This weekend I joined Eugenio again for a trip to another Andalucian city. We went to Almeria, which is the capital of the province of Almeria and located on the mediterranean in the southeast corner of Spain. Eugenio, Eugenio's friend Raul and I went mountain biking in the hills surrounding the city. The landscape reminded me a lot of estrn Oregon, but with cactuses.
My favorite part was finding a wild pomegranet tree that was filled with pomegranets in the middle of the dry landscape.I have seen a pomegranet tree before, but never in the wild, which was awesome. Most of the pomegranets were split in half with the fruit exposed, much of it eaten by birds. I found a few that had not completely split and stuffed my face. It might have been because they were wild pomegranets that I found in the mediterranean countryside which made them special to me, or that I had been riding a bike for about 2 hours, but they were the most juicy and sweet pomegranets that I have ever tasted. It was a great discovery! Eugenio and all his friends have started to make fun of me because I jokingly tell them that all food in Spain is free. Whenever we find some kind of wild nut or fruit they all say to me "OH MY GOD! Nick, More gratis!!" which is hilarious because they actually say everything in English except for the word free (gratis). Over the past two weeks these are the following foods that I have found and eaten in the countryside of Spain for gratis: Almonds, Chumbo (cactus fruit), Bellotas (large acorns), mushrooms, asparagus, rosemary, pomegranate, some kind of reed-like-plant root, chestnuts and olives (which you really cannot eat straight off the tree - it didn't taste very good but they are very oily and I could taste the similarity to olive oil).
My favorite part was finding a wild pomegranet tree that was filled with pomegranets in the middle of the dry landscape.I have seen a pomegranet tree before, but never in the wild, which was awesome. Most of the pomegranets were split in half with the fruit exposed, much of it eaten by birds. I found a few that had not completely split and stuffed my face. It might have been because they were wild pomegranets that I found in the mediterranean countryside which made them special to me, or that I had been riding a bike for about 2 hours, but they were the most juicy and sweet pomegranets that I have ever tasted. It was a great discovery! Eugenio and all his friends have started to make fun of me because I jokingly tell them that all food in Spain is free. Whenever we find some kind of wild nut or fruit they all say to me "OH MY GOD! Nick, More gratis!!" which is hilarious because they actually say everything in English except for the word free (gratis). Over the past two weeks these are the following foods that I have found and eaten in the countryside of Spain for gratis: Almonds, Chumbo (cactus fruit), Bellotas (large acorns), mushrooms, asparagus, rosemary, pomegranate, some kind of reed-like-plant root, chestnuts and olives (which you really cannot eat straight off the tree - it didn't taste very good but they are very oily and I could taste the similarity to olive oil).
After the bike ride we went to a tapas bar which was killer! Free tapas!!! Malaga's Achilles heel is that most of the bars do not have free tapas which is really weak, but you can find some, one is right under my apartment. But Almeria has great tapas bars. I ate pork burgers (Spaniards take the word hamburger literally and the hamburgers are made of pork instead of beef - I know, it doesn't make any sense), blood sausage, eggplant and callos (stew of pig intestines and vegetables - mouth watering). After tapas we took a siesta.
At night we went out to some dance clubs, we left the house at 1:45 am and got home around 6 am. It was a pretty fun night. We were a crowd of about 9 when we met up with other friends. The next day we slept in, drove home and then watched a formula 1 race because a Spaniard is number 1 in the world right now.
Another good weekend.
I am thinking about visiting Granada next weekend and meeting up with some of my old classmates who were in my study abroad program and now live in Granada. Of course I am going to try to meet up with Feli, my host mother when I studied abroad in Granada!
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