Day 2 – El Conquistador and Bob Marley

We started out the first full day in Sevilla by sleeping in until 11am.  Then we laid around for another couple of hours.  We finally took our showers and set out to explore.  We walked east for a while until we came across a little street restaurant and promptly ordered two Cafs con Leche (milk and coffee).  I must point out here that this is the yummiest form of caffeine ever to pass my lips.  Their sugar packs seem to hold about three times the normal amount we'd find in the US, but taking it to be the suggested serving size, I went with it.  While we were still waiting for the coffee to cool enough for drinking, we ordered two beers.  In Spain, you don't order a specific type of beer, you just ask for "Dos cervezas por favor," and they bring you whatever they have on tap, usually Cruzcampo, a very elegant version of Budweiser.  We gulped down our coffee and enjoyed a lazy lunch with beer.  We then continued the adventure by walking around aimlessly.  We saw amazing architecture, including El Universidad - which had a real moat surrounding it (no longer filled with water, only palm trees).  We made our way over to La Catedral and were stopped by two gypsies, offering us sprigs of rosemary.  We shook our heads and attempted to keep walking, but she thrust it in my hand, saying, "Un regalo," a gift.  Seizing the opportunity, she grabbed my hand and started pointing to different areas of my palm, prophesizing my future.  I have a strong heart, great love and will have two 'bambinos,' a boy and a girl.  She then rubbed her fingertips together, asking me to pay her for the fortune.  I explained that I didn't ask for the fortune, but she kept saying, "Dinero," money.  I walked over to where Adrian was, who had just undergone a similar encounter with the other woman and he asked me to give them money.  I pulled out two Euros and handed them over, as the woman who had assailed me shook her head in disgust and walked away.  "May I ask why we just rewarded their behavior?" Adrian replied, "They were gypsies, you don't mess with gypsies because they are unpredicatble; next time, we should just keep walking."  Lesson learned.  As soon as we were far enough away, I threw away the rosemary, not wanting the bad energy associated with them to follow us.  We continued to make our way through the city and found ourselves outside of the regular tourist area at a Plaza named after Hercules.  We decided more beer was in order and found another sidewalk caf.  As we enjoyed our glasses of beer, we watched two dogs, off leash, playing in the plaza.  The first was a dog covered in dreadlocks (I'm sure there is a breed name here, but I am unfamiliar), whom we affectionately named Bob Marley.  He just sauntered around with his dreadlocks bouncing.  The second dog was less descript but infinitely more animated.  He bounded around playfully, growling at anything that threatened his authority (i.e. moved faster than him, made more noise than him, etc.).  We decided his name was Princeton. 
There was a child's rattling toy that he came across at one point.  After a long time of trying to rip it apart to get to the noise making part, he finally got it perfectly within his 'grips' and pranced around the plaza growling, while it rattled, as though he had achieved some great feat.  Everyone in the area laughed at his display.   He was promptly promoted to "El Conquistador Princeton."  We later heard his owner call him 'Leo', but we decided that "El Conquistador" was more fitting.  I must also point out here (for the ladies) that our waiter looked like a cross between Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom.

After going back to the hotel and napping for awhile, we emerged from our room at 11pm in search of dinner.  We settled at the fourth or fifth sidewalk caf we encountered and sat down.  When our waiter came along to take our order, we asked for some calamari, jamon serrano (cured ham) and croquettas.  When I asked him what the (insert Spanish word I can't remember here) was, he explained that it was a filet of beef.  I asked if it was good, and very animatedly (and in Spanish) he replied "Sure, if you want to throw up in la basura (the garbage) after eating it."  This prompted him to give us a full assessment of the restaurant we had innocently chosen at random.  He told us not to eat anything that wasn't cooked or fried to within an inch of its being.  He told us to never order jamon unless it was out in the open for us to see.  He told us all of this in English, because after seeing our eyes widen at the basura comment, he had figured out that we were American.  It turned out that he had been a tourist here at one point, too.  We found out that he was Italian. The first truly friendly person we came across was from another country.  Adrian got such a huge kick out of this guy that we tipped him 3 Euros (this is a lot in a place where tipping is fully optional).