Andalusia and Portugal

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Helllooo! Many apologies for the delay! Unsurprisingly, life abroad always seems to be a whirlwind of activity, where any down time is spent catching up on sleep! But I’ve finally typed up my adventures in Adalusia and Portugal, so enjoy! I also plan on doing themed segments from now on, like food, bars, people, and education specifically, maybe with a few day by days thrown in. Buenos dias!

Adalucia and Portugal:

1/22 Córdoba:

6:30am departure from Salamanca by bus to Seville with a mid-day stop in Córdoba, a sleepy, quaint, semi-deserted town in the South. The white-washed walls and yellow trimmings complimented the view of the adjacent River Gualdalquivir, while the architecture combined both Muslim and Christian styles. It was clear that on a warm summer day, Córdoba would be the perfect place to sip a coffee outside and enjoy light breezes, unlike the chilly January afternoon when we visited. To be fair, it was a few degrees warmer than Salamanca, which is regrettably still in the bitter grips of winter weather.
The main reason we stopped was to visit the Catedral de Córdoba, which is famous for being a Catholic church, built inside a mosque, on top of a church. It was amazing!! From the renowned red and white arches, to the marble columns, gothic ceilings, and baroque carvings, this place was a wonder to behold. In ancient times, Córdoba was a Roman city, but was invaded and conquered by Muslims in the Middle Ages, only to be reconquered by King Ferdinand III during the 13th century and reconverted into a Catholic church. The resulting layers of artwork and styles from different periods creates a fusion both unique and rich, to the point where your eyes can’t possibly take it all in at once!
Of course, BOTH my Cannon camera and handheld video camera ran out of batteries before entering the Cathedral, and my quality Nikon was tucked uselessly away in my luggage under the bus. Tomorrow I will be better prepared, that’s for sure!

1/23 Seville:

I can now say I’ve been to the three largest Cathedrals in Europe: St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, Italy, St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, England, and the Catedral de Santa María in Seville, Spain. Although I don’t think anything can top the Vatican, the views from the top of the Giralda (once a minaret- go figure!), were pretty spectacular.
We started off the morning with a bus tour of the city, and finished by walking through Alcázar Palace and, later, the Cathedral. Originally a Moorish fort, Alcázar was also the first royal palace in Seville and is still used by the Spanish monarchy today. Once again, AMAZING architecture! Patios, reflection pools, intricate columns, detailed wall carvings, aka a photographer’s paradise! Needless to say, I took TONS of pictures! (and had my Nikon today, yay!) I really enjoyed hearing the history behind everything as well.
Had dinner at a tapas bar that my guidebook recommended- and they know what they’re talking about! It was full of locals (always a good sign), and Marisa, Emily and I each got a beer and a different type of tapa after asking the waiter what he would suggest. The result was three Sevillan beers, fried queso with raspberry sauce, calamari with russian salad, and some other mysterious dish that was equally delicious! As my first tapas experience outside Salamanca, it was a total success. And made me feel like an authentic Spaniard. 😊
I did observe that many more people speak English than they do in Salamanca. It is a bigger city, but I find some of the magic of traveling lost when I go to order “dos cervezas” in a bar in Spain, and the bartender responds “That’ll be five euros,” in English. This makes me glad I chose to study in Salamanca. It’s smaller and more intimate, and dare I say it, starting to feel like home?!

1/24 Granada:

Left Seville for Granada this morning. Like Seville, Granada has a big city feel, but lacks the coastal vibe of Córdoba and the old, winding streets of Salamanca. Instead, you are greeted by an urban Spanish center with a heavy Arab influence. Every corner seemed to have a Kebab/Shawarma restaurant. We ate at one for lunch and it was divine! Tiny and cheap, but those always seem to be the tastiest venues in my opinion. Like many other meateries in Spain, the waiter shaved slices of chicken from a huge slab hanging from the wall and put it into a grilled pita wrap. YUM. Best not to worry yourself over the lack of sanitary measures or refrigeration. It’s a Spanish thing.
After lunch we went on a tour of the Alhambra, an imposing red fortress atop a hill overlooking over the city. In Arabic, Al-Hambra means “the red one,” a name taken from the reddish hue of the clay bricks with which it was built. One of the only remaining moorish palaces in Europe, the Alhambra exhibit’s the country’s most significant and well known Islamic architecture. Absolutely gorgeous!
Dinner consisted of going to a nearby grocery store and buying ingredients for sandwiches, which turned out to be a tasty and economical decision, made even better while watching Spanish telenovelas in the hotel room.
At 9 we went to a Flamenco performance! It was 25E, which seemed a little pricey, but I figured it’s something that you just have to see while in Spain! Apparently Michelle Obama visited the same place recently and saw the same show we were to see that evening. No big. It really was extremely authentic. We sat in this small hallway-like room with chairs lining the walls with a little stage at the front, which gave it a very intimate and homely feel.
From the nimble fingers of the guitarist to the stomps and twirls of the dancers, the whole performance radiated soul. As the dancers rotated in and out of the spotlight, they would clap and cheer each other on with cries of “Olé!” Overall, it was worth every penny!

1/25 Lisbon:

Another successful day of traveling. It began with a long, multiple hour bus ride from Granada to Madrid, with a stop in Castilla de la Mancha to see Cervantes’ famous windmills from Don Quixote. I especially enjoyed it because I had read that segment of Don Quixote and watched the movie in one of my high school Spanish classes. Actually being there, imagining the crazy Spaniard duking it out with a “windmill giant” was pretty cool!
Around midday we were cut loose from the tour bus to make the rest of the journey on our own. Some were bound for France, others Italy, and a few were simply returning to Salamanca. My destination: Lisbon, Portugal.
We were dropped off at the train station in Madrid, so we took the metro to the airport. At 10:45 that evening, we were up in the air, bound for another locale. It’s so weird to think that just three weeks ago I was in the United States. My perspective/worldview has changed so much already, and so has my confidence in traveling. It was no problem buying a metro ticket, looking at the map to see what platform to go to, getting to the airport, finding the right bus once in Lisbon, then asking which stop to get off at for the hostel.
The hostel we stayed at was awesome! Right as we walked in that night, we were each poured a shot at the front desk that doubled as a bar. Salud! Immediately, you could tell we were in a cool, fun place. Good music was being pumped through speakers in a corner, four new macs with internet access were set up against one wall, and another was covered with maps and advice on things to do/see in Lisbon. A number of other young, 20-somethings were milling about the many tables and bean bags in the lobby, talking, drinking, or engrossed in their own laptops.
The rooms were dorm-stylish, with three bunk beds per room and a communal bathroom. It was a really nice place for just 13E per night! I feel like my eyes have been opened to the hostel world. Right on.

1/26 Lisbon cont.

I <3 Lisboa. Today was awesome! Got up at 9am, ate breakfast at the hostel (yay toast...), then, after waiting for half an hour for the rest of the group and people STILL not being ready, Marisa and I took off on our own. I felt a little bad about it, but I’m here to experience Lisbon first, not make sure everyone is one the same page and doing exactly the same things.
First, we walked to a castle about 15 minutes away. We got lucky with the weather too, cool but sunny! For 3E, we got panoramic views of Lisbon and a chance to explore this fortress on a hill. There was even an old man playing the flute and peddling for cash, which perfectly set the medieval mood.
Around mid-afternoon, we took the advice of receptionist at our hostel and got on a trolley to Belém for lunch. Well, we didn’t actually pay for the trolley ride, but no angry driving came yelling after us in furious portuguese, so the only thing stopping us was our guilty consciousnesses. In other words, it didn’t stop us at all.
We ate at a really nice place for lunch on the edge of a park. Everything was absolutely delicious! But travelers take note: anything the waiter puts on the table that you didn’t order is NOT free! So the bread, cheese, little appetizers, and water that are set so enticingly in front of you are merely a clever way to add more items to your bill. Needless to say, it was an expensive lunch, but it was yummy!
<side note: These past three weeks I have been burning through cash like it’s my job! I’ve gone to the atm and withdrawn large sums three times! It’s not even that I’ve bought any dinky souvenirs or things I don’t need, I’ve mostly just been buying food and tickets for events, hostels, and transportation. Traveling is not for the weak walleted, that’s for sure! But if you’re going to be in Europe, you might as well be in Europe, ya know?>
After lunch we walked around the park for a bit, then wandered into an art museum (free entry!) that had an exhibit featuring portuguese comics. ¡Que interesante!
Before taking the trolley back to the hostel and giving our tired feet a rest, we stopped at a bakery which, judging by the line going out the door, was the place to go for pastries. Pastéis de nata, or egg tart pastries, are famous in Portugal, and in Belém in particular. So good!

1/27 Lisbon cont.

Lisbon just keeps getting better and better. Today we took a 40 min train ride to the old, fairytale land of Sintra. We got a pretty late start, as we were attempting to stay together as one big group (which is always very frustrating!), but we got there eventually. After eating lunch (food in Portugual is remarkably cheap- I got a bowl of vegetable soup for .80E!)- we got on a bus loop to see the main attractions.
The first stop was a Moorish castle, which we didn’t actually go into because of the 5E entrance fee (on top of the 5E bus ticket), but there were some really cool nature trails around the grounds. Just seeing trees and smelling dirt was a much welcomed reprieve from the city!
The next stop was the Pena National Palace, or the Palácio Nacional da Pena, a Romantic castle overlooking the city. We decided we had to go into at least one castle, so semi-reluctantly forked over 5E. And let me tell you, it was SO worth it! If you can imagine a mixture of King Arthur meets Disneyland, you might have a pretty apt description of this place. Some parts were traditional stone walls, while other parts were bright pink, yellow and red, with gaudy ornamentation. And the view from up there was INCREDIBLE. The panorama hit you with the power of gale force winds. Honestly, it was enough to make you weak in the knees. All I could do was open my eyes as wide as I could to take it all in. Even better, the sun started setting right as we got to the Arches Yard, bathing the stone walls and the far away hills in golden light. It was breathtaking! I feel like this week I’ve seen a fair share of commanding views, but this one took the cake! After spending a good hour at the castle, we had to scramble to catch the last bus back to the train station.
Later that night we decided to hit up the bar scene at Bairro Alto, a notoriously sketchy section of town known for it’s numerous bars and late hours. After a steep climb to get there (they don’t call it Bairro Alto for nothing!), we came across snaking alleyways lined with taverns and beer halls, with clusters of people drinking and socializing in the streets. This was where the party was at, but also a place of shady dealings where I would never want to be alone at night! One thing I especially enjoyed, however, were the fascinating people we met as we crawled from bar to bar.
Take Gus, the Swedish guy in his late 20s: typical blue eyes, blond hair, wearing a red scarf, tight jeans, a thick jacket with holes cut out for his thumbs, and heavy, lace-up boots. He told us he had been living in Portugal for about 3 months, and had found a job working at a hostel. He had been traveling since September, and bragged that he had not once paid for lodging! He had either slept on the streets or, more often than not, had been offered the couch in a generous stranger’s home. He was in the Swedish military but had taken a year of paid leave to travel, with no intention of returning to service. What had started out as a lonely walk from Stokholm to Koppenhagen, turned into hitchhiking around Europe. We all kind of raised our eyebrows at this, as if saying is this guy for real?, but he assured us it was no problem. “Only one time I almost died. I was sleeping outside and got mugged my a gang of gypsies. I peed my pants, but it was fine.” Gus is a gutsy guy. Well, gutsy, or insane? He told us that he plans on leaving Portugal for Afghanistan (cue Bush-bashing by both parties), then eventually hitchhiking in the US from east to west coast, state laws permitting. How cool is that?! I didn’t even know people still hitchhiked anymore. Not that I’d want to do it...
We also met two Canadian girls that had been backpacking around Europe for 2 months already. They had gone to Germany, France, Slovakia, and England, and were headed to Spain next. They had even spent a few weeks in a different part of Portugal WOOFing (World Wide Opportunities for Farming), a program where you recieve accomodation in return for volunteer help.
Then there was the Australian girl who had just finished her fall semester studying abroad in San Sebastian (northeastern Spain) and was now traveling around. But she had also been to Canada and the States, and had lived in Brazil for a year!
It was so cool hearing everyone’s stories, where they’d been, and where they wanted to go. It makes me even more eager to see more of the world! I’ll be sure to steer clear of gypsies though...

1/28 Coimbra:

Took a 2 hour bus ride to Coimbra today, a university town north of Lisbon. I’m not sure if I was just fatigued from traveling and was coming down with a cold, or if it was the gloomy weather, but I didn’t enjoy it much. It didn’t seem like there was a whole lot to do, and I was too tired to walk around for hours trying to find something. I was more than ready to go home- back to Salamanca that is! Classes start on Monday, and I’m excited to get into a routine...

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Photos

Photo 2
(In Seville)

Windmill!
Don Quixote's got nothin' on me

Comments

[MylesZ]

Hello Erin I enjoyed reading your blog and I'm wondering if you could give me some advice. I'm going to be traveling in Spain/Portugal for two weeks starting on the 22nd of this month. I'm flying into faro, Portugal and staying in Lagos for three days. This is the part I need your help on. Do you think my time would be better spent going to Spain from there, or is Lisbon a must see. I know I will love Lisbon, but I don't have very much time and I hate backtracking, which I would have to do. I am going to carnival in Cadiz on march 4th for three days. And want to explore that part of Spain. Please write me back and let me know what parts od Andulasia you like the most and how does it compare to Portugal. Btw I speak some functional spanish but no Portuguese. I will be backpacking for the most part and enjoys most aspects of traveling especially meeting people from diffent cultures and eating their food. I can't wait eat all the great Spanish food. You mentioned USC is that southern Cal or U of s. Carolina. I'm hoping the latter, I'm a bruin, but I'll forgive you. Cheers

[Erin972]

Lisboa y Andalusia
Hi! Thanks for the feedback on my blog! As for your question, I would definitely recommend visiting Lisbon (two days min)! I found the majority of people in Lisbon spoke very good English as well, so I wouldn't worry too much about not knowing Portuguese. I would honestly say I liked Lisbon just as much if not more than Seville and Granada and Cordoba. If I had to pick something to leave out in order to go to Lisbon, I would pick it over Cordoba. Cordoba isn't worth more than a day anyway (and really just to see the Mosque/Cathedral, which is stunning however...). So if you decide Lisbon is worth your time, you MUST take a day trip to Sintra! And the Alhambra in Granada is a must as well. Also, I've been told the most authentic Flamenco is found in Granada. Hope that helps! Please feel free to ask me any more questions. (Oh, and I go to the REAL USC, the University of South Carolina that is!)