Gramma Barbie Goes Global

Letting a car pass means pressing yourself up against a wall. 

I really feel at home with this aspect of Spanish culture.   Scarves don’t always match the clothes either.  Freedom of expression….I love that.

Want to take your daily Airborne and don’t have a glass….ziploc bags work well.  So far, Airborne has worked well, too.  Both of my teachers had colds and my hostess in Granada had a terrible cough….so far I am healthy …. hope I didn’t just jinx myself!

This is the first time I have ever ordered a plain coffee at Starbucks….in Seville, regular Starbucks coffee tastes like colored water.  I think I will stick to European coffee which has great flavour.   You just have to have more than one.   I may even try coffee con Leche though I haven’t had milk in my coffee since I was a teenager.

When my hostess got back to me to say that tomorrow morning would be best for me to arrive at her house. So I went to Hotels.com to see what kind of last minute deals they had.  Hotel Epicentro caught my eye…..54 Euros for a room for one person that usually went for 492 Euros.   Can’t beat that so I booked it.

Next episode:

I get a message from my hostess saying that she has to completely cancel the booking due to hot water problems.   Not a problem, I simply went back to hotels.com and there were no single rooms so I booked a double for the following 2 nights at 78 Euros per night. 

Got to Seville via Cordoba and found that the hotel was very convenient.   12 minutes walk from the bus station (13 minutes by taxi) so I walked.  It is located in a classy shopping area so still had high expectations even though r ed caption is more like a hostel reception area….after all there are only 21 rooms.

Here are pictures of the room and the bathroom……hmmmm 492 Euros????

Oh, and the key has to be in the thingy on the wall to be able to turn on the lights…..had these in Peru, too.  I believe the idea is to prevent leaving the lights on in an empty room.

Can’t wait to see the double room tomorrow…..

The restaurants here appear to be almost too reasonably priced.   For example, my lunch consisted of tapas, bread, coffee, and a 3 course meal for 7.50 Euros.  Add a small beer for 1.50 Euros and you have a grand total of 8.60 Euros, tax included.  See pictures below:

the olives are fresh and delicious 

Asparagus. 

Shrimp tortillas.

Coffee and flan.

I had planned to travel to Seville today by train, but my Airbnb hosts were adamant that the bus was the way to go. Sooooo I changed my plans.  

I had no way to print the ticket and the website said that I might not be let on the bus unless I had a printed ticket.  Sooooo I got to the bus station 1 1/2 hours before departure and the bus was full.   The next business to Seville was not until much later and check in at my next Airbnb ends at 2pm because she works.  What to do……should have gone by train…..

I chose to take the bus to Cordoba and then to Seville arriving at 6:15pm instead of the later bus that is direct, but arrives at 10pm.  My hostess won’t be home until after 11pm so suggested that I find other accommodation for tonight.  I have asked her if I can meet her at her house after work.  I picked her place for a number of reasons so am hoping she will agree….wish me luck….

Oh well, if nothing else, I get to see part  of another town in Spain…

This was an interesting display of dried fruits and candies…not something you would see in a North American buss station.

This little garbage container was on my table at breakfast today. 

Just sayin’

Yesterday I came back to the house mid day and could not get my key to work.  My hostess was out so I rang the doorbell of the other apartment and the neighbour came up and opened the door for me.  She patiently explained how to open the door and why I was having difficulty with the key.  Apparently it is a copy of a copy and not of the original.  Thanks to my teachers at Agualivar, I was able to not only understand her, I was also able to respond to her.

Unfortunately, someone decided to grease the lock….I guess they don’t have WD40 here…..the key came out all black and I didn’t notice so my hands got all black…..very runny stuff, but, luckily it wiped off okay…..

My new room in Granada. 

There is a bidet in the bathroom.