Date of Visit: 15 - 16 September 2011
Seville, or known to locals as Sevilla (pronounced Savvy-ah), is a distinctively different town from all those that we have visited previously. We do not have much time here, only about 1.5 days, but I that was sufficiently enough. Most people who visit Sevilla also went on further south to visit Granada, but we did not do that.
Generally, the people here do not speak english. So armed with the tiny bit of spanish we learnt during our stay, (our vocab includes: si, no, un, dous, dreis, quartro and tapas), we set of to conquer this town. Our accommodation is surprisingly good! We paid 85EUR for 2 nights for a twin room in a hostel, but it was more like a hotel. And it was air-conditioned! It was the definitely a must since the temperature there is about 30+ on average. Unfortunately our host/landlady does not speak english, so I tried to communicate with her using the free wifi and my phone's google translate. It was rather successful, I must say.
Just a few attractions here, the church and the palace. The church, Seville Cathedral, is actually the burial site of Christopher Columbus. Here's his tomb:
Besides the tomb, there really is nothing special about the church. And speaking of which, I'm beginning to get tired of churches/cathedrals already. It's all almost the same in side, only the architecture may differ. But I'm not an architecture student, so it hardly makes a difference to me. Furthermore, after seeing magnificent churches/cathedrals/basilicas such as St Peters and La Sagrada Familia, the rest just doesn't really match up to them.
The Sevilla Palace is quite different, mainly due to the heavy influence of middle-eastern architecture. It looks like Muslim Mosques mainly. I heard Granada has even more architecture like this. Maybe next time, when I'm rich I'll sail on my private yacht and come back huh.
Lastly, this being the last destination we have in Spain, we have to see a very local performance. It's not bullfighting, though we hoped we could have, but it's Flamenco! Yes, it's tap-dancing on steroids. We bought tickets to this nice small shop, where it fits about 50 people and has a small stage. The entire performance just has 4 performers, 2 dancers, 1 singer and a guitarist.
The performance is very good, nothing I've remotely seen before, and it feels pretty authentically Spanish. The guitarist can play the guitar like no one's business, strumming the strings so fast that I think all his nails are all cleaning sawed off. The dancers' are also damn power. If only I could show you their faces, the determination, concentration and pain of making their feet move so fast, all squeezed into one expression. It's remarkable what they can do. *Applause*
Well, this concluded our tour de Spain. My impression of Spain wasn't very good before I've arrived, especially since I've been told many stories about the crimes and racism here. However, we were lucky enough to not met any of those type of people. In fact, I'm leaving with a very positive image of Spain. It's very clean, orderly and people are generally very friendly.
Just one thing though, the Spanish really knows how to enjoy themselves. They have siesta every afternoon from about 2-5pm. Therefore most shops will be closed during this time. Because of this, may shops remain open long into the night. Museums closes at 8pm, restaurants will stay open well past 2am. I wonder how the local people work with such a weird timetable. But anyway, it's typically the timetable of a usual Singaporean student anyway, right? lol. Wish we have siestas in Singapore too...
Seville, or known to locals as Sevilla (pronounced Savvy-ah), is a distinctively different town from all those that we have visited previously. We do not have much time here, only about 1.5 days, but I that was sufficiently enough. Most people who visit Sevilla also went on further south to visit Granada, but we did not do that.
Generally, the people here do not speak english. So armed with the tiny bit of spanish we learnt during our stay, (our vocab includes: si, no, un, dous, dreis, quartro and tapas), we set of to conquer this town. Our accommodation is surprisingly good! We paid 85EUR for 2 nights for a twin room in a hostel, but it was more like a hotel. And it was air-conditioned! It was the definitely a must since the temperature there is about 30+ on average. Unfortunately our host/landlady does not speak english, so I tried to communicate with her using the free wifi and my phone's google translate. It was rather successful, I must say.
Just a few attractions here, the church and the palace. The church, Seville Cathedral, is actually the burial site of Christopher Columbus. Here's his tomb:
The Sevilla Palace is quite different, mainly due to the heavy influence of middle-eastern architecture. It looks like Muslim Mosques mainly. I heard Granada has even more architecture like this. Maybe next time, when I'm rich I'll sail on my private yacht and come back huh.
Lastly, this being the last destination we have in Spain, we have to see a very local performance. It's not bullfighting, though we hoped we could have, but it's Flamenco! Yes, it's tap-dancing on steroids. We bought tickets to this nice small shop, where it fits about 50 people and has a small stage. The entire performance just has 4 performers, 2 dancers, 1 singer and a guitarist.
The performance is very good, nothing I've remotely seen before, and it feels pretty authentically Spanish. The guitarist can play the guitar like no one's business, strumming the strings so fast that I think all his nails are all cleaning sawed off. The dancers' are also damn power. If only I could show you their faces, the determination, concentration and pain of making their feet move so fast, all squeezed into one expression. It's remarkable what they can do. *Applause*
Well, this concluded our tour de Spain. My impression of Spain wasn't very good before I've arrived, especially since I've been told many stories about the crimes and racism here. However, we were lucky enough to not met any of those type of people. In fact, I'm leaving with a very positive image of Spain. It's very clean, orderly and people are generally very friendly.
Just one thing though, the Spanish really knows how to enjoy themselves. They have siesta every afternoon from about 2-5pm. Therefore most shops will be closed during this time. Because of this, may shops remain open long into the night. Museums closes at 8pm, restaurants will stay open well past 2am. I wonder how the local people work with such a weird timetable. But anyway, it's typically the timetable of a usual Singaporean student anyway, right? lol. Wish we have siestas in Singapore too...
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