Life: Idiotropic

I will miss this.  Sad.  Though I still have a few more months, I am becoming poignantly aware that I'll be moving soon.  Summer seems soon and if I am not extremely careful the simple thought of leaving will reduce me to tears in a millisecond, partly because my age has created an overly emotional creature that I hardly recognize who will cry in a 30 second comedic commercial or the last couple minutes of a cartoon.  But even more so, because I've come to love Spain and everything about it with all of my being.  May be because it was harder at first.  May be the pain of fitting in has made the bond that much stronger.  But I do love it.  With every quirk and flaw and frustration.  I love the culture.  I love the people.  I really love this sunrise.  [Sigh]

I've found in Europe more than anywhere else, that something strange is about to happen.  Really.  No day is really complete without a good chuckle or shake of the head.  Like the man last month with a real life rabbit riding on his shoulder.  I've found since that he's a bit off his rocker, but still, it takes some talent to train a rabbit, bonkers or not and it does qualify in my book as something a bit odd and rather entertaining.  Yes, I'm easy to entertain.

So, today with a bit of time, I took my newly arrived visitor to Port Soplaya for a quick snack before picking up the girls.  My normal place was closed forcing us to eat elsewhere, but that was fine because we had a good show.


First:  The wedding photo shoot. 

Blue skies.  Aqua Valencian beaches.  Sand.  Palm trees.  Could be amazing and you're picturing it, right?  Ok.  Now move the lovely couple with the handsome man in his nicest clothes and the bride in her long white gown with the train trailing after her.

Got it?  Ok... she has a train trailing after her as she walks and poses all over the beach.  And this is a Valencian beach in November which means that no one has looked at it or thought to clean or take care of it since August because once September first hits Spain, beaches are abandoned except for the occasional pale tourist.  The beach was the dirtiest I've seen it and the sand was wet.

They aren't even posing in the middle of the beach with the sea behind them or near the palm trees growing out from the sand.  No, they are huddled together kissing on a rock sitting among a pile of ugly rocks next to the pier.  Add some large red metal equipment of some sort floating in the sea beyond and the waves not splashing up majestically, but lapping up just enough behind the rock to wet the beautiful silk gown with the buttons up the back.  Photographers gather behind them where they can get her shoulder tattoo and her bra strap and tag as well.  A woman directs, but doesn't think to tuck in that tag.  The poor bride is walking awkwardly in her heels.  We watch them on and off for a good 40 minutes.  The final photo.  Sitting in the surf.  Yes.  Every bride's dream.  I'm going to wear my beautiful $1000 + bridal gown to the beach and then sit in the wet sand and let the waves wash over me.  Oh yes, that's romantic.  Hope she knows a good dry cleaner.



Second and third:  Valencia in not and has never been known for surfing.  To try, well, is like trying to build an igloo in Tahiti.  Not likely to work.  And, thanks to these two men, I think we have proof.  Don't go to Valencia for a surfing vacation.

Guy on the left decided to paddle out past the waves and wait.  May be those itty bitty 2' waves were too big?  Guess it takes real talent to surf the flat.

Or a paddle.  Guy on right decided to use his surf board as a raft standing there proudly with his little paddle working his way out to sea.  I'm not sure why.  Again, notice the waves?  Nope.  I didn't either.

Because you never seen the same thing exactly the same way.  Or at least I don't.  My camera dictates the size of my purse and it is my faithful companion keeping me busy in even the dullest moments.

Today wasn't dull.  Today I was on a mission to help Angie shop.  Well, I didn't say it was a difficult mission. 

And it was a bit fun because I was guided not only by shopping, but by food.  We headed first to my favorite Bar Cafe Mundo for a calamari sandwich and a cafe con leche, the perfect mid-morning snack if you're living in Spain.  Sandwiches aren't proper lunch food.  They are only snack food. 

Saw these two guys on horseback being quite smiley. Too bad the sun was in a bad place.  I've only seen police on horseback in the gardens here and they seemed just as entertained by me as I was by them.

Took a long leisurely walk to the Turia after our snack to find the mall with three Desigual shops, one of my favorite Spanish brands.  The mall actually only has two.  One is a double-wide store, so counts as two spaces.  Both are fantastic and full and so horribly tempting, but I did escape with only a few Christmas gifts for the girls and nothing for me because everything that I wanted was a bit too much.

Walked around the Valencia's City of Arts and Sciences for the umpteenth time which is ok, because like the Eiffel tower, it absolutely never loses it's charm or awe-power.  Anyone with any imagination of love for the camera could spend days there staring at it and imagining it at all sorts of different angles and in different lighting.  The buildings are astounding.


It's amazing how quickly a day can fly just walking and soaking up sun and beauty.  Snapped this window walking back towards the train station.  It's typical here to have a window behind the bar so that people can walk up to the outside of the cafe and grab something quick or stand there right on the sidewalk and have a coffee there.  There's seating inside as well, but people seem to like this.

Our day ended with ice cream at my favorite little place near the train station serving home made ice cream nearly all year round. 

This is a relatively new sight here.  Apparently cruise ships have been successful coming to my Valencia, so this year even more ships are sailing into the port and releasing the hoards of tourists into the old historic center of town.  If you want a relatively "tourist free" downtown, don't come on Tuesdays.  That is when the ships come in and release their bipedal cargo to clog the narrow walkways near the cathedral and mercado central.

So I'll avoid Tuesdays, and continue to enjoy the view.  The lights are pretty at night as the ship takes them all away.  

So I go the an absolute paradise today.  The weather is perfect.  The parking lot is packed with people, but when we walk down, the waterfalls remain pristine with not a person in sight.  It's ours for the taking.  The butterflies are everywhere - beautiful, big ones like something out of a fairytale.  This one flies all around me and keep landing on the ground near my feet.  I'm able to get within just a couple inches of him.

I was ready.  I charged my camera battery last night.  I had three lenses and had learned a few new settings to play with while I photographed the waterfalls.  I'd even grabbed my macro which would be great for these butterflies...

But I left my camera battery fully charged in the charger in my bathroom at the house an hour away.

Sad. 

At least I have my iPhone so I can share this.  He was soooo amazing.

Away from home - away from the colors and songs, the fireworks and bbqs, the celebrations and flags - it's too easy to forget our own holidays.  It's hot and sticky.  Valencia is unusually quiet.  Of all the days for them to NOT have fireworks... I would have liked a few.

We get ready for Arianna's party tomorrow, we listen to the thunder roll by, and I drive Kirk to the airport for his 2 week trip to Germany.

But through the relative quiet, here, in this foreign land, I can appreciate my country even more.  By seeing the rest of the world, my freedoms have more value.  And I am proud.  Of being an American. 

Not of the brined hot dog.  That's just gross.

Happy 1st Birthday to Logan who has now completely charmed her way into our hearts.  We picked up our Barcelonian beauty when she was just a day shy of 8 weeks and now she's a whole year and still growing.

Likes:  zucchini peels and apples

Talents:  waking up the girls by jumping on their beds and licking their faces

Hobbies:  shredding paper, cardboard, and ficus leaves

If you find yourself at the Valencia International Airport on a sunny Friday afternoon, do beware of scooters and the lotto peddling men who drive them.  Today, while waiting for my mom to arrive, I was nearly killed by two of them, the second one twice.

A large man in a red t-shirt, one hand on the handle bar steering erratically in and out of groups of waiting people and around pillars, the other hand holding up a long strand of lottery tickets that often block his vision.  Zooming up, breaking quickly, "lottery tickets?"  The answer is no and he zooms off nearly running into the next unsuspecting victim before speeding off again.

I wanted SOOO badly to get his picture, but chickened out.  Too many people.  So I got this one when he stopped for a coffee.  He already drives like he's over-caffeinated.  Yeah, let's allow him more.  Sheesh.  So there it is in front of the little dog... the preferred weapon of choice at the Valencia airport.  A drunk snow boarder is less scary.

Such a lovely word.  Rebajas is the castellano, rebaixes is Valenciano, either way it translates into a fun day of shopping at the mall with friends.  Rebates, sales, discounts.  Fabulous.

What tickles me is what seems to be a European thing, the naked mannequin.  In The Netherlands and Germany I saw the same thing.  In January and July storefront windows are lined with mannequins of all shapes and sizes posing completely naked, with signs, or wearing garbage bags. 

Apparently their attire is on sale too.

Along Spanish playas wash up more than shells and beach glass... you also find "beach tiles," wonderfully smooth worn pieces of tile with bits of glaze still on top.

These are some of our treasures from our days of scouring the sand in Almunecar on Spain's southern coast where the tiles are as plentiful as the sun.  I've found small pieces of tile along some of Valencia's beaches as well, but it's not as abundant here.

I live in the land of one way roads, houses built on loops, so miss it and you must go down and start again.  Unless you're the garbage truck who backs up daily uphill to our street, or any number of delivery trucks who just don't care, or my husband coming home after a huge tree had blown down two houses from us blocking the road entirely.  This tree blew down in the storm last night.  It was still there at 5 this afternoon.

The windiest day in 20 years, but a phenomenal sunset.  When days are hard, it is still a blessing to look out upon this Spanish sky.  Always beautiful.

It's almost December and it's still hot some days. You barely need a sweater in the morning and by afternoon, you're in short sleeves. There's very little evidence of fall at all, but here on my reed fence, we have our own small sign, the only green in my yard that has changed and are now falling by the handfuls, so I had to snap this picture quickly before our one sign of autumn falls.

Exhibit A: Another clever use for wrought iron and why a mother should be suspicious when 1/2 loaf of bread and several cups of water walk out of the kitchen. They were playing jail. Little did I know how little imagination they actually had to use!







Exhibit B: One very blond dog. As you can clearly see in both photos, this dog absolutely belongs in this crazy family.

Sometimes I'm so busy clicking and watching that I miss those split second moments. Thankfully, my click happy finger doesn't and so upon uploading, I'm rewarded with gems like these. Sorry if this grosses you out. You are probably glad to have missed this spectacle. The truly gross thing here was not the owl itself engulfing baby chicks for lunch, but it's handler, who just previously had taken a whole baby chick from her satchel, put one foot in her mouth, then ripped off it's leg. I wish that I would have gotten that photograph - handler with dead baby chick foot in her mouth clenching down with her blackened teeth... but I was too in shock to use the camera at that point and still in shock when she did it again with the other leg. She fed the legs to the owl first before giving it the rest of the carcass which is swallowed - head and all. Hence this remarkable photograph.

So this was the beginning of our family trip to the Gangelt animal park. I'd hoped to spend this beautiful sunny day at an orchid garden, but the girls won and animals it was. Not bad on this nice day. The kids hand fed deer and sheep and threw food to the pushing boars and their adorable piglets. The baby boars looked more like tiny rabbits with the markings of newborn deer - so beautiful in comparison with their course haired parents. Tiara was happy to see a moose, but disappointed that it had no antlers. And Arianna was the only one (yes, only) who escaped the giant hamster wheel at the playground unscathed.

I was happy to had feed raccoons who took peanuts from me gently with their dainty hands and yellow toothed groundhogs who were surprisingly careful taking peanuts from me while leap frogging over each other to be the first for food. All the animals seemed to be enjoying the nice weather. Even us.

And the craziest animal today was my amazing guy who held on to the edges of the hamster wheel and went all the way around before collapsing in a heap. I even joined the fun in my skirt and sandals coming home with a scratched leg and scraped knee. Haven't had one of those in a while! Guess we can count it as a successful day.

A nice day today shopping with Mom and Elise at the Dutch RD4 shops - these amazing, smelly, dirty, junk shops that are full of random trash and a lot of treasures. Hooray for the Dutch and their love for all things IKEA. It serves me well when I can get a beautiful Royal Ascot bone china tea cup for 50 cents and true antiques for Goodwill prices. Today was for the little things... teacups and spoons - mostly. But found a couple nice chairs that will supplement my dining set nicely - so extra bottoms don't get stuck on the piano bench or some rickety folding thing. Your bottom will thank me if it comes to visit in Spain.

Drove back through Gangelt and had to catch this view - the village's skyline the church spire and old wall. The cows and the clouds. These are moments when I imagine the awe that some of the great painters must have felt sitting in a field gazing at this.

Found ourselves lunching in Immendorf at my weekend hang out for salami brötchen and a erdbeeren tortchen. Yum. Mom and I sat in the sun and relaxed while Elise played and talked to the turtle who she's named Monty.

...I'll never eat veal.

There is a wonderful little produce stand in my village in a barn on a farm where they raise lots and lots of cows. I've seen these tiny babies there before in previous spring times. I've thought how cute and sweet they were and chased away any questions.

But today 8 tiny baby cows filled the 7 igloo pens there. Two sharing one, but the rest all alone in its own igloo and it's own tiny fenced area. These were TINY cows. Sweet, gentle, nervous as Elise slowly reached out her hand to pet them. Some were shaking. Some tried to nibble her fingers as if looking for milk. Some still had their umbilical cords dried, but attached. And I had to ask aloud the question I'd thought before - the horrible question as to why, oh why they'd be here, isolated away from their mommies. So young. And I got the same answer from my mom and my husband who are far better and grasping reality. And it's not an answer that I like very much.

So though it's not something I would normally eat anyway... nor even have the chance to order on a menu, I think it's fairly safe to say that any chance of veal consumption is now over.

Holly - I was thinking of you today!!!!

Strange is a way of life here and it keeps me entertained. Today while trying not to get lost in North Limburg looking for junk shops, I passed by a wallaby farm. Both the normal looking variety and the stark white variety that more resemble over sized rats than a cute Australian critter. It was odd. Really. Holland isn't exactly close to Australia and while deer farms are normal as are large wheels of cheese, wallabies are just not. Another strange thing was the basketball style garbage net on the side of the road. I didn't have anything to throw away or I would have tried for a 3 point shot.