The past two weeks have flown by and Christmas is just around the corner. What happened to 2010 and the last 3 months in Spain?! When I look back, it was only 7 months ago that I graduated from Illinois Wesleyan with my future not known. Now I am TEACHING in another COUNTRY and I took this adventure on ALONE. Who would have thought? Not me.
Moving along … My boyfriend, Chris came to Spain to visit me for the past two weeks. He arrived on a Tuesday. I arrived at the Almería airport to find out it was an extremely small airport in which I did not have to arrive an hour ahead of time to pick him up. There are windows in the luggage pick up area looking onto the waiting area. I was surprising him at the airport, as I normally work on Tuesdays and said I couldn’t get off. I saw him walk by the windows and quickly duck behind people as not to be seen. He finally arrived and I was the only one standing there waiting (directly in front of him) and he was oblivious to me standing there. He was so nervous about figuring his way to my town on his own with taxis, buses and all in a language forgotten years ago. I had to call his name twice before he realized. I think the surprise worked. He was very thankful to have guidance back to my pueblo.
We arrived at my piso (apartment), he freshened up a bit and then we proceeded to make lunch, his first experience of Spain and being outside the country. We made croquetas de pollo and other items but he fell in love immediately. These little sticks of flower, water and meat (or so I believe) with breading on the outside placed in hot olive oil. Needless to say we proceeded to eat these the entire two weeks as he couldn’t get enough.
The next few days I showed him around my pueblo (which took all of 30 minutes) and we climbed to the Jesus Statue that overlooks everything. He quickly learned that the kids play in the trash yards and the dump. Sad but true. We went for coffee and later got his first round of tapas. Not too bad. Of course I had to work during the week too so I put Chris to work with scissors and a glue stick. I think it brought him back to elementary school.
On Thursday we headed to the normal outing for “San Teacher” to a tapas bar. This is where they have great tapas. I soon introduced him to my favorites: huevos (bread, tomato and quail eggs), emperador (tuna), almejas (clams), pinchas (chicken skewer), lomo (pork), salchichas (sausage), and chorizo (a pepperoni type sausage). He did not like the huevos or almejas, and I was extremely disappointed as these are my favorite. We then proceeded to another bar to play darts and pool. Since we had to travel the next day we headed home rather early.
Friday … day 1 of traveling. We headed to Almería for a night so that we could catch an early train to Madrid and our flight to Milan, Italy. In Almería we walked around a lot and found lots of shopping areas but could not find food to save our lives and thus I indulged in my first American cuisine, McDonalds. Classy, I know.
Saturday morning we got up at 5:30 and headed to the train station for breakfast and the train. The train was actually a very smooth ride although I slept the whole time. We arrived in Madrid and had received a text on Chris’ phone from the airline stating that we needed to double check our flight because there was a possibility of it being canceled. Hence, we decided to go directly to the airport in Madrid to figure out our flight and then we would wander around the city with the remaining lay over time. We then received a text stating our flight was canceled. When we arrived at the airport, we checked the board and it was still on time and did not say canceled, hence we proceeded to the counter. When we arrived closer we saw a mass of people and multiple TV crews and I thought … this is not good. However these people were in line for another airline and our airline booth had no line. Good sign, right? We went to the counter and asked if our flight was still on … All flights into and out of SPAIN had been canceled due to an air traffic control strike all around the country. Flights would not be able to fly until the following day.
“Has this ever happened to you” “No, I have no idea what to do”
We asked when the next flight to Italy would be and it was no until Monday and we had tickets to come back early Tuesday morning. We decided to try and refund our tickets and figure out our plan of action. We sat in the airport for an hour canceling our flight, hotel and thinking about what to do next. We decided to stay in Madrid that night as it was already late afternoon and then we would find internet and continue on our way tomorrow to another destination. At the hotel we met another guy who had been there since Wednesday because first the weather was bad in England so he could not fly home, and then the strike. That evening we decided to go out for Italian food seeing as we were supposed to go to Italy and eat the wonderful pasta. It did not even compare to what could have been possible without the strike! Grrrr… On Sunday we could not figure out where to go and thus ended up staying in Madrid until Tuesday.
Having studied in Madrid, I tried to remember as much I could but was unsuccessful. I tried to take him the Palacio Real but it ended up being closed. For some reason there were a million people in Madrid all over the streets. They were packed, the lottery lines were crazy long and there were vendors out. We then went to Plaza Mayor and saw a lot of Christmas markets set up. We also walked around Parque de Retiro and Sol. It rained the entire time we were in Madrid but it was fun none-the-less. We went to Corte Ingles a lot and got souvenirs and Christmas gifts.
Tuesday we returned to Vera and not only was it sunny but it was also 77 degrees!!!! We soaked up the sun while walking around town. The next week we proceeded to go to Mojacar and the Mediterranean Sea. We enjoyed walking on the beach in T-Shirts and stepping into the Sea in December!
Sadly two weeks came to an end and we headed back to Almería for the millionth time and I watched him go through security and head back to the United States. Que triste!
That day I did officially get my residency card and am not officially a residence of Spain!!!
My mother and sister arrive in one week and I am soooo excited! We are going to spend Christmas here in my pueblo, then head to Barcelona and Lisbon. After the new year, they head back to the States and I will continue on to Munich, Interlaken (Switzerland), and Amsterdam. I will update about all my adventures upon my return! Stay warm in the States and travel safely for the holidays! I hope everyone has a great holiday and a happy new year!
Besos,
Julie
Here are some photo websites from the past:
Fair
Thanksgiving 2010
