Salamanca

As I described in my last post, it was on my way to the train station for this trip, that I took my first trip on the metro.   I won’t recount that experience again in this blog.  I arrived to the bus station two hours before my bus left, so I used that time to read for my Marketing Management class.  Then, I went downstairs and found my bus about fifteen minutes before it was scheduled to leave.   It was then that I remembered that my ticket clearly stated that it was not valid without my passport, which I had forgotten at home!  I stood in line hoping that the driver would not ask me for it, but of course, he did.  I took out my driver’s license praying that would work.  I didn’t expect it to, but he shook his head yes and let me on.  I was so relieved!  The bus ride itself wasn’t too bad, only four hours. 

Emily arrived before I did, and she found me when I walked into the station.  We found the bus that we needed to take to the hostel on our second try, and we rode it until we thought we were in the right place.  The directions were so unclear though.  Finally, we stopped in a clothing store to ask for directions.  We finally managed to find it.   And, even after we found it, we couldn’t figure out how the directions were supposed to have lead us there!  We checked in and went up to our room.  We discovered that we only had one bed instead of the two we asked for.  Anyway, we unpacked and went out to find something for dinner.  We are two very indecisive people, so we finally just walked in somewhere.  I ordered a bacon and cheese bocadillo (similar to a sandwich).  However, the bacon of course did not look nor did it taste like bacon from back home.  I quickly ended up eating cheese on bread!  We then tried to find a place for dessert but without any luck, so we went back to our room for the night. 

We woke up early the next morning because the website we booked our hostel on said that breakfast was provided…but as it turns out, it wasn’t.  So we ventured out to do some sightseeing and find food.  We saw many beautiful buildings in Salamanca.  We first walked straight to Plaza Mayor, which is beautiful, but I don’t think it has anything on the Plaza Mayor in Madrid! 

Then, we happened upon Iglesia Nueva y Iglesia Viejo (New Church and Old Church), although I don’t think we knew their names at that point.  We took some pictures and kept walking.

We made our way to Convento San Esteban (San Esteban Convent).  We were able to take a tour of the building.  It was absolutely beautiful!  You could feel the history in the building and imagine what it must have been like in its prime.  In the main church, some of the locals had gathered and were singing. 

When we left the Convent, we walked across the street and straight into a Domino’s.  Immediately, we were like hmmm…sounds good for lunch.  However, because it was only noon, they weren’t open yet.  We decided we would go eat a light tapas meal and go back later.  We rounded the corner and saw a group of four teenagers eating from a Domino’s pizza box.  We were so confused.  Because we had skipped breakfast, we were both pretty hungry, especially after smelling their pizza.  So we went off in search of the open Domino’s.  Again, we had no luck.  We ended up back in Plaza Mayor.  We noticed a Burger King, so we went in and ordered drinks and chicken tenders which we shared because nothing else was open.  We sat and chatted awhile and discussed what else we wanted to see. 

After a little more sightseeing, we made our way back to Domino’s.  We ordered a pepperoni pizza, which came with french fries.  The Spanish love their french fries; they eat then with everything!

Then, we made out way through the university area and down to the bridge that passes in front of Salamanca.  After taking many pictures of us under and on the bridge and of the river, we decided to try to find La Rana de la Suerte (The Lucky Frog).  I had read something about this on the Internet before I left, but there were no pictures.  I had also read about an astronaut, but I couldn’t remember where it was supposed to be.  Therefore, we set off in the direction of the university aread to find the frog.  We both assumed it would be a statue, but we couldn’t find it.  We finally went in to this little store called La Ranita (The Little Frog), and asked them where to find it.  We followed their directions, but we still didn’t see a statue.  We saw two police officers, so we decided to ask them.  They were complete jerks and didn’t help us at all.  We found our way back to the same university building that we had been in front of so many times.  Still, we didn’t see a frog.  Then, we noticed a door that led to a garden.  We thought we had finally found it, but when we walked into the garden, there was no frog statue.  Again, we went into a little store to ask them where it was.  They told us right out front.  We were so confused.   This time, we decided to walk into the university building.  We were about to pay to enter and see if the frog statue was in their courtyard, but Emily asked about it.  They too told us right out front, and they showed us a picture of it.  Turns out, there is no statue.  The frog is part of the very ornate detail work of the building.  If you find it without any help, you are supposed to have good luck.  It took some teamwork, but we finally found it!

You have to look really, really close in order to see it.  You can see the skull in the middle of the picture on the column.  The frog is sitting on top of his head!

We decided that we had to remember all of that hard work, so we went back to La Ranita to find a souvenir to help us remember.  I didn’t find anything there, so we went to another place.  I found what I was looking for there.  I bought a glass to add to my collection.  It has the frog, university, and churches all on it.  Emily decided to buy a book of postcards in this shop.  She opened it straight to the picture of the frog, but next to it was the picture of the astronaut.  She took it as a sign that we needed to go look for the astronaut.  We went back to the university to look for it, but I had this feeling that it wouldn’t be on the same building.  I asked Emily to look on the back of the postcard to see if it said where the astronaut was located.  It was on Iglesia Nueva.  This task seemed even more daunting than the first.  This building is huge.  However, eventually I spotted it!  I was so excited!  We had managed to find them both!

Next, we decided to go get some ice cream.  We were heading to Plaza Mayor when we spotted a Ben & Jerry’s, so we stopped there.  When we finished we went to see if the man Emily had bought her scarf from was still there, I was thinking about buying one or two as gifts.  However, he had already picked up.  We headed back to our room to relax for a little bit before going out for dinner.

Sunday morning we checked out of out hostel and went in search of food before our long bus rides back home.  It was a miserable day.  It was cold and rainy-weather that I typically think of for London.  We kept indoors as much as possible, and then I went with Emily to check into her new hostel for the night and ten headed to the bus station.  The bus ride home was long but uninteresting, and again, as I mentioned in my last post, I made it home from the bus station via the metro with no hiccups!

Guarroman/Baños/Baílen

I didn’t know too much before going to the olive camp.  Wednesday night, my host mother asked me if I wanted to go to the olive camp with her.  I figured why not?  She told me to bring clothes that would keep me warm because it would be very cold at night but warm during the day.  At dinner, she told her kids that I would be going.  Galo, her son, said “Don’t go,” but of course he said it in Spanish.  Her daughter, Reyes said, “Bring clothes that you can get dirty.”  Again it was in Spanish.  My host mother also asked me if I had boots to wear out in the fields.  It was then that I started to wonder what I had gotten myself into.

Friday night rolled around, and we finally left for the station.  I was nervous.  I still didn’t really know what I had gotten myself into, and I was worried about having enough stuff to talk to her about all weekend.  Well, when we got to the bus station, one of my fears was relieved.  She also invited her friend, Vilma, from Colombia to come along.  She is nice as can be, but she definitely likes to talk, so I let the two of them do most of the talking.  I would chime in here and there, but I was still thinking about the next two days.

After my first bus trip in Spain, we arrived to Guarroman at 1 in the morning.  The house was freezing!  There was no air conditioning or heater in the house.  We quickly made beds and piled blankets on to them, and we went to sleep.   I was told to be up and ready for breakfast at 8:30 because we left at 9:00.  Half an hour drive later, I found out that I would be working in the field alongside about twelve others.  I still didn’t know for how long, but the fields were beautiful!

In the beginning, I learned how the whole process works.  I will try to explain it to you:

First, they hit the branches of the trees in order to make the olives fall to the ground.

Second, they use modified leaf blowers to blow all of the olives into a circle around the tree.

Third, they use rakes to rake the circle into small piles.

Fourth, they scoop these little piles into buckets…

And these buckets are carried and dumped on a tarp that is laid on the ground.

Meanwhile, Vilma, my host mother, and myself went behind them and picked up the olives that were left on the ground, or in the trees, or in the trunk of the trees.

Then, we would also add our olives to the tarps.

Fifth, the tractor pulls up to the tarp and someone attaches the four rings on each side of the tarp to the hooks on the tractor.

Sixth, the tractor dumps the olives into the bed of a dump truck...

Finally, after the work is done for the day, we have a full load!

The basic workday starts at 9 in the morning and goes until 4 in the afternoon.  They stop for breakfast at noon for half an hour, and then lunch is at 2 for an hour.  Although the work is hard and long, everyone was happy and laughing.  A few of them even sang.  As is the Spanish tradition, cerveza (beer), wine, and other forms of alcohol were present and passed around during meals. 

Typical meals during these mealtimes always consisted of meat.  They would start a fire in the morning, so that they could use it to cook their meat on for lunch.  There was always plenty of bread to pass around to eat the meat on as well. 

At the end of the workday, Paco (the tractor driver) took the olives to a local plant.  We met him there, and I was able to see from start to finish the process that olives make from being dumped to becoming olive oil.  It was very fascinating, and I wish that I could have taken picture to show you all.  We were able to take a sample of the olive oil back with us.

We had to run a few other errands, but we finally made it home around 8 that night.  We had Guarroman pastries and leftovers for dinner, and then we got ready for bed.  We had to repeat the same thing in the morning. 

We left a little late the next morning.  We didn’t reach the fields until almost 10.  We worked until noon when we broke for breakfast.  Afterwards, we went to pick up my host mother’s cousin, Mario, and his daughter, Carmen in Baílen.  Then, we went back to the fields and worked until 2 when we stopped for lunch.  After lunch, everyone went home.  I found this odd.  Back home, we would have just left at 2 instead of staying and eating. 

Paloma (my host mother), Vilma, Mario, Carmen, and I all took a ride to the little town next to Guarroman called Baños.  This is where Mario is from.  There is a lovely castle here that was built in the 11^th century and a castle that was built in the 14^th century.  In this picture, you can see both.

After touring the castle, church, and Mario’s home, we headed across the town to the hotel to have a merienda (afternoon snack).  I took this picture there of everyone that was with me on the trip.

Left to Right: Carmen, Mario, Paloma, and Vilma.

All in all, it was a very interesting experience.  I was told at the time that there were only two places in the world that grew olives-Spain and Italy.  However, I looked this up online, and there are several other places that grow olives.  Still, there are few who get to experience the olive camps in the way that I was able to. 

Driving in Madrid Part 2

Sorry, that I haven’t written in so long.  I have been dealing with Internet issues, as many of you know.  I have finally started traveling, but before I start telling you about all of my wonderful adventures, I would like to add a few more things to my previous post about driving in Madrid.  And for the purposes of this post, driving in all of Spain.

First, after living in New Orleans, a city that is not only below sea level but actually sits in a bowl, the idea of an underground city is beyond my comprehension…or at least it was.  I finally used the metro for the first time the other day.  I was terrified.  I was also taking it at midday.  I was told this is the prime time for las ladrones (basically pickpockets) because there are so many people on the metro.  

I guess I didn’t do too badly considering it was my first time on the metro here… well anywhere really.  I found the right station, went in, bought ten passes from the machine, and made it down to the stop.  The metro was there, and I hopped on.  Turns out, I hopped on the metro going in the opposite direction that I wanted to be going in.  Once I discovered this, I looked at my map and rerouted myself.  I was going to have to take the most confusing line in all of Madrid.  However, I did fine.  I took this line to my stop and got off.  It was only after I got off at this stop that I realized my mistake.  I had gotten off at the stop that was in my original plan, not my new plan.  I had accidentally gotten off one stop too early.  I figured that one stop couldn’t be too far away, so I decided to walk.   

Again, I was wrong.  I have come to understand that reality here will always be the opposite of what I am expecting.  Anyway, when I got off, I honestly had no idea which way to go.  I was in a part of town that I had never been in before.  I found a map and just began walking.  Soon I started to see signs proving that I was walking in the right direction.  I just kept walking for what felt like forever.  My backpack, which held everything that I would need for that weekend, was getting heavy, and I had on too many layers, so I was hot.  Finally, I found another sign telling me to walk through a tunnel.  I drew the line there.  I walked until I found a taxi and took the taxi the rest of the way.  It turns out that I was walking in the right direction, but that one stop was much further than I could have imagined.  Because I had walked so far, five minutes and five euros later the taxi dropped me off at the bus station. 

The metro system is quite extensive, but it turns out it is also very simple.  Once I got over my nerves, I took the metro back to my house from the bus station.  I didn’t have a single problem this time.

This is the metro stop in Puerta del Sol.  It is considered by many to be the center of Madrid.

Also, there are a lot of tunnels in Spain.  There are tunnels in the city of Madrid that take you beneath the streets and buildings of the city and tunnels in other parts of the country that take you through the mountains.  Sometimes these tunnels feel like they last forever, but finally you get to the end and you find yourself at the top of a mountain looking down on the beautiful countryside.  That is quite a sight to see.  You can see the low rising stonewalls that expand across the mountains and the animals grazing the mountainside.  

On my trip to Salamanca, my ears actually popped because the mountains were so tall…but beautiful.  In these mountains, you can still the snow that has yet to melt.  However, the mountains can also be quite dangerous, especially at night.  When the sun dips behind the mountains, the street signs light up with a border of red flashing lights.  They tell travelers to beware of the dangerous curves up or down the winding mountain roads. 

It is so interesting to see how different their interstate system is from ours.  While driving along interstate, we had to slow down numerous times to travel through small towns.  The speed limit ranges from 30-120 kilometers per hour (20-75mph).  And although Madrid is a very clean city, throughout the city and all along interstate, one can find graffiti on buildings, walls, benches, you name it.

Oh, and I did finally find a pickup truck.  It was very small and parked in the parking lot at Ikea.  I asked my host family about this, and they told me that there are not many here.  They said that I should see a few more as the months get warmer, but I still will not see many.  And there won’t be any in Madrid.  I don’t think half of my family could live here for that reason alone!!  And on a side note, speaking of people in Madrid, there is such a diversity of people that live here.  I have met other Europeans that have moved here of course.  However, Americans, Canadians, Indians, Chinese, Japanese, and Australians all call Madrid home as well.

Soon to come are stories about my adventures to Guarroman/Baños/Baílen and Salamanca…

Driving in Madrid

So to start off my blog, I think I will start with what has surprised me the most about Spain…the driving!  I admit that this was one area that I didn’t read much about before I left home to come here.   To be perfectly honest, I thought that the steering wheel would be on the left and that they would drive on the left side of the road as well.  However, as the plane closed into Madrid in the early morning hours of January 25, I saw that I was wrong looking down at the roadways.  This was confirmed when Dad and I went to get into our taxi.   This made me think all the more that driving here would be similar to that of the U.S. 

But I was wrong!  They have big green signs over all of their heavily trafficked roads (just like we do along Interstate), road signs basically liter the sides of the streets, and traffic lights are as plentiful as the taxis lined alongside the roads.  For a country that seems to be very organized, it is awfully chaotic.  Even though there are three lanes painted on the road, somehow there appears to be five lanes all cluttered together waiting to see who can take off the fastest to make it into the three lanes the fastest.  Oh, and then sometimes as soon as you turn on the street that you just waited at a light to turn on, you have to stop again.  The back half of your car doesn’t even make it onto the same street as your front half.  The taxis swerve in and out of traffic, reminding me very much of taxis that I have used in Mexico.

(Top) This is an example of “street signs” scattered throughout the city.  Those are not the actual street signs; they merely point to the direction you should go to get to that destination.  (Bottom) This is an actual street sign.  Similar to the old signs in New Orleans that were put on the streets themselves, the street signs are barely visible on the sides of buildings.  (It is very difficult to find the name of a street and the names of buildings here as they tend to not have a name plastered to the outside of many of their buildings.)

And I have been here for over a week now, and I have still not seen a single truck (besides two? work trucks).  I am talking not a single one…no little Ford Ranger’s or Toyota Tacoma’s, no Ford F250’s or Chevrolet Silverado’s (Although, I did see a commercial for a Silverado.), and certainly not any 18-wheelers.  I understand that it is a city with a lot of people in it and space is tight, but I can’t believe that not one person in this city owns a truck!  Parking, however, is a bit of a problem.  I though that trying to find a parking spot in New Orleans and then trying to actually parallel park the car was tough, well Madrid certainly proved that notion wrong.

Now, I will say that this is an extreme case scenario…I don’t know if you can tell from my picture, but that car is completely blocked in.  The cars on either side of it are touching it.  However, I have seen it a couple of times where one side of the car is touching another.  Most of the time, it is just really, really tight, but this example gets my point across the best I think!

On the other hand, many people own motorbikes/scooters/mopeds.  In fact, they may drive worse than the taxi drivers.  They not only swerve in and out of traffic, but they also drive right up onto the sidewalks.  Consequently, this is also where they park.