October 13, 2012 The other voice…

I hesitate to write, since Warren’s been doing such a great job. But I thought I might throw in a few impressions of my own. I was lying awake, after an excessive caffeine hit from some killer flan made with coffee (sending my best regards to Gail for a Spanish version of our favorite coffee ice cream!) and I was just musing on some of the sights and experiences so far in Spain. So here is a mélange, as they wander into my mind.

• How friendly and warm people are. In the markets, they talk to each other and the market staff volubly and with obvious interest and enjoyment. And, god help us, they talk to us, too. And even after we explain that we only speak a little Spanish, they talk on, convinced we can pick it up if we just try a bit harder. This is obviously not a tourist neighborhood, so if you’re here, you must speak Spanish, even if you are a little slow mentally.
• The great fresh food that’s available. I’ve been buying fruit and veg like there was no tomorrow. Occasionally there IS no tomorrow since our grasp of the local shopping hours is rudimentary at best, and we keep showing up when shops are closed. Anyway, the fruit tastes great and we’re establishing relationships with some of the local market folk who are patient enough to cope with our fumbling around. They pick great stuff for us, even when I have reservations. Some scummy-looking tomatoes were delightfully flavorful, and I’d have never picked them out myself. A funny looking melon was flavorless on the first day, and like candy the next day – the day our young fruit vendor had specified. But I’m still intimidated by the fish stalls – everybody chatting and visiting and comparing and asking questions, and these huge cleavers flashing around, cutting up fish to the buyers’ exact specifications. I gathered up my nerve and bought some pink fillets that looked good and found out it’s often served for school lunches! But I must be a kid at heart because I loved it.
• Doing our usual “start on a walk with a guide book and then just wander off, ant-like, toward anything that interests us,” we’ve blundered on to some delightful stuff. (By the way, Warren is doing his usual brilliant job of navigating us around after I express some vague wish like “Let’s go eat at that cool, peaceful plaza we passed two days ago – the one with the parrots in the trees by the sculpture of the guy reading the paper…” I don’t know how he does it. I still can’t figure out the directions since I can’t see any mountains.)

Some of our serendipities have included:

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  A walled Moorish style garden we found by following some little kids and grannies through an ornate iron gate in a tall brick wall. Roses arched over the raised brick pathways and sparrows grateful for a place to bathe in the fountain. Just a little pocket-park.
• A library built inside the ruin of an old church that still keeps the character of the shambled building, but is totally state of the art modern inside. (Warren will post pics, I hope).
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  A section of old Moorish wall, remnant of Spain’s Arabic background. It’s been uncovered and faced with a lovely little park with Moorish style tiles, pathways and fountains.
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  After all the noise and crowds of the tourist area near Sol and Mayor, just a few blocks away there are quiet plazas and sidewalk cafes that aren’t on trafficked streets. And the food is not only reasonable, it’s GOOD. Dumbfounding after the expense of Australia. (Schreiners, we could eat and drink ourselves insensible here for 1/3 of what we spent in Melbourne.)
• Following little-bitty, hand-written signs to places where the nuns sell cookies from the convent. My, these ladies are discrete! No Madison Avenue here. But wandering back through dimly lit, tiled corridors to buy from an unseen voice almond paste wrapped in pinon nuts is worth the search for our simple minds.