On Sunday I arrived in Seville. I wasn’t in the best of moods as my sense of navigation wasn’t up to scratch, resulting in me carrying my backpack that weighs the same as a small child for an extra 20 minutes. Whilst I was checking in, I was notified that there was a free dinner at 9pm, but it couldn’t wait as the only thing I had eaten since breakfast was a kit kat, so I popped to burger king for my first dinner, then had a risotto for my second dinner.I wasn’t intending to go out that evening but a couple of American girls who were visiting, but not staying at the hostel (I don’t know why either) popped in and invited a group of us out to a jazz bar around the corner from the hostel. I didn’t stay for the second bar that they visited as I was knackered so went back to the hostel, had a nice chat with the woman who I was sharing a room with and went to bed.
On Monday, a free walking tour came to pick a group of us up from the hostel. It was 2.5 hours long which I found a bit hard to keep up with as I had gone to bed at 2am. The tour went in depth about all of the historical significance of everything that we visited, which was really interesting to hear too. I think I’m going to go on more free walking tours on my first day of each city as it is really helpful, plus if I don’t get out of bed in time then I haven’t lost any money, but I do pay for them in the form of a tip at the end.
After the tour I went to the Alcazar – the inside of the palace looked amazing. There’s not really that much to say about the place apart from how well decorated/designed it was inside and that the gardens were stunning; you could easily spend the best part of the day there. I spent around two and a half hours here before chilling in the hostel and having dinner there.
Tuesday, I went on a day trip to Cordoba. It was so difficult to navigate as all the streets are narrow, right next to each other and looked the same, so after about three hours of being lost I just went on a hop on/off bus tour, which was a lot easier. The city was nice but I think I’d appreciate it more if I were older.
My final day in Seville was Wednesday. I spent the morning visiting some of the other tourist sites that were on the walking tour – the Cathedral and Plaza de Español. It is amazing how much effort went into building and decorating the Cathedral. I knew that it was going to be massive and extremely well-decorated, but it exceeded my expectations. The Plaza de Espana was a great area – if we had a Plaza de London back home like the one here, I would probably enjoy saying that I lived in London more. I guess the Bas Vegas sign will have to do for now…
For lunch I had some tapas that wasn’t great, then went back to the hostel to Google something to do. I had my answer in the form of one of the girls who worked there asking if anyone wanted to join her for tapas. Back at home I wouldn’t usually go out for lunch with someone who I see every now and then over a couple of days who’s name I can just about remember, but this is probably something that will happen a bit over the next few months. We had marinaded salmon which was delicious, marinaded potatoes which were pretty standard and grilled goats cheese which was the best thing I’d eaten at that point since I’ve been in Spain.
For dinner I went for a tapas tour with ‘Azahar’. It is run by a woman called Shawn, who started off with a food blog which evolved into a company that takes tourists out on a tour through authentic Spanish tapas bars. We started off in one bar with jamon iberico, venison chorizo, manchego cheese, bacalao and some Spanish Omelette. The next bar we had some iberico pork cheeks, bacalao fritters and sautéed spinach with spices and chickpeas. The final bar we went to we chose our individual dishes from the menu – I chose the foie gras with an apple compote and it was delicious. I only took a picture of the final dish (sorry Mum). I enjoyed the evening, my favourite dishes were the pork cheeks and the foie gras.
I had the hostel room to myself that night which was great as it meant no one to keep me up/wake me up/snooze for half hour in the morning, but would have been nicer if I had more than five hours sleep as I had a bus to catch to Granada. I have made the travel plans for the next two and a half weeks or so, and for some of it I shall be leaving Spain before returning again, hopefully to the North of the country.
If anyone is reading this and is going to Seville, I’d recommend staying in Sevilla One Hostel. The staff are wonderful, they supply free dinners that are better than anything I’d make in a hostel and it is a social place. I’m pretty sure I have already stayed in the best hostel of this trip now.