Seville

We arrived at our hostel in Seville early in the afternoon! It was quite hot, but a truly amazing city with the great scenery and architecture! The hostel we stayed at was called The Living Roof because of the fact that it had a great terrace with amazing views of the infamous cathedral! After going up in the world´s smallest elevator, we set our stuff down and made our way to the cathedral and palace of the area! The cathedral was so amazing inside and out! We trecked up the tower 34 floors to reach the top were the bells dangled above the great city! Inside the cathedral were some of the most ornate designs I think we have ever seen, as well as the supposed tomb of Christopher Columbus! After the cathedral, we moved to the palace where there were beautiful gardens and fountains that were filled with peacocks and fish! We began to feel tired and moved back to the hostel to relax for a bit and clean up for the night, only to meet our lone roommate, Carl! Carl was a ¨bloke¨from Liverpool, U.K. We talked with Carl some, cleaned up and made our way out to dinner! Having our first taste of Spain, we indulged in some Paella Mariscos that was quite good, as well as some great calamari and a little sangria! We arrived back at the hostel quite late (for us, as the Spaniards stay up well into the morning hours!). We crept in, as Carl was sleeping and went to bed, exhuasted from the long train rides the night before!



Day two of Seville was a nice and slow day that kept us entertained without too much exhaustion! We woke up at around 11 in the morning and got lunch! We then went to the bullfighting ring, one of the oldest still in use today! We had a tour of the arena and made our way out along the river and back to the main square for some gelato before getting ready for the evening! We went and relaxed at the hostel for a bit. Naturally, Carl was sleeping again so we had to be quiet until he woke up and got showered! We started to get ready for our night of Flamenco! While Aleksa and Katie were showering up, I went to the rooftop terrace to take some pictures of the great view of the cathedral only to find Carl sitting up there. He and I had some great conversation about the differences in politics, culture, and language between the U.S. and the U.K. which was, truly, quite interesting! I also found out that Carl had NEVER eaten pizza in his life! Even after having been to Rome! After our chat, Katie came up to get me and I shared this news with her about the pizza! We were all in disbelief! We left our comical conversation to get to our show which was in a small building with a tiny stage, however, the show was fantastic! A guitarist, a cantor, and a male and female dancer graced the stage with the traditional dance of the area! The show lasted about an hour and when we finished we went out for tapas! Tapas- the best things ever! We ate lasagna, cheese covered potatoes, and other amazing varieties of food! At the end of dinner, we ordered a small pizza to take to Carl! To our dismay, we arrived at the hostel late at night with no sign of him! We put the box on his bed and tried to go to sleep full of energy! We were singing and dancing in the room, excited from the night and, finally went to bed. Waking up that morning to catch our train to Cadiz, we were sad again to see that Carl was nowhere to be found! We left a note on the pizza box explaining it to him and that he probably shouldn´t eat the day old pizza! Leaving the room, we wondered if Carl had lived through the night! In the words of Aleksa´s hangman answer "Carl is dead. Miss him, Miss him." Whether or not Carl truly was dead, we realized that we would probably never see him again! It was fun to be in Seville and I think I can speak for all of us when I say that everyone who we have met in our hostels is truly unique and has an awesome story to tell! It has been one of my favorite parts of this trip so far! Meeting new people from around the world! Off to Cadiz, the beach city of Spain!

- Madison!