Viva Espana

My Christmas: Version 3.0*

Happy New Year everyone.

First off, I need to say that I have not made ANY New Years resolutions. Why would I do that? Let's see how well you know me by taking a short quiz!

I did not make any New Year's Resolutions for 2008 because:

a) New Year's Resolutions are dumb and stupid and dumb.

b) New Year's Resolutions were just a lame creation by the media in order to potentially market New Years in yet another way, giving sales and advertising yet another plug for their products in our holiday seasons.

c) I can't keep any resolutions (except that time I decided not to ever drink alcohol until a week after graduating from college).

d) Let's be honest: we're just waiting for 2009.

e) The only thing I'm looking forward to is May 22nd, 2008, and that's it.

f) We should be making new resolutions about ourselves on a daily basis while continually examining the direction of our lives ... or sit back and see what happens. Either way.

The answer is at the bottom of this blog.

Now about my trip to Spain.

My mom, dad, brother (see his blog at http://www.thesaltminer.blogspot.com/ ...he pays me every time I mention his blog) and I left on Continental for a direct flight from sunny Newark to Madrid. Yay Continental One Pass miles! After a 6 1/2 hour flight and delicious airliner food (I'm not being sarcastic here...once, when flying from Chuuk to the other islands, the meal we had on the plane was one of the best meals I've had in a while, so I have a new appreciation, nay, love affair, with airplane food) we landed in the 40 degree capital of Spain.

I can talk about seeing one half of my family (my dad's side) for the first time in 7 years, or the nostalgic feelings I experienced whenever I visited several sites that I have frequented as a child, but instead, I will give highlights, mostly dealing with food.

(This is a Spainard.)

Jamon EVERYWHERE. That's ham in Spanish. They literally have the leg of a pig clamped on this stand, and you just merrily slice off little pieces. It was delicious! I definitely overdosed on jamon.

Chorizo and morcilla, both of them pig sausages. Yum. Also aceitunas (olives), tortilla (spanish omelette), pulpo (marinated octopus) and mejillones (marinated mussel). I stayed away from the sea food...it's got nothing on the good Pacific-lagoon sashimi.

Tapas Bar hoping (my favorite bar hoping) - men and women and children of all ages head into bars (never sketcyh, except for the insane amounts of smoking going on) and eat stupidly delivious appetizers (tapas) while drinking good beer such as Mahou Cinco Estrellas and Cruz Campo. And of course sangria. This is where I overdosed on jamon.

An amazing spread/soup that I will make this weekend called Salmorejo. Ingredients:500 g very ripe, very red tomatoes 1 clove of garlic 1 soup spoon vinegar 4 soup spoons of virgin olive oil salt 2 hard boiled eggs and some chopped up jamon serrano to put on top salt 1 stale Spanish/French stick bread (the quantity of bread may vary) - By stale bread I mean that it should be very dry (but not moldy)....AWESOME. I wish I overdosed on that.

Chocolate con churros. You may have had these in Disney World. They have bars in Madrid dedicated to these fried treats. We entered this bar PACKED with people with tea cups filled with melted chocolate while they dipped these huge fried sticks of fried goodness in them.

Almond soup, a Christmas tradition. Very sweet. I would have bathed in it (gross?).

Rabbit. Tender. Rich flavor. Better tasting than dog and turtle. Great appetizer for...

Roasted pig and lamb, famous in Segovia. The roasted pig is called cochinillo asado, the roasted lamb is called cordero asado and the rabbit and rice is called paella con conejo. I would live off of that.

If you haven't noticed, I like food a lot.

And Segovia is known for...

...its medieval castle and 2000 year old Roman aqueduct, still going strong (I bathed in it). This town is north of Madrid, past the snowy mountains, east of Mordor and south of the Shire. No dragons.

El Escorial. Every time I went to Spain as a child, that is where I stayed. Small mountain town an hour north of Madrid, home of Philip the II's monastary, or summer home. Huge castle/16th century royal palace/pretty sick Catholic cathedral. Also a pretty awesome recreation of biblical Nazereth. By recreation I mean life-sized plaster replicas of shepards, Arabic warriors (they should have more of them in the Bible), and the three wise men, one of them riding an elephant (obviously).

Visited a huge cross carved out of a mountain that includes a tomb/cathedral also inside the mountain. Former Spanish monarch/dictator Franco is buried there. It is eerily majestic inside the huge and beautiful cathedral.

So that's about it. The jet-lag was not so fun. Also, Spaniards like to have lunch at 2:30 and dinner any time after 10. We ate at 9:30 pm once, and everyone else was complaining that the Americanos were eating too early.

Also, check out this castle I stayed at last weekend for a JVC retreat. Jesuit retreat center Inisfada on Long Island. Not too shabby. The Jesuit vow of poverty is evident here.

My travels start again next week as I head towards New Orleans for a second time.

Until then, stay classy, planet Earth.

PS: The answer to the quiz: none of the above. I just forgot to make a New Years resolution. But I like the other answers.

*This blog may be re-edited and have different versions. My parents, especially my dad, will most likely correct my spelling or facts about his homeland.