Our hostel was much quieter last night and this morning so we took the opportunity to sleep in! :) When I woke up, I wanted to take a shower but our shower was being repaired. So far, I'd just been using the public bathroom on the ground floor (which is where we were stationed) but it doesn't have any showers. So...I continued my search to the first floor. There happened to be a room open, with nobody staying in it, so I made myself at home and took a shower. :) Apparently it was fine cuz no one ever said anything.
At 10:30 we left our hostel, quickly grabbed coffee frapps (much too hot for real coffee) and a small breakfast for the road. Quickly we walked to the train station and ended up having plenty of time before our train was due. Thinking ahead (we were going to be on the train most of the afternoon) we bought sandwiches for the road. At exactly the time our train was due to leave, it decided to show up. Finding our seats was easy and we settled in for the 8.5 hour ride.
Three and half hours later, our train stopped at a station and completely stopped...as in turned off its engine and sat for quite awhile. A couple people came onto the train, rambled off a sob story (completely in spanish) then walked around looking for change. At first, Stephen and I had no idea what was going on, but we soon figured it out when they asked for money. We sat on the train, as the air heated and became stuffy, wondering why it had now taken an hour for us to move anywhere. I still have no idea why we had to sit for so long, but the train soon started up again, turned on the air, and continued its journey through Spain. We both sat engrossed in our Kindles for the next few hours until I had finished my book and looked at my watch. We were supposed to have arrived in Seville at 17:55 (5:55pm) but my watch now read 6:30 pm. Uh oh. I started to wonder and worry that we had missed our stop! Steve had read a few stations but not all of them. I sat for a few more minutes, thinking about what we'd do if we'd missed our stop. Instead of worrying, I decided to ask someone. When I'd ordered food for dinner at a small cafe on the train, the employee had spoken very good English. I decided to ask him. I felt a bit pathetic asking him if we'd missed Seville so I asked him what the next stop was. To my delight and relief, he said we would be in Seville in 20 minutes. Phew!
I'm guessing the hour we sat in the train station was a delay, which in turn made us an hour late to Seville. Normally, I wouldn't have minded, but I had been hoping to get into Seville before the ticket offices closed in the train station because we needed to book our tickets for tomorrow night! Our next journey will be quite long so I definitely wanted to get those as soon as we arrived.
Even though we arrived an hour late, the ticket offices were still open! :) It ended up being expensive, but we booked our tickets for tomorrow. In hind's sight, we probably shoudn't have come to Seville because we will only be able to spend tomorrow morning in the city and are then scheduled to leave :( I didn't realize, we'd be here for such a short amount of time, but oh well. We're here, it's beautiful, and I'm enjoying my short stay anyway.
Seville has beautiful architecture and several small windy streets. The directions to the hostel were great! and despite these small windy streets, we found our hostel easily. Although it was nearing 10:00, we dropped off our bags and set of to explore the city. The sun was ending its journey beyond the horizon which gave us a glimpse of Seville during the sunset. Darkness set in, but the city night life was just beginning and the streets were bright with activity. We stopped to eat outside in the (very) warm night air enjoying drinks and tappas. We also discovered that they bring you bread and olives...not for free. The servers drop them off at your table and if you don't ask for them to be taken away, you are automatically charged...fortunately not much. :) There was also a moment of panic when he told us how much our bill was. For a moment, I mistook the amount for $30 but after thinking and translating again, I realized it was just 13. need to work on my spanish a bit more...although i'm quite surprised at how much I remember from jr high and one year of high school.
The map our hostel gave us of Seville is black and white with impossibly small street names. Stephen took this as a challenge to not use the map and just find his way back (such a guy thing to do, right?) I am very impressed that he actually managed to do so with only one wrong turn. All the small streets start to look the same and I was soon confused and disoriented. Good thing for brothers.
We won't have internet tomorrow night since we'll be on the train so I'll try to update the next night.
Buenos Noches!
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