La Vuelta

Almost two years ago a twenty-something year old kid from California,boarded a plane to Madrid with little idea about what he was getting himself into.  Two years later he finds himself on another plane traveling halfway across the word, back to where he came from.   He is no longer the same kid that headed off to Spain two years ago with two suitcases and an appetite for adventure.  What has happened between these two flights has been an incredible and unforgettable experience.

It has been two years packed with many adventures and new experiences.  Many of these adventures you have already read about on this blog but since the last entry there have also been quite a few new ones.  Some of these new adventures include:  returning to London to meet up with some old (well they’re really quite young) friends from college, reuniting with a friend from elementary school from Madrid while making some new ones, frequent trips back to Cuenca, returning to the “hometown,” Tobarra, and celebrating Semana Santa with drum slung over the shoulder, escaping Spain and spending a relaxing and interesting weekend in Morocco as well as many small adventures around the Sierra de Segura with good friends in Siles.

Now that this two-year stint has ended, this kid from California is sitting on this Boeing 737 listening to Los Delinquentes and reflecting; trying to make sense of what this experience has meant to him.  Over the two years, he has learned many things.  For one thing, his Spanish has improved immensely.  More than just his Spanish, he has learned how to make paella, how to play the drums until 7 am in the morning as well as the basic and most important steps of Flamenco.  Moreover, he has learned how to fight of hunger when lunch time is at 3 in the afternoon, how to improve a difficult day by sitting down an having a caña or tercio with friends and even how to make oneself feel at home and happy in a small town in the middle of the mountains.

If you see him around California, you might realize that he has changed.  He can no longer say that his is from California because he is now actually from Tobarra.  This small town in the province of Albacete decided to adopt this lost kid from a far-away country.  They took him in gave him food and even gave him clothing in the form of a purple tunic that is worn during the drumming celebrations of Semana Santa.  Although the Californian or I mean the Tobarreño says that he has from Tobarra, he knows there are at least two other places that he can call home.  In both, Siles and Cuenca, he has been equally cared for and treated as if he was a family member.  He really has been spoiled by the kindness and generosity of the people in all of these places.

This brings us to the most beautiful part of this Tobarreño’s journey, the people.  Over a short period of time, he has met many wonderful people in many different places.  These people have taken him in and shared with him their culture, their customs, their language (including the millions of sayings that are impossible to understand) and their warmth.  Together they have shared laughs, discussions, experiences and even a few tears.  It is because of these people that this Tobarreño has had such a marvelous experience.  And now, he has to hold back some tears so he doesn’t make a fool of himself and cry on the plane.

The past two years have been an amazing experience for this kid from California/Tobarra.  Although he might be far away geographically from the great people he met, he will always hold them and experiences he shared with them close to heart.  And you never know…he might even be back in the near future!

These two years have had a lasting impact on my life.  I’ve written in third person because it’s hard to put into words what these past two years have meant to me and how they have helped me develop as a person.  I hope it doesn’t come off as cheesy. 

Although this seems like it’s the end of an adventure, it is not.  It is only the beginning of the next one…Stay tuned!

Heading East

It was holiday season again in Europe.  I had a nice two week vacation and the inkling for more adventure.  After things finished up here in Siles, I hopped on a plane and headed to Germany.  I was to spend Christmas with my cousin Emily and her family, as I did last year.  We were able to add another member to the festivities this year too...my brother Eric.

I spent four days with Emily and company in Ulm, Germany.  One of the highlights of Ulm was seeing the Christmas market in the city.  In Germany and other parts of Northern Europe, Christmas markets are very popular.  During Christmas time wooden stalls that sell food and various trinkets are set up in the main square.  These stalls are decorated with Christmas lights and other decorations.  A popular Christmas market drink is Gluhwein, or mulled wine.  Emily's husband, Andi, did not want to disappoint us so he ordered us Feuerzangenbowle, which is mulled wine on steroids.  Basically, Feuerzangenbowle is regular mulled wine with a rum soaked sugar loaf that rests on a special prong above the glass.  This sugar loaf is then lit on fire letting the rum and sugar melt into the wine.  It was quite tasty and also quite potent.  Other highlights from Ulm included:  celebrating Christmas with Emily's kids Louis and Madeleine, having dinner with Andi's family on Christmas Eve and trying to keep up with Andi while having our nightly Bavarian beers.

One of the days that we were in Ulm, Eric and I skipped to Munich to visit Eric's girlfriend Franzi.  We started off the day by meeting up with Franzi's sister and having some weisswurst, or white sausage, which is a traditional Bavarian.  In fact, Eric and I were informed that you are not allowed to eat weisswurst after 12 pm.  On this particular day however, I think we broke this rule.  After filling up on some breakfast we toured around Munich.  We visited a few Christmas markets including Pink Christmas, which was the Christmas market in Munich's equivalent of the Castro district in San Francisco.  We ended the day by having a delicious meal in the restaurant that is run by Franzi's father.  

The day after Christmas Eric and I headed off to Nuremberg, where we were met by my friend from Cuenca, Martina.  After a yummy dinner and a quick tour of Nuremberg, we headed back to Martina's town.  The next day, we got a nice tour of the town from Martina and had breakfast with a few of her friends.  Over the span of three days, we stayed busy the whole time.  One of our adventures included visiting a few cool castles and towns near Martina's town.  On the last day in Germany Martina toured us around Nuremberg, which is an absolutely beautiful city.  The city, like most European cities, had an old medieval center that was very pretty.  Nuremberg may very well be my favorite city that I've seen in Germany.  At the end of the day, Eric and I hopped on a bus and said goodbye to Germany.  We were on our way to Prague!

The first bit of excitement that Eric and I had upon arriving Prague was finding our hotel.  I had found and booked a cheap hotel on the internet and although it was a little bit outside the city, it did not appear to be too far outside the city on Google maps.  I was also a little nervous because I had received a message from the hotel a day early saying that there was no receptionist and that keys would be picked up from the security guards.  After wandering the train station, we found the train we needed that would get us to the hotel.  Upon exiting the train, it had appeared we had been dumped in the middle of an industrial wasteland.  There were a few houses but plenty of factories and stockyards.  After walking for ten minutes we found our hotel nestled up against what appeared to be some sort of factory.  Later, we guessed that it was some sort of milk processing plant.  True to the message I had received there was no receptionist and the front door of the hotel was locked.  We walked over to the adjoining factory and knocked on the door of the factory security guard.  He didn't speak a word of English, so we communicated through hand gestures.  Sure enough he had the keys to our hotel room and he handed them over to us.  On the inside, the hotel was a lot nicer than on the outside.  Despite its terrible location, the hotel turned out to be ok.  It was clean, the beds were comfortable and with the train we could get to the city center in 10 minutes.

We spent the next two days in Prague.  The majority of the time we spent doing touristy stuff.  We checked out the famous Charles Bridge and the astronomical clock in the main square.  Prague was a beautiful city.  Probably one of my favorite things about Prague was the food.  It was both delicious and cheap.  Eric and I were able to eat full meals and have a beer for less than $10.  One day we found a hockey bar, which was basically a shrine to the local team and the famous Czech winger Jaromír Jágr.  Another night we ate at the restaurant behind our hotel.  When we entered we were greeted by a wall of cigarette smoke and old Czech men looking at us curiously.  They didn't speak any English but luckily the menu was written on the wall, so Eric pointed randomly to two things on the menu.  Surprisingly the food was delicious and once again cheap.  I had some sort of ham in a mystery sauce and some potato pancakes on the side, which was quite yummy.  Our last night in Prague was New Years Eve.  After wandering the city a little bit, we found a cool little bar.  We lucked out because the atmosphere was awesome and the drinks were cheap.  We made new friends from the Czech Republic, Russia and Portugal.  Once midnight neared we headed to the river, which was just across the street.  At midnight, people started shooting off fireworks in all directions.  It appeared there was no official firework show, but everyone just shoot off the fireworks they had bought.

The next morning, Eric and I were packing up again.  This time we were preparing to head off to Krakow, Poland.  In Krakow, we were to be staying with a friend of Eric who he had met in Stockholm.  Krakow was somewhat similar to Prague but a lot smaller and a bit colder.  It was definitely a university town because the streets were filled with college students.  Eric and I spent the two days in Krakow doing tourist things.  We checked out an underground history museum, the cathedral and a castle that was in Krakow.  The second day we visited the Oscar Schlinder's factory, which was made famous by the movie Schindler's List.  Inside the factory was a fascinating museum about the Nazi occupation of Krakow.  In Krakow, we had a similar culinary experience to the one we had in the restaurant next to our hotel in Prague.  Eric's friend, Marta, directed to a type of restaurant in Poland called a Mlecnzy Bar.  These restaurants were famous in communist Poland because they were subsidized by the government and the working class population could get a hearty meal for a cheap price.  These restaurants were so popular that they outlasted communism in Poland.   Twice Eric and I went to a Mlecnzy Bar to eat.  We had a similar experience to the one in Prague because we had to point and use hand gestures to order our food.  As advertised we got huge meals of typical Polish food for a very reasonable price, probably about $3.  During the evenings Marta took out to some cool bars in Krakow.  Since Krakow is full of college students, there is no shortage of bars.

After a couple days in Krakow I was finally heading back to Spain, but my adventure hadn't finished quite yet.  Before heading back to Siles, I stopped by my home away from home, my pueblo, Tobarra, for a couple days.  In Tobarra I celebrated Three Kings Day, which is the 6th of January with my roommate from Cuenca, Salva, and his fun-loving group of friends.  I really enjoy every time I visit them because they have really taken me in as one of there own.  On the evening of the 6th, Salva and his friends had organized a big dinner for everyone at the winery in town.  We had a wonderful evening full a good Spanish wine and too much Spanish food and then afterwards we hit the town...the town of Tobarra.  After an exciting but exhausting two weeks my Christmas adventure had come to an end.  I returned to Siles sleep deprived and a little sick but it was well worth it!!!!

I hope everybody had a wonderful Holiday Season and I wish everyone a joyous and peaceful New Year.

Happy New Year!!! 

Passing through Andulucía

It has been quite a while since my last blog entry, so there is quite a lot to get you all caught up on.  Since the last time I wrote, I have been adjusting myself to living in rural Spain.  When I've had time to get away, I've been making trips around Spain.  Frequent trips were made to Cuenca.  I always enjoy going back to visit my friends from last year.  It has been tough not getting to see as often as I did last year.  Luckily, once I get back to Cuenca we are able to pick up right where we left off last year.  I've also made trips to various places around Andulucía.  One weekend I traveled with the other Americans who are living here in Siles to Granada.  It was nice being in a city, like Granada, after being in the mountains for so long.  On Saturday, we spent the majority of the day visiting the Alhambra.  The Alhambra is probably one of the most spectacular things I've seen in Spain.  It was a Moorish palace and fortress, which was the last thing to fall to the Christians during the reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula.  The palace was spectacular.  It was incredible to see the color and the detail in the designs that covered the palace walls.  Every time you turned the corner, you would see something as spectacular as the last.  Above is a picture of one of the many ponds and courtyards in the Alhambra.

A few weekends later I traveled again with my US compatriots from Siles, but this time we went to visit Sevilla (Seville).  Sevilla, just like Granada, was quite picturesque.  It was even more so because they had just hung the Christmas lights all around the city.  The first thing we checked out the was cathedral of Sevilla.  One interesting thing about the Cathedral is the remains of Christopher Columbus are allegedly buried there.  There is a debate whether the remains that are buried there actually belong to the famous navigator.  Another interesting aspect of the cathedral was the bell tower, which was actually part of the old mosque that was on the site during the Moorish rule of Spain.  This was evident in the many designs on the sides of the bell tower.  We were able to climb to the very top and get a nice view of Sevilla.  Other highlights of the trip were seeing flamenco at a bar in the Santa Cruz neighborhood, seeing Roman ruins outside the city and just cruising through the streets of Sevilla and taking in the sights.