Final Day in Sevilla, Granada and Madrid.

Hello friends,

The night before we left we managed to do a little shopping at the Sevilla H&M. Where was this place last year? (this comment is for Pants-Off!)With heavy hearts we caught the bus to the Sevilla Train station. It was bitter sweet as it began to pour down rain at the very moment we were leaving. In a stroke of brilliance Rana and I did our damndest to miss our train. Just in time we hopped on and the doors closed behind us. From Sevilla we had a nice 3 hour ride. The trains are really the way to travel in Spain. It's first class baby. Spanish moms by the way are totally hip. Check out this one rockin' the Nintendo DS on the train ride. We arrived in Granada and I instantly felt at home. It has almost been 7 years since I studied there but it's a small town. No problem. We found our hostel in about 15 minutos though we had to ask a few locals. It was completely unmarked save for Arabic writing. Check it out. Colin you will like this in Arabic this Maktub. It was an amazing place. Right when we got there we met an amazing girl from Venezulea and a cool guy from Italy with whom we enjoyed some wine on the rooftop terrace. After that we decided to go down stairs and meet the other people and I litereally ran in an Indian girl coming out of her room. She was quickly followed by another Indian girl and an american man. We 5 became fast friends and we went with them to dinner. The girls were name Rupal and Nisha. Yep Rupal. The man was from Tacoma and his name was Jason. RuPaul for obvious reason went as "Boo." The girls were both born and raised in England but knew some Hindi so we decided to go to an Indian resturante. It was great fun and we got to know all about them. Then we went out dancing and jason taught us all the apple dance. I can't really explain it but well it's amazing.

So the next day we headed to the Alhambra, a Moorish fortress from the 1300s wow. The gardens inside and fountains were truly spectacular. We walked around all day until it started raining and we had to take refuge in beer and an umbrella. Here are some photos from the visit:Rana playing in the gardens...and the on the wall and again in the gardens... So there we are. We found a tiny little door that sent Rana looking for Narnia:Where is it Rana?

We had wonderful time and went back to meet our new friends Boo Nisha and Jason. That night we has some excellent Lebanese food and smoked a hooka full of cherry flavored tobacco. Yum taskic. We thought our new friendship deserved a group portrait so we took one... I'm sure you're dying to know so the photo from left to right kind-of goes like this Moi, Boo Nisha, Jason and Rana. Fun Times!

Sadly the next day we had to leave our new friends but Jason decided he would travel with us so only Boo and Nisha were left behind. We headed for Madrid on the train. WEEE!
When we got there Jason hung out for a few hours but had to catch the next train to Segovia where he was studying. We then headed to Rana's friend's house Maya. She was kind enough to put us up for the night. We went out and found a fencing mask. Like ya you do. Here it is. Early the next morning we headed with heavy hearts to the airport and before we knew it. We found ourselves back in Istanbul before we knew it.

Sevilla Week 2 Bullfight and Gypsies

Rana's friends Tien and Annie came to visit the other day and we had a blast. We literally whisked them out of the train station and directly to a bull fight. Yeah a real bull fight. (You can see, just faintly, the excitement on Tien's face.) So Bullfights,you've only seen them on cartoons and such but this was the real deal. We watched 5 bulls go down and thought we had seen enough carnage for the day though there were more on the docket. It was an amazing cultural experience.

That night we ate at an amazing tapas bar called Casa Paco. Everything we ordered was fantastic. Honey baked goat cheese, bacon wrapped dates, tri tip in mustard sauce the list goes on. What was more was the waiter was really tall and really cool, his name was Jose. Annie took a bit of a fancy to him, as the English say.

The next night we went to the Carbonaria which is a free gritty flamenco show posing surreptitiously as a bar. It's very Gypsy and quite fun. The Carbonaria also features cheap drinks, first and foremost Agua de Sevilla which is like a long island iced tea with pineapple juice. We started with pitcher of that puppy. Only a few sips in and we started to loose it. The show was amazing, ok it was alright but the 4 pitchers of Sangria that followed were amazing. If you were wondering this is what three girls look like after 4 pitchers.
After the show, just as we were about to leave, a man sat down at the bar piano. He began to play Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder and some other Motown stuff. He had everyone singing along and taking requests for two hours. Annie was particularly helpful with her killer karaoke skills! Turns out Roderick (In Spanish he introduced himself as, Rodrigo!) was a VP of Urban development somewhere in the south (South USA), on town in Business. He spoke great Spanish and played the piano like a master.Crazy.

Tien and Annie left then to hang out with another friend in Cadiz which is further south on the beach. Rana and I spent the rest of the week exploring. We went to an amazing Flamenco show based on the life of Frida Kahlo.
This is just the theater pics weren't allowed inside. We checked out the Alameda de Hercules which had live music and fun almost every night. There are four columns (two at each end) that are identical. Atop each sits jolly old Hercules. This does make it a bit tough to find your way home in the night time when you don't know at what end you are. We also checked out these guys in doggy jail. These poor dogs lived right by us and always looked so sad. I wanted to bake them a doggy biscuit with a hacksaw inside so they could escape but I scrapped the idea when I was reminded of their almost total lack of opposable thumbs.

Finally before going to Barcelona Tien and Annie came back to visit us. We decided to go to the Plaza de Espana which is an impressive plaza shown below. Ok well that's about all I have for today. Hope you are all well!
Hugs Devo

Gettin´ Settled in Sevilla

Hey here we are chilling in the South of Spain.
Make sure you get you shopping done before 2 or else you´ll have to wait until 6. Siessta is extremely long here and has made for some foodless afternoons but we´ve managed. Rana is getting settled in Dancing Flamenco every day.

The first night we got here we met our Home stay owner a man named Antonio or we thought that was his name. He introduced himself as Pollo, Spanish for Chicken. Hummm. Ok that´s his name we thought. He treated us to a nice dinner of Salad and fried zucchini or however you spell that. We then went out on the town to get some drinks while pollo stayed at home and smoked the gang. Did I mention he has dred locks. anyway he has been most helpful and a fun living companion. The second night Rana and I went to a flamenco performance and saw her friend play violin. He was amazing and we snuck back stage pretending to be his family after the show. We´re due to see him again this weekend.
We´ve been meeting a lot of amazing people here. A guitarist at Rana´s School worked on Pocahontas for Disney. He is a cool LA animator type. Also there are students and cool people from all over the world.
Ok well that´s all for today...they're closing the library on me again.
Love to you all.