Palm springs is like a foreign country

Roommate quotes

"Do you feel like we are on a sitcom all the time? Because I do."

"If it looks like something Tina Turner would wear, then I think that you would wear it.

"How do you buy a case of wine? " I don't know...we should ask Jolene."

"I kind of like repairing stuff. Because then you bond with it."

Are those feathers?

Christmas exploded in the lobby of my office building. Seriously...what is on this tree? Everything that was on sale at Michaels?

Seahawks

At the Seahawks game. Ben, "if you liked it then you shoulda put a ring on it."

Rick Steves

This is why I love Rick Steves. He gets buzzed in small european towns and talks to cats.

Roommate interaction

Indian roommate: I'm heating up some daal, do you want some?

Me: That's not daal.

Indian roommate: What do you mean? Yes, it is.

Me: That is absolutely not daal. It is pumpkin soup.

Indian roommate: What?

Me: Have you tasted it? Taste it.

Indian roommate: Oh! It is! This is good. Wait...

Me: I don't think you're actually Indian.

"Indian" roommate: How did you know it wasn't daal?

Me: Because I made pumpkin soup and put leftovers in the freezer a few weeks ago.

"Indian" roommate: Oh, well, do you want some pumpkin soup?! It's good!!

Stateside

Safely arrived at home! Muchas gracias to Elece and bryce for the airport chauffeur!

adios espana!

Leaving Madrid tomorrow :( Throwing out the clothes I came with to make room for my new ones :)

Veterans day

Because of the veterans and their day, Tatyana has tomorrow off to hang out with me. We have a big day planned: desayuno, royal palace, menu del dia, siesta, parque, modern art museum ( 2nd visit - me amo Picasso) siesta, tapas, discoteca, airport. Btw, I thought I was tired of jamon until I tried jamon iberica ( high end pig.) Mas jamon ahora! Semper paratus coast guard veterans!

Sometimes traveling sucks...

...and then God sends you a Thai food restaurant.

According to people who use hostelworld.com, our hostel is the best hostel in Madrid. All hostels in Madrid must be terrible, because this one is not that great. We endured two sleepless nights before asking the front desk to swap out our mattresses. (My apologies to whoever got them.) It is rather cold in Madrid. The common area of the hostel isn't exactly heated, and your chances of getting a hot shower are about 50-50. I spent the better part of yesterday with a splitting headache, pounding imitrex, and fantasizing about blowing all of my priority club points at the Intercontinental.

We had planned a fun evening of churros, modern art museum, and tapas. We managed to drag ourselves out for churros around 5pm. But, it was a holiday in Madrid...so everyone was out getting churros with their screaming, misbehaving children. We headed to the museum, only to find it closed due to the holiday. It started raining.

We were headed back to the metro station when we walked past what appeared to be a thai restaurant. "There are thai people eating in there," I said, with a hint of hope in my voice. "Lets do it," Tatyana said.

And just like that, our first non-tapas meal in a month turned things around. Thank you delicious train station Thai restaurant. Our new mattresses are still less than mediocre, but they at least allowed us to sleep. Things are looking up. Today I went to an art museum and found a non-iceburg lettuce salad for lunch (no small feat). Tonight, the modern art museum is open. We're going to a different churros place. I'm actually looking forward to eating jamon.

Plus, nobody I know got killed in South Central L.A. Today was a good day. :)

Age isn't just a number

Today, I considered the possibility that I might be getting old. Dislike.

Madrid

We successfully arrived in Madrid via high-speed train last night. It was a pretty sweet ride. We took a high-speed train from Paris to Nice, but this one was nicer and faster. They checked our tickets before we could get on the platform and again before we got on train. It was nice to not question whether or not we were in the right place for once. Our luggage was run through a metal detector, but we weren't harassed about its weight or the quantity of our liquids and gels. We covered the distance in 2.5 hours (the regular trains take 5+), and it only cost 50 euro. They even passed out headphones and showed Water for Elephants in English. (dumb movie, but it passed the time.)

Our hostel in Madrid is one of the highest-reviewed hostels here -- not sure why. It is generally adequate, but I wouldn't call it the best hostel I've ever stayed in. Maybe it is just a shock to our systems because we've spent the last week in a beautiful Spanish Villa in Sevilla, and now we're back to broken-down ikea furniture and cheap frosted flakes. Those 100K priority club points are burning a hole in my pocket.

Oh, and here's another good conversation:

Me: Wow, look at the moon, it's really cool tonight.

T: Yeah, it is.

Me: Moons are weird.

T: Moons? You mean the moon.

Me: No, I mean all moons, but ours too.

T: What other moons have you seen?

Me: Y'know, jupiter...saturn. I've seen those moons.

T: No you didn't. How?

Me: I've seen them through a looking glass.

...

Now, for just whom does the bell toll?

On Saturday, we took a day trip to the hill town of Ronda, which is about 2 hours outside Sevilla by bus. It was gorge-ous! This town was made famous by Hemingway's "For Whom the Bell Tolls." I've never read it, but now I guess I'll have to. It is funny, the Alhambra didn't really become a tourist destination until Washington Irving wrote "Tales of the Alhambra." It sounds like Spain wasn't that cool until Americans started writing books about it.

Now that I think about it, I think that I should buy up some real estate in central oregon, start drinking some more whiskey, write a best seller that romanticizes driving combines and setting fields of grass on fire, and retire on the tourism profits. The bell tolls for me.

Anyway, the main sight in Ronda is the huge gorge over which the town is built. We hiked partway down this gorge, and were greeted with some gorge-ous views. Although they were also damn good views, there doesn't appear to be a dam. It was windy and cold, but definitely a highlight of the trip for us! The pictures don't quite capture the depth of the valley, but it was pretty incredible. Also, everything is white. It was very windy and very cold.

Things I find strange and/or awesome about Spain

The display and prevalence of jamon. It is everywhere and served on or with everything. And they find it necessary to display legs of pig in all eating establishments. If a restaurant or bar doesn't have at least 3 or 4 legs of pig hanging from the ceiling, don't bother. You're much better off going into one that has at least 35 legs of pig hanging inside, and the half-carved leg displayed in a prominent area.

The use of plates. They serve you everything on a plate. My coffee comes on a plate. I ordered an apple at the semi-ghetto train station cafe and they gave it to me with a plate and a knife. So refined.

The use of placemats. Call me crazy, but I find it perfectly normal to just eat my food off of my plate on a table. Not the spanish. They use placemats. Both of our hosts so far have used placemats to eat their food, and I think I got a couple strange looks for not doing the same. So, I've started using placemats in their presence. (For the record, I'm not being rude and scratching up fancy tables with my plates...we're talking about plastic ikea tables here.) I like the placemat tradition, because it says, "This is where I eat." Not, "This where I update facebook write angry emails to Chase because they suck." I keep seeing those kooky placemats in souvenir shops, and now I want some.

Siesta time. Everything does close around 1:30 pm and re-opens around 4 or 5. This is incredibly inefficient. We've observed plenty of foot traffic during siesta time -- those people could be buying things! That said, I've certainly enjoyed coming home every day around 2:30 and lounging around until 6.

Nobody straightens their hair. Everyone has giant hair here. This is awesome, because I look normal here, and I enjoy that. Actually, I don't entirely blend in due to my semi-tourist clothing. But, it is the girls with fake straight hair that stand out and get pickpocketed and harassed by those guys selling horse-drawn carriage rides. HA!

Paseo. Everyone goes for a walk in the evening. They're not actually doing anything, just walking around. While it is technically exercising, there are no yoga pants and 5-finger shoes to be seen anywhere.* Cute boots, leggings, and sweater dresses prevail.

Moroccan Food. I wasn't expecting this much influence. It was mostly only in Granada, but Moroccan food is probably the best that we've had on this trip.

*5-finger shoes should never be worn in public.

Lazy Sunday

Wake up in the late afternoon. Today was our last day in Sevilla. :(

A couple days ago, I had picked up a brochure for some Arab baths here in Sevilla. The only reason I picked up this brochure, is because I walked out into the common area of our house to find some of our housemates cuddled up on the couch. I was going to use my computer at the table, but I didn't want to be weird. (For the record, they are the weird ones.) So, I awkwardly picked up the first brochure I saw and turned around back into my room. 24 euro got you 1 1/2 hours in the baths and aromatherapy treatment. Why not? We've been here a week and already done more shopping than we intended. I decided it was a good idea to purchase a leather mini-skirt, a clear signal that it is time to stop shopping.

So, we got a lunch of paella and then headed to the baths. This was the third time I had tried paella, and I have decided that I don't really like it. It looks really pretty, but isn't that special.

The baths were great! You progressed through a big lukewarm pool, a hot tub, and a quick dip in a freezing cold pool to give you that invigorating feeling. There was also a jet tub, salt bath, and steam room. All while listening to exotic yoga music. I must say that I think the Moorish influence in Spain was a positive.

After the baths, we were feeling a little tired and loopy, so we stopped for some coffee con leche and churros. We actually hadn't had churros yet, but they are my new favorite Spanish food. (FYI, that is dipping chocolate for the churros, not coffee.)

After the churros and coffee, we went back to our favorite tapas bar, Catalina. I think it is our favorite tapas bar because they go easy on the jamon. I'm going to be honest, I'm getting a little tired ham...on everything. We all know that I love bacon, but not for every meal.

Awesome Travel Products!

I'm currently LOVING these travel products. I can't believe I've waited this long to invest the money, because they've made my life significantly easier.

Lush Solid Shampoo. This stuff cuts down on your volume of liquids and gels,which means that you don't have to decide between bringing contact solution or shampoo. This comes in a convenient tin so it doesn't make a mess in your bag, and leaves your hair squeaky clean. I find that it can be a tad bit drying, but for travel, the convenience is worth it.

Lush Solid Conditioner. I only have used this once so far, but so far so good. The conditioner fixes the drying problem above. Unfortunately, they don't sell a convenient tin for this conditioner, but a ziploc bag works just fine. Again, my liquid and gel space expands! Now I can bring toothpaste!

Liquid and Gels Container. I had eyed these at REI in the past, but never purchased them, because they're $8 each! That seemed ridiculous when I could just re-use old small lotion bottles for my stuff. I was wrong. These things are amazing. No explosions, easy to re-fill, and they're clean and easy to dispense from. Best $8 I ever spent.

Packing Cubes. These were another expense that I didn't think I needed. Again, I was wrong. Prices vary depending on what size you get, but $10 to keep all my cords and power converters in one easily accessible place has been well worth it.

1st floor bathroom

Kitchen

Today's philosophical discussion

Me: ...yeah, I generally think it is good to have opinions about things.
Tatyana: I agree. I think that it is good to have a moral code.

Wells Fargo

Please pay attention to the lesson learned by your friends at Bank of America and don't charge fees on the "free checking" account that I've had for the last 10 years. And get rid of that lame stagecoach logo. Are we still banking like it is 1828? Clearly. I'm closing my accounts as soon as I get back.

Gatito!

Knock off nutella and kinder bueno. Muy bien!

Travelers have a way of being judgmental about other travelers

During my siesta-time internet browsing, I came across this post: Travelers have a way of being judgmental about other travelers. I had to laugh, because Tatyana and I have actually been having a fair amount of conversations about this exact topic. Generally, we're not being that judgmental about other travelers. Just comparing and contrasting.

This morning, I went on a walking tour of Sevilla that was filled with only Rick Steves american tourists. I call them "Stevies." I like Stevies. I'm a Stevie.

-The women from SoCal with $2K cameras and questions about flamenco who thought I was the guide before our real guide arrived.

-The retired people from Spokane in matching purple shirts and head to toe REI gear.

-The couple who was in Spain for a short time and then going on a 16 day cruise back to Houston. The wife was dragging the husband around on tours. He clearly wanted a mai-tai and a texas hold 'em tournament ASAP.

Then, there was the 22 year-old trustfunder on the bus yesterday who was describing how he was spending $10K, yet spending only 24-36 hours in every major european city. Awesome dude.

I've been traveling in a very different way than I have in the past. During a month of travel, I will have only slept in six different cities and two different countries. Last fall, I traveled for just two weeks, and I slept in 3x as many cities and countries. On this trip, we're trying out airbnb.com. Basically, people rent out rooms in their homes for short or extended stays. It is somewhere between couchsurfing (I'm still apprehensive of this) and a real bed and breakfast. The neat thing is that you really get out of the tourist areas and experience how people live. In Barcelona, we stayed in the same neighborhood for six days and never saw a tourist in any of the restaurants and stores we went in to. Here in Sevilla we're staying for an entire week. We're a 45 minute walk (10-15 minutes by metro) from the city center...there isn't a large camera and a backpack within a mile of us. We were happy to leave Granada yesterday when the town got over-run by local holiday weekenders (All Saints Day is tomorrow).

Is our relaxed, local way better? Maybe, but maybe not. I recognize that I have the luxury of 4 weeks of vacation time. If I was only here for the standard two week trip, would I spend all of it in the residential neighborhoods of Sevilla and Barcelona? No, I would hostel hop major cities every 2-3 days and come home exhausted. Would I enjoy cooking my own food from local grocery stores if I normally cooked for a family of 4 at home? No, I would appreciate the over-priced and mediocre paella and gazpacho from the english-language menu at the city center. If I'm honest with myself, I really want to order Dominos right now. I saw one down the street and they deliver on Vespas. Everything has a time and a place. Maybe those giant tour groups blocking all the paths with their with matching orange lanyards and headphones aren't so bad after all.

Travel Reading

I'm currently loving this book. Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco. I picked it because it was one of those books that all the professors in business school recommended, but I never actually read. Nobody (not even over-achievers like myself) ever actually does the "optional reading" in the syllabus. That comes six years later when you go on vacation for a month in Spain. I'm not very far into the book, but so far, it appears to be about guys with big egos running their companies into the ground. Wait...wasn't I supposed to be on vacation?

All of my book-related posts will now be from barnes and noble. Since I own one, I need the Nook to out perfrom the Kindle. Also, I am reading said book from here, where I will be living until Monday:

Safely arrived in Sevilla!

I know I'm bragging. It isn't like you have to read this. It's not Facebook.

Se venden dulces

The highlight of my time in Granada was buying treats from nuns. The Alhambra is lame. Not really...but when was the last time that you bought sweets from an adorable 70-year old nun in a convent?!?!?! The Alhambra has been around for years. Only recently have nuns discovered the commercial merits of selling baked goods to tourists!!

A sign saying "Se Venden Dulces" led me up a whitewashed cobblestone street to the relatively unmarked door of a convent.

I wandered in and was faced with a lazy susan -type turnstile and what appeared to be a list of prices, by the kilo.

Luckily, these nuns had written some instructions in English.
1. Press the buzzer to the left
2. Say "Quiero comprar dulces." (I want to buy sweets.)
3. Wait for the nun.
4. Tell the nun how much you want (e.g. medio kilo).

An old, smiling nun poked her head through the turnstile. I ordered my dulces. She disappeared for a moment, and came back with a box of treats. And so, I ended up with six euros worth of delicious sweets!

Granada

Alhambra behind us!

Saw this kid navigating his way around the alhambra today. Love.

If you stand in the exact middle of this palace and talk in a normal voice, it sounds like you are being broadcast over a microphone. But, nobody else can hear you! Tatyana and I stood in the middle and sang "don't stop believin" but none of the 200 tourists in the place could hear us!

View of our barrio, the albazin, from the Alhambra.

I call this "hombre con pan."

Postcards

I think I bought the wrong postage for my first batch of postcards. So, if you were expecting a postcard and don't get one, I'm sorry!

Common topics of conversation on this trip

Behavioral economics
Facebook etiquette
How traveling makes you see America with more meaning
Liquids vs. Gels
Racism
How I look at my watch but the time doesn't register
How we want our bodies to be disposed of upon death
How I want to be the next Lucy
Organ donation
Recreational accounting
The merits of extended stays vs. city hopping
Catalan-cool or annoying?
How our generation is soft
The genius of Leonardo DiCaprio
The merits of being content
The lack of useful U.S. Credit cards in the marketplace
European hairstyles and why flat irons are stupid
Baguettes and things you put in them
Airbnb.com

Granada

Just arrived safely to our hostel in Granada, despite getting on the wrong bus. Looking forward to exploring tomorrow!

Montserrat

Today was excursion day. I went on a day trip to Montserrat, a Catalan monastery about 1.5 hours outside Barcelona. The basilica sits about 2,500 ft high, wedged in some crazy rock formations. There were a few traveling choirs performing while I was there, as well as the monastery's boy's choir, which is the oldest in europe. The mountain offers some pretty amazing views of the valley north of Barcelona and the Pyrenee mountain range.

According to the Catalans, Luke (as in the gospel of Luke) carved this statue of Mary and hid it in a cave. The Catalan monks found it and have managed to keep it from getting destroyed in various wars over the last 800 years.

Nature walk on Montserrat



View from the bottom



Tonight was our last night in Barcelona, so we went back to our favorite tapas place.

Heading to Granada tomorrow! I'm a little nervous because the Alhambra is sold out for the next couple weeks. I'm not looking forward to getting up at 6am to go wait in line for last minute tickets :(

Postres

Day off

Today is my day off. It is Monday, and most museums are closed anyway. Tatyana will be working for the rest of our trip, so I'll have to start entertaining myself. It is raining and thunderstorming--thunder is literally shaking the building as I write-- so I decided to take the day to relax, organize my pictures, and do some laundry. That is actually good, because the laundry machines in this apartment aren't working too well. I've been "doing laundry" for the last 5.5 hours. I've also been eating nutella by the spoonful, drinking wine, trying to make reservations for the Alhambra next weekend (and failing), and "liking" things on Facebook.

I also slept in until 11am. Tomorrow, I intend to get up early and take a day trip to Montserrat, which is outside Barcelona. The weather is supposed to get better tomorrow--sunny with lots of wind. Tonight, assuming that my laundry dries and we don't get struck by lightening, we're going to Casa Mila, which is another example of Gaudi's architecture (also Sagrada Familia). In the meantime, here are some more fun pics from Barcelona:

getting tapas

at montjuic

I found it disturbing that this wasn't a joke to these people. They were totally serious.

awww....look at my failed attempts at taking artsy pictures.

Yesterday, we stumbled across this place, Casa Ricardo, in the Barcaloneta neighborhood for lunch. We had delicious frutas del mer (fruits of the sea - aka fried seafood), and some fried pimentos. In this photo, you see Ricardo in rare form in the background--without a cigarette.

Hoy, Tatyana tienes que trabajar. :(

Misc. videos from my camera

The beginning of the FC Barcelona Game:

Organ music inside the Catalan church of Santa Maria del Mar in Barcelona:

For the record, I have attended part of a church service every Sunday on this trip. :

Miguel y FC Barcelona

On Saturday night, we decided to go to a soccer game in Barcelona. FC Barcelona was playing against Sevilla, which was supposed to be a good match up. We bought jerseys and sweatshirts early in the day to wear to the game that night. There weren't any tickets available online, and the tickets at the tourist booths seemed expensive. A random guy at our hostel in Nice had just come from Barcelona, and told me about how he had bought tickets from a scalper the week before. Our Lonely Planet guide book made it sound pretty simple ( I don't think Rick Steves recommended purchasing things from scalpers.) All we had to do was find a club member (i.e. season ticket holder) and negotiate a price--don't pay until they take you in to your seats.

On our way to the stadium, we met these crazy drunk Czech guys in the metro. In other words, they made us be their friends for the train ride. One guy made us write a postcard to his grandmother.

We finally got to the game. At the entrance to the stadium, we made it known to one guy that we were looking for tickets. Within 30 seconds, we were swarmed by shady-looking scalpers trying to sell us tickets. Suddenly, an old man appeared to our left. "You buy from me," he said. We continued stand in circle of scalpers, looking lost and confused. "You buy from me," he said again. "Trienta y cinco euros." We weren't quite sure if this old man was actually a nice old man, or just pretending to be one. However, 35 euros to the nice-looking old man was less of a risk than 65 euros to the guys I wouldn't want to meet on a deserted street.

We made the right choice, and let our new friend, Miguel, lead us into the game. Miguel's extra tickets belonged to his two sons, who were a couple years older than us. One of his sons lived in London. The other was married with a couple kids, one of which had been adopted from Mozambique. Once we got to our seats, Miguel handed us FC Barcelona hats and scarves that looked about 25 years old, and made us put them on.



The game was great! FC Barcelona is supposed to be the best team in the world right now, but I was actually more impressed with Sevilla's defense, which held them to a tie. Like many soccer games, it didn't get that interesting until the last 3 minutes. Messi (hailed as one of the best players in the world) was taking a penalty kick in the 90th minute, and the score was 0-0. One of the Sevilla players strolled over in front of him and gently kicked the ball away from him. This resulted in a fistfight and a red card for the Sevilla player. The girl sitting in front of us, who had smoked at least 5 cigarettes during the game, unleashed a very long string of Catalan (spanish is the second language here) profanities. It was hilarious. I think Sevilla is going to be my second favorite team. Messi missed the penalty kick.



All thanks to our new friend Miguel, we had a great time at the game. He even led us back to our metro stop afterwards. This was much appreciated, since we were in a crowd of about 85,000. During the game, the crowd was surprisingly tame. Everyone was seated, and nobody was drinking (except those Czech guys). There was plenty of chanting and singing, but overall, the crowd was pretty normal -- not what I expected from my first European soccer experience.

Dear Paris crowne plaza, thank you for these frankincense sleep aids. *cue: "we three kings of orient are.."

Water

Today I learned that you shouldn't drink the water in Barcelona. Of course, I learned this after I got sick and tried to cure myself by pounding a fee bottles of tap water.

Sisters! at my cousin's wedding in sept.