Starting out in Sevilla
Since flying back to Spain on January 8th, life has moved pretty fricken fast. I started my new nannying job and dove directly into working seven hours a week for the family. Skye, Victoria and I have tried to maintain our gym routine between our busy schedules. And, of course, I’ve been scheming more adventures this spring.
The trip back to Motril was as smooth as I could’ve have asked for but left me exhausted nonetheless. On the plane from Boston to Madrid, I ended up sitting next to a study abroad student headed to Granada! Veronica and I became instant friends and ended up talking the entire seven hour flight. We both agreed it was the fastest cross-Atlantic fight we had ever taken :)
I am so excited (and a bit jealous!) that she has an entire semester at Universidad de Granada ahead of her. We are hoping to grab coffee and catch up the next time we overlap in the city!
Returning to school and reuniting with my students these past two weeks has been really wonderful. I missed all of their endearing questions and funny middle school stories. They were all extremely curious about what I did over my break and we spent the first couple days talking about my travels back home.
My new job, a mix of nannying, private English tutoring and being an honorary older sister, has turned out much better than I expected! Olivia, the six year old girl I am looking after, is SO full of energy and has the most hilarious, mischievous demeanour. We genuinely have a great time together and I look forward to spending my afternoons with her even though it means skipping out on my gym dates with Skye and Victoria.
I have played more pilla pilla (tag) and el escondite (hide-and-seek) since returning to Spain than in the past 10 years. Olivia and I manage to communicate quite well despite her knowing very little English. It’s incredible how fast children pick up on new languages and even though she replies in Spanish, we have halfway complete conversations.
Last weekend, Skye and I chose Saturday as our adventure day and headed east to the city of Almería. We had spent Friday morning planning our spring weekends in depth but gave very little thought to our immediate day trip. The two of us simply agreed to "go East" since we had yet to explore that side of the coast.
We spent a very relaxing afternoon soaking up the sun and ordering our classic combo of orange juice and a sandwich. I had what could be considered a contender for the most Spanish dish ever: a sandwich with tomato purée and tortilla de patatas. I have to admit I was skeptical, (I wasn’t aware there would be tomato and I was scared it would be dry as a brick) but it was absolutely delicious and now I’m hooked!
After our lunch, we walked the full length of the promenade that borders the beach and chatted about our winter breaks. It felt essential to get all caught up after not seeing each other for two weeks, and what better place to do it than the beach.
We grabbed a quick treat, lemon gelato for me and raspberry frozen yogurt for Skye, before making our way to the bus station. The combination of the cold dessert and the setting sun made us grateful to reach the warm building.
On our trip back to Motril, we finished planning our upcoming weekend in Sevilla. I found the perfectly located apartment for us to stay in and we bought our bus tickets. Nothing like planning the next trip while finishing out the current one.
This past week has been filled with volcano presentations, worksheets, and videos as all three of my grade levels are learning about them. I can confidently say now that I am an amateur bilingual geologist.
On Wednesday my mom and I got to planning Semana Santa (spring break) since both my sister and I will be in Europe. We’re going to Italia!!! I am so looking forward to seeing my family again soon and eating copious amounts of pizza and pasta. I haven't been to Italy since my family lived in England almost 12 years ago, so I am really excited to check out the northern part of the country.
Olivia and I learned about the colors, family members, and animals in English this week. I also got her to sit still long enough for me to give her two French braids which she was very pleased with. She asked me where I was born and when I told her the United States, she asked if that was in Granada…I guess it was pretty mind blowing for her to know there are places outside of southern Spain!
On Friday, Renne, Skye and I woke up early to get on the bus to Sevilla. We had a bit of stormy weather during our travels which is an uncommon occurrence over here.
We were all pretty hungry when we arrived, so naturally our first stop was my favorite prepared foods market in the city. We shared a veggie pizza and started our mini vacay off with an Aperol spritz each.
Renne had stumbled across a small Portuguese bakery during her research and since we had a bit of time before checking into our place, we headed there for a sweet treat. They only sell egg custards that are considered a delicacy in Lisbon and WOW were they amazing.
Our apartment was located in the old part of the city and we wandered by the cathedral and some other beautiful buildings on our way there. Once we were settled, unpacked and had a game plan, we went out on a mini vintage clothing hunt (unsuccessful) and a walking tour of the Triana neighborhood.
We got caught up in a little rain storm but found some shelter in a riverside restaurant. From our table we had a perfect view of el Torre del Oro and it was stunning as the sun set over the city. There were so many people rowing on the river which led to a little discussion on one of our favorite books Lessons in Chemistry.
The rest of the night was pretty laid back with dinner at a Lebanese restaurant and an early bedtime.
Saturday was a jam packed day from start to finish and we checked a lot of boxes off the Sevilla bucket list. The weather could not have been more perfect and I think we were all dazzled by what a life in this city could be like.
We started with a lovely, delicious brunch at a place called Filo. One of my favorite things about traveling to major cities in Spain is that a lot of places cater to brunch culture. “Brunch” as a concept does not fit into the Spanish dining schedule and such a meal can be difficult to find in the smaller cities and towns.
Feeling ready to do some exploring, we walked by the Alcazar and royal gardens on our way to Plaza España. Despite being January, the plaza was filled with tourists and I think the immaculate weather was definitely a factor.
The three of us took a photo in front of the Granada statue and stopped by a Flamenco show that was being held in on of the stairwells. We spotted people in rowboats in the semicircular waterway that runs along the outer edge of the plaza and we knew immediately what our next activity had to be!
Skye expertly rowed the three of us out of the congested boat launch area and we had an amazing time “racing” some of the other boats. I don’t think they knew it was a competition, but we definitely won. Renne and I both had our chance to row and it was a blissful half hour :)
We had a plan to meet up with another aux friend, Anna, for lunch so we hopped on a bus and headed to one of the younger, “hippier” neighborhoods. Anna, who is currently teaching in Sevilla, had chosen a small tapas bar called Ojalá and the food definitely lived up to the hype.
The four of us shared goat cheese and caramelized onion croquettes, mushroom and zucchini risotto, patatas bravas, and a vegetarian wok. My favorite was the risotto, but all of it was truly delicious. It was also really refreshing to see some new, interesting options to order for tapas.
We had about an hour before our tickets for Las Setas, the largest wooden structure in the world that loosely resemble mushrooms, so we wandered around the cute neighborhoods and teased Skye about renewing in Sevilla.
I had previously been to Las Setas when I studied abroad but I had never climbed to the top for the 360 views of the city. The walkway for the viewpoints was smaller than I was anticipating, but it was still very cool to see the Sevilla skyline.
After our first lap, we watched a short 5D film called “Feeling Sevilla”. I think the 5D aspect mainly just contributed to me feeling motion sick, but it was an interesting, immersive experience nonetheless.
On our second lap of the skyline, I spotted a rooftop bar at one of the nearby hotels and we all got our hearts set on having a drink there. Anna left us to go nap but the three of us made our way to live out our European dreams.
Skye, Renne and I split a very sweet, fizzy wine and enjoyed the heaters that they placed around all the tables. We watched the sunset behind the giant mushrooms and made our way home once we had the chance to see them all lit up.
Feeling very Spanish, we regrouped with Anna around 9:30 for more tapas at another one of her recommendations called Universal People Bar de Tapas. The three of them split an oxtail stew and we ordered roasted artichokes and hummus for the table. It was another home run restaurant.
On the way to the bars, our group was joined by Anna’s two roommates Emily and Isabella who are also American auxes. Isabella and I discovered we have a bunch of common friends since we both studied abroad in Granada the same semester.
We huddled around some heaters outside and were introduced to a huge group of Scots who were visiting a friend of Annas. They were absolutely hilarious and we had the best time trying to understand each other with the huge contrast in our accents. Our whole group wandered to a club called Monisterio where we tried our best to dance. However, there were so many people we barely had room to breathe so Skye, Renne, and I left to get some sleep.
Sunday we woke up late and got a rather disappointing breakfast before hopping on the bus home. I think we all agree that Sevilla exceeded our expectations and we are excited to be back in May for la Feria de Abril. It was the perfect weekend trip to get my travel bug back and I am looking forward to the many plans that are coming up this spring!
bocadillo de tortilla sounds 👁️👅👁️