The Neverending Journey...to Sevilla

Waking up at 3:50am is really fun, let me tell you. Five hours of sleep were feeling so good right then. I woke up in a whirlwind and hurried to pack all of my things the best that I could in the dark which always makes me nervous. I was in such a whirlwind and so tired that I suddenly got extremely lightheaded and felt like I was going to pass out. I went back up to my bed and laid there for awhile. Finally I sucked it up and got ready to leave. We checked out and took the cold, rainy 25 minute walk to Central Station. That was fun. While walking there I munched on some potato chips because I think that perhaps my blood sugar was low. The food definitely helped. Central Station, by the way, is gorgeous. It’s huge and old and located at the end of a canal. I have a picture, although it just doesn’t do justice. We then got to the station and purchased a 3.60 euro train ticket that goes directly into the Schiphol Airport. Right away at around 4:50 and our train left on time at 5:05am. It was a nice train, definitely unchanged since 1970 (Brady Bunch blue and turquoise polka-dot print on all of the tables and walls). The bus was easy and much faster than the cab which makes me question my driver’s legitimacy from our arrival. 50 euro vs. 3.60 euro: you do the math. We got to the airport at about 5:30 and easily checked in and chilled out. We bought some real breakfast from the standard little kiosk snack bar. The snack bars at this airport thoroughly beat out any that I’ve been to: not only do they sell lox and bagel sandwiches everywhere, but they also sell sushi! Oh man, I was all over that. I bought a tuna roll. I went to open it up and it was so weird; it came in a log form, ya know, like maki before it’s cut up. Yeah, it wasn’t cut up. And then the seaweed didn’t come off with the roll, it stuck to the wrapping. I got the sense that I was supposed to roll the seaweed onto it myself. Crazy. I did, and then I ate it like a sandwich wrap…so strange! But it was quite delicious—raw fish in Amsterdam is superb, I tell ya. Our flight, again, was slightly delayed so we didn’t board until about 7 (our flight was supposed to take off at 7:15). So we didn’t leave until about 7:40. This was an actual KLM flight, not the MartinAir thing from our arrival. Not that there was much of a difference. I was so tired that I immediately passed out until woken up by the food cart (I was sitting in the aisle). So we got food—which was weird, cuz they just gave us packaged sandwiches. We got the option of meat or cheese, and I asked her what kind of meat it was and then she just handed me a meat one. Silly Dutch language barrier. The sandwich was weird, also, salami, ham, lettuce, tomato, mayo. Whatever. I then passed out again for basically the rest of the flight…I was exhausted. We arrived in Madrid around 10:15am and got our luggage right away. Katie and I didn’t feel like exploring the city like we had on the way there so we just grabbed a few Metro lines to the bus station. Once we got out of the Metro we were outdoors for the first time in what seemed like forever. It was a gorgeous morning in Madrid which was a fantastic contrast with the cold, rainy early morning in Amsterdam. It was about 11:15 and we had bought bus tickets weeks ago for the 6pm bus just to play it safe. We decided to see if we could exchange the tickets for an earlier bus since we didn’t want to bum around a crowded bus station for 7 hours and then end up in Sevilla past midnight. We found a booth and were able to exchange the tickets for free for the next bus which left at 3pm. Much better. So we went to one of the cafeterias in the bus station for some bocadillos. It felt good to be back among Spanishness! We took turns guarding bags and getting food. The cafeteria kind of confused me (as many things in Spain do) but eventually I figured out the whole ticket system they had and bought a jamon serrano con tomate sandwich (cured ham with tomato) which was cool because I hadn’t had a jamon serrano in ages—and my first jamon serrano was in Madrid. How appropriate. We then found two seats literally sat around for two and a half hours. We chatted, got some ice cream from Haagen Dazs (I got coconut ice cream—it had coconut cookies crushed in it. It tasted like eating coconut cream pie and I swear that it’s some of the best ice cream I’ve ever had). I grew restless after a good hour and a half so I wandered the station and found a smoked salmon, chive, and cream cheese sandwich for a little over a euro and, although I wasn’t hungry, I couldn’t resist. Besides, this was my vacation and I was going to make the most of it because once back in Sevilla the diet’s back on. We then went down to the bus terminal around 2:45. There were so many people down there and we could not figure out where our bus was. The Spanish bus system is so weird because usually the bus will not pull up until about 10 minutes before leaving. Also, Madrid’s bus terminal has around 30 buses to choose from so we just could not figure it out. We did a lot of walking (or pushing, rather…so many people! And the Spanish do not understand the concept of making room for people.) until finally our bus pulled up right at 3. Then there was bus confusion because I guess that there was another bus going to Sevilla and people got all mixed up so we didn’t end up leaving until 3:30. Ugh. Once we left a movie started. It was an English movie dubbed in Spanish that I had never heard of, called Hurricane Street or something like that. Some coming-of-age on the street movie full of kids and violence and sexual discovery. Definitely inappropriate (what’s with Spanish buses and inappropriate movies?) and boring. I was tired, anyways, so I fell asleep right away for a good 2 hours. Once awake I cracked open the Harry Potter and read for a good while. Soon it was 6:30 and we made our halfway point stop at the cafeteria store place where we had stopped on the way. I got myself some dinner: a lo-cal bagel sandwich they were advertising for dieters. I had never seen a bagel in Spain! And it was quite good: it was an everything bagel with turkey, corn, marinated asparagus, spice, and light cream cheese. I was a fan, it was a good dinner. Then it was back on the bus where I slept for about an hour and read some more Harry Potter and watched the beautiful rock formation and huge fields of countless olive trees pass by. We also drove into a small rain storm which was cool, but once we left there was a gorgeous rainbow. Soon the sun started to set as we neared our first couple stops in Andalucia. At the first one about ¾ of our bus got off and then this small group of Middle Eastern men got on and sat in front of us. After about an hour we headed into beautifully hilly Carmona where suddenly we were stopped by a cop. We saw a huge crowd of people and then…NAZARENOS! It was a procession for Semana Santa…my first procession! I couldn’t believe that I was seeing the Nazarenos, though. I’ll explain them better in my next blog, but they’re crucial to Semana Santa. They’re men and kids dressed up like KKK members, basically. So this was all a bit shocking. Since we had to hold up until the procession went by we all got off the bus. Many had a cigarette, but Katie and I went to town on picture-taking. We were so excited about it! That definitely woke us up. Our first Semana Santa procession! We saw eeeeverything…the Nazarenos, the people, the band, the Virgin float, and we saw them entering the Carmona cathedral. So awesome! The Middle Eastern men asked us in really broken English (they barely speak it, nor do they speak Spanish) about what was happening, and we tried our best to explain Semana Santa to them. After about 15 minutes the street cleared out and we were good to go. I definitely did not mind that delay. The final hour ride home wasn’t too bad. We were both pretty awake and rejuvenated and the guys sitting in front of us were all in good spirits and joking around with each other pretty loudly. It was all good. We arrived in Sevilla, finally, at around 10pm. Wow, almost 7 hours on the bus. Add to that 2.5 hours on the airplane, half hour on the train and 40 minutes on the Metro and you’ve got yourself the neverending journey. Speaking of the neverending journey we had another 35 minute walk ahead of us back to los Remedios. It wasn’t too bad, though, because it was a beautiful, warm night. So many people were out and about and we noticed all of these new kiosks dedicated to Semana Santa selling special treats and such. They all smelled so good because they mostly made cotton candy, candied almonds, and candied apples right there at the kiosk! We passed one that had a bunch of freshly sliced coconut laying out. I had never really eaten plain coconut, and I’m such a big coconut fan that I just had to try one. So on the way home I ate a slice of coconut, took in the smells and sounds of Sevilla, and just loved life…although plain coconut does not taste that good and is a pain to eat. Whatever, it was about the experience. The best part about the walk home was that along the river all of the lilacs that grow on the canopy over the chairs were in full bloom and smelled like HEAVEN. Lovely. I finally got home a little before 11. Maruja was asleep, but Stacey was awake! It was soooo good to see her, I hadn’t seen her since she left for Paris the past Tuesday! She had so much fun in Paris, and she did so much. It was so great to exchange stories, we talked for what seemed like forever. I unpacked, and discovered that I had carelessly thrown my souvenir shot glasses in my suitcase in my flustered, dark packing spree that morning, and they had both shattered into a million pieces. I was so sad! The main souvenir I wanted from Amsterdam were shot glasses for my apartment next year. I was not a happy camper. I guess maybe it’s a sign that what happens in Amsterdam stays in Amsterdam. So I went to Amsterdam and all I got was a lousy t-shirt…and it is a pretty lousy t-shirt since I wanted a cheap one that didn’t have weird, sketchy pictures on it. Oh well. I unpacked some more and did some major catching up with the roomie. I was exhausted and finally passed out a little before 1am. I had been up for almost 24 hours, I can’t believe it. Add to that almost 11 hours of traveling and you’ve got yourself quite a day. Yeah, sleeping was needed. It was good to be back home in my bed (yucky hostel bunk beds) and among the peace and quiet and warmth of Sevilla.