Así, Así, Así Gana el Madrid

Location: Madrid

I was originally going to write these as separate posts, but since they are obviously related I have decided to just combine them. The short version is that I have now gone to two Real Madrid fútbol games.

The first was a long time ago...all the way back in September. I was living with the host family then, and by chance we had 4 Swiss girls come and stay with us. (Side note: Life can be so cruel!)

They were here in town only for a couple of weeks, and since they were Europeans (or just not Americans) they were really into fútbol. And since Real Madrid is so famous they were really motivated to go. Fortunately they were kind enough to let me tag along.

The tickets wound up costing 35€ each, which were for the nosebleeds in what was widely anticipated to be a terrible game. I say "terrible" because the opponent was the lowest rank team in the division. But we'll come back to that.

This is what the stadium looks like at night.
The area outside was insanely packed. The stadium itself can seat 80,000 people, and I can only imagine how much worse it would have been had they been at full capacity.
This was our view during the match. We actually didn't feel that far up to me, probably because the stadium itself is so steep.
And just to prove I wasn't making it all up about the Swiss girls, here they are. They were the equivalent of seniors in high school and were in town on a school exchange to brush up on their Spanish. They could all speak better than me, which was particularly frustrating because it was their 5th language! I swear they could all be professional translators. They had a great time teaching me naughty words in other languages.
Some of the fans seemed absolutely crazy. Take this guy who was 2 rows ahead of us; after every goal he apparently felt the need to remove his shirt and swirl it around while yelling and humping the air. It was quite the spectacle.
Occasionally when Real Madrid did something really good, the crowd would start a cheer which went "así, así, así gana el Madrid". I wasn't able to get it on film so I snagged this one from youtube so you could experience it too. I think it's the equivalent of us doing the wave...pretty cool stuff.

This was the final score. Yes you're reading it right...7 to 1. It didn't even look like Real Madrid was trying, so turns out the other team was indeed crap. And it also meant a lot of dry humping for our friend above. The girls were having a great time yelling obscenities at him in German whenever he started his thing.

So that was my first experience at a Real Madrid game.

"First", you say? Well yes, I wound up going to another game some months later. And this one literally fell into my lap.

It all started when I was sitting at my desk. One of my coworkers came over and said he had something big and asked what I was up to the following night. I said I didn't have any plans, to which he smiled and said "well then I have some good news for you".

Apparently my company has season box seats which they use for high-end clients, but since there was nothing planned for this particular game our manager had two extra tickets. Everyone else in the office was occupied (one of the few advantages I can think of having coworkers with children), so one of the tickets was for me if I wanted it.

Of course I wanted it. This was my first experience with box seats for any sport. I'm not sure how it's done elsewhere, but this was pretty cool.

First, we skipped the lines and went through a VIP entrance and shown our room. It was fairly intimate and could seat about 12. This is what our room and view looked like. There were <10 people in the box that night, and as you can see they were kind enough to lay out snack food for us.
This was our personal server for the evening, complete with a cute little skirt and high heels. My apologies for it being a bit blurry; I didn't use a flash because I was attempting to be covert. About every 10 minutes she brought a different tray of food and passed it around. This particular one was cured ham; my coworker assured me it was absolutely top notch (I believe him because the Spanish are crazy about their ham qualities).
By half time we had already made the transition from beers to rum & cokes. For the break everyone emptied into a common room where they had buffet lines with more food for all the folks in the box seats. This was also the first time we saw the servers in the other boxes; I found them to be some of the best looking in Madrid. It's probably better for everyone involved that we didn't have them in our box; nothing good could have come from that.
After a few more drinks it became obvious the game was a blow out, so I went over and chit-chatted with our server. She probably found having an American hit on her funny, but I'd like to think it was an opportunity to hone my Spanish skills.

Clearly not a bad way to spend an evening. I assure you that smile is real.
After that my coworker and I stopped by an Irish pub near the stadium and had a few pints before heading home. "La vida es dura" (life is hard) as they say here. It certainly was that night!

Nothing Rhymes with "Segovia"!

Location: Segovia, Spain

The last day trip I took before Christmas vacation was to Segovia, located roughly 60 miles Northeast and an hour´s drive outside of Madrid (or 30 minute train ride in my case). It's a small town with about 50,000 people.

It has 3 main historical sites: its aqueduct, cathedral, and alcázar.

Aqueduct
This is probably the most recognized and famous symbol of Segovia. It was built by the Romans (and contains the arches for which they are so famous) approximately 2,000 years ago.

This picturesque part is located in the old city center. In total, the aqueduct extends for 20 miles and connects to a nearby spring. And at its highest part stands 100 feet tall. All together, there are 167 arches (from what I read...I didn´t count).After climbing a lot of stairs, this is the view of the city from a ledge near the top of the aqueduct.
Cathedral
A little further into town is the cathedral. Located in the Plaza Mayor, it was constructed in the early 1500s and is considered to be Europe's last great Gothic cathedral. It was ordered to be built by the king after the town's original cathedral was destroyed a local mob, apparently in a revolt against the same king.As is typical with Spanish cathedrals, the ceilings are enormously tall and every spare piece of space (walls, columns, ceilings, etc) are intricately decorated.This is one of the main altars on the inside.

And another made of gold.

I unfortunately was not there at night to take this in person, but it is a particularly gorgeous shot of the cathedral when lit.

Alcázar
It is believed to have been built in the early 1100s as an Arab fort, but it was gradually expanded once the city was conquered by the Christians. Throughout the Middle Ages it remained one of the favorite residences of the Monarchs and a key fortress for the region.

It is located at the complete edge of town on a cliff's edge overlooking the valley below. And by having such as location, one can only enter through the small front entrance or attempt to scale the cliffs.

Although the Alcázar was originally built as a fortress but has served as a royal palace, a state prison, a Royal Artillery College and a military academy since then.

A shot of the main entrance, including its small arch bridge.And a close up of the turrets.
Of course no castle would be complete without an armory, and no armory would be complete without a full-fledged horseback knight.

I tried challenging him to a duel, but he ignored me.There were all kinds of rooms on the inside including a chapel, living quarters, waiting rooms, dining rooms, etc. My favorite was the "Hall of Monarchs" which included porcelain replicas of various kings seated around the entire room. You can see them below the ceiling.As mentioned, the building at one point housed an artillery school. They had an entire wing with early teaching materials, much of which was engineering-related. This picture for instance should look instantly recognizable for anyone who has taken intro Physics ("a cannon shoots a ball at x angle and x velocity...where does it land and what is its angle of impact"?)After that, the only part of the castle left was the tower, with a sole small spiral staircase in and out. It was actually quite tricky to have one person coming up with another going down; lets just say we had to get friendly.Fortunately the view was well worth the awkward rubbing with strangers. As a point of reference, the cathedral is the tall structure on the left-hand side.And this is the view of the valley which surrounds the Alcázar.

This was taken after exiting the building and a few minutes walk away. I liked it because it shows how steep and extensive the outer retaining walls are. Again, the cathedral is to the left.And this was taken from the same spot, looking back the other way over the valley. The Alcázar's turrets are visible on the right.
While I was enjoying the view from the top of the tower, I noticed there were walking paths in the valley below, and since there was time I figured I'd go find them.

This actually turned out to be my favorite part of the trip. It was the tail end of Fall at the time, so the leaves were still turning color and falling. This was the path on the way down from town.And the walking path which looped around the outer ring of the city.Along the way, there were views like this.

And this.As I mentioned before, the Alcázar sits on a cliff, which is really visible from the valley. A great shot of the entire castle.
I liked this area so much I wound up spending my last few hours wandering around the outer ring. And there was almost no one down there; I literally saw less than 5 people total.

This last shot was taken right around sunset while I was waiting to catch the bus.

In short, Segovia turned out to be one of my favorite experiences at the time and was a real surprise, especially the part about wandering outside the city. It was the first time I had more fun being lost than sticking to the major sites, which I feel is a good lesson to remember during my future travels.

As usual, more photos have been uploaded here.

Reflections on 2008

As 2008 comes to a close, it seems appropriate for me to reflect on the events of the last year. To call it an interesting ride would be an understatement. While the world at large has recently changed in irreversible ways, I have attempted to keep a more introspective focus here. I do not mean to suggest these experiences happened in a vacuum; such a statement would of course be ridiculous.

What follows are some of my experiences in the past year.

I have traveled to 7 countries outside the US. Seven of my last twelve months have been abroad, and I still have three more to go.

Before leaving, I was lucky enough to grow intellectually and swap ideas with some of the best academic minds in the world. In June my family flew to Boston to attend my graduation from what US News & World Report ranks as the top engineering university in the nation. My research allowed me to spend a month in sub-Saharan Africa, followed by a 123 page thesis report submitted only four months later.

In Iceland, I visited incredibly pristine environments and some of the most naturally beautiful landscapes imaginable, including volcanoes, craters, waterfalls, glaciers, mountains, geothermal pools, and geysers. In late June, I watched the sun set at 2am and come up a half hour later. A few weeks later, I went hiking (with daylight) around midnight.

I stood at the edge and looked down the largest waterfall in Europe (Dettifoss, North Iceland).

I toured both the worlds largest and second largest museums (Louvre in Paris & Prado in Madrid), and saw Da Vinci's Mona Lisa and Picasso's Guernica.

I have come far too close in the wild with the world´s largest land and sea mammal (elephants and whales, respectively).

Throughout the year, I lived with people from Bolivia, China, Hungary, India, Japan, Kenya, and Spain.

One Hungarian roommate taught me how to drive a manual transmission in Reykjavik. Many thanks to the patient Icelandic drivers who tolerated my constant stalling at intersections :)

Although I missed out on many new films, I watched The Dark Knight in Reykjavik and Quantum of Solace in Dublin.

My culinary experiences grew just as fast; I saw & ate foods I never thought possible (mostly in Ghana & Iceland) - including goat, whale, bush rat, blood pudding, rotten shark, and sheep's head.

There were lots of drinks along the way: the highlights being Oktoberfest in Munich, Guinness in Ireland's oldest pub, wine under the Eiffel Tower, apeteshie at the Fire Festival in Northern Ghana, sangria in Madrid's Plaza Mayor, brennavin in downtown Reykjavik, and port in Lisbon's Palace Square. I learned how to say "toast" in all the local languages.

In Spain, I caught glimpses of traditional culture through Flamenco dancing and bull fights, performed in much the same way as it was in past centuries.

I stood on bridges and aqueducts built by the Romans nearly 2,000 years ago.

And last but not least, I spent an afternoon in a penis museum in Husavik, Iceland.



Of course, not all of it has been fun & games.

It is always annoying to live out of one's suitcase, but I know few who have done it for months at a time. Or six.

Virtually all my time abroad has been in countries where English is not the primary language.

I have bared witness to abject poverty, starvation, diseases like Guinea worm, and people whose only source of water resembles a large mud hole located several miles away. I have lived in places without running water or reliable electricity. I have been awoken by rats chewing on my bed and animals walking on the roof. I know in certain places this is simply a way of life, and in other countries people are much, much worse off.

Having these wonderful experiences while simultaneously seeing how others live has burdened me with a substantial amount of guilt, a natural reaction of watching others toil without getting to enjoy life to the same degree. I still haven´t figured out how to justify much of my lifestyle when thinking of starving children, a concept starkly more sobering when experienced in first person and not as pictures on tv. The reality is these people are real, there are a lot of them, and they live less than a day's travel away.

By all accounts, this has been a hell of a year for me.

Despite how this can be read, I don't say it to brag. If anything, traveling has hopefully instilled some much-needed humility. When abroad, you are the idiot and everyone else knows what's going on. There are barriers to understanding, the most obvious two being language and a lack of knowledge of local customs. But overcoming these obstacles, or even just briefly peeking over them, is the joy of traveling.

While it has been a lot fun, the truth is that I often feel isolated. It's incredibly frustrating to have these wonderful stories and few people to share them with. I suppose part of my desire to write this blog has been to address that.

"What have I learned" is a difficult question to answer, not for a lack of substance but because I find it hard to coalesce my impressions. Or even if I do, finding a way to express them into words is often beyond my ability.

I have a greater appreciation for things I took for granted, whether it be a safe place to sleep, a hot shower, or even having a friend to talk to.

My time abroad leads me to believe most people often want the same basic things out of life (no matter how different the cultures), and happiness is very weakly correlated to personal wealth. People in Ghana smile the most of any country I've visited.

Seeing cultures live in such different ways has altered my way of viewing the world. I now see my beliefs and ideas of "right and wrong" as but one in a set of many.

I expect 2009 to be much more "normal" (indeed I will be surprised if any calendar year tops this one), but I do plan on living out my last three months abroad to its fullest.

Overall, I'd like to think my travels have made me a more caring, open-minded person. And I hope they continue to do so.