Don´t go to Sevilla

It´s been a few days since our last post and I blame it entirely on
Sevilla. The place is cursed, but to recount that story I must start
where I last left off. Derek´s been able to get some pictures off of
his camera, but I´m still having trouble with mine. This computer
fails.

So last you heard we were heading to a paella party. The party was
great! We hung out with a few of our roommates, enjoyed some
sea-food-rice dish known as paella. I also had my first European
drink, a Sangria. I LOVE SANGRIA!!

There were a group of crazy Australians who were playing a game that
amused us all to watch. Every time anybody spilled someone´s drink,
pointed at anyone, or said the word ¨mine¨, they had to do ten
push-ups. One guy did at least a hundred within 15 minutes.

That night we discovered something that made me doubt the cleanliness
of our hostel; a mushroom growing from the ceiling. We named him Jeff.

So the paella party was Saturday. On Sunday we all went down to a
giant flea market called El Rastro. It was pretty neat. The were rows
of stalls set up in the streets, selling everything you could imagine;
from swords and katanas to dresses to opium flavored incense, this
place had it all. It´s not consistently cheap, you have to watch out
for the good deals (like Katanas for $25). After that we bought
tickets for a bullfight in the evening. Peter, one of our roommates,
suggested a sandwich lunch, so we bought ham, cheese, and a loaf of
french bread and shared a delicious and extremely cheap lunch in Plaza
Mayor.

The bullfight was great. It consists of several parts before the
matador kills the bull. First a groups of men with pinks and yellow
capes tease the bull and get it to chase them. While they are still on
the field, a pair of horseman with spears come on to the field. The
men on the field lure the bull towards the horses and get it to charge
the horse. The horses are blinded and having padding that protects
them from the bull´s horns, so it seems they are unharmed by this
attack. Back before the 1900´s, the horses were not padded and were
usually killed by this attack. Anyway the horseman stabs his spear
into the muscles on the back of the bulls neck. Prongs on the spear
prevent it from sinking very deep.

The horsemen leave the arena and a pair of men come out with short,
flower sticks, with short knives on the end of a joint. Their job is
to stab the knives into the bulls back. They get the bull to chase
them, then as it lowers its head they stab the knives (two at a time)
into its back before leapìng out of the way.

For the final stage of the fight, everybody exits the field as the
matador enters. His costume is flashier than everyone esles, and he
wields a red cape and a rapier-like sword with a curved tip. For a
short while he has the bull charge him, using the red cape as a lure.
He tries to get the bull to pass as closely to him as he can. Finally
the it is time for the death blow. The matador attempts to kill the
bull with a single strike by stabbing his rapier through the neck and
all the way down, so that it reaches the bulls heart. Of the three
fights we saw, only one matador succeeded in doing so in the first
strike. Even with the sword embeded in it´s heart, the Bull takes
keeps fighting for perhaps thirty seconds before it sinks to its knees
and dies.

Typically a bullfight has 6 bulls and 3 matadors, but we only got to
see the first three since we had to hurry to catch our train. We bid
our roommates farewell, and rushed to board the metro. We were to
depart for Savilla shortly, and that is when everything started going
wrong. Due to an annoying series of unforeseen events, we missed the
intended train and had to catch the next one.

We arrived in Savilla at 1:00 in the morning, and found the buses
didn´t run at that time. We set off on the mile-and-a-half trek with
our heavy packs, using a compass and map to navigate. We soon turned
around when we realized north on the map was actually towards the
bottom left corner, and not to the top.

At about 2 A.M. we arrived at Oasis hostel. It looked fantastic. It
had pretty plants inside, bike rental, good-looking computers, even a
pool on the roof. I should note that even in the early hours of the
morning, Savilla is hot. Derek and I were very sweaty and smelly, and
wanted nothing more than a cold shower and to sleep till noon.

It was not to be. We discovered that, despite our reservation, the
hostel was full. Apparently the site had been overbooking people
lately. Lesson learned; Always look for a comfirmation email!!!

We set out to the next closest hostel, which despite being ten minutes
away took half an hour to find. Navigating the cramped, twisted strees
of Savilla is intolerable. Eventually we found it, Hostel Pino.
Exhuasted, we climbed three extremely steep staircases with our heavy
packs (have i mentioned how heavy they are before?) and found our
room... on the roof.

We were in a seperate building located on the roof of the first.
Whatever. At least we had a room to ourselves. I hopped in the
roof-bulding´s shower and found it completely freezing with no hot
water at all. We could have foregiven the hostel of it´s flaws if it
hadn´t been for the key. You cannot open the door from either side
without a key, making it possible not just to locked out of your room,
but to be locked in.

In the morning we found a cyber cafe, where I discovered a charge for
$196.79 on my debit card from a place I had never heard of. I had to
cancel my card, amd file a fraugelent claim. It took over an hour to
get through Bank of America´s beaurocracy. I had to call using skype
on my PSP. Luckily i brought an unactivated back-up card so i won´t be
without a debit card. Most of the calls occured back at the hostel
late at night. We spent the day in the center of Savilla. I saw at
least 6 starbucks within walking distance of our hostel.

About 1 block from our hostel was a place I like to call America. I
call it thus because it was a small plaza with Mcdonalds, Starbucks,
and Burger King.

We rented bikes and niked around Savilla, but the streets are
constantly changing names, making our maps useless and causing us to
get hopelessly lost. The two places Derek had wanted to visit in
Savilla, Plaze dÉspagne and Alcazar, were closed. The first for
construction, and the second for no obvious reason other than it was
Monday.

At around 1 in the morning we went to a flamenco bar. Derek tried a
Sangria, which he enjoyed as well. There was lots of flamenco style
music, but no actual dancing. Nevertheless this was the most enjoyable
part of Savilla. We left with much higher spirits than when we
arrived.

The next morning we were planning on catching a bus to Malaga, a
coastal city where we would be catching another bus to Totalano to
meet up with the farmers we would be staying with for the next few
days. The curse of Savilla prevent our alarm from going off, causing
us to miss our first train. This made us have to catch a later bus to
Totalano. We would be half an hour later. We sent the farmers an email
telling them this, then set out.

The train ride to Malago was beautiful. We passed amazing sites. The
region was covered in hills, and small towns sprung up from time to
time on and around them. We also passed through fantastic cliffs and
valleys. It was pretty cool. All the buildings are pretty much the
same; tall white stone buildings. Stil the trip was enjoyable.

The trip to Totalana followed narrow roads that circled the hills. It
quickly became apparent we were headed into a rarely travelled region.
The people we were supposed to meet were not at the bus stop. We
wondered around Totalana looking for wifi, and recieved only blank
stares from the locals we asked. I´ve never been to a down where
people did not know what the internet was. When the school bus
brought the students to the bus stop (apparently they all have to go
to school out of town), the kids were practically staring us. I guess
tourists were rare there.

The town itself was pretty, situated on several hills and surrounded
by on all sides by hills that bordered on mountains. It´s filled with
stray cats. They´re everywhere in Spain.

We ended up sitting at the bus stop for four hours waiting for the
next bus. We went back to Malaga and, unable to find lodging,
continued to Granada.

We had a fairly long walk to our Hostel because the directions we
printed of from the website told us to get off at Comino de Ronde,
walk 50 meters, turn at the palm tree. We got off at a stop marked
Comino de Ronde 9, then discovered there were a total of 11 stop named
Comino de ronde and the directions hadn't specified which one. It
took as a while to find our hostel, but when we did we were quite
pleased with it. AB Penison or something. For 20 euros each we got a
private room with tv, wifi, and our own bathroom and shower. It
didn't have a common room or anything, but we were too tired to care.

We went put for some tapas at a neat sports bar down the road. The
next day I spent the morning figuring out my debit card and we set out
for Alhambra. We were going to a different hostel that night so we
had to bring our packs.

Never brings your pack to Alhambra. You will be hiking well over a
mile uphill, then back down with it. Hiking downhill isn't as easy as
it sounds.

So Derk said Alhambra was the last great stronghold of the Moors. I
see why. Any army trying to reach it with armored troops would be too
exhausted to fight before they reach top.

There is a shuttle to the top if you want to do that. On another note
make sure you book well in advance.
We discovered that the paid exhibits were sold out for the next 4
days. They let 50 people in every 5 minutes and it's not even peak
season. We didn't expect them to be sold out.

The free part was pretty good. We got an incredible sight of Granada
from one of the walls, and there is a free muesuem. The highlight of
the day wa the free ice cream at the bottom of the hill. Have I
mentioned Granada is really hot?

Without the construction, I'm sure Granada would be quite pretty.
Unfortunately most of the city is being torn up for the metro they are
putting in. The alleys are more welcoming than those of Sevilla, and
with care navigation is possible. There is an active bus system, but
they are liable to drive past stops unless they are told to stop.

The hostel we had booked for the night turned out to have closed down,
so we spent an hour in the evening at pay-by-the-minute computers,
henceforth to be referred to as cyber's. They are everywhere in Granada. :)

We found a place called Makuto Guest house. It's a really laid back hostel with a casual atmosphere. The gave us free sangria and a free crepe each, which we enjoyed in the beautiful courtyard. It's not as secure as other hostels we've been to but there are central lockers if you're worried. The front door opens by buzzer, but rooms are left unlocked. I highly reccomend this place. It's run almost entirely be college students.

Derek and I didn't get the same room. I ended up sharing a room with the three girls working at the hostel, while Derek's three roomates were in an unconcious snoring competition. Total win.

We left early and spent the entire next day on the Train to Barcelona.
We left at 8 in the morning and arrived at 9 at night. My first
impression of Barcelona: It HAS A METRO! I love metro!

So far Barcelona is great. We found our Hostel easily. It's called
Barcelona Dream house. Its got a great atmosphere, friendly staff, common rooms, free breakfast, wifi, computers (which run on linux), showers, luandry, etc. Derek and I did our first big luandry wash this morning. Our room has six bunk beds with a locker to get with each. The door and individual lockers are opened by personal key cards. Our roommates are a large group of students from Milasia. They are all pretty nice. We went out this morning to a smallish supermarket which sold a good variety of food, but most of its fruit was moldy.

We are 5 minutes from the beach, which is where we will be heading as soon as this post is finished.

Ok well I think this post has been long enough. Congratulations to anyone who actually read all the way through. Ill try getting pictures up tonight, but its proving to be difficult. BEACH TIME!!!

David out