13 January 2006
Last day in Valencia
Getting up this morning was a struggle after last night’s celebrations, but Henning & I both made it to class, AND managed to stay awake through the movie. Being in Spain Spanish instead of the Latin American version of the language, it was pretty hard for me to follow, but fortunately it wasn’t deep or complex. Ends up with a taxi chasing a motorcycle that’s been hijacked by a kinda insane ex-wife who’s on her way to shoot her husband at the airport where he’s leaving for a trip with the lover with whom he’s been cheating on his current girlfriend, who is ready to kill him too but following in the taxi to try to save the sorry so-and-so, who’s the father of the baby she’s expecting but nobody knows about it. You get the drift.
Hugs and kisses all the way around at school, then off for another tow-hour tapas lunch, this time at a place on the Plaza de la Reina. Our favorite dish here was dates wrapped in bacon, which was rather shocking to the tongue. Susan of course would have nothing to do with the grilled squid, having declared herself opposed to putting in her mouth something that tastes like rubber bands. It was her loss; Suzanne & I chowed down.
A quick visit to the Plaza Redonda to pick up a couple of last-minute gifts, then I made the serious mistake of seeing a music box in the window of a fancy we-won’t-let-you-in-till-you-ring-the-bell jewelry store. We went in & they sucker-punched me by playing the tune. Tchaikovsky Waltz of the Flowers, which is a bit hackneyed but echoes & rolls around in the box beautifully. The top is inlaid with a design of music sheet, mandolin, flowers & leaves in several mellow colors. 15% off for a cash purchase, and between Susan & me, we came up with enough at the ATM to swing it. Keep your eyes off the windows of expensive stores if you know what’s good for you!
The ladies in the store gave us some sherry while we chatted, which definitely greased the skids - not a good image to use about this particular transaction, I can just imagine the looks of incomprehension on the faces of those elegant ladies. (Sherry is of course originally from Spain, from a city called Jerez, bastardized to sherry. I think when it’s made somewhere else it can’t have the name sherry.) Anyway, the last time I had it was when a guy was (successfully) trying to sell me a leather coat, in Barcelona. Those Spaniards know what they’re doing.
Then the challenge of packing everything. Are dirty clothes really THAT much fatter than clean ones? What IS the problem with repacking? In this case, it could have been the ceramics, wooden spoons, CDs, olive oil, paella pan, and even an empty wine bottle that caused the problem. Maybe.
Tomorrow we leave at 6:30 am to catch a plane to Madrid, then to New York, then to Houston. We will be in transit about 21 hours, so I’d better rest up.
Thanks for reading about this trip. I hope you are able to check out the photo album to get an idea of what the city is like.
Next adventure: Thailand & Cambodia in February. Stay posted.