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.

 

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!

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.

Carnaval

As of Friday, Carnaval in Cadiz has officially begun! The city of Cadiz (which happens to be just across the bay from Rota) lives to celebrate Carnaval, which is a 10-period of costumes, plays, music, and much more! It is said to be the third-largest Carnaval in the world after
Rio de Janeiro and Trinidad and has been going on since the 17th century.

I had two friends come down to visit me this weekend and on Saturday night, I headed over to Cadiz on the ferry to meet them. The first thing that I noticed was how dressed up everyone on the ferry was. Everyone from the toddlers to the groups of 70-year old women had on some sort of costume. Unlike at home at Halloween, it seemed like instead of each person trying to find the most unique costume, the point was for everyone to dress up as a group.

When I stepped off the ferry at 7:30 pm, the area around the port was packed with people. In all the plazas, there were booths set up selling every kind of carnival candy imaginable, different last minute costumes, drinks, food, and of course - alcohol! Not that any of the students in the main square seemed to have any use for the alcohol. They had all brought their own bottles of liquor, mixers, and glasses and were having a gigantic botellon all over the city! One group of guys had really planned out their night in advance and were actually using a shopping cart to bring all their bottles with them wherever they went!

Some of the costumes were outrageous, and all of them were very creative! The party was only getting started when I arrived, and sometime later, after wandering around the streets for awhile, we joined in the big parade of people following the drums and singing typical Carnaval songs. We soon learned the words to one of the shortest chants, so we were even able to join in!

Then later on, there was a big ceremony where everyone gathered to see all of the Carnaval Muses (a group of about 10 girls dressed up) parade onto an outdoor stage. Then they brought out the previous year's Carnaval Queen and announced the Queen of the 2008 Carnaval.

All in all, it was a pretty exciting night and I can't wait to go back next weekend, when 9 of our language assistant friends are coming down to visit!

Utrera

Since my birthday is coming up next week, Rachael, Erin and I decided to pre-celebrate by going to hang out in Utrera with a big group of language assistants (we seem to congregate here as we are all in similar situations and have a lot in common). We started out on Saturday morning by meeting our friend Ellen in Seville for an entire day of shopping! I love the stores here... specifically H&M, Zara, Mango, Sfera... there are just too many to name! Plus I just got paid on Friday, so I ended up buying a ton of new clothes.

After our shopping spree, we met up with Nuria and some of her friends, and Brian, a friend of Ellen's for lunch. Then we went to Utrera, about 20 minutes outside of Seville, where Ellen lives with our other friend Eilidh (although she was away for the weekend). Utrera is a cute town, and it is a lot bigger than Rota (about twice the size). It even has a train station with a train that goes right into the big city of Seville, so we were slightly jealous! For dinner Erin, who is a cook back home in Michigan, whipped us up some delicious pasta with chicken. Afterwards we went to Evan and Amanda's apartment (more language assistants who live in Utrera) and met even more language assistants! This brought our total to 9 girls and 1 guy, with a whole lot of alcohol, so got a little crazy! After a couple hours of predrinking there, we headed to the first bar, where Amanda bought me a birthday shot! We went to one other bar, and then it was late enough, we headed to the disco. Since discos in Spain don't get busy or sometimes don't even open until 2:00 or 3:00 am, we ended up having a late night. I finally got back to Ellen's at 5:30 am, which means that today I am doing absolutely nothing!

Random Spaniard, Amanda, Rachael, Sam, and me... doing a birthday shot!

Road Trip

Rachael and Erin... and the car.

Yesterday we rented a car and went on our first road trip in Spain! Okay, so we just went to the Málaga airport to pick up Rachael's boyfriend, but it was fun nonetheless... The car rental for 1 day was fairly cheap too. It cost about €50 for the car rental (we went through Aurigae Crown rentals) plus a tank of gas (about €30). All in all, the road trip made me appreciate not being placed on the Costa del Sol / in the province of Málaga, because it was one long coast of tourist cities, with construction everywhere. I like our own beach here in Rota much better, even if it isn't quite as warm here! One other thing that we noticed on our road trip was the stop signs - interestingly enough, the signs here all say STOP... in English!

Segovia

For our second day trip from Madrid, Princess and I went to Segovia. This time it took us about an hour and a half by bus, but it was definitely worth it. Like Toledo, Segovia has many sites to see. Soon after we left the bus station, we arrived at the base of an ancient Roman aqueduct. Supposedly it was built sometime in the 1st or 2nd century AD in order to bring water to the town from a nearby river. The Romans built it entirely with stones... as in nothing is holding the stones in place! This huge aqueduct is not only still standing, but it actually still works as well.

Aqueduct (and that's me at the bottom!)

Since we hadn't gotten to Segovia until later on in the day, after seeing the aqueduct we stopped for lunch. We had been told that there were two typically Segovian foods that we had to try, so we did. First we had judiones (some kind of beans in a soup) and then we had conchinillo (suckling pig). For me, the judiones were nothing special, but the conchinillo was delicious... although it was a little strange to be eating pork with a leg and hoof still attached to it. On the bright side, we didn't get the head... that honour went to our neighbours at the table beside us!

After dinner we were slightly rushed for the cathedral and the Alcázar, as it was starting to get cold outside. We managed to make it inside the cathedral before it closed, and it was beautiful inside, with huge gothic ceilings and elaborately decorated chapels.

Cathedral

Unfortunately, by the time we got to the Alcázar, we couldn't go inside. It was amazing even from the outside though. It is said that the design of the Alcázar influenced the design of the castle in Disney's Sleeping Beauty, and I can see why!

Alcázar

The most exciting part of the day was by far what happened later at the bus station though... we were just about at the front of the line to purchase our tickets for the bus home when a Spanish woman at the front of the line started yelling at the man in the ticket booth. Apparently the bus wouldn't be coming after all, so we would all have to wait for the 8 o'clock bus. This made the woman and a few of her friends very upset, and they were all yelling, saying that it was the bus company's "obligation" to get another bus right away! I believe she then proceeded to call the police to explain the situation and demand that they do something as well! Of course, all of this was wasted effort... although it was interesting for me, as I discovered I could understand her fairly well even though she was yelling and quite agitated. Princess and I ended up waiting patiently and taking the 8 o'clock bus back to Madrid.

Toledo

So yesterday I arrived in Madrid for the long weekend (Thursday was All Saints Day, so we also had Friday off). I am staying here with a friend named Princess, who is another language assistant and is working here in Madrid... I know, I really need to widen my circle of friends here.

Anyways, today we decided to go to Toledo, which is about an hour by bus outside of Madrid. Toledo was once the capital of the Spanish Empire, but now it's mostly just a small medieval town popular with tourists. The old part of the city is located on a mountaintop above the Tagus River, which meant that from the top, there was a beautiful view.

Princess and I overlooking the city of Toledo.

We got up late, took the bus, and then just wandered around the city, so it was very relaxing. It was a beautiful day and we managed to see both the cathedral and the Alcazar while still having time to get completely lost in the side streets of Toledo!

Catedral de Santa María de Toledo

Being a tourist

Today we got to be tourists in our own town! Maria Jose, Rachael's coordinator at her school, set up a tour of Rota's castle and church for us today. She knows we are here to learn Spanish, so she even arranged with the tour guide to give us the tour in Spanish, but to speak slowly and clearly so we could understand. The tour was actually a lot more interesting than I had been expecting... I even found out that one of the men who sailed to America with Christopher Columbus was from Rota! And the view from the top of the castle was amazing, especially since we happened to be up there just as the sun was setting. Plus when we left we each got a bag full of Rota paraphenalia... I am now the proud owner of a DVD of Rota, a Rota keychain, a Rota lanyard, and lots of other cool things!

A Day In The Country

Today we were lucky enough to be invited out to a Spanish home just outside Rota, or en el campo as they say in Spanish. A teacher at Rachael's school, Maria José, invited us to have lunch with her and her husband's family. They have a little house right on the beach, although it is very rocky there, especially compared to our beautiful sandy beach in Rota.

When we first got there, Maria José's father-in-law showed us around. He actually has his own beehives and makes homemade honey which he then sells in Rota. He explained the whole process to us, and it was quite interesting. He said he had just finished collecting the honey 3 days earlier, so all he has left to do now is bottle the honey.

They really put a lot of effort in the lunch they served us. We started with whole sardines, followed by an amazing tortilla española made by Maria José herself. Then we had plates and plates of different meats, cheeses, and salads. The main plate however, was the paella. Paella is a rice dish made with saffron and olive oil that comes from Valencia. It can be made with all different kinds of meat, but ours was made with chicken and pork. It is made in special paella pan, which is a large, shallow, flat pan. After dinner, we had tintilla, a very strong, very sweet wine that is unique to Rota because it is made from a special grape that grows in the area. For dessert, we had an amazing dish called torrijas, or bread pudding. It is basically French toast, but they let the bread go stale, and then soak in in the tintilla before frying it and serving it in honey. It was the most delicious dessert ever! Then after the dessert, we kept on eating, as they brought out fresh granadas (pomegranates).

Finally, we had another mini tour of the actual farm area, and got to hold 1-day old baby goats! All in all it was a great day in Spain!

Cádiz by ferry

Since we had no real plans this weekend, we set aside this morning to go explore Cádiz. Since it's so close, we didn't feel rushed or pressured to see everything, so we basically just wandered around the city.

We got there by taking the ferry from the port in Rota, which left at 11:00 AM this morning. We got there pretty early (at 10:20 AM) because last Saturday we tried to go to Cádiz and by the time we got there at 10:55 AM, all 150 tickets had already been sold and the next ferry didn't leave for 4 hours. I think we were there way too early today though, because even when we boarded the ferry at 11:00 AM there weren't that many people. I think last weekend was probably so busy because it was a long weekend.

Once we were on the ferry, we sat next to some nice old Spanish ladies, and Erin struck up a conversation with them, so we got to speak some Spanish. It turns out that one of the ladies is actually our neighbour - she lives a couple floors beneath us, in the same building!

After 35 minutes on the ferry, we arrived in Cádiz and walked around for a few hours. We found a great little café where we had delicious pastries and coffee. Then we just wandered and did some window shopping... we ended up finding a big parade of some kind with bagpipe music and everything! They had a bit of a float and they were carrying it around with crowds of people trailing behind it. No idea what it was all about, but it was pretty cool. We also ended up finding the city's market, which was completely insane and full of every kind of seafood you could possibly imagine!

Of course, the whole city started to shut down for siesta around 2:00 PM, so we caught the ferry home and had a relaxing afternoon at home, like true Spaniards.

La Mesquita

We are still here in Córdoba, and the weather is great! Now here is some interesting information for you about this beautiful city…

Córdoba was once the largest city in Western Europe (this was from about 900-1000 BC) and it was also the hub of the Moorish Empire. Nowadays however, it is a modestly-sized city of 310,000 people. This morning we decided to do some real sightseeing of Córdoba while we were there, so we went to a place called the Mesquita (Spanish for ‘mosque’).

The Mesquita is now a Roman-Catholic cathedral, although it was originally intended to be a mosque, and at one time was the second-largest mosque in the world. It is now considered to be the most important Islamic monument in the Western world. The most interesting parts of the Mesquita were the various Christian chapels placed around the inside of the building, as well as the huge cathedral in the middle. These clearly mark the transition of the Mesquita from an Islamic mosque into a Christian church.

Córdoba

Since we have a long weekend, Rachael and I are taking advantage of this fact and we are in Córdoba visiting some language assistant friends of ours. We got a ride to Seville yesterday with our neighbour Nuria, who is from Spain, but teaches English at Rachael’s school. She was nice enough to drop us off at IKEA, so we could stock up on the few remaining things we needed for our apartment. I was quite excited to buy a real quilt, as it has already been getting cool during the night in Rota. The weird thing about going to IKEA in Spain was that everything in the store was exactly the same things that you see at IKEA in Canada. I even saw some of the exact same furniture that I have at home.


Anyways, now we are in Córdoba until tomorrow, (staying with our friends for free!) so hopefully I will have some interesting things to post about soon! So far I really like Córdoba, and I am even a little bit jealous that we didn’t get placed in a bigger city like our friends. Although, we do have the beach in Rota, and it’s hard to beat that!

Alhambra

Today was a very busy day… first of all, we had to get up early to get in line for Alhambra tickets, as they limit the number of people they let in to 7700 per day. You can reserve tickets in advance online (www.alhambra-patronato.es, www.alhambratickets.com) or through any Spanish bank branch, although this does involve a fee (about €1 per ticket) and you have to be very careful. For example, I originally tried to book the tickets online, however there was an error on the website and I ended up booking the wrong date. Let’s just say it took a long time and a lot of effort to finally cancel the tickets.

When we arrived at the Alhambra at about 9:20 am, there was already a long line up (especially for a Monday in September), so we had to wait an hour and a half just to buy the tickets. By the time we finally got to the front, they only had tickets remaining for the afternoon. So we ended up leaving and coming back at 2:00 pm to actually see the place. This was slightly inconvenient, as the Alhambra is located at the highest point of Granada, which means lots of walking up and down hills and/or taking a bus. But the Alhambra itself was pretty impressive after all.

It is basically a huge Moorish fortress, and in the past it was home to the Muslim kings of Granada. The word ‘Alhambra’ is Arabic for ‘the red’, and it was derived from the red clay surrounding the fortress. This name is even more fitting now as the whitewashed buildings have become reddish in colour over the years.

Virgen de las Angustias

Today in Granada we happened to stumble across a marching band, a huge crowd of people, and a religous procession. We realized at some point that today is the celebration of the Virgen de las Angustias, who is the patron saint of Granada. We really just lucked out in that every time we turned around there was something new going on.

Granada

Today is my second day in Granada, where I am for the next 3 days to sightsee and for our orientation on Tuesday.

Granada is a decently-sized city of 215,000. It is situated at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, and is built almost entirely on hills (which is exhausting if you walk everywhere like we do!). At one point, Granada’s population was predominately Muslim, and this influence is still visible today in the city’s architecture (especially in the Alhambra, a Moorish fortress) and in the Arab quarter (the Albaicin).


It was quite the process getting here as I had to figure out the bus and train schedules as I went along. First I had to take a bus to the bus station in Rota, then a bus to El Puerto de Santa Maria (the closest town with a train station) and then a train to Dos Hermanas, where I changed trains to go to Granada. The problem was that I had never been to the bus station in Rota (and it was smaller than I expected), so I missed my stop without even realizing it. Since the buses only go around Rota in one direction, I had to ride around for another 40 minutes and I missed the morning train to Granada. This meant that I had 3 and a half hours to kill in El Puerto before the next train. I also had a huge backpack with me, and there is no luggage storage there, so I ended up taking a taxi to the centre of town and wandering around for quite awhile. So all in all it took me 12 hours from the time I got up, to the time I finally arrived in Granada (about 7:30 pm last night). I then met up with the same auxilares that I had hung out with in Seville, and we are staying in a really nice hostel with a swimming pool and a great view of the city!