The Spain Chronicles

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Once again, a huge delay…sorry folks! But internet access has been really hard. Internet café’s aren’t nearly as common as South America, and when you can find a wireless signal, they charge you a prime rate, as much as $12 an hour. So important emails and banking have had to take priority when we’ve had access, but we haven’t forgotten about keeping friends and family in the loop. Sorry for the delay, and potentially less photos, but we hope you understand.

Chapter One: The good Spain

Where do we start with Spain? Spain was a rather interesting place, but probably not for the reasons that a lot of people might think. Is it beautiful? The answer is, it depends. The scenery in some places is gorgeous, and the people, men and women, are dressed very stylishly. But our interaction with 90% of the Spaniards we came across was really unpleasant, so we can’t speak highly of the culture. We could sit here and write how everything and everyone was wonderful, because that is probably what most people except to hear when images of Europe are conjured up. Don’t misunderstand, there were pleasant parts of our trip around Spain, but we were also more than ready to leave when it came time.

We arrived in Madrid on November 28th. We’d heard wonderful things about the rest of Spain, but most people said terrible things about Madrid, that it was just crowded and noisy and unpleasant in general. So we didn’t really expect much…perhaps that is why we actually liked Madrid so much. In fact, we liked it the best out of any of the places we visited in Spain. We think it may have simply been the fact that it was the first place we’d been in two months that was a developed country. The bathrooms had toilet seats, flushing water and toilet paper and sinks with soap and towels. Cars stopped when pedestrians crossed the street rather than speed up to hit us. There were a variety of restaurants to choose from (although there was still too much ham…more on that later). Transportation was relatively easy to figure out, and there wasn’t some Quechua lady with a huge bundle trying to squeeze past us in the narrow bus aisle. The buildings were actually maintained, and the sidewalks weren’t littered with garbage and dog poop. And being in Madrid made it start to feel like Christmas, with all the decorations, live street musicians performing Christmas Carols and lots and lots of street performers to entertain people as they walked by.

We thought we had seen a lot of ham in South America. We were wrong. Spain has to be responsible for 99.9% of pig deaths in the world. Ham is everywhere!!! They even have a chain of restaurants called “Museum of Ham” in Madrid…seriously, we’re not kidding! You see legs of ham, often with the hoof still on, hanging in restaurants, grocery stores, even out of people’s luggage. And one leg costs at least $300-$400! But they are crazy for it…it is served as an appetizer, in a sandwich, as a main dish. You name it, they serve it up. There is such a thing as TOO MUCH of a good thing!

The Prado museum is in Madrid, and houses 7000 pieces of classic art…but we didn’t go there. It was just too big for the time we had, so we went across the street to the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum, which had 750 pieces of classic and modern art, including some Picasso and Dali paintings. We were more impressed with the older pieces, particularly the ones that had painted people and scenery that seemed to just come to life from the canvas. We weren’t too impressed with the modern and post-modern stuff. We also went to the Parque del Buen Retiro, a beautiful park with various gardens, ponds and walkways, and we had nice weather to be able to enjoy it. We also enjoyed a Spanish tradition of hot chocolate and churros…it was good, but so rich that you can only eat so much of it before you feel sick. However, the single most favorite place in Madrid had to be La Mallorquina, a bakery right off the Sol metro stop that has been in business for over a hundred years for very good reason. The place is small and literally packed elbow to elbow with people pushing their way through to be able to place their order for delicious pastries at the small counter. With a delicious dessert, we said our goodbyes to Madrid and headed to Fez, Morocco (which you already read about). So far, Spain looked pretty good, although quite pricey. In South America we were paying about $15 to $20 a night for a room and in Madrid is was closer to $60 a night, and food was also a lot more.


Before we actually made it into Morocco, we stayed a few nights in Ceuta, which is a
Spanish enclave on the tip of Africa. It was an interesting place to be, because it’s an interesting mix of Spanish and African cultures. Arabic was just as common as Spanish, and the woman wore Muslim robes just as often as fashionable western clothing. It was actually a very charming little town, with a beautiful park, El Parque Maritimo del Mediterraneo, that has a huge swimming pool and lushly landscaped park with Mediterranean plants everywhere. You would have to see it in person, but it was very different from most parks, a great place for families and swimming, located right by the beach on the Mediterranean Sea. The city wall ruins and the moat of Foso de San Felipe were also interesting, where you could see the remnants of the old fortress. From there we went into Morocco and then returned to Seville.

Chapter 2: The Bad Spain:
Seville didn’t really get a fair shake, partly because we were frazzled from Morocco, and partly because we had a lot of errands like laundry and email to catch up on. However, this is where Spain started going downhill for us. One person after another was incredibly rude and unfriendly. They have a habit of cutting you off halfway through a question and then answering what they think you were going to ask. When you correct them, they get really mad, and act as if you don’t understand them, and you’re the one with the problem. Don’t ask a Spaniard more than 1 question if you want them to be civil to you afterwards. It was pretty ironic because Southern Spain is supposed to be friendlier than then North, but we experienced just the opposite. We also had bad food, very overpriced food. We ate lots of fast food in Seville, because the food options weren’t very good and/or affordable. Thank God for McDonald’s and Pizza Hut. The good in Seville was the Real Alcazar (the royal palace) and the cathedral. They were both pretty amazing, the cathedral for its size, and the Alcazar for the sheer amount of wealth that went into the place. The gardens at the Alcazar were gorgeous too, each one different and special. However, we didn’t find the Southern Spaniards all that hospitable. We’d heard that Southern Spaniards were much nicer than the Northern Spaniards, but we found the opposite true. Barcelona and Madrid people were BY FAR much nicer and friendlier. In Southern Spain, especially Seville, we got a lot of snarling Spaniards. They like to pretend they don’t understand you (which is bs, especially when you speak fluent, but Mexican/South American Spanish), or just cut you off before you finish, and then they raise one side of their lip almost as high as their nostril and snarl a nasty “ehhhh!” at you. We wish we could have photographed the “ehhh!” look, it’s priceless!

Next it was on to Granada, where we’d heard a lot about the Alhambra. The Alhambra was very beautiful, but since we had just seen the Real Alcazar (Christian architecture) and all the Muslim architecture in Morocco, we weren’t as appreciative of the Alhambra. Both Moorish and Spanish kings built palaces next to the fortress at the Alhambra, and they are very pretty, along with the numerous gardens on the property. Unfortunately, like most other Spanish museums that have audio guides, the audio guide is worthless, and you walk away not understanding much of the history that took place there. But, there were some spectacular views of the city of Granada from the hilltop. However, in Granada, we also ran into more of the Spaniard rudeness, and finally figured out that these women that had been pestering us in Seville and Granada were actually gypsies. They kept coming up to us, being very insistent about giving us these little sprigs of rosemary or pine bundles. They would say, they’re free, it’s a Spanish tradition, but their pushy insistence, as well as trying to touch us, set the warning bells off in our head. We got into some heated exchanges with a few of them (because they are everywhere), before we finally realize they were gypsies trying to distract us with the “free gift” ploy so they could pick pocket us (and the reason for trying to touch us). It was a shame, because it’s a pretty city, especially with the snow capped Sierra Nevada’s in the backdrop of the city, but the number of shady people, foreign and domestic, made it a not-so-great place to be. But we did find the Kebap King, home tasty and cheap grilled sandwiches filled with slow roasted meats and veggies. And we had more tasty desserts…we’re going to gain about 50 pounds each between all the ice cream and pastries we’ve eaten!

On a side note, anyone traveling to Europe, think twice about buying a Euro rail pass, and DON”T buy one in Spain if you are only going to Spain. We paid A LOT of money for our two month pass, and in Spain, we had to reserve seats every single time, and pay a reservation fee every time, and the RENFE train employees are even more rude than DMV employees back home. The only way the Euro rail may possibly be worth it is if you are in countries like Italy, France and Germany where reservation fees are rare (and there is actually a difference in first and second class besides an overpriced meal), and you will be using the train a lot. Otherwise, just buy your tickets when you need them.

Chapter 3: The Spain Finale
Then we made our way up to Barcelona to meet Jason’s mom Mary and her friend Bobbi in Barcelona. We were there for four days before they arrived, but we needed a break so we didn’t do too much site seeing, since we knew we would do a lot with Mary and Bobbi. So we did what any movie loving couple would do who has been deprived of movies for the past two months (American shoot ‘em up movies shown on a bus that are dubbed in Spanish don’t count). We found a movie theater near Olympic Village that shows movies in English…and went four nights in a row. You don’t know the pleasure of watching a good movie with a nice tub of popcorn until you don’t have it for a while! We did go to Antigua Restaurant, a place that our French friend we met in Macchu Picchu recommended. Her friend Pol runs the place, and we have to say, the food was absolutely delicious and Pol was super nice. The restaurant isn’t too far from the center of town, so it’s worth the trip to eat some very nice (and NOT ham and cheese) food in a nice environment.

The first day Mary and Bobbi arrived, it was already late at night, so they got broken in to dining Spaniard style…late, at 10 pm. The next day we went to Las Ramblas, which has a lot of trees lining a long pedestrian walk. There were a lot of neat street performers, most of which acted as a statue and then sprung to life when you put money in their can. One of the funniest things we’ve ever seen though, was this guy who dressed up in a woman’s fat suit and then smashed tourists’ faces into “her” big bosom. We had a cup of coffee and just sat and watched for a long time, and we were all in stitches from laughing! Then we walked down to the harbor area and back up through Barrio Gotica by the Cathedral. There was also a Christmas Fair going on, so we walked through there before stopping for some tasty paella for dinner. The next day we went to Park Guell, where the architect Antonio Gaudi started to build an exclusive neighborhood for the rich before the city nixed his plans. His building style looks like something out of Alice in Wonderland! They’re really different and very interesting. He built buildings all over the city. The next day we went to La Sagrada Familia, a huge church that Gaudi also planned. The church is still not completed and won’t be done until 2026 approximately, but it hands down the most unusual church we have ever seen. They started building it in the 1880’s, and Gaudi died in 1926, but work has continued on it. There are so many decorations and symbols on the church, it’s amazing. There’s pillars that look like trees, fruit bowls decorating the tops of the domes, lizards scurrying around on the façade carvings, and so much more. It was really quite amazing. That night we took Mary and Bobbi to a Spanish guitar duet for an early Christmas present that was inside an old Basilica. The pair was very good; it was unbelievable to see how fast their fingers could move. A humorous part for us was while the woman playing came to life with different facial expressions as she performed, the man lit up after the song was over when he heard applause.

The people were nicer here, at least after Mary and Bobbi arrived. They had been pretty typical until that point, lots of cutting us off before we finished speaking or, my personal favorite, pretending they can’t understand my Spanish because it isn’t their Spanish (even though I can understand them).

Now, while the rest of the food in Spain was mostly ho-hum, the market place in Barcelona was FANTASTIC (right off of Las Ramblas)! You can find fruit, fish, meat, wine, cheese…you name it, and they have it, even organic food. And there was this great little food stand that whipped up an endless combination of food. We went there a couple of days for brunch (we were not early risers) and had delicious tortillas (thick omelets), grilled veggies and yummy coffee. Jason and I have decided we are food junkies and food has hands down been the biggest pleasure we’ve had from traveling. So if anyone knows of any “must go” food places, please let us know.

So, while Barcelona helped end Spain on a more positive note, we were more than ready to leave Spain. Besides, Italy, with all of its gelato, cappuccino and world famous food was calling our name…and our stomachs.

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Photos

Duck Butt in the Park
This guy really got into his fishing!

Parque del Buen Retiro
Gorgeous winter day in the Park in Madrid