Last Days in Spain

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I've been home for two weeks now, busy helping my dad with seeding. Spain seems like a lifetime ago already. I left off my narrative in Cordoba, so that brings me now to Seville.

I met a girl from Paris while staying at the hostel in Cordoba. She had rented a car and since we were both headed the same direction on the same day she offered to give me a ride. I happily took her up on her offer. We had a beautiful day for a drive. It was sunny and the highway wasn't super busy with traffic. She told me she was a travel agent in Paris, but that she had recently lost her job. It was this event that brought her to Spain for two weeks. Her area of expertise had been tours in the middle east. With all of the turmoil in the middle east, travel to those destinations slowed and consequently there was no need for her position anymore. To make her situation worse she had recently purchased her first home and had only made her first payment when she was terminated. I can just imagine how stressed out she would have been! Of course she started job hunting right away and was fortunate enough to have been accepted for a position just before she left for Spain. There is so much job uncertainty in Europe! When people there discovered that I had quit my jobs to travel they were generally surprised and thought it was a fairly reckless thing to do. If I lived in Europe I would have thought twice about giving up my job, but fortunately I live in an area where there is a shortage of skilled workers.

Travelling is wonderful, not just because of the places you see, but also because everyone you meet has a story. One of the reasons I enjoy travelling alone is that people are much more open to communication than when I'm travelling with others. Alone you are approachable and locals are more willing to talk to you than when you're with a group.

In Seville the hostel was packed. I think every bed in the place was booked. This was a nice change! The rooftop was lively and the staff made paella for everyone. The place I stayed at was, as I found out while talking to others, a recommended stop on a pilgrimage route. Many of the people staying there were about to set out on this 1000km camino that I had never heard of before. Their excitement was contagious. An Australian woman told me that even though she had been doing a training program at home (wild women on top I think she said it was called) she still felt nervous about the physical challenge of hiking that far. Packing was another challenge because they would be carrying their packs. Others opted to send their packs ahead each day and walk unencumbered, but they felt that would be cheating. Her walking partner was a friend she had met in nursing school who I found to be quite fascinating. She worked as a nurse for the UN in places like Afghanistan and Syria. This hostel was full of travellers seeking something beyond the ordinary with life experience enough to fill a series of novels. There was not a hostel of young partiers. It was mostly middle aged men and women, the majority of whom were embarking on the same pilgrimage.

The day I spent exploring Seville I was accompanied by a woman from South Africa. She was a former journalist, soon ready to retire and not really sure what to do with the last few years of her working career. She just knew she didn't want to be a journalist anymore. We walked around Seville all day and got completely lost and turned around. The map we had was impossible to read because it was tiny and the print was blurred. We ended up in an area filled with graffiti where the buildings all looked like they should be condemned and not many people were wandering around. She's barefoot and there's broken glass everywhere. Eventually she put her shoes on, but I was surprised she hadn't stepped on anything before that point. We actually weren't too far from a shopping area, but we had no idea. A man was nice enough to point us in the general direction of the river, from which point we could find our way. We didn't realize how far we had gone, but it took almost two hours to walk back to the hostel. We definitely got our exercise! It was a pleasant day otherwise though. We wandered the streets at random, had lunch at a café in the sun, toured the Alcazar, ate fresh oranges as we walked and lost ourselves in the crowd at a small festival where we were entertained by musicians. At the end of our wandering, when we were back in a familiar area, we relaxed over a couple of beers and watched the people go about their lives until grumbling stomachs demanded we head back to the hostel to make supper.

The next day I left Seville for Madrid. I enjoyed my time in Seville, but it wasn't my favorite city so I wasn't sad to leave it. I was more sad to leave the hostel and its assortment of guests behind. In Madrid I would find an empty hostel again. It was another newly constructed building, and this one wasn't even completely finished. I stayed in an eight bed dorm for two nights and had the room completely to myself.

Arriving in Madrid I was confused about the direction to take from the train station, but surprised myself by actually picking the right way on the first attempt. It was a sunny day, and people were out enjoying the weather. A football game was happening somewhere in the city and everyone was sporting their teams colours. Madrid is a very beautiful city. There is lots of park space and fountains claim your attention every couple of blocks. Street musicians are everywhere filling the air with sound. My walk from the train station to the hostel was very enjoyable. When I found my temporary home it was too early to check in so I left my bags and went back into the hot streets to wander some more. I didn't really see any of the tourist sites in Madrid. I spent most of the little amount of time I had there just wandering the area near my hostel. I did go to the Palace and the gardens, but that's really all I had time to do. The one full day I had in Madrid I took a train to Segovia for a day trip.

Segovia was also a very lovely town! I made plans to meet up with the girl I had met in Den Haag. She was studying architecture in Segovia and offered to show me around. I arrived early and explored the castle before meeting her. This is supposed to be the castle that inspired the Disney castle. So is Neuschwanstein in Germany. I'm not sure, maybe its both. Of the two I would say the German castle is more impressive, but the Spanish castle is more welcoming and warm. I also grabbed a bite to eat in a little sandwich shop that reminded me of small town bakeries at home. I had a bit of trouble communicating here as well, but we managed to understand each other as well. The Spanish are so nice in this sense. They aren't snobbish about their language. They want you to learn it and they don't give up on trying to talk to you. Even the couple getting a sandwich at the same time as me said some sort of farewell to me as they left. I love that about Spain. If I had stayed longer I'm sure I would have become fluent in Spanish in no time at all.

When I met up with my new acquaintance in the afternoon she took me on a walk around the old part of the city, but made sure to point out the things many tourists miss. We started at the aqueduct, and instead of going towards the castle again we took a left and wandered the streets near the wall. She pointed out her University and told me a little bit about life in Segovia and the challenges of getting people to live in the old part of the city. Most people want to live in the newer part of town and many schools in the old part have shut down from a lack of students to attend them. The old part of town is mostly populated with University students because the University is so close by. It was nice to wander about with her and Segovia is a beautiful town. I wish I had booked a hostel there for a night! Sadly my schedule didn't allow for that. The next day I would be on a flight to London where I would stay the night and be homeward bound the following day. This brings me to the end of my travels in Spain! I walked around Madrid a little more before heading to the UK, but I didn't do anything super exciting. While I was in London I stayed near the airport and didn't venture into town again. Margaret Thatcher's funeral was that morning, and I thought about going in to be a part of the crowd but it would have been a pretty tight timeline and I wasn't keen on missing my flights. From London I flew to Calgary and from there I drove home to Saskatchewan. I spent two days at home doing laundry and packing another suitcase, then I was off on a driving adventure across the country with my sister.

Overall I enjoyed my time in Spain very much. I only wish I had spent more time there. Although, isn't that the same as anywhere I've travelled? It seems so. That only means I have a reason to go back. Someday.

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