Hey!
I bet you’ve been checking back here from time to time, thinking to yourself, “what the heck is Casey up to!? Man, I know her family visited and then Em came during Semana Santa and she’s probably busy doing work and generally being awesome, but it’s been too long! I need more!” Well, fret no more. This post is for you.
Before I get to the fun stuff (okay, maybe the photos ARE the fun stuff for some of you but anyway), I wanted to let you all know that I’m sloooowly making the switch over from Facebook to Picasa for my photos, because I don’t like that Facebook owns the right to whatever I upload and because someday I’m going to want to quit Facebook or at least tone down my participation and thusly, I will want my photos elsewhere (yes I know, I can’t tag people, it sucks, but I figure if people really want to see the photos they will take a look). So! Here is the Picasa link to all of my albums:
http://picasaweb.google.com/onyourmind
THE FREEDMANS DO SPAIN:
So my family came to visit me! I will spare you the details and even most of the general itinerary of where we went, what we did, what we saw, what we said, etc, because most of my extended family at home has heard about it through my parents and Aaron and the rest of the extended family will hear about it at my cousin Noah’s Bar Mitzvah this weekend (mazel tov! Haha not that he’s reading this….but anyway, wish I could go!).
They came to Salamanca and were able to meet Julio and Janna. We struggled through finding a variety of things to eat that were not completely based on ham, cheese, or eggs, but anyone who has been in Salamanca for more than 3 meals can attest to the fact that that is pretty hard. That being said, we had our own little apartment and were able to have breakfast there, we ate a nice dinner at one of the big old restaurants on the Rua Mayor that wasn’t too smoky, they got to try jamón and tortilla at a neat place I like near San Isidro and then we even went to El Yunque (where we got to eat croquetas, just the way I like them…..yummmm), the sandwich place I wrote about more often in the fall, where I spent probably a total of 20 nights with Jose and Julio at various points throughout last semester.
That was actually one of the cooler meals we had here because it was packed with crazy students from some facultad celebrating their fiesta. It was loud and hectic and busy and smoky but I feel like they were able to get an idea of the atmosphere of the “young” life in Salamanca without having to be in like….a real party or club or something.
It was awesome to have them here, in my city, so they could see where I go to class and where I walk all the time, see the city and the sights (I don’t think we ever got to go into the Cathedral, did we?!?! I forget…), and especially meet Julio! They’d talked to him/seen him on Skype before while I was at home over winter break but obviously it’s different in person. I was so proud of Julio for putting up with my Dad teasing him/prompting him to speak English and proud of my parents/brother for really trying to communicate with Julio, in English or the extremely broken Spanish my brother tried to teach my dad on the flight over here. Everyone did an amazing job, was social and happy and silly. Jokes were made and stories were told and we all teased each other and all in all I couldn’t have been happier to be with all of them!!!! At the end, they gave Julio some World Series baseballs for the sox from 2004 and 2008 and he really likes them! My dad and brother even played catch with Julio in the plaza with a mitt/ball they’d brought and some drunk Salmantinos got in on the action. Pretty hilarious.
After 2 nights in Salamanca (3? I forget already) we got our rental car (manual! Terrifying! My dad obviously did an amazing job but there were moments on the trip where I was literally crying I was so uncomfortable with the way the car kind of slides backwards if it’s on an incline before you put it in gear or whatever and we almost fell to our deaths on steep terrifying hills…but that’s my own problem) and headed south.
MONTFRAGÜÉ, TRUJILLO, MÉRIDA, LLERENA
We started off at the Parque Natural de Montfragüé, hiked around, saw some hawks, eagles with a 7 foot wingspan from about 50 feet or less, climbed up to a castle on top of a hill (you could literally climb up on top of the castle’s walls and the way they protected you from falling off was with a red painted line 5 inches from the edge…thanks so much, guys!), did some sightseeing and awesome photo-taking at a cool vista over the river towards the craggy mountains where all of the birds were hovering. See my photos to get a better idea…
We then went to Trujillo, a super old small city in Extremadura that hasn’t really changed since the 1500s apparently and is the birthplace of many Spanish explorers/conquerors of the New World, particularly Pizarro, who conquered Perú. It was cute, there were lots of storks flying about and a surprising number of older british tourists in silly looking shorts and hats. Oh, and we were hanging out in the Plaza Mayor (laaaaaaaame compared to Salamanca, duh) by the fountain in which there were some probably pretty unhappy koi fish and some kids who were maybe 12ish came sauntering by and one boy just casually dips his hand in the water and picks out a fish! And tosses it right back in, like he’s been doing it every day since he was first able to do it.
Then we headed off to Mérida, where there are billions of roman ruins. We skipped out on paying 14 euro to see the ampitheater and snuck around the back fence and looked in that way and instead opted for the cool roman museum which was actually PACKED with all sorts of interesting artifacts, mosaics and information. The Romans came to Salamanca (Salmantica, to them) and built our awesome Puente Romano around the 1st century and probably contributed a few walls and roads here and there. Good times.
We slept in a tiny town called Llerena that night at a kickass mirador. We took a walk around town before bed and my dad found a crazy cathedral packed with people and a student band. Just because he’s good like that. Wicked.
CÓRDOBA
Next day we headed to Córdoba, land of small twisty cobblestoned streets, billions of tourists, horse carriages, the mezquita/cathedral mix that I can guarantee you’ve seen pictures of, another Puente Romano, and the Alcázar of the Reyes Católicos with one of the prettiest gardens I’ve ever seen. The Patio de los Naranjos outside the Mezquita (or part of it, arguably) is lovely, as is the Mezquita, even though we didn’t get too much bright light filtering in because it was alternatingly cloudy and sunny. The cathedral inserted into the Mezquita BLOWS. What is or was wrong with Catholics with power and money!? Ugh! That is all. The Mezquita just keeps GOING and GOING and even though it was hard to get pictures without other tourists in it I can imagine how epic it used to be, especially if you had to go there multiple times a day. We went to the gardens at the Alcázar around sunset and it was packed, too, but oh MAN it was delightful. My camera was seriously dying at that point so I have like maybe 2 photos but the sheer warmth of the sun added to the amazing flowers, cool trees and bushes, calla lilies and little fountains was really neat.
We slept in Villafranca de Córdoba, a tiny town nearby, in maybe the only hotel around. We ate dinner at a seriously legit restaurant/pub/bar place in which we were absolutely the only non-natives (and even though the hotel seemed pretty modern it seemed like tourists must come through there once every 4 years or something, I don’t know, it was kind of a lonely town) and where the bartender and his customers at the bar had clearly been coming there every single night forever and a day. It was neat! Lots of fried food but yummy nonetheless.
GRANADA
The next day we headed to Granada and dropped off our rental car (we didn’t find out until later that my mom had left her red planner book with all of her passwords and credit card crap and addresses ETC. below her seat, but we got it back eventually, thanks to a certain someone with a cell phone….) and walked to our hotel, a wicked cool oldish but updated building called Casa Federico after García Lorca, the famous poet. It was on C/ Horno de Marina, right near the cathedral, for Kat and Dasha who both studied in Granada.
We spent our second day at the Alhambra and then…had lunch at Plaza Nueva, then spent more time walking around, hanging out, looking at the cathedral, watching Semana Santa processions, checking out the cool spice/tea markets next to the Cathedral, etc. Didn’t buy anything but looked at all the colorful clothes/pillows/whatever near Calle Elvira. We had dinner at a cute little place (you can see it in my photos) and got to try some té al-andalus with milk as Kat recommended. I ended up having a ton of delicious gazpacho in Granada and now try to buy it whenever I go to the grocery store.
We had probably the most “typical” Semana Santa experiences in Granada in that we saw two processions of (how to put this more elegantly…??) Jesus/Mary floats carried/led/followed by penitents who look straight out of a KKK meeting. It was perfect because we didn’t have to plan much, we didn’t have to stay long, the weather was awesome and we felt like we’d fulfilled our cultural obligation.
BARCELONA
We left for Barcelona via plane early the next morning and arrived in time to get to our apartment, take a walk around and maybe nap (can’t remember) and then met Xano Armenter, my parents’ artist friend who is from Barcelona but who met them like 20 years ago or more when they were all working/living in NYC. Xano is a painter and you should check out his stuff at http://www.xanoarmenter.com/. We got to see his studio, see tons of his art, and hang out with his dog Tacha. What a cool place, what a cool guy!!! He took us out to lunch at Santa Caterina, a neat market that has recently been revamped and includes a hip new restaurant where we had incredible fresh/local food (okay, I had miso soup too, but it was incredibly). We walked around the Barrio Gótico and Xano left us to our own devices with plans to meet for dinner the next day, hung out in some churches/cathedrals, and walked around the neat park near the Arc de Triomf where there are lots of buildings left over from the 1929 expo.
Day two in Barcelona started off with a brisk walk through the misty rain to Gaudí’s Parc Güell. We explored the amazing Parc along with about 8 billion tourists from all over the world and the weather wasn’t great but I still managed to document practically ever inch of the famous bench. And we still got views of the city, despite the fog and menacing clouds! After the Parc, Dad managed to sneak us out around the back and to a metro station, which took us down to the Sagrada Familia. More awesome Dad scouting and we found ourselves in a little French (maybe?!) patisserie place with yummy tea, coffee, bread, and pastries. With our bellies full, we headed back out to brave the lines/crowds at the Sagrada Familia, Gaudí’s unfinished cathedral.
What a beautiful place, I cannot even begin to explain!! Please check out my photos on Picasa or even Google it, it is decades away (well, according to the people working on it, by 2017 or something ludicrous) from being done but Gaudí’s plans to have it be like a forest of white lofty trees with insanely lovely stained glass windows filling the place with light in addition to the amazing façade in the back of the cathedral that looks like a drop sand castle…it really is lovely. The lines to get upstairs were disgusting so we skipped out on that, even though weather was sort of starting to improve.
After the Sagrada Familia we took a little walk over to Casa Mila where my parents had been (in one of the apartments, with one of Xano’s friends! Back when they came here on their honeymoon) before and decided to just check out the gift shop because the line was so long, we felt like photos did the place justice, and the weather was crappy. I think instead, we walked around Las Ramblas and headed into the Corte Inglés to rest our feet. We checked out some really neat little stores in a cool neighborhood potentially near the Barrio Gótico though I can’t remember and then we took a nap, I believe.
We met Xano at his studio again before dinner and he generously gave us one of his awesome long watercolor pieces. We drove downtown through the rain to a chi-chi kind of restaurant near the water, called Seven Doors (http://www.7portes.com/) where we were basically the only diners because it was maybe 8pm. We had delicious croquetas, pastas, salads, fish items, I can’t even remember because I was really sick and sleepy at this point but it was great to hang out with Xano and have him recommend us stuff. Oh, the smushed tomato on olive oiled bread was insanely good, we had that the day before, too. We said our goodbyes and headed home, falling asleep pretty much immediately, glad to have seen Xano and spent time with him, feeling like Barcelona was well-toured but worth returning to!
MADRID
The next day we flew to Madrid and managed not to get too completely lost, despite our hotel being quite close to the metro stop where we got off as well as the Reina Sofia. Ridiculous. We had a brief lunch at (gasp!) Burger King where I taught my family the dangerous differences between certain words that sound the same but mean very, very different things…ask my parents, I’m trying to keep this thing PG! We met Julio there, who was hanging out at his cousin’s apartment so he could say goodbye to my family (aw) and then made our way to the Thyssen Museum, followed by the Prado. We had dinner at VIPS, apparently my favorite/only restaurant in Madrid for relatively good prices, and Julio, being the good guy that he is, gave my mom some neat earrings from Salamanca for her birthday (back on the 15th, when we were in Córdoba), gave my dad and brother some funny t-shirts from Salamanca and gave me a sweet mug from Salamanca as well as some pretty swanky watercolors. Very cute.
We had dinner, said goodbye to Julio, went back to the hotel and watched a Barcelona/Sevilla (maybe?!) game on TV until everyone went to bed. My parents gave me a Cadbury Crème Egg (happy easter!) and a sweet old baseball t-shirt that I wear all the time now. It was sad to say goodbye to them the next day, especially on the Metro (they were heading to the airport, I was heading to meet Julio at his cousin’s place), but I know we all had a great time exploring the country together. I hope to write more about the dynamics of their visit and what it’s like having to translate/reunite with your family and live with them for a week after having not been around them for that much time for a long time, but I’m obviously really behind already so we’ll see!
Anyway, I said goodbye on the Metro and headed off to Julio’s cousin’s apartment (he is older, married, with a son who is about 3 and another baby on the way, they were hanging out in Salamanca with Julio’s parents for Semana Santa). His cousin is obsessed with Disney stuff, comics, and cartoons in general and you can tell. As soon as you walk in, you see that the front hall area is painted like a moon landscape from Tin Tin and there is a 4-foot-long red and white rocket paper mache thing hanging from the ceiling, too. In the computer room, Julio is almost finished painting a mural of Batman and Superman. On the walls of the hallway there are at least 20 little “stills” from Tin Tin, they look like movie cels. In the son’s room there are more colorful toys than I have ever seen in one place, the walls are painted like Disneyland, and the clothes chest is painted like a car from Cars. In the master bedroom the curtains are painted like Calvin and Hobbes scenes and there is a mosaic above the bed of the Little Prince. In the family room there is a gigantic wall mural of a view of Salamanca from the Puente Romano. I have photos of these things and will be putting them on Picasa ASAP, so check soon!!!
I was exhausted from traveling/walking/touristing and being sick so Julio and I vegged out and watched no less than 3 movies. Glorious! We were total bums and we liked it. And then it was time for Em to arrive….!
(family, if you guys make it through this, lemme know if I missed anything big!)
See those mountains all across the middle?? Those are the Picos de Europa, part of a sweet mountain range that cuts off most of the north of Spain from the middle plateau-y part and the sweet beaches on the coast. Among other things, we will be visiting the capital city of Santander (richest one in Spain, I believe....no, maybe that's San Sebastián...but at any rate, it is a rich region), many beaches, a sweet natural park reserve place where there are supposedly all manner of crazy beasts, and the Cuevas at Altamira, also known as the location of the remains of the first settles in Spain/oldest or sweetest or biggest cave paintings. You'll get more information in a few days, I promise.
