Seville, Spain and a story from The-Tent

The four nights I spent in Seville were great. The people I met were interesting, fun to be around, and in general, warm-hearted people. I have found that most travellers are all of these things and will gladly help out a fellow traveller in his / her time of need.

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Here is a story that I have yet to talk about in my blog. It happened at The-Tent in Munich (I know, I talk A LOT about this place). When I arrived in Munich from Prague, I had just left my two travelling companions and I was still new to being on my own. The first few people that I met in Munich were from England and The States. One girl, from Colorado, was 25 years old and had been travelling alone for about 3 months. Her name was Joy.

Joy seemed like a very caring person - I sensed that immediately after meeting her. When I told her that I was also from The States, her eyes widened and she asked me, "I know this will sound random, but what bank do you use?". When I told her Bank of America, her eyes grew even wider and a big smile appeared on her face. What she told me next was that her wallet had gotten stolen a few days prior, and she had no way of getting any money until Bank of America sent her a new card. She was broke at this point: No ATM card, No Credit Card, No Money.

"I know that this will sound a little bit crazy because I just met you and all, but how would you feel about letting me transfer money into your ATM account?" Of course I wasn´t going to keep the money, but take her money out of my account (from the ATM) and give it to her. One day after meeting Joy, we went to an internet cafe to make the transfer, then to the ATM, and this resulted in her having cash again...and being able to survive. For the two days prior to me arriving, she was basically stuck at The-Tent, and her friends she met there would cook extra food for her to eat. She wasn´t able to ask anyone else for money because nobody else at the camp site had a Bank of America account. I was glad to help this girl in her time of need and she greatly appreciated the help.

Sharing food when there is extra, cooking meals with new people (I have become the king of this), and exchanging travel stories / life experiences are all daily rituals that I am observing on my journey. I see myself becoming more and more confident each day when it comes to meeting new people. I can start up conversations with just about anybody at this point, and oddly enough they are some of the best conversations of my life. Easily the most interesting (hearing about places they have travelled and different cultures they have experienced).

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Well, Seville was great and below are a few pictures of the places I visited. My best experiences were easily the conversations I had, the night we cooked a big spaghetti and chilli meal for 4 euro each, and the late nights spent walking around the city - glasses of wine in hand. That is definitely a cultural difference that I feel a lot of Americans take advantage of when coming to Europe. Having a drink in the streets.

The Cathedral (it is massive)!

"Caños de Carmona", old Roman Aqueduct.

Plaza de toros... aka bull ring (there were no bull fights when I was here)

Plaza de Espana.

Finalmente, La Garten de Alcazar.

My proudest moment from Seville was ordering tickets at the Santa Justa train station using only Spanish and no English. Although I haven´t studied the language in over four years, I remember enough to get by and have small conversations when I need directions, tickets, etc. It is a great feeling after communicating with someone in a language other than English. It made me consider studying Spanish again, which is similar to how I felt after visiting Italy (I had signed up to take an intensive Italian language course at UMass, but it ended up not fitting in my schedule). I do want to learn another language, though...

Ciao for now!