Sevilla & Granada

Buenos noches!

I have just arrived back from a wonderful five days with about 25 exchange students in Sevilla and Granada (Southern Spain). Neither of these towns are on the coast but they both have stunning architecture and gardens, as well as amazing food.

Sevilla was a gorgeous town, mostly because everything there was built with tourism in mind. There are massive parks and impressive gardens everywhere; more orange trees than you could imagine; horse-drawn carriages; cobblestone streets; a beautiful river and extremely impressive architecture. It was a little bizarre that the town's history revolves around Spain being poor, deciding that tourism was the best way to fuel the economy and consequently constructing these stunning structures or gardens. I am used to going to a European city and hearing about what a building was used for or who lived in such a place, etc. – but this was really just for show! Haha it was so beautiful though that I didn’t mind.

In Granada, the main attraction is an Arabic Palace called Alhambra that is perched on a mountain overlooking the city and surrounded by more beautiful gardens. Words or pictures really can’t do this justice … but I just posted pictures on Facebook that try to. We spent three hours walking around there and still probably didn’t see everything. It is supposedly even more beautiful in the Spring when the flowers have bloomed and the gardens are more impressive, but I was pretty much speechless the entire time – I loved it that much! I may see if Tor wants to go back when she comes in May. There is an AWESOME little hippie hostel in Granada that is probably one of the more unique places that I have been yet. The rooms are essentially in tree houses and there are actual treehouses and hammocks everywhere. People are always playing guitar and everybody is so friendly. Because of the Arabic influence on Granada, there are tea shops everywhere (a rarity in Spain) so the hostel also had loose leaf tea! I was in heaven. People were joking about how happy I was there. Haha. Unfortunately, I did not stay in this hostel – my friends did. The hostel I stayed in (with a few others) had nothing to offer but a bed. Literally. Not even soap in the washrooms. Lesson learned: choose hostels only by recommendation!

Tapas – smaller plates of food that are meant to be shared – are what most people think of when they think of Spanish food. However, Tapas originated in the south of Spain and thus are in a whole other league of deliciousness than they are in Barcelona. The best part is that in Granada and most other places in the south (other than Sevilla), you get one free tapas with every drink you order! A lot of travelers don’t get dinner and just go straight to a bar and drink and eat simultaneously. Unfortunately, we didn’t really conclude that this was an easy way to save some money on dinner until the very end. Oops!

While I had a great trip and it was good to get out of the city before I officially start school, it is great to be back in Barcelona. It was so nice when we landed this morning and we were happy to be ‘home’ … definitely made me realize that I am slowly but surely settling in here and recognizing this city as my (temporary) home! I will miss the tapas and the carefree attitude of traveling and literally having nothing but wonderful things to do, but it will be good to finally get in a routine with school starting tomorrow – hoping to cook more and walk around the city a bunch!

Mum and Dad are coming to visit me this weekend and Mum is staying for the week – I AM SO EXCITED. Kiddies and all other potential visitors: book your tickets! This city is just getting better and better as it warms up. And I am making a valiant effort to discover the best tapas and bakeries in Barcelona, so I promise everything will be great when you come! Also, the sooner you book, the more likely we will be able to get good FC Barcelona tickets (ahem, Jonathan).

Lots of love and please email me updates!

xo Hilary

PS I am hoping that I will not always have such long blog entries, but I haven’t had reliable access to internet for about a week so lots to catch up on (and I really only skimmed the surface).

Life in Barcelona

Hola familia y amigos!

After two and a half weeks in Barcelona, I have finally started the blog that I promised to use to keep in touch. I haven’t been the best at this so far because the apartment that I moved into has no internet and Spain is very slow with everything setting up WiFi, etc.  I will try to update this a couple times a week, and next time I will definitely post pictures!

I absolutely love Barcelona so far – it is a city with great food, friendly people, beautiful architecture and an exceptionally fun nightlife. There is so much that I could tell you to familiarize you with my life in Spain . I will try my best to summarize but please comment or email me if you want to hear more about one thing in particular! As you all should know, my email is hjnmccain@gmail.com - I will be best at responding to this (as opposed to Facebook messages) because it comes directly to my phone. I am sure this first post will be long but hopefully the following will satisfy your requests for updates!

1.     My school, ESADE, (pronounced e-sa-day) is in St. Cugat, which is a 20 minute metro ride from Barcelona’s city centre and then a 10 minute bus ride (or 20 minute walk) to the actual school. Door-to-door it is just under an hour when you factor in walking to the metro, wait times etc.

2.     I live in an area of Barcelona called L’Eixample (almost in Gracia). Most exchange students tried to live in L’Eixample as it is a very cool, young area with lots of good restaurants. It is safe but still central to Placa de Catalunya - what is considered the city centre. We somehow found a pretty unbelievable apartment, considering the location, furniture, amenities, rent, etc. For the first time in my life, I have a king-sized bed (ie. lots of room for when you come to visit)! The apartment is so nice that it can sometimes be hard to leave – very home-y. Of course not as nice as 9 St. George though. But to my roommates: we do also have couch time. The only thing missing so far is the tea (still looking for a teapot here, not popular in Barcelona – I know, I almost cried) and there is quite a bit more junk food! Haha.

3.     I live with two girls from New Zealand (George and Melissa) and a girl from Brazil (Camila). We met in Spanish class during the first week and get along very well.  It is so interesting to have roommates from such different countries. While New Zealand and Canada are quite similar in many ways, there are still so many differences. And of course hearing about life in Brazil is amazing. Needless to say, swapping stories at dinner is quite the learning experience! Also, Melissa is actually half-Philippino so I also hear a bit about that culture as well.

4.     I have picked up a bit of Spanish as we had an intensive Spanish class for two weeks (9:30-2pm) but quite frankly I was still jet-lagged, ‘tired’ from the night before or bored for many of the classes. I only say bored because it was very hard to pay attention for four hours of the same subject and a teacher who did not speak English so could not answer our questions properly. She probably spoke 10 words of English everyday (that’s it). I know this can be a great way to learn a language, but I don’t think it is beneficial when you do not even know how to say ‘where is the bathroom’.

5.     The food here … I will probably do a separate post on that at a later date. I stayed in a hotel for the first 10 days with other Ivey students. It was a family friend’s hotel of a girl I was staying with – pretty great because we were paying hostel prices at a very nice hotel in an affluent neighborhood. However, for those ten days I pretty much ate 80% baguette and chocolate croissants. I never thought I could get sick of these two wonderful French creations, but it is possible! I also didn’t think they would be so popular here, but there is a ton of French and Italian food in Barcelona.  There are usually about five bakeries on every block of the city. It is insane. My sweet tooth has pretty much taken over my life :) The tapas can be very good … but it is also a discovery process. There are a lot of over-priced touristy places that are just mediocre, and a lot of places that are basically the Spanish version of our ‘greasy spoon’ brunch spots (ie. same menu every time, and always greasy tapas). I am very excited for Dad to come in less than two weeks (!!) as hopefully we can go to a few well-known Barcelonan restaurants that I have my eye on then :)

6.    I have this week off of school. I know, tough life. Two weeks of Spanish class (ie. no school really because not an actual school credit) and then also one week off before classes start! It is great. I am going to Sevilla and Granada (Southern Spain) on Wednesday for five days. While we should probably be going when it is hotter, there are even better places to go in the Spring/Summer so I can do those trips then. Also, there are 30-40 people going so it should be one big party!

7.     I went for my first run in Barcelona yesterday and ended up being gone for an hour. I think I may have found myself in a wee bit of a sketchy area – Dad, don’t kill me! And don’t worry, I am probably just paranoid. Actually, I know I am. Next time I will likely stick to this main street near us (Diagonal) where there is a wide biking/running path down the middle. A good friend of mine here (Ada, from UBC) found a half marathon in Andalusia on April 10^th and a ton of exchange students are interested so I may do that! Just don’t know if the actual training would happen so haven’t signed up yet J

8.     The nightlife here is WILD. Dinner is typically from 10-12am, bar from 12-2am, club from 2-5am (plus or minus an hour). Some people on some nights just go home after the bar, but twice a week (ish) we go to the clubs. They. Are. So. Much. Fun. I cannot even describe – you will just have to see for yourself! ESADE students joke about going to the bars/clubs and then coming home at 6am to have breakfast with their parents before they go to bed!

9.    For the parents/grandparents/worriers (ahem, Erin): Barcelona is known to be a very, very safe city. While pick pocketing is rampant, that is about the only danger (hence why I felt pretty safe running). There is apparently next to no serious crime. Also, the streets are also always very busy at night so you always feel pretty safe. The only thing that takes some getting used to are the “cat calls” from Barcelonan men (mostly only directed at foreigners). 

10 People here really do have a lisp, and to my horror I am starting to develop it. BarTHelona, adioTH (goodbye), THerveza (beer), negoTHios (business), etc.

I miss you all a ton and hope that I didn’t just bore you to tears with a short novel about life in Barcelona thus far. There is really so much more I could get into but will leave it at that for now! Haha perhaps I will need to have a separate blog for the kids (like our bbm group) to share the rest. Kidding! 

Hasta luego,

Xx Hilary