Postcard: Spain and Italy

From the archives... This will not be a good example of my writing skills, but I am happy to have a record of my travels through Spain and Italy in the summer of 2001. I forgot so much of what had happened. Here are the emails that I sent to friends and family along the way. And I am resisting the strong urge to edit this!

Originally sent Thursday, June 14, 2001 5:55 PM

Subject: Hola desde Granada

I´m writing from a little Internet cafe in the southern town of Granada, Spain. It´s not very hard to do since there are Internet hookups everywhere even in the hostales. For those of you who don´t know where I am, you clearly aren´t calling me enough. Pick up the phone! I´m travelling in Spain and Italy for 4 weeks with my college roommate, P. Yes, I am still employed but on a very extended vacation. Thanks to my wonderful boss! Okay, I´m glad the sucking up is through.

This is Day 6. We arrived in Madrid from where we rented a car so we could road trip through Spain. I highly recommend driving through a foreign country because it is amazing the little things that come up. Be prepared to be very frustrated with the lack of street signs, though. I am amazed at what a good sense of direction I have and I can read a map. I never knew. Basically, we´ve seen all the big sites in the cities we´ve visited including Madrid, Cordoba, Sevilla, Toledo, Granada, Nerja. I won´t bore everyone with the details as most of you have been to Spain. If you haven´t yet, maybe I´ll fill you in later. Or just go!

Instead, I´ll just tell you some things which I found interesting or entertaining that others may not deem worth noting due to lack of the A. perspective.

1. Matadors are hot. Against my brother´s advice, I went to see a bullfight in Madrid. It was horrible and disgusting as 6 bulls were killed that day while spectators cheered on. But, despite the freezing temperatures and the carnage, we stayed til the end because we wanted to watch all the cute matadors. It´s surprising how immune you become to the killing. Toward the end, we were just waiting for the bulls to die so that it would all end.

2. You know movies where the car starts rolling backward as someone gives chase. Oh yeah, that happened to me. Being a novice to stick shifts, I parked the car and forgot to set the parking break. I had to jump in and slam down the brake. It was quite funny.

3. In the States, everyone thinks I´m of Spanish speaking origin. I must look Latina. That has continued here. Sadly, I know very little Spanish. I think people think I´m being snobby. However, they can easily tell I´m Americana. There´s no hiding that.

4. Tour groups are a great thing because you can follow them whenever you´re lost. We followed the people carrying maps through the windy confusing streets of Cordoba and Sevilla. Also, it´s great if you can overhear the guide´s explanation of what you´re seeing.

5. If I see 1 more Cathedral... Spain is very Catholic so we´ve seen Cathedrals almost everywhere. I liked the mezquita in Cordoba the most because of the Muslim influence. The Toledo and Sevilla cathedrals very nice but just too ornate for me. It's very dizzying to look at them. I lose my balance.

Ahhh, I´m almost out of time. It´s hard to write on this keyboard. We´re off to the Costa del Blanca of Spain tomorrow.

Hasta, A.

Originally sent Tuesday, June 19, 2001 10:40 AM

Subject: Hola desde Barcelona

When we last left our heroines...

P. and I left the heat and flamenco dancers of Southern Spain for the paella and beaches of the East coast. After blitzkrieging through the sites of Madrid through Granada, we've been relaxing for the 2nd half of our Spain trip.

I drove for most of the very blah trip from Granada to Costa Blanca. We stopped at the San Juan Beach in Alicante, and I'm about 3 shades darker than I was. Then, we went out on the town in Valencia. This was the biggest night life we have experienced. We even heard Bon Jovi blaring from some guy's car- "It's my life...now or never." (That's for you, A.C.)! It's like a night out in San Fran except we have to point to things on the menu. We also watched some guy unsuccessfully try to take some woman's purse...yeah,that happens in San Fran, too.

Finally, we arrived in Barcelona on Saturday only to be turned away due to lack of a motel room. P. got pulled over for making a somewhat erratic car move. She had to take a breathalyzer test, which was quite amusing. (shhh....don't tell her I told you). So, we re-routed to the Costa Brava to spend more time on the beach although it was not as nice as the Costa Blanca. Finally, we arrived in Barcelona, a beautiful Spanish city full of many, many Americans. La Sagrada Familia was probably my favorite Spain site b/c I'm a big fan of Gaudi. A few of you may remember Neumann's architecture class at Brown...well, it was fun to see something I had studied. Walking down the narrow, spirally staircase was wild. Don't look down. We also stopped by Gaudi's Parc Guell. We saw a beautiful view of the Mediterranean and the city from the top. And then, we got very lost in the labyrinth of side paths and gardens. Gaudi was pretty damn creative or high. We saw the sites pretty early and have been spending the rest of the time doing nothing.

We have been hanging out on Les Rambles watching the people walk by and playing "Are they Americana or Euro?" Americans are so easy to spot b/c they are less snobby looking and a lot less stylish. Also, the backpacks and sneakers are a big give away. We were in our hotel room last night waiting to go out(the hours from 10pm - 1am pass very slowly b/c you're just waiting and waiting) when we heard these guys having a deep racial discussion (not really). It was such an obnoxious conversation but the best line was "you went to a liberal college, you don't have any perspective. you're too sensitive."

The Barcelona Metro is also amusing b/c of the elevator music. We were able to discern John Lennon, Bryan Adams, Moon River, lots of 80s music. Also,The Naked Truth, the show with Tea Leoni is always on the TV. At first, we were making fun of it, but now we find ourselves turning on the TV looking for it. "Is it on? Where's Tea?" Either that or the Spanish Price is Right, Precio Juste.

It's siesta time right now. I haven't been able to adjust to this tradition although it is a great idea. The Internet cafe is packed with us Americans. Spain has been wonderful. I loved driving through the country and drinking Sangria into the night. My favorite spots were probably Sevilla, Granada, Nerja, Costa Blanca, and Barcelona. It is weird that when our Spain trip is over, we still half of our vacation left. I'll email from Italy. There are many Spain postcards heading to the States.
To show my web nerdiness, this is an aside for my coworkers: (1) Yahoo Mail is 10x faster internationally than Hotmail. The Yahoo folks had said this was true b/c they are a framed site and Hotmail operates with redirects. I guess they weren't just full of themselves as usual. (2) When I drop down the address bar, I see yahoo.fr, yahoo.br, yahoo.com, etc as the predominant sites. I guess everyone does Yahoo. (3) I've seen very few billboards on the autovias except in the big cities. The biggest I saw was wanadoo.es, which I know is a big European search engine. Also, I saw dot.com ads on buses. (4) ads.x10.com pop-ups everywhere. You can't get away from it. Interesting stuff. 

Originally sent Monday, July 02, 2001 8:28 AM
Subject: da Roma
Ciao!
Day 24 begins...I've developed quite the teva tan at this point. My toes must be the darkest part of my body.
I am now in the great shopping mall known as Italy. The Italy Trail: Rome-Venice-Milan-Genova-Cinque Terre-Florence-Siena/Pisa-Pompei-Naples-Rome. So far, everywhere in Italy has been about 10x more crowded than Spain. We were spolied by the lack of waiting in Spain, but Italy has been one long queue. People are a little more rude but a lot more stylish. Shopping!
Spain was a lot more exciting to me b/c I hadn't been there before. I've been to Italy before but there were still a few more highlights on the second half of the trip. My favorite part of this vacation was Venice b/c it's a beautiful city, and my college friend D. and his wife C. were able to meet us there. They drove a long way from Germany through my favorite mountain range - the Alps- to come visit us for the weekend. (Thanks, D&C)! Sightseeing was fun but it was especially great to talk to familiar, friendly, English speaking people. We took the requisite gondola ride. We contemplated buying a $40,000 chandelier. No, not really.
The second best part of Italy was hiking through Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre are the five towns along the Italian Riviera coast, and there is an at times grueling 11km trail through the mountains and along the coast there. We motored through it in 4 hrs in the unbearable sun. (You missed out, J.P.). It definitely isn't the 'path not taken' as we met tons of backpackers there, but still worth it for the incredible views. The water was an amazing crystal blue. No green at all. (B.W., you know what that means). I threw out all the clothes I had been wearing. Did I mention how HOT it was?
Did you know that 70% of Italian men call their mothers EVERY day? It's true. Everyone is always on the phone with their moms here.
There were some other cool highlights. I liked the art in Florence. I saw Botticelli's Birth of Venus on which I had done a presentation in 10th grade History class (in Mrs. Whiting's class, N.). I was excited about that b/c it's one of the three paintings I actually recognize.
Riding the train was an adventure. Yesterday, we met some overly friendly train hoppers. One of the guys showed his appreciation for P. and Asian women by making that universal slanty eyes motion. I tried unsuccessfully not to laugh. They were very amusing and good tour guides. We declined on the offer to have Italian boyfriends. Sadly, they were kicked off before they could entertain us some more.
Crossing the street is sort of like the Seinfeld Frogger episode. Red lights seem to be strictly discretionary. We've resorted to using old women as our shields as they are much more adept at crossing the street than we are.
Well, the trip is nearing the end. I'm even looking forward to going back to work. I miss the metrix. I'll see y'all in NYC.
Ciao love, A.