This weekend was AMAZING! It was our first trip out of Granada to Sevilla! I have some high expectations after this trip because not only was Sevilla a great city, we had literally the most hilarious time ever. We left early Friday morning, took the bus and arrived to Sevilla around noonish. All I could think about was eating my bocadillo (sandwich on baguette type bread) and finding the closest bathroom. After these thoughts we quickly realized we had no map, no directions, no idea of the address of our hostel (Lesley left all this in her notebook ready to go… at home). So we decided, no time to waste; found a random awful map and set out to find our hostel, went completely the wrong way and then finally wandered upon our hostel. The hostel wasn’t bad, besides the fact to get into the room you had to suck in and shimmy through the bed and the wall which only had a foot (maybe less) gap. We then went out and walked literally all over the city. We had absolutely no idea what we were doing. We walked past Alcazar and said woah that’s funny looking… let’s take a picture of it and figure out what it is later. Turns out it was a completely amazing palace. We scoped out the shopping district, walked along the river, ate some ice cream (we tried to stay in a constant state of consuming ice cream) and then went back to go get tapas. In Sevilla the tapas aren’t gratis (free) which kind of was a bummer. I read about a place with some great tapas so we went there. The waiter was easily my favorite man in Sevilla, he has worked there for 18 or 19 years and was so nice and happy! We then to another place that he recommended, since we hadn’t had dinner we tried to order a bocadillo. The waiter suggested to Megan a vegetable bocadillo and we were excited. Well, it actually turned out to be a VEGETABLE CAKE…. DISGUSTING! Later we went to a discoteca and wandered the city for a while.
Saturday we went to the Cathedral. It is the 2nd biggest cathedral in the world and it was absolutely beautiful. I honestly cannot even comprehend the amount of detail, work and thought that was put into building something like that. I took way too many pictures, but they couldn’t even capture how beautiful it was. As soon as I saw something totally gorgeous and unbelievable I turned the corner to only find something topping its beauty. I really wish both my Grandma’s could have been there with me, I think they would have really appreciated it. The cathedral also had a huge tower that you could climb. It had some amazing views of Sevilla. On the way up there were also really cool artifacts, some even from the 13th and 14th century! When we were leaving there was also a wedding party leaving! I was SO jealous, I can only imagine getting married there! We then went to the plaza de toros (the bull fighting ring) and then swindled our way into getting a cheaper horse carriage ride. The ride was really cool and we went all over Sevilla. Then later we went shopping for our gourmet dinner. We decided to save some euro we would get some pasta, sauce and some bebidas (drinks). Turns out, we ate dinner and had drinks like true college students for .75 euro… and it was gross haha. It kind of tasted like we blended up sweet tomatoes and poured it over pasta, their pasta sauces are weird here. We went to a discoteca with all 15 of the people who went to Sevilla and met lots of Americans (boo.). We came back to what we like to call “the great flood” on our floor. We have no idea how it got there but it was just in the middle of the room and some of our stuff definitely soaked! It ended up us hypothesizing how the heck it got there, nearly crying laughing so hard. It was pretty funny, it will remain the mystery of Pablo Picasso Hostel. But it probably was the man at the front desk who really hated us!
Sunday we went to Alcazar. I thought that Alhambra was amazing, but I am not sure which was more beautiful. Literally, this place took my breath away. The palace was absolutely gorgeous and there was unbelievable artwork everywhere. But my favorite part was the gardens. Apparently one of the queens said it would be nice to have a garden and SNAP a “garden”. I say “garden” because it was ENORMOUS. Not even kidding. I literally was in pure amazement with how beautiful it was. I walked around taking probably like 100 pictures of it. I keep having these moments where I realize I am in Spain for 4 months, with no worries and all the time ever to learn and enjoy myself. I feel SO SO SO SO SO lucky. My friends here can probably vouch for the fact that I constantly say “I am so jealous of myself” every 10 minutes. I think in the gardens I may have felt the happiest I have been in a long long time. It was truly a feeling of bliss! After, we went to get lunch to take to eat by the river. We went to a kabob place (I am obsessed with kabobs.. cheap and delicious). This turned into quite the escapade, it took probably more than half an hour to get 4 kabobs because the guy was muy loco. It was actually pretty funny because he was such a weird guy! We had to head to the bus station to go home, on the way we decided we needed ice cream for the 3rd time. Carolyn was literally attacked by birds, and we were nearly crying laughing so hard. The Spaniards surely did not find it quite as funny. I tried to stay awake for a least part of the bus ride, and go to see the countryside a bit more. It is so different from the city, very hilly/mountainous.
Overall, I really enjoyed Sevilla. Although I am so glad that I am studying in Granada. Sevilla felt less European… very touristy and American. There were tons of souvenir shops everywhere (I got a cool poster of a flamenco dancer!) and American restaurants (aka starbucks) EVERYWHERE. I felt like I could get around there speaking English since there are Americans everywhere, which is definitely not the case at all in Granada. Besides all the Americans, the people weren’t nearly as nice or helpful in Sevilla. The weather was gorgeous in the high 60s and sunny, I cannot wait for the weather to be like this in Granada relatively soon!
Speaking of Americans, Carolyn and I could pick out the Americans from groups of people SO easily. We have been trying to figure out how the Spaniards act that makes them different. We are going to transform into Spaniards soon, just wait. We have noticed that they walk around linked arms; they don’t nearly smile or laugh as much as Americans and they aren’t really loud like us. I can’t remember the other ones at the moment, but I am still observing!
Next weekend we are going to Morocco with our program! I am so excited! I have really wanted to go to Morocco but they have discouraged us to go without someone that knows what’s up since I can be dangerous for Americans. Rumor has it that this trip is kind of lame but I am just relieved to not have to plan something for a weekend and from the information we have gotten I think it sounds like it will be cool. Plus, I’ve never been to Africa!
We also have started planning our Semana Blanca break trips (February 19-March 2). We have 12 days and we are going to travel to Berlin, Prague, Vienna and Munich. I am really excited, we have gotten some great deals so far! It is a lot of work to plan this stuff since we have to go to internet cafes, etc. but it will be so worth it!
Gotta run to class! Adios!
don't worry, you'll love the morocco trip!! people say that it's lame because they want to go to casablanca, but i promise the school trip is worth it (and SO much safer). you'll get a very authentic experience.... and you get to stay in a five star hotel called dream's :)
ReplyDeleteso glad you're having such a good time!!