A Taste of Spain: You Only Live Once

Hi everybody! I had an amazing weekend in Sevilla. I am so glad I got to visit! I met up with the girls I travelled with- Claire, Sarah, and Haley- on Saturday morning. We took a taxi to the train station, where we bought our tickets and hung out in the lobby a bit before getting on the train. Our Spanish madres had packed us all lunches, so we of course munched on those during the wait. We got on the train, which was very crowded. We all found seats and sat down…and then the chaos began. Haley and Sarah hadn’t ridden on the train before, but Claire and I had when we went to Ronda. When we went to Ronda, we sat wherever we wanted, spread out, and paid no attention to seat numbers. After much confusion, a few angry Spainards, and a train worker explaining the ticket system to us, we discovered that you actually have assigned seats on trains…who knew? The train ride lasted about 3 hours and was very scenic. We got off the train in Sevilla and got on a bus to begin following the directions to our hostel. We finally found it and checked in. I was a little nervous about my first hostel experience, but I honestly have no complaints! Our hostel was nice and clean, and it included breakfast, a terrace, and a bar. We met people from all over—San Diego, Switzerland, Croatia, and Australia. Everybody was so nice! So, after we checked in, we decided to walk around the city a little bit. Sevilla is a bit bigger than Granada, but still manageable (and loveable). After wandering around and exploring (which we really enjoyed), we returned to the hostel to get ready for dinner. We headed out to find something to eat and stumbled upon amazing Italian food…we shared a pizza and then I got some delicious lasagna. Dare I say it rivaled the lasagna I ate in Italy! We stayed out for a while after dinner, but we were all exhausted so we came back to the hostel to sleep!

Sunday morning, we woke up and had breakfast at the hostel. The hostel offered a walking tour every morning, but we decided that it would be in our best interest to do our own…that way we could take our time! Rick Steves gave us an amazing walking tour guide in his book, so we pretty much followed that. We got to see a ton of the city and learned a lot! We got some good authentic paella for lunch (see pictures below) along with some mussels and garlic bread. So delicious. After lunch, we went to the Real Alcazar, which is this huge garden in Sevilla. They built it after the Alhambra was built in Granada, as a form of response. I think the Alhambra was more impressive…but I’m biased J We also visited the Cathedral in Sevilla…it was amazing. It is the third largest cathedral, preceded by St. Peter’s at the Vatican and St. Paul’s in London. Now I’ve seen all three…super cool! Christopher Columbus is also buried in this cathedral. We climbed to the top, but instead of stairs they had ramps. I thought it was because they wanted to make it handicap accessible…silly me. It’s because, a long time ago, someone would ride up the ramps on a horse to do the Muslim call to prayer at the top of the tower. We also spent a lot of time Sunday evening by the beautiful river in Sevilla. It’s a pretty popular hangout, and it’s a gorgeous view! We saw a little bit of a flamenco show on Sunday night…it was in the back room of a bar and very interesting! Wish I could dance like that! And I can’t wait to go to another flamenco show with some more legit seats so I can observe it better!

Monday we packed up our stuff and got ready to come home. We spent a lot of time that day figuring out how to get back to Granada…the train and bus schedules simply were not cooperating! We ended up leaving Sevilla on a bus at 5:00 and arriving home in Granada at 8. After a lot of uncertainty and stress, it ended up working out perfectly! I absolutely adored my time in Sevilla. It is such a colorful city—many of the buildings are painted different colors, and there are people out in the streets all the time. I could have seen myself studying there…but I’m still glad I picked Granada! I'm so glad we chose this long weekend to go to Sevilla-it was a little bit warmer there than Granada, and it was a nice place to go without having to do too much extensive traveling! This week is another week of school, and we even have class on Friday (the horror!) since we didn't have school on Monday. This weekend, my program is taking us to a Granada soccer game (SO EXCITED), and we're hoping to go to the beach for a day also! Next weekend I'll be headed to Madrid to meet Mom and Patrick...Can't wait to see some family!! On another note, I cannot believe it is already March…it is so hard to believe that I will be leaving Granada 12 weeks from tomorrow. Time really does fly…

Have a wonderful week everybody! Love and miss you all so very much! Besos :)