1. First impression: Quiet small town, very peaceful, relaxing atmosphere and many small lanes easy to get lost in. Most people walked or cycled. I hardly saw cars in the evening - at least in the area I was staying.
2. Tapas, my first experience of tapas and I am definitely hooked. This time in Sevilla we actually joined a walking tour and very glad that we did because the tour guide recommended this fantastic tapas bar. Frequented by local, reasonably priced and long list of choices. Bills were written with chalk on the bar top , and you gotta fight for attention especially during lunch hour when the locals swarmed the place. Friendly, comical staff too, who doesnt speak English. Cafe Bodega - a must try! I favourite dish? Almejas vino (clams in wine).
3. Flamenco dance. We saw three versions of this. One at our hostel, one at a bar and one at a roadside performance. The one at the hotel is the first and the best. The lady was pretty, full of energy, full of emotion. Show was FOC and on every Thursday simply because the lady owner has a deep interest in flamenco. The singer and the guitarist just as excellent although I felt the songs to be sad and long. Would prefer just the dance. At the second dance in the bar, there were a huge crowd. We had to sit far back but left before the show ended because the bar was too smoky and the show started really late at around midnight. The third performance at the roadside was a bit interesting because there were 5 of them young ones taking turns to dance, sing and play instruments. It was refreshing to see the girl singing instead of the guys.
3. Alcazar palace - quite disappointing for me, although historically, it must have been a significant piece. There's a mixture of Arabic and Italian. My favourite spot in the palace will be the water pond in the Italian-themed garden.
4. Plaza de Espana - beautiful outerior, that's all. One of the filming location of Star Wars : Attack of the Clones.
6. Jewish Quarters - lots of orange trees, very narrow lanes (as you can see in photo below) and the buildings were white with orange lines. We were lost several times at night, luckily we were armed with hand-drawn maps taken from the tourist centre. Not according to scale but helpful enough.
7. the Cathedral and La Giralda - of course, how can I forget. The church and bell tower is the prominent landmark of Sevilla. We passed by the church many, many times because every place worth visiting require you to walk by the church. Again, beautiful outerior - gothic style + Arabic - supposedly white, but now brownish. We saw one portion of white that has been cleaned manually with water and toothbrush for 3 long years. I didnt pay to go in, therefore didnt went up the bell Tower. When the Moors ruled, the cathedral was actually a mosque, but after a change of rulers, it became a church. Still retained some Moorish architecture and parts of the mosque. Maybe can see more inside, but I didnt bother.
8. Many small areas nearby were interesting. There's a stretch of graffitti walls with artistic paintings, a new residential area across the river, the Golden Tower that used to be a watch tower and the unimpressive (in my personal opinion) bull ring.
It's really a small town that can be covered in two days touch and go style.
It's also here where we met Amy and Patrick, two very friendly and nice Malaysians.
Finally, for the loved ones at home :)
2 comments:
wah seh!! banyak rajin post...
i'm doing housekeeping. did you get many rss feeds? coz i publish / edit many times.
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