Muy Caliente in Seville

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June 15
Today started early so we could catch the metro to the train station and take about a six hour train ride from Barcelona to Seville, which is in Southern Spain. We were on one of the super fast trains that goes like 300 km/h. It had a screen showing what speed we were going at any given moment. They also showed two movies during the trip, both with the audio in English, so I watched some. The first was this really sad movie that was based on a true story I guess. I’d never heard of it before, but it was with Richard Gere and it was about his relationship with his dog, and how the dog takes him to the train station to go to work every day and is there waiting there when he gets back in the evening. Then Richard Gere dies one day at work and the dog keeps coming back to the train station to wait for him, even after the dog goes to a new family and they move, the dog finds a way back to that train station to wait for him. It made me cry, and Filip laughed. He’s not a dog person like me. The 2nd movie was Up in the Air, so that was more uplifting.
We arrived in Seville around 1:30/2, and it was so much warmer than Barcelona. It was bright and sunny out, and we needed to find our way to the hotel. Filip and I have been using a method that works okay, but not always great. That is, we take pictures of the hotel plotted by google maps zoomed in at different levels. It ended up working out again this time, but we did get slightly lost for a couple minutes and ended up walking in a circle. This ended up being a reoccurring theme in Seville as the streets twist in all different directions and are not always clearly marked. After freshening up, Filip, Carson, Jenny, and I headed out to check out the town. We found a small café for a light lunch (but with no veggie options), and then walked more to the middle of town around the Cathedral and by the Real Alcazar (Royal Palace), and then we wound our way through the streets back to our hotel to rest for a bit.
This is the hottest place we have been yet, and Filip didn’t drink as much water as he should have, especially since we were walking around during the hottest part of the day, so he was feeling a bit sick by the time we went back out for dinner just after 8. I was starting to feel a bit of a sore throat and hoped that it wasn’t the start of a cold. When we had come back to the hotel after walking around, I looked to see if there were any vegetarian or vegan places around town. There were actually quite a few, so I marked them on our map of the town we now had thanks to our hotel and wrote down their names. We headed for the place that was a bit closer and that was supposed to offer dishes for vegans as well as non-veg dishes. I hadn’t written down the street name that the restaurant was on, just marked where it was on the map, and unfortunately, our map was missing a street so we couldn’t find the place. So then we walked to the one that was further, but not too far of a walk, called Gaia. This is an all vegetarian restaurant, and I think all bio, which means organic. They mark on the menu which items are vegan, which are gluten free, and even which items leave less of a carbon footprint because all ingredients are local. I really enjoyed my food, and even got a slice of cake to go. Since Filip still wasn’t feeling well because of dehydration and too much sun, he and I went back to the hotel. Tomorrow is Carson’s birthday, so she’s going to look up train schedules to see where we might be able to make a day trip to for her birthday. We’re going to get up semi-early to be able to catch a train out by 9.
-Molly

June 16
I could tell even before the alarm went off this morning that my sore throat was definitely the start of a cold. My throat was now ten times worse and I was feeling that dazed/tired way you feel when your body is fending off something. Fortunately, Filip is feeling fine this morning after getting a good nights rest. So we got ready and went down stairs to meet up with Carson and Jenny. They informed us last night that Cadiz, which is on the coast, is where we will be heading, and that it will take about two hours to get there. When we meet up with them we find out Carson isn’t feeling well either, but it doesn’t sound like the same thing I have as we have different symptoms. What a birthday, sick in a foreign country. We made it to the train station with a little time before the train leaves, but they didn’t have much there for food, good thing we brought some snacks with us.
We got to Cadiz around 11 and walked to the tourist office to get a map and see what there was to do there. They showed us some walking tours of the city and where the beach is. We chose the walking tour that went around the edge of the city, had ocean views, and led to the beach. From the beach we decided to walk to the center of the city where the market is to find something to eat before coming back and relaxing on the beach. When we got back to the beach we found a spot that had both sun and shade. That way Carson and Jenny could lay out in the sun and I could take a nap in the shade. Fortunately, this was also far away from the part of the beach that was covered in sea weed, which stunk, a lot. Filip decided to sit out in the sun for a few minutes so he’d be warm enough to go into the sea. He was the only one of the four of us that went in the water. When we had first walked by the beach it had been during a low tide, there were even boats that had no water under them. In a matter of a few hours, those boats were now floating in the water as we packed up our things to head back to the train station. On our way back, we went through the town this time and walked by the Cathedral. We made it back to the station with just a few minutes to get our return tickets and board the train. Even though I had stayed out of the sun while we were at the beach, I still felt as if I had been in the sun too much. Must have been from the walk earlier. This Southern Spain sun sure is strong. (try to say that ten times fast)
We decided to take a bit of a break and rest once we got back to Seville before we headed out for dinner, but as it was already getting late, we didn’t have too much time. Filip looked for the Cuban restaurant that we had looked for the night before but couldn’t find, and wrote down the name of the street it was on. This time, we found the restaurant. It was really tucked away around the corner at the end of a street. Dinner was good. You can get ½ orders of food, so I got ½ orders of 2 dishes so I could try more than just one thing. The potatoes I got with a spicy sauce were so good. It’s been a while since I had something spicy, and I loved it. Carson and Jenny got dessert, and then we split up. Carson and Jenny went back to the hotel and Filip and I went in search of the Flamenco places so we could find out what the deal was and go tomorrow evening. We found the place that has a free show starting at 11pm every night, but it was a bit difficult. We knew we were at the right spot, but it didn’t seem like there was anything going on in that area and we couldn’t hear any music. We walked by an open door that a couple people were standing outside of and saw that it said something about Flamenco, so we went inside, but still it just was a small room and there was no music. We were talking between ourselves about the Flamenco and where must it be, and an older gentleman overheard us and just pointed us toward a door in the back. When we went through there, suddenly there was music and dancing, and so many people. The place was packed, and because of that it was quite warm in there. There weren’t really seats available when we got there, but we got gist of the setup and time so we knew where and when to come the next evening. We got lost on the way back to the hotel, but once we found the familiar Alfalfa Plaza, we knew where to go to get back to the hotel.
-Molly

June 17
We had decided the day before with Carson and Jenny that today would be a relaxed day to do whatever at our own paces. So when we slept in and didn’t get going until 10:30, I figured since we hadn’t heard from them, they were already out and about for the day since they came back earlier than us the night before. Filip and I headed across town toward the river to find the vegan pastry shop I had read about online. I was so excited because I always see all these pastries and sweets everywhere, and I can never get any of them. It was a little hard finding the place because it ended up being inside this market and not just one of the shop fronts on the street, like I had expected. So we walked past where we thought it was going to be and thought that perhaps it was gone now. Filip decided to check out that market and thought maybe it will be in there. Sure enough, there was a sign at the front for this shop. Filip got an apple strudel and I got a pastry with a filling called “angel hair and almond”. I’m not sure what was in the filling other than the almond, but it was a bit too sweet for me. The pastry part however, was delicious and I am going to have to figure out how to make pastries like that when I get back to Salt Lake. We also both had a fresh squeezed orange juice that was very good, and since there was a fruit stand right across from the pastry shop, the girl at the pastry shop was able to yell over to the fruit stand vendor that she needed more oranges and he brought them over for her.
From the pastry shop we decided to go walk by the river, but as Filip says, “the walk was compromised” because I was in need of tissues since my sore throat is progressing to a full out cold. I wanted to remain on the side that had all the shops in hopes of finding one with tissues. I was unlucky in my search so after passing the bull fighting arena, we turned in toward town to go to Real Alcazar with no tissues, and no river view.
We found a supermercado and were able to get some tissues and then we walked around the corner and sat outside at a café so Filip could get a coffee. While Filip was inside the café for a minute, the traffic got backed up outside and two men in a small car happened to get stopped right across from where I was sitting. They kept saying “Hello, hello, hey”, and then as traffic started moving “Bye, bye”, but unfortunately, the traffic only moved about three feet so it was back to “hello, hello” again. They were gone by the time Filip came back outside, so he missed the whole thing.
After we finished our drinks we went to Real Alcazar. It was amazing, and unlike anything we have seen so far. There were so many rooms and all these rooms had beautiful tiles on the floors, walls, and ceilings. There were also large, open gardens that you could walk around, and also had peacocks walking around in them too. We spent at least three hours walking around there, and it was wonderful. I know that this is a place my Dad must see for sure, since he would just love all the tiles. After leaving Real Alcazar we went back to the hotel and checked in to see if Carson and Jenny were there. They were back, and from the sound of it did almost the same things as us, but in a different order, and had actually woken up even later than we had. We made a plan to meet up in a couple hours to go out for dinner. Filip and I needed a bit of a snack right now, and they wanted to go back out to do some shopping once the stores opened back up for the afternoon/evening.
I wasn’t successful in finding anything to eat since the place I wanted to stop at was closed and wouldn’t open back up until 8pm. That’s been one of the harder adjustments on this trip. Stores and restaurants are not always open all day long. Some close for a lunch time, while here in Spain it seems that many close during the late afternoon, and then don’t open back up until the evening. We did find a place for Filip to get some tapas though, and stopped there before going back to the hotel.
We ended up going back to the vegetarian restaurant Gaia, where we had gone our first night. I again enjoyed my food, but unfortunately tonight, I was the only one. This time I got the seasonal sorbet for dessert. I wanted something cold since my throat was still a bit sore. It was pear flavored, which was different, but quite delicious. After dinner we walked way back across town to go to the Flamenco show that Filip and I had found the night before. This time we got quite lost going there. I think all of our getting lost had a little bit to do with our map not really showing the streets exactly as they are positioned. We made a bit of a circle, but realized what we had done wrong, corrected the mistake, and found the Flamenco show just as packed as it had been the night before. We did manage to find seats, though they were back a bit. We could see the two musicians and the woman dancing, but could not see her feet when she danced which I think might be one of the biggest treats when watching a show like that. You could tell at some points that she was just moving her feet so quickly, but we could only hear it because the soles of her shoes made loud noises on the floor as she danced. It’s a very moving performance, and something I would recommend for everyone to go see. Carson and Jenny had left soon after we got there to go back and pack, but Filip and I stayed until about 12:15 when the group stopped for a long break. We found our way home and still had to pack up our things since we are leaving quite early tomorrow morning. We finally got all our things ready and headed to bed around 1:30 am, and our alarm is going off at 5:30, looks like we won’t be sleeping much tonight.
-Molly

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Photos

Narrow Streets in Seville
They even had to turn in their side mirror to squeeze by this lady. Maybe some of these streets shouldn't be for driving.

Gaia
Vegetarian Restaurant

Molly in the bath
at Real Alcazar

Filip in the Gardens
at Real Alcazar

Molly under tall arch
in Real Alcazar