Sevilla

6/25/2009

This morning after sleeping a little later than expected, I woke up and hoped on a train to Sevilla with Athena and Jon.  It was kind of refreshing to be dealing with only a small group, a lot easier to appease everyone.  After somehow communicating the need for a roundtrip ticket from Cadiz to Sevilla, we waited only 5 minutes for our train to arrive.  The whole time we were on the train, I could not stop staring out the window in awe!  It is crazy to think that I am in Spain, and a lot of the train ride there was through the country side (a view that is interchangeable with most areas that are unpopulated).  The few differences were the buildings, which are gorgeous here, the endless fields of sunflowers, which were gorgeous, and the occasional river we passed that had boats everywhere.  They were all along the beach on dry land, as well as all across the water, and all were empty, making me wonder how the owners get to their empty boat in the middle of the river.  The entire train ride, we were unsure of which stop we wanted, and were unable to understand any of the announcements.  We also sat in the seats assigned on our tickets, which meant that Jon was separated from Athena and I by several cars.  By some miracle, we ended up all getting off at the right stop, and proceeding up to figure out the time for our return trip.  We got maps of the city, which didn’t show where the train station was, and spent a while just wondering the streets somewhat lost but still having fun.  I got earings for Erin for 2 Euro at a streetside vendor, and we stopped at a café for what appeared to be chocolate covered pastries.  After more wondering and trying to locate ourselves on the map we had, we finally found a garden and a flamenco place across the street from each other that were both on our map, and oriented ourselves to go find the cathedral.  As we got closer, it got much prettier.  We walked through a garden, and ended up in winding ally ways with small shops and quaint buildings.  Upon leaving the garden, the tower of the cathedral became visible, and we used that as our navigational beacon.  When we finally arrived in the square, my breath was literally taken away by the massive beauty of it.  The cathedral is 900 years old, and I have never felt so small indoors before.  It was impossible to capture the magnitude of it on film, and all of my pictures do it no justice.  After spending a long time trying to photograph the outside (from the bottom to the top would not all fit in one frame), we started approaching the door.  As we were taking a few last minute pictures outside, Jessica and Katlyn, our neighbors on the ship showed up with some other friends.  We all decided to go inside, and it was only 2 Euros for students.  The first room was full of artwork, and then into the Cathedral where Christopher Columbus is buried.  It was enormous.  There was construction going on to renovate because some of the gargantuan pillars holding up the ceiling had cracks running across them, and it was impossible to describe just how amazing it was.  Huge organs that spread floor to ceiling, everything so ornate, amazing stained glass windows…. So amazing.   The we climbed the tower.  Spiraled hill going up to the top, with windows interspersed and panoramic views.  After what seemed like forever climbing, we made it to the top of the bell tower and could see the whole city and more.  So many pictures and then a bell chimed when we were up there, so loud.  After a large amount of time up there taking it all in and trying to convince myself it was real, we headed down and wandered back through some of the ally ways and little shops.  Got ice cream and chips with guacamole, then eventually wound our way back to the train station to hop on the train home.   Beautiful sunset from the train, and back to the ship after a long day to refresh and then go out in Cadiz and find food (they eat late here).  I had a crepe with some type of melon, and it came with ice cream in it, delicious.  We did a little better communicating.  It was at an adorable outdoor café called Gotinga.  Back to the ship and packing up for Tarifa, and then passing out in bed.