Cordoba - Spain

Well hello to everyone again. I have been in Spain now for the last few days, we travelled from Sarlat (my last blog update) to Luchon in France. Luchon is a hiking area - in the Pyraneese Mountains, were we went for a hike up one of the hills. I chickened out and only went up half the mountain as I twisted my knee after the last bike bike ride and hill climb. The knee is good, as long as I don´t do too many hill climbs and walk back down steep cobble stone hills. Luchon was very cute - also a small place - mountail village. We ate crepes and waffles while we were there, and had a few drinks in a small pub. The pub was so cute, wooden tables and chairs, deer horns and that type of thing on the walls, with rugs and cushions over the chairs. The accomodation was really good too, I had a nice long hot bath after the hike to recover ;)

We then took a bus, 3 trains and then another bus to get to San Sebastian in Spain. San Sebastian was full of Aussies - they were absolutely everywhere. I suppose this is understandable, as the running of the bulls was near by and it is coastal city in Spain with some great beaches (one being a nudie one). San Sebastian is famous for its sunset over the water, the perfect view from the beach. We ventured out at 9:20pm to see the sunset, which happened a little after 10pm, to which we then went for dinner.

It is really hard to get used to the time people eat around here, and work around the siestas. The shops etc are open from 10am to about 1pm, and then they close, and re-open at about 4:30-5pm to 8 or 9pm. Most resturants don´t serve dinner until 9:30pm (the normal is 10pm), so all you can eat until then is pinxtos (tappas) at the bars.

The most random thing happened in San Sebastian. I was sitting at a resturant for lunch with Kirsten from our group, as we were leaving I heard "Haylee" - I turned around and in the same resturant were 2 x people I went to school with - Nadira and Sheridan!!!!! I had chatted with Nadira on Facebook prior to leaving for my holiday, and she had said that he would be in Spain around the same time as me and we might bump into each other. What were the odds of it actually happening!!???!!

From San Sebastian we went to Madrid. It is a city much like Paris in its party life and busy streets. We didn´t arrive there until after 10pm, so it was the perfect time for an orientation through the city. The cafes, resturants and streets were alive, and it was quite strange venturing out to the same place the following day, and seeing such a difference in the culture / feel of the city. I went to the Museo del Prado, wandered through the gardens and the city street for the afternoon, before getting reading for our final night dinner for the first half of the tour. Only myself and another lady booked the full tour from Paris to Barcelona, so all the rest are going home of off onto another adventure of their own. We went to the main square for our dinner and relished in the lively atmosphere in the terrace area. The meal was awesome - the best I have had so far. We had bread, and some type of spread and also olives for nibbles. I chose a beautiful vegetable soup for entre and then shared a paella for main. Paella is beautiful and so flavoursome, I am going to try and google some recipes so I can attempt to make it again some time. We all shared Sangria with the meal - delicious, and then after our meal the resturant gave us a bottle of some type of apricot liquer - a ´digestive´they call it. They served in an old style bottle filled with apricots with 2 x cinnamon sticks in it, it was so potent I could only handle one of them, but the table easily finished it off.

The next night we met the new group to continue on our tour. This leg is a full group - 11 females and 1 male, all Aussies, and we have a Spanish tour leader - Josey. The group is getting along really well, but I was ´blessed´with having a snorer for the first 2 x nights, so I have gladly got someone else to share the room with. We took a day tour to Toledo yesterday, a smaller town that has a lot of history to share. The town has grown since the beginning of AD with various religious groups taking it over. It has walls throughout the city, which highlight which religious group had reign at that time, and the arches are quite unique also. The largest wall which surrounds the old part of the city was built by the Christians, and is beautiful to see.

Today we left Madrid and are now in Cordoba. We had a delicious lunch today of a variety of traditional Spanish dishes in a tappas like style spread across the table, so we could all have a bit of everything. We have been for a tour around the town, and will be leaving early in the morning to go to Seville. The tour leader has given Seville very high praise and we will be staying there a few nights, so we should get to see alot there - and it is were we get to the Flamenco dancing!!!! It should be a great night.

I was glad to finally get the chance to update you all on my adventure. It really hard to find decent internet places, and at a good price. I am getting a little sick of having to lug my bag up and down stairs in the train stations, and through city streets to the hotel, but I get over it when I get there :)

I shall update again, as soon as I can. I am having heaps of fun, eating delicious food and meeting great people. I hope everyone else is having a good time too. I have often said, at times where I am wandering through a beautiful garden, or watching the best sunset I have ever seen "I wonder what everyone else is doing right now".

I won´t be able to update you all on any photos until I get back to the UK, so I pick the best ones out then for you all.