It is wonderful to be traveling and seeing new places, but we were all definitely exhausted by the time we ended our grand adventure around Europe. Of course, that doesn't mean that we slowed down much when we got home. Mom jumped right into Camp Nana with A and, oh yeah, Ali got engaged! NBD ;) I can tell wedding business will be a driving factor of my time in Hershey since Mom has already sent me a 3 days schedule with appointments at different venues and bridal salons. Exciting times for the Rogers girls! Looks like our "vacation" will come when we start up with regular work again.
I did, however, enjoy a full 2 days of vegging out before I headed off to Sevilla to enjoy some time with my bestie in my favorite city in the world. For those of you who followed Jackie's and my joint blog, LiveFromKraker, you might already know that this is practically a dream come true. Ever since Spring of 2010, when Jackie took the first step outside the Hope College bubble, we have joked about the imaginary door that lead from Hope College to Rome, and to Sevilla, and now to Madrid. In our perfect world, this door exists and it makes visiting each other much easier. But now, within a month, Jackie and I will have seen each other in: Rome, Sevilla, Madrid, and (shortly) Holland. Now I'm just wondering where my secretary has gone off to because in my perfect world I had one of those too!
Well I guess maybe the perfect world hasn't come, because the travels weren't quite as easy as stepping through a door. In fact, Ryanair cut out a whole 20 hours of bestie time because of their screw-up! Those of you who have traveled Ryanair before probably aren't that surprised. But normally as long as you know the flaming hoops that you have to jump through, you are fine. Not this time.
Somehow Jackie, unknowingly, bought a ticket for seat 191 on a plane that only had 189 seats. So after checking her bag, getting her ticket stamped with the passport check stamp, and standing in the massive Ryanair line, she wasn't allowed on the plane. WHAAAAAAAAAAT?
We were about to spend evenings in our favorite cities, but separate and quite bummed out.
So by the time I arrived to Sevilla, I was disheartened. In a place with so many memories, how would I spend a day by myself? Although I am comfortable eating lunch by myself, I wasn't too excited about heading out into the extremely social environment of Andalucía alone. So, I killed time in the hostel (highly recommended!), hoping to run into another traveler to whom I could market myself as a Sevilla expert to in exchange for some company. No luck.
After awhile, however, I started chatting it up one of the workers, who recited to me his 10 memorized English phrases (Breakfast is from 9 to 11. How are you? Kate (the owner) is not here.). He turned out to be a handy person to make friends with because he made the crepes for breakfast and they were quite delicious. As the receptionist heard us speaking Spanish, he came over, looked at me, and said, "¿Por qué no me hablaste en español?" (Why didn't you speak to me in Spanish?). I explained that some people pride themselves on speaking English and want to practice so I just followed his lead. After talking awhile though, I felt comfortable enough to give him a few English language pointers, including the suggestion that he fix his pronounciation of 'gel'. In Spanish, the 'g' makes the 'h' sound we have in English. Thus, listening to him, non-Spanish speakers could be confused about why there was hell in their rooms.
While all of this was going on, I received a very exciting Whatsapp with the news that my friend Fran had made it back into Sevilla. So I didn't have to eat alone after all :) We walked the entire way across the city to my "secret bar", only to find it closed. But a bar around the corner served as a good consolation prize and the ice cream at the end of the night sealed the deal as a successful eating venture.
Solomillo with some sort of Roquefort cheese sauce
The next day, I dawdled around the hostel in the morning, checking out wwoofers in Galicía and Asturias before I headed over to the gym for a pilates class. The pilates class that worked best for timing with Jackie's arrival was a "Pilates Post-Parto" class. For those of you who don't speak Spanish, parto means birth. After discussing the weirdness factor with the receptionist, I decided to just go for it. When I arrived at the gym, however, I found out that the schedule was different than what had been posted online and the class didn't exist. This conversation didn't end, however, without the hushed "¿Estás embarazada?" (Are you pregnant?) question from the lady at the gym. After explaining that I wasn't pregnant, I told her that I would come back later and set off for a walk around the city and (not surprisingly) a café con leche.
The later pilates class was a bit of a disappointment. I'm pretty sure I could have done a more intense 5 minute crunches work-out. But by the time it was over, I had just enough time to shower and finally meet up with my bestie.
After a melodramatic reunion, we ate, dropped off her stuff, and headed to el Museo de Flamenco to get tickets for the Flamenco show later that night. When we arrived, however, we found out that the summer schedule ended the shows much earlier and we had arrived just a half an hour before the last performance. And it was sold out. But we hung out on a "waiting list" and after 15 minutes of chatting it up some of the workers, all of us waiting got squeezed us in. Good thing, because I wanted Jackie to see how she could put her exceptional clapping to artistic use!
After the show, we walked over to Plaza de España and to "el bar secreto." It had always been closed on Monday nights but Fran had convinced me the night before that perhaps they had changed the day they took off and it would be open. He was right and it was open. WIN.
Plaza de España
Jackie, taking her own pictures of the places she had seen millions of photos of thanks to me and her other friends who studied abroad in Sevilla
The sun setting over el Guadalquivar (the river) and Triana (the neighborhood)
El bar secreto :)
Our next (and last day) in Sevilla, we headed over to the Alcázar so that Jackie could see some of the Islamic art and architecture that is so typical of the south.
Inside the Alcázar
On the patio
Then we headed over to Triana to see the neighborhood by daylight and buy ourselves ceramic bowls (Traiana is known for its ceramics) for our big-girl lives that are rapidly approaching.
And for lunch, we went to Margarita's house, where we enjoyed a lovely meal of paella and I caught up on life with my host mom :)
Fall 2010
Summer 2013
That night, Jackie and I continued on to Madrid so that I could show Jackie my current home. Our time in Madrid was a bit more relaxed, since both Jackie and I were pretty worn out from long travel adventures. (While Mom, Ali, and I were traveling, Jackie was traveling around Italy with her family.)
On Day 1, we leisurely experienced my favorite aspects of Madrid: a picnic in Retiro, a walk through Plaza Cibeles/Sol/Plaza Mayor, the Almudena cathedral, a look at the palace, and a visit to La Reina Sofia. Successful day. On Day 2 we went to Chocolatería San Gines for churros con chocolate and hit up some rebajas (sales) in the city center.
Overall, some relaxed girl time was just what we needed. Besides, of course, good food and good company. We hit up some of my favorite restaurants in the city with Mark, Annette, and Erica and now Jackie can put faces to all of the stories I tell.
The most memorable part of our time, however, was definitely our last night. After a late dinner at El Buscón with Erica (where we firmly requested to sit downstairs so we could avoid the shushing of the concert that apparently takes place every Thursday night), we headed back to my apartment and chatted and laughed late into the night, as all best friends should do. But at 2:30, we were startled by a buzz that was signaling that someone either wanted to get into the building or was ringing our doorbell. They still sound the exact same to me after almost 10 months of living here.
I ignored it, figuring it was somebody outside that was ringing all of the bells until someone let him or her in. But after the second buzz, I decided that rather than risk excessive buzzing that could wake up my sleeping roommate, I should check it out. I creeped out of my room and found the door to my apartment partially open. I peeked my head around the door, saw a somewhat bedraggled woman on the other side and promptly slammed the door in her face as she said, "Perdona...". Startled is an understatement.
When I heard another buzz, I realized that she was ringing our doorbell and the noise wouldn't stop until I dealt with her. With Jackie peeking out of my room, I opened the door enough to stick my eye in the crack and listened long enough to hear her say, "Perdona, es que no podemos dormir..." (Excuse me, but we can't sleep...). With my heart still racing I quickly said, "Vale, vale. Lo siento." (Okay, okay. Sorry.) and firmly shut the door once again.
My door has a habit of closing but not clicking, something you only really notice when you live here. So with the realization that the door had probably been cracked for 2 hours, Jackie and I did a "Monster Check" of my apartment before we settled back into bed. All was well and although we didn't make it sleep for another 2 hours, we managed to speak at a much lower volume and control our giggles a bit more so that it wouldn't carry out my open window.
Well, some harmless excitement makes for good memories. And my neighbor smiled at me the next day when I saw her in the lobby. So all is well that ends well!
It was definitely hard to say goodbye to Jackie the next day, but I was relieved to remember that I will see her shortly in good ol' Holland, MI. (LJs muffins at last!!!) And I've had enough to keep me occupied in Madrid (an orchestra concert in Plaza Mayor, a day at the pool, a goodbye lunch for a girl from house church, etc.) to keep me from missing home. And now I go back tomorrow! WAHOOOOOOOO! See you all soon :)
Much love,
Amber
P.S. I had a request for recipes, so I decided to include the recipe I used for house church yesterday: Cherry tomato gazpacho (with cherries and tomatoes, not cherry tomatoes). It is definitely the type of recipe that is not specific at all and would have made me completely uncomfortable in my previous cooking life. However, I found that it was fun to fool around with the ingredients until I got something that tasted delicious. ¡Aproveche!
