Flamenco

While in Madrid, Peter and I caught a flamenco show. Despite knowing little about the genre or specific themes of flamenco, it exuded an undeniably compelling passion and was mesmerizing. The women dancers' skirts were absolutely beautiful and amazing to watch as their steps would crescendo into an almost firecracker-like explosion of steps. The male dancer was fascinating as well as you could clearly see all his footwork that the women's skirts obscured. The other thoughts I had during the performance was that the dancers had great physical endurance and sturdy shoes.

The Grouse Grind

You know the saying, you're never a tourist in your own town? As a response to this, nearly every summer I make a mental list of Vancouver things to do that I haven't ever done. I usually don't get around to the list due to other commitments, but this past Wednesday I did a big one:

My fellow hikers: Katie, Stefan and Honza.

The Grouse Grind is a hiking trail up Grouse Mountain. Nicknamed "Mother Nature's Stairmaster," the trail is 2.9km, during which you climb 853m in elevation. I consider myself to be in fairly good physical shape, but the grind was much tougher than I expected; this surprised me a bit because, well, don't tourists do it?

I was lulled into a false sense that the Grind would be easy because everyone always says that the Grouse Grind is "just a bunch of stairs." Essentially they're right, but the steps are not evenly spaced like a staircase, and it's actually pretty rugged including rocks, small boulders, and tree roots. I'm about average height (5'4"), but some points had me taking steps that were up to my hips.

I think we started out pretty fast; for the first third of the hike I got a massive head rush which left me feeling pretty dizzy. Reaching the markers, however, was super encouraging and gave me a rush of adrenaline to continue on. My head rush subsided by the half-way mark, and the trail seemed to actually get easier as we went.

Our time was 74 minutes--pretty good for a first time, I think. It was challenging, but I liked it way better than doing an elliptical or stairmaster at the gym. Though my quads burned while I was climbing it, my legs didn't ache at all the next day. I'd love to give it another try and see if I can shave some time off.

The Grouse Grind is one of those things all good Vancouverites should do at least once. The Grind might be a little more physically demanding than the average tourist bargained for, so in light of that, I wouldn't recommend this as a tourist attraction. You can still get to the top of Grouse via the Gondola. If you're visiting Vancouver and into hiking, or just in good physical shape, I would say go for it as you'll be rewarded by a stunning view of the city below once you reach the top and can get a celebratory drink.

Spanish Cuisine

After what seemed like a particularly wet June, summer has finally arrived in Vancouver. The warm, sunny weather has been wonderful, but it has had a negative effect on this little blog of mine. After spending eight-or-so hours in front of a computer at my office at work, the last thing I want to do is sit inside in front of a computer some more.

Before arriving in Spain, I knew very little about Spanish cuisine except for paella. Excited about trying new things (like octopus and sardines!), of my favourite dishes I tried (way less adventurous than the previous two), was melon with Iberian ham.

Peter and I tried this dish in Barcelona after checking out Gaudí's La Sagrada Familia and Casa Battló. The weather in Spain was hot (but fortunately not humid), so the cool melon was refreshing and I liked the combination of sweet, but not overly sugary, with the savoury ham.

As the weather in Vancouver in similarly sunny and hot, I thought I'd recreate the dish as part of dinner. The melon in Spain wasn't one I recognized, but tasted like a cross between cantaloupe and honeydew; this time I chose the former. Then I substituted the Iberian ham for Canadian prosciutto. Maybe not authentic, but delicious!

Madrid

Before leaving, I had trouble visualizing what our vacation in Spain would be like. While there may not be any one architectural feature that has come to symbolize the city, Lonely Planet travel writer Anthony Ham suggests that Plaza Mayor may be "the one image that was unmistakably Madrid."*

When we arrived at Plaza Mayor at mid-day on our first day, however, we were immediately stunned at how empty one of Madrid's premier plazas felt. At first we thought it was because of lunch. Then, the next day we went to the Prado, and even though we had bought tickets online in advance, there was no wait with other advance ticket holders. The following day we went to the Museo Reina Sofia, which houses Picasso's Guernica, and we just walked in. In fact, the whole museum was pretty tranquil; granted Guernica is many times larger than the Mona Lisa, but there was no Louvre-style crowd pushing to the front for a glimpse of the canvas. There was a primary school group sitting cross-legged in front of the painting, but otherwise the roomful of visitors was easy to navigate and I could study Picasso's work for as long as I wanted.

On our second night we decided to eat at this restaurant, La Pizarra, that looked nice and had a clever sign. We arrived about 9 o'clock. Knowing that the Spanish eat dinner later, we thought that we were early. Nevertheless, we ordered a regional wine and a few dishes to share. The cuisine was Spanish fusion and delicious. We ordered guacamole with plantain and yucca chips, curried octopus with green beans, and black rice risotto, and shared a Spanish dessert--tarta tres quesos--which is cheese cake, but not cheesecake. At the end of our meal, the chef offered us shots. We chose two Spanish herb-based liqueurs; mine tasted like anise, and Peter's tasted really like dandelion and was really strong.

We were still nearly the only ones (except one or two single people having drinks at the bar) when we were finished. As we settled, we chatted with the chef. He said that despite the worrisome economic situation in Spain, the sun still shines.

The sense of emptiness was a bit eerie, but at the same time it was cool to feel like we had the city to ourselves. I wondered if maybe I shouldn't be comparing Madrid tourism to Paris. Maybe their tourism numbers were drastically different. Paris is, after all, the number one tourist destination in the world--15.6 million people visited the city of lights last year. But Spain is the fourth most visited country by international tourist arrivals, and my superficial research suggests that Madrid is the most visited city in Spain. In the end, we concluded that thesense of emptiness was likely due to the current global economic situation.


*Anthony Ham, Lonely Planet Madrid Encounter, 44.