Archive
October 26, 2005
Ok, this has to be brief.
Tomorrow I am renting a car and driving to Portugal with some friends, We will be there until Tuesday.
I was in Seville last weekend which is an amazing city, I also have photos i want to share but dont have time right now.
I am in a rush because I have to run home and eat and meet my group because we are going to this Arab bath tonight, where i guess we bathe in water and apparently also get a massage, i dont really know.
today I also went to a laundry mat so i could properly dry some of my clothes for the first time in 2 months. ahhhh how nice it will be to have shirts that fit and are not massive maternity gowns
October 21, 2005
The Wall
There is this old wall that was built by the Muslims inhabitants of the city way back when (I think) that runs on one side of Granada. Today 2 friends and i tried to climb on top of it. we didn't make it to the top of the wall (insufficient foot/hand holds on wall, however we know where to go next time and look around for a object to stand on), but we got right up next to it, saw some awesome views and saw a bunch of people living in caves.
The Wall
Alhambra on the left, Granada all around it.
People live in these caves, I dont know how it works, but I think they might be free and just come on a first come first serve basis, none of them were nice, and generally were surounded by grabage.
For greater detail in the photos, go to the photo album.
October 19, 2005
Last weekend, 2 friends and I attempted to go to the town of Ronda.
Didnt take this one, but that is Ronda.
We first took a bus to Malaga, and then once in Malaga realized that there was no direct bus to Ronda, and the only bus would take 3 hours due to the fact that it stops in seemingly every small town along the way. We had to be back in Malaga by 9pm to catch the last bus back to Granada (we later learned of a train from Granada to Ronda that gets us there in like 2 hours, a trip for another weekend)
So instead we took a short bus ride to the coastal town of Marbella. The guide books said that Marbella is one of the most exclusive resort towns on the Costa del Sol, and that its onetime mayor was jailed for diverting approximately $23 million of the cities money to a soccer team in Madrid he was part owner of. Anyways, we arrived, walked around and found a restaurant. And sat there for about 2 hours and had a proper Spanish lunch, pure relaxation. After witch realizing we only had a small amount of time left we did a whirlwind tour of the sea-side and surrounding areas.
Its clearly off season the beaches were all but empty and the main boardwalk had few people out.
This is the beach.
The new roommate it Hatman (dont know to write it, its pronounced haa-t-mán, he claims it is german) he is from Italy, up in the North near Austria. So far he seems like a nice guy, he speaks ok English along with Italian and German. he says that he understand everything people say to him in Spanish, but cant speak Spanish back only Italian, so far this seems to have been working well, when he talks in Italian, I can understand some of it because its very close to Spanish.
Something totally random about the language, that continues to make me laugh is that the word for "sound track" and "speed bump" is the same, "Banda Sorona".
Tonight I am going to a Flamenco show and this weekend I am going to the city of Seville.
October 13, 2005
hair cut
I got my hair cut today, I just went into a peluqueria and basically said "tengo pelo largo" (i have long hair) my friend tyler was there acting as translator. In the end, the woman did a good job, the hair is short, maybe a tad bit on the short side, but nonetheless it was a good expirence considering we couldnt communicate.
2 friends and I are trying to go to the town of Ronda for a day trip on Saturday. Its a small town about 3 hours away, its perched on the side of this cliff and a massive raviene splits the town in 2 and it has this old old bridge that crosses it. anyways, there doesnt appear to be any form of direct transport to this town, so we need to figure out exactly how we are going to get there.
October 10, 2005
La Alhambra
I went to the Alhambra yesterday. It is a Muslim fortress, the oldest part was built in the 8th century and subsequently Palaces and gardens were added until the 13th century or thereabout in time. It is hard to describe this building, from the outside it looks plain and rather ordinary for a building that is around 1000 years old. But once inside, you quickly understand why the Alhambra is referd to as one of the wonders of the modern world. Photos simply cannot do justice to this building.
More photos in the photo gallery. when you click on the medium sized photo, you get a full screen version. Only on these versions can you really appreciate the intricate reliefs that cover alll the walls.
http://www.scottmclean.net/photo
more photos
More photos from the Canary Islands.
More photos and some commentary is avilable in the photo section. The photos there are bigger and are of higher quality.
http://www.scottmclean.net/photo
October 06, 2005
Canary Islands
The trip to the Canary Islands was excellent. Our flight was to leave Granada at 7am for a short flight to Madrid, where we would have a brief 1 hour layover. as many things go in Spain, out flight out of Granada was late taking off, we landed in Madrid with only 20 min until out plane took off for the Islands. Here you get off your plane and then get onto a bus where then you drive around the runways for a while until you get to the terminal. so that took a few more minutes, by the time we got to the area where we should be able to get our flight, we were out of luck. even though the computers still said, LAST CALL, we pleaded with the Iberia Air people to let us on, but it wasn't happening.
So instead we took a flight to the SOUTH end of the Island (we were supposed to go to the north, our rental car was there). 3 hours later we finally get onto a plane bound for the canary's, except this time we sit at the gate not moving for an hour as the crew attempts to fix an electrical problem. they kept shutting down the entire plane and then turning everything back on, which lead to no cool air for a better portion of that hour, not to mention that a massive Russian was sitting next to me and was not only dominating the arm rest but was inching over into my seat. eventually we take off, 2.5 hours later we are on the Island of Tenerife. As I said we flew into the south airport, we needed to be at the north airport. Iberia said that they would put us on a bus for the north airport for free, they ended up giving us a voucher for a taxi. I think our taxi driver was 7 ft tall. he was confused as to why we were going from one airport to the other. we talked with him about the islands, he said he was born on the Island of La Gomera (we would be headed there later in the trip) and told us where to go etc.
We got to the north airport at a tune of 60 euro, got our rental car and hit the road. we drove to the big town on the north end of the island, Santa Cruz, found a cheap room and walked around.
Santa Cruz was a big city surrounded by mountains.
the next morning we headed out and drove up this mountain ridge into a cloud, we were going around sharp hairpin corners, in a cloud up a mountain. it was so foggy we couldn't see anything which was a bummer because I bet the views would have been spectacular. we drove down into some towns and made our way to the village that we would be staying in for the night. it was this smalll smalllllll town. the Pension (think basic basic hotel with bathrooms down he hall, but still pleasant) was owned by a Swiss woman in this neat old house, all 4 of us stayed in the same room that night, and it ended out being only 10 euro per person which was a great deal for a big room with 4 beds. we set out looking for a restaurant but everything was mysteriously closed. we finally found a place that was open and sat outside facing a nice park and town square.
In the town of Garachico, we ate just across the square from this building.
In the smaller towns a LOT of the buildings had really cool wooden balcony's
Next morning was the big day, we were going to go up to the top of Spain's tallest mountain, Teide, which is also the third largest volcano on earth. we decided not to hike up which would have taken 4 hours from the trail head, and opted to go on a short hike in the morning around some cool rock formations and then take the Cable car/tram thing up to the top. the cable car cuts the trip down to a brief 8 min. the short hike was nice, lots of rocks that reminded of either the big island of Hawaii or Southwest USA. It wasnt entirely sunny, there were some patches of blue, basically everything above us was in the clouds, including the summit of Teide. we drove to the cable car and found that it was CLOSED because of fog. this was very disappointing. even though we probably wouldn't have been able to see anything from the top, being able to go TO the top would have been something in its self. we milled about with a bunch of German tourists staring at the CLOSED sign and then decided to go have lunch.
I did not take this photo. But this is what the volcano looks like.
we drove down the road and found this cool area with sandy ground but it had huge rocks coming out of the sand to sit and have lunch.. while we are eating lunch it starts to POUR rain, we have to run back to the car but are totally soaked. driving down the mountain one of the roads we just drove over only 45 min previous was covered in Rock and dirt from a water induced landslide.
Comming down from the Volcano was foggy. the photo doesnt do justice to how foggy it was.
Driving down from the Volcano the road wound its way through Banana plantations. Banana plantations were allll over the islands. All of the fruit on the trees were green, small and clearly not ready to eat so we didnt get to pick any to eat.
Thats a lot of Bananas
The weather thus far had been somewhat frustrating, but we still got to see some cool things. deciding to move on to the next island of La Gomera we take a 50 min ferry ride and end up in the small town of San Sebastian.
Walking around for a few min we find a pension operated by a old man who seems to sit around all day and smoke cheap cigars. Dinner that night we went to a restaurant called Cubino, our guide book said that it had great Mojo sauce (pronounced Moho) its a red and green sauce made from either hot red peppers or cilantro (some varieties of mojo verde use green pepper or even parsley) you put it on little black potatoes that were dry boiled in water with sea salt, so the outsides of the potatoes are covered in salt. its verrrry good, and this restaurant had the best mojo we had tasted. it was run by a family, we talked with the older woman who ran the place, she was from Cuba and had moved to the canarys. her husband and son (Marco) also worked in the small restaurant. she was extremely nice and fun to talk with. she had an incredible amount of energy and talked with us for a while about the islands and her restaurant.
the next day we took a bus to the center of the island, and hopped off at a trail head that would take you up to the highest spot on the island. we walked up to the highest spot, took some photos and then started to walk down hill through realllllly cool jungle/laurel forests. we kept going down until we came to this smalllll Village, its the only Village inside the national park, and all it was was a few houses surrounded by super green and lush plants, and a small restaurant. from where we stated to walk down this rocky staircase pieced together out of cobbles and slabs of rock, on one side was a sheer drop off, the other side was a steep hill. down in the valley below were banana plantations. we went down this steep staircase for a long while and finally reached the bottom where the trail then wound its way through banana plantations before coming out to a road where were caught the bus back to the town of San Sebastian.
that night we went back to Cubino restaurant, because it was Sunday and they would be serving their Paella mixto (only served on Sunday). we order dinner in the usual fashion, telling the woman what we want and then having her bark off orders in Spanish to her son at the bar, and husband in the kitchen. I decided to be adventurous and ordered the Rabbit (a common meat on the islands), but they didnt have it. This is the type of restaurant in small towns where people are friendly and the locals come to the bar every night for a drink and cigar. as we were eating a guy who we saw the previous night sits down at he bar and starts to pound the bar with his first. he does so repeatedly until Marco gives him a beer.
we finished dinner which was good, and Jeff decides that he wants to try this drink only found on the island of La Gomera called Gomeron. our original taxi driver from La Gomera mentioned it to us. so Jeff tells Marco has he is passing by that he wants a Gomeron, instantly Marco gets this crazed smile on his face and walks off, 2 min later he slams down 2 bottles on our table and then walks off. 1 of the bottles was liquor or some sort, the other was sort of molasses or honey like. he comes back with glasses (jeff was the only one who really wanted the drink) then pours a quantity of the unknown alcohol and unknown brown syrup into the glass, stirs with a spoon and then walks off. all the while he has this crazy smile on his face. jeff starts to drink and is immediately blown away at taste. I take a sip, along with Stephanie and Freya, its wretched. jeff keeps drinking, inspired by the knowledge that he is drinking something that very few people do or something like that. when he polishes off his drink, Marco passes by again, and we ask what kind of alcohol was in the drink, he says something and then grabs a pen and writes a big question mark on our paper table cloth. we we just kind of stare at him, and he laughs and walks off. we get hold of the woman that runs the place and she thinks the entire thing is quite funny, we ask her what is in the drink, and she shouts out to Marco basically asking "what did you put in it?" she tells us that the alcohol was homemade, or at least only made there right on the island.
the next morning we take a ferry tot he other side of the island, to a small village, walking through town we run into this large older man who tells us that he will rent us an apartment for the night.. good deal, we take the apartment for the night, hang out on the black sand beach for a bit, walk around, attempt to go to this tropical fruit farm where we would have been able to sample 12 different tropical fruits (it was closed). the next morning our boat leaves at 7am to go back to the main island for our flight out back to mainland Spain.
All in all, the trip was a lot of fun. We didn't get to see the top of the volcano, but we did do a lot of other stuff and meet people that will make it a memorable trip.
I have a lot more photos, but uploading them is time consuming. I promise to have more photos up soon of the trip and the bike race. Also the three other people who came on the trip have a lot of photos, I will see if i can get soe good ones from them.