Saturday, November 7, 2009
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Welcome back to Madrid!
Hello everyone!
After a great summer at home working and visiting with family and friends, I returned to Madrid at the tail end of September and began the dreaded house hunt. I was lucky that I had a place to stay while a looked for an actual place to live. Gotta love friends of friends of friends and their hospitality. I was looking at rooms and thinking about looking at entire apartments to rent as well if two of my friends were willing to go in with me. One is my friend Chelsea who I met when I studied abroad in Madrid 3 years ago, and the other was my old roommate from last year. Right before I left home I heard he was looking for a place to live, and I figured that instead of being uncomfortable with new people, it would be better to be comfortable with old people. We did a lot of hard piso searching, (a 'piso' is what the Spaniards call an apartment or a flat), which in Madrid involves looking at all possible ways of finding pisos including walking up and down the streets in your desired area and calling the numbers that are on windows and entryways. All things aside, we were quite lucky. After pretty much exactly 12 hours of continual searching, we found a place that we all liked. It is a three room apartment located by the metros Quevedo and Iglesia. It has a BIG kitchen and a BIG living room and little balconies that go to the main street. We are paying 400euros each without utilities so it is more than last year, but already the place is worth it. Having large spaces where we can hang out is sooo nice. As is having a larger working kitchen. Our landlords are also really nice and excellent and they take care of things right away and are around the area in case with need anything. (For those of you who didn't know, our landlord last year was always travelling around and unreachable when we needed something and when the water pipes broke and the freezer broke it took him 3 or 4 months to fix it with his only motivating being that we were all leaving the apartment.) Our new landlords are amazing. We called them to ask about getting a new mattress for one of the beds and they said 'sure, no problem. It will be delivered on Monday' Simply amazing.
The same day that we moved in the apartment, we also started school. In true Spanish fashion, the school was completely unorganized and we spent 4 hours catching up between ourselves and waiting for someone to tell us what to do. They ended up telling us that they would give us our schedules on Monday and that we could go home. What makes this more annoying is that it takes an hour to get to school and I had to get up at 6.30 to get there by 9 only to be told that we wouldn't know what we were doing until Monday. But them I moved into my apartment and it was the weekend, and everything was splendid.
The following Monday I learned that I would be working with first, second, and third graders. The second graders have to take an exam at the end of the year called the Trinity Exam. It is a standardized English exam where they have to answer questions. The kids usually just memorize rote answers. When the results come back the school gets more prestige if they have more kids pass their exam and I think they also get more money from the government as well. Last year the assistants at my school worked 16 classes which were all 45 min. The program is designed to have the assistants work 16 HOURS. So this year, the school decided to give us the correct amount of hours, which basically means working 9-2 Mon-Thurs. Our school, in comparison to others is on what is called a 'horario continuo' which means they go from 9-2 and that's it. The other schools go from 9-5 with a 2 hour lunch break in between. After school on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays I have some private lessons to help me offset the cost of living here. Well the cost of having fun here:-p
Since all of my money went to paying the month's rent on the apartment plus the month and a half of deposit, I have been laying low and not doing too many interestings activities. We did have a house warming party that was loads of fun, especially now that we have the space to do such a thing. The past weekend I was able to use my metro pass and go out to Alcala de Henares for a Medieval Festival that was going on all weekend. Because the location of the school where I work is considered 'C1' (with Madrid Center being zone 'A'), I can go a lot of places without having to pay more. I went with Chelsea and my friend from college Alissa. It was SUPER crowded. There were a lot of stands and a lot of things to see, but there were so many people that it was hard to move and hard to see especially because a lot of Spaniards are pushy and not interested in letting anyone else but themselves and their family/friends see anything. The highlight of the day was waiting in line for 40ish min. (not joking here) for FRESH BREAD!. There was this one stand that was just selling freshly baked bread rounds. So we waited, and waited, and waited, and ended up with just out of the funny little wood fueled oven bread. It was so hot we could hardly hold it. We each carried out breads around for the rest of the day like they were our little babies. Nothing beats fresh-baked. After seeing the outrageous "menu del dia" prices, 15-20euro a EVERY cafeteria, we decided to get sausages at one of the stands. They hit the spot with grilled onions and spicy sauce. We could almost pretend we were at a BBQ back home.
I've been back in Spain for three weeks now and we FINAlLY have internet at the house. This will hopefully make for more frequent updates on my, uhm, exciting life abroad...
Ciao, Ciao
After a great summer at home working and visiting with family and friends, I returned to Madrid at the tail end of September and began the dreaded house hunt. I was lucky that I had a place to stay while a looked for an actual place to live. Gotta love friends of friends of friends and their hospitality. I was looking at rooms and thinking about looking at entire apartments to rent as well if two of my friends were willing to go in with me. One is my friend Chelsea who I met when I studied abroad in Madrid 3 years ago, and the other was my old roommate from last year. Right before I left home I heard he was looking for a place to live, and I figured that instead of being uncomfortable with new people, it would be better to be comfortable with old people. We did a lot of hard piso searching, (a 'piso' is what the Spaniards call an apartment or a flat), which in Madrid involves looking at all possible ways of finding pisos including walking up and down the streets in your desired area and calling the numbers that are on windows and entryways. All things aside, we were quite lucky. After pretty much exactly 12 hours of continual searching, we found a place that we all liked. It is a three room apartment located by the metros Quevedo and Iglesia. It has a BIG kitchen and a BIG living room and little balconies that go to the main street. We are paying 400euros each without utilities so it is more than last year, but already the place is worth it. Having large spaces where we can hang out is sooo nice. As is having a larger working kitchen. Our landlords are also really nice and excellent and they take care of things right away and are around the area in case with need anything. (For those of you who didn't know, our landlord last year was always travelling around and unreachable when we needed something and when the water pipes broke and the freezer broke it took him 3 or 4 months to fix it with his only motivating being that we were all leaving the apartment.) Our new landlords are amazing. We called them to ask about getting a new mattress for one of the beds and they said 'sure, no problem. It will be delivered on Monday' Simply amazing.
The same day that we moved in the apartment, we also started school. In true Spanish fashion, the school was completely unorganized and we spent 4 hours catching up between ourselves and waiting for someone to tell us what to do. They ended up telling us that they would give us our schedules on Monday and that we could go home. What makes this more annoying is that it takes an hour to get to school and I had to get up at 6.30 to get there by 9 only to be told that we wouldn't know what we were doing until Monday. But them I moved into my apartment and it was the weekend, and everything was splendid.
The following Monday I learned that I would be working with first, second, and third graders. The second graders have to take an exam at the end of the year called the Trinity Exam. It is a standardized English exam where they have to answer questions. The kids usually just memorize rote answers. When the results come back the school gets more prestige if they have more kids pass their exam and I think they also get more money from the government as well. Last year the assistants at my school worked 16 classes which were all 45 min. The program is designed to have the assistants work 16 HOURS. So this year, the school decided to give us the correct amount of hours, which basically means working 9-2 Mon-Thurs. Our school, in comparison to others is on what is called a 'horario continuo' which means they go from 9-2 and that's it. The other schools go from 9-5 with a 2 hour lunch break in between. After school on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays I have some private lessons to help me offset the cost of living here. Well the cost of having fun here:-p
Since all of my money went to paying the month's rent on the apartment plus the month and a half of deposit, I have been laying low and not doing too many interestings activities. We did have a house warming party that was loads of fun, especially now that we have the space to do such a thing. The past weekend I was able to use my metro pass and go out to Alcala de Henares for a Medieval Festival that was going on all weekend. Because the location of the school where I work is considered 'C1' (with Madrid Center being zone 'A'), I can go a lot of places without having to pay more. I went with Chelsea and my friend from college Alissa. It was SUPER crowded. There were a lot of stands and a lot of things to see, but there were so many people that it was hard to move and hard to see especially because a lot of Spaniards are pushy and not interested in letting anyone else but themselves and their family/friends see anything. The highlight of the day was waiting in line for 40ish min. (not joking here) for FRESH BREAD!. There was this one stand that was just selling freshly baked bread rounds. So we waited, and waited, and waited, and ended up with just out of the funny little wood fueled oven bread. It was so hot we could hardly hold it. We each carried out breads around for the rest of the day like they were our little babies. Nothing beats fresh-baked. After seeing the outrageous "menu del dia" prices, 15-20euro a EVERY cafeteria, we decided to get sausages at one of the stands. They hit the spot with grilled onions and spicy sauce. We could almost pretend we were at a BBQ back home.
I've been back in Spain for three weeks now and we FINAlLY have internet at the house. This will hopefully make for more frequent updates on my, uhm, exciting life abroad...
Ciao, Ciao
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Spring break with the Parents
So, first off, my apologies for not updating this sooner. My excuse is even better than usual...I have no Internet at home (long story). We should get it restored shortly (in Spanish time this could mean a month or so), just in time for when I go home. Excellent.
Anyway. Spring break happened in mid March and my Parents came over to Spain for three weeks. We spent the first week and a bit travelling around the northern part of Spain.
We rented a car and drove up from Madrid to Santiago de Compostela which is in the Autonomous Community of Galicia. On the way we stopped by a roadside restaurant with a great Menu del Dia which had good meat. we we finally got to Santiago, we had to navigate the old city streets which were windy and confusing, but we found the apartment without too much fuss. We even got to find a good parking spot right next door and didn´t have to pay for the parking spot. The apartment was super cute, almost like it came out of Ikea. The woman who owns it lives upstairs with her family. After we settled we went exploring, and I realized that I should have brought my winter jacket instead of my spring one. I ended up wearing two sweaters almost the entire trip. True to good Hatayama Fashion, we bought food for dinner that night and ate in.
Thats us eating our first meal in. My mothers favorite treat from Santiago that we found was the Tarta de Santiago. It´s basically an almond cake,that is round and comes in different sizes and the really cool ones have the Cross of Santiago in powdered sugar on the top. Here is the one that we thought was the best (yes, we tried various ones...)
Very untrue to Hatayama Fashion, we continually got up late and didn´t make it out of whatever lodging we had until around noon. We went to see the cathedral and we walked around the newer part of the city. I really like Santiago de Compostela. Its a nice city to walk around in with some nice parks and the skys were pretty clear and the people are friendly. I don´t know if I could live there for a long time,but it is a nice place to get away from the rush of Madrid. I think that the main highlight of that day was eating some really good seafood. We found a restaurant that had the best deal (the winner by a few euros), on a huge seafood plate. The restaurant was definitely family owned and run and the family lived in the upstairs part. The owner´s little boy went hammering and banging his way around the dinning room before being taking up for his nap. It had both cold and warm seafood, but my favorite one was the Bogavante, which is like Lobster, but so much better. This is also one time where I didn´t mind the simple seasonings of Spanish food. Fresh seafood that has been put on the grill with olive oil and salt is amazing. It has multiple types of clams and crabs and it had two scallops drenched in a type of tomato sauce. I think my mom was in heaven. She had her favorite white Spanish wine, amazing seafood, and her favorite Spanish sauce, and crusty bread. oh, and of course, I was there...
After Santiago de Compostela we drove east towards Austurias and Cangas de Onis where we would be staying one night in the Parador there. It was a nice little Parador with a good breakfast and nice grounds. In Cangas de Onis there are a lot of wilderness adventure programs. When we were driving out the next day we stopped in the town next door and saw an old Roman Bridge and had our taste of Austurian cider. It tastes a lot more like beer than the stuff I've had from the large fabricated bottles. And it it sour. It is poured form high up at an angle so that the liquid hits the glass. Only an inch or so of cider is poured and you are supposed to drink it all in one swig. Kinda like a shot. After obtaining our cider drinking experience we continued on and got sidetracked into visiting the Basilica Covadonga which is up an insanely steep narrow road that is packed by tour buses. It is set into a mountain and is very majestic at the top.
We then continued our journey onto Basque country, but once again got sidetracked into stopping in Santander for a bathroom/leg stretch break. Santander is right on the ocean and has a beautiful wide walkway right along to water. We figured we should try and get some food because by the time we would get to Basque country, all of the stores would be closed. While we wandered and passed many closed supermarkets we ran into the procession path of the brotherhoods (it still being holy week). We saw an adult one and we saw a child one. We got out of Santander just before the procession hit the main streets we needed to get out and continued on to our final destination.
We arrived in Zarautz, which is a small beach town, and I do believe it was raining. The apartment we stayed in was really nice and was like living in someone's home instead of living in a vacation apartment. Our first day there we went to Bilbao to see the Guggenheim Museum. It was raining again, but we had a good time at the museum. We saw a very interesting exhibit by a Japanese artist who focuses on using anime characters and flat paintings, and bright bold colors. Getting out of Bilbao for us was a huge guessing game. We had a map from the house and a freeway map, but the two didn't quite match up. We spent about an hour trying to get out and one time getting out, but not really getting out and then finally going back into the city and through to the other side where we saw more of the industrial parts of the city and we finally made it onto a main recognizable highway.
The following day we went to San Sebastian to try our hand at tapas. Once again it was raining, but we drove to the top of one side of the bay and found this campy little amusement park that was amazing. To get in you have to pay the toll at the gate which is monitored by a real live person who physically pulls the gate up and then lowers it again using a sting.lever system. All quite high technology. It had pony rides and bouncy things, and a water ride, and a roller coaster and water bumper cars, all made for little kids, but fun for big kids too. You also got some of the best view of the bay from the top where it was. After we rode the roller coaster, we went back into the city part and walked around a bit and then went for some tapas in the old neighborhood. We walked down the streets and everything was just lit up with a sign for tapas or a bar or a restaurant. My parents concluded that the best tapas we got were from the modern place. They were the most creative and had the most flavor. However, my mother decided that the Tapas life is not for her because she doesn't like standing that much.
On our last day in Zarautz, the sun finally came out and we decided to take the owners of the apartment up on their suggestion to go to this cider restaurant that was up the hill from the city. When they said, up the hill, they meant up the hill. The last little climb was a one way dirt road. The building a very plain, but modern and you get to pour your own cider, as much as you want from the little spickets on the wall. There were 4 options to choose from ranging from sweet to less sweet (but I couldn't tell the difference...). It was a good birthday lunch for my father. If we had more time we would have been able to get a tour of the cider making facilities from the owner himself, but we were rushed for time because I had to get a train back to Madrid from a city that was around 3 hours away.
We had a beautiful if rushed drive to Vittoria where I was to catch my train. By accident we stayed on the old windy highway instead of taking the new shiny one which slowed us down and then we had the difficult task of finding the train station with no directions. My friend had told me the name of the street it was on, but my Dad's IPhone wasn't being very helpful so we drove around and ran into the sign that pointed to the train station. It did not help that the streets are not straight and the arrows on signs vaguely point in a direct direction...we did eventually make it, on time to the station and I boarded the train, only to wait about an hour for it to leave. Later in the ride, people were coming on the bus only to find that because it was missing some cars, they didn't have any seats. Luckily I had gotten on at the start point, so I got to keep my seat the whole way.
My Parents were a week or so toodling around northern Spain where they drank wine and met up with our friends on Barcelona before they came back to Madrid. I took them to see my school in Moralzarzal, and we got the best churros with chocolate and we ate the the world's oldest restaurant. The Restaurant Primo de Botin has a certificate from the Guiness Book of world records that proves that it is the oldest. We also ate some Senagalese food, because I was in a Spanish food rut and needed so variation. My friend had studied in Senegal and so she took us to a restaurant in the Lavapies neighborhood. The neighborhood is a little rougher than other parts of Spain, but it is also more ethnic. There are a ton of Indian Restaurants and a couple Senegalese places and some Thai places.
It was really nice to have my parents around town for a while and to car travel with them. It was really fun to drive and to show them where I live and where I work.
Anyway. Spring break happened in mid March and my Parents came over to Spain for three weeks. We spent the first week and a bit travelling around the northern part of Spain.
We rented a car and drove up from Madrid to Santiago de Compostela which is in the Autonomous Community of Galicia. On the way we stopped by a roadside restaurant with a great Menu del Dia which had good meat. we we finally got to Santiago, we had to navigate the old city streets which were windy and confusing, but we found the apartment without too much fuss. We even got to find a good parking spot right next door and didn´t have to pay for the parking spot. The apartment was super cute, almost like it came out of Ikea. The woman who owns it lives upstairs with her family. After we settled we went exploring, and I realized that I should have brought my winter jacket instead of my spring one. I ended up wearing two sweaters almost the entire trip. True to good Hatayama Fashion, we bought food for dinner that night and ate in.
Thats us eating our first meal in. My mothers favorite treat from Santiago that we found was the Tarta de Santiago. It´s basically an almond cake,that is round and comes in different sizes and the really cool ones have the Cross of Santiago in powdered sugar on the top. Here is the one that we thought was the best (yes, we tried various ones...)
Very untrue to Hatayama Fashion, we continually got up late and didn´t make it out of whatever lodging we had until around noon. We went to see the cathedral and we walked around the newer part of the city. I really like Santiago de Compostela. Its a nice city to walk around in with some nice parks and the skys were pretty clear and the people are friendly. I don´t know if I could live there for a long time,but it is a nice place to get away from the rush of Madrid. I think that the main highlight of that day was eating some really good seafood. We found a restaurant that had the best deal (the winner by a few euros), on a huge seafood plate. The restaurant was definitely family owned and run and the family lived in the upstairs part. The owner´s little boy went hammering and banging his way around the dinning room before being taking up for his nap. It had both cold and warm seafood, but my favorite one was the Bogavante, which is like Lobster, but so much better. This is also one time where I didn´t mind the simple seasonings of Spanish food. Fresh seafood that has been put on the grill with olive oil and salt is amazing. It has multiple types of clams and crabs and it had two scallops drenched in a type of tomato sauce. I think my mom was in heaven. She had her favorite white Spanish wine, amazing seafood, and her favorite Spanish sauce, and crusty bread. oh, and of course, I was there...
After Santiago de Compostela we drove east towards Austurias and Cangas de Onis where we would be staying one night in the Parador there. It was a nice little Parador with a good breakfast and nice grounds. In Cangas de Onis there are a lot of wilderness adventure programs. When we were driving out the next day we stopped in the town next door and saw an old Roman Bridge and had our taste of Austurian cider. It tastes a lot more like beer than the stuff I've had from the large fabricated bottles. And it it sour. It is poured form high up at an angle so that the liquid hits the glass. Only an inch or so of cider is poured and you are supposed to drink it all in one swig. Kinda like a shot. After obtaining our cider drinking experience we continued on and got sidetracked into visiting the Basilica Covadonga which is up an insanely steep narrow road that is packed by tour buses. It is set into a mountain and is very majestic at the top.
We then continued our journey onto Basque country, but once again got sidetracked into stopping in Santander for a bathroom/leg stretch break. Santander is right on the ocean and has a beautiful wide walkway right along to water. We figured we should try and get some food because by the time we would get to Basque country, all of the stores would be closed. While we wandered and passed many closed supermarkets we ran into the procession path of the brotherhoods (it still being holy week). We saw an adult one and we saw a child one. We got out of Santander just before the procession hit the main streets we needed to get out and continued on to our final destination.
We arrived in Zarautz, which is a small beach town, and I do believe it was raining. The apartment we stayed in was really nice and was like living in someone's home instead of living in a vacation apartment. Our first day there we went to Bilbao to see the Guggenheim Museum. It was raining again, but we had a good time at the museum. We saw a very interesting exhibit by a Japanese artist who focuses on using anime characters and flat paintings, and bright bold colors. Getting out of Bilbao for us was a huge guessing game. We had a map from the house and a freeway map, but the two didn't quite match up. We spent about an hour trying to get out and one time getting out, but not really getting out and then finally going back into the city and through to the other side where we saw more of the industrial parts of the city and we finally made it onto a main recognizable highway.
The following day we went to San Sebastian to try our hand at tapas. Once again it was raining, but we drove to the top of one side of the bay and found this campy little amusement park that was amazing. To get in you have to pay the toll at the gate which is monitored by a real live person who physically pulls the gate up and then lowers it again using a sting.lever system. All quite high technology. It had pony rides and bouncy things, and a water ride, and a roller coaster and water bumper cars, all made for little kids, but fun for big kids too. You also got some of the best view of the bay from the top where it was. After we rode the roller coaster, we went back into the city part and walked around a bit and then went for some tapas in the old neighborhood. We walked down the streets and everything was just lit up with a sign for tapas or a bar or a restaurant. My parents concluded that the best tapas we got were from the modern place. They were the most creative and had the most flavor. However, my mother decided that the Tapas life is not for her because she doesn't like standing that much.
On our last day in Zarautz, the sun finally came out and we decided to take the owners of the apartment up on their suggestion to go to this cider restaurant that was up the hill from the city. When they said, up the hill, they meant up the hill. The last little climb was a one way dirt road. The building a very plain, but modern and you get to pour your own cider, as much as you want from the little spickets on the wall. There were 4 options to choose from ranging from sweet to less sweet (but I couldn't tell the difference...). It was a good birthday lunch for my father. If we had more time we would have been able to get a tour of the cider making facilities from the owner himself, but we were rushed for time because I had to get a train back to Madrid from a city that was around 3 hours away.
We had a beautiful if rushed drive to Vittoria where I was to catch my train. By accident we stayed on the old windy highway instead of taking the new shiny one which slowed us down and then we had the difficult task of finding the train station with no directions. My friend had told me the name of the street it was on, but my Dad's IPhone wasn't being very helpful so we drove around and ran into the sign that pointed to the train station. It did not help that the streets are not straight and the arrows on signs vaguely point in a direct direction...we did eventually make it, on time to the station and I boarded the train, only to wait about an hour for it to leave. Later in the ride, people were coming on the bus only to find that because it was missing some cars, they didn't have any seats. Luckily I had gotten on at the start point, so I got to keep my seat the whole way.
My Parents were a week or so toodling around northern Spain where they drank wine and met up with our friends on Barcelona before they came back to Madrid. I took them to see my school in Moralzarzal, and we got the best churros with chocolate and we ate the the world's oldest restaurant. The Restaurant Primo de Botin has a certificate from the Guiness Book of world records that proves that it is the oldest. We also ate some Senagalese food, because I was in a Spanish food rut and needed so variation. My friend had studied in Senegal and so she took us to a restaurant in the Lavapies neighborhood. The neighborhood is a little rougher than other parts of Spain, but it is also more ethnic. There are a ton of Indian Restaurants and a couple Senegalese places and some Thai places.
It was really nice to have my parents around town for a while and to car travel with them. It was really fun to drive and to show them where I live and where I work.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Carnival in Tenerife
One of the big parties/festivals in Spain is Carnaval. The two best places to see it are in Cadiz, in the southern part of the penninsula and in the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa. We deicded to go to the Canary islands for the good weather and the atmosphere. I went with my friend Alissa and our Spanish/Italtian friends. They had booked the reservation for us and we got the flight and three nights in the only 5 star hotel in Santa Cruz, The Sheraton, but more commonly known as the Hotel Mensey.
We got up super early on Friday and caught the metro to the aiport. The flight is around 2hrs and 45min. Bascially the longest flight to go anywhere in Spain. We had decided to rent a car because it would make transportation and sightseeing a lot easier epsecially because we planned on going all the way around the island. We found out that because of Carnaval, all of the cars were gone. But we apparently managed to get the last one? A long toyota that they told us was diesel, but actually was gas...
Once we got into Santa Cruz we checked into the hotel and went for a walk and to grab some lunch. The Canary islands are an hour behind the pennisula time. The hotel is very interesting. The lobbies are very nice and the terraces are also very nice, but there are trying to expand the hotel and to the view from the back side of the hotel is all of the construction site. Not a very prettty back drop. The rooms were nice and ours had a terrace. The food in Tenerife is very cheap. We went to this Juice bar/cafe and we got normal sized sanwhiches for 2 or 3 euros. There is fruit everywhere and bright colors from the plants all over the place. There was a park right next to our hotel with is the recently remodeled Parque de Garcia Sanabria. It is gorgeous. It has tropical plants like hibiscus and torch and wild ginger, it also has bamboo covered paths and fountains and little art installments. There are lots of random bursts of color everywhere because of the Fuscia plants that are hung in random places.
We walked down some of the main parts of the town, but everyone was at siesta so we didn´t see too many people. There were a bunch of stands that sold costumes for carnaval. Alissa and I were very unsure of what carnaval exactly entails and over the course of the trip we decided that it is bascially a ten day halloween. People get dressed up in random costumes, bascially what we call halloween costumes and go party in the street for 10 days in a row. There are parades and other music things as well, but its one big dress up party. We had decided that we would go as FBI agents because we found some funny FBI shirts for all of us in a random store in Madrid. We also bought some of the traditional Carnaval masks.
To save money, we went to the grocery store and loaded up on sandwhich materials and drink mixing supplies which we loaded into our mini fridges. We took a nap and then got ready to go out and see the parade. The problem with this night was that as we were in the supermarket, it started to rain heavily. We found out later, as we were going out to see the parade, that this meant the parade was canceled. Later on in the night, we found out that it probably caused many people not to out because the street parties that we encountered were not very crowded. The street parties we did find were interesting because there were trucks that people had decorated in a certain way that each had their own type of music playing. The trucks were all in a row on a street. Try to image a street lined with taco trucks of all different kinds of tacos...There was also a place along the port that had carnival rides and carnival food stands. A big thing was the baked potato. And cotton candy. We also passed a soft serve truck and a California Ice cream truck.
The following day, Alissa was ill so I went with the boys to the beach Las Teresitas. It is an amazing beach. A huge cresent of sand and clear blue water with a break so there are pretty much no waves. One side of the beach harbors some colorful boats and the rest is open to swimming. I was soooo excited to be on the beach with sand and sun and water. That is definalty something that I miss in Madrid. There is no water close by. The water at the beach was kinda cold but I went in for a swim anyway and it was glorious. After the beach we went and collected Alissa from the hotel and drove half way around the island to Puerto de la Cruz. Which is a very very touristy area to be with a beautiful coastline. There were so many foreigners and all of the restaurants had their menus in 4 languages. I felt like I was in Waikiki but with out the Asians. All sorts of lobster red people and tourist shops and beautiful coast.
That night we were finaly able to see the Cabalgata, or the parade. We walked down to closer to where the cabalgata started which in the end was a good idea because otherwise we would have been waiting for ages even for the thing to get to us. They move at a snails pace. The first half hour or so was just different groups of people dressed up at different types of clowns. Their costumes were very elaborate and colorful, but after a while they all started to look the same. If they had drums accompanying them then they all played the same beat and kinda marched around. They were mostly groups of kids and there were even some who were really just todlers. Those ones were really cute. We saw various different Carnaval queens from the youngest one to the senior one. We saw some fire blowers and some people on stilts. When the parade of clowns passed we finally got to see the dancers with their huge feather get-ups, like the kind you see in pictures of Rio at Carnival. Their head pieces and feather things were HUGE. They must have been so heavy and the girls were wearing heels and dancing around. After a while we got tired of the slow pace. One of the queens had a fainting spell. We could never tell which was the actual Queen queen of carnival, but the one who fainted looked like she was queen of fruit... We got some sandwhiches for dinner and then hung went back to the hotel with the aim of going out later. No such luck. Spending the day driving around and being in the sun took its toll on us and we all passed out around midnight.
The next morning we took full advantage of being in a 5 star hotel. The way we first did this was to go to the full breakfast that they serve. It was amazing. They had spanish cold cuts and cheese and sausages and bacon and eggs and cereal and fruit and fresh juice and pastries. We ate so much food (partially so that we wouldn´t have to eat so much later). After we digested breakfast a little we hopped in the car and started driving around the island. We planned to hit two cities and see the Teide, the highest mountain in Spain. We ended up driving past the mountain and stopping in several small places. We went to see the oldest tree in the world. Its a Drogo tree. It looks like a tree. I thought it would be all witherd like an old man...but not so. We also tasted wines and banana flavoured liquer. Since bananas are everywhere banana flavouring is used a lot. We stopped by the coast before we climbed the moutains to get to Los Gigantes. Los Gigantes are basically cliffs that must have been the inspiration or the back drop for the Cliffs of Insanity scene in the Princess Bride. They looked exactly like that. We stopped by some beaches and then hit the big well known beach called Playa las Americas. It is made up of several nice cresents of sand. We enjoyed the beach and then went to get something to eat. We had planned to see what the Carnaval parties were like on the otherside of the island where a lot of tourists are but someone told us that everyone was going to go to Santa Cruz so after we finished our snack/dinner we drove back to Santa Cruz only to find out that nobody does anything on Sunday. We did make a complete loop around the island, which was pretty cool.
On Monday we ate a great breakfast and went back to Teresitas beach and sunbathed and swam. It was so nice and relaxing. We got some seafood for a late lunch and then drove to the airport. I think I am a fan of little fried fresh sardines.
Over all it was an interesting trip because we went to party and to see the island and were able to enjoy the island more because we were not hungover. I would really like to go back because it is a very calm place with lots of sun and really cool plants and cheap and fresh food. I keep forgetting that it is way far south almost more south than Morocco. Its probably the furthest flight from Madrid. Almost 3 hrs. In some aspects it was very much like Hawaii but it was missing the humidness and was a lot more landscaped. In other words, a European Hawaii.
We got up super early on Friday and caught the metro to the aiport. The flight is around 2hrs and 45min. Bascially the longest flight to go anywhere in Spain. We had decided to rent a car because it would make transportation and sightseeing a lot easier epsecially because we planned on going all the way around the island. We found out that because of Carnaval, all of the cars were gone. But we apparently managed to get the last one? A long toyota that they told us was diesel, but actually was gas...
Once we got into Santa Cruz we checked into the hotel and went for a walk and to grab some lunch. The Canary islands are an hour behind the pennisula time. The hotel is very interesting. The lobbies are very nice and the terraces are also very nice, but there are trying to expand the hotel and to the view from the back side of the hotel is all of the construction site. Not a very prettty back drop. The rooms were nice and ours had a terrace. The food in Tenerife is very cheap. We went to this Juice bar/cafe and we got normal sized sanwhiches for 2 or 3 euros. There is fruit everywhere and bright colors from the plants all over the place. There was a park right next to our hotel with is the recently remodeled Parque de Garcia Sanabria. It is gorgeous. It has tropical plants like hibiscus and torch and wild ginger, it also has bamboo covered paths and fountains and little art installments. There are lots of random bursts of color everywhere because of the Fuscia plants that are hung in random places.
We walked down some of the main parts of the town, but everyone was at siesta so we didn´t see too many people. There were a bunch of stands that sold costumes for carnaval. Alissa and I were very unsure of what carnaval exactly entails and over the course of the trip we decided that it is bascially a ten day halloween. People get dressed up in random costumes, bascially what we call halloween costumes and go party in the street for 10 days in a row. There are parades and other music things as well, but its one big dress up party. We had decided that we would go as FBI agents because we found some funny FBI shirts for all of us in a random store in Madrid. We also bought some of the traditional Carnaval masks.
To save money, we went to the grocery store and loaded up on sandwhich materials and drink mixing supplies which we loaded into our mini fridges. We took a nap and then got ready to go out and see the parade. The problem with this night was that as we were in the supermarket, it started to rain heavily. We found out later, as we were going out to see the parade, that this meant the parade was canceled. Later on in the night, we found out that it probably caused many people not to out because the street parties that we encountered were not very crowded. The street parties we did find were interesting because there were trucks that people had decorated in a certain way that each had their own type of music playing. The trucks were all in a row on a street. Try to image a street lined with taco trucks of all different kinds of tacos...There was also a place along the port that had carnival rides and carnival food stands. A big thing was the baked potato. And cotton candy. We also passed a soft serve truck and a California Ice cream truck.
The following day, Alissa was ill so I went with the boys to the beach Las Teresitas. It is an amazing beach. A huge cresent of sand and clear blue water with a break so there are pretty much no waves. One side of the beach harbors some colorful boats and the rest is open to swimming. I was soooo excited to be on the beach with sand and sun and water. That is definalty something that I miss in Madrid. There is no water close by. The water at the beach was kinda cold but I went in for a swim anyway and it was glorious. After the beach we went and collected Alissa from the hotel and drove half way around the island to Puerto de la Cruz. Which is a very very touristy area to be with a beautiful coastline. There were so many foreigners and all of the restaurants had their menus in 4 languages. I felt like I was in Waikiki but with out the Asians. All sorts of lobster red people and tourist shops and beautiful coast.
That night we were finaly able to see the Cabalgata, or the parade. We walked down to closer to where the cabalgata started which in the end was a good idea because otherwise we would have been waiting for ages even for the thing to get to us. They move at a snails pace. The first half hour or so was just different groups of people dressed up at different types of clowns. Their costumes were very elaborate and colorful, but after a while they all started to look the same. If they had drums accompanying them then they all played the same beat and kinda marched around. They were mostly groups of kids and there were even some who were really just todlers. Those ones were really cute. We saw various different Carnaval queens from the youngest one to the senior one. We saw some fire blowers and some people on stilts. When the parade of clowns passed we finally got to see the dancers with their huge feather get-ups, like the kind you see in pictures of Rio at Carnival. Their head pieces and feather things were HUGE. They must have been so heavy and the girls were wearing heels and dancing around. After a while we got tired of the slow pace. One of the queens had a fainting spell. We could never tell which was the actual Queen queen of carnival, but the one who fainted looked like she was queen of fruit... We got some sandwhiches for dinner and then hung went back to the hotel with the aim of going out later. No such luck. Spending the day driving around and being in the sun took its toll on us and we all passed out around midnight.
The next morning we took full advantage of being in a 5 star hotel. The way we first did this was to go to the full breakfast that they serve. It was amazing. They had spanish cold cuts and cheese and sausages and bacon and eggs and cereal and fruit and fresh juice and pastries. We ate so much food (partially so that we wouldn´t have to eat so much later). After we digested breakfast a little we hopped in the car and started driving around the island. We planned to hit two cities and see the Teide, the highest mountain in Spain. We ended up driving past the mountain and stopping in several small places. We went to see the oldest tree in the world. Its a Drogo tree. It looks like a tree. I thought it would be all witherd like an old man...but not so. We also tasted wines and banana flavoured liquer. Since bananas are everywhere banana flavouring is used a lot. We stopped by the coast before we climbed the moutains to get to Los Gigantes. Los Gigantes are basically cliffs that must have been the inspiration or the back drop for the Cliffs of Insanity scene in the Princess Bride. They looked exactly like that. We stopped by some beaches and then hit the big well known beach called Playa las Americas. It is made up of several nice cresents of sand. We enjoyed the beach and then went to get something to eat. We had planned to see what the Carnaval parties were like on the otherside of the island where a lot of tourists are but someone told us that everyone was going to go to Santa Cruz so after we finished our snack/dinner we drove back to Santa Cruz only to find out that nobody does anything on Sunday. We did make a complete loop around the island, which was pretty cool.
On Monday we ate a great breakfast and went back to Teresitas beach and sunbathed and swam. It was so nice and relaxing. We got some seafood for a late lunch and then drove to the airport. I think I am a fan of little fried fresh sardines.
Over all it was an interesting trip because we went to party and to see the island and were able to enjoy the island more because we were not hungover. I would really like to go back because it is a very calm place with lots of sun and really cool plants and cheap and fresh food. I keep forgetting that it is way far south almost more south than Morocco. Its probably the furthest flight from Madrid. Almost 3 hrs. In some aspects it was very much like Hawaii but it was missing the humidness and was a lot more landscaped. In other words, a European Hawaii.
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