(Weird, that it's 2014, I'm still writing "Estibaliz Romeo Grade 4 Room 4 on all my essays".- Trademark to my idol Tina Fey)
This day was another tour day in that being a tour guides was involved, however, this time it wasn't me. As it had been 12 years ago, or my first time, I barely remember the places that I will soon tell you about.
Place #1
Monasterio de Leyre
(Translation: Monastery of Leyre or Leyre's Monastery)
-is it weird that I had to try 3 different tries to spell monastery until giving up and googling it? does that ever happen to you? is it bad that I went to Catholic school for 13 years and don't know how to spell monastery? I'm I asking too many questions? Ok, let's continue-
Located about 45 minutes away from Pamplona, we drove up to the monastery for our tour.
Unfortunately, it was super foggy when we arrived so the view from our parking spot wasn't as pretty as it normally was.
The monastery of Leyre.
This is the crypt of the monastery which is the main part of the monastery.
This is a saint that resides in the back of the crypt in glass. As you can tell it's really blurry because I took it between some bars as one cannot go near it. But fun story time about this saint.
500 days of sleeping
This saint lived in the monastery back in the olden times and went to a park near the monastery and fell asleep. When he woke up, he went inside and soon realized that he didn't recognize any of the priests that were there.
Turns out the priest was asleep for 500 years and no one noticed.
How do priests living in a small monastery in a high hill in the olden times in Spain not notice that a fellow priest is missing?
I don't know.
But when he did awake, none of the priests living there knew who he was, but then they searched him in the books and found his name as a priest who lived 500 years ago.
And from then on they believed that the priest was immortal.
This is the entrance to the church next to the monastery. Each engraving has a significance to any saints, demons, angels and 7 deadly sins.
If you notice, though, on the left hand corner is a orange mini-gate, the church is currently under construction to help maintain the inside. So we did go inside, but it was loud, full of dust and there was really nothing in the church because it was all taken out.
Only picture I could get of the inside of the church with no sign of construction.
See? Construction.
After view the monastery we drove 30 minutes to el Castillo de Olite (Castle of Olite or Olite's Castle, whichever you prefer)
The egg-shaped building was the refrigerator/freezer. Back in the day, the workers in the castle would collect snow and put it in the big egg and then put their food to keep it cold.
Or what I thought when I first visited this place when I was 8, a big dinosaur egg.
Located outside the blue windows in the queen's garden.
Old fireplace.
If you look closely at my sister and her boyfriend in the above picture, they are holding audio guides for the tour of the castle.
In the audio guide, the speaker would play medieval music to set the mood which started a dance circle between my mom, my aunt and my sister.
Sometimes I wonder where I get my weirdness from, and then I saw this...it's genetic.
Royal Garbage
View of the town of Olite from the castle.
Another storytime:
In the far tower towards the right, the mayor of some European country I can't remember came to visit Olite and was caught, getting it on Marvin Gaye style, in the towers,
SCANDAL!
These bricks, according to my uncle, are separated because back in the day when they were constructing this, they ran out of superglue to put them together.
I figured, superglue was probably really hard to find back in the day, plus if you have worked with superglue, they probably got some on their hands.
I've been there medieval workers, I've been there
More view of the town of Olite.
My sister at a distance waving to her people of Olite.
These are claustrophobic stairs that are located to go up and down the towers.
How royalty got up and down these stairs with their dresses and heels, I have no idea.
I struggle with heels and long dresses on flat surfaces.
This picture was taken when my uncle went up one of the towers and my mother went to take a picture of him.
Little did they know, their stance was a mirror image of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet.
Peio! Peio! Where for art thou Peio!
After touring the castle we walked around the small town of Olite and then headed into a restaurant that our uncle had recommended/reserved.
This is the Menu del Dia that I had mentioned previously.
The first 4 food items are the first meal.
The second 4 items are the second meal.
And then "Postre Variados" is Various desserts in which the waiter/waitress will tell you what the dessert is.
My first dish was
Patatas a la Riojana
which is cooked potatoes with chorizo and broth, which my mom later sent me the recipe for it to make it at home, now that it is getting colder in Sweden.
This is rabbit.
On the menu it states " CConejo asado con ali-oli"
rabbit asado with alioli sauce and french fries.
Now, the Spanish language is easy yet confusing. When speaking Spanish, you pronounce every letter (except for the "h" which has always confused me).
So when I saw the "cconejo" I knew it was a typo but decided to be funny and ask my mom if, in this restaurant it was pronounced
"Co-co-nejo"
She said yes.
Also fun fact about rabbit, rabbit means a certain work in English, in which I wont' say because there are certain people reading this blog and I just don't want to go there.
If you are interested, Spanish Google it or English google it and then laugh.
This was my dessert, the name was not a typo nor had a different meaning in English.
I did forget the name in Spanish but in English it's "arm of the gypsy"
White pound cake with raspberry filling and chocolate sauce.
The arm was good and delicious.
Then after lunch, to stretch our full stomachs we walked around the town some more, and then headed out to Pamplona where we would meet up with more family members.
(Note: I come from a very big family and I had to see them in 10 days rather than the 3-4 weeks we are normally there, hence why these blog posts are so long and are taking forever. I did a lot with my family and ate a lot..I should have mentioned that before...sorry)
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