Letting the dust settle

It has been such a busy summer that I have completely neglected blogging. Mom, dad, Whit and Steve were here, then we were in Oregon and now back and readjusted to Spanish life. I have been loving my work schedule with 2-3 classes a day. I have so much more patience with the little kids that it's actually been nice to be around them. I have time to focus on the needs of my students and put effort into lessons while still getting a workout in and making a proper lunch.

Those days are going bye-bye on Monday when the reality of 5-6 class days steamroll over my now mellow lifestyle. Although, this year has been easier so far, just because it's my 2nd year and I "get it" a little more. Knock on wood that the experience from last year will continue to come in handy. Regardless, I think this is a good time to reflect on some of the wonderful memories we made this summer and bask in them while I still can.

The folks, sis and her sig. other flew into town at the beginning of July. Inaki, Whit, Steve and I got to spend a few days together before mom and dad got in. We ate pintxos and ripped Steve's veggie band-aid off on night #1! We also got in a camino phase and visited San Sebastian.

Night #1 - Pintxos and sidra in Pamplona

Day #2 - San Sebastian visit

Day #3 - Work off the pintxos with a 12 mile camino phase

Looking at these pictures, I can't believe that was only 3 days worth of stuff! The next day, Inaki and I headed to Madrid to pick up mom and dad. We realized that telling them we'd pick them up was a bad decision because it meant 8 hours of driving for Inaki. We'll recalculate next time. We got home to a lovely lunch of orzo salad, bread and cheese, whipped up by Whit and Steve. The full house began with full bellies and one of the best aspects of Spanish life: day drinking.

We strolled through the cobblestone streets of Pamplona again that night, met with family, saw the bulls in their corral and got in early for a good snooze. The next morning we popped up for a hike/walk into the valley behind our condo, a visit to Eunate (a hexagonal church on the camino) dinner at Inaki's mom's house and a chance meeting with a zip-line.

Pamplona time

Valley of Aranguren

Eunate

Dinner at Dori's

Zip-line Dad

And on that note, we cruised home and tucked ourselves in for the fabulous times that awaited us the next day... the first day of San Fermin! Although I saw much more daylight than I usually do during San Fermines this year, it was definitely my favorite year so far. To be able to share it all with my family and show them what I've been talking about for the last 8 years was just priceless! So priceless that it will need it's own post later on!

Vacation 3: The Food

Granada, bless it's heart, has held on to the old Spanish tradition of offering a bit of food with each drink you purchase in a bar. I know I have mentioned this before, but in this entry I wanted to focus on it. You pay 2 euros for a beer, which is expensive, but it includes a mini-paella or some garlic grilled shrimp, so no biggy. Also, in the south the focus, in these bars, is beer, rather than the wine Spain is known for. I think it's because it goes better with the fish, plus, it's a lot cheaper. And the wine is so expensive, like 3 euros a glass. In the states you couldn't get the glasses of wine we drank for less than 15 a pop!

Our first day, we were short on film and Inaki passed out, so you'll have to live with my descriptions of the food:

Bar 1: coaster sized tuna and tomato sauce sandwiches with chips
Bar 2: ham, mayo and lettuce sandwiches with chips
Bar 2 (again): tuna and tomato sauce sandwiches with chips
Bar 3: garbanzo stew
Bar 4: battered/fried anchovies
Bar 5: tortilla patata
Bar 6: embutido (head cheese) and ensaladilla rusa (potato salad)
Bar 7: pork sandwich and sausage sandwich
Bar 8: cured cheese, tomato slices, bread and olives
Bar 9: tortilla patata
Bar 10: sepia and tuna tar tar

Now, this was our first day. We had heard that the tapas were cheaper outside the city, so we focused on the university district. We later received the advice that outside the city just equals more bread. As you can see by the list, that was true. By the last bar we just asked for something that didn't have bread. Really, we were full after about bar 6. You have to keep in mind all this was consumed over about 12 hours. But this weird thing happens when you get free food with a drink, you start saying, "why not?" and stuff yourself silly.

We didn't do much "tapeando" in Nerja, but when we came back to Granada for the Alhambra, we stuck to Calle Navas and ate like kings. The first 2 suggestions we got at the front desk of our adorable downtown hotel, was to go to Los Diamantes for fish and La Tana (short for gitana, which means the gypsy lady) for wine. Off we went! Los Diamantes rocked our world with some rabas and a mini-paella...

Ahlambra beer was also a key in selecting bars because we hate Cruzcampo. If the outside of the bar had and Ahlambra sign, we went in. We ditched the beer for a while and went "de blancos" in La Tana next. It was much more expensive, but the white wine was so fresh and crisp, the owner talked with us for a long time and casually mentioned that Anthony Bourdain had visited the week before and busts out a picture with him. What!? She didn't even know who he was and said he seemed a bit full of himself. She described him as, "an American who has a show on CNN about food." When we told her he had over a million followers on Twitter, she was shocked. Anyhow, we had various items on bread to go with our wine. Here's the spot and our first tapa: morcilla (Spanish blood sausage)...

Each tapa came with the most delicious olives in this place. Inaki told me that most of the olive oil and olives in Spain come from the south, so that's why they were the best. Next up were some fresh tomato slices, salchichon and olive oil.

I think the final tapa we had was cheese, quints paste and nuts, a typical cider house dessert. Unfortunately, no picture. After our last glass of wine, we took a little siesta, since it was raining. The evening was spent, you guessed it, eating more! First, we hit the Alhambra, which is for another post, but on our way down from the palace, we stopped at a place called "La Cueva", the cave. Cuevas in the south are bodegas, more or less. Me had an embutido and some chorizo there.

Next, we hit up Los Diamantes 2, which is down the street from Los Diamantes 1. When they walked out with 4 huge razor clams for the first tapa, I knew we'd be repeating a few times there.

Next up, shrimp, breaded/fried anchovies and more shrimp.

No, I didn't eat the heads, just slurped their delicious juices a bit. At that point we were full, but met some nice ladies who told us of a few more bars, so we said, "why not?" and went to the next spot. I can't remember the name, but there's no need, it was just ham on bread and butter with some olives.

We knew it wasn't the highest level establishment when we found this creative use of technology in the WC. So, we headed out to find a classier joint.

We continued with the advice of our lady friends and hunted down a wine bar, because what says class like wine... and my big pink headband!

This place was the tops for wine. I can't remember what the tapa was, but there were olives and I think it had a sauce on it. They had some of their own, homemade wine, that they didn't bottle, just served out of a barrel. Here's the wine menu, it looks like a freakin' jamba juice!

And that was it. We stayed out until midnight to be awake for Inaki's b-day and then wandered back to the hotel. It was such a fun time. There's more to post some other time and we felt that we still had so much more to see in Granada, an amazing city!

Vacation 2: Granada, Day 1

Granada, day 1, was really day 2. Day one was a 10 hour bus ride to get there. Inaki wanted to head into town on the night we arrived, but I fell asleep in the hotel bed before he had the chance to say anything. But, we got up early the next morning, as you can see above, bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready for adventure. We stayed a little south of the University area and had maybe a 10 minute walk into the old town. This was nice because we got to see some different neighborhoods.

One of the first things I noticed about Granada was the sidewalk. It's made of big, flat black and white stones that have been laid on their sides in simple designs. Inaki made a comment early on in our trip that I think was true throughout, the Moors really designed Granada as a city to enjoy life in and paid attention to small, delightful details. Here is a shot of your typical sidewalk in Granada.

We knew it would be a nice day when we saw this little friend caught in a tree in the first square we came to.

Although we had a map, we cruised over to the tourist info office to be sure we weren't missing anything fabulous. There, we learned that Granada has 2 old towns, rather than one. The Realejo, which is the newer, Christian old town and the Albaicin, which is the older, Muslim old town. We decided to walk around the Realejo a little and just get lost a bit. We ran into the cathedral and also some stadium seating for the processions that would happen that day for Easter week. Inaki told me what was written on the side of the cathedral was in blood, so I thought I should probably take a picture.

Next, we got lost up a hill and into a neighborhood that lead us to Carmen de los Martires (house of the Martyrs). For some reason, all the big houses in Granada are called carmens. Hmm. This particular Carmen had a huge garden attached to it and we walked all through it snapping pics and getting a taste of what the Ahlambra would be like on our visit Thursday.

Here's a view from the top of the park.

After the park, we strolled down into the Realejo and stopped in the Plaza del Principe. It was full of people dressed in their Sunday best and just waiting around. We weren't sure what was up, so we asked a policeman and he said that the procession of the 3 favors would end there at around 3 that afternoon. They carry the virgin in on a big float and the people in the square can go kiss her cloak and ask for 3 wishes, more or less. We thought, "hey, we could use some wishes, let's stay!" So we started to bar hop, just like everyone else in their suits and dresses, boozin' it up before the religious ceremony, what!?

These were our first tapas in Granada, which is famous for giving you a bit of food with every drink you buy. The first place had a yummy tuna and tomato sandwich on a little roll with some chips. The brand name of the chips down there was "Kiki", which made me think of Kins! Anyhow, it was delicious. At the next place, we got something similar, but it was good too. You don't really get a choice.

What impressed me most about the bars in this plaza was all the Virgin stuff on the walls. Apparently there are lots of virgins, not just Mary, and I'm not sure which one this was, but she sure was sad. She was crying her eyes out in every photo we saw of the float. There were a few display cases of the 3 favors throughout time stuff in each bar. One of them even had this shot of the virgin float holding a baby! Yes, a big, 100-year-old, lifesize virgin holding a baby on her right arm, sobbing of course, and no one else to be seen in the picture! Mom and dad just rested little Juan right there and stepped away. Our camera started to die at this point and now I wish I would have snapped a pic!

Anyhow, I guess religious gear goes about as well in a bar as sports pictures or whatever else. I was pretty mesmerized by the flat screen in the corner broadcasting all the processions from all over Spain as well. It can take, what looked like, up to 100 people to carry these floats through town. There was one clip of a Jesus going under an archway and all the men carrying him crouched down, rested their section of the float on their backs and crawled through, so not to knock his block off. Pretty amazing. I could see the soles of their feet from under the tapestry below moving inch by inch to get through.

At 2:30 or so, we walked out into the square and settled in for the procession. We thought they'd bring her in and people would start asking favors and that would be it. Oh no. They did a stations of the cross mass first. Did I mention we were standing? The stations of the cross mass is one I actually remember from Catholic school. It was so long and so sad and no thanks. At the very least, my memorization of the Our Father in Spanish came in handy. That was our first big project in Spanish class freshman year, memorize the Padre Nuestro and the Santa Maria. Thanks to Senora Nassib, I looked like I knew what I was doing.

Once we got to the 12th station, I was like, "finally, haul that virgin in so we can get to wishin!" But no, they have 2 extra stations in Spain, what!? I asked Inma why when we got back to Pamplona and she said, "I dunno, maybe he fell 2 more times?" Anyhow, those 2 extra stations proved to be 2 too many for Inaki. On station 11, just as the virgin and the purple hooded folks were passing us, Inaki had to squat down. He looked like he was praying, but really all the incense was getting to him. The whole country smells like it for about 3 weeks and those kids waving it around like Gogo Yubari are effective. We had to duck out of the crowd before we got to finish the ceremony so Inaki wouldn't pass out, but it was still cool to see. Here are the 2 procession shots we got before the camera died.

After we got ourselves together, we strolled over to the Albaicin and stopped in a tea shop for some hierba buena. I think I'll leave that description for another time as it's a long one and I want to get some good photos in. I'll post more soon I hope!