Solitary in Sevilla

So the weekend of March 12th I headed off to Sevilla.  Sadly no one wanted to come with me or already had other plans so I went solo!  Nothing would stop me from visiting Sevilla because it is my favorite city in Spain.  It is just an Andalusian beauty that has a gorgeous historic center and wonderful weather.

Well the weekend that I was planning on going to Sevilla there were heavy thunderstorms forecast....goody right?  Luckily someone was looking out for me and knew that I was having a lonely weekend and there was barely a drop of rain all weekend, only at night and while I was at a covered table at a restaurant.  It was LOVELY!

I took the bus from Madrid at arrived around 5pm on Friday.  Plenty of time to do some wandering.  I walked through town. around the outside of the Cathedral and the bullring, over along the river, and to my favorite building in the world.

 The Arab designed bell tower along the catedral.

 One of the beautiful entrances to the cathedral.

 Plaza de Toros!

As I was saying.  After walking around outside for a while I visited Plaza de España.  My favorite place in the world.  We had visited it on my last trip to Spain with school four years before and I had been dreaming about returning.  I finally got to.

 Amazing right?!  It was actually used in Start Wars I: The Phantom Menace.

 Once again loving the Panorama setting on my camera!

 The entire plaza had white and black stones in designs along the ground and blue ceramic along the bridges and columns.

 There were also these little ceramic sections along the building.  They each had a picture of a region in Spain with small shelves that used to be bookshelves for an outdoor library when the building used to be a palace.

The Madrid section!  Each section had an illustration on ceramic with a ceramic map of that ancient region on the ground.

After spending a LONG time wandering the plaza I headed back to my hostel for the evening and got ready for the next day!

Saturday began with a visit to the Cathedral.  I walked inside to find a mass going on because Saturday was a special children's mass.  The Sevillan cathedral is just as large and stunning as the other cathedrals of Spain so I won't spend too much time on it.

 One of the special things about the Sevilla cathedral is that they have the tomb of Christopher Columbus!  Now this has a bit of controversy to it because a few places claim the remains of Columbus.  Sevilla says that he rests here, Barcelona claims some of his remains (a finger I think?), and others say he is actually buried in the Dominican Republic.

Later that day I returned to the cathedral when the mass was over so that I could climb the Giralda (bell tower).  The climb was easy because the tower was built with a series of ramps so that the guards could ride all the way to the top on horseback.

 The Giralda gives the most amazing views of the city and of the orange tree grove housed by the cathedral.

 Another panorama!  In this you can see the Plaza de España in the back to the left, the Alcazar slightly in front of that, and the rest of the cathedral to the right.

 Here is a view of the roof of the cathedral and the beautiful orange tree grove.

Here is a beautiful areal view of the Plaza de Toros.  I visited that later in the day.

After visiting the cathedral I hopped over to the Alcázar to take a tour.  This building was the residence of many kings and caliphs and has similar architecture as the Alhambra in Granada.  Over the centuries all Caliphs and monarchs have set up court in this building and others added the beautiful gardens that are around back.

 Here is the front entrance to the Alcazár.  The entire complex is surrounded by either buildings of the palace or this medieval like wall.

 This is the first patio at the entrance to the palace.

 This is one of the courtyards that contains a garden that had been buried and is surrounded by ceramic tile and the same style stucco molding that adorns the Alhambra.

 This is the doorway of the Peacocks.  Even though they are only one of the multiple types of bird on this doorway, it has taken their name.  Peacocks are actually a pagan symbol of immortality because it was thought that they did not die.  They are replicated on palaces and other important buildings to signify the importance of the royalty who resided there.

This is a video I took while in the gardens as my camera had chosen that moment to die!  So sad because the gardens were BEAUTIFUL!

After the Alcázar I took a tour of the Plaza de Toros!  It is the only bull ring in the world that is not perfectly circular due to a small engineering mistake that left it slightly ovular.  It is also the site of the last bull fighting fatality in the world: two Toreros died here in 1992 while fighting.

 This is the box where the royal family sits when they attend a fight.  If no one from the family comes then that box is empty as they do not permit anyone who is NOT from the royal family to sit there.

Finally this is the entrance where the bulls come from.  Each entrance has a specific use: one for the Torero to enter, one for a victorious Torero to exit, one for the bulls, and one for the emergency staff if they are needed.  Every bull ring is mandated to have an on site hospital equipped with a a surgeon.

After this I sat outside at a restaurant and had a lovely dinner before returning to my hostel for the night.  My weekend in Sevilla was just wonderful and I am SO glad I made time to go!!!

Carnaval in Cadiz

So the first weekend in March was Carnaval.  For those who don't know, Carnaval is the celebration at the beginning of Lent, much like Mardi Gras, but it goes on for a week.  The largest Carnaval is in Venice, Italy.  It is the well known celebration associated with the famous Venetian masks.

The second largest Carnaval is in Cadiz, Spain which is a southern city close to Sevilla.  It is thought to be the oldest city in Europe and it is where I chose to spend my Carnaval weekend!


About six people from the Maryland group came with me as well as my friend Kari from Norway (the same one I went to the Escorial with) and two of the Australians from our program who are now studying in Madrid until the end of the semester.  I didn't really hang out with the MD group, but chose to spend time with the Australians and Kari.  Luckily, Kari had been to Cadiz for about 5 days earlier in the semester when her boyfriend visited so she was excited to guide us around the city.

 She was a great guide!  She knew where to go to grab maps, the best route around the city, and (as I will tell you later) the best Tapas restaurant to eat at.

 From left to right my Cadiz companions were Kari, Alex, and Bethany.

Cadiz is a southern coastal city which means........

BEACH!


I had a lovely time walking along the water for a while, but then we continued on our tour.  It WAS only 60 degrees out after all.

The town was all decorated with lights and there had already been some partying as was evident by the confetti that covered the streets.

I was REALLY excited to see everything all lit up, but first we went up into this tower to see all of Cadiz.

It was a great view and I was SO glad Kari suggested it!


We came back for a quick rest around 5 and then started to get ready for Carnaval!  In Cadiz, EVERYONE dresses in costume and usually in groups.  Halloween doesn't exist in Spain and so this is their main costume party of the year.  Even at 3pm when we were walking around people were ready to go!

This was also an excuse for most guys to dress like girls.  It was really entertaining.


So the MD girls and I bought Bomberas costumes (firefighters) because they were the only ones we could find 4 of haha!  We bought them pretty late, but at least we found something!  I decided to wear a mask I bought instead of the strange hat they gave us to be the fire fighter hat.

 Kari and the Bomberas!

BOMBERAS!  We also proceeded to shout this at random moments and when ever we saw others who were dressed as firefighters.


Our friend Cam was a tiger (which provided us with much entertainment) and our other friends Oscar and Vincente (their Spanish/English names) were a Sailor and a Reverend.

Due to his costume Cam was no longer Cam and proceeded to be "El Tigre" for the rest of the trip and honestly we still call him it now too!


The lights were SO cool and there other groups with great costumes.

 I got a picture with Bert and Ernie!!!

 American Football Team!

 RANAS!  (Frogs)  Sorry about the blurry photos!

Everywhere was PACKED with people.  It was just a HUGE HUGE event and so much fun to see all of the costumes.

Bethany was a cat and we tried to find a tree for her to climb so that we could have a picture of me rescuing her, but sadly there were no climbable trees within site.  I still love that idea though.  It was a really really fun night!

SO, side story of the chicken hat.  A guy was dressed like a chicken and came into the bar we were at.  We were at the table by the door so he asked us to watch the hat and the top part of his costume while he was dancing because with a shirt, sweatshirt, and a chicken suit on it gets a little hot.  Well I fell in love with the hat and since the costume was like a 5 euro costume, I wanted to keep it.  Alex was wearing it a little later, and gave it back to the guy as he left.  I was in the bathroom for this and came back just "devastated" that my chicken hat was gone. We now have a joke that Alex owes me a chicken hat! :-)  Luckily I found a plastic sword on the ground as we were leaving to find a taxi so I kept that.  As we looked for a taxi Bethany and I had an epic battle with my sword and the little wand thing that came with her costume.  As I have said many times, it was a REALLY really fund night.  Yay Carnaval!