Sevilla and Cadiz - Carnivale Part Two

So with about five hours of sleep under our belts, we hit the streets for food. Our first stop was a tapas bar close to the hostel. It had an interesting set up, with the bar where you ordered your food on one wall and then step-like seating that resembled pretty, Spanish-detailed bleachers. We sat in the top corner, had some canas, or tiny beers that you drink with tapas, and began to eat. We had about five or six different things, which is traditional when eating tapas. I can't remember them all, but there were little circles of bread with delicious cheese, jamon iberica, which I had in Madrid the last time, a mayonaisse-y egg and potato salad thing, and some others. They were all good and the rule was that everyone had to try everything.

After that we began our hunt for a legendary pizza place that Colin's sister had recommended. We walked for kind of a while, stopping to decide how much we wanted this pizza versus how far we were willing to walk, keeping in mind that we were all still pretty tired and had to be up the next morning at 8. The nice thing about Europe, or at least most of the cities I've visited thus far, is that they post their menus outside the front door so you know what you are getting into. After basically giving up hope that we would ever find the place, and beginning to hear our stomachs grumble, we finally found it! We had to wait about 40 minutes before getting a table, since there were so many of us, so we wandered over to Pizza Hut to get some beers. (Not too high class, but who cares?)

We sat at a small table near the restaurant and cheers-ed Spain, while the temperature began to drop. By the time we got a table we were starving and pretty cold, but we ate outside anyway. Good thing I had forsaken a jacket to look cute...what a stupid idea. We ordered salads to start, which were absolutely delicious -- stocked with lots of different lettuces, sweet corn, some sort of fabulous white cheese, etc. Then we got wine and pizzas for dinner. My pizza had bacon on it, which turned out to be more like ham, shocking, since ham runs rampant in that country...but it was still good. Unfortunately Jenny's Hawaiaan pizza order was lost in translation and was about 20 minutes late. Of course we still had to pay for it, but at this point it was probably at least midnight, so we were pissed. We all ordered desserts, of which mine was the best, some cheese tart with fruit (their version of cheesecake) obviously, and then decided not to go out, but to go to bed instead.

Jenny, Suzy, Meg and Colin went to go meet some friends at a club, but the rest of us walked home, after not being able to find a cab big enough to take us all, and went right to sleep. However, it was not like we were turning in early, because it was about 2am already...people eat late in Spain!

Side note: There was a gay bar located on the street perpendicular to where we were eating, and they must have been hosting an "Angels and Devils" themed party, because all throughout our meal, gay guys dressed as either angels or devils would waltz by, eliciting cat calls and cheers from our table. They were decked out too, many of them wearing heels higher than I ever would! Maybe they passed on the news that we enjoyed their costumes to others, because soon angels and devils were everywhere! It was really great. (Although when they tried to speak to me I had no idea what they were saying so I just smiled and cheered.)

I was awoken the next morning around 8:30 by Meg coming in and announcing that there were omlettes, bacon, eggs and bagels for breakfast! After getting out of my tiny, somewhat hard bottom bunk and scurrying into the main hall, I was disappointed to see that what she really meant was that there was plenty of machine-made coffee and some toast. Grrrr. I guess it got us all up though...

We all got dressed in our Carnivale finery, the girls in dresses or crazily-patterned tops, the boys more normal, trying to hurry, since we hadn't been able to pre-buy train tickets to Cadiz, and left the hostel around 9:15 or 9:30. We took a bus to the train station, recieving weird looks from elderly men, and then got in the mile long line to buy tickets with about five minutes left before the train left. Standard.

Then, all at once, I see a mass of people in line turn around and just start to run. So, naturally, we all ran too. I guess the guy behind the counter had been so fed up with all the loonies trying to get to Cadiz that he told them all to just get on the train and buy the tickets once we boarded. So, we all were assigned budddies (care of me and Meg, former camp counselors) and threw some elbows to get to the front of the line to get on the train. We succeeded too, because when the train pulled in, Me, Andy, Cristin, Tara, and Jenny all got seats together, as did Colin, Suzy and Molly. Meg had to sit on laps, but it worked. Our section took naps and played the celebrity game, which made time absolutely fly. (You say a celebrity and the next person has to say one whose first name starts with the first letter of the prior one's last name. Exameple, I say Britney Spears (who always starts off our game), and you say Samuel L. Jackson. Then it goes to J. You can't repeat and if a person has the same letter start their first and last names, you have to go again (Sylvester Stallone...). It was a great time. We bought round trip tickets on the train also, so we were all set for the way back.

The train probably took close to an hour and a half or a bit more, but it was a nice day and warm weather and we were all so excited, so it was fine.