On Burgos

SUP FAM!! 

Alright, here comes a big ol’ stinking post.

So I am typing this again HEY HEY on a busssss. So funnnn. And to be honest, I don’t really know where we’re going. Wait just kidding, we’re going back to the hotel. But this is supposed to be a good distraction.

"European Adventure" ft. the American Spanish Students.

Episode 3: The Four Day Trip Around Spain

So yesterday we got on a bus and drove for a large chunk of my life that I will not get back….haha. BUT we had some really great stops along the way. Our first stop half-way through was at Burgos. And I am like 1% embarrassed to say I did not find this out until I was about 50 feet away from getting back on the bus. I just had no idea where we were the whole morning.

We went to Catedral de Burgos and it was incredible. Even though you can say that just about every Cathedral in Spain. Howeeever, this one is the 3^rd largest in Spain.  And to be honest: I have some really awesome pictures of the cathedral. At least two hundred. But the thing is, as someone who has been to a handful of cathedrals, I do understand they all start to look the same after a while. So I’m not going to dump the pictures here. But I don’t really know what to do with them haha... So if you have huge ganas to see more Spanish cathedrals, hit a sista up and I will make that happen for y’all.

I did want to tell one story about the cathedral though.

So the funniest thing at this cathedral was hands down Papamoscas. But again it’s a cathedral… so it really isn’t supposed to be funny. There is this man at the Catedral named Papamoscas.  In a weird way it reminds me of Bernie’s Dugout at Miller Park; where you don’t notice it until you’ve looked at nearly everything else but also that he’s got this weird fixated look about him. He has this giant creepy face!! Papamoscas is he who collects the moths that fly into everyones mouths as they are craning their necks looking up and around. I guess reading that isn’t very creepy, but hopefully this picture will help give me some more credibility:

shoot I thought I had a higher quality photo, but you could probably just google it.

Anyhow. If you want more info on it, I took the liberty to google the wikipedia page, which can be found here haha. If nothing more, you can see an actual big picture of his face!

I was dinking around reading a bunch of study abroad blogs from BYU comparing their experiences to ours and this girl used a great comparison about cathedrals that I want to share and not credit to me (the first bit is information, the second personal):

"So, a little bit of information on cathedrals. Most cathedrals take about 200 years to construct (give or take 100). So their construction spans several artistic movements. Most cathedrals we've been in have gothic, baroque, and romantic elements, just because the cathedral was started in the middle ages but wasn't finished until 200 years later."

[...]

"I stood in this beautiful cathedral. Cathedrals are always beautiful because they convey the majesty of God in their majestic construction. As if to say-- you can’t understand this cathedral in just one photo, you must come inside and crane your neck and spin around 3 times, and even then you can’t understand it all at once; how much greater is God."

Lindsey Madsen

So I hope that one day she sees that I’ve quoted her blog post, and she has this huge chunkin’ block quote on mine. Some people have the talent to write. Some people have the talent to talk. My only talent is writing how I talk. But it also means I don’t have concise ways to process information and display it logically haha. Holllaaaaaaaa!

I used to think cathedrals were really intimidating. Pretty much in a creepy way, but creepy feels too strong of a word… I guess I would say 4 years ago I would have stepped in a cathedral and said “Wow… this is a beautiful building. But I do not care at all about the religious significance.” They almost put me on edge. And while there are parts that I still don’t appreciate, cathedrals are an incredible piece of history for us. The only thing I would change is how heavily they emphasize the suffering of Christ. Because while I agree that’s important to acknowledge and it is very powerful, to me his image and life offers so much more. I just think that the Gospel is so much happier than that. It’s not about guilt for what we’ve done or worrying about if we’ll make it- that’s why we have the atonement. For the times when we need it. Sometimes we have to suffer through dark moments and maybe even dark periods of life, but by the end I just want to be happy. And the Gospel is just so much more hopeful and full of life and love than an intricately decorated cross that tells such a sharp story of pain and sacrifice.

There is definitely some sweet art though. I  can’t even imagine the process it took for some of the paintings, murals, tombs, crosses, statues etc that we saw.

After the cathedral, we sat and ate our little lunch- well actually I had already eaten most of mine on the bus and ate the rest while walking haha. So Alyssa, Sarah, Kat, and I walked around and window shopped, as we usually do. Saw the most adorable 170 dollar dress of my life. Won’t post a picture of it since it’s not that important haha. But then we did as we usually do: got back on a bus. Sat for a long time. Bus spit us out somewhere new. I am being 100% honest that 95% of the time I have no idea where we’re going. Or what we’re doing. Get on bus. Drive. Drive. Drive. Pause at a toll of tiny European traffic. Drive. Pause. Get off bus. Kiss the ground because I didn’t puke. Tour city. Repeat. Yaaaaaaay.

So after Burgos, we went to San Sebastian and went to the beeeeeach.

I did not partake much of the beach adventure. It made sense to me that we wouldn't have time to swim while we were in Spain, but we have actually have had multiple oppurtunities haha. And I still haven’t gone. I just………...seriously I hate sand. But I walked the beach and played photographer for the group. Sand in my shoes. On a scale of one to even…………….

So the whole time we were at the beach all I could think of was “Dear Mom and Dad. I’m at the beach today. I thought I would count the half-dressed people I’ve seen here to be funny, except I’ve lost count and that is not funny at all….”. SO I was also thinking about you and your European beach stories, Carrie & Olivia.

After the beach we kind of roamed around exploring the city and looking for food. Sometimes food is the only thing you can find on the streets, and sometimes it’s the last. We found a snack, got back on the bus, it spit us out at the hotel. Then we again had to go look for food.

That’s pretty much what we did with a few misadventures here and there. Thanks for reading this far!

Peace, love, and street peaches!!

JD

want to read what i've been reading lately?

1. "Want To Be Happy? Slow Down"
http://ideas.ted.com/want-to-be-happy-slow-down/

2. "7 Ways to Practice Emotional First Aid"
http://ideas.ted.com/7-ways-to-practice-emotional-first-aid/

3. "Leadership Advice From the Dalai Lama"
http://ideas.ted.com/leadership-advice-from-the-dalai-lama/

4. Berenice's Blog!!!
http://besbou.blogspot.com.es/search?updated-min=2015-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2016-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=3