Ethpaña

Once again, Joe and I found ourselves on the 4 am bus, this time to London Gatwick airport to start our month long Spring Break travel. We’ll eventually end up in parts of Spain, Morocco, Italy, and Greece, but this first leg was to visit Joe’s brothers and mother in Madrid, so we only had a quick two-hour flight.

We had been torn about luggage, because although I am a light packer, even I couldn’t manage a month’s worth of clothes, my computer, books, and toiletries in the one backpack that Easyjet allows for free. Joe was planning on doing a bunch of reading, so had to bring a separate bag just for books and his computer! Because checking a bag costs 75 dollars, more than twice the amount of money we paid for the flight, we sort of skulked our way through the airport, trying to see if we could find a nice employee who would let us through without protest.

Security was no problem, and when we got to the actual gate, Joe managed to conceal his side bag under his jacket and waltz through. Stepping up just behind him, however, I was treated to a disapproving frown. Although I protested cursorily, I knew I had no chance, so I rolled my eyes and paid the fee.

Once we were on the plane, however, everything went rather smoothly. We landed on the other side and were able to quickly get through passport control and find a taxi to take us to the hotel where Joe’s mom and youngest brother were staying. Joe’s middle brother, Benjamin, is currently studying abroad in Madrid, so he was in class, but had promised to meet us at the hotel for lunch once he was finished.

We had the perfect amount of time to drop everything, change clothes, and then head back into the city, hopping on the Metro in order to get to Mercado San Miguel, a closed in market with an amazing selection of food, tapas, and drinks right in the centre of the city. Once there, we broke off and scoured the market, each coming back to the assigned meeting place with different goodies. I found paella and some delicious cheese with olives, Mrs. Riley ended up with ham, calamari, and wine, and Joe and his brothers came back with different rice, cheese, and sort of hot pocket-y selections themselves. We had a feast of randomness, and then all decided to get some frozen Greek yogurt before venturing back out into the city.

We were very close to Plaza Mayor, which is a huge central square with a ton of restaurants and street performers. We walked through to admire the architecture, but we left rather quickly after being accosted by a variety of street performers due to a rather slow day. Then we hopped back on the subway to head to some of the largest gardens in Madrid, and spent a nice hour walking around and taking pictures while enjoying the sunshine. At the back of the gardens is an area called the Crystal Palace, a large and ornate greenhouse structure that was full of beautiful afternoon light. Inexplicably, there was a square of carpet with a lone top hat in the middle of the large space, and Joe’s brother asked why it was there. The woman working the door looked at us like we were idiots and replied that it was quite obviously part of the 1870’s aesthetic. After looking around in bewilderment at the sparse glass and cement room with only the carpet and top hat to break up the transparency, we rolled our eyes and moved on.

Not far from the square is El Museo Nacional de Prado, which is one of the premier Renaissance and 17-19^th century art museums in Europe. Only Joshua, Joe’s youngest brother, and I were even remotely interested in going in, so we got our free student entrance while the rest of the crew headed back to the hotel for a “siesta”. Inside the museum, we found an amazing selection of sculpture and paintings ranging from artists as famous as Rembrandt and El Greco to obscure names we’d never heard of. We strolled through, and stopped several times to admire the art students dotted throughout the halls who were painting reproductions of famous works hung there.

Once we were tired from walking and beginning to think of dinner, we hopped back on the Metro and went back to the hotel to round up the rest of our group. We then piled into a cab and headed to one of the main restaurant areas, a street full of somewhat tourist-y but still reasonably priced Spanish restaurants. Then, we had a feast! We found a place with a gregarious and loud owner standing out front, who then beckoned us in and put together a menu of fried seafood, paella, vegetables, and sangria, and we ate probably more than anyone ever should. And it was delicious! In traditional Spanish style, it was probably a two-hour meal, and yet Joe was somehow still hungry as we lumbered back toward the Metro.  So we ducked back into the market for another round of Greek yogurt, only to spot some similar faces in the crowd. Two of our Rhodie friends had told us they’d be traveling in Spain, but we never thought we would run across them in a crowded market in Madrid! We had some good laughs and wished them well on their travels, but the 3 am wakeup was starting to catch up to us, and we didn’t stay long to chat.

We all fell straight into bed when we arrived back at the hotel, because we knew we’d be getting up early to catch a train to Toledo, a medieval city only a half hour away from Madrid. While Madrid is now a booming metropolitan center with only a few areas resembling the Old Spain of empires, Toledo still has a beautiful walled historic centre on a bluff overlooking scenic countryside. After finding the Metro route to the train station, we grabbed sandwiches and coffee and ate them as we watched the countryside flow by. Weirdly, it reminded me of areas of Northern California that I’ve driven through on past trips.

When we arrived in Toledo, we could immediately see the difference from the lovely Moorish-style train station and the patiently waiting bus that wound us up the long hill, offering beautiful views of the old city the entire way. It dropped us in the central square, and we immediately walked to the edge of the bluff to enjoy a small park and the panoramic views. Then we spent some time winding through the steep stone streets, discovering pretty little plazas and many shops around different corners. We eventually ended up at the Catedral de Toledo, and although I was initially wary of the 8 Euro entrance fee, I completely understood the price once we were inside.

As someone who loves old churches, I’ve seen pretty much every style you can imagine. I can’t, however, really explain the beautiful mix of Gothic architecture, Renaissance art, and skilled sculpture work inside this cathedral. It took over 250 years just to complete the structure itself, and the art was completed almost 100 years after that. The altarpiece is the most intricate I’ve ever seen, an almost unintelligible motley of golden and brightly colored saints, disciples, and angels soaring up hundred of feet. Behind the altar is another art piece, a marble sculpture of angels that seems to be spilling from a high window down along both walls toward the floor. And then off to the side is the Sacristy, with an original ceiling painted by El Greco that is both huge and absolutely beautiful. The Sacristy now houses the art collection of the cathedral, which is extensive and contains impressive names from the Spanish Renaissance. Even beyond that the wonders continue, as an outdoor courtyard garden is surrounded by beautiful frescoes detailing the works of Spanish saints. Off that courtyard, I found my favorite part of the entire complex, which was a small room dedicated as the tomb of a Bishop, but containing some of the most amazing frescoes I’d ever seen. Apparently this official had gone to Rome for some time, and had brought back with him several masters to start the style of art in Spain, so when he died, each of the most accomplished Spanish fresco artists descended to decorate his tomb. I spent so much time in that room admiring the artwork that I found I’d lost Mrs. Riley, and made a quick lap of the cathedral before finding her outside, listening to a cellist who was playing beautiful music in another courtyard.

We headed back to meet up with the boys in another square, where they’d exited the church early to sit and drink coffee in the sunshine. After wandering for a while, we found a very reasonably priced restaurant, and split paella and pizzas for lunch. Then we set off back into the city, winding through the shopping districts, where I purchased an ornately painted ceramic plate in the almost Moorish style very popular in southern Spain. We eventually came back around to the road the winds several kilometers down the hill towards the train station, and decided to spend our last two hours walking slowly and exploring the route. We found a park with beautiful arches of wisteria full of Toledan schoolchildren playing while still in their uniforms, and also took a detour to sit down by the river and enjoy the view of a Roman arched bridge that has stood for centuries. When we finally found ourselves back in the area of the train station, we had just enough time to enjoy an afternoon coffee in a pretty little café before we had to get back on the train to Madrid.

For dinner, Benjamin took us to one of his favorite tapas restaurants, where a huge glass case held small sizes of dishes ranging from a ball of fried potato filled with meat to smoked salmon and fried eggplant, and we tried a selection that ran the gamut. By the end, I thought I would explode if I ate anything else fried or a single piece more of cheese. After such a heavy dinner, it was all we could do to make it back to the hotel before falling asleep.

It was only a brief time in Spain, but it was absolutely lovely, and made me realize that I need to go back to see the other regions and gorgeous old cities. The next morning, we boarded a plane to Marrakesh….but Morrocco is another story for a different day.

Bathception and Towering

The last few weeks in Oxford have led me to a somewhat unbelievable conclusion: spring is springing here! I can't say it's sprung already, because we've still had a smattering of days where my breath visibly precedes me as I ride my bike to class, but overall the weather has gotten noticeably sunnier and warmer, and daffodils, crocuses, and cherry trees are all starting to bloom and break up the pervasive grey that defined all of the winter months.

With the better weather have come many visitors and more opportunities for outside activities (along with a generally more positive outlook on life in general). First, I was finally able to climb Magdelan Tower, which is basically a rite of passage here. I never understood why it was such an accomplishment until I saw the hundreds of narrow and steep tightly spiraled stairs in the dark tube up the tower. Being both somewhat afraid of heights and a tad claustrophobic, I considered myself pretty darn lucky to have made it to the top! Once there, however, we were treated to beautiful views of all of Oxford that made the climb completely worth it, including a panorama of the High Street leading up to the City Centre:

Due to the Tower's prestige among students, none of us could turn down the priceless photo opportunity, so we shamelessly snapped pictures like tourists on their first day in the UK:

(the others pictured are 2nd and 3rd year Rhodies, and one visitor in town from China). After the tower, we strolled through Magdelan's famous deer park, including a section called Addison's Walk, which is quite famous. You see, there was a long period when both J.R.R. Tolkein and C.S. Lewis were fellows at Colleges here (Merton and Magdelan, respectively), and they became very good friends. Lewis was a noted atheist, and Tolkein was a devout Christian, and they used to spend a lot of time walking along this particular path and talking about their beliefs. It was during his time at Oxford that C.S. Lewis became a Christian, and as some of y'all may know, he later on became one of the most influential Christian writers of modern times. As such, we came across a memorial stone that's been put up to the memory of the two great men, and inscribed with a Lewis poem that seemed to me when I read it to have been written just particularly for this time of year:

Needless to say, it was a pretty cool day to be had in terms of Oxford experiences. The next day, I had a friend of mine from high school who is living in Germany into town, meaning that yet another day of possible academic productivity was sacrificed (not so reluctantly, to be honest) to touring around Oxford in the beautiful weather. I took Tommy to see Christ Church, the college where much of the Harry Potter movies were filmed, the Ashmolean (an amazing museum in town run solely off donated and loaned relics), lunch at The Eagle & Child (a pub famous for its literary guests, Lewis and Tolkein among them), and then in the afternoon we climbed yet another tower. This time, it was that of St. Mary's Church, which is right in the middle of the city centre, and actually overlooks my college, Brasenose. Here's one of the most famous views of Oxford, which you will probably recognize from just about every Oxford publication.

After he left to head back into London, I had to scootch on home to quickly get ready before a Guest Dinner at St. John's with Joe. Guest Dinners are black tie formal four course affairs, and we all love them as an excuse to get dressed up and eat an amazing meal (with lots of free wine!) with friends. This one was particularly special, as several Rhodies had their significant others in town from the States. We took the opportunity of being all dressed up for the girls to take some pretty pictures:

After the meal and post drinks, we were all so exhausted that there was really no option but to head home and sleep. Saturday was a study day (as penance for the fun of visitors in town), but we did get to have a full Southern meal together. I think I've written previously about the NOMs cooking group that we do all together, and since one of the other Southerners had her boyfriend in town from North Carolina, we decided to throw a full on artery-clogging feast in his honor. There was pulled pork, macaroni and cheese, cornbread, coleslaw, and pecan pie, and it was undoubtedly a success.

The next day, four couples (Joe and me, and then three other Rhodies whose partners were in town) organized a trip to head to Bath, a city in the UK famous for its history and spas...incidentally, two of my favorite things! When we woke up and walked outside, we couldn't have been happier; it was the sunniest and warmest day we've had since probably the first week we arrived in the UK in October. Considering the high was 55 degrees, I got to have the liberating experience of ditching my heavy winter coat in exchange for a vest and long-sleeved shirt.

Although there's one switch, it's still only about an hour and a half train ride from Oxford to Bath, through a beautifully agricultural section of Britain. Once we made it to the city, we made a beeline for an ice cream shop, and ate our cones as we strolled toward the city centre.

I should probably give a quick preface to say that Bath is famous both as one of the premier sites of Roman ruins, due to the baths that were built there to take advantage of the natural mineral hot springs, and for a renaissance during Georgian time that led to amazing examples of architecture (and several mentions in famous Jane Austen novels). Therefore, our first stop was Bath Abbey, a huge and absolutely gorgeous neo-Gothic cathedral that marks the centre of town:

We'd planned for the next stop to be the Roman baths, but when we realized that they were rather small and cost 13 pounds to enter, we decided against it and moved on to the Circus, which is a famous "roundabout" surrounded by buildings made into a perfect circle. Joe and I had to take a cheesy couple picture, of course:

After that, we made our way back down to one of the beautiful parks along the river and joined the ranks of the people laying in the grass to bask in the sun. It was only about half an hour, but I swear it was as therapeutic as a week at the beach.

The last thing we'd planned for the day was to attend one of the new baths (in Bath, hence Bathception) that have been built to take advantage of the same mineral springs the Romans discovered thousands of years ago. Nowadays, these baths include saunas, steam rooms, and multiple levels, including a rooftop pool with gorgeous views of the city. We'd found a deal affordable on grad students' budgets that included dinner, so we spent a full three hours relaxing, eating, and exploring our way through the building. We even got a photo of the whole crew in the rooftop heated pool:

By the time we were finished, we were all so relaxed that we basically slithered back to the train station and took hard naps on the train back to Oxford. I don't think I've slept as well as I did that night in a long, long time!

This week has been mostly composed of catching up on the work that I'd neglected the past few days, but it was completely worth it for the experiences and amount of time spent in the sun. Today is actually the last day of our term, so we're starting on another six week break tomorrow.

I'll be spending the next week and a half trying to get all of my academic work in order so that I can head out on the 26th of March for an entire month of traveling. To give you a sneak peek of what's to come, I'll be heading to Madrid for a few days, spending a week in Morocco, twelve days in Italy, and then ten around Greece. Needless to say, I will soon have much more exotic news to report than my progress on my dissertation research, so stay tuned until then.