My weekend in Almerimar
I wrote this while waiting at the Cordoba bus station and didn't get to post it 'cause the WiFi cut out. I have pretty low expectations of internet in Spain these days. Well now I'm at school and the internet works for the moment, so here goes:
Update for REBECCACITA on Monday 8 December, 2008 at 19:08
I had such a good weekend! Today was a holiday in Spain, so I took advantage of the long weekend to travel. I went to Almeria... well, you know all this from my last entry, so I'll go ahead and tell you what happened.
The first thing I noticed about El Ejido was that it was so much warmer! Well, not shorts-and-t-shirts weather, but much nicer than what Hinojosa del Duque has been lately. Laura met me there and we went for a light dinner of tapas and red wine. In most places in Almeria, btw, you get a free tapa with a drink! They'd NEVER do that in the US, for fear of encouraging consumption of alcohol. Yet if you think about it, it's really in everyone's best interest-- if you eat while drinking, it helps slow down the effects of the alcohol, so less-drunk customers makes everyone happy!
Anyway, we took the local bus down to Almerimar and crashed at Laura's place after watching half of Robin Hood Men in Tights on her laptop (we were getting sleepy so we finished the rest of it in the morning during a breakfast of nutella and peanut butter on bread!). Her apartment is very nice. It is also not heated, but the weather there really is such that heating isn't necessary. So you just cuddle up with some blankets and a sweater. Whereas at my place in hinojosa, you're an icicle. Anyway, she also has a lovely view from her balcony. You can see the harbor- yes, ocean front view! And both the bedrooms at her place have real windows. So I enjoyed waking up to some natural light, definitely.
On Saturday we mostly walked around down and walked on the beach. We had lunch at a british owned pub.... yeah, i had British food in Spain. :) We went to the cinema later on just because we wanted to go. The selection wasn't wonderful so we ended up watching Superhero Movie, which wasn't too horrible. But I have to say, I probably enjoyed it more in Spanish than I would have watching it in English, just because at least understanding the Spanish gave me something interesting to do besides laugh at the bad humor. To be fair, *some* of it was funny-- like, the “frodos” when talking about the cliques at school! Hahahaha Laura and I were laughing forever about that. Later on when we went back to the apartment we made veggies and pasta for dinner and watched Star Dust (btw, if you couldn't tell, Laura has quite a DVD collection.... region 1, though, so that means she won't want to rent any DVDs here for her computer!). I've seen it already but it was fun to watch again.
On Sunday we made a day trip to Almeria the city. I decided that I like it... I could totally live in that kind of city. It's really the perfect size, not too big or small. We saw their art museum (small, but had some lovely paintings by Spanish artists) and the Alcazaba. The Alcazaba isn't as impressive as Cordoba or Sevilla's Alcazars, but it was still worth seeing.... hey, it was free anyway! And it's got some impressive views of the city and the ocean. Mmmm. We returned in the late afternoon and just chilled, watching Narnia and then Peter Pan.while heating up the leftover pasta and baking cookies. Yup, it was good. And it was just relaxing to be able to converse with a fellow American, as I am essentially the only American here in Hinojosa (my roommate identifies more as Mexican than American and we come from very different backgrounds and I don't feel like we relate with each other on much else other than both being foreigners in Spain).
Update for REBECCACITA on Monday 8 December, 2008 at 19:08
I had such a good weekend! Today was a holiday in Spain, so I took advantage of the long weekend to travel. I went to Almeria... well, you know all this from my last entry, so I'll go ahead and tell you what happened.
The first thing I noticed about El Ejido was that it was so much warmer! Well, not shorts-and-t-shirts weather, but much nicer than what Hinojosa del Duque has been lately. Laura met me there and we went for a light dinner of tapas and red wine. In most places in Almeria, btw, you get a free tapa with a drink! They'd NEVER do that in the US, for fear of encouraging consumption of alcohol. Yet if you think about it, it's really in everyone's best interest-- if you eat while drinking, it helps slow down the effects of the alcohol, so less-drunk customers makes everyone happy!
Anyway, we took the local bus down to Almerimar and crashed at Laura's place after watching half of Robin Hood Men in Tights on her laptop (we were getting sleepy so we finished the rest of it in the morning during a breakfast of nutella and peanut butter on bread!). Her apartment is very nice. It is also not heated, but the weather there really is such that heating isn't necessary. So you just cuddle up with some blankets and a sweater. Whereas at my place in hinojosa, you're an icicle. Anyway, she also has a lovely view from her balcony. You can see the harbor- yes, ocean front view! And both the bedrooms at her place have real windows. So I enjoyed waking up to some natural light, definitely.
On Saturday we mostly walked around down and walked on the beach. We had lunch at a british owned pub.... yeah, i had British food in Spain. :) We went to the cinema later on just because we wanted to go. The selection wasn't wonderful so we ended up watching Superhero Movie, which wasn't too horrible. But I have to say, I probably enjoyed it more in Spanish than I would have watching it in English, just because at least understanding the Spanish gave me something interesting to do besides laugh at the bad humor. To be fair, *some* of it was funny-- like, the “frodos” when talking about the cliques at school! Hahahaha Laura and I were laughing forever about that. Later on when we went back to the apartment we made veggies and pasta for dinner and watched Star Dust (btw, if you couldn't tell, Laura has quite a DVD collection.... region 1, though, so that means she won't want to rent any DVDs here for her computer!). I've seen it already but it was fun to watch again.
On Sunday we made a day trip to Almeria the city. I decided that I like it... I could totally live in that kind of city. It's really the perfect size, not too big or small. We saw their art museum (small, but had some lovely paintings by Spanish artists) and the Alcazaba. The Alcazaba isn't as impressive as Cordoba or Sevilla's Alcazars, but it was still worth seeing.... hey, it was free anyway! And it's got some impressive views of the city and the ocean. Mmmm. We returned in the late afternoon and just chilled, watching Narnia and then Peter Pan.while heating up the leftover pasta and baking cookies. Yup, it was good. And it was just relaxing to be able to converse with a fellow American, as I am essentially the only American here in Hinojosa (my roommate identifies more as Mexican than American and we come from very different backgrounds and I don't feel like we relate with each other on much else other than both being foreigners in Spain).