"I´m going to Andalucía next week!" I told one of my coworkers in Spanish as she gave me a ride home one day last week. In November my work schedule changed so I only work Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, leaving me four-day weekends. I decided to use this time to go to Andalucía (a famous region in southern Spain) to visit my friend Katelyn.
“¡Ah! Te va a gustar—es muy diferente que aquí. Allí son muy descarados,” (Oh! You´ll like it—it’s really different from here. They´re very “faceless” there.)
“¡Ah! Te va a gustar—es muy diferente que aquí. Allí son muy descarados,” (Oh! You´ll like it—it’s really different from here. They´re very “faceless” there.)
"¿Descarados? What does that mean?” I asked.
My coworker patted her cheek. “Tienen mucha cara,” (They have a lot of face.)
“Wait… so if you have a lot of face, you’re faceless?”
“Exactly,”
After that perplexing explanation, it turns out that being “descarado” or having “cara” means that you’re outgoing, that you are open and unafraid to say what you mean. It’s slightly negative, meaning that they talk a little too much… so I after visiting, I decided that along with being perhaps descarada, Andalucía is mainly acogedora: very welcoming.
This proved to be wonderfully true! Everywhere we went, people were incredibly welcoming and warm and very approachable—and a lot of random people approached us and talked to us a lot. When we were in Málaga, Katelyn and I were sniffing the roses in the rose garden when an old man came up and said that the roses at the other end of the garden smelled better, and in fact the garden used to have these little tea roses that smelled amazing, but they took those out, and “what are you doing in Málaga? Oh, you work here? You work on Mallorca? My wife and I took a cruise out to Mallorca. It was beautiful. Enjoy your time in Spain!” When Katelyn and I were in Sevilla, Katelyn was pointing out a Vespa of a similar kind that she wants to buy, and an old woman who was walking by asked, “Do you like motorcycles? I like them, too. I bought one for my daughter, but she was too scared to use it. What a pity. Have fun, girls,” The best, though, was when we were in El Chorro. We were sitting in the little bar at the train station, and Katelyn struck up a conversation with a guy sporting a head of beautiful dreadlocks (so, contact was initiated from our end, but still) and through the course of this conversation, Katelyn informed this guy of our history of friends (we went to college together, we both lived in Ecuador for a year, and we’re here in Spain working as teaching assistants) and this guy told us that he lived in a cave, and he invited us to come check it out. We declined, but it was yet another example of Andalucían hospitality.
In short, it was a wonderful weekend! From Sevilla to Álora to El Chorro to Málaga to Sevilla, I had a great time exploring Andalucía and having some crazy adventures with my friend Katelyn. Because the whole story can’t be told in one short blog, the whole weekend will come out in installments. Read on, MacDuff!
***
DAY 1
On Thursday after work, I caught a late flight out of Palma and landed in Seville Spain
The taxi driver dropped me off somewhere in the vicinity of my hostel (he had never heard of the “Sevilla Inn Backpackers” so he had to guess the address) so I joined the masses wandering around in the streets. I walked into the first hotel I saw, explaining to the receptionist: “I´m not actually staying at your hotel; I´m looking for another hostel, the Sevilla Inn Backpackers. Never heard of it? Yeah, it´s a strange name… thanks…” After repeating this at three or four places, I did eventually find the hostel (I was starting to think that such a weirdly named place was just an internet hoax and didn´t actually exist) and I settled in happily. I had arrived in Seville
The next morning, I ambled through the streets in the general direction of the train station.
I caught a mid-morning train bound for Málaga (another city in Andalucía, about 2.5 hours away by slow train). The rolling, dry hills of the Andalucían countryside flashed by.
Olive groves stretch for miles.I eventually made it to Álora, the town where Katelyn works, through a series of interesting events. The train was supposed to take me to Málaga, and from there I would take a regional train along the same train tracks back up to Álora, but it turned out that a train had jumped the tracks ahead, so everyone had to get off our train, get on a bus, and head into Málaga. I didn’t want to have to go all the way into Málaga when I was already stopped somewhere really close to Álora (although I didn´t exactly know where I was) so I ended up wandering around this random small town until I found a bus to take me into Álora, which turned out to be the next town down.
I eventually made it into Álora, which is a beautiful whitewashed town on several hilltops. It was so lovely to see Katelyn again—I hadn´t seen her for almost six months! We had lunch of tapas (FINALLY!!! Excellent Spanish tapas! Mallorca ’s tapas don’t even compare) and she gave me a tour around town.
Friends meeting again!
Álora, the town where Katelyn works.
Álora's castle 
The only problem with beautiful hillside towns is that they're built on hills. Steep ones.
Later in the afternoon, we caught a bus into the countryside where Katelyn rents a farmhouse (with farm attached) from an English couple. We got water from the spring, picked oranges and pomegranates for breakfast, and checked on the chickens. We cooked dinner and chatted late into the night, excited to catch up on the past few months and excited for our planned weekend adventures!
The next installment: DEFYING DEATH ON THE CAMINO DEL REY is coming shortly...
As usual, these photos and more are published on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2050221&id=65202311&l=bb31a42ce7
Awww I am so glad you got to visit Katelyn! I can't wait to hear more! :)
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