by RycePooding » Wed Apr 23, 2014 4:45 pm
I lived in Spain last summer.
I was in Sevilla for six weeks taking classes and train hopping around southern spain staying in hostels etc for another 3ish weeks.
Southern spain is super duper hot, especially in August, with little to no air conditioning (tho hotels often do have AC) but once you get used to it, it's amazing. A very relaxed culture throughout, siesta is taken very seriously. The food is incredible, especially if you enjoy seafood. Some if it will gross you out at first I'm sure, but try everything you can, at least once, you won't regret it.
People may seem rude at first (I'm convinced this is why many Americans perceive Europeans as rude) but it's just a different culture. They aren't really treating you any differently then they would treat someone who wasn't American. It's a very open culture and they won't hesitate to tell you if they have a problem with something you're doing. I prefer it really. In my host stay it was a lot easier to get things right because they would just yell at me if I did something wrong and it didn't happen again. None of the bullshit tip toeing around the issue that happens stateside (often, at least.)
Sevilla was great, recommend visiting, but only for a weekend. I got very bored of it after a couple weeks. Grenada was my favorite city because of the mountains (and Alhambra is incredible, but so is every touristy thing there is to do in every city). Honestly you can skip cordoba and malaga. HIGHLY recommend both Cadiz and Nerja. Very chill beach towns that aren't too too touristy.
Anyway, if you have any specific questions about andalucia (where I was most of the time) feel free to him me with a PM and I'll tell you what I know!