09-15-07Sevilla

After a semi-late night, and despite being exhausted from the week, Josh, Vanessa, Brianna, and I hoped on a bus to Sevilla to get out of Cadiz and see some cool stuff. John, in a sub-par state of health (bien crudo), didn’t meet up with us as planned so the four of us took off and got to Sevilla at around 12:30. The bus cost us 9 euros each way and took just 1.5 hours.

When we got there and oriented ourself we headed straight for Sevilla’s main tourist attraction, El Catedral. The cathedral was built in the 7th century and is not only enormous but covered with carvings and filled with gorgeous sculptures, stained glasses windows, golden art, and other similarly ancient things. Many many many many pictures were taken, though not being allowed to use a flash was a little difficult. Josh was muy enfadado (angry) as blurry pictures were taken one after another. After seeing the main halls we climbed the tower of the cathedral and took some time to scan the Sevilla skyline. The barrio Santa Cruz, an older, quaint and gorgeous part of town was next to the cathedral and we could see a lot of the great architecture from that tower.

Lunch was our next item on the agenda. Now, my ‘mom’ packed me enough food for about 8 meals in one bag for this one day trip, meaning that I had more than enough to share around. The most common bocadillo (sub-sandwich) is one that has a tortilla de patata inside of it. A tortilla de patata is a mixture of potatoes, ham, and salt held together with an eggy mixture and then fried. It appears to be more or less a potato pancake – which we then eat in a sandwich. Despite it being a little odd, it tastes fantastic. That came with another sandwich (both were huge by the way) of ham and cheese, cheetos, juice, more juice, an apple, and a chocolate croissant. Damn what a meal, one eaten underneath a statue of the Immaculate Conception (coincidence?).

Our next stop was the arena de torros to see if there was a bullfight, but unfortunately the fight we though was Saturday was Sunday and we were only planning on staying in Sevilla for the day. The river that crosses through Sevilla was right next to us at that point and we walked along it to find café where we could grab a drink and take a rest. The one we found had mediocre juices and fruit shakes which were able to tide us over for a while.

As we walked towards an area of town that looked cool (unfortunately it was more or less a park for hobos) we found underneath the city’s many bridges some of the most amazing graffiti. There were eyes, birds, writing, people, and tons of other crazy cool stuff done with a pretty impressive skill level. After passing all that we ran into a riverside barbeque spot which was quite American. The whole area being kind of creepy (especially the drunken man lying by his trailer trying to get us to come talk to him), we left to head back to the main part of town, finding more graffiti on the way.

Before heading totally back into Sevilla, we stopped at a supermarket in a mall to get some water. The water was warm so we stowed it under the ice bags on sale and went to use the bathroom before buying them. 15 minutes later, water wasn’t too much better. Josh, in his brilliance, bought a 1.50 euro box of 10 chocolate covered vanilla ice cream bars. The name: Crocan Sticks, the color of the “Vanilla” ice cream: yellow…I choked down two, as did Brianna, and Vanessa took care of one. Josh handled the other 5 with grace, and then continued to eat dinner a few short hours later...

Going into the heart of Sevilla we found a plaza market which we browsed for a bit, a sex shop where I bought josh a wind-up penis toy, and an H&M outlet with western clothing galore. We randomly met some others from the program soon after, who we had no idea were in Sevilla. They were on there way to a hostel so they could stay the night and head back after the bull fight that they were going to the next day.

For dinner we had a treat. My ‘mom’ had suggested a pizzeria, which was situated in a 7th century home in the middle of the gorgeous Barrio Santa Cruz. We drank wine and beer and ate fantastic Italian food while appearing to be in the 600s.

The Plaza de España was our last stop, and unfortunately the most harmful. I, in my fantasticness, had checked the bus schedule online and, when we arrived in Sevilla, neglected to follow Vanessa’s advice of going and actually checking the schedule again. The last bus to Cadiz, which we thought left at 10:45, left at 10...meaning that when we got there at 10:20, ready to go, the bus was long gone. The schedule online had not been updated and had changed from Summer times to Winter times, hence the earlier departure. What to do, what to do, what to do. Hostel? Naaah. Stay up till 7AM and take the first bus home? Much better idea! Having made that wonderful decision, we headed back into town to hopefully find an internet café to check the UW football game score.

We spent the first few hours in a bar playing cards and having a few drinks, the next ones getting eaten alive in a park by mosquitoes, and the last few playing Frisbee and dosing on the bus station steps until their doors opened at 6AM. To add a little icing to the cake, I lost my return ticket sometime in the night and ended up having to buy another for 10 euro.

Regardless, all in all the trip rocked. The sights were great, I had good company, and Sevilla is a really fun city. The night wasn’t too restful, but we made sure to make up for it with some good beach hours the next day and lots of sleep.