24/09 or: it's been 4 weeks already?

Ladies, Gentlemen,

first of all I have to apologize to all of you who have been checking this blog every single day, just to find out that nothing happened. It sounds like a joke, but I have been very busy the past couple weeks. Nevertheless, I'll try to give you a short roundup. 

Week 1: You know everything about that already. If not, check out my previous posts.

Week 2 (my weeks range from Wednesday to Wednesday now): 
Attended first lacrosse practice with Montes on Thursday, and I was baffled. No turf, just a dirt pitch with about 6 players participating. Not quite what I had expected. However, that was just the first practice -- afterwards, it got a lot better, and the turf is actually really nice. Turns out I'm not the only international player on the team, we also have support in form of Chris from New Jersey. Afterwards Welcome Party of my university, but this is just everyday business from now on. 

Sunday we traveled to Toledo. Toledo is a very small town with only 11,000 people living in the city center, but it is absolutely beautiful. We did a city tour there, followed by a couple hours of moving freely. See for yourself: 

Don Quijote, one of the most famous characters in the spanish literature

panoramic view

Afterwards, we went to a bar with a 2 for 1 special. Needless to say, that didn't end well. 

Then on Tuesday, classes actually started. As of right now, I only have Marketing and Human Resource Management. Now, classes here aren't quite like classes in Germany -- I feel like I'm back in high school. Mandatory attendance, weekly homework assignments and participation grades (!!) are something that I haven't seen in a while. It will take me some time to get used to that, but at least my teachers seem to be pretty good.
At night, we celebrated Jesse's birthday (friend of mine from Finland) by doing some sports in the form of beer pong. 

Week 3: 
Thursday was lacrosse practice again, with Karaoke following up on that. Nothing too special happened here. 

Saturday we were invited to a birthday party, followed by yet another welcome party. Yes, I go out a lot here. Yes, I also do other stuff, but the parties help me keep track of what happened on which day. Other stuff includes going to the gym, eating (mostly boiled eggs and chicken or turkey), university and meeting new people. 

Sunday I checked out the other lacrosse team of Madrid, Madrid Lacrosse. The practice there seems way more professional, and the players are more experienced. It was fun, but I will play for Montes in the future, because I feel they can use me better. Also, it's not as fun to just join the best team in the country. However, I will practice with both teams -- twice a week just doesn't cut it. 

Monday Roman and I figured we should do something other than partying, so we checked out the Museo Reina Sofia. While I'm not into art galleries at all, it was quite cool to actually see original paintings of Picasso, Dalí and Goya. However, most art just doesn't make sense to me, like this jewel: 

yeah .. wtf?

On Tuesday night we did something everybody has to do once when in Madrid: go to Santiago Bernabeu (for the illiterate among you, that's the stadium of Real Madrid). Real Madrid vs FC Basel, a historical match. Well okay, not quite. Madrid blew Basel away with 5-1, even though Basel had a couple reasonable shots at scoring more goals. Seeing the players in action live, you can tell even more how amazing their technique is. 

Santiago Bernabeu (it got fuller later, no worries)

Week 4:

Wednesday we set out to go to Salamanca, a town about 200km away from Madrid. Luckily I have a friend, Flo, who has a car, so we did an amazing road trip there. Salamanca is a student town with two cathedrals, one historical and beautiful old university and lots of clubs that are free to enter. At night we checked out the latter, also trying a local special drink: Agua de Valencia. No, it is not water. No, it is not good for you either. Yes, it is a crime. Basically, you get a 1 liter plastic (!!) cup, filled with ice cubes. Then lots of low quality vodka and prosecco are added, and it all is topped off with a splash of Fanta. I'm not going to comment any further on that one. Also, 8 Tequila shots for 4€ is probably a bad idea. 

Thursday we checked out the city. There are a couple things that one has to have seen (big thanks at this point to Leo, who guided us around the city). The two cathedrals of course are mandatory. Well, basically they are one, because they are connected with each other. On one of them you can find an astronaut among all the other decorations, because the artist felt like he had to add something "modern". Don't believe it? Please, go ahead: 

look closely, you'll find him

Also, there is the "casa de las conchas", a house with lots of (artificial) mussels on its wall. And there is the old university, decorated with lots of things as well -- among them one tiny frog, which is basically impossible to find. If you manage to spot it, it is said that you will have great academic success in the future, but to be honest -- I wouldn't make my academic success dependent on that. Studying will get you further than trying to find a tiny frog. For the record: we found it, but with lots of help. 

Casa de las Conchas 

Try finding a frog on there.. oh, hi Roman

Of course, Salamanca has more to offer than just that. A couple more impressions: 

"Silencio".. the name says it all

The drive back was just like the drive there very interesting. Basically, between Madrid and Salamanca, there is nothing. And by nothing, I mean absolutely nothing. At times, there are black bulls of steel (no pun intended) at the side of the road, but that's pretty much it. Oh, and we found a gas station in the middle of nowhere. Could also have been in the states. 

.. and yes, there was also tumbleweed.

Thursday night we went to Kapital again, but not for a long time, because the next trip was imminent: Valencia. We rented a car and set out on Friday to go there. There was also a big group trip of our university in town, but we decided to go on our own. We managed to get there just in time for an open air party with predrinks at the beach, which was pretty damn good. 

The next day, Alexa and I set out to explore the city a little ourselves. We climbed the tower of the cathedral (507 steps, no big deal) to take a look around the city. 

We also hit up the market, where we tried "chufas" (I have no clue what it is until this day, but they are pretty good .. some form of nuts or dried fruit. In German it's called "Erdmandel") and I also found this gem: 

those who have been to Brazil know it and love it

Afterwards, we went to the beach, something I haven't done since I've been in Rio de Janeiro. At night, there was yet another party, in one of the fanciest locations in Valencia, the "ciudad de artes y sciencias". Let me fast forward to the next day real quick, because that's when I realized how awesome the location actually was. The ciudad is a project finished in 2009 with lots of mind-blowing architecture. I don't even wanna talk about it too much, just look: 

the entrance of the club by daylight ..  l'umbracle if you wanna look it up

They also have this kid's park, where you can climb on top of a giant person. It took me a while that this person was actually Gulliver (a kid's story, written by Jonathan Swift -- not sure what he was doing in Valencia). I read that when I was a kid. Anyway, we had Tapas later before heading back to Madrid, dropping off the car at the airport and finally getting some well-deserved sleep (especially considering that throughout the weekend, I had slept 4 hours total). 

And on Monday, the everyday reality began again. Recover, party, class, practice, party, sleep, blog. That's what I'm doing now. And hopefully will be doing again in the future. 

Before I leave, a couple random facts.
#1: It is almost impossible to get shampoo bottles here that contain less than one liter. I have no idea why.
#2: You can get cones of ham to go here. Pretty amazing actually. 
#3: There is a striking difference between "año" and "ano". Watch out for that when texting. 
#4: The metro comes from the wrong direction. If standing at the platform facing the rails, you would expect it to come from your right side, but here it comes from the left side. This has been pissing me off a bit. 

That'll be it for today. Enjoy!

Hasta pronto
Dominik

01/09 - 03/09 or: how one small decision can get you lots of new friends

Entering Monday fully recovered, I hung kinda loose and didn't really know what to do. So I ordered a SIM card for my phone, not the one I actually wanted, but in the end it probably suits my needs even better. The booking didn't work because they only accepted spanish credit cards .. never heard of that before.

I had lunch with a friend again at the Museo de Jamón. There, you basically stand at a bar, with huge hunks of finest spanish ham hanging from the ceiling. I'd recommend getting a bocadillo de jamón, a ham sandwich. It's also just 1€, the beer to go with it is 70cts. Considering the Museo is right next to the Puerta del Sol, that's really good pricing. Normally you just get ripped off in Tourist areas. Also striking: mostly spanish people eat there. 

At night, I met up with Roman. Roman and I study together in Munich and have lots of mutual friends, yet we have to , go to Madrid in order to actually meet each other. However, he wouldn't be the last person that I'd meet that I should have known before I got here. We went for some beers with a couple other Erasmus students, then checked out a party, which was decent. 

Tuesday, 6:30am. 2 hours of sleep, then alarm. Why so early? We actually had to show up at university for the "welcome event", where we'd get all the necessary information about our stay here, free time activities, opening a bank account, the list is endless. Speaking of bank accounts: our university has a bank on campus -- not too sure what to think of that. Afterwards, we got guided around the campus. While this was supposed to give us orientation on there, I was totally confused. Going in circles does not really foster a good sense of orientation. 

The last part of the tour was picking up the student ID. That would have been easy, but apparently my first name at the university is "Nitsch", the last one is "Dominik" .. yeah, right. Thanks for that. 

At this point I thought, alright, time to go home. To do what? Good question. Halfway to the train, I turned, figured that I might aswell pick up another ID card (we need this one for activities). Good thing I did, because during that waiting time I met incredibly many people with whom I got along very, very well. On the way back I ran into a bunch of americans (khaki shorts, of course), so the train ride was sweet too.

At night, we went to a place called "El Tigre". It is mainly known for 6€-0,75l Mojitos which come with a huge pile of tapas -- qualitatively not the best, but decent. Too bad I had just had dinner, but I guess another dinner won't hurt. After all, I need to gain weight. The day ended at 1:30am, surprisingly early for my standards. 

Wednesday I figured it's time to get a monthly metro ticket. So I got up early (of course) and tried finding the tobacco shop who sells them. Well, it wasn't that easy, it nearly took me one hour. When I finally got there, the queue was ridiculously long, and I was told to be back at 4:30 when they reopen. We had a picknick scheduled for that time though, but I thought it cannot hurt to get it anyway. Being there at 4:15, there were 33 people waiting in front of me. Now, if every person just takes 3 minutes, that 1.5 hours right there. If it's 10 minutes per person .. you do the math. No metro ticket for me. The picknick in the Retiro park was pretty nice though, I enjoyed the company of a group of people that I'm still spending lots of time with (as of one week after). 

And what do you do at night? Explore the nightlife. On today's menu: Gabana club, with free admission and open bar. Wait what? That's right. The worst-case scenario is to drink for free, then leave. Awful. We checked it out, it was nice, although quite fancy and probably reallyyyyy expensive on weekends. But for Wednesdays, it's a good option. I'll keep that in mind. 

Walking back from the club, I came across this beauty (sadly not a girl): 

the bad quality does not have anything to do with the open bar

In Madrid, you can walk back from basically anywhere, everything in the center is kinda close. It's a very different, interesting way of exploring a city. People keep telling me that Madrid is dangerous .. I highly doubt it. As of right now, I'm pretty damn sure that going to the gym is more dangerous than walking home at night. 

29/08 - 31/08 or: the secret to spotting americans anywhere, the nightlife paradox and a siesta myth unveiled

This is it. This is what all of you have been waiting for. I finally found some free time between looking for apartments, partying and well -- partying. 

Now you raise valid questions like "Can you really party that much?" or "Wait, didn't you go there to study?". The answer is: yes and yes. How? Keep reading.

Friday night. Adam and I didn't really know what to do, until we were told that apparently there are places in Madrid that serve 40-cent beers. Now we had a plan. Initially, we just went there to grab some tapas and stay there a little, that was around 8:30. We were headed there with our not-so-hungover-anymore american roommates, who had musical tickets. Well, needless to say, when they got back, we were still sitting there. Time flew by. We decided to check out some clubs in the gay districts just for the hell of it, but we were disappointed. And the problem weren't intrusive gay guys, but much rather the fact that all the clubs closed at 4:00. That's weird since in Madrid, everything is shifted to a later hour -- only the clubs still close earlier than in Germany. Hence, I refer to this as the "nightlife paradoxon". 

Oh, and did I mention I had found an apartment? Pretty sure I didn't. So there you have it: I'm officially moved in! That's also what I did for the most time on Saturday. I have a balcony with an amazing view in the charming quarter Lavapies. People keep telling me it is dangerous, but to be honest -- if I survived Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Rwanda and Köln-Mülheim, I'll be just fine here. In my flat there are two other rooms available, so as of right now I'm living alone. Certainly not too bad, but I love having people around me. 

balcony view

crooked panorama picture of my room

In order to compensate for that, I met up with Adam and his american friends from Portland at night to go to Kapital again. How could I tell they were from the states? Khaki shorts, baby. Khaki shorts. I don't know if you Americans are aware of this, but pay some attention to it -- it's like a uniform. However, you're not getting into a club with these, so later on it would have been a little more difficult. The party itself was pretty cool aswell, I definitely had lots of fun. 

did we?

khaki shorts, for the reference

Sunday I felt the need to catch up on some well-deserved sleep. After not having slept too much the preceding nights, I used most of the day to do exactly that and then skyped some. Really nothing to exciting, typical Sunday business. As I discovered later, you can do your grocery shopping also on Sunday, Lidl is open 7 days a week. Wait, Lidl? That's right. That's the grocery store I do my everyday shopping in Germany. And by accident the ONLY Lidl of Madrid is the closest store to my apartment. So now I have stuff like "Multifruchtmüsli" at home, even with German label. Praise the lord. 

some hometown reality

That's it. No, wait. The siesta myth. I used to think that spanish people actually sleep during their siesta. Extensive field experiments on my parts have proven that this is not the case; they just lay there because doing anything else would simply be excruciating. Using the day to get sleep doesn't really work, I guess I'll have to cut back on my nightlife eventually. 

I'll keep you posted. Take care.

27/08 - 29/08 or: strawberries trees, rooms with no windows and a seven story club

Buenas tardes. 

It is 5:12pm, I'm sitting in my bed in a ridiculously hot, 12 bed hostel room without window and I'm enjoying life to the fullest. Wait, what? No, I'm not a sadist. I simply love Madrid. But let's begin chronologically.

Munich, August 27th, 9am. Just got finished cleaning out the rest of my room and moving all my stuff out of the apartment, now it was time to leave. Carrying 35kg of luggage with me (feels like it mostly consists of lacrosse equipment and not much else), I head out to the airport. The flight itself was absolutely not exciting, as literally nothing worth mentioning happened. Once arrived in Madrid, I devoured a batch of rice and meat that I had brought with me (you know, the germans -- always prepared). Madrid Barajas Airport is huge: Terminal 4 has an own Metro Station. But with the metro, you're relatively quick in the inner city, you just need to be able to climb lots and lots of stairs, since escalators don't work as often as you'd like. With 35kg of luggage, that wasn't that fun.

just lacrosse baggage

Once I exited the metro, I was blown away. On the map, everything had looked quite big. Well, it's nothing like that. Small streets, old houses, generally a very appealing neighborhood. I checked into the Hostel, got rid of my stuff, got to know Adam (with whom I later will spend lots of time with) and set out for some beer. With the beer, they handed us olives and chips. We thought, "for us?! whoa. that's awesome!". Lesson learned: if you order a "cana", you get tapas with it. It's as simple as that and even better, you can just substitute dinner by ordering more beers. 

We continued with having Paella at the roof of a hostel nearby, then headed back to ours which has its own bar. The people staying here are awesome -- travelers from around the world looking to meet new people, and of course ERASMUS students (mostly from Germany). 

Side note: ERASMUS is a student exchange program of the European Union -- it basically gives you the possibility to study at a university in another country while giving you a small grant to go with it. 

I almost forgot: I also looked at apartments. While the location was pretty good, that was it. Would you like to live in a room with no window? I sure as hell don't. The other one wasn't that appealing either and ridiculously expensive, but there are more to come. 

Next morning: breakfast, then head out to the city tour -- after all, I need to know what I have to have seen. The sun was blazing, and as logical consequence, I didn't think sunscreen was necessary. Being outside in the middle of the day in the mountains at 35°C and sunshine? Yeah, not necessary. Now I'm wearing a tanktop even when I don't. The city tour itself was interesting, and we got to see the world's oldest restaurant, a strawberry tree (you're laughing, but this thing is part of Madrid's coat of arms) and the infamous Puerta del Sol, from where all distances to all of Iberia are measured (including Portugal). 

just another cathedral

royal palace

bear with strawberry tree -- Madrid's coat of arms

By the way, at Puerta del Sol you can observe something absolutely perverted. The metro station is called "vodafone Sol", and the metro line 2 has a Vodafone logo in it aswell. How could you possibly do that? Selling the probably most important metro station of your city to a company? Jesus. That's just .. incredible. 

you didn't believe me?!

In the afternoon, I looked at more apartments -- certainly an upgrade compared to what I had been looking at before, but still not quite what I was looking for. Maybe manana (= tomorrow, very important term around here). 

At night, we had some chicken, sang some Karaoke (Backstreet Boys, in case you wanted to know that) and headed out to the infamous "pub crawl". Basically consisted of going to a bar, then to a club -- but not just a club, but a 7 story club. Holy shit. Too bad they forgot the elevator. Nevertheless, that was a really cool experience. 

This morning, we woke up with lots of hungover american girls in our room (no worries -- they also sleep here). It was hilarious. Not gonna go into detail much more though. Adam and I headed out for breakfast/lunch/whatever at a all-you-can-eat place. While the food was mediocre, it was a lot, so I was just satisfied. We also had an interesting discussion about the flaws of the US and of Europe, stereotypes and whatnot. I also looked at another apartment, and I'm in love. This one will probably be it. I'll decide tomorrow.

Back to the present. I kinda get the idea of a siesta now. Every movement of your body causes more sweat, and that does include typing on a keyboard. Seems like a good idea to just sleep instead. 

I however won't. I have another visit scheduled at six, and I'm positive that we won't stay in tonight. I will report. Until then, take care. 

Another blog .. again?!

Hello there, my dear readers. 

I'm sure this raises a lot of questions like: "Does the world really need another blog about a stay abroad?" , "Wait .. weren't you just in Brazil and Norway?" , "When does this guy go to university?" and many more. Whatever it is, I'll try to answer it sooner or later. 

For those who don't know: As of August 27th (tomorrow), I'll be living in Madrid for a whole semester. No worries, I'm going to university there, so I'm going to live a rather "normal" life. Normal? What's normal anyway? Recently, there hasn't been a lot of normality in my life, but staying in the same spot for more than 3 months is going to be "normal" for my measures. Nevertheless, these 6 months are going to be unique and very interesting. 

The bags are packed (just waiting for some laundry), my room is awkwardly empty and the alarm is set. Now I just have to find an apartment in Madrid, pick my classes, get a SIM card, figure out how to use the metro most cheaply, find my lacrosse team (there are two), and probably a thousand more things. Needless to say, I'm perfectly prepared. 

I've heard lots of positive things about Madrid, and everybody knows someone who has lived or at least been there before. Seems like I'm the only person who hasn't yet. It's time to change that. 

You'll hear from me soon enough. Until then, take care.

D