So this past weekend Sarah, Lisa, Emily, Lauren, Usman, Alex and I went to the south of Spain to visit two of the most amazing cities ever: Sevilla and Granada.
Our first stop was Sevilla, where we stayed in a hostel the first night and then in a hotel the second night due to the fact that the hostels were all booked! The hostel we stayed in was so cute- it had a Spanish kick to it with Spanish music playing and beautiful Spanish-looking decorations in the lobby area. The people at the reception were SO nice and helpful, just like the people in Vienna were. It makes traveling more enjoyable and simple when there are people there to help you navigate the city, give you maps, tell you exactly how to get places, and recommend activities to do while in their city. Lisa and Alex arrived on an earlier flight than Sarah, Lauren, Usman, and I (Emily did not arrive until the following day), so we met them at the hostel upon leaving the airport. When we arrived in Sevilla it was raining, but the temperature was warm.
The first thing Lauren said when we exited the airport to find the Aerobus into town was that it reminded her so much of Hawaii with the overcast, windy, warm weather and palm trees blowing in the wind. Oddly enough, when we met Lisa and Alex at the hostel, the exact same words were said by Lisa! I thought it was funny, because it is so true. When you exit the airport in Sevilla it highly resembles Hawaii.
After checking into the hostel and putting our stuff down we were all pretty hungry, so we decided to head to a tapas bar that was recommended to us by our program director. When we arrived at the tapas bar, it was very quiet and the people there (locals) gave us some interesting looks, so we walked across the street to a more lively and comfortable tapas bar that had a similar atmosphere to that of the Champagneria here in Barcelona, which we go to quite frequently. After filling our bellies with some delicious bocadillos and cervezas, we headed across the street to a small supermarket to stock up on some fruit, snacks, water, and cava for our stay. To our dismay, the rain had not let up by the time we left the store, but had actually gotten worse, extremely worse. Ok, let's just say it was pretty much a downpour. We grabbed our groceries and headed back towards the hostel. On the way back to the hostel we stopped in an adorable bakery/cafe with beautiful pastries, chocolates, and sweets. Lauren and Sarah ate a small dessert, and then we headed back to the hostel.
After dropping our groceries off in the room we decided to head out to Feria because the weather was shaping up a bit. Feria is Sevilla's festival in April that begins two weeks after Semana Santa (Easter Week), and lasts for 6 days. During Feria all the women in town, old, middle aged, young, and children, dress up in faralaes, or flamenco dresses. There is a fairground downtown with hundreds of tents, called casetas, set up in which families and friends have private parties with food, drinks, music, and DANCING. It is so beautiful and so neat to see all the women walking around town decked out in their flamenco dresses, some with matching hair accessories and purses. If I had 700-1200 euro to spend I would totally invest in a flamenco dress! They are SO PRETTY and SO UNIQUE! No one has the same dress...I am pretty sure they are made to fit each woman to her own liking. They are so colorful and beautiful and classy! I absolutely loved it. The men are dressed nice as well, in a traje de corto, which consists of a short jacket, light pants, and boots. There are horse-drawn carriages all around town whose horses are adorned with beautiful decorations as well. It is so neat, and so cultural. I loved it.
The one drawback about visiting Sevilla during Feria is that most of the shops were closed, and there were hardly any people out in the streets the first day we were in town. All of the locals are at the fairground in their own tent parties having a blast dancing and visiting with family and friends. Feria fairgrounds reminded me a lot of tailgate parties, but obviously much larger and more extravagant! We took a bus downtown and then walked from the bus stop to Feria. When we got to Feria a DOWNPOUR broke the little sunshine that head seeped through the clouds. Before you knew it, flamenco dresses were scattered across streets running to their tents and everyone was running for shelter. Because these tents are private parties, besides the ones that are for the public political parties, it was extremely awkward when us 6 Americans ran into a tent seeking shelter from the downpour. Tables of Spaniards were visiting with each other, eating, drinking, and dancing to the flamenco music. It was so awesome to see them dancing because they all were singing along with the songs and dancing in unison. It was so great to see such a heavy cultural event live in action! Once the rain let up a bit we left the tent and walked around the fairgrounds for a while. We didn't stay for too long because it isn't really a touristy place- it was as if we were walking around a huge private party uninvited. We had no tent, so we were just wandering the streets getting odd looks from locals.
After we left Feria we walked around the city, trying to go to this huge, famous, gorgeous park, but to our dismay it was closed (I'm guessing on account of Feria, like everything else). Once we arrived at the closed gate the downpour began once again! This time we did not have a tent to run to, so we found shelter under a bus stop. The rain really didn't bother me, and I was trying to play in it, but none of my friends were "feeling it." Once the rain died down a bit we continued our journey through Sevilla, walking in the downtown area. There weren't that many people out, and like I said earlier, almost everything was closed. We saw the Cathedral from the outside, which is one of the largest in the world (if I remember correctly), but unfortunately we didn't get the chance to go in it because it was closed during our stay in Sevilla. Lauren and I were really bummed out about that, but I know that I am definitely going to return to Sevilla someday, so I have hopes to see it then! Nonetheless, it is beautiful from the outside, especially at night because it is lit up.
We stopped at a cafe so that Lisa and Alex could get some food and Lauren, Sarah, and I could grab a cafe con leche. The service here was not the best (to say the least) and our waiter was not very friendly...I think he was a bit flustered because there were so many people, but he did not need to take it out on us! Oh well. Usman's friend from home is studying in Sevilla and had just returned from her trip to Morocco, so we met up with her to grab some tapas and drinks at a tapas bar. The tapas were not the greatest, but it was still nice to sit down and hear about life in Sevilla. After grabbing some gelatto we returned to the hostel to turn in for the night.
Funny and sad story about this night begins now:
I awoke in the middle of the night because there was an extremely loud buzzing noise in my ear. Upon awaking from my deep slumber on a heavenly mattress (compared to the one I sleep on in Barcelona) I was a bit groggy and confused as to what this buzzing noise was. Soon enough I realized that I had been sleeping with the bed sheets covering my head, and that the buzzing noise was most likely a fly. Coming to this conclusion, I removed the sheet covering my head and waited for the buzzing to go away. To my dismay, the buzzing continued very close to my ear and surrounding areas. On account of this I began waving my arm, swatting away at the dark abyss with the hopes that the fly would eventually get the hint and leave me alone. It went away for a minute or so, came back near my head, and then I heard it in the distance. Naturally I assumed it had vacated the premises surrounding my head, so I resumed my slumber.
In the morning I woke up, showered, brushed my teeth, put on my clothes, ate cereal via the complimentary hostel breakfast buffet, gathered my luggage, and we all headed out to the buses to board a bus headed towards our hotel...which happened to be on the complete other side of town. Soon after beginning my day I realized that the buzzing under my covers the previous night definitely was not a fly, but a MOSQUITO. How? Because my head started breaking out in bug bites that were oh-so-itchy and swollen. All in all, I counted TEN by the end of the day. TEN. After a long journey trying to find the correct bus and after walking an unnecessary distance to arrive at the hotel (which was in the middle on nowhere, and used to be an Olympic Stadium...I don't think they ever held the Olympics in Sevilla, so I really don't know why it is called that, but we literally stayed in a massive stadium!) we checked into our room, which thankfully ended up being ready early. We put our luggage down and headed out, catching a closer bus into town, to meet Emily in the city center (she had just arrived from Barcelona). Once we met up with Emily, Usman and I decided to join her on the journey back to the hotel to put her baggage down and get situated after a long morning of stressful and almost unsuccessful travel (realized she forgot her passport once she arrive at the ticket counter in Barcelona, had to go back to the apartment, missed her flight, had to book another one AND pay for it, etc...). The others stayed in the city to do some exploring, and we met up with them later. The buses were jam-packed because of Feria transportation, so Emily, Usman, and I ended up walking across the river, back to the hotel on the other side of town, which actually wasn't a bad walk because it was a gorgeous day. This took us about a little over an hour, a littler less than 2 hours.
Once we finally met up with the rest of our group back in the city center Lauren joined us to visit The Alcazar (they had gone in The Alcazar while we were gone). The Alcazar is a royal palace in Sevilla that was originally a Moorish fort that is AMAZING and INCREDIBLY BEAUTIFUL. The architecture is incredible and there is an awesome garden with tons of great fountains and flowers. I wish I had spent more time here, but we cut our visit here somewhat short due to lack of food in the belly- we were SO hungry. So we left and got some tapas, and Usman got a pizza. Then we walked around downtown a lot, around the river at night, and ended up at another pizza joint.
Funny and sad story number 2:
I went to the bathroom upon leaving this restaurant. As I was pulling up my pants after peeing my phone FLEW, literally catapulted out of my jeans pocket into my PEE, out of all places. Right smack dab in the toilet. So I stared at my phone for a good 30 seconds or so while thinking in my head "Is it worth it? Should I just flush 'er down?" Of course I am broke and decided that there was still a chance to save the little sucker, so I reached into my fresh pee and pulled out my phone, washed it off, along with my hands, and put it in my pocket.
Next we happened to stumble upon a gelatto place, so we got some yummy scoops and walked across the river and caught a cab back to the hotel. At the hotel I placed all the parts of my phone on the desk to dry, but when I awoke in the morning Usman tried to put it back together and turn it on and there was no response. It is definitely broken. I am lucky because the SIM card still functions, and Emily has a spare international phone, so she has graciously lent me her GSE phone to use for the remainder of my time here. I have also been comforted by the fact the Lauren informed me that the phone probably won't be that expensive and will come out of my housing deposit, so it won't seem like I am actually taking the money out of my pocket to pay for it. So I left Sevilla that morning with ten extremely itchy and swollen bug bites covering my forehead and upper nose (including one located perfectly on the Corbin Bump), and a pee-destroyed phone.
All in all, Sevilla was a beautiful city. It reminded me a lot of what I imagine Italy to look like. The only drawback about this trip to Sevilla is that so much of the city was closed because of Feria, including the Cathedral. I also regret not spending more time in The Alcazar. However I take comfort in the fact that I plan to return to southern Spain in the future 
