Here We Go…Part I: Sevilla

All right, my friends. Are you ready for this? I haven’t blogged in quite some time, but I feel like I’ve been everywhere else in the meantime! I have so much to tell you about my grand Semana Santa adventure with my friends Megan and Lauren, so bear with me, because it’s going to take a while! But don’t worry – I’m doing it the smart way this time – we’re gonna take it city by city, so you don’t get overwhelmed. Okay, everyone ready? Follow me!

So. Our trip began with a train from Pamplona to Madrid. We generally take a bus for this always-necessary part of our journeys, but we happened to find a good deal for the train, which is about twice as fast, so we went for it! This was probably the most comfortable of our train rides during the trip – the train seemed pretty new, and they even showed a movie during the trip! It was The Painted Veil, which is one that I’ve wanted to see. It was very sad, but very good! Anyway, after a nice train ride, we had a bit of a wait until our bus to Sevilla. This was not quite as fun, as we had to travel from about 1 a.m. to 7 a.m., so we pretended to sleep, anyway. And Lauren and I had a panicked moment when the bus stopped at about 3:00 in the morning for a pit stop. When we got back out from the bathroom, the bus was nowhere to be seen! Thankfully, Megan had opted to stay on it, so we called her and she told us that the bus was just around the corner, getting gas. So after climbing on an identical bus that was not our own, we made it back on with plenty of time to spare. So it was an interesting night all around. But as a student traveler on a tight budget, sacrifices must be made.

And so we arrived in Sevilla, feeling a bit worn around the edges and in great need of showers, but we were there! We found our hostel without too much trouble and dropped our bags off. We couldn’t check in until 2:00 p.m., unfortunately, but we made the best of it by beginning our explorations in Sevilla’s Casco Viejo and doing a bit of souvenir shopping. We had a picnic lunch with some of the food we had with us (my host mom was overly generous as usual, which was a great help for the Sevilla part of the trip – saved us all a bunch of money!)

Finally, 2:00 arrived and we checked into our hostel, where we proceeded to take a 2-hour nap and then got cleaned up, at long last. After that, it was off to Casco Viejo again, in search of pasos, the floats and Easter processions that occupy the majority of Sevilla’s population during Semana Santa. They were amazing! It was so neat to see these huge floats with statues of Jesus or the Virgin Mary or both atop them, bobbing above the crowds. And all of the pasos were led and followed by Nazarenos, people in the traditional Easter-procession costume. They wear huge pointy hoods and flowy robes, and look very mysterious and cool! I might have to post a pic of them on here later, because it’s kind of hard to explain. And the music was fantastic – solemn and haunting and very compelling. I loved all the processions we got to watch – I’ve seen pictures and videos of similar things, but believe me when I tell you that it’s infinitely more awesome in person! Definitely one of the highlights of the whole trip.

On our second day in Sevilla, we slept in a bit (we were still recuperating…) and then met up with Kristen M. and Lise, who were beginning their tour of Southern Spain in Sevilla and were there the same time we were. It was so much fun to spend the day with them! We went to the Sevilla cathedral, which was very impressive both inside and out. Christopher Columbus’ tomb is located there, which was so cool to see! And there was a huge wall covered in gilded carvings of Bible stories…this also is rather hard to explain. But it was quite amazing! Another cool detail was that parts of the cathedral’s floors were heavily speckled with wax drops from the huge candles that the Nazarenos carry around – the candles drip while their owners are waiting to start their long walk (some processions went from 12:00 at night to 2:00 the next day! I have no idea how they do it). To finish up our cathedral trip, we climbed up La Giralda, the big bell tower there. Back in the days when the cathedral was a Muslim mosque, this tower was used for the five-times-daily call to prayer. From the top, we saw some very beautiful views of Sevilla! This was the first of many city views that we experienced. But more about that later.

After the cathedral, it was picnic time again! We found a comfortable spot in the park and ate a bit of lunch. After eating, we found a shady spot on the grass and just chilled there for over an hour. It was glorious! We all needed the time to relax. I love to take a break during the day when I’m traveling, I’ve found. Otherwise, I get worn out and burned out, and I can’t enjoy things as much. So our little pseudo-siesta was just the thing!

Next, it was off to see the murallas. These were fairly uninteresting – just more old Spanish walls, like many we’ve seen before. Still kind of interesting, though, and the walk through the pretty streets was nice. Especially because we made a stop for torrijas on the way! Torrijas are a very yummy treat that you can get in Spain around Easter-time. It’s sort of similar to French toast, though with honey and a ton of cinnamon and sugar. Almost too sweet, but very good. Also on the way, we had a great time looking at all the beautiful Spanish ladies in their traditional outfits – the black lace veil over the huge hair-comb, with a gorgeous little black dress. They all looked so stylish and beautiful and perfect – I just wanted to be one of them! Especially since it seemed like one of the requirements of the outfit was to have a gorgeous Spanish man on one’s arm. Heehee! :-D

We made our leisurely way back from the murallas, making a stop at Kristen M. and Lise’s hostel to use the internet and check out the pretty place where K and L were staying. Then, after a bit of dinner, it was time to go to the bar Carbonería for a free flamenco show! We had found it the night before, thankfully, so it wasn’t too hard to navigate the twisty streets a second time. Really though, Sevilla’s Casco Viejo is about ten times more confusing than Pamplona’s, which is saying something. They really didn’t think much of city planning back in the day. Anyway, we found our seats in the bar and waited for the show to start! Lise’s friend Basilio joined us there as well, so it was a lot of fun to see him and hear about his solo travels around Southern Spain up to that point.

The bar was really cool – though there were tourists, the place felt very genuine, and was a bit of a hole-in-the-wall, which was nifty. And the show itself was fantastic! There was a man playing guitar and another singing, and one woman who danced her heart out! Flamenco has got to be the most complicated, energy-draining dance I have ever beheld. It was so much fun to watch!

The next day, we didn’t do a whole lot, since we left on our plane for Rome in the early evening. So we got packed up (which took a while because we had to make sure that all of our bags passed Ryan Air’s rather stingy weight and size requirements…let’s just say we were all wearing a couple of extra articles of clothing) and went for a little walk along the bridge, while Lauren and Megan carried their towels so they would dry in the sun and weigh less in the suitcase later. We probably looked a bit comical, but oh well. Sometimes you just have to make do! Or lots of times, as we found out. Anyway, the walk was rather interesting…there were lots of people sleeping on the riverbank, presumably where they had collapsed after their nighttime shenanigans. And of course, lots of couples making out. Europeans are generally pretty free with the PDA, which makes things interesting sometimes. And the farther we walked, the sketchier things got, so we made a swift turn-around and headed back to our hostel to pick up our bags and get going. Then it was off to the bus stop to catch our ride to the airport. We had a bit of trouble finding the stop, but a nice young man (who spoke excellent English, as it turned out) saw us puzzling over our map and asked us if we needed help. We gratefully accepted, and he got us pointed in the right direction. We found it in time and plopped ourselves on a bench to wait, only to make a mad dash when the bus arrived earlier than we thought it would. Thankfully, it was a short distance and we made it in plenty of time.

Next, we got to the airport, made the weight limit by the skin of our teeth, breezed through security, and got on our plane to Rome! Our first RyanAir experience (well, Lauren’s and my first, anyway) was a success, I daresay, even though it involved a good deal of waiting in line and a bit of sweating over bags.

Stay tuned for Part II – Rome!