seville

Last weekend I went to Seville or as they call it Sevilla. It is located in southern Spain and it is a really cool city. It is more of what I thought Spain would look like. A lot of palm trees, more Spanish looking houses and buildings, lots of flamenco, and lots of bull fighting. Unfortunately it rained the entire weekend when we were there so I didn't get to enjoy the city to its full potential.

On Friday, our flight was delayed, so when we landed we went straight from the airport to the hotel, dropped our stuff off really fast, and then headed out. We didn't even have time to check into our hotel room. After being quickly rushed out of the hotel we went to the cathedral in Seville. It was really large, looked a lot like most all other cathedrals I have seen though. Inside the cathedral Christopher Columbus is actually buried there so that was pretty cool. We also got to walk to the top of the bell tower and it had a great view of the entire city. The cathedral use to be an Muslim temple, the only part of the Cathedral that remains that was Muslim design was the bell tower. so that was pretty cool to see. From there we went to the palace. It is one of the oldest still in use palaces in Europe. Within the palace there are 3 different palaces. My favorite one palace was the one that was Muslim. It is just so different than what I have seen in barcelona. Everything is so much or detailed and the architecture is so different. While we were at the palace it started raining, so when our tour was over we all headed back to the hotel to check in and settle for a little bit. well they didnt really give us good directions or a map on how to get back to the hotel so after wondering the streets of seville we finally made it to our hotel. We checked in and our hotel and it was actually really nice. It was a huge change from our pretty shitty hotel in rome. API stepped up their game this time ha. Friday night we went and got mexican food for dinner. Tenessa has wanted mexican food since the moment we have been in spain and so that is what we decided to do. Well the first restaurant we went to the entire block had no lights on and the restaurant looked like it had been shut down, so we had no idea what to do. We ventured around Seville and then finally we stumbled another mexican place which ended up to be really good. It had real sour cream!!!!

On Saturday we had a day trip to Cadiz, which is about and hour and half away from Seville and located on the Atlantic Coast. Well once again it was pouring down rain. It was raining so hard on our bus ride there that you could barely see out the front window. When we got to cadiz it cleared up a little, well i mean it wasnt pouring but it was still raining pretty hard. They had to change up our tour of the city to make it more of an indoor thing. So we took a short tour on a bus and then we went to another cathedral, the museum for the cathedral and then the city hall. The city hall was pretty cool because it was super old and really extravagant. Way cooler than any city hall in the states. As we left the Cathedral to go to the museum i literally think i was in the middle of a monsoon. It was raining so hard, everyone was soaking wet and you had to look straight down when you walked. Thankfully after leaving the museum the rain had cleared and you could see the sun trying to push through the clouds. We were suppose to stay there til 430 but everyone was so miserable we got lunch, had some time to get souvenirs and then we headed back to Seville. Since we got back early i had enough time to take a nap before going out for the night. That night we were going to go to go to this Tapas bar that my friend Dave heard of from one of his friends who was studying there but the line was over an hour wait, so instead we went to some restaurant that had live music playing on the corner. After that we all headed across the river to this bar called BigBen. That was a lot of fun and there were a ton of locals there which is a nice mix up from all the americans you see in barcelona.

On sunday we were suppose to have a bike tour, but once again the weather was terrible when they woke up so they canceled it. Instead we got to go on a tour of a bull fighting ring. The weather actually cleared up on Sunday and it got pretty warm out. The bull fighting ring was cool way different than I expected. After being there and seeing pictures and the process of a bull fight, I dont think that I could ever really attend one. Little too gruesome for me. We didnt have to meet back at the hotel until 4 so after our short tour, we headed back to that tapas bar we wanted to go to the night before. I am really glad we decided to do that because it was one of the best places i have been yet. The tapas you ordered were the size of a real meal. I ordered two dishes and my total for my meal was 3 euro! soo cheap and such great food. After that we just headed back to the hotel and soon enough we were back in Barca.

On a side note. Yesterday it snowed in barcelona. Like legit sticked to the ground snow. My spanish teacher said that in her whole life she has maybe seen snow twice and she has never seen it stick to the ground. I was at class in the campus that is really far away from my house, its a little more out of the city, and so not as warm. The streets were covered, cars were gettinng stuck, complete mayham. When I got on the metro there were people everywhere. Whats normally a 20 - 30 minute ride home turned into a 45 minute ride. It was miserable. Once i got into the city by were i lived the streets were covered in slush everywhere. My shoes, thankfully i wore my uggs to class yesterday, were soaked all the way through. Literally water in my shoes. it was terrible. But today there wasnt a cloud in the sky and super sunny. The weather is so strange here i dont understand.

This weekend i am off to Florence to meet my friends krissy, katie, and jacey. courtney will also be flying in from london and alex bernasconi will also be there. it is going to be a great weekend!