Los Seilers en Sevilla

HI EVERYONE!!! I feel like I have not written on here in SO long, and I have SO much to tell!!! As you all know, my family was here this past week!! I guess I will start by saying that we had an absolutely amazing time. Being in Europe with them was an unbelievable experience. We did a LOT of sightseeing, lots of walking, lots of eating, and lots of laughing. Alright well, I guess I'll start at the very beginning of the trip!! I might have to do this post in a few chunks because I have lunch and class soon, but don't worry, I'll get it all up!

WEDNESDAY
On Wednesday, I woke up to a text from my dad saying they had missed their connecting flight from Madrid to Sevilla (oops!), but were getting on a flight at 11, and would be at the hotel by the time I was done with class at 12:30. Minor setback for them (the Madrid airport is pretty confusing), but no big deal. So I finished packing up my stuff for the week and headed off to class. I was so excited during class I could barely sit through it, but I finally did, and then went to the hotel to meet them!!! As I walked up to the hotel, obviously the three of them were standing outside looking in all different directions for me. It was quite the sight. I think my mom spotted me first, and they all literally ran to be the first to hug me. Not embarassing at all! Haha, it was great to finally see them though!

The hotel we stayed at here is the most famous hotel in Sevilla, it is called Hotel Alfonso XIII and it was built for the Exposition of 1929. I didn't take this picture, but here's what it looks like:

It is INCREDIBLE from the outside, and just as incredible on the inside!!! We were very lucky to stay there! But anyways, after I met up with my mom, dad, and Jilly, I dropped some stuff off in the hotel room, and then we went to my Señora's house, where I picked up my suitcases, and they got to meet Tita Charo!!! It was very funny considering she doesn't speak a word of English, and my mom speaks about 2 words of Spanish, and my dad....well, his Spanish is just plain awful (sorry dad). But she just kept speaking Spanish to them as if they would maybe start to understand, so Jilly and I were doing some serious translating. Jilly could understand a lot of what she said and helped me translate, but was too scared to actually speak Spanish, so I had to do all of the translating back. It was quite the experience! She showed them around the house, showed them pictures of her family, and she even dressed me up in a mantilla, which is like this headdress thing that the women wear during Holy Week here.
Haha it was pretty entertaining. Anyways, we left my house in Triana and went back to the hotel to drop off my stuff. Then we set out walking in Sevilla, I began to show them some of the main sights like the Cathedral and City Hall, and we found some lunch. It was a beautiful day, so we sat outside and had some traditional Andalucían tapas! Some of these included pescaítos fritos (tiny fried fishies, you eat the whole thing included head, tail, and spine!), paella, fish, shrimp, calamari, croquetas (croquettes filled with cheese, jam, or seafood), etc!
Us at lunch!

A slightly crazed looking Jilly eating pescaítos fritos! And wearing my coat.

After lunch, we walked around a little more, got some ice cream, and sat in the sun. It was a great afternoon. I then had to go to class, so they all went back to the hotel for their first of many siestas (naps) of the trip. After siesta, it was time to shower and get ready. For dinner, we ate a pretty good 5 course free meal in the hotel in a beautiful dining room, and afterwards, we headed off to a flamenco show!

The show took place inside this bar, you walk in and it looks like a tiny little bar, until you walk through into another room with tons of long tables, centered around a little stage. We were early so we got some great seats right by the stage, my dad was so close he probably could have touched the dancer. Which I am almost surprised he didn't after seeing how much he LOVED flamenco. Seriously! The show consisted of a singer, a guitarist, and a dancer. It started off with just singing, guitar, and the typical flamenco clapping and foot tapping rhythms, and then after a while the dancer started dancing too. It was great, and as I said, my dad loved it! He wouldn't stop talking about the psychology of it- typical.

Here was the stage with the dancer, singer, and guitarist.

And here's my dad taking in the psychology of the flamenco show!

Unfortunately, we left the show at intermission because "Jilly" was really tired according to my dad, so we got back to our hotel after midnight. We hung out for a while, but needless to say, everyone was very tired, so we went to sleep. It was a great first day and night!

THURSDAY
Since my family would only be spending about 48 hours in Sevilla, I had a LOT to show them in a little amount of time. There are so many amazing things to see here, so Thursday, being our only full day, was jam-packed with sightseeing! We woke up early and had a great breakfast at the hotel which included lots of ham, cheese, pastries, fruit, yogurt, ETC. We also had lots of cafe con leche (coffee with milk) with every breakfast- yes, I drink coffee now! More on how my eating habits have imroved later....

Anyways, after breakfast we set out exploring. It was a little chilly so we decided to do an indoor activity first- we went to Plaza de Toros y la Real Maestranza...the bullfighting ring! We opted for the guided tour that took us in the actual bullfighting ring and through the bullfighting museum that is also in there. It was so cool!! The ring is huge and amazing, and it was very cool to learn about bullfighting because it is such a foreign concept to us. For example, I learned that the red flag that they wave at the bulls is just a tradition- bulls don't even see color! Who woulda known? Our tour guide was really funny too, she spoke in Spanish and in English, but her English basically sounded like if I were to memorize a speech in Arabic. It was so singsong-y, and I found it 100x easier to understand her in Spanish! Haha.

Here's my mom and dad in the bullfighting ring!

After the bullfighting ring we walked along the river to our next destination- the Cathedral. I was very excited for my family to see it, and I think they really enjoyed it!! (pics to come!)

So we walked around the Cathedral for a while, and then climbed La Giralda (the tower with the 34 ramps, tallest structure in Sevilla). We got to the top where they got to take in the beautiful aerial views of Sevilla. Unfortunately it was pretty crowded up there for some reason, so we decided to head back down after a little while and end our visit to La Catedral y La Giralda.

It was getting to be a gorgeous day outside, so we decided to pick up some sandwiches and take them to one of my favorite places, Plaza de España. We took some pictures in front of the beautiful fountain, and found a bench to eat our lunch on. It was great!! After that, we headed across the street to the amazing Parque de María Luisa. It is a HUGE park with a lot of beautiful plants, trees, and ponds to see. We all wanted to see the park, but our legs were also VERY tired, so we opted for the next best thing: a 4 person bike thingy. Only a picture can do this justice, but it was a 4 seater "vehicle", powered by our pedaling, with yellow canopy, steering wheel, bell, and all! It was hilarious. Little Spanish children were taking pictures of us- the ultimate American tourists. Slightly embarassing, but well worth the fun! We had the bike for half an hour, walked around on foot a little more, and then had to head back because I had class at 4:45.

My mom, dad, and Jilly napped while I was at class, and then we all showered and got ready for the night. We headed down to the funky outdoor hotel bar to redeem our free martinis, and a little while later, my Señora met us there for a drink!! It was very funny, we spent a little over an hour with her, with me and Jilly translating the whole time. We talked a lot about Sevilla, family, life, etc...it was very fun, and I am glad that Tita Charo got to see what my family is like! She keeps telling me how "guapa" and "joven" my mom is (beautiful and young), how funny my dad is (he wouldn't shut up about flamenco), and how my sister seems like a very centered person just like me. Once again, I'll upload the picture with her later when I can!

We then went to dinner at a nearby tapas bar- we got some good olives (olives are everywhere in Spain and so good), tapas, paella, and wine. After dinner, my dad was on a hunt for ice cream and luckily we found some!! Delicious dulce de leche helado (caramel ice cream)! We then went back to the hotel, hung out for a while, and my friends Chrisy and Franny came over. My parents went to bed, and we took Jilly out to the Spanish bars!! She thought it was very cool that she was legal in Europe, obviously. Haha, we had a fun night, it was nice out so we hung out in the streets around the bars just hanging out. Unfortunately we were too tired to go to a discoteca though, so we just called it a night and got home early (yes, early!) around 3:30 am.

FRIDAY
Alright, finally on to our last day in Sevilla! I'm making these posts almost painstakingly detailed haha, so please feel free to skim!

We didn't have that much time on Friday because our flight was at 1:30, so we only had time for one activity and had to get up early to fit it in. As a result of the earliness, Jilly did not attend this activity haha. So my parents and I had breakfast at the hotel, and then left to go to los Reales Alcázares- the Royal Palaces in Sevilla (where the king and queen still stay when they visit!). The artwork and architecture in the palaces are absolutely amazing, so we walked around for a while, and then headed outside to stroll through the HUGE gardens behind. We only had time to cover a small fraction of the gardens, but what we did see was beautiful! My dad obviously loved it, and we kept saying how Grandma B would have loved it too! I'll be sure to put some pictures in because it really was incredible how pretty the gardens were- and it's still the end of winter!

After that we went back to the hotel, woke up the sleeping Jilly monster, and headed off to the airport to fly to Madrid. Minor crisis happened there when they said they didn't have my mom, dad, and Jilly's flight reservations. We figured it out though, it was because they had changed their itinerary on the way there, and we all got on the flight as planned. So that was our stay in Sevilla!!! We had a great time and got lucky with some beautiful weather- they got to see how beautiful the city of Sevilla really is. I'm gonna take a break from blogging now because, well, this has been a lot of information haha. I'll continue either later or tomorrow with the second half of our trip in Madrid!!!