Over the past few weeks, I’ve gotten to see lots of familiar faces: on my trip to Germany I visited Ashley, Melissa, and Sarah; Linnaea and Katelyn came to see me in February; I just visited Becca in Cáceres (and we skyped with Nadia—woohoo!!!); Melissa and her sister are coming this weekend; I’m going to Barcelona to hang out with my uncle and cousin next weekend, and then my uncle and cousin are coming to my house the weekend after that. Phew! Then I’ve got a one-weekend break (what will I do with myself?) before I head off to Girona to meet up with Joy for 2 weeks of adventuring.
Before launching into future adventures, I wanted to share some of the highlights from my visits with Linnaea, Katelyn, and Becca.
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Linnaea & I:
· walked to the beach
· went to the Indian restaurant just a few blocks from my house (DELICIOUS!)
· went to Santanyí’s market
· played speed Scrabble
· got takeout from the Indian restaurant (DELICIOUS!)
· went out for coffee & almond cake at my favorite café
· went to the Indian restaurant just a few blocks from my house (DELICIOUS!)
· went to Santanyí’s market
· played speed Scrabble
· got takeout from the Indian restaurant (DELICIOUS!)
· went out for coffee & almond cake at my favorite café
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| From left to right: the Indian restaurant (photo from their website); my speed Scrabble board (because the tiles come from a Catalan version of Scrabble, there are no W's, very few H's and J's, and there are a few extras: Ç, LL, L·L, and NY); Sa Botiga: my favorite German-owned café (photo from their website) |
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Katelyn & I:
· went to the Indian restaurant (DELICIOUS!)
· went to Santanyí’s market
· drove to Talaiotic ruins a few km from my house
· explored lots of beaches I hadn’t been to before, and went to the southernmost tip of the island (Cap de Ses Salines)
· drove to the westernmost tip of the island (Sant Elm) and hiked up to the abandoned monastery La Trapa, which was founded by Trappist monks escaping from the French Revolution.
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| From left to right: remnants of Mallorca's prehistoric Talaiotic culture (the round structure is a talaiot; the square ones were living quarters); neat graffiti on an abandoned urbanització near the beach Es Trenc; view from the westernmost part of Mallorca towards the small island Sa Dragonera; La Trapa (my favorite place to hike in Oregon was at the Trappist Abbey; now my favorite hike in Spain was up to this Trappist monastery!) |
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Becca & I:
· uf! this is too hard to write w/o complete sentences.The absolute highlights of this weekend were the great conversations. It was wonderful to get to know Becca a little better, to meet her friends, to chat with my friend’s friends’ friends’ friends, and to learn more about Spain and Spaniards. It was a relief for my brain to hear Spanish all around me (instead of Mallorquín), and I loved learning about a completely different region of Spain—if Mallorca is the conservative Florida of Spain, Extremadura is its liberal Wyoming
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Mercado de San Miguel, Madrid
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On Saturday morning, I caught a train to Cáceres, which is about 4 hours from Madrid. I love trains. I don’t know about there being rain in Spain on the plain, but the trains in Spain on the plain are fantastic. Becca met me at the station. We had coffee and pa amb oli & went to a frutería; satiated, we headed out to explore.
There was a music festival going on in one of the squares, and we met up with some of Becca’s friends to hear flamenco and reggae music. Becca showed me around the old center of Cáceres and we climbed church towers and listened to the cigüeñas (storks common in Extremadura). We made some amazing pasta and chocolate chip cookies and played speed Scrabble before crashing for the night.
The next morning, we went on an excursión with some of Becca’s friends, friends of the friends, and friends of friends of friends. Our huge group went out to a town near Cáceres and went walking out in the countryside through boulder fields and around small lakes.
After the long walk, Becca and I napped (I <3 siestas), met up with her conversation partner, drank Moroccan tea, and had a lovely, long conversation.
There was a music festival going on in one of the squares, and we met up with some of Becca’s friends to hear flamenco and reggae music. Becca showed me around the old center of Cáceres and we climbed church towers and listened to the cigüeñas (storks common in Extremadura). We made some amazing pasta and chocolate chip cookies and played speed Scrabble before crashing for the night.
The next morning, we went on an excursión with some of Becca’s friends, friends of the friends, and friends of friends of friends. Our huge group went out to a town near Cáceres and went walking out in the countryside through boulder fields and around small lakes.
After the long walk, Becca and I napped (I <3 siestas), met up with her conversation partner, drank Moroccan tea, and had a lovely, long conversation.
In the evening, we skyped with Nadia (definitely a highlight!), and then went to one of Becca’s favorite bars for a couple glasses of wine.
My bus left Cáceres at 1:45am (yuck-yuck) to head back to Madrid, where I arrived at a bleary-eyed 6am. I made it to the Puerta del Sol, watched the sun rise over the royal palace, ate churros and chocolate in the Plaza Mayor, walked past the Prado and through the Parque del Buen Retiro, and eventually made my way to the airport to fly back.
Unlike my weekends with Linnaea and Katelyn, whom I had visited in November, this was the first time I’d seen Becca in 10 months. We were never very close friends in college, although we shared a lot of the same friends and we studied abroad together. Throughout the weekend, we had a lot of good conversations, and I wish my visit hadn’t been so short—she has always been a person I wanted to get to know better, and after about 1 ½ days together, I feel that I know Becca just a little more. I have the feeling that I’ll be seeing all of these friends again sometime farther down the road, and I’m looking forward to it.
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