Company and Solitude

This week has gottten off to a really fun start. I have had a lot of company, for the first time, and I've started to cut some of my downtime as well. Sunday morning I slept in and then went to the Museo della Baile Flamenco, the Flamenco Dance Musuem. The museum was, honestly, a bit of a letdown. There was a traditional Flamenco hall—that being a small room with rows of chairs set up, with a stage in the front. Tall ceiling going all the way up three floors to the roof. The museum was on the second floor mostly, and it tracked the development of the form from its origins, through to its largest stars—those who popularized the genre. They also had flamenco accessories on display, such as dresses, suits, castanets, and shoes. Throughout the entire museum, there were interviews with stars and experts about their views, research, or stories related to Flamenco. I think the most interesting fact that I learned about Flamenco is that though it is associated with Andalucía, it was actually started as a type of dance that poor immigrants to the region a thousand years ago would do. Its name, الفلامنكو, al-fellamenku, came from the Arabic for an expelled/fled peasant, الفلاحمنجو, al-fellahmenju. Overall, the museum was quite short, and definitely not worth the 10€ I paid for the entrance fee. On the top floor, there was an art gallery with more flamenco-related artifacts, posters, and paintings. So that was cool, I suppose. But otherwise, I think it's better just to go to a show. You get enough from that. Later that night, I showed Matt more around the city, mainly the waterfront including the Plaza de Toros and the Tore del Oro. We ended up that evening, after a burger at an "American Themed" burger restaurant right downtown, at Las Setas, where we went up again together. We went at sunset this time, and it was really pretty. The light show went on at 9:30, and though it was definitely more modern and less exciting than the Eiffel Tower light show from last year, it really complimented the sunset well. The whole seen was so beautiful, and the weather was perfect. Really, every evening we've had great temperature, just the right amount of cloud cover, and just a slight breeze. So far, weather hasn't been as awful as everyone's warned me about, but we just got to June...

Monday was my birthday! After an average day at work, I headed out right after lunch and called some people back at home. They were all off for Memorial Day (I wish I was!). The college friends had all gone up north for the weekend, so I got to talk to most of them all with a few calls. Do I wish I was up north, yeah kind of, but for the rest of the summer, maybe not 4th of July though, I'm sure I'd be a lot happier here than at home... At night, Matt, Annelyse, Kim, and I went out for tapas. They thought it was hilarious, since the place that I chose to go to was the same place I got chocos at a few weeks ago, and if you remember, I didn't like the chocos... The tapas place had all meats and seafood mostly, so we ordered: two different kinds of pork chops, some beef tenderloin tips, calamares, and this "old cheese" which was indeed old cheese. The meats were all absolutely delicious and amazingly seasoned; they each came with some extra things, wether that be a salad, peppers, or potatoes, so I appreciated that too. The calamares were also much better than the chocos, and the cheese was, well, old cheese. A little gross but it's ok. We tried it anyways. So unfortunately, they didn't have my favorite patatas bravas at this place, so we headed over to a place next door to order the patatas. The patas bravas there were, much to all of our dismay, completely mediocre. The tomato sauce was actually ketchup, and the potatoes themselves were low quality, freezer potatoes instead of fresh-cut, fried potatoes. Not what I was looking for... We then stopped for some ice cream before heading home. It was overall a really fun night, and we all had a great time. I'm glad that Matt got to meet Kim and Annelyse, and we all got along really well.

My walk on Tuesday took me to what may have been my favorite area I've explored yet: La Cartuja. For context, Tuesday night, I was playing pingpong with Matt outside and a Spanish girl came up to us speaking perfect American English. The three of us talked for an hour or so, but when I told her how excited I was to go to La Cartuja and how much I loved it, and her response was "are you serious? La Cartuja?" when I asked why, and if not everyone thinks that it's that cool, she said "you only go to La Cartuja if you have to. Nobody goes for fun." I get why she said that... it's not a traditionally exciting area; in fact, that's its appeal for me. It's a total ghost town. See, in 1992, the 500 year anniversary of Columbus's 1492 voyage, Sevilla hosted the World Expo with the theme "the age of discovery." (Remember, Christopher Columbus set off on his historic voyage from here!) So, seeing as Seville was already pretty full in the center, they decided to build the expo in the neighborhood of La Cartuja—at the very northwestern edge of the city. Before that, though, I had to get there. Honestly, my exploration of La Cartuja was an accident, as the plan was to take a bike up to the Tower of Seville, the 2016 building that is frankly not in the architectural style of the city at all. Now, I did not appreciate this one bit, but now having been there, I understand it.

The northern neighborhoods across the river are characterized by discovery, modernism, and breaking from the traditional Sevillan and Andalucian style. So, I figured out this whole city bike thing, which involved buying a subscription to the service, and then made my way over there. I know you're not supposed to ride the bike on the sidewalk, but in some places, the bike lane just disappears, or moves to the other side of the street, or turns into the sidewalk. I haven't quite figured it out yet, but that means that really transport here sucks. The metro and tram don't help, the bike lanes are confusing, and the city is too big to walk from, say, La Buharia to La Cartuja. So, bike it was. And the ride was very enjoyable. The bike didn't have suspension, and its turning took getting used to, but I'm glad I did it. I'll definitely use these bikes for longer trips or when I'm in a hurry. It took me about 25 minutes to bike to the Torre Sevilla. When I got there, I just walked around the mall for a few minutes before continuing to head north. I knew that the site of the expo was there, but I had NO idea that I'd find it as interesting as it was. Before I hit the main area, I saw this very pretty looking modern islamic building. I later learned that this was the Morocco pavilion for the expo, and it is still in use today as the "Three cultures of the Mediterranean" building. I was going to go inside, but I felt like I wanted to explore more outside. So: opinions of the former expo site: First, the place is a total ghost town. All these crazy buildings were built, and after the expo, nothing was done with them. The pinnacle of this is, most famously, the Pavilion of the Future, where they showed off the latest technologies of the day and speculated about what the future holds. Outside of it was a rocket and a satellite, but more obviously, a massive fence. I actually found a break in the fence and I would have gone in, but there was another fence inside keeping you from actually going into the building. Plus, there was security around it. Seriously, though, imagine your whole job being to keep people from going into an abandoned building?? Walking around the place was eerie, and yet, I felt like a discoverer myself. I had no idea what to expect until I got there, and with each turn, I discovered another area with nobody around. It really felt like I was the only one to have ever seen this—to understand, to see the aftermath of when something is built and then forgotten about. Overgrown grass, buildings in disrepair, and in the middle of it all, the Calle Marie Curie, a grand promenade with fountains and water channels running throughout, leading up to a giant orb. On my way home, I walked past Isla Mágica, the amusement park in La Cartuja built over some of the expo sites. I'm sure we'll make it there at some point...

Wednesday was the complete opposite. Instead of solitude, I met up with Katherine, a friend from school, and we spent the whole day together. Matt spent the day with us too, so it was really fun! Katherine has had her own epic journey all through Europe, and she booked this trip last minute down to Seville to come visit and see what the city is about. First of all, she said that Seville is so much prettier than Madrid, and she liked it more. So, I guess I'll have to do the comparison for myself when I'm in Madrid in a month from now. After work, we headed home quickly before visiting the Plaza de España. We walked from there through the Santa Cruz neighborhood, all the while following an old flamenco guitar player, who Katherine was obsessed with. Then we went to the Alcázar. Katherine loved it, and she especially obsessed over all the fountains in the gardens. We thought that was really funny, but at the same time, I was raving about how much I love the Andalucian dirt, so I can't really talk... We ran around the gardens and played in the labyrinth, and also took a funny set of photos out the window of one of the walls of the palace. We did a first for me as well: visiting the cathedral. There, we saw Christopher Columbus, and climbed the bell tower.

Unfortunately, the view from the bell tower isn't as cool as the view from Las Setas, in my opinion, since it's much more restricted, and, of course, you can't see the bell tower from the top of the bell tower! I'm glad we did it, though. What was super cool about the experience was that there were not steps to get up. Instead there was this square-helical ramp that wound its way up the tower. We were also up there to hear the 6:00 bells! We then headed down to the city, and stopped for water and ice cream at Plaza Nueva, where we discussed deep topics like the meaning of life and why we drink water. We then saw Las Setas and the Antiquarium, which Katherine insisted smelled like a turtle tank. Funny enough, when we walked up, there was an ad for the aquarium, and we got all spooked. So if next time I'm at Las Setas there's a turtle tank at the bottom and not the a(nti)quarium, you'll know what happened. We finally walked a little farther, and got churros. Katherine actually ordered 40 churros, not 4, so we had, well, a lot of churros and many left over... All recovered from all the walking we did, we walked her to the train station, said our goodbyes, and then headed back to the residence where we went straight to bed. She's actually coming back in a few weeks, since her host family from years ago that she's here to visit surprised her with a visit to Seville after she'd already booked this one...

One random thing about today: I tried pork cheek for the first time from the prepared foods store that we have lunch at. I really liked it actually, mostly because the sauce they cook it in is DELICIOUS. It went well with the rice I brought.

Anyways, that's about it for now, I'll be back with more later!