Touring Spain

As promised, here's the first installment of our trip to Spain. 

I'll start with whether or not it actually helped to brush up on my Spanish, and the answer was yes. While I struggled to keep up most of the time, the locals were usually happy for the effort, and they can spot a foreigner (read American) miles away - particularly when you speak. Some wanted to try out their English the way I wanted to try out my Spanish, some switched immediately to English upon identifying me as American, and some rolled their eyes at me and wrote down the things I needed to know (like how much I owed them). 

We rented an AirBnB, and the owner met us at the place, his English was fairly good if not heavily accented, and I learned a new word. Everything he tried to explain to me, he followed up on with vale? To someone with no Spanish knowledge, the word sounds like ballet (sort of), and was clearly a "throw away word," like "right?" We heard that EVERYWHERE, so I asked my niece about it. Roughly, it means okay. Later when I did a Google translate, this was confirmed. But I digress...

Iberian ham. Notice the hooves? 

"Dani" showed us a map and told us we had to see ALL THE PLACES (upwards of 40), and he recommended places for us to eat. His written instructions were fairly good English, except for a few places where he'd reverted to Spanish, like "this place is junto that place." This is where my Spanish helped, because I immediately said "next to?" and he said, "yes, yes," crossed out junto and wrote next to.  After he'd acquainted us with our place and left us to begin our adventure, we went out to the grocery store (Supermercado Mas) for supplies to stock our little kitchen. The market had a street-facing bakery case, which also included sandwiches, so we grabbed a couple of those for lunch/dinner, another place where my Spanish helped to identify what we were looking at and to ask for what we wanted. Google translate also works... That part of Spain is famous for its Iberian ham, which is sold in the grocery store "on the pig." Not something we're used to seeing in America...

In Sevilla, tapas bars are on every corner. As with life, food should be enjoyed in little bites - at least that's how they present it. Tapas come in varying sizes and they recommend each person try something for yourself and get one to share. It should be noted that in Spain, most restaurants don't open until 8 pm, or they open for lunch, close, and then open again late for dinner. We walked to meet my sister, her husband and my niece for a dinner - our first "I'm lost" moment. Yes, we got lost every day, but that was part of the adventure. Very easy to get turned around there since the streets aren't straight. Similar to New Orleans, you find the names of the streets on the sides of buildings rather than the signs we're accustomed to in America. At any rate, we found the restaurant (we were never lost for long), and my niece helped us order several plates of tapas to try. All of them were delicious! My husband, who is a very scheduled eater ("that's way too late to eat dinner!"), wasn't happy at first, but even he got into the spirit of things.

Colo de toro y solomillo y tortilla
(oxtail, tenderloin and Spanish omelet)

Pollo
(Chicken)

My family walked us back to our apartment, and after a long day of traveling, we were happy to fall into our bed for a busy day of touring on Day #2.

Next week,  day #2 - the Cathedral of Seville, the Giralda Tower, The Real Alcazar, and (or course) a paranormal tour.