Sevilla

So I went to Andalucia this weekend with a group of friends and visited Granada and Sevilla. As others from my group have posted, we went to the Alhambra (amazing and so beautiful) in Granada and it was incredibly hot. I enjoyed my time in Granada, especially the free tapas when you order a drink when we went to dinner, but Sevilla is probably the coolest city that I have visited in Spain. It has so many different aspects that allows it to cater to many people; it has the bigger city feel in areas with its many public transit systems (buses and an above ground tram and taxis), small cobblestone streets and neat little alleys, and the most amazing cathedral (third biggest in the world!) and palace that I have ever seen. This alcazar is the coolest place that I have ever been in, and to make matters better, it was free for students! I agree with Christine because I liked this more than the Alhambra, though both are awesome. There was also a really pretty park (I think that it is called Parque María Lucia) that we walked around in and then we noticed these bicycle cart things, so we rented those for a half hour and saw more of the park than we would have otherwise. Connected to the park is the Plaza España, which is beautiful with its fountain, amazing buildings, and bridge.
And, I cannot forget the city´s many Flamenco shows, which my friends and I were able to see a professional one (called tablaos). Later that night, a few of us from the group went out to see the more orginal version of flamenco that is in certain bars in the city (called tabernas). I actually enjoyed the songs and dances in this bar a little bit more than the actual performence, even though the dancers were better and more professional, the small, intimate setting of the taberna showed the roots of flamenco more clearly than the professional version we saw earlier.

Overall, I would recommend anyone to visit this region of Spain, despite the heat (my host mom calls this region horroroso, or horrible, because of the heat, which was above 100 degrees while we were there). Sevilla was fantastic and everyone should visit it. Also, I hope to visit another city of Andalucia called Cordoba sometime in my life because I hear that it is equally as amazing as Sevilla.