winter holiday in Southern Spain

It's raining in Vichy, how original!! I just got back from an amazingly sunny 13-day vacation in Southern Spain. Allana and I flew down to visit her boyfriend, Austin (English assistant in Andalusia.) It was my first time in the country and the landscape and culture are pretty different from France, but lovely and easy to get used to.
The Spanish wake up late and have breakfast around 10, lunch around 2, have a siesta every day from 2-5pm so everything is closed, then dinner around 10 or 11. As for us, we woke up and had breakfast around noon, lunch by 4 or 4:30, then dinner around 10.

Apparently when you order a beer, you get a free tapa (small appetizer), and after eating a few of those, you're full enough to consider it your dinner! We also did a lot of bar hopping, just to taste all the different (yet similar) tapas there are. We met a lot of Austin's colleagues and friends and spoke sooooo much Spanish (even though Allana's and my Spanish is somewhat elementary). But the Spanish people we met are so nice and patient and wanted to talk to us as much as we did them.

So begins our holiday: Allana and I flew down from Paris and met up with Austin at our hotel in Sevilla, Spain on Friday night (Feb 25) around 11pm then headed out for dinner and drinks.

Saturday Feb 26:
We walked around Sevilla all day, checked out the cathedral, the famous Moorish Alcázar. Every couple of hours we stopped for on a bench to people watch, have a beer at one of our favorite bars, and

Sunday Feb 27:
Sevilla isn't a huge place so by day two, we had gotten to know our way around the city pretty well.

Monday Feb 28:
In the morning we caught a train to Cadiz, small Moorish city along the Atlantic coast.

Tuesday March 1 (my birthday!!!)
Walked around Cadiz in the morning, perused an enormous fish and produce market, then got the train back to Sevilla, to then catch a second (6-hour) train to Almería, where Austin lives. Our train was 45 minutes late getting into Sevilla, however, so we missed our second train. We did get half the cost of our first ticket back, rescheduled ourselves for a train to Almería for an hour later, then spent out new "free" money on birthday tapas and beer!
Got in to Almería around 11:30pm, walked to la casa de Austin, and went to sleep soon after. Austin lives with one Spanish guy-- very nice, and we attempted to practice our Spanish on him.

Wednesday through Friday were spent hanging around Almería, checking out Austin's favorite tapas bars, hitting up the (windy) beach, getting to know the city a bit.
On Friday night we hung out at the apartment of some of Austin American friends; beer and cards til 3am is a great way to spend the evening! ;)

Saturday March 5:
Slept in a bit then took a midday train to Murcia, apparently the 7th biggest city in Spain. We got there around 5pm, walked around, saw parks, found Tex-Mex for dinner (we were in the mood for something that WASN'T tapas... had gotten a little tired of them.)

On Sunday we slept in (again. we'd just gotten really used to the Spanish schedule and staying up late and sleeping in) then spent the day walking around the city. We watched an international bike race on the main road, spent time in this park and that one, window shopped.
We left Murcia at 8pm on Sunday (one and a half days was enough to basically see everything and going back at the end of a full day meant money saved on a hotel.)

Monday and Tuesday were extremely lazy days, as we had been running around so much during the first part of our holiday. We literally laid around, read, watched Spanish television. By Tuesday night, my last night, we couldn't take being in the house anymore so went out for dinner. Al, an American friend from cards a couple nights before, joined us for two different restaurants and three rounds of tapas. Then a little after midnight, we headed to a bar and met up with a bunch of internationals (Spanish, French, Moroccan, Austrian, American) that Austin knows. So much fun hanging out with other people who love traveling and languages and adventure (the same things we do!)

I hung out with Allana on Wednesday morning (while Austin was at work), we got one last meal of tapas (I had the best paella of my life), then I got on a 3pm bus to Malaga, further along the Mediterranean coast. I stayed with a Spanish couple from CouchSurfing, then caught a Thursday morning flight back to Paris.

Thursday March 10:
Traveled all day and arrived back in Vichy, safe and sound, around 7:30pm!