After spending a year in Sevilla, most of you know how in love I am with the city. I was more than anxious to get back for the first time. The 6-8th we had vacation time for another random Spanish holiday, so of course I wanted to spend every minute of the break in Sevilla. Before the trip I was a little nervous about bringing Chulo along. He is technically a very travel friendly dog, because he is so small, but it was his first real trip so I was apprehensive. We were taking the night bus, which was 6 hours, so I assumed he would sleep the whole ride. Did I mention I absolutely hate bus rides/road trips!? Kate and I met at the bus station in Madrid at 1am and I stashed Chulo in my big purse with a blanket, hoping that no one would notice him. We made it on the bus with no problem, the lights went off, and Chulo immediately went to sleep. I, on the other hand, could not sleep at all! I was a terrible, long, boring and sleepless bus ride. I should have taken the Nyquil my friend offered me.
We arrived in Sevilla at 7am, exhausted and cold. Luckily, my good friend who I studied with in Sevilla was letting us stay at her house with Chulo. We decided to try to find our way walking to her house, in an area which I had surprisingly never heard of. As you can imagine, we got lost. We walked around the city with our suitcases trying to find her house, which was hidden through the winding streets of Sevilla. It felt sooooo good to be back in my second home! Though I was dead tired, I couldn't stop smiling down the street. Many great memories were made in Sevilla, and all of them were coming back to me at that moment. When we finally found my friend's house, it was about 8am. We wanted to go straight to sleep! Her house was freezing so we hit the sheets with our clothes on and were out until about 12.
We went to lunch at one of my favorite restaurants Los Coloniales. We had to wait to be seated for almost an hour, we were starving, but it was soooo worth it! O how I missed solomillo al whisky, and the typical sweet red wine; my heart and stomach were content! The rest of the day was spent walking all over my favorite parts of Sevilla, in the rain, showing my friend around too. I went to see my old apartment as well. Sevilla has an irrestible charm that I had fallen in love with once before. That night, we went to a cute new, modern tapas bar in the centro, and met up with some of my old friends from there. We had little bite sized kobe beef burgers and some delicious croquettes. Later, we did a classic botellon in the streets before heading to the club, Buddha, where I lost my friends. My the time I made it home it was around 6am.
The next day, Sunday, we went to another on of my favorite spots, San Telmo, where we ate a very unique and tastey purple salad, a vegetable "cake" that was delectable, and some argentinian beef with spicy mustard. I had forgotten how much I used to love eating out in Sevilla; great food, great prices! I had Chulo in my purse as usual, but he was getting restless and wanted out. I put him on my lap and gave him some bread. The manager came over, noticed the pooch, and asked if I wanted some water. I assumed he was talking about me. He brought over a dog bowl of water and placed in on the chair next to us! What? That would never happen in the states! We would have been kicked out of the restaurant for sure! I love Spain, and I love that everyone is so enamored with Chulo!
After lunch I left the girls and went to go visit the 3 little boys I babysat/taught english to. I had maintained contact with their mom, Betsabe, and now she was pregnant....with her first girl!! I was excited for her, because the three boys were quite the handful. She is due at the end of December, but she looked great, hadn't gained a pound! The boys were exactly the same as I remember them, bad as hell! They went crazy over Chulo; a little too crazy. They were treating him like a little play toy, and throwing him around and grabbing him by his neck! I had to hide him from them at one point. I sat and talked to the parents for about an hour while we drank tea and ate some chocolate treats.
I walked through the pouring rain back towards my friend's house. I met in the centro to get some sweet treats and some hot chocolate y churros. Yummy!
On Monday I finally got to eat my cazon en adobo I had been yearning for the past year and a half! Cazon is a typical Andalusian fish, fried, in a special seasoning. I literally stuffed my face! Later, we went to some of my favorite sites, the Reales Alcazares, the old palace, and Plaza de Espana, where I was surprised to see the small river flowing. There were boats as well, which were not there before, so I had to hop on one! My friend was apprehensive about taking the boat ride because the clouds were darkening, but I was very insistent. We eagerly jumped in the boat, with Chulo in hand, and no more than 2 minutes afloat it began to pour! We were trapped in the middle of a small lake, two small girls, and an even smaller puppy. Neither one of us could manage to row the boat at all. We moved back and forth, side to side, in the same small area for about 10 minutes. When we finally started to move in the right direction, it began to rain even harder, and we noticed people were staring and laughing at us. We laughed as well; hard.
Later that night we went to my absolute favorite restaurant, La Madraza, and ate very well, yet again! I wish I had taken pictures of all the plates of food we ate in Sevilla; absolutely delish! And wine after wine after wine, o yes. ....... (To Be Continued)
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