palafrugell

My early morning flight for Girona (Gerona?) landed at 9:20. 

I was meet by possibly some of the nicest people in the world. 

The meet directors lined up all of the food, hotel, and transportation for over 100 athletes.....

I could get used to this kind of track meet. 

My room had a view of the beach. 

2 three course meals per day. 

pool & a beach.

Friendly athletes for all over the world. 

Sadly my race was not as beautiful as the hotel.

More information on that tomorrow.

For now I will leave you with a bits of the spanish mediterranean......

View of the town from the mtns.

Local art.

The hotel.

The beach.

pista para correr

My first few days in Spain made me nervous. 

Everyone I asked claimed that there were no tracks in Madrid. 

Everyone claimed the city was too dense, that tracks were to big. 

They were wrong. 

On my third day in the city,  I stumbled upon a training center funded by the federal government.  It filled with professional and developing athletes from all over the world. 

It the nicest  track facility I have had the honor of running in. 

To top it all off, everyone is friendly!

I am learning track terms in Spanish. 

I have been invited to run with a group of mid distance  girls every day at 7. 

PS: Madrid has the largest dandelions I have ever seen & I leave tomorrow for my first european race!

CAIXA FORUM

Whenever I go to a new place, I create expectations based mainly of information I have gathered from people who have been there. 

Based off of these rumors, I had extremely high expectations for the Prado. 

Yet the massive crowds and strict rules kept me from being able to fully enjoy the artwork. 

The following photo was the highlight......

:(

Luckily, this was not the end of my first day with art in Spain. 

On my way to the metro, I became distracted by the following:

LA CAIXA FORUM

The previous two photos are of the massive elephant outside the Gallery.

The following images are of the incredible staircase that leads into the free exhibits.

Sadly, I could not take photos of the collections.  I have included links to videos that cover the basic  ideas behind my 2 favorite collections. 

enjoy:

First, the most recent work of Miquel Barcelo.

http://www.rtve.es/rss/videos/noticias/TE_CULTUR.xml

The following video covers images of violence in nations of conflict. 

The photographers of this collection worked on topics they felt needed global attention. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jp7uT5zcmx8

comida

In my three years at USF, I have come to embrace the local cuisine. 

I am passionate about my Blue Bottle Coffee and my La Boulange Granola bowls. 

Wednesdays and Sundays are filled with fresh chard and fujis from farmers markets. 

Yet I have found none of these culinary delights in Madrid. 

I feel the following photo offers a solid description of food in the land locked city:

I enjoy the food here. 

But its awkward to transition to eating processed bread and an excess of pork.

 My San Francisco palate longs for a real cup of joe and a Arizmedi's scone. 

More info from the track & field part of life tomorrow.

parque de oeste

Before arriving to Madrid, I was concerned for the training situation. 

I couldn't find any description of running trails, all I knew is that I was near a park. 

Parque de Oeste is the small park near my home. 

Today I ran for 45 mins on dirt waling paths and running trails.

Madrid is fantastic.  

Running Trails

parks.....

:)

takeoff.

Currently next to Madison Square Gardens..... 7.5 hours till my flight to Madrid. 

but here view of what this summer has in store for me:

1 class

1 train

2 pieces of luggage

3 races

5 pairs of shoes

7 countries

12 flights

54 days

Needless to say, I am psyched.  But I also look forward to the last third of my summer.......

Countdown till Lake Tahoe training: 65 days

Adios Estados Unidos, Hola Europa.