Iberian Adventures Part 3: Spain

I felt inexplicably good crossing the Spanish border. While it's true that I'd only lived in Spain for about 7 months (not to mention that I'd never actually been in the part of Spain that we were driving through), it seemed like I was heading home. We stopped at a gas station to use the bathroom and I was surprised to actually understand every single word that the attendant was telling me. Since a lot of my memories of living in Spain involved me never completely understanding people, I had to wonder if I'd learned a lot more Spanish than I'd though in college or (probably more likely) I just understood it a lot better than Portuguese.

We stayed for one night in the city of Oviejdo, which is in the region of northern Spain called Asturias. Spain is such a remarkably fun country. It's fun to just walk out onto the city streets and just listen to how loud and crowded they are. Pretty much any time in the afternoons or evenings the cities are full of people out and about having a good time; it's very refreshing after a long drive. That night we are surprised to find a branch of one of our favorite restaurants from Madrid in town, and so we decide to eat dinner there. Central Spain (where Madrid is) is famous for its roast lamb and suckling pig. They're served in hot clay bowls which catch all the juices, the skin comes out crispy and greasy, and the meat is so tender you don't need a knife to cut it up. It was nice to get some of our favorite central Spanish food, as we were planning on spending most of the trip in northern Spain and thus wouldn't have much of an opportunity. At the end of the meal the owner also came out to talk to us and complimented us on our Spanish, which is a nice way of saying "I can tell you guys are American." Oh well, I guess we couldn't really hope to still be able to blend in after 4 years. I'm not sure if I just learned a lot of Spanish in college

The next day we met up with my godparents, who are also from Austin, in the city of Santander. They were also in Spain visiting their son who was on a study abroad program. Together, we headed for a small mountain lodge in the Pico de Europa (literally, The Peaks of Europe), near a little village named Alles. The lodge was beautiful. Our family got a small flat with a big wooden farm door which looked like it was out of the TV Show Mr. Ed because the top half of the door could be opened separately from the bottom half. The lodge was part of a little mountain community, which seemed like kind of a retirement spot because there were a lot of old Spanish people around who seemed to have nothing better to do than sit on their porches and drink wine. All the houses were quaint little stone affairs and everything was connected with cobbled paths. The main lodge was a converted bakery with a log-cabin-ish interior that sat on a little brook. Not to skimp on the amenities however, they also sported a big-screen TV, numerous comfortable sofas, an excellent restaurant with a full bar and nice wine selection, and wireless internet.

We ate that night ate the restaurant, which made a delicious schnitzel-like dish that also involved cheese and ham (cheese and ham are basically the official foods of Spain. Now you all can see why I like the country so much). The wine was also excellent, as is the norm, and we all enjoyed our fair share of it while sitting on the back porch listening to the brook. Life was rough.

We spent three nights at the lodge, all of which were more or less awesome. We had a great time talking to the manager, Alberto, who actually spoke excellent English on account of having spent a lot of time in LA, but, in typical Spanish fashion, kept that fact well under wraps and always gave the impression that he thought our Spanish was worlds better than his English would ever be. The Spanish, like the French, are quite insistent that you learn and speak their language while you're visiting, the only difference is that they're not jerks about it. I also had the opportunity to try the hard cider, which is a specialty of Asturias. I ordered one one evening, excepting to receive a glass of it, or perhaps a 12oz beer-like bottle. Instead, Alberto pulled out and uncorked a 0.75 liter bottle and gave me a 10 minute long tutorial on proper cider-drinking technique. You see, cider doesn't have as much carbon dioxide in it as beer or champagne, and so it really doesn't foam very much. To compensate for this, they pour the cider into a glass from a few feet above it so achieve maximum froth. However this froth is short-lived, so you don't pour a whole glass at once, but rather pour out "shots" of cider and drink them in one gulp. To achieve the necessary height for pouring, you're supposed to hold the glass in one hand, as low as you can, and the bottle in the other, as high as you can, and sort of pour over your head into the glass. I tried this a couple times and got a lot of cider on my pants. Alberto got his laughs in at my expense and then gave me a special pouring top that makes it significantly easier to aim. Now, this cider was absolutely nothing like the cider I'd run across in the US, which is sweet, not very alcoholic and, all-in-all, a "girly drink," no, this stuff was *hard*. I'd guess it probably was about as alcoholic as wine, and all semblance of sweetness was removed. After finishing the bottle walking normally was becoming somewhat of a challenge, which was kind of embarrassing given that I was with my family.

While at the lodge, we also attempted a somewhat ill-fated hike on a trail through the mountains. The first challenge we encountered with this expedition was parking. Apparently, the trail was popular with the locals and all the conventional parking was taken when we arrived. The park ranger waved us down a narrow gravel road which sported a steep cliff going up on one side and a steep cliff going down on the other. Parked cars lined both sides of the road. "Just drive down this and park after the last car", we were instructed. This resulted in us having to parallel park on a narrow patch of gravel just inches away from a 40 foot or so drop off. Having gotten this out of the way, we proceed on our hike. The trail was nice, although not particularly spectacular. The day, however, was quite hot and sunny and the hike was taking much longer than initially predicted. Around lunchtime I realized we were running out of water and would probably only have just enough to get us back comfortably if we turned around immediately. This we did, and my prediction proved accurate as we ran out of water some 20 minutes before reaching the trail head where we were parked. Needless to say, we were happy to see our precariously parked car, and we immediately headed to a cafe to down water before returning to the lodge to sit by the brook and drink wine, an activity more suited to our energy level at the time.

After 3 nights at the lodge, we were slated to head back to Santander for a few days and then on to Madrid. Unlike in Portugal, however, I was not quite so eager to continue the trip and staying at the lodge was definitely the highpoint of the vacation so far.