Lost in Seville

Today we took a bus to the train station and a train to Seville, Spain. Seville is the 4th largest city in Spain and is a very popular tourist destination. It has always been and still is one of the most important cities in Spain. It took us three hours by train to get there from Malaga and Maria and I slept for most of the trip. Alonso said that the train station was right next to everything in town so we weren’t worried about finding everything. Nothing was close to the train station and we were completely lost for an hour. We finally found a courtyard area with a lion monument. We decided we were where we needed to be because we saw other tourists.

Our American Friends

La Giralda

While we were trying to figure out what to do we heard a group of a couple adult tourists speaking English and they were obviously American, so naturally we followed them. When I say we followed them I mean like we really creepily followed closely behind them down side streets and into stores. We decided they knew where they were going so we made them our unofficial tour guides without them even knowing. It was a good decision because they ended up leading us right to La Giralda which is where all the tourists go.  It is a bell tower that is connected to the Seville Cathedral. Both are huge and beautiful. There is also a courtyard in front with a beautiful fountain. After taking pictures here we lost our American friends so we were on our own again. We ended up finding the Bull Fighting Arena but we were looking for gardens…

Torre del Oro

We took a pit stop from being lost and did some shopping. We have no idea how everything we have bought is going to fit in our luggage. The guy at the store was very helpful and gave us directions on how to find the gardens. On our way we ended up seeing the Torre del Oro or Tower of Gold. It is located right on the river but for some reason the river was blocked off so we couldn’t see it. Over the years the tower has been used as a watch tower and as a prison on separate occasions. It is called the Golden Tower because it shines gold on the river because it was constructed using mortar, lime, and pressed hay.

 

After the tower we finally found what we were looking for, the Maria Luisa Park. For those of you who don’t know, Maria’s sisters name is Luisa so this was pretty cool. The park used to be the gardens of the Palace of San Telmo and they were donated to the city in 1893. The park has many monuments and ponds but we were running out of time because we had to catch our train so we had to move on to our next stop, The Plaza de Espana. This was incredibly beautiful. It is a huge half-circle building and in the center is the Vicente Traver fountain. By the walls of the plaza are many tiled alcoves, each representing a different province of Spain. There were so many beautiful tiles and the entire plaza was breathtaking. We have seen many amazing things on this trip but this was by far one of my favorites and I could have stood their staring at it all day. Unfortunately we had a train to catch in 40 minutes and we had no idea where the train station was.

We were so lost and we were running around looking for signs. Eventually we stopped and asked a police officer. He gave us directions and told us that it would take us about 30 minutes walking to get there. We didn’t have 30 minutes so we took off running. We decided to pretend that we were in the Amazing Race so we felt less like crazy tourists. In total we ended up asking six different people for directions today. Spaniards aren’t that great at giving directions. They either don’t want to help or they point in a general direction and act like they have been extremely helpful. We arrived at the train station sweaty and out of breath with 5 minutes to spare. The train ended up being late anyways so we had some extra time. We had a screaming baby on our train and a tiny dog. It was quite an experience. Once we got back to Malaga Clara and Alonso were waiting for us to take us to dinner.

Tonight we went to a place called Chopp where they give you tapas (like appetizers) with every drink you order. They ordered Maria and I soda and wine mixed. It was ok but I don’t like soda. We got so many plates of food it was crazy. We had fried chicken, breaded cheese sticks, eggplant with molasses, and other things that I can’t remember. My stomach isn’t big enough for Spain! It was all delicious and I paid for everyone.

Two things made me laugh very hard today and I am going to share them with you. The first happened at the train station. Right after we met up with Alonso and Clara we heard very loud hooting and hollering from a group of boys. I turned around to see a group of about 7 boys rushing towards a guy who had just come out of the train station. The best part is that they were all wearing masks that had the guys face on it and they all rushed at him and gave him a hug. I thought it was really sweet and funny. The second funny thing occurred while we were walking from the car to dinner. We passed buy a really old car and Maria stopped to look at it. When she turned around she ran directly into a metal pole and it made such a loud noise. After making sure she was ok we all laughed so hard about it. I continued to laugh all night and I am laughing now as I type it. I felt bad for her but it was so funny that she ran into the pole. I will be checking her for concussion symptoms…

Now for a quick update on the trash strike. The workers are on strike because they want more vacation days every year. Apparently they already get a lot so asking for more is ridiculous. They don’t think so. What I think is ridiculous is the amount of trash in the street. For years it has been that if someone is a sanitation worker than their children can become one too. The government wants to change this but the workers want it to stay the same, so that is another reason for the strike. I think while everyone is figuring it out someone should pick up the trash.

One last note that I forgot to mention in yesterday’s post. Hawaiian pizza is called Ecuador pizza here. We thought that was pretty funny.

Tomorrow is our last day! :(