London

I had been dying to go back to London since I was there with my family in 6th or 7th grade, and when I learned that a bunch of my Northwestern friends were all meeting there this past weekend, I bought my [26 euro] plane ticket immediately.  The reason why so many of my friends were making the trip to London for the weekend is because another one of my school friends, who is not abroad but is from London, has an annual Thanksgiving dinner at her house in Putney.  She invited us to celebrate with her and we couldn't pass up the opportunity.  So on Thursday evening, Alex and I made the weekly trek to Madrid Barajas airport for yet another RyanAir flight.

When we arrived in London, we went straight from the Gatwick Airport  to our friend Lauren's house in Putney, the one hosting the Thanksgiving dinner.  When we arrived, we were greeted by our friends from Tel Aviv, Paris, London, and Florence, and sat down at the table just in time for the cheese course.  It was a 'casual' dinner but was so delicious and over the top.  Plus, we got ice cream with homemade chocolate sauce for dessert.  Great first hour in London.

Later that night we tried to go to a bar called Public, where apparently Kate and Pippa Middleton go to get their VIP tables.  When we walked up to the door the bouncer asked how old we all were.  Proud to be of legal drinking age in Europe, we say "20" with a smile, only to be turned down and told that the bar is 21+.   We negotiated with no luck, and dragged our feet home, once again annoyed to be under 21.

The next day Alex and I navigated our way on the Tube to the apartment where we'd be staying for the next few days.  We were staying with Alex's friend from California who is studying in London and who lives in an adorable apartment on a quaint little side-street called Charlotte Place.  After unloading our suitcases, we hit our first London destination spot: Top Shop.  We spent a whole 3 hours in Top Shop (it's absolutely enormous) and when we left, we felt completely disoriented and exhausted. Shopping can do crazy things.

 Alki, me, Riv, and Acker

Naturally, we had to relax, so we went to high tea at the Charlotte Street Hotel.  

 We ordered 2 teas and they came with this tower of finger foods. We also got some pita and hummus (random) and a club sandwich.  Everything was amazing.

 A real Englishman.

Later that night I met up with my British cousin Charlie. The last time I saw her was about four years ago, so it was really great to catch up.  She is currently working at a law firm, lives in a flat just outside London, and spent 5 months in Africa last year which was a complete surprise to me! We went to a really good Asian place for dinner and had the best black cod and dumplings ever.  I'm so happy it worked out, and can't wait for her to come to the US again.

 Charlie and me

After dinner my friends and I went to a 'house party' with a bunch of mutual friends and a lot of kids studying abroad from Penn.  It was pretty lame; Northwestern kids know how to have more fun.

 Alex, me, Acker, and Alki on the couch during the 'party'

The next day we went to an Borough Market - an outdoor food market with more vendors than I've ever seen! For some reason, Alki and I were sucked into a wine tasting shop where we tasted a couple of English wines.  The vendor explained to us that since it doesn't get too warm in the UK, the grapes aren't able to fully ripen, so you don't taste the full flavor that you do in Italian or Californian wines.  I can definitely attest to that -- the wines we tasted were really light and some had barely any flavor.  I think at the end of the tasting the guy wanted us to buy a bottle of wine, but we weren't falling for it.  Instead we caught up with our friends and found some delicious food. 

 Alki at the wine tasting.

 Me and the vino.

 Fish and chips!!! Better than I could have ever imagined!!

 Riv and I at the market.

After eating our weight in fish and chips, English tarts, cheese samplings, and brownie bites, we walked along the river (and crossed the London Bridge) on our way to the Tate Modern.

 London Bridging 

 Riv, Acker, me, and Alki

 St. Paul's Cathedral

 Trees outside of the Tate Modern.  We decided the trees themselves were modern art.

 One of the many strange exhibits at the museum.  When you enter the museum, you are consumed by the huge, concrete structure you are standing in and can't quite figure out if the museum itself is an exhibit or if you're just being crazy.  On the far end of the entrance, there was a screen (pictured above) with alternating patterns that people just sat and watched.  Reminded me a little of the faces on the tall structure at Millennium Park.

 Really cool exhibit of sunflower seeds...

...which were actually hand-painted pieces of porcelain, individually placed to create the perfect mound of sunflower seeds.

 Stairs on the ceiling made of sheer fabric.

Illusion of walking upstairs.

 Modern art.

More modern art.

 St. Paul's Cathedral at night.

That night was the long anticipated Thanksgiving feast!! Us ten Americans were among 20+ British students, friends of my friend Lauren and her brother, James. Her mom had cleared out the living room to put an enormous round table (big enough to seat everyone!) and had cooked all the food herself.  It was your traditional Thanksgiving dinner - turkey, yams, stuffing, potato dishes, onion dishes, green beans.  And for dessert, of course, there were more than enough pecan, pumpkin, and apples pies.  Everything was delicious.  What made it really special though was that everyone stood up and said what they were thankful for.  Americans, Brits, everyone.  Each person said something different and everyone made it personal and meaningful.  As much as I may dread having to share what I'm thankful for every year, I was so glad we did this because it gave a real purpose and heartfelt touch to the night. Wouldn't be Thanksgiving without it. 

 Riv, Lizzie, me, Gabi, and Acker

 Lizzie with her plate. And the table.

 Each of us also had nametags at the table, and it was divided so we sat next to people we didn't know.  Again, normally this is scary or annoying because you want to hang out with the people you know, but I had the best time making new friends! To my right was a boy from London and to my left was his girlfriend, who is actually from Madrid.  We had a lot of fun talking about the Spanish way of life.

 First helping of Thanksgiving din.

 Elizabeth and James (Lauren's brother)

Alex, me, and Paloma, my new friend from Spain that sat next to me at dinner.

Although we didn't do a ton of sightseeing on this trip to London, I got more of a feel of what it would be like to live there, both as a real person living in a house and as a student in a small apartment.  It was also so much fun to have a European reunion with my Northwestern friends and hear what everyone has been up to in their respective countries.  

Next stop: Morocco...

Granada

This past weekend a few friends and I took a trip to Granada, a city in the south of Spain, just 4 hours from Madrid by bus.  On the way there, we found ourselves on some incredibly fancy bus called the Supra.  I got an individual window seat that fully reclined and was given free (pretty decent) headphones when I sat down.  Throughout the bus ride the flight attendant-like waitress served us bocadillos, drinks, chocolates, mints, water, hand sanitizer -- it was a full service bus.  Much more luxury than I would have imagined but I was definitely pleasantly surprised.  We arrived in Granada and checked into the White Nest Hostel which had some of the craziest decor I've ever seen.  A few of the lobby walls were bubble gum pink and others were rainbow stars and hearts, Lisa Frank style. Our room was hilarious also:

 Bright green walls, green curtains, green blankets, and gold stars! Danielle is also posing with her package of ham, casual Spanish snack.

 Camp Granada

Since we got there in the evening, we just walked around and explored a little bit before finding a good place for dinner.  We luckily found an amazing little tapas restaurant which had the most deliciousssss chocolate steak--yes, chocolate sauce on top of steak.  So good.

 Plaza Nuevo at night, the plaza close to our hostel.

 Marni, Alex, me, and Danielle 

 After dinner we took a different path home, through really narrow, winding streets.  The streets reminded me of Florence - cute cobblestone paths barely wide enough to fit a car. On one particular street we discovered, there was a long wall of hilarious graffiti/street art. Above is one example.

 Another face on a building.

 More street art.

 Granada has a ton of Muslim influence since it's so close to Morocco.  I was surprised to see how prevalent the Muslim population was even today.  All of the little flea markety stores had Moroccan merchandise, there were streets lined with hookah bars, and on every corner, of course, a King Kebab. Granada's main attraction is Alhambra, the enormous Muslim palace that overlooks the entire city.  It was home to the last Muslim rulers in Spain and the court of the Nasrid dynasty.  When Isabel and Ferdinand took over, Islam was outlawed in Spain so the palace was rarely used. It was just 'rediscovered' in the 19th century, which is when it was restored and transformed into the tourist attraction it is today.  We went to the Alhambra knowing very little about the history (and I still know very little) but I found that knowing all the history wasn't necessary.  The architecture, artistry, and detail in the palace, from an aesthetic view, was the most profound and meaningful to me.  I could appreciate it for what it was despite not knowing the historical facts.

 Entrance to the Alhambra.

Some of many hedges.

 Danielle and me in front of the Nasrid Palace.

 Beautiful view of Granada from outside the Nasrid Palace.

Courtyard in the palace.

Equipped with goldfish.

What was most impressive was the incredible detail that covered nearly every surface inside of the palace.    Because the Koran prohibits Muslims from decorating buildings with figures of humans or animals like we see in most churches, they adapted a different artistic style using geometric shapes and letters.  This style is apparent on nearly every surface.  Intricate patterns carved into the walls and geometric, colorful mosaics made the building so beautiful and awe inspiring. 

 Ceiling in one of the rooms.

 Mosaics on the lower half, detailed carvings above.

 Yet another beautiful part of the Alhambra.  This building and pond reminded me of a Sorolla painting, which might be a painting of this exact site.  At the Sorolla Museum there is a whole exhibition for his Granada paintings, many of which included reflective ponds and gardens.  It was cool to stand in the exact same place looking at the same landscape as Sorolla and know that he was inspired by this site enough to paint it.  Everything really was breathtaking.

 Me and Alex in the Generalife garden.

 View of part of the palace from the military watchtower.

 Granada.

 Me and Alex, and Granada.

 More gardens.

 Fall colors.

 On our way out we passed by some more amazing street art.  I love all of it!

 Fiddler on the Roof?

 Marni, me, Alex, and Danielle in front of a random statue. 

 There were tons of cute artisan shops in Granada like this one.  Apparently there is a big hippie population, which I am claiming just because I saw more people with dreadlocks than I've ever seen.  

View of the Alhambra from down below.  

In other news, Spain's elections were today! They were held a few months early this year apparently because they are in such dire need of a new president they couldn't wait any longer.  I don't think it has been officially announced yet, but all the polls say that Mariano Rajoy, the candidate for the Partido Popular (the conservative party) won by a landslide.  He was expected to win all along though, since Spain needs a more conservative leader to deal with their current economic situation.  Hopefully this will be good for Spain...