I love it when...

Today I went to a Teteria (a tea shop) to celebrate my trip to Barcelona.  My friends and I had the hardest time finding a way to get there.  We were booking it last minute, and Barcelona is quite far from Granada.  I leave for Barcelona in the morning - so early the sun won't be up yet.  Yikes!

At this tea shop they have a menu, only of teas, some milk shakes and a few juices.  There are four or five pages dedicated to teas.  Our waiter didn't speak Spanish very well, and got my order confused.  I ordered a tea with fruit in it and he gave me black tea with milk.  I don't like black tea.

He eventually left and the nice waiter came on duty (or so I'm told from the friends who took me there).  I told him that I was given the wrong tea and he quickly  brought me the right tea.  It's called Amor Brujo, or Witch Love.  Its a green tea with lots of fruits and other things I didn't recognize in Spanish.

It was amazing.  It was like drinking juice.  It was tart and fruity and I fell in love with the Teteria.  (They also gave us free chocolate crepes.)

This is me and my tea.  Don't we make a great pair?

This was not the best part of the night.  When we were paying (the nice waiter) I asked if it was possible to buy a small bag of the tea.  He said "Cien euro" or 100 euro.  And then, he gave it to me, for FREE.  I was expecting a small amount, enough for one cup.  What he gave me was enough for a small teapot.  If you make a fist, that is about the amount he gave me.  Anywhere else, or in any other country (I believe, and definately the States) that would have cost at least $10.  I was dancing in the street I was so excited.

And then I found another tea shop. 

I love the people in Spain (most of them anyways).

I Could Go For....

Spain does not have: Chipotle, spicy food, cheeseburgers (the like of Red Robin anyways), Chicago style pizza or hotdogs, my mom's cooking, Mexican food, or chocolate chip cookies.

Spain does have: ice cream, and supposedly really good food that I have not eaten, milk you don't have to refrigerate, lots of good bread (think french bread), kebabs and churros.

Why have I not eaten really good Spanish food? Well, see, I have a senora who I live with and she cooks for me.  I cannot recognize half of the food and all I hope for is that it is edible, cook thoroughly and not growing anything (they don't like to refrigerate things very much).

This is a double scoop cone.  It has two of the best flavors in the world, one of which is impossible to find in the States and the other not easy, but not impossible to find.  What are these two amazing flavors? 

Pistachio and Banana!!!!

 This is called a Kebab.  It is the closest thing to a burrito the Spanish have.  They are delicious.  Its also a Turkish food.  Or so the restaurant says.

 This ice cream looks like chocolate and you're probably wondering if I already talked about my two favorite flavors of ice cream why is chocolate in here?  Because it isn't JUST chocolate.  I got this ice cream in the Alpujarras (a mountain range).  And this flavor would not only be impossible to find in the states, but I'm pretty sure just about everywhere else other than the Alpujarras.  This is Chocolate with Mulberry.  I thought it was blackberry at first, but mulberry is so much better.  If you ever have a chance to eat a mulberry or mulberry ice cream or a mulberry icee I HIGHLY recommend you do it.  Before we got back on the bus to go back to Granada I ran - literally ran - to the shop and got another cone.  I had to beat some old people to get to it.  (and by beat I mean it was a race between their outing and me getting ice cream)

Save the best for last?  Eh, no.  The chocolate with mulberry was the best.  This is Spanish Churros with Chocolate.  You dip the Churro in the chocolate.  They are delicous.  I like them better than the ones I've found in the States.

Don't Swim in the River... Again.

Remember this post?  Well, they've taken the don't swim in the river to new extremes.  Now they're diving and jumping into it.

Tomorrow's Today (Or the Case of the Jellyfish)

Like I promised I'm going to talk about yesterday today (I'm talking about Sunday).  Sunday, I went to the beach in Motril.  If you remember the post about maps in Spain you know its already quite difficult to read a map.  Try finding a beach in a town with no maps and bad signs.

It gets better.

The beach is 3 kilometers away from the town center.  It requires a bus.

This town was recommended to me by a teacher here.  All the while I was trying to find the beach I was questioning her sanity.

I found the beach.  It was quite nice, but a bit rocky.  All the beaches here are rocky with the one exception of a beach or two in Málaga.  I liked this beach (after an hour of trying to get there after the hour long bus ride to the city.)  My friend I went with (no I don't travel alone) rented out an umbrella and a chair.  I would have too if it hadn't been 5euro each.  So she was on a chair and I was on the stones.  It was actually quite comical.

While I was swimming I was floating around on the top because its more fun that way.  As I was floating something dark passed me by and I stared at it.  At first I thought it was garbage.  There was quite a bit floating around.  Or seaweed.

And then I saw tentacles.

If only I had an underwater camera, there would be a picture of this jellyfish.  It was brown and about four inches in diameter with about 6 inch tentacles.

I watched it float by.

A little while later, a boy caught a jelly fish.

Some more time later, people kept yelling "¡Medusa!"

If you're ever in a spanish speaking country and you hear medusa, look to the water and start looking for a jellyfish near you and get out.  Medusa is the word for jellyfish in spanish if you haven't figured that out already.

Even more time later, I overheard a conversation with one of the lifeguards (what?! lifeguards in Spain? Yeah, I was surprised too).  Apparently, there were quite a few medusas in the area, but they weren't shutting down the beach.  I guess the lifeguards are there just for looks?

I would like to include this photo.  It was taken as I was getting kicked out of the Alhambra Sunday night.  There was some festival thing going on (yes another festival) and I didn't have tickets.

Where to Begin?

So much has happened this weekend and I want to tell you all of it.  This might be a long one.

First of all, my internet went out in the apartment I'm staying in (again).  Luckily, on my walk home today I saw a guy sitting outside on his computer using the internet.  And guess what, its free. *happy dance*  Not only am I happy to be online (I was going crazy about the idea of not uploading my photos or blogging)  but it is infinitely nicer outside than it is in the apartment.  They have no concept of air flow despite the houses all being built for the summer.  Its all lies.

I have just decided that I will only tell you about yesterday today and tomorrow I'll tell you about today.  Have fun figuring that one out. :)

Yesterday (Saturday), I had every intention of going to the beach.  When I got no confirmation from anybody I thought I would go alone.  I didn't.  It would have been a bad idea.  And extremely lonely.

Instead I met up with a friend at a beautiful park I had never been to and we sat in the sun.  For an hour.  She got hungry and left.  No one else was around because half my program went to Portugal, my good friend went to San Sebastian, some other people I usually hang out with were in Ronda and the rest - well they don't tell me about anything.  Needless to say, I had eons of time and no one to distract me.  I got a little sad.  Then I went on an adventure.  And, I like adventures.

I decided to walk up the river until I could go sit by it which I did and had a lovely time taking some self-portraits.  You should check them out here.  And yes, I am wearing clothes, you just can't see it.

This was one of my buddies at the river.  Doesn't he look sharp?

This was a nectarine I almost didn't buy at a market.  Apparently you have to weigh it and print out a sticker yourself.  They don't do it for you.  I had so much trouble with this because all I wanted to to was eat it.  It wasn't as juicy as I expected but it was still a triumph.

This is my river.  I come here sometimes.

I got this crazy idea to watch the sunset from a famous lookout point: Mirador San Nicolas.  Its supposed to have wonderful views of the sunrise on the Alhambra.  After I got up there I realized that it faces East, hence the sunrise views.  I wandered around up there for a while trying to find a westward looking point.  This lookout point is in the Albaicyn.  That's just a really fancy word for labyrinth or maze.  Ok, not really, but that's what it is.  I wandered for some time and all I found was bright sunlight and walls.  The sun was behind walls.  I started cursing the Spanish of old for creating walls that blocked the western sun.  I didn't get any pictures of the sunset, but I did however get some awesome pictures of the Alhambra at night.

I eventually made my way back down to the center of town, and as I was walking home something pulled me to the cathedral.  When I arrived at the plaza behind it, I heard music and I saw this:

I couldn't believe how many people were dancing in one area.  I loved it.  Apparently, it was a program that happens every Saturday for the older people in town so they can have some fun.  The music was really good.  The singer sang "La Camisa Negra" and it was stuck in my head the rest of the night.

After a while I got tired of watching old people dance, since no one was going to ask me and I wandered off.  I got to another plaza and this is what I found:

Again, I had quite a stroke of luck finding a flamenco recital.  I didn't find anything more after this except for some awesome looking fountains.  It was past midnight at this point and eventually things have to stop.  Although, in Spain, who knows when that actually is.

Bull Fights

*** This post is about bull fighting.  It is about killing an animal for no particular reason.  If this makes you sad in anyway please don't read it. ***




This week has been a week of doing things truly Spanish.  Because of the Feria that I posted about the other day, there have been bull fights all week.

Bull Fighting has a rich history of which I haven't a single clue what it is - I even went to a bull fighting museum and I still don't know.  Oops.  What I can tell you is that the first time you watch it you find yourself more on the PETA side of things for a little while.

Opening Ceremony

The point of a bull fight is to bring a bull into an arena and eventually kill it for entertainment.  All the toreros (or matadors) do similar moves but some are better than others - one head butted the bull.  As my memory is starting to trickle in: there are three parts to a bull fight.  One part involves a horseman.  He has a spear and wounds the bull to weaken him.  After that three to four other matadors have some sort of stick that has a poker at the end and they get real up close and personal with the bull in order to stab him.  After that the torero uses his cape and sort of tames the bull a bit.  The fight hasn't gone out of the bull yet.

The bull was just let loose, notice the torero hiding behind the wall.

At some point, the band starts playing and its sort of a dance between the bull and the torero for a while.  This is where the entertainment part comes in I believe. Every pass the bull takes at a torero the crowd yells "Ole." And, I saw some crazy stuff.  Two of the toreros (there were three with two bulls each - one bull at a time) went on their knees in front of the bull.  One of these two not only went on his knees, but got the bull to retreat while he was kneeling and then he head butted the bull.  This same bull did a flip earlier - his horns got so low to the ground that he speared it and flipped over himself.  He needed help getting up.

The "dance"

One of the basic passes that all the toreros did.

After this little dance comes the part that makes you second guess the point of this.  The torero takes his sword, get the bull to charge and stabs him.  Its never an instant kill.  We watched as he got weak and fell to the ground.  At this point the crowd roars, and if they liked what they saw they wave white flags and throw things down to the torero, the torero then kisses it and throws it back.  (They at least appeared to be kissing them, it was hard to tell - I was in the cheap seats.)

This is right before the kill.

The first bull is the hardest because you don't know what to expect, and by the time the sixth one came you knew what was going to happen and could see the differences in what the torero did with the bull.  I also choose to believe I became desensitized.

The guy in the top right corner is holding the "pointy sticks" that is used to help weaken the bull.

He is on his knees.

Would I watch another one? Yes, I think I would.

Do I support the needless killing of animals? No.  I seriously hope they're doing something with those bulls.

La Noche de San Juan

Every June 23 turning into June 24 the Spanish have a really awesome party.  It is the shortest night of the year and they take to the beaches, build large fires and have a good time all night long.  As I was told, you're supposed to jump over the fire to cleanse your soul and wash in the sea three times.  Apparently, the courage and act of jumping over the fire has something to do with it.  I did not jump over a fire because there wasn't much of an opportunity to do so.  And no one else was doing it.

The night is supposed to be steeped in mystery and all the supernatural things are supposed to come alive.  I got down to Málaga for this wonderful night and when we arrived, it was very foggy.  As I was sitting on a beach the fog slowly started to lift, but not before a boat started to drift towards us.  It was the strangest thing.  We hadn't seen any boats until that point and suddenly there were just appearing, as if out of thin air.  It was quite spooky.  Add in some birds that I decided were bats and we were spooking each other out.

Corpus Christi

Every town in Spain has a week long celebration.  They're called Ferias.  This week was Granada's and its celebrating the Catholic holiday of Corpus Christi.  Here are some pictures of this week long festival.

This picture was taken at 2:20am.  That girl was still awake.

This picture was taken a few minutes after the one above.  I still don't understand how they were still awake.

Sweet Corn.  A little taste of home.

This street is usually very busy, but it was closed for the procession.

That is a man under there.  There are many holding up this "float."

He blessed the United States.

I am worth more than 50 Camels and a Coke.

شكر

(Thank you in Arabic, pronounced shokran.)

I spent the weekend in Morocco touring three cities: Tetuoun, Tanger, and Chef Chouen.  It was awesome.  I saw things in markets I thought I would never see: all stages of chickens, fish, cats stealing fish, so many fresh vegetables and so many other things.  They even had a "pharmacy" which was a little shop with natural deodorant, shampoo and other things too.

I rode a camel. My friend thought it was hilarious that I had the opportunity to ride a camel before I did a horse.  Next on my list is ostrich, donkey and then maybe horse.

My favorite part of the entire trip was definately in Chef Chouen.  We had free time so we were bartering with the merchants.  There was a blanket that I was looking at in one of the shops and I didn't really care if I bought it or not.  It was a nice enough blanket and if the price was nice enough I would have bought it.  So I started bartering.  He started at 15 euro, I started at 2 euro.  I wasn't going to buy it for more than 5 euro.  That was "all" I had left.  And by that I meant, I wasn't going to get the extra euro that was still in my wallet.  He didn't go down far enough so I walked away. 


I walked past his shop and he called me back into the shop.  The price was now 10 euro.  He could go farther.  I walked away again.


I walked past him again and he called me back into the shop, yet again.  The price was now 8 euro.  I really just wanted to pay the 5.  So I walked away.


A shop a little down the ways, I was looking at something and a friend wanted to buy something from the shop and who should appear?  The man who wanted me to buy his blanket.  We got talking.  He owns four shops, four houses and only has one wife but wants another one (in Morocco is legal to have up to four wives - they like polygamy).  His friend had seven houses.


At some point, he asked me to marry him.  I don't quite remember how we got there.  My friend asked how many camels he's give for me.  He said 30.  I said 40,000.  Apparently there aren't that many camels in all of Africa, according to him.  He went up to 35 and a friend of mine (a guy) said 50 and a coke.  I tried to get the owner to marry the guy for 50 and Coke but he wasn't liking the idea of marrying a guy.


And that's how my friend got 50 camels, a coke and I got a husband.

Unfortunately, there were no wedding photos.  This is a friend of mine who was also wearing "traditional" Moroccan garb (dglabas).  I assume they are traditional, although you just can't trust anybody in Morocco.

Just kidding.  Some kid showed up with a magic trick that was really cool, and the guide took me away (to lunch).


I passed the guy again on our way to the bus and he offered the blanket to me again, 7 euro.  I didn't have 7 euro.


I like to believe we parted as friends.

The Streets Part 3: Pomegranate

The street.

Pomegranate Blossom

Pomegranate Road Block

In Spain they don’t like things far away.  They stand close to you when they talk, closer than we Americans are accustomed to, and their streets barely fit the car. And there are no sidewalks.  They have a “walking zone” or you could call it a sidewalk although it is not the conventional sidewalk that you would think of.  It’s more like an extension of the street, like the shoulder, rather than some grass and then concrete slabs to indicate a walking path.  To indicate this area on most of the streets are metal barriers in the shape of pomegranates that would hopefully stop the car before hitting you if they were to ever get out of control.  (These Spaniards have some skill at driving these narrow streets quite fast.)  Why are they in the shape of a pomegranate you ask?  Because Granada has lots of pomegranate trees.

The real (more interesting) reason: Granada translates to Pomegranate in English.

How to Read a Spanish Map

1. Get a map

2. Open the map

3. Look up at the walls surrounding you and find either a sign or and intersection.

4. Find the correlating sign or intersection on the map

5. Find another street for a reference point

6. Fold the map and use it like a GPS system

7. When you arrive at your destination, do a happy dance.  You didn't get lost.