Seville, Spain
I had to write this feeling down because I haven't felt this much good vibes since my college frat life! If you want to read a couple awesome stories, I'll provide you with them over the next many paragraphs.
In life one thing I've come to understand is that we all have our ups and we all have or downs. I think the universe works in mysterious ways, one has to go through some lows to get to the highs.
The first day Anthony and I arrived in Seville from Granada, we check in to a hostel that had pretty good reviews but didn't really know what to expect.
It was definitely a more young, party centric hostel compared to other hostels we've stayed at. We were only allowed to book a room there for Friday night and so we did. They had an awesome bar and food with a nice terrace and backdrop but the crowd was a little too young and dumb for my liking anyways. We try meeting friends, and we sort of did. We went out by our self's and walked the city streets that first night and ended up getting completely lost. It's a confusing city to navigate. we had 5 small beers for 4 euro and a fair sized sandwich with potato chips for another 3 euro. Fair priced. We instantly notice the youth in the city as well as some of the most beautiful girls, and dudes!, I've ever seen! Muy Perfecto! We arrive at the hostel and pass out before having to leave the next morning.
We wake up and start walking to other hostels, and looking on hostelworld, to quickly find it's going to be a tougher mission to find a place to sleep tonight then expected. We walk from hostel to hostel, no rooms available until Sunday night... We get lost a few times, with our packs on, and end up going to our landmark we decided on... Good old McDonalds baby!
We sit down, take our pack off, and use some WiFi to figure out what the hell we want to do. We finally decide on a cheapish AirBnB, 2.5 miles in to the more rundown side of Seville. After walking through the hood, discovering an awesome, very lively, plaza and seeing a cool ruitualistic parade for a holiday that Saturday.
Jose from AirBnB was so hospitable, we felt like we were living the true culutural experience, in an apartment on the outskirts of the city. We shower up and go back out, the 1.5 mile walk, in to the to make some unexpected awesome experience.
This was the turning point of my emotions and vibes I was putting off to the world, and receiving from the world.
We get to the "Plaza De Nuevo", which was the awesome plaza where everyone goes out and is very active with little ninos playing soccer and oldies having a conversation, not to forget the young bucks getting their drink on. We are those young bucks. A college kid from New York introduces himself to us because he heard us speaking English. His name was Mitch. Mitch, Anthony, and I go in to one of the bars there to grab a beer. I had a good Belgian Triple there, after walking and drinking two 40's of whats their, "Budweiser", Cruzcampos to the Plaza De Nueve.
We meet up with two friends of Mitches ad a bar they were referenced to go to, and we also got the drinks they ordered for us, the Dracula. A five euro mixed drink that tastes like razzmataz and get you drunk. I go on to talking to one of the two friends Mitch brought, as well as Mitch, for an hour and a half about life, learning about all of their lives, telling them about ours. We ended up having a blast, almost getting in a fight with some Spanyards for no reason, (New York), walking excessive amounts with 40's and making awesome new experiences.
The next day we arrive to the Black Swan Hostel in Seville, which was recommended to us from a fellow hostel mate.
We instantly like the workers there more, very friendly and hospitable. We check in to the room and decide that this room and beds and bathrooms have been the nicest that we've been to. We shower up after making the trek 2.5 miles to the hostel and head downstairs for some free food that we signed up for. We make a few friends, one from Wisconsin, one from Australia, and One from Austin, TX.
Roger was the name of the writer/musician from TX who quickly became a lifetime friend with me. He broke up with a long term girlfriend and was his first time in a hostel in over 10 years. I tell him all about my life and he tells me all about his. He was 35 years old and I was 26, but it didn't matter. Like vibrations attract.
We randomly saw him in the little convenience store around the block 5 minutes before, getting 3 tall boys of cruzcampo, and we (Anthony and I) got 40's. Of course we would bump into each other like that. I don't believe in coincidences anymore. We Play a couple games of Uno with our friends we met before going out to a free Flamenco show. That dance was so amazing. First time seeing one in Spain. There's so much passion and emotion going on with that dance, it's mesmerizing to see live from Spain.
We split 3 pitchers of sangria with our friends, as well as our other friend, Kruk, from Poland who was an old body builder, huge gentle giant that sold "sandwiches" back home. We're getting pretty drunk after those pitchers of sangria.
We were then guided to one more bar where they played awesome american songs, like Led Zeppelin and Rolling Stones. They included a few free shots for coming out to the bar with them. Not everyone wanted their shots, so guess who ended up having three real quick, this guy did! Oops!
The awesome vibrations of the music started hitting me, along with the alcohol, and start dancing and ended up meeting some super cute Belgian Girls, whose birthday it was. We just danced and had a good time letting it all go.
Roger, Anthony, and I leave the bar, they snag some kebabs, and we keep walking. We get the the hotel and don't want to go to sleep yet, of course, so we all decide to go and try the Superbowl at some pub. Mind you it's about 2:45 AM now. My initial try to get in to a "closed" Irish pub failed as my English stood out to the bouncer too much. Our friend Roger luckily speaks pretty damn good Spanish and was able to smooth talk our way in to the bar where we drunkingly watched the second half of the amazing superbowl with the Patriots and Eagles, where the Eagles won and trumped Brady.
Standing and watching right next to us in the back room was many players of the Sevillen Lynx, an american football team in Seville. We safely made it home after stumbling through the Sevillen streets, on a Sunday night, at 4:45 AM.
The next "morning", we all don't wake up until after noon where Anthony and I, still tipsy from the night before, start walking around town and discovered an awesome street we haven't seen before that was lively with people and students and workers. We walk down the river bank and see the catherdal there where Christopher Columbus is apparently buried. We were pretty tired from the night before so we decide to head to the hostel for a nice little siesta, which we have been doing a lot of lately. Almost every day! After Anthony and I both take about a 3 hour siesta, we wake up and decide to do some laundry finally. I'm going commando in my sweatpants and flip flops and head downstairs while the laundry is going to work some on my blog. Earlier we signed up for a 4 euro paella and sangria making class at the hostel that started at 8:00 PM. We work on the paella and sangria until I had to leave to go pick up some "sandwiches" with my new Polish friend Kruk. We walk about 20 minutes away to a skate park and wait another 30 minutes for his friend to show up. They show up, we get in the car with his friend and they reverse in to a parking lot that looked like I couldn't have maneuvered through. Some of the best drivers I've ever seen in my life.
They bring a 40 of Cruzcampo and we share stories over the 40. We walk out to another liquor store to pick up two more 40's between the four of us. We head down to the river, a small, long, park and Manuel teaches me how to make "sandwiches" like I never have before. We eat the sandwiches and share the cerveza after learning all about these Spanyards, Miguel y Manuel. One graduated with a marketing degree and the other is in the start up phase of a clothing company. I told them about my life and they were so intrigued, they spoke pretty good english. We bonded over South Park, women, and about life.
This was the most Authentic feeling I've felt about Spain since I've been here. I made two new friends from Seville who has friends in Valencia for me if I head back out that way too.
Kruk and I walk back to the hostel, where Anthony was worried about my absence of 3 hours, where I missed my paella I payed for, yet had one of my favorite life experiences so far. A French women who had good/broken English comes and sits next to me as we are drinking more Cruzcampo and playing uno with our friends from the first night in the hostel. Her and I instantly vibe and go off in to conversation, I was feeling good and she was too. During the conversation,
a young man named Jonathan from Edinburgh, Scotland comes up to our group (bold move and I like it) and ask's if he can play uno with us. We joke around with him but he was cool and could take the jokes. Super nice kid. We were getting kicked out of the hostel lounge because of quiet hours and we didn't want to good vibrations to end yet so we all go upstairs to change and get ready to go out. I convinced the French girl, Stephanie, to go out with me because I felt the good vibes. I head up stairs for a lot longer then expected eat some sandwiches with our new friends, Kruk, Roger, Anthony, Jonathan, me, and our other new friend Nathan from France.
I missed my opportunity to connect more with Stephanie but had more connections and made great friends in the meantime.
Jonathan knew of a secret bar that was about .5 miles away that Roger, Anthony, Jonathan, and I went to. Apparently you have to knock on a random door on the side of a random alley to enter. We saw 2 other groups standing outside the door, puzzled as we were, but Jonathan had the balls to go straight up to the door and knock. Didn't work, so he rang a little doorbell. A small, very raspy, mean looking Spanyard opens the door and says "what do you want" Jonathan tells him we have four and we'd like to come in. He points to us four and we get to go on in! I felt so cool and was so impressed with the young Scoth kid!
We go in the back of a darkly lit, packed, small bar where they played music like Biggie Smalls. Right as we get our first beers there a group of 3 girls and 2 guys gravitate to us. World works in mysterious ways. This girl and I, Teresa, instantly click. She loved speaking English and I wasn't comfortable enough to speak conversationally in Spanish yet so it worked out good. She was completely infatuated with me and took me over to her group of friends. I was feeling brought in by true Spanyards and it was so cool. I talked with her other friend who spoke a little English who knew about chakras, yoga, and vibrations and her and I bonded over that too. I never smoked so much cigarettes in my life! I was liking this girl who was born and raised in Seville. My friends the whole night were watching me talk to her and laughing and yada yada, but my group of friends leave and then her group of friends leave. We split one more cig before deciding to walk home. We talked the night away and bonded so hard but when it came down to it, not even a peck on the cheeks. What an amazing night.
All the vibrations were conspiring in my favor over the last two days after going through a lot of stress, carrying my heavy backpack around lost in a city with no place to sleep that night. Anthony and I were seriously contemplating sleeping on some cardboard in the streets.
The following morning we wake up and go see the most gorgeous structure I have ever seen in my life. Plaza de Maria Jose I believe the name is.
After being mesmerized by the gigantic fountain in the middle of the huge square, the passion of the free flamenco show, and the artistic design of the structure Anthony and I head back to the hostel where I am now writing this extremely long post.
Later tonight, after eating some free food from the hostel, we're heading to the first craft beer bar we've been to in Seville. We will be heading to Madrid tomorrow for roughly 4 nights and get to experience a new scene in Spain.
Thank you if you made it this far! Just had to write my life experiences out otherwise I'd go crazy!
As always you guys rock and stay on the lookout for the next brew in Madrid as well as the adventure stories of life such as this one.
Chow!
Ty Stevenson