Sevilla Part 1

I really don't update this often enough, do I? I'd say sorry but, well, you get the idea.

So here I am, hat-in-hand, ready to tell you about my amazing weekend in Sevilla. This place is truly one of the more beautiful cities I have ever visited. It's at the same time delectably quaint and replete (yay for online thesauri!) with overpowering beauty. Perhaps the best part of the whole trip was the solace I took in the fact that I'll be coming back in April when my mom visits me. But enough gushing...I've got stories to show and pictures to tell.

Strike that.

Reverse it.

Thank you.

This whole weekend excursion started with quite the fun experience...my first time riding an overnight bus. We left Madrid at 1 a.m. for the six hour journey to Sevilla. The bus we had...well...to put it in terms many of you should be able to understand, as soon as I sat down, I (all 6'5" of me) knew I would be 100% comfortable for the duration of the trip. Yeah...Glee Club tours will never be the same after a round trip on this bad boy. Yet despite the almost obnoxious amount of leg room, I could still only manage my usual pattern of twenty minute naps. Go figure.

When we finally did arrive, we were all tired and, surprisingly, rather cold. I mean, you all know I'm not one to complain *cough* but we were told it was going to be in the 70s down here and here we all were freezing our butts off walking from the bus station to our hostel, which was God-knows-where. Granted, it was 7 a.m. and the sun still hadn't risen, but whatever.

After standing there shivering while the boldest among us asked locals for directions, we were finally on our way to the hostel. At one of the multiple stops at which the boldest among us against asked locals for directions, a moment of comedy came to pass that was (albiet admittedly enhanced by the fact that I'd just been attempting to sleep in fits and starts on a bus for six hours) pretty damn funny. We were all standing on a street corner when John, one of the guys in our group, suddenly exclaims, "LOOK! FREE ORANGES!" Tired, hungry, and confused, we all looked wildly around to find the sign he was seeing. After frantically searching and finding nothing, we all understood what he'd been talking about as we saw him reach up and grab an orange hanging from one of the many trees close by.

I'm not sure how the thing tasted (I'll be the first to admit I'm a fairly picky eater) but amid the tears, spitting, and groans of the six people who DID try it, I think the best description I heard was that it tasted "kinda like a cold Sour Patch kid." Yeah...this was gonna be a good trip.

We finally arrived at our hostel around 9, only to be told that we wouldn't be able to check in 'til after breakfast. Luckily, breakfast had just been served and, perhaps even luckilier (yeah, I did it) we were allowed to partake. Naturally, we ate almost all of the food, leaving a few precious crumbs for the actual guests. Yay America.

After dropping our crap in our rooms, the really good world travelers went off to see some sights. I, being lame and still very tired, took a refreshing two hour nap and then went off with the lesser-trained tourists of the group. We're a proud bunch, if nothing else.

We walked along the main drag for a while, found a good cafe for some sandwiches, then started slowly stumbling upon some of the most beautiful landmarks I've seen in Spain. First, we found a set of gardens that were breathtaking even with half of the foliage dead and bare. The name escapes me (there were a lot of gardens, trust me) but I promise by April I'll know what they're called.

After walking through the heretofore anonymous gardens and oohing and ahhing at the sun-drenched glory of it all, we stumbled upon one of the several universities in Sevilla. I'm not sure if this is the one that our dear friends from Saint Mary's attend, but if it is, all I can say is that I'm incredibly jealous. It was built into what looked like a combination of a church and a castle (we found out later it had originally been commissioned by one king or another to house all of Sevilla's tobacco processing) and had a fantastic open-air stone courtyard in the middle that I'd kill to walk through on my way to class. Oh, to be a girl...

Aaaaanyway, we finally left the crazy cool church/castle/university thingy and set a course for one of Sevilla's most famous tourist spots, the Plaza de Espana. It was at this moment that I truly fell in love with this city. It's an incredible combination of Islamic ceramic work, traditional Spanish influence, and, of course, a little sprinkling of our friends the Romans. I honestly can't describe how amazing this place was. As you can see, I've posted some pictures, but even they don't totally do it justice. I'll put it this way...I ended up going there five separate times during our two-plus days in Sevilla, and I still can't wait to go back.

To explain the photos a bit, each one of the little ceramic pictures you see running around the arc of the Plaza is dedicated to one of fifty cities in Spain. Unfortunately, the one for Toledo was undergoing some retouching, so pictures were a no-go this time, but we still got some good shots by Cadiz and Barcelona. The best part about these displays, though, is that they're separated by benches that are perfect for naps in the sun. While I would've been happy to oblige, we had to move if we wanted to get back to the hostel in time for our free walking tour at 4.

The tour, while a bit tiring, was surprisingly informative and fun (I say surprisingly because, well, it was free). We spent two plus hours being guided around Sevilla by a guide who was originally from Austria but spoke German, English, and Spanish. Sadly, for the part of me who wanted to practice my Spanish, the tour was in English. Ah well, perhaps next time.

We ended up revisiting a few of the places we had already been to that day (the Plaza, the University, the gardens) but we also got to see the outside of the Cathedral (more on that later) and we also found some fun little gems among the city streets. One such tidbit was the story of a young woman named Susona, a young Jewish girl living in Sevilla at some point a long time ago (clearly I wasn't paying THAT much attention on the tour). The legend goes that Susona was in love with a soldier in the king's army, which was a bit of a problem as her father and brother were helping to head up a revolt against the king in the Jewish neighborhoods of Sevilla. Panicked, Susona told her beau, who told his superior officer. Long story short, the king was upset, and about 2,000 Spanish Jews, including Susona's father and brother, were killed.

Shortly thereafter, Susona converted to Christianity so she could lock herself away in a convent. After she died, her will ordered that her head be hung from the window of her old house as a reminder to everyone else of the importance of loyalty to one's family. It remained there for a time (until it was no longer acceptable to have a skull hanging in the open air, I'd imagine) until whoever was in charge later on had it removed. It was replaced by this tile which marks its spot and this brief explanation which commemorates Susona and the tragedy of the neighborhood.

Cool stuff, huh?

Our tri-lingual guide (whose name escapes me, if you can't already tell) also told us about the city symbol of Sevilla (say that five times fast), pictured here. I won't go into the story behind this one (Wikipedia, people, c'mon) but basically, a king's son rebelled against him and the whole country rejected him, except for Sevilla. The 8-ish figure in the middle represents a special kind of knot called a madeja in Andaluz, the native language of Andalucia, the region in southern Spain where Sevilla is today. So, when you combine madeja with the NO and DO it becomes nomadejado, which sounds a lot like "no me ha dejado" Spanish for "you haven't left me." Thus, the rejected king made this symbol his tribute to Sevilla for their loyalty to him. You see it literally everywhere, even, as you can see, on manhole covers.

On the tour, I also made some friends with a few fellow Americans, Amanda, Amy, and Brittany (hope I spelled that one right). They're also studying in Spain and were staying in one of the other hostels participating in the tour. As with the Cathedral, more from these characters later.

After the tour, we did what all hungry but poor college kid tourists do...we went to the supermarket to buy cheap supplies to make our own dinner. I dunno what it is, but there's just something so much more delicious about ham and cheese sandwiches with great chips and a Coke (which may or may not have included some rum) when it costs 5 Euro.

After dinner, we all started the ever adventurous process of getting ready to go out. Two hours later, it was midnight and we were finally ready to roll. Unfortunately, we didn't know where, exactly, we were rolling to, and thus spent an hour walking around trying to find a fun place to spend our evening (much to the chagrin of the ladies in high heels). After all that fun time walking around, one of the girls in the group felt tired and I, being the gentleman that I am (being dead tired helped, too) offered to walk her back to the hostel. It was fun trying to find our way, but we eventually did get back and crashed.

As with Madrid, I feel I've given you hungry masses enough for the moment (read: I'm tired and it's 3 a.m. here) so I'll hold off on the rest of this weekend 'til tomorrow. I promise I'll post it before I leave for this weekend's destination...Lisbon! Well, no, I don't promise as a matter of policy. I'll try real REAL hard though, okay? Good, glad we agree.

Ciao,

Griff