Something Sevilla.....

So to continue with the whole adventure every weekend I decided to head off to Sevilla this weekend.  After a very hurried lunch on Thursday our group met at the train station and began our long journey to Sevilla.  We arrived at our hostel after traveling for several hours by train, bus, plane, bus and finally walking.  That night we just decided to crash in our hostel because we were exhausted, so we made plans and then headed off to bed.

 

Friday morning we woke up early ate breakfast and headed out right away.  Our first stop was the Museo de Bellas Artes (Museum of Fine Arts).  It is located in a pretty little plaza and in a pink (or salmon-colored building)  This museum was filled with artwork by famous people like Velazquez and Murillo and also some more recent not as well known artists.  Now if you have ever seen me in an art museum you know that it is not the best thing.  I try to avoid them because I end up just mocking every painting....well I tried to admire....but it kinda failed.  I did like a lot of the work though and it was fun that I recognized the artists from my Spanish Art class here in Denia.  Hey....I actually am learning something here!!!  :)  After around 2 hours in Bellas Artes our dear friend Hannah left us to go meet with her friend who lives in Sevilla and the rest of us headed off to the rio Guadalquivir for some more exploring.  We saw some pretty sweet arte callejera (street art) and some pretty cool bridges, including the Puente de Isabel II (bridge of Isabel II) which is apparently pretty famous. 

From that we walked across the bridge to the Bull Stadium (Plaza de Toros de la Real Maestranza de Caballeria).  This was sweet, we got to take a tour and got inside the stadium and the museum.  It was sweet.  In a bull fight (corrido) there are 2 people on horseback and 3 people (toreros) on foot in the stadium.  An interesting (although very sad) fact is that before the horses wore protection approx. 15 horses would die every corrido.  That is like twice as many bulls, and after the corrido they would give the bull and horse meat out to the public; so the more horses and bulls that died, the better it was for the people!  How sad.  :( 

After the Plaza de Toros we walked a little further until we reached the Torre de Oro (Gold Tower) 

This was cool, but closed so we couldn't get in.  Apparently it's called the Torre de Oro because it was supposedly where the gold was kept for Sevilla. 

Then, since it wasn't quite lunchtime yet we headed in the direction of the Catedral de Sevilla and the Giralda.  This was by far one of my favorite parts of Sevilla.  The Cathedral is the largest Gothic cathedral in the world.  It has HUGE pillars inside and is just huge and Awesome in general!!!  I was so impressed by the size and grandeur of it.  Once we had explored the cathdral for a bit we went over the Giralda (which used to be the Alminar of a mosque, but was later converted into a bell tower.)  The Giralda has 34 + stories and there is a ramp in order to get to the top because at one point they brought horses/mules up there for some reason.  Once in the top you got a view of the whole city and the rio!

 It was super cool, especially when the bells chimed while we were up there!  :)  After that we found a place to buy food and had some lunch.

Oh, and we also found some flamenco dresses that Jenn and I tried on.  They were super sweet!!!!

Then we headed off in the direction of a bridge that one of our friends (Josiah) loves.  Now this would have been fun, but it was like 4pm and around 95 degrees, so we were hot, tired and it took forever to get there.  Once there we had no one around to explain to us the reason this bridge was so cool, so us girls were a little put out....but it was still cool none the less.  I later found out that the reason it's so cool is that it has no supports underneath, it is supported by the counter-weight of the large metal pole and the huge cables.  After that we headed back through town with a stop at the Basilica of the Macarena.  (side note: they don't dance the macarena there, well, not when we were there).

It was beautiful and very detailed.  After that we walked back to our hostel (with a stop for ice-cream from the mercadona).  That night we ate out at a restaurant and had some tapas, then we headed to bed "early". 

Saturday we woke up, had breakfast and then headed off to the Alcazar.  This was a palace/fortress built by the muslims and then taken over by the Spanish monarchs.  It had a really cool mixture of the two cultures with gorgeous designs in the walls.  It was sweet!!!!!  It also had Huge gardens.  We wandered around taking picture in them for a while before we left. 

The Plaza de Espana was next on our list.  This place is a huge plaza with a banco for every provincia in Spain. It has really cool tiling and is painted with some sweet colors!!

At this point we also had the privilage to meet Hannah's friend Amanda.  Amanda then became our tour guide for the rest of the day!  Then we ate lunch and wandered around the gardens next to the plaza de Espana then headed off to the barrio (neighborhood) next to the Cathedral.  It used to be the Jewish quarter of the city and it has narrow streets and is just a really pretty part of the town.  That evening Hallie and I decided to be cheap, so while everyone else went out to dinner we bought bread and cheese at the store and ate in our hostel.  Then to complete our evening we headed off to see the Giralda lit up at night.  It was beautiful, stunning, absolutely wonderful!  I forgot my camera, so I don't have a picture, but it was fantastic!!  I had an Awesome weekend!!!