On to Sevilla!

Yesterday we left Madrid. On the way to Sevilla, we went to Toledo, the original capital of Spain. It was beautiful. It took about an hour to get there, but the hard part was getting back on the bus for the next 6 hour drive! In Toledo we walked around the city a lot, took pictures by the amazing views and visited a church and cathedral. Inside the church was the famous El Greco painting for the Count of Orgaz (which we could not take pictures of course). Similar to the paintings in El Prado, I  thought I would be very bored seeing the art, but because our tour guide explained the background of the paintings it was very interesting. While in the city, Kepa also let us try some Marzipan, a delicacy of the city (it was very good!).

When we stopped for lunch (after driving for about 2 hours), I decided to try una tostada de jamón serrano cuchillo, which was basically an open faced sandwich on bread like mini-baguette with a type of ham that looked like prosciutto, crushed tomato, olive oil and pine nuts. They had so many types of ham sandwiches that I had no idea what to order, but this sandwich tasted pretty good.

We finally got to Sevilla at about 9ish, and one of our first sights in the city was a man lying on the ground in the middle of the street that must have just gotten hit by a car. It shocked me because although a few people were near where he was lying, the cars just kept driving around him, as if nothing happened. When we got our luggage from the bus, my roommates, Maeve, Molly and I found Carmen, our host mom. Immediately when I met her, I could tell that she was probably one of the sweetest women I've ever met. We took two taxi's to her apartment, which is basically in the center of Sevilla! In her house, we met one of her friends (I don't remember her name), and she let us sneak into her two-year-old grandson's room (his name is Delek) to see him while he was sleeping. He was so adorable! One thing that will take some getting used to is the two kisses on the cheek when you see someone; although I've seen that in the movies, I didn't realize how typical it was used as a greeting.

My room is pretty nice; I have my bed, a closet and desk; I have a single room and Maeve and Molly share the room next to me. We three also share our own bathroom! I didn't expect the apartment to be this nice--it may not be huge, but for the size, there is a lot of room.

Last night, Carmen cooked us a feast; we had a chicken broth soup with star-shaped pastas, huge rolls, tortillas espanolas (basically a quiche with just eggs, onions and potatoes), a spinach and chard mixed vegetable, a yogurt and piece of chocolate for dessert. I was overwhelmed by the amount of food; I was so full, but didn't want to be rude when she continued to offer me food--I am trying to learn to refuse it nicely! haha

View from the bus

view of the city and the cathedral

My roommates and I

The cathedral