Sevillanos Locos

(I will post a video of celebrations when Sevilla FC won el Copa del Rey later)

Thursday started very calmly for Alex and I. We slept through breakfast so we just went out to an early lunch at around noon. We went to the same restaurant that we did the day before because the food was good and didn’t cost as much as other restaurants.

This time we decided we would finally order paella. We had always been reluctant to do so for many reasons. For one, Alex doesn’t like seafood and many of the dishes have some sort of seafood. Also, they Paellas usually cost a lot and we have been trying to save money on food. The food here costs so much more than the food back home. However, the food is usually a lot better here.

Well when we did order it, we were amazed. It is served in the dish that it’s cooked in, which always makes for an interesting meal. It was so amazing. It was a noodle-based paella with chorizo sausage, frankfurts and bacon in it. There was also a load of mozzarella cheese around the edges that stuck the noodles to the pan.

After lunch Alex expressed his desire to learn Spanish. When we had returned to our hotel I showed him how to conjugate all the different verbs. He picked up conjugating very quickly. I think his past studies of French helped him out a lot. I then wrote down about 40 verbs on a little dry-erase board I had brought, which he proceeded to memorize. He remembered a lot of them throughout the rest of the day as well.

Well after just relaxing all day, a few Spanish lessons, and a big lunch, we decided that we were just going to have a calm night. We would just go out, get some dinner, and then head back to the hotel for our first day of relaxing.

We walked outside and heard a huge mass of people screaming. We were very confused. We then saw many roads blocked off by the police and their tiny cars. We were confused. Then we got a little closer to the screams, to find out they were songs. There were people in Sevilla FC jerseys everywhere.

I might not be the smartest man in Spain, but I think I was onto something right there. The night before Sevilla FC won the Copa del Rey. Then we were seeing everyone wearing Sevilla FC jerseys in the streets. They were all running in one direction, towards la Plaza Nueva. Then the screams we heard began to sound like chants, or songs sung in the stadiums during games. Taking in all of these pieces of information I concluded that there must be some kind of celebration.

Alex and I debated which would be the best way to go to find out. Should we take our normal route that we had been taking? Oh, wait. Maybe if we just follow all of the guys running down the street in their Sevilla jerseys, we could find the celebration! Great idea…

We sure enough got to la Plaza Nueva and it was filled. There were lights, explosions, screams, and chants all happening at once. It was ridiculous. It was at least a few thousand people. We were very shocked. And everywhere we turned, more people were piling in from the streets that led to la Plaza Nueva.

Scarves were being twirled, people were climbing on things such as the bus stops, lamp posts, construction equipment, and there were some people in the front leading the chants with megaphones.

Every so often something was shot into the air and exploded. It wasn’t like our fireworks though. Instead of a pretty display of burning fragments shooting outward in their predetermined directions, it was more of what I would call a “freaking loud explosion.” It consisted of a very loud noise, hence the name, and a bright flash. It might be comparable to being bombed, that’s how deafening the sound was. In fact, I might not have admitted it to Alex, but every time I heard that sound, I might have looked around to see which building just blew up before realizing it was the same “freaking loud explosion” they set off 15 minutes prior.

Anyhow, amid said explosions, there was a party in the streets. In Spain it is illegal to consume alcohol in the streets, so the police were patrolling this night. Where we were, near the location of the celebrations, people were either one of two things: drinking, or drunk. People holding bottles of wine, hidden ever so slightly with clear grocery bags, were stumbling around curbs and bars. Some managed to sit down under their own will, others managed to make it to the ground one way or another.

As we left the area, we were approaching a familiar location, the bars from the nights before. The drinking to drunken ratio went from about 1:1 to 10:1, heavily in favor of people trying to achieve their drunken status, rather than people who had already achieved it and managed to have enough time to nap on the streets. We were excited to see this because we were looking for people to talk to, not cry or throw up with.

Once we reached our destination of the same bars we had been to, I noticed there were police patrolling. On top of that, there were a lot of people drinking “Pepsi” in the streets. I was rather confused because the Pepsi looked more like a sparkling apple juice, but I am still trying to get used to Spain so maybe that’s Pepsi here. Personally I don’t think there is enough syrup in it.

Well anyway, we went into a bar to get just beer, I didn’t feel like I wanted Pepsi anyway. Plus, I am sure Pepsi costs more. We received two ‘botellas’ and wanted to join everyone outside. Well unfortunately there was a man guarding the door. He stopped us when we tried to go out, and I pleaded ignorance (in Spanish) and then went back into the bar.

To keep the story short, later he turned around and we fled out the entrance of the bar. It was a little gutsy, because I have never had to fight a bouncer before and I didn’t want to in Spain.

On the streets we saw other people with bottles and then the police were coming. The people holding Pepsi cups weren’t panicked, so neither was I. Other people with bottles either sat them down and walked away, or just threw them away.

I decided to hold mine behind my back. The streets are very small as you might know, and so the car will get right next to you. I thought hiding the beer would be a good idea until I noticed how close the car was about to be to me. The pea-sized car pulls right next to us, and momentarily slows down. I avoid eye contact and keep my hand steady behind me. As the car was near directly to my side, I had moved my drink to my other side in sort of a suave-James-Bond-move. In an instant, they drove off and the whole encounter was less than 15 seconds. However, it seemed longer than that.

Later we met other people in the streets. We thought they were speaking English, but they probably weren’t. Their names were Inma, Carolina, and Gema. Inma didn’t speak any English, Carolina spoke English very well, and Gema spoke it too well. I thought Gema also mastered the Australian accent before I found out she was actually Australian.

Gema left after about an hour, and then we were with the other two for the rest of the night. We all communicated, but I had to translate for Alex all the time from English to Spanish and vice versa.

We then went to a club, which is very different than the clubs in the US. Well, I haven’t ever been to a club in the US, but I imagine they are more hardcore back home. Here in Spain, they are called ‘discotecas’ and it was pretty much just a loud bar. The music was a little louder and the bar was a little longer. Oh yeah, also there was an area to dance but if you know me well enough you would know I didn’t set foot over there.

We all hung out and found out that the other two girls we were talking with were actually more women, than girls. We couldn’t tell that they were older. I won’t put their ages on here, but let’s just say we weren’t born in the same decade. Apparently the Spanish women age differently than American women. They age a lot slower.

Anyway, we made two friends in Spain that will actually show us around some cool places, but not until later. Carolina is taking it easy for now, she teaches English at a high school here and high school just got out. So she is relaxing for a bit, and yes I did party with an English teacher. And Inma goes to the University of Sevilla, and her finals are throughout the next two weeks. But later on, hopefully we can get the behind the scenes tour of Seville.