Not suitable for domingueros

I signed up for a hiking trip, Ascensión al Cerro del Albarracín y el Cerro del Ponce, without researching it much. It said it was a 'medio' level trip and based on the 'bajo' ones I had been on, I figured I could handle it. Here's a picture of the hike:

The pick-up spot was way on the other side of the city, so I took a bici to the center and then a bus to the spot. We left promptly around 8:40 AM. After a stop for breakfast/coffee, we arrived at the start of the hike around 11. They warned us the first 2 hours were uphill and then after that it would be easier.  They weren't kidding about the uphill, but the downhill wasn't much easier on the legs. The ground was slanted and sort of sandy, so keeping upright while going down was a different sort of challenge from going uphill.

Getting instructions about the hike.

Going UP...

Admiring the view.

The view

From the top.

Group Shot at the top of cerro #1.

The climb was not comfortable, but the guides were funny and the other hikers were really nice. At the top of the first hill the guides asked me where I was from. I said I was from Minnesota, in the northern United States. They wanted to know what Minnesota had to offer. I said corn and flour. They wanted to know if there were cows and cowboys in Minnesota. Then they commented that when people from the North go to the South, the Southerns say, 'Go home, Yankee.'

We went carefully down the rocks and over a bit to another cerro. When we got to the top one of the guides heard from another guide that someone had lost their camera at the top of the first cerro, and they were climbing back up to try to find it. While they did we waited at the top of the second cerro.

Carefully going down cerro #1.

Top of cerro #2.

Cows we met up with on the way down.

We walked down, down, down, down, down until we got to a highway. It was then that the guides realized that three people were missing and they headed back up to find them. They told us we had to meet at a certain restaurant in the city at 4:15. I thought the city would be fairly close to the highway, but getting there entailed another 20-minute walk down.

When we finally got to said restaurant it was about 3:30. We had to meet again at 3:50, so we sat down and ate lunch quick. I assumed, since I saw the bus parked near the restaurant, that we were going to be loading the bus and heading back to Sevilla. But I remembered that the guide, at the beginning of the hike, said something about a nice, easy path at the end. We never got to that nice, easy path.

At 4:15 the guides and the missing hikers were still not back, so we stayed put. At about 4:30 they rolled in, ate lunch, had a few beers and then we gathered again. Much to my dismay we were embarking on a journey down that nice, easy path. It was another three miles of walking. Around each turn hoped to encounter the bus sitting, waiting for us. But the hike dragged on and on and on.

Trying to get to the bus at the end of the easy path.

The guide asked me if I had ever been on this trail before, because it was famous. I said that I hadn't and asked why it was famous. He said that 'domingueros' liked to go there. 'Domingueros?' I asked, knowing it had something to do with people and Sundays ('domingo' is Sunday in Spanish). He pulled out his walkie talkie and radioed another guide, 'How do you say 'dominguero' in English? he asked  'Sunday man' came through the speaker. 'Sunday man, Sunday man,' he said to me. I laughed. (According to the dictionary it is a 'day-tripper' or a 'Sunday driver' (yeah).)

When we FINALLY got to the end we sat down at a café and rested while we waited for those that were behind us. I was so glad the hike was finally over. We waited, and waited and waited. After about a half and hour I got up to check out the nearby trout farm. Eventually the last of the group made it to the end. One of the hikers had gotten a really bad cramp somewhere along the easy path and he had to hobble all the way to the end. We had to wait while everyone finished up their coffees and THEN (lest you think the hike was over) we still had to walk uphill and through the town to get to where the bus was waiting (the streets of that pueblo were not built for buses). I felt bad for the man with the cramp. There was no other way to get back then to hoof it up the hill.

It was a glorious moment when we finally got to the bus. We loaded on and the guides counted the people. 'We always count the hikers before we leave,' a guide explained. 'If we are one or two off, we just figure that we counted wrong and just go home.'

We drove back Sevilla without stopping for a coffee break. I took a bici back home, arriving at the nearest bici station (miraculously) in just under half an hour. It was probably about 8:30 or 9 when I reached the fourth floor of my piso building. I was so relieved to finally be home.

Just Another Spanish Sunday (Torres Vigías de Barbate)

I usually don't do much on Sundays. In fact, I usually just leave the house to go running and then not again until Monday morning, when I leave to go running. It's not like I plan it, it's just that I have nothing to do and most of the time I don't make a conscious effort to get out. I was feeling kind of lame; I wanted to feel productive on Sunday for once, so I signed up for a hiking trip. The city has a hiking and 'multi-adventure' program that offers two or three trips of varying difficulty every Saturday and Sunday. The prices are 17€ and 29€ respectively. The price includes the bus ride there and back and a guide or two to lead you down the right paths. This program works with several hiking/rowing/sporty groups around the city. The group you are traveling with determines the place from which the bus will leave. One of the groups leaves nine-tenths of a mile from my piso and others leave from the other side of town (I haven't run there, so I can't tell you the exact distance). Your piso's distance from the pick-up point could be a big factor in your choice of hiking trip when you consider that the bus leaves at 8 or 8:30 AM on Saturday or Sunday.

I was up for a challenge, so I chose the 15 km hike called Torres Vigías de Barbate (The Watchtowers of Barbate) whose bus pick-up location was on the other side of town. The group's website describes the hike like this:

El Parque Natural del acantilado y pinar de Barbate es un auténtico tesoro ecológico de la zona. Una bella y estupenda extensión de pinos piñoneros replantados a principios de siglo para frenar las dunas móviles que avanzaban por la ladera del monte.

Indelebles torres vigías que permanecen ancladas sin tener ya piratas enemigos sobre los que alertar. Un lugar desde donde quizá, un día, hace 200 años, alguien se quedó mirando hacia el Oeste, hacia aquella batalla naval que libraban las flotas inglesas y franco-española frente al cabo llamado Trafalgar.

Sendero cómodo que se puede recorrer, sin grandes excesos físicos y con vistas muy gratificantes.

To sign up you go to the group's website and entered your first name, last names (in Spain everyone has two), ID number, e-mail, phone number, zip code, and agree to the terms of use. I attempted to enter this information online, but received an error message that what I entered was not correct. I assumed it was my ID number (which is different because I am a foreigner), but I entered all the information again and submitted it again to see what would happen. This time I saw the error message said that my last names were incorrect: last names must have at least 5 characters and no more than 50. This presented a problem, since I have only one last name and it has only four characters. Since I have no money to buy a vowel (Alex), I used those 50 characters to explain that I had only one last name and it was only four letters. I pressed 'submit' and away it went.

On Sunday morning I met my friend, Katie, near our pisos and we took a taxi to the bus pick-up near the main train station. It only cost about 8€ total, so it was worth the extra sleep we got. We loaded the bus on time, but didn't actually pull away from the bus stop until 8:50 AM. And then we had to stop to fill up on gas. Once we were on the road, we traveled for an hour or so and then (in true Spanish fashion) stopped for a quick breakfast/coffee/bathroom break. By the time we got to Barbate it was 11:50 AM.

The route was absolutely awesome to start. It was right by the ocean and supposedly the grey area you could see at the edge of the ocean was Africa. We walked for a little bit and came upon watchtower #1.

Tower #1. I don't know who those men are.

The view from behind the watchtower was better:

A little further down the path we saw:

A giant beetle

El mar

We had reached the end of the first leg of the hike and we were faced with a decision: stay at the beach until the bus left at 4:30 or continue on the hike and see the other watchtower and a great view. We didn't think there was a wrong answer and so, since we came to hike, we chose to hike.

The second half of the hike was an hour uphill climb to tower #2.

I haven't seen a lot of watchtowers in my life, but yet, I was still disappointed when I saw this one. It was not what I was expecting after reading the colorful description of the hike. ('Extra, extra, four men swindled!') I thought we would hear some harrowing tale or even get to enter the tower. Nada. No one climbs uphill for an hour to see this tower on purpose. The view is nice, but so is the view from the beach.

Where the Battle of Trafalgar took place

We ate lunch near the watchtower. One of the hikers had brought a bota of wine and passed it around for all to enjoy. I think he knew the disappointment we were all feeling after walking uphill for an hour and giving up an afternoon on the beach, only to feast our eyes on a giant concrete cylinder marred by graffiti.

The trip down went a little faster. At the bottom, the bus was nowhere to be found so the guide told us to sit down, relax and have a coffee while we waited for it. After about a half hour the bus rolled up near the cafe/restaurant and honked. We hopped on and headed down to pick up the beach-goers, who were eager to hear where we had been and what we had seen (to which the tour guide replied, "You should have come with us if you were so curious.") After about an hour of travel, we paused for another coffee/bathroom/snack break. (I remember this about my study abroad experience. Every time we took a bus trip we stopped for a snack/coffee. It was always at the truck stop with the bullring in it. Somehow, no matter where we went, that truck stop was on the way. I regret that I have not had the pleasure of returning recently.)

We rolled back into Sevilla around 7:30, took the city bus home and reflected on a productive Sunday.

There are no words...

In a recent issue of my favorite magazine, there was a list of foreign words that don't exist in English, but they believe should be added to the dictionary. These words sum up in one word what it can take a few sentences to explain in English. It's like the German word schadenfreude: enjoyment obtained from the troubles of others, especially one who has been exceptionally privileged and fortunate in the past. It perfectly captures the feeling you have when, say, a brown-nosing co-worker gets called into the boss' office and put on probation.  While similar words exist in English (like gloat), they are not exactly the same, nor are they as much fun to say.

Now I, by no means, know every English word, much less every Spanish word, but there are a few common words in English that I struggle to find a common equivalent to in Spanish. For example, the word 'procrastinate'. There is no one single word to describe this verb. Sure, there is delay, postpone, or push back, but when it comes to a synonym in Spanish, the dictionary can only say 'to leave things for later'. I think there could be two possible explanations. One is that necessity is the mother of invention: English speakers tend to intentionally leave things until the last minute so a verb was created to describe the action. The other possible explanation is that procrastinating is more socially acceptable in one culture versus the other. Maybe purposely leaving something until the very last minute still falls under the category of 'getting it done' and carries no negative connotations with it, so no verb is necessary. Just last night, though, the mother of one of the kids I give private lessons to was telling me about a project her daughter had to do and how she'd known about it for a week or so, but was first doing it now. She said she always leaves things for the last minute. I guess that puts the kibosh on at least one of my theories.

UPDATE: I've finished doing some research and found that the verb procrastinar is considered a word, according to the Real Academia Española (the official authority on the Spanish language). It is not in either of the online dictionaries that I usually use though, so I am just going to go ahead and assume that it is not used or known by the general population.

Another word that I need to use in Spanish is the word stare. When the kids at school complain that another student is staring at them, they use the verb mirar (to look at, to watch). To say stare the way I want to say it, you would have to say mirar fijamente (to at something intently). In my opinion, it just doesn't have the same negative connotation in Spanish. When walking down the sidewalk in Spain, you will notice the the gaze from fellow citizens will follow you much longer than what is comfortable for someone from the US. As I remember, in the US once you make eye contact with a person you are passing on the sidewalk, you switch your gaze. They don't play by those rules here. The starers in this country are mostly men as opposed to women, and there doesn't seem to be a time limit on observing a passerby. While in the US, the person would have crossed into 'staring' territory after maybe three seconds, they are still in 'mirando' territory in Spain even after twenty seconds, as far as I can tell. 

A Spanish word that English is lacking is the word estrenar (to use or wear for the first time). Wearing a new outfit for the first time can be exciting. Asking someone, 'Are those new shoes?' sounds so vanilla compared to '¿Estrenas zapatos?' But clothes aren't the only thing you can use estrenar for: new car, using the new light rail for the first time, using a new pen, a new gym, whatever. Doing something or going somewhere for the first time is exciting and English lacks a solid verb to express this small, but exciting part of life.

And a word that I recently picked up at the 'cole' (the elementary school): muda. It appeared on a preschool field trip information sheet for parents. The parents were instructed to send their child to school the morning of the field trip with a bottle of water and 'una muda' (a change of clothes/underwear). I feel like less is more when talking about underwear.

And I quote

Ah, the niños:

- "That shirt looks like something my mother would wear."

- It was quiet, so I was playing a song on my iPod while the two students in my private lesson colored. I chose one of my favorites. "It was better without the music." (For the record, it's was a song from Shrek.)

- A few minutes later Single Ladies by Beyoncé came on. It was loud, so I turned it down.  "No, turn it up. I like that song," said the little first grade boy.

- "Say something in Spanish," the student said to me.
   "What do you want me to say?"
   "Anything, just talk in Spanish."
    So I did...
   "See," the student said to another, "She sounds German. hehehehehe"

- "Melissa, do you want a cookie?"
   "No, thank you, that's your snack."
   "Yes, but I can give you one. Or did you already have your snack?"

- A first grader was eating a chorizo sandwich. He took out a piece of meat and handed it to me. "Oh, thank you," I said just as the greasy piece of meat slipped out of my fingers and onto the floor. "Oh, dear." I picked it up and walked to the garbage. The student tried to stop me, arguing that it was still good to eat. I threw it away anyway. He made an annoyed sound and pulled another piece of meat from his sandwich. "That's the last one you get!" He told me.

-A first grader recently hurt her foot and was walking with a walker. The next time I saw her she was completely healed. I asked her (in Spanish) how her ankle was. "What?" she asked. I tried again. "What? I don't understand English. The problem is that you speak as much Spanish as I speak English, so we can't understand each other." (Yeah...that's it....)

Salamanca

There are 17 autonomous communities in Spain. I thought a good goal would be to visit all of them. In an effort to conserve time and money, I decided that the regions I visited in previous trips to Spain would count towards my goal, if necessary. The Canary Islands, Catalunya, Castilla La Mancha and Madrid would fit into this 'if necessary' pile. I stayed overnight and took photos of monuments in all of them, so they count, regardless of whether or not the photos/hotel stays happened in 1998. If you count those, I have visited 10 of the 17. After visiting Salamanca, in Castilla y León, the number is up to 11. Salamanca is a university town near Madrid. It's home of the oldest university in the country (founded in 1218) and is the current headquarters for teaching Spanish to foreigners.

This particular weekend was a 'puente' (long weekend) due to the Día de Andalucía (Andalucía Day. Sevilla is in the Andalucía community) celebration on February 28. (By the way, the celebration started in 1980, when a lot of good things started.)

In the interest of saving money, I decided to take the bus to Salamanca instead of planes and/or trains (there are no direct planes/trains). The ride was 7 hours there and 8 hours back (because the route on the way back was different: there were more stops.) On any given weekday I usually ride the bus about 3 hours anyway, so what's 4-5 more? I left Sevilla on Saturday morning and got into Salamanca in the late afternoon. The 7 hour bus ride wasn't actually that bad. They played Twilight and some Marvel Comics movie, so it went pretty fast. I watched Twilight and then listened to the bus radio on the rest of the ride. They played songs like Whitney Houston's I will Always Love You and a song called Perfect (by Fairground Attraction). The songs were on loop, so I learned them well.

On the way from the bus station to the hotel, I stopped at one of the tourist offices to get a map of the city.  This office was in the Casa de las Conchas (The Shell House).

I found the hotel, dropped my bags off and headed out. Even though I had a map, I didn't use it. I decided to just walk around and see what I could see. I figured when I wanted to get back to the hotel I could pull out the map and get there.

It worked out quite well. I saw quite a few things and got a feel for the layout of the city. I didn't know exactly what I was seeing, but I figured that I would figure it out the next day.

Plaza Mayor

More Plaza Mayor

Inside the library/Casa de las Conchas looking at the Clercía.

Photo art exhibit showing photos from
the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)

Patio de las escuelas- looking at the Historical U building

There is a frog carved in the façade of this university building in Salamanca. Supposedly if you find it, you will have good luck. It is a big tourist attraction. People stand outside the building and try to find it. (Look closely at the photo and you'll see the people are looking up.) I didn't know this. The first day I walked past the building and saw the people gathered at the entrance and just thought, 'Oh, those people must be a tourist group waiting to get inside.' And I went on my merry way.

Looking closer at the U buildings façade. Look for the frog.

Church and Museum of San Esteban

Self portrait in a borrowed jacket.

The next morning I got up and went running. I headed towards the river because where I come from, the river has the best running in town. In this case the river was the Tormes River.

I headed out to explore again after my run. I wish I could tell you I used the map this time, but the truth was that there was so much to see in such a small area, that you could pretty much just walk around and see everything. So that's what I did.

The Roman Bridge. 15 of the arches are from the 1st century AC.

The bull. Seen in the city's coat of arms and
 in the novel Lazarillo de Tormes.

Inside the New Cathedral (1733)

Outside the New Cathedral/Plaza de Anaya.

The old Cathedral. Begun in the 12th Century.

Ancient sewer.

The Spanish Civil War Museum

The Civil War and Free Mason Museum, to be exact.

Salamanca Cave. Supposedly where the Devil taught 7 students.

Then it was time for lunch. I had the 'menú' (a three-course lunch) at a restaurant near the cathedrals.

Sopa Castellana: bread, garlic, paprika, egg.

Pork in a mustard sauce.

Chocolate cake.

I then made my way back down to the river and visited the Museo de La Fábrica de Harina. There was absolutely no one else there. In fact, there wasn't even an employee in the museum. But since the door was open and it was supposed to be free, I went in.

Flour mill museum.

View from the Flour Mill museum.

The view of Plaza Mayor from my hotel room.

The view of Plaza Mayor from my hotel room balcony (by day).

At some point, after reading about what to do/see in Salamanca and seeing frogs in the tourist shops, I put it together and, in the half hour I had before I had to head to the bus station to go back to Sevilla, I tried desperately to find the University again to see if I could spot the frog. I did circles around the cathedrals, but couldn't find the building. I even used the map. Somehow, on the third or fourth try, I went through the Escuelas Menores and there it was. With my camera warning me of a low battery, I snapped a few photos and hustled to the hotel to pick up my bags and hoof it to the bus station.

There were things that I didn't get to see in Salamanca, such as the inside of the University, the museum of Salamanca and the cathedrals medieval towers, but at least I could say I saw the frog.

The bus ride home was a whole hour longer and it felt like it too. It might have been the fact that I forgot my headphones the bag in the luggage area under the bus. I was forced to read the subtitles to the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie instead of getting to hear it. (I know that some of you may feel that was a blessing in disguise.) At one of the stops I asked the bus driver if there was enough time for me to get my headphones out of my bag. He said there was, so I got to watch Up in the Air with sound. (And enjoy the bus radio afterwards too.) The movie was in Spanish with Spanish subtitles. However, the subtitles did not often match what the person in the movie said. The meaning was the same, but the words were not. For example, George Clooney swears in the movie. The voice said, 'Damn' but the subtitles said 'Shit'. I guess it was a good way for me to learn synonyms.

When we reached Sevilla, I left the bus station and headed to the bus stop. Although it was the late, and the buses come less frequently, the bus I needed to take to get home was coming around the corner just as I was making my way to the stop. By some miracle, I made it in time. Maybe there is something to that 'finding the frog' legend after all.