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Published: November 14th 2011
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The Plaza of the Encarnation.
This white building was designed to look like a mushroom. There was a great view of the sun setting from here. This weekend I returned to Andalucia to visit Seville (I visited the state of Andalucia one month ago when I went to Granada). Seville was an amazing Spanish city full of culture and great monuments.
I arrived in Seville on Friday night and headed straight for "The Garden Hostel" to meet up with my friends. I was expecting to see my two friends Bianca and Bonnie there. I was shocked to see that there were probably around ten other IES Barcelona people at the hostel too. It was late in the evening when I arrived to the hostel so I decided to hang out at the hostel that night and have a tertulia with my friends.
Saturday was filled with sightseeing in Seville. We decided to do the free walking tour of the city with our hostel. Gerome was our tour guide and he led us through the biggest sights to see in the city. He was also pretty funny and had some good jokes up his sleeve. Gerome led us to the Cathedral, Real Alcazar, Torre del Oro, Archive of the Indies, Canal de Alfonso XIII, Plaza Espana, and Monument of Christopher Columbus. Many of the monuments I
just listed were related to Christopher Columbus and the discovery of the new world. One thing I've learned in my study abroad experience is that Spain profited a ton form Christopher Columbus and his crew. For instance, the city of Seville received 20% of the possessions brought from the New World.
After the walking tour, some of us went to the Cathedral to see the Tomb of Christopher Columbus. Seville's cathedral is the 3rd largest Christian building in the world, and the largest cathedral in the world. The tomb of Christopher Columbus was quite impressive. There are four statues of kings carrying his coffin, each king representing the original four Catholic Spanish kingdoms: Navarre, Leon, Castille, and Aragon. One of the kings carries an oar, representing Columbus's voyage to the New World. Another king carries what looks to be like a large spear representing Queen Isabella's Reconquista of Spain. Behind his tomb was an enormous mural of Christopher Columbus's patron saint: Saint Christopher the Traveler. I thought this mural was pretty cool because it reminded me of my grade school: St. Chris in San Jose.
After we saw Christopher's tomb, we climbed to the top of the cathedral's
Tomb of Christopher Columbus
There are four kings carrying the coffin of Christopher Columbus. Each of the four kings represent the four original kingdoms of Spain: Navarre, Castile, Aragon, and Leon. tower, the Giraldo. Gerome told us that a priest rode a donkey up the ramps of the tower to ring the bell back in the day. I'm not sure if I buy this story but I enjoyed entertaining the thought of it. Anyways, the view e the top of the Giraldo was amazing and gave us a great view of the city and the river. We walked back down the ramp and walked through the Patio of Orange Trees adjacent to the Cathedral. This patio was built by the Arabs and they supposedly put orange trees there because in the summertime, they would take their shoes off and their feet would smell. Gerome told us that the scent from the orange trees covered their stench (again, I think he's pulling our leg).
After we finished walking through the Cathedral, we walked through the Santa Cruz neighborhood of Seville. I ate my first "chocolate con churro" in Spain while we wandering the streets of Santa Cruz. It was a lot better than the churros from the United States because it wasn't doused in sugar.
Next, we went to the Plaza of the Incarnation. This building was designed to look
like a giant mushroom. We took an elevator to the top terrace of the Incarnation and had a great view of the sunset from there.
Later that night I saw a Flamenco show in a bar in Seville. I had learned about Flamenco in my music class earlier that week so I was excited to see it performed. Contrary to popular thought, Flamenco is more closely related to music than to dancing. The clapping, guitar, and singing are the backbone of the performance and occasionally the performers will dance to Flamenco. Another cool thing about Flamenco is that it was brought to Spain by the gypsies of India. It was performed at family dinner tables for centuries before it was performed in bars with dancers.
The next day I did some more sightseeing in the city. Most of my friends left for Barcelona in the morning so I had the entire day to do a "Mike Harney Solo Mission." First, I went to the Real Alcazar near the Cathedral. This place was really cool because it reminded me of the Alhambra in Granada and because it is the oldest active royal palace in Europe. The Real Alcazar was
built by the Muslims so it had a ton of Arabic architecture, as well as some typical Spanish architecture. My favorite part of the Alcazar was the gardens. At one point I came across a peacock in the garden. I tried to pet it but the peacock kept moving away whenever I got too close.
Afterwards, I went to mass in Seville. Mom and Grandma Betty will be happy to know that I walked across the city to get to church on time.
One of my favorite sites in Seville was the "Plaza Toros Maestranza." What Fenway Park is to baseball, this place is to bullfighting. The bullring here was really cool to see and the museum had a ton of info about the sport. The bullfighting season ended one month ago so I didn't get to see a bullfight. I learned that in a bullfight, teams of toreros and matadors fight six bulls over the course of a few hours. I also learned that this bullring had a chapel where the toreros and matadors would pray before going to fight the bulls. Oddly enough, only three people died in the centuries of bullfighting in this stadium.
Next, I walked along the river to the Park of Maria Luisa. This was the largest park in Sevilla and was absolutely beautiful. Spain does a really good job of making pretty public parks. This one had a small pond with an island in the middle, connected by footbridges to the park.
Finally, I went to Plaza Espana for a second time. Plaza Espana was built recently by the city as a symbol of apology for Latin America. The sides of Plaza Espana are bowed out, resembling a person motioning to hug someone. This resembles the arches in the Vatican. Another cool thing about Plaza Espana is that there is a 40-second clip of this place in Star Wars Episode 2. My favorite part of Plaza Espana is that it has 26 plaques along its base, each plaque dedicated to one of the 26 Spanish provinces. Of course, Bianca, Bonnie, and I took a picture of us in front of the Barcelona plaque. I stumbled upon another plaque that I thought was pretty cool: a plaque of the province of Avila. My cousin's name is Avila so I took a picture of that plaque and sent it to Uncle
Jim so that he could show her. I don't know anything about this province but it was cool to see nonetheless.
I took the bus to the airport after my Sunday afternoon solo mission. I really liked Seville because of it's culture and historical significance. I'm glad I had the opportunity to see a bullring, even though I didn't see an actual bullfight. I advised to go abroad here by someone who had studied abroad in Seville. I can see why he liked the city so much. Between the Flamenco, bullfighting, and tapas, this town was stereotypical Spain.
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