Where I live: Ciudad Real, the Royal City!

I didn't know where I was living until 12th August last year, and when I looked at my language assistant nombramiento, which states where and how many hours I'd be working, I saw that I was going to be a language assistant in Ciudad Real. Ciudad Real you say? Royal City? Where's that? This is exactly what I thought! I knew it was in Castilla-La Mancha (also known as La Mancha), because I chose that region, but other than that I didn't know anything about it. I immediately looked it up on Google and then Google images, and found out that it's a small city (75,000 inhabitants), near the bottom of La Mancha, around an hour and a half from Toledo,  just over 2 and away from Madrid, and also around just over 2 hours away from Córdoba. Most people fly to Madrid airport then catch the train or the bus to Ciudad Real to get here. You can also fly to Málaga and catch a train up to Ciudad Real, but there are lot more ways to get from Madrid to Ciudad Real than there are to get from Malaga to Ciudad Real, and Madrid is closer.

Now I have to explain some things about Spanish geography here, for you to fully understand where Ciudad Real is placed. So you have Spain the country, and then you have the comunidades autónomas (autonomous communities): Andalucía, Aragón, Asturias, Las Islas Baleares, El País Vasco, Las Islas Canarias, Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, Cataluña, Extremadura, Galicia, La Rioja, Madrid, Murcia, Navarra,  and La Comunidad de Valencia. Within each comunidad autónoma is a provincia (province or region). In Castilla-La Mancha, which is a region famous for windmills, there are 5 provinces: Guadalajara, Cuenca, Toledo, Ciudad Real and Albacete. And finally, in these provincias there are cities, towns and villages. I live in the capital of the region Ciudad Real, which is Ciudad Real . There are other cities my region like Daimiel, Almagro and Valdepeñas. I was initially confused about this because someone told me that a city I was visiting at the time (Alcalá de Henares) was in Madrid, and I thought 'how can a city be in a city?', but then they explained to me that the province is called Madrid, and Madrid is the capital city of this province.

Windmills in Consuegra, which is in Toledo

So geography lesson over, right?! Well, not quite. I'm going to continue the geography lesson a bit more by talking about the weather in Ciudad Real- how British of me! I first arrived in Ciudad Real in late August, to check it out and to look for a flat to live in so that I got everything sorted out early on, and guess what? It was 43 degrees when I arrived! Yes, 43 degrees. I came from Madrid, which was about 30 something degrees when I left it, so another 10 or so degrees killed me. I may live in Castilla- La Mancha, which is in the centre, but Ciudad Real is at the bottom of this region and basically has a similar climate  to some of the southern cities. It was terrible walking in the streets and I needed to carry a bottle of water with me everywhere when I first arrived. However, it still gets cold here in winter, which is terrible when you compare it to how hot it gets - my friends and family think I lie about it being cold here because they see Spain as being always hot. It never snows though. You'd have to go up North for that.

Iglesia de San Pedro

What's the city actually like then? Well, it's quite normal. It's not really pretty like other Spanish cities such as Salamanca, Toledo or Segovia and there aren't many places of interest to visit, but it´s in an ideal location to visit other places. The main sites would be the Iglesia Parroquial de San Pedro, a Gothic style church which is the most photographed monument of the city, another Gothic church called Iglesia de Santiago, which is the oldest church in Ciudad Real (the capital) and the Museo de Don Quijote, which is near a nice little park called Parque de Gassett. Did I tell you that the character Don Quijote, from the book Don Quijote written by Cervantes, is from La Mancha? In the book he travels through Castilla-La Mancha, Aragón and Cataluña and you can actually follow the route he followed in the books here in Spain. I've seen signs of "La ruta de Don Quijote" when travelling in La Mancha, but haven't tried it yet, and haven't actually gone near it. Plaza Mayor is also an important place to visit, and is where a lot of people meet up to go for tapas. The cathedral is also a main sight - I didn't know it existed until last month, even though I was stood in front of it the first time I came to the city. I don't know how I missed it because it has the second largest nave in Spain! There are other sights to see such as the Museo Manuel Lopez Villasenor, the Museo Elisa Cenderos and a water park called Playa Park. 

Parque de Gassett

Plaza Mayor

Although I would have preferred to live in a bigger more historical city, I don't mind Ciudad Real. There are quite a few advantages of living in a small city. For example, it's easy and doesn't take very long to walk to the main places. There are also two supermarkets that are 10 minutes away from my flat, and another one that´s 15 minutes away. Plus, it takes me 10 minutes to walk to the school I work at, and I love this because I get an extra few minutes in bed, whereas I know people who live in bigger cities who have to get up a lot earlier than I do and have to also catch the metro, the bus or the train. That brings me onto my next point. It's insanely cheap to live here. I don't have to spend any money on catching the bus to get around the city and  the rent's much cheaper than it is in bigger cities. The tapas are even given to you for free with your drink here (you can actually go out for tapas and get a cheap dinner), and when I went to Seville, which is quite a large city, you had to buy your tapas separately.

Anyway, I'm glad I was placed in Ciudad Real because it's in a great location, which has allowed me to travel to so many places in Spain,  and I get the chance to discover an unknown city. Not many people I know can say "I've visited Ciudad Real."

Spanish Food

When thinking about my year abroad in Spain, all I thought about was how I going to travel to many places and enjoy the lovely sun and hot weather, but I never really thought a lot about the food I was going to eat. During my time in Spain, I've been able to try quite a few Spanish dishes, even though I'm a picky eater. Spain has a lot to offer food-wise, and I'm glad I've had the chance to try Spanish cuisine. Here's a list of the Spanish dishes I've eaten, some of  their ingredients and what I think about them.

Paella

Now, I think this is the most well known Spanish dish, because I've heard British people talk about it before and I've seen them eat it; even my housemate used to buy paella all the time, and when I first started learning Spanish, at 13, the first thing that popped up when I looked for Spanish food was paella. I generally like this dish, although whether I like it or not depends on its ingredients, as there are many different types of paella. My favourite kind of paella so far is actually a vegetarian one. I don't like the kinds of paella with too much seafood or fish with bones in it. However, apparently the best type is made in Valencia, its city of origin, but I have yet to try paella valenciano.

Some of the ingredients:
Chorizo - which is a type of Spanish pork sausage and is very popular in Spain!

Chicken (pollo)
Prawns (gambas)
Mussels (mejillones)
Rice (arroz)

Cocido

As I said, I'm a picky eater. I'm so bad that even if I don't like the way something looks I won't eat it , and the first time I saw cocido, which is like a kind of stew, I didn't like the look of it and didn't really want to eat it. However, I decided that because I was in Spain and this dish was being served to me then I must try it, and it turned out that I did like it. It actually reminded me of my grandma's soups, but my grandma's soups are better - everything my grandma cooks is always better, actually. This dish is also a great representation of how healthy the Spanish diet is because it's full of vegetables.

Some of the ingredients:
Chorizo
Chick Peas (garbanzos)
Ham (jamón)
Chicken (pollo)
Cabbage (repollo)
Carrots (zanahorias)
Noodles (fideos)
Tomatoes (tomates)

Lentejas

The funny thing about this lentil soup is that I keep on calling it lentillas,  which actually means contact lenses. It's not my favourite dish, but is certainly interesting.

Some ingredients:
Lentils (lentejas)
Potatoes (patatas- patatas is also a colloquial way of saying chips)
Chorizo (again?!!)
Carrots (zanahorias)

Celery (apio)



Judias Blancas 

The texture of this dish reminds me of lentejas, but I prefer this dish because this is basically like white bean soup, and I like white beans as they're very similar to baked beans and kidney beans, which I love.

List of possible ingredients:
White beans - (Judias/Alubias blancas)
Chorizo (still popular!)
1 onion (una cebolla)
Garlic (ajo)






Fideuà

Do you notice something? Maybe not, but this traditional Catalan dish looks a little bit like paella, and that's because it is very similar to it, but the rice in paella is substituted with noodles that are made out of pasta, and it tends to mainly stick to using seafood for its main ingredients. However, like paella you can still have many different types of fideuà. I've only tried it once, but I liked what I tasted and will definitely try it again in the future!

Some ingredients:
Noodles (fideos)
Prawns (gambas)
Chorizo
Fish (pescado)
Squid (calamar)

Tortilla Espanola

This is essentially a Spanish omelette. I prefer this dish bland, without onions and with a lot of potato. It's my favourite safe choice when I go out for tapas, which are small dishes that are normally served with drinks at a bar (one of the best things about Spain, to be honest!).

List of possible ingredients:
Eggs (huevos)
Onions (cebollas)
Potatoes (patatas)

Crema Catalana

Also called Crema de Sant Josep, this dessert is the Catalan version of crème brulée,  but  there are people who argue that there are some differences between the dishes. It's  my favourite dessert to eat and I buy it at the Mercadona (a popular Spanish supermarket) every week, even though it's traditionally prepared on Saint Joseph's Day, the Spanish equivalent of Father's Day. You can eat it hot or cold.  I enjoy eating it both ways.

Some ingredients:

Milk (leche)

Eggs (huevos)

Cinnamon (canela)

Sugar (azúcar)

Chorizo

Behold the famous chorizo! This piece of food is so versatile! It can be put in so many dishes. That's why you've seen the name pop up several times before I got to say something about it. I think it's quite popular in England too. So what can you make with it? As I don't know how to cook Spanish food very well I try to use it in the food I normally eat in England. I love putting it on my pizzas, in my sandwiches, mixing it with rice and pasta and so on and so forth. It's so tasty!

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Mosto

Squash doesn't exist in Spain! You heard me: squash doesn't exist. So I just stick to drinking juice, water or tea, and one of my favourite Spanish juices is mosto, which is just grape juice (zumo de uva). When I go out with my friends, I prefer drinking this to drinking beer  (cerveza), which Spaniards are crazy about.

Churros con Chocolate

Now during my time in Spain I've had churros, which are fried dough pastries, several times only with sugar or even just on their own. When I ate them like that I never really enjoyed them, until I finally ate them in the proper way when I went to catch up with my university friend in Salamanca over breakfast. It was a heavy breakfast, so I couldn't eat everything but it was definitely worthwhile and now I shall be looking forward to eating churros con chocolate again!



As you can see, there are so many Spanish dishes that you can try. I've tried much more Spanish food than the food I've mentioned above, such as bizcocho, mazapán from Toledo, caricias de San Blas and a lot more, but I don't think I have enough space to write about them all! For me, trying Spanish food is one of the best things I've done during my year abroad, and I can't wait to have more food adventures!