Seville

Getting from Lagos to Seville involved sitting on a full bus for 5.5 hours. It was not my favorite time. Thank God for iPhone Tetris. Our driver was aggressive in every way – both with the steering wheel and the passengers. I had to go to the bathroom for hours, but I wasn’t convinced that he would wait for me at any of the many stops along our route. I wasn’t the only one dancing in his seat either. When we finally arrived at our destination, I was happy to get off what is hopefully the last significant bus ride of this trip. Good riddance.

First things first: we took a cab to Old Town Seville and checked into our hotel. Then we walked to a nearby restaurant and had some more amazing tapas for dinner. Seville is very different than Madrid and Barcelona. It is a smaller city full of narrow, curvy streets with lots of Spanish character. Many streets seem about eight inches wider than the cars that still fly down them defiantly. With the narrow streets and perfectly warm weather, you almost feel like you are perpetually indoors – in something like a giant Vegas casino without all of the cheesiness and people in bedazzled t-shirts. Seville’s mixed cultural history also creates to a really cool atmosphere. Roman, Islamic, and Spanish influences converge to create a really interesting mix, as you’ll see in the photos. You’d have a difficult time not liking Seville; it might be my favorite city that we have visited so far.

On our first day there, we met up with a couple of Canadians (Rebecca and J.S.) that we met briefly on our bus trip from Lagos. They seemed like fun people and obviously we did too, so we all met up for lunch and to see a few sites. We started with the Cathedral and Giralda. (Church #6) Seville’s Cathedral is the largest in all of Europe by volume – it even had a plaque from Guinness World Records. The size of the place astounds you right when you walk in. The ceilings are very high, and the whole place is just huge. There was no one angle to really capture this, though, so the pictures don’t do it justice. (They are damned good pictures, though, if I do say so myself.)

Fun Fact: The tower of the cathedral is actually a minaret that was once part of an Islamic mosque – just another aspect of Seville’s cosmopolitan history. It seems that in Seville, the Spanish were better squatters than demolishers. Why build your own ornate tower when your enemies have done the work for you?

After parting with our Canadian friends, Reed and I also went to check out Reales Alcázares – a Moorish fort turned Spanish palace with some really beautiful gardens. Like the minaret, it had a really cool look and feel to it.

For dinner on our second night, we grabbed still more tapas. (They’re just so good.) Then, by recommendation of one of my friends, we headed over to a bar that performs traditional Spanish music and flamenco. As we strolled the streets back to our hotel, we even ran into one of our classmates from law school. It’s a small world after all.

It rained a little bit on our first day in Sevillie, so we didn’t see as much as we might have, but we pretty much hit everything else we wanted to on the second day. We saw El Toro de Oro, a third bullfighting ring, a few more monuments, and the huge Plaza de España. Though the Plaza’s structure is under renovation, it’s still very photogenic, and I took an unreasonable number of pictures there. (Because the sun didn’t fully break through until about noon on the second day, a lot of these pictures are a bit gray. They’ll have to do for now, though. I’ll brighten them up when I get home.)

Though I loved Portugal, it was nice to be in a country where I speak the language again. Many local Sevillians (civilians, get it?) actually complemented me on my Spanish. Apparently, I look a bit like an American but speak Spanish like a Spaniard – not a bad combination.

As I mentioned above, Seville has been one of my favorites thus far. It has small-town charm like Venice but with more to do and a livelier energy. It’s also less urban than Madrid and Barcelona, so it boasts of a nice Spanish charm. I highly recommend it.

The next leg of our trip takes me to Africa for a day. Stay tuned.

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(Many) More Pictures of Seville: