My Adventures in Sevilla, España ... and beyond!: La Giralda, La Misa, y Mas! (The Giralda, Mass, and More!)

I've had a great weekend so far. I went out a few times with friends to drink or have tapas (snack-type food in bars). In Spain, it's very common for people to buy bottles of alcohol and then bring them to public places (like plazas or parks) to drink with friends. On Thursday and Friday nights, we did just that. We bought alcohol, drank for a while, and then ended up going to a club or to a bar. It was a lot of fun! It made us feel very Spanish. I kind of feel like I've crossed the line between "tourist" and "inhabitant" of Sevilla, and it's pretty cool. Although I'm sure I still stick out like a sore thumb as a foreigner, I feel that I've adjusted more to the rhythm of the Sevillanos here.

Most classy plastic cups (oxymoron?)

Lindsey, Marcela, me

TONS of Spaniards drinking. And me :)

Me, Kaley

Went to a club later

On Friday, Kaley, Marcela, and I met for lunch at a place in the center. It's in a great spot right next to a busy pedestrian street, so we got to people-watch the whole time. One thing we commonly notice is the way that children are dressed here. I really want to take pictures of it, but I feel like I'd be basically asking for a Spaniard to scream at me if I started taking pictures of their kids. But the children are dressed so cutely! Little girls (like... 5 years old!) wear scarves and cute boots. Little toddlers generally wear cute colored tights. It's adorable! I'll try to get a picture...

Salad for lunch

Dessert! Really good melon - never had it in the States. It's almost a mixture between honeydew melon and cantalope.

After lunch, the three of us went to explore la Catedral. It is the largest Gothic cathedral and the third-largest church in the world (after St. Peter's and some Cathedral in Brazil)

One of the puertas (doors) to la Catedral

Pretty gruesome images of Jesus.

We also went and explored la Giralda, which is a big tower (97.5 m high) that is part of la Catedral. It was built in the 1100's to be used in "muslim Spain" (al-Andalus was it's name back then) for Islamic call-to-prayer. When the Christians won back Sevilla in 1248, then converted the tower into a bell tower. You get great views of the city from the top, since it's the highest point in the city (for now..)

This is the area of the city that I live in (northeast of la Catedral). My piso (apartment) would be somewhere in the upper-right part of this picture.

The trees on the right are part of the huge park of La Plaza de Espana (pictured at the top of my blogsite under the title)

Part of the top of the Cathedral

The building (the realllly tall one) in this picture is actually causing a lot of problems in Sevilla. It's interesting, a lot of Spaniards that I talk to about it get very clearly upset about it. La Giralda has been the highest point in the city since forever. The city is building this monstrosity - I think it's an office building. And people are very upset because it kind of kills the skyline and because it's so out of place. I kind of agree with them!

This shows the separation between El Centro and the more industrialized part of the city. on The upper-right hand corner, you can see taller apartment buildings and office buildings, which marks the start of Nervion, another area of Sevilla. I live in El Centro and I'm really glad I do. I love it's small buildings and winding streets. Being in Nervion makes me feel like I'm in a big city, like NYC or something. I prefer the cobblestone streets haha. And I feel very fortunate that I found an apartment in the area that I live in.

Arabic writing in the Cathedral

Courtyard outside the Cathedral

Another puerta to the Cathedral

La Giralda

Me, La Giralda

After exploring the Cathedral, I went to the gym to do a spinning class. Later that night, I met some friends to do some more drinking outside, this time by the river.

Boxed wine, super classy.

On Saturday I woke up and went for a long walk around the city, running some errands. It was raining but it was still a pleasant walk. I stopped for lunch too.

Salad for lunch

Amanda, Gabi, Kaley, me met up for tapas and drinks later that night. Italy reunion! It was a fun night, we got frozen yogurt, too. Unfortunately I have no pictures of the food we ate because I didn't bring my camera, but it was good!

On Sunday, Marcela, Kaley and I decided to go to misa (mass) in the Cathedral. None of us are really religious at all, but we all wanted to experience going to mass in a verrrrrry catholic country in the third largest cathedral in the world. So we went. It was completely in Spanish and about 30 minutes long. It seemed like it followed the same sequence as mass in the US - which I guess makes sense. Very interesting.

Altar for mass. It's really hard to capture the actual size of the Cathedral, it's SO HUGE.

Me post-mass.

After that, Marcela, Kaley and I spent around 4 hours walking around the city. We had planned to go to el Museo del Baile Flamenco (Flamenco Dance Museum) but when we got there, they said some of their important exhibits were down, so we decided to come back another day. Instead, we ventured out of the center and into Triana, which is across the river from where I live. It was a PERFECT day, thankfully (the weather man predicted storms all day). I'm glad we didn't spend the afternoon in the museum, it would have been a waste of great weather.