Sevilla--Que Bonita!

Sorry for the delay. I've been meaning to get this done, but never actually got to it. If it helps, I've had it saved as a draft for weeks now. Anywho, yes, this post is dedicated to Mary and my trip to Seville (in Spanish, it's Sevilla, just like how Spain in Spanish is Espana--I used to wonder why some people called it Seville and others called it Sevilla, but now I get it =D). But yes, it was a short weekend in Seville, but it's such a beautiful city. I daresay I like it better than Granada! It's small, and yet quite full of people. In the mere two days that Mary and I were there, we got pretty accustomed to the streets, and were quite capable in finding our way around with just a few glances at the map to be sure of ourselves. Anywho, pictures first, stories later:

7am in Granada, waiting for the bus. Quite dark, huh?

La Giralda: Right next La Catedral. It's supposed to have the most beautiful view of the city at the top of the tower, but unfortunately for Mary and me, we could make the climb due to both the Cathedral and the Giralda being closed because of some festival. Stupid festival...

There was a store called Julia! But it was a store for old ladies....

First lunch in Seville. Mary's hiding behind the map.

Then she made me hide behind the breadsticks. I know, I look silly..

Mary's devouring that sucker.

ohhh my gosh. That tortellini was sooo good...I licked the plate clean. En serio.

Me with La Giralda. Although the lighting was definitely not good for this picture.

La Catedral! Amazing, huh? It's the 3rd largest cathedral in the world, the largest in Spain.

More of La Giralda.

We asked some dude who we overheard talking English to take this picture for us. I think he had said that he was from San Francisco.

A different angle of the cathedral

La Catedral y la Giralda and all its glory.

Entrance to the cathedral which we never got a chance to enter [I know, I'm bitter.]


Gates to the Real Alcazar, which is a castle.

Fancy, no?

Some kind of meeting room...I don't really know, we didn't take a listening tour for this one. =D

I thought it was funny how they put a picture to make up for their construction.

I think this is pretty. There were ducks in the water. DUCKS!

More of the castle.

Mary and I in one of the gardens. We were skilled and used timer on the camera in conjunction with a banister.

That's a carpet. On the wall. Crazy Spaniards. =P

More carpets on walls.

I tried doing this with a table and timer so that Mary could be in the picture as well, but the table kept showing up in the picture, so I gave up and let Mary take the picture.

Aerial view.

Fountain with--I think--Triton at the top.

Mary's hair looks dramatic.

We were having trouble taking this one ourselves, too, so we stopped a lady to help us. She took two, and they look exactly alike, except one is tilted a bit more than the other.

Arch!

"Act like the column!" --Mary

Welcome to my humble abode.

Yes! It's mine!

These pictures that we have of one on a higher landing, or whatever, took quite a bit of work. One had to walk all the way down, and then we'd have to switch places. But they make for nice pictures =)

There were many gardens in this place.

Stopping for a rest.

Gazebo. I want a gazebo. Gazebo's a funny word.

Mary was reluctant to take this picture. But I think it turned out cute =)

Banco de Espana of Seville. Banco's seem to be a big thing in Spain.

Not sure what this building is. I think I just took a picture of it in passing. But it looks ANCIENT.

Wannabe Mickey Mouse. I thought it was funny so I took a picture of it. Turns out, there's a bunch of these in Madrid too.

Our view from our hostel window at night.

Our hostel was hosting this event where they took us to two tapas bars and then to a free Flamenco show. This is at the first tapas bar. It was ok, but nothing can beat the free tapas of Granada =)

Next to the second tapas bar. Look! San JO, you KNOW! =)

And THIS if Flamenco. I'll try putting up the video of it so that you can see what it really looks like. It's soo intense.

Pretty cool pose, if I do say so myself.

Then they brought out the big guns--the FAN.

The lady looks pissed at me for taking this picture...I think it might've been rude to be taking pictures, but other people were doing it too, so meh.

Our hostel had a roof..thinger. haha, the word has escaped me at the moment..the point is we're on the roof in this picture.

I've seen so many of these in Spain.

Building.

Skills =)

You can't see, but just beyond that white building on the right is a bunch of construction. hahaha

Nice building, huh?

Same building as previous picture. It's part of the university now, but....

hahaha, used to be a tobacco [is that spelled right?] factory.

One of the millions of fountains I now I have pictures of.

Tried to get a picture with the fountain but instead..we got a car. =T

Mary thinks I take too many pictures of signs. But if I didn't, she wouldn't have this nice picture of her and the Sevilla sign =P

Yea, this was our random wandering day--as if you couldn't tell.

Plaza de Espana! [Annoyingly blocked by a bunch of white tents]

Some say that I took the building in the wrong light. I think it makes it artistic looking.

I'm a bit cut off, but it's ok because on Mary's camera, SHE'S a bit cut off.

Typical Plaza de Espana picture.

I feel like a princess. =)

Plaza de Espana is symmetric. One side is exactly like the other side.

This guy was singing, and then when we passed by, he stopped and he was like, "How." [Ok, I don't know if that's how you spell it.]

And then this is how the conversation between Mary and me went as we walked past:

Me: hahaha, that's funny, he just stopped to say hi to us.
Mary: How do you know he said hi?
Me: Don't you know that kids joke? It's like, one kid goes 'I bet I can make you say hi' and the other kid is like, 'How?' and the first kid goes 'I just did.'
Mary: That seems politically incorrect.

Anyone else heard the joke before?

They had these really pretty tile pictures of each city in Spain [well, I don't know if it's all of the cities, but there were quite a few, and I don't think it was just the major cities].
I wanted a picture with all the cities that I've been/want to go to.

Barcelona

Yay, Granada!

Madrid.

I think this one was Seville's, but the pretty picture like the other cities was just a hole in the wall...

Torre de Oro
[I just realized that I always get Torre (Tower) and Toro (Bull) confused...]

Me and Torre de Oro

The river that cuts through the city.

The Torre de Oro is now a Naval Museum. We got audio guides, and man was it corny. They tried to make it as a love story where the narrator is a guy who's walking by the tower and he sees "the most beautiful girl he's ever seen" and he talks to her and they get into this really nerdy conversation about the tower. Yea. I didn't listen to the whole thing...
BUT this tiny boat on this map is cute =)

There were a lot of stairs to get up the tower.

We were just on that bridge.

dun DUN DUN

You can see the cathedral from the tower. But then again, you could see the cathedral from anywhere in the city. It was actually the way Mary and I navigated around the city: "Where's the tall pointy thing?"

I thought that round thing was the Plaza de Toros. But it wasn't.

More views from the tower.

Mary was at the highest point of the Tower. I was at the second highest point.


My turn to get a picture from the highest point.

Long line. Take a picture!

There we go.

Restaurant recommended by my guidebook. Good food. AWESOME dessert.

Plaza de Toros.

There weren't any shows, but they make you pay for a tour if you want to go in to see the Plaza, so we just walked around it...=D

Aww, Los Angeles!

Next few pictures are from the Alameda de Hercules, which is a street full of various little restaurants, cafes, bars, etc.

There were various sculptures on this street. Reminded me of the sculpture garden at UCLA, except not so abstract.

Think round.

Zoom out.

Entrance.

It got dark as we were there and while we were eating dinner at...

DIABLITO. hahaha, it was actually pretty good food for a good price. I got Nachos [YES, NACHOS!], and they were actually spicy, which is hard to find in Spain.

Spanish cities at night are BEAUTIFUL.

La Catedral accentuated by the moon and various strategic lights.

Flamenco Videos, as promised =) [Apologies for them being on the side, but sometimes I do turn it so that it's on the right direction =D]





hmm..I guess I told the stores as I showed the pictures..hahha, ok, hope you enjoyed it! Next post: Madrid!


[Oh, since it'll probably be a while before I get the Madrid post up, I have a few updates:

- I got stung by a BEE the other day!!!
- Going to see Dashboard Confessional and Maroon 5 in Birmingham next weekend!
- Had a Thanksgiving dinner with the other EAP kids. HUGE turkey. Pictures to come later.
- Winter Break coming up, although I doubt I'll be traveling much because I'm not made of money.

Hope everyone is doing well! I miss everyone! =)