If you have been following us much, you know that we have been very busy and basically going-going-going ever since we got here. This time in Spain has been a good time for reflection. I want to share some things with all of you, and since I am a rather random kind of person, this will most likely be my most incoherent blog post. Please forgive me.
Being away from family and most friends during Christmas was really tough. I am glad that Ana and I at least had each other. We sang some Christmas Carols on Christmas Eve (had to look up the words to a lot of them, but at least we knew the tunes) and then on Christmas day we had chocolate-filled crossaints, tea, nachos, mimosas, apple cider and cookies. We even found double stuffed Oreo cookies! We of course checked our Facebooks, Ana called her family and I called my mom and dad, in Dad’s case I got the answering machine but it was nice to be able to talk to Mom for a bit. Skype officially does NOT work with this internet connection, so any actual conversations will have to be when we get to our hostel in Madrid (we decided to stay there a couple days after we leave here). So Christmas was simple and small and we shared our kitchen with the animals. The dogs got a present of a hot dog shoved into some bread - they were so funny when they were eating it! And in keeping with my own Christmas tradition of not being able to hold onto presents until Christmas day, on Christmas Eve I told Ana what I’ll be getting her when we get back to the states - some much needed pedicures!
Being so isolated here in the Spanish wilderness has been a very interesting experience. It’s been a while since I’ve slept to no sounds except the occasional dog barking, totally bereft of honking cars, car alarms going off randomly, the sound of the ceiling fan above my bed, the clip-clop of horse hooves on the cobbles as the drivers take the tourists around and the occasional person coming into the dorm room. It reminds me of growing up out in the middle of nowhere, except this is much more populated and the town is bigger than Kinnear. The stars are incredible, though, and I finally saw my old friends Orion, Cassiopeia, the big dipper, and others that I recognize as constellations, but I can’t tell you who they are. We can also see the lights of Toledo from the window of our room, which is pretty cool, I must say.
I have quite a list of things that I’m going to try really hard not to take for granted anymore. Among these are: steady electricity, hot showers, stoves with more than 2 settings (hot and really hot), ovens that actually have temp readings on them, washing machines that spin the clothes dry-ish at the end of the cycle, wifi, heating and air conditioning and phone or face-to-face conversations with the people that I love. No offense to Facebook or anything but when that is your main form of communication, I can see why people get so depressed. I would love to be able to call or text my sisters or friends, and technically I can, it’s just really, really expensive. So yeah, as much as I bitch about it, I won’t be taking my phone for granted anymore either.
I miss my car too. I know that sounds silly and I am glad to know that she is in good hands, it’s just that she’s the only thing that I actually own. So Ana misses her Daisy and I miss my Big Sexy. You can accuse us both of being silly, we don’t mind. At least Annie took Big Sexy to get detailed - I can guarantee that is the first time she has actually been detailed - I just hate vacuuming.
Looking back on the trip so far, what things do I remember? Well, impressions really. When I think of Eastern Europe I see a person standing in front of a train station - the train station is old and run down but the person is dressed in a new uniform. I wish that I could describe it better, and of course I never actually got a picture of it, but it seemed like the perfect analogy of the area - the dreary communist past vs. the hopeful future. It was the same in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary… everywhere that we were who lived under the communists. Berlin is probably so far my favorite - because of Maria. It was so good to be able to reconnect with her. But also, Berlin’s history is unique to Europe. No other city was split after WW2, and no other city has had to be reunited. If you get the chance, please go - there is a fascinating mix of old and new and East and West. As for the rest of Europe, wherever you go, you see the scars of WW2. If you know the secret, you can sometimes tell if a building was rebuilt to look old because it was actually destroyed during an attack. I wasn’t really big into the history of WW2, but to come to Europe you can’t not be reminded of it. Some examples are our guide in Munich telling us that the reason Paris still looks like Paris is because the French surrendered really quick, in Prague our guide telling us that it doesn’t look too bad because Hitler planned to make the Jewish quarter a monument to his genocide and in Hamburg hearing about the fire storm that raged after the Allied bombing. These are the ones that come readily to mind, but it’s a theme that is common wherever you go.
Germany really made me kind of sad. It must be really horrible to not be able to be proud of your country, to be called a Nazi if you fly the flag. It’s not like the rest of the world doesn’t have things in their history that they are not proud of (slavery, anyone?) but I just can’t help but feel like the Germans have gotten a raw deal. I do respect them because they don’t try to hide from their past, they know that the Holocaust happened and they are bound and determined that something like that will never happen again. I even found out from Maria that one reason Turkey is not in the EU, though they would like to be, is that they won’t admit or apologize for some kind of mass killing (I’m not sure of the details, but I’m sure you can look it up on Google). Germans do have things that they should be able to be proud of, and hopefully as time passes they will once more be able to hold their heads high, and not have stupid tourists asking them if Hitler is still in power (really people, REALLY? And no, Australians don’t go to school riding on kangaroos either).
Here, Ana and I have killed a couple stereotypes… when shopping our host said that the Americans she has had want cereal in the mornings, we didn’t, and when we went to Houston and Marie’s we had tea and beer instead of coffee - silly little things, I know, but it’s fun busting American stereotypes.
It’s been fun to learn how people really are people everywhere, and for every European who can actually dress themselves, there is one with saggy pants. Sounds of mass disappointment at the changing of train platforms is universal and not dependent on language. There are those who play the victim of life wherever you go (the ones who never accept the blame for their life not working out the way that they wanted). And there are also decent people, some who give up their seat on the subway to the elderly or ladies with children and others who offer seats to people with backpacks, perhaps not understanding the logistics of basically being a pregnant turtle (bag in front and bag in back… for seriously, AWKWARD!).
OH - along with liking American toilet paper, we also prefer American kitty litter - for seriously, the clumpy stuff is awesome compared to what we got here. Also, I really miss the German beer and wine - so much better than the stuff they have in the store here. I have to say, I wonder how difficult it will be adjusting to grocery shopping in the states again, with their massive selections of anything you would want. I think I prefer the small shops. Shopping in another language is an experience I think that everyone should have - it’s very exciting (“Is this turkey? What’s the difference in the mustard? Do you think that is good cheese?”).
I do wish that we were able to get off the train lines a bit, as driving through Romania and around here has been good to see things that we would not otherwise have been able to see. However, I’m very grateful for the train lines because a gallon of gas would run us about $10 in US money. We woulda gone broke a long time ago! Thanks to the car we were able to go to Toledo and Avila as well. Woot woot!
Avila was really cool - the wall around the older part is the longest standing medieval wall in Europe. Or something like that. We got pix of a statue of St. Theresa and wandered until we found a place with cheap tapas and beer - no tripe this time, just honest bacon. Not sure what the specialty was, it was something that is typical to Avila, and it was delish. The beer situation is kinda funny - as far as I can tell from where we’ve been, they have one kind of beer on tap. That’s it. No other variety here… made me miss BJ’s, I must say. Ah well, here’s to getting back on the trains soon.
So that’s all the stuff on my mind at the moment… don’t ask how we went from the subway to kitty litter, I told you that I’m random.
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