May 2016 – Running Free

Raindrops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens

I definitely looked up the lyrics to “My Favorite Things” before writing this post. I went with the better known Raindrops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens, but I think my favorite is probably Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes. Snowflakes will probably always be my favorite. Good luck to me in Cali, huh?

Anyway, you might have guessed already since I hinted at it in a previous post, but, you see, this post is about my favorite places in Madrid.

5. Side streets

That’s totally cheating right? To pick all of the side streets? Well I was going to limit it to Malasaña but when I was picking out pictures a lot of them were from different parts of Madrid, so I decided to broaden it to “side streets”. It’s the side streets in every part of the city that have that Spanish charm.

So pretty, right? But the best part of the side streets is the plazas and terrazas!

For the record, that cheesecake tasted just as good as it looked.

4. Palacio Real & Catedral de la Almudena

These two go together because they are so close to each other and thinking of one always seems to make me think of the other. So here they are, the two of them together.

I really liked hanging out outside the Royal Palace. And it wasn’t even because I want to be royalty; although let’s be honest, who doesn’t? I should clarify though, I would want to be princess but I don’t think I’d ever want to rise to the rank of Queen. I don’t want the responsibility.

In all my time spent standing outside of the palace, I haven’t actually been inside. I probably did go inside when I studied abroad six (seven?) years ago, but I haven’t gone inside this time around. And you know why? Because when you’ve been inside one you’ve kind of seen them all, you know? They’re always filled with that old-fashioned (read: stuffy) regal decor. There’s incredibly intricate wallpaper. There’s heavy red velvet everywhere. Hmm, I think finally understand why George wanted to drape himself in velvet. And if there’s not velvet, then there are cherubs painted on ceilings. All of the kinds of things that make you think ‘Wow, this is stunning. But how about a little eggshell? Maybe a nice, pale blue perhaps?’

Anyway I’ve found that I can get my fill from the outside. It’s a pretty amazing building and even though there are guards stationed outside of the entrances you could go right up and touch it. Though that might be weird. And if you can’t take it all in while you’re up close to it (it is a pretty big building) you can get a great view from the gardens or…or the Catedral de la Almudena next door. They have a museum and look-out point that you can access for 6€. The view alone is well worth it.

While you’re at it, you might as well take in the city and the mountains.

Not to mention the Cathedral itself…

Moving on, as I said, the views from the gardens are pretty nice. Heck, the gardens are pretty nice.

But the real treat about hanging out outside the palace is that you are sometimes able to stumble upon some really cool things. There was the time that I got to see the King…twice!

By which I mean the King’s hand. I got to see the King’s hand! Twice!

Then there was the time that I stumbled upon the tail end of a concert with a somewhat curious choice of pieces.

It is with great sadness that I regret to inform you that I just missed the opportunity to hear the Royal Band play Star Wars. I heard it from afar and rushed as fast I could, it’s not my fault!

3. Plaza de España / Templo de Debod

These two go together too because I can’t visit one without visiting the other. Plaza de España is an open plaza with a couple of fountains, a reflecting pool and Don Quijote and Sancho Panza. I visited them regularly throughout my time here and had to officially bid them farewell on my last day.

The Templo de Debod is practically right around the corner. I think I wrote about the history of it before, but if not here it is in a nutshell:

The Temple was originally built in southern Egypt in the second century BC as a dedication to the god, Isis. Almost two thousand years later, Spain was awesome and provided assistance in the relocation of some of the Abu Simbel temples during the construction of the Aswan Dam in 1968. As a show of gratitude, the Templo de Debod was donated to Spain and placed in Parque Oeste in Madrid in 1972.

My favorite time to go was always during the morning before it got filled up with people; however, sunset is beautiful too. It doesn’t hurt that the park has a pretty awesome view too.

I may have done a small photo shoot on my last day there..

My last weekend in town was a holiday in Madrid for their patron saint, San Isidro. As part of the festivities, there was a classical violin concert next to the Templo. Don’t mind if I do.

2. Dehesa de la Villa

I spent a lot of mornings or afternoons or sometimes evenings running in the park. Running is very relaxing, it clears my head and I rock out to music. Lately I discovered the joy of running to the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack. Is that weird? It’s surprisingly motivational. I can picture Jack Sparrow (Captain, Captain Jack Sparrow) stepping off his sinking boat or sword fighting or just drinking rum and suddenly I am ready to crush that hill. Yeah, that’s probably weird but it works for me. It also helped that when I was running this was the scenery that surrounded me.

1. La Mina

I suppose it will not come to a surprise to my family at all that a bar would be my favorite place in Madrid, but it is what it is. Maybe it’s the Boston girl in me. Maybe it’s the Irish that I try to claim (anyone who is Irish in and around Madrid has the accent to back it up!) But I’m a pub girl. Give me a corner bar and I’ll make it my home. I promise you that they also serve coffee so half of my visits were to have coffee. Okay, maybe only a third. Okay, fine, a quarter. What do you want from me? The Spanish start drinking at 9:00AM.

But I like to become a regular. It makes me really feel like I’ve made myself at home. In Boston it was Thinking Cup. First Tremont Street, then Hanover Street, then Newbury Street. It’s like they kept opening up a new one to suit my ever-changing needs. Maybe they’ll open one in Oakland next! It just felt nice to have them wave and start my order when I walked in the door. I didn’t always order the same thing when I went to La Mina so they couldn’t be the same even if they wanted to, but it still felt like home.

Even the kids get involved! Just kidding he was only going for ice but it’s still odd to see

I had every intention of posting this my last night but the internet had other plans. And then I figured I would do it in the airport but again the internet had other plans. So I wrote it then and added the pictures later. And boy is that time-consuming. But hopefully it pays off because there is a lot to see in this post and only a small part of it is words!

This may be the end of Spain (for now at least) but I plan on sticking around. Maybe there will be a post or two snuck in about Boston. If not, then the next stop is California!

A Walk in the Woods: Cercedilla and the Guadarramas

Yesterday I promised you all pictures and pictures you shall have!

I mentioned that it has been rainy here, right? And that it looked like it was going to continue to be rainy for the foreseeable future, right? Okay. Well I had been waiting to go for a hike in the Sierra de Guadarramas outside of Madrid for ages now. With my time here coming to an end soon, I couldn’t very well be picky. So I picked the first day that didn’t have rain and took the bus out to Cercedilla.

The sights along the way were rather lovely. Even though the skies were full of clouds, there were moments that suggested that it might not be terrible day after all.

From the bus station to the start of the trails is about a 2 kilometer walk. At least you’re all warmed up and ready to go by the time that you get there. You can also practice taking pictures of the cows which is important because once you’re on the trails, you’ll come across cows that are not contained by a fence. Having just been to a bullfight just a few of days earlier, this unnerved me just a little bit. But we’ll see them later. This, remember, is just the beginning. Just the beginning at 1200 meters. Ay madre mía.

After stopping at the visitor center, map in hand, I headed out on the trails, following the blue trail, to the orange trail, to the yellow trail.

From here on out, I don’t think narration is really required during a hike so for the most part I’ll let the pictures do the talking. When I feel the need to inject some sass, I’ll sprinkle some in. Just a dash!

I would come to regret those sunglasses because I never needed them. Sigh. Anyway, time for my first photo shoot.

Then it was time for a decision:

Two roads diverged in a wood and I…I took the steeper one. Because my mind wants to be a badass. Though my body says ✋?No.

But back to climbing.

Wait where am I going?

Oh, I’m good now.

Hey look! There’s snow in the mountains!

One of the highlights of the orange trail is the Miradores, the scenic vistas. Would you look at that view?!

Maybe I couldn’t see the view, but I could see the watch! Of course there was no sun, so it did me absolutely no good.

Even though I knew I wouldn’t be able to see anything, I decided to venture up a little further. I knew I wouldn’t have the chance again anytime soon so why not?

Here are my cow friends. This is the closest that I dared to get because they have horns.

There was another lookout point along the way up.

I mean, you have to laugh about it. I tried, I really did.

At least I can console myself by saying that this is probably what Hemingway dealt with when he was in the Guadarramas.

I can only assume.

So the hike didn’t end with a glorious vits of the valley below, but it didn’t make it any less worth the journey. There’s a life lesson in there somewhere.

Seven Days

“I’m not really a sharer.”

If I had to pick a personal mantra, that would probably be it and most of the people in my life could attest to that. And I don’t mean it in the “sharing is caring” sense; I’m actually pretty good at that, especially for an only child. No, it’s more in reference to the thoughts going on in my head. I’m the kind of person who has to think before I speak or act. And I think a lot. And I have a hard time translating those thoughts into audible words that actually make sense. As a result, I get easily flustered when I’m expected to share my innermost thoughts and feelings, especially when I’m not prepared to do so. I can fire back a witty zinger very effectively but when it comes to something real, well, I need to think on that.

That’s where the blog comes in. It probably comes as a big surprise for someone who describes themselves as “not a sharer” to have (and to actually use!) a blog. But I’ve always been a better communicator through writing. It gives me a way to organize my thoughts, feelings and reactions.

For the most part, the posts on this blog have been about the beautiful places that I’ve visited and the different, interesting or downright strange things that I’ve done in the last six months. There have probably only been two posts that really got personal: that would be Valentine’s Day (how stereotypical of me) and surgery (also stereotypical. But hey, sue me). Well this is going to be another one of those posts. And it’s probably going to be a long one. I’ll try to throw in pictures here and there but they may be ones that I’ve already shared. If you make it all the way through, you’ll be rewarded with a post full of pictures tomorrow. If not, you’ll still have the post full of pictures tomorrow. So, the warning is out there and the choice is yours. Either way come back to take a walk in the woods with me tomorrow!

Now on with the post.

About six months ago, I boarded a plane with a one way ticket. In about seven days, I’ll board a plane with another one way ticket.

If you jumped back to the post about my surgery, you may remember that I felt a little stuck. I felt like I wasn’t doing anything so I decided to bite the bullet and just take the leap. Well, okay, it all came to a front after the surgery but that wasn’t the first time that I felt that way. It had been quite some time that I felt that my life was at a standstill in Boston, feeling like I was just waiting for the next part of my life. Whatever that was going to be. So in August (or maybe it September, I don’t know) I bought my one way flight to Spain thinking that would be it, that would be the change, the next chapter. I would create a life here. I would get a job here that I enjoyed. (Back then I would add “…even if it was just teaching” to that statement, but now I know that I don’t actually enjoy teaching. Guess it’s a good thing that I didn’t end up going to school for that like I had thought when I was first looking at colleges.) I would fill up my social calendar here. I would become a regular at coffee shop. Or a bar. Or both! (Heck, I could become a regular at a coffee shop and a bar and have it be at the same place!) I would enjoy my time so much that the one year that I originally planned on would stretch into another. And then maybe another.

That was the thought…but that’s not how it went.

The next part of my life actually started before I came to Spain. I just didn’t know it at the time.

It wasn’t until a few months in that that thought finally hit me. The next part of my life isn’t here in Madrid; it’s back in the states. (For the reason, see Valentine’s Day.) Spending more time here is just putting that on hold. Again. I’ve been there before, just waiting for it to start. Why would I keep doing that?

I know what you’re thinking: ‘because you’re living the life in Spain!’ I’ll admit, that is the sort of image that this blog has shown, highlighting the Christmas lights, the vacations, the Papa Noel run. And it’s true, all of those have been amazing experiences that I will always be grateful to have had. But it hasn’t always been sparkly lights and sunny days. I love Madrid and I will be recounting some of my favorite places here (so keep your eyes open!) but by the end I found myself to be kind of gloomy about it all. But, hey maybe it’s because the past five days have rained and it’s supposed to continue being rainy until Friday. (Seriously, whatever happened to “the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain”?)

Once I came to the conclusion that I didn’t really want to make a life here, I was kind of…sad. Or maybe bored is the better word, I don’t know. I just felt like I was wandering around trying to find ways to fill my days and the days became really hard to fill. As I mentioned before, I discovered that I didn’t really like teaching so I didn’t bother to fill my schedule with classes that I would dread. But if not that, then what? I jammed in as many vacations as I could but I’m no Rockefeller! When I found myself feeling that same sense of ennui (thank you Gilmore Girls!), that’s when I knew that this experiment, shall we say, was over. I’m spinning my wheels here and I’m tired of it. I also really, really miss working. Who would have thought? I miss waking up and going for morning coffee on my way to the office. I miss answering emails. I miss doing research. I miss color-coding things. Heck, I miss Excel spreadsheets! (I’m totally going to include this in my cover letters: I believe that I am a excellent fit for your company because I just admitted to the world that I actively miss Excel spreadsheets.) But really what it is is that I miss being productive, feeling that I’ve actually accomplished something with my day.

And so, on that note, I look ahead to one week from today. I will wake up bright and early at 5AM (or maybe I’ll just be Spanish and stay out until 5AM. On second thought, maybe not). I’ll board a plane eventually bound for Boston. After about two weeks, I’ll board another plane with another one-way ticket in hand.

A ticket to Oakland*. Hello west coast! And hopefully some sunshine, for real this time!

*Disclaimer for my Mom: this is like that time when I moved to Charlestown. I will be surrounded by yuppies again, don’t worry.

Hanging Out at the Hanging Houses

Lets go ahead and talk about those hanging houses before they fall into the river. Just kidding. Even though they hang precariously over the edge of the gorge, they don’t look like they’re going anywhere anytime soon. That’s what 14th Century construction gets you: gorgeous houses, built into a cliff that remain intact over 600 years later. How did they do it?

The hanging houses, or “Casas Colgadas”, are located in Cuenca, along the Huécar River which actually carved out much of the area surrounding the houses. I’m not sure if it reached all the way up to the houses themselves but you’ll see a picture of the river later on in this post. And the fact that it ever carved out anything is pretty impressive.

Cuenca is a small city located in the Castilla-La Mancha region. It was occupied by the Moors from 714 until 1177 during which time it established itself as a leading producer in the textile and agriculture industries. After the Moors were conquered, the area experienced great prosperity as a result of these industries; however, it now depends more on cultural tourism. It became a World Heritage site in 1996 and, well, those houses are pretty dang cool.

I know, I know there are tons of pictures and they all look kind of the same. But that’s the problem when you go somewhere really impressive looking (and on multiple days at multiple times, that’s why the lighting is different.) Everytime you turn around, it’s photo-worthy and you’re not quite sure if you’ve already captured it. Or if you’ve adequately captured it. I’m still not sure these pictures do it justice. It’s just so big and grand that it makes you feel small (but in a good way) and I’m not sure you can really tell from the pictures. But I can’t take the houses with me so pictures will have to suffice.

Remember I said that a river did this and that when you see it, you probably won’t believe it? Well let’s see if I was right…

That big thing is very obviously the road. The river is behind it.

Though she be but little, she is fierce, am I right?

Anyway, in the background you can see some nature-ish trails so we went for a brief walk along those and made it all the way out to castle. This must be the only place where a castle is an afterthought. I don’t even remember what the castle looked like except that it had teeny, tiny, little windows with bars on them. It was the view that stole the show.

So there are houses hanging on a cliff. There’s a castle. There’s an old monastery, that is now a fancy hotel. (That would be the building in the middle of the picture above). There’s also a little town, full of colorful houses, a bearth full church, and some pretty steep walks.

For a small town, it had some big time wonder. By day and by night.

Valencia: Lookout Towers, the Holy Grail and Sunny Beaches

In my last post I wrote about the half marathon so now we will turn our attention to our victory lap on the beaches of Valencia.

Valencia is a rather strange city. Like all cities and towns in Spain, it is very old. Very, very old. But it shows its age in a way that none of the other cities that I’ve been to have done. There are actually quite a number of run-down buildings. It should be noted that run-down buildings in Spain are still rather impressive. They don’t necessarily detract from the beauty of the old town or the beach but are quite surprising, nonetheless.

Anyway, on to the old town. I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it again, the old towns are my favorite places to go. We stopped by the Mercado Central to sample some of the local fare (jamón…and juice…) and admire the saffron. Then we stopped at one of the many churches in town. That might be my only picture with an orange tree in it which is quite a shame since they were absolutely everywhere. Then I picked out a couple of places where I might want to live. But I don’t really want to live in Valencia though so I’ll just have to take them with me. We also went into the Mercado de Colón later in the day to rest up with cerveza and wine.

We focused on two major sights while we were in the old town: the Torres de Quart and the Cathedral of Valencia.

The Torres de Quart is one of the only remaining parts of the protective wall that was built around the city in the 1400s. They also happen to provide a great view, which I suppose was the point when they were built 600 years ago. Now they simply serve as a great way to look out over the city, so we climbed. And climbed. And climbed some more.

I’d say the view was worth it.

We also heard that the Holy Grail might be located in the Cathedral of Valencia so we ventured over there to take a look. I suppose it’s awfully hard to prove that something is in fact the Holy Grail so it shall always remain a mystery. Anyway the item in discussion is the Holy Chalice of the Lord Supper which is held in the Catedral de Valencia. Whether it is or it isn’t the Holy Grail, it is beautiful. Or so I’ve seen in pictures on the Internet. We happened to go in the middle of a service so we couldn’t get right up close to it…or maybe you can never get up close it, who knows.

With the old town completed, we ventured to Valencia’s real claim to fame, the beach. The beach stretches for about 3 kilometers and is lined with bars and terraces making it very easy for a pale girl like me to spend an entire day at the beach without turning as red as a lobster. I just have to pop inside every hour or so. We did have a whole day to devote to the beach so we spent some time on the beach and then sat in the shade at one of the aforementioned restaurant/terraces.

After soaking up the sun at the beach we hopped aboard the train where were treated to some really nice sights. Unfortunately, we were on a train so there is always the faint trace of the inside of the train in pictures.

Next stop: Cuenca! The next stop is Cuenca and the hanging houses. I’m just going to leave it with that so that you’re all intrigued enough to come back.

Let’s Rock and Roll!

I had been here for less than a month and I was already eyeing a half marathon in April. Races are so enticing when they are still months away and they almost always seem like a good idea at the time. But this was no ordinary race; no, this was Rock ‘n’ Roll Madrid. And if you’re going to rock, you’re not going to do it alone. (I’ve been the person in the club dancing alone and somehow it’s not as fun as when I dance around alone in my bedroom. Yeah, I do that and I’m not ashamed to share it with the ~~world~~ twenty or so people who read this blog.) So I called on my running buddy who, fortunately for me, also thinks races are a good idea at the time. So the flights were booked, the training plans were set (and then promptly ignored), and just under two weeks ago Liz and Adam took Europe. Or at least Spain.

They landed on Saturday and Sunday morning, Liz and I woke up bright and early with the same thought, ‘this might have been a bad idea.’ Sidenote: yes, Liz landed on Saturday and ran a half marathon the next morning because she is a rock star. Anyway, we made our way over to the start line where we snapped a couple of pictures and watched the skydivers.

About 15 kilometers later, we ran into our friend from Fort Worth, TX who we met at the race expo the day before. She was running the full marathon and, at that moment, we were so grateful that we were not.

At kilometer 17, we passed the entrance to the park and the finish line. Unfortunately, we had to run all the way around the perimeter of the park. Why do they do that? If I know the finish line is near I sure as heck don’t want to circle it for four kilometers.

Finally, we made it to the finish line where Lauren and Adam were waiting for us. And in true mom fashion, Lauren had the camera ready for pictures and video.

We wore our bling for the rest of the day because that is why we run these races in the first place.

Did we do anything after the race? I don’t know…my pictures fail me. But I do believe that we went to La Mina for a couple of cervezas (because we earned those bad boys) and then ventured out into the real world again. This is the only picture I have so I know that we did in fact leave the bar and do some touristy wandering.

I like the way that the tree branches frame the shot but that wire really cuts in the worst possible place.

I mentioned before that my pictures failed me. I didn’t take a whole lot of pictures in Madrid so this post will be short and sweet. That said, I did take pictures inside and atop the Cathedral of the Almudena because it’s just so pretty.

In the next edition of Liz and Adam Take Europe, Lauren and I meet up with them in Valencia where we hit the beach and see the Holy Grail…or did we? If the suspense isn’t killing you, there will also be lots of pictures so please do come back!

PS Liz: not only did you make an appearance in the post, you’re in the featured pic!