Trip to Sevilla

Well, the Sevilla trip was definitely a success regardless of everything that almost held us back from going. Picture this, waking up at 3:45 am in the morning to pack your bags and walk to Plaza Luceros so Miguel (my favorite taxista) can drive us the airport for a 6:55 am flight to Sevilla. We decided to fly with RyanAir (notably one of the cheapest airlines in Europe) and it was awful. First of all, we get to the airport, walk to the front desk, and the receptionist asks us for our boarding passes. Well typically, in the States you can just ask them to print off your boarding pass for FREE if you have forgotten or don't have a printer. Turns out RyanAir charges 40 Euros for a piece of paper.. cool. Then neither Caitlin nor my bags would fit in the carry on sizer so we had to check our bags--35 Euros each. Not to mention, we had to pay about 150 Euros for the flight because we booked it a week before (bad planning on our part but you live and you learn, right?)  Ughh.. so we were definitely in a bad mood after that.

However, things turned around right when we landed and the bull fight song sounded throughout the plane, people clapped and yelled Ole! Now you can't help but laugh and be in a better mood. Once we got off, we took the bus to the city center and were practically shaking with excitement at the sight of the first statue in the plaza we were in. Caitlin and I are kinda nerds on occasion. Anyways, we walked around for a bit, found a Starbucks which doesn't exist in Alicante so that was exciting, and eventually found our hostel: Nuevo Suizo. It turned out to be a very nice hostel compared to the dirty, cold, and creepy image I was picturing since I've never stayed in one. Once we dropped off our bags, we decided to walk towards the river where we found Torre de Oros and the Plaza de Toros where all the big bull fights are held. We toured Torre de Oros which had a naval museum inside. The view was gorgeous from the top of the tower if you look on my facebook.

Later, we decided to walk over to the cathedral (you definitely cannot miss this as it is huge and in the middle of the city). Luckily, Caitlin had this awesome book about Spain that included guided tours for most of the large cities in Spain. So naturally, we walked around most of the cathedral while Caitlin read aloud to me and discussed the meaning of each room inside. The cathedral is the largest gothic cathedral in the world so that was definitely cool to see. The inside was huge! And I mean huge. The ceilings weren't just your average popcorn ceilings either. Each room had been carved tediously with different pictures or designs--that was probably my favorite part. We also went up into the tower--Giralda where from the top, you can see all of Sevilla. Very pretty.

Exhausted from the hike up the tower and touring the cathedral, we went to get some lunch at a cute little restaurant nearby. I had paella and a glass of wine--how Spanish of me. Afterwards, we walked over to the Palacio Alcazar. At first, we thought it was going to be a puny little palace because when you first walk in you only see three sections but when you walk into the back, there's a garden that runs on for forever. It would take hours to tour the whole thing but we walked around for a little and saw peacocks, pretty fountains, lots of vines, and ponds. There are also pictures of these on my facebook. Then, we walked over a little ways to what was called the Plaza de Espana. I'm still not really sure what the building is used for but there was a pretty stream running around the whole thing where you could rent a paddle boat and there was beautiful tile everywhere. We spent a lot of time here.

That night, we were extremely tired so we turned in early so we would have energy for the next day when Caitlin's friend, Aaron came. Once we met up with him, we walked around for a bit and showed him and his friend some of the stuff we had already seen including the University of Sevilla and the river. It was nice too because after this, we walked over to some random plaza and everyone was just drinking in the middle of the day, there were empty 40's laying around all the stairs nearby and Sangria was like 1 Euro a piece. My kinda place. Later on, we went by this place that performed traditional Flamenco and bought tickets for the show that night. Let me tell you, Flamenco is something I know for a fact I will never be good at. Oh my gosh. They started off with a man playing guitar and this guy singing lyrics I couldn't make out. Then, they had a girl and guy dancing this really passionate dance and they moved their feet so fast. It was crazy. Definitely worth the 15 Euros I paid to see it. After that, we went to have a couple beers before we went to bed. Overall, I'd say a good trip. I would love to go back but I really want to see other cities in Spain while I'm here since I only have so much time.

It was funny because once we returned to Alicante, I had this feeling that I was back "home." I guess after only a month, it's kinda nice to be somewhere you recognize and know people at!! This weekend, I'm planning to go Elche, a town nearby. It's only 2 Euros each way by train and a couple other people in my program are coming with so stay tuned for more blogging in the future!!