Tourism in Almería

This sun is the symbol of the city of Almería
(It's located on the side of the cathedral)

This weekend was a really nice, calm weekend.  My friends and I continued to do a little bit more tourism around our own city, Almería.

The thing is, during the winter, none of us wanted to leave the warmth of our apartments to wander off into the streets, but now that the weather is much nicer, it is a rarity to see us hunkered down.  It turns out that we were missing out on quite a bit this winter, there are actually many things to see and learn about in Almería.  For example, this weekend began the festival of the Crosses of May (Las Cruces de Mayo).  Last year I celebrated the cruces every day in Baza because it was a HUGE deal there.  Everywhere you turned there would be a restaurant or bar with a cross outside of it, or a person who has their doors open for everyone to come in and see how they have done up the patio of their house.  In Almería it is not such a big festival, but it is still celebrated.  On Saturday I went out with Steph and her flat mates in search of the crosses in town.  We ended up not making it to the center until siesta time, so we didn't get to go in to many places to see them but we were able to peek in a few windows and catch a glimpse.

One of the Crosses of May patios

Then on Sunday, I got up and met with Steph and her flat mates again to do a Gastronomy Tour of Almería.  We paid two euros, and for some silly reason thought we were going to get discounts, but I digress...  We paid two euros and a lady from the tourism office gave us and a group of people much older than us a tour of the "Ruta de Tapas," or the tapas route.  She pointed out the good places to go and explained what their specialties were.  She showed us the oldest bars and the most important ones.  She also told us some of the background of tapas.  There are two common stories as to how the tradition of tapas began.  I may get some details wrong, but as far as I remember it goes like this.  One is that bar owners saw people leaving their bars pretty tipsy after having a few beers or a few glasses of wine, so they began to serve them a little something on the side of each drink just to line their stomach a little bit as they enjoyed their beverage.  The other is that as people drank their beer or wine, there would be flies or mosquitos that would fly into their drinks, so the bartenders would give people a slice of bread with something heavy on top of it to "tapear" or to cover their drinks so that these flies couldn't enter.  Either way, we are glad that this happened because we can enjoy free tapas to this day with each beer or wine that we have.

Iglesia Virgin del Mar

We also made a few stops so that she could explain the history of the cathedral of Almería and the Virgin of the Sea Church (Iglesia Virgin del Mar).  The cathedral of Almería is so different from other cathedrals because it is built to look more like a castle/fortress than a church.  The reason that it was built this way is because Almería used to be a big target for north african pirates, so they needed a place to defend themselves and to set up their canons.  This cathedral had more than one function, so it has a very interesting history.  Then we went to the Virgin of the Sea Church to find out that this church houses the patron saint of Almería.  I personally felt a little guilty for not knowing this fact because this church is right around the corner from my house and I walk by it very often, but better to find out late than never I suppose!  What happened is that someone found a small wooden statue of the virgin in the sea and then brought it back to the city.  They built a place to keep it and named it the virgin of the sea because it came from the sea.  They believe that it must have been part of a ship and fell off in a shipwreck or battle at sea.  So what they did was build the church for it with many elements in the façade from the sea because that's where her roots are.  An interesting fact about the statue.  When Almería was attacked by pirates who were stealing and destroying things from the city, the people of the church dressed the statue in gypsy clothing and hid it behind another statue so that it looked like a doll.  This is the reason that it was not stolen or destroyed and they still have it to this day.

A pretty house near the Cathedral

After the tour, we were very hungry so we decided to try out a couple of the bars that she recommended to have lunch.  We had some delicious tapas which included migas, rice with octopus, salmorejo, stuffed mussels, bean & tuna salad and patatas a lo pobre.  We enjoyed our tapas and then Steph, Hannah and I continued on our relaxing Sunday trying out the Arab Baths.  I had been to the arab baths in Granada back when I was studying abroad and it was an amazing experience that I knew I wanted to repeat.  We got there for our 16:00 appointment, changed into our bathing suits and walked downstairs in awe as the lady explained how it worked.  Basically, you walk down into a dimly lit room that has four different pools, a tea station, massage rooms, a sauna and a shower.  There was ambiance music going on, aromatherapy scents and candles lit all over the place.  We got into the first pool for a little while which was about 36 degrees C.  After that pool, you move on to one that is about 40 degrees C and then take a quick dip in 15 degree C pool.  After you freeze your bum off in that pool, you take a break to drink a cup of tea or a glass of water to rehydrate.  After you enjoy the delicious sweet mint tea, you get into the jacuzzi that is 37 degrees C, then jump in the sauna for 5 minutes, shower off and start the cycle all over again.  Each appointment is 1.5 hours long and you can go around as many times as you want within that time period.  Needless to say, we took our time and really enjoyed ourselves in the arab baths.  By the time the rang the bell for us to leave, we were extremely pruned, but not yet ready to leave and go back into the real world again.  I hope that I will get to go one more time before I leave, it is a truly relaxing and enjoyable experience.

Now I am going to travel again this weekend, but once I come back I am going to continue my tourist route of Almería learning all of the things that I should have learned back in October :)