Sevilla (Day 2 and 3)

Despite my bedtime of 4am the night before, I still decided to go on the free walking tour that our hostel offered in the morning...at 11am. I went alone as my friends slept, haha. It was a three hour tour that covered a lot of the city and was filled with the historical background that I love. The best part was that the tour was offered in both English as well as Spanish, so I went ahead and took the Spanish tour. I felt so cultured.

I had not realized was the importance of Sevilla during the colonial days. At this time, Sevilla was a very prosperous, wealthy city. Due to its geographic location 80 km from the Atlantic Ocean along the Guadalquivir River, Seville became the economic center of the Spanish Empire as its port monopolized the trans-oceanic trade and the House of Trade wielded its power, opening a Golden Age of arts and letters. Christopher Columbus (Cristobal Colon) himself is buried within the cathedral. In fact, my guide explained that as Columbus's origins remain unknown he may have actually been a Spaniard. Recent studies of his manuscripts have proven that he spoke perfect Catalán. This would imply that he may have been from the Barcelona region. Traditionally it has been believed that he was an Italian who simply went to the queen of Spain as he thought she was likely to fund his travels, as she did.

Located within Sevilla is the General Archive of the Indies, which is the repository of extremely valuable archival documents illustrating the history of the Spanish Empire in the Americas and the Philippines. Kept in this building are original texts written by Spanish conquistadors of America.

To further prove that I was the American in the group, I had never heard of the Duchess of Alba, a woman who is apparently well-known all through-out Europe, not only in Spain. Although she has FORTY titles they can be shortened: Doña María del Rosario Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart y Silva, 18th Duchess of Alba de Tormes, Grandee of Spain. Her godmother was the Queen of Spain, Victoria Eugenia of Battenberg and that's not even the most impressive part. She herself holds more titles of nobility than the QUEEN OF ENGLAND. Should the Duchess of Alba walk into the same room as the Queen, the Queen who have to bow down to the Duchess as a sign of respect. For obvious reasons, the two have not seen each other since they were both girls. The duchess's fortune includes ancient palaces throughout Spain, paintings by the Spanish masters Velazquez and Goya, a first-edition copy of Cervantes's Don Quixote, letters written by Christopher Columbus, and huge tracts of land; her wealth is estimated at between €600 million and €3.5 billion.

One reason that she is currently so popular in Europe is a result of gossip magazines that surround her recent marriage in 2011 to a man 24 years younger than her. He has no claims to any of her wealth. So basically she is the female European Donald Trump. I recommend looking her up online.

Without a doubt, the most impressive building that I have seen in my life is the Plaza de España in Seville, Spain. Although I still need to backpack around Europe with Kevin, it is currently my favorite location in the world. The colorful tile-work is breathtaking, the shear massiveness is overwhelming, while the symmetry of the waterways connect the plaza into one magnificent Renaissance Revival piece of art. Located within the Maria Luisa Park, this plaza was built for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929. The purpose of the exposition was to improve relations between Spain and the countries in attendance, many of which were former Spanish colonies.The city of Seville had prepared for the Exposition over the course of 19 years. Many countries, including the United States and most of Latin America, had their own exhibits built in the city that are now either used as consulate offices or other government buildings. None could compete with Spain's exhibit of the Plaza de Espana, however, Ronni and I went exhibit hunting on Sunday morning and were blown-away by how ornate all these buildings were considering they were only built for one exhibition. I recommend looking up the others as well.

The Plaza de España complex is a huge half-circle with buildings continually running around the edge accessible over the moat by numerous beautiful bridge. All of this surrounds a gorgeous fountain in the middle of the plaza. The semi-elliptical building faces due west to symbolize a hug to Spain's past colonies. Although its sort of a slap in the face at the same time because their exhibit is 10x grander than those of Latin America for the exhibition. By the walls of the Plaza are many tiled alcoves, each representing a different province of Spain. Each of these alcoves include a map of the region along with tiled art depicting a historical event from that region or a famous attribute of that region. It is very specific to each province.

The plaza was used to film scenes of Naboo in Star Wars episodes I and II as well as to film scenes in The Dictator in 2012.

As all of us were greatly enthused with this plaza, we spent a large portion of our day on Saturday walking to the plaza from the complete opposite side of the city. It was over an hour of walking but at least we got to see some sights, like some random stretches of what I assume to be Roman walls or on the other extreme, the more modern architecture of the city. All around Sevilla is one of the most gorgeous cities that I have visited. Between the constant palm trees and orange trees (NOTE: you cannot eat the oranges in Sevilla) its also easy to think that you're in paradise. Though supposedly during the summer, the heat is almost unbearable.

On Saturday night I was not feeling as well as I had been feeling as so I did not want to go out for very late, which is a hard accomplishment when people do not go out until at least midnight. We ended up going bar-hopping on Beta Street in Triana, which supposedly is a popular thing to do for college-age students. We saw a lot. I had a lot of fun because it gave me a solid opportunity to actually talk with (and hear) some Spaniards, as well as have fun with some friends for a couple hours.

In our hostel we took some nice siestas, but I made sure to be awake for sunset on Saturday night over the river. It was worth waking up.