Sevilla: Notes on Following Your Heart

Last summer I was stuck in a limbo. So I went to Spain instead.

Since the arrival of spring, I’ve been thinking about my time in Spain a lot lately. Spring means that summer is close. And summer close means Spain is close to being a year away in the past from me now. A year is a long time. And once again, why can’t we put feelings away in glass bottles to preserve them forever?

These are my Spanish things I’d bottle up, in no particular order:

– The afternoon I arrived and how friendly everyone was, switching to speaking English just for me (they thought I was having trouble speaking Spanish because I was exhausted…little did they know not being able to speak Spanish was a permanent condition)

Dutch Pancake Night, as in, this blonde dude travels every weekend to a new place to cook hundreds of pancakes for dozens of people, and the vibe is glorious! Google and see if there’s a meetup coming near you.

– That morning in Cadiz when I ordered breakfast at the bar without a menu and asked for a phone charger, all in Spanish, for the first time. I fed myself in a foreign country without having an existential crisis, that was a milestone!

Cadiz from the Cathedral of…(see, should’ve started this blog earlier while the geotags and memories were fresh!)

– The conversation I had with a professor from the University of Sevilla on comparison of Cuba and Cadiz. I. HAD. A. CONVERSATION. THAT. WASN’T. JUST. ABOUT. DE DONDE ESTAS? (Cannot confirm I understood everything correctly, but he didn’t seem to be bothered).

I was here all day a few days after the above mentioned conversation.

– The nights on our roof terrace, where all of us foreigners surprisingly felt at home.

If you’re looking for a hostel in Seville, book La Flamenka Hostel! They’re the cutest and the location is prime. 

– The unplanned language exchange dance party

– Inspiring the 18-year-olds at a Dutch Pancake night, and myself, while at it

– The morning walk in the Parque de Maria Luisa after I heard the good news that limbo was one step closer to an end

I spent hours sitting in gazebos listening to Spanish lectures, texting my friends from something that looked like a tree house and felt like the biggest rock fell off my shoulders. Yet it was gloomy.

– The first time I went to the Alcazar on an eclipse

Life hack: admission is free on Mondays after 4 p.m. but the lines are pretty long and you don’t get much time before they close (but still worth checking out if that’s all you’ve got!)

– The big ol’ homemade paella made on our rooftop

– Grocery shopping in Triana like the most local of all locals

– The day I made an executive decision to travel for another month, just because I can.