The June Beach Chronicles - Chapter 3: Sanlúcar de Barrumeda

I've officially exhausted my travel battery. It took a significant amount of effort to drag my ass out of the house on Friday to meet my BlaBlaCar to set off for the town Sanlúcar de Barrumeda in the province of Cádiz. Even having already made a non-refundable hostel reservation, my desire to make another trip was at an epic low - I've gradually sank to super weary status this month - and I was strongly contemplating passing on this round. What ultimately nudged me out the door was the guilt factor of being a no-show after I had requested a seat in our driver's car.

So, indeed, I eventually made it to Sanlúcar. Being a pueblo outside the central city, it isn't nearly as tourist-flooded than some of the major cities in Andalucía. The beach itself was actually quite vacant:

A different sight

For good reason, too, as the wind was in high gear that day:

After a few minutes of having sand tossed in my face non-stop, I called it quits on the beach and spent the day exploring different parts of the town.

Official producers of manzanilla

On the footsteps of a school

Plaza de Cabildo

View of Castillo de Santiago from the hostel terrace

It ended up being literally a 24-hour trip (caught my ride at 1:00 on Friday to, took the 1:00 bus back the next day from) but it turned out to be quite a pleasant experience. The highlight of my short visit had to be the hostel manager, Enrique (if memory serves me right), who invited me to homemade tapas and free alcohol as a welcome gift, and meeting a dutch girl, Meike, whom I shared my room with. Good conversations and much laughter over yummy food, drinks and coffee with people from different parts of the world, the classic recipe for a buen viaje, allows me to deem this mini-adventure a success, un éxito. I do hope, and expect, to return to this charming town one day during Year 2.

With that said, I write the final words of my brief yet (nearly-)historic travel sagas. Three weekends, four destinations and six BlaBlas later, I'm left with the life-affirming result of more international Facebook friends, darker skin and less euros! Thus is the legacy of these Beach Chronicles, edition June 2014.

And now we approach what will be the longest week of private classes EVER in this writer´s lifetime ... ciao.

The June Beach Chronicles - Chapter 2: (Granada and) Almería

With every passing week, I feel like Seattle tugs at me harder and harder. To say I´m ready to go back home would be an understatement. These private classes are turning into dreaded chores. However, I´m sure in, oh, 13 days from now, I´ll be left totally astounded by how fast the last six months have flown by, and surely sometime in the summer, I´ll have these same yearnings for the other side of the Atlantic.

Anyhow, my travel weekends continue. This past weekend I headed eastward in Andalucía with a quick stop in Granada on Friday, then moved further east to the coast of Almería the next day. These past two weekends I´ve made good use of a travel network called BlaBlaCar (my profile: http://www.blablacar.es/usuario/mostrar/s3jfPdVO6u2iQIKHkv9v_A). Basically, it´s a car-sharing system in which the driver offers to take along passengers headed for the same destination at a discounted price. It is definitely the most cost-effective option and, between the five different rides I've picked up thus far, I've met some cool people and have been in on some pretty entertaining conversations (note that some drivers have left reviews for me as a passenger).

One of my BlaBla experiences

I'm going to leave one little anecdote concerning the trip itself before I plaster this post with beach photos: they say that Granada is a magical city but, this being my second visit there, to me it's become a city of improbable coincidences (recall that the first time I had watched the Seahawks' Superbowl victory with my Seattle friend working in the city). This time around, I had gone to see some of my 6th-grade school kids who were on a graduation trip. My bilingual coordinator and I had arranged it so that I would catch them at the science museum that day. Now it just so happened that I found them in an exhibition where there was one other school group ... which turned out to be none other than the school of the kids at my academy. Basically, that moment in Granada captured the gist of my teaching experience in Sevilla (mind you, my school and my academy aren´t anywhere near each other). Small country, clearly.

Houses en El Albazín in Granada

As for Almería, lots of lounging on the beach and taking full advantage of the unlimited use of AIR CONDITIONING in my hotel room. Honestly, these weekend trips serve more as a getaway and a chance to relax than for touristic and culturally-enriching purposes. Although, I have to admit, enduring a four-hour car ride back made me question my decision to go so dang far for less than two full days. I leave you photos of a stroll I took around the city and, of course, the beach:

The Cathedral

One facade of a Moorish fortress

On top of a mirador

The beach with a desert in the backdrop

Chillaxing

The June Beach Chronicles - Chapter 1: Marbella

Well, it turns out I have to keep teaching teaching private classes until the very end of June (up until literally 2 days before I leave), which is keeping me busy enough. I was originally planning on taking my last week in Spain entirely off, but now we can throw that proposition out the window. However, with the unforeseen extra income I'll make by month's end, I'm taking advantage to book it to the beaches for the weekends that remain (not for the least of motives that it's supposed to surpass 100 degrees this week in Sevilla).

So, this past Friday and Saturday I headed to Marbella, in the province of Málaga, your Orlando of Spain. Tourists, beaches, beach bars, golf courses - your typical vacation/retirement city, minus the theme parks. I can't really speak to how much local culture it hosts, but I can say that it's the first place in Spain that I've encountered where most everything was translated perfectly into English (this is no small detail; visit anywhere but and you'll see what I mean). If this doesn't scream ultimate tourist summer destination, I don't know what does.

Trees and beach apartments

Beach essentials

Typical chiringuito

Soakin' up some sun

You get the picture. Didn´t do much more than lounge on the beach and work on my tan, which is getting real nice, by the way. That, and my blablacar adventure, but we´ll save those stories for another day.

Coming up next weekend: (back to) Granada, then the beaches of Almería!

Home is Where the Heart Is

Well, if I had stuck to my original flight itinerary I selected in January, I would actually be in Seattle right now. But of course, fate (i.e. whimsical decisions) would have it that I have another month left before I head back home. But, allow me to confess something: I'm actually ready to go home right now, which was clearly not my mindset a couple months ago when I changed my return flight date. It's funny talking to other American auxiliaries who've enjoyed their experience here so much that they've repeatedly shed tears as they've said goodbye to Sevilla this week. I suppose my situation is different because I do expect to come back again come October. But, as much as I've enjoyed this city, my time away from Seattle has taught me my roots are firmly grounded in my hometown. Additionally, the concept of "home" psychologically carries an enormous weight for me.

Obviously, having applied to renew my position and return to Sevilla for another 8 months, I do enjoy la vida here. I think traveling in general is always a worthwhile experience. You grow, you learn, you change (one would hope). But all the traveling in the world wouldn't change where I feel most centered, most at-ease, most right with the universe. Which, in turn, is why I do want to travel: to explore uncharted territories, not only geographically but also mentally, intellectually, and all the other -allys, and become uncomfortable, which, believe me, I've experienced more times than I can count. Thus is the motive for why I feel ready to return to the all-too-familiar sights, sounds, and (English-speaking) people of my beloved Pacific Northwest, if just for a 3-month breather. But alas, the battle is prolonged for 29 more days, due to the fault of none other than myself.

But seriously, life could be way worse. Being "stuck" in Sevilla isn't too shabby at all. But I am restlessly anticipating the day I step foot again in the greatest city in the world :

Not cliche at all