Love in Seville

Seville, Spain has something special that all cities want. I’m not sure if is the fascinating culture, the sunny weather, the colorful Spanish tile, the river snaking through town, the wide streets lined with flowers and palm trees, the narrow winding streets in the old section, or some combination of above.

One of the things that Seville definitely has is romance.  May must be wedding season in Seville like it is at home, because we saw brides and grooms everywhere. Strolling through the main square. Riding in horse-drawn carriages. Posing for pictures under flowers. At one point, everywhere I turned I saw a newly married couple. Their happiness and passion is infectious.

I was so entertained by the wedding couples that I turned into wedding paparazzi. I need to improve my surreptitious photography skills for sure, as I am sure more than one bride wondered why the crazy American tourist was taking her picture.

Seriously salty fish.

I don’t have a whole lot to say about Cadiz other than man, is the fish salty.  The town is nice, lots of shopping, beautiful walkway on the water, etc but all I will remember is the saltiness of the fish I tried at dinner.  It was one of those ordering situations where you come away not entirely sure what you had actually ordered.  I suspected I was getting the waiter’s recommendation, which would have been fine with me, except it was the.saltiest.thing.i.have.ever.eaten.  And it was swimming in oil.  I believe it was bacalao (salted cod), but seeing has I wasn’t even hundred percent sure I ordered a main dish, what do I know.

I managed two bites.  Sean took pity on me and tried it.  He managed two bites as well.  One to try it, and the second because you think, surely, it could not possibly be that salty, can it?  It is.  I moved it around my plate to try to make it look like I ate it, on account of the recommendation and all, but the waiter was on to me.  Our first miss in our Spanish dining.  Oh well.  Bound to happen at some point.

I know, I know…

…I haven’t posted in a week.  Lamento (I am sorry).  First I had a backlog of posts to write about Morocco.  Then I had nothing to say.  Then we had no internet.  Then we had crappy internet.  Then we arrived at the beach, and any semblance of productive activity stopped.  So…yeah.  Here we are.

Any guesses where we are now?  We are not in Spain anymore!  I’ll catch you up on Spain and our current location over the next couple of posts.

I can see Africa from my house!

From Tarifa

Tarifa, Spain – only 14 km separates Europe from Africa, but man, are they different worlds.  There is a fair amount of Islamic influence in Tarifa, but it is definitely Spain.  It is exciting to eat food again, and even more exciting not to be chained to the bathroom.  Tarifa is a funky little town, with a lot of surf shops, jewelry stores and little eateries.  When we were walking around this afternoon, we couldn’t figure out whether many of the stores were closed just for siesta or for the off season.  It is only in the low 60s here during the day, so it is not beach weather.  Supposedly action heats up around here in July, but it is pretty sleepy around here now.  That’s okay with us.  We watched the kitesurfers navigate the strong winds this afternoon, and checked out the relations between the dogs frolicking in the sand.  One followed the kitesurfers up and down the beach, while a group of four others did their butt sniffing ritual.  We called the black and white one Scrappy, because he walked up to the big dogs like he didn’t realize he was small.  The beach was very scenic, with views of Africa, mountains, windmills, soft sand, fluffy clouds, purple, yellow and red wildflowers, teal waters, and multi-colored kites.

We’re taking the bus to Cadiz today, and the following day, we will pick up a rental car to drive around Spain for the next 8 days.  We plan to explore the Andalucia region, then head over to Valencia and then up to Madrid.

We’ve been through the desert on camels with no names.

[Just catching up on a couple of posts I wrote but never had the chance to upload. Why isn’t there internet everywhere in the world all of the time???]

From Sahara Desert

Things no one tells you about camping in the desert:

1. Riding a camel is not smooth and hurts your arse.
2. Camels move slowly.  Really slowly.
3. Camping in the desert is like camping in the woods except there is sand.  Lots of sand.  That gets everywhere.
4. Peeing outside sucks, even if you are in the Sahara.
5. You might get stuck in a group of people where everyone knows each other and speaks French except you.
6. The group of people you are with might have a Moroccan tour guide who tells jokes loudly in French, snorts and guffaws repeatedly, centers attention on himself at all times, chain smokes, and plays Moroccan music on his cell phone destroying all semblance of peaceful silence.
7. The group of people might constantly egg on their Moroccan tour guide to make him more rambunctious.
8. The group of people and their tour guide might chug down at least three bottles of wine, which increases both the rambunctiousness and the egging.
9. The group of people might openly make fun of said wine as American.
10. The group of people and their tour guide might choose to stay up late with the lantern, obscuring the stars and any hopes of lying around at camp watching the stars.

But, the following might also happen:

1. You will get to ride through and sleep in sand dunes where you are surrounded by nothing but hills and valleys of sand.
2. You will get to see a gorgeous colorful sunset over the dunes.
3. The group might choose to share their wine with you.  Why not, it is crappy American wine anyway.
4. You will get to have one of the better dinners consisting of soup, tagine and fruit by lantern light.
5. You will get to see thousands of stars blanket the sky, if you take a walk away from camp.
6. In the morning, you will get to see the sunrise over the dunes, casting a bright glow on the sand.
7. You will be glad to get off the camel and have a hot shower and breakfast at the hotel.
8. You will laugh when the owner of the hotel learns your parents are anxiously awaiting from grandchildren, and inquires whether you made a desert baby in your tent.

All in all it was something we were glad we did, but it wasn’t not as romantic as one might think.  The whole experience felt a bit manufactured, but that’s to be expected when you hire people to take you out to the periphery of the desert for no particular purpose.  Overall, it was a cool thing to do, especially seeing the sun set over the dunes.  Will we ever go back?  Not a chance.