The Events of Friday, April 15, 2011

                Our car lurched forward and then stopped, and then lurched again. We were stuck in traffic exiting Lisbon, after a nice morning of showers, and a delicious breakfast with pineapple, Frosted Flakes, and my last birthday donut. We had been out of the door quickly and on our way with a good head-start. That was until we realized we were leaving Lisbon in the heart of rush hour. Soon the traffic smoothed out and we sped toward Leon, Spain. We were going exactly the speed limit, which was

120 km/hr. But these crazy Portuguese drivers kept zooming past us, like we were their old grandmas that were just a little too slow for them. We stopped for a lunch of baguettes, meat, cheese, apples, and cookies at a shady rest stop. About halfway through lunch a car pulled up and out jumped a family of six from a car that only had enough seats for five. A teenage boy tried to sale us an iPhone, but we said no. Then his dad tried it, but we refused. They tried to sell it to other people, but got no takers. We finished lunch and packed up. Daddy had talked to them and saw that their iPhones were not made by Apple, but they were trying to sell these fake phones for three hundred euros anyway.

                As we drove on and entered Spain, we gasped at the beautiful fields of mustard flowers that looked like bright yellow blankets spread on the fields. Mom loved the huge nests that we kept on seeing on the bell towers on churches. The nests were probably about the size of a barrel. They were absolutely huge. We kept on driving through tiny towns with big nests until we reached Leon.

                Following our GPS, we were led into the pedestrian area of the plaza. Initially our way was blocked by a post that was coming out of the ground. Miraculously, it lowered back into the ground long enough for us to pass. We found the narrow street that our hotel was on and entered with barely a foot clearance on each side. Pulling up to Hostal Guzman “el bueno” Daddy and Caitlin jumped out and found our rooms while the rest of us stayed in the car and watched pedestrians squeeze past our van. Finally Dad came back and said we could stay here until we unloaded and that the manager had told him where to park the car. We unloaded the car and then moved into our rooms. We had two rooms with three beds in each, so we divided our luggage between the rooms. I really had to go to the bathroom, and as I pulled the door shut, I found that I had pulled the door handle off. I used the bathroom anyway, but, when I came out I found that Dad had alerted the hotel attendant of the defect and he had given us another room.  So we packed up our bags and moved down to a different room that turned out to be bigger and better. Daddy and Caitlin moved the car to a parking garage while the rest of us got settled and then we headed to dinner.

                The streets of Leon, all for pedestrians only, were filled with people:  people walking, people eating in cafes, cute little kids in collared shirts playing. It seemed like everyone was out in the streets. We thought perhaps there was a festival happening, but no, this is how the people of Leon enjoy their evenings. The hotel attendant had recommended a few places, but, after walking for 50 minutes, we had found one of the restaurants closed and all the other restaurants were too expensive. Finally we ended up at La Cocina, on the same street of our hotel, just two doors down. We had been walking in circles, exploring the plazas and streets of Leon and in the end, were back where we had started.

                Soon we were eating yummy open-faced sandwiches and sharing a house salad. These weren’t regular sandwiches. We ordered two salmon and cheese sandwiches, one shrimp and squid tentacles sandwich, one Spanish tortilla (potato omelet) sandwich, one thick ham and red pepper sandwich, and one ham and tomato sandwich. We also ordered the house salad which had shrimp, tuna, lettuce, tomatoes, pickled asparagus, and a touch of coke (Lindsey spilled her coke on the salad). For dessert we ordered a delicious slice of chocolate cake, which was very moist, but it was not like any American cake, a bowl of arroz con leche, a liquid pudding with sweet milk, thick rice and cinnamon, and a bowl of lemon cream. They were all very yummy and we walked home very full. We headed to bed, but it seemed the rest of the world had a different idea. There was a parade going on somewhere and a group of teenagers kicking over trash cans. We had landed in the party neighborhood – how did we expect to sleep? My eyes eventually closed and I dozed off, only to dream about people kicking over trash cans.