Halloween in Lisboa

So the hostel here in Lisbon is having a halloween celebration. It's been a lot of fun. Last night we had a pumpkin carving party. A german engineer and I decided we were going to carve the lion from the fountain in the courtyard here. German engineering applied to a pumpkin--- it was quite the masterpiece.

Tonight is a costume party. The hostel provides costumes to travelers, I am a cat-- fitting.

During the day today I went to the aquarium at the Expo grounds here. It was a nice aquarium, but I didn't really feel it was much different than any other aquarium. Personally, I have a theory that it was constructed by someone from the US because all of the maps had the US smack in the center and Europe kind of split amongst the two sides. Further evidence is that the movie they were showing about the overharvesting of the ocean was definitely american-- there were even views of the Pike Place Market. They were also pushing the "seafood watch" pamphlet. It's definitely a concept I'm used to from the US, farm vs wild salmon. But I was surprised that the people I was with had not been aware of the issue until now, and I am sure most portugese are not very in tune to the issue.

Tomorrow is my last day in Lisbon, I'm a bit sad about it. I really love this city, and what's more bizzare is that I'm not entirely sure why. It just feels like home, but thursday I head to madrid for 5 more days of spanish fun until I head to the big apple.

Sintra's Quinta Da Regaleira

So yesterday I went back for a return trip to Sintra. I had heard through some subsequent conversations with people here that I had missed Sintra's star attraction the first time I was there--- Quinta Da Regaleira.

The Lonely Planet has described Sintra as sleeping beauty meets lord of the rings and after my first trip I got the sleeping beauty part but the lord of the rings part had me a bit curious. Not any more.

Quinta Da Regaleira is a house and grounds that was designed by italian opera set designer Luigi Manini. It's a very bizzare and fantastical place with carved out caves and bizzare statues and areas with names like "threshold of the gods" "the guardians entrance" and "grotto of the virgin".

The highlight though is a series of carved out underground caverns and tunnels that lead you below the ground to various points within the park. It was immensely cool. We entered the caverns kind of by mistake by following a series of stones in a pool of water to an opening in the cliff. we thought we were just going behind the pool when we discovered a series of tunnels. Feeling our way along in the dark we finally found some daylight and we had emerged at the bottom of a 30 meter deep well called "the initiation well" with a spiraling staircase around the perimeter. halfway up the well was another tunnel leading the "guardians entrance" and from the first tunnel there were several branching tunnels leading to other points in the park. It was so cool to feel your way along in the dark wondering what fantastical place you would surface at next.

I would have to say this place was one of the highlights of my trip. I've just never seen anything like it. I can't believe I missed it the first time I was here but I am glad that I was able to catch it the second time. I guess that's one of the beauties of coming back to a place.

Lisboa part II

I am loving lisbon again. The weather here is beautiful and sunny (probably near 75 or 80 today). One of the reasons I enjoy it here so much has to do with the fact that I've made friends with the hostel staff here so I arrived to a warm welcome. Several of the staff are portugese too so they've been really helpful in giving me tips as to the "real lisbon". My plan for the next week here is just to relax and live in the city, there are a few sites left to see but for the most part I've done that side of lisbon, I'm looking forward to a wind down from traveling.

I spent yesterday downloading pictures to CDs and reading in a cafe. My friend Tyler here at the hostel (who has even more of a music obsession than I do) took me CD shopping today. (I managed to only buy two CDs--- the Knife, and Jamie Lidell). It's really nice to be back in a place that you know, and have insiders to show you around. I am going to have no problem being stationary here until thursday.

The night life in lisbon is also great. It's really bizzare because none of the bars and night clubs have signs and nothing in town gets started until at least midnight. So you can walk down a street at 11pm and it looks like an abandoned alley but when you walk down the street at 1 am it is packed with people standing out in the street talking etc. Its a very chill nightlife but also very lively, my sort of city for sure.

Tomorrow I am planning a trip back to the Gulbenkian (it's free again) and I may try to hit the tile museum as well.

Write me too!

Hey blog readers. Now that I am in lisbon again and staying at a hostel with free internet I have a lot more time to check email and stuff so send me a note and I'll write back. I'm curious which of you are reading my blog.

Port in Porto

Yesterday morning I arose to see what I could of porto before I left. It's a very beautiful city, the old town is very steep on cliffs going down to the river. In fact, the old town is a Unesco world heritage site. All of the houses here are completely covered with tile and have a distinctly portugese look to them. The old city walls are visible as well and still have a forboding presence to them. Everyone had told me that I must try port in porto so I headed across the bridge to Vila Nova de Gaia where the port cellars are.

I took a tour of Sandeman which is one of the top port and sherry distributers. It was a good tour and they explained the process of port well. Aparently port was "discovered" in the late 17th century as english soldiers would add brandy to their wine to preserve it as they took long trips up river, apparently they aquired a taste for it and port was born. To make port you stop the fermentation process of the grapes very quickly (2-3 days after it is started) with the addition of a neutral colored brandy. This keeps the wine sweet (because the sugars in the grapes haven't been converted into alcohol) but strong (as the brandy raises the alcohol content of the wine).

There are three types of port a white port which is used as a apertif and may be mixed with tonic and lemon, a tawny which is lighter in color and spicier and best served with dried fruits and nuts, and the most famous, the rudy port which is very dark and full bodied and served with strong cheeses and fruits or chocolate. I tried the first two at sandeman and then headed to another cellar, Croft, to try the third.

I liked all three quite a bit, which surprised me because I haven't liked port when I've had it in the past but I guess that is the difference between getting good port, in porto and cheap port in seattle. I bought a bottle of the white and headed back into the old town of porto where I did some more exploring before I had to catch my train to Lisbon.

Bachalau

One thing I've learned in my travels is that if you meet someone who speaks the language, latch on.

So my night in Porto I met a man from Brazil. He was a doctor who had been working in France for the last year and was visiting portugal before he left. We started talking because, in an effort to learn portugese, I had gone into a bookstore and asked for a portugese english dictionary. I thought I had gotten something like a phrase book, that would have both portugese to english and english to portugese but I soon discovered I got an dictionary for portugese trying to learn english so I can't understand most of it. But the main reason I had gone in to purchase it is so that I could figure out what I was eating. The portugese and spanish words for food are nothign alike.

Anyhow, back to the story. So I was asking this man, Wagner, about what food was good to eat in portugal and he mentioned he was going out to eat the specialty that night, bacalau, which is cod fish. I thought about the dried pasta I had in the kitchen and decided why not? It's best to go out to eat with someone who can speak the language. So he and I and a girl from San Francisco headed out to eat. The whole meal was an experience, he ordered for us and negotiated with the waiter, apparently (or so he said) true portugese don't necessarily order from the menu. So we had a jug of vino verde (a portugese green wine that is sparkling--- a bit like champagne), soup, bacalau which is cod fish that has been salted and dried and then is resoaked and baked with potatoes, olives, and onions, and a wonderful desert of a flan like pudding with a distinct orange flavor. It was divine.

I had asked before we went out if the 15 euro I had would be enough and he assured me it would but after such a large meal I was skeptical. Then the bill came. 29 euro total. less than 10 euro each. Have I mentioned I love portugal?

Porto

It´s good to be back in portugal. For one thing the music here is just so much better than elsewhere. It was a long day today though, I took a bus here from santiago which was late, and I had negelected to add in the time change so what I thought was a two hour bus ride was really four hours. And the bus dropped me outside the city center and since I couldn´t really figure out exactly where I needed to be I decided to walk to my hostel. By the time I found it I was exhausted and sweaty. And I only have one night here in porto so I felt pressure to sight see once I arrived. So what do I decide to do? Climb the tallest tower in portugal. 225 steps later, I was even more exhausted. But the view was incredible and the rain had temporarily stopped. But now it is raining again and the forcast is for rain, rain, and more rain. I may have to rethink Lisbon for somewhere dry and sunny, we´ll see.

Plans for home

I thought I would update you all on the rest of my plans for the trip. I´ve decided to return to the states before my original return date of November 26th. I will be returning to the US on the 8th of November where I will spend about 10 days in NYC before returning to seattle on November 17th.

As you probably gathered from my early blogs I had a hard time adjusting to life as a solo traveler in a country where I didn´t know the language. It was at this point that I started to consider cutting my trip short. Originally I didn´t think I´d make it this long (at one point I had tentative plans to come home on October 18th). But as I got my "traveling legs" I´ve kept changing my mind and extending my time here. I´m proud to say that over the last 6 weeks I´ve really grown to love traveling alone and everytime I do something with ease that was stressful those first few weeks I can´t help but smile.

But I´ve seen most of spain and portugal at this point and I´ve done it slowly, at the pace I wanted to. I strongly considered branching off to the rest of Europe (london, paris, amsterdam) but it seems like it would sort of be tacked on. What I wanted from this trip is to get to know a region of Europe well and I feel I´ve done that.

I´m on a four month leave of absense from work to figure out where I want my life to go and I´ve figured out a lot while traveling, but now it´s time to go back and assess what I´ve learned. I´d like to spend some time at the coast, and relax in seattle.

I´m really looking forward to my last two weeks here. I´ll be spending tomorrow night in Porto before spending a week in Lisbon and a week in Madrid before I leave. In all I will have spent 8 weeks (ocho semanas) in spain. I think that´s pretty good for a first trip alone.

Polbo!

So I did eat some octopus, and it was quite good. I didn´t really know I was ordering it, though. The thing that is a little difficult about spain is that since Franco ended the regions have been going back to their original languages. And often times they will just put a menu in the regional language. (This is also a real problem with finding your way around as sometimes your map has street names in spanish and the buildings have street names in basque, catalan, or galacian).

Galacian is a mixture of spanish and portugese so you kind of have to guess at things, sometimes the menus will be in both spanish and portugese but generally not at the best restaurants. So Laurie, a girl I met on the train yesterday, and I spent the day together today and decided to get a menu del dia. It´s a three course menu of a starter, entree, and desert that you can get in most towns in spain. They are generally a great deal as they include a drink (beer, water, or wine) and are usually 10 - 12 €.

Anyhow, on with the story. We were pretty much guessing at the menu as everything was in galacian. I guessed right on my starter (fava beans and spinach) but wrong at my entree. See I thought Polbo was awfully similar to Pollo which is chicken in spanish and the octopus here is supposed to be called pulpa de gallega. But low an behold when my entree landed on my table it was octopus, tentacles and all. I´d been wanting to try it though so I dove in. It was fantastic, as long as I didn´t focus on the suctions or the fact that the four peices I had in front of my had come from one of the 2 1/2 inch diameter tentacles from the octopus I´d seen in the refrigeration case upstairs. But really it was good. And as a midwestern girl who didn´t eat seafood 6 years ago I was quite proud of myself.

In addition to the lunch I attended a portion of the pilgrim mass at the catedral de santiago (the end of the pilgram trail). I did stick my fingers in the cloumn of life and hug the statue of santiago but I neglected to knock my head against the head of maestro mateo. I figure I am smart enough without it ;). (legend is that you knock your head against his to obtain some of his genius.

All in all, I am really enjoying Santiago. I have one more day here in which I plan to shop. The jewelry here is incredible.

A pilgrimage

So I am in Santiago de Compostella, the ending point for the Camino de Santiago. A pilgrimage walk that goes from France to Santiago. I feel like I had a pilgrimage of my own getting here. It was a 12 hour train ride from San Sebastian. The countryside was gorgeous but the train ride was long.

Galicia is equally beautiful to the basque region and reminds me a lot of what I would imagine of ireland and what I´ve seen of scottland and new zealand. Very green hills and rainy. It´s very seattle weather, I think I am in training for me return.

On the train ride I was plotting returning to spain to travel via car from San Sebastian to Santiago once I am fluent in spanish. This region could definitely use a bit more of my time.

Santiago itself is very different than other spanish towns I´ve seen (probably due to the rain), there are not many outdoor cafes, more pub type restaurants in old stone buildings.

The specialty here is pulpa de gallega (boiled octopus) and all of the restaurants have live lobsters and large octopus in the windows. I am hoping to find someone to be adventurous with me and try it, I don´t think I can eat a whole octopus myself.

There is a large cathedral here and that´s where I am headed now. Supposedly I need to knock my head three times on the statue of Santiago and stick my fingers in the holes above hercules head. I may wait to see if other people do it first.

San Sebastian

Well, my beach plans were a bit postponed today when I awoke to rain. So instead I spent the day wandering the town with some friends I´ve met in my hostel, and eating chocolate & churros.

San Sebastian is an amazing town. One of the most beautiful I have ever seen. Two blocks from my hostel there is a large crescent shapped beach protected on two sides by large hills with an island between them. The countryside around is very green and the water a beautiful turquoise. The town, while definitely a resort town also appears to still be a functioning fishing village, I wandered down to the pier this morning where I found lots of fishing nets and lots of cats hanging around. I am aquiring quite a collection of cat photos on this trip!

Some hostel friends and I climbed to the top of one of the hills on the bay where there is a 17th century fort and a large statue of jesus. It was really nice to be in the woods again, and, dad, we saw lots of slugs, I felt at home.

So in short, I am thoroughly enjoying relaxing in this beautiful spanish town.

Museu Gugenheim and the Basque Countryside

Well, I made it to San Sebastian yesterday. It is beautiful here. The hills are so green! After 5 weeks in the dry spanish climate the rolling green hills and mountains are a welcome sight.

The hillsides have little towns nestled in the nooks and crannies with stone walls and tiled roofs. It is beautiful. So beautiful that I have decided to stay another night in san sebastian and extend my stay in Santiago as well. I realized I am a hilly rainy green countryside sort of gal, and when you couple that with the beach here in San Sebastian you can´t beat it.

OK, on to the Gugenheim. Today I took a day trip to Bilboa, about an hour or so from San Sebastian. Bilboa is a primarily industrial city that is busy trying to reinvent itself as a hip tourist destination. It´s doing pretty well. The city is really clean and there is a lot of work that has been put into making the waterfront and other areas very pleasant to stroll along.

The Gugenheim is incredible, a landmark building. An brilliant sculpture that manages to stand out of the surrounding town and at the same time make the surrounding hills and buildings beautiful. It was fantastic.

I couldn´t help compare this building to two other Gehry buildings, the weisman art museum in minneapolis and the experience music project in seattle (two towns I´ve lived in). The gugenheim is very similar to the weisman, in the way that the titanium facade reflects the light off of the adjacent river. He also used sandstone in the structure so it is a combination of curving, sculptural titanium and rigid linear sandstone. In contrast to the EMP, I think that gehry took into account the surroundings for this building and managed to make it innovative without being intrusive. In a way it seemed to make the surrounding areas more picturesque.

The interior seemed an improvement over both buildings. With the weisman, once inside you don´t really get a sense of the outside structure whereas with the gugenheim you are constantly reminded of it and connected to it. I am realizing through my numerous architecture experiences here in spain that this is something I think is very important in good architecture. Also, it makes use of the space, whereas I feel the EMP has a lot of wasted space.

OK, enough architecture the exhibits themselves were really cool as well including a series of large steel sculptural mazes you could walk through and a outstanding temporary exhibit showcasing african modern art. One artist had some paintings portraying the WTC attacks that were particularly powerful and disturbing.

Tomorrow I am planning a day at the beach.

Sagrada Familia

Well today I went to Sagrada Familia. I knew it was "the site to see" in Barcelona. I guess my expectations weren´t that high. I was skeptical it would be worth all of the hype. Parque Güell hadn´t made that grand an impression on me, and with the throngs of tourists I knew would be there I was prepared for a mixed reaction. I was wrong.

Sagrada Familia is everything it is supposed to be. The structure is so beautiful and the way Gaudi used helixes and parabolic shapes to create the domes was unbelievable. Even under construction it was awe inspiring and I can only imagine what it will be once complete. I think I took at least a hundred pictures.

Speaking of pictures, I am hoping one of these days to get some more pictures up onto the website. I am having problems compressing the files to a smaller size so that they are easier to put on the web. Otherwise it takes like 30 minutes per image to upload and sometimes the computers I am working on freeze up before I can get them online. So if anyone can walk me through how to reduce the size of an image with windows it would be appreciated. You´ll need to tell me exactly what toolbar and item number because all of the computer menus are in spanish and so I have to rely on memory as to where everything is to do anything.

Tomorrow I am catching an ungodly early train to San Sebastian (7:30). Tonight my dormmates and I are headed out for one last Catalonian meal. (the food here has been amazing).

Montserrat & Friexnet

So today I took my first guided day tour. It was in a minivan with a scottish driver, george, and three vacationers from Denmark. It was an interesting experience. George himself was very interesting. He did these tours mainly as a way to get himself out of the city and make a little money at the same time. He was a financial consulatant who 4 years ago quit his job to travel and has been living in various exotic locals ever since, including fiji, austrailia and the latest spain for the last two years. But he seems to be sick of the spaniards, and their food (he´s a vegetarian) so he is thinking of moving on.... he just wants someone to take over his minibus business so he can continue to make money off it. (I didn´t volunteer).

We were taken up to Montserrat, a monestary near the top of a large mountain near barcelona (1236m). The mountain area itself is very beautiful it reminds me a lot of the needles in the black hills of South dakota only on a much grander scale. It was gorgeous. From the monestary you can take a funicular to the top of the mountain and hike on many hiking trails. It was fantastic to get up above and hike. I realized it is the first time I have heard natural silence in 5 weeks of traveling, no cars, just the wind, crickets, and birds. I was surprised to have the trail entirely to myself as I walked back down to the monestary. It was a wide trail practically paved so luckily I had plenty of room to make sure there were no snakes going to sneak out and scare me.

The monestary is also known for its statue of the vigin mary and christ. Both are black (unusual). It is the patron saint of Cataluna so people come from all over to rub the statue for luck. I waited in line to see it next to a woman who was holding her grandchild, when they came to the statue they rubbed the childs head on it and said some prayers. There was also a room nearby with items such as wedding dresses and children´s clothes--offerings to the virgin.

On our way back down we stopped for a cava tasting at friexnet (don´t worry you can get it in the US they also have a winery in california). I didn´t really like this part of the tour. Remember in "sideways" where they go to the large winery with wine coming out of all the fountains? It was a bit like that. At one point in the tour we all got on a train and were driven through the 11 floors of wine. (Mass production?) The "tasting" consisted of one glass of cava which tasted exactly like the friexnet I´ve had in the US. Ahh well, I bought a bottle of organic red wine at the store instead. I´ll tell you how it is after I drink it with my dormmates tonight. (I don´t have high hopes).

On the way back into town George was explaining to me all the things I had left to do in Barcelona and I explained I only had one more day and Sagrada Familia had to take precidence so our tour was extended to include the olympic village and the castell on the top of the highest hill with a full panoramic view of barcelona. It was sunset and it was spectacular.

All in all a top notch tour. I think I will do similar ones in other cities if I get the chance.

Gaudi and the beach

Today I went to Parque Güell here in Barcelona. For those of you who don´t know its a park that Antonio Gaudi developed. It has lots of paths and bridges and a plaza all done in a very typical Gaudi style. (whimsical curved forms with lots of colorful tiling and not a vertical column to be found). Originally Gaudi was commissioned to create the space as the roads and paths for a high end housing complex that was to be built here but the houses were never built and so the paths were used in the park instead. The house that Gaudi lived in until his death is also in the park.

Once again I found it nice to be in a decent sized park among trees. I love all the plazas here in spain but I am noticing I really miss the parks that we have in Seattle. They have a bit more vegetation and are more wild than the plazas here. The downside to this park is that being that Gaudi created it was mobbed with tourists. It could also be because we were there at prime visiting hours. (My intentions to get an early start this morning fell by the wayside.)

So after a productive morning of wandering through a park, the austrailian girl that was hanging out with me and I decided the best way to recover would be to go to the beach. (yes, wandering through a park can be exhausting). So we went to check out the barcelona beach. It was quite a nice beach with surprisingly few speedos. But there were some rag tag travelers next to us smoking a suspicious substance and sleeping on their luggage. The best part was that said luggage included their cat. Attached to one of the bags with a leash. He looked content as can be to be there. Quite the sight.

So that was my "busy" day of traveling today. Tomorrow I have booked my first guided tour to the monestary Mont Serrat near here I have to be ready at 9am (early for spain). There´s supposed to be lots of nice hiking trails up in the hills and I´m hoping to do some hiking while there (provdied my fear of snakes doesn´t prevent me from venturing too far alone).

Barcelona

So today and yesterday I spent the days wandering around barcelona, getting oriented, finding out what it is like. It´s a really hip city, that´s for sure, and I´ve seen countless places with really cool modern interiors. The shopping (especially shoes) is incredible. I managed to only buy one pair. There are so many cool shoes and things here that it´s a bit overwhelming for your senses. I might say it´s the best shopping that I have ever come across in my life. It´s probably a good thing that whatever I buy I have to carry on my back because it is the only thing keeping me from going broke.

I also saw the Picasso Museum this afternoon. Quite an extensive collection. It was cool to see his study of Las Meninas considering I just saw the original by Valasquez a week ago (has it only been a week?)

I´m staying in an area of the town called Bario Gotic. Its a labyrinth of twisting streets just off of the ramblas. There is a covered market nearby with lots of produce, olives and fish. It was great to get some fresh produce and cook myself a decent meal.

Tonight some girls from the hostel and I are going to hit the town and see what barcelona nightlife is like. Tomorrow I plan on devoting to Gaudi.

I booked the next portion of my trip today. I´m planning on heading to San Sebastian from here and then across to Santiago de Compostella and then south through Porto back to Lisbon. Any tips on things to see on this route would be appreciated.

(Brian, thanks so much for your tips on Barcelona, I´m hopping to find someone to try out the "top 10" restaurant with, it´s sometimes hard to find people willing to spend money on meals in backpackers hostels, and it´s better to dine with a companion)

The davinci code was wrong...

...there is a holy grail.

I went to see it today. I view it kind of like columbus´ tomb. Most likely it´s not really the holy grail but what if it is, and I had the chance to see it and missed it. That would be a shame. Unforunately there was a service going on in the chapel where it is kept but I was able to view it from a distance and it looked just like all the photos. I bought an pamphlet that explains the grail and I´ll include an excerpt from the section "value of the archeological data"..... "The cup is a very ancient work and nothing can be said against the idea that it was utilized by the lord during the first eucharistic consecration. The base is as well a very old cup, perhaps a further study on the inscription could give us a better understanding." I´m a bit skeptical.

Anyhow, the church itself was very cool as well with an amazing view from the top of the tower.

Now I am in barcelona where it is raining and cold. So much for summer.

Calatrava´s Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias

(I realize that having photos to look at would make this post more interesting so I am including a link to the center´s website

http://www.valencians.com/cac/ )

So today I made my way to Calatrava´s Center for arts and sciences. For those of you who don´t know architecture, Calatrava is a world famous architect known for his grand, modern structures (He was also the architect for the Oriente Train and bus station in Lisbon I had mentioned earlier). The center for arts and sciences has several buildings as part of its complex. The Opera house, the hemisphere (IMAX) the Center for artes and sciences, the science museum, the Aquarium (apparently the largest in Europe.)

To get there I had a pleasant walk down a public park that is in the old river bed of The Turia River. Apparently the river had been silting up over the years and in 1957 there were some major floods. So the city of Valencia diverted the river´s course through some new canals. They built a quite pleasant park in old river bed. It´s kind of cool because all the old bridges still remain.

Once at the center of arts and sciences I was quite amazed. The structures are really cool, there is hardly a vertical column to be found it´s just a web of concrete and steel... with some glass in between. Everything is white and it is surrounded by many large turquoise pools. In the height of the day, it was a bit blinding.

I tried to go to the aquarium, since it is Europe´s largest, but the woman selling me the ticket told me she wouldn´t because it takes 7 hours to see the aquarium and they were only open 5 more hours (wow!). That was actually ok with me because it was a 22€ entrance fee (yikes!). So instead I just hung around the complex, had some lunch, took many photos and tried to figure out what I thought about it.

I have mixed reactions to the complex. It seems a bit over the top to me. It´s amazing, for sure and structurally significant, for sure, but it´s almost like it overwhelms your senses and overpowers its surroundings. They were also obviously having trouble with the upkeep ( not unlike the seattle library). It made me feel a bit like the architecture was a bit impractical, or perhaps not being kept up and utilized to its fullest potential. They also had artifical barriers all over the place (not sure if they are temporary or not) but it seemed to me like it was interfereing with the experience of the place, not to be able to walk from one to the other without hitting a steel mesh fence.

Anyhow, that makes it sound very negative and god knows I´m no architecture critic but it´s just my reactions to the place. As I said, there is no arguing that it is an amazing complex from both a structural and architectural standpoint, perhaps it is merely that my expectations were too high.

Energizer´s new mascot

In case they ever tire of the pink rabbit. I´ve discovered a new mascot for Engergizer batteries, the Valencian Independence Day Parade.

(SIDE NOTE; Since I posted yesterday I have learned that the independence that Valencia was celebrating yesterday was the defeat of the Moors by the Christians in 1236. )

I mentioned in my previous post that the streets had been lined with chairs in the afternoon in preparation for what I anticipated was to be a parade. Sure enough, not 15 minutes after I had started my late afternoon seista (around 6pm) I started to hear the beat of a distant drum. Not wanting to miss the parade (as the earlier procession had been quite short) I got up and raced to the balconies off of the kitchen to watch the parade.

It started with rows and rows of people dressed in arab attire, belly dancers, etc (It wasn´t hard for me to gather that these people represented the moors). these were followed by nights and crusaders showing off large weapons and crosses (obviously the christians). These people were accompanied by percussion only and you couldn´t help but get a real sense of anticipation. Then around the corner came two men (one dressed as a moor and they other a christian) holding a sign that read Moros i Christians 2006.

This is when the real parade really started. Lines and lines of people in medieval attire. The order was as follows. There would be a solitary woman in front (usually brandishing some sort of weapon), followed by a row of like 10 women, followed by a solitary man (also with a weapon), and a row of 10 men. These people were followed by a band of like 15 or so playing loud spanish big band music. This procession order repeated, each time the costumes would change slightly, (it seemed perhaps they represented eras of valencian history?) Occasionally the order would be intersperced with a float, or a man on a chariot or three women riding horseback standing up.

It was quite cool...... for about an hour and a half.

Then we started wondering when it was going to end. Frankly the music was getting to be a bit much and there was no where to escape it in the hostel. Well, the parade (and loud music) just kept going and going and going, at one point I checked in outside to find the rows of men and women were now in african attire and followed by a large mechanical elephant (this kind of blew my valencian history theory). And still the parade kept going and going. 8, 9, until finally at 10 we were sitting up on the roof terrace and it started to fade and then stopped. We couldn´t quite believe it had stopped, I mean, our ears were still ringing and we thought at first we were just imagining the silence. 30 minutes later we exited the hostel to find the streets empty, all of the chairs removed and hardly a sole left on the street or in town.

Apparently a 4 hour parade signals the end of the festivities.

Lucky?

Either Spain has a lot of fiestas or I am expecially prone to hitting them. I think it´s a little of both.

Now I am in Valencia and I´ve landed smack dab in the middle of their fiesta for Valencian Independence. This is the fifth holiday/fiesta I have managed to find in Spain and Portugal.

For the fiesta, there was a parade of sorts this morning, more of a procession really, with I think the various different politcal parties for Castilla. There is a huge seperatist movement here in Valencia they want their own language back and to be separated from spain. There was a large group of protesters near us booing the procession and lots of clapping and "Viva Valencia!" from the older people in the crowd. It was quite the experience, I´m not sure exactly what was going on but there were lots of police with guns protecting some very well dressed people who I assume are important political officials. There seems to be a huge post-franco movement towards regionalism in spain. It´s very interesting.

I´m also not really in tune to how the events of the fiesta work they seem to be small and isolated and the whole town just moves as one large mob from event to event. A french girl and I were just following the crowd to various different events and we kept arriving at the very end and by the time we got there the crowd would be going back the other direction. Just now they have set up rows of plastic chairs all along the streets and people are starting to get their seats so I assume there is more to come. Luckily my hostel has balconies overlooking the street so I am hoping I can just watch it from here.

I´m in valencia two more days. It´s a great relaxing town and feels very safe. It´s a great place to decompress a bit.

As a quick update for the rest of my time in Madrid. The city impressed me a lot more the second time around. My spanish has improved to the point that I can get myself around fairly stress free. I can get the basic necessities, food and drink, pretty easily, provided there are no problems and no one tries to strike up a conversation with me, in which case my only response is "Lo Siento, No Entiendo". Anyhow, my improved knowledge of the spanish language and systems made madrid much more enjoyable. The prado was amazing and I met some family friends in the small town of Alcala about 30 minutes out of Madrid. It´s the birthplace of Crevantes (author of Don Quiote) And every year they have a huge medieval fair to celebrate his birth. It was really cool, especially since the town itself is very medieval.

Well, that´s all I´ll write for now. Tomorrow I will head to the center for arts and sciences here in valencia. A complex designed by Calatrava so get ready for another blog about architecture tomorrow.

Madrid II

Well, here I am back in madrid, in the same internet cafe where I wrote my first blog. I must say it is comforting to arrive in a city and know where you are going. Although, I did tell the girls in my train cabin that we were arriving at Atocha and we were not! oops.

Anyhow, the night train went well and I am fairly well rested. I slept a bit restlessly as it got very cold. It´s cold here in Madrid and I am thinking the summer weather is at an end for me on this trip. It was in the upper 60s yesterday in Lisbon and here in madrid I would say it is 50s. Fall has arrived rather abruptly for me. It´s hard to believe I was in 80 degree weather a week ago.

I don´t have much time in Madrid this time so I am thinking I am going to hit the museums and do some shopping (I need to find myself some warmer clothes).

Then on Sunday I head to Valencia.

Sintra

On my last day here in Lisbon I took a day trip to a small town near here called Sintra. It's a very beautiful town up in the hills near the coast. The town itself was really beautiful but mobbed with tour groups. Up in the hills though there were the ruins of a moorish castle which was quite nice. lots of peaceful woods and you could walk around the perimeter castle walls and there were outstanding views out to the atlantic and south. The town is not far from Cabo de Roca which is the most western point of Europe. Unfortuately I did not have enough time today to make it out there.

Also in the hills is the Palacio de Pena. A monestary that was converted to a palace in the 1800s and used until 1910. It was surprisingly cool with lavish decorations and furniture including one room which nothing but painted porcelin furniture.

The surrounding parks were really nice. It felt like I was out of the city and I've been missing nature. It's been a bit disappointing to me on this trip that I have found it so difficult to get out to the national parks that are around. There isn't good bus service and frankly, I just haven't been brave enough to attempt a trip where I might end up stranded.

If I make it back to lisbon I'd like to spend more time in the grounds of the palace and around the castello do moures. It's the type of place I'd like to lose myself in for a day or two.

Tonight I am taking the night train to Madrid. Hopefully all will go smoothly as the guy who sold me the ticket didn't speak english and so we were relying on sign language.

I'll check in once I am in Madrid. Uncle Pood, I'm going to try to find your old house tomorrow.

technical difficulties

Blogger doesn't seem to be working for me in Lisbon. I've tried many times and it won't let me post about my experiences here, perhaps it is too large? If you want to hear about lisbon send me an email and I will email you the post. Otherwise, I will write again from Madrid.

Lisboa

Sorry for the lack of posts over the last few days. My blog page has been having difficulties and there has been a lot of people trying to use the computer here so I have not been wanting to tie it up.

Long story short, I really love lisbon and am contemplating coming back here for a week or two at the end of my trip.

I'll try to repost more later.

Lara

Museo Gulbenkian and other observations

I really like Portugal. It's a completely different feel than spain and I like it better. The food is better, the people are more friendly. I still haven't put my finger on exactly what it is that makes me like it more, maybe I'll have figured that out by the time I leave.

Lisbon is a very San Francisco type town. The owner of my hostel said it best he said. Lisbon and San Francisco are identical twins that grew up in seperate places. One was given the best education coddled and nurtured and the other (Lisboa) was in an orphanage, turned loose at 18 and is a little more jaded and street smart. Its a very good analogy. There are times when lisbon scares me but its a comfortable sort of scary. Hard to explain.

Yesterday I went to the Museo Gulbenkian here in lisbon. It is quite possibly the coolest building/gardens I have ever been in. The architects (portugese) were Alberto Pessoa, Pedro Cid and Ruy d'Athouguia. Constructed between 1961 and 1969 its form is very modular with concrete beams and columns and lots of glass. Wood infills between the beams give the interior a very warm feeling.

Each window is perfectly positioned with views to the surrounding gardens and all the roofs and canopies are green gardens themselves. The beams align with these windows to draw your eye to the exterior space. The whole theme to the design was connecting interior to exterior which I thought was so unique for a museum. So often museums are afraid of light and connection to the exterior I spent a while watching people as they went through the museum and most would turn a corner and pause as they were drawn out to the gardens. It was really cool.

The exterior gardens were just as cool with little concrete paver paths everywhere that would lead you to secret nooks and crannies of the gardens. When you reached the end, there would just be a bench in the middle of a circle of stones with bamboo around. Or copper seats, around pools that collect rain water. I spent the whole day there. Anyhow, enough raving about the architecture. Today I am going exploring in downtown, the bario alto and the old moorish quarter here, more later.