Sunday I bought a ticket to a big local futbol match between Sevilla and Real Betis. It's the equilavent of the Giants playing the Jets, only people actually live for who wins. It was a great game, but the team I was rooting for lost again...bad luck. The rest of the week was very mellow. I watched a lot of futbol, met a bunch of people from England, a few locals, and got very familiar with the Sevillian way of life. But before I got sucked into being a lazy Spaniard I figured I'd get out of here.
A few observations about Sevilla: the airport is small, only slightly larger than my apartment, and its about 10 minutes from the city center. While the people, and especially the women, are well dressed in a classy kind of way, they are nowhere near as materialistic as us Americans. No fake purses, no flashy jewelry, no pretending to be someone they are not. They are simply from Espana, and they are here to chill. Practically everyone, and I mean 90 out of every 100 cars are these teeny little hatchback types ala the Honda Civic or smaller versions of the Volkswagon Gulf. I've seen only 2 SUV's in 9 days here....this is a smart albeit lazy bunch. Another thing I found really peculiar is the fact that I didn't see one person wearing a baseball type hat, not one guy...even near the colleges. If anyone knows why, please fill me in.
Also, these people smoke like they are on death row, total insanity. It's impossible to eat breakfast indoors without choking on second hand smoke...and I'm talking about 7 am!! Ash tray with your eggs sir? Vomit..
And finally, the dollar-euro thing. For those of us living in New York or Miami, there is literally no difference, in fact, it's cheaper in Spain. A cab from newark to the city is 50 bucks...from barcelona to city is 30 euros ($45). vodka nyc =$10-14, 5-8 euros ($8-12), the bus costs 1.10 euro ($1.65), I paid 1.70 euro for a slice ($2.50), and most of my dinners were 8-10 euros ($12-$15) which included 2 tapas, a water and a beer.
(Fyi...food really sucks here...go with the chicken or the paella)
All in all, I picked a great place to start my trip because it enabled me to get used to being away and to really unwind before I head to lesser known destinations.
For those of who are wondering why I'm going to Slovenia, read the below email response I received from a hotel/apartment operator and you should have your answer:
Dear Mr Lee Scwartz,
thank you for your kind email and interest about Domacija House apartments and our beautiful country and city of Ljubljana.
We would realy like to meet you but unfortunately, all our apartments are already occupied for your date.
To help you, we're sending you data about our partner companies and we hope they'll find an appropriate accommodation for you:
Information about Apartments-Rooms Tour As:
Address : Mala ulica 8, Ljubljana, Slovenia
<http://www.apartmaji.si/> http://www.apartmaji.si
Phone + 386 1 434 26 60
Fax + 386 1 434 26 64
Klemen apartment
ljubljana.apartment@yahoo.com
Address: Vodnikova cesta 6
Phone: +386 31 401 728
Apartmaji MANDI & JENA
Tržaška 49, 1000 Ljubljana
Telefon
+386 1 590 10790
http://freeweb.siol.net/jena123
Apartments Vila Minka:
Address: Kogovskova 10, Ljubljana, Slovenia
http://www.vilaminka.si
E-mail: minka@vilaminka.si
Tel + 386 1 583 00 80
Fax + 386 1 507 46 91
I kindly invite you to visit our web site on www.tourist-apartment-ljubljana.com and you are very welcome in Domacija apartments at some other occasion.
We wish you to find a suitable accommodation in Ljubljana and good experience of Slovenian hospitality.
Lep pozdrav - Best Regards,
Simona Strnad with family
for Domacija Apartments,
Jelovskova 4,
Ljubljana, Slovenia
GSM + 386 31 691 558 - Simona
Phone + 386 1 42 92 660
www.tourist-apartment-ljubljana.com
1 comment:
Great! Euro analogy is very interesting. Of course, I would have figured the opposite. That said, MIA and NYC are so expensive these days.
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