Córdoba y Sevilla

Photo credit: lonelyplanet.com

Sun and siestas. That pretty much sums up my past weekend in Sevilla (Seville).

But first, we made a pit stop in Córdoba on Friday for a day trip with our school.

Córdoba, a separate province from Granada, is best known for its cathedral, which actually originated as a mosque. The mosque was built in 784, but after the Spanish Reconquista in 1236 in Córdoba, it was used as a church and later a cathedral was built inside of it. After having visited countless cathedrals in Europe, I was happy to see something a little different. So much that I neglected to take pictures of the cathedral part. Sorry!

We saw some other beautiful places in Córdoba, including the street of flowers. Córdoba is a great place to visit in May, because there is a "patio festival" where people open up their patios to the public, and the patios are decorated with tons of flowers and plants. We saw the beginning signs of that festival. Qué bonita.

The calle de flores, with the alminar
of the cathedral in the background.

The gardens of the Alcázar palace.

After Córdoba, ten of us headed over to Sevilla for the rest of the weekend. Sevilla is the capital of Andalucía, which is one of the autonomous communities of Spain (Granada is part of Andalucía as well).

We stayed in the Garden Backpacker hostel, which reminded me of the Art Hole in Prague. It was small, eclectic, had free sangria and we were served paella one night for €6!

The lobby of the hostel.

On the patio! Such great weather.

Per custom, we did the free city walking tour on Saturday morning. Our guide, Medi, ("like medieval without the 'evil,'") was quite a character, rife with facts and sexual innuendos to keep our attention. We also heard a lot about his Polish ex-wife, whom he fell for because Moroccans are crazy about blondes. But really, it was a good tour, especially since Sevilla is absolutely gorgeous. I broke out my maxi-dress and sandals for the first time this season and bore my pasty skin to the Andalusian sunshine!

There's Medi! In the background is the Torre del Oro,
which was used as a watchtower along the Guadalquivir River.

Plaza de España. Absolutely gorgeous, and less than a century old!

All the provinces in Spain had a special area in the Plaza de España. Here's Granada!

The Plaza de Toros. AKA the bullfighting ring.

The rest of the weekend basically consisted of eating gelato and tapas (which, unlike in Granada, are not free) and moving from place to place, taking siestas in the sun. We are living the Spanish life right here. 

On top of the Metrapol Parasol, better known as the mushroom. 

A lovely siesta in the Parque de María Luisa.

There were so many bands practicing for Semana Santa in Sevilla! We'd just be walking down a street and hear some music in the distance, and suddenly there'd be a band marching down the street! Conveniently, a bunch of bands congregated just down the street from the hostel, so I hung out there for a while just listening to them play! Their sounds were generally big and brassy, but even so they were very talented.

And of course, we did the Sevilla pub crawl. One of the funny things about pub crawls is that there's a guide who will take you around to all these bars, and then basically drop you off at a club at the end of the night. So around 6 a.m., it's up to you to find your way back home. This has proven to be very difficult in every city we've done a pub crawl in thus far. Patti had packed a map, but we basically sat laughing at ourselves for 20 minutes while we tried to remember what street our hostel was on and what street we were currently on. But, one way or another, we have always found a way to get home. This time, miraculously the guys we were talking to in the club came out and "happened to run into us" and then helped us get back. So, if there's a lesson in this, befriend locals. 

One more siesta to leave you with.

¡Hasta luego!