Villanova i Geltru

This morning I woke up bright and early for my Valentine! It was quite sweet and very appreciated. Thank you Ben. ;-)

Then I went on a field trip with my Latin America class! I felt really bad for my professor, because only 8 out of about 17 kids showed up for the field trip. It really was not that early (9:40 am?), and about 4 hours out of your life. I just hate when people are rude, and I think it is really rude to not show up like that, especially when there is no way of getting in contact with the teacher to let them know if you are running late. Whatever, I'm glad it was a small group, it made it more interesting anyway.

We took a train to the town of Villanova i Geltru. It is one stop south of Sitges, so about 40 minutes on the train. It's a quaint little town on the ocean that actually has 50,000 inhabitants. We met up with my professor's long time friend, who acted as tour guide for the city.

Our first stop was El Museo de Ferrocarril, or the Railway Museum. The reason this town is important is that it was one of the main trading hubs that Catalunya had with the new world, namely Cuba. It was home to many indianos, or those Spaniards who went to the New World, made lots of money and then came home to do things with said money. The trains were important in connecting the city with the other big cities along the coast. We got to climb around in models of old trains.

We walked over to a library/museum. This is a museum of a little bit of everything. There were some photos from Egypt from the early 1900s, a child mummy, and Egyptian ceramics in one room. Then the next had Picasso and Casas paintings. It was an interesting mish mash of things, but the building itself was really interestingly designed. Pictures are coming.

Afterwards we walked towards the old city of Villanova. We saw a lot of the houses of the indianos, and saw how the streets in this part of the city became longer and narrower. We went even further back into the original city. It was really pretty today (lots of sun) so the photos are nice as well.

Then we went and tasted the wine that this city continues to export to Cuba to this day. It is vino dulce. Why yes, it is QUITE dulce. It was like drinking amaretto or some equally thick, sweet alcohol. I could only drink half of my little-bigger-than-a-shot-glass cup of it. We also had some potato chips with lemon and pepper that were yummy, and some meats (JAMON) and olives too. My professor's friend had his wife and baby come to saw hi. His baby is about 6 months and it named Francesc. SO cute. He let me hold him for awhile, but he liked being passed back and forth. So adorable.

He told our group how during Carnaval, there is a celebration called "La Guerra de los Caramelos." Caramelos are candies, like little fruit flavored candies. Apparently, everyone just throws these little candies at each other until the streets are inches deep in candies. Mmm. They used to throw sugar covered almonds, but have switched to candies. Good choice.

We got on the train and journeyed home. Everyone was so sleepy, we all kept nodding off. I got home and relaxed a bit, did some work and the like. Tina and I went grocery shopping and she showed me the way to BEAUTIFUL. It is called Veritas, and it is a small but amazing Spanish-Trader Joes-esque store. SO GOOD. I was able to find black beans there (harder than expected), and they have tofu and veggie burgers and granola. YUMMERS. I can't wait to go back.

The girls and I cooked and then hung out. Tina made a delicious chicken noodle soup. I am again falling asleep at the computer so tonight was not a night for going out, but rather for sleeping. I think tomorrow we are going to try to do something really fun/semi-touristy. I'm excited!

Besos