After our train to Seville, we finally reached around 4.30pm. And lucky lucky, the hotel was just about 15mins walk from the station, no need to take any metro, gave us much more comfort in pulling our luggage.
We check into Arye Hotel, and that time I ask my sis, what did she planned for our day 1 in Seville, and she said,
"Just eat only"
xD!
Oki, seriously, we was eating and shopping. And that 14/11 was a Saturday.
Seville is one of the place where not many of the people speaks English. Maybe at most very very little of it. Was a nice place to practise teehee~
Plaza del Duque
We took a bus, and headed to the Plaza del Duque where we found loads of shopping, and small pop up market alike our pasar malam. So, we joined the crowd and did some shopping ourselves.
It was a Saturday. There were huge crowds, EVERYWHERE!!!!!
Once we walked into a boutique shop, all people. People everywhere. All over the place. x___x I thought the scariest was Stradivarius which was a rather tiny outlet. There was so much people I wanted to get out real fast. lolol
Anyways, we finally stop shopping and head on to dinner.
Casa Poco
We found Casa Poco after what seemed like 30mins walk from where we were.
Our dinner was gooood! We had pig trotter, omelette, and salad, and some wine each.
La Alameda
From our dinner, we went onto La Alameda, a small square in Seville, which was our dining place was just nearby. There were 2 tall roman statues, Hercules and Julius Caesar. We stood there and try to take the photo. Lol it was kinda funny because I kept saying my sis photograph doesn't seem straight.
So I took over, took aim and I thought it look perfect. Then we compared our photos.
Both, doesn't look quite straight rofl. There some kinda illusion thingie due to the bottom of the one of the statue that keeps making me feel the photo wasn't straight, haha don't let it get to you ;P
From then La Alameda, we were just randomly hopping into shops and so on. We saw a few flamenco theater but we didn't go, since we did planned a Zambra show in Granada.
15/11 - Day 6 - Seville morning!
Today was gonna be a rather long day, quite a lot of attractions to take away our time. Do note that that day was a Sunday, and on a Sunday, many shops were closed. Including the El Cortes Ingles. :/
Along the way to Alcazar, we sighted this...university??? Can it look even more awesome?!
Sorry about the tree there, no matter which angle, it is just there stubbornly.
More nice spots along the way...
Seville's Alcazar
On our way to the Alcazar was a rather busy street, full of tourist. We also noticed that a race was going on, where the participants wore a number and were running about while referring to a piece of paper. Sounds like a treasure hunt?
On the long road, there was a a touristy tram moving about, and many horse carriages and people beckoning you to come take a ride (not for free of course).
Finally Alcazar!
My sis mentioned that it was used to film some scenes in Game of Throne. Not sure which ones since I didn't watch.
Which was rather big, and full of gardens. We had the audio guide and I was navigating us both through the palace and garden, while sis focus on taking photos.
Once we heard something that sounded like a cat wailing or something. The culprit was a peacock. xD. They roamed freely in the palace though, just quite surprising haha.
Most of the tourist were hanging by the big fountain in the alcazar, and that was one of the picturesque place in the Alcazar. Another unique place to check out would be the Arab bath area, which was located quite near the fountain. There were some ladies who would repeatedly keep coming back to take picture...sheesh haha, my sis couldn't even take time to shoot the place nicely ;P
And some of the really nice geometrical design we saw:
- The leftmost was on the ceiling, and it was incredibly hard to take the full shape - you really need DSLR with an ultra-zoom-out lens. The ceilings in Spain are really super super amazing!
- The middle onee is a really nice door.
- The last one on the right is yet another one on their ceiling. Intricate design!
:D Theres so much more but I guess, this heavy picture loading ... shall leave it for the next round.
Anyways, one last one! We exited the Alcazar at an really nice noon, and the crowd was starting to gather.
Musicians everywhere too! Love the ambiance they created
Lunch - Bodequita Romero
This is definitely one of my favourite place to eat! The chef-looking-guy who served us was very nice, friendly, and cheerful!
The recommended Pringa, was really really delicious! Ask for a few more of those dishes!
(Ok I forgot to take a picture of that Pringa. But here is one for Chorizo!)
Italica
Then, we took a bus and head to Italica...that was the most disappointing part of our trip to Seville. We reached there roughly 3.05pm, and the ticket counter was closed. The security guard would not let us in, indicating that the placed closed at 3.30pm, ticketing counter close 30 mins at 3.00pm.
And do take note that, I think the TripAdvisor or where-else mentioned it was until 5pm :P don't get the wrong information guys. :P,
3.30pm, Sunday, on Autumn-Winter period - Closed. Can't rmb other timing, but I think sis took a picture of it.
x____x :( The Roman Ruins, there goes my visit :(
We had to sit around and wait for the next bus which starts at the next hour.
Catedral
Since there were sufficient time left before the night, we headed by to the main plaza, and went for the visit to Catedral.
Gothic facade and again, another amazing ceiling to gaze at!
One of my nightmare began when...
I saw this Tower Tour and there was a slightly barricaded route to a loomy door way. Lol, feeling really excited, although in my mind was saying "don't do it...cause your kneecap doesnt feel good".
I went on and climb. It was rather easy as there were no stairs. It was elevated using ramps. The tower itself you can think of it as rather long cube so there were 4 walls, and 4 ramps to walk before you get to the next level?
Every wall you see, there is a number, which is some sort of indication of the level. So I believe I saw the number 36, which would leave the building at least 9 stories high. While climbing halfway, I quickly called my sis and told her to start climbing the tower!
Yes beautiful (Actually on second thoughts, I find it ok. The most interesting views I find were while you were climbing and some of those walls there were small windows. Do take the chance to peek out ^^) view from the top, and 4 different sides gives you 4 different view from the top of Seville. But lol, the human crowd there was huge, I had to keep waiting at a spot for people to climb down and lemme take a look from one point. At one point, the bells suddenly rang and many were startled. xD
Then, the scary part began for me. My kneecap was hurting badly remember? I even bought a kneeguard. My ailment is such that, I have no problem climbing up, I only have problem moving downwards. My kneecap feels the pain when it has to be lowered downwards, doesn't matter if there were stairs or just a ramp, its feels the pain.
Halfway down the tower, my kneecaps were burning and a very tight sensation on it. It does not feel right and I got really worried and started thinking what if I lost my legs to the tower ;__; that was such a depressing thought. I met my sis halfway down as I decided to wait for her and take a rest.
And looks like I wasn't the only one facing the same pain - saw another lady taking really tiny steps and holding on to the stair ledge for her life.
Then ushered my sis to continue her journey, and I rested a while longer. Finally continued down the last 10 numbers down the tower...
Upon our exit from the Catedral, I spotted a nice location to be photographed while sis was looking for toilet. She says she gonna look for it, and I continue to take my photo. Didn't realise that she had not exited the Catedral and I made an exit passed the gates and the security guard. Lol.
Then I got a phone call from her.
Thinking about what to do, I went up to the guard and tried to ask if I could go in. After I had time to think about what I did that time, I probably looked worried, and with my broken spanish, lol~ the guard probably think I might had lost a little sister in the bathroom. xD
One last image while at Catedral!
La Abuela, "The Grandmother"
We had ice cream here! On a cold cold day, the ice cream is super welcome lol not sure how that was logical, but the ice cream was super yummy. The shop was super crowded and had like 15 people trying to make their order while there was only one lady serving the ice cream. My sis then said, "Only this shop was opened."
And of course, maybe thats it haha, cos it was a Sunday, and no other shops was opened. But anyways, the ice cream here was awesome! We got one a turron flavor and that one was gooooood!
Dinner - La Sacristia
We went into this bar that was just right beside Alvaro Peregil, our planned itinerary. Alvaro Peregil only offers standing table and only seats on the outside. As there were so much smoke outside and we were feeling super tired on our feet, we pop into La Sacristia instead.
In here, we had mainly tapas. The guy who served us was nice and fun :)
I finally got to try Gazpacho, the local special tomato based cold soup. Lol, it came in a wine glass haha. So I had to take sips from it lol~ I then later realize that they don't serve Gazpacho in the colder seasons, it was supposedly a warmer season dish.
My sis ordered a jar of Sangria. And she had it all. Lol! This time we also ordered some grilled mushrooms. Before here, usually when we saw a platter of mushroom they were always about 8-15 euros. Kinda pricey. This time, we ordered! Can't remember the price. Those mushroom were heavenly - very flavourful and juicy! Totally totally loved it!
We saw the couple beside us ordered 2 sets of the 7 tapas special. It came nicely displayed but a set itself was huge. Lol o.o;
Seriously, try not to over-order.
Head home~!
16/11 - Day 7 - Seville morning tour
The days were flying, and that day, we made our way to Triana, a neighbourhood in Seville that was slightly further away from our Hotel.
We walked along a nice bridge, on the warm/cool morning, then hit our first and last planned stop:
Mercado de Triana
This a a local market for grocery, and maybe some local produce that you might wanna bring home. We found some sweets, bought some chorizon to share and eat for our breakfast.
We also stopped by this coffee area, and got our orders. We wanted mocha, but there was some kind of misunderstanding and we got Americano haha. But nevermind, the guy was quite funny.
But we are no fans for black coffee, haha, so I use google translate a short phrase into spanish, and ask him if he could give us some milk for coffee haha. xD.
He swept up his hot milk jar, zoom by our table, and poured some for us. And finally ending with "Tu espanol es muy bien~!" @ me Wahaha xD
Shopping
Then we headed for some shopping in the neighbourhood. Found a small Lefties outlet, and tons of shoes shop!
If you want some nice leather shoes from Spain, I recommended to get them here. It is much cheaper than other cities and places we had been to. And the price of the shoes for leather, they were totally worth it! And note that the shoes made in Spain were generally quite large, you might go 1-2 size smaller if you were getting a gift.
For ladies, I recommend the shoe shop: MaryPaz! Totally love their leather boots, and they were priced just right and they looked chic. But anyways I shopped mine at Toledo. Was super tempted, but phew, cut that temptation cause my luggage was already heavy enough.
My sis got a pair boots from MaryPaz and I am eyeing her boots o.o with envy.
Lunch - Taberna Miami!
Afterwards, we headed for lunch, again, I can't remember the bar/resto name. And seriously this was one of my most favourite place in the entire trip.
The guy who served us was seriously reallllly nice! We asked him for his recommendation for some tapas, and he told us to try the Secreto Iberico. That was a good find! On a cold weather, the nicely grilled iberico was awesome to taste and we had to have another serving. Oh just ditch the pork fillet if you were tempted to order it, have the Secreto!
Secreto Iberico literary translate to "iberian secret".
Just after we paid our bill, the guy served us 2 small shots of wine on the house. Awwwwwww xD And it was really flavorful sweet wine and also kept me warm on the cold day. I have to say, dump the Sangria! We need real wine like this!
Very very much thankful for our experience to our special guy from the bar/resto. Just lemme find the photo, and I will update the resto name.
After that, we had to go onto our 4th city, Granada.
Seville in summary
I find that I like the people here much much more, and much of the really pleasant experience came from the crews at the restaurant and food they served. They seem very passionate with their food and drinks they served. If you would ask for a lot more detail, they would gladly share the information with you despite the language barrier.
Shopping here is definitely much cheaper too teehee~
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