Blogs from Spain, Europe - page 1101

Sunday 23rd September Lovely sunny day today and was tempted to stay and paint the view from our van as the light good; however thought best to push on on a Sunday when roads quieter. I must have felt homesick as had few tears leaving Pat and John who we had begun to feel like friends; not helped by pulling off site to sounds of Simon and Garfunkel - Homeward Bound. Needed to be positive and after hearing Sgt Pepper for a month now it seemed a small improvement! Decided to head for the Picos mountains a national park which were extremely dramatic and very steep - actually most of northern spain is very mountainous and with it quite wet creating a lush green landscape. Pampas grass grows everywhere and eucalyptus trees giving a very different ... read more

We have surfaced! The 24 hours spent getting out here were relatively uneventful. I just felt like Tom Hanks in Terminal Man for a little while there. It is a good thing we went to the airport early as Air Canada had some kind of 'electrical failure' and had problems with their automatic baggage checkin - the line up just to check baggage snaked all around the airport. It took a great leap of faith to leave our baggage in one of many piles with the assurance that it would be safe and get on the right plane - but it did! We said Thank You in four languages that day - English, French, German and Spanish. I can't believe we have already been in Spain one week and that we will soon be saying goodbye ... read more

Monday 1st October 2007 is a day I will never forget, and I bet neither will Katie or Stephanie, my two amigas in Toledo. The day started off well. I had a brilliant night’s sleep on Katie’s very broken couch, got to School on time, and thoroughly enjoyed my first day at work at Juan de Padilla secondary school. After school I helped Stephanie collect her things and take them to Toledo, where we took a Taxi to our new flat in San Tomé. Then we transported my pathetically small worldly possessions from Katie’s to the new flat. We were so touched when the landlady had made the beds up for us and put up some curtains, and we were excited to be going shopping for cereal, milk, bread, and some pasta for dinner. We ... read more

So I've been to Spain a lot, but I've never seen a bullfight. As a matter of fact, neither have most of my Spanish friends. The majority of young people here don't believe its right. I completely understand why, however, after witnessing it myself, I think the cultural importance of it outweighs the cruelty to the bull. You are free to disagree with me on that one though. A bullfight, or corrida de toros (which more accurately translates into running of the bulls) consists of 6 different individual bullfights. There are 3 matadors (or toreros in Spanish) and each fights 2 bulls, one at a time of course. So its more like you go and watch 6 different bullfights. Each bullfight is broken into thirds. In the first, or the Tercio de Varas, the bull enters ... read more

Today sucks. I had a great weekend though! On Friday I went out with Emma {from England} & Kaoru {Japanese roomate}. We met up with Alberto & his friend Javier. Kaoru got really smashed & threw up on the street so Alberto sent her home in a taxi without me knowing. I followed her home only to find her tumbada over the retrete...passed out, basically, over the toilet. Mysteriously she woke up at like 8 the next morning & went out to meet friends. I slept until 11, at which time I got a text message from Ángel that woke me up. I went out for café with Ángel Sat. night, which ended up turning from café to cañas. By the time I got to the Plaza Mayor to meet Alberto for dinner at 10 I ... read more