Road Trip Part 2: Asturias... y Cantabria!

So in between Lugo and Santiago (on our way home) we packed up all our things and set off on a road trip along the northern coast of Spain. We had little money to spend so we brought a tent and sleeping bags and planned to find a place to camp each night. So we crammed five of us into what was made to be a four-person sedan and we on our way...

Considering we went out late the night before in Lugo and we still had to go for our camping gear, we only made it as far as Ribadeo the first day, which is still in the province of Galicia. We drove until it was dark, making finding a camping spot more difficult. We knew we would get in trouble camping in any location other than along the coast, so we looked for the first beach sign we could see. And we found it: La Playa Pancha. We saw a sign for a light house and thought we'd check it out. Sure enough, there was a little hidden spot in the bushes we found that was perfect to set up camp. But we soon found that camping near the beach in the north was a lot different that on our island. Geez it´s cold there! We all cuddled up wearing just about all the clothing we brought and I still woke up in the morning unable to feel my toes....

The next day we got up relatively early in order to get a head start on the drive. We visited two small towns in Asturias called Navia and Luarca before we stopped in a town called Salas to eat lunch. There was one option and one option only to eat. We ate what everyone else ate. You could tell the place was family owned. There were flies everywhere and the coffee press they had looked like it was made in midievil times, but the food was great. We had a rice dish, some peas mixed with bacon and chorizo, and then a plate of pork chops with patatoes. We had no idea that there was more food coming, and apparently it´s custom in the north to always clear your plate, so we continued eating like champions. Then, after sidra (hard cider) and dessert we rolled our way back into the car and continued our journey :)

We went to Oviedo and Gijón next. Oviedo is much bigger than the other little pueblos we had seen. We walked through the park, visited the cathedral, and shopped around a bit. It was a really pretty city. It was a pity that we couldn't spend more time there. Gijón was next. Got there at night, saw the town square, had some cidra, and headed out in search for our next place to sleep. We went to a couple of places and found that they were too windy and cold, so we kept searching for about an hour. Finally we found something that would have to suffice. But WOW, it was much colder than the first one. We even parked the car so that we could put our tent between it and a small building there, but it still didn't keep out much of the cold.

After three days without showering, we stopped off the next day for a coffee in a small town called Villaviciosa, and we all took turns washing up a bit in the bathroom... haha. The town was really cute though :)

Then we went to Cangas de Onís, which probably has the most recognized spots in all of Asturias. We took lots of pictures next to the famous Asturian cross that was hung from the crossing bridge there. It was set over a gorgeous river with an incredible view of the mountains that surrounded it.

On our way to the next destination went to the most beautiful beach called the playa de las catedrales. There were the coolest rock formations there. It reminded me of some of the beaches in Oregon/Washington.

The next day we made it to a town that sat in a little bay called Ribadesella. We walked along the water and checked out the towns cute little shops and bakeries. We also had some of the best pote asturiana! We asked the locals where the best kind of hole-in-the-wall kind of place was to eat some good asturian food, and we were surely not disappointed. We got this big bowl of asturian "stew" with chorizo, blood sausage, potatoes, greens, and lots of other vegetables. Delicious.

After that huge meal, we set off for the Picos de Europa, a range of mountains in Northern Spain. We were lucky we had a car, because you had to drive miles and miles into these mountains in order to find the famous hidden lakes as well as the most precious monastery and a "holy" cave called Covadonga. First, we went to the church. It pops out of nowhere in the mountains I swear... so gorgeous! I have no idea how they built it in that location so long ago. Then we headed for the cave... where there is a statue of Mary that people from all over the world come to pray to....

The lakes were really pretty. Took lots of pictures. And there were cows all over the place.... I got attacked my one! hahahaha.... didn´t quite get me though.

The last place we made it to in Asturias was a town called San Vincente de la Barquera. We visited the castle, and there was a beautiful view of the bay from the top. Seems like it would have been a great place to dock a boat if I had one.

Even though we needed to make it back to Santiago because one of the girls had to catch a flight, we thought we´d go just a little further west to make it to at least one place in Cantabria. Llanes was the spot. It actually is a well-known town in Spain for having multiple movies filmed there. I got to see the house where they filmed "El Orfanato", a great thriller by the same directior as "Pan´s Labyrinth." We walkled along the paseo above the coast, had some lunch, and then decided we should start the long trek home.

If you ever get a chance to check out any part of Northern Spain, I would truly recommend it! I loved every part of the trip :)

Explorando el Norte...

I just went on the most wonderful trip! A friend of mine decided to move back to Alicante, in the mainland of Spain, so a bunch of us decided we would accompany her and make a road trip out of it! I had never been to northern Spain before, so it was quite the experience :)

After spending 7 hours in the airport in Barcelona (I dont get the residents´ discount that all the other islanders get so I often have to buy multiple plane tickets in order to pay less), we finally took off for Santiago de Compostela, Galicia. Looking out the airplane window, I was amazed to find how green it is in the north. I had heard it was a lot different climate-wise than in the rest of the country, but I never expected such a drastic difference. The majority of Galicia and Asturias is as green as western Washington. It was soooo beautiful, and being there made me feel "at home".

Today I´m only going to talk about Galicia. We went to sooo many little towns in three different provinces, so I don´t want to bore you all with a ten-page blog:) I'll continue later though...

sooooo....

There were 5 of us. Encarna, her friend from Santiago Jose Maria, Anna (the one that was moving), Bea, and of course me. The first night we got there kind of late so we just went out for some tapas. I was surprised to find that they serve FREE tapas with your drink there like when I was studying in Granada... and they were soo good! I tried pigs ear, which was new for me, and besides the texture I found it surprisingly ok. We had spicy mussels, xorza (a kind of seasoned pork meat typical from Galicia), and some delicious caldo (soup with greens), among many other things. Thats the great thing about tapas... because they´re so small you have room to try all different types of new things. We also tasted some delicious Galician wines, which had a very distinct flavor compared to other Spanish wines I´ve tried.

In the morning we went to visit the Cathedral, which is one of the most well known cathedrals in Spain because it is at the end of the Camino de Santiago. It was gorgeous. Surrounded by tall gates and made out of a darker grey stone, it´s actually a little scary looking. I really do like gothic architecture like that.

I was actually very fortunate because while I was in Santiago on the way back to Palma, I caught the "Botafumeiro", which is when they swing this 80 kg incense dispenser across all the tired and unwashed" pilgrims that make it there. It's used as a sign of repentance and prayer. Apparently this tradition is hardly performed anymore. Encarna was practically in tears because she apparently hadn't seen it for fifteen years... it was really pretty cool to see. Everyone was really moved in the audience. The botafumeiro is at the bottom of this picture, although you can't really see it that well...

We also went to Lugo. They have even more and better tapas there than in Santiago... We went there to visit a friend of Jose María's, named Xan. He showed us all over town, and took us to all his favorite places. We had lots of octopus, which is typical in Galicia. They put paprika all over it... delicious. I also got to meet some of Encarna's friends from way back.

We also got to see the ancient Roman walls that surrounded the historial district of Lugo. You can walk around on top what was once the entire "city" of Lugo.

On the way back from Asturias we went to Encarna's house to visit her family. I had heard a lot about them before I got there, so they were just as I had expected. They live in a smaller town on the coast called Ribeira, and only speak gallego in their home. While gallego is a dialect that is relatively similar to castellano, it was not that difficult to understand most people in Galicia. However, Encarna's parents have the thickest accent and speak soooo fast, so I got only about 80% of what they were saying. I still had a lot of fun there with them though. We went to the Saturday market, walked along the beach, and ate home-made seafood empanada made especially for me with cornmeal instead of wheat flour. We went out to dinner with her sister Maria and hung out with her brother a bit too. It was a great ending to a wonderful trip.

To be continued....

Next time I'll tell you about the middle of the trip:)

Catching up a little... in Formentera

OK, so I would be seriously lying if I told you all that nothing much has happened since my last post :( The truth is, I have been seriously slacking in the blogging department. I just noticed that the last post I put up was from the beginning of April. So yeah, I am thinking I need to stay on top of this more. I will try and do my best to keep you updated, considering I will be here for another year!

Sooooo... I'm going to tell you about the most memorable trip I've taken since the last post and then I will start over from there... how does that sound?

FORMENTERA. One of the most beautiful places you will ever see in your life. If you have the opportunity to go there, please don't miss out. It is the second smallest island in the Balearics, but has so much to offer. It is known to be full of tourists in the summer, mainly Italians (and im not quite sure why), so we decided to go in the end of June just before all the tourists started getting there.

There were 8 of us. Seven Spaniards and me. Made for an even more interesting experience :) It was my roommate Encarna, Annita, Maria, Pau, Palou, Lluc, Torrado, and of course, me. We rented this adorable little house with an attached apartment there and a car so we could move about the island on our own schedule.

The beaches in Formentera are incredible. The water is a color blue that you'd never have seen before, and you can walk for miles without the tides passing your knees. It was simply amazing. Each beach was distinct from the others too. At some you could see for miles out into the ocean, and some were more like quaint little coves made up of a rockier sand and surrounded by rocky cliffs. But they were all equally beautiful in their own ways.

At one of the beaches we saw these strange man-made rock formations all over the place. None of us was quite sure what they meant. I kind of felt like I belonged in some sci fi film; it was really weird. I'm not sure where they found all the stones to make the structures either. It wasn;t a very rocky beach. Some one must have started it and then the tradition was maintained ever since. Who knows. All we knew was that it was worth taking pictures of....

On each far side of the island there is a light house. We decided to drive to the larger one to check out its surrounding cliffs and beautiful views. The light house itself was beautiful, but we were not able to go inside nor even get very close. The areas around the cliffs on the other hand, they were worth the visit. We didn't realize it on the drive over, but we were soooo high up! On the highest point of the island. The cliffs seemed to drop off for miles, and the waves came crashing in violently at the bottom.

We found an opening in the ground that led us through a cave and out to the edge of some of these cliffs. It was beautiful. Someone had created a make-shift ladder that lead to the inside. A little shaky but it still worked OK. We sat on the edge of the cliffs for quite a while, looking out into the ocean and admiring where we had the pleasure to be.

At the house we had our fair share of good times too. We planned to all meet in the middle of the day and each night to prepare a lunch and dinner together. Luckily there were a few of us that loved to cook. Torrado more than anyone. He made us a variation on paella one night that was to die for. At night, while tired after wandering the island for all day we would often eat pa amb oli, which is like the Mall0rcan open-faced form of sandwich, made with special brown bread, olive oil, rama tomatoes, and then some deli meat on top, usually serrano or some other form of ham. The food was just as good as the company.

One night the girls and I visited the local mercadillo, where there were little shops and street vendors selling traditional clothing and jewelry from Formentera. We spent a couple hours there looking and buying gifts for friends back home, and then we came home to the meal that the boys had prepared for us at home. What a treat, right?

Our last night there, we all went to see a yearly tradition in Formentera, known as the "despedida del sol". Every night, at least in June and August, everyone gathers in one specific beach to watch the sunset. We found our spot, set up some blankets, and watched the boats sail by as the sun slowly set. It was truly a memorable experience, not to mention the most gorgeous sunset I've ever seen.

In the morning it came time to pack up all our belongings and head home. We dropped off the rental car and waited for the ferry again. It was a wonderful weekend, but it was time to get back to our island ;)

Sara, Lindsey, Barcelona...

This last weekend I went to Barcelona!!!! The plan was to stay for about a week with one of my old host mom's family members, but unfortunately things changed and I had to shorten my trip. Turns out that five days in Barcelona is enough to hit up all the main stops though.

I was soooo excited to see Sara again. We have become great travel buddies :) In case you don't remember, Sara was one of the girls that originally studied with me in Granada in 2006, and I also visited her in Calatayud at the beginning of the program. So this time we met in Barcelona along with her two roommates, Emily and Karli. Barcelona is HUGE. There is lots to see and do, and considering it was Semana Santa this week, there were LOADS of people there during the weekend.

I was disappointed to find out (after my unfortunate incident in Berlin), that there were yet again no way to lock up our things in our hostal. At least this time there were lockers, although there were no locks on them. So first things first, I went searching for a store that would sell me a lock. Not wanting to leave my things unattended, I lugged everything with me up this six story building (of course the locks and other hardware were on the top floor) and finally found a lock that would work. But it was all worth it in the end; at least I could be sure that I wouldn't get my things stolen this time :)

So that first night we went to a tapas bar with a really original name: La Cervecería... heehee. The tapas were really good though. The restaurant was really full so the waiter asked us if we minded sharing a table with three Italian guys. We soon came to find out that these Italians spoke no Spanish nor English, so we spent the rest of dinner trying to get our point across in three different languages. It was hilarious, and I was really surprised how much we were able to communicate with them! Quite the experience, and a great way to start off our trip.

It was Emily's birthday the first night we got there. After dinner, Sara and I met up with the others and decided to go to a local Irish Pub to celebrate. Emily knew one of the workers there, and he gave us a deal on a few drinks. We also brought along two guys from New York that the other girls had met on the first leg of their trip in Cadiz and Sevilla. It just so happened that these two were planning on going to Barcelona too, so they had planned to meet up with them. We hung out there for a while and then decided to move locations. Karli knew of this underground bar that looked like it was built in a cave... It was soooo cool inside. They were known for their sidra (hard apple cider), and rightfully so, because it was delicious. There's a mime standing at the entrance that tells you to be silent when entering, but as you get further and further into the bar you find that the silence doesn't last long :)

The next day we did lots of touristy stuff. We went to the cathedral first. Then we went to visit the Sagrada Familia (one of Gaudí's most famous buildings), and we walked along Las Ramblas (the main avenues there). La Sagrada Familia was amazing. It was soooo elaborate. It's a shame that it has been under construction for so long, but its no wonder why because it is such a big job to finish and no one seems to know how now that Gaudí isn't around to help. We wanted to take a tour of the inside, but there was at least an hour and a half wait! We thought we'd pass and go do other things instead.

So we grabbed some snacks and headed for the park. We met up with the others, talked, and climbed trees. It was a perfect day to people watch in the park.

Later we decided we would all meet up to explore Montjuïc and its castle. Montjuïc really stands for "Mountain of the Jewish people", whereas many Jewish people as well as those who were against Franco's regime were held there.... and many were executed. We got to the top and entered into the castle/fortress. It was really interesting. You could tell why the location was chosen for such a place, as it was very secluded and had a view of the entire city. We climbed onto some of the old cannons to get an even better view....

After Montjuïc we went in search for what was apparently the "best kebab in the world" (according to Karli)... and wow it waaaas delicious. I got this Adana Kebab plate that had this spicy mystery meat on skewers. It was really tasty. We decided to call it a night after dinner (we ate at like 11), because we were tired from the full day of walking.

On Saturday Sara and I went to Parc Güell, an entire park designed by Gaudí. His work is simply amazing. I was impressed with all the detail in the mosaics that lined the benches in the main square, and the buildings were no less impressive. Sara and I brought a picnic and some cards and found a park bench to play. Hadn't played gin rummy in a while... not a really common Spanish game :)

On Sunday we went to a labyrinth hidden in a park! It was sooo fun. I couldn't help but think that there were going to be creatures popping out at me like in the movie though... heehe. The place was gorgeous, although unfortunately it had rained the night before and so the paths were all muddy and full of puddles. But oh well, a little mud never hurt anyone. The experience was well worth it.

Barcelona is definitely a place to see. I would recommend it to everyone. Unfortunately, our trip had to come to an end. On Monday I had a flight that left at 7 am... so I had to get up at 4:30! And now I'm back in good ol' Palma...

Playas y Papayas :)

So I had soooooo much fun while Tyler, Drew, Chris and Chasen were visiting. It was great to see familiar faces from home, and it reminded me of how much I really miss all of you :)

Where to begin??? We did quite a bit...

So when the guys first got here we were kind of in a hurry. I had to be in class in a hour and we still had to take the bus and drop off all their luggage at my place. But we actually made it in time, although I don't know that they were too keen on sprinting right away :)

Taking the boys with me to class was quite possibly one of my favorite parts of their visit here in Palma... not to mention the kids loved it too! They got really excited when they asked questions, and were more than eager to practice their English with them. We played an ice breaker called "two truths and a lie" (which is pretty self-explanatory)... and the kids were pretty good overall at guessing the boys' lies. So after one class, Joana (the teacher I work with) took the boys on a quick tour of the school and then set us loose. I was expecting to have to finish out my classes that day, but I guess it wasn't necessary. They are pretty flexible with me at my school :) ... I was really grateful for that during their visit.

So that first night I took the guys to the crossointerie that my teacher owns and they gave us free snacks and hierbas (a typical Mallorcan liquor). Then we went to one of my favorite local hangouts (which is about a block from my apartment) called El Sarao. I call it the "bruja bar" because the entire inside is decorated with brujas (witches). It's really pretty interesting. We played some UNO and had a couple drinks and then we decided to call it a night. The guys were pretty tired after the first day of traveling.

The next day after class we decided to hit the main spots in Palma. We went to the Cathedral and walked through the old part of town. I showed them the town hall, the main plazas, shopping areas, and of course, the beach. We took lots of "Faith plus one" pictures where all the guys posed as if they were taking a picture for the cover of a Christian Rock album :) It was hilarious, and only suitable while in front of the Cathedral.

Later that night we went out for some Kebab at this place by my house. Got a great salad with loads of meat.... delicious....and the boys were pretty happy with their meals too. Later that night we went to a bar with over 100 types of beer (including a gluten-free option for me and Chasen!) Anthony had told me that he had seen one on the menu before when he had gone there, so I thought we should check it out. We met up with Anthony and Pablo that night too, so we could finally put the names to the faces we had all been talking about. We didn't get too wild and crazy that night, as it was in the plan to go to Soller in the morning.

Soller was great. I decided to show them the tourist route by going on the old rickety train. We had fun yelling in the dark tunnels and looking down at the ground as it passed us by while standing outside the cars. About an hour and a half later we got into town. We took the trolley down to the port (which I had never done) and looked for a place to eat. We found this quaint little restaurant that served paella (papaya to you Drew) overlooking the pier. It was fantastic. The food. The company. The weather (for the time of year). Everything.

After lunch we walked up to the top of the hill to go look out off the rocky cliffs nearby. Wow there were some great views. We were really high up there :)

Next stop: the women's Soller basketball game. Carly and I have gotten to know a couple of the players on the team and we had promised one of them that we would go (and bring more fans). Unfortunately, the girls lost the game. It was still fun to watch, but talking to the players after the game was depressing. I guess that game was a deal breaker and they should have won it. So we didn't stay long to hang out with the others. While all the buses stopped running to Palma after like 8 o'clock on the weekends, we caught a ride with our friend Miguel. I layed on the boys lap; it all worked out in the end.

When we got home we started thinking about the night ahead of us. Encarna and Helena had planned to have people over for dinner and I had invited a few others too, so in the end there were about 25 of us or so... lots of fun. We sat and played cards at one table with all the Spaniards ate dinner and conversed at the dinner table. It was kind of awkward seeing as how the guys don't speak Spanish and only one of the Spaniards spoke English. So yeah, there was a lot of translating going on.... :)

Then we went out. We went to a couple of the places I like best on Paseo Marítimo, the main strip down by the port. It was a good time, although with such a large group of us it was hard to keep track of everyone. So we stayed out until about 5:30 or 6 in the morning (which crazily enough is early for people here) and took the Bus de Nit back to the center of town.

Then there was Valldemossa... and ancient town hidden in the mountains of Mallorca. We grabbed some food from the market and sat down on a bench and had a picnic when we got there. The guys tried some typical foods from Mallorca, some panadas and some coco rois. Then we walked around town a bit. We hit up lots of souvenir shops and grabbed a few drinks at some local cafes. We sat down at one of my favorite spots and the guys ordered some cocos de patata (or sweet potato rolls covered in powdered sugar) and some chocolate a la taza (like hot chocolate but thicker)... I snuck a bite too even though I wasn't supposed to because of the gluten :)

We also went to the Real Cartuja, which is an old monastery that was known to have been home to Chopin some summers. With the views you got from some of the rooms, it was no wonder how he could have been inspired to compose some of his music. It was simply gorgeous.

I wanted to show the guys the Bellver castle up in the mountains, but unfortunately by the time we had gotten there the inside had already closed. But it was still cool to show them the outside and the views from up the mountain. We hung out in the garden and the moat and took lots of pictures. Still well worth the trek up there.

OOOO! Another cool thing we did, which I had never done before, was hit up the aquarium! Palma has a really big aquarium out by Arenal, which is a really beautiful beach, and so we decided to kill two birds with one stone and go see them both. The aquarium was awesome. There were all different types of exhibits, from "the Jungle" to "Deep Sea Creatures" to little critters like seahorses (which were some of my favorites). I really liked the turtles too... they had these spiky scaley parts of their shells that stuck out like armor. It was pretty cool to see, especially because its not every day you see a giant tortoise. The sting rays were pretty awesome too though. We got to see them feed... I thought they looked like Kirby from the old video games.

It was a great day to go to Arenal. Too cold to swim though. But we did have a great time walking along the beach, skipping stones and collecting shells. Then we searched for the best place to grab a glass of sangria :)

Thanks guys for such a wonderful week. I really had a great time! I can't wait to see all of you again :)

CARNAVALES!!!

Last weekend was Carnaval here in Palma! Carnaval is like the Spanish version of Halloween, where everyone gets dressed up in the street, there are activities each day in all the schools, and there is a HUGE parade with elaborate floats and dances. It was simply indescribable!

First off, we had to plan our costumes. Encarna and I had been looking up ideas the whole week and trying to come up with something original. SO.... I bought some suspenders, a bow tie and some white gloves and went as a ventriloquist's doll! Encarna bought some black fabric to attach to a white skirt of hers and went as a zebra, and Raquel want as a leopard. We had some friends come over to the house and hang out first: a cowboy, a basketball player, and a carton of milk... heehee. Then we all went out to a discoteca to dance and see all the other costumes... Wow some people really got into it! It was really fun...

When we got home it wasn't as difficult to clean up for Raquel and I as it was for Encarna. We went to sleep and found out in the morning that we had no water!! Thank god Encarna got to shower and rinse out all the hair die the night before! We were worried she would have had to sleep with all of that on! ¿Menos mal, no?

So that was Saturday night... On Sunday there was a huge parade that passed through all of Palma with decorated floats, elaborate costumes, and different dances from Spain as well as South America. I went with my friend Paul, who is actually from Peru, and he explained the significance behind a lot of the South American dances... it was really interesting. There were also people on the floats that threw out candy and roses (considering it was on Valentine's Day too). It reminded me of the 4th of July Parade in Steilacoom... man do I miss that :)