Getting to Know My Spanish Hometown a Little Better

Location: Madrid

About a month ago I took a weekend trip out to Paris to visit a friend who was spending a semester studying nearby. This particular post covers the reverse of those travels when she came to visit Madrid.

Her plane landed a bit late on Friday night, making us a bit rushed to make our first event on time which was a Flamenco show. And I also had difficulty finding the place, but after inquiring some locals we made it just fine. Oddly enough, no one knew it by name but immediately knew where I wanted to go when they heard Flamenco.

The restaurant is called "Casa Patas" and holds nightly Flamenco shows in a back room. Somehow I hadn't managed to enjoy this cultural aspect, but several people spoke highly of their experience and especially this place for being authentic. Not that I would know the difference, but most of the audience seemed to be locals, which I figure is always a good sign.

According to my program, the place books different bands almost every other week. I don't pretend to know a whole lot about the complicated world of Flamenco (you may read more here if you wish), but I knew a few things such as it's a mix of song & dance.

For our performance, there were two guitarists (although I'm told the guitars are slightly different than the normal ones), one drummer, two singers/hand clappers, and sometimes a dancer. The band would often perform a piece alone before the dancer came out. This is one of the shots with them all on stage.

And a pretty good video of the experience as well. I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to be taking pictures or video, so it'll be our little secret...

Very cool, right?

If I remember correctly, the whole experience lasted about 90 minutes and was well worth it. Similar to the bull fight, it's near the top of the cultural list for things to do in Spain.

The next morning we caught an early train to nearby Toledo, which I wrote a post about before and won't bother repeating most of the sites. But I snapped a few good pictures which I thought and decided to include them. Here's the bridge which connects to the town's edge.
And a good view overlooking the city itself.
Compared to my first trip, our objectives were actually quite different. Since we are both saber fencers in a town famous for sword-making (even the pastry shops sell swords), at the top of our list was to go shopping. A distant second was to eat Paella for lunch, followed by a quick stop of the famous cathedral. Say what you will about our priorities, but there they are.

Here's us fulfilling our first objective.
And I was also in the market for one of my friends who wanted a scimitar, so I decided to send a picture of one to see if he'd like it. His response was that it would be perfect...if he were trying to sack the Great Wall of China.
We went to about a half-dozen places over a span of about 3 hours. She wound up buying an old Spanish replica, and I bought 4 which included two sabers, and old rapier style, and an old Spanish one as well. All are gorgeous and it was well worth the time.

And here I am fulfilling objective number two.
We wound up running really short on time, so our cathedral visit turned out to be really rushed. And by "really rushed" I mean we walked into a side entrance and looked around before running back to the train station. Success!

We got back into Madrid just in time to stop off at some tapas bars before dinner. Here's one such place near my house. The way tapas places work here is that you sit and order a drink, and they give you a small plate of food (the server picks from a variety) which comes free with the drinks. In this picture we had "patatas bravas", or a kind of baked potatoes with mayonnaise, garlic, and chives I believe.
For dinner we dined at a restaurant called "Botin", which according to their Guinness record also happens to be the oldest operational one in the world (open since 1725 and the building 1590). A side note - the famous painter Goya is rumored to have been a dishwasher there in his youth.

The restaurant itself has an interesting layout as it's spread over three or four floors. But everything is obviously very nice white table-cloth, and all the waiters speak several languages to accommodate the international clientele. I actually tried to converse with the waiter in Spanish but he took one look at me and decided English was better.
Their specialty dish is called "cochinillo", which is a roast suckling pig. If made correctly, it is supposed to be brought to the patron's table and cut with the side of a plate (to show its tenderness). We unfortunately did not experience this part, but that dish is in the front in this next picture. The other is the same with lamb. We both agreed the lamb was better.
Sigh...life is so hard sometimes.
After that we met up with other friends at a nearby sangria bar. The place was packed and had live karaoke. Eventually we found a table and went through a few pitchers before we decided to call it a night. By then it was getting late (and we were a bit tipsy), so we said our goodbyes and tried to catch the last metro home. Unfortunately we missed it and decided to walk instead of paying for the taxi. It's fun to be young sometimes.

I took this while walking on Atocha street past the three famous Madrid museums.
We wound up sleeping in a bit the next morning but decided to head to Parque del Buen Retiro (Park of the Pleasant Retreat). I've actually been meaning to give an entire post on Retiro, but decided instead to lump it in here.

El Retiro is sort of like the equivalent of Central Park to New York; its 350 acres are located right in the heart of Madrid and just a short walk from the famous "art triangle" of the city's famous museums. It's completely free and one of the largest public parks in Europe, and when I say it's big I mean it. I've spent close to 3 hours walking around and still haven't seen everything, but the grounds are interspersed with sculptures, monuments, lakes, and plenty of street performers.

The grounds used to be owned by the royal family and were originally constructed in the 1500's before being opened to the public in 1767. There are so many monuments and statues that the park is more like an open-air museum.

Here is just one of the many paths which run through it.
And one of the park's main squares.
The same square from the outside looking in right around sunset.
The main lake where one can cheaply rent a rowboat and paddle aimlessly.
One of the many "smaller" squares.
And I always thought this section looked like it had some sort of Asian influence.
Tall hedges along the paths in this part.
Me trying to pretend that I'm not lost.
And my favorite lake, which is a good ways towards the middle and thus usually not very crowded.
It houses a fountain, waterfall, and lots of ducks & geese. I also especially like how they make a ramp for these little guys...
There is also an entire building adjacent to the lake called "Palacio del Cristal" (Glass Palace) being lent from one of the main museums in Madrid, and as far as I can tell it's just a large one-room greenhouse without plants. Oddly enough, one has to remove their shoes at the front door, so if you look hard enough you'll also notice everyone is barefoot.
As you can tell, the park is a great place to just wander around for a few hours or to take a great book. In our case, my friend and I had bought some wine and food to have a small lunch, and we decided to stop & eat in this area.
We then stopped off at another tapas bar close by for a bit of sangria before her flight. Not a bad weekend at all I'd say!

More pics can be found during our Madrid excursions here, and Retiro pics here.

Houston, We Have a Problem - UPDATE

I have to admit that I´m fairly impressed with Dell. Despite locational issues, they were able to send out a guy, part in hand, to replace both my on-board monitor (Friday) and video card (Monday). Apparently both were contributing to the problem, but all is well now. Thanks Dell!

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I came back after being gone for the weekend to discover my laptop is broken. I´m trying to work it out with Dell as soon as possible, but for now all new blog postings have to be pushed to the back burner. This is really a bummer because there are several trips I have yet to catch up on.

Thankfully I´m returning to the US for Xmas, so hopefully this will all be sorted out soon. Thank you for your understanding.

Some Fun Moments With the Host Family

I thought these two little stories might make for a nice change of pace compared to the constant traveling. I think I touched on this before, but one cultural difference here is the Spanish like to stay out really late (often until dawn).

It doesn't happen every weekend, but a few times now both my host mom and I have gone out (separate places obviously) on a Friday night, and occasionally she'll actually get home later than I do! It's a very weird experience to stumble into bed at 4am, only to hear your 60 year old host mom follow you in a half hour later. Kind of humiliating actually...

Another funny thing to mention about my host mother - she's absolutely terrible with names. Especially foreign names. And of course since she's only got foreigners living with her (3 Americans including me right now), this can be humorous at times. At this point she either remembers names incorrectly, or more typically gives up entirely and just assigns a nickname based on their personality.

For instance, we had an older Swiss gentleman stay with us for a month named Werner...and somehow his name became Bernard. This is how I was introduced to him, so I kept using the wrong name too for an entire month.

Also right now we have Brice and Stephen, but she didn't like those and instead calls them "sonrisas" (smiles) and "triste" (sad) because one is always smiling and the other rarely does.

And me? She calls me "Kas", which I'd say is pretty close to my name. The only catch is its also the name of a brand of soft-drinks here, so she typically calls me "Kas limon" (Lemon Kas) or "Kas naranja" (Orange Kas).

Sláinte!

Location: Dublin, Ireland
"Sláinte" (pronounced "Slonche") is the Gaelic word for cheers, and since there was plenty of beer drinking on this excursion I figured it was a good place to start. (Also, a previous post was titled "Prost!" in honor of the Germans, and I clearly don't want to play favorites).

Before I left work for the weekend, my coworkers asked me my plans. This has become a routine question they love to ask when we're all together because it's synonymous with "what country is Cash going to tonight"? They thought Dublin was hilarious, but the Spanish apparently seem to really like the Irish. I found this a bit surprising considering their distance from one another, but perhaps many European countries feel the same.

Our hostel was located right on O'Connell street, the main North-South drag in the downtown area. And we were only about a 10-15 minute walk from the main cluster of pubs called "Temple Bar".

Here is a typical "beautiful" day looks like in Dublin. We were actually quite lucky because it only rained one of the days we were there. Before I left the weather prediction was rain everyday...
And this liquor store was conveniently located right across the street from my hostel. Fortune smiles upon me again!
The first stop was Temple Bar. I should clarify that statement, because "Temple Bar" is not only the name of a neighborhood of bars & nightclubs, but also a specific bar within that area. This was taken at the bar with the same name, and clearly they have a wide selection of beers and spirits.
And there was a rugby game on, so it was fun to mingle with the locals and shout or boo when something exciting happened. Here's me with my first Guinness of the weekend.
I also discovered that Smithwicks (a lighter red ale) is my favorite Irish beer. Armed with this important knowledge, I set out to find some Irish girls there. I shortly thereafter wound up befriending 4 French ones instead. Oh darn...

This is me trying to keep a watchful eye on the oncoming traffic. I leave it to you to decide if this was done intentionally.
Here's me with my homie James (Joyce, the famous author).
As I already mentioned, it only rained one of the days I was there. But that one storm had enough wind and rain to completely obliterate the wimpy Spanish umbrella I had brought. So I had to pop into a store to buy another one - except the guy there talked me into getting a poncho instead. It looked really stupid, and thankfully there are no pictures of it. In fact I'll deny the event even happened if you ever ask.
We also noticed an interesting hat & beard as we were shopping around. I was tempted but decided to pass.
The following day we ate lunch at "The Brazen Head", which is the oldest pub in all of Ireland and established in 1198. It even has the Guinness plaque and everything to prove it.
We each chose the typical Irish food of beef stew and pints of Guinness. The food was quite good, and I managed to fall in love with our cute waitress who came over and asked in a thick accent "whad'ta wan' luv?"

The restaurant also boasted daily live music, so we stuck around and watched a local band play a few pieces. Good stuff.
After we left, we were heading back on foot and happened to pass by this neat little church. This picture portrays something I continuously found odd, namely how much grass there was despite the freezing temperatures and continual dampness. Take my word for it that it was much colder than it appears. But then again, it was November in Ireland...
The next planned stop on our agenda was Trinity College. It turned out to be a beautiful campus as others had promised. This is the main quad.
Probably my favorite part of the campus was the famous library which one can only see by paying to see the Book of Kells. I was, however, unimpressed by the book itself but liked the long rows of century-old books in the very old-school library.
The usher in this room was very upset that I was taking pictures (I was even trying to be discreet), especially since I was practically standing next to the "No Pictures!" sign. I consider pretending to only speak Spanish when he approached me, but considering my Caucasian appearance I thought this a rather ridiculous idea.

And just by luck we happened to walk by the annual Christmas-tree lighting festival, complete with a parade and Santa on stilts. The base of the "tree" is on the left-hand side; I think it was at least 100 feet tall and completely made out of lights.
They also had live traditional Irish music (called "Trad" by the locals) as part of the celebration.
And one of the musicians also came out and did some traditional dancing as well. She was quite young (probably in her mid-teens), but I was quite impressed nonetheless. It was my favorite part of the event, and the video is below for your enjoyment as well.

And this is a good shot of O'Connell street with the tree much later that night...which also explains why no one is around.
The next morning we awoke early and hit the road with our first stop being the most famous in all of Dublin, and possibly even Ireland...

Being ambitious folk, we had decided to allot only 90 minutes to the brewery in the hopes of then catching a bus outside the city. Of course this didn't wind up happening, but we ran with it and wound up having a great day anyway. So back to Guinness...

It's a self-guided tour of the 7 story building, and it winds around and has stations where one can stop & read or watch a short video about the brewing process or the history of the business. This is a shot of a facility map.
Notice how the entire inner part is shaped like a pint glass? Something tells me that's not an accident.

This is near the beginning of the tour and entombed into the floor - it is a 9,000 year old lease signed by the original founder, Arthur Guinness. Forward thinking guy!
And they really had a little something for everyone...even us nerdy engineers!
I absolutely loved this quote and will likely always remember it.
One of my favorite parts was this section which showed how the television and printed ads evolved over time. They also had video screens there where one could select and watch any of the television spots...even the ones back in the 50s. Really fascinating to watch it evolve over the decades and various countries; I felt like I was getting a mini-history lesson.
Near the top they have a bar where one can pour "the perfect Guinness", which according to the sassy young Irish lass working there should take slightly over 2 minutes.
The entire top floor is dedicated to a circular room (called the "Gravity Bar") with a bar in the middle and nothing but glass windows looking out over Dublin. And we were lucky enough to have a clear day (a true rarity in winter there) which left us with a great view of the city.
As I mentioned before, all of this took waaayyyyy longer than 90 minutes, which meant we missed our bus and now had nothing planned for the day. So we did what any self-respecting person would do...we went to the other famous alcohol icon of the country.
Unlike the previous tour, they led people through the Jameson distillery. Unfortunately the actual whiskey is now made in another city, but they've largely restored the original building in Dublin so one can still get a feel for it.

Here is one of the earlier steps where they are adding water and mashing the barley.
In the storage room for the raw barley our tour guide explained that historically these used to be a lot of mice & rats trying to eat the grain, so they had a famous cat who is claimed to have averaged 20 kills per day. They were so impressed by "Smitty" that they had him stuffed to commemorate his hard work, and here he is.
Of course not all the tour was that odd, but it was a lot of fun for me to learn how they store the various kinds of whiskey. For instance, I did not know they re-used barrels from very specific kinds of wine and spirits.
Of course the best part was the taste-testing. While everyone was given a glass of Jameson, they also asked for volunteers for a more "full tasting experience". Both my friend and I shot up our hands when the 3rd word in her sentence was "I'll need volunteers...". We were the only ones who did this, and she stopped, looked at us, and said "wow, we're not quite there yet but thanks for the enthusiasm".

Say what you will, but if we're only judged by our results than it was clearly a success...we were both later picked.

What this additional responsibility entailed was to compare an Irish whiskey like Jameson to both a Scottish (Johnny Walker) and American (Jack Daniels) one. Plus they gave time to explain how the processes were different and exactly why the tastes were different.
In the end I could distinguish between the three and had developed my preferences...who knew drinking whiskey early in the day could be so educational!

Later on that night I got a good picture of the Ha'penny bridge, which is named thus because it used to cost a half penny to cross it.
On our last day we awoke early and decided to use our little bit of remaining time to go gift shopping and to walk through St. Stephen's Green again. We had actually seen the park on the first day, but it was close by and we both felt we hadn't dedicated enough time to fully appreciate it.

This is one of the entrances into the park; for those of you who remember my last postings on Paris, Dublin apparently has its own little Arc de Triumph as well!
The park is located near the downtown area and consists of a walking path which loops the grounds and is surrounded by lush tress. A long pond complete with ducks spans the park as well.
There were also these little separate nooks like this one where I imagined poetry readings during the day and clandestine political meetings at night.
There was also a neat look-out point along the trail which overlooked a good deal of the park.
And since it was Fall, the leaves were turning on several of the trees. It made for a very impressive site.
This left us with only a few hours before our flights, so we begrudgingly left behind the city which we had both come to love. Even compared to my previous travels in Munich, Paris, and Madrid, Dublin seems to me a very special place. It's hard to describe exactly why; the weather was terribly cold/damp/windy, everything was fairly expensive, and it offered much less historic sites than most other famous cities in Europe. But the people we met (whether Irish or not) were so much fun, and for me personally it was so easy to integrate with a culture which spends so much time in pubs.

And this final one was taken while sitting in the bar at the airport lounge. Oddly enough, the beer there was the cheapest we saw on our entire trip (a pint of Guinness was 4€ instead of 5€).
Between the beer and hat, this is just about my best Irish impression!

As always, further pictures can be found here.