Spear an orange?
Yes I've been slacking on my blogging recently, ok for the past month or so, but I've had all intentions of posting! I wrote a bit about our trip to Sevilla a few weeks ago but had been waiting until I cleared some space on my hard drive (I have over 10,000 photos in my iPhoto library, thus I have had a few difficulties loading more) so I could load photos of Sevilla to post on here. Originally I decided to post this blog sans photos with hopes of adding them shortly afterwards but then I thought "no! This blog is filled with so many descriptions of beautiful Sevilla that a bit of color is necessary to do it justice!" So I waited until now; now that I finally have uploaded my photos. Sorry for the delay.
Sevilla....
1. Cobblestone streets snaking through vivid, slightly chipped, earthy-toned walls of a barrio.
2. Wrought iron balconies overflowing with bougainvillea
3. Beautifully landscaped and tiled courtyards throughout the barrios.
4. The sounds of Spanish guitar and flamenco flooding the streets (I have learned that this is a very resented stereotype here but I found quite a few instances of this in Sevilla)
5. Beautiful iglesias (churches) on every corner
6. Gorgeous gardens to stroll through and relax
In Sevilla we encountered all of these and more. As I wound my way through the narrow cobblestone streets of Barrio Santa Cruz (the old Jewish neighborhood, though they do not know if Jews actually lived there) I couldn't help but smile when I noticed a Spanish resident exiting the charming wooden doors of his apartment and was able to catch a glimpse inside of the brilliantly colored tiles and foliage surrounding a courtyard in which the center focal point was a large marble fountain. As I moved on my ears continued to ring with the sound of Spanish guitar though I could not quite pinpoint the source. Perhaps it came from a window just around the corner or a plaza up ahead. This relaxed mood remained present throughout the trip and for once I felt like I was in the Spain I had imagined before.
One of the most notable sites in the city is the Alcazár, or Palace. This was my favorite place that we followed our spunky and witty tour guide through on Friday morning. It reminded me very much of La Alhambra in Granada yet on a slightly smaller scale. If you have seen the movie Under the Kingdom of Heaven then you have seen the Alcazár. However our guide so proudly pointed out a mistake in the movie: all over the Alcazár are Western European symbols such as castles and lions (a symbol for King Charles the V). Although the movie takes place in a palace in Jerusalem, somewhere you would not find these symbols, but the director failed to edit this while filming there. After learning all sorts of interesting facts like this we continued to explore the beautiful gardens and rooms of the palace and observe the mudéjar architecture (yay I'm using new vocabulary from my architecture and painting class) which is a mixture of Arab and Christian architecture. One could spend hours in there and not even realize.
There was no room for boredom the rest of our weekend in Sevilla as we were consistently exploring the town with friends and finding fun things to do wherever we went. On Saturday five of us went on an adventure in one of the large parks when we rented a four-person canopy bicycle. Little did we know that our driver, our friend Chris, was determined to race all other bicycles in the park and take us off-roading just about the entire time. Nonetheless it was quite a memorable experience.
I don't think we ever tire from exploring a new place, and as a result the weekend absolutely flew by, just as the past three months have as well (how is it already December?!) The amiable streets, plazas, shops, gardens, restaurants, boardwalk along the river -- the entire town, were always filled with people no matter the time of day. One of the most enjoyable places to people-watch in this people-filled town was in a plaza near the center. In this plaza people filled the entire square simply sipping on a beer or glass of wine and socializing with everyone else. We found this to be a normal occurrence here.
While in this plaza we met some locals who had traveled the world and seen so many places though chose to return to Sevilla for good. After this experience I can definitely see why.
Just outside of Barrio Santa Cruz
Just after the door opened into an apartment courtyard:
Reflection of una iglesia in store window:
In the gardens of the Alcazar:
Doesn't everyone decorate their bicycle handlebars this way?
Everyone hanging on for dear life on the canopy bike!
Found him! Has his gun ready while playing a little game with his friends in the gardens
The river through Sevilla
