With our Lonely Planet guidebook in hand, we wandered the busier part of town at 11:00 pm, looking for a hostel. We asked one place if they have rooms, and the guys says "Oh you want rooms, okay, my friend has rooms." A friend then proceeds to take us down another dimly lit narrow street and we begin to wonder "are we going to get mugged?" But we were to tired than to do anything but follow. Luckily, he led us to a large casa, where they rented out rooms around the coutryard. One room, fifteen bucks a night! Of course, the toilet was shared, but hey, you got your own sink and shower in the room.

We set out the next day to check things out. Sevilla is a fun place to wander. But beware of the tacky flamenco shows aimed at tourists. They're not authentic, and their cheezy. Look out for muggers too. Sevilla's streets can be very, very dark. We chose to entertain ourselves by wandering the upscale shopping district streets, checking out a flea market on the rougher side of town (in daytime), drinking pitchers of Sangria, and eating pizza with a Roquefort Cheeze top. We also checked out the Alcazar, an amazing place and a cool refuge during the day. The Alcazar was where Columbus made his grand plans with the government to come to America and commit genocide. As a person of Mexican descent, I stood in the great halls, enraged at the poor representation in the artwork on the walls which depcited Columbus 'civilizing' the Indians.

Sevilla is a beautiful city, full of life and entertainment, but it was also more expensive than anywhere else.

After two days in Sevilla, we went back to Madrid by train (did I say we went first class?). On our last night in Madrid, we got our Paella, shopped, went to a bar, and crashed at the hotel, totally exhausted and in awe--we did it! We survived!