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Well, on Sunday night I bit the bullet and planned out all of what you?re about to read.  Tuesday afternoon I hopped on a plane headed for Seville in Andalusia (southern Spain).  The flight went well and I caught a bus to the center of the city where I immediately heard two girls speaking English, go figure, and asked them for directions.  I had a little trouble finding the hostel as it was down its own alley, but once I got there I was impressed.  I arrived just before 9 pm and checked into my 3 bed room, with a bathroom.  I looked like a hotel as you can see in the pics.  The building was like a series of layered courtyard that was open to the outdoors on the top floor.  Right after I unpacked a little bit, I headed up to the rooftop terrace where I met about five other kids; one from Westchester, NY, two from Toronto, and two from England.  We sat there until just after midnight, then a few of us decided to go out.  I wanted to get up early and do the tourist thing, but you only live once.  So we asked the guy at the desk and headed out to a few streets where people were just mulling around having some beers and chatting.  Scoot, Roxy, and Shaadi (from UCLA) and Bruno (Westchester) and I found this tiny bar where you literally had to order and walk out cuz there was no room.  After, we hit up another and met with some other people staying at our hostel.  We headed home at around 3:30.

Somehow, I got up at 8, trying not to wake the other two kids in my room, and then I headed out to see the city.  My first stop was the Roman Aqueducts which the map graphic made out to be much cooler than it really was.  I wondered around the old neighborhood for a while then met up with the UCLA crew and we headed to the Cathedral.  It?s the third largest in the world.  We climbed the Giralda bell tower, the only part of the original Moorish mosque left.  You climb ramps instead of stairs and I read that it was built this way to that two horsemen could pass abreast no problem.  After the Cathedral we headed to the other side of the square to the Alcazar, or Royal Palace.  It is actually the home of the current king and queen of Spain when the visit Sevilla.  We explored the 12^th century part, checking out the Arab map tapestries and saw a bunch of mudejar architecture before chilling out in the gardens for about an hour.  We left in search of food, which took almost an hour, and most of us had a Fritura Sevillana, or plate of fried fish.  Not bad, other than the fact that it took more than an hour to get once we ordered!

After lunch the others took a siesta and I went off on my own, looking for a park on the map.  I ended up going in the wrong direction and wandered around asking directions now and then, finally finding in about an hour, only to see that it was completely torn up for the construction of Sevilla?s first metro line.  Slightly disappointed, I walked toward the Roman city wall.  About two blocks away, I became a victim of a pigeon taking target practice.  Right on my shoulder!  I did what I could with my water bottle and a newspaper then found a Pizza Hut and spent about 15 mins in the bathroom scrubbing my white shirt.  Oh well.  The Roman wall was like most of the others I?ve seen, impressive none the less, so I walked along the river checking out the crazy suspension bridge they have over the Darro River.  We had tentative plans to go to a flamenco show around 8 so I headed back to the hostel for a shower.  We ended up sharing a few bottles of wine then at 10:30 we went out for tapas, an Andalucian specialty. Though they didn?t come with the drinks, they were still good and were worth the visit.  Around 11:30, on the advice of one of the hostel staff, we tried to find a bar that sometimes has free flamenco performances.  We had to ask once, but we found it and were treated to an authentic show.  It?s a really intriguing dance.  There was one signer, once guitarist, and one dancer.  Very cool.  After, we quickly headed across town to go to a club.  The girls talked their way into line and we got in free with our passes.  It was all American hip hop but it was fun.  There were a few guys doing some crazy break dancing.  I ended up going to bed at 5:30 in the morning. =0)

Once again, I got up at 9 because I still had some sights to see before I left for Cordoba.  I walked to the river passing the most famous bull ring in Spain, the Torre de Oro, a Moorish watch tower, and made my way to a huge park.  I wish I had had more time to wander around because it was the first really large park I?ve been in and it was beautiful.  I walked up on a male peacock, fully decked out in his feathers, doing his mating dance and trying to get the attention of a female.  She was either playing hard to get or just wasn?t havin it.  Then I say the craziest thing? on an island in the middle of a little pond was a huge, white male peacock.  Its feathers made about a six foot arc! Insane!  I headed though the park toward Plaza de Espana and checked out the buildings there, then headed back to the hostel to check out.  I picked up some rolls, sandwich meat, and cheese for the road, then hauled my duffle bag to the train station.  Sidenote: It turned out that  Scott, Roxy, and Shaadi were going right to Granada and were going to be staying in the same that I booked in, so we planned to meet up there.  At any rate, I was off to Cordoba.