the most perfect refreshment...

“to sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment.” - jane austen (mansfield park)

another photo from my may 2007 trip; again from the park in madrid; once more, overlooked until it flashed into life on my desktop, surprising me with the peaceful sun and shade, as i sit inside my cold house wrapped in a blanket trying to ignore the slushy cold outside.

folks always talk about people-watching and how fun that is. i do enjoy people-watching, though often it can be a bit overwhelming. but sitting outside and soaking in a scene of the simplest outdoor views - that is life. (e.g. in order to take this photo, i had to wait to ensure no one was milling about in my photograph...)

cervantes welcomes you

cervantes called toledo "the glory of spain and light of her cities". having only been to a few cities in the same general region, i cannot say for sure; but it was certainly an adventure traipsing after kate & andré down the narrow and twisty cobbled streets that could dead end at any moment.

there were churches everywhere, which isn't surprising having formerly been the capital of the holy roman, visigoth and muslim empires. i opted for bravely climbing the tower of the cathedral while kate & andré serenely sat down below.

i am so glad i was able to visit them in spain. my previous attempt to see spain in 2001 didn't pan out, but this was so much better. and it was delightful getting to spend an entire week with kate whom i've been friends with since we were two, but who i rarely get to see since we graduated ten years ago - and andré, whom i normally only get to chat with over the dinner table on christmas break.

thank you two, for being such good friends and hosts.

segovia: simple, detailed, layered

kate & i took a bus to segovia. en route we had some gorgeous views of the mountains across the plains, but i always waited to long to try capturing picture. the bus station is rarely by the best parts of a city, so my first glimpse of segovia, was nothing special. we walked to a "little" church, however, and sat on a bench behind it to eat our bocadillos (turkey & cheese sandwiches)--

oh! allow me to digress back to madrid for a moment; i just remembered a great moment. kate & i had been walking for ages and finally stopped to eat our sandwiches on the steps across from the palace. we were really thirsty, but i think had already drunk our juice or had forgotten to bring them. but, kate, always thinking, decided to try drinking her orange. she removed a tiny portion of the peel and started trying to suck the juice out; of course, getting it all over herself. but she was quite proud of her quick solution. i opted for eating my orange (which was freaking delicious!). we were also entertained by a small boy who was taking great delight in chasing a pigeon around the stairs, laughing with pure glee every time it hopped away from him and a man sitting near by whose camera made a sci-fi laser sound any time he took a photo.--



ok, so we were eating lunch in segovia, looking at this gorgeous church, san millán, seeing the spires of the cathedral in the distance. then, we moved on to the ancient roman aqueduct, which, like the cathedral, you can see peeking above the city.



all in all - segovia was lovely. and in an almost humble manner - at least generally speaking; the cathedral, aquaduct and castle are all larger than life and gorgeous, but even so, there's a simplicity to them that made me like them more.

cast your green vote

i need your help. these two photos are very similar and i can't decide which is the better of the two. can you please comment and let me know which one you like best? muchas gracias!

uno...


dos...


(both were taken in camarma, españa - where my friend, kate lived)

a spanish swartley sunday::el parque del buen retiro

one of my favourite days in spain was the sunday that we spent in madrid. i'd heard about the typical "swartley sunday" and how kate and andré would take the train to madrid to spend most of the day wandering through the huge parque del buen retiro (350 acres) and step out for a coffee before heading home. the weather was gorgeous and there was so much to see in the park: a rose garden, great paths through trees, the "forest" monument for the victims of the march 11th (2004) bombing, and brain trees! they tried to prepare me for these delightful trees, but i think upon my first sight i actually gasped or clapped or both. andré thinks they're just a regular evergreen type tree, but cut to look this way. true imagination! i also love the completely natural "dr seuss trees" (as kate & andré have dubbed them) with their tall spindly slanted trunks and leafy tops.

they also had some great fountains and statues, one of which, el angel caído, depicts the fallen lucifer. it was stunning. i wanted to take a photo, but felt kind of bad, like i shouldn't want to. but photographers capture what they see - so i did. and was quite pleased when i saw the print: that bit of hopeful blue that he's cowering before - brilliant.

alcalá de henares

it's often quite comical being a photographer. people are always confused as to what exactly you're photographing - and why. for instance, these doors. i'm walking along the street with kate - and suddenly i see these doors. brilliant! perfect subject. so i stop. and there were probably four or five passersby confused by my choice.


one of my favourite things about alcalá were the huge stork nests on the tops of buildings around town. apparently storks are good luck, so the city wants them to roost wherever they please. may be hard to tell from the photo how big the nests are - but just note that you can easily see them and they're on top of a really tall building.


kate's school was in alcalá - luckily for me, she had quite a bit of free time while i was in town so she toured me around. but when i stopped to take more than one photo, she'd find the nearest seat and start in on her homework.

camarma, and that something more

i walked down this street every day to the bus stop in my friend's town - b/c to do anything we had to go one town over (alcala). i remember seeing this shot and setting myself up to capture it, when the sun went behind a cloud. i waited and waited. started feeling foolish and tried to convince myself it wasn't that cool anyway and i should just carry on. something made me stay, and wait. looking at the photo now, i see it's b/c here is a perfect example that my angle, isn't always the full story. the tree itself looks somewhat skimpy and awkwardly shaped, yet the shadow on the wall shows a full, lovely round tree.

the sun reveals something more than i can see.


i've started uploading my film photographs to flickr.
you can check out the digital snaps in the may travels set
and the 35mm photos in the a may journey set.

oh to travel

since i'm backlogged with stories and now wishing i were asleep, i thought i'd post two random travel tidbits from a few days ago. (i'm currently in germany, staying with my friend taryn - fabulous thus far!)

so i was supposed to fly out of madrid on monday (the 14th) at 19:15 and arrive in basel, switzerland by 21:25. i'd already booked my hotel which was a bus ride and a tram ride from the airport. this would be accomplished of course, only after i'd gotten some swiss francs (& quickly acclimated myself to the look of my new money). so kate kindly rides the buses with me to the airport in madrid and makes sure i get checked in okay. we sit and chat for a bit and then, she goes on her merry way. i sit and read for a while and finally head off to my gate to wait some more. i had to check my main bag this time, which always makes me a little nervous - but it's kind of nice not having to haul two bags around. long story shorter - right before we should've started boarding, they announced (in spanish, of course) that the flight was delayed TWO HOURS. that meant i wouldn't get into basel until midnight. a place i've never been, and a language that i can only say hi, bye, please & thank you. yippee. i call the hotel and they're open 24 hrs, so no worries there; however, the buses only run until 12:30 - so depending on if there's any hassle with the flight or airport, i may have to take a taxi or figure something else out. we ended up flying in after midnight, which the airport apparently normally closes at midnight (do airports really close??). thankfully my bag made it safely and i got some francs, but only got two 50 franc bills. there was a bus outside and i was trying to buy a ticket from the machine and this guy was staring at me that seemed to have some connection with the bus but didn't speak english. i thought he understood i was trying to get a ticket for the bus but the next thing i knew, the bus and the guy were gone. thankfully i could cancel the ticket purchase. and i knew that was the last bus - so i walked over to the remaining taxi and asked the guy if he spoke english, but he didn't so i took out my handy piece of paper where i'd written out how to get a taxi ride somewhere and dove in. he said it'd cost between 28-40 francs and i said fine (what else was i going to do?). he seemed really nice and could speak some spanish, so we conversed a bit that way. when he stopped in front of my hotel, i'm pretty sure he said something about 14. i pulled out my 50 and asked if it was okay (as in, do you have change for this) and he nodded. apparently it cost 37 francs - so i'm not sure if i got scammed or the 14 was just miles and not cost, but by that point i didn't care and wanted to pretend that everything was just great. whew.

the next day (my one full day in basel) i got to help a british man & his mother find a museum they were looking for even though i had no previous knowledge - i had a map and figured it out quickly enough to actually be helpful; and it was such a relief to hear english and with such a great accent. :) shortly after that i stopped for lunch at a little cafe and ended up having a waitress who was from california - so i was able to have a swiss experience but actually know what i was ordering. it was the best quiche/pastry i've ever had.

there's always more, but for now i'll leave you with two photos. the first is in one of the main platzes in basel, taken with my phone. the second is a typical delightful little bavarian cafe in munich.

¡ah, españa!

this is a photo of kate & i in segovia, where we went on friday. it´s a lovely town just outside of madrid. we wandered through the streets and i visited the cathedral, which was gorgeous! sadly i couldn´t take photos or video inside, but i did get a bit of the cloisters. speaking of which, i was trying to take a photo when this family walked into my shot, so i waited while they headed for the centre garden. the bells rang and this little boy of 3 or 4 yelled out "hello, God!" and when he got into the garden yelled it again louder. it was so cute.

this is going to be another lame-ish entry simply b/c the internet place didn´t open until 2 hours after it´s supposed to and kate is supposed to get back from class soon and i have her house key. but wanted to post a wee bit before i leave spain (and fly to switzerland this afternoon).

i have tasted tortilla (a spanish potato omelet of sorts), vino tinto (red wine), paella valencia (scary rice stuff with CRAB, which i didn´t eat), natillas (custard), vino tinto de verano (almost sangria - you could only get a pitcher of sangria and i just wanted a glass so this was the next best thing). most of the time andre cooked for us, which was very tastey. and we had lots of bocadillos (sandwiches).

i´ve been to madrid three times; stayed in camarma; visited alcala several times (as we always have to go there first to get anywhere else; and that´s where kate´s school is); segovia; toledo. the towns are all fascinating with great old architecture and lively plazas. yesterday we went to kate & andre´s favourite park in madrid and it was AWESOME. think of central park in nyc but way way better. you can smell eucalyptus, honeysuckle and more. they have fantastic trees. even some called "brain trees" b/c they´ve been cut that way.



kate showed me how to make tortilla last night and i got to videotape the process, which was fun - especially as we were sharing her ipod (one ear phone each) whilst cooking.

another favourite capture of mine, was while we were in toledo - we were up on a hill and down below could see into the backyard of an elderly couple´s house. they were hanging out clothes to dry and were adorable. hopefully it comes out.



oh and also in toledo i climbed a church tower for a "view of the heavens" whilst andre & kate waited down below. i´m afraid of heights, but always fascinated by them. well, the stairs are thankfully one way, but you are in one room and can see all the stairs and they´re grilled, so you can see through them as you´re walking. i of course was freaking out. the lady ahead of me ending up chickening out halfway and i had to plaster myself against the wall so she could pass me and go back down. i almost followed her, but forced myself ahead. the view was grand, but then it´s time to go down. whew. i had flip flops on and didn´t think i could make it without tripping and falling to my death, so i took them off and stuffed them in my bag. the whole way down i was repeating "via con Dios" to encourage myself. i think i almost broke out in a sweat, but i made it! later that afternoon, we were walking down a narrow alley (toledo is known for its narrow, windy cobbled streets) and i tripped and skinned my knee quite bad. made me especially thankful for removing my flipflops before the descent down the tower stairs!!!

okay - i best sign off before kate has to wait for me.

(check out the pic for my previous post below...i just added it today)

en madrid

as a preamble, the only thing on the screen in english as i write this blog is what i am writing. the blogger page itself, all in spanish. and i can´t figure out some of the punctuation on the keyboard, so i can´t always type how i want.

i was able to carryon on my pack & camera bag, so no worries with my belongings thus far! plane ride wasn´t grand, but definitely not my worst experience, either. since i can´t sleep on planes, movies are key. however, the first movie, freedom writers, was only dubbed in spanish, so i didn´t watch it b/c i actually want to see it at some point and i figured that would ruin it for me. the second movie was spanish and i watched part of it. the third movie was eragon, and i it was actually in english so i watched it. probably enjoyed it way more than i would have otherwise. i had a window seat and so i was able to catch part of the sunset and later watched the moon and stars for a while. pretty cool to be almost on a level with the moon! then, as we were approaching the airport i was able to see the land--mountains, olive tree fields, towns with red-roofed buildings. and when we were taxiing down the runway, i saw these gorgeous patches of red flowers, which i later found out were poppies and are EVERYWHERE. it was a nice welcome.

kate met me at the airport. and we headed to camarma where she lives to drop everything off. then took a bus to alcala and walked around. the town is really lovely and there´s definitely something distinctive to the look of spain. she showed me the huge nests on top of buildings for these storks (?). i was fascinated by these.

yesterday i went to her school in the morning and then we took a train into madrid and walked to the main plazas and saw the cathedral and palace. they have some amazing architecture here.

today i came into madrid by myself. thus far i´ve gone to the reigna sofia (art museum) and saw picasso´s guernica (per hannah´s suggestion). art museum´s always overwhelm me so i decided to take a brake before i head to the prado which is a massive museum.

don´t think i´m sounding too articulate but i still feel tired. i was awake for basically 32 hours before i slept tuesday night and then i´ve been walking and in the sun loads. hopefully my next post will sound more exciting!

just wanted to let you all know i´m alive and well in spain.

oh mother MAY i

bought my plane tickets today. nothing makes me nervous like that final click on a flight site. whew. i will be out of the country from may 7th through june 6th. i'll fly into madrid (spain) and out of london. inbetween - i'll be in basel, munich, prague, bath, penryn, saffron walden, oxford, and windsor.





the folks above will be my introduction to mainland europe.

kate & andré are currently in spain while kate works on her masters. i'm a little nervous about going to a non-english speaking country. and spain in particular b/c i should know way more spanish than i do. but kate said she expects me to try, so try i shall. :)

taryn is starting her second year in germany working with younglife. told this girl i'd visit her at some point during her three years there, and so i'm excited to make that a reality. i'm not quite sure what to expect of germany; i don't know much about it except for holocaust history. so i'm intrigued for this first part of my journey.



these folks will welcome me back to the grand ole uk. these pics are actually from my last visit over in 2005.

i haven't seen beki, damon & lucy for over two years, which is way too long considering that beki & i have been friends since we were four and grew up living just two doors down from each other. can't wait to see them & cornwall again.

jackie & clint are still in oxford and i hope to at least pop in for a day or so
to visit and see their new lodgings.