Sevilla
On the flight from New York to Madrid, there were two German girls on the plane who wouldn’t shut up the ENTIRE time, even when everyone was asleep. It was ridiculous. And speaking GERMAN. Och.
My travel companions made fun of me for bringing earplugs and eyeshades, but now they know I am just travel savvy.
We landed and connected to Seville, surprised that people were allowed to smoke in the airport. A sign of things to come.
Our hotel in Seville is on the outskirts of town, but it is pretty darn nice. Rich (one of our travel buddies) got the hotel through his sister in return for a little video work from him in Spain (scouting for a TV show), since she is a TV producer. It’s a long story.
We were all tired when we arrived, but Jim and I walked around a bit and went to the Corte Ingles, a popular chain of department stores in Spain, which was across the street. I find it fascinating to go to grocery stores in other countries (Jim thinks it’s boring). They had an entire row of canned olives and olive oil, and oh so much cheese.
Later we me with Sara Sanchez, a Sevillian who was there to help us with the TV stuff we were supposed to do. It ended up being a great thing that we met her, because hanging out with a local is the best thing you can do.
She took us to 2 tapas bars in Triana, over the bridge in Seville. We had bread with ham (holy ubiquitousness) and gazpacho on it. We also had a dish with tender bits of beef with whole cooked garlic cloves that was ridiculously delicious and ended up being one of the best things we ate the whole time we were in Espana.
The local beer is Cruzcampo. I noticed they never use paper beer coasters.
When leaving the bar, we noticed a ham leg, complete with hoof, sticking out of a trash can. Man, I wish we had a picture of it now.
Now we are heading to a winery in Puerto de Santa Maria or something. Tonight we ar supposed to see some flamenco dancing.
On the trains, we noticed that the scenery is not pretty at all. It is very dry, flat, and there are tons of what looks like cotton plants or something.
There is a smell to Europe. I didn’t even realize it until I smelled it again and remembered. It’s not a bad smell, just different.
Tags: Spain 2005
Kelly