Lost in Translation Part 2

Hmmmm.......????  We decided that if we passed the Super Mer Cat that had the Friki wine, that as a tribute to Eduardo, we should try it.  The Super Mer Cat is not far from our apartment, so it was easy to find.  We bought some bread and cheese and salami and Aberian Ham... and of course Olives.

We bought two bottles of Friki Wine as a laugh, so that we could not only try it, but also have a blog post to share.  Well, it turns out, I may have gotten more than I bargained for!!!?????  Is it possible Eduardo got the last laugh?????  Was he seriously saying we were strange???????  I know we weren't extravagant, but then again, there is the weight of my bag to consider????

If Eduardo was talking about the info on the back of the label, then he was totally having a crack at us!!!!!!!

I have to consider that it could also be possible that we dressed weird, considering I cannot find ONE thing in Spain, Morocco or Portugal that I would wear (and it doesn't help that they are about 12 inches shorter than us!!!!!!!!) mostly because the clothes are bland and short in the body and very ordinary in their taste.

Although, it would appear for the young ladies, that holes with a few jeans around them is a fashion trend, as I have seen a lot of Spanish leg, butt, thigh, and in some cases ........... no, that surely is just a slip of the outfit...!?????  No photos, sorry! That would be producing a pornographic image!!

Man!  If I ever see Eduardo again, I'll give him Friki!!!  

Lost in Translation...???

Our bus driver for most of the trip was a Portuguese man by the name of Eduardo.  To the untrained eye, Eduardo was a grumpy old bugger, with an aversion to smiling and not much to say that wasn't a direction to anyone erring.  He didn't waste time with heartfelt lead ins when he spoke to the passengers on the bus and frankly, this situation didn't really improve with some of the people being less than charming.  He was a man of few words.

We decided it was our challenge to make Eduardo smile.  All three of us chirped 'hello' at him, offered to help, made little jokes and finally, on about day 3, Cathy got a smile out of him.

This gave us a bit of hope and we knew we had set the bar too low, so the  challenge was now to make him chuckle.  We upped the ante.  In Morocco, early one morning, Cathy needed to ask him if she could get a bottle of cold water once we were on the bus and Eduardo answered her 'Yes, my Freaky ladies'.  Cathy just laughed and came back to us a little bemused, but never the less entertained at being called a freaky lady.  I rained on her parade and said that he probably meant 'Yes, my friendly ladies' as we had been on a make him smile mission.

On our trip back from Morroco, we had to take all our own luggage off the bus and carry it through customs back into Spain, so we emptied the bus and lugged all our things onto the ferry and through the scanners and back through customs on the Spain side.  Eventually, we got to load our stuff onto the bus and there was a group of 10 - 12 of our tour with their bags, while Eduardo put the bags into the bus one by one.  He took mine and as it is rather heavy, he said in a heavy Portuguese accent,  'do you have rocks?  Have you Gibralta in here?' to which there was general laughter.  Then he said 'this bag is so heavy, you will have to stay a month'.  Now, not one to let the laughter fade like and unfueled fire, I replied 'well....... only if you ask me nicely, Eduardo' to which he chuckled and as others started to hoot and laugh, his chuckle turned to a chortle!  He was enjoying it so much, that you could see at least 9 of his 12 teeth!!!

I had no intention of being a freaky lady, or a friendly lady, but the laugh was worth it!  I think a few of our fellow travellers saw another side of Eduardo as well.

Today, we stopped in the Super Mercat (yes, super meercat is a thing here) and I was wandering the aisles, only to discover that Eduardo may well have been right when he called us Friki ladies.  He possibly had not meant freaky or friendly..... he may have just meant we were drunks!!???

The Cold War Ends in a Lift.

We had a very unusual bunch of people on our tour.  No, to be fair, we had, what eventually turned out to be a quite small group of unusually rude and socially challenged people on our tour.  Consideration of others was clearly not a priority and this group talked over people, yakked while the tour guide was speaking and generally carried on like they were the only people in any room, bus, Castilla or Church!

As a group, and as you do, we were asked to please be quiet so that others could hear.  We were told by our local guides to be quiet.  Most of us got it.  Some (read rude and socially challenged group) did not.

Anyway, my tolerance of rudeness is not high and I was the first to make a general statement to the group that we were being rude.  It didn't go down well with a certain faction and........ I was voted off the bus.  Sadly by association, my team mates were too.  Sorry New Zealand!  I have let you down!!!!  There commenced a campaign of dagger looks, behind hand sniggers, obvious discussions and side long glances and up close and personal 'completely ignore' from members of this group.

Ha!  If only they knew that bigger and less nice had had a crack and that I am virtually immune to the criticism of others.

Anywho...... the next morning at breakfast, one of the group decided to have a real go.  He was rather direct and a swear word or two was inserted, to which he got my 'I am really interested in your comments' face, followed by a full and frank explanation of my position.  It was a lead balloon moment for him and he flounced off (read in to this what you will) back to his group and much discussion was clearly had.

The tour continued, as did the campaign outlined above and I just kept clear and did my thing along with the rest of Team New Zealand.

So......... at the farewell dinner last night......there was a great big hug fest in the street with people saying goodbye etc etc and the groups were all selective in who they bothered to embrace or care to say goodbye.  Team  NZ went into the lift and we stopped at Cathy's room on the 1st floor,, to find a cork for the bottle of wine Christine had taken off the table (but that is another story...)

Christine and I headed for the 7th floor about 15 minutes later.  The lift door opened......... and.......................

Oh, Lordy it was the flouncing man and a couple of other ladies.  Well, you can't back down, so in we hopped.

He said...... verbatim..... "I am sorry for our run in during the tour.  I was wrong".   HOLY SMOKES!!!!!  I say something like '...it's fine' as I am not demonstrative and I would rather spend the time taking the daggers out of my back than playing nice with him!

Then he said 'its a shame, I think we could have been friends'  AND THEN.....  he hugs me!!!!!!!!!!!!!    Obviously the memo has not got to the rest of the world about that fun little past time and my allergic reaction to it!

If Christine had not been there, they would have thought I was making this story up!!!!  Even though Christine and I were both there, I think I am making it up!!  Such was my shock.  Good on him for having the guts to say it!!!

Life Inside the Walls.

 We are here in Barcelona, inside our little 4 bedroom, two bathroom Air BnB.  Christine found it for us online and it is very cool and I am so pleased to be out of hotels, even though they were beautiful and inside some of the buildings we have spent the last 3 weeks walking past!

The whole apartment is about 7m by 12m, with a teeny, tiny kitchen that I cannot imagine the Momma of the house cooking massive Paella for all the kids out of!  We are on the 4th floor and we sent our bags up in this rattly old iron frame lift and climbed up the marble stairs ourselves.  It looks like there are 2 apartments on each floor and the stairs and sections past the doors are so narrow, that you wouldn't be able to pass another person on any of the landings.

Each of the rooms in the apartment have some little window or slat the goes out to fresh air, but they seem to be internal shafts, I guess just designed so you can get fresh air and maybe a bit of light?

At the front of the apartment on each floor are a set of French doors and an window which opens out over the street.  The windows have these groovy little slat shutters on them and every window down the street has the same system, which I guess they use when it is really hot, to keep the direct sun out.

I am currently sitting in an armchair with my feet up, looking out the French doors into the Barcelona evening and listening to the steady hum of traffic in the distance.  No, that is just a fantasy, I am sitting in an armchair with my feet up, looking out the French doors into the Barcelona evening and listening to cars, buses, motorbikes, horns and people, who might as well be driving through this room, but...... it may be noisy, but its noisy in Spain!!!!! :)

A Bullet Ride to Barcelona!

The Madrid train station is huge and has a series of platforms, on two levels.  Coming in, you take the escalator down 3 levels to a really big area that looks a bit like an indoor tropical rainforest,  with palms and trees, it is actually rather well done.

Running round the tropical rainforest is a large area, chokka full of tortoises!  We must have stood and watched them for a good 45 minutes as they made their way up and onto the little rock islands where the sun was shining in from above.

I have discovered that delight and anticipation is the same in any language as all those watching saw tortoises struggle to climb up, struggling, struggling, nearly making it............. but no!  Splash back into the water!  There were several incidences of collective ahhhhh and hahaha and vehement cheering as the tortoises did their thing, completely disinterested in all the people watching.  We gave a commentary in English, while an Asian couple had the same convo next to us and a Spanish man held his child up to see and explained.  It was nice.

I am sure they also said in all those languages, 'that water needs a clean' and 'man there is a shed load of tortoises!'  For those of you learning Spanish, if you ever need the phrase it goes 'Hombre, hay una cargo de tortuous derramadas'

I am nothing if not helpful.

The Palace of Queluz-a brief a Scarcely Accurate Account

In 1747, some guy in Portugal (maybe the King) decided to build this palace and he took his family to live there.  Our guide described them as 'The Uglies' and certainly the pictures of them, leave quite a bit to be desired.  She told us that the Queen looked different in every single painting of her because the artist had to find some feature to focus on because he couldn't really paint what he saw, or he would never get any other commissions from the royal family!!!

As was the custom of the time, royalty married royalty, so some of the children were more fortunate in their choice of partners, but in all the paintings, there is certainly.... a family resemblance.

 I stopped taking photos after a while because ...well, they just weren't photo worthy.  This lady actually looks quite a bit like Freda Carlo, only more cranky.

This guy looks to me like he has been in the bottom of a scrum and either lost some teeth or simple ate some socks after the game!

Imagine being known for all eternity as 'The Uglies!!!???'

In fairness, I have not done the building justice.  It is remarkable and elaborate and every single surface has a mural on it, including the ceilings.  In one of the rooms, the Prince had a fascination with Don Quixote, so all the panels in the room have images from the story.

The outside gardens are once again amazing and so beautifully kept, with fountains and sculptures making is a tapestry of art.  It is inspiring!!!

Get ready for me to come home with all these ideas, Ian!!!!

The Son of Man Model

There is a 1964 painting of by Rene Magritte where a very formal man wears a bowler hat and in front of his face is an apple.  It is quite a famous image and now I think I have found the model for his painting in this guy.

Rhoda will know what I mean.....

I wonder if she might also be impressed that I do actually take things in.......???????

This may be an obscure post..... but it is my blog.

I can be obscure :)