SEVILLA

I´m writing to you from my first night in a hostel in Sevilla, España.  My 3 girlfriends from my university and I just got in from a night of tapas with a local friend and a flamenco show after.  I fell in love with flamenco.  The rhythm, music, dancing, lyrics, and passion of the musicians are incredible.  The show I went to had 1 amazing guitarist (Santana has nothing on him, he made the guitar sing!), one Spanish singer, and a flamenco dancer.  The dancer wore one of the traditional flamenco dresses (I imagine.. I have some research to do!), which was black with a red undercolor and red spots.  Her feet moved faster than my eyes could follow, and their clapping and rhythms were amazingly coordinated.  The music was mesmorizing and I was captivated by all of it. 
The city of Sevilla is a pretty big city, population of 700,000+, only 100,000 less than Valencia, but the atmosphere and feel of the city is completely different.  There are hundreds of tiny, winding roads here in Sevilla, with very few main straight city roads.  Almost all of the streets here are brick and cobblestone, and the overall feel to the city is more cultured and antique.  It´s really an amazing change to experience.  This was one of the main trading ports with America hundreds of years ago, and has so much culture here.  We walked past an enormous cathedral on our venture to our hostel this morning, and just returned at night to see it lit up in all it´s glory.  (I´m going to add names and facts in my later posts once I have time to learn about all of the amazing sights I´m seeing). 
There are tons of markets, a central market, and a gypsy market that we plan on visiting during our 3-day stay. 
Our hostel is a really amazing place!  I was extremely surprised, as I had only imagined hostels to be dirty, unsafe, one-roomed places with sketchy travelers-- but this hostel was really a great find.  There are at least 30 rooms here, 5 floors, and a rooftop pool and bar.  Everyone seems to be speaking a different language and it´s a really nice experience.  Sheets, towels, soap, and shampoo are provided, and there are lockers to store our backpacks in during the day while we explore the city. 
I really want to write more about the language and the culture but my exhaustion from my day of traveling is really catching up with me (we got up at 5am to take a metro, airplane, and a bus here, as well as walk across the city to our hostel).  So I´ll leave you all with this for tonight.
P.S. I´m in LOVE with Spain.  I really feel like I´ve found myself here.  A lot of my friends have said the opposite, that they miss so much about the US, and the structure and formality.  But I can´t get enough of the language, culture, attitude, style, and everything in-between.  I wish I could express to you how happy I feel here, I´ve never felt this comfortable in the US. 

Tomorrow´s agenda:
free walking tour through our hostel
walking to some of the markets
exploring the city and getting lost
hopefully seeing another flamenco show
visiting the main cathedrals
and the rest is yet for us to find out!


XOXO