soaking up the sun in seville

we landed in seville where it was hot hot hot! the hostel we stayed in was really nice, and it even had a kitchen to cook your own meals. they know we're on a tight budget! and the upstairs had roof access where there were hammocks so we could take a siesta! as soon as we got settled in we met jayne, and she is SO SO tan.  it was great to see a face I hadn't seen since the start of December. we made plans to meet up later which at first was a bit of a disaster since we couldn't find each other. but after running around downtown for an hour we finally ran into each other and it all ended great. we didn´t get back til 430am and jayne even had an exam the next morning! on our walk back to the hostel, we witnessed the "street sweepers" who hose down the streets every single night. apparently sometimes they mess around with the girls and spray them too, but thank goodness that didn't happen to us! the next morning we went to a museum that was dedicated to christopher columbus and it had his journals/maps from his trip from when he discovered the americas. he actually sailed out of seville's port which is why he has a museum dedicated to his findings. he's even buried in seville. later in the afternoon, after taking a siesta on our hostel's rooftop, we went on a walking tour around the city and learned tons of interesting facts--for example, seville's streets are very narrow with tall buildings/pisos (flats) lining the streets and this is to block the sunlight and cool the air that travels down the streets. they attempted to keep cool in a variety of ways. i guess this is necessary when it reaches 115 degrees daily in the summertime! that evening, we met up with jayne, rachel, and israel where we had giant mojitos and drank them in the streets which were packed. i felt like i was in new orleans for mardi gras! and you could hear the roar of voices a couple blocks away. we then went across the river (which is gorgeous) to triana where we found a glass of a beer with a shot for only a euro, not too bad! the following morning we met up with jayne and went to the palace of alcazar. it was beautiful and had tons of gardens and even a maze that was alice in wonderland style. kristen and i then went to seville's cathedral, which is the largest gothic cathedral in the world, and the 3rd largest cathedral in general. lots of gypsies stand outside carrying rosemary where they try to get tourists to take the herb and then the gypsies bless you and proceed to tell your fortune (the typical "you will live long life, happy, 1 baby 2 baby...") and of course ask for money in the end. kristen and i got bombarded but eventually shooed them away. afterwards we lounged in a park and enjoyed the warm, sunny weather before heading to the airport for our next adventure.