Goodbye Toro

Toro the 28th of Feb
Well it is not a leap year though I don't know if it would have helped to have had an extra day of February this year. Just so happens that Toro and the rest of the region here is getting hit with one of its coldest periods in recent history. Just my luck, not to mention that it's Monday, why this is important is simple, nothing is open for tourists on Monday.
This morning I awoke to 2 phone calls and a text message of people responding to my emails. They all were nice and wanted me to visit. Finally some good luck. Being on such short notice most couldn't give me the grand tour but all were kind and offered what they could. After packing up my things, I headed downstairs to fumble through my Spanish in hopes of finding what was to be the closed Tourist Info Center. My host at this bar/hostel/restaurant/bodyshop (I found this out as I realized every door led to another part of this labyrinth like building) just happened to be one of the friendliest Spaniards I have met so far, though this didn’t always mean helpful. When asking for directions to my appointments for the day the directions I got were vague at best, making me wonder if I would make it by 2pm when Spain shuts down for 3 hours while people eat and sleep. Basically I ended up wandering back and forth through some of the coldest and windiest streets I have been on so far. When I finally was about to give up and sit down to freeze to death, I happened to look up and notice that I was on the road that the first winery I was to visit was located on. I was also only 9 houses down from the door. Hurrying along before I lost feeling in any extremities, I rang the bell and was greeted by Fernando, a kind gentleman who spoke not a lick of English or Portuguese (I didn’t ask him if he knew French). Without small talk being an option, he proceeded to give me a tour of what was the old winery up until a year ago, complete with ancient wine making facilities. It was quite impressive and I would have liked to have asked some questions but instead nodded and ooohed and aahed at the appropriate times. When we reached the basement he asked if I would like to see a video. Thinking that it would be in English I said yes and was promptly shown a video in Spanish on the history of Toro and the winery Rejadorada. I understood a good 50% of it fortunately, mainly on the history of Toro and its wines with a bit about their own winery. After which I was then led to the tasting room, a place where I could feel at home. Their portfolio consists of 3 wines, each a step up from the previous one., I was grateful to have a chance to taste something good and the wines while a bit on the international style were very interesting. All made from 100%Tempranillo, or as they call it here Tinto de Toro. Unfortunately I could not ask any questions of the man in any reasonable way and thus had some problems finding out about fermentation techniques and harvest/yield info. This made me realize that I really need to get working on my Spanish. But after I did some tasting he did call the one person who could speak English and I was able to ask questions of her about various aspects of the company. One thing she did let me know about is a tasting event in May of all the main producers from Spain. Here is a chance for me to visit many different Bodegas and hopefully meet lots of people from the industry. Too bad I have to wait till May. Oh well she did say that she would send me information on the details.
After this first stop, I got directions to the tourist office, which as I said before is closed on Mondays and so I wandered, in a blustery wind that led me to lots of places all closed. I eventually out of desperation headed back to the hostel which at least it was warm. I decided then that while I could meet one other Bodega today, after asking to see where it was located, I would have had to walk a full cars ride away in the wind and that this was not worth it. I called and tried to explain to the lady who answered that I would love to visit sometime in the future when I have more time and a car. Who knows if she understood, in the end this trip has been one that I need not remember other than to learn from mistakes. I now sit in a bus station waiting for 4 hours for a bus to Madrid. There is a loud TV to keep me company and if this is like every other Spanish building I've been to there should be enough booze to keep me warm for awhile.

Aside #1
I don't want to be a downer but I'm a bit tired of this. I think I need to take some time to learn some Spanish. It will be interesting when I have a chance to talk to someone with some patience to see if my Portuguese infusion will be of any help to my Spanish. I do already find that I understand it better, but my first reaction is to speak Portuguese. I got back to the point where I didn't have to think about it when I spoke in Portugal. I miss that, and just need to spend sometime speaking Spanish with someone who has patience.

Aside#2
Here's one thing I don't get, right now I sit in a café at the bus stop. I am typing on my Pocket PC and all the while the TV is on at a deafening level. So bad that, and there are others here, that I took out my earplugs I use to sleep with when near a train or Jet engine, and guess what. I can still hear it, in fact better than without them. I don't get, when ever there is a moment of silence or quiet in a restaurant bar or bus, people feel the need to turn on something, music, TV, static. I'm not sure if this is cultural or an effect of having destroyed their ear drums at an early age and therefore they feel a need to compensate for it at this point in their lives. Who knows, such is life. Till soon, Ryan