After plenty of beach time in Greece, we made it to our next destination: Sevilla, Spain. When we first got to our hostel, we were a little disappointed because it was so big (four stories!) and there were so many people, we thought it might be a little chaotic and hard to meet people. Luckily we were proven wrong and met a lot of amazing new friends while doing a lot of "Spanish" things in the mean time. What types of "Spanish" things you ask? One includes mandatory naps. If that doesn't get you excited to read the rest of this post, I can't help you.
One great thing about Spain is that they offer free tours in a most of the major cities, and are connected with many of the hostels. This means you get to explore the city and learn about its history for a few hours while also meeting people from your hostel. One thing I noticed immediately about Sevilla was how beautiful the small streets and plazas were, and how scenic it was just to walk around. Our free tour was really interesting and helped us get acclimated to the city since the streets were so windy and narrow (and sooo hot - Sevilla was 40 degrees Celsius!). On our tour, we got to meet about 10 other people from our hostel, which we spent a good amount of time with over the next three days.
Some cool/weird architecture.
On the walking tour.
We wanted to get right into the Spain experience, so our first day we set out for tapas. Most people in Sevilla don't speak English, so most of our time in Sevilla tapas bars was spent trying to translate menus. We did pretty well for the most part getting a lot of bread and ham (they love their jamon in Spain), although I didn't love the salted cod (bacalao). We also got some paella, but we went to a random place and it didn't turn out to be too good (luckily we tried much better as we went through Spain, stay tuned for a future post). The restaurant we frequented the most was 100 Mantaditos, a restaurant that sold 100 different types of mini sandwiches. Our South African friend Daniel recommended the place to us one Wednesday night because there was a special that day for 1 euro sandwiches ("It'll change your life, bru!"). Too bad for us, everyone else in Sevilla was fiending 1 euro montaditos as well, so the wait was about an hour (at 11pm! But when we ate at midnight, it was more than satisfying (although I don't think my life was changed, bru:)).
Mmmm, 1 euro montaditos.
Late night hanging out with tinto verano.
One day on the hostel's rooftop deck (where we spent many evenings drinking sangria trying to beat the heat), a few of us heard that there was going to be a bull fight because of the Corpus Christi festival (generally bull fights are only on Sundays, so we thought we'd miss it). We decided it'd be a really cool experience to check it out, even though we all heard it was a bit gruesome. It turned out to be more than a bit gruesome (which is probably why it's already been banned in other Spanish cities), but was still a very interesting experience. Apart from how gruesome it was, it was really impressive to see how the bullfighters control the bulls, at times turning their backs on them only being a few feet away.
The roof deck where we spent many a hot evening.
Rooting for the bull the whole way.
To lighten the mood a bit after the bull fight, we met up with a more people from our hostel to watch some Flamenco dancing. We were in a hot, crowded room, but it was a really enjoyable experience beause the dancers and singers were so passionate about it you couldn't help but get into it too. We ended the night of Spanish culture with a fantastic night of dancing at one of the bars near Sevilla's river front. Definitely one of the more fun and eventful days of my trip so far.
Beautiful flamenco dancing in a hot room.
Dance party!!!
One Spanish institution I was wholeheartedly behind was their afternoon siestas. I've been known to enjoy a nap or two, so Spain was my kind of place. Everyday, from 2-5 or so, the whole city shut down and napped because of the intense heat. Not wanting to be disrespectful of their culture, I joined in.
The last two days of our trip were spent (when I wasn't napping) exploring some of Sevilla's historic sites such as the cathedral, royal palace, and a few of the beautiful plazas and parks. The cathedral was massive (3rd largest in the world!) and just kind of took my breath away when I walked in. Even with palace/cathedral/ruins fatigue from my two months of traveling, I was still blown away.
Huuuuuuuuuuge cathedral.
View from the cathedral tower.
Plaza de Espana.
Inside the palace.
Originally we only planned to spend a couple of days in Sevilla, but because of the great friends we made, we extended our stay to four days (a few other friends extended their trips as well). It was definitely amazing how close knit our group got in the short time we spent together, and something that made our stay in Sevilla very special...and life changing, bru.
Hello to Zarina, Leif, Daniel, Anan, Lara, Chris, Angel, Jackie, Lin, Ip, Alex and the rest of the Oasis crew! Per Zarina, reunion in Glasgow or southeast Asia ASAP :).
I love Sevilla! Its one of my favorite cities in Spain. Siestas are a must. :)
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