me, Mike and Kyle at the flamenco show in Sevilla

At the end of February I hosted my first official visitors from the US. Former roommate and fellow Mary Wash alum Mike Bernal came to Sevilla and Huelva with another friend of ours, Kyle. Another former roommate (from the same house) Ryan met us the next weekend in Barcelona for a few days of frolicking in Gaudi’s works.

Mike and Kyle flew into Sevilla on a Saturday morning so I met them at the airport. Although neither one slept on their overnight flights they were troopers and lasted through a day of walking around the city sightseeing and a night of tapas, flamenco, and sangria. Sunday morning we wandered into a bar to get some breakfast/lunch and ended up having the most delicious jamon (special  Iberian ham from acorn-fed pigs) sandwiches. Mike and Kyle are both really into food and cooking so they were eager to try everything Spain has to offer.

Sunday afternoon we picked up our rental car and drove around Sevilla for a few hours. That may or may not have been intentional (it’s always good when your directions take you on a street that’s exclusively for taxis and buses!). Once we finally got out of the city and on the highway it was smooth sailing. Our plan was to head to Aracena, a town in the sierra of Huelva. We had planned to go to lunch at a restaurant in a little tiny town next to Aracena, but since we were delayed getting out of Sevilla the restaurant was closed by the time we got there. So we drove back on the narrow, windy mountain road to Aracena and found a place to chow down on jamon and queso.

In the evening we had a beautiful drive returning to Huelva, but I didn’t really get to appreciate it because I was focusing on driving, which was a bit stressful at times when cars were driving on my tail in these curvy mountain roads. When we got back to Huelva we inadvertently discovered that the “make out point” of Huelva is my school’s parking lot. I had the bright idea of parking the car there overnight so I could go from work the next day and return it. But when we pulled up to the parking lot there were a bunch of cars parked there. Hmm, that’s strange, I thought. Then we look around and one of the boys notices that it’s all couples in the car and some of the windows are fogged up :O !! Needless to say, we did not park the car there. But I’m sure some of the people thought it was strange that a car with three people pulled up and parked for a few minutes…

Kyle and Mike in front of some of Huelva’s finest cacti

I had to work Mon – Wed so the boys stayed in Huelva with me. They were left to explore Huelva on their own Monday morning and even though I gave them a map and some instructions they got lost. But in the afternoons we had some nice walks around the town and I even saw some things I hadn’t seen before.

On Wednesday we went back into Sevilla after I had finished at the school. We did a little more exploring and enjoyed churros with chocolate before heading to the airport to catch our flight to Barcelona. One highlight of the churros was watching the guy at the stand shamelessly catcall women walking by. At one point he even started neighing like a horse (I’ve heard whistles, and “guapa” and kissy noises, but horse neighs were a new one for me.)

We didn’t get into Barcelona until pretty late so we just crashed at the hostel and waited for Ryan to show up on Thursday morning. Once Ryan was in and ready to go we set off to explore the city. We hit up the Picasso Museum and the waterfront area, which was nice even though it was a rather overcast day.

Thursday night we enjoyed some delicious paella at a really nice restaurant, 7 Ports (at least I think that was the name). After dinner we went to a bar to have a few drinks and just chitchat. It was really great to hang out with old friends again. I probably laughed more that week than I had all year up to that point.

Friday morning I got a great run in along the beaches of Barcelona. It was a sunny, warm morning and tons of people were out walking and running on the boardwalk. The only thing that caught me off guard was the nude beach I ran by that was populated by exactly 3 old men whose saggy bellies (and more) were hanging out for everyone to see. Yikes. Later that day we went to Sagrada Familia, Gaudi’s uncompleted cathedral. I had seen it the last time I was in Barcelona in November but didn’t go inside. We did enter this time and it was trippy. That is the best word I have to describe it.

On Saturday we enjoyed more Gaudi at the Parc Guell, which I think is probably my favorite thing we saw/did in Barcelona. It’s a very organic blend of art and nature, not surprising at all coming from Gaudi who drew lots of inspiration from nature.

part of Parc Guell

After the park we went to another park (yeah we’re creative) and then to Barceloneta, one of the beaches. Unfortunately it was another overcast day so the weather wasn’t the best, but we saw some ridiculous sand sculptures. One was a large dragon that actually had a little fire burning in his mouth. Another large sandcastle had a sort of fountain built in with water constantly streaming down the front like a mini-waterfall.

Saturday night was our last night together and we had tickets to see Vampire Weekend in concert (they’re a band from NY). We’ve seen them before in DC, but thought it would be a lot of fun to see them in Spain. And it was.

The concert was held inside this old fort thingy that looked like a castle from the outside. We had to wait a while to pick up our tickets (in typical Spanish unorganized fashion the line for picking up tickets didn’t open until about 15 minutes before the show). But we made it in just in time for the show to start. It was an awesome concert, my only complaint being that it wasn’t long enough.

Since the show ended fairly early (10:30) we ran to get into a restaurant that had been recommended to Kyle. We were somehow able to finagle a table (one of those, just look like you know what you’re doing moves) and enjoyed a really nice meal. The only real downer of the trip occurred after dinner when there was a near mugging, but luckily the guy didn’t get anything out of Kyle’s pocket. Otherwise it was an awesome trip filled with lots (and I mean lots–we tried three different brands of jamon-flavored chips) of good Spanish food and laughter. I’m looking forward to hosting my next visitors for Semana Santa then Amanda for her return trip in April.