Vera, Spain

Saturday, December 29, 2007

I'm now staying at Dave and Jilly’s Bed and Breakfast (http://www.allbedandbreakfast.com/bed/bed-breakfast.php/bbID/1188) in Vera (about 8 kms from where I stayed this past week) and I'm thrilled. It’s an 'authentic' Spanish village, including several 16th I century buildings still in use, a Gothic church with the appearance of a fortress, and a bull-ring.

It also has a traditional market day every Saturday, from which I just returned. It's the biggest one in the area and people come from miles around. It covers the entire central square of the town and goes down many, many side streets. I listened to Spanish style music and the hawkers selling their wares: everything imaginable from clothing and linens to tools, cookware, produce, music, art, watches, etc). I mingled with the lcoal Spanish people (and others, who come just for the market day) milling about - visiting, looking, and buying.

I ate freshly made pretzel-like things, called churros. They were cooked in a huge wok like pan filled with hot oil, then cut into stips and served in a makeshift bag with a sprinkle of sugar. I'm

sure they had a lot of calaories in them, but I wasn't counting. Besides, I plan on climbing the "Jesus" mountain soon.

I continued sauntering through the narrow winding streets, enjoying all the sites and sounds. My 'landlady' pointed out a bombed-out palace that is being restored, a local museum, convent, an orphanage, churches, and a famous hotel where the bull fighters stay, etc. I will tour the interiors later this week.

Before I returned home, I also bought a half a chicken at a stall where they were roasting them on huge racks of spits. I had some for lunch with a crusty roll. Delicious!

I think I could stay here for a very long time, living a very simple life. I definitely want to stay here until I finish my Secret novel....it's so peaceful and so Spanish!! Lovely views, interesting history, etc.

The original Vera village was on the mountain, which I can see from the balcony of the place I’m staying. There are still ruins of the old church and some of the cave homes, as well as a 'newer' statue of Jesus. (I'm told it's actually quite old, though the stone or whatever material it is made from is quite white, making me think it's newer.)

From what I understand, the story of this ancient village is that after an earthquake levelled most of the homes, Queen Isabella shot an arrow into the air, and where it landed was where the new town would be built, which is where present day Vera is located. One day when I’m feeling energetic I will walk to the top. Apparently the view is fabulous. In fact, the men from two couples who arrived today, walked/jogged up it late this afternoon and made it in record time. Of course, they didn't follow the marked trail, but cut across country. They got hung up on fences and cactus...we watched them through high-powered binoculars...but made it to the top.

The place I’m staying is quite lovely and the people great. The only drawback is that they smoke. So far they are mostly doing it outside and I've been able to open windows to air out my bedroom, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to stay the entire time I'd hoped. They do try to smoke outdoors on their terrace most of the time, and are aware I might have a problem, so we'll see how the next day or so go.

At the moment I have my laptop set up on the dining room table. Later they are fixing up a special little room for me so that I can use it as an 'office' to write, so they are bending over backwards to make me comfortable. I suspect they would tour me about a bit as well, if I asked, or if they are going somewhere.

The bonus is that they have wireless Internet here and I can be on it as long as I want. The downside is that I can't seem to figure out how to make my Outlook e-mail send my e-mails. They come in fine, but won't go out, so I'm relying on the remote way to send messages. A small inconvenience considering the other benefits to me here.

****

It's later now, and my wonderful little 'office' is set up with a small 'desk' and my laptop. It's a perfect little room for me to work, just down the hall from my bedroom.

Two couples are staying at the B&B tonight (previous occupants, who know each other) and they invited me to dine with them.....restuarants, etc. don't serve supper until later in this country, so we didn't go until 8 pm. We went to an authentic Spanish tapas bar, where the food was great.

I can't seem to get used to the smoking everywhere, so I was lucky that by the time I was ready to leave one of the couples (from England) was also ready to go and we walked back home together. I'm sure we wouldn't be able to hire taxis in this part of the village as the streets are too narrow for cars, except in the odd main ones here and there. The sights everywhere are interesting, like the intricate grates around trees, passing by city hall where there was a dance going on ...older people swinging to Spanish tunes. And people going to the old Catholic church on a Saturday night.

The streets are very beautifully lit with Christmas lights, and there were many people about.

Mojácar, Spain

Friday, Dec 28, 2007

After spending a couple of days relaxing and writing, my new friend Renée and I decided to catch a local bus and go to the town of Mojácar to see a bit of the surrounding countryside.

We're in the Andalucia region of Spain, which is probably the warmest area in the winter, at least along the coast. Though, we've heard if you travel 40 kms inland there is snow right now.



I'm staying in the province of Almeria, north of the city of Almeria (maps: http://www.map-of-spain.co.uk/andalucia_maps.htm and http://www.alicante-spain.com/costa-del-sol/map-of-almeria-spain.html)


Almeria province is Europe’s sunniest and driest region with more than 330 days of sunshine a year, an average temperature of 20c.


"Like all of Andalucía, Almería or Al-meriya (the mirror of the sea) as it was first called in Arabic, was dominated by the Arabs, under the leadership of the dynasty Omeya. During this dynasty, the city grew considerably in all aspects, especially as a military port and later on as a fishing portin the 9th c.

Then, in 1489 it was conquered by the Catholic Kings and started its decline, as much did all of Andalucía, when the Muslim population abandoned this area in 1610. Once again, in the 19th c., Almería had a betterment in its population and economy but then there was a shift of its inhabitants to Argelia, and the industrialized cities of Catalunya and Seville. But, as can be seen in all of Andalucía, the Arab architecture and culture still proudly shows through." (http://www.alicante-spain.com/costa-del-sol/almeria.html)


In Spain, there is a siesta between 2 and 4 everyday, when most of the stores and businesses are closed. When they re-open they stay open until about 7 pm, so we weren’t able to do any regular type shopping as we hit it at the wrong time.








Renée and I enjoyed going to both Mojácar Playa (on the beach) and.....

Mojácar Pueblo (the town up in the hills).

We wandered through the narrow, winding cobblestone streets and enjoyed the view from a rooftop café where we stopped for some hot chocolate while we waited for our bus back to the resort .




The view from the top of the 'hill' was incredible. We could see for many miles and got a real feel for the geography of this part of Spain.








We made it back just in time to go to our Spanish lesson…the second one and we are very pleased with it. I wish I could continue on, but I’m leaving tomorrow morning (Sat) to the town of Vera. Maybe I can find something there instead.


We also attended some Tai Chi lessons yesterday morning, but they are only given twice a week and they were not available earlier in the week because of the Christmas holidays. I loved doing them, though can’t recall all the movements, but I’ll be sure to continue on with this form of exercise in the future, even if it means printing off instructions from the Internet. I can see them as being a great way to begin or end a day.

Renée and I had supper at Roly’s bar again…the best food we’ve found anywhere. I’ll miss it, but will certainly remember it and recommend it to others should they happen to visit the area.

Christmas Celebrations

Dec 24-26, 2007, Pueblo Laguna, Spain

The days in Spain have been most enjoyable. I’ve met some nice people in and around the Vera Beach Club in Pueblo Laguna, and discovered a couple of English speaking pubs here. In fact, The Roly’s Too, which is three blocks up the street, is run by Brits and the Cactus Bar around the corner from it is run by a Dutch couple (René and Jill), who also speak English.

I met a very nice woman in the lobby of the resort in the morning of Christmas Eve. (Her name is Rénee also, though the female version, and she has one son – 19 years of age.) We discovered we were both holidaying alone and struck up a conversation. She invited me to come with her to the Cactus Bar that night to hear some live entertainment.

I did some writing on my novel in the morning, and then for the better part of the day, I strolled to the next town of Garrucha and did a little grocery shopping. The town is over two miles away and there’s a promenade that parallels the beach the whole way. I’d taken a walk earlier in the a.m. in the other direction, so I clocked well over 5 miles by foot that day, which felt quite wonderful.

The weather was enjoyable, though the beach is mostly fenced off and has large mounds of sand along it. From what I hear the land has been purchased by hotel conglomerates that will soon be building there and spoiling the landscape.

On my way back, I stopped at a little pizzeria restaurant and had a late lunch outdoors, stopping to enjoy the flowers and the peacefulness along the way.

On my return and upon closer inspection, I discovered that the tree in my complex that is surrounded by poinsettias is an olive tree. I studied the interesting trunk of the tree and discovered that the trees I was so fascinated with back in Cyprus that had the gnarled, relief-like trunks must have also been very old olive trees.

I also discovered that the banks of flowering bushes that I admired in Egypt and again here in Spain are bougainvillea flowers.

I met Rénee in the lobby just after 8:30 pm and we walked over to the Cactus Bar. The entertainment was a ‘one man band’—Brendan O’Dee—from Ireland. He was quite good and we were even up dancing. I think we got home about 1 a.m., though we could have stayed much longer. (The only drawback here is that smoking is allowed in the pubs.)

The pubs can basically be open 24 hours here, though most open at 9 a.m. and go until everyone has left for the night. This can sometimes be until 3 or 4 in the morning or later, of course. Often the pubs are open 7 days a week too, and so the barkeeps don’t get much rest if they are operating a place by themselves as in this pub. The only day they were closing was Christmas Day this year.

A nice young man bought us each a White Chocolate Vodka Shooter, which was similar to the taste of Bailey’s. Otherwise, we only ordered one drink, which kept us going all night. They do not measure their alcohol by ounces here, but rather by the height of ice cubes. They put two ice cubes into a glass and then must (liquor law) pour the spirits so that they are at the same level as the top of the ice cube. (The size of glass doesn’t matter.) As a result one ends up with at least 4 ounces or more of booze. The mix remains the same as at home, so I just kept ordering more mix and pouring it in my drink as it was so strong.

Wine is in great abundance here too. When I arrived in my suite, I had a bottle each of red and white wine, plus a gift-wrapped box of cookies. (I haven’t touched any of them. I’m not crazy about drinking by myself.) I also had one large bottle of water, as one can’t drink the water from the tap here. Unfortunately, they don’t want to give replacement bottles of water, which I find ridiculous. Isn’t water a fundamentally basic human need? To me it makes sense to supply drinking water continually as they don’t provide it through their taps (it’s not that expensive here-except in the restaurants), and if one were to cook and make coffee with it, the one bottle wouldn’t last very long. But they are more likely to give you another bottle of wine in this complex than water.

I asked for another bottle yesterday and the reception clerk was going to make an exception for me, but the water never appeared, so I guess I will have to walk to the grocery store and get another.

Christmas Day dawned bright and sunny and very warm. I dressed in a skirt and headed off to Roly’s bar at noon for my Christmas dinner. I was seated with another English couple, Jewels and Paul, and Adam (Paul’s 19 year old son). Jewels and Paul had just sold everything in England and moved to Spain, though why they chose Garrucha to live isn’t clear as I’m not that impressed with the town. They were lovely people and we hit it off right away. Spirits flowed again…the alcoholic kind, and I had a couple of Bailey’s and shared a bottle of white wine. We pulled crackers, blew up balloons, snapped streamers, etc. and had lots of laughs and good conversation. Towards the end of the meal one of the patrons showed up with his guitar and we sang a few Christmas songs – Jingle Bells, and traditional songs like She’ll be Coming Round the Mountain.” The musician’s spirit was willing but his voice and guitar playing were quite atrocious, but no one cared. They started singing songs without his accompaniment.

The people from my table invited me to join them at the Cactus Bar for New Year’s Eve, but I’m not sure I’ll go. I’ll be staying in the town of Vera (8 kms away) by then at a Bed and Breakfast and I’m not sure if I would be able to get a cab back after the revelries. They’ve invited me to stay over at their place if not, but I have a feeling Jewels and Paul like to drink a great deal and stay out very late, so I might not see bed for many hours.

My traditional British Christmas dinner was excellent. We had a choice of one of three starters and I chose the seafood cocktail-delicious (seafood in a kind of sauce like Thousand Island dressing on a bed of lettuce, with triangles of crustless bread). The turkey dinner came with oven-roasted potatoes, sausage stuffing, carrots, peas, brussel sprouts, gravy tiny sausages, cranberry sauce and large slices of turkey. The meal was huge. This was followed with a choice of dessert – I chose the Christmas pudding with brandy sauce, but the mousse or trifle might have been less filling. The meal was not yet over.

We then had a choice of mince tarts, truffles, or cheese and crackers. All I could fit in was a very rich truffle. Later they seemed to have extra mince tarts to share, so I took one home. I couldn’t fit another mouthful in, and in fact had to leave some of my main course and dessert. I waddled home just before 5 p.m. after 4 ½ hours of indulging myself.

The pubs certainly don’t stint on food here (unlike the restaurant in this five-star resort, where the food portions are small, tasteless and unimaginative. In fact I’m going to cancel my reservation for the Paella meal tonight as I know it will be bad and a waste of money. I’ll have Paella somewhere else where it will be authentic.)

The only drawback to public places here – pubs and restaurants—is that smoking is allowed and this can be quite uncomfortable and make me a little ill. I also have to hang my clothes out over the balcony to get them smelling fresh again. (At least there are a moderate amount of smokers here, unlike Cyprus where I felt like I was constantly in a cloud of thick second-hand smoke.)

In the evening I met René at our resort restaurant (she’d had another disastrous meal there, so we’ve decided to go for supper together somewhere else the following day.)

I went after supper was served to watch the Flamenco dancers with Rénee.

They were fairly good, especially a very young girl, though I’ve decided I won’t be taking up learning how to be a Flamenco dancer. Too much stamping of the feet, and we didn’t have a clue what the dancing was about, though we were sure it symbolized something.

I have decided to take part in some Spanish lessons later this afternoon, and will learn a little Tai Chi tomorrow morning. I’m heading out for a walk soon to pick up my water and I may try the pool and sauna this afternoon. And oh yeah, I’ll maybe do a little writing too.

Spain: Seville to Almeria to Pueblo Laguna

Friday, December 21-Saturday, December 22, 2007

Seville (English), Sevillha (Portuguese) Sevilla (Spanish) was a delightful city with incredible architecture. If I hadn’t had to keep my entire luggage with me, I would have explored the city for a couple of hours before I had to leave for Almeria.

By this time the rain had petered out, though there was still the occasional spotting, but nothing like what was going on in Portugal. Unfortunately, I hadn’t been able to get any photographs of the changing landscape through the rivulets of rain down my bus window. I did manage to see groves of oranges and the occasional one of lemons, and I what I thought might be olives.

With now being in Spain, and because I couldn’t do it before in Portugal, I had to purchase my bus ticket to continue on, hoping there was space for me. No problem as it was, so with ticket in hand, I then tried phoning my new ‘time share’ place to see how to get there. I was no longer in a tourist friendly place, so I had a few funny stabs at buying a phone card and trying to use the payphone when there was no English to go by at all. Eventually I managed with the help of a lovely young man, who didn’t speak much English, but understood what I was trying to do. All this, only to discover that there was not a connection from Almería to Vera Beach by bus until the following morning, so I would only be able to go as far as Almeria that day.

Seeing as how I’d left Portugal a day earlier than planned (I was paid up with my time share until Saturday morning, but there were no buses then, so I had to leave Friday morning), and I didn’t know until I got to Spain that I couldn’t get the bus to my resort until Sat morning, I was left without a place to stay on Friday night. I suspected this might happen, so decided not to worry about it, as I knew I’d find something. If not, I could potentially curl up in the bus station and wait it out.

I wondered around the block in Seville, dragging my luggage with me, and found a little place to eat some late lunch….There seemed to be plenty of people eating there, but the food wasn’t that great in the end, though at least they weren’t serving pigeon like I’d experienced at one place in Egypt.

As I returned to the bus station, I saw a down-on-his-luck guy curled up against the outside wall of the bus depot. He had a long scraggily beard, worn clothes and a worn look about him…it gave me a bit of a start when I suddenly thought about my plan of waiting overnight at the bus depot if I needed to. I decided that wasn’t going to be me after all and was determined to find a hotel or hostel.

I needn’t have worried, as when I arrived in Almería I was directed across the street from the bus station to the NH Hotel. From the outside it looked fairly expensive, but I thought I’d ask and if it was reasonable I’d stay, otherwise, I’d ask for their recommendations and then hop in a taxi and find a decent place. The NH Hotel turned out to be cheaper to stay than our regular hotels in Saskatchewan, and I grabbed a room.

Thank heavens the room was modern and really nice and warm. And I was able to have a lovely soak in a hot tub of water, because when I went to drag out my pj’s, they were wet. The outer layers of my clothes in my suitcase had been soaked by the rain. I quickly spread everything out on the furniture, knobs, hooks, etc., including my damp papers and books so that they would dry by morning. Luckily, I had a dry nightgown that escaped the rain, because it was tucked in the middle of my clothes in my suitcase. I had a lovely sleep in a very comfortable bed—the best bed I’d had since leaving Cyprus. The ones in Egypt were like lying on bricks, and the one in Portugal too ‘saggy.’ There was also plenty of warm water and lots of toilet paper…a commodity for sure when travelling, even in Portugal and Spain, particularly in public places.

My only worry at the hotel was that I didn’t have a clock in the room and would miss my bus the next morning. (My personal alarm clock gave up the ghost and I couldn’t figure out how to set the new I’d been given as a gift to the time change I was now in.) The reception staff seemed to think it odd that I needed to know what time it was until I needed a wake up call, which they would easily do. In the end they told me to call down to them any time I needed to know the time….I found this hilarious and didn’t do it, because I discovered the time on the TV display if I turned the set on by hand instead of with the remote. So when I woke in the middle of the night or near morning, I was able to see what time it was and roll over and go back to sleep.

Everything went like clockwork in the morning and I managed to catch my bus to Vera (I’d bought the ticket the night before, after arriving in Almería around 10 pm.). This time it was daylight and the sun was shining, so I was able to take a few photos along the way.

I was particularly fascinated by huge flat-roofed greenhouses along both sides of the highway.

They went for kilometre after kilometre, in fact many kilometres, maybe even 30 or 40 kms. I couldn’t really see what was in them, but they stretched what seemed like forever throughout the valley we were going through. I imagine they were grape vines, as the fruit groves didn’t seem to be covered. I must ask someone.

Once I arrived at the Vera bus station, I hopped into a taxi as I was told to do by the Vera Beach Club. Ironically, the bus ride from Almería to Vera was only 7.90 Euros and the taxi ride was 10 Euros from Vera to the Vera Beach Club—the taxi driver drove me back 8 miles to a place I’d already passed while on the bus. Had I known, I could have had the bus drop me off at a particular spot and walked the three or four blocks to the resort….such is life, particularly when you can’t speak the language and ask directions properly!

(If you can find Garrucha on the map on the coast and can see the red line going north, about where it ends is where I'm staying.)

At any rate, I’m staying in another lovely place, so far so good, though they wanted an arm and a leg for meals in their restaurant for the week, which included Christmas dinner of several choices that didn’t really appeal to me-not really traditional in Spain either as far as I could tell. I chose to wait before committing and I’m glad I did.

I wondered around and sussed out my environment again and discovered an ‘English pub’ three blocks away that serves great food and inexpensive prices. My lunch was so big; I don’t think I’ll need supper.

I got chatting to a woman (the waitress) from northern England who has been living here for the past eight months and a man (a customer) from England who lives up the coast, where he’s been for the past five years, since his retirement. They were both friendly and helpful.

The environment was very friendly and they have an Internet connection where I can take my laptop too. (The hotel also has Internet, but is more expensive though I will use it once in a while, I suppose.)

I expect I will be popping into the ‘pub’ for quite a few of my meals over the next week, at least when I’m not cooking for myself. I haven’t found a grocery store yet, but I haven’t ventured very far yet, nor have I asked.

The place I’m staying in is nicely equipped, though I don’t see any heat sources. Luckily, the temperature here is much warmer than in Portugal. I have a balcony from my living room and from my bedroom, and the place is spacious.

The time is 7 hours difference from Regina time. I am in room number 84 which is on the second floor of one of the units at the Vera Beach Club Resort.

There is great security here, in that they have locked gates to get into the property. A pain to carry the key to go in and out, but good to know we are a bit safer.

I can work on my laptop at the kitchen table and look out on some lovely gardened areas.

I love the tiled steps on the older buildings that are found fairly frequently.

It’s quite amazing to see Poinsettias planted in the ground as part of the flower beds.

They seem to be a darker red than the ones we have at home, but maybe it’s just my imagination.

I was particularly taken with the shaped trees that were wrapped like presents…they come in all shapes and sizes.

I've booked myself into an English pub for a traditional turkey Christmas dinner. It's a place called Roly's Too, (pictured here), which is about three blocks straight down the street from my resort.

The food choices at the resort where I was staying was unispired, but I will be going there in the evening to watch some Flamenco dancing.