Well, everyone, my incredible week in Europe with my boyfriend has come and gone. I'm still feeling pretty sad after his departure on Sunday, but I know I will always have amazing memories of our time in Sevilla and Paris together. So many amazing memories, in fact, that I decided to split up Ben's visit into two separate posts: one about our time in Sevilla and another about our time in Paris.
Ben came to visit me in the Fall in Sevilla (when we also traveled to Rome), so he had already spent about five days here in my home city. He loved it so much, though, that he really wanted to come back here instead of just traveling somewhere else. I'm so happy that he likes Sevilla that much, and bringing him around to all of my favorite places means so much to me after spending the majority of our time apart for the past few months.
It was a long ten weeks of waiting for his arrival after I left at the end of January, but the day we had been waiting for finally arrived on Saturday, April 12th. After a loooong layover in Paris (because it ended up making being much cheaper for Ben to book a round trip flight to Paris and then a round trip flight to Sevilla and back to Paris that Wednesday with me), Ben finally arrived at the Sevilla airport at 9:00pm, where I was there waiting for him with the biggest smile on my face and tears in my eyes.
Since I had checked in to the hotel earlier in the day, I had a bottle of some of our favorite Spanish red wine waiting for him in the room, which we proceeded to drink a bit of before heading to our first tapas feast of the week. Luckily, Ben is a huge fan of Spanish food--specifically jamón ibérico (Spanish ham). He really can't get enough Spanish ham--it cracks me up. We had our first dinner at a tapas bar called El Pasaje, which included ham, cheese, salmorejo (a thick, cold tomato soup typical of Andalucía, Spain), and more. We ended the night with a short walk to see the beautifully lit cathedral.
The following day was Palm Sunday, which began the week-long Semana Santa (Holy Week) celebrations in Sevilla. Sevilla is famous for its Semana Santa processions, when a ton of different churches from in and around Sevilla parade through the city dressed as "nazarenos" (See the people in the pointy hats below--no connection to the KKK) and carry their church's "pasos," which are big, beautiful religious "floats" displaying scenes of Jesus and the Virgin Mary.
All of the locals warned me that it would be a bit of a cultural shock. To be honest, the bigger shock was just how crowded the city was. I was warned about how crowded it would get, as well, but it was beyond what I had imagined. At a few points Ben and I found ourselves in "sardines in a can" crowds, which was not so fun. We quickly learned we needed to buy a little Semana Santa booklet that had all of the procession route times and maps, and that helped us enjoy the processions when we wanted to, but also avoid the crowds when we wanted to.
On Sunday, after breakfast at our favorite place from last time right by our hotel, we joined my Spanish friends to go around the city and see some processions. Dressed in our Sunday best, we got drinks, tried the typical Semana Santa dessert called "torrijas," and saw a few different processions. It was very interesting and beautiful, but I understand why many locals have had enough after a few days and use the week off from school/work to hit up the nearby playas (beaches). Overall though, Ben and I really enjoyed getting to experience the traditions first-hand with Spaniards, rather than getting lost as Semana Santa newbies among the crowds.
After a long day with lots of walking, we were ready for a big meal. We headed to one of my favorite restaurants in the world called San Marco. Even though it serves Italian food, it is a must-go place when in Sevilla. The restaurant is in an old arab bath house, so the architecture is just amazing. However, the best part is that this restaurant manages to be very high end and delicious while keeping prices unexpectedly low. Ben was a huge fan of this price to quality ratio. He enjoyed some delicious salmon, and I had risotto with foie gras.
Monday started with another awesome breakfast at our favorite place called La Tapateria. Then, we took a nice walk along the river and ended at Sevilla's biggest food market, el Mercado de Triana. We bought some ingredients for an early afternoon picnic--jamón y queso, of course. Before our picnic, however, we bought some ceramic gifts for a couple of our favorite people. The Triana neighborhood of Sevilla is known for it's great ceramic artisan shops, so we walked though and checked it all out. (Fun fact: It's very common in Sevilla to hang ceramic plates on the walls as art!)
After our picnic, we did a little sight seeing. We went to the top of the Torre de Oro, which I was originally told is where Christopher Columbus stored gold from the New World, but I've since learned that isn't true. The tower did serve as a prison and a military watch tower throughout the middle ages, and now it is a Spanish naval museum. I'm not going to lie, though, we mostly just went for the awesome views.
We then took a walk around Sevilla's bullring, Plaza de Toros. We wanted to go inside, but the line was pretty long, so we just decided to walk around the beautiful outside.
We then headed over to La Alameda, a huge plaza with a ton of restaurants and bars around, and one of my favorite places to relax with a mojito as big as my face on a sunny afternoon. I just had to let Ben in on one of my favorite Sevilla pass-times.
After going back to the hotel for a little siesta, we got a beer by our hotel and then went to another one of my favorite bars so that Ben could try some orange wine. Although he didn't agree with me that it tastes like alcoholic Tropical Capri Sun, he did like it a lot.
Then we got dinner at the restaurant next to the "orange wine place" as I like to call it, where we had a couple tapas, including one of the best tapas I've ever had- a small piece of hard toasted bread topped with a small piece of a ham filet and a caramelized apple slice.
Tuesday was our last full day in Sevilla. We slept in a bit and then went to my house to see my host mom, Eva, and pack up the big extra suitcase Ben had brought me to bring all of my winter clothes home for me. Turns out, we timed our trip home pretty well, because we got there just before a procession was going to pass right below my balcony. We enjoyed come cerveza with Eva and watched the procession. It took me a while to pack everything, so it was a pretty relaxed morning.
Once I was done shedding my closet of all signs of cold (cold in Sevilla meaning between 55-65 degrees...), we went back to a restaurant right by our hotel for a tapas lunch and more cerveza.
Then we walked to a bar along the river to get even more cerveza (notice a theme here?). After a long walk back to the hotel, we took another siesta and relaxed before heading to our last dinner in Sevilla. It made me pretty sad that our time in Sevilla was already coming to an end, but I was more excited to go to Paris than I've been for any trip this whole year. Understandably, of course--the city of love with my love? Lucky, lucky girl.
Our last dinner at the Restaurante Hostería del Laurel was probably the best tapas meal we had all week, and it was the perfect end to a wonderfully Spanish "staycation" in Sevilla. The highlight was the adobo fried fish tapa--an Andalusian specialty. I will be going back to this place, for sure!
We woke up on Wednesday with some serious excitement in preparation of our travel day to Paris. We had our last breakfast at our favorite breakfast place and then headed to the airport to catch our 2:00 pm flight.
Our time in Sevilla was everything the two of us had hoped for and more--cultural, fun, and with lots of tapas and cerveza. It was the perfect first few days of our time together. I sure missed this guy (and I am back to missing him now), and Sevilla was the perfect place to just enjoy being with him and not have to worry about cramming in different sights and plans.
What followed, though, were the best few days of my life, and I can't wait to share with you all our trip to Paris! Stay tuned! :)
A
super cute. i dont understand how you were functioning with all that alcohol though! impressive!
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