44 Photos-- Excessive? Maybe.

This is how we feel about Spain so far.

Oh, well hello there.

Welcome back to the blog.

44 photos, you ask?  Yes.  Yes indeed.

44 photos is actually being quite judicious, as I had to pare down the selection from a total of 209 photos.  209!  Preposterous.  I know.  But I wanted to make sure that I could both include some awesome selections from this photo library I'm creating, as well as give you some amazing and humorous commentary.

So.  Here goes.  I'm currently drinking champagne, only it's not called champagne here.  It can only be called champagne if it's from the region in France called Champagne, but this stuff is exactly the same.  Bubbly.  White.  Slightly dry.  Quite delicious.  It's called Cava, and it's from Catalunya, which is the region in Spain in which we currently find ourselves.  In addition to it being delicious (did I mention that already?), it also costs 3 euros.  I know.  Preposterous.

So seriously, I really want to pretend that Spain sucks, and that we're not totally loving it here, and that I don't want to buy a house in the country and live here forever, but I think that if I overload you, dear readers, on sarcasm, you might want to punch me in the face.  And I like you, and I don't want to get punched!  And also, this place is AWESOME.  :)

So, let me fill you in on the last 16 days.  First, our luggage was delayed in Madrid by many hours, and that sucked.  So we stayed in the Madrid area the first night, so that we could go back to the airport the next day to pick it up.  But that evening, we went out to a few local restaurants and had our first tapas!  And it was amazing.  Mind blowing.  Wines that cost $30 in the states are 2 euros here.  Even in the bar, you can get a bottle of delicious stuff for 3 euros.  WOAH.  Needless to say, we've been sampling.

First item on the agenda re:Spain-- eating. 

After grabbing our luggage, we headed to a small town called Cuenca, which the guidebook I'd purchased recommended.  Cuenca is just southeast of Madrid by about 2 hours, and is situated at the meeting place of two rivers, which have both formed giant gorges.  The houses of the old city have been built in to the sides of the rock in the gorge.  Check it out.

The gorge itself is deep, but the city is both above and below.

Awesome old monastery that has been converted into a hotel.

It was amazing.  We wandered around, did a little hike where I got some more awesome photos, ate, drank, etc.  The only sad part was that we basically missed dinner.  See, Spaniards generally eat pretty late, and so we were going by the guidebook which said not to expect anyone to be around until 10pm or so.  So, we went out for tapas at 8, and attempted to get a salad, which was comical.  It basically consisted of pickled EVERYTHING.  Some regular iceberg lettuce, and then pickles, olives, pickled asparagus, etc.  Anyway.  Not the height of Spanish cuisine.  

Anyway, after tapas, and two bottles of wine, we wanted real dinner... and everything in Cuenca was closed!  Seriously.  First cultural mishap.  Luckily, the two bottles of wine cushioned the blow, and the tapas didn't hurt, and so we went to bed like bad children, no dinner.

But overall Cuenca was a win.  Check out some other photos from around town:

The rock forming the bridge was pulled from the river gorge.  Notice the reflection?

Amazing graffiti on a bar front.

From our hike around the gorge.

At the top of the hike, in the old city.

Rough place to catch your breath.

Random flowers.  It's spring here!

We paid one euro to enter the church, and they let us go up into the belltower.

Beautiful houses and colors.

I think almost half of my photos came from Cuenca.  As you can probably tell, the town itself was fabulous, and people were really nice.  On our third morning in Spain, we left Cuenca for the coast.  We headed straight to the coast, and then north, looking for a cute little town where we could spend a couple nights, that wasn't crazy.  We ended up in a town called Sant Carles de la Rapita, which is in a national park, on the delta of the Ebro river, where it meets the Mediterranean.  We wanted to pig out on seafood, and possibly sit on the beach.  It wasn't quite hot enough for beaching, but we accomplished the whole pig out goal.  Be forewarned, you're about to see some food porn.

Giant, huge, enormous mussels.  And no, I'm not talking about Jason.

My mouth is watering over this calamari.  Melted in my mouth.

Octopus.  SO GOOD.

The harbor.  Presumably where all this seafood came from.

What is this even?  I have no idea.  And it was the appetizer.

Paella.  Except we were so full from the appetizer, we couldn't even eat it all.

We stayed at this small hotel the tourist office directed us to, after I did a little haggling in Spanish.  Sant Carles de la Rapita is in the southern portion of Catalunya, so this was my first experience with Catalan, and having all the signs in some random foreign language.  :)  It was fun, though.  And I successfully talked the owners down, since I think we were the only non-Spanish tourists in the area.  We walked around town, only to discover that our hotel was actually also the best seafood restaurant!  We were those tourists.  We ate like 4 meals in our hotel.

Anyway, we pigged out on some seafood tapas at our hotel right when we arrived, and then three hours later we went back for dinner.  More seafood.  The appetizer posted above was the size for ONE PERSON.  It was like 4 POUNDS of shellfish!  And we EACH got one!  Plus paella, for 13 euros.  $16.  Holy fishy overload.  I was doing really well until I tried to de-shell one of those white spiny things, and it promptly spit at me.  At least, I think it spit.  I'm pretty sure it was still alive.  I put the rest on Jason's plate.

We also did a bike ride around the delta, which was AWESOME on the way out, and HORRIBLE on the way back.  Bike riding is hard.  It's like, work, and stuff.  And we were riding into the wind on the way back--  point is, my bum is not accustomed to the bike seat.  Anyway, here are photos from the ride:

Random church in the countryside.

The delta, and marshlands.

The delta is a haven for pink flamingos!

Bird sanctuary. 

More octopus.  I couldn't help it.

Feeling fat and full, we left Sant Carles de la Rapita, but not before the hotel owners could give us two free bottles of the local wine (that's how happy they were about how much we spent in their restaurant!).  Everywhere we went, the hospitality was amazing.  But, feeling the urge to work off some of that olive oil, we drove to Tremp, which is the town we're in now, and about 15 minutes from the climbing area.  It was a Sunday, and we had our second cultural mishap that day.  Turns out EVERYTHING is closed on Sundays.  Everything.  Bars.  Restaurants.  Grocery stores.  Gas stations.  We ended up eating some random food for dinner from one of the two places in town open, but we DID get to move into our wonderful new digs!

Our front door.

Living room, complete with fireplace.

Front drive of our place.

Countryside around us.

Ana, our landlady is amazing, and so is this house.  We are renting the upstairs of her second home, and we have a kitchen, a fireplace, a pingpong table, laundry facilities, wifi... and three empty bedrooms that we could share with other friends!  Anyone want to come visit?  We've been here a little over a week and a half, and in that time, Ana has been amazing, chatting and helping us out, teaching us to candy hazelnuts... and she also took us to a local farm to get fresh milk, straight from the cow!

There is a market every Monday, where people sell everything-- clothes, vegetables, meat, fish, olives, etc.  I can't BELIEVE how much food we eat.

Olive cart at the market.

A castle!  Flying a flag with a... castle... on it.

We failed at the whole 'jump photo' thing, but I think it turned out AMAZING.  At the castle 20 minutes from our house.

Olive groves in the hills

Parking for... single moms?  At our local grocery store.

Our lovely landlady Ana!

Homemade candied hazelnuts. 

That's milk, direct from the teat!

Future milkers.  Friendly and cute!

And also hungry!

Lots of leche.

We've been climbing at an area called Terradets, which has many crags, but mostly one wall of serious sport climbing.  The wall is 15 minutes from our house, and it's ridiculous.  It's given us a beating so far (and when I say us, I mean everyone except Leslie-- is anyone surprised she's killing it?), but we're slowing getting our endurance back.  The entry level is basically 12a... takes a little getting used to.  But it's tufa climbing, and oh so awesome:

The view from the crag.

Limestones waves of grey/yellow.  Delicious.

So, the last week has been basically as you can imagine... climb, eat, sleep, rest, eat, climb... eating ice cream and chocolate and drinking red wine every day... we're probably the healthiest people you've ever met.  We are suffering, truly.  ;)   Rest days are awesome.  We have a hard drive with a bunch of movies on it, so with internet, books, castles, movies and wine, the time is flying by.  It's hard to believe we still have so many weeks here!  We've been listening to 'The Lonely Island' non-stop as well... never heard of them?  Check this video out.  It explains a lot.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0DeIqJm4vM

In addition, did you know that Snoop Dogg was on The Price is Right?  This clip is SO worth watching:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk0dOvoGRaU.  Pure genius, I tell you.

And so Spain Part One is going swimmingly.  Our next adventures will include more castles, Barcelona dance-a-thon, and additional eating adventures!  Those are our plans, anyway.  Oh yeah, and some more climbing, too.  :)

And this PREPOSTEROUSLY long blog post is coming to an end.  Until next time!

Spain is pretty cool, I guess.

Haha!  I'm actually misleading you with the title of this blogpiece, because I'm not writing about Spain yet!  What now?  I have some awesome photos I need to catch you up on, because February was SWEET and also I've already taken like 200 pictures in 4 days in Spain.  Yes.  I'm averaging 50 photos a day.  I'm having THAT much fun.  :)

BUT, as a quick update and so no one worries (Dad and Nicky), I am in Spain and perfectly awesome!  We have arrived at our first climbing town (Tremp, in Catalunya) after some days of touristy travels.  We'll be here for the next three and a half weeks, and we have wi-fi in our apartment, so you'll get to see those 200 photos, never fear.  Probably not all of them though.  At least I hope not.  Anyway.

No phone for us yet, but since we have regular internets, you can email me!  Or use the face-bizizzle.  Or you know.  Comment on this suh-weet blogpiece.  And now to the photos!



My sister has chickens.  This sounds random, but it's not.  When I went back to Portland a few weeks ago, I got to play with them, and they are AWESOME.  Nicky feeds them treats and pets them regularly, and now whenever she goes out into her backyard to see them, they come RUNNING (which is really just cute chicken-waddling) towards her.  And since I look like her, I am a defacto awesome person who probably has treats.  I feel like an extremely famous person when three chickens come pelting at me through the yard.  Also, since she's had them since they were young, she got them used to being handled a lot, and they don't mind if you pick them up.  They'll sit on your shoulder!  Evidence below.

Cute.  Peeps, and Krissy Chicken.  I think.

Chicken bootay right in yo face.  Fluffy.  Warm.

Antoinette is not sure she likes chicken lovin'.

 M'kay.  See why I think chickens are awesome?  Guess what I'm getting when we move to Portland?  Yup.

So anyway, I didn't take any other pictures in Portland.  You didn't want to see them anyway.  What I did do is take random pictures of what Jason and I did in Vegas.  So check these out:

Oh yeah, Red Rocks.

Not so hot lighting for Dave, but cool scenery.

We introduced Dave and Leanna to Mochi, the most delicious desert ever.  It was quite entertaining.

It was free.  We had to go!

View of the Vegas strip.

We also went to Circus Circus to watch circus acts.  Totally worth it.

And we had to play Dance Dance Revolution.

Five meals worth of food for $14. 

MF visited!

Dave and Leanna, being awesome.

 After a few days in Vegas, we took some time off and drove to LA to visit my aunt and uncle, Mia and Tom.  They have an AMAZING home, and even though Tom beat me at Settlers of Catan, I still love them.  :)

Rough life.

View from aunt Mia's house.

Jason, Aunt Mia, me

Oh yeah, I'm going in.

Adorable kitten of my aunt's.

 Thank you guys so much for letting us stay, and giving us a great introduction to LA!  We'll be back.  :) 

We stopped over in Joshua Tree for a few hours to visit Kyle and Leslie on our way back from LA:

 And we drove through the Mojave desert on our way back.

Very cool desert sunset.

Dried up desert lake. 

And then, after Vegas, we drove through Flagstaff and hung out with the very zaughsome Rayne Zaughsome, from such amazing events as our wedding, and we went to the METEOR CRATER!  Check it, homies:

This is the amazing setup they have so you can pretend you went into the crater.  My face = winning.

Number ONE!

I took a picture of the picture of the crater.  Pretty smooth, eh?

Realistic.  For sure.

They sell fossilized dinosaur poop.

You thought I was joking.  I wasn't.  I couldn't make up fossilized dinosaur poop, but I wish I had.

View of Flagstaff's mountain from the crater.

PASSAT!

Catan, of course.

Anyway, we made it to Albuquerque, and then the Spain adventure began!  You can't have those details now.  You'll have to wait just a little longer for that awesomeness.  But, as a parting gift, you can walk away with this awesome video Dave and Leanna made for us of climbing in Red Rocks!  http://vimeo.com/37705947

Until next time....  I'll be drinking red wine.  As in, that's what I'll be doing in the meantime.  You get the idea.

Blog Post 6: In Which I Write About Recent Events, And Also, A Drama

Where in the world is Karissa San Diego??!!

Ha.  I feel like this is the most common question asked Jason and I, followed not too distantly by "Are you two ALIVE?", which is running right next to "I thought you were in Spain?"

So, in a little FAQ of my own:  We have just landed in Las Vegas, NV!  We are totally alive and completely well, psyched about rock climbing and the continuation of the trip, and we are not quite in Spain.... but as of February 29th, we will be!

I have some catching up to do regarding our last few weeks!  It's actually taken me some time to figure out what and how to write this, not because it's of any real significance, but mostly because I was REALLY frustrated with the ending of our Hueco trip.  Conveniently, I've written a small drama to describe the last days of our trip, to give you a general idea of what was going on.

First, to introduce the characters:

Good guys:

Myself, clearly.  Picture a really pink person wearing all purple with huge forearms!  (I'm constantly sunburned, despite SPF 45 sunblock, I was gifted a million purple items for Christmas, and... well... it's my story, so just go with it.  Huge forearms it is.)

Marshall-Machine.  Imagine this character as a really hilarious guy, with excellent abs, who is a rock crushing machine.  Literally, rock turning to dust between his fingers.  Like a cross between Arnold and Vin Diesel.  Again, it's my story.  Just go with it.  :)

Chief Heerema.  A wise Native American man, Cheif Heerema has fought many ninjas and won.  He is the guru of ninja fighting.  

Bad guys:

Extremely Difficult Rock Climb.  A short, stumpy, but furiously difficult to defeat little rock ninja.  This guy looks easy to decipher, but will fool you 9 times out of 10.  Or, in my case, more like 100 times out of 100.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Evil Ego.  Said ego belongs to your wonderous heroine.  More of a vicious enemy than one might believe, it turns out Evil Ego is like 7 feet tall and weighs 350 pounds.  The linebacker of my brain.

Our drama commences in a little wilderness area you might have heard of called Hueco.  This area is beautiful!  In the wilds of Texas, it's populated by an endangered form of pig, and the parking lots are crowded with men in spandex and taco trucks. 

And so, our story commences.

I, of course, have been running the rocks like a serious gangster, putting those huge forearms to work.  Along with Marshall-Machine, I've been turning the rocks of Hueco into a pile of desert dust.  Cruising around the tiny little piles left in my wake, I run across a short and stumpy ninja-like rock. While I'm sizing up the competition, so to speak, Evil Ego sidles up next to me from around the corner.  Evil Ego LOVES drama.  Even more than drama, Evil Ego loves to instigate, and after instigating, she loves to be on the sidelines, talking crap.  In her little incessant voice, Evil Ego starts goading me, trying to get me to start a fight with Extremely Difficult Rock Climb, the little stumpy ninja.

"Look at how small and tiny he is!  You could totally take him.  Probably wouldn't even take you very long," Evil Ego pipes up.

"I'm not really sure I'm looking for that kind of fight.  He looks tough.  Looks like he's run off a few challengers, and I've never beaten a ninja before," I respond.

At that moment, challengers arrive, poke at Extremely Difficult Rock Climb, fail miserably in their attempt at conquest, and leave.  Only one man succeeds in besting this small and stumpy ninja.  This man is a BAMF in his own right, as proven by his last name, Heerema.  Cheif Heerema, being an extremely wise and positive leader, chimes in, "You can do it, Karissa!  I can attest, he's short.  It's practically already a done deal for you."  A cord of multiple colors is woven into his hair, and a small but regal feather flutters at it's end.  With one hand he absentmindedly brushes it back behind his neck. 

With Evil Ego in one ear and Cheif Heerema in the other, I saddle up to Extremely Difficult Rock Climb.  "You wanna play rough?" I ask-- and clearly, the answer is yes.  A battle between myself and Extremely Difficult Rock Climb ensues.  "PASSAT!"  "Kee-ya!"  "PAH!"  Without going into too much detail, suffice to say that I cannot best the short and stumpy ninja. Cheif  Heerema watches to one side during the fight, yelling out encouragement.  Evil Ego stands to the other, at times providing positive insights, at times sending out reasons I will lose.  After several sustained bouts, I finally succumb to defeat.

"Maybe not today, Extremely Difficult Rock Climb... but I'll get you.  I've got you in my sights now!"  I retort, and huff off, Cheif Heerema, Evil Ego, and Marshall-Machine in tow.

Back at camp after such a brutal beating, I debate going back for round two.  Evil Ego, having started the fight, now does her best to keep me intact, telling me "He's really strong!  Maybe you shouldn't go back."  I, not being very smart, really, retort," He's not that big!  I'm strong too!  Have you seen the size of these forearms?  I can take him."  And with that, having made up my mind, I head to bed to rest for the next day.

Sadly, however, the next days pass much the same as the first.  I do well against challengers who have not yet made it to ninja level, but every time I battle Extremely Difficult Rock climb, I lose just the same.  However, I stubbornly refuse to give up.  Each day I learn something new about Extremely Difficult Rock Climb's battle techniques, with the help of Cheif Heerema.  He is precise in his beta: "Karissa, do not grab there.  Grab there, with your finger here, exactly.  Just so."  Each day I tell myself I CAN succeed, building up my confidence levels.  Surprisingly, with each piece of positive self-talk, Evil Ego grows in size as well.  She is now well over 8 feet, and getting bigger.  Wrapped up in my own world, I don't even notice.

Eventually, the final days of the trip to Hueco arrive.  I have very few days of battle remaining.  I stomp around the few rocks which remain intact in Hueco, but my heart isn't in the game.  All I can think about is Extremely Difficult Rock Climb.  Finally, the last day arrives.  Along with Marshall-Machine, I head up in the direction of my nemesis, stopping along the way so that Marshall-Machine can battle his very own ninja.

Marshall-Machine warms up, limbering up his rippling abs and arms.  Round One against the ninja!  Marshall-Machine is defeated.  He steps back, takes a breath, eats a banana, and heads back in for Round Two.  He fights!  He yells!  He is defeated.  "I'm going to rest for a short while.  I'll watch you whip this Extremely Difficult Rock Climb, and afterwards, I'll come back and be all inspired and I'll get this guy," he tells me.  I agree.

We move quickly up to where we know we'll find Extremely Difficult Rock Climb, and sure enough, there the stumpy guy is.  Same as always.  I, along with Evil Ego and Marshall-Machine get ready for the fight.  I am confident, and upon entering the fight, make mistakes.  But I don't give up!  I fight!  5 rounds go by, and still I am defeated against this short and stumpy ninja.  I begin to feel terrible.  Evil Ego is looking a little sick.  So we take another breather, head back to the ninja Marshall-Machine is destined to defeat, and watch some serious ass-kicking.

Marshall-Machine takes off his shirt.  He takes off his shoes.  And BAREFOOT, with a mighty roar, he defeats the beast in Round Two!

Elated, I rush back to Extremely Difficult Rock Climb and fight again!!!  (Is this starting to sound redundant?  I told you I wasn't very smart.)  I am defeated yet again, and filled with wrath, turn blindly to another nearby almost-ninja rock and begin to unleash my anger.  I throw myself at this smaller, weaker version of Extremely Difficult Rock Climb, in a fury, repeatedly, over and over and over... and at the end of the day, I must admit defeat.  Turning to my right, I spy Evil Ego, lying on the ground, covered in dust, bruised and broken.

"What.... have.... you done... to me....?"  Evil Ego gasps.

"But," I answer, "Why are you injured?  What has happened to you?"

"While you were taking a beating, so was I......." Evil Ego can barely get the last words out of her mouth.  "I........am..........  your evil............ twin..........."

And so I must accept two defeats that day....  both the defeat in the fight against Extremely Difficult Rock Climb, and the defeat of knowing that Evil Ego was part of me, that Evil Ego was in fact my Ego.

Dah-dah-dah-Dummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm........................

And the curtain falls.



OK seriously.  Yes, I did just take like an entire HOUR to write out that RIDICULOUS section of blog that YOU just took the time to read!  But anyway, I have to make fun of myself, because otherwise I'm an a-hole.  I put a lot of time and effort into a really hard rock climb, and in the end, I had to accept defeat and failure.  I was surprised by how frustrated and angry it made me.  When we climb, part of the journey and the attempt is mental.  If you don't honestly believe in your own ability, to do a climb or grab a hold or make a move, your subconscious will hold you back.  You can never succeed if you don't believe you can.  So I'd spent a lot of energy convincing myself that I could and would do this rock climb, and I was emotional when I didn't.

I know.

Being emotional over a rock climb is STUPID.  They don't matter!  But I felt it anyway.

So.  While the ending of the trip to Hueco was not as successful in terms of number or climb as I had hoped it would be, it was extremely educational for me.  I'm fighting to keep this ego in check.  :)  And to understand that my failure was not necessarily about ability, but about setting attainable goals.

Blah.  Enough of that boring stuff.  Want to watch an excellent video made by Leslie Timms of Can-Am Flight 5.14?  It's a video of Hueco.  I dance in it.  It's awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HVZmTarcqS0

And, some spray buddy space, since they won't really talk about it:  Kyle, Leslie and Jason killed it.  Jason did two V9s, Leslie did a V10, and Kyle, recovering from an injury, killed the V6 and V7 grades, despite shoulder pain.  My friends are badasses.

After the end of Hueco, we drove to Albuquerque, and then I flew to Portland and spent a week at my grandmother's house.  It was awesome.  I didn't have any internet, so you had to wait longer for this blog-piece!  Then I flew back to Albuquerque, watched a play that Miranda and Renee (Jason's sister and step-mother) acted in (my inspiration for that ridiculousness above), and then we drove to Flagstaff.  We stayed with Rayne Zaughsome (who is as awesome, perhaps even awesomer, than his name implies), and today arrived in Vegas!  We're staying with a friend named John, and will be meeting up with Chief Heerema and his super-awesome wife for more rock crushing today. 

And then, eventually, I'll write another silly blog.

Did you really make it to the end of this one?  Kudos.  :)  And Happy Valentine's Day!