La Mancha...

I have always loved books.  From when I was a little girl I have always had this fascination with those bundles of pages that hold adventures, fears, experiences, dreams...  I remember that my grandmother loved--well, still loves--going to yard sales and Salvation Army stores where she buys a bunch of cheap stuff which really serves no purpose.  When I first got

 to the States as a teenager my eyes would scan the different stores, backyards or whatever places we ended up visiting on those bittersweet Saturday trips, mostly to New Hampshire, and automatically walk to the spot where the books were;  even if I couldn't read them because I spoke no English.  One of my favorite books of all time is Don Quijote. I rea

d it when I was about 13 years old.  The story of the crazy knight fighting every injustice and always longing for his beloved Dulcinea was just one of the most amazing reads ever. I was completely absorbed by it.   So when I finally got to visit La Mancha in Spain this summer I was in heaven.  We went to the Molinos.  Obviously, they're not the Cervantes molinos but they're still so, way cool.    I was completely in love with the Molinos to the point that my friends drove away threatening to leave me if I didn't let go.  Finally, they did drive away but had to come back just a bit so that I could get in the car.  We sat down by the Molino store--yes, capitalism is the best... the most sublime structures can become a convenience store in the middle of Saffron fields

.  In any event, we took out a blanket and sat under the shade of one of the Molinos.  There, with the fragrant wind enveloping us and overlooking the valley of Castilla-La Mancha, we had a succulent lunch of jamon, tortilla española, pan, atun among other staples of Spanish cuisine.  It was great.  I even took a little power nap until Jose--our friend, guide and driver--stopped chatting with the store attendant and we headed on our wa

y to new adventures.  I felt very Quijotesca, in a more luxurious sorta way.   Los Molinos were amazing both inside and outside.  They had names from the book, such as Rosinante and others. I was elated.  

Here are some of La Mancha pictures:  

the valley... molino...

thank God for Lisboa

so we just got to lisboa about an two hours ago. it´s such a nice city. i drove part of the way here and it wasn´t as bad as jose was saying. in any event, i will update more later since my hotel now has internet. yay... we´re on our way to dinner. yummm.

no more internet

well, after i met my friends and started travelling there´s no more internet. so i will be posting later...

1st and 2nd day...

so i decided to walk around town in Madrid to get to know things. i have been walking like a child in a remote african village. so far there are six blisters to account for it. i´m staying around the Puerta del Sol area. the hostel is ok although i have to say that it looks a bit--let´s be honest, waaaayyy--sketchy but the people who work there are nice. at least for now--until i find out that my backpack and half the stuff in it is missing.

from the airport i made my way around the Metro system. i had to change lines three times because the stop closest to my hostal is closed due to renovations. i love Madrid´s subway. it´s very clean and on time. it reminds me of the DC metro but with way more people.

day 1: got to the room. took a nap. then walked around town. later that night, at around 11pm i went to walk around town some more to check out the scenery. i went all the way from Puerta del Sol to La Latina and beyond. then came back for the metro. as i was waiting there were two ¨interesting-looking¨ fellows standing next to me. one of them said, ¨oye, estas wapa.¨with a non-spanish sounding accent. it turns out they were algerian. so they asked were i was from; i said brazilian. then i asked what they did in Madrid, etc. and one of them answered, ¨bueno aca vivo con mi familia. y pues no te miento soy traficante.¨ basically, he said he lived with his family here and that he was a dope dealer. he then proceeded to ask me if I was fine and if i needed anything to make me feel better. well, since i was in no need of tylenol or pepto bismol, i gracefully said no. as we got off the metro the two ¨pharmaceutical consultants¨ asked me follow them since they were going to give me directions. i did follow them for about 30 steps and then got ¨lost¨ in the crowd. luckily for me, the Gran Via area is a super crowded area.
after leaving my two new friends i found myself in a major rock concert kinda crowd for the gay pride festivities in the area. it was overwhelming. too many people. too many cigarettes. too many bottles. too many people stepping on my toes. : )

finally, i decided to stop walking at around 2am and headed back to the hostel. enough Madrid for the night.

day 2: more walking. i went to the royal botanical gardens (Jardin Botanico Real) close to where i´m staying. it was awesome. i mean, y´all know i love the whole taking pictures of flowers thing. there i had my fix. geesh. it´s a marvelous place. 

then i walked a bit more and ended up in the Anthropological Museum, 

which was free! yes! it was nice. towards the end of the afternoon i went back to the hostel.

that night i decided to check the latino scene in madrid and did an internet search to find some places with tropical music places. i ended up in a place called O´Zona. unbeknownst to me things in Madrid do not start until 2am. poor Boston. i feel so sad for your early bed habits. so since i was there at like midnight i had to stay at the door chatting it up with the bouncers. obviously, i was allowed to go in but the place was--literally--empty. so i was not going to be the parigüaya to go in. it turn out for the best. i met Carlos the bouncer; a peruvian fellow married with a woman from spain. he has the coolest peru-spain spanish accent. i also hit it off with the woman tending the front table where people pay to get in. by the way, the cover was a woopig 16 euros. they were making fun of me for being there so early. then i mentioned i was here from the States. Carlos is supposed to be going to a wedding in NYC soon and the lady has always dreamed of going to the US. we talked about Obama, being an immigrant in the US, speaking--or not--english, etc., etc. when people started to come my two new friends let me into the club for free and gave me a voucher for a drink! not to mention that the barwoman was a colombian who was also chatting it up with me before i went it. so by the end of the night i was like VIP. I knew the bouncers and the drink people. what else could a girl ask for? i was there until about 4am and then took a taxi back to my base of operations. the cab driver was a total riot and very nice older man. i slept like a baby.

so two days of adventures so far and counting...
ps. i always forget to bring my usb cable to the internet cafe but i´ll post some pix soon. :)

en route...

ok. so dearest Anne volunteered to give me a ride to the airport. it was crazy. between cambridge side gallery and the entrace to storrow drive it took about 45 minutes becuase of heavy traffic. i almost started getting worried. luckily, everything was fine and i made it to the airport well in advance.

on the plane i sat next to this really nice asian american guy who works in the insurance consulting business and travels a lot. he doesn´t like the travelling. it turns out that he too was going to madrid and then to portugal. he showed me his schedule--planned by his ¨friend¨--and it was something totally out of my league. they had planned everything, EVERYTHING, about this trip. it was interesting. while we were conversing these four frat-looking-sounding guys wearing custom-made San Fermin t-shirts came on and sat right behind us. it was hilarious. they were already drunk. we were all going the same way. when we got to London we all started talking and they told us about their trip to the running of the bulls. quite interesting. it turns out the T-shirts had five people pictured on them and they were all meeting in Madrid to then go do the running of the bulls in Pamplona. they invited me; of course i said no.

when we go to Madrid, one of them remembered my name and yelled it out as we were getting off the plane. they then procedeed to chat and i asked if they were taking the subway to Madrid-center. they said no but offered a ride once they were able to find their friends and rent a van. however, if the friends were nowhere to be found they would let me drive since they were all drunk out of their minds. i literally started running down the hallway and they after me. imagine this, me with a backpack and pepper-colored pants being chased down Barajas airport by four drunk frat guys wearing shorts and bright red shirts. quite the sight. they caught on. i took their pictures and lost them at baggage claim. thank you God!

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Pues Anne se voluntario para llevarme al aeropuerto y nos tomo casi una hora para llegar. me estaba comenzando a preocupar pero gracias a Dios todo salio bien y llegue al Logan a tiempo.

en el avion me sente al lado de un muchacho asiatico americano que tambien estaba en camino a España y Portugal. resulto muy amable el chico y me enseño su itinerario que me dio casi miedo. todo estaba planeado hasta el tuetano y con notas super detalladas. que emocion! luego llego un grupo de cuatro chicos que estaban en camino a Pamplona para la corrida de los toros. esa en las que sueltan los toros en la calle y salvese quien pueda. pues esa. resulta que ya estaban medio borrachitos y muy a lo mi tio David, con bocas de aqui a jupiter. en Londres empazamos a conversar. nos invitaron a ir con ellos pero claro que les dije que no porque yo a morir de cornada no voy. no señor. al llegar a Madrid les pregunte si usarian el metro para llegar al centro de Madrid y me dijeron que no pero que me daban un ride pues ellos rentarian una van--si encontraban a los amigos que supuestamente les estaban esperando. los chicos tenian camisetas hechas con sus caricaturas y la de sus amigos. que barbaridad. tambien me dijeron que si sus amigos no aparecian me dejarian conducir la van ya que ellos estaban demasiado borrachos para manejar. ahi fue cuando literalmente comenze a corres y ellos detras de mi. imaginense, yo corriendo en el aeropuerto Barajas con y grupo de gringos locos y borrachos con camisetas super rojas y botella en mano. que risa. pues al final los perdi en aduanas y me fui.

more on my first day in Madrid, luego.... luego les cuanto mas de mis aventuras en Madrid...