After arriving at my hostel at 1-something in the morning, I imagined the following day would be needed to recover from any jet lag and all-around tiredness I had earned spending 24 hours on planes and in airports. This was not the case, as I was out in the town around 11:30 am. I walked a lot, half my time being lost. I walked across from a university which seems to be the closest thing to a city block in the whole of Sevilla. Along my path (please note that the city is filled with cigarette smoke and often smells like sewage,) I encountered shops and restaurants catering to tourists and students alike. I greatly appreciated that every restaurant hands you a menu and permits you to consider before taking a seat. I had the garlic and shrimp. It arrived in a bowl of popping hot olive oil. It was beautiful and delicious, though notably small for 9 euro, and not served with rice or anything else I was expecting. The garlic cloves had to be eaten in order to produce proper flavor, and it was heaven for me. The waiter even bought me a sangria, which I sadly declined. If only it didn't have alcohol!
From there, I journeyed west and north again to avenida de la constitucion, where I walked north for miles through shops and churches and even unknowingly passed near the real alcazar. I unknowingly did a lot of things that day, including excepting rosemary from a stranger outside a pretty church, after which she read my palms, and demanded money. Keep your rosemary lady. I got severely lost and, though I had a map, I found that even the locals don't know cardinal directions because that knowledge can't save them. The streets change name without warning, and direction too, and the only way to get by is to ask where the city center is. In my wanderings I did manage to find a halal store that sold sharia, which livened my spirits.
Spain is very hot. It's September 25 and up until now, temperatures have hit about 90 with 50% humidity. I quickly came to understand why there is siesta and practiced it on my first day--"it's too hot to function anymore, so I will sleep." Fortunately, there are a great many trees and parks here, endless mazes of gardens with citrus and palm, fountains and monuments, oh, and the lindens still smell amazing. It's the end of September. Because things die down in the day after lunch, dinner usually happens around 10 pm, and everyone is outside very late. I have observed many dogs and children playing freely well past dark, but that's not saying much as the parks and streets are very well-lit. It's more like a different, less hot, version of day. I just read an article on Sevilla that says the thousands of orange and lemon trees come ripe in December/January (what??!) and the March/April blossoms are very fragrant and are basically antidepressants.
Day 2, Friday, I went south to La Plaza De Espana around sunrise. This was after failed attempts to find a bakery that opened before 9 am. I came home for a meeting at noon, which took me back to the plaza. There are no words to describe the enormity of it, so I won't bother. It's big. My agent Fernando, an attractive fellow native to Sevilla, then walked me to the closest, cheapest phone store where I got a new SIM card and prepaid for some time on my phone. Unfortunately, my phone is locked, but I will be taking care of that tomorrow, even if it means getting a new phone; I need a Spanish number so I can start offering private lessons. After my very long meeting (we walked about 5 miles and he wasn't even feeling it,) I did what any girl would do--I took a nap. When I woke up, a girl in my hostel was going to the Plaza, so I offered to go with her. It's much different there at night; the trees smell amazing, the heat has gone down, the tourists have abated, and the locals have surfaced. My journey this time led me to discover that the Universidad de Sevilla has a moat. Not sure why. Horses draw carriages all over this city, but the grandest stop is by far at the Plaza de Espana. After 3 trips to there (it's a mile each way) and back, plus the trip to the phone store and random wanderings, I was done for the day. 8-9 miles is enough for one day.
The hostel, Backpacker's Utopia, is good. It's much cleaner and more secure than I expected. I always figured bars on doors was for the ghetto, but in Sevilla, it's for everywhere. It's basically a 4-bedroom apartment with 2 bathrooms (1 for each gender) and staff here all the time. In fact, I learned that a couple of the girls work here in exchange for free rent. Useful to know, should the worst happen in the future. People come and go of course, and some of them smoke a LOT. they have to go outside to smoke, but it doesn't help much since all the windows are always open. I think that's what's making me sick.
Day 3 was lots of walking, to the aquarium and back, down to constitution avenue and back, then to the aquarium again for real. I touched some weird sea creatures and didn't die. Yet. I came through some as-yet-undiscovered parks on my way home, using La Plaza de Espana as an orientation point for the last mile to home. By that point in the day, all I wanted was a good shower. 8-9 miles again on a day when I was sick. I was done.
You may notice that I keep repeating the term "La Plaza de Espana" instead of shortening it to "The Plaza." That's because there are plazas everywhere. There is a plaza (kinda like a drab courtyard) just outside my hostel. And a block from here. There are, in fact, almost as many plazas as there are streets, places where children and dogs play off leash. I really appreciate that about this culture. There is lots of unhindered play time, and still the children are very well-behaved (from what I've seen.) Dogs don't bark at each other or harass anyone. Just last night, I saw a group of kids, maybe aged 5 or 6, running around the Plaza de Espana at about 10 pm playing tag. There were easily 5 thousand people in the area at the time. My instinct reaction was, "Where are those kids' parents???" but then I caught myself; I was forcing my culture on theirs. Kids aren't, from what I've seen, expected to sit still and be by their parents' sides all the time. In the plaza behind my hostel, I saw parents eating at the outdoor restaurant while all the children collectively played and climbed in and out of the empty fountain.
Today is a day I will not be walking 8-9 miles. I am still sick, and have what might be the beginning of a blister on my foot. I am staying in today. I'm blogging, editing photos, and napping. I find it almost impossible to keep enough water in my system, so I'm also going to work on that. I am very sad that I slept through church; it's an hour walk and around here there is no option to go to a later ward. I was really looking forward to that. Tomorrow, I am scheduled to check out of my hostel. I am really excited to head to Montellano, simply because I would like to get my rent paid and stop stressing about money. Always stressing about money. I haven't hit another restaurant since my first day here, since I realized I will be in Montellano perhaps with no roommates to help with rent. But all that will come in time.
In short, I could really do without the heat, the sewage, and the smoking, but I really really like this place so far!
