Yes, I’ve blogged again! Er, am currently blogging again… I’m having trouble with tenses in both English and Spanish lately. They are all jumbled up in my brain…
So right now it’s BLIZZARD-ing here in Rodellar, and has been raining for the past two and a half days… so as you can imagine, we’re starting to go a little stir crazy. In fact, Jason and Leslie are singing Christmas carols at the top of their lungs as we speak. It’s Easter. I’m a little afraid of what might happen if we don’t get out of here soon. 🙂
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| This is what we saw when we first checked out this place… |
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| Current weather conditions. |
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| The aftermath. |
We’ve been in Rodellar for about a week now, and it hasn’t been as awesome as we hoped. The first few days were dry, but we ended up getting on some terrible chossy routes, and when we did finally get on some good stuff, it started to rain and has been nasty ever since. But our spirits are high (most likely due to copius wine consumption), and Rick and Yasmine are here visiting, so we’re making the best of it.
We’ve been having an excellent time, of course… is it possible for us NOT to have fun? I don’t think so. We visited many -erias… meat-erias, the barber-ia (Kyle got his hair cut, and it turned out great! Not one English word was used in the making of his new look…), pastelerias (which are my favorite– they make DESSERTS. Ah-mazing). Anyway, anytime we visit a shop around here it’s an -eria. Generally -erias are Delicious-eria. I’m a fan.
In addition, Jason has taken to abbreviating all of his words, which I completely blame on Mikey and Elissa Williams. For example, if he wants me to put something on the table, he calls it the tabe. Fursh has taken the place of ‘for sure’. Two syllables is simply too long! Kneeb is the new ‘kneebar’, cepy is short for bicep, and fings means fingers. Leslie has named her cepys: Prince Humperdink (left) and Biggie Smalls (right). Jason has only named one so far, and won’t reveal it’s secret identity to me until he figures out an excellent name for his other one.
Kyle and Jason have both become extremely addicted to internet poker. Half of our rest days are taken up with small noises that indicate cards being passed out, or that their turn is about to be over. They speak to each other in code, about turns and rivers and rakes and odds and chip leaders. I bought a Nook so I could have internet while Jason wins us money, but it actually won’t connect to the internet in this hotel room. I’m being slayed by irony.
Before we left Tremp, we had some additional adventures, so here are some photos!
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| The valley where Tremp is situated is known as the ‘Valley of the Vultures’… |
Of course we visited some more castles. They were closed. We are really good at visiting things on days and at times no one else would go… because they’re closed. Yesterday we went to the grocery store. It was a national holiday. Irony.
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| This is a sweet castle 20 minutes from Tremp. |
At one point in our stay, in addition to teaching us to cook, our landlady Ana also had a family barbeque. They cook these onions on the grill until they are practically goo, and then you dip them in this delicious sauce and eat them. Ah-mazing.
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| It’s a Tarragonian food called ‘calcottes’. |
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| Tapas, leading into the main courses. |
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| Gotta wear a bib. It’s messy. |
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| Don’t worry, you peel off the charred bits before eating. |
We had some bad luck with weather in Tremp as well. We had three days of rain there… and when it finally cleared woke up to this:
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| Gorgeous. |
So of course we were depressed… the crag was slimey and gross, our time in Tremp was coming to an end, sending felt practically impossible. So we decided the best thing to do was to eat our cares away.
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| Awesome restaurant 30 minutes away. |
I’d post more food porn photos, but the internet connection here is really slow, and plus, you’ve seen like a hundred of those already. So instead here is an artsy photo courtesy of Jason:
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| SOOO full. We’ve got large food babies. |
After the meal, we drove up into the foothills of the Pyrenees to see the mountains, and the views were spectacular.
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| A resevoir at the end of the road in the mountains. |
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| Can you see Jason in this picture? I’m such a good photographer. |
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| A town nestled in the hills. |
We had a few dry days left to finish off the projjy-rigs… and the pressure was ON. The conditions were improving, and our psyche was growing. Here is a photo of Jason on the rig:
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| Oh yeah. |
So yeah. Some of the projjys were sent, and some were not. I got to attack some of my weaknesses there, and we built our endurance… Terradets is an amazing crag. Beautiful. It was an excellent visit to Catalunya on the whole.
All in all, we drank 47 bottles of wine in 4 weeks in Tremp. We’re professionals. This is what we do. On the phone, my grandma told me she didn’t want me coming back from Spain an alcoholic. 🙂
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| Faustino, on the far left, was a popular buy. 3 euros, delicious. |
Kyle is a freakin’ gourmet cook, and on the last night grilled chicken on the barbeque. It was an excellent farwell to Tremp and our home there, and an auspicious beginning to the rest of the trip. Thanks for all the cooking, Kyle.
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| See the potatoes in the background? Best. Food. Ever. |
So! We’re sheltered from the snow in Rodellar, debating our next moves. Siurana? Barcelona? The world may never know.
Actually, it will. Because once we’ve done it, I’ll blog about it.
But anyway. Miss you all!