Sevilla

Two things about Sevilla, the capital of Andalucia, Spain are true. The first is that it does not rock as hard as Granada or Cordoba. The second is that it still rocks a lot harder than most places of the world.
The Sevilla trip started as a day trip that was already planned by our program. In one day we visited The Alcazar, another Muslim turned Christian palace that is very similar to the Alambra in Granada, the Plaza de Espana, as well as the old Jewish quarter of the city. The Alcazar was very cool in that it had a lot of the artistic detail of Muslim architecture as well as a lot of beautiful gardens.After that we visited the tomb of "Colon",the wonderful man who apparently discovered my homeland. (By the way that is Columbus's actual last name, i honestly do not know where the English speaking world got "Columbus" from, that just makes the man even more silly.) The Plaza de Espana was one of the most impressive things I have ever seen, containing placards with magnificent paintings pertaining to each Spanish city, and completely lining the plaza. The Jewish quarter was preciosa, as any Jewish quarter in most Andalucian Spanish cities are. After all of our tours were finished, me and five of my friends headed to our hostel, called the Garden Backpacker. The place was situated in one of the ancient parts of the city so it took us forever to find it because all the streets look the same in any ancient part of any European city. Once we got there the guy at the front desk was pretty rude, and continued to be the whole weekend but it didn't matter because the place was pretty nice, offering cheap piella dinners, and free bar crawls and tours of the city. I booked a eight person dorm, and this was my first time experiencing that. It ended up being a really good experience because the six of us were in the same room, and we ended up meeting another American, named Isaac who randomly decided to do a "woofing', or farming program in Spain. Needless to say we all got along pretty well.
The next day a couple of us decided to go on the walking tour that the hostel offered just to get a feel for the city. Our tour guide who was also the bartender at the hostel was pretty cool. A Mexican women with a lot of attitude who made a what could be boring tour of the city a pretty entertaining one. (The butthead guy at the front desk called her the "Mexican mojito maker." We originally thought it was a machine that made the drinks but once we saw her making the mojitos we realized it was his attempt at being funny) During the tour we met some more people from our hostel. One, a girl from China and two women who were getting their PHD in Barcelona. (One woman was from Mexico, the other from Columbia) (I liked these women because we connected about how hard it is to understand Spanish Spanish.Sometimes it is nice hearing that other native Spanish speakers have a hard time understanding Andalucians, and that you're not just some dummy) After the tour was finished we got lunch and decided to rent bikes,(a service that our hostel provided for pretty cheap) and ride around the city for the day. This was a great idea. We ended up riding to Sevilla's famous gardens, the gardens of Maria Luisa, one of Spain's former queens. These were just completely impressive. The place extended for miles, and was packed with beautiful trees, shrubbery, and statues. (Needless to say if you ever visit the city go here first.) I am still impressed just thinking about it. Right next to the park was a famous archeological museum, containing a lot of Roman ruins and artifacts. All in all pretty impressive. After we rode back to the hostel, bought some groceries in a local supermarket, and cooked in our hostel that had a pretty well-stalked kitchen. Later that night my friends and I ended up drinking with a couple Dutch guys we met at our hostel, and Isaac of course, and did what college students do best, went out to the bars. Sevilla's night life kind of reminded me of Bologna's in that it had the same effect of people pouring out of the bars and drinking in the streets. The next night was great as well because we ended up going to this really nice jazz concert at another bar, a very good time. All, in all a good time I would say, I good time indeed.