To return into Spain from Southern Portugal, you can take an old, funny 2 euro ferry into
Ayamonte from Villa Real. The ride is short and sweet with a bright sunset behind us.
The roads from Ayamonte Spain, leading around Huelva East, are heavily trafficked so beware. Leading past fenced-off orchards of oranges or mansions with paranoid fencing making camping a difficult find at sometimes.
We did alright with a sneaky fun night tucked above the highway but had to
vertically hike our bikes through vicious thorn
patches into a clearing next to the fenced off and
prized orange orchard of the south. In the morning
workers began spraying pesticides but we just finished
breakfast and casually packed up camp.
For the next many miles toward Seville, we rolled excitedly through uber industrial, congested and polluted busy towns with
bargain strip malls; the only rest spots out of the
sometimes prying eyes and open sun was in the shade of
the municipal cemetery walls, kinda interesting but kinda bleak. We found lots of colorful plastic grave flowers in the trash- to spice up our bikes and handlebar bags.
We also found an olive grove behind one such cemetery where
we camped in the mud, but there were few choices in these flat
fields. One of the worst camp spots- behind a
hospital, among random trash and visible to the busy
road that left us to camp before finding a decent
campsite. you gotta do what you gotta do when it gets
dark.
Sometimes a good camp spot can become a
drag (as fun as it is to look back upon)...
Lucie's eating fork has become thoroughly deformed from removing
the clods of mud that gather up under Anna's poor-clearanced fenders and
render her unable to move at all. Like clay. she has vowed to take a break from camping in dirt fields for a little while.
Food... We usually shop at the discount supermarkets such as
Lidl or Aldi, but accidentally stumbled into an
Intermarche market, where we found they have a really rare and good selection of
produce and health foods such as tvp and bee pollen
and teas - all surprisingly cheap. These have become daily staples of morning oatmeal and pollen kernels, and evening soups with protein niblets soaking in. mmmmmmmmmmm...
Next; we fumbled our way into the insanely confusing tangle of highways and bustling outskirts of Seville. The region of Southern Spain, Andalucia, is becoming less industriazl and more green at this point.
Some nice men watching us curiously on a corner gave us directions
to a bike/scooter route into the city. Great!! And just after
getting a map at the tourist office we met another
cyclist. His name was Davi (tattooed on der knuckles), and he´d been cruising around on
the same busted up, little, folding bike for the previous 7
years. He informed us where there was free food and other such scavengerous noteworthies.
We made our way into the Santa Cruz district of Seville through
insanely narrow streets. By this we mean that there is not enough room for a person and a car, and if yer unlucky enough to get caught in said predicament- you start to sweat. But, folks are kind in their driving luckily. We stashed our bikes in a
colorfully tiled pension hotel and went roaming around the city. A thousand
tiny passages and streets that don't have much
correlation to one another. Kind of like a plate of
spaghetti. Met some nice folks but that only brings
the total of nice folks met in Spain to 5. People are very stand-offish in Espana, unlike many other countries. Sometimes
big cities can seem like theme parks of tourism, and
though that's sad, the city and tiles of Seville are
really a site to see and we walked around so much that we all
got shin splints and sore hips. Saw so many shoes and shoe shops
it's UNbelievable. Really!! Flamenco dresses that are
inspiring to sewing projects. We saw a fun Flamenco
performance by young artists who had some serious
talent. Flamenco is the way of life in Sevilla and this part of Spain: Andalucia.
Amazing guitar playing, really good showmanship of attitude
while dancing in a fun flouncy skirt, and the singers
style of vocalizing was stuck in our heads all night
as we wandered around the streets holding a cheap bottle of Frangelico.
Other things... tapas might make sense to hot weather living folks, but
they don't make sense to us! Things to try that we loved: a queso
bocadillo (sandwich) when you've got a solid hunger and need a
quick fix, cheap and filling.
Loads of wandering house dogs, so loads of dog poop in the streets hiding between cobbles. Watch out! People wear slippers inside their houses.
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