Pajaritos

The first time Benji asked if I wanted to eat 'pajaritos' I thought he was crazy. Birds?! Did I want to eat little birds? No. I know chickens are birds, but for some reason the term 'little birds' didn't bring any appetizing images to mind. All I could think about were robins and canaries. Even after he explained I'd be eating quails, not Polly, I still wasn't convinced. Tonight he won me over. I'm not sure how, but finally I decided, 'why not eat some little birds?'

On a side street in Triana, just off the main drag of San Jacinto, there's a bar called 'Casa Ruperto' and it's here that you can find the 'pajaritos'. I don't know how often the bar is frequented by tourists, but I know, without a doubt, I was the only one there tonight; a good sign that the food is probably tasty and cheap.


Benji ordered us two 'pajaritos' and two 'cervesitas' and the waiter promptly yelled 'dame dos pajaros'. Within five minutes we had two plates, each containing one fried bird and one slice of bread. Eating the quail was a bit tricky; the bone to meat ratio being 2:1. Benji kept having to tell me 'ten cuidado con los huesos'. In the end however, I didn't choke and now I know why Benji kept bugging to try 'pajaritos', they're surprisingly delicious.

Now if he can only get me to try snails...

The 25th and 26th

Christmas day in Spain was a good one. Two of my friends from back home (Eric and Sungjin) were here, as well as Sungjin's sister Julie and Sungjin's friend Mike. We dined on homemade spinach lasagna and salad and then headed out for a few drinks to end the night. Sungjin and his sister left for Madrid the next day and Mike went back to Germany. Eric had one more day here though, so we walked around town, got dinner, saw a flamenco show and this...

Way cooler than pony rides.

Madrid

I'm spending the holidays in Spain and as it turns out so are some of my friends from back home. One of them is doing research in Switzerland for the year and when we figured out that we would both be in Europe over Christmas we decided to plan a trip to Madrid.

It'd been 8 years since I'd visited the capital of Spain and I had a great time rediscovering the city (and quite literally at that.) We spent most of our three days wandering, just happening upon interesting sites. Though an unconventional approach to tourism, our method worked quite well for us and we managed to see the Puerta del Sol, Plaza Mayor, Parque de Retiro, el Palacio Real, Plaza de Toros, el Mercado de San Miguel and the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum.

Plaza Mayor El Mercado de San Miguel
El Parque de Retiro
Plaza de Toros
And finally, Christmas in the city...

We left Madrid on Friday and what we thought would be a short trip back to Sevilla turned into a very, very long one. First, neither of us thought about the fact is was Friday and the day before Christmas eve and that as a result bus tickets would be sold out until 5pm. Then since we had to make so many stops along the route, the 6 hour trip took almost 8. But Madrid was fun and we made it back to Sevilla in one piece and in the end that's all that really matters.

Tis the season...

So I've decided I'm not very good a blogging. I just kind of let weeks and weeks go by without writing anything. Maybe that will be my New Year's resolution: write more blogs. But for now I have some Christmas cheer to share with everyone. Here's Sevilla all done up for the holidays. Can you believe it's already the 19th of December?

Graffiti

There's literally miles of graffiti covering the walls and bridges along the river in Sevilla and I can't help but to be impressed every time I see it. I'd been meaning to take photos for a while now, but either never had my camera on me or was feeling too lazy to make the 20 walk down there. This Tuesday though I made sure to take my iPhone with me, so that when I got off the bus after work I could finally get around to the picture taking. There's some pretty amazing work done by some obviously very talented people and the lady with the blue hair, that one's my favorite.

The river

I realized today that I haven't written a blog in a while. To be honest I haven't been up to much. Just teaching, spending time with friends and exploring the city. The weather's gotten a bit cooler and we've had a few days of pouring rain. Though considering it's literally freezing in Seattle, I have nothing to complain about. We had nice weather today and I took the opportunity to walk by the river and snap some pictures. Can you believe I get to walk by this everyday? Well more like have to walk by it everyday, but at least it's pretty, right?

Gibraltar

I went to Gibraltar to see monkeys. Well I guess they are technically apes, but I prefer the word monkey, so that's what I'm going to call them. They live on top of the rock and their familiarity with people makes you forget they are wild. They have no qualms about crowds engulfing them or having people in their faces snapping pictures. They are not afraid of darting between feet or hopping on top of cars. I even saw one giving a man high fives, in exchange for a few snacks of course. Be warned however, the monkeys of Gibraltar are sneaky and not all as friendly as they seem. I saw one leap onto a man's back, open his backpack and start pulling out the contents. I heard another story about a monkey grabbing unguarded cookies from a stroller, tipping it over with a child inside. Lucky the mother was able to catch the stroller before it hit the ground. Frightening tales (not a pun, the monkeys don't have tails) aside, I will admit their cuteness is hard to resist. I was tempted a few times to reach over and start petting them, but after watching one viciously tear apart an orange juice carton, I kept my hands to myself. Besides being a big rock with monkeys on it, Gibraltar is also a town. It's a British territory and looks like a mini England; complete with pubs and red telephone booths. All the signs are written in English and the prices are listed in pounds. There are countless restaurants promoting fish and chips specials. Passed between different powers throughout time and currently fought over by the British and Spanish, it also has a history worth reading about. At least on Wikipedia anyway.

Valencia

Erin and I skipped town this weekend and headed to Spain's third largest city, Valencia. Our three day weekend was filled with lots of walking, sight seeing, picture taking, shopping, and the first rain I've seen fall since arriving in Spain. I also took the opportunity this weekend to rediscover my love for Spanish candy. (hello again sour strawberries and licorice wheels, I've missed you)

Plaza Ayuntamiento: Centrally located in Valencia's historical district, the plaza boasts impressive government buildings alongside quaint florist stands and was a common throughway for Erin and me this weekend.

Mercat Central: We strolled through the market on Saturday morning and it was crawling with people. It is definitely a foodie and photographer paradise.

La ciudad de las artes y las ciencias: Located outside of the center, nearer the beach, this complex is a beautiful display of modern architecture. It is composed of five structures, each housing a different exhibit pertaining to the arts or sciences. The Oceanografic was hands-down my favorite and I took an embarrassing number of pictures of fish, sharks, seals, birds, more fish...