If you’ve been to Spain in the summertime, you know how hot it gets. And it really doesn’t rain in most parts, either. After living there for two consecutive summers, it drizzled once or twice. That’s it.
Most Spaniards are notorious for not having air conditioning, and if they do, they only turn it on in the peak afternoon heat.
In Sevilla, every day was in the 90-100s, but the most miserable day was when it got to 110 degrees. Thankfully, our apartment had a community pool, and my roommate and I had a small oscillating fan in our bedroom.
I will always remember when we arrived to our Sevilla host family’s apartment. After our host sister greeted us, she slid open our bedroom window and then came back a few minutes later with the small fan that we would turn on whenever we were in the room. “Para las americanas,” she said. I was just thankful for having that fan all summer — I didn’t care that we had the reputation of not being used to living with no AC.
This past summer, after just sleeping with the window open and a cold washcloth on my head for two weeks, I asked my host parents if they had a fan. Thankfully, they had one in their storage unit and let me put it in my room.
I only took cold showers the past two summers. I LIVED by them. I’m not sure I really agree with any of the advice highlighted in this article for surviving Spanish summers (other than maybe wearing lightweight pajamas), but my #1 recommendation for anyone visiting Spain in the summer is to take cold showers. I know they sound awful right now if you’re reading this, but in the summer heat, I promise that they are a god-send.
My roomie, Cara, and I