Poptarticus

Today I went to the Fashion Valley Shopping Mall. I have lived in San Diego for one year and nine months and I have never been there before. That place is bigger than my neighborhood. It’s like a mega-uber mall. I recommend to anyone planning a trip, put on your walking shoes and go to an uber-mall. You’ll know very quickly whether your shoes are going to work or not.

Couldn’t find any cool colored luggage. Why does it all have to be black, red, blue or forest green? I’ve seen the present and the present is: Lime Popsicle Green. The Luggage Homies should wake up to this fact. I did buy an cool orange reversable vest that is suede on one side and furry on the other. I guess no one has the same taste as me because it was 80% off! I almost bought a pair of purple suede boots, but made a deal with myself. I had to find a new pair of jeans that would look good with the boots. Otherwise I couldn’t have the boots. Well, I found the jeans, and went back to the boots, and they didn’t have my size! However. Even though this world we live in is less than perfect, there are moments of brilliance and glory around every corner. Got home, went on ebay, voila. Same purple suede boots, for way less than I would have spent on them at the mall. Plus I have a large paypal balance so essentially, the boots are like, free.

Tonight on IFC, there is a Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls double bill. I am trying to perfect my entry for the Pillsbury Bake-off. It’s like heaven around here.

In my on-going, incredibly detailed research of Spain, I come across a tidbit that causes me wonderment.

Here is the tidbit. In the Basque region of Spain, they have a barhopping custom. In this barhopping, which occurs often (like every evening) by many (everyone) there are always small glasses of wine consumed at numerous establishments, and they (the small glasses of wine) are called txikiteo. Snacks accompany the wine.

This Basque barhopping custom is very similar to the Venetian custom of going from bar to bar and drinking small glasses of wine and talking to each other. In Venice, the small glass of wine is an ombra, and the snack is called cicheto.

OK, whateves, you say… but look at these two words.

txikiteo (pronounced, I am assuming, chi-ke-to)
cicheto (chi-ke-to)

Holy guacamole batman, I think I am on to something here. Must investigate further.

I just read a trip report on the Fodors board, written by Kaudrey. Kaudrey, deplaning and getting into Madrid very early in the morning, dropped her bags at the hotel and went straight to the Prado. Then she went and did a million other things. What energy! I know I won’t have enough energy to go straight to the Prado. I’ll want to go to a cafe in a big Plaza and sit there until my room is ready.

Kaudrey is only five years younger than me.

We get in on a Saturday. We also get in very early - 7:30 A.M. That’s 4 hours before I can have my first glass of cava. Although, it will really be the middle of the night for me. Hmmm. But I don’t want to get a reputation quite so early in the trip. Also, I have read that you must adjust immediately to the local time to avoid jet lag. So I guess I won’t have a glass of cava at 9 A.M. It’ll make the glass I have at 11:30 taste that much sweeter.

Talked with my mom tonight. I don’t think she is as nervous and jittery as I am at this moment. I want to go - NOW. I feel this constant urge to, I don’t know, pee or have sex or something.

I am so lucky that I was born with the mother I have. How many women can say they want to travel with their mothers? My mom is the coolest, and she understands me and never gives me a hard time. (Well, she did a long time ago, but I always deserved it.) The first time she came to Europe was to meet up with me in Venice, and I got her off the boat and into St. Mark’s Square, and she looked around and said “this is extraordinary.” Her face was lit up and I was dying with happiness that she was seeing this place that I love and was loving it too. Now we will be discovering a new country, together.

In one of my many tour books there is a listing for a restaurant where an “always tipsy Ava Gardner” hung out. I can tell you that is one place that I want to check out. I love that - an “always tipsy Ava Gardner.” Is there any actress in the history of film more beautiful? Or more animal? One look from her and you’d either melt or catch on fire. She fell in love with Spain and it is easy to see why. Look at some of her love interests - Mickey ROONEY? Artie Shaw and Frank Sinatra - OK, so they were famous and at the top of their game in those days but I picture Ava rolling around with Johnny Weissmuller or Burt Lancaster (or both of them). Frank Sinatra, when he was with Ava, was this wiry, little Italian. She looked like she would squish him. Then she had a thing with George C. Scott. Great actor, but why? So she goes off to Spain and chills with matadors and flamenco dancers (quite a few of them, I have heard.) Can you blame her? Remember that scene in Night of the Iguana where she is getting all trippy with those two Mexican boys on the beach? Spain was the country that could take Ava’s intense fabulousness and sexuality. I can’t WAIT to go to that restaurant.

My mom and I first decided to go to Spain in November of 2002. We started planning around the end 2003. It has always been my mom’s dream to go - Spain was never big on my list. I was an Italy freak until I moved to Italy and then, when I lived in Italy I mostly traveled north. Spain seemed too huge for a quick journey. Spain IS too huge for a quick journey! Now that we are going and I am planning, I am totally into Spain and have that queasy, nervous, can’t sit still feeling that I had before my first trip to Italy.

Now that I am my discovery mode, I wonder why I have not been before. But on the other hand, I think I am at the perfect point in my life to make this journey. I’ve seen plenty of Italy and I’ve seen a few big, metropolitan European cities like Copenhagen and Budapest. I love ruins and vineyards but I also really, really love giant boulevards with lots of neon. I’m half Arabic so I wonder if I will get to Andalucia and feel like I am home. I am ready. Bring it on.

We leave March 26 and will be gone 24 days. Our itinerary is:

March 27, 28, 29, 30 Madrid
March 31 to Toledo
April 1 Toledo
April 2 to Sevilla
April 3,4,5 Sevilla
April 6 to Cordoba
April 7, 8 Cordoba
April 9 to Granada
April 10,11,12 Granada
April 13 fly to Barcelona
April 14,15,16,17 Barcelona
April 18 home.

We will be in Sevilla for two days pre-Semana Santa, and two days into the festival. In Cordoba and Granada there will also be some Easter processions. So this should be a very magical and possibly surreal time to be traveling to Spain.

We will be renting apartments in Madrid, Sevilla, Granada and Barcelona, and hotels in Toledo and Cordoba. I have become an apartment junkie. If I can possibly rent an apartment over a hotel, I will. So we will have plenty of space - important, I think on such a long journey. We have airline tickets from Granada to Barcelona, and have train tickets on the AVE train from Madrid to Sevilla.

Gosh, this is sort of boring. I promise to make it a little more interesting.