We arrived in pouring rain, (yes, falling mainly on the
plain) and shortly thereafter found ourselves lost. The street that our hostal was on was
so small that the cab had to leave us out in front of the area of the city known as the
old Jewish quarter, and we ended up wandering through several mazes of streets just to
find it. Oh, the relief of getting to a room!
Seville was beautiful and "typically" European
(especially so after Morocco) and it offered a lot of things to do. Everything and
everyone seemed very chic, very "coiffed" and very fashionable. The town was
absolutely filled with American college students. We learned that several US
universities offered semesters abroad in Seville, and many students seemed to take
advantage of this. We didn't hear any of them practicing their Spanish, though.
We soon decided we were about 10 years too old for Seville.
Our room faced a tiny back street, which one would have thought would be quiet and quaint,
but instead it was a hub of late night/early morning activity. It seemed to be the
shortcut street for all the motorcycles and Vespas heading off to the bars that didn't open
until 3 a.m. The Sevillians really knew how to party. We finally dubbed Seville as
"The City of Forbidden Sleep." The glass recyclers would come by at around 1
a.m. (the recycle bins were below our window too), then they would wash our street around
2, and then people bar and disco-hopping went strong from 3 until 6. And drunk Sevillians
would sing their national anthem in unison as they bade each other goodnight. Every night
of the week. Without fail. Quite loudly, too! Okay, enough of our grouchy complaining.
We first went to see the Santa Maria Gothic Cathedral and
the Palace Alcazar located right next to it. We were nearly on day 20 of our trip before
we hit this, our first church (never mind that we were in a Muslim country the first 15).
This was as good a choice as any to start with. The gardens behind the palace were
especially beautiful. The tall bushes were landscaped into a maze (which of course we had
to attempt) and the fountains were quite spectacular too.
Several times we noticed women wearing Mantillas, the
traditional headdresses originating in the south of Spain. We caught a shot of two
women wearing them while riding in a buggy enroute to a wedding.
We learned that the nice clerk at our hostel was studying
English, so we helped her with her homework and she let us use their refrigerator.
On Sunday morning we stumbled upon a pet market in a square
near our hostel. Instead of displaying animals in pet stores, breeders brought their
"wares" to this market. There were puppies, kittens, birds, guinea pigs, mice,
and even caterpillars for sale. They were arranged in boxes, bags, cages, or just in the
breeder's arms. We didn't know if this was a weekly event or something special. Again, our
digital camera made us some friends: one guy offered us a German shepard puppy for it. We
were sad we had to decline...our packs were pretty full already and we imagined
training it would be a bear. The good news was that a lot of families didn't have our
dilemma and they seemed to be leaving the area with new pets.
We found a store that we would get to know quite well during
our time in Spain called El Corte Englais. It offered everything from clothes to
appliances to food. It also sold books in English so we were finally able to buy our own
1999 edition of Let's Go Europe. So no more relying upon other travelers for incorrect
information, we now had our own guide to provide us with incorrect information.
We eventually decided to head to Cordoba...our guidebook
referred to it as the "old lady" of Spain and after several sleepless night
that's what we felt like. So off we went.
