Another Garytale, Sevilla and Granada

Whats up again,

I´m back in Madrid waiting to get back to Barcelona on Leif and I´s way to
Turkey via England. Its another three days of nonstop traveling. Time to see
the world we say. Sevilla was very nice. It reminded me of a Berkeley of
Spain. It was much more reasonably priced. We booked a hostel thru the local
information authority.
In the past, this has always worked out to be an advantageous idea, but this time it didn´t really turn out so grand. We got booked on a hostel by the name of Espiau, it was a converted spanish manor into guesthouse. It was only 18€/person and we though, great. We took a taxi on some small ass streets like in the movie, Ronin, only our taxi driver wasn´t a stunt driver, but drove like it. The hostel seemed really nice and an Englishman named Gino, cool Gino at this point. He took us up, showed us the room, and told us where the nearest supermarket, internet cafe, and bar were to kick it. The lack of air conditioning did not seem a problem at this point. Ben and I took one room with two beds, while Leif and Brian took another.
Ben´s Jen best friend from back home, Ryea, was staying there for another
couple of weeks and would be our American tour guide in Sevilla. We walked
around town noticing that which is Europe on a Sunday: Everything is closed,
lords day I´m told. We did find this great pizzeria about a block from the
hostel, and we all had some comfort food;cheese pizza and garlic bread. We
then preceded to all take naps. Ben and Leif attempted to raise Brian and I at
around 12:00 to go out and meet Ryea at a bar, but to no avail. Madrid and
club Kapital had taken their toll. The next morning I arose at about 7:00am
after getting the most sleep I´ve had in about two weeks to go and take a look
around.
Still nothing was open. The Spanish really know how to do it. Party
all night and early opening is 8 not 5:30. Anyway at eight I went to a nice
Cafeteria and had breakfast. I tried talking to the waiter, but his accent was
so strong. I kept repeating Que over and over again. I then went to the
supermarket at 9am and got cold water, canned octopus, bread, and two types of
tuna salad. I then preceded to return to the room and try to go back to
sleep. But boy was it hot. We all got up around 10:30 am grogilly to meet
Ryea at the central cathedral. From the cathedral, we headed to a parque that
had a museum of archeology with alot of roman and Moorish artifacts, but it was
closed on Monday. We then went to a white pigeon park where we bought birdseed
and were covered in pigeons. It was quite a grand time. Had these been normal
pigeons I would not have been amused. From the park we headed back to the
cathedral.
The cathedral was originally a Mosque and you could see the dome where the call for prayer used to be sounded. The cathedral itself was really big, ad lots of art, cool stained glass windows, and such. But the best part was it also had the tomb of Christopher Columbus. That man must have been hella short because I would need to crouch to fit in the tomb. We then
ascended 34 levels, shorter than stories, sets of ramps really to get to the main tower with views of Sevilla. There were two nice modern bridges and some old museums and a park. I liked the Falcons that made the cathedral their home and flew in and out of view, pigeon hunting. We then continued along to find a Tapas bar for lunch. This was the best part of Sevilla. Patatas Bravas are so good, they are basically potato wedges with a spicy tomato and mayonaisse sauce. We also go paella, tortilla, croquetes, olives, and paella. None of
the dishes were more than 1.5€. I wish everywhere had been this cheap. We
then returned to the hostel to nap. We went to the pizzeria again for dinner
and told ourselves we would make it out tonight. we met Ryea at this cool
outdoors bar playoing trance music by the river. We stayed thre for a while ,
went across the river to a couple other bars and went home at around 4:00am.
Ryea came back and we hung out until about 5:00am. We had to get up at ten to
get the train station in Granada the next day and Ryea stayed in Leif and Brian
room. When we got up, Gino, came up and asked in the I already know the
answer, if we had a guest. Leif said we came at 4:00 am and we didn´t want Ryea
going home alone. He then responded by saying how disappointed he was with us
and that guest were not allowed. Leif tried reasoning with the oaf, but it was
to no avail. Right as we were leaving, he comes up and wants 20€. 3 more than
even we paid for the guest who didn´t even have her own bed and slept maybe
four hours in some janky ass beds with no fan and no air conditioning. What a
chump. Grumpy and with a bad taste in the mouth we continued on to Granada.

Granada is a lot smaller than Sevilla, but the Alhambra is the coolest
fortress/palace. It located above the mountain and has beautiful gardens,
fountains, pools, Islamic and Christian influences, incredible views. By the
time we got there we had to walk three miles, one of which was up a hill as
steep as Marin ave in Berkeley and hadn´t eaten anything for five hours. We
still all really enjoyed it and even though we were hungry stopped complaining
once we got there and parted with the hefty 8€ fee. Starving student discount
please!!! We then went back to the hostel which was at the bottom of the hill
with our rooms overlooking a nice plaza where the Granadaens (People of the
Pomegranate) drink 40ozs and chill. Ben and I went to another Tapas bar while
Leif and Brian settled for what I call a snack of Patatas Bravas Grande at my
favorite Spanish food chain pan and company. Remember Barcelona, same place
overlooking plaza. We all went to sleep because we all took an 8:00 train to
Madrid. We tried to rise, but only Ben and Leif were successful, but w/out
Brian and myself they went back to bed.

My next ridiculously long drawn out garytale with commence in about 15 days
when
Leif and I get back from Turkey and meet up with the rest of the boys in Roma.

Peter