Seville in One Day

Posted by Justin Korn

on December 18, 2008

December 14 – Seville

Jeff and I got up around 10am, planned our day roughly along with two of the other occupants in our room, 2 German ladies. I was a bit hungry, so we left and grabbed a chocolate croissant from a place right outside our hostel. As we left, the 2 German ladies happened to go by, so we strolled along with them trying to find the market they were looking for. At one point, we must have seemed very lost while we looked at our maps, because a nice Spanish couple asked if they could help us and even attempted to lead the way to where we were trying to go. We ultimately ended up at Plaza del Salvador and decided that the market was closed on Sundays. We spent some time in Plaza del Salvador taking pictures of a few Salvador Dali sculptures setup there and the church within the plaza. After that, we decided to head towards Plaza Toros Maestranza which is along the Canel de Alfonso XIII.

On the way, we strolled passed the Catedral de Sevilla, the third largest cathedral in the world (St. Peter’s is the largest which I will be visiting while in Rome). Within this plaza, there were two ladies wandering around with some green plan in their hand trying to hand it to people. Somehow, one of the ladies managed to get the plant in my hand and started going off in Spanish. I’m pretty sure she was reading my hand for my fortune since she was looking at my hand and pointing to the lines on it while talking to me. Eventually she looked at my other hand, said a few things, and then asked for money. I said no. She insisted, saying something in Spanish and pointing to her wallet. I thought it was for the church at first, so I tried to pull some small change out of my pocket and pulled out one EURO. I handed it to her and she asked for five. I said no, she insisted, but I had already been suckered enough and did not fall for it. I said no, and started walking away. She tried to get me to pay more, but at this point I ignored (like I should have done from the beginning) and she left me alone. I tried to warn one of the German girls who got caught too, but the lady that did my fortune wouldn’t let me get close to her. She ended up giving up 3 EUROS…oh well. As we turned the corner to continue on our walk, we found the exact green plant they were using among the bushes. We had a laugh and I threw away the plant that I still had in my hand.

When we arrived at the Plaza Toros Maestranza, I was surprised to find out that there was a bull fighting arena there. We decided to take the tour of Museo Taurino. Since there are no bull fights after October, this tour would have to satisfy my craving of wanting to go to a fight. Being inside the arena was quite spectacular. I learned that the place could seat up to 14,000 spectators and during the month of April, when they have a fight everyday for two weeks straight, it is impossible to get a ticket. I took several pictures of the arena and some of the museum artifacts throughout the place.

From there, the German girls had to get their bags from the hostel since they had to catch a bus at 5pm. Jeff and I decided to check out Real Alcazar and meet up with the girls again at the Catedral de Sevilla at 2:30pm. Typically the church is open regularly for the public to view, but on this particular Sunday they were having special services and only opened it to the public for a few hours.

We found out that Real Alcazar closed down at 2pm (it was 1:30pm when we arrived) on Sunday and was not open on Monday. We only had 30 minutes to view the entire complex but we were determined to do so. This place was huge! Since we only had 30 minutes, I didn’t have a chance read the little tidbits that were placed around the compound, so I’ll have to look up more details on the place later. When were finally kicked out, I think we say about 3/4 or less of the entire place.

From Real Alcazar, we had some time to spare before heading over to the Cathedral. We stopped in a tapas bar for a quick drink and bite to eat. At the place we picked, they had the tapas menu in English and Spanish, so we attempted to learn as many of the items as we could so we’d know for future reference. I ended up ordering a Spanish Omelet or Tortilla de Patatas. It’s basically a big potato pancake. We then made our way over the The Cathedral of Seville. This was the first of many cathedrals I think I’ll be visiting on this trip and I must say I was wowed. I must have taken nearly 300 pictures of the interior and from the top of La Giralda (the churches tower). Shooting the interior of churches is new for me, so I hope the pictures came out okay.

During the visit to the Cathedral, I got split up from the others and when I finally met up with Jeff again, the girls already had left to catch their bus. Jeff and I decided to navigate the small streets in an attempt to find Barillo de Santa Cruz. When the small streets broke out into an opening, we found ourselves in the middle of Plaza de Santa Cruz. We continued to walk and shortly after found Jardines deMurillo which is on the opposite side of Barillo de Santa Cruz. We double backed and finally found our way through the small streets of Santa Cruz where there are a ton of small shops. I think because it was Sunday, a majority of the shops, bars, and restaurants in the area were closed. We continued to navigate ourselves through the small back streets of Seville back to our hostel where we had some downtime until we figured out what we would do for dinner and the evening.

At around 8:30pm or so, we finally started getting ready to head out for something to eat and some drinks. This time we were accompanied by the other guest in our room, an extremely nice Irish woman. I believe her name was Sarah, but don’t quote me on that (I’m horrible with names). This was also the first time I left our accommodations without a camera…I know, I’m insane, but I just needed a break.

As we walked around, we stumbled across a small place, that seemed to be one of the only places open, called Universal Cafe. We ordered a few drinks, some tapas plates and spent the next few hours talking and drinking the night away. We attempted to order more food, but either the waiter/bartender decided not to place the order or just forgot. We left as the place was closing and stopped on the way back to the hostel at a small convenience store where you are able to buy sandwiches and such. I got myself a salami (i think) and cheese sandwich and walked with it back to the hostel.

Back at the hostel, we went straight to the bar and hung out there for the rest of the evening. There were a few other gentlemen there from Finland and Sweden that I ended up talking with for awhile near the end of the evening. We all ended up doing two shots as well which at this age, I really shouldn’t be doing…but I’m on vacation, right? It was a great end to an evening that seemed to end too soon (probably because I was drunk).

Till next time…