satori stephen

Alcazar

2010-09-07T14:27:18Z

This morning Josh and I went to the Alcazar, an amalgam of amazing styles of Architecture spanning several centuries and dynasties. If you are in Seville, it is a must see, the place is unbelievable.

From Alcazar

a little sick in Sevilla

2010-09-06T22:40:30Z

Josh and I made it to Sevilla, checked into our hotel and walked around for a bit, with a plan to go to dinner and out to explore a gay bar or two later, but I wasn’t feeling so hot. I am not sure if it was something I ate for lunch or too much of the sweltering Spanish sun, but I was feeling kinda weak and queasy and so decided to stay in the room tonight and relax. I drank lots of water and watched this week’s episode of Mad Men and am generally feeling a little better.

From Sevilla

Zafra

2010-09-06T08:45:23Z

I can’t say enough nice things about our experience in Zafra. Everything has been amazing, the town is super charming, the food has been great. And special mention must be made about our hotel, which is really lovely and the staff fantastically nice. It is called the Casa Palacio Conde de la Corte, and I highly, highly recommend staying here. We arrived last night and will be walking around a bit today before heading to Sevilla. Below you will find a link to the pics taken so far (I will add more later, so check the album again).

From Zafra

What old city?

2010-09-06T08:26:24Z

Josh and I had breakfast and a bit of a final walk around in Salamanca yesterday before hitting the road towards Sevilla. Salamanca really is a lovely city, although we didn’t find the best food in the world. (Not that we tried very hard. They have a special kind of beef there from a cow species that only exists in this region that we tried. It was ok.) Once Josh navigated the car out of the subterranean labyrinth hotel parking with a few scratches and curses, we headed south on the highway. We had a read an article in the NY Times about a lovely little town called Caceres, and we took the exit off the highway to explore it, but could could find nothing charming about it, and with very little patience, went back to the highway and headed towards another ancient city, Merida.

Merida started out being as charmless as Caceres, but with greater determination, an overpriced lunch, and a sun beating down like a wire hanger from a deranged star, we made our way to the interesting sites. And there were lots of them. Merida has a fascinating Roman, Visigoth and Moorish history, and there were amazing ruins to be seen. Click on the image below to go to the entire album.

Salamanca by night

2010-09-05T09:45:15Z

We arrived last night in Salamanca to discover a lively street festival had overtaken the town. There were people everywhere, and we had a nice little walk around the lovely town center and drunk people of all ages. Check out the slideshow below.

to Segovia

2010-09-05T07:26:48Z

Josh and I hit the road yesterday from Madrid, with our final destination being that of Salamanca where we had booked a hotel for the night. Along the way we stopped at a couple of sites as well as Segovia before making our way to Salamanca. One of our first stops was in the mountains, at some sort of ski resort where there was no snow (at least not at this time of the year) but there was a working lift with lovely views over the mountains, so we took a ride. Next up, we went on to La Granja to see the palace which had been highly recommended to us, but which I thought was rather so-so. The gardens were nice though. We noticed the time was slipping by and since we had made a non refundable reservation at Salamanca, we had to make a rather rushed stop in Segovia on our way, which was really a shame, because Segovia was dynamite, such a beautiful and fascinating town. I really wish we had spent more than a few hours there, and Josh and I decided that henceforth we would make no hotel reservations in advance, so that we can be more flexible if we find ourselves wanting to stay longer in a place. Click on the image and link below to see yesterday’s pictures of the trip.

From to Segovia and Salamanca

3:30am

2010-09-04T01:34:00Z

And I am just home to the hotel. Why so early, you ask? Well, we are leaving in the morning (make that later in the morning) so I didn’t want to stay out too late (Josh, undeterred, went to a discotheque with some of our new friends). I have had such a wonderful time in Madrid the past few days, I will surely come back at some point. I was also very lucky to reconnect with three friends here and get each of their perspectives on this great city. First, my friend Chris, who you may remember I first met up with in Guadalajara over 2 years ago. He lives here with his husband Pablo, and has a lot of really great insights into the city that he shared with us. Then my friend Judith, who I first met in Paris over 20 years ago and haven’t seen in over 10. She has been living here for 10 years with her husband Carlos and their two sons, and it was a treat to see her again. And finally, a really sweet guy named Pablo who I met in Peru almost exactly two years ago. He is studying in an MBA program here and met us this evening and took us to a fantastic tapas restaurant for the best meal we have had yet in Madrid. I love the randomness of so many people and their stories criss crossing in so many ways. So goodbye Madrid and friends, and thanks so much for the food, drink and fun.

Tomorrow we pick up the rental car and head off to Segovia and Salamanca. I hope Josh makes in back by 10am as he promised…

Madrid, low bandwidth version

2010-09-03T19:10:09Z

We arrived in Madrid a few days ago, and are mostly loving it. One of the funny things about trying to get practicalities taken care of in a foreign land is how nothing works as you expect, and there is a high probability of being taken for a ride at least once. For us, it was a run in with the lying bastards of Vodafone, who made all kinds of representations about their cell and internet services which were, well, lies. And getting on the internet in the hotel as well has been challenging, so while I have been taking all kinds of photos, they are difficult to upload as of yet. (That said, check out the unsorted, untitled first mess here.)

So as in any culture, there are things that strike us as funny or odd coming with our own frame of reference. Here are some of those things we have noticed here so far:

- It seems almost impossible to order regular tap water here. We suppose that the environmental benefits over bottled are not yet evident. And I am sure they like charging for it.

- The napkins seem mostly to be a form of wax paper, not exactly conducive to soaking up anything, but very good for smearing the mess around.

- The metro is fantastic and very easy to use, but it does have one peculiarity. Many different lines are listed above each door in the metro cars, making it very difficult to determine what line you are actually riding on.

- The crosswalks all flash a green man when there is little time left (instead of warning you with red), which makes it a bit confusing to us. It seems to be saying “go”, but there is almost no time left when the green man starts blinking and we have almost been run over more than once.

- This siesta business is not a joke, stuff is really closed all over the place in the afternoon for several hours. More than once we were unable to visit something because the Spaniards are fond of napping.

- And speaking of napping, they clearly need it, because the hours they keep here are very difficult to adjust to. Dinner is later than any place I have ever been (except Argentina) and going out on the town lasts easily until 5 or later.

- Without fail, the people we have met out on the town are friendly and easy to get to know, and are way less uptight than the French. To put my finger on it, I would say the French are much more mannered, and the Spanish are more natural and gregarious, at least in the gay community.

Not so fast, Nurse Jackie

2010-08-30T22:38:17Z

Before heading off to the airport in an hour or so, I thought I would commit to blog something interesting that happened to me a few days ago. You may remember that I will soon be getting surgery on my rapidly deteriorating shoulder, and that I have been in a great deal of discomfort. That being the case, I asked my doctor for some pain medication to help me get through the next few weeks. He prescribed me a couple of things (an anti inflammatory and some vicodin) and I got the prescription filled about a week and a half ago. Since I had so much work to do and the vicodin tends to make me a little loopy and therefore not the most productive, I had held off taking it. But a few days ago the pain was enough that I felt I needed one. I popped open the bottle and looked inside to grab a pill, and then thought to myself, “That doesn’t look like 30 pills in this bottle”.

I looked at the prescription again, and sure enough it said 30. Then I looked at the bottle again, and it didn’t look right. So I poured out the contents and counted them. Sure enough, there weren’t 30 there, there were only 20. So I called up the pharmacy and explained to them that the prescription I had filled several days past was missing pills. I should stop here and note that it is in my nature to feel guilty for pretty much anything whether I am to blame or not (thanks mom), and I have to admit to feeling a little like a drug addict for calling them on this. Then again, something had gone wrong and I had after all paid for the medication and wanted to make sure I had it with me while traveling.

The woman on the other end icily told me that this was a controlled substance, and that I would need a new prescription from my doctor if I wanted to get 10 more pills. I explained to her that these weren’t 10 more pills, these were 10 missing pills. She got a little huffy and said there was nothing she could do. Then I got a little indignant myself and told her that it wasn’t my fault that someone in their pharmacy had sticky fingers with certain medications, and that it wasn’t my habit to count pills every time I filled a prescription. I then told her in no uncertain terms that I wanted my 10 pills and was not going to call my doctor to get them. I asked to speak to her manager about this, and then all of a sudden her voice got quiet and she said, “Ok, come in anytime today and I will give you the 10 vicodin”. That was all I wanted, and I didn’t really care what had happened to the pills, whether she was selling them or using them or what-have-you. It turned out I didn’t have time to make it that day, so I swung by the next. When I got to the counter and gave my name, the woman started over to the main area where all the prescriptions are kept, and then paused, looked around and asked me in a low voice if I was the one who was here to pick up the vicodin. I nodded, and she went over to a drawer to the side, pulls out the bottle and handed it to me. I said thanks, and walked out.

Viaje por carretera

2010-08-30T13:29:55Z

I leave tonight for a multi week road trip across Spain (with 2 brief stopovers in Paris going and coming). I will be blogging along the way, so stay tuned for some fotos y comentarios. Roughly speaking, Josh in I will start in Madrid and end in Barcelona. More or less here is our ruta:

Should be fun. Hasta pronto!