Toulouse!! (February 17th- 20th)

I got back from my Spain vacation on Saturday. On Sunday I started to think about what I was going to do with the 2^nd week off. I had to work at Paddy’s on Sunday and Monday nights, but then I didn’t work again until Friday night… that was 3 ½ days- plenty of time to do something fun and get out of town yet again. So between watching The Office and EverAfter I thought about my options. By Monday I had made plans to go to Toulouse to see Leslie, a friend I met through Janki. (When Janki was in England Leslie (a French exchange student) was one of her roommates. Leslie had come to visit Janki in Chicago and we all went out salsa dancing.) I bought tickets and Tuesday morning I was on a 5 hour train to Toulouse.

Leslie’s parents are super nice and brought us home-made food for the 3 nights I was there!! We had beef bourguignon that first night with chocolate mouse for dessert. YUMMY! Her friend Greg had stopped by to pick something up and so he joined us for dinner and the three of just enjoyed a leisurely night in.

Because of Leslie’s school schedule we had to be out of the house around 8AM and since there was only one key I would be out exploring the town all day- until around 6ish when she would get home from classes. So, with the marvelous map she had drawn for me the night before, I headed in the direction of the Tourist office in the center of town. I got there with about 30 minutes to kill before they opened so I wandered into the main square there in front of the Hotel de Ville (mayor’s office) where they were setting up the market. Slowly, as I circled around the square, more and more tents were popping up and trucks full of purses, books, carpets, makeup, clothing, African drums, paintings, kitchen supplies and anything else you could think of were all being unloaded in preparation for the morning’s sales. I decided I didn’t need any of these things, but a coffee might be nice. :)

I went in search of a little café and in France that’s not a very hard task. I sat down with my croissant and my café au lait and watched people come in and of the little boulangerie. People-watching is so great! I love when someone comes up to the counter and they really want to buy the sweet thing- they keep looking at it like they want it- and then they order plain ordinary (well, not ordinary, bread is never ordinary in France) loaves of bread. It’s so interesting to watch as they almost look dejected walking out of the bakery… but it was their choice not to buy the sweet thing… and they could have had it, but some little voice in their head told them not to. What a sad story really… I’m glad I usually don’t let that little voice get a hold of me… sweet pastries in France are just too good to pass up!

Around 9:00 I left my post at the people-watching station and headed to the now-open tourist office. I picked up a real map of the area and asked where all the important places to see were.

After picking up the map at the tourist office I checked out the inside of the Hotel de Ville. I didn't realize you could do this, but it was open to the public. It was nice with paintings and statues and whatnot.

Then I headed up Rue du Taur towards the Basilique St-Sernin. What I quickly discovered is that Toulouse is a GREAT city for tourists who didn't do their homework ahead of time. All the information provided along the streets and at each "tourist spot" is so detailed and historical! It was great! I particularly liked the info they provided on this one side entrance where they had to redo some of the detailing-- but they told you who the people were and what was going on, which most the time you don't know. The inside of the Basilicia was nice too. I left out a different door a tthe back of church, made a circle around it and took a few more pictures before heading back down Rue du Taur towards the Place du Capitole.

From there I took a right down Rue Rominguieres and stopped at a dance and music book shop. They had some really cool things in there and I impromtu decided to purchase on book on Fred Astaire. I figured it'd be fun to read in French when I get home and can't speak it anymore :)

Then I took a left down Rue Lakanal to get to the Couvent des Jacobins. It was a large open space and you could still see some of the decorative wall paint. The neatest part was this huge column in the middle that was surrounded with a table of glass- it made for some really cool pictures!!







After leaving there I wanted to walk along the quai so I headed towards La Garonne, the river. The other side of the river, along with the old bridge further along, look like a snapshot of history- very Romanesque with the arches, but built with brick, so kind of a rusty-red color. I walked along the river and past the Eglise de la Daurade, which wasn't open, so I couldn't go in. I continued further on to check on the two museums the woman at the tourist office had pointed out to me: the first I came upon was Hotel d'Assezat Fondation Bemberg and the second was Musee des Augustins. I had heard it was going to rain for the two days I was in Toulouse, so I figured, while it wasn't raining, I would continue walking and perhaps tomorrow I would check out the museums.

So I continued on my way along Rue de Metz until I came upon Cathedrale St-Etienne. This is probably the strangest church I've ever been in. At one point in history someone started builing a large choire section for the church- their intention was build this great new section, then to tear down the old portion and finish the rest of the church in the new style. That never happened. So what's left is two completely different styles splitting the Cathedral in two. That's not even the strangest part- what's really wacky is that the guy who wanted to redo the whole thing also apparently wanted to move it slightly West. So the current structure is not a straight line from the Alter (or Apse) down to the Nave... it's a zig-zag of sorts.

After leaving the craziest chruch I'd ever been in I took a side street to land me directly in front of the Monument aux Morts- a monument for those who have died in war. From there I walked down the path in the middle of the busy street towards the Grand Rond, which made me laugh A LOT when I thought about the Ground Round dinner sitting in the middle of this little park, haha. :)

The Canal du Midi is famous for connecting the Atlantic to the Mediteranean. So, naturally, I had to see it. But sadly, it's not that special. I walked along it for a while before deciding that I was STARVING after all this walking around!! I headed back towards the hotel de ville area to grab a sandwich. It was about a this point when I realized I was really cold! It was chilly out and having been in and out of un-heated churches and out in the open all day I was ready to go inside somewhere. I decided a movie was just what I needed. So I headed back to Place Wilson and saw L'etrange histoire de Benjamin Button (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) for 3,80Euro!! SO CHEAP! Of course the popcorn and whatnot is always the most expensive part but I just can't go to a movie without a little popcorn. :)

By the time the film was over it was time for me to head back to the apartment. When I got back Leslie and I ate another delicious home-made meal and then got dressed and headed out quickly for a salsa lesson at 8pm. We got there a few minutes late after confused directions lead us astray, but we still were able to participate. The course was fun and lasted an hour. We danced about 3 dances after the class finished and then were picked up by some friends of hers and we drove to the other side of town to go to a completely different, much more chill, bar. I intoduced Leslie to the deliciousness of Baileys and we even took a Baby Guiness shot (Kalua and Baileys- yum!) It was a fun but short night out as everyone else had classes the next day. So we walked home (about 20 minutes) and then of course, stayed up chatting :) Such is the life of les filles (girls).

Despite being on vacation, morning came bright and early on Thursday. We were out of the apartment by 8:15 and on our way- her to class, me to town for more touristy stuff. It was colder today than it had been the day before. I bundled up and walked to a church I had seen from a distance but been too hungry to investigate on Wednesday. The doors were closed but a notice was posted saying they'd be open at 9:00. So I went to a cafe, ordered a chocolat chaud and a croissant, pulled out my book and waited.

At 9 I went on in. It was a nice church. The church itself was nothing special but they had these sculpted stations of the cross that were really impressive. And I like churches in general, especialy when they're free to get into... stupid Spain.

I had decided that I wanted to see one of the art museums today and since it was so cold and the movies here were so cheap, another film wouldn't kill me. So I checked the times for the movies and as it turned out it made more sense to see the movie first (the museum closed for lunch, so going in the morning wouldn't give me as much time). I waited outside the theatre for them to open-- which seemed to take an eternity and they only opened the doors about 10 minutes before the 1st set of movies started! (I was clearly frustrated... remember, it's cold out!) This time I saw Ce que pensant les hommes- which directly translated is "What men are thinking" but it's American title is "He's just not that into you." It was good, cute, chick-flicky and feel good.

I ate lunch in a little restuarant/cafe- very relaxing! And then headed to Musee des Augustins. The building was an old monestary so it was, in itself, absolutely gorgeous with a nice open cloister and all. Wonderfuly enough, there were heaters in all the rooms so it wasn't like walking around in an old church despite the fact that that was basically what I was doing. There were some really nice peices in there that I really liked- mostly the sculptures.

When I was done exploring the museum but still had time to kill and didn't want to go outside, I sat on a ledge inside a part of the museum and read my book. When I got sick of reading I pulled out a deck of cards and played some solitaire. I was a little nervous that they would tell me I couldn't do that, but I was quiet and they left me alone. It was fun. :)

I went back to Leslie's apartment but she wasn't there yet so I went inside the huge library that is right next to her place and found the International Herald to read. It's good to keep up with the news... I fail all to often at that.

When she got home we had dinner and then headed out one last time- there had been talk of other bars with her friends, but they backed out so it was just the two of us and so we headed back to the salsa bar we had been at briefly the night before. At first we stood around a lot-- we hadn't been there at the start and sometimes the good dancers want to see if you dance well before asking you to dance. Not having that opportunity we stood around and waited. Finally we both got asked to dance and it was good fun from that point on.

Just before leaving I danced with this guy who accidently elbowed me in the face while we were dancing... it was getting too crowded and he was more of a beginner. He appologized profusely... it hurt for a couple days, but no bruising, all was well. haha.

The next morning I had an early train to catch in order to get back to Lyon in time for work. I said goodbye to Leslie and to Toulouse. It started to rain as I went to the train station-- luckily for me it had held off that long. :)

The last of Spain (Friday)

Kim and I had been told that Frigilliana was one of the most beautiful little towns in Andalucía. Known as the “White Village” and set in the mountains, it sounded like a must-see. So, with Kim at the wheel once again, we headed to the nearby village and were pleased that this was how we had chosen to spend our morning! It is apparently written in their laws that the town has to be kept up in its traditional style. We could see some touch-up painting being done to keep these beautiful villas in shape and almost blinding white. The winding streets and the scenery surrounding the village made for a wonderfully relaxing and gorgeous walk.

We had heard that Nerja was also a nice place to see- right up on the water- so we got back in the car and made a quick jog down to the beach. As it turns out, Nerja is actually a pretty big place. And since we were planning on eating lunch with Robert and Mercedes for our last day, we simply did a walk along the beach, again enjoying the warm sun, and then headed back to the car- not really exploring the expansive town.

We got back to Villa Mercedes and our hosts weren’t exactly ready to eat, so Kim and I took a towel and a book and headed out the back door to go lay on the beach for an hour. With the wind it was slightly chilly, but still so lovely!! Then we headed in and enjoyed lunch with our fabulous hosts. :)

We had planned a hiking outing for the afternoon. Emily, the Spanish assistant (see blog from Spain-Tuesday), had originally planed to go with us, but as her plans changed she gave us the name of the place we had thought to take us and wished us luck. We used trusty google maps for directions again and headed on our way.

It was at this point that we decided that Round-abouts weren’t sources of anxiety, but were more like a breath of reassurance. Round-abouts are full of signs telling you what is in each direction. And unlike a cross-roads in the States, if you don’t know where to go, you don’t have to block traffic or make a quick decision that turns out to be wrong and then find a place to turn around… no no no! You can just go around and around until you figure out where you need to go!! How wonderful!! They are also places to turn around when the roads themselves are too narrow for u-turns and there aren’t any turn offs. Round Abouts are wonderful things!

So… taking a little bit longer than google maps let on, we made it to what we think is where Emily was telling us to go. We parked the car and headed up to find the path. We started out ok, on what we believed was a path. But it became apparent relatively quickly that this was not actually a path… well, at least it wasn’t intended to be one. We were hiking/climbing up a rather steep portion of the mountain-side that looked sort of like an avalanche path with plenty of loose rocks to be watchful of. It might have been smarter, once we realized we weren’t on a path, to go back down the short distance we had gone up and try again. But no! That would be quitting! We had started; we would just make our own path and enjoy ourselves!! We saw a deer and decided we would try to get up to where he had been. Except that the further we climbed, the further away that point, or the top for that matter, seemed to be… and we just continued to climb, realizing that going down was going to really really suck!! Hahaha.

But then, like a beam of light to the lost, we saw something man-made! A Hut!! That HAD to mean that there was a path afterall! Anything had to be easier to go down than this!! We made it up to the hut and sure enough- footprints everywhere!! YAY! As it turns out there is some sort of water system someone is installing up there- there is a pipe that runs a course around the side of the mountain and we could hear the water flowing through it.

It hadn’t been the easiest climb/hike, but it was so worth it!! The view was amazing!!

Then it was a matter of finding out how to get down… there was the path that the water pipe took, but we could see it follow the mountain side and it didn’t look like it went down anywhere… there was another path that was less frequented, but there were a few footprints… we decided to try that. Remember, we also had the goal of not just getting down the mountain, but getting down somewhere near the car. :)

As it turned out, we had discovered the right path for heading down. Following footprints as guides along the not-very-well-kept path we made our way down. Turning around to look back up at the path we were supposed to have taken up, we knew why we had not found it in the first place: 1. it didn’t really look like a path… just a spot in the woods that had a little less growth and not too many rocks… and 2. there was a gigantic fallen tree of the start. Oh well, our way was more of an adventure anyway :)

A little tired and thirsty from our hike we stopped in the nearby town for a coke. The fun part of this town is that the streets all go in one direction—you enter the city from one side and exit from the other. We had to drive through it to get to the hiking path and when returning we found we had to take an external road to get back to the other side of the town and re-enter. Kind of neat/funny.

There also seemed to be old ladies in groups of 3 everywhere! When we first drove through, at the round-about at the very end of the town, there had been 3 old ladies just hanging out on the side of the road. We saw those same three ladies walking back towards town as we were driving back for our coke. Then another group of three old ladies walking along the street; then after the coke, one more group of three old ladies walking—these ones all with matching shirts (different colors, same style). It was pretty amusing. It’s the town of 3 women. :)

We drove back to Villa Mercedes, packed up our bags so we would be ready to leave early the next morning, then headed out with Mercedes and Robert to a dance show they had bought us tickets for!! (Talk about sweet!!!) It was a Tango-Jazz concert put on by a Argentinian dance troupe that had been working and traveling in Spain for a few years now. It was very interesting and while Kim and I enjoyed it, I’m not so sure Robert did and Mercedes didn’t like it at all. Being the ballet-snob I have recently discovered I am I realized that I understood what happened much better than my cohorts and I ended up explaining a few things… the relationships and the details of what was going on… there was a whole drug-doing portion of the concert (present in several pieces) that went over a lot of heads I think… oh well. I found it interesting. :)

We returned home, had a delicious BLT (or Bacon, lettuce and Cheese for Kim and I since we don’t like Tomatoes), watched a little news and then hit the hay. It had been an absolutely stellar week!!! But the taxi back to the bus station and airport was coming early on Saturday morning- and thus our adventure came to an end.

In the taxi the following morning I said goodbye to the sun and the sea in recognition of my return to the grey chill that is Lyon. What an all around marvelous week it had been!

Quotes from the trip:

“Sunglasses aren’t gonna do anything against this mother!”

“Tengo una problema… ingles?”

“I think the beer was back that way” – says the guy inside the palace at Alhambra

“Guapa”- frog-like voice of the old man in the street… twice! Plus the guard at Alhambra—all to Kim, the beautiful one :)

“For you Princess” – and the waiter hands me a pink carnation

Back to Spain (Thursday)... sorry for the delay :)

Kim and I wanted to have a full day in Granada, so we got up early and were out even before Mercedes was out of bed. Kim, the chauffeur for the trip, managed the foreign roads very well despite being a little nervous to start things off. Round-abouts were a source of anxiety for some time. But with decent directions compliments of Google and good road signs (compliments of the Spanish governmental department in charge of roadways I’m sure), we made it :)

We had bought our tickets for the Alhambra the night before online, so we pulled into the parking area and went in search of where we needed to pick up said tickets. It was probably the easiest thing ever! You just put in the credit card on which the tickets were purchased and it spit out the tickets- nothing else needed. So great! Our entry time was for 1:30 or so, so we planned to go down into Granada for the morning.

We caught the bus down, found a map (YAY!) and tried to go to the Cathedral we had heard was nice. We were disappointed again that the Catholic Church has decided to ask people to pay to get into a House of God… I’m not paying 3,50 Euros to see a church; Being budget-conscious travelers who have seen plenty of churches in our travels, we decided to spend our money instead on tea we found just outside the church. This guy had about 28 buckets with assorted teas and spices outside his shop, in which there were more teas and spices. It was a site to see for the colors if nothing else! The paprika was so vibrant and everything smelled so good! Kim and I picked out two teas that smelled/looked good and different than things we can get at regular stores and decided this was a much better choice than seeing the inside of a church. :)

We continued our wandering and found the university there as well as some neat narrow streets. We took a few pictures as we enjoyed the architecture and layout of this ancient European city. We knew that we had to eat before we went back up to the Alhambra, so we headed back in the direction of a nice, sunny square where we had seen several restaurants. We picked one and ordered. Despite the mix up that Kim ordered onion soup and was given shellfish soup, it was a decent meal. The one the day before in Malaga had been better, but not bad.

We knew we were getting short on time so we paid and caught the next bus up to the castle/fortress. By this time it was warming up quite a bit and so we made a quick stop back at the car to drop off our coat/sweater as well as the tea. We went back to where we thought the entrance was and were confused that we couldn’t find it. We asked a woman who looked at us as if we were ridiculously stupid and said that we only had 10 minutes to get in and that it takes 15 minutes to walk to the entrance that we needed. We would, she claimed, never make it. We asked the rude lady to point us in the right direction and we RAN to the Palace (Palais) entrance. Luckily for us, we made it. Once we were in the Palace, we could explore everything else at our leisure- it’s just the palace that you have to be at ON TIME!

It was amazing! I estimate that to carve out one 4 in tile with that

amount of detail would take a minimum of 3 solid hours, maybe more… Lord knows I have no experience in how long it takes to carve out tiles like that.

But can you imagine? Entire rooms filled with these tiles? Room after room with that amount of detail? And then to

see the remaining paint in a few places and to realize that after taking all that time to carve out the detailed

patterns that they then painstakingly painted the intricacies of those details!? Unbelievable!

As you exit the palace you enter into the Palace Gardens, which I’m sure would be lovelier in the spring when the flowers are all blooming, but it was still nice. And as the sun continued to rise in the sky, beating down on us without a cloud in its way, the warmth of the day made up for the lack of flowers. :)

We laughed at signs for Generalife (pronounce it like an American… then imgine yourself in the middle of

Spain… kinda funny, right?) over and over again, speculating at what this could possibly be… was it a part of the Alhambra bought out by an insurance company and renamed for publicity purposes? Or was it a part of the

palace/fortress where the General lives? Or where the general people live? Our preferred explanation was, of course, the insurance company… Generalife? Hadn’t we even heard that name for an insurance company before?

As it turns out, it’s pronounced Henera-leefé … we are in Spain afterall… and it’s the General’s quarters and personal gardens… this is information we received from Robert once we returned home much later. This, too, made us laugh.

We drove back to Torre Del Mar through the amazing scenery of Andalucía, watching the sun set over the Sea as we got closer to the house. So beautiful!

We enjoyed more ham and cheese for dinner- it was becoming a delicious habit- plus a salad and, when we were still hungry after spending a very full day with lots of walking and energy-spending, a bowl a cereal finished off our dinner quite nicely.

Kim and I had previously made plans with Emily, the Spanish assistant (see Spain-Tuesday blog), to go into Malaga and party it up. Total Fail. The comfort of sweatpants and a nice warm blanket set in and there was no alternative from that point on. And besides, sometimes it’s more fun to hang with Mercedes and Robert anyway. :)

What's to come??

Alright, Wow. It has been FAR FAR FAR too long since I’ve been blogging/journaling. Usually I would try to jot down a few things- even in my private journal- about what’s going on so that I can come back later and try to give some details to it. FAIL- I haven’t written down anything… so sadly, what is going to be written now will be only what my selective mind chooses to remember.

The outline for the updates that need to be done- in chronological order:

1. Finish Spain!!
1. Thursday- Granada and the Alhambra
2. Friday- Frijiliana and Nerja, lunch with Mercedes and Robert, hiking, dance show
2. Toulouse!!
1. Wednesday- tourist + a movie, then salsa lesson and out with Leslie’s friends
2. Thursday- movie + museum, then more salsa
3. Home cooked food the whole time J
3. Normal week:
1. Andrew came in for the weekend
2. Work

i. Paddy’s like normal

ii. Bac Blanc at the lycee

3. 1^st private ballet lesson w/ Abby
4. Bible Study Meeting
3. Friday night in Amberieu with Philippe/ Spectacle Rehearsal
4. Lucy’s birthday Saturday night
5. Missed train on Tuesday- no work
1. Study
2. Bagel lunch w/ Michelle, Kim and one of Kim’s friends
3. 1^st Bible Study on Romans here at the Apartment
6. Thursday- Carnival Day at the lycee; students all dressed up + spectacle
7. Thursday- Sunday:
1. Dinner w/ Andrea on Thursday night
2. Make-up class on Friday then a brief salsa outing then calling home late late late at night J
3. Friday:

i. Ballet lesson w/Abby

ii. College research with the BTS boys

iii. Called Aunt Susie J

iv. Work at Paddy’s—Andrea, her friend, Marine, Kim, Lucy, Lucy’s friend all come to see me at work—I make kick-ass Mojitos now J

4. Sunday- brunch, blog (finally), work @ Paddy’s

Wow!! Is THAT ever a list!!! So some of that doesn’t need further explanation, and if you feel like you’ve been thoroughly updated on my life and need nothing further (which truly wouldn’t offend me in the slightest!! Remember that I blog/journal just as much for myself as for you all), simply ignore the entries that follow for a while. I’m hoping to get through a bunch today… one can always hope J

Take Care!!! Love and Hugs!!

Spain- Day 4

Kim and I decided to do Granada and the Alhambra on Thursday and do Malaga today, Wednesday. We also decided to avoid the possibilities of getting lost and paying for parking by taking the bus into town. So after breakfast and all that jazz we walked into Torre del Mar and caught the bus into Malaga.

We figured we would want to take the bus to the end stop- we weren’t really sure… as we were headed into town we got a little nervous and the stop that looked the most promising we stalled too long to actually get off at. So we got off at the last stop and walked for about 15 minutes or so to get back into the main/touristy part of town.

We couldn’t find the tourism office and the information center at the bus stop had been closed, so we just wandered around, stopping every once in a while to look at the “i” spots that had little maps on them with all the major tourist places listed. It worked out alright for us as we managed to find these really neat ruins… but I’m getting ahead of myself…





We started getting hungry and decided to stop for lunch. We picked a place, pretty much at random, and sat down. Turned out to be a good location as a couple of musicians showed up shortly after us and played nice accordion and clarinet music to give atmosphere to our lunch. We decided to order alternating things on the menu and then try each others’ food. This was we’d basically try everything on the 11 Euro menu. Our options for starters were chicken soup with bacon or sausage and garbanzo beans soup. Our options for the main dish were chicken in a red sauce with fries or fish with rice. We didn’t really understand all that until it showed up though… we actually thought that the fish dish was going to be turkey… Spanish language failure… but it turned out ok. Everything we ate was pretty good and we finished off with a desert of vanilla cream pudding with some sort of citrusy flavor we couldn’t place…. Like some candy we used to have as children that we couldn’t exactly remember. Then we finished off with some sort of caramel tasting shot- a “digestif” as the French call it. And on top of all that, drinks were included! Pretty good if you ask me!

Oh! And while we’re sitting there, enjoying our main dish, one of the servers came over and put a pink carnation on the table next to me and said, “For you Princess” and walked away. It was kind of awkward and Kim and I laughed a lot, but it was fun and I walked around the rest of the day with my pink carnation. :)

After lunch we went back to our wandering. There was a major church in Malaga and so we headed towards that. But when we got there they wanted 4 Euros to get in. We both decided that in all our European travels we had seen the insides of enough free churches to not care to much if we didn’t see the inside of this one… who wants to pay 4 Euros to get into a church?? As a Catholic I sort of feel like Jesus would be over turning some tables if He were there… who charges people just to go IN to a church… lame. (I’m not talking about up in a bell tower or down in a crypt… just to get in the door…like I said, Lame.)



So instead we found these awesome ruins:

“The old Muslim castle, known as the Gibralfaro sits on a ridge that overlooks the city of Malaga. At the bottom of this ridge is the Alcazaba, the younger Muslim palace-fortress. A long rampart connects the two castles. The Alcazaba was constructed in 1057 by Badis, a taifa ruler.” Says some tourist website. And Wikipedia adds that the Alcazaba “(from the Arabic for citadel al-qasbah, القصبة) is a Moorish fortification in Spain. The word derives from the Arabic word Al-casbah,[1] a walled-fortification in a city.)”… anyway, the one in Malaga is “the best preserved in all of Spain.”

So we went up to see how much it cost to get into this and it was only 2,60Euro- with the added bonus of being only 60 centimes for students!!! Best 60 cents ever spent! We climbed around and took TONS TONS TONS of pictures!!!






Then we met Jose, a Spanish painter. We started talking and after a while he told us about his work- he sells the little painting for 5 Euros a piece and the profits he takes down to South Africa once a year and buys painting kits for the children with AIDS in a hospital down there. He sells his larger paintings for profit to live off of and support his family. Kim and I each bought a couple of the little ones off of this buoyant man and went merrily on our way with our very pretty little works of art. We both agreed that buying paintings like that can sometimes be lame when you buy them from souvenir shops or they are not very well done; but that this was different because we talked to this guy- we had a story to go behind our purchase and it was for a good cause (we decided we believed him because we had no reason not to) and on top of all that- they were nice pieces of art. :)

We continued to stroll the Alcazaba and then decided it was warm and we wanted ice cream. Lucky for us, on leaving the ruins we found ourselves right in front of an ice cream spot. We took our cones and sat down on the steps to the Alcazaba and who should come upon us but Jose, on his way out for the day. He invited us to have “the best sweet wine” just down the street at a restaurant/café he likes. So we joined Jose and went into El Pimpi. We chatted for a while and then we each went our separate ways. :) I love random experiences like this one!



After our wine (which was accompanied by Spanish olives) Kim and I headed up to the top of the hill that the Alcazaba sits on to get a view of the city. The bright sun was starting to get lower in the clear sky, so the pictures are all slightly overexposed but the picture in our minds will remain of that lovely, warm afternoon with a brilliant sky and the clear blue sea framing the city below us.

The day was waning and it was time to head back in the direction of the bus station. So, without a map, we started off, taking a few pictures and such along the way of course. But as we got to what we felt must be “close” we could not find where we needed to be! Our meager Spanish, “Donde esta estacion autobus?” got us pointed in the right direction a few times over and after several minutes of relative lost-ness we managed to find the bus station.We made it home in time to have hot ham and cheese sandwiches and soup with Mercedes and Robert for dinner. :) Then we did a touch more planning for our trip to Granada the next day- including printing off driving directions! And then we called it a night, exhausted but highly content with the lovely, amazing, fun and warm day we had!!

Another Magnificent day in Spain

Tuesday was the most magnificent of days!!! It got up to 23 degrees Celsius—amazing! That’s around 73 degrees Fahrenheit I believe. I wore a skirt, it was lovely!

I actually went to the mall for a little bit on Tuesday- Mercedes drove me out there and while she went grocery shopping I stopped in a few shops and picked up a few cute shirts, you know… something to remember Spain by. Someday, somewhere, someone will tell me that they like my shirt and I can say, “Thanks!! I bought it in Spain!”

I wanted to take Robert and Mercedes out to eat at least once while there- as a token of gratitude for being such amazing hosts! So we went down to this little restaurant by the port and had lunch. Mercedes ordered fish and the whole thing was placed in front of her- head and all… yikes! I wanted to eat something typically Spanish so I asked what I should have (with the exception of fish) and Robert suggested two different dishes. I decided on more breakfasty-looking one and was slightly surprised to receive a hamburger patty (with no bun and no toppings), a fried egg and French fries… I suppose it’s sort of like eggs, sausage and potatoes… sort of… it was tasty regardless and we enjoyed a nice lunch by the port.

After lunch we all, myself included, took part in the wondrous Spanish tradition of Siesta. There really isn’t anything like a little nap in the afternoon in the warm weather with the windows cracked after a nice lunch… ahhhh.

Kim was coming in tonight, so I had busied myself some trying to find us something fun to do to welcome her to Spain. As it worked out, Mercedes knew a guy who worked at a school where there was an English assistant. Mercedes made a few calls and then I was able to get in contact with Emily, an American from South Carolina, who has the same job as Kim and I (teaching English in public schools) to the Spanish kids in Torre Del Mar. We decided that she’d meet Kim and I at the bus station when Kim arrived and we’d hang out with her- she was having a small party of sorts at her place with her roommates. And in addition we could talk about going hiking, which we were hoping to do later in the week.

Mercedes, being the cute grand-mothery figure she was prepared a bag of dinner for Kim and I, including pizza sandwiches that she heated up in the oven, fruit, donuts for desert and muffins to take to the party to share. J She even put it in a nice paper bag because the plastic bag was too tacky. So cute!!

Timing was perfect and Mercedes and I pulled up to the station just as Kim’s bus was pulling in. Emily walked up about a minutes and a half later. Mercedes took Kim’s bag and Kim, Emily and I and the food headed off to Emily’s for the evening. We drank wine and ate food (Emily and a friend of hers were making food as well) and chatted in French with her Belgin roommate, Julien, and in English with everyone else while Spanish chatter surrounded us. Once again, Kim and I had found ourselves in the middle of an international soiree. There was Diana, a Spanish friend of Emily’s, Guandi, the German roommate of Emily and Julien, another Spanish guy who was a friend of Julien’s, and Philip, a German friend visiting Guandi. Julien and his friend went to bed around midnight, having things to do early on Wednesday morning, and shortly after the rest of us all went out to a local bar to have a few rum and cokes before ending the evening with a walk by the Sea.

Kim and I headed home late that night with the intention of heading into Malaga Wednesday morning, going to Granada on Thursday and hiking with Emily and visiting a couple of smaller Andelucia villages on Friday… plans had been made throughout the course of a fun night!

Spain- Day 2

Hot ham and cheese for dinner Sunday night was both welcome and delicious as the late hour of 10:30, followed, of course, by more news—no movie though—I opted for bed at that point.

In following the patterns of my lovely hosts I slept in again on Monday morning and rose to another beautiful day with the sun shining in bright blue sky. After breakfast I decided to go for a walk and try to discover a little town of Torre Del Mar. I was told to walk down the path to the right, along the water, until I reached a large statue of a man pulling fishing nets- this would be at the base of the main street in town and would lead me not only to the church but also to the shops and whatever else was important in the little center of Torre Del Mar.

Off I went, enjoying the weather, taking pictures and looking for a man pulling nets. I walked. And I walked. And I walked some more. At one point I saw a couple of ladies selling cheap purses on the side of the path and figured I had to be close to this statue but see it I did not.

So I kept walking- all the way to the light house. By this time I was certain I had gone too far. So I started trying to ask in my limited Spanish, “Donde esta iglesia?” Unfortunately the response I got 3 out of 4 times was “nein.”… there were Germans everywhere!!! And silly me, despite my current slow attempt to learn German I could not for the life of me remember the word for “where”… (Woher- I remembered much later when it did me no good). So I kept walking back in the direction of the villa hoping I’d either find a Spanish speaker or see the man with the nets on my way back.

I finally did find a Spanish speaker- two actually. This couple was so nice and they explained to me in very slow and confusing Spanish where I needed to go and then gave me all sorts of probably useful superfluous information I, of course, didn’t understand. But I did find the street I needed. FYI- that statue is not on the path like I had thought, it’s off on the actual street and is, thus, not all that easy to spot from the where I had been walking. But find it, at last, I did and the exploring of town began. It ended rather quickly though as none of the shops seemed all that interesting, the church was closed, and it was getting close to lunch time at this point. So I went back by that silly man and his nets and returned to Mercedes’ and Robert’s for lunch.

While my hosts took their siesta I took my computer and headed back into town in an effort to find a café that had wifi. (See, I really did TRY to keep in contact with you all while on vacation). But it was basically ultimate failure. Between asking in bad Spanish for a café that had internet access and finding that most cafés didn’t have internet access I was getting frustrated. I finally found an eye glasses place with a sign that said “We Speak English” as well as several other languages. I went in and explained to the kind woman that I didn’t need glasses; all I wanted was a place to plug in my computer and have a coffee at the same time. She knew of one, thank God, and off I went in search of it.

Talk about old school!! The man took out a cable and plugged it into the back of my computer… well, at least I had internet! I chatted briefly with my mom and my sister, answered a few emails and looked up information on the Alhambra in Granada, where Kim and I would be going sometime later in the week. Without much progress in the email/blog sector of things I gave up on my internet, paid for my coffee and headed back along the beach to villa to spend some quality time with my hosts. We chatted and enjoyed the evening. Hot ham and cheese for dinner was just as delicious as it had been the night before; then, in keeping with tradition, we watched the news and then the movie “A Fish Called Wanda”. I love Kevin Klein.

Then it was off to bed—Kim was coming tomorrow!!! YAY!!!

BONUS: Here are a few photos from my 1st day there and of where I was staying:

This is Mercedes- my amazing and lovely host!

This is from the first day when Mercedes and I walked down to the peer. Mercedes was so nervous that I was going to fall in the water. :) It was really windy this day so I had my coat on, but I swear it was beautiful out!

This is Villa Mercedes, where I stayed with Mercedes and Robert :) SO PRETTY and right on the water!

See... this is the path behind their house-- you can walk to the left, d

own towards the peer, or right, towards a light house and the town of Torre Del Mar. The Mediterranean Sea can be seen just off to the right in this picture :)