15th of July
Marta and I get up really late (12.45) even though we set the alarm at 10.30.
We have lunch at her place where her dad cooked a really nice three course menu. (Mixed vegetables; fish and filled eggs; and for dessert a melon ring filled with joghurt and biscuits with a cherry-red wine sauce)
 After lunch we take the train to Madrid where we are meeting Edu and Ricci. They live out the Spanish attitude and are not there when we arrive.
We are waiting for them on a big square filled with people and policemen. I’ve never seen so many policemen in one place withouth anything special happening. I know they are there for your safety but if anything they make you feel unsafe.
After half an hour waiting Marta decides that she needs to withdraw money and we go to the closest bank. While queuing a policeman comes over and explains Marta in Spanish that there is a group of people running around that are robbing people and that they were quite aggressive. They tend to be close to the bank we are standing at and if they come we shouldn’t hesitate to hit them.
“Action - Reaction” he keeps saying and looks very serious.
He also adds that if we come to the police station with their teeth in our hands we would get a price.

Marta noices that I’m on my way to freaking out so she tries to calm me down by saying this has never happened to her before, Madrid is not that dangerous and that she’s only been attacked about three times before. The last time was a week ago, actually not very far from where we are right now. Well, that helped…
The rest of the time we spend next to a policecar because I refuse to go anywhere else.
When the boys finally arrive (over an hour late) I feel stong enough to leave our blue friends and we wander around the city.
Ricci wants to make me feel better by telling me how much more dangerous his city, Mexico City, is. He tells me lots of stories about kidnapping and other stuff and when he finally finishes I say “Thanks for those lovely stories Ricci but all you managed to do is make me never want to go to Mexico City.”

Edu is trying to do his best to make me like the city. He is showing us around, pointing out all the good stuff. But I’m just not feeling it. It seems too big and confusing to me. And all the policecars are just making me nervous. Seems like I am the countrygirl I never wanted to be.

We then have to meet Riccis friends who are in Madrid for a couple of days. To get to the meeting point we have to take the subway.
I have to mention here that on our way from Martas place to the square we realised that one of the metros was cut. Of course not before we got off one subway and didn’t have another to change in.
Knowing that we decide to take a different one to meet Riccis friends but once we arrive at the subway station we realise that this one is cut too.
So we get to the meeting point half an hour too late and Riccis friends have already left.
It takes us a while until we find them and a nice place to have tapas. The place was nice but the the waitress is rude and the sangria is bad. At least the food is good and even though the whole day was a bit stressful we have a great time. … Until everyone decides to speak Spanish through the whole dinner.
Now at this point I have to mention that all five of them speak perfect English. I am trying to understand how a whole group of lovely and nice people can not notice that one person is not understanding a word they’re saying and is bored to death. But it seems to me, and I’ve been in those kind of situations before, that as soon as a Spanish group reaches the size of four people it is impossible to get them to speak English.
Anyway, even though the dinner wasn’t the most exciting one I was very happy to see the boys again! I will miss them a lot and really hope they will come and visit me soon!! -only three at a time though! -

We say goodbye to Riccis friends and Edu offers to take us with his car to a subway station closer to Martas place. From there it’s only three or fours stops to the south of Madrid and then a couple more with another one to Mostoles.
We have to hurry because it is close to midnight and that’s when the first subway stops running. We arrive there in time but it wouldn’t be the perfect ending of the day if everything would word out fine. So of course this line is cut too. (And that after Edu told me how amazing the subways in Madrid are.)
As this is the one and only subway that goes to the south we don’t know what to do. But we are not alone. About 60 other people have the same problem.
We get told that there is a bus which of course doesn’t come for ages but then finally gets us home around 2am.
We laugh about this strange day and fall into deep sleep.

16th of July
We get up late again, have another nice lunch made by Martas dad and then go back to Madrid. Adventurous you might think but this time everything works out fine. Well most of it as we were supposed to meet the boys again but they realise the same morning that they are leaving to Brussels the next day but thought they would leave on the friday. So they have to get organised and have no time to see us.
Marta qnd I visit the gay and alternative part of the city which is really nice and makes me feel a lot more comfortable.
We have a drink there, see an amazing street performer and head back home.
This time we don’t take the risk and take the bus instead of the subway.
We go straight to bed as I have to catch an early train back to Barcelona.

Martas father says goodbye to me with the words “You are welcome to come back any time. This is your country - this is your home - this is your family.”
Here I want to thank all the Spanish families again. If they know one thing than how to welcome people in their homes, in their lives. I always felt very comfortable and welcome in all the different places and I really appreciate that.
Thank you for having me there!!

12th of July
Carmen wants to take the moped to show me around the city so she calls her father for a second helmet.
When he arrives we go downstairs to get the moped but there we realise that now the battery is missing too.
So even with the second helmet we can’t go.
Instead Carmens dad takes us with him in the car and joins us on our walk through the city.
There we see the mosque which is really impressive and the nice little streets of Cordoba.
We go home to eat and get changed for the Andalusian horse show which I really wanted to see.
Unfortunately it is a really bad one.
After the show Carmen and I want to meet some of her friends who are having a bbq.
Carmens mum takes us with her and drops us off about 10 minutes away from the place we are supposed to go to. Thanks to Carmens orientation we arrived there an hour later. Haha.
As Carmen is more or less the only one out of her friends that speaks English I’m not too excited about meeting a bunch of people I can’t talk to. But it turns out to be quite nice as one of the girls there grew up in Germany and two or three others speak English. The rest just talks Spanish to me and surprisingly I understand most of what they are trying to tell me.
At 4.30am I finally get Carmen to leave and we make our way back home and to bed.

13th of July
We have a very lazy sunday and spend most of the day at home.
In the late afternoon we go for a walk, then meet Carmens mother, father, sister and brother for dinner and ice cream.
I’m very exhausted from not doing anything and fall asleep before Carmen even turns out the light.

14th of July
Against everyones warnings about the heat (approx. 40°C) in Cordoba we wake up with thunder and lightning. Carmens only words during the first half an hour are “I can’t believe it”.
According to her she has never seen rain in July before.
When the rain stops we go shopping and then for lunch to a chinese restaurant where we pour sugar in the soya sauce because they were so unfriendly.
After that we have to go back home, get my stuff and leave to the train station.
It’s another goodbye….

At 9.15pm I arrive in Madrid.
Marta. despite the bad Spanish reputation. is on time and already waiting for me with one of her friends. Alex.
We take the train to Mostoles which is about 30 minutes away from Madrid city. We drop off our stuff at her parents place and go out for dinner and then for a drink.
After that we head back home and to bed.

9th of July
I get the best travel guides one can wish for! After a nice breakfast Alicia shows me around Zaragoza. She and her sister know everything about their city and tell me more than any book could have done. We meet Irene at the university where the two of them have a meeting with one of their teachers while I’m sitting outside, enjoying the sun.
After that we walk back home to have a nice Spanish meal made by their grandmother. We have a short siesta and then go back to town to see the castle, the cathedral and everything else. I didn’t expect much from Zaragoza but have to say I really liked it. But then again the girls made it really easy for me. The whole family is absolutely lovely! It is impossible not to like Zaragoza if you stay with them.
We are really exhausted when we get back home and just watch an episode of Gossip Girl before we go to bed.

10th of July
Alicia and I go to the train station to buy my ticket to Cordoba, then meet Irene and Carolina at the university because they have to talk to their coordinator. Afterwards Alicia and I make our way to the Expo which takes place in Zaragoza this year.
It’s supposed to be one of the hottest days so not too many people are there. Still, for some of the pavilions you have to queue for a really long time. Like the German one that had a waiting time of 1 1/2 hours even though it’s not supposed to be that good.
So we skip those pavilions.
Southamerica presents a great band from Kuba. They are called Karamba and I immediately fall in love with their music and buy one of their cds.
Austria is a bit of a disappointment. There is a giant snow globe with real people dancing inside, wearing traditional Austrian clothes. Later on people from the audience are allowed to change into those clothes and dance.
The idea is great and everyone seems to love it but that is pretty much all the pavilion has to offer and that’s a shame.
We also go to the Swedish pavilion where I’m mostly excited about talking Swedish to the people working inside. The pavilion itself is nice but not very exciting.
After spending 9 hours at the Expo we’re exhausted and ready to meet Carolina and Irene for some cold beers.
Right next to the Expo area is a lovely new place to chill out. It’s a bar-restaurant with a beach area. You sit outside in the sand and it really feels like the sea is only a couple of meters away. You can easily ignore the fact that Zaragoza is situated in the desert. The one thing that is important to know though is where the entrance is. Otherwise you might wander around the building for half an hour like Alicia and I did.
After a great night out we go back home and straight to bed.

11th of July:
Third day in Zaragoza and third time at the university.
While Alicia and Irene try to fix their grades I try to get in touch with my bank after not getting any money out of the cash machine the day before.
15 minutes and about 10€ phone bill later my account is okay again, thanks to my lovely friend Anna who works at the bank and saved my money situation a couple of times before.
We walk through town one more time, meet Carolina to say goodbye and go back home to have lunch.
After that Irene has to go to work and Alicia and I go to the train station where we have to say goodbye.
Once again, thank you so much for the wonderful time!!

From Zaragoza to Cordoba I have to take AVE which is the fastest (and most expensive) train in Spain.
The trains in general are really nice here. They are on time, the seats are comfortable, the toilets are clean, you can watch movies (!) - most of te time even in English and you even get sweets!
My train ride is really comfortable and only 4 hours later I’m in Cordoba where Carmen picks me up.
We arrive at her place round 11.20pm where I meet her mother.
Carmen picked me up with the car but wants to take the motorbike (once again - moped!) to show me the city. Slightly exhausted I agree, take the helmet and go to the garage with her. There she realises that someone broke into her moped and stole her helmet. She checks if the rest of the bike is okay and fortunately it is.
Not very impressed and with only one helmet we decide to take the car.
After a short ride where she shows me the main monuments we go and meet some of her friends in a bar.
There people are singing and playing the guitar.
I’m liking the Spanish flair but am too tired to stay for very long so we go home to sleep.

7th of July/8th of July
We have to get up at quarter to six in the morning to catch the train to Zaragoza. There we meet Alicia, Irene, Carolina, Sale, Edu, Antony and Ricci. We take the train to Pamplona to see the Running of the Bulls. It feels like we never said goodbye as if we would still be in Sweden just a wee bit hotter.
We arrive in Pamplona and spend the day just sitting on the streets, drinking and talking. Everyone is dressed in white and red as this is the tradition.
It’s a great sunny day and we all enjoy being together!

- Originally I was supposed to go there on my own to meet some of my American friends. They rented an apartment with a balcony, which is really expensive cause it is the only way to be completely safe from the bulls and you have an amazing view over the whole event. A couple of weeks later everyone else decided to go too so it was a good opportunity to see my friends again.
In the very last minute Jared, one of the Americans, calls me to let me know that something with the reservation of the apartment went wrong and that we don’t have a place to stay. -

So I decide to sleep on the streets like everyone else in the group. The time passes by and we are enjoying the sun, the music and the people dancing. But then the night comes and suddenly everything gets really uncomfortable. People are wasted, throwing sangria over each other and it gets really really cold. At 11pm we’re so cold that we have to go to a club to warm us up and at 2am it feels like we will never make it through the night. Sleeping outside seems impossible for us so Antony, Guillem and I just wander around the city. Everyone else stays in the club. We try to find a place to sleep as we are tired as hell but every time we sit down somewhere we all start shivering and leave after a couple of minutes. We meet Sale and Ricci on the street, go to another bar where they start dancing, Guillem and Antony fall asleep on the table and I am left alone with my freezing self.
By this time Guillem already had strong cramps in the stomach but we figured that would just go away. We change bars one more time when the boys wake up but am still freezing and really tired. At 6am the bus station opens -where we have all our stuff- and we need to go there because Guillem can hardly sit or stand anymore. There Antony decides that he will regret it for the rest of his life if he doesn’t run with the bulls and takes off. Sale and Ricci disappear, Guillem falls asleep and I have to queue for an hour to get our luggage.
Finally Antony comes back, really excited and without any horns in his body which makes me really happy!
We were supposed to stay another night but everyone is so exhausted from this one that we all decide to go home. One by one everyone takes off.
Alicia, Irene and Carolina already had a ticket for the bus to Zaragoza. Guillem and I had to go to the train station to get him a ticket to Barcelona and me one to Zaragoza. The two hours train ride seemed like a life-time and I tried to keep my eyes open so we wouldn’t miss the stop. Guillem took the train from Zaragoza to Barcelona and I took a taxi to the twins house where I took a shower and fell asleep.
Alicia was working when I arrived but Irene was there to babysit me.
We took it easy that night and watched the first hour of Amadeus, then went to bed because we couldn’t keep our eyes open.

5th of July
Vanessa, the Brazilian girl, and I wake up really late. We get change and she is wearing a lovely orange skirt. With body language and a few Spanish words I’m telling her that the skirt looks really nice on her. She takes it off and says I can have it. I’m trying to tell her that I can’t take it and she keeps asking me “you like it, right? you like it? so take it!”. she says it’s a present and something to remind me of her. So now I have this gorgeous Brazilian skirt. What a lovely person!
After that we go for lunch, have a great time and arrive in Barcelona a lot later then we are supposed to.
There Guillem picks me up and we walk to his place.
As I have been in Barcelona twice before, I have seen most of the important sights and we just take a walk through the city.

6th of July
Guillem takes me with his motorbike -we would rather call it a moped- around town and up a hill to a castle. From there you can see the whole city which is just beautiful!
We stay up there for quite a while and then go back to his place. There I meet his parents and brother who have been away the day before. It’s a warming welcome even though his mother doesn’t understand any English.
At night we take the mopedbike and go out for dinner. We find a lovely little place which would be great for vegetarians as they serve hardly any meat.
After a walk we drive back home and go to bed.

4th of July
Emer, Eoin and I take the train to Pisa at 10.37.
That is of course not the train we looked up on the internet. (Italian AND Austrian website) Ours was supposed to leave at 10.33 so we could catch the connected train to Rome at 11.44.
There is no train at all at 10.33 and the later one is 10 minutes delayed and takes 1h20min instead of 1h so we miss the train in Pisa.
The three of us pay 5€ extra and catch another train at 1pm. I get off at Civitavecchia to take the ferry to Barcelona and have to say goodbye to my new lovely Irish friends because they are continuing to Rome. But I will see them soon in Cork
At the station I realise that I still remember the way to the harbour as we’ve already walked there once in 2003.
Two kilometers later I’m covered in sweat and two hours too early. I wait around, talking to random people and am finally allowed to get on the boat at 6pm.
There I share a room with a Brazilian girl. We are quite lucky as this is supposed to be a 4 women cabin.
She doesn’t speak any English and as I never got further than day 7 in my “Spanish in 4 weeks” book I’m not But we talk with hands and feet like children and everything works out.
I go upstairs on the deck, have a little snack, use the internet for half an hour -which by the way costs me 5€!- and go to bed.

Italy has a new law about using the internet… if you go to an internet café you have to show your passport. But because we had to leave ours at the reception of the hostels I wasn’t able to get access to the internet. So Miss Dewein, it is not my fault and I did write every day. Just in a book instead of the blog. So here we go:

1st of July
My journey begins. My dad is worried that I get lost somewhere in Europe, or even Innsbruck, so he brings me to the main station. He hugs me goodbye, tells me to take care of myself and asks me if I brought condoms.
I roll my eyes and get on the train.
I’m reliefed when I realise that I’m on a German train with comfortable seats and light. But you wouldn’t get the real Italian feeling if the train would be on time so we get stuck about 300m before Brixen.
I start talking to a German woman that asked me to help her with her laguage. And while I’m talking to her I suddenly hear someone shouting my name. I turn around and there is Tim, one of my Australian Erasmus friends.
Time passes by fast and we arrive in Verona around 1.39pm. Tim takes off to Milan and Teo, who picked me up, and I head home.
He shows me the town which btw is lovely, we take pictures of people standing on Juliettes balcony cause we are too lazy to get up there ourselves. We try to write down our names on the wall of the lovers but our pens are not good enough so I point out that Nina and Teo are already on there and we leave happily ever after.
We have a nice dinner on top of a hill where you can see all over Verona and go to bed quite early.

xxTeoxx

Verona at night

2nd of July:
Teo and I take off to Florence at about 10am.
Swedish people have been following me ever since I left Gothenburg so of course we have a Swedish family sitting next to us on the train.
We stay in a really nice youth hostel called Plus. I very much recommend this one and it seems like there are more all over Europe.
People were very nice there, the rooms are great and there’s internet, a bar, a “club”, a swimming pool, a sauna and much more. And on top of that it was the cheapest one we found in Florence.
We meet two lovely Irish people, Emer and Eoin and when they say they are going out for beers that night but want to take it easy, Teo and I already know how this is going to end.
Teo and I take a walk through the city then head back to the hostel. There we really do start with a beer but very soon change to cocktails that are made out of pure alcohol.
To cut a long (and very embarrassing) story short we had a great time -as far as we remember- and at the end even got Nina out of the toilet.

Florence - a lovely bridge

You are not allowed to leave Florence if you havent taken a picture of him

Me, Teo, Eoin and Emer - slightly drunk

Mein Erasmusjahr ist so gut wie vorüber, mein Blog so gut wie leer.
Sehr überraschend sollte das für die wenigsten von euch seien.
Hier kommt aber der neue Plan und der wird dieses Mal durchgehalten:
Snövit macht sich am 1. Juli auf eine zweimonatige Reise durch das wunderschöne Europa und wird hier regelmäßig davon berichten. Sprich ca alle 3 Tage.
Ich hoffe es gibt noch jemanden der diesen Blog wenigstens ab und zu besucht und meine Worte deswegen nicht ganz umsonst niedergeschrieben werden.
Außerdem wird dies in englisch geschehen, da die wenigen die sich hier blicken lassen nicht allzuviel Deutsch sprechen.
Alles Liebe,
Nina

In den letzen Wochen hat sich viel getan. Ich habe meine erste Prüfung auf der Uni bestanden, Susanne und ich sind nach Kopenhagen gefahren, meine Haare sind wieder schwarz und ich habe mich gegen alle meine bisherigen emanzipierten Einstellungen gestellt und bin zur Hausfrau mutiert.

Wie lautet dieses Sprichwort? “Wer mit zwanzig kein Revolutionär war, hat kein Herz. Wer es mit dreißig noch ist, keinen Verstand.” (Angeblich von Georg Bernard Shaw.)

So ist das auch mit der Emanzipation. Jung, rebellisch, kommunistisch, emanzipiert.
Doch wenn es dann zum richtigen Frau-Sein kommt, muss man sich seiner Situation bewusst werden. Schließlich wollen wir ja alle mal einen Mann abbekommen.

Und so habe ich mich hingesetzt und Kochrezepte aus dem Internet gesucht. (Denn die moderne Frau darf sich hin und wieder auf technische Geräte stützen.) Ein Kaiserschmarrn war schnell gemacht, das Zimmer wurde zum Esssaal umfunktioniert und schon hatte ich fünf potenzielle Ehemänner bei mir sitzen.

Damit sie das Interesse nicht genauso schnell wieder verlieren, habe ich sie die Woche darauf noch mit Kuchen umgarnt und so hab ich nun die Qual der Wahl. Völlig überfordert mit den Liebeserklärungen, nahm ich mir eine Auszeit und fuhr mit Susanne nach Kopenhagen.

Danny, der letztes Semester seinen Erasmusaufenthalt in Innsbruck machte, stellte uns sein Wohnzimmer inklusive Matratze zur Verfügung. Wir verbrachten drei wunderschöne Tage damit uns neu einzukleiden (meinem neuen Lebensstil entsprechend), die Stadt zu erkunden und uns darüber zu freuen, dass sämtliche Erasmusstudenten in Stockholm bei Hagel und +3 Grad saßen, während wir bei Sonnenschein und ohne Jacke im königlichen Park flanierten. Alles in allem ein wunderschönes Wochenende das unbedingt bald in einer anderen Stadt wiederholt werden muss.