Visitors in Spain

It's been nearly 3 weeks since my last update and I apologize, but the majority of my subscribers all visited at some point so I figured I would wait until after.

About 7 friends - both from Fordham and Simsbury - visited me in Sevilla the first weekend in March. Although the weather didn't quite cooperate, overall the weekend was a success. 6 of my visitors are studying abroad this semester as well and came to Sevilla just as a weekend trip. 2 came from Alicante (a smaller city on the eastern coast of Spain), 1 from Granada (another smallish city in southern Spain) 1 from Barcelona, 1 from Rome, and 1 from Dublin. My last friend is from Simsbury and goes to UPenn and was spending his spring break in Spain. I hadn't seen him too recently since he moved to Pennsylvania after high school, but it was so fun to have so many of my friends visiting. Despite the on and off rain, we still managed to see all the most beautiful and important parts of Sevilla - such as the cathedral, the royal palace, plaza de España, a flamenco show and a discothèque, of course. Most of my friends had left by Sunday morning, but one of my roommates who was visiting from Dublin, Alex, and my friend Dave from Simsbury who was visiting Spain on his spring break stayed until Monday. I was really excited for them to stay not only because the weather was a lot better, but also because I was looking forward to catching up with them. I loved having all of my friends visiting but since there were so many people, it was hard to catch up with everyone. So Sunday was spent a bit more relaxed and we went to dinner at a cute little tapas place where we ended up staying for a couple of hours just talking. It was one of my favorite parts of the weekend and a great end.

On Wednesday the 10th, my friend Andrew from Fordham who is studying in Dublin came to visit for 24 hours. He arrived bright and early on Wednesday and left bright and early on Thursday. It was his spring break and he was spending it in Barcelona - and since flights are cheap, he decided to come visit Sevilla for the day. I was able to give him a shortened version of the tour I gave my friends the weekend before and we managed to hit all the important sights. Andrew was lucky in terms of weather- blue skies and high 60s. We had a really fun day and I took him to a flamenco show that night which he, like everyone who sees it, loved. After he left Thursday morning, I only had one more day to get through before my family arrived!

Friday morning I had a communication interest group trip to a TV station in Sevilla at which we watched part of a Spanish TV show being taped. It wasn't a live taping and the fairly famous author who we were supposed to watch being interviewed showed up about 45 minutes late. We did get a tour of the building and were able to see about 15 minutes of the interview before we left so it was actually a really cool experience that is something I would not normally have been able to do here if it weren't for my program. After that, I met my family at the hotel! Since my parents, Annie and Chris were all pretty jetlagged from their trip, Friday afternoon we just walked around the main part of the city and relaxed by the river a bit. I had been nervous about the weather all week but from the minute they got here, it was beautiful. It was sunny and reached the 70s nearly everyday. Friday night I took everyone to a cute street right near the cathedral filled with great tapas restaurants everywhere you look. It's one of my favorite streets in the city and has a great atmosphere, and everyone enjoyed their first Spanish meal, which consisted of some typical dishes like ham, croquettes and fish, among other things.

Saturday we all slept in a bit due to the jetlag and first visited the Royal Palace, or the Real Alcazar. I believe I've written about this before because it's one of my favorite places in the city with its large, beautiful gardens. My family loved it as well - I knew they would.

After the palace, we ate lunch outside at a picture perfect restaurant in a plaza right next to the giralda. The sun was so strong at this point that we were all a bit worried about getting sunburned, which is exactly the weather I had been waiting for! After that we wandered around the city for a bit before heading back to the hotel to rest. For dinner we went to a restaurant right on the river with a beautiful view.

Sunday we woke up even later and after a not so quick breakfast (apparently the cafe we went to can only cook one breakfast at a time...) headed to mass at the cathedral followed by a tour. Although I've been to the cathedral many times I still knew very little about the history, so we did an audio tour. Again, the weather was beautiful so we got some great pictures at the top of the bell tower.

Next we walked to Plaza de España and Parque de Maria Luisa. For dinner we had tapas on the same street we went to on the first night, and got some new dishes - goat cheese with honey, grilled eggplant, ham and cheese - which were quite popular.

On Monday I was able to skip my classes and we decided to take a day trip to a small town south of Sevilla called Ronda - the best known of the 'white towns' or pueblos blancos. The bus trip was about an hour and a half and was quite beautiful as it took us through the mountains of Spain. First we visited the Plaza de Toros – or the bullfighting ring, where both Ernest Hemingway and Orson Welles have visited.

We soon discovered the main bridge in the city, which is 120 meters tall (nearly 400 feet). There are some incredible views from this bridge that I won’t attempt to describe.

After arriving back in Sevilla that night, we headed out for a quick dinner followed by a flamenco show. This is something I’ve brought all of my guests to because its such an important part of Andalucian culture. The bar that I took my family to is a small, hole in the wall type of place called La Carboneria. There is no signage outside so it’s tough to find, but if you do find it, you feel that much more accomplished. The show that night was particularly good and as expected, my family loved it.

Unfortunately I couldn’t skip my classes 2 days in a row, so I spent Tuesday morning in class and met up with my family just in time for lunch. We then headed to my home stay hoping to meet Ignacia, but we missed her. Everyone really wanted to meet her, and Ignacia wanted to meet my family as well but I’m still glad my family got to see where I live. At 6pm, my mom, Annie and I had an appointment at the Arab Baths of Sevilla. These baths are hard to describe, but similar to a spa experience. There are small pools throughout, all at different temperatures. Annie and I also reserved a 15-minute massage, which was my first massage ever. It was amazing, especially in addition to the baths. Since I didn’t take any pictures, here is a link to the gallery which will give you an idea of what it was like.

After the baths, my family met up with a few friends of mine for their last dinner in Sevilla. It was a great way to end the trip and I’m glad my friends were able to meet my family, who they’ve heard a lot about. I had to say goodbye to my family after dinner since they were leaving early the next day, and it was hard to believe their trip was over. I had been looking forward to their visit, which would mark my halfway point here, since I arrived in Sevilla.

After my family left, I had little time to think about how quickly time has gone by before I was leaving again for another trip. On Thursday, March 18, I was off to Barcelona where I would meet a friend and we would travel to Brussels, Belgium together for the weekend. I’ll save my next post to write about Belgium, which I absolutely loved.