Más Feliz Que Una Perdiz

Translation: "Happier than a partridge." Similar to "Happy as a clam" in English. Who knows why partridges and clams are so happy?

Last weekend we had yet another 3 day weekend because Spain basically has an infinite number of holidays. It's easy to get used to the lifestyle here and at least once a month having a nice, long weekend. This 0ne was for El Día de Todos los Santos (All Saints Day), so the Monday after Halloween I didn't have to work.

So to take advantage of the mini-holiday, I hopped on a bus on Friday after work and went down to Sevilla in the south of Spain to visit my friend Martín. The beauty of traveling within Spain is that it is super easy to find a bus that goes anywhere in the country and it's really really cheap. For example, this trip only cost me 30 euros round trip. The bad part is that the bus ride was 6 and a half hours long. So that part was no fun. But it was definitely worth it once I got there.

First of all, it was really interesting to be in Sevilla after being in Kansas City only a couple of months ago. Sevilla and KC are sister cities, so you can find stuff scattered throughout either city about it's "sister." Here you can see a sign by the train station leading onto Kansas City street:

So anyway, Friday night I didn't arrive until almost midnight because of the long bus ride, so my friend Martín picked me up at the bus station and we went straight to the apartment of Fernando, one of Martín's friends, to have some drinks and to hang out. At that point, I didn't know any of his friends, so I was a bit nervous. In the south of Spain, the people speak a lot faster and have a pretty different accent than those in Madrid. So meeting them all and trying to understand everything that was going on was a bit difficult until I became more accustomed to the accent, and that only served to make me more nervous.

But of course, that is nothing that a couple of drinks and a few hours of hanging out can't fix.

So around 4 in the morning (typical Spanish time) we decided to call it a night and I went and slept. Overall it was a good first night because I met several of Martín's friends and had a good, relaxing time.

On Saturday we woke up and Martín and I went to grab some lunch and to walk around the city a bit. The food in the south of Spain is delicious, so that's always a guaranteed good time. However, on Saturday it was really rainy and cold so we postponed our tour of the city because we didn't want to be out in the nasty weather. Plus, I have already been to Sevilla before, so I had already seen all the main sites. So we went back and just kind of watched some movies and hung out indoors until the evening, when we went to grab some dinner and meet up with some friends again. Another pretty chill day/night, which was definitely fine by me.

On Sunday, Martín had a wedding in the morning, so I was on my own for a bit. So I slept in and then took some time to walk around the city and see some sights. And of course, eat as much food as I possibly could.

Here are a couple of pictures from walking around the city:

This is the Giralda, the famous tower in Sevilla. It was built hundreds of years ago and has switched hands from Catholics and Muslims various times throughout the centuries, but it's still standing strong. You can go up inside of it, which I did when I was in Sevilla years ago. But this time the line was too long and I didn't have the patience for it.

And as you can see, the weather was really nice that day.

Here is the huge Plaza de España that was just finished being renovated. It is gigantic and absolutely beautiful. The picture really doesn't do it justice.

So Sunday is when the real fun began. It was Halloween, so there were all kinds of parties and theme nights going on all over the city. However, Halloween is celebrated a bit different in Spain. It's not a night made for dressing up as cowboys or princesses or Sarah Palin. It's supposed to be a night of pure terror and the only costumes that are acceptable are vampires, witches, zombies, etc. Lots of blood and gore and dead things. In fact, here is a picture from inside one of the bars we went to that night:

Looks like something from the exorcist, right? So dead people everywhere and nothing whimsical and happy about it. But just like all other things, it's so cool to see how things are different from place to place.

So we spent the night hopping around to different bars and discotecas and grabbing drinks here and there. Altogether it was me, my friend Martín, and his friends Blanca, Fernando, and Javi. Here is a partial picture of the group:

From left to right: Martín, Blanca, me (incapable of making a normal face in pictures), and Fernando. This was such an incredibly fun group and I couldn't be happier that I spent Halloween with them. As you can see, we didn't get dressed up. That makes me kind of sad, because in the US I never miss an opportunity to dress up as something crazy. But costumes just aren't as popular here in Spain, so I suppose it's alright.

So here are a couple more pictures from the night:

Blanca and Fernando showing just how much the love me. And I am obviously very excited about that.

And I seemed to find a kindred spirit in Fernando because he's also completely incapable of making normal faces in pictures.

So Halloween night was really fun and I'm so glad I got to spend it in Sevilla with my new Spanish friends. :)

The next day I got to sleep in a bit and then had some lunch and hopped on the bus to come back home to Madrid. Spending another 6 and a half hours in the bus wasn't really the ideal way to end my trip, but I slept most of the way anyway, so I guess it wasn't so bad.

But it was a really fun trip and SO nice to get out of Madrid for awhile. I love this city but sometimes it's nice to have a break from the hustle and bustle.

So overall, Sevilla gets pretty high marks from me.