Who's Your Papa?

So admittedly, last week, I may have spoken too soon when I said that Madrid was a bit more on the empty side in August, because this past week there was an absolute invasion, for lack of a more appropriate word.  This past week, Madrid hosted JMJ, the Journada Mundial de Juventud, or World Youth Day, which is an absolutely enormous, annual religious conference for the Catholic faith, and the Pope, or "el Papa" made an appearance in Madrid for the event. Needless to say, the entire city went absolutely nuts. There was a huge amount of time, effort, and repairs that went into preparing the city to receive the pope and the thousands upon thousands of youth groups that came from every single solitary corner of the world. At first, it was really cool to see flags waving and groups of people everywhere from countries I have never even heard of, and to see so many people from all over the world congregating in one city at one time.



And then, I had to take the metro.

I have never been so claustrophobic in my entire life, and by day 2 they had literally taken over the city. You physically could not walk anywhere in the streets because they were so clogged with teenagers (strike 1) waving huge flags, chanting, singing, yelling, blowing obnoxious whistles (whoever thought that was a good idea was actually mentally unstable) at all hours of the day and night in al parts of the city, and just in general causing absolute chaos. They were literally unescapable, even at the train station at work which is a good 40 minutes outside of main Madrid, they had to start making public announcements asking the participants not to wave their gigantic flags on the train or the metro. The METRO for goodness sake. However, because they made themselves so blatantly obvious as tourists with matching hats, backpacks, and t-shirts, I looked like a local, and felt like I was treated as such, by other local Madrilenos and by attendees of the conference. The groups of teenagers would often ask me for directions or help with the Metro, and I exchanged a few quite comical eye-rolls with other extremely agitated Madrid locals who were also being smushed in the streets, trains, restaurants, bathrooms, escalators, etc.

In case you're interested in better pictures or more information, here's the press releases/photos site from the week: http://www.madrid11.com/pressoffice/en/multimedia

Needless to say, I was pretty ready to take a break from the crowds and extreme heat of Madrid just for a bit, so when my friend Bárbara from work invited me for the weekend to her family's home in Palomares, right on the southeast tip of Spain - on the coast - I couldn't resist! I wasn't about to pass up such an incredibly nice and generous offer, and I'm so glad I didn't because it was honestly one of the best and definitely the most "Spanish" experience I've had yet!

We left on Friday for the 5 hour drive, my first "Spanish Road Trip," the first half of which we practiced Spanish and the second half English, and I even discovered some new Spanish bands and music. We arrived that night in Palomares, a very small town in Andalusia with a small center, beautiful homes, a few bars, restaurants and markets, an incredible view of the beach, and some of the nicest, most welcoming people I have ever met. The town is known for its agriculture, and Bárbara said that no one ever buys produce or fruit from the grocery store unless it can't be grown in the region, because one of their neighbors in the town most likely grows it and whenever it's ripe will bring some to all of their friends. Right away you could tell that this pueblo had an extreme "open door" policy, which was one of the things I loved most about it. Neighbors and friends would drop in unannounced at any time of the day or night, just to chat or for some food and a drink, and everyone knew everyone. Never, ever was it an imposition or inconvenient to have people come over - spending time with friends always comes before obligations.

Bárbara's parents and aunt abide by the Spanish eating/time schedule, and dinner that night around 10:30 pm was an incredibly delicious home-made Spanish tortilla (the Spanish omlette) accompanied by a customary communal salad in the middle that everyone just picked at, consisting of tons of fresh vegetables - cucumber, tomato, corn, onions, tuna, olives, peppers - tossed with salt and olive oil that I would come to discover was made from the olives that their family grew in a grove on the land that they owned in a different part of the city. Dessert was slices of the freshest melon I have ever tasted. Absolutely delicious, to say the least! And then because it was so hot even at that time of night, not to mention humid, we went swimming in their backyard pool, and when it got to be 12:30 I was exhausted and thinking bedtime, but nope! Bárbara, her boyfriend Gines and I made an appearance at a family reunion for a guy who also happens to work at Alcandora with Bárbara and I, and that was quite a sight to behold. A huge family, everyone dancing and eating and drinking on a huge front area of a beautiful house, who insisted that we come have a drink with them ("The question here is not 'Would you like a drink?' it's 'Rum or whiskey?'") complete with delicious home-made donuts covered in sugar, and the most exciting/terrifying do-it-yourself fireworks ("fuego artificial") display I have ever seen!! It was so cool to be able to partake in something so authentic and "typical Espanish" (one of many that I would come to experience that weekend) as a huge family reunion. After that, we drove to the next pueblo over, on a road that followed the coastline the entire way (admittedly I may have siesta-ed during the 15 min drive) to a street full of really cool bars and summer terraces, with lots of music and places to sit and drink or dance. That part of the coast is extremely popular for tourists during the summer to escape to the beach, especially from other parts of Spain and England, and in fact there is a bar, restaurant, housing complex, and market in little Palomares known as being just for English speakers.

The next morning, we had another very typical Spanish breakfast tostada (remember that means "toast," not like Mexican food tostada) of toasted fresh baguette (which they eat with every meal from the local bakery or "panadería") with this delicious fresh grated tomato spread (tomatoes donated by the neighbors), fresh cheese, and topped with their homemade olive oil. And not to mention on the side, some fresh figs from the grove out in front of their house, which also included orange trees and a pine tree they're growing for christmas, among a million other fruit trees.

Grove in front of their house

Then, Bárbara, Gines and I went on a drive along the coast towards Almería, through Mojacar and the port of Garrucha, to Bárbara's favorite view, which is from a somewhat hidden tower, like many others that line the coast, that used to be used to protect against Arab invaders. Like the rest of Andalusia, there is a really strong historical Arab influence because the Arabs inhabited the land before the Spanish. The towns were so cute, all pretty small but beautiful, pueblos situated one right after the other with cool beachside cafés and terrazas lining the beach. (Side note, last year it was made legal to bathe nude on any beach of the Mediterranean sea coastline.) After that we drove through the hills just behind the towns, an extremely dry and desert-y landscape.

Bárbara and I on top of Torre del Pirulico, her favorite view of the coast!

 

A little more sightseeing later, we met up with her parents at a restaurant for lunch of some traditional Andalusian food. What an experience. First of all, no one orders their own plates, there's just a tons of dishes put out for the table and everyone picks at/takes whatever they want and shares everything - I loved it! First on the menu was...snails. Caracoles. Literally, like someone just plucked it off the sidewalk and doused it in sauce. I was kindof terrified but just chalked it all up to experience and went for it (after a little bit of squeamish deliberation) - and it actually wasn't too bad! Mostly because all you can taste is the sauce. Traditionally you either just slurp it out of the shell, I opted to pull it out separately. Then there was also calamari, sardines (eyeballs included, looking almost alive), migas (couldn't tell you exactly what they were, probably better that way) the customary pick-at-it-salad, 3 different kinds of soup, I think one was called triga, battered patatas fritas with peppers, and much more! I kindof adopted a "the less you know the better" mantra when experimenting with food in Andalusia, and actually ended up loving most of it!

Contemplating las caracoles

After lunch her parents gave us another driving tour through the desert hills, some incredibly impressive mansions hidden there, a lot of them owned again by wealthy English people, and a few were made in the style of a town that we passed through on the way into Palomares called Las Cuevas, ("The Caves") where homes are actually built into the mountain in caves that were already there, so all you can see from the outside is the entrance and almost the entire rest of the house exists within the mountain.

Then we stopped in the port town of Garrucha for some ice cream and souvineer shopping, and Bárbara was so nice as to buy me a souvineer that I had been eyeing - a ring with the Almerían symbol of el Indalo, found everywhere in the architecture and streets of the provinces and pueblos, that was discovered in caves and is believed to date back to 4000 B.C., and is now believed to bring good luck, wealth, abundance and peace to those who wear it. It looks like this:

We went back to Bárbara's house, went for a swim and reverted back to our 5-year-old selves playing dress up with Bárbara's old Flamenco dancing costumes! 

Dinner at 10:30/11pm-ish was on the beach at the local beach-side café, and included fried peppers and potatoes with Palomares's famous garlic butter sauce (what's up heart attack). We also walked to try a few of the local bars, have my new favorite drink of Bosco Negra with lemon, as well as sample some delicious caramel liquors. We came home and spent a good 2 hours on the top balcony just chatting over drinks, which was so nice to be able to have that kind of conversation mixing English and Spanish!

The next day we did some more sightseeing on the coast, visiting a few neighbors, and then driving out to another one of their friend's houses to collect some chumba that they're well known for in the town, which is the fruit of the cacti that are everywhere in the dry desert climate. Then we went to Gines's grandmother's house for lunch - a big, and daily, ordeal for an extended family that all lives so close together. All 5 siblings and their families met at the house for an enormous, delicious, fun and loud meal of homemade paella that was made with....sorry Goldie and Celeste and Phoebe...rabbit, the first time I'd ever tried it, and Bárbara tried to tell me it was chicken but one of the younger cousins let it slip! But it was honestly the most authentic and delicious paella I have tried here, and of course the fresh bread, of course the communal salad, fresh fruit and vegetables. It was absolutely incredible and so cool to just observe such a traditional family meal happening - and they were all so so generous and friendly! Then after that, when I was thinking it would be nice to not eat again for another decade, the whole family went out for ice cream and coffee. And by that I mean we sat there chatting for 2 and a half hours! 

With some of Gines's family at a Castillo de Pulpí

We came back to Bárbara's house for a bit to swim and say goodbye to her family, and then Gines, Bárbara and I went to one of their friends' apartments in the next pueblo for an authentic Spanish birthday party "barbacoa" (barbeque) on the rooftop terrace of their balcony. It was great to be able to meet and talk to a group of Spanish friends my age, almost like seeing what my life would be like if I was a 20-something born and raised in Spain. We exchanged Spanish and English tongue-twisters, had some delicious barbequed jamón and hamburgers (actually made with ham) and I even braved the morcilla, another extremely traditional and extremely gross food of blood sausage. That one didn't go over as well with me, but hey, when in Spain, try everything once! Then Bárbara and Gines drove me to the bus station and I took a 12:30 am bus back, arriving in Madrid at 6:30 am. 

Needless to say, this weekend was an absolutely incredible experience for me to really get a taste of the true Spanish lifestyle, in every way shape and form. It made me think about the difference between my apartment situation and what my experience would have been like had I opted for a homestay, and in the end I'm really glad that I'm in my apartment with my (amazing) roommates. It would have been great to practice Spanish in a homestay, but I'm getting plenty of that at work and in daily life navigating around Spain, and even after one weekend I realized it definitely could have gotten really lonely not having anyone to speak English with, because it's not only mentally exhausting to keep up when you're speaking in Spanish all the time, but it also adds an interesting element to trying to let your personality show through and to express yourself when the language barrier is there. But after this weekend, I was pretty satisfied with myself at my ability to keep up and converse with the people in Almería, and am so grateful to have had this - it's hard to believe but I truly think this one weekend made a huge difference in my entire, overall experience of Spain. Not only do I feel so lucky to have made such a sweet and generous friend to invite me to stay with her family, but it was undeniably memorable, cultural, a ton of fun, and really inspiring to see yet another very different part of the country and to see Spain through the eyes of those who really call it home.