Any soccer fans out there?

I just made an interesting discovery about the massive rivalry between Real Madrid and Barcelona, here in España.

So my professor walks up to ME at the beginning of the class, essentially asking "Do you know why class is ending early today?"

My answer: "Porque queremos?" "Because we want to?"

His answer: "Porque esta noche hay un partido de fútbol" "Obviously there is a soccer game tonight, stupid american guiri"

PS. 'Guiri' means foreigner/tourist/obviously-not-Spanish

"Breaking the rules of fashion since the dawn of time"
Credit: http://lacomunidad.elpais.com/a-casanova/2011/5/11/guiri

Okay, so not really that harsh... but that's how it felt when my face burned with redness and "damn-I-should've-thought-about-that"-ness. (He was actually just trying to be nice and explain it to me).

    Moral of the story, fútbol is very important here in Spain, important enough to end class halfway through. He continued to explain to me that Real Madrid and Barcelona have a very important, heated rivalry

--okay, okay I already knew that! Don't make me look like too much of a noob!

After a fervent lecture on the Desaparecidos and genocide of Argentina, I asked my classmate Fran if the majority of Murcianos favor Barcelona. I've seen a lot of advertising by Barcelona, but not much from Real Madrid. This weekend when we watched the Barca-Madrid game in a busy restaurant, the vast majority of patrons cheered for Barcelona.

My favorite parts of soccer are the celebrations, AKA man-hugs and butt-slaps.
Credit: http://marioschumacher.blogspot.com.es/2011/04/el-fc-barcelona-y-real-madrid-se.html

Fran set me straight. He explained that there's no 'vast majority' in Murcia, leaning towards one team or the other. Interestingly, Barcelona tends to be favored by the less-moneyed folks, generally popular in pueblos and with the working class. He cautioned that this is how it is with his pueblo and in general but obviously is not always the case. I thought it was hilarious when he told me to ask a gypsy--he said they will always cheer for Barca!

When I asked him why Barcelona seemed to be favored by the less-wealthy, he didn't seem to know. I wonder if they somehow represent "the people" better in some regions...?

PS. throughout this blog post, I have heard noisemakers, whistles and firecrackers go off, cars honk repeatedly and "GOLLLLLLL!!!!" screamed from the adjacent apartments and streets below.

I did not take this photo, but I thought it seemed fitting. I found it here: http://honestlywtf.com/rarebirds/gol

GPS fails, fake bricks, and amazing sunsets--Toledo

One of our "Madrid days" was spent visiting the lovely town of Toledo, about a fifty minute drive. We left late, so we had less than a full day to explore, but it was very well spent! I wasted the ride to Toledo stewing about how angry I was that Ricky blew me off on Skype the night before. I had waited up til almost 2AM, a fact that my parents were not excited about.

Later that night I found out that he had a seizure and, obviously, was not at fault for "blowing me off." It just goes to show you that you shouldn't freak out about something before you get all the facts first...I remember my parents trying to convince me not to make judgments until I had heard from him...

Later, skyping my principito :)

Ricky spent a few hours in the hospital and has an appointment in Charlotte on Friday. The Raleigh docs said it may have been stress or dehydration-related, but hopefully the doctors in Charlotte can give him a better picture. Glad that he is okay now though!

The car ride there was also full of loud tummy-growlings and pretzel-snackings. The second Dad parked the car, we flew into a restaurant. I had previously researched Restaurante Fabula on TripAdvisor, and it got a great rating. We arrived pretty late, somewhere around 4pm; also, coincidentally, pretty much right when lunchtime ends for Spaniards.

Luckily, the waiter was incredibly friendly and understanding and told us they could fix us lunch if we ordered quickly! We ordered way too much food, as usual, but it was all yummy!

Just above Restaurante Fabula--lovin the flores!

I love the horizon in this one!

Afterwards, we headed in whichever direction we decided looked more intriguing. I really wanted to see a synagogue or mosque, rather than a cathedral (since I had already seen so many), even though the cathedral was really the main attraction.

We wondered what all the hanging chains were for

We went inside the second synagogue we came across; I had just seen it in some postcards across the street. It was free for me to get in! We were surprised to see a pretty substantial museum portion accompanied the synagogue.

Mom really wanted to try and catch the El Greco painting (in a separate museum) and the Cathedral, but we made it to each of them at about the exact time that they closed. Woops!

Dad was also very disheartened

We browsed some interesting shops--the quintessential Toledo knife, sword and armor stops, some "Marzapan" bakeries, and a few unique ones in between.

Copy of the castle...made entirely of Marzipan!

Little nun babies cooking up some Marzipan...only semi-creepy

On our way down  the mountain back to the car, we had a semi-stunning realization. Many of the walls were painted!

I know that doesn't sound that interesting or unique, but what I mean is, the bricks and molding, etc, were all painted on! They were fake! I don't know how we didn't realize this before; I started freaking out a little bit!

here's a giveaway that the bricks are fake...they peel off?

Reality...hits...hard.

 After we had pretty much gotten our fill of the beautiful little pueblo of Toledo, we marched back down to the car to head home. As we began to drive toward Madrid, our GPS decided to take us through Toledo. Toledo is not like a typical Spanish city, but rather like a small European town, in that all of its streets are tiny, random, and sometimes end in stairs.

A few times we had to fold the mirrors in, in order to avoid scraping the walls. My Dad said that it was one of the tightest driving experiences he had ever had and he is a pro at driving in Europe. We recalled that the tiny streets were originally constructed solely for horse, carriage, and foot traffic, made long before the time of automobiles. So, at least that part makes sense.

Eventually, some nice Spaniards helped direct us back down the steep and narrow hill-street. One man came out and opened up a garage for us so that we could pull in and turn around!

Upon leaving, a gentle rain began to fall, filling the skies with enormous, dark clouds and some brilliant sunlight streaming through them. Dad had to pull over several times so Mom and I could capture the magnificent sunset.

Wildflowers!

I picked some wildflowers for Momma

The Osborne bull, symbol of España

Hopefully Mom won't beat me for posting an unauthorized picture
of her, but I thought she looked pretty!

It's really hard to tell from this streetside-photo, but the rainbow ended in a huge pink glow;
it looked sort of extraterrestrial

Arrival in Madrid

Today was our first legit, full day in Madrid--hooray! For some reason I had expected Madrid not to be as nice of a city as Barcelona...but boy have I been wrong so far!

The areas of Madrid that we have explored (not even too far off of the beaten path) have already been much less tourist-congested. The architecture is much more classic and there are plenty of greenspaces, landscaping, and flowers; that's important to me!

We arrived last night after a 6+ hour drive across the Spanish countryside. Some of the landscape reminded me of traveling out West with my parents in high school. Ah, the good 'ol USA.

After we dropped our stuff off at our new apartment, we ventured to Plaza Mayor, one of the main, open-space plazas in Madrid. It was surprisingly similar to Saint Mark's Square in Venice. Like, shockingly similar!

Waiting for navigational memories to flood back, Dad finally remembered where Meson del Champinon was. It was a very cute and cozy restaurant that felt like a cave! I even tried a mushroom--it ended up being delicious, even though I usually would never like them.

The fun part was the singing and dancing going on all around us. Some older Spanish women were singing along to patriotic songs about Madrid and Spain--one of them got up and started dancing! One of the Spaniards sat down next to me and started explaining what was going on. Some of them (not the older women) went to high school together and met up once per year. This time they chose Meson del Champinon! He gave me some tips on where my family should explore in Madrid and some ideas for daytrips in the surrounding area (Segovia, Toledo, Salamanca, Cordoba).

Because the guy was friendly and sat down to talk to me, my parents concluded that he had a huge crush on me. I proceeded to explain that Spaniards are just like that! They have a different concept of personal space and body language. For example: one of the women was dancing all up on one of her friends while her husband had a drink next to my friend. At some point they started singing Another Brick in the Wall and it was hilarious.

The first two days in Madrid we have spent exploring and shopping. I am finally convincing myself that it is okay to spend some money, since I only have a little over two and a half months left. Most of the stores we have in Murcia, but we definitely don't have in the USA--shops in my price range like Stradivarius, Lefties, Zara (sparingly in the States), Pull & Bear, etc; names that I have gotten used to, but will definitely miss when I go home. My parents bought me a set of colored pens, highlighters, and a folder at Corte Ingles for school. I bought lots of post cards in Barcelona and some stamps here, so now I can get some correspondence done. Ahh, how I love writing letters!

We had some surprisingly cheap lunches and dinners--such a relief after over-priced and gypping Barcelona! Most of the restaurants are very classy and have even nicer downstairs/bar areas. Still, they are pretty inexpensive.

Baked potato stuffed with ham and cheese, topped with a dove egg

Tea bag came in a box!

Rainbow alcohol!

Some of the best pasta I have ever had in my life. They are filled with ham 'n cheese!

We walked around Madrid and did a wee bit of sightseeing. We didn't go inside any of the monuments and we still haven't been to the Palacio Real, but I think we'll get there tomorrow or Saturday.

Flowers and 'falls

Mom & me playing in the park!

Interesting signage

The Iberian Peninsula will always have a special place in my heart