Becoming a Sevillian Civilian

Hello y'all!

This weekend, I stayed in Spain. However, the ants in my pants did not let me stay in Barcelona. Instead, they took me to Barcelona Sants train station, where I boarded a high speed train that took me and the rest of the ISA Barcelona program to Sevilla, Spain. Sevilla is the fourth largest city in Spain, located in the Andalucia region in the south. In English, people say Seville but I prefer the Spanish pronunciation. I mean, I am in Spain after all.

The Alcazar Palace Gardens

I had a fantastic time exploring Sevilla and I can't decide if I like it more than Barcelona. I love both cities, however, they are very different from each other. Speaking of which, I am going to list 3 things I learned in Sevilla that most Sevillans know, and that are unique to the city.

1) Sevilla has a little over 25,000 orange trees planted all around the city. This makes it the city with the most orange trees in the world. However, the oranges are very bitter; while edible, they make a better use for cleaning.

Courtyard in the Sevilla Cathedral made up of dozens of orange trees

2) 20% of Christopher Columbus's body is buried inside Sevilla's largest, most famous cathedral: The Sevilla Cathedral. The rest of his remains can be found in the Dominican Republic.

Where the remains of Christopher Columbus remain

3) The Sevilla Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral de Santa Maria de la Sede, is the largest Gothic cathedral in the world.

Highest tower within the complex of the Sevilla Cathedral

Now, recently I've been doing my top 5 favorites of each new country I visit, but since I stayed in Spain this weekend, I'm going to change it up a bit. Here we go:

Most Recommended Attraction: Plaza de Espana. Just let the pictures speak for themselves.

Most Underwhelming Attraction: The Torre del Oro. While the walk from our hotel to the tower along the river front was calm and relaxing, the tower itself was underwhelming once we got to it. It was much shorter than I expected it to be. This does not mean I did not get some photo ops with it.

Must Do while in Sevilla: Go see a Flamenco show. We saw one on our first night and it was amazing. It was interesting to see Flamenco performed where it originated from and I would definitely go again. We were told we could not take photos or videos so sadly I do not have any footage of the outstanding performance we saw.

Ciao for now!

-Michelle