Last week I returned from 10 days in Seville and Madrid, Spain - we went to visit my oldest daughter, Jess, who has been living there since January. What a gorgeous city Seville is!!!! Every direction we explored provided more colorful winding mazes of stone alleyways peppered with bars, restaurants and cafes. There were stores mixed in there as well, though they were way outnumbered by the others (not to mention the stores were seemingly closed so much). Not one time did I see people walking hurriedly down the street talking on their cell phones - not once! The only people that we saw using their digital "attachments" in a cafe was in Madrid when we were in a nice restaurant, and the grumpy Americans next to us both had their smart phones in front of them avoiding table conversation.
I will admit that when the four of us came home at night we had our version of the American family in plain view: four laptops, four heads down, 40 fingers typing fast and furious catching up on the events on the day and keeping in touch with people from home. Yikes! We were supposed to get away, be in the moment, yet we were pulled back to home and work by all the technology we lugged around with us. I was as guilty as the others. When I observed this scene the second night, I vowed to go to my already chosen favorite cafe, Cafe Piola in Alameda, the following morning sans any technology - just myself. When I was leaving I grabbed a book, but when I ordered my daily cafe con leche, I realized the book was yet another escape from my surroundings, so I put it aside and just watched the people around me. This is why we leave our wonderful country - to experience the culture of another, right? And what a different culture it was - in general, people are not in such a hurry. We've heard this, but it's interesting to see that even in a fairly large city, people linger over their coffee in the morning, talking to neighbors, family and friends, tossing their napkins many times on the floor when they are finished. I found that the sign of an authentic bar populated by locals was one littered with napkins. At first I scoffed as this slovenly site, but then realized it was just different - "we'll clean up later after we've fully experienced this".
When I was planning our trip, I decided to try to set up a home exchange through home link.org, and though it's like finding a needle in a haystack to find a compatible exchange, we succeeded, and were able to stay in a lovely apartment in Alameda - a very lively area near El Centro. Our kind hosts invited us to dinner on the roof of their building and served us a wonderful, typically Sevillian meal of jamon iberico, manchego cheese, salad with eggs and tuna, and a tart - with, of course, lots of "vino tinto". When we asked our hosts whether we should take a car or a bus to visit Ronda the following day, they offered the use of their car. When I demurred, feeling that was too big a responsibility, Carmen, the wife, asked me why I didn't want to use their car? I replied "What if we had a wreck?", to which she sensibly replied "Why would you do that?". Emilio, the husband, followed up by saying "It is not my mother. It is not my lover. It is a car. Take it". So the matter was settled, and we drove to Ronda the next day in their car - this was my favorite day yet. More about Ronda in the next post with photos from my new, big daddy Nikon D4…I tested it out on that day.
These were all taken with my little Panasonic GX1 that fits in my purse:
And here are a few taken from my new Nikon D4:
No comments:
Post a Comment