A Little Piece of Kentucky in Madrid!

On Tuesday, September 23, I woke up and began my usual morning routine here in Madrid.  I hit the snooze button on my alarm a couple of times, I joined Theresa and Maria in the kitchen for a breakfast of toast, strawberry jam, and crappy coffee, and I returned to my room to finish up my homework, get dressed for the day, and of course, check Facebook.  It was just an average Madrid day in the life of Sarah Nash until I saw a Facebook post that would change the trajectory of my night and of Theresa'a life (this is intentionally over-dramatic, but it's actually true).  What Facebook post did I see?  Well, it's rather simple actually.  Ben Sollee posted a picture with the caption, "Muchas Gracias Castellon!  What a fun show in such a beautiful space! #euroben14 Pic by Carlos Taberna."

These were my immediate thoughts...
"Castellon...I think that's a Spanish city."
(go to Google maps and search for Castellon)
"YES!  It is in Spain.  I wonder if Ben Sollee is touring around Spain right now...Wait!  I wonder if he will play a show in Madrid!"
(go to Google and search for Ben Sollee Tour)
"He does have a show here!  When is it?"
"September 23...That's...TONIGHT!  He's playing in Madrid tonight!!"
"You have to convince Theresa to come with you!"

So, I went to Theresa's door, knocked, and casually said, "Theresa, do you have any plans for tonight?"  Because Theresa and I have lived together for such a long time and because we are practically the same person, she responded with, "No, but I feel like you have an idea.  What's up?"  "DoYouWantToGoToAConecertTonightByAGuyNamedBenSolleeWhoIsACellistFromKentuckyAndIsReallyAmazing?" I blurted out.  "Uhh...sure!" Theresa responded with a smile on her face.

Things you should know about Ben Sollee:
1) He is an incredible musician and if you are unfamiliar with his music, don't worry, I attach some links to his songs later in this blog post.   He's an extraordinarily talented cellist who perfectly blends folk, bluegrass, jazz, and pop music together.  His music is truly one-of-a-kind.
2) HE'S FROM KENTUCKY!  And as most of you know, I love Kentucky.  In my completely unbiased opinion, Kentucky is the best state in the U.S.
3) He's a kick-ass activist.  He is extremely passionate about environmental issues, particularly mountaintop removal, and frequently tours on his bike...WITH A CELLO.  How freaking awesome is that!?

So, with Theresa on board, I followed the link from his website and tried to purchase two tickets.  After trying numerous times with numerous different debit cards and getting denied each time, I started to panic.  So I did what I usual do when I panic...I texted my mom.  She's incredible and agreed to purchase the tickets for us with her credit card.  She sent us the confirmation email and I printed out the tickets.  I was so incredibly excited that I listened to Ben Sollee on repeat for the rest of the day.

Sign inside of the club!

After another delicious dinner with Maria, Theresa and I started to get ready.  The name of the venue was The Moby Dick Club (so great!) and it was about a 30-minute metro ride from our apartment.  Because the directions looked fairly confusing, we decided to leave about an hour before the opening act to make sure that we got there on time.  Well, it was a good thing that we did because per usual, Theresa and I ended up extremely lost and just wandering around aimlessly.  Before we left the apartment, I used Google maps to screenshot the directions, but once we got off at the metro stop, we couldn't find a single street name that matched what my directions said.  We ended up walking about 10 minutes in the wrong direction, turning around, and walking back to the metro stop to reevaluate.  After talking for a few minutes, we decided to try a different route.  We walked through a couple massive intersections and around some roundabouts and somehow, miraculously ended up on the street that we needed to be on for about step 8 of our directions.  We both agreed that we must have been sprinkled with some kind of navigation and travel fairy-dust because we almost always end up where we need to be.  We followed the last couple of steps of the directions and appeared in front of The Moby Dick Club right before the opening act started.

Sef, the opening act, performing!

When we arrived, a friend Amanda from Sacred Heart (my high school) and SLU was also there and waiting outside.  We were both extremely excited that Ben Sollee was playing in Madrid and we decided that we were going to make sure that he knew we were from Kentucky by the end of the show.  The club itself was super great.  It was decorated like the interior of a ship with wooden floors and walls and anchors and sails everywhere.  The stage was to the left when you entered and there was standing room only.  The opening act, Sef, was extremely interesting.  He sang about half of his songs in Spanish and about half of them in English.  There was one song about a cat and at one point he just let out this long, loud, "MEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW" and I thought I was never going to stop laughing.  It was so incredibly random and strange.

Ben Sollee rocking out on his cello!

Because a couple of people went to the bar before Ben Sollee began his set, Theresa and I were able to wiggle our way into the center of the front row.  After just a few minutes, the beautiful person that is Ben Sollee walked out on stage (in Chacos!)  He began his show with the song, "Whole Lot to Give."  Listen to it.  Right now.  Here, I'll even give you the link so literally all you have to do is CLICK HERE!  I don't think I could even begin to put into words how much this song spoke to me.  It reminded me that I was exactly where I needed to be and challenged me to embrace the uncomfortableness and tension that I have been feeling since arriving in Madrid.  It encouraged me to continue to explore my life path and to answer with a resounding "YES!" when I figure out what my life's passion is and hear the call to answer it.

For Theresa, she says this song was a slap-in-the-face and a wake-up call to think about what really nourishes her and what she wants to spend the rest of her life doing.  I'm now thrilled to say that after a long discernment process, she has decided to switch her major from Physical Therapy to Theology so that she can follow her heart and live her dream of listening to people's stories, sharing her own, making tea and coffee, and crafting.  She is a beautifully bright light is this world of so much brokenness and suffering and I can't wait to continue to walk this journey of life with her.  She is such a blessing in my life and I can't wait to witness how she touches the lives of so many others as she embraces and pursues her life's call!  LOVE YOU.

Us at the concert!

Other Ben Sollee songs that you must listen to:
"Electrified" CLICK HERE
"A Few Honest Words" CLICK HERE
"A Change is Gonna Come" CLICK HERE
"Letting Go" CLICK HERE
Basically, all of them, but you can start off with the 5 that I have suggested in this blog (:

Us with Ben after the concert!

The concert was phenomenal and Amanda and I did get to tell him that we were from Kentucky!  At one point when he was talking between songs, he said, "I'm a singing cellist from Kentucky" and Amanda and I screamed.  His response was "Wow!  Maybe we have some people here from Kentucky!?  Or maybe we just have some people here who really like bourbon."  It was perfect.  We even got to meet him after the show which was incredible.  He's such a humble guy who seemed genuinely excited to talk about music and Kentucky with us after the show.  And he gives incredible hugs which was a bonus.  It was such a blessing for Ben Sollee to bring a little piece of Kentucky to Madrid.  It was a perfect night and I think it's safe to say that I am still on a little bit of a concert high as I write this blog post one month later.

Hugs from Madrid,
Sarah

Here's a video from the show!

"Electrified" by Ben Sollee

Avila and THE FINGER

Selfie in front of the Royal Palace!

On Sunday, after our day-trip to Toledo, Theresa and I decided to explore the lovely city of Madrid together.  Because we are hoping to travel around Europe during most of the weekends this semester, it is important for both of us to explore Madrid as much as we can during the weekends that we are actually here.  Our first stop was the Palacio Real, the Royal Palace, which is actually fairly close to our apartment.  As expected, the Palace was gigantic.  I wasn't particularly impressed.  While each room was decorated in a different color, the furniture, the curtains, and the walls were all covered with an identical silk fabric.  Theresa definitely enjoyed her time wandering around the halls of the Palace more than I did, but we did get some decoration inspiration for our apartment! (Just kidding!)

SO BIG.

After spending a couple hours at the Palace, Theresa and I found a supermarket and grabbed some lunch for a picnic in a nearby park.  BREAD.  It is so incredibly delicious here in Spain.  Spaniards eat bread with almost every meal and every supermarket sells fresh-baked bread throughout the day.  To save money, Theresa and I have been buying a loaf of bread (0.39 euros), a pack of cheese (1.50ish euros) and 2 pieces of fruit (0.60ish euros) for our lunches.  1) It's delicious, 2) It is filling, and 3) We have saved a ton of money so far.   

Cinco montaditos (5% of the
challenge completed!)

There's also this super great restaurant called Cien Montaditos (100 small sandwiches) that we visit frequently because there is one near SLU and one close to our apartment.  They have super cheap and yummy tinto de verano (summer red wine) and on Wednesdays and Sundays, all sandwiches are 1 euro.  The first time we ate there, we decided that between the two of us, we were going to try all 100 sandwiches during the semester.  Well...we are only halfway through the semester and we definitely could still meet our goal, but I don't think either us care enough about the challenge to eat the 25+ sandwiches that have either goat cheese or anchovies on them.  We also visited San Gines again because...well...chocolate and churros.  Do I need to say more?

Selfie at San Gines! 

After another full week of classes, well, not really full because we both have Fridays off, Theresa and I decided to take another day-trip, this time to Avila.  We both wanted to visit Avila because we are both inspired by the life of St. Teresa of Avila.  We looked up train times online and headed to the train station a solid hour before the train departed to purchase tickets only to realize that we were at the wrong train station.  So, in perfect Theresa and Sarah fashion, we sat down on some random chairs, had a life conversation, reevaluated our plan, and decided to go to a coffee shop to get some homework done so that we could actually travel to Avila the following day.

 

We made it!

After doing a little bit more research about what train station Theresa and I were actually supposed to go to, we prepared to actually make the journey to Avila.  When we got off at the metro stop, Theresa and I were utterly confused about where to purchase our tickets and catch our train because the metro stop and the train station were somehow connected in one gigantic building.  After attempting and failing to purchase tickets at one kiosk, a woman who obviously recognized that we were panicking, pointed us up an escalator to where we actually needed to be.  Looking at her watch, Theresa remarked, "Sarah, I don't think we are going to be able to catch this train."  We had 6 minutes to purchase our tickets, find our platform, and hop on a train.  Miraculously, I clicked on the right button on the kiosk, inserted my debit card which actually worked, and we ran to the platform to literally get on the train 30 seconds before it departed.  Laughing and shaking our head in disbelief, Theresa and I found our seats and started to plan our day using our Rick Steve's Spain guidebook.

While Theresa was reading all about the "must-see" and "must-do" things in Avila, I happened to briefly glance at the map included in the guidebook and exclaimed, "HER FINGER!?"  "What?"  Theresa respond, obviously confused as to why I had just blurted out those two words on a fairly crowded train.  "Look," I said as I pointed to a location on the map that literally just said, "St. Teresa's finger."  "WHAT!?" Theresa retorted as we both started laughing.  We weren't exactly sure what that meant, but we knew we were going to have to figure it out by seeing it for ourselves!  Avila was an incredibly beautiful city.  We entered the old city wall through an extraordinary arch and immediately made our way to the cathedral.  Because we have seen so many incredible cathedrals and churches during our time in Europe, I found this one to be rather average.  Honestly, the churches in Germany were so unbelievable that we set ourselves up for a little bit of a letdown since we saw those first.

After the cathedral, we had the longest lunch of our lives at an outdoor restaurant.  Really, I think we sat at the table for around two and a half hours.  We both ordered the menu del dia, the menu of the day, where we had our choice of a drink, a salad, an entree, and a dessert or coffee.  The salad was phenomenal.  Our entrees however were a completely different story.  I ordered what I thought was steak and Theresa ordered what she thought was ribs.  They were so strange looking that it took us both eating half of the other person's meal before we realized that we needed to switch plates.  It was strange, and neither of us were feeling that great afterwards.

Chapel where St. Teresa was born.

After our strange and long lunch, we decided that it was time to visit the Convent of St. Teresa and see her finger.  WHAT.  The convent was actually really cool.  We visited the church and got to spend some time in the side chapel that was built on top of the exact location where she was born.

SIDE NOTE: The "candles" in the churches that I wanted to light in memory of my grandma are now electric in almost every church that we have visited so far.  Such a disappointment.  You literally stick a coin inside of a machine and the light in a plastic candle turns on. ):

After the church, Theresa and I may our way to the gift shop where the finger of St. Teresa was proudly on display along with other relics.  It was a rather small room, but I told Theresa that I was going to make my way very slowly around it in order to prepare myself for seeing an almost 500 year old finger.  I honestly had no idea what to expect.  I didn't know if the finger was actually going to be visible or if there would just be a sign with a black box that said something like "here lies the finger of St. Teresa of Avila."  Well, it was definitely a finger...a real, physical, visible, OLD finger with an emerald ring on it.  Her finger was encased in a a glass cylinder on a gold pedestal and all we could do was look at each other, look at the finger, and repeat.  We left feeling incredibly odd and slightly slap-happy from seeing the actual finger of St. Teresa.

The last room of the Center.
SO BEAUTIFUL.

Next, we made our way to the Mysticism Interpretation Centre, a suggested destination by our trusted friend Rick Steves.  When we walked in, I attempted to talk to the woman at the information, and although there was a challenging language barrier, she was able to communicate to us that the entire center was in Spanish.  She then offered us a large packet of information that described each room and each piece of art from the center in English.  After deliberating with Theresa, we decided that we would use the packet and make our way through the center.  What happened next is probably a "this-is-only-funny-to-Sarah-and-Theresa" kind of story, but basically, we absolutely lost it.  We were the only ones in the entire building (other than that woman at the front desk) and we thought we would take turns reading paragraphs from the packet of information.  I can't even tell you what sparked the hilarity of the situation because I don't remember, but after less than two pages, we were both crying from laughing so hard and unable to make it through an entire sentence without loosing it again.  We both felt like complete failures because this was supposed to be an extremely moving and spiritual journey to achieve greater knowledge of ourselves and a closer union with God.  Luckily, we gained our composure by the time we reached the second room and the rest of our time there was beautiful.  Actually, the laughing was really beautiful too.  I definitely think that laughing is a spiritual exercise that brings us closer to God and to those in our lives.  My favorite part of the center was the room where we are challenged to action and to return to the world.  At the end of our journey, we were left with this quote:

"The world waits for us below.  We are reminded that Action, not Transformation

is the ultimate end of mysticism.  Transformation is the penultimate requirement 

step that enables us to transcend our experience into works."

More blog posts coming soon!  I'm slowly but surely getting caught up!
Peace and love to you!
Sarah

Holy Toledo!

For our first trip in Spain, Theresa and I decided that we would take am easy day trip to Toledo.  With classes in full-swing, the weekend definitely sneaked up on us and as we traveled by train to our destination, we realized that we had severely under-planned for our trip.  While I was the one who had originally suggested Toledo, I really just wanted to see the painting "El entierro del conde de Orgaz" by El Greco.  Other than that, I had no idea what Toledo would offer us.  As it turned out, neither did Theresa or Erik!  We decided to embrace the unknown and just wing it.                                                                                                                                                                                                               When we exited the train station, we tried to orient ourselves so that we could walk to the city center.  After wandering around for a little bit and giving up on our crappy 1 euro map, we found the first of a series of street signs that directed us in the right direction.  The first thing that we noticed about Toledo is that it is on a hill...a big hill.  Maria, our lovely host mom, warned us of this hill, but as we approached the bottom, I found it necessary to mentally prepare myself for the massive climb ahead.  Luckily for me, we took our time at the bottom of the hill because it was absolutely stunning and the perfect opportunity for some photos!  

A street in Toledo with the cathedral
in the background

As we entered through the city gate, we were immediately met with stairs...a lot of them.  Erik, Theresa and I looked at each other with a "let's do this" look and started the journey up the hill.  Once we reached the top of the stairs, we were met with ANOTHER set of stairs.  So, after catching our breath for a minute or two, we headed up the second set of stairs.  Once we reached the top of this set, we stared in disbelief at a road with an extremely steep incline.  Laughing together as we continued our climb, we finally made it to the stop and decided to make the cathedral our first stop.                                                                                                                                                                              

I don't even know where to begin when talking about Toledo's cathedral.  It was massive and beautiful and we spent almost three hours just walking around and taking everything in.  We decided to get the audio-tour which was a wonderful idea because it gave us a lot of information and let us listen to some monastic chanting as we wandering around.  At one point during our tour, Erik leaned on an unsteady lamp and almost fell on top of a granite tomb.  Theresa and I struggled to gain our composure as we were inappropriately laughing hysterically in the cathedral.

Erik and I also have this on-going tradition/joke of being unimpressed in front of impressive things.  Here is the first of many more unimpressed pictures   to come.




After some yummy food and sangria, the three of us headed to San Tome, the Church that houses "El entierro del conde de Orgaz" by El Greco.  The painting was immediately to our right when we walked through the doors of San Tome and it absolutely took my breathe away.  It was such an exciting moment to be standing in front of a painting that I have studied for so many years in my Spanish classes.  I couldn't help but take a picture of it even though we weren't supposed to!  We even got to become part of the masterpiece later in the day!

The REAL "El entierro del conde de Orgaz"

Since seeing El Greco's painting was the only "must-do" thing for us in Toledo, we decided to find a park so that we could relax and play some cards before our train back to Madrid.  I pulled out our crappy map from earlier in the day and realized that we were actually just a couple blocks away from a park!  How perfect!  Except that Toledo and I have different definitions of parks.  What we found instead of a park was a concrete plaza with a single statue in the middle.  No trees, no shade, no place to play cards.  Laughing at the ridiculousness of the "park," we decided to walk in the general direction of the train station hoping that there would be a nice shady spot to rest and play some cards on the way.

Theresa getting some ZzZ's

I guess persistence pays off because we found one!  Well, sort of.  We sort of decided to rebel against all common norms and sat on a short wall by the back entrance of a random museum.  We played some UNO together, Theresa took a nap, and I kicked Erik's butt in some random iPhone knockoff version of Yahtzee.  Even though we were quite unorthodox in choosing our place to rest, the view was spectacular!  Just look at the picture below!

Overall, it was a wonderful day and a fantastic first trip in Spain.  As to be expected, I am extremely behind in my blog posts again, so expect a couple over the next couple of days!  I've got a lot of adventures and thoughts to catch you up on!

Peace,
Sarah