Spain Spam: The Seville Edition
Over my half term holiday, I decided to just get away and visit Seville. A friend doing an internship over there offered me free accommodation and I thought why not!
After weeks of stalking tourist photos on Instagram and saving information about different attractions and spots to visit I was finally on my way.
I flew from Bristol early on a misty Monday morning and arrived in sunny Seville at Seville Airport around midday. My first solo flight had gone better than expected, bar from a couple of screaming children on my RyanAir flight, it had gone smoothly.
After arriving at the airport I figured out a where the bus into the city left from, they go every 10 minutes and the journey takes about 40 minutes from the airport to Plaza de Armas. I’d only taken a small suitcase so was able to walk around the area whilst waiting for my friend to meet me. In the first 20 minutes, I’d managed to find Torro del Oro (cue photo spam) and had bought a sandwich to eat along the riverside.
I stopped in a coffee shop Torch which I hadn’t yet found on Instagram yet by merely stumbled upon it while wandering. Then after this, I took a bus to my friend’s apartment and we had a bite to eat and got ready for an evening out.
We’d planned to visit the mushroom / Metropol Parasol / the Setas as they call it in Seville and got there just before sunset. Its a great modern design in the middle of Seville that was built as a platform to view the city from. It’s very popular with tourists but only costs a few euros to take an elevator up to the top to see the view of the city. With your ticket, you also get a free beer from the cafe underneath the setas. After this, we went for some drinks around the Alfalfa area.
The next day after a little lie in I went for a walk into the city for some lunch and then I visited the Museum of Fine Art in Seville / Museo des Bellas Artes. Most of the art wasn’t to my taste but the architecture of the building and the tiles were definitely worth the visit especially since it was free as a UK citizen. Many of the attractions I visited around Seville were either free for EU citizens or only a couple of euros which I thought was very good considering that on my last European break in Amsterdam entrance fees ranged from €5 to €25!
After visiting the museum I went around the main high street shops – H&M, Stradivarius, Pull & Bear and Zara. I, of course, had to try some Spanish Paella which I did at La Paella.
I then walked over to the Triana area, which is across the river from Seville and is mostly considered as separate to Seville as for most of history there weren’t many bridges built between both areas. There is a quirky thrift store in Triana, Humana, and we also stopped for gelato at Villar. before visiting a small pottery shop where you can make your own pottery.
I then visited the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo which is open pretty late! This was much more up my street with a really interesting exhibition on type and graphics.
Wednesday then was a wandering day, goodness knows how many steps I did! The weather was a bit miserable in the morning with a massive downpour in the afternoon so I probably didn’t pick the best day for walking around. After buying postcards and being confused for someone who could speak Spanish I managed to buy some stamps and ended up walking through Maria Luisa Park, past Plaza de Espana to the Museo de Artes Y Costumbres, with exhibitions which focused on the culture of Seville and Spain.
I then walked back over to Triana to visit the Centro Ceramica Triana which shows a lot of the history of Triana alongside the pottery and ceramics that helped the area thrive and made it popular. The centre as amazing architecture that was definitely worth being drenched by a heavy downpour and I finished the visit with an Instagram picture of course!
To dry off I then walked back over to Seville centre and visited a bookshop/cafe Caotica. If you can read Spanish then its definitely somewhere to visit and if not still visit and take advantage of their coffee and cakes!
We then cycled back to the apartment and made dinner. Seville is very bike friendly and even though I hadn’t cycled for a few years it was easy to get back into it and with cycle lanes, I felt safe. You can easily hire bikes or take advantage of the Sevici system Seville has which is the same concept as Santander bikes in London.
On my last full day, I mostly took it easy with a late breakfast. It was All Saints Day so it was a Spanish Bank Holiday which made Seville very busy. We’d hoped to visit the Real Alcazar which is where they filmed most of the Dorne scenes in Game of Thrones, but by the time we arrived, they’re booked up. Definitely visit early if you go!
Instead, we took our time visiting Plaza de Espanas with more time for photos! Thursday was the warmest day and considering it was then November it was still 18 degrees. I finished the day walking down the main street Avenida de la Constitucion and watching the street artists and flamenco dancers before heading back for pizza and an early night before my flight.
I ended up taking an Uber to the airport, which ended up being quite a stressful process as Uber isn’t widely used in Seville as it is in the UK. I couldn’t schedule a journey so I had to wait until I woke up to book a ride and hope that there was someone who could pick me up. It only ended up being €12 and considering it was 4 in the morning compared to a €25 – €30 taxi it was very reasonable. Seville Airport is very small so don’t expect much shopping opportunities when you’re there. Also when I was there they were redoing parts of the airport so going through security was more of a free for all rather than an organised system that you normally find in airports.
All in all, it was a very enjoyable trip even though I found Seville as a city quite claustrophobic with the number of visitors to space on the streets. I managed to fit quite a lot in, in such a small amount of time and would definitely recommend it if you’re thinking of visiting. Catch my Seville Instagram story for the places I visited!
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