On Friday morning I met MJ at 1030 for a little breakfast of tostadas with aciete and salsa. We chatted about my adventures of last night and about all the usual topics. Afterwards, I met up with Cara and Courtney on the roof of ISA. After messaging with the "Matador" and deciding to meet each other that afternoon in Plaza Salvador, I went out shopping with Care Bear and Curni. Have you noticed that our shopping habits are no longer borderline unhealthy, but just truly insane? AT LEAST 5 days out of the week, I go shopping. Fortunately, my self restraint has been great so I usually just browse and not buy.
I brought them to the glorious 2 Story Stradivarius and CLARO they loved it. After perusing all of the racks, we headed back to ISA for Culture Class. Let me tell you something about what kind of day it was on this Friday: HOT AS BALLS. Ohhhh heavens to betsy. Hands down, the hottest day in Sevilla of the whole trip. The "breeze" felt like someone's hot breath, there was nothing refreshing about this "breeze". Meanwhile, our class was supposed to go to the Alcazar, which is an ancient Moorish Castle OUTSIDE!!!! Needless to say, we were slightly dreading this.
Thank heavens, Vicky said we would die of a heatstroke if we went to the Alcazar because it was supposed to be 40 degrees Celsius (100 Fahrenheit) that afternoon. Therefore, we stayed in the cool air conditioning and watched a movie called La Piel Que Habito. It's a movie directed by a famous and controversial Spaniard named Pedro Almodovar. I'm not even going to waste time trying to describe this movie because it was INSANE. It was sooooo bizarre and controversial and sexual and completely inexplicable. You'll have to watch it for yourself... or read the Wikipedia synopsis.
After class I went home, had lunch and then headed to Plaza Salvador to meet the "matador". Sadly... he didn't show. Such is mi mala suerte. Estaba muriendo de calor por nada... PERO, no pasa nada. I went back and then Cassie and I went out to... take a guess.. GO SHOPPING! We wandered into a newer part of the city and found some pretty awesome stores. I stumbled into a thrift shop and got a great steal of a gift for my parents!! Since it was so mother loving hot, we stopped in at Rayas, only THIS TIME we didn't get ice cream (shocker, I know) but INSTEAD we ordered Granizada (exactly like Granita from Rome). It was lemon flavored and soooo refreshing and delicious. TOTES vale la pena.
We went home, had dinner and then coordinated with our friends to meet in Plaza de Espana before we all headed to Calle Betis for the night. Calle Betis is a strip of bars/clubs along the river and is usually more touristy than authentic with actual spaniards. Sin embargo, some people wanted a change of scenery from our very over done Plaza Alfalfa, so we trekked on over. Afortunadamente, the first bar we walked into was doing a special of 1 euro shots, beers and sangria. PERFECT! We posted up at the bar and enjoyed some beverages. To our happy surprise, the rest of our group happened to walk into this same bar as well! We had basically given up on finding them because we had no form of communication seeing as we live in the dark ages with no phones. We hung out at this bar for a good while. I randomly met some people from the UK that had moved to Spain and then later we met a group of 5 boys from North Carolina. They all looked like they were 16 or 17 with their Justin Bieber hair cuts, shockingly enough we found out they were 19 and had just finished their freshman year of college. It’s actually not that shocking, because compared to me… they are basically still babies. Well, when they heard us speaking English they freaked out and were like oh em gee, YOU’RE American and WE’RE American. It’s honestly hilarious how much solidarity there is amongst not only Americans abroad but just English speakers in general in a country whose language is not English. Feeling exhausted from the night before, Cassie and I called it quits at the ALARMINGLY early hour of 2am.
The next morning we woke up and got on a bus headed to Jerez. When we arrived we toured the largest Bodega (winery) in all of Europe: William and Humbert. It was gorgeous and immediately reminded me of the awesome winter break vacation I went on with family and friends in Napa and Sonoma.
Our tour guide walked us around the massive winery and here are some of the awesome fun facts:
- It was founded in 1897 by a British couple named Alexander William and Amy Hambert
- At the beginning there were only 23 botas (barrels) of wine
- Now there are 60,000 botas
- The giant pillars that support the structure also double as wells to collect rain water to later use to cool down the barrels during hotter weather
- In the 90's the winery was bought by a Spanish family named Medina
- Young wine is called: Sobretabla
- This winery specializes in Sherry
After our tour we all sat down in this dirt arena INSIDE the winery for a horse dressage. Personally, I had never heard of a horse dressage before but in lamens terms its when a horse comes out and LITERALLY dances around for an audience. When I say dancing, you might think I’m exaggerating… think again. LEGIT dancing. It was practically doing the electric slide with its skipping and hopping and grapevining. It was soooooo insane and impressive. Basically take Michael Jackson, convert him into a horse and that is a Horse Dressage, or at least that’s what it is in Spain. Can you tell I was impressed?
(the horse is just standing there, on two legs.. NBD)
After this awesome show, we went into a big tasting room where there were large round tables that seated 10 people and 3 different bottles of sherry opened and ready to be self poured. We were SOOO excited for this. Sadly, it tasted yucky. Maybe you love sherry, but it is NOT for me. It tasted like a fusion of house wine and Captain 151. No bueno. Well like I said, it was just open bottles… and reminder folks, we are in college. What does this mean? Shots! Several girls at the table started taking shots of the sherry because it was 19% alcohol which is pretty decent… especially FOR FREE. After we had our fun at the wine tasting, we went into the gift shop.
Then we hopped back on the bus to head to our afternoon at the beautiful beaches in Cadiz. When we arrived, we all climbed to the top of this tower… which felt like it was taller than the Giralda as we were climbing it. At the top the view was B-E-A-UTIFUL. Claro, we snapped oodles of pics.
Then, like the big happy family that we’ve all become, we walked down to the beach together. Through some happy accident, we ran into my Culture Class professor Vicky! We snapped a picture with her and then headed onto the beach. It was sooooo beautiful.
We all claimed a large spot in the sand and then David, MJ and I went into the water immediately. It felt slightly shocking at first because it was quite chilly but after a while it became lovely and refreshing! The water was gorgeous and clear and the waves weren’t really waves but more just rolling water. It was luxurious. The rest of the day consisted of relaxing in the sun, chatting as always, occasionally returning for a dip in the ocean. It was one of those afternoons where it felt like you did nothing and everything all at once.
We hopped back on the bus and I sat with MJ at the front chatting. When we got back a group of us went to Rayas for ice cream... DUH! I can't go more than 24 hours in Spain without helado.
That night I had a couple beers in Plaza Salvador and then met up with the group in our one and only spot: Alfalfa!!! Woop woop! Here we legit found EVERYONE! Probably 90% of our study abroad group was all out at the same bar together. It was really cool to be out with everyone.
(mi pobrecita Gatita)
The highlight of the night was definitely when I convinced a white guy that I was Spanish and only spoke Spanish. His spanish speaking abilities were rather pathetic... sorry I'm not sorry for fooling him. Later, I met a guy at a bar who said "Tengo que decirte que soy communista". Clearly, I told him that we couldn't be friends anymore because he is a flawed individual. I basically had to run away from him, he even said to me "No puedo seguir sin ti" (I can't go on without you). This kid was CLERALY delusional on mannnnyyyy levels.
After this charming encounter, we called it a night.
Hasta luego,
Raquel
