Amazing Extremadura

Let me tell you a little about my trip this past weekend......
Early Thursday morning Lola (Spanish coworker), Diana (American coworker) and I hopped in Lola's car and took off for Extremadura. The countryside was beautiful- green and mountainous. We stopped in some tiny towns on the way, some with as little as 500 inhabitants. We took a walk through some of the countryside and stopped at the medieval town of Trujillo. I really enjoyed this city. It was a hilltown, with the castle of Trujillo at the highest point. I definetely recommend visiting this city if you ever get the chance.
Finally we reached our destination- a small mountain town of 2000 inhabitants called Aldeanueva de la Vera. It is an amazing little town surrounded by mountain streams and waterfalls. That evening we had dinner at one of the few village restaurants with some friends of Lola. I got to try some Extremaduran specialities- magro (pork in a sauce with fried peppers.....DELICIOUS!) and migas (little fried pieces of bread mixed with egg....I would compare it to dry stuffing).
Afterwards we went bar hopping and I got to know some of Lola's friends. I was particularly fond of two of her friends that were brothers- Jesus and Dani. They were so hilarious and energetic and they spoke excellent English (both have spent extended time in the US). Dani owns a tobacco farm in the area and seems to be well off. He also seemed to have a bit of power in the village....he was able to convince a bar to reopen at 2am just for us, etc. Diana and I started calling him "The Godfather", but he thought that sounded like a name for an older person (he's 33) so we called him "The Godcousin". He got a kick out of that.
We (about 10 of us) ended up all going back to Dani's house and dancing around until 5:30am!
The next day Diana went to Salamanca, a city a few hours north of us, but I stayed with Lola at her apartment. Lola's apartment was amazing! The view from the balcony was breathtaking....a picture-perfect view of the mountains.
We spent the day walking around the Aldeanueva de la Vera...we went to the highest point of the village and it was beautiful! There were lavender bushes everywhere, and cherry and almond trees were blossoming.....it was magical.
On Saturday I saw an amazing sight-a traditional village wedding that seemed to be right out of the movie "The Godfather"....the entire wedding party marching through the village with a band in tow. Lola told me that the groom and his mother (followed by friends, family and the band) march to the house of the family of the bride. They are basically picking her up to go the the church. It was a sight, I tell ya.
Since its such a small town, I was definetely the only foreigner there. In fact, it got around that I was there because on my last night in town I met a villager who said "so you are the American visitor they (the townspeople) have been talking about".
Yesterday, before we went back home to Seville, Lola took me around to see some of the other mountain towns. The towns Garganta de la Olla and Guijo were especially impressive and when I walked through the streets, I felt like I was in another century.
All in all it was an amazing trip and it was nice to get out of the city and breathe some fresh mountain air for a few days. I look forward to visiting that precious (and relatively unknown) area of Spain again soon!

Elections in Spain are happening this weekend so there is a ton of PP and PSOE propaganda EVERYWHERE. There is a debate between Zapatero (PSOE- the left party-currently in power) and Rajoy (PP-the right party) tonight. I may watch it, although the debates here aren't as interesting as the ones in the US. If you are unfamiliar with Spanish politics, there is a great article that was published by Newsweek about it that you can read here.