Crazy Parade

I´m trying to think of where to start. I had a pretty laid back weekend. On Thursday night I went out with some friends to a couple of bars in an area called tribunal. On Friday, I went and played guitar in a park that I hadn´t been to yet called Casa de Campo. I´m not as fond of Casa de Campo as I am of the Retiro. It´s not nearly as cultivated and maintained which I thought might be cool, but instead the park just seemed to have this neglected feel about it. On Friday night, I went with some people to see a free theater prodution in the street way up north because Friday night was theater night in Madrid. The production was reeeaaallly weird. After the production there was this parade of scary stuff that went down the street. There were people dressed up as grim reapers and orcs (from lord of the rings) and all sorts of other scary stuff, and the actors would interact with the people watching the parade as they passed by. On Saturday, all of the Wash U folk went to Valle de los Caidos (where Franco is burried), a town called Escorial, and this big palace called la granja. That was pretty much the weekend. I kind of fell down on the job taking pictures. Now I´m back at school again trying to avoid working on a grueling economics problem set. I´m really excited to go to Lisbon on Saturday; I think that´s going to be a lot of fun. Until next time.

Basque Country

The Basque was incredible. If I had to some it all up in one word it would probably be this: sidrería. A sidrería is a place where hard apple cider is made. There are a bunch of them in the heart of the Basque Country. We went to a sidrería in Astigaraga to eat one night and this is the time of year when they have just finished making the cider so as a marketing ploy the give away cider for free for like a week. The cider is kept in these huge barrels like nine feet tall (maybe ten). To get cider you just tell one of the workers there and they unplug this tiny little cork in the barrel and then you have to catch cider in your cup as it comes flying out of the barrel. This was basically the Basquest thing I could have possibly imagined. I also had some amazing chuletas (beef chops) there along with amazing fish and tortilla. I think the Basque Country has got to have the best food in Spain hands down. We also went to a bunch of costal towns during the day like San Sebastian, Bermeo, Lekeitio, Bilbao, and others. San Sebastian was awesome. Anyway, I have to run, but hopefully I can recount some more of the amazing Basque adventure later. Here are some photos.

Hell is in Spain

So, I don´t think I have commented yet that I actually found hell. It exists and it is here in Spain, in Madrid. It is a seven story tall department store called Corte Ingles. If you have ever felt overwhelmed in Dillards or Nordstroms, you will surely feel like a nutter in Corte Ingles. When the escalators never seem to stop going up, it´s a bad sign. The thing is that they suck you in because you know that they have everything. If you´re not sure where to find something (travel-size shampoo for example) you think to yourself "Hmm where can I find travel-size shampoo? No wait I got this one: the Corte Ingles!". That´s it, that´s how it happens. Yet the same reason that you feel totally bamfoozled when you´re in Corte Ingles is that they have everything! It´s really kind of ingeneous and sick all at the same time. I´m pretty sure that if you wanted to buy a baby alligator, you could find one in Corte Ingles. I´ve been in there a couple times and had to leave abruptly because I thought I was going to have a heart attack or something. I can definitely see someone entering a state of total existential paralysis upon entering that store. Anyway, that´s the end of my Corte Ingles rant, I just wanted to share that with all of you. I´m really excited right now because tomorrow morning I´m driving to San Sebastian up north in the Basque Country (close to the border with France) with some Italian friends. I think it´s going to be absolutely gorgeous, and the house that we´re staying in is very picturesque. I´m gonna take some photos while I´m up there, and I´ll upload them on Monday when I get back. Cheers.

So, last weekend was really "lleno" or full as we say in English. On friday night I went to see a flamenco production at the teatro español with my friend Maria. The theater was incredble, very ornate with lots of very impressive molding and velvet everywhere. The production was amazing as well. All of the dancers were extremely good, and the music and lights and everything else that went with the production was spectacular. On Saturday I went to a park up north with some of the best manecured grass I've ever seen before. During the night on Saturday, I went back to Populart again to watch these old farts (some from the U.S. and some from Spain) play dixieland jazz. That was pretty cool. Then, on Sunday I went to the Retiro for a pic-nic that all of the Erasmus kids were doing, and played my guitar and hung out there for a while. That was pretty much it. Here's a photo of me and Maria at the teatro español.

So nothing super interesting has happened of late. Most of the weekend was spent on madatory excursions in Madrid of stuff that I had already seen. That was a little bit of a bummer, but such is life. I'm excited to go see this play called Lluvia on Friday night at the Teatro Español. Also, I'm going to try to get tickets to a real madrid game that's coming up in a few weeks. Just thought I would check in.