Spain

The whole flight was a nightmare for me. Two hours, it was days to me. When the plane finally landed, me stomach was still trying to get back to his original place. I just got up from the seat to take my staff, and my blood pressure plummeted, I walked 7 steps and I awkwardly fainted. I was unconscious! Yeah, my trip was starting 10 out of 10.
While doing my exchange in Germany, one of the host families took me on a trip to Finca "Los Pilones" in the near of Ciudad Real, 200 km. south from Madrid. On the plane Berlin-Madrid we met two other friend families going with us. After 2 hours flight and 4 hours from Barajas airport, we finally reached what was going to be our place for 10 days long.

"Familias en España" Cristofer Rybner

One big house, no electric energy except for dinner time, cellphone were obsolete, water? better don't even try it, at least not after such a moved flight. But the sightseeing was nice, at night you could appreciate the stars, you go hunting 3 or even 4 times a day, you go fishing, walking, you read, you eat, you chat and play. You are on holiday!
Early in the morning, men went hunting out to the mountains. They returned to lunch. After lunch, some people were reading, other playing, doing yoga, resting under a 35ºC sun. I, as a good Argentinian, was sleeping siesta, then, when sun wasn't so strong, men and children went hunting again.

"Cazando al amanecer" Cristofer Rybner

When twilight was starting, all came back from the hard and exhausting holiday activities, like hunting, fishing, trekking, or just resting -didn't you ever realized how exhausting can be just resting all afternoon long?-. By dinner time we all needed to reload some energy, we were hungry. Men prepared the animals to eat, women prepared meal, and children ran all around the house, they were playing cards, or trying to shoot with the air gun in the darkness.
One morning I went hunting only with my host father, Malte, and one of the kids. Driving around the places, and later walking, I continuously saw some ruins, but they looked quite new, and just destroyed because of the effect time, so I asked what were them and why were them there alone, in the middle of nowhere, like hidden. So, I was told that those ruins were the place were some refugees from Franco's time lived so that anyone could find them.

"Ruinas en la sierra" Cristofer Rybner

Well, this may sound funny, specially because of the fact that I'm Argentinian, but by the time I was in Spain I improved surprisingly a lot my German. Yes, my German! Not that fast, all has an explanation, I was in Spain, yes, but in the middle of nowhere and only surrounded by German people. Even though, the principal cause I think, was the kids, they didn't speak a word of English and let alone Spanish, so I had no choice but speaking German.

This trip was awesome and unforgettable!!

Cristofer Rybner

khri_ryner@hotmail.com