The hostel also had dinner for 8 Euros and I chose to stay there for dinner. Usually hostel food is pretty bad but this one had a home feeling to it and it was some old lady cooking the food who didn't speak any English. We had Gazpacho, Eggplant, and some fruit for desert. Everything was very good and it was the first time I had ever eaten Eggplant for a main course. They also gave us a bottle of wine to share for the table, and some bread with olive oil. The people at the Hostel were also very nice. The owners were a young couple, the girl from the Ukraine, and the guy from Portugal. There was a German couple there who shared some wine with me, and an American that I talked to for a while. I actually liked this place so much that I decided to stay another night.
The next morning I had the breakfast which was free and also pretty good, and then went on a free walking tour. The tour guide was a German girl who had lived in Sevilla for a while and now was living in Lisbon for a while. There were only two other people on the tour so it was like a free private tour, pretty good right? She was a very good tour guide and made it interesting. I also asked a lot of questions talked to her a lot about what I had been doing. She also suggested a few places to go eat which turned out to be good. After that I went back to the hostel and took a nap. She suggested to see some Fado and recommended a bar where it was free. I got there early so I could get a seat and got some food and a beer. An older Portuguese guy sat next to me and we started chatting. He barely spoke English and Spanish, but with my knowledge of Spanish and Catalan we were somehow able to understand each other. But he sang some Fado and Opera and ended up singing at that bar. The music was decent. I think it is better when you can understand what they are saying but I enjoyed it.
My last day there I wanted to go on a tour that the hostel offered that was going to some palaces and the most western part of continental Europe. However, since only two people wanted to go they would loose money on it and I didn't really want to pay extra so it got canceled. So I went to the beach instead. Almost every day for the past 25 days I had been either traveling, or doing touristy things so this was a nice day to just not do anything and go relax on the beach. It was also quite windy so I wanted to do some surfing. I took a train to the beach and it was a beautiful day out without a cloud to be seen. The waves were not that big though so I didn't want to rent a surf board for some tiny waves. I just picked a spot and fell asleep on the beach, then got some lunch and did the same thing again after I ate. I left the beach around 4 in the afternoon and was very dehydrated even though I drank 2 liters of water and orange juice.
For dinner I went to the place that the tour guide suggested called Super Mario. It was not that great but it had a very local atmosphere. Then I returned to the hostel and had some drinks and mingled with the people there. The bartender was from Barcelona, and then there were some more Germans and a Polish girl. The next thing I knew it was about 12 and I was waking up at 7 to catch a bus to Sevilla.
Everything went very smoothly in the morning and no one else was in my room so I could make as much noise as I wanted to so I organized my bag a bit. On the bus I took the back seat and a Russian girl sat next to me. Her name is Annastasia and she was born in Russia but moved to the US when she was 6 so she is more American than Russian. She is 18 years old but was already a junior in College but didn't want to go back so she moved out to Lisbon where her dad lives. She has only been in Europe for a few days but plans on staying for about a year. I thought that decision was pretty cool and interesting. We talked almost the whole 8 hour bus ride and by the time we got there I felt like I had known here for a few weeks and we were traveling together. We were both meeting people living in Sevilla so we exchanged numbers and planned to meet up. I also invited her to come to Granada with me and she really wanted to but her father didn't want her going with some random guy. That was too bad but very understandable because I wouldn't want my daughter doing that either.
I have a friend, Jeff, who was studying in Sevilla and still there so I planned to go out with him while I was there. I got settled in my hostel around 6 and then went to get more money on my phone because it had been empty for a little while. He lives in a homestay and was eating there so I met up with my new friend and her friend that she was visiting for dinner. They were going to a place called Los Coloniales and the receptionist at my hostel said it was her favorite place, and Jeff suggested it. It was also very close to the bar where I was meeting Jeff so it worked out perfectly. I had a really good map luckily because there really is no organization to the streets in Sevilla but I made it there very easily and had dinner with Annastasia and Carolina, her friend. They went back to change after dinner and I went to the International Cerveceria to meet Jeff. This place was awesome and I was once again in beer heaven. I got a few Belgian beers that I liked and they were all superb. Jeff came with his roommate and his TA from school. We stayed there for a while but then went to another place and got a few more drinks.
I didn't really have too much planned for the next day which worked out perfectly because I had an awful hangover. Jeff and his friends planned on going to Cadiz to the beach and I was just going to walk around and see Sevilla. I slept in a little and then went to the supermarket to get some eggs and bacon for breakfast. Then I just walked around with my map and checked everything out, I went to a palace called the Royal Alcazar which was very impressive, and Plaza España, and some other stuff. It was great and nice not really having much of a plan. Later I went and got some food and was back at the hostel around 9. here are some photos
My hostel had a tapas tour that I decided to go on because I planned on meeting Jeff around 12. There were about 6 other people on the tour; an American from Oklahoma, a girl from Korea, two girls from Malta, and two guys from Portugal. So it was a pretty interesting mix of people but it was cool and then I went to hang out with Jeff and the people on his program, but we just botelloned near the water which is a spanish word for pregame. It was fun and then I went back to go to sleep.
I woke up early to catch the 9:30 bus to Granada. Now I am sitting in a hammock writing this and listening to some music. It is very relaxing.
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