Seville

Today was the day of my first overnight trip on SAS: Seville and Cordoba trip. It started out early, as usual, seeing me get 4 hours of sleep for the second night in a row. I got up to the union and signed in for the trip, and then got some breakfast with Ben before getting back. We were split into two groups, my trip and the Seville-Cordoba-Granada trip, and then boarded separate buses and headed out. The next two hours consisted of everyone in the bus passing out until we got to Seville. Upon reaching the city, we picked up our tour guide, Sergio (who was awesome), and then stopping at the Plaza de Espana (I feel like every city in Spain has one of these plazas, so I wonder which one is THE Plaza de Espana). As soon as I got off the bus, I felt a different vibe in Seville as compared to Cadiz. The city was larger, had much wider streets, many more cars (but still much fewer than in the USA), and just a beauty to it that I just didn’t feel in Cadiz. There were many more trees and plants, but everything seemed laid out in a very organized fashion. We entered the Plaza through one of the gates, and as we turned a corner, my mouth went from closed to wide open. The plaza was not necessarily that big, but the architecture of the buildings surrounding it was absolutely amazing. There are no words to describe it aside from architectural beauty. The plaza was surrounded by a small artificial river, with bridges leading to the side we were on, which was surrounded by building embellished with towers, columns, and portrait busts. In between each set of columns was a bust of a famous Spaniard, and not a single one of these repeated (there were at least 50+ busts). Unfortunately, the Plaza was under some renovation and time permitted us to only stay there for 15 minutes. From there, we made our way to the Alcazar, an old Spanish castle, and spent the next 2-3 hours navigating around its stunning gardens and vast structures. It was quite amazing, but I did wish we spent less time here and more time in the Plaza. Every room, however, had unique and elegant carvings and paintings, and one of them featured 6 enormous tapestries each of which were at least 20x30 feet. After the Alcazar, we crossed the street and hit up the Old Gothic Cathedral of Seville, which is only the third largest cathedral in the world and largest gothic one. When we walked in, my jaw once again dropped. In terms of shear size, it was the new cathedral in Cadiz times 2, and much taller. The architecture was different, the ceilings were much higher, and the entire interior was much more decorated than the Cadiz one. There was an enormous organ, altar, paintings, and in general just more in this one. The only way to do it justice is to show you the video I took of it. In terms of “awe”someness, the Gothic one was better, but in terms on beauty and lighting and tranquility, the Cadiz cathedral was better. Lunch was at a large and authentic but very cramped restaurant, where I ate nothing but three small loaves of bread and a bunch of Spanish Olives. Like I have mentioned before, Spanish food is not very vegetarian friendly. We were then allotted an hour or two of free time, during which I was finally able to get some souveigner shopping done (in general I’m not getting much in Spain, nothing really seems that authentic in the stores). When we met up at the cathedral again, Ben left us to go back to Cadiz as we made our way for Cordoba (another 2 hour drive). Once at our hotel, since it was late there was not much to do. We were once again given 2 hours of free time to wander the streets or do whatever before dinner was served. Two other guys and I just walked into the older part of the city and talked a lot while absorbing the local atmosphere, it was quite pleasant. We also got to see an abnormally large pigeon bully another pigeon and peck it and chase after it, and repeat. Dinner was quite a social event, I got to talk to the Voyage’s Marine Geography teacher for a while, and then just hung out with some of the others there while the others got wasted and went out partying (may god have mercy on them, because we have to get up early tomorrow again). All in all, it was a great day, and got to see some great architecture and experience the great city of Seville. It was not as mind-provoking as the first day, but not as crazy as yesterday. I wished we got to spend more time there, there just seemed to be so much to do and see compared to Cadiz; but it is what it is. I’m looking forward to sightseeing in Cordoba tomorrow and seeing the Mezquita.
-Nimish
September 6, 2010