De Día Hablamos Inglés, De Noche: Español

So I work at this Spanish High School with Julie and Sam who also happen to be my roomates. We got an invite to have a Spanish-style dinner with our English department in this little pueblo of one of the teachers. Needless to say, we were looking forward to it, and since it was being spent with Spaniards, we blocked off the entire rest of our night for dinner.

The three of us girls decided to coordinate our outfits and each wear a floral skirt, but Julie backed out last minute and thus was not invited to partake in this photo.

Here, our teacher, Javier is making Queimada for us to try. It is from the northwest of Spain in Galicia and literally means "burnt". It's hard to see the flame here but it had enough of a fire going to warm all of us as we stood around it. He mixed a liquor called Orujo (which is really common for after dinner or in coffee), apples, sugar (don't quote me on that), and coffee beans. If you're curious about how that mixture tastes, especially after being heated under a flame...continue on.

Julie and Alberto are doing a faked pose on the left side. Their baby cups are actually empty seeing as how the drink is still very  much on fire and was not yet ready to be served.

This was round number two, and Greg took over. It looks a bit like a potion he's mixing, which is funny considering you're supposed to say an encantation over it while it burns. Which is exactly what the lovely gentleman in the following photo did...

Antonio has the voice of a poet and he was elected (perhaps self-elected) to say the encantation in Gallego. It sounded pretty convincing, though I understood only about 1/3 of it. Something about a useless belly caught my attention. Couldn't tell you how that phrase ended.

Since I have an incurable fascination with mini-things, here I am with my mini-queimada cup before tasting.

And here is the answer to the previously posed question about the actual taste of the drink. Who says facial expressions don't cross cultures and borders? Everyone at the table knew exactly how I felt about it. It's kind of like my love/hate relationship with sidra in Asturias. And if you know me and we've ever talked about sidra you know my exact stance on it: it tastes like olives, and I don't believe they make it with apples.

Here we all are! I spend lots of coffee and tortilla eating time with my friends Antonio and Amor on the left. I also teach with Amor. I also teach with Javier who is on the far right and who worked hard with his wife to make us a wonderful meal. They asked if we preferred meat or seafood and when we said meat, they ran with it. We had bacon, lamb, chicken, chorizo, and ribs. Plus on the side we had cecina which is a cured thinly sliced meat served as an appetizer. Add to that some salad, roasted red peppers, bread, olives, and fabulous desserts from a nearby town in Astorga. To finish off we had the queimada, tea and coffee.

There is never a lack of food at a Spanish meal, nor is there a lack of conversation. In fact, after meal chats are SO important (and long) that they have a word for them "sobremesa" which literally means "over the table". There are so many times when I hunt for a word in Spanish that doesn't exist and then they surprise me with gems like that one.

Matando Judíos

In case you speak enough Spanish to know that this blog title sounds incredibly racist and somewhat Hitler-esque, I'll explain myself. In Leon, during Holy Week (Semana Santa), it's really common to hear the phrase "Salimos a matar judios?" It doesn't mean the literal "Let's go out to kill jews?" In fact, all it means is going out to have some drinks: this limonada/lemonade that's famous here. Somehow the term stuck and they think nothing of it. I thought it sounded awful, and it does, but it reflects history and culture and I find

it interesting enough to appreciate.

Easter in Leon wasn't exactly what I had imagined. I was ready to see these huge processions and have brunch with all my favorite Northern Spain dwellers. Cancelled processions, rain, sickness, forgotten keys, late arrivals. Our brunch party dwindled down to 5. It was surprisingly perfect besides the fact that we were missing a few faces.

Bacon, cinnamon rolls with icing, deviled eggs, scrambled eggs with veggies, peanut butter balls, and banana coffee cake. Delish.

David and I went for a walk to find this "other river" which I'd heard my friends talk about. I just discovered about 3 weeks ago that Leon has more than one river. I even found a mini bridge.

My lovely visitor: David. He taught me lots of things on this walk that I surely won't remember, and lots more that I hopefully will.

This is the closest I got to seeing a procession. Not only was it not religious, it was political. Leon wanting to break away and be its own little country.

And finally- the menu at the crepe place. I had never noticed that each one had a name that's either an idiomatic phrase, or at least very Spanish. I'm working on learning what each one means. I've only got about 5 down so far, because I need a little native to sit by me and explain where they came from. Number 45 is my favorite because every time I see David's smiling face he says "Que te cuentas?" And he is the one and only Spaniard I know that says it, but apparently it's cool enough to be on the menu.

Si No Me Mareara, Volvería Ya

Since I'd already been to Florence, Tuscany and Rome the last time I was in Italy, I decided I wanted to see something new. My wonderful mom picked out the coast. 3 hours in a car with my parents and four other randoms on winding, twisting, never-ending roads and cliffs. I had a mega headache every time I even looked at the van, but somehow we ended up right here.

We got to spend time down in two small cities tucked away in coves between the cliffs: Amalfi and Positano. Both had beautiful tiny beaches with a spectacular view. I still don't know how all those people living on the  cliff get home from the beach. I swear there are just stairs wrapping all the way up. The sun was hot, it was a beautiful day and I wanted to stay here for the rest of the week.

We had lunch right on the beach in Positano. They look like they are having a heated discussion but surely it was just "Is Leigh our favorite because she's so smart or because she's so pretty?" They can never decide.

The wisteria vines were incredible, and as the daughter of a garden center man, I tend to appreciate the plants a tad more than your average girl. This strip was filled with little vendors and covered by vines. Dad and I were trying to make sure we got to the van on time so as not to miss our ride while mom stopped and almost.every.vendor. Dad goes "We gotta get her to start passing some of these". I also saw a little 4 year old girl using an old CD as a frisbee. It worked pretty well. She even hit my mom with it.

Our last stop on this day was Pompeii. My only disappointment was that they do not sell any good postcards here. I was even willing to pay over my 45 cent maximum but all they had were pictures of art, nothing of the architecture. So. Friends. None of you will get a postcard from my trip here, but I promise I went. There was so much preserved because of the volcanic ash that had covered it. The more our guide explained to us the more inferior I felt to these ancient Roman people who thought they should mix tiny white pieces of stone and marble into the streets and sidewalks to work as reflectors when the moon came out at night. 

We had an interesting mid 40s-50 year old Italian guide. With fitted jeans, a big belt, spiky short hair, and dark FBI-looking sunglasses. He was super pushy saying things like "Stop looking at your book- I'll tell you everything important you ever needed to know." "Maybe you would have heard me exaplaining earlier if you hadn't been looking in your book." "Moving a little show, huh? If you don't keep up you'll end up like the people of Pompeii."

Turns out, he was incredible. He knew everything. He was super passionate about the city, the history, the culture. He also "casually" threw out that he was recommended by Rick Steves in one of his books. We obviously had to check up on this information only to find out that we did indeed get the most recommended guide for Pompeii. The man went once when he was 4 with his grandfather and had loved it ever since then. I'd never have pegged him for a man with real interest, but there we are. You just never know.

Pizza Americana

As my dad so eloquently put it "I've been eating pizza for over 50 years and this is the best pizza I've ever had. No competition." They cut it in big rectangular pieces and make you a little sandwich out of it. Even mom couldn't say no. 

What I don't understand is this one kind that they have in Italy called "Pizza Americana" which has red sauce, cheese, and then french fries on top of it. I think we'd be really hard pressed to find any place in the United States with french fries on their pizza. We may have a high obesity rate and we may like french fries as a side to other greasy dishes, but we do not put them on pizza. Correct me if I'm wrong here, friends. 

I love the Trevi Fountain. It's really quite underwhelming in comparison to how it's portrayed in photos and movies, but it's quite cozy. Plus, it's surrounded on three sides by gelato shops. It reminds me of the Lizzie McGuire movie, too...I just can't help it. Here's Mom and Dad tossing coins in over their shoulders. I told them it was the cool thing to do.

Dad's first view of the Colosseum...from down the street. At this poit we were still a good distance away but that sucker is pretty big.

This place is what I like to fondly refer to as the "Big White Building". Apparently thats the biggest equestrian statue in the world...and the man riding the horses has a 5 foot long mustache. I wonder if that qualifies for biggest mustache in the world? But now I'm wondering if any of the guys on Mount Rushmore have mustaches... Apparently Mussolini used to give speeches from one of these balconies, but many Romans dislike it's huge whiteness. It does draw a bit of attention. Let me say though, it looked really impressive from the plane view. If you never visit Rome- at least fly into the airport to catch the view. It's not quite the same as recognizing the farm fields and baseball diamonds when you fly into Upstate NY.

Not only did I get both my parents to Europe, they were internationally texting from Europe. Either they are more popular than I am or they are still in the 15-year-old phone stage of texting. "I have to answer right away!" And "Jack needs to see a picture of this pizza, he'll be so jealous."

Yep, caught in the act. We've taught them well.

The ceiling of the pantheon is pretty awesome. They think it works as a natural sundial as well especially to tell the time of year. They say that on April 21 which is also the birth date of Rome as a city, the light hits right above the entrance to the building, lighting it up for a few minutes. We watched a whole show about it and it makes you wonder if the ancient Romans were smarter than the current ones. They continue to amaze us centuries later.

Snuck a shot of mom over my shoulder while at Plaza Barberini. Judging by her face, she knew I was up to something.

Here are the old walls that surrounded the city. I love the idea of someone having a huge key to just lock up an entire city at night to keep them all safe. I also want to see this giant key.

Aventura en Toscana

I met my parents in Florence, Italy and it had been 7 months without seeing them. Needless to say, it was very movie-scene-esque with them walking down the platform to hug their (favorite) daughter. And then after five minutes it had been like I'd never left them. That's how life goes with people you know so well, I suppose. It doesn't matter how long you leave them for, things can fall back into place. Within minutes they were calling me bossy, bratty...the usual truths.

We took a tour of the Tuscany region since I think Florence is not the coolest city and I didn't need to visit it again. Here we are in Siena where they have Il Palio...those big horse races every year. The track is really cool and they said they put matresses along some of the walls for if the jockeys fall off. They also said they don't care about the jockeys because a. they aren't local and b. the horse can win with or without its rider.

Still in Siena, inside the zebra cathedral. They also have statues of all the popes that they could fit up around the ceiling. The guide told us that they reuse the same 5 faces and just slap a different name on it seeing as how they don't know what all the popes looked like anyways.

This is the place mom really wanted dad to see. Out on a big hill in the middle of Tuscany is a farm where they make tons of organic products and serve a mean lunch. We ate really well and I bought some of my favorite almond biscotti in the world. I have been thinking about them since I went there 2 years ago. I told M&D to pose for this picture and "pretend like you like each other" and when they did I said "not so much that you block the view though". And this what we got.

Still at the farm, we wandered around and pet some cows and dad inspected all the plants. He is convinced he is going home to buy an olive tree and grow grapes. Mom will stomp them (although she will argue otherwise) and we will soon be in the olive oil, wine making business. Don't put it past him. He's already looking into getting olive trees shipped in to grow in his greenhouse at work. Expect a blog post of that in the near future...

Here in San Gimignano, a city dad could NOT pronounce. However, once I just went to spell it I had to check to be sure...it DOES have a second G it's just not pronounced. Sorry, dad. I forgive you. We saw these towers that wealthy families built and lived in to avoid attacks and diseases. They used to throw their trash in the streets etc. My family would totally have been into that if we were a wealthy medieval Italian clan.

Hiding out in the shop of the "Best Gelato in the World". I had it a couple years ago and I disagree with this title...so much so that I even passed up on eating it this time.

I am posting this just as proof of how good looking my parents are.

At the leaning tower of Pisa we bought lots of tilted things but avoided taking pictures holding up the tower (see the girl on the left in the blue). We did get to take a little train ride around the city and see some other leaning buildings as well. Terrible foundations and yet they insisted on building. Hey. I bet the tourism industry is glad they did.

I had bought some little things at one of the shops and then decided I wanted more. BUT. The further I walked, the more expensive they got even though it was the exact same stuff. Dad gave me some words of wisdom. "Tell them 'hey- I just got this for 4 euro down there...that's all I'll give you for it'. or better yet 'hey i just got this for 1 euro two stores over...that's what I'll give you for it." And you wonder where I get it from.

My momma and I have very few pictures together. So even the bad ones are going to get posted. Here we are in front of the Cathedral and bell tower in Pisa. This was before the weather got really nice...we had to head a bit more south before shorts and no-scarfs were acceptable.

All of these cities we saw in one day and were quite tired by the end of it. We ended by eating dinner in a great restaurant in Florence and surely we ate some gelato, though I can't be sure.

Before I had met my parents, they were in Venice for a couple days and mom was texting me "We've been here 8 hours and dad has had gelato three times." He did, however, defend himself. "You'd be eating one and couldn't even finish it before you passed another gelato store!" True. So my BEST guess is that we ended this Tuscany tour with some gelato.



"Dumpling": una bola de masa que se come en sopas o con fruta

We spent my 23rd birthday (just had to count to make sure I was really 23) traveling 15 hours just to end up in one of the most incredible cities I've seen: Prague (Praha). Sarah and I were fairly lost in the small old town trying to find the landmark we were supposed to be meeting our friends at. We got a bit distracted by nighttime views such as these, tons of people sitting out on the streets eating, and one the most laid back atmosphere I've felt in a big European city.  

Upon arrival, we immeditately took out 2500 CZK from the ATM to get us through the first couple of days. Walking around with 1,000 bills was pretty cool, but only for us. The locals surely don't get such pleasure out of it, consdering 1,000 CZK could buy you a nice dinner for two (and by nice, I mean $60 worth). Needless to say, we had to hit up the ATMs another time before heading out.

We weren't even sure at this point what we were looking at, but we loved it. The architecture was incredible, without even knowing the history behind it. We also got caught up as we passed a boy playing guitar on the riverbank singing "Wonderwall" to a group of people sitted sipping drinks and picnic tables. He had a few 100 CZK bills in his case, but mind you that only equals about 4 euros or $6 US. He looked like a high roller to me, though.

Here's the famous clock on city hall which still is working from the original mechanisms of the...17th century? Don't quote me. We had a fabulous tour guide (a friend of Julie's who lives in Prague) who knew EVERYTHING, so I was bound to remember some of it, but forget most of it. Regardless, every hour on the hour, this square fills up to see the mechanisms at work. A little skeleton pulls a bell, the statues around the clock spin and nod. Little windows open up to reveal a rotation of mini figures. Pretty impressive, actually. As is the clock itself, showing the day, month, time on a beautiful face.

I bought a mini version of the clock where you change the month and day yourself and it wasn't until we'd gotten far from the market that I realized I hadn't looked at what language it was in- just chose it on color (red). Alas, it's in Italian. Which makes no sense considering I speak English, live in Spain, and was in the Czech Republic. You think I could have accidently chosen one of  those three languages, but no.

Turns out Czech food is both delicios and super filling. We had lunch at the same place both days- a traditional Czech buffet with schnitzel, fried cheese, rice, potatoes, sauces, goulash, dumplings, and dessert dumplings (you can see their deliciousness above). Filled with apricot, strawberry, raspberry, or plum and topped with a fine cheese, powdered sugar, and butter- they were irresistible. Also, one of the main reasons we went to this restaurant twice. There were 5 of us in our little crew and we had trouble finding a table on day one. It's apparently really typical to sit with people you don't know at restaurants, so that's just what we did. We sat aside one lonley man at a huge table while he awkwardly finished and headed out.

We made a stop at the library just to see this stellar little book tower. If you think it looks cool from the outside, just wait. When I peeked in I saw a mirror at the top and bottom of the statue lending to this next photo of me.

Alice in Wonderland much?

Here we are: an interesting mix who all caught up in Prague for a weekend together. From left to right. Nicole (born and raised in Canada, moved to the Czech with her parents 2 weeks before this), Sarah (from Oregon, teaching with me in Leon), Lucas (Czech, living in Prague for 6 years, best tour guide ever), Julie (from Canada, teaching in Leon), Anne (from Germany, had been working in Leon until February when she moved back home), and me. Quite a mouthful. But it pretty amazing to me how we all ended up spending that time together in an incredible city. We were outside the palace (the biggest one in the world) in this photo.

Sarah and I at the Charles Bridge entrance. It's beautiful and packed with tourists and vendors. Walking across it isn't exactly the most delightful experience, but it's a must do. We even found some space along the side to take a break and catch the view.

One of the many gardens we stumbled upon during our 2 day foot tour. This garden was apparently built just for pleasure but some ridiculously rich nobleman. He even had some walls built of fake stalactites (stalagmites?), a little aviary, and endless rows of hedge and flowers.

This was a view we caught by taking a looong metro ride and taking a little walk. The river is a huge part of what makes this city so endearing. Though we learned that it flooded in 2002 and did a lot of damage. The water innundated the nearest metro, filling up almost an entire metro line with water. Word around the block is the metro was closed for a year after and trams and buses were completely packed.

                                    

Here's the view of the palace from the other side of the river. The tallest towers are those of the cathedral within the palace walls. Then the palace stretches from the long white building on the far left all the way to the tiny twin towers on the right. Every new person in reign decided to "improve" or "add-on" to the palace. That gives it a very distinct mix of styles.

My pictures do the city no justice, at all. It had a small city feel but with as much action and things to do as a booming metropolis. It felt safe both night and day. The people parted for you when you were getting on and off public transportation and  they moved to the other side of the sidewalk when they saw you coming. Every street and sidewalk was made of little stones (except the highways of course). Every building had a beautiful facade even if all it housed was an H&M or apartments. The views from all around the city let us see river, bridges, closely pinned houses and low rooftops.

It gets number one on my list of places I think you should visit in Europe (except of course if I am living here still, in which case number one would be visiting ME. No matter where I am).