Sevilla

"What an enormous magnifier is tradition! How a thing grows in the human memory and in the human imagination, when love, worship, and all that lies in the human heart, is there to encourage it."

Sevilla is classic Spain...all the traditions and streets like I had imagined. We went to the Bullfighting Museum & Ring, which was so gigantic & had so much history attached to it. Bullfighting has been in Spain for hundreds of years, it's very much a part of their culture. It's not in season right now, which is just as well, since I'm not sure I actually like the idea of seeing one live. It's just not my thing. We also saw flamenco dancing in Sevilla. It was not the kind you imagined...no fancy dresses, just simple black clothing, but amazing footwork & live music. I wish we could've been close enough to see all the intracicies, but it is definitely a must-see. It's not really like any other type of dance I've been exposed to, and I think it would be fun to learn or try one day. I guess that's another thing to add to my bucket list! The last Spanish tradition we crossed off our list in Sevilla was eating tapas...and lots of them. Tapas are small portions arranged by restaurants that are quite cheap, designed to give you a good taste of a restaurant's specialties, and allow you try a bunch of different things. This is great thinking, because if you know me, you know I can never make decisions, so trying everything works just great for me. Our hostel gave us a reccomendation for a restaurant with great tapas called Levie's. We liked it there so much we went twice! It was cheap & delicious!

We did so much other sightseeing in Sevilla too. We saw Alcazar, an ancient 14th century palace that was absolutely beautiful...espeically the gardens. We also went to the Sevilla Cathedral...more Spanish churches. It had great stained glass, but in my opinion, nowhere near the stained glass at Saint Chapelle in Paris. We also saw the University of Sevilla and the Plaza de American & the Parc de Mary Louisa...all pretty, all good places to go.

The best thing we saw was the Plaza de Espahna. It was a huge central area with a gorgeous moasiced building. Surrounding the builidng were mosaics of each region in France and matching mosaic benches. There was a large stream running through the middle of the plaza with bridges crossing it. It was my favorite thing there, just because of how beautiful it was.

Sevilla as a whole was quite beautiful: cobbled streets, stone archways, palm trees, and orange trees, oh orange trees everywhere. Very old town, very traditional, very much worth the trip there.