Sevilla

This past weekend, I was lucky enough to get to visit TWO Hershey friends without crossing any international borders. My travels brought me to Sevilla, España where I bunked with Skylar Kulbacki for a few days. As it turned out, the weekend I selected was special for several reasons: one, Rachel Cullari was visiting for her spring break. Two, it was Carnaval weekend and Skylar's roommates run a Spain travel program called "We Love Spain" so we had an instant hookup to a trip to Cádiz for the celebration.

The weekend commenced Thursday evening when I arrived in Sevilla. Skylar and I grabbed a quick bite, stopped back at her apartment, then headed to Calle Betis which is a skeezy bar scene – my favorite kind. I actually ran into a few PSU students here...talk about a small world. The next day, we did a little walking tour of Sevilla. We walked past la Giralda, Sevilla's cathedral, but didn't actually tour it until Saturday. We saw Torre de Oros, the park, la Plaza de España, and a few other cool landmarks. We stopped at a little bar for lunch (run by a mother and son) which was probably the most "authentic" Spanish dining I've done since I've been here. After lunch, we picked up Rachel at the bus stop. We figured she'd be exhausted from traveling, not to mention a little jet-lagged, so we decided to keep plans low-key and check out a Flamenco show. It was so cool! Very passionate, just like they say! Then we hit up a BANGIN' pizza restaurant for dinner. And churros y chocolate for dessert, obviously.

The next day we toured la Giralda. This included walking around the church and climbing to the top. Quite a view of Sevilla! Those were pretty much all the plans we had for the touring, because later on that day, we would hop on the bus and head to Carnaval for the night/morning.

Carnaval was NUTS. It was basically one huge botellón where people just drink in the streets. Picture this: the craziest Halloween party you've ever been to, plus Mardi Gras, x1000. Lots of people, lots of costumes, lots of makeup, and lots, and lots, and LOTS of alcohol. However, not so many bathrooms. You do the math.

Got on the bus back to Sevilla at 5:30am. Rachel, Skylar and I made it back to the apartment where I took a nap until I had to leave for the airport. Then, in typical Jodie fashion, I was at the airport with plenty of time to spare (and time to call the parental units, of course) and headed back to good ol' Alicante.