Comidaaaaaa

If you’ve EVER eaten with me, you know this is a favorite topic of mine. I love to eat, and I eat a lot. I will personally confess to deserving to weigh at least 100lbs more than I do. I have been known to eat a breakfast burrito at 10am and turn around and eat a California burrito at 11am (which are not, by any definition of the word, small). Here in Spain I’ve have had to completely change what and how I eat. I’m not just talking about eating at their weird times (they eat lunch 2-3 and dinner 9-11). I regularly eat dinner from 10:30-11. I’m talking about my proportions and the types of food I eat. I always try to stick with just the food that’s served to me, a normal person sized portion and generally healthier than what I normally eat (minus the olive oil factor). The food here is really different, even pasta. Today I had spaghetti for dinner. We all know the pasta we eat is “Americanized,” but I love my Americanized pasta. When Mari Carmen or Antonio (my Spanish host parents) make spaghetti it’s yummy, but it’s not what I’m used to, its “Spanishized”. My sauce looks a little more orange than I’m used to. Also, I eat a lot of eggs. I frequently have a dish for dinner that is just a fried egg over rice or a fried egg on peas. Which leads me to another difference, my Spanish family eats a lot of veggies. Some of you may not believe me, but one day for dinner I had mushrooms for dinner. Yes. You read that right; I had mushrooms for dinner. I also eat the green beans inside my garbanzo bean soup thing my padres make for me. There is one thing, however, that all of us American students have agreed upon: the Spanish (especially in Andalucía) use a lot of olive oil. There is olive oil in everything, and if there isn’t any olive oil in the dish, they’ll pour some on top. When we were writing metaphors in literature class, we wrote one that basically translated to “olive oil is as plentiful as the clouds in the sky.”

Here are a couple foods I’ve tried:

Croquettes – It’s pretty much fried goodness that usually has ham inside. It’s basically a breaded cream with pieces of ham that’s fried. They kind of look like oddly shaped fried mozzarella sticks (but that is not at all what they taste like). I wasn’t a terribly big fan of them they first time I tried them, but they’ve really grown on me and I like them a lot.

Tortilla – Forget everything you know about what a tortilla is, here a tortilla is an omelet. A fairly common food here, especially as a tapa, is tortilla de patatas (basically an omelet of egg and potatoes cooked in olive oil). In Madrid Andrew and I got a Tosta (basically means it was on toasted bread) of Tortilla de Patatas con Ali-oli sauce and caramelized onions that was DELICIOUS. The best tortilla de patatas is at a place called Bar Santos right next to the mezquita. Imagine eating a bocadilla de tortilla de patatas (basically a baguette with a potato omelet in it) on the steps of the Mezquita. Andrew and I certainly felt pretty internationally cool at that moment.

Chorizo – Basically a spicy Spanish sausage. I’m not a terribly big fan, but Andrew likes it.

Tuna – I do not know what it is, but there seems to be tuna in everything. I am not just talking about the tuna from your mom’s tuna fish sandwiches, but freshly cut tuna that basically still has the skin on it. Its in bocadillos, salads, and pretty much anything else you make here. Thank goodness I told my madre I don’t like fish from the start…

Oranges – I haven’t “tried” oranges, per say, but I now eat an orange after every meal. My madre loves them and it is fairly normal to eat a piece of fruit after meal in Spain. There was about a week when it was green apples, but now we’re back to the yummy oranges.

Fresh Bread – Another thing that is served with every meal. Every day my padre goes and buys a loaf of bread (I’m talking baguette here, not sliced white/wheat bread). Some days I feel like I’ve eaten a whole baguette of bread, but it is so good. It is also normal to get a fresh loaf of bread every day and to serve bread with every meal here. I absolutely love bread and this is certainly a tradition I hope to bring back with me (along with siestas ;) ).

Ali-oli Sauce – I have tried it on many tapas and bocadillas, and I love it. It’s a cream sauce that is fairly garlicy. It’s fairly normal to see a potato with ali-oli sauce on a tapas menu.

Chai Tea – Maya and her interambio introduced me to a really cool tetería that’s snazzy and Arabian themed and I tried Chai Tea. Any I liked it, which is rare considering I don’t really like tea or coffee…
Cocido - Really yummy food made from garbanzo beans. My padre makes one that's really traditional for Andalucia, and it's really grown on me.
Paella - It is a really yummy rice dish that is usually made with seafood. I told my padres that I don't like seafood, so they make mine with carne. It is generally the food everyone hopes for when they come home for lunch.

There are so many more foods, but the main issue is I never remember their names. When I try more (or find their names) I’ll post them here later. :P

Wanna know what I miss the most?

1.     In-n-out burger, fries, and milkshakes – Definitely the first stop when I get home

2.     California/Breakfast burritos – We tried a Mexican restaurant here one night, just out of curiosity. Bad idea. It was nothing like Mexican food. The burritos looked more like tacos and the tacos looked like burritos.

3.     Grilled cheese and tomato soup – When you’re sick, all you want is comfort foods. I horribly sick for about a week and a half  (most of which was in Portugal where they neither speak English or Spanish, talk about homesick). I have wanted this since then. I could probably make a grilled cheese here, but there is no Campbell’s tomato soup at my local grocery store.

4.     Macaroni and Cheese – I have seen Andrew eating it on iChat, and for some reason it look really good. I don’t think I’ve ever actually craved that blue box of Kraft macaroni and cheese before.

5.     Girl Scout cookies – I will confess that Andrew surprised me with them last week (and I have a roll of Thin Mints hidden in my drawer), however I wanted them sooooo badly. Maya and I had many conversations about how much we missed them. I couldn’t believe I missed them by only a couple days!

6.     Pulled Pork – If you have ever had my mom’s pulled pork, this needs no explanation.

7.     Ribs – Similar story, but with my dad’s ribs.

8.     Orange chicken – Spain is seriously lacking in any kind of foreign food. I even want my fast food diversity.

9.     ENCHILADAS – The Spanish neither do Mexican food nor spice well. One of our Spanish friends, Nacho, tried a Hot Tamale and he thought they were trying to kill him. His eyes teared up. One of Keya’s host sisters thought her soup was so spicy she couldn’t eat it because it had too much pepper in it one afternoon, Keya couldn’t even taste the pepper.

10. Gypsy’s Lasagna – The Spanish use different cheese here. The pizza and the cheesy pastas simply are not the same.

11. Ramona’s Chicken and Rice Bowls – Similar story to the mac & cheese, hearing about Andrew eating them all the time makes me want them.

12. West Coast Pizza Cheesy Sticks – I mean I crave them in Berkeley for dinner when I’ve had them for lunch…

13. Emilio’s pizza – Only us Ohioans will get this. I could also kill for some Donato’s too, but that’s always normal for us…
14. Taco Bell - When I get home, I'm going to eat 10 of their tacos in one sitting. Don't judge me.

Madrid

There is absolutely no way to see Madrid in 2 days, even though Andrew and I tried. We got kicked out of three different museums, tried all kinds of food, boated in the Parque of Buen Retiro, and learned way too much about the Madrid public transit system.

We left Saturday on the 8am bus from Cordoba to Madrid. We got to Madrid around 1, but by the time we got checked-in and back into the downtown part of the city, it was 3pm. We managed to see the fountain of Neptune, Plaza de las Ciebles, the Palacio de Communicaciones, and the Puerta de Alacá before getting to the Parque de Buen Retiro. It’s Madrid’s Central Park, but less pretty with more history. There were statues and fountains everywhere. In the center was this little lake thing where you could rent little rowboats for a couple euros. It was Andrew’s idea to go out on them, and it was a fantastic idea. It was excessively cute and romantic, and I loved it.

After the park we met Sona (from my EAP program) at the Museo Prado, which bordered the park. The Prado is one of Europe’s best museums, and it has a large collection of famous Spanish artists as well as other European masters. It had the fantastic royal portraits of Velazques as well as the 2 & 3 de Mayo paintings. The darkest in the museum were Goya’s black paintings from the end of his life. This was a museum that deserved at least an entire day to truly see everything, but us poor college students can only afford to go at the end of the day from 6-closing (8pm) when its free to get in. Prado was the first museum we were kicked out of.

Afterwards the three of us headed to La Latina to get drinks as tapas. Sona ordered nachos (which came with guacamole… I miss it so much) and we also got some empanadas and an overprice jarra  (pitcher) of Sangria. We sat outside on the Terraza and had some excellent people watching. The bar that we ate at was on Calle de la Cava Baja, a popular place for people to spend the evening bar hopping and eating tapas. It was absolutely packed with people when we were there from about 9:30-10:30. A trip down the metro to a public bus and Andrew and I finally made it to sleep around midnight.

We started the next day early (11am… really early considering it took an hour of public transit to get there) at El Rastro. It is arguably one of the largest swap meets in Europe. It was nuts and literally PACKED with people. We walked for a long time down the main street, stopping at a few booths and didn’t even make it down the side streets. There were a ton of people there and a ton of stands. They were literally selling everything, from stands with the usual futbol (soccer… mostly Real Madrid of course) paraphernalia and leather works to stands with knives and others with cds and movies. You could get almost anything there, but I settled for a pretty blue 2€ scarf.

We then met Sona at Reina Sofia, Madrid’s modern art museum. This museum is famous as the home to Guernica. Pablo Picasso painted it in order to express his anger and frustration over the burning of the Basque (area in N. Spain) city of Guernica. Franco (the dictator of Spain from the 30s-70s) basically had Hitler bomb the Spanish city. It was a crime of senseless violence against his own people, and Picasso was moved by it to create one of his most famous paintings. The painting just recently arrived back in Spain and there are many people who want it moved to the Basque area of Spain, to the people for whom it was painted, but those at the Reina Sofia say it is too fragile to be moved. There were also many other paintings by Picasso and also some by Dalí. I had Andrew watch Un Chien Andaluz, a film by Buñel (a friend of Dalí and the famous poet Frederico Garcia Lorca) that I learned about in class. I don’t think Andrew was as big a fan of Reina Sofia, people either seem to like modern art or they don’t… But, as was the theme, we were eventually kicked out when it closed at 2:30. The Reina Sofia was packed with people because it was a Sunday, because on Sunday you get free entrance. Us college students know all the deals. Some people would have been annoyed with all the people, but I think you can properly enjoy a painting regardless of how many other people are looking at it with you.

We then headed over to the Palacio Real (the Royal Palace). It closes at 4 but they stop selling tickets at 3, so of course we got there about 3:05 and they wouldn’t let us in. We split with Sona and went to a place that has 100 different bocadillos (basically sandwiches) and we tried about 7 different ones, mainly combinations of tortilla de patatas, chorizo, and pollo asada, with ali-oli and various sauces and cheese. Andrew got one with tuna I didn’t go near and I got one with Brie he wasn’t interested in. We caught one look of the patatas fritas (French fries) coming out and we immediately went to go order some, they looked so good (and they tasted food too ;) )

Then we headed over to the Museo Thyssen. The museum is about 800 pieces, which were donated by the Duchess Thyssen. It was only about half of her personal collection. It was an impressive collection with 14^th century Italian paintings, Velázquez, Monet, Picasso, and Jackson Pollack, to name a few. There was literally a little bit of everything. Needless to say, we left at 7 when we were kicked out.

We then started out return, because Spain, a traditionally Catholic nation, tends to shut down a little on Sunday. We also were going to have a really early morning the next day. Andrew had an 11am flight out of Madrid-Barajas airport, which meant arriving there at 8am, and starting our public transit trip by 6:30 (before breakfast was even available at 7!!). We just grabbed a loaf of bread on our way out of downtown and made PB & J sandwiches for dinner, because he brought me some wonderful Skippy peanut butter. I do not know what it is about Spain (and I think Europe in general) but they just do not understand peanut butter. Danielle made our history teacher a peanut butter sandwich last week, and he told us he had had jelly on bread before and peanut butter on bread before, but never the two together. I personally had them every day for lunch for about 10 years, and I was more than happy to eat one for dinner than night.

I made it to the Palacio Real the next morning after dropping Andrew off at the airport and before I had to go to the bus station for my 2pm bus. It was incredibly ornate and had the most beautiful stucco ceilings. The armory was open and we could see old armor of the kings, and some of them were SHORT. I had probably 6 inches on some of them. The Palacio Real was a must see with gorgeous views, just make sure if you visit to check when the ticket booths close, lol.

I had planned this weekend with Andrew, thinking that in 2 days I could do a lot of the things I wanted to do in Madrid before I left, but I barely did even half of the things I wanted to do! This is a city that deserves not only more than 2 days, but practically a week. Plus, there’s a day trip to nearby Toledo that’s a must see. I’m anxious to go back there (it’s the city I fly out of) and I’m going to have to budget time to see things I didn’t get to see, as well as a return to Prado and Reina Sofia, because 2 hours in either museum doesn’t even come close to enough time. You would certainly need to study abroad there for a semester to even come close to seeing all the essentials. Just the essentials. What a fantastic city! And thanks to dear Sona, we got plenty of pictures there too ;)

Sevilla

Well, rain is not the most conducive to exploring a city for the first time, however I did love Sevilla. We got there Friday morning and our tour guide started us off with a walk through the historical Jewish area of town in Barrio de Santa Cruz. We saw some pretty plazas and the Bar from Cervantes’s Don Quixote. The walking tour ended at the Alcazar, the King’s old residence. We went inside and saw it’s beautiful gardens with peacocks in it as well as a cool labyrinth.

Then we headed over to the Cathedral and the Girandula. The cathedral was commissioned by Los Reyes Christianos (Isabel and Ferdinand, the ones that finally expelled the Muslims from Spain) in the early 16^th century. They basically had the mosque torn down and built the cathedral on top of it. They kept one part of the old Moorish building, the Girandula, the tower. The cathedral was slightly less cool than the one in Granada, except for a couple things. The first thing was their altarpiece of gold, because it was made with about 2 thousand kilos of gold. That is such an insane and over the top amount of gold that it was impressive. The next different and cool thing was the tomb of Christopher Columbus. There are many different locations that claim to have the real remains of Christopher Columbus, but the main contenders are in the Caribbean and Sevilla. Chris (my friend from high school studying in Sevilla) and I were talking about this and he said that of course, typical Spaniards, they had to prove they were right, because they believed it with the same strength as every Spaniard steadfastly believes they are always correct, so Spain invested millions of dollars tracking genealogical trees and doing DNA tests to prove that they had the correct remains. They concluded that, based on genetic evidence, it was either Christopher Columbus or his brother Diego, and this was enough for them. The third thing is the Girandula. It was built by the Muslims and actually has 34 steep ramps instead of stairs. It is quite a trek, but the view from the top is worth it. You get 360° views of the city. In spite of the rain, it was still an amazing view. We could see across the river, the plaza de los toros, the alcazar’s gardens, and a cool bird’s eye view of the cathedral as well. I took some pictures and hopefully I can post them soon so that you can see them.

Our next stop was lunch, and the original plan was to eat outside in a park, but due to the downpours of rain, we had to improvise. A group of us ate in a Starbucks, an American commodity that they were thrilled to see once again. Then the bus took us on a sightseeing tour through the city. We saw all the pavilions that the different American nations build for the Expo in the 20s. There were beautiful buldings by Guatemala, Uruguay, Argentina, and of course, the US. Our final stop was Plaza de España, the building Spain built for the expo. Of course it unequivocally put all of the other pavilions to shame. It was huge and gorgeous, it was used as the Planet of Naboo in Star Wars (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edhLosefD0Q&playnext=1&list=PLE17E2F496BEBB543). It’s another one of those places where the pictures don’t do it justice, you just have to go and see it.

Then we relaxed for a little before walking out and seeing a little of the city. The really cool thing about Spain is you can just aimlessly walk about the streets and there are amazing things to see. There are 16^th century churches around the corner and you might just run into the elaborately designed city hall. There are beautiful plazas everywhere and good for a nice rest with a gelato or ice cream cone.

Friday for dinner Cassia, one of the girls in the program, had the brilliant idea to make pasta in the hostel’s kitchen. We had yummy bow-tie pasta with marinara sauce. It wasn’t so much that the pasta was the best pasta I’ve ever tasted, but it was pasta that I was used to. The Spanish make pasta, but they make it differently. The spaghetti sauce my padre makes is a lot different than I’m used to and he often uses different noodles. I like the pasta he makes, but it’s not the “americanized” pasta I’m used to, its “Spanish-ized” pasta. I ate our delicious bowtie pasta until I was completely stuffed. I had not been that full in ages, and my stomach was upset that I had eaten that much.

The next morning we started our touristing again, and I had a small “check-list” of places suggested by my guidebook, but none of them were too terribly interesting. Saturday evening was the best though. Chris, Melissa (a girl in the program) and I went to get tapas for dinner. We looked at the tapas menu written in chalk outside the café and the only thing we recognized was croquettas de jamon (fried goodness with pieces of ham in them). When the waiter brought us the menu we saw that they had English translations for all of them, and suddenly we were in heaven. Everything on the list sounded so tasty, it was really hard to decide what we wanted. We decided to order four of the “tapas” sized (as opposed to the bigger “plato” sized) of the ones that sounded the best. Of course the first was croquettas de jamon. The second was to be patatas con aioli, potatos with an aioli sauce on it. Then we decided it was time to order a vegatable one, so we picked eggplant with bacon and covered in cheese. Por su puesto (of course), the only way we ate a vegetable was to cover it with bacon and fill it with cheese. The last one that we chose was chupa chups de carne. It was a type of small steak kabob that had bacon, cheese, and potatoes and was drizzled in a sweet sauce. When Melissa took a bit of her portion of the chupa chups de carne, her face lit up and she just said “Oh my gosh.” It was delicious. All of it was delicious. I bet you can guess which three were my favorite though. This was so good we had to order more, so we got another menu and chose three more. We ordered a mushroom meatball one, spinach with fried tomato and garbanzo beans, and a chicken/bacon/cheese one. The first round was my favorite, but oh my was it so good. I was completely full once again. It was a good weekend for my tummy, it was very happy. It had gotten a very large amount of delicious pasta Friday night, it was reunited with its long-time love, American fast food (yes, yes, I confess, I ate McDonalds for lunch that day), and it was filled to the brim with tapas on Saturday night. On the way back from flamenco Chris, Melissa, and I stopped to get chocolate con churros to top the night off.

Now on to the flamenco I just mentioned. Saturday night after tapas we met up with most of our group in a place called La Carbonería to watch flamenco (it is a style of song as well as dance). It was beautiful. The woman danced as if the weight of the world was on her shoulders and the man’s voice overflowed with emotion. Sevilla is known for its flamenco and I am certainly glad I got to experience it.

The next morning we went to Plaza de los Toros, the bullfighting ring of Sevilla. It was really cool to see the inside of the ring and hear the tour guide tell stories of how it was built and the origin of bullfighting. She also took us to a museum where we could see old outfits the bullfighters wore as well as the heads of bulls that “gave good shows.” The final stops were the chapel where the superstitious bullfighters would pray before entering the ring and the Puerta Principal, the main door through which the bullfighters entered the arena. It was interesting to hear about bullfighting from a Sevillan who favored it. A lot of the time conversation centers on how horrible it is that the bull dies and the unnecessary danger the horses face. Hearing it told in a positive light was a slightly different experience, and I enjoyed it.

A few toursity pit stops and a tasty pizza (although, again, not exactly as American as I was used too, the crust was much more like a tortilla than crust) later, and I was on my way to the bus station to return to Córdoba. Of course, with the luck Jake, Melissa, and I had with the Plaza de las Armas bus station on our trip to and from Lisboa, the bus we were supposed to take us home broke down and we had to stand around for an hour uncertain as to what was happening before a new bus came to take us home. Eventually I made it safely home to Córdoba, exhausted but feliz (happy). 

Carnaval

The best way I have found to describe Carnaval in Cadiz is it is Mardi Gras in New Orleans meets Halloween with a splash of Spanish flair. It is basically the biggest outdoor party in Spain and everyone is there. If you know anyone who is studying abroad in Spain this semester, they were in Cadiz. My friends studying in Madrid and Sevilla made the trip to Cadiz for Carnaval. 18 of my group and I took a bus that left from Plaza de los Toros (where the bullfighting stadium is) in Córdoba at 7 and arrived in Cadiz at 10pm. The same bus was to pick us up in Cadiz at 6:30am and take us back to Córdoba.

When we got there, the party was in full swing. When I say it is an outdoor party, I mean it is an outdoor party. Everyone is in the streets, not in bars or discotecas, but crowding the streets of Cadiz. Everyone is dressed up in costumes too. The Spanish don’t do costumes for Carnaval like we Americans do costumes for Halloween. They go all out. Military men don’t just wear jackets, they wear camoflage jackets and pants, as well as the military boots and hats and they paint their entire faces. There were people dressed up in full chicken and cow costumes. There were people dressed up as pirates who had big cardboard cd’s hanging from the front of them, and it took me a while to get that they were pirated cds. There were people dressed up as 110km/hr signs, because a law went into effect this Monday lowering the speed limit from 120 to 110. There was also an absurd amount of men dressed as nuns, and just men dressed as women in general. There were legos, tetris pieces, sims, and the pink ladies. I also saw a group of bishops who had signs that said “busco niños” on their backs (“I look for children”). There was one man dressed as the pope who hung out on his balcony waving to people, as if he was in the Vatican or something. Every single costume you can imagine, these people were wearing it, and more.

It was basically one large botellon*in the streets of Cadiz. There were people drinking and having a good time everywhere. There was no place to go, because the party was everywhere. Half the fun was the people watching. The negative of this whole party in the streets philosophy was that the streets were dirty. There was trash everywhere. Also, since no one was indoors, there were no bathrooms, and there was a lot of ahem peeing along the walls of the streets.

It was a crazy, crazy night. One of my friends described it as “the biggest party he has ever had the honor of attending.” It was definitely an experience that I’m glad I had. You can’t come to Spain in the spring and not go to Cadiz for Carnaval, but I have no intention of ever returning. It was too nuts and dirty for me to have a second Carnaval experience, but I’m glad I went. It was probably the best people watching I will ever experience in my entire life. You cannot imagine the insaneness of thousands of Spaniards and international people roaming and partying in the streets of a Spanish city in full costume.

*Botellon: It is essentially where the jovenes (young people) drink in small groups in the streets/in parks/on the steps of famous historical monuments on the weekends before they go out. It mainly stems from two things: 1. Many young Spanish people live with their families until their 30s (this is fairly common) 2. Spanish is in an economic crisis (20% unemployment) and buying alcohol in bars is expensive, especially if you don’t have a job. So, they go and buy a little bit of alcohol from mercardos (markets) and hangout outside and drink. It’s basically “pre-gaming” but outdoors. Disclaimer: I’m not giving you my opinion on the whole idea; I’m just describing it. It happens and Cadiz Carnaval was basically a very, very large one of these that covered the entire city.

Lisboa

Lisbon, Portugal is a beautiful city. It has an awful, miserable, depressing bus station, but it is a gorgeous city. It is right on the Atlantic Ocean and this Californian was so happy to see the ocean again. It’s a pretty similar city to those I’ve seen in Spain, with its cobblestone streets and open plazas, but there was something about this city that made it even prettier. It may have been the ocean in the background, the gorgeous 70+° weather, or it may have been that the buildings reminded me of San Francisco. It doesn’t help that their famous bridge, the April 25 Bridge, looks exactly like the Golden Gate Bridge. The same company that built the Bay Bridge built it, and they were inspired by the Golden Gate. It’s uncanny how similar the two bridges are, except on the other side of the Portuguese one is a large statue of Jesus, just like the famous one in Rio de Janiero. Needless to say, there’s a lot of room for déjà vu in Lisbon.

We stayed in a really cool hostel, called the Poet’s Hostel. It considers itself to be a boutique hostel, and I must say, I’m going to try to stay in those from here on out. Their “hang-out/internet room” was by far the best nap room I have ever seen in my entire life. Considering that I arrived in Portugal with a fever and well before my room was suppose to be ready, this room was a Godsend. It had fluffy couches, beanbag chairs, computers with free Internet, and large windows with views of the ocean and the city that let in a wonderful breeze. I spent most of Friday relaxing in here with my travel companions, Sona and Melissa. Overnight buses are apparently very conducive to making people sick.

By Saturday morning we all felt a lot better, but only enough to take sightseeing buses around the city, so that we would not have to walk too far. This was the perfect idea for us because there were two lines. We took the blue line on Saturday and saw the new part of the city and the red line on Sunday to see the old part of the city. The red line took us to Belem, a beautiful part of Lisboa. This is where the imitation Golden Gate Bridge is, the Tower of Belem, the Padrao Descobrimentos, and the Mosteiro (Monestary) Jerórnimos. We had a lot of fun in the Tower of Belem. It was built into the center of the river as a kind of military checkpoint into the city/country. The river has slowly changed shape over time, and now it’s practically on the sand (even though it started out in the center of the river). It had old canons and the prison cell in the bottom for political prisoners. The best part was the fantastic views of the city from the top level. It truly is a beautiful city.

I wish I hadn’t been sick while I was there, so that I could have seen everything. Now I just have an excuse to return to this wonderful city. Especially because I never went through customs, so I didn’t get a stamp on my passport; and isn’t that the whole point of international travel? ;)