Seville - day 4 - 6 ...reales alcazares, old town, i saw George!

Sevilla is beautiful! Every corner is amazing~! I know I say that about every place I’ve been but until you see Sevilla…you’ll love it too! Berny and I found a hostel near the center of the city. We followed the weird directions the website gave us – it says either take the tram from the bus station or walk along the tram line, then find Plaza de San Francisco, walk between the red building and the ABC newsstand (I found the red building and Berny found the newsstand), then follow the road called whatever then the street continues and turn into another street…THEN go straight and find a white building with yellow trim (every frickin building is white and has yellow trim). But between the 2 of us, we found the place pretty easy and we finally put down our packs from the long walk.

The first day we actually took it easy – we took afternoon naps (this is the beginning of many more naps to come), strolled around Calle Sierpes (shopping street) and saw these kids (and adults too) doing some sort of parade thing. There’s a name for that but I forget – basically they’re practicing for next years religious parade or event…whatever it is. The first one we saw was a bunch of kids under a coffin like thing pushing the cart while other kids holding tall candles walking around the shopping area. Another one was the same night were a bigger cart carried by adults and were surrounding by people playing musical instruments. They’re all religion related celebrations…but I forget the name…interesting nevertheless.  The rest of the day was to hunting for a SIM card which I didn’t end up buying. That night, we decided to make dinner instead of eating out. Is it too soon to be tapa’d out?? I had a lot of jamon for the last couple of days. Anyway, to keep our budget (and health), we made omelette and salad for dinner along with a bottle of local white wine (2.50 euros!!!) and 7up (the Spaniards drink tinto verano which means summer wine, which is red wine with 7up. But they also make it with white wine which is what we made). I’m not a big party person and neither is Berny…that night we chilled at the hostel and chatted up with the Canadian guy who works at the hostel. He’s been traveling around Spain but stayed in Sevilla cuz a) Sevilla is amazing and b) he’s saving up money for the rest of his trip around the world.

Btw, I still feel as though I don’t travel enough. Everyone I met so far are traveling at least 2 months to a year…its really not fair! Haha ok I know…I shouldn’t talk…im out here for 5 weeks! :P

Saw lots on Day 2…saw Cathdral y Giralda (only part of the cathedral was open cuz of a wedding?..we saw at least 6 couples getting married on this Saturday). We went to see Plaza de Toros dela Marstranza near the river. We randomly found an entryway to the bullring and walked straight in to see the arena. The color of the ground was sooo yellow…the arena looks really grand…just everything about it looked pretty cool. We wandered around and ended up following a tour group cuz the tour guide was speaking English. Later when the tour guide sent the group out the door, we continued walking around the inside of the arena and exited at the entrance haha! We found out at this point we were suppose to enter here and pay 6 euros which we didn’t haha! Kinda funny…we didn’t mean to sneak in I swear. Saw the watch tower called Torre del Oro… was about to go up (at this time it was 1:45pm) and the woman told us they’ll close at 2 so we didn’t go up. EVERYTHING (well almost everything) closes between 2-5…most shops, not restaurants…just shops I guess. Its their siesta time!! the first day I was in Spain I thought it was a holiday (well isn’t cinco de mayo a REAL holiday in Spain? That’s the day we arrived)…so anyway, during siesta, we went into Reales Alcazares, which is what everyone comes to Sevilla to see.  The palace is spectacular!!!!!!! Everything is so intricate…so detailed. You should see us the whole time we were in there, we took pictures of every single detail possible (in school we were taught to look at details to see how things are constructed…so the whole time our convo would be about the details of how they put together the tiles, the columns, etc…ya we’re nerds!)

Just 2 days prior, I emailed my high school friend, George, to see if he wanted to meet up. I knew George lived in Spain somewhere but didn’t know WHERE…so he told me he would be in Sevilla this weekend, which is the exact time im here….weird. that afternoon was Berny and I were waundering around some more…I saw George and his wife, Yoko. Its weird bumping into someone you know…and in Spain! We decided to meet up after the jazz concert which he came to Sevilla to see, but we didn’t end up going out that night.

Instead, Berny and I met up with an American girl from the hostel. She was meeting up with her friends at the Plaza el Salvador. Its really popular for kids or young adults to be hanging around outside drinking beer or whatever on the steps of the church or plaza or anywhere. I thought it was like high school all over again haha! But apparently its their thing to do. So we met her friends – they’re all American kids doing exchange for the semester.  Berny and I both agree that each of the kids (I call them kids cuz im sooo much older than them)…Berny thinks its funny I call them kids. Anyway they each look like they could be in American tv shows like Laguna Beach, the Hills, One Tree Hilll (even though I’ve never seen that…but u know what I mean). One guy looks like Ian Ziering from 90210 hahah but cuter. One girl looks like Ashely Tinsdale from High School Musical and she even has a cali girl type name. Anyway, we went to the bars at the Alhalmeda park (?) where its just rows and rows of patios…pretty cool atmosphere though. People here party late! And I mean really late…as in early morning. Berny and I went home around 2 but the kids were still there. Later we found out the Canadian guy who works at the hostel partied til 10am on Sunday morning from the previous night. That’s hardcore!

The last day of Sevilla was spent very leisurely. We met up with George, Yoko and friends near the Reales Alcazares for some drinks to catch up, take photos, etc. (it was such a pleasant surprise to see him – I haven’t seen George since end of high school. We lost touch but reconnected through Facebook). Him and his friends were trying to convince us to go down to Gilbratar with them and would even give us a ride down. I totally would go but we have plans to be in Valencia mid next week and cant really go that south at this point. Plus im scared I’ll be tempted to across the border and head into Morocco!!! Next trip! : )Later in the afternoon was spent snapping photos at the beautiful Plaza Espana…..WOW! so frickin amazing!! I have no words to describe this place…all the detail…haha detail again. That night we ate at one of the patios in Plaza de Alphalfa. I had snails! Shoot I forgot the name in Spanish…its small snails sorta like the ones I used to find in my grandmother’s old house on Somerset Road in HK.

Wow I wrote a lot for this entry…I finally had time to sit down to write on my own laptop and not at a station. Sorry to blabber on…hehe : )