Espagne Part 2: Seville and Madrid

Pepe's house

After a picturesque six hour train ride, we finally made it to the Seville train station on Tuesday (March 1). I thought the weather had been nice in Barcelona, but I needed to take off my jacket, roll up my sleeves, and put on my sunglasses when I stepped outside the station in Seville. Since we had all our luggage with us, we decided to head over to our couchsurfing host Pepe’s house to drop everything off.  It turned out that Pepe lives 40 minutes or so outside the city center in a small town called Mairena del Alcor, so we had to walk a bit and take a bus to get there. When we arrived in Mairena, Pepe was waiting at the bus stop to drive us to his home. Pepe has been hosting travelers for the last six months, and has only just begun learning English. Even so, he was extremely gracious and was able to communicate pretty well with us. He dropped us off at his house then headed back to work while we made ourselves at home. We lounged around in the glorious 65 degree weather next to Pepe’s pool, which was not at all clean enough to swim in, but still a nice place to bask in the sun. After unpacking and soaking in our share of Vitamin D, we headed out to explore Mairena del Alcor and do some grocery shopping for the next few days. It was cool to experience Spain away from all the touristy craziness that we had seen in Barcelona.

After Pepe got off work at 11pm, he made us traditional Spanish paella. He invited a couple friends to hang out and help around the kitchen: Chico, a full-blooded gypsy; and Nolasco, a famous Spanish rock star. The meal preparation was quite a process, as he kept adding new ingredients (onions, green peppers, garlic, a whole chicken, pork, two bottles of beer, calamari, shrimp, mussels, rice, etc.). We finally sat down for dinner around 1:30am, but the meal was pure genius and well worth the wait.

Wednesday morning for breakfast, we made Nutella crêpes and ate the most delicious oranges which we hand-picked from the orange tree in Pepe’s backyard. We then headed to the bus stop to spend the day sight-seeing in Seville. Luckily we took a wrong turn on the way to the cathedral, because we stumbled upon the beautiful Plaza de España, a majestic and intricately decorated building with a surrounding moat. The best part of our visit here is that for only about 1€ each, we got to rent boats to row around the moat! It took us awhile to figure out how to maneuver in the water, but we figured it out eventually (mostly thanks to Alyssa, who was a coxswain on her high school crew team).

Fun fact about the Plaza de España: a scene from Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones was filmed there!

Sorry, it's in Spanish...

That night, Pepe took us out to his friend’s bar, where we were treated to free rum and coke and a taste of the Spanish night life. The bartender taught us a couple Spanish dances, then let us show everyone the “traditional American” Cotton-Eyed Joe and Electric Slide. It was hard to tell if the other patrons were laughing at us or with us, but it was a good time nonetheless.

On Thursday morning, most of the group headed to Madrid to see [our paella buddy] Nolasco in concert, but four of us stayed in Seville for another day. Those of us who remained were able to visit the Seville Cathedral, which is the largest Gothic cathedral, the third-largest church in the world, and the burial site of Christopher Columbus. It was absolutely enormous and breathtaking inside—especially the altar, which was unbelievably detailed and pure gold.

I was also able to meet up with Kylene, one of my residents from last year who is studying abroad in Seville for the semester.

Me and Ky outside the cathedral

Plaza Mayor in the rain

Early the next morning, the four of us boarded a train to Madrid to meet up with the others. Unfortunately it was cold and rainy when we got there, but that didn’t stop us from walking around the city a bit and visiting the famous Plaza Mayor and Plaza del Sol. It was nice to see the city without the typical swarms of people around, but soon enough, we reached the point of being miserably wet and cold so we looked into indoor sightseeing. We ended up checking out some impressive paintings and sculptures at The Museo Nacional del Prado before heading to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. Dinner got quite interesting halfway through when we started getting serenaded by a live singer in a giant sombrero.

The next day (Saturday), was our last full day in Spain. Luckily, the weather had improved considerably and we were able to more comfortably explore the wonders of Madrid. The streets were so full; it was barely recognizable as the same city we had seen the day before. We ventured off the beaten path a bit to a park with black swans swimming in a stream, colorful statues scattered about, and trees that look like giant broccoli. While taking a series of goofy group pictures next to the stream, Sam spotted an Illinois Wesleyan alum he knew walk by us—what a small world! Naturally, Sam, Kathryn, and I called him over to pose for an IWU picture to document the magical moment.

IWU bonding

We then walked over to our second museum of the trip, the Reina Sofia. I was able to take a picture of Picasso’s renowned Guernica before being yelled at by a museum worker for breaking the rules of the no photo zone.

She's just about to kick me out

I had such a great time in Spain, but by the time Sunday rolled around, I was more than ready to return to France. When I got back to Nantes Sunday night, it felt like home for the first time. There's nothing like spending a week surrounded by incomprehensible Spanish to make me appreciate every aspect of the French language and culture I know and love.