Sevilla, España

Sevilla Blog Entry
Sevilla was a spur of the moment decision. I knew I wanted to go at some point while in Spain, but it happened to be this past weekend because Ryanair is awesome. While paroozing their website I stumbled upon round trip tickets from Alicante to Sevilla for less than 30€! After trying to convince my friend Hill to go with me and not having any luck, my friend John walked into the University of Alicante cafeteria and asked if I wanted to go with him, Carli, Steph, and Carolyn to Sevilla to celebrate Carolyn's 21st birthday. Que casualidad! What a coincidence! I had my ticket purchased within 5 minutes. We left Thursday after class and had our first smooth Ryanair flight. We found our hostel and, to our pleasant surprise, it was one street away from a really cool park called Alamada de Hurcules. The alamada had a mosaic tile floor in sections, fountains, benches and was encircled by about 50 different bars, cafes and tapa places. Not bad for randomly selecting a hostel location. The hostel itself was really cool too. We had a private ensuite- which means rather than dorm style with strangers the five of us had our own room and bathroom. The atmosphere was very chill too. When we walked in a bunch of hippies from the Netherlands were playing acoustic guitar and singing Bob Dylan and the third floor terrace was always bustling. We took it easy Thursday night and just checked out a few places around the alamada, knowing that the next night would be Carolyn's 21st. We woke up early Friday to get a full day of tourism in. The first thing we wanted to find was the Cathedral and right when we got the steeple in sight a guy driving a horse drawn carriage stopped and asked us if we wanted a ride to the Cathedral. I laughed at him and pointed at the steeple just two blocks away. Nice try, señor. He laughed and said that it was actually a tour of the city that ended at the cathedral. The girls were really into it and before asking a price had already jumped in. Worried about breaking the bank in our first hour exploring Sevilla, I made sure to talk to the driver before getting in. For 10€ each the five of us got a carriage tour for an hour. It was perfect because we really got out bearings of the city that none of us knew at all. After we got out of the carriage we met up with Carolyn's friend from home who was studying in the city and was waiting at the cathedral. Her name is Sam and she had brought a friend (who was actually from Michigan). We all toured the cathedral and then went up the tower. The tower was 34 stories and was designed for horses to climb up it, so instead of stairs it had a series of ramps. After the cathedral and tower we all headed back to our part of the city to get dinner and hang out a little bit before going to a free flamenco show. David, the guy who was in charge of the hostel, organized this every weekend for the clients. We met in the lobby and walked to a flamenco bar. I'm not sure if the free price tag had anything to do with it, but I enjoyed this flamenco show more than the "famous" one that we had seen just a week earlier in Valencia that had cost us 19€. Everyone agreed. After the flamenco show we headed back to the bar area around our hostel to celebrate Carolyn's birthday. We woke up a little slower Saturday morning, but still got up relatively early, had a great Spanish breakfast, and then headed to an open-air market. Afterwards we went through the shopping district (which is very difficult to walk through when you're traveling with 3 girls) and then spent the entire afternoon at Plaza de España. Plaza españa in Sevilla is something like a shrine to Spain. It is a huge semicircle building with a moat around it. Around the front of the building are different bench sections all next to each other and each one is dedicated to a city in Spain. Behind each bench is a mosaic of a scene correlated with each city and on the floor in front of the benches are maps of the region around the city. Naturally we all took pictures on the Alicante bench. After a little wandering and exploring of the monument we rented a rowboat and enjoyed a nice row around the moat. After plaza de españa we split up into two groups- Steph and Carli went back to shop in the same shops that we have in Alicante (only in Sevilla) while Jon, Carolyn and I went down to the riverfront to find the Torre de Oro. It was the docking sight of the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria. Columbus left for the new world from this sight and also returned to it, dropping off his piles of gold stolen from America. The tower was originally built in the 13th century as a watchtower. After the torre we decided to walk back along the river, even though it was quite a bit farther that way. We didn't care. It had been a beautiful day and the sun setting over the river made our decision a lot easier. As we walked along the boardwalk we saw crew teams rowing down the river, floating bars and restaurants, boats, the setting sun and as we continued to walk we heard a rumbling that grew louder and as we walked around a river bed we saw the boardwalk open up and covering the benches on each side of this plaza was a couple hundred people, all our age, just sitting around, drinking, playing music and getting ready to go out for the night. We spent a little time checking out the area, talking to a few people and then had to go, unfortunately, because we had to meet up with the other two girls. We did dinner, the girls got ready to go out, and then we went to the bars around or hostel again, only this time we were only at the bars to kill time before the discotecas. Carolyn and her friend wanted to go to a big dance club to celebrate her birthday. We headed over the club district around two, arriving 20 min later. We got in line at the most popular club in Sevilla only to find out that after 2am it was a 30€ entrance fee! HA, that's a good joke... That is more than our Ryanair round trip flight cost! We walked down the street to another giant dance club only to find out the same thing was true there. Although Sevilla is an amazing city, this made me pretty happy to be studying in Alicante. We ended up settling for a large bar/ smallish discoteca and having a very good time. The next morning my four amigos left for the airport and I set out into Sevilla to enjoy a nice, peaceful day alone. I went to the palace and toured its grounds and then went over to a park that a waiter had told us about the day before- something about it having 3000 trees and lots of fountains. He wasn't kidding! It was a pretty cool place. Afterwards I walked back to the center of the city and then down to the riverfront where I was going to kill time until my friend Lauren from Washington and Lee was done with her and intercambio. She showed up to the tapa restaurant about an hour after me. In the meantime, I had made friends with the waiter and cook at this little place (where they only had one other table to worry about). They were both native to Sevilla and had lived their entire lives there. As we made small talk they kept putting free tapas in front of me. Of course I had ordered one with me beer when I had first gotten there (Spaniards rarely drink without food), but they told me that they liked me and about four free tapas later Lauren showed up. I think the restaurant workers like how much I enjoyed their food. I'm a poor college kid traveling on his own €- nice meals are few and far between when I'm not having Stella put them in front of me. Lauren and I had beer and ordered another tapa but the restaurant was closing so we paid and moved on to another place. After macadillos we split ways and I headed back to my new hostel (closer to the airport because I had a very early flight the next day). I went up to my room, which I was sharing with 9 other people to relax a little and found four Italians who had just arrived. None of them spoke English but were all more or less fluent in Spanish, so we could get by. They invited me out to dinner with them and although I was full, I went anyway. It was a good opportunity to practice Spanish and also get out of the hostel with people rather than just alone. It was a Sunday night, so nothing big was happening, but we still have fun.

Granada

The final exams of our “intensive Spanish period” courses finished Friday mid-afternoon and the entire CC-CS group boarded a bus bound for Granada, Spain.  Granada is a very important city in Spanish history.  It was last Muslim stronghold in Spain before the Catholic Kings, Ferdinand and Isabella, conquered it in 1492, ending the ~800 years of Moorish occupation of the Iberian Peninsula.  Upon arriving in Granada, we checked all 50 of us into the hotel and then those of us who had signed up before hand went to Cueva de la Rocia.  Cueva de la Rocia is a very famous flamenco tablao.  Bill Clinton, Michelle Obama, Antonio Banderas and many other famous people have visited it.  Cueva is “cave” in Spanish, and that is exactly what this little place looked like.  It was a long, skinny, arched corridor with chairs down each wall.  The decorations were peculiar- all white walls, pots hanging from the ceiling, pictures of notable guests on the wall, and a red tint to the lighting.  As we walked into the cave to take our seats adjacent to the entrance, Hill (one of closest friends in the program), pointed out a section of the floor that was very worn.  In the middle of the “U” shaped outline of chairs was a wooden dance floor.  It wasn’t elevated and almost blended into the rock floor.  After everyone had taken their seats the lights dimmed and the dancers and band entered through the same door as the crowd, situated themselves on the set of four to five rounded stairs that we had just descended and started clapping in rhythm.  A microphone was set up and one of the ladies started singing in a very throaty voice and shortly after, a guitarist accompanied her.  Once the music was flowing, a man wearing black boot/shoes with large heals on them stood from his seated position on the stairs, walked to the middle of the U of chairs onto the worn dance floor and started clapping and tapping his feet to the beat.  The rate of his foot tapping increased to a very impressive rate and the snaps and thunks of his shoes created a whole new element to the flamenco music.  A lady dancer joined the male and they tapped and clapped together in a synchronized fashion- wrapping around each other and never missing a beat.  They alternated between dancing solo, in pairs, or even as many as four at a time.  When they took their break in the middle of the performance, we were all given a tall glass of sangria and we chatted about how amazing the performance was.  The dancers came back, finished with very impressive performance- selecting audience members to join them for a laugh- and then we left.  

We all went on a surprise walking tour of the area around the tablao (to the dismay of some of the tired, unenthusiastic complainers), and ended up at a little church with an amazing view of a fully illuminated Alhambra!  After we got back on the bus, we were given two options:  one group was going back to the hotel, and the other was going to be dropped in the center of the city so they could get tapas and see a little bit of the nightlife.  I went with the second group, of course.  We split and went to different places to eat.  When my group walked into our restaurant, there was a group of Spaniards who, by the amount of empty cups and plates on their table, we could tell had been there a while.  They started clapping when they saw us- clearly a foreign group.  They invited us over to sit at a table next to them, but there wasn’t room for our pretty big group.  The place was small and we sat across the main entranceway from them.  They kept breaking out into spits of clapping, singing and flamenco dancing and were inviting us to join them time and time again.  Finally, the girls convinced me to get up and try my hand at a little flamenco.  Let’s be honest, it really didn’t take that much peer pressure.  They guy and girl pair who had been doing most of the dancing took me into their group, got the clapping and singing going, and told me to just try my best.  My best was obviously not very good, judging by the amount of laughing I received from the whole place, but they wouldn’t let me sit down, so I learned a couple basic steps and claps and kept going.  I convinced the rest of my table to get up and join us and the pair (please keep in mind I did not say couple) took turns dancing with each of the Americanos.  We sat back down, ordered round after round of tapas, and enjoyed some food and drink.  When the group of Spaniards was getting ready to go, two of the guys came over to our table.  The “leader” of their group, Antonio, started talking and somehow the conversation switched from a friendly goodbye to very forward compliments directed at me.  “Hay que guapo.  Que bonito tu cara…” The friend of the leader had taken an empty seat next to a girlfriend of mine and they were talking.  After a few minutes, and before I knew what exactly was happening, Antonio was giving me a piece of paper with his phone number and telling me exactly how to get to his hotel.  He also, in very broken English, was telling the entire restaurant what he wanted me to do to him.  I’ll let you use your imagination for the details.  The girls at my table (keeping in mind that the guy to girl ratio in my program here is roughly 1:5), thought it was hilarious and actually encouraged this.  I don’t think my face has ever been redder in my life.  I didn’t know what to do besides tell him repeatedly that I am not gay.  I found out later that Antonio’s friend who had sat down next to Steph had been asking- or rather pleading with her- to tell him that I was gay and single.  Apparently I look exotic?  Single yes, gay no.  Sorry Antonio… After tapas it was already 2am and we had to be up and at breakfast very early, so we checked out one bar briefly on the way home and went up to our rooms to rest up for the Alhambra. 

The Alhambra is an amazing palace/ fort/ church in Granada.  Words can’t really do it justice.  It’s a fortified city with a palace and cathedral in it and overlooks Granada and the snowcapped Sierra Nevada mountains.  The intricacies of each wall, ceiling, garden, statue, etc. are amazing.  The mix between the Arab architecture and, later, the Catholic renovations make it a very unique place.  After the Alhambra we took a bus to the center of Granada and had a few hours to explore and eat before meeting up to go into the Cathedral of Granada.  The Cathedral took over 200 years to complete and is a hodgepodge of different eras of architecture, but is started out as gothic.   In a part of the cathedral are the mausoleums of Ferdinand and Isabella as well as Juana la Loca and her husband. 

After tapas we went to a hookah bar to further or arab cultural experiences for the day.  After Kabob, hookah and some drinks, we left and went to a club that we had heard nothing but good things about.  Granada Diez was unfortunately a cab ride away, but it had been built up so much that we decided that it was worth it.  And OHHHH was it worth it!  This was the kind of huge club that you’d see in movies about Europe in which people listening to house music and dance the night away. After rolling back to our hotel around 7:30am (it’s the Spanish way), I slept through breakfast, crawled to the bus in the morning and reminisced about how great Granada was the whole way home.  

Salsa

I went to my first salsa dance class last night!  There is a very popular discoteca right on the rambla in Alicante that offeres free, yes FREE, dance classes monday nights and I just found out about them!  Not only do they have a dance instructor, but you get free sangria as well.  Apparently a few girls from my study abroad program have been doing them since we got there.  Thanks for not telling me, ladies... I only stayed for an hour last night because it got progressively harder and I found myself tripping over my feet, and others, by the time we started up again after the second pause.  I feel like I was a little bit of a spectacle for the class because other than the instructor I was pretty much the only guy with around 30 girls.  I seem to be finding myself in groups of this ratio pretty often here in Spain.  Im not complaining!!!  I'm looking forward to next week, though!  Now I just have to find a place to take flamenco.

Valencia, Benidrom, Altea

As my spanish is progressively getting better, I have noticed a slipping in my english!  Sometimes the order in which my words come out just doesn't make sense for a native speaker.  I hope to overcome this problem in my writing, but no promises.

The past two weekends I have been on the road.  Don't get me wrong, I love Alicante and its amazing nightlife, but I'd rather experience the different cultures around España than become a regular at a certain pub or discoteca (not that it's impossible to do both).  I've been exploring all over the city after classes and don't need full days on the weekends to do so more.  Last weekend the CCCS director, Pepa, brought all 48 of us to Valencia on a day trip.  Pepa warned us that one day wouldn't be sufficient to experience the city and that she could only give us a taste, so 8 of us decided to stay overnight, have our first hostel experience in Europe, and continue exploring Valencia the next day.  With the whole group, we started out at the city of arts and sciences- home to an opera house, the largest aquarium in Europe, an interactive science museum and much more.  Next, we moved across town to the older section where we toured La Longe which was a baroque style market built by the muslims during their occupation of Spain.  After the market, we had a couple hours of free time to go exploring before rejoining up as a group at the famous cathedral for a tour.  The cathedral is home to what many believe is the Holy Grail.  During our free time, a group of us went to the Marcado Central (Central Market).  The Marcado Central is a good place to size up the city and see all different types of people.  We also explored, did a little shopping and had some tapas as well.  After our tour of the cathedral, the vast majority of the group returned to the bus to head back to Alicante.  I don't understand the decision making process of some people...  You were given a free bus ride to the city, a "look but don't touch" tour of Valencia (which left me itching to dive deeper into exploring the city), you're in Spain to experience the culture and travel but you won't spend 12 Euro on a hostel room and another 15 on a return train ticket to have a night and full extra day in Valencia?  Que curioso.  The group of us left the others at the bus and went giddily to find our hostel.  We stayed at the Red Nest Hostel and it far surpassed my expectations.  As a first time hosteler, I was expecting a hole in the wall type of place, without reception, security, nice facilities, a game room, clean bathrooms, etc.  We were all very impressed with the hostel experience.  The first thing on our to-do list was to find a very authentic paella restaurante.  Paella is a rice dish that is native to Valencia.  Many foreigners equate it to Spain's dish, but the Spaniards associate it as Valenciano.  A table of people is served one large dish of rice mixed with seafood or chicken, snail, rabbit, beans and green peppers.  The very attractive young españolas working the reception desk steered us in the right direction and we enjoyed a nice meal before heading out to see what kind of nightlife Valencia had to offer.  The next day we returned to the city of arts and sciences to explore some more, enjoyed some more sightseeing, enjoyed some more traditional cuisine and stumbled upon the best park in the world before we took the late train back to Alicante.  The park is actually the bed of a river that was diverted because it continually flooded the city.  The long, green strip going right through the middle of the city is full of fountains, walking and biking paths and the coolest playground ever built!  Hill and I had a field day on it, making sure not to run over all the niñitos in the process. ¿Vale la pena?  ¡Por supuesto!

This past weekend the same crew who stayed over in Valencia (plus 1) decided to explore a little closer to home.  Just a tram ride away, we have the beautiful cities of Benidrom, Dénia, and Altea.  The plan was to make it all the way up the tram line to Dénia, but we got too caught up in Benidrom and Altea to make it all the way up.
Benidorm is a very touristy place where you can get by on just english.  The Brits love it.  This time of year, though, it is like Arizona- mucho antiguos.  In the summer, it's apparently a very hopping place.  Most of the discotecas are right on the beach.  Despite having cliffs and rocky beaches, Benidorm also has two beautiful sandy beaches.  I found a hotel through hostelbookers.com that seemed to be right in the middle of the action and was very cost effective (another 12€ for the night).  When we got there, the couple that owned the place, like all the other people in Benidorm, was from England.  They loved us and gave us their two biggest rooms- despite us paying for smaller ones- because no one else was in the hotel.  They told us where to eat, what to see and about their experiences with kids our age during the summer months.  I think a return trip will be in order.
After spending half of the next day in Benidorm, we went back to the hotel, got our belongings, and split into two groups.  Meg, Hill, Kristen and I went on to Altea while Lethia, Liz, and Abby headed back to Alicante.  I liked Altea more than Benidorm.  It was small, quaint and made me think of Greece.  Just two tram stops away, Altea seemed like another world.  All of the buildings are white and situated on winding paths going up a steep hill.  The top of the hill is home to a beautiful old church with a spectacular view of the slope of white houses separating it from the rocky shore of the Mediterranean.  When we were planning the trip, we thought about staying another night away from Alicante and staying in Altea.  I think we made a good decision to return to Alicante.  Although I loved the town, a few hours there was perfect.

Alicante Photos

Giant Ficas 

Explanada 

Castle of Santa Barbara

Mmmmmmmm

La Playa (learn that word, Gin)

Castle of Santa Barbara (below) 1500+ years old!!!

First swim in the Med

Marcado Central

Ali Ali cante

Hey all, I’m baaaaaaack!  My apologies for the brief hiatus, but my lovely hard drive crashed.  Luckily my favorite little sister in the world gave me the external hard drive that she got for Christmas right before I left and, even luckier still, I used it to back up my computer the night before meltdown! Explaining everything to the apple store guy in Spanish was a blast too…  I’ll just call it a learning experience.  Now I can be a computer geek bilingually!  My week and a half in Alicante has done nothing but get me excited for the rest of the semester!  For my first week here, the weather was unbelievable- getting my hopes up for the rest of the term.  It went from mid 70’s everyday to mid to high 60’s.  It was nice while it lasted, but I can deal with blue skies and 60’s.  Before it got a little chillier I managed to get a little color and go for a few dips in the sea, so I’m satisfied.  It’s only going to get warmer from here on out!

My program in Alicante is split into two sections.  The first month that we are here is called the “intensive period” and it has been living up to its name.  We are taking nothing but a Spanish grammar course (which meets for four hours everyday) and a “social realities” course that meets twice a week.  Waking up early (really early) to catch the bus to the university (30 min ride) has been difficult.  Luckily, once I start the second section of the program (continuation period), my econ and business classes won’t start before 13:00 and I won’t have Friday class!  Long weekend excursions here I come!  Any suggestions?! 

My host family is great!  I live with an older woman named Stella and her 33-year-old son, Andres.  Andres’ girlfriend, Cristina, is always here too.  Stella rents a room to 63-year-old Eduardo.  Eduardo has been living in Spain for six years- since he moved to here from Peru.  I also live with another American student who is in the same program as me.  Nick goes to Eastern Michigan University and is a Spanish and Japanese double major.  He just returned from a semester abroad in Japan and is now in Spain.  What a crazy junior year for him!  His favorite hobby is knitting and he also enjoys theater and music.  Stella is Italian born, grew up in Argentina and has been in Spain for almost 12 years.  What does that mean?  The cooking is fantastic!  For those of you not familiar with the Spanish eating schedule, it is the best!  I wake up for school and eat a little breakfast, which usually consists of OJ, a sweet of some kind and some toast.  Around noon we eat a small lunch (more of a snack) and then 2.5 hours later a huuuuuuge lunch consisting of multiple courses and, of course, a dessert!  Dinner is never before nine and most of the time around 10.  I’m never “starving” in Spain and right when you start to get hungry more food is put down in front of you!  It’s not uncommon to have beer or wine at any meal, regardless of the time of day. 

The other students in my program are a lot of fun!  Of the 50 Americans studying abroad with CCCS in Alicante, only 10 are guys (and I think only 6 or 7 are straight guys-tbd).  The girls are also very cute ;).  Most of the people I hang out with consistently are girls and, other than the shopping I’ve had to suffer through, it’s been a nice change from fraternity life.  I won’t bore yall with names and details, but I definitely going to keep in touch with a lot of these people. 

More on Madrid

Sorry to my three followers (love you Mom and Dad), but I skipped blogging about so much of my time in Madrid.  Eli's family made me a part of their family for my time there and introduced me extensively to Spanish culture (especially cuisine!).  We ate the most magnificent meals.  Before going to bed the night before Reyes Magos, I put my shoes in the hall way next to the other 8 pairs so that the Wise Men would come and bring me gifts!  We woke up slowly the next day and Eli's two brothers and cuñado (brother-in-law) took me to see Plaza Mayor, the Royal Palace and everything in between.  On the way from Plaza Mayor to Palacio Real, we saw the King's motorcade drive by.  It was a series of 10 or so black BMW's surrounding a beautiful old Roles Royce.  In the 20 years that her two brothers have lived in Madrid they have never seen the King and joked that he must have heard that I was in town.  When we got to the palace we witnessed the Royal Guard doing marching exercises and escorting an unidentifiable person to a car.  In the 20 years that Eli's brothers have lived in Madrid they hadn't seen that either!!!  It was my lucky day.  After our 3 hour tour (no I wasn't on Gilligan's Island) we returned and opened presents.  I was shocked at how fast they rushed through it.  They went down the line and each person opened all of their presents before progressing to the next.  Eli, being the youngest daughter, went first and then the outlaws and me, and then Eli's other siblings and Manolo (the father) was last.  After presents we ate cena until we were all about to burst, the young adults played a 3 vs. 3 pictionary/ charades/ cranium type game and my team actually won despite my lack of knowledge of spanish brands and pop culture.  I was surprised that I was able to contribute.  In fact, I answered the game winning question!  After the game we went to see the newest Meet the Parents movie with Ben Stiller in it.  It was the first movie that I have seen that was entirely in spanish without subtitles and I understood the whole thing.  I needed that.  Up until that point I had been very discouraged by my lack of understanding of spoken spanish.  The Madrid accent is very difficult for me for some reason.  Here in Alicante, I can understand almost everything.  In Madrid, the family that I was with up the "theta" (or a slurred "th" sound") on everything, "th" "z" even "d's".  I woke up the next morning, had a quick tour of the Athletico Madrid fútbol stadium and hopped on the train to Alicante!