Feria de Jamón

On Friday afternoon, I met up with Kayla and Chelsea in Real Alcázar, a giant castle-like building next to the Cathedral with extensive gardens. I wandered around for a while before they arrived and could not believe I hadn't explored this treasure place yet. But I forgot my camera! It is free to enter with a student ID, so I can go there whenever and just walk around and relax. We brought some sandwiches and sat and talked for hours on a bench with a scenic view. It was great catching up with them and enjoying some brie and chorizo.

So Much Meat

When the gardens closed, we headed to a cafe near Plaza Nueva that Chelsea used to frequent. We shared two delicious desserts and chatted some more before Rebecca joined us. We ate what I think was crema catalana and this cool whippy/marshmallowy substance between pastries. Mmm mmm mmm. Then we met up with more chicas at Plaza de Armas to buy our tickets to Aracena the next day. I also acquired the bus schedules to several cities that I want to visit. Now I just have to go there. After a lot of walking and searching for a tapas restaurant, we settled on one and enjoyed a small meal. I shared this amazing dish of risotto with squid and their ink with ali-oli. The place was an over-priced tourist trap, but my dish was unbelievably good and very interesting. Eventually, I headed home to try to get a little sleep before the early morning bus to Ham Fest.

Our Leg of Jamón Serrano

I woke up around 7:00 on Saturday, scrambled to get into my best Ham Fest attire (I wanted to wear a recycled "Swine Flu" Halloween costume but didn't have one handy), and took the buses to the bus station (sort of ironic). A large group (probably about 15 people) of us Americans met in the line and pumped each other up for the big day. We had a scenic one-hour bus ride to the town of Aracena and enjoyed some breakfast in the station there. I tried these supposedly delicious churros y chocolate again (this time with sufficient hydration), but I am still not a fan. We hung out in a plaza for a bit while some girls bought boots and then trekked to the famous Feria de Jamón. So. Much. Ham. I have never seen so many legs of ham and hanging sausages in my life. I pictured it being more outdoors, but all the food vendors were in a building and there were a lot of tables under a tent. We found a few tables together and set up camp for the day. Ivan and David collected our money and went to make some purchases. They returned with one entire leg of ham, two blocks of cheeses, three different sausages, and loaves of bread and endless bottles of wine. You also have to buy a carving stand and knives to cut the ham. Ivan started carving away, but a group of Spaniards came to help us out. It did not look easy, so I tried it out later in the day and had success cutting some yummy slices. Because it took so long to cut the ham, demand outweighed supply throughout most of the day so you had to grab the ham when it was available. All of the food was truly delicious and we were all stuffed by the end of our time there. It was quite an experience, and our huge group of Americans (more joined us there) was quite a presence at the festival. During the carving contest, the announcer asked us where we were from.

We left the festival around 3:30 and went to climb up to a giant church on a hill. Rebecca got this ridiculous burst of energy and bravery and decided to run up a completely unpaved part of the hill. I told her I would meet her at the top and went in search of a path. I found what I thought might be a path and began my hike. Big mistake. It was not a path. I climbed up some broken steps and kept going up small hills and through trees, hoping I would run into a path eventually. I am not a big hiker, and I learned that I should never do it alone. There were bees all around and a creepy rattlesnake-like sound. I found what looked like a man-made stone wall and figured there must be stairs on the other side, but when I arrived, there was absolutely nothing but dangerous rocks. So I took some beautiful pictures from about half-way up the hill and headed back down as quickly as possible. It was fairly traumatic because there was absolutely no one around. But I made it back down and felt very relieved. Later, of course, I learned that there was a road up to the top somewhere else around the hill. Dang it. So I wandered around the town, sat in the plaza for a while, and randomly ran into Rebecca somewhere on our search for the bus station. She had successfully climbed to the top. I was quite impressed. We found the bus station and had a nice ride home with some new friends that we had met that day. We decided to go home to take a nap and then reconvene later in the night to go out dancing.

The Hill and Church on Top

I tried to nap but could only lay in bed and debate whether or not to go out. I decided that I would and met up with Rebecca to go to our friends' apartment in Triana. We eventually found their place and hung out there for a while before going out. Then we walked to Calle Betis, a street with endless bars and clubs. Not wanting to pay a cover charge at a club there, we walked a while more to Buddha, a club in Plaza de Armas with three floors of dancing. It was the best club I have been to in Sevilla so far, but I have not been to many so that isn't saying too much. They played some music that I know so I had a great time dancing with my friends. Some had ditched us for KFC at that point, so it was a smaller group. We stayed there until 4:30 am, and I took an expensive cab home. I don't know how I had any energy at that point, but I skyped with Brenna and Rosa for about an hour until after 6 am. Eventually, I fell asleep 24 hours after I had woken up. I still feel tired today, but it was an amazing day in Spain so it was well worth it. I think I've had enough dancing and ham to last me a while!