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Published: December 27th 2010
After three flights, 15 hours of travel and an exhausting, two-mile sprint with the rest of the people on our 1-hour late Madrid flight to make our last connections we finally found ourselves in Sevilla. Changed money, found the bus to take us into town and promptly got off at the wrong stop. Amateurs. Not to worry since everywhere is walking distance if you have the time and Todd did a great job negiating the narrow, confusing streets as my old-school GPS. We looked exasperated enough a couple of times that two separate elderly gentlemen stopped to attempt to help us. The first gentleman must have traced every road on the map with his knarled old finger about three times before figuring out where we were on the map...and there are about 3000 roads on the map. He was very sweet though, dressed to the nines, and in no hurry. We'll get good at understanding Andalusian Spanish by the end of this trip .
After a much needed two- or three-mile walk through the city we finally found the hotel which is quite nice for 50 euro a night. It's tucked into a tiny cobblestone street and full of the
charm and character you'd expect from a 2000 year old city. About 200 feet away is a cool tapas bar, Rinconsilla, that's been serving up food and grog since 1670, with hams hanging from the ceiling, three floors of revelry happening at any given time and a long list of tapas to choose from. We asked the bartender what he recommended (I think that's what we asked him though it might have come out as something completely different) and he pointed at the top three tapas which we had him bring. Cocktail sized plates, one with a spinach/chickpea concoction that reminded me of palek paneer, one with a salty tomato-sauced cod and one filled with tender pork in sauce very reminiscient of coq a vin. Tasty with the beer and wine and basket of bread slices and ended up being dinner for the evening as we're too exhausted to go out to proper dinner (which in these parts goes from 8pm to midnight). Not sure we can afford proper dinner anyway as tapas and cocktails were $15. Still, not bad and you can't beat the atmosphere.
Finished off the evening with a stroll as the light faded from the
city. We stumbled on what reminded us of the Chiang Mai Sunday Walking Street - not quite the crush of humanity but still the pedestrian streets filled with people out for stolls and shopping, the Christmas lights still shining and ancient stone buildings looming over tiny shops where one can buy anything from gourmet meats to fancy lingerie. It's a shame more of the US doesn't have the charm and total uniqueness of a scene like this. It reminded me of Boulder's pedestrian mall with one exception: not a Starbucks to be seen. Instead, little local hangouts open to the night air and the size of shoeboxes overflow with happy people sipping coffee or hot cocoa and eating churros. Before dinner! What's not to love about Spain?
Hastily written, few pictures taken on this first day...with any luck and some rest these will improve. 😊
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gabi
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inspiration
I was slightly on the fence about leaving the boys with my mom this weekend for an overnight (especially since Sam is still waking up once/night to nurse), but once I read your blog, I decided we needed to do it. So, we'll be in Ouray this weekend, sans kids, and trying not to worry about them too much! :) Have a great time!