Make Time: Weekend in Sevilla

Getting to Seville was the hardest part about the trip. Michael was going there to meet with a video game company, so they booked a flight for him at 6am leaving Barcelona - arriving around 9am. Of course...I booked my flight first and was going to book the 6am flight but Michael told me to get a later one so we could sleep, so I was planned for the 8am flight. Anyway, I decided to go with him early to see if I could get on that earlier flight. Kind of hard to get on the earlier flight when it's on a DIFFERENT AIRLINE. Classic. Apparently the person who booked Michael's plane didn't tell him which airline, so he came to my check-in counter and then missed his flight because he was flying on another airline. So in the end we sat in the airport and then took the 8am flight. Smooth, right? So we finally get into Seville airport around 10:30am and head to the hotel where Michael was booked (this time he had the correct info from the person that booked it for him). I hit the hay and Michael goes to a day of meetings with this Sevilla-based video game company. I get up around 2pm, grab a quick kebab, and then back to the hotel to meet Michael, who tells me the meetings went amazing. NICE! Looks like he will be doing some work for this company, which will bring him back to Sevilla a bunch. We catch up for a few minutes and then he tells me we are meeting the people from the company for some drinks and then heading to a small music festival with them. PERFECT. We walk a few blocks from the hotel and meet up with the team, which is about 20 people - all in their mid-twenties and early thirties - fun and having a great time. Drinks, laughs, and me and Michael trying to speak Spanish while the Spaniards try to speak English. Some are very good, which makes things easier, but some are really bad, which makes things a lot funnier. We eventually jump in a cab and go to this huge fair grounds, which is packed with young people. There is a huge park area just outside the music festival which is mobbed with people, all having brought their own drinks and food. We meet up with more of the team and have drinks and then head into the festival about an hour later. Right now it's about 12:30am. The team all have tickets to the festival but me and Michael don't, so we attempt to sneak in with everyone. There are a few checkpoints, which we make it through easily by staying in the middle of the crowd, and then we come up to the last checkpoint where they are actually checking your tickets. No way around this one, so we decide to walk around to try to sneak in. We see the exit area and decide that is our best bet, so we slowly mingle with some people there before walking in. I hear someone calling out but I keep going, as does Michael. The voice gets louder and closer and eventually I turn around and there's a security guard there, who tells me that this is the exit and not the entrance. I speak English and he shrugs it off as a tourist mistake. Meanwhile, Michael has just walked into the festival and never looked back. I saw him going and decided to let him go - figured I would just get in somewhere else. Anyway, I walk out and ask someone for a bank, because I figure I can just buy a ticket and then get in no problem. Fair enough. I walk out and head in the direction that someone told me for the bank, and as I'm walking I notice that it's pretty desolate. There's definitely not a bank for a long while. Great. Keep walking. Eventually I come up to a group of high school kids, each carrying a skateboard, who are apparently jumping a fence and trying to sneak inside. Hm. Looks like a good group to tag along with, considering they are from here and can probably figure this out. So I start following them and at first they look at me confused, but then I tell them I'm on their side and that I want to sneak in as well. I can only imagine what they thought - high school kids with this 36 year old tagging along to sneak into a festival that costs $30 for a ticket. Classic. So I follow the group and we jump a few fences and then hit some dead ends. Then we come up to another entrance that we think is good but then a security guard pops his head out and we retreat. We come upon other high school kids who are trying to get in, and they exchange information on the best paths. All in all we probably jumped and snuck in five different areas before I decided this was a bit too much for me, so I bailed without a good-bye and walked back towards the entrance of the festival. I come upon another group of kids trying to jump a wall to get in. They are a bit older than high school, and I tell them I've been trying to get in different areas without luck. They tell me to follow, which I do for about 5 minutes before giving up. Too much running around for this old man. I eventually make my way to the ATM - get money - and FINALLY get into the concert around 1:45am. Of course I don't find Michael, but I go between the two stages of the festival, where I check out Spanish rock, hip hop, reggae, and finally some late night techno before calling it quits around 4:30am. I decide to walk home, which is another 30-40 minutes, and I pass out around 5:30am. A very random and weird night, but fun nonetheless.

Saturday we wake up and tried to rent motorcycles to go down to the coast, but all the shops are closed, so we decide to walk about the city and just enjoy the sights. I found the pizza place that my sister and I LOVED when we were here last time, and we eat a full pizza. Just as good as I remembered! Eventually that night we meet up with one of the girl's (Fatima) from the company that Michael will be working with, and we eat some tapas, have some drinks, and then head to a few bars…then clubs…then more clubs. We dance our asses off until about 6:30am and then get in a cab back to the hotel. An epic night. The Spaniards were not ready for my dance moves :)

Sunday I rent a car and then we grab some tapas with Fatima before saying our good byes. I drop Michael at the airport and then start my 4.5 hour journey to a small beach town just north of Lisbon, Portugal, called Ericeira. I've always romanticized Portugal, so I'm fired up to check it out. Even better, my friend James from London is already in Ericeira - which is a huge surf destination.

While hanging out with Fatima in Seville, she mentioned that she would love for me to work with her and help her do some Facebook media buying (which I did at my last job). It's an interesting option, and so I'm going to keep discussing it with her. It would be crazy and amazing to live in Sevilla - such a great place with access to so much of Europe. Definitely considering it...