Ok so I'm going to write this post about what we did in Sevilla (Seville) before and after Morocco, because I have more written about Morocco and I'll say all of that in a different post!
We left Valencia around 10:40 PM and got to our hostel in Sevilla around midnight. The hostel was super nice, all 6 of us were in 1 room to ourselves with separate beds and lockers. We had to share a bathroom with the next room but that wasn't a big deal. We were right next to the common room and the kitchen, which led to the terrace on the roof of the building, so that was nice. When we got there, we met an Australian guy who was just traveling around Europe for like 6 months, so we hung out with him a little; Australian accent, SO cool.
Since breakfast was included at the hostel, the next morning we ate there; but, per usual in Spain, it was just toast with nutella or jam, and coffee and juice. So we all bought lunch/dinner food at the supermarket so that we could make our own food, which was GREAT, and so that we didn't have to spend money going out to eat--plus we all just wanted to eat lots of yogurt/healthier foods before we went to Morocco so we could "line our stomachs" so they'd be prepared to fight off sketchy Moroccan cuisine. After going to the supermarket, we went to the Cathedral, which was literally a 2 minute walk from our hostel, which was in perfect location for almost everything. The Cathedral was huge and absolutely beautiful. It is the largest Gothic Cathedral in the world, so that gives you an idea of how ornate and big it is--pictures to come! Inside, was gorgeous as well, it just amazed me how everything was so intricate, even just the columns were incredible. We then walked along the river and got coffee at a cute little place that our director recommended (because he used to live in Sevilla). Then, we went to the Torres de Oro (Towers of Gold) which is on the river and used to be "customs" for ships coming into the Sevilla port. Right across from the river, we went to the Plaza del Toros. The colors are amazing on the outside--white and Tuscan yellow. We only went into the little shop attached to it because we've been inside our own Plaza del Toros in Valencia.
The next morning at 3 AM (so basically that night) we got up to head for the bus to Morocco. It left at 4 from a stop close to our hostel in Sevilla, so that was nice we didn't have to walk far. I was kind of surprised at how few people were on the streets when we were walking; in Valencia, it would be packed at that time of the night, but there was barely anyone there it seemed like.
--Morocco trip--
Back to Sevilla on Halloween night. When we got off the bus, we walked to our hostel--Sevilla was decorated pretty well for Halloween and a lot of people were dressed up! Most were dressed in like blood and guts costumes/scary faces, etc. which was interesting. There were almost no "cute" costumes. We all looked like classic Americans in our shorts/sweat-pants/sweatshirts/sneakers, so that was our "costume" --and we smelled terrible and had gross desert, bus/ferry ride hair; everyone was judging. We were all SO exhausted after our all day traveling that we crashed at the hostel. So, the next morning we got up and climbed Giralda, the tower attached to the Cathedral. Luckily, it wasn't a tower where stairs were used--it's all ramps--because they used to have horses go up and down. The view from the top was amazing. We could see all of Sevilla--something interesting to note, a lot of roofs had pools on them. Probably because it gets so hot in the summer in Sevilla. We pretty much just walked around all day after that, going shopping, etc. At night, we had paella and sangria on our terrace; some of the hostel workers have a paella/sangria 5 euro night every Tuesday, where they cook the paella and make the sangria themselves. It was really good. Then, we went to a Flamenco show with some of our friends from ISA Sevilla and ISA Barcelona (who were staying an extra day or two like we were)--we met them in Morocco. It wasn't the greatest Flamenco show though; so, when ISA takes us to Granada in a couple weeks we are supposed to see one and I'm hoping it'll be way better than this was. This was just very weird--I thought there'd be way more Spanish guitar and dancing, but some guy pretty much sang the whole time, and the dancer clapped a lot. It kind of sounded like little kids playing with pots and pans. But still cool to be there nonetheless and spend time with our newfound friends! After the show, we were all still exhausted so we went back to the hostel and fell asleep.
The next morning we woke up, had breakfast, and headed over to Real Alcazar, which is an active palace in Sevilla. There tons of rooms, all with ceramic tiles, and gardens that are walled in. It is HUGE and really cool. We were all really "toured-out" though, so we didn't see everything inside Real Alcazar, because you could spend 3 or more hours really looking at everything; we were only there for like an hour and half. It was kind of chilly and rainy too, so after we left the palace we went to a cafe and had coffee and hot chocolate. We then walked around some more and did a little more souvenir-ish shopping. Around 5 we had to leave our hostel for the airport, so we went back there to pack up our stuff and then had to catch the bus that takes us to the airport, which was much cheaper than a taxi. As cool as Sevilla was, it was REALLY touristy, so I was glad to get on a plane back to Valencia, my "home" :)
