Hooray! Happy New Year! We all made it through the end of 2013 alive and well, and here we are in rainy Madrid, tired and lazy, clinging to all the wi-fi we can get.
Since the last post we have been through three cities (we are really bad at travel blogging…) Seville was absolutely gorgeous, we stayed in a hostel called ‘The Garden,’ and life was swell. Everyday had wonderful weather and we walked dozens of miles around historic plazas and monuments and bull rings and cool graffiti. (Don’t worry RVA, they ain’t got nothin’ on you, baby.) The food was rad, and the free sangria every night at the hostel wasn’t too shabby.
If you’ve ever been to Chicago, imagine that but with cathedrals and ancient government buildings instead of skyscraping business towers and add a few Spaniards and I think you’d get Seville. A big tourist draw are ‘the Mushrooms,’ (similar to the bean,) which are built over an adorable Christmas market and located pretty centrally in the city. Surrounding them are buzzing tapas bars and cafes and coffee houses. If you walk less than 5 minutes in any direction from the Mushrooms, you will find a huge, old and beautiful Catholic church or a convent or a monastery of some sort, always neighboring picturesque neighborhoods that re-define what is postcard worthy. Just when you think you are lost in Seville, you walk into an open square and suddenly are reminded you’re in a big city that is very well disguised as a small town.
I could rave about Seville all day long, I think I could live here forever and be happy (if I, you know, were able to find a job or speak Spanish or find a flat that is in the cool part of the city.) The best part might not have even been the city, our hostel was the best experience I could have asked for. The staff were all bi- or tri-lingual, super fun and energetic, it was in a great part of town close to shops and a market and awesome hole-in-the-wall cafes that served awesome breakfasts. Everyone staying in the hostel was excited to be travelling and we all went out together every night. Our roommate was an awesome Australian film student living in LA and travelling through Portugal and Spain for winter break and we spent a day out touring the oldest bar in Seville, the Cathedral and the Giralda tower (gave the most beautiful view of the city.) We also spent quite a while watching some punk 9-year olds throw firecrackers into historic fountains and blow up oranges and such, and then all the boys tried to climb a tree that I swear is older than the United States. That night we went grocery shopping and cooked ourselves a sweet meal with no recipe!! (Pork cutlets with mushrooms in garlic sauce, home-made ‘chips’ and a spinach salad with bleu cheese, yeah.) Everything was cool.
From Seville we went to Toledo, the former capital of Spain and maybe the most beautiful city I’ve ever seen. It is a tiny little place located up on a mountain and walled all the way around. Our first morning, we got up nice and early and walked out to the road that surrounds the city and nearly walked around the whole thing. We thought we would be punks and hop the divide from the road to climb a mountain separating us from a sweet view of the city. It took a lot of cardio and strength and a 10 minute break to get all the way to the top but we did and it was so worth it. Here’s the view.
Hostel game not so strong in Toledo, our roommate was kind of agitating because she came in late and started reading her book as soon as all of us were ready to go to bed, so the light had to stay on. I was able to go to sleep…but was awoken pretty soon after by the snores coming from her bed. I imagine a cartoon depicting someone snoring would not be as disruptive as this woman was. She woke up Luisito and me both and we got some pretty terrible sleep, as in almost none at all.
Toledo is not a place to stay for a long time, so yesterday we took off to come back to Madrid, the last leg of our trip! For some reason is has been raining since we got to the city which is an anomaly for a place like this. New Year’s in Madrid was pretty awesome, though, if you ever get the chance, go ahead. The plazas were poppin’ mega early in the day, we bargained with a street vendor to get 2014 glasses for cheap, bought champagne in a convenient store for like 6 euros, and Puerta del Sol was adorned and beautiful. We had dinner and festivities at a friend of the boys, Paloma’s house. (She was a part of an exchange the Andrades participated in a few years ago and they kept in touch!) She cooked us lamb and mussels and we had appetizers and desserts and basically, wow. We spent midnight with her giant, awesome family, throwing spit balls at each other which is a part of her family’s tradition after midnight.
Spain also has a New Year’s tradition where you have to eat 12 grapes in the 12 seconds before midnight in order to have 12 months of good luck in the new year. Here’s a little about the grape tradition and it’s origins in Spain. Paloma’s family also has a lottery for gifts in the New Year and somehow, the three of us got thrown into the pot as special guests of some sort. Luis and I both came away with two gifts and Nico one. Pretty good haul, if you ask me.
We finally started our way back to the hostal at about 6 a.m., just in time to experience Virginia passing into 2014! After wishing family and friends a happy New Year back home, we were dead and ready for bed.
I’m sure there will be more to say about Madrid soon, I think we’re about to go to Ernest Hemingway’s favorite bar…frick yea, Spain.
What a rant, woo!
-Emma
aventuradetresamigos 