Upon arrival in Seville I knew it was the last day of the feria, or the big April festival which sees all of Seville spend an entire week eating and drinking in casas, or family owned tent-ish restaurant-ish things where there is tapas, drink and people performing flamenco or similar. I walked the 40 minutes over to the feria in the hot sun, walked around the huge stretch of casas for a while, saw the horses and carts and all the ladies in traditional Spanish dress, then walked back to the hostel through the big park, where I also passed the Plaza Espagna, or plaza of Spain, which we would learn about in the next day’s walking tour.
That night I attended a three hour Tapas tour run out of the hostel, which was very good value for 18 euros. A few other people staying at the nearby hostel and I were taken to three different tapas bars and received many different plates of delicious tapas, as well as four drinks. By the end, at 11:30 – they eat so late! – I walked straight back to the hostel and went to sleep.
The next morning I rose for the walking tour, which was a 2.5 hour extravaganza around Seville which included the same Plaza Espagna I had seen the day before and culminated in the bull rink and the river, which is not really a river but a pool because the river was filled in to prevent flooding.
After the tour many of us joined the tour guide for tapas lunch at the same bar at which the previous evening’s Tapas Tour had concluded| these tours are all run by the same people who also seem to work at that bar. However the food there was delicious, especially the amazing mushroom and cheese crepe I had as part of my two part menu of the day.
After this I greeted Kellie, who had made it to Seville after her Contiki tour but was too exhausted after the tour to do anything but sleep! Instead, I got ready for the whole night and headed out on the 5.40pm walking tour around the old Jewish quarter.
This concluded at about 8.30pm with just enough time to head back to the hostel, change my shoes and head out to the Flamenco show at 9.30pm. This was an hour of excellent flamenco, including a lady and man dancer, guitarist and female singer. Obviously I couldn’t understand the dramatic lyrics, but both dancers were drenched in sweat by the end.
The hour went swiftly, and then many of us headed to the pub crawl directly afterwards. In fact, the only people who went to the pub crawl were at the Flamenco show, and there were only about six of us (this has been the story of Spain as it is evidently low season, despite the fact that the weather is beautiful in Spain right now and in summer it is far too hot in Seville!). But with the addition of three or so staff, we headed on to another bar that was full of other backpackers. At quarter to one, however, I became very tired and headed back to the hostel, ignoring the imploring of the two Jovial French Canadian ladies.
The next morning Kellie, a lovely Danish girl named Camilla and I went to see the Alcazar, or the oldest European Castle still in use: the Spanish royal family stay there when they come to Seville. It was lovely and we sat in one of the parks for a while eating canned olives and pickled onions. After that we stopped by a clothes shop where Kellie bought shorts – she had no summer clothes with her at all – and I found the most amazing pair of elastic wasted jeans – this appeared to be the normal style – that fit me perfectly (for now)! It’s a miracle. We then boarded the 5.5 hour bus ride to Lagos, happily gaining an hour in the process.
