Sevilla!

October 31-November 1

Day One

Today marked the first day of our mini-tour of Spain!  We set our alarms for bright and early, and headed for the local bus station.  We waved goodbye to the beautiful beaches of Estepona and made our way to the city of Sevilla/Seville (Say-ve-a).  We arrived in Sevilla around 1:30pm and were ready for lunch! After wondering around for a few minutes, we sat down at a place that served paella, a traditional Spanish dish of rice and seafood or chicken.  Little did we realize we were sitting right across the street from The University of Sevilla!  It is a large, old, gray building adorned with three bright flags.  Some of our friends from Gustavus have studied here during their time abroad, so it was awesome to see it in person!

After lunch, we hauled our luggage (which was getting pretty heavy at this point!) to our hostel.  None of us had ever stayed at a hostel before, so we were naturally a little apprehensive to see what we would find.  Luckily, it was a clean, friendly place with free breakfast and free Wi-Fi!

Before we left we had connected with a fellow Gustie, Rachel Schmitt, who moved to Sevilla after graduation to teach English.  She met up with us and showed us one of her favorite little ice cream parlors.  We all agreed it was nice seeing a friendly familiar face in a foreign city! Later we walked around the city, did a little shopping, and visited the Festival of Nations and the Plaza de Espana.  The Festival of Nations had a bunch of different stands from countries like Egypt, Australia, and India selling products from their homelands. Plaza de Espana is a beautiful castle like building constructed for the World Fair to attract people to the city.

Being Halloween, we decided that we should dress up and see the nightlife of Sevilla.  We made do with the supplies we had in our backpacks, and ended up as a group of funny looking zombies!  We met up with Rachel and some of her friends in town and had a wonderful Spanish Halloween!

Day Two

            We started off day two in Sevilla by going on a free walking tour provided by the hostel.  The two-hour tour ended up taking almost three and a half hours, but I think we’d all agree it was well worth it!  Our tour guide (who spoke in English by the way!) was incredibly knowledgeable about Spain, and especially Sevilla.  Some of the highlights of the tour included:

-       The Cathedral.  It was recently proven that at least 10% of Christopher Columbus’ ashes are in this cathedral.  There are 37 ramps (which would equal more than 2000 stairs) to reach the top for the call to prayer.  They used ramps instead of stairs so they could ride a donkey up every day!

-       We walked through the narrow streets, which we learned were designed as natural air conditioning systems.  Sevilla is the hottest city in Spain, reaching 100°-130° F during the summer months.  The narrow streets created a wind tunnel to help keep people cool. 

-       In one of the gardens we visited, we saw eight huge Mongolian trees that were brought here for the 1929 World Fair.  The first tree was brought as a sapling, a gift from the Moorish people to the King.  The city of Sevilla liked it so much they had 7 more full-grown trees shipped in from China. 

The plaque by Susona's window where her skull used to hang...

-       Our tour guide told us an interesting story about a Jewish girl named Susona.  She was the daughter of a prominent Jewish figure, who was planning a rebellion against the King of Spain.  Currently dating one of the Catholic soldiers (not to mention, pregnant with his child), Susona revealed her father’s secret to her boyfriend so he could escape the coming attacks.  Her boyfriend betrayed her secret to his superiors, making Susona a publicly ostracized traitor to her people.  She fled Sevilla and became a nun.  Her dying wish years later was to have her head hung outside her childhood window to warn others not to betray their own people.

Later that night we met up with Rachel again and went to the top of the “Plaza Mayor” aka the “Parasol de Sevilla”.  It gave us a beautiful view of Sevilla, just as the sun was setting!  After a delicious dinner of different tapas, we searched the town for churros and chocolate.  Everywhere we found was closed due to it being a National Spanish holiday.  Instead we settled for brownies and ice cream at Burger King!  When I (Christa) visited Spain in high school, this was one of my favorite treats, and I was so happy to find it again and share it with my traveling companions! 

Pictures to come! ~ Christa