Holy Toledo & Saucy Seville

Jill and I have been very busy running around Spain for the past three days. We took a day trip from Madrid to Toledo on Sunday and had fun getting lost in the winding streets while there. Toledo is a World Heritage site and the former capital of the Spanish Empire. Here's a photo of one of the city gates.

On Monday morning we took the high speed train from Madrid to Seville in the heart of Andalucia! The trip took about 2 1/2 hours but we enjoyed the time to rest and get ready for Seville.

After navigating our way through the narrow twisting streets we found our apartment (yes an entire apartment) and it is fantastic. We have a kitchen and a separate bedroom/living room. Needless to say it's going to be sad to leave our great little space.

After a nice lunch consisting of 6 unknown tapas accompanied by wine made with oranges from Seville we headed to the Cathedral of Saint Mary which houses the tomb of Christopher Columbus. It's suppose to be the third largest Cathedral in the world.

Since bullfighting is well known in Spain we decided to tour a bull fighting ring. Unfortunately (or fortunately) it is not the season for the fights so we didn't witness any live events.

To begin the evening we took a walk across the river to stroll along the streets of Triana, the birthplace of flamenco. After our stroll and more tapas for dinner we ended the evening with a live flamenco show. It was a lot of fun and we'll probably end up there tonight as well. Tomorrow we head to Cordoba, so stay tuned!

Hola!

Jill and I have been in Madrid for about two days now and we have finally stopped moving long enough for me to give a quick update. First, if you've never been to Spain drop what you're doing and go immediately to the airport. You'll love it! Second, tapas are pretty much the best thing ever!  We've been seeing most of the sights and museums over the past couple of days and have really enjoyed mixing with the locals at a sangria bar as well as a sherry bar.

On Friday we visited the Jamon Museum for a quick ham tasting and as you can imagine it was delicious. They say that the best ham comes from black Iberian pigs, or those with a black hoof. It was a bit rainy on Friday so we visited the Prado Museum and were amazed by the El Greco paintings that it houses. We also enjoyed seeing the works by Goya and Velazquez. Next, we started the evening with a pitcher of Sangria followed by some tasty tapas.
 

Saturday's activities began with churros for breakfast. We stopped by our local churro restaurant and got a quick bite of this delicious goodness along with a cafe con leche. I think it's safe to say we'll be having churros again while in Spain. Following our chocolate fortification we took a self guided walking tour that included various destinations throughout the city.

 In the Puerta del Sol Jill poses with Spain's kilometer zero mark. Below she poses with the Templo de Debod. It was a gift by the Egyptians to Spain for their help in building the Aswan dam. It is one of very few examples of Egyptian architecture that can be seen outside of Egypt.

Following our visit to the temple we took a 2.5 km teleferico ride over Madrid's biggest park Casa de Campo that offered great views of the city. Don't worry, we were never more that 40 meters above the ground. Our tour of the city concluded in Plaza Mayor which hosted bullfights as well as executions in the past. Today the Plaza is a meeting place for locals and tourists alike. Our photo shows King Phillip III in front of a beautifully painted building.

Museum Thursday

In preparation for my departure to Spain tomorrow, Rob and I headed over to the Islamic Museum to brush up on our Islamic culture. I am most fascinated by the history of southern Spain, known as Al-Andalus, as it was ruled by Muslims from around ca. 711 to 1492. Pictured at the left are late 12th century ceramic wall tiles from Iran.

While Rob heads to Northern Greece with Will and Evren, I am meeting Jill in Madrid! We will spend three nights in Madrid, have a day trip to Toledo, travel to Seville for two days, take a train to Corboba for a day and a half, and return to Madrid for one final night. It'll be a whirlwind trip but we plan to pack as much culture, history, tapas, flamenco, and sangria/vino/sherry in as possible! Stay tuned for updates along the way.

Monastiraki

Rob and I walked through Monastiraki Square this evening while we were out and about. The rain had just about stopped when we passed through so we were able to get some pictures with few people in them. Pictured is the "little mosque" which gives the square it's name and of course the Acropolis towering over it.

Olive Comes to Visit

For the past two mornings our neighbor kitty (who we watch when her mom and dad are out of town) came to my window for a visit. Olive is getting quite big yet is still fairly rambunctious. She was even spayed recently in an attempt to calm her but it didn't seem to work. I think she enjoys being outdoors as I caught her coming down from a tree after visiting me in the window.

Night Out

For a much needed break from Loring Hall dinners we headed over to Kitromilo, one of our favorite restaurants in Athens. It actually serves Cypriot cuisine and it's delicious. Tonight we ordered peppers, roasted veggies, squeaky cheese (haloumi), and seftalia (pictured at left).

Jerez

In preparation for my upcoming trip to Spain I though I'd try Sherry. Jerez, as it's known in Spain, originates in the south of the country, specifically in a town called Jerez de la Frontera.  Sherry is a fortified wine much like port (from Porto, Portugal) and is made from white grapes. Sherry differs from port however in that it is fortified with brandy after fermentation of the grapes is complete, while port is fortified halfway through its fermentation. Because sherry is fortified after the completion of fermentation, all of the sugar in the wine turns into alcohol. This means that sherry starts off dry and any sweetness is added later in the wine making process. The sherry I tasted today comes from the Gonzalez Byass bodega is Jerez and is a cream style sherry. It has about 17% alcohol and is made from a blend of Palomino and Pedro Ximenez grapes. Although I won't have enough time to visit the bodegas in Jerez (it's an hour drive from Seville) I sure am looking forward to sampling sherry and wine during my visit to Spain.

Children's Hospital

Rob and I had the unfortunate experience of visiting one of our "little" friends in the Children's Hospital of Athens this week. Amitai is the son of Aaron, an associate member of the school. Little Amitai's appendix burst and he had surgery to remove it on January 12th, but he remains in the hospital as his body fights off the infections. Please think of Amitai and his parents, Aaron and Melanie as they work towards recovery. The photo shows Rob and Amitai having a chat during our Hanukkah party last month.

Ouzo

I've spent a significant amount of time living in Greece but only recently have I had my very own glass of Ouzo. Rob insisted I try it and you can see what I think in the photo below. I think I'll stick with wine. In other news, we've located a used screen for my laptop! Hopefully it will be repaired soon and my posts will be more frequent.

Halfway

Today marks the halfway point of our time in Athens, and as I look back on all that I've experienced so far I am simply amazed. Those who know me well know of my passion/obsession about travel. Of course I love to visit different countries, see the well-known sites, enjoy the scenery, eat the local food and drink the local beverage, but for me there is so much more.

As the world becomes smaller and the media bigger I think it's imperative that Americans get moving! We need to get up, get out of our comfort zones and start looking around us. Let's experience something different and learn from it instead of judging it. Living in Athens has taught me to view all media with a keen eye. While friends and family at home are watching Syntagma Square go up in flames on the TV, I am sitting in that very square having coffee with my friends. Things are rarely what they seem. I think its way too easy for us to live in middle America, get our news from the TV and Internet and judge the world away. Perhaps if we all spent a few months outside of our comfort zones we would have a little more information to make our judgements with. We wouldn't live with so much fear. Fear of the words Muslim or Mosque or Arabic. I'll put a lid on it here (for now), but feel free to comment as I'd love to hear what you all might have to say.

Our window sill has been transformed into our travel bookshelf. Don't worry, only a handful of these books are ours and the rest we have borrowed for the communal library at Loring. Maybe someday you'll be buying a guidebook authored by K. Nichols. :)

P.S. We just received word that the American School will be making a trip to Egypt in March!

Going to Egypt?

This "Grand Sphinx" originated in Egypt but now lives in the Louvre Musuem in Paris. It's not official but the word on the street is that the American School trip to Egypt that was being planned for this March might still be a go. Most folks (myself included) around the school had already dismissed the idea of going to Egypt considering the struggles going on in that region. Rob and I are expecting to hear from our professor in charge, Margie Miles, any day as to if the trip will go or not. We'll keep you posted!

Burrr!

It's getting colder and colder in Athens. Yesterday the high temp was only in the mid 40's F and although it's too warm to snow in the city the mountains that surround us are covered with snow. We took this photo yesterday and you can see the snow on Mt. Hymettus behind us. I think it's the closest the snow has come to us in the city since we've lived in Athens.

Museum Thursday

The B & M Theocharakis Foundation for the Fine Arts and Music is currently showing the Great Russian Painters (1920-2010) from the Manege Collection in Saint Petersburg, and Rob and I headed there for Museum Thursday. It was a great exhibition consisting of artwork that portrayed the history of the city from Petrograd to Leningrad and to Saint Petersburg. Below is the work Palace Square (1990) by Roman Muravyev showing the golden domes of St. Isaac's Cathedral. If the show happened to be in Athens to promote Russian Tourism, it definitely worked on us!

Livadeia

About 130 km northwest of Athens is the city of Livadeia. Rob and I spent a few hours walking around the city enjoying a lunch along the beautiful Herkyna river on Sunday afternoon. I loved viewing all of the old water mills which have had a presence along the river since medieval times.

Mt. Parnassus

The Greek countryside is so easy to love. I took this shot of Mt. Parnassus (in central Greece) on Sunday when we were exploring Byzantine churches with Glenn. Parnassus towers above the ancient site of Delphi and is home to two ski resorts.

Stolen twice!

Last Thursday Rob and I visited the National Gallery in Athens for our Museum Thursday excursion. You might remember reading about the Picasso painting I blogged about, well, it was stolen this morning along with two others from the gallery. Since Rob and I were just at the museum I decided to do a quick Internet search on the story and found this website: http://www.cyprusnewsreport.com/?q=node/5141. Compare their photo of Picasso's Female Head with the photo I took and posted on my blog of Picasso's painting just four days ago. Yep, they stole my photo! They even copied a part of my description of the painting for their article. Perhaps I should send the author a nice little note. ;)

Another Spontaneous Sunday

Rob, myself, and our friend Nick had the opportunity to join Glenn Peers today on a trip to the Boeotian city of Orchomenos. Glenn is a Whitehead Professor this year at the American School and specializes in early Medieval and Byzantine art. He happened to have a rental car for an extra day after traveling through the Peloponnese with his family so he invited to join him in search of a 9th century CE Byzantine church. It was a very interesting church with a lot of spolia (reused material from earlier buildings) as you can see from the photo below.

Because of very low lighting the wall paintings inside the church were hard to capture. Glenn seemed to think that the paintings pictured below were done later than the 9th century.

Orchomenos also has a theater which dates from the 4th century BCE and according to inscriptions and dedications it was used for musical contests held in honor of the Graces (goddesses of charm, beauty, nature, human creativity and fertility).

Domenicos Theotokopoulos...

...also known as "El Greco" was a well-known painter born in 1541 in Venetian occupied Candia (present day Herakleion) Crete. While in Crete El Greco painted post-Byzantine icons but the Italian Renasissance drew him to Venice where he studied under the Venetian painter Titian. His paintings during this period were known for lavish color and spindy figures.  In 1577 El Greco left Italy for Spain where he was hoping to help paint the Escorial Palace except the King of Spain, Phillip II, felt El Greco's work was somewhat bizarre. He eventually settled in Toledo, Spain and painted commissioned art to earn a living and while here he received the nickname "El Greco." Needless to say Rob and I have enjoyed seeking out El Greco's paintings throughout our travels (Crete, Syros, Paris). The oil on canvas below is called  St. Peter c. 1605 and it hangs in the National Gallery in Athens.

PS-There may be future blogs displaying El Greco's work as I (Katie) am planning on meeting my friend Jill in Spain at the end of this month :)

Museum Thursday

Today Rob and I visited the National Gallery for Museum Thursday. It's focus is on post-Byzantine (1453-present) Greek and Western European painting and sculpture. The painting below called Female Head was painted by Pablo Picasso in 1939. Picasso donated it to the Greek people in honor of their brave resistance during the Nazi occupation. It is a portrait of the photographer Dora Maar (Picasso's companion between 1936 and 1943) who documented the complete production of Picasso's well known work called Guernica.

Clear Liquids

A few days ago Rob and I attended a "Clear Liquids from the Balkans" party. It was a unique gathering of liquids from locations such as Turkey, Greece, Jordan, Poland, Cyprus, and Bulgaria.

Although I am generally not a fan of these types of liquids I did try a Limoncello from Kalamata, Greece that was quite nice (even though it was a bit on the yellow side). Rob had a fun afternoon of exploring anise based drinks found outside of Greece. In Greece these drinks would be called ouzo, but outside of Greece they have such names as arak and raki.

Happy 2012

New Year's day was once again a cause for celebration at the American School. We had a fantastic dinner with friends followed by Bob Bridges' "Clear Balkan Liquids Party!" Check back tomorrow for some photos of that.

Our dinner consisted of roast beef accompanied by broccoli, bulgur, potatoes, black-eyed peas, Waldorf salad, spinach salad, bread and plenty of wine to go around.

Our chef, Takis, cooks with the seasons and always prepares the most outstanding dishes!