- Helen Keller
Alas, I have returned from my weekend excursion to La Rioja, which is one fo the most famous wine fields/companies in the northern part of Spain. I actually got back fairly early Sunday night, but have had homework to catch up and no stamina to write. But now I have some time, so gather 'round the campfire (or the computer screen) so I can tell you my tales, because this really was a great weekend.
We met up in Atocha on Friday, where the coach bus would pick us up and drive four hours to Labastida. I realized earlier that morning, as a result of going out on Thursday night, I had once again lost my voice. I was feeling fine, but I guess I'd been shouting more than I'd expected. My voice was very cracky and softer than usual, and it would proceed to be like that the entire weekend, and on Monday as well. Still, this didn't stop me from enjoying myself.
After we all got on the bus, we began our long trip north. They threw in una pelicula se llama "Juana, La Loca," a Spanish movie I'd obviously never seen before. Well, let's be honest: even now, I'm still yet to see this movie: I fell asleep probably twenty minutes in. I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, so I was pretty tired. When I woke up, though, the landscape had changed quite a bit: it'd gone from long, sometimes tall city buildings to stretched out lands of hills, and then the mountains eventually came into sight. I'm sure many people have seen a mountain range before, or mountains in the background of somewhere (I myself have been to the Smokies in Tennessee), but these were gorgeous -- they matched the greener, hilly landscape so well. I think quite a few of us spent much of the weekend admiring them. Shamefully, I can't remember their names.
We took a two hour detour or so and took a tour at El Catedral de Santa Maria de Burgos. Back then, cathedrals took several generations of people to build, and the amount of art and architecture put into them seems so unreal -- you wonder how the builders were able to do that statue, or make that carving, etc. This one itself took 544 years to create. Now, I've studied cathedrals before -- they've always fascinated me -- and I've seen plenty of pictures of them, but seeing one and entering the inside of one was just...amazing. Completely unbelievably beautiful. You could tell right at the Cathedral's front doors that it was something special. The builders captured some of the smallest of details in their work, like the statues, the carvings, the figurines. I mean, you could see why it took so long to build. The entire layout itself is just astounding, and it's huge! The religious symbols scattered about were really amazing -- shows you just how much religion influenced society. Like El Palacio Real de Aranjuez, it's really hard to put into words how beautiful this building really was. I'm so glad that I got to see this. The art in Spain continues to just blow me away. And getting to see a European cathedral makes me a very happy panda.
After the tour, we got back on the bus until we finally made it to the hostal we were staying at in Labastida. We got all of our stuff into our rooms, and then we went out to eat (it was a really late dinner and we were all starving). We went to a very Spanish restaurante called Bar El Bodegon. The service was pretty much the same as the other restaurants we'd went to during orientation week, but the feel was a bit different. Since we weren't in a populated city, it had a much more calmer feel to it, and it wasn't busy at all. Also worth noting is that the restaurante, like many of the other buildings in this small city, were made of stone, with a little bit of gridiron. In a way, they were kind of like castles. This type of structure is a bit different than Madrid. As far as the food goes, delicious. There was this really interesting chorizo that apparently was soaked in a blood sauce. Not going to lie: it looked and sounded disgusting, but it was actually quite tasty. The fact that it was stuffed with rice also helped it. Main meal (escoloton) was good, and dessert was also nice. After dinner, we were all pretty tired, and Trinity and I, who were reunited roommates again, pretty much collapsed after we got back to the hostal.
The next day, we woke up early, had a small breakfast, then got back on the bus to go to La Rioja. On the way, we passed more gorgeous scenery, with mountains and farm crops all around. Sounds like una viaje tranquila, but I don't know how many times I felt like that giant bus was going to tilt over from the curvy roads, or stay a little too far to the right or left and start rolling down a hill. I had a window seat, so looking out the window and seeing how close we were to a slope was slightly frightening (okay, very frightening). Thankfully, we made it there in one piece.
We met atop a tall hill, where as usual, the mountains stood beyond us, in the background, as if they were taunting us with their beauty. We ignored them for the time being and followed our tour guide down the rocky road to explore the vinyards. It was absurd -- grapes, grapes everywhere! It was ridiculous how much of this stuff they grew! It was kind of neat to see some of the plants the grapes grew on though. One bush actually, grows in two parts, and eventually the two parts meet by wrapping around each other. There were also small trees full of them. I enjoyed seeing this, but I don't think anyone had as much of a field day as Trinity did. In fact, she went around, taking pictures of the grapes, then not-so-accidentally eating them. I'll admit: they were delicious (we got to try some later). After we looked at the fields for a little bit, we went back to the beginning part of the road (where we started) and had a small snack. The tour guide gave us pan y chorizo (bread and sausage) and of course, some wine. Here's the tricky part: you had to squirt the wine in your mouth, holding the top and then squeezing the bottom. I was so afraid that I was going to epic fail this, but I ended up not spilling on myself! The wine wasn't terrible tasting either.
Once we finished our snacks (and for some of us, our photo shoots), we headed down the hill and to the small hut where the wine is made. First of all, the tour guide let us in another small field of grapes, where we got to pick some grapes, try some, and then see what their juice's level of alcohol would be. Afterwards, we headed in the house, which seriously reminded me of a disturbing horror film, especially the underground parts which were a bit dark red/purple from the grape juice. Anyway, we got to see where the wine was made, and then we got to test some wine ourselves. There were two: one labeled 2007, another labeled 2008. I don't like wine as it is, but 2008 was extremely bitter, and I did not like it one bit. I don't even know how I finished that small glass. 2007 was significantly better, as it was a tiny bit more sweet and smoother. We all got to pick which one we liked better, and then she'd pour us some from the big keg into the bottles. Then we got to keep one bottle of wine for ourselves...but only after we corked our own bottle. There was this ancient machine in the basement which we had to use before that, and it required a bit of strength to get it to work. I'm so thankful for all that weight lifting this summer now! Haha, but in any case, the wine was a very nice surprise.
We headed to a small town called Fuenmayor after La Rioja, where we got to walk around a little bit and eat lunch on our own. The atmosphere was so much different here than what it is in Madrid. It's a lot smaller, therefore having a community-like feeling, and the people here are much nicer. Madrid's got some good people, too, of course, but these people were genuinely friendly. We were trying to find a small place that just had tapaz (we weren't that hungry), and a group in a pasteleria kindly pointed us in the right direction. This is the famous hospitality of Spain. Seriously. Spain's known for its nice people, and this town showed us just why that was. It was nice to go somewhere where the people were so amigable and there weren't an abundance of people around.
Afterwards, we went to El Centro Tematico del Vino Villa Lucia, another wine place (this is mainly where they place the bottles and ship 'em out). I personally didn't find this as cool as going into the grape fields, but it was very informative. I kind of feel like a wine expert now, even though I actually don't like wine...heh. I can't think of what the place reminded me of. Some sort of fake yet pretty exotic display? Kind of like Rainforest Cafe maybe, only better. And with wine.
We left Villa Lucia and then went to Laguardia, which was an old fort with a small town in it. It's been through lots of battles (and in some ways, you can tell), but it still stands. It reminded me a lot of a castle, or an old beaten-down kingdom, which was really cool and was really pretty from the outside. There, we were seeing Santa Maria de los Reyes (otra iglesia). It was another church, much smaller than the cathedral we saw. Obviously, it paled in comparison to El Catedral de Burgos, but it was still gorgeous, especially for its significantly smaller size. The outside door, with all the little figurines and statues and carvings, were pretty spectacular, and the only room (the main room) that we got to see had a peaceful feel to it, along with some gorgeous figurines itself.
We had some free time after that small visit, so we kind of split up into a few groups and walked around. The place was small, so it wasn't too hard to navigate. The group of folk I was with went to the Overlook, where you could look over much of Spain and see the beautiful landscape. I don't regret that for a minute. The sun was setting over the hilly crop areas of northern Spain, and at times it was so breath taking. Mountains, green grass, fresh crops, hills, I don't think the scenery could have gotten any more beautiful. And of course, I took tons of pictures, probably too many for my own good (pretty much finished off my camera battery), but still, definitely worth it. After walking around, we found a nice small bar for dinner.
Sunday was our last day. I got my first kayac experience en El Rio Ebno (one of the most important rivers in Spain)! Myself and many others hadn't ever done it before, so there were some people who were quite nervous about trying it for the first time. But it was actually quite nice. The temperature was just right with no wind, the water was warm (and green...but that's beside the point), and the scenery was nice (oh, and lots of platos (ducks)). I found it much more fun cuando el rio was moving faster -- it added an element of excitement. I'd say we were all successful since none of us tipped over. In fact, there was one part in which the guy was telling us that roughly 65% of the people flip over because of the pace and direction which the current was taking you. I found it not to be that difficult -- it was just a matter of timing. Anyway, we kayac-ed down the river for a couple of hours (a few people decided to stay dry). I actually broke a sweat for the last bit of it -- we were going opposite the current, and at that point, we were all tired and hungry. Still, gave my arms a nice workout, especially since I haven't done that at all since coming here...I'm going to have to do some serious training when I get back.
After the kayacs, we found a nearby park and had a picnic lunch. Sandwiches were made, and plenty of other food (like fruit and, torta, y honey-fried peanuts) was there as well. And of course, wine, though I think lots of us stuck to water. This was a nice way to wrap up the trip. Actually, the original plan had us returning much later, like around midnight, but none of us wanted to stay that late due to homework and class the next day, so we ended up getting back much earlier, like around 9:30. I also ended up giving my bottle of wine to mi anfitriona. It would be silly of me to keep the wine when I probably won't drink it, and since she loves Rioja wine. She really liked it, too.
In not so few words, that pretty much sums up my weekend trip. I had a great time despite practically having no voice for it. I saw some incredible things, and I tried some new things. Most importantly, though, I got to experience another part of Spain, the non-city part. And I loved it. I thought it was a learning experience, too, not just learning about wine, but also getting a better idea of Spanish life. As stated, the feel out there was different than it is in Madrid, and while they share similar values in terms of culture, they're a group of different people out there and live differently according to their surroundings.
So I probably still have much to learn in Spain.
This post is much too long already, so I'm going to stop here. It's not letting me add pictures right now, so I will add them later in a separate post or something.
Hasta Luego!
~LSquared
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