Oviedo- Woody Allen's favorite town.

Just a quick up-to-date comment before I begin back tracking into my winter travel. Today, I sang at the mall. Seriously. The group of musicians that I play with on Thursdays in the pub had a gig at Odeon, the mall in Ferrol, and they invited me to sing a song. Last night, they sent me "Pastures of Plenty," as sung by Solas, to learn before 6 pm today.

Click HERE! for a sample of the song, please disregard how goofy the video is!

Needless to say, it was not easy to memorize the five verse song.... fortunately, no one here speaks English, and when we performed, I made up much of it. So that was my afternoon. It was fun, but next time I'm going to be prepared....

Here's a quick video of the group, I didn't get the chance to get myself recorded, though.




My second up-to-date comment is that I've recently become obsessed with cabbage, and I hope that by blogging about it, I will inspire others to explore some new recipes with the delightfully underrated vegetable. Basically, after returning from Scotland this week, I am dirt broke until I get paid on Tuesday, and so have been living off of a head of green cabbage and another of purple cabbage, chicken broth, onions, garlic, sesame seeds, canned tuna, and eggs. I've eaten cabbage, of one color or another at least once or twice a day for the last week, and I have to admit, I love it. On Tuesday I made a chicken cabbage soup (it actually included broccoli and carrots as well, so I should have included those in my prior list as well I suppose), and Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and today (Saturday) I have tried various stir fry combinations, none of which have disappointed.

Anyway, back to work.... We headed East on the very slow Fene train system, and it took us six hours.... a journey which would take two in a car. Woo! But it was beautiful, we curved along the coast and through the mountains of northern Galicia and Asturias.

We stayed in Oviedo for three days, and had originally intended to head to the Picos de Europa, but the mountains were covered in snow, and opted to return to Ferrol for a day, then head south. Oviedo is a town/city in Asturias that is famously the filming location of much of "Vicky, Christina Barcelona." Apparently it's also Woody Allen's favorite town in Spain. They even have a statue of the man. Along the coast at sunrise (which happened around 10 am...)
Some more countryside:
Here are a few shots from around town:

This is the main cathedral (mini) of the town. The stalls along the sides of the plaza are the epic Belen, or nativity scene that was set up. It was insanely detailed, and set up in perspective and everything.

They almost, kind of match up....

Couldn't resist taking a picture of the ladies in fur coats.






Another church in another square:

This was on the church face, it says "It's prohibited to play ball here." Probably referring to soccer. :-)

And the gorgeous medieval streets:


Yep, there are Vendettas everywhere...

Drainage.


There was a race... I took a picture. Not a benefit for anything, apparently just a New Years' tradition.


Kaydin, always with a camera in hand!

Park!

Anyway, New Years Eve we had dinner with two wonderful couchsurfers, and rang in the new year with the TV countdown. Apparently people don't count down in the central plaza usually, but tend to stay in for dinner, then go out after midnight (this is Spain, after all).

So, that was Oviedo, next up Portugal!

A Very Belated Christmas!

Hola!
Delayed as usual, I'll have to breeze through the updates a little. Before Christmas, I had the kids make a giant advent calendar with various Christmas vocabulary, and every day we gathered around, guessed what we would find beneath, and opened each window. They loved it. If they guessed correctly, they got a Santa sticker. They have advent calendars in Spain too, but they end on the 5 of January, because that's the bigger day of celebrations here. It's called the día de los Reyes Magos, and it's the day that the 3 wise men visited the baby Jesus. Sort of the less convoluted version of Christmas traditions. Unfortunately, Santa Claus is a common presence here (apparently he showed up in the last fifteen years or so), and all the shops are now boasting Americanized Christmas imagery. I had some interesting conversations with my colleagues about the loss of Spanish culture and the globalization of holidays, etc.

Anyway, more about Spanish traditions. In Galicia at least, on Christmas they eat Turrón. Which now comes in a TON of varieties, but was originally a brittle-like delicacy made in Alicante for the holidays out of Almonds and honey. The turrón we had was chocolate, peanut, white brittle with almonds, and some egg custard thing I couldn't quite understand. Basically, delicious, but overwhelmingly rich.

Check it out at Wikepedia. (seriously, there's a link hidden there. Fun!)

The other typical dessert here are polvorones, dusty cookies that are made out or powdered almonds, sugar, and pork fat. Yep. Pork is in EVERYTHING here.

So, the last day of school we held a "turronada," in which the kids all sang with their respective classes, and ate as much turron as they could. It was really fun. I sang Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer with one of my classes. Here are some photos:





And a video of me singing Rudolph with my one of my classes:



We also celebrated New Years during the festivities, by eating twelve grapes. In Spain (and Portugal) at the countdown to midnight, everyone eats a grape for each second, beginning at 12. It's really quite difficult, and really fun to watch. So, since we were adjourning school until the new year, we also had a countdown with the kids, and shoved grapes in out mouths. REALLY fun, and definitely a bonding experience.

Here are the little grape packets I took two hours putting together... counting, counting the grapes. But it was definitely worth while.


And here's one more video to leave you with-- it's all the kids singing a classic and fun Galician tune. Don't remember the name... Pim pa dim pim pim? Something like that... I tried to upload the video but it was too big of a file. So, below there's another rendition of it.

After school let out at two, all the teachers had our own celebration, which was just as rowdy as the kids. We went at ate at a restaurant in Fene, which is just across the bridge from Ferrol proper, and indulged in the typical holiday mariscos (shellfish!). There was wine a flowing, and more food than I'd have imagined. Naturally, since I'm the foreigner, I was also obligated to eat three times as much as my colleagues.

Before (notice the abundance of wine...):



...And after:

We ate, drank, and were merry. There were four other tables of teachers from other schools, but we were the only group that hijacked the downstairs television to rig up a makeshift karaoke session. I kid you not. After the meal, we all sat around clapping, singing, and laughing until 8 pm. I love my school, and an grateful to have such wonderful colleagues. For example:



I ended up meeting a woman from another school who used to work with some of the people I work with now, and she and I sang a few jazz songs for everybody. It was incredible, but I don't have a video, unfortunately. We exchanged contact, and hopefully we can get together in the future to sing!

So, there's round one of the holiday festivities and meals, up next, round two, three, and four...

Belgium Part 2: Ghent and Brussels

Here we are with just a few leftover photos of Bruges. A few extra church towers, and the wonderful church with a TV. On my way to the station, I ran into some beautiful graffiti under the bridge, and was off to Ghent.



Angel statue in the church that had a statue by Michelangelo. I took a picture of the statue, but it didn't come out... too many tourists!!! It was a gorgeous while marble piece, as his works often are, sort of a miniature of the Madonna and Jesus in the Vatican. Anyway, got a good photo of this angel, who I loved. There was a twelve foot serpent circling around her feet, tempting Eve.

...And like all churches, a TV in the corner showing a video about Jesus....


Can't tell you how excited I was to find graffiti in Bruges...


After Bruges, I took the train to Ghent, a larger, more modernized town a step closer to Brussels. There, I stayed the evening with a wonderful couple, Lars and Frederik, who treated me to a full tour of the town, including all the prime chocolate shops, and took me to a party, complete with DJ in a beautiful old theatre. The venue reminded me of Vet's Hall in Santa Cruz, but most likely a few centuries older, and much more ornate.

Ghent was an equally frosty town, complete with a beautiful brown winter river, and superbly old buildings. Christmas lights and bakeries cheered the town up, and in complete contrast to Bruges, the city streets were bustling all day. It's a university town, which explains some of the graffiti, noise, and atmosphere. I loved it.

Look! I love Ghent!



In the hallway at the university. The building itself was incredibly old and gorgeous, but rather than photograph it, I opted for the mustached mosaic...


More Graffiti!Shoes!

Beautiful River. And Ghent's Castle. Pretty cool, but we were too cheap to pay the entrance fee. Lars told me it wasn't that excited, and I believed him. So, we headed to a café and spent the money on baked goods instead. A much more authentic cultural experience I'm sure.

Well, those were all my photos for Ghent. Thought I had more, but apparently not. That evening, Lars and Frederik took me out, and we danced the night away to brilliant Euro techno. THEN we ate Bicky burgers at 3 am, which are kind of the Belgian version of In N Out, though probably not as "healthy." It was lovely. Then we rode our bikes back through the cutting icy air, and went to SLEEEP!!

Next day: Brussels! I stayed with Melanie, a really sweet girl I met through Lars, who invited me to stay with her in the suburbs right outside of the city. She and her mother are from Newcastle, so I found myself slowly adopting her British accent while we spent the day together wandering all over the city, eating chocolate, visiting the Christmas markets, and seeing the sights. She was a wonderful tour guide, and I hope she makes it to California sometime so I can return the favor. She also had one of the greatest cats I've ever met.

This was our breakfast... a sampling of some amazing local cakes.


Sunrise on the metro into town.


Brussels' Central Plaza:


The shopping streets:


Perhaps the most intense Candy shop ever!


Oh barbie. Waffles and Obama! Look, he's happy to see them!

Waffle number four or five. I kind of lost count.

City streets.

Biscuit shop.
This is Pierre Marcolini, the hyper exclusive chocolate shop in Brussels, where the woman behind the counter made me turn off my camera. Don't tell them that I put this photo online, they might arrest me... Anyway, the chocolates there tasted like expensive, and were quite pricey. You had to walk upstairs to another room to pick out individual pieces.


Government building at night:

Alley way with Absinthe pubs, down which Melanie showed me the statue of the peeing girl. Built by a shopkeeper to rival the little boy, and bring tourists around to this part of town. Don't know what it did for business, but I love her!


My apologies for the vulgarity of this photo.


Cool cafe. Designed by a Belgian architect that built most of the interesting buildings in Brussels.


Yes, those are REAL dead animals.... what a lovely Christmas display, no? Ugh.


Here's my ultimate tourist shot. I'm eating a Belgian waffle in front of the statue of the peeing boy. Click his name to be linked to the wiki description.


Chocolate shops! They love that boy.


Beautiful streets. Very expensive restaurants.


Beer Cellar!


Yep, a waffle van!


I loved the carousels here that the city had set up for the holidays. They were strangely sinister, with the old world French surrealist creep aesthetic... if that makes any sense. Sort of deconstructed carousels, a little mechanical and VERY cool.


This was the perfect way to finish out the night... eating filling, typical Belgian foods. Melanie took me to a restaurant with a sample plate of meatballs in different sauces, and of course french fries! SO GOOD! Though, not a vegetable in sight sadly. Does my wheat beer count?


In the airport on my way out, ode to Americana and Belgian culture. What a beautiful juxtaposition!

All right, getting closer to being up to date...