Sevilla Part 2

Hey again, y'all. Slept til noon, putzed around 'til 4 local time, and here I am. Still haven't started the paper I have due Monday (I'm thinking at this point it might be hardwired in me to be unable to write before midnight the morning the paper is due), so naturally I figured I'd blog. I mean, you all are on the edge of your seats after last night's grand adventure, right?

Right?

Guys?

C'mon, guys, wake up, it wasn't THAT bad.

Well, I mean, at least the pictures were kinda cool, right? Guys?

But I digress.

We woke up around noon on Saturday despite having not gotten too crazy the night before. What can I say? A college kid in a hostel in Sevilla, Spain is still a college kid. After showering, we rolled out and headed toward the Alcazar, a huge castle/fortress with amazing gardens inside. We had heard about it from our guide and that it wasn't to be missed. Unfortunately it cost 7.50 Euro for non-students and as I didn't have any sort of proof I wasn't a student (or so I thought) I decided to pass and go off exploring on my own. After all, my camera battery had been out for the entirety of Friday, so I had a lot of pictures to catch up on.

I spent the majority of the afternoon trying to remember where we'd gone on the tour, and ended up finding some pretty cool spots, including this backroad very close to the skull plaque commemorating Susona (see yesterday's post). Yeah, I like to creep on locals. What about it?

I'll be honest, I'm not usually one to go off exploring on my own (mainly because I'm too lazy to come up with things to keep myself busy) but I felt strangely comfortable just walking around Sevilla by myself. I went back to the Plaza de Espana again, took tons and tons of pictures, walked through the university we found again, took pictures, went through the gardens, took pictures...you get the idea. More than anything, it was very odd for me to feel like after only a few hours I was pretty comfortable with how to get around the city (this area of it anyway). Mom, just wait, I've got quite a tour for you when we go back.

While wandering on my own was calming and really fun, it also made me REALLY hungry, so I went back to the same cafe I hit up Friday, grabbed a bocadillo. Ham and cheese, double toasted, and a Coke. Almost felt like home.

After lunch, I met up again with a few people and we headed to a local museum that had a free exhibit on piracy in the Americas during the 16th and 17th centuries. While very static (it was a lot of reading and a few pictures/documents) I actually learned quite a bit about piracy. Now if only I could find away to apply it...

We took a short break and, after dodging a few gypsies, decided we were finally ready to go to the famed Catedral (no, it's not misspelled...it's in Spanish). Just to give you an idea of this place...it used to be a humongous mosque when the Moors ruled Spain. When the Spanish finally reconquered Sevilla and decided they wanted to build a church, they loved the Moorish architecture so much they kept most of it (you can see a lot of the influence in the lower two-

thirds of the tower). When they finally finished building the thing - 150 years after starting - they had what would become the third largest Christian church in the world, behind only St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and St. Pauls' Cathedral in London. So yeah...place is pretty damn big.

As we walked in to pay admission, I again realized I had no form of student ID and resigned myself to paying the full price. Luckily, the nice lady asked to see my passport, then, with a smile, pointed to my STUDENT visa. Yeah, I'm an idiot. Gotta love the Spanish for being willing instructing us stupid Americans.

Like the Plaza, this place is incredibly hard to describe, even with pictures. I mean, just trying to comprehend the fact that it took 150 years to build was beyond me. The detail, the intricacy of everything still amazes me nearly a week later. I took some pictures, naturally, and then we decided to climb the tower to get a great view of the city. And what a view it was. I dunno how far away you could see, but I gotta guess at least a couple dozen miles.

Unfortunately, it didn't look like we were gonna be able to capture any of these vistas with our smiling faces in front of them. Something about the cameras focused on the light behind us and shadowed our faces out. Fear not, dear readers...I came to the rescue. After fooling around a bit...SUCCESS!!

New profile pic? Thinking about it.

We stuck around the tower a bit longer before finally taking the long journey back down to the ground floor. Interesting side note, the climb is made way easier by the fact that you use not stairs, but ramps. According to our guide from Friday's tour, this was originally because the Moors had to go up to the top of the tower several times a day for the Muslim Call to Prayer, and rather than get tired decided they wanted to be able to ride their horses up to the top. Talk about laziness fostering ingenuity, eh?

My friends and I spent a few minutes more admiring the beauty of the inside of this incredible Cathedral before leaving. I should add that I, with the help of my good friend and fellow Glee Clubber Michael, powered through a hushed version of Biebl's Ave Maria. It wasn't fantastic, but damn it, we were inspired.

Outside the Catedral, I once again separated myself from the group because I wanted to abuse the sunset setting on my camera at the Plaza and they wanted ice cream. Damn Americans, lemme tell ya.

Turns out this visit to the Plaza was just as amazing as before (go figure, right?). Took some pictures, breathed it all in, then decided (it being 8 PM) it would be a good idea to head home. Keep in mind, now, that this is me...the one who knows diddly about getting around anywhere. I'm proud to tell you that using only my internal compass I stumbled upon our hostel not twenty minutes after leaving the Plaza. I believe a brief booya is in order. BOOYA.

I got back to find half the group resting up for a night out. We debated a bit, considered going to a flamenco club, but finally decided we would take advantage of the hostel's pub crawl. Ten Euro for four shots, two bars, and two clubs? Yes, I think so. Turned out we met up with Amy, Amanda, and Brittany (the girls we met on the tour on Friday) as their hostel was participating in the Crawl too. Fun stuff.

Not a lot of interesting stuff happened that night, so I'll summarize. Drinks at these bars/clubs were obscenely expensive, so while I enjoyed the free shots of caramel vodka, I wasn't anywhere near plastered (something I'm fine with). We danced, we drank, we walked, we met Australians and Brits. Fun times were had by all. But it got to be 4:30 and I was just beat, so we rolled out. The next morning we got to the bus station and hopped aboard our 1 PM bus back to Madrid. And I'll be damned if the thing wasn't just as comfortable as it was when I was dog tired at 1 AM. Yay for Socibus.

This concludes my Sevilla adventure. Sorry for wrapping it up so quickly...I'm just realizing I'm incredibly long winded sometimes. Hopefully that doesn't bug you guys too much. Now, for the random updates of the week.

This week has been kind of eye-opening in that I have actually begun to work. I have three papers of four pages apiece due in the front half of next week and I haven't even begun to think about them yet. Did I mention I leave for Lisbon in the morning? Did I also mention that Sunday at midnight we'll likely be at a pub watching the Super Bowl? God, I hate my procrastinating nature. Damn you, TJ.

Speaking of TJ, some of you may have heard...he and I are gonna travel buddies for Holy Week. I'll be flying into London that Tuesday, hanging for a few days, then we're taking a whirlwind tour of Germany (Berlin to Munich to Frankfurt in four days). The best part of the whole thing: we'll only be paying for ONE night in a hostel. Gotta love overnight trains and guys who don't care about sleeping, am I right?

I think that's all to report for now. Hopefully I'll have lots more to tell about Lisbon!

Adios for now,

Griff