Traveling is tedious in general, traveling to Spain was beyond the usual annoyance at other passengers and incidents since I was traveling for a total of 24 hours. It was business as usual in Newark Airport, but in London I was surprised to find my flight was 4 hours earlier than I had written down. It wasn't a problem though, after I took the 30 minute bus ride to the other terminal we literally just got right on the plane. There were many more students on that flight and I sat next to a nice guy who is spending his semester in Barcelona. It seems like everyone wants to talk to each other but no one wants to strike up conversation. I ended up talking to a whole bunch of students simply because I was willing to be the first to say "hey". I didn't meet anyone who was going to Seville though, so I was on my own after Madrid.
I changed terminals and found the general area of where my flight would leave from (they don't announce gates until about 30 minutes before the flight leaves) so I made my way to McDonald's and ordered un ensalada césar. It tasted nothing like a regular ceaser salad but I was starving and at least the chicken tasted like chicken. I then got up to check if the gate had been announced - it hadn't - so I went to find another place to sit with all my stuff. After 10 minutes of reading I was so tired that I put my head down on my book and fell asleep. An hour later I realized I only had 40 minutes until my flight was going to take off, so I got up and found out which gate I needed to go to. Typical - it was on the entire other side of the terminal, so I walked about a mile all the way to the end where I sat and waited to get on the plane. On both Spain flights I had the good fortune of having screaming babies within two rows of me. What a joy. I tried to sleep through it but didn't have too much luck.
When I arrived in Seville it didn't take long to get my bags or make it outside. Getting a cab was easy and the ride into the city wasn't too bad. That's when the fun began. My cab driver charged me $38 euro which I believe is more than it should have been, but I was just happy to not have to navigate the bus system, and then he didn't even take me to the hostel. He dropped me five blocks from it and gave me very vague directions on how to get there. I had to cart my two huge bags, big carryon and backpack five blocks, where I asked everyone I came across how to get to Doña Maria Coronel. Finally I made it to the street, but walked right past the hostel, not having seen a sign or number. Thankfully I ran into Scott about 20 yards past it. He rolled one of my bags and helped me get settled in. Now that we were together, exploring would be much easier.
When I got into my room I found the bed I was supposed to have, and just my luck - some random Italian guy with dredlocks was sleeping in it. I supposed he was trying to stay without paying, but he ended up getting up and moving his stuff so that I could get settled. Then I found that the other guests in my 8 bed room were 20-40 year old men. I figured that would be interesting. I think in the US though, we are the only ones sensitive to things like that. The rest of the world doesn't seem to care - so I don't care either. My valuables are safely locked away and its not like we do anything in the room other than shower and sleep.
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