Semana Santa: Sevilla

~ Day 3 Continued ~

Unfortunately, our arrival into Sevilla wasn't as positive as we had imagined. As we were walking from the train station to our hostel, we get a call from Jane (who was walking from the bus station to our hostel as she was coming from Japan and was meeting us in Sevilla). She tells us that her bag just got stolen and to contact her mom through my dad to cancel all of her credit cards! As soon as we got to the hostel, we dropped our bags and inquired about our friend. They told us they directed her to the police station, gave us the address, and we got over there as fast as possible.

^Metropol Parasol - wooden sculpture that apparently Sevilla people really do not like. One of the first things we saw as we walked to our hostel.

We spent a couple hours there with Jane. Surprisingly, Jane didn't have to wait to long to be helped. Because of the festivities, the police had received many stolen belonging cases. We had a small hope that perhaps they already had the guy on record, as they asked her to look at some pictures of potential suspects. Unfortunately, they didn't. Jane was a little frustrated with their questioning, as they kept asking her "if he looked Spanish or not". Being frazzled, exhausted and upset, she did her best. To us though, she told us she didn't like this line of questioning because they were basically asking her "was he black/African American?" without explicitly saying so. "How am I supposed to know what 'Spanish' looks like?" she asked us. We didn't have an answer.

Eventually, we went back to the hostel and regrouped. We got our rooms assigned and unpacked. A really nice girl from South America (I can't remember the country she was from now...) bought Jane a beer after hearing about her ordeals -- so kind! After taking a breather, we went out to buy Jane some things she needed. Thankfully, not all her stuff had been stolen, so she had clothes and other things. The small bag which had been stolen included her wallet, passport, checkbook, and other momentos of significance to Jane. Because of this, Jane was increasingly upset because it wasn't just "anything" that got stolen, but things that had a lot of meaning to her.

After buying some stuff for her like toothpaste, we went out to dinner. I play with a little boy named Bruno after school while conversing with him in English. His family is from Sevilla, so his wonderful mom gave me the number of her brother who works in the hospitality business. I reached out and he sent us a ton of recommendations! We went to one of these places for dinner. We were quickly caught in the current of the processions though! What should have taken us 15-20 minutes, took us almost an hour and a half to get through! We couldn't even turn back because we were entrapped in the crowd! No matter where we went we were going to get stuck, so we pushed through and eventually made it to dinner. Going back wasn't as rough since we knew the way to go and happened to time the processions well, as we were able to walk down a street lined with people but no processions, so we just walked down the middle of the street instead of fighting through the crowds.

^Just an idea. of how big the processions are. Many squares were filled with seats. Streets were lined with people so it was so hard to get by and move.

We learned our lesson that night, and afterwards we made sure to be back at the hostel around 6pm-7pm. Many people go out and watch the processions and celebrate, but Erika and Jane really don't like being surrounded by so many people. We also had the opportunity to see the processions up close in Córdoba, so it wasn't as pressing for us to try and fight through groups of people to see them. The one difference between the processions in Sevilla and Córdoba, besides the fact that Sevilla is way larger so there were a ton more processions spreading across a bigger area, is that it was more organized in Sevilla than Córdoba. In Sevilla, there were designated crossing areas, with police ushering people across streets in-between processions. Because of this, despite the amount of people, I found the crowds to be far less aggressive than in Córdoba. I remember in Córdoba seeing people using their babies and children to push through crowds!

~ Day 4 ~

Jane went back to the police station in the morning while Erika, Willa and I headed off to a free walking tour of the city. It was a very long walking tour in the sun, but really good! Willa left us at the beginning to go wonder on her own. Our tour guide was amazing, and even taught us a little bit of flamenco on the way! Here are some highlights:

^Sevilla Cathedral. Potentially the resting place of Christopher Columbus.

^Universidad de Sevilla. Here, our tour guide told us about the origins of Flamenco: Flamenco actually originated from gypsy culture, and depicts the pains and passions that they endured as a minority culture in Spain. Overtime, it was adapted and integrated into Spanish culture. The entrance to the university has small designs that tell some of the history of Spain. The ones in the photo above specifically showcase the history of the arrival to the Americas.

^Teatro Lope de Vega - right now hosting an exhibit on the inside of the body + muscles according to the posters we saw around

^Symbol of house of León. All 4 kingdoms of Spain have their symbol displayed in this plaza (León, Castile, Nevarra, Aragon).

^Plaza de España

We ended the tour at Plaza de España, so far my favorite monument in Spain! It is a monument dedicated to Spain's relationship with South America. In sum, it is a "I'm sorry" to the Americas for the treatment that occurred there due to Spain. The semi-circle arrangement of the monument is supposed to represent the shape of arms opening to "hug" Latin America. The separate bodies of water also represent the geographical distance between Spain and South America. The bridges being what connects the two different places. Spain's 4 main kingdoms have symbols around the plaza and each of it's comunidades.

At the end, we met up with Willa and Jane at Plaza de España. Jane updated us on her situation: she needed to go to the Embassy in Madrid to get an emergency passport. Thankfully, she was visiting us in Madrid at the end of the trip! We walked through the Parque de Maria Luisa, which is right next to Plaza de España, and took some pictures and relaxed for a little after the over 2 hour long tour!

^The story with this alligator/crocodile: King Alfonso X had a beautiful daughter called Berenguela. Many wished her hand in marriage. Because of this, the king of Egypt sent many gifts to Spain including a live crocodile! No one had ever seen anything like it. It may or may not have survived the trip to Spain, but either way the Spanish decided to preserve the body of the crocodile upon death by taking it's skin and dressing it around a wooden liking of the creature (I suppose their version of taxidermy then). It is hanging from the ceiling upon exiting the Sevilla Cathedral and heading into the Courtyard of the Oranges.

Erika and I stopped at the Sevilla Cathedral because the line was short. When we had walked by earlier, the line had stretched around the Cathedral. Seeing it contained in the courtyard, we couldn't not stop. Willa and Jane were hungry though, so they went to get food.

^Potential resting place of Christopher Columbus

The reason Erika and I were so keen to go inside the church is because inside the church is Christopher Columbus's tomb. According to our tour though, they may not be Christopher Columbus's actual tomb! There is a lot of mystery about where his body actually is, as other countries claim to have his tomb as well. We were told that many different countries ran DNA tests and they came up positive. So, one theory is that different parts of his body were put in the different tombs in different countries.

In the Sevilla Cathedral, his tomb is being held and carried. However, as regal as this might look, it's also thought to be because Christopher Columbus was not supposed to come back to Spain. So even though his tomb is in Spain and allowed, he will never "touch" Spanish ground again. Who knows.

Afterwards, Erika and I got food at one of our recommended places, "Oveja Negra". The food was so good! I had the best patatas bravas in all of Spain thus far (it was more natural and thick with tomatoes which is why I liked it more) and a really good eggplant sandwich. Eggplant really isn't my favorite, but they eat a lot of it in the south and I had many good eggplant dishes while down there! Afterwards, even though we'd just eaten, we decided we wanted cake so went on an adventure to buy some before the procession crowds trapped us outside the hostel. We found some. Our favorite ended up being this sweet potato cake. We were both doubtful, but it ended up being our favorite (we each got our own slice and split that...it was too much cake but also amazing haha).

We then went back to hostel just as the crowds were beginning to pick up. After setting our stuff down, we found Willa and Jane on the rooftop by the pool. There, we met a cool girl from Belgium named Charlotte. She was studying in France at the time, and decided to come to Sevilla because of French protests! I thought she was talking about the public transportation protests, but apparently students at her school were also hosting a protest against the university so there hadn't been school for days. Even a week after we left, we touched base with her and she still didn't have school because of her university protests! I think it was smart of her to take advantage of the time off to go travel.

We made dinner at the hostel that night and stayed up late chatting.

~ Day 5 ~

Erika was planning to wake up early to get to the Alcazar, but we all let ourselves sleep in a little longer and then made our way there. We were still there early, a little after opening time. It was a really great place to visit, although Erika and I enjoyed the Alcazar of Córdoba more for the beautiful and unexpected gardens there. I think Willa preferred the Alcazar here in Sevilla. The Alcazar also reminded me of many mosques and buildings I had seen in Morocco. From what I saw in Morocco, where every detail was hand carved, I could tell that some of the details weren't at this Alcazar and were painted. So while still beautiful and amazing and I had a great time walking around, in comparison to the other places I've been, it wasn't as outstanding to me.

Then we grabbed some lunch before setting off to the neighborhood of Triana. We walked around there for a little, but not too long because parties and processions were already beginning in the Triana neighborhood!

Then we relaxed for a little in the sun before heading back to our hostel to buy groceries for dinner that night.

Again, we made dinner at the hostel to avoid the throngs of people who would fill the streets. Charlotte hung out with and had dinner with us again as well which was really nice. Afterwards, she and guy from Philippines played a card game called"sign" with us. It was so much fun!

~ Day 6 ~

Erika left us very early in the morning to get back home for her mom's birthday.

We walked around the city and went to visit the bullring (above). We sat by the river for an hour or so in the sun before grabbing our stuff and making our way to the Renfe to go to Cádiz.