A Winter Week In Spain

Before I travelled to Chile in January, I spent one week in Spain with Lukas. He was assigned to spend a month in Alcalá de Henares, some 30 minutes from the centre of Madrid.


Alcalá de Henares

The plateresque facade of the old Alcala University.

The inner courtyard of Alcala University.

La Puerta de Madrid.

The main street, Calle Mayor, in Alcalá de Henares.

The historical centre of Alcalá de Henares is one of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites. It's called La Plaza de Cervantes.

The sun setting on the building created a nice vintage atmosphere.

Near our hotel outside of the centre of Alcala was a little square filled with different tapas restaurants, where you could just pick and choose whatever tickled your fancy. For the most nights after the evening snack, it was Guinness.

We went to the Spanish extension of the famous Irish Temple Bar so often that the girls behind the counter brought us our Guinness without ordering. How great is that!


Madrid

The fountain of Cibeles.

Me in the big big world in front of La Fuente de Cibeles with El Palacio de Comunicaciones in the back.

The beautiful Catedral de la Almudena in night lighting.

You could almost see the horse carridges, men with their tophats and ladies in the crinoline dresses.

A street leading away from Plaza Mayor.

The horses of the Palacio Real on a stroll.

Royal Palace.

Sunset.

Plaza Mayor in daylight.

The most important sight for any guy visiting Madrid - Santiago Bernabeu, the home of Real Madrid football team. And by the way, already the second time for me!

Real Madrid played against Malaga and won.

The must-see match was over faster than thought!

All in all, Madrid is a gorgeous city with great food&wine, beautiful people and places to see, so definitely worth a visit!

Before and After

We consider ourselves really lucky as we didn't suffer as many damages as did the people in the hard-struck regions, who are homeless and still without water and electricity. We do appreciate every day all the things we have and are able to still do. However, media tends to exaggerate the earthquake. The images shown in telly are of course bad, but they do not represent the whole Chile. There are people outside of Chile who are worrying for us and concerned fpr our safety, which is why I wanted to show you how our life was before the earthquake and how it has changed since February 27.

Before the February 27th...

On a sunny Sunday before the earthquake we hiked up the hill Cerro San Cristobal. The scenery in the summer is breath taking.

We found a relaxing little haven on the way up the hill.

As I have learned from the Vorarlbergers, when hiking a mountain, reaching the top is the best feeling.

And even better feeling is the rewarding, cool, fresh beer.


Don Carlos is our favourite steak restaurant. Nothing beats the Don Carlos' steak combined with a delicious wine, in this case Bisquertt's La Joya.


One week after the quake...

... and we wanted to enjoy the warm weather and celebrate life!

Marulean adonis in our rooftop pool.

Lukas's presenting his stylish swan dive.

I went for the more elegant bomb drop.


Two weeks after...

Nobody knows where the penguins come on this tiny island next to Algarrobo's sailboat harbour.

Seagulls' screams covered all the penguin song, but I'm pretty sure I saw the happy feet there.


Viña on a Sunday evening.

A little seaside boulevard with local handicrafts stands.

The beautiful sunset in Viña del Mar.

Do I need to say more?

The Word On Everybody's Lips

This week went fast. Perhaps partly because I mixed the weekdays in my head and until 2pm on Friday afternoon I thought it's Thursday. When I finally realised that it's actually already Friday and I can go home in two hours, you can imagine the joy! Why can't all the weeks be like that?!

Not that the week was otherwise a delight. The aftermath of the earthquake takes up all the energy - worrying for the people in the south or even some here in Santiago, discussing the consequences and problems brought up by the earthquake. There are still people without electricity, food, or connection to the outside world. But when you compare it to Haiti, for example, Chile was extremely lucky even though the quake in Concepcion was a thousand times stronger than in Haiti. Because it hit at 3.34am saved many lives, people were in their homes and already for the most part with their loved ones.

Terremoto. That's earthquake in Spanish. It is not something you expect to happen no matter how much the scientists have been forecasting it to happen. It's a surreal feeling. If you have been reading The Santiago Times, the English language online-newspaper where I have been working already a month (how the time flies!!), you have noticed that all the articles this week have been about the earthquake. Terremoto is what everybody is talking about. "How are you? Where were you when it happened? Were you scared? Did your apartment survive?"

Our building didn't suffer any visible damages, but we were without gas, warm water or lift nearly a week. Which is nothing in comparison to the people who have lost everything because of the quake or the tsunami. The two balconies on the left of the highest floor (7th) are ours.


We were lucky as the damages in our apartment were not that big. We lost a coffee jar and three delicious wines which made the kitchen look like the butcher's workshop. And my wonderful milkshake mixer! But we've replaced it already. Probably the most expensive piece we lost were our Dolby Surround speakers that snapped in the middle. Snif.


The worst damage on our street was this neighbour's wall that crumbled down like a Christmas cookie.


Some buildings had their windows broken. On Saturday after the quake we went exploring and searching for an open restaurant because we didn't have food or gas and the shops were closed. The city was like a ghost town!


One of the churches in Providencia lost a roof.


No other visible damage to be seen on one of the main streets, Avenida Providencia.


Museo de Bellas Artes is another old building, like the church, that didn't survive the tremors unharmed.


Such nature disasters as the earthquake never come alone. It was almost immediately followed by the tsunami at several locations, and now there has even been talk about dangerously smoldering volcanoes that might erupt any moment. Not to mention the people who take advantage of the vulnerable situation and go looting just because they can. It will be a long while before Chile and its people can sleep their nights safe and sound. Fuerza Chile!