Seville, Spain

So far, most of the transitions between locations have been a breeze, but getting from Faro to Seville was quite a challenge. The night before we were left Faro I checked my email for the bus confirmation that I had booked a few days before to see where we were supposed to go to catch the bus. The email confirmation was nowhere to be found. I guess the transaction didn’t go through (I double checked our credit card). That night we tried to book the bus ride again, but we kept getting an error message. In the morning we had the front desk of the hotel call the bus company to see if they got our reservation and they said ‘no’ (That’s Spanish for ‘no’). So we decided to take a taxi to the bus station to buy our tickets there. They ended up charging us nearly twice the price that it was online because we bought the tickets same day. Super frustrating since we tried to buy the tickets online earlier but the site didn’t work. What can you do?

We thought the bus ride was going to be three hours, but it turned out to be only two (+1 hr time difference). Tyson napped over half of the ride and stared out the window checking out the fields of sunflowers and eating snacks the rest of the time. Once we got to Seville we walked over a mile to the apartment we were staying at. Luckily our backpacks are getting lighter because we’ve been ditching some of our heavy clothing along the way. It’s going to be warm the rest of the trip so no need for winter clothes. Hopefully the hotel staff appreciate us leaving these goodies behind. It’s not like we’re passing donation places all the time, but we figure they’ll throw it away if they can’t think of a better use for them.

By the time we got to the apartment it was around 2pm and we were getting pretty hungry. We walked to a nearby square (Hercules) and found several restaurants and a decent sized playground area. We tried a Mexican place because we had been craving it for a while, but surprisingly haven’t come across many Mexican restaurants to this point. Marshall ordered the spiciest thing on the menu. Tyson and I shared chicken and some french fries and he had a blast playing on the playground and going down the slide about 100 times. Since we’ve been in Western Europe, we’ve noticed he is generally the only kid at the playgrounds and we’ve found that it’s because kids don’t come out to play until around 7pm! Tyson is generally sleeping by then, but we’ve been working on his schedule lately and keeping him up so he can play with the other kids and it is preparing him for the time difference when we head towards SE Asia in the next few days. We’ll be in Dubai in 3 days (+2 hrs difference), then headed to Thailand a few days after that (+3 more hrs difference)

For the first full day in Seville, our goal was just to get lost in the old town, which is the largest old town we’ve been to so far on this trip. We came across a lot of fruit and fish markets and then stumbled upon a huge honeycomb looking structure in the middle of Seville. In the underground level is Roman ruins, the floor level is a market and the top level is a viewing area to see all of Seville. I researched the structure and apparently it’s made of birch wood and cost $50 million dollars to build. Pretty insane! No wonder they were charging 12 Euro per person to go up an elevator a few flights.

That afternoon I decided it was finally time to do some shopping. My last pair of flip flops broke just a few days after my other pair broke. We walk 5-10 miles a day easy, so believe me when I say I needed some new ones STAT. I took Tyson down to the main shopping street that was 15 minutes away just in case I found a pair of shoes or shorts for him to try on as well. When I turned the corner to the main strip, the first place I saw on the corner was a Starbucks. It’s been weeks since I’ve had a frappuccino so I was pretty ecstatic. For some reason my cup came with the name ‘Yelen’ written on it. Not sure how the barista heard my name as anything close to that, but whatevs. I either got the world’s worst spelling barista or stole Yelen’s Frap. Either way, it was delicious! There was an H&M across the street so I walked over there and picked up one pair of flip flops and a new tank top to spice up my wardrobe. Living out of a backpack hasn’t been bad at all, but it was nice to get something new to wear for the rest of the trip. Side note, Marshall said he’s actually wearing more variety out of his backpack than he did with a (half) closet full of clothes at home, lol. Guys....

The following day we decided would be our main sightseeing day. First, we had to walk over to the train station which was a good 30 minute walk to buy train tickets to our next stop, Madrid, for the 22nd. We tried to buy the tickets online but the site wasn’t working. From the train station we took a cab ride over to a huge park in Seville called Maria Louisa. We rented a funcycle (Golf cart sized, Flintstones-like bicycle thing) to drive around the park. There were some beautiful old buildings to stop and take pictures of along the way and Tyson enjoyed staring people down as we passed them. Once our 30 minutes was up we returned the funcycle and walked to a restaurant for lunch. Tyson fell asleep in the stroller on the walk over so we let him nap while we ate lunch and got his to go. Afterward we decided that we were going commit to walking all the way back to our apartment which was 45 minutes away, on cobblestone streets. We passed by stunning architecture and lots of shops and tapas restaurants. Once back at the apartment we played with Tyson for a few hours and cooled down in the air conditioning then ventured out again for dinner at 6:30. We went back to the large Hercules plaza and heard music coming from the far end. When we walked over to check it out we were happily surprised to see that it was an all-out drag show complete with a beer garden and a massive stage. We watched a few “ladies” lip sync and dance around in their scandalous outfits for a bit and noticed Tyson was distracted by a guy creating huge bubbles in the back using a homemade bubble maker made out of an old jump rope with a few knots in it. He was laughing at a dog that kept coming over and attacking the bubbles.

Today we celebrated Marshall’s (second) Father’s Day. We rented a bike for three hours and rode all around the city. Tyson wasn’t digging his helmet at first, but after he realized how fun the bike ride was he forgot about his helmet. We happened to ride straight to the bull ring where bull fights are held every Sunday during the summer. We were actually thinking about going tonight, but after I researched what happens at a bull fight (they literally stab the bulls with pointed flags as a part of the show then they actually kill them as the final stage of the act!) there was no way we were going to take Tyson there or support it in any way. We continued riding through the main shopping street and stopped at Starbucks for a coffee then got back on the road and headed to a neighborhood called Santa Cruz. It’s a pedestrian only area and all the buildings are traditional Spanish style with orange trees lining the streets. We stopped at a restaurant next to a castle for delicious lunch. We highly recommend seeing this area if you’re ever in Seville as it was our favorite part of this city.

After lunch, it was time to return the bikes. While we rode back to the bike shop, we made sure to stop a few times for some quick pictures and enjoy the scenery. This evening we took Tyson to the playground to play and there happened to be a live jazz band playing at a nearby restaurant. We ordered Tyson a chimichanga to take back for dinner with some fruit we picked up and jammed out to the music while we waited for his food. We love anytime music is playing because Tyson spontaneously breaks into dance as he’s playing or walking around. It’s the cutest thing ever!

Tomorrow we’re packing up in the morning and taking a two and a half hour train ride to our next destination.

Next stop: Madrid, Spain