Couch Surfing.

Many of you will never believe me, but .... I have made friends! Let me tell you how.

I was in my bedroom, checking out the bus times to go to the beach. I then clicked onto a website and then another and I ended up on Couchsurfing. Sounds pretty lame. But it's quite cool. It is a website that connects more than 1 million people, that would have never met in other circumstances and that share hospitality and cultural understanding. For instance you can let anyone you choose use your couch for free, if they are travelling for instance ... If you ever do find yourself browsing through the website you will see profiles of many travellers, photographers and artists. Most of them in there 20's.

Then I see they have a group dedicated to people living in Sevilla .... and I see that one of the weekly meeting is ....on the Saturday, from 2130 to 0200!! It was about 15 minutes walk away so I decide to go. Apart from watching Ratatouille on Spanish television, my evening  was looking pretty dull. So I pop along.  It was held on Calle del Dos de Mayo. I pop through a tiny door, climb up the 4 sets of stairs having no idea what I was going to find...

I arrive on the terrace. It was looking onto the Giralda, Sevilla's Cathedral. The view was stunning. The low lit terrace was covered in pillows,sofas, matresses  and candles in beautiful metal containers. There was a small bar that served all  types of drinks from Sangrilla to beer.

The second I walk onto the terrace, this Dios Marco says hello, we very briefly (it was in Spanish) present ourselves. He looked like an athlete or some sort of greek mythology statue but was a radiologist. We then start chit chatting to others he knew well Jose (a producer for ABC), Pedro (translator) and Ayuthia, who was simply stunning and so much fun. Didn't really catch what she did. Not quite there yet! They were lovely, understood I wanted to practise my Spanish and spoke slowly. Well, there definition of slow. I did understand most conversations, ranging from London to Cadiz to Egypt to tea.

I must have learnt more Spanish tonight then I've learnt after 5 years of Spanish. At 0200, the terrace shut so I came home. I'm meeting some of them again Wednesday, at another terrace. Success! So there you go: my first friends from Sevilla!