Mi viaje a España (My Trip to Spain)
Photos were taken the old-fashioned way, with a Vivitar camera, and scanned with an old ScanPort scanner.
Galería de las bellezas / The Siren Gallery
Kristen, from OSU. She writes for OSU's satirical rag, Tastes Like Chicken. I was avoiding Medusa, who was standing just off-screen.
Elen, from OSU. She's smart as the dickens (whatever that means). Look out, or she'll use her mind-powers to boil your kidneys.
Gretchen, from Minnesota. That's Mahou, the national beer of Spain, in that glass. If any bar served one kind of beer, it was Mahou. If it served two kinds of beer, they were Mahou and Heineken.
Melissa, from Puerto Rico. Although she's hot as all get-out, that's a cigarette she's hiding behind her back.
Las otras fotos / Other photos
These are Kristen (right) and Eric, two cool kids from OSU. Eric likes knives, and Kristen is studying to become an actuary. This photo was taken at El Escorial, the old fortress near Madrid and close to the Valley of the Fallen, home to the Civil War cemetery.
Isabel, who played the part of my mother for six weeks. Isabel is originally from Madrid and is the daughter of a torrero (bull-fighter).
Los lugares que visité / Places I visited
This is the legendary aqueduct of Segovia, which still provides water to the folks in the region. The aqueduct is held together only by the power of physics -- no mortar involved.
The Alcazar (fortress) of Segovia. Every city has an alcazar, more or less. This one housed Queen Isabella before she was the queen of Spain, back when she was just the queen of Castilla. The tower in the middle is ridiculously big, and you too can climb the 150-odd stairs and see the view from the top.
The cathedral of Segovia. From the 16th century, it's designed in what is called gótico flamingero, which means, literally, "flaming Gothic." Artists of the period decorated things -- windows and turrets -- so that they looked like flames.
La plaza de Zocodover (Zocodover plaza), in Toledo. "Zocodover" is an Arabic word that translates to "marketplace." Toledo is the only city where one of the other plazas is larger and more important than the Plaza mayor (major plaza). Every city has a plaza mayor, but Toledo's is much smaller than Zocodover, which stems from Toledo's past as a major Moorish trading city while Toledo was under Moorish control from 711 until the early 11th century.