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Published: August 7th 2007
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4/12/07 Fes-->Tangier-->Algeciras-->Seville
In order to make it to Seville today we had to catch the 1:50am train from Fes. When we finally got to Tangier, we were bombarded with taxi drivers, all of them wanting to take us wherever we needed to go. We ended up choosing a man who spoke to us in English and offered a very low price to take us to the port. When we got to the port, we went to the first fast ferry booth we found and quite easily bought our ticket to Algeciras on the ferry that was leaving in about an hour. We went through passport control (which by the way, I love my Swiss passport. I just walk right through, I don’t have to wait in any long lines---it is so nice. The downside however is that I don’t get any passport stamps (yes this is a very sad thing for me)) and then boarded the boat. The whole process was so incredibly simple and easy (quite the opposite of what it was like in Spain when we were trying to get to Tangier). The ferry ride didn’t take long at all (hence the name fast ferry), though it was
Seville
Inside the Alcazar a bit bumpy. After doing passport control we walked to the bus station, walked right up to the ticket window and bought a ticket for a bus that left in 30 minutes. We had been incredibly lucky with our timing thus far. After about 3 hours we made it to Seville. Unfortunately it was raining (but then again that really shouldn’t have surprised us considering that the Irish weather had so far managed to follow us everywhere we went while back in Ireland they we all getting tans it was so beautiful. It even started to rain while we were in Fes and a man came up to us in our hotel and actually thanked us for bringing the rain to Morocco—go figure), but we still managed to find our hostel even with the terrible directions they gave us. After putting our bags down in our rooms we ended up running into Jenny (this was the part of our trip when we met back up and continued on together) and her friend who was studying in Seville. We went to the supermarket to get some food, took showers, and pretty much just went to bed.
4/13/07 Seville
Sudie
Seville
The oldest bullring and I began the day with a visit to the Alcazar. The gardens seemed to go on forever. They were so pretty, and it smelled so good (all the flowers were in bloom). Not to mention it was completely free for students to get in (as opposed to 7 Euros for adults---I love student discounts!). Afterwards, we met up with Jenny and pretty much just ended up walking around. The city was really nice. I loved the look of all of the buildings. We ended up walking along the river, taking pictures of the Torre del Oro (golden tower) and of the Plaza de Toros (bullring) which I had heard was the oldest bullring in Europe (I’m not sure if this is true or not). I went in to see if I could take a tour, but they had stopped giving tours for the day because that night was their first bullfight of the season. Upon learning this, we went to the ticket counter and found out that we could buy tickets for 11 euros. I seriously contemplated buying a ticket, I mean we were in Spain, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it (poor bulls). We met
Seville
Plaza de Espana with Jenny’s friend and walked to the Plaza de Espana, which was really cool. We left at about 6:00 to walk back, because I had to meet Molly and Jill (friends from high school that are studying in Seville for the semester) at 6:30 near the Cathedral. It was so great to see and talk to people that I actually knew (this sounds strange, but it was nice to be around other people from Colorado (since I have met a total of 1 other person since I got to Ireland), and to talk about things and actually have them understand what your talking about). We ended up going to eat at this little place that had like 100 mini sandwiches to choose from. You have to get like 4 in order to actually have enough food to constitute a meal. It was so much fun! (Yes, I am easily amused) When we were done, we met the others back at the hostel, and Jenny’s friend took us to see a free Flamenco dance. It was free because it was basically just amateurs performing in this bar/club (they were very good though—not that I really know the difference). I’m glad that
Seville
Jill and I with our churros I got to see a flamenco dance (and the fact that it was free was even better), it was interesting. When it was over we all went back to our own places and went to bed. Though I was woken up by my roommate who was pretty shaken up over the fact that on her way back from the flamenco performance one of the guys she was walking back with was robbed. Apparently they got lost and he went off to find directions and some group of teens held a broken bottle to his throat and took his wallet (I found it slightly funny, not that he got robbed but, that only a bit before when I was talking to the Jill, Molly and Jenny’s friend that they were talking about just how incredibly safe Seville was). Everyone was okay, but it is not one of those experiences that anyone wants to have. I was really glad that we hadn’t had anything like that happen to us.
4/14/07 Seville-->Faro
We checked out of the hostel (they held our bags) and met up with Jill, Molly, and Jenny’s friend to go to the Gipsy Market (it was basically like
Seville
The Anti bull fight protest a flea market). We had to ride the bus because it was fairly far away. They had fruit, and tons of stands with clothes and fake pumas, and copied CD’s and DVD’s. It was a lot of fun (as markets usually are). Molly, Jill and I ended up walking around, looking at everything. At the back we came across a churros con chocolate stand (which I had heard were the things to try), and ordered some. Basically they are these long fried dough things that you dip into a cup of melted chocolate. It was awfully good I have to admit (though anything sweet or with chocolate usually is). We met back up with the others and then caught the bus back. Since it was close to siesta time (everyone takes a nap for a good portion of the middle of the day, in which absolutely nothing is open) the traffic was insane and it took forever. Finally we got back to the hostel where we picked up or bags and I said goodbye to Molly and Jill. We ended up having to take a cab to the bus station because we were so late (luckily cabs in Spain are
pretty cheap, unlike in Ireland), but we still made it onto the bus. I had such a good time in Seville. It is a beautiful city, I would definitely go back. I didn’t get to see everything that I had originally wanted to but I still had a great time and I’m so glad I got to meet up with Molly and Jill.
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