Spain Part II: Seville

We decided to take it easy in Seville since we were hurting after Barcelona. When we got off the plane a very nice group of abroad students helped us find where we were going. We took a train to the city center and almost immediately fell in love. On the train, people were offering older people their seats, and Evan found it moving, saying he wished that kindness for the rest of the world. That sentiment increased when we got off the train, greeted by a street band of Native American Indians performing ancient tribal music. How random that they were there, but we loved it.

We walked down the street, were stopped by a group of gypsies who tried selling us spice stems for 5 euros after reading our palms, at which time I said no thanks, and then found a place to eat lunch. A terrifying street performer was there, dressed like a baby in the stroller, squeaking at people on the street. It was like something out of Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey.

After lunch we found our hostel, and I napped on the wonderful rooftop terrace. We then walked around and found the river, which is like another piece of paradise. All along it people sit by and eat, drink and hang out. This goes on all day, especially during siesta time. It was so ideal. That night we decided to make dinner for ourselves, so we found the only store open with food. It was run by a few tired looking Asian people and most of the food was coated over with dust. We had no choice really so we bought what we could including some rotting vegetables and went back to the hostel. We made rice with vegetables. I met some very interesting people that night. My favorite was a British guy who was a writer. He told me his story while I sauteed the non-rotten parts of the vegetables. He was writing a book on his experiences learning how to dance in South America. Being an uptight Englishman in his youth, he wanted to test out what would happen if he spent a significant amount of time learning how the Latinos move, so he lived down in the southern hemisphere for 9 months. He learned many of the different forms of dances, and he coined this as his "research." He said that his least favorite dance style was the flamenco. The way he put it, "the bloke shimmies a bit, the lady twirls, and every time I'm just like, 'Oh fuck off.'" I liked this guy immediately.

The next day was awesome. Evan and I rented bikes from a local store and roamed around the Seville for four hours. We visited some of the major tourist sights, including the awesome Plaza de Espana, an archaeological museum, and then zipped around the narrow streets and alleys.

Plaza de Espana

Earlier that day I met an Australian guy in our hostel who was traveling Europe until his money ran out. His name is Billy, a former drug dealer who spent some time in prison and now wants a fresh start. Though I was a little on guard around this guy since everything about him was sketchy, I found him pretty interesting. As it turns out, Billy was the reason for why Seville became so important for my abroad experience. A few years ago he got a tattoo from his friends who used a Play Station motor with a needle, but his tatto was wearing down and he wanted to get it redone. He told me he was going to the tattoo parlor that day, and I asked him if they did ear piercing, which they did. I ended up going with him to the place and got my left ear pierced. I was a little nervous, but the whole thing is painless and te guy doing it was professional and showed me how his utensils were all cleaned beforehand. The room he did it in was lit up with fluorescent lighting, ad he had me sit on a bed one sees in a doctor's office during a checkup. I asked the guy a good amount of questions before he did it, until Billy, who was in the room watching, said that I was just being nervous, so I stopped talking and let the guy do his job. Now there's a little stud in my ear. I left Billy at the place and made my way back home.

That night was very cool. As we were walking to meet up with some of Devon's friends, we were stopped by a very large religious procession walking through the streets. The procession was headed by a choir of children and adults, followed by nine clergymen carrying big candles on top of large poles, followed by a few more wafting incense, followed by about ten men carrying a solid gold platform supporting a very large statue of Jesus carrying the cross. The way they walked reminded me a lot of the workers in the opening scene of Metropolis on their way to work (Start the video at 1:30 on youtube, then rent the movie because it's awesome). The Jesus was surrounded by flowers. Behind the procession there were easily over 500 people following. The whole thing was beautiful. These people were going from church to church in honor of the day commemorating St. Lucia. It was a very legit cultural experience, and sadly I did not have a camera with me.

We did not want to leave Seville, especially Evan, who just wanted to know at all times where the Rio was. The next day we hopped a bus to Granada.