Buenos diaz! It's day five, and our fourth day in Seville! I got up and packed our luggages (yay!) but left them in our hotel when we went around to look for breakfast. We smelled a rat when we got out at nine and it was like a ghost town outside. Kind of like L4D, creepy, but i remembered it was a public holiday and at that hour, most shops were closed, even the eating places! We wanted to eat at the same place that we had breakfast yesterday but that was closed too! D= So we took a leisurely walk around and found two big coffee houses that were open. The first was... you got it, Starbucks! And the other was an even bigger outlet by the name of Cafe de Indias. Once again, they had menus in English, but the waitresses knew naught of English! Seems to be a trend here lol! There were no set meal prices since it was a public holiday, so their sets were at a la carte prices today. I was looking at the Spanish menu, so under the category Bocadillos Calientes (hot baguettes - how many of you can remember what "calientes" is? ^^), I had a mini caliente Serrano y queso (mini baguette with Serrano ham and cheese). It was ey to eat and I... don't remember what it tastes like! My drink was chocolate de suizo (Swiss hot chocolate. Apparently "Swiss" simply means "with cream" in terms of hot chocolate here! ^^"). It had whipped cream on it! (Y) sweet and thick and dark, wonderfully sticky - I loved it though it made me really thirsty after that hurhur!
We returned to the hotel after that to do business of a highly important variety, and to do a final packing before checking out and cabbing to the train station. We took a travelator down to the platform (with our hefty luggages!) and at the end of it, Mr Ho's luggage caught on the lip of the platform and he lost his balance! Good thing he fell backwards onto Mum and Mrs Ho so they pushed him back up. Once up on the train, we found that the luggage racks were full up, so we had to put our luggages on the racks above our seats. Dad certainly got in the way there trying to be the rightful strong man, a title that's rightfully mine, while I'm still young enough hahaha! Once again, I typed half this post on the train and my iPad is proving to be a trustworthy traveling companion! =)
We got off at Granada station after a train ride in a cabin full of stale air. It was terrible! But once we cabbed to our hotel, all was forgotten. The hotel's a beautiful place! Our room's semi-circular and spacious - certainly the hotel itself is spacious enough and loftily located! It's sited on the edge of a steep rise and though our room doesn't really have a good view (the window overlooks the front of the hotel), we've seen the view from the back and a wide expanse of the city below can be seen. Notice that I didn't say the view was spectacular - because what we saw was a whole lot of brown roofs lol! But hey, as long as the air is good... =)
So it was four plus by the time we settled everything and everyone was starving! So we walked out and took a shortcut into town via a nicely shaded (though steep), tree-lined cobbled pathway that ended in an aged archway. Touristy shops were on the other side and I saw a couple of guitar making shops though both were closed. Spanish luthiers, wow! Wonder if I'll get to see them open. Anyway, after a bit of rooting around, we settled in an oriental sorta coffeeshop. We had friend noodles, fried rice, and fried chicken wings! And everyone was happy. The noodles were really quite nice though upon closer inspection, I do believe they used llinguine for the noodles! But it w somehow nice anyway, if a tad oily. I think they used paella rice (Spanish I suppose) in the other dish. And it did taste a trifle weird, but I was really hungry and didn't care very much so I gobbled whatever Mum and Dad couldn't finish down. I might add that I still felt able to go for dinner straight after that. In any case, I think I might be the only one who truly like western food in the group hurhur...
We shopped around after that and stopped by a shop called Cortefiel. I found a checkered grey and red shirt that I really liked! But it was seventy-five euros. Too expensive! I then saw a pair of dark brown corduroy pants that I was going to get no matter the price - been looking for just such a pair for a really long time! The smaller size they had was thirty-one inches. The very maximum biggest I can wear is thirty inches. Phooey. I wasn't having a lot of good fortune today. -.-"
Stopped by Zara House next (yes, they sell bedsheets and cutlery and stuff!), to ask for directions to the nearest Zara. =P On the way, we made a detour into H&M, where I tried two pairs of corduroy pants, one thirty inches and another twenty-nine. The twenty-nine inch one was too tight around my thighs and too loose around my waist. Slim fit? Very nearly skinny fit, more like! The thirty inch one was too loose. Period. I tried a pair of dark brown trousers and they fit - but the moment I saw myself in them I knew I wasn't made to wear it. It looked like school pants on me. -.-"
When we finally got round to Zara, it was all of four storeys, but there was no men's section. -.-" There was another Zara boutique a hundred meters down the street so we (the guys) went to that. It was all of three levels, but Zara Man took up one floor at the basement. How men have offended the president of Zara, I have no idea, but it must've been something bad lol! Once again, almost everything was too big, especially the trousers. I couldn't get a thing, though I did finally manage to get a nice plum coloured shirt at thirty plus euros. While waiting for the women of our group to arrive from the other Zara, I was trying on some of their casual blazers for the heck of it. Size thirty-eight was too big. Size thirty-six was tight around my shoulders and arms, and FAR too loose around my waist. Tailored is the way to go for Rayson man...
Finally, we made our way back to the hotel, but since my family decided to walk (while the Hos were going to cab), the journey back was not bereft of excitement. I tried to lead Mum and Dad in retracing our steps back to the hotel but took a wrong turn and walked far away in the wrong direction before realising that something screwy was going on with our Rayson brand GPS lol! So we turned around and stopped by a pastry shop to rest our feet (or rather, Mum's feet...) and replenish our store of energy. My choice of replenishment was a Bocadillo de Tortilla Espana, which should actually have been termed cardboard bread with styrofoam omelette, and a hot chocolate of the half-melted variety. D= I borrowed the map and after some painstaking map-reading (haven't really done that in earnest since secondary three and four!) discovered where I had wandered off the beaten path. Apparently, I had no recollection of a certain part of the way because I was either a) staring into the middle distance, or b) staring at some smokin' (this could either be literal or figurative - so many people smoke there!) babe. I seriously can't remember. *shrugs* Anyway, Mum was really tired, so even though I wanted badly to walk back up in the cool of the night, I seceded to her wishes and hailed a cab back to the hotel. On the way, we passed the place where we were made the wrong turn, which at least proved that my map reading skills haven't ALL been returned to my high school geography elective teacher! Oh we passed another guitar shop too - makes me want to buy a Spanish guitar or ukelele back. ^^
So now I'm back at the hotel, in the lounge (where there're a group of four caucasians playing bridge) off the main lobby, where there's free WiFi reception so that I can post this up. I think we're taking a walking tour again tomorrow, so I just hope that the weather's cooler than at Seville. I think it'll be since the night's already pleasantly cool. Alright, here's to a great day of touring tomorrow (wish we could go on the Segway tour though, seems fun!). Goodnight, all you stalkers (this initially turned out as "staplers" on my iPad hahaha! DYAC~)! Hasta pronto! ^^
P.S.: Omg, what do I get for people back home~!? D= I refuse to buy trinkets for them humph! =/
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Hotel Alhambra Palace,Granada,Spain
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