Sevilla

Apologies in advance for the lateness of this post! Am posting from the hostel computer in Venice. Last Monday the 28th I went to Sevilla on the Ave train from Madrid. I was planning on going first to Granada, but I heard you had to buy tickets online to see the Alhambra, so I checked that out before I left, and it was sold out. Big bummer. It was a tough decision, but I decided that if I couldn't see the Alhambra it would be better to come back another time to Granada. So, I went straight to Sevilla for two nights.

La Catedral



The Ave train is awesome. It's Spain's high-speed rail system and it gets to Sevilla in 2.5 hours! Look at a map, that's pretty far. So, I arrived at the train station and took a bus to some square near the hostel. It was pouring rain, but I eventually found my hostel, called the Garden Backpacker. What a great hostel! It had a common room with a tv, a big modern kitchen we could all use, a big garden (but too rainy the whole time to go sit in it), clean rooms, nice staff, and the best of all, great travelers staying there at the same time! When I arrived, I met some people right away that I ended up hanging out with most of the time. I walked around with these two Australian dudes, Dan and Ben. We walked across town to the Cathedral. Although I've seen so many in Europe, this one was really impressive. I read that it's the third largest, after one in London and one in Rome. Cool stained glass windows, huge golden altar mayor, and guess who's buried there? Christpher Colombus! Hung out at his grave for a bit. Also walked to the top of a tower where there were huge carillon bells and an awesome view of the city. Later, everyone in the hostel went to a FREE flamenco show! I think flamenco originated in Sevilla, and it was a pretty good show. Great vibe, with a bunch of new friends plus a glass of Sangria. What could be bad? When I got back to my dorm room in the hostel, three Portuguese girls had appeared. They were really nice, and it was cool to be able to talk with them in Spanish.



Day 2. Free breakfast in the hostel! Woop de doop. Getting dressed was a bummer because my jeans and converse were still soaking wet from the day before (it never stopped raining the entire time I was there). Dan and Ben and I decided the best way to combat the rain would be to rent bikes. Although too hard to hold an umbrella, we would be in the rain for a much shorter time because we would get places much faster than we would have had we walked! Genius. It ended up being a lot of fun, and we saw a lot of the city. We first went directed by our wet floppy maps to the Real Alcazar, the royal palace. This place was so beautiful. I read that it compares to the Alhambra which made me feel a little less bad for not having the opportunity to visit there this trip. The palace was home to Fernando and Isabella, and we saw the room where they prayed with Chris Colombus (in Spanish, Cristobal Colon) before they sent him off to sea. I believe the king and queen of Spain stay in this palace when they visit Sevilla. A lot of Moorish architecture, cool tilework, and many famous paintings and tapestries! It's huge, and I would love to go back in the summertime or when it's not raining to check out the gardens around the palace. Afterwards, we rode along the river and past the university. Next stop, Museo de Bellas Artes. Pretty cool, but not comparable to the art museums we have in Madrid. They had one Goya painting, one Greco, and one Velazquez. They had a lot of Sevillano artists, Murillo, etc, who were pretty cool too. Afterwards, a nice policeman told us where to get gelato. Had some funny convos with the Australians. Can you believe they've never heard of s'mores? They don't even have graham grackers. They taught me about fairy bread, a snack every little kid has at their birthday party. White bread with butter and something called hundreds and thousands sprinkled on top, like sugary confetti. They call rainboots gumboots or wellingtons. My favorite word in an Australian accent is party. "pahdie." Great trip!