Emily Conquers the World: Welcome to Spain

Hola mi amigos!

It's been so long since I've blogged! I just spent the past month in Spain and Canada visitng Clara and Kurtis and had the most amazing time, so I thought I'd share it with you all :)

A month ago I left Sydney for my first long-haul international flights all by myself. I'm all grown up now! I caught a 14hr flight to Dubai, and watched four movies while getting very little sleep. I watched 'The Identity Thief', 'Goddess', 'Black Swan' and 'The Call'. The last one was a scary movie, and a bad idea to watch by myself in the dark on the plane. The highlight of this flight was the chocolate mousse with salted caramel fudge for dessert, mmm delicious! Once I landed in Dubai, I had an 8hr layover. The airport is absolutely huge and so fancy! I was there at 1am and it was packed with people. I spent 5 hours of my layover in a snooze cube. It meant that I got a tiny little room with a bed to relax and get some rest. It also had free wifi so I skyped the family, then tried to get some sleep for a few hours. I don't think I got much sleep, but it was good to rest and have some privacy. This is what my little room looked like:

I left Dubai and caught my 7hr flight to Madrid, Spain! I didn't sleep the whole flight, so instead I watched 'Pitch Perfect', 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl', and 'Up!'. Once we landed, I went through customs quick and easy, collected my bags, then went through the exit and saw Clara standing there with a big welcome sign that she made! We gave each other a huge hug! At first it was so weird being with her again after being apart for 7 months. She was so tanned and her accent sounds more American for some reason! We caught the Metro a few stations then got off and walked about 15 minutes to her family's apartment just outside of the city centre in Madrid. The weather was about 35 degrees. She had a welcome sign on her front door too!

I got to take a much-needed shower, and give Clara her presents. I got her 6 packets of the vanilla and chocolate Tim Tams since they're her favourite, a pair of earrings, and a toy koala which copies everything you say. We then walked with our luggage in the heat back to the Metro. It was such a workout walking uphill with my suitcase when it's that hot. We got off at the station where our bus would be leaving for Torrelavega in the north of Spain. When the bus arrived late, there was a lot of confusion and Clara was speaking in Spanish to all these random people about it. I had no idea what was going on! We got on the bus and it was about a 5hr journey. The sun didn't set until about 10:30pm, crazy huh? We arrived at 11:30pm and I met Alejandro, Clara's boyfriend. He gave me a kiss on both cheeks, so European! We then got in his car and drove an hour to his family's house in Asturias. I was definitely out of the loop while they spoke to each other in Spanish. We entered the National Park of Picos de Europa and took heaps of windy roads and hills to get to his house. I met Alejandro's brother Guille, and Clara showed me the bed I'd be sleeping in. By then I had been travelling for about 40 hours and I was absolutely exhausted and went straight to bed!

The next morning I met Alejandro's mum, Paula. For breakfast we had pan tumaca, which is diced raw tomato on toasted bread with olive oil and salt. It was really nice! We also had organic apple juice from Alejandro's farm. Clara, Alejandro and I then left to go to a party in the valley of Aliva. It was a long drive through the mountains with lots of sharp turns on narrow bumpy roads right on cliffs!

The scene of the party was so interesting. We were in the middle of the mountains, which looked so natural and untouched by man, and in the valley was a tiny, very old church and hundreds of people crowded by it. It was really interesting. People were going into the church to pray, and everyone was standing around and talking while a guy played the bagpipes which is traditional for this area. We sat on the grass in the sun and ate our lunch.

We had some icecream (dulce de leche for me) then got back in the car and drove a short while. We then hiked in the valley under the peak (pico in Spanish) Peña Vieja. We walked past cows, horses, and sheep. Even though it was hot in the North of Spain (about 26 degrees), there was still lots of snow! The scenery was incredible.

We walked down to one of the lakes. The water was so clear and it was so pretty. We saw some tadpoles, and Alejandro went for a swim. The water was cold though! The lakes are called Pozos de Lloroza and their height is 2000m above sea level. Alejandro was full of information like this! Such a good tour guide :)

On our hike back to the car I slipped in the mud! Good times. My shoe and leg were covered in mud, and on my first day in Spain too! I felt so embarrassed. Alejandro went and got some snow so we could try and wash most of it off. Back in the car we drove through a village called Espinama, and then stopped at a village called Potes. We went to a cafe and ate traditional Spanish sweets. We had corbata (which is puff pastry with icing. I actually brought a box of these home with me), sobado (which is a type of cake), and quesada (which is kind of like a firm custard). Here is a photo of the corbata, and the quesada. To drink we had Cola Cao, which is like Spain's version of Milo! I actually had this almost every day I was in Spain, and brought some home with me :) Spaniards typically have breakfast at about 10:30am, then have lunch at 2pm followed by a siesta (nap), have afternoon tea at 6pm, then dinner at 11:30pm!

We walked around Potes. The village had cobblestone streets and was so pretty and European. We stopped into a supermarket and Clara bought more food for me to try. The first was fuet, which is a type of meat sausage, kind of like chorizo. I also tried nocilla, which is like Nutella, but has a white and milk chocolate so you can mix them together. I bought a jar of this for home :) Writing about it just then made me crave some, so I just had some on toast haha. It's so good!!