UPDATES:
- If it is not already obvious to you, I am struggling to keep up with the pace of this trip. I have already been to Spain, Morocco, and Ghana and I am still telling you stories from Spain! Yikes! The plan is for me to get to the point. So, I apologize if my stories are not as detailed in the future! I just HAVE TO get this stuff down! Mom wrote me an email the other night, “Please do catch us up with all your adventures on your blog.” In an effort to please not only my mother, but also friends and family I am going to put in some extra effort to share with you all my thoughts and experiences ASAP!
- I hope that you enjoyed the photos posted earlier. I am afraid, though, it is not possible for me to post many more! I am only given so many minutes online – and uploading photos takes up too much time! (and if I run out I have to buy more minutes!) So, if I am in a port and get free Wi-Fi, I’ll be sure to upload as many photos as possible! But until then, you are stuck with just my words! Sorry!
So, onto my last few stories of Spain…
The Sights, Surprises, and Silliness of Sevilla
Oh, looking back on Sevilla now is quite funny to me. I was still so unfamiliar with what this semester was going to look like, who the people I was meeting really stood for, and what in the heck I was going to do while I was in Spain.
I somehow got a group together to go to Sevilla. Six of us – 3 girls (Lane, Laurel, and me) and 3 boys (David, Bryan – who went to Indian Springs, and Peter). It was the perfect number for us to be able to book our own room in a hostel. Yes, mom, I stayed overnight in a hostel. It had the best rating on hostelworld.com, so I felt pretty good about it! I figured out fast that this group was quite a hodge-podge! But we made it work – and it led to some interesting situations.
None of us woke up until 11:00am that next morning. We met for lunch here on the ship and then decided to hit the road! So, we walked to the bus station (a long WINDY walk that is) in Cadiz and bought round-trip tickets to Sevilla. Our bus didn’t leave until 3pm, so we scouted out an Internet café to help us waste some time. Finally 3 o’clock came and we piled onto the bus. (Reminds me of the first-year adventure to Washington DC with Ruthie, Margaret, Kaitlin, and Caroline on the GREYHOUND! Ha!) The bus ride was about an hour and a half of beautiful Mediterranean scenery – of course sprinkled with the occasional grouping of wind turbines. Lane and I sat toward the back, snoozing on and off the entire way. I attempted to journal, but sleeping is always too tempting.
We finally arrive around 5pm and hop in a taxi to get to our hostel. We are dropped off on this main street (not like the many NARROW streets that characterize the rest of the city) and are lost. In desperation I whip out some of my pathetic Spanish, and get the taxi driver to point us in the right direction. Turns out, the hostel was about a block away on the other side of the street. I guess my hostelworld.com expectations were too high – at least when it came to street appeal. We step inside the Samay Sevilla Hostel, greeted by our hippie front desk man, Kian. He was really nice. He helped us decide what to do around Seville and got all six of us in our own room. The inside of the hostel ended up being pretty nice. I felt like I had walked into Ikea. All the furniture was bright colored and simple. Felt clean and welcoming. So, we threw our stuff down in our room, freshened up a bit, and then started out on our adventure in Sevilla.
Kian mentioned that there was to be a bullfight that evening at 7pm. It was actually really lucky for us to be there when there was a bullfight because in September they only have three! My mom had somewhat prepared me for the blood and gore of this event, but I’m not sure that everyone else was ready for it.
Well, we started walking to the Plaza de toros de la Real Maestranza de Caballería de Sevilla (the bull’s place of doom). It was very hot outside, but the scenery took our minds off of any discomfort. Seville is BEAUTIFUL! As the artistic and cultural capital of Andalusia, everything is worth pausing to take in. My only problem with sitting back and enjoying every bit of this picture perfect place, was I felt that because I had somewhat organized this trip that I was responsible for its success. Looking back, I realize this unnecessary pressure on myself may have made me a little bit uptight, but as the trip went on I definitely loosened up. Our group dynamic was so interesting – because it never just worked! We were all so different! It was a fantastic way, though, to learn about each other and it made us all realize how short of a period we had known one another.
Back to the story though, we get tickets to the bullfight. We buy the cheapest ones for 11 euro – but we will be sitting in the blistering sun. No big deal. I brought SPF 50 sunscreen. We went to go grab some tapas and water before coming back to the plaza at 7. The boys, though, wanted to go to McDonald’s. The girls could not believe it. So we let them go and wandered the streets by ourselves until 7. Arriving at the plaza, Lane and I purchased fans because it really was ridiculously hot. We scurried up the stairs to our seats, and then adjusted to another location out of the sun! Having fans with us made it so much better! Not only did it help to cool us down, but we also felt to Spanish! Corny, yes - but really fun.
The ceremony began. The first matador made his way out into the plaza. After teasing the bull with pink capes, horses, and yelling – the red cape finally was brought out. Blood was already streaming down the bull thanks to the several stabs from previous rounds. Thank goodness the bull was black or the impact of the gushing blood would have been even worse! The first matador was an amateur and did not kill the bull with one final stab but had to make several attempts. Finally, the bull fell. Then, a team of horses came out with a chain dragging behind them. The chain was attached to the bleeding bull – and was then mercilessly dragged out of the rink. What a sight.
Believe it or not I was okay with all of this. I know that the meat is eaten, and that this is not about brutally killing an animal, but the art form – the tradition and history that it holds. Kian, the guy at the hostel, suggested for us to read Ernest Hemingway’s Death in the Afternoon in order to better understand the deeper meanings and beauty of the bullfight. Maybe I’ll get around to that one day. Caroline – you should add it to your reading list.
The bullfight was to continue five more rounds, each round with a more experienced matador. But, Lane was not comfortable. She was ready to go. So, Laurel, Lane, and I left the guys at the bullfight and decided to try and make a service at the Cathedral of Seville since it was a Sunday. Ends up that there was no service, so we just took plenty of photos. This Cathedral is gigantic! Its presence is simply astounding. There was a beautifully set restaurant across the way, so we checked out the menu, and decided that is where we wanted to return that night.
So, later on, after cleaning up and changing for the evening at the hostel, we went to eat dinner. The conversation sitting around the table can only be described by one word: immature. Two of the guys did not catch the hints to change the subject and pursued a topic that I would prefer not to discuss in one of the most beautifully set meals I had ever experienced. As Lane put it, we were eating dinner with 5th graders.
Regardless, it was beautiful. The food was good and we had a nice white wine with the meal. After dinner we walked through the warmly lit narrow streets of Seville – some of the most romantic places in the world are here in this city – I am sure of it. Even after experiencing Venice and Florence in the evening – Seville wins.
We ended up at a swanky, outdoor bar that was situated along the River Guadalquivir. Several Semester at Sea kids came in at once – somewhat embarrassing because every Spaniard there was staring at the site of American college students lining up at the bar. I took a back seat for a bit and just took in all that was around me. Then, I noticed that Peter had started talking to two guys. I went over to join the conversation. Turns out they were from Holland and on vacation for a few days. We ended up talking for a couple of hours about everything from American Politics to the importance of family and so much more! It was a great evening – some of the best conversation I have had on the entire trip. We were hoping to meet up with them the next day to walk around Seville a bit, but my phone wasn’t working. I received some messages from them, but I don’t think my phone was allowing me to send texts back. Disappointing, but at least we all enjoyed talking to the both of them that night.
The next day we went to the Cathedral again to walk through it. It is a gothic style cathedral – and the 3rd largest church in the world! Honestly is was pretty amazing. We climbed to the top of the tower and looked out over all of Sevilla. That afternoon we wandered around for a bit before catching the bus back to Cadiz.
The final day in Cadiz I met with my film documentary class to learn some tricks of how to go about filming in the countries. I absolutely love my professor for this class, Paul Wagner. He has actually received an Academy Award for one of his documentaries! The main thing I like about him as a teacher is that because he is not a professor at UVa, but just a resident of Charlottesville who does some stuff with the Media Studies department – he doesn’t talk to us like he is above us. Instead, he teaches what he knows and wants to help us love what he loves to do.
So, we were setting up the tri-pod to talk about how to deal with outdoor lighting and the exposure on our cameras. Well, we randomly see this Spanish man feeding cats in the park that we were in. Paul (he prefers Paul over Professor Wagner – it is difficult for me to get used to) decides that this is a chance to get a story on film. We approach the man and ask if we can film him. He sort of understands, so we start to film. He is giving cat food to three little kitties in the park. It was getting a little bit awkward standing around this man as a group, watching and filming his cats eating. So, I struck up a conversation with the man. He feeds these cats that live in the park everyday. He considers them his own – having given them names. He pointed to each cat and mumbled some name, we shared smiles and laughter at the fact that neither of us fully understanding one another.
Well, Paul got all of this on film. The next week in class he has made it into a short minute clip about students in a park befriending a man who was feeding his cats. It was just lovely seeing myself on the big screen speaking my superb Spanish (all of you who went to Nicaragua with me can laugh at this point).
All and all, Spain was simply fantastic. As I wrote in a paper for my US South class – Spain, for many of us, was an extension of the familiar. A part of the Western world – sharing many of the same ideas about life. It was nice to have Spain as the first port because it was a place that did not cause an immediate culture shock. All of that was about to change by simply sailing a short distance to Casablanca, Morocco.
I felt safe that final day walking around Cadiz by myself for several hours taking in the sights and sounds. I did a little shopping – bought myself some sandals and a hand-painted dish. I got lost in the maze of narrow streets, discovering small family owned shops and restaurants. Inevitably – siesta time arrived – the stores closed, the streets cleared and I pulled out the map to find my way out of the maze. I walked a great part of the city that afternoon – and it was nice (even as an ENFP) – to be alone by myself and think about all that is to come on this adventure.
I also was able to call home with a calling card for about 45 minute! It was so nice to hear Mom’s voice and to hear how everything was going. I hope to have the chance to do that in South Africa!
I now have finally finished my rambling about Spain. There are more stories embedded within my overview – but you will just have to ask me specific questions to get those stories out of me!
In case any of you do not know, I am able to access e-mail for FREE on this trip! So, shoot me an email if you want to know more! I’d also love to hear how you are doing. Rlg2d@virginia.edu.
