Oh my god, so much traveling this month. Finally, my whirlwind tour of February weekend trips is over. Time to recount all of it, hopefully in the spirit of conciseness. :)
Last weekend, the program took us to Sevilla, which is a major port city in the south of Spain (in Andalucía). I absolutely adore this town more than anything, and I think if I had to choose any other place to live in the world, it would be Sevilla.
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| Plaza Catedral, leading into the winding streets of the historic district |
Sevilla is more like a pueblo than an actually city. Everyone seems to know each other. The main plaza is constantly busy, gorgeous and sunny. The buildings are bright and colorful, and have an amazing architectural mix of European and Moorish influences. A lovely break from the white and grey, thin narrow apartment buildings of Barcelona.
The first thing we did was take a walking tour of the historic district, which is a maze of tourist shops, cobbled winding roads, tapas places, and gorgeous old-style houses.The tiles to the right are everywhere in the city--they're called "azulejos", and Andalucía is known for them. This is just a small example, but every house is decorated with elaborate tiles.
The houses themselves are interesting; the bottom floor is a patio with open-air rooms bordering the patio, usually with lots of tiles, plants, and maybe a fountain. The upper floors have closed in bedrooms, studies, etc. Very different from what we're used to, but so fun and so beautiful. You can just walk onto the porch of these houses and look into their patios...which we did.
For the Jews out there: the city has an amazing Jewish history; the historic district used to be a strong Jewish district in Spain. The streets are so windy, maze-like, and narrow (the idea, our guide said, was because windy streets without street access make it hard to find them). You can find some sort of Jewish artwork in every other souvenir store, antique store, and little boutique.
Pictured to the left is a couple of us CIEE Jewish representatives in front of an azulejo map of the old historic Jewish district.
We also visited the Sevilla cathedral, which they told us is the third largest cathedral in the world. Typical Europe...you visit a place, you have to see its cathedral. It actually used to be a mosque, so despite the obvious Euro-christian influences, the architecture is actually very moorish.
Again, it's kind of one of those things where I can't even begin to describe how beautiful it is. This pic is of the grand chapel in the cathedral. There are other chapels, including one that is curtained off and reserved for the royal family. It's a big deal.
Afterwards we climbed up the bell tower, which is called la Giralda. It used to be a main part of the mosque, before it was converted into the cathedral. To the left, the view of Sevilla from the bell tower--note the bull fighting arena (which we sadly did not get to visit) and part of the mosque/cathedral in the lower foreground.
The most amazing part of the trip for me, and probably of this whole semester so far, was attending a flamenco performance. Flamenco is a very traditional Spanish form of music and dance; it's especially attributed to Andalucía.
Flamenco is a combination of a very particular type of music, played on a Spanish guitar, with a following of rhythmic clapping and yelling from the clappers, and with the flamenco dancers. The dancing involves very impressive series of strong stomps on a wooden surface. It's very rhythmic, loud, and powerful--typical Spanish.
The next day, we took a day trip to Cadíz. It's a beach town about an hour and a half away from Sevilla. We got to see the fortifications and beach castles built around the city. The seafood was really good, and they have lots of windy streets with little shops as well. We went up another bell tower in the Cadíz cathedral, which was beautiful to see the whole town and the sea. For those of you playing along, and who have seen Lost season 6, IT LOOKED LIKE JACOB'S TOWER (dad, I know you get that reference!)
On our last day in Sevilla, we went to see the Real Alcazar--originally of moorish origin, the gorgeous buildings were converted into a royal palace for various royal monarchs. The entire thing is so humongous, with gigantic Moorish-style rooms displaying beautiful European artwork, and a maze-like, endless series of gardens. We found a peacock in one of them? It was very beautiful, stunning, and relaxing to just walk around in these gardens. Also, very easy to get lost in.
To finish up our trip in Sevilla, we sat in plaza del catedral, ate lunch, watched the horses pulling the trolleys, and listened to a Spanish guitarist street artist playing next to the remains of an old royal palace. With the sun beating down, it was the perfect way to end the trip.
If you couldn't tell by the ridiculous amount of stuff I wrote about it, I absolutely love Sevilla. It's by far my favorite place that I have been to so far.
Coming up next: Venice Carnival, I get laryngitis, and I'm going to move! Hasta luego!
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