adventures of almost burning down a 5-star hotel

Before I start an amazing Spring Break journey through Dublin, Glasgow, London, and Amsterdam, I feel it's only appropriate to first update on my latest shenanigans in northern Spain. This past weekend was our mid-year conference for Fulbright. Yes, even though it was 6 months into the 9-month program, we are just now having our mid-year conference. It took place in Santander, this amazing coastal city in the northern region of Cantabria. Get together all 70 or 80-something Fulbrighters, and needless to say things are going to be pretty entertaining. Fulbright paid for pretty much everything: the food, the 5-star hotel, the train tickets. Yes, we were treated like royalty, which was nice considering the beginning of the program conference was in a non-air-conditioned dorm in 80 degree heat with nasty cafeteria food.
We left on an early train on Wednesday morning to head up to the conference from Madrid. The journey was long, but the scenery along the way was amazing. Great countrysides, and actual parts of Spain that were green and sunny. When we arrived in Santander, it too was sunny. And warm. Exactly the kind of weather I want in a beach town. They took us to our hotel, which was this amazing 5-star hotel called Hotel Real (royal in English) where we all had some type of view of the ocean.

Our hotel, up on the hill, from the peninsula. Disclaimer: I forgot my camera, so all of these pictures are courtesy of Becca and Vicki.

The tables for lunch and dinner were so fancy, we didn't know what to do. And they continually filled up our wine glasses. Like, always. I hadn't even taken a drink and they filled it up more.
The view from the hotel rooms. Yes, there was a castle next door. And you can faintly see the palace out in the top left corner. Pretty amazing.

The next few days were spent in conferences: some political where asses were kissed about how great the University in Santander was, the Fulbright program, all that fun stuff. In others we talked about our experiences and thing we wanted to see improved with the program. And then there were ones where the Fulbright researchers, the people who are doing a lot cooler things than us here, told us about their cool projects. Then on Thursday afternoon, we took a day trip outside the city to see ancient cave drawings at this place called Altamira. It's a really famous cave area and was neat to see.

Of course I had to have a jumping picture by the ocean.

On Wednesday and Thursday, we didn't have much free time. But on Friday, the day trip outside the city was optional, so we stayed in Santander and went exploring. Vicki, Becca, Tammy and I (Miguel went surfing, passing on our city touring) went walking out to the peninsula by our hotel. It was complete with beach (and a playground slide going down to the beach from the park right above), a palace, a great view of the ocean and lighthouse, and a mini-zoo complete with penguins and seals. It was a great afternoon with great weather.

Vicki going down the slide to the beach in the park.
Great shot, Vicki. You can see the Picos de Europa mountain range in the background.
A good artsy shot of me.
Oh, the life.
Our group up by the palace, complete with the old man taking the picture's shadow.

Then for Saturday morning, when the incident occurred that evoked the title of this entry. So I'm eating our last breakfast at this 5-star hotel, which like every other meal was amazing. I go to get a croissant from the buffet and have the great idea to toast it in their toaster. Here, they don't have a normal toaster, but one where you put it on a belt up top and it falls to the bottom when finished. I put the croissant on the belt and turn away for a few seconds. Becca yells to me, "Michael! It's on fire!" Yes, my croissant had touched the top coils and caught on fire. Without thinking, I tried to reach into the machine and burned a big mark into my finger. Unsuccessful with my first plan, I turn off the toaster and yell for help. Yes, the croissant is still on fire at the point. A lady who works there comes over and starts jabbing a knife at it, breaking it up into pieces so we can put out the fire. After a lot of blowing on the flames, it finally dies out and I apologize a million times before getting out of there as fast as I can. Luckily we were inconspicuous and only a few people saw the incident, although the whole room did smell it.
And that was the time I almost burned down a 5-star hotel.

We'll end with another great jumping picture. Good work, Vicki.