Streets of Seville
The streets in the hub of Seville are the tightest streets ever, literally mini cars barely fit on the roads with the car tires rubbing both sides of the curb. It is rare for the car to have its side mirrors out and some buildings have cutouts on the corners to allow cars to make a turn. Everyone walking the streets had their phones out on Google Maps trying to navigate through the angled and zigzagging roads. The reason why the buildings are so close together is to allow maximum shade coverage for keeping homes cool in the hot summers.
When we walked into our condo that was right in the heart of the city (Santa Cruz district), it had an overpowering smell of air freshener, and all the windows opened. That night we woke up with a strong odour of sewage. After contacting the owner, he had a plumber there the next day. Unfortunately, the smell only got a bit better, but the toilet started leaking. The stay was interesting dealing with the plumber and fighting with the owner of the condo.
The Spanish culture can come across harsh by their short answers and urgency. They have no problem budging you in line if you are taking your time and they, of course, don't say "sorry" about it. In Barcelona, we found that many people spoke English. In Seville fewer people did. This was a challenge at times. Google translate has become our best friend.
The streets were full of locals, and when they say that the Spanish eat late, they are not kidding. They would eat around 9 pm with their kids of all ages. The playground would even have kids playing at it as late as midnight. I think there is something to be said for how buy-the-book us North American are. Chris and I realized we are way to square and should be a bit more like the European’s.
Can we say "embarrassing"? Imagine this; we are at a Flamenco show (style of dance originated in Seville), sitting there sipping our Sangrias. Chris is carrying Cruz in the carrier and Jada is loving watching the show standing on my lap. Thirty minutes rolls by in the show, and Jada starts getting antsy, she starts dancing in the crowd in her very own Flamenco dress. Then Jada starts laughing, talking loudly and moving around. A staff member comes over and tells us she needs to be quite, Jada then starts yelling and talking even louder. We had to pack up everything and grab Jada in a frenzy all while Jada is yelling "mom, you covered my mouth."
The continues sickness of our kids carried on and peaked when we were in Seville. One morning Chris mentioned his stomach hurt, I of course, went into hyper-anxiety about this, as most people know I have a puke phobia which I learned is a thing called "Emetophobia." Chris ended up puking that morning, and I had an upset stomach all day. The stress of this going to our kids was tenfold. That night Cruz started full on projectile vomiting all over Chris (haha). We thought for sure it was a stomach flu going around our house. The next day Chris and I felt better. However, Cruz continued to puke every night mostly after a coughing episode which confirms Chris and I probably just ate something a little off and poor Cruz was vomiting due to his cold.
A couple of times we left Jada with girls that are from North America in Spain teaching English while we went out for dinner and lunch with our tag-along baby, Cruz. One night we left (considering restaurants don’t open up for dinner till 8 pm) after Jada went to sleep. To her surprise, she woke up to a random girl in the condo. Of course, she tricked her with her stall sleeping tactics and ended up playing with her late into the night.
Chris is now a fulfilled guy. He finally got to do some shopping. It happened at 9 pm after the kids went to bed. Luckily, he found a local designer with some beautiful and unique clothes. Our shared suitcase no longer zips up, but it was worth it.
We will be missing this lovely city!
XOXO
Nicole + Chris
Posted on November 20, 2018 by admin in tagged
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