Picture Perfect Pyrenees

We are sitting in a guest room of hotel Vicente, built in 1877 and run by a family for 5 generations.  It is 10 am on Sunday, January 30 th.  The sun just peaked from behind the mountain and the church bell chimed 10.  We are in the Pyrenees!

We came here Friday night after a 2 hour drive from Zaragoza.  Funnily enough, it was pouring in Zaragoza, which never happens and as we drove into the mountains it was snowing.  Needless to say, there were at least 3 bad accidents we passed.

Before we left, people at my work told me I needed to get chains for the vehicle.  Seems they are all very serious about them.  I figured that living in the dessert and not ever having snow would make you worried about the white stuff.  Just to entertain myself, I went and bought synthetic wheel socks (which are quite neat and take no time to put on) and figured: I will show them some Canadian driving and bring the chains back for refund once we return.

When we got to the mountains, it was snowing so hard that everyone was putting chains on.  You could not drive anymore because these roads were not being plowed.

With my Canadian ego slightly dented, off I went and put the snow socks onto the tires.  5 minutes later we were chugging along, no slip and slide.  They are truly an amazing feature.

We got into town - Panticosa, which is right in the Tena valley, surrounded by the mountains.  We checked into the hotel, which is at the very top of the village, with spectacular views of the valley, the village and the mountains.

We checked in and went for a walk into the town centre, with the snow quietly falling.  It was so quiet and peaceful, with the only thing disturbing this idyllic scene was the explosion of the snowballs manufactured by daddy and thrown by Tessa, afterwards retaliated by Grace and mommy.

We could not have picked a better weekend to be here: it snowed the first time in 2011 and first snow since early December.  Everyone was excited about the snow, whole 30 centimeters, or one foot of new powder.

The next morning we got into our snow gear and off to the mountain.  While there is absolutely nothing in English here, we found our way to the gondola and bout tickets.  I was off for some snowboarding and Cathy with the girls were chilling and signed up for some sleigh riding (which unfortunately was not anywhere as exciting as the o-zone at mount Washington).  

Snowboarding was great fun, I was able to go on some untrimmed runs with about 3-4 feet of powder.  Very fun feeling!  After about 5 hours I was very tired, but enjoyed every minute of the sunny sunny day and perfect conditions surrounded by spectacular, sharply ridged mountains.

All equipment, services and staff were top notch.  The ski resorts in Spain are run by a joint venture between Spanish government and private company Aramon.  

After skiing, we went to visit a local, brand new, rec centre, called La Paul, which has a huge pool, jacuzzi, sauna and Turkish baths.  We also got a discount because of the affiliation with the hotel.  What we did not know is:
- you must wear a rubber cap
- you must have slippers
- you cannot have kids in jacuzzi
- several other rules they quickly explained to us
conveniently we could purchase caps and slippers, so we were in luck. After a day in the mountain, we were really looking forward to the jacuzzi.  But wait!  The jacuzzi was only 37.5 degrees Celsius!  Isn't that the body temperature?  We had to make due with a few minutes in the sauna, which wasn't as fun as sitting in a hot tub.

At the end of the day we had a nice dinner at the hotel, some wine and off to sleep.

We are all packed and ready to go back to Zaragoza and this experience will stay with us forever.  We will surely be back.

Is there first class on Ryanair?

Remember Titanic (the movie)?  All those posh people in first class?  Yes, you get what you pay for.  So we booked our first-time trip to Ireland on Ryanair.  Of course we knew it was no Titanic and that steerage was what is being provided by this fine Irish airline, so we booked our tickets with the plan to leave Spain on the 21^st of December and spend 10 days in Greystones, south of Dublin, with friends. 

Due to a few issues at work, we had to reschedule our trip (which eventually proved to be a wonderful thing: we avoided all the crazy snowstorms and airport shutdowns), so we left Barcelona on the 30^th of December to spend the New Years with our friends. 

When rebooking my airline tickets, I was intrigued and seduced by an offer of a 4 Euro “Priority” boarding pass.  I thought: if that gets me on the plane first and ability to pick seats – great!  Especially travelling with 2 kids.  Off we go to Barcelona and to the airport. 

We got to Terminal 2 (the old terminal) and went to the check in.  First, anyone not with an EU passport has to get a stamp in their passport (this is one of very few times where my Lithuanian passport is a gem – I don’t have to do this!), then we have to get our luggage checked in.

Wait a minute: you said luggage?!  Any Ryanair-ite would know that Ryanair is designed for cheap flights with no bells and whistles.  And, if you still want the comfort of steerage, but the price of a regular airline, then you must purchase luggage allowance.  What is better yet: how about paying for some baby car seats that you later decide not to take with you anyway?  This guarantees that (with not extra service and a huge amount of extra cost) the check in lady will be looking at you as if you were truly from another planet.  Especially because this must have been the first time in the history of the airline that the Ryanair passenger paid for cargo that they did not intend to carry!  She had trouble figuring out the procedure of indicating this on the boarding pass…

Luggage checked in (now the tickets likely very close to Economy+ on Air Canada), we went through security and started walking to the gate.  This is where you quickly realize what you don’t pay for (or rather what you take for granted when you do not fly on a budget airline).  We walked, and walked and walked…. And walked a bit more to realize that the gate from which we were boarding was the very last one: a brisk 20 minute walk.  I suppose it is cheaper for the Airline to park further in the fields.  We get to the boarding area and the lady takes our boarding passes and carefully examines them.  “Hmmm…PRIORITY boarding” she says.  “Good.  Would everyone please form 2 lines: PRIORITY boarding and OTHER”.  We go to the PRIORITY line.  There is a whole 4 of us in the PRIORITY line.  Might as well rename the line “suckers: we paid 4 Euros each to stand in this line!”.  Needless to say that was a bit embarrassing.  But the kids loved it!

Guess what: this was not the gate to board the plane.  Oh no, this was the place to board the shuttle.  See, what you don’t realize is that the airline does not want to pay for one of those walkways that attaches to the plane.  Instead we take a shuttle to the plane.  And, you guessed it: we are the first on the bus, which is very exciting.  They even made sure we were on before they released the steerage passengers.  The shuttle goes for a 10 minute drive and gets us to the plane.  The doors open (the other side from where we are sitting) and the passengers disembark.  We get off the shuttle, looking for the “suckers” line, but…. We appear to be the last in the line to board the plane!  And believe it or not, we get on to the aircraft last L!  Even when we showed our PRIORITY boarding passes, the crew courteously point out that we are not allowed to sit in the first 4 rows.  So we find some seats (luckily the plane was not totally full) and enjoy our short lived experience of the 1^st class on the airport shuttle.

Ireland was great!  Weather was nice: no rain, relatively mild and no wind.  Our Friends Gwen and Monty hosted us at their home, where we greeted New Year’s and enjoyed wonderful company, excellent home cooked food and London fireworks over the TV.  I even managed to handle a couple of pints of Guinness at a local Greystones Irish pub.  Here is a little lesson for anyone who has not handled Guinness in its birthplace.  The lady at the bar poured the pint and put it beside my friend’s pint of cider.  So, without thinking twice, I grab the two and to the table.  Shortly (more like 2 seconds later) I hear the lady screaming across the hall: “the pint not FINISHED!”  I look at my friend in bewilderment, question in my eyes whether I should duck or run.  He kindly explains to me that the pint must be properly finished before it is allowed to be removed (ouch, like getting your knuckles hit with a ruler).  I did not repeat the same mistake on the second pint (pain is a wonderful motivator; I think this was a negative reinforcement schedule, if I remember correctly from my Psych 101 classes).

Greystones is a nice little community.  By many standards, quite posh, with lots of sweet high end shops and pubs.  You can tell that economy is not doing well at all, which is reflected in businesses closing.  We took some nice walks along the Irish Sea on the cliffs, walked to Bray and saw the New Year’s swim and even enjoyed a latte (which are not available in Spain, only coffee con leche).  Girls enjoyed our train ride back from Bray.

It was very nice to visit with our friends, drink some tea in between wine and eat lots of sweets.  As always Ireland is a very nice and green place to visit.  It was our 15^th year anniversary of visiting Ireland together in 1995.

But just as in the Bible, there is a redemption story after all.  As we get to the airport and embark on our epic journey to the end of the middle earth (aka Ryanair gate) we get to the gate quite late: the passengers are about to start boarding.  And guess what!?  They have 2 lines for boarding: not for the shuttle, but for the plane itself!!!  We get into the PRIORITY line and are the first ones to get on (with some 30 other non-suckers).  This was a much better end to the story. 

Moral of the story: while the first class may not exist on Ryanair, by buying your PRIORITY passes you will get a 50-50 chance of riding airport shuttle shotgun or boarding the plane first.  The choice is yours. 

Merry Christmas!!!!!

It is Christmas Day and I am sitting in our apartment as the sun shines in and the cold north wind from the Pyrenees howls outside.  It has been a very different but lovely Christmas for us here in Spain.  Some of you may know we were planning on being in Ireland with friends for Christmas but due to work issues for Anatolijus we needed to rebook that trip so will be spending from Dec 30 –Jan 4^th with Gwen and Monty in Greystones.  At first we were very disappointed and in the end everything has worked out for the best, more on that later.  Christmas Eve was a quiet day with Anatolijus getting home from work at 3:30pm and we enjoyed  a lovely candlelight dinner of marinated roasted pork and a spectacular red wine.  The part that has been missing is being apart of any community activities, carol singing etc.., just as I was really feeling this Grace and Tessa appeared in the kitchen with red ´song books´ and began singing all our favourite Christmas carols.  It warmed my heart and all of a sudden it really felt like Christmas had come.  This is the first time it has been just the four of us and, although quieter, it has felt special and has been a bonding time.  We are thinking of all our friends and family in Canada and elsewhere and wish you a very merry Christmas.

The Container is coming!  The Container is coming!

The other big event this week is that after sitting in customs in Valencia for 3 weeks we were notified that our container would be delivered to us at 10:00am Thursday Dec 23^rd.  The big hold up was that all of Anatolijus´ identification and documentation are under his Lithuanian EU passport.  This has been very helpful for his work status, getting a Spanish ID card etc…, however the problem was that they wanted to charge us tax on our belongings because it was a Lithuanian importing a container from Canada into Spain.  It took some convincing to prove that for the past 14 years Anatolijus has lived in Canada and is a citizen.  The timing of this wasn’t ideal, however it was great confirmation that our trip to Ireland would have been ill timed.  The two men unloading the truck took 2 hours to get all our belongings into the apartment and everything has arrived in good shape.  It is strange to see all our things again and although we gave away lots and put more in storage we are still unpacking things and wondering why we brought it.  This ´downsizing´ has felt great and in fact living with a few basics these last 5 weeks has been very refreshing.

We bought a Picasso!!!!

                   

Yes it is true: our family is the proud owner of a Picasso, not the ones you hang on the wall but a lovely new 2011 Citroen Picasso C3 car!  In an earlier blog Anatolijus described our experience with our car shopping, but we are happy to report that the salesperson at Citroen was very helpful and we were able to get the car two days after having to return our rental vehicle.  One advantage of Anatolijus´ client being Barclay’s bank is there is a bank right out at his office and he now has a personal banker.  Just as with everything in Spain, it takes lots of signatures and stamps to get things done, and, given nobody knows our Canadian history, companies are not prepared to provide discounts based on your past.  For example, insurance quotes for the car ranged from 1K to 1.5K € per year!  Fortunately a coworker of Anatolijus, who just returned to Spain after working in Britain for years, was able to hook us up with his insurance provider and with a translation of our ICBC good driver reports we were able to get a 50% discount, which was wonderful.  As a side note, one evening Anatolijus and I were looking at the ICBC website wondering how we could get a hold of our good drivers discount info, and saw there was a number to call.  We called and talked to Michael who was very helpful and friendly and he emailed us the info as we spoke (no stamps and signatures required!) – what great customer service and all from our apartment in Zaragoza.

Our Spanish Niños

On November 30^th both Grace and Tessa began school at Colegio Jesus Maria El-Salvador.  Tessa is in Infantile 2 and her wonderful teacher is Marta.  She has made some good friends already and, aside from a very difficult first day, is settling in much better than we could have imagined.  She gets lots of hugs and Spanish kisses and somehow she has responded to all of this very positively.  Her class did a Christmas presentation for all the parents and with 40 strangers in the room Tessa was very uncomfortable, but, to her credit, she stayed apart of the circle and if you looked closely you could see her saying the Spanish words.  Since then she hasn’t stopped singing the Spanish songs at home and it is wonderful to hear.

Grace is in Primaria 2 and also has a very special teacher Paloma.  The children in the class have welcomed Grace with open arms and when she arrives 3-4 girls come running to greet her.  On the first day the English teacher was there to greet her and in class Grace got to show where she was from and how she traveled to Spain.  It is hard for her to not be able to communicate very much but playing doesn’t  seem to need words.  On the last day of school Grace’s class along with the other primary classes did presentations for each other.  Grace’s class dressed up like pirates and did a song and dance routine.  Again it has been wonderful to hear her singing her song in Spanish and practicing the dancing.  Grace still misses her friends and says she would prefer to be in Canada and yet is doing a marvelous job at adapting and opening to new experiences.  The schedule for the girls for the first week was to go to school 9-12:30pm and then come home.  They then started going 9-12:30pm come home for lunch and then go back from 3:30-5:00pm.  All the other children stay for the whole day having a hot lunch, extra-curricular activities and play time.  In January the girls will try to stay for a full day 1-2 times a week.  The school is a semi-private Jesuit-Catholic school that is well respected for offering excellent education and we have been totally impressed with the teachers, admin and curriculum.  The school is a 20 min walk so the girls and I are enjoying this new experience.  The thing we were most concerned about in moving to Spain was how the girls would feel and especially what would happen with school, so we are thrilled that they are happy and are having such a positive experience.

Crisis! What crisis?!

When one thinks of crisis, words like "desperation", "need", "loss" and "necessity" come to mind.  I may have mentioned in one of my previous posts that it is hard to see the signs of this "crisis" here, lest the ghosts of semi constructed apartment buildings and ghostly cranes watching peacefully over them, as if to awake one day and complete the things once started.

So we went car shopping, to further test the laws of macro-economics during the "crisis" period.  We went to a few dealerships and the first signs were somewhat encouraging: the dealers were open on a Saturday: an excellent start.  But that is where the expectations of a car shopper should be kept to a minimum.  After an hour at a KIA dealer, we decided to visit Skoda dealer (made by VW).  One small Skoda dealership told us to drive to another and, since dealerships close at 1pm on Saturday! (and don't open on Sunday), they asked the other dealer to wait a few minutes.  We got there, to find quite an unhappy dealer: we were interfering with his plans of duing something else during this cricis of a recession vs selling a car.  In fact there were a few other people that came to the dealership 5 minutes later and he did't even want to let them in (he did let them in after they promised not to stay for more than 5 minutes).

After viewing the car, we arranged for a test drive for next Saturday at 10am at Skoda dealer and then at 11am at KIA (all this time we have a wonderful Spanish speaking friend helping us).  We get to Skoda to find that nobody is there at 10am.  The people show up at 10:15am, but they don't really want to talk to us.  Instead, they choose to talk to another couple who wanted to test drive a car.  After about 45 minutes, we decided that maybe the whole concept of crisis is just a figment of Western Society and not applicable to our locale, because there was certainly no desire to sell anything.  At one point I did ask about trying a different model, to which the dealer briefly (in broken English) replied "I do not recommend it" (not sure what that meant; maybe cars are just bad for your health, or something).

We were bewildered, puzzled, amazed, frustrated and determined not to ever come back to this dealership again.  So no Skoda for us (nothing against the cars, they are actually quite good).

So on we go looking for a car, hoping that just maybe there is a dealer around that is a little bit more worried about the current financial situation of this wonderful country. 

A

Hola from Spain!!  The girls and I arrived in Barcelona safely and on time on Friday Nov 19th.  Our flight left Victoria on Thursday at 2:00pm and although there was lots of emotion we were mostly ready to start our adventure.  Our traveling could not have gone better and the girls were wonderful.  On the long flight from Vancouver to Frankfurt we had three of the four middle seats but the lady who checked us in moved the man somewhere else so we had the whole middle section to ourselves.  Tessa thought Lufthansa was just ´wonderful´ - they had the best food and nicest attendants and weren’t we fortunate.  I really appreciate when she is so affable and pleased with everything.  Tessa ended up sleeping for about 2.5 hours but Grace did not sleep a wink.  This proved challenging when we transferred in Frankfurt because it was the middle of the night our time and she was beyond exhausted.  Again good things happened and we got put in a special security line that took 10 mins instead of 45mins!!!  Walking through the airport was long and tiring but with encouragement the girls hung in there and once we were at our gate for Barcelona Grace fell fast asleep.  She was basically unconscious walking onto the plane and didn´t wake until we landed at 3:15pm (6:15am Victoria time) in Barcelona.

Our luggage arrived with us and as soon as we walked out the doors Anatolijus was waiting expectantly with a big smile.  Our luggage was the last off the plane so he was getting worried as we were one of the last to emerge.  After lots of hugs and happy hellos we headed to the car park and started the last part of our journey, the 2.5 hour drive to Zaragoza.   Aside from Tessa throwing up (oh yes, she threw up on my lap during the last 30mins of our flight to Barcelona, she was fine and I was damp and smelled sour) and the drive feeling long we arrived in good shape.  When we walked into our apartment we were so happy to see a couch, coffee table, arm chairs, and a dining room table and chairs.  Anatolijus had gotten approval to rent furniture until our container arrives so we have no complaints as our biggest concern was this ín-between´ time which is now taken care of.  Tessa thought the apartment was beautiful and wonderful and Grace was quite unhappy saying, ´It is so empty and nothing what I expected¨.  In the morning with the sun shining in we all had a new perspective and Grace felt much better. 

The first week has been the girls and I adjusting to the time zone and being at home, walking to the grocery store and finding parks to play in.  It has felt strange not having access to any communication -  we don´t have a phone yet or internet or TV or radio.  At the same time the girls have played wonderfully together using their imagination and big pieces of cardboard and this únplugging´was something I was also looking forward to.  So we are safe and comfortable while also quite isolated so pangs of missing home and friends have certainly come.

Our next big thing is school – we have decided not to go to the private schools but have been accepted into a semi-private school run by the Jesuits.  It is considered one of the best schools in the city and people cannot believe they have found space for both the girls.  The other amazing thing is it is a 20 min walk from our apartment so my hopes of adopting the European lifestyle of walking most places is coming true.  Tomorrow we have a meeting at 11:30am with the teachers and then the girls can most likely start on Tuesday.  Grace is a bit nervous but mostly excited and Tessa has informed me she is not going to go to school.  The biggest relief to me is that the schedule of the school is 9-12pm and then I pick them up and take them home for lunch and then they return to school from 2:30-5pm.  It will be very different for us, however my biggest concern with the private schools was that both girls were to go from 9-5pm without seeing me and I didn’t think they could handle it.  I feel much better about this and the teachers we met briefly on Thursday could not have been warmer and kinder (good for a mother’s heart).

This weekend we took the girls to the old town and had café con leche and pastries at a beautiful café, we also went to IKEA with about 3,000 other people.  Today we visited an amazing aquarium that recreates the marine life of the Nile, Amazon, Mekong and Ebro rivers.  I have never been so close to a live crocodile in my life and the huge tanks of exotic fish were very interesting.  So we are getting to know our new city, it feels safe and clean and filled with families and young children.  We definitely need to now focus on learning Spanish so we can participate and get to know people.  We are feeling very blessed and quite surprised that we are actually here! 

We would love to hear news of you, Anatolijus just got internet for his laptop so in the evenings and weekends I can now access email.  We hope this finds you all well.  Cathy and Anatolijus

Family coming! Family coming!

Yes, only 4 days left until Cathy and the girls land in Spain, cant wait.  

Tomorrow I am finally moving into our new apartment (they call it a duplex here, because it is on 2 floors).  This weekend I was finally able to go and contribute to Spanish economy by buying a bed (at IKEA) and a few misc things for us to use while waiting for our things to arrive in a container in December.

Family is arriving in Barcelona on Friday, then we take a fast train to Zaragoza, which takes about 1.5 hours.  The girls will love the train: it is very new and very fast.  And then: to our new home.

On the weekend, depending on the jet lag and tiredness, we may do a bit of exploring of the city and just hang out, hug and cook our first meal (or go out if we are too tired to cook).

By the way, the bed I just bought is the one for the guest room: even before our stuff is here we are already all good to go for the visitors (wink, wink).

Ok, time to go iron some shirts for work tomorrow (did you know I can now iron and do laundry?

Canada in your pocket...

While I have been working most of my spare time, there are a couple of new experiences I am happy to share.  Here is one of them.  

Police.  Or Policia Zaragoza.  The other night I was driving home and turned left off the main street to my hotel.  Just as I stopped in front of the underground parking gates of my hotel, a little police car pulled up behind with their lights flashing.  Was I speeding?  Did I cut someone off? Did I make a wrong turn?

The policeman spoke quite good English once I told him I did not speak castelliano (Spanish' that is).  He asked me where I was from.  Once I told him I was from Canada you would have thought the guy was a friend of mine from long time ago.  He wanted to tell me that he heard lots of good things about Canada and one day he would like to go there.  I told him I was from the west coast, Victoria, which just made him so much happier.  Of course, being a polite tourist-like entity I am, I had to remind him that he does live in a very nice country, with lots of neat history, excellent food and cheap wine.  He was still quite keen on visiting Canada, to which I had to remain encouraging and very pleased of his enthusiasm (I do already miss the greenery in Victoria, not the rain, yet).

In the end, after asking me a few more questions, he suggested an alternative way to turn to the hotel driveway and drove off with his cop-partner.

Conclusion: Spanish cops are much more forgiving and less materialistic than my Lithuanian cop friends.  On my last trip to Lithuania just over a month ago I did have to volunteer some hard-earned cash in exchange for a friendly conversation about new Lithuanian traffic signal rules.  I suppose Lithuania is further east and less people know about a country called Canada.