My flight(s) to Spain were long.
I didn’t know it at the time, but in hindsight I can appreciate how lucky I was with both my seat assignment and the airline accommodations. I managed to snooze through a majority of the first leg of the trip (from SFO to Philly). In PA, my layover was just over an hour. I think that’s the perfect amount of time between flights – bathroom, booze, board.
The next leg of my journey was excellent. I had an aisle seat in a three seat row and the middle seat was empty. I basically spread out my food and reading material and relaxed for the next 11 hours. I also had unlimited movies on a personal TV. Score!
My layover in Madrid was more hectic as I had to switch terminals, which required a 25 minute bus ride on the freeway. Definitely glad the next flight wasn’t until later! At least my luggage was pre-checked all the way to Sevilla. In Madrid’s airport I got some Euros, finished my book, and ate the last of my flight food. I was a bit disoriented on time, but managed to stay awake long enough to not miss my flight.
By the time I landed in Sevilla, I was exhausted. Also, it was really hot and I had pants and a jean jacket on. Yikes. I got my luggage and went outside to get a bus heading into the center of Sevilla. My sister told me what plaza they would meet me at, so all I needed to do was find the correct bus to get me there. Finding the right bus turned out to be the easy part. Shoving my way onto the bus was more difficult. They came every 30 minutes and judging by the short line, I had just missed one. By the time the bus pulled up, there were at least 50 people hoping to cram onto the bus. It was quite uncomfortable, to say the least. I was still in several layers at this point, so standing shoulder to shoulder with strangers on the non-air-conditioned bus while holding half my luggage was really not fun. Eventually my stop came and I bolted!
And sure enough my family was there waiting to receive me with open arms! Wee!!
After my less than stellar bus ride, I couldn’t wait to strip down (and shower).
Unfortunately my fam had an agenda that didn’t involve my hair meeting up with shampoo. No matter, I made do with a sink scrubbing and a few extra swipes of deodorant (tmi?). Honestly, it’s amazing what simply washing your face, hands, and feet does for you. And a change of clothes.
And then we were off!
First things first, food. I wasn’t really the hungry one, but it was lunch time in Sevilla so I had to get on track with my meals. My family knows that Pans & Company is my favorite sandwich shop in Spain and they waited for me to go.
It’s basically like Subway in Spain. It’s not gourmet by any means, but the tortilla is fantastic.
We all got tortilla sandwiches except for my dad, who opted for the Mediterranean salad. LOVE! It was the perfect first meal in Espana.
After lunch we wandered around a bit and found ourselves at the Royal Alcazar.
As you may have guessed from the name, this is where royalty stays when they visit Sevilla.
So quaint. 😉
Hi mom and dad!
We took a lot lot lot of family pictures.
And basically just spent some time strolling through the sunny gardens.
Meet Indiana Jeff (which is the name my dad got stuck with for a majority of the trip due to his hat/satchel bag combo).
Not sure what’s going on here…
600 potential family Christmas cards later we made our way back to our casita.
Can we just take a minute to acknowledge the cankles situation here? I took a photo because I felt like a cardiac surgery patient with +3 pitting edema. Sick.
I was pretty much ready to crash at this point, but rather than head to dinner at 6 (which is pretty much impossible since most places in Spain don’t actually start meal service until 8-9 pm), we chose to embrace the Spanish lifestyle and do some late night dining.
So I powered through the eye drooping…with sangria.
When fighting off jet lag and time changes, booze is most definitely not the answer. But it’s just one of those “when in Rome” things.
Our hotel in Sevilla was in a pretty central location which was nice because we were within walking distance of La Giralda, which is one of the best sites in Sevilla. All the streets radiating out from it had cute cafes and shops. Whenever choosing a spot to eat or drink we basically picked whichever one had enough seating for us all. They all had pretty similar (traditional) menus.
Olive oil is SO much better in Spain. It’s not my imagination, it’s fact. In addition to una jarra de sangria, we got tortilla y pan para compartir.
I will never understand the mayonnaise thing. Spanish people and their mayo. I still remember how confused I was back when I studied abroad and my order of patatas bravas came with a side of mayo…I thought it was odd for sure. But that’s how they roll in Espana. Personally I’m more of a ketchup person (mayo really skeeves me out).
Tiny breadsticks are much cuter (and thus more fun to eat) than normal sized ones. I think that’s the case with all miniature things though.
After we finished our bebidas we went back to relax a bit (and shower) before dinner. Considering I hadn’t slept in almost two days I knew I was entering the land of delirium – familiar territory having worked night shifts.
For dinner we wandered to a nearby restaurant on Paseo Catalina de Ribera, just next to the Alcazar Gardens.
We started with wine, naturally.
After browsing the menu, we decided to go family style and just order a ton of things to share (or not share) as they came out. We all wanted a few of the same dishes, but some of us required modifications. Five people with different dietary needs in a foreign country…cue the chaos.
Here’s the thing about ordering food with my family. My mom and Marie don’t eat any meat from four-legged animals (and there’s a lot of pig and cow in Spain). Neither Laura nor I tolerate dairy (and Marie’s still on the fence with it). And that’s not even going into all Marie’s weird random aversions (ie onions). My poor dad. When we ordered, we were completely all over the place. Not only did the waitress think we were all loco, but she also insisted we were over-ordering. She thought we were far too aggressive and suggested we really nix a few items, but we stood firm in our order and soon enough the food started coming…
Fried spinach balls with goat cheese.
Layers of eggplant, squash, and brie dusted in paprika.
Tortilla espanola topped in fried onions.
I only took photos of the dishes I ate because there were too many others and I didn’t wanna hold up the group with my photography.
I’m not sure if I should be embarrassed or proud of this fact, but we polished off every single plate. And we aren’t even fat Americans! It’s definitely amusing how our country’s portion sizes differ so drastically from others. I mean, our waitress literally acted like we were ordering enough food for a 10 person feast, and then we went and finished off every last crumb. I wonder what she thought afterwards. We may know how to get our grub on, but we are also a pretty fit bunch.
I hardly made it in the door before I passed out. I’m just exhausted writing about my first day in Spain, I have no clue how I made it so long without sleep.
Have you ever noticed a difference in portion sizes in other countries?
Spinach balls sound delish! What is the tortilla made from? Is it basically a big hunk of corn meal? That is total comfort food! Yum.
You are making me want to go to Spain, badly. I am planning my honeymoon, and we are totally torn between Hawaii, Greece, and Spain.
Hard choice, but we are leaning toward Hawaii. It seems like the most relaxing and romantic option. Hmmm
I need to go back to Spain!! Italy in January will be fun, but I’m worried about food! And I totally can’t understand mayo. It’s soooo nasty. Makes gross noises too. Ew.
I love Spain, Sevilla is sooo beautiful! I have noticed the portion difference in foreign countries. My family had similar problems in Spain, it was so hard to tell when we actually were ordering too much because so often we just ordered a bunch of small things to pass around! Enjoy your vacation!
Everything looks delicious! I can’t wait for my chance to visit Europe.
Earlier this year (May/June) I visited Bangladesh for a little over three weeks and their portion sizes are actually HUGE. Food is always served “family style” and the locals consume entire plates of rice at every meal. I couldn’t keep up. Strangely, I ended up losing weight while I was there.
Aw que linda! Brings back good memories of travel exhaustion, awkward airport running, sweatyness, powering through with vino, flamenco, peacocks, bocadillos etc. I’m jel/happy for you.
I liked the tapas portion and concept of sharing dishes in Spain. I’ve experienced inconsistent portion sizes, some appropriate, others not, in Spain and in the US so I’m not sure. Didn’t notice much of a difference. In all countries I’ve been too the general trend is eating out is expensive and portions are too large.
I live in Canada and I am always surprised when we go to the US and order a drink at any fast food joint. Our small is your medium and large even! Crazy! Also discovered that Starbucks US uses sweetened soy milk and in Canada we don’t so I always just get a soy latte when in NY as opposed to a vanilla latte in Canada!
Your food all looks so good. I hope you managed to get a proper sleep, I never can when I get overtired. I really must go to Spain, it’s actually really bad that I live in the UK and have never been (yet I’ve travelled to India, kenya, South Africa etc.). Maybe next year. x
Lovely post, I like everything Spanish and I felt like actually being there when I read your post 🙂
The porsition sizes really differ in various countries. In my country the meal sizes are enormous, in Berlin too, but when I was in Madrid or in Oslo, the portions were much smaller than I am used too.
did you just have to avoid the brie and goat cheese?
I think these posts are the only way I still understand some Spanish. lol. I can’t go near mayo…totally skeeves me out too! That waitress was the one who sounds loco…why would you turn away business like that?! 😛
oh your trip looks wonderful! i love the pics!
I love that picture of you and your family all snuggled in close. I think I would choose that for your Christmas card. 🙂
Not to mention, all the food looks phenomenal. I want some tortilla y pan on my kitchen table this instant.
And I don’t think there has been a time that Meeker and I have been out for sushi where the waiter DOESN’T make a comment about how much we order. I like a lot of food…what can I say?
I believe meal sizes are different from Europe to USA. This is not a healthy example, but Mcdonalds meals are much smaller in Europe (and it is a pity they are getting bigger).
Don´t you just love SANGRIA ?
The one place I have found that portion size is NOT different is pizza! My favorite! There is nothing like real Italian pizza! I consider all pizza “personal size” – I’d say it’s about 12 in. and I finish it all! So does my Spanish counterpart – so I don’t feel like a glutton. 🙂
YES! well done 🙂
yes yes yes.
ps youre dead on about the mcd’s though
i love it. no explanation needed.
kyle is oddly proud of my appetite too. sushi is one of the prime examples of TONS of rolls being packed away.
right? odd call on her part. but we also realized on the trip that economy is not their primary focus in europe. they literally didnt care about customer satisfaction or making a sale anywhere we went. different way of living for sure.
yup
so interesting how it varies. thanks for the comparisons.
ah! youve been to some great places though!! so fun. thailand is on our radar right now…
such a tough one…i know what you mean though. honeymoons are meant to be relaxing i think. we chose hawaii for that reason 🙂 none are bad choices though! my sis was in greece last month and fell in love with the place (only certain parts though, some were kinda run down).
oh and about the spinach balls – i dont know what they were in truth, but id venture to guess they were some ground corn meal or something. spanish tortilla is made of eggs and potatoes. its a local dish, nothing like the mexican tortillas youre thinking of.
i feel ya. just try and live the moment as best you can – and do lots of research beforehand!
mmm…love the tapas way of eating though.
isnt it amazing how differently our bodies respond to different cuisine!? how was the food there? what kinds of things did you eat? did you like it?
i love tapas too. i am so obsessed with travel! whats next on your vacation agenda? im looking at thailand, have you been?
so true! i remember that when i was in canada!
The food was super spicy and aside from rice and na’an bread it was mostly a million variations of cooked vegetables. Actually, it was very vegan friendly because the meat was always served in separate dishes (mostly fish) and there really was no dairy to speak of (perhaps some eggs, though) because it’s so hot and humid 24/7 that they would spoil quickly. I absolutely adored the food because 1) there were so many veggies (okra, lentils, squash, bitter melon, spinach, peppers, and so many more) and 2) everything was SPICY!
Sorry for the storybook of a comment, but I am still so enchanted with the country.
I have not been to Thailand. Idk what my next travel destination will be. I’m on a major budget, so perhaps something close by. I know my mom’s been pondering a eurotrip as a graduation present. Crossing my fingers!
Love your dad’s new nickname! Haha!
Wow, I can’t believe you went so long without any rest! Bravo sistah! Must be all that “practice” from the overnight shifts! 😉
Those fried spinach balls look great!…well, actually EVERYTHING does! I would LOVE to go to Spain someday…ahhh!
One last thing…mayonnaise on the side?? I don’t mind it in a sandwich but I don’t want to see a big lump of it on my plate! Ewww!
love the photos–i wanna go! i totally notice that american portions are gigantic. it’s ridiculous.
LOVE this post. I need to get back to Spain asap…and visit Sevilla while I’m at it! So bummed I didn’t make it there….but I know I will someday 🙂
I can totally vouch that sangria is muy delicoso, and that the olive oil in spain (and greece, and italy too!) are far superior to whatever’s used in the states. don’t get me wrong, i use olive oil a ton here…but there’s just something so yum about the kind they use in europe that makes you want to drizzle it over everything!
It has a lot to do with the fact wait staff is on salary, they dont live off of tips like wait staff do in u.s.
seriously! i think night shifts helped, but i swear i noticed my age MUCH more on this trip. after such long long days on our feet i couldnt stay up very late at night. i needed to rest like a grandma! fortunately, my sisters and girlfriends were in the same boat! haha. we are all getting old!!!!
interesting. makes sense if they have no incentive. still weirdly annoying.
We recently went to Barcelona (I’m behind on blogging it.) I loved Spain. Sevilla looks so gorgeous. I already miss Spanish sangria. I want tons and tons of it. And tortilla espanola! YUMMMMMMM. I am so in mood to go back.
I studied abroad in Sevilla and now you’re making me miss it so much! Your pictures are BEAUTIFUL! I am addicted to reading all your posts, please keep it up!
more coming!!!
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