Adventuring Through Spain: Sight-Seeing in Sevilla

Taylor's wonderful photography skills

(I don't know why some of the pictures didn't turn, please forgive me this time!)
So my friend, Taylor and I decided mid-afternoon on Thursday, May 3rd that we wanted to spend the weekend in Seville, Spain. Sevilla, or Sevilla, is in the south of Spain and is gorgeous, the weather was amazing and I'm definitely jealous that it's been so warm down there for so long. Not fair since it's been cold and rainy in Madrid for the majority of the spring season. Besides the wonderful, sunny and warm weather, Taylor and I really got to enjoy ourselves because we got to see all of Sevilla in a weekend. It's a small town and you can definitely walk and see all of the major touristy sights in a weekend, so that's just what we did! Of course, the one weekend we decide to go down, the weather channel called for rain all weekend so Taylor only brought her converses and I went with my cowboy boots, needless to say BAD LIFE CHOICES! Both of our feet hated us by the end of the weekend but it was SO worth it!

I GOT TO SEE MY APPALACHIAN LOVE, CHUCK!

After a 6 hour bus ride, we got to Sevilla around 4 on Friday afternoon and found a map to try and find our hostel. The hostel was really nice and there were A LOT of international kids our age staying there, maybe because it cost 8 euros per person, a night, but oh well. So after we got settled into the hostel we couldn't wait to go walk around and explore, and fortunately for the both of us we had friends from our home universities studying in Sevilla so I called my friend Chuck and Taylor called her friend Annie and we both made new friends! Since my friend, Chuck, still had some classes and stuff to do with his host family, we met up with Taylor's friend, Annie, and she showed us around part of town. We went to the cathedral in the middle of town first and walked around outside. It was a gorgeous church and even though, I've probably seen like 15 cathedrals since I've been in Europe, each one still takes my breath away when I first see it! It also kinda saddens me that we don't have any old, beautiful architecture like that in the states, not even the pictures I have compare to what I actually saw while I was there! After Annie showed us the cathedral we walked and she showed us one of the most beautiful places I've ever been, La Plaza España. This place was gorgeous and old and SO well maintained, I can't even begin to

describe how incredible it was! There was in a newlywed couple taking their pictures from the

Part of the plaza, SO GORGEOUS!

bridges and some of the balconies! I

definitely didn't want to leave this amazing

place! So after being in awe of everything that

I saw at the plaza Annie, we went and ate and then headed out to a bar with Chuck and his friends for the night. It was a really cool bar because it was called Long Island and had a shot dedicated to each state. Also it was decorated with sports teams from all over the states and I was OVERLY EXCITED to see my favorite baseball team represented on the ceiling! I MIGHT have freaked out a little when I noticed it! And of course, Taylor and I had to take shots from our states so we did one for North Carolina, which was rum with coffee flavor mixed in and then we did one from Maryland, for Taylor which was just honey flavored rum; both we actually pretty good. Being able to drink whenever I want in bars and clubs here is actually spoiling me quite a bit because, as my Mom informed me, I'll have 16 weeks after I return to states until I turn 21. Sad Thought.

But anyways, since we had been on the bus for so long we were very tired and decided to turn in

kind of early from the bar. Saturday we had a big day ahead of us, sight-seeing and being

tourists such. We decided to explore the inside of the cathedral and see what there was to find

as well as climb the tour of the cathedral called the Giralda. Inside the cathedral in Sevilla was

pretty cool because it's actually home to Christopher Columbus' tomb, seeing that was actually

Christopher Columbus' Tomb

one of the highlight's of my trip! I thought it was
really cool to be able to see where the person
who found our land was buried, never thought
I'd be able to say that! After the cathedral, we
ventured into Real Alcazar which is where the
royal family stays when they come to Sevilla.
It was HUGE! We got to walk around inside
and then explore around in the gardens. For
the first time in my life I got to see a peacock
with his tail completely open and up close! It
was SO cool, I'd only seen peacocks with their
tails like that and so close in books and in
pictures! We took SO many pictures and we
were close enough to touch these incredible
birds at some points. We also saw the naval museum in Sevilla, which is a castle looking structure
and the view was AMAZING! Of course, the three of us climbed to the top and looked around! I
mean, we couldn't pass that up! I couldn't believe how amazing all of God's creations were from

PEACOCKS AT ALCAZAR

so high up, it was breath-taking! Because we
had had such a full day of sight-seeing we
decided not to go out on Saturday night.
Instead, I called Chuck and we headed out to
dinner before he went out on the town. We went
to a Mexican restaurant and ironically the date
was May 5, which took us a few minutes to
realize, but once we did, we ordered
margaritas in honor of cinco de mayo! My first
legal cinco de mayo and I wasn't even really
legal, WOHOOOOO! So after dinner, I said my
goodbyes to Chuck, until the summer and
Taylor and I headed to our hostel for the night.
We wanted to get in one last bit of sight
seeing before our bus left on Sunday at 3. So
on Sunday we went to Las Setas, which is a monument just built within the last year in Sevilla. It
looks like a mushroom, and the word for mushroom in Spanish is Seta....clever. We played on the
structures and climbed to the very top and looked out all over Sevilla again. It was such a great
way to end our weekend! I really enjoyed my weekend in Sevilla, it was the town where my friend,
Landon, studied when he was alive and abroad. After seeing all of the wonderful things that this
town has to offer and taking note of how "homey" it felt, being close to everything and everyone, I
definitely understand why he loved that town so much! I think of him everyday that I'm here, and I
talk to his star every night. I miss him very much, but I know he's watching over me and making
the same proud, big brother face that he always did when we were together and I impressed him
with whatever I was doing. I really miss him, but I also know that I am so blessed to have such a
wonderful young man looking over me all the time. I love you, Landon Matthew Hill.