Todd and Nancy vs. "The Robot"

The idea of renting a car and taking a leisurely road-trip through the picturesque countryside of Ireland was, shall we say, a little bit different than the image we had created in our minds.  After spending three days exploring Dublin, Nancy and I were excited about having our own car, our own schedule, and our own space, for the next eight days.  This luxury would allow us the freedom to come and go as we wished – and of course the challenge of driving a vehicle on the opposite side of the road from the opposite side of the car.

I think the nervousness started when we realized that car rental companies in Ireland do not allow foreigners to use their own car insurance, which is typically accepted around the world when renting a car.

Let us elaborate, car rentals in Ireland were cheap to the point of being absurd.  To rent a car for 8 days, it was only going to cost 45 €.  We would soon understand that the rental companies certainly don’t earn the majority of their money through the ‘rental’, rather through the insurance that you are “allowed” to purchase, or should we say is forced upon the unknowing consumer upon their arrival in the company’s lobby.  Through this technique, almost all Americans will have no other choice but to pay the exorbitant, daily, insurance premiums which cost approximately 36 € per day.  We didn’t really feel like we had a lot of options, as we were sitting in their lobby with all of our bags already packed.  I’m pretty sure a smirk, in the form of a smile, began to spread across the robot’s face.  All of a sudden, what we believed to be a 45 € car rental had mushroomed into an almost 400 € expense ($560).

To put it mildly and succinctly, I was pissed.

When trying to inquire and use our charm to possibly bargain our way around this exorbitant fee, we were quickly informed Ireland has its own set of rules:

 “I don’t understand… why can’t we just use our own car insurance?” we started asking innocently enough.

 “The amount of liability paid out is too great.” the car representative recited her line.

 I asked, “You mean it’s dangerous to drive around here, in Ireland?”

She quickly responded, “No, it’s just the amount of liability paid out is too great”.

I asked again, “You mean, too many foreigners are getting into car accidents in Ireland

and foreign car insurance companies don’t want to cover us?”

The robot responded mechanically, “The amount of liability paid has become too much”.

My game of ‘cat and mouse’ with the robot failed to elicit the response I desired:  her admitting that everyone gets into accidents while driving in Ireland.  In fact, the last bit of conversation we picked up from the family returning their car in front of us was, “A copy of the estimate will be sent to you in the mail…”  Not exactly what you want to hear before embarking upon a cross-country road-trip.

I asked, re-asked and re-asked again what other options existed to avoid this ludicrous increase, until she finally mentioned that a few credit card companies exist that will still actually cover car rentals in Ireland (where all damages are put directly onto your credit card).

I stormed off to figure out how I would even begin to find out if my credit card would allow for something so specific – I didn’t like our chances since we had no cell phone or internet connection.  So, there I was, calling a credit card company collect from a phone booth on the crowded streets of downtown Dublin.  The next challenge would be hoping to explain that we needed a very specifically-worded letter from them, granting us auto rental coverage in Ireland.  I figured it was a long shot as the phone began to ring.

Fast forward 15 minutes … And thank you MasterCard Citi Professional… Apparently, they are one of the few remaining companies to offer this auto coverage and they were even able to email me a letter, which we were hoping would be sufficient proof to show the robot if we could pull it up on our iPad.

The next step was to find internet.  We scoured the streets until finally finding a café with free WiFi. It’s amazing how resourceful you become when traveling around new places with just your backpack.  We quickly pulled up the email with the letter granting us coverage from MasterCard (thank you Insomnia Café of Dublin, Ireland) and walked triumphantly back into the car rental agency and showed her our form.  I’m probably embellishing a bit, but her smirked quickly disappeared, along with the 300 € insurance expense she was hoping to charge.  Of course, we would really have a lot to deal with if we were unfortunate enough to damage the car, but who worries about that when you’re on vacation…

Nancy says I gave her my best ‘Todd smile’ as we drove away.

Todd and Nancy – 1

 “The Robot” – 0

Welcome to Ireland ... let's begin in Dublin.

For Nancy and I, I think Ireland was a place that we didn't really know too much about, other than we thought it would be a place we 'should' visit.  So, visit we would.

I think our expectations were vague, other than knowing about leprechauns, Guinness beer, the four-leaf clover (which were extremely difficult to find by the way) and St. Patrick's Day, I think our knowledge of this wonderful place was very limited.  Sorry for all of the stereotypes in the aforementioned sentence.  However, what we found was one of the most friendly, historically interesting, and relaxed places we've even visited.

To say the Irish people are friendly would be an understatement.  You would have to try to make an Irish person mad at you.  We loved learning about the tumultuous and sometimes violent history that has created Ireland and Dublin would be a perfect place to start or end your trip.

We spent three days running around Dublin.  Most of our time was spent hoping into and out of Irish pubs (do I really need to use the adjective 'Irish'?), dodging raindrops and criss-crossing the multiple bridges that  cross the river Liffey.  It was very important to us that we really got a good feel for the taste of Guinness in Dublin, which would lead to many, multiple, various tastings.  Yes, after all of our intense research, we have concluded with empirical evidence that Guinness in Ireland is delicious.  Drinking a freshly poured Guinness from the bar atop the Guinness Brewery was a highlight of the trip.  Here is a list of the things we enjoyed the most (or at least remembered to take a picture of):

 Ireland at night.  In a place where drinking is a way to keep warm, the Irish pubs, especially around The Temple Bar area (while full of tourists) was a great time.

Learning the origin and the words to the rowdy, drink along, sing along song "Sweet Molly Malone".

All of the Irish Pubs.  It's sad to admit, but every time we walked into a pub in Dublin, we were like, "wow, this is decorated just like the Irish pubs in America".  Stupid Americans.

Having a Guinness at The Stag's Head.

 Guinness over Dublin from the Guinness brewery.

Pat Liddy Walking Tour of Dublin.

The Guinness Brewery tour and drinking our free Guinness atop the Gravity Bar overlooking the city.

Exploring the cathedral of St. Patrick's and understanding the origin of St. Patrick's Day.

 The food in Dublin.  And, yes, this entire tray was for me.  In the background, you see Nancy's much healthier (and boring) option, a turkey, bacon sandwich.

Bienvenidos a Calle Los Francos!

It's official...
We have our very own authentic, Andalusian "piso" (pronounced ‘pee-soh’) --- Spanish for an apartment with more that 1 bedroom – for the next 9 months! We did our final walk-through yesterday and signed the Spanish contract. It is quite a relief to have the search completed and the keys in our hands!


Here's a breakdown of the events that led up to this...

That morning, we met a new friend and 3rd year English teacher, Melissa Capp, for a traditional Linares breakfast "tostada".  This is a toasted French bread baguette, topped with freshly-grated tomatoes, jamón (cured ham), and the enormously popular Jaén olive oil (a product that is made in our region, which also happens to be the world’s largest producer and exporter of olive oil).  The breakfast was delicious and surprisingly filling breakfast – hopefully, something we can easily make on our own.   During breakfast, we even asked Melissa to review the five page lease we were about to sign, especially all of the technical Spanish jargon which confused us.  I guess, you would call it a "working breakfast" -- very un-Andalucian of us.

After breakfast, Melissa went with us help us open our Spanish bank account (and our first shared account as a married couple). It was very helpful to have her along with us since she was able to clearly explain to the account manager that we are teaching English in Linares for one year.  Although we had heard stories of other auxiliares having problems with opening a bank account, the whole process ended up being much more simple than we had anticipated.  The biggest problem was figuring out where the end of the line was at the bank!  There are no lines of any sort.  Basically, you walk in, and enter 'the sea of people' waiting in the lobby.  Then, you go around asking each person "la ultima?" -- meaning, "are you the last one?".  Next, you must track this person through 'the sea' until you finally see the person in front of you being attended to, only then do you know you're next.

Next, at noon, we were scheduled to meet the realtor and our landlord family (a Spanish family that arrived with husband, wife and daughter -- we think it was some sort of Spanish intimidation tactic for all of them to show up) for our final walk-through.  The wife, Alejandra, helped to explain how all of the household appliances work.  She was clearly the only one responsible for these chores (more on that, and the role of women in Spanish culture later) and Manuel, the husband, was able to chime in when we asked how to turn on the heat/air and hot water.  I'm not sure we totally understood everything; in fact, we can say definitively that we didn't, but we were able to take a hot shower today.  However, there is something unusual about using ‘salt’ in the dishwasher that we haven’t exactly figured out yet…

After signing the contract, we returned to our hotel to pack up for the last and final time.  The realtor's son, Alvaro, actually came to pick us up in their car to bring us (and all of our belongings) to our new place!  It was about 3:00pm (or dare we say 15:00) and we quickly dropped off our bags in our foyer (yes, we have a foyer) and asked him to take us to the nearby supermarket, AlCampo (think Wal-Mart without the obesity) to buy sheets, towels, and some other necessities.

Probably a little embarrassed to include this in 'el blog', but, we actually celebrated our achievement with a delicious lunch at ... McDonalds!!!  We are sorry for not being sorry, because it was delicious.  Before being judged, let us explain ... Up to this point, we've been eating a lot of authentic food, tapas (small meals), and ordering many things that we’re never 100% sure what they are until they arrive.  So, it was with much anticipation to finally settle in and enjoy one big meal where we knew exactly what we are going to get, even if the ketchup is a little different.  We won't hold that against them, it was definitely a little taste of home.

After all of our traveling, moving, packing, unpacking, repacking, it was such a nice feeling to wake up this morning in our own place!!!  Nice to be "at home" ... even if we did have to spend the first night in our new place in our sleeping bags (because our sheets were still in their package).

Our Spanish address:

Todd and Nancy Perzel

C/ Los Francos, N.8, 3A

23700 Linares (Jaén)

España

Keys in hand!

When we saw the living room was the same colors as UGA, we knew it was meant to be!

Our favorite part of the piso: The view from the upstairs terrace that overlooks the Sierra Morena mountain range.  We have plenty of time to enjoy the sunset, it's a pretty incredible view... but, maybe we're just making it up, you'll have to come see it for yourself :)

"Piso Hunting"

Welcome to the adventure we have dubbed "piso hunting"...

We spent the last two days looking for an apartment in Linares – ‘exhausting’ would be an understatement!  Before arriving, we had researched a couple places online.  Now that we were in Linares, we spent a lot time on the streets calling numbers for rental signs posted in the windows, searching on the internet again, and even picked up a local magazine advertising available apartments.  After 48 hours of intense searching we have no doubt that we have seen every type of place imaginable in this town.  Through our search, we definitely learned a lot about the features and characteristics of a "typical" apartment in Spain... and it's fair to say we didn't like any of them.  We visited countless, disappointing, 20 year-old apartments with stale air, dim lighting and very antiquated home decorations.  The majority of apartments included multiple old and worn pictures of the crucifixion, the Virgin Mary, or other heavily emphasized Catholic prints – Todd mentioned the worst part of moving in to one of these places would be the guilt we would feel if we ever wanted to replace some of the older décor.  The picture frames and prints were quite outdated and “intense”, in short, they didn’t do much to create the uplifting and fresh apartment we were hoping to find.  I mean, who would actually be bold enough to take down a picture of Jesus or the crucifixion and stuff it in the closet for the next year?  I don't think we were ready for that 'authentic' of an apartment.

The search was physically and mentally exhausting.  Not only were we walking all around the town of Linares on foot with the temperature in mid 90’s, it was very difficult to communicate exactly what we were hoping to find.  My enjoyment of the day came from watching Todd attempt several phone calls to different numbers we found in a local magazine.  Speaking Spanish when you are rusty is difficult.  Understanding Spanish in Linares with their accent is very difficult.  Attempting a phone conversation in Spanish, in Linares, is down-right impossible.  Here we are sitting in a restaurant cold-calling these poor citizens in our broken Spanish attempting to communicate our apartment characteristic wish-list.  The highlight, as Todd retold to me, was him trying to talk to a very elderly Spanish women whom Todd could not seem to understand her when trying to provide her address to him.  It resorted to this elderly lady literally screaming the individual letters of her street to Todd.  Each letter was lasting about 3 seconds and Todd says these were very loud screams.  Literally, his ear was hurting.  I think he now has a new respect for “senoras” in Linares.  We were laughing, but a little traumatized by this experience, we never did followed up with this boisterous Spanish lady.

After looking at almost 20 apartments and only coming across maybe 2 that would have been somewhat acceptable, we finally resigned to using the services of a rental agency, well, 3 rental agencies by the end of our search.  We were hoping to avoid this option, since it would be more expensive and even with them it was difficult to express exactly what type of place we were looking for, but we finally found that the key word that would ultimately unlock the maze that was 'Linares apatments'.  What word was that, you ask?  Well, it was "moderno".  Kind of anti-climatic, but can you guess what that means?  Modern, of course.  (Can’t you see we are going to be great teachers!)

There were some places in Linares that were built more recently, but they were few and far between and very difficult to find.  Finally, at the end of our second day, we found one.  It was incredible -- a “piso” with two-floors in a new building, with new furniture (from IKEA that included the same black side-table that Nancy had purchased a few years ago), a flat screen TV, clean bathrooms, and enough bedrooms (and closets) for everyone to come visit!  Todd's only requirement was an outdoor terrace/patio and this place has not one, but three!  A small one overlooking the street in the front of the building (off the living room), a larger one in the back off the kitchen and our favorite terrace that is upstairs which has an unbelievable view of the surrounding countryside and the Sierra Morenas mountains!  Todd did a little negotiating on the price, it was more than what we originally wanted to pay, but we felt it would be make our experience over the next year that much more enjoyable.

We are meeting with the owner tomorrow and the real estate agent for a final walk-through and to sign papers, keep your fingers crossed and please, say a little prayer for us. :) 

Our 'hunt' has been a challenging process, especially trying to do all of this while speaking rusty Spanish (since rarely does anyone even attempt to speak English), it has made everything much more difficult with the heavy accent spoken in Linares.  The last letter (or last few letters) of each word are usually dropped off, and the letter "s" is usually never pronounced if it's at the end of the word.  For example, the number 3, normally pronounced "tres" is pronounced "tre" – "dos" has become "do" --  "seis" has become "sei".  It has been quite interesting at times, especially when we’re talking about phone numbers, streets, and addresses.  It would have definitely made for entertaining television!


We included some of the challenges because we wanted to offer an accurate description of our time here, and despite some initial frustrations, we are both really excited about living here in Linares and enjoying the journey along the way...

In fact, we’ve already begun to appreciate the charms of this small town.  Linares is a truly authentic Spanish town in Andalucia, where siestas are a custom not to be disrupted and tapas (food) are gratis (free) when you order una cerveza o vino (beer or wine) – what could be better, right? 

Jamón - A tapas bar that was recommended to us by a few different people we have met.  Quickly one of our favorites we've tried so far!

Our new home - Linares, Spain.

We arrived in Linares, Spain on the afternoon of Sunday, September 4^th – our home for the next year.

Arriving in Linares includes a beautiful 3 1/2 hour train ride south from Madrid.  The ride takes you through the sprawling Madrid suburbs and out into the beautiful countryside of southern Spain.  You will know that you’re close to Linares when you begin to see endless rows of olive trees lining the hills.  Of course, Todd had to explain all of this to me since I slept the entire trip – catching up on my beauty sleep!  It was such a nice feeling to be traveling with all of our luggage for the last time until June of next year... there was so much, it was so heavy and it was painful to travel with everything throughout the airports, Metro stations, train stations, cobblestone streets, etc.

When we arrived at the train station in Linares with all of our luggage, our taxi driver looked at us like we were crazy.  By this point, I wanted to have a sign taped to my chest saying that we were MOVING for ONE YEAR so people would stop staring at us like we had escaped from the circus.

Our hotel is about 8 km from the train station and we arrived without a problem (well, a minor scuttle in the cab, involving Todd and the taxi driver – you can guess who started it…) and we checked into our temporary HQ, Hotel Anibal.  Fun fact: This hotel hosts one of the world championships of chess every year – we were sad to see only one American winner in the last 30 years.  We dropped off our luggage at the hotel and decided to go for a walk to explore the town.  It didn’t take us long to realize there was not another person in sight.  For anyone that has watched the movie “28 Days Later”, it was very similar to the scene in the beginning of the movie when the main character wanders aimlessly through the apparently normal and heavily-used streets, however not we didn't see a single person.  Can't say that our minds weren't flooded with anxious thoughts about this place we had decided to live in for the next year.  We soon realized that we had arrived in the middle of "siesta" time.  Not only that, but it was "siesta" time on Sunday, which means the streets were especially barren.  Think tumbleweed.


Fast forward, now that it’s a few days later, and the streets, shops, and restaurants have filled with people, we can joke about our initial fears and concerns thinking that we had been dropped off in the middle of nowhere!  We learned that in Linares, along some towns, the Spanish siesta is religiously followed and all business shuts down from 2pm – 5pm.  I’m sure we will never forget our first lunch that Sunday, wondering what the next year would have in store for us.  

Riding the RENFE train from Madrid... our first glimpse of the olive trees that surround our town, Linares.

Almost there... at the Linares-Baeza train station.  Traveling with our bags for the last time (almost).

Our "HQ" during our apartment search - Hotel Anibal.

Siesta time --- not a soul in sight!

Adventure Within an Adventure

This is the short tale of how we ended up in Ireland and Istanbul (we thought about adding Iceland and Indiana to keep with the theme of "I"s, but they were too far away).

Without a wonderful wife accepting this paint-by-number adventure, it never would have happened.  However, I would like to take credit for, at the very least, the spark of inspiration.  It happened where I tend to do my best thinking … the bathroom.  Well, the shower to be more precise.  Perhaps, a bit difficult to explain to our female audience, I think most guys can relate.  Can I get an ‘amen’?

After returning to our hotel in Madrid around 1am, quite early if you ask the locals, I was in the shower when I was struck with a flash of brilliant travel plans.

I should preface this ‘spark of inspiration’ with this quick anecdote...  Before we left for Spain, Nancy and I composed a list of the many places that we’d like to visit, if we have a chance, during the next year while living in Spain.  Thanks to Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, we will refer to this as a ‘bucket list’ if you will… We weren’t sure how many of these we would accomplish, but we realized we would now be closer than ever before.  The list includes, but is not limited to, some of the following places in Europe:

1)      Dublin and Ireland road-trip

2)      Amsterdam, Netherlands

3)      Paris and tour of Southern France

4)      Cinque Terre

5)      Prague, Czech Republic

6)      Greece

7)      Istanbul, Turkey

8)      Scotland

9)      Morocco

10)    Iceland

11)    Lagos, Portugal

Now, back to the story…

So there I was, a man alone with my thoughts…  In Europe, many budget airlines exist to serve the more cost-conscious European travelers.  For example, instead of taking a ‘road-trip’ to Charleston or Florida for a long weekend (as Americans might do), college students in Europe can book a flight to whichever European capital they want to see, for as little as 5€ and up to maybe 80€.  Knowing that after we found a place to live, we would have almost three weeks available until we started our “job”, we were open to planning a longer, more ambitious trip.  Ireland was the first place to come to mind.

Ireland seemed like the perfect place to visit, September seemed like a good time of year, and we assumed Dublin was a popular location with the cheap airline companies. Not to mention, it’s a small enough country that is perfectly designed for a road-trip.  Step one complete.  Where to next?

Ever since a friend of ours returned from his own trip to Istanbul, Turkey, the idea of visiting this ‘lively’ city has stuck with us.  With London, England being a central hub for most of the budget airlines, and Dublin, Ireland being pretty close-by, we were hoping that we might just be able to find a cheap flight connecting through London to Istanbul.  The sparks began to “fly”.  Get it, “fly” because that’s exactly what we would be doing … okay … well, you get the idea.

By this point, I was pretty excited; of course there were some details that would still need to get figured out: dates, flights, hotels, budget, etc…  But, I was confident and ready to present my case to the Board of Directors (i.e. Nancy). 

After easily receiving the much needed approval from Nancy, and confirming that all the flights we would need, actually did exist, we began an onslaught of flight and travel bookings.  We feverishly worked on our computers for the next three hours… Nancy on the iPad, me on the laptop.  By 4am, we had all of our flights, luggage, rental car and even our first three nights in Dublin booked!  We found some great deals, for example, our Dublin to London Luton flight was only £14.99!  Usually, I’m the one that is dragging my feet on making definitive plans; however, I guess I lose my inhibitions a bit when it comes to travel.

By the end of the night, we were mentally exhausted from so much planning, but already looking forward to this new adventure.

The Adventure begins... one week in Madrid.

Arriving in Madrid was the end of all of our anticipation towards this trip, the end of all the unknowns of whether this we would actually be able to 'make this work' ... but very much the beginning of a brand new chapter of our lives.

After flying into Madrid, we took their Metro system towards our hotel.  This would take about an hour of travel time, and we were literally underground the entire time.  When we finally surfaced from the Metro station and false lighting, we found ourselves standing in the heart of Madrid, Puerta del Sol (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerta_del_Sol).  All of sudden ... we were in Spain!  All of this was real.  I don't think either of us will ever forget the feeling of actually realizing all of this ... the travel, the trip, the changes we have made in our lives, was real ... until taking the elevator up from the Metro and we were standing in the middle of the busiest plaza in Madrid (think Times Square in NYC, without the skyscrapers).

Our first week in Madrid was a blur.  While we had both been to Madrid before, this was first time to experience it together.  We made sure to revisit all of the top tourist sites, however, saving adequate time to experience it like a Madrileño (a person of Madrid).  I would say the majority of our time was spent in tapas bars.  We were welcomed by a friend, Antonio Yebenes, which was a friend of Todd's from when he studied abroad in Valencia in 2004.  They had kept in touch and he made sure we enjoyed ourselves ... and stayed out very late.

We tired, but there was no excuses.  We were going to play like a champion.  We adjusted and would wake up early, visit the sights, only to take naps from 9pm - 10pm, so that we could be fully rested for our night out.  As Ernest Hemingway wrote, "Madridleños do not go to sleep until they have killed the night".  Needless to say, we would see a couple sunrises during this first week in Madrid.  When in Rome.

Here are a couple pictures of our first week in Madrid:

Finally got Nancy to see the benefit of Chacos.  She still complains that they aren't stylish.

Entrance to Palacio Royal -- home to the royal family of Spain for many years.

 

 Sampling all of the amazing food in Spain.  Here is gazpacho (cold, tomato-based raw vegetable soup) and their world-reknowned 'jamon iberica'.  Spaniards are crazy about their 'jamon' (cured ham), there are even museums are devoted to it!

 This statue of a bear nuzzling a madroño (strawberry tree) is the official symbol of Madrid.  Here you can see Nancy giving it 'un besito' (a little kiss).

Walking to our hotel for the week.  We made a big mistake in the placement of our hotel, since we had to walk past streets lined with shops.  Nancy's weakness.

 Churros con Chocolate at the Chocolatería de San Ginés.  The perfect way to finish the night ... at 5am.  Only in Spain would it be normal to have a coffee before going to bed.

Out in Madrid.  Eating outside is nationally celebrated event.  We loved all of the cafes that line the different neighborhoods of Madrid.

After leaving Atlanta the day before, this was our first moment where we felt like we had finally "arrived in Spain".  We will never forget taking the elevator up from the Metro and arriving in Spain.

Nancy and I were able to keep in touch with our parent's through the "FaceTime" application on our iPad --- the future has arrived.

While in Madrid, we visited two art museums, El Prado and Reina Sofia.  Above is a painting by Salvador Dali in the Reina Sofia.  We are pretty sure he enjoyed mind-altering substances while painting.

Entrance to 'mercado de san miguel' in Madrid.  This was an incredible, covered market featuring tapas, wines and desserts from all parts of Spain.

 One round of tapas at the Mercado de San Miguel.

 Our day trip to Segovia, Spain.  The Roman aqueduct is stunning.

I think I ruined this picture, but you get the idea that Segovia was beautiful.