Aaron and Jess Do Spain!

Hi everyone!!! So now that I am officially settled back in to my home in Sevilla, and leaving in two days for Italy, I figured it was time to begin the blog about Aaron's visit to Spain. I think I have been putting it off a little because writing about all the fun we had makes me miss him!! Well, and the fact that we did so much, I don't even know where to start!

I guess I will start from Friday morning though (March 20th), the day that Aaron arrived! I got up at 5:30 am to catch a train to Malaga at 7:35 am. The train right was almost 3 hours and I was exhausted, but I was so excited that I couldn't sleep for a second. I got to Malaga at 10:15 and then figured out the trains to the airport, where I was going to meet Aaron after his flight got in at 10:50! Well, unfortunately, I JUST missed the 10:18 train to the airport, and had to wait for the next one at 10:50. I figured I would still make it in time to be waiting outside of baggage claim though when he arrived (which was the plan all along). Well, I was wrong. The train took longer than expected, and once I got off, I had to literally walk across the whole airport to get to his terminal! None of this would have been a problem, except that he didn't have a cell phone, so he had no way of contacting me while he was waiting for me in the airport for 20 minutes worrying! Anyways, I finally made it to his terminal, and went to the receiving area for when people come out after baggage claim. After searching around there for a minute or two, I did not see him anywhere, and decided to walk around to get a better view. It was on my way to the other side when I finally spotted him, frantically putting euro coins into a Spanish payphone to try to call me. I yelled his name, and he hung up the phone with a HUGE visible sigh of relief. Then I gave him a big hug!

From there, we caught a bus to Marbella, which only took about 25 minutes. We then hopped in a taxi, which took us to where we would be staying for the weekend- La Trinidad. My Uncle Fred's friend Jamie was nice enough to let us stay in his apartment for the weekend, and it turned out to be one AMAZING apartment!!! We were so fortunate to be able to stay there, here are a few pics of the apartment:

The living room.

The view of the complex from the apartment!

Aaron in front of the pool!

Anyways, we got settled in there, and decided to take a walk to the nearest beach which was about 5 minutes away. It wasn't perfect weather, but was gorgeous in the sun. We were starving so we decided to eat at this little restaurant on the beach. Turned out to be probably the most expensive restaurant we ate at the entire time because of its location, but we were just so hungry and so happy to be together that it didn't even matter at the time. We had some delicious calamari and salad (Aaron was VERY happy that I like calamari now!). We walked on the beach a little more after lunch, and then decided to go back to La Trinidad and lay out by the pool while it was still sunny. We did this for an hour or so, until it got too chilly, then went inside for a much needed siesta for the both of us. For dinner that night we went into the downtown part of Marbella, not that we knew what it was, we just asked to be taken to the centro. We had dinner at a seafood restaurant where we shared a delicious paella!! I am happy to say that I think Aaron enjoyed his first paella experience!! It was a great first day and night in Marbella!

Aaron eating paella. Yum! We tried to be brave and eat the shrimp, but they had eyeballs. Unsuccessful.

On Saturday, we were hoping for a beautiful day so we could hang out at the beach all day. Well, that was just about the opposite from what we got. We even brought our bathing suits and towels with us around all day, just in case the weather got nice...which it did not. It was pretty chilly and windy all day long! It was a bummer, but we still had a fun day walking around the really nice harbor area in Marbella called Puerto Banus. There are tons of ritzy stores and restaurants lining the harbor that is filled with huge, fancy boats. We also walked to a "flea market" that turned out to be like 10 stalls of strange artwork, walked around the shopping malls that were around there, and had some good pizza for lunch. I have to say, Aaron was a pretty good shopper this day! He got a little sick of it by the end, but overall, he was a trooper! I don't think either of us actually bought anything though besides two oranges, chocolate, batteries, and wine. Oh well! It was a pretty long and chilly day of walking around, but it was great just to spend time together. After going back to the apartment to siesta, shower, and get ready, we took a cab back into the Puerto Banus area for dinner (unfortunately we had to take cabs everywhere...this really added up). We went to this Italian restaurant that we had spotted earlier which was very affordable and turned out to be good food!! After dinner we went into a few bars around that area, one in particular where they were playing basketball!! We were happy to catch even a few minutes of the tournament, so it was fun. Aaron also had the pleasure of realizing how expensive mixed drinks are here, when our 2 rum and cokes turned out to be 10 euros. Despite some bad weather, we had a great day and night in Marbella.

On Sunday, we had to leave around 1 pm to catch a taxi to the bus station in Marbella to get back to Malaga to catch our bus back to Sevilla! We decided not to waste the money on a cab to get food, so we were literally starving by the time we got to the bus station, but figured there would be food there. Well, the restaurant was really sketchy looking, so our only other option was to buy lots of chips, and a 90 cent freshly baked baguette of bread from the gas station. The bread turned out to be kind of amazing, but we both felt disgusting after eating such an unhealthy lunch.

Our lunch on the bus. Yikes...

We also were a little nervous that we were not going to have enough time to catch our bus in Malaga to Sevilla, but it all worked out well and we even had time to spare. We got to Sevilla in the late afternoon, and checked into our hotel, Hotel Catalonia Giralda. The room was nothing special, but overall the hotel was pretty decent, and we had free internet! It was great. We decided to go exploring a little bit, and I realized that our hotel was actually very close to my school, and to where we go out! So it turned out to be a great location. We sat at a little restaurant bar and had some cafe con leche and two tapas to hold us over until dinner. Aaron tried tortilla (the Spanish egg and potato omelette thing), and really liked it! I was happy. Later that night, we showered and went to dinner at another restaurant where we had some more delicious tapas. We came back to our hotel, watched Slumdog Millionaire on Aaron's computer (I had never seen it!), and went to bed. It was a great first weekend :)

Ok well seeing as this post is already really long and I've only done one weekend, I guess I should stop giving so many details. I don't know why I always end up doing that, I guess I blog as if I am telling this story in person to any of you! Oh well, like I always say, feel free to skim at any time. I'll try and be a little more succinct!

So we spent Sunday night- Thursday night in Sevilla, and had a great time. The hardest part was forcing myself to go to my classes (don't worry, I did!). On Monday, we went to Plaza de España, Parque María Luisa, walked along the river, saw the bullfighting ring, and ate lunch with my friends outside in our usual lunch spot. At night, we went out for some more tapas at this restuarant called Levíes Cafe which is right near my school, and discovered that it was amazing! We accidentally ordered all our tapas at once though, which we soon realized was a bad idea because then you have TONS of food on your table and look like huge fatasses, while everyone else in the restaurant stares at you, oops! After dinner we met up with my friends Franny and Chrisy and went to La Carbonería, that flamenco bar that I also took my family too. I don't think Aaron enjoyed the show as much as my dad did, but he liked it, and got to experience some real Andalucían culture! It was a fun night!

Some of our tapas!

On Tuesday we woke up to very gross weather unfortunately. It was rainy and pretty chilly. We decided to go to the Cathedral and La Giralda because they are inside activities. Well, it was only drizzling when we went out, but by the time we had been walking for about 10 minutes with no umbrella, we were soaked. So we stopped in a little souvenir store and got one, however this did not prevent my cute mocassins from getting completely soaked. Major bummer. We took a good tour of the Cathedral and then climbed La Giralda. This was I think my 5th time doing both, but oh well, I was glad to show them to Aaron! We had some cafe con leche, and then headed into Triana to go to....my señora's house for lunch!! She had invited Aaron and I to come to lunch there one day, and Tuesday was our day. Overall it went very well. She told me that Aaron was MUCH more handsome in real life than in the picture I have of him in my room, and that I needed to get a new picture!! She served us stew with chicken, beef, potatoes, and garbanzo beans (actually one of my favorite things she makes!), and I was really nervous that Aaron would not eat it, but he did a great job and ate it all! I was so proud :). We had to leave because I had class, so it was a nice, not too lengthy visit. She told me she really liked him.

Me outside my bedroom window! I swear it looks less jail-ish from the inside.

Tuesday night we went to a yummy fish restaurant which was recommended by the New York Times. It was very good, slightly pricey but it was our one nice dinner in Sevilla so we didn't mind. The highlight was when I asked how much sea bass would be (because it said depending on market price) and he came out with a full dead fish on a platter to show me the one they could cook for us. Luckily, the fish tasted a lot better than it looked on that platter haha.

Wednesday we had to switch hotels to one just down the street because we had originally planned on going to Córdoba for a night, but decided against that plan. Unfortunately we couldn't get the same great rate for our other hotel for that night, so we just switched. This hotel was pretty nice too! Anyways, Wednesday was a nicer day, and we did some shopping (as much as Aaron could stand), eating, and drinking wine outside in between my classes. At night, we had tapas again for dinner (I swear we did eat other things), and then met up with my friends and went out in Sevilla! We went to a few bars and then headed to this discoteca called Catedral. We didn't stay too long, but I was glad Aaron got to get a glimpse of what a disco looks like!

Thursday was our last day in Sevilla, and it turned out to be gorgeous weather. We had to check out of our hotel in the morning, and then we headed to Reales Alcázares (the royal palace and its gardens). I showed Aaron around the palaces, and then we spent a while walking around the beautiful gardens in the amazing, sunny weather!

Us in the palace! I was not very happy that Aaron chose to wear an orange shirt; we clashed big time!

After the palace and gardens, we stopped to take a few pictures outside the Cathedral and Giralda since it was a beautiful day. I include this part in my blog because it is a great example of how AWFUL people on the streets are at taking good pictures. Over and over we would kindly ask people to take a picture of us in front of some monument, such as the Cathedral, and over and over they would cut out half the monument. Here is an example:

We set up this picture perfectly so that the whole Cathedral would be in the background, and this dumb guy managed to cut out the left two-thirds of it! Ridiculous. Would have been such a great picture. And don't worry, we tried asking more than one person- all failures!

After the unsuccessful pictures, we walked into this area called Santa Cruz to get some lunch. We saw the Judería, the old Jewish quarters where all the Jews lived before they were kicked out during the Spanish Inquisition. Then we had some lunch in the sun, did a little souvenir shopping, and headed back to our hotel before my class. After class, we grabbed our stuff and went to the train station to catch our train to Madrid. We took the high speed train so it only took us about 2 and a half hours to get to Madrid- it was great! Once we got to Madrid, we took a cab to our hotel, checked in, and rushed to a restaurant before their kitchens all closed at 12. We walked around a little afterwards, and then went back to our hotel, exhausted! This hotel was called Senator Gran Vía, it was on the big Gran Vía street in the center of Madrid- perfect location! It was also very nice!! Aaron did a great job finding hotels!

We woke up early Friday, as we only had one full day in Madrid. We decided to skip out on all the art museums (I didn't think Aaron would really enjoy seeing hundreds of old religious paintings), and instead do the more fun things! We walked down Gran Vía, went to Plaza de España, and then headed to the Royal Palace which was great to see again, and Aaron enjoyed it too. From there we went to Plaza Mayor where we hung out for a while, looked at all the weirdo street performers, and had two mini Coca Cola Lights for over 6 euro. Lesson learned: do not order soft drinks at restaurants. I'm pretty sure beer is about half the price.

Example of the weird street performs: crazy fruit lady.

We kept on walking (I remembered how to get everywhere from last time! for the most part), stopped for some lunch at a Mexican place (being in Spain makes me miss Mexican food!!), and headed towards el Parque del Retiro, this very pretty park that my parents went to when they were in Madrid, but that I never saw. We walked past the Prado along the way, so Aaron could at least say he saw it from the outside! The park was gorgeous- we walked around for a few and once again enjoyed the beautiful weather. There was this really cool glass building that had these crystal snowflake statue thingies in it (great description huh?). Here's a picture haha:

You could take cool reflective pictures in these things, like the bean!

Aaron and I in front of a pretty pond. Someone finally took a decent picture of us!!

Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel and did some packing and preparing for our travels home the next day. We showered and got ready, and had an amazing dinner at that Argentinian steak place I went to with my family where my dad ate a whole cow. I don't think Aaron or I ate a whole cow alone, but combined....it was very possible. After dinner we walked around a cute little area of Madrid that had lots of night life. We sat outside and had some wine, and had a very lovely last night together.

Saturday morning was very sad. We woke up, finished packing, enjoyed our free hotel breakfast, and then grabbed our stuff and checked out of the hotel. Aaron was going to the airport to catch his flight home at 11:50, and I was going to the train station to catch my train at 10:05, so we left at the same time in two separate cabs. Saying goodbye to him and then watching him get in one cab as I got in another was very, very difficult, as was the 3 hour train ride home alone. Adjusting back to being in Sevilla and living in my homestay proved to be a little challeging after being with Aaron at all times (except for class) for a whole week. I really miss him a lot. But the important thing is that we had an AMAZING week together, and I am so so so grateful that he came to visit me!! It was a week I will never forget!

Anyways, I only have a 3 day week this week, because I am going to Italy on Thurday morning to be with Dori and Emily!!! I am flying into Rome with my friends here, but then we are all going our separate ways. I am going to meet up with Dori at the train station, and we are going to spend Thursday and Friday in Florence. We come back Friday night, when I will finally get to see Emily! We are staying with her in Rome until Tuesday (which is also her 21st birthday!). Two of my other friends from school will also be in Rome over the weekend, so I am very excited to see them too! I have no school next week because it is Semana Santa (Holy Week), and Sevilla is famous for their celebration of this week, which includes everyone having the week off of school and work! So I get to stay in Italy until Tuesday of next week, I will be in Sevilla to see Semana Santa Wednesday and Thursday, and then we are going to the beach in Portugal on Friday! It should be a great next week and a half!

I'll do my best to post on here when I can, but I can't promise anything since I don't know how often I'll have access to a computer. I miss everyone at home a lot and I hope everyone had great spring breaks! I also hope the weather starts to get nicer in the Midwest...no more snow!! I'm sure the lovely spring weather will start soon :)

Love you all,
Jess