I was only planning on spending two or two and a half weeks in Spain but I ended up I spending a whole month there and loved every minute of it. Starting in Barcelona...loved this city! It has so much personality with the narrow streets, great food, and Gaudi architecture. I was able to meet up with and old friend, Paulo, and get a bit of a locals view of Barcelona which was fantastic. Next was Madrid which I did not enjoy at all so I explored the surrounding areas and quickly moved to Seville. Oh Seville. I fell in love with this romantic city. It quickly jumped up to the top of my 'possible places to live in Europe' list. A three night stay turned into 6...you get the picture. I don't know why I enjoyed it so much, the beautiful architecture, maze of narrow streets, fountains, fantastic tapas and flamenco, friendly people, orange trees lined streets. Amazing.
Typical day in Seville, wake up and have breakfast next to the pool out on this gorgeous rooftop terrace then head out exploring the city. Stumble into a secluded plaza with a nice restaurant or cafe and stop for a two hour lunch of the menu del dia or cana y tapas. Siesta. Then walk along the orange tree lined streets and see the sights, regularly stopping to "sample" the Sangria (you have to find out which place has the best Sangria!). Around 10pm head out for tapas and flamenco. One night we were out at a bar and ended up meeting some local men who just happened to be part of a flamenco group. We told them (in broken Spanish) that we had had our first ever flamenco experience and how much we loved it. In effort to please the ladies they immediately busted out some flamenco right there in the plaza. For an ad lib, without a guitar, spur of the moment performance it was pretty good! Great moment.
From Seville I headed to Cordoba and then spent a few nights in Granada which I was not expecting to enjoy but really did. I showed up to an extremely hippie hostel which I felt really out if place in at first but it turned out to be an awesome experience. Really lovely people whom I learned a lot from.
Typical day in Granada, wake up and have breakfast on the balcony with an amazing view of the Alhambra. Practice flamenco that I learned from one of the girls at the hostel the night before. Walk the streets of the Albaycin which are very steep, a complete maze, and no way to find your way with a map, just head in the general direction and you will end up at your destination somehow. This is exactly how I always imagined Diagon Alley in Harry Potter. Spend the afternoon wandering through the inhabited caves or in the gardens of the Alhambra. The saying "You have not lived until you have seen the Alhambra" is absolutely correct. It is stunning. In the evening stop by a market for some fresh bread, cheese, and wine and head up to the highest point to watch the sunset over the Alhambra which was worth the trip to Spain in itself. Head back to relax at the hostel, finish the bottle of wine, listen to some guy play guitar, watch one of the artists painting the girls doing the flamenco on the patio, play with the hostel puppy, all with a gorgeous view of the Alhambra lit up with greens and blues at night. Good for the soul.
After the last hectic couple of weeks I was ready for some alone time so I was trying to find an apartment in a small beach village to pass four or five days but I ended up finding something even better. I arrived in Nerja which is a small town on the southern coast and found this amazing hostel where I was the only guest. Place to myself for fraction of the price of an apartment. Perfect. It was gorgeous weather so I spent my days topless on the beach and evenings wandering the streets and stopping for a cana y tapa every once in a while. Perfect way to decompress after a crazy couple of weeks.
From Nerja I headed further south through some small beach towns and ended up in the windy town of Tarifa. On advice from my host in Nerja, I found this hidden trail up the coast and wandered around abandoned fortresses and castle-like mansions. The whole time, looming on the horizon was Morocco. I saw Africa! I'll be there soon :) A quick day trip from Spain I stepped foot in the UK...In Gibraltar. Totally weird to be in laid back grimy Southern Spain one minute and then step into the proper British feel of Gibraltar. Coincidentally the morning we went to Gibraltar was really overcast and misty out, really added to the mood for our UK trip :) While we were there we of course had a couple of pints, and I had a monkey sneak up on me and try to steal out of my purse. Silly monkey.
Favorites:
-All the balconies with laundry hanging all over Spain. Coming from Eastern Europe you didn't see many balconies so this was really fun to see.
-Gaudi Architcture in Barcelona.
-Tapas, sangria, and Flamenco in Seville. Had a couple of really great nights and saw some awesome Flameno
-Spending an afternoon lunching with some German guys. They were only in Seville for 2 days and by God they were going to try as many tapas as possible while they were there...we ordered every tapa on the menu and it was a big menu! After 3 hours, multiple pitchers of beer and sangria, and tons of great tapas dripping with fresh olive oil, we departed back for a siesta. Nice.
-View of the Alhambra from my hostel in Granada, the Rambutan
-Meeting people in Granada who were so different than me but ending up loving them and learning so much from them
-Finding out about the Botellon, the underground bottle/street party in Tarifa. I'm not sure exactly how these Botellons work but from what I gathered you have to be invited to get the location, typically the day before or day of. Then show up with big bottles of alcohol and party with the locals in a plaza or parking lot. The one we went to was in the courtyard of the castle in Tarifa and it was all teenagers. Hmm. Not impressed with the scantily dressed and extremely drunk 14 year olds but it was still fun and a great experience.
-Making friends with this old drunk man at the bar one night and trying for a couple of hours to hash out a conversation in Spanish with him. Suddenly he starts speaking perfect English (had lived in London for 10 years)and thought it was just hilarious to make me struggle through this conversation with him for so long.
I will try to send an update again soon, in the meantime I will be eating my way through Italy!
Scooters, scooters everywhere!
Your typical street in Barcelona, this was taken my first day in Barcelona and I was really impressed with the apartment buildings.
Gaudi, in Park Gruell
The girls in Barcelona, we were dancing machines!
More Gaudi
Churros con chocolate in Madrid. This snack has Jen written all over it, deep fried bread dipped in warm chocolate...perfect.
View from my castle in Toledo
My lodgings for the evening. Complete with armored knight guarding the door to my room.
In Plaza de Espana in Seville. It was beautiful.
The largest Paella I have ever seen. Feeds 50 people.
The crew in Seville.
Flamenco. Look how intense their faces are. This is serious stuff
Not a very good pic but this lady was amazing.
The Alhambra, taken from the porch at my hostel in Granada
This apartment has won the Best Decorated award for the last 10 years in Granada (according to my tour guide, could be full of shit). Very spanish.
The caves in Granada. People live in them, sometimes legally, most of the time not. Some are very nice and well kept up, others are absolutely disgusting. Interesting to walk around the neighorhood. If I could find the quotes symbol on this keyboard neighborhood would be in quotes. LOL
The crew in Tarifa. Funny story, the girl on the bottom right, Alex, I had met in Prague. Then ran into her again in Krakow. Then she showed up at the hostel in Tarifa. Small world!
It was Johannes birthday. This was our attempt at a birthday cake. Peach cobbler with a flaming piece of paper...hey we tried.
Botellon behind the castle in Tarifa.
No comments:
Post a Comment