Damp (but determined) touristing

Today is our last day in Sevilla and it has been absolutely PISSING rain all day. Literally the best rain storm I have experienced in a long time. Did this stop us from going out and being tourists? No, no, no... in fact, we had a great time because there was nobody else around. Even the gypsies weren´t out to bother us today. But officially my umbrella is the best purchase I have made since arriving in Spain. I have pledged my eternal affection to it.

Now for those of you fans of Star Wars out there we had a brush with royalty this morning. You may or may not recall the setting of Padme´s palace on Naboo in Attack of the Clones. It is vivid in my mind because I visited it this morning. It is actually the Palacio Español that wraps around the Plaza de España here in Sevilla. There was nobody else there at all and it was absolutely breathtaking. Seriously, probably the most beautiful non-cathedral building I have seen in Europe so far. Wrap around building with Venetian azulejo-tiled bridges over a legit moat. There is an enormous fountain in the middle of the plaza, too, which was still lovely even in the pouring rain. It was built in 1929 for some sort of World´s Fair deal but it is used as some governmental building now. It was really great to see it in person even though it was raining. I can´t even imagine how stunning it is on bright sunny days in the summer. Google image it (or fly to Sevilla and visit if you can manage because it´s infinitely better in person) if you want to check it out.

We also visited some azulejos workshops and admired their handiwork. Every building here, literally every single one, has these tiles all over the place. It´s a very Andalusian traditional thing and they are beyond proud of them. This pride is completely deserved because they´re fantastic. If I ever have a house or anything else that I can possibly tile I am going to hop on a plain back out here to get my hands on some of them. The azulejos and all the fruit and greenery around give this region its very Mediterranean feel. The humid weather and abundance of great seafood helps too.

There´s this young British lady staying in the hostel who has this kid. He´s probably 10 or 11 if I had to guess and more than a little annoying. She just leaves the hostel all day doing whatever she does and leaves him here. He sits on the computers and messes around and yells British profanity (this part is actually really enjoyable). His mom basically relies on other people to babysit because nobody wants to just leave him alone. This has been a very strange/awkward situation at times (we´re out for most of the daytime so it´s not too bad for us). The guy from the Netherlands told me that he has been keeping an eye on him and feeding him lunch for the past few days. Yeah, his mom just leaves all day, returning late at night, without any food for him but the continental breakfast that the hostel provides. I´m not one to judge (wait, what?) but she doesn´t seem like a very good parent to me. This really has no relevance to my stay here except for the fact that they just left raucously for the airport to fly back to wherever. I feel bad for the kid. His name is Spike by the way which I think is funny.

So the big bday last night was a complete success. We took Owen around and I made a big old stink about it (like I usually do for birthdays because they are wonderful). He had a great night, especially because I didn´t throw him into the Guadalquivir. I don´t think you´re supposed to swim in it anyway so it all worked out for the best. Owen is usually that guy who wakes up with the sun (he once told me how much he hates that the sun doesn´t rise until about 7:30 in Madrid which received a blank stare from me) but this morning he slept until 10:30. I considered this a pretty good sign that I did a more than adequate job last night. This and the fact that he couldn´t speak Spanish for anything when we met these Spanish university students partying in a square in our neighborhood. He was hilarious because he just kept saying (poorly) that he couldn´t speak Spanish because he was 21. I thoroughly enjoyed this part because it made no sense to those kids. Also when we tried to get into a fancier place and they wouldn´t let him in because he was wearing tennis shoes (no matter how hard I pleaded or batted my eyelashes), he just kept saying that the big bouncer guy was just jealous because he didn´t have any hair and his head was cold. He was a pretty funny 21 year-old dude last night, let me tell you. For those of you who know Wayne-o, you basically know Owen as well. He is even a mean cyclist... seriously, they would be best friends if they ever met.

Now we´re all sitting around enjoying a quiet (except for the pounding rain) afternoon/early night at the end of a full week of traveling and sightseeing. We took a siesta in the hammocks earlier until we woke up and realized that it was a little too chilly as the afternoon wore on. It was nice to be outside but still out of the rain for a little.

Tomorrow we head back home and I am pretty excited to get back into my own bed again, no matter how springy it may be. I have realized how very comfortable I actually am in my apartment now that I have been away for a full week. I miss Carmen´s cooking, too :)

The bus ride is about 6-7 hours, though, and I´m not too excited about that. It will give me a good rest though because I do love my car/bus naps. Oh, gross, and then back to school on Monday.

Oh, and we also bought some goodies from a panadería in place of a bday cake so I´m pretty excited about them. Poor Lauren had to walk home with the paper package tucked under her jacket so they would stay dry.