5.11.11 - Seville



Our room (and Tricia sleeping in the top
bunk) and pics

 In a room with 14 people, it can be hard to sleep in. This was exacerbated by the fact that the kitchen window and the bathroom window opened onto the tiny patio, which also had a window into our room. And everything was tile. At 8 am, when breakfast started, 4 floors of backpackers descended on the kitchen. It sounded like a mob scene. All 14 of us opened our eyes and stared at the ceiling or at the bunk above our heads. Some people (like Tricia) gave up on sleep and went to join the mob. Others (like me) refused to give in to the noise and covered our heads and pretended we could sleep through the noise. In the room, we quickly realized which people got up early and which stayed in bed - we were all comrades in the battle for sleep.

Oh, and did I mention that there was the window to our room, then directly across the patio was the window to the bathroom? Sometimes it was wide open and the people inside didn’t realize it. Even when it was closed though, it didn’t do much to hide what was going on inside. At one point, a guy and a girl were both in there…..don’t think they realized the show they were putting on. Actually, the bathroom was for people from a couple of bedrooms, but only our room could see directly in. Tricia and I realized this on the very first day while we were doing laundry, so we were very discrete.

Although Tricia had already eaten breakfast by the time I got up, she ate with me again at 9. We had our choice of 3 cereals, all of which were named “Discount Cereal”: chocolate flakes, non-chocolate flakes (like corn flakes), and a granola-with-fruit type of thing. I went with granola, but it was a bad decision. (I later learned there was no good decision with the cereal.) The milk was lukewarm since it is boxed (shelf-stable) and the fridges were all full with the food of 400 backpackers. We also had toast with a generic-Nutella type spread or with various flavors of marmalade. Finally, there was really strong coffee (espresso?). We added sugar, milk, and hot cocoa mix and were good to go.

At 11:15 we wanted to take the walking tour of the city, and joined in with the girls from Canada from the night before. We were extolling the virtues of the Madrid tour, and hoping that the Seville tour would be just as good. When we met our guide, Allie, she told us that it was her very last tour as she was leaving Spain in just a few days.

First up on the tour: we stopped to see the Cathedral and the Alcazar, which were right next to each other. According to the tour guide, the Cathedral is the final resting place of “at least 10%” of Christopher Columbus. I think she liked the Alcazar better, but since it was modeled on the one in Granada, we decided that the Cathedral would be a better use of our money. Allie asked if we could guess how many steps were in the tower of the Cathedral. Since the tower in Boston was only in the 200’s, I was guessing 2-3 hundred for the Cathedral as well. But it was a trick question: they used ramps instead of stairs so the bell-ringer could ride his horse to the top 5 times a day and ring the bell.

Next up comes the strangest story I’ve ever heard. In the 15^th century, the king died in a riding accident, leaving his 11 year old son as next in line. Since he was only 11, the Catholic Church took over for the next few years. They saw an opportunity to put the rich Jews in their place, and organized an attack in which 1000 or so Jews were killed. Seven years later, the Jews were organizing their own revolt against the Catholic Church. The daughter of one of the instigators, Susona, learned of the imminent attack, and was afraid for the lover she was dating in secret - a Catholic soldier. She warned him, and he warned the others, and another group of Jews was killed in the resulting surprise attack, including Susona’s father. Both her lover and her family then rejected her, and she fled the city, never to be heard from again……until she died. In her will, she asked that her head be cut off and hung outside her family’s house as a reminded to never go against your people. After 150 years of her head hanging there, they took it down and replaced it with a plaque.

Near the end of the tour, we stopped at the bull ring. For the last 2 weeks of April there were bull fights every day, but for the rest of the summer they’re only on Sundays. So we won’t see a bull fight in Seville, which is okay, because it’s an extremely, extremely violent sport. (Before the fight even starts, the bull is stabbed a couple times to make sure he’s not at his best.) Allie told us of a famous bull fighter who was told by his doctor that he couldn’t fight anymore. In addition, he shouldn’t smoke, drink, ride a horse, or have sex either. So, he got on his horse, bought some whiskey and tobacco, and hired two prostitutes. In the morning he killed himself, leaving a note that said, “If I can’t live as a man, I won’t live at all!” So they built him a statue.

We didn’t enjoy the tour in Seville quite as much as the one in Madrid, but we’d still had fun and gotten to see a lot of the city. We decided to skip touring the bull ring and head home for a nap instead.

We then got up to wander the city on our own. We needed some food, and were looking for tapas when we passed by a sandwich place that advertised “Euromania” where everything was 1 Euro on Wednesdays. That sounded pretty good to us. So we went inside and ordered an “orange-flavored soda”, a barbacoa sandwich, a chicken sandwich with guacamole, and a bag of homemade chips (impulse buy: they were sitting next to the register). On my way to the counter with our order, I stopped by a table and asked a guy what he was drinking. “Jarra tinto verano.” Jar of summer red wine? Ish? So I ordered that too. A large, since everything’s a Euro.

The food was pretty good for the amount we spent - little sandwiches and lots of chips and a great big glass of what turned out to be carbonated red wine. We made a note to stop back in a couple of hours. Tricia filtched some ice and stuck it in a silverware wrapper to hold to her back as it was hurting her a bit.

Next we went by the cathedral and went into the free portion where mass was held. It was very beautiful inside, with ornate carvings and paintings. And then back out into the city once again.

As we were wondering aimlessly and looking at architecture, we passed a building that advertised “Arte Sencial” in banners all over its sides. So of course we wandered in. There was a guard sitting at a table by the door with pamphlets spread in front of him. We asked him “cuanto cuesta” (how much?) and he told us it was free. Are photos okay? He gave us a “sure, whatever, I really don’t care” nod, and we went in to see what there was.

The exhibit was to help promote Spanish artists, since they don’t apparently get their due in Spain or in the rest of Europe. It seems that the Spanish feel they are behind the rest of Europe, and so they really love European art, architecture, etc. The photos and paintings were interesting: a photo montage of the walk to a church; a photo of hundreds of origami swans all laid out in rows. We stopped for a while and watched a video that showed clips of tides on the sand interspersed with cups of coffee: it would sometimes be slow and sometimes speed up to crazy speeds with flashing lights and colors - a juxtaposition between the tranquil and the fast moving.

After the exhibit, we went back outside and made our way again to Plaza de Espana. There is a sort of moat around the plaza where you can rent boats. A bunch of young girls had rented boats and were completely incapable of rowing them in the right direction. I don’t think they understood that they were supposed to row backwards. In trying to row forwards, they were trying to make the flat part of the boat cut through the water, and the most successful boats were only managing to turn in circles. We sat and watched for a while as the girls shrieked and rowed - they were afraid they were going to tip over (we thought they might tip over too, as they had no talent at rowing boats).

All over the Plaza de Espana all the railings are made of porcelain, which I think is quite funny. It was built in the 1920’s to show how advanced Seville was when they came to the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929. Unfortunately, not a lot of people were traveling as the exposition ended up being the same year the Great Depression hit. In the Plaza, each city in Spain gets a bit of the porcelain devoted to it for a painting. Some are violent with soldiers on horseback killing each other, and some are religious with angels. We walked around the entire plaza and looked at the painting chosen to represent each city.

We’d actually spend a long time walking around, and three hours had passed since we’d last eaten, so we went to Euromania at the “Place of 100 Sandwiches” again (I may be taking liberties with the name, but I’m not too far off). This time it was 8:00, and the place was full to busting. Tricia and I both got Jarra Tinto Verano, and then went upstairs to wait for our two sandwiches and plate of nachos. There were no table upstairs either, so we stood and stared at the diners and tried to make them uncomfortable while we sipped our wine. Many other table-less patrons joined us, and there was a crowd of both sitters and standers.

When Tricia went downstairs to pick up our food, a small group of diners split off from a group of about 15 that had pulled 4 tables together. I pulled their table away from the others and sat at it to stake my claim. A lady hurried over to clean it off for me, and Tricia was very happy when she arrived with the food that there was a place to set it down. The nachos were ridiculous - a handful of chips with tiny bits of nacho cheese, salsa, and guacamole on the side. The sandwiches were pretty good though - we’d gotten ham, chicken, and cheese and “special” with green chilies and red sauce. All in all, better for lunch than for dinner.

On the way home we stopped into a little shop and browsed the wine. We decide on a bottle of red for 1.60 Euros ($2.40). We had planned to drink it on the terrace at our hostel, but instead got comfortable in bed typing on our computers and couldn’t actually get ourselves motivated to leave.

Thought I'd end on a panoramic of Plaza de Espana