I'm way behind on the travel blog here. And, to be honest, I've bit off more than I can chew trying to keep up and document in detail. We are really in the rhythm of Spain now - rising early with some coffee, seeing some sites and immersing ourselves in the culture, having some nice conversations with the locals, having a nice big meal shortly after noon, relaxing for the siesta (and often driving during this downtime), finding something nice to do after siesta. Each province has it's own language. We are learning and experiencing so much that writing a detailed account in English doesn't really fit in the rhythm. We have so much to do and see. Our Spanish is improving a lot. But, listening so much with such intense focus in itself can be mentally taxing (although very rewarding as well). We also have to stay on point with our basic logistics. The campervan is awesome but it takes daily work to stay organized.
It suffices to say that Spain is magnificent. I'll drop some pictures here. Ask any questions you might have in the comments - in whatever language you prefer ;). I think most of the rest of the trip I'll just drop a short weekly summary with a list of place names and some pictures. Perhaps in the future I'll have time to wax poetic about all of the thoughts, insights, details that I wish I had time to share in real time. The Spanish elections are in 4 days and I haven't even started to get into the interesting intricacies of Spanish politics! So much to say! But, we are so into Spain that we aren't even taking that many pictures at this point. We are mostly living life. Our main screen time by far is with the translator (and the navigator of course). We have a little game we play now called, "Inglés solo en el traductor" - "English only into the translator". We are only speaking Spanish to eachother as much as possible. But, instead of using canned phrases we already know how to say, we are saying what we really want to say into the translator and then speaking the frases in Spanish. This way we are getting to know a lot more Spanish - not just using little canned tourist phrases but learning how to say what we would say if we were fluent native speakers. It's a great game. But, breaking out of this immersion to blog in detail in English doesn't really fit with our schedule. I'm still keeping up with my job and there are a lot of changes I want to make to Free2Z before ZCON4. Oh, and not to mention that we still need to prepare our talk at the conference in less than 2 weeks! However, we are keeping detailed notes on paper and will likely come back with more thoughts in the coming months as everything sinks in. I think we can expect some nice reflections from azhr as he is having the time of his life and doing a lot of journaling on old-fashioned paper.
The decision to meander on the northern coast was key. The weather is fabulous. Here are some pictures to give a little taste!
