Helena's Super Secret Ninja Missions

During Thanksgiving weekend, I met up with my cousin, S, again--this time in Paris! The previous weekend, when K visited, she taught me a bit of French so I felt fairly prepared for France. Or at least more prepared than I felt when I went to Germany and the Netherlands. She taught me several key phrases, as shown below:

Parlez vous anglais? - Do you speak English?
Oú sont les toilettes? - Where are the restrooms?
Je suis de New York. - I am from New York.

Of course, food vocabulary is clearly more important. Obviously I should have asked her more about that, but I suppose I was able to manage well enough.

One of the first things I did upon arrival on Friday (aside from spending two hours getting to the city center and then getting completely lost) was get a three cheese crêpe, which was followed up by a crêpe aux sucré (i.e. one with sugar). They were delicious, course! G and I got them from this lovely place nearby Notre Dame, which S and I saw on Sunday morning during mass.

We actually picked the perfect time to go--there was no line to get in, and the service really contributed to the environment. Later on that day, we saw a huuuge line of people waiting to get into the church and we were very grateful that we'd already gone.

For dinner on Friday, I had a cream of broccoli soup with smoked salmon, followed by some sort of white fish (that's how the waitress translated it, at least) from the formule, which is their fixed menu. I really enjoyed it.

On Saturday, for breakfast, I had two croissants and a meringue (my first one!).

S and I went out for (more!) crêpes! She had a smoked salmon one, which I really enjoyed.

This was my crêpe confiture/(orange) jam crepe. Hooray for new food vocabulary!

Speaking of orange things, S was abnormally excited to try a new flavor of Orangina, which I don't understand. Why are there different flavors? Shouldn't it just be...orange-flavored? Anyway, we bought a giant bottle of some random flavor and drank about 10%. On Sunday night, we realized that we barely drank any of and that neither of us could bring it back with us, so I gave it away.

We also went on a walking tour of Paris, in which we spent more time snapping photos than we did paying attention to the guide, who I'm sure was very interesting. To be fair, I did pay attention to some parts. For example, I did not know that Hitler tried to have Paris burned to the ground, but I know now. I really feel like I got a lot accomplished on that tour; we saw so many sites. After three and a half hours, we walked down the Champs-Elysées Christmas market...

At the market, we shared a chocolate waffle and a sugary pretzel-shaped donut. I believe we were too ravenous to get pictures of the latter. This only reminds me that I still have yet to get such a waffle in Barcelona. I've had a square or two of someone else's but that hardly counts.

We walked down Champ Elysees, which was gorgeous, especially with all the lights, but we didn't do any shopping during the whole trip (aside from souvenir shopping, that is--I bought about a billion postcards).

Our service at dinner was sub-par, but the goat cheese salad, codfish dish, and crème brûlée were excellent! I don't know if I already mentioned this in one of my blog posts, but I actuallly went to a cooking class recently, in which I seized the opportunity to use a butane torch to finish off the crema catalana. It was so much fun! I may have missed my calling.

On Sunday, I woke up super early to shower and eat a lovely breakfast of croissants, rolls, and tea before planning the day. We started off with a trip to the catacombs, which I could have done without.

The bones of six million Parisians freaked me out, even with the (sometimes) whimsical designs. If I could have exited immediately, I would have.

We stopped for a coffee break at a McDonalds nearby the catacombs.

I was astonished to see that one can order on a computer. There was also a self-service coffee maker. It reminded me a bit of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, when Charlie's father is out of a job because he'd been replaced by a machine.

So most people who know me also know that I absolutely love books. In fact, I just finished Harry Potter y la Piedra Filosofal a few days ago--it was great! I mean, obviously I've already read it in English, but doing it in Spanish was a completely different experience. Anyway, in Paris, there's this great bookstore, Shakespeare and Company.

If I lived in Paris, I would literally go all the time.

After an extensive photo shoot in Shakespeare and Company, we had a leisurely two-hour lunch at La Fourmi Ailée, a restaurant that used to be a bookstore.

The cashier at Shakespeare and Company recommended it to us. It had a lovely environment and we had such a sincere, friendly waiter.

S and I shared another goat cheese salad! I am such a fan of those.

This was followed by a salmon (and spinach) quiche. When I saw the size of the dishes, I understood why the waiter was shocked when I wanted to order both the salad and the quiche. I definitely could have done without the salad, given that I seem to eat those types of salads all the time.
After the sunset, we climbed the 700-something steps to the second level of the Eiffel Tower! It was well worth the effort. We had an amazing view and took tons of pictures, none of which will be shown here.

I do think that the manically flashing lights are a bit much. The Eiffel Tower looks great in this picture because you can't see that the lights are flashing.

In my opinion, it looks significantly more majestic and sophisticated without the flashing lights.

I was actually quite devastated when I thought that I wouldn't have the chance to buy macarons (who knows when I'll be in Paris again? Although I would definitely love to return with S in five years!), but at around 9, I found a restaurant that had them and I bought a box of eight. Hopefully they're delicious!

My flight back to Barcelona was at 7:40 AM, so I woke up super early to get all my stuff ready and hop on the train to the airport. It was slightly ridiculous; the flight landed about an hour after it was supposed to. I suppose it worked out okay though; I was able to sleep for an extra hour, bringing it to a grand total of eight, albeit not continuous.

Here's to more adventures with my cousin! I'm sorry that the Spanish air traffic controllers are striking, but I can't wait to see her in New York!

This past weekend, I went to Berlin with my cousin, S, who wanted to go because she met someone who told her how amazing it was. We were totally fine without knowledge of the German language, by the way. When I arrived, I spent about two hours on a mission to find Deutsche Bank. In my defense, I had basically just arrived, so I didn't know the area at all and I was distracted by monuments and random novelties, such as this vendor.

He was just selling some sort of sausage...S got a picture of one of them with an umbrella attached. So prepared.

When S arrived, we went on a tour with Asoka (from Boston/Columbia University!) who showed us all these sites and told us so much about them, in a way that was really quite interesting. Among other things, we saw Museum Island, the Berlin Wall (of course), the Brandenburger Tor, and Potsdamer Platz. We also saw the Memorial to the Murdered Jews, which was much larger than we anticipated. From the outskirts of the memorial, you wouldn't think that the walls would be so tall on the inside...

One of the best parts was the Fassbender & Rausch Chocolatiers am Gendarmenmarkt. It was rather remniscient of the Chocolate Museum in Barcelona, with the elaborate chocolate sculptures. Needless to say, I bought a bunch of chocolate.

This is a chocolate version of the Brandenburger Tor.

K sent me several recommendations for what to do/eat in Germany, since he was actually there for a while. Thus, I had currywurst, pretzels, Fanta...I really wanted to get spaghettieis--it seems so cool! It's an ice cream dish that looks like spaghetti. Completely up my alley. Anyway S and I shared a great pretzel outside of the Reichstay, which was pretty amazing in and of itself. It was well worth the wait. Here's one of many pictures I took of the Reichstag.

This is a picture of the top...it was awesome, especially because of the weather!

On Saturday we were pleasantly surprised by the great weather--the sun was shining and it was relatively warm. I don't think it was warm enough to go to the beach, like B (and presumably C) did in Barcelona, but I'll take what I can get!

Sometimes getting lost is really one of the best things that can happen to you. S and I were on the 200 bus, which is a bus that basically goes by all of the sites in Berlin. Unfortunately, we were both tired and neglected to pay much attention to where we were actually going. We didn't realize that it was going away from the city center for quite a while...When we finally did figure it out, we got off at a random stop in a residential area, and spotted this bowling alley! It was tons of fun, and apparently the cheapest game she's ever paid for. While we were there, we had delicious bread and peare wiener (?).

None of the people there seemed to speak much English, such as the waitress. We got along okay by pointing and such though.

Basically glorified hot dogs. Of course, it was a bowling alley. Not exactly Michelin quality.

On Monday morning, we woke up super early to (theoretically) shower and then catch our flights. However if you've ever set your alarm for 3:45 AM, you know how hard it is to actually get out of bed that early. So we didn't end up showering, but we made it the airport early enough and we were able to get breakfast from the bakery across the street. Yes, it's open 24 hours. I actually went every night I was there... Anyway I really love airberlin, but I hate easyjet. They wouldn't let me check in when I arrived, so I had to wait for about an hour.

I took this opportunity to organize my luggage and have a coffee and a croissant.

On top of that, the seats on the plane were the most uncomfortable airplane seats I've ever had the misfortune to sit in. Finally, unlike airberlin and KLM, they do not feed you. Not for free, at least. I mean I wasn't actually hungry at the time, but it would have been nice to have something for lunch, considering the fact that I didn't have time for lunch until 4 PM. At least now I know why it's cheaper than other airlines, I suppose.

Overall, the experience was great! Although I could never imagine myself living in Berlin, I had an excellent time with my cousin and I'm very excited to see her again in Paris! This time, I'll make more of an effort to learn some useful phrases.

Here's to seeing my cousin more often in Europe than I do at home! I actually find that rather hilarious.

On the weekend of the 6th of November, I flew to the lovely Amsterdam for Museum Night, or Museumnacht, as the Dutch call it. During this event, 45 museums throughout the city have special events from 7 PM-2 AM. Tickets included entrance to any of the 45, public transportation from 6 PM-6 AM, entrance to any of the museums on the list during the day as well as discounted entry to afterparties. Unfortunately, due to exhaustion, E and I were unable to make it to that last bit. I thoroughly enjoyed it--we ended up going to the Anne Frank House, the Van Gogh Museum, and Rijksmuseum.

This is a picture of the giant Chupa Chups display they had outside the Rijksmuseum. I was really excited to get free lollipops.

Aside from museums, we also strolled through several outdoor markets, including Waterlooplein, Albert Cuypmarkt, Bloemenmarkt (the flower market), and Dappermarkt. They're all worth checking out. Speaking of shopping, I did quite a bit down Kalverstraat on my first night, in addition to some shopping in De Negen Straatjes, or the nine streets, on Sunday afternoon. I actually got a new trench coat, which should hopefully come in handy in London next semester! All in all, my first day in Amsterdam was entertaining, albeit exhausting due to the fact that I got little to no sleep in the days preceding the trip due to midterms. It mostly paid off--I did quite well on the paper that was due that Saturday!

We went on a very informative (and fun) walking tour in which we discovered why all the buildings lean and all the staircases are so tiny.

We also saw the coffeeshop in which they pulled the lost in translation thing on Matt Damon in Ocean's Twelve. Our tour guide was excellent!

I was unsurprised to see these urinals in the street--I'd read about them earlier. However, I still needed to get a picture.

If you go to Amsterdam, you have to get stroopwafels! They're everywhere but I recommend the ones at the Albert Cuyp Market. I actually stocked up on stroopwafels at one of the Albert Heijn supermarkets (they’re everywhere!). I’m really excited to have another one later on. I'm sure the packaged ones won't be as delicious as the one I had at the market (as seen below), but I'm sure I'll still be grateful that I have them.

This man made them right in front of us and it was one of the best things I've ever eaten.

This lovely city is also known for its delicious pancakes! We spent a significant amount of time searching for the famous Pancake Bakery, and I must say that it was completely worth it.

I got little poffertjes and I loved them.

Another typical Dutch dish is the Vlaamse frites, or Flemish fries, with mayonnaise. I'd heard somewhere that the best fries in Amsterdam are at Vleminckx Sausmeesters Vlaamse Friteshaus, so I had it on my itinerary for Thursday, and randomly stumbled upon it while turning into a side street during my first Dutch shopping adventure. That moment in which I realized that I'd accidentally found the place was quite exciting.

The fries were delicious, despite the fact that I normally despise the mere sight of mayonnaise.

We also had some random falafel and amazing food from this Turkish restaurant, which came highly recommended by P. It was great to see the area surrounding the Turkish restaurant; it wasn't near the center so I'm sure that most tourists miss out completely. Also, while wandering around in the rain one night, we stumbled upon this great restaurant where we had dinner...it was called Witteveen.

I took this picture at night after taking the wrong tram about ten stops in the wrong direction. In case you can't tell, it's the Iamsterdam sign.

Overall, my experience in Amsterdam was excellent while it lasted. I don't know if I'll ever return, but I must say that if I knew how to ride a bicycle or… speak Dutch, I would probably actually try to move there.

The canals were absolutely gorgeous, especially at night.

I could have sworn I got a picture of a windmill. but I can't seem to find it...we definitely saw it though--V, who was studying there last semester, recommended it to us.

I don’t know if I’ll ever get around to writing a post about my trips to Madrid or Montserrat or anything, but I promise to at least try!

Anyway, here's to sampling delicious food in random cities! Amsterdam wasn't on my list of places to travel to in Europe, but I'm so glad I did.

I had a lovely time the weekend of Halloween, when I wasn't busy thinking about all the work I had to do for the following week (midterm week!). A take-home midterm for the 6th, a midterm exam on the 3rd, a 300 page book to read for the 17th, and a paper for the 17th.

Despite the fact that it's nearing winter, I somehow managed to justify the purchase of a new dress and a large scarf that I plan to use as a sarong next summer. I know--I'm really good at planning ahead. I also bought a last-minute Halloween costume--an adorable purple witch's hat, which was a big hit. Apparently zombie costumes are popular among the Catalans though. I probably saw at least a dozen of them.

Here's a picture of the hat I wore. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the whole outfit, not that it was anything extraordinary. It was, however, pretty sparkly.

On Sunday night, E invited me to her apartment, and I helped them make panellets! Panellets are these traditional Catalan sweets, as pictured below. I had a really great time.

First you dip a ball of (sweet) potato in egg whites and then you roll that in almonds or pine nuts. Or you could mix the ball with shredded coconut.

After that, I rushed back over to my homestay--my host mom held a dinner party in which we had tortilla de patatas, roasted chestnuts, panellets (my favorites are the almond ones), sweet potatos, pan con tomate, ham, and pork.

She invited seven people to the dinner. Therefore, after introductions, I couldn't remember anyone's name. They were really nice though!

These are the panellets my host mom made (basically almond paste or potato and chocolate or almonds or pine nuts).

I'd never had roasted chestnuts before! They were pretty good.

I actually had a ridiculous amount of panellets that week...On Tuesday, our program director gave us some, so I got to try some other types such as coffee!

Here's to celebrating La Castanyada on Halloween!

So I may or may not have lost (some) interest in my blog, for a number of reasons. For one, my laptop is still having problems--I took it to the repair shop over two weeks ago and from what I could understand, they fixed the original problem by clearing everything out, but I still can´t have it back because they seem to have created a new problem. For whatever reason, they changed my laptop´s language to Spanish, and appear to be having difficulties with changing the language back to English. At least this is what they told me over the phone a few days ago. Incompetent much? Anyway, the point of that whole story is to tell you that I usually write my blog posts at home, when I´m bored and/or procrastinating, but since I haven´t had my laptop at home, it hasn´t been happening.

I´m so dependent on my computer. I suppose I already knew that but I didn´t realize the extent of my dependence until recently. In the past two weeks, I´ve basically been living at the library...Well I suppose that´s an exaggeration--when I´m at home, I can (sometimes) use my host mom´s computer. And I finally got a Barcelona library card!

Anyway I guess I should probably try to catch up on updates on my trips to Madrid and Montserrat, as well as my new Swedish roommate (who does not speak Spanish) and my internship (challenging but not particularly stressful).Oh, and my acceptance into a London study abroad program, of course. I believe that´s all...

By the way, let me know if you want my posts to be automatically sent to you via email; I recently found this great function that lets me do that...

Here´s to technology!

This past weekend was a blur of activities in Madrid and Toledo. We took a train from Barcelona to Madrid, and it was great because I got to sleep! However briefly...

This was taken inside the train station in Madrid. I think it's the most beautiful train station I've ever seen.

When we arrived to Madrid, I met up with K in the hotel lobby. It was so exciting; I hadn't seen her in months!

I had my first churros con chocolate with her!

Then our program took us to several different bars for delicious tapas, such as pimientos de padrón, which I highly recommend. Every once in a while though, you get a spicy one. It's a fun surprise. We also got some delicious ice cream, while W befriended these random Serbian men.

I took a picture of the place so we'd be able to find it again. More on that later...

At around 1:30, we went off to McDonald's (my first one in Europe). Very classy, I know. I was really excited to see that their Happy Meals came in those adorable cardboard boxes, like back in the day. I did not get one, despite the fact that they came with Hello Kitty toys. Another interesting fact: McDonald's here sell cerveza (beer) for about a euro. I found it quite bizarre.

On Friday, after a busy day at the Prado Museum and Reina Sofia (both of which were walking distance from our hotel), we went off to dinner and a flamenco show! Then I introduced K to the clothing chain stores in Spain, and I purchased a new dress, which has awesome hand shaped pockets. I was actually quite impressed with the pockets. We wandered the streets of Madrid on Friday night, which was fun; it was great to be able to catch up with her.

On Saturday, we took the train over the Toledo, which probably would have been significantly more impressive had it not been pouring for most of our time there. My shoes were not waterproof, and thus very uncomfortable. Fun fact: we had a tour guide who would comment on things from the 18th century and then point to a Starbucks and say that it was from the 21st century. Anyway I would absolutely love to return to Toledo and enjoy it in the sunshine.

When we got back, A and I spent at least an hour, searching for the crepe/gelato place in the pouring rain. We knew it was basically just off Plaza Mayor, but we weren't sure what direction it was in, or what street it was on...We kept asking random shopkeepers about it, but nobody had heard of it. We also tried to call someone on the program's staff, but that failed as well. After a while, I was about ready to give up and go to Farggi, this chain that I still have not been to, but A was sure that we were close, so we continued on, and found it very shortly after. It was abnormally exciting and completely worth the effort.

This was a Nutella and hazelnut one. It was a lovely dinner.

The day after, we woke up fairly early to check out of the hotel and wander the streets again. We checked out one of the Dunkin Coffee branches (they had several varieties of Boston-related donuts) and I purchased (another) new dress.

Here's to successful crepe missions!

La Merce is this huge festival that Barcelona has annually. The official day of the festival is the 24th of September, but the activities really start much earlier, and there are tons of events to attend. In times like this, I really wish there were more than one of me. Warning: this is a really long post. Also, here's a shout-out to C and B, who apparently read and discuss my blog despite the fact that they are also here. 

On Thursday, after two exams, I went off to a flamenco concert in Avinguda de la Catedral, which was excellent. The next morning, I woke up early to see the castellers, the giants, and the Barcelona beasts in Placa de Sant Jaume. Anyway I took an obscene amount of pictures. Here´s one of the giants:

Fun fact: some parents allow their children urinate in the placa. They then proceeded to splash water on the urine; I was actually a few feet away when this occurred on Friday. On the bright side, nearby Placa de Sant Jaume, there is a lovely gelato place that seems to share my love for Nutella.

The jars were gigantic! However I was vastly disappointed when they told me that they do not actually put Nutella in any of the gelato (it goes on waffles, which I suppose is still good).

After attempting to take a siesta, I went off again to Parc de la Ciutadella, which was absolutely gorgeous! It's generally lovely as is, but on Friday, there were flower lampposts and the ambiance was somehow different. The sunset was beautiful--it would have been great as a desktop background (to be used on my laptop in a few months, when I feel homesick for Barcelona).

I actually seem to spend an abnormal amount of time photographing lampposts.

Anyway, there was a great dance performance by the AcroRollers, who rapped, danced, and showed off on their rollerblades.We also saw this amazing aerial acrobatics show by the Voala Project from Argentina. There was a crane that lifted their trapeze in the air (if you click on the link, there's pictures!). However, we didn't stick around for the entire show because we wanted to get delicious (chocolate and hazelnut/banana) crepes before going off to Barceloneta Beach for the Fireworks Festival competition (it was France's turn). Afterwards, we returned to the park to see a laser show in which I felt as if I were standing in a vortex.

The crepes were much more expensive than they would have been outside the park, but they were completely worth it!

On Saturday, we took a day trip to Sitges, which is this gorgeous little beach town only 30 minutes away from Barcelona. We had delicious gelato--I chose to have Rocher (as in Ferraro) and another flavor that was something along the lines of carapina. Unfortunately I don't remember what the flavor was called-it was in Catalan. Obviously I need to at least study food vocabulary. Pictures are below!

Here´s a lovely picture of Sitges!

This was taken at the bar of the Romantic Hotel.

They took us to Casa Bacardi (yes, that Bacardi), where our tour guide was sixth generation Bacardi.

They taught us how to make the perfect mojito. Clearly that's a must-have skill.

The beach was great; the sand was so fine and the waves were lovely.

After a bit, A and I rushed back to Barcelona to make it in time for Correfoc, or Fire Run, which was surprisingly intense. We were slightly unprepared, or at least less so than the other spectators we saw; the amount of gear that the others were wearing was rather off-putting, so we left early to get to the OK Go concert, which I enjoyed immensely. Belle and Sebastian performed afterward (I'd never heard of them before but now I´m definitely a fan). Then we hopped on the Metro to get to Placa Espanya for Festa Maxima. I was surprised to see people who looked about 13 years old, partying at midnight. Another thing that raised an eyebrow was the fact that people were dancing on the bus stop awning. It was actually wobbling the whole time, and I half expected someone to fall.

On Sunday, I managed to wake up relatively early to check out the sardana competition by Jaume I.

The sardana is a dance typical of Catalunya.

Then I walked over to Parc de la Ciutadella (I was actually trying to get to Urquinaona, but since I don't enjoy using maps, I walked in the wrong direction), where I took the pictures shown in the beginning of this post. While I was there, I saw this crazy contraption shown below.

There were three men playing instruments (one played saxophone and clarinet, the others played drums and bass) and two others that controlled the movement of this...machine.

Later on, I saw Tenane perform. This group is comprised of the women who danced with the Acrorollers on Friday. In the words of E, it was intense.

A while later, we took the Metro and a bus to Montjuic, which was incredible.

Here's a picture of a man lifting his coworker in the air. They were hilarious!

I had a delicious croissant while watching another performance involving fire... However, one of my favorite events was a crazy performance involving a swinging trapeze.

This is a picture of one of the performers, just rolling around on his giant metal hoop. It looked like a lot of fun, but I´m sure if I tried that, I´d just fall flat on my face. Literally.

After that event, we headed back over to Placa Espana for Piromusical, a very popular fireworks show that is put to (American) music. Although it was ridiculously crowded (even more so than any of the other events), I enjoyed it--especially since having people around me kept me warm (I neglected to bring a sweater or anything of the sort).

Here's to la Merce! Now I love Barcelona even more than I did before.

So recently, I had to do a project in which I had to take five pictures of things that are strange to me, or things that aren't the same in the U.S. I decided that it was interesting enough to share =P

The titles of (most of ) the books are facing the wrong way. When I'm in a bookstore or a library, this frustrates me to no end. My professor thought this was an odd thing to notice...

The Metro is so clean! It's astonishing!

The smoking laws are really different here...

People are more environmentally friendly.

There's places to lean against in the train! For those of us who usually lean against the door...

I should probably get back to studying for the two exams I have tomorrow...Or maybe one of them is a quiz...Anyway here's to procrastination!