The Fetmans Take Sevilla, Day 5...A Surreal Farewell to my Home.

Sunday, June 18

Woke up at around 11 for my last day in Sevilla. Wow. Never thought that this day would come. Had to make the most of it. My only plans for the day with the family were to visit the Cathedral and see a flamenco show at Casa de la Memoria (the place that my program took us for flamenco back at the beginning of February…I trusted them to give a good show). So we got up, got ready, ate breakfast, and headed out. Upon stepping out the door we heard epic music and drums. Another Corpus Christi procession?? Wow. My family definitely picked the perfect time to come to Sevilla. The procession was right by our hotel, at the church around the corner. The street was crowded with everyone dressed in their Sunday’s best, which was a treat for my family to see. Spaniards in their Sunday’s best is quite a sight…especially the children. There was a small procession involving a small band on horns and drums and a float covered in red velvet draperies and silver symbols of the Eucharist. Around the float people carried tall, red candles. The float slowly moved into the church. It was really awesome to see; what a great final image of a morning in Sevilla! The float finally made it into the church and the crowd on the street broke up. Next to the church there was a large window display whose floor was covered with palm branches. After the procession people crowded to the display and grabbed bundles of palm branches. For the rest of that morning I saw people dressed up and walking around with palm branches. Pretty cool to see. The window display was huge and gorgeous: a red theme with silver accents. Kind of hard to describe—I have pictures. After that awesome display of epic Spanish religion we headed to the Cathedral hoping that it’d be open despite the holiday (I didn’t expect Corpus to last so long when planning the trip!). Unfortunately, it was closed for the day. I was so upset! I really wanted to show my family the Cathedral since they were so impressed by it—and it’s so gorgeous. Definitely the best cathedral I’ve visited since being in Europe, and that even beats out Notre Dame. I also wanted to see the Cathedral one last time before leaving Sevilla for good…besides, I hadn’t been inside the Cathedral since my program went back in January! So I was quite sad. Dejected, we walked down avenida de la Constitución, unable to come up with something to do.
Luckily we ran into a random market going on in one of the main patios/plazas. It was a huge antique market which was really awesome. Lots of old currency, postcards, toys, gadgets, stamps, etc. etc. My family really enjoyed it, as did I, so that was a very lucky find. We spent a good amount of time there. Once my mood was lifted it was lowered once again upon finding the antique poster store in that plaza closed as it was Sunday. I was so upset because one of the things that I wanted before leaving Sevilla was a couple large antique Feria and Semana Santa posters. Damn. Damn damn damn. We left the market, walked down the street, and found the other antique poster store open! Yes! I was sooooo happy I can’t even tell you. I spent about a half an hour in there meticulously browsing through the posters in search of the perfect ones. I finally settled on two full-sized posters and three postcards. Nice. After that Shana wanted some of the fresh-squeezed Spanish orange juice with which she had fallen in love since coming here, so we went next store to Café de Indias for a little merienda. Shana got some orange juice and the rest of us got some café cortados. After our little descanso (rest) we walked down to the river since I hadn’t taken my family there yet.
We decided then to rent a paddleboat. I was very pleased with this decision because renting a paddleboat was on my imaginary list of things to do in Sevilla…and finally I’d be able to knock it off the list. Plus, I had never been in the Guadilquivir River. Can you believe that? Everyday I walk across that river at least twice, and yet I haven’t been in the water. What is with that? So we rented a four-person paddleboat from the bar/dock (yeah, it’s both) and were helped by a really fun, chipper British dude. We took the boat out for an hour and rode it along the main areas of Sevilla on the Guadilquivir. Shana and Daddy paddled the whole time, for which I give them much credit because the sun was quite hot and strong that day, especially on the water. We saw some really large ducks, I saw what the inside of the los Remedios and Triana bridge look like, and saw what the shores look like. Plus, I got to actually feel the Guadilquivir! It was such a nice thing to do—to really relax and take in Sevilla one last time before finally leaving it. It was the perfect finale. Sigh. I love Sevilla and was not looking forward to leaving it behind. After the boat ride we were quite tired and sweaty and gross. So we grabbed some cokes and sat in the shade of the bar/dock. While drinking we noticed a huuuuge family of cats and kittens living in the canal by the dock/bar. The bartenders and waiters served them food. They were so cute! I love the random Sevilla cats. After having a drink we decided to go grab lunch. We walked to Cien Montaditos, of course. Sigh, this would be my last time at Cien Montaditos. Henceforth, I went to town and ordered a whopping four sandwiches. Of course, it was all delicious, especially since I ordered my favorite sandwiches. I’ll miss that place. After lunch we were again at a loss, so we just began walking aimlessly.
We passed the Cathedral and spotted people walking in and out of the door (not the main tourist entrance). So we decided to give it a try. It was about 5pm. We walked in…turns out they were now letting in visitors! Yes! How much more perfect could this day get?? The inside of the Cathedral was even cooler than I had remembered…especially following my learning all about it in Art History class. Yeah, it’s pretty incredible. And it was extra awesome with some of the Corpus decorations up. Then, at around 5:20 we noticed people gathering in seats in front of the choir and pulpit. So we followed suit. I started to wonder if there was going to be a mass. So I asked a security guard and she confirmed my assumption—there would be a mass at 5:30 and it would last a half an hour. Holy crap! There’s another thing on my Sevilla list: I had wanted to go to a real Catholic mass. After time and realizing how intense Catholocism is in Spain I kind of knocked it off of the list, but now it was happening! I noticed that a lot of tourists were sticking around for the mass, so I didn’t feel too awkward. And it was going to only be a half an hour, so it shouldn’t be too intense. However, I was kind of nervous…I’ve never been to Catholic mass…what if we would have to take communion?? I don’t know how! Talk about awkward. Feeling nervous, Shana and I moved to some seats on the side in case we decided to get up in the middle due to feeling too awkward. Daddy and Mom, however, stuck around in the middle row. The mass started twenty minutes late. It began with some hymns from the choir, some preaching from the Bible, and then a super short sermon. It was really laid-back, surprisingly, being that it’s an ancient Cathedral and one of the most impressive Cathedrals in the world…in Spain…on Corpus Christi. The sermon was really nice—it was about how Jesus gave his body and blood and also symbolically in bread and wine to his disciples, and how parents and grandparents should look at that as an example; that parents and grandparents give food and drink to their children which represents their love and support and their sacrifice for their children…like Jesus to his children. It was a very nice message. After the short sermon a bunch of kids dressed in white blouses and blue skirts and slacks walked up to the pulpit. A group of boys dressed in tights, gold suits, and pink feathered hats walked up. I was wondering what was going to happen. The kids started singing (very poorly, but it was endearing) and then the boys started some choreographed marching dance. It was so cute and so cool! Then I realized what it was: and auto-sacramental, a type of performance only executed during Corpus. Lope de Vega wrote many of these. Yay for history coming to life! Hehe. Yes, I love learning a little too much. Anyways, they performed about 3-5 songs. Then everyone prayed and the mass ended. During the entire mass there was random rising and sitting and we had no clue so we just followed everyone else. It was a good time. So, I went to mass. Catholic mass. In Spanish. With my Jewish family. You know, I didn’t really think that I’d end up at mass, although I wanted to go to one. I expected that if I were to go to mass it would not be at the Cathedral, nor with my family—I would have expected somewhere in los Remedios with my host family or some of my Catholic friends. How funny my life is at times. I was really happy that not only did I get to visit the Cathedral one last time, but also go to mass there on a major holiday. Yet another perfect finale to my half a year in Sevilla. I tell ya, the day just kept getting better and better. We wandered around the Cathedral some more, tried to get to the tower and climb it, but it was closed. Probably all for the better since it was so hot. Then we left and headed for the hostel to get ready for the night.
On the way home we got some sorbet cones (mmm coconut) which were quite tastey and cooled us down a bit. My mom had never had coconut sorbet and immediately fell in love. Yeah, it’s a tasty treat. Once back I changed, showered, then went downstairs to get directions to Casa de la Memoria. The woman behind the desk was struggling with finding it, so it was this whole half hour-long ordeal of finding the address online, locating it on the map…oy. In the meantime this American family walked up. I recognized the daughter. You see, the night before my family told me that they had met a girl from UofM staying in our hotel who had just spent a semester in Granada. I was hoping to run into her and see if I knew her. When I saw this girl walk in, I knew. I didn’t know her name, but I recognized her as a fellow RC kid. She definitely was in the RC with me and lived in East Quad for the same two years as I. Small world, I tell ya. I introduced myself. Her name is Mandy, she’s from Michigan, and she was doing the same thing with her family as I: traveling once the program had finished…although she was going to travel more (involving a cruise of the Mediterranean). We talked for awhile which completely distracted from getting directions. She told me about what to see in Granada and Barcelona, and warned me about the limited availability of tickets to the Alhambra in Granada. I didn’t know that I needed tickets! She told me that I could try ordering online, but don’t expect too much. Uh-oh…this made me nervous since the main thing to do in Granada is to see the Alhambra. Oy. Anyways, we talked for awhile which was cool. We have so much in common, and yet we never really knew each other…yet we did kind of know each other. Anyways, I tell ya, small world.
Since we spent so much time socializing we ended up having to take a cab to Casa de la Memoria. We got there at around 8:30, picked up our tickets, and got in line to grab a seat. After about ten minutes we filed in. The patio was just as I had remembered: very Andalusian, open, flowery, warm, comfortable. I was excited to see some flamenco there; I hadn’t seen quality flamenco since February 2 (the last time I was at Casa de la Memoria). Since then I’ve been seeing a lot of amateur flamenco for free at la Carbonería. So this would be a treat for everybody. The emcee was a girl a bit older than I who was definitely American. Her Spanish was okay, she didn’t have a great accent. Yet, she was living and working in Sevilla. This gives me hope, because I admit that my Spanish is a bit better than hers, and here she is living and working in Spain. This makes me realize that I could work in a Spanish-speaking area one day and be completely fine. Nice. Anyways, the flamenco show was AWESOME. It was only an hour or so long, which was perfect for my family’s less-than-great attention span. Like last time, it started with the guitarist and singer, then a male dancer performed, then the guitarist performed a solo, then the female danced, then there was a photo opp in which the guy and the girl danced. The male dancer was, without a doubt, the best flamenco dancer I’ve ever seen. Not only did he excel at flamenco, but it was also quite apparent that this guy had studied dance (definitely ballet) before flamenco. Wow. The female was good, not as good as the guy, nor the woman I saw back in February. The singer was the best flamenco singer ever, and the guitarist was also the best guitarist. I remembered why I love flamenco so much. It was overall an amazing performance and my family loved it. Shana said that it was the highlight of Sevilla for her. Niiiiiice. After the show we visited the gift shop which sells Jew stuff…ya know, objects and artwork expressing the old Jewish influence of Andalucía. I showed Mom the photo book of the old Jewish sectors and artwork of Andalucía that I was eyeing the last time I was at Casa de la Memoria, and she loved it. So she bought it. Niiiiiiiice.
We then walked around Santa Cruz a bit to find a good place to eat. We settled on this little tapas bar with outdoor seating and a good-looking, typical Andalucían menu. We ordered a bunch of tapas: gazpacho, espinacas con garbanzos, ham with mushrooms, Spanish tortilla, and grilled calamari in tomato sauce. All of the food was delicious, and the service was awesome. Plus, there was a dude walking around playing the accordion which just added to the nice night and atmosphere. The tapas were honestly the best tapas that I’ve had in Spain, and that’s saying a lot. And it was this tiny little bar hidden in the barrio Santa Cruz. Who knew? Definitely the perfect last meal in Sevilla. I couldn’t ask for a better evening.
Then we slowly walked back towards the hotel. On the way we passed the Cathedral through the main plaza behind it. The night was completely clear and the Cathedral was beautifully lit up. So we stopped to take a bunch of final pictures. I got some great final pictures of Sevilla over there. It was so tranquil and gorgeous over there that night. Without a doubt the perfect end to the perfect day on a perfect vacation completing the perfect semester. I was so in love with Sevilla at that moment. Being there for those final moments was simply bittersweet: I was sad about leaving, but I was ready. I had done everything that I needed to do in that city. As sad as I was to leave, I had exhausted the city. I felt complete. I was ready. It was the perfect five and a half months…the most amazing time of my life…and it had been completed perfectly. I was feeling very content and at peace.
We then walked away. I felt like crying, but didn’t. Like I said, I was okay. Sevilla had treated me well and I couldn’t have asked for a better half a year. Sigh. On the way home we stopped by a store where Shana and Daddy bought themselves some pastries. We then walked back. I walked the streets of Sevilla for one last time. Wow. So surreal. But again, it felt okay. It felt right. I had done what I needed to do there. There was nothing left. Until next time, Sevilla. It’s just weird—I’ll never live in Sevilla ever again. I mean, I know that I’ll return many times, but live there for a prolonged period of time? I doubt it. That’s just strange. This has been the most amazing experience and I have truly had the time of my life. Yes, that was cliché. But it’s the truth. And I owe it all to you. Okay, I have to stop that. But there’s a reason why things are cliché, right? Hehe. But yeah, it was time to let this experience go. I was ready to head out. Time to travel/vacation a bit, then back to reality…the real world…my real life. Wow, this was it. Let’s do it.
Got back to the hotel, packed a bit, blogged a bit, went online to check Granada bus times and buy Alhambra tickets (luckily there were 4 available for Tuesday at 7pm!), then went to bed at around 2. My last night sleeping in Sevilla wow. Next stop: my Spanish travels. A return to Granada was in store for the next day.
Wow. The end. I was off…leaving Sevilla permanently the next day. Surreal. Just absolutely surreal. Indescribable.