Every Hour is Happy Hour! (at least in Sevilla)

(The Way of Life in Sevila)

After our moments of historical/religious reverence, we were in need of lunch. As with any search for food in Spain, it involves about 10 stops along the way. We were meeting Nacho at Saber’s shop in Barrio de Santa Cruz, but as usual, Nacho was running late. So we went shopping and hung out with Saber. He offered us cerveza which we took as it was warm and sunny and we needed refreshment.

A part of me wondered about this whole drinking in a shop thing, as you don’t see it too often in the States. Especially the shop owner. Especially drinking openly. Especially offering whoever enters the shop a cerveza as well. But this is Spain, and things like rules are just a bit more relaxed.

While we waited, we did what girls do best… shop! Eline bought a top and a dress and a tea set, I bought a beach cover-up, and Saber treated us to Moroccan wood rings, which I now wear everyday to remind me to ‘keep it real’. Its wood… its real/authentic. Make sense?

Two cerveza later, we are still in need of Nacho so we decide to wait at the bar around the corner where we can drink Alhambre, the beer from Granada that Saber likes. Nacho arrived and then we could finally eat. But it was almost 4PM so most places were closing… our search for food in a city of a zillion restaurants is always interesting to say the least.

A quick lunch of croquettes and kabab would sustain us for the afternoon. At this point Nacho took over giving us the back tour of the city, showing Roman ruins, several hotel bars with amazing views of the basilica, and then finally drinks at Alfonso XIII. Which was my treat for Nacho’s tour guide services.

After drinks at the hotel, we went to find more drinks by the river…well, eventually, as typical with this group we were delayed by something. Nacho needed to gather rent from one of his tenants. But we finally found our outdoor bar, and a round of mojitos later we were relaxed and happy – not that in Sevilla you ever venture far from this state.

Jaime joins us later, and then Rafa and Finny, and we eat tapitas with rioja as we wait to figure out the plan for later.

“Planning” is not very important to these guys. At one point when I had asked for the 5th time in two hours “donde vamos?” (where are we going?), Miguel explained ‘our plan’ to me as this. “We are here. When we go somewhere else, we are there. The time that passes between here and there is not known, so its best to just be here.” Simple and well put. Miguel, you may be a modern day philosopher.

It was 9ish and the search for dinner began. As we had grown to a group of 9, sitting down was once again out of the question. We were set for another dinner of tapas (small plates) and raciones (larger plates) while we stand up.

At this point I had never been to “dinner” with Nacho running the show. Its really quite comical to see. As the plates are brought over to “our table” Nacho goes to town making everyone “bites” on these little forks and passing them to the group. I don’t know that he ever eats himself, but he made sure that the girls (Eline, Paula (his cuz) and me) are fed. He is definitely the dad of this group.



From here we wander more and end up at a bar with Saber, Pepe, and Antonio. It’s a relatively low-key night given that tomorrow is the big party night with all the floats, but even then we get home at 3:30AM. “Low key” is definitely a relative term.