Zaragoza

I finally got to met the rest of the family, mostly.

One night, we headed over to Elche, about 20 minutes away, and I met Pep's mother and a couple other relatives. One uncle is a history teacher and we had a very interesting discussion about the European mindset of superiority from being colonizers and the US saving Europe during WWII. It was very interesting and I'm looking forward to the next time we go to Elche.

Anyway, this weekend, we went to Zaragoza and I got to met Elena's family. All of her family. Her family is from Zaragoza, and with the exception of her, the all are still there.
Brother Ignacio, his wife Marichu, and kids, Juan and Ana.
Brother Alberto, his wife Rosa, and their kids, Paula and Daniel.
Sister Sylvia, her husband Alfonso, and their kids, Ines and Andrea.
I don't really know the ages of the kids, but I think Dani is 5, Ana is 5 or 6, Andrea is 15, I think, but those are the only ages I know.
Luis, Pep, and Elena were staying with her parents, but that filled all the extra beds, so I spent the weekend around the corner in Ignacio's flat.

I got a tour of a little bit of Zaragoza. We went to the Cathedral of Pilar, which is an important landmark and church in Zaragoza. We also passed through a few other parts of the city. We went into the church, but they don't allow pictures inside, so I didn't get any, but it was amazing. I found a map that detailed a few points of interest within the cathedral and noticed that there was an elevator in one of the towers that allowed people to see a panoramic view of Zaragoza. I asked Elena if we could go up there in the elevator and she asked me what elevator? Seeing as how see grew up here, that made me laugh (later, she asked her parents and siblilngs, and she had been up there, awhile ago, but she didn't remember it). The view was amazing!

The roof of the cathedral.

We went out to tapas again (which we did in Elche), which is something I really enjoy. Tapas are small types of food, that can be specific to the town, the region, or maybe even the restaurant. Usually tapas are a slice of bread with some kind of topping, like cheese, meat, and a pepper. Or it can be something like a stuffed baked potato. Whatever it is, every type of tapas I tried, I loved! Unfortunately, according to Pep and Elena, Alicante is one of the few regions that doesn't do tapas very well. After that, the parents went to a movie, while Andrea, Luis, and I went around town. We rented bikes, which was really cool. There were these sites all over the city. I'd never seen them before, but Elena says they're pretty common in Europe.

The bike rental rack. Just swipe the bike rental card (it's almost like having a bus card) in front of the scanner on the end.

Luis and I on our bikes. The cathedral is in the background.

After riding around for awhile, we went to see something in theater in Zaragoza. It turned out to be a reading of "Don Juan," I believe. But it was very hard to follow. Because each character had a reader at a stand with the name on the stand. But there were usually two stands for character and sometimes even two people at the same stand. The only way of knowing who was talking was by finding the person whose mouth was moving, which was easier said then done!

The next day, we had lunch at a Turkish restaurant with the entire family. Turkish and Chinese restaurants are about as common here as Mexican and Chinese restaurants in the US. Anyways, I like Turkish food. I think Dani and I really hit it off, because Dani was asking if we really had to leave and if they could come back next weekend...and bring Erik. It was a nice weekend.

Currently listening to:
Song: The Middle
Artist: Jimmy Eat World
Album: Bleed American