Sevilla

I’ve found a new favorite place in the world. Or, rather, I’ve found a trend that is rather disturbing.

Being a child of the Mid-Atlantic Region of the US, with family primarily from New England and points north, I have always assumed that cold and wet is in my blood. Sadly, it would seem that I love hot, tropical regions (as long as there are mountains, so at least there’s some consistency with that). I guess that’s why it was love at first sight with Sevilla.

We started our journey from Barcelona very early, catching the high speed Renfe train. It got up to about 300 km/hr (that’s about 180 mi/hr). Pretty unheard of for an American girl who isn’t used to public transport of pretty much any kind, not to mention fast, efficient cross-country transport.

View of Giralda, built by the Moors in the 12th century. It looks so young compared to the (younger) cathedral attached to it!

Cathedral of Sevilla

In an effort to save some money, we shacked up in a private room at the Oasis Backpackers Hostel, which was really affordable, clean and much more like a budget hotel than a hostel. We had an entire apartment to ourselves, complete with kitchen (not that we used it, being in Andalucia, the home of paella and tapas) and bathroom with marble fixtures. There was another room in the apartment that another couple could have taken, but it was blissfully empty all three days of our stay.
The hostel was just around the corner from the Giralda, cathedral and “downtown” Sevilla, too, so we were able to take in all the sites and sounds just by stumbling out of the front door.

The front of the Cathedral of Sevilla.

A view of the cathedral through its gates, built by Moor servants in the 1300s. Amazing how Muslim and European influences melded here to create this amazing architecture.

Torre del Oro (Gold Tower)

University of Sevilla

Plaza de Espana, built for the Ibero-American Exhibition in 1928- it looks so much older than that!

View of the Plaza from the inside.

Gypsies apparently painted all the fixtures along the Plaza- which looks like it would have taken centuries! So ornate!

 On our first full day in Sevilla, we took a tour of the city with the best tour guide I’ve ever had (which is saying a lot considering I was one in college!), Santiago. He was just great- funny, a well of information and one of those guys who was able to make some pretty heavy stuff pretty approachable through comparisons with pop culture. The tour was in English, but only a handful of the people on the tour were native English speakers, so I think it was pretty impressive that he was able to keep all 20 or so of us spellbound as he led us around the city.

Tributes to Christopher Columbus are everywhere in Sevilla- but this one has a very interesting story to it. (See below.)