Our airbnb was so nice, huge apartment, very airy, and everyone got their own room! Our airbnb host (Roberto) was also very nice and promptly set us down with a map and wrote down all of the places he likes to go.
Casa Blanca Tapas: Recommended by Roberto, this place was not far from the apartment on the main pedestrian street with a few little tables outside in the sun. It was definitely busy, but we managed to get a table standing outside and got to enjoy the beaaaautiful weather while munching on tapas. All of them were quite good, until we got aggressive and ordered the monkfish meatballs, but in hindsight that just never would have been a good idea. Brian bartered with a street vendor for a pair of nice "and totally real!" ray bans. The guy asked for 20, Brian insists he only has 10, "sorry man that's all I got", the guy settles on 10. Brian turns to Dad, "hey can you spot me 10 euros?"
La Fiorentina: Ice cream place also recommended by Roberto that proved difficult to find but was well worth it. I had this awesome ice cream that tasted just like blueberry muffin batter. Soooooo good.
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| Dad=ice cream :) |
After ice cream we tried to find the wine store Roberto suggested but discovered it was closed for "siesta" so we took that as a sign to return home to nap ourselves. And nap we did (it was wonderful).
We slowly got moving around 8 for a drink in the apartment before meeting Maddie for dinner at 9.
Mamarracha Tapas: Oh mamarracha...... This place had been recommended by Leona and looked really good so we show up around 915 expecting to have to wait a little while. We put our names down and the waitress says it'll be at least a half hour. We say no problem! and get drinks from the bar. The sangria was probably the best I'd ever had I loved it. But half an hour later we checked in on our waitress and she said another 30 minutes. After another 30 minutes she said ANOTHER 30 minutes. After that we noticed they were just letting tons of 2 person groups in and there was no concept of saving spots for a party of 6. So we had a few tapas at the bar and called it quits 2 hours later to head to a paella place Maddie recommended around 11. I thought the paella was very good but of course the boys weren't fans and thought it was too "fishy".
After dinner the parents headed home again and Michael, Brian, and I went out with Maddie to meet up with some of her UNC friends and courtney! We started out at this bar called "the room" and quickly discovered how cheap drinks are in Sevilla. Tells ya just about how the night was gonna go! The room closed soon after we got there so we went to another bar called Rocky Roll that was playing good music and we took these funny shots that they then set on fire and you inhale the smoke (it apparently gets all the alcohol out of the glass?). They also had huge red bull vodkas that put the mix to shame. Strangely enough they also played hitler esque videos on the wall in the background.... but that was kind of brushed over. We also found Andrew Kohler's dopple ganger - mind blown. Then after rocky roll we went to Tokyo, a club across the street. Danced there for a while had some fun then made moves to go home around 4:30! We were only a mile or so from our apartment so we decided to walk. About five minutes in to our walk we find a kebab restaurant that was still open. Brian takes a bite of some irish guy's kebab (unclear, see Michael's video). Keep walking. 20 minutes later realize we don't know where we're going. I plug our address in to my phone. We're 2 miles away... oops? So then began the long journey home that took years, with the boys throwing burritos in the streets, brian going shirtless and nearly faceplanting, and maddie missed her train! Though the walk took forever it was a lot of fun and pretty cool to see the Sevilla streets deserted at night.
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| brothers! |
The kiddies slept in on Friday morning since we didn't get home until around 5:30. We walked through the alcazar gardens which were beautiful on our way to a tapas restaurant in Santa Cruz that Roberto again recommended. However this time the tapas were not as great and the novelty of a bunch of plates of fried potatoes and meat had worn off.
Plaza de Espana: After lunch we walked through a lot of pretty lush parks to get to Plaza de Espana. I wasn't really sure what it was and I'm still not totally sure (it was built for an exposition of sorts?) but it was beautiful! A huge castle with a huge fountain and lots of pretty mosaics like I saw in Barcelona. Spanish architecture is very pretty and bright.
After that we finally gave in and decided to rent bikes to fulfill the empty space in our hearts from epernay. It's one of those 30 minute city bike systems which seemed easy enough. But then it took forever to actually set up and pay for everyone's accounts. But it's ok cause then we had bikes! They actually became very handy later in the trip and were very fun to ride. We took them to the town center to go to the top of this hotel that Roberto recommended, but it was too hot and crowded so we left (Roberto's recommendations getting worse and worse.....). We decided to sit at a café in plaza de san francisco instead to grab a cup of coffee. Pretty plaza - then we siesta'd!
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| beautiful orange trees everywhere! |
Friday night we decided to round two Mammaracha cause the little taste we had was so good the night before. We got there right as it opened and were seated right away woo! The waiter recognized us and was like "quick! come this way i have a table for you!" The tapas were incredible and we could properly enjoy them sitting down with tons of space.
Rayas Ice Cream: Of course we needed to get ice cream after dinner! This ice cream was good but not as good as la fiorentina, it was very rich. And Michael spilt his and it got in my hair so that put a damper on things. (He would say it's my fault. I would politely disagree).
Friday night when I got back to the apartment is also when I heard about the attacks on Paris. It was overwhelming and escalated very quickly from a shooting, to a bombing, to a full on terrorist attack. It was very hard to piece together being in another country. I was very lucky to be with my family during this time and not in Paris. However, there was a part of me that itched to be back and was worried for the city and all of my friends there. Once I established that everyone I knew was safe I felt a bit better, but there was (and is) still so much that was unclear, so that put me in a bit of a daze for the rest of the weekend.
Saturday morning we were all more energized and awoke semi early (1030 haha) to have some toast and fruit for breakfast in the apartment before heading out to do some sight seeing.
The Grand Alcazar: Islamic mosque turned in to a Catholic Church. Incredibly beautiful building but the gardens are even more incredible. Mom and Dad wanted to get audio guides so I got one too while Brian and Michael continued to make fun of us. (The audio guides were rather dorky, obnoxious, and baton shaped). I could definitely see the Islamic influence as the architecture reminded me a bit of Istanbul. They also filmed some scenes of game of thrones there!! So that was pretty cool. Michael, Brian, and I got lost in a labyrinth. And there were lots of orange trees!
Rio Grande: After La Azotea we biked across the river to have lunch at Rio Grande. We were pretty sick of tapas and wanted to eat at a nice sit down restaurant so this was it! My swordfish was alright. Dad definitely got the best dish. Some bacon wrapped beef thing with a risotto.
Bull Fighting Arena: After lunch we took our bikes back across the river to the bull fighting arena. We took a tour of the arena, but since it was no longer bull fighting season there weren't any fights. Not that I'm really sure I'd want to see one anyways - it's absolutely horrible what they do to the bulls. The arena reminded me a bit of the colosseum. But it's crazy cause it feels like you're getting a tour of something ancient but it's still being used today. We saw the gate where the bull enters, the gate where the dead bull is pulled out, the winner's gate, the entry gate, and the gate to take matadors to the hospital in case they get hurt. Yes, there is a gate specifically for each of these things. I also found out that matador means killer. There was also a little museum where we learned about the history of bull fighting and how it fits in to the culture and the different forms of bull fighting. There apparently was a matador that started fighting bulls at age 9!
3rd day means 3rd siesta! Watched some gossip girl before headed out to a casual dinner saturday night.
La Azotea: This was the tapas place maddie recommended we go to the first night but we didn't. We should have cause it was so good! (Although mamarracha was great, and I would say better, but this was a very close second) I had a white wine sangria (per mom's suggestion) and our waiter was very nice. We got lots of good tapas like croquetas (of course, they eat them with everything), some good salads, some burgers... and I can't remember what else.
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| the cathedral looked prettier at night than this but hey |
La Carboneria: Mom was insistent that we see flamenco before we leave. And I must admit I really wanted to see it as well. This place is known for good flamenco so we walked there after dinner, got a mojito and sat down. But apparently there were no flamenco dancers that night :( only weird guys playing guitar and singing in the corner. So we left shortly after it began in favor of some Hagen-Daaz ice cream on the way back to the apartment. Because no day with the Kosniks can be spent without ice cream!
The family left early sunday morning :( I was sad to see them go, we had such a great time and I'm so happy you guys came to visit!!!! I can't wait to see you again at Christmas!! :)
Since the family was gone I spent Sunday with Courtney! Went on a run by the river in the morning then Courtney took me to
Metropol Parasol: aka the mushroom building. Has a cool view of sevilla! That was pretty much it, we took the elevator up and came down lol.
Alfalfa: Then we went to this tapas place for lunch that was also very good and courtney says it's always packed. Had some warm cheese and good bruschetta before walking around some more.
Montaditos: Courtney took me here to grab some nourishment for the plane ride home. It's basically a sandwich tapas restaurant. They have 100 different types of mini sandwiches - and they were all 1 euro each! They even had chicken! Should have come here with the brothers they would have loooved it.
Then Courtney put me in a cab and I headed to the airport to make my journey back to Paris! I had an amazing weekend in Sevilla but was ready to get back to Paris to see how everything was and to get settled again.
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