aventuras de alyssa

SO I just realized that I completely missed posting about Sevilla! I had the post saved in drafts and never actually published it!! Yikes! I went to Sevilla from April 3rd to April 7th. Here’s the post I drafted:

On Wednesday after school, Rosa brought me to the Valladolid airport for my flight to Sevilla with Tonisha! Our schools let us move our hours that we’d be missing on Thursday to a Friday when we usually wouldn’t be at school, which was so nice of them because the only flights to Sevilla are on Wednesday and Sunday. It’s incredible how much better a flight is than the train – the flight is an hour and costs €35, meanwhile the train costs ~€140 and takes 5 hours! So we booked our flight on Ryan Air and packed our backpacks full for 4 days – I’m shocked I was able to get everything in my backpack!

We got to Sevilla at 7 pm and went to our first hostel of the trip, the Kitsch Hostel Art Sevilla. We got out of the Uber and there was a gathering of people around a hotel – Tonisha has just finished telling me that Barack Obama was in Sevilla too and turns out the crowd of people was waiting to see him! We waited with them and we saw the motorcade go by! Didn’t see Obama himself 😦 As for the hostel, it was very hipster and not the cleanest which was a bummer, but we made due. After checking in, we walked along the Guadalquivir River and saw the Torre del Oro all lit up. We crossed the Puente de Isabel II (a bridge) and went over to a little “barrio” (neighborhood) called Triana. It used to be the gypsy barrio and is now the heart of flamenco and the more hipster types of Sevilla. We ended up at Taberna el Papelon and I got my usual when I’m not sure what to get – a Spanish tortilla (omelette with potatoes) and croquetas de jamón (ham). Almost every establishment has these two tapas so they’re usually my go to, since everything seems to revolve around seafood here!

Clockwise starting on the left – view from the hostel (el Catedral!), el Torre del Oro, the Puente de Isabel II, and the river

After dinner, we walked back towards El Centro which is the main neighborhood and where our hostel was. We stopped at a bar that had outside heaters because it was freaking cold! Before we went to Sevilla, everyone in Tordesillas kept saying how warm Sevilla was, but we had cold weather and rain – didn’t stop us from having a great time though! The rain is like Florida too, buckets for 20 minutes and then it’s gone so it wasn’t bad. After the bar, we went back to the hostel and our hostel receptionist was going out with a group of people from the hostel and he told us we had to tag along. We met a bunch of cool people from Morocco, Italy, and Finland and ended up at a karaoke bar where they were singing French karaoke songs!! I think we heard more people speaking French on this trip than Spanish!!!

On Thursday, it was time to move to hostel #2, The Nomad. We had some issues booking hostels, so we ended up in a different one every night and back to the Kitsch hostel Saturday night. It was fun to meet new people at each hostel! The Nomad was definitely our favorite, so if anyone’s going to Sevilla and needs a hostel, stay here!! It’s very clean and so so fun. They had free breakfast and dinner and a cute rooftop terrace!

Thursday was our day with the best weather forecast, so Tonisha and I did a lot of walking. Amanda was meeting up with us on Friday so we didn’t want to do too much without her. We went to Plaza de España, which blew me away. The tile work was incredible and the architecture of the pavilions was so unique. We took advantage of the nice weather and rented a little rowboat. We had a hysterical time trying not to crash too much, but it was inevitable! After the boat, we explored the plaza a bit more and went over to Parque María Luisa. The park was beautiful – it’s been really nice to see leaves on trees and flowers blooming finally!! There’s also orange trees everywhere, but unfortunately I had a seriously terrible cold so I wasn’t able to smell them 😦 After the park, we meandered over to Barrio Santa Cruz, famous for being very picturesque because of its skinny streets, white houses, and tons of flowers. It was so adorable!

Thursday night we had dinner at the hostel on the rooftop terrace and we ended up having such a great time meeting people at the hostel that we stayed there all night! The bartender got us blankets and we all shared stories about our respective countries. We met people from Britain, Sweden, Singapore, Portugal, and Holland! The girl from Holland had been living in the Spanish countryside in a yurt for the past two months, which was so cool to hear about (but I could never do!).

Friday, we packed up again in the morning and moved to the Black Swan Hostel and met up with Amanda. We had tickets to go see the Real Alcázar of Sevilla, which is still used today as a residence for the royal family. I was completely blown away by the architecture, especially the Islamic tile work. It’s very similar to La Alhambra in Granada – my favorite place in Spain! We spent the morning touring the Alcázar and the adjoining gardens. Thankfully, we didn’t have any rain while touring!

Pictures don’t do it justice!

After the Alcázar, we went to Las Setas, which is the largest wooden structure in the world. It’s an art piece, but you can climb it for awesome views of the city, so that’s exactly what we did! We enjoyed the views and meandered back to our hostel direction, stopping by chance in El Divino Salvador, which is a Roman Catholic church in Sevilla. We went inside and saw the mini figurines of the upcoming Semana Santa processions. In the south of Spain, particularly in Andalusia, the processions and celebration of Semana Santa is very unique and emotional. There are many costumes and it’s a popular tourist destination during this time. Also, please note that the costumes are not the KKK. They look a heck of a lot like it, but it’s different! We went to the hostel for a quick nap and then we went on a bar crawl with the hostel. I met a fellow Deloitte-er from our hostel! He’s a manager in the DC office in Advisory and is taking a 3 month sabbatical too. What a small world!!

On Saturday, we had to move back to the Kitsch Hostel from the first night (boy was I tired of packing up and moving) and then we hurried to the Catedral de Sevilla because we wanted to beat the lines. We got there right as it was opening up, so we didn’t have to wait too long thankfully! The cathedral was gigantic and incredible. I seriously don’t understand how they could’ve built the cathedral without modern technology! Christopher Columbus’s tomb is within this cathedral, so that was really cool to see, even though he technically died in Valladolid (and people in Valladolid are SALTY that he’s buried in Sevilla instead). After touring the cathedral, we hiked up the ramps in La Giralda, the bell tower, for more views of the city. I loved it!

The second picture down on the right is Christopher Columbus’s tomb.

After la Giralda, we went to el Mercado de Triana for lunch and some exploring. We then climbed el Torre del Oro and checked out the museum there about how the Torre was used as a security system back in the day for the city of Sevilla. We had some “authentic” New York pizza for dinner and I have to say, it was pretty good! I wasn’t disappointed! For our last night, we went to a rooftop bar, which had an incredible view of el catedral and we went to a breathtaking flamenco show!! I don’t have any pictures because we weren’t allowed to take any, but the show was so good. We stayed for two shows because the bar put one on every hour (and it was free!). After falling in love with flamenco in Granada 5 years ago, I’m glad I was able to see another authentic show! The passion of the singers and the talent of the dancers blew me away.

Sunday, we grabbed breakfast with Amanda before heading to the airport (Tonisha and I had to leave earlier than Amanda). It was a really wonderful trip to Sevilla!