Feria

This past week in El Puerto de Santa Maria, a neighbouring town of Rota's, it has been Feria. Literally translated, the feria is a fair, but it is so much more than that! There are your typical fair rides and game booths, but that's not all... Basically feria is a week of fiesta, sherry drinking and sevillana dancing that usually takes place in the middle of May, and that locals look forward to all year long. The fairgrounds are so big, they have to be on the very outskirts of the city.

Once you enter the grounds, the streets are lined with colourful tents (casetas), lanterns, and horses and carriages, making you feel like you've been transported back in time. The casetas are the focal point of the fair. They’re set up by local families, clubs, societies and businesses and within each one is a new and exciting party with a plentiful supply of food, drink, 24-hour merrymaking, and non-stop dancing. It’s common for the locals to “caseta-hop” from one tent to another.

My friend Princess and I spent the whole day on Saturday just wandering around, and taking in the atmosphere of the whole thing. Most of the women and children were dressed in traditional Spanish flamenco outfits that you imagine when you think of Spain (or at least I do!) And everyone is well-versed in a dance called Sevillanas, of which there are 4 different types. These dances all follow a certain pattern, and somehow, all the dancers know which of the 4 is being performed at any given moment, so when you look out at the dance floor, what you see is a perfectly synchronized group of dancers clapping their hands, stomping their feet, twirling their hands around, and switching places with their partners, ALL AT THE EXACT SAME TIME! In case you can't tell, I was exceedingly impressed by the dancing!

Unfortunately, after a long day of drinking rebujitos (fino white wine, like Tio Pepe, mixed with Sprite or 7-Up) and tinto de verano (red wine mixed with lemon-flavoured soda), it was time for us to go home, although many of the locals would stay and party all through the night!

Picture Day

Today I decided it was time to take some photos of my (temporary) Spanish hometown, our usual hangouts, the old part of the town, and my favourite place - the beach!  So here they are...

  

 

 

School visit and Seville

Today was an interesting day, to say the least!  We started off by going for a visit to my school... the teachers were excited to finally meet my parents, and all of the English teachers (and some others too!) were eager to practice their English on them.  Afterwards we drove the rental van to Seville, stopping at the way (and only getting a little bit lost!) at some ruins just outside the city called Italica.

 

After about an hour of walking around and sightseeing, we carried onto Seville, where the GPS proceeded to direct us down the narrowest, most awkward streets in the entire city of Seville!  Now don't get me wrong, a lot of Spanish towns are completely made up of narrow little streets... however, Seville is not one of them!  The main area where they are concentrated is the tourist area, and you do NOT under any circumstances want to drive a gigantic van around in them (and lost, no less)!  Below you can see the back of our van, and one of the streets we carefully drove down... and this was one of the widest ones!

 

Eventually we all got pretty claustrophobic, and were afraid of scratching the rental vehicle, so we stopped and since I was the designated translator of the trip, I asked someone how to get back onto the main, wider streets!  He told me, but warned that it would get very very narrow right at the end.  Assuming that it couldn't possibly get any narrower than it already was, we continued on... boy were we wrong!  When we came to the last section of the street, we realized we could hardly move an inch in any direction, for fear of scratching the car, or worse... getting completely and utterly stuck between the two walls ahead!  We managed to get out, but only after a stressful 15 minutes of careful inching ahead, and having to pull the rearview mirrors in.  Well, that and the fact that we had an amazing driver and a great navigator in the front seats!

Unfortunately, by the time we found parking (on the other side of the city!) we were too late to see the cathedral and Giralda bell tower, so we just went to the Plaza de España (which happens to be my all-time favourite site in Seville, and maybe even in all of Spain!) 

Afterwards, we did a whirlwind tour of the rest of the tourist sites... by horse and carriage!  My favourite part was that I got to sit up front and talk to the driver in Spanish, then translate for the other 4 in the back (although he did speak English, so I think it was just for my benefit that he gave the tour in Spanish!)  The most interesting part was when I asked him how he came to give this kind of tour as a profession, and he told me that his grandfather had done it, his father had done it, and he had been doing it with them since he was young.  So it seems that it's something that's passed down through the generations. 

 

Luckily, we made it back to Rota just in time for dinner at my favourite Irish Pub (it's actually called O'Grady's, but we call it Patrick's because when we first arrived in Rota, we made friends with the Irish owner, whose name is Patrick!) and happy hour!

Back to Rota... with the parents!

Today was our last day in Madrid, and we started it off by going to see the bull ring and bullfighter museum. We took the metro there, which is an experience in itself for anyone from a small town. The bull ring was interesting to see, even though we didn't go inside, but the museum was nothing spectacular.

We spent the rest of our time shopping, and then flew back to Jerez, the airport closest to Rota. From there it was a gong show driving to Rota in our rental van. Dwayne had brought a GPS with him, but before we got it up and running, we had already missed the first exit! We got quite turned around, but the GPS (who we nicknamed Greta) got us back on track and we made it eventually! They all checked into their hotel, and then we went for dinner at an amazing Argentinean restaurant only a block away. They make the best steak, with different kinds of sauces to go with them. Later I took them for ice cream and a walk along the beach.

Sightseeing in Madrid

On Monday, we went to one of the main sights in Madrid - the Royal Palace. It is known as the official residence of the Spanish King and Queen, but they actually live in a different palace on the outskirts of the city. Nowadays, the Royal Palace is mainly used for state occasions. This palace is the largest royal palace in Western Europe in size, and it has more than 2,800 rooms!

After our tour around the palace, we stopped at a cafe for churros con chocolate. which are strips of fried dough that you dip in thick, hot chocolate with a pudding-like consistency. Supposedly the name churro comes from its shape, which resembles the horns of the Churro breed of sheep from the Spanish grasslands of Huarocho.

Next we went for a relaxing walk in El Parque del Buen Retiro, and even had a bit of a nap out in the sun. We topped off the day with a typical Spanish lunch of mixed paella and other tapas. Paella is a typical Valencian rice dish made with saffron, tomatoes, garlic, and olive oil. The origin of the name paella comes from the frying pan that it is traditionally cooked in. My parents and their friends also tried croquetas (deep-fried mixture of ham and mashed potatoes) and tortilla espanola (potato omlette).

My parents visit Madrid

This weekend was a very exciting one for me, because it was the start of my parent's two-week visit!  On Saturday I took the 7 1/2 hour bus from Rota up to Madrid, and spent that night at my fellow language assistant Princess's.  The next morning we headed to the Rastro, a popular open-air flea market that takes place every Sunday.

 

Then later that afternoon, I went to the airport to meet my parents, and their friends Janice and Dwayne.  It was great to see them after being away from home so long.  By the time I got them to their hotel near Gran Via, right in the centre of the city, and they were ready to go out again, it was almost sunset, so I decided to take them to the Temple of Debod.  This is an ancient Egyptian temple that was given to Spain in 1968 as a sign of gratitude for their help in protecting several other Egyptian monuments.  Then we had an amazing dinner at an Italian restaurant on Gran Via.

 

Ancient Corinth

After a relaxing day yesterday, which we spent catching up on lost sleep and wandering around Corinth, we decided to make a trip to the site of Ancient Corinth today.

Ancient Corinth was founded in the 10th Century BCE and was the largest city in ancient Greece. Corinth was Greece’s richest port as well, because of its strategic location on a narrow stretch of land that joins the Peloponnesus to the mainland of Greece. In ancient times, they traversed the isthmus by hauling ships over the rocky ridge on sledges, but it is now cut by a canal.

Arrival in Corinth, Greece

Late last night, Chella and I caught a flight to Greece.  We left from the Seville airport, although we almost missed our flight!  We had a connecting flight to catch in Barcelona, and we arrived in Athens at 6 am, where we caught a train to Corinth.  Helen, a relative of Chella's who lives in England, had given us her house key so that we could stay with her.  We finally got here, but we had a really hard time of it!  First we had to figure out how to get a bus to the city centre, which was difficult since when we asked someone (in English) when the next bus was, he told us they weren't running today.  Luckily, a nice old Greek man who spoke better English, helped us out by getting us on the right bus (they were in fact running!), and telling us when to get off.  We still had a hard time finding the house though, because the house numbers don't seem to go in any logical order.  Now that we're here, it's time for some breakfast!

Visiting Seville with Chella

Early this morning Chella and I took the bus to Seville for a combination sightseeing-shopping trip.  We started out by going to see the Plaza de España.  This amazing, gigantic plaza was built in 1929 in honour of Seville hosting the Spanish-American Exhibition.  The Plaza is a huge half-circle with buildings continually running around the edge accessible over the moat by numerous beautiful bridges. In the centre is a large fountain.  If the picture below looks familiar, that may be because this plaza appears in George Lucas' Star Wars movie, Episode II: Attack of the Clones.

Afterwards we shopped for a bit until we got to the centre of town, where we went into the Cathedral.  Construction was begun in 1402, and continued into the 16th century. It is the largest of all Roman Catholic cathedrals (Saint Peter's Basilica not being a cathedral) and also the largest Medieval Gothic religious building.  It houses what is thought to be the tomb of Christopher Columbus. 

We also climbed to the top of the Giralda tower, where there was a great view of the city. 

After all that sightseeing, somehow we still had the energy to shop for hours, so we didn't get home until late tonight, and we are exhausted!

Semana Santa

In Spain, the whole week before Easter (this past week) is celebrated with processions and religious ceremonies.  Spain is renowned in the world for its Holy Week celebrations, and some of the most elaborate occur right in this area, and tonight we went to our first procession!

During the processions, which occur throughout the week, pasos are carried through the streets.  A paso is a lifelike wood sculpture of individual scenes of the events that happened between Jesus' entry in Jerusalem and his burial, or images of the Virgin Mary showing restrained grief for the torture and killing of her son. Some of the images are of great antiquity and artistic masterworks. These pasos (which usually weigh over a metric tonne) are physically carried on the neck of volunteers (usually from the age of 24 to 48) who are hidden inside the platforms, making them seem to move all on their own.

Cadiz

Chella and I arrived back in Rota last night, and boy was the weather better here than in England!  We spent all day today exploring Rota and Cadiz... that is when we finally got up!  First we had lunch by the castle in Rota, where I introduced Chella to some delicious Spanish pinchitos (kebabs) and tortilla española (potato omlette).

 

We caught the first afternoon ferry, and went across the bay to sightsee in Cádiz.  We saw the cathedral, although we didn't go in, or go up the tower.  This largely baroque-style cathedral was built over a period of 116 years, and, due to this drawn-out period of construction, the cathedral underwent several major changes to its original design.

Then we walked out to the Castillo de San Sebastian, which is not just a castle, but also a military fortification.  It is situated at the end of a road leading out from the Caleta beach, and it was built in 1706. Today the castle remains unused, although not too long ago scenes from the James Bond movie Die Another Day were filmed here as well as on the nearby beach.

Worcester, England

Yesterday morning we hopped on a train out of London, headed for Worcester, a little English town a few hours northwest of London.  The reason for this is that my friend Chella has a distant relative that lives there, who we had promised to visit while we were in Britain.  We arrived in the afternoon, and right away spotted a lady who we thought must be Helen, the relative that Chella had never actually met  in person, but only corresponded with over e-mail.  She somehow recognized us right away, and she and her husband, who was also there to meet us, took us back to their house to drop off our things.  She put us in a cute little attic room which we had all to ourselves, and gave us some time to get settled before pulling out the family photos and "introducing" us to the rest of her family.  Chella's family is Greek, and Helen is the last "true" Greek of the family.  Apparently you can only be a true Greek if you speak Greek, and are of the Greek Orthodox religion.  Since Helen grew up in Corinth speaking Greek as her first language, she fits the bill perfectly.  She even still owns her family's original house in Corinth (which I know because we are going to stay there when we go to Greece in a few weeks!).

Later in the day, Helen took us for a walk around the town, and we took a quick look inside Worcester Cathedral, which was much bigger than I was expecting.  Then for dinner, we were lucky enough to get a real English roast dinner, which was delicious after a few days of subsiding on hostel-cooked food.  Then we met Helen's daughter Dee, and spent the rest of the evening talk to her.

 
Yesterday morning, we went back to the cathedral for a more detailed look around.  On the way there, we walked along the River Severn and saw some swans!

This was followed by a trip to the Worcester museum.  By the way, did you know that Worcestershire sauce originated in Worcester?  I do, as there was an entire display devoted to it in the museum!  In case you're wondering, it was first made at 68 Broad Street, Worcester by Misters Lea & Perrins at some point in the 1830s.  After the museum, we took Helen's dog Ronnie for a walk in some hills on the outskirts of the town.  It reminded me of exactly what I would expect the English countryside to look like.

 

That afternoon Helen's daughter-in-law stopped by to meet us, and then her son and her other daughter-in-law, and their three children came over for dinner.  They were all very friendly, and the kids were adorable.  Here's a picture of them:

More London

Today we had a very productive, sight-seeing day! We started out by going to visit the Tower of London, which was pretty impressive. The Tower of London is often identified with the White Tower, however the entire site actually includes several buildings and a total of 19 separate towers, all of which are situated behind large fortress walls and a moat. The Tower of London is most known for its use as a prison, and was the site of many executions during the time of Henry VIII. I highly recommend reading the book "The Other Boleyn Girl" or another similar historical fiction novel before a visit here, as it gave a lot more meaning to the place for me. While we wandered around the Tower of London, we also found a great view of the Tower Bridge. We got to see all different kinds of weaponry, from simple swords, to guns and cannons.


It turned out that almost every tourist sight in London had reduced prices for students - which were sometimes as much as half off the regular ticket price! So make sure you don't make the same mistake as I did, and bring your student ID card when visiting London (and Europe in general, really!)

After the Tower, we moved on to Madam Tussaud's wax museum, which was a fun attraction to see, if not a historically relevant one. We finished off the night by going to the theatre to see "Mamma Mia," a story set on a Greek island about a girl searching for her father. The best part about the show was that this story was told using hit songs by the popular '70s group ABBA.

London

Last night, I arrived in London after a quick flight from Jerez to London Stansted airport. Since I had a late flight, I had made plans to stay in a cheap hotel called The Bushel and Sack in Stansted (just outside London) so I didn’t have to navigate alone, through the city in the dark. The best part was, they had a free shuttle to and from the airport, but it the place overall was a bit more run down than I had been expecting.

This morning after getting a ride back to the airport, I took the train to the hostel where I met my friend Chella, who is travelling around with me for the next 3 weeks. The hostel, the Astor Kensington, was a pretty nice place, and one of the cheaper hostels in London, even though it has a kitchen and is conveniently close to most of the tourist sites.

We met up at the hostel, and made some lunch. I had brought a bunch of food from Spain to some money on eating out in London (which I knew to be insanely expensive!) Afterwards we went for a walk and took the Tube to the Tower Bridge, where we got so fed up with the rain and cold that we went back to the hostel and went to bed early.

This morning we headed to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard, and although there was a crowd of people and policemen everywhere controlling the crowd, the changing of the guard ceremony didn't actually happen due to the wind and rain.

After spending some time in the British Library looking at all kinds of famous books and artwork, we decided it was time for a proper British meal, so we found a nearby pub and had a roast dinner with potatoes. Unfortunately when they brought out our meals, we found out they were out of Yorkshire pudding, so it wasn't a completely typical meal.

To finish off the day, we went to see the Big Ben, the houses of Parliament, and Westminster Abbey, which I would say was the highlight of all the sightseeing. Thanks to my trusty research skills, we knew that there was an organ recital going on that evening inside Westminster Abbey, so we got in for free and got to listen to some music at the same time!

After a long day spent in the rain and cold, we thought it was time for some indoor fun, so we spent the evening having coffee in a little cafe, then going to a movie called the Bank Job (which coincidentally, takes place in London, in some of the very places we had seen that day!) And then came the best part of the night... we took a double-decker bus back to our hostel and rode up top!

Larache

Today we had another free day, and since we felt we had seen most of Asilah the day before, we decided to go to another town, called Larache. At first we thought we would take the bus, so we headed up to the "bus station." This seemed to be a pretty shady area of town in general, and after being pestered by numerous people asking where we were going, we decided it wasn't much more expensive to take a taxi. This turned out to be one of the more interesting experiences I had in Morocco.


First of all, the driver convinced us that we could fit all 6 of us into his 4-passenger taxi. So there were four of us crammed into the back and two people in the front seat. That part wouldn't have been so bad, if we hadn't had a maniac for a driver! He didn't really seem to be speeding, but anytime there was a vehicle in front of us, he would drive so closely behind it, that if it even slowed down at all he would have to slam on his brakes. Needless to say, that alone made the 6 of us fairly nervous. Then at one point, there was a tractor puttering along down the side of the road, but we couldn't see it as we were mere inches behind the truck in front of us. So when the truck moved over to the left to avoid the tractor, our driver had to swerve quite quickly. And yet this little incident didn't stop him from following so closely at all!

We arrived in Larache and again did a bit of sightseeing, but as it was also quite small, it didn't even take one whole day. Overall, it seemed to be quite a bit poorer than Asilah had been. One especially interesting part was in the port. While we were there, we saw a couple of big grey motorboats with 4 motors each. When we got in trouble for taking some pictures with these boats in them, a policeman started whistling at us to stop. The Spaniards later explained to us that these were the boats used to transport drugs out of Morocco. Apparently drug exports are one of the country's biggest sources of income.

When we decided it was time to head back to Asilah, we first had to find the place where all the taxis gathered, and decide on a reasonable price for our trip back. There were more than 20 taxis and drivers at this place, and there was some confusion at first about where we wanted to go. Again, there were six of us crammed like sardines into one taxi, and this time the driver demanded we pay him in advance. But once we were in the taxi, a few of the drivers started arguing loudly in Arabic (we assumed over who got to drive for us). Soon it escalated and two drivers and the guy who seemed to be the "manager" of all the drivers came very close to getting into a fist fight. Luckily the other drivers kept them away from each other, but all we could do was sit there, since we had already paid for our ride! Eventually our driver got in and took off, but he seemed to be fuming the entire trip!


Once we got back to Asilah, we decided to rent a motorcycle with a cart behind it to take us to some caves on the beach that we had heard about. Once again, all six of us crammed into a very small space, and prepared ourselves for a bumpy ride! This time we got stopped by a policeman, but our driver was able to talk himself out of getting a fine. After about 10 minutes of driving, we got off the road and went through a field. There was a path but from the amount of bumping around we felt in the cart you wouldn't have known it!


The most fun (and scariest!) part was when we had to drive along the side of the cliff to get down to the beach. It was even bumpier and the driver kept getting stuck! All in all, it was a pretty exhilarating ride, and we laughed the entire way there. It was lucky that the journey was so much fun though, because once we got to the beach we realized the tide had come in to much for us to go to the caves after all... a small fact that our driver had either neglected to realize or mention! Oh well... we did get to see a beautiful sunset on the beach!


That was basically the end of my Moroccan adventures, as the next day we took the ferry back to Tarifa! I really enjoyed myself, but I was sure glad to get back to Spain!

Asilah

Our second day in Morocco we woke up early to head to Asilah, a smaller town also along the coast, but further south of Tangier. Since it is so small, we didn't actually have a group tour, and were just free to wander around town. At first we walked around as a big group, and found the area where most of the shops were. We all ended up buying cheap shoes there - they have tons of shops in Morocco where they sell rip offs of brand name shoes like Pumas, Adidas, Nike, etc. And one of the Spanish guys with us talked the shopkeeper into giving us a group discount, so they were only 13 Euros per pair!

Afterwards we walked over to the market, where they were selling tons of fruit, spices, and even live chickens! Another Moroccan specialty is their olives. You find stands of them everywhere in the markets, and they have all different kinds of olives, some in different spices as well. We kept wandering and by the end of the day we had seen most of Asilah. All in all it was a pretty unexciting but interesting day.


That night we had dinner in our hotel in what seemed to be a more typical Moroccan setting. Since Moroccans, and Muslims in general are forbidden to drink alcohol, it can be pretty hard to come by there. You can't buy it at most restaurants and bars, only in some supermarkets and bigger shops. That wasn't a problem for us however, since some of the people in the group had though ahead and brought their own drinks, so we stayed downstairs for awhile hanging out with the group.

Tangier

Tangier was our first destination in Morocco, and once we found our tour group in the port, we were off! We got on a bus for a little while, and toured around the city, and then we left all of our luggage on the bus while we got off and walked around.

First we had lunch at a cozy little restaurant where they played Moroccan music for us. I had been worried about Moroccan food (since I'm a bit of a picky eater!) but it ended up being pretty tasty. We were served a kind of tomato soup, couscous with chicken, meat kebabs, and a honey pastry for dessert, along with some very sweet mint tea.


After lunch, we went to a carpet shop, where the owner proceeded to show us many different rugs. I was pretty impressed, and if there was any way I could have afforded one, I would have been very tempted. Every rug was nicer and more unique than that last, and they were all entirely handmade. My favourite part was the bright, beautiful colours woven into every one. I don't think the pictures do them justice...


Afterwards we made our way to a typical Moroccan herbarium, where we had a presentation about the different spices, medicinal plants, and cosmetic products they had to offer us. There was everything from saffron and curry for cooking with, to natural remedies for snoring and insomnia, to "magic" lipstick that lasts 24 hours.

The last stop on our list before heading to our hotel room, was a field... where there were two camels that we got to take turns riding! This was my favourite part of the day, as I had been hoping to get the chance to ride a camel while in Morocco. Though I had pictured it happening in a desert or somewhere a little more exciting, it was still fun! They also had an adorable baby camel there, which we fed grass to while we were waiting.


We got back to our hotel, which wasn't anything too special, although we did have a nice view from our terrace. Later that night, we went out for dinner with some nice Spaniards that were in our tour group: Mari Carmen, Kiki, Gustavo, and Celestino. We ended up spending our whole trip with them and had tons of fun... plus we got to speak Spanish all weekend!