Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Sunshine and Sangria in Sevilla



¡Hola a todos! Sorry for the pause in blogging… Google detected “unusual activity” on my account, which I assume was me sending an email from a Spanish IP address, and so shut my account down, including my blog.  But it’s all better now.  Which is good, because in addition to the homework I have from today, the first day of class, I need to blog about my fantastic weekend in Sevilla.

Last weekend was the first weekend I was able to travel anywhere.  It’s been really cold here in Madrid (well, colder than I’d like, but much warmer than it is currently in Chicago) so Abby and I wanted to go somewhere warmer, but somewhere that was also inexpensive to get to.  We settled on the city of Sevilla, in the southern region of Spain.  We took the bus because the train is SUPER expensive.  It was a bit frustrating buying tickets for the bus but it worked out okay.  The bus ride itself was actually pretty enjoyable, despite being six hours long.  The seats were comfortable and the views of the Spanish countryside were breathtaking, from patchwork fields to rocky Middle Earth-esque mountains (the Sierra Morena, I believe). 

Modern windmills of La Mancha

Toro billboard

Sierra
We arrived in Sevilla around 4pm and headed straight to our hostel, the Samay Sevilla.  I had never stayed in a hostel before so I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect, but now I’m afraid the Samay has spoiled me.  The inside was bright and welcoming, and the woman at the desk was very helpful and, happily, spoke English.  There was a lounge where we could use the internet for free and a kitchen and terrace on the top floor.  Our room was in the building next to the hostel.  It had two sets of bunk beds and a mural on the wall depicting the Sevilla skyline.  There was already a girl in the room: Beth, from England, who was spending a month in Sevilla to improve her Spanish before she headed to work in Peru for six months.



After securing our valuables in our safe in the room (much appreciated. The door to the room locked as well), Abby and I decided to check out the terrace and free tea in the kitchen.  There we met Hayley, a girl from Australia.  She seemed nice and I invited her to join us the following day in exploring the Alcázar.  She said she would be “keen” to do so (in fact, she used this expression a lot, so lovely and Aussie) and we arranged to meet in the lobby the next morning.  Abby and I went to check out the terrace of the hostel.  It was nice and big, with tables and chairs for lounging and a beautiful view.  We could even see the tops of the cathedral and the Giralda Tower. 

The terrace

The view
That night, after getting slightly lost in the narrow and winding streets of the city, we met up with Katherine, my friend from high school who is studying in Sevilla this semester, at the Giralda Tower.  We got a bit lost on the way, but eventually we turned the corner and BAM:



We wandered around a bit until we found a little restaurant where we had tasty tapas and sangria (more would follow throughout the weekend).  We chatted about our study abroad experiences thus far.  Katherine’s purse had been snatched a few days earlier; her clutch which contained her money, her phone, and a video camera, was grabbed right out of her hand.  Luckily that hasn’t happened to me yet, but I’ll be sure to stick to my over-the-shoulder purse, which I always try to have a firm grasp on.

For postre (dessert) we found a pastelería (pastry shop), and we all bought chocolate-covered palmeras.  It took me about 10 seconds to inhale mine. SO GOOD.  The pastries were arranged so prettily I asked the women working there if it was ok for me to take a picture of the goodies.  They evidently thought I wanted to take a picture of them, so I did both!


Abby

Katherine

Delicious palmera, shortly before its demise
Afterwards we walked around the city, looked inside the University of Sevilla (beautiful!), and went to the Plaza de Espana, which was closing.  It's spectacular at night.

Me and Katherine in Plaza de Espana

You may have seen this place in movies such as Lawrence of Arabia and Star Wars (it was the palace of Naboo)

We had planned to go out later with Katherine, but once we went back to our hostel to change, we realized that we were far too tired to leave again and called it a night.  Besides, we had to get up at a decent time the next day to ensure maximum exploring time.  By then an Australian woman in her late 20s or early 30s had taken the last remaining bed (in fact, we met many Australians in Sevilla).  The next morning we showered in the bathroom shared by the floor, which had 2 showers, 2 sinks, one toilet, one mosquito (which I failed to defeat), and freezing cold floors. 

We met Hayley in the lobby at 11, along with Rose, her roommate in the hostel who was from San Francisco.  We headed over to the beautiful Alcázar, which is right next to the cathedral and Giralda Tower.  The Alcázar is a beautiful blend of Christian and Moorish architecture.  The rooms are beautiful and the gardens are beyond compare.  I could describe it but I’ll just show you some pictures as they’ll do a much better job.  TIP: If you have your student ID with you, you can get in free.  I did not have mine.  Abby did.  Gah.




Amazing tapestries






Lucky ducks get to live in a castle for free.


I swear I was not in Florida.


Underground pool

We went for some sangria after we left the Alcázar, and then we found a great place for tapas.  It was super crowded but somehow we made it up to the bar.  Almost everything on the menu was 2 euro or under.  Abby and I had tortilla and chicken, and Rose had calamares.  This place, called Bodega, had such a great atmosphere.  It was busy, the waiters were shouting out orders and scrawling the tabs in chalk on the bar.  I didn’t realize it right away, but this place was featured in the Sevilla episode of Passport to Europe (yaaay!).  We chatted with a visiting Spaniard from Galicia, Manu, and then headed back to the hostel where we departed for a walking tour of the city.  It was free (though the guide asked for tips at the end) and it took us all over the city: around the cathedral, through the Barrio Santa Cruz (the Jewish quarter ironically named “Holy Cross”), to the Plaza de España, and through parks created for the Exhibition.

Abby and our new friends from the hostel, Rose and Hayley

Inside Bodega
How on earth did we make it up to the bar right away?

Tile marking where a woman's head hung for 150 years.  Moral of the story: Don't betray your people.




That night we went to see a free Flamenco show at a nearby bar.  When we walked in it was super crowded.  We ordered some jarras de sangría and found a table to set the drinks on (it was so crowded we couldn’t all sit).  The flamenco began at 11 and consisted, at first, of three people: a dancer, a singer/clapper, and a guitarist.  Despite her amazing skills, I found it difficult to focus on the dancer because the guitarist was one of the most beautiful men I have ever seen.  Everyone on the stage was quite talented, actually.  During the flamenco performers’ break, Rose convinced me to ask for a picture with the guitarist.  After the flamenco-ers (flamenquers? I don’t know) came back on stage, two other people joined them: a man who sang and clapped, and a woman, not dressed for flamenco but who obviously had the moves.  It was truly a unique and very Spanish experience.




He was sooo attractive.



Most of us were tired and had to travel the next day, so after stopping at the only open tapas bar we could find, we retired to the hostel.  So far I am failing at the Spanish custom of partying until 6am; I need sleep!  The following day we planned to go up the Giralda Tower and do some shopping before our bus left.  To our dismay, we found that the cathedral and the tower didn’t open until 2:30 on Sundays, which was the time we had to leave for the bus station! So disappointing.  We did a little shopping instead, and I bought some postcards and a print of the Plaza de España to hang on my wall next semester.  I resisted more shopping because I know that I will be back before I go back to Chicago. 

I absolutely loved Sevilla.  In fact, while walking around the city that weekend I stated over and over how much I loved it.  It was the perfect first weekend of traveling and I was sad to go back to the reality of classes in Madrid.  However, I know there are many more weekend adventures to come!

Plaza de Espana

1 comment:

  1. Kelsey your photos are fabulosas!!! (I was just thinking, 'same shit, different people!') I saw all that stuff in Sevilla, including the flamenco show - I wonder if we saw it at the same bar? It looks like it! But I sure didn't see that guitarist. He's kind of a Mark Ruffalo/Javier Bardem combo. Thank you for posting your amazing, inspired comments. And the palmera de chocolate - now that's what I'm talkin' about!!

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