Segovia

This is my first time visiting Europe in a season other than Winter, it is Springtime here in Spain and the weather is beautiful.

It is the perfect weather for my regular acts of gallivanting, perfect for pretty dresses and walks in the park, perfect for being outdoors and sitting in cafes and it is the perfect weather for hay-fever.

Me oh my, has the pollen gotten to me. The severity to which my allergies have been here in Spain made me initially think that I had the flu. Intense coughing, constant sneezing, runny nose, sore throat, constant headaches. It was probably the burning itch in my eyes and throat that made me realise this was as a result of hay-fever, that and the fact that after 2 weeks none of the symptoms had improved. Now I am taking antihistamine tablets but when the barrage of trees and flowers and grass is this heavy I think I would need to take the whole packet for the pills to have any effect.

Who'd have thought flowers could be this dangerous?

Aside from my allergic reaction to something as stupid as plants I have been relishing the weather in Madrid. The last little place I went to visit was Segovia; a gorgeous little village about an hour from Madrid. For the most part the streets and buildings have remained untouched allowing you the opportunity to feel as though you were visiting another time rather than another place.

While there I even made new friends, Emma a 78 year old lady from Peru who now lives in the USA and who constantly spoke to me in Spanish and would laugh at herself when I would stare back at her without comprehension. The other friend was Carlos, a 64 year old Mexican man from Texas, USA who as a history teacher was able to offer us a little more insight into our surroundings.

We had lunch together and walked the streets. Emma and I were very similar both of us refusing to pay 5euros to enter this massive church based on the principal that it is wrong to charge people to visit a place of worship and that 5euros was just too expensive. Actually we didn't enter any of the old buildings that required an entry fee. For the most part I am a little tired of seeing the interiors of most of these places which to me all look the same now. I've been inside a tonne of castles and walked through a whole bunch of museums. I've gazed at different styles of architecture and examined loads of churches. I'm done with the whole old thing. I'm bored of being a tourist. Once I said goodbye to my two new friends I headed straight for the stores and I shopped. I won't even deny it, I found it far more enjoyable than anything else I did in Segovia.

Segovia, the Acueducto.. old aqueduct which boarders the city and supplies water

gorgeous little town

me and one of the many churches in Segovia

my two new friends, Carlos and Emma

The views reminded me of scenes from movies

me and a castle

Segovia

Lunch time, first course: Soup Castellana

main course: stake on a sizzling hot plate

desert: lemon sorbet

streets of Segovia

fountain in Segovia

church and the big cathedral in the background

Barcelona

Very typically of how I run my life, within less than 24 hours I planned a trip to Barcelona. My aunt and I decided on Thursday that it was a good idea for me to go and on Friday morning I flew to Barcelona.

I was staying with my aunts mum who lives in Barcelona and within the first day I had figured out the metro system and started the process of gallivanting around. I stayed a total of 5days and to go into detail about everything that I did and saw would be very long as I did and saw absolutely everything that I could but perhaps I'll just point out the highlights.

First of all it is very difficult to attract help when you look like you should know what you are doing. I appear to look Spanish and this got me into trouble a few times when people started making conversation with me in the streets and at first I would politely smile and nod my head at them until I realised that they were asking me a question and I had to do the whole "ohhh me no hablo Espanol" and smile politely again before looking in the other direction. One guy in a lift tried to start conversation with me and when I gave him the "I don't speak Spanish" line he said to his family "Todos Americanos" to which I corrected him that I was in fact Australian.

That brings me to another point, Barcelona is tourist central and it's packed with Americans. I heard so many American accents if you closed your eyes and just listened to the conversation on the streets you might have sworn you had taken a magic pill and ended up in the streets of New York or Chicago or somewhere. The worst part was that most of the accents I was hearing weren't those tolerable American accents, the one's that you don't mind hearing because they sound like all the people in the movies we see all the time but they were those bimbo girl sounding accents. The ones the use in movies for the pretty but dumb girl that always says "like, like, like, you know, like...". Sometimes I had to stop myself from laughing when I could overhear their conversations. Like one time in the metro a girl with one of these accents was telling her friend about how her room-mate lost her bag which contained within it her wallet and house keys when suddenly something dawned on her.."Oh my God, like I should email my landlord... and tell her to change the locks. Like Oh my God really, the bag had her wallet and her keys in it. Someone could fully have our address and the keys. I should email my landlord."

So aside from the heard of tourists who were in Barcelona from all over the place I had myself a great time. There is something great about travelling by yourself and that's the absolute freedom to do what you want when you want but at the same time, everyday there is a moment where you wished you had someone with you to share it with. Barcelona was filled with couples and groups and families. I barely saw anyone else doing it solo like me. I am most definitely not the type to give up on experiencing something just because I'm by myself but sometimes you could really use someone sitting across from you at the restaurant or telling you to pose while they take a picture or listening to you while you complain about how much your feet hurt. There were times when I would be looking for a place to eat and as I would pick a table and sit down I would look around hoping that there would be someone else, sitting at a table for one, enjoying their solidarity, just so that I could feel that I wasn't alone being alone. I would get excited when I would see this, a man or a woman sitting at a table on their own, looking up and down the menu and I wouldn't feel the loneliness so much but then disappointment would come in the form of their partner or friend who would eventually walk in and take the seat across from them and together they would talk and laugh and taste each others food and I would sit again, alone in my loneliness.

Barcelona is a very beautiful city and I think it has knocked Paris off from the top of my favourite cities list. It has a bit of everything, beach front, mountains, parks, museums and galleries, beautiful old streets filled with amazing European architecture, churches and cathedrals, shopping, great food, markets and of course the architectural works of Gaudi whom the Barcelonians are very proud of.

My favourite part of Barcelona was Montjuic. There the Magic Fountain lights up and dances along to music. Not only is the fountain beautiful but the whole strip both behind and in front of it is amazing. The main road leading up to the fountain is lined with smaller fountains and on either side are buildings which complement the rest of the architecture of the area. Behind the fountain is a waterfall of water and stairs which lead up to a beautiful building. The stairs are also lined with flowing water and the amazing building which stands at the very top of the hill is the Palau Nacional, National Palace. The energies of each feature of this area complement each other and create an atmosphere that is both simplistically beautiful and awe inspiring. Surrounded by fountains, a sense of tranquillity and calm surrounds you and yet the majesty of the main fountain and the Palace behind it as well as these 4 huge pillars which stand, watching over the fountain make you want to stare in amazement.

For now I will leave you with these glimpses of Plaza Espanol which is the name of this entire area, a place I just kept going back to.

Montjuic with the pillars and palace

Magic Fountain

The pillars looking over the fountain

The Palau Nacional

The main road lined with fountains

Me and The Fountain as it first lights up

The Fountain at night, lit up and dancing to the music

View from above, watching the cars rush by at the base of the main road

The main road leading up to Montjuic

Food Time

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love food and being in Europe I am being exposed to the best of the best in food. Food in Europe is a culture. It is more about the joy of eating rather than the need to eat and the quality of food as opposed to the quantity.

Here in Spain the food culture is amazing and considering that I have been somewhat deprived of good food having just spent the last year in South Africa where the culture behind food was born of necessity to eat rather than enjoyment and love of flavour, I am soaking up Spanish food and the Spanish way of eating.

Here food is about flavour, about people coming together and also very much about moderation. There are 3 main meals a day;

Breakfast which usually consists of breads and cheese and coffee. Because of the new working culture where people start work at maybe 8am people first just have coffee before work and then have second breakfast at around 11am which consists of coffee and perhaps a croissant or small sandwiches.

Lunch which is the biggest meal of the day and starts at 2pm and can go till 5pm.

Dinner which is usually a small, light meal and often eaten around 9-10pm

In between these meals people eat small appetizer sized snacks called tapas and they drink coffee so at no point is anyone going hungry.

Back in the day the Spaniards would not start work until around 9am. They would work until 2pm taking a small break at 11am. At 2pm everything would close as people went home to have siesta, eat and sleep, before opening up again at 5pm and working till 8pm. They would get home and eat dinner at around 9.30pm before starting their social events for the evening. From 10pm until maybe 1 or 2am people were out visiting their friends or going to bars. They would come home, sleep and again only wake up at around 8am to start work. Although the work schedule has changed, much of the eating culture and social culture is still based around this pattern.

The next thing about food culture that stands out for me in Spain is doggy bags which I do not think exist. If you don't finish your food then you let the food go. People have not adopted a culture of taking left over restaurant food home no matter how much they leave on their plate. Another big thing is that if food does not taste good you don't eat it. It doesn't matter how much you have paid for a meal, if you are not enjoying your food you don't eat. Also no one eats to the point where they have to start undoing pants buttons or belts, if you are full you don't eat.

This is a bit of a contrast to the "Finish your food as there are children starving in Africa" mentality that many of us were raised with. The Spanish know good food and they have very high standards.

Here are some Spanish foods that I have eaten so far


Torrejas

Torrejas (pronounced Torekhas) are a Spanish Easter desert. They are something like French toast in that it is bread soaked in milk and egg which is fried. The exterior is bread but the interior is soft and fluffy and sweet. It is then served in a plate and either covered in milk or with sugar.

Paella

Paella (pronounced Pa-eh-ya) is a Spanish rice dish cooked with either meat or seafood or a mix of both and it tastes so good.

Churros

This is a Spanish food that has crept into much of the world, churros are a fried pastry of some sort which you can either have with sugar or dipped in chocolate. I eat mine with sugar as I don't like chocolate. Today we had this for breakfast.

I will continue putting up different Spanish foods that I have eaten as I eat them so that you can all be jealous.

Not the Ku Klux Klan??

The above image is not a recruitment party for the KKK although that is exactly what it looks like. Now is the period of Easter and Easter in Spain and in much of Europe is not your typical chocolate festival. Here it is actually a religious occasion, who'd have thought?

The Easter traditions of Spain are based on those of the Roman Catholic Church and Easter is 99% about the Crusification of Christ and 1% about chocolate.

For the whole period of Semana Santa which is the time for Easter, every city of the country hosts its own parades and ceremonies. People dress in robes with hoods, in different colours depending on the tradition of the area. They have processions where these hooded followers carry replicas of Christ on the Cross and what I thought was the most interesting is that in most of them the colour of Jesus Christ's skin is dark brown and not white as the Americans would want you to believe. There are others who walk in the processions topless, with chains around their feet and a whip which they hit themselves with on the back. For the most part the images of these processions and ceremonies are a little frightening.

Thousands of people travel to Spain from all over the place to witness these Easter traditions. It is really a big part of the life here in Spain.

It's interesting to be in a country that considers the Christian Holy days as religious occasions and not material ones as they are for the most part in Australia. People in Spain are actually mourning the passing of Christ and not celebrating a rabbit who gives away chocolate. Still I'm not sure about the attire that they wear. I am yet to find out exactly what it symbolises and even if it does have some deep spiritual meaning I still think it looks scary.

Here are some more pictures.. also none of these images are mine, click on the image to go to the site where I got it from and also to get more information about Semana Santa