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Published: August 27th 2007
The Group!
Outside the main room.Hey guys,
Well firstly apologies for the lag in entries, the last month has been busy. After San Fermin, we headed to Valladelavilla to take part in Pueblo Ingles, a week long english school for spanish business people.
We had heard a little about the experience, which involved talking one-to-one to Spanish people, group activities and lots of food. And it turned out to be an intensive week of english upon english which caused many a headache, but at the same time was fun and involved lots of food, wine and general clowning about.
The Spanish people were mostly businessmen and women, from the age of 21 to 50-ish. Out of the Anglos (english speaking people) there were three other Australians, a New Zealand couple, a heap of Americans and a few candians. Each day involved 2-3 One to one conversation sessions, then group activities in the evening. We normally had a large lunch and siesta, with each meal being spent in the company of two spaniards and another anglo. The nights were spent doing plays, having a fiesta with dancing and drinking in the bar. It was a great experience, meeting people who were very willing to
Valladelavilla
Our residence for the week talk about their culture, government and everything else that makes up the country. As Dianne (one of the other aussies) said, it was nice not to just be meeting the service providing men and women of the country (nothing against them!)
But after a week of this it was time to head further into Spain, fresh and ready to go (the rooms at Valladelavilla had excellent beds). We headed straight for Segovia, 80km north of Madrid. A former housemate in Manchester had reccommended it and it proved to be an interesting walled-in city with a roman aquaduct and plenty of old buildings to gawk at. We met a local by the old castle who was friendly (while not trying to steal our wallets) which gave us an overall good impression..
Our next stop was Salamanca on our way towards the Portugese border. Salamanca was a large university town and had its fair share of gothic buildings and scruffy book reading lay-abouts. While the town proved to be moderately interesting, it was our stay in a gyspy style community that was more fun! On the way towards Salamanca we stayed the night within a group of caravans. It turned
out to be a great night, spent running and playing with the kids from the families. They showed us the inside caravans, one of which they tried to sell to Stacey (not the kids, the caravans). We learnt a little more spanish, and they told us their english (I can´t repeat it here).
After this episode we got back on the road, driving into Portugal towards towards Porto. The land turned from mostly farming country to a more wild and less controlled landscape. One of the first things we recognized were the gum trees - they were everywhere! It also showed itself to be a poorer country than Spain, with perhaps a slower pace of life.
We found Porto to be an interesting city, perched high on a river and of course, a port. The buildings were a bit older, with interesting tiles used to decorate the exteriors. The alcoholic beverage Port was originally was produced here, and there were plenty of cellars to try it along the river. We followed one of the tours at a cellar, savouring the sampling at the end.
Porto was a bit dirty, and a bit rough but we liked it.
Xavi and Ben...
Look out, hot stuff coming through! It had a bit of character and the people there were very friendly. After Stacey slipped and grazed her knee on the footpath when we were exploring, one old man offered to take us to the hospital. Very friendly indeed!
After this we decided to head north towards Vigo, in Galicia where we will meet a friend from Pueblo Ingles named Manuel, who will show us around the city. Hope everyone is well,
Cheers
Ben and Stace
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