Down South Jukin'

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Hola,

16 JUNE - Saturday • Well, bright and early Saturday morning, we all awoke, ate the questionable hotel breakfast, loaded the bus and made for Atocha train station, where were going to take the AVE, Spain's high-speed train, to Córdoba. I'm a big fan of trains and I'm also a big fan of going fast, so I was excited. Not as excited as I'd have been if I'd gotten more than 5 hours of sleep the night before, but still, excited. The AVE hums along at about 200 miles per hour and we completed what would have been a five-hour bus ride in about 1:45. It was cool; I'd try to look out the window and focus on items and it was impossible to do if they were close to the train. The farther away they were, it was more doable. In fact, on the AVE's website, there's a blurry image that moves right to left and has arrows connected to words like 'COW', 'BIRD', 'FENCEPOST', etc. Again, big fun!

We arrived in Córdoba and spent enough time there to visit the Mezquita, which was the largest Mosque in the western world - in the 10th century. But then, after the reconquest had been well under way and Córdoba had been taken back by the Catholic Spanish fighters, Carlos V - without ever having seen the Mezquita - ordered his governor to go ahead and put a church in the middle of it. A few years later, when Carlos V finally got down to see how things were coming along with the construction of the church, he was shocked and saddened at what he had ordered to be done. In spite of the monstrosity in the middle, the Mezquita is still and impressive structure. And after we saw it, and had lunch in the adjacent neighborhood, we high-tailed it out of there and headed south to Sevilla by bus.

Our hotel was a brand-new one, on the western outskirts of Sevilla, next to a "mall." We got in at about 7pm, so all we did was eat dinner and prep ourselves for a low-key night. Profe's Walking Club left the hotel in record numbers, but it broke up when the Teenagers in Search of Booze Club decided to head in another direction. We hit the mall and did some shopping, both window and actual, and thanks to the girls' assistance, my Spanish colleague was able to make some solid purchases for his wife and kids back home. We polished off the night by going to see "Ocean's 13" in Spanish - no subtitles. One of the girls was heard to remark afterwards, "I've never paid so much attention to a movie in my life."

17 JUNE - Sunday • Wake up, breakfast, load the bus... We went downtown to the Plaza de España, which is Sevilla's huge main plaza that was built prior to the 1929 Exposition of the Americas so it could pay homage to its former colonies. Laid out in a half-moon, the plaza has all kinds of beautiful painted tiles and brick columns and twin towers on each end, there's a large fountain in the middle, there are four bridges spanning a moat (empty on this trip) representing the original provinces from when Spain became "Spain." Check out the photos. It's sweet. And apparently, it was used as a background in one of the newer "Star Wars" movies. Anyways, we spent a bunch of time there taking photos and chilling.

Next, we walked across the street to the Parque María Luisa, where we rented crazy double and fourple (yeah, that's a word) bikes and wreaked havoc on all pedestrians and fellow bikers in the park for about an hour. Then we walked downtown to where the cathedral is and had some lunch in the nearby neighborhood.

After lunch, we visited the cathedral, home to the crypt of Christopher Columbus. It's the third largest cathedral in the world, behind St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and St. Paul's in London and has a belltower that's now a city icon, La Giralda. Most of the group climbed up to the top of the tower to get great views of Sevilla and to take some photos. After the cathedral visit, we navigated the narrow streets of white-washed houses that make up the former judería or Jewish district. Hecho polvo, volvemos al hotel para descansarnos un rato y prepararnos para la noche. (Wiped out, we went back to the hotel to rest up a little and prepare ourselves for the night.)

The group went to see a flamenco show that night. Not I. I had bigger fish to fry.

Bound and determined to attend the final match of the season for el Fútbol Club de Sevilla, I set out for El Estadio Sánchez Pizjuán. Before the match began, there was a chance that one of three teams could win the league championship: Real Madrid sat in the top spot with Barcelona and Sevilla was two points behind in third. If Sevilla beat Villarreal and the other two lost, things were going to get crazy in downtown. However, Real held an advantage over Barça, so if they both won, Real would win its 30th league championship.

I arrived at the stadium and went into the team shop to buy a pair of shorts as a souvenir. There, I talked briefly with a couple Americans and asked them how they'd come across tickets. Once I exited the team shop it became a question of going to the box office vs. scalpers. On my way to the box office, a young lad approached me and offered me his seat for 70€. I told him I only had 50€. (You can see I'm a veteran of the scalping game.) Done. Now, the thing is, I had to go to the turnstile with his brother (it was his seat I'd be occupying) and he would scan his socio card (socios are season ticket holders, no paper tickets are issued to them, they just scan their card and they're in) and I'd go throught the turnstile instead of him. I was slightly concerned (more than slightly) that I'd a) be apprehended by security; b) be left standing there as he could have run off after taking me to the turnstile, leaving me there 50€ poorer; and/or c) forget where the hell the seat was and end up with nowhere to watch the game. Well, a) and b) didn't happen. I got in fine. But upon going to the stand to where the seat was, I realized it was full of hard-core Sevilla fans. Died-in-the-wool supporters who probably wouldn't be opposed to fighting opposing fans if the need arose. Well, with discretion being the better part of valor, I chickened out and went waaaay up top to the top of the stadium and sat in an empty row. Nice.

During the first half, a roar went up in the crowd, but not because of the action on the Pizjuán turf. Mallorca had scored on Real and led 1-0. Soon after, Barcelona scored its first goal and the Sevilla fans realized their hopes were pretty much dashed. It was 0-0 at halftime and I went down to grab something to eat.

I bellied up at the salchichas stand; no lines were evident, just a bunch of men yelling the numbers of desired salchichas at the lone girl serving up these hot dog-like delights. She was definitely frazzled and a little confused, and I ended up waiting until the very end of halftime and she gave me her last two dogs. Weird. Oh, and they only serve non-alcoholic beer in the stadium. Probably a good idea.

Villarreal scored once in the second half to win. Barcelona won 5-1. Real, with 15 minutes left in the game, scored three times to win 3-1 and win the league. Bummer. Unfortunately for all of Spain, Tom Cruise and his wife were in attendance in Madrid, since they're apparently pals with David and Victoria Beckham. I bet he brainwashed him into scientology, thus increasing the likeliness Beckham would eventually move to the States. Whatever.

After the game, I walked most of the way home, had beers with a local in a tavern, took two different cabs home and got in bed at 205am. What a long night.

Thanks for reading this HUGE update. You ask for detail and you get it. :-) Hope you enjoyed it.

love,
Kevin

NEXT UPDATE: Granada & Málaga

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