The rest of the two weeks that I spent in Spain was amazing. It is such an interesting, relaxed, and enjoyable place to travel. The atmosphere is so fun and relaxing, and having pinchos (Basque for tapas) and a some wine at a tapas bar is always a great way to end a day. We drove all the way from the Northeast corner of San Sebastian to the southeastern tip of Tarifa and I enjoyed every minute of it. Definitely one of my favorite countries I have ever visited, and even though I have already been twice, it's at the top of my list of places to visit again.
My online photo album and captions will describe the trip in more detail but a few stream-of-consciousness highlights were:
Barcelona-amazing vibe and awesome Gaudi architecture all around...staying at Sancho's family's house in the countryside around Bilbao was really interesting - the tiny village does not see 25 American tourists very often!...The Guggenheim Bilbao was crazy and cool...Saw Guernica in Madrid again. Still super impactful...San Sebastian was a beautiful and really fun town on the Northeastern coast. Amazing food...Grenada was highlighted by the Alhambra which was not quite as cool as I had hoped but still very much worth seeing. Terrible audio guides though...Gibraltar was a weird escape...Tarifa was an amazingly fun and chill beach town
All in all, a great trip and a great finish to Europe. Next up, a long trip to Vietnam!
Showing posts with label Spain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spain. Show all posts
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Gibraltar - a weird but cool British outpost in southern Spain
We spent a day visiting Gibraltar, a 30 minute drive from the house we rented in Tarifa, at the southern tip of Spain. In fact, Gibraltar is a 2.5 square mile rock outcropping at the southern tip of Europe. It's also oddly British - a fact that still causes some tension between Britain and Spain. At the rock of Gibraltar, Morocco is only 10 km away and is clearly visible across the Strait of Gibraltar, an obviously important and highly trafficked shipping channel for any boats leaving the Mediterranean and heading eastwards.
Gibraltar had three major highlights.
The first was the British atmosphere. While Spain has been fantastic, it was fun having a day long escape. We spent much of it eating amazing fish and chips and watching the final round of the British Open in an English pub. We also walked around a little bit down the small but British feeling town, complete with classic red English phone booths. Finally, there were tons of red-faced Brits speaking the Queen's English.
The second highlight were the macaques - the only wild primates in Europe. About 300 macaques, basically tailless apes that look like monkeys, roam in five tribes around the rock of Gibraltar. They are very used to human tourists though, and enjoyed running all around and over our cars, grabbing anything they could find (including a bathing suit out of the trunk), and generally entertaining us.
Finally, the rock of Gibraltar and the views were pretty cool. Most people know the rock from the Prudential advertisements. It is both imposing in itself and also has really cool views back towards Spain and also across the water towards Morocco. It feels a lot like the Cape of Good Hope to me, with a long high rock outcropping in a narrow peninsula out into the water. We finished the day with a tricky scramble up the rock to the highest point in Gibraltar, which would have been much easier in shoes instead of flimsy flip-flops.
Gibraltar had three major highlights.
The first was the British atmosphere. While Spain has been fantastic, it was fun having a day long escape. We spent much of it eating amazing fish and chips and watching the final round of the British Open in an English pub. We also walked around a little bit down the small but British feeling town, complete with classic red English phone booths. Finally, there were tons of red-faced Brits speaking the Queen's English.
The second highlight were the macaques - the only wild primates in Europe. About 300 macaques, basically tailless apes that look like monkeys, roam in five tribes around the rock of Gibraltar. They are very used to human tourists though, and enjoyed running all around and over our cars, grabbing anything they could find (including a bathing suit out of the trunk), and generally entertaining us.
Finally, the rock of Gibraltar and the views were pretty cool. Most people know the rock from the Prudential advertisements. It is both imposing in itself and also has really cool views back towards Spain and also across the water towards Morocco. It feels a lot like the Cape of Good Hope to me, with a long high rock outcropping in a narrow peninsula out into the water. We finished the day with a tricky scramble up the rock to the highest point in Gibraltar, which would have been much easier in shoes instead of flimsy flip-flops.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Pamplona
The San Fermin festival in Pamplona was definitely my most memorable experience from the summer in Spain. Commonly known as “the running of the bulls”, San Fermin is one of the craziest things I have ever witnessed. Tens of thousands of tourists descend on Pamplona for a week every July for an incredible 24/7 party. Every morning at 8am, 12 bulls are released and hundreds of runners chase (and are chased) by the bulls through town on the way to the stadium. The race was much faster than I expected (bulls are fast – the race only lasts like 3 minutes!) but the surrounding fiesta goes on non-stop.
I went with 7 friends for a day and a night in Pamplona. We arrived just in time for the afternoon bullfight. The bullfight was a mix of enchanting and disgusting, with matadors elegantly performing an ancient ritualistic dance with the bulls, but also killing them in a gory mess that concludes with a stab to the head and horses dragging a dead bull covered in blood out of the ring. The packed crowd of Spaniards loved it though. An interesting tradition is the cutting of the ear. If the crowd thinks that the matador did a particularly good job, they call for him to receive the ear of the bull as a reward. A member of the royal family (of what family, I’m not sure) sits in the royal box. Like a scene straight out of Gladiator, he listens to the roar of the crowd after the fight, and raises his handkerchief if he determines the matador should receive the ear. We saw one granted in the six bullfights of the night.
After the bullfight, we reveled in the streets, parading around, snacking on tapas, and popping in and out of little bars. The scene was smelly, wine-soaked, and energetic, as a number of tourists come to town for the week and just nap in the park whenever they must before jumping back into the fiesta. The fiesta itself is aided by two surprisingly good Spanish drinks – the callemocho and tinto de verano – which are red wine mixed with coca-cola and red wine mixed with a Spanish drink kind of like 7-up.
The actual running of the bulls was quite a scene as well. Part or our group ran and part watched from balconies or wherever they could find a view. I was torn between running and watching but after a twenty-something Californian was gored and needed extensive surgery the day before we arrived, I opted for the balcony. I think it turned out to be a good choice. To run, you really need to scout out the section of the run you want to do ahead of time and prepare some escape options. Having seen it once, I am sure that I could do it. But running on your first day there is a huge mistake, according to both my Spanish friends who have been and having seen the race I would agree. The biggest risk in the race is not really the bulls but that you fall and get trampled, first by the crowd of runners (who will NOT stop to help you up) and then by some angry running bulls.
The runners are a mix of young European and American travelers who want to have an adventure and generally don’t know what they are doing and a bunch of experienced locals who not only want to say they ran with the bulls but who actually want to run as close to the bulls as they can for as long as they can. In my photo below from taken from our balcony, you can actually see one of the runners reaching out and touching a bull. Crazy. But an amazingly fun couple days.
Running with the bulls
The running begins
Fellow spectators
Even we got in the bullfighting act
I went with 7 friends for a day and a night in Pamplona. We arrived just in time for the afternoon bullfight. The bullfight was a mix of enchanting and disgusting, with matadors elegantly performing an ancient ritualistic dance with the bulls, but also killing them in a gory mess that concludes with a stab to the head and horses dragging a dead bull covered in blood out of the ring. The packed crowd of Spaniards loved it though. An interesting tradition is the cutting of the ear. If the crowd thinks that the matador did a particularly good job, they call for him to receive the ear of the bull as a reward. A member of the royal family (of what family, I’m not sure) sits in the royal box. Like a scene straight out of Gladiator, he listens to the roar of the crowd after the fight, and raises his handkerchief if he determines the matador should receive the ear. We saw one granted in the six bullfights of the night.
After the bullfight, we reveled in the streets, parading around, snacking on tapas, and popping in and out of little bars. The scene was smelly, wine-soaked, and energetic, as a number of tourists come to town for the week and just nap in the park whenever they must before jumping back into the fiesta. The fiesta itself is aided by two surprisingly good Spanish drinks – the callemocho and tinto de verano – which are red wine mixed with coca-cola and red wine mixed with a Spanish drink kind of like 7-up.
The actual running of the bulls was quite a scene as well. Part or our group ran and part watched from balconies or wherever they could find a view. I was torn between running and watching but after a twenty-something Californian was gored and needed extensive surgery the day before we arrived, I opted for the balcony. I think it turned out to be a good choice. To run, you really need to scout out the section of the run you want to do ahead of time and prepare some escape options. Having seen it once, I am sure that I could do it. But running on your first day there is a huge mistake, according to both my Spanish friends who have been and having seen the race I would agree. The biggest risk in the race is not really the bulls but that you fall and get trampled, first by the crowd of runners (who will NOT stop to help you up) and then by some angry running bulls.
The runners are a mix of young European and American travelers who want to have an adventure and generally don’t know what they are doing and a bunch of experienced locals who not only want to say they ran with the bulls but who actually want to run as close to the bulls as they can for as long as they can. In my photo below from taken from our balcony, you can actually see one of the runners reaching out and touching a bull. Crazy. But an amazingly fun couple days.
Bullfight
Running with the bulls
The running begins
Fellow spectators
Even we got in the bullfighting act
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