Seville

Got another blabla to Seville only a 1.5 hour drive from Cadiz. My hostel is close to the main touristic sights ie the Cathedral (the biggest in the world) and a great walking street full of restaurants selling tapas, paella and sangria. Though this makes it a little noisy at night with Spanish night life going well into the morning!

Still getting over this strange sickness feeling very tired and unmotivated. Not wanting to spend too much money now as I'm saving it for Italy contiki, though its great that there are so many free events. I joined a free walking tour the first night an another in the morning, they take you all around the city centre 'centro ciudad'. These tours are the best way to start your time in a city, explaining the history, some interesting facts you would never have known and would have walked straight past (ie why there are more then 1 sometimes up to 5 names for streets here), and you get to know the place a little so you don't get lost later on.

My guide full of energy

Seville was the most important city in Europe years ago with important people from all countries settling here as there was a lot of money and gold, being called the 'golden city'. Of course having so many cultures in one place caused some problems and the people were segregated around the city, and there were a lot of wars here. Hence today there is a wide variety of influences in regard to architecture and history etc.

Was a Mulsim mosque now Catholic cathedral

Again like most of Spain the Arabesque architecture is very apparent, because the Arabs ruled Spain for 700 years. There are 3 different styles in most of the important biuldings here as new empires took the keys to the city. Muslim, catholic, art nouveau, neoclassicism etc etc all built ontop of each other. UNESCO doesn't recognise some of the biuldings for world heritage sights as they say it doesn't make sense with all the styles.

Once a ceramic factory, now the Museum of Contemporary Art 

The Seville Cathedral, and the famous Spanish sun shining above  

Plaza de Espanyol

 I was late to my booking to see a Flamenco show and museum as i lost track of time at the Museum of Contemporary Art, luckily getting a full refund. I still went to the museum myself which I found very interesting and will try to seek out a Flamenco show before I leave Spain. Pretty amazing dancing and singing, with such a mix of festive feeling, heartache, sorrow, and sexyness. 

 Was the weekend when I left Seville, the tourists quadrupled from during the week and it was impossible to enter anything without lining up for literally an hour, so unfortunately I missed seeing the Alcazar though would probably be much the same as the Alhambra palace I saw in Granada. Another beautiful Arabic inspired palace with amazing carvings etc. The novelty of travelling has started to wear off me as each city starts to feel much a muchness, sadly. Though I am still loving the fact that I am in Europe, a life long dream, though feeling the home sickness and little. I think contiki will be a nice change of pace and having a big bus load of people around to travel with will be good. Two months to go...