I like Granada. If I decide to do a Spanish language program, this is where I want to live. Maybe it is the small town feel. Unfortunately we had to leave and head back to Sevilla, not that Sevilla was a bad place; it just didn't have the comfortable feel that Granada had. Of course this might all be because hundreds of thousands of people were packed like sardines into the tiniest of tiny streets for Semana Santa aka the holiest of holy weeks for all Spaniards of the Catholic persuasion. Since Ben is writing a more extended blog entry, I will write what I liked about Sevilla in as short of sentences as I can. This list is in no particular order:
1. This restaurant that seemed like a diner and was free of tourists (pre-Semana Santa. We got there a day before the week started). Sometimes you just go to a place and you cannot help but like the feel of it.
2. The tapas tradition. Buy a drink, any drink, and they give you free food.
3. The Moroccan food served at my hostel.
4. My hostel room. Though we were in a dorm room with 6 other beds, our room was in an apartment completely separate from the rest of the hostel allowing for way more privacy. Plus we had our very own kitchen (in our room), our own bathroom, and our own washer. The front desk they said we had to pay six euros ($7.8 US) for one wash, (outrageous the first time we heard that at the beginning of our trip, but pretty standard every where we went) but the guy who worked there and showed us the room said that he was new and we should be able to use the washer. When you are as poor as we are on this trip, saving 6 euros would seem like a bonus to you too. That's also why I am going to say that having our own washer is number 5 on great things about Sevilla.
6. A theater that was converted into a bookstore with a selection of non-fiction in the balcony section.
7. Seeing Semana Santa up close and personal. I have to admit that despite reading about the parade wear, seeing the KKK-esque outfits that the people in the parade wore was a little jarring to see at first. No matter how open minded you try to be, sometimes you just cannot get away from your own cultural history and all the symbols that come along with it. I think my favorite part was seeing the little kids dressed up. So precious, yet so unsettling.
OK. That's it for me right now.
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