Madrid con mi madre.

I have gotten into the bad habit it seems of blogging only after weekend trips, if even that frequently. I will try to improve. But in the meantime, these are very important things to recall!

This weekend I took an early flight out of Amsterdam (some of my friends were just getting home from the clubs!) to meet Mom in Madrid, Spain!! And I know I say this a lot, but it was the most lovely weekend. We went to the Prado and Reina Sofia museums, where we saw the most incredible collections of paintings by Goya, Picasso, Rembrandt, Miro, Dali, Velasquez, Bosch and so many others. At times we were very lost because signs in Madrid suggest the general direction you will be heading in, but apparently do not mark turns! Navigating the city, though, was much easier than this. Me and mom actually have very good senses of direction we think! We always made it back to the hotel, sometimes after asking a few times for landmarks and orientation. These were good opportunities to practice our Spanish.

On Sunday we went shopping at the famous El Rastro market, where Mom bought for me my two new favorite articles of clothing: a jacket and a little rose print dress. I love them. Together they look very, very Spanish. They told us the market often has 2000 visitors on a given weekend, tourists and residents alike. We also walked through the Salamanca neighborhood, the Plaza Mayor and Puerta del Sol, the Huertas streets near our hotel, the Atocha station area, and the beautiful El Retiro park with a lake full of rowboats and people sunbathing on the steps. It was such a bright, festive atmosphere in the park- everyone was out rollerblading and kissing and watching puppet shows. On Sunday night we went out to a flamenco dance, even though we knew it was a tourist-like thing to do. I very much enjoyed the performance, especially the flamboyant male dancer with the shiny suit.

The food in Spain I could write about for quite some time, and we only had a handful of meals. Thanks to Betsy and Alberto's recommendations, we went to two of the best restaurants I have ever been to. The first was a dinner of endless surprises, including two small rose plants at the end! They just kept bringing us things. And there were a lot of celebrities in the restaurant but we had no idea who they were! The second meal was a lunch of incredible, incredible flavors. Some of the things we tried were: smoked broad beans soup, morcillas (iberian blood pudding), paella, lamb cubes stuffed with vegetables, jamon tapas, olives, spinach empanadas, good good wine, after dinner sorbet drink, and other things I can't even think of. I did miss trying the notorious Callos, but I came home very full and very happy. It was just so nice to eat good food and sleep in a comfy bed and most of all be in the absolute best company.

Really it was a dream weekend (thank you thank you thank you!!) and way too short. But I am happy in Amsterdam and am looking forward to this week of classes and catching up with friends. The next entry will be more about daily life, I promise!!

Love love love Julie

Koselig (cozy) with Emma in Norway

Last weekend I took a trip to Oslo, Norway to visit Emma! She is studying at the University of Oslo and living in the "student village" there, so I went for the weekend to catch up with a close friend and visit Scandinavia for the first time ever. In fact, I have never been farther north than this city! Oslo is such an interesting city. Emma told me that a lot of the architecture was razed to replace with more Utilitarian, almost Soviet, structures, so there is quite a mix. The harbor on the fjord was so beautiful, and we stumbled upon a food festival right by the water, where we tried some smoked Norwegian salmon, moose and reindeer burgers, wheat soup, and delicious lefse pancakes with berry sauce and cream.

In general the weekend was full of relaxing and lovely trips. We visited the Edward Munch museum as well as the National Gallery art museum. Both were full of incredible work- one of my favorite artists being Harald Sohlberg, who paints cluttered rooms (are we surprised this is my aesthetic?). We also went to the top of the mountain near the famous ski jump to have a hot chocolate and see the view, although it was so foggy it almost looked like we were in the middle of the sky. And we saw the movie "Eat, Pray, Love" in English with Norwegian subtitles while eating lots of Norwegian chocolate. I really enjoyed the film because she is a youngish woman traveling and being alone, so I could identify quite a lot with her sentiments.

I tried to speak Norwegian some, but it actually turns out I have managed to pick up a Dutch accent, at least when speaking Norwegian. Although many of the words are similar, my pronunciation was a constant struggle. Emma was so patient with my experimentation with reading street signs and advertisements. We also went to Emma's Norwegian friend's house for dinner one night. She made a thai salmon soup with lemongrass and vegetables- it was so, so good. And we watched another film about drag queens in the Australian desert!! It was very strange but hilarious. Other than that we just explored the city, did a bit of shopping (not buying much of anything because of the exchange rate!), had a lot of coffee, baked a peach cobbler with a crust mix that made no sense at all, and were generally so happy to be together again since the summer. It was the most wonderful weekend. It also proved to me how easy traveling is (knock on wood). Now, work to catch up with and sleep time. Good night everyone. Oxo Julie