Allie in the South of Spain

Recently we just wrapped up Semana Santa here in the south of Spain, which is one of the biggest holidays that is celebrated throughout the year. Holy Week is a huge deal around these parts and you can read all about it here . Though I appreciate Semana Santa for its cultural implications, I am not fanatic about going out to see processions each day; I can get by with seeing just one or two. I do enjoy having a week off work and this year my parents came to visit so all in all, it was a pretty nice Easter holiday. First, Jose and I started off visiting the beach in Portugal for a few days before my parents arrived. We went and stayed in an apartment hotel in Quarteira which was right next to the beach and had a pool. The weather was fabulous and there was basically no one around so we had a couple of fantastic days of rest and relaxation. When my parents got to Seville we went back to Portugal since the weather was perfect for heading to the beach. We showed them our favorite ...

As you might know Jose and I love spending time at rural houses around the south of Spain. It is one of our favorite ways to travel and see new places and just recently we headed out east to the Alpujarras region for a long weekend. The Alpujarras are a mountainous area dotted with cozy white villages extending from Granada into Almeria. We spent the first few nights in a tiny town called Laroles after crossing the Sierra Nevada and then the last in Trevelez which is the highest village in Spain. We enjoyed hiking, good food and relaxing by the chimney. Our hike ended up being a bit longer than we had planned but the views were beautiful. Poor Cooper by the end was exhausted. This hike was about 9 kilometers long and wound up through the mountains passing an incredibly old chestnut tree. The weather was just about perfect during our whole trip, warm during the day and cooling off at night. One of our requirements when we book a rural house is that there be a chimney. Usua...

Things have been quiet here on the blog for the last few months but let me explain why. Besides the fact that Jose and I haven't been on any big trips since our last one to Istanbul, life here in the south of Spain has been a routine of work, studying and trying to get through the winter (which is admittedly much milder than what the folks back home have been suffering). When you get right down to it, we have been boring lately, in a bit of a rut. Why you might ask? First because since October I have been completing the CELTA (Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) offered by Cambridge University. A bit of background: English is very important to people here in Spain. It seems like everyone wants or needs to show their English level whether for job prospects, for University or even as a young learner in primary school. Most people study and prepare some kind of exam and official Cambridge exams are incredibly popular. In any case, native English speaker...

Here is the latest in my 30 before 30 updates. In April I turn 29 which gives me just over a year to try to cross off a whole lot of things from my list but I still feel like things are going well. So far I have completed 17 items and am working on a few more. Who knows, in a few months I might adjust my list again to include different goals or things I want to accomplish. I'll keep you updated! 1. Go on another cruise.  2. Learn to cook Indian food . 3. Start a family (read: have a baby). We are still plugging away at this. Keep us in your prayers. 4.  Find a job in which I am happy with what I do, feel accomplished and appreciated.  5. Visit Morocco. 6. Spend Christmas in Michigan. 7. Walk at least a part of the Camino de Santiago. 8. Drive comfortably here in Spain. 9. Go to (and enjoy) a soccer game. 10.  Find a list of books every person should read, and read them.  11. Visit Ireland.  12. Cook a Thanksgiving dinner solo.    13...

Jose and I had been planning our trip to Istanbul for months, ever since we discovered the low cost airline, Pegasus, which has flights from Madrid. We flew out in the afternoon, arriving in the evening after a looooong four hour flight. Since the company we used was low cost we of course got inexpensive tickets but also had no in-flight entertainment which made the four hours drag. When we got to Istanbul we arrived to the Sabiha Gokcen airport which is about an hour outside of the city itself. We took a transfer to our hotel which was located in the old city center known as Sultanhamet.  We went to check in only to find that we were taken away from the main hotel to a sketchy hostal-like set up complete with rickety staircase, stained pillow cases and disgusting floor. Seriously, Jose and I have stayed in some questionable places (youth hostels) in the past but they were at least clean. This place had been advertised as a hotel and was completely not what was shown online....

Jose and I have been on our Christmas vacation now for almost a week and it feels like we have taken advantage of every moment. Things have been busy to say the least. Pre-Christmas we cleaned and prepared for both the holiday and our visit with our friends, Erica and Ernie. Then we spent the 24th and 25th with Jose's family, one day with his mom's side and the second with his dad's. Santa even came to visit! On the afternoon of the 25th we stopped at the train station on our way home to pick up Erica and Ernie. They came back to our apartment where we relaxed before heading to visit Seville the next day. We went to the Cathedral, had a big lunch at one of our favorite restaurants and walked around enjoying the Christmas atmosphere. We ended our day in the best place in Seville, the Plaza de Espana. The next day we headed out to Cordoba to go to a winery because our friends really enjoy wine tasting. Ernie is basically a self-taught expert and one of the thing...

So here I am again writing another Christmas Card via my blog. This is the third year that I have done so, choosing to update my friends and family on what is going on with us here in the south of Spain as well as recapping what has happened throughout the past year. We also use this blog post as an excuse to take a holiday picture which you can see below. It's fun to be able to look back at the past few years and the memories we have created. You can see the cards from 2012 and 2013 below: Christmas Card 2012 Christmas Card 2013 Without further ado here is our top ten from 2014: 10. Visiting Morocco for the New Year. This was a trip we had been wanting to take for some time and though we were in some ways disappointed with the tour we chose, this short vacation made us want to return again some day. Read about Morocco here . 9. Heading to Pure Michigan for another summer with my family. We always have a great time when we are back home in the U.S. We fill up on family...