Sights and Smells of Sevilla

I'm a few weeks behind on my blog... I've started operating on Spanish time, though, so I'm not too worried about it. ;) Two weekends ago (Feb. 8) we had an ISA (my study abroad group) excursion to Sevilla. I had to get up at the crack of dawn, AKA 7:30, for the 4 hour bus ride south. 

We arrived in the late afternoon and took a short walking tour of the city. Historically, Sevilla is considered one of the 3 most important Spanish cities (along with Madrid & Barcelona). How important, you ask? Well, when Christopher Columbus returned after discovering the new world, he came to Sevilla. The architecture in Sevilla is very different than most cities in Spain. There is a lot of Arabic influence, which is unusual because typically the Christians destroyed the Arabic buildings when they arrived. 

Torre de Oro

Besides the unique architecture, Sevilla is famous for its Flamenco dancing. After the tour we went to a Flamenco museum. Not just any Flamenco museum, but the one started by Cristina Royos, who is considered to be the mother of Flamenco dancing (at least according to the museum that she funded). I'm sure you're all huge Flamenco fans, but for those who don't know, Flamenco is a type of dance popular in southern Spain that has evolved over the years to incorporate styles from Romani, Spanish, and various other cultures.

After going through the museum, we got to see a live Flamenco performance. I'm not usually a big fan of watching people dance, but it was pretty incredible! The music was what really made the show- they had a guitar player and a singer. It's hard to describe, but there was a lot of stomping, clapping, and passionate singing. 

After the Flamenco museum, we had the rest of night free. I convinced a few friends not to eat at KFC or Burger King and come with me to find someplace to eat by the river instead. We checked out someplace recommended by ISA, but it was super pricey so we tried to find a dive instead. We picked a cafetería at random and had some pretty delicious fish and fries.

Saturday we checked out some more Arabic architecture and took a tour of the cathedral. We also made our way to the Plaza de España, a giant plaza with a little pond in the center of it. I think it's Sevilla's version of a Plaza Mayor. Later I went on a tour of the bullfighting ring (bullfighting season doesn't start until later this summer). It was interesting learning about the history of bullfighting. I don't know if I want to go see a bullfight or not, since there's a lot of blood and 3 bulls are killed. Technically, it's possible for the bull to get pardoned if both the matador and the bull fight flawlessly. I asked the guide how often it happened, and she said twice ever in Sevilla.

view from the Cathedral's tower

Bullfighting ring: it costs more to sit in the shade!

Fun Fact: There were large piles of trash all over the city while we were there because the garbage workers had been on strike for 2 weeks. The city wanted to cut the number of workers & increase the workload for the remaining workers without any pay raises. I can see why they were upset, but I don't know how much bargaining power they have with unemployment above 20%. The strike ended just before we got there, so they were working around the clock to pick up the city.

We headed back on Sunday, but stopped in Mérida on the way back. Mérida is a small town with Roman ruins; there was an amphitheater where gladiators would battle and classical theatre where they would have plays. Unfortunately my camera was dead, so I don't have any cool pictures to post. Good thing I used my camera to get this picture of the trash! ;)

Barcelona- My camera's zoom is broken so all my shots are close-ups now

My three-week intensive Spanish class ended January 25th and the second semester for the university doesn't start until next Monday, so I've been on vacation for the past two weeks (I'm sure you're thinking: "Hey, isn't his entire semester one big vacation?!"). Since we didn't have classes, a group of ISA students decided it would be a good time to travel. RyanAir had some cheap flights to Barcelona, so 6 of us decided to go to Barcelona for an extended weekend!

We left last Thursday (Jan 31st) at 8:30am. Salamanca doesn't have an airport that RyanAir flies out of, so we had a two-hour bus ride to Valladolid, a city east of Salamanca. After spending the afternoon chilling at the tiny airport near Valladolid, we had a short flight (I was sleeping, so I have know idea how long... 2 hours maybe?) to Barcelona.

We took a 6-person taxi from the airport to our hostel. The taxi driver may or may not have ripped us off. We were told by ISA that all taxis charged the same, no matter how many people you had, but the driver convinced us that it was like that for normal taxis but the larger taxis charged 10 Euros per person to get to the center of the city. We didn't really have any idea, so we just went with it. 

We stayed at the Mediterranean Hostel, which we picked because it was cheap and got good reviews. It turned out to be in a great location- we could walk to the Sagrada Familia, the beach, and Las Ramblas. Our room also happened to have a sweet glassed-in balcony. 

Thursday night we went for a walk to explore Barcelona a little bit. We happened to walk past the Casa Batlló (the house with a roof that looks like a dragon)! Barcelona is full of crazy buildings and parks designed by Gaudí. I also stopped at an ATM right outside a bank to get some money. Most people think of Barcelona as being full of pickpockets, but I'll remember it as a city with nice, trustworthy bankers... I tried three times to get money out, but it didn't work. As I was starting to try a fourth time, three guys came out of the bank and stopped in the doorway, giving me a funny look. I was probably giving them a pretty funny look back, since I automatically assume everyone is a potential thief whenever I am taking any money out of an ATM. It turns out they were stopping in the doorway to turn out the lights and lock the door (a lot of businesses are open pretty late in Spain). At this point, I figured they were either bankers or had just finished robbing the bank. They looked pretty trustworthy, so I asked why it wasn't working in (very) broken Spanish... I was kind of flustered. They told me to try it again, and it worked perfectly, so I looked even more foolish. Oh well, at least I got some money...

Friday we checked out the Sagrada Familia, a giant Basilica designed by Gaudí. It's actually still under construction. If you ask me, Gaudí gets too much credit for these buildings, considering he comes up with designs so complicated that they're still working on them! La Sagrada Familia is pretty impressive, though. The facades on the sides of basilica are huge and tell complete stories from the Bible. For example, one facade is the birth of Christ. 

 

The inside of the basilica was beautiful. It's filled with giant pillars that seem to go up forever. It felt more like a historical site than a church, compared to the other basilicas I've seen. There was a lot of information on how it was built and even a museum below the basilica. I geeked out over all of the information they had. We also got to go up into the towers, which provided an up-close view of the architecture and an amazing view of the city. The Sagrada Familia was by far my favorite site we visited in Barcelona!

On the way back to the hostel, we stopped for lunch at a Colombian restaurant for lunch. Angie (another ISA student) grew up in Colombia, so when she saw the Colombian flag outside of the restaurant, she convinced us to stop and see how good of food they have in Colombia. She was right! I had Ajiaco, a thick traditional soup that had potatoes, chicken, and corn-on-the-cob in it. And that was just the first course! The meal also came with rice, beans, meat, a drink, and dessert- all for under 10 Euros!

We spent most of Saturday at Park Guill, a famous park designed by.... (you guessed it:) Gaudí. The park is north of the beach, and there's an amazing view of the ocean. It's also at the top of a giant hill, so you have to walk up a giant incline and a lot of stairs to get to it. Luckily they have outdoor escalators for the tourists! The park is filled with Gaudí's work, including the famous lizard that is one of the unofficial symbols of Barcelona.

Sunday we walked to the beach. It was chilly (I was wearing a jacket), but there were quite a few people hanging out at the beach. It's still way too early to swim, though. I'm sure it was deserted compared to how busy it gets in the summer. We also walked around the Olympic Park and got to see the Arc de Triomf. Apparently Paris isn't the only city that has a Victory Archway.

Monday we headed back to Salamanca. Barcelona was an awesome place to visit, but I'm glad to be living in Salamanca. Barcelona felt "more Spanish" than Madrid, though. Madrid just kind of felt like a big city. Barcelona has so many unique cultural things that are only found in Spain. It also felt more "touristy" than Madrid. Almost everyplace we went, people could speak English. All of the signs were in Catalan, though. (Catalan is actually their primary language in north-eastern Spain, although pretty much everyone speaks Spanish as well). Catalan looks like a made-up language that is a cross between Spanish and French. I never thought seeing signs in Spanish would be comforting, but it was nice to come back to Salamanca, where I can understand the signs (at least a little bit better than the ones in Catalan).