Hiking Excursion

Yesterday I went on a hiking excursion through the Northern part of Huelva province, only a couple of kilometers from the Portuguese border. Unfortunately, it was a little cloudy the whole day but it was a perfect temperature for hiking. Our bus dropped us off in one of the pueblos blancos that southern Spain is famous for. This literally translates to 'white towns' because that's exactly what they are. They are small towns in which the wall of every building are white-washed- they're absolutely gorgeous to see.

Our hike was about 7 kilometers long, and our guide was an expert on the area so he would stop and tell us cool facts. For example, the picture below is of a cork tree- they use the bark to make cork for wine bottles.

We stopped in another pueblo blanco for lunch and I almost came back with a puppy- he was only seven weeks old!

Too bad he was still breast-feeding...Anyways, we continued our hike through the mountains and met up with the bus in the final pueblo blanco of the day. It was great to get away from the city for a day and see the Spanish countryside!

Weather in Sevilla

Although I have already provided a map of Sevilla, they do no justice to how gorgeous this city is- particularly the historical district. Here are some aerial views of the city from La Giralda- the tallest tower of the Cathedral, and the tallest point of the city:

Here is the bull-fighting stadium:

And the Alcazar, or the royal Palace of Seville:

Unfortunately, I am here for the coldest part of the year in Seville. Temperatures have been averaging a blistering 55 degrees in the last few weeks, and the people of Seville are all bundled up in their winter coats for fear of freezing. Luckily, I was born and bred in Chicago so I've been able to survive such dramatic cold. But it has been rough. Of course, on nicer days when the sun is shining it's quiet hot out and everyone starts peeling off layers- they call this onion weather (get it?). Because of the mild winter temperatures, Seville actually has two orange crops per year. This city is known for its citrus, which can be seen on almost every street in the city- trees upon trees of oranges.

Another side-effect of the mild temperatures is that everyone is always outside. Because of the high cost of living, most apartments are small and it is rare to have friends over. Instead, everyone hangs out outside all of the time. Every cafe, bar and restaurant has outside seating. There are also tons of parks and benches for enjoyment. People even enjoy bottles of beer or wine outside by the river at night before heading to the discotecas for the night. Below is the Triana Bridge, one of the popular nightly hang-outs for the youth of the city. 

Because they tend to spend all of their time outside, walking and biking are the most popular forms of transportation. An hour walk is typical, but if it's more than an hour people consider biking instead. In addition to privately-owned bikes, there is a public bike system in Sevilla known as Sevici. I have already subscribed and I am loving it. Almost every sidewalk in the city has a green bike path set aside for our use. The bikes are extremely heavy and old, but they work and they have cut my commute to class in half. Plus I just enjoy biking around the city in our brisk winter weather. 

Trip to Cádiz

So yesterday I spent 3 hours on the beach in mid-February. It was awesome, especially knowing that everyone back home in Chicago has several feet of snow on the ground and is waking up to sub-zero temperatures (Fahrenheit).

Yea, I enjoyed it. It was part of a day-trip to Cádiz, which is the oldest city in Europe and just about a two hour bus-ride from Sevilla. It is situated on the Atlantic Ocean, and was the main point of trade between the Americas and Spain during and beyond the time of Christopher Columbus. It is also quite beautiful, as evidenced by the views from the tower of the city's cathedral.

In the morning, we had a walking tour of the city's main historic sites. While we were walking around, we noticed that the decorations for Carnaval were already in places. Carnaval is a pre-Lent celebration in which everyone dresses in ridiculous costumes and parades through the streets at all hours of the night. The Carnaval celebration in Cádiz is the third largest in the world, after Rio and Trinidad. Yes, that means it is bigger than Mardi Grad in New Orleans (which is also a Carnaval celebration). This one also lasts ten days.

In addition to the cathedral and a monument to Christopher Columbus (with an ever-burning flame as a tribute), we went to the fresh fish market. Everything sold at this market is caught that same morning. There were stalls upon stalls with all sorts of fish and shellfish, which are trimmed and cut right in front of you. 

So obviously that made me really really hungry for some seafood. When they released us for our free afternoon, Matt and Katie and I headed straight for a table in the sun at a tapas restaurant where we enjoyed several dishes that included calamari, mussels and shrimp. Everything was delicious. We bought some ice cream for dessert and ate it by the water. 

After exploring by the water, we laid on the beach until the bus came to pick us up. It was quite devastating to leave. With no class on Mondays or Wednesdays and a 10 euro round-trip price tag, I'm sure I will be back at that beach many times!

Trip to Gibraltar

Gibraltar was one of the most unique places I have ever been. For those of you that don't know, Gibraltar is a British colony on the Southern tip of Spain at the Gibraltar Straight. 

It is an extremely tiny bit of land- you can walk from one end to the other in just about an hour. But it was also extraordinarily gorgeous. We actually stayed in Spain because it was cheaper, but it was only a five minute walk across the border, which is open 24/7 and has very little security. They didn't even check my passport picture, I just had to show that I had a U.S. passport. I also thought it was interesting that after we went through customs, we had to walk across the airport tarmac to get into Gibraltar- apparently it isn't a very busy airport. Here are some pictures of the Rock of Gibraltar as we were walking toward it:

Yes, that is a BP gas station and yes that was on purpose. We wandered aimlessly into Gibraltar around 7 pm on Friday, after a four-hour bus-ride from Sevilla and a quick check-in at our hotel, with the intention of finding dinner. We walked into a bar for directions to an ATM or money exchange center because we needed Gibraltar dollars. The bartender, Antonio, was Romanian and he loves Americans. In fact, he told us that as soon as we walked in. We ended up talking with him for over an hour about Chicago and our favorite places to visit in the U.S. He decided not to go to university in Romania because he wanted to save up his money and go to school in the U.S. with the goal of getting a green card and staying there. Ideally, he would like to move to Miami or Los Angeles. He also speaks five languages, including Romanian, English, Italian, Spanish and French. 


While we were there, the entire area of Gibraltar had a power outage. Apparently they're becoming quite common because the city uses a excessively large amount of power, so they just shut it off for random amounts of time- sometimes hours, sometimes just 45 minutes or so. We were lucky that it was out for less than an hour. After the power came back on we headed out to Roy's for fish & chips on Antonio's recommendation. Roy is originally British, but has been living in Spain and commuting to work in Gibraltar for 25 years with his Spanish wife. He also makes some fantastic fish and chips. Below is a picture, with Alyssa, Katie, Roy, me and Matt from left to right. He was also incredibly friendly and chatted with us over dinner for at least 30 minutes or so. 

On Saturday, after a quick breakfast in Spain, we headed over to Gibraltar again for some sight-seeing. The rock of Gibraltar has been controlled by the Moors, the Spanish, and obviously the British and therefore has remnants from each of these groups. There was a Moorish castle, and a cave system built into the rock during World War II as a defense mechanism. There were also some extraordinary views and lots of stairs. 

Of course, my favorite part were the Gibraltar apes. Apparently they really like blondes.

We finished up the day at Europa point, the separation between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic with the mountains of Morocco across the water.

After a quick nap, we did dinner in Spain and then we found ourselves at a karaoke bar with a bunch of Brits, including a bachelorette party. There were some pretty entertaining renditions of Greased Lightning, Queen, and Michael Jackson. After another bus-ride on Sunday, we were back home in Sevilla. Which was strange, because it did feel like arriving home- I guess that means I'm really getting settled in. Don't worry Mom and Dad- I'll make it back to Chicago eventually! But I may be bringing a monkey with me. 

Life in a Spanish Apartment

It is official- my intensive Spanish class is over. I am now back at my apartment, relaxing in my room for a few hours before I head to Gibraltar for the weekend. 

My room is quaint, but quite comfortable. There are no closets- apparently they're rare here. Instead, they have tall chest of drawers for keeping your clothes. My senora, Dolores, cleans my room every Thursday. She changes my sheets, takes out my garbage, gives me fresh towels and takes my dirty laundry to wash. It's a pretty good system for me. As you can see in the picture of the kitchen in a previous post, the washing machine is in the kitchen. There is no dryer- they are extremely rare in Spain, particularly in the South because of the year-round mild weather. All of my clothes (undergarments included) are hung from cables in the inner courtyard of our apartment building. There is a rope and pulley system that she uses to hang them from the kitchen window. I usually get them back dried, pressed, and folded on Saturday morning.

There is also no central heating or air-conditioning in most buildings, old or new. Utilities are extraordinarily expensive in Spain- much more so than in the U.S. I am lucky to have a wall-mounted heating and air-conditioning unit in my room to use. Many of my friends only have floor units or nothing at all in their bedrooms. However, there are several rules I have to follow in using it: I cannot leave it on at night or while I am out and when I am using it, my bedroom door needs to be shut so the heat does not escape into the hallway. It works the same way in the living room- when the heat is on, the doors to the hallway and kitchen are closed. I have also been asked to only use the lights when it is dark outside, and to switch them off whenever I leave a room, even just for a few minutes. 

There are also rules concerning water usage. My showers have to be less than 10 minutes long and I am restricted to one per day. Although I enjoy longer showers, this really hasn't been much of a problem for me. Luckily, there is always hot water in my apartment for showering. Some of my friends do not have hot water and have to take cold showers instead- that sounds absolutely awful in an apartment with no central heating. 

My senora also makes me three meals per day. She makes breakfast for me as soon as I wake up, lunch is usually served around 2:30 and dinner is usually around 9:30. She has been extremely flexible though- if I'm running late or if I need to eat a little bit earlier, she is completely accommodating. If I'm on a day trip or can't make it back for lunch, she makes me a bocadillo, which is a small sandwich usually with some form of ham and cheese, to eat on the go. She's also a fantastic cook- I'm compiling pictures and descriptions of my favorite meals to post later. I'm also hoping to steal some recipes from her before I head back to the States!

I live in a older building (picture above), but it is renovated and extremely nice. It's the beige and white building on the left. There are a few bars and shops on my street, Calle Urbion, but it is mostly a residential area. My neighbors are extremely nice- every time I see them they greet me and chat for a few minutes. It's a very interesting mix of tenants in my building including several elderly couples, families with young kids, bachelors, and of course my senora and her 25-year old son. At first, it may seem strange that Carlos has a job and it still living with his mom at the age of 25. However, I am quickly realizing that this is very common. Kids tend to live with their parents until they get married, usually in their late 20s or early 30s. The other three of Dolores's kids all lived with her until they got married. Most of my friends have older host 'brothers' or 'sisters' living with them as well. It's cultural in that family is much more important than independence, but its also cost-effective when the cost of living is so high. 

So far, it has certainly been an experience living with a Spanish family but I'm loving it so far. It's nice to have everything done for me around the house so I can spend my time traveling and exploring Sevilla instead of doing laundry and cleaning. But I can't lie, it's nice to know that I will eventually get back to the carpets, dryers, and central heating of the States.