European Travel and Meditation Retreat

One of the many advantages of living in Barcelona is the ease of traveling to many countries within Europe and beyond and to do so inexpensively.  However, this year for me has been about getting settled in this amazing city, setting up my home, getting to know my neighborhood, deepening my ability to speak the language (first Spanish and then Catalan), and establishing and expanding my network of friends.

August - the Vacation Month

The city in essence closes shop during the month of August.  Yes, some businesses are open.  You can still find food to purchase, the metro still runs (although many repairs are made during this month making some sections of some lines inoperable), and there are restaurants, although fewer, that are open.  Where is everyone?  Except for the tourists who are on vacation in Barcelona, and that population grows exponentially in August, many residents are on vacation, either in other regions in Spain or in other parts of Europe.

And so I too looked to see where I might travel in August.  I wanted to spend time with my long-time friend

Carlos and visit Galicia (see prior post), a region I had gone to a number of times when I lived in Valladolid, Spain, but I hadn't visited in over 30 years.  I also wanted to take some time to get away and reflect on my journey so far since moving to Barcelona and to reconnect to my meditation practice in a supportive environment.  What better way to travel to another country, have some time of reflection, and deepen my meditation practice then by participating in a week-long meditation retreat at Dechen Choling, a Shambhala land center in the picturesque countryside of St Yrieix sous Aixe near Limoges, France, in the southwestern part of the country.

Life is Ceremony Retreat

I took an 8 hour train ride, including changing trains in Perpignan, to get to Limoges, where a van was there to pick me and others up and take us to Dechen Choling, a 20 minute ride.  What a beautiful setting for a retreat!  The chateau, the stables, the green fields of grass and corn with horses and cattle, very tranquil and far, far away from any city, so much so that at night you can see the Milky Way.

The meditation retreat was entitled Life is Ceremony. When I mention going on a meditation retreat to friends, I inevitably get the question - what do you do on these retreats?  Well, every retreat is different.  In this one, the emphasis is on how to live one's life consciously, intentionally, with purpose and a sense of appreciation, whether I am by myself or with others.  It included times of mindfulness awareness meditation and talks given by the main teacher of Shambhala, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, and one of Shambhala's senior teachers, Adam Lobel.It also included body practices such as yoga and Qi Gong as well as workshops, of which I chose one that allowed me to explore in depth   "Creating Yourself, Creating Your World" through intentional creative expressions using calligraphy, the voice and body movement.  

What I love about Shambhala is its emphasis on discovering one's own basic goodness through the practice of meditation.  Although I've been exposed to this teaching since day 1 over 5 years ago, it was at this retreat that I have allowed this message to penetrate me and actually experience and feel it more and more throughout my day.  Since childhood, especially in the religion I grew up in, I was told I am basically flawed, fundamentally inadequate and that I needed to either fight with myself to improve myself or "cover up" these flaws and inadequacies and hide them from others in order to get ahead in this world.

This message is reinforced by Western culture through the media, school and work.  Regardless of my past experience, however, I can get to know my true self and make friends with myself.  Meditation is a great way to do that.  Then, with eyes open and fully present, I can appreciate myself and my world as I "soak" myself in basic goodness.


I found the people at this retreat to be quite fascinating and very open and friendly.  They came from all over - France, Spain, England, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Mexico, and the U.S. - over 200 of us.  I had a Dutch tent mate and spent some of my free time with a great group of English women.  The evenings were quite chilly and I was so reluctant to slip out of my sleeping bag in the mornings.  But all in all, it was a fantastic retreat.  And to top it off, on the train ride back I was able to spend half of the time with an English fellow who was on the retreat.  We talked about some very profound topics as well as shared some very personal things going on in our lives.

I will certainly be back to Dechen Choling in the near future!

In A Couple of Days.....

My friend Carol will be visiting me from the Washington DC area.  She has also been very kind to bring with her my cat Sunset.
I have been separated from my cat for almost 6 months.  It will be great to have her back with me and to spend time with Carol during her two week stay here.

Galicia - The Pacific Northwest of Spain (but first Sitges)

As you probably know, August is the time when most Europeans take their vacation.  Barcelona is filled with tourists and the Barceloneses want very little to do with them, unless they're in the tourist industry.  Many shops, businesses and restaurants close for some or all of the month.

But there are those who choose not to (or can't) take their vacation during August.  So my friend Jordi organized an afternoon trip last week to see the hidden treasures of Sitges, a gay destination spot that thousands of tourists go for beach, sun and partying.  But most miss out on the beauty of the art and architecture of this charming pueblo.  Last Tuesday eight of us went to experience some of the modernist architecture at Hotel Romantic and at the Museu Romantic (you may catch a theme here), ending with a brief dip in the Mediterranean.

 
 

My Trip to Galicia

It's been 35 years since I last visited Galicia, a region in Spain's northwest corner of the country.  Like the Pacific Northwest, it is very green because of the amount of rainfall it receives during most of the year.  The last time I was there was with the Christian group, The Navigators, where they had a ministry in Santiago de Compostela, and I would go up with the Valladolid group for joint meetings and retreats.

And just like the Pacific Northwest, the summer, especially August, is mostly sunny and the beaches are very inviting.  Well, not this time during the days of my visit.  But that did not stop my delight in enjoying this beautiful area of Spain.  The main reason for that is because I was visiting my long-time friend Carlos, who lives in Valladolid, and his partner Maria.  Maria lives near Santiago and Carlos rents an apartment every August for the month in a small village called Queiruga, on the Atlantic coast, just south of the Ria de Muros y Noia.  Carlos has been going to this area for decades, is an avid wine connoisseur, and knows Galicia like the back of his hand.  Galicia is known for its food and its wine and we indulged in both of those throughout my 6 days there as well as visited some very memorable sights.  I also got to know his partner Maria, a very wonderful and sweet woman and who is the apple of Carlos' eye.

Wine Bodegas

I had visited a few bodegas in California. They were very commercialized and felt similar to having tours at well-known factories, lining up: getting canned lectures and going through their gift stores at the end of the tour.  I am sure there are many, many smaller bodegas that I never got to visit there, but the three bodegas I visited in Galicia were simply extraordinary, especially with Carlos and his friends setting up these visits.  All of them were personal visits with the owners, hearing them talk about their passion and philosophy of cultivating the land, growing the grapes, working with the soil, temperature, light, and water.  They all stressed the importance of intervening in the wine-making process as little as possible, not using chemicals, and allowing the grape of that particular year to express itself.


I learned about the grapes in this particular region, Las Rias Baixas, and the types of grapes that are known in this area: Albariño, Dona Branca, Mencía, & Merenzao, among others.  I got to smell and taste these wines and to discover how my sense perceptions discover how these wines open up with the swirling of the wine in the glass or tasting the same type of grape but from different years.  Carlos would also take me aside and explain to me in detail the steps that are taken from picking the grapes, gently extracting the juice, using yeast (preferably the vineyards' particular yeasts and not commercialized ones) to ferment the juice, keeping the fermented juice from mixing with other batches that were picked days later until the whole fermentation process is complete, the affect of storing the wine in barrels for some period of time, to the continued process of the evolution of the wine taste while in the bottle.  It was all very fascinating and I felt privileged for a neophyte such as myself to participate in these discussions (mostly as a listener).  I also drank some really good wines!  Some from the bodegas and others from Carlos' massive stock of various whites and reds.

Galician Food

OMG!!!  The food!!  Out of this world!  That's it in a nutshell.  Galicia is known for its seafood.  It is so fresh and so good.  I had all types of seafood, ranging from shrimp and langostinos, mussels, different kinds of cockle, different kinds of clams to octopus, served in many different ways.  But they also have delicious meats: veal, beef, pork and ox in generous portions.  Other dishes included "revueltos" (a form of scrambled eggs) mixed with vegetables or seafood.  And the desserts are to die for: Santiago cake (made from almonds), a fresh cheese cake, and a delicious caramel cake with ice cream.  I'm missing it already!!

Some Sights

Carlos, Maria and I visited the Castro de Baroña, an ancient settlement from 1 BC to 1 AD, at the mouth of the Ria de Muros y Noia.  We went to the town of Noia, a delightful town on the sea and had some wonderful meals there.  We spent one day in Santiago de Compostela and visited the cathedral and the lively streets in the city center among the hundreds of pilgrims that walk to Santiago from various countries and routes.  We also visited the towns of Quiroga, Cambados, and Porto do Son.

Our last afternoon, after we visited the bodega in Ribeira Sacra, Carlos took us to the Monastario de Santo Estevo de Ribas de Sil, in the middle of the Galician mountains in the provence of Ourense.  What Carlos didn't tell us was that this is a luxurious "parador" with amazing architecture and views.  A parador is a government-sponsored inn, usually in a scenic or historic location and offers lodging and meals at reasonable prices. As you can tell from the pictures below, it was to die for.  I quickly looked up the price for the three of us to stay that evening.  They had a room for only 125 euros which also included breakfast!  But I couldn't get Carlos and Maria to bite on that one.

Upcoming Week

On Saturday I will be in France at a one week meditation retreat.  I'll pick up on my blog site the Monday after I get back, on Aug 25.

Progress in the Home, Broken Elevator, and Toilets

This week a hodgepodge of things have occurred.  I'll start with the house and the progress I am

making.  All the major furniture has been delivered!  The last piece, a long, low piece for the TV set, had its issues when the installers said they couldn't attach it to the brick wall, which was needed to make it stable.  After they left I went to the local hardware store, talked with the manager/owner there and decided that it could be done.  I bought an electric drill and attached the metal piece to the wall that would be attached to the furniture.  Success!!  The TV and other items are now in their proper places.

 My bedroom closet is now done!  I contracted with a handyman directly to put in shelves and clothes hanger poles because the company that had done the painting and repair work for the house was asking too much for the closet.  I had worked with this handyman before.  We had some delays with getting the right materials but he came on Monday morning with an assistant.  Of course things do not go as planned and he needed to replace some items that did not fit.  They stayed until 10 pm that evening, but I now have a closet to put the clothes that were sitting in the wardrobe boxes that I had shipped to myself.  Little did I know until that day that the handyman was going back to Peru for 2 months for vacation!  So I'm glad it was all completed before he left.

With that work completed, I was able to unpack the rest of my boxes that I had shipped from the US.  I feel that was a huge step forward.  In some of those boxes were some art objects, like Native American pottery and the like, that I see now that my place does not have the surface space yet to put those out.  They are now in the hallway closet.  I will be looking for some smaller furniture pieces to complement what I already have, which will give me some additional storage and I'll have a place for these art objects.

My Building - Broken Elevator

Did I tell you that I am on the 4th floor, which is really the 5th floor?  On Friday I discovered that the elevator wasn't working.  Although a number of neighbors are on vacation (it's August, of course!), I knew there was at least one neighbor on my floor and a neighbor above me that were here.  I assumed they or others would call to get the elevator repaired, since I was the newest property owner in the building.  Well, I assumed wrong.  On Saturday the elevator was still not working.  That day I talked with another neighbor who just got from vacation and asked about it.  He said that I should call the administrator of the community association, a company that manages the maintenance of the building.  On weekends they're closed.  He also said that I shouldn't assume that a neighbor will call and when I realize there is a problem with the elevator, that I should call.  Five flights are not fun to walk up, especially during the heat of the Barcelona summer!

I went to the beach with some friends on Sunday.  On Monday morning, around 11:30 am, I did call the building administrator, but I assumed by now someone else had called.  I found that she was on vacation (no surprise there).  When I explained that I was one of the owners in my building and that the elevator was broken, the person who answered the phone said that no one had yet called about this issue.  Really??  I was surprised but was glad I called.  Within an hour someone came to check on the elevator.  I also asked if there is a number to call when this happens again and their office is closed.  He said he would talk to the administrator when she gets back from vacation and post some numbers to call in case of these types of emergencies.

UPDATE:  The elevator is working again.  Yeah!!

Successfully Flushing My Toilet

When Chris was here, he commented on the differences between American and European toilets.  The main difference is that the American toilet has a large reservoir of water sitting in the basin whereas the European

toilet has a very small reservoir.  To my knowledge, the rationale to not have much water in the basin is so

that when dropping turds, the water does not splash on you.  The downside of having little water in the toilet basin is that the crap will many times hit the side, stick and won't clean itself on its own when you flush.  I would prefer risking getting splashed on to the alternative, but I don't have a choice here.  So, I have now developed the skill of flushing.  At the time of the flush I always have the toilet scrubber in my hand as my other hand is flushing the toilet.  As the water descends, I quickly scrub off any crap that is sticking and then wash off the scrubber under the falling water.  I know - TMI!  But it is a skill I have now acquired.  Later, I may look into changing this toilet for one that has more flushing action on the sides of the basin, which I have seen in some homes.