Well, trains, you’ve been fun. We’ll miss you.

We decided to take full advantage of our hostel’s noon checkout time and slept in this morning. There is a speed train between Sevilla and Madrid that leaves every hour or so, so we didn’t have to be in a rush to get to the train station. We got our things together and started to walk toward the train station when a cab stopped right in front of us to let a lady out. We decided that it was fate that we take a cab to the train station so we loaded up our backpacks and had a nice ride instead of walking the half hour to the train station. Because we took the taxi, we got there about 25 minutes before one of our trains left so we reserved our seats and hopped on the train. The ride was about two and a half hours. It was cool! This train line has all speed trains and they play movies each time like on the airplane. Neither of us took advantage of being able to watch the movie, but we thought it was cool that we could nonetheless. We finally got caught up on our blogging! We were sad to think that this was our last train ride. We love and will miss those awesome trains!

When we got to Madrid and found that the train station is connected to the metro system so we hopped on the metro and made our way to our hostel. We started walking toward our hostel and ended up taking a wrong turn somewhere and ran into Blaire and Natalie! In case y’all didn’t know, Madrid is a pretty big place. We were really surprised to bump into them. They have a couple of friends that came to hang out for a week before starting a 4-week European tour next week. The four of them were about to grab a bite to eat so we ran to the hostel and checked in and threw our things down and met back up with them.

We had heard through the grapevine that the Prado Museum is free on Tuesday nights from 6 - 8pm so we all headed off in that direction to check out the museum. We did some photo shoots and exploring along the way and made our way to the Prado. They only let in so many people every 15 minutes so we stood in line for a bit and waited our turn. We got inside and decided to all meet up at the Goya statue out front at 8pm so we split up and went on our own art exploration adventures.

The Prado Museum in Madrid houses a ton of European art from the 12th - 19th centuries. Lots of Byzantine, Romanesque, Romantic, Gothic, religious and realistic paintings and sculptures. One of the more famous paintings here is Hieronymus Bosch’s painting of “The Garden of Earthly Delights.” We had recently heard comedian Stephen Colbert compare the new KFC Double Down sandwich to this painting. We actually ran into a KFC about 15 minutes before going into the Prado to grab one just to test his theory but the “deep fried madness and breaded insanity” has sadly not made its way across the Atlantic. Oh darn.

We met back up outside afterward and talked with our new Aussie friends about the awesomeness known as Australia. We talked about everything from kangaroos, to politics, the Aborigines, the epic blue ring octopus, and even learned some new Australian phrases. For example, when Katie tried out her new Aussie accent, one of the guys responded, "You've got Buckley's doing it right." Apparently that means that she had no chance of speaking with a believable Aussie twang. Also, we taught them how to say “y’all.” It was a very productive evening.

After a while, our stomachs started to get a bit grumbly so we started to make our way to a tapas restaurant that Blair had found in their Lonely Planet book. Katie wasn’t feeling too well so she left and headed back to the hostel to rest while Rachael went to go eat dinner with the Aussies. We ended up going to a small Italian restaurant called “Pinocchio” that served great pasta and sangria. After dinner, we made plans to meet up at some point tomorrow to see the Royal Palace of Spain and possibly do a hop on/hop off bus tour together. We bid adieu for the evening then headed back to our respective hostels. The Woodmere Gang is now at the hostel and chillin' for the rest of the night. We want to make sure we get enough sleep so that we can take full advantage of our last day of our epic European adventure tomorrow! How did it get to be so late so soon?!

Peace ninjas!

XOXO K&R

The Barber of Seville

Monday, April 19

We woke up a little late on Monday morning and had to get moving so that we could meet Nat and Blaire. We ended up being a little late and they had already gone in without us. We found them a few minutes after we got there. The Royal Alcazar is a palace/fortress that many different kings have inhabited over the centuries. The palace part was a lot like the Alhambra in Granada but smaller. It has a lot of the same influences with the Alcazar had a lot of hidden courtyards and extensive gardens.

Folks, we’ve visited lots of castles with gardens on this trip but these gardens beat them all, at least in Katie’s opinion. There were three different sections. One had walls that created different room-like areas with fountains and pools and such. Another section had brick paths going all around with benches and fountains and flowers and trees. There were also English gardens that were more open with dirt paths and a few trees and a couple of fountains but it was mostly open.

The coolest part of the English gardens was that it had peacocks! They were so beautiful! Katie had the brilliant idea to see if they liked crackers. Well, they did! They pecked the crackers right out of her hands, but they didn’t stop there! When the crackers were gone, they continued to follow us around the gardens wanting more!

We've made a little video to document the experience. We call it the "Peacock Witch Project."

**Disclaimer - please excuse Rachael being a real whuss and thus her profanity...

After that fun experience, we decided we might need to move on so that they peacocks would leave us alone so we made our way to the exit to meet Natalie and Blair for lunch. We found a tapas restaurant with good prices so we dined on sandwiches, a dish of garlic mayonnaise mashed potatoes and another dish with tomatoes and onions with salt and some other oily-vinegary deliciousness.

After lunch, Blair and Natalie had to go back to the hostel and get their things together so they could catch their afternoon train to Madrid. We followed them back to the hostel because we wanted to nap so that we wouldn’t be too tired by midnight for the Alumbrao, which is the kickoff for the Feria de Abril. Well, when folks nap, Katie has a habit of sneaking off and doing her own thing. An hour or so later, Katie came back to the hostel with a whole new ‘do! Apparently, getting her hair cut in Paris wasn’t crazy enough so she got it whacked off in Spain too! It’s the shortest she’s ever had her hair, so she’s not quite sure how she feels about it yet, but you can all see for yourselves when she gets home in two days! After napping, we took the time to try and get caught up on all the blogging we’ve been slacking on. We’ve finally gotten you guys pretty much up to speed!

At 11pm, we started making our way to the place where the Alumbrao was taking place. It was about a half hour walk that turned into almost an hour walk because of all of the people! The Alumbrao is the kickoff of the Feria de Abril where they light up this huge gate thing that they construct just for the feria every year. There were so many people and so much hype that the Alumbrao seemed a little anticlimactic but it was still pretty cool. According to one thing that we read about the Feria de Abril, this festival is the second biggest celebration of the year, only being beaten by the Oktoberfest in Germany. We believe it! There were people everywhere!

We learned that the feria is actually pretty exclusive. Different families and organizations rent out casetas which are like personal party huts. They’re decorated with chandeliers and paintings on the walls and they have personal wait staff and entertainment in each little caseta. You can only get into the caseta if you’re invited.

There is also an area with rides, fair food, and games to play. It’s such a fun atmostphere! We walked all around the feria, had some churros and chocolate and then decided to make the trek back to the hostel so we could rest up for our journey to Madrid the next day!

XOXO K&R

Toro! Toro!

Sunday, April 18

The plan was for the Woodmere Gang and the Aussies to have breakfast together before going on the free walking tour at 10:45 on Sunday morning. Well, half of the Woodmere Gang made it to breakfast. Katie decided to skip out on her Spanish breakfast in favor of another hour of sleep. By the time the tour rolled around, Katie was up and showered and ready to go but the Aussies couldn’t get excited about walking around for two hours so they went back to sleep while the Woodmere Gang braved the rain clouds and set out on the tour. Our tour guide’s name was Ronnie. She is from Tel Aviv and she was really cute and fun. Our group consisted of the Woodmere Gang, two other people about our age, and a married couple with their two year old son. It was a nice intimate group, which always makes things more fun. We got to see the cathedral of Sevilla which is the world’s largest Gothic cathedral and the people of Sevilla are very proud of that fact.

We also got to tour the old neighborhood of Barrio Santa Cruz, Plaza de España, the Murillo Gardens and lots of other fun things. About halfway through our tour, it started sprinkling a little bit. No problem! We’ll just throw our hoods on and we’re set. Well, that worked fine until a little later when the deluge of biblical proportions that threatened to wash us all away! This ended the tour a little early, as it was raining so hard that we couldn’t even hear what Ronnie was saying. That’s okay with us! We know just what to do on a rainy day! We made our way back to the hostel and decided to nap the rain away. It didn’t exactly work, but we did get nice and rested up for the next phase of our Sunday in Seville - the bullfight!

It wasn’t raining near our hostel when we left for the bullfight, but we were prepared just in case. We walked to the bull ring and got our tickets. We had fun people-watching. Bullfights are like football games in the South. Everyone comes dressed to the nines! There are lots of women in towering high heels and men with coats and ties and cigars. Lots of them came with little red and gold striped cushions to sit on. Well, we couldn’t miss out on something as cute and red and gold striped cushions! We saw a guy selling some and they even had cute little holdy-handles on the side for easier carrying. OMG, precious! We each bought a cushion so we could try and fit in a little with the people all around us in their Sunday best. We were a little late purchasing our tickets online and weren’t able to sit together so we each made our way to our seats and got comfy on our cute cushions. We were pretty early, but that turned out to be a good thing because the stands ended up being PACKED!

There was barely room to breathe or move, but that just made it even more fun. Rachael got to sit next to a really nice older Spanish couple. The wife barely spoke any English but the husband spoke a little, so they enjoyed trying to communicate and explain to Rachael what was going on. On Katie’s right were a couple of young Spanish guys who basically ignored her but on her left were a couple of older Spanish men who were really nice.

Bullfights are really interesting because while the action is going on, the whole crowd is completely silent. If anyone makes a noise, they get shushed. If the bullfighter is doing really well, the band starts to play music and it looks more like a dance than a fight. If the bullfighter does really well, he gets awarded an ear of the bull and then he walks around the ring while people throw their hats to him. If the bullfighter does poorly, the crowd begins cheering for the bull. It’s so funny that’s it pretty much exactly like you imagine a bullfight to be. We both made friends and enjoyed the whole experience. Anyone who knows Terrell Stanley knows that he’s a big hunter and has instilled the same bloodthirstiness into his children. So, it probably comes as no surprise that Katie thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing (it was her second bullfight) and can’t wait to go again. Rachael, on the other hand, isn’t a big fan of animals being killed but she stayed through the whole thing, thought it was interesting, but will probably never go again. Overall, though, it was a good cultural experience and we gained a lot of respect for both the torero (bullfighter) and the toro (bull). Below are some pictures.

***Please be warned that there are some that are kind of bloody.

After the bullfight, Katie and Rachael reconnected and started to make their way back to the hostel. Apparently we chose the right direction to go, because we ended up walking right past the exit where the bullfighters were being escorted to their getaway vehicles. It was a mob scene! One of the bullfighters ducked into the van waiting for him and the guy in the front seat started passing out sweet 8x10 glossies of the studly torero. Well, we couldn’t let an opportunity like that pass without getting a glossy! Katie jumped right in the thick of things, reached over all the people, and grabbed on of the photos and then was able to escape all in one piece.

We got back to the hostel and dropped our things off and then headed back out because we were both starving. We ended up at this teeny restaurant right by our hostel where we had some tapas and the most amazing sangria we’d ever had. Take note, y’all: the guy put sugar in the bottom of the glass, poured the sangria in (to which he told us he’d added rum and something else we didn’t understand) and then sprinkled cinnamon on top. It was amazing! When we got back to the hostel, Natalie and Blaire had just returned from a flamenco show, so we made plans to go to the Royal Alcazar with them the next morning and headed off to bed.

XOXO K&R

Kansas City? But we’re not in Kansas anymore!

Saturday, April 17

After being rejuvenated in Nerja, our next stop was Sevilla. We had booked this hostel way back in March because it’s right at the beginning of their big festival called Feria de Abril (Festival of April). Since Nerja is teeny tiny, there wasn’t a train station so we had to take a bus to Malaga and then take a train from there to Seville. We woke up to rain, rain, rain. We packed up our things and then trudged through the rain to the bus station (aka, a stop on the street with a kiosk selling tickets) and waited for our bus. We were about half and hour early so we sought shelter under one of the covered benches to wait on our bus. It finally came and we threw our backpacks under and then hopped aboard. We guess Malaga is a pretty popular place because our bus was packed full. At one stop, there was apparently a disagreement between one of the riders and the bus driver about this older lady that tried to get on. They were speaking way to fast for Katie to get what was going on, but from what she could understand, she was guessing that the bus driver wouldn’t let the lady on because she didn’t pay or something but the man on the bus was telling him he should let her on. Or maybe she’d missed the bus she was supposed to be on and was trying to get on this one or something like that. Basically, it was two men yelling at each other and the lady was crying and it was a big ol’ mess. Finally, we got to Malaga and were lucky to find that the bus station was right next to the train station so we didn’t have to go too far in the rain.

We made it to the train station to find that the place was amazing! It was like a mall, train station, movie theater and bowling alley all rolled into one! We were sort of sad that we only had about half an hour after making our reservation to spend in the train station. Well, since we have priorities, we decided that we would spend our half hour in line for Burger King. We didn’t expect for it to take that long but we should have learned by now that fast food places are only fast in the States and Paris. Since we were running short on time, yet again, Katie went ahead to hold up the train if need be while Rachael waited for the food. Rachael made it to the train just in time, but not before hurting her already bothered shoulder. She popped a few ibuprofen with lunch and hopped right back on that travelin’ horse. When we got to Sevilla, we collected our things and hopped off the train. We saw signs for Kansas City Avenue and Katie was very confused until brilliant Rachael remembered that Sevilla and Kansas City are sister cities. Now you know everything!

We made our way out of the train station and used the amazing iPhone to find our way to the hostel. It was a nice hike, but we finally made it. We plan on taking a cab back to the train station! We learned that the hostel has a neat tapas tour that they do where they take you to three different restaurants where you try different tapas and drinks. Sounds like our kind of tour! After we put our things in our room, Rachael grabbed a quick nap before the tour while Katie decided to go exploring. We met back up and freshened up before our tour. We met some new friends on the tour, most notably Natalie and Blaire, a young Australian married couple who are currently living and working in England. We ended up being good buddies with them by the end of the night.

At the first tapas restaurant, we had sangria and lots of unidentifiable but delicious tapas. Our favorite dish was potato slices cooked and slathered with amazing garlic mayonnaise. Talk about yum! The second place we went had two different kinds of sherry, which is a specialty of this region. Our favorite dish at that place was a toss-up between this interesting cheesecake kind of stuff and a really delish tender beef dish. At the third place, we had sangria again and several different seafood dishes. They also served interesting sandwiches with chorizo and cream cheese. At this point, the tapas tour ended but it was also the beginning of the pub crawl. Well, they talked us into it! Blaire and Natalie said they’d at least go to the beginning of the pub crawl so we decided to do the same. It got off to a slow start, but we ended up spending about an hour at 3 different bars before ending up at a discotheque for some crazy Spanish dancing.

We only spent a few minutes at the last place before the four of us split a cab back to the hostel. We made plans to have breakfast together the next morning and then we all went to bed.

XOXO K&R