Granada, Spain

(The city of Granada, the cathedral is in the center.)

I love to travel but I also wanted to continue studying Spanish so I went to Granada, Spain for 3 weeks to get a little of both. Granada is only 1 hour away from the Sierra Nevada Mountains and 1.5 hours from the beach. In spring, they say you can go skiing in the morning and can be lying on the beach in the afternoon. I skipped the beach and opted just to go skiing, twice!!! We went on the opening day. In the afternoon, it was so warm you could almost ski without a jacket. (I was wondering why it never got cloudy until I looked out and saw that we were above the clouds...) But most importantly, I didn't go flying into the woods, head first like I did in Vail, Colorado last year. I have to thank my English instructor, Jo, for that. Thanks Jo!

Like Salamanca, Granada is a beautiful city with a plethora of history, architecture and night life. (I love Kebabs!) But if you go to Granada, you have to see the Alhambra. It’s a huge Arabic castle (actually, a series of palaces and gardens; it takes about 3 hours just to walk through it all) filled with beautiful gardens, fountains, art & architecture. Check out some of the photos.

Our class went to a restaurant one morning for hot chocolate and churros. And notice I didn't say chocolate milk; I'm talking about a bar of hot chocolate melted down and poured into a cup. Thick enough to lay your spoon on without it sinking. Not that is hot chocolate!

(My Spanish class sitting down for a typical Spanish breakfast.)

¡Viva España!

Lengua de Cerdo - Salamanca, Spain

(Lengua de cerdo)

After the Camino, I was anxious to start studying Spanish again. I enrolled in Colegio Delibes, an intensive immersion program in Salamanca and signed up to stay with a host family with full board (three meals a day included.) Spaniards eats a lot of pork and seafood. And nothing goes to waste; they eat it all: ears, face, feet, etc. My host mom had prepared pork chops for me several times before so it should have been a clue that something suspicious was going on when she asked me if I wanted to try "this pork." Another student from Germany was also staying with the host family and she had decided not to eat the "pork." I asked her why she didn't want the pork today because I had seen her eat pork before. She said that she didn't like pork in sauce. (Another, "wait, this isn't right" moment.) In reality, she had already spoken to my host mom and decided not to eat this "pork."

Well, the truth finally came out after and only after I cleaned my plate. As I'm chewing the last bite, my host mom asked me if I liked the pork. I said I did and asked her if she had any more. It really was good and I really could have eaten more. Then she asked me if I knew which part of the pig the meat was from. My mind started to race and to be honest, I was expecting a lot worse, (mountain oysters for example) when she uttered the word, "lengua." "Lengua de cerdo" is pig's tongue. Not exactly what I had thought but like I said, it was good. I had seconds.

While in Europe, I tried a lot of interesting food. Horsemeat in Holland, goat cheeses in France, and pig tongue, a part of the pig face, and a dish that looked like a black rice cake made of rice that has been soaked in pig's blood and barbequed. Mmm!

(Salamanca at night.)

Here is the city of Salamanca at night (from the bridge where you can see the cathedral). It is an incredibly beautiful city with so much medieval architecture: the cobblestone roads, 2 cathedrals, the main plaza, gardens and the University of Salamanca (one of the oldest universities in Europe.) And a lot of wild university students. Students didn't even go out until 1:00am and didn't finish until 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning. One club didn't even get started until 5:00am. Quite an experience...


I just loved this sign. I saw on a local shop door while walking down one of the main shopping streets. It reads "Cerrado por vacaciones hasta el dia 19 de noviembre. Disculpen las molestais." Essentially, "Closed for vacation until November 19th, sorry about the inconvenience." And I took this picture on November 4th! It's great! We are going on vacation for a couple weeks, see you later. It's a great to live. It's a different mentality from the commercial world we are used to here in the States. A majority of shops in Spain are locally owned and run in Spain. The owners open the shop in the morning and they close it at night. Except for "siesta" where they close from about 3:00pm to 5:00 or 6:00pm for lunch, they are there all day. Most of the shops are also closed all day on Sunday to give the owners at least one day of rest. It can be an "inconvenience" when we are used to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week but you have to give it to them. Viva la Espana!

Holland (one last time) - And my modeling career.

(Me, after the Camino de Santiago)

Too funny! I went back to Groningen, Holland one last time. (I couldn´t get enough.) I had an incredible time as I did the month prior. And I had a lot of great moments but one in particular sticks out. And due to the artwork and raw unrestrained genius of my brother (Rights reserved, thanks Den!) I feel compelled to share it with you.

As you can see from the picture, I´ve trimmed up a little bit on the Camino de Santiago. And as I was walking through a clothing store (exploring the European fashion), someone approached me and asked if I had done any modeling before. I said that I hadn´t and he asked me if I would be interested. I didn´t say a word, just gave an expression of curiousity/contemplation and he said, "Come with me."

To cut a long story short, William is a very talented artist (nothing commercial) and he asked me to model for 2 hours or so. After some debate over a cup of tea, I finally agreed and we met the next day. Regardless of what you might think, it can be quite challenging.

Try doing this and really try it, "Smile, tense your stomach and arm muscles, turn your face slightly to the left, stand up straight, keep your arms to your side, don´t clench your fists, hold this for 1 or 2 minutes and now turn your head more to the right, look confident and after all of this, looked relaxed." Relaxed! How can someone possible look relaxed after all of that? That´s tough stuff for 2 hours.

And you have a wide range of "looks" or facial expressions. Look mad or angry, confident and my personal favorite, "sexy." I just laughed because I had no idea what a "sexy" look was. (but now I do so watch out.) I haven´t seen the pictures yet but it should be interesting.

Do this though. Get to a mirror right now and show yourself your "sexy" look. No, better yet, take a picture of it and send it to me. No, just look at a billboard or a magazine and everyone will have this look. It just seems funny at first but its very normal.

I joke, but William was very talented. He knew how to get the right lighting, the background, and even had me try on different clothes. We were walking down the street in Groningen and he just saw something he liked. We stopped right there and started taking pictures in the street as people passed by.

But the proof for me was when I had him take one picture of me with my digital camera. Just one. I was really surprised. Of all the pictures I´ve taken in my life, I think about 2 or 3 have been decent ("Good" would be a stretch). But the single photo he took in 5 seconds, seemingly without effort, I could imagine seeing it hanging on the wall at JCPenney´s. (at least Wal-mart) I couldn´t believe it. He was very good.

It was a great experience. Thanks William!

Camino de Santiago - Santiago and Finsterre!

Santiago de Compostella! - September 5 to October 6, 2007

Santiago de Compostella! Its a beautiful sight to see, especially if you just walked 500 miles to see it. What´s left to say.

And for me, the highlight of the Camino is Finsterre and watching the sunset over the Atlantic Ocean. It´s really hard to describe in words. It´s breathtaking.

Its a ritual that at sunset, you burn an item of clothing that you wore on the Camino. Its actually not a bad idea because after 30 days of wearing only 2 changes of clothes, all of your clothes are completely ruined.

But maybe it symbolizes the old part of you that you let go. The part that the camino changed and replaced with something better. Who knows. But it made a nice ending to an incredible experience!

Camino de Santiago - Some Highlights

I´ve decided not to elaborate on every detail of my experiences and lessons learned on the Camino because, 1) there is just too much to say and ... 2) I´ve decided to write a book that details most of it.

But I do want to include some highlights and interesting points.

1. I walked over 500 miles straight! Over the Pyrenees mountains and the entire width of Spain.
2. I slept in a church (and the crucifix looks a little spooky at night.)
3. I slept in a corn field with nothing but a sleeping bag and a poncho (in October). There was so much fog that my sleeping bag was completely soaked when I woke up.
4. I attempted to walk 90 kilometers in 1 night. I would have had a better chance if I didn´t miss a waymarker at 12:00 midnight and get lost for 2 hours. When I finally found someone, they couldn´t point out where I was on my map.
5. I fasted for 3 days (drinking only bottled water) walking over 30 kilometers each day. I lost about 10 kilos or 20 pounds in the process.

Other random points of interest:

In Spain, when you order a hot chocolate, that´s exactly what you get. It´s a bar of chocolate melted down into a liquid. Its the real deal! If you let it set a while, it will actually start to harden. It´s the way hot chocolate should be done.

Hungry? Sometimes you got to do what you got to do. Life on the Camino is good but its not easy. :)

Zoom in and take a look. That´s 6 flies crawling around on his face. I know your thinking, ¨Yeah, what´s the big deal¨ but try it. It´s impossible.

This is my friend´s foot, not mine. Now those are real blisters.

Moral of the story? When you drink beer, please drink one at a time.

Any many many more...

Camino de Santiago - Don´t drink the water!

I´m on day 19 of the Camino de Santiago. My blisters have, for the most part, healed. My boots have broken in and my body has become accustomed to the daily grind of hiking each day. And even my mind, with occasional lapses, has becomes used to the slow pace of walking for hours and hours.

And when the day finally came that all of these things came together and I felt like I had finally mastered the Camino, I and several other pilgrims made the mistake of drinking the water. Drinking the tap water is the norm and I´ve been doing it from the start of the trip. In fact, Spain installed public water fountains along the trail so that pilgrims wouldn´t go thirsty. But the rumor is that some farmers (those bastards) because of a mild winter, had sprayed the crops to kill a rodent (mouse looking creatures) from destroying the crops. In doing so, it got into the water system, into the tap water, in the fountains and the taps, into my water bottle and into my stomach for the last couple of days.

Some people became sick immediately, diarrhea & vomiting that very night. But I was fine. The next day, we found out the water had been contaminated but it had only given me gas. I figured that whatever bacteria I got from drinking the water in Costa Rica was eating whatever pollutants they had here in Spain, mere child´s play.

And so I tracked on to the next town not giving it much thought. Well, at about 5:00pm that night, I started to feel really tired and decide to take a afternoon siesta (God bless Spain.) It was then and there that it hit me like a freight train. Fever, chills, upset stomach, etc. I was so exhausted, I didn´t want to get up to go to the bathroom. It was bad news. Luckily no diarrhea or vomiting though!

Fortunately, I felt better the next day, at least enough to walk about 10 miles to the next town to get some rest. I´ve been taking it easy since then. Each day gets a little better.

By tomorrow, I will be in Leon, Spain.

Camino De Santiago - First week

I am in Day 8 of the Camino de Santiago. Essentially, you wake up, walk 6,7,8 or more hours each day to the next town or city, wash your clothes, eat dinner, and go to bed. Or at least that is the way it has been for me for the last week. This will change though. The ¨Camino¨has a way of teaching you. (or ¨explaining it to you¨as my Dad liked to say). My backpack weighed about 18 kilograms or about 40 pounds because I had my tent inside. They advise you not to take more than 8 to 10 kilograms but I thought the extra weight would be good excercise and I liked being able to camp when I liked. Well, I had no troubles with breathing or muscle pain, but it will tear up your feet and your joints. My feet would be swollen, red and feeling like they were going to explode each night. I would sometimes loose feeling in my toes and it started to take a toll on my knees. Today, I found out you could mail the tent to Santiago (5 kilos) for about $10. ¡Hasta la vista!

Anyway, I learned an important lesson today and each day it teaches me another. It also gives me a pain in a different muscle, joint or just another blister.

And for all of this, I can easily say that this is going to be (and already has to a degree) one of the BEST experiences in my life and I would highly encourage (almost threaten) that everyone do it. It is absolutely amazing! The landscape, the terrain, the people, the camino, the way of life, the simplicity, the time to think, to breathe, the freedom, the pain, everything, its aboslutely INCREDIBLE! I can´t emphasize this enough.

You can walk many different paths and you can take as much or as little time as you like but I would encourage at least 30 days. I get the feeling and other people have said this as well, that the Camino has a way of breaking you down and rebuilding you. Right now, I´m in the breaking down process but somehow, I´m enjoying it. Crazy.

Buen Camino!