Saturday 2 February 2008 Our bus arrived in Seville after 8pm and it was almost 8:30pm by the time we found our way to Seville Samay Hostel and checked in. Reception warned us that the next day most of the shops would be closed and would close at 9pm that night so we should hurry to get groceries before they shut.
Accordingly we darted over to the supermarket to have them shut the door in our face at 8:45pm - GRUNT! We resorted to scavenging dinner from the minimart next door to the hostel and then off to bed. Samay Hostel was very clean and modern - it was our first hostel with an elevator!!!
Sunday 3 February 2008 Barbara was quite exhausted and needed a rest so she stayed in for the morning while Michael ventured out for a bit of exploration.
Weaving his way through the narrow streets of Barrio de Santa Cruz, the old district (photo), Michael found his way to the Santa Maria de la Sede Cathedral (photos) which is proclaimed by the Guinness book of Records to be the largest cathedral in the world. The cathedral is also quite distinct because
of the attached tower, the La Giralda, which is the remains of a mosque which originally stood on that site. This cathedral is also the site of an annual Easter procession for which Seville is world famous - unfortunately we were a few weeks early to see it. There was a service on at the time preventing him from going inside so he continued on his way past the ancient walls of the Alcazar (photo), along the river past the Torre del Oro (photo) and down to Plaza de Espana (photo) which commemorated the formation of Spain as a nation. Accordingly, most towns have a Plaza de Espana but it is not usually the most central plaza in town for political reasons. The plaza was decorated with beautiful pottery and painted tiles (photos). A mural painted on tiles represented each of the provinces/states in Spain and their respective capitals.
Very excited by his finds, Michael returned to the hostel to fetch Barbara to show her.
Unfortunately the tiny winding streets of Barrio de Santa Cruz proved too much for Michael navigational skills and we ended up quite geographically embarrassed. Luckily, we spotted a group of nuns. We gambled
that it was pretty likely they would be heading to the Cathedral so we followed them. Only moments later we found ourselves inside the impressive Cathedral (photo) - quite stunning & HUGE!
We strolled past the Alcazar, this time spotting its dramatic red gates (photo) - not sure how Michael missed them last time, possibly domestic blindness! Michael, feeling very cheeky, then decided to play camouflage behind one of Seville’s famous orange trees in the square (photo)!
After Barbara cleverly found Michael, we continued on our wanderings through the narrow streets of Barrio de Santa Cruz. It seemed that every time we turned a corner the streets became narrower and narrower (photo). Somehow cars actually manage to drive through these streets (photo), although we did see a tiny VW Golf have to do a 4 point turn just to get around a corner! The tiny streets of this old district we beautifully decorated with murals painted on tiles (photo), mostly of the religious variety due to the strong religious influence in the city. There were also many cute tourist shops selling pretty little flamenco dresses in all colours of the rainbow (photo).
With Michael’s tapeworm starting to
rear its ugly head, we found a quaint little tapas bar (photo) where we settled in for some delicious local wines, cheeses, and cured meats....mmmm yum!
Back at the hostel we enjoyed a moderately rowdy evening with those backpackers who weren’t going to the Carnival in Cadiz.
Monday 4 February 2008 The Cadiz Carnival is an annual event in the town of Cadiz around the start of Lent before Easter each year. Preferring to experience the carnival in a traditional manner with the locals instead of getting rowdy with a bunch of drunken backpackers we opted out of visiting on Sunday night and caught a bus to Cadiz from Seville on the Monday morning instead.
We departed the hostel in the morning just as the party-goers from the night before were returning and headed to the bus station. Nearly two hours on the bus brought us to the town of Cadiz on the south west coast of the province Andalusia (photo).
The city was well decorated for the occasion with carnival lights hung from the buildings (photo). We just weren’t quite sure where to find the action. We cheated and dropped into the tourist office
for a program which pointed us in the right direction. We followed trails of confetti (photo) through the streets and soon we started noticing some people in funny costumes (photo) - we knew we were on the right track!
Suddenly music erupted through the streets, drums and trumpets and people singing - there was a parade approaching! There were people dressed as pirates and roman soldiers, clowns, birds, cowboys and even batman and the kransky sisters (photos)! Wow! The procession passed us and continued through the streets.
We made our way to the next plaza where more festivities were due to begin. Crowds started to gather and soon the plaza and surrounding streets were packed with people, many of whom were in costume, themselves (photos).
The next parade consisted of many floats towed by tractors. The floats held groups of satirical musicians and singers known as Chirigotas. The performances were superb - especially the cross-dressing flamenco dancers (photos)!
After the floats had passed we viewed some of the local treats on offer - sea urchins (photo) - PASS - not eco-friendly!
We wandered further through the narrow winding streets of Cadiz, stumbling upon random bands
of musicians - even some dressed as jellyfish! (photo) Wanting to see some of the town itself, not just the carnival, we wandered around the edges of the city and out of the old city walls. There we found gorgeous beaches along the coast (photos) and a spectacular Cathedral (photo). The Cathedral was a ‘hodge-podge’ of construction from different periods and of different styles which made it very interesting indeed.
With our tummies rumbling, we wandered the beautifully decorated streets (photo) in search of sustenance. Due to the carnival most of the shops were closed so all we could find open was a cake shop. If you’re gonna be bad you may as well go all-out, so we found the most sugary, fatty, cream-filled cakes we could find for our ‘lunch’ (photo). The cakes were absolutely divine!
In the mood for some more festivities, we headed back to the centre of town where we enjoyed more performances by the Chirigotas (photos) and watched as the sun set and the carnival lights were illuminated around the city (photo).
It was nearly time for our bus so we headed back to the bus station. It was a very LONG
two hour bus ride back to Seville because there were two very dirty backpackers - NOT US! - on the bus who stunk and were obviously quite ill, coughing and spluttering all over the other passengers for the entire duration of the journey. All of the passengers were complaining and Barbara was considering shoving Mentos up her nostrils for relief. When we arrived back in Seville, everyone breathed heavily in relief when we (they to be more precise) disembarked from the bus.
Upon recommendation from the hostel staff, we concluded our evening at a local flamenco club La Carboneria who offer free shows so long as you buy a drink at the bar. The show was spectacular! The music was fantastic and dancing was very intense (photo). To find the club we had to find our way through a maze of tiny streets in the old town in the dark (photo) - very confusing.
Tuesday 5 February 2008 We caught an early local bus to the central bus station to book our bus tickets to Lisbon (aka Lisboa) for the following day and also to test the travel time to the bus station. At the bus station
we also found the most interesting looking bike racks we had ever seen (photo).
Continuing down the river from the bus station we ducked into the Plaza de Toros (photo) for a short guided tour of the bull ring and the attached museum dedicated to the sport of bullfighting. The bull ring was very grand, with stadium seating and special viewing balcony for the royal family (photos). In the museum were many paintings of famous bullfighters - matadors - and mounted heads of bulls that were slain in the bull ring including the head of the bull that was the last to kill a matador in that stadium (photo). There was a beautiful chapel (photo) where the matadors pray before a fight and a barn for the bulls (photo).
Further down the river was a beautiful church (photo) decorated with tiled murals but unfortunately we could not get very close to it because there was a funeral happening at the time.
Finally, on our last day in Seville we ventured into the Alcazar. Some of it was being renovated to the time (photo) and thus covered in scaffolding. There was also a very dull museum of fans
(photo). Apart from that it was very interesting and beautiful. The architecture was similar to what we had seen at the Alhambra in Granada, with beautiful carvings, tile work, gardens, archways and ponds (photos) - just beautiful! The Alcazar is rally huge but we had a bus to catch that afternoon so we had to rush a bit which didn’t really do it justice but we enjoyed it nonetheless.
Rushing back to the hostel to collect our luggage, we bid farewell to a beautiful city and more of its lovely decorated streets (photo). A local bus took us to the bus station (photo) where we waited for our bus to Lisbon - an indoor bus station with no ventilation and many smokers inside - nice! (photo)
Then we were off. Farewell Spain - temporarily anyway, we would be back.
And a special farewell to the Andalusian bull! (photo)
Barrio de Santa Cruz - quite entertaining watching people fold in their side mirrors to drive through
Spain's Flag
Map of Spain