lesson: always check your elevation

yesterday morning i left my parents on the rainy, muddy trail to santiago de compostela, parting ways on a medeival bridge in a tiny village. i don´t envy them. a 500 mile hike over a month and nothing but rain in the forecast. plus they´re not catholic, and as my dad pointed out at mass, these people kicked my people out. there´s evident spiritual value in a long hike along a 500 year old pilgrimage path. but it´s also dominated by catholicism, the values of which are nearly diametrically opposed to those of my family. i´m interested to see how that plays out as they continue their journey. there´s a link to their blog to your right.

after leaving my folks behind i headed south, thinking i would outrun the rain by heading to the high plains of madrid. first mistake, as eliza doolittle would point out: the rain in spain stays mainly on the plain. so it rained harder and harder as i drove on through, well i´m not sure what, it was raining so hard i couldn´t see much. i decided to take backroads to get a better sense of the landscape and turned south towards logroño and la rioja. rain can´t stop me from wine tasting.

second mistake: not reading the map carefully. the further south i drove, the higher i drove. i saw a car stopped at a gas station but thought i was seeing things and continued on. soon i found that the car covered in snow was no mistake. first it was light snow. then heavier. the roads got steeper. my tiny prius slid back and forth on the narrow mountain road as the conditions closed in on whiteout. IT IS THE FIRST FUCKING DAY OF MAY!!! i kept thinking. if there hadn´t been other clueless drivers on the road, i would have turned back. when i finally reached the pass at 6000 feet i was thrilled. my white knuckles were sore from gripping the wheel and my shoulders ached. and when i finally stopped in a town to rest and have some lunch, nothing was open for the may day holiday. goddamn socialists.

but it was worth it. as i rolled towards my destination, blue started to break through and i was treated to splendorous views across the plains, bright yellow mustard and rich green fields dotted with sheep and ancient villages reaching towards the freshly snow-capped hills. all the more spectacular was my arrival into segovia, a beautiful city with a huge old city high on a hill. i stayed around the corner from the church where isabel was crowned queen of spain. i drank spanish beer and ate 10 kinds of pork (the local speciality) and watched football and wandered the darkened alleys that smelled like smoke and wet rocks and ham.

and now i´m in madrid. not in the cards originally, but que sera, sera. i´m in a backpacker´s hostel, sites that i usually avoid like the plague but with the cost of parking my car in central madrid, it´s time to save some money. a couple days to explore this giant city isn´t enough, but i need to be in barcelona by friday morning. that´ll be a fun one...

hope all is well in the states. ¿did you see this? crazy. sorry i´m missing the derby party. someone get drunk for me.



somehow i think that won´t be a problem.