For our second city in Spain during spring break we ventured to Andalusia. After a 5 hour train from Barcelona, we entered this amazing city that is really underscored for its beauty and culture: Sevilla. Most popular cities in Europe, including Rome and Barcelona are typically riddled with tourist traps. I was very surprised to come to this little city to wander near the center and easily find authentic tapas AND there were no street vendors haggling for our business. It has all the perks of the city with great restaurants, amazing sights, transportation, and night life, but without being tainted by the business of tourism (at least not that bad). I want to show you what beauty filled my senses, what culture filled my heart and what food filled my tummy.

This is Sevilla’s Cathedral, the fourth largest Gothic cathedral in the world. I have to say it is an amazing sight, but I am not a fan of its development. It was built to be large and in charge. The size was continuously enhanced with little regard for design. The cathedral was a sign of the city’s wealth after the Reconquista. It was purposely built larger than the Hagia Sophia in competition of importance, etc. but I still like the Hagia Sophia much better.

An example of its oversized-ness would be the dome you see here that has been cut in half because they added the part above it afterward to make it taller and larger.

The Plaza de Espana was probably my favorite site. It is a beautiful exhibition of Neo-Mudéjar architecture. Mudéjar is basically a mix of Spanish style art/architecture with Moorish influence. The red brick is highlighted with the blue and white tiling. From a distance it glimmers with color and you can’t quite put a finger on what you’re looking at, but then when you get closer you see the incredible detail.

There is this long beautiful fountain that rings around the whole Plaza.

A close up of the tile designs

Even the lamp posts were rich with color

We move along to the Alcazar of Sevilla and this photo show some of the Mudéjar archs. You can definitely see the Islamic architectural influence in the minute, geometrical stone/stucco carvings.

My favortie was definitely the gardens. Maybe it was because of the warm weather or the refreshing colors of spring, but it was so rich I wanted to stay there forever.

I like to catch the little details maybe no one sees. I love these little plants popping up from the shadows of the branches.

We pass by a very obviously Baroque church. The concave and convex designs stuck out like a sore thumb against the red of this building.

Taking a sunset stroll over to Triana.

I’m not even sure what this is but it was on the bridge. The sky was in this twilight blue/purple and this structure was equally beautiful, but they were both exposed very differently. So I employed some mediocre HDR editing (you can prob see my mistake). What you see is the background and foreground equally exposed.

Beautiful nightscape on the water.

I have to say it.. FINALLY some good damn street art. Rome is littered with crappy tags by kids and nothing decent. I really don’t know why they don’t clean it off because it is everywhere. Anyway, there are some very cool artists on the bridge here.

I’m not sure if this is all actual graffiti or if it was commissioned or permitted at any point. The detail was really neat and I love the contrast in styles.

You can see here this whole mural.

Detail shot.

Behind the bus station were more fantastic murals.

Ok, so onto my favorite part: the FOOD! The next 3 photos were at El Rinconcillo which is the oldest tapas bar in town. This is spinach and chick peas with olive oil and garlic. For such simple ingredients, it tasted amazing!

Some sort of pork dish “solomillo something.” It tasted a little like rope vieja, but better!

Yellow rice and veggies.

This was at Bar Catalina recommended by a friend that turned out to have very unique tapas available compared to the traditional options.

I really should’ve taken a photo of the menu because this was an awesome dish called Kataifi Nest with mushroom and something else. It was the so good for not knowing what was in it. The texture of the crispy kataifi nest was great with the filling.

Eggplant cheese quiche thing

On left is puff-pastry with eggplant, chicken curry filling (favorite of the night). On the right is filled with pig’s blood.

So that is all ladies and gents for all my day time activities in Sevilla. It is my favorite city in Spain so far.. I reallyyyy wish I could go back.