Day #26 - A day in the park

Leisurely day today...and again a pretty decent day of weather. Hey, it didn't rain!

We slept in (because we can!) and then headed to the Alcazar, Sevilla's other main tourist attraction. Oh, and we got into the Alcazar free too - thank you Spain for actually having good student discounts! The Alcazar was a Moorish fort/palace back in the day, so has lots of Islamic-style art, which was really cool and a refreshing change from most of the art we've seen all trip. There were a couple palace buildings to tour, but for me the fun part was the amazing gardens surrounding the place – with countless fountains, blooming roses, splashing waterfalls, gazebos, palm trees, and green green everywhere. It was a photo-op heaven. :) We wandered around for more than an hour, goofing off "getting lost" in the man-made bush maze, stopping to watch the cutest ducklings run all over the sidewalk after their mother, and soaking up the sun. Not a bad way to start the day.

For our traditional large Spanish lunch, we searched for a place with a menu del dia, but everywhere here seemed to just have tapas. So, we found a random place with raciones, which are like plate-sized tapas, so more food. After several minutes staring blankly at the all-Spanish menu, when the waiter came we just pointed to what the people around us were eating, which looked good, and ordered that. :) Katie ended up getting chicken in a bechamel sauce, and I got flamenquones, which were ham and cheese, I think, rolled up and fried. I also had some pasta with what we think was spinach dip on it. Anyway, it was good. Dining here is always an experience, that’s for sure.

After lunch, we mosey-ed over to the Plaza de Espanya, which is a huge, empty square with a big fountain, which was apparently built for a World’s Fair in 1929 that never happened because of the stock market crash. The building hasn’t really been used or finished completely since then. We sat by the fountain, enjoying the only real sun of the day (the rest of the day was pretty cloudy).

Next we went to the park right across the street, the massive Maria Luisa park. We were going to just walk around it, but then saw some pedal-powered cars there that you could rent, so randomly we did that! It was kind of like a Flintstones car – had a steering wheel and handbrake and all - but instead you pedal. ☺ The owner, who spoke absolutely no English, gave us a bunch of instructions in Spanish and we just nodded like we understood…hope it was nothing important! We had a hilarious time navigating the park, avoiding a couple close encounters with the many horse buggies as well as the police. Haha. Not to mention the group of high school Spanish boys who liked to chase us and play Chicken in their car, or our near-crash when we attempted to go “off-roading”… The funniest moment though, was when a little Spanish boy came up to us and started talking to us. “No habla espanol”, I said, and he immediately started laughing. He went back to his friends and was pointing and laughing at us, when I realized I pretty much said, “The bike does not speak Spanish”. ☺ Whoops. OK, so my Spanish isn’t quite perfect…

After that, we grabbed a snack and went over to the TI for some more free internet time. (Where I blogged about Barcelona I think, I’m so far behind). Then, since we were close by to all the shopping streets, we just wandered around there for awhile, looking for more trendy European fashions that we had no room for in our backpacks. ☺ I only bought jewelry this time, which was good. The streets were really packed in Sevilla too, people definitely will just stroll even if they’re not shopping I think. The stores were really cool here though too, because they had so many selling traditional items like flamenco dresses, fans, and shawls.

We ate dinner at this unmemorable place out on a sidewalk table. I think we’ve eaten most of our Spanish and French meals outside, which I like. The best part of the meal tonight was the bread – have I mentioned how much bread we eat, since you get it with EVERY meal? Katie keeps swearing she’s going to give up carbs… ☺ The thing we do like though is bread with olive oil…we use soooo much oil with our bread every night that I’ve started just pouring it directly on the bread because it’s easier. ☺ We probably drink at least a couple jars each per week…

We were going to get waffle sundaes at Ben & Jerry’s tonight but they were freaking closed at 9! What kind of Spanish hours are those?! So, we settled for more McDonalds, getting Kit Kat McFlurrys again. Do you have those in the States? Well, you should, because they’re good.

That’s all for tonight!