Every week I like to explore my city just a little more. And because it is a SMALL city, I've taken my time getting around so I can make the excitement last a few months. I can already tell it's going to take a lot of effort to keep myself busy, thus the reason I'm searching for hobbies; this city is almost a ghost town at night, except for the weekends and combined with the fact I have one Spanish friend who hates living here, well I'm just happy it doesn't take much to keep me entertained. I finally got up to the top of the mountain where the Castillo de Ayud sits. It is one of the biggest and oldest Muslim fortress in the Iberian Peninsula and it is gorgeous with an equally amazing view. It reminded me however, that Calatayud (who's name comes from Qal`at 'Ayyūb, Arabic for Ayub's fortress) is surrounded by mountains but still, in the middle of nowhere. The walls are still standing from the year 716, not to mention abandoned towers, dungeons and stairwells are excellent for climbing and photo taking. Please enjoy:
El Castillo from my balcony
El Castillo from my balcony in the PM
View of my cute little city atop the mountain where El Castillo sits
360 view, ok!
(still regaining my voice!)
El Castillo
Castle walls
I also made a trip to the Santa María church, one of the attractions Calatayudians are most proud of. Not only is the Mudéjar (Moorish) style religious center a very popular (the only) place to get married in this town, it is stunningly beautiful. To me, the most notable characteristic is the sparkling church organ on the 3rd story open balcony. Thanks to good timing, when Sara and ventured inside the Santa María, a few of her students from the elementary school were practicing for their choir performance that evening. Obviously the natural acoustics made their little angelic voices ring ever so sweetly throughout the church, but it was difficult not to notice their pronunciation of "hallelujah" as "jallelujah." Very cute. And hey, I stole their souls on video, so enjoy and do keep in mind, they are a group of 9-13 year olds.
Also the Santa María church.
Ceiling art done by Francisco Goya. (Ya'll familiar with him?) Well, his work is all over Aragón because he was born in ZGZ, holla!
my balcony, my city.
Also the Santa María church.
Ceiling art done by Francisco Goya. (Ya'll familiar with him?) Well, his work is all over Aragón because he was born in ZGZ, holla!
Next up, just a few more photos of my hood...
my balcony, my city.
Calatayud has wild royal turkeys and the city highly encourages the public not to feed them. Perhaps because they're river bank dwellers, and do you remember what the Jalón River looks like? Anyways, royal turkey in Spanish is "pavo real" so it's just a literal translation, but really they are peacocks. "Royal turkey" just sounds way more majestic and no one can deny their beauty, that is until they screech. Adam has childhood horror stories from summer camp of peacocks shrieking and apparently it's very frightening. Because I'm not stuck with that memory, I'm very alright with walking to school and crossing the street with the royal turkeys, they are outsiders in this town just as much as I am...and the Romanians.
Meet piano man.
On a typical night, he usually plays to 3-5 guests taking coffee or an adult beverage on the patio of the hotel. One special Saturday night however, the hotel hosted a wedding reception (I'm sure they host most of them in the city) and to much personal surprise, piano men provided the entertainment for the evening, I guess he is the permanent house band. Yes, band. Horns, Bass, Drums, Keys, all the while chain smoking cigarettes with one hand; a talented man indeed. You're probably thinking, WHAT IS THIS CRAZY BLONDIE AMERICAN TALKING ABOUT, well you can thank me now because I have a gift (proof) for you. Please party people, enjoy:
P.S. The fedora hat is not just for occasions to match red carpet events, no. He rocks it every night. And even when he isn't playing (because sometimes, I'm sure his fingers are just too cold to press a couple keys here and there) he's still chain smoking somewhere on the patio. I guess he's just the hotel lurker/house band.
On to Zaragoza.
My lovely ladies and I ventured to the city for the fiesta weekend of Pilar, their virgin saint. It is a community celebration as well as a tourist attraction because there were visitors from all over Spain mostly, others from Europe in general and even travelers from across the globe (me). A spirited and loud weekend filled with fireworks, free concerts, botellón (public drinking and general chillaxing with homies), food, friends, overalls that look like carpenter outfits, flowers, fruits, costumes, dancing, parades and paranoid tourists digging into their underwear and chests to retrieve passports and credit cards hidden in their money belts. We started out the first afternoon by accidentally participating in an animal rights rally across the street from the plaza de toros. We really just need a sunny place to eat our pre-packed chorizo bocadillos and chug our boxed wine when an onslaught of counter-culture youth generally dominated our plaza with antitaurina (bull fight) signs, pamphlets, paraphernalia, etc. As spectators arrived for the 6pm bull fight, they screamed and picked fights, flipped the middle dedo and made the police shake in their little booties. I took some vid.. The most popular signs read:
"La tortura, no es arte ni cultura" (Torture is not art nor culture)
"Si quieres ver sangre, cortate las venas" (if you want to see blood, cut yourself)
"STOP"
"VIVO"
and my personal (un)fave:
(Welcome to Spain, enjoy our traditions)
My lovely ladies and I ventured to the city for the fiesta weekend of Pilar, their virgin saint. It is a community celebration as well as a tourist attraction because there were visitors from all over Spain mostly, others from Europe in general and even travelers from across the globe (me). A spirited and loud weekend filled with fireworks, free concerts, botellón (public drinking and general chillaxing with homies), food, friends, overalls that look like carpenter outfits, flowers, fruits, costumes, dancing, parades and paranoid tourists digging into their underwear and chests to retrieve passports and credit cards hidden in their money belts. We started out the first afternoon by accidentally participating in an animal rights rally across the street from the plaza de toros. We really just need a sunny place to eat our pre-packed chorizo bocadillos and chug our boxed wine when an onslaught of counter-culture youth generally dominated our plaza with antitaurina (bull fight) signs, pamphlets, paraphernalia, etc. As spectators arrived for the 6pm bull fight, they screamed and picked fights, flipped the middle dedo and made the police shake in their little booties. I took some vid.. The most popular signs read:
"La tortura, no es arte ni cultura" (Torture is not art nor culture)
Others included:
"STOP"
"VIVO"
and my personal (un)fave:
(Welcome to Spain, enjoy our traditions)
Videos:
So the weekend continued with a 2 day parade on Monday and Tuesday. Monday's parade began at 700am and finished around 17:30h with the different barrios and towns of provincial Zaragoza marching through the city, ultimately concluding in the central plaza of Pilar to honor her with flowers. The build a wire pyramid and fill it with flowers that each persons carry and it is transformed into a heavenly smelling shrine. I think literally the whole city walked in the parade because it took 10 hours for each person dressed in traditional Aragonese garb to add their bouquet to the ofrenda. Moms, dads, grandparents, children, babies, infants, those who could or could not walk, ALL took part. Representing their neighborhood, region, organization or city, different groups performed along the way in form of song and dance, chant, etc. What remained constant between these groups was their spirit, purpose, flower offering AND awesome shoes.
This little bugger reminded me of my older brother circa baby-Cables, right???
WHAT A CUTIE PIRATE!
Pre-ofrenda
Post-ofrenda! Que bonita, eh?
Nuestra Señora, la virgen Pilar
Full frontal of Pilar's Basilica, (haha)
Backside of Pilar's Basilica with el Río Ebro en frente
Hey, I know you!
Plaza Central in the PM
The ladies and I in the plaza central, AM- holy day
The ladies and I in the plaza, PM- botellón with wine and a free concert. YES
Inside Pilar's Basilica. That sounds bad..
But, "what red-blooded American male doesn't love a glowing virgin?" -dk
One more thing to note about the fiestas de Pilar..
Besides the costumes that the paraders wore, all the onlookers and drunk high schoolers were gallivanting around the calles and avenidas and paseos in group color oriented overalls signed like a yearbook. Say what? Right, well we kind of just accepted it until we were botellóning in the plaza next to a group of walking rainbows and asked a very uncomfortable, hormonal teen Spanish boy trying to play it cool for his lady friends. I think I was expecting some great historical reason but what we could get out of him between glances to his peers and awkward position changing is that it's just random tradition for teenagers to wear them all weekend during Pilar. Basically, some Aragonese business makes a huge profit the beginning of October, kind of like costume manufactures do in America for Halloween. One girl later told us that colors usually reference a certain barrio, city or group that the person "belongs" to and the most useful information we got was how to say overalls in Spanish. The end.
It's "Petos"
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