Today we were a bit slow out the gate, and started the day heading outside of the Medina to visit the Mellah, the old Jewish city center and cemetery. The cemetery was peaceful and quite moving with thousands of white washed tombs overlooking the striking green hillside. The most famous of the stories of people buried there involve a young girl (Solica) from the 1600’s with whom the governor of Tangier was infatuated, but as it was forbidden for him to be involved with a Jew, he was going to force her to convert to Islam. She refused and her throat was cut for it.
We headed over to the Ville Nouvelle after visiting the cemetery, and wandered around the new modern wide-open streets and manicured lawns of the new city. It is quite lovely, but definitely doesn’t have the same feeling, smells, and ambiance of the Medina.
We went to eat an early dinner (I had the camel burger and fries, while Ulises had the chicken and couscous) and to see the concert this evening on the rooftop terraces at Café Clock. The music performed was Gnaoau, using a traditional Fessi guitar like instrument and several percussion items. It was incredibly lovely to sit and listen to the music while watching the birds tease kittens on the rooftops as the sunset. I don’t think that this came close to capturing it, but we tried!
Thanks to our host Louis, our guide Samira, and all of the hospitable folks in Fez (particularly the non hustlers!)
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Fessi Hospitality
Today we are exploring the Medina of Fez with our tour guide Samira. We began the tour at the former governor of Fez’s home, an amazing old, Riad which included a home for the Governor, one for his four wives, and one for his servants (that doesn’t even touch on the alms rooms and other rooms set aside for formal affairs of state). This home takes up a whole block of Fez, and like most of the homes, one unassuming little door leads into wide-open atriums, vaulted ceilings, woodworking, mosaic, and plasterwork craftsmanship of amazing quality. Like many of the homes in Fez, this building was passed down through the family of the former governor (this home has been in his family since the 15th century) and now rests in the hands of a great grandson. However, also like many families, there are only 6 people living in a home meant for hundreds, and it has fallen into disrepair. Apparently several Americans have tried to by the property, but the family will not sell.
From here we went to the Water clock, the Bou Inania Medersa (a lovely and ornate school of higher learning built in the 1300s), to the Chouwara Tanneries, several Fundoqs (these are old hotels that were built in 2 or 3 levels during the height of international trading through Fez), and the ceramics factory outside of town.
The amazing thing about nearly all of these places is that all crafts are done by hand, animals are killed in the streets, skinned, shorn, hides soaked in limestone and guano, dyed in vegetable dyes, dried in the sun, and then made into shoes, jackets, etc…all in the same place. Ulises caught some really good footage of our tour, check out a couple of highlights on the flickr page.
One thing to note, coming from the states where shopping is nearly a national pastime, I must say, we have nothing on the Moroccans when it comes to shopping. Nearly everyone has something to sell, or a partial interest in something that they want you to buy. If I had a job, I would have left here with a whole lot of purchases...instead I think I might leave with a couple more Durham in my pocket.
After an exhaustive all day round about, we went to the Café Clock for a light dinner and some tea, and were thrilled to find out that a band is performing on the roof on Sunday! Live local music is a must see!
-M’a ssalama
From here we went to the Water clock, the Bou Inania Medersa (a lovely and ornate school of higher learning built in the 1300s), to the Chouwara Tanneries, several Fundoqs (these are old hotels that were built in 2 or 3 levels during the height of international trading through Fez), and the ceramics factory outside of town.
The amazing thing about nearly all of these places is that all crafts are done by hand, animals are killed in the streets, skinned, shorn, hides soaked in limestone and guano, dyed in vegetable dyes, dried in the sun, and then made into shoes, jackets, etc…all in the same place. Ulises caught some really good footage of our tour, check out a couple of highlights on the flickr page.
One thing to note, coming from the states where shopping is nearly a national pastime, I must say, we have nothing on the Moroccans when it comes to shopping. Nearly everyone has something to sell, or a partial interest in something that they want you to buy. If I had a job, I would have left here with a whole lot of purchases...instead I think I might leave with a couple more Durham in my pocket.
After an exhaustive all day round about, we went to the Café Clock for a light dinner and some tea, and were thrilled to find out that a band is performing on the roof on Sunday! Live local music is a must see!
-M’a ssalama
Friday, April 11, 2008
Crossing the Atlas
Friday April 11 – We woke up, had breakfast in the lovely sun filled patio of the Hotel Rembrandt, hailed a petit taxi, and arrived at the Tangier train station. After buying our tickets for Fez, we settled in for an hour wait until our train headed out. Ooops, Morocco is 2 hours earlier than Spain, we are 3 hours early for the train.
C’est la vie. The train ride was through the Atlas foothills and the lush green farmland and grazing pastures of the mountains. It was truly lovely. Apparently both Ulises and I look like Moroccans, and people kept speaking to us in Arabic until they finally notice the vacant look in our eyes and say Parlez vouz Francais, only to be met with a slightly less blank look – after batting around Spanish, a bit of Italian, we settle on broken English as the means of communicating.
We arrive in Fez to be picked up by the owner of our lodging and made our way into the Medina. There are so many interesting things about the medina, but perhaps my favorite so far, is that all goods have to be brought into the city on donkey or by hand cart. The roads are simply too narrow for any motorized vehicles. So we paid 10 Durham to have a very speedy gentleman take our bags into the Medina in what looked a lot like my dad’s fishing cart.
The home is very lovely, with more rooms than most homes in the US, and a 5 level rooftop terrace in the heart of the city. We were so excited to finally arrive! Our host, Louis, sat down to some mint tea and provided us with some guidebooks for the city, and sent us on our merry way to try and not get lost. Of course we kind of did, but not too badly. The streets are crowded, filled with smells, kids, shops, cafes, and so many shoppers!
Louis was kind enough to invite us for dinner that evening prepared by his home attendant Ben and his wife. Ulises and I joined Louis and the other guests at the Dar Mernissi, all of whom were DoDS teachers overseas (I believe that this means that they work for the Department of Defense teaching students of military based around the world). They were all very kind expat Americans and we talked about traveling, Obama and Italian ruins.
The meal was amazing with 5 courses – some grain based spicy soup that was delicious, olives, tomato/onion/lettuce salads, eggplant, baked skate fish with roasted potatoes, artichokes, roasted tomatoes in a spicy sauce and fresh fruit with chocolate. It was decedent! Thanks so much to Louis McIntosh’s hospitality and Ben and his wife’s cooking (you can check out Louis’ blog at louis-fes.blogspot.com)!
-Buona Notte
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Ferrys Schmerrys
This morning, Ulises called the ferry company to receive the news that the 9AM ferry was shut down due to weather, but by 10AM they would know if the 11 and 1 ferries would be heading to Tangier. So, as we are fast becoming accustomed to, a quick strategy session was required.
We stopped into Las Pas, the wi-fi connected café, fueled ourselves with some Desayuno (Ulises had the Tostada con tomate e aciete and I had the Muesli con miel e yogurt) with two doses of Café con Leche for both of us, we surfed the internet and hatched our master plan. We would leave the windy city and small port of Tarifa, for the larger port at Algeciras, from which we could finally leave Spain and arrive in Africa.
Easier said than done.
1- Checkout was easy and the hotel was cheaper than we thought
2- The receptionist was so kind that she gave us the right time for the bus to Algeciras
3- We paid a total of 1.8Euro and got on the bus
4- We made it to Algeciras and walked to the port
The port was closed, no ferries out to Tangiers ……
Oh, but wait, our night in shining armor arrives (actually he is a port parking lot attendant who gets a kick back from the local travel agent across the street) he says, you just need to take the slow boat, he knows a travel agent we can use. So after booking two passages on the 2 ½ hour slow boat, we hustle over to the port, only to find that it has been canceled to due weather.
This is when my faith in the Spanish ferry system began to crumble.
The ladies at the company information booth tell us…go try Euro Ferry, I hear that they are still running boats, and they have one leaving in an hour. Okay, easy enough. Now Euro Ferry has 3 windows to help people, but you have to purchase your tickets from the window that is displaying that particularly ferry time. One window is selling the 15:00 Ferry to Tangier and the 14:00 Ferry to Cueda. This is a problem, as all of those people holding the tickets for canceled ferries, are standing in one line in a hot and muggy port authority station.
Slowly but surely Ulises is making it further and further towards the front of the line, until finally, the light of day can be seen, when all of a sudden a woman (nah, a girl) steps up to the window from further back in the line and starts throwing a fit…how can they only have one person on hand, she needs to book her ferry to Cuerta and it leaves in 25 minutes, on and on and on. It was a blur of angry high-pitched Spanish from her, being answered slowly and methodically by the girl (who resembled that unfortunate looking woman from “Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown”) behind the bulletproof glass.
“Can I skip in front? You don’t mind do you? My boat is going to leave”
So Ulises and I let her in front, and after her two more people latch on (my first lesson about lines today)
After much crying, hyperventilating and overall whining the PE (Princess de Espagna) has her tickets, as does a little old man, and a granddad and his grandson.
It is FINALLY Ulises and I’s turn…we are going to get out of Spain! Oh, but no, the PE is back, and so is the rest of the crew. Turns out, the boat was closed, they couldn’t get on, she needs a refund right now…oh, and she lost her receipt.
If eyeballs were capable of inflicting physical harm, I truly believe that her head would have exploded, but thankfully they don’t, and we got our tickets, and despite a 3-hour delay leaving Spain, we crossed the straight of Gibraltar, and now have our feet solidly on African soil.
The Ferry was an interesting ride, not only because they had a casino, duty free shop, and full restaurant on board – but also the ride over was so rough, there were tons of people hailing the porcelain god. I also got my first bit of exposure to Morocco, as the on boat customs line had a line for men and one for women – however that doesn’t mean that people don’t skip in front of you, I was pushed out of the way twice until finally a kind gentleman who spoke at least 4 languages said to me in English – “You’re not going to make it if you don’t push your way thorough, no one is going to do it for you” – lesson number two about lines.
We are settled into Hotel Rembrandt here in Tangier and watching The Ten Commandments in French in a Muslim country. We head out to Fez tomorrow, we are 1 day behind on our scheduled trip, but none too worse for the wear despite the constant harassment by vendors and folks on our walk from the port.
-Hasta Luego
Oh, one new item to add. As we go to each city, we decided to try and find the most unfortunately named restaurants in the city. Here are today’s:
Algeciras – Hambuergertaco
Tangier – Pizzeria Haiti (now it wasn’t the name as much as what was on the pizza – cheese, squid, hot dogs, and mushrooms)
We stopped into Las Pas, the wi-fi connected café, fueled ourselves with some Desayuno (Ulises had the Tostada con tomate e aciete and I had the Muesli con miel e yogurt) with two doses of Café con Leche for both of us, we surfed the internet and hatched our master plan. We would leave the windy city and small port of Tarifa, for the larger port at Algeciras, from which we could finally leave Spain and arrive in Africa.
Easier said than done.
1- Checkout was easy and the hotel was cheaper than we thought
2- The receptionist was so kind that she gave us the right time for the bus to Algeciras
3- We paid a total of 1.8Euro and got on the bus
4- We made it to Algeciras and walked to the port
The port was closed, no ferries out to Tangiers ……
Oh, but wait, our night in shining armor arrives (actually he is a port parking lot attendant who gets a kick back from the local travel agent across the street) he says, you just need to take the slow boat, he knows a travel agent we can use. So after booking two passages on the 2 ½ hour slow boat, we hustle over to the port, only to find that it has been canceled to due weather.
This is when my faith in the Spanish ferry system began to crumble.
The ladies at the company information booth tell us…go try Euro Ferry, I hear that they are still running boats, and they have one leaving in an hour. Okay, easy enough. Now Euro Ferry has 3 windows to help people, but you have to purchase your tickets from the window that is displaying that particularly ferry time. One window is selling the 15:00 Ferry to Tangier and the 14:00 Ferry to Cueda. This is a problem, as all of those people holding the tickets for canceled ferries, are standing in one line in a hot and muggy port authority station.
Slowly but surely Ulises is making it further and further towards the front of the line, until finally, the light of day can be seen, when all of a sudden a woman (nah, a girl) steps up to the window from further back in the line and starts throwing a fit…how can they only have one person on hand, she needs to book her ferry to Cuerta and it leaves in 25 minutes, on and on and on. It was a blur of angry high-pitched Spanish from her, being answered slowly and methodically by the girl (who resembled that unfortunate looking woman from “Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown”) behind the bulletproof glass.
“Can I skip in front? You don’t mind do you? My boat is going to leave”
So Ulises and I let her in front, and after her two more people latch on (my first lesson about lines today)
After much crying, hyperventilating and overall whining the PE (Princess de Espagna) has her tickets, as does a little old man, and a granddad and his grandson.
It is FINALLY Ulises and I’s turn…we are going to get out of Spain! Oh, but no, the PE is back, and so is the rest of the crew. Turns out, the boat was closed, they couldn’t get on, she needs a refund right now…oh, and she lost her receipt.
If eyeballs were capable of inflicting physical harm, I truly believe that her head would have exploded, but thankfully they don’t, and we got our tickets, and despite a 3-hour delay leaving Spain, we crossed the straight of Gibraltar, and now have our feet solidly on African soil.
The Ferry was an interesting ride, not only because they had a casino, duty free shop, and full restaurant on board – but also the ride over was so rough, there were tons of people hailing the porcelain god. I also got my first bit of exposure to Morocco, as the on boat customs line had a line for men and one for women – however that doesn’t mean that people don’t skip in front of you, I was pushed out of the way twice until finally a kind gentleman who spoke at least 4 languages said to me in English – “You’re not going to make it if you don’t push your way thorough, no one is going to do it for you” – lesson number two about lines.
We are settled into Hotel Rembrandt here in Tangier and watching The Ten Commandments in French in a Muslim country. We head out to Fez tomorrow, we are 1 day behind on our scheduled trip, but none too worse for the wear despite the constant harassment by vendors and folks on our walk from the port.
-Hasta Luego
Oh, one new item to add. As we go to each city, we decided to try and find the most unfortunately named restaurants in the city. Here are today’s:
Algeciras – Hambuergertaco
Tangier – Pizzeria Haiti (now it wasn’t the name as much as what was on the pizza – cheese, squid, hot dogs, and mushrooms)
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Tarifa – The Real Windy City
We have arrived in Tarifa Spain, the southernmost point of the European continent. You would think, south, beaches, warm? Nah, it is raining, just like it was in Sevilla, it has been 3 days of nonstop Florida style, rain drops the size of your fist rain. Whoever made up that phrase, “the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain” had no idea what they were talking about.
Due to the rain the port has been shut down, so we have been unable to continue our journey by Ferry from Tarifa to Tangier. That said, we found a great little hotel (Casa Amarillo) with a heater and clean sheets and towels, and are making the best out of it. Tarifa is a great city, a small historic city center protected by large fortress walls, and a sprawling beachfront with miles of boardwalk to wander.
Due to the rain the port has been shut down, so we have been unable to continue our journey by Ferry from Tarifa to Tangier. That said, we found a great little hotel (Casa Amarillo) with a heater and clean sheets and towels, and are making the best out of it. Tarifa is a great city, a small historic city center protected by large fortress walls, and a sprawling beachfront with miles of boardwalk to wander.
Por Fin, El Mar
further notice.
Bummer. Una can(y)a mas, por favor.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Churros and Chocolate
Well the Feria de Abril is quite the party. We walked all around the city on Monday trying to find the festival grounds with absolutely no luck. So after a fruitless search, we wandered around the Bullfighting ring – the oldest in all of Spain – to watch all of the fight goers in their finery squash into the arena. It was quite a sight, and we could have bought tickets (unsure if they would have been authentic) for 90 Euro for both of us…so around $150. We were tempted, but scalper’s…. who knows!
During the Feria there is a bullfight every night of the 7 night long festival. It is a three-stage fight with the most famous matador (or bull) taking the third spot of the evening. Since Monday was the start of the Feria, all of the best matadors fought and the President of Spain and his wife were in attendance.
While we didn’t get to see the fight, we did duck into a pub and watch it on TV from just a block away. I must say, it is the ultimate in Machismo, this 20something man in glitter and tights has is Picador’s target the right spot for him to aim his sword to finish off the bull, but this doesn’t happen for more than an hour of posturing, ducking, and waving of the red cloth to tire the bull, and get his heart pumping out as much blood as possible. I did get a little teary when the bull was finally brought down, as it is bloody and stunning sight, I can only imagine how it must be in person.
After watching the fight on TV we followed everyone from the bullring to wherever they were walking, which was the Feria!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seville_Fair
It is enormous, and quite a sight of acres of private tents and parties each with their own cooks, musicians, wine and merriment. The public portion of the fair is very much like your normal festival with rides, games, and food. One big difference though, you can win an entire smoked hogs leg as a prize at this fair...Jamon rules! Yesterday culminated in the lighting of the gates to the fair and all of the streets. For a taste, check out the video below.
We ended our Monday eating Churros and Chocolate in the rain – not recommended for gastrointestinal health at 1AM, but quite satisfying indeed.
For now it is raining and has been all day…so much for sunny Spain!
One more thing, Cheers to Michele & Patrick, and welcome to the world Avery!
During the Feria there is a bullfight every night of the 7 night long festival. It is a three-stage fight with the most famous matador (or bull) taking the third spot of the evening. Since Monday was the start of the Feria, all of the best matadors fought and the President of Spain and his wife were in attendance.
While we didn’t get to see the fight, we did duck into a pub and watch it on TV from just a block away. I must say, it is the ultimate in Machismo, this 20something man in glitter and tights has is Picador’s target the right spot for him to aim his sword to finish off the bull, but this doesn’t happen for more than an hour of posturing, ducking, and waving of the red cloth to tire the bull, and get his heart pumping out as much blood as possible. I did get a little teary when the bull was finally brought down, as it is bloody and stunning sight, I can only imagine how it must be in person.
After watching the fight on TV we followed everyone from the bullring to wherever they were walking, which was the Feria!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seville_Fair
It is enormous, and quite a sight of acres of private tents and parties each with their own cooks, musicians, wine and merriment. The public portion of the fair is very much like your normal festival with rides, games, and food. One big difference though, you can win an entire smoked hogs leg as a prize at this fair...Jamon rules! Yesterday culminated in the lighting of the gates to the fair and all of the streets. For a taste, check out the video below.
We ended our Monday eating Churros and Chocolate in the rain – not recommended for gastrointestinal health at 1AM, but quite satisfying indeed.
For now it is raining and has been all day…so much for sunny Spain!
One more thing, Cheers to Michele & Patrick, and welcome to the world Avery!
Monday, April 7, 2008
Onward and Downward
Hi All,
Sorry for the delay in posts, we have not had Internet access for a few days. That said, this will be a long one to catch you all up.
4/4 – On Friday Ulises and I woke up around 10 to head out to the Museo Nacionale del Prado, we walked from our hotel, The Grand Duque (giggle all you want) through the center of the city and finally to the museum. The guide books put this museum on par with the Louvre in the collections that it houses, and it is most well known for its collection of Goya’s (although it does have some other master works there, by folks with names like Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Reuben, and my least favorite Greco). The most famous of the Goya’s on display are the Maja's - Maja Desnuda and Maja Vestida. The all knowing audio guide said that the rumor has it that Goya painted the Maja Desnuda on commission for the private collection of female nudes for the Duchess of Alba. As the commission was begun, Goya began an affair with the Duchess, and it is rumored that the body of the nude is that of the Duchess, while her face is painted as an anonymous mask to hide the true identity of the model. The second Maja was painted on commission for the King of England (I think, the audio guide cut out on this one a bit). He rescued the first Maja from the art purging flames of the Spanish Inquisition (cue the Mel Brooks music if you must) as it was deemed to be obscene. Upon its rescue by the King, he commissioned a second painting to make a pair for his private gallery.
The other famous Goya on display is Il Saturno Devorando a un Hijo (Saturn eating his son) which is exactly what it sounds like.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_Devouring_His_Son
The best part about the museum wasn’t entirely the art, it was a beautiful building that also happened to be filled with the most obnoxious group of aspiring Italiano Sessy teenagers on a field trip. These Ragazzi dela Muerta followed us around the entire museum, stalking us like the cultural prey that we were. Ulises and I managed to avoid them several times, as their cell phone ring tones, combined with their odor of Axe and teenage BO alerted us that they were coming just around the corner. I am quite sorry that I didn’t catch this specimen of European puberty on film, as I am sure we could have learned much from studying them further.
After the museum we ran around in circles until we stopped into a little tapas bar founded in 1908, La Taverna de Dolores, had a couple of Cana de Birra and watched the citizens of Madrid cuss, smoke, and eat their Friday away.
As we made our way to dinner, we came across one of those little surprises that make traveling so fun. We were walking past the Palacio de Real, when we stumbled upon a theatrical celebration of some part of Spanish culture – best as I could tell it had to do with the Majas and dancing. Check out this clip (the Maja was displayed in light on the façade of the palace).
4/5 – On Saturday we prepared for our journey to Sevilla. The metro is easy to navigate in Madrid, and we arrived at the train station easily. The hard part was in trying to purchase a ticket. Imagine if you will a combination of the DMV and an airport check in line. We arrived at the ticket counter to pick up a number so we could meet with an agent, and purchase our ticket….we were number 771 – they were working on 600.
About an hour later we had our tickets in hand, and two hours to waste, so we headed to the park to soak up some sun and relax before the train ride. Three things about the Spanish rail system:
1- It is clean
2- It is on time
3- It is like air travel
The difficulties that Spain has had in regard to security have caused them to add more steps and restrictions on the access to trains than other rail systems. This has also created one of the cleanest and punctual trains I’ve ever been on, I even got to watch Hairspray in Spanish...kind of odd to say the least.
We arrived in Sevilla at 8PM and (due to my bright idea) we decided to walk to the hotel. 2 hours later we arrived at the Hostal Buen Dormir – a clean but cut rate hotel to say the least. We were grumpy, hungry, and emitting a purely European funk that I thought for sure would take at least 2 weeks to acquire (thanks Allen…no deodorant indeed). So we went to eat Chicken Shwarma and Hummus, and it was delicious!
4/6 – On Sunday the travel and odd hours of eating caught up with us and we slept in till 2PM, despite at least 15 different instances of the Church bells chiming. This is a feat that I am quite proud of and that I am still paying for today with a weird kind of grogginess. We started to explore the city a bit and walked from the hotel to the river – Rio Guadalquivir , to the bull-fighting ring, the cathedral, and around the Universidad. It is a beautiful city, with a huge influx of people here to celebrate the Festival of April – which begins Monday.
We had lunch at the Paellador (Ulises said that this means the Paella nator) and watched some of the local folks loop in the tourists and make some cash from hand rolling second-rate cigars for them while dressed in traditional garb.
As we walked back towards the city center we saw all of the well-dressed bullfight attendees walking towards the stadium. Red seems to be a lucky color for the fights, as a huge number of women wore red from head to toe. It is funny to know that we stand out here, just like all of the tourists. However there are always some folks that stand out more than you…yesterday it was a group of three blonde Americans that seemed to have fallen right out of The Hills on MTV. They definitely drew attention from the Spanish men, who took off their jackets and danced around them in the street like a Matador for the underdressed female.
After a dinner of all you can eat food at a new restaurant called FresCo, we headed to the Bodega Belmonte for a nightcap, a super busy Tapas bar with a mascot that looked suspiciously like Mike McGill….
Well, that’s it for now. We should be back tomorrow with some more news from the Feria de Abril.
Adios!
Sorry for the delay in posts, we have not had Internet access for a few days. That said, this will be a long one to catch you all up.
4/4 – On Friday Ulises and I woke up around 10 to head out to the Museo Nacionale del Prado, we walked from our hotel, The Grand Duque (giggle all you want) through the center of the city and finally to the museum. The guide books put this museum on par with the Louvre in the collections that it houses, and it is most well known for its collection of Goya’s (although it does have some other master works there, by folks with names like Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Reuben, and my least favorite Greco). The most famous of the Goya’s on display are the Maja's - Maja Desnuda and Maja Vestida. The all knowing audio guide said that the rumor has it that Goya painted the Maja Desnuda on commission for the private collection of female nudes for the Duchess of Alba. As the commission was begun, Goya began an affair with the Duchess, and it is rumored that the body of the nude is that of the Duchess, while her face is painted as an anonymous mask to hide the true identity of the model. The second Maja was painted on commission for the King of England (I think, the audio guide cut out on this one a bit). He rescued the first Maja from the art purging flames of the Spanish Inquisition (cue the Mel Brooks music if you must) as it was deemed to be obscene. Upon its rescue by the King, he commissioned a second painting to make a pair for his private gallery.
The other famous Goya on display is Il Saturno Devorando a un Hijo (Saturn eating his son) which is exactly what it sounds like.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_Devouring_His_Son
The best part about the museum wasn’t entirely the art, it was a beautiful building that also happened to be filled with the most obnoxious group of aspiring Italiano Sessy teenagers on a field trip. These Ragazzi dela Muerta followed us around the entire museum, stalking us like the cultural prey that we were. Ulises and I managed to avoid them several times, as their cell phone ring tones, combined with their odor of Axe and teenage BO alerted us that they were coming just around the corner. I am quite sorry that I didn’t catch this specimen of European puberty on film, as I am sure we could have learned much from studying them further.
After the museum we ran around in circles until we stopped into a little tapas bar founded in 1908, La Taverna de Dolores, had a couple of Cana de Birra and watched the citizens of Madrid cuss, smoke, and eat their Friday away.
As we made our way to dinner, we came across one of those little surprises that make traveling so fun. We were walking past the Palacio de Real, when we stumbled upon a theatrical celebration of some part of Spanish culture – best as I could tell it had to do with the Majas and dancing. Check out this clip (the Maja was displayed in light on the façade of the palace).
4/5 – On Saturday we prepared for our journey to Sevilla. The metro is easy to navigate in Madrid, and we arrived at the train station easily. The hard part was in trying to purchase a ticket. Imagine if you will a combination of the DMV and an airport check in line. We arrived at the ticket counter to pick up a number so we could meet with an agent, and purchase our ticket….we were number 771 – they were working on 600.
About an hour later we had our tickets in hand, and two hours to waste, so we headed to the park to soak up some sun and relax before the train ride. Three things about the Spanish rail system:
1- It is clean
2- It is on time
3- It is like air travel
The difficulties that Spain has had in regard to security have caused them to add more steps and restrictions on the access to trains than other rail systems. This has also created one of the cleanest and punctual trains I’ve ever been on, I even got to watch Hairspray in Spanish...kind of odd to say the least.
We arrived in Sevilla at 8PM and (due to my bright idea) we decided to walk to the hotel. 2 hours later we arrived at the Hostal Buen Dormir – a clean but cut rate hotel to say the least. We were grumpy, hungry, and emitting a purely European funk that I thought for sure would take at least 2 weeks to acquire (thanks Allen…no deodorant indeed). So we went to eat Chicken Shwarma and Hummus, and it was delicious!
4/6 – On Sunday the travel and odd hours of eating caught up with us and we slept in till 2PM, despite at least 15 different instances of the Church bells chiming. This is a feat that I am quite proud of and that I am still paying for today with a weird kind of grogginess. We started to explore the city a bit and walked from the hotel to the river – Rio Guadalquivir , to the bull-fighting ring, the cathedral, and around the Universidad. It is a beautiful city, with a huge influx of people here to celebrate the Festival of April – which begins Monday.
We had lunch at the Paellador (Ulises said that this means the Paella nator) and watched some of the local folks loop in the tourists and make some cash from hand rolling second-rate cigars for them while dressed in traditional garb.
As we walked back towards the city center we saw all of the well-dressed bullfight attendees walking towards the stadium. Red seems to be a lucky color for the fights, as a huge number of women wore red from head to toe. It is funny to know that we stand out here, just like all of the tourists. However there are always some folks that stand out more than you…yesterday it was a group of three blonde Americans that seemed to have fallen right out of The Hills on MTV. They definitely drew attention from the Spanish men, who took off their jackets and danced around them in the street like a Matador for the underdressed female.
After a dinner of all you can eat food at a new restaurant called FresCo, we headed to the Bodega Belmonte for a nightcap, a super busy Tapas bar with a mascot that looked suspiciously like Mike McGill….
Well, that’s it for now. We should be back tomorrow with some more news from the Feria de Abril.
Adios!
Saturday, April 5, 2008
New Pictures Posted on Flickr
Click on the slide show to the right for a few pictures of Madrid.
We are now leaving for the train station on our way to Sevilla.
-Dept of Chioness
We are now leaving for the train station on our way to Sevilla.
-Dept of Chioness
Thursday, April 3, 2008
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