Hotter than the sun in the south of Spain: Numero Dos

So I decided I better get my butt in gear and finish posting about our southern Spain adventures before we go somewhere else and this thing starts getting more and more similar to my pathetic journaling attempts. Sevilla was our next stop and my personal favorite.

The night we got there we got to experience something that started in this area of Spain: flamenco! This particular style of dance involves intensity in the eyes and quickness of the feet. Our particular show was at a smaller venue and basically the only other people there were groups of Asian tourists. It did come with a delicious glass of peach juice (as opposed to the alcoholic beverages that freely flow here) I savored throughout the show (they also do not believe in free refills). The dancers made up for any thirst I was feeling that night though. I was thoroughly amazed at how fast they could move their feet (especially the guys) and keep their intense expression as well as master the castanets (twelve million times harder than they look). It was all very “Strictly Ballroom” Paso Doble-esque. My favorite dance had to be the one with the largest variety of dancers moving to the music of Carmen (an opera by Bizet in case you want to Wiki that one) in which they basically told the story of Carmen through movements. This probably stemmed from the fact that I just love that music, but we’ll pretend and say that it is due to the fact that the dancing was fantastically superior. Anyway by the time our festivities had come to an end we needed to hit the sack to have enough strength for the next day.




This next day was jam-packed with adventures galore! We set out on foot to a variety of destinations with our trusty director Landes guiding the way. Our first stop was the University of Sevilla, which along with the University of Alcala (the one we’re studying at) and one in Salamanca, is one of the three oldest in Spain (and probably the world, but don’t quote me on that). The halls had artwork and statues lining them as well as those sweet staircases you would see in old-style mansions that the girl would always walk down in her sweeping ballgown. This was definitely different on the inside than Alcalingua (building we go to), but I think that’s just because our interior is pretty new and I have not been inside the oldest part of the university. New goal: go inside the main building and see if they have intellectually stimulating art lining the halls to improve the minds of the students, or if I should be more impressed with the one in Sevilla.


Our next stop on our rapid-fire tour was the Plaza de España. This is the major building left from the exhibition at the Parque de Maria Luis, the 1929 Spanish American Exhibition. Today it serves as a government office building. Set into a curved wall are alcoves focusing on the characteristics of Spain’s 50 provinces, depicted in tile murals. Sadly when we were there half of the tile murals were covered with just pictures of what they look like because basically the whole plaza was under construction, but that did not stop us from seeing the amazing tile work there. My personal favorite would have to be the small fences enclosing the plaza and the bridge over the sad excuse for a stream. They were both made mostly with ceramic material and were painted in these bright colors and with amazing details for the designs. The south of Spain is known pretty well for their tile and work and now I can officially see why. But we did not get to stay there too long because we were on a mission and hadn’t even visited half the places we needed to.














The next place we went was easily my favorite place I have been so far during my entire stay in this country. If you ever go there prepare for your world to be rocked with some of the best Mudejar architecture and gardens in Spain, in my opinion. What is this place you might ask? Well it just happens to be the Sevilla Alcazar. Pedro the Cruel (so named because he wanted to marry this one really beautiful lady, but she was married. So he had her husband killed so he could marry her. She was so angry about this that she poured hot oil on her face to disfigure herself and then became a nun.) built this place in the 14th century from the original Moorish fort just north of the cathedral already constructed there. It is the oldest royal residence in Europe still in use; when the King and Queen visit Sevilla they stay here. It is a lot like the Alhambra (see post just before if you have no idea what this is) except, and don’t tell people that I said this because the Alhambra is supposed to be the gem of the south, I liked the Alcazar way better! This is the very place Ferdinand and Isabella welcomed Columbus on his return home from America.


Anyway the reason I liked this place so much was probably because 1. I love Moorish architecture officially 2. This architecture was way sweeter than the Alhambra and 3. The gardens rocked my socks off. So walking through the castle everything is so pretty and there were all these intricate wall carvings and fountains like we saw in Granada, but the colors here were more vibrant and beautiful. But the best part happens when you look up. Each room had a different ceiling and some were incredibly colorful, while others were dark carved wood and others had honeycombed ceilings of gold. The awesomeness did not stop there though, all of the doors and window shutters were this rich dark wood that was carved and then painted. The only problem was that half the doors were locked or entrances blocked off! Do you know how annoying that is? Especially when it’s just a chain where you can see the stairs or creepy tunnel on the other side and you want to know where it leads because it must be cool otherwise it wouldn’t be blocked off (I know they save all the really good places for the royals).








We finished exploring the castle part pretty fast and thought that basically our tour was over, until we came to some gardens straight out of the Jungle Book or Jasmine’s backyard. There is the great wall that overlooks the absolutely gorgeous gardens full of citrus and palm trees and other fantastic foliage. This part gave us some pretty great views of the gardens, but me and the two Megans wanted to go to the top and see the real view. So here we come to our stealthy action. If the Spaniards really didn’t want people going to the top they would have put up a door rather than just this dinky little gate that I hopped over easily, in a skirt no less. The sad part came when I got to the top and was just enjoying the view when I happened to glance over and see a security camera on the roof. So we scurried our little butts down those stairs and out into the gardens. I guess that would be the reason why they felt safe just putting a gate up, lesson learned for our next illegal action-check for cameras first.








The gardens were made even more sweet by the fact they had themselves a freaking LABRYNTH. You may now feel the fabulousness emanating from this place. And this was not even one of those dinky one where you can step over the bushes; no this you couldn’t even see over the top unless you were pretty tall. I felt like Harry Potter and at any moment I would have to battle Viktor Krum and Cedric Diggory for the cup. I could have spent hours exploring, but the other girls in our group (besides me and the Megans) were getting antsy and bored. Thus me and my Moorish paradise were separated, hopefully temporarily, and we were off to our next location, which happened to be right next door.


The Cathedral of Sevilla is the third largest cathedral in the whole dang world! Again-how cool is that? Pretty dang cool, in case you were wondering. It comes after St. Peter’s in Rome and one in Brazil with quite a long name. Oh and FYI: this is also the largest Gothic building in the world. The builders who designed it had one goal solidly in mind: “That those who come after us will take us for madmen.” I sure do. Construction began in the late 1400s on the site of an ancient mosque (what else is new?) and took centuries to complete. Other than the fact that it is much bigger this place is very similar to all the other Catholic cathedrals we’ve been to so I won’t bore you with details about that. But I will say that the best thing the cathedral had to offer is this thing called the Giralda Tower.




This is the city’s most famous monument. It was erected at a minaret in the 12th century (for all of you like me who have no idea what that is, it is a Moorish tower that they used to call people to prayer from). To get up to the top (at last they let us go up to the top of somewhere) there were no steps, merely ramps, 37 to be exact. This is apparently because the person that would call people to prayer (don’t ask me who) used to ride his horse up there every hour to do just that. Those halls were pretty narrow and the turns sharp, so how he got a large horse up there every hour is beyond me. Anyway when you get to the top prepare to have your breath taken away (because of the amazing view of the city and also due to the fact that you just hiked up 37 steep ramps). You get a view of Sevilla from all four sides and get to see all that the city has to offer. The city is gorgeous (I love any city near/on the water-river here) with so many bridges (one that is supposedly also a massive sundial) and great buildings (like the Torre de Oro right near our hotel). So the coldness of the cathedral was more than made up for by the coolness of the tower. Side-note: The cathedral also has the tomb of Christopher Columbus and supposedly his remains inside, but that is disputed left and right.




So then it was time to find us some food and do some exploring. After much walking and a few trips to a particular pastry shop (2 desserts in the space of 2 hours isn’t bad right?) we decided to take a break and apply the knowledge we’ve learned thus far in Spain. Thus we sat down near the river and then proceeded to catcall all the guys rowing below (embracing the culture I would say). If guys can do it openly all the time to us, why not the other way around? But after that little adventure we went and explored a bit more in the Jewish district and then three of the six of us decided to head back to the hotel rather than indulging in some shopping. And thus we come to the beginning of a two hour adventure trying to find our way home in the dark in a strange city. Despite how it sounds it actually served us well because we ended up on the entirely opposite side of the city and saw much more than we otherwise would have. To explain to you just how far out we were: our location was off of the map we had, about an hour in to our wandering aimlessly we stopped and asked if we were going in the right direction of the Torre de Oro (near our hotel) and the man laughed and then said yes, people thought we were crazy we were trying to walk that far and then the kicker: we got back to the hotel at the same time the other girls we left to shopping did. My feet were hating me by the end and I’ve never been more happy to see a hotel, but it was a fun adventure to share.




After this whole occurrence we decided it was a Domino’s night (don’t scold me for loving me some pizza) and time to stay up late having typical girl talk. And for this reason we slept in a bit before we headed off to our next southern locale: Cordoba!

Stay tuned for the tale of the peaceful ancient city.