We arrived at about 1pm into our gorgeous hotel. It wasn’t my favorite overall, but it was just beautiful. It felt like we were staying in one of the ancient churches. It was built in 1928 and built to look older even then. Our room was enormous. There were two wings attached by a common room (living/ dining area). If you were in one wing of the hotel room you couldn’t hear anyone in either of the other rooms. 
Our hotel was in the middle of all of the major attractions in Seville (which are not too far apart from one another.) But I decided to wander to a more local area, across the bridge, away from the attractions. I thought I would save the attractions for the full day, Friday. I don’t know why I haven’t figured this out yet, but going out to wander in an un touristy place during siesta is just dumb. The streets are dead, and the stores are closed. Check out this major street at 3pm:
I wandered back to the other side of the river and stumbled upon Palacio Arzobispal. I literally was just walking to find a place to eat, and ran into a church. Running into a church or palace in Europe is as common to them as seeing a skyscraper in Chicago. To them, it is nothing. But to someone who doesn’t see that every day, it is amazing. I have to admit, after being here for a month, I already have slightly less appreciation for these things. (Which makes me sad, because I was too tired to walk to the Bull Fighting Arena.)
Anyway, I found a restaurant called Falaney’s, or something, that sat across from the Palace and ordered a salad and a strawberry daiquiri. The daiquiri did not compare to Cap D’Ail’s, but it was refreshing in the heat and suprisingly strong. I asked my waiter, Julien, what there was to do at night. He told me a few popular streets of nightlife, and then asked me if I wanted to go out for a drink with him. His English wasn’t very good, but we were able to communicate just fine. I told him that I would call him if I was going to make it out to the area that he was going to ((Betis)). (Important for random info later in the night.)
I tried to return back to the hotel after lunch, but got lost wandering the streets. A guy (Bernard) came up to me and start spitting some Portuguese at me very quickly. I was very confused and he couldn’t understand me either (this happened a lot on this trip). His friend Miguel came over on a bike came up and translated in English. Anyway, these boys asked me if I wanted to have dinner in the park with them. They drove here from Portugal for a long weekend getaway and were camping out in a park in their van. They had rented these bikes, which are all over the city(ies). (You pay 5 euro for 1 week, and you can take them and drop them off whenever you’d like.) They literally had these bike baskets full of food—bread, wine, meat, and gin.
Turns out they were camping out in their van right behind my hotel, so I felt a safe enough. Plus they were like college kids looking to party. Miguel also gave me his iPod to take to the hotel to charge and return for him. He clearly trusted me more than I trusted him. They seemed legit so I agreed to meet them so I had friends to go out with at night.
The family and I took the scenic route to dinner. We went to trip advisors #1 ranked tapas restaurant Vinerio San Telmo. Fantastic food. We had these grilled mushrooms with fried onions. Potatoes with 3 different dipping sauces: Pesto, red semi-spicy sauce, and something white. Also, they serve Yuka with with most dishes. Not to be mistaken for Yukka. Yuka is a sweet potato that is cooked to look and taste similar to a potato chip. Everything that was ordered amongst the table was devoured and delicious. (Again, most by word of mouth and not from my own experience.) I, however, did order the duck. I had eaten duck in New York and had been wanting to try it again. When it came out, it did not taste anything like I had had in New York. It looked and tasted like red meat. I immediately felt nauseous and passed it along to the rest of the table.
After dinner, I walked to mi amigos’ van. We headed out to a strip on this street of bars & nightlife, Hercules. It was quite a walk from the hotel, so we stopped at a few places along the way for a drink.
I had some Mexican Tequilla that I took without the training wheels. (When in Spain, do like the Mexicans?) The boys took their drinks to go, which still baffles me. This struck up the conversation between the difference in law between Portugal and the US. They think it’s crazy how many laws we have, and what we can get tickets for. They said that the police in Portugal are lazy and you can usually talk their way out of minor trouble.
This night made me reflect on Europe’s lifestyle in general in comparison to the US. Europe is relaxed, laid back, and relies heavily on the honor system. There’s little to no violent crimes. Though theft is an issue here, it is still less problematic than in the US. I know Europe has their own government issues, but they are not confined by such strict laws (or maybe it just seems that way because I don’t know their laws.) People take their time, and are never in a rush here. This can be a good thing and a bad thing. The US is always in a rush it’s a wonder what we really enjoy or if we are always just trying to finish things. The obvious observation, the US is very over indulgent and extreme. We have to have more than we need of anything. Our food portions, our cars, our houses, etc. If you think about it, everything we do or have in the US is over the top and unnecessary. I am not exempt from this accusation, and knowing this lifestyle, I probably couldn’t live forever without some of the things I’ve grown accustomed to. But it does make me think, “God, I am a spoiled brat.” We all are.
The next place we went, we sat outdoors and I, once again, had a minor struggle ordering my vodka, water, lime drink. And the following bar after that, he made my drink with Schwepps soda water, so I had to order another drink after that. At this bar… my friends introduced me to the balance band. These boys had them on their wrist (which are apparently made in the US.) They have something to do with the magnetism in your body and are supposed to make you more flexible, improve your balance, and improve your life. I took the test. It would appear that I was more flexible, but I didn’t buy it. I concluded that it was mental, so we tried the test on this random guy. The test dummy was mind-blown after our experiment and would have sold his soul for my friends to give him the bracelet. They would have, for 40 Euro.
We walked and walked some more, and came up to the bridge “Puente de Triana.” This is where my friends randomly started talking to these locals hanging out on a pier trying to figure out where the party was. I don’t know what they were asking considering this was wh
at we saw:
I mean, isn’t it pretty obvious where the party was? Anyway, the locals they randomly stopped to talk to happened to be Julien from the restaurant earlier. What a small city. I didn’t talk to him—I felt bad. Whatever, they led us directly to the party.
After walking the strip for awhile, and it being 2:30am (which is an early night there) I decided I should head home. I didn’t want people waiting for me to worry, considering the situation.
I now have a place to stay in Portugal. (Miguel earns a surf shop. Smons, I think you should probably come with me.) It will be a tough decision where I spend my next summer. =)
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