Seville, not just for locals anymore

Although very much at the top of mind when it comes to Spanish cities, we may not have ended up in Seville if not for a week-long worldschooling hub that we could not pass up. It does not have world-renown attractions like Granada’s Alhambra or Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia. But we quickly discovered it has plenty to do and see.

Our journey to Seville from Tarifa (after a jaunt to Morocco) was surprisingly the first — and one of the very few times — we made a major hop on a bus. The bus itself was incredibly comfortable. And the scenery — unlike coastal Spain between Malaga and Algeciras, which might as well be Carlsbad, California — was painted with a generous palette of greens and yellows

and a bit of lilac when you reach Seville itself

Although Seville boasts a cheaper cost of living than the larger cities of Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia, housing prices for the week we were there were nevertheless steep. It turned out later, that we were arriving right at the tail-end of Seville’s most famous event — the Ferria. Since we were staying for two weeks, we found a place in Triana, across the river from city center and near the new Sevilla Tower.

From the outside, Triana presents an odd landscape — a space needle, a rocket, a colosseum with factory chimneys on top, and a bunch of metal flags in a row; and a giant commercial tower, seemingly the only high-rise/business building in the city. Although it is not part of old town center, on the streets, this area still has the traditional Spanish city feel. This was a must for us. Triana is also the place where famous Seville tiles were traditionally made, where Flamenco originally formed in Seville. We had a great time just walking around these streets and along the river just a block away

— admiring some of the odd architecture to be found in this neighborhood.

This spaceship-cum-Marx era factory is actually a government office

The area made for some beautiful sunset pictures

When we arrived, our first mission was groceries. After four days on the road we were yearning to relax again — this is impossible to do when you are not stocked with food, on this, Masha and I agree. And here, finally, after a week in Spain, I was able to get my fill of jamon iberico

This was in a restaurant, as I somehow didn't capture the 100g packages I would buy in stores almost daily

Since we came to Sevilla a week before the start of the world-school hub, we got to have a bit of ‘relaxed living’ here before diving into a hyper-social lifestyle. In that week we took a number of relaxed tours and roamed the city, starting with the remnants 1992 Universal exposition site.

1992 Universal expo grounds

Although credited with pushing Spain to conduct massive infrastructure expansion in the area, today the site of the exposition is all but forgotten, a bizarre futuristic ghost town surrounded by business parks. I’m not sure if all the original pavilions are still there, but you can walk around (in order below) the massive conical towers of the Avenue of Europa, a full scale replica of the French Ariane Four space launch system, the Expo Globe (which no longer sprays visitors with cooling mist as it did 30 years ago, but still has running fountains), the Hungarian pavilion representing the major religions, and the Alamillo Bridge constructed for the Expo — which may be the first of its type (cantilever spar cable-stayed bridge) ever constructed!

City Tour

We also passed Magellan’s Victoria, which was the first ship to circumnavigate the globe 500 years ago. It’s in Seville because, for several hundred years, Seville’s port monopolized the first stop of the trans-oceanic trade and housed the Mint for the silver and gold coming from the Americas. This city, the seat of Ferdinand and Isabella, was rich in those days…

But the main attraction of the tour is Plaza de España and the Parque de María Luisa that surrounds it. Given the regal beauty of the buildings surrounding the massive plaza , we were surprised to learn that they host various government agencies (rather than, say, museums)

Our guide told us that every little piece of the building represents some element of the country or its history, from classic tiles of the bridge railing, to the altars lining the semicircle — one for each province in Spain

Indeed, there are gorgeous details all around

One bit was really cheesy though. Presumably having visited the Venetian in Vegas, Sevillians decided that charging people to row a boat along the 200 foot moat around the plaza is an opportunity they just couldn’t miss; nor riding a carriage around a circle

After Madrid’s Parque Retiro, Parque de María Luisa is of a somewhat smaller caliber, but with lots of pretty alleys nonetheless and lots of spaces to find oneself feeling alone in nature (which was the creator’s intent)

And not far from the Plaza, you can find this intriguing monument to the Spanish poet Gustavo Adolfo Becquer

The poignant statue — sculpted from a single piece of marble — memorializes his poem Eternal Love and depicts three women symbolizing the three states of love: excited love, possessed love and love lost.

After the tour, we didn’t do too much sight-seeing, saving most of it for the hub, which promised a packed itinerary. But we did step out on our own to experience the Catedral de Sevilla’ s famous rooftop tour and the Isla Mágica amusement park — right in the city!

Catedral de Sevilla

The second biggest attraction of Seville is the Catedral de Seville. So, naturally, it was part of the hub agenda, but we weren’t able to get the tickets in time, so we went separately afterwards. Because, there is no point in going if you don’t get the coveted rooftop tour!

From the street, and even the inside, it’s an impressive monument to Christianity. There are beautiful naves (I now know what a nave is), a stunning red marble organ and chapel

But, frankly, it’s not unique in the world. What was unique — for us — was seeing it from the perspective of a sneaky bird, perching on the rails and looking down below…on the inside and outside both

When we entered the Cathedral, our tour guide immediately took us up a nearly infinite cramped twisty staircase going into the rafters right under the arches of the building

The views here — from a narrow pigeon-stained galley — were even more interesting,

But they still didn’t prepare us for what was to come — this cathedral has a rooftop, or rather, many rooftops! Like, you can walk around the roof of a cathedral — not something you expect given how pointy the ceilings are. Yes, I know the name of the tour was pretty upfront about what’s coming, but I did not expect it to be this expansive and multi-leveled:

The tour guide quickly spotted Alya as an eager and capable assistant, and used her to teach us lots about how the building was designed and built. For example, this chalky layout is a diagram of the building and architects used it to delegate work to different teams during the build.

We learned that the cathedral has a square footprint, because it stands on the grounds of a mosque — hence the unusually wide 5 nave setup and the square walled yard (see below). We got some architectural insights — about the difference between regular and flying buttresses

And got up close and personal to the monster windows

As mentioned earlier, there are virtually no tall buildings in central Seville — this rooftop is actually the tallest point in the city

— with the exception of the campanile Giralda, which we did not go up, but which is the only remnant of the pre-existing mosque (with some modifications)

Oh, and btw, here rests Columbus!

Isla Mágica

As with the cathedral, we didn’t join the hub folk when they went to the La Isla Magica amusement park — due to bad weather forecasts — but there was no way Alya was leaving Seville without going, especially since we saw it daily on the walk to our apartment. The coolest part of the park was definitely the hot air balloon

Now, unlike the real thing, it is tied down to the ground, but the rope is long enough to make it the second tallest point in all of Seville (after the recently built Sevilla Tower), which naturally thrilled me to no end 😣

Beyond that, it’s just a good time

Living in Seville

We spent the rest of the week, until the start of the hub, just walking the streets of old town to revel in that south Spain feel I had been craving so much

Although exhibiting less Arabic influence than Granada, Seville’s architecture still occasionally reflects its roots

The grub!

When we first met Mark — one of the organizers of the hub — he gave us the lowdown on Seville. One of his observations after seven months living there was that Seville is a far cry from the cosmopolitan coastal cities. Unabashedly proud of Sevilla, the locals here don’t want to leave, while at the same time, not many outsiders want to move here — as there is little work outside tourism. All this makes for a somewhat stagnant atmosphere, with people going to taverns that all have exactly the same short menu of staples on weekdays and just conviviendo all day on weekends. With relatively low salaries , and relatively few tourists, there is little appetite for fancy stuff.

There was a lot of truth to what he said. Place after place we went to for dinner had roughly the same offerings — patatas bravas, tortilla de patatas, meatballs, fried fish, some jamon, with a few occasional twists

Nor was the drinks situation any better! The atrocities they perpetrated on wine still wakes me up at night. One after another I saw people get served tumblers of wine with lemon soda! I saw a woman try to up the ante — she demanded a tumbler with half wine half — my jaw dropped — orange soda. The server couldn’t believe it either at first. Apparently, sherry and soda is also a typical drink here. My heart bleeds. Obviously, the correct approach is to get a light sherry and a full-bodied sherry — and not mix them

But Sevilla is the fourth largest city in Spain, and so even if they are in the minority, there’s plenty of classy food establishments to be found serving most appetizing fare

The most memorable for my money, though, was Lola Cazerola. A not particularly crowded spot on the shore of Triana, their pièce de résistance was sliced raw steak that we cooked on a provided hotplate. Even the cheaper cut that we got had mindblowing butter-soft texture

And we had just come from Argentina, so we had a good base for comparison!

Then, there were the churros! The worldschooling hub guides have clearly done their research, because the place they took us to had the fluffiest, puffiest churros we’ve ever seen, they were in demand!

The closest thing to Russian пышки I’ve found yet…

And — we found some amazing ice cream!

Learning from Bologna, where we — like complete clods — waited until the last three days to find the best ice cream of the entire trip, we did a scan in the first few days, and discovered Bolas — and came back to it over and over

With several locations in central Seville, not only do they serve the highest quality, they have some wild flavors — that work! They had ice creams with figs, wine, pumpkin, orange flower, sesame — truly a unique place

By now, dear reader, you know these posts end will a grain of salt about the place we stayed in — gonna spit some truth.

Well, a common conceit about the South — of any place — holds that work flows a little slower there. Well, indeed it felt like there is some natural force here, some negative chakra that prevents work, a relaxation energy vortex if you will, at least on the Triana side.

With a week to ourselves before the hub, I was on a mission to start my job application process (only two months left before we’re back to the real world!) and went looking for an energetic coffee shops with busy world nomads typing away. Well, Chiang Mai this ain’t. There are no work cafes in Triana. All they got is a Starbucks. And even there, every other time I went it would reset and disable my wifi. The place is cursed!

But if you’re ready to just veg out (not literally, vegetables are hard to come by) and stick to a patatas jamon y churros diet, it’s a lovely place. The only other caveat is transportation, which is disappointingly difficult. Busses don’t go into the center so you have to walk 20 min if coming by bus from the outside.

Bikes are great for longer trips — in fact they have fantastic lanes along the bigger streets: But as soon as you step off the major roads — or, again, go into the center — there’s no sidewalk, just a cobbled one lane road to share with cars. Scooter rentals are expensive (and suffer the same problem as bikes), and taxi are really expensive (15 min 2 mile ride can be 10-12$).

Really, though, these are minor complaints. We had a great time soaking in that authentic Southern Spanish feel, and though it may not be the topmost tourist destination in Spain, it’s a lovely spot to take it easy, soak up the atmosphere and enjoy the views.