Feria in Nerja

Seville from above

Since our time was broken up by a few weeks in Portugal, when we reentered the country to go to Seville we felt pretty confident about managing our budget. The solution was simple: just go over. Laugh, but it’s true. Our standard budget of $100 a day for the both of us just doesn’t cut it here. It’s certainly possible, but we’d be sleeping in giant dorms every night and eating cheese and crackers from the supermarket. Our trip is taking us through many economies, and we always try to do our best. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that Asia will give us a surplus to cover the expensive European travels.

Jeremy at the Senses & Colors Hostel in Cordoba

Now there’s nothing wrong with giant 20-bed dorms, but we’re not 19 anymore and we’re, well… happily married. We mix dorms and private rooms every week so we can save money and get doses of privacy and comfort. The cost of hosteling in Europe overall is much higher than we expected. Dorms never run less than 12 Euro per person (close to $20), and we’d find private doubles at about 30 Euro max (often 25 Euro, or $35). Good hostels provide lively community areas, towels, lockers, wifi and breakfast. There are plenty of shabby ones which believe that only 2 out of 5 is enough, and we hate the idea of leaving our laptop out in the open all day.

Andalusia, the south of Spain, is a walker’s paradise. City centers are small, and hold an incredibly rich panorama of history in their walled enclaves. Stunning architecture left behind by the Moorish empire shines brightest here, everywhere examples are beautifully preserved and restored.

Case de Pilatos

The Casa de Pilatos in Seville houses not only over 200 style of Mudejar tile, but serves as the functioning mansion residence of the Duchess of Seville. The upper floor includes her rooms, and the lower level (upper and lower access for 8 Euro, lower only for 5 Euro) displays a unique collection of historical architecture and two large gardens.

The video doesn’t do the colors justice, check the tiles out here, too.

The impressive Cathedral of Seville is the largest gothic Cathedral, and the third-largest church in the world.

Eva in the Cathedral of Seville

Traveling during the high season creates only one major hurdle for us: planning ahead. No longer are we able to simply show up in town and find reasonable accommodation. Things must be set up in advance; luckily a few days usually does the trick. We search for rooms primarily with Hostel Bookers, a reservations engine which does not charge any booking fees (most sites do this — usually about 2 Euro, very annoying). Often, this saves our butts in busy cities like Granada, but sometimes we don’t hit the mark.

During Muslim rule, the Mezquita of Cordoba was one of 1,000 in the city, and the second largest in the Islamic world. The city was recaptured from Muslim army in 1236, and the mosque was subsequently converted into a Christian church. When the center of the structure was destroyed to put in a Renaissance nave, even the residents of Cordoba protested the violation of such a transcendent space.

Mezquita

The Cathedral inside the Mosque

As gorgeous as the Mezquita in Cordoba is, the city doesn’t provide enough to keep a traveler busy for more than a day — and we booked 3 nights. We wandered the streets. Every one of them. Over and over again. Mostly unmarked and unexplained, tiny bits of Roman ruins lie hidden all over town, like a large scale scavenger hunt: under the glass floor of a restaurant, the facade of the bank, the base of a bridge, little towers in the middle of nowhere, a colonnade of a temple wedged between two vacuum stores.

Tea Salon in Cordoba

As if Cordoba knew itself to be only a daytrip destination, there aren’t many restaurants which we could recommend; touristy slim pickin’s. We practiced for Morocco at the Salon de The, a stylish and inspired tea house. We found multiple excuses to visit the cramped bar which served a standing crowd it’s single beer.

Oh, and we shopped. Note to all Round-The-World travelers: do not stay in chic cities with large shopping centers when you’ve only had three t-shirts to wear for the past 4 months, all of which are currently filthy. No idea what came over us, but we did somehow end up with a frilly skirt and a leather jacket.

Our shopping booty

The most incredible example of Moorish architecture is undoubtedly the Alhambra (meaning “The Red Fortress”) in Granada.

The Alhambra features such a rich abundance of delicately carved arabesques and calliphic arches it feels like a waking dream.

The testament to the skill of the craftsmen is two-sided: the original designs blended many styles of Muslim art in previously unconceived of ways, while hours of minutely-detailed labor have restored the miles of carved stucco.

City maps we collected

With the help of our Fiat Punto we managed to tour central and southern Spain fairly thoroughly. The car was costly at about $35 a day, but gave us a place to stash luggage and made it possible to stop at many tiny towns for just an hour or two of poking around.

Above Zahara

We were running a diesel engine, which saved us a bit of money: fuel was about 1 Euro per liter, the equivalent of $5.25 per gallon — sounds high, but unleaded was even worse.

If we were to do it all again, we aren’t quite sure we’d take the car. Distances between cities are easily conquered, but the task of finding parking (or even one’s way) in most city centers borders on absurd. Large and legible street signs haven’t come into fashion in Spain. Unlike Mexico and Peru, most Spanish cities have centrally located train and bus stations, often depositing travelers to the precise area where they will be spending their time.

Eva in Granada

Our View in Jerez

We are so taken by our time here in Spain that we vow to return and discover the charms of the North. The Basque food, the beaches, new kinds of tapas… we’re planning it already.