Sevilla

La Catedral en Sevilla

Thought you were rid of me and my long-winded posts, eh? Not so fast. The blogger in me has been struggling to get out for the past month and a half, so I'm back!! I tried to do this post several times, once losing an hour of work, so bare with me.

The last weekend I have pictures of was the weekend Russell and I went to Sevilla and Granada. Russell did a great job planning the whole thing, and it went off without a hitch except for the fact that I left my only winter coat on a bus, which was very unfortunate. I blame the fabulous, 65-degree-in-November weather.

We left Alcala really early and caught a train to Madrid and from there a bus to Sevilla. I normally dread bus rides, but driving through the countryside of one of my favorite places on earth was phenomenal and so worth it.

If I had studied abroad in Spain for this semester, I would have studied abroad in Sevilla. Its a good size, is in southern Spain (the REAL Spain), has incredible architecture and is a lot less expensive than the major cities.The people are so warm and friendly, the food is more flavorful, the music more upbeat, and the scenery the more beautiful. I should do a post on Cadiz to prove all this, but for now you'll just have to take my word for it and look at all the pictures (with Russell with a starring role).

I've always seen chestnuts on the street but never tried them. They are much of Europe's winter street snack of choice. While in Paris and New York they look sketchy, they looked delicious in Sevilla so Russell and I split a cone full. They were delicious. Haven't been able to try them since for fear of ruining the magic of this first batch.

An tiny chapel right next to our hostel.

 

Our first night in Sevilla we went to La Carboneria, a flamenco bar on Calle Levies. Many of the flamenco shows are upwards of 20 euros, but this one is free and probably just as good. Flamenco is unlike any other form of dancing I've seen: a weird mixture of melancholy, energy, and enthusiasm. Flamenco originated in Andalucia, so its best to see it there.

 

The other room at La Carboneria. 

 The River Guadalquivir

 We went on a free walking tour through Sevilla, my first of many, with an Italian student Felipo. Free walking tours throughout Europe are the best: customers pay in tips at the end based on your budget and how much you enjoyed the tour. They help you get your bearings along with hearing the history and legends of the city.

It was November and we were hot in jeans!

One of my favorite parts of Spain is Plaza de Espana. The Plaza was built in the late 1920s for the 1929 World's Fair, which ended up being relatively unsuccessful because of the Great Depression. However it wasn't a failure because it gave Sevilla some of its most beautiful architecture, which has undoubtedly provided for lots of tourist dollars to be pumped into the city over the past 90 years.

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I started getting into being a photographer with this camera and experimenting with angles, shadows, and frames. This is why I was so upset when I lost my camera, but no fear, I got another camera for Christmas, so future blog posts will always have pictures attached.

 The semi-circular plaza has representations of each province of Spain, done by artists from that region. Here is Russell and his best friends Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, two of the main characters from Cervante's masterpiece.

Torre del Oro

 Just takin a cruz.

The courtyard of the building where all products used to pass going from the New World to the rest of Europe. They stopped here to be taxed and assessed. 

 One of Christopher Columbus' graves. Because he has multiple graves, our tour guide joked that instead of  Rest in Peace, for CC its rest in pieces.

 View from la Giralda, the tower of Sevilla's cathedral which used to be the tower of a mosque before las Reinas Catolicas kicked all the Muslim citizens out of Spain in the late 1400s.  We went up just as the sun was setting and got a great view of the city, which is painted only in shades of white, yellow, and deep red.

One of my favorite things to do on my 5 week trek across Europe was to wander aimlessly throughout the cities I was living in, sometimes with a destination in mind and sometimes just to explore. As a lone young woman, this may have not been the best idea, but with the exception of my camera being stolen in Prague, I barely had any trouble. These walks led me to places such as this courtyard of a small museum. Russell and I met a man there who demanded to take our picture, saw some beautiful art, and admired the architecture. 

Sevilla was beautiful. From the bakery we found that was award winning and packed with locals to the various restaurants whose tapas we sampled, everything was delicious. The people we met there were so friendly, welcoming, and helpful to Americans. I can't say enough great things about Spain. When I got back from studying abroad there two summers ago, my friends tried everything to get me to stop talking about it incessantly. I can't help it, there's something about Spain that makes people fall in love.

To come: Granada, Barcelona, and maybe even Paris if I can steal Russell's pictures. I also want to write about Auschwitz and Budapest if I can because these two places left a huge imprint on me. My five weeks in Europe was absolutely unbelievable. I learned so much: not only from the museums I visited, the people I spoke to, and my friends who were studying abroad, but I also learned a great deal about myself. I cannot thank Villanova, the Connelly-Delouvrier Family, or my own family enough. I feel so blessed to have had this opportunity, and so happy to be home safe with my friends and family. If anyone reading this has any questions about hostels, sightseeing, or overall backpacking tips, feel free to contact me!