SEVILLA

i was mainly trying to capture the awesomeness of the monochromatic red jumpsuit/short shorts combo..but look how cute the girl to the left is dressed! i love spanish children.
katherine, molly, and i on the mysterious huge bed in the club (complete with pillows).

cliffs on the way to sevilla

2 weekends ago our program took us to Sevilla for a Friday through Sunday adventure, of sorts. Molly and my new/ awesome bff Katherine were on the trip with me and my other good friends took their turn in Rome. On the bus ride there (it’s about 3 or 4 hours from Granada to Sevilla, I think) we stopped for a hike at these awesome rock formation things. Molly, Katherine, and I dubbed this place “God’s Country” because it really was just that. It was so pretty and it was the perfect day outside. We climbed to the very top of one of the rocks and we could see the whole city where we were. We were so high that we could see the clouds forming below the peaks of the mountains in the distance. SO COOL. We became obsessed with climbing into little nooks and spaces within the rocks..i’m very surprised we didn’t get stuck.

group after climb at highest point

I have also discovered that everyone I hang out with (including myself) has bladder control issues in spain. I’m not sure if it’s because we just wait until the very last minute possible to figure out that a restroom might be necessary, or if there is just a complete lack of convenient bathrooms in Europe (I will one day find the answer to this question). We all found our own nice rock corners to relieve ourselves during the hike because the bathrooms before the climb were closed and it was about an hour or 2 hour hike.

molly, me, katherine
another alhambra looking palace on the way to Sevilla
first night club. me, ryann, molly

Once we arrived to Sevilla (molly and I were roomies, like always!) we showered and then went out for some dinner and some partying. Sevilla night life was a blast and Molly and I somehow conned our way into getting all of our friends and ourselves into a 10 euro per person cover charge night club for FREE. It may have been the blonde hair, or it may have been our excellent persuasive skills…you be the judge. We stayed out rather late Friday night and had to get up for a tour of the Sevilla Cathedral at about 9 (so we could eat breakfast too). It was a pretty rough morning since we only got about 3 or 4 hours of sleep, but we pulled through.

loooooved the horses
1/2 of the half API group at the Cathedral
Columbus's tomb

The Cathedral was HUGE. It is the biggest in Europe and the 3^rd largest in the world. The first largest is the Vatican, which I got to see too! Columbus’s tomb is here too! Our tour was all in Spanish and it was super interesting. There were some parts we weren’t allowed to go in for religious reasons, but for the most part we got to see the whole thing. There was a marble table that Molly, Katherine, and I found that we rested on for a little bit and put our faces on because the cold felt REALLY good on our cheeks. We got a lot of stares from a lot of concerned people…

loving/laying on the marble table

After the Cathedral tour we had some free time and a few girls and I went to the famous bull ring in Sevilla. We learned all about the fights and the history and got to go into a museum type thing in the bull ring. For lunch we found a REALLY good AMERICAN food restaurant and I was in heaven. We ordered nachos and I got a santa fe chicken wrap and fries. It felt really great to have some food like home. Speaking of this, I have started to compile a list of the things (mainly food) that I miss most about home. I think I will go a little crazy once I have all of my favorite restaurants at my disposal, so we’ll see. Right now my number one is basically anything with Ranch dressing and some kind of spicy chicken or Mexican food. Tortilla chips and ranch are probably my true number one, now that I truly think about it (from chilli’s or jefferson’s).

bull ring

molly and i date.

After lunch there was a bike tour around Sevilla with API. This was probably my favorite part of Sevilla. We got to ride around (40 twenty year old’s, all in a single file line) on low seated bikes for over 2 hours around the city. It is a lot bigger than Granada but it is also entirely flat (whereas Granada is ALL hills). It was perfect weather outside (we were all wearing tshirts and shorts) and we leisurely road around the city. We got interesting looks from a lot of people and yelled at by some impatient old men on their bikes. We road through a really pretty park and we stopped and took breaks about every 45 minutes to stretch our legs and take pictures. On one break Molly insisted that I hold her up like we were a couple for a nice picture and then after that, I tossed flowers into Katherine’s mouth (as if they were grapes). She caught probably 10 in a row. I would like to say its because I had perfect aim (thanks to my father, of course), but Katherine claims it was because she was good at catching. Nonetheless, I somehow tricked Katherine into eating flowers from a random tree (so I think the loser in this situation is fairly obvious…).

BIKE TOUR!

That night we went out to an awesome tapas bar (unfortunately tapas are only free in Granada, so that is really sad) with some of Molly’s K-state friends who happened to be eurotripping and in Sevilla the same time as us. Afterwards we went to a bar and at this bar I met….an…OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST.

OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST IN CANOING. don't believe me?
1. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-08/23/content_9649569.htm

2. http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ja/natasa-janic-1.html

Here’s the story: We were sitting down drinking some beers in this irish pub when all of a sudden we see this like 30 year old women with a belly shirt on dancing on a table. We start casually poking fun at her, wondering how drunk she is. We eventually decide to go talk to her and ask her why she is here in Sevilla (she had a pretty thick accent that was NOT Spanish). She tells us that she is with her team from Hungary. I asked her what team and she said her training team. TURNS OUT the whole Hungarian kayaking and I think other water sports team was having training camp in sevilla. We met Natasa Janic who was in Athens and Beijing Olympics and has won 2 or 3 gold medals and a bronze as well. She wasn’t even the one who told us she was an Olympian, it was one of her teammates who pointed this out. I didn’t ACTUALLY believe them/her, but when I looked it up on nbc.com it was true. I am claiming that this is about as equivalent to meeting Michael Phelps in a random bar, so I think I can now die happy. After the Olympian encounter, we went back to the club we were at the first night and once again weaseled our way in for free (we are pro’s).

gardens of AZAHAR

The next morning we had to get up at about 10 to eat breakfast (incredible) and checkout. After we checked out we had a tour of the Alcazar which was a huge palace thing in Sevilla. Sevilla used to be the capital of the world (around the time that Columbus was alive) since the river that runs through it was used for shipping to all over the world. The palace and gardens were incredible and I took about 200 pictures here (no joke, I took 511 over the course of the whole Sevilla trip. I have a problem). Within the Alcazar there was an almost exact replica of la Alhambra which is in Granada, so that was weird/interesting to see. Here, the tour guide actually told us to put our faces on the cold walls made of marble and mosaic tiles, so Katherine, Molly, and I felt that we discovered something before the rest of the group, since once again, we had been doing this since day 1.

tiled walls in any and all monuments = bff
more gardens/mazes in AZAHAR

After the Cathedral tour we had free time until the bus left at 3:45 for Granada. We stumbled upon a jeweler on one of the streets and it was one of the highlights of my trip. The man greeted us with “WELCOME TO HIPPYLAND” (hippyland, as it turns out, is any bench in any public area that this man happens to have set up shop on). There were stones laid out and some rings as well. I had him create a ring of my choosing right before my eyes from a big turquoise stone. I love it! Molly and Katherine also got jewelry there too. After spending about 30 minutes in hippyland, we decided to go get lunch. We got really good tapas and some wine..and soon realized that we needed to go back and meet the bus. We stopped at hippyland again on our way back and once again got sucked into its majestical (not sure if this is even a word) qualities. After more time there, I realized that we were late to the bus..so once again (reminiscent of running to the Vatican with molly) we had to run. Katherine, Molly, and I ran through the streets of Sevilla (we were sweating…it was really hot outside) to make sure the bus didn’t leave us behind. Luckily it did not. Our new motto is that we “like to live on edge”…this could not be more true..especially when I blog about Ireland and how many things happened to deter us from arriving there.

in hippyland with my new ring!

Had I not studied in Granada, Sevilla would have been my next choice. It was such nice weather and a great city with super nice people. I will blog about Ireland (where I was this past weekend) soon, I promise!

I have midterms starting Monday and then I leave for SANTORINI, an island off of Greece on Wednesday. Our spring break is from April 1-13, and I cannot wait.

That’s all for now!