Seville
Trip Start
Jan 03, 2008
1
6
38
Trip End
Apr ????
Seville,
Spain
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
*Side Note* Why is it everywhere in the world they are playing American music? I am typing this in Switzerland while listening to Michael Jackson.*
Sorry to digress. Seville is cheap, I paid 17Euro a night for this amazing hostel
City streets
! The cleanliest, modern hostel I found for dirt cheap. The community at this hostel was great. The first night, one of my roommates, her and I went out to grab some Spanish wine, tried the tapas then walked the streets and gardens of Seville for hours. The following day was the typical tourist day for me. First I checked out the local Cathedral (every city has one) although this one was special, inside was the tomb of Christopher Columbus! Gorgeous gothic setting on the interior and a bell tower that spiraled to the top offered a breathtaking view of the city!I decided to come to this city on a whim, didn't know anything about Seville although some mates I met on the train to Spain described the gardens to me, so I figured what the hell. The gardens of Alcazar was just stunning, I have never seen gardens like this in my life in a confined area of a city behind city walls, tell you what - I will pay the entrance fee and trip - and I will supply you with the gorgeous photo's of the gardens, a sneak peek if you will. I spent perhaps 2 hour just roaming the gardens in peace, grabbed a latte, then continued to roam. Each segregated area of the gardens seemed to have offered a different vibrant feel and design to the gardens - It very much toys with your senses, there were times where I was like dear in the headlights.
Following the Alcazar I walked the river banks to the bull fighting ring! I was upset that I didn't assert myself in going in Madrid so I had to make it happen in Seville - that and I took much more time in Seville, it does not offer the fast and stressful feel of a big city. It is too bad it is off season, it would have been great to see a bull fighting match, but on my budget, cheap seats at 70Euro wouldn't have been on my list to do
City Streets
. I killed the sunset with a walk to some more gardens on a opposite side of the city, just a 20 minute walk on the beautiful river bank. What makes Seville so beautiful is the clash of cultures starting the city with the Roman empire, then inherited by a large Muslim community for hundreds of years, many of the palace gardens took 500 years to build and within the 500 years, the cities demographics leveraged from a large Muslim population to a Christian population which influenced a fuse of architecture, culture and art.
In the evenings the hostel would host various organized culture tours of Seville (great to meet many people), so I took every chance I could. On a night we went bar hopping for various tapas and wine (including awesome sangria). I got to experience authentic Flamenco dancing, this is the artistic dance and music of the Spanish where a woman would present a very impressionist dance while keeping the beat with her feet and clapping or cusping her hand. The band in the background would play guitar, sing, jazz flute - etc. If anyone is interested in what it sounds and looks like, I recorded a short video of it on my camera, just ask when I return!
So, that is Seville on a shoestring, laid back, great people, beautiful sights, it was honestly hard to leave this town, yet I had to see Barcelona before leaving the country to the Alps which I scheduled with a friend there. I looked into Morocco as it was my intent to be in Casablanca for a night or two, however my roommates in Seville said that 2 nights in Morocco is just not enough time, I would leave missing much of the experience - also it was raining heavily the whole week and continued to do so, AND I had the Alps calling me, it was an itch I needed to scratch soon (now I am just trying to just justify my reasoning).
Ole'
