A weekend away from Almeria,

So Friday afternoon me, two of the roomies, and two of their girlfriends took off to the Murcia Province of Spain. At the time I thought we were going to the city of Murcia but soon into the trip I discovered that we were headed to small pueblo located near Murcia, Cieza. The drive was interesting for me for several reasons. Five of us, four women and me the sole male, were crammed into your typical Europeans, gas conscience car….in this case the French made Peugeot. Of course the conversation was a flurry of Spanish being thrown across the car with Spanish music in the background…..this kind of scenario creates what I like to think of a scenery overload for the ears and the brain. Basically you have to make the decision on what you want to know……do you want to listen to the lyrics in the hope that you too can sing along in the song or do you want to venture a try a deciphering a conversation and then trying to bring in your input in some kind of Spanglish. Usually I choose neither and just listened and only answered when I heard my name.

The landscape started as the usual Almeria desert with large mountains in the background that are equally as dry…..in addition greenhouses scatter along the landscape for 70km outside Almeria, sometimes resembling a sea of plastic or at other times a kilt with some patches of tierra and others of plastico. Soon things start to slowly make the transition into a green landscape with valleys of orchards and mountains with trees intermixed with large rock outcroppings. To my desert perceived eyes it was a shock to actually see a river, pumping out of some unknown source invisible from afar. The town of Cieza sits below two huge (one bigger than other) rock outcroppings with one topped by some sort of hold watchtower or fortress. The city is surrounded by an old wall from another time and a substantial river flowing along two sides of the outer wall.

Friday night we went out and out more than Ty likes to go out…….More tomorrow, need to do homework!!!!
PEACE AND LOVE
TY