El Campo

Today Steph and I went with our host moms, Lorena and Esther, to visit Lorena's family. They live in a tiny town out in the country, about an hour and a half from Caceres.

On the way there we passed through a city named Coria. It's a little smaller than Caceres. Our moms told us that every June 24th, for the holiday they let a bull out in the streets. Just let him wander around the city. And no one knows where the bull is. I guess people have gotten hurt, and once the bull went into a house and up to the second floor where the family was sleeping. But they still do it every year. Spain has such weird traditions...

The country is beautiful. We were in the northwest corner of Spain, very close to Portugal. We drove up into the mountains, and there were vineyards and olive trees everywhere. There are lots of tiny little clusters of towns scattered around the countryside, and we visited 4 of them.

The first one we went to Lorena and Esther said is the prettiest of all of them. It is apparently a very typical old Spanish town. Cars can't pass through the actual towns, so we parked outside and walked through the narrow cobblestone streets.

The buildings are all brick, but a different kind of brick. They called it pizarra, which is what chalkboards are made of. On the street level, the buildings are just for animals, and the people live above them. All the buildings are connected across the streets with arches. By all the windows, there are wooden perches where our moms said the people put food during the winter to keep cold. The doors are really small, to keep the house warmer and also because the people who live in the country are tiny. The city was absolutely ADORABLE. I loooved it!

We went into a tiny tavern and got coffee. Our moms said that the tavern was very typical. The people who live in the country don't do much. They work hard farming, and play cards in the tavern at night.

We left that city and went to Lorena's parents' house in the country. It had the most amazing view of all the mountains and trees, and they had horses and chickens and pigs there too. We ate with her whole family.

Ok so I know I keep saying in each post that the last meal I ate was the biggest meal I've ever had, but today really was the biggest meal of them all. Seriously. We had the first course of a thick noodle soup, second course of cabbage and garbanzo beans, and finally the third course of meat. I say meat because I know I ate pork, chicken, beef, sausages, and who knows what all else. Then we had fruit, then coffee and the BEST pastries I've ever had. It was kind of like a combination of donut and funnel cake. Amazing. Probably clogging my arteries, but amazing. After the meal was over I was sooo full. These Spanish people really don't know when to stop.

We then went to the next pueblo to visit Lorena's grandparents. This pueblo was cool. It was directly on top of the mountain, so the view was awesome. Her grandparents were so cute, her grandma was waist high compared to me, and I'm pretty short.

In this town we walked around and saw the tiny church and the castle. The castle was really neat. It was built sometime before the 11th century, and we could climb the walls surrounding it and go all around the castle. There are tiny doors in the inside wall of the castle, and our moms told us that they used to be houses. I was thinking a long time ago, but they said people lived in them up until 50 years ago. I guess the whole area is kind of poor.

We also saw the plaza of the bulls. Every August they have bull fights in them. It was cool, you could see the doors where they let the bulls in the plaza, the walls where the men can go behind and the bulls can't reach them, and the bleachers high up on the walls where people sit and look down on it.

Finally we went to the town of Lorena's other grandparents, on her father's side. We didn't stay there long because it was already getting late and we were tired. We went back to her parents' house to say goodbye and get some food to bring back with us, then we left and drove the hour and a half back home.