The Fetmans Take Sevilla, Day 2: Jesus, Slaughter, and Drag Queens

Thu., June 15

Woke up to my alarm at 9 in time to grab the complimentary breakfast…I mean, it was a bed and breakfast. Went down with the parents while Shana, jet-lagged still, opted to sleep in. The breakfast was pretty good and had the perfect amount/types of food: corn flakes, granola, yogurt, juice, tea, coffee, hot chocolate, croissants, muffins, toast, jam. I got yogurt with granola which, since the good ole days back in the Bécquer, has been my favorite hotel breakfast buffet food. I also had tea with honey (they had honey! But the tea kind of sucked) and orange juice which really wasn’t too great. Whatever, I was just happy about my granola and yogurt. We snuck some food for Shana and went back up to get ready to leave before noon (so the staff could clean the room). As we headed out of our centrally located hotel at around noon we heard the sounds of a band playing marching music. It was Corpus Christi, so we would be around the Cathedral in time to see the big procession. We got to the canopy (the one I saw the night before) and saw all of these families dressed in their Sunday’s best (despite it being a Thursday) and watched a band walk by playing epic music, followed by some dudes dressed like it was the 1700’s in light blue suits and tall hats with big white feathers. They also carried thin swords and looked all stern and official. They would stop every once in awhile and play a song, then keep walking. This process continued until they eventually ended up walking into the immaculately decorated City Hall. How appropriate that my family’s first full day in Sevilla they experience what I like to call, the “Spanish religious spectacle”. So that was cool. We then walked toward the Cathedral with the plan to visit, to find an even bigger crowd and the sound of an even bigger band approaching. We found a good place to stand as the street soon became absolutely packed. We stood for a good twenty minutes until finally the procession neared us…and it was the Corpus Christi procession about which I had been told by Eva and Luisa: “the big Jesus” (as I like to call it). It started with a big band, followed by men carrying tall crosses and candles and burning incense. Behind them was a huge float, about the size of the floats from Semana Santa, with a large, gorgeous statue of Jesus giving a blessing. I was so happy that we got to see it! I didn’t think that we’d actually get to see any of the Corpus Christi stuff, but see it we did.
We then intended to see the Cathedral, but it was closed for Corpus, so we decided to take a horse and carriage ride tour thing. It’s so weird; the horse and carriage rides are one of the main attractions about Sevilla, but I’ve never taken one. It’s just so…touristy. And I ain’t no tourist. It’s so weird being touristy here now that my family’s here…but it’s also really nice because it forces me to do things that I typically wouldn’t do. The carriage ride was actually really nice—it took us to the southern side of town which I’ve been to maybe once or twice, and it holds some of the most important structures of Sevilla. For example, I finally saw the infamous Plaza de España. Haha, I can’t believe that after five and a half months I still hadn’t been there. I also saw some cool buildings that are now museums and the Parque de María Luisa (the infamous park of Sevilla) which is goooorgeous and I can’t believe that I’ve never really been through there. The ride lasted about an hour and it was really nice. It was a really nice, relaxing way to be able to see the major, more impressive parts of the city. I really enjoyed it; I can’t believe I never did it before. We went to grab lunch, and I decided that it was time for me to show my family the wonder that is Cien Montaditos.
We then got to Cien Montaditos which was reasonably crowded at that time of day. I grabbed my family the English menu and walked them through the whole process of checking off the sandwich you want, and how to write their names on the slips with pronounce-able Spanish spelling. I gave recommendations, explained what some things were, and we all ordered. Evan from my program was there with a friend who was visiting. It was nice to see him again before probably never seeing him again (being that he’s a Penn kid). We all got 3 sandwiches. My family LOVED them. I mean, reeeeeeally loved them. My dad spent the entire meal discussing how we could get this company (it’s a chain in Spain) to take off in the States. I mean, seriously, it’s brilliant: a menu of 100 mini sandwiches, each very unique and delicious and only one euro each. Genius. After lunch we decided to go to the gift shop that sells University of Sevilla gear, and we all stocked up on t-shirts, Shana also got sweatpants, and I got a sweatshirt. Such nice, high-quality stuff, and so reasonably priced. We also stopped at a couple more souvenir shops…the souvenir shops in Sevilla are really nice! It was a pretty laid-back afternoon. It was a nice vacation so far—there’s a lot to do in Sevilla, but not too much, so it’s easy to just take it easy and just do whatever tickles your fancy. We really didn’t have any plans each day except in the evenings. Our plan for that evening was to go to a bullfight. That’s right, I was going to go to another bullfight. Haha. After souvenir shopping a bit we walked back to the hotel to chill out for about an hour and get ready for the big fight.
We headed over to the fight at around 7 (it started at 7:30). Got there in plenty of time, and the rain had cleared up (it had been raining off and on all day and it had cleared up for good, finally). It was a gorgeous evening, and actually kind of cool. The bullfight was pretty entertaining, just like the last one. The only difference was that the ring was not as full, and the fight started later so we got to see the end of it under the lights which was really awesome since it made their outfits sparkle. Haha, I love the torero outfits so much. Oh yeah, and there was one bad bull, so in order to get rid of it they release a bunch of other bulls and then shoo them away, so the bad bull joins them in a pack. It was kind of funny. Oh, and one of the bulls was really feisty and butted one of the armored horses so that the horse was on its hind legs until it finally fell over backwards. So crazy! It was also kind of scary. All in all a good fight, and my family enjoyed it…well, my mom wasn’t handling it too well. Surprisingly, Shana really enjoyed it (I thought that she’d be the one having the hardest time with it).
After the fight we went to dinner just down the street. My family wanted some authentic Spanish paella, so we went to the first place that advertised paella. On the way we passed Isbiliya, the gay bar where they have the drag shows. I told the family all about it and they thought that it sounded really cool. Shana had never seen a drag show before, and since it was Thursday and they would be having a show that night, we decided to go (even though it wouldn’t start until 1:30am…ohhh Spanish time). The restaurant we went to was nice because it was a good location and we got some good outdoor seating. The paella was okay, nothing special, just like most of the paella in Spain. You see, paella is actually a tourist food. It’s rarely made anywhere besides tourist joints, but people will prepare it at home a lot since it’s really simple and comes right out of a box. The one good thing about the paella at this place was that the portions were a good size, and they put whole langostinos, shrimp, and mussels in it. We finished dinner at around 11. Luisa and Eva had told me that during Corpus throughout the barrio Santa Cruz they decorate store windows with altars and that it’s beautiful, and since I had seen some the night before, I decided that it’d be worth our while to check out the windows whilst walking off our huge dinner. It was so weird—it was cold out that night. I hadn’t been cold in Sevilla since lord knows when. We walked to where I saw the altars the night before around the Alfalfa area, but there was only one remaining, and it wasn’t even lit up. So we just ended up taking a little stroll around that area, I showed them Alfalfa—the good ole hangout which was just starting to fill up for the night. They, of course, found it dirty and sketchy (like any normal human being would…for some reason us study abroad kids just love it). Then we walked back. Shana and I settled for a bit before 1:20am when we headed over to Isbiliya. Daddy decided to come, too. Fun!
We got to Isbiliya right as the show was starting. I ordered drinks for everyone—I got the typical vodka tonic (big spender now that my budget is no longer an issue). I racked my brain for what to get Shana because she likes to drink whatever doesn’t taste like liquor. So I figured a tinto de verano (red wine with Fanta), but they were out of red wine. So I thought hard, and came up with the perfect drink, inspired by Evan Greenhill’s recommendation before I went to Spain: Malibu con piña (Malibu with pineapple juice). She loved it. It was so weird to drink with Shana…she rarely drinks alcohol, I mean, very rarely. And this was the first time I had ever drunk with her. So funny. The drag show was awesome, of course. I had never seen the Thursday night performers, so it was a bit different. The three of us definitely stuck out—not just because we were American, but also because we basically came as a family. Hehe. The show lasted about 40 minutes, and then they took an intermission. So we all got a second drink and went to the upstairs area because there was seating up there. It was good people watching area. Then this random Spanish guy of about 30 walks up, stands next to Daddy, glances at him, then starts dancing…by himself. He was obviously trying to send Daddy some signals. Daddy kept looking at me and laughing, and I would do the same. The normal middle America man would be freaked out and run away, but Daddy knew that it just made the dude look like an idiot and found the whole situation pretty damn funny. However, after 15 minutes of the dude not leaving (it’s obvious that he was waiting for Daddy to, like, dance with him or talk to him or something) it was apparent that it was starting to get uncomfortable. Shana had to pee, so it served as a good reason to go back downstairs. It was hot in the club, and it was still intermission, so Daddy and I decided to meet Shana at one of the tables outside. The three of us ended up sitting out there for a good hour just talking. There was a typical Spanish bum hanging around and they got a good glimpse into what that whole situation is like. We spent awhile talking about energy conservation and how the States wastes so much energy, and coming to Spain where energy conservation is very important really puts it all into perspective. It was a really fascinating, intriguing conversation, actually.
At around 3 we left. We didn’t catch the second half of the show due to our conversation. It was a really fun night! It was the perfect official last night out for me in Sevilla and a perfect first full day in Sevilla with my family…as a fellow tourist. I was having an amazing vacation so far.