Southern Spain: Our Puente Tour

Seville/a

The December Puente, which is made up of a Wednesday and Friday holidays, is a much-needed 5-day weekend to prepare to heart, soul, and mind for the holiday season. The puente also gave us a chance to board our first plane since arriving in September! We learned the ropes of our closest airport in Bilbao and luckily had a flight attendant who turned a blind eye to Amelia's backpack (nearly the width of two humans). We arrived in Seville on a sunny evening and took a long paseo (stroll) through the city admiring the bejeweled orange trees- winter citrus is here! Although we didn't get sunny southern weather the whole week, we managed to have a patio dinner our first night. We sat along a wide parkway, nibbling at a new style of tapas, and enjoying the crowds stroll through the newly-lit city adorned with Christmas lights galore! We would later revisit this neighborhood (San Lorenzo/Feria) for its vibrant nightlife when we returned to Sevilla at the end of the week- we saw an amazing drag show with queens from Drag Race Espana! In the morning, we hit the road, hitching Blablacars across the south until we'd return to Seville later in the week. More to come on Seville below, bear with my desire for chronology.

Just a taste of a Sevillana Christmas^

Cordoba

We began our decent with a stop in Cordoba. Here you can marvel at the adorable town and the Mezquita Cathedral, a UNESCO heritage site. We lucked out by having a sunny afternoon and took advantage of it with a long Spanish-style lunch on the patio of a street lined with hitched flower pots and orange trees. This row of restaurants sits just to the right of the famous Roman bridge, where tourists walk back and forth admiring the city from various angles. joined our tour and learned about each empire that stood in this space and the consequential evolution of the site from its original form (a small Christian church) to its many iterations of a Mezquita during the Moorsish occupation of Spain before finally a Catholic cathedral was created inside the Mezquita. This rare conservation of a Mezquita differs from the sentence for the other Mezquitas in Spain at the time: total destruction.

Malaga

We chatted and laughed for the entire 2 hours of our 5-star Blablacar from Cordoba to Malaga. We rode along with a Brazilian paddle-ball player and a generous Colombian driver who became our living breathing TripAdvisor. With our new friend's recommendations, we made a lovely time out of our 48 hours in Malaga. Malaga is known for its beaches and southern sun, however, in an attempt to attract winter tourism, the city has transformed into a miraculous Christmas spectacle complete with stunning decorations and nightly light shows. We spent our first day on a highly recommendable free tour which taught us all about the history of the city. We followed the tour with a Morrocan lunch (loved the expanded access to southern cuisine) and an afternoon at the Picasso Museum. Picasso was born in Malaga, and while he didn't spend much of his life there, it capitalizes on his heritage with a unique museum combining the Picasso of the past and the influence he's had on artists today. We sadly canceled our sunset cruise due to rain but we ended the day with merry light shows and a gorgeous rooftop view of the ocean and city below. On our second day, we rallied early for a tour of the Caminito de Rey, a stunning valley walk an hour out of the city. What was once the most dangerous trail in the country, is now a huge attraction for its magical views and rich history. That night we kept moving with Blabla and ended up in Seville once again to meet our other friends and kick off the rest of the puente!

Sevilla, otra vez

Our second time around in Seville, we stayed four nights to soak up all Sevilla has to offer. We saw nearly all the infamous attractions including Las Setas, the Alcazar, The Cathedral and Mosque tower, Plaza de Espana, Flamenco shows, the neighborhood of Triana, the Jewish quarter, and countless vueltas around the city's Christmas lights. In Southern Spain, you can see the Southern culture worn on its sleeves; the buildings are true works of art, reminiscent of their richly diverse past. The people are warm, friendly, and more strictly adhere to the siesta than northerners (typically to evade the heat but other times, to accommodate for the speed of Southern life.)

So, what's not to love?

Southern Spain is radically different in nearly every capacity from the north: the terrain, accents, gastronomy, architecture, and weather. We are so grateful to have the time to enjoy feeling like we'd left the country for the week! Two weeks of school to grind out and then we are on Christmas break for two weeks, where I'll have updates from my travels! But this trip will stick with me forever: it smells like an ocean breeze, tastes like salmorejo, looks colorful with lights and old town streets, and sounds like flamenco guitarists sitting in the plaza, watching streams of people go by-- a true encompassment of the well-known Spainsh style.