Vamos y vemos: February 2014

It's taken me two months to finally get to this, but I want to share some pictures from early December when Hilary came to visit me. She spent a weekend in Granada, four nights in Sevilla, and then two nights in Extremadura with me. It was an amazing week, and weirdly enough actually my first chance to be a "tourist." We hit all the big Sevilla sites - the Giralda, the Catedral, the Setas, Torre de Oro, the Alcázar, exploring the old centro of the city, Plaza de España, Parque María Luísa, and the lovely Triana neighborhood - while in Extremadura, we worked our way through Cáceres and Trujillo - both of which boast impressive old neighborhoods, churches, towers and castles.

A significant part of our visit was spent taking advantage of the local cuisine: in Sevilla, Hilary was able to eat with my host family including some wonderful Moroccan cous-cous, we visited cafés and bars around the city, and most importantly went twice to my favorite ice cream place; in Extremadura we sampled the local jamón, migas (a bread-crumb dish native to the area), sheep cheese, and an amazing comida (the 3:00 meal) in Trujillo in the main plaza. We traveled as Spaniards - rising late, eating a big lunch, walking it off while sightseeing, an afternoon coffee, and grabbing tapas and drinks at night.

One of the most impressive things about travelling within Spain is the hodge-podge of cultures and time periods that are built amidst and on top of each other. In Sevilla we have ancient Roman ruins beneath the Setas, a modern wooden architectural piece named for its mushroom shape; one finds Baroque churches next to Gothic cathedrals; half of the Giralda is of Moorish origin while the top was built by the Christian invaders; the Alcázar Real (Royal Palace) was partially rebuilt form its Arab mudéjar style to the simple Renaissance columns and arcs. History is entwined and out of order and amazingly close here, and my History of Art class has been a wonderful opportunity to embrace that closeness. From my new house I can walk to the famous Puente Triana within minutes and I run by the Torre de Oro every day, and I have to remind myself that this city existed before my continent had even been discovered by Europeans. I'm amazingly blessed to be able to spend a year in this beautiful city of Sevilla. I find I have to quote one of my entries from June before leaving, when I had no idea what this year had in store for me:

"The bad part is not that the sevillanos think that they have the most beautiful city in the world... the worst is that they might be right."

--Antonio Gala

Found in Helarte, my favorite heladería: "This is not a freezer... it is a first aid kit full of rich homemade cakes that are a remedy for: sadness, lovesickness, exhaustion, apathy... and a celebration of love, friendship, encounters, care, the sweetness of living. That's why this isn't a freezer, it's a first aid kit."