Buenos días a todos,
This week the two weeks of cloudless, sunny days in the low 50’s finally came to an end, and I know exactly who to blame. My friend Olivia McKelvey was passing through Europe on her way to her own study abroad program in the Himalayas and stopped in Madrid for a few days to visit and experience the culture of Spain. Unfortunately, she brought the cold and clouds from Michigan with her. In spite of the chilly weather, we still had a great time exploring the city and hanging out and that will be the primary focus for this week’s update. If you want to hear her perspective on things, she’s working on her own blog to document her study abroad experiences which should go up in the next couple of weeks.
She arrived on Tuesday, and we had a pretty relaxed day to let her settle in and recover from the jetlag. She came to my art history class where she grilled the professor about column styles, and after a classic spanish siesta we got dinner at a Korean Restaurant. Wednesday was full of many more adventures. Olivia took me on a surprise adventure to get tea cookies from cloistered nuns, which was a very cool experience. In the evening, we went to a beginner salsa lesson. The teacher spoke very fast in spanish with a thick latin american accent that even some fluent speakers told us afterwards that they couldn’t understand. For my part, I stopped trying to understand what he was saying about 5 minutes in and just watched his feet. In spite of the communication difficulty, we both had a great time and I think I will definitely go back.
After our salsa dancing adventure, Olivia and I went on what I would consider my first proper tapas crawl. We tried croquetas, champiñones, and a tomato and mozzarella tower, among others. My personal favorite was the champiñones, though I suppose it’d be hard for anything cooked in that much butter and garlic to be bad. We also split a vermouth cocktail at a hole-in-the-wall bar with a house recipe. It was interesting, but personally I liked the sangria at our final stop casa de abuelo better. For my non spanish speakers, casa de abuelo translates to “grandpa’s house.” If you’re looking for some good champiñones and sangria, I would recommend Casa de abuelo, located on Calle de abuelo. Just be sure not to confuse it with la casa de abuelo 100 feet down the street, or casa del abuelo across the street (yes, they are all different restaurants).
I’ve saved the best for last. Without a doubt, the highlight of the week was the day trip that we took to Barcelona. We flew there early on Friday morning, and got a great view of the sun rising over the Mediterranean as the plane landed. We started the day with a delicious breakfast at a cafe in Barcelona, and then wandered the city’s Gothic quarter. I was intrigued by an inscription above the door to a cathedral. Olivia and I put our heads together, with a little help from google, to translate the latin “Vere Dominus est m loco isto domus Dei et porta coeh” to “Truly God is the master of this, the house and gate of God,” Since we were there, we paid the entrance fee to enter and visit the cathedral, which was full of intricately carved and painted niches for different saints. They also offered the option to visit the roof for a fantastic view of the city, which we gladly took.
For lunch, we split both of our first Spanish paella, with shrimp and mushrooms. I also tried the onion soup, which was similar to French onion soup but…Spanish. Afterwards we headed to the Basilica Sagrada Familia, which was the coolest part of the trip without a doubt. In contrast to the cathedral, it is relatively plain inside. However, whatever the basilica lacks in ornateness of decoration, it makes up for in sheer scale, standing over 300 feet tall inside with huge, branching pillars supporting the ceiling that could dwarf redwood trees. The sun was getting low outside and lit up the whole inside with shades of red and orange through the west-facing stained glass windows. The effect is nearly indescribable: awe-inspiring certainly. It was enough to give me a true feeling of how very small I am compared to God, which I suppose is the point. It is an absolute must visit if you are in Barcelona. (See my Barcelona gallery for more pictures)
Before our train ride back, we got some tapas and gelato. Olivia had seen a place earlier in the day with a very pretty gelato display in the window. For the uninitiated, that’s actually a bad sign. The overly pretty gelato displays with ice cream piled up over the top of the tubs and covered in garnishes are usually in-authentic tourist traps. What you want to look for is somewhere with a bunch of squarish metal tubs scraped flat across the top. We happened across such a place on our way to the train station, and stopped in. It might not have looked like much, but the very friendly man behind the counter told us that the owner had won world’s best ice cream maker in 2011 and his gelato lived up to the reputation. I settled on trying Lime-Ginger-Mint, and Olivia chose pistachio. Both of us got Jamaican chocolate. Ice cream in hand, we headed to the train and back to Madrid.
The next morning, I said goodbye to Olivia as she took an uber to the airport, where the adventure really started for her. If you want to hear about it, check out her blog about it here. As for me, I had plans to play ultimate. Some players from the Quijotes+Dulcineas team groupchat were having an open scrimmage at a local park. I joined them and had a good time playing some pickup ultimate. Afterwards, we got lunch at a nearby place. I’m finding it easier to listen and speak in Spanish as I practice more, although I still stutter through half of my sentences. I think this is easily the longest update yet, so I will wrap it up in the usual way with a few prayer requests.
Prayers
- Pray for my health, I have had a cold all week that won’t seem to go away.
- Pray for my friend Olivia’s travels, she has had some issues with getting bumped from a flight and trying to navigate international travel alone.
- Pray for my quiet times, as I have been feeling a bit isolated and dry spiritually this week.
Hasta la próxima vez,
Timothy