Allie in the South of Spain

Last week in order to celebrate the ending of our jobs, my friend Kate flew in from Italy and we headed to spend some time in Portugal at Jose's parents' apartment. After a few days of sunning (or at least attempting to do so) at the beach right across the border with Spain, Jose and our friend Megan came to spend the night with us. We went out to eat and then to get a drink. This is where the real story begins: Sitting in a bar outside on their patio facing the street which separated the town proper from the beach and further off the sea we ordered a drink and were chatting about mundane things, not at all ready for what was about to happen. After a day of sun and surf we were relaxed and unawares. Joking about how we were going to get home, I pointed out a horse and carriage labeled taxi. A hold over from earlier times, it was passing back and forth in front of the bars and restaurants waiting for a fare. The carriage, like most I see in Spain as well, was driven by an olde...

My neighbor who is basically part of my family has been telling me during my time here that she wants to be me because of all my opportunites to travel. Some people (including Jose's mom) are under the assumption that in order to travel, one must spend a lot of money. This however, is not true, especially when you are living in Europe and have a jumping off point or home base in order to get to other places. Of course, there are money saving tricks and ways to cut costs which explains why Jose and I were able to spend 5 days in Vienna and then Budapest this last week. First you have to find a cheap flight. This generally involves a company like Ryanair (which is Irish) that flys around Europe and sells their tickets for scandalously low prices. Cheap flights definitely have their downfalls. For example, you end up leaving at the ass-crack of dawn, or really late at night. Plus you can basically only bring a brown paper bag sized carry-on and nothing else (no purse,...

The month of April has come and gone without a post from me, mostly because I have been incredibly busy. First was my parents' visit to Spain when they finally met Jose's parents. The meet and greet was a success even with the language barrier. We did some sightseeing together, ate tapas and I enjoyed showing them where I have been living since August. I think they had a good time and I was sad to see them go. Inside the Alcazar with the parents Afterward, in order to relax Jose and I spent a weekend in Portugal in order to recuperate. Finally, it was Semana Santa here in Sevilla. Holy week involves different churches around the city carrying out their religious icons in processions that snake their way through the streets. The iconic statues stand on platforms which are carried on the backs of penitent people whose coordinated movements create the illusion that they basically just float by. Throw in the haunting music that relies heavily on the trumpet as well as incens...

On Saturday I went to the circus for the first time in my recollection (thanks to a conversation in which I mentioned this fact). We arrived a few minutes early to stand outside in a line of children buzzing with anticipation outside the big top. It was infectious and I couldn´t help myself. I was just excited as them as we finally entered and found a spot. First positive: we had seats and weren´t on bleachers. Second bonus: Spanish circuses allow beer. Though I will say as a disclaimer that as an overall experience, I enjoyed myself, I think it would have been much better had we had a child or two with us. Like a niece or a borrowed neighbor (no kids for me right now, thank you very much). That being said, even riding my sugar high thanks to my first cotton candy in years, I was somewhat disappointed with my Spanish circus. The first act was the Amazing Miss Cameltoe, a very flexible gal whose ultratight body suit left little to the imagination. She was certainly a hit with the Dad cr...

Thanks to Groupon (if you aren´t signed up in your area you are crazy), Jose and I were able to spend last weekend in the central part of Spain. We visited Valdepeñas (a city famous for its wines) in Castilla-La Mancha where we were able to go to a spa and partake in a winery tour. We also went to visit the famed windmills (molinos) in Campo de Criptana (a pueblo that has little else) that are supposedly the ones mentioned in the epic battle scene in the Quijote by Cervantes. Thanks to my semester long course on this the first modern novel, I was able to nerdily enjoy them more than your average tourist. That being said, I got to thinking about our dearest Don Quijote and what his story would be like if he lived now. If you don´t know the basic premise here it is: a don nobody (Alonso Quijano) reads a bunch of chivalric novels that addle his brain enough that he changes his name to Don Quijote and sets out on a quest like the ones outlined in said books. He part...

Last week I had several run-ins with gypsies here in Sevilla where it seems you can´t swing a dead cat without hitting one (as my mom would say). What are gypsies like in real life? Well first of all, we aren´t talking about Disney´s Esmeralda (from the Hunchback of Notre Dame, one of Disney´s most underrated films) which was what I imagined before arriving. In order to give my perception of what a gypsy is like here in the south of Spain, I am going to make some generalizations here (this is my disclaimer). Gypsies tend to have cartoonishly proportioned body types. They are either rail thin or barrel bodied (think extreme apple shape). They have darker complexions and the women have loooooooooooooong hair. They are easy to spot because of the haphazard way they are often dressed in contrast to the very careful way other Spaniards choose their clothing. If Spanish people in general are loud, gypsies are scandalously so. If you are ever walking by the c...

I recently got a comment saying that I was slacking with my posting and I can only agree. Allow me to explain why. In all honesty, my attention has been focused elsewhere on the two huge meltdowns effecting the world today. One of course (and certainly more important in the scheme of things handsdown) is the potential nuclear meltdown in Japan. I have been glued to the news to keep track of what is going on with the sad tsunami aftermath as well as people´s reactions to it (which have been surprising in many ways, see some of my friends´Facebook status update claiming it, the earthquake in Haiti and September 11th were God´s will in a roundabout way or some other such nonsense based on a Bible verse whose logic I didn´t quite follow). In any case, my thoughts are with those people effected. On a lighter note, I was also engrossed in following the Charlie Sheen meltdown. Thank God for Youtube and all the people who uploaded his interviews and rants. I heard all about winning a...

This weekend Jose and I took advantage of yet another day off of work for a holiday in order to plan a trip to the north of Spain. We left Friday afternoon, spent the night in Malaga and flew out early on Saturday morning. We arrived in Bilboa and caught a bus to San Sebastian where we met up with two of Jose´s friends from when he studied abroad, Ibon and Arantxa (which are Basque names). Even though it was cold and raining on and off the whole day, we spent a few hours touring the city, riding the funicular up a hill to see the views as well as the creepily delapidated amusement park at the top and later trying pintxos which are this region´s answer to the tapa. Pinxtos  When we walked into the first bar at lunch time, our eyes lit up. The entire bar was covered in deliciousness in snack sized versions. We tried skewers of shrimp, bacon and goodness, grilled things and fried things, nomnomnomnom. Later that night we went to a sidreria which is a restaurant that makes ...

José and I have discovered a theater here in Sevilla that actually shows films in their original version, NOT dubbed which I hate. Though I have known of this theater´s existance for some time, I was either too lazy or was basically boycotting and refusing to see anything there after I found out they weren´t going to show the latest Harry Potter. Because I cannot stand to see dubbed movies, we had only been to see Spanish films in the regular theaters since I arrived in August. People claim that Spanish dubbing is actually some of the best in the world. I would absolutedly hate to see the worst. I may have said this before, but I think dubbed movies sound way overdone, the actors seem to be over acting, the actresses always come across hysterical, the laughter is fake, the mouths don´t match up with the sounds they are supposedly producing. I know what certain actors are supposed to sound like and can´t stand when their voice isn´t what I am expecting. With all of this ...

I don´t often ride the bus here in Sevilla, mostly because I can walk everywhere and get there as fast if not faster, plus you know my love for my Sevici bike, but every once in a while I hop on one of the Tussam fleet. Every time I realize it was a mistake. I am always under the impression that the ride will go quickly but when the bus stops at EVERY stop and 5 anciently decrepit folks creep on and off, what would be a 20 minute walk becomes an agonizingly long ride. Don´t get me wrong, I don´t hate old people and I think its great that Sevilla offers them free public transportation. What I do hate however, is always getting stuck by the one little old lady who insists on carrying on a conversation with me. First, because most of the time I am sweaty and coming home from the gym. Second, I don´t understand half of what is coming out of their mouth. Deciphering accents is hard enough here in Andalucia, add to that slang, little known phrases and the word "hija" (whic...

Last weekend Jose, my friend Megan and I took a short trip to visit the cities Baeza and Úbeda here in the south of Spain, which are about 3 hours away from Sevilla. They are basically sister cities that are famous for being good examples of Spanish Renaissance architecture. We got up early so we could get there in time for a tour in the morning. The first day we saw Úbeda on a walking tour in the freezing cold. It was nice but I ended up liking Baeza much better the following day. Maybe it was the flamboyantly gay tour guide named Juanma, maybe it was just more interesting than the first city or maybe it was that I could actually feel my nose and feet while walking but I kind of fell in love with Baeza and was sad we only had a few hours to spend there. What does this all have to do with the title of my blog you might be asking yourself? Like Lucy, I gots some splainin to do. Part of the reason to travel is to try and experience new foods and our weekend trip was no different. One goo...

That´s right, you heard it here first: the rap ¨star¨ Xzibit is striving to one-up Eminem and stage the biggest hiphop comeback in 2011. Or so it would seem, at least here in Spain. X to the Z as he so fondly called himself is everywhere! Okay, maybe just on MTV and maybe just when they show old re-runs of Pimp my Ride but it seems as if you can´t turn on your T.V. (at 4:00 in the afternoon) (on weekdays) without seeing him overhauling junk cars in style. I, along with many of you I am sure, had forgotten about this little gem of a show. The premise is simple: take one already pretty played out rapper (even in 2006ish around when the show was aired, the year I am guestimating after seeing Arnold make a guest appearance as the Governator), add busted vehicles, a ton of AWFUL and cheesy jokes, a dude with the worst spiked hair you have ever seen, seriously, ever, in your whole life and a crew of bad actors playing a car shop that transform the cars into flashy trash on wheels. Watchi...

Yesterday was Jose and my two year anniversary. Because we were living half a world apart last year, we decided to actually celebrate this time around. Jose got home from work to find me still sleeping my siesta (how romantic) and he gifted me an automatic coffee maker (just what I wanted). We hung around the apartment until dinner time when he misteriously told me it was time to go to places unknown. After driving around for 20 minutes trying to find a parking spot that wasn´t in the city center where you can now only be for 45 minutes before being fined, we opted to park in a structure that seemed miles away after making the 3 block trek in my heels. When we finally arrived at the restaurant I knew it was worth the walk. Located in the same plaza as a famous church called El Gran Poder (The Great Power which always makes me think of the Genie in Aladdin, although I believe his was infinite cosmic power and an itty bitty living space) the restaurant was well decorated and fancy (read ...

It has been a while since I updated the blog, mostly because I just spent the last 3 weeks or so at home spending Christmas in pure (cold and snowy) Michigan. After a few pretty stressful flights (never going through London again if I can help it where a snowfall=complete shutdown of their airport) I made it home in time to celebrate Christmas with my family and Jose. I am sure I am biased, but Santa is 100 times better than the Reyes (Kings or Wisemen if you will) that come and bring presents in Spain on the 6th of January. First of all, he does the work of 3 guys in one night. Second he has flying reindeer, not smelly, spitting camels. Third, he does it all while being overweight (and bearded). Really, Santa, maybe Jesus and Sean Connery are the only people I think can pull of the beard-look but that is besides the point. Santa lives at the North Pole. It is cold. It is snowy, kind of like Michigan. Many places have that kind of weather and it means everything comes to a screech...