Notes on Spanish food and Dining

Breakfast consists of chocolate and churros. And i'm not talking about that weak Swiss Miss. The hot chocolate here really is hot chocolate syrup, just this side of drinkable. No water or milk thank you very much. But, if you are looking for something sweet, this is a good way to go.

Iberian pork is in everything. Accept it. They love their pork. I was half way looking for it in the coffee, but so far no luck.

If I order a drink, and gianna doesn't say anything, she gets the same drink. This is kind of funny to watch, like when they put a pint of beer in front of her. I guess here the man still does a lot of the ordering.

Paella is great, but unlike the US, where we load up on harmless looking shrimp, mussels, and fish, the Spanish enjoy putting large crustaceans in my paella, exoskeletons and all. I didn't mind performing a full tissue biopsy on the prawns, I just wasn't ready for it. It's worth it though, the seafood is delicious.

Cava is a kind of Spanish champagne, but don't say that too loudly, or the table of French people next to you will start to snicker. I like cava; it is smooth and subtle and I believe it comes from this part of Spain (Cataluna).

Tapas are the ubiquitous dish here in Spain. Some restaurants have great tapas, others not so much, but just about everyone has them. I've become a big fan of tapas with mussels. The best I have had so far was in Madrid.

Dinner is a multi-venue event. It starts in a cerveceria, where you have a few glasses of wine or beer and talk as loudly as possible with your friends. Then around 8 or 9 pm, you get up and move to a restaurante, where you have tapas or paella or some dish with Iberian pork. (I love how they never just call it pork, it ALWAYS is Iberian pork - and I highly recommend it.) Finally, you get to move again to postre-shop where dessert, such as tarts, pastries, or cake is served. In other words, from 6 until about midnight, everyone is constantly on the move. An unusual benefit to this is that there are always tables opening up and I haven't seen anyone waiting to be seated.

Barcelona

Wi-Fi has been spotty lately. Luckily that didn't stop me from mailing a lot of postcards :-) But before I continue, I want to say Happy Birthday to my sister Mari. She turned 23 yesterday! I hope you had a great time.

Last night we took the night train to Barcelona. As we were riding along, I thought of all the languages I hear everywhere we go. You really need to have a working understanding of 3 languages to live here. But it would be the same way in the US if we spoke different languages in every state. Imagine if you went to Louisiana and they only spoke French. You would learn the language more everytime you passed through.

I also thought about all the people here who will probably never leave this place. Just like a lot of people in the US, this is their whole world. It's overwhelming to think about all of the places which I have never seen or been a part of. All the people I don't know. All the stories those people could tell. All we can hope for is a glimpse, and even that can be overpowering.

Mission: La Alhambra

So the big thing to do in Grenada is visit La Alhambra. And when I say big I mean BIG. It's a 1300 year old Moorish temple/fortress/palace built on the hills above the fertile plain of Grenada. However, entry can be tricky. Because of the age and delicacy of the complex, only 8100 people are allowed to visit on any given day. We tried to book tickets from Madrid, but all the reservations were full. This meant fighting it out with the other tourists for the remaining spots reserved for day-of purchasers. Gianna, not to be outdone, and wishing to have her name entered into La Alhambra lore, woke up at 5:30 in the morning and treked up the side of a mountain to claim her prize. I don't even know my own name at 5:30 in the morning, much less could I navigate my way up a hillside that foiled many a crusader. Nope. I went at 8:45 and got afternoon tickets.

Inside the complex there are about 43 thousand things to see, but I have a few favorites:

On top of the fortress tower you have an unobstructed view of about 25 to 40 kilometers (that's right, I've gone metric, I'm in Europe) in just about any direction. You would know about an invading force DAYS before it arrived. No wonder Grenada was the last Moor stonghold to fall.

The gardens are stunning, even in winter, and there are mini-aqueducts running along most of the stairs, ramps, and walkways.

Symmetry is evident everywhere, and normally you would things this would make things stale, but somehow the Moors pulled it off. Lots of pictures next week.

Ok, I'm done for now, time to enjoy my Sangria.

On the Train through southern Spain

So we just arrived in Grenada. Thanks to a snafu at the Madrid train station, we were not able to get the train to Lisbon. While this was an unfortunate setback, we were only going to be there for 10 hours, and how much can u see in a city during such a short amount of time? This subtle question was lost on our ticket agent who, after changing all but one of our tickets, had steam coming out of her ears ;-)

Instead, we traveled to Cordoba a day early. The Mezquita is there; it is a huge medieval Islamic mosque that covers a whole city block. I have to say that it was one of the most impressive structures I have ever been in. Lots of pictures.

For those of you following "the saga of raul's bag", it turns out my luggage is on it's own European whirlwind tour. After 3 days with no news, AirFrance finally learned the whereabouts of my backpack, and the pack-that-never-was and I will have a lovely rendevous in Barcelona.

Art Appreciation

So it's day two of "roughing it" in Madrid. I woke up this morning and realized I have no razor, no deoderant, and no gel. I was going to have to take to the streets with a old tshirt, a light beard, wild hair, and no odor protection. In other words, I am slowly turning into a European ;-)

Today we went to see the Prado, a museum in madrid that is home to Velasquez's "las meninas" as well as paintings by Rembrandt, Picasso, el Greco, and Caravaggio. We also saw Picasso's "Guernica" and fresco's by Goya. I'm glad gianna is here to explain all the art to me. Tomorrow it is onward to Toledo and Lisbon, Portugal!

I should have known!

So it took some real coordination, a little French and a little more Spanish for me to catch two connecting flights and make it here to Madrid.. My poor bag, without these skills, was not so lucky. Right now my luggage is somewhere in the eastern US or western Europe. That's all the AirFrance people know. I'm not terribly worried, I should have my stuff tomorrow. I actually knew there was a good chance that this would happen, so I put an extra set of clothes in my carry on bag.

Gianna and I just walked around today, taking lots of pictures and otherwise looking like tourists. I wish I could post some, but I am blogging from my iPod, and I can't get photos on it. The city is really beautiful at night, they have a lot of lights up for Christmas. I hope everyone has a wonderful christmas with their families and friends.

Gianna's hilarious quote of the day: "It's just like New York, except everyone is short and Spanish."

Paris

Estoy en Paris. Por los proximo tres horas, soy un 'frenchy' ;-)

T minus 10 hours

Just got to Dallas a few hours ago. True to form, emma was once again an awesome car pool buddy. I stopped by the may's on my way in. Need to look up some info before I pass out. Gianna is probably somewhere over the Atlantic right now, listening to those unforgiving safety videos. U know, I decided to go on this trip as a way of getting away during this very sentimental time of the year. But lately, over the last few days, I now see this trip as more of a milestone. It's kind of a starting place for this new chapter in my life. It helps that it will include new year's of course, but there is more to it than that. Goodnight.

T minus 2 days

Still packing. The apartment looks nice though. And I think a 12" miter saw makes a spectacular living room conversation piece. Hopefully it will have some visitors while I am gone :) Jules, I don't care if Molly and Gabe tear the place up. They are kids, its what they do, LOL :)

As an addendum - Molly and Gabe are the most well behaved 10 month and 2 year old i know :) And it is probably time you met them. Molly is my god-daughter and the oldest child of two of my closest friends, Julie and Kelly. You can check out their blog here.

3 Days to go.

I have 3 days until I jump on a plane and fly to Europe. Oh my god. I will be in Spain and Portugal for 13 days. Yes, I speak spanish. No, not well. I can't even begin to attempt Portugese. I have outfitted myself with everything I think I would need. And it all has to fit in my new backpack from REI. What an adventure. I have a new memory card for the camera. I think it can hold around 4000 pictures. I don't plan on taking that many pictures, but you never know. A wedding photographer will take 700 photos in 4 hours. I am frantically straightening up the apartment and washing clothes. Emma knows something is up, but she's not quite sure yet what it is. From her face, I would say, she thinks we are moving again. Poor thing. Oh well, she gets to spend two weeks with her grandparents in Dallas running amok, so I can't feel too badly.

I have a confession to make. I have been skittish around customs officials since the time my dad wore his Pablo Escobar costume to the canadian border and got us detained. I keep practing what I am going to say to the customs officials. "No tengo drugas." "No tengo frutas." "Soy un americano." "dos semanas" "No, no hablas espanol." Or I can be like Kelly and confess up-front about my oregano: "It's just herbs! Just herbs!!"

My plan is to blog once a day while I am overseas. Even now that seems like a tall order. I will not have my computer, but I will have my Ipod Touch, and we will see if that works in the WiFi cafes. I hope to get pictures on here as well, but at the moment, I have no plan on how to do that. Check back here during the next couple of days :)

Mari graduates Summa Cum Laude

I am very proud of you.

Happy Birthday Emma :)

You are officially 28 dog years old. That means you are a year older than me! You've matured so much in the last couple of years. I know things have been crazy for quite some time, but you have been such a trooper. You always come to the door to say hello when I get home. And you usually bring me one of your toys to welcome me back. You have been my daily companion through all this madness. You have your grumpy days, yes, but you know which nights to come lay at my feet. You watch Sunday AND Monday night football with me. You still beg for bananas. And you are still a messy eater. I love you pooch, and I know you have a lot of great years to come. Happy Birthday Emma.