Spain

22.10.2005

Amazing how constrasting the vibrations of the two cities can be, like those of Madrid and Valencia. As soon as the bus pulled into the Valencia bus station, "I feeeel goood....I know that I should" Hmmms, maybe I should call this Adelina's Travel Musical!.

Everything just went smoothly..my shoulders thanked me as I found my hostel in no time, rooming with 2 others, Gillian, an American who coincidentally spent 6 months working in NZ previously and called it her 2nd home, and Ian, the Irish guy (yes girls, with killer accent). After he introduced himself, I think he was explaining that he was cycling through Spain, but with that amazing singsong melodic accent, he might as well have been reciting all the different parts of a bicycle to me and still I would be equally enchanted. Once again, the vibrations felt right about this hostel and its inhabitants and little did I know then that Valencia was about to become my favourite place in Spain!

23.10.2005

Irishboy Ian was sleeping in on his last day in Spain (Kev, I see now that sleeping is a revered institution in Ireland, I apologise for my giving you heaps earlier on this). So Gillian and I decided to go sighseeing together. To make up the Travelling Trio was Andrea (Italian for Andrew). He was also staying at the hostel and was in Valencia for a filming assignment (working for an Italian television company). You know how we girls often get hassled for taking forever to get ready to go out? Well, it's about time the tables are turned! Gill and I had to wait forever for Andrea! We should have known as soon as told he us he was going for a "quick shower", carrying 2 make-up bags (which I later discovered contained his shower stuff in one bag and his "body enhancement" items in the other). After a quick breakfast, we were off!!

Valencia is the 3rd largest city in Spain with a population of 3 million people. Located also at the southern coast of Spain, it is situated between Seville and Barcelona and just like its other southern cousins, it was blessed with the amazingly beautiful sunny hot weather, 33 degrees today, pheew! Melllltttting!

As today was Sunday where entries to all museums are free, we decided to take a stroll down the "dried up" riverbed and along the way, visit Valencia's Modern Arts Museum (only going because the other two wanted to go). Previously, there used to be a river that run across Valencia. In the 1950's the Valencian City Council decided to revert the part of the river in the city elsewhere in order to expand the city's perimeter. God knows why couldn't they just build a bridge across the river to enlarge the city! Annnnyway, as a result of this, the old river was dried up and it was turned into a gigantic park containing fountains, monuments, playgrounds, soccer fields amongst some of the things. The size of this riverbed isn't small either. The Length probably would have been a good 8 to 10km and the width would probably be 2 soccer fields side by side at an estimate. It was really a pleasant walk since it was so hot. As there were quite a lot to see along the way plus getting to know my two new friends, I didn't realise that we had walked the entire dried up river bed, all 3 hours of walking!

Gillian is best described as a free spirit. She graduated and then decided that the only responsibilities she was prepared to handle at that point in her life was to decide what place to travel to next. She was the closest to a laidback Kiwi as I have come across so far on my trip. We got along as well as two opposites can be. I was the kick in the butt she needed once a while to get going and she's the one that would slap me a few times to calm me down when I'm running around like a headless chook.

Andrea made both Gillian and I laughed out loud and snorting in an unladylike manner when he first started talking about himself. His first line was "Not sure if you guys noticed but I am not like how you would imagine an Italian man would be." It was so funny because what he said couldn't have been further from the truth. With his naturally curly thick hair smoothed by lots of greasy gel and tied at the back into a small ponytail, his tight black body hugging t-shirt and the lazy casual charm which he had in abundance and no shame or qualms in throwing around..who was he really kidding??!! His English was really limited but we did learnt that he was here training with some film crew on movie making. Another reason why he was SOOOoooOOO an Italian was that this man puts the "tense" in Intense!! He made me look like a pot smoking, chilled out Jamaican!He also possessed amazing musical talent..not just in singing, but more so in creating drum beats with various parts of his body. Seriously, he was a walking drumkit, able to mimick various bass and keyboard sounds with his mouth. All the way walking from the city to the dried up river bed, we caught everyone's attention, singing, humming or speaking in a wild mix of English, Spanish and broken Italian (mine). I think we would have been less obvious singing "Doe a deer" wearing mismatched curtain cut-outs!

The fountain at the centre of the riverbed.

Cute signs located all over the riverbed.

One that guides the bridge at the riverbed..reminds you of Gotham City?

We eventually reached our point of destination. As part of an international Science exhibition held not long ago in Valencia, the city built several state of the art modern buildings and a bridge and honestly, it was like walking onto the movie set of Star Wars. See for yourself!

The bridge over the riverbed.

The mothership has landed!

In a galaxy far far away...

Then we headed back into city and I took photos of some of the nice buildings in the city..

This is the "mercado", which is the city's wet market. Very impressive, you can find everything in there, from fresh vegetables, meat, fishes and fruits to coffee, croissants and stationery!

This is the Bullfight arena. Really impressive. It was closed that day so we couldn't go in but would have been great to see a bullfight, although not sure how they would respond to my red top, the bulls that is, not the Spanish men..

That reminds me..forgot to mention that when I was in Cadiz, you know how it was so hot? So I was walking around in shorts as you do in a summer like temperature..anyway, I caused 2 accidents! I was crossing this road and this guy on a scooter on the road I was crossing was turning onto the street I was walking on and he kept looking over at me and talking to me, wolfwhistling when he slammed right into the back of a small truck. Remarkably, his body suffered less injury than his ego I think. But what was worst, there was another guy on a scooter behind the first guy who did the same thing and so he slammed into the back of the first guy..so yeah...if you're a hot blooded Spanish male and you drive, you are likely to get killed on the road. I must say, Spain is definitely good for one's ego..being a novel asian in Spain or not, it is kinda flattering to walk by a group of really loud men jesting with one another and suddenly they all became quiet and just stared and stared until their eyes almost falling out of the sockets...so funny!

In the evening, the 3 musketeers, Gill, Andrea and I all went to have a typical Valencian Spanish meal, called Paella (pronounced Pahia). It's like Rissotto cooked with different range of spices and you can choose various toppings too, i.e with chicken or with salamis, with seafood and so on, very yummy! Another quiet night, Gillian reading her book and Andrea and I played chess. Starting to become like a Harry Potter movie..hmmms.

(To be continued...)

20.10.05

I knew I shouldn't have listened to the receptionist of my hostel in Granada who said I didn't have to book for my hostel in Madrid. She shrugged "After all, it's autumn and it's the capital..so many hostels to choose from." Capital Schmapital I say! I arrived and pretty much walked for 1.5 hours with the turtle shell breaking my back. You should have seen my shoulders where the straps of the bag made their impressions, I looked like I had been tortured by a medieval device. Don't get too excited now..

It's one thing being turned away from one hostel to another, but it's another thing when the hostel staff don't speak a word of English (and they work at international hostels, go figure), and, to top it off, it didn't help trying to find a hostel when you are in a strange city and getting lost while looking for a hostel, arrrgh.

Eventually, I marched up yet another street off the city centre, not particularly pleased to see the working girls already busy working. By that time though, I could have easily hired one of them just to get a room myself! Again, don't get too excited..

Eventually, I found not only a hostel with a room, but it was a single room at a very reasonable price and I said "SI, SI!" before the receptionist even came to asking that question. Then I was off in search of a Vodafone shop to top up my credit. Ok, please allow me to whinge a bit. When I first got to Europe, I thought it would be cheaper if I buy a basic phone here with an European SIM card so I could text or call people who I would be seeing or staying with in Europe. Of course, I then found out that Vodafone had a "passport" system where you can text and call people at a reduced rate for countries participating in this system. Guess what? NZ was one of them, which meant, I could have used my NZ phone and SIM card and still paid the same! Arrrgh! Having said that, it's not that cheap to text people. 75 Euro cents each text sent. I have easily spent at least 120 Euros just on topping up my credit to date, crazy!!

After that little errand, I was back at the hostel kicking back and it was nice to see things beginning to turn around in my favour. I discovered that the hostel organised some sort of evening activity each night and tonight, it was the Flamenco dancing night!! Excellent, been wanting to see one of those and I actually was getting one for free!

Wasn't sure what to expect, but I had images of guitars, clarinets and lots of "Olè!", I got all that and more! A group of 4 appeared. The guitarist was easily recognisable together with the male and female flamenco dancers (unless their normal evening frocks often resemble the cast of Saturday Night Fever).The fourth person, a beautiful Latina's purpose was rather unknown until the lights were dimmed and the first string of the guitar was plucked. Suddenly, the most beautiful clear crisp voice filled the room as the mystery lady enchanted us all with her amazing voice, crooning a beautiful tragic Spanish lovesong. Before we could "return" from being blown away, we were swept further into this tidal wave of music and dance as the guitar came alive with a fast number and first the lady and then the man took to the dance floor exhibiting a harmonious marriage of strength and grace as they swirled, kicked, tapped and clapped to the upbeat flamenco song accompanied by the feverish strumming of the guitar. As the sweat trickled down the head of the guitar player, he would emerge from his strumming trance and chanted "Venga...Olé!" (like "Let's go!"), motivating the dancers to move faster, the clarinets clapped, the feet loudly tapped, Olé!! It was magical!

Venga!!! Vamos!! The flamenco dancers cheered on by the songbird.

21.10.2005

Today there was no smiling sun to greet me. It marked my first raining weather in Madrid. Oh well, guess the sunshine couldn't last forever *pout* I decided the best way to see such a big city would probably to catch one of those "hop on and hop off tour buses", like the one I took in London. It turned out to be a good idea as I managed to see a lot in the whole day plus my bus ticket entitled me to 3 museums as well. Just in case you think most of the time, I memorised all the name of places I've seen together with its history, I am sorry to burst your bubble by admitting that I often referred to the tourist information and map that I gathered for each place of my visit and as you would expect, if you know me well enough, sooner or later, something like this was going to happen..I lost my tourist info on Madrid and so I couldn't exactly tell you the name of places but I can kind of described them!

Ok, let's focus on something more positive..so this bus tour, it was not as fun as the London's one as there was no Live commentary from a local telling us naughty jokes about a monument of the city, instead we got one of those "If you want to listen to the commentary in English, press 2". However, to make up for it, we were treated to a big protest by the farmers federation,(probably sick of the sheepdogs' siestas). I had to laugh out loud when two of the tourists on the bus kept pushing the tape recorder and adjusting their headpiece, looking very much like they were expecting some sort of commentary on the protests and of course, they were outraged not to get any..I can only guess they're probably Australians.. *duck*. Here are some of the pics taken and I shall announce them in no particular order...(drumroll)

This is a building with pointy bits on top..(what?!!)

Ooh, I know this one..it's the National Library of Madrid!

This is a fountain displaying Neptune coming out of the water, fountain located at the square...the one near the garden..

This is by far the most impressive building for me, it's the city's old post office, with a strong gothic design.

Majestic sculpture of Dianna, Goddess of War, on the square just in front of the old post office.

After all that sight seeing, I went and have some lunch. Here's another thing interesting in Spain. For a country once ruled for 700 years by Muslims, you wouldn't expect to see a country so obssessed with pork meat. By obssessed, I mean you constantly come across restaurants with legs of ham dangling from the restaurant's ceiling. I'm serious! So instead of under a sky full of stars, your dining pleasure would be under hundreds of pig thighs hanging from the ceiling. They are coated with olive oil and just underneathe them, there's this cup that catches the oil that dripped from the meat. Thinking of becoming vegetarian today?! I see that Lonely Planet was not kidding when it described Spain as "Miss Piggy's nightmare!" In Madrid, they are slightly more civilised, hanging porkies in a more discreet manner, see picture, sorry, the blur was due to my giggling while taking the picture.

With a oink oink here, and an oink oink there..

The evening was spent checking out the museums. I won't bore you with the details but Madrid was more famous for its modern art and so I saw a lot of abstract and modern art which I must say, if they weren't free, wild horses wouldn't be able to drag me through them.

22.10.2005

I cannot pinpoint what exactly, but if you are like me, a firm believer in auras and vibrations, then I can tell you that Madrid gave me a very bad aura and vibration. Something about the place, just wrecked of unsavoury like feeling. The city isn't dirty, but at the same time, I constantly feel a sense of discomfort and unease, like I need to "wash" constantly..and I use this word metaphorically. There was something unpure about this place. I decided on this basis to leave Madrid for Valencia. I initially planned to spend my morning visiting the city's palace but ended up instead stuck at the hostel, searching the net for accomodation in Valencia. In the end, I only managed a quick glance of the palace from the outside and the cathedral opposite to it before leaving the city in the same mood that I arrived in, foul.

AO Rating: Combination of things made my stay in Madrid rather unpleasant, not all bad of course, the Flamenco dancing and bus tour was great but all in all, I would bid Madrid "Adiòs", rather than "Hasta luego".

17.10.05

Arrived in Cadiz like 3 in the afternoon. The first thing I noticed was the heat! Geez, if I thought Seville was cooking, Càdiz was boiling baby! It was at least 32 degrees, sunny and humid! I was taking my chances by not booking my accommodation ahead of time and I must have still been in Lady Luck’s good grace as I managed to secure a 4 mixed dorm accommodation for the night. After checking in, I was further elated to discover that I had the whole room to myself! What did I do first thing after dropping off that turtle shell? No points for guessing, that’s right, checking out that beach!!

This is going to sound shocking, rather than just walking on the beach like most tourists, this sports bunny had to go and overdo things hadn’t she. I'm sticking to the excuse that I needed to stretch my legs after the bus ride, hence the jog. As it was considered to be “cold” autumn season, there was hardly anyone on the beach except for me, a few seagulls and a few broad shouldered hunky surf babes. Of course as I was running past them, I did my best Baywatch impression, running and tossing my hair etc. It had the desired effect on the boys until, also living up to my famous reputation, I stepped on some soft sand and stumbled rather ungracefully and disgracefully, didn't fall though..but perhaps I should have, then I could have buried my head in the sand in shame! *grumble* The sands were not like white powder, but nevertheless, a welcome change to the city scene of Seville.

That night, I met up with some of the others staying at the hostel. The bunch of them were playing a card game called “dumbass” and they invited me to join in, (was I really that obvious?!) We had lots of fun that night since most of them already started drinking since 2pm. Everyone had problems with names, so soon, any attempts at recalling names were abandoned and instead, we dubbed each other by our countries of origin and so I was “Kiwi”, and there were “Aussie”, “Iowa”, “Cath” and “Kim”, “Miss Ireland” and “Guiness” (couple of really mad Irish ppl!) It’s quite rare I think when you have such a big group of people, each with their own distinctive personalities, coming from different countries and yet all able to become best of friends in one single night..really rewarding to feel like you are meeting old friends, rather than new. The night of merry making was not without its ill effect though, resulting in the birth of a hairless panda bear (black ring around the eyes) the next morning.

18.10.05

So this hairless panda bear trotted off to see Cadiz through half closed eyes, which of course looked completely shut for those not specially trained in detecting Chinese half closed eyes. Being more famous for its summer fiestas and beach paradise retreat, it came as no surprise for me that there would only be two places of special interest in the town itself, the local Cathedral and the Plaza de la Mina and Plaza Espana. The cathedral, built after the Christian’s reconquest of Spain in the 14th century, its special features include having a dome clad with gilded tiles and its majestic interior adorned with marble and coloured jaspers. Also climbed up the tower (surprise, surprise) and took great pictures of the city.

Plaza de la Mina and Plaza Espana are located side by side near the town’s port. Plaza Espana has the Monument of the Parliament, erected in early 19th century to commemorate Cadiz being the cradle of Spain’s liberal movement, first established here in 1812. Plaza de la Mina is a beautiful small garden, with hundreds of years old ficus trees providing much welcomed shade from the sun and this plaza is also home to Cadiz prodigal son, the famous composer, Manuel de Falla, and his tomb could be found in the crypt of the Cathedral. Believe it or not, only after such short tour of the city, I was already drenched in perspiration, so rushed back to the hostel for a quick shower, grabbed my turtle shell and off to the next destination, Granada!

The Cathedral, nestled in the heart of this sleepy town, surrounded by lazily swaying palm trees...ahhh paradise.

View of the Mediterranean from the top of the Cathedral.

View of the coast hugging town from the top.

The monument at Plaza de la Mina.

AO Rating of Càdiz: Although I only stayed one night, I saw what I wanted and it’s one of those sleepy costal towns where if all you want to do is catch some waves, chill read a book and collect the Miss Dumbass title (oh wait, that was just me), then Càdiz will be your ideal getaway!

19.10.05

I arrived late the night before from Càdiz and so nothing much to report except that I checked in safely into the hostel. It was interesting (and scary to a degree) to walk around trying to find your hostel and realised that it was on a very dark dingy looking street. As you knocked on the bare wooden door, wondering whether it would collapse with each knock, you would also ponder as to what kind of rat hole have you got yourself into this time booking an accommodation such as this. Then when the door’s opened, you would be blown away by the modernly designed courtyard welcoming you into this establishment. You would be further astonished by the cleanliness and the freshly painted interior of the hostel. Yes ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Spain. I’m however going to contradict myself now by saying this. By this stage also, I had come to realise that Spanish people take a lot of pride in their image, i.e it is important for them to present their best to the others, at least on the surface anyway. As such, everything must always look good externally. Fresh paint, bright colours on the buildings, on people, bold coloured and expensive clothing, perfect make up and leather shoes with shiny belt buckles.

Granada is probably famous for lots of things but once again, I was only spending two nights there and my main interest in visiting Granada would have to experience viewing Spain’s most famous Moorish fortress, the Alhambra! (All-harm-bra). If not the grandest, it was certainly the largest of them all. Not only was it the royal Palace to the Nasrid Sultans during the 13th century, it was also an Alcazaba (military stronghold), Medina (inner city) and the Generalife (royal agricultural estate), all rolled into one. In terms of actual size area, it was larger than the Versailles in France and my 6 hours walk and over 100 photos would be proof of what was required to truly appreciate this historical grandeur! It was such a popular tourist attraction that the authorities have to limit the number of visitors per day to 6,000. This meant that people are often advised to book their tickets at least 2 days in advance to be able to frequent this historical site. Ironically, I took my chance and simply walked up to the fortress half expecting to be turned away but to my delight, I was able to get in without being trapped in one of the many horror 8 hour queue stories you hear about with places such as this. Let me give you a brief guided tour with some of the pictures I have taken. Exhausted after my titanic excursion for the day, I spent a quiet evening relaxing at the Britz Hostel after another night of delicious tapas and checking of emails.

View of the Alhambra walls in the midst of green hills.

What was left of the castle's residential housing plan.

View of the Cathedral from one of the towers in Alhambra.

Alhambra's famous monument of the 5 dogs and the Moorish styled castle roofs. You'll have to wait until I get home for the rest of the stupendous photos!

20.10.05

Goodness me, today marked exactly one month since I have departed the shores of New Zealand to explore the treasures of Europe, past and present. Time indeed flew when one was having fun! As I had a long bus ride ahead of me to Madrid, the little time in the morning I had, I spent exploring the city’s Cathedral. Shamefully its history and information I omit due to the rush (ok,ok so I lost the pamphlet on the church, can’t hide anything from you guys!). But hopefully a case of picture speaks louder than words…

Ok, since you've already seen the outside of the church, here's the inside. This is a very elaboratedly gilded pew located at the main altar.

AO Rating: If there is anything you can’t miss when visiting Granada, certainly that would be the Alhambra, Indeed the fortress is so impressive it would cause all sorts of harm to not only your bras, but guarantee to get your knickers into a knot!

16.11.05

I was waiting at the Carmona central bus stop (not station, it’s a village remember?) waiting for the bus that would take me to Seville, which of course was my original first port of call in Spain. However, after being accidentally distracted by Carmona for 2 days, which then left me with only staying one night in Seville, which meant making the most of today.

So I arrived nice and early at the bust stop, around 9:30am but unfortunately, after waiting for almost an hour, the familiar city to village bus was still out of sight. As I was fighting my nagging worry that perhaps the bus driver decided on an early siesta, a lady arrived at the bus stop. She started talking to me in Spanish only of course to get blank and confused looks from me which did not in whatsoever way act as a deterrent to her enthusiastic and constant flow of chatters. Not long after she arrived, an older man, white hair, white beard and sunglasses ala Chips tv movie style appeared out of nowhere and began asking the lady something. She nodded fervently before turning to look enquiringly at me. I continue to perfect my blank confused looks at the two and eventually with lots of gesticulations and broken English from the man, I gathered he was offering to drive me and the lady to Seville for some money. Yes, like you, at this point, my spider sense was tingling all over with huge sirens ringing in my head..quick, say no my head commanded! Instead, I asked how much it would cost, the reply was same as what I would pay on the bus. In my defence, I want to say I did debate within myself for at least a full minute (ok, ok, 30 seconds..but ..that’s my final offer!) whether to accept his offer. On one hand, I reasoned that this lady and the guy could be scheming together in some secret Asian kidnapping syndicate, planning to sell me to the highest bidder in the black market. On the other hand, I was desperate to get to Seville to start my sightseeing, it was getting late and my faith in the public transportation in this part of Spain already diminished to an all time low..what was I to do?!

In the end, seeing another couple with a child nearby also waiting for us to join them made the decision for me. Nodding to the old guy, I put my bag in his ‘taxi’ (one of those 7 ppl movers) and soon to my relief, we sped off to Seville. My taking this high risk paid off as we got into Seville only 15 minutes later than when my originally intended bus was suppose to arrive. As you can see so far, things as I have planned could suddenly change at a drop of a hat, often requiring me to make a new plan or decision to accommodate the new circumstances of my travel and I must confess to be privately pleased about how I have been able to take these sudden changes of directions in my strides and managing to ‘go with the flow’, which I can assure you, is no small feat for control freak like me...SING IT..”donja wish your friends are tanned like me….donja wish your friends are freaks like me….donja…….dum da dum dad um…donja…” Sorry, I digress..

It took a bit of adjusting to getting back into the thick of a city scene after serenely strolling at a casually pace in Carmona. The first interesting sight that greeted me was when I was crossing the pedestrian crossing at a busy intersection in town. They have the usual ‘green man’ walking sign flashing when you’re suppose to cross..but in Seville, the greenman was also the action man, due to the timer placed on how long you have remaining before the man turns red. 15 seconds before the redman appeared, you see the green man starting to walk faster and by 10 seconds to go, he was slowly running but during the last 5 seconds countdown, you see Mr. Greenie doing a full sprint! Very entertaining..

I managed (this time) to book myself into a hostel gobsmackingly right in the centre of the city. A simple single room with a view of the busy street below. Interesting that even though the hostel was advertised in English and as an international hostel, none of the hostel staff speak any English, so once again, back to the good ol pointing, grunting and various facial expressions…I found muscles on my face I didn’t even know I could make twitch…ooooh, new party trick awaits you upon my return. Once the turtle shell had been dislodged, I was off to see my first Moorish influenced gothic church in Spain, the Catedral de Sevilla.

The Catedral was built by the Christians upon their reclaiming of Spain from the Moors in the 15th century and the old mosque was demolished and this church built. While politically defeated, the Moorish architectural influence remained potent as you can see from the pictures below. This cathedral definitely received my wow vote not only for its unique building style, but also for the granting of access to the top of its the skyscraping tower.

The insides of the church was equally impressive with the predominantly gothic style architecture and extensive use of gold gilding, high quality marbles and smooth and finely designed sculptures. To illustrate the gigantic size of this church, get this..there were at least 22 chapels not including the main altar and each of this chapel was at least a size of an average living room with high ceiling!

The piece de resistance of course was the long 428 step climb to the top of the tower, aka the 360 degree lookout point. Windy and long but certainly worth the effort as the view from the top simply picturesque and panoramic. Word of caution for those prone to stair-sickness. We advise you take caution (as well as a plastic bag) when ascending and descending.

The Cathedral de Sevilla and the magnificent Tower. Note the Moorish influence in its architecture.

View of the church from the tower's lookout point.

Enjoy the view of the city, just don't ask me to name that building with the beautiful dome.

Err, forgot to rotate this, so please rotate your head instead. This is one of the gilded altars in the church.

To date, I have met tens of Australians and only one Kiwi and while I was reflecting how there were fewer Kiwis travelling than I expected, I suddenly heard my name called which of course took me by surprise. I turned around and was even more flabbergasted to discover that it was Natalie and Ian, two friends I met 10 years ago in Christchurch when I first arrived in NZ and had not seen for literally 9 years, when they left Christchurch to go to London to do their Overseas Experience! Talking about a blast from the past! So there we were, 3 kiwis, shouting and screaming, group hugging one another and believe me, we were very very short of performing an impromptu haka! What an unbelievably small world, to meet friends you have lost touch with for the past 9 years, not in NZ but on a tower in Spain! Crazy!!

After spending a good amount of time catching up with my friends, I said my goodbyes to them and the church and head off to the next destination. Next to the Cathedral was the Garden of Murilo which is a big recreation park located at the heart of this city. It was a relaxing afternoon stroll through series of palm and timber trees, strategically planted to create a garden reminiscence of the Moorish Sultan’s palace garden of the 12th century. Soon after, I arrived at another of this city’s well known landmark, the Plaza Espana. I must concede my ignorance as to information regarding this beautiful square as I arrived there late in the evening where everything was shut and I was leaving the next morning, so I did not have much of a chance to find out what it was, but as you can see from the pictures taken, it is truly an impressive Moorish architecture with detailed and well selected use of ceramic tiles for the exterior of the walls of the building. Truly amazing.

Garden of Murilo with its colourful ceramic tiled seats

Tada!! Plaza de Espana!

On the bridge at the front of the main building.

One of the building's Moorish design towers, simply stunning!

During my stay in Seville, I met Robert Kaesmacher, a German psychologist based in Almeria (another southern coastal town of Spain) who was also on holiday in Seville. His surname meant Cheesemaker, while he may or may not have inherited his ancestor’s trade, he definitely was a charming man and with his help in Spanish, I manage to learn a lot more about the city and how ask for important things in Spain, like “Donde Asseo?” and “Uno café con leche perfavor!”, respectively “where’s the toilet” and “a cup of coffee (with milk) please!” Also helpful to learn is the phrase “Luciento!” which is sorry and believe me, it gets you out of every imaginable miscommunication problem with the locals!

Robert took me to a typical café the next morning to sample a typical Spanish breakfast which incidentally, he explained, are not big breakfast eaters. So often it’s a steaming cup of coffee with either sweet pastries like chocolate croissants or a plain bun or a bun with cheese and ham for the Latinos and Latinas with bigger appetites. Then we said goodbyes and I hopped on the bus to experience my first coastal Spanish town, Càdiz!

AO Rating of Seville: A pity I only had one night in Seville but certainly impressed with what I saw of this capital of Andulusia. Best thing, the hot humid weather (in late autumn!). Worst thing: Perhaps lack of tourist friendly signs and descriptions on monuments, places and things. Hasta pronto! (See you soon!)

14.10.2005

600 years after Columbus sailed to China to visit my ancestors, I decided to return the favour. A bit of background history on Spain is necessary I think in order for one to appreciate the beauty of the country and the culture of its proud citizens. Around 400AD, Romanic Hispania was overrun by German tribes before the the Moors (Muslims from North Africa) conquered Spain in 700AD and for the next 700 years under their rule, Islamic Spain (known then as Al-Andalus) prospered in the arts and science. The Christians laid seige on the country again by end of 14th century and under Queen Isabel and King Fernando who united spain under a catholic rule (the Spanish Inquisition revived), they laid the foundation for Spain´s golden age of world exploration, discovery of new colonies and spreading of imperialism in the guise of religious salvation.

To see all of Spain, I would probably need a month, which unfortunately is a luxury I cannot afford. As we´re heading into winter in Europe, I decided the best region of Spain to visit this time of the year would be the south, known as the Andulusia, where sun worshippers continue to soak up the rays right to December, where they could possibly catch the chill, after all, it can be as cold as 25 degrees! Your eyes are not playing tricks on you and it´s no typo on my behalf. I was about to discover just how potent the influence that the Moorish had over Spain.

Carmona

Car-whaa?! Exactly my response too when I first discovered that the hostel I´ve booked when googling under ´hostel in Seville (original destination)´ turned out to be located in this small Spanish town 25km northwest of Seville. As it is customary with all hostel bookings via the internet, if you simply don´t show up on the night booked, they reserved the right to charge you at least one night´s accomodation. As you can imagine what foul mood I was in when I discovered that in addition to having to spend a night so far away from the city I originally wanted to see, I also had to spend at least an hour and a half´s travel over two different busses to get there.

Upon disembarking from the plane, my first impression of Spain is it was hot!! I mean it was 5 in the evening and it would have easily been 32 degrees with 110% humidity! The weather made it that much easier for me to sit seething with fury in the bus all the way to Carmona, carefully planning all the nasty things I was going to say to the hostel staff for their underhand manipulation of the sacred google search in dragging me into their town! Of course I realised there would be a 99% guarantee that none of them would be able to understand a word I said as unlike most of its neighbours, Spanish people only speak Spanish, not because they refuse too (like the French) but because they really didn´t know a single word in English, even in most frequented tourist places like airports, train stations, hostels and restaurants. Understand me or not, I was going to make sure that they would be made aware that despite my booking of 2 nights accomodation with them, I would leave as early as possible after a night to go back to Seville where I originally intended to go.

As we headed away from Seville and into a desert area where as far as the eyes can see, there´s nothing but khaki coloured powder of dust. This of course did nothing but strengthen my resolve and opinion that I have been duped to spend an evening in the middle of no where and wasting a valuable travelling day. To make the day worst, of course I had no idea exactly where to get off the bus as I doubt very much there would be a huge sign up saying ´Welcome to Carmona, Paradise for Dumb Tourists´. So I had to rely on the good ol sign language in imploring on the assistance of the locals as to whether each stop we came to was the one I was meant to get off. Remarkably, the day´s saving grace so far was the friendliness and helpfulness of the local Spanish people who despite my frantic gesticulations and pathetic attempt at their language, were determined to help and their constant yelling NO at me each time the bus came to a stop and I looked like I was going to disembark paid off finally when we reached the town and they finally consented to my getting off, I smiled gratefully as I dragged my turtle shell and walked towards the town.

The first sight that greeted me was this imposing brick fortress, which I later learnt was the Fortress of the Gate to Seville. As you will see from the pictures later how impressive this building was. A few steps further I came across the Church of San Pedro, the town´s main worship centre. As I walked further, small Spanish kids chasing one another came to a sudden halt with a puzzled look on their faces as they came face to face with a ´China´with my enormous backpack, they probably thought I was a middleage mutant ninja turtle. Soon their faces of awe turned to that of warmth and friendliness as they called out shyly, giggling before resuming their game of ´cops and robbers´. A few more churches and old Moorish buildings went by before I arrived at the Palacio Marquess de la Torres (translate to Mansion of the Mayor of the Town), which it might have been hundreds of years ago but today, it was where I was about spend the night...and at that moment, I decided, the night after as well. Well, there were plenty to see obviously but also I had a travellers intuition that my education, experience and exposure to Spanish life and history couldn´t get off to a better start than to enter into the heart of Andulusia (what southern region of Spain is called )where you can clearly hear and feel the pulsating heartbeats of its people through the inhabitants of the small cosy Carmona.

By the time I found the Palacio, I was pretty much delighted with my 'accidental' visit to this town and was pretty much looking forward to my stay. This sentiment was further improved by being greeted by Sara, the hostel manager who speaks reasonably good English! She was so helpful as to settling me in and suggesting places to go for great Spanish food and where to visit etc. As she was a local, her suggestions and advice were truly appreciated. The hostel is very bright and sunny, clean and you can smell a mix of wonderful flowers growing in the garden and the pine wood which formed part of the foundation of the hostel. My room was actually a dorm of 4 beds but since it wasn't busy (can't imagine it ever being busy in Carmona), I had the entire dorm room to myself for a 20 Euros per night, excellent!

After settling in, I caught up with Sara explaining how I was getting hungry which she found surprising as the Spanish have lunch like 3pm after their afternoon siesta (nap) and often don't have dinner until like 9:30 or 10pm and it was only 7pm and Sarah was worried that many places may not be opened yet! Incredible..however, upon my indication to try the local food, she suggested a great cafe to sample the 'tapas' which is a form of Spanish ´dim sum´if you like, often made up of small dishes like potatoes in some sort of sauce or another, beef in tomato sauce or a plate of fried squid or fish, each only costing like 2 Euros. With prices like that, I was more than happy to sample this local cuisine and so I head off and to my delight, these small plates of food were as delicious (and affordable) as Sara suggested.

Another thing I found in Carmona (and confirmed in other parts of Spain later) that their ordinary cup of coffee here costing 1 Euro per cup is pretty much equivallent to the best coffee you can find anyhere in NZ. Serioiusly people, if you're a coffee lover, Spain is where you want to be. They make Starbucks coffee taste as exciting as mudwater, and at the price you pay there, why would you want to go there??!

Over a cup of this aromatic strong coffee and serenaded by the Spanish music (which you can easily recognise with the strong accompanying of feverish stringing of the guitar to a Spanish singer's crooning), I set down to plan my next day's journey in Carmona. Strolling home after dinner was interesting as it gave me a taste of what the Spanish are on the road..

It is hard to describe except to say, imagine this: Really small narrow roads (width of a car, literally!), with cars and small but annoyingly loud scooters) tearing down at neck breaking speed, threatening to run over anything in their ways, tooting and shouting obscenities or greetings to other fellow villagers, all very hectic and rather out of place really for a small quaint town such as Carmona where you almost expect everyone to be asleep by 10pm. Ahh but my friend, this is Spain...where the nightlife (even in small towns) do not begin until at least from midnight onwards. Anyhow, I would strongly advise anyone from investing in setting up a motor vehicle insurance company in Spain..you'll find yourself bankrupt almost as quickly you get run over on the street.

The other interesting thing I noticed during my evening walk was how the Spanish loved to dress up. Be it adults, teenagers or even children as young as 7 or 8, at night, they're in their best clothing, almost every girl is done up like they're trying to win the Prom Queen.

When I got back to the hostel, Sara was still there working away but was happy to stop for a quick break while we chatted and became quick friends. She's the loveliest person and like many Spanish women, possess the Latina beauty in abundance. As you can see from our pictures below, I'm but a sorry thorn beside this Hispanic rose.

Sarah & me in the garden of the Palacio.

15.10.2005

Under Sara's great guidance, I was able to see all the interesting parts of Carmona in one day. I'll let the pictures do the talking aye?

View of the Church of San Pedro. The tower is a replica of the beautiful tower of the Cathedral of Seville as I later discovered.

This is the famous Alcazar de la Puerta de Seville, the fortress that greeted me the first day I arrived in Carmona. This fortress initially built before the Romans conquered Spain was so difficult to penetrate that Alexander the Great even mentioned it in his war journals, describing its invincibility. Of course, they did eventually penetrate it and ruled it until they were defeated by the Moorish who then extended it to what it resemble today. Very impressive..

The day I toured around Carmona, was a Saturday which Sara informed me is the favourite day for the Spanish to get married, which probably explained why I came across like 6 weddings just in the village alone that day! This one held at the San Pedro church showed the wedding car with cactus tied at the end of the car. Sara said that this is typical of the Spanish to play some sort of crazy joke on a friend's wedding day. It could be worst I guess...

One of the many fortress gates that guard the city. This one is located in the south. Very beautifully reflected by the evening sun.

A typical architecture for a house in Spain, even in the colour white, which is used more prominently in the centre of town or villages. Sara was helpful to point out that this feature, together with the fact that most Spanish homes have two front doors, with the outer one constantly left open to let in the sun as the Spanish believe that it is a blessing to have the sun shine on, and into the house, hence the white colour exterior to reflect the brightness of the house and the opening of the outer front door. Another common feature in Spanish homes are elaborate looking courtyard, almost like NZ'ers and their gardens. Often there's a fountain in the centre and lots of plants adorning it..a place for rest and siesta I guess!

There were many photos I took which I will share with you back home. Suffice to say, it was a great day spent in the sun in Carmona. You will see while I'm in Spain, I'm getting more and more tanned under their beautiful sun. Already today it was something like 29 degrees! Oh, I wish I packed more shorts and singlets!

In the evening, I took another opportunity to walk around the city at night, enjoying the fiesta atmosphere of the locals. I found even when they don't understand a single word or gesture I threw at them and where this would frustrate even the most patient of locals, it did not in anyway hinder the very very friendly and helpful locals in trying to assist me or understand and fulfil my every needs. They really know how to make you feel welcomed. I am lucky that my first visit to Spain have been in Carmona.

It is rare enough even in large Spanish cities to spot Asians but in Carmona, I might as well be a 3 headed Alien that just landed from Venus and from my poor Spanish language skills, I could have very well been asking the locals to take me to their leaders when asking for a cup of coffee. So boy was I gawked and stared at but in a good way I guess. The Spanish men all thought I was this exotic creature as they chanted 'China chica!!' (Chinese babe) whenever I walked past, some tried to talk to me, others were just happy to wolfwhistle. Mind you, I can assure you that I don't think it's because I'm beautiful, but like I said, novelty can make even the plainest of birds seem like a peacock, no? I will admit though to being quite flattered by all this attention, except when I was walking past this small bar. One of the Spanish men in a group of about 12 shouted 'China Chica!' and all his mates turned around and they all started shouting and yelling for me to come join them. A few of them were even starting to approach me. Like the rabbit that I am, I scampered away quickly into the safety of the dark night.

AO Rating: They say that first impressions last..and Carmona while not originally part of my destinations have indeed proved to be a great introduction to what Spain is...the warmth, from the sun and also from the hospitality of its people, the boldness in terms of the colour of the city, the people and their clothing and the fact that I wished I have learnt at least some Spanish before coming here!

Next, I am off to Seville! Buenos noches! (Good night!)