It took us a really long time to make it to the beach, but when we finally got there, it was well worth it. We enjoyed a couple hours of soaking up the sun and standing in the clearest, bluest water I have ever seen in my life. I passed out listening to my iPod and feeling the heat of the sun on my face. There is nothing I enjoy better than that. After a couple of hours we all got hungry and decided to go grab a 4 o’clock lunch (since that’s how meals work in Spain). We went to a little restaurant where we finally got our first legit meal in Spain. First course was Paella Mixta which is rice with an assortment of seafood. I was not a fan because I hate seafood, but I pushed the meat around and ate the somewhat fishy tasting rice. Our second course was meatballs and fries. This part was really good. I liked the meatballs a lot and they were doused in the Spanish ‘meat sauce’ which doesn’t taste anything like the meat sauce from home. We also had pan (bread) with our meal and ended it with flan. Flan is a Spanish dessert that is like custard slash eggs slash syrup. I thought it was really good and it is a very popular dish here. A couple things about Spanish meals:
- The day begins with breakfast which consists of a croissant and café con leche (coffee with milk). Then there are tapas from 11:30AM – 1:30ish PM. Then is lunch from roughly 2 – 5 PM, and tapas again until dinner around 7 PM or so. Meals are obviously at really different times and it was definitely really difficult to get the hang of. Typically we’d eat meals at like 2 and then end up coming back to the ship really hungry at like 9.
- In Spain, if you don’t ask for your check, you probably won’t get it and will end up sitting there forever. Every single time we have had to ask our waiter or waitress for our check.
- Spanish meals are intended to take a really long period of time. Most of our actual meals (not tapas) took at least 2 hours and had at least 3 courses.
- Spanish people are not in a big rush to get out of restaurants and the waiters/waitresses aren’t in a big hurry to get you out of there. It is typical for you to spend close to 3 hours at a restaurant due to the fact that meals are long and multi-course or because it takes forever to finally track down the waiter to get your check and then it takes forever to actually give them your check and get your change.
After lunch, Aeriale and I decided to head back to the beach in hopes of watching the sunset. We were there for about 3 hours when we decided we couldn’t sit in the sun anymore. I was getting bored and we were both pretty burnt. None of us have figured it out yet, but for some reason, the sun sets really late here. It is still extremely light out until at least 10PM.
So then we came back to the ship and went up to the 7th deck and found Emily, Liz, & Lindsey there, so we sat with them and ate a late dinner together and then decided that we wanted to go get tickets for the bus to Sevilla the next day. We decided this around 11:30 PM and went to go to the bus station that is pretty much right outside the port gate. Unfortunately, that gate closes at 11PM so we were forced to walk all the way around to the other gate which is about a ¼ of a mile away. I know that a ¼ of a mile doesn’t sound like far, but the biggest problem is, in walking that ¼ mile away, we then had to turn around and walk right back to where we started essentially in order to get to the train station. On top of all that, the bus station was closed when we got there. We walked back and decided that we’d get up early and go to the station to get tickets.
I woke up a little after 6 AM to get ready to go because we wanted to leave for the bus station at 715 and be completely ready to go after that so we could get our ticket, come back here and get breakfast and then go straight there to get on the bus. All went according to plan and we were boarding the bus around 9 AM for Sevilla. When we arrived around 11 AM, we started wandering around. There were no maps to be found, so we kind of walked leisurely around the city. Eventually, we ran into a guy selling tickets for bus tours and we decided to go. It ended up being a waste of money pretty much, but we eventually got to the main attraction of Sevilla: Catedral de Sevilla. It is the 3rd largest cathedral in the world and it is also where Christopher Columbus is buried. This building was gigantic and everything about it was simply breath taking. There were the most intricate stone archways and ceilings I have ever seen in my life and there were stained glass windows everywhere. The ceilings were (estimated by us) over 300 feet tall. There was an area right near the middle of the cathedral where there were large statues holding Christopher Columbus’ casket. There was also a ‘treasure’ room and the tower. Aeriale and I decided to climb the tower not knowing that 35 stories later, we would get to the top. Even though it was a really long walk, it was well worth it. We were able to see every single aspect of the city there and we got to take some amazing pictures. When we got back down we made Emily, Lindsey, Liz, & Elizabeth climb it also and Aeriale convinced them by telling them it was only 10 stories; in the end they agreed that it was worth it.
After they got back, we went to lunch where I ate pollo (chicken) with curry. It was really good and apparently not at all like they make it in the states (go figure). After that we got back on our little tour bus and ended up riding around for a few hours trying to find a little shopping area that we had wanted to go to but couldn’t remember where it was. When we got off the bus, it was time to go back to the bus station to get on the 7PM bus. Aeriale still hadn’t gotten everything she had wanted to, so I volunteered to stay with her and walk around for awhile and get back for the 815 bus. We were wandering around trying to get back to the cathedral area when we ran into a guy that we had met on the bus earlier who was backpacking through Europe by himself until he had to start work in NYC in July. He was really nice and we asked him how to get to the cathedral. He gave us directions and we went on our way. A little bit later, we could hear someone running behind us and when we glanced back, there he was. He told us he was an idiot and gave us the wrong directions and that we’d need to take a right up ahead instead of going straight. We felt really bad that he ran all that way to tell us, but happy that we found a friendly person who spoke English among all of the non-English speaking people that we seemed to be surrounded by. We made it back to the street we were looking for and got some shopping done and then headed back to the bus station. When we got there we saw Emily, Lindsey and Liz still standing there and found out that the 700 bus was full and they had to wait until 815 as well.
When we got back to the ship, we were again really hungry and all went up to the deck to eat again.
Sevilla was very different from Cadiz in many ways. Sevilla is a much larger city than Cadiz and it is very well known, making it a very touristy area. A lot of the people we saw were not Spanish people, but were French or from some other country. There were also a number of Starbucks around and a lot more people there could speak English or at least broken English to us. I love the architecture here. All of the buildings are really pretty and unique.
Overall, my first European country was an amazing experience. I love Spain. It’s beautiful and unique in it’s own way. There are places here where you can get lost and find people that don’t speak a bit of English and there are places where you can find a number of people who speak English. I wish we didn’t have to leave so soon and that I could’ve gone to more cities in Spain, but what we did and where we went were definitely worthwhile and exciting. Oh, and they have the best jugo de naranja (orange juice) here than anywhere you’ll find because it’s fresh squeezed!
No comments:
Post a Comment