Days 29-31: Itálica and Brazilian Food (Yes, I'm still in Spain)

Olive trees on the grounds of Itálica

(Thursday 02/17/2012-Sunday 02/18/2012)

To be honest, I think that everyday I spend here deserves a blog post. There is always something new to be experienced or strange anecdotes to tell about, but I find that the most interesting things of all seem to happen on the weekend. This is especially nice because I get to enjoy a three and a half day weekend every week. That’s right, no Friday classes, which is a first in my entire 15 years of schooling. This past weekend was no exception to the awesomeness-occurring-on-the-weekend rule. What I originally thought would be a ‘boring’ weekend found a way to turn into one of nice surprises, apparently there’s no such thing as a boring weekend in Spain.

Thursday night a handful of the usual suspects (Rose, Erin, Anna, Sabrina, Joni, Jessy) and I met up for tapas and decided to go check out an open jazz jam in las Alamedas. It was in a low-key bar and not too crowded, we grabbed some drinks before the second set started and sat back to enjoy the music. At around midnight the session began to wind down, I got the chance to talk to the bass player before we left and we got to talking about music. It came up that I play a little banjo and happened to have one with me, which he got really excited about. He told me about a bigger concert in a town near Sevilla called Dos Hermanas going on  Saturday evening, and if I came before it there would be a jazz combo lesson that I could attend for free. Plans for the weekend were still up in the air so I told him I’d do my best to make it, if not this weekend then definitely another time. 

Ruins of a very fancy Roman home, some very rich people lived here.

A replica of a statue of the emperor Trajan, the original has been moved to a museum.

Still not sure why they were dressed up, but dozens of adorable spanish children were running around in Roman costumes, can't say that I didn't envy them a little. 

The little Roman in the middle looks so stoic here.

  The next day UPO had planned a day trip for the international students to the nearby Itálica ruins. Itálica was a Roman town established in 206 BC, (for more information on this here’s the wikipedia link: Itálica). It was built for wounded Roman soldiers harmed during the Battle of Illipa, and it is best known for being the birthplace of the emperor Trajan. It’s difficult to capture this place on camera because visually it is ‘just a pile of rocks’, being there makes it much more impressive. You get this incredible feeling of the grandeur that once existed there, being surrounded by the ruins of a once-great empire that I’ve been reading about since about 4th grade. Roman history is so much more captivating when you’re standing on the same ground of the ancient peoples, it also helps having a passionate and knowledgable tour guide like we did.

Rose, Jessy, and Chuck roamin' around the Roman ruins.

   The most impressive of the ruins is the amphitheater which is still fairly well intact. In it’s hay-day it would seat 25,000 people who gathered to watch fights of all kinds: gladiator vs. gladiator, beast vs. gladiator, & beast vs. beast. The pit in the middle of the amphitheater was where the large animals were kept, they would rise out of the earth on a pulley system and be presented to the awaiting crowd. Interesting tidbit about fights with these ‘beasts’: they could, quite often, be very dull to attend. If the lions didn’t want to fight, well then 25,000 people would sit there and watch a lion enjoy lounging about in the sun. It had never occurred to me that a beast fight would be anything but enthralling, but it does makes total sense, I mean, have you ever been successful in making  a cat do something that it didn’t want to do?

The halls inside the amphitheater, this is where the gladiators waited to go out to fight.

 View from inside the amphitheater looking out, standing where the gladiators stood before their fight is a surreal feeling. You can see the animal pit in the middle-ground.

View of the amphitheater from the hillside.

After touring the grounds for a bit, Rose, Jessy, Chuck, and I walked around the surrounding town to idle away some time before meeting up with Anna, Joni, and Erin at the Brazillian restaurant (the real reason for coming out to Itálica). We tried to make it to the monastery at the edge of town before it closed at 2 but, alas, we got distracted by a see-saw. 
       We made it to the restaurant where the chicas had already grabbed us a table outside in the sun. In case you’ve never heard of these types of Brazillian restaurants, well let me tell you.....they are amazing. You have access to an all you can eat salad bar, rice and beans, pasta, and they come around with eight different varieties of meat, all of which have been cooked over an open fire on a skewer. 

Notice Erin in the left hand corner, we had worked up an appetite from so much walking.

She may look weary of her ability to finish all that was brought before her, but in the end we were all successful in trying all of the 8 meats.

        I don’t really get access to very many fresh vegetables here, we are served the occasional chopped up head of iceberg lettuce at my host, and so I was most excited about the salad bar. While it didn’t really offer your typical salad fare (aka fresh spinach plus vegetable toppings, which is what I’ve been craving), they did have a few different non-cooked vegetable dishes which I filled my plate up with on my first visit. The meats come out in rounds so you have plenty of time to work on your salad plate while waiting. Even with ‘splurging’ on a fresh mango juice I spent just 12€, which is the most that I’ve spent on a meal here and it was definitely worth it. 

Another fun fact: this time last year I was vegan which means no meat, no cheese, milk, butter, or any animal by-product whatsoever, talk about a turn-around. 

Check the next post for days 30 & 31!