I spent a very nice 10 days with 4 sweet cats about an hour south of Valencia and besides relaxing and enjoying the sunshine and kitties, my greatest accomplishment was learning how to build a fire (and keep it going)!! As I mentioned before, the houses in Spain are built to keep the inside COOL in the hot 100-plus degree summer weather (which makes it surprisingly cold in winter)!! Indoors, I was all bundled up and still had a "close-to-frostbitten" nose (wishing I hadn't given away my warm, toasty parka!!), but all I had to do was step out into the sunshine and be warmed up within a few minutes!
Once the sun went down (or if I didn't feel like being outside in the sun - because it sometimes got TOO hot!!), I would have to build a fire to keep from freezing! (I later found out - after they returned - that they actually DID have "in-wall heating" which warmed up the place nicely and very quickly, but they forgot to tell me about it...ooops!! Oh well....another tidbit of information to add to in my "future reference" file!!) I am definitely not the most gifted "rustic" person - I've said after every "farm-type" house-sit that this is NOT the life for me (but somehow I keep ending up at places that challenge me in this way.... Geesh)!! HOWEVER, I am now proud to say that if I ever get stuck someplace and the only way to keep myself warm is to build a fire and keep it going - I could probably do that (with matches, the right kind of wood, etc., of course....so don't count on ME in the wild)!!
The other "rustic" experiences I had were dealing with the cats bringing me "presents" (a.k.a. birds they had caught that weren't quite "gone" and the cats would lay them at my feet so proud of themselves...ugh)!! The first time it happened, the cat kept it in it's mouth and I just shoo'd her out the door and closed the window so she couldn't come back in!! The second time it happened the cat dropped the poor little bird in front of me and it started to flutter, so I tried to help it get away - but it flew behind the refrigerator - then under the TV stand - then under the couch - and the cat was creating CRAZY havoc trying to get to the bird!!
It reminded me of that song.... the dog chased the cat - the cat chased the mouse, etc.... I'm sure it would've been quite comical watching it all unfold if I hadn't been so disgusted and freaked out.... me chasing the cat trying to protect the bird, feathers and fur flying, and me tripping over things and trying to scoop up the bird without touching it - ay yi!! Now you might think that happening twice was enough trauma for one week, but NO!!!
The THIRD time it happened, I just gave up and walked away - opening all the doors and windows for the bird to (hopefully) escape - but unfortunately ALL the cats got involved and chased the poor thing around....ugh!! The call of the wild is not as pretty and "quaint" as it is depicted, and I'll take my fully domesticated indoor cats over "farm cats" any day!! (Although they really WERE sweet and wanted to cuddle with me a lot in the evening - but I drew the line at bedtime....I didn't want to find any "presents" in my bed....yikes!!!)
Between keeping the fire going so I didn't freeze, feeding the cats raw meat (ewwww!!), and dealing with the "cat fiascoes" and bird-presents, it wasn't all rest and relaxation!! But all I had to do was step out onto the terrace, look at the beautiful mountain views (with the sea only a few minutes away), absorb more of that sunshine - and eat FRESH Valencian oranges off the neighbor's tree - and all was well again!! Soooo.... after 10 days with the cats and a midnight run to the Valencia Airport to pick up the home-owners, it was time for the next leg of my Journey! (And YES!!!.... I'm proud to say I drove in Spain and didn't have any problems....well, maybe a few, but the GPS lady helped me find my way in the dark)!!
After a mid-morning goodbye to the kitties, I traveled by bus to Torrevieja (just south of Alicante where I will return in a week to connect with my NEXT bus to participate in another English Immersion program)!! If I had been able to get a ride, the trip would have only been a couple hours to my next location, but unfortunately there weren't any rides going at the same time/date/place as I needed to go, so I took the 7-hour bus ride instead.....a long, but interesting experience as usual!! (They have this thing called BlaBla Car in Europe - kind of like Uber, but for long distances - just people going from one place to another and offering a ride for pretty cheap...kinda like Craigslist, but people have profiles, passengers leave reviews, etc., so hopefully a bit more predictable and trustworthy!!)
The bus ride was fine though because I got to see the Spanish coastline (and just about every town along the way....15 stops in all!!), and I met a very nice young woman from Romania who speaks 5 languages! I didn't realize this, but apparently the Romanian language is based on Latin, so learning Spanish, French and Italian weren't difficult at all for her (I'm SO jealous)!! I guess I expected Romanian to be more similar to the other Slavic languages in the area, but apparently it's roots are Latin-based (perhaps from people migrating north during the times of The Roman Empire)?!? It was an interesting tidbit of information, and of course it sparked a new topic for me to research and study - fascinating!!
She got off the bus in Alicante and was replaced with a lovely older woman from Columbia, and we bonded immediately!! I didn't realize until I started speaking with her (sort of - in my Spanish that I THINK is better than it really is) - anyway, as I spoke with her, I was aware that I have a preconceived mental picture in my mind of people who speak Spanish (warm, friendly, fluid boundaries.... definitely more like the woman from Columbia than the Spanish people I've met thus far who tend to be more reserved and formal). The young woman from Brazil who I almost froze to death with in Bratislava said the same thing. She's studying in Spain for the year and commented on how much more formal her classmates were than people she meets in Brazil. She said she felt like she knew them well enough, but not as intimately as she would expect after spending all that time together. She used the example of meeting someone on the bus and knowing their whole life story by the time you get to your destination.... kinda like the woman I met from Columbia!!
After such a lovely (but long!!) bus ride, I was ready to be greeted by the owner of the AirBnb and start enjoying my sea view!! Sadly, my arrival at the AirBnb had a bumpy start (nobody was there, but I received a message that the key was hidden under the outside blinds.... surrounded by construction which I wasn't told about - and thankfully hasn't been TOO loud)!! And then once I finally DID find the key, I kept trying it again and AGAIN on the first floor apartments (until I remembered that in Europe and the UK, the first floor is actually the SECOND floor since they start with zero instead of one! (Geesh....all this and I REALLY needed to get inside because I had pretty much finished the liter of water I had bought in the bus station in Alicante!! Note to self - don't drink so much on the bus if you have to use your brain to get inside your AirBnb.... yikes!!)
The apartment and view are beautiful - just what I expected from the pictures! However, the TV wasn't working (not really a necessity, but nice to have just in case) - the Grocery Store that was mentioned on the ad (and most of the restaurants nearby) are closed because it's January and apparently it's a ghost town in this area because....it's too cold!! AND....the heating is extra!! I almost looked for another place, but then I remembered how sometimes I need at least a night to settle in.... usually if I'm all discomboobled from traveling, I can be a bit cranky and nothing settles right with me!
So I waited and tried to "let go" of being irritated about the extra money I was paying (unexpectedly) just to keep my nose from getting frostbite!! And then about 10 pm when I was buried under the blankets wondering if I would survive the night, the nice local lady (who does the cleaning and manages the apartment for the European lady in Brussels) came by and was SO nice and helpful...whew!!! She took care of all the problems and made me feel attended to.... gave me extra paper products since I'm here for the week and not just a couple nights, got the TV working, and would've just let me have the remote for the heater without telling the owner (but darn it - I had already paid for it on the AirBnb website)!! It was amazing to me how in less than 10 minutes, my whole feeling about the place changed! A great reminder that just a little human kindness and compassion really goes a long, LONG way!! (Plus it probably helped that I started to thaw out and relax as soon as she turned on the heaters!!)
Well....this seems like the perfect time to go outside and thaw out a bit in the sunshine, so I'll finish this up! Sending lots of love and hugs to you all, and I'll include some beautiful pictures of the ONE sunrise I saw (once - when I had to get up early to feed the cats!!), and lots of sunset pictures! Enjoy!!
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