Cádiz and Meandering Sevilla

The second week here has flown by. Let me start by making two corrections to my last post. To clarify, Corte Ingles is definitely a step up from Wal Mart but is similar to the superstore in that it has everything you could ever want (thanks Deb!). Also, I have realized that the river in Seville is more green than blue and certainly not swimmable but pretty nonetheless. And now back to week 2. On Monday, we again had to hide the peaches in our closet, but don’t fear, we ate them before they went bad. I hope this peach thing doesn’t become a theme of the trip because it is a little awkward to have to worry about rotting fruit in your closet. On the way to class, someone asked us for directions to the nearest Vodaphone (a cellphone company) store and we could actually answer. I was pretty impressed with myself by the fact that I could understand and answer in Spanish and also that I knew at least one part of the city well enough to give directions. Although I’m still definitely a tourist, the ability to give directions definitely boosted my confidence a little. After a day of classes and another delicious lunch of green beans that looked like pasta and pork with a special sauce made by Mati and Luiqui’s daughter, Maureen and I decided to do some errands. On our way to do the errands, however, we got a little sidetracked and ended up exploring a new part of the city. To me, spontaneous detours are always the most fun and this one turned into a perfect afternoon. We walked through the older and more touristy part of Seville that we had yet to visit. The streets are filled with old churches and entryways to adorable apartments. All of the buildings seem to have intricate window panelling and windowboxes with brightly colored flowers. Every street has another breathtaking view. Before this exploration, I thought Seville was a beautiful city but not exactly “the most gorgeous city in the world” – a descriptions I had heard before arriving. After our meandering, I definitely know what people are talking about. Seriously, every five minutes I would break out another ooh or ahh at some building or plaza. Then we found the Murillo gardens, which had not only a spectacular display of foliage for a city in drought but also gorgeous fountains and statues. I think reverie is the right word to describe it. Maureen and I sat on a bench next to a fountain and watched as doves and parakeets, yes parakeets, flew by and dogs cooled off in the fountain. We eventually pulled ourselves away from the gardens and wandered our way over to the central building of the University of Seville, where most if not all of my classes will be held. Penn has a beautiful campus, but it can’t hold a candle to this building. It was an old tobacco factory and it looks like a museum/castle. There is a moat – not filled with water anymore but still a moat! – and inside there are statues and a fountain in a courtyard. Also, we walked into a room directly inside the main entrance that held lots of ornate artifacts that belong to the brotherhood of students that march during the holy week festival, Semana Santa, that is held in the spring in Seville. At this point the sun was setting and we returned home for dinner and homework before going to sleep.

Murillo Gardens

one of the many churches in Seville

On Tuesday, we finally did some of the errands that we luckily didn’t around to the day before. One of the errands was going to the post office to mail in an application to the bike share program that is very prevalent is Seville. The post office was very different from most in the US. First of all it was a beautiful old building but it also required that you take a number upon entry and wait to go up to the counter until your number is called instead of having to stand in an obnoxiously long line. It reminded me a little of the DMV but much less chaotic and more efficient – definitely something that some of the post offices I have been to could learn from. For lunch, we had probably my second favorite dish so far. Let me pause by saying first of all that I’m sorry if you’re sick of hearing about food, if you can’t tell I’m a little obsessed and tend to remember every detail of my meals. Also, I don’t think I mentioned my favorite meal since it was the day of my last post. It was a puree of squash and potatoes that was sinfully rich and delicious along with tender chicken and caramelized onions. SO GOOD! Back to Tuesday’s meal, which had cooked chickpeas and spinach in garlic and olive oil. I absolutely love chickpeas, so this was a great new way to eat one of my favorite foods. In the afternoon, we wandered a little through the center of the city and came across a bagpiper playing in one of the plazas – pretty surprising since we’re not in Scotland but still fun to listen to. We also had a little merienda (snack) of ice cream at a store that happened to be selling “pitufo” or “Smurf” flavored ice cream that was bright blue. We tried a spoonful just because and it was well… as one friend put it “that definitely does not grow on trees.” On the way home we gave directions again (in no time we’ll be tour guides), which is pretty unbelievable considering I still don’t know how to get home except for the one route we take from the program center. Hopefully the person made it to her destination without having to ask again.

Cute little street

University of Seville

On Wednesday we took a doubledecker bus tour of Seville. The audio guide was difficult to hear and not synced properly so I gave up after a while, but it was still nice to see more of the city and the view from the top of the doubledecker bus is nice. We passed through some parts of the city that I had never seen before such as the science park, la Isla Mágica, which is an amusement park, and Triana, the neighborhood across the river which has lots of old tiles on the building and cute shops that seem worth exploring some more. Then we came back for another yummy meal of meatballs and rice with tomato sauce. On a side note, I failed to mention last time the problems with pronunciation of names. Spaniards have a little trouble with Rachel because it doesn’t sound very natural in their language. I decided to introduce myself to Mati and Luiqui as Raquel because I knew that would be a lot easier for them. It turned out to be a great idea because they have such problems with the name Maureen that I know mine wouldn’t have been easy either. The first day Mati tried to repeat Maureen’s name about ten times and came up with everything from Maureek to Muli. Maureen said that Mati could just call her Momo instead, but Mati told her that Momo means boogeyman in Spanish, so that wouldn’t work. By now they have settled on Muri, but they still forget both of our names every once and a while. And while I’m on a non sequitor, I think I’ll jump to my next random story, which is about the Spanish sense of humor. Our culture professor told us that Spaniards have a very dry sense of humor and love irony. Well I’m not sure if this falls into that description, but I mentioned last time about how Maureen and I couldn’t finish the food and told Mati, “no somos vacas” (we’re not cows). Well now that is Mati’s favorite phrase and she cracks a joke about how someone is or isn’t a cow based on their eating habits probably every other day. It’s really cute and makes it feel like we’re fitting in because Mati feels comfortably joking with us (and comfortable calling us cows!)

rainbow in the fountain


Maureen and I in the Plaza de España

Our program center is right across from this 13^th century tower on the river, so on Thursday Maureen and I went to visit the museum inside the Torre del Oro (tower of gold). While the museum itself wasn’t my favorite since it didn’t have detailed descriptions of most of the objects and the audio guide was completely cheesy, the view from the top of the tower was spectacular. You can see far along the river in both directions and the city’s skyline, which is unfortunately marred by a crane from one of the many construction projects in the city. During lunch, Mati wasn’t feeling great so she didn’t eat with us so it was just Luiqui, Maureen, and I. It was fine until we finished eating but Luiqui had most certainly not finished talking. He has a tendency to start off with a little anecdote that sends him on a very long rambling monologue. It’s great to hear more Spanish and hear some stories, but after a certain point we wanted to be excused to do the homework for our class later in the afternoon and get in a short siesta. Usually Mati will cut Luiqui off if he is talking for too long but since she wasn’t there we had to wait until there was a break in the speech so that we could tell him that we had homework to do and retreat to our room. After grammar class, we decided to explore the Plaza de España, which we had seen from afar on the bus tour. We meandered through the gardens that lead to the plaza and found more spectacular greenery and water displays. There was also a white duck with a fluffy yellow duckling sitting underneath its stomach. We stopped to buy frozen lemonade before going into the incredible plaza. It has a huge fountain in the middle and a large pavillion made of pink bricks and decorated with ornate tiles. There are bridges over a now dry stream and panels representing different parts of Spain. After the plaza, we walked to the adjacent gardens, which are even bigger than the gardens from Monday. There are small little “plazas” throughout these gardens that have fountains and statues and benches. There is also a small bird sanctuary in the gardens with different types of birds including a female peacock! After spending some time in the gardens, we continued on to another plaza which contains two museums. First we saw the Archaeology Music, and since I’m an anthropology major/huge nerd, I had to take a picture in front of the Archaeolgoy Museum. There is also an art museum across from it that is decorated in the mudejar style, which we have learned about in our culture class at the center. I definitely plan to go back and visit both museums, but by that time we were running out of steam and decided to head home.

soy un nerd - museo arqueologico


view from el Torre del Oro

el Torre del Oro

On Friday we had our first group trip, which was to Cádiz, a beach town about an hour and a half away from Spain. Just in case you didn’t get that, this a school sponsored trip to the beach!!! Being a school trip, it wasn’t actually just a day at the beach, we actually did some educational things as well. First we went on a guided tour of the city. We saw the old neighborhood, which has walls that date back to the 13^th century. We also saw the Roman Theater, which is actually built quite similarly to stadiums today with an underground tunnel for food, just like the concession stands in Fenway Park or Franklin Field. The theater is right next to some apartment buildings where people actually live today and they can’t continue excavating because they don’t want to destroy people’s homes. I can’t possibly imagine waking up to an ancient monument like that everyday – those people are pretty lucky! After that, we visited the Cathedral of Cadiz. When we first entered, there were nuns sitting in the pews, which seemed very fitting. We went to the crypt, where there are some famous artists buried and also a mummified saint. There is also a huge organ and tons of other artefacts and works of art that we just barely touched upon during our tour. We headed down the main street of Cádiz, which is a lot smaller than Seville in case you’re wondering, which has tons of old buildings and amazing houses with balconies. Our next stop was an old house built and decorated in Islamic style. It was very ornate, with tons of tiling and carved pillars, and a fountain in the middle. After that, we went through a plaza with more churches and then ended our tour in front of a tower called el Torre Tavina. After saying goodbye to our guide, we went up the tower. The stairs were winding and small to say the least, but everyone made it up in one piece. Before reaching the very top, we entered a dark room which contains a really cool kind of machine that I had never seen before. Basically, there is a screen in the middle and above the screen in a tower are mirrors and lenses that when combined in the right configuration project the view of what is actually going on in the city at that moment. It’s like an old-school spy camera. We got a 360 degree tour of the city from the bird’s eye view of this “camera” and could even see people hanging up their laundry on buildings nearby or the movement of the waves all the way out in the ocean. It was a really cool way to see the city and unlike anything I had seen. After the “tour,” we climbed the rest of the way to the top and saw some amazing views of the city. The bright blue of the sky and the ocean was dazzling. After all of the walking/climbing of tiny staircases, we wanted to rest. Even though the trip to Cádiz was only technically a day trip, almost everyone on the program had been planning on staying the night once they told us there was a beach. One of the girls had found a hostel but wasn’t sure if there was enough room for everyone who wanted to stay there. After a little bit of confusion and some things lost in translation with the owner of the hostel, we all got rooms and decided to find some food. Since Cádiz is on the water and known for its fried fish, I went with some friends to a restaurant and ordered two different kinds of fish. We weren’t exactly sure what kinds they were but one was in this spicy sauce and was absolutely delicious. After that, it was time for the beach! The beach in Cádiz is absolutely gorgeous – the sand is soft (although scorching), the water is bright blue, and for the two days I was there, the sky was clear blue as well. Also, you can see the amazing Cathedral from the beach. It’s pretty incredible to be sitting on the sand, listening to the sound of the waves, and then look to your right and see this beautiful, old building. Some of you might not know about my obsession with Martha’s Vineyard and its beaches (it’s my favorite place on Earth) well Cádiz’s beaches are a close second. After a swim in the ocean and plenty of time to dry off and tan, we decided to head back to the hostel to clean up before dinner. Of course, after a difficult day at the beach, we were a little hungry so we decided to stop at a bakery for a snack. I haven’t noticed very many bakeries in Seville, which is good for my waistline but a little sad for my tastebuds, so it was nice to see pastries again. We all got glasses of water that we downed in 5 seconds flat and I ordered a delicious, rich apple flaky crusted pastry that I also devoured. After returning to the hostel and rejuvenating, we headed out a few hours later to find a place for dinner. Our hostel was located in the center of the city, so it didn’t take long to find a crowded place that actually seemed to have locals. At first we sat down at one restaurant and after waiting a while for a waiter, my friend got up to get a menu herself. That quickly got the attention of a waiter who told us we were sitting in the wrong place for the menu we had just taken (all of the outdoor tables around these restaurants were close together.) We realized that the restaurant we wanted to eat at was full, but decided to put our name on the list because it seemed good. Even though it was nearing 11 by the time we were actually seated, I was miraculously not starving. We got a few tapas – aioli potatoes and different sandwiches with ham, salmon, and cod, that were all really good and surprisingly filling for their small size. After dinner, we wandered the streets for a while and got pretty lost but made it back to our hotel exhausted and in one piece.

Roman Theater - just like Fenway of course


inside of the Cathedral

Calle Sacramento - main drag of Cádiz

On Saturday we got a quick breakfast and then headed right back to the beach. We walked a little farther along to a different beach, but it still had the same amazing water, sand, and view. The water is also the perfect temperature there – refreshingly cold but not so cold that it hurts your body when you get in. I could probably spend the whole day in the ocean if given the chance. When we first got to the beach it was “early” (11) and there weren’t too many people there. By 1, the beach was packed and tons of vendors were walking up and down trying to sell cold drinks or snacks. One was selling potato chips, which didn’t make too much sense to me since there is already enough salt at the beach, but another was selling Tinto Verano, which is a mixture of red wine, lemonade, and seltzer which is absolutely delicious and sounded like an amazing idea for the beach. We didn’t end up buying anything, but I find it kind of funny to have so many vendors on the beach. It makes sense for them but I would prefer to have my beach experience free from shouts of “cerveza, agua fria, y tinto veranoooooo.” Still, the vendors did not stop me from enjoying one second of our time at the ocean nor from taking a nice little siesta. I guess I paid for that later in the form of a bright red back, but it was worth the relaxation it provided at the time. After about 5 hours on the beach, we were a little overheated and reluctantly said goodbye and headed back to the town center. Our tour guide had mentioned a fruit market that was close to one of the plazas and we wanted to check it out and get some snacks for the train ride home. Have I mentioned the fruit here is so sweet and the melon is at least twenty times better than melon in the States? Unforntunately, we found out that the market had just closed a few days ago for vacation, but we still managed to find a little bite to eat and a few shops to explore before heading to the train station. After some initial confusion over the location of the entrance, we found the train leaving for Seville and had a comfortable ride home. The first thing I did when I got home was take a shower and then it was time for dinner. We had our first real homemade dessert (we usually have fruit), which was a delicious custard that tasted similar to flan. After dinner, I went out with a friend and returned home later exhausted but extremely content with the memories of a perfect beach trip.

view of the city from Torre Tavina

la playa - difficult to see the Cathedral from this shot but I promise it's there