THE RAIN IN SPAIN....

THE RAIN IN SPAIN......

Wednesday, April 6, 2011.

I always wanted to backpack across Europe when I was younger. Learning the languages and the local customs. Experiencing other cultures and just flying by the seat of my pants. So I figured what the hell. The construction business is a little slow right now, specifically house sales. The kids are gone and I'm sitting around on my butt, so why not discover Europe a little. Thirty years later, but why not?

The weather forecast
in Ferrol, Spain

The weather forecast in Seattle for
the same time.  Huh.

Besides, a former University of Washington 

basketball player, Breanne Watson, is playing in Ferrol, Spain. Reading her blog, it sounded like she could do with seeing a familiar face for a few days. Breanne is a very accomplished writer, a dedicated blogger and a helluva basketball player. http://www.bwatson3.blogspot.com/   I've read her blog all four seasons that she's played in Europe. With varying degrees of envy and admiration. Several years ago, two other players from UW, Melissa Erickson and Alicia Heathcote were playing on the same team in Germany. They invited me over to watch and I did a whirlwind trip, heading over on a Wednesday and flying back that Sunday. It was an absolute ball. No pun intended.

The new pack, ready to roll.

I e-mailed Bre and she sounded interested in having some company.

So I stuffed my new backpack and off I went. Eight-forty-five am flight from Seattle to Philadelphia arriving there just after five pm. Six-thirty connecting flight to Madrid arriving Thursday morning.

THURSDAY, APRIL 7, 2011

The Madrid airport is huge. Big. Sprawling. Four terminals that are miles apart. I land at Terminal 2 and had to take a shuttle to my Iberia flight in Terminal 4. I landed just after 8 in the morning and by the time I clear immigration and customs and find the Iberia counter it's 9:40. Just missed the 9:35 connection to La Coruna (or A Coruna in Spanish). The next flight is at 11:40am arriving in La Coruna just after one. Terminal four in Madrid is mammoth. The gate for my flight is at the far end of the terminal and they have signs posted telling you how many more minutes you have to walk to get to your gate. The signs started with ten minutes and they weren't kidding. Air Iberia really stuffs their planes. I'm six feet tall and my knees nearly bang the seat in front of me. Straightening the legs isn't even an option. Fortunately, it is only just over an hour flight.

La Coruna is a quaint little town on the northwest coast of Spain and the closest airport to Ferrol (pronounced fuh-ROLE, took a bit to get that right) where Bre lives and plays. Once you're in La Coruna's airport, you can taxi to Ferrol, or go by bus. Taxi is about $60 Euros ($90 US at this time), the bus from downtown La Coruna to Ferrol is $6.80 Euro, no-brainer. And it runs every hour on the half hour and it's a fifty minute trip.

Squid

I take the local bus from the airport to the Estacion Autobuses in downtown La Coruna and just miss the 1:30 bus. Next direct bus leaves at 2:30. There's a little cafeteria in the bus depot; it's been a long day, so I sit down for a beer. Estrella Galicia is the regional brew, I get one of those and as I take a sip, the waiter puts a plate down in front of me. I shake my head no, to tell him I didn't order anything and he just shakes his head back and says, “En la casa, gratis”. Free appetizers, on the house. This was commonplace all over Ferrol as well. Many of the appetizers that came with the drinks were enough to constitute a small meal. The plate they put in front of me was squid. Never had it before, it wasn't bad. A little chewy, but it was soaked in an olive oil, vinegar and pepper sauce. Great flavor. I had noticed a salad in the display case that looked like a tuna-potato combination. When I asked “Que?”, what's that, the answer was too rapid fire Spanish for me, so I did the american thing, I just grunted. Next thing I know a plate of that hit the counter in front of me too. Again I apologized and said I didn't mean to order it. He called the manager over, who spoke English. I was sure I had screwed the pooch, but it was another sample for me to try. Unbelievable. The manager explained it was called russian salad and he actually spoke very good English, my Spanish is pathetic in comparison. When I asked him how he learned to speak English so well, he said he lived and worked in England for 22 years. Then it occurred to me, he didn't have a british accent. I asked about that. He said when people from Scotland or Ireland talk to him he has their accent. He just adapts to the accent he hears. I said he was a chameleon linguist. He laughed.

Bre and I had arranged to meet at the bus station in Ferrol at 3:45pm. I had hoped to catch the earlier flight and surprise her, but it worked out well anyway. I got to the Estacion De Autobuses in Ferrol at 3:20 and she rolled up right on time (four years of playing Division I college basketball, you're prompt or you run, that's the way to develop good life skills). Our first stop was her apartment, so I could take a shower and scrape 28 hours of growth off my face. I had slept a bit on the cross country flight from Seattle to Philly, surprisingly, for a daytime flight. On the flight to Madrid, I lucked out with my own row of three seats, so I lifted the armrests and laid down and slept a fair amount of time. I also caught a quick 30 minute nap on the bus ride from La Coruna.

But there is nothing like a hot shower to bring you back to life after traveling 28 hours. It had been a few years since I'd actually seen Bre in person. We had contact by e-mail over the years, but once she graduated the UW and started playing professionally in Europe, we only saw each other rarely at the occasional UW related event. After watching her play four seasons at UW, I was surprised how thin she looked. Not that she looked bad, on the contrary, just thin. We went to a cafe at the Plaza de Espagna and caught up on a couple years real quick, then we had to get back to her apartment. She had practice at nine and needed to get ready to head over there. She had also been horribly sick the last couple days and wasn't going to practice that night, but needed to show up at the gym to get cleared by the doctor.

For my stay in Ferrol, I had arranged to couchsurf. http://www.couchsurfing.org/ Bre has two teammates as roommates in a three bedroom apartment and I didn't want to impose at the end of a long season. Everyone was making arrangements to get out of town as soon as the season was over the following week, so I figured they needed as much space as they could get. And couchsurfing is a great way to get to know a city.

I had actually mentioned it to Bre earlier in the year as a way of meeting some english speaking locals or expats over there. She tried to connect, but it never worked out. I had a lot more luck.

Ferrol is a town of about 75 thousand. I found several ex-pats and english speaking locals. I put out about ten requests and received two offers to surf. One was a 29 year old ex-pat from Chicago, named Chris, who is teaching English in Ferrol. The other was a 39 year old local named Sabela who is a clown in Children's hospitals all over the Galicia region. She travels quite a bit for work.

Chris was coming back from Barcelona, so I wasn't sure of his arrival time, but he definitely wanted to go to Bre's last home game Saturday night. He played football and basketball in high school until he suffered a torn ACL.

Sabela wasn't going to be home from working at the hospital til ten that night, so I was just going to hang out at practice and then surf with her for the first couple of days.

We met a couple of Bre's teammates before practice and they helped me buy an international phone for local calls. Not a bad $20 investment. We got to the gym around eight and were waiting for the doctor to clear Bre. She had thought she was going to practice after we hit Plaza de Espagna, because she was feeling better, but she wasn't quite over the sickness hump yet and as it got closer to practice time it was clear she needed more rest.

And then jet-lag hit.

Just before the team started practicing at 9pm, my brain decided to shut down. I decided to call Sabela and fortunately she was home early. I wouldn't have to wait til ten and I really wasn't sure if I would have made it. Bre and I had checked a map and knew Sabela's apartment was very close to the gym, but the brain wasn't working. I called Sabela and asked for directions, but couldn't make it clear where I was. As I was talking to Sabela and walking by a bar, a waitress was stacking chairs. I asked the waitress in Spanish where the street was I was looking for and she just looked at me. I handed her the phone with Sabela on the line and asked where in Spanish. She had quite the animated conversation with Sabela and walked me two blocks over and pointed me down the street. She told me in Spanish to go just past a black sign that was hanging on a building. Perfect. Found it. Besides the fact that Chris was on his way back from Barcelona, I decided to couchsurf with Sabela because she wanted to work on her English and I wanted to work on my Spanish. It was almost a disaster in trying to find her apartment. Thank goodness for the chica at the bar.

Couchsurfing is a misnomer at times. That was the case with Sabela. I got a spare bedroom, with a full-size bed. She had mentioned in her e-mail confirming that she had some friends playing in a band that night and her and some other friends were going and I was welcome to come along. By the time I got settled, the second wind kicked in.

Besides being a clown in children's hospitals, Sabela also has a troupe that does puppet shows. Two of those people joined us. We went to a club in downtown Ferrol called Manchito Cosa. It roughly translates to 'That dribble thing' or 'that spot thing', like the one you get on your shirt. It was a five piece band, that sort of played Brazilian music. Great rhythm music, sort of Kenny G does the Samba with the occasional Bob Marley rift thrown in.

We actually got out of there early, just before 2 am, which is when things in Ferrol actually start heating up. But Sabela had to work early the next day in another town close by. It was a good night, even with the jet lag battles.

FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2011

The day before I arrived, Bre had spent the whole day in bed, sick. Thursday she was a little better. When we got together Friday morning, I could tell she was almost all the way back. We both like to get out and walk and see things, so we did a loop around Ferrol. Down to the water and back up to her neighborhood. On the loop, we stopped at a little marina and hit one of the cafe's across the street for a hot chocolate (cola coa) and a coke. After a half hour of conversation, we switched to beer. It was afternoon. It was also a beautiful sunny day. The day before was sunny when I pulled into town. There is no rain in Spain, at least not in Ferrol as far as I'm concerned. Bre said it actually rains more in Ferrol than it does in Seattle and it's hard blustery rain, umbrella type rain. You can function fine in Seattle without owning an umbrella because our rain is so mist like and soft. Bre was even surprised how nice it was.

Catching up with Bre

The appetizers at this cafe were even better. First came a bread and cheese plate, then a pretty big basket of bread and a plate of meatballs and then another plate of just cheese. We had two big beers each, a coke, a hot chocolate and all that food for less than $8 Euros. I could get used to this. We finished our loop walk after the beer and snacks and got back to Bre's apartment. We then walked to a little grocery store to buy supplies because I was making my now world famous crepes for breakfast the next morning and introducing Bre to Sabela. That's one of the unwritten rules of couchsurfing. When you stay with someone, you bring something, wine, food, cook a meal or take them out. Something, you return the generosity. It seems like common sense, but it is lost on many people. It was actually fun shopping the grocery store with someone who had insider knowledge.

After the shopping we split up, Bre headed home to rest before practice and I went back to put the supplies away and check email.

Sabela had given me a key to her apartment and told me to make myself at home. She apologized that she had to work so much on Friday and couldn't show me around, but said she'd show me the town Saturday before she left for the night. She had a birthday party she was attending in another town and wouldn't be back til Sunday morning.

I also sent Chris a message confirming the game for Saturday and planning to meet him at the gym before game time. I also mentioned that Bre and I planned to 'hit the town', as it were, after the game and would love for him to join us and any other expats he thought might be interested.

Just after 8, I strolled the three blocks to the gym and decided to stop for a beer at the cafe/bar where the girl took the phone directions for me. Beautiful warm early evening in Ferrol so I sat out side and read. Did I mention it's always warm and sunny in Ferrol? :-) Chips and olives for appetizers with my $1.30 euro beer. Decided it was too nice to head in so soon, so I had another and kept reading. Another warm sunny evening in sun-drenched Ferrol. :-)

Just before nine thirty I walked across the street to the gym to catch practice. Bre's team only signed eight players for the season and two of them are injured. A bunch of junior team girls and the team president's wife showed up to fill in practice. The talent disparity was incredibly obvious, but at least it was practice.

After practice Bre and the post player Selma, who helped me buy the phone, went out for quick 'nightcap'. I had planned on making crepes first thing in the morning, but Bre needed to sleep in with the game tomorrow night. I had suggested an early breakfast and that she take a nap, but she's not a napper, sleeping later on game day was her routine. I was afraid her and Sabela would miss each other. I had told Sabela about Bre and asked if it was ok if she came over to join us for breakfast. Sabela was actually excited about having another person to work with on her English.

SATURDAY APRIL 9, 2011

It worked out perfect. Sabela had arrived home after two am and slept past ten. Bre had planned to come over between 11:30 and noon. I started the crepes at 11:30.

Usually when I make crepes I just have raspberry jam for filling. At the store I grabbed some bananas for filling as well. Bre took something and made it better. She put both the jam and the bananas together in the crepes. It was delicious.

The three of us stood in Sabela's tiny kitchen eating our crepes and talking. Bre and Sabela hit it off well. Bre's 6'1 and Sabela's just over five feet tall. It's always amazing when people meet basketball players like that, especially when they're not used to someone that tall. When Bre walked in, Sabela said to me, “She's soooooo tall”, with a big smile on her face. Later Bre used a line about Sabela that I've heard other basketball players say as a term of endearment for someone relatively diminutive, “She's so cute.” Sabela actually showed us some of her puppeting skills and then took us for a walk around town.

Bre and Sabela crossing the street
in Ferrol.

Jamon to the left, free bread up top, pig intestines
and a potato below right.

We ended up at a cafe/bar next to the fish market and the public market in downtown Ferrol. Sabela and I had beers and Bre had water with her game five hours away. The first free appetizers were chicken wings. The next appetizer was interesting. The potatoes were really good, but the pig intestines were an acquired taste. At least I tried them. :-) Then we got the obligatory basket of bread and we actually ordered a jamon appetizer. It's a plate of cured ham, sliced paper thin with an outstanding flavor. Delicious. I later found out that the pigs used to produce this are raised in the same way Kobe beef is raised, special diet, massages, and the meat will sell for up to $120 euro a pound. Which explains the razor thin slices. The plate was only $4 Euros.

Bre headed back to her apartment to rest before the game and I did some walking, while Sabela went to her apartment to get ready for her trip. Sabela had decided to come watch part of the basketball game because she wasn't leaving until 8:30 and the game started at seven so she would see most of it.

At 6:40 we left her apartment for the three block stroll to the gym. Right as we turned the corner Chris called my cellphone to ask where we were. Since there was only one guy standing outside the gym with a cellphone to his head, I said, “Look to your right down the block, I'm the one waving.”

Chris had already bought a ticket and been inside. It was festival seating and we got there early enough to get mid-court seats.

Bre plays in the League Feminina 2, “A” Division. She pretty much had the league offensive rebounding title wrapped up by this game. I watched her play four years at the University of Washington and that doesn't surprise me. I've always loved the lunch pail and hard hat type basketball she played. My favorite kinda player. A silky jump-shot is nice and ball-handling skills are fun to watch too, but give me the player who owns the boards, sets the killer picks and does the dirty work. The nuts and bolts of winning a basketball game, in my humble opinion.

Bre #11 on the court in the last home game
in Ferrol this season.

Midway through the first quarter, Chris is sitting somewhat slack-jawed. He played basketball in high school, which means his games were the same time as the girls, but on the opposite court as the girls, so he'd never really seen a girls'/womens' game. I asked what he thought and he said, “They're good. I mean they can REALLY play. I had no idea they were this good. I would have come to these games all year.” Figures.

Bre's team only lost two games at home this season and tonight they kept up the same trend. They were firing on all cylinders and won by more than 20 in a walk. Where they struggled was on the road and it kept them from being one of the top teams in the league. They ended up finishing sixth, just missing the playoffs.

Sabela enjoyed the game as well, but had to leave after the third quarter for her party. She enjoyed meeting Chris and was glad to have another person to speak English with.

After the game I introduced Bre and Chris and she went to shower and get dressed. She needed about half an hour or so, so Chris and I hit the place across the street and talked. Another great couchsurfer and world traveler type. We had a great 45 minute conversation waiting for Bre and actually hit some existential topics. We really had a lot in common in our backgrounds. At one point I think we solved some serious questions, but unfortunately the universe wasn't listening at that time.

Bre and Chris at dinner.

When Bre showed up, we headed out for dinner. She had a great local restaurant she had planned to take us to. Chris of course had been there and we settled in. Bre and Chris ordered a couple different items, so we could all have a little of everything. The octopus was particularly good. I had never had it before and it was delicious. It came cut up in a mixture and Chris was actually kinda surprised, he was expecting to get the whole thing and we would just cut it up. It was still really good. During dinner Chris and Bre talked quite a bit about Ferrol and how they went to the same cafes, bars and restaurants and never crossed paths. Amazing for such a small town. He also told Bre there were actually about ten expats living there teaching English at the University.

After dinner we strolled to Chris' apartment and met his roommate, Mike and another local. Chris got changed and we 'hit the town', as it were. :-) We ran into some more English speaking people from Europe that Chris new and hit a couple of nightclubs. He really made some great connections in Ferrol. Amazing what you can do when you don't practice twice a day, five days a week and play a game every week..... I was having such a great time, the drinks were really flowing. Finally a little after three am, Chris headed home and Bre and I walked for a bit and then decided to call it a night too, just before 4am. I had one last drink in my hand from a bar we had just left, they actually give you to-go cups to take your drinks with you when you leave. Bre had been my drink police for a while, since I was starting to have a little too much fun. We had run into two girls from Britain and I swore one of them had a Swedish accent. Which is ok because she thought I had a southern US accent. Clearly, we were both experiencing alcohol induced audio sensory impairment. :-) When I handed Bre my drink to hold walking down the street, she handed it back to me empty. I couldn't believe she did that to me. The next day I thanked her profusely. She prevented a physical disaster. The night had been so much fun. Borderline, too much.

When we split up, I had a few blocks to walk to Sabela's apartment. When I laid down, the room was spinning ever so slightly, I just hoped I fell asleep before disaster struck.

SUNDAY APRIL 10, 2011

Kris Kristofferson is a great songwriter, his lyrics are amazing. Figures it would take a Rhodes Scholar in English to have such command of the language as to create mental images that rival what can be conveyed by the greek language. He wrote the lyrics for the Janis Joplin hit, Me and Bobby McGee that has the great line, “feeling nearly faded as my jeans”. He wrote another song, To Beat the Devil, with a verse, “back when failure had me locked out on the wrong side of the door, when no one stood behind me but my shadow on the floor, and lonesome was more than a state of mind”. But the line that really applied this morning was from his song, The Best of All Possible Worlds, “I woke up next morning feeling like my head was gone and like my thick old tongue was lickin something sick and wrong”....... And if Bre hadn't protected me, it would have been worse. That's what friends are for, to protect you when you don't do it yourself. :-)

Sabela's living room where she took
a bedframe and turned it into a
trellis.

Chris had arranged for an expat dinner Sunday night at an Argentinean restaurant in Ferrol. We planned to meet at 8 at another bar first. After the previous night of revelry, I slept til almost noon. A little rough around the edges, but not much worse for wear. Sabela arrived home just before three. The birthday party she attended the night before ended just after six in the morning. Sabela decided to join us to meet the other expats, more english speakers. She enjoys learning a language as much as I do. She's just a lot more progressed at it than I am. When I first arrived, we made an agreement, she would speak in English and I would speak in Spanish. We would correct each others words and syntax and go from there. Great arrangement.

After taking a little nap, sending emails and checking the internet, I sat down in the living room where Sabela was watching TV. She mentioned all the shows from the US have Spanish language put in. I told her that was called dubbing. She asked if foreign films on US television were dubbed into English. I told her that the US doesn't really play foreign films on television. You have to go to theaters to see them and most of them just have subtitles. I told her that one of my favorite events in Seattle was the Seattle International Film Festival, www.siff.net/ where they show over 400 films in just over three weeks. I said, “As a matter of fact, my favorite foreign film from the festival last year was from Spain. It was called “Cell 211 or Celda dos once”. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1242422/

She says, “Yes I know this film. Do you know the protagonist, the man who speaks in a growl?”

I said, “Yes, the character was Malamadre, that was a brilliant job by the actor Luis..... something.”

She replied, “Luis Tosar, he's from here, Galicia, he's a friend of mine, we had dinner a while ago.”

Plaza de Espagna

Unbelievable. It never ceases to amaze me what a small world it is.

Just before 7:30 we left to meet Bre at Plaza de Espagna to walk together to the first bar. We got there about ten minutes before eight and saw Miguel the guy who had stopped by Chris' apartment during the carnage of the previous night. Then Bre placed him. He worked in the bar we were in and had served her several months before.... things that make you go huh. Huh.

Chris showed up with his roommate, one of the girls who was audio impaired the night before and another expat, Elise (not sure of the spelling, but that's how her name was pronounced, so I'm just gonna roll with it) from Minnesota/Wisconsin. She was an absolute kick in the pants. She was also teaching English in Ferrol. After a few drinks we headed to the Argentinean restaurant and they were waiting for us. Chris is another world traveller like Bre, gets immersed in the local community and meets people. Every bar/cafe/restaurant we went to they knew him and treated us really well. It's great to be with someone who's connected and liked. Can you say free drinks. :-) He's the kinda ambassador who gives traveling Americans a really good name.

Sabela was a little tired from the night before and decided to pass on dinner after drinks and went home. Plus I think the rapid fire English might have been a little overwhelming as tired as she was.

Elise fit right in with our rolling train wreck. As we were walking along, she blurts out, “I can't wait to get some BEEF MEAT.” We all stopped and rolled with laughter. She gasped in astonishment and said, “I can't believe this. I used to be articulate and intelligent sounding. Now I'm losing my english skills speaking Spanish so much.”

Miguel, me and Cavewoman
and platters of 'Beef Meat'.

Of course, to ease her pain, we piled on and called her “Cavewoman” all night and constantly offered to pass the 'beef meat' and were asking, “cavewoman's beef meat good”? I'm honestly shocked I didn't get a drink dumped on my head. :-) The dinner was phenomenal, the laughter was better. At one point, Cavewoman, who had arrived in Ferrol within days of Bre last September, look over and said, “I wish we had met when we first got here, we could have hung out all the time.” A little later Bre looked over at me and said a little misty eyed, “This could have been so much fun.”

Called it a relatively early night in Ferrol. Home just before midnight. Monday was going to be my last day in Ferrol, more of Europe to see. At dinner, people were talking about places in Europe they really loved and the name Porto (or Oporto) Portugal kept coming up and since I didn't have any plans, it sounded like a place worth checking out. I'd do some research on line in the morning, before the four of us, me, Chris, Bre and Sabela met for a sort of farewell lunch.

MONDAY APRIL 11, 2011

Bre does clams.  

Sabela had to get her car registered today, so I had the morning to myself. She was going to meet us at the cafe next to the fish market. Chris had never been there, so he was in for a treat.

I met Bre early so we could walk and talk a bit. It always saddens me when departure is imminent.

We hit the cafe and waited for the other two. When they joined us we got a big plate of clams, first time Bre had ever had clams. A hit. Sabela and Chris had to head off to work at two, so Bre and I decided to take a long walk around a different side of the city. We found a bench overlooking a bay at low tide and had a great conversation for a couple of hours. We both had to get back and start packing, me to head south and Bre for the end of her season. We said goodbye; promised to meet up this summer in Seattle and swap travel stories. Can't wait.

Last lunch in sunny Ferrol.

The train and bus both run from A Coruna to Porto. My preference is train, but I couldn't find the exact train schedule online. So I thought I'd catch the 7:30 am bus from Ferrol and that would give me enough time to work things out to Porto. Sabela said she wouldn't be home from work til, 2 in the morning, but wanted me to knock on her door to say goodbye before I left. After Bre and I said goodbye, I had to get a towel (can't believe I forgot to bring one) and a bar of soap (forgot that too). I also wanted to get Sabela a small plant as a thank you for her hospitality. I found a store in Ferrol with housewares, but no one spoke English. With my broken Spanish and fabulous mime skills, I managed to get the message across and get what I needed. There was a flower shop on the way back to her apartment that had a miniature pink rose plant. Got it.

An early dry night. :-)

TUESDAY APRIL 12, 2011

My alarm went off at 6 am, plenty of time for the 7:30 bus. I just can't seem to light a fire though. I'm in no hurry and really don't want to be. I think Spain is rubbing off on me a little. By the time I stuff everything into my back pack, organize everything and lay out the directions I've jotted down, I've missed the 7:30 bus. That's ok. There's one at 8:30.  The church outside my bedroom started ringing its bell every morning at 8 am.  Total number or rings for the hour at the top of the hour and one ring at the bottom of the hour.  That's the video.

As I'm dragging my bag to the front door, Sabela emerges, sleepy eyed. She thanks me profusely for the plant, I thank her profusely for the hospitality. She notes that I've missed the bus I planned on taking. I shrug my shoulders and say there's one at 8:30 and smile. She smiles back. We say goodbye and hope to cross paths in the future. She's planning on meeting Bre for coffee and she got Chris' number to have lunch with him.

It's a slow ten minute stroll to the bus depot and I look around Ferrol, seeing it differently than when I arrived.

I get to the bus depot at 9, buy a ticket and head to the departure platform. At 9:20 I climb on the bus and at 9:29 it rolls out of the Estacion de Autobuses in Ferrol.  I'm heading south.