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Showing posts from September, 2013

Tearing Down 6 Spanish Stereotypes

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Except for three months home for the summer, I’ve been living in Spain for one year now. After reading countless blogs about the country, running into my fair share of tourists, and sharing my experiences with friends and family, I’ve gotten a sense of the sort of stereotypes that Spanish culture has in the minds of the rest of the world. In this post, I’ve gathered six of them that I find particularly annoying and have tried to break them down, giving more accurate examples of what Spanish society is really like. Let me know what you think of them in the comments section once you’ve finished reading! 1) Paella is the national dish Seafood paella in Valencia Paella (pronounced “pah-AY-yah” [paˈeʎa]) is a famous rice-based dish that originated in the Mediterranean region of Valencia . Saffron gives the rice its warm, golden color, and the savory rice is usually cooked with vegetables like artichokes and meat like rabbit, chicken, or various crustaceans and shellfish. It’s a bi

A Guided Tour of Úbeda, Spain

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So far, I’ve written an homage to Úbeda —the city where I lived for eight months while teaching English in southern Spain—as well as a post outlining my favorite restaurants in town. To conclude Úbeda Week on the blog, I’d like to present a (free!) guided tour of this really nice village I once called home. Famous for its Renaissance architecture, its tradition of pottery that dates back to Moorish times, and its bottles overflowing with high-quality olive oil, Úbeda is a small city with plenty to keep you occupied. Holy Chapel of El Salvador So I’ve put together three itineraries in this post that you can follow, combine, or rearrange if you like. Obviously, opening and closing hours may not always correspond with the given path, but hopefully these routes give you an idea of what there is to see in town so you can put together your own personalized plan of attack. A Tourist Map of Úbeda by yours truly (click to enlarge) I’ve also drawn up a map of Úbeda (thanks Go

How to Spend 48 Hours Eating in Úbeda, Spain

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Although living in a town of only 35,000 sometimes had its drawbacks, something I found really refreshing about living in Úbeda this past school year was that there were virtually no chain restaurants (especially American ones), which forced me to patronize local restaurants and eateries instead of corporate carbon-copies. Okay, so there was a Telepizza, but that was it. Eight months of hanging out with friends and going out for tapas later, and I think I may have formed an opinion or two about what places I like in Úbeda. In this post, I’d like to follow the “48 Hours” guide popularized by publications like the New York Times and the Independent , but focusing solely on food. Get hungry! Day 1 Breakfast If you’re craving some chocolate con churros —long, crunchy donuts that you dip in molten chocolate—then  Churrería ANPA is where you need to go. Nº 18 on the busy Avenida Ramón y Cajal (northeast of the Hospital de Santiago), this simple but popular churros joint is welcomi

An Homage to Úbeda, My Pueblo in Spain

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Although most people encounter the medium-sized town of Úbeda as a quick daytrip on tours of Andalucía, for me it was something quiet different. Úbeda was where I lived for eight months while working in southern Spain, my first introduction to Spanish society, my home. From appreciating Renaissance architecture, getting lost in Moorish-era streets and alleyways, eating ALL the tapas, to adopting the local accent, a year abroad in this town of 35,000 was one of the best experiences of my life, and I will (read: already do) miss this place a lot. Holy Chapel of El Salvador Now, I’m sure you wondering, where is this crazy town Trevor keeps blabbing on and on about on his blog? Well, Úbeda (pronounced “OO-vay-dah” [ˈu.βe.ða]) is one of the biggest cities in the southern province of Jaén , about three hours south of Madrid, two east of Córdoba , and two north of Granada . As it’s located in northern Andalucía below the Despeñaperros mountain pass, Úbeda is at the crossroads of mos

How I Fell in Love with Jaén, Spain—the Queen of the Olive Groves

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Jaén,  the capital city of the province of the same name, the province where I lived and worked for eight months in southern Spain this past year. Jaén, a city I have really come to love, a city that, despite its central location, is completely bypassed by tourists on their way from Granada to Sevilla . Jaén, this anonymous yet very typical Andalusian city, enchanted me over the course of the school year until I nearly teared up leaving town for the last time back in April. But it wasn’t always this way. Panoramic view of the city from the castle I remember my first visit to Jaén (pronounced as a throaty “khah-AYN” [xaˈen]) in late September; my bilingual coordinator was taking me to apply for my NIE and TIE (residency) since the oficina de extranjería  or foreigners’ office in the capital was the only place you could do so in the whole province, about the size of the state of Connecticut. We hopped on and off new stretches of highway that crossed through the hordes of oliv

A Pilgrimage to Fisterra, Spain

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After walking 115km (72 miles) along Spain’s Camino de Santiago  pilgrimage route in June, I finally arrived at the end point to the Way of St. James: the city of Santiago de Compostela. Hooray! It was an amazing feeling to look up at the Baroque façade of the cathedral in the Praza do Obradoiro on that gray Sunday morning, but my journey was not finished yet— there were three more days left! Fisterra, at last Although my Camino across northwestern Spain formally ended at the cathedral of Compostela, I decided to take the plunge and continue walking 89 more kilometers west, all the way to the ocean. Three long, hard days later, the Atlantic was in my sights. What the Camino to Fisterra is View this post on Instagram 89km (54 miles) and a nasty blister later, I made it to Fisterra, or Spain's version of Lands End. I just...don't want to walk for a month now >.< // #fisterra #galicia #spain #travel #hiki

Mérida, Spain: Extremadura’s Living Reminder of Rome

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In between moving out of Úbeda and going up north to hike the Camino de Santiago this June, I stopped off for two nights in Mérida, the capital city of the westerly Extremadura region. For the longest time, I had wanted to visit this town because of its well-preserved Roman ruins. After all, Mérida, or Emerita Augusta in Latin, was once the capital of the Lusitania  imperial province that included most of modern-day Portugal as well as west-central Spain. Because of that status, it was bestowed with all the standard things you’d expect out of a Roman city: buildings like theaters, forums, arenas, and temples. Despite 2,000 years of history passing through the region, much of Mérida’s ruins are surprisingly still intact. Toga-wearing tourists at the theater Aqueduct View this post on Instagram Trains heading out of Mérida pass through the Los Milagros Roman aqueduct. You know, just no big deal for this city. //

Málaga, Spain: More Than Beaches

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Málaga: Spain’s sixth-largest city and the capital of the Costa del Sol —the Coast of the Sun. In the image that the rest of the world has of Spain, Málaga (along with the rest of the entire Mediterranean coast) is almost exclusively known for its beaches and summer vacationing. However, there is so much more to this major coastal town than just  playas . View this post on Instagram The Beach. Aaaaaa! So thankful for the Málaga sun. // #malaga #andalucia #spain #travel #beaches #mediterranean A post shared by Trevor Huxham (@trevorhuxham) on May 1, 2013 at 4:51am PDT Now, when I visited the city in early May, I did  lay out on the Playa de la Misericordia beach and soak up the sun. After a long, rainy winter and spring, it felt so very good to take in some solar rays (with sunscreen, of course) and dash in and out of the icy sea. I’m not writing this post to judge people for flying down to Málaga for the beach;