Córdoba and Sevilla

I have been a bad blogger lately. The truth is, I haven’t had much time or energy to reflect and share with you all my most recent adventures, and I haven’t left Ubrique in some time either. I will be honest, though this is the adventure of a lifetime, not every day is made up of fun and sunshine and rainbows and butterflies. That’s life. Living abroad is fun, but it can be difficult sometimes, too. These past few weeks have been… interesting to say the least. I won’t go into details because the ever-optimist in me says to save the blogging only for stories of fun and traveling. So, voila! Here is an entry from a few weeks ago when I took a weekend trip to Cordoba and Sevilla. Enjoy!

Sunday November 6, 2011

Last weekend we had our first Puente – a long weekend break from school. (It’s called a Puente meaning bridge because if the holiday falls on a Tuesday, in this case All Saint’s Day November 1, the schools bridge the holiday from the weekend and take off Monday, too. Apparently it happens often, so I’m pretty excited for more vacation time!) Apparently the holiday is to celebrate ancestors that have passed away (similar to Día de los Muertos that is celebrated in Mexico, but not to the same extent). Most locals used the free time to spend with family and friends, so some of the other American girls and I took this opportunity to travel a little bit around Andalucía. We spent 2 days and 2 nights in Córdoba followed by 2 days and 1 night in Sevilla.

I had never heard much about Córdoba, but I’m very glad we went; the city was beautiful and there was a ton of things to see and do. As a typical Andalusian city and the capital of the province of Córdoba, there were lots of old streets with fun shops, restaurants and cafés, parks with pretty fountains and lights, and of course interesting characters out on the streets. One amazing thing about Spain is that there is an incredible amount of history and culture here including but not limited to influences from the early Iberians, the Romans and the Moors. To name a few touristy sites, we visited the great mosque and cathedral, the Jewish quarter, the alcazar (Moorish castle), beautiful gardens and the Roman bridge. We also ate some delicious food including the gigantic, world-famous Tortilla Española from Bar Santos (twice, it was so good!)

Cathedral at night

Eating world famous Tortilla





Roman Bridge





Interior of Cathedral





Biggest Tortilla I've ever seen

  In Cordoba, I also attended my very first Flamenco show. It was pretty incredible, I have never seen anything like it. Unforunately, the speaker was broken, so the beautiful Spanish guitar was difficult to hear over the clapping and singing. I plan to attend another show, probably in Sevilla in the future.

On the third day, we caught the train back to the incredible capital of Andalucía, Sevilla. The train ride was such a treat from the buses that we typically have to take out of Ubrique. It was very relaxing and nobody got sick this time. :) We grabbed a cheap hostel for the night and did some exploring of Sevilla. This included the very famous (and very large) Cathedral, another alcazar, the Torre del oro, the Guadalquivir river, plazas, parks, gardens, a fun outdoor market, and a modern structure with an awesome view of the entire city. Monday night was also Halloween. Though it is not celebrated in Spain to the extent as it is in the States, some people still dress up and/or go out to celebrate. During the weekend we saw a few niños dressed up in costumes – ALL of which were in classic frightening costumes, such as vampires, ghosts, or skeletons. I did see one little princess, that was a nice change. On the night of Halloween, Seana, Kendra and I decided to make friends with some fellow travelers and attend the hostel pub crawl. I met some cool people from Brazil, Mexico, Germany, the Netherlands, the States, France, Italy and England. While the sites, the food and drinks are excellent, I still say my favorite part about traveling is meeting and conversing with people from all over the world. It’s so much fun to swap stories, even if you have to mix three different languages to attempt to communicate. You and your fellow travelers share a common bond: traveling outside of your comfort zone. They become your BFFs if only for one night and sometimes you even cross paths in the future. It’s a pretty awesome sensation. Anyways, we didn’t have costumes, but it didn’t matter because only a few people dressed up. Mostly, they just like to paint their faces really scary. There was also one guy dressed as Jesus. Though Halloween is not very popular here, there is a Spanish holiday in February called Carnival that is a HUGE celebration and everyone dresses in fun costumes then, so I am looking forward to participating in that tradition!

The last day of our trip, some of the girls did some shopping. Seana and I did some more walking around the city with very many stops to sit and rest and admire the good weather and our beautiful surroundings. (I swear I need to buy a pedometer, I must have walked hundreds of miles since I’ve come to Spain. The proof is in my shoes that are worn out after less than a month, and the fact that all my pants are finally too big on me, score!) We figured all of the walking we did entitled us to 2 heaping scoops of delicious gourmet helado. It was fantastic. We caught the late bus home in time to get a good night’s rest and prepare for classes the next day. 2 days was certainly not enough to get the full Sevilla experience, but I know I’ll be back again.

Kendra Almendra

All in all, it was an excellent weekend getaway. I haven’t left Ubrique since and I have been enjoying my relaxing time here. Since I’ve finally received my first paycheck, I am trying to save up some money and am starting to plan some more trips for the springtime. The wintertime may potentially consist of some very special visitors, so I am getting very excited for things to come! The time is going to fly by, though… it already has!

Besitos

Cadiz Round Two

(Monday, October 24, 2011)

On Friday Clint, Deborah and I headed back to the city of Cádiz for a second attempt at securing our documentation in order to avoid potentially being deported one day. We were a little anxious and frustrated after our experience with the headache of a visa process and the multiple warnings about Spain’s strict yet unorganized system. However, the province of Cádiz is probably one of the most laid back provinces in the already very relaxed region of Andalucía, so the NIE process turned out to be insanely quick and easy.

We got up bright and early to catch the 6am bus out of Ubrique. (We had heard it was necessary to get to the Extranjería first thing as there’s typically a line out the door, but we didn’t encounter a single other person.) I had planned to stay for only a few hours to complete the process, grab a bite and relax on the beach then catch the evening bus home. Cádiz had different plans for me however. Armed with only a bathing suit and one change of clothes, I stayed the entire weekend and didn’t come back to Ubrique until 10pm Sunday night.  The lure of the beach and the good weather was too much to say no to (had to take advantage before the rain comes, yuck!) Can you blame me?

The weekend consisted of meeting up with other friends, spending virtually all day on the beach, eating at La Gorda multiple times, beautiful sunsets over the water and dancing the night away at La Punta. Since it is off season for travel, I think we were the only Americans out that night and it was a little bit uncomfortable. The people didn’t seem to be quite as friendly and receptive as they are in Ubrique, but we shook it off and the weekend was still a blast.

Sunday, I meant to catch the early bus home but my alarm didn’t go off and I was a zombie anyways, so it didn’t happen.. I decided since I’d made it that far, I could handle one more day in Cadiz and catch the late bus home. It was not as nice out as it was windy and mostly cloudy and even rained for about five minutes, but we still sat on the beach this time donning more layers. We also met up with jonny, another auxiliary from England staying in Cadiz. It was a pretty tranquil day minus that crazy person on the beach that stopped to admire Alysha’s beauty and begged her to take her sunglasses off for a good 15 minutes before we escaped. After that improvised long and fun filled weekend, I passed out on the bus ride home (which is a blessing because it means no motion sickness on those crazy mountain roads.) Though this was probably my last chance to catch some sun in the beach town, I have a feeling come spring I will be spending a lot more time in Cadiz.

Nevertheless, there’s no place like Ubrique… Last week’s series of stressful events may have put a moment of doubt in my mind - I won’t elaborate on that because I’ve had some time to reflect (perk of not having wifi) and I’ve realized that not every day is going to be perfect, even if you are living in a picture perfect postcard-esque town. It’s important not to dwell on the bad things though. Getting out of Ubrique and enjoying another city for a little bit was just what I needed to kick start myself a little bit (I’m convinced that sun, sand and sea can cure everything, including the awful hangover I had Sunday morning).  Cadiz is becoming another favorite place of mine, but leaving Ubrique always seems to make me appreciate it a little bit more when I come back. Whenever the bus pulls in and I see the sierra towering over the white washed town I’m just as excited as the first time I got a glimpse of that amazing view. In addition, it always feels good to come back to some place where the places and faces are familiar.

Here’s to having a balance between enjoying my time in Ubrique, and taking advantage of exploring some more. Up next: spending the holiday next weekend in Cordoba and Sevilla. More adventures to come!