We were tired, we were shabby and we were starving. We needed to rest, take a shower and eat and there was no plan in place for either. The girl at the hotel reception very kindly told us in her broken English that we could step into the room only at 300 pm so clearly the first two necessities of the hour were thrown out of the door. Note to self - the check in time for a hotel is an important consideration in booking the hotel - Note complete. We left our luggage at the concierge and reluctantly stepped out.
The hotels location was fabulous and we were right in the middle of the old town. Seville's old town has a charm of its own and you have to visit it to feel it. We were in the city in probably one of its most action packed week - the Semana Santa or the Holy Week. Many apartment balconies had the red and gold cloths or palm leaves draped over them making it look even more beautiful. Even if you are not religious, it is impossible to ignore the sheer excitement and the enthusiasm floating around the city. The city was virtually shutting down for the evening procession and we promptly added the evening procession to our itinerary.
We made our way from a small lane into Calle Campana that opened up into a Plaza and lo behold! we found the two most common American chains - Starbucks and McDonald's. We too, like most people, succumbed to this American consumerism but mostly because we were starving and had no energy left to walk any further.
The McDonald's menu was obviously in Spanish and though we could understand some of it, the husband thought it was important to display our 'techieness' to the person on the counter rather than asking for the egg & cheese McMuffin minus the bacon and decided to pull out his phone and use the Google translate app. Now this app requires you to point your camera at the text that you want to translate and then the translated text will appear on the screen instantly.
Point to note that Google has put in a small footnote when you download this app that sometimes the translations aren’t perfect and might not work if the text is too small, written by hand etc. , meaning more often than not, it doesn't quite work. Now having tried and failed multiple times in using this app in Peru & Bolivia last year, I was obviously not keen in testing it another time but sometimes hunger stops the person from thinking straight so I agreed to play along.
The person on the counter was looking at us suspiciously and the moment the husband pointed the camera on the McDonalds menu she started screaming that no photos were allowed inside. Now first of all, who on earth would really take a photo of the McDonald's menu when there is a beautiful city outside to explore but I was in no mood to argue. So after several attempts, we finally ordered the McDonalds breakfast menu minus the bacon and hoped that she understood what vegetarian means.
Now that the stomach was full and the coffee was kicking in the blood, we were all set to explore the city.
City preparing for the evening procession for Semana Santa :-
1. Chairs ready to be laid out on the roads
2. Making way for the procession path
3. This part of the road is all set
4. The balconies of buildings also decorated with Red and Gold cloth
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