¡Hooooooooooooolaaaaaaaaa a todos!
Wow, it has been quite some times since I have last written to you all! I sincerely apologize for the delay in writing, but things had gotten quite busy on the Spanish front. Last we spoke, I told you about my Spanish Thanksgiving and when my girlfriend, Jess, came to visit. Since then, I have been on the road every weekend, and from the end of December through the first week of January.
First let's begin with my adventures to Álcala de Henares and Amsterdam. Álcala is a small town right outside of Madrid; I went on a day trip with my friends Tyler, Emma and Dinho. There was a Tuesday holiday, so we spent the day walking around the town. It was very pretty with all of the Christmas lights around the town and Christmas market. Álcala is home to the Universidad de Álcala and Miguel de Cervantes, the author of the book,
Don Quixote. We were able to tour Cervantes' old home for free, as well as enjoy the ambiance around the rest of the town.
Later that week, Tyler and I adventured up north to Amsterdam, Holland. Amsterdam has been high on my list (no pun intended!) for years now and I was so happy to finally go. After landing and checking into our hostel, Tyler and I took the tour of the Heineken Brewery (my favorite beer) and learned about its brewing process. The following day, we rented bikes in the morning and rode all over the city and felt like locals. It felt like there were more bikers than drivers on the road and it felt a bit dangerous to walk around the city. Tyler and I rode to the "I AMSTERDAM" sign, Anne Frank House, and along several of the canals. After the ride, we visited the Van Gough Museum and learned about his life and Van Gough's stages of mental health issues that could be visibly seen in his artwork. After the museum, we walked to the Anne Frank House. I was speechless the entire time we were in the house. For eight people to live in hiding in such a small apartment for so long is incredible...there are no words to describe it. The following morning, Tyler returned to Madrid and I took a canal tour around the city. Like Venice (which I have yet to see), Amsterdam is made up of canals all over the city. On the boat tour, I learned about the city's architecture, the newer side of Amsterdam, and many of the popular tourists locations. But the best part of Amsterdam was the desserts! The famous dessert is called, "stroopwafel," which is a wafer cookie covered in syrup-like coating; aka pure sugar! But the cakes, brownies, and waffles all tasted amazing.
The following weekend, I went to Warsaw, Poland with Carissa and Katy. If you ever wondered what it is like to be in Eastern Europe during winter, I can tell you it is very cold (keep reading to see more cold stories from Vienna!), but worth experiencing firsthand. We flew in Friday night and walked around the center of the old town. We found an ice rink with some vendors serving hot wine to heat us up. The following day, Katy and I took a frozen morning run, then the three of us took a walking tour around the old town and learned that 85% of Warsaw was destroyed during World War II and had all been rebuilt. It was incredible how the Warsaw community came together, while under Soviet Rule, to rebuild their city to look as similar as possible to how it was before the War. Before hearing that fact, I thought the buildings had been around for centuries, not decades. After a lunch filled with perogies, we walked to the Warsaw Jewish History Museum. Before WWII, Warsaw had a booming Jewish community of nearly 400,000 people (a third of the Warsaw population). But after the Holocaust and persecution by the Soviets, the Jewish population in Warsaw is minimal. Being a Polish Jew whose family was murdered by the Nazis roughly seventy years ago, it was hard to make it through several parts of the museum.
On Sundays in Warsaw, museums are free to enter. I visited the old palace and the Warsaw Uprising Museums. The old palace was completely destroyed during WWII, but not before the Warsaw residents snuck out old paintings and monumental items to hide from the Nazis. Those artifacts were returned to their proper places once the palace was rebuilt. In 1944, the Poles had an uprising against the Nazis. While it was unsuccessful, they were one of the few countries to fight back after being occupied. The museum had multiple artifacts, photos, videos, and recollections from several of the fighters and witnesses. However, I did not enjoy that museum as much as the Jewish History and palace.
The highlight of the trip was traveling to the town of Nasielsk, a small suburb of Warsaw. In the early 1900s, the original David Sokolsky (not my dad) and his family emigrated from Nasielsk to the United States. I am happy to say that, roughly 100 years later, a Sokolsky returned to the place where it all began for us! I only spent about forty-five minutes in the town, but it was eerie to think that I was in the same vicinity as my relatives nearly a century ago. (I am getting the chills writing it now!) Per my father's request, I took a photo of every sign of Nasielsk I could find and I am pretty sure the people there thought I was crazy.
And if you thought my December travels were finished, you're wrong! Following another short week at work, Benji, Miguel, our friend Guille, and I drove up to A Coruña (¡gracias, Miggy por conducir!) for Christmas. I stayed with Benji's family, who were amazingly hospitable; easily the best hosts in Spain, let along in all of Europe! I cannot thank both Margaritas, both Julios, and Benji for their hospitality and for making my stay with them in A Coruña as amazing as it was. I was fortunate to have two locals (Benji and Miguel) show me around the city. Normally on Christmas Eve, I go with my parents to meet up with two other families (the Newsomes and Hopfers) for dinner and celebration, then spend Christmas Day eating Chinese food and watching a movie. In Spain, Christmas Eve (la noche buena) is a time for the family to spend dinner together, then the kids go out to the bars with their friends afterwards (which is what we did), and Christmas Day is a time for a big lunch and a day of relaxation (I did get to watch a movie!).
On the 27th, I went down to Santiago de Compostela to meet up with Tyler to begin our quick adventure of Galicia. Santiago is known for El Camino de Santiago, which is a religious pilgrimage across the north of Spain that ends at the Cathedral in Santiago. The Cathedral is large, gorgeous, and quite a site to see. We took a tour of the Cathedral that brought us on top of the roof, which had an amazing view of the sunset. The next day, we went to the town of Pontevedra in the morning, walked around their old city (nothing too special, but a pretty town), and then made our way to Vigo. Vigo, like A Coruña, is on the coast, and had a beautiful sunset. In Vigo, we walked by the water and enjoyed the views of the ocean. Tyler left for Madrid the next morning and I enjoyed a relaxing day of walking around the town and took a hike up to A Guía, which had a gorgeous view of the city and town across the water. I wanted to watch sunset from there, but decided it would be too much of a hassle to walk back to my Airbnb from there at night.
From Vigo, I returned back to A Coruña in time for New Years. A Spanish tradition is to have a race called the "San Silvestre" on New Years Eve. Miguel and I ran the San Silvestre around the city in the late afternoon. Seeing so many people dressed up and ready to celebrate the end of 2016 was a joy to see and run with! The race was about six kilometers and I finished in twenty-seven minutes (the start was crowded with too many people), which I am very proud of! After the race, Miguel and I ended the year with a splash by running into the water on the beach. The water was freezing! A few days earlier, I told Miguel I would do it after the race and I followed through on my promise...but was happy not to have done it alone! At night, I ate dinner with Benji and his family and celebrated the new year with the Spanish tradition of eating twelve grapes for the final twelve seconds of the year (one grape per second). At night, I put on my suit and celebrated with Miguel and some of his friends. Once the night was over, we went and got churros with chocolate (another Spanish tradition) early in the morning. I then returned to Madrid for a few days before the next adventure.
As I previously stated, everyone should experience Eastern Europe during winter time...so I hopped on a flight to Bratislava, Slovakia en route to Vienna, Austria. Before I get any further, yes it was cold and no I will not go back to Eastern Europe until spring. My girlfriend, Jess, had an indoor field hockey tournament with Team USA in Vienna and I went to see her and cheer on her team! I met up with Tyler and our friend Natalie in Vienna on the morning of January 5 to meet up with them at the hostel. We went to the Belvedere Palace, where Franz Ferdinand was assassinated to start World War I. The palace was gorgeous and I could spend all day looking at the architecture and gardens on the backside of the palace. However, it was not as green as it probably is during spring and summer, but was still beautiful to see. After lunch and walking around, we met up with Jess for dinner; it was the first time we had seen each other in just over a month! It was so great to see her again after a shorter period of time and it was great to see her play hockey in person again after more than a year. This was also the first time I had seen her play indoor field hockey, which is way faster than outdoor field hockey...but I still had tons of questions about the rules (some things never change).
Between Jess' games, I was able to do some sightseeing around Vienna. An interesting thing about Vienna is that the museums are in old emperor's palaces. So while the content in the museums may be a bit boring, the buildings are amazing to see, both inside and out! One museum I visited was the Sigmund Freud House, which was off the beaten path from the rest of the museums. I learned about his contributions to therapy and psychology that are still used today. For example, he was a part of the research to attempt to make the client feel as comfortable as possible when talking to the therapist during a therapy session. Lastly, I went to the Schloss Schönbrunn Palace, which was the old emperors' palace in Vienna. The tour was amazing and each room was more elaborate than the next. It was interesting to learn how political business decisions were made by marrying royalty of other countries. It is hard to imagine President Obama forcing one of his daughters to marry the son of another country's president to create an ally.
As we begin 2017, I should probably make it my New Year's Resolution to write to you all on a more consistent basis to frequently update you all on my travels and adventures around Europe. This weekend, Katy, Carissa and I are going up to Copenhagen, Denmark, and when they head back to Madrid, I will make my way to Stockholm, Sweden for a day and a half. Photos and a blog post will come I PROMISE!
Hasta Luego,
Micah
