Encuentro: Ciudad Real

This weekend I went to Ciudad Real with my church for a conference called Encuentro! Ciudad Real is about 200km south of Madrid, in Castilla la Mancha. I had underestimated the journey time between Barcelona and Ciudad Real... and I can't say I was that impressed when I arrived bright and early and half asleep at the coach at 8:30am to be told we'd arrive in Ciudad Real until the evening.

The journey
© Google Maps

We drove down the coast past Tarragona and Valencia before heading inland towards Madrid. The journey was actually quite fun, and views were stunning, with mountains, sea, immense plains (basically deserts), rolling hills, lakes and farmland! At 7pm, after nine and a half hours of music, films, sleeping, talking and eating, we finally arrived at the campsite and headed over to register and set up the tents! This weekend was the first time I'd been out of Catalonia since arriving a month ago, and it was interesting to escape the bilingual bubble of Barcelona and to be hearing and speaking just Spanish.

My new friend Ingrid and me about to put up our tent!

Peope arriving..
 ©Claudio Photography

Until now I have surprisingly not had any problems here with being a vegetarian, so when I booked my place on the conference I chose the option with food included, as I thought it would be easier than taking food with me. It wasn't until supper on the first evening that I suddenly thought maybe I should have written I was a vegetarian. Supper was a meat sandwich and a yogurt. I'd  only brought enough food for breakfast and lunch so, hungry, I asked the organisers if there was a veggie option. They told me that apart from meat sandwiches there was no other food on the campsite, but then they went away, telling me to wait, and they came back with a few slices of tortilla de patatas (spanish omelette), a cut up tomato and some nuts. It was quite yummy actually, but I guess I learn my lesson not to assume that the vegetarian diet is catered for here!

Courtney and Me in the Plaza Mayor

Ciudad Real

Friday lunchtime I'd arranged to have lunch with two of my friends from Leeds, Courtney and Emma, in Ciudad Real. Courtney's doing her year abroad at the University of Castilla la Mancha, in Ciudad Real and Emma's spending her year abroad as a teacher in Cuenca and had come to visit Courtney for the weekend. My only problem with our plan was that the campsite was not at walking distance from the city as I had hoped it might be, and therefore I needed to find a way to get there. The heat of the midday sun quickly knocked the idea of hiking the five kilometres of my head. My second, more feasible idea was to travel in by taxi, but then I had a better idea: hitchhiking. Having chosen my victims, I knocked on a car window and asked the two Spanish ladies inside if they were heading to the centre. They were, and they happily welcomed me on board! Once in the centre, it was lovely to see Courtney and Emma, albeit briefly! I got to see a bit of the town, and we had lunch together in the Plaza Mayor!

I'd love to be able to take credit for the photo, but it's another one of the official ones!
© Claudio Photography

There were numerous guests at Encuentro, including Matt Redman, En Espiritu y en Verdad (a Mexican group), and a lady called Marilyn Skinner who, although Canadian-born, had spent the last 29 years in Uganda. Marilyn shared with us some amazing stories of what God's been doing in Uganda and as she spoke you could see how passionate she was about Jesus! She told us how she had watched soldiers raid her house, put a gun to her husband's head and pull the trigger. The gun wouldn't shot, the leader of the group, enraged, yelled at the man to try again but again it wouldn't shoot. The men asked Marilyn and her husband if they were Christians, and then they fled. She also told us about her work with former child soldiers, with orphans and about church planting and amazing stories of hope about people who had previously been involved in raising the child soldiers. What an exciting life!

Me outside the main house at the campsite!

It was a lovely weekend and I really enjoyed getting to see a new part of Spain, meeting loads of people from all over Spain, and catching up with Emma and Courtney and hearing how they're getting on. It was also really fun and exciting to be camping again, and I loved it that at night it got chilly enough for us to enjoy hot chocolates outside at night and to wrap up in blankets, jumpers and sleeping bags!