Toledo & Oropesa

This weekend I went to Toledo and Oropesa with some friends of my grandparents from Talavera de la Reina, Felipe, Esperanzi and their friend (and chauffeur), Josefina.

Saturday I woke up bright and early to get to the train station and get to Toledo. The train station at Toledo, Felipe had advised me, is actually very pretty. Built after 1920 in Mudejar style, it features dark woodwork with vividly colored tiles. All in all a beautiful building, that actually felt a lot older. I only wish I had gotten the promotional train passport stamp there. . .

I met Felipe and Josefina outside the train station (Esperanzi had to stay home with her mother), and we crossed the river and parked the car by the Alcázar. Felipe and Josefina stopped for a cup of coffee then we went into the library which is housed in the back part of the Alcázar. Walking around, we found a hallway with neat photos from the early 1900’s of local and nearby sites. It was interesting to see how things had changed since: the buildings (most for the better), the clothing, cars, roads, etc.

After wandering around the library (apparently a favorite spot for Josefina, makes sense given her academic profession), we headed outside to finish walking around the Alcázar structure. Unfortunately, we could not go into the Alcázar museum itself as there is a new Military Museum that will open there and so the whole museum is shut down in anticipation for that inauguration, probably after a (hopefully new) president and government is elected in March. The worst part though, is that they put a modern flat stone façade announcing this museum, in what was probably the best view of the Alcázar structure. The designs were a total clash of time period and style, and makes for an eyesore. What a horrible way to ruin a perfectly good historic site!

Then we walked towards the town’s central plaza and passed Santo Tome, a famous chain of pastery store, with the famous Toledo mazapan (sweet almond paste dessert). They had a huge mazapan figure of the cathedral in Toledo in the window display. Quite neat and definitely mouth-watering. We skipped the mazapan for the time being, and turned out of the plaza towards the Museo de Santa Cruz. On the way, we stopped at the Miguel Cervantes statue. This museum is best known for it’s exhibit of Greco’s (although the first few were replicas as I had seen the originals the weekend before in El Escorial), the most notable of which is “The Assumption of the Virgin,” cited as Greco’s last work. They also had other artifacts and a cloister-like courtyard full of columns and jars and other interesting items. Additionally, the staircase and mudejar ceiling above it were nice to look at.

After this museum visit, we continued on our journey, making our way through the streets of Toledo towards the Cathedral. As we were wandering towards this main monument of Toledo, we were surrounded by a group of American students, also apparently heading towards the Cathedral. In an effort to avoid this massive group, Felipe guided us to the main façade entrance of the Cathedral, where he said there was also an entrance to the Cathedral. Unfortunately, this entrance was no longer being used to let people in, so we ended up having to go back around to get in, although it was a good opportunity to get some snapshots of the entrance façade and main portals.

Once inside the cathedral, Felipe immediately directed me towards the treasury where the massive, ornate, pure gold and silver monstrance, used to carry the Eucharist on Corpus Christi Day. It was absolutely immense with such detail and to think this 500lb sculpture was made of pure silver and gold. Then we began walking around the church, looking at the various side altars along the way. Felipe had brought along some guide books of Toledo, so I tried to read along (although the books were of course in Spanish), though they were quickly walking past everything, so it was difficult to catch up. We also saw the beautiful choir which had marvellous woodwork with different scenes, some we ventured to guess were of the capture of Granada. Directly in front is the Main Altar, although I did not find it as impressive as the one in Sevilla. We then wandered into the Chapter Room (Sala Capitular) which features a portrait of each of the Spanish archbishops over the years and about a dozen open spaces left for those to come (I wonder what happens when they run out of room? Felipe claims it has been perfectly coordinated to coincide with the end of the world …). Also noteworthy was the Mudejar ceiling in this room, a perfect example of the peaceful cohabitation of religions. Finally, we saw a few final main chapels in the ambulatory, the Capilla de Santiago, with the tombs of Don and Doña Álvaro de Luna. Next to it, was another large Capilla and directly in front of it was a beautiful mural and marblework. Finally, we entered the cloister of the cathedral and a beautiful side room that had recently been restored (I think they basically painted in what was missing on the roof, although I can’t be sure), with bright hues of blue on the ceiling and just some wonderful Byzantine patterns.

After our long visit to the Cathedral, we decided it was time to stop for a bite to eat (good thing too, because I was starving), but in the interest of time, we had some quick tapas rather than a sit down meal. We had a couple of caña’s and wine with some olives and some very good morcilla. The bar was smoky as usual, but I tried not to think too much about it. Then we set off in search of the most famous El Greco painting in town, “The Burial of Count Orgaz,” in Santo Tomé. As we entered Santo Tomé, we found there was a large tour group also looking at this famous painting, and a guide at the front explaining various details of the work. Although I had seen Rick Steve’s video on Toledo and knew a few things to look for, it was still interesting to hear the commentary live, even if some aspects were difficult to see with all the people in front of me. It’s always fascinating to me to see these works of art I’ve studied up close and in person. And you never really know what you’re going to get: sometimes they are much better or vibrant in person, sometimes much duller or smaller, sometimes you just say, yup, there it is. I guess in the end it’s cool to just be able to say you’ve seen it in person.

Now that I had fulfilled almost all the items on my list for Toledo, we headed towards the Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes. Perhaps in part because it was “siesta hour” or perhaps in part because it’s a less important site, there was hardly anyone there. It consisted of a decorated by simple two-level cloister and a small chapel we wandered around. Unfortunately part of the façade was blocked off by some restoration or construction tarp, although you could see on the outside chains hanging, which Felipe said were the chains of the slaves, whatever that means. Overall, a nice stop on our tour of Toledo.

Finally, I wanted to visit one of the synagogues in Toledo, so we stopped at the one of the two Josefina recommended called Sinagoga de Santa Maria la Blanca. Inside, it was very small and simple space, with a five-aisled nave and horseshoe arched columns separating the aisles. This building was certainly another example of crossing and intermixing of cultures and religions, as the architecture had lots of Arabic (Muslim) influences, but there was an altar in the front from when the synagogue was used as a church.

This concluded the sites we would visit in Toledo. I had thought of going to the El Greco house museum, but as Josefina said, it was basically just a house with two chairs they claimed he used and replicas of paintings, so not really worth the visit. As for souvenir shopping, I only got to do some modest browsing, but the prices all seemed a lot higher than in the art shop I love in Madrid, so I figured I would just buy my Toledo souvenirs there. And I got some insight into why I can rarely do souvenir shopping with locals – as Josefina explained, they are so used to seeing all these things and have always had them around, it’s not really anything interesting to look at or even consider buying to them. Interesting insight. With that, we started wandering back towards the Alcázar, passing a church with a tower you could climb to get a view of Toledo. Since I knew we would stop at the parador, and I was getting pretty tired (so I could only imagine Felipe and Josefina were too), I decided to skipped that climb (which would have been by stairs).

We ended up at the main plaza of Toledo and Felipe went in search of information about the trolley around town, while Josefina and I looked at the sweets and mazapan of Santo Tome again. Felipe returned having found out that the next tour wasn’t for a couple of hours, so not worth us waiting around for. Having a strong sweet tooth myself, I decided I wanted some mazapan, and we bought a small box (Felipe observed how it was much more expensive in Toledo than Oropesa, for example; the power of branding and tourism!). Although it was more expensive than the mazapan I tried from Oropesa it wasn’t nearly as good! This variety was also filled with a little bit of yema or egg yolk

With that, we headed back towards the Alcázar to get to our car. We stopped to take in some of the scenery and some last views of the Alcázar, noting the military school and parador visible on the other side of the river. Once we got back into the car, we headed towards a Puerta in Toledo Felipe wanted to show me, then towards the parador (although we ended up circling the whole city). We got to the parador to take in the view of Toledo and enjoy one last bit of scenery, then headed on our way to Talavera.

Once in Talavera, we agreed to meet Josefina later that night for dinner. I greeted Esperanzi and her mother and told her all about our day. Then we got ready to go to church that night. Felipe and Esperanzi go to church every week, usually on Sunday, but if they foresee an event on Sunday, they will go on Saturday. So to keep our schedule as flexible as possible for Sunday, we went to the Saturday night service. I’ve now been to church with them 3 times, and although I don’t quite know what responses are in Spanish, I try to pick up what I can. I remember when I used to only know prayers in Spanish and not in English! Now it’s the opposite. After mass, we hung out some more, then went out with Josefina.

Felipe was particularly excited to have me going out with Josefina and see where she goes out since it is a “younger” environment. It was pretty fun, with the first bar we went to having walls painted with different signs and young couples and families. There was still some smoking, but not as much. We then went to another pub around the corner (with very American looking fries and some kind of chicken mcnugget looking meat as the accompanying tapas), and finally in search of a spot for dinner. The place Josefina wanted to go to originally was actually closed that night, though, so we went to a seafood type place instead. There were no tables available soon and what looked like a long wait for the high tables, so we ordered a beer and munched on the olives and croquetas. Finally, a table opened up (although there were not enough seats) and we ordered our meal. Felipe had inquired about my wine preferences earlier and noting that I liked white wine more, we ordered glasses of white wine, which was quite soft and fruity, very good.

The next day we woke up (although not as early) to go to Oropesa, Felipe and Esperanzi’s home town and where Josefina works at the Instituto (the equivalent of High School). After the drive, we started by walking towards the castle and walking around it’s courtyard, and climbing up to the tower. Felipe told me the legend of how Oropesa got it's name, saying that there once was a princess that got kidnapped and the ransom demanded was her weight in gold, hence "oro" (gold) "pesa" (weight)! Then we walked around the parador next door where my grandparents once stayed in the octagonal suite there. Finally, we headed towards the town cathedral, just as service was getting out, which for such a small town had a very nice altar. The whole time we were there, we kept running into people Felipe and Esperanzi knew and would start chatting with them. It was such a warm, close-knit town feeling. Finally, we got to the town central square and talked with more acquaintances (although a couple upset about their son’s performance in one of Josefina’s classes the previous year made for a bit of an awkward situation). Our last destination was a visit to Felipe’s mother.

Felipe’s mother is taken care of by his sister, Isabel, who lives a couple of doors down the street. We all gathered in the kitchen, and I don’t know exactly what happened, but the whole situation overwhelmed me with emotion and I began to cry. She was so old and frail and I think it was all the emotional stress from the previous few weeks of finding out about my grandmother having hip-replacement surgery and my grandfather having an artery replacement surgery and complications just boiling over. Getting old and becoming less self-sufficient was just an overwhelming thought, especially when I thought about my grandparents and even parents getting into that situation.

We then met up with Felipe and Esperanzi’s nephew, Isaac, and his girlfriend, Angela for drinks and tapas (some breaded crab claws were the only good ones), then headed back to Talavera to prepare lunch for Esperanzi’s mother. We then headed to Felipe’s favorite and usual restaurant, where we had morcilla and I had cochinillo (since I had tried the lamb the previous time). We then shared this wonderful dessert they have and Amparo joined us for some apple flavored digestive drinks in cute chocolate cups. After hanging out at the house again, I left with Isaac and Angela, who kindly drove me back to Madrid (although there was a bit of traffic on the road).

All in all, a very good weekend with some great people. Even though I slept on a fold-away bed in their office and woke up overly hot throughout the night, I still had a great time with them, as they are very warm, caring people, wanting to get to know you and share good food, good wine, and in whatever you want to do. I don’t know if I’ll get to see them again before I leave Spain, but I have a feeling they may one day come to visit, maybe even in NYC!

Stupid, Smelly, Smoking Spaniards

Note: I write this post when I am actually not particularly frustrated with Spanish culture, so hopefully I'm not as blindly scathing and judgemental as I might be under different circumstances. . .

The other day I was wondering (and discussing a bit with my grandfather who understands) how I'm going to portray my experience living in Spain when I get back home. In the minds of most Americans, living in another country, especially one in Europe, probably sounds absolutely fabulous. With American ideas and perceptions of European fashion, Spanish food (and of course the tapas that have gotten over-rated reputations from Spanish classes in the US), and Royal architecture, I'm not quite sure how I will be able to genuinely convey my feelings about my time in Spain - it's really not all it's cracked out to be.

There are three things about Spaniards I've come to realize that might be hard for my friends back home to really understand and believe.

Stupid
First of all, I've come to realize Spaniards are quite behind on the learning curve. As my grandpa and I joke around, they're about 10 years behind the US. Perhaps this is an exaggeration, but I'll give some examples. Sure, there are computers, modern applications, fast internet, etc. But Spaniards haven't quite figured out how to efficiently use these just yet. You can give a village in Africa a slew of computers, but if they don't know how to turn them on or use them, then it's just as well as if they didn't have any. Here's my almost daily experience:

There are two other girls considered "becarias" or interns like me. The difference is they are doing a master in finance concurrently, so they work in the morning and go to class in the afternoon (nevermind that they get out of here at 2pm and don't have class until 5pm). And, of course, they are about 3 years older than me. Well, the one that sits next to me is not exactly Spanish. She is from Poland, but moved here a few years ago to be with her boyfriend, and is now basically a Spaniard. She does a lot of excel work for the corporate department that sits in our office, but since she's not here in the afternoon, sometimes her supervisors ask me to pick up where she left off. These are my findings: She leaves things in sloppy format (e.g. mismatching and incomplete borders, merged cells when you could just change the column width to make everything fit, etc), which I am asked to correct (and sometimes these seemingly simple but tedious corrections can take over an hour in such large spreadsheets); Formulas that make no sense or are just coded to do what she wanted them to do that instant with no real thought to what is actually going on (e.g. You have a series of available funding percentages for different divisions, but you want to know the overall available funding percent for all the divisions put together. . .you shouldn't add the percentages up . . .that would likely give you more than 100%, but she thinks, well, you add the amounts up, you should add the percentages up), etc. Perhaps I'm more anal-retentive about this because of my training at JPM but what really gets me is that she doesn't seem to want to understand or improve. Today I look over and she is copying formulas into cells, then going back and fixing the formatting of the cell she just ruined by copying it from above. I tell her she could use the "Special paste" option to just copy the formula so she doesn't have to redo the formatting, but she says, "Oh, it's all the same" ::Sigh:: not when it takes you 3 times longer to do it your way. . . And all this doesn't even begin to touch on the fact that almost no one here uses keyboard shortcuts to work in Excel, instead they use a mouse, which admittedly accomplishes the same thing, but isn't nearly as fast (those of you in banking or that consistently use keyboard shortcuts must know where I'm coming from). At least many of the supervisors realize this is useful and try to pick up tricks from me from time to time.

Even though I'm working in what everyone tells me is one of the leading companies in Spain, one of my coworkers even confessed he could tell my intelligence and education was well above the mean of the company. Pretty scary that a nationally reputable company can have such lackadaisical workers.

Another example of why the Spanish culture is way behind: This past weekend, Almudena (whom I rent my room from) had a friend over and were chit-chatting about life and daily problems, etc. Well, she mentions that her mom is getting nearly free DVD's by cutting out a coupon in the newspaper she goes down to the newsstand to buy everyday. "Wait, she buys a newspaper from the stand everyday?! Why not just get a subscription? It's always infinitely cheaper to subscribe to any periodical than to buy it at newsstand price," I say. "Oh no," they both assure me. "You can't get subscriptions, because they ask for your bank account or some form of charging you, and if you ever cancel the subscription, they will continue charging you, regardless. It's kinda like robbery, but that's just the way it works." I tried to explain how that would never happen in the US because a company that tried to steal $20 from a client would get a class action law-suit for $20 million for doing it, so they would never do such a thing and if it happened accidentally you would be immediately reimbursed. But not in Spain. So instead, they pay probably at least 3 times as much for things and just refuse to trust the system. The worst part: they just accept it. No one realizes that both the consumer (who is paying several times more for things) and the producer (who loses potential revenues from people who just avoid buying these things all-together or can't buy products because they spent to much money on newsstand papers) lose out in the process.

Smelly
One of my grandfather's most vivid memories and quips about Spaniards is their smell. I noticed this when I first got to Spain, particularly because it was still fairly hot from the summer. Getting into the train in the evening, a wave of mixed odors of sweat overcame you. Fortunately, I only took the train during rush hour a couple of times during this season, and often walked longer bits before getting into the metro, to make my time in the train shorter. Basically, many Spaniards, especially late in the day, will smell wretchedly of BO. That's right, they forgot to (or just plain purposefully don't) use deodorant. Additionally, many tend to shower infrequently, for various reasons, but probably including wanting to save money on water/electricity at some point or as kids, and over time just growing accustomed to the smell and not realizing anything was wrong. I had sort of forgotten about this phenomenon because it's winter time and, like in most places, the issue of sweating and smelling tends to be less of a problem during this season. But more than anything, I think I've noticed it less because I've unconscientiously begun mentally screening people when I enter the metro. For example, if there are two seats open, one next to a woman with make-up and heels and one next to a scruffy-faced man in jeans, I'll sit next to the woman - there's a better chance she showered yesterday (or at least sometime this week) and doesn't smell as bad. I realized this the other day when I was in the metro and a stop or two later a man and his 3 daughters got on the train. The daughters took the 3 empty seats in front of me and he took the seat next to me. Even though his daughters looked very well groomed and ready for school, he smelled like he hadn't showered in at least 3 days. At this point, though, every other seat in the car was taken, so I couldn't move. Even though I was sitting in the aisle and had my head turned away from him, it was still hard to not get a foul whiff from time to time. Overall, I've noticed this showering/deodorant problem seems to be most applicable to middle-aged to old men. This is one reason, I guess, to be thankful that it's winter and not summer. I can't imagine my 40+ minute commute home in trains of stench.

Smoking
My greatest pet peeve of Spaniards is their incessant smoking. Not only do smokers light up repeatedly, almost all bars, restaurants, clubs, lounges, etc allow smoking. Very few have a non-smoking section (although that has varying degrees of effectiveness) and fewer still are completely smoke-free. Just about the only places assuredly free of smoke are metros (although even then I can think of several instances where I saw someone sneak one in) and offices.

Not only is second-hand smoke a health hazard and to me just plain disgusting, it leaves your clothes with the pungent smell of burnt tobacco, tar and whatever other garbage they put in Marlboro's these days. This is particularly problematic for winter coats. The smell penetrates all layers and coat fillings. Unfortunately, in Spain very few people have a clothes dryer in their home. So any clothing you wash must be hung to dry outside and, given the cold, dry really means freeze, then thaw once you bring it inside where it will eventually finish drying. The other option, then is to take it to a professional cleaner, which is incredibly expensive. When I first came to Spain, I went looking for a drycleaners for my suits. My jaw almost dropped when I found out suits cost 15€ to dryclean; that's over $20! (In NYC I can get them for $10 and in Florida for probably $7 if that, and note the currency.) Besides the fact that this would be an expensive thing to keep up and certainly unfair for me to pay when I wanted nothing to do with the smoking in the first place, it still does not remedy the problem that a winter coat is indispensable in the winter. I certainly could not go a whole day without it, as I'm out in the morning as the sun is rising and going home long after the sun has set. If I had more than one winter coat with me, perhaps, but since I'm tight on baggage space, I only brought one. Better to only ruin one from all that smoke, anyhow.

Finally, food just doesn't taste the same when mixed with the aroma of a cigarette. They say smell is a very important factor in tasting foods and drinks. If Spaniards were really food savvy, you would think all this smoke would interfere with their meals, but apparently not. Even worse, are the bars that have appetizer plates sitting out all day - only a glass pane facing customers separates these plates from the smokers sitting right in front. Essentially, these plates (especially any breads or potato tortillas) are one big sponge for the smoke that fills the air throughout the day. At least many meat and cheese shops don't allow smoking, but some restaurants with the ham legs hanging for months or years at a time still do, and just imagine what must cling to those. It's nice to know this is acceptable to serve to customers.

It's not all bad ... I think
I must admit, I feel bad about not being able to take away more positive memories of Spaniards. My coworker, before his temporary assignment to Brazil, asked if I was liking Spain and Spaniards and going to bring home wonderful reviews. I had to scramble a little bit and said something about enjoying traveling (having untouchable weekends to do so), people's openness/approachability, and the overall relaxed nature of things. Quite frankly, though, I don't necessarily mind working a weekend or two, and in fact I would prefer a more rigorous work environment, but I know that's more because of my personal work ethic. I wish I could even say I love Spanish food, but honestly, I like the variety of American food, where you can get Chinese, Italian, Thai, of whatever kind of food you want. And the service (e.g. cleanliness) and freshness (e.g. stale bread) is not nearly at the quality as in the US. Perhaps, I will be able to make a more positive list when I get back to the US. . .

Segovia & El Escorial/Valle de los Caídos

This weekend I took two day trips from Madrid. Saturday I went to Segovia (for the second time - see October 20, 2007 post (when I put it up)) and Sunday I went to El Escorial and Valle de los Caídos (Valley of the Fallen).

Segovia
So last time I went to Segovia I was a little disappointed about not getting to spend more time there and not getting to do some wandering around. In particular, I wanted to see the inside of the cathedral, buy some souvenirs, and maybe get to visit the Segovia Mint. So this time, I woke up bright and early to get to the bus station almost on the other end of Linea 10 and got on the hour long bus ride to Segovia at 8:30AM. When I got there, it was FREEZING (I had been warned that it's usually colder in Segovia). I made my way towards Plaza de Azoguejo, where the Roman Aqueduct cuts mightily across with its double arches, stopping at every seemingly open cafe/cerveceria/restaurante to see if it was a non-smoking locale. Unfortunately I made it all the way to the aqueduct with no luck, left my name at the famous Mesón de Cándido for a 2pm lunch, and headed back up to a place that served hot chocolate and didn't have a sign blatantly announcing it's acceptance of indoor smoking. I ordered some thick hot chocolate with whipped cream and a napolitana de crema, and sat down to breakfast. I think every other person decided to light up just as I sat down, so I ate as far away from them as possible and soon headed out again. The hot chocolate was delicious! It wasn't a watery Swiss-Miss type of hot chocolate like in the States, but almost like chocolate syrup except not as sugary or sweet. Quite good. Would probably have been great for dunking churros.

Anyway, I wanted to do some shopping but I realized none of the stores were open yet! I got to Segovia too early! I wandered up a street over to another by climbing stairs, down another street, finally deciding to start making my way up to Plaza Mayor where the Catedral Cabildo stands. The whole time I was walking up a group of Asian students were behind me and I was not looking forward to entering the cathedral at the same time as this massive group, so I popped into a shop just across the plaza. I finally approach the cathedral entrance and there is now an even bigger group of American students heading towards it. Oh well. I give up. So I walk in with them and didn't even get asked to pay to get in! They must have thought I was part of the student group that they were just letting in, so that was a nice bonus. And my worries about the cathedral being overcrowded with all these students was totally unnecessary as the cathedral is huge, so it was easy enough to get around and see everything. I think the coolest thing about this visit was the museum/cloister. The museum has the tomb of the young prince that supposedly fell out of a window in the Alcázar and caused the agrieved caretaker to plunge after him. In the treasury there were also some great tapestries and a cool chariot that is still taken out on Corpus Christi Day.
Overall the best thing about this building was the intricate Gothic architecture. I just love the spires and how they point so sharply upwards, while the dome and body make it seem stout and plump. It's a nice contrast.

Now that I had finally visited the 3 main sights of Segovia, I began some serious souvenir searching. Magnets, plates, mugs, figurines. I walked up and down the street by the cathedral (which is where the best prices were surprisingly . . . gotta love competition) and finally ended up buying some plates with gorgeous depictions of these sites (I could barely chose they were so well done) ... and a magnet to match my set. Now I just have to get them back home in one piece . . .

Some street wandering led me past the church of San Esteban, the poet Antonio Machado's house, and by the Alcázar after realizing a visit to the Segovia Mint would not be possible since it is under restoration.

At 2pm I showed up for my reservation at the Mesón de Cándido and although I did find some better deals from equally qualified looking restaurants, I kept my reservation just to be able to say I ate there. The building is very quaint and medieval looking. Inside, they have pictures of famous people that have been to the Mesón, including Walt Disney (I guess when he was checking out the Alcázar to create the Cinderella castle). The food was great; I had setas (mushrooms) a la segoviana, cochinillo (although part of the ear was included which was a bit odd), and the famous Segovia dessert, ponche segoviano. All in all, a great meal. I truly feel the best food in all of Spain is in Segovia.

After lunch I was tempted to make the trip out to the Palacio Real de la Granja de San Ildefonso, but I felt the time constraints were just not going to make it worthwhile. So I followed the Roman Aqueduct up to the my second choice, the Monasterio de San Antonio el Real. This once Franciscan monastery is now home to the Clarisa sisters (currently a community of 11 nuns). This was one of those hidden gems of a city you find just by luck. I got there a bit early, so I sat in the sun trying to warm up for a bit. A couple also joined me when a woman finally came to open the monastery for the afternoon. She wasn't just a ticket collector, though, she was a tour guide, and she was so passionate, so intimately involved with everything about the monastery, she sometimes spoke like it was hers and she was the monastery's. It was so refreshing to see someone have such passion and knowledge about the place. The unique thing about this monastery is the mudejar ceiling throughout: above the altar, around the cloister, in the chapter room. It was all beautiful and very well preserved, despite its 500+ years. A not very well publicized site and a bit off the beaten road, but definitely worth the visit. And after such an extravagant lunch, it was nice to walk a bit off.

Finally, I headed towards the bus station, and just in time as the forecasted fog was settling in just as I got to the bus station. (One unsanitary surprise was the lack of toilet paper at the bus station restrooms. As the cleaning lady said, they just don't put any, not even a dispenser can be found. . . I guess that's not included in the ticket. . good grief!).

I still believe a trip to Segovia can be done in one day, but I enjoyed this extra day of leisurely strolling around and discovery.

El Escorial/Valle de los Caídos
So today was a bit of a logistical nightmare. Earlier in the week, I stopped by the Chamartin Renfe ticket office to ask about the schedule for trains for El Escorial. I was told they leave every hour at quarter past the hour, and even after specifically asking if it was quarter till the hour instead and if this held true for Sunday, I was still assured (and could tell the attendent was getting a bit annoyed with my lack of understanding) it was quarter past the hour. So I planned to catch the 9:15AM train, but running a little late, was running into the station at 9:05AM. Imagine my shock when I get my ticket and the vendor calmly tells me the next train leaves at 9:47AM! It was quarter till the hour and I was completely misinformed. I felt very ripped off and a little upset by this kink in my plans despite my best efforts to plan ahead. Nonetheless, I grabbed a drink, scribbled a note to later mail my grandpa on a napkin and got on the train. Slept for most of the hour and change ride, then went in search of the bus to get me up to the monastery. I asked a girl that was sitting a few seats away from me about this bus and she said she too was going to visit the monastery, so we set out to go together. Impatiently waiting for the bus to arrive, we asked a seeming local about the bus to the monastery and the bus to Valle de los Caídos. He helpfully informed us that the bus to Valle only left at 3:15PM and only left Valle at 5:15PM, so it was very important to make these times. We thanked him for the information, finally got on the bus (although we waited seemingly forever since the bus was only scheduled to leave at 11:20AM from the station), and got to bus station near the monastery. It seemed like it would have been quite a hike not only in distance but in slope, so it was worth waiting for the bus.

At the ticket office in the monastery there was a bit of irritated confusion as to what type of entrance we wanted: combined Escorial/Valle visit, guided or not, student or not, etc. Finally, we understood that the guided combined ticket was 6€ more than the unguided student combined ticket (there was no student discount for a guided ticket), while audio guides were 2.30€, so we took the unguided ticket and got audio guides. Going through the security scanners I was told I had to check my mini-backpack, which I mistakenly left my entrance ticket in so getting into this place was quite a chore. We quickly realized the audioguides were quite the rip off as they a) were not very informative; most of what it said could be read on signs throughout b) not well labeled; if it wasn't for the map, we would have missed more than half the descriptions, in fact we sometimes had to do backtracks when we realized we had accidently skipped works with information.

Overall, though, the Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial was an amazing place. It reminded me a lot of the Vatican Museum. There was a great collection of art amassed by Spanish kings, with, albeit, not internationally reknown, but nonetheless talented Spanish artists, the most famous of which being El Greco. There were also some Titians and I really enjoyed some works by Ribera, whom I am not very familiar with. Then there was the actual palace. I love the Sala de las Batallas, a long hall that reminded me of the Gallery of Maps in the Vatican with important battle scenes painted on the wall imitating a tapestry. Absolutely splendid! I also enjoyed walking through the royal chambers and it was absolutely breathtaking to descend a barrel ceiling marble staircase and enter the Panteón de los Reyes. In this completely marble and gilt covered circular room, kings from Charles V to the present are buried with their wives opposite them. Even the current king and queen have their designated spots above the doorway.

Another impressive work was the large fresco decorating the ceiling above a main staircase of the cloister. Again it reminded me of the Vatican, this time of Michaelangelo's "Last Judgement" (I know, it's almost sacrilige to make such a comparison).

After a whirlwind rush through all of this (70 audioguide clips later), I headed towards the bus station to go to Valle de los Caídos. (Side note here: this trip required steady infusions of €€€ at almost every step; they have you stranded and cornered and they know it!).

Valle de los Caídos is a monument erected by Francisco Franco (the ruler or dictator of Spain until 1975), in memory of the Guerra Civil (Civil War) in Spain 1936-1939. Eventually, he was buried in the basilica of this monument, so it is surrounded by plenty of political as well as emotional sentiments. There was only a limited amount of time at this sight and the tram up to the cross closed first, so we headed up that first. The large free standing cross is the largest in the world and is very impressive to see up close. The four evangelical figures at the base are also sharply but beautifully rendered in stone in equally massive proportions.

Back at the base, we headed towards the basilica. The completely rounded four-part nave was very sombering to walk down. Carved into rock, with black marble and gray marble trim for the flooring, it felt like walking into the luxurious underground HQ of a Hollywood villian. Tapestries cover the walls and intermitent altars to various virgins mark nave divisions. I had such a sensation of smallness and fear though; it was such an impacting place. At the end of this long aisle, is the apse, where Franco is buried and a gorgeous gilded mosaic dome gives a glimmer of levity to the otherwise dark interior.

Finally, I headed back to the El Esocrial bus station, had a pizza for dinner (such a welcomed treat from home!), took a bus back down to the train station, just barely missed the 7:00PM train (again, logistical nightmare), but fortunately didn't have to wait long as the following train was at 7:15PM.

It was a weird, kind of grumpy day for me, but I finally got to check off this sight on my list of things to do.

Just Keeping Happy

In one of the great Pixar/Disney movies, "Finding Nemo," Dory, the quirky and forgetful blue regal tang, sings a little tune that goes, "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming..." In an adaptation of this, a good friend of mine, Eric, once tried to brighten my grumpy mood (and prevent me from being unnecessarily mean) by saying, "Just keep smiling, just keep smiling." I may or may not have found the comment very humourous at the time, but it really is true that sometimes life is just about smiling even when you don’t want to. I have realized in the last few years that lots of things can go wrong in life, unexpectedly or not, but that even when things look at their worst, they could often be a lot worse (and sometimes are for people around you when you don't even know it).

Some of the people in life I most admire are ones that can bring happiness and cheer wherever they go. Even when things in their lives are going badly, they can look at all the other things they have and be thankful. They bring this brightness and optimism to every situation.

Anyhow, all these people and events have made me take a happiness approach to life. Don't get me wrong: I'm by no means one of the most bubbly people out there. But I do try to keep a level head about things and see the big picture. Most of all, no matter what happens, at the end of the day I look at all the wonderful people, great opportunities and overall luck in my life and resolve to be happy. Afterall, what is feeling bad for yourself going to do?

So, in part “Just Keeping Happy” is about all the things and events that keep me happy: travel, art, friends, family, pets, work, books, nature, life. It’s also about things that perhaps don’t make me so happy, but these things only make you appreciate the good so much more. JKH is meant to be a collection of all these things and a great reminder for any rough patches ahead of all the great things in my life.

I leave you with some quotes about happiness. Please feel free to send me more so I can add them to this list.

Happiness comes when your work and words are of benefit to yourself and others.

-Buddha

The greatest part of our happiness depends on our dispositions, not our circumstances.

- Martha Washington

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.

- Albert Schweitzer

A Fresh Start

I've always wondered what journal writing and blogging was all about. I mean, what is the point? Who really cares what one person out of 6.6 billion in the world thinks? How much can you really record your innermost feelings if some snoopy person could later find it under your mattress, or worse, when you're sharing it with a whole world wide web of people? What should you write about? Do seemingly insignificant everyday things deserve a mention or should there just be one topic a writer focuses on? I guess it's questions like these that have always made me want to start a journal/blog - to try to answer them. Not just these questions, but all the crazy, perplexing, weird, philisophical, or just plain curiousity-driven questions that pop into my head.

I can see the beauty of recording things in real time: to see what one really thought or felt without the bias of 20/20 hindsight. But, I've always encountered the problem of keeping up with a journal. Mostly, I think it just takes too long to write things down and my handwriting has never been great. So, I thought maybe blogging would remedy some of these problems (after all typing is certainly a lot faster and there's spellcheck :)). And since we're in a new year, 2008, (and for various other reasons) I thought there was no better time than now to start out on this endeavour.

I think what I've come to realize is that these sorts of diaries are more for yourself than for anyone else. It's a place where you can record your ideas, sort through decisions and vent on troubling issues. I've often resorted to them as a crutch in life when in troubling and uncertain times - when I felt I had no one to talk to, when I was angry with my friends, when I was at crossroads in life. Most of all, though, I created this blog to record my adventures (what little is left of them at least) in Europe and perhaps have a way to easily share more detailed descriptions and photos with friends and family. Also, I've realized I'm a very hyper person - whether it be a form of ADHD or just a restless curiousity about things, I'm constantly working on different projects and hobbies or finding new and interesting things to read about or discuss and I have yet to find someone to really keep up with me in these interests - I myself can't really keep up with all of them, hence the projects I have dubbed "life-long" for the fact they have been under construction for so long and have no real end in site.

That said, I wish I could post a backlog of trips, but I'm not sure I will be able to keep up with this new chore and get up to speed at the same time. One step at a time but something to hope for.