Velez!

Velez-Malaga. They will crush ALL!

I got lost for the first time today! Woo!

Admittedly, in Kyoto, it was a lot easier to find my way back. Mostly because Kyoto is laid down on a grid and bounded by mountains. It was easy enough to always just travel 'east' or 'west' until you met up with the main road. In Velez-Malaga, it´s more or less 'travel downhill in a zig-zagging line that doubles back on itself'. After a few turns down some very thin 'motorcycle only' streets, i had the bright idea to continue to turn down progressively larger streets until I finally found my way back to a main street (ie, follow the motorcycle only lanes until I reach a one-way car lane. Follow that until I reach a two-way lane. Follow that until I reach the plazas / something recognizable on my map). Surprisingly enough, this worked. I stopped and asked a shop keeper for directions about halfway there, largely because i lost faith in my plan. It´s funny how, even if you start a conversation with "No hablo espanol", then ask for directions, most of the directions will be in spanish. I´m sure the same would be true of a non-english speaker asking me for instructions.

So, here was my part of the conversation:

"No hablo Español"
"Uhh... apple" (apple sounds a lot like some sort of vegetable, and I had fogotten the word for 'apple'. I am woefully unprepared language wise, so....)
"Manzanas!"
"Si, una"
"¿Donde esta... aqui?"

Then lots of nodding as I kinda understood what she said. The essential information was 'turn left out of the shop'.


The tower on the right was my destination for the next day. This picture was taken from Karen´s roof.

Anyway, what led to my getting lost was a trip because I left early this morning to head to 'La Forteleza', or 'The Fortress'. Karen wanted to sleep in and has seen it many times, so i braved Velez on my own. Karen´s original directions on how to reach it were "travel uphill". I essentially refused to accept these instructions, so she pointed out a more standard set of directions of streets to take. The next morning, well... I couldn´t find street names so just kinda... "went up". Taking the uphill route at every intersection was a surprisingly good route.


This is the main tower through an arch. The main tower is essentially the only building still standing. Most of the walls are crumbling, but fun to walk around.


This is the main tower, and some of the local vegetation.


Here is a view of Velez.

Hmm... alright, time to go back to the beginning...

The flight to Spain was pretty uneventful. I really liked my flight on Air France, despite travelocity not reserving the seat I requested. I ended up with another aisle seat about eight rows behind the one I asked for. Anyway, Air France met with my approval largely because the seats were comfortable and there were little terminals on the back of each seat, with on demand movies and video games. While the games aren´t very sophisticated, a round of a Space Invader clone helped to pass the time. The movies selection wasn't too bad, either.

Anyway, I eventually made way to Velez, after angering one bus driver by not answering his spanish question quick enough. Karen´s instructions, which were essentialy to go to the Internet cafe I'm in right now, were quite good. We were able to meet up. After going to the super market and picking up some dinner, we headed out to see the first of the Saint's Week processions.

Saint's Week

I guess the event we followed and crashed -was- technically a part Saint´s Week. It turns out it was a procession by the Brotherhood of the (something? Lost, I think) Mary. However, we learned this after followed the crowd into the church and pushed our way into a corner (not exagerrating), and stood through a fourty five minute slideshow presentation of what this group has done for Velez. The mayor of Velez spoke, as did other prominent citizens. Karen said it was pretty standard fare 'things are going good, keep reaching high, etc', and not really worth translating.


The next day, we went out to watch the Children's parade. Groups of children carried floatsof various sorts through the streets. The main provision was that the children had to all be fourteen years of age or less. Karen saw some of the students she knew.


There was a huge crowd watching the procession.


This was the largest float in the parade. I'm calling them floats, but I don´t know if that's really the word. I want to call them Arks!


It had been blocking traffic earlier.


Children of all ages participated! Though, if they were any younger than these, usually they walked along aside, carrying banners or drums or little bugles. Until they tired and their parents picked them up or put them in strollers, that is.


The Bell-Ringer had a very important job. When the floats in front would stop for whatever reason, this girl had to ring the bell to let the others know it was time to put theirs down. Later on, when the procession restarted, she was to ring it again: one ring signalle 'pick it up'. Two rings let them know to 'move forward'.

This girl was especially vigilant and seemed to take her task very seriously. She is also in one of Karen's classes.

Mediterranean Sea


After that, we headed down to the Mediterranean, and I got to wade in! Here´s a pic of Velez from the east. Karen also got a nice picture of me wading in, with this coastline behind me, but alas! I don´t have her camera on me right now.

We had dinner at a Thai place (haha, I have yet to have Spanish food... perhaps tonight).


Statue of a poet (i forget who, unfortunately) in Velez.

Anyway, so that´s what´s up for now. The itinerary I listed out earlier will change a bit, though. We won´t be going to Morocco this trip, which is a bit disappointing. Travelling between the cities, what with the mountains and traffic, isn´t as efficient as I thought it might be, and not really conducive to day trips. However, most of the other stuff should be the same.