Carnival

This weekend was Carnival in Martos. This is a fiesta that usually occurs in February before Lent. It usually involves a public celebration or parade and a street party. Everyone dresses up during the celebrations like we do for Halloween. The town gathers at the Fuente Nueve (new fountain) in the town center. Venders were selling kebabs and potatoes, a band was playing and everyone was hanging-out and having a great time. It was fun to see everyone together and to see the creativity in the costumes. We liked that many people would join with their friends and wear the same costume or costumes that went together. Check out the pictures below, more on picasa.

David's students- Lady Gaga

David's students- The Smurfettes

The old couple

Alice and Wonderland plus other costumes

Bull Fighter Crew

The Lottery

Mop Heads

Lisbon, Portugal

Last weekend we spent 3 nights in Portugal! We have been wanting to visit Lisbon since we arrived and after a 7 hour car ride we were finally there. We spent Saturday morning running through the town and enjoyed some great views. We visited some great cafes and enjoyed some good coffee and sweets. We visited the Maritime Museum and Cultural Museum, both very interesting. The Jerónimos Monastery and Santa Maria Church
built in 1501 were both beautiful to walk through. Here are a few pictures from our visit. You will find all of our pictures if you click on the slide show at the top which will direct you to our Picasso with a link to each place we have visited.

Jerónimos Monastery and Santa Maria Church
built in 1501, world heritage site
Manueline (~Gothic) style architecture

Belém Tower
Manueline style, built 1519 as a defense at the mouth of the Tagus River, had a roll in the Age of Discoveries, commissioned by King John II, world heritage site

Church and Monastery

Sitting at the Praca do Comercio, Tagus River joins the Atlantic

Almería and Cabo de Gata

Last week we had our 2nd snow. I love getting to see snow in the winter, but I hate being cold and having to walk everywhere in it! Thankfully we live in a place that doesn't get too cold most of the time. Therefore, for the weekend we decided it was time to head down to the coast in hopes of warmer weather. We chose to visit Almería for a night and then to do a drive around Cabo de Gata, a natural park before heading home. The weekend was great. We woke up Saturday to very cold, windy weather in Martos and headed to Almería which was probably 10 degrees warmer. First stop was to find food, which for some reason is always harder than it sounds. We walked around looking for a place that served paella, a typical Spanish dish with rice and fish, since we were at the coast. We could not find this popular dish anywhere so we settled for wine and tapas. After eating we went to visit the cathedral, castle, and la alcazaba. We also visited a neighborhood that was recommended on our map only to realize it may not be the best neighborhood when we stumbled upon a group of around 12 boys who started a fire inside a house that was abandoned and were throwing rocks, trash, etc. into it to keep it going. I thought we were going to be attacked by this group but thankfully they were distracted by their work of destruction. We enjoyed our time there and even spent some time in the cafe reading and studying Spanish. We've learned a lot, but still have so far to go. Enjoy the pictures below and feel free to click on the slide show pictures above to be directed to Picasso in order to view all of our albums.

Almería

La Alcazaba

Drive around Cabo de Gata- very windy and cold!

Cabo de Gata

Yep, its on fire! I was taking the picture discreetly!

La Alcazaba

La Alcazaba

Had to know this was a bad idea- 2 seconds later my shoes were no longer dry.

Úbeda and Baeza

A couple of weekends ago we took a day trip to these 2 towns. Both of these towns are less than 40,000 people, but they are known as World Heritage Sites. They have some of the best preserved Italian Renaissance architecture in Spain. We had a great day of walking around and enjoying the beauty of this place.

Life as we know it!

Martos is such a great town. We love living here mostly because we truly feel at home here. We feel surrounded by friends and family here everyday! It’s a beautiful place to be. After we returned to Martos our friend and co-worker, Conchi asked if it would be ok for a church to do a service to honor David’s dad, as everyone knew he had passed away and they wanted to honor his life. We agreed and they had the service for him at a small church here on Tuesday. I was moved when I went into the church and saw around 25 friends and family who had come to the service. The service was short and I didn’t understand what was being said, but looking around and seeing all the people there for us, to show their love and support spoke wonderful things to me. We are so blessed to have friends here and to have people who help us out in so many ways and who truly take care of us. This is life in Martos and we absolute love it!

Juanma and Fatima

 

Our old roomies- Ruben & Guillermo

Sergio & Javier- David's co-workers and friends

Lucia- friend and co-worker

Leo- friend and co-worker

Our lovely Martos