Visitas, Portugal, Córdoba y Toledo

 La visita de Vicente

Two days after I got back from London, my friend Vincent (the same one who met me in London), came to visit me in Alicante (he's currently studying art in Barcelona this semester). He stayed with my host family and I, and my host parents adored him. I’m assuming part of the reason they loved him was because he ate more than I typically do, so that thrilled them, naturally. He got in on a Friday night so we couldn’t do much. But on Saturday I took him out to Villa Joyosa where the Valor Chocolate Factory is situated.  We actually ended up meeting with my speaking exchange partner, Virginia, who lives there so she showed us around her little town a bit and then we all toured the factory together, had samples, and bought some treats.  Afterwards, we went back to my place and my host mom made paella for lunch. We took a siesta and then met up with Kiersten and her boyfriend Tyler, who had also come to visit on his spring break. The four of us climbed the castle in Alicante and Vincent took lots of silly pictures of us on his fancy camera (I'll try to remember to add them later when he gets around to sending them to me). Then we all went back home, had dinner, met back up, and we went out to some bars and clubs with some of my other friends.

On Sunday, we had a more relaxing day and stayed around the house. We took a walk in the late afternoon and saw some Easter related parades and climbed the other smaller castle in Alicante, which also has great views at sunset. 

On Monday and Tuesday, Vincent accompanied me to the colegio where we did presentations about our trip in London together. It was fun having him along and sharing the experience with him. He told me he thought it was interesting and a neat experience. The kids really liked him too, and asked him a bazillion questions just like they asked me at the beginning. Everyone thought he looked like Real Madrid's soccer team player, Angel Di' Maria (which he does). So that was the laughable, running joke while he was here...and apparently everywhere else in Spain for him too. On Monday night he came to tutoring with me, we went to Kiersten's house for a bagel party (Tyler brought bagels all the way from the US!), and then we went out for beers later that night. It was a fun weekend, I'm glad he came out :)

La llegada de mi familia

And just a few days later my parents and brother rolled into town after they spent the first week of their vacation in Paris and Madrid. I met them at their hotel on Friday and then they came over to meet my host family which was quite entertaining. My host sister was home and speaks some English so she and I were doing lots of translating and both of us were dying of laughter when my host dad kept wanting me to translate bad or inappropriate spanish words to my family. After we left my host family, I showed my real family (weird that I have to distinguish them as my "real" family) around Alicante and introduced them to a Kebap which is a Middle Eastern food most similar to a Greek gyro (or for me the closest thing to a burrito, sadly). They're delicious and I got them hooked! After dinner, we went out for dessert and then Sean and I headed back to my house, where we both stayed, while my parents went back to their hotel. The next morning both families and I went out for a traditional Spanish breakfast which was actually really fun. I really wish all members could truly communicate because I really think everyone would get along super well. I feel like we meshed well as families. When we finished, I showed my parents around a bit more and then we headed off to Granada!

Granada

We got to Granada on Saturday and it basically poured the entire time we were there. We had tickets for the palaces in the famous Alhambra at night which was spectacular. I had been there in October with my program during the day, but seeing it at night was a totally different experience. The next day (Easter) we toured the rest of the Alhambra and decided to head towards Lagos, Portugal because nothing was really open and we wanted to get to Lagos at a reasonable hour. 

Portugal

The view of Dona Ana Beach

Portugal was a lovely country with wonderful people. I can't exactly say that of our apartment that we stayed in, however. That part of the trip was an adventure in itself. We arrived to the advertised "lovely family apartment by the sea" that we rented but found it less than what was described online. The furniture was old and falling apart, the heater was broken (it was cold and rainy the first night, so this was a let-down), the dishwasher was full of dishes covered in one inch thick mold, the washing machine was full of water that spilled out all over the floor, and my parent's bed literally broke on day two. The plus side of this was that we made a Canadian friend: the woman who was renting the apartment upstairs came down and helped us

 figure things out (get in touch with the owner and caretakers). She was kind enough to invite us in at 1 a.m. and let us sit by the fire. Things improved on Monday (i.e. the sun came out and we left the apartment). We explored the little town, walked along our beach, went out to Sagres which used to be considered "the end of the world" before Columbus discovered the Americas, and had a lovely dinner in a small fishing town called Salema. Mom and I ordered the Cataplana which is traditional seafood stew in Portugal, and it was scrumptious. The restaurant was clearly run by a bunch of cousins or something and we had a blast joking around with them, as they playfully made fun of the fact that we're foreigners. On Tuesday, the morning the bed collapsed, we lied out on the beach and got some sun while they brought us a new bed, then we headed back out to Sagres to tour the Fort/Museum at the end of world which had closed by the time we had gotten there on Monday. We had a super good dinner at a beachfront restaurant near our place. Mom and Dad got grilled tuna while Sean and I had grilled swordfish. Portugal is also known for having superb grilled fresh fish, and I concur.

Salema, Portugal

Cataplana

The end of the world!

The good news at the end of the story here is that we got a full refund for our stay! Yipee! I guess the experience really "paid" off.  ;)

Córdoba y Toledo

Museo de Santa Cruz

Typical flan from Córdoba, or so we were told.

Yesterday we made a four hour drive back into Spain and stayed in Córdoba which is in Andalusia and isn't too far from Sevilla. We walked around the old medieval city a bit and went out for tapas at really fun and traditional Spanish restaurant. Our waiter liked us so much that he gave us two glasses of after dinner liquor. The folks and I walked away full and buzzed. Always good in Spain. Today we got up and drove another three hours to Toledo where we stopped for a few hours. Toledo is an hour outside of Madrid and is also an old medieval city held within what used to be castle walls. Toledo was so picturesque, I swear we were in a fairytale. We went the the Santa Cruz museum which had lots of art and really old artifacts.

We walked around and saw the town's Cathedral but couldn't spend much more time there because we wanted to get settled in Madrid at a reasonable hour. Mom and  I fly to Ireland tomorrow morning and Dad and Sean fly home to Sacramento.

It was really fun having my family here, I feel really fortunate that they came to visit me, and it felt really special to show them my life here in Spain. Thank you guys so much for coming :)

Toledo, Spain