Mi España: Montañas y Queso

I knew it would be difficult to keep this project going for such a long time. Well, it didn’t turn out to be so hard because I just didn’t update for the past 2 ½ months. For something to be difficult you have to make an attempt, it’s really easy to just not do something.Whoops! At least I did keep updating for more than half of the trip.

I am sitting in the airport (Madrid, Barajas), about to catch a flight to London and then one to Chicago. It has been incredible. I am sad to leave and I am thinking about how to take what I have learned these last six months with me into the rest of my life. I hope that this blog and this project may help me with that goal. I am going to catch up in four or five posts. I think I can cover May in two posts, June in two as well, and do one more to wrap up. We’ll have to see where the writing takes me, as I am thinking about it now I am realizing that I may be able to make six or seven sizable posts J

I woke up this morning before 4:00AM, am about to catch a flight to London and then another one to Chicago. When I get into Chicago it will be 1:00pm there and 8:00pm in Madrid. I’m hoping to sleep on the plane to help me get through this very long day. But, I am also hoping to work on this post a bit.

The last time I updated, at the end of April, my mom was about to arrive. I spent most of her trip working on projects for school. It made me sad not to spend more time showing her around, but in the end I’m glad that I took care of my responsibilities.

The first weekend she was with me we went to a nearby town, Trujillo (the birthplace of Pizarro, conquistador of Peru) for the Feria de Queso (the cheese fair!). It was raining. We jammed ourselves underneath the awnings of the booths with hundreds of people trying hundreds of delectable cheeses. Most of the cheese was from Extremadura, although there was some from other regions, including Portugal (one of my favorites). I bought three different kinds of cheese (two from Extremadura and one from Portugal) and one quesada   (cheesecake), all of which were quite delicious.

The next weekend I decided to take my mom to see el valle del Ambroz and Hervás, where I had spent part of semana santa. It’s really beautiful and there are lots of places to explore. It’s also really different from central and southern Extremadura because it is in the foothills (there they call it the skirts) of a big mountain range. The architecture is different, the culture is different, the weather and the landscapes are dramatically different.

After spending one day calmly exploring Hervás and the Ambroz I wanted to move over to the next portion of the mountain range, las Hurdes. I knew that las Hurdes were interesting because they had been quite isolated up until very recently, maybe  25 years ago or so. Las Hurdes are a relatively small section of mountain in a range that extends across quite a few provinces of three of the autonomous communities (what we would call states) in western Spain and continues into Portugal.

Las Hurdes are a comarca that is known for its honey. I must explain comarcas because it is an important concept in small town Spain and something that has shaped Spain for many centuries. Nowadays I would define a comarca as a region of production. For example, where we see comarcas most often is on wine bottle labels which always say the comarca of origin. I believe that the comarcas  were originally created as small kingdoms, ruled as tiny states, functioning as a political and economic entity (as always, dear friends, I invite correction).

Each comarca is known for what it produces. For example, in my last post I wrote about los Ibores which are known for their goat cheese. Clearly el Jerte is know for its cherries. Every place in Spain is part of a comarca and each comarca is proud of what it produces.

In Extremadura they have a strong, creamy cheese known as torta. I know of two types, the torta del Casar and the torta de la Serena. Casar and Serena are two principal cheese producing comarcas in Extremadura. El Casar is in the Province of Cáceres and la Serena is in the province of Badajoz. I’m sure that there are other tortas and I’m hopeful that it is still made in some kitchens in towns so small that I’ve never heard of them.

I hope I’ve been clear explaining comarcas. Now, back to las Hurdes in the first week of May. It had rained most of April, so spring was at its peak. Being well used to adventuring by this time, we woke up early, ate breakfast and left for las Hurdes knowing that we would find things to do.  It was a beautiful drive across the plain at the foot of the mountains and then we started to climb up into las Hurdes. I want to mention that on the way there we pulled over to look at some prehistoric rock carvings that were pretty neat. I found the tourist office in a town called Camino Morisco where I was thoroughly informed about all of the nearby towns, hikes, and points of interest.

We drove to the first place that sounded appealing and were immediately impressed by the beauty of this tiny town at the end of the road up in a corner of the mountains. The town was Ovejuela, a word that was quite difficult for me to pronounce, so I repeated it dozens of times until I could say it easily.  

It was a precious little town that, although it now has one bed and breakfast, is still very much based on a traditional lifestyle. That is to say to the rhythm of daily life has probably not changed much in Ovejuela in several hundred years. I do however suspect that Ovejuela and most of the surrounding towns are experiencing a lack of young people. Because the area is so far removed from the modern bustle, young people tend to move to bigger towns to find work.

It is true that historically speaking, with few exceptions, dwellings were constructed with the materials found in the vicinity. It is pretty easy to see what was available in las Hurdes: slate and wood. I could see that Ovejuela still utilizes many of its building in the traditional way: the lower floor is used for livestock (goats in this case) and the upper levels are the living quarters.  

We walked through the town to get to the beginning of a trail. We took a wrong turn and an older couple ended up guiding us back to where we needed to be. Many of the women of the town were out sweeping the streets because the men had taken the goats out to the mountains and goats always leave  a mess every place they go. The people who walked us to were the trail started told us that we probably would not be able to make it to see the waterfall which was our goal, because the stream was too high to cross without getting wet.

(By the way, I am writng this on the airplane. I can see on our computerized flight path that we are now over North America and I did get some sleep. I really dislike such long flights. This one is about eight hours long and we're about 5 hours in to it. I’m sitting next to a little boy [less than two I would say] who is taking it a lot rougher than I am though.)

We did not get to the waterfall, but we did take an extremely beautiful hike. We found the stream too high to cross, so we turned back but not before we heard a man singing to his goats. The whole experience was magical for us, the whole day was.

From there we hiked back down and on our way out of town we found a spot with stone picnic tables where we enjoyed some incredible local artisan bread and cheese.  It started to rain as we proceeded on to our next destination: a medieval bridge and monastery.

History tells us that the monastery (a now abandoned Franciscan monastery) was founded in the spot that Saint Francis requested that one be founded when he passed through the area 800 years ago. I imagine that he must have left some people behind him to build a center of life in this mountain valley. It was surrounded by some of the most majestic cork trees that I have seen. I love to be in places that have been carefully and diligently cultivated for centuries. I could see that this place had produced a lot of food over hundreds of years.

        

We had one more goal for the day, to actually manage to see on of the waterfalls of the area. It appeared to be just up the road on the map, but turned out to be quite far because of the shape of the mountains. We climbed and climbed and wound around until we were almost on top of the ridge that seperates las Hurdes from the next comarca, la Sierra de Gata.  

The waterfall was sooo tall! It must have been hundreds of meters tall, or maybe a thousand feet. You can see that it is tall in the photos, but keep in mind that we were far away from it, too. There were tons of vultures that nest there. I tried to take pictures of them but that’s one way you can tell how far away we were, because the huge birds are just specks in the photos.

----------------------------------------------------------
           I finished writing while on the airplane but did not have internet connection to post it.

            
           I am back. It’s really nice to be back and really strange to be communicating so effortlessly. I loved speaking Spanish because I was constantly learning. Guess you can’t have it both ways- learn a lot and not have to work hard.

            

           All of the things that I didn’t remember about the U.S. surprised me, as well as how many little habits of mine had changed.   

            I’ll be writing a lot more in the coming month but for now I will get this posted. I am going to be busy in Chicago until the end of the month. I will plan on having this blog  finished in the second or third week of August.

           

           It’s good to be home J Thank you all for coming along with me on my adventures. Un beso.

P.S. Here's a link to the latest photo album. http://s1172.photobucket.com/albums/r571/AnaBen/        I'm trying to get all of the photos labeled... poco a poco.

Cómo vuela el tiempo!!

My gosh! My schedule is so packed with exciting things that I may not be able to organize the last few weeks into a orderly timeline. I will try to create some structure to follow and keep each section brief so that I manage to catch up to the present.

Semana Santa-
The week leading up to Easter (Pascua) is one of the most important in Catholic countries such as Spain and Portugal. All the churches celebrate by marching through the streets in huge and elaborate processions. There are different traditions in each town. The processions recount, retell the story of the passion of Christ and the traditions have developed over hundreds (in some cases a thousand) years.

After going hiking during the first part of Semana Santa I returned to Cáceres and moved into a new apartment. I saw two processions on Holy Thursday, the pictures of which can be found at the link in my previous post. I loved the procession of the Cristo Negro. During the other processions they had bands, the people made noise, and everything was bright, shiny, and sumptuous. When the Cristo Negro procession approached us everyone fell silent. Hundreds of silent Spaniards together in the street is a spectacle in itself. That is to say, it is highly unusual. For me the silence brought about a higher level of concentration on the procession. It brought me more deeply into the spirit of the event. I was touched by the emotion and the meaning of remembering the suffering Christ.

Guadalupe, Los Íbores y Las Villuercas-
I had wanted to visit Guadalupe since I got to Extremadura and found out about it. History has a way of piling into layers that there is always more to learn and there are always more connections to be made. La Virgen de Guadalupe is the patron saint of Extremadura. The monastery and cathedral were constructed over many centuries and are one of the most important religious sites of Spain.

I am really interested in the beauty and complexity that was born by the mixture of Islamic and Christian art over the last thousand years in the Iberian Peninsula. It is known as Mudéjar and can also be found in the Americas, but nowhere else in the world. The cloister (central patio of a monastery) at Guadalupe, is one of the most impressive examples of mudéjar architecture in the peninsula. I loved it.

I spent the weekend in Guadalupe and explored the surrounding mountains, las Villuercas, and drove through many of the neighboring towns in an area called los Íbores. The area has a rather high altitude where goats do well (while sheep thrive in the lower altitudes).  The area is known for its tasty goat cheese. I have some in my fridge. I love goats and was happy to see them. I also saw lots of deer, a fox, and a majestic eagle flew right over me. I drove to the top of the highest peak, which was at about the same elevation as Abiquiu (1,600 meters).

Excursión con mis cursos-
After getting back from that trip I left almost immediately for another one! I traveled in the bus with all of the 2nd and 3rd year students who are studying the History of Spanish Art and Heritage at the University of Extremadura. All of my courses are 2nd year classes in that degree program. We traveled with  five professors of the program. We went to five cities in 3 days. I had never been to 4 of the cities. We also visited many stunning and fascinating sites in rural areas in between the cities.

We visited Zamora, San Pedro de la Nave, Santa María de Moruela, León, Oviedo, Toro, and Salamanca. The experience was invaluable to me. I have spent the last two and a half months studying Spanish art and architecture. It has been quite difficult for me because I had never studied either subject, Spanish or otherwise, formally in school. During the trip I was able to engage with the subject in a way that I had not been able to in class or when traveling to places by myself.

The professors lectured almost as if we were in class, but it felt much more important and understandable when we were standing inside the building that they were speaking about. I was then able to ask questions of my professors and my classmates, which clarified countless doubts and confusions that I had carried with me in the  last months.

The sheer amount of places we visited and monuments we saw was overwhelming. By the end it was difficult to process the wonders that we were seeing. But I did gain a lot of understanding about the cultures that constructed enormous cathedrals and monasteries during times without the technology and communication that we enjoy today. I was most impressed by the truly ancient churches, built more than a thousand years ago. The building were simple and beautiful. They were inspired purely by the desire to construct a space to for the community to worship. But we also saw some of the most famous cathedrals of Spain which are adored for the complex decoration and ingenious design that went into them. I saw the progression of art, culture, and technology in Spain over more than a thousand years. I am learning so much!!

Well, I have homework to work on. A few more things have happened, I'll try to get back on here soon and keep you all up to date. I hope you are enjoying my photo albums.

I have moved in with some truly amazing roommates and every day they teach me more Spanish than I hold on to. However, I am starting to miss me home, my family, and my cat. I miss the ease and comfort of communicating in my native tongue. But I know that the rest of the time will whizz by and that I will be sad to leave. This time here is so wonderful and I am so lucky, so fortunate to be here. It is interesting that I can be so happy to be here and that speaking Spanish fills me with joy, and yet I miss being home and communicating with confidence.

My mom gets here tomorrow and will stay with me for ten days. I am really excited to have her here. I'm sure that her visit will help a lot with my home-sickness.

My new photo albums can be found at - https://picasaweb.google.com/112930975039364833165

Thank you all for accompanying me on my adventures. Hasta la próxima! Un beso!

Fotos de Semana Santa

Queridos,

I have started albums on a different account because my other picasa account was maxed out. I will try to update with an explanation of this album today or tomorrow. For now I will post this link and go do some homework.

https://picasaweb.google.com/112930975039364833165/SemanaSantaCaceres

Hasta Pronto!

Portugal!

I am so delighted to have gone to Portugal. It is a country deeply tied to Spain by geography, history and language. That is to say, the two cultures are closely related. It was so interesting to be surrounded by a language so close to Spanish that I could understand most of it.
I rented a car with two Brazilian friends. We drove to Salamanca (where I am going again next week, so you should get some info about that city soon) then to Oporto, a couple of small cities along the coast south of Oporto, and Lisboa. We finished the trip with a quick stop in Évora.
I was ecstatic the entire trip because my friends kindly and patiently helped me to speak Portuguese! It took a lot of courage to try, but was such a joy to find myself communicating in another language so quickly. Positively unbelievable!!
I loved it. I love Portugal. The countryside is beautiful. It has been poorer than Spain for a long time. So although to my eyes Spain seems highly agricultural, Portugal is even more so. It has been less developed and depends heavily on the exportation of food and other materials. I see Extremadura as being similar to New Mexico in that way. Almost all of Portugal is similar to New Mexico in the same way.
I will load up a few photos before I finish my homework and put myself to bed. Tomorrow I'm renting a car again and driving to another area where I can hike around all weekend with a friend.

 Oporto

 Guilherme y Claudir en Nazaré

 Lisboa

 Yo en Nazaré

 Lisboa^     Lisboa->
y Ruinas Romanas con una Catedral detrás en Évora                                                            

I am so grateful for the time I have here. I have now passed the halfway point of my entire trip, though I'm not yet halfway through my time in Cáceres. I have the feeling that the time is about to start zooming at an insane pace. Gracias a todos. Hasta Luego.

Alburquerque

Hola, buenas tardes queridos lectores!

I am SO busy these days, it's crazy. Monday through Thursday I have class in the morning and the evening. I am making a habit of leaving town on the weekends. I spent last weekend in Portugal with friends that I met I couple of weeks ago. Next weekend I am going to Barcelona to visit an old friend. Two weekends ago I went hiking with Spanish friends that I have met during this trip.

My friend took me to visit Alburquerque (it has one more R than ours does). It is a beautiful old town, as all of the towns here are. One amazing thing about Spain is all of the layers of history piled on top of each other.
Extremadura has art and architecture dating back to pre-history (cavemen), It has a lot of Roman buildings, bridges, roads, etc. There are also many towns that were once Islamic (including Alburquerque). Although the castle you see here was built during the Spanish renaissance.
Below the castle you can see part of a wall. The wall wraps around the old city. The castle was built about 500 years ago. The city is built high on a hill, just like the old city of Cáceres. I discovered that almost 100 men left Alburquerque for the Americas during the Spanish conquest of the New World.

---------------------------------------

My Dears,

I wrote that about a month ago and have been insanely busy and tired ever since. I have gone to Barcelona and Portugal. I have climbed a few mountains. I have bought a bicycle which I ride about 25 km a day (13 miles or so). My classes are difficult mainly because they are in Spanish. I am learning more than I could measure. My Spanish is getting better.

This weekend I climbed a mountain by myself. It was hard and I felt so tired and proud afterwards. I walked from a town in one valley, climbed the pass and descended into a town in the next valley. I will spend this afternoon posting photos for you all to see and I will try to make many small posts from now on in an attempt to keep this blog updated. I realize that I am having too many adventures to tell all about them in this blog. There just are not enough hours in the day.

My time here is half over. It has been so incredible and I am sure it will continue to be. I miss my family and friends. But I will keep on making the most of what is an important time in my life. This trip is changing me. I love you all. Much gratitude.

Burn, Old Man Winter!!

Dearest Beloved Readers, thank you for following me on my journey. It is amazing how easy it is connect in real time with people on the other side of the globe!

I will start this post with a story about a celebration I happened upon this week, and then get organized by explaining my life in Cáceres, some exciting events, and my plans for the future.

On Friday morning I caught the bus down to the university to hand in some paperwork and get registered for some more classes. I walked back to town, a few kilometers distance, since it was a beautiful sunny day. I walked through the old city to get home. As I started to enter the old city, I walked right into a swarm, a river, of small children all dressed in traditional Spanish peasant clothing. They were so cute! I would guess that the crowds that I walked through were between the ages of 5-7.

When I got to the Plaza Mayor there were several other groups of children all dressed up. Each group had a banner with the name of their school. I asked someone what was going on. They told me that this was a festival of the flag. I didn't understand but I decided to stay.

I found a spot where I could watch and tried to take some pictures, though my camera's batteries were dying. An older gentleman came to stand next to me. I asked him how soon the festivities would start and we started to converse about the celebration. I learned that they were going to bring a straw man in on a donkey and burn him. The festival was started by the women of the town years ago. In February the woman had to wash the clothes in cold water and started the festival to make the warm weather and the rains come for a plentiful harvest. So, the little girls were dressed as those washerwomen.

 It is a festival of spring, celebrated to end the winter and to bring to good weather so that they would have food for their families. It was also a day that the women could take a break from their work. I struggled to get a few pictures with my dying camera. Here you can barely see the donkey carrying the straw man-

This year they had several straw men because each school had made one. They set them all up together and lit them on fire. They burnt quite well. The last photo that I could coax out of my camera was towards the beginning of the burning, but you can see the flames-

Before the burning I had an enjoyable conversation with the older gentleman about Cáceres, Extremadura, festivals happening in the region this spring, and places that I ought to visit. It turned out that he was actually Italian, his wife was from Cáceres, and he had retired here. He was at the festival to see his granddaughter, who was one of the school girls.

I love Cáceres. It's a small city, 95,000 inhabitants, and the center of the city is quite walkable. For example, I live on one end of the city, and can walk to to the other end in about half an hour. I have not taken many photos yet, but I will take a class about the history of the old city. So, I will take a lot of pictures then, and will be able to explain the pictures well.

My classes started last week. I am taking three full university courses. All of them are History of Spanish Art, together they will cover Spanish Art for the last 1,000 years. The classes are "Spanish Art in the Lower Middle Ages", "HispanoIslamic Art", and "The Renaissance in Spain". I am also taking a Spanish for Foreigners class, and I will take two short courses to fill the credits I need. The first one is Baile Flamenco, and the second is called "Know your City" (Conoce tu Ciudad), in which I will study the history of Cáceres and we will take several excursions around the city.

At first the classes were extremely difficult for me. I had to take notes on lectures given at a university level in Spanish! But, by the end of the first week I was catching almost everything. I am sure it will continue to get easier for me and that I am going to learn a ton. What an adventure! It feels a bit strange to attend classes in Spanish, but I am gaining confidence daily.

I started classes at a private Flamenco academy. I love it. I also went to a nearby city this weekend for the Carnaval festival.  It was intense. The streets were packed with people wearing costumes. I spent the day with other international students from my university. I am very happy to be making friends. They are from all over the world- Brazil, Turkey, Belgium, Slovenia, Italy, France, Gabon. Our shared language is Spanish. I delights me to communicate with people from so many places. It reminds me of how similar people are all over the world. I have been thinking about how language separates us, and how easy it is to communicate and connect with people.

I have a room in an apartment with a Spanish girl, Silvia, and an Irish girl, Jade. They are sweet and I am happy to live with them. They both work, so we don't spend too much time together. But, as I mentioned in my last post, all of Cáceres shuts down every day between 2pm-5pm. So, we come home each day at that time to eat lunch a relax together. It's lovely.

I have gotten to know most of the major grocery stores, though I do a lot of my shopping at smaller shops. I have a butcher (carnicería) that I prefer as well as a frutería where I buy my produce. Bit by bit I am creating a life here. I have been in Cáceres more than two weeks now, and I have four and a half months left. El tiempo pasa volando!

I need to wrap up now so that I can go buy a bicycle before the shops close for siesta. Then I have Spanish class tonight. Tomorrow I hope to ride my new bike out to a wildlife park that is about 20 kilometers from town. I also have Flamenco class tomorrow evening.

I will try to upload some more photos to my albums this week.

Os cuidad mucho, hasta pronto! Take good care!

Photos

This link will take you to my photo albums. The link will not change as I update the albums. If I run out of space on this website, I will have to move to another site and will share that link as well.

https://picasaweb.google.com/108130257872901649119