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

Holy crap, I'm in Barcelona

After several hours of night driving, my parents and I made it to amazing Barcelona! 

 

Salmon balls with cream cheese

Since we stayed up 'til 3AM, we slept in late and chilled in the apartment while it poured outside. Once the clouds had cleared, we headed out to find lunch. Nothing was open! All of the stores and many restaurants were closed due to Good Friday, an official holiday. We did manage to find a fancy bar/restaurant that served up some delicious grub! I tried pumpkin ravioli, salmon balls (filled with cream cheese) and chicken tempura. Yummy!

The sugar packet says "Cafe Sagrada Familia" with a picture on it.
Of course, I am holding it upside-down...
Note the FCB flag in the background.

We walked to la Sagrada Familia, the famous, unfinished cathedral built by Antonio Gaudi; another top item on my lifelong Bucket List.

Mom is so excited to enter the Sagrada. Do we look like sisters?

It was even more amazing than I could have expected. I felt so lucky and humbled when I looked up at the huge, almost bizarre-looking Cathedral surrounded by towering cranes. Though I don't know if everyone shares my sentiment, one of the most charming ideas about the cathedral is that it will continue to be constructed over 100 years after the architect's death. They make a big deal about Gaudi's "dream" finally being completed. Even more charming is the fact that he spent the last several months of his life toiling over his life's masterpiece, sleeping in his basement workshop, and was eventually buried underneath in the crypt.

 

Sadness on the Passion Facade

Shadow play

The golden triangle in the middle stands for the Holy Trinity

Holy Trinity up close

Gaudi was only 31 when he was commissioned to do the Sagrada Familia!!!
Makes me want to do something with my life...

One of my favorite things that I learned was that Gaudi was obsessed with perfecting the amount of lighting that entered the cathedral. While many people think that cathedrals should be streaming full of light, Gaudi thought this could be just as blinding as darkness. For the perfect religious experience, the Cathedral had to have just the right amount of light.

Shadow of the crucified Christ against stained glass windows.

Although I'm not a religious person, the Sagrada Familia had me completely in awe. Gaudi's story and ideals made it so much more interesting than just seeing the building (although that was damn awesome too).

The more joyful Nativity Facade

The brown parts show what has been finished; the beige is pending construction

We came home to grab some jackets, then headed back out to La Rambla, the must-see shopping and eating avenue in Barcelona. On our taxi ride there, I chatted up the driver; a much more succesful exchange than I had expected.

• I asked him about Semana Santa and if the stores would be closed on Saturday. He explained that not too much would happen here on Sunday and that stores should be open on Saturday (even Corte Ingles was closed on Friday!).
• I asked him if there were many people here that spoke Catalan but not Spanish. He told me that those who spoke Catalan usually also spoke Castellano (Spanish), but there are also a lot of Spaniards who only speak Castellano. There is suprisngly a lot of writing in Catalan here; I thought it would be mostly Castellano.
• When I said that I didn't know/understand any Catalan, he asked where I was from and told me that my Spanish was awesome. After constantly feeling self-conscious about my "sub-par" Spanish, that was such a great feeling! He reassured me, like 'No, really!' 
• I then asked him if he could recommend some places for us to eat dinner. He was so friendly! He recommended a ton of places. He told me about 4 Gats, a restaurant in the Gothic Quarter where Pablo Picasso had two art exhibitions! I made reservations for Saturday.

We weren't starving after our fancy lunch, so we headed out in hopes of finding a few tapas to fill us up, but not over-stuff us. We were in for an interesting surprise when the check came...

Yes, that cloud was legitimately pink!

We knew that the waiter was trying to screw us over when we entered (I can feel my blood pressure raising as I write this). He tried to order us the huge, over-priced tourist meals after louring us in with reasonably priced tapas on the menu outside. I eventually switched to Spanish and explained that we weren't that hungry and were just interested in a few tapas. After we got to the point where we thought he had backed down and was going to just give us what we wanted, I asked if we could order some cheese (Dad wanted some). At this point, I had let my guard down, so I stopped asking how much each plate would cost; we saw that most tapas were under 8 euros.

The meal was tasty: we had calamares a la romana (fried calamari), patatas bravas (brave potatoes--potatoes in a seafood-esque sauce), bread with tomatoes & olive oil, and our cheese plate. The sangria was some of the best I have had since I came to Spain! When we got the check however, we found that the waiter had charged us over $50 for the cheese plate. We all got pretty angry and my dad chewed out the waiter. Keep in mind that everything else we ordered was 4-7 euros each...NEVER EAT AT Restaurante Amatxu if you go to Barcelona. They gyp the tourists! >:( It was a relief to check them out on TripAdvisor. One star and all horrible reviews; everyone gets gyped there!

We left, pretty angry, but tried not to let it ruin our awesome first day in Barcelona. When we got back to the hotel, Aparthotel Acacia, we were greeted by our very friendly concierge. When he found out that I spoke Castellano, he asked me about how long I'll be in Spain, if I'm enjoying it, etc. It was quite a relief to speak with a nice Barcelonian after our dinner fiasco. When we asked him what would be going on for Easter Sunday, he explained that Spaniards are less religious here than in the South. No wonder Murcia's Semana Santa processions were so elegant! It does seem strange that the sweetest cathedral is here though.

Semana Santa en Murcia

My parents are here! Yesterday I took them through some of the typical, nice areas of Murcia. While the plan was to visit Cafe Ficciones for some coffee, the plan never goes as planned with my parents!

The streets were full of people, so it was a great time for my parents to visit. Everyone was out and about, getting ready for Semana Santa's opening parade! On our way to the Cafe, we saw people lining up and noticed that the parade was about to start. We were in the perfect spot, right in front of the Cathedral!

It was a very somber parade--black gowns with pointy hats, black candles, dirge-like music, and huge, sad-looking religious floats. Though the whole parade seemed like a medieval funeral procession, the sermon (I guess you would call it) was very sweet. It was directed toward the Virgin Mary and contained both praise as well as asking her to watch over the "town" of Murcia.

By the time we were actually ready to leave the parade (about an hour later), we no longer wanted coffee. We skipped Cafe Ficciones and ran to the Mercadonna because Dad wanted to find some wine and other Spanish goodies...ham and cheese.

Around 10pm, Spanish dinner time, we finally made it out to a restaurant. We went to a taverna restaurant that I had never been to but I had noticed because it looks charming from the outside. We enjoyed people/couple watching and talking about all of the cultural differences between here and home. My parents really seem to be enjoying Murcia, and being in Europe in general. We love how the streets are full of people hanging out, socializing, having a drink or a bite to eat. We discussed how hard it would be to implement this sort of cultural change into the US. How would you get everyone to stay up so late and be outside so much? Here is the delicious food we had to eat!

Bull meat and potatoes? Let's do this.

I'm so glad my parents are here--I'm ready for a fun two weeks :D