I went to the sofa in the morning so I could watch YouTube and at some point El Gordo, which felt important in theory but not in practice. Kids yelling a big number in spanish my B1 brain is yet too underdeveloped to comprehend. I wouldn't have known if we won even if we did - which we didn't. This makes no sense.

Later, we had breakfast with La que se avecina on, as usual, and then took our coffee up to the roof. Jannis spent a surprising amount of time being very into marzipan—which he’d never had before. I come from a very marzipan-affine family, so someone not even being aware of the concept was a shock (not to be dramatic).

We took the train from Cádiz to Sevilla and arrived in the early afternoon, slightly to underdressed for the what felt like minus ten degrees that were waiting for us. We were staying at the Futurotel, which sounds exciting until you actually check in.

The whole place is built around the idea of the future (surprise), which mostly seems to mean capsules, automation and a lot of written instructions. (If that's the Future I'm not having none of if thx xx). The toilet, for example, requires a manual, and once you’ve used it, it politely but firmly dries you with warm air from below. There is also constant ventilation everywhere, including inside the capsule, which has no window and a steady background noise that makes you very aware of the concept of air (or the lack of it). The table unfolds, the window turns into furniture and the light is brighter than the sun (anyone need their appendix removed? I can do in the light of my capsule). At some point I stopped questioning it and we eventually decided that being slightly cold was preferable to being permanently blow-dried in white noise.

Hunger sent us outside. We walked along a very stylish street that somehow offered almost nothing vegetarian, and where a bagel cost twelve euros, which felt unnecessary. One turn later, tachááán: an old Spanish bar, jamón hanging from the ceiling (didn't know a pic leg was that size tbh. wait is jamón pig? Is that a cow dangling over my head?) loud overlapping conversations, a very spanish amount of chaos. We ordered pisto, arroz negro and croquetas, and everything tasted like it should. The arroz negro turned my tongue black, which I found deeply entertaining (yes I am in fact 5 years old).

At around 4:30 we ended up back on the hip street for a coffee at puroebio, then went to Mercadona to buy tortilla, soup and bread for later. Necessities I hope still exist in the future.

Back in the capsule, we watched more La que se avecina, while I consciously avoided drinking too much water because I didn’t feel like negotiating with the future toilet again. At seven, Jannis took a siesta. I, and every spaniard respected that. Later, we went downstairs, microwaved tortilla and soup (so un-futuristic, where's my powder food thingy in a silver bag - no not drugs I mean the astronaut food stuff), and I briefly attempted to play a car game on a computer, which confirmed that this is not a skill I’m planning to further improve.

The day ended back in the capsule, surrounded by quiet mechanical noises, one last episode of La que se avecina, and eventually sleep.