h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It's about time I got round to writing up my impressions of the meet in Seville, before it all goes fuzzy in my memory.

All my travel plans went perfectly, and I met lots of interesting people on planes and trains, although I was very tired due to having to get up extremely early.

I left on the Thursday evening to stay near the airport at Frankfurt Hahn ready for the early flight on the Friday. The flight to Jerez was at 6.45, but everything went according to schedule and I arrived in Seville, by train from Jerez, on an earlier train than Azahar was expecting me on.

I took a taxi to her house, by which time she was home from her class. She and Noggin took me to the pension which was very near where they live. We arranged to meet for lunch in front of the Cathedral. On the way there, after unpacking and signing in, I joined Lucky Star and Dai (met them by chance, on the stairs) and we walked to the Cathedral together, bumping into Ben and Z and Mother of God on the way there.

From the fountain where we gathered, Az took us to a restaurant on a corner of some of the labyrinthine streets of Santa Cruz. The food was delicious - every meal we had was superb, under the guidance of Azahar and Noggin who knew the best restaurants and bars and what to order once you were there.

In the afternoon we walked through the park and looked at the Spanish Pavillion at the Plaza de Espana, which was decorated with painted tiles depicting historical scenes from each of the larger Spanish towns. The courtyard in front of the semi-circular building has a waterway and lots of lovely bridges in the same blue and white ceramic design.

Teuchter discovered all sorts of interesting things - parakeets, a frog fountain, a peacock and a chicken - in the park.

In the evening, Teuchter, her husband, and I, were going to watch a flamenco show - but it was sold out. We procured tickets for the following night, to make sure of a place, and found a restaurant to have dinner at instead.

On the Saturday morning we all met for breakfast - this time there were ten of us - Azahar and Noggin, Teuchter and Mr Teuchter, Ben and Z, Lucky and Dai, Mother of God and me. We seemed to successfully annoy/confuse the waiter, but the tea was jolly good. Dai, who had still been too ill to eat at lunch time on the Friday, was getting better, and Ben's migraine was ebbing, too, so everyone was on best form.

We sauntered across the Cathedral square and queued up to visit Alcazar, which is a royal palace of enormous proportions with bits from every era of Spanish history. The gardens are restful and the architecture typically ornamental.

We all met again for lunch - this time in a pizzeria, where beautiful young Spanish people served us delicious pizza and wine.

This is where Dai was amusing us by reading snippets from the phrase book in an arbitrary order. The winning phrase "It's next to the apples" was from the section on "asking the way". It didn't fit at all, and Azahar reckoned that it was wrongly translated: Manzana means apple, but when you're talking about landmarks on the street it means a block of houses. How anything can be "next to" a block, I am not sure ...., but the wine and the situation. You had to be there.

After lunch and further wandering about, I decided to split off from the rest and try and get in to see the Cathedral. Unfortunately it had closed 15 minutes before I got there. As it was closed for a Service, I decided to go to Mass instead, but was turned away at the door by a horrid gruff old man.

So I headed back to my quarters, feeling rather thirsty, and nearly fell over everyone sitting outside a bar having a drink. I embarrassed everyone by being very English and having tea with milk (No way, José, - not with hot milk. He took it away and brought me cold milk - what a sweetie he was!)

By now I had blisters on my feet from all the walking, and I put my feet up for a while and changed my shoes before going to the flamenco show as arranged.

The show consisted of a dancer, a singer and a guitar player performing in various combinations - usually all three together. It was very impressive, but there was no explanation about what the songs were about, their origin, or what the dances were about.

Afterwards we found the others at one of the bars which had become a favourite (their jamón was out of this world!) and had a round of before setting out to find somewhere to get a proper dinner. That round of drinks proved to be our downfall, as we didn't manage to find anywhere to seat the (then) 8 of us before midnight. However, it was worth the wait - the food was, once again, perfect.

We had intended to try the "pringa" at one particular bar, but it was over-full, but the meal we had was delicious - the best being prawns (nice fat ones) wrapped in bacon and served with a sherry sauce.

It was one o'clock by the time we came out, which was really two o'clock, because the clocks were due to go forward that night.

And Azahar (bless her little cotton socks) had promised to meet me outside my pension at 6.50 the next morning, to accompany me to the bus station to catch my 7.15 bus back to the airport. Apart from anything else, a person crossing that part of town on their own in the dark can easily run into trouble, so I was very grateful to Noggin and Azahar for coming with me.

I got the coach from Seville to Jerez, in Jerez I took a taxi to the airport, and from there on it all went according to plan, my husband picked me up at Hahn when I landed on the Sunday lunchtime.

I can't find the words to express what a wonderful hostess Azahar was and what fun we all had together, how relaxed Seville made me feel and how mind-blowing the food was.

Here are Azahar's pictures. (Mine are on their way to her very soon - I need access to another computer before I can upload them. Don't ask.)

http://public.fotki.com/azahar/seville_mini_meet/?cmd=slideShowFlash

What a wonderful report TC - wish I could have gone -next to the apples
But then it's only a bit more than three weeks until our meet here

oh my, I really wish I could have joined the meet.

Indeed a wonderful report - made me feel almost like I'd been there myself!


az

That sounds as if it was really great, TC!

Azara

Oh gosh - I thought that my report had been so long no one was going to plough through it - certainly not comment!!

I really would love to go to Dublin and meet everyone there. It's certainly no less crazy than dashing off to Seville like that!

It's my turn tomorrow!



Wish I could have come to Seville

to view photos

I've never been to Seville; you make it sound a really great place, TC. How lovely to be able to take off and get together like that ... and the foods sounds to have been wonderful . Thanks for sharing it with us!