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Published: December 27th 2008
El Equipo United
From Madrid I caught the Renfe train to Sevilla. I was pleasantly surprised at my last second successful boarding as well as my seat assignment. I was scheduled to sit in tourist class on the seventh car, but I was somehow ushered onto the first car with a minute to go before the train departed. Needless to say, I took this opportunity to try and snag the nearest seat. I sat at an open business class seat and was never once asked to display my ticket. I was the only person under 30 on this car and the only one devoid of suit coat and Blackberry business cell phone… From here I scored a full meal, coffee, wine and comfy seats… A pleasant surprise for a jet lagged traveler. Was this a sign of things to come in Sevilla? Im not superstitious so who knows...
From here, I arrived in Sevilla on Tuesday evening to meet Charlie, Seth, and Aaron. Raffi & Danny were to meet on Friday. I decided to walk from the train station to the hostel in the downtown. The first thing I noticed when i arrived was the orange trees. Did my
train take me to Valencia by mistake? Apparently its sort of an Andalusia thing in general. I asked myself, “how are there still oranges on all these trees on the sidewalk?” - instead of basic greenery shrubs or trees that are unlikely to be noticed, the sidewalks are lined with orange trees. Why would this free mana from heavens not be picked from the trees? I found out the hard way that these oranges are insanely bitter. They are also illegal to pick - as Aaron later pointed out.
Sevilla was quite different from Madrid. The verticality of Madrid exchanged itself for shorter buildings and a splendid river scenery courtesy of the Rio Guadalquivir (Every bridge I crossed over this river I imagined myself jumping off and going for a swim, mainly to fulfill my fantasy of swimming in Spain, whose relatively cold weather supports my misconception).
It was Sevilla where I enjoyed my first real Tapas feast. The night I arrived, I met up with the Equipo -in its early incubational stages:Charlie, Aaron, Seth- for the feast. Charlie, who has been in Ghana for 3 months, sponsored the enormous Tapas feast courtesty of his parents. Among many
Berkeley
Always throwing up the "B"dishes, we tried the Gazpacho, the pork loin - Solomillo- Patatas Bravas, and many others. We stuffed ourselves silly.. All the wine we drank could only have been absorbed by the presumable 5 lb wad of food matter in our bellies. Charles himself hadn’t had cheese in months and after eating sparsely -off of rice and fish which he admitted to having pretended to eat at times- he clearly outpaced the rest of us. From this point on, our time in Sevilla was a combination of staying out far too late (going home early for a Spanyard), waking up late and taking a nice siesta, eating well, and exploring various parts of the city. We also needn’t forget our friend Charles’ recent description of the goldfish incident -aptly describing some of our more debaucherous conquests. Yes we got a little out of hand a few nights, but no lasting damage was ever done and we never got close to doing anything that would bring about the harsh hand of the law. Just a bit of innocent tomfoolery…
As I write this, after having visited Granada, Madrid, Valencia and being very late on updating my blog, I can say that
Sevilla is the only city to really be on the water and have it as a wonderful exposition of the city. The river itself seems to take the place of say the large Calatrava arts and sciences center in Valencia, or some of the Moorish feel of Granada - although certainly not the Alhambra- in terms of creating public interaction and social space.
And social space is really one of the most transient characteristics of Spanish cities. The use of the plaza, and the retiro (park) prove this well. Whereas a city like NYC may have central park, all the Spanish cities I have seen so far have a generous jardin, but also many hang out plazas and monuments. NYC seems to not have many other spots, save the occasional park/plaza - usually where the bums hang out. Outdoor space is very much appreciated in this culture. To quote the wise sage Barbara Hunt, “the Spanish are very gregarious.” I feel that this stems from their “more pleasure, less work” attitude and their relatively even classs structure. I will touch on this in later posts.
Other than going out, eating, and eating more, we did in fact find
Tapas Night out
Photo of the team and a guy named John from New Zealand who we went out with for a few nights. Awesome guy, although we could only understand half of what he said with his thick Kiwi accent time for some cool activities in Sevilla. After all I am here to "culture" myself not to simply go to the bars. On Thursday, the four of us spoiled ourselves on an Arab bathouse trip. For about 31 euros we each had an hour and a half to relax in an incredibly tranquil bathhouse complete a 15 minute massage. The baths were composed of an aromatherapy room, cold pools, tepid pools, and hot pools; all having low mood-lighting and pleasant hymn like music. One song of which I remembered from the last scene in Gladiator, in which Maximus the gladiator makes it to heaven to reconvene with his slain family. That scene always makes me cry a bit…
By the time we made it to the 15 minute massage, I could hardly feel my body I was in such a state of Nirvana. Between the aromatherapy and the warm pools, my body seemed about 10 feet above my mind. As for the massage, to put it bluntly without any censorship, I’d describe the experience as someone having sex with my body with their hands. Although graphic, this is the best way to describe the feeling of the copious quantities
Abdullah Omar Farooq
Charles has recently converted to Islam while in Ghana and has the head wrap to prove it. This is his Muslim name of lotion being massaged into my legs and my back. Amazing…. My only goal in life is to be able to get something like this once a month… or maybe twice a day...
As for the historically significant places in Sevilla, we visited most, but I was most fascinated by the Plaza Espana. This plaza was commissioned in the late 1920s for the world Expo. Displayed in a semi-circle, the baroque/gothic architectural spires and colonnades surround a small canal and large fountain. Sequentially along the colonnade are small colorful, tiled monuments to each of Spain’s main cities, in alphabetical order. There’s a pic here in the blog of that of Barcelona. Other than this Plaza, the Catedral (the biggest Gothic cathedral in the world and one of the oldest, began in 1412) and the Alcazar were quite amazing. The Catedral showed a typical Gothic Renaissance portfolio of a ridiculous amount of ornate detail. We climbed the miguelette tower to get a view of the city which was amazing. Inside, the building wasn’t as cool to me. I kind of get sick with all the Christian architecture, and although the church was amazing with its 50 foot ceilings and vaulted
New Urban Architecture project
In plaza de Encarnacion a bold ne design project begins ceilings, I feel as if I’ve seen the same garish amount of gilt meant to make the people believe in God, and the similar biblical paintings. These places seem to be too ostentatiously pretentious in their design; but then again I guess the unfaltering power of God is the harbinger for this. Lastly, the Alcazar, a10th century Moorish fort, was a nice warm-up for the Alhambra. Its Islamic architecture was very beautiful and I prefer its mission for serenity over the Renaissance’s strive for extravagance. Although extravagant in its own right - as manifest by a ridiculous amount of detail in the geometric or Arab motifs - this Moorish architecture feels more comfortable and uses light colors, sunshine, and beautiful gardens in a way that the Christian architecture cannot event touch. This leads me to the Alcazar’s amazing gardens. The orange trees, date palms, falling water, and still pools all make for a location so serene that one can almost not help but to believe in God. Aside from tranquility, interesting plant species and numerous peacocks could be found on the grounds.
Again Sevilla had a very meager beer selection and a habit for Jamon. I also tried some
Stained Glass
Inside the Catedral oxtail (see the pic) in one of the restaurants. We also caught a Flamenco show and tasted the local beverage, Agua de Sevilla; a blend of pineapple juice, champagne, whiskey, and topped with cream. Very delicious…
Lastly, I wanted to point out Sevilla’s cool bike sharing program. This program is a user friendly, bike sharing program in which: a person sets up an account at any of the may kiosks around town; selescts a bike; and can ride to any of the other bike points around town to check the bike back in. This program is completely automated and seems to work very well. Locals and tourists alike ride the bikes and there are plenty of bike beacons.
What We Actually Did...briefly
Tuesday Dec 16th
- I arrive from Madrid 4pm
- Meet up with 3 other team members for a Tapas feast.
- Goldfish tomfoolery
Wednesday Dec 17th
- Charles and I attempted to go to the Catedral while Seth & Aaron completed their finals. We forgot or student IDs so decided to wait until Saturday to go with Danny and Raffi
- Saw a union strike of a few thousand people down the streets
Thursday Dec 18th
- Wake up late
- Night time bathouse relaxation. Very nice!!
- Aaron and Seth’s language program final dinner
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Friday Dec 19th
- Met a cool guy from Wales named Andy. Discussed economic and world issues at length on hostel roof terrace.
- Sun finally strong, nap on roof
- Run/workout through streets and up the river
- Danny & Raffi Arrive. Out for some celebrational drinking
Saturday Dec 20th
- Catedral, Alcazar, Plaza Espana
- Flamenco & Agua de Sevilla
Sunday Dec 21st
- Off to Granada early afternoon
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JohnnyCaps
non-member comment
fantastic!
I kind of dig the occasional patch of grass amid the concrete slabs in NYC.. every sparse, little oasis makes you appreciate the next even more. i had myself a thai massage in thailand once. there was no aromatherapy. and someone definitely did not sex me with their hands. i was face-down on a thin sheet over a concrete floor while a big lady with mammoth hands tied me into a pretzel. i kid you not, my friend.