When we left off, my mom, Karen
Honold, and I had just concluded a successful excursion to the beautiful city
of Florence. Momma Bear’s visit
continued in Alicante until late that Friday night, and since then I have had a
visit from the lovely Katherine Honold Righi and her partner in crime (and
marriage), the ever-dashing Brandon P. Righi.
Then came my last week in Alicante, stressing out about finals, being
sick, and saying goodbye to my amigos alicantinos. As I write this I’m in the airport awaiting a flight to Edinburgh, which is the first stop on a two week Eurotrip. So I have a few things to recount.
Part I – Mi Mamá en
Alicante
We got back on Tuesday November 1st,
Día de Todos Los Santos (All Saint’s Day), and followed Spain’s example by
declaring it a day of rest. Upon
arrival, Fer was back home from his October-long trip to Argentina, so I got
say hello and introduce my mom to him.
And we were finally a full casa again.
That night, we made crepes from the recipe we got at the cooking school
in Florence – or rather, Mom made the crepes and I did homework. The dinner we had was nice way for my madre
americana to meet Alicante.
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| Madre Enjoying the UA Foliage |
Later that day, we went to Avenida Maisonnave, a shopping center in central Alicante. We had bought a few unique watercolor paintings in Florence as gifts for Lis and Fer and were looking for frames. We were unsuccessful, but Karen got to see El Corte Inglés, which is a department store with a distinct corporate monopoly in Spain. In the center of Alicante, there are three Corte Ingleses, two of which have six floors and all of which consume most of their respective blocks. Later that night we ate dinner at the apartment followed by a game of Scrabble in Spanglish with Masami, my awesome Japanese "compañera de casa".
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| On Top of Castillo de Santa Barbara |
After the castle, my mom and I
were dropped off at the port, a part of the city I hadn’t previously explored. That Thursday night was two days prior to the
commencement of the Volvo Ocean Race,
a sailboat regatta that started this year in Alicante. The race will take six teams of
professional sailors around the world in nine months. By chance we ran into my friend Amy, who by the way happens to be good friends from Connecticut College with Gary Kaufman, a longtime Summit pal. She was
volunteering at the event and gave us the low down on what was about to go
down between these maritime wind chasers.
There are six crews of fourteen seafarers, each with its own stylish
vessel, and each comprised of an international crowd. For example, the “American” boat only has two
American sailors on it, one being the skipper, while the majority of the crew
is British. And all of the racers know each other, as those at the apex of ocean sailing are
few. After Alicante, the regatta will be
stopping in Cape Town, South Africa; Abu Dhabi, Dubai; Sanya, China; Auckland,
New Zealand; Itajai, Brazil; Miami, Florida; Lisbon, Portugal; Lorient, France;
and finally Galway, Ireland.
Once we’d learned everything we
could about the race, we continued down the boardwalk, where there was many a
spectacle to see. In promotion of the
event, the port had pretty much reached fairground status, with kids flopping
around on top of a pool, inside giant inflatable plastic balls; several
temporarily constructed clubs and bars named after sponsors; and a live band
playing a sound check for a concert we didn’t stick around for. But Mom and I enjoyed a mojito together while
they warmed up. Then walking down to a
section of the dock where there was much less of a crowd, we took a minute to
absorb a beautiful perspective of the castle at night.
That was the last night of my
visit from Mom, so we went out to eat on the Esplanada, Alicante’s seaside
strip, with the whole host family present - Fer, Lis, Masami, and me - and my mom! Contented
by pizza, paella, and sangria, we went back home, where we waited though the
wee hours to bring Madre to the bus station for a 2:15 departure headed for
Madrid’s Airport. After the bus had been
boarded, Fer, smoking his cigarette, and I, waving incessant good-byes up to
the window, lingered at the station to see off another enchanting family visit.
Part II – The In
Between Week
The
following week, though relaxing and pleasing, passed nondescriptly while I
pondered the next approaching wave of family, coming in the form of
Katherine and Brandon Righi. At the end
of this week, an Argentinian friend of Fer and Lis’s named Marcos arrived at
our casa, an event that displaced Katherine and Brandon to a nearby
hostel. He stayed in Alicante, uttering
facetious phrases in low, nasally Argentinian tones until he left for his home
country that Wednesday. He was returning
to Argentina after nine years and six months in Spain. Just thought I’d mention the guy.
Part III – The Righis
Arrive
My most
precious big sister and most magnificent brother-in-law arrived at Alicante’s
train station on Sunday, November 14th. I greeted them by playing a little trick:
after saying I would meet them at the stairs, I hid behind a sign at the
boarding platform, waited for them to walk past me, and approached
nonchalantly. I was walking in between
them for a solid ten seconds before being noticed. HaHA! Then I was hugged.
So that’s
how we kicked things off. That night, we
walked around el barrio and down to the Mediterranean, where we soaked our feet
and continued catching up. Afterward we went to a
favorite gelato shop. As these two are currently
studying Spanish, one of the goals of the trip was to improve their speaking
skills, and the first of these lessons came with the ice cream. “You should never accidentally add the ‘ñ’ to
the word ‘cono’ [meaning cone],” I advised.
Brandon and I shared a laugh over the colloquial use of the “palabrota”
that the word would become. If you know how
to type an ‘ñ’ I refer the reader to google.com/translate. Or you can just guess.
The days of this week went by fairly equally. We would meet at 9am and go Mercado Cental to get breakfast pastries. Then we'd take those pastries to a cafe on my street called Cafe Tonazzi and eat them with our morning coffee. After my classes, I would meet Katherine and Brandon at a designated time, and we'd go walking
through the city to find things to do.
Eventually we would decide to search out a tapas restaurant.
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| On Alicante's Public Workout Equipment |
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| Nice Picture from Parque de Tuna, Alicante |
That night we ate at a restaurant in the Barrio called Calvin's. I got a tapa favorite, patatas bravas (brave potatoes), while Katherine got a salad and Brandon ordered a random menu item that ended up being little sausage slices. We also got a pitcher of their home brewed "cerveza tostada" (toasted beer). While Spain general lacks in beer quality this was a very good brew, enough so that I shall declare it here: the best beer I had in Spain.
Wednesday, K+B once again made their own excursion while I was at school, this time to the ancient part of the city, Lucentum. This was the name of Alicante under Rome, between the first century BC to the first century AD. I never had the pleasure of discovering Lucentum on my own, but I heard from them that it is a very interesting and scenic part of town. There arcaeologically preserved Roman ruins, set within the modern cityscape, as well as rich history to learn about.
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| Consumption of a Chirimoya |
Anyway Thursday
once again marked the end of a visit, and was once again topped off by
climbing Castillo de Santa Barbara. I'm running out of ways to describe this castle, but one thing we took note of was how the structure is carved into the rock scape of the mountaintop. The walls and structures are literally carved into and built up from the natural formation. Very unique.
We then passed some time walking around the city and found one last tapas bar to eat at. The sangria was pretty good but the paella was way too salty. We then went for a second dinner with my host family, so that everybody would be able to properly meet each other and Katherine and Brandon could practice their Spanish. Afterward, we went to a bar that my amigos and I hung out in every Thursday, called 9B Nove Nove. So they met the majority of my Alicante gang, before heading to the bus station. As I was lacking the energy to accompany them, we said goodbye and I went back to fall asleep, content with the events of my last of three visits from family. I really do have an incredibly dedicated family, and the fact that they would all cross the ocean to visit my is easy to sleep on.
Part IV – The Final
Countdown
My last
full weekend was fittingly typical, spent hanging out and doing the barrio
thing until Sunday the 20th, which I spent redrafting an essay,
completing other final assignments, and playing the guitar. It was the start of my last week in Alicante,
and as my two-month classes were ending, it felt like a real finals week. Granted, I would probably have more work
during an average week at Ithaca College, after three months Spain had made me
considerably lazy. And I was sick.
So I spent
Monday at the University and at home, finishing assignments for my Spanish
Grammar and Society classes, and playing the guitar. Tuesday was the same, except I had to go and
tutor eight-year-old Alvaro in English. This tutoring is something I have
chosen to skip over in past entries, but I will include it when I write the
final recap of my abroad experience. Wednesday, when I got home from class, I went to the supermercado and bought the
ingredients to make pumpkin pie. After it
was too late I realized I forgot the tin for the oven, but I still whipped up
the crust and filling, leaving the second supermercado run and the baking
process for the morning.
It was very
important that I make that pie because Thursday, as many of you already know,
was Thanksgiving. So after classes, our
entire CC-CS group and a few traditional homemade food items hung out on campus
in anticipation of the dinner that had been organized for our group. I couldn’t think of a better way to
give thanks to for the friendships that we'd made than to celebrate
Thanksgiving together at the end of the program. We talked about the good old times over
turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and various pies. The pumpkin was a hit. And to shock those of you at American
collages, they served us several bottles of wine and pitchers of beer! The dinner concluded with a slide show that recapped
the entirety of the Spain experience, from our orientation, to our trips to
Valencia and Granada, up to the very end.
We then
split for a second dinner with our host families and reconvened later, bringing the
party to our favorite bar, 9B Nove Nove. There, we
didn’t not play beer pong until two o’clock.
Leaving Nove was the beginning
of the final good-byes, as most of us had to return our phones after classes on
Friday and couldn't be sure to see each other. The deep sentiments and
emotional hugs kept flowing from that point on.
Since I was
sick and still chose to go out Thursday night, my alarm failed to wake me
Friday morning and I missed my two finals.
Oops. Good thing my program
director, Pepa, is a savior with a lot of sway in the Universidad de Alicante
system, because I called her when I woke up, and when I got to school, my two
exams were waiting for me to take in her office.
I then said my good-byes to the
UA and CC-CS staff, returned my phone, and caught the bus home one last time. That afternoon, I did some planning for my
upcoming Euro-trip as well as some Christmas shopping. I went back home for la ultima cena (last
supper) with my host family before going out one last time to meet two
thirds of the crew at Cien Montaditos, a restaurant that serves tiny sandwiches. We sentimentalized and got along for a few
final hours, then took the gang outside where the adios-ing took a good twenty
minutes. I went home around two o'clock to finish
packing and catch some sleep before my flight the next morning when I was hit
by a surprise, and not a pleasant one.
Fer knocked on my
door at about 2:45am with a question, “¿En que día vuelves a Alicante?”
“El nueve,” I replied.
“No estaremos aquí, Mateo.”
“¿Que?”
What just happened is that I was
informed, seven hours before my bus ride to the airport, that I would
not be able to stay with my host family on the last night of my travels, as I
had planned. So in the middle of the
night with no phone I was left to find a place to leave my luggage
for two weeks and then stay on my last night in Europe. $#!*.
After furiously packing the rest of my things, I was lucky to find a
solution through Facebook. From one
friend, I got the number of another friend with an apartment and called her from the home phone. I had to wake her up at four in the morning, but she was willing to help. After finding the solution, I calmed down and
was able to forgive Fer for the misunderstanding, so that story doesn't end on
a sour note. After a few hours of sleep,
I ran through Alicante with a guitar in one hand and a rolling suitcase in the
other, rang the buzzer to the apartment, dropped my things off, and ran home one last time. I woke my family and
we shared some of those sentimental adios-es that had lately been going around. Then I grabbed my backpack and headed to the
bus that would take me to the airport.
The start of my two-week excursion through Europe was set in motion.
Part V – Me Voy
And I’m
off. As I write, “that” morning at the
end of part four is actually this
morning. But now I’m in the common room
at Caledonian Backpacker’s Hostel in Edinburgh, Scotland. This is the first of six cities that I’ll be visiting in the next two weeks.
I leave Edinburgh for Paris early November 30th, then taking
the night train to Freiburg, Germany where I will arrive the morning of
December 2nd to visit a Summit friend, Shelby Smith (Whaddup!). On December 4th I'm taking a
train to Munich, where on the 5th I’m seeing my all time favorite
band, the Red Hot Chili Peppers. On the
night of the 6th I’m catching a train to Cannes, France, because in
Florence we met the same couple twice, and they invited me to stay. Then I’m going to be in Barcelona the day and
night of the 8th, leaving for Alicante some time on the 9th. Around one o’clock on December 10th,
I will be catching a flight out of Alicante one last time before connecting in
Madrid and finally landing at New York JFK airport that night.
So goes the grand finale of my
European experience. I’ve never done
anything quite like this in my life. The
nearest experience I can think of is my two weeks of wilderness backpacking in
Philmont, New Mexico at age thirteen. In
order to harness that spirit for the journey, I will be wearing my Philmont
belt every day and alternating between the same two pairs of pants. But this is a different kind of wilderness,
one of mixed cultures and a wide variety of experiences to take in. At Philmont, I fed my soul from the fruits of a beautiful corner of nature. In these next
two weeks, I will be feeding my soul from an all-you-can-eat buffet of European culture.
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| Edinburgh at Christmas Time |
So here I am the first night of
my voyage through Western Europe, taking it easy, gathering my bearings, and
getting around to some things I haven’t been able to make time for recently,
such as blogging. And I’m incredibly
excited for what lies ahead. I will be
dropping blog updates at least once per destination while this saga continues,
so you know the drill – read on. Thanks
for making it to the end of this most epic edition of Honold-blog, and a
belated ‘Happy Thanksgiving’ to all!
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