Beer and loathing in Seville

We were starting to hate Seville way before we actually got there.

The drive was epic - we left the Lisbon campsite at 8am and hit the outskirts of Seville - hideous modern appartment blocks - at 6pm which, even given the fact we lost an hour when we crossed the border, made it the longest drive of the trip thus far and an epic by anyone's standards.

An hour and a half later and we were still trying to find a campsite, which plainly has been buried under an airport extension or one of those modern buildings. Half hints and a single sign on a roundabout were the only clues to back up the road atlas and guidebook's assertion that it existed. We were already getting testy with Seville by this point, but it was about 20 minutes later after being stuck on ringroad hell and discovering, thanks to the complete absence of signs, that we'd been driving away from Seville for the past 15kms that the loathing set in. This was, you note, before we'd even got there.

The absence of a campsite, the pending sunset and the wind and rain drove us into the centre of the city past honking taxis and psychopathic scooters. We hit the old town and parking Sheena semi-legally in a plaza (safety in numbers we figured), dashed for the nearest hostel. Closed.

The second had one room left, a twin, with roaches in the bathroom and a smell of fish in the corridor. We took it. We were that tired. We decided to make the most of being in the lively Santa Cruz district on a Saturday night; get some food, take a nap, shower and hit the town again, perhaps trying to move Sheena to a more obviously legit parking space. However, as previously blogged, we can stick to plans for about as long as I can hold a tune. A chance meeting with the lovely Nora (a German living in Seville) and the ebullient David (Irish friend visiting) led to free flamenco, free flowing beer and a fine evening out. Amazing luck as without Nora's local knowledge we would never have found it - thanks for the fun times you two!

We like Seville a lot more now we've actually seen a bit of it. Hopefully by the end of tomorrow we'll be thoroughly smitten.