Comincia tutto venerdí, una mattina tranquilla passata a rilassarsi e a studiare un po', poi pranzo con annesso pisolino pomeridiano e poi di nuovo a studiare.
Il momento clou della giornata era la cena: avevamo infatti deciso di andare a mangiare fuori in un ristorante vegetariani consigliatoci dalla nostra prof, tanto per provare qualcosa di nuovo e di diverso.
Come ormai da qualche settimana a questa parte, non poteva mancare la partitina a biliardo con Andrea, che sta diventando sempre piú skillato (e culone :-P).
Doccia e poi via in direzione Plaza S. Francisco per trovarci con Elena, Greta e Bea. Arrivati al ristorante, un posto davvero carino e pulito, ci troviamo di fronte alla sfida piú difficile: interpretare il menú e scegliere cosa mangiare. Credetemi, se non conosci i nomi delle cose perché non sei abituato a mangiarle, diventa tutto moooolto piú difficile.
Comunque, per farla breve, prendiamo un menú completo (che era per due persone, ma che abbiamo diviso in 5) piú un altro paio di cose.
Davvero, non ho mai mangiato niente di cosí particolare: timballo di zucchine con avocado e scaglie di parmigiano, falafel con contorni e salsine varie (buonissimo!), polpette con porro, spaghettini con alghe (ALGHE!!) accompagnati, udite udite, con salsa di PLANCTON.
Sí, avete capito bene. Plancton. Insomma, ora so come si sentono le balene quando lo mangiano.
Nel complesso, tutto buono, anche se abbiamo fatto molta fatica a digerire (lo stomaco ha smesso di brontolare alle 2!!).
La serata l'abbiamo chiusa in uno dei locali della zona vicino all'universitá bevendo un drink e parlando di qualsiasi cosa nella maniera piú random possibile.
Sabato, per quanto riguarda la mattina almeno, é la fotocopia del giorno precedente. Il pomeriggio, peró, é a stampo culturale, visto che abbiamo programmato una visita al museo Goya.
Devo dire che, nel complesso, l'ho apprezzato. Magari non tanto lo stile di Goya in sé, molto tetro e triste (l'artista visse nel periodo dell'Inquisizione) quanto piuttosto quello di molti degli altri artisti esposti. Alcuni di questi si avvicinavano in parte, a giudicare soprattutto dalla pennellata, alla corrente impressionistica, mentre altri condividevano molti aspetti in comune con i macchiaioli.
Mi ha fatto molto piacere, poi, trovare esposte numerose opere di artisti italiani.
Conclusa la visita, abbiamo fatto un salto ai mercatini di natale in Piazza del Pilar, dove ci siamo seduti a bere qualcosa e a fare due chiacchiere prima che il freddo polare e le dita gelate ci facessero rifugiare in casa, al calduccio.
Il weekend culturale terminó domenica con la visita mattutina all'Aljafería, un imponente castello che funge da sede dell'amministrazione della cittá.
Da fuori é veramente imponente e, soprattutto, ben conservato. Il parco tutto attorno, poi, funge da perfetta cornice per la struttura.
Anche la prima impressione, una volta varcato il portone e entrati nel cortile centrale é stata positiva. Cavolo, sembrava di essere sul set di Game of Thrones!! Il giardino con alberi di arancia al centro e tutto attorno un portico con annesso colonnato chiaramente risalente al periodo dell'occupazione araba della Spagna. Inutile dire che ho fatto millanta foto :):)
Purtroppo, tutto il resto ha deluso le aspettative. A parte alcuni soffitti o resti di arcate, l'intero edificio é stato completamente rimodernato, quindi non presenta molti aspetti interessanti. Un vero peccato, perché il potenziale c'é. Sarebbe anche bello permettere ai visitatori di salire sui bastioni per ammirare tutto ció che sta intorno e immaginare, solo per un momento, di essere stati catapultati indietro di qualche secolo, quando non c'erano edifici attorno, ma solo terra, acqua e alberi. Ecco, quello sí che sarebbe stato mitico!! Peccato davvero :(.
La mattina l'abbiamo passata cosí. Il pomeriggio é stato tranquillo, una normalissima domenica di relax.
Dopo questo weekend posso dire di conoscere almeno un po' di piú la cittá nella quale vivo da ormai tre mesi e di ribadire quanto mi piaccia Zaragoza. Non mi pento affatto di averla preferita a Málaga.
Ora mi resta poco da fare qui, giusto un ultimo esame tra 2 giorni e le feste di fine corso (dovró preparare non uno, bensí due tiramisú per l'occasione :):) ). Poi sará tempo di preparare i bagagli, mettere in ordine la casa, farsi dare indietro il cash e dire arrivederci alla cittá.
Cavolo, come passa il tempo; questi tre mesi sono davvero volati!!!
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It's the second to last weekend of my stay here in Spain and, seen the 2 days extra-holiday, besides studying, we had planned a few things to do, including visiting a couple of local museums and other important sites we hadn't seen yet.
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| Our accurate schedule written by Bea :):) |
It all began on Friday, a boring day spent relaxing and
But it didn't matter, since our plans were for the evening: dinner in a vegetarian restaurant our teacher had recommended us. I had never tried something like that before, so I thought it'd be cool and, why not, thrilling having dinner there :):).
So, after a couple of pool matches, Andrea and I got dressed and went out to meet Elena, Bea and Greta near the restaurant.
The first impression of the place was undoubtedly positive. Everything was clean and well-lighted.
The real challenge begun when it came to interpret (literally!!) the menu. Believe me, when you've never heard about at least the 75% of the things in a menu (which, of course, was written in Spanish, just to make things "a bit" more challenging), even something apparently harmless like ordering food can become something potentially dangerous.
Anyway, after 20 minutes of group brainstorming after a quick consultation, we ordered a full menu (planned for 2 people, but which we shared being five) plus another couple of things.
And, wow. I must say I had never eaten something so different, so particular: courgette timbale with parmigiano shavings and other things, falafel together with onions, a spicy garlic based sauce and other veggies (delicious!!), leek based vegetarian meat balls, spaghetti with algae (ALGAE!!) with.... PLANCTON sauce.
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| That white thing on the bottom left is the plancton! |
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| But as you can see, the dish were very well made :) |
To sum up, we ate well, even if it took our stomach some time to "finish" its work (approximately 4.30 hours, I went to bed with my stomach soundtrack).
Before going home, we went to one of the pubs near Uni to drink something. It was lovely, just sitting there in the middle of the sound of 200 other voices talking randomly about everything.
As for the previous day, Saturday morning was for studying and getting bored waiting for the afternoon.
To my happiness, finally it was time for museum trip! We were to visit The Goya Museum.
I must say that the museum in its entirety was worth a visit, even if maybe Goya's style (quite melancholic and dark) isn't exactly what I am most attracted from, but I can understand the artist was influenced by the period in which he lived (he witnessed the horrors of war and the violence of the early 1800 ) and therefore I can appreciate it the same (also because he used quite a particular technique that gives his drawings a unique precision and expressiveness. Amazing!! :) ).
But there were also other artists' works, some of which were clearly close to Impressionism, judging by the brush strokes.
I also was delighted to see there were a lot of italian artists' works exposed in the museum (so proud of my little boot-shaped country!! :):) ).
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| This isn't from an Italian artist, but you can bet the "subject" is Italian :):) |
After the visit, because of the freezing cold (I had underestimate the weather at the time of choosing what to wear!) we had a walk in the middle of Christmas Markets in Pilar Square and we made the wise decision of drinking something hot while chit-chatting.
Of course, Mother Nature didn't take long to defeat us and made us return to our well warmed houses to see if we had some toes left.
The cultural weekend came to an end after Sunday's visit to Aljafería, an ancient huge castle which nowadays is the house of the government of the city.
From the outside, it's quite an impressive and, above all, well kept castle. All around its walls, then, there is a beautiful garden full of olive trees. The perfect sorroundings in my opinion :).
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| Huge, isn't it? :) |
My first impression, just after walking through the main doors (cyclopic dimensions here too ;) ) was even better. I was standing in an internal green garden with orange trees sorrounded by a portico and its colonnade (both of them clearly dating back to the period of Arabic occupation here in Spain). And, wow: it seemed like I had just taken part in one of Game of Thrones scenes! :):)
No need to say I took loads of photos :):)
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| "Winter is coming!" - it fits perfectly, doesn't it? :) |
Unfortunately, all the remaining part of the caslte was a disappointment. Except for some ceilings and some remainings of ancient arcs and decorations, the whole building has been completely renewed, so it lacks of interesting features. What a shame, such a wasted potential. They don't even allow tourists to climb up till the top of the walls to enjoy the view of what's around the building, maybe while daydreaming about travelling back in time to when there wasn't a city, but only earth, water and trees. That'd have been magical!
Sunday afternoon was just as quiet as the morning. Simple relax, nothing more :).
After this weekend I can say I've learnt at least something more about the city in which I've been living for almost three months by now. This makes me confirm my positive rating about Zaragoza: I really love it and I don't have any regrets for not choosing Málaga.
Now I really don't have much more to do here, except from the already mentioned exam on Wednesday and the farewell parties I'll be taking part in between Thursday and Friday (and for which I'll have to prepare not one, but two tiramisú: a sweet end for an amazing adventure! :) ). Then it'll be time for me to pack up (never gonna manage to do that), to clean the house, to get my 300€ cash back and then, at the very end, to say goodbye and leave.
Geez, I'll never get tired of being amazed by how fast time is. That's why we have to take any chances to do all sort of things and live the most amazing experiences, because life is really too short and those chances might not come back.
(This is what I keep telling me everyday, above all when I'm not motivated to do something. You could call it a part of my way of living :):) )
Hope I've not bored you with this long post, see you soon!! ;)
PS I didn't manage to take any picture of Goya's works because the room was very poor lighted and using the flash would have been pointless!
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