prologue

I started off my trip by hitting Madrid, Valencia and Alicante for one day each, the Granada for the two day orientation period before going to Sevilla. From Sevilla it is a little under an hour to Aznalcóllar by bus. Stayed at hip young hostels in Madrid and Valencia, Mad hostel and Red Nest hostel respectively.
In Valencia I had my first cultural swing-and-a-miss. A German guy I met at the hostel and I went out around eleven and started drinking beers, then around 2 moved on to drinks. It was a Friday and no one seemed to be around. By 4am the streets were absolutely packed and I had already had my fill. Oops.
In Alicante I linked up with some Erasmus students and had a good night out. They were all around 22 and Plilippe, an Austrian, told me I acted like a typical 26-yr old. Actually I got directions to a hostel from Philippe when I first arrived in the city and after checking in he just happened to come into the Irish pub I had happened upon in the center. Life, eh?
The beach was unbelievably nice. Rented a lounge chair for three euro and it was totally worth it. I think the Mediterrranean is saltier than Cape Cod Bay. I could float. Was definitely thinking about Ulysses and Phoenicians. I am such a nerd. I had a nice conversation for about 20 minutes with an enthusiastic 67-year-old topless woman from Galicia. A teenage girl drowned in a sunfish accident. It drew quite a crowd. The surf was music to my ears.
When I near to the bus station for my 330pm bus, I had my passport in my bag because my shorts were wet. Some guy asked me if I knew where the train station was and I felt like helping so I got out my guidebook. He kept asking me questions and I was like wait a minute something is rotten in Denmark. I turned and another guy had just withdrawn his hand, now burdened with my passport/visa/wallet containing 100 euro and my bank card, from my bag. He took off sprinting and so did the other guy. They were both like 40 and I could have caught up with them but that would have meant abandoning everything I had brought with me for the year to chase them, so I just cried a lot. I’m such a good traveller.
The orientation was pretty much what I expected, a mess. There were 600 people. I probably talked to about 30 and it just so happened that the person behind me in line was going to Aznalcóllar also, and she had met a third. We linked up, ditched the boring meetings, and got a free ride to Sevilla with a large photographer who sang along to Queen and Bon Jovi with intermittent headbanging for the duration of the three hour ride. It was pouring when he dropped us off at the bus station.