Spring Break Part III: Sevilla, Spain

I apologize for the excessive delay in my posts, but I hope the wait was worth it. I think I'll enjoy reliving my experiences too :)

Sevilla/Seville was another beautiful city and seems like it would also be a great place to study abroad. We stayed in the really nice "Garden Backpacker" hostel, which was voted Best Hostel in the World last year by some (I think) reputable hostel standards. We took a "free walking tour" (you tip at the end...Dad, you're right, nothing's ever free) around the city shortly after we got there. As I was huddled under our tour guide's umbrella, he told us one of his favorite things about Seville is that it's almost always sunny. We should have warned him we were coming.

My favorite sites throughout the weekend were the Cathedral, Plaza de España, Alcazar, Metropol Parasol, and the flamenco show we went to. The Cathedral used to be a temple, then was turned into a mosque, and is now the largest Gothic Cathedral and third-largest Cathedral in the world! The view from the top of the attached Giralda Tower was also beautiful. I must say, though, that after seeing countless church buildings while studying abroad, I really like the simplicity of my home church's place of worship. No one comes in to take pictures, but it helps keep my focus on the "Church" as the body of Christian believers, rather than the place we meet on Sundays.

Vanessa and me in Plaza de España

Plaza de España in Maria Luisa Park was built for the 1929

One ceiling in Alcazar

World's Fair and has also been the backdrop of a few movies, including Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Alcazar is a royal palace that was originally a Moorish fort and is filled with beautiful Islamic art and is a great example of mudéjar (Muslims who remained in Iberia and didn't convert after the Christian Reconquista) architecture. I've always pretended to be a photographer, but I would imagine it's a real one's dream to photograph that place! The Metropol Parasol/Las Setas de la Encarnación (Incarnación's mushrooms) claims to be the largest wooden structure in the world and looks like giant connected mushrooms. You can walk around on top to see another amazing view of Seville. Unfortunately when it rains, the ceiling is slotted and really doesn't protect you at all. We learned that flamenco is not just a dance or performance but a "way of life." I still don't understand what that means but the show was great! It consisted of four people on stage, one female dancer, one male dancer, one female singer, and one male guitarist. Apparently if you have more than one female dancer on stage it's not "real" flamenco.

Tapas pre-rain

Inside the Bullring

Two of my friends and I also visited the Bullring near the river. We went inside, through the open gate and up the stairs, took a few pictures, and got yelled at from the next set of stairs by a lady who was giving a tour. We didn't realize we had inadvertently snuck in without paying. I felt bad, but they left the place wide open! The group of 15 or so of us enjoyed delicious tapas throughout our two days in Seville. The last night, right before our 8-hour overnight bus to Lisbon, we were eating tapas outside. They put the umbrellas up when it started to rain, but no amount of covering could stop the downpour from drowning the remainder of our food. Fortunately, I had already finished the food I ordered. Sometimes eating quickly can pay off!

[Misfortunes: mostly just the rain and some of the group started fighting.]

Metropol from below

From the top of the Metropol