Sevilla: how to make friends whilst travelling
One day I promise I will arrive at a hostel without getting lost! I made the mistake of not downloading the local map before arriving into Sevilla, so I relied 100% on the directions from strangers.
I have at least learnt how to scan a place for someone who looks relatively friendly that I can ask for directions – and they always tend to be women – I can understand them more when they speak. I asked a friend if my language comprehension was sexist, and she told me there is a scientific reason why women understand other women more easily – something to do with the decibels and vocal chords. I am more in tune with the way a woman’s voice sounds.
Lesson: don’t waste time choosing who to ask for directions. Just ask someone and don’t be afraid to ask them to tell you slowly or to repeat as necessary. No one gets offended if you tell them you didn’t understand. Avoid asking people with backpacks or maps. A dog is generally a good sign of a local walking around their neighbourhood.
My hostel, La Banda, gets its social reputation from their rooftop patio, 7-8pm happy hour with €3 cocktails and 9pm ‘family dinners’. Almost everyone involved then hits the town at midnight and is out until at least 4am, in my case that night, 6am!
Another lesson: unpack your clothes and toiletries soon after checking in. You won’t want to do it late at night and it will be impossible to get ready in the morning in the dark trying not to rustle through your bags and wake up the hungover bunkmates.
There are lots of touristic reasons why people visit Sevilla – The Real Alcazar was featured as the city of Dorne in Game of Thrones, the Plaza de Espana was featured int he filming of Star Wars and the Cathedral is the biggest is Spain, the third biggest church in Europe and the largest gothic building in the world. The architecture is stupendous and the gardens of Plaza de Espana, which also include a beautiful moat where you can hire and row a little boat, are beautiful.
However, I discovered on this trip that already only a week into my trip, I didn’t want to spend all day in lines to the attractions. It did mean that I missed out on the Alcazar, which as a GoT fan I was annoyed at missing as the guided tour I’d booked made an error. As an atheist, visiting the cathedral didn’t thrill me. What I wanted to do was discover the local food, walk to the non-touristy neighbourhoods and hang out with people I’d met from my hostel.
On my third day at La Banda, I came downstairs to see Anthelme, a friendly French guy, planning a walk through the city, he asked if I would join him ad before I knew it, we found ourselves getting lost in the winding streets of Sevilla. We found a local restaurant and sat lazily in the sun for two hours speaking in waves of English and Spanish about life, jobs, and sustainable development. You know, light-hearted stuff. Anthelme has an Argentinian flair when he speaks thanks to the friends he has spent time with, which was confirmed by the waiter at the restaurant when he asked if he was Argentinian. What a compliment! All I received was “You’re obviously Australian”. Well, just stab a dagger through my heart!
However the highlight of that day was when a bird in the tree above decided to let go of his load, all over Anthelme’s head and t-shirt. The restaurant owner told us it was good luck, and she was right – I found a euro in the street, which I can promise you was put towards a good cause – a beer at the rooftop bar later that night.
One thing I want to take away from Anthelme is his ability to initiate a conversation with anyone. He randomly asked me if I wanted to explore the city with him, he chatted calmly with the waiter at the restaurant, discovering he was a lawyer from Venezuela who had moved to Spain and needed to re-learn the laws of Spain. Then later he struck up a conversation about Spanish history with an attendant at a rather empty tourist attraction. On the way back to the hostel in the afternoon, I mentioned that he should ask a local Sevillano about Sevilla’s ‘feria’, their Spring fair and party time, and Anthelme wasted no time. He stopped the first person who walked past us, asked him if he were a local of Sevilla and proceeded to question him about the feria. It always takes me a few minutes of psychological warm up and practise sentences before I can stop a stranger and ask them something, and even then I’ll think of a thousand other things I wanted to ask after walking away, but didn’t have the self confidence to do so. However this is the way to improve my Spanish! So the next evening on a hostel night out, I got bored of speaking English with the other travellers so I channelled what I’d learnt from Anthelme in just a day and noticed a bearded man (obviously Spanish, they all have beards here!) on his phone alone at a table. I walked right up to him, fuelled by the courage brought to me by the wine I’d already consumed, and just started talking. Soon, his friend who had been at the bar ordering drinks, returned and before I knew it, I was having a slightly drunken, and rather intellectual conversation in Spanish about immigration and refugees in Australia.
Now, THIS is travel. I won’t forget the girl talk with Melissa from Costa Rica, talking about Aboriginal history with Alberto from Mexico, or complaining about having to get used to the Spanish restaurant times with Ali, my compatriot from Australia.
One thing I would love to forget is waking up at 4am one morning to my bunk bed shaking and the Brazilian girl underneath my bed getting royally screwed by someone I can only assume was a guy at the hostel (which I later confirmed by surveying the arms of all guys the next day, identifying the match with the hairy arm I saw hanging out of the bunk through the curtain the next morning).
I remembered a friend asking me if I could ever do it, and I thought maybe I could, but after that experience, definitely NOT. I’m too old for that. I popped in my ear plus and after five minutes it was over anyway. The worst part was that I could smell the alcohol. Gross. But that’s hostel life!
My experience in Sevilla has been wonderful – it is lively but beautiful. The people are relaxed, and there is always someone ready to go out for a bite to eat or crack open a beer. I only wish I had time to be there during Feria, when the city awakens for a two week party. But, on we go to discover the next place in my journey – Granada!
