Días Ocho y Nueve: Mis Padres y Sevilla.

Friday morning I got up early so I could catch my flight at 1 pm. As usual, it took an hour to get to the center of the city and probably another 45 minutes to get to the airport by bus. I got my passport checked and everything and in line, I met a girl from Washington DC who was on my flight and studying in Sevilla. She gave me some pointers on where to go and what to do. My flight was about two and a half hours and right when I got to Sevilla I took a bus to meet my parents at the train station. I only had to wait about ten minutes before their train arrived. Perfect timing! It was so awesome seeing them again! I realized that this is the longest I’ve ever gone without seeing them in my entire life. Crazy! After trading stories about my trip and their flight, we headed out to find our hotel. After staying in so many hostels, this hotel seemed so nice! My parents weren’t as enthusiastic as I was, but I thought it was great. Later, we explored the town, got some tapas, and then relaxed at the hotel. They obviously went to bed early, exhausted from their flight over, and I stayed up a bit later.

Saturday, we accidentally slept in until 11 am. Oops. I actually didn’t even know it was possible for my dad to sleep that late. We headed out right away to find some breakfast, as we had missed the hotel’s breakfast. After much searching, we found a tapas place where my parents could have an eggs tapa and I had a muffin. Later, we bummed around the city for a while and then went back to the hotel for a bit. My mom and I then split up with my dad, planning to meet later at Sevilla’s famous cathedral, the third largest in Europe. Unfortunately, when my mom and I arrived at the cathedral, my dad was nowhere to be found. We searched and searched throughout the church but could not find him anywhere. However, we were able to see a Holy Week procession from the huge tower. Holy Week in Spain is a HUGE deal. There are many processions every day and much more. Sevilla is famous for their Holy Week, as is Valladolid. Anyway, after a long time of looking for my dad, we went back to the hotel and finally found him. Later, we got some dinner at a nice little restaurant before seeing a Flamenco show! As most people know, Flamenco dancing is a big deal in Spain, but it’s actually more of a South Spain thing. We don’t really see much of it in Valladolid, as we’re more toward the North, but Andalucía (especially Sevilla) is much more known for Flamenco. The show was awesome. The guitar players were insane – I usually couldn’t even see their fingers move! I hadn’t even seen a Flamenco show yet so it was really interesting seeing it. Flamenco is such a different form of dance, unlike anything else. After the show, we went out to get some churros y chocolate, one of my favorite Spanish desserts. We then headed back to the hotel and called it a night, ready for some more much needed rest.