A Spanish Smorgasbord

Well... I hadn't realised that it was so long since I last wrote a blog, but no-one's complained so maybe it doesn't matter.

Anyway, last weekend I made a trip to Seville on the train. I liked it. A lot. So much so that I could imagine myself living there for a while (as much as I like living in any city). It just felt warm (not only the temperature - in fact it wasn't actually that warm when I was there), relaxed, culturally diverse and quite beautiful. I did a load of touristy things on Saturday and got my hair cut at Corte Ingles (department store) and a few on Sunday morning. On Sunday I also just walked along the Guadalquivir River, enjoying the sunshine and people watching. There were lots of people out and about. Some of them were obviously tourists, but many just ordinary Seville folk enjoying a run / walk / cycle in the sun, or even rowing along the river. It was all very pleasant and not even a down-and-out shouting in the bushes and then another saying something to me (in English) could change my feeling.

I stayed in a cheap, clean and extremely quiet hostal, right near the centre. The guys on the front desk were very friendly and the English-speaking one was one of those guys who kind of wink at you as they're talking to you (there's a guy in one of the restaurants here who's the same...) I did insist on speaking to him in my bad Spanish, however.

I was supposed to be climbing the Alcazaba peak in the Sierra Nevada this weekend, but I decided my high mountain snow skills weren't up to it and instead went on a lower level walk with some Spanish people. Was very nice, though they were a bit perplexed by the rain as we set off, and were unsure as to whether or not we should be walking in the rain. Now of course it does rain in Spain, but from my experience it seems to be fast and furious, then over. My impression is that if it looks like rain, the Spanish generally don't go walking. Which is fair enough. However, if you followed this in the UK then you would almost never get out your walking boots...

On a slightly more mundane note, I went to recharge my international phonecard in Corte Ingles yesterday. The conversation went a little like this:

Me: I'd like to recharge this card.
Assistant: You can't do that here.
Me: Yes I can - I've done it before.
[Assistant calls supervisor].
Supervisor: Oh hello, it's you again! [This has happened to me before...]
[Tells assistant what to do and recharge transaction is duly completed.]

And then on the way out a cute kid in a pushchair randomly waved at me - made my day.

Photos sometime in the future.

Have a good one...