"You have one life to live; Marx teaches us to blame society for our frailties, Freud teaches us to blame our parents, and astrology teaches us to blame the universe. But the only place to look for blame is if you didn't have the guts to bring out your full self, if you didn't act on your desires, if you didn't take advantage of what was in front of you and live the life that was your potential."
- Joseph Campbell
End of Valencia's stories
So the Tomatina was a disgrace... but Felipe and I got up from the grounds of the defeated and carried on with pride! It took us a couple of days of barbecuing and sitting in his amazing terrace having cold drinks in his "spa" to recover, but like I said, we did it. Saturday we went to have lunch to Felipe's in-laws (suegros), in a town where about 160 people lived. Talk about rural Spain... that place was it! Anyways, Felipe's father-in-law, Donato, is well known for cooking the best "Paella" ever... paella is a very traditional spanish dish, where rice is cooked in a big rounded pan of some sort with different ingredients; seafood, meats, vegetables, etc. Donato made his paella over wood fire and all the ingredients where from his orchard or the hills behind his house.
These were Donato's ingredients: Chicken pieces (including the feet and liver), rabbit pieces (including the head), green beans, "other" beans, tomato puree, garden snails (YES snails!), rice, saffron, and beer.
After paying close attention to the steps in the preparation of the Paella, we sat down and ate. Of course, Donato made me sit down next to him making SURE I ate the snails.
Seriously though, it was THE BEST paella I have ever eaten.
We had some drinks and Donato offered me an authentic cuban cigar, so I smoked the Cohiba with him. Awesome!
Then, Saturday night, Felipe and I went to watch Valencia play their first game of the year in the Spanish soccer league. I hadn't been in a soccer stadium in so long... I enjoyed every minute! and "we" won 3-0. Just perfect!
After the game we went out. Valencia has what they call the "City of Science": a series of buildings near downtown built for cultural purposes. The architect of all the buildings is Calatrava, which I believe is the one in charge of building the memorial monument on ground zero (Twin towers in New York). The buildings are crazy in shape, but gorgeous, representing all the senses. One of the buildings is this long metallic web that hovers over as a roof, but since it is a web, it is seethrough. For summer it is perfect, since it is fresh and you can watch the sky and the stars. Under this roof there is some sort of a park, with bushes and palm trees and cobblestone roads to walk by, and in one end of this park they set up a pub/club with huge candles and multicolored lights everywhere. The setup was amazing.
Switzerland and Crans-Montana
Then it was time to leave for Switzerland. Woke up Monday morning and took the train from Chiva to Madrid at 9am. Since it was a regional train, it stopped EVERYWHERE and it took the train 5 and half hours to reach Madrid, when a normal train takes 3 hours. Again, the challenges of travelling throught Europe. The train left me on the opposite side of Madrid, so I took the subway. An hour later I was on the airport, where (OF COURSE) took the line to check in that had computer problems, and waited a nice hour and a half more to check-in. Took the plane to Geneve, then ran to the train station where I (obviously) got in the wrong track and I missed the train I needed to take to Sierre. I actually saw it go in front of my eyes.
Oh well, I took another one a little bit later, which took a little longer and I had to make a connection (with running included), but took me to my destination, so not THAT bad at the end.
...and there is when, while I rode that train for a couple of hours, that I had one fo those "Mo"ments: It was pitch dark outside, could not see anything, except yellow lights in the sky from time to time. They were not stars, but more like street lights... and I figured it out. I could not see it, but obviously I was going through the mountains, and the lights in the sky were towns, and they were so high I just started imagining how it might look like... and I had that peaceful feeling of how lucky I am for being able to do what I am doing now. Lost (pretty much) in the middle of some mountains I couldn't see, in a country I have never been, sitting on a train accompanied by myself and some good memories of friends and places. I could have been in the middle of the ocean and it would have been the same. At least I knew I was getting somewhere.
I reached Sierre at 11pm, and I was very lucky to find a courtesy car from the tournament that took me up to Crans. That was 45 minutes STRAIGHT up the mountain.
The next day I saw the mountains I couldn't see the night before, and I really have no words to describe them fairly. They were beautiful, the place was gorgeous, and all the environment made the course the most amazing course I've been, maybe rivaled by one I played with my friend/coach/ex-boss Ryke in Hawaii last year. Seriously, the pictures I took don't even make it justice. The view of the valley was incredible, and if you had a clear day you could see the numerous little towns up on the sides of all the mountains. You had to be there to believe it.
Crans is a rich people's getaway town. The stores, the restaurants, the cars, everything there was la creme de la creme. Because of that, I had to pass on the restaurants this time and stayed with my homecooking, so no report of the foods this time.
I do have new pictures posted on my facebook... on the album's "Europe 2" and "Europe 3" for all of you to check out, hopefully the pictures turn out to be good enough.
Then we took the train to Koln (Cologne/Colonia), Germany. Now that train through and out of the Alps was almost as amazing as Crans. Beautiful towns and lakes and snowed peaks and pastures and rivers and creeks. I am in need of more language to describe all these places. I can say that Switzerland is DEFINETLY a place I would LOVE to come back, and if given the chance, I will.
Mercedes-Benz Championship this week. "Only Winners" is the slogan that is displayed everywhere. The players on this tournament are the top of the top of the European Tour, and the field is limited to fewer players so there is no "cut". Should be a lot of fun!
email me people!
Mo
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