The mixture of European and Arib in Sevilla, Andalucía

            I had talked to Chus the night before and she said that she would be glad to host me, show me around Sevilla, and tell me what other cities in Andalucía I should visit; in other words she was going to be my tour guild.  So that morning I hoped on the train and head to Sevilla.  I was using the Eurail pass so thought that all my train rides were included with the pass and I didn't have to pay anything, I was wrong.  The fine print said that on certain trains and countries you have to pay a reservation fee and I didn't know; these reservation fees would end up haunting me threw out my trip.  So what else could I do, I had to get to Sevilla, the fee was 8 euros, so I payed it.

            After the longest train ride I have ever taken, five and a half hours, I arrived to Sevilla.  The first thing that shocked me was the heat; a ton of people had told me that the south of Spain was really hot but I didn't realize how much until I got of that train.  Like in every good story there are obstacles and mine was how was I going contacting Chus to let her know I had arrived.  I had my laptop but there wasn't any free wifi, I had no cell phone, the pay phone didn't seem to work, and the people were very rude and would not lead me there phones to make a call.  So after an hour and a half of trying different things to contact Chus, I got a pay phone to work and I got a hold of her.  She told me she had been waiting for me all day and that she would pick me up in 15 minutes.  She picked me up I met her family, ate amazing food, and went to a bar to watch Spain win the euro cup 2012.  After the win we went to a small park that was packed with people sing and cheer because of the victory.  "YO SOY ESPANOL, ESPANOL, ESPANOL!!!!" 

         The next day Chus took me on her moped the central of Sevilla so I could explore while she was at work.  The second thing that really shocked me was the architecture; it all looked like something out of the movie, Aladdin or the video game, Assassin's Creed.  I didn't know but the south of Spain was occupied by the Persian and Ottoman empire, so there are tons of Arib influences in the architecture.

      The mixture of European and Arib aesthetic in the architecture is stunning and the building that best demonstrates this mixture is the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the See; also know as Seville Cathedral.  This Cathedral used to be a Muslim mosque and after the Spaniards took back the south they kept the minaret, turned it into a bell tower, but a gothic cathedral around it, and that is what is there now.    

          I have seen and learned about relics, but I have never been shocked by them until this trip in Europe, just about very church in Europe has relics.  You would walk into these rooms that had a little bone incased is huge cases made out of gold and jewels.  Since I'm, from Colombia one of the jokes I would tell my Spaniard friends was why should I have to pay to get in all these cathedrals when most of the gold in there came from Colombia and South America.  But they knew I was kidding and I know that the money you pay is to help maintain these space for future generations.

          Since we're talking about the Europeans coming to the  Americas let me share the little detail I didn't know about what was located inside the Seville Cathedral.  Inside they have the tomb and some of the remains of Christopher Columbus.  I'm not a big fan of Columbus but it was neat to see the tomb of a man that change the word.  Below are two image of the tomb.  

         After a long day of walking in 100 plus heat I met up with Chus and she took me to see more of the city.  She took me to see a building that is love by some and hated by others, the Metropol Parasol building.  This building love by some because they like the new age architecture and hated by others because they say it ruins the feel of the city putting something new in when there so many historical building around.  I think it's a cool looking building but I can see the clash there is between it and the surrounding architecture.

         The last thing we did was go out to eat.  There is a street in Sevilla that is know for these little fishes that they leave in a seasoning over night and then fry them the next day.  I hate fish, but since I was here, and Josep had raved about these fishes I had to try them.  They were very good and you couldn't tell it was fish; if you were blind folded and ask to guess what you were eating you would not know it was fish.  Another thing that I loved was tinto de verano; which is a summer drink and it's red wine with carbonated lemonade, something like Sprite or Fanta.   After eating we headed back to Chus' apartment to rest because my next few days where going to be a ton of traveling around Andalucía.

@jack at @risd (Jack Dorsey at RISD)

           On Friday I had a chance to go to RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) to hear Jack Dorsey, one of the creators of Twitter, talk about becoming and being an entrepreneur.  The talk was very interesting and there were some points that stuck in my head.  But the one that most impressed me was about commerce.  

          Dorsey said he wants to make the experience of paying for things not so painful.  People go into places and it's like dam I want or need this but it sucks I have to pay for it with my hard earned money.  He wants to create a world in where you go in and you don't really think about the fact you are paying, you are fine with it.  For example going into a coffee shop and the person at the front desk already knows what you want to order because your phone has let them know what you have ordered in the past and what is most likely what you want.  Then you simple sweep your card, get your order and you are out the door.  Then when you're leaving your phone asks you how much you want to leave for tip.  That way you can taste what you just ordered and can leave a tip on how good the product was made rather then the ability a person has to press some bottoms on a register.  The experience the consumer has is just as important as the product that is being sold.

         Dorsey also talked about how Twitter was created to exchange knowledge freely, easily, and to let people decided what is important to them.   Thats the main reason a tweet is no longer then 140 characters so any one in the world can use a simple cell phone to send a tweet.  Over all on the topic of becoming an entrepreneur he said he never grew up saying he wanted to become one, it just happened.  In reality he just wanted to create things that would help people live a happier life.  

A night in Barcelona

              I had a flight from Lisbon to Barcelona and had no idea where I was going to stay and where I was going. So while I was still in Lisbon I made sure I took some time to start emailing and facebooking with friends in Spain.
   
             My friend Josep, that I met in my backpacking trip with La Ruta Inka, was living in Barcelona for law school and said I could crash at his place.  But it was only for that one night since he had a flight at 7am the next day.  I told him that was fine and when I got there I would figure out where I would go next.
   
             After a delayed air plain ride, not knowing what trains to take, and having to beg people to use their cell phones to call Josep, I finally meet up with him.  First thing we did was go to his piso (appartment to Spaniards)  to drop off my bag and then go get some tapas and some of his favorite local beer.  While eating I called another of our friends from La Ruta Inka, Chus, and talked to her about heading down to Sevilla to go visit her.  She was pumped and told me to head down in train the next day.
   
            There were two things I wanted to make sure I got to see before we did anything else, since I wasn´t sure when and how long I was going to be in Barcelona for my next time around.  Those two things were, La Sagrada Familia and Casa Batlló by the architect Antoni Gaudi.  Gaudi was influenced by forms in nature; insects, animals, and plants so his building were really strange since they looked like no other buildings.
   
            I got to have a quick look at what I wanted to see and then after dropping off my camera we went out for the rest of the night, with the plans that would just pull an all nighter and pick up our bags in the morning and head the airport and train terminal. Josep took me to the walk in the amazing streets of Barri Gòtic, which is the oldest part of the city and it feels like you're in a knight walking through a middle evil/gothic city.
     
           Walked up and down the narrow cobbled streets for a while and then Josep asked me if I wanted to go try some Absinthe and told him "it's my first time in Europe why wouldn't I want to try some absinthe".  So we went into a little bar, that looked more like a luxurious theater then a bar.  We sat down at a table we ordered a round of Absinthe and the waitress brought back two glasses one forth of the way fill with a dark green liquid, two spoons, a little envelope with cubes of sugar, and with a water bottle with a whole on the top.   The way you're supoused to drink Absinthe is by placing the spoon with a sugar cube cross the top of the glass with the Absinthe in it and then slowly let water drip on the sugar cube so it melts and dips into the of Absinthe, then after all that you can drink it.
   
          After our drink we went walking on La Rambla, which is a main pedestrian street that leads toward the harbor.  Once we go to the water, we sat down to talk, reminisce about our backpacking trip in Central America, and have canned beers that we bought from guys that would walk by and sell them out of plastic bags full of ice for a euro a piece.  A few hours went by and it was time to go get our bags and I had to head to the next destination on my trip, Sevilla.