Onward to Sevilla

We fell in love with the city of Sevilla in less than an hour. Never have I seen a city that is so unique-as we walked down the old, extremely narrow cobblestone streets, people drank sangria and tapas down little alley ways, horse and carriages passed by, and almost every Sevillana woman was dressed in traditional Flamenco style dresses. We were very fortunate to have been in Sevilla during their famous "Feria" that lasts about a week. Everything is very festive, there are many tourists, special events going on every night, people dressed up, etc. It was so fun to be there. It was small enough that we pretty much knew our way around after a day-at least our way around the historical district where we spent most of our time. We arrived in the evening on Monday night. On Tuesday, we walked around the Real Alcazar Palace-a palace that has been used by royalty and has both Arabic and Christian influence in the architecture. We ate Spanish tapas-delicious, very mediterranean, we found that they use a lot of foods like olives, tomatoes, olive oil and vinegar, veggies like asparagus and eggplant, great seafood... We even bought tickets in the morning to a Flamenco show and went that night! It was awesome and very authentic! I'll try and post some videos when we have good internet connection. The second day, we just truly enjoyed walked around the very quaint streets, people watching, and we toured the huge gothic style Cathedral and bell towers. For dinner, we drank some fruity sangria and ate a "Paella mixta" which is similar to Creole jumbalya with seafood, rice, spices and vegetables in one dish. After dinner we bought some tickets on the street for the famous Sevillano bull fight! It was definitely an experience-Bryce claims it was his best money spent so far. For animal lovers, it would not be the best thing to see, but it was so cultural. All the Spaniards were dressed in their Sunday best, older men smoking cigars, women dressed in the traditional Flamenco dresses, and it was PACKED. We were packed like sardines in a sardine can. I was sitting shoulder to shoulder with probably 1000 other people I didn't know. It was so fun to just watch everyone get into it, yelling "Muy bien! Ole!" at the matador (bull fighter). It was pretty intense to watch. They went through 6 bulls, each fight a little different. It lasted for 3 hours! To me, it was such a cultural experience, to think that it hasn't changed much over the last 50 years, all the matadors wearing traditional shiny suits and the red cape things... "This is a show, basically a dance with death - one wrong move and the Matador could become impaled on the horns of the bull. It is the Matador's job to make this dance dramatic and enjoyable for the audience." (See more information: http://www.spain-info.com/Culture/bullfighting.htm)

That evening, we packed and got ready to fly to Barcelona the next morning (this morning). And today was our first day in Barcelona!