I came back last friday from a quick, crazy-paced trip to Spain. I've been having some issues at work and on a personal level, so I had this big urge to just take off for a week and try to take my mind off of things for a few days.
I've been really longing on a trip to Spain, especially after going through some old photos I've been scanning as part of a little project of mine to digitize most of my pre-digital era photographs and negatives. I don't get a lot of vacations at work, so every year I have to choose wisely what to do with my precious days off. With my parents being from Spain, I have a lot of family over there, but this time I just wanted to spend a few days with friends.
So, on a whim I went online to look up air fares, and after almost fainting at the insane prices for a ticket to Europe (and I checked all the way into September), i decided to use my frequent flyer miles. Long story short, after clearing it by my boss, I booked my flight to Spain, with Air France, so I would have to change planes in Paris. Now, I remembered, my best friend from highschool lives in Paris, although any friend in Paris is your best friend, right? So a quick change of plans, and I would spend five days in Spain and almost a whole day in Paris.
I arrived in Madrid saturday afternoon, and while changing trains at the Madrid subway, my trip almost went REALLY sour when I was this close of being robbed by some lowlifes. I already knew about the dangers of pickpocketers all over europe, and yet I almost fell victim of them for a few careless seconds I did not pay attention to my surroundings!!!
I brought my SPOT tracker with me since I thought it would be fun to have some tracks in Europe. Well, I was a bit dissapointed with it, since as the SPOT user manual says, if you haven't powered the unit for a while, or you have moved I don't know how many miles since you last powered it, it takes FOREVER for it to aquire a satelite. Ok, not forever, but 20 minutes is a bit of a stretch -however the SPOT design intent is not for it to be used as I wanted for this trip-. Even after that, once you hit the "Ok" button, it would still take a few minutes to transmit the message.
I spent the night in Madrid with my godparents' daughter. I had to leave the SPOT sitting outside in her balcony while we went out for a bite to eat, and see if the silly thing would actually transmitt a message. Not that it would care, but at least I left it in front of some eye-candy... (who knew Clive Owen would look so good on a Dewars ad? )
A quick walk around the corner to say hi to my godparents, and then back and off to bed. Next morning I was taking a fast train, or "AVE", to the city of Zaragoza, where I would spend some days with an old college friend. What would be a 4 hr trip on a bus or a regular train, would take a mere 1 hr on the AVE.
I had a quick bite to eat at the station, and knowing the fetish TWTer's have for food, I took a pic of my sandwich and an excellent cup of coffee.
The train station in Zaragoza looked in great shape, thanks in part that this year Zaragoza is hosting an "Expo".
I met my friend at the station, and after dropping off my luggage at her apartment we were off to start touring the city. She lives right in the heart of Zaragoza's downtown and the main tourist attractions. So we round the corner from her street and then I see something I did not expect to see there, especially coming from Texas....
Sooo....anyhoo...We walked to the Palacio de la Aljaferia. It was built by the Moors, and later used by the christian kings of the Kingdom of Aragon after the city was conquered during the reconquista. It's in great shape, and the confluence of different architectural styles and influences can be seen all over it, just as it does all over so many other buildings in Zaragoza.
Beautiful and highly decorated archways and courtyards,
..are accompanied by rooms where their symbols speak of an era where all three major cultures coexisted...arab, christians and jews.
More on the Aljaferia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aljaferia
It was finally lunchtime ( it was like 2:00 pm!!! ) so we started off with some tapas...
followed by the main course, a seafood paella, and white wine from Galicia:
...more later.
I've been really longing on a trip to Spain, especially after going through some old photos I've been scanning as part of a little project of mine to digitize most of my pre-digital era photographs and negatives. I don't get a lot of vacations at work, so every year I have to choose wisely what to do with my precious days off. With my parents being from Spain, I have a lot of family over there, but this time I just wanted to spend a few days with friends.
So, on a whim I went online to look up air fares, and after almost fainting at the insane prices for a ticket to Europe (and I checked all the way into September), i decided to use my frequent flyer miles. Long story short, after clearing it by my boss, I booked my flight to Spain, with Air France, so I would have to change planes in Paris. Now, I remembered, my best friend from highschool lives in Paris, although any friend in Paris is your best friend, right? So a quick change of plans, and I would spend five days in Spain and almost a whole day in Paris.
I arrived in Madrid saturday afternoon, and while changing trains at the Madrid subway, my trip almost went REALLY sour when I was this close of being robbed by some lowlifes. I already knew about the dangers of pickpocketers all over europe, and yet I almost fell victim of them for a few careless seconds I did not pay attention to my surroundings!!!
I brought my SPOT tracker with me since I thought it would be fun to have some tracks in Europe. Well, I was a bit dissapointed with it, since as the SPOT user manual says, if you haven't powered the unit for a while, or you have moved I don't know how many miles since you last powered it, it takes FOREVER for it to aquire a satelite. Ok, not forever, but 20 minutes is a bit of a stretch -however the SPOT design intent is not for it to be used as I wanted for this trip-. Even after that, once you hit the "Ok" button, it would still take a few minutes to transmit the message.
I spent the night in Madrid with my godparents' daughter. I had to leave the SPOT sitting outside in her balcony while we went out for a bite to eat, and see if the silly thing would actually transmitt a message. Not that it would care, but at least I left it in front of some eye-candy... (who knew Clive Owen would look so good on a Dewars ad? )
A quick walk around the corner to say hi to my godparents, and then back and off to bed. Next morning I was taking a fast train, or "AVE", to the city of Zaragoza, where I would spend some days with an old college friend. What would be a 4 hr trip on a bus or a regular train, would take a mere 1 hr on the AVE.
I had a quick bite to eat at the station, and knowing the fetish TWTer's have for food, I took a pic of my sandwich and an excellent cup of coffee.
The train station in Zaragoza looked in great shape, thanks in part that this year Zaragoza is hosting an "Expo".
I met my friend at the station, and after dropping off my luggage at her apartment we were off to start touring the city. She lives right in the heart of Zaragoza's downtown and the main tourist attractions. So we round the corner from her street and then I see something I did not expect to see there, especially coming from Texas....
Sooo....anyhoo...We walked to the Palacio de la Aljaferia. It was built by the Moors, and later used by the christian kings of the Kingdom of Aragon after the city was conquered during the reconquista. It's in great shape, and the confluence of different architectural styles and influences can be seen all over it, just as it does all over so many other buildings in Zaragoza.
Beautiful and highly decorated archways and courtyards,
..are accompanied by rooms where their symbols speak of an era where all three major cultures coexisted...arab, christians and jews.
More on the Aljaferia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aljaferia
It was finally lunchtime ( it was like 2:00 pm!!! ) so we started off with some tapas...
followed by the main course, a seafood paella, and white wine from Galicia:
...more later.
Last edited: