boulder time

"Vivid Youth" (Pastels & Tenniscoats, 2009)

I love this song. It always reminds me of springtime and the outdoors and Williams.

Manzanares el Real

Jenn, Megan, and I went on a day trip yesterday to Manzanares el Real, home of a castle and gateway to the Sierra de Guadarrama. In just 45 minutes on Bus 724, we had left big city Madrid and arrived in the sandy, white pueblo.

A very upset Megan and happy me over the Santillana Reservoir

Entrance to the New Castle of Manzanares El Real

One of the castle's towers

The towers on the castle were my favorite part of the building. The entire pueblo seems to be sand and stone. It could last forever.

After our tour of the New Castle, we started on our hike in La Pedriza, the southern slopes of the Sierra. It was very tame at first because we walked along the Rio Manzanares with the crowds of people and their children and dogs. La Pedriza is actually crazy. It has a forest of evergreens on one side of the rio and rocky dryness on the other.

Walking along the Rio Manzanares

Jenn and Megan

Then we decided to take a shortcut back to the pueblo and that apparently meant hiking to the top of the mountain Cancho Losillos (?), which we were apparently unprepared for. We must have been a sight, three girls in super casual sneakers and little else among groups of men with all their technical rock climbing and hiking gear. We were also expecting more trail markers on the way, so we were very nervous the entire time. The view of La Pedriza was spectacular though, I had never seen anything like it outside of The Flintstones: the boulders fit perfectly into each other on the slopes, permanently defying gravity.

At the top things got much better, because the descent was psychologically much easier; we knew we just had to go down and could see Manzanares el Real from above the entire time. With my luck of course, things got super snaggy in the near bottom, as for some reason the trail disappeared right from under us and we had to do some improvised rock scaling all alone. It was really scary for me because I'm not used to Super Mario-ing on giant boulders. This was absolutely the worst part for me.

A view of La Pedriza on the way up

When we found the trail again, hidden between some boulders, I could almost kiss the ground because we had been in a bad way for about 45 minutes. I have to say this is the craziest hiking experience for me yet, not because of a height difficulty, but the fear and reality of getting lost on top of some boulders with no possible place to lie down, let alone shelter. The three of us got an adrenaline rush from our successful return to civilization (our emergence from the mountain into someone's driveway...oops), which quickly disappeared, replaced by dead fatigue on the bus back to Madrid. It was overall a pretty great experience, though, and now my host mom thinks I'm a badass.

ya primavera

"Young Dreams" (Young Dreams, 2011)

13o C

Woo-hoo! I declare springtime. Que bonitas son los días de primavera aquí en España! El primero para mi tuvo lugar en Sevilla, una ciudad verdadera y mucho más interesante que ambos Salamanca y Toledo. I adore Sevilla. Quizás por los sentimientos de alegría que siempre me trae el calor de la springtime. 

Con mucha prisa nos guiaron por los edificios mas importantes de la cuidad: El Real Alcázar, El Museo de Bellos Artes, y la Catedral. Lamento no poder ir de compras durante los dos días que llevaba acá. Pero la experiencia del hidropedal sobre el rio Guadalquivir me alegro mucho, así que espero que disfrute los fotos siguientes de la Sevilla vivaz y caliente.

Inside the Real Alcazar (the royal residence in Sevilla)

My favorite arches

Orange trees, sun, white walls

 Sevilla was the center of colonial administration as the site of the Casa de Contratacion. Products had to travel throgh Sevilla to go to Latin America. Some of Cristobal Colon's bones are in a tomb in the Cathedral here. Sevilla is the real deal, hombres.

Relaxing on the Guadalquivir

Friday and Saturday were thus spent in Sevilla. Saturday night we took the AVE back to Madrid and saw a flamenco show at Casa Patas. No sé qué esperaba, pero el show fue estupendo. No sabía que el flamenco es una danza tan rápida y con tanta teátrica. I love it. It's like tap dancing on amphetamines.

I can't wait to travel more. I am ready to go out without a jacket and scarf. I've about two weeks in Europe to do anything I want after everyone leaves. I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't think I will have a dollar to my name by then, though. I'm having an Of Human Bondage moment here, okay? Let me enjoy being young and stupid.

everyday living

"Kaze wo atsumete" (Happy End, 1971)

So I find myself finally settled in the Madrid lifestyle. I think it's time to make some lists. Nothing in any particular order.

Good things

1. Eating lots of pate anytime I want. Mmmm.

2. VIPS: the child(ren) of 7-Eleven and Kikkerland.

3. Tapas! 

4. Coca cola here is an amazing substance.

5. El Corte Ingles: the child(ren) of all the stores in the world.

6. El Chapandaz. This is a cave bar guys.

7. Indian food in Lavapies: lets me pretend for a minute that I'm back on Spring Street.

8. La Cuesta de Moyano: a dream come true! A street full of used books. Should be number 1.

9. Tap water here is delicious.
10. Nocilla. Better than Nutella!

Bad things

1. "Tu si que vales": The X Factor in Spain. Too much drama for so little talent. My host family watches this all the time.

2. Line 9 on the Metro (Purple): why does every car smell like ass?

3. The crazy hobo who haunts the street where I work

4. Kapital.

5. Spanish guys dancing.

6. My walk home from the Metro.

7. The dead tree aesthetic that is not present so much in Madrid, but Alcala de Henares and Salamanca so far. A line of dead trees in plazas and Main Streets that contribute to an unintelligible "look".

8. Spanish work ethic/"professionalism"

young dreams

"Cherry-Coloured Funk" (Cocteau Twins, 1990)

Salamanca is the ultimate college town. Nobody goes for the cheap food, but it is a pleasant bonus. There are also loads of college students around, which leads a lively and cheap nightlife. The town/city is small enough to be a perfect two-day excursion from Madrid, which isn't to say that there aren't a million zapaterias, souvenir shops, churches/convents, and sweets shops.

Wow that was really boring. I'm tired. But let me tell you more more more about my weekend in Salamanca.

The bus dropped us off in the boonies of Salamanca. And then we crossed a road and suddenly we were in a medieval stone city and learned quickly to be vigilant of the Salamancan Owls, which are your basic European / American pigeons but here in Salamanca, oh no, they have a horrible ability to perform a loud, collective hoot-growl that drowns out every other noise in the city. Additional notes on Salamancan wildlife: there are boxers everywhere, and get pushy in a bar if you want to sit down.

New Cathedral of Salamanca

To be honest it was hard to keep track of what we were visiting in town. There is actually too much to see here. It was like tourism on crack for lazy people. I was joking about the million zapaterias before, but I really think there may be a million ATMs. I was glad most of the time to have Google Maps on my phone, but Salamanca is a type of town that becomes self-explanatory after about 2 hours walking around.

Lazarillo de Tormes

I forgot to mention the skaters. Actually, skaters are a phenomenon all throughout Spain, but here they achieve maximum street cred practicing on churches. I believe the stone plaque above announcing Salamanca as the birthplace of Lazarillo de Tormes is blocking about fifteen teenagers doing...wheelies or something. I don't know.

View of Salamanca from the Cueva de Salamanca

We also went to the Cueva de Salamanca, where Satan is believed to have taught dark arts. We climbed up the tower with a metal staircase, which was see-through the whole way up (no no no no no). I got a bit vertigo-y and it didn't help to keep thinking about the movie Vertigo in the part where James Stewart is basically dying in the chase scene up the bell tower of the Spanish mission. Maybe Satan in fact designed this tourist site.

Detail from the Plaza Mayor

Salamanca's nightlife is located at a fifteen minutes' walk away from the Plaza Mayor, which surprised me lots. For most of the day even, actually, the Plaza is dead. It is a shame, because it is a better Plaza than the one in Madrid because it has these awesome reliefs of famous thinkers the whole way round.

On Sunday, we took a day trip to Ciudad Rodrigo, an hour away by bus. Unfortunately we were there just in time for siesta...so it was an experience walking in circles in an alien ghost town. It was funny. My friend Bonnie and I really got to know this town, because we walked past everything at least twice. The views from the city down to the Rio Agueda were really beautiful though.

Piece of the muralla of Ciudad Rodrigo

View from Ciudad Rodrigo

Ciudad Rodrigo was a major fortress city, which explains its stone wall around the entire perimeter of the place. Now, if only the giant wall could have blocked the demonic wind. This is a horrible wind leagues above any Berkshire / Madrid wind that could probably blow a small child away.


And I can't wait for the spring to arrive.

lotsa beauty

Que te lo pases bien, guapa

Ay caramba, bad things are happening in Spain. Temperatures at ~30 degrees Fahrenheit. Now the clear blue skies are filled with ugly heavy clouds, yes really, they are a mass of very solid-looking white lumps. My host family and I are in a slightly sick way by way of El Gripe. My host brother had to stay home with a fever and play Call of Duty all day long. Also, I believe I have a baby wisdom tooth coming in right now, weewoow it hurts sometimes. 

Arte desde 1945

Friday I went to the Museo Reina Sofia--it is literally amazing and I love it so much. It's my favorite thing in the city so far. It is loads of fun, kind of like a science museum but with fun art installations. It is actually gigantic. And wonderful. Magnificent. Spectacular. Umm etcetera. I want to live there and play every day.

The current CaixaForum exhibition--Persistencia de la geometria (?)-- is also very nice, but I've been a fan of geometry so I am biased obviously. There is nothing like a mundane rectangle doing crazy things. Another favorite of mine is the room of film projectors showing simultaneously ten films of dominoes falling. I realized that a surprising majority (I am too lazy to double-check...) of the art represented in here comes from Latin American artistas, not that I don't believe Venezuela or Argentina to be countries of geometry-based aesthetics, but this just shows how little I know about art.

Which is why I'm taking my contemporary art history class! That class has finally picked up its pace and here come flashbacks of 7th/8th/9th grade Art History at Hunter. I still feel guilty that I have never taken an art history class at Williams (nor economics, for that matter...). I'll survive, creo.

Aranjuez

Saturday was Aranjuez day. The Palacio Real was absolutely stunning. Isabel II made quite an effort to fill every wall and space with luxury. Now I'm really not a bougie person, but inside the palacio I felt lucky to marvel at every little thing. The entire palace is lleno de sorpresas--I felt like a child exploring a mundo fantastico. It is a strange sensation, also, to feel your eyes being pleasantly attacked. I definitely had no brain space left at the end of the hour-long visit.

El Palacio Real de Aranjuez

Detalle de un portal del palacio

Fuente en el Jardin del Parterre
(el jardin directamente al lado del palacio)

Unfortunately no photos were allowed inside, so for anybody to truly understand my love for this palace, you must enjoy these pictures from the internet (of my two favorite rooms):

The ceiling of the "arab" room (sorry)

The "asian" room (sorry)

Unfortunately there was barely anything in Aranjuez to see besides the Palacio Real, all because of the atypical cold weather. I am looking forward to coming back here again in the spring or summer when the gardens are gardens and the famed fresas and asparragos are in season and I can take a nice boat ride and chase some ducks.

So here's to trying to fall in love with Spain.

"Fade Into You", Mazzy Star. 1994.