Mostly somewhere else

Valencia Day 13

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.

Valencia Day 12

12 January 2006

Today was very pleasant. School went well enough, despite being very verb-oriented, then afterwards Susan, Suzanne, and I went to a two-hour lunch at a tapas place recommended by Paz. Turned out to be great! We had shrimp in garlic, grilled asparagus, meatballs, “patatas bravas,” which is a potato dish, all along with plenty of bread to sop up the juices. Yummmm.

Afterwards Susan & I went off in search of the Lladró store, which is a kind of slim, pastel, shiny-glazed ceramic figurine. If you saw it you would recognize it, they’re in most of the “better” department stores. Anyway, this is where they are made. Susan is a bit of a fan since she got one of her mother’s pieces. Nothing has been purchased yet, but it may just be a matter of time.

Then she went looking for a book store & I did more of the tourist thing. There were a few things left I wanted to see, & I’ve checked most of them off the list now. Saw inside the ayuntamiento building, it has a beautiful marble stairway that winds upward very luxuriously. Also went inside the Almudín, a granary in the 1400s, now an art museum with photos forbidden, too bad cuz it was a fabulous building. A Visigoth funerary chapel (later a jail in the 300s for the martyr St Vincent) was very interesting as well & I broke the photo prohibition (I know you’re shocked about that). Then headed over to Susan’s hotel to post last night’s message, but it didn’t work! Got an error message, so this put a dampener on things.

Tonight “the Italians” made dinner for us. These are two Robertos from the school who stayed with Paz when they first came & still come over occasionally to cook. Tonight is the farewell dinner for Henning, a German in my class who is their friend & also lived with Paz. They were supposed to come over at 9 to cook, but Paz said usually just when she’s about ready to give up & climb into her pajamas at 10:30 or so, they show up & start cooking, with dinner about midnight. Tonight they came at 10 and we ate a nice penne pasta at 11, with the celebrations going till about 1:30 am. Well, that’s when I went to bed anyway. Then the kids went out clubbing afterwards.

Tomorrow’s our last day! We’re supposed to watch Almodovar’s movie Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, so it should be a pretty easy day. Good thing, after such a late night!

Valencia Day 11

11 January 2006
Happy birthday, George!

After all the rain yesterday it was a real pleasure to wake up this morning to clear skies. It wasn’t a real hard rain, varying between sprinkling & steady, nothing at all like a good (or actually, bad) Texas downpour, but they are so unaccustomed to much rain that the newspaper reported on it,

Un día de lluvia en Valencia (well, maybe I’d better translate)

A day of rain in Valencia

It rained, and not for just a little while. It rained in Valencia, and all day long, as it hasn’t in months or even years. … It started to fall at 10 and didn’t stop until late at night. The recoded amount of about 10 liters per square meter would be enough to fill 689 Olympic swimming pool. The wind increased the sensation of cold all day long.

Interesting the different perspective according to your experience. Guess that wind chill isn’t something they usually deal with, since it’s usually sunny. Apparently even if it rains here, it’s just briefly and then the sun comes out in the afternoon.

Before I report on the day let me say a couple of things I’ve forgotten to mention.

On Spain in general: I mentioned paseando, being out & about for a little stroll, and how people are so well-dressed for the occasion. The part I left out was that they’re always hanging on to each other. Just about every woman is on a man’s arm, or they are holding hands. If there is no man to grab onto, women may walk with their arms around each other, or holding hands. Much less sense of personal space than we seem to require.

On Valencia: Parking here is a real problem. There are some garages, but not nearly enough to cope with the need. Drivers seem to totally respect no-parking zones (I imagine there are heavy fines if you don’t, Spanish law seems to be very liberal with stiff fines), but they double-park like crazy. Just about every street seems to have cars parked 2 deep. Then when someone needs to get out and a double-parker is in the way, they just honk like crazy (the honking here makes NYC seem quiet). Or apparently, a driver will leave his parking brake off when double-parked so people can push the car out of the way as needed. Crazy. But Valencians love their cars, which Houstonians can identify with.

Since it was a nice day today I took some more photos. Got some of the inside of the post office before a guy walked up & told me it’s not allowed. Hmmm, I can see it being prohibited in an airport or train station, but the post office? It’s quite beautiful, maybe they want to sell you post cards of the décor & then the postage to go on them besides.

Today we took Suzanne the Canadian to lunch at a place where we ate last week. They make a bean stew (fabadas asturianas) every Wednesday, so we went back for that cuz it was really good comfort food. She was happy to come with us - she’s not really gone to restaurants since she doesn’t know how to read the menu or what to order. Fabadas, a salad, cider, coffee/tea, we were all happy. Then tonight for dinner Paz made – you guessed it, fabadas asurianas!

But before coming home for dinner I went to Suzanne’s place and she gave me a facial, with Aveda stuff, which somehow is based on Indian (Vedic?) philosophy of health & wellbeing. Anyway she did a great job so I’m all soft & smelling good besides. She’s going to do Susan tomorrow. Also on the schedule tomorrow is finding another tapas place, one that Paz recommends. So it should be another good day.
That’s it from me, I’ve got to do some confusing homework about all kinds of past tenses & when to use them, also sequence of tenses, etc. I’d better get after it!