Day 1: Sevilla, España

One of the ways that I am able to travel for the next six months — you know, other than the support of an extremely generous, loving family — is that for the majority of my time I will be working at hostels, lodges, farms, and random family homes for food and housing. So when you think to yourself, how did white white white non-Portuguese speaking Lexi getting a job at a nudist lodge in Portugal? Yep, work-exchange. Brilliant.

For anyone who's interested in travelling, saving some money, and having some very bizarre experiences, I highly recommend checking it out — www.workaway.info. The site basically allows you to search people from all over the world that are looking for helpers for 3-4 hours/day in exchange for food and housing.

There's a few things that are pretty great about this:
1) It's free...duh
2) It forces me to slow down and stay in places for (generally) 2-3 weeks at any given time. The slower pace allows me to really get to know a place, meet more people, and not feel like such a hobo — all wonderful perks. This is also really the key to blurring that line between just being a tourist and being a traveller...or at least that's what I tell myself.
3) You can find really bizarre jobs that don't exist in real life. For example, there was a Spanish paraglider who was looking for someone to drive his truck throughout Europe as he did a paragliding version of the quintessential Eurotrip. AND, along the way, he'd teach you how to paraglide. If only I knew how to drive a stick...

While I'm very excited about starting my first hostel job in Granada next week, I figured that if I dove directly into a 2-3 week job without doing any exploring of other areas first, then I might get a little stir-crazy. So I'm spending the week exploring Sevilla, Tarifa, and Morocco.

Alright, so let's get to it: Day 1, Sevilla, España.

The river I didn't know existed...

I spent the majority of my day walking around the city just exploring. One of the amazing perks of travelling without doing a single bit of research is that everything you come across is a brand-new discovery. For example, I discovered that Sevilla is on a RIVER. I was just walking around town and happened upon this gorgeous, huge river. Go figure. Granted, as a Spanish and history major (and just generally as a human being), I should have absolutely known this but I didn't, and finding the river was much more exciting.

After a big 'ol learning day, I landed myself in a truly authentic Spanish cafe called Starbucks. It was filled nearly exclusively with American students. Sometimes a Spanish coffee consisting of a single shot of espresso is just not enough. Actually, it is rarely enough and thus we flock to the one place where we know we can get a large iced coffee, no questions asked. Either way, being able to quickly strike up a conversation with 5 new faces in the span of half an hour is definitely a reassuring start to a long solo journey when my primary concern is loneliness. Lesson learned, when you just really want to talk to someone in English, find the closest Starbucks.