Valencia

In early August we traveled south to the small towns of Navajas and Jerica in the province of Valenciana. We would be staying overnight in a small hotel in Jerica, and would be running a half marathon in the nearby small town of Navajas. Exploring these small towns is in many ways more rewarding than visiting the many tourist sites found in the bigger cities of Europe.


But first, on the way, we visited the small town of Penyiscola which juts out into the sea.
The people of Penyiscola painted their homes white and blue - to Susan this is what she believes Greece to be like.

This shop was covered in sea-shells.

At the base of the town's hill-top castle was an aviary for raptors - hawks, falcons, eagles, and owls.

Jerica:

Even at 12:30 at night the streets of this small town were full of locals dining and relaxing in the plazas and along store-fronts. People of all ages from small children to the elderly were still out this late. In contrast, in many places in America (and as we found in the UK & Ireland) it can be hard to find any place open after 9. Here the people don't even come out until 9 or 10. I decided that we will have to retire here.

Navajas:

After the race we just hung out in the town's plaza

Susan won a hand-crafted trophy (really a sculpture) depicting a local legend of a man who lost his fiance to the nearby river. I think we both agreed that this is one of the more unique awards she has ever gotten.

Valenica

After the race we did some more traditional sight-seeing in the city of Valencia.

Valencia's downtown is covered by some pretty cool historic sites.

However, it has a second, more modern - even futuristic - "city center": the "City of Arts and Sciences" replete with museums shaped like they came straight out of Star Trek. The coolest, by far, was the Oceanographic Museum - essentially Disney World for fish and other aquatic life. Okay, I barely remember my visit to Sea World when I was 13, but I think this place was far more impressive.

The spaceship in front is the Museum of Fine Arts

The "spaceship" behind it is the Museum of Sciences

Museum of Sciences

After all the history museums and archaeology sites I have dragged Susan to in Europe she is happy here to visit something more interesting to her (i.e. any place with "cute" animals). Notice the reclining seal (or sea lion?) in the background.

We missed the dolphin show, but this guy still was looking for people to entertain.

A historic market-hall in Valencia

A giant (I think 300 or 400 year-old) tree in a small park in Valencia. If only trees could talk....

The old town of Valencia - another vibrant place even very late at night

On the way back we stopped at the medieval hill-top castle (later a 19th century fort) perched above the town of Morella.

May & June 2009

May & June 2009 was fairly crazy for me (Jeremy), so I will recap it quickly in timeline format:

May & June - Defying all odds, I survived 2 months without Susan. No it wasn't the emotional separation that the naysayers doubted, but whether or not I could actually feed myself. Not only did I survive, but I made every single meal at home (not going out for food once). And I have to say, nearly everything I made was edible....

May - desperately trying to finish my thesis which by this time has turned into a monster

Mid-May - Kurt and Kelly, our friends from Albuquerque, came to visit me in Budapest as one leg of their East-Central European trip. I feel really grateful that they came so far to visit (although they also had wanted to see this part of the world for years), and I owe them big time. Although they might have signed off if they had known that Susan would not be able to visit from Barcelona, and that I would make an absolutely terrible tour guide (we ate 2 restaurants twice each b/c I didn't know any other good ones), the only home-cooked meal they would get would be salami sandwiches, and they would at one point have to break into my apartment b/c I was so dreadfully late returning from my visit to school).

End of May - continue working on thesis, working 18 hour days and bypassing all unnecessary tasks (showering, cleaning, etc.)

May 25 - thesis deadline - still not done....

May 26 - fly to Barcelona (planned when I thought I would be done on time)

May 26-29 - work on finishing thesis while in Spain

May 30-June 1 - go on weekend trip to northern Catalunya (Spain) - photos below:

Castelfollit de la Roca

Besalu

Castello d'Empuries

After exploring several quaint, historic towns in Catalunya (or Catalonia) we met Susan's classmates for dinner at a restaurant (below) perched on top of the walls of the town castle complete with moat (above)

Susan's classmate and Catalunya native, Carlos, set us up with a night's stay at this ranch (above)

Dali Museum in Figueres

We spent the following night in the coastal town of Cadaques. From here we drove through the fog to the top of the nearby mountains (over 1,000') where we hiked past a monastery and up to a hill-top castle.

On a whim, I decided to drive north to eastern Pyrenees near the French border. All I had was the symbol of a castle on our map to guide us the faint idea that any castle in the Pyrenees would have to be spectacular. This time, at least, I was right. This is the Requesens Castle north of the town of Cantallops.

After completing our 8km round-trip run/hike to Requesens Castle we did not return to Cadaques until midnight. But we still found many restaurants still open (gotta love Spain).

Susan running along some rocky trails north of Cadaques.

Dali House (different than museum)

View from a hill-top bar-cafe

Cadaques (or maybe this was Roses? anyways some town along the Costa Brava)

June 2 - return to Budapest and pull near all-nighter finishing thesis despite oncoming fever

June 3 - turn in thesis, and then spent next 5 days nearly entirely all in bed, fighting a fever

June 9 - visit doctor, he says if I had mono (which I did back in '99 during my freshman year in college) I have nothing too worry about b/c I can't get it again), has me take some tests, tells me I have mono or a relapse of mono, laughs too himself clearly amused that this can happen to someone twice (I am not so amused)

June 10 - fever is gone, but fighting intense fatigue

June 14 - brother Justin visits, we travel to Vienna and back in 24 hours (at one point I sent him up to the tower of St. Stephen's cathedral while I just passed out on a church pew)

June 17 - defend thesis, fortunately successfully. Then rush to airport to pick up parents in their first trip outside of North America.

June 18 - graduation, dinner with family & CEU Medieval Studies Dept., and then late-night drinking with parents and brother and Hungarian outdoor bar (until my mom stubbornly had to remind the 3 males in the family that we had to get up in less than 4 hours)

June 19 - leave on 5am train with family towards Zagreb, Croatia. We arrive in Zagreb, meet 2 of my CEU friends for lunch, get lost looking for the rental car company, finally pickup rental car, drive to Croatian coast, visit beautiful Zadar along the way, before arriving at our apartment at 11pm. All this in 24 hours.

June 20-22 - Split, Croatia

June 23 - Dubrovnik, Croatia

June 24 - Fly to Barcelona, meet Susan and my sister, Melanie

June 29 - Rest of family leaves for London to visit my brother-in-law, Steve. I am too emotionally and physically exhausted to travel any more.

June 30 - Sleep in... and then I begin teaching myself Spanish and looking for a job....

A meeting in Barcelona...

Last week I got the chance to meet up with one of the people who has greatly influenced my life- Mrs. Rosemond. Mrs. Rosemond was my high school Spanish Literature teacher and we had stayed in touch over the years. She and her husband were both teachers (they are retired now) and spent a big part of their lives travelling around the world. Since the 70s, they have seem and experienced so much of the world and that is what has aspired me to do the same.

Mrs. Rosemond and her husband were in Barcelona visiting a friend and luckily we got a chance to meet up and catch up a bit. How funny it was to be meeting her here in Barcelona of all places!

Going back to school...

It’s really weird having to go back to school after 8 years. I was super excited but also nervous. Now, after a few weeks of classes, there is no doubt in my mind that I had made the right decision to go back to school and the right decision to attend ESADE.

Jeremy left on my first day of class. He held my hand and walked me to school, and I felt like the little child who gets sent to school for the first time – scared and sad to say good-bye but also excited about what's ahead. The first couple of days were quite scary for me because not only was I back in school after 8 long years, but it’s also the first time in those 8 years that I had to live on my own.

My class is small, composed of only 40 people, but all with very impressive professional backgrounds. The most impressive thing is that as a class, we speak a total of 17 languages – some that I never even heard of (wow!). Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve had to chance to get to know quite a few of my classmates; I’ve even convinced a few to go run with me!

School has been challenging and time consuming, and the hardest part is yet to come. This is going to be a long year, but quite an exciting one too. I’m really looking forward to the challenges ahead!


The outside of ESADE:


Main lobby:


Building #2:

Team bonding experiece in Villafranca (I was the base, right underneath the tower):

Enjoying cava after a long day of training:

Lunch in celebration of our last day of orientation (yes, that is a bottle of wine):

On Thursday of the 1st week of classes, our assignment was to read about the wine industry. As a surprise, that Friday, they took us to Torres Vineyard for a tour and a tasting.