Tag Archives: Sevilla

A Letter to Sevilla

Oh, Sevilla.

How you exhaust me! I’ve now become acquainted with your winding cobblestone streets, your beautiful people, higher temperatures, and incredible monuments. Although acquainted doesn’t necessarily mean I would admit to knowing you just yet. It was only four days ago that I managed to get lost on my way home from a day trip.

However, I do think we are getting along nicely.

I must say, you have so much beauty. Several hundreds years worth. In my time that I’ve been here, I have gotten to visit your cathedral and look out of the bell tower, your amazing plaza, your incredible palace (where they filmed Game of Thrones), and a bunch of places in between!

Pretty incredible, huh? They even filmed a portion of star wars here!

You have kept me so busy that I’ve barely had any time to blog about you. I can’t believe how quickly time has passed here. And yet, I have had the opportunity to do so much already. Even though I’ve done a lot, I know that it still won’t be everything I wish to do. Therefore, Sevilla, I must cope with the knowledge that I may never truly get to know you as much as I had hoped.

What I have learned though is that you are, at times, like any other city. You have graffiti across some walls and monuments, and quite a few homeless people begging for money on the streets. There’s trash on the ground in some places, and I occasionally feel assaulted by smells that I would rather not smell. But at the same time, you are so different from anything I’ve ever known. History is rooted so deeply here. In the United States, you can’t see things like you do here. Our country simply isn’t old enough. Compared to you, my country is just an adolescent! Don’t take offense though, Sevilla, you age beautifully.

I have enjoyed you so much in such little time and will be sad when we part and go our separate ways in a few weeks. However, I will be happy to be home as well. You’re like a dream, Sevilla. And everybody knows that at some point, you must wake up from your dreams. I will appreciated your beauty while I’m still dreaming, although I know that I will do so even after I wake up.

Until then, Sevilla.

Home again

I should really be cleaning my room right now. Both of my suitcases, my carry-on, and my backpack are sitting wide open on my bedroom floor, with clothes spilling out of their mouths. This, paired with the state of disarray in which I apparently left my room in January (no memory of this), leave very little open floor space, stress me out when I look at my room, and might be a fire hazard. But every time I go to put things away, I end up sitting, staring, and thinking for a while about my time in Seville.

This, sadly, will be my last official GeoBlog post. I returned home on Saturday, which was possibly the longest day of my life (though my trip to Seville, which lasted over 24 hours because of a long delay in Lisbon, has the record). I imagine everyone goes through this when traveling “backwards” through time zones. The day just did not end! The sun stayed in the same spot for a long portion of the day, and by the time my mom and I reached home, I was absolutely spent. It probably didn’t help that I had stayed up until 2 the previous night packing, and that I had had a trying last few days saying goodbye to my friends, teachers, and host parents.

At the end of my last post, I had mentioned how hard I thought goodbyes would be at the end of this semester. And they were not only difficult, but also strange. How do you say goodbye to someone or something without knowing when you are going to see them again? Or if you will ever see them again? It feels like a normal goodbye– like you are parting ways just until the next day. Except that a part of your brain, which is tasked with having some idea of the future and of conceptualizing time (however vaguely and ineptly), forces you to try to bridge the temporal distance between your present goodbye and your next encounter. But you can’t, because the question of when or whether you will meet again is marred with uncertainty.

I remember boarding the plane to Lisbon (with a connecting flight to Seville) in early January, amidst snow drifts and anxiety. It was one of the scariest moments of my life. “There is no getting out of this now,” I remember thinking. Bad thought to think. But I had no idea what would be in store during the close to 5 months on the other side of the Atlantic. I spent those 5 months meeting some amazing people and coming to know some amazing things. And now that I have taken the time to know these people and things and have come to love them all, I’ve left them without knowing when we will meet again.

I struggle at the moment with the distance between myself and these people and things, but also with the distance between myself and my present surroundings. I have heard that this is something that study abroad students face when they come home: they feel frustrated because the people around them have not had the same experiences they have just had, and they feel misunderstood. That is how I feel right now, though I am elated to see my friends and family for the first time since Christmas. But I am frustrated that I can’t make people see what I have gone through, and all I have learned about myself and the world. It’s ironic, because during these past 5 months I frequently felt like I couldn’t convey thoughts or feelings to others; I didn’t have the vocabulary in Spanish to do so. The irony is, now that I have returned home and have at my disposal a language in which I am well-versed, I still can’t express what I feel.

Though I am a little down because the excitement of this adventure has finally begun to dissipate– out of habit, I still check my phone often, wanting to see what the day has in store– I can’t help but have anything but gratitude towards the people who made my experience so incredible and the city that became like a home. So I want to say it once, with sincerity and love and a few tears: thank you. I hope we’ll meet again soon.

Location: Seville, Spain

Adventures inside and outside Sevilla: Part 1

Hola amigos y amigas! This post is crazy overdue and I apologize for that. I sit down every day at my desk and feel overwhelmed by the insane amount of things I have to do. In addition to my new classes here (!), eating meals with my host family, and spending time with friends in my program here, I am also trying to balance preparing an application for a Discovery Grant this summer, considering topics for my thesis next year, worrying about scheduling for next year, and needing time to recharge, as usual. Writing these blogs sometimes feels like a gargantuan task, but once I get going I remember how fun it is to reflect and write about the things that are happening here. Especially since so many of you are friends and family from home! Also, I am going to count this post as two posts since I am so far behind on my writing. So that means I only have to write one more towards the end of this week. Deal?

I have a lot that I want to include in this post, but my first priority is to fill you in on my Portugal trip like I promised more than two weeks ago! I am going to make this a two-part blog post since it will be very long. So I guess I am retracting on my earlier deal to count this as two posts since it will actually be two posts.

Portugal

Not Lisbon: Faro, on the coast. We hopped on a bus Friday afternoon (January 23) after the last session of our intensive Spanish class. (*Note: over the course of 10 days, we spent 30 hours in this intensive class. Ridiculous right? This trip to Portugal was well deserved, we thought.) First off, navigating the bus station was hard. We had to figure out which port, which bus, etc., was ours, until finally a bus pulled up that said FARO. “That’s probably ours,” we said. It was! So, with surprising ease–especially considering that we would be crossing the border into an entirely different country, and they didn’t even ask to see our passports–we stowed our things away under the bus and took off! We were treated to some great views of the incredible and almost exotic Portugal.

The coolest ride into town.

We transferred buses in Faro–we were actually staying in Quarteira, 30 minutes outside of Faro–and drove into the smaller coastal town. We found our hotel easily while on the bus because it was bright orange, but as we drove right past it we realized it was a little ways out of town. “There it goes,” we said. Eventually we made our way there in a taxi and settled in for the night. Two of our friends went back to Faro to visit a restaurant they had learned about from someone they met on the bus called Tasca do Ricky (more about this below). That night, those of us left wandered around a strangely empty Quarteira, writing off the silence of the town as a product of the off-season (55 degrees Fahrenheit is cold for these people!).

The next morning we decided to walk around Quarteira, planning mainly on visiting the beach. We made it our first stop and was it incredible. The sand, the water, a little bit of fog…I can’t put into words how nice it was. Here are some pictures:

A surfing lesson on the beach

We ended up wandering a good bit, at some point making a hazy decision to find the port town of Vilamoura, which supposedly held a marina. We made a few random turns, said hi to a dog who stared back at us, stopped to rest at a great little burger place (called Tuttapanna Artigianale). After making one last stop in a McDonald’s (a very convenient WiFi spot, if you are ever in a foreign country and don’t have data), almost ready to give up (we had been searching for a good hour or two at this point), a man outside pointed us in the right direction and we found the port!

check out that sun.

I considered it to be a really nice day, but again it was technically the “winter” season there, so many of the shops and restaurants were closed until February. Regardless, the marina was gorgeous under the sun and we did find one place that we had heard about: Nougat Tea’n. This was a pretty little tea and dessert place with outdoor seating that looked like the furniture of royalty (later we would discover that some of the seats were soaked with water. You can probably guess how we figured this out). This is the food we ate:

I had toast with ham, but it wasn’t as pretty as the macaroons.

The sun was starting to go down, so we took a taxi home and showered up. The four of us who hadn’t gone to Tasca do Ricky the previous night decided to put on our nice clothes and go. We took yet another taxi into Faro, despite having been told by our friends that Ricky’s is apparently a particularly difficult place for the taxi drivers to find. Ours was not happy (maybe about having to drive 30 minutes outside of Quarteira?) and told us she thought we were in the right place. Great! But she had actually dropped us off right in front of Ricky’s…which was closed!

At this point, having spent close to 7 Euros per person on a taxi and also having eaten nothing very substantial since breakfast, I think we were all on the verge of tears. (I was.) Dejected, we stood there for a few minutes until a townie trudged up the otherwise deserted street and knocked on the door to Ricky’s. Some hope? The woman looked at us and I asked, “Aberto?” Is it open? She smiled and motioned for me to wait until someone came out of the restaurant; they exchanged a few words. The person went back into the restaurant and the woman held up seven fingers–Ricky’s would be open at 7! It was 6:45! Thrilled, we walked around for a half hour and then came back.

This was the experience of a lifetime. Ricky jumped up to greet us when we arrived, since we were the only ones there, and immediately sat us at a table and began to chat with us. He is an outgoing, kind-hearted, and funny person who believes strongly in what he does and how he lives. He told us how he believes in the small-restaurant business and in providing fresh, well-cooked food for his customers. When I say well-cooked, I don’t mean well-done. I mean that he pours tenderness and attention into his cooking to ensure that he is bringing out the best of the natural flavors that the food already has. He is especially fond of making seafood, since Faro is right on the coast. I ordered a salmon dish, which came paired with potatoes, sweet potatoes, and a salad. Of course, we decided to order some sangria to accompany our meal.

I think about that salmon every day.

Ricky also has a fantastic assortment of desserts. There were four of us and just as many dessert choices so…why would we not get all of them? We ordered one of each: flan, chocolate mousse, rice pudding, and a cookie-mousse thing.

I know you’re eyeing that chocolate mousse.

They were all wonderful. We finished with an almond liqueur, which Ricky told us was a digestive aid. Honestly I was so full that the sweetness of the almond, which he mixed with fresh lemon juice, was too much for me. I drank as much of it as I could.

Phew, this post is almost over. I promise. The next day, we had a leisurely breakfast (did I mention we were some of the only ones in the hotel? We nearly had the breakfast room to ourselves both days). It was even warmer on Sunday than it was Saturday. We took the bus back to Faro, where we walked around town for a few hours until our return bus to Seville was scheduled to leave. I’ll leave you with a few pictures from our adventure there!

Stay tuned for part 2!

Location: Faro, Portugal

The sights of Sevilla

For those reading some of the other posts on this site, everything being written is true: it is extremely difficult to keep up a blog while abroad. I’m glad I have made a commitment to the GeoBlog, since I am obligated to post with a certain frequency (I just spelled frequency like this: frecuency, similar to the Spanish equivalent frecuencia). But scheduling time to write is very hard, especially when I am trying to form relationships here with my peers as well as dedicate time to my Spanish familia. I apologize for not posting sooner but I plan to write again towards the end of this week.

I think part of what is getting me is the energy of this city and the people around me. There is an element of frantic desire to live and experience things, which I think the photograph above these paragraphs captures. I took this picture at a bar/cafe in el centro of Sevilla; I went with some friends there to get churros con chocolate (a type of fried dough, covered in sugar, which you then dip in the melted chocolate). The cafe-tenders were yelling and in a sort of purposeful frenzy. They seemed to be loving every minute and were joking and laughing with the many customers at the bar. “Proximo! Un cafe con leche! Vamos!” they called out. The customers fed off of the energy of the men behind the counter and laughed right along with them.

This is the energy that I become wrapped up in every day. I lose track of time and when I do have a few hours free, I feel the need to rest and recharge, probably due to my inherently introverted nature. But my friends in this program are eager to see and do everything they possibly can, as am I, and when the situation demands your full attention and participation, you find that you have the emotional and psychological resources to get your head in the game (so to speak). I think this is part of how you grow and mature.

But enough of this psychological mumbo jumbo! Here I list some of the things that have been occupying my time in the past week and a half, during which time I have not written a blog!

Dinner in Sevilla, plus a trip to the discoteca

Last Saturday night, January 17, a group of us went out to the centro in Sevilla to celebrate our one friend’s birthday. It was a fairly large group–I think around 15 total–and because the restaurants in Sevilla are fairly small (especially in el centro, where cafes and bars thrive on the visits of small groups, not large ones) we had to sit outside. Luckily there were heaters, but oh my gosh. It was around 55 degrees with a breeze. Warmer than State College, but not quite summer weather, or even spring. Regardless, it was a nice dinner: I ordered a small bocadillo (sandwich) with smoked salmon and cheese, served with chips. Then we headed to a discoteca called Buddha (if you look it up online, it is actually called Kudeta, but for some reason everyone calls it Buddha).

We were stamped in and explored a little bit! Buddha has three floors, all playing great music, but a group and I decided to stay on the second floor (actually considered the first floor in Spain, and the rest follow accordingly), where they were playing some Spanish hip hop. It was about 1:30AM when we arrived, and we spent the next 4 hours dancing. One of the things that amazes me about the nightlife in Sevilla is how late it starts and how long it lasts. We were there until 5:30AM and there were people that stayed hours longer than we did. I have no idea how they have so much stamina.

Local Finds

One of the things that has been really fun in Sevilla is just walking around and seeing what kinds of things you can stumble upon. Restaurants, sights, cafes, artwork, you name it.

Ofelia’s Bakery

A friend in my intensive class discovered this before coming to Sevilla and it happened to be very close to the CIEE center in el centro. They sell cupcakes, brownies, coffee, all kinds of sweets. It’s tiny but wonderful. I bought an Oreo cupcake for my host mom and a carrot cake cupcake for me. Yum.

Apparently nameless tapas bar

We actually first saw the back of this tapas bar while walking along the river one day. We thought it looked really cool! Then a week later a few of us were on our way to buy bus tickets to Portugal (look for the post about my trip on Friday!) and we walked into the same place. We looked everywhere for a name but couldn’t find one. It seems like it is more of a building that houses many small vendors, each selling something different–wine, gelato, focaccias, etc. I’m excited to come here intentionally one day and spend some time trying different foods.

Various architectural sites

Sevilla is teeming with incredible architecture, even in places where you wouldn’t think to find it. After class one day I was walking around with a friend and we took a random turn down a street that looked pretty. We ended up in a pretty little park that didn’t have a name (seems to be a trend). We found a bench where we were able to sit in the sun and bask while watching the people and their dogs (plus many stray cats) pass.

Some other great things I’ve seen/done/been to:

a coffee shop/bar (the combo is pretty common here) called Mercado Provenzal, where they sell coffee that costs half of a Euro
the church (iglesia) where my host parents were married (doesn’t your heart swell?)
a local chain of coffee called Cafe de Indios (I think that is the right name)
another local chain for sandwiches called 100 Montaditos (where they actually have 100 different kinds of montaditos, or tiny sandwiches)

It’s that time again. Currently it’s 12:53AM in Sevilla and my bed is calling me. But, like I said, I’ll be writing again towards the end of this week, and I’ll have pictures of my weekend trip to Faro, Portugal. Hasta luego!

Location: Plaza Nueva, Sevilla

A Little Red Door

I can’t believe I’m only twenty four hours from being on a plane out of Chicago to Madrid! When I arrive in Seville, I’ll be meeting another girl from Penn State, dropping our stuff off at the hotel (which looks BEAUTIFUL, not to mention), and out to explore our home for the next four months. I’ve already been in touch with some locals who interact with abroad students, and if we’re lucky we’ll have some friends to show us around on our first day. The forecast says it’s going to rain, but if weather permits I’d like to walk around Santa Cruz by the Cathedral and go to Parque Maria Luisa and Parque de Espa�a. Of course, I’ll eventually see all of these places, but I’m already itching to get out and see the sights! At night we’ll go to Calle Betis, and Calle P�rez Gald�s, in Plaza Alfalfa, where all the bars and clubs are.

Among all the advice I’ve gotten from people about my trip to Spain, some of the most valuable has also been the least expected. I just met with a coworker of my mother, who has been to Spain a number of times and studied in Sevilla back in college in the early 2000s, and he gave me some great info about local culture. He said that if I explore the seemingly dull corners, nooks and crannies, and go a little outside the usual places that tourists and exchange students usually spend their time, I’ll find some of the most rich and vibrant aspects of Spanish culture. One of his favorite places was a flamenco dance spot hidden away behind a building with a little red door. Once I find these secret hideaways and underground flamenco joints, I’ll be sure to share details and photos 🙂

If I can’t find enough to do in Sevilla (which I doubt will be the case), or you’re curious, there’s this website with 85 Things To Do in Sevilla.

My dad’s friend Armando, who’s from Spain, also sent us this article about the cyclists and new green developments in Sevilla, which should be an interesting aspect of the otherwise mostly antiquated architecture and . It reminded me of the cyclists in Copenhagen that I wrote about in my last entry 🙂

The only thing I have left to do is finish a little (un)packing. I say unpack because on Monday when I stuffed my bags full of clothes enough to outfit a small army, I didn’t realize how heavy and excessive it would be. Lugging all that luggage is going to be a pain!! I also figure I might want to add to my wardrobe while I’m there, and I need somewhere to put the new additions! 😡

During the course of my trip, I hope to have many interesting and life-changing experiences, and look forward to discovering what’s behind all the “little red doors” along the way. There’s not much more I can do to prepare, so stay tuned for my first entry after arrival to hear about how it really goes! And of course, feel free to ask questions and make comments, I’d love to hear everyone’s feedback 🙂

Location: Té Cafe, Pittsburgh PA

Sevilla

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The same weekend that I traveled to Granada, my friend Ana and I took a day trip to Sevilla on that Saturday. Sevilla is a city located in Andaluc�a, like Granada.

We arrived in the late morning, and immediately decided to go on a hop on/hop off tour of the city. These tours take a double-decker bus that has an open top, and bring you on a tour through the streets of the city past all of the major attractions. There are stations along the route that allow you to “hop off” of the bus and explore the attractions around that stop, then you can go back to the stop whenever you want to continue the tour and “hop on” the next bus that comes by.

I had done one of these tours before (around Barcelona) and I think that they are a great way to see a city, especially if you are only there for a short period of time. Since we were only going to be in Sevilla for a couple of hours, this was perfect for us.

We were able to see all of the points that we wanted to see, including Plaza de Espa�a and Plaza de Toros.

One of the most interesting spots that we stopped at was Monasterio de la Cartuja, a monastery from the 14^th century for Carthusian monks. We didn’t know what it was when we first walked up to it, so we decided to explore. First, we walked through a small room, which we thought was an area for religious services, then we walked out into a beautiful garden. In the building behind the garden, there was a multitude of different things. There were exhibits of contemporary art, rooms of sculptures and tombs, and various patios. The building was a bit confusing to us, because we did not know what it actually was, but it was interesting to explore.

My favorite stop on the tour was the Catedral de Sevilla, also known as Catedral de Santa Mar�a de la Sede. It looked beautiful from the outside, but I was speechless when I saw the inside. It was, without a doubt, the most beautiful cathedral that I have ever seen in my life. It was enormous, with various extremely intricately designed rooms for services.

I really have to say that I don’t think I have ever seen anything so magnificent in my life. Rooms that were off of the main area housed old relics, such as religious treasures (lots of gold) and beautiful paintings. Christopher Columbus’ tomb is also located inside of this cathedral. The cathedral is so incredible that I really do not think that the pictures that I have of it do it justice.

This cathedral also has a bell tower attached to it called the Giralda, which visitors are welcome to climb to the top of in order to get a great view of the city. Ana and I decided to do this, and aftera greuling climb up quite a few levels, we made it to the top. Just as we were told, the view of the city was beautiful, and you were really able to see everything such as the Plaza de Torros and beyond.

After the cathedral visit, we got lunch and then returned to Granada. Earlier in the morning, I had been skeptical about going for this day trip. However, just as I am happy that I decided to travel to Granada at the last minute, I am also very happy that we went to Sevilla. Although it is a small city and we were able to see everything that was important, it was beautiful, and I hope to return some day for an extended visit.

Location: Sevilla, Spain

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