pink, orange, and red, making you think the spices would be really strong but they weren’t as strong as expected. 

Wednesday I visited the Santiago Bernabeu stadium, or the Real Madrid stadium.  It was really cool because we were able to walk around the facility and see SO many trophies they’d won.  They are the only team to have won 10 European Cup Champions League titles.  We could see all the history of the team and how big of a title it is just to be able to play for the team which is recognized by the royalty of Spain, which is why its Real Madrid.

Universidad de Alcalá de Henares

Don Quijote and Sancho Panza

Thursday, I went on the field trip to Alcalá de Henares, where Miguel de Cervantes was born.  We saw Universidad de Alcala de Henares, which is one of the oldest universities in the world and gives out a Cervantes award to certain authors.  It is a very traditional university.  For example, when you go to take your 5-hour long final exam, which you can only take once and in Latin, it is taken in a room full of teachers watching you and you know at the end whether you passed or failed.  If you pass, you may go through the victory door and there is a party celebration waiting for you on the other side, if you fail, you must go back out the door you came in because you did not graduate.  Once exiting the campus, those who fail must go out the door that used to be used for the donkeys in the earlier centuries… so you can see how old traditions are here in comparison to simply walking through the arch   In comparison, the United States is a toddler when looking at Europe.

at UGA when you graduate.

View from our terrace

Pantheon

After the trip, it was off to Rome!  I traveled with 4 students and had an absolutely amazing time.  I know before I said that Barcelona was my city, but Rome comes very close.  I feel like there are so many cities here in Spain and Italy that I wish I could just take months, even years to travel through.  Every street you turned down in Rome, there was another building even prettier than the previous.  When walking down different roads, you would pass Roman ruins all around you.  The first night we got there we went out for dinner… just wait until I tell you about the food.  I thought I liked Italian food in the United States, but that is nothing in comparison to here.  Yes the food was pricey but in the end when you full with still half of your plate left, you were happy to be able to have some for later.  In Spain, since the portions are smaller I haven’t really felt full after a meal.  Italy definitely changed that.  For dinner the first night (Thursday), I had Spaghetti with carbonara, the first I’d ever had it.  It was PERFECTION, made with eggs, cheese, bacon, and black pepper. 

Inside the Coliseum

Friday afternoon we went to the coliseum.  

This is something I always saw pictures of the outside but never the inside.  This thing is HUGE!  Since it was so hot 3 of the people from our group left, leaving it to Stephanie and me.  We finished up with the tour, which lasted about 3 hours.  It also included the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill.  After this Stephanie and I stopped for gelato on the way back and saw a sign for the Trevi Fountain.  I must say, my favorite parts of these trips have been the spontaneous things and the unplanned parts.  The Trevi Fountain was beautiful, although it is under construction so there wasn’t any water … but that did not stop me from throwing in my coin!  That night we had pizza of course and they had fried artichokes, which if you don’t know is my absolute favorite food in the entire world and they had two versions, fried and a la romana.  Unfortunately I never got around to trying the a la romana type but the southern came out of be and I had to try the fried, which was amazing!

The next day we went to Vatican City, which I didn’t know was a separate country so that was pretty cool.  We got passes to see the Vatican museums and the Sistine chapel, both gorgeous.  Next was more pizza, this time I got one with sautéed mushrooms and artichokes, two of my favorites.  The next morning we only had a few hours before leaving for the airport so Stephanie and I went to see the Spanish Steps – 172 to be exact.  On the way back, we got lost but I wouldn’t necessarily call it lost since we ended up at the river, which we’d wanted to see anyways.  We saw the beautiful courthouse and a cathedral.

 

In all, I hate to say it since I have been studying Spanish and the culture behind the language for going on 10 years now, but Italy may have been my favorite visit so far.  There’s still so much of Spain I haven’t seen but Italian food is amazing and everywhere you look there’s another building bigger than the one you just saw.  The whole city was just breath-taking.