Sevilla with Friends

I took an overnight bus (somehow there are no direct trains or moderately priced flights) from Lisbon to Sevilla. The quarters weren´t nearly as bad as I thought they would be; the seat next to me was vacant, leaving with me an adequate amount of space to fall asleep. When I wasn't sleeping, I occupied my time by watching a few episodes of Rescue Me on my video iPod (thank you, Aunt Babs and Uncle Jonathan). For anyone who is familiar with any of the fX series', it will come as no surprise to hear the show is edgy and racy, but really good. Ari recommends.

Anyway, I arrived in Sevilla in the morning to meet up with one of my best friends, Brandon, and his sister Bethany, who is currently studying abroad in the city. Beth and her friend Amanda showed us around the entire city and took us everywhere over the course of the weekend. It was really nice to just be on cruise control and play Follow the Leader for a few days. In fact, I don't think I opened up my European guide book once the entire time I was there. We walked the streets of the town and found lunch at a local cafe. It was here where I enjoyed my first of many tapas, which are Spanish appetizers. (NOTE: If you want to hear the interesting story of why they are called tapas, you will have to read all the way to the bottom of this blog entry. See, you give a little, you get a little...)

My tour guides then took me Sevilla's Plaza de España...

[Editor's Note: Pretty much the only good thing about Spanish-oriented keyboards is that they offer ñ capabilities with ease.]

...This was, and still remains, the most beautiful site of my European trip. The square is a huge half-circle (clever, right?) of beautifully-colored tiled alcoves for each of Spain´s provinces (give yourself a pat on the back if you knew there are 50). The alcoves and the middle of the square are separated by a sliver of running water, which can be traversed by walking on an arched moat. In the middle of the plaza sits an impressive fountain. The backdrop to the site is a number of picture-perfect Spanish style buildings. The scene is jaw-droppingly gorgeous.



We then went to a beautiful park and took in the scenery. I´ll keep it short by telling you to imagine Balboa Park on a perfect day. But imagine more signs in Spanish.

From there, we met with Beth´s host mother. She offered us Coke and pastries, as we talked for roughly an hour. The woman only spoke Spanish, yet I found myself holding my own conversing with her. I took three years of Spanish in high school (from which I learned roughly zero Spanish) and a year in college, and apparently I have absorbed more than I realized. My Spanish has been so decent, in fact, that I have really enjoyed speaking the language with the locals (then again, most of our conversations have been regarding food, so it´s possible the euphoria I've felt hasn't stemmed from the language.) The pleasure of speaking another language is just one of the many unexpected joys of my trip so far.

That night, we went out and met Beth´s boyfriend, who was really nice and taught me a lot about Spanish culture. First we went to dinner (which begin at roughly 10pm in Spain) and then to a Flamenco show. We sat around and drank at the bar for a while. It was really fun catching up with everyone and seeing familiar faces in such an unfamiliar area.

The next day we did much of the same: tourist activities, enjoying the outdoors, food, alcohol. The highlight of the day was when we rented a paddle boat for an hour on the Guadalquivir River. Neither the weather, nor the surrounding scenery could have been any better. Along the river were hundreds of people on the river banks and grassy areas tanning, playing soccer or having a picnic.



Overall, Sevilla far exceeded my expectations. It was absolutely gorgeous, the locals were friendly and the food was cheap and tasty. I think the most appropriate word for the city is charming. Everything about it was pleasant. I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a relatively inexpensive, quick getaway.

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I appreciate your patience if you have lasted this far. Now for the story - it's short, but sweet: fruit flies used to fly into people's drinks, so restaurants began to cover their glasses with plates. The verb tapar means "to cover." Eventually, they began to put food on these plates, thus making them tapas.