It started the day we arrived in Seville: we were planning to meet friends for ‘an early dinner’, which turned out to be at 20.00, when the restaurant opened. And we’ve been eating later and later, ever since. No wonder Spaniards need a siesta!
What is a Siesta?
The word siesta comes from Latin, ‘sixth hour’ (after sunrise), and it doesn’t require a nap. Instead, it’s a chance to take a break during the hottest part of the day and to eat your main meal, ideally with family. A nap can certainly be part of the process, but so can a slow walk, or just relaxing.
Naturally, this habit affects everything, including how far people live from where they work, and how houses are built. (Many have shaded courtyards, places where you can get out of the sun while still feeling a breeze.) We’ve noticed that many stores don’t open until 10. Breakfast also starts about then and is served until about noon. Lunch at 12.30 is on the early side: 13.00 or even 14.00 is more regular. Many stores close between 14.00 and 16.00 or even 17.00. But then they open again: doctors commonly see patients until 20.00, and stores remain open until at least then. Restaurants, for their part, sometimes close at about 16.00, only to open up four or more hours later. Which in turn means that dinner happens at around 22.00, or even 23.00. And, while lunch is the biggest meal of the day, dinner is not small.
How Are We Managing?
In our travels, we try to be what Rick Steves calls ‘temporary locals’, blending in as much as we can. In New York that meant wearing black and scowling. In Seville, it means postponing our day by about three hours. We’re sleeping later (Seville is at the very western edge of its time zone, so at the moment the sun doesn’t rise until about 8.30, and that helps a lot.) We eat little or nothing for breakfast, lunch at around 14.00, and dinner at 21.00 – or even later. This still makes us conspicuously early, but we usually get a seat even at popular restaurants. It helps a lot that we’re not on a fixed schedule.
We struggle to sleep right after a big meal, so we often just eat a handful of small plates (aka tapas), best served between 20.30 and 22.30. And, we’ll be honest: we aren’t great at the napping part of the siesta (yet). Still, we might finally be getting over our Puritan notion that early risers are morally superior. At least until we get to our next place and see how they behave there!
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