Sevilla (Say-VEE-ya), January 17, 2014

Sevilla (Say-VEE-ya)                    January 17, 2014

It's hard to believe that it's been just over a week since we left Maine. As always, when you are dropped into a new culture, it seems like we've been away for ages!  We are slowly adjusting to the rhythm of life here, though it is still weird to wake up at 8am and have it be dark outside.  I guess we make up for it on the other end of the day, when darkness descends again around 6:30pm.   I can't say that there has been much sun this past week.  Mostly cloudy & gray with some real rain today. Temp's are in the 60's.  Actually the temperature is pretty good for walking around (and I'm not complaining, mind you :)  The Sevilla folks continue to eat outdoors at restaurants with sidewalk tables, sometimes with heaters in the evenings.

                "the mushoom", huge outdoor construction

Seville is a university city, and there are lots of students around. They cluster at popular tapas bars in the evening, filling the tiny inside space and overflowing to tables outside.  Lots of smoking going on - by all ages.  This is Europe, after all.  But nary an overweight person.  Again, it's Europe!   One thing that surprises me is the lack of Africans, either blacks or Muslim Africans, as we would see in Portland, which has about 1/7 the population of Seville.  With the proximity to Africa, I expected to see many more.  Perhaps the "crisis" keeps them away.  Or perhaps they live in other neighborhoods.  Lots of Asians here, though, both students and great groups of tourists, all walking dutifully in line behind their guides.

Tapas are the mainstay of our diet here.  Much ham (mostly Iberico, which is very thinly sliced and includes the fat.  Angel told us that THIS fat is actually good for us :).   We've had some lovely, creative tapas offerings, too.  We may have to do another tapas dinner with our cooking group in April when we return.  Three or four little dishes, shared between the two of us, with a glass of tinto (red wine) for me and a cervesa (beer) for Bruce - and we're good to go.  

                        Our favorite tapas bar - the Europa

Our week in Sevilla is going by quickly.  So far, in addition to the Alcazar, the exotic World Heritage Site complex that I wrote about in our last blog, we have visited the massive Cathedral - the largest in the world (and they have the framed Guinness Book of World Records certificate proudly displayed to prove it!).  Large enough for Bruce and I to easily become lost from each other as we explored it.  In one area, hoisted aloft by four oversize wooden colonial figures, is the coffin that supposedly holds the body of Christopher Columbus.   Adjoining the cathedral is the Giralda, a huge minaret from Muslim days, now a bell tower and a symbol of Sevilla.  It rises high into the sky and is accessed by a long, four foot wide enclosed brick ramp.  The ramp apparently was used in the old days so that guards could reach the top by riding in a horse-drawn cart.  We modern folks troop up there under our own power!

the Giralda, the former minaret/current bell tower of the cathedral

Yesterday we upped our sight-seeing productivity a bit and actually visited a number of sites, a couple of which had been suggested by Pepe, our fluent English-speaking host, who reads the New Yorker every week!  He's a practicing lawyer and doesn't have much time to chat, but we've had a few interesting moments to share with him in this "AirBnB".  He had suggested visiting a nearby luxury hotel, the Alphonso XIII, built in 1928 for the World Expo held in Sevilla at that time.  It's very ornate, with lots of tile work, an interior garden where guests can take afternoon tea, an original piece of art work by Juan Miro for sale in one of its galleries (!), uniformed wait staff that quietly appear to bring you a coffee - at a pretty reasonable price, given the surroundings.  You get the picture.  Pepe remembers going there to meet with Orson Wells, who frequented this hotel each winter.  Apparently Pepe and a few friends were fans, and they had a chance to meet with him and talk about film.

The Jewish Museum was another destination.  It's fairly new, staffed by enthusiastic young folks, and it offers a very interesting history of the Sephardic experience over the centuries in Spain.  A sad one, but fascinating to read the brief biographies of influential Jewish citizens.  We were astonished to read that the laws governing the Inquisition (1400's) did not all get overturned until 1865!  And that the treatment of Jews by the rulers during the heyday of the Inquisition paralleled that of the Nazis five hundred years later, with a special identifying mark required on clothes and confiscation of property.  One room in the museum held old house keys, hanging from the ceiling.  We were told that the keys were passed down by families for generations, in hopes that they would one day return to their homes in Spain.

Today we visited the Plaza del Toros de la Real (Royal) Maestranza - Seville's bullring.  It's reportedly the oldest bullring in Spain - and the tour was more interesting than we had anticipated.  In fact, Bruce would now like to see a bullfight!  Unfortunately, the season doesn't begin until April.  Maybe we can squeeze it in before we return home.  The traditions, national passion, and honor of this sport, so closely associated with Spain (though it's carried out in most Latin American nations, as well as southern France) make it a bit compelling.

                Sevilla's bullring - it holds 12,000 spectators

                         proud bullfighter outside the ring

So, that's what the Webb's have been up to this week in Seville. We haven't heard the "soul ripping sound of flamenco" yet, but it's definitely on my must-hear list!  Time's running out.  Maybe tonight!

Hasta luega!

Adios, Madrid; Hola, Seville! January 14, 2014

Adios, Madrid; Hola, Sevilla!      January 14, 2014

The next two days in Madrid were filled with more exploration, more good food, and lots more conversation.  We learned about the desire of the Catalonians (the area where Barcelona is located) to become independent, which frustrates the rest of the Spaniards.  In fact, it seems that all of the northern regions are more prosperous than the south and somewhat resistant to sending their revenues to support that area.  

We learned about high unemployment and the outpouring of young Spaniards to places like England and Ireland. (I'd also heard about this on National Public Radio at home.)  We attended a gallery show in the Matadero, featuring amazing new ideas from all of the Latin American countries, as well as Spain.  Lots of creativity out there for solving the world's problems.

Angel brought tourist brochures that he had collected, describing the lesser known (to us, anyway) areas of Galicia, Asturias, and the Basque area along the northern coast, west of the Pyrenees.  He is a great promoter of Spain, and it's obvious that he's passionate about his country.  He also helped Bruce get up to speed on using our new smart phone.  (Still having trouble with pix on this blog, though.  We've got a couple but not the ones I want or where I want them!).

On Saturday evening, after B & I had been out visiting a home where Cervantes had worked and other Madrid sights, Angel took the lead in cooking his grandmother's recipe for potato tortilla (omelette).  These had an added touch of long, green sweet peppers which had been cooked in oil and laid over the top.  Yum!  The next day, Andrea led us on a grocery store tour where we picked up ingredients for a paella, including a bare baby bunny, which the butcher chopped into pieces for us.  Our meal began with large shrimp (langoustines), then the delicious moist & flavorful vegetable-rabbit paella.  Dessert was a special fresh strawberry/balsamic vinegar dish that Andrea had learned as a teenager in Venezuela. Oh, my, did we eat well in Madrid!  We certainly enjoyed our time there so much.

                      Tile detail from the Alcazar in Seville

All good things must come to an end.  It was time for Andrea and Angel to reclaim their lives and their living space.  We departed on Monday morning on the train for Seville.  It was a 2.5 hour trip through mostly flat terrain, past olive groves (Spain produces an enormous amount of olive oil) and past sheep and cattle farms. 

                             Pool in the Alcazar in Seville

We walked from the train station to our airbnb (their first guests ever to walk!).  We're staying with a nice family in a beautiful second floor apartment near the Alcazar, the ancient (and current) home of Spain's royal family.  Our roomy bedroom looks out through tall French doors onto a quiet street.  The weather has been rather cloudy for the past day but the temp is about 60 degrees.  Palm trees and parrots add an exotic touch.  Last night we sampled bulls tail, a Spanish specialty, at a tapas restaurant.  Kinda bony.  I wouldn't recommend it.  The pork stew was much better.

Today we toured the Alcazar, an impressive, large complex of palaces and gardens dating back to the 1200's.  They are very Moorish in appearance with lacy filigree arches and lots of tile work, geometric designs, and fountains.  That burbling sound of flowing water must be so appealing in Seville's scorching summers!  One could easily be transported to an ancient mystical time.  As we walked the garden paths, we turned around to see a peacock ambling down a path with his friend, a lame mallard duck, following in his footsteps!  They responded to Bruce's whistle while I took a picture (of course), then continued on their way.

We are still way off on our eating/sleeping regime.  Just when I thought that we had it, we seem to be missing meals and then getting hungry when we're not supposed to!  Bedtime seems to be around midnight, with wake-up around 9 am.  Breakfast right away, a big mid-day meal around 2 pm (?), then a nap, and a lighter meal late in the evening.  Give us a couple of more weeks.  Maybe we'll get into the rhythm.  

Bienvenidos, January 10, 2014

After a lovely overnight with Jane Andrews and Don Bouchard in Gorham, during which we could re-think our packing and make adjustments, we headed to the airport for our 3:30 pm flight to Philadelphia on Wednesday, January 8.   We encountered several delays in leaving first Portland, then Philadelphia, finally lifting out of USA on our way to Madrid at about 8pm.  The pilot promised to try to make up for lost time, and that he did, landing us smoothly on Spanish soil at about 8:30 am on Thursday.  The flight was good but we barely slept.  Those US Air seats are fine for sitting but just too small and uncomfortable for sleeping.

European customs seems to be non-existent.  We got our baggage and left the airport, without anyone asking if we had citrus fruit or had visited a farm or were bringing weapons or lots of valuables.  Seems very trusting.  Outside we were met with 60 degree weather, green grass, birds chirping - nirvana for Brucie!   We found the shuttle bus to the city center and treated ourselves to a taxi from there to Andrea's apartment.

Andrea is the young woman whom we had met in Guatemala in 2011, when we all were volunteering at Safe Passage.  She calls herself our "heart daughter", and we are very fond of her.   Having grown up in Venezuela but lived in Madrid for the past 10 years, she knows the Spanish culture of both the new world and the old.   She is a fantastic person, full of life and ideas and fun, a foodie like us, and obviously very generous, having opened her home to us for the second time now.  It is such a gift to spend time with her and her boyfriend, Angel (AHN-hel).  They are like cultural coaches for us, very knowledgeable about the history and culture of Spain with much information to share.  Andrea speaks English well, and Angel is giving us a good work-out in Spanish while trying to practice his English, too.   It's hard work all around!

This is a sampling of our activities for the past two days.  After a wonderful home-cooked meal by Andrea, including a fabulous artichoke dish, off we went for a long walk to the Matadores, a complex of beautiful old industrial buildings which served as a slaughter house in the old days.  It's now a trendy venue for all kinds of things, including a gallery offering a presentation on the papyrus scrolls discovered in Pompeii (remember our discussion about Pompeii just last week, Sam?).  We then ambled along part of a long walkway that we had explored two years ago, passing dog walkers, a busy skateboarding area, a soccer field filled with young athletes, etc., until after dark.  Bruce felt that he had been liberated from winter!

Today was a full-on foodie day.  We made a pretense of visiting a cathedral, but it really was all about the food.  Andrea and Angel introduced us to the "Latina" neighborhood of Madrid, named after a woman who had lived there and had been a scholar of many languages.  It has narrow side streets and lots of eating establishments.  We began with a stop to sample vermuth.  It was the color of coca-cola and tasted nothing like the drink that is included in martinis.  More like sherry. Then we were off to a cheese store where we restrained ourselves, buying only 3 small wedges.  This was followed by an amazing ham shop, sporting large dried ham hocks hanging from the ceiling, hoofs and all.  In the middle of the store was a big wheel with about 5 ham hocks speared onto it, where the young vendor was slicing off paper-thin pieces at about $80 per pound.  We bought the more reasonably priced pre-packaged serrano ham.  Two tapas bars followed with small dishes of delicious offerings.  My favorite was the bacalao (cod) buried in aoli sauce.  The breaded sauteed eggplant with bacon and cheese was pretty good, too!  We topped it all off with coffee and chocolate cake to share in the back room of an atmospheric little cafe.

Of course, the tapas was accompanied by red wine and lots of good conversation.  Angel and Andrea are encouraging us to hike part of the Camino, the ancient trail that Roman Catholic pilgrims have trod for centuries on their way to the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain.   It is believed that the bones of St. James are buried there.  Various trails from all over Europe lead to this religious site.  Bruce and I have considered doing some of the hike - but not very seriously, I must admit.  Well, we're getting more serious.   We have our backpacks, our hiking shoes, and a place to leave our suitcases!  We'll see.  It would be at the end of our time here, in early April, if we do it.

Now it is evening.  Andrea is off to her yoga class.  Angel will join us all later to do some cooking, imbibing, and sampling of all those goodies that we bought today.  We like this Spanish lifestyle!  

Andrea's Yummy Artichoke Dish 
artichoke hearts           chopped serrano ham
chopped onions            chopped parsley
minced garlic                paprika
salt & pepper                lemon juice
olive oil
Combine everything and saute in the olive oil.  

Sorry for the lack of photos. Getting them from the camera to the blog is our next challenge!

Escaping Winter, January 2, 2014

Escaping Winter, January 2, 1014

Testing, testing....(my rusty technology skills!)
After 17 months at home and with winter approaching - heck, with ferocious winter weather here already- the Webb's are firing up the blog for another adventure in a far-away (read "warmer") land.  This time our travels take us to Spain.  We leave next week, on January 8, 2014, and will return on April 15.   As the snow whips around us this morning, Bruce is delighted to have tix to "be on a jet plane" very soon.  I always find it more difficult to leave my cozy home, my family, my friends, my meaningful activities - but I usually snap into gear and love all the new sights and experiences after Bruce manages to pry me loose!  

Adios (literally, "to God", I like that.)  

mucha luvia (lots of rain!)

Antigua, Guatemala, October, 2011

It has been raining here for days.  It IS the rainy season, and to be expected, but it´s supposed to be winding down, now that we´re in October, or so we thought. As I lay in my lumpy bed, wide awake in the middle of a recent night, snug and warm, listening to the drumming of rain on the metal roof, I couldn´t help but wonder about landslides in the countryside and dark little tin-sided shacks with dirt floors with streams, undoubtedly, running through them by then.  Or a classful of squirmy kids, unable to go outside for fresh air and a good run - which I may be dealing with soon.  

Well, it turns out that there have, indeed, been landslides and flooding in the area surrounding Xela, where we were living until last week.  Already 10 people have died in that area and 10 others in other parts of the country.  Schools have been closed all over the country.  Closer to Antigua, where we are now, Safe Passage volunteers have been sent out of Guatemala City and back to their living quarters in Antigua early for a couple of days because of concern about the roads getting cut off with landslides.  The land must be so very saturated with water by now, as the rain continues, both day and night.  There are periods of just drizzle but it´s been pretty constant, in one form or another, for the better part of a week now.  It´s all part of a tropical depression that is predicted to continue into next week.

To keep our spirits up in this dankness, Bruce and I have been gathering up our books and the umbrella, putting on our ïmpermeables and heading out each morning (our "gap" week), to a beautiful cafe where the coffee is good and the prices are good and the ambiance is amazing.  The guy with the uniform and the big gun, standing guard at the door, (guess he´s part of the ambiance,too) will soon begin to recognize us.  We sit at a table, upstairs in a colonial home dating to the 1500`s, looking down on a patio filled with lush plants, with little sparrows darting in and out, pull out our Spanish verbs and settle in for the morning.  Slowly, we are making sense of the present tense, the preterite tense, the imperfect, and the future.  Still painful, but we´re trying to be patient with ourselves.

Today Bruce and I went on a 3 hour walking tour of Antigua.  The tour was given by a woman from California who has lived here for 30 years and is an authority on the city and its history.   We learned all about the Spanish conquest of the area, the strong role of the Catholic church,  and the history of the Mayan people in this area.  We visited several churches,  the town hall, a jade factory and a lovely old Dominican monastery.    We were pretty tired at the end and hungry, but it was a great orientation to the town.  I`m sure there  is more to learn during our stay.

Adios for now.

ps.  I love the Spanish word for retired:  jubilado!

Winding Down

Antigua, Guatemala        November, 2011

 My new friend, Andrea is a classy and bright young Latino woman from Venezuela  who is volunteering at  Camino Seguro and living with us in the Morales home.  She has advised me that life in Latin America is full of contrasts.  She mentioned this in relation to Caracas, where abject poverty exists not far from the high rise opulence of the well-to-do.  Here in Guatemala,  I am often struck by the irony of the beautiful pink rose bush that rises up over the cement wall, in defiance of  its surroundings in the dump neighborhood.  And when I get to school, I love seeing the occasional little girl who has emerged from a filthy environment, dressed in her gauzy, many-layered ball gown, with a pair of dirty sneakers to complete the outfit!  As we approach Antigua on the bus at the end of the day, we pass a small cluster of low tin-sided shacks with smoke from an open cooking fire inside leaking out of the eaves of the house.  Looming over the house is a giant billboard advertising a luxurious hotel in the city!   Contrasts do, indeed, surround us. 

52 Beds in 52 Weeks: A Trip Around the World

As our adventure comes to a close with our return to Maine tomorrow, we are reviewing the year and trying to get a handle on what it all has meant to us.  Our heads are full of so many beautiful sights: the volcanoes and bold colors of Guatemala, the turquoise water of the Caribbean,  the mysterious golden culture of Thailand, the peaceful temples - and wide sidewalks - of Laos, the tidy tea plantations and enormous monuments of India, the misty moody hills of Scotland, the quaint hedgerows and lovely seaside towns of England, the medieval towns of Spain,  the vineyards and mountains of southwest France, and the bright green rolling meadows of Ireland.  And that's just a taste - a good dollop, mind you - but just a taste of the world's gifts that we experienced.

It was an incredible privilege to have this opportunity to spend a year exploring the world.  The highest privilege was being invited into people's homes and into their lives for a moment - real lives where transitions were taking place, where personal losses were being grieved, where a new home was being planned or where uncertain financial futures were being wrestled with, where serious health problems brought re-evaluations of life-style, where young people were working hard to gain an education and were setting out on their own adventures, some graduating after many years of study, where parents were joyfully anticipating a child's wedding or dubiously looking forward to the life changes that retirement would bring,   We weren't escaping from life; we were jumping into the middle of it everywhere that we went!  We have been impressed by the young people that we've met who are so creative and hard-working and ambitious and desirous of all the good stuff in life that American youth want.

There were experiences of spirituality in huge historic Christian places of worship in Europe, in a modern airy church in Asia, in a damp chapel carved out of a mountainside in France, in an ancient abbey on a tiny windswept island off the coast of Scotland, in a small friendly church in Guatemala, in mysterious Buddhist temples smelling of incense.  Those were the formal, intended places of worship.  There were other places, natural locations so beautiful that they brought an unexpected prayer to mind.

There were funny times, too, like when monkeys came after me in India.  I yelled for Bruce's help while trying to distract the little buggers by throwing my sunglasses at them (it didn't work!). There were scary times in the backseat of an Indian taxi driven by a maniac on narrow twisting roads.  There were moments when we wondered why we were wandering around the world, so far from home, and moments of boredom and loneliness  - and lots of lovely moments as recipients of generosity and kindness and fun, and great gratitude for our good fortune in having this incredible experience.

What have we learned?  How have we changed?  Would we do it again?  Do we still have some wanderlust?

Well, these last two are the easiest to answer, given that we are still jotting down places that we'd like to see and noting tidbits of info, like the fact that Ryan Air plans to begin service from Ireland to Gdansk, Poland.  Ahh, so many interesting places still to explore and so much to learn about the world.  I don't think that we have another long adventure in us - but shorter ones still appeal. It's been a tremendous amount of work to get this endeavor to unroll as smoothly as it has - and it has all been done by Bruce!  Thanks to him, we never had a night without a bed or were left stranded by the side of the road or found our bank account empty when we needed it!  But the time and stress involved with arranging hotels, B&B's, apartments, houses, Woofing, visas, buses, trains, flights, ferries, car rentals, credit card payments, money transfers, new currencies and phone cards in every country - with internet service that was often dodgy - it's been a HUGE undertaking!  Bravo to him.  No wonder I'm the one who wants to get out and see, do, experience every day while he wants to take it slow and easy.

What have we learned about ourselves?  Well, I know now that I have a pretty good sense of direction and that we're both pretty flexible, that Bruce is surprisingly more cautious than I in many situations, that he is incredibly good at aforementioned planning.   We both are more acutely aware of the disparities between the "have's" and "have not's" in the world - and the incredible sweetness and generosity of those who have very little in the way of material goods.  If we have any regrets, it's that we might have done more in the way of being of service to those very people.  Overall, it's been a proverbial blast!  It's hard to let go of such a wonderful experience, but we are ready now to rejoin our families and friends, to reconnect with those whose roots and histories we share, and to reclaim our lives back home.

As the year has unfolded and we've written blog after blog, we've often wondered who was reading them and what their reactions were.  We'd love to have some feedback, thoughts, reactions, etc.  You could send them to my email at:  lwebb34@gmail.com.  Thanks and cheerio!