My European Adventures

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2007-07-27T07:31:00.000-07:00

So I'm home at last...

I got into Cleveland last night just before 7pm, and slept like a dead person after an awesome Mexican dinner with my mom and her boyfriend.

Today I'm going to visit some friends, then having a huge sushi party tomorrow in North Canton with some of the same people plus some others. Super exciting.

I've almost finished posting my pictures to Google-based Picasa web albums, and I'll be spreading the links to each like the plague once I've got them all organized - should be on here in the next day or two.

Thank you to all the great friends I made on this adventure - I hope to see all of you again soon!

Finally, I'm thinking of starting up a separate blog, just a general "life" blog. I'll link it to this one in the links box to the right. Hope those of you who read continue!

Cheers

Ryan

Fountains of Rome

2007-07-11T02:50:00.000-07:00

I'm staying with a new host now in Rome, however, today is my last day here and I head to another part of town later this afternoon.

Yesterday I took the bus into town and stopped off just near the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin that houses the Bocca della Verità, a large stone sewer cover (I guess it was used as a fountain at some point too) depicting the visage of a some pagan god, made famous by Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday. (See to the left.) I took a picture of it - as it is heavily touristed - but did not make a point of sticking my hand into it's mouth - and not because I was afraid of it being bitten off. I just wasn't feeling kitchy enough to succumb, and enjoyed the interior of the small church more anyhow.

Just outside there were two temples and also an actual fountain depicting two tritans bearing a shell, by Bizzaccheri. This is located near two ancient temples, one dedicated to Vesta - or perhaps Hercules - and the other to Fortuna Virilis. The former is a round temple, while the latter is a modest rectangular temple. (See all three to the right.) All this then is just a couple blocks away from the Theater of Mercellus - nephew of Augustus - which was the inspiration for the design of the Colosseum. Also at this sight is located the remaining three columns that were once part of a larger temple to Apollo.

So I had four more audio tours, the last ones, that lead me around four different neighborhoods in Rome. These tours were certainly not the best of the series (when compared to Venezia or Firenze) but were enjoyable nonetheless. I got to explore the old Jewish Ghetto, as well as three other off the beaten path districts of Rome, each holding it's own hidden sights and wonders. I think I ended up with nearly 300 photos before the day was through.

I enjoyed pizza funghi - being mushrooms of course - and a bottle of carbonated water next to the Turtle Fountain in Piazza Mattei. It's not clear who originally designed the fountain, though my tour did note that it was probably Bernini who added the turtles later for which the fountain is known. (There is a picture of it to the right.)

I ended the afternoon just after 6pm in the Piazza Navona, where Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers is located. This depicts the four great rivers of the four continents - as they were thought in Bernini's time anyhow - the Nile (Africa), the Ganges (Asia), the Danube (Europe), and Rio de la Plata (Americas). Unfortunately they are currently doing restoration work on the central fountain, and I was not able to see much of it, or take any good photos for that matter. (See what it normally looks like to the left.) From here I wandered back along the Tiber to my starting point where I was able to catch the bus back to my host's flat.

Today or perhaps tomorrow I'm going to head out and see the majority of what is Ancient Rome, including the Colosseum, forums, Palatine and Capitoline Hills, etc. Then over the next week I've got a couple more areas I would like to explore. I'm not sure that there is a whole week of things to do in Rome though, so I may be taking a daytrip to Napoli (Naples), which is about 200km south of Rome.

When in Rome...

2007-07-06T03:53:00.000-07:00

I guess I'm not really doing anything as the Romans do yet. I've had some good pizza, but that's about it!

Tonight I'm meeting my first host at the train station, and then will be staying with two other people until the 18th or 19th.

So far I've been out to see the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain, both of which are really interestign places to wander in the evening.

I had to get a dorm bed in a hostel for one evening, having arrived yesterday with no host. It wasn't awful though, by any means, and I met some nice people. So that's always fun. Also learned how to play a game called Taps, which at this time I won't go into describing, ha ha!

Pisa was good insofar as the Leaning Tower and the Duomo there are concerned. Other than that the city itself doesn't have much more going for it. I was glad to leave, especially because I was being slowly eaten alive by Italian mosquitoes. Awful. It was kind of a rush to stand next to the tower though. It looks much different than I think a lot of people are lead to expect. It's very clean looking and not as isolated as so many pictures make it seem.

So now I've got a little under two weeks in Rome, and then I'll hopefully be heading back to Venice for a couple days, then making my way back towards Spain, and going home soon thereafter. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited about getting home, but especially with the Peace Corps drawing nearer, I want to spend some time with people before I turn around and leave again for an even longer time.ù

So anyhow, time to go find some food for lunch. I'm almost out of computer credit anyhow.

Ciao!

A grand adventure: from Bordeaux to Florence

2007-07-02T04:34:00.001-07:00

So here is the “monster” post I promised, chronicling my travels from leaving Paris until my current location in Firenze (Florence). I've transcribed these posts from my actual journal, so please excuse the structure – it's not the same when I'm typing out something and giving it a great deal of thought. These are mostly my personal reflections and accounts of my days. Also, please excuse the liberty I've taken with some jumps in time and lax descriptions, such as my visits to Monte Carlo, Cannes, and Antibes. To make up for this, I'll edit some photos in a little later.

Otherwise, read on, if you have the time and mental energy – and above all, enjoy.

Ryan

Je chante

So I left and caught the TGV to Bordeaux without a hitch. When I got there though I found a place to check me email, and my host had skipped town. So I called Richard Moot – who wasn't expecting to host me until a few days past my arrival. He cordially invited me to his flat though, so I hoofed the 3 kilometers to his apartment with my sack, which seems to be growing increasingly heavier.

Richard ended up being a really great host. I stayed there on his IKEA futon for two nghts. The first day I explored Bordeaux and the second day, not feeling well, and with laundry still wet, I hung out and watched a couple movies. Richard had a ton of DVDs and lots of books that I enjoy. He has Paris, Je T'aime, though it wasn't subtitled and it stopped working after about thirty minutes. I'll have to wait a bit longer to see i then. I watched Eyes Wide Shut and finally saw Casablanca. I know Paddy will be thrilled.

Richard also had some short graphic novels (comics?) by Clive Barker which he urged me to read. They were pretty good. After I left he sent me a link to this science fiction story he told me about as well about a man who discovers a video rental shop from another reality where things in Hollywood are based on completely different standards.

Bordeaux, I should note, has a new tram system, which make getting around a bit easier, though I'll have some gripes about it later. I paid 10 euros for a 7-day pass and got my money back from it within two or three days.

Richard also gave me a copy of Thomas Harris' Hannibal, which I've been reading. I had another book by James Patterson, The Beach House, which I thought I would like seeing as I enjoyed the films based on his Alex Cross detective series, Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider. It wasn't that great so I left it at Richard's flat for him to “gift” to someone else.

On Wednesday I departed in the evening for a new couch, and was welcomed by James and Steph, a man from the UK and a French woman. James teaches English to business people, and Steph is completing her training as an architect's assistant. Her background was in graphic design, but there don't seem to be many jobs in the area. The two of them offered me a great bed in a guest room – slas – office, good wine, and yummy cheese. Best of all, one of their friends, and expat America named Marilyn, has a pass to the 2007 VinExpo in Bordeaux. I was told about it before arriving but it isn't open to the general public. Marilyn is an export manager for several vineyards in the area, but wasn't able to attend the last day of the five day Expo. Therefore I got to go in her place!

So that's what I did all day Thursday – it was a blast. I used my bus/tram pass to get to the exposition center. There were thousands of vendors in three huge halls. Mostly wine, but also spirits and industry publications as well. I was completely flustered and had no clue what to do at first.

Finally after wandering around for an hour or so, I just went up to a producer from South Africa, looked interested, and she offered me samples. From there I was golden, and freely requested tastings from across the globe. I actually didn't try a singly French wine. I spent my afternoon instead focusing on producers from other parts of the world, some of which I didn't even know existed.

I had wines from: South Africa, Germany, Hungary, Slovenia, South Korea, Argentina, Canada, and Portugal. All of them were excellent save the South Korean and Slovenian ones, and my favorite was the red wine from Germany. First time ever trying a German red. Also had Rieslings of a wide variety and ice wine. There was some nice apple ice wine from Quebec as well.

So I left the Expo sometime after 3 or 4pm, merrily sloshing back to James & Steph's via the bus. That night I got to meet Marilyn, who I think was a little surprised that upon introduction I gave her a huge hug, and I made dinner for everyone – pasta with zucchini, mushrooms, onions, red peppers, tomato, and avocado.

The next two days I spent my time being a tourist, and taking pictures of the sights. The touristy destinations can certainly be covered in two days in Bordeaux. The second night with James, Steph, and Marilyn again, she made dinner for us. Aunt Betty's Cornflake baked chicken.

The last day with James & Steph, I did the tourist thing again, and got to meet their next two couch surfers. I left with an hour to spare to get to the train station, but because of various delays with the tram (here is my griping) I got there two minutes after my train had left! I could have walked faster. Luckily there was another night train leaving at 1:01am, so I just hung out in a bar across the street where they had free WiFi.

The train ride to Nice was mostly uneventful. I did manage to sleep for a few hours on and off. Once the sun came up I was awake and read most of the way. I was the only one in my cabin for the last two hours of the ride. I was irritated though because other than checking my reservation and giving me a new bed the controller didn't ever ask for my Eurail Pass. I could have had an extra day! So from now on I'm not filling in the date until I see them come around. The 20 Euros I paid for the bed would have been really worth it then. Oh well. Live and learn I suppose.

Arriving in nice I noticed quickly that I'm going to be sweating quite a lot for the rest of this trip. It is freaking hot there! I made the twenty minute walk from the station to my new couch with Arno, but when I arrived there was no answer. So I hauled my stuff to a nearby McDonald's and made the mistake of ordering food. A little more than seven Euros for the WORST meal I've ever had in my life. Never again.

Then I wandered around town looking for WiFi, but all the hot spots I'd jotted down before leaving Bordeaux were closed. After an hour or so I was worried I might have to stay in a youth hostel, I tried my host's bell again, and this time he answered, thankfully!

So Arno is a mild mannered 20-something French guy with dreads. He lives alone and works in IT. He wants to move to Budapest, and says I'm the only surfer he's had who actually speaks French!

He gave me some pointers and after a much needed shower – the tap at J&S's flat had broken – I took off to tour the old city of Nicec. Wow, what an incredible little town. Dozens of small pedestrian only alleyways packed with shos and bars and restaurants. All the buildings are multicolored, pinks, greens, yellows, blue... It's much like what I expect Cinque Terre to be like. It's beautiful.

I came back after my adventure, and Arno headed to the beach for a couple hours. Left alone, I read and took a short nap. Being Sunday when I went out again to find groceries to make dinner, everything was closed. I rummaged enough together from the fridge and pantry though to make mushrooms and chicken, Basmati rice, and an impromptu Greek salad. It turned out alright.

After dinner I headed up to the chateaux with Arno where there was a festival going on. Lots of people. Live music, and drinking. People juggling fire. Earlier I'd been to the same area and visited two incredible cemeteries, the Catholic one and the separate Jewish one. There were some really great photos to be taken in each.

So to be cliché, it's true that nice is nice. Even with the heat and overly ubiquitous construction.

The Wonderful Wizard of Eze

So it only took a bit over thirty minutes to get here, and I managed to see everything in less than two hours. Now I'm relaxing in the shade of a large maple and enjoying the afterglow of the Medieval village of Eze.

Eze, while surrounded by a touristy suburban populace, the old village is mostly preserved, it's hotels and subtle boutiques tucked into quiet sloping streets, carved into a sea-side mountain. From points in town you can see out over the Mediterranean, and down below what I overhead was Nice or Cannes.

A large dusty salmon colored church sits up on top of the village, and just a bit higher is the Exotic Garden – five euros I chose not to spend – which goes through the chateau's ruins. The town itself is built right into the protective barriers that once guarded the castle.

I found a quiet little bench, shaded by creeping flowers and a cactus or two, and had my simple turkey and Camembert sandwich for lunch. The whole town takes maybe thirty minutes to navigate, but you continuously find yourself circled around to a place you've already seen, only to take another tiny pathway, eventually ending right back where you started again.

Leaving the tiny village I walked past a man selling herbs, spices, and other fragrant dried goods in bulk. The aromas wafting up from the sun warmed curries and peppers and rosemary, thyme, sage...wow it was really fantastic. I complimented the wonderful fragrance of his wares. He smiled as warmly in reply.

Another olfactory tickler, Fragonard, a boutique specializing in fragrances. They had some absolutely mouth watering candles too.

So now I've got 45 minutes until the bus comes to take me to Monte Carlo. What a pleasant little place this was to visit.

Breath in Venice

So I arrived last night in Padua and found the bus to tiny Stra where my host Davide lives. Today I got the bus to Venice, abou 45 minutes away. If Venice is hot and smelly and dirty and crowded, like people have told me, then I don't want to go anywhere else. It's none of those things, and at the very least I think it may be one of the most charming and intoxicating cities I've ever been to. I'd almost say this beats Paris, - though I think I'd be lying just a little. It's close though. Perhaps you can't get closer.

The churches here are all Santa Maria This and Santa Maria That. Right now I'm just finishing my lunch outside Santa Maria de Salute. I've been wandering around town for about an hour or so, and haven't made it to the Piazza San Marco yet. According to my map though I'm just across the Grand Canal from the San Marco area, and I can see where the Piazza is from here. I think I might have one more piece of bread with cream cheese – yea, that's right, Philly Light! - before I find my way across the choppy green water.

Once I get to the Piazza I've got four guided audio tours to take me around town, all beginning from San Marco. I'll probably do two of them today and the other two tomorrow or Saturday.

In short, my stay in Nice had me in Monte Carlo, out to Cannes and Antibes the next day, dinner with a couple of Arno's friends from the concert we went to, and then catching the train from Mice to Milano to Padua. Met some good people on the train and really enjoyed the rest of my travels along the Cote d'Azur.

Later in the day...

Sitting outside the School of San Rocco, not far from the train and bus stations. I've just completed two of the audio tour walks through Venice and doing so it seems I've seen a majority of the city's major sights as well as dozens of things that were virtually devoid of crowds, devoid of even people at all sometimes! I really like these tours.

I really love Venice much more than I'd expected. I'm still going to head for Florence on Saturday – especially because I have a ride from my host – but between tomorrow and Saturday morning I think I can finish touring around the city of islands.

The one thing that aggravates me about the city is that you can walk in one direction and very often end up at a dead end as opposed to your desired destination – which is more than likely on the opposite side of the building you're facing. However, I suppose this is also one of the most endearing parts about the town. Prior to finding the Piazza San Marco I'd gotten lost a couple times before a couple of English-speaking, knock-off purse hording girls pointed me in the right direction. San Marco... basically more pigeons than I've ever seen in my life. Climbing all over people.

I had coffee and pistachio gelato, which I think probably beats the stuff I had in Paris, and especially the gelato back home in Cleveland heights. I'd assume it would be the best though, being an Italian specialty and all. I find it amusing that they simply know gelato as ice cream – it's so commonplace here. Delicious though. I've also been tempted by the dozens of stalls and street-side restaurants and cafes selling huge cheap slices of pizza. I'll wait until I get to Rome though, as I've been told it's even better there.

So I'm tempted to stay in Venice for a few more hours inorder to see the sunset. I'm going back to San Marco and will walk the fourth tour – the third was mainly in museums and the basilica – and then wait for the sunset.

Olives so good you can't help but grin

So yesterday evening I had a wonderful adventure to the Jewish Ghetto of Venice, and back to San Marco by way of a Vapparetto or water taxi. It cost a ridiculous 6 euros but I took it again and fare jumped because I thought it was such a scam.

I ended up missing the sunset from San Marc, and so got off then back on th water taxi. I did however accidentally find Harry's Bar. Kudos for that.

So I got back to the bus terminal at about 10:35 and there was a bus headed to Padua/Stra at 11. There was some confusion and I ended up stranded at the station. So i went to the nearby strain station, and got an 11:30 train to Padua, with no idea how to get back to Stra. My options were to sleep in the train station – no – or walk back to Stra, since when I arrived in Padua the buses were done running. 25 euros for a taxi was out of the question.

So, I'm wandering about Padua trying to find a sign to point me toward Stra, and I happen upon a small cluster of middle aged Italians, just having finished dinner. I decided to chance it and ask for directions and after much incomprehensible chatter – at one point I was almost certain the eight of them would chip in for a taxi – I ended up getting a ride to Stra from a more than friendly, and entirely charming man named Francesco.

Not speaking much Italian, and he not speaking much English, our conversation for the 20 minute drive was brief, being supplemented by my newly acquired Italian/English dictionary, though surprisingly thorough at an introductory level.

He got me – mille grazi, over and over – to Stra, where I had a short walk to Davide's flat. The next morning I got to meet his understandably shy daughter. He took her off to school and went to a dentist appointment himself. Shortly after he came home I was ready to go. I felt bad because our time together seemed a bit brief, and I wish I'd been able to spend more time there.

I spent the better part of the afternoon in tiny but entertaining Padua. Saw a few basilicas. I sat in San Antonio – the patron saint of the city... they have his tongue and jaw bone in the church – and had a “spiritual” moment. After leaving I found the first beggar I could, a man I'd passed earlier, asked him if he was hungry – thanks again dictionary – and gave him a sizable hunk of bread and a dozen or so grape tomatoes I had left from my lunch. Good dead done for the day. Check.

So then I got the train – illegally – to Mestre where I was to find the central shopping mall to meet my host for the evening, Fabio. I'm not sure what prompted him to ask me to meet him 25 minutes from the train station at the very top level of the huge commercial center – seemed kind of like a drug deal haha – but being punctual he took me away to meet his “wife” Laura and begin a wonderful evening.

Oh what an evening it was. After picking up Laura from work they took me to a hidden bar in Mestre where I had my first glass of Italian red, a Merlot, as well as a fantastic Italian equivalent to tapas, cicchetti. I had a moderately sized pastry puff filled with some type of meat – probably pork – and Gorgonzola cheese. Yum.

Next they brought me to their home town, Spinea. They live together a floor below Fabio's sister, brother-in-law, and nephew, a baby just a month older than Joey, and less than 30 seconds – slash – ten minutes from Fabio and Laura's parents respectively.

Before returning to their flat though they took me to another local secret where I had a second amazing red wine along with some more cicchetti of hams and bread – all ham in Italy is referred to as prosciutto – and followed the wine with Spritz, a drink special to Venezia consisting of white wine and some other ingredients. The drink has an olive on a skewer in it, which we all ate just after our chins and santes. Good lord. I've never had an olive that actually induced grinning. And I don't think it was the drink making me so happy.

Back to their amazing flat where I have a whole bedroom to myself. They have a gorgeous home that is stunningly decorated and luxurious. Fabio works for an auction firm and seems to receive lots of gifts from his obviously well of clientèle. He has a degree in music ans is a budding art collector. He also loves Chuck Palahniuk, Salinger, Bjork, Jack Johnson, and Giacometti.

Laura works for a bank where she does loan management and has lived all over Italy and had a plethora of jobs from server to tour guide. She's equally charming and the two of them together are just perfect. They are the kind of people I think many others only wish they could be. They are truly wonderful.

After a nice shower with the largest bath towel I've ever seen, I was served a classically Italian meal of pasta with sausage and radicchio along with a salad, ham and cheese with marmalades (Clementine, fig, and red onion). The red wine they served was one of the best I've ever had and is made by a close friend of theirs.

After dinner, but before dessert, we had peaches that are cross bred with walnuts. Smooth and hard they have all the flavor of a ripe peach. Then on to grappa and uber-chocolate cake. We're talking cake that dfoesn't have anything but chocolate in it. Cocoa butter, dark chocolate powder. No butter, eggs, or flour. Great. The grappa was strong and warmed by tummy and made me ready for bed.

Fabio broke his wine glass accidentally while we talked about Salinger, and then knocked over the bottle of grappa while trying to close it. Nice to not be the clumsy one for once!

I got to wash AND dry my laundry and had a med made up especially for me. I feel so spoiled but these two are honestly the best hosts ever. I'm their first surfer too. Rock on. I'm definitely coming back here for a few days after Rome. I've already promised I would.

Memory is what I have instead of a view

So today is my third day in Florence – I arrived on Saturday afternoon, getting a ride from my new host, Paolo. The drive from Veneto to Tuscany was beautiful, crossing the Po River – the longest in Italy – and going through some nice mountains. We arrived just before 6pm and I met Paolo's mother – who definitely does NOT look like she's in her 60s – and shortly after Canan, another guest and second-time couch surfer from Istanbul, Turkey. She's here on fashion business.

Before meeting Paolo at the train station in Mestre – otherwise known as mainland Venice – I had a beautiful morning in the city with Laura, who showed me even more still that I had missed on my tours. We entered the Basilica of San Marco, which is one of the most beautiful and impressive works of art I've ever seen. I also got to see the inside of the Zaccaria church which was closed the first time I came by. One of Bellini's paintings of the Madonna is here, and is the one that inspired the creation of the tasty beverage bearing his name.

So once in Firenze I showered and Paolo got ready for a concert he was playing in. he is a drummer in two groups, the one playing that evening a jazz ensemble. The concert was at a small local fair, and we were invited to dine with the band, and presented with a magnificent feast. We started with a few different types of ham and salamis, followed by two types of pasta. One with a light meat sauce and the other with a spicy tomato sauce. I had assumed the meal wa over after the first pasta, but then suddenly there was more. After this we were given heaping platters of two different types of grilled beef, one richer and cooked through, the other juicy and rare. Then the cook asked “Who wants to try the sheep?” and with many hands shooting up, he replied, “You're all wolves!” with a deep laugh.

So then comes the sheep, which Paolo told us was a specialty of the area. It is tougher and richer in fat than lamb, but still very very good. I ate very well, and it was commented that I was a typical American eater! Ha ha. That can be true, but I'm still losing weight!– and after the meal it was time for music.

Paolo, Canan and I sampled grappa from one of the concession tents. The local band played some music and then Paolo's group performed lively jazz for a couple hours. We were very tired at the end , and ready to sleep when we got back.

So then yesterday, Sunday, was the first day I spent in Firenze proper. I have the same audio tours for the town that I had in Venezia, so I decided to follow the first two. Before heading into the city, I walked up to the Belvedere fort to view Firenze. This is a wonderful place to see the city, and most notable in my mind as the place that Hannibal Lecter describes sketching the town with the Duomo from to Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs.

Descending, walking in the general direction of the Duomo, I found the first starting point between the famous basilica and the Roman baptistery. The exterior of the Fiore, the actual name of the basilica, is done in a number of types of marble, and to some might seem quite horrific. I liked it very much though, and took some good photos.

The rest of the first tour and the second one took me through most of the major sights and many other smaller unknown ones throughout Firenze. It was really fantastic and so interesting to learn the history of the places I was visiting.

After finishing not far from where Paolo lives, I grabbed a Diet Coke and strolled back to his flat. Canan arrived shortly after, and cooked dinner while I watched a beautiful sunset from the terrace, from which is visible the Duomo, and a couple other notable Firenze landmarks. A view that even the best placed hotel room would be envious of.

Diner was a wonderful Turkish meal of spicy cooked vegetables – similar to Ratatouille – with rice. Paolo also had homemade ham and sausage that he brought back from Croatia, a gift from his girlfriend's father who runs a restaurant there. More olives, black this time, and I couldn't stop smiling.

Italy has really become my favorite place in the world. I could never say that I dislike Paris or France, but this country has everything and more. Art. Food. People. History. Landscapes. Wine... It's simply beyond perfect here. Paris and France are among the best places in the world for me. Italy is THE best though, as far as I'm concerned at this point in my life.

In other news, Anne-Sophie, a dear friend from Joachim du Bellay, the hihg school I attended in Angers back in 2000, contacted me today. I was delighted to head from her, and so glad we were able to reconnect. She was one of the only people I really regretted not keeping in touch with. Hopefully we will eventually meet again. She is going to Africa to teach in the coming year, so perhaps then.

This morning I had some great – and very thick – Turkish coffee which Canan brought to share, and writing this am sitting out on the terrace smelling the roasting coffee from the shop next door, and looking out over Firenze, ready to spend another wonderful day here.

Ciao!

Venice? Florence? Where do I begin?

2007-06-30T09:57:00.000-07:00

Alright, I just got to Florence, and I know I've been awful about updating, so I'm going to type out some of the hard copy journal entries I've been writing. I've really not had access to the internet long enough at any given point to ramble on about things - but tonight I've got it, so I'll get everyone up to speed.

We'll make it a date...

Monster Europa Entry coming soon - stay tuned!

-Ryan

News of a Nicoisian Magnitude

2007-06-24T09:16:00.000-07:00

So I finally came across a scale today... it's been over a month since I've been able to weigh myself.

Survey says...

109kilos, or 239.8lbs to those of you not running on the metric system.

Wow - that's less than I weighed when I came home from France in 2001 (245lbs at that point; and I arrived this February at a staggering 310lbs - 140.9kilos for those of you running on the metric system).

It's quite amusing to catch my profile in store front plate glass windows.

Oh, and I'm in Nice now... it's beautiful here. Spending the rest of today here, then tomorrow in Monaco and Eze, Tuesday in Cannes and back here - then on my merry way to beautiful Venezia (Venice), Italia!

VinExpo 2007

2007-06-21T06:39:00.000-07:00

Yea... that's right. I'm at the 2007 Wine Expo in Bordeaux, France. And god am I tipsy.

So much wine, so many contacts, so much fun.

What a wonderful thing this is.

More to come when I come down from Euphoria.

Un petit blog photographique de la Paris

2007-06-16T03:58:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the better photos I took around Paris. Most things are recognizably famous, but I'll be a good chap - yes, someone called me that earlier - and label each one. Enjoy.

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Nike or Winged Victory of Samothrace
seen in the Musée du Louvre (Louvre Museum)

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Aphrodite of Milos, better known as the Venus de Milo
seen in the Musée du Louvre (Louvre Museum)

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La Tour Eiffel (Eiffel Tower)
illuminated in the evening, seen from le Champs de Mars

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La Tour Eiffel (Eiffel Tower)
during the day, as seen from Trocadéro

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Sacré-Cœur Basilica (the Basilica of the Sacred Heart)

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La Place de la Concorde

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Le Petit Palais

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Panthéon

seen from an odd angle, because that was the
best way to fit it all in the frame!

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Notre Dame de Paris

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Mur pour la Paix (The Wall for Peace)

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Bal du Moulin Rouge (Cabaret of the Red Windmill)

as seen during the day

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Bal du Moulin Rouge (Cabaret of the Red Windmill)
as seen in the evening, from Métro Blanche

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Musée du Louvre (Louvre Museum) & the Louvre Pyramid

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Les Invalides

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l'Arc de Triomphe (Triumph Arch)

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An interesting tomb found in Cimetière de Montmarte (Montmarte Cemetery)

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Les Invalides and shadow from the Eiffel Tower
as seen from the 2nd level of the tower

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Auguste Rodin's sculpture Le Penseur (The Thinker)
as seen in the gardens of the Musée Rodin

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So that finishes my photographic tour of Paris. I hope you enjoyed it, and hopefully gleaned some interesting information from the links!

How could anyone ever forget Paris?!

2007-06-15T04:44:00.000-07:00

So that about sums up how marvelous it is here. One of the best pictures I've had during the last two weeks. I've been writing in a physical journal about my adventures, which I suppose doesn't really count in terms of letting everyone who reads this what I'm up to. Sorry!

Tomorrow is my last day in Paris, and after that I'm headed to Bordeaux. I'll be there for about a week before moving on to the south of France.

Paris has been so amazingly wonderful, and I've met many great new people during my stay here so far. CouchSurfing is really one of the greatest ways to travel I think. My hosts have all been very nice people, including Jeanne - Rebekah's best friend and not a CSer - and her family, whom I stayed with when I first arrived in Paris.

Being here for nearly two weeks has really given me the opportunity to see Paris more as an inhabitant than as a tourist. I've spent days exploring each individual Arrondissement - there are twenty seperate neighborhoods in Paris proper - on foot, and seeing all the major attractions as well as countless unheard of wonders. I think I've managed to step foot in almost every church - of varying denominations - in town. Those are some of the best things to see because they're always remarkable outside and in, it's constantly cooler inside a church than it is outside - temperature wise I mean - and they're all free. It amazes me how many of these people pass up too because they're concerned with getting to Notre Dame and Ste. Chapelle. Granted those are both amazing feats of architecture and stained glass, some of the smaller cathedrals and churches are just as wonderful. Amusingly enough the only church I had a problem getting in to was the American Cathedral, only because they didn't allow bags inside, and had no facility for storing them if you had one. Oh well.

As cliché as it may be, my favorite spot in all of Paris is right next to the Eiffel Tower. There are so many fantastic places in this city, but not any of them can compare to the immense joy this area (in the 7eme) gives me. I think it's partly due to it being one of the first truly amazing things I'd seen when I first came to France, and partly because it really is just one of the most incredible structures on all the earth.

More to come...

Pleased to Meat You

2007-06-01T06:37:00.000-07:00

So I went to the Chevaline today down the street from Marianne's apartment and got myself a small portion of horse steak.

I was delighted. The butcher was delighted. Black Beauty was not.

So I brought it back to Marianne's and cooked it up and had a super tasty snack. The flavor was great, and it was so tender. Yum. I'd eat this every day if it were legal.

It's Better in Beauvais

2007-05-31T14:48:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know I haven't updated in a while, so here's a glimpse at what I've been up to.

Tuesday (29th) I was up bright and early to catch the train from Sahagun to Madrid. I arrived there at about noon, and spent the better part of the afternoon wandering around the immense Prado Museum - quite good. After that I found my way to Madrid's airport and hung around like a vagrant until my super-red-eye flight at 5:45am. That brought me to Beauvais, France, where I am now.

So here I am, back in France and utterly at a loss for words as to how happy I am. I loved Spain, but France is still where my heart resides. I have an immense fondness for this country, and I'm sure over the course of the next month my blog will literally ooze with praise for all things French.

I'm staying here in Beauvais - which is about an hour north of Paris - with a friend I've made through CouchSurfing, Marianne. She's 7 months pregnant and lives with her new husband Thomas. They're both wonderful people, and have been completely welcoming, and played wonderful hosts.

Beauvais is the kind of place I'd like to live if I ever moved to France. It's not a huge town, but there's a ton of culture here! They have an amazing cathedral, and some really nice areas. Marianne and Thomas live right on the town's main plaza, and you can see the cathedral from their living room. I went and checked it out this afternoon, and it was just brilliant. It has the highest nave in all of France, only rivaled by a neighboring nave in actual size.

Through countless wars Beauvais has been shat upon by attacking forces, being ever re-built. It seems they have adopted the salamander as their symbol of fortitude, since I guess if you bake some earth to make a pot and it contained a live salamander it's said the creature will survive and find it's way out. I need to do some fact checking on that, but for now please assume that it is 100% true.

The amusing thing about the cathedral here is that it's only half built. I guess they just lost the desire to erect flying buttresses at some point, and so it only has one wing of the intended two. It does look a little off when you stare at it head on, but otherwise it is really a bit of architectural wonderment. Filled with incredible works of stained glass - which fill the area with a lulling blue light -, it also boasts a huge 190,000 piece mechanical clock which dates the age of the earth of all things. Really super.

So I'm here in Beauvais until Sunday, and then I will take the train into Paris. It's the first Sunday of the month, so many of the big museums are free. They'll be packed, but they'll be free, so I can't gripe. I'm staying with Rebekah's best friend, Jeanne, for a day or so (I guess however long I can get by on cooking for them! haha) and then I'll be CouchSurfing with others in Paris.

Last night Marianne made us a great pasta dinner, and a few of their friends joined us. We had a good time. She also introduced me to Whitney, a good friend of hers whom is also American. She reminds me a lot of my friend Hannah back home. Whitney came over again tonight and two other American CouchSurfers, Becky and Hannah, joined us. We had a lot of fun making crepes for dinner, both sweet and savory to round out the whole meal. It was a great time, and it's good to be around some fellow Americans.

Tomorrow my mission is to find some place to cheaply get my hair cut, and have my beard trimmed back enough that I can shave it, or have it completely shaved for me.

I bought some trendy French pants for a discount price at a local sporting goods store yesterday for less than 30 Euros. They're great, and much smaller than my pants I brought with me! That and the price makes them even better.

Oh, and I have legitimate proof that the French EAT horse. See the picture to the right of the "Chevalines" where they sell nothing but horse meat. Check out the look on that bust above the awning. Priceless. I'm going to try some before I leave. Yum - Flicka.

All in all, I'm so glad to be back in France. Last time I really felt so at home here, and I'm glad that feeling still exists. I don't care what anyone says about this place or their people - I'll take Beauvais (and to a greater but not as well rhymed extent, France) any day!

So, let me ask you... what do you think about Roman Villas???

2007-05-23T16:20:00.000-07:00

Tuesday: The storm didn't last long and the power came back on. Yay. We had yummy Mexican food for lunch. Yayx2. It was nice all day, and then started to rain again. -(Yay).

Wednesday: Today though was a really awesome day. I got up and had some herba matte and my usual bread, then in an effort to not sit around all day Rebekah decided to organize a small daytrip to go check out some Roman Villas and Romanesque churches. (pretends he's his countryman Roman Polanski all rolled into one)

We headed out in the furganeta (misspelled Spanish for the kind of truck they have) and while we drove through rain and muddy roads I sat in the back reading my Europa Guide to see where I wanted to go in Greece and Italy. I also got carsick for the first time in my life. General queasiness, but I opened the window for some fresh air and felt almost immediately better. (Yay)^2

So we arrived at the museum for the first Roman Villa and it was closed! And it's been closed it seems since last summer. How odd. Things here in Spain move so slowly, regardless of how efficient the Romans themselves were!

So we carried on to San Pedro de Moarves where we found a church that wasn't bad, but slightly disappointing given we thought it was supposed to be much more wonderful. Realizing that it much be the next town, Moarves de Ojeda, we drove on and low and behold - wonderful Romanesque-ness! This church had a great arch and facade around the door - which was pretty groovy in and of itself - and inside was a great basin as well as several holy statuettes, including the widely adored St. Isidro. He's the man for farmers, let me tell you.

After the visit here we went on to a monestary that was tucked away off on a side road behind a bunch of poplars. Things were shut down while we were there so we were unable to check out the cloister - a map on the information board showed it to be a huge part, but sadly it was closed off - but we did wander around freely and alone for about a half an hour checking out the things we could see.

Next on our adventure we came to Herrera de Pisuerga where we thought we'd try and find some lunch. Parking the car and wandering around town in the drizzle, we found a pub, The Convent Garden - great decor, awful green lighting - and had a drink. Leaving town we accidentally came upon a restaurant called El Roble, which means "The Oak." We waited several moments for a server to clear a table, and had one of the best Menu del Dias I think I've had yet. Pallella with rabbit and a variety of seafood, followed by stewed rabbit, and a baked apple for dessert. The wine was excellent as well, and all for only 10.50 Euros!

We left Herrera and drove past where I left Carrion de los Condes while walking the Camino. It's odd seeing these places - also drove past some familiar locations on the way up to Oviedo and IKEA - now that I'm not a pilgrim anymore. It's almost surreal. Past Carrion, and just before Ledigos is this location where an ancient Roman Villa was discovered and protected. It's now open for tours, and for 2 Euros (if you're a senior or a student, 3 if you're not) you can walk along scaffolding above the ruins and marvel at the mosaics, underground heating system, baths, and former wall structures of a once grand mansion. Seeing it was truly remarkable. The mosaics were often huge wall to wall themed and extremely intricate designs. Each tile used, while only being about the size of a human finger nail, was brightly colored - red, blue, yellow, black, and white - and we were told that the color was completely natural; no pigment or paints were used on the works. I guess the materials were brought from multiple locations where they were able to excavate stones in these amazingly vibrant colors.

So that was damned spiffy. There was a certain energy, or vibe if you will, that you could feel walking around the place. I definitely got a very strong impression of the former inhabitants walking around on these beautiful floors. It was a little eerie.

After this stop we headed back to Moratinos, which it turns out, also according to the villa tour guide, is built around an original Roman road that runs across Palencia. "Cool-o Dool-o," as Rebekah would say.

It rained some more after we got back, and it'll probably continue to rain. But after a day like today, who cares. Here's to Roman Villas!

PS: I've finally planned the rest of my itinerary. Check it out in one of the boxes to the right.

When it rains it pours, but thankfully not on my bed

2007-05-21T07:01:00.000-07:00

So the past weekend has been interesting enough.

The night before last we were sent off to bed with the rolling booms and bright flashes of a thunder storm. Not much rain to speak of, but loud enough to scare the dog between the two beds where she could cower next to sleeping people.

Since the storms began though the Internet has mysteriously vanished, though last night it came back and hasn't left since. Very odd.

Anyhow, so yesterday was fair enough, and then it started to rain. Just lightly at first, nothing really to worry about. Checking the house there didn't seem to be any problems, and the rain doesn't seem to be bearing down any harder. Well, as weather goes, precisely what you don't want to happen is often what comes to be. It did start raining harder, and then we started to notice water spots on the ceiling in the salon, the room across the hall from mine. The the dripping began when it started raining harder. Water dripping, and eventually beginning to pour as the puddles upstairs accumulated. Various buckets and pans and containers are now arranged around the salon to catch the falling water, though much of it hit the floor by time we'd realized the dripping had gotten out of hand.

Later I would realize that water spots were starting to form on my ceiling as well. Thankfully there was no dripping.

We had dinner last night, and were sitting around talking, and decide to go in and check the progress of the rain, add more buckets to catch water in the salon, and found that water had been seeping through the light fixture and along the ceiling of my room, resulting in a shorted out chandelier. Turning it on now blows the electricity in the whole house, so I resorted to only using my flashlight. Still, no water dripping near my bed, though I moved it around just for the sake of being safe rather than sorry, in addition to gathering up my belongings and putting them in a safe place.

The leaking ceilings and weather have dampened, no pun intended, everyone's mood to a certain extent I think, though we're resolved to remain cheery. Rebekah, who at one point was flooded by bad childhood memories of living near a levy and experiencing similar, though I'm sure far worse, living conditions, became temporarily overwhelmed by it all.

We opened one, two, three, bottles of wine and enjoyed a nice lentil salad for dinner. For most of the evening we sat around snacking on chips and talking about varied subjects from food to furniture destroyed by drunken friends, wildly entertaining accounts from Paddy's days in London, and how we all make a difference to someone at some point in our lives, be it good or bad. It was a splendid evening, and I don't think I could have enjoyed it more.

Today the sun seems to be coming back out, despite the paper's forecast for thunderstorms over the next three days. Rebekah and I went into Sahagun to get some groceries and run a couple errands, then back home Paddy had made a delicious lunch of bangers and mash with peas. Tonight we're making liver for dinner, and I've started a corn/black bean salsa that we'll save for tomorrow. I've really been Jonesing for Mexican food. Which leads me to comment on the coincidence that one of Rebekah's friends State-side sent a care package filled with Mexican spices and the like. The coincidence was more so that this friend is named Eric and the package arrived on St. Eric's day.

I'm leaving for Paris next week, and am going to be traveling by train through France, Italy, and Greece. If anyone has any suggested "must-sees" be sure to let me know.

It'll take a couple of vodka and tonics

2007-05-18T14:43:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling an overwhelming urge to write, so I will. Lots going through my head these past few days, but I'm having difficulty sorting it all out and making sense. Sometimes I can feel a bit foggy, but then I'll just dismiss it all and go about doing something else. I think it's less me being dodgy-minded , but more that I'm still not adjusted to not having to worry about work or school constantly for once. It makes me a little antsy at times, which is most likely why I'm itching delightedly at the idea of going to Africa in September.

Yesterday Reb and I took a nice excursion to the North coast town of Oviedo to do a little shopping at IKEA. She wanted to get everything for the new kitchen, but instead we ended up doing some much more constructive planning and design with the Spanish based web site and Design Program. We got a number of other useful things as well then went for lunch at Pizza Movil, located in a monstrosity of a mall across the way from IKEA. Pizza'd up, we visited FNAC – a store I've not seen since my former French days – where we got a wireless router – which at present doesn't seem compatible with the Internet here, but somehow mysteriously worked for a while on it's own with no connection to speak of. Eroski, a large national Everything-you-could-ever-need and more store, was where we ended the day in Oviedo, leaving with some groceries, paint, new yard chairs, and a much needed Red Bull. On the way back home we stopped a couple times to check our “adventurous” back road way against the map, soak in the indescribably amazing mountain views – cows included – and to explore a knock-out abandoned church. We got home and had a brief dinner while using the mysterious connection.

So, now on to today. Woke up this morning feeling as though I could have used a couple more hours. I think because I went to bed later than usual last night and took a Benadryl before crashing, its effects were still dulling me quite a lot. I trudged into the bathroom, brushed my teeth – my mouth was stale, and tasted really foul, infested almost, no doubt by the dust that the workers knocked down into my room through a hole in the ceiling – and then go some coffee and bread for breakfast. I don't really recall what I did to much degree before lunch, though I did read a profile on Barack Obama in the latest edition of The New Yorker. It was a good source of information, and I feel stronger about him now as a presidential candidate. I even jotted down a paragraph that really jived with my personal views and thoughts. You know when you read something and think, “My god! What a perfect articulation to how I feel.” Yea, that's the way it seemed with this.

For lunch Reb made a lovely pulse from some veg and part of the chicken stock I made last night – a result of prepping tonight's curried chicken – and to go along with it Paddy made a tortilla espanola with the chicken eggs from the resident hens. It was a wonderful lunch which we took out in the courtyard in the warm afternoon sun. After eating Paddy and I began moving the furniture from the remaining spare bedroom – the one I'm in – to the garage. Everything but the bed I'm using. Tomorrow we're going to work on clearing out the salon. This is all in anticipation of the current remodeling finding its way to the point when the upstairs floors will need to come out, and work downstairs will commence.

I hope when I'm in Africa I can subscribe to The New Yorker. That would be delightful.

So far I have three or four places in/near Paris to stay temporarily. Indeed to do some more searching on CouchSurfing and hopefully I'll get a few more replies.

I finally got all my Camino pictures uploaded to our Walgreens account. And set up a special account for the other people I met along the way to use collectively. Hopefully we'll be able to easily share photos.

I'm going to put a picture of myself in this post if I can. Currently 119 kilo, which is roughly 261 lbs. My clothes are all far too baggy. The outfit I have on in these pictures was pretty snug when I got to Spain. Perhaps I'll get some new jeans for the rest of my trip – donations gladly welcomed and accepted. You can just make out part of my awesome tan lines below my t-shirt sleeves.

We just finished out curry chicken, and both Reb and Paddy raved about it. I really enjoy cooking for people. Perhaps – this'll make my mom crazy – if I can find the time while taking a break from saving the world, I'll enroll in culinary school. My attempts have at the very least secured an invitation to come by Moratinos any time and see if there's a spare bed.

Libby sent me an email inviting me to join a website called GoodReads. It's pretty spiffarific, a site where you can create an account and rate your favorite (or least favorite for that matter) books and share them with your friends and family. I've definitely got something to keep me occupied for at least an hour this evening.

Cheers.

How many couches in Paris can I find?

2007-05-16T14:52:00.000-07:00

So today I didn't do very much. Rebekah and I took a nice walk this morning before going into Sahagun to do some grocery shopping. I sent my letters off, and then after we got home I did some Interneting to start looking for places in Paris to stay. So far I have one or two, and an absolutely from my good pal Marianne up in Beauvais, an hour North of Paris.

Since RyanAir flies from Madrid to Beauvais, I'm going to take the train down and catch a super cheap flight up to France either next week, or perhaps early the week after that. I need to talk with mom this weekend and get everything arranged and such. I'm afraid that buying a Eurrail pass might be a little more complex than I'd hoped, and they may have to ship it to the States and I'll have to have her send it to me. Blech.

We had a lovely trout this afternoon for lunch, brought home from the local fishmonger. It was really tasty. We've been taking most of our meals out in the courtyard, because the weather has been so lovely. It's very nice.

Listened to some good music, did the dishes, took a brief nap (I think...), did some reading, more Interneting and uploading pictures to our Walgreen's account. I'm NEARLY finished. Then I have to arrange picture sharing for all my Camino buds so we can exchange photos with each other. Need to do that before I leave!

In Sahagun today, Rebekah and I went to this Dollar Store type place which is basically filled with cheap asian-made products. Everything you could imagine. I got into the habit of playing cards along the end of the Camino with my friends Tizzy and Enrico, so when i saw a deck for 75 cents there I snatched it up. The funny thing is, they're cards made in the States, distributed by a company in, of all places, Cincinnati, OHIO! Crazy. I flew 14 hours across an ocean to get cards from a place I can get to in a car in less than 5 hours.

Tomorrow Reb and I are taking a little day trip up to Oviedo in Asturias to visit the IKEA there and hopefully select and purchase a kitchen for their soon to be renovated new house. I'm excited, because going to IKEA is always a treat, and I get to see yet another place in Spain that I've not yet been to. There are some good churches there to see it seems.

Anyhow, I've uploaded enough pictures for tonight. I've got a few more days to get posted, but that can wait another day. I'm off to bed for now. Still listening to 1984, and Reb gave me this really intense book to read called The Yellow Rain. It's originally printed in Spanish, but this version is an English translation. It's good stuff man.

Cheers.

Chip, Chip, Chip, Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers

2007-05-15T05:18:00.000-07:00

My good friend Libby says I look like a happy chipmunk in my new picture, and that my "public" demands "full body" shots to show the weight I've lost since I arrived in Spain. I may have to consider that.

Anyhow, yesterday was a rather "lackadaisical" day as Paddy put it, and all of us mostly shifted around the house between states of reading, Interneting, sleeping, and drinking tea.

I'm experiencing some kind of allergy attack, which is typical for me around this time of year, but I hope that it's not some silly cold coming on too. Congestion, headaches, the lot. I've bounced between Benadryl and Sudafed for the time being, and the Sudafed seems to be the best bet. Decongestion without the groggy drunken feeling.

Paddy also got a blog started for himself: http://www.elcaminounreal.blogspot.com

I'm starting a viral infection.

Last night we went into San Nicolas and has a lovely dinner at Casa Barrunta. White bean soup and a veal filet and a nice white wine. Delicious. I crashed shortly after coming home, trying to trudge my way through listening to 1984. It's not that it's a poorly written book, it just seems so preposterous at times that it's a little aggravating. It seems mostly like the rubbish the conspiracy theorists warble on about. I don't know. For it's time though I understand what a remarkable work it was/is.

We shifted some boxes from the garage so that the gypsies, who arrived early this morning to haul away scrap and junk, didn't tote away any of Paddy and Rebekah's belongings in the process. The arrived at 9am, just after I woke up, and had everything cleared out within an hour and a half. Una didn't much care for the man's wife, or woman helper as it were, that came along. She didn't do much about it though.

After that was over the three of us put on some "civilized" attire and went to a special mass that was being held today in honor of St. Isiodor (Ed. Note: I got this wrong... it's St. Isidro, who is completely different and has no relics in Leon). I didn't realize until yesterday that this saint, the one whose relics are supposedly guarded in Leon, was a man. Oops (Ed. Note: Also, I suppose this point could be contested still... perhaps St. Isiodor is a woman!). There were some French speaking pilgs at the mass who I communicated with about what was going on. It's always nice to speak some French. At some point I was having something in Spanish translated to me in English and then conveying it to them in French. Whoa. We went out to a field with the priest and the shrine to St. I. (Ed. Note: the correct "I." that is) and he blessed the fields. After the mass the townspeople converged in the Plaza Mayor with a table and fixings for a small gathering; crisps, pickles, olives, peppers, wine, sodas, juice, and cookies. A good time was had by all, and some pilgs that had stopped in the vicinity to have lunch joined us. I really like the people that live here.

Back home and out of our "fancy" clothes, we rustled an array of leftovers and deli goods out of the fridge to make a nice lunch which we just finished enjoying out in the sun. It's a remarkably beautiful day today, and it was nice to eat outdoors.

Alright, that's all for yesterday and today. I'm still trying to figure out where I'm going to go and how much it'll cost. Suggestions are welcome.

And here's to you Mrs. Robinson

2007-05-13T17:31:00.000-07:00

Well, here I am. Back in Moratinos, and lo and behold... there is Internet! (And it is good)

So back to updating my blog on a regular basis as I've finished my Camino across Spain to Santiago de Compostela. I got my certificate, I hugged the Apostle, and I had a few beers. Good times.

I'm glad to be back in this place; it feels like home to me. I'm also sad that I'm done walking, but know that I've made some amazing friends and lived through some incredible things along my journey that I will never forget. While I'd really like to share my Camino with all who read this, I've decided against publishing my Camino Memoirs, as I might call them, for varied reasons. I'd be more than pleased to share the adventure with others through the photos I took, and stories I can tell.

As for now, I need to plan the rest of my trip, and at the moment I'm not entirely sure where that will take me. I'm really itching again to do a "Grand Tour" of Europe and hit a dozen or so major cities (Amsterdam, Vienna, Berlin, Paris, Rome, Budapest, Sofia, Prague, the Transylvania area...), though arranging that seems to be increasingly costly and aggravating.

So right now I'm going to focus on getting a train to someplace in France, hopefully Paris, try and visit one or two other places I'd like to see there, and then head to Italy to walk the Cinque Terre and see Rome, Venice, and Florence. Beyond that I can't fathom right now. My brain doesn't seem to be able to process something that complex currently.

I need to do some major CouchSurfing searches and find some people to stay with along this first leg of the adventure, then once that's through I'm supposed to try and get to Sofia in Bulgaria to meet a relative of one of my mom's employees. We shall see.

Today was my first full day back at Rebekah & Paddy's. There is no roof on the main house any longer as a team of builders have finally arrived and gotten a head start on the construction. I need to take some pictures, because it's really surreal.

I got back into Sahagun yesterday afternoon by a train from Santiago, and Reb picked me up from the station. We came back, the dog was ecstatic, we talked for a while, Paddy showed me his chickens. He is utterly delighted by them. I love it. We had a nice dinner of Spaghetti Bolognese, and I did some Interneting before going to bed.

Slept in past 10 this morning, had coffee, and James happened over with Africa, who has literally tripled in size. She is massive, and not yet done it seems. He brought her over to see if Reb could remove ticks that he'd found. Glad to see him, though things over at the house haven't seemed to progress much, but this is just speculation from the outside. Paddy says he'd done a lot inside. Sebastien seems to have buggered off after supposedly going to meet his family but never actually arriving. I can't say I'm disappointed.

Some Camino friends of Reb's were coming by this afternoon so we did a little surface cleaning in the kitchen, obviously not bothering with the layer of dust outside, as the builders are going to just come and make more tomorrow. It's chaotic but wonderful. I'm glad to see things getting done. We went to mass where I got to see most of the town people, and much to my amazement can understand much more of their talking than before I left. I'm pleased with how my rudimentary Spanish conversation skills are coming along. If only these people would let me come by and order cafe con leche, I'd be set. Tuesday is a fiesta here in town so there will be a special mass and then a community luncheon. That should be fun.

We had a brilliant seafood pallela that Paddy made for lunch, and then we all took naps on a somewhat rotating schedule. I'm stuffy and my throat is sore so I've been taking Benadryl which makes me drowsy.

Tino and his American wife arrived just past 6, they got the tour, and we sat around talking over a beer. Once they'd gone Paddy and Rebekah made a wonderful dinner of steaks, potatoes, and green beans. Then we sat around listening to music from my iPod. I'm working on getting all my photos from the Camino uploaded to my family's Walgreens account.

I think that's all for today. I'm up way too late, and really need to get to sleep. Ah, and Reb has taken up a Blog of her own here on Blogger to report life in Moratinos to the masses. Please check it out at http://moratinoslife.blogspot.com/

Cheers!

We're in Santiago

2007-05-08T02:02:00.000-07:00

Arrived in Santiago de Compostela today. Hooray! Glad to be finished walking, though I'm going to miss travelling with my friends and having fun times with all of them. I'm off to Finisterre for a day and then back to Sahagún on Saturday.

After I get back I'm going to plan the rest of my trip around Europe. Not positive where that'll take me and when, but we shall see. I should be back to making regular updates to this blog as well.

Stay tuned kids!

<3 Ryan

Pizza Movil in León has great pizza and Ben & Jerry's ice cream

2007-04-26T01:33:00.000-07:00

So I'm in León today. Arrived yesterday afternoon and I'm taking a short break this morning to do some Interneting. It's raining sporatically, and is rather cold, and so I'm regretting leaving my hoodie back in Moratinos. Now I'm considering looking for something cheap like a long sleeved tee or a wind breaker. It should be about 17 or 18 more days to Santiago... I'm excited and anxious to continue my travels around Europe (and certainly think that less of it will be via foot than walking the Camino), but at the same time I'm not looking forward to this journey ending.

My American friend from Connecticut, Alexa, whom I've been walking with for the last couple of weeks is taking a break day today and staying in León. Hopefully we'll meet up again before Santiago. It's been nice to have someone else to talk to that speaks English well and joneses for Ben & Jerry's and pizza - which by the way we ate for lunch yesterday after we arrived in town!

So I'll be doing 19km to a place called Villadongo or something like that. There's an albergue there, and then the next day I may walk a bit farther than planned. We shall see. I can go back to the albergue here to get my things at 11. Perhaps we'll have an early lunch before I take off. I could go for some bean and chorizo stew. Yum. And nice and warm to boot.

That's all for today. Goging to do some other looking around and then take off.

Ciao.

The news from Carrion de los Condes

2007-04-20T12:31:00.000-07:00

So, here´s how things are in a nutshell:

I´m about half way through walking the Camino
My feet really smell
I have a bunch of new friends from all over the world
I have a beard
I´m tired
I measure my days in kilometers
I walk

I am good. Very good.

Update on the Camino

2007-04-08T09:40:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone. I found an albergue that had a computer. Just updating quickly to say everything´s going well. I´m not too sore and my feet are in great condition. It´s tiring, but totally worth it. The most beautiful things I´ve ever seen.

Call me on my cell if you want to entertain me.

Until next time.

Ryan

Last entry before I start my Camino

2007-04-05T10:49:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I'm leaving for Pamplona and then on Saturday I'll be starting to walk the Camino. I've made some revisions which I'll chart out in the side box here, and honestly most things are going to be decided on an as needed basis. I'm not really going to stick to any iron itinerary, though I think I should be back here in Moratinos by late April. While I'm walking though I'm going to be keeping a paper journal, so I won't be making any updates for about a month. I may or may not publish my thoughts and notes from my walk, though if not just catch up with me at some point after I've come home if you'd like to hear about it.

Today is Rebekah's birthday, so if you're a family or friend of hers please be sure to wish her a happy one. Also after I woke up this morning I weighed myself and found I seem to be slowly wasting away, though I've not seen any margaritas around here. Down to 278. Crazy.

If you'd like to reach me and give me a little cheerleading while I walk, feel free to call the Spanish mobile number. All my incoming calls are free, but I can make calls for very cheap as well, so if you want to talk but don't have an affordable way to call internationally, just send me a text message or something and I'll call you. I'm warning some of my close friends that I'll probably be calling you at random points just to hear a familiar voice. Thanks in advance kids.

Anyhow, we're going into town shortly so I thought I'd write this early today in case I'm not able to before Saturday. I'll be back in about four weeks or so, and will resume blogging my adventures from there. Until then.

Cheers.

Ryan

In the morning when we rise, that's the time I love the best

2007-04-04T23:33:00.000-07:00

I slept in again today until about 10am. The bed was all warm and snuggly, and I couldn't possibly give that up in any hurry! Got up, dressed, and went into the kitchen and made a nice pot of Yerba Matte. Super strong Argentinian tea–yum. After that I Rebekah and I played around with the IKEA kitchen creator program and assembled their future kitchen which will be in the bedroom I'm sitting in right now. It's not a huge room, but we managed to cram everything necessary in and still have a decent sized space open. It's going to look very nice.

Sebastien came over and asked me to pop over to The Alamo and help him with something he was doing inside the house. Holding a board while he drilled into it... that took about ten minutes, then I headed back here to hang out with Paddy, Rebekah and Una. We read some, then Paddy decided to start making lunch, another tasty concoction in which he managed to include all the leftovers that were in the fridge. It was deemed the sweet, tangy, zesty, hearty, spicy soup.

After we finished eating I cleaned up and then went and chatted with Sebastien for a bit to get his recommendations about places to see along the Camino. Shortly after we finished Rebekah, Paddy, and I went out on a walk with Una, along the road toward San Nicolas. We walked past this property that used to be used as an electricity mill, but is now in shambles. It's a really nice piece of land with some excellent looking structures–despite their falling apart–on it. The only thing is it's between two expressways, though there's a sound barrier in the back and the one it faces, N-120 which Moratinos is on, is hardly used.

There were all kinds of anoles running about and sunning themselves on one part of the building. It was neat, as I've never really seen reptiles other than snakes in the wild. Along the path there were also some really great plants including small yellow and blue flowers, a vibrantly red moss, and these bushes which grow seemingly along every road here that Reb calls horse tails. I call them the “We don't take no crap from nobody” shrubs as they seem like they might withstand a nuclear holocaust. Very sturdy plants indeed. I found a cool shell on the path too that is solid white with a dark brown or black spiral following it's natural shape. I'm thinking of trying to make a necklace with it.

We got to San Nicolas and stopped in at Barrunta where we had a beer and some tasty cured ham. We also got a brief lesson on umlauts ( ¨, usually found over u's, as in über) used in Spanish words that begin with “gui-” from our friendly bartender, Raoul. We left after a half hour or so and let Una run through the hare fields as we made our way back to Moratinos. It was a truly gorgeous day today with interesting cloud formations and really gusty winds, nice winds though. The rustle of different kinds of plants along the terrain really appealed to me. Also, on the way home I found the rock–or pebble I guess–that I'm going to carry with me on my Camino. Traditionally people carry a stone from the place they begin the Camino to a point about ¾ of the way to Santiago, just outside Astorga. There you'll find a huge cross surrounded by an ocean of stones, left behind by other pilgrims. The stone is supposed to represent your sins, and as you pass you cast it away, and are absolved. Really I'm following tradition more than any formal belief system that I have, but the stone I discovered seemed incredibly appropriate as it has a crude cross formed on it, created by it's natural expansion and contraction between the hot and cold weather.

We got home, Paddy took a nap, and Rebekah worked while I read a few issues of The New Yorker that Libby gave her while she was in the States. There was this fantastically funny article posing as an advertisement for a system of health pills called Mr. Goodbody's Health System, or something to that extent. I couldn't stop laughing at the “testimonials” they ran. Good stuff. Libby called and talked to Reb for a while, then she and I chatted for a few minutes. It was good to hear from her. It seems she's lost 7lbs. since being home from Spain. Go Lib!

Paddy slept until about 7:30, then he and Rebekah decided they were going to take me out to dinner, it being my last night in Moratinos (tomorrow really is, but because of Holy Week here I guess things will be closing early). We went to the big hotel in Sahgun, Peurta de Sahagun, which Paddy and Reb call Hotel Posh. Their restaurant wasn't fancy per se, but was nice, and we had a great meal. There was a large party of seniors dining just after we arrived, presumably in town for Holy Week. They finished eating and then brought out these huge bottles of champagne, which got all the grandmotherly types quite happy. We also watched the futbol match between Valencia (Spain) and Chelsea (England). It ended up being a draw, though because Valencia was playing away from home their goals will technically count double in the case of a tie breaker after they play the next game in Valencia. Such an interesting sport. I find the more and more I watch it the more I seem to enjoy it. It's too bad America hasn't caught on quite yet to soccer like the rest of the world has.

After dinner we headed home, and now we're all heading to bed. The stars here tonight are absolutely brilliant. You can easily pick out so many constellations, I just wish I had a chart so I could remember which are which.

Anyhow, I'm headed to bed. Sleepy Ryan.

Ticket to ride

2007-04-03T23:45:00.000-07:00

Got up today just before 10 or so. I'm getting lazy, and just days before I have to leave and start waking up at some god awful hour. Oh well, ha ha. I went and had some coffee, then hopped in the shower and got dressed. Paddy and Rebekah were taking the dog out for a walk, so I decided to join them.

First we headed over to The Alamo, and there was a pilg there, Phil from California. It was nice seeing another American walking, and he was very friendly. He came back over to Paddy and Rebekah's house to have a cup of coffee and get a Moratinos cello (that's a stamp, not a musical instrument!), then we walked with him to San Nicolas while Una ran out in the hare fields.

Rebeakh and I headed back, found Paddy and when we got home the neighbor lady had my card that my mom sent me. A funny singing birthday card from her and Jimmy. Also after we got back the three of us lined the basin in the courtyard with a tarpaulin, filled it with water, added a little bleach and then dumped in the old yurt lining which was covered in some kind of mildew. Rebekah noted that while yesterday we were “yurt wrastlin'” today we were “yurt bleachin'.” We're a simple folk.

After we got that situated, we came in and Rebekah made a very nice lunch, something called Pasta alioli, which I'm probably misspelling, but was basically pasta coated in olive oil which has been cooked with garlic, onion, and some red pepper. Then an egg is mixed into the lot, similar to my Carbonara, and just as tasty! I did the washing up after we were through, Rebekah sat down to work on the issue of American Pilgrim she's volunteering for and Paddy went to take a nap. Meanwhile I pulled out the large map of France and started charting the different routes that make up the Grande Randonnée, anticipating my adventure post-Camino.

Rebekah, bless her, lent me her mobile phone to use while I'm walking as my VodaFone SIM chip works in her VodaFone mobile, but not the spare they have here. Her SIM however works in the spare phone, so she was willing to swap. In the meantime I'm going to order an Orange SIM since that's the only network I seem to be able to get with my Cingular Nokia. All in all a royal pain in the ass, and I start to feel like Paddy sounds whenever anyone talks about mobiles or other electronics: “Oh fuck it all!” Nonetheless, I have a working phone now and my European mobile number is the one I can be reached on (see side box on how to contact me, the number and dialing instructions from U.S. are listed there).

Once Paddy was up again, we hauled the now hopefully clean yurt lining out of the basin and strung it out on the clothesline to dry. It sort of looks like the backdrop to some high school performance of a Greek tragedy. Then we gathered our things and went back into Sahagun to do some more Internetting that wasn't finished yesterday (because Reb forgot her purse and her list of things to Internet). We went to German's where I parked my laptop inside to catch the WiFi, and Paddy and Rebekah sat in the car to use Skype via her Mac.

I chatted with some friends–amazed that I was online two days in a row!–wrote some emails, caught up on my friends' lives via LiveJournal, updated my blog, and uploaded pictures that I've had for a while. I also downloaded the program from IKEA that Rebekah wants to use to design her spiffy new kitchen. After I was through I met both Paddy and Reb over at Cafe Zentral where they were enjoying a drink. We left shortly after and stopped at the train station before heading home. I got my train ticket to Pamplona, leaving on Friday afternoon. I've decided to rearrange my Camino itinerary, and will be starting from Pamplona now just for the sake of simplicity. It is one day in from the “official” Camino start point of St-Jean-Pied-de-Port, and about 4 or 5 days from my original plan to start in Somport. It would just be more hassle than I think it's worth though to get a train to Pamplona and then try to route myself via bus to wherever else. When I head back on my way to France I'll be sure to visit the Aragon area though.

Back at home Paddy made a very nice pallella with some chiperones (squid thingies) he and Rebekah picked up while we were in Sahagun. It tasted great with a little soy sauce, and lots of bread. Yum squid. Before and after eating Rebekah and I sat and discussed stop-by-stop the Camino from Pamplona to Santiago. She gave me good tips on places to see and albergues to stay in. I'm also going to catch up with Sebastien and hopefully James and Marianne before I leave on Friday and see what they recommend. Talked to my mom for a bit before sitting down to write, and now I think it's time to hit the hay... but not in the barn. That stuff is all smelly and old. Good night.

IMPORTANT UPDATE

2007-04-03T10:17:00.000-07:00

I finally got my Spanish number working. So if you want to call me, please do so using the number in the Contact Me box on the right.

Thanks!

Ryan

Yurt wrastlin' and curried chicken a good day make

2007-04-02T23:44:00.000-07:00

Today I got up at around 9:45, had some coffee and then threw on some clothes. We were going into Sahagun to do some re-stocking shopping and to get an Internet fix. Not long after I was ready to go Marianne came over and asked to steal me for 30 minutes or so to help with the yurt. I panicked–but then Paddy and Rebekah assured me that they were still going to walk the dog before going into town. A sigh of relief, me feeling like a crazy Internet junkie, I went over to The Alamo with Marianne.

There I found the yurt's skeleton, circular lattice work on a 2x4 platform. I was needed to hold the central support with Marianne while James and Sebastien put in the spokes to hold it up. The yurt is sort of like a giant overturned wheel cloaked in fabric. So we held, and James and Sebastien fumbled and grumbled. Things were good, things were bad, crooked at times, falling apart at others. But we managed to get the framework held together enough to install the remaining spokes.

Paddy and Rebekah showed up with Una about an hour later and by then things had progressed to the point where everyone was needed to attach the layers of felt and waterproofing to the structure. It took another hour or so and then we had most of the yurt assembled. Paddy headed back home to make some lunch, and Reb and I stayed to help with the finishing layers, our excursion postponed until after siesta.

At about two-o'clock we headed back home to have an incredible chili-esque concoction that Paddy created from the hardly edible slop I had made last week while they were in Madrid. It was great. After eating I did the washing up, and Rebekah did a Tarot reading for me. It was nice, she's not given me one in a few years, and it seemed pretty positive. I don't hold much stock in things like that as I think, like horoscopes they can be applicable to anyone's situation, but it was fun nonetheless. Then Paddy went to nap, and I went back to The Alamo with Sebastien to help him arrange his new home. We constructed several tables out of scrap from the yard, and I explained the intricate differences between a closet, an armoir, a dresser, and cupboards to Sebastien. It seems in Belgium they call the lot of them “closet.” Weird.

Back home around 5 found Paddy and Rebekah ready to go. The four of us headed into Sahagun, Paddy and I Interneted for about an hour and a half, and Reb and Seb did the shopping. I talked to some friends via Trillian which was super nice. Draque claims that I've left behind a “Ryan-shaped hole” and that people at his parties since I've left, who don't even necessarily know me by name, ask where the guy who makes the great drinks is. I also got some good information on the GR routes throughout France, checked email, updated Blogger, the usual. I forgot to upload pictures to my grandfather's Walgreen's account though... I still need to take some of myself for family, as they're starting to question my actually being in Europe seeing as I've been in zilch as far as my pictures are concerned.

After everyone was done we got a drink in a local pub then headed home. Sebastien went back to the yurt where he seems bent on spending all his time now. Whatever makes him happy I guess. He didn't even have dinner with us–his loss!

With some spontaneity I roasted onions, apricots, apples, red bell peppers and nuts with some nice chicken leg-slash-thigh combos that Reb bough, all cooked in a super curry. Then, without Basmati or Jasmine rice, I doctored up some perfectly cooked – thanks to Delia Smith – white rice with sugar, cinnamon, laurel, and ginger. It went with the curry very nicely. Paddy and Rebekah both praised my efforts, Reb saying if she had been served that food in a restaurant she would be impressed. That made me happy.

Oh, the record for “Funniest Exchange” today (CAUTION: Not for those with any strong religious convictions.):

Premise: A discussion about Holy Week, specifically about how Rebekah's birthday lands on the day Jesus was killed.

Rebekah: Yeah, but on Sunday he comes back. He always comes back... every year.

Ryan: Kind of like that damned groundhog! “Well guys, Jesus saw his shadow... looks like it'll be another five hundred years of Christianity!”

END

I also managed to slip in the phrase “goddamned Jesus” into a conversation today – I can't even recall what we were discussing, though it was amusing at the moment. I think we can all agree that no matter what it might have been I was certainly on a roll in terms of earning my ticket to Hell today (should such a place exist. See Henry Miller on Paradise and it's flaws, March 26).

Good night!

Sylvia Brown and the Dastardly Case of the Lost Bike

2007-04-01T22:00:00.000-07:00

First off, I don't know who the hell Sylvia Brown is. Just read.

I got up today and went into the kitchen to find Rebekah and Paddy. Had some coffee and talked for a bit. It seems Sebastien finally came home last night – or this morning rather – a t about 5:00am. However the bike was no where to be seen. Today is his birthday.

While the two of them took Una for her morning walk I finished eating some bread then took a shower and got dressed to go to mass after they returned. Once they were back and ready, Sebastien came into the kitchen. Paddy asked him where the bike was and his initial response was something along the lines of a shocked, “Oh my god.” He said he'd left it somewhere in Sahagun the night before, but that he would go into town to get it today.

So the three of us, sans Sebastien, went to Mass to discover that we were the only ones without a bit of a tree or bush – Psalm Sunday. Everyone had an assortment of olive, grape, rosemary, and pine boughs, and they were all nice enough to offer us a piece off their own Psalm. I got an olive branch, at least I think that's what it is, from Modesto. The priest arrived and we all stood outside while he blessed the Psalms, shaking holy water at the group. The Mass itself was nice. Some pilgs stopped in to participate, and afterwards one of the German men had forgotten his walking stick inside. We had to get the key to the doors from Julia's father. On the way back home we stopped to drop off the keys and had a nice chat with Julia and her family. They have a floor warmer under one of their rooms, which is seemingly common around here. Paddy and Rebekah call it a Gloria, though theirs doesn't work, but instead smoke seeps up through the kitchen tiles. Julia's mother was tending the flames, and it was really quite a roaring fire. Also she made Rebekah speak Castillian inside the house when talking with Julia. It's good practice, and Reb says she thinks being away has actually improved her Spanish.

Back home I prepared a sort of Ensaladilla Rusa for our lunch, and we were greeted by a note from Sebastien saying that he'd gone to live in the yurt at James' place. The salad was nice, especially in light of the fact that we didn't have much around to actually prepare in line of food.

After eating we all sat around for a while reading and talking. Rebekah then came in to unpack her bags and I decided that I should probably pack my sack that I'm taking on the Camino. Got everything I'm going to need in it, and it only weighs 8 kilos. Reb says that's pretty damn good.

James and Marianne showed up to celebrate Sebastien's birthday but he wasn't anywhere around. We assumed he had stayed in Sahagun once he'd gone in to get the bike. James went looking for him and found him tipsy, embarrassed, and sad in the yurt. It seems he got news that his ex-girlfriend has a new boyfriend, so he's depressed about that, and additionally he'd lost the bike and didn't want to face Paddy. James called to relay the situation, Paddy was irritated, but Rebekah told him to chill out. James came back then he and Rebekah decided to go over and get Sebastien and try to cheer him up a bit, as after all it was his birthday. James told Reb that he'd driven to the Irish pub in Sahagun to see if Sebastien was there, but that they didn't know where he was and also said Sebastien was banned from coming in ever again. Shenanigans.

Sebastien came over to the house and apologized for losing the bike. We had some wine then after James and Marianne left with the kids had a simple meal of spaghetti with pesto. Tomorrow we're going into town to do a major shop. Sebastien ended up sleeping in the house tonight, and after dinner we've all gone to bed. Good night.

Paddy and Rebekah come home

2007-03-31T22:00:00.000-07:00

I slept in today because I didn't feel so hot this morning when I initially woke up, the effect of inhaling lots of smoke in the bar last night–and no I didn't have a hangover, especially not from two beers. I was basically congested and phlegmy, but I felt better by eleven or so. Got up, had some coffee and a chunk of bread. Sebastien had left for Sahagun just after 10, going into town to call his daughter.

I took Una out for a walk, suspecting that after that huge bowl of spicy pasta sauce last night she was probably going to have crazy indigestion. She seemed alright though. I guess living on the streets of Pittsburgh and eating all those mice really toughen a stomach up!

We came home and I took a shower and shaved, then proceeded to give the dog a good scrubbing so she'd be clean when her people returned later. I read some more Henry Miller, and listened to Cell for a bit. In the yard there were some large pieces of asbestos that had been on the roof before the builders fixed the walls. Being that they didn't clean up anything once they were through, I went out and dragged them all into the garage in back for the gypsy to come and confiscate. Bad stuff to keep around anyhow!

Went around the house sweeping here and there, cleaning up bits of dirt and dust that had settled on the ground since yesterday. Then I had a small lunch of cheese and some anchovies on bread, then curled up for a nap. I slept for about an hour, and after I got back up finished listening to Cell. The ending was alright.

Paddy and Rebekah got home from the train station just before 7:00pm, and we caught up for a half hour or so, then walked around the house and over to The Alamo so Rebekah could see the progress that's been made. Once back we had a simple supper of bread and a pulse that Rebekah made with some veggies and peas soup base. It was very good. By time we were all ready to call it a night, Sebastien had still not returned from earlier. Not sure where he could be, but if I had to guess I'd say he's probably at a bar somewhere.

Before coming in for bed, Rebekah read an excerpt from the journal she and Paddy share to me. This was in reference to the night Paddy, Sebastien, James and I were at The Alamo, and they had cooked the meat on the chicken wire–the Earth seasoned steaks:

“The sight of the four of us around the fire seated on upturned buckets and bricks was redolent of a gang of homeless alcoholic derelicts on an East End bomb sight ... Rock bottom in a way, but not seriously.”

Anyhow, I'm going to bed. I'm going to start listening to The Vampire Lestat tonight. A book I've read before, but still a very good story, and the audio version is read by one of my favorite readers, Frank Muller.

Good night!

The Great Day of Cleaning

2007-03-30T22:00:00.000-07:00

So as I suspected, today was deemed the Great Day of Cleaning. I spent most of my day around the house sweeping, mopping, wiping, and arranging things so that everything was clean and in order for Paddy and Rebekah's return. I got up at around 9:30, had some coffee and then took the dog out for a short walk.

Coming home I started in the kitchen and the bathroom, and by lunch time had finished the latter though arranging the shelves, and cleaning under things took longer in the kitchen. Sebastien came over from working at The Alamo and we had some fish, peas, and microwaved potatoes for lunch. After eating we watched the other movie that James brought over for us to borrow – Three Kings. Also, another movie that was better than I expected it to be.

After Sebastien left again I resumed cleaning the kitchen, finished, and then hung some laundry and started working on sweeping the courtyard and cleaning up the entry way. The wind was gusting down into the courtyard so it took a while to get all the dirt which kept blowing away as soon as I'd swept it into piles. I ended up just wetting most of it down and sweeping it over to the drain though, so that worked. Then, of all things, it rained. I was a little peeved.

I took Una out for another walk, for her sake and my own, and the people that own sheep down the street have finally let them out. She was very excited to come across a great group of animals that she could easily startle. We went toward San Nicolas, and she ran a muck in the hare field.

After coming home I swept and mopped the inside hall and stairs, then tidied up the disaster of a workshop at the back of the house. I've listened to a great deal of Cell while working today, and I have to say in light of Stephen King's more recent crap work, this story is fairly okay. It's kind of reminiscent of The Tommyknockers, though that really scared me. This story is just more so amusing.

After dinner of a decent–and rather spicy–putanesca, Sebastien and I rode the bikes to San Nicolas to have a drink at Barrunta. We had a good night, and made it home safe, getting a ride from Raoul the bartender at Barrunta. We played a skewed game of Quarters with a Euro, and though our money may be worth less I can attest that it certainly bounces much better!

Before coming home I remembered that we'd left the leftover spaghetti and sauce on the counter in dishes, and worried that Una would have gotten at them and broken them. She's really mischievous when it comes to food being left out. We came home to find the spaghetti untouched, but the bowl of sauce significantly decreased, the green olives in it completely cleaned off. I guess Una doesn't like olives. Thankfully she hadn't broken anything, though I'm guessing that I made it increasingly easy for her, having moved one of the chairs in front of the counter so we could watch the movie earlier. Sneaky dog.

Now I'm ready to crawl into bed and sleep for a while.

If I ask for a half kilo of ground beef, that's exactly what I want

2007-03-29T22:00:00.000-07:00

So today I made the decision that when I enter a Spanish-speaking situation I'm going to provide scripts to those I'm interacting with so that they know what to say. Back to that when I get there.

Got up this morning just after 9 and took Una our for a walk after stopping by The Alamo to see how things are going. James had spray painted “If you can build we need your help.” in English and a Spanish translation across the arch mold. When the dog and I came back the mayor had showed up and there was a reporter there from one of the local papers as well, gathering information for a story on Moratinos.

I headed back home with the dog and took a shower then read Miller for a bit. Hannah sent me a text message saying that a trip to Europe for her may be more of a possibility than she'd anticipated, having come into some unexpected funds. It'll be nice to see her, and I think she'll really like Europe, regardless of where we end up.

Sebastien came home at around two and we ate a frozen pizza that we had for lunch. After eating we set up my laptop and watched The Italian Job, which was a much better movie than I'd though it might be originally. Not as good as Ocean's 11, but the same premise. He headed back to work after the movie was over, and I went over to The Alamo as well to see if Marianne could take me into Sahagun to pick up some groceries.

She was more than willing, so we took their car and the children into town. First we stopped and Marianne bought an orchid from a local plant shop to give to Julia as a gift for being such a help. I went to Dia, which reminded me a lot of Aldis in the States, and got most of what we needed, but wasn't bale to get any ground meat. So we drove over to Lupa and luckily their counter was still open. I'd planned what I needed to ask for when I got to the counter, but the lady helping me asked me something I didn't understand instead of just giving me what I wanted. It turns out she was inquiring as to whether I wanted patties or just the beef. I had said clearly ground meat, and pointed at it, but instead she has to go and complicate things. Hm. So that's why I'm going to start handing out scripts, ha ha.

We headed back to Moratinos, I put away the groceries, and then went back to The Alamo to help Marianne walk around the property and measure all the walls so that they could take the measurements to an architect. It seems while they were on their siesta, James and Marianne ran into the man from San Nicolas who owns an albergue there, and he more or less told them that he was going to do everything in his power to keep them from opening. So not a huge deal, but just earlier the mayor had mentioned that his term is nearly over, and the same man from San Nicolas is running for the position unopposed. So that could pose a problem for James and Marianne.

James gave me a copy of Google SketchUp, which is a neat drawing program that lets you create 3-d models from 2-d shapes. Very nifty and I played around with it for a bit after coming home before making dinner. We had impromptu tacos with the meat I'd purchased at Lupa. Sebastien restrained himself at first, but then after two tacos slathered the rest of his with mayonnaise. Ick. After dinner we set up the laptop again and watched Gods and Monsters.

Now it's time to get to sleep – I'm finished with The Silence of the Lambs and starting Stephen King's Cell tonight. Tomorrow I need to clean around the house before Rebekah and Paddy come home.

“A decent, well-educated cow came by here today.

2007-03-28T21:00:00.000-07:00

Paddy left for Madrid this morning. He's meeting Reb tomorrow sometime and then they're coming back to Moratinos on Saturday. I got up today at about 9:30 and was alone in the house with Una. I had some coffee, got dressed, pulled the sheets of my bed, and put them in the hamper. Planning to was all the linens later.

Una and I went over to The Alamo, er Alambra, to find Sebastien and James and Crew. They were puttering around and Sebastien was mixing cement to start one of the inside walls that needs to be built. It seems the workers have decided to blow James' wall and arch off for another long-term project. After some taking with them and Julia though they're going to come Saturday to construct the arch, but then James is going to finish the wall. As of right now it's huge.

I took Una out toward Terradillos and we cut across some farmland along a small road. I got my shoes caked in mud which I'll have to wash off later. It was a nice walk though. Even despite my being able to hear the mouse Una caught squealing just before she killed it. You'd think she was a dog or something!

We came back home, cleaned up from this morning, then started making lunch. Just an anchovy sandwich and some cheese. Sebastien came back shortly and had a bit to eat, I did the sodoku puzzles from the last few days, read a bit, planned my Camino, then he went back to finish his wall. I started dinner which was the rice/chicken/chorizo thing Paddy made yesterday turned into a soup. I wasn't really impressed with my efforts, but it's food.

It started raining and I had to pull down the laundry that was on the line. Also now unless it gets nicer tomorrow I'll have to dry the linens over at The Alamo. I put on the resident poncho and went over to see if Sebastien needed one. James and Marianne came back and she and I did some impromptu planning with spray paint and pencil for the yard and landscaping. James all but kissed the ground I walk on when I explained some basics of geometry to him for measuring angles. I can't imagine if he met some of my Case Western kids. He might not know how to handle that.

Sebastien and I came back when they left with the kids. We ate dinner just after 8 then he went to Barrunta to have a drink. It stays light here now until about 9ish. It's pleasant, but odd at the same time. We need to pick up some items in town tomorrow so I'm going to ask Marianne to drive me into Sahagun. Sebastien is supposed to be back around 10, and then he said he wanted to watch Gods and Monsters. Then bed for me – I'm just about done with The Silence of the Lambs.

Oh, I put a new side box up for anyone interested in looking at my tentative and wholly-amendable Camino itinerary.

Free to run

2007-03-27T21:48:00.000-07:00

After my fun evening last night I ended up sleeping in until about 10 this morning. I got up and had my usual coffee and bread, then headed into Sahagun with Paddy. We bought his train ticket so he could go and meet Rebekah on Thursday and then bring her back on Saturday. I found out later that he bought a ticket for tomorrow as opposed to Thursday. I'm sure an extra day to get situated in the city and have me and Sebastien out of his hair will do him some good. I'm sort of glad that I'm not going to be here the entire time I'm in Europe. I really love it here, but I feel bad kind of throwing a kink into Paddy and Reb's lives for the time they've let me stay. I appreciate it nonetheless and will have to find a really great way to pay them back. Anyhow, we checked out email at Zentral, I updated my blog, and then we picked up some bread and a newspaper. German was supposed to be back from Peru today but his shop is still dark and the sign saying he'll be gone till the 27^th was still up. I hope he comes back sometime soon as I'd like to take my laptop in and get on his wireless network. I want to upload pictures and get some detailed info about these trails in France.

We came back to Moratinos and moved the yurt parts into the storage room from where they had been left outside. Then I read some more of that amazing henry Miller book. God damn. Go out and buy Big Sur everyone. The package that my grandfather sent me arrived today. For some reason the post man had taken it to one of the neighbors. I'm not really sure why because it was clearly addressed, but I appreciated him bringing it over. I only hope the card my mother sent me comes to the right place. That could be a problem. Anyhow, he sent along a writing pad for me to write my letters on as well as two pictures he'd printed out from our little trip to Bilbao. One of Rebekah and Libby which is really nice, and another of Libby and me in front of the Guggenheim Museum which Reb took. I put them both up on the fridge.

Paddy made a rice dish out of the leftover chicken and some chorizo. He didn't much care for it but I thought it was alright. It just needed some salt and pepper. Eh, it's food, right? After eating I took Una out for a nice stroll while listening to some Gomez. While walking I was inspired to put together a play list of songs especially for listening to while walking the Camino. Some of them are about walking or traveling, others seemed appropriate to me for other reasons. I'll list them at the end of this entry.

Paddy took a nap and I read for a bit longer then listened to some more of The Silence of the Lambs. At around eight or so I found a recipe for Spaghetti Carbonara in Delia Smith's cookbook and we had that for dinner. The sauce for the dish is actually made by coating the hot pasta in raw scrambled eggs then topping it with cooked bacon. We didn't have bacon so I used some chorizo instead. It turned out rather well and everyone enjoyed it. I'm kind of tired today, so I'm going to bed earlier than usual. I suppose I should get all the sleep I can before I start walking. I've got some long (but surely adventurous and amazing) days ahead of me. Cheers!

(I'll tack my play list into a side box on my blog here.)

“Paradisiacal” is my favorite word today

2007-03-26T22:00:00.000-07:00

Woke up today and Paddy and Una were just returning from their walk. He told me I needed to go see James at The Alamo for “crappy presents.” Having some coffee and putting on my clothes and shoes I went over and James gave me a big hug, a DVD (Gods and Monsters, very good) and a CD-ROM of e-books, which he guaranteed probably wouldn't work on my laptop. He was right, ha ha.

After coming back home Paddy and I headed into Sahagun to exchange two butane tanks (wow they are heavy when they're full), pick up the usual newspaper and bread, grabbed some sandwich makings for lunch, and I bought some tobacco for Sebastien which he asked me to get for him. We went over to Zentral to check email but their metal gate was down and they were closed. So we had a coffee in another nearby bar and then went home.

We had some lunch, and after I finished the chicken soup that I was making for dinner. Added some vegetables to it that we had leftover in the fridge, spiced it up, etc., and it turned out quite well. I even was able to boil the carcass bits again after removing them from the soup and produce another liter of good chicken stock which I poured into a recycled plastic bottle and froze. After I finished I read most of the new issue of The New Yorker that came in the mail not too long ago, then decided to go take a rest and watch the movie James gave me. I really miss watching movies! It was nice to curl up in bed and hide for a bit. Gods and Monsters is a film based on a period of James Whale's life, the director of Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein. (Sir) Ian McKlellan is in it, and it's very good.

After I was done I got up and went back into the kitchen to find Paddy who gave me a book by Henry Miller called Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch. He said I should start reading it as he thought I'd enjoy it and additionally see a bit of what they themselves, being Paddy and Reb, are experiencing here in Moratinos. All I can say is, “Wow!” I've not even gotten half way through the book and I'm really amazed at how well I like it. Miller speaks in the first person, recounting a period of his life spent in Big Sur, California. He has a lot of viewpoints that I whole heartedly agree with, and there are plenty of excellent quotables in the text. Here's one I like in particular and so wrote down: “Certainly paradise, whatever, whenever it be, contains flaws. (Paradisiacal flaws, if you like.) If it did not, it would be incapable of drawing the hearts of men or angels.”

Sebastien came back from working, then James and Marianne showed up with a couple bottles of good tinto (which is how Spaniards refer to red wine). I slipped and said “The Alamo” in front of James, and he told me I wasn't allowed to call it that anymore, since now they've cleaned up the yard, he feels it should be called “The Alumbra” or something like that after some palace in India. I laughed, and lying just a little bit, agreed to not call their place The Alamo anymore. We had a drink, and they (excluding Paddy who had opportunely gone to the bathroom) sang for me. It was very sweet, but then James and Marianne had to take off as the kids were grumpy and waiting in the car.

After they'd gone we all sat down and had my chicken soup for dinner with some bread and the rest of the wine. The second bottle was extremely good. I think I saved it, though I'll have to write down what kind it is and where it's from before the bottle is taken to the glass deposit. It had a neat little stamp of a map of Spain on the top of the foil, with the area the wine was produced indicated.

After dinner Paddy, Sebastien, and I sat around the table drinking wine, eating bread and pate, and have a really wonderful conversation that spanned a slew of topics. Here's a brief synopsis:

Movies – Casa Blanca, Citizen Kane, The Shining, The Innocents, Kubrick, Stephen King, westerns; Paddy is amazed and “envious” that I'd never seen Casa Blanca. He says I have a real treat in store for me.
Books – War and Peace, Salinger, Hemingway and what he did for literature, how people talk, Miller. Paddy says War and Peace is worth reading, so I may have to give it another chance.
Writing – Maya Angelou and The Blade–I guess Paddy wrote a scathing piece on a local appearance and the mayor was upset; How EdOp pieces are sometimes meant to rile people up and that's really the fun of writing them.
Religion – Varied opinions, but none of us would probably hear the end of it from a die hard believer of any faith in particular. How is it conversations always steer to politics and religion?!

After this, Paddy went to bed and Sebastien and I sat around listening to David Bowie and Pink Floyd. Then we both decided we were a bit hungry so I attempted to make drunken French toast. I think that would me a really good name for a band, and the attempt proved successful even though they don't really seem to have maple syrup here. I cleaned up all the dishes because I knew Paddy would not be pleased waking up to a messy kitchen in the morning. Apparently Sebastien has never watched The Wizard of Oz while listening to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon dubbed over the sound. I thought this was a pretty common spectacle to be amazed by, so now we need to find a copy of the movie on DVD.

I sent some text messages back and forth with my mom and a couple friends sending well wishes, then my pal Draque from Case Western called me via Skype and we talked for about 15 minutes. My mom's going to be mad because I wasn't thinking that I shouldn't be using the phone (even after she'd just mentioned it to me!). Since I've taken the card out so I can't actually make calls, but it still works as an alarm clock. I accidentally woke Paddy up because I was talking outside, a little louder than I realized I guess, and he said it was something like 3am. (Edit: Yea, so this would indicate that I didn't write this entry at 10pm, but that's just what I put into Blogger when I end up writing an entry the next day. That way the dates are still accurate to the occurrences.) I hung up, apologized, and then headed to bed myself. I really hope I didn't irritate him too much. He's a good man and has been incredibly patient and generous with me.

For some reason it always rains on my birthday.

No weddings and a funeral

2007-03-25T22:25:00.000-07:00

So when I got up this morning the spare bed was still made, and I because I woke up a few times in the night and no one was in it I don't think Michael ever went to sleep. At least not in the house. When I got out of bed and wandered into the kitchen Paddy was out for a walk with Una, Sebastien was up, and Michael was gone. Coffee. Bread. The usual.

Paddy got home and said that he hadn't seen Michael this morning either. He forgot to take my contact info that I wrote down for him, so I'm going to have to email him. Hopefully we can stay in touch as he was a pretty groovy guy and it's always good to have more contacts in California!

Daylight savings time seems to have reached Europe finally, as Paddy pointed out. My phone and computer auto-set themselves it seems, so now we're six hours ahead of the States again. Mass had also been delayed until 4:30 this afternoon in light of Secandino's mother passing away yesterday. We figured it would be a special mass dedicated to her memory.

I got dressed and went outside to help Sebastien clear the globs of dried cement that the oafs had left after finishing their work on the house. They were fairly easy to move not being stuck to the earth or anything, and most we were just able to pick up in one piece. By time we finished it was time for lunch, so I reheated the leftover pasta from last night and then using some green pepper, onion, garlic, and a carton of tomato sauce I made a new sauce for it. It was quite good, especially with the green pepper. After we ate I cleaned up, Paddy went to take a nap, and Sebastien started working on a couple walking sticks he's making. I read for a bit and then decided to take a shower.

Cleaned up and smelling good I put on my “fancy” clothes to go to mass. Khakis and a button down. Basically what I wear all the time when I'm at home, but here it's certainly dressing up. I figured since it was going to be a special mass I'd pull out the brown corduroy blazer just to look a little spiffier.

Paddy got up not long after and took Una out for another walk, and while waiting to leave I practiced my Spanish some using the Rosetta Stone program Danielle gave me a copy of. It's kind of boring, though really thorough, and a good way to learn. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. They've also been ringing the church bells today in that weird way like yesterday.

We all left for the mass at about 4:25 or so, and when we rounded the small corner from the house noticed all kinds of people gathered around the church. Mind you there are only twenty people in Moratinos. So as we got closer we saw a hearse, and flowers, and sure enough there was a full blown funeral. We weren't really sure if that was going to be the case or not, but it was certainly an experience to witness a funeral here. They're one of those important cultural things we do as humans. It was very nice. I caught myself wondering as they carried the small casket into the church how much it weighed, and then thinking to myself how horrible it must be to carry your mother (or like relative) in a wooden box.

We stayed through the service, but didn't follow the procession out to the cemetery as we thought that might be a little inappropriate not being relatives or close friends. We headed home and I got the chicken ready for our dinner. This one was a bit bigger than the one we had last Sunday. I oiled it up and seasoned it, then stuffed it with apples, onions, and a huge bunch of rosemary. Tied it up and tossed it in the oven. I tinkered with the time and temperatures just because last week the bird could have cooked for about 10 minutes more, plus this one was bigger. It turned out perfectly, just pink at the bone, and very juicy. It smelled really good too. I imagine most anything roasted with that much rosemary crammed inside of it would, ha ha.

I nuked a few potatoes, defrosted some peas, and Sebastien made some homemade apple sauce. It was quite a nice meal and the onions, apples, and peas all complimented each other very well. After we were through I carved the remaining meat off the chicken, broke down the carcass, and tossed the remains into a pot of water to boil for soup. We'll get three meals out of this chicken. Dinner tonight, leftover meat tomorrow, and then soup whenever after that. Gotta love a 3-meal bird that only weighs 6lbs.

After we cleared the table I sat in the salon for a while practicing some more with the Rosetta Stone. For fun I did a few typing exercises at a high level in the French course. It was having me type things like, “Il ne fait pas froid. Les arbres sont en fleur.” (“It isn't cold. The trees are blooming.”) Really strange things, but it was fun. Except for the program adapting my US keyboard into a French one without much notice to me. So every time I went to type an “a” I ended up with a “q.” Grumble cakes.

It's bed time now though. I'm still listening to The Silence of the Lambs. Bonne nuit!

“I ate his liver with some fava beans,” and a big merlot?!

2007-03-24T22:00:00.000-07:00

So I finished listening to The Stranger last night, and today began The Silence of the Lambs. Such a good book. Truly a classic thriller of modern literature I think. It's excellent no matter how many times I read it. There was one thing that threw me though when the scene where Clarice and Dr. Lecter are first speaking to each other. As most of you might know from the film she's trying to get him to complete a survey for the FBI, and he says to her, “A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti,” and then Anthony Hopkins makes this dreadful slippery sucking noise. Great line. In the book though Lecter quotes having the liver and fava beans with some other wine. I think it's interesting how they'd changed that one line in the film, really just because I think it sounded better being said out loud.

Anyhow, back form my tangent. Got up this morning and Paddy went into Sahagun while I took Una out for her morning walk. We headed to Terradillos and back. He came back from town shortly after we returned, and Sebastien still hadn't gotten out of bed. Paddy and I were sitting in the courtyard and he says to me, “I'm going to give Sebastien the boot today, so when, if, he wakes up you should go out with the dog again.” I'm thinking he'd just gotten fed up with Sebastien's somewhat cavalier attitude about things. I mean, he sleeps and eats here, and does just about whatever he cares to do, and then works all day over at The Alamo. Paddy had a point stating that he's not running a hotel. So at about a quarter after eleven Sebastien got up, and Paddy made me leave. Una was like, “Rock on! Two walks before it's even noon!”, though I'm not really sure if she can tell time like that.

So I got back after a bit, and Sebastien seemed moody and was putting all his stuff out by the door. Then sometime after that he was doing some work outside, and Paddy mentioned to me that he wasn't leaving after all. I guess they talked and Paddy made it clear that if he were to stay things were going to be different. So yea. Not sure when or how this all went down, but things seem okay now.

We didn't do anything special for lunch, and I just had an anchovy and cheese sandwich with some of the good bread Paddy got in town, and an apple. You wouldn't think that would be as good as it is, really.

It turned out to be a really nice day, so we put in some wash and hung it out on the line to dry. Sitting out in the sun in the courtyard I wrote a letter to my grandparents, and then after I came back from dropping it in the mail Sebastien and I went over to the neighbor's house to borrow his tiller to see if we could make the plot of land behind the house any better for planting. James showed up just as we were starting it up. We watched Sebastien maneuver it around for a bit, it pulling him more so than he was controlling it, but the owner stood by and watched. So, not feeling that it needed three of us to watch and one to till, James and I went in and chatted with Paddy a bit over a glass of wine. I guess James was a little miffed at Sebastien the other day too, and gave him what's for. It seems he was also supposed to be over at The Alamo at nine this morning working. We'll see. James told Paddy he'd expected him to boot him out at some point, and said that in the next week or so they'd have the yurt all suitable for Sebastien to stay in.

Sebastien finished tilling, and it didn't really make a huge difference, so I'm going to have to email my grandpa and see what he recommends doing for prepping that area for planting. The neighbor, more serious than joking I think, said that the ground was good for making adobe, and that we could always plant grass there. Oy!

Around 5pm my time I borrowed Paddy's phone again and called Hannah because we didn't get to talk last night before we had to eat. She was getting ready for work, but we chatted for about an hour and caught up on things. I miss her a bunch, and it was nice to hear her laugh. She really wants to come visit sometime while I'm here, so she's going to check into getting her passport and seeing how cheap a flight she can find this summer. Some time in the future I'd like to take another big trip like this and have her walk the Camino with me. I think she'd love it here.

After she had to take off, I called Lindsay and Danielle, and though I “kind of” woke them up, I finally got a hold of them. Talked with each of them for 20-30 minutes, and it was good to hear that things are going well with them too. They're finishing up a recent move this week, so I can't wait to see their new place when I get home. Hopefully there'll be a “Ryan's Room.” They spoil me too much, ha ha. Some of the best friends I have though. On that matter, I'm really happy to say that I can count the friends that I'm really close to on two hands. I don't think I'd like having more friends than I do, and I really prefer having the few close ones as is.

So it was getting cold out and I came back in the house, an shortly thereafter James showed up with a pilgrim he'd met. Another American, from Idaho, named Michael. He's a carpenter, so James was all over him asking questions and what not about how to build his house. The guy was really awesome, and very friendly. He's in his early 60s, driving along the Camino (he walked it the summer before last) searching for this woman he met from Burgos his first time here. Kind of romantic. He's works mostly in L.A., but spends his winters in Idaho, and is originally from Vermont. He says his only family is his daughter, son-in-law, and two grandsons, and that they're moving to Spain (Santander) in the next year, so he's also seeking a place somewhere nearby that he can buy for himself. When he was younger he was a boat builder and then in the 70s he published a best seller–a coloring book of all things, of those circular designs that were really popular when we (being my peers and I) were in elementary school. I'll have to Google them to get the actual term, and to see if his coloring book is still in stock somewhere. How cool.

Paddy had been cooking another Bolognese all day, but we didn't have dinner until after nine. I boiled some pasta and we all ate well, and then decided to take a ride over to San Nicolas to watch the futbol match: Spain-Denmark. Spain won 2-1, and while it wasn't a very spectacular game it was good that they won. I guess Denmark really isn't that great of a team. We actually spent most of the game talking. Paddy and Michael got on kind of interestingly. They're about the same age, and have some very similar likes and dislikes, as well as some very different viewpoints. It was funny to see them discussing certain things like literature and architecture/art restoration. They were more entertaining than the futbol match at times.

So we came back to the house, I showed Michael the spare bed in my room, and then decided to call it a night. I'm going to slip into my sleeping bag and cuddle up with my iPod now. Buenas noches.

A long and tiring day

2007-03-23T20:32:00.000-07:00

Today was an incredibly exhausting day, but rocked nonetheless for the most part. I got up just after 8 and hopped in the shower, dressed, then had coffee and some breakfast. Paddy and I left to walk into Sahagun just after 8:45 or so and arrived just shy of an hour and forty-five minutes later. Once in town we stopped at the pharmacy, got the day's newspaper, and went to Lupa to get some groceries. We went over to the Cafe Zentral and Paddy decided he was going to head back. I wanted to update my blog and check my email, so I told him to go ahead and that I'd catch up later.

No word yet from Jeremy, which is starting to irritate me. If he's on vacation or something he could at least put up an out of office reply on his email. I don't know, perhaps I'm being silly and the corporate world made me inpatient concerning matters like this. I called him earlier tonight, and again, no answer. We shall see I suppose. Otherwise, it's too expensive to use my Cingular phone for calls, so I'll just have to continue borrowing either Patrick or Reb's phone to put my SIM card in until I hear from him. I just hope it's before I leave.

Also my mom emailed me and told me she wasn't going to be able to make it out to walk the last leg of the Camino with me because of work, so that was disappointing. (Edit: I talked to her on the phone too and she said someone from one of her offices asked for the link to this blog, so hi to any of mom's employees who happened to start following my trip. Thanks for reading.) On the up side though now I don't need to worry about being Some Place at Some Time to make sure we're able to meet up. It's not big deal, and hopefully she'll get to come out on vacation before I come home. I'd still really love the chance to show her around Paris and other parts of France. I'm seriously considering spending most of my trip there too. Now that she's not coming I don't need to fly to Rome after the Camino, so I think I'm going to walk up into France and just spend as much time there as I like, and if I get to Italy I do, if not, oh well–it'll be there next time! I miss France so much, and now that I know my French is still up to par (after meeting some other Francophones in the area) I'd be lying if I said I wasn't anxious to get back.

I stayed there for about half an hour, then left to head back to Moratinos. It was a little chilly this morning, but by time I'd left to return it was really a beautiful day. The clouds and hills were so bright and clear, and the mountains, fresh with snow, were incredibly bright. It was really a picturesque sight, but unfortunately I didn't have my camera.

Paddy had stopped off at Casa Barrunta to get a drink, and I ended up catching up to him about half way between San Nicolas and Moratinos. Una was mighty pleased to finally've been let off the leash and was busy hunting little critters like she does.

A pilg that I'd seen twice on the way back was in Moratinos when we got back, and after we'd been home for a few minutes he found his way to the house. Somehow these people are sent to Moratinos to help James work on his house, and being he's not here all the time they always manage to find their way here. I'll have to edit his name in later–it was something like Roovis–and he was from Estonia, walking back from Santiago. He was nice but not very talkative, though his English seemed to be good enough. After lunch (leftover, reanimated, reincarnated–whatever you'd like to call it–soup) I crawled back into my sleeping bag to enjoy a siesta. I dozed off listening to The Stranger, which being a rather short book, I'm almost finished with. Paddy says that The Plague is an excellent story as well, though I think I'm going to take a break from the existentialism and listen to the copy of Silence of the Lambs that I have. I thought about it earlier walking past the barn down the street and hearing the sheep causing a ruckus in there. When Libby and I arrived we had gone in and looked at all the sheep and the new lambs. They've sent the majority of the lambs off to be slaughtered, or so it seems as the population has been significantly depleted since. Nonetheless, it's been a while since I've enjoyed the company of Dr. Lecter, so that'll be next on my list. I may add a little side box on this blog and start listing the books I'm reading/listening to.

So after my siesta I put my shoes back on and went over to The Alamo to finish the adobe (read “mud”) plastering I was doing upstairs. The Great Wall is really looking quite impressive, and is nearly finished. I'm anxious to see how James goes about building his arch though. In theory it shouldn't be hard. I mean people have been building arches out of stone for centuries upon centuries with little to no problem, and really the arch is a simple yet important architectural feature. Nonetheless, I don't really know if I would know how to go about building one myself. My mud wall completed, Paddy happened by at the same time taking Una for another walk, so I headed off with him. Walked for about an hour and then came back home and made some phone calls before dinner.

Paddy bought some more chiperones (I don't think I'm spelling that correctly, but their the squids we had the other night) and cooked them into a nice spicy pasta sauce. It was really good. I did the washing up, and decided I'd come in here and tap away for a bit and then call it a night. All the walking in addition to the upper body strength required to mud plaster half a wall is going to allow a very good sleep tonight I think. I feel great otherwise. I just hope the weather continues to get warmer tomorrow.

Electrocution makes the top of my “Things that happened today” list

2007-03-22T22:33:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning and decided that it was way too early to leave the warmth of my sleeping bag for the cold air outside. So I hit the snooze button on my phone several times and stayed in bed until about 9:30. Una woke me up, barking inside the house because she was locked in, at about 8:30. I called her in and she hopped up into bed with me and snuggled for a bit. Not a problem as long as she's not covered in dirt. She wasn't so I assumed Paddy had not taken her on her morning walk yet, also because he hadn't come in to wake me at eight I assumed we weren't walking to Sahagun today either. Correct on both counts. When I finally rolled out of bed and pulled my jeans on no one was around.

I used the bathroom and weighed myself: 130kg even... that's 286lbs, down from 309ish before I left. Looking at myself in the mirror is like looking at this person I've not seen in a while. The me that I remember from high school almost. I can't imagine where I'll be weight-wise by time I leave for the States in August.

Checked the coffee pot, and while there was plenty left it was cold, so I dumped it out and boiled some water to make a nice strong pot of herba matte tea, the kind they drink in Argentina. Very good stuff, and plenty of caffeine. Yum. No one else here but Rebekah cares for it. Had some bread with a little peanut butter (good old Jif that Reb's mom sent from the States) and then I was ready to start my day.

The cabbage I cooked last night supplied a nice stock which I decided to make soup out of for today. Paddy had stashed it in the Dispenser last night before going to bed. Sebastien woke up and came downstairs and Paddy came home within a relatively close time frame. We sat around and chatted for a bit before Sebastien headed over to The Alamo to work for the day. A new issue of The New Yorker arrived today so paddy decided to sit outside in the sun and start reading that. I put some eggs on to boil for lunch and then went in to the salon to finish arranging things. I swept all around the room and into the hall, then put down the area rug that had been shipped from the US. It looks quite nice in there, and the couch is much lighter than I had anticipated it being. So now aside from some miscellany they salon is all done. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. Beforehand I wired up the Bose stereo that came over. The only plug in the room is dangling from the wall mount, so I was careful not to fiddle with it too much. At some point or another though I grabbed it the wrong way and gave myself quite a jolt. Initially it was scary, but I pulled away very quickly, and it was only the briefest current, though the largest I can ever recall being shocked by. I'm not dead, so good news there, and a little electricity (240V here in Europa) can't hurt now and then, can it?

After I finished in there I moved on to the kitchen and started lunch. Decided to take another stab at making Ensaladilla Rusa with some ingredients we had laying around. A can of tuna, a can of peas, some raw carrot chopped up, the eggs I'd cooked and sliced (with the handy egg slicer I found yesterday... also found the garlic press, Hallelujah!), a little Gouda cheese, and chopped and boiled potatoes, mixed with some seasoning, mayonnaise, and mustard seed. It turned out quite well. In addition to that I heated up the cabbage base soup that I'd concocted last night. It was a very nice lunch.

After lunch I grabbed The New Yorker and scanned the stories, then did the sodoku (Edit: amusing comment. The word “sodoku” is being highlighted as being spelled incorrectly. The closest suggestion? “sodomy...” Great. I should probably add that to the dictionary.) puzzles from the papers that were laying on the floor in the kitchen. I think I'm going to sit down with some older issues and start reading them, translating as needed, to practice my Spanish. I suppose I should start concentrating on my Italian now though since I'll be leaving to start my Camino in two or three weeks, and after that will be in Rome.

I finished The Return of the King last night. I can't say I was overly pleased with the ending, but it was an ending nonetheless, and not the worst I've ever read. Decided to take a siesta after lunch so I started listening to Albert Camus' The Stranger. I'm not really sure how I stumbled across this book and another famous one he wrote called The Plague, but I believe it was due to one or the other being the basis for some movie I saw and seemed to enjoy enough to research it. Who knows. If anyone knows what I'm talking about let me know! Regardless, I'll indulge in a little existentialism over the next few days. Like electricity–it never really hurt anyone... right?

My siesta lasted quite a while and I got up just after six. Paddy and Sebastien were both in the kitchen reading. I made some more tea, and then came into the salon to chill in my newly completed atmosphere. Then, I think I did the most boring thing I've ever done in my life (probably not true, but this was up there.). I've had Beethoven's 9th Symphony stuck in my head for most of the day (an abridged version of it is part of the soundtrack to Orange Mechanique [in English A Clockwork Orange... I bought the CD in Paris]). So I grabbed a CD from the kitchen, threw it in the Bose, and then pulled the 1200 some-odd page Classics of Philosophy book of the shelf and sat down for some “light” reading. Yea. God forbid anyone under the age of fifty or so would have come in and seen that. How would I ever keep up any appearances of being a care-free youth?

After a chapter on the Pre-Socratic underpinnings of philosophy, I went into the kitchen and Paddy was “becoming peckish,” so I started to fix dinner. Hm, from the sounds of it my domestication seems to expand day after day, huh? No problem though, I enjoy cooking, especially because if I were to simply serve sauteed onions and garlic Paddy would still say, “Oh, it smells lovely!” I'm not sure if that's because he's not picky, or because he's British... or both.

Really though, dinner was easy and quite hardy. We finished off the cabbage rolls from last night, I cooked some green beans, and also fried some diced potatoes with the few sausages that were left from yesterday. The two (potatoes and sausages) mixed together were quite nice. After dinner I did the washing up and then Paddy, Sebastien and I lounged in the kitchen, finishing the wine we'd opened and having quite the oddball conversation covering topics from terrorism to philosophy (is that the same thing? Ha ha) from art to how to avoid hangovers. I really enjoy talking with Paddy as he's lived such a seemingly full and interesting life and has lots of stories to weave into any conversation. He also reminds me of spending time with my grandparents (they're about the same age). They always used to tell me, “Oh when you get older you won't want to spend time with us and will have better things to do.” It made me feel really bad growing up because I never knew more or less how to tell them they were wrong. Granted, yes, I grew older and became busier with things–life tends to do that–and after moving to Cleveland we didn't see each other every weekend like I did in high school, I still immensely enjoy being with them. They are two of the best people I know.

So no I'm just listening to the soundtrack from Amelie (excellent music and an even better French film if you've not seen it) and wondering how I've possibly managed to type 40 pages of text in just the short time I've been here. I think it seems like much longer than it has been. One month exactly as of yesterday. Oh! Just as an aside, I discovered this amazing system of trails in France called the Grande Randonee, which are maintained by a special government office, specifically meant as trails spread throughout the country for hikers. The system has over 100,000 miles of paths, so I need to get more information on the ones that follow the route I'd like to take while there. Even more support for me walking most places I travel here. Brilliant. Okay, I think it's time to climb into bed.

Bonne nuit.

Another blistery cold day in Moratinos

2007-03-21T21:17:00.000-07:00

It seems I keep going to bed earlier and earlier this last week or so, but I suppose it's all for the best. Once I've started the Camino I'll be tired enough to go to sleep probably early than this, not to mention most alburgue kick you out before 8:00am.

Woke up today with Una barking outside my door. I called her in and she came and cuddled in the bed with me for a bit. She gets upset when she gets locked inside the house–we're still training her to open doors on her own. I let my alarm clock's snooze go off for about 20 minutes or so, got up, pulled on some warm socks, and went to find coffee in the kitchen. Paddy and Sebastien were already up, the former of which isn't unusual, but Sebastien's been sleeping in lately, so I was surprised to see him awake.

Coffee and some bread, then I put on some pants and my boots and went with Paddy for Una's morning walk. We stopped over at The Alamo where the workers have erected a considerable portion of the Great Wall. The framework for the arch has been moved into place, and it's starting to take shape. I'm surprised at the speed they're working, and the wall itself looks rather good.

We headed toward San Nicolas, and the wind coming out of the East was extremely cold, and much worse by time we reached the high point along the trail. We didn't hang around long, though Una thought nothing of the weather as she dashed across the scraggy hillsides in pursuit of whatever it is she's after every day.

Heading back to the house Paddy and I had some tea and then read for a little bit. Then I decided to finish arranging things in the kitchen/salon, moved some books to the salon and brought some of the now unpacked CDs up to the kitchen. I cleaned up the bookcase and it looks much better now. I also finished arranging things on the “hutch” in the salon. It looks rather nice, and the room is starting to take on the feel that someone actually lives here! I talked to Paddy about the sofa and the dining set conundrum, and just opted to leave it the way it is. No problem as the chairs are placed around the room to make a nice seating arrangement.

Paddy made some lunch of potatoes, sausages, and peas, and Sebastien came back from working just after we had begun to eat. After I did the washing up and Sebastien mentioned he had some cabbage and ground meat he wanted to use for dinner so I volunteered to make an ad lib version of the cabbage rolls I'm accustomed to at home. After I finished the dishes I moved a dresser from the salon up to the top of the stairs, replacing the chairs that Paddy's trunk was straddling. We're going to have to rig the lid though so that it only will open so far, otherwise it might snap off at some point and kill some unsuspecting onlooker at the bottom of the stairs. Other than that concern, it fits quite nicely, and now Paddy will have extra space to store his clothes.

I went with Sebastien back over to The Alamo around four o'clock where the men were back from their lunch break and working on the wall again. Picked up the miscellaneous food stores that Sebastien had on hand and came back to the house to start prepping things for dinner. The cabbage rolls themselves were a success, and turned out much better than I'd anticipated. I made a spinach salad with some shredded carrot and diced apple in balsamic vinegar to go along with it. While everything was cooking I listened to more of my book. The ending is starting to look rather anticlimactic, but I'm still thoroughly enjoying the story. Sebastien came back and borrowed the bike to ride into town and pick up some pictures he'd dropped off on Saturday along with some bread and other things. Paddy and I decided that if the weather tomorrow is nicer we'll take a walk into Sahagun.

So it's freezing again tonight and I'm debating turning on the heater before I climb into bed. I know though I really shouldn't need it, so I probably won't though. Something exciting I discovered last night after I'd gone to bed: my sleeping bag and/or one of the blankets on my bed produces tiny sparks of light caused by static electricity, so while I'm shifting around to get comfortable I get to see this little light show of sorts. It's really quite cool. That's all for today then, good night.

The Great Wall begins its ascent

2007-03-20T22:00:00.000-07:00

Woke up this morning and headed straight for the coffee. This is becoming rather habitual I think, but it's a nice start to the day at the very least. Cup in hand I walked over to The Alamo in my pajamas to see what was going on. The workers started building the wall today, so I wanted to see if they actually came in spite of the cold weather – they did! I was shocked.

Had some more coffee that Marianne made, then kind of puttered around looking lost, and generally getting in the way for ten minutes or so before heading back home to get dressed. Paddy came back from his walk with Una and we decided to drive into Sahagun to pick up some things, check email, and see if Paddy's green ink pad had arrived. I went to the Cafe Zentral while Paddy did the shopping. Still no word from Jeremy about that phone I have here. I really hope I can use it, but if I don't hear from him in a day or so I'm going to have to track him down on his cell. Concerning things more entertaining, Rebekah joined a popular online social group, which I'm sure all you college-goers know what I'm talking about. I'm glad she's finding things to do Stateside. (Can't wait to get you back in Spain though Reb! I know Paddy misses you a bunch too.)

After Internet-ing for my alloted half hour I walked over to Lupa to meet Paddy in the check out line, bagged up our things and we headed back to the car. I was looking through the El Pais he'd left in the car from yesterday and discovered there are Sodoku puzzles in each issue. Score, something in the Spanish newspapers that isn't foreign to me–well, I guess they are literally, but I was excited nonetheless. We got back and James showed up with his laptop and a 280GB external hard drive, asking me to transfer music from my iPod. Luckily the iPod rip program installed on his laptop without a hitch, so transferring the 12,000 some odd tracks was much faster than Windows would have allowed. James was so amazed by the fact that I had my own little room too. He also gave me a copy of this program called PortableApps, which will allow me to download email to Thunderbird saved on my travel drive. That's a blessing, as Google can make such a mess of my messages sometimes. I'd heard of the program before, but it had slipped my mind as something I should download before I left home.

Paddy had some beans cooking that he whirled into a soup for our lunch. Paddy makes really excellent soups, seemingly out of nothing sometimes. After eating I hunkered down with a couple Sodokus I'd torn out of older issues of the paper and went to work on them. Got bored with that after three or four of them so I decided to start writing a letter to Hannah. She doesn't have Internet access at home, so I figured there'd be a better chance of her getting her actual mail than checking email on a regular basis! I think it was the longest letter I've written since coming here. Guess I just had a lot to say, ha ha. I miss seeing her late nights and going to Denny's for coffee and our regular talks. (Edit: I miss the rest of you too, so I don't want to hear any crap!)

Paddy went up to have a siesta after we ate and Sebastien went back over to The Alamo. The plumber came back and actually hooked the lines up to the main street line. Things are really happening over there today. I listened to some more of my book, Paddy got up and went over to some town meeting that is held on Tuesdays. I gathered up some wood so we could make a fire and then Una and I took a short stroll over to see The Great Wall, and wandered up around the bodegas and back home.

After Paddy came back he started on dinner which was really excellent. Some ground meat cooked with red peppers and some salsa along with spinach and curry rice. It was a unique combination of Indian meets TexMex, but was very good. After our meal I finished my letter to Hannah which I'll mail tomorrow, and now I'm ready to hit the sack. Huttah.

I honestly can not believe that it snowed today!

2007-03-19T22:55:00.000-07:00

That's right. I fly across the Atlantic Ocean, away from the freezing cold of Ohio, bask in gloriously warm weather over the last week in sunny Spain, and then, of all things, it SNOWS! What gives?! I woke up this morning to a much chillier courtyard than I'm accustomed to, a bad sign agreeing with the newspaper's forecast. Had my coffee and bread, pulled on my jeans, and walked over to The Alamo wearing a hoodie and gloves.

James was about doing things, and I told him I wasn't sticking my hands in any mud today as they were quite frozen from the last time and it was a warm sunny day, whereas today they would surely turn blue and fall off after mixing a few buckets of adobe. Sebastien headed to Leon with Paddy to putter around and I stayed behind to give James a hand with some things at the house. We picked out some beams to use as a door frame, and then I gave him some pointers on his landscaping. It seems they have a small grove of quince trees on the property. In my opinion they looks like crap and all but one should be removed. And honestly, who needs, or better yet, wants that much quince? Yuck!

So Marianne arrived with an automatic drip coffee pot, and little but a clue as to how to use it. It was extraordinarily cute to see her figure it out. She made coffee for James and herself though, and produced some tasty apple tarts that she'd brought along. We say upstairs in the house talking about my Camino, what I'm packing, where I'm going, etc. James is determined that I'm going to pack more than I need, which from what I hear is a very common mishap, though, and spurred on by my light packing for the whole trip, am determined to beat the norm and actually pack just enough if not too little! I'm not lugging around anymore than I absolutely see necessary. I think the most frivolous thing that I'll have will be my iPod and the solar charger I plan on taking–but it really helps to walk and listen to a book or music, and other than taking along my laptop I don't have any other way of keeping the battery charged.

He and Marianne decided to head off and buy a toilet and new shoes for Poppy, so I came home and found Una noshing on the trash that she'd succeeding in spilling all over the kitchen. Mostly my fault I'd say though, as I should have thought better about the chicken bones and leftovers being in the can. I cleaned up the mess and replaced the bag, then warmed up the leftover soup and had that for lunch with some anchovies. Then I began my project for the day: cleaning up the salon (living room) in the main house.

All that was leftover from the shipment of stuff Paddy and Reb received from the States were a few boxes of books, a box of kitchen things, and a few boxes of CDs. I sorted everything out, putting the books away, sorting through the CDs, and generally tidying up. I'm going to leave all the decorative pieces in one place so that when Reb gets home she can put them where she'd like. Tomorrow Sebastien is going to help be take a dresser upstairs, and then all I need to figure out is how to put down the rug, and secondly how to arrange a room with limited configurations that contains a fireplace, a bar, a sofa, and a full dining set. There has to be someway to arrange it so everything is functional. We'll see. Didn't get around to cleaning up the workshop, so I'll do that tomorrow.

Paddy and Sebastien got home from Leon just after five or so, and Paddy took out a bag of frozen squids that he'd gotten at Lupa on Saturday. They were whole, so I wasn't completely keep on having them served for dinner, but he said he intended to cut them up. No problem with that. In the end he just cooked them with some garlic and olive oil, and we had steamed broccoli and baked spuds. I had to chuckle at Sebastien because while chopping up the broccoli he warned me that the stems were poisonous. He says a teacher had told him that. See, teachers do lie sometimes. That's my favorite part of broccoli too!

We finished up dinner and were just starting to have some of the fruit salad that we made the evening before when the James' arrived. Marianne had some wash to pick up, and James had bought a new 80GB external hard drive and wanted me to drop the music from my iPod to it. I told him he'll have to wait, because I can't install the program that pulls the music from the iPod on my computer until German comes back next week and I have a wireless connection. Anyhow, Sebastien seemed irritated and asked him to go out front so he could speak to him. Not sure what his gripe was, but he wasn't in a very good mood when he came back in, proceeding to drink, as per usual. Liver of steel I suppose.

I cleared the table and did the dishes, then kicked back to read The New Yorker some more. An interesting article about the conservative creators of “24” (I knew there was a reason I never had any desire to get into that show) as well as another about the press leaks and scandal that occurred around Hewlett-Packard. So rarely do I find a magazine so interesting that I'm motivated to read it from cover to cover. There's a cartoon in this issue that I though the CWRU kids would find amusing: A couple standing in an empty room, staring, dismayed, at a hole in the floor exposing a scape of stars and a moon. A third woman, supposedly a Realtor showing a property says “Of course, the real charm of the place is that hole in the space-time continuum.”

The snow started this evening just after seven or so, and was really light at first, but now the temperature has dropped even more, it's falling harder, and bloody sticking! I took pictures, ha ha. I think I'll be turning the little space heater on in my room tonight!

I really want to go to a Disney park for some reason. Damn advertising! And I really want to move to California. Okay, time to go reclaim my iPod from Sebastien so I can listen to my book and get to sleep! G'night.

Roasting a chicken with pears and onion

2007-03-18T22:00:00.000-07:00

So a good portion of my day today was spent preparing food! Just after waking up though Paddy and I took Una for a walk to Terradillos and back. We passed at least ten pilgrims on the way there. Come summer they'll number in the hundreds per day. It shouldn't be so busy when I make my pilgrimage, but there will surely be more people than there are now in March.

Arriving back in Moratinos, two of them men we'd passed were resting in the Plaza Mayor near the church. One was a Spaniard and the other an Austrian. The latter of the two did nothing but complain the entire time we talked with them: “There isn't a bar in Moratinos; This town is so small; There are too many dogs; I was too cold last night in our albergue despite my military sleeping bag; We've walked so far already; We haven't eaten yet today.” All this was rather unappealing, and Paddy'd noted that had he not been “such a whining asshole” we probably would have had them over for tea and a bite to eat. Instead he assured them that the bar in San Nicolas was just up the Camino. The best part is they're hoping to be in Santiago by this coming weekend. I don't even think that's moderately possible, especially if the 6km from Ledigos had worn them out already.

When we got back I went to work clearing up the courtyard, sweeping, moving some things to the workshop and backyard, and giving the basin next to the well a good scrubbing, while Paddy went off to Sunday Mass. After he got back he gave Una a bath, and she looks remarkably clean now and smells good. We'll see how long she can go without getting dirty. Not long I suspect. Paddy also says the weather is due to change this week, “winter coming back,” the newspapers report. I hope that doesn't happen, though to any extent it can't be as cold as it is in Ohio!

Over at The Alamo James and Marianne had constructed the frame for their huge arch that's going into the Great Wall being built. In the spirit of naming James' endeavors after historical places, I'd call it such. This Great Wall though is certainly of no Asian persuasion, and the arch he's planning to build – three meters, or six feet, across it's widest point–is pointedly (ha ha) Arabic/Moorish. All, including James, have agreed that they seem to be building the set for some grand school production of Arabian Nights.

So then, onto the cooking. For lunch I roasted the chicken that Paddy picked up in Sahagun yesterday. I coated it in olive oil, seasoned it, and stuffed it with quartered onions and pear. To go along with it I made homemade onion and sage dressing, green beans, and baked potatoes. After calling my mom for some help on timing the cooking, and some simple conversions between Fahrenheit and Celsius, the chicken cooked for about an hour and a half, and came out perfectly done. Very juicy. After we ate I immediately set the carcass in a soup pot, filled it with water and began to boil it down to make dinner for later.

I took a nap after our late lunch, and got back up to clean up the mess from cooking earlier. Seasoned the soup, removed all the bones and inedible bits, added some carrots, potatoes, and the leftover green beans then finished it up with a bit of rice. The rice ended up burning onto the bottom of the pot, but I was able to skillfully save the soup before it was burnt flavored. Not to mention, I'd used too much rice as is, and the soup resembled more of a thick chicken and rice stew! Nonetheless, we all ate, and shortly after I decided it was time to turn in after listening to a bit of my book, Return of the King.

A Guinness in the only Irish pub for miles around

2007-03-17T22:21:00.000-07:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Today was quite a fun day, which started bright and early this morning walking into Sahagun to run errands and have a mini celebration in honor of Paddy's namesake. Sebastien decided to run to town–more power to him–and Paddy and I arrived shortly after 10:30 or so. It's just under a two hour walk.

Today is also market day in town, so we walked down the main street and surveyed the day's offerings. It's a small setup, but really there's about anything you could ever want. From fresh meats and produce to cheese and nuts to candies, tools, toiletries, and personal goods. Quite a large mix of wares all in all. My favorite booth is definitely the one that sells shoes and ladies' stockings. The reason being because to display the stockings they have this cavalry or disembodied mannequin legs all hung in rows. It's kind of a morbid transference from the butcher's booth with his different meats hung out to be displayed in a similar fashion.

We found Sebastien in a nearby bar, and had a coffee. Then I headed up a few shops to Cafe Zentral to check my email and upload the newest entries to my blog. After I left Paddy had gone to buy a chicken so Una and I sat out in the Plaza Mayor and soaked up some of the warm sunshine. Paddy returned, Sebastien went to make a call back home to his daughter, and meanwhile Paddy and I walked up the street to get some bread. We all met in the plaza shortly after and headed to the Irish pub in town to have our Guinness. I stopped off at the post office to drop off my letter and buy some more stamps, then just as we were arriving at the pub the James' pulled up in their festively painted car, decorated with shamrocks.

James himself had shaved his head smooth (from the sort of bald state it was in before) and painted a shamrock on his forehead, and was wearing this awful green sarong, in kilt-fashion. They joined us in the pub where the man running the bar gave us all these great floppy felt hats that were being handed out to promote Guinness. We even got Paddy to wear his for about five minutes. We hung out for about an hour or so, then Paddy and I headed home while Sebastien went to go do some other errands. We got a picture with all of us in hats (except Paddy) in front of the pub. I'm going to get it from Marianne and send it off to Guinness!

The walk home was fairly tiring, but in a good way, despite a new blister on the bottom of my foot. I tended to it, changed my clothes, and then Paddy and I had some leftovers and anchovies for lunch. I think while walking the Camino I'll be pretty much enjoying a diet of bread, sardines, some fresh fruit, water, wine, and perhaps a little cheese now and then. I'm not sure if life could provide anything more perfect than that. My grandfather will be proud–on account of the sardines and anchovies–my grandmother will be mortified. To that regard though, I could only be so lucky to be a fraction of the man that he is.

After lunch I headed to bed to take a siesta, which ended up lasting much longer than I'd planned and I slept for close to three hours. I had the most bizarre dream though, which I've been able to scribble down on a sheet of paper in the fashion of a theatre play, listing the premise, the “cast,” as it were, and drawing a rough diagram of the eclectic setting that the dream took place in. Perhaps if I get the time to write it out in full I'll share it here. The best summary of the entire dream is probably the title I gave it: “A day in California – and fire fell from the sky.” It's probably some kind of apocalyptic sign of something to come, though I'd rather sum it up to the anchovies!

After reading for a little while in the kitchen–Paddy suggested a book of essays by Montaigne, which I'm enjoying–I made a quick dinner of spaghetti with tomato sauce for the two of us. Sebastien still hasn't come home from wherever it is he wandered off to, though neither of us are overly concerned. Now I'm sitting here writing and ripping a few more CDs before I head to bed. It was a pretty tiring day, so I think I'll sleep well, and perhaps will pick up that dream I started earlier during my siesta. Cheers!

Dirt caked into my fingers that no amount of scrubbing seems to get out

2007-03-16T22:00:00.000-07:00

So today I got up in anticipation of going into Sahagun with Paddy and Una, however when I came into the kitchen ready to go Paddy said we'd have to wait until tomorrow to go as he needed to be home at noon to go over and see the town physician to get a prescription. It seems this doctor makes a stop in Moratinos to see anyone that needs his attention once a week or so. Things like that make up the list of reasons that I love living here! So no worries, we were both up and decided to walk Una to San Nicolas and back so she could rampage about her hare field. We stopped by The Alamo to drop off some laundry and James, Marianne, les enfants, and Africa showed up shortly after. We took Africa with us on our walk. She's so excitable, being still less than a year old. She wanted to chase after Una and play, but we were leery of her going off and not coming back so we kept her on the lead (English for “leash”).

We got back and headed over to The Alamo again, and James was up to his elbow in a bucket of adobe mud, mixing it with water and straw. He asked if I wanted to help, so I stuck around to learn a new (and exciting, and honestly kind of fun) skill. So now I can add “Can mix and mud walls with adobe.” Brilliant. So the mixture is 5-6 scoops of the sifted dirt (remember James' Earth seasoning? Yea, that.) to about 2 liters of water, and then just as much straw as it takes to be able to separate a handful of the mixture with your hands and see the straw.

We took a couple tubs of it upstairs and in the same fashion as one might plaster a wall, we spread it over an existing layer of adobe. After it dries it cracks, and so then you add a layer of thinner mud mix, just water and dirt this time, and let that dry. Then to finish it you use a piece of smooth plastic to “buff” it in a sense, which smooths it out and makes the pebbles and straw pieces stand out from the rest of the dried mud. It's actually quite cool, and extremely therapeutic. Kind of like coloring or to more of a degree finger painting. The only thing is, that now where my hands were dry and had small cracks the mud has worked into them, and now after scrubbing my hands several times I can't get them back to their normal color. I suppose it'll work itself out eventually as the skin cells replace themselves.

While working today we had some pilgrims come through as well. A really wonderful lady from South Africa who was walking the Camino, and thought the work being done at The Alamo was just fantastic. She took a picture of us mixing adobe. Then another young lady came by and was talking to Marianne and I detected some of her Spanish sounded like she was speaking it with French pronunciation, and sure enough she was from France! She's from a small town near the Alps called Gap. She said I absolutely have to visit the area as the mountains are just fantastic. She showed me pictures in a book she had with her. I very well may, as that is just across the border from Italy where I plan on crossing into France later in my trip.

So after doing that for a while we all disbanded, the James' heading home for lunch, and Sebastien and I coming back to the house to have a bite to eat as well. Paddy had taken the leftover beef stew and added more things to it to make a rough version of his garlic soup which we had with some hunks of stale bread. Poor people food he says, though he remarked that the really poor people would just have stale bread and what boiled (ha ha) down to garlic water. Yum.

After lunch I decided a siesta was in order, so I crawled into bed with my iPod and listened to some more of Return of the King, falling asleep at some point and then waking up later to realize I'd slept through part of the story. I found where I last recalled listening and paused it to listen again later, and then fell asleep.

I got up after an hour and a half or so and headed back over to The Alamo with Paddy. James was working on sanding down a new table he's constructed, but the sander wasn't cooperating and probably will need to be replaced. Other than that it's going to be a nice table. The delivery men also brought the rebar for the foundation of the new wall and the men with the concrete truck came and poured the foundation. Amazing, but like Reb said, when things happen they tend to happen all at once. As soon as she had the opportunity though Una pranced across the wet cement, so Paddy had to take her to wash her feet off and Sebastien smoothed it back out. One of the neighbor's dogs, a tiny yappy thing, came prancing over and sniffing around as well. James scared it off, and then we joked that if it were to step on the cement it might sink in and all we'd see the next day would be it's tail. James warned the neighbor to lock the dog up over night because he didn't want to be responsible for it's disappearance!

I headed back after about 45 minutes or so to start making dinner. The plan was to make hamburgers with some ground meat in the freezer, baked potatoes, and a salad. We lit a fire out in our little makeshift grill and let it burn down. I grilled some onions, and then put the burgers on. When I came out to check them though they were falling apart and slipping through the wire, so I quickly scooped up the majority of the meat onto the plate and took it in and just cooked it all in a pan. It was nice still because the meat had red pepper and onion diced up in it. Grilled onions are really tasty too.

After dinner we sat around in the kitchen for a while and I finished a letter to my grandparents. Heading to bed earlier than usual because tomorrow we're going to walk to Sahagun so I need to be up early. Bonne nuit!

Dirt in my hair and stew in my stomach

2007-03-15T22:22:00.000-07:00

Today was a pretty great day – I got up, hearing Una and Lola, the Forn's Giant Schnauzer, fighting (to the death!) over some silly food that Lola had found in his bag. Got up, said goodbye to Forn and Lola, and they left with Paddy and Una, who were going to walk to San Nicolas with them. I had what was left of the coffee and read some articles from an issue of The New Yorker that I found. I really need to subscribe to this magazine when I get back home (for good.) I've forgotten how good it was.

So after Paddy got home from his walk, we took our grocery list and drove into Sahagun to pick up supplies. Stopped first at Max Descuento (the “bulk” discount store outside of town) and got wine and other canned things. Then we drove into the city and stopped at Paca's store where I got a new notebook. Paddy's expecting a new ink pad for his cello (green I think) but it hasn't arrived yet. Then we walked over to Lupa and got the rest of the groceries on our list. Paddy bought some whole squids which give me the eebie jeebies, but remind me of Hannah.

After that we got some bread and then headed back home. Today we got a good number of things done around the house. Had some tuna for lunch and started cooking the stew I had planned to make for dinner. After that was started I went to the back yard and hacked away at the beam above the back gate so that it doesn't stick anymore, and is much easier to open. James and Sebastien took the day off to account for their hangovers, and Sebastien was nice enough to water down a small area in the garden plot and move most of the large rocks off it. He and Paddy went back into Sahagun to see about renting a hand tiller, but didn't end up getting it, as Julia (a girl about my age in town who speaks English rather well) had told him that one of the neighbors may have one we can borrow.

While they were out I moved some hay from the barn out to the compost pile and watered it down in hopes of prepping a good heap of compost for later this year. Then I went and made some rows in the soil for the sweet corn, and planted eleven plots of seed to test out the heavy clay. The germination period is 7-10 days, so we're going to see if they take. If not, we'll worry about putting down lyme and fertilizer.

I also drilled a slot into the donativo box that Paddy bought in town the other day. Hopefully if pilgrims are going to continue to stop and eat/sleep here they'll be inclined to donate some Euros.

We had dinner fairly early by Spanish standards, at around 6:30, so that we could go over to Barrunta and watch the futbol (soccer) match between Sevilla and a Ukranian team. It was a really great game – Sevilla won in the end, but less than 30 seconds to the end of the game their goalie, of all people, made a miraculous goal which put the game into overtime for another half hour since they were tied, and then Sevilla made another goal before time was called. It was a surprise seeing as the first half of the game was completely uneventful with no goals scored.

Tomorrow morning Paddy and I are going to walk with Una into Sahagun. I'm going to email Jeremy and see about getting Paddy's older VodaFone to work with the new SIM I bought from him. That might be worth all this hassle saving me the price of a new phone (€60, or about $90-100). We shall see. Anyhow, I'm going to go hop in the shower, so I don't have to take one in the morning, and then heading to bed. I finished listening to The Two Towers and am working on Return of the King. I've got a lot of audio books to listen to... thankfully on occasion.

Don't STOP the Rock 'n' Roll!

2007-03-14T21:45:00.000-07:00

I think tonight's going to be an early night for me – I'm headed to bed right after I get some thoughts typed out. I'm tired, but feeling rather good compared to yesterday. I got up this morning a at about 9:30ish, which I think has become my “usual” time. Not too awfully early, and not too late that I feel guilty! Perfecto. I was still a bit grumbly when I woke up so I had some coffee and bread and then a nice hot shower.

Paddy and I went out back to will the garden into being manageable, hoping if enough good thoughts were directed it's way the work would do itself. Sebastien has this idiotic idea that he's going to just go out there and use a hoe or rake and break up all the large chunks of clay. He likes hard work. It makes him “feel like a man.” Direct quote people. Now I have to admit that irritated me a bit, making my think of my sister's “working man” boyfriend. Such cock-a-mamey bullshit (excuse my American) sometimes, I swear. Anyhow, tomorrow while we're in town we're going to see about renting a smaller tiller and I'll just knock out the whole area in a few hours – easier and more time efficient. Sebastien can dig holes over at The Alamo if he's feeling insecure about his manhood.

After that, The Alamo is exactly where I headed, proceeding to piss Sebastien off I think by telling him that I had no intentions of helping him dig the ditch the other guys messed up. 1) I don't want to dig a ditch, 2) I don't understand why the guy who dug it with a crane-like digger can't come fix it, and 3) if anyone needs to be helping him, it's James! So instead I worked on sanding the posts James had left me, though the sander kept eating the paper, so I'm going to have to complete the project some other time after someone fixes the tension on it. Edit: turns out the sander is broken, so James is going to tinker with it.

Came back to the house, read a little about Spain, and then Paddy fixed spaghetti with a nice (he called it a poor imitation of) putanesca (sp?) sauce. I've never had it before, so it tasted good to me – olives, anchovies, and some other things cooked in a simple tomato base. After lunch I retired from the kitchen to read The New Yorker for a bit in my room, and then decided I needed to get out for a bit, so told the guys I was taking off and went for a walk with Una. Little did I know this was exactly what I needed.

We headed East, past the “ghost town” site, through the next village over called Teradillos de Templarios, and onward to Ledigos. Teradillos was a really cool little town, with a couple nice areas for pilgrims to stop, cook out, get some water, and rest. Basically like “utility” stops along the way, but they were quite quaint. Once I was outside Ledigos I wasn't sure which way to go (the Camino isn't marked to travel it in reverse, so you have to kind of follow the arrows backwards, which sometimes isn't as easy as it may seem). A man approached me and asked me something, which at first I didn't understand, but then suddenly realized I did, and perfectly well... he was speaking French!

I don't really know what prompted his salutations in French, but it was a surprise, and a pleasant one at that. It turned out that he was a professor in Ledigos, a Spaniard teaching French. We had a very nice conversation, walked into town and then met one of his relatives, an older man who according to the first guy is like the be all end all of knowledge and knows everyone around. It was a very interesting time. We were there for about thirty minutes, and then Una and I made our way back to Moratinos. It was a fantastic walk, and really helped with my bad mood. One of the best parts was the graffiti I saw on a stop sign, which I thought was good enough to be the title of this entry. I got back to Moratinos and Sebastien and James were sitting outside The Alamo working on consuming one hundred shots of beer in one hundred minutes – a silly spectacle at the very least.

I got back and a new pilgrim, Forn, another German, had arrived, with his Giant Schnauzer, Lola. Both a very friendly, and we had a nice supper of mash, broccoli, and some pork. Certainly not the tastiest thing I've concocted while here, but it did the trick.

James and Sebastien are back know, and being a bit rowdy, and I've kind of lost my train of though, so I think I'm going to head to bed. All in all though, I had an excellent day. Cheers!

Update after last night: So James and Sebastien were quite drunk when they'd come back, and proceeded to get on me about 1) my attitude, which Sebastien thought was because of him for some reason and 2) because I left the posts unfinished earlier. I couldn't really do anything about that, and I didn't really think to ask Sebastien if he knew how to repair the sander until after I'd left The Alamo after sanding for about an hour, and going through four or five sheets of sandpaper. Then Sebastien got all nasty about how he thought I was doing things like slamming doors and ignoring him because I had some problem with him – which really, is not true. I told him the other day that I just wasn't in a good mood, but in his drunkenness he refused to believe me when I told him that my grumpiness was in no way associated with him. Things basically got to a point that they both had offended me to a degree, and I was tired of arguing with them, so I got up and left to go to bed.

What a crappy way to end my day, eh? James came in about 10-15 minutes afterwards and asked me to speak with him, and apologized, and took a more accurate account of what had happened with the job I told him I'd finish earlier (Sebastien had made it seem as though I worked for five minutes, and then for no reason left. He was irritated that I wasn't willing to help him dig the ditch.) Then today (writing this on Thursday now) they'd both apologized for being stupid, blaming it on their inebriation. That's not a very good reason, but I'm not going to aggravate the situation by making any more drama than they've already started. I'll shrug it off (and still feel a lot better despite it all) and go about my business.

Grumpy for some reason

2007-03-13T22:55:00.000-07:00

Not really sure what's up with me today, but I'm not in a very good mood. Haven't been grumpy all day, but since lunch or so I've not really wanted to be around anyone. So I'm sitting here on my bed ripping CDs an listening to The Two Towers. I finished the Capote biography last night – it was a good book overall... not bad, not fantastic, just as Paddy'd said. I did enjoy it though and would recommend it freely.

We went into town earlier today to do some shopping and whatnot. I went over to Cafe Zentral while Paddy went to the grocery store, Luna, and James was there. For some reason there was only one computer up and running. I think it was more a matter of the guy watching the bar not sure how to activate them. But no problem. At least it was James and not some kid playing a video game as I've often seen there. So I sat for a while and talked with him about the door and windows he wants to put in his new wall, and also explained to him how rebar worked – me of all people. These little things I've stored away, seemingly useless information proving itself important.

So Paddy came and joined us, and we took turns on the computer. I checked my email and got some information about growing corn and onions in the garden patch that Paddy wants to plant in at the house. A neighbor has tilled up an area behind the house a couple of times, and there is sweet corn to be planted. I'm concerned that the soil might be too heavy with clay, but we're going to do some test planting and see if it works.

James and I talked about what they were doing over at The Alamo, and he asked me to come over tomorrow and do some sanding on posts they're going to use to create a pagoda behind their new wall... which I'll believe when I see! Also he'd mentioned something about me taking refreshments down the Camino headed toward the “ghost town,” setting up and selling them to pilgrims that happen by. I'm really not sure how kosher that idea is, and probably won't take him up on the offer, regardless of the potential profit.

Jeremy emailed me about buying a cell phone here. The cheapest one is €60. There's one here that used to be Paddy's mobile that he doesn't use anymore, and he said I was welcome to have it. It's a VodaFone phone, but for some reason it says only SOS calls can be made when I put the SIM in it. So I'll email Jeremy again and see what he has to say about that. If I can avoid buying a new phone that would really be great. I got a copy of my passport today too while in town so I could send the “rebate” in for my VF SIM card – after they process my information they'll add another €12 to my account. A gimmick if there ever was one. I'm sure they pocket so much money because so few people actually send the card back in. I popped it in the mail this afternoon after getting home along with a letter I wrote to Lindsay and Danielle.

After we got back we had a mixed lunch of leftovers from last night and I reincarnated the soup I'd made for lunch yesterday – there was about a bowl of it left so I added more water, another bouillon cube, more carrots, curry, and couscous. It ended up being like a stew almost. Quite tasty.

After lunch Paddy took a nap and I puttered around the house. After he got up I helped put together a small fire pit in the courtyard, and then cut some wood up so we could start a fire, the plan being to grill sardines for dinner. I made a nice spinach salad with balsamic vinegar, pears, and some feta. Everything tasted pretty good, and I had some more practice at de-boning sardines. Paddy did jokingly remark though, “The most awful thing in the world: watching Ryan try to eat sardines.”

So I've been “hiding” in my room successfully since dinner, and I'm feeling a bit better. I think I just needed some quiet time by myself. I've been having strange dreams about people I've not seen in years lately. I don't know what they're all about. Interesting at the very least. We'll see what tonight's slumber brings. Good night.

Mopping and making the death chamber not so deadly

2007-03-12T20:39:00.000-07:00

So I woke up today at around 9 A.M. Sebastien, to my surprise, was still sleeping, but grumbling – Una was barking. I got up and went to the kitchen, had some coffee and a few pieces of bread and some strawberry jam. Paddy was out, presumably taking the dog for a walk.

He got back, and I guess a pilgrim from Argentina – there seem to be a lot of them – had come by. The two Hungarians from last night had already left. Paddy and I talked about what we should do today and decided we should mop the kitchen floor, and take care of the nails in the Danger Room upstairs (where there are nails jutting out of the rafters, which are very low and a hazard to someone my height!). He had to go into Sahagun to run some errands, so I offered to take care of the other two jobs while he was out. Gave him my letter to mail and some money to get me some stamps for the US.

I cleared the kitchen out, swept, and then mopped the floor down. Took the area rug out and hung it on the line, and then in a sudden rage beat it clean with the broom – I wasn't really upset about anything, but it felt good in a way. Rearranged the kitchen and then went about scrubbing the mud off my sneakers, put on some clothes, and took a hammer upstairs to do some more pounding. I tacked in or bent up all the nails that were sticking out so now it's relatively safe to run about that room, though I still wouldn't go rubbing my scalp against the rafters!

Paddy came home with bread, my stamps, and a lot less hair – he'd gotten a much-needed hair cut while in town. We sat outside in the sun and he read El Pais while I read The New Yorker which came in the mail today. There was a really fantastic piece entitled “The Way We Are: Of wildflowers and weed,” by David Sedaris, which made me laugh a lot. I haven't read any of his stories in a long time, so it was good reading. I finished that and then started to make some hemp jewelry. I have a ton of glass and stone beads, so I figure I might try to the stuff I make while traveling around. Paddy went to take a nap, and I made some impromptu cabbage, carrot, and onion soup for lunch. Sebastien came back and we ate soup and chatted a bit. Even after his weekend walk I think he's still stressed about working over at The Alamo.

I spent most of the afternoon reading Capote, which I am about 100 pages away from finishing. Paddy also had me read a story by S. J. Perelman, which initially I didn't find as amusing as I guess he had intended me to. I was kind of thrown off by it, making a change mid sentence from my biography to something nonsensical. I'll have to read some more of it later – he was/is purportedly one of The New Yorker's best humorists.

Sebastien got back from waiting around for the diggers, and made us a dinner of boiled red cabbage, mashed potatoes, and bacon. Certainly an Irish meal my any standards, but he said it was pretty typical Belgian food as well. We finished dinner, I did the washing up, and now we're just hanging out here listening to Jewel. I'm probably going to head to bed in a bit, but might try to finish up my book beforehand. Nonetheless, adieu.

The Road to Sahagun and back

2007-03-11T22:00:00.000-07:00

I woke up at a fairly decent hour this morning, but wasn't ready and dressed before it was time to go to mass, so I don't get to be saved this week. Alas, I wasn't really in too much of a god-ly mood anyhow. Paddy went ahead without me and I had a nice shower and shaved after a few days. I've started to realize that I don't need to take a shower every day, and I certainly don't need to keep up my every other daily routine of shaving! Not to mention, it's kind of an added bonus to look all scraggly, and then shave and look a lot better!

After Paddy got back we took the car out to head up the Camino to see where Una had wandered off to. Between here and St. Nicolas there is an area of hills that she will run off into and literally spend hours chasing after rodents unseen. More often than not she catches things though. Not long after we left she came trotting up next to the car so we picked her up and went the rest of the way to St. Nicolas. The bar/restaurant there, Barrunta, was open, so we stopped by and had a gin and tonic, which much to my delight is gin tonic in Spanish. I may have to forgo martinis as my favorite drink for these. I'll get hassle from the Case kids, because they don't like gin, but hey, that means I don't need to buy as much because I don't have to share with anyone!

After our drink we came home and Paddy made some bean and sausage soup which we had for lunch. I was planning to walk into Sahagun, so I figured it might be a good idea to eat something seeing as all I'd put into my stomach was coffee and the G&T from earlier. I got my bag, camera, sunglasses, and borrowed Paddy's hat and set off on the Camino with Una in tow. I swear that dog is like the Energizer Bunny. Sebastien was just returning from his weekend out on the Camino as I was leaving, and had found a new walking stick that he brought home and decorated later in the evening.

The day was magnificently clear, so I got some really nice shots of the mountain ranges that you can see off to the North. Also took some excellent pictures of the Camino and the landscapes between Moratinos and Sahagun on my way there and back.

When I got into town I checked to see if German's signal was turned on, no luck. So I headed to the Cafe Zentral, and tied the dog up outside near the square. I went in and bought an hour worth of time for a Euro, and was even surprised to see I was able to plug in my memory stick. Much to my chagrin however, I forgot to save my Blogger posts in a Word Doc format from OpenOffice, so I wasn't able to open/post them. To add to this, the dog kept barking at people and other dogs outside, so I had to go out and calm her down. I called Paddy and he and Sebastien came and took her home so I could finish looking some things up.

Coming back into he cafe, the woman who runs the bar was trying to say something to me in Spanish, and I didn't understand. I was able to convey that much to her, and so she kept saying it slower and louder – I thought “God, yet another universal faux pas... foreigners will understand if you speak slower and yell.” Note to self, never do that again. Eventually she just set me up. I think, based on her body language that she was telling me I'd have to wait for a computer because she thought that the kids that were there earlier were still using them. She walked over and realized they weren't and didn't say anything more. I talked to Danielle for a bit on Google Talk, and sent some emails. Rigmarole.

I left the bar and went to grab some bread from around the corner and a bottle of water before heading back to Moratinos. I got back in relatively good time (10km in about an hour and a half) and while I was tired I certainly didn't feel bad after doing 20k round trip. A couple more good long hikes before I start the Camino from the beginning, and I think I'll be able to make it through a 25-30km day with no real problems other than exhaustion. I'm so excited to get started.

When I got home I changed, and while I was in my room someone rang the doorbell. A couple of pilgrims from Hungary had found their way to our house somehow after being sent to Moratinos to see James by an alburgue owner in an earlier town. James wasn't here, and we're still not sure how they found us as we're on the other side of Moratinos and not directly off the Camino. They were a nice couple, Miklos and Enico. He spoke some English, and she some Spanish so talking was interesting to say the least bu manageable. Sebastien made us all dinner – spaghetti. And we made a couple of sauces, one with meat for us, and then pesto for them being veggies. What is it with all the vegans? The sauce Sebastien made was really good, but he mistook dried hot peppers for paprika, and added a lot of it, so it was relatively spicy pasta sauce. Something new everyday!

Not long after dinner they headed to bed, and shortly after so did Paddy. Sebastien and I are hanging out now in the kitchen, he decorating his stick, and me sketching some ideas out for a project I'm thinking of taking on – a plaster carving in the hall of the main house where the ceiling seems to have a lot of extra. I'd mentioned it to Rebekah, saying that Paddy should do something, being an artist, but she told me if I wanted to do it to go ahead. I didn't think I could, but as I get more ideas I'm becoming more eager to give it a shot. Nothing extravagant, but something nice that I think will add to the good “ju ju,” as Reb calls it (sp?), that I get being here.

Sorry for not updating

2007-03-11T08:51:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Sorry I haven´t updated in days. The man who runs the shop with the wireless connection where I can use my laptop went out of town for 2 weeks and I can´t get the computer here to red my saved entries off my travel drive. I´ve got backdated entries though up to the date of my last post, and I´ll get them up as soon as I figure something out!

Stay tuned! =)

Pallella turned soup, reading, and a pleasant evening walk

2007-03-10T22:27:00.000-08:00

Today it was just Paddy and me here at the house. Shortly after I got up we went out to the yard and finished shoveling the dirt and rubble into the adjacent runoff. After finishing we hosed everything down and sprayed the dust off the car. Coming in I hung a couple shirts I had washed on the line along with one of my hooded sweatshirts. It was a bright and warm day, and we spent it mostly reading and talking out in the courtyard, soaking up the wonderful sunlight.

Paddy had taken the leftover pallella from the other night and turned it into a nice seafood gumbo, mixing it with a packet of lobster soup. It turned out very well, except having no bread we had some tortilla chips with it instead. I'm still reading Capote, which is about 540 pages – I'm nearly finished with it after the time I spent reading today. I've got about 140 pages left. It's a really detailed account of Truman Capote's life – the movie they made just focused on the period of time Capote spent writing In Cold Blood.

After lunch Paddy went to take a nap and eventually took a short nap myself, listening to a few chapters of In Cold Blood. I hate falling asleep when I'm listening to a book, because then I have to try and figure out which tracks I slept through. I only ended up missing a few, so I must not have fallen asleep for very long. I got up and asked Paddy to borrow his phone (my SIM card works in it) so I could call my mom and grandparents. I talked with them for a bit, and tried calling my sister too – her boyfriend answered and I think I perturbed him a little by my shortness, and not really taking time to talk to him. Just hearing his voice aggravated me – though I guess after talking to my mom Joey (my nephew) is doing alright, and they got my post card.

Anyhow, after making my calls Paddy and I took Una out for a walk, and ended up going further than we'd anticipated, walking along the Camino for a while and then down a crossing road which meets up with another dirt road that heads back into Moratinos, basically making a triangle from town. I took some really good pictures of the changing colors in the sky, and it was such a clear afternoon that you could see the mountains off in the distance very clearly.

After we got back home, Paddy finished up our dinner, spaghetti Bolognese, the sauce for which he'd be cooking for most of the day. It was really nice, and certainly filling. After dinner we listened to some good music and read some more before Paddy headed to bed. Now I'm just about ready to head to bed myself, listening to my book for a few minutes more.

Not a very busy day today, so here is a poem that I “wrote” with the refrigerator magnet poetry:
I present my moist corduroy breathold young men rob foolish hearts
stiff breezes wear bones soft
remember throbbing rhythm & blush
always listen ferociously but speak not
concrete prisoners squirm with dazzling eyeslive for yesterday & linger today in my blue embrace

Doing laundry and hauling dirt & rocks – but the sky is wicked cool

2007-03-09T23:28:00.000-08:00

Of all the architecture, history, and art I've seen thus far here in Spain, I have to say the sky is really the most captivating and beautiful thing I think I've ever seen. Shifting your eyes upward, you're hard pressed to find anything but every reaching day or night in your periphery. I don't know anyplace I've lived in the States where that's possible. Mornings and sunsets are especially moving here – hues of orange, red, violet, and yellow streak across the horizon and play with the clouds to create something new each day, causing pause every time I'm fortunate enough to witness it. And the stars! There are so many of them it's hard to believe. Constellations are so clear cut against the pitch black evening sky. I need to get a star chart.

Well – that said, my day today really does pale in comparison! I woke up at a regular hour – even before Sebastien! James had come over to rouse him out of bed at around 10 – and had some bread and coffee before hopping in the shower and getting ready to go into Sahagun with Paddy. There we got a replacement butane canister, then Paddy went to get some things and I headed over to German's to see if I could hop on his WiFi. I knew he wasn't going to be there, he'd told me he was going to Peru for a couple weeks, and sure enough the shop was locked and no one was inside. I was a little surprised not to see at least the girl who is there sometimes (wo)manning the operation. So I squatted outside to see if I could catch a signal, but sadly he'd shut down shop completely. Bummer because then I had to go to Cafe Zentral, which is nice and has a speedy connection, but at a Euro per half hour and no USB ports to hook my camera up to, I'm a little picky. Spoiled I guess you could say even. [Ed. Note: so if this post isn't up for days after it's writing, you all know why!]

Paddy and James showed up not long after and Paddy checked his email while James looked for a hotel. I guess he, Marianne, and les enfants are taking a weekend holiday in Leon. I emailed Jeremy (the SIM card guy) to see if he could help me a bit more than the VodaFone rep, and then tried my card in Paddy's phone. Lo and behold, it worked – so I'm guessing Jeremy's going to tell me to suck it up and buy another phone. That's really crap though, especially since the damn things worked in Madrid! So after all this Paddy and I headed back to Moratinos.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, the two “oafs” (as Reb calls them, and then, much to my entertainment, usually scolds herself for doing so after the fact) had completed the work on the house. I have to say, they did a really great job, even if they were really slow and left huge piles of dirt in places they didn't really belong (more on that later!). They installed an opening and framing for a door leading into the hay storage room, and also installed the small window Pad & Reb bought last week. James may have them come over and help soon at The Alamo once things are in place for the Great Wall to be erected.

Paddy and I sat outside reading for a bit then decided to give Una a much-needed bath. I think she was even more confused than usual because of the tag team effort made in an effort to scrub all the dirt off of her. After we finished and gave her a preliminary dry she tore all over the yard, rubbing against the house, rolling in the grass, and shaking herself wildly.

Paddy made some onion stew – tasty but really noxious, I couldn't sit in the kitchen, and I think my body is becoming really adverse to the smell of onions – and Sebastien came over to join us for a nice lunch outside in the sun. After we ate he prepped some things and his guitar and took off to walk for a while, and will be back Sunday night or Monday morning. I'm glad he's taking a break to re-center himself. He's getting too worked up and stressed out over things at The Alamo that really shouldn't be his concern. Paddy and I cleaned up and I continued the laundry I'd started earlier before eating.

Walking over to The Alamo to swap loads in the drier, I decided to take Una along with me, thinking she could use the time outside after her traumatic bathing experience. Approaching I could see a woman with two puppies and a German Sheppard (a lot of people around here have them). They certainly weren't Shep puppies, so I didn't expect anything bad to happen – and so it was much to my surprise when one of the puppies, a black fuzz ball, launched a full attack on Una and went nuts. So Una got angry, and then the other puppy started in, and the lady's yelling at them in Spanish, and I'm yelling at Una in English, I dropped my key and the wash, trying to fend the ankle biters off with the basket while restraining Una and praying the G.S. Didn't decide to take a bite out of someone. Once I got Una picked up and the little dogs stopped the lady handed me the key and I grabbed the wash, her saying something to me, which was I hope her apologies, and all I'm saying is “I'm sorry!... Thank you!” in Spanish to her.

I came back and Paddy and I decided to do something about the trash and rubble the workers had left behind. We picked up the cement bags and nail boxes they'd left behind, and then after tossing around a couple of ideas about what to do with the dirt and chunks of adobe from the door/window installation, started shoveling it over to the runoff area next to the field behind the house. We moved quite a lot of it, but decided the best was left for tomorrow. Hopefully it doesn't rain before then.

I finished the laundry and came back to find Paddy eating bread and some of the strongest blue cheese I've ever had. Tasty. Neither of us really felt like cooking anything complicated for dinner, so I decided to throw together some hodge podge ingredients from the fridge and the Dispenser (which I learned is actually “dispensa” in Spanish, and it's not actually been a running Terminator joke to call it that!) and made what ended up being kind of my own version of Ensaladilla Rusa. Tuna, peas, shredded carrots, anchovy stuffed olives, and cold boiled potatoes. It was really nice.

Paddy and I read some more and listened to some Phillip Glass and Thomas Newman stuff over the rest of the wine we'd opened for dinner and now it's about bed time. Una's sighing and grunting and rolling around in the other chair in the kitchen. She dreams more than any sleeping dog I've ever seen.

Sweet dreams Una.

P.S.: I weighed myself this morning... right before I left a check-up weighed me in at 309. Since arriving I've lost 21 lbs, and I'm down to 288 (131 kilos). Rock.

Sleeping in, fighting a losing battle at The Alamo, and dirt, no, Earth seasoning

2007-03-08T22:00:00.000-08:00

“Sleeping in” would be an grave understatement regarding what I did today... My alarm initially went off at 8:30am, and I though “Eh, I'm going to sleep till 9:15.” So I reset it. Then from 9:15 until 10 it went off every two minutes and I snoozed it again and again, almost to the point where I was sleeping but subconsciously knew how long it took for it to go off again and pressed the button almost at the same time it started up. Then at 10, in some stroke of genius, I decided it was silly to keep resetting it or pushing the snooze button – so I turned it off completely, and then proceeded to sleep until noon. Needless to say, Sebastien gave me a hard time about it, especially since I'd promised to go with him to The Alamo to help out today. Luckily it turned out he didn't end up doing much of anything he had intended to do because the electrician was there most of the morning explaining things that needed to be done before he could finish his work.

I grabbed some food and showered, and then went over to The Alamo to help Sebastien carry out the electrician's “orders,” which really were things he should have done himself, but Sebastien and I had to cut out the holes where the outlets and switches would be, saw out grooves for all the wiring, and then put the boxes in the right places. Some of the walls that needed to be dug out were the ones Sebastien had just spent the last week or so plastering, so he was a little peeved to say the least that he was going to have to do double to work. Sebastien is getting kind of frustrated that things are being done so ass backwards over there, and he told me he's probably going to take off this weekend and walk the Camino a bit with his guitar and chill. I told him I thought that was a great idea, because he certainly doesn't need to be getting stressed out about things like this – if anyone needs to, James does. I temporarily made everything better with a little Green Day and Coldplay and an interesting conversation about how everyone's classification of music differs. Would you call the majority of the Rolling Stones' work “blues?”

For lunch we came back to the house and Paddy had reheated the mash that was left over from last night and yesterday afternoon, fried up some different sausages, and we ate the rest of Sebastien's good salad. Then back to The Alamo! I sifted some gravel through a wood and chicken wire contraption in order to loosen some good soil for making adobe, and the plumbers showed up with large sewage pipes. I had to chuckle a bit wondering how they planned to bed the straight tubing into the curved ditch the digger dug last week. Bad news – they didn't plan on doing anything to bend them. So now either the digger-man needs to come back or someone's got to dig out the angle so they fit properly. See what I mean when I called this a losing battle? Looking up though, it'll get finished someday, and it'll be a really awesome albergue (just hopefully not “The Secret Albergue” as I found painted gaily on a wooden sign in one of the back rooms).

Sebastien stuck around as it was getting dark, waiting for James who had promised to come with beer. I went back to the house and Paddy made some more of his seafood pallella, which he says is gradually improving. I can't tell much difference, though it tastes good to me. I guess I'm not a true pallella connoisseur yet. Marianne showed up just as we were sitting down and said that James and Sebastien were having a barbecue, and asked us to come over. Pallella ready, we decided to stay home and eat, but then after we were finished took Una and walked over to The Alamo to find James and Sebastien around an impromptu campfire made in the side lot. James + lighter fluid = not a good idea.

So they'd grilled some steaks and there was beer, and Sebastien was appeased for the time being. James also bought me a nice bottle of Rioja to thank me for helping out the little bit that I had so far. He really is a generous and thoughtful person, even if he is a excitable and anxious. He's a good guy, I just think, and I think he knows this too, that he's in a little over his head with this project. It'll work out though. Sorry, didn't mean to trail off on a introspective journey of James. Anyhow, they offered us some of the steak they'd cooked, and Paddy and I both tried a bit, and it was really good. Chewing the met was tender, but the seasoning was a bit gritty, so I asked James what he'd used. He happily replied - “Oh, that's not seasoning... that's Earth man... we used the chicken wire from the sifter to cook the meat on!” I just stared at him and swished my mouth with some of the Rioja. So yea, back to how James is a crazy loon... Evidently there is a major, and cosmic difference between what I call DIRT and James refers to as Earth. Like I said, it's the little differences that make it all worth while.

Now back at home and time for bed – Buenas Noches!

Leaving Madrid, returning to Sahagun, SIM troubles await

2007-03-07T20:47:00.000-08:00

So I decided I wasn't feeling up to spending another day roaming around Madrid today, so I opted to catch the 11:30 train back to Sahagun. It was a nice trip and I listened to more of In Cold Blood and read more of Capote (not at the same time!). I had a nice baguette from the train station in Madrid to snack on during my trip, and I that Nalgene water bottle is really coming in handy. Not only does it hold water, but it offers the perfect shape for using as a neck support on trains! Multitaskers unite! My train got into Sahagun at about 3:20.

As soon as the train crossed into Palencia though I lost my VodaFone ES signal. Much to my irritation my phone continued refusing to work in Sahagun as well as later in Moratinos. What I don't understand is it worked wonderfully in Madrid, not to mention both Paddy and Reb use VodaFone out here, so I know it's not a matter of lack of coverage. I really don't want to buy a new phone.

I headed over to German's with all my stuff to check my email and upload some pictures for my family, then met Paddy, James, and Sebastien over at Cafe Zentral for a coffee. After we got home I called up VodaFone's customer service line and spent 20 minutes on the phone, first trying to get to the English speaking operator (why is it in the States you are immediately given an option for Spanish, but in other countries there's no choice for English?) and then walking through everything I'd already done on my own with the operator who was of no help to me. Why can't I just be a normal ignorant customer so the tech service people can go through their standard solutions without me saying “Oh, I've already done all this...”? Oh well.

I noshed some pate that was left in the fridge, and mashed potatoes and sausages Paddy had made earlier in the day for lunch. Good stuff, and I realized I was hungry after just the bread I'd eaten most of the morning. Spent some time reading my book and charging my iPod up after that.

Later on Sebastien made dinner for us, more mash, some chicken breasts, and a really brilliant salad he whipped up. We'd bought fresh spinach instead of lettuce, and he was so confused that he could use it just as easily to make a salad. Here in Europe when people use the word “salad” they really mean “lettuce.” So he was bewildered when we grabbed spinach for “salad” (our way with tomatoes, cheese, etc.) and wasn't sure how cooked spinach would taste instead of lettuce. I assured him it was good stuff and he tried some. To his surprise he like it a lot more than lettuce, and so mixed up some tomatoes, cheese, olive oil, peas, and the spinach. It was quite good. Oh, and he put a couple egg yolks in the mash. First time for everything I suppose. Read some more after dinner, and now it's time for bed. I'm going to sleep in my sleeping bag from now on I think. It's so warm and cozy. (Thanks Jimmy!)

Ciao.

Madrid (Dia Dos), the Bathroom of Doom and the Thyssen

2007-03-06T22:00:00.000-08:00

So I woke up today after a great sleep on Carla and Irene's sofa. I really like sleeping in the sleeping bag that Jimmy let me borrow... it's like being in a cocoon, warm – but not hot – and overall just really comfortable. When I went out into the kitchen some older lady had come into the apartment and was babbling something at me in Spanish, all the while I stared at here in utter confusion, and finally conveyed to her well enough that I a) didn't live there and b) had no idea what she was saying to me. Then some other guy showed up, and the best I could guess was that they were making some repair. I'm guessing she was the land lady. Carla got home shortly after they left, and I told her – turns out it was the land lady and some repair man. I guess the whole thing was that they were there to change a light bulb. Yikes.

Showering was really an adventure, to say the very least. Carla's apartment is really nice, but being on the top floor it has some odd ceiling arrangements, and the bathroom is very tiny – not too small for her and her roommate, but I felt like a giant. Damn tiny Spaniards! (Though I suspect it's actually my fault for being too tall!) So anyhow, getting the water to do what I wanted it to took some time, and I had to settle for a mostly cold shower. I easily washed up though, despite being practically doubled over. Then getting out I slipped and nearly fell. Thankfully the walls are close enough that I was able to catch myself.

I packed up my things, Carla laid down to take a nap, and I planned my day. I needed to go to the post office to mail a letter to my grandparents, get some money exchanged, find the phone store where one of Reb's friends works to get a new SIM card, then I had planned on visiting the Thyssen and the Prado. So I left my larger bag at Carla's and got on the Metro and took it to the center of town, then transferred to another line to come out by the post office. Now, this was seriously the biggest post office I've ever seen. It was very much a palace in it's own right. I had to go to three or four different windows before I could find the one that sold stamps – I should have known it was the one with the long line of people!

Leaving the post office I walked around down Passeo del Prado, the strip where the city's three major art museums are located. Found the plaza where there was supposedly and American Express, but it turns out the location was closed and they'd moved. So I walked back towards Puerta del Sol, and the exchange office was right around the corner from where I needed to meet Jeremy, the SIM card guy. So I changed over some USD (that always makes me so sad... I came with 500 USD, and after being raped by the exchange rate I was left with just over 300 Euros.)

So I found Jeremy's office, he hooked me up with a new SIM card (see previous post about phone number change) and also with a good calling card that lets me call any phone in the States for €0.40 an hour. Really I pay €0.40 whether I talk for five minutes or fifty-five, but the card gives you the option to connect to multiple numbers one after the other so I can make a bunch of phone calls within an hour and still pay only 40 cents to do so. Pretty fantastic if you ask me.

So I made some calls, talked to my mom and walked form Puerta del Sol in the wrong direction – which I didn't realize until I reached the Opera Metro exit – from where I intended to go to get to the museums. I finished up my chat with her and hopped on the Metro and rode over to Atoche, one of the stops near the museums. I found out later that that's where the Metro bombings happened a couple years ago.

So I got out and walked past the Prado and the Botanical gardens, got some good pictures of the buildings and monuments. At every large plaza in Madrid there seems to be a fountain – they're everywhere. The two coolest ones were one sculpted to look like Triton being pulled along by dolphins, and then near the post office there's another depicting some queen or another – I didn't find out who she was – being pulled along in a chariot. I like fountains.

So I decided to start with the Thyssen, which was only €4 with my International Student ID. It was interesting – you work your way from the top floor to the ground floor and basically tour a complete review of art from the 14th or 15th century up through the 20th century – and there were some works by very well known painters, though I'm not really sure if it was worth the visit. Don't get me wrong, I like art for the most part (I think I mentioned something like this back when I visited the Guggenheim), but I'm not a huge fan of classical paintings and portraits. There were a lot of really great landscapes though which I do like, especially when they are large and detailed. That impresses me... but the countless “Portrait of a Young Woman” or “The Madonna with The Christ Child” got kind of old after so many “interpretations.” I think the Thyssen has more versions of the Annunciation than anyone else in the world. Poppycock I say. After going through all of it though I decided to not waste the time seeing the Prada, both because from my reading it's just more of the same with a small area dedicated to sculpture, and also that it's just so massive it's almost a two-trip museum. I'm looking forward to seeing the Reina Sofia tomorrow though, which was closed today.

Leaving the museum I walked back to the Metro and transferred once to get back up to the stop near Carla's apartment. Had a sandwich and a coffee for lunch and played around with my new SIM and read some info on Madrid. It had started to sprinkle and was slightly overcast – not sure why, but when it gets like that I always tend to get grumpy or sad or something. I think that's pretty common though. So I hid in the cafe for a while, then went over to Carla's to find no one there. I called her and she told me Irene would be home in an hour, so I went just around the corner and got on line to check my email and stuff. I talked to a couple people on line from home, and that cheered me up. After an hour or so of puttering around I went back to the flat, talked to Irene for a bit, gathered up my things and headed back to the Metro to find my way to Rick's, the CS'er I'm staying with tonight.

I found his apartment which wasn't far from one of the Metro's end stops. He and his flat mates live on the ninth floor, so I was really pleased to find an elevator! Rick was running a little late, but I got to meet his roommate Ricardo who is from South America. There are four of them that live there and they all work for the same oncology research institute there in Madrid. Rick is, ironically, from Ohio too and graduated from OSU last year. He was accepted for a fellowship or something and got to come to Spain for 9-10 months and do research. He's hoping to soon be accepted to OSU's PhD/MD program so he can use his research towards a thesis, and then eventually wants to work as a neuro-oncology surgeon.

Also staying at Rick's were two girls from Germany, Victoria and Corinna, who were flying out of Madrid to Buenos Aires and were planning a five month backpacking trip around South America. They were really nice, and it was good to be able to meet some other CS'ers. They were supposed to be flying out tonight, but unfortunately something happened to the airline they were booked on, AirMadrid I think, I believe they went bankrupt. To make things worse they weren't able to get reimbursed for their tickets, and were delayed. Needless to say they were exasperated, and Corinna was coming down with a bit of a cold. So Rick sat out in the living room with us and we talked a bit about where we were from, talked about traveling, volunteer work Victoria and Corinna had done in Ireland and London (how they met), and wine. Rick had some Sherry that he'd gotten from a weekend trip to the region of Spain that specializes in it's production. He chilled it and we tried it – erm, I'll stick to cooking with Sherry! Yet another new experience though, so I can't complain... that and Rick has a really great shower with hot water, and in contrast to my morning shower it was much safer!

So now we've got all our sleeping arrangements taken care of, so it's time to crash.

IMPORTANT UPDATE: My new phone number

2007-03-06T09:40:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

Just a quickly wanted to post an update about my new phone number. I got a SIM card that works here in Spain for much less than Cingular. I can make calls for up to an hour for about 40 cents, and can receive incoming calls for free. So if you pick up an international calling card and would like to give me a ring in chat, feel free to do so.

My new number - as dialed from the US or anywhere outside of Spain - is: 00.34.671.055.061

The bold part is the local number if you´re calling from Spain.

Cheers!

Train to Madrid, CouchSurfing, and Pizza Hut in Spain(!)

2007-03-05T23:40:00.000-08:00

So today Rebekah and I got up at 6:00am to get ready and catch the 7:40 train to Madrid. It was so cold out – I could see my breath – but I woke up after a nice hot shower. Paddy drove us to the station in Sahagun, and we arrived just before the train did. The ride to Madrid was calm, and I slept for part of it. While I wasn't sleeping I did see some really awesome mountainside villages and some cool graffiti as we passed through other stations. On that note, while graffiti is technically vandalism, more often than not it's a real art form! It's interesting to see how each “work” is layered, and many finished pieces are very detailed and ornate. I think it's incredible that someone can do things like that with a can of spray paint.

After we arrived in Madrid, we easily navigated the train station and took the Metro to Peurta del Sol, and after directions from a friendly policeman (with a hilarious hat – I'm yet to snap a picture. I got a poor one earlier but then was told I was not permitted to take pictures and had to delete it... I will get one though!) and an old man sitting in the middle of the road, we found the Hostal Sol-Cruz where Rebekah had booked a room for the night. THE smallest lift on the face of the planet. It was so funny getting in and our with my stuff, we got a picture. Reb's plane leaves for Germany at some silly hour Tuesday morning, and then she's headed back to the US to guest edit the fall issue of American Pilgrim, a magazine for past, present, and future US'ers who are interesting in the Camino.

We dropped off our things and headed back out so I could exchange some dinero, and she needed to get a rose petal rosary for her sister. She also looked for an American adapter for her laptop, but couldn't find one, so she'll probably just get one at the airport. We browsed some neat little shops, then toured the massive department store (THE department store of Spain, like Printemps in France) in the Peurta del Sol, though I can't recall it's name. Wandered around town a bit more, visited the old Plaza de Mayor which reminds me of a former plaza, now courtyard apartment complex that I visited in Paris. Got “lost” on some quaint and completely charming side streets, and at the end of one stumbled onto the Palace here in Madrid. I'm told I need to go wander around it and check out the gardens while I'm here.

For lunch we stopped at this Extremaduran (a region of Spain) restaurant and had their Menu del Dia. I was a little irritated because the menu listing outside advertised Ensaladilla Rusa, but inside the first courses weren't the same, so I had to settle for soup, which turned out to be pretty boring. Reb had these really fantastic stuffed peppers though, and shared. Main course was sausages (strangely similar to Jimmy Dean) and good fried potatoes. Reb had cod fish in a tomato sauce with the same potatoes. Flan and rice pudding for dessert. So while it wasn't the best Menu del Dia I've had here so far, I can't complain because it was only eight Euro. In addition to our lunch, Rebekah ordered this dish that was basically bread crumbs that had been fried and cooked in the pans used throughout the day to gather all the different flavors, and then just simply served on a plate.

We headed back to the hostel, checked email and what not, and I made plans with Marianne, a fellow CouchSurfer (MarianneOuiOui in France on CS) who coincidentally happened to be in Madrid today as well. I hauled all my stuff over a few Metro stops to meet her and her host for a coffee. Her host, a German girl who has been in Spain teaching English for four years was very nice. Marianne is from Colorado but lives in a town about an hour north of Paris. She teaches English as well. She's due to have a baby boy in August or September, and is planning to reside in France officially. She was really great to hang out with and talk to about all kinds of things, including getting some great info from her about Senegal (where I think I'm going to be with the Peace Corps) as she's lived there twice. I'm looking forward to seeing her again when I'm in her area during the leg of my trip through France. We had Pizza Hut (I know, but she was jonesing for some US-type food) which was really interesting. They gave us plates shaped like pizza slices that had wings. Then we toured some of the small asian-run “bargain” stores in the area that her host lives. Back at her host's apartment – she lives on the fourth floor (fifth to those in America who consider the ground floor the first floor), no lift... good cardio! – I got a hold of Carla, a contact I made through my Yahoo Peace Corps groups (she's leaving in Sept for AgriBusiness in Eastern Europe) who also happens to be living in Madrid right now. Said my goodbyes to Marianne, and carted my things over to the Bilbao district of Madrid where Carla and her roommate live.

Getting to the next apartment, Carla and Irene, her flatmate, also live on the 4^th (5^th) floor. The stairs are incredibly “rustic” and really add character to the building, but whew. Doing that once or twice a day, it's no wonder no one here is overweight! Going on, Carla and Irene are really awesome. They're letting me sleep on their sofa (it turns out Carla too is on CS!), which so far seems very comfortable. Carla teaches English here in Madrid (surprise!) and is from Houston. She was born in the States, but lived in Argentina for 12 years, so her Spanish is excellent. Irene was great, as she doesn't speak a ton of English – though much better than my Spanish – and so I got to practice talking to her in Spanish while she practiced her English on me. They are letting me leave most of my things here tomorrow as well, so then I can go and check out the Thyssen and the Prada. A lot for one day, but I think I can handle a whole day of museums! The Reina Sofia is closed tomorrow, so I'll see it on Wednesday as well as visiting the 300-acre Park de Buen Retiro. I may end up extending my trip to Thursday, but I'm not sure yet. We'll see. Time to crash for a bit now.

What's the world coming to when I've been to church now twice in two weeks?

2007-03-04T21:52:00.000-08:00

Helge and Stephanie left this morning to continue their Camino. Paddy and Rebekah took Una out to the Brick People while I showered. I was up early because having Sebastien sleep in the other bed I didn't sleep much at all – his snoring is some of the worst I've ever heard. I won't even try to put into words how awful it was, ha ha. Anyhow, I caught up with Reb, Pad, and the dog at the Brick People, and helped Rebekah build some new sculptured. My initial attempt fell over after only a few minutes, so I rebuilt a stouter more “bird-like” figure. It was really fun, and Rebekah took some really great pictures that she's hoping to use in the magazine she's going to the US to edit. On our way back Una wasn't anywhere in sight, and she didn't show up at her usual place, but, guessing she'd be back eventually, we went back to the house, got cleaned up and left for church, leaving the door open for her.

Okay, yes. Church. This will make the second Sunday that I've accompanied Rebekah and Paddy to mass. Sebastien came with us too. I'm not going for any religious or spiritual reasons, and I can't say that participating has changed my already too complex views, but I kind of enjoy going as a cultural, and as Reb smartly pointed out, communal experience.

After the short mass, we got home and though the dog didn't come when called she turned up in the main house lounging in one of the beds. It seems she'd worn herself down chasing and digging for hares or mice or whatever it is she smells.

Being a bright sunny day with a nice breeze I helped Rebekah by hanging some wet laundry out on the line in the courtyard, joking about how domesticated I was becoming. Most everything dried pretty well before the weather turned suddenly and it started sprinkling. Silly weather.

For lunch I brough Hannah's Rosemary/Garlic/Lemon/Butter chicken to Spain. It turned out really well. The best part was walking outside to the yard and picking fistfuls of fragrant fresh rosemary – I expect her to be a little jealous, and even more anxious to runaway and live on some European farm ha ha. For the remainder of the afternoon we basically sat around and read, which is pretty normal here – and ever so nice.

Dinner then was a mix of varied foods from the fridge, making sandwiches, leftover veggie soup, and we had some eggplant so I found a recipe in a Delia Brown cookbook that Paddy has (signed by her... it seems Paddy knows her!) and made Stuffed Italian Eggplant... turned out alright I suppose, though not something I'd eat every day... or every month for that matter. Did give me some good ideas on how to make a wicked pasta sauce however. After dinner we cleaned up, I copied some music to James' iPod for Sebastien, I packed up my bags to be ready for the morning trip to Madrid, and finally exhausted, headed to bed.

International peacekeeping, amongst other things, including snails, boots, plaster, and soccer

2007-03-03T22:00:00.000-08:00

Well, I guess some things just don't change. At home I play mediator when I drink with my friends, and here in Spain I seem to play the same role. But that's neither here nor there.

In other news I had a really nice dinner with Rebekah and Paddy at a bar in the town of San Nicolas, the next stop along the Camino toward Santiago. It seems I'm always talking about the food I eat here... but hey, I could probably write a whole book on that subject. Anyhow, we had a nice mixed salad with eggs, leeks (the specialty of Palencia), white asparagus, tuna, olives, tomatoes, and lettuce. I think it's nice that here in Spain when you get salad they don't give you a slew of choices for salad dressing – you get oil, vinegar, and salt... choose as you will. It's the best though! After the salad course we had some wine and bread, and not long after our main course arrived, a beautiful pallella made with rabbit, snails, vegetables, and garlic. Tres bon! I think the best part was that the snails were still in their shells. So then, we had to use our forks to... hm, I think the best word is perhaps “extract,” them from their shells. After dinner Paddy and I stayed at the restaurant and Sebastien and Helge met us there to watch the soccer match between Barcelona and Seville – Seville beat Barcelona 2-1.

Hanna, Anselmo, and Adrien left this morning. Earlier in the day, Paddy and I took Una for a walk along the Camino, east-bound, to a location where a village used to stand. I guess it was inhabited by monks who did bad things and pillaged pilgrims along the Camino, so after a while the Knights of the Templar came and took care of them, so now all that's left is some hills, a stream, and a brick noting the town's existence. Oddly there are a pair of worn leather boots at the spot that someone left along the way to Santiago a few months ago.

For lunch Rebekah made this nice mixed veggie soup. Pureed vegetables are always good, and with a bit of curry the soups she makes are really excellent. After lunch we drove into Sahagun – market day again – and replaced the butane tank, got bread, a newspaper, some screening for the new window Paddy and Rebekah bought, our train tickets for Madrid, and checked email at German's.

After getting back Paddy took a nap and Rebekah and I did some work around the house. She got the new window all stained, I swept out the workshop and back patio, split some wood for the fire, and puttered around trying to think of a good/artistic way to restore and use the “antique” grain thresher in the back yard as opposed to letting the gypsy haul it away. I also am really interested in carving a bit of plaster in a small area in the main house. When I was at German's the other day I noted the wonderful geometric designs he's drawn and carved into the soft plaster inside his shop. I might do something if I can come up with a good idea.

Time for bed!

Unpacking the Salon and More Peregrinos

2007-03-02T23:45:00.000-08:00

Well, I just returned from another fantastic dinner cooked by our local friend James. Five more pilgrims showed up this afternoon and all decided to stay in Moratinos for the evening, so James graciously cooked us dinner and we had a rockin' time in his yurt (not sure if that's how it's spelled – it is a large round tent from Mongolia. The pilgrims consisted of three Germans, Hanna, Stephanie, and Helge, an Argentinian, Adrien, and a Spaniard, Anselmo. James cooked us some potatoes and a really great chicken dish cooked with onions, herbs, and white wine. Muy excellente! James is a really excellent cook. We also had a good amount of beer and wine, some of which Rebekah provided after Sebastien offered a small “donation” of 20 Euro – and rightly so! It seems everyone alone the Camino is very giving, but you have to be careful and not let others take advantage of your generosity.

So before all this began, my day was rather uneventful, but nonetheless invigorating. Just after I woke up Paddy and I took Una out for a walk along the Camino toward Shagun. We walked to San Nicolas, and I took some pictures of the Brick People there for Rebekah. At some point someone hauled a bunch of debris – metal, stones, bricks, etc. – to a point along the path, presumably after doing some construction. It turns out that not long after people started sculpting impromptu figures out of the materials there, and since then the figures have continued to evolve, bing moved, broken down, and rebuilt by pilgrims or anyone who happens to pass by and wants to exercise a little creativity. Reb wanted some good pictures of them to put in the issue of American Pilgrim that she is guest editing this month back in the States. I think before she leaves on Monday we'll go back and play around a bit and get some really good shots.

After we returned, I helped Rebekah out in the salon, unpacking and moving boxes and other things that arrived last week in the shipment from the US. They've got tons of books that I'd love to sit down and dig into sometime while I'm here. Better yet, Reb's mom packed almost an entire box with Kraft Mac & Cheese and four huge containers of Jiff extra crunchy peanut butter. When she opened the box up she was so excited. Also, in unpacking things with her there were a number of things that triggered memories long past from when we all still lived in Perrysburg. It really struck me as a little odd yet at the same time wonderful to recall points where our so-called life paths had crossed and formed a memory. I don't know.

After lunch I took a siesta, and then I ended up over at The Alamo with James, Sebastien, and the five new pilgs, and now I'm plopped here in the kitchen with the dog sleeping in the other chair tapping away at my little keyboard. That's enough for now I think. Adieu

Camera, In Cold Blood, and pig's ear

2007-03-01T22:00:00.000-08:00

Today I slept in again – shortly after I got up everyone (Paddy, Rebekah, and Sebastien) left to make their statements at the police station. When the mail arrived a package cam for me from my grandfather, the new digital camera he purchased for me on a whim. It was an unexpected but very appreciated gift – he's really is the best person I think I know. Waiting for everyone to come home, I cleaned up the kitchen and started listening to Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. It's interesting to listen to this story while reading Capote's biography at the same time. There are some interesting connections between the semi-fictional work and Capote's own life.

Rebekah called me about an hour before they were to come home and asked me to throw together some lunch for them. I checked the fridge and the Dispenser, and decided to make some couscous, homemade tomato sauce, and sliced up some cheese and chorizo, and prepped them on a plate with some tuna and some olives stuffed with anchovies. Everyone seemed to enjoy the meal I'd put together, and the sauce actually turned out really well. As per usual, I just added a little of whatever I could find on the spice/herb shelf and through trial and error cooked it up.

After lunch we all ad a short nap, and then took a trip into town to get bread and to check e-mail. I got the unlock code for my cell and so managed to unlock it, so the MoviStar SIM card doesn't demand a code now, but it doesn't get a signal. It seems the only one I can pick up is Orange (another cell service here) so I think I'll have to get an Orange card for it to work. One step at a time, eh? Un poco a poco... (a little by little) seems to be the slogan around here. All in all though it doesn't bother me. I'm much more patient that I think I give off at times, and as long as some progress is being made, regardless of how little, I'm okay with waiting a few days more. Before we came back we stopped at the store and picked up some other groceries, and stopped by a local bar for a beer and a taste of local homemade croquettas. Wow! These were really the best of any of the croquettas that I've had since I've been here.

Rebekah has to go down to Madrid on Monday and then catch a flight out of Spain early Tuesday morning, and Paddy and I are both considering going along with her. There I can hopefully connect with one of a couple people I know in Madrid so I have a place to stay as well as someone to show me around the city. If nothing else comes of my playing around with my cell I can hook up with a good friend of Rebekah's, Jeremy, who is a US'er who lives in Madrid and dallies in cells amongst other areas of technology. No problemo.

For dinner we were treated to a meal prepared by Sebastien, an old Spanish stand-by, the Tortilla. Now in Spain, tortilla is not a flat flour or corn bread product that you make fajitas and burritos with. That's a Mexican tortilla. For reasons unknown to me, a Spanish tortilla is actually a thick round omelet like dish. Most often it's just egg and diced potatoes cooked to look like a thick pancake. Often though there are other ingredients, and Sebastien's tortilla was filled with ham, onion, peppers, and potatoes. It was excellent, and tasted so fresh. Who would have though that a simple omelet could make such a great dish for dinner of all things?! After dinner I finally was able to copy music from my iPod to Reb's Mac. I found a nifty little program while in town a couple days ago and it worked just swell.

That's all I've got for today. Poco a poco. I really do love it here.

Buenas noches!

The police here all drive Nissans

2007-02-28T23:21:00.000-08:00

What a day today was. First off, I somehow managed to sleep until about 11:30 this morning – two to three hours later than usual. I'd forgotten to set my alarm, and so I guess that in addition to my exhaustion from yesterday lead my body to indulge. Hey, I'm not complaining though! I had a bit of tea and bread, brushed my teeth, threw on some clothes and took Una over to The Alamo to see how things were progressing. Rebekah had driven back into Palencia to get in line early to finish up her health card application.

At The Alamo, James and Sebastien were discussing the orientation of a wall-to-be that Sebastien had started using one of the existing walls as a guide. It turns out, the wall that existed wasn't laid at the right angle for the door that was to go in, so the few layers of bricks needed to be removed and relayed. It's really fantastic to watch two guys try to accomplish all types of measuring with just one measuring tool that's hardly a yard long! Rebekah showed up to see how things were not long after I arrived. It turns out she was pulled over on the way home and questioned because some Cuban she was talking to in the office she'd been waiting in seems to be wanted by the police for some reason. She didn't have the best of experiences with them, but did recount that her Spanish was nearly flawless at her time of need. She's really a lot better than I think she gives herself credit for.

I came back to the house, some drinks were had, and then Paddy made a nice rice, spinach and feta cheese dish for lunch which we had outside in the courtyard being the weather was absolutely gorgeous. We had a nice white wine with the meal and a good helping of tasty Brie. We talked about cheese, and furniture, and plants amongst other things. After lunch we had some fig cake and slices of apple and pear. Fresh fruit here is really wonderful.

After lunch I took a siesta for a half hour or so, but couldn't really sleep, so had some tea with Rebekah and Sebastien. After that Sebastien asked me to come back over to The Alamo to help him start digging some ditches for the plumbing that had to go in this evening. The digger was supposed to have come in the morning but had not shown up. Much to our surprise – and I must say to my relief – the man with the digging machine had come and done almost all of the work. When I saw the extent of the digging that Sebastien had thought we might have to start by hand I was really grateful for hydrolic machinery! We finished off some of the smaller areas inside the house, and then James, Marianne and the kids stopped by. Not long after though the police came by to talk to Sebastien and James, presumably about the scuffle that had occurred on Sunday with Berndt. After taking information from them and asking them to come into the station tomorrow afternoon, the two men in uniform also came by Rebekah and Paddy's place to speak with them and ask them to come in and issue statements. Through the entire situation, my one thought was “Wow, the cops here drive soccer-mom cars.”

After they left I offered to make some Ryan soup (soup my grandparents made when I was little, tomato base with peas, beans, corn, and ground beef for those of you not privy to this wonderful dish) and it turned out fairly well. All the ingredients happened to be on hand in The Dispenser(!!!) so it was a quick prep meal. I ended up using garbanzo beans instead of baked beans like it calls for, but they tasted very good, and were probably much healthier! It's interesting how everything here is just a little different from how it is at home (whoa, unintentional John Travolta/Pulp Fiction moment there) and though it tasted good, it still wasn't exactly right. Much to my grandfather's assumed amusement though, I did add a little of the local beer – an ingredient I'd mistakenly added when I prepared the soup for my French host family back when I was abroad the first time, which to this day we like to chuckle at.

I just finished reading a few chapters of Capote, the book that the biographical film with Philip Seymour Hoffman was based on. I borrowed it from Rebekah and Paddy described it saying, “Well, it's not any good, but it's not bad, it's quite interesting.” I can't pass up a review like that, so I'll most likely make it my pre-sleep reading material. And now that I've gotten some of the clutter out of my head, I think it's time for me to work towards sleep.

Buenos noches!

Palencia and hiking home from Sahagun

2007-02-27T22:17:00.000-08:00

Today Paddy, Rebekah, and I went to Palencia so that they could file/update some paperwork. Paddy got sent around to several places before being told that he didn't need the card his doctor told him to get, and as for Rebekah, she wasn't able to get a spot waiting in line, so she wasn't too pleased. It seems to be a universal practice to treat immigrants like crap. It makes you more considerate of people that have moved to the US when the roles are reversed.

Since things didn't take as long as anticipated, we spent most of the late morning and early afternoon wandering around the city. We saw the Cathedral, and after a coffee we were able to take a tour of the crypts, the cloister, and the museum. The museum boasts an early Greco painting of St. Sebastien. There was also an interesting work of art that requires the viewer to look at it from the side – otherwise all you see is a portrait that's stretched too wide. It was really neat.

After the tour we stopped to get Paddy some new boots at a store that was having a sale. Just a couple store fronts down was one of those mechanical rides that children sit on. I kid you not, it was a replica of David the Gnome! It was hilarious, and I really wished I'd had a camera to snap a picture.

Before lunch we walked through Palencia's indoor market, which was extraordinarily clean. The butcher stalls had some really interesting things, but I was slightly disturbed staring straight into the eyes of a fully skinned sheep's (or perhaps they were goats) head. It wasn't like it was just a skull either – it had the eyeballs still inside of it. Further down at another meat stall there was a whole cavalry of them. In addition to those there were pig's feet, pig's snouts, pig's faces, innards, tongues, larynx (I don't know how to or even whether I should pluralize that), and a whole assortment of bizarre miscellany. On the upside, all the fish and produce was remarkable fresh!

We had lunch at a hotel restaurant not far from the Cathedral. Rebekah and I both had a platos cobination of croquettas, deep fried shrimp, and salad. Paddy had a tuna salad and then a nice piece of grilled salmon. For dessert I had flan, Paddy rice pudding, and Rebekah some sort of custard. Wine, water, and bread as per usual, accompanied the food. American's really ought to get into that habit! There was a TV playing near by, and amongst other things there was a short news cast of a 6-year-old that weighed 89 kilos (approximately 195 pounds!). It was interesting because it was a big deal – and yes, it is, but you'd never hear about something like that in the States. Also, I think Liz Taylor finally kicked the bucket today. They were airing a sort of montage of her career on the news. Who knows. I need to check the Oscar winners. I'm interested to see if Pan's Labyrinth won anything.

On the way home I napped for a bit, and when we got back into Moratinos we stopped by The Alamo to see if Sebastien needed anything. He asked me to help him move some wood that was too big for him to move alone, so I left off there and helped him shift it all to a different location. I got back to the house and decided I wanted to go into Sahagun. I asked Paddy to drive me in, and he dropped me off at the Hotel Posh (not it's real name – but it's the nicest hotel in Sahagun and the surrounding area). I walked to the Internet place and hopped on the Wifi for a bit. Checked email, Google'd some things I needed to find out, and talked to Draque for a short while on Trillian. I'm researching plants that Rebekah can put in her yard, and also I needed to do some more searching to figure out what's wrong with my cell phone. I think I found the solution, so in the next day or two I should be able to use the Movistar SIM chip that Rebekah has.

After I was finished using the Wifi, I started back to Moratinos. It's a 9km stretch between Sahagun and home – lucky for me I was wearing my boots. The walk back took about an hour and forty-five minutes, but it was tiring. It was a good start for training before I head out on the Camino. The longest distance I'll have to walk in a day is 38km, and I'm hoping by that point in the pilgrimage I'm used to walking for long distances. I think the worst part about the walk back though was that it was dark almost the entire way – I think walking in the daylight would be much simpler because you aren't concentrating so hard on not running into something, or tripping over a rock or a hole, and there's more to actually look at!

So now I've taken a shower – something I'm probably really going to miss when I'm all sweaty on the Camino and the place I stop for the night doesn't have a shower – and had a couple glasses of vino (in Spanish pronounced almost like “bino”) and a nice dish of pesto and spaghetti. So I think I'm going to turn in and rest my feet – tomorrow holds another day of who knows what, so it's probably best that I rest up.

Buenos noches.

A day of culinary firsts, gin & tonic, and a cement mixer

2007-02-26T22:00:00.000-08:00

I felt silly this morning – I woke up and no one was around. The remains of people being around were present... coffee that was just reaching cold from warm, a fresh load of laundry spinning in the washing machine, keys hanging in the door. For some reason though I had the feeling that everyone had left. I was all alone. Stranded in the middle of a foreign country, knowing so little of the language, and only my two feet to get me where I needed to go. Aside from realizing that perhaps I should have learned earlier in life how to properly drive a manual car, I felt a brief moment of panic. All I could think to do was to get some clean clothes, take a shower, brush my teeth. Not long after I finished grooming myself Rebekah and Paddy returned with Una (their terrier mix breed dog, whom I don't think I've mentioned until now) from their morning walk. What a relief.

We drove into Sahagùn to get some groceries, run a couple errands and indulge in some Internet use. I went to the local bank and learned a new word: “cambiar: to exchange.” It made me so sad when I handed over my five twenty dollar bills and only got sixty-eight Euros back. Thus is life though. I've not really needed much money at while I've been here. There were some initial upfront costs associated with getting settled in, but at this point I hardly need to spend more than twenty or so Euros a week. Food is mostly free (unless I'm chipping in for a meal that I'm preparing, or buying lunch in a café while on a daytrip), lodging is thankfully free and all I need do in return is help out when and where needed, which doesn't bother me one bit. While I've had my computer and cell phone still, it's been nice to not be sitting in front of the screen all day browsing and busying myself. And being making phone calls with Cingular is rather pricey right now, I've been keeping my phone use to the minimum. Tomorrow we're tripping into Palencia, the region's capital, and there I should be able to get a new SIM card for my cell phone.

I'm getting off topic though and rambling. We got some groceries, the most interesting of which was a bag of mixed seafood – mussels, squid, prawns, crab, and bits of seafood stick and smaller shrimp – and then I went off on my own to find the Internet café that has a wireless signal. I checked my email, replied to some I had, did a couple Google searches, and when Rebekah showed up she checked her own email and then we headed over to pick up the cement mixer we'd come into town to get. The men working on the outside of the house need it so they can reinforce the walls, so Rebekah and Paddy are renting one for the week. It wasn't “difficult” per se to get it into the truck, though the seating arrangements proved interesting after it was in, and getting it out later was a challenge all of it's own.

Back at home Paddy made paella, a dish based on rice and saffron and miscellaneous other food. It's typical of how many people make soup or stew out of leftovers in the fridge. We used some of the crazy seafood mix, and I thought it was pretty good – though Paddy said it wasn't a decent representation of paella at all. We also had some gin and tonics special with the gin we bought while in town. Delicious. I don't know how more people don't enjoy gin. Also from the grocery store we brought home a bag of ham flavored Lay's potato chips. While it doesn't sound very appetizing they were probably some of the better flavored chips I've ever had! I really don't think people in America though would be to keen on trying some oddity like ham flavored crisps.

After lunch I took my siesta, and ended up sleeping for close to two hours, the result of continuously snoozing the alarm on my cell phone. I woke up just before some local men started sawing away at the large tree in the courtyard – much to my delight as I don't think I'd have liked being woken up by a chainsaw outside my window. After getting up, I took Una over to The Alamo to see how things were going with the work there. Paddy, James, Sebastien, and another man was there who was supposedly there to handle the plumbing. Now that Berndt is gone they will probably need some extra help over at The Alamo, and I offered to lend a hand when needed. Concerning Berndt now that I think about it... He lost some of his things on his way out of Moratinos last night, and Rebekah found them. We asked around town earlier when we were there to see if anyone had seen him. Granted what he did wasn't something good, he at the very least deserves to have his belongings, and in all honesty his crime was based for the most part on speculation and rumor. It's really too bad that things weren't worked out in a different manner.

Anyhow, after peeking in at The Alamo, Una and I walked along the Camino eastward toward Burgos for about a kilometer or two at the most. It was nice to get out, and it really made me anxious to get out and start the pilgrimage myself. Though I don't think I'd be inclined to take the dog, or any animal for that matter along with me!

We came back to the house, had some green tea, and then went out back to unload the cement mixer from the truck. I wrote some post cards and took them over to the local mail drop, and then stopped over at The Alamo to let Sebastien know that dinner was almost ready. We had “Cocideo Asturina,” translated literally as Asturian Stew, which was a mixture of white beans, tomato base, onion, and three different types of sausage. It was simple but really great with bread and a nice hard Spanish cheese made from goat's milk and aged. The wine that we're drinking lately is a local variety called Crianza. It's made in the region of Palencia where we live, and the particular one that we've bought a case of is called Los Molinos, made by Felix Solis Bodegas. It's a darker red, but despite it's 2001 vintage tastes like it was bottled fairly recently. No bother however, wine here is so incredibly cheap it's not an issue to buy a case and not care for it – it still gets drunk, and then there's more of a different kind after that anyhow!

Sebastien headed to bed shortly after dinner and now Rebekah, Paddy, and I are relaxing in the kitchen – the main congregating area of the house – reading an writing. Una is vying for attention from anyone who is willing to give it, and we've moved on from Edith Piaf to some nice string music. Life here, in Spain, and in most of Europe I'm coming to find, can be so very simple and unassuming. I've only been here a week and already I'm afraid that it's going to be so much more difficult to leave in August than it was last time.

No worries though. It doesn't do any good to anticipate the future like that. I've got so many more experiences awaiting, and from just the last week it's apparent that new discoveries and learning opportunities are waiting around every bend of my adventure.

An interesting twist to an already interesting day

2007-02-25T22:00:00.000-08:00

Today Libby, Rebekah, and I went to Bilbao, a city on Spain's northern coast, where the Guggenheim Museum is located. The drive took about three hours and was really lovely. We passed through farmland, rolling hills, mountain ranges, and saw dozens of small villages. I really like how so many of the villages and towns here in Spain seem to be built right around the local church. It's interesting to see from a point of view that shows you the layout of the town. Moving on, we got into Bilbao and easily found parking – despite what our guidebook said – near the indoor market. Bilbao supposedly boasts the largest indoor market in all of Spain. Unfortunately it's closed on Sundays. We found a bar, had a cafe con leche, and made a point of finding out where we were in relation to the museum.

When we'd determined how to get there we took the tram (they're bright green!) to the Guggenheim and got quite a good view of the museum's structure, designed by famous architect Frank Ghery. Climbing some stairs you come up to a very large shrub covered in flowers which is in fact a huge terrier plant sculpture. The museum entrance fee was only five Euros due to the fact that the third floor was closed because they were between rotating exhibits. The first and second floor are vast in size, but don't really house a ton of material. The Guggenheim has one of the world's largest galleries showcasing large abstract sheet metal sculptures that you can walk around and inside of. Some of them spiral, others are formed in flowing parallel lines. You're able to see a miniature model of the sculptures in a small room off the back of the gallery.

One of the coolest exhibits was a number of ticker lines (like the one used on Wall Street) that were installed vertically, and they had a message, which turned out to be sort of a poem/story that scrolled up the tickers, each at a different speed. After the story finished, it restarted in another language. It was cool because standing in front of it caused an immense sense of vertigo, but after a while if you looked up at them it made you feel like you were floating. The words scrolling up seemed like air bubbles in an aquarium or a glass of soda.

The second floor housed four different contemporary German artists, but I didn't really appreciate any of the works, aside from a large abstract sculpture in one room. The rest was mostly comprised of one of the artists in particular – Joseph Byues or something like that – and most of it just seemed to be personal belongings and crap with his name stamped on it. I suppose everyone's got an opinion of what is and is not art, and furthermore what is good and what is bad art. It just didn't catch my fancy is all. Oddly though the sculpture that I liked was by him as well. Go figure.

After the museum, which didn't take very long to tour, we followed the tram tracks into another part of town and tried to find some place to have lunch. No luck, so we hopped back on – we were bad and didn't buy tickets for the second trip seeing as no one checked or scanned our tickets the first time! - and made way back toward the “old” district near where we had parked the car. We wandered down the tiny side streets lined with shops closed for the day and lots of small cafes and restaurants – most of which were really overpriced. Finally we found one that suited us, waited for a few minutes for a table, and then had a tasty lunch. Rebekah started with a plate of mixed seafood, then had squid cooked in it's own ink. Libby had croquettas (deep fried balls of creamy sauce with bits of ham) and then endive, salmon, and tuna wraps. I started with an order of pork pate and my main course was a crock of lamb stew. Everything tasted so great – even the squid, which I tried. It left a slight aftertaste of brussel sprouts in my mouth. It was odd. We had a nice white wine with lunch that had some great grapefruit-like flavors to it.

After lunch we headed back to the car so we could find the Termibus Station where Libby was taking a 10:30 overnight bus back to Barcelona to leave for the US on Monday. We got a little lost after trying to follow the tram, but eventually found our way there. It was sad to see Libby leaving so soon, but luckily Rebekah will be going to the US in a week or so to do some work and take care of some things back home, so she will be able to see Libby again soon. We said goodbye to Libby after she got her bus ticket, and then got back onto the highway towards Santander, another coastal town. We drove along the coast for a long while with the ocean on one side and mountains on the other. It was really wonderful. On the down side, Spanish drivers can be really crazy, as twice on the way home someone passing people in the opposite direction nearly missed causing an accident. Eventually we headed south to get back to Moratinos, and got home just after 9pm.

When we came in, we found Paddy in the kitchen with Berndt, who was very upset. It seems that some things were said, and rumors heard about something he'd done and he was planning to leave. We weren't really sure what had happened, so we tried to calm him down, and managed to get him to agree to just wait until morning to leave, if at all, assuming things couldn't be sorted out. To make a long story short, it seems Berndt had gotten himself into some trouble and done something bad, and James and Sebastien insisted he leave Moratinos. There was quite the little drama unfolding in this sleepy little town, but by midnight or so everything seemed to be sorted out with minimal confrontation, and Berndt had left Moratinos. It was certainly an interesting end to my day, and made it clear to me that not everyone on the Camino is necessarily a good person – however, really, where in the world is that not true? It's unfortunate that bad things do happen sometimes, but it's equally important to remember that most of the time people should just mind their own business. All in all though, i don't think there are going to be any other issues here in Moratinos anytime soon.

Time to turn in and sleep now. Buenos noches!

Sardines, Schpetzal, and the “Fancy” Bodega

2007-02-24T22:00:00.000-08:00

Today was a great day. I think the best part may be that I found out I've lost 12 pounds since arriving in Europe. I don't really know how that's possible, but it seems to be so – I hope I don't have a tape worm or anything!

Rebekah took Libby and I into Sahagun again today so we could go back to the Internet place and Libby could get her bus ticket to Barcelona from Bilbao. She'll be leaving tomorrow evening after we spend the day in Bilbao and then returning home to the US on Monday from Barcelona. I was also able to download all my emails from Google into my Thunderbird Application on my laptop so I could better sort through all of them. The multiple messages from the Couch Surfing website and the Yahoo Peace Corps group I'm a member of were just too cluttered to try and read online.

Saturday it turns out is also market day in town, so we took advantage of the stalls in the main street and got some bacon, sardines, trout, chorizio (sausage), and brie. We also picked up bread and a newspaper for Paddy. Back at home Paddy cooked up the sardines and some salad for our lunch. It was the first time I've eaten sardines that weren't out of a can or on a pizza, and I can say they tasted okay. A little too much work for something that didn't taste amazing, but they made a decent lunch along with some leftover ratatouille. Libby and I then took a nap – I really love siestas! - and after we woke up Rebekah called and told us and Paddy to come over to the bodega sight to see one of the neighbors' bodegas – the “fancy” one. It was the bodega with the pretty bricked door and a TV antennae. Inside they had done an incredible job of remodeling it, and it was quite the party room. A TV, a bar, an oven and stove, a wood burning stove for heat, electric lights, remodeled walls, tile, steps, and a wine storage area.

Sebastien and Berndt spent the day over at The Alamo doing work in Jame's place. They tore down a wall between two rooms, and Berndt made a walkway around the main area with boards as it had turned into quite a lot of mud. It seems here in Spain, workmen don't have any sense of urgency or regard for their profession. I'm not talking about the two pilgrims, as I think they've done more for James so far than any of the so-called professionals have, but the actual plumbers, and carpenters, and electricians. Rebekah and Paddy are having the same issues, in that no one here seems to understand the concept of contracting when working on a remodeling or construction job. It's really aggravating for someone from the US where our economy thrives on a sense of customer service and satisfaction.

Rebekah had me do some things around the house while she and Paddy went out for a walk, and after I was through the sun came out a bit so I sat in the courtyard and wrote a letter to my grandparents and did a little research on walking the Camino. Rebekah suggested I check out an alternate starting point to St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port which adds about 2 days onto the entire pilgrimage, but takes you through a wonderful part of Spain that a lot of people usually miss. This alternate start route is called the Aragon Way. I'm really excited about walking, and to practice a bit am going to load up my sack and start hiking back and forth between Moratinos and Sahagun which is about 9km, one-way. The longest stretch along the Camino will be 38km, which equates to a little under 23 miles. I think the changes in altitude (walking up and down hills and the like) will probably be the toughest part of the hike. Also, from talking to the Pilgrims as well as James and Marianne, I think I'm going to start the Camino in early April instead of waiting until May. My original plan was to stay with Rebekah until April, travel around Spain until May, and then do the Camino from May to June. So now instead I think I'll start the Camino in April, go to Italy and France from May until July, and then spend the rest of July and part of August seeing Spain.

Berndt had gone into town to get his glasses fixed and picked up things so he could make dinner for everyone tonight. He fixed veal meatballs, kale (red cammage) which was cooked down with appples, and schpetzal (sp?) a German dish similar to noodles crossed with dumplings. It was very good, and I was glad to try some schpetzal that didn't taste like dirt! Before dinner James and Marianne stopped by and surprised Sebastien with a new guitar which they had bought in Leon. He had one along the Camino, but then it had been stolen. He was so happy and played some music for us after dinner. To end our day, Rebekah drove Libby, Sebastien, and I back into Sahagun and we found a bar where we enjoyed a beer and watched a little of the football (soccer, not American football) game that was on this evening. We chatted for a while and then headed back to Moratinos. We're going to Bilbao in the morning and will be seeing the Guggenheim, and then sadly saying goodbye to Libby. She has to go back to the US on Monday. Now though it's time to go to sleep because I need to get up early. I'll have plenty of pictures from our day tomorrow.

Day trip to Leon

2007-02-23T22:00:00.000-08:00

Friday morning, Rebekah and I went into Sahagun to run a few errands before we left for a day trip to Leon, a town about an hour away from Moratinos. This was also the day that Daniel headed out to continue his journey along the Camino, so before we left for the day we said our goodbyes to him. Libby gave him a couple of the post cards which I'd bought in Barcelona so he could write messages to family and then she was going to mail them from Ohio when she got home.

Leon is one of the cities along the Camino, so we saw a number of pilgrims trekking by as we drove in Rebekah's Renault. Coming into the city we drove by a large fountain, and then found a parking spot not far from the Gothic cathedral that Leon boasts. It very much reminded me of Notre Dame in Paris, and I got some really great shots of it from the outside. You're not able to take pictures from the inside of the church, though the architectural and artistic workmanship inside was amazing. It only would have been nicer if the sun had come out so we could see the beautiful rosette stained glass windows lit up. The relics of St. Isidor are housed inside the church as well. We stopped in the tourism office and got some information about Leon, and then had a cafe con leche in a nearby bar.

Then we walked around town for a bit and ended up at an Italian restaurant in one of the plazas near the other sight we wanted to visit. We had a great lunch there – Libby had a cream of vegetable soup and ham and veal, Rebekah had a rice salad and pesto tortellini, and I had a mixed plate of sliced hams and sausages and a veal stew. We sat around and chatted through lunch and waited until the church across the plaza reopened. Inside we toured a room with dozens of frescoes depicting different religious occurrences and then moved out to the cloister area. I got some really amazing pictures of the carvings and architecture in the cloister. After this, one of the guides took us up a narrow winding stone stairway to show us into the library where tomes and hymnal books were kept, and the finally a show room where religious relics were showcased.

We visited a sportswear shop down the street so Libby could pick up a souvenir referee jersey for her boyfriend's father, and then we wandered through some side streets and alleyways in town. We found lots of neat little shops and cafes, and a great plaza. I took so many pictures in town, and many of them turned out fairly nice. Libby had a great digital camera, and I'd kind of like one for myself. It's a FujiFilm FinePix S5200. It takes great shots, and is very easy to use. (Wow, as if that doesn't sound like a blatant advertisement to my family!) Rebekah got a nice tablecloth from this store that supports the sale of good from third world countries, I got some tasty chocolate, and then from a “head shop” type store along the way I got a good pair of Thinsulate gloves for only three Euro! They smell like burlap and remind me of being in my grandpa's barn.

On the way home from Leon the sun started to come out just as it was going down, but made a nice display with the clouds. We also drove past a Toys'R'Us, and I was like “What the hell!?” I didn't realize they were an international store name. It was weird but funny and sort of comforting in a way. Another comfort was being able to get on the Internet once back in Sahagun. Rebekah knows the owner of a computer shop near the center of the city and he let us use two of his computers. He also has a wireless network that is free to access.

Back home we were treated to a traditional “poor man's” Belgian dinner cooked by Sebastien. It consisted of cooked apples and potatoes and hamburgers cooked in a ketchup, butter, and onion sauce. It doesn't sound very appetizing, but really it was quite good. I also learned that Belgians really do put mayonnaise on everything!

Concerning Pilgrims, James, Marianne, les enfants, and fantastic Indian food

2007-02-22T22:28:00.000-08:00

The paths in the courtyard are very slippery when they've gotten a little wet because of green moss that has grown on them. Coming out of the main house in the morning after waking up means I either have to remember to try and not slip if I'm wearing shoes, or I get my socks terribly dirty. Thursday morning held a bit of the same, and something I should come to expect in Europe – strong black coffee with too much sugar, bread of some sort with maybe a little butter and jam, and a shower. Well, perhaps I won't expect the shower so often, especially after I've started the Camino. A large crate containing the rest of Rebekah and Paddy's worldly possessions arrived from the US. The salon was filled with boxes and the like. Unfortunately some things were broken in the move, including Rebekah's wooden coat tree.

After this we moved some things around the house – and old oven, some rebar, etc. - that Rebekah wanted moved to the back so some gypsy man can come and take them away. We sat around deciding what to do about lunch and dinner for the evening, and then when we had a vague idea of what we needed to get we drove into Sahagun to get groceries and some things from the hardware store. Sebastien said he was able to repair the broken coat tree so we needed nails, wood glue, and some varnish. Looking for somewhere to park we saw Rebekah's friend James sitting in his car. He and his girlfriend Marianne were back in town. In town we hit up the hardware store, then on the way to the supermarket we decided that I would make ratatouille for everyone, as something that was hearty and filling and at the same time healthy and vegetarian – Daniel is a veggie. We stopped at a small grocery and got some of the vegetables necessary and then went to a larger store to get other things. The supermarket here is small but filled with all kinds of products. Everyone in this country is so small.

We got back home to Moratinos and James, Marianne, and their two children Poppie and Fin, came over. They own a property in town that Rebekah and Paddy jokingly refer to as The Alamo, due to it's current condition – walls falling down, rubble scattered about. James offered to cook everyone dinner, and so I decided to make my ratatouille for lunch. It ended up being a little different than I've normally made it, as the tomatoes weren't incredibly “juice-ful” and I didn't know there were canned tomatoes in The Dispenser (what Rebekah and everyone call the little room across from the kitchen where many things end up being stored... it's like a pantry). So I ended up (and I know my grandfather will laugh at this) using a local beer to stew the vegetables in. It turned out rather nice and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Right before lunch, another pilgrim showed up, Berndt from Germany. He used to work for a printing company but then they went bankrupt and he was without a job. He's an interesting man, and seems to know quite a bit about a lot of things. He said he'd stopped by Moratinos because he had spoken with James, and knowing a bit about electrical work he thought he could be of help over at The Alamo. So he stayed for lunch, and we got to know him a little better. He also came with a ukulele which we got Daniel and Sebastien to play later that evening.

So James, Marianne and the children and their dog Africa came over later in the day, hauling sacks of groceries into the kitchen. James and Marianne are both really great people, and I love listening to them talk. Also, they've got really cute kids. James is very lively and entertaining while Marianne is a bit quieter but really intelligent and outgoing. We kept feeding Poppie, who is about two, peanuts and she ended up mashing them all up in her mouth and then I think much of the mess ended up on Marianne.

James prepared a huge fantastic Indian dinner for all of us, consisting of stewed lamb, roasted chicken, curried cauliflower, green lentils, and homemade naan – a type of flat bread. It was utterly delicious, and we all ate our fill with good red wine from Sahagun. The kitchen table was hardly large enough to seat everyone – nine of us – along with holding all the food, so some sat around it and others sat on the floor and near the fireplace. It was a special day for Daniel, because along his spiritual journey on the Camino, this day marked the end of the first of three phases and the beginning of the second. In celebration he actually ate meat during dinner and then afterwards smoked a cigar. After dinner Daniel and Sebastien played songs on the uke, which sounded nice, but slightly comedic coming from the distinct sounding instrument.

Eventually we all made our ways to bed, and I must say I dozed quite contentedly straight through the night.

Finishing post concerning first day at Rebekah's

2007-02-22T22:00:00.000-08:00

After lunch we drove through some of the other nearby areas and saw another small town as well as an very small abandoned village which Rebekah said is now entirely used as a farm. We returned to Moratinos where we were greeted by two younger men, pilgrims, who had arrived on The Camino. Daniel, from Germany, was on his way to Santiago and had met earlier in the week with James, one of Rebekah and Paddy's friends who is also working on fixing up a residence in Moratinos. Sebastien, from Belgium, was on his way back from Santiago and happened to meet Daniel shortly after they both arrived in Moratinos. Rebekah said they were more than welcome to stay and that she'd have them help with some of the things that needed doing around the house.

We all came in and Libby and I took a short nap. Being Ash Wednesday, there was a mass being held at the church in town at 5:30pm. Rebekah, Paddy, and I attended and I met a few of the other villagers. It was interesting to see a mass in another language, as I didn't really attend for any religious purposes, but more so to see another culture's traditions. It ended by 6:00 – we called it Church Express – and we headed back to wake Libby.

After the mass we went over to meet with Rebekah and Paddy's friends, and one of the men, Celestino, invited us to visit his bodega and have some wine. So here is my description of the bodega. For anyone who is familiar with Tolkien's Hobbits, then it is most easily conceived as being a Hobbit hole. They are cave-like dwellings built into a hill with small doors and no windows. Some of them were originally used as places to press and store wine, and Celestino, who owns two bodegas, still makes wine in his. They are perfect for this process because being built under the earth, much like a cellar, they have a constant cool temperature. We tried some of Celestino's wine, which again was a Temparnillo. It was very new – which was apparent by it's taste. When it warmed up a bit in our cups though it had a very nice fragrance akin to fresh picked strawberries. I think given some more time to age it could be a very good wine. After seeing Celestino's other bodega he gifted us two bottles of wine that he was not sure of the variety or age, and then we headed back home.

We fixed a dinner of mashed potatoes, meat and onions, and roasted peppers. It was supposed to be like Sheppard's Pie, but because the electricity here is delicately balanced between several heat generating appliances we weren't able to bake it and so just mixed it up ourselves. Very good, especially with the wine Paddy opened for all of us – a professionally made Temparnillo.

To be continued tomorrow...

Continuation of earlier post made from Cafe Zentral in Sahagun, Spain.

2007-02-21T22:40:00.000-08:00

More on Barcelona... The Park Guell had this amazing fountain, which unfortunately was covered up due to some construction or other while we were there. The park itself is huge, with many good views of Barcelona as well as a large plaza with surrounded by the longest bench in the world, entirely created with mosaic style works by Gaudi. A stairway under the plaza area lead to an expanse of Romanesque pillars, which Libby explained were supposed to be the makings of the neighborhood church in Gaudi's original plans. I took as many pictures as I could with the limitation of a disposable camera that I bought – my only concern is that I think the camera was meant for use for in situations of close distance shots. We shall see, and if they do not develop well, I'll just have to re-visit the sites I saw in Barcelona when I make my way around Spain later during my trip. Other things at the park worth noting were an excellent view from a man-made monument of stone rising up over the trees, location of two large crosses. I'm not sure what this are was called, but I can check later. It was a bit frightening coming back down though, as the guard rail was on the inside of the stairway - leaving the outer edge open and prone to clumsily induced falls – and also it was not reachable from the first few steps down, so my fear of heights made the task of descending slightly more daunting. I also was surprised to see bright green parrots flying about and nesting in palm trees – oh yea, did I mention they have palm trees here?! Finally, the park is also home to the Gaudi Museum, which I didn't visit this trip to Barcelona, but perhaps I will get the time to next visit.

Libby and I sat down for a while to rest our feet – which after 9 hours or so of walking were well used – and then walked our way back down to the closest Metro station. We rode the train back to the train station, Barcelona-Sants, where we waited around for our train to Sahagun. It seemed every young person in Barcelona was flooding the station to take train downtown in order to celebrate Mardi Gras. We saw some really interesting costumes as well as some really horrible costumes. Our train left Barcelona at 10pm and we were in a sleeper car with three other people – a mother and son, who we learned were Columbians who'd lived in Spain for 10 years, and another younger guy whom we didn't talk to very much. It wasn't a very comfortable train ride, but I did manage to find a decent position to sleep in at some point. Ten hours on a train is not the best way to spend your time, but I was glad that we took a night train because then we were able to conserve day time for other things.

At around 8am we arrived in Sahagun where Rebekah and Paddy met us with their dog, Una. We rode back to Moratinos, where they live, in their amazingly wonderful European make “mini-van.” Moratinos is just about 9km from Sahagun, and only has a population of about twenty people... indluding Rebekah and Paddy! Coming up to their home, you wouldn't think it was anything special. Moratinos has four or five streets with one main road through town – a plaza, a church, a barn, a local carpenter, assorted homes, and that's about it!

Coming up to Rebekah's home you only see a door leading into a square brick building that could be best described by the term “facility.” Coming through the front door however, all thoughts of anything ordinary or boring are distinguished. The main entrance opens into a small passageway which leads into a large garden/courtyard with trees and a well. Off the first corridor are a door for a storage area, and then opposite a cozy kitchen/eating area. Moving into the courtyard there is a small attached room with the toilet, bathtub, and washing machine – they use a neighbors drier and have a sort of laundry swap going on. On the other side of the courtyard are three more doors – one which leads into a room once used to store hay, another which was a former grainery attached to the house, and then the third leads into the main part of the house. There are two stories with four bedrooms, three complete and one in a state of remodeling, a salon, and workshop area, and a back door leading out to another yard, which is considered the back yard of the residence. There's a great antique grain thresher there as well as a large stable and garage building. As Rebekah and Paddy's home lives along the Camino de Santiago, they sometimes have pilgrims who stop at their home to rest for the evening. Eventually they would like to have the capability to house animals such as horses and donkeys that some pilgrims travel with. Finally, one of the best parts of the town of Moratinos is that each residence has it's own Bodegas. I'll discuss what those are later in this or another post where I can go into much greater detail.

So that's the best I can afford for a description of the amazing home I get to stay in for the next month or so, but I will absolutely be posting pictures as soon as I can.

After a much appreciated hot shower, a cup of coffee, and an apple we met some of the townspeople and were invited over later in the day for a drink. We then made our way into Sahagun again to get a tour of the area. We stopped by to see a shop owned by one of Rebekah's friends, an older woman named Paca. They sell a variety of items including school supplies, trinkets, books, and other miscellaneous goods. She gave us some homemade cookies before we left, and I guess at some point in speaking with Rebekah and Libby referred to me as “Blondie.”

We stopped by a store to get some shampoo and shaving cream, and then a bakery to get bread for the day, and finally at the post office so I could mail a few post cards and get stamps for later. After this we visited the Cafe Zentral, which is where I wrote my last post from. After our half hour there we moved to another bar and enjoyed a beer and tapas of bread and cured ham. Delicious. Rebekah drove us through the rest of Sahagun, and we saw some of the famed sights of the city including the remains of a former monastery's gated entrance. We then stopped at a “dive” called Cafe des Pellagrinos (Pilgrims' Cafe), where we had our lunch. It is common in Spain for lunch to be ordered from a Menu de Dia, or a daily menu. I referred to these earlier as the choose your own adventure meals. I had a first course of saffron rice and rabbit, a second course of trout cooked with bacon inside, wine, bread, and dessert consisting of heavy whipped sweet cream and a strawberry preserve. We finished lunch with coffee and friendly chat. That's one thing about the people of Spain that I really love – Siesta. Lunch time is very important for Spaniards, and they often take 2-3 hours to eat and rest right in the middle of the day. Afterwards, around 4 or 5 o'clock, people return to work and continue working until 8 or 9 in the evening. Dinner is then typically later than Americans would eat, and consists of tapas, which is essentially an assortment of small to meal sized appetizer-like foods. Additionally, in the region I'm in, Palencia, it seems that almost all of the red wine produced here is made from Temparnillo.

Okay, it's getting late and everyone else has gone to bed, so I will finish this entry off tomorrow morning.

Ciao.

1 Euro for a half hour...

2007-02-21T03:53:00.000-08:00

So, I´m in Spain and currently sitting in the Cafe Zentral in Sahagun. It is the major city near Moratinos where Rebekah and Paddy live. Libby and I arrived this morning via train from Barcelona at about 8am Spanish time. It was a 10 hour train ride, but I did manage to get some sleep and have had a couple coffees. Woo.

Barcelona was so incredible. Libby and I flew in and arrived at 9am, found our way to the central train station and checked our bags in a locker area. We got a ticket for 10 bus rides so we could take the Metro around the city. We started by getting a Metro to Casa Milla, which was so much better in person. I really want to see it again in the evening when it´s all lit up. From there we traversed the streets of Barcelona and found Casa Ballto. Again - incredible.

Saw a few fountains, and also the Arc de Triompf which made me laugh a little. Libby says that when Barcelona was built they wanted it to be like a second Paris. It was neat, but an entirely different style from the Parisian monument.

We walked down side streets to Sagrada Famillia, which was so much bigger than I´d expected. I took pictures of it from every angle.

After that, looking for the Picasso Museum, we happened upon this district of small alley side-streets. All kinds of shops and cafes and the like. It was so peaceful and quaint. I could live there. The museum was very nice for 4 Euro, but Libby says the one in Paris is better. I didn´t get to see it last time I was there so I´ll have to check it out.

We had our lunch, which is the biggest meal of the day, at a cafe in the same district (I can´t recall it´s name right now but I´ll update again and put it in). The menu of the day consists of 2 courses, wine, bread, and dessert. It´s like a choose your own adventure. I had a Russian Salad - an interesting take on tuna salad - and cured ham and sliced potatos. Libby wasn´t so fortunate and had baked artichokes which didn´t taste very good, and what we at first thought was calamari, but ended up being tripe... we both had the realization at the same time after we had each tried some. Yuck!

To end the day we visited the Parke Guelle, a neighborhood that Gaudi had built for Barcelona´s elite, but which didn´t end up working out to that regard. A very long walk up a huge hill - not unlike the ones in San Francisco I´d imagine. Though there were periodic escalators built into the roadways. From the top the view of the city was breathtaking.

I have just over a minute of Internet time left - so I´m going to cut this entry off here and write some more on my laptop at home tonight.

Adios!

My Itinerary

2007-02-15T23:50:00.000-08:00

I leave Monday, February 19^th, 2007 from Cleveland Hopkins Airport at 3:00pm EST, arrive in Newark, NJ at 4:45pm EST, then depart for Barcelona, Spain at 7:15pm EST. Our plane touches down in Spain at 9:10am on February 20^th. That’s Spain time, which is currently six hours ahead of EST. Oh, and the “us” I’m referring to would be my good friend Libby and I. She’s flying over to Spain with me and will be there until the 26^th. She’s taking a mini-vacation to visit her mother and step-father, Rebekah and Paddy, whom I’ll be staying with for the first three or four weeks of my time in Spain.

Libby and I are planning to spend most of the day we arrive in Barcelona. While there I plan on visiting Antoni Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia (The Holy Family), Casa Milà, Casa Batlló, and Park Güell. It really seems from my research that Gaudí built Barcelona. J There are museums and other sights I plan on seeing as well, but for the most part I will probably let Libby guide me, as she’s visited Barcelona a few times prior – that and at some point in my trip I’ll be visiting the area again.

So after Barcelona, we will take an overnight train to Sahagún which is approximately 11km from Rebekah and Paddy’s home. They live at a junction along El Camino, which is a roughly 500 mile pilgrimage across Northern Spain which I intend to walk later in my trip. They need some assistance with fixing things up, so in return for allowing me board I’m planning to help them however I can.

Sometime in late April or early May I’ll set out to tour the Spanish countryside. On my list of places to visit include: Madrid, Toledo, Seville, Málaga, Granada, Valencia, and Bilbao, home of the world famous Guggenheim Museum. This will take me south and then up along the Mediterranean coastline, back towards Barcelona and then to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, France where the walk along El Camino begins. Google Maps was crafty enough to let me plot out an approximate “path” from St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. The walk is paced out to take a month.

Map: St. Jean-Pied-de-Port, FRANCE to Santiago de Compostela, SPAIN

Once I’ve reached Santiago, I’ll make a stop back to Rebekah’s to replenish my things and then catch a cheap flight to Rome, Italy. From here I plan to travel to Southern Italy and then make my way back north. I’d like to spend 3-4 weeks backpacking in Italy seeing as much as I can. One thing I stumbled across accidentally was Cinque Terre, an 11km stretch of coastline along the Mediterranean where five villages are connected by footpaths. The trail is also referred to as the Lover’s Walk, which I had learned about from one of one of my wine workshop instructors last year. While in Italy I’d also like to visit Florence, Bologna, Milan, Venice, and Naples.

From Italy I’ll find my way into France… and then all will be well J I am so excited to get to explore France much more in depth than I did during my last stay in the Loire Valley. I fully intend on basking on the warm sunny shoreline of Nice, traversing the Alps to Strasbourg, seeing the beaches of Normandy, marveling – yet again – at the dazzling brightness of Paris, and indulging in some of my favorite wines in Bordeaux. After having my fill, which will doubtfully be ever, of France I’ll head back to Rebekah’s one last time at some point in August and after a wonderful six months return back to the States.

Welcome...

2007-02-15T23:46:00.000-08:00

Benvenuto! Bienvenida! Bienvenue! Willkommen! Welkom!

What better way to introduce my new blog than to welcome everyone who reads in a few of the different languages I expect to encounter along the way! (That’s Italian, Spanish, French, German, and Dutch for those of you who were wondering)

So thanks for taking the time to have some interest in my travels abroad. I’ll try to update as often as possible while I’m backpacking from place to place, and will hopefully have many pictures to share. At this time I’m not sure what the limitations of Blogger are for image uploading, so at some point in time I may begin posting links to photos using some other service. We shall see.

In the meantime, I’m going to take the next few posts to overview what I have planned for this trip and try and provide some useful and interesting information about some of the things I plan on seeing/doing while over seas.

As a final note – I’d love to hear from any and all of you tracking my progress. Please feel free to comment on my posts or contact me via one of the methods listed at the side of this page. I’ll try to have an updated mailing address available for places that I intend to stay in for a week or more, otherwise, email works just as well.

Thanks again for reading, and I hope you enjoy following my journey.

Ryan