Said screw that and went and had a late breakfast at the Roldan cafe place there at the station (it's a chain here in Spain I think; I've seen it elsewhere). I love that you get cafe AND zumo de naranja almost everywhere here when you eat breakfast (note: this is specific to being here in the Iberian Penisula) -- have I mentioned how damn good the OJ is here?! So, so good. And most places have juicers right behind the counter that they throw the oranges into so that the OJ is fresh-squeezed on the spot (this was the case in Portugal too). Anyway, this ham and cheese sandwich thing was a construct-yourself situation -- I had my little cup of sliced up ham, a little cup of pureed tomato, and two little pre-packaged things of... olive oil. Never seen that before. Regardless, it was actually pretty good when I put it all on my bread and proceeded to send on down the hatch.
Anyway, I was also trying to figure out what I was going to do if I wasn't going to be able to get out of Sevilla on Monday. Stay another night here? Nah. I tried the Alsa bus website, but ended up finding that they were also sold out too. Looked up flights from Sevilla to Madrid, and cheapest that came up was like $350, with some lame stopover somewhere farther away than either my origin or destination.
What to do? How about I go somewhere ELSE then? Pulled up Spain's map, and ended up deciding on Cadiz. Got all the way planning through the Monday train to Cadiz, the one night there (which was really cheap at most places right on the beach too (its a beach city)) and the train ride from Cadiz up to Madrid on Tuesday (thus giving me 3 nights in Madrid instead of 4). I even went so far as to cancel the reservation at the Madrid hotel I had made just that morning before heading to the train station to buy my ticket.
Went up to the automated machines again to buy my ticket to Cadiz on Monday -- and my credit card wouldn't work. So, I headed inside to try again with the ticket agent... by now the backlog of people had subsided and I was talking to a guy within a few minutes. Decided to just confirm 100% that all seats were sold out on Monday... and it turns out they weren't. Apparently the face-to-face seats with the table in the middle... the ones I was complaining about for the ride from Granada to Sevilla? Apparently they don't sell those as single tickets at the automated machines... you have to secure one of those from an actual agent. So, I scrapped Cadiz and bought the AM ticket to Madrid on Monday.
Went back to the hotel to rebook my Madrid hotel. Got up to my room and it was being cleaned. Sigh. Lady was nice, though... grabbed my laptop and dropped some other stuff. Went down to the lobby, sat down and got to work... and a deskop computer with a printer next to it caught my eye. Finished up the room booking, but thought about the fact that for a lot of the major sites you can pre-pay for your ticket at an appointed time -- if you're able to print your ticket. Checked with reception and verified the computer and printer were free for my leisurely use -- sweet. Bought my ticket to the Alcazar for 3pm on Easter Sunday. I looked up the cathedral, but decided I didn't trust the website because it was saying ticket purchases were available all day, and I knew with it being Easter Sunday that couldn't be the case.
Anyway, enough of this blah, blah, blah. Traveling is FUN. So, to go make something of the day. Decided I was going to try for the Cathedral again. And again, nope. I did catch a procession nearby though.
Headed out to the riverfront and decided to tour the Torre de Oro. Got some great vantage points for seeing all of Sevilla in a 360 degree view.
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