Spring Break: Zurich, Freiburg, Paris

Hey everyone!
So I just got back from spring break a couple of days before Easter, and it was the best spring break of my life! My friends Sarah, Elle and I went to Zurich, Switzerland for one night; Freiburg, Germany for three nights; and Paris, France for two nights. It was a whirlwind trip with lots of excitement, but very tiring as well!

Stop One: Zurich

View from a beautiful plaza of the river and downtown

Zurich at night!

Zurich was absolutely beautiful. It was a smaller city, so a lot less stressful to visit! We actually conquered Zurich pretty well in the 24 hours we had there. Sarah, Elle and I tried to do Swiss things while we walked around Zurich, but we discovered that all we really knew that was Swiss was related to food (not a surprise to people who know me!): we ate fondue (I didn't know it was Swiss until right before we left!), Swiss chocolate (not Lindt, but waaaaay better) and bratwursts (they came wrapped in a paper, with a huge crusty roll on the side, not in a bun).

Four-cheese fondue with wine, brandy, mushrooms and ham; bread to dip in it

Swiss chocolate! I may have paid 28 Swiss Franks for it ($32) but it was sooo worth it. Plus the tin is my Zurich souvenir!

It was really great to start our spring break with some relaxation instead of beginning in a place where we needed to run from sight to sight. We strolled down the river, sat in the park for awhile, and also hung out on the rooftop terrace of our hostel.

Stop Two: Freiburg

Sarah and I trying a German beer

The really cute German buildings with the Black Forest (as in Hansel and Gretel) in the background

Saturday evening, we caught a train to Freiburg, Germany where we stayed with Elle's sorority sister Erika. Freiburg was a great experience because we got to really live in Germany for those three days as opposed to being tourists. Erika was nice enough to let us stay in her apartment with us, and she took us to the city center, to the beautiful cathedral (very different from the cathedrals in Spain and Italy, but really beautiful), to the Black Forest (made famous by Hansel and Gretel, but no I didn't follow any breadcrumbs!), and of course to some nightclubs to experience some German nightlife!

Beautiful (and enormous) nativity scene in the cathedral

Elle, Sarah and I in the Black Forest

I finally got a couple words of German down ("Ein brezel" means "one pretzel," I used that a lot!), when it was time to get on our train to Paris!

Stop Three: Paris
We only had about 48 hours in Paris, but it worked out really well. I'm going back for six nights with my friend Brianna from South Lyon after my study abroad program is over, so it was great to get a taste of the city and have a general idea of Paris before Brianna and I go. Sarah, Elle and I were lucky enough to be able to stay with Elle's other sorority sister, Kate, in Paris. It was sooo helpful to have Kate to show us around and speak French to people for us, since Paris is insane and it would have been stressful without her.

First night in Paris! Dinner: baguettes and cheese in front of the Eiffel Tower

Getting some Nutella and banana crepes for breakfast

We got to see the Eiffel Tower and go all the way up- the view from the top is amazing! It was a really long line, and vendors came up to us every five seconds with all kinds of mini Eiffel towers- every color, every size, some light up, etc. It was sooo busy and crazy, and I was kind of glad that I chose not to study in a city as big as Paris. It is great to visit but I don't think I could handle an entire semester of it!!
I was glad we got to go to the Louvre Museum, because it is absolutely enormous and I will not even be able to see everything when I also go back with Brianna. My favorite part of the Mona Lisa was not the painting, it was the LOCURA (craziness) surrounding the painting! See below the entire wall that is devoted to just the Mona Lisa, which is obviously not big enough to take up an entire wall. Below that is a close-up of the painting; I had to! Then below that is my favorite shot: Mona Lisa's paparazzi. No one was actually enjoying the painting, rather they were trying to snap pictures of it and push everyone else out of the way of their camera!

Well, it just so happens that we got a long weekend off of school the weekend right after spring break, so I'm off to Lisbon, Portugal tomorrow! I hope everyone has a great weekend, and Happy Spanish Mother's Day to my mom and aunts! (It's one week earlier here, so it's this Sunday. I kind of enjoy this idea, so I don't have to share my birthday with my mom!! Just kidding!!)

--Haley--

Flamenco Video I took! (Sorry you have to turn your head sideways to watch)

Summer, summer, summertime

Sorry you haven't heard from me in awhile! My boyfriend Robert was here from Mar. 29-Apr. 3, and then the weather got so beautiful I couldn't keep myself inside long enough to write an entry!

Nerja, a beautiful beach on the Mediterranean

Here are some updates of what has been going on:

Robert's visit~~
Robert was able to come visit me from late Tuesday morning until Sunday morning, so it was awesome! I was so happy to see a familiar face and show him all around the place I've been living for two months. I made sure to take him to the tapas bars and discotecas that I like so that now I can say, "I'm going to Granada 10" and he will know what I'm talking about! :) We did the tourist things such as the Alhambra, the Cathedral (which I hadn't been to yet and it was great) and walking through the Albaicín, a historic neighborhood.

Action shot of Robert looking out on the view of Granada from inside the Alhambra

Robert was shocked (as I was two months before) to find out that, yes, you really can purchase a drink for 3 euro and get a whole plate of food with it! He plans to open a tapas bar in Michigan so we'll keep you updated with that :)

We also went to Nerja (pictured above) for a wonderful day on the Mediterranean, and Robert got to try fish that looks more like a fish and less like a fillet, which is how they like to serve it here in Andalucía:

Sea bass!

I was really glad to introduce Robert to my friends and my friends to him, and luckily everyone got along swimmingly! :)

Just workin' on my Spanish~~
Since my last post when I was realizing how much more I want to improve my Spanish, I decided to do something about it! I now do an intercambio with my friend Estéfano every week. We meet up at the same spot each week, then walk to a cafe or a plaza to talk. Sometimes we talk about current events or "hot topics" in the world, and other times we just talk about what we did over the weekend. The first half we talk in Spanish, and he corrects me when I make mistakes and then I write down new phrases that I could have used in my story. Then we switch to English, and I correct him when he makes mistakes and he writes down the English phrases that I tell him.
I also went to a group intercambio organized by API, my study abroad program, and now have a couple new Facebook friends that I'm going to meet up for coffee with and practice each other's languages. It's nice to have friends that are real Spaniards instead of only hanging out with Americans while in Spain- I feel so much more authentic!

A night view of the Alhambra on the walk to the flamenco show (below)

Flamenco~~
I got to attend a flamenco show in a cave in the Albaicín last Wednesday, and it was awesome! Flamenco is a typical Andalucían dance, where the women wear bright, often polka-dotted dresses, twirl their fingers as they move their hips, and lift up the bottom of their dress so you can see the tapping of their feet to the rhythm. A huge component of flamenco is the music, and there were a few men and women at one end pounding out a rhythm for the dancers to follow.

The older lady in the front was my favorite. She moved even better  than the rest, and felt the music more :)

Etc...
More stuff I have forgotten to tell you about!

I got my picture with the World Cup!! It came to Granada when there was a World Cup qualifying match for the next Cup between La Selección Española (Spain) and the Czech Republic. I didn't go to the game (toooo expensive!) but they put up a huge screen outside with a bunch of tents with games and one with the Cup so my friends and I watched it outside with literally THOUSANDS of people screaming at every play! It was incredible!

I returned to Nerja on Saturday with my friends Sarah, Claire, Shannon and Sam and it was delightful! It was finally warm enough to get in the water past my toes and I loved every second. Ahhhh

I will update again after spring break! Friday morning I leave for Zurich, Saturday night for Freiburg Germany, Tuesday morning for Paris, then I'll be back in Granada verrrry late Thursday night, just in time for the last three days of Semana Santa (holy week) processions. Talk to you then!

<3Haley