Hi beautiful people in my life! I'm excited to tell you about my experiences in southern Spain. All of these memories are so great and I have been having such a wonderful time most recently here in Oviedo. I have gotten to spend more time with people from church and am feeling more blessed than ever to have the chance to meet brothers and sisters in Christ all the way in Spain. God is truly magnificent in how He brings His children together no matter the distance. Thursday I had dinner at one of the ladies apartments, and it was such a lovely evening. She is only 34 years old, and she is SUCH a gem! She is originally from Ecuador and she is one of the tiniest women I have ever met in my life and yet God overflows from her precious heart. I am blessed to have met such great people in Oviedo and they are truly making my time here that much more amazing. And for that, I praise God for His hand in all things! This is a picture of everyone from church who celebrated my birthday with me!
When I went to Malaga and Sevilla, Spain, my friend D and I went...just the two of us. She and I got to try out our Spanish multiple times and have loads of practice with public transportation. I tell you, if only we could walk everywhere in the U.S. or just catch a bus when we needed it, life would be a little more interesting. However, I know it is nice to have the freedom to drive around in my own car and listen to music with the windows down on an AWESOME spring day in Iowa!! But when we were in Malaga, we got to experience what it is like to ride on the buses and just feel like city people. :-) It is pretty fun when you can try new things in Spain.
So we left from Oviedo, took a bus to Santander (probably the farthest north you can go in Spain), and then took a plane to Malaga (which is probably the most southern you can get) and guess what?? The plane ride only took about an HOUR!!! We covered all of Spain in an airplane in an hour! That blew my mind. Okay, so when we got to Malaga, we were stoked for our adventure to begin! We had a three-day weekend because of Carnaval. This is a festival when people dress up in costumes and then you can experience more of the Spanish culture such as the music. Parades are common, but unfortunately, I didn't experience much of Carnaval. That was okay with me though because I don't think I would have wanted to miss my chance to visit the southern part of the country. Also, we thankfully got to see a little bit of the festivities in Malaga on Sunday when we just hung around the city.
When deciding on where to stay in a hostel in the city, D and I of course thought it would be a spectacular idea to sign up to stay in one of the hostels that was located right by the beach. We figured, "Hey why not have a view of the beach when we wake up in the morning?" D is also a HUMONGOUS fan of beach time as well. So she and I stayed at a hostel called "The Melting Pot." It was probably one of my top favorite hostels so far. It definitely was a melting pot because there were so many different countries represented throughout our time there.
One of my favorite parts was that they had a chalkboard outside the main entrance. And on the chalkboard were the names of all the people checking in for that day. MY name was on the board and I couldn't believe that. Talk about a warm welcoming!! I had D take a picture for me, and she and I were already excited to be so close to the beach.
Oh...I almost forgot. When we arrived to the city first, since we didn't know how far our walk could be in order to get to the hostel, we decided we would take the chance of getting a taxi and pay a bit more than we would if we could ride the bus. The bus we were supposed to take seemed to have stopped running for the night. Our taxi driver was really nice and got us where we needed to be in probably less than ten minutes. It only cost us about 6 euros so splitting the fare was basically nothing. Even though it was night, we could see the waves of the Mediterranean crashing on the beach and D and I were so stinkin' excited for our adventures to begin the next day!
We checked into the hostel, dropped our stuff in our room quick and then ventured outside for just a little while so that we could check out the awesome beach. It was night like I mentioned, so we couldn't really take in the full beauty of everything, but it was still so amazing to be living by the beach for a few days. So after walking down the street along the beach for about 15 minutes, we decided that since the beach wasn't going anywhere, we could look at it more the next day. We headed into our hostel, got ready for bed, and then slept as best we could.
D and I slept in till about 9:30 I think, and then got ready, ate what they consider "breakfast" in Spain, and then made our way out to explore. (Breakfast consisted of slices of bread with the option of putting on jam and then cookie crackers to eat. Also, coffee or cola cao (kind of like chocolate milk I think...I haven't actually had it yet) and then also some corn bread type treats. Pretty much all sugar and nothing that can sustain you for the whole day!)
Walking in Malaga was so fun because it is completely different from the north and so incredibly wonderful. It felt like I was in Florida because of all the palm trees we got to see and then the weather was just tranquil and nice (which is very different from FL I realize.)
I once again enjoyed the architecture and the opportunity to check out another area of Spain. The region we were in for the weekend is called Andalucia, and it is such a gorgeous region!!! The highlight from Malaga was getting to visit the Gibralfaro castle. It overlooks the city and is too pretty to pass up. As students, it only cost us 60 cents to enter and walk around. It is pretty much an outside tour, but still...60 cents is unheardof!!! Lots of pictures were snapped here and going up to the castle was a bit of a hike but beautiful nonetheless. We could see the ocean and get this...an arena
for bull fighting from where we were! It was just spectacular and such great weather to be having on our Sunday in Malaga.
We decided after our hike up to the castle that we would walk around the city a bit more and then we walked back to our hostel and looked forward to taking a SIESTA before we did anything else for the day. :-) It was D's idea...but oh such a good decision!! She and I rested for a while and then we took the bus into the center of the city this time so that we could go to the bus station. We had walked about 40 minutes to get back to our hostel, so the idea of doing all that walking again was kind of a scary thought!! The guy who was one of the workers at the hostel showed us on our map how to get to the bus station and it was very easy since now we are used to having to navigate through big cities. After we walked on the road in a very weird path (due to construction) and finally found the station, we bought our tickets so that we could go to Sevilla on Monday. Then, we walked to find a Donor Kebab place for dinner and had some good time just talking and chowing down! We were actually hungry and totally able to enjoy our yummy kebabs!! After finishing up, we went back to the hostel and just stayed in for the night. We spent some good time just reading our Bibles and relaxing for a bit after our day of walking around Malaga and wanted to make sure we were well rested for our early bus ride the next day. Even though it wasn't until 9am, we made sure to get up by 6:30am so that we could get ready, eat, and then ride a bus/trot over to the station in plenty of time. We were there by about 8:15 so we had a lot of time to kill. :-) D and I just spent some good time talking and having some good bonding time. I always enjoy the conversations that she and I share together because they are never just surface deep...which for anyone who knows me...I like to talk deeply about things and really learn about people through our conversations together.
After riding on the bus for about 3 hours, it was we knew we had until about 8:15 to do our sight seeing. 8 hours is quite a lot of time, but when you are in a city that you may never get to visit again, it is kind of intimidating to try to see all that you can...especially when you don't know where to find a map of the city. Once again, D and I just made our way to find a market first so that we could have something to nibble on for lunch, and then after asking people where to find a map, we located the Oficina de turisma. We got our maps and felt like we were no longer going to be walking around like chickens with our heads cut off. It was super exciting to begin our adventure in Sevilla.
However, our first experience when we were eating was that we thought we would try a bite of an orange that fell off the tree right by us because it seemed like a great idea. Well, let me just say, even though it was nice and orange and juice was shooting out of it as I peeled it, it was not going to be as tastey as we had hoped for. D took a bite, and so I asked, "How is it?" She replied by saying, "I don't really like the taste." I thought, oh come on, it can't be that bad. Well as soon as I chomped on my piece, I let it sit there for a second on my tongue, the awful taste set in, and then I did what no polite person would ever do in a public place, and I spit it back into my hand!! All I could say was that the orange was awful and it was POISON!! Obviously it wasn't poison because I wouldn't be able to write this blog, but it was one of the grossest flavors I have ever tasted. I was glad to have some other food to eat in order to get rid of the taste. My orange Fanta was helpful so I could have a better orange taste in my mouth. After that, we were going to be more watchful of any other oranges that might roll our way.
And now for the castle in Sevilla...AH! We were in love with the gardens and the beauty of this castle. Also, I was tickled every time we passed by this one group of men and women from England because their accents were amazing, and they just seemed like they had so much youth still inside of them. They were funny to try and listen to at times because for students it was free to enter into the castle, but for everyone else, they had to pay something like 7 euros or more. The English people were commenting about the price but in a joking manner and it was just fun to listen to their voices! It is just getting me so pumped for London at the end of April. (I'm in no hurry though!)
Now this palace was one that you could probably spend hours in because there were so many gardens to walk through. So we did our best to take tons of pictures and let our eyes just take in the beauty of nature and what it would have been like to live there and have all those gardens to run through.
It is known as the Alcazar Castle. It is one of my favorite places in Spain and so worth checking out if you are ever in this neck of the woods. :-) Later we visited the Plaza de España and had the opportunity to ride in a row boat around the plaza. That was so much fun!! I had a blast in Sevilla and took so many great pictures yet again.
We grabbed some dinner from good ol' Mickey D's and then waited to get on the bus for about 20 minutes. Before making it all the way back, we decided to stop and treat ourselves to some delicious ice cream before our walk back to the bus station. It was amazing how much we had accomplished in one day and it was one of the best days ever!! We had a good time riding the bus back, but I slept for most of the trip. When we arrived to Malaga, the walk back to where we needed to hop on the bus wasn't sounding too exciting, but we were more awake after we got off the bus. The bus for whatever reason didn't seem like it was going to come, so we decided to take a taxi back to the hostel. Taxis are seriously so much fun to ride in here because they seem like a personal car (even though they all look alike) but the inside is just cozy. Plus, I love it when our driver plays music he likes. It is fun to experience the Spanish culture just by riding in a taxi and getting to listen to the music. Also, have I told you how abrupt drivers are here in Spain??? They kind of make you want to be out of the car as soon as possible because they lurch so much and tend to drive pretty quickly. He was a super nice driver though and when I went to grab like 10 cents more or so, he was just like, "no no." I was touched by that simple gesture and just really appreciated his kindness. So a goofy girl, right?! I know I know. It was just sweet on his part!
For our final few hours in Malaga, we made sure to dip our feet into the Mediterranean
and have some fun there.
We were glad to have our flip flops with us because we couldn't exactly put our socks and shoes on right after that. It was fun to walk around in some sandals at the beginning of March. Our real test began after we got to the airport because we had only about 35 minutes before our gate was going to close, we had to eat our bread and cheese (so European right?!) and then go through security. Well, we got in line for security and ended up being told that we needed to go and get our papers stamped by Ryanair so that we could go through security. The gate was going to close in about 15 minutes, the line for security was kind of long, so now we had to get our running shoes on! This was my first time ever having to run through an airport, and let me just tell you, I was thinking to myself over and over, "Lord, please let us make our plane!!" Well after running for about 2 minutes one way and then 2 minutes the other way, we had to ask the woman at security if we could go through now because our gate was going to close (supposedly) in like 7 minutes. By the time we actually reached where we were going to board (after doing some more running), the line was so long and no one had even gotten onto the plane yet. Also, it was clear that the gate wasn't going to close anytime soon. We praised the Lord that He allowed us to make it there in time and NOT miss our flight. It was a good workout, and I NEVER want to experience that again. This is the real world, and I knew that if we missed our flight, we were going to have to buy a new ticket and deal with a bunch of other things I didn't want to think about.
It was good to have time to sit on the plane and just recuperate from our little running extravaganza. We took a bus to the bus station in Santander and then discovered that we were going to have to wait for 3 hours before we could get a bus back to Oviedo. So it was going to be a little while to wait and now we had the opportunity to walk around Santander a bit. I was ready to be home by this time, but it was nice to see the
beauty of yet again another Spanish city.
We got home and I was excited to tell my host family how fabulous my weekend was away. We chatted the next day I think because it was kind of late for a Tuesday night to get home. All in all...it was another trip well spent!
Ciao... *Your Spanishbyrd*
P.S. To everyone who wished me a Happy Birthday, gave me a hug, spoiled me with gifts, and went out for a birthday dessert with me, I am so thankful from the bottom of my heart! It was the best 21st birthday ever.
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