This morning we woke up late. After a cup of coffee Poppy pulled up the computer and we all checked email/sent important last-minute messages (such as letting my Momma know where to meet us in the airport and when). When I finished emailing people Ahmee and Poppy were more than ready to go eat breakfast, so I hurried and got dressed to go down with them.
We ate breakfast again in the circular booths downstairs (me in the middle this time so Ahmee and Poppy didn't have such a hard time getting out), where we talked about what we were going to do that day. The first thing on our list was to take the rental car to the airport. After breakfast we went back upstairs to grab a few things (like the map and our purses) and then we went down to the car and drove to the aeroporto. It wasn't difficult turning in the car, and finding our bus wasn't difficult either (even if it did cause a bit of sweat on my part-I thought a cab would be better). We road back to our street where we went and took a look at the bull ring that was nearby. Under this bullring there was a mall. We enjoyed doing a bit of window shopping down there, but after about 45 minutes we needed to get back to the room so we could pack our things.
The idea was to consolidate all of the things we'd gotten into our suitcases and our carry-on's without inflicting damage (and also thinking about preventing damage) to the items. I had to move a few books and postcards (and other flat things) to the bottom of my suitcase and sort through the clothes I wanted to keep and the clothes I no longer cared about. I did this for every bag/container I have. Anything I will not use when I get back has been thrown away, thus making room for gifts and keepsakes. It didn't take me long to get everything into my suitcase and surprisingly enough I think I have more room in there than what I started out with (same goes for my pregnant backpack). I even had room in my suitcase for one of Ahmee's "black uglies" (aka: her black tennis shoes). I have room for more, but I think I might end up breaking things if I put too much more in there. I'm proud to say that I managed to do this packing in under an hour.
After we had everything packed I was hot from running around. I sat down for a minute, fanning myself, and then I pulled on my jacket, my coat, and my scarf. I then grabbed my purse as Ahmee was just finishing up putting on her things. Just as we were heading to walk out the door we got a phone call from the desk saying our tour had arrived and they were waiting for us. Perfect timing really. We were down there in less than 2 minutes after they gave us that call.
We went down, saw a woman in a black coat, and followed her out to the small tour bus where we hopped into the seats up front and showed her our vouchers. The bus went all around the city to different hotels, none of which had any people in them who wanted to take a tour. We stopped at the park in front of the Christmas tree to wait for other tourists and our tour guide. Several buses lined up and several tour guides got out and chatted with each other in the rain as we waited patiently on the bus. As we waited a couple came up and asked where their tour was. We ended up doing a musical chairs where we got out and went to another bus when they really needed to go to that bus and we needed to stay on. Once this was sorted out our tour guide came and stood on the bus with us and talked to us for a little bit. She told us there was another group of 13 that would be joining up with us.
This group of 13 arrived 10 minutes later. This group was a group of frenchmen who were having a guys trip out and who were (as Ahmee puts it) "all intent on having a good time". Each one of these men said Bonjour to us as they got on the bus, and each one of them smiled and talked to us (it's the thought that counts right?). Our tour guide's name was Paula and she was absolutely outstanding! Later we found out that she spoke Portuguese, English, French, Italian, Spanish, and a little bit of German. She told the men in the back that the tour would be done in English and in French, because the three of us at the front were English. The men acted surprised at this but definitely didn't complain.
We then commenced with the tour where we saw several different sections of town including: the April 25th Bridge, the Cristo (Christ statue), an example of the Manuel architecture (more ornate than the gothic), the tower outpost that had originally been in the middle of the river, the monument dedicated to the navigators (had a wonderful map of the world done in stone), the Church of Our Lady of the Sea (had the tombs of kings and of the great navigator Vasco De Gama and some pretty spectacular carvings), a restaurant where we ate killer pastels and where we had an excellent time talking to the Frenchmen (through Paula of course), the Alfama section (where everyone lived before the 15 century: Jews, Moors, rich, poor, etc.), an old palace that had tons of TNP bubbles in front of it and blue and white christmas lights decorating it, the elevators built to aid those who want to go to different levels, the shopping center, and the road that lead up to where we began except this time the tree was all lit up. After this the frenchmen got off the bus and the busdriver eased through traffic to get us to our hotel.
After this we went in, we emailed people, we ate dinner (had newbee's in training), and we came back upstairs where we got our last few things together and where I wrote this day. I have to apologize for the shortness of this blog, unfortunately I'm short on time: the sooner I get to bed the better able I'll be able to cope with getting up at four in the morning tomorrow. Tomorrow we'll be spending the whole day flying from one airport to the next and waiting in between until we finally get to Louisville. I'll have to write a short version of this day too.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
12/02/08 We wake up a bit later, I write, we go to Sintra, we see the National Palace, we see the Moorish Castle, and we get back to the Holiday Inn w
Quiero mi madre, mi hermana, mi perros, mi gata, mis amigos, y mi dormitario. En una dia yo voy con mi abuelos para los Estados Unidos.
I actually got decent sleep again. I was able to wake up and get writing fairly early. Once done I jumped in the shower and got dressed. As I waited for Ahmee and Poppy to get dressed I played with the light fixtures next to Ahmee and Poppy's overly large bed. This would be an example of how weird I am. These lights are silver and are basically jut a tube with a small light at the end. I think they look like an alien. Maybe I took the CNN thing over the radio signal-checking device for outerspace a little bit too much to heart, or maybe those things just look like aliens. Either way, I was standing next to the bed playing with the thing, twisting it up into all kinds of shapes and making it look like ET's finger. The whole time Ahmee had her back to me. She ended up laughing though when I incorporated sound effects with the motions. I didn't really know I was doing it at first but when Ahmee cackled into a fit of laughter when she turned around to see what I was doing I realized those noises I'd pictured were actually coming out of my mouth. Yet again, I greatly amused Ahmee.
After we were all ready we went downstairs, ate breakfast in the hard to get into booths (circular booths are the thing for those people who want to lose weight), and then went out to the car to get on the road to Sintra. When I heard Sintra I thought we were going to the center, for some reason. I was surprised when I heard that Sintra was on the outskirts of Lisbon, and that it had been used as a summer get away (it was cooler than the valley). Something I didn't like the sound of was that we were going off the map and we were driving there ourselves. I was afraid for a bit that we were breaking one of our own rules which is: depend on buses, trains, or taxi's when traveling in a large city. Turns out, I didn't need to be worried. We had no problem getting to Sintra.
We parked close to the town hall, thinking we were close to the National Palace. We were wrong, but it wasn't in a devastating way. We got to walk around a garden, we got to see sculptures, and we got to walk through a small section of town. I made Ahmee laugh again when I pointed out a huge sculpture saying, "OOOOH would ya look at that!... that thing is taking up parking spaces." She replied, "Wow.... What a display of art appreciation!"
After this fun walk we got to go into the National Palace, a place that combines soooo many different cultures. How? Well the Portuguese Royal Family and their court went there for balls, for hunting, a for tidbits of statesmanship. Since Portugal was one of the leading traders back in the day (and probably still so today) they had fabulous furniture/architectural decoration from all different parts of the globe. There were Moorish tiles (I liked the vines the most), moorish fountains, and moorish-style gardens. There were Chinese cabinets, Chinese screens, and other artifacts made in China in the Chinese style (although not always of material from China-ex: one cabinet had a wood brought in from Brazil). There were Portuguese/India cabinets, P./I. tables, and other artifacts. There were clocks made in England based on the Big Ben. There were glass mirrors made in Venice; there were glass chandeliers brought in from Italy, there were carrara marble statues-obviously from Italy; there were tables made of multiple marbles from Italy. There were sooo many things that were inlaid with ivory, with velvet, with brass. All of it was extremely ornate. This was perhaps one of the few times that I took more interest in the decoration of the rooms rather than the architecture. The ceilings were of no great interest. The floors were often average. The doors were often fascinating. The one room that really had cool architectural elements was the kitchen, which was situated in two smoke-stacks (yes, they look like the ones at power plants/factories). This room was cool because I could whisper and it would echo. I would hate to be in there with all the clamor of pots and pans and talking, it would hurt my ears.
We finished up the National Palace and headed out to find a tourist information center, to ask how to get up to the Moorish Castle, to walk around for a bit, and to grab a bite to eat in a close-by restaurant. After this we went out, Ahmee and Poppy stood out at the bus station while I looked around in a linens store. We missed the first bus (because it never stopped even though Poppy waved his arms frantically), so Ahmee and I went back into the store and later went back out to join Poppy and to watch the Pigeons in the tree. We caught the second bus partially because it would've been impossible for the bus driver to miss the small crowd that had gathered to jump on it. We got on, me sitting backwords again, to be taken up the windy curvy road through the forest and up to the Moorish Castle. We got off in another crowd, went over and bought tickets, and then went into the Moorish Castle walls.
The sign said that not much of the Moorish Castle was left due to the earthquake that occurred in Portugal in 1755 (?). We went and walked around a ruin. It was a lovely walk. I enjoyed the boulders, the plants, the trees, and the leftovers of the castle. It was somewhat difficult for me to picture the city there though because of all the greenery. I'd kinda lost myself in a nature walk rather than a historical walk.
When we reached the castle I got to decide between a really really thin, steep staircase to the shortest tower, or a really really long staircase where I wasn't sure about it's condition up to the highest tower. Yeah, I picked the long route to the tallest tower, even with the wind blowing and the lack of a railing on the left side. I moved ahead of Ahmee and Poppy, suddenly losing myself in the climb (I was rock climbing again). Once I reached the top I sat on the ledge out of the wind and drew in deep breaths of air as I took in the view of Lisbon to my front, the view of Sintra to my left, the view of the mountains behind me, and the view of the coast and farmland on my right (as well as the Pina Palace). From my perch I could also mark the progress of Ahmee and Poppy up the steep steps. I was glad that none of the steps were as thin as the other staircase.
Poppy got to me first and took a good look around as he pulled in air. Shortly after him came Ahmee who first asked, "Where's Rachel?" I'd considered sitting just above the entrance, but I decided I didn't really want to move (it would've been funny though). After a few minutes we all started to go down, me in the front and hurrying because I was starting to need to use the restroom. I waited for Ahmee and Poppy on a landing with a bench, sitting their freezing as I held it in. We then continued on down, we helped out a woman who was totally lost and who needed help finding her way back to the entrance, and then once we all got out I made a mad dash across the street to the restroom. I didn't even care that it didn't have a toilet seat.
Immediately after I came out of the restroom the bus arrived. We had to run down to it to catch it. Since there were a lot of people running with us I suppose we could've walked and been just fine. Everyone was blocking his way anyway, he can't run over all those people without getting in serious trouble. At any rate we got on the bus, I sat down facing the right way (good thing too because it was even more curvy) and we road all the way back to the Sintra train station. From there we stopped once to grab a newspaper and to then get in the car and make our way back to the Holiday Inn, surprisingly enough we didn't undergo any terrible trials and we got back before dark.
Once back I jumped on the computer and wrote, and wrote, and wrote until dinner time. At dinner we had a wonderful time talking, but I had to cut things short when I discovered I had waited too long to eat something significant (my stomach hurt even after I got through 3/4's of my plate). I went upstairs, used the toilet (no I didn't throw up), and stretched out on my belly. After about 15 minutes I was able to get up and move around again. So I went back to typing.
Ahmee and Poppy came upstairs and gave me the internet card, and wala! We're at the present. I'm now looking forward to my last full day in Europe, which is tomorrow. After that we'll be getting on a plane back to the States.
I actually got decent sleep again. I was able to wake up and get writing fairly early. Once done I jumped in the shower and got dressed. As I waited for Ahmee and Poppy to get dressed I played with the light fixtures next to Ahmee and Poppy's overly large bed. This would be an example of how weird I am. These lights are silver and are basically jut a tube with a small light at the end. I think they look like an alien. Maybe I took the CNN thing over the radio signal-checking device for outerspace a little bit too much to heart, or maybe those things just look like aliens. Either way, I was standing next to the bed playing with the thing, twisting it up into all kinds of shapes and making it look like ET's finger. The whole time Ahmee had her back to me. She ended up laughing though when I incorporated sound effects with the motions. I didn't really know I was doing it at first but when Ahmee cackled into a fit of laughter when she turned around to see what I was doing I realized those noises I'd pictured were actually coming out of my mouth. Yet again, I greatly amused Ahmee.
After we were all ready we went downstairs, ate breakfast in the hard to get into booths (circular booths are the thing for those people who want to lose weight), and then went out to the car to get on the road to Sintra. When I heard Sintra I thought we were going to the center, for some reason. I was surprised when I heard that Sintra was on the outskirts of Lisbon, and that it had been used as a summer get away (it was cooler than the valley). Something I didn't like the sound of was that we were going off the map and we were driving there ourselves. I was afraid for a bit that we were breaking one of our own rules which is: depend on buses, trains, or taxi's when traveling in a large city. Turns out, I didn't need to be worried. We had no problem getting to Sintra.
We parked close to the town hall, thinking we were close to the National Palace. We were wrong, but it wasn't in a devastating way. We got to walk around a garden, we got to see sculptures, and we got to walk through a small section of town. I made Ahmee laugh again when I pointed out a huge sculpture saying, "OOOOH would ya look at that!... that thing is taking up parking spaces." She replied, "Wow.... What a display of art appreciation!"
After this fun walk we got to go into the National Palace, a place that combines soooo many different cultures. How? Well the Portuguese Royal Family and their court went there for balls, for hunting, a for tidbits of statesmanship. Since Portugal was one of the leading traders back in the day (and probably still so today) they had fabulous furniture/architectural decoration from all different parts of the globe. There were Moorish tiles (I liked the vines the most), moorish fountains, and moorish-style gardens. There were Chinese cabinets, Chinese screens, and other artifacts made in China in the Chinese style (although not always of material from China-ex: one cabinet had a wood brought in from Brazil). There were Portuguese/India cabinets, P./I. tables, and other artifacts. There were clocks made in England based on the Big Ben. There were glass mirrors made in Venice; there were glass chandeliers brought in from Italy, there were carrara marble statues-obviously from Italy; there were tables made of multiple marbles from Italy. There were sooo many things that were inlaid with ivory, with velvet, with brass. All of it was extremely ornate. This was perhaps one of the few times that I took more interest in the decoration of the rooms rather than the architecture. The ceilings were of no great interest. The floors were often average. The doors were often fascinating. The one room that really had cool architectural elements was the kitchen, which was situated in two smoke-stacks (yes, they look like the ones at power plants/factories). This room was cool because I could whisper and it would echo. I would hate to be in there with all the clamor of pots and pans and talking, it would hurt my ears.
We finished up the National Palace and headed out to find a tourist information center, to ask how to get up to the Moorish Castle, to walk around for a bit, and to grab a bite to eat in a close-by restaurant. After this we went out, Ahmee and Poppy stood out at the bus station while I looked around in a linens store. We missed the first bus (because it never stopped even though Poppy waved his arms frantically), so Ahmee and I went back into the store and later went back out to join Poppy and to watch the Pigeons in the tree. We caught the second bus partially because it would've been impossible for the bus driver to miss the small crowd that had gathered to jump on it. We got on, me sitting backwords again, to be taken up the windy curvy road through the forest and up to the Moorish Castle. We got off in another crowd, went over and bought tickets, and then went into the Moorish Castle walls.
The sign said that not much of the Moorish Castle was left due to the earthquake that occurred in Portugal in 1755 (?). We went and walked around a ruin. It was a lovely walk. I enjoyed the boulders, the plants, the trees, and the leftovers of the castle. It was somewhat difficult for me to picture the city there though because of all the greenery. I'd kinda lost myself in a nature walk rather than a historical walk.
When we reached the castle I got to decide between a really really thin, steep staircase to the shortest tower, or a really really long staircase where I wasn't sure about it's condition up to the highest tower. Yeah, I picked the long route to the tallest tower, even with the wind blowing and the lack of a railing on the left side. I moved ahead of Ahmee and Poppy, suddenly losing myself in the climb (I was rock climbing again). Once I reached the top I sat on the ledge out of the wind and drew in deep breaths of air as I took in the view of Lisbon to my front, the view of Sintra to my left, the view of the mountains behind me, and the view of the coast and farmland on my right (as well as the Pina Palace). From my perch I could also mark the progress of Ahmee and Poppy up the steep steps. I was glad that none of the steps were as thin as the other staircase.
Poppy got to me first and took a good look around as he pulled in air. Shortly after him came Ahmee who first asked, "Where's Rachel?" I'd considered sitting just above the entrance, but I decided I didn't really want to move (it would've been funny though). After a few minutes we all started to go down, me in the front and hurrying because I was starting to need to use the restroom. I waited for Ahmee and Poppy on a landing with a bench, sitting their freezing as I held it in. We then continued on down, we helped out a woman who was totally lost and who needed help finding her way back to the entrance, and then once we all got out I made a mad dash across the street to the restroom. I didn't even care that it didn't have a toilet seat.
Immediately after I came out of the restroom the bus arrived. We had to run down to it to catch it. Since there were a lot of people running with us I suppose we could've walked and been just fine. Everyone was blocking his way anyway, he can't run over all those people without getting in serious trouble. At any rate we got on the bus, I sat down facing the right way (good thing too because it was even more curvy) and we road all the way back to the Sintra train station. From there we stopped once to grab a newspaper and to then get in the car and make our way back to the Holiday Inn, surprisingly enough we didn't undergo any terrible trials and we got back before dark.
Once back I jumped on the computer and wrote, and wrote, and wrote until dinner time. At dinner we had a wonderful time talking, but I had to cut things short when I discovered I had waited too long to eat something significant (my stomach hurt even after I got through 3/4's of my plate). I went upstairs, used the toilet (no I didn't throw up), and stretched out on my belly. After about 15 minutes I was able to get up and move around again. So I went back to typing.
Ahmee and Poppy came upstairs and gave me the internet card, and wala! We're at the present. I'm now looking forward to my last full day in Europe, which is tomorrow. After that we'll be getting on a plane back to the States.
12/01/08 We head to Lisboa (Lisbon), on the way we eat at the Chill In and see the exciting countryside
La restaurant Chill In es una estupendo restaurant. Me gusta mucho la cosas yo como en la restaurant. Me gusta los perros tambien.
This morning before we went down to breakfast I got dressed, washed my face, and then went to take a look out the window at the cloudless bay and the gorgeous beach. When I turned around I found ants on the floor. I took a closer look and realized that the ants were near my purse (also on the floor). I immediately alerted Ahmee to it, who sat down on the bed and laughed when I exclaimed, "The ants are in my purse! They're using my zipper as a ladder! Why are they in there?! I haven't got any food!" As she chuckled I popped open my purse, took out my french handbook, my spanish flashcards, my postcards, my glasses case, and my umbrella bag. At the very bottom I found a little package wrapped up in a white paper towel that had more than the average amount of ants on it. I immediately knew that this was the brownie I'd searched for months ago (had a terrible feeling it was from the first time we were in France). When I found this I went, "Oh. I do have food in there." I threw away my brownie thinking, "Those suckers got my chocolate!" I then took my purse outside and I put all of my things outside with it (because they had a few ants on them).
When we went down to breakfast (before hand I sent off work) and afterwards when I was putting my things back together (sadly enough some of my things got wet when they were outside) Ahmee told Poppy about my ant episode. It gave her quite a laugh and I can't really say that I blame her.
Once everything was together we went downstairs where we waited in line to check out (Ahmee and I admiring the layout of the building and the christmas decoration). Then when we were free to go we got on the road headed north to Lisbon. We stopped once to try and get into a church (church in Bispo) which Ahmee and Poppy had seen before and which had a beautiful interior. The door wasn't open though and we never found the door so I never got to see the blue tiles and the painted ceiling within (except for on the pamphlet Ahmee had). So we moved on and passed through the countryside and avoided the highway. Most of the time we went slowly, watching the scenery and the windy road. We went through forests with pine trees, cork trees, and other plants. The hills were rolling, the roads reminded me of the curvy ones my Momma loves to drive on, and the plants reminded me of Japanese mountainsides (prints) and of other places I'd seen. The rain wasn't much of a hindrance until we went off the road to the beach. We got out to walk on the sand. My objective was to touch the Atlantic again, which I did. I got close to one of the barnackle-covered rocks and touched the water in the small pool there. It was freezing but the smell and the sights were wonderful. I'd never been to a beach that was framed by cliffs. I'd never been to a beach that had rocks that had those pools and that had those rocks. I did recognize the plant life though when we were getting back into the car (and battling the rain and wind). The century plants, plants that are related to Yuccas and that bloom once after thirty years and then die with lots of babies at their base, the yuccas, the icicle plants (saw those on top of the cliffs at Sagres), and the pines in the background on the hills. For those of you who don't know about yuccas, I recommend you do a bit of research. They are common in the southwest U.S., and were used for all kinds of things by the Indians (paper, tea, etc.). They also have really beautiful blooms.
When we got back on the road our wet clothes caused the windows to fog up, which was slightly annoying for those of us who wanted to see out the window. When Poppy turned on the cooler we were able to look out the windows at the newly harvested cork trees (they scrape the bark off the trees every now and then-no idea how often-leaving the bottom part of the trees orange), at the pine trees (which I really love), the grasses, and the pueblos (which I thought were exceedingly pretty).
Finally we passed through a section of mostly pine trees, went around a curve which had a restaurant across the street from a cork tree that hadn't been harvested yet, and then on down the road we saw another storks nest just above someone's house. At that point we decided it was a good time to turn around and get a picture of the stork posing in his nest, and to head back to the cork tree so I could feel its bark. We did both of these things. The stork was beautiful and stayed still for us, and the cork tree contained many wonderful gifts for us, or at least for me. We parked in the restaurant parking lot to the greeting of two massive dogs which I had to tell to stay put as we crossed the street. Once I got close to the cork tree I exclaimed at the smell which Ahmee at first didn't notice. I then walked over and poked the slightly squishy bark. It was too cool! Of course, those of you who've felt the cork of a wine bottle know what it feels like, but touching it as it was growing was awesome. When we walked under the pine trees the smell came into my nostrils again and I immediately relaxed and told Ahmee to smell the air. She said it was definitely the pine trees and that she wouldn't be surprised if that smell brought me great joy for the rest of my life (we had pine trees in our backyard in North Carolina, I grew up with that smell as a kid). We crossed the street and went into the multi-themed restaurant where we were seated by the gracious chef/waitor. His wife later came to check on us and explained the decoration (had african elements, thai elements, and english elements) by saying that he enjoyed traveling and that all of the things that were on the menu were things he'd come across. I got Thai rice with chicken while Ahmee and Poppy had the enchiladas. When our dishes came we were more than happy we stopped there, even if it was a bit of a wait. Our food was delicious. Before I got too far into my food I went outside and called the smaller brown dog to me, squatting down and cautiously letting him sniff my hand. I say this dog is smaller, but really he was quite large. He's about the size of our Australian Shepard/Border Collie, Buster. When he let me pet his head I felt a breath of air on my head and caught out of the corner of my eye the sight of the larger dog. This dog was as tall as an average table. He was grey with black flecks, had floppy ears, had intelligent eyes, and had a head about the size of... well, mine. I used my left hand to pet the brown dog as I pet the larger dog with my right hand. I let both of the dogs sniff me all over and then I slowly stood up. I enjoyed petting them. They were both gorgeous dogs. What amused me was when the larger dog got jealous and shoved himself between the brown dog and me (causing me to take a step back and causing the other dog to get jealous too). The brown down then put his paws up and over the other dogs back and put his paws on my chest. After this the dogs went into a play-fight. All the grey dog had to do was put one paw down on the brown dog and the brown dog would crumple. I was glad they were both playful because I know that that HUGE dog could've easily have killed the other one. My momma would've loved that grey dog. It's a shame I didn't get to talk to him again.
I went back inside to finish up my rice. Before it was all gone I gave the sauce in the bowl a try. I only dipped my fork in partially to get a few drips, but that stuff lit me up faster than anything I've ever tasted. It was so hot it made my eyes water, my mouth burn, my tongue throb, and my lips burn for an hour after I'd tasted it. Poppy saw this reaction, saw me take a drink of my water and then wolf down rice, and he decided he wanted to try a bit of my hot sauce. I told him to only dip his fork in. He took my advice and I'm absolutely certain he's glad he did. He had the same reaction I did. When the woman came around she talked about how her husband loved hot stuff and we told her about how we'd tried the sauce straight out. At this she looked a bit worried and said, "That stuff is hot!! It's got different spices in it, it's not peppers." At this Poppy told her it was the hottest stuff he'd ever tasted. She recommended trying a teeny tiny bit on the rice. I didn't need any on my rice. The pineapple with the spice left over caused enough of a reaction for my tongue. Poppy gave it a shot though and he said again that that stuff was really hot (he only put a drop on a plate full of rice and it put a small kick into it).
After lunch we thanked the woman and the man, pocketed their card, and then got back on the road, our lips still burning and our stomachs churning a tiny bit from the spice within.
After lunch we also started to get in a hurry to get to Lisbon. We went through towns, searching for a way to Lisbon, we passed highways in an effort to reach a preferable road, only to discover that road was inaccessible and to turn back, we hurried as fast as we could as the sun got farther and farther down the sky. We did not however forget to look out the windows of the car. We saw fields of cork trees, villages with tiny roads, barnyards with cork stacked neatly under tarp, rolling hills, cloudy skys, and an occasional gift such as the one man who rode his white horse into town and had the horse tethered as he chatted with his friend. We only stopped once, and that was when we got on the highway. We pulled off to a rest area where everyone else seemed to be stopping to use the toilet. I think I forgot to mention that this day is a national holiday in Portugal. It's their Independence Day. Almost everything was closed, all of the veterans had their uniforms on, and everyone was out partying. Ahmee and I were certain everyone was stopping there for food and for the toilet on their way to or from festivities.
While in the restroom in the rest area Ahmee and I got to wait in line for a toilet that had paper. I heard the news from a woman who had short, gray hair, who had on a red vest and who was traveling with another woman who was tall with brown curly hair and who had on all jean material (jean jacket, jean pants, only her white undershirt wasn't made of jeans). Both of these women told the others, in vain, that the four stalls at the far end had no toilet paper. Since they didn't know Portuguese and the women in line didn't know English many people went in, only to come out announcing "No papel!" (or something along those lines). I ended up in one of these stalls.
Immediately after this we got back on the road to frantically head into Lisbon (crossing a bridge that was several kilometers long) and to make our way to the airport to find a hotel. Our objective was to find a hotel near the airport because we officially had two days left before we got on an airplane to go home. When we got off the highway we went around the round-about near the airport to discover something that was disheartening: there weren't any hotels in sight. Another disheartening fact was that the sun had long gone from the sky and we had to go into Lisbon in the dark to look for a hotel. We decided to head towards the centro. We ended up taking a wrong turn and heading towards the university instead. As we drove around in the dark, anxiously peering out the windows I gave out an order that we've all heard before and that's worked for us before, "Hey Ahmee! You take the left and I'll take the right!" We went down the street like this and when I spotted two hotels I was ecstatic. On the right I saw a Hotel Zurich, and a Hotel Lisboa, both of which were high-rises and had huge signs at the top (meaning they're at least over 3 stars and most likely are expensive). We made our way into the Hotel Zurich parking lot where we parked the car and got out to search for the entrance to the Hotel Zurich. We didn't find it. Instead we found a Holiday Inn, which we eagerly went into, got a room, and got someone to help us park the car. As we were standing there asking questions with the lady at the desk a group of people walked in.
This has got to be one of the oddest things so far. The women who walked in were the same women we saw in the rest area's restroom alongside the highway. The thin, curly haired, older woman waved and said, "Oh! We saw you in the restroom!" I ended up having a wonderful conversation with this woman as her colleagues got a room (she was traveling with her son, his wife-lady in jeans, and her mother-lady with a vest on and short, straight hair). They were from Iowa and South Dakota, and had been traveling for over 6 days (she said they'd been to Spain for 6 days and mentioned 4 different cities). The woman I was talking to had lived in England and asked me where we'd been and was delighted when I said we'd been to England. She told me how she loved the thatched roofs, the small towns, and even the large cities, saying, "I loved London!" She and I agreed that we both loved the small towns and the big cities, it was just the old sections of town that seemed too closed in. She told me about how Portugal has killer pottery and ceramics, "I'm here for the ceramics."; how she was looking forward to getting back to her dog named Curly Sue (at which we were shocked and amazed because Ahmee has a dog named Curly Sue- this woman laughed when she found out our Curly Sue wasn't curly); and how she'd recently seriously injured her right foot. She told me that she loved the shoes here, she'd gotten two pairs of boots and a pair of shoes, all of which had heels. She said that she slipped when stepping off a curb while wearing these heeled boots and she'd ended up twisting her ankle pretty badly. I don't know how long she's been limping around, but she said that her right foot is now black and blue all over and the only shoes she can wear were her sandals. She said she was going to a doctor as soon as she got home. This lady was absolutely wonderful. I loved talking to her, I hoped her foot wasn't severely damaged, and I really didn't look forward to walking away. I could easily put her up there next to the man who sat next to us in Paris. Doesn't take long for me to decide I like someone.
We took our things up to the room, I got typing, and then we went down to the basement for dinner. I think I forgot to mention the Christmas ornaments, in the lobby they're blue and silver while downstair they're orange and gold. These are heart warming and shocking at the same time. I've been in fairly warm weather all this time, it's going to be a shock going back to freezing cold weather with snow and ice and have Christmas to look forward to.
While we ate dinner we talked about the things we needed to get done, such as pack and double check our reservations, and turn in the car.
After dinner I got to speak with the lady again (she'd come down the stairs, limping of course) and the rest of the group. They caught me as I was leaving the restaurant, asking me what classes I was taking, how I was doing schoolwork, where we'd been, etc.. The other older woman with the vest on was asked if she'd do that for her grandchildren (by her daughter) and she said, "Of course. It's great for both the grandkids and the grandparents. I'll bet you both are having a good time." It was a shame I had to go up and type some more. I really liked talking to them.
Once back up in the room I wrote and wrote until I felt I was going to fall asleep on my keyboard. I then closed up, got on my pj's, and climbed into bed.
This morning before we went down to breakfast I got dressed, washed my face, and then went to take a look out the window at the cloudless bay and the gorgeous beach. When I turned around I found ants on the floor. I took a closer look and realized that the ants were near my purse (also on the floor). I immediately alerted Ahmee to it, who sat down on the bed and laughed when I exclaimed, "The ants are in my purse! They're using my zipper as a ladder! Why are they in there?! I haven't got any food!" As she chuckled I popped open my purse, took out my french handbook, my spanish flashcards, my postcards, my glasses case, and my umbrella bag. At the very bottom I found a little package wrapped up in a white paper towel that had more than the average amount of ants on it. I immediately knew that this was the brownie I'd searched for months ago (had a terrible feeling it was from the first time we were in France). When I found this I went, "Oh. I do have food in there." I threw away my brownie thinking, "Those suckers got my chocolate!" I then took my purse outside and I put all of my things outside with it (because they had a few ants on them).
When we went down to breakfast (before hand I sent off work) and afterwards when I was putting my things back together (sadly enough some of my things got wet when they were outside) Ahmee told Poppy about my ant episode. It gave her quite a laugh and I can't really say that I blame her.
Once everything was together we went downstairs where we waited in line to check out (Ahmee and I admiring the layout of the building and the christmas decoration). Then when we were free to go we got on the road headed north to Lisbon. We stopped once to try and get into a church (church in Bispo) which Ahmee and Poppy had seen before and which had a beautiful interior. The door wasn't open though and we never found the door so I never got to see the blue tiles and the painted ceiling within (except for on the pamphlet Ahmee had). So we moved on and passed through the countryside and avoided the highway. Most of the time we went slowly, watching the scenery and the windy road. We went through forests with pine trees, cork trees, and other plants. The hills were rolling, the roads reminded me of the curvy ones my Momma loves to drive on, and the plants reminded me of Japanese mountainsides (prints) and of other places I'd seen. The rain wasn't much of a hindrance until we went off the road to the beach. We got out to walk on the sand. My objective was to touch the Atlantic again, which I did. I got close to one of the barnackle-covered rocks and touched the water in the small pool there. It was freezing but the smell and the sights were wonderful. I'd never been to a beach that was framed by cliffs. I'd never been to a beach that had rocks that had those pools and that had those rocks. I did recognize the plant life though when we were getting back into the car (and battling the rain and wind). The century plants, plants that are related to Yuccas and that bloom once after thirty years and then die with lots of babies at their base, the yuccas, the icicle plants (saw those on top of the cliffs at Sagres), and the pines in the background on the hills. For those of you who don't know about yuccas, I recommend you do a bit of research. They are common in the southwest U.S., and were used for all kinds of things by the Indians (paper, tea, etc.). They also have really beautiful blooms.
When we got back on the road our wet clothes caused the windows to fog up, which was slightly annoying for those of us who wanted to see out the window. When Poppy turned on the cooler we were able to look out the windows at the newly harvested cork trees (they scrape the bark off the trees every now and then-no idea how often-leaving the bottom part of the trees orange), at the pine trees (which I really love), the grasses, and the pueblos (which I thought were exceedingly pretty).
Finally we passed through a section of mostly pine trees, went around a curve which had a restaurant across the street from a cork tree that hadn't been harvested yet, and then on down the road we saw another storks nest just above someone's house. At that point we decided it was a good time to turn around and get a picture of the stork posing in his nest, and to head back to the cork tree so I could feel its bark. We did both of these things. The stork was beautiful and stayed still for us, and the cork tree contained many wonderful gifts for us, or at least for me. We parked in the restaurant parking lot to the greeting of two massive dogs which I had to tell to stay put as we crossed the street. Once I got close to the cork tree I exclaimed at the smell which Ahmee at first didn't notice. I then walked over and poked the slightly squishy bark. It was too cool! Of course, those of you who've felt the cork of a wine bottle know what it feels like, but touching it as it was growing was awesome. When we walked under the pine trees the smell came into my nostrils again and I immediately relaxed and told Ahmee to smell the air. She said it was definitely the pine trees and that she wouldn't be surprised if that smell brought me great joy for the rest of my life (we had pine trees in our backyard in North Carolina, I grew up with that smell as a kid). We crossed the street and went into the multi-themed restaurant where we were seated by the gracious chef/waitor. His wife later came to check on us and explained the decoration (had african elements, thai elements, and english elements) by saying that he enjoyed traveling and that all of the things that were on the menu were things he'd come across. I got Thai rice with chicken while Ahmee and Poppy had the enchiladas. When our dishes came we were more than happy we stopped there, even if it was a bit of a wait. Our food was delicious. Before I got too far into my food I went outside and called the smaller brown dog to me, squatting down and cautiously letting him sniff my hand. I say this dog is smaller, but really he was quite large. He's about the size of our Australian Shepard/Border Collie, Buster. When he let me pet his head I felt a breath of air on my head and caught out of the corner of my eye the sight of the larger dog. This dog was as tall as an average table. He was grey with black flecks, had floppy ears, had intelligent eyes, and had a head about the size of... well, mine. I used my left hand to pet the brown dog as I pet the larger dog with my right hand. I let both of the dogs sniff me all over and then I slowly stood up. I enjoyed petting them. They were both gorgeous dogs. What amused me was when the larger dog got jealous and shoved himself between the brown dog and me (causing me to take a step back and causing the other dog to get jealous too). The brown down then put his paws up and over the other dogs back and put his paws on my chest. After this the dogs went into a play-fight. All the grey dog had to do was put one paw down on the brown dog and the brown dog would crumple. I was glad they were both playful because I know that that HUGE dog could've easily have killed the other one. My momma would've loved that grey dog. It's a shame I didn't get to talk to him again.
I went back inside to finish up my rice. Before it was all gone I gave the sauce in the bowl a try. I only dipped my fork in partially to get a few drips, but that stuff lit me up faster than anything I've ever tasted. It was so hot it made my eyes water, my mouth burn, my tongue throb, and my lips burn for an hour after I'd tasted it. Poppy saw this reaction, saw me take a drink of my water and then wolf down rice, and he decided he wanted to try a bit of my hot sauce. I told him to only dip his fork in. He took my advice and I'm absolutely certain he's glad he did. He had the same reaction I did. When the woman came around she talked about how her husband loved hot stuff and we told her about how we'd tried the sauce straight out. At this she looked a bit worried and said, "That stuff is hot!! It's got different spices in it, it's not peppers." At this Poppy told her it was the hottest stuff he'd ever tasted. She recommended trying a teeny tiny bit on the rice. I didn't need any on my rice. The pineapple with the spice left over caused enough of a reaction for my tongue. Poppy gave it a shot though and he said again that that stuff was really hot (he only put a drop on a plate full of rice and it put a small kick into it).
After lunch we thanked the woman and the man, pocketed their card, and then got back on the road, our lips still burning and our stomachs churning a tiny bit from the spice within.
After lunch we also started to get in a hurry to get to Lisbon. We went through towns, searching for a way to Lisbon, we passed highways in an effort to reach a preferable road, only to discover that road was inaccessible and to turn back, we hurried as fast as we could as the sun got farther and farther down the sky. We did not however forget to look out the windows of the car. We saw fields of cork trees, villages with tiny roads, barnyards with cork stacked neatly under tarp, rolling hills, cloudy skys, and an occasional gift such as the one man who rode his white horse into town and had the horse tethered as he chatted with his friend. We only stopped once, and that was when we got on the highway. We pulled off to a rest area where everyone else seemed to be stopping to use the toilet. I think I forgot to mention that this day is a national holiday in Portugal. It's their Independence Day. Almost everything was closed, all of the veterans had their uniforms on, and everyone was out partying. Ahmee and I were certain everyone was stopping there for food and for the toilet on their way to or from festivities.
While in the restroom in the rest area Ahmee and I got to wait in line for a toilet that had paper. I heard the news from a woman who had short, gray hair, who had on a red vest and who was traveling with another woman who was tall with brown curly hair and who had on all jean material (jean jacket, jean pants, only her white undershirt wasn't made of jeans). Both of these women told the others, in vain, that the four stalls at the far end had no toilet paper. Since they didn't know Portuguese and the women in line didn't know English many people went in, only to come out announcing "No papel!" (or something along those lines). I ended up in one of these stalls.
Immediately after this we got back on the road to frantically head into Lisbon (crossing a bridge that was several kilometers long) and to make our way to the airport to find a hotel. Our objective was to find a hotel near the airport because we officially had two days left before we got on an airplane to go home. When we got off the highway we went around the round-about near the airport to discover something that was disheartening: there weren't any hotels in sight. Another disheartening fact was that the sun had long gone from the sky and we had to go into Lisbon in the dark to look for a hotel. We decided to head towards the centro. We ended up taking a wrong turn and heading towards the university instead. As we drove around in the dark, anxiously peering out the windows I gave out an order that we've all heard before and that's worked for us before, "Hey Ahmee! You take the left and I'll take the right!" We went down the street like this and when I spotted two hotels I was ecstatic. On the right I saw a Hotel Zurich, and a Hotel Lisboa, both of which were high-rises and had huge signs at the top (meaning they're at least over 3 stars and most likely are expensive). We made our way into the Hotel Zurich parking lot where we parked the car and got out to search for the entrance to the Hotel Zurich. We didn't find it. Instead we found a Holiday Inn, which we eagerly went into, got a room, and got someone to help us park the car. As we were standing there asking questions with the lady at the desk a group of people walked in.
This has got to be one of the oddest things so far. The women who walked in were the same women we saw in the rest area's restroom alongside the highway. The thin, curly haired, older woman waved and said, "Oh! We saw you in the restroom!" I ended up having a wonderful conversation with this woman as her colleagues got a room (she was traveling with her son, his wife-lady in jeans, and her mother-lady with a vest on and short, straight hair). They were from Iowa and South Dakota, and had been traveling for over 6 days (she said they'd been to Spain for 6 days and mentioned 4 different cities). The woman I was talking to had lived in England and asked me where we'd been and was delighted when I said we'd been to England. She told me how she loved the thatched roofs, the small towns, and even the large cities, saying, "I loved London!" She and I agreed that we both loved the small towns and the big cities, it was just the old sections of town that seemed too closed in. She told me about how Portugal has killer pottery and ceramics, "I'm here for the ceramics."; how she was looking forward to getting back to her dog named Curly Sue (at which we were shocked and amazed because Ahmee has a dog named Curly Sue- this woman laughed when she found out our Curly Sue wasn't curly); and how she'd recently seriously injured her right foot. She told me that she loved the shoes here, she'd gotten two pairs of boots and a pair of shoes, all of which had heels. She said that she slipped when stepping off a curb while wearing these heeled boots and she'd ended up twisting her ankle pretty badly. I don't know how long she's been limping around, but she said that her right foot is now black and blue all over and the only shoes she can wear were her sandals. She said she was going to a doctor as soon as she got home. This lady was absolutely wonderful. I loved talking to her, I hoped her foot wasn't severely damaged, and I really didn't look forward to walking away. I could easily put her up there next to the man who sat next to us in Paris. Doesn't take long for me to decide I like someone.
We took our things up to the room, I got typing, and then we went down to the basement for dinner. I think I forgot to mention the Christmas ornaments, in the lobby they're blue and silver while downstair they're orange and gold. These are heart warming and shocking at the same time. I've been in fairly warm weather all this time, it's going to be a shock going back to freezing cold weather with snow and ice and have Christmas to look forward to.
While we ate dinner we talked about the things we needed to get done, such as pack and double check our reservations, and turn in the car.
After dinner I got to speak with the lady again (she'd come down the stairs, limping of course) and the rest of the group. They caught me as I was leaving the restaurant, asking me what classes I was taking, how I was doing schoolwork, where we'd been, etc.. The other older woman with the vest on was asked if she'd do that for her grandchildren (by her daughter) and she said, "Of course. It's great for both the grandkids and the grandparents. I'll bet you both are having a good time." It was a shame I had to go up and type some more. I really liked talking to them.
Once back up in the room I wrote and wrote until I felt I was going to fall asleep on my keyboard. I then closed up, got on my pj's, and climbed into bed.
11/30/08 We head towards Portugal, we see the countryside and it's splendid offerings, we arrive in Portugal, and we go to Sagres to visit the fort wh
La mar en Portugal es estupendo. Yo miro la Atlantic un otro tiempo. Ahora es con mi abuelo y mi abuela, y es no diferente para mi.
This morning we got up early, went and ate breakfast (me being lightheartedly scolded for not speaking clearly), and then got our things together and downstairs where we waited for a cab to take us to our car. Ahmee and Poppy warned me that the cab last night had taken some hairpin turns and had just about scraped its windows off, I prepared myself for an interesting drive. We didn't need to worry though because this taxi driver took the smart route and stuck to the main roads. It might've been longer, but it most certainly didn't scare me and he never came close to scraping his car on any walls.
Once out of the parking lot we made our way back through town and to the A7 which later turned into the A1E1. Along this way we started to see how rain had collected overnight (apparently it had rained) and how all the plants were hurrying to soak it in. The rolling hills slowly became flat and more pine trees started turning up (this is an indicator that you're getting closer to a coast). Even though we were on a highway I was not interested in writing. I've figured something out while on this trip, and that is that I really should not write when I feel totally and utterly exhausted. It is a waste of my time because I'm busy fighting with my body and my brain to work quickly when it just doesn't want to, and it's a waste of my time because as I'm struggling I could be relaxing and enjoying the view and conserving energy for later usage. This is exactly what I did. I relaxed in the warm car and peered out the window at the countryside, telling myself that I was going to pull out the computer thirty minutes into Portugal.
Sixty or so kilometers before we got into Portugal we caught sight of the Atlantic Ocean and later a rest stop. There we got our lunch: me two doughnuts and coffee, and Ahmee and Poppy something bigger. I decided that since we were mostly going to be sitting in the car all day that it would be a better if I kept to eating small things because I wasn't going to be working very hard and using them up anytime soon. After this short break we got back on the road where our eyes met a wonderful sight. I'm not sure exactly when or where, but as we were traveling on this road we saw lots and lots of stork nests. They'd built their nests on top of the power lines, some of which even had little baskets for them, and others were just condos for the storks. It was too cool to see these 10-15 different nests all lined up and to see these storks perched up there. In the United States I'd only seen storks fly over maybe twice, and those two sightings happened earlier this year. Seeing all of these together was great for me. It appears that that place is just the perfect spot for the storks.
Shortly after seeing the storks we passed into Portugal where I waited for ten minutes (and got to see the cork trees while coming in) and then opened up the laptop and got writing (very slowly because I seriously didn't want to, all I wanted to do was take a nap or relax and watch-but I did complete a day while in the car). It wasn't too long before we got off the highway however and shortly after that we arrived in Sagres, a small town that Ahmee and Poppy had stayed in before and a town that should be famous for the rest of the world: it was at this place that sooooo many explorers got their training for the ocean and for navigating. Without Prince Henry's school I know that at least one navigator Vasco De Gama wouldn't have had the training to find the route from the Mediterranean to the Indian Sea (thus finding a spectacular trade route). Before visiting the fort we went and checked into the cliff-side resort Pousada do Infante where we got a smaller room with a view of the bay: Praia Balceira. The coastline here didn't contain many beaches. Here we saw cliffs that were hundreds of meters high. Later we got to walk very close to these cliffs.
After moving our things in we went to the Fort Tolezo. The wall facing us was huge, so it surprised me when we went through the ticket booth and walked into the square to find two white, modern looking buildings and a lot of plant covered area. I looked at the map and found that the only buildings that were there were: the church (which had had restoration work done on it), the souvenir shop, the auditorium (which had a film that went on only every now and then apparently), the compass (giant compass made out of rocks and which looks pretty straggly now), and the gallery that was only open occasionally. The heavily fortified wall that we saw when coming in had two ramps up, but was under restoration. This wall didn't go very far. I don't think it really needed to. The cliffs were enough protection for the Fort and the occasional cannon we saw when walking around would've definitely been a threat to the ships that were coming in. Those ships would've had to come close, dodge the cannon fire, and then become perilously close to the rocks and the cliff face (on the north side the waves were pounding into the cliffs-they were astoundingly large for us). I should mention now that the only buildings we went into were the church (five minutes max), the auditorium (where we stopped by on our way back to the entrance/exit), and the over-priced giftshop. The rest of the time we walked on the yellow rock path as we looked at the cliffs, at the crazy fisherman who were perching themselves on the very edge of the cliffs, at the plants that were covering the rocks on top of this peninsula, and at the waves. As we walked along this path we had to pull out our umbrellas and battle the wind and the rain. The chill caused our noses to start dripping, and the rain/wind made it difficult to look around. Even with these weather inconveniences it was definitely worth the trip. It's a shame that this isn't more of a revered monument though. This place had just as much historical significance as the Castle of Edinburgh, but it definitely wasn't in that kind of shape.
When we left we were freezing and I was more than ready to get writing. The chill had woken me up, while the sight of the Atlantic and those cliffs made me want to write. Once back at the hotel (before going in we saw another sign of good luck: a rainbow) we made a quick dash to our room where I grabbed the laptop and then headed back down to the main lobby where a fire was blazing in the fireplace, where many people were lounging and reading magazines, and where I got a great view from my couch across from the window. From there I got to see the sun as it made it's final decent behind the fort (the bay we had sight of had waves that weren't as rough). Ahmee and Poppy got drinks on the house from the man who'd shown us our rooms. Poppy got red wine while Ahmee got some of Portugals famous green wine. My writing was interrupted to try a sip of Ahmee's green wine and to grab a few of the nuts that they'd gotten to go with their drinks. I have to say that of the wines I've tasted so far that green wine was definitely one of my favorites. It really was delicious (don't take this opinion as an indicator that I drank a lot of it: I only had two sips and this is what I normally have when I'm trying wine that Ahmee and Poppy get). Of the wines that I've tasted I like the dry reds, the greens, and a few sparkling (these are a select few). What I do not like is white wine. That stuff is nasty.
After it got dark in this room we went up to our room where we got ready for dinner (was very fancy so we had to dress up). Once ready we went downstairs, discovered we'd lost an hour, and then went into the entertainment room (had checkers, cards, a tv, and a computer) where I emailed people as men in the background watched football (soccer-whoa that was natural for me to say!), and two boys played checkers. While on the computer I found a surprising backdrop of the local cliffs. Apparently sometimes the waves get so huge that when they crash into the cliff face the spray goes up and over the edge! When the time came for dinner everyone in this room got up and went to the restaurant. Here we had a splendid time doing the usual: people watching, talking about the day, and talking about our plans for the next day.
After dinner we went back to the room where I got the fun task of taking a picture of the moon over the fort before I got into my pj's and climbed into bed.
This night I actually got good sleep. I think the heater at the end of my bed was a nice touch.
This morning we got up early, went and ate breakfast (me being lightheartedly scolded for not speaking clearly), and then got our things together and downstairs where we waited for a cab to take us to our car. Ahmee and Poppy warned me that the cab last night had taken some hairpin turns and had just about scraped its windows off, I prepared myself for an interesting drive. We didn't need to worry though because this taxi driver took the smart route and stuck to the main roads. It might've been longer, but it most certainly didn't scare me and he never came close to scraping his car on any walls.
Once out of the parking lot we made our way back through town and to the A7 which later turned into the A1E1. Along this way we started to see how rain had collected overnight (apparently it had rained) and how all the plants were hurrying to soak it in. The rolling hills slowly became flat and more pine trees started turning up (this is an indicator that you're getting closer to a coast). Even though we were on a highway I was not interested in writing. I've figured something out while on this trip, and that is that I really should not write when I feel totally and utterly exhausted. It is a waste of my time because I'm busy fighting with my body and my brain to work quickly when it just doesn't want to, and it's a waste of my time because as I'm struggling I could be relaxing and enjoying the view and conserving energy for later usage. This is exactly what I did. I relaxed in the warm car and peered out the window at the countryside, telling myself that I was going to pull out the computer thirty minutes into Portugal.
Sixty or so kilometers before we got into Portugal we caught sight of the Atlantic Ocean and later a rest stop. There we got our lunch: me two doughnuts and coffee, and Ahmee and Poppy something bigger. I decided that since we were mostly going to be sitting in the car all day that it would be a better if I kept to eating small things because I wasn't going to be working very hard and using them up anytime soon. After this short break we got back on the road where our eyes met a wonderful sight. I'm not sure exactly when or where, but as we were traveling on this road we saw lots and lots of stork nests. They'd built their nests on top of the power lines, some of which even had little baskets for them, and others were just condos for the storks. It was too cool to see these 10-15 different nests all lined up and to see these storks perched up there. In the United States I'd only seen storks fly over maybe twice, and those two sightings happened earlier this year. Seeing all of these together was great for me. It appears that that place is just the perfect spot for the storks.
Shortly after seeing the storks we passed into Portugal where I waited for ten minutes (and got to see the cork trees while coming in) and then opened up the laptop and got writing (very slowly because I seriously didn't want to, all I wanted to do was take a nap or relax and watch-but I did complete a day while in the car). It wasn't too long before we got off the highway however and shortly after that we arrived in Sagres, a small town that Ahmee and Poppy had stayed in before and a town that should be famous for the rest of the world: it was at this place that sooooo many explorers got their training for the ocean and for navigating. Without Prince Henry's school I know that at least one navigator Vasco De Gama wouldn't have had the training to find the route from the Mediterranean to the Indian Sea (thus finding a spectacular trade route). Before visiting the fort we went and checked into the cliff-side resort Pousada do Infante where we got a smaller room with a view of the bay: Praia Balceira. The coastline here didn't contain many beaches. Here we saw cliffs that were hundreds of meters high. Later we got to walk very close to these cliffs.
After moving our things in we went to the Fort Tolezo. The wall facing us was huge, so it surprised me when we went through the ticket booth and walked into the square to find two white, modern looking buildings and a lot of plant covered area. I looked at the map and found that the only buildings that were there were: the church (which had had restoration work done on it), the souvenir shop, the auditorium (which had a film that went on only every now and then apparently), the compass (giant compass made out of rocks and which looks pretty straggly now), and the gallery that was only open occasionally. The heavily fortified wall that we saw when coming in had two ramps up, but was under restoration. This wall didn't go very far. I don't think it really needed to. The cliffs were enough protection for the Fort and the occasional cannon we saw when walking around would've definitely been a threat to the ships that were coming in. Those ships would've had to come close, dodge the cannon fire, and then become perilously close to the rocks and the cliff face (on the north side the waves were pounding into the cliffs-they were astoundingly large for us). I should mention now that the only buildings we went into were the church (five minutes max), the auditorium (where we stopped by on our way back to the entrance/exit), and the over-priced giftshop. The rest of the time we walked on the yellow rock path as we looked at the cliffs, at the crazy fisherman who were perching themselves on the very edge of the cliffs, at the plants that were covering the rocks on top of this peninsula, and at the waves. As we walked along this path we had to pull out our umbrellas and battle the wind and the rain. The chill caused our noses to start dripping, and the rain/wind made it difficult to look around. Even with these weather inconveniences it was definitely worth the trip. It's a shame that this isn't more of a revered monument though. This place had just as much historical significance as the Castle of Edinburgh, but it definitely wasn't in that kind of shape.
When we left we were freezing and I was more than ready to get writing. The chill had woken me up, while the sight of the Atlantic and those cliffs made me want to write. Once back at the hotel (before going in we saw another sign of good luck: a rainbow) we made a quick dash to our room where I grabbed the laptop and then headed back down to the main lobby where a fire was blazing in the fireplace, where many people were lounging and reading magazines, and where I got a great view from my couch across from the window. From there I got to see the sun as it made it's final decent behind the fort (the bay we had sight of had waves that weren't as rough). Ahmee and Poppy got drinks on the house from the man who'd shown us our rooms. Poppy got red wine while Ahmee got some of Portugals famous green wine. My writing was interrupted to try a sip of Ahmee's green wine and to grab a few of the nuts that they'd gotten to go with their drinks. I have to say that of the wines I've tasted so far that green wine was definitely one of my favorites. It really was delicious (don't take this opinion as an indicator that I drank a lot of it: I only had two sips and this is what I normally have when I'm trying wine that Ahmee and Poppy get). Of the wines that I've tasted I like the dry reds, the greens, and a few sparkling (these are a select few). What I do not like is white wine. That stuff is nasty.
After it got dark in this room we went up to our room where we got ready for dinner (was very fancy so we had to dress up). Once ready we went downstairs, discovered we'd lost an hour, and then went into the entertainment room (had checkers, cards, a tv, and a computer) where I emailed people as men in the background watched football (soccer-whoa that was natural for me to say!), and two boys played checkers. While on the computer I found a surprising backdrop of the local cliffs. Apparently sometimes the waves get so huge that when they crash into the cliff face the spray goes up and over the edge! When the time came for dinner everyone in this room got up and went to the restaurant. Here we had a splendid time doing the usual: people watching, talking about the day, and talking about our plans for the next day.
After dinner we went back to the room where I got the fun task of taking a picture of the moon over the fort before I got into my pj's and climbed into bed.
This night I actually got good sleep. I think the heater at the end of my bed was a nice touch.
11/29/08 We leave Marbella to stop in Rhonda and stay the night in Arcos (de la Frontera)
Pueblos blancos tiene muchas casas blancos. Los pueblos es moy bonita y normalmente pequeno. Rhonda es no pueblo pequeno ahora. Es una ciudad pequeno.
This morning we got up, ate breakfast, and got ourselves packed. I was the first one done and I went around the house getting things together. It wasn't long before we were on the road (after we'd dropped off our three remotes and the key). This time I didn't get to write. It would've been foolish to write after we'd gotten off the highway.
After we got off the highway we went up and up into the mountains on a windy, curvy road (I was thankful it wasn't a skinny road). This was the last I would see of the Mediterranean (at least for a long time) and of Gibraltar. From the road in the mountains we had a clear view of the sea, of the rock of Gibraltar, of the many many many resorts that were along the beach (actually we passed through one in the mountains), and of the city of Marbella. As we drove away and into the green mountains I looked back and was amazed to see how the sea seemed to blend in with the sky. The only indicator that your eyes had reached the beach was that a small boat was floating just above the line of the rooftops. The sea was so grey it matched the cloudy sky perfectly. Was pretty neat to see.
Along the drive we continued to go up and around curves. I had to focus on what was in front of us after a while because I started feeling only slightly carsick. I was able to enjoy the pine-covered mountains though which changed as we got higher up into an area that seemed to be composed mostly of rough rock. From a distance it appeared we were entering a land similar to the moon. There was barely any vegetation and there was very little life, that is, until we started heading downhill. Before we got all the way down the mountainside and into the valley we stopped at a restaurant that was alongside the road. There we sat down at the bar, drank coffee to warm ourselves (it was windy and chilly out), and watched Balto- a movie that I've only seen twice in my life but still felt wonderful to watch because it was something I recognized.
Later we stopped to grab a bite to eat in Rhonda. Rhonda is famous for it's bullfighting arena, and for it's geographical landscape. The two sections of town rest on two hills separated by a gorge that is hundreds of meters below. The ponte nuevo (the new bridge) connects the two sections of town and enables cars and pedestrians to travel between the two areas. We enjoyed wandering after we crossed this bridge and we also enjoyed a tiny bit of shopping before we stopped in a local cafeteria to grab a bite to eat. Many other tourists stopped in in this cafeteria, among them was a German couple who we thoroughly enjoyed talking to (even if it was partially in Spanish and partially in English). What really delighted me was when they asked us if we were from the area. We're beginning to look European to the Europeans!! Wow!
We also talked about the weather, which was consistently deteriorating in value as we sat there. At first we argued that we were seeing rain (I thought it looked awefully small to be rain and it feel very slowly). Later we were all absolutely certain we were seeing ice. At that point we all headed out of the cafeteria to walk back over the bridge, through the giftshop of the bullring, and back to our car.
This second period in the car we passed through many different landscapes. First we saw the mountains with the occasional field of goats, sheep, and a select few horses. Then we passed out of the mountains and into farmland that had orange soil and had tilled rolling hills with a Pueblo Blanco here and there. As we passed through this landscape we came closer and closer to Arcos, one of the Pueblos Blancos that we had picked to stay the night in. When we reached Arcos we had a fun time getting to a parking place and then making our way up to find a hotel that Rick Steves had suggested (El Convento- aka: the Convent). Before setting out I said that it looked like an awfully long walk and that we might be better off staying close to our car. I then pointed out a hotel just down the street from us. We went on up anyway. Since I was extremely tired (I hadn't slept well the night before and three cups of coffee did nothing) and my fuse has recently been scarily short my mood continued to go downhill as we climbed uphill in search of this hotel. When we didn't find it we went through alleys to a square where we found a closed information office, a great view of the valley below and to the west, and a 4 star hotel that had a menu that had soup for 11 euros (or something close). My mood wasn't the best one. I was slowly getting more and more angry and frustrated that we didn't go with the hotel that was at hand, and at the same time I was getting even more tired from the hiking. In short even when we found a hotel I was acting very very poorly, later Ahmee described it as "downright sulking". Sleepiness and anger don't work well together. Tore Soto was the name of the hotel we found. It's interior was gorgeous and the man at the desk was more than ready to show us the room (he practically ran when he showed it to us). It was wonderful and it was in a great spot, right on top of the hill near the old section. What I didn't look forward to one bit was bringing the luggage up the hill. Luckily the man at the desk suggested a cab, otherwise Poppy and I would've been carrying the luggage up the hill and I'm certain I might've exploded. I told Ahmee I was tired and she told me to go up to the room and rest while they grabbed the luggage. This I did. I thought about how nasty I was acting, how I needed to calm down, and how I needed to explain myself to Ahmee and Poppy as soon as they got back and apologize for it.
When they got back with the luggage I told them that I was tired and I'd gotten frustrated, not with the wifi, but with them not taking the suggestion for the hotel. I said that I'd pretty much gotten a moment similar to the one that Ahmee had when we were entering Florence. I also apologized for acting so ugly (even if I didn't blow up I didn't contain my discontent very well), and we were fine. Ahmee and Poppy understood, and they said it was ok. After that we got back out into the streets of Arcos. We went back to the information center, which was then open. There we got a map of Arcos that told us where all of the important buildings were. We had an excellent time walking around the extremely thin streets of Arcos, looking at the white walls, checking out the gardens, reading about the Church of St. Peter, looking at the art museum, and generally just checking out what appeared to be the oldest section of town (people had to carry their groceries because their cars were too big). One of the highlights of the walk was the terrace view we found on the south side of town. This was right near what I thought was a school, had plenty of graffiti on the walls, and had a view that was absolutely stunning. From there we could see the lake and the mountains to the East, the farmland to the West, the town directly south and below us, and plenty of rooftop gardens. Since it was windy out most of these potted gardens had plants that had been knocked over. Something that was surprising to find was the many houses that had pools. These were to the West, and right on the edge of the road and the farmland. It would've made me chuckle to find out that these homes were the homes of farmers who had made plenty of money selling their crops. This is something that you can find in the United States too. Farmers driving around in mustangs, but then you can also find people who've borrowed far too much and who are driving those (these are the people who can't really afford them).
On the walk back to the hotel we stopped in one shop to look at the Flamenco Aprons and to grab a few postcards (none of which we're going to send because we'll be getting home before they will). Then once back at the hotel we went upstairs, used the bathroom, read about the Andaluzian Horses (beautiful white horses that are extremely agile, cunning, etc.), and then went downstairs to grab drinks and some food for Happy Hour. Ahmee and Poppy had wine while I sipped my Coca cola and ate olives. Ahmee asked me to describe some of the people in my show choir. Those of you in my showchoir I was talking about you for over three hours. Something I don't enjoy doing and try not to do often is gossiping about people and causing drama. Thing is though I only tell a few people what I see in others and how I regard their actions. I've talked to my Momma, my Emma, my Sara, my Iain, my Ahmee, and my Poppy about the people in show choir now. The conversation was very fun, for Ahmee and for me at least.
After dinner we went up to our room where I finished up my summaries/discriptions as we got ready for bed. When we climbed under the covers it was 11 o clock at night. Ahmee and Poppy both told me as they turned off their lights, "Night Rachel! Make sure you speak loudly and clearly for us tonight!"
I disappointed them. I didn't say a word that night, because I hardly slept at all.
This morning we got up, ate breakfast, and got ourselves packed. I was the first one done and I went around the house getting things together. It wasn't long before we were on the road (after we'd dropped off our three remotes and the key). This time I didn't get to write. It would've been foolish to write after we'd gotten off the highway.
After we got off the highway we went up and up into the mountains on a windy, curvy road (I was thankful it wasn't a skinny road). This was the last I would see of the Mediterranean (at least for a long time) and of Gibraltar. From the road in the mountains we had a clear view of the sea, of the rock of Gibraltar, of the many many many resorts that were along the beach (actually we passed through one in the mountains), and of the city of Marbella. As we drove away and into the green mountains I looked back and was amazed to see how the sea seemed to blend in with the sky. The only indicator that your eyes had reached the beach was that a small boat was floating just above the line of the rooftops. The sea was so grey it matched the cloudy sky perfectly. Was pretty neat to see.
Along the drive we continued to go up and around curves. I had to focus on what was in front of us after a while because I started feeling only slightly carsick. I was able to enjoy the pine-covered mountains though which changed as we got higher up into an area that seemed to be composed mostly of rough rock. From a distance it appeared we were entering a land similar to the moon. There was barely any vegetation and there was very little life, that is, until we started heading downhill. Before we got all the way down the mountainside and into the valley we stopped at a restaurant that was alongside the road. There we sat down at the bar, drank coffee to warm ourselves (it was windy and chilly out), and watched Balto- a movie that I've only seen twice in my life but still felt wonderful to watch because it was something I recognized.
Later we stopped to grab a bite to eat in Rhonda. Rhonda is famous for it's bullfighting arena, and for it's geographical landscape. The two sections of town rest on two hills separated by a gorge that is hundreds of meters below. The ponte nuevo (the new bridge) connects the two sections of town and enables cars and pedestrians to travel between the two areas. We enjoyed wandering after we crossed this bridge and we also enjoyed a tiny bit of shopping before we stopped in a local cafeteria to grab a bite to eat. Many other tourists stopped in in this cafeteria, among them was a German couple who we thoroughly enjoyed talking to (even if it was partially in Spanish and partially in English). What really delighted me was when they asked us if we were from the area. We're beginning to look European to the Europeans!! Wow!
We also talked about the weather, which was consistently deteriorating in value as we sat there. At first we argued that we were seeing rain (I thought it looked awefully small to be rain and it feel very slowly). Later we were all absolutely certain we were seeing ice. At that point we all headed out of the cafeteria to walk back over the bridge, through the giftshop of the bullring, and back to our car.
This second period in the car we passed through many different landscapes. First we saw the mountains with the occasional field of goats, sheep, and a select few horses. Then we passed out of the mountains and into farmland that had orange soil and had tilled rolling hills with a Pueblo Blanco here and there. As we passed through this landscape we came closer and closer to Arcos, one of the Pueblos Blancos that we had picked to stay the night in. When we reached Arcos we had a fun time getting to a parking place and then making our way up to find a hotel that Rick Steves had suggested (El Convento- aka: the Convent). Before setting out I said that it looked like an awfully long walk and that we might be better off staying close to our car. I then pointed out a hotel just down the street from us. We went on up anyway. Since I was extremely tired (I hadn't slept well the night before and three cups of coffee did nothing) and my fuse has recently been scarily short my mood continued to go downhill as we climbed uphill in search of this hotel. When we didn't find it we went through alleys to a square where we found a closed information office, a great view of the valley below and to the west, and a 4 star hotel that had a menu that had soup for 11 euros (or something close). My mood wasn't the best one. I was slowly getting more and more angry and frustrated that we didn't go with the hotel that was at hand, and at the same time I was getting even more tired from the hiking. In short even when we found a hotel I was acting very very poorly, later Ahmee described it as "downright sulking". Sleepiness and anger don't work well together. Tore Soto was the name of the hotel we found. It's interior was gorgeous and the man at the desk was more than ready to show us the room (he practically ran when he showed it to us). It was wonderful and it was in a great spot, right on top of the hill near the old section. What I didn't look forward to one bit was bringing the luggage up the hill. Luckily the man at the desk suggested a cab, otherwise Poppy and I would've been carrying the luggage up the hill and I'm certain I might've exploded. I told Ahmee I was tired and she told me to go up to the room and rest while they grabbed the luggage. This I did. I thought about how nasty I was acting, how I needed to calm down, and how I needed to explain myself to Ahmee and Poppy as soon as they got back and apologize for it.
When they got back with the luggage I told them that I was tired and I'd gotten frustrated, not with the wifi, but with them not taking the suggestion for the hotel. I said that I'd pretty much gotten a moment similar to the one that Ahmee had when we were entering Florence. I also apologized for acting so ugly (even if I didn't blow up I didn't contain my discontent very well), and we were fine. Ahmee and Poppy understood, and they said it was ok. After that we got back out into the streets of Arcos. We went back to the information center, which was then open. There we got a map of Arcos that told us where all of the important buildings were. We had an excellent time walking around the extremely thin streets of Arcos, looking at the white walls, checking out the gardens, reading about the Church of St. Peter, looking at the art museum, and generally just checking out what appeared to be the oldest section of town (people had to carry their groceries because their cars were too big). One of the highlights of the walk was the terrace view we found on the south side of town. This was right near what I thought was a school, had plenty of graffiti on the walls, and had a view that was absolutely stunning. From there we could see the lake and the mountains to the East, the farmland to the West, the town directly south and below us, and plenty of rooftop gardens. Since it was windy out most of these potted gardens had plants that had been knocked over. Something that was surprising to find was the many houses that had pools. These were to the West, and right on the edge of the road and the farmland. It would've made me chuckle to find out that these homes were the homes of farmers who had made plenty of money selling their crops. This is something that you can find in the United States too. Farmers driving around in mustangs, but then you can also find people who've borrowed far too much and who are driving those (these are the people who can't really afford them).
On the walk back to the hotel we stopped in one shop to look at the Flamenco Aprons and to grab a few postcards (none of which we're going to send because we'll be getting home before they will). Then once back at the hotel we went upstairs, used the bathroom, read about the Andaluzian Horses (beautiful white horses that are extremely agile, cunning, etc.), and then went downstairs to grab drinks and some food for Happy Hour. Ahmee and Poppy had wine while I sipped my Coca cola and ate olives. Ahmee asked me to describe some of the people in my show choir. Those of you in my showchoir I was talking about you for over three hours. Something I don't enjoy doing and try not to do often is gossiping about people and causing drama. Thing is though I only tell a few people what I see in others and how I regard their actions. I've talked to my Momma, my Emma, my Sara, my Iain, my Ahmee, and my Poppy about the people in show choir now. The conversation was very fun, for Ahmee and for me at least.
After dinner we went up to our room where I finished up my summaries/discriptions as we got ready for bed. When we climbed under the covers it was 11 o clock at night. Ahmee and Poppy both told me as they turned off their lights, "Night Rachel! Make sure you speak loudly and clearly for us tonight!"
I disappointed them. I didn't say a word that night, because I hardly slept at all.
11/28/08 Malaga's IKEA store
Para la casa necesito muchas cosas. Una cosa yo necesito en la casa, o en el servicio, es una toilet. Un otro cosa mucha personas necesitan en una casa es un television.
This day we really did go to the IKEA store. Ahmee had first introduced me to IKEA through the magazine, which I'd taken with me to my Dad's house as a "source of inspiration". The thing about IKEA is that it is pretty much the Walmart of interior. It is so easy to find furniture (most if it I like), sheets, kitchen utensils, curtains, fabrics, etc.. Since I adore Lowe's and Pier 1 it's no surprise to me that I love the IKEA store. It's got furniture that can be easily incorporated, is cheap, and is even cheaper if you put it together yourself (something that I'd be all over if I were shopping for furniture). This was one of those days where we were just going to browse and educate our tastes, something I'll never get tired of.
Before we got to the IKEA store we ate breakfast, got dressed, and got to find our way to the shopping district of Malaga. We'd seen the IKEA store from the highway twice, the second time we saw it Ahmee made a note of when a person would need to get off in order to go see it (I was busy writing). She got us to the IKEA store with no problem whatsoever.
While in the IKEA store we spent literal hours walking around in the galleries where they showed their furniture and their accessories. They had a living room section, a kitchen section, a home office, a library section (oooooooooooooh), a bedroom section, and a kids room section. Each of these sections contained examples of living rooms, kitchens, everything (but bathrooms). Some of the best ones were where they did a whole house. They had three to four rooms in this house and they used their furniture wisely because it was an apartment-sized home (small but in this case comfortable).
I found plenty of little inspirations while walking around. It's a shame we had to rush through the downstairs where all the accessories where (we were all getting hungry).
We left the IKEA store at about 2-3 o clock in the afternoon and as soon as we got through the traffic and back to our room we ate leftovers from Thanksgiving all put together in a soup. During lunch we talked about the things we liked about the displays, the furniture we liked in particular (my favorite pieces had to be the bookshelves), and what we thought we could pull off. After lunch Ahmee and Poppy went through all of our pretties to make a list and to put a price on each thing. While they separated my things from their things and recorded just how much I owed them (less than 300 dollars-I've made more than that working over the summer) I wrote on the computer. Since I was feeling particularly chatty/artistic I wrote a fair amount.
We ate dinner and watched CNN to check up on the situation in India before we went to bed.
This day we really did go to the IKEA store. Ahmee had first introduced me to IKEA through the magazine, which I'd taken with me to my Dad's house as a "source of inspiration". The thing about IKEA is that it is pretty much the Walmart of interior. It is so easy to find furniture (most if it I like), sheets, kitchen utensils, curtains, fabrics, etc.. Since I adore Lowe's and Pier 1 it's no surprise to me that I love the IKEA store. It's got furniture that can be easily incorporated, is cheap, and is even cheaper if you put it together yourself (something that I'd be all over if I were shopping for furniture). This was one of those days where we were just going to browse and educate our tastes, something I'll never get tired of.
Before we got to the IKEA store we ate breakfast, got dressed, and got to find our way to the shopping district of Malaga. We'd seen the IKEA store from the highway twice, the second time we saw it Ahmee made a note of when a person would need to get off in order to go see it (I was busy writing). She got us to the IKEA store with no problem whatsoever.
While in the IKEA store we spent literal hours walking around in the galleries where they showed their furniture and their accessories. They had a living room section, a kitchen section, a home office, a library section (oooooooooooooh), a bedroom section, and a kids room section. Each of these sections contained examples of living rooms, kitchens, everything (but bathrooms). Some of the best ones were where they did a whole house. They had three to four rooms in this house and they used their furniture wisely because it was an apartment-sized home (small but in this case comfortable).
I found plenty of little inspirations while walking around. It's a shame we had to rush through the downstairs where all the accessories where (we were all getting hungry).
We left the IKEA store at about 2-3 o clock in the afternoon and as soon as we got through the traffic and back to our room we ate leftovers from Thanksgiving all put together in a soup. During lunch we talked about the things we liked about the displays, the furniture we liked in particular (my favorite pieces had to be the bookshelves), and what we thought we could pull off. After lunch Ahmee and Poppy went through all of our pretties to make a list and to put a price on each thing. While they separated my things from their things and recorded just how much I owed them (less than 300 dollars-I've made more than that working over the summer) I wrote on the computer. Since I was feeling particularly chatty/artistic I wrote a fair amount.
We ate dinner and watched CNN to check up on the situation in India before we went to bed.
11/27/08 HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! We eat killer food, walk on the beach, write, and get some scary news before dinner that make us truly thankful
Para la Fiesta de Thanksgiving nosotros comemos pollo, verduras, sandia, y sopa. Las platas son moy deliciosos. Nosotros se gusta mucho la Fiesta de Thanksgiving.
The point of thanksgiving is to recognize what you're thankful for and to enjoy your time. This we did splendidly.
Our plan was to eat wonderful food (I'm never able to recite everything I ate when I eat a feast), relax, and do only a few low-key things. Ahmee and Poppy planned on starting the day by sending emails to everyone. After that they wanted to go for a walk on the beach and then head back to the room. Once back in the room they wanted to read and relax while I wrote. Then later on we'd go for another walk before happy hour and then we'd watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade before eating dinner.
We did almost all of these. Early on I decided I was going to dress up in my orange shirt, blue jeans, sparkly belt, turquoise jewelry, and my orange scarf. This outfit made me feel very pretty when we went and emailed everyone and went for a walk on the beach. We didn't actually walk on the beach, we sat and watched the rough waves and the high tide before we went back to the room. Once there I sat down in my corner and wrote while Ahmee and Poppy read. I didn't go on another walk on the beach, I was busy writing; and we didn't watch the Thanksgiving Parade, we watched the news on CNN over the terrorist attacks in India.
The news we received rattled us. I don't remember the details, I just know that in Mumbai (sp?) a force of twenty or more terrorists came in by boat and attacked multiple areas: the central station, an important touristy cafe, two hotels, and the Hospital (also a Jewish Cultural Center). I found out later that these "very very young men" had had specific targets, and that they'd killed some of the top officials who were the first on the scene. It being scary enough that this could happen with everyone being completely blind to it coming, what managed to really frighten us was the fact that the terrorists were singling out British and American tourists. While eating dinner (Poppy shut off the tv) we were all extremely grateful we weren't in India, but then we also realized that a terrorist attack could happen anywhere. What I wondered while I ate my chicken and my vegetables, was: Why did those men single out the American and British tourists? They were very specific in their aim with the India police officials. Do they have another goal besides creating terror? Are they looking for a specific person? Do they want top officials representing the U.S. and Britain to come so they can take a swipe?
Of course all of these questions came along with those of: who did this? Who planned this? Who payed for this? Who trained the men? Who do they have on the inside?
After eating desert and cheering each other up significantly, we turned on the tv again to see what else CNN had to report on the situation in India. I was so busy thinking about this that when I went to bed I couldn't get to sleep but for another hour, wishing I knew more.
Once I got to sleep I stayed asleep.
The point of thanksgiving is to recognize what you're thankful for and to enjoy your time. This we did splendidly.
Our plan was to eat wonderful food (I'm never able to recite everything I ate when I eat a feast), relax, and do only a few low-key things. Ahmee and Poppy planned on starting the day by sending emails to everyone. After that they wanted to go for a walk on the beach and then head back to the room. Once back in the room they wanted to read and relax while I wrote. Then later on we'd go for another walk before happy hour and then we'd watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade before eating dinner.
We did almost all of these. Early on I decided I was going to dress up in my orange shirt, blue jeans, sparkly belt, turquoise jewelry, and my orange scarf. This outfit made me feel very pretty when we went and emailed everyone and went for a walk on the beach. We didn't actually walk on the beach, we sat and watched the rough waves and the high tide before we went back to the room. Once there I sat down in my corner and wrote while Ahmee and Poppy read. I didn't go on another walk on the beach, I was busy writing; and we didn't watch the Thanksgiving Parade, we watched the news on CNN over the terrorist attacks in India.
The news we received rattled us. I don't remember the details, I just know that in Mumbai (sp?) a force of twenty or more terrorists came in by boat and attacked multiple areas: the central station, an important touristy cafe, two hotels, and the Hospital (also a Jewish Cultural Center). I found out later that these "very very young men" had had specific targets, and that they'd killed some of the top officials who were the first on the scene. It being scary enough that this could happen with everyone being completely blind to it coming, what managed to really frighten us was the fact that the terrorists were singling out British and American tourists. While eating dinner (Poppy shut off the tv) we were all extremely grateful we weren't in India, but then we also realized that a terrorist attack could happen anywhere. What I wondered while I ate my chicken and my vegetables, was: Why did those men single out the American and British tourists? They were very specific in their aim with the India police officials. Do they have another goal besides creating terror? Are they looking for a specific person? Do they want top officials representing the U.S. and Britain to come so they can take a swipe?
Of course all of these questions came along with those of: who did this? Who planned this? Who payed for this? Who trained the men? Who do they have on the inside?
After eating desert and cheering each other up significantly, we turned on the tv again to see what else CNN had to report on the situation in India. I was so busy thinking about this that when I went to bed I couldn't get to sleep but for another hour, wishing I knew more.
Once I got to sleep I stayed asleep.
11/26/08 The Alhambra, Alcazaba, the Palace of the Sultans, the Generalife (Gardens of the Sultans), and then back to the coast
En la pasado yo escribo mucho para mi diario de la computadora, o mi "blog". Ahora es necesitario para mi escribo un poco. Porque? Yo tengo un tiempo poco ahora.
This morning I was pulled out of a half-doze to get dressed and ready. I had to pack and get dressed for the day in a short period of time and I ended up heading down to breakfast after Ahmee and Poppy had gone down. Since I was short on time, I wore the clothes I'd worn the day previously, I didn't jump in the shower (leaving my hair kinda greasy but not terribly greasy), and I hurried through washing my face and packing before I went down to eat a small breakfast with Ahmee and Poppy. The reason why we were in a hurry was we were told to be up at the Alhambra with our tickets by 9 o' clock, otherwise we wouldn't get in. Since we normally move rather slowly in the morning (we normally don't eat breakfast until 10 o' clock nowadays), it was somewhat difficult for us to get moving after staying up so late. We managed to get out of the hotel before 9, put all of our things in the car, and head across the bridge and up the hill. Unfortunately there was a fork in the road at the base of the hill where we got to decide which direction to go. We decided we'd take the better paved left fork, as we turned onto it I said, "This is definitely the road. They'd never make poor tourists climb up that hill on cobble-stones!" Since we've spent the past couple months walking on cobble-stoned streets (and since they hurt Ahmee's feet so much) this really was a sarcastic comment. It made Ahmee laugh.
We spent ten minutes walking up this hill (and waking ourselves up in the freezing cold) before we realized that we'd taken the wrong fork. We quickly backtracked and headed up the slick cobble-stoned street, all of us in a hurry since we were absolutely certain that we were running out of time. Each of us spread out. Poppy was up towards the front with the tickets, I was just behind him most of the way (until the cold air got to my ears and lungs and made both burn), and Ahmee was lagging behind. All three of us were breathing heavily and when I stopped behind Poppy on the steps to sit on the wall and fix my scarf he told me to wait for Ahmee and to come up with her. As Ahmee slowly made her way up to me Poppy took off up the hill (not running, just walking very very fast). I caught my breath at this time, wrapped my orange scarf around my ears and around my neck producing a look that was similar to the Muslim women's head-wear (part of my hair was showing), and got to look at the staircase ahead and the hill coming up. Once Ahmee reached me she said, "I'm actually pretty glad you're waiting for me. If I keel over you can run ahead and get help." She also chuckled at my new-found method of keeping warm, saying that it actually looked pretty good on me.
Once we caught up with Poppy we were both tired and trying to catch our breath. We were extremely happy to hear that we were early and that we didn't need to run so we could get in.
We walked into the office at the entrance to get audioguides and maps before we went into the Alhambra. While we were there I noticed the first of many odd looks. It took a while for me to figure out what exactly was so odd about how I looked, but when I did I couldn't help laughing about it. By wearing Poppy's green windbreaker and wearing my orange scarf and glasses I had succeeded (unknown to me) in making myself look transsexual. I could've been a boy or a girl and I confused a lot of people with the way I looked. First off, I had on an over-sized shirt that managed to cover all of my curves; and secondly I'd obscured my facial features by wearing my large scarf as ear-muffs and by wearing my huge sunglasses. If you think my mouth or the tiny bit of hair that could be seen at the back of my head gave me away then you're wrong. My chin had a fair amount of zits on it, my lips were chapped, and my hair was pulled into a messy, slightly greasy bun. Something else that probably made people conclude that I was a boy was in the way that I look when walking in an over-sized shirt. I have nice-sized shoulders that could easily belong to a guy, and when my curves are gone and it's difficult to see the tiny bit of a mince that I have in my walk, I all of a sudden take of the appearance of walking without much flair.
At the time I figured they were staring at my earmuffs, and I ignored them. Even when we walked through the park to the Alcazaba (a Moorish fortress that has absolutely no decoration and that overlooks Granada), and in the Alcazaba I was oblivious to how truly masculine I looked. I ignored the stares and listened to the audioguide and enjoyed the views.
I have to say that the Alcazaba didn't hold much interest for me. It's a fort that was very well built, had 3 large towers that formed a triangle within the fort, and the view from the top of the tower we were allowed to climb up in was stunning. From this tower we could see all of Granada and the mountains we would later pass through AND the mountains up behind the Alhambra. These mountains had snowcaps on top of them which showed that I'd been right in assuming the wind was the coming of a cold-front. The mountains had just gotten the brunt of the chill.
After spending about 30 minutes in the Alcazaba we went into the plaza where Ahmee and Poppy got me to take their picture at the Ponte Vino, the wine bridge, and where Ahmee and I went in to use the facilities. While in there I took a good look to see what it was that the elementary school kids were having such a good time pointing at. My appearance made me laugh out loud and made me change my scarf so that it was no longer covering my neck. I tied it tight so I wouldn't have to fix it later, still keeping to the style I'd had before. I then went out with Ahmee and Poppy to go check out the Palace of the Sultans.
The Palace of the Sultans had an incredibly long line in front of it. As we waited to get in we huddled with our audioguides to our ears, getting a preview of what we were about to see. Washington Irving and his descriptions of the Palace accompanied us throughout the tour. Washington Irving is a famous Native American author who stayed in this Palace for some time. As we walked through the rooms that appeared to be stone lace, I began to get a little jealous of him. The Palace was absolutely fabulous. The interior walls contained all sorts of carvings, ceramic tiles, and poems written in Arabic. The ceilings of these rooms contained equally impressive paintings/carvings on them. My favorite parts of the palace were: the halls that lined the outside which had tons of windows to display the view of the valley perfectly, the courtyards which always contained a pool or a fountain, the fontana de liones (fountain of the lions)-unfortunately this was under restoration so the lions were gone and the fountain was in a glass cage, and the carvings in the arches and on the walls. Some of the rooms needed restoration work, but even with these blighted rooms it was easy enough to get a small taste of how the Sultans lived and how their court lived (basically very very richly). One of the rooms we didn't visit however was the concubines quarters. Either that was under restoration or it was shut off for other reasons. It was fine by us because we really didn't want to see how the Sultans mistress's lived.
When we left the building we came to the start of a garden that consisted mostly of shrubbery. We walked through this to two rectangular pools similar to the ones we'd seen within the courtyards. Washington Irving told us (through the audioguides) that these were the pools that the Sultan and his court would supposedly bath in by moonlight. Being back out in the wind and the chill, I found it hard to believe because at night the air cools off significantly. It was a lovely picture though. Try to picture yourself bathing in a rectangular pool in the Sultans palace with the moon as your light and with candle light illuminating the splendid garden around you as you enjoy swimming, and looking at the night sky and the beauty shown to you through the light of the candle. Pretty fantastic picture don't you think?
As we walked through the garden and back to the main path we watched the gardeners work and enjoyed the view. I don't know about Ahmee and Poppy, but at that point I was definitely daydreaming about the palace in it's heyday. Servants cleaning, waiting on the Sultan and the royal family, officials walking around in their splendid clothes and talking to each other, royal ladies relaxing with each other on their cushions as they gossip, and splendidly rich colors everywhere.
Once back to the main path (lined by cyprus trees) we decided we'd walk back to the entrance and ask if we can leave to grab a bite to eat. We did just that. We went back to the entrance, asked the woman there if we could come back in later and where the restaurants were. She said we could leave just so long as we got back in before 2 and she told us there were two restaurants to the right when we exited the Alhambra (this was all in Spanish). We walked down to see if the restaurant we'd passed coming in was open and when it wasn't we went across the street and up the hill to another restaurant. Ahmee and Poppy went into the restaurant and got seats directly in front of the fireplace while I went up and asked a woman on the terrace where the restrooms were. These restrooms were clean, had toilet seats, and had a faucet that worked. They however lacked in one important thing: they weren't heated. It didn't take me long to get out of there and back down to the warm fireplace.
While inside this restaurant I took off a few layers, ate cheese with Ahmee and Poppy, ate and drank hot soup and hot chocolate, listened to the fire crackle behind me (I took the seat closest to it so I was three feet away), talked to Ahmee and Poppy about what we thought about everything we'd seen, and (unfortunately) listened in on the conversation that was going on in the table right next to us. The people sitting there were also from the United States (the time we were eating lunch was a giveaway-Europeans eat later, while there voices only confirmed our guess) and they were pretty loud if I could listen in on them. It was a great pleasure to us when we discovered that they had not realized that we were from the United States. We realized this when they started talking to another woman at a separate table who was from California. Of course, we've had people mistake us as Spanish citizens, and as Germans (this was in France though).
We got back into the Alhambra just before the 2 o' clock rush. We got to go in through the exit because the entrance had a line that just seemed to keep going and growing. We walked through the cyprus trees to the Generalife where I got to see a first hand example of what I call room gardening. The Generalife is a garden which has four different sections. There's the section that's on the lowest terrace. This one contains a portion that has shrubs that create walls or green courtyards that are incredible to walk through (through the center of this there is a long, thin rectangular fountain), and a portion that is along the cliff face which has arbors of climbing roses. The second section of the garden is in the courtyards of the two buildings (where the Sultan would get out of his carriage to walk to his palace) where there were multiple fountains surrounded by flowers and shrubs. The third section you got to by the water staircase, a staircase which has a small fountain on each landing, and which has water running down it's "railings". At the top of this staircase one reaches yet another terrace garden where one can view all of the other sections of the garden and the view of Granada beyond.
This garden delighted me in so many ways. It was incredible to walk around in this garden, admiring all the plants and flowers, and then stop and realize that you're viewing all this in November. It's like I've stepped into a fairy-tale (particularly the story of Beauty and the Beast). I enjoyed the fountains, the flowers, the buildings of plants (I've fantasized about these for years), the sunshine (was warm!), and I enjoyed the general peace of the garden (even with the chain saws in the background it was peaceful). If I had to pick a favorite moment while in the garden I have to say it'd be when I first walked into one of the "rooms" on the first level of the garden. The hedges were towering over my head, the pathway of well laid out pebbles created circles and patterns in the walkway, and the only plants within the garden were roses. This might sound fairly simple. My Momma would probably be surprised about my liking this simple rose garden, and even how I liked the roses (I find them too picky to grow and I also am pretty picky about them). The instant I stepped into this garden I was back at my fathers house, drawing a fancy mansion and a garden for the family there. So often I wanted to give my dad and his family a slightly larger house to give all those who live there a bit more space. Most of my drawings of homes occurred at my fathers house, and I wouldn't be surprised if I've drawn hundreds of different homes there. The difference with this particular sketch was that I was drawing it on a sunny day when I wanted to be out gardening. I drew one of the first homes for my dad's family that had a garden. Within this garden I made sure to try and draw a section for my dad. My father loves roses and I put his rose garden at the very beginning/end of the walking trail. I had envisioned a tall hedge creating a room for these roses, I envisioned the roses in a circle within this room, and I envisioned a fancy pathway. Basically when I stepped into this room I walked right into a part of one of my fantasy gardens. How does one act when one steps into a fantasy? How would you act if you set foot into a world that you thought you'd only imagined? How would you act if you stepped into a portion of your own heaven? I couldn't stop myself from smiling and gawking. My feet kept moving, urging me to find out if I'd find another section of a dream. The rest of the garden was indeed spectacular, and even though I had never envisioned the rest of it I was still excited the rest of the time from that one room.
When we left the Generalife we headed out of the Alhambra to walk back down the cobblestone street to our car. We had a fun time talking the whole way, laughing at the faces of the confused tourists (who saw me and didn't bother to hide their confusion), talking about the splendid Alhambra, and talking about the car ride back. Once back in the car we turned up the heat and made our way back to the diagonal and out of town. We had to take the backroads to get to the Diagonal and we had to turn around in order to get back to a place where we knew where we were and which way to go, but we eventually made our way out. I had a splendid time watching the action on the streets and the cars and in the shops. I never get tired of seeing this and I was definitely grateful I didn't have to pull the computer out because when I type I miss out on the countryside. I pulled the computer out a bit too early though and ended up messing my stomach up.
I gave my stomach half an hour to get back in shape and then I got to work.
Before heading back to our room we grabbed a bit of food at the grocery store (we were in a hurry because we were hungry). For the most part that night we did nothing most people would find special. We were goofy, we ate, and we talked about things we liked.
Ahmee and I had one of our goofiest moments on this trip just before dinner. I'd just taken my large orange scarf off and I was playing with it like it was my scarf from show choir. Ahmee and I ended up playing bullfight with my scarf. Ahmee would be a cow and she'd run at me (the matador) and my orange scarf. Then I'd be the heifer and I'd run at her while she played the matador. Ahmee said I wasn't much of a matador, and would run at my feet. After a certain point I gave up waving that scarf around and I just threw it and ran around the living room squealing while Ahmee chased me. It was hilarious. Poppy got to see a replay once he got downstairs (while he was up there he thought Ahmee was tickling me).
During dinner we talked about our plans for the next day, about what we loved about the gardens, and about what we loved about Granada. We were looking forward to relaxing on Thanksgiving; pigging out on pineapple, watermelon, and chicken (our mini turkey); walking on the beach; and writing (me). We also looked forward to spending a day in the IKEA store (this would be the day after Thanksgiving). When we got to talking about the gardens we decided to get out a piece of paper and a pencil to draw what we'd like to incorporate into our yards. While eating dinner Ahmee told me about her grandma and how she had been a master of: gardening, cooking, and sewing. Ahmee's momma had not been into gardening so much, she was like my sister Emma is now: she loved to cook. Ahmee told me about her grandmothers extensive garden and I was shocked to find out that her grandmothers garden sounded incredibly similar to the one I had in mind for Ahmee and Poppy.
The conversation was wonderful, the food was great (I GOT OREOS!!!), and we all left for bed shortly after we ate dinner. I had a slightly better time staying asleep this night.
This morning I was pulled out of a half-doze to get dressed and ready. I had to pack and get dressed for the day in a short period of time and I ended up heading down to breakfast after Ahmee and Poppy had gone down. Since I was short on time, I wore the clothes I'd worn the day previously, I didn't jump in the shower (leaving my hair kinda greasy but not terribly greasy), and I hurried through washing my face and packing before I went down to eat a small breakfast with Ahmee and Poppy. The reason why we were in a hurry was we were told to be up at the Alhambra with our tickets by 9 o' clock, otherwise we wouldn't get in. Since we normally move rather slowly in the morning (we normally don't eat breakfast until 10 o' clock nowadays), it was somewhat difficult for us to get moving after staying up so late. We managed to get out of the hotel before 9, put all of our things in the car, and head across the bridge and up the hill. Unfortunately there was a fork in the road at the base of the hill where we got to decide which direction to go. We decided we'd take the better paved left fork, as we turned onto it I said, "This is definitely the road. They'd never make poor tourists climb up that hill on cobble-stones!" Since we've spent the past couple months walking on cobble-stoned streets (and since they hurt Ahmee's feet so much) this really was a sarcastic comment. It made Ahmee laugh.
We spent ten minutes walking up this hill (and waking ourselves up in the freezing cold) before we realized that we'd taken the wrong fork. We quickly backtracked and headed up the slick cobble-stoned street, all of us in a hurry since we were absolutely certain that we were running out of time. Each of us spread out. Poppy was up towards the front with the tickets, I was just behind him most of the way (until the cold air got to my ears and lungs and made both burn), and Ahmee was lagging behind. All three of us were breathing heavily and when I stopped behind Poppy on the steps to sit on the wall and fix my scarf he told me to wait for Ahmee and to come up with her. As Ahmee slowly made her way up to me Poppy took off up the hill (not running, just walking very very fast). I caught my breath at this time, wrapped my orange scarf around my ears and around my neck producing a look that was similar to the Muslim women's head-wear (part of my hair was showing), and got to look at the staircase ahead and the hill coming up. Once Ahmee reached me she said, "I'm actually pretty glad you're waiting for me. If I keel over you can run ahead and get help." She also chuckled at my new-found method of keeping warm, saying that it actually looked pretty good on me.
Once we caught up with Poppy we were both tired and trying to catch our breath. We were extremely happy to hear that we were early and that we didn't need to run so we could get in.
We walked into the office at the entrance to get audioguides and maps before we went into the Alhambra. While we were there I noticed the first of many odd looks. It took a while for me to figure out what exactly was so odd about how I looked, but when I did I couldn't help laughing about it. By wearing Poppy's green windbreaker and wearing my orange scarf and glasses I had succeeded (unknown to me) in making myself look transsexual. I could've been a boy or a girl and I confused a lot of people with the way I looked. First off, I had on an over-sized shirt that managed to cover all of my curves; and secondly I'd obscured my facial features by wearing my large scarf as ear-muffs and by wearing my huge sunglasses. If you think my mouth or the tiny bit of hair that could be seen at the back of my head gave me away then you're wrong. My chin had a fair amount of zits on it, my lips were chapped, and my hair was pulled into a messy, slightly greasy bun. Something else that probably made people conclude that I was a boy was in the way that I look when walking in an over-sized shirt. I have nice-sized shoulders that could easily belong to a guy, and when my curves are gone and it's difficult to see the tiny bit of a mince that I have in my walk, I all of a sudden take of the appearance of walking without much flair.
At the time I figured they were staring at my earmuffs, and I ignored them. Even when we walked through the park to the Alcazaba (a Moorish fortress that has absolutely no decoration and that overlooks Granada), and in the Alcazaba I was oblivious to how truly masculine I looked. I ignored the stares and listened to the audioguide and enjoyed the views.
I have to say that the Alcazaba didn't hold much interest for me. It's a fort that was very well built, had 3 large towers that formed a triangle within the fort, and the view from the top of the tower we were allowed to climb up in was stunning. From this tower we could see all of Granada and the mountains we would later pass through AND the mountains up behind the Alhambra. These mountains had snowcaps on top of them which showed that I'd been right in assuming the wind was the coming of a cold-front. The mountains had just gotten the brunt of the chill.
After spending about 30 minutes in the Alcazaba we went into the plaza where Ahmee and Poppy got me to take their picture at the Ponte Vino, the wine bridge, and where Ahmee and I went in to use the facilities. While in there I took a good look to see what it was that the elementary school kids were having such a good time pointing at. My appearance made me laugh out loud and made me change my scarf so that it was no longer covering my neck. I tied it tight so I wouldn't have to fix it later, still keeping to the style I'd had before. I then went out with Ahmee and Poppy to go check out the Palace of the Sultans.
The Palace of the Sultans had an incredibly long line in front of it. As we waited to get in we huddled with our audioguides to our ears, getting a preview of what we were about to see. Washington Irving and his descriptions of the Palace accompanied us throughout the tour. Washington Irving is a famous Native American author who stayed in this Palace for some time. As we walked through the rooms that appeared to be stone lace, I began to get a little jealous of him. The Palace was absolutely fabulous. The interior walls contained all sorts of carvings, ceramic tiles, and poems written in Arabic. The ceilings of these rooms contained equally impressive paintings/carvings on them. My favorite parts of the palace were: the halls that lined the outside which had tons of windows to display the view of the valley perfectly, the courtyards which always contained a pool or a fountain, the fontana de liones (fountain of the lions)-unfortunately this was under restoration so the lions were gone and the fountain was in a glass cage, and the carvings in the arches and on the walls. Some of the rooms needed restoration work, but even with these blighted rooms it was easy enough to get a small taste of how the Sultans lived and how their court lived (basically very very richly). One of the rooms we didn't visit however was the concubines quarters. Either that was under restoration or it was shut off for other reasons. It was fine by us because we really didn't want to see how the Sultans mistress's lived.
When we left the building we came to the start of a garden that consisted mostly of shrubbery. We walked through this to two rectangular pools similar to the ones we'd seen within the courtyards. Washington Irving told us (through the audioguides) that these were the pools that the Sultan and his court would supposedly bath in by moonlight. Being back out in the wind and the chill, I found it hard to believe because at night the air cools off significantly. It was a lovely picture though. Try to picture yourself bathing in a rectangular pool in the Sultans palace with the moon as your light and with candle light illuminating the splendid garden around you as you enjoy swimming, and looking at the night sky and the beauty shown to you through the light of the candle. Pretty fantastic picture don't you think?
As we walked through the garden and back to the main path we watched the gardeners work and enjoyed the view. I don't know about Ahmee and Poppy, but at that point I was definitely daydreaming about the palace in it's heyday. Servants cleaning, waiting on the Sultan and the royal family, officials walking around in their splendid clothes and talking to each other, royal ladies relaxing with each other on their cushions as they gossip, and splendidly rich colors everywhere.
Once back to the main path (lined by cyprus trees) we decided we'd walk back to the entrance and ask if we can leave to grab a bite to eat. We did just that. We went back to the entrance, asked the woman there if we could come back in later and where the restaurants were. She said we could leave just so long as we got back in before 2 and she told us there were two restaurants to the right when we exited the Alhambra (this was all in Spanish). We walked down to see if the restaurant we'd passed coming in was open and when it wasn't we went across the street and up the hill to another restaurant. Ahmee and Poppy went into the restaurant and got seats directly in front of the fireplace while I went up and asked a woman on the terrace where the restrooms were. These restrooms were clean, had toilet seats, and had a faucet that worked. They however lacked in one important thing: they weren't heated. It didn't take me long to get out of there and back down to the warm fireplace.
While inside this restaurant I took off a few layers, ate cheese with Ahmee and Poppy, ate and drank hot soup and hot chocolate, listened to the fire crackle behind me (I took the seat closest to it so I was three feet away), talked to Ahmee and Poppy about what we thought about everything we'd seen, and (unfortunately) listened in on the conversation that was going on in the table right next to us. The people sitting there were also from the United States (the time we were eating lunch was a giveaway-Europeans eat later, while there voices only confirmed our guess) and they were pretty loud if I could listen in on them. It was a great pleasure to us when we discovered that they had not realized that we were from the United States. We realized this when they started talking to another woman at a separate table who was from California. Of course, we've had people mistake us as Spanish citizens, and as Germans (this was in France though).
We got back into the Alhambra just before the 2 o' clock rush. We got to go in through the exit because the entrance had a line that just seemed to keep going and growing. We walked through the cyprus trees to the Generalife where I got to see a first hand example of what I call room gardening. The Generalife is a garden which has four different sections. There's the section that's on the lowest terrace. This one contains a portion that has shrubs that create walls or green courtyards that are incredible to walk through (through the center of this there is a long, thin rectangular fountain), and a portion that is along the cliff face which has arbors of climbing roses. The second section of the garden is in the courtyards of the two buildings (where the Sultan would get out of his carriage to walk to his palace) where there were multiple fountains surrounded by flowers and shrubs. The third section you got to by the water staircase, a staircase which has a small fountain on each landing, and which has water running down it's "railings". At the top of this staircase one reaches yet another terrace garden where one can view all of the other sections of the garden and the view of Granada beyond.
This garden delighted me in so many ways. It was incredible to walk around in this garden, admiring all the plants and flowers, and then stop and realize that you're viewing all this in November. It's like I've stepped into a fairy-tale (particularly the story of Beauty and the Beast). I enjoyed the fountains, the flowers, the buildings of plants (I've fantasized about these for years), the sunshine (was warm!), and I enjoyed the general peace of the garden (even with the chain saws in the background it was peaceful). If I had to pick a favorite moment while in the garden I have to say it'd be when I first walked into one of the "rooms" on the first level of the garden. The hedges were towering over my head, the pathway of well laid out pebbles created circles and patterns in the walkway, and the only plants within the garden were roses. This might sound fairly simple. My Momma would probably be surprised about my liking this simple rose garden, and even how I liked the roses (I find them too picky to grow and I also am pretty picky about them). The instant I stepped into this garden I was back at my fathers house, drawing a fancy mansion and a garden for the family there. So often I wanted to give my dad and his family a slightly larger house to give all those who live there a bit more space. Most of my drawings of homes occurred at my fathers house, and I wouldn't be surprised if I've drawn hundreds of different homes there. The difference with this particular sketch was that I was drawing it on a sunny day when I wanted to be out gardening. I drew one of the first homes for my dad's family that had a garden. Within this garden I made sure to try and draw a section for my dad. My father loves roses and I put his rose garden at the very beginning/end of the walking trail. I had envisioned a tall hedge creating a room for these roses, I envisioned the roses in a circle within this room, and I envisioned a fancy pathway. Basically when I stepped into this room I walked right into a part of one of my fantasy gardens. How does one act when one steps into a fantasy? How would you act if you set foot into a world that you thought you'd only imagined? How would you act if you stepped into a portion of your own heaven? I couldn't stop myself from smiling and gawking. My feet kept moving, urging me to find out if I'd find another section of a dream. The rest of the garden was indeed spectacular, and even though I had never envisioned the rest of it I was still excited the rest of the time from that one room.
When we left the Generalife we headed out of the Alhambra to walk back down the cobblestone street to our car. We had a fun time talking the whole way, laughing at the faces of the confused tourists (who saw me and didn't bother to hide their confusion), talking about the splendid Alhambra, and talking about the car ride back. Once back in the car we turned up the heat and made our way back to the diagonal and out of town. We had to take the backroads to get to the Diagonal and we had to turn around in order to get back to a place where we knew where we were and which way to go, but we eventually made our way out. I had a splendid time watching the action on the streets and the cars and in the shops. I never get tired of seeing this and I was definitely grateful I didn't have to pull the computer out because when I type I miss out on the countryside. I pulled the computer out a bit too early though and ended up messing my stomach up.
I gave my stomach half an hour to get back in shape and then I got to work.
Before heading back to our room we grabbed a bit of food at the grocery store (we were in a hurry because we were hungry). For the most part that night we did nothing most people would find special. We were goofy, we ate, and we talked about things we liked.
Ahmee and I had one of our goofiest moments on this trip just before dinner. I'd just taken my large orange scarf off and I was playing with it like it was my scarf from show choir. Ahmee and I ended up playing bullfight with my scarf. Ahmee would be a cow and she'd run at me (the matador) and my orange scarf. Then I'd be the heifer and I'd run at her while she played the matador. Ahmee said I wasn't much of a matador, and would run at my feet. After a certain point I gave up waving that scarf around and I just threw it and ran around the living room squealing while Ahmee chased me. It was hilarious. Poppy got to see a replay once he got downstairs (while he was up there he thought Ahmee was tickling me).
During dinner we talked about our plans for the next day, about what we loved about the gardens, and about what we loved about Granada. We were looking forward to relaxing on Thanksgiving; pigging out on pineapple, watermelon, and chicken (our mini turkey); walking on the beach; and writing (me). We also looked forward to spending a day in the IKEA store (this would be the day after Thanksgiving). When we got to talking about the gardens we decided to get out a piece of paper and a pencil to draw what we'd like to incorporate into our yards. While eating dinner Ahmee told me about her grandma and how she had been a master of: gardening, cooking, and sewing. Ahmee's momma had not been into gardening so much, she was like my sister Emma is now: she loved to cook. Ahmee told me about her grandmothers extensive garden and I was shocked to find out that her grandmothers garden sounded incredibly similar to the one I had in mind for Ahmee and Poppy.
The conversation was wonderful, the food was great (I GOT OREOS!!!), and we all left for bed shortly after we ate dinner. I had a slightly better time staying asleep this night.
Monday, December 1, 2008
11/25/08 We head to Granada, we see Granada's Catedral, we see La Capilla Real (the Catholic Crowns-Ferdinand and Isabella), we window shop/shop, and
Bailar en ingles se dice: to dance. Yo bailo muchas tiempos vende yo en los Estados Unidos. En Europa yo no bailo, pero yo miro personas en Espana bailan. Es una Flamenco y es rapide.
On this day we woke up "early", ate breakfast, packed our things into one suitcase/backpack (George has come for me and now it's necessary to carry the backpack with me), and got on the highway. On the way there I worked like a dog. I still needed to finish up a few blogs so that I could post them once we got into our hotel in Granada. When I was finally called away from the computer we were heading into Granada and my eyes were needed.
After doing a U-turn directly into the police we were pointed into the right direction. We were told how to get onto the street we wanted and then we followed that through the city and past it's diagonal. We ended up missing our turn to get to the hotel we wanted. Instead we ended up just alongside where we wanted to be: the Alhambra was just across the river and up the hill from us. We pulled over and went down to the square to grab a bite to eat in the cafe, making sure to eat inside because it was freezing out there and Ahmee and I had not brought our coats. Ahmee and Poppy ate tappas, or at least, a plate with assorted goodies, while I ate a tray full of different sausages. It filled me up quickly and Ahmee and Poppy were done with their tappas before I was done, so together we managed to spend about 40 minutes in the cafe. Before we left we asked the waiter how to get back to the street we wanted. He showed Poppy on his map, telling him that it was easy enough if you have a small car.
Immediately after we ate lunch we went out to take a look at the local hotels. The best one we'd seen from the car had been the Hotel Moriscos, a hotel that didn't have any star recognition whatsoever. We went up the pebbly street and hit the button to buzz the desk (they had a camera there). When the large wooden door opened we stepped into the shade of the building, into the warmth of the heater, and into a Moorish-styled hotel that was definitely 3-4 star quality. The first two questions we asked the desk were: do you have a room for three for tonight? and do you have wireless? They had both and they were eager to show us the room. I went with the lady to the "1st" floor (here the ground floor is ground zero and the next floor up is the first floor) which had a door in the open "courtyard" which had a running fountain in it. This room contained dark brown furniture, a couch that would later "transform" into my bed, a double bed for Ahmee and Poppy, a Moorish ceiling that I suspected resembled the ceilings we'd see in the Alhambra, and a bathroom that contained a jet-tub, a shower that is functional, two sinks, and a toilet (don't "duh" at me, I've seen literal bathrooms before). I loved it immediately and couldn't wait to pull our things in. After asking several more questions, all about opening times, how to reserve tickets, where to eat dinner, where we could see a Flamenco show, where we could get tickets, and where everything was. We got all the information we needed from Luis and then we went out and got our things out of the car so we could lug the suitcase, my purse, the laptop, and my backpack up the stairs.
Once we had everything in the room I grabbed the computer and tried to get to my email. The computer was fairly slow but I managed to send off a few emails before we went out.
We went back out into the streets of Granada to make our way towards the Catedral and the Capilla Real. As we went Ahmee and I stopped in several shops that had Arabian-styled items. At first our main objective was to find coats, because we'd both had figured that we wouldn't need our coats since we hadn't needed them since we'd left France. Later as we walked around we bought items that were completely off the agenda (this was partially due to the fact that we were then walking in the sun and weren't as cold). We got a few small things as christmas presents for our family members and we also bought ourselves scarves: Ahmee a red one and me an orange one. Ahmee immediately put her scarf on while I kept mine in the bag for later. As usual, we adored looking in the windows, watching the people, listening to the musicians playing in the street (poor guitar players fingers must be frozen!), and looking at the buildings. The buildings were varied. Closer to our hotel we saw older buildings with the traditional brick/stone method. As we got closer to the diagonal we ran into more metal and glass buildings with a few "frilly" buildings close by. Instead of walking down the diagonal we walked through alleys with lots of shop windows to stare in. Maybe it's the alleys, or maybe it's the way I was dressed (I had on Poppy's green windbreaker), but I definitely got more than the average double take while window shopping here. If they normally happen, then it's the alley's and how the enclosed space makes me nervous with others and makes me watch them more closely. If not, then I'm still surprised because George is here and my chin has broken out into a series of zits, plus I was bundling up close due to the cold, plus I was wearing my wearing-thin clothes along with Poppy's green windbreaker which was swallowing me. I later found out it wasn't the alleys. It makes me thoroughly uneasy when people do that.
We moved between a killer bookshop and another store to the entrance of the Capilla Real, or the place where Ferdinand and Isabella are buried and the burial place of another royal couple: Felipe el Guapo (the handsome), and Juana la Loca (the crazy). We double checked the entrance-time for this and the entrance time for the Cathedral. Basically we just had to wait for half an hour to get in. We decided we'd go and find coffee on the diagonal. My favorite part of the Diagonal (apart from the windows-these you can find in any big city) was the street lights. After Barcelona I've been glancing at the street lights to see if I can find any originals (of course, I've always glanced because I like the old-fashioned lampposts and the odd and out-of-ordinary). In Barcelona I got to see Gaudi-style lampposts. Here, I got to see techno lampposts. These lampposts had cubed glass around the bulbs. It was really pretty cool to look at, if you had the time to stop and look and if you like cubes.
It didn't take long before we got to the Double Eye Cafe, a cafe that was small, had alright music, and had quite an interesting collection of people in it. The last part of this cafe didn't come in until after we'd gotten halfway through our coffee/hot chocolate. While sitting at the bar I pulled out my orange scarf and draped it around my neck as I looked around at the green room which only had seats available at the bar and which was definitely more famous for it's alcoholic beverages than it's coffee and hot chocolate (had four or five shelves of various items resting in front of us-one of these Poppy tried). Sitting at the back were two men and a woman all of whom were busy talking to each other and to the waitress in rapid Spanish (I caught the easiest words). On the walls around this cafe were various drawings that all contained half a mans face, a mountain of hair covering the other half his face, and geometric patterns filling up the rest of the drawing (was indeed a drawing). As we sat there drinking and listening I happened to notice that yet again people were giving me several long glances, particularly the guys at the back. I didn't like having to pass them when I had to squeeze to get to the restroom, but when nature calls you absolutely have to go. After that I refused to look in that direction. That is until three more people came in to spare everyone a series of Holas and kisses. One woman brought in a considerable briefcase and sat down at the bar, flipping through various sketches and drawings, all of which looked similar to the ones that could be seen on the walls of the cafe. When she pulled out a drawing that was an exact replica of the thing I could see as the backdrop on the laptop I knew I was looking at the artist of the cafe. It was a meeting of friends that we did not disturb for very long. Shortly after these last three came in we got up to walk back to the Catedral.
The Catedral was surprisingly small. It was very very tall, but it's nave wasn't very long. If you looked up you got to see some of the masterpieces of the Catedral: it's paintings in between the arches featuring the Saints and the Apostles, it's carvings of angels, and it's incredible organs. The Catedral also had on display some ancient music books that were decorated just about as finely as the Book of Kells. These music books contained shape notes and tons of drawings along the outside. It was a shame they had these books propped up. We could see the damage that was being inflicted upon the pages. What those books really needed was to be set on a flat surface, but we weren't about to be the ones to tell them that, we were happy just to see them. Another something that I thoroughly enjoyed seeing, for the first time, was a star-shaped stained glass window. This wasn't a square window with a glass star within it, it was a window that was set into the shape of a pointed star (as in, stonemasons had to cut points into the stone so that this star could be put into place above the central door).
The walls above the alter were stunning, the walls throughout the rest of the Catedral were of white stone, and the chapels that were mostly around the alter were fairly small but were each filled with gold gild.
I know it might seem like I've just paraphrased this Cathedral, and that I haven't gone into much detail over the Cathedral while I went to great lengths to talk about the Cafe. The truth is that: we spent more time at the cafe; the cafe was smaller and thus more intimate; and this Cathedral held no huge architectural, artistic, or historical importance for me before I went in, as I walked around, or afterwards (other than the window and the books).
After walking around we went into the giftshop where Ahmee and I browsed for a bit before heading outside to join Poppy and walk over to the Capilla Real. This was basically a smaller church that has been dedicated as a museum over the Catholic Crowns, namely Ferdinand and Isabella. When we walked through the once empty side street we got to dodge women selling rosemary (later we found out these women were gypsies), and a vendor selling artistic drawings of your name (in Arabic). We bought our tickets and walked around, staring at the many different faces of Ferdinand, Isabella, Felipe el Guapo, and Juana la Loca. Actually Felipe el Guapo and Juana la Loca looked the same in most of their portraits. It was Ferdinand and Isabella that seemed to change often. When we saw the tombs of these kings and queens we wondered if the carvings were a true likeness, or if any of the paintings housed in that place were true likenesses (Ferdinand and Isabella certainly commanded through fear fairly often). Of course, we couldn't see the stone statues on the "tombs", we could only see the sides because they were so large and were sitting on a platform. Under the ground the kings and queens were held in wooden coffins. We didn't go down to see these.
We walked around the church, looked at the various cabinets that held paintings that depicted scenes from the bible and scenes of martyrdom, looked at the fancy "carriages" that Ferdinand and Isabella would sit in to be carried to mass, and viewed the mostly modest church (the benches had the initials F and X for Ferdinand and Isabella and the alter is always decorated). After this we walked into an art gallery featuring paintings of the Virgin and the baby Jesus, the Apostles, the Saints, and scenes from the bible. The most emphasis was on the Virgin and Jesus, and on the gruesome images. Neither of which were surprising.
What I enjoyed most about the Cathedral wasn't it's looks (dark with a few side chapels, benches, and white tombs dominating the space), or the paintings. It was the super-short history lesson I got from Ahmee over Ferdinand, Isabella, Felipe el Guapo, and Juana la Loca. I'd already heard about Ferdinand and Isabella, they're famous everywhere as being the Catholic Crowns who pushed all other religions from Spain. I had not heard about Felipe el Guapo or Juana la Loca. Ahmee simply explained their "titles". Juana la Loca was madly in love with Felipe el Guapo and when he died she earned the title of crazy when she carried her dead husbands coffin around with her everywhere she went. We saw a picture of Felipe "el Guapo", Ahmee and I think that he's not very guapo (handsome) and that Juana probably bestowed this name upon him. I thought Juana was very beautiful with her dark, curly hair and dark eyes (she also had a widows peak-this makes me wonder if that was just added in in reference to her dead husband).
After the church we walked up into the small and frigid souvenir shop where Ahmee spent her time examining and picking out some postcards while I examined the sudoku puzzle the cashier lady was working on (and had made herself). She looked up after a short period and caught me looking at it and said, "Can I help you?" I smiled, shook my head, and was about to say no when she chuckled and said, "Or do you just want to help me?" This made me laugh and I told her how I loved sudoku puzzles, after this Ahmee came up with her purchases, we commented on the freezing cold room and told her to try to stay warm, and then we went back out into the side-street. This time all three of us got nabbed by the women with the rosemary twigs. Ahmee got nabbed first, picking the rosemary out of another womans hand. As the woman spoke to Ahmee I slipped out of the gate and onto the Diagonal only to find another woman offering me rosemary. I saw Ahmee still talking to the woman out of the corner of my eye and I saw Poppy shake his head out of the corner of the other as I timidly took the rosemary out of the womans hand. It turns out that the women were using the rosemary as a way to see which hand people would use, so they could then read that hand. Before the woman took the rosemary out of my left hand she knodded at Ahmee and asked if she was my mother (this is in Spanish-she only knew how to speak spanish). I told her (again in Spanish) that no she was my grandmother. The woman smiled, looked down at my hand, and said I was moy inteligente and ran her nail down what I'd previously thought was my life-line. She then said something I didn't understand and I saw Ahmee motioning for me to walk away. I said sorry and pointed to my grandmother and slipped away from the woman (who I can guess probably was going on with my fortune in a language I know tiny bits of). When I caught up with Ahmee and Poppy I asked Ahmee what the woman had told her. She said that the woman had declared that Ahmee was nervous, really really nice, and that she was going to live a long time. Poppy said that the woman who'd given him his fortune had spoken only spanish and that he hadn't understood any of it except for the long-life part.
We walked back through the streets, the light becoming fairly orange and the temperature dropping slightly as we walked. We enjoyed doing the usual watching and we were delighted when we caught sight of an art class drawing a detailed sketch of the facade of one of the buildings. Those poor hands were going to freeze before they ever got done (since some of them had nothing on their paper).
Once back at the hotel I had plenty of time to send blogs and to type to people and to type blogs. I had to do this before 7:30 because at 8 we were going to go out, eat, and then go to a Flamenco show that started at 9:30 and lasted until 11. I ended up being rushed and not getting everything done. I told myself I'd simply send everything once I got back to the room and then I went and quickly got all dressed up in my black pants, my orange shirt, my turquoise earrings, my lipgloss (I also covered up my zits), put on mascara, put on my blue sweater, and wrapped myself in my new orange scarf which was big enough to be a shawl. After all this primping we really needed to get out and eat. We went around the corner and into a nearby cafe where we exclaimed at the freezing cold air outside, ate our food, reveled in the warmth (I was right next to the heater), and admired the posters of the bullfight posters.
After waiting in the warmth of the restaurant for our bill we went back out onto the streets to head back up the road next to the hotel, through the college (highschool) where guys were up on the roof hooting and hollering (what they were doing up there I still have absolutely no idea), and across the street to follow the Asian tour group into the Flamenco show cafe. Our tickets got us entry and got us each free drinks. A man came around and asked us what we wanted to drink and I told him I'd take Fanta. I don't know what Ahmee and Poppy got, I was too busy looking around the room. We'd been seated in a white "cave": a long, narrow, rectangular room that had a short, barrel-vaulted ceiling. On the ceiling there were a series of lights (which I knew from experience in show choir had to be extremely hot, especially up close), on the floor there was the "stage"-the scuffed up area where we could see where previous feet had stomped, and along the walls there were pictures of old Flamenco dancers hanging above the heads of tourists. The two predominant groups were the Asian group who sat in the back of the room, and the German group, who had a guide who wore leather pants and who had done the tour many times and had become a good friend of the dancers. There were two women sitting next to me who I later discovered had seen more than one Flamenco show, and who were both very passionate about the dance (hard not to be). Across from me, frighteningly enough, was a man who I'd seen twice within the past two hours. He was traveling by himself, and looked an awful lot like Jasper off of 101 Dalmations. When I saw him come in and sit down just opposite from me (and when I saw him glance at me several times) I nudged Ahmee and told her that I'd seen the man as we were leaving the hotel (he was coming in through the big door), AND in the cafe when we were eating dinner. I decided I was going to ignore the man. This became easier and easier as the night flew by.
When the dancers came in they turned their seats along the wall opposite us and sat down. It is impossible for me to explain everything that happened. I shall do my best to get the general gist of this dance, but by no means base all of your opinions of it on what I write. I'd never heard what happens in a Flamenco Dance. I never knew that they started out sitting (dancing requires a person to stand up right? wrong). I also never knew that men could Flamenco Dance (all of the posters have women). When they sat down I cast curious eyes on them and when one started clapping I was surprised when the others did not join in in a steady beat. One person would clap, another would join them, another person would tap their feet in a different rythmn, another would start singing, another would do a combination of the base beat with their toe and would clap another beat. One could not distinguish who was doing what beat all at the same time, but the result was music from percussion which was sped up or slowed down with no warning whatsoever. One dancer would stand and begin to work their way along the dance floor, doing their own moves, tapping their own beats, forcing the rest to speed up, going from flowing arm motions to furious foot-work in less than a second, going from serious and focusing on immersing into the music into a flurry of movement and tapping out a music of their own at a speed that was incredible for me. Those of you who've seen Happy Feet: this was a whole different style but just as complicated of moves. Those of you who've seen me clog: this is similar in that a beat and music is tapped out with the feet-the difference is in the motion. The dancers did not often scuff their feet on the floor. It was all furious tap-work. Each dancer had his or her turn where they would get up from the mist of a new beat and would begin dancing, choosing just how much they wanted to dance and how much they wanted to sweat. The first woman was slightly plump and did mostly slow movements, but who would surprise us with her footwork every now and then. The second woman was older, had issues keeping her shirt from showing her bra, and had a killer attitude. She hardly danced at all, and none of us cared. She sang Frank Sinatra's "I did it my way" (in Spanish), making the tallest man laugh like crazy, and producing smiles from all the people in the group. After her came the tall man who had nothing to flourish, no skirts to pull up, no heels to show off, all he had was his attitude and his feet and he worked these very very well. His dance was almost as if it was choreographed (none of them were and you could tell with the first couple people). He was so intense, and so into his movements, and put soo much energy into what he was doing. It was incredible watching him flow from slow upper body movements and a few taps to incredible flourishes of the feet paired with few other movements. Unfortunately for the other dancers he sweat a lot (I told you those lights were hot-he was so tall his face was practically in them) and when he spun he caused the youngest girl and the first woman to dance to duck and cover there heads. I think a few people got spattered by him.
After him they had a short intermission where the Asian people had a good time clapping their hands and trying to figure out how to Flamenco Dance, while the German tour guide hopped on stage and started talking in rapid German (accent sounded similar to some of my relatives, just thought I'd throw that out there) about the people in the pictures. As she talked everyone tried to figure out what she was saying (those of us who didn't speak German that is). I don't remember how much I got out of her speech, so I'm going to guess that I only got the names of the Flamenco Dancers that were in the pictures.
After about 15 minutes the Dancers came back in. This time the first woman to dance was the oldest woman. She had gray hair that was pulled up, seemed to be the relative to the youngest member of the group, and had on the most stereotypical Flamenco garb. She had on the ruffly skirt and sported a flower in her hair. When she danced she used mostly her fingers because she had castanets in both hands. Of course, she'd also do a bit of footwork, but most of the time she was focusing on her fingers. She had the biggest problem with the tourists who had out their camera's. When she saw this she'd bark, "No video." Her dance didn't last very long and then came her younger relative who I'd seen do fancy footwork while sitting down and who was really quite pretty. Her dance was just as fantastic as the tall man's. He was even watching her footwork closely, as if checking for future use. Hers wasn't as much of a suspension-filled dance though. I think she was well and truly tired of slow movement and was ready to work her feet. She didn't slow down much throughout her dance but she wasn't frantic either. The elderly woman watched from the back of the room with a smile and a hint of what I suspected was pride in her eyes. It was a lovely dance, and I was definitely not surprised when she breathed heavily when she sat down. Immediately after her came another man. This guy had spiked, brown hair, had come in late, had on a red shirt, and was slightly shorter and thinner than the tall man. His dance was equally impressive as the tall mans, if not more so. As the dance went on the tall guy watched his movements closely and smiled and laughed every now and then when he'd pull an impressive move. I said before that I don't think these dances were choreographed, I did not say that the steps were not played with by the dancers. When I watched this man dance it seemed apparent that the two dancing men had traded foot ideas before (this is something I can recognize because my friend Kayla and I do this all the time when line-dancing). This guy combined suspension, fluidity, percussion, and choppy moves almost perfectly. He also liked dancing at our end of the dance floor-because the women sitting next to me had answered "This way!" when the dancers cried "Ole!" He had greatly appreciated them and made sure to dance at their end during his fast and furious moment.
After that groups of two would go up and dance. The youngest girl with the first woman to dance, then the two men together-bouncing ideas off right there, and then the oldest woman with the German tour-guide (told ya they knew her well! she had on tennis shoes and still managed). It was then over and we all clapped and cheered as the dancers bowed and walked out into the street.
We followed after them literally minutes after they'd left and we couldn't see them anywhere on the streets. We avoided the castanet vendor, and went back along the same route to the hotel where we stopped to check in on Victor (a different guy had come in to take the desk job from Luis), to say goodnight to him, and then to go up to the room where we all got in our pj's. Ahmee and Poppy quickly climbed into bed while I stayed awake typing emails to people and sending off more blogs. I eventually closed up the computer, dreading having to wake up early the next morning.
I didn't sleep very well that night, I woke up multiple times.
On this day we woke up "early", ate breakfast, packed our things into one suitcase/backpack (George has come for me and now it's necessary to carry the backpack with me), and got on the highway. On the way there I worked like a dog. I still needed to finish up a few blogs so that I could post them once we got into our hotel in Granada. When I was finally called away from the computer we were heading into Granada and my eyes were needed.
After doing a U-turn directly into the police we were pointed into the right direction. We were told how to get onto the street we wanted and then we followed that through the city and past it's diagonal. We ended up missing our turn to get to the hotel we wanted. Instead we ended up just alongside where we wanted to be: the Alhambra was just across the river and up the hill from us. We pulled over and went down to the square to grab a bite to eat in the cafe, making sure to eat inside because it was freezing out there and Ahmee and I had not brought our coats. Ahmee and Poppy ate tappas, or at least, a plate with assorted goodies, while I ate a tray full of different sausages. It filled me up quickly and Ahmee and Poppy were done with their tappas before I was done, so together we managed to spend about 40 minutes in the cafe. Before we left we asked the waiter how to get back to the street we wanted. He showed Poppy on his map, telling him that it was easy enough if you have a small car.
Immediately after we ate lunch we went out to take a look at the local hotels. The best one we'd seen from the car had been the Hotel Moriscos, a hotel that didn't have any star recognition whatsoever. We went up the pebbly street and hit the button to buzz the desk (they had a camera there). When the large wooden door opened we stepped into the shade of the building, into the warmth of the heater, and into a Moorish-styled hotel that was definitely 3-4 star quality. The first two questions we asked the desk were: do you have a room for three for tonight? and do you have wireless? They had both and they were eager to show us the room. I went with the lady to the "1st" floor (here the ground floor is ground zero and the next floor up is the first floor) which had a door in the open "courtyard" which had a running fountain in it. This room contained dark brown furniture, a couch that would later "transform" into my bed, a double bed for Ahmee and Poppy, a Moorish ceiling that I suspected resembled the ceilings we'd see in the Alhambra, and a bathroom that contained a jet-tub, a shower that is functional, two sinks, and a toilet (don't "duh" at me, I've seen literal bathrooms before). I loved it immediately and couldn't wait to pull our things in. After asking several more questions, all about opening times, how to reserve tickets, where to eat dinner, where we could see a Flamenco show, where we could get tickets, and where everything was. We got all the information we needed from Luis and then we went out and got our things out of the car so we could lug the suitcase, my purse, the laptop, and my backpack up the stairs.
Once we had everything in the room I grabbed the computer and tried to get to my email. The computer was fairly slow but I managed to send off a few emails before we went out.
We went back out into the streets of Granada to make our way towards the Catedral and the Capilla Real. As we went Ahmee and I stopped in several shops that had Arabian-styled items. At first our main objective was to find coats, because we'd both had figured that we wouldn't need our coats since we hadn't needed them since we'd left France. Later as we walked around we bought items that were completely off the agenda (this was partially due to the fact that we were then walking in the sun and weren't as cold). We got a few small things as christmas presents for our family members and we also bought ourselves scarves: Ahmee a red one and me an orange one. Ahmee immediately put her scarf on while I kept mine in the bag for later. As usual, we adored looking in the windows, watching the people, listening to the musicians playing in the street (poor guitar players fingers must be frozen!), and looking at the buildings. The buildings were varied. Closer to our hotel we saw older buildings with the traditional brick/stone method. As we got closer to the diagonal we ran into more metal and glass buildings with a few "frilly" buildings close by. Instead of walking down the diagonal we walked through alleys with lots of shop windows to stare in. Maybe it's the alleys, or maybe it's the way I was dressed (I had on Poppy's green windbreaker), but I definitely got more than the average double take while window shopping here. If they normally happen, then it's the alley's and how the enclosed space makes me nervous with others and makes me watch them more closely. If not, then I'm still surprised because George is here and my chin has broken out into a series of zits, plus I was bundling up close due to the cold, plus I was wearing my wearing-thin clothes along with Poppy's green windbreaker which was swallowing me. I later found out it wasn't the alleys. It makes me thoroughly uneasy when people do that.
We moved between a killer bookshop and another store to the entrance of the Capilla Real, or the place where Ferdinand and Isabella are buried and the burial place of another royal couple: Felipe el Guapo (the handsome), and Juana la Loca (the crazy). We double checked the entrance-time for this and the entrance time for the Cathedral. Basically we just had to wait for half an hour to get in. We decided we'd go and find coffee on the diagonal. My favorite part of the Diagonal (apart from the windows-these you can find in any big city) was the street lights. After Barcelona I've been glancing at the street lights to see if I can find any originals (of course, I've always glanced because I like the old-fashioned lampposts and the odd and out-of-ordinary). In Barcelona I got to see Gaudi-style lampposts. Here, I got to see techno lampposts. These lampposts had cubed glass around the bulbs. It was really pretty cool to look at, if you had the time to stop and look and if you like cubes.
It didn't take long before we got to the Double Eye Cafe, a cafe that was small, had alright music, and had quite an interesting collection of people in it. The last part of this cafe didn't come in until after we'd gotten halfway through our coffee/hot chocolate. While sitting at the bar I pulled out my orange scarf and draped it around my neck as I looked around at the green room which only had seats available at the bar and which was definitely more famous for it's alcoholic beverages than it's coffee and hot chocolate (had four or five shelves of various items resting in front of us-one of these Poppy tried). Sitting at the back were two men and a woman all of whom were busy talking to each other and to the waitress in rapid Spanish (I caught the easiest words). On the walls around this cafe were various drawings that all contained half a mans face, a mountain of hair covering the other half his face, and geometric patterns filling up the rest of the drawing (was indeed a drawing). As we sat there drinking and listening I happened to notice that yet again people were giving me several long glances, particularly the guys at the back. I didn't like having to pass them when I had to squeeze to get to the restroom, but when nature calls you absolutely have to go. After that I refused to look in that direction. That is until three more people came in to spare everyone a series of Holas and kisses. One woman brought in a considerable briefcase and sat down at the bar, flipping through various sketches and drawings, all of which looked similar to the ones that could be seen on the walls of the cafe. When she pulled out a drawing that was an exact replica of the thing I could see as the backdrop on the laptop I knew I was looking at the artist of the cafe. It was a meeting of friends that we did not disturb for very long. Shortly after these last three came in we got up to walk back to the Catedral.
The Catedral was surprisingly small. It was very very tall, but it's nave wasn't very long. If you looked up you got to see some of the masterpieces of the Catedral: it's paintings in between the arches featuring the Saints and the Apostles, it's carvings of angels, and it's incredible organs. The Catedral also had on display some ancient music books that were decorated just about as finely as the Book of Kells. These music books contained shape notes and tons of drawings along the outside. It was a shame they had these books propped up. We could see the damage that was being inflicted upon the pages. What those books really needed was to be set on a flat surface, but we weren't about to be the ones to tell them that, we were happy just to see them. Another something that I thoroughly enjoyed seeing, for the first time, was a star-shaped stained glass window. This wasn't a square window with a glass star within it, it was a window that was set into the shape of a pointed star (as in, stonemasons had to cut points into the stone so that this star could be put into place above the central door).
The walls above the alter were stunning, the walls throughout the rest of the Catedral were of white stone, and the chapels that were mostly around the alter were fairly small but were each filled with gold gild.
I know it might seem like I've just paraphrased this Cathedral, and that I haven't gone into much detail over the Cathedral while I went to great lengths to talk about the Cafe. The truth is that: we spent more time at the cafe; the cafe was smaller and thus more intimate; and this Cathedral held no huge architectural, artistic, or historical importance for me before I went in, as I walked around, or afterwards (other than the window and the books).
After walking around we went into the giftshop where Ahmee and I browsed for a bit before heading outside to join Poppy and walk over to the Capilla Real. This was basically a smaller church that has been dedicated as a museum over the Catholic Crowns, namely Ferdinand and Isabella. When we walked through the once empty side street we got to dodge women selling rosemary (later we found out these women were gypsies), and a vendor selling artistic drawings of your name (in Arabic). We bought our tickets and walked around, staring at the many different faces of Ferdinand, Isabella, Felipe el Guapo, and Juana la Loca. Actually Felipe el Guapo and Juana la Loca looked the same in most of their portraits. It was Ferdinand and Isabella that seemed to change often. When we saw the tombs of these kings and queens we wondered if the carvings were a true likeness, or if any of the paintings housed in that place were true likenesses (Ferdinand and Isabella certainly commanded through fear fairly often). Of course, we couldn't see the stone statues on the "tombs", we could only see the sides because they were so large and were sitting on a platform. Under the ground the kings and queens were held in wooden coffins. We didn't go down to see these.
We walked around the church, looked at the various cabinets that held paintings that depicted scenes from the bible and scenes of martyrdom, looked at the fancy "carriages" that Ferdinand and Isabella would sit in to be carried to mass, and viewed the mostly modest church (the benches had the initials F and X for Ferdinand and Isabella and the alter is always decorated). After this we walked into an art gallery featuring paintings of the Virgin and the baby Jesus, the Apostles, the Saints, and scenes from the bible. The most emphasis was on the Virgin and Jesus, and on the gruesome images. Neither of which were surprising.
What I enjoyed most about the Cathedral wasn't it's looks (dark with a few side chapels, benches, and white tombs dominating the space), or the paintings. It was the super-short history lesson I got from Ahmee over Ferdinand, Isabella, Felipe el Guapo, and Juana la Loca. I'd already heard about Ferdinand and Isabella, they're famous everywhere as being the Catholic Crowns who pushed all other religions from Spain. I had not heard about Felipe el Guapo or Juana la Loca. Ahmee simply explained their "titles". Juana la Loca was madly in love with Felipe el Guapo and when he died she earned the title of crazy when she carried her dead husbands coffin around with her everywhere she went. We saw a picture of Felipe "el Guapo", Ahmee and I think that he's not very guapo (handsome) and that Juana probably bestowed this name upon him. I thought Juana was very beautiful with her dark, curly hair and dark eyes (she also had a widows peak-this makes me wonder if that was just added in in reference to her dead husband).
After the church we walked up into the small and frigid souvenir shop where Ahmee spent her time examining and picking out some postcards while I examined the sudoku puzzle the cashier lady was working on (and had made herself). She looked up after a short period and caught me looking at it and said, "Can I help you?" I smiled, shook my head, and was about to say no when she chuckled and said, "Or do you just want to help me?" This made me laugh and I told her how I loved sudoku puzzles, after this Ahmee came up with her purchases, we commented on the freezing cold room and told her to try to stay warm, and then we went back out into the side-street. This time all three of us got nabbed by the women with the rosemary twigs. Ahmee got nabbed first, picking the rosemary out of another womans hand. As the woman spoke to Ahmee I slipped out of the gate and onto the Diagonal only to find another woman offering me rosemary. I saw Ahmee still talking to the woman out of the corner of my eye and I saw Poppy shake his head out of the corner of the other as I timidly took the rosemary out of the womans hand. It turns out that the women were using the rosemary as a way to see which hand people would use, so they could then read that hand. Before the woman took the rosemary out of my left hand she knodded at Ahmee and asked if she was my mother (this is in Spanish-she only knew how to speak spanish). I told her (again in Spanish) that no she was my grandmother. The woman smiled, looked down at my hand, and said I was moy inteligente and ran her nail down what I'd previously thought was my life-line. She then said something I didn't understand and I saw Ahmee motioning for me to walk away. I said sorry and pointed to my grandmother and slipped away from the woman (who I can guess probably was going on with my fortune in a language I know tiny bits of). When I caught up with Ahmee and Poppy I asked Ahmee what the woman had told her. She said that the woman had declared that Ahmee was nervous, really really nice, and that she was going to live a long time. Poppy said that the woman who'd given him his fortune had spoken only spanish and that he hadn't understood any of it except for the long-life part.
We walked back through the streets, the light becoming fairly orange and the temperature dropping slightly as we walked. We enjoyed doing the usual watching and we were delighted when we caught sight of an art class drawing a detailed sketch of the facade of one of the buildings. Those poor hands were going to freeze before they ever got done (since some of them had nothing on their paper).
Once back at the hotel I had plenty of time to send blogs and to type to people and to type blogs. I had to do this before 7:30 because at 8 we were going to go out, eat, and then go to a Flamenco show that started at 9:30 and lasted until 11. I ended up being rushed and not getting everything done. I told myself I'd simply send everything once I got back to the room and then I went and quickly got all dressed up in my black pants, my orange shirt, my turquoise earrings, my lipgloss (I also covered up my zits), put on mascara, put on my blue sweater, and wrapped myself in my new orange scarf which was big enough to be a shawl. After all this primping we really needed to get out and eat. We went around the corner and into a nearby cafe where we exclaimed at the freezing cold air outside, ate our food, reveled in the warmth (I was right next to the heater), and admired the posters of the bullfight posters.
After waiting in the warmth of the restaurant for our bill we went back out onto the streets to head back up the road next to the hotel, through the college (highschool) where guys were up on the roof hooting and hollering (what they were doing up there I still have absolutely no idea), and across the street to follow the Asian tour group into the Flamenco show cafe. Our tickets got us entry and got us each free drinks. A man came around and asked us what we wanted to drink and I told him I'd take Fanta. I don't know what Ahmee and Poppy got, I was too busy looking around the room. We'd been seated in a white "cave": a long, narrow, rectangular room that had a short, barrel-vaulted ceiling. On the ceiling there were a series of lights (which I knew from experience in show choir had to be extremely hot, especially up close), on the floor there was the "stage"-the scuffed up area where we could see where previous feet had stomped, and along the walls there were pictures of old Flamenco dancers hanging above the heads of tourists. The two predominant groups were the Asian group who sat in the back of the room, and the German group, who had a guide who wore leather pants and who had done the tour many times and had become a good friend of the dancers. There were two women sitting next to me who I later discovered had seen more than one Flamenco show, and who were both very passionate about the dance (hard not to be). Across from me, frighteningly enough, was a man who I'd seen twice within the past two hours. He was traveling by himself, and looked an awful lot like Jasper off of 101 Dalmations. When I saw him come in and sit down just opposite from me (and when I saw him glance at me several times) I nudged Ahmee and told her that I'd seen the man as we were leaving the hotel (he was coming in through the big door), AND in the cafe when we were eating dinner. I decided I was going to ignore the man. This became easier and easier as the night flew by.
When the dancers came in they turned their seats along the wall opposite us and sat down. It is impossible for me to explain everything that happened. I shall do my best to get the general gist of this dance, but by no means base all of your opinions of it on what I write. I'd never heard what happens in a Flamenco Dance. I never knew that they started out sitting (dancing requires a person to stand up right? wrong). I also never knew that men could Flamenco Dance (all of the posters have women). When they sat down I cast curious eyes on them and when one started clapping I was surprised when the others did not join in in a steady beat. One person would clap, another would join them, another person would tap their feet in a different rythmn, another would start singing, another would do a combination of the base beat with their toe and would clap another beat. One could not distinguish who was doing what beat all at the same time, but the result was music from percussion which was sped up or slowed down with no warning whatsoever. One dancer would stand and begin to work their way along the dance floor, doing their own moves, tapping their own beats, forcing the rest to speed up, going from flowing arm motions to furious foot-work in less than a second, going from serious and focusing on immersing into the music into a flurry of movement and tapping out a music of their own at a speed that was incredible for me. Those of you who've seen Happy Feet: this was a whole different style but just as complicated of moves. Those of you who've seen me clog: this is similar in that a beat and music is tapped out with the feet-the difference is in the motion. The dancers did not often scuff their feet on the floor. It was all furious tap-work. Each dancer had his or her turn where they would get up from the mist of a new beat and would begin dancing, choosing just how much they wanted to dance and how much they wanted to sweat. The first woman was slightly plump and did mostly slow movements, but who would surprise us with her footwork every now and then. The second woman was older, had issues keeping her shirt from showing her bra, and had a killer attitude. She hardly danced at all, and none of us cared. She sang Frank Sinatra's "I did it my way" (in Spanish), making the tallest man laugh like crazy, and producing smiles from all the people in the group. After her came the tall man who had nothing to flourish, no skirts to pull up, no heels to show off, all he had was his attitude and his feet and he worked these very very well. His dance was almost as if it was choreographed (none of them were and you could tell with the first couple people). He was so intense, and so into his movements, and put soo much energy into what he was doing. It was incredible watching him flow from slow upper body movements and a few taps to incredible flourishes of the feet paired with few other movements. Unfortunately for the other dancers he sweat a lot (I told you those lights were hot-he was so tall his face was practically in them) and when he spun he caused the youngest girl and the first woman to dance to duck and cover there heads. I think a few people got spattered by him.
After him they had a short intermission where the Asian people had a good time clapping their hands and trying to figure out how to Flamenco Dance, while the German tour guide hopped on stage and started talking in rapid German (accent sounded similar to some of my relatives, just thought I'd throw that out there) about the people in the pictures. As she talked everyone tried to figure out what she was saying (those of us who didn't speak German that is). I don't remember how much I got out of her speech, so I'm going to guess that I only got the names of the Flamenco Dancers that were in the pictures.
After about 15 minutes the Dancers came back in. This time the first woman to dance was the oldest woman. She had gray hair that was pulled up, seemed to be the relative to the youngest member of the group, and had on the most stereotypical Flamenco garb. She had on the ruffly skirt and sported a flower in her hair. When she danced she used mostly her fingers because she had castanets in both hands. Of course, she'd also do a bit of footwork, but most of the time she was focusing on her fingers. She had the biggest problem with the tourists who had out their camera's. When she saw this she'd bark, "No video." Her dance didn't last very long and then came her younger relative who I'd seen do fancy footwork while sitting down and who was really quite pretty. Her dance was just as fantastic as the tall man's. He was even watching her footwork closely, as if checking for future use. Hers wasn't as much of a suspension-filled dance though. I think she was well and truly tired of slow movement and was ready to work her feet. She didn't slow down much throughout her dance but she wasn't frantic either. The elderly woman watched from the back of the room with a smile and a hint of what I suspected was pride in her eyes. It was a lovely dance, and I was definitely not surprised when she breathed heavily when she sat down. Immediately after her came another man. This guy had spiked, brown hair, had come in late, had on a red shirt, and was slightly shorter and thinner than the tall man. His dance was equally impressive as the tall mans, if not more so. As the dance went on the tall guy watched his movements closely and smiled and laughed every now and then when he'd pull an impressive move. I said before that I don't think these dances were choreographed, I did not say that the steps were not played with by the dancers. When I watched this man dance it seemed apparent that the two dancing men had traded foot ideas before (this is something I can recognize because my friend Kayla and I do this all the time when line-dancing). This guy combined suspension, fluidity, percussion, and choppy moves almost perfectly. He also liked dancing at our end of the dance floor-because the women sitting next to me had answered "This way!" when the dancers cried "Ole!" He had greatly appreciated them and made sure to dance at their end during his fast and furious moment.
After that groups of two would go up and dance. The youngest girl with the first woman to dance, then the two men together-bouncing ideas off right there, and then the oldest woman with the German tour-guide (told ya they knew her well! she had on tennis shoes and still managed). It was then over and we all clapped and cheered as the dancers bowed and walked out into the street.
We followed after them literally minutes after they'd left and we couldn't see them anywhere on the streets. We avoided the castanet vendor, and went back along the same route to the hotel where we stopped to check in on Victor (a different guy had come in to take the desk job from Luis), to say goodnight to him, and then to go up to the room where we all got in our pj's. Ahmee and Poppy quickly climbed into bed while I stayed awake typing emails to people and sending off more blogs. I eventually closed up the computer, dreading having to wake up early the next morning.
I didn't sleep very well that night, I woke up multiple times.
11/24/08 Gibraltar, The Apes, Africa, the ride back and time spent after dinner
Los animales de Gibraltar son moy dificl para mi leer. Yo comprendo vente uno gato es malo. Yo no comprendo vente los Apes son molos.
Obviously, I didn't want to get out of bed this day because I was still exhausted. Gibraltar was at the top of my list of things to see, of course, but I was incredibly tired. It took 2-3 cups of coffee to wake me up and even then I needed to get moving to really get awake. After having strawberry yogurt with cereal for breakfast we went upstairs and finished getting ready. We then went out and got on the road to Gibraltar.
While on the road we saw: plenty of booths selling tickets to Africa, many condos (these took up 80% of the area around the highways), the mountains that were rocky and were dotted with green bushes and trees, and the wind. I suppose I should say that we felt the wind and saw it's effect. The trees were being pushed diagonal (wind was coming from the mountains), the sea was choppy and had white caps miles upon miles out, and Poppy got a workout driving the car and keeping the wind from blowing us across the road. I made sure to ask Ahmee and Poppy if they thought a cold front was coming in and if we were going to get a storm. Ahmee said that she hoped not and agreed with me when I said that back home when the wind blows like that it means it's bringing in a storm or a cold front. We all crossed our fingers and hoped that it wouldn't storm on us while we were at Gibraltar.
When we arrived at Gibraltar we got to go through customs, a first since we hit the mainland of Europe. Getting through customs was no problem though, all we had to do was show our passports. I don't know how many of you know this (I didn't know it), but Gibraltar is a British zone (colonies are outdated). When we went through customs we asked the police officer if we had to drive on the left side of the road. He said, "We might be a British provence, but we have not picked up all of Britain's bad habits." We found that quite funny.
As we drove into town we searched in vain for a restaurant. We didn't want Pizza Hut or Burger King, we wanted something else. When we got to the point where we were starting to go down one-way streets we pushed to get back to the main road and then from there we decided to go up on the "rock" of Gibraltar. We stopped once while on that tiny road and that was to get tickets to enter. Poppy was the one who got these and he also asked where to go to eat. The men there told him to go up the hill and we'd find food. They were right. We found food and right where the restaurant/cafe was there were the Gibraltar Apes.
Ahmee had warned me about these apes before, saying she'd seen them the last time she was there. Ahmee and Poppy had been with a group that had traveled along the base of the rock and from there they'd seen tiny "monkeys" every now and then on the hillside. I'd been surprised to hear about these "monkeys" the first time and by the time we'd reached the rock I'd completely forgotten about them. I was shocked when I saw an ape sitting on top of a red car (this was just as we were arriving at the restaurant).
I saw more apes lounging about on the roadside, mothers grooming their baby's, fathers walking around and bossing the teenagers around (it's true, he'd grunt and they'd cut it out), teenagers (these were the medium sized ones) getting on top of cars, and some apes eating out of peoples hands (there was a sign saying this was forbidden). As we parked the car up the hill I looked down at my flip-flops and wondered aloud, "Do you think my toes will be safe?"
I'd seen on National Geographic shows that chimpanzees were very strong. These apes weren't huge, they were about the size of a chimp, but I knew that they had to have a fair amount of strength. I also knew that the apes weren't afraid of humans (as we'd just seen), that the apes were looking for food, and that the medium-sized ones were not to be trusted. Some other obvious ones were: don't isolate momma, don't try to touch momma's baby, don't cross poppa, aaaand watch your pockets (if you have valuables). I was wary of the apes while some others weren't. Combine an intelligent animal with strength and the fact that I never knew what they were going to do (at least with cats I've had the time to recognize their moods and whether or not I can go near them). When we went up to the restaurant/cafe we sat by the window and watched the apes and the people while we ate our soup and pasta and listened to English music (wasn't unusual). I had the best seat and I used it to my advantage.
I looked down at the empty street and watched the trees. I was so excited when I saw an ape jump from the tree to the road. I was even more excited when I saw one of the caretakers or park directors walk up (exciting the ape-he came running) to give the ape a bit of food). Other great parts about the seat was: I got to see the bay, I got to see the boats, I got to see the sea, and I could still see throughout the restaurant. The best show was to come immediately after lunch.
As we walked around the giftshop I heard a commotion outside and went to stand in the doorway. There I saw a fleet of younger apes (teenagers) chasing each other up and over the fence, across the courtyard, up the walls, and across the roof tops. They eventually made a circle and passed back out through the gate there. I found it truly amusing when one of them tapped an older man who was standing just outside the gate. This ape had been jumping a lot and when he got close to this man he jumped up, almost hugged him, and then quickly lunged back. Imagine standing there, watching the apes chase each other only to have one jump right up in your face and then be gone faster than you could move. It's hilarious to watch, but I wouldn't want it to happen to me. I completely understand why that man jumped as high as he did.
The boss-ape, or pappa ape, followed this group slowly but still kept a good eye on them. He didn't stay to watch the stragglers who stayed behind. One ape had a good time on the poles, a few other apes had a good time pulling chips out of a young boys pocket (momma made him go eat in the restaurant after he informed her of that), and there were still a few playing on the roof. When we started to head down to go into St. Michael's cave I was nervous passing one in the skinny ally. I got within a foot of that ape, but let me tell you I was not there long. Shortly after squeezing past this ape another park "ranger" came up the steps around the corner. When he saw me he took the ape off his back. He'd made some friends there and he really seemed to like the apes. I however don't know how to read them, they're flighty, and so I try to keep a good distance. I'm not interested in petting any apes.
We walked down the steps to the cave (not passing any more apes). Within the cave I let go of a lot of tension as I looked around at the stalagtites and stalagmites that were as tall and as thick as the pillars in cathedrals, and I reflected on one of my favorite movies as a kid Milo and Otis. While in the cave I also read the signs. The cave had been used for ages by people. Excavations have turned up arrowheads and bones, while we also know that that cave was used by the military as a potential hospital (WWI and WWII days), and surprisingly enough as a place for concerts and other important events. Examples include: concerts, ballets, and weddings. Within the cave there was a stage and a place for people to sit. When someone wanted to get married in the cave they'd have men climb the stalagmites (something no one should ever do because the oil from your hands stunts the growth of the rock) and hold torches up for lighting. I found the stage setting funny because there was still water dripping down. There was a small puddle on stage right (those of you on stage) and people in the audience would've gotten drips down their backs, particularly those who sat in the right hand side of the stadium (again from the view of the stage). Another something I found interesting was that in some areas where the water was dripping on the seats I could see a faint rise, as if another stalagmite was growing there. It'd be great if it ever became a huge pillar like the others, but I highly doubt people will let that happen. Not only would it get rid of valuable seat-space it would also block other peoples views of the show. Even if it was allowed to grow it wouldn't make it very far. People refuse to listen to guides or read the signs and they wipe their oily hands all over these rocks, stunting the growth of them and making the rocks shiny. One touch of our fingers kills the chances of these stalagtites and stalagmites from growing (also ruins butterfly wings). One touch from us can kill. I've known this for about 2-3 years now.
Once out of the cave I had to go to the bathroom. I blame it on all the dripping water. At any rate I got to go back up to the restaurant, again avoiding getting too close to the apes, to walk in, use the WC, and then hurry back to meet up with Ahmee and Poppy. Ahmee and I stood on the steps in the alleyway a bit longer though when we saw a momma and her baby sitting on a step. I walked away pretty fast when I saw momma's eyes going back and forth between us and the other tourists who were gathering on her other side. I didn't want to corner her.
We went back to the car and got back on the road. We decided that we'd go to the ape center before we went down (Poppy and Ahmee wondering why I wanted to because we'd already seen apes). This route gave us spectacular views of the bay, of the city, of the mountains, AND of the coast of Africa in the distance. Along the way we saw several "couples" going through grooming cessions. Normally one was doing all the work while the other one was fast asleep in the sun.
When an ape sitting on the ledge with the backdrop of the bay and the city behind him Poppy stopped, grabbed the camera, and rolled down his window to lean out and take a picture of the him. Just as Poppy stuck his arms out the ape tucked his chin into his chest as if he were hiding. To get him to look up at us Ahmee did a series of whistling noises. The ape looked up immediately and Poppy snapped a picture just as two loud thuds met our ears. Two apes had jumped on the car at the sound of the whistle. Poppy quickly rolled up his window and got driving (slowly so he didn't hurt the apes), while I sat in the backseat and laughed. The apes had made all three of us jump (me in particular because they landed just above my head), but I found it hilarious. As we drove down the hill and through town (was no easy fete- we ended up needing directions) I thought about the apes and whether or not I could see myself having one as a pet. I definitely would not, but I knew that other people would.
When we got back to customs I was curious to find out just how stringent they'd be about people leaving Gibraltar and whether or not they'd do a thorough inspection to make sure no apes were being carted out and away. No such search transpired. All we had to do was show our passports. When I told Ahmee and Poppy about my thoughts of how someone could easily swipe an ape and get them through that customs they laughed. Getting a baby away from it's momma wouldn't be easy and neither would be getting a teenager or an adult (wouldn't want these anyway cuz then they wouldn't adapt and they'd fight you whereas the baby wouldn't be so bad because you'd raise him), but I knew that it definitely could happen (I once knew a teacher who'd nabbed himself seaturtle eggs, and I've known areas that have gotten crocodiles due to some person grabbing them as babies). While we drove I thought about how difficult it would be, about the equipment you'd need, about the facilities you'd need for the ape, and about the worst case scenario for the person who went to grab one. Picturing nasty bite gashes and an ape banging at the windows and jumping around in the car as the person drives up to customs is what I had in mind. I don't suggest anyone try that. It's illegal, it's difficult, and you could end up losing a nose a finger an ear and/or other body parts. I don't think it's worth it. Leave them in their natural habitat and let them hound the tourists. It's pretty fun to watch.
We stopped once on our way back and that was to take a picture of the rock of Gibraltar with the beach and the sea in it (I got to take the picture). While I was down there I also picked up several shells.
On the way back the wind was even worse and by the time we got back to the room I know Poppy was ready for a break. Once inside we did the usual: happy hour, blog, dinner, more blog, sleep. Again, I slept terribly.
Obviously, I didn't want to get out of bed this day because I was still exhausted. Gibraltar was at the top of my list of things to see, of course, but I was incredibly tired. It took 2-3 cups of coffee to wake me up and even then I needed to get moving to really get awake. After having strawberry yogurt with cereal for breakfast we went upstairs and finished getting ready. We then went out and got on the road to Gibraltar.
While on the road we saw: plenty of booths selling tickets to Africa, many condos (these took up 80% of the area around the highways), the mountains that were rocky and were dotted with green bushes and trees, and the wind. I suppose I should say that we felt the wind and saw it's effect. The trees were being pushed diagonal (wind was coming from the mountains), the sea was choppy and had white caps miles upon miles out, and Poppy got a workout driving the car and keeping the wind from blowing us across the road. I made sure to ask Ahmee and Poppy if they thought a cold front was coming in and if we were going to get a storm. Ahmee said that she hoped not and agreed with me when I said that back home when the wind blows like that it means it's bringing in a storm or a cold front. We all crossed our fingers and hoped that it wouldn't storm on us while we were at Gibraltar.
When we arrived at Gibraltar we got to go through customs, a first since we hit the mainland of Europe. Getting through customs was no problem though, all we had to do was show our passports. I don't know how many of you know this (I didn't know it), but Gibraltar is a British zone (colonies are outdated). When we went through customs we asked the police officer if we had to drive on the left side of the road. He said, "We might be a British provence, but we have not picked up all of Britain's bad habits." We found that quite funny.
As we drove into town we searched in vain for a restaurant. We didn't want Pizza Hut or Burger King, we wanted something else. When we got to the point where we were starting to go down one-way streets we pushed to get back to the main road and then from there we decided to go up on the "rock" of Gibraltar. We stopped once while on that tiny road and that was to get tickets to enter. Poppy was the one who got these and he also asked where to go to eat. The men there told him to go up the hill and we'd find food. They were right. We found food and right where the restaurant/cafe was there were the Gibraltar Apes.
Ahmee had warned me about these apes before, saying she'd seen them the last time she was there. Ahmee and Poppy had been with a group that had traveled along the base of the rock and from there they'd seen tiny "monkeys" every now and then on the hillside. I'd been surprised to hear about these "monkeys" the first time and by the time we'd reached the rock I'd completely forgotten about them. I was shocked when I saw an ape sitting on top of a red car (this was just as we were arriving at the restaurant). 
I saw more apes lounging about on the roadside, mothers grooming their baby's, fathers walking around and bossing the teenagers around (it's true, he'd grunt and they'd cut it out), teenagers (these were the medium sized ones) getting on top of cars, and some apes eating out of peoples hands (there was a sign saying this was forbidden). As we parked the car up the hill I looked down at my flip-flops and wondered aloud, "Do you think my toes will be safe?"
I'd seen on National Geographic shows that chimpanzees were very strong. These apes weren't huge, they were about the size of a chimp, but I knew that they had to have a fair amount of strength. I also knew that the apes weren't afraid of humans (as we'd just seen), that the apes were looking for food, and that the medium-sized ones were not to be trusted. Some other obvious ones were: don't isolate momma, don't try to touch momma's baby, don't cross poppa, aaaand watch your pockets (if you have valuables). I was wary of the apes while some others weren't. Combine an intelligent animal with strength and the fact that I never knew what they were going to do (at least with cats I've had the time to recognize their moods and whether or not I can go near them). When we went up to the restaurant/cafe we sat by the window and watched the apes and the people while we ate our soup and pasta and listened to English music (wasn't unusual). I had the best seat and I used it to my advantage. 
I looked down at the empty street and watched the trees. I was so excited when I saw an ape jump from the tree to the road. I was even more excited when I saw one of the caretakers or park directors walk up (exciting the ape-he came running) to give the ape a bit of food). Other great parts about the seat was: I got to see the bay, I got to see the boats, I got to see the sea, and I could still see throughout the restaurant. The best show was to come immediately after lunch.
As we walked around the giftshop I heard a commotion outside and went to stand in the doorway. There I saw a fleet of younger apes (teenagers) chasing each other up and over the fence, across the courtyard, up the walls, and across the roof tops. They eventually made a circle and passed back out through the gate there. I found it truly amusing when one of them tapped an older man who was standing just outside the gate. This ape had been jumping a lot and when he got close to this man he jumped up, almost hugged him, and then quickly lunged back. Imagine standing there, watching the apes chase each other only to have one jump right up in your face and then be gone faster than you could move. It's hilarious to watch, but I wouldn't want it to happen to me. I completely understand why that man jumped as high as he did. The boss-ape, or pappa ape, followed this group slowly but still kept a good eye on them. He didn't stay to watch the stragglers who stayed behind. One ape had a good time on the poles, a few other apes had a good time pulling chips out of a young boys pocket (momma made him go eat in the restaurant after he informed her of that), and there were still a few playing on the roof. When we started to head down to go into St. Michael's cave I was nervous passing one in the skinny ally. I got within a foot of that ape, but let me tell you I was not there long. Shortly after squeezing past this ape another park "ranger" came up the steps around the corner. When he saw me he took the ape off his back. He'd made some friends there and he really seemed to like the apes. I however don't know how to read them, they're flighty, and so I try to keep a good distance. I'm not interested in petting any apes.
We walked down the steps to the cave (not passing any more apes). Within the cave I let go of a lot of tension as I looked around at the stalagtites and stalagmites that were as tall and as thick as the pillars in cathedrals, and I reflected on one of my favorite movies as a kid Milo and Otis. While in the cave I also read the signs. The cave had been used for ages by people. Excavations have turned up arrowheads and bones, while we also know that that cave was used by the military as a potential hospital (WWI and WWII days), and surprisingly enough as a place for concerts and other important events. Examples include: concerts, ballets, and weddings. Within the cave there was a stage and a place for people to sit. When someone wanted to get married in the cave they'd have men climb the stalagmites (something no one should ever do because the oil from your hands stunts the growth of the rock) and hold torches up for lighting. I found the stage setting funny because there was still water dripping down. There was a small puddle on stage right (those of you on stage) and people in the audience would've gotten drips down their backs, particularly those who sat in the right hand side of the stadium (again from the view of the stage). Another something I found interesting was that in some areas where the water was dripping on the seats I could see a faint rise, as if another stalagmite was growing there. It'd be great if it ever became a huge pillar like the others, but I highly doubt people will let that happen. Not only would it get rid of valuable seat-space it would also block other peoples views of the show. Even if it was allowed to grow it wouldn't make it very far. People refuse to listen to guides or read the signs and they wipe their oily hands all over these rocks, stunting the growth of them and making the rocks shiny. One touch of our fingers kills the chances of these stalagtites and stalagmites from growing (also ruins butterfly wings). One touch from us can kill. I've known this for about 2-3 years now.
Once out of the cave I had to go to the bathroom. I blame it on all the dripping water. At any rate I got to go back up to the restaurant, again avoiding getting too close to the apes, to walk in, use the WC, and then hurry back to meet up with Ahmee and Poppy. Ahmee and I stood on the steps in the alleyway a bit longer though when we saw a momma and her baby sitting on a step. I walked away pretty fast when I saw momma's eyes going back and forth between us and the other tourists who were gathering on her other side. I didn't want to corner her.
We went back to the car and got back on the road. We decided that we'd go to the ape center before we went down (Poppy and Ahmee wondering why I wanted to because we'd already seen apes). This route gave us spectacular views of the bay, of the city, of the mountains, AND of the coast of Africa in the distance. Along the way we saw several "couples" going through grooming cessions. Normally one was doing all the work while the other one was fast asleep in the sun.
When an ape sitting on the ledge with the backdrop of the bay and the city behind him Poppy stopped, grabbed the camera, and rolled down his window to lean out and take a picture of the him. Just as Poppy stuck his arms out the ape tucked his chin into his chest as if he were hiding. To get him to look up at us Ahmee did a series of whistling noises. The ape looked up immediately and Poppy snapped a picture just as two loud thuds met our ears. Two apes had jumped on the car at the sound of the whistle. Poppy quickly rolled up his window and got driving (slowly so he didn't hurt the apes), while I sat in the backseat and laughed. The apes had made all three of us jump (me in particular because they landed just above my head), but I found it hilarious. As we drove down the hill and through town (was no easy fete- we ended up needing directions) I thought about the apes and whether or not I could see myself having one as a pet. I definitely would not, but I knew that other people would.
When we got back to customs I was curious to find out just how stringent they'd be about people leaving Gibraltar and whether or not they'd do a thorough inspection to make sure no apes were being carted out and away. No such search transpired. All we had to do was show our passports. When I told Ahmee and Poppy about my thoughts of how someone could easily swipe an ape and get them through that customs they laughed. Getting a baby away from it's momma wouldn't be easy and neither would be getting a teenager or an adult (wouldn't want these anyway cuz then they wouldn't adapt and they'd fight you whereas the baby wouldn't be so bad because you'd raise him), but I knew that it definitely could happen (I once knew a teacher who'd nabbed himself seaturtle eggs, and I've known areas that have gotten crocodiles due to some person grabbing them as babies). While we drove I thought about how difficult it would be, about the equipment you'd need, about the facilities you'd need for the ape, and about the worst case scenario for the person who went to grab one. Picturing nasty bite gashes and an ape banging at the windows and jumping around in the car as the person drives up to customs is what I had in mind. I don't suggest anyone try that. It's illegal, it's difficult, and you could end up losing a nose a finger an ear and/or other body parts. I don't think it's worth it. Leave them in their natural habitat and let them hound the tourists. It's pretty fun to watch.
We stopped once on our way back and that was to take a picture of the rock of Gibraltar with the beach and the sea in it (I got to take the picture). While I was down there I also picked up several shells.
On the way back the wind was even worse and by the time we got back to the room I know Poppy was ready for a break. Once inside we did the usual: happy hour, blog, dinner, more blog, sleep. Again, I slept terribly.
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