Frosty NYC Day Trip

My friend Jess and I had been planning a trip to New York City since November. She hates winter, and she thought it would be fun to have something to look forward to, so we picked a random day in January that worked for both of us. Little did we know that Tuesday January 19th would be the coldest day of the year (17 degrees Fahrenheit but felt like -4 with the windchill!!!).... but since we had nonrefundable bus tickets we decided to just say "Eff it, let's go anyway!". I wore a pair of tights under my jeans, a thermal long sleeved shirt under my wool sweater, two scarves, tall boots, and we were on our way!

... I thought I had a lot more photos for this post, but upon looking back, I didn't take many photos at all. (Pretty much all of these are from the MoMA.) Our biggest focus was staying warm, so there was no way I was taking off my gloves and pulling my phone out at every street corner. We stopped into a tiny bagel place for breakfast as soon as we got off the bus, then started our walk up to the MoMA, stopping at the NY public library and a random crystal place along the way. We shared a flourless chocolate cake in the MoMA cafeteria before wandering around the galleries. (They had a Van Gogh sculpture special exhibit, and a Jackson Pollock special exhibit!) After looking at art for a few hours, we walked through Central Park to go indulge in all sorts of delicious things at Bar Boulud. We sat there for way longer than we probably should have (and spent way more money than we probably should have... OMG, French food!) and then slowly walked back to the bus station and caught an earlier bus home than planned. There were a ton more things we had planned for our trip, but ultimately the cold got the best of us.

I can't even begin to describe how immensely huge this was, and what it felt like to stand in front of it.



Pollock's doodles may be even better than his paintings, in my opinion.



This was so much smaller than I expected it to be!



Simply amazing to see in real life.



I wanted to take home this giant fossil we saw at the crystal place.



Random, but does anyone else think this looks like Lloyd?! Same markings!



Go home, Marine; you're drunk.
Even though we were freezing our buns off, we ended up having a great time in the city together. We've already started talking about taking another trip in the spring time, when we can enjoy some of the outdoor things the city has to offer. Although I grew up frequently going to New York City because my father worked there and it was only a 1.5 hour train ride from home, this was my first time visiting the city as an adult. I hadn't been back to NYC in about 6 years! It was a lot of fun going there with a girlfriend who knows her way around the city and who loves indulging in the same things I do. But next time, I'm looking forward to being a little less bundled up!

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Snapshots of Segovia

On my last full day in Spain, my parents gave me the option of visiting the nearby historic city of Toledo, or Segovia. I chose Segovia for no real reason other than the fact that they both seemed ever so slightly more enthusiastic about it. What a beautiful city! It's less than an hour drive from where my parents live, but it felt like we were in a whole different country. I've never much appreciated the historical towns in America because the history only goes back so far... but to stand underneath a Roman aqueduct and to climb the tower of a castle that was built over 900 years ago is an entirely different experience.

The queen's castle in Disney's Snow White was apparently inspired by the Alcazar of Segovia! That explains why the castle felt so fairy-tale-esque to me. Looking at it from afar it just didn't seem real... it looked like something straight out of a storybook. The climb up the tower was incredibly narrow and I wouldn't recommend it if you're claustrophobic, but the view at the top is rewarding.

Another thing that captured my attention was the architecture all over the city. Check out the details of the walls/doors/windows! There were so many interesting attributes everywhere; I couldn't properly capture them all. After taking a tour of the castle and the cathedral, we spent the rest of the afternoon walking around, ducking into alley ways and taking it all in. We ate lunch outdoors at a restaurant with questionable service but delicious food. (That seemed to be a trend in Spain - the service was sometimes disappointing, but the never the meals!)

Segovia was definitely one of the highlights of my trip! I can't wait to go back and see even more of the country. A visit to Toledo is now in order, for comparison's sake. Hm, perhaps I should start planning a trip for next year....

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Snapshots of Madrid

The flight from Philadelphia to Madrid was one of the more pleasant flights I've taken. It's an overnight flight that is a little over 7 hours long; I had two seats to myself and (with the help of some dramamine) fell asleep twenty minutes after take-off, and woke up an hour before landing around 8am in Madrid. My parents were waiting for me after my mile-long walk through the terminal (the Madrid airport is HUGE), and because I had slept a solid 6 hours on the plane, I was fairly alert and started my trip off on a pleasant note.

My parents live in a suburb about 20 minutes outside of downtown Madrid. I wasn't sure what I expected Spain to look like, but I certainly didn't expect it to be as dry and desert like as it is... the vegetation more resembles that of what you would find in the southwestern US. That's not to say that it's lacking in vegetation, as you can clearly see from the photos. The forests were interesting - all the growth is up high, so you can see straight through the forests at eye-level, they're not congested like the forests I'm used to here. We took my parents' two dogs on walks around the neighborhood pretty much every day, so I got a good glimpse of the surrounding area.

As far as downtown Madrid goes, we only spent 1 of my 10 days in Spain there. Between Barcelona, Segovia (next series of photos!), and just walking around in general, we opted to spend a day or two relaxing and letting our feet recover instead. Highlights from downtown Madrid include shopping (of course!), eating pinchas and drinking wine (of course!), and walking through Parc de Retiro, where we visited the Palacio de Cristal. (The bones in the photos above were an installation that was going on that day; there was no information about it so I can't explain it any better than that!) The architecture in the city is such a great mix of old and modern. Next visit, I would definitely like to spend some more time in the city, exploring some of the more urban corners. I didn't feel comfortable enough with my Spanish to venture out for a day on my own!

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Snapshots of Barcelona

Barcelona reminded me a lot of Venice. Perhaps it's the proximity to the ocean, but the feel of the city emanated Italy more than it did the rest of Spain. We spent a weekend there, arriving on Friday night and leaving Sunday evening; I booked us a neat airbnb that we didn't end up spending much time at, other than to sleep. Most of our time was spent exploring the city by foot (though our few rides on the metro left me impressed - it's so clean, compared to the ones in the US!).

My mom had gotten tickets for us to visit the Familia de Segrada and Casa Batllo; if you can't see both and have to choose, I would check out Casa Batllo. The Familia de Segrada was also impressive, but I found I appreciated it more afterwards, when looking through the photos I had snapped and marveling in the architecture. It is still under construction, and both places were overrun by tourists, which is unavoidable but makes it difficult to fully appreciate the whole experience. Casa Batllo was a little more personal because of their unique audio tour that allows you to better immerse yourself in the surroundings. I wish we had gotten to see more, but a weekend isn't long enough to see much at all! It rained our first night there and was grey the remainder of the weekend, which gave the whole city a somewhat dreary feel. I'd love to see what it's like when the sun is out.

We ate a lot of tapas and pinchos and drank a lot of wine. Stopped into a gin bar that was heavy on the dating scene. Walked past a variety of fun shops and small boutiques that seemed to go on forever. Roamed the streets at night and took in how the architecture changed when the sun went down. We also walked right into a neighborhood street parade and listened to the fanfare for a while. On our last day there, we wanted to see the ocean. After many roadblocks, (due party to our own stubbornness, and partly to the fact that there was an Iron Man competition going on in Barcelona that day), we finally found a beach. We had to park in an empty restaurant parking lot and go through a tunnel that ran underneath the street, but we finally made it to the beach. Turns out it was a nude beach, though we were the only people there, so we only knew that from a handwritten sign on the side of a rock. After driving for what felt like forever, it felt good to dip our toes in the water and dig our feet into the sand. I collected as much beach glass as I could carry and it's now stored in a mason jar in our living room.

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