This past weekend (well, fri-tues am, since we had yet another holiday here in Spain!), my friend Kelly and I went to Sevilla. It was my first time back since I had studied abroad there two years ago, so it was a really special trip for me. We had a wonderful time, really got to enjoy everything great about the city and it made me really happy to be back in what i consider to be a home away from home.
On Friday, we had great sunny weather (much warmer than Madrid) and we spent the day just walking around the city, seeing all the main sites. We were staying in a hostel right by the Cathedral, so we were in a great location. We walked all through the center of the city-by the cathedral, the university, avenida de la Constiutucion, Plaza Nueva, Calle Sierpes etc. We had chocoloate and churros in the morning and a nice menu del dia for lunch. We walked around Plaza de Espana and then walked along the river, taking beautiful pictures of the sunset. We crossed the bridge into Triana and saw all the Christmas lights and then walked back towards the cathedral and found a nice place to get some tapas for dinner. At night, our hostel had arranged a pub crawl and we went to several different bars and a discoteca with a whole bunch of people from our hostel and other nearby hostels. It was really fun to experience the Sevilla nightlife once again, and to meet travellers from all over the world- we talked with other Americans, as well as people from Italy, Spain, Brazil, Scotland, England, Denmark, the Netherlands etc....it was a really great day!!
Saturday we toured the cathedral and climbed the Giralda (the big tower) and got a beautiful view of the city. We had another great Spanish-style lunch and then took a walk down memory lane...the walk from the center of the city to Julia's apartment (Julia was my host mom in Sevilla two years ago)!! It was very nostalgic to repeat that walk that I did every single weekday while i was living in Sevilla..and in the end, I remembered it perfectly! It felt like such a familiar path, even though it had been two years since i had been there! We ended up spending 2.5 hours with Julia- which was great! We talked about basically everything under the sun...caught up on our lives and shared lots of laughs. I also got to see Julia's daughter, son-in-law, sister, and brother-in-law, which was really nice. It was so great to see her again and she was just as sweet as always!!
The great night continued as we went back to the hostel and headed to a flamenco show arranged by the hostel staff. The show was awesome-the dancers and musicians were amazingly talented!!
On Sunday, the weather changed for the worse and it basically rained all day. So, we decided to go to the contemporary art museum in the morning...seemed like a good rainy day activity. We had mixed feelings about the museum-it was full of strange videos (very contemporary), which aren't really my style, but there were also some really cool and interesting pieces. We found another great place to have lunch after the museum, and then just walked around and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. We decided to go out that night with the people from the hostel again, since it was so fun the other night, and since it provided us with a guide to show us the best places to go!! We met lots of interesting people and it was another great night!
Monday was another really fun day...we spent a very typical Spanish afternoon with 2 Sevillanos, which was great. Kelly's aunt used to live in Spain and still has some very close friends here. One of her closest friends is from Sevilla...and so we met up with him and his friend for the afternoon. We went to the Archivo de las Indias and saw a cool exhibit on pirates in Spanish America (back during colonial times) and then proceeded to have a long afternoon full of drinks and food. We first went to a typical outdoor bar, which was full of people chatting and enjoying their day off. Then we went to another place with great tapas...also quite crowded! The afternoon continued as we sipped some cafe in another bar..and then continued even longer as we had some post-coffee drinks (apparently thats very typical!) It was really fun to just have a relaxing afternoon, chatting and enjoying ourselves. That night, we relaxed a bit at the hostel, hanging out with some of our new friends, enjoyed some more great food, and went out for a bit with some of the other hostel guests.
And finally, tues am, we woke up bright and early and caught the train back to Madrid. It was SUCH a great trip; I'm soo glad we decided to go! And who knows..maybe i'll be back again soon..after all, its not too far away!!!
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