Leaving Seville
Yesterday kinda sucked a bit.
Barcelona didn't have siesta per se - it was open and busy and all hours. Seville on the other hand shuts down sometime after 1pm every day then gradually comes back to life after 5pm, tho most residents seem to use this as an opportunity to hit the nearest bar for some tapas and cerveza and relax on into the evening rather than go back to work.
We didn't count on the language barrier here. In the German speaking countries, it was all good - we speak a bit of German and everyone there speaks English. In Seville it's hard to get by without some Spanish. Which is in some ways charming - next time I travel, I fully plan to have some of the local language under my belt for embarking.
But Seville is a bit of a whore for tourists. Unfortunately it also has a bit of nasty dislike of those very tourists who bring in so much money. Often we felt lied to, ripped off and unwelcome. That certainly wasn't universal, but at the very least common.
At the end of the day, Spain has turned out to be hard work - which I don't mind when travelling, but this time it's more about relaxing.
Jus and I travel local by walking - we just stick our noses down small interesting alleys and see what we find. We use the same approach to find food, looking for places frequented by locals. Tip for Seville travellers - a picture-menu out the front is a bad thing.
Yesterday we trudged 30 minutes from the hotel to near Santa Cruz for the only self-service Laundromat we knew of, taking nearly half our luggage with us to be washed. The hotel had wanted a totally ridiculous fee for the service - about 5 euroes just for a shirt - and planned to dry them on the hottest setting in dryers, which would wreck all my shirts and most of Jus' gear. When we arrived, about 90 minutes before siesta and the Saturday close of trade, the lady running the place (who habla no Inglese) told us in no uncertain terms that not only could they not wash our clothes, but we couldn't even do it ourselves because of the coming siesta. Why this was so, when a wash only took 30 minutes, was beyond us, but she was insistent. So we then spent about a further five hours trying to find some clothes to by. In the end, we got some fantastic new stuff, both of us - otherwise it would've been a very stinky weekend.
But this highlights something about this region of Spain that in other circumstances could be great, while right now is just a pain in the ass. Time is simply not a concern for them - at the hotel standing behind a guest asking when a certain event would occur, the manager could only shrug and say 'At some hour in the afternoon'. At dinner we were happy to relax and take our time, but the English couple next to us waited nearly an hour for their bill. Tour brochures don't list specific times - just that they happen am or pm.
Someone said to us that in Spain, you should organise everything well in advance. I'm not sure doing so would make any difference.
That said, Seville has a lot of charm. I'd go again if I spoke the language. We wandered through the old town by a seriously impressive gothic cathedral with an extremely mixed architectural heritage and over to the bull-fighting arena. Sadly it was closed and we were unable to see where that ancient competition occurs. But by then we were out of time. It was time to leave Seville. The taxi brought us back to the hotel in time to have one last meal of Tapas, where we ironically found the best restaurant of our stay so far - luckily the only one open in the area. Not only did they have the most incredible food - croquettes that should be illegal and a truly tremendous omlette, but the service was prompt due to the impending flight and fairly reasonably priced.
Tips for eating in Spain - Tapas is cheap, beware of 'terrace fees' in some places, VAT (tax, 7%) is often not included and dishes are never the same from place to place. Bars have great little salads and usually a few little hot items available - we had four plates of food and a drink each for 10 Euros, enough to keep us going for hours. There's no reason to pay big money for food - just avoid the tourist areas and you'll get something good.
We're in the air as I write this, heading to Amsterdam. As mentioned in the last post, it was a totally random and spontaneous choice, brought on solely because we were sick of the tourist-trap atmosphere. It was simply the first cheap flight out.
We may drive to Paris from there through Belgium, stopping at Bruxes for some beer and chocolate.
Everyone says Amsterdam is great, and I guess we'll find out in a few hours.
Barcelona didn't have siesta per se - it was open and busy and all hours. Seville on the other hand shuts down sometime after 1pm every day then gradually comes back to life after 5pm, tho most residents seem to use this as an opportunity to hit the nearest bar for some tapas and cerveza and relax on into the evening rather than go back to work.
We didn't count on the language barrier here. In the German speaking countries, it was all good - we speak a bit of German and everyone there speaks English. In Seville it's hard to get by without some Spanish. Which is in some ways charming - next time I travel, I fully plan to have some of the local language under my belt for embarking.
But Seville is a bit of a whore for tourists. Unfortunately it also has a bit of nasty dislike of those very tourists who bring in so much money. Often we felt lied to, ripped off and unwelcome. That certainly wasn't universal, but at the very least common.
At the end of the day, Spain has turned out to be hard work - which I don't mind when travelling, but this time it's more about relaxing.
Jus and I travel local by walking - we just stick our noses down small interesting alleys and see what we find. We use the same approach to find food, looking for places frequented by locals. Tip for Seville travellers - a picture-menu out the front is a bad thing.
Yesterday we trudged 30 minutes from the hotel to near Santa Cruz for the only self-service Laundromat we knew of, taking nearly half our luggage with us to be washed. The hotel had wanted a totally ridiculous fee for the service - about 5 euroes just for a shirt - and planned to dry them on the hottest setting in dryers, which would wreck all my shirts and most of Jus' gear. When we arrived, about 90 minutes before siesta and the Saturday close of trade, the lady running the place (who habla no Inglese) told us in no uncertain terms that not only could they not wash our clothes, but we couldn't even do it ourselves because of the coming siesta. Why this was so, when a wash only took 30 minutes, was beyond us, but she was insistent. So we then spent about a further five hours trying to find some clothes to by. In the end, we got some fantastic new stuff, both of us - otherwise it would've been a very stinky weekend.
But this highlights something about this region of Spain that in other circumstances could be great, while right now is just a pain in the ass. Time is simply not a concern for them - at the hotel standing behind a guest asking when a certain event would occur, the manager could only shrug and say 'At some hour in the afternoon'. At dinner we were happy to relax and take our time, but the English couple next to us waited nearly an hour for their bill. Tour brochures don't list specific times - just that they happen am or pm.
Someone said to us that in Spain, you should organise everything well in advance. I'm not sure doing so would make any difference.
That said, Seville has a lot of charm. I'd go again if I spoke the language. We wandered through the old town by a seriously impressive gothic cathedral with an extremely mixed architectural heritage and over to the bull-fighting arena. Sadly it was closed and we were unable to see where that ancient competition occurs. But by then we were out of time. It was time to leave Seville. The taxi brought us back to the hotel in time to have one last meal of Tapas, where we ironically found the best restaurant of our stay so far - luckily the only one open in the area. Not only did they have the most incredible food - croquettes that should be illegal and a truly tremendous omlette, but the service was prompt due to the impending flight and fairly reasonably priced.
Tips for eating in Spain - Tapas is cheap, beware of 'terrace fees' in some places, VAT (tax, 7%) is often not included and dishes are never the same from place to place. Bars have great little salads and usually a few little hot items available - we had four plates of food and a drink each for 10 Euros, enough to keep us going for hours. There's no reason to pay big money for food - just avoid the tourist areas and you'll get something good.
We're in the air as I write this, heading to Amsterdam. As mentioned in the last post, it was a totally random and spontaneous choice, brought on solely because we were sick of the tourist-trap atmosphere. It was simply the first cheap flight out.
We may drive to Paris from there through Belgium, stopping at Bruxes for some beer and chocolate.
Everyone says Amsterdam is great, and I guess we'll find out in a few hours.
posted by Kelsey Brookes at 3:08 am
1 Comments:
Hello,
Next time I would suggest to search your flight in the travel search engine Trabber - www.trabber.com
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