"Look at that fancy looking place...Oh it's just a Cafe y Té"

Sunset in Madrid

Just got back from a busy couple of weeks! We took a day trip to Aracena, spent the week with my parents who were able to fly in (!) and then escorted them to Madrid for their flight to Miami and spent the day exploring around Madrid. Not to mention we’re right in the middle of mid-terms and planning for our trip to Ireland for St. Patty’s day. Heads up, everybody; We’ve got a girl on the move!

 I’ve been spending more time with Spaniards in the past few weeks. Last weekend, Ally, Trevor and I met up with Gabriel and his 2 friends to go to Gabriel’s “party apartment” (the apartment that he doesn’t sleep at and is solely reserved for friendly nightly gatherings) for poker, pizza and gin and tonics. Not a bad night at all. We spent the night comparing the sounds that animals make in Spain and the U.S. (they think that that dogs saying “bark” and horses saying “nay” is ridiculous, and now that I think about it, it kind of is) It was a laughter-filled night that I hope will happen many times more. I also met up with Cristina, my new intercambio, since my old one never responded to my emails or texts. In our situation, Cristina speaks English to me and I speak Spanish to her and we just chat and correct each other’s grammar. It’s a great way to meet Spaniards and learn colloquial things and just practice Spanish. Not to mention Cristina is adorable and I just love hanging out with her.

Aracena is a sweet little down that is just about an hour and a half away from Sevilla, in the province of Huelva. It is known as a pueblo blanco (white town) and is so small and adorable. There’s not much there. It is known for its Gruta de las Maravillas (Cave of Wonders) and they really are marvelous!

 These half a million year old caves have lakes and stalactites/mites galore. It has a sense of humor, too. There is one room, known as La Sala de las Desnudas (The Room of the Nude People) and all of the stalactite formations look like unmentionables (of which you can probably guess.) Even the most mature can’t deny how funny this part of the caves is. Overall, the tour was very informative and the caves are so beautiful. We even met some other American exchange students during the tour. And because Aracena is so small, we kept running into them in various parts of the town for the rest of the day. There is no picture-taking of any kind in any place in the caves. But with our craftiness, we managed to snag a few photos. However, they do take one picture for you, which you can purchase at the end of the tour as a momento. We had to buy ours. Aracena also has a beautiful church and some ruins on top of big hill that overlooks the city and provides a nice vista of some mountains in the distance. I forgot how much I missed open air.

Sneaking a picture. Does this place even look real?

Us and our fellow Americans

 We then came back to mid terms and studying and papers. Blah. But we got through them just in time to pick my parents up from the airport! It was so unbelievably nice having them here. All the being cooked for and taken out to eat and being bought bathroom rugs and kitchen utensils was such a treat. I forgot how much I missed things like that. We unfortunately had to go to school during the time that they were here, so we spent the week fitting in sightseeing in between classes and they did some exploring around the city on their own too. They saw all the essentials and we even took a few hours one day to go to the Arab Baths, which is basically the most relaxing place in the world. From the moment you walk in, you can just feel the aura of relaxation all around you; it has the same feel as a spa. You wear a bathing suit and are led into the relaxation room where they provide you with tea and water and explain all the different pools there are to go in. The most traditional is the process of passing through first a warm bath, then a hot bath, then a cold bath, mean to open and close your pores and be very cleansing and relaxing. There is also a steam room and a salt bath and the option for a massage (which we of course took advantage of!) Definitely worth the 35 euros. 

In front of the Plaza de España in Sevilla

View from the end of a pier in Cadiz

One day, we were adventurous enough to rent a car and head towards Cádiz, stopping in Jerez de la Frontera on the way down and stopping for a sunset dinner in Puerto de Santa Maria. When we got back to Sevilla, we spent the rest of the week doing a little shopping and wandering around the streets, just exploring and stopping at whatever seemed interesting that we happened to stumble upon. Not a bad way to spend the week at all!

The most intense sand castle I have ever seen

Not a bad view for dinner...

 On Friday, we followed them to Madrid, where they would be catching their flight to Miami early Saturday morning. We took the AVE while they flew and then met up with them at the hotel later that night. Navigating the metro system to get from the train station to the airport was interesting and an adventure to say the least. And then navigating back from the hotel  to the airport to the train station and across the city for our day of sightseeing. After this weekend, it’s safe to say that we would be a force to reckon with on the Amazing Race. We saw some really amazing things though. As much as I didn’t think I was going to like Madrid after hearing it compared to cities like New York and Los Angeles, I had a really great time and enjoyed the city. It was busy and still had a rush-around kind of lifestyle, but it’s still Spain and is much more chill than anything in the U.S. ever could be. At about 7:30 we walked over to a park that my Foder’s guide book (I’m such a tourist) told me was a good place to watch the sunset. Foder’s did not lie. It was beautiful. And apparently the rest of the city knew about our spot too. When we got there, there was a huge crowd, all just standing around waiting for the sun to set behind the mountains in the distance. It was so nice being in a big city where even though there is so much going on, people can still stop for 15 minutes to go and watch the sunset. People in Spain appreciate the small things, and I love it. Madrid is also where the quote for this blog comes from. We passed a very classy looking restaurant, with a beautiful terrace overlooking a busy plaza and Trevor noted how nice the place looked, only to discover moments later that it is just a chain coffee shop that exists all over Spain, probably about the equivalent to a Barnie's Coffee. We found it pretty hilarious. I guess it was a "you had to be there" kind of thing.

The line we waited in at the Prado Museum.

The madrileños know how to relax

In front of the Parque Madrid

The constantly busy Plaza Sol in Madrid

Plaza Mayor

Still not sure why Madrid needs 3 Spongebobs and 2 Patricks

I am now sitting in Starbucks in front of a big window, switching between writing, people watching, and sipping on my frappacino, The sun is warm, low in the sky, doing that pretty orange thing that it does. The weather is perfect and I actually wore a sleeveless dress today. Since most things, including supermarkets, are closed on Sundays because Sunday actually is a day of rest in Sevilla, we will be ordering pizza, drinking wine and watching a movie with Ally tonight in the chateau.

Life in Sevilla is good.

*note: this was written Sunday and posted Monday. I wish I was hanging out in Starbucks drinking frappacinos; I’m in the library at school. blah.

Next stop: Ireland! That will be in an interesting one, so stay tuned for the inevitable stories to come.

 

Love from Spain!