Ciao, Roma / Hola, Madrid

A little self-deprecating music, because I could've started enjoying Madrid much sooner (also check out their new album. It's really good)

Ciao, Roma

Rome is one of my favorite places I've ever been. Something amazing to eat or see was always around the corner, from 2000 year old Roman monuments to a Renaissance statue to a local market to an amazing family-owned sandwich shop or pasta place. It was overwhelming in a good way. I could spend a year in Rome and still probably not see and eat everything there is. Even after 5 1/2 weeks, there were still parts of the city I hadn't explored yet.

The food and coffee culture in Rome was a dream come true for me. Chain restaurants were practically nonexistent and all the restaurants emphasized fresh, quality ingredients: two hallmarks of great restaurants in my eyes. It made finding a good meal incredibly easy. I felt spoiled by all the great food around me all the time.

Rome had also become a bit like my therapist. Whenever I was feeling lonely or a bit down, all it took was a trip to downtown and a delicious lunch and/or gelato to lift my spirits. The highlight of many of my days in Rome was exploring the city, because if there's two things that will never fail to cheer me up, it's exploring somewhere cool and eating great food (also baseball, but I had to go to Bologna for that).

I was really happy where I was and if I could've, I would've stayed another month or even two in Rome. All seemed right with the world and I didn't want my time there to end. I started missing the city from the moment I stepped on the plane.

Hola, Madrid

Allow me to throw Spain
in your face for a moment

         This is the attitude I came to Spain with. It led me to look for reasons to dislike Madrid and focus on what Rome had that Madrid didn't instead of trying to appreciate the new city. To add to this, it rained nearly every day for the first week and a half, which literally put a damper on things made it hard to go out and explore the city. Also working against me was the fact that my apartment and the study center are both a solid half mile out of the way of the center of town, so I can't just go exploring if I have a two hour gap like I did in Rome.
          All of this made me not care for Madrid for a while. I've since realized that the more I try to compare Rome and Madrid, the less of a chance I'll have to enjoy my time in Spain. The cities are so different culturally and historically that it's impossible to approach them in the same way. I still like Rome more, but I've finally started to take in Madrid and I've really warmed up to it. So, here's some notes on it:

Look how clean and modern it is!

-Public Transportation is a dream: Everything is clean, on time, fast, and you can get anywhere in city and even its suburbs by bus or train. The Metro and the bus system work like clockwork and are extremely reliable and fast. Coming from LA, where it's practically nonexistent, and from Rome where it's a chaotic, overcrowded mess make me appreciate it even more. It's hands down the best I've ever seen. It's so good that I actually don't mind taking the bus, something I try to avoid if at all possible in other cities. This is the public transportation all cities should aspire to.


-I'm less likely to die crossing the street: This was the case in Italy. I think I talked about the chaotic traffic in a couple different posts about Rome, which is why it was shocking how nice the drivers in Madrid are. If a driver sees you standing in front of a crosswalk waiting for you to cross, more often than not, they'll stop and let you go and make sure you're enough out of the way before going through. this is unlike Rome where the drivers all thought they owned the road and would aggressively maneuver around anything in their way.
          This caution extends to pedestrians as well. In Rome, you had to be opportunistic and go whenever you could, regardless of what the signal said. In Madrid, most people hesitate to go until the signal is green, even if there is absolutely no traffic.

Madrid really is beautiful

-Siesta: Yeah, it's real. For those who don't know, Siesta is socially acceptable nap time in the afternoon in Spain, usually between 2:00 and 5:00. All the restaurants are open during siesta, but if you want to go shopping anywhere in the afternoon, it might be hard because many of the stores are closed until later. Siesta traffic is also a thing. I took a bus to get lunch in the 2-3 hour and traffic was so bad that the bus got gridlocked to the point where the driver let us get off in the middle of the street if we thought it might be faster to walk. I have yet to try siesta myself, though. My class schedule makes it hard since I have all afternoon classes. It's because of siesta that...

-Everything happens later in Spain: Most Spaniards don't eat dinner until 9 or 10 PM and the bars stay open way past I'm willing to stay up. This is probably the biggest culture shock I've experienced since being abroad. A late dinner for me is 7:30-8 PM, but a lot of dinner places in Spain don't even open until that time. It can make finding food tricky when you're hungry at 6:30 or 7. Lunch also happens later, as a lot of the lunch places don't open until 1 or 1:30. I'm actually ok with this because I procrastinate enough that I usually end up eating lunch around then anyway. Speaking of food...

Paella from the Mercado de San Miguel. Probably the best
meal I've had since coming to Spain

-It's harder to find good food: I keep hearing Madrid is a great food town, but I haven't seen that so far. I've had a couple really good meals and found a few good places to eat, but the food as a whole hasn't blown me away. I haven't had a "holy shit" meal yet, one that makes me say those words after taking a bite (AKA the best kind). Tripadvisor was my best friend for finding restaurants in Rome, but it hasn't been that so far in Madrid, as all the "top" places are the fine dining, which is not my thing, nor is it something I have the money for. Spanish culture also seems to place an emphasis on meal time as a sit down, social experience. I didn't like this for a while because I had gotten used to of Italy's cheap, quick, and quality culture when it came to food and sit down is boring if I'm on my own exploring, which I usually am. This was initially my biggest complaint about Madrid, but recently I've been trying to put more effort into finding good places, so hopefully I can in the time I have left.

My first meal out in Spain was
literally just a plate of chorizo

-Pork: There is so much pork and ham here, it's ridiculous. From chorizo to the famous Jamón iberico (it's pork that's been fed acorns, apparently) to every form of cooked pig you could possibly want, Madrid has it. There's even a restaurant chain called "Museo de Jamón," or "Museum of Ham," as the ultimate homage to ham. I think pig is the tastiest animal, so I can't complain at all. My friend who's been here all quarter told me the pork culture comes from the expulsion of Jews and Muslims in the 15th Century, since a good way to test whether they had truly converted was to see if they would eat pork or not. I'm not sure if that's true, but it makes a lot of sense. 

Take one walk down Gran Via and tell
me it doesn't remind you of New York

-Madrid feels a lot more like an American city: It's new for Europe (founded in 1500s) so it's certainly closer in time to cities like New York and Boston, and even Los Angeles. The buildings and parks also look new and clean and it makes the city feel modern. If I were to describe it in one sentence, I'd call it the Spanish-speaking European lovechild of New York and Washington DC, since there are parts of Madrid that feel like each city. It has both the upscale commercialism and style of New York and the political buildings and monuments of DC.

Yay for government buildings

         International brands are also much more prevalent here than in Rome. You'd see the occasional McDonald's or Burger King in Rome, but otherwise, everything would be local. Here, it's common to walk down the street and see McDonald's, Subway, Dunkin Donuts, etc, and this makes the city feel really American. I think this is also one of the reasons I didn't initially like Madrid, since I was expecting something that felt more different than America. 

-Madrid has money: The biggest difference between Rome and Madrid is money. In Rome, the really touristy areas were well-financed, but the side streets were often left deteriorating. There was trash and dirt in the streets and it seemed like the government either didn't have the money to maintain everything or decided to spend it elsewhere. Madrid is not like this. Everything looks really well-funded. As I mentioned, the metro is fantastic and about as clean as a metro can get, all the buildings look sleek and modern, all the public parks are well-watered and taken care of, and the city just has a very clean feel to it. It's clear that someone is pouring a lot of money into the city because it's absolutely spotless and gorgeous. From what I've learned in class, this is the only region in Spain that can afford it.

Crappy pano shot of Plaza Mayor

I still like Rome more, but Madrid is definitely growing on me. It's an absolutely gorgeous city and I feel like I've just begun to give it a proper chance to win me over. I'm sure I'll have more to say in a week or two.

Weekend in Naples Part 2: Buses, Art, Pizza,

Wrong South, but you get the idea

          In order to accurately write about the places I've been, I feel it's necessary to touch on the negative experiences as well as the positive ones, which brings me to Neapolitan transportation. The public transportation in Naples kinda sucks and it's really the only way to get around the region without a car or paying a ridiculous amount of money for a taxi. The trains are old, dingy and graffitied on the outside and look like they haven’t changed in 20-30 years on the inside. Both the trains and buses are dirty and a little scary. I felt like washing my hands and taking a shower after spending all day on the Metro. I admit I don’t like buses in general and I hate feeling dirty, so I might have a lower tolerance for this than some people, but I think the rest of group felt the same way. And that’s not to mention the sketchy people we were crammed in with. There was at least one instance of someone trying to pickpocket us and there were a lot of—let’s say, suspicious-looking people. I kept a tight grasp on my babies (my wallet and phone) the whole time.

The Italian teenagers we shared an uncomfortable bus ride with

On one bus ride, we were crammed in like sardines with a ton of rowdy Italian teenagers going out on a Saturday night (the drinking age is much lower here), which was, as you can imagine, unpleasant, especially considering that when the bus showed up, we had to literally run to the bus and push and shove our way through the door just to get on the bus. Thankfully, they only rode a few stops while we had to take it much farther.

            The one good story I have about public transportation is during the train ride from our hostel to Sorrento. At one of the stops, a group of musicians boards and played traditional music in the middle of the car. There was a saxophonist, a couple percussionists, a trumpeter, and an accordion player, I think. It reminded me of a mariachi band, but playing more Italian-style music. It made the train ride just that much better.

The metro station in Portici, where our hostel was

         The transportation is reflective of the different flavor Naples has compared to Rome. It reminds you that Italy has only been a unified country for 150 years and there are still clear regional differences. Naples has historically been a poorer, working class community and this shows. Once you get out of Napoli, the region reminds me more of how I imagined Eastern Europe than Italy.  There are also many older, dingy and falling down-looking buildings covered graffiti. There was also a lot of agricultural land, which I wasn’t expecting. I remember seeing a goat hanging out in someone’s backyard and saying, “Look, it’s a goat!” but no one really cared and the locals all looked at me weird.

Downtown Napoli

         On the final day, we decided to explore the city of Napoli. The different vibe the region has is also seen in the city. It was colorful and vibrant and definitely different than Rome. The shop employees seemed less likely to speak English and there are less upscale, touristy restaurants. Though it has its fair share of tourists, it's less glossy and Westernized and therefore seemed to show a more unadulterated view of Italian culture.

         I was totally fine with this though. Before I came here, when I pictured “Italy” in my head, the image I had looked a hell of a lot more like Napoli than Rome. Rome feels like a lot of other big cities I’ve been too, with certainly some differences, but Napoli, and really southern Italy in general, is where it hit me that I was unmistakably in another country. Don't get me wrong, I love Rome so far and I really liked Napoli, but they're different. I feel like I would've experienced much more culture shock had I gone to Napoli first.

        Since we were all carrying our heavy bags, we didn’t get to see the much of the city, but I really liked what I saw.

        We visited the Archeological Museum there because it was free for the day. It’s apparently one of the largest collections of Roman and Greek artifacts in the world. There is room after room of huge classical statues and art ranging from frescos to mosaics and it’s all amazing. My favorite thing there were the classical statues, for two reasons. First, holy crap, man. How do you go from a slab of marble to an insanely detailed and beautiful piece of art? Often times the sculptors didn’t go as far as the pupils in the eyes, but otherwise, everything else was so detailed, they might as well have just been marble melted over the actual people like in the cheesy 50s horror movie, House of Wax. I sometimes just stopped and stared at the statues and marveled at how intricate they all are. To create even one of them must have taken years of extremely hard work and a lot more patience and dedication than I have for art. Second, the faces are often amusingly expressive. Take these examples:

That was one of my favorite parts about the museum and general: the goofy quirks the artwork had. You can show me a picture of the Mona Lisa 100 times but I’d much rather see insane art like this: 

Like, what the hell is even going on here? There’s white and black people, that’s fairly obvious. But but one is riding a croc and another is killing a hippo and the hippo’s eating another one and then there’s just this dead body laying there. Oh, and everyone's head is disproportionally large. This painting is pure chaos. I looked and laughed at this thing for a couple minutes just trying to figure out what was going on. Needless to say, this was probably my favorite piece of art in the museum. 

Pizzaria Donna Sophia's Bella Napoli pizza

         Pizza was invented in Naples, so naturally we had to get a lot of it while we were there. Neapolitan pizza is wetter and the toppings are more liquid-y than in America. The best pizza we had was in Napoli, just before we left. I ordered a pizza with ham, fresh tomatoes, arugula, and local cheese. This thing has to be one of the best pizzas I’ve ever had. The tomatoes especially were delicious. These were  some of the ripest, sweetest, juiciest tomatoes I've ever had. I at the whole thing, probably against better judgment, and left Napoli extremely satisfied.

       Overall, the places we went and things we saw were amazing, but getting there and getting around were less than amazing. Still a good trip in my book.

Weekend in Naples, Part 1: Pom-paiian' the Cost to Coast

Yeah, I know this song isn't technically about lemons, but just roll with it, ok?

        As you may be able to tell from the title, I went to Naples for the weekend with a group of people from my program. I preferred to make two shorter posts than one really long one, so I broke it up for you. Part 2 is here.
        Naples is a region as well as a city. It's like Los Angeles in that Long Beach, Pasadena, Burbank, Encino, etc. are technically part of the LA area/metropolis, but are not the city proper. To avoid confusion, when I say "Naples," I'm referring to the region and when I say "Napoli," I'm referring to the city.

         The first thing we did after checking in at our hostel was go to Pompeii, which was about a 30 minute train ride away. Pompeii was absolutely amazing. For those who don't know the story, it was a thriving city in the Roman empire that got completely decimated by a volcanic eruption. Though the inhabitants left or died, the city ruins remain. It' s huge too. Just when you think you've seen it all, you find another huge area to explore. We spent about 4 hours walking around and we still didn’t cover everything, even with a fair amount being closed for construction. There was some original Pompeiian art in the form of wall paintings that had somehow survived all these years. It was an incredible experience to be walking in a town that’s 2000 years old and still remarkably intact. I would go again in a heartbeat. I’d consider it a must-see if you’re in Italy.

         The next day, we took the train to Sorrento, about an hour south of Napoli, and then a bus around the Italian coast to the town of Amalfi. The bus was completely packed when I got on. For the first half of the ride, I had to stand, which was not fun. Here’s how my body works: I can ride the most insane, gut-wrenching roller coaster, yes the ones that throw you upside down and all over the place and I’ll be totally fine. But get me in a car or a bus? Forget it. I get motion sick unless I stare out the window and focus on something fixed, such as the landscape or the horizon, which is hard to do when you're standing and you're 6 feet tall. Thankfully, people started to get off and I was able to get a seat for the last half of the trip. I got some pretty nice views too:

The drive along the Amalfi coast reminded me a lot of driving along California’s Big Sur. The coast was a lot more jagged and rough than from what I remember in California, which gave it a different feel. The architecture was also a lot older and much more European. The coastal communities were built right into the cliffs, as the cities existed in layers. If you wanted to visit your neighborhood supermarket, you’d go down a few stories instead of going down the street. These communities extended several hundred feet, all the way to the water at the bottom and up past where the highway was, which was usually in the upper half. I think this was the moment it finally and fully hit me that I’m in another country, and specifically that I was in Italy.
           Though the views are unbeatable, the drive there is scary. You drive on a two-lane road squeezed between the cliffs and ocean on either side. The only thing that separates you from dropping several hundred feet into the Mediterranean is a small railing and the trust in oncoming drivers to not run you off the road. There are also a lot of blind curves, and the only way to navigate them safely seemed to be to honk your horn a few times before going around them. To add to this, cliffs, parked cars, and storefronts came right up to the side of the road. There were very few places you could go if you had to pull over.

Amalfi

  Now if you think that’d be a scary drive, imagine doing this in a huge bus and you’ll understand my admiration of these bus drivers. The bus routinely missed obstacles by a couple inches or less. There was even one time where, on one of the curves, we stopped and started to back up. No one knew what was happening until we stopped and saw another bus of the same size coming the opposite direction that had to fit by. The other bus went past at a snail’s pace and it very briefly scraped our side on the way past. It’s a little scary to have another object RIGHT THERE outside the window, but this is the only time on either ride that the driver scraped anything other than a branch. How these drivers do this on an everyday basis, I don’t know. I wouldn’t do it once in my little Corolla.

Downtown Amalfi

         Amalfi itself is a lovely coastal town. Like the other coastal communities, it's built into the cliffs, but the center of town is pretty close to sea level. It has a small town center and a couple major streets that winds up the cliffs to the more residential areas. Downtown is beautiful, but also very touristy. The restaurants were more expensive, there were tons of gift shops, and a many of the signs had easily accessible English translations, but it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. I really liked it. It may seem like I bash touristy places a lot, but I can really appreciate them at times. It reminded me a lot of Avalon, the town on Catalina Island just off of the SoCal coast.

As you can see, I clearly took 
this picture  

        The Amalfi coast is famous for its lemons, which you can see growing in all the coastal towns. Every gift shop is filled with lemon-related products. The local specialty is a type of liquor called limoncello. It’s supposed to be drank after a meal to help with digestion. We got a complimentary shot at the place where we ate lunch, so I gave it a try. Let me try to convey the experience of a limoncello. Think lemon. Like, lemony lemon. Like, lemon to the highest possible degree. Lemon entering your mouth and consuming your head. Lemon overtaking your tastebuds, coming our your ears, eyes and nose lemon, occupying every empty space in your head lemon. There is no world outside the lemon. Only lemon. And did I mention lemon? This is all just with a tiny sip too. That’s all I could do just because the flavor was so strong. I didn’t even notice the alcohol because of how much goddamn lemon was in this thing. Overall, I'm glad I tried it since it was a local specialty, but I probably wouldn't drink it again.

         There was a beach there too, so I can definitively say I've put my feet in the Mediterranean. The beach was a lot smaller than what you'd see in California. Because it's surrounded by cliffs, it was only a few hundred feet long, but there was still plenty of space. The water was about the same temperature as you'd expect from SoCal beaches in the early summer: cold, but bearable after a few minutes of getting used to it. There was also no fine sand. It was made of coarse rocks. It's rough on the feet, but you get used to it.

Want to hear about buses, pizza, and classical art? Look no further than PART 2