# 31 Spain

05/14/07
I struck out on my second attempt to see Spiderman III once again the other day. This time I was much more successful. I took Thomas and invited some of his buddies and their fathers. It is true that the quality of a movie will improve if you have the right company. Seeing Thomas get excited and chattering to his little friends made the experience much more bearable. Unfortunate the theatre was almost sold out before I bought tickets and the only thing available was third row seats (there is assigned seating in movie theatres in Bolivia). It did not seem to be a problem for the little men (Thomas and his cronies) but it was quite uncomfortable for the big boys (the fathers). “Offy” a friend and one of the other fathers had to get up and go buy candies just to stay awake. Gym, the other father said that he could not even see the whole screen because it was too much in his face.
Any way here we are in Spain. I just had one of the strangest airline experiences, at least the strangest in a long time. When we made our connection in Santa Cruz we unwittingly boarded an airline that I have never heard of before which was “Aircomet”. I then looked at my ticket and it said “Aerosur”. I came to the conclusion that their had been some kind of strange swapping goings on that I did not want to get involved with so I kept my mouth shut. Apparently this is a Spanish airline so as they say “When in Rome”.
So as I boarded the aircraft-the shear colors of the décor jumped up at me. The seat covers were a metallic blue. The carpets were strippedy with different shades of blue that made everything look really busy.
The stewardess’ were something else. They wore purple greatcoats which were taken off at the beginning of the flight to reveal slinky tight-fitting candy apple red dresses. The dresses had a slit up the right leg to about mid upper thigh which was accompanied by little tight short sleeves. The out fit was completed by a little pie cap which was the same candy apple red and a little tight pair of brown leather gloves. They all moved around the aircraft very somberly. To get them to smile you would have to point out defects in the aircraft. It was the sort of thing that you would read in “Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy” or HHGG to all the aficionados.
The whole country around here speaks their language with a speech impediment. They slip and slur around all day long. Then they will say strange things like the captain when he was announcing the flight plan. He went through it in Spanish and then again in English. But what stood out to me in English was when he got to the coast of Iberia he said “Then we will SUDDENLY fly over the Canary Islands” What does that mean? Was he just making it up as he went along? Or was it to be like taking a hard left with his hand sticking out the window with the sound of screeching tires? Oh to be a “Spanky”.
Feo2
05/16/07
Madrid was not mc of an experience as we got in to the city in the afternoon, found a place to stay in a small town on the outskirts of the city and then slept for till it was time to leave for the bus station the next day. One of the reasons for this is the fact that I got off the plane with a horrible sinus cold which led to a head ache.
The ride from Madrid to Seville was interesting. One can see why the Spanish really liked California. Most of all the land layouts and climate has reminded me of California. For instance “La Mancha” a large farming section of Spain between Madrid and Seville made famous by Cervantes’ “Don Quixote” or “Man of the Mancha” looks strangely like the central Californian San Joaquin Valley. The area of Granada where the famous Ottoman era Islamic fortress-castle “Alhambra” looks very similar to the San Fernando Valley. This would be why I guess there is actually a city in the valley named “Alhambra”. The Spanish also named the mountain range in California after the Granada range “Sierra Madre” because they both look amazingly similar to each other. In fact there are more Spanish settlements and mission in California that there are in anywhere in the Continental USA.
So far my two favorite sites in Spain have been the Cathedral Giralda in Seville and our visit to the Alhambra. Two different experiences that have been incredible. Both Seville and Granada are gorgeous cities that have withheld their mid-evil gothic and Ottoman characteristics.
Tammy and I have been surviving out of Tappa bars and pubs. A tappa is a small plate of food that you order with a beer. It can pretty much be any kind of food from a salad to a drum stick to a piece of cheese. Many tappas were unrecognizable to me even though they had great flavors. The best place to get tappas are in Granada. It is tradition for the pubs in this city to give a free tappa for each time you order a beer. This is pretty much all that we have been eating accept for the bread and cheese that we will buy occasionally from a small occasional grocer. Oh and I discovered these really awesome donuts that they smother with real thick milk chocolate!
Today as we were coming down the hill from the Alhambra I noticed this rowdy band of Spanish girls walking up to one of the Moorish ancient doors that was shaped like an old minarets entrance. The gate had no importance other than being one of the lower entrances to the castle. Anyway there was quite a lot of vegetation around and there was hardly anybody around. So as they were laughing and being loud I saw one of them pull her pants down and expose here buttocks to the girl behind her as they walked up to the door and they all just laughed and laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world. I turned to Tammy and said “Did you see that?”
She said “What?”.
“That girl with her pants down!”
“Oh is that what that is. I thought that was her purse.” (We were still quite a ways away)
Then as they approached the door a couple of them dropped to their knees with their hands up in the air and started a series of bowing gesticulations and chanting some kind of unintelligible phrase that had a few random “Allibaba’s” thrown in for good measure. They were all just having the time of their lives. But now you know why it is imperative that I call these people “Spankies”. It is really brought on by their own doing. I thought I was rather quite successful in hiding my amusement till Tammy turned to me and said “Why didn’t you marry you one of them?” In my mind the answer was quite obvious but I could not put it into words at that particular moment. Then it came to me about 15 minutes later. It is just that these type of girls just aint the marrien type.
FeO2

27/05/07
I am not sure where I left off on my last blog but to be sure I was somewhere on the Iberian Peninsula. I am back in South America now for about 3 days. I was not able to get back on line and did have some slight computer problems the last half of my stay in Europe. I must say that the experience was indeed grand!
Tammy and I visited various cities and castles which were really beautiful. I found quite amusing all these little cars that are so popular there. I guess these are the best to have with all those tiny roads. I remember I was taking a picture of Tammy in some square and I was taking a step backward and I heard a crunch under my foot. I did not think much about it until this angry European came running out yelling in some unintelligible language as there are many in Europe (the language almost changes every time you turn a block or so). Any way this guy comes out hysterical in a language they probably only speak in his apartment building pointing towards the side walk. I turned around to see what he was pointing at and was surprised. I said “Sorry I did not mean to step on your car I thought I was stepping on a beer can. Well at least now you have an opportunity to get another vehicle that when bumped in to will be able to bump back.” Some how he did not find this to reassuring.
Later came the conference in Faros, Portugal. This was good as I got to hear some really good lectures and presentations. I was also able to meet up with old friends and meet new. I did, however, run into the inevitable “stuffy’s”. I think that Margaret put it best “There are those who are always right and they never fart, so if you are ever in a room with one of these people and somebody farts you can be sure it was you that farted” Margaret Atwood, “Alias Grace”. When I explained this to my friend Gym he then said “Hey, I’ve been in that room several times!”
Still lots of fun was had. I ran into my good friends Nevik and Irol (names changed to protect the innocent. Ha!). We spent most of our social time with them which was good. It was interesting though watching Irol socialize with the internationals. Irol kept on referring to my buddy Charles as her “Short Ugandan Friend”. Of course the reader should know that ironically Charles and Irol are about the same height. I found a slight danger in this as I felt that I could very well be Irol’s next target. I imagined something like “Rusty my bald, transplanted south American friend” or perhaps “Rusty my socially inept buddy”
So the tour-de-mayhem went as follows: Spain, Madrid-Seville(which the barber really is not as great as popularly thought)-Granada-Seville (again)- Portugal, Faros-Villamar-Lagos-Lisbon-Cintas-Lisbon-Spain, Madrid-home.

FeO2