El Christo

Last Saturday, the weather was beautiful: 60 degrees and sunny. So Susan, Olivia, and I decided to climb up to El Christo. El Christo is a statue of Jesus on top of a mountain by Oviedo.

We met at 12:30 and I didn't get home until 4:30. So, it was a bit of a hike, but I don't think we took the most direct route, so that may have been part of it.

But, I think it was worth it, don't you?

Carnaval en España

I was lucky in that I got to experience Karneval while I was in Germany and Carnaval in Spain too. Oviedo celebrated Carnaval this past weekend (which is technically in Lent already, but they seem pretty lax about that stuff here in Spain). Saturday was the big celebration including a parade that I saw the second half of. Here are some pictures and commentary of the Carnaval parade in Oviedo:

You can see the various costumes people were wearing.

There were some chimney sweeps.  

This was probably the scariest float. 

There was a graveyard with someone coming out of a coffin.

And people dressed up like zombies.

People dressed up as bags of money.

Yes, those are Segways.

Smurfs!

 There were a few bands in this parade too. Most were just drum corps:

But this one actually included brass too:

Overall, I think the parade in Oviedo contained 'happier' floats and costumes. There was one person in the parade dressed up in a German witch-type costume and apparently he stole someone from UNI's sandal and ran off with it. She was really upset with this, but that type of thing was very common at the German parade.

I am really glad I got to see how Carnival is celebrated in 2 very different cultures.

Viaje a Germany: Stuttgart

In my last post, I described a little bit about Mitfahrgelegenheit. I had tried again to get a ride, this time from Nürnberg to Stuttgart. Finally we were able to ride with the third person I contacted. He seemed really nice. We didn’t really talk to him much. He was also going 150 km/hr in a 120 km/hr zone on the Autobahn, but we didn’t get caught and it got us to Stuttgart faster! Once in Stuttgart, Susan and I took the S-bahn to Herrenberg, a town close to where my friend Anke lives. Once again we just talked some, skyped my boyfriend so Anke could meet him :), and went to bed.

The next day, Susan and I took the S-bahn to Tübingen a lovely picturesque town where my friend Lauren studied one summer. We saw these lovely houses on the river, the church, the townhall, and the outside of the castle.

Townhall

Cool-looking building

It’s kind of a funny story, but not really. Susan and I were trying to actually get to the castle, but we ended up on the road below it. We walked along the road and then climbed what must have been at least 200 stairs to get to the same level as the castle. We walk about the other side of the castle. The path inclined down and it was icy. Both of us fell twice. That part was not fun. But then it was time to head to Altingen to watch the Karneval parade!

Apparently in this region, nearly everyone in Karneval parades dress up as witches (but it’s not necessarily what standard witches in the United States look like), but I think that varies depending on where you live. We stood across from the announcer’s stand. All the time he would shout (and I have no idea if I’m spelling this right): Nahrie! And we would reply: Nahro! Nahrie! Nahro! Nahrie! Nahro!

I liked how kids were included.

When there were groups of witches he would shout the name of the town they were from and we would reply: Hexe! (Witches!)

Some of the witches would let off these colored smoke bombs that smelled really bad.

Lots of times when the costumes contained bells, they would all walk in step so their bells jangled at  the same time.

Many of the troupes of witches would do a trick in front of the announcer's booth.
99% of the time it was forming a pyramid.

There were also a few marching bands, but they were definitely a lot more laid back than marching bands in the United States.

Also, the witches in the parade oftentimes had a marker or a stamp and would mark on your face. Or they would grab you and get straw in your hair or steal something from you. Or dump shredded paper or paper punch circles on you. They also handed out some candy. We left halfway through because our feet were frozen, but it was so much fun!

You can see she has a stamp and ink pad.

The girl running away? They just stuck her head in the hay at the back of that float.

Anke's family has friends that are in this marching band, and you can hear the 'Nahrie! Nahro!' in the following videos:

The next day Susan and I headed to Stuttgart. We walked around and saw the old castle (turns out it costs 15 € to enter to see the traveling exhibit. Yikes!) and then took the S-bahn to the TV Tower. Sadly it was a cloudy day and cold, so the view wasn’t as good as it could have been, but I did find a penny-squisher machine (okay, technically it was a 5-Euro-cent-squisher) and that made me very happy.

The old castle

A carnival for Karneval!

The view from the TV tower

DFTBA!

Then it was time to take the bus to Frankfurt so we could catch our plane to Madrid.

Now comes the worst part of the trip. Our plane was delayed over an hour. It was scheduled to arrive in Madrid at 10:20 and our bus (the last bus to Oviedo of the night) was scheduled to leave at 11:00. We were hoping the bus would leave late. This is Spain, right? The plane arrives to Madrid at 10:50. The first class takes forever to get off the plane. Susan and I run through the airport. We have to take the train to the other terminal. We run some more. We get to the bus station at 11:15 and alas, our bus has left. We were able to change our tickets for the first bus the next day. At 8 o’clock. We spent the night in the airport. I didn’t sleep. For this bus we had to go to the other Madrid bus station. We decided to leave at 7:00. I really wish the person who changed our tickets and told us what Metro station we needed to get off at had warned us how long it would take to get there. We got to the station at 7:55. There are literally a hundred buses at the Madrid bus station. We had no idea which one was ours because we didn’t see a board anywhere that said. So we each took a side and ran up and down looking for the right bus. And sat down in our seats at exactly 8:00. 

Viaje a Germany: Nürnberg

The weekend before Lent, we had a 4-day weekend to celebrate Carneval. So my friend Susan and I decided to take a trip to Germany. 

Susan and I began our journey at 6:30 Friday morning on the bus to Madrid. The ride was rather uneventful, and we arrived in Madrid at around 12:30. Our flight to Frankfurt was scheduled to leave at 3:15.  This experience at the Madrid airport was much more pleasant than the previous and there was Ian Goldsmith's doppelganger on our plane, but our return to Oviedo was unfortunately again full of misfortune.

We arrived in Frankfurt at around 6:00. At the suggestion of my friend Anke, I had been trying to arrange a Mitfahrgelegenheit. This is a carpooling system in Germany. Drivers advertise on the website and people can message them to ride with them and pay much less than taking the train or bus. I had originally arranged a ride, but that day the driver decided to leave earlier, so we could no longer ride with him. We weren’t able to arrange a different ride, so we had to take the train to Nürnberg. The train is expensive (46 €), but it was the only choice we had. We arrived in Nürnberg at around 10 and met Susan’s friend E and her boyfriend S in the train station. We walked to his apartment (and it was snowing outside!), talked and had a beer (I missed German beer so much!), and went to bed.

The next day we ate a lovely German breakfast including different rolls with meat and cheese, a soft-boiled egg, and yogurt. Then we set off to see the city. First we went to the castle. Apparently this was where the emperor used to spend most of his time. Something cool we got to see was the well. It was inside a tower, supposedly so it would be a secret where the water came from. It was very, very deep. I couldn’t really understand most of what the tour guide was saying since it was in German, but apparently you had to be really careful a rat or something didn’t fall in because it would rot in the water and get everyone sick.

We continued on to the rest of the city. S was very knowledgeable about Nürnberg, so we got to learn a lot of the history. First we saw some interesting sculptures.

St. George slaying a dragon

This statue is supposed to represent different aspects of marriage.

Sometimes you get fat.

And you have kids.

And you want to kill each other.

But other times you're happy.

Then we went to St. Sebald and later St. Lorenz. They are the two protestant churches in Nürnberg. There were on 2 different sides of the river that runs through the city and apparently competed against each other, each making their towers a little higher than the other.

St. Sebald

This is the main square with the Catholic church. One time in Nürnberg history, there was a plague. So the important people got together and decided the best way to get rid of the plague would be to get rid of the Jews, build a church, and provide fresh food and water. So, they blockaded the Jewish district and burned it down. They then built the Catholic church and the main square complete with a fancy fountain where markets were to be held. By this time the plague was gone, so they decided their efforts must have worked.

The main square with the Frauenkirche

The fountain in the main square

The next day we visited this really cool museum that had rooms from different houses that had been mostly destroyed from around Nürnberg and talked about Nürnberg history. Then we ate a late lunch at this delicious Asian restaurant and then it was time to meet our Mitfahrgelegenheit!