After our first week of classes, we ventured an hour away to another well known Andalusian city: Sevilla.

While the city is in the same province as Ronda, the climate change was more noticeable than I thought it would be. Ronda is breezy due to the mountains with little to no humidity whereas Sevilla is flatter and has a ridiculous amount of humidity on top of its high temperature.

Our first matter of business was a tour of La Catedral de Sevilla, the 4th largest cathedral in the world. Inside, we visited the main parts of the interior as well as rooms that represented different time periods of Spanish history, including the Baroque and Renaissance  eras. The thing that stuck out most to me was the builder’s need for symmetry–for example, if a door and window set was on one side of the room, there needed to be another on the opposite side to keep the room even. However, the set that was built for the purpose of symmetry is only the outline of the doors and windows instead of a set that functions.

Our tour guide also told us with great pride that the Cathedral held Christopher Columbus’s remains and was the final keeper of them after they’d been moved many times after his death. The tomb to recognize it is HUGE, especially when you learn that what they have is approximately 150 grams of a mix of dirt, miscellaneous particles, and Christopher. Even still, it’s impressive to have even only pieces of one of the most controversially influential people of all time.

We then walked into the Cathedral’s Treasury where we saw all things gold from crowns to plates to small statues.

After the Treasury was the bell tower. 34 ramps and a handful of steps later, we arrived and were greeted by a view of the city’s skyline.

Next was a trip through Santa Cruz, a smaller region of Sevilla with streets so narrow that only a moped could fit through. Between all of the touristy shops and bars that crowded the area, we also came across Washington Irving’s home–originally I took a photo because I liked the purple flowers, but later on I realized whose it was when I saw the plaque on the side of the wall. It’s so weird to walk around in a place with so much history in every corner.

At home, I live on a mountain with a ton of trees (which there are coincidentally not many of here) and have nothing of the sort. It’s such a different world here. In any case, after Santa Cruz we picnicked in a small plaza before walking back to the front of the Cathedral where we were greeted by a surprise that Susana had set up for us–horse carriage rides! They took us through Maria Louisa Park and ended at the Plaza de España where we got out to explore.

From the Plaza, we walked around the town. Between dessert shops, the university, weddings and bachelorette parties, we saw a little of everything.

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^Street performers

The bachelorette party that we ran into was doing a scavenger hunt and had to find foreigners to teach Sevillana, a type of dance.  Imagine arms and legs flailing around in no particular direction as they directed us to move in certain ways. Needless to say, we were all limbs and turned into professional toe crushers, but we had a ton of fun. We also ran into a wedding on the way out of the Cathedral, complete with the rice throwing and what we like to call the Olé song. We don’t know if that’s actually the name or not, but the only word in the song is olé so I’d say it’s safe to say that it’s something to that effect. Getting married in that Cathedral is supposed to be a huge deal due to its reputation, so aside from the wedding party and guests there were extra bystanders that happened upon the event as they walked by…very much so like ourselves.

For the remainder of the day after that, we wandered, explored, and immersed ourselves into one of Andalusia’s best well known cities. Here’s to you, Sevilla

 

Location: Sevilla