Sevilla

I can't remember the last time that I've seen hills so moist, lush, and green. Looking at then actually makes me thirsty. Perhaps I am being dramatic, but I also feel like it's been ages since I saw a sprawling blue sky and the sun beaming overhead. It rains a lot in Amsterdam :p. Spain (at least Andalucia) is covered with these vibrant, grassy green hills, but they are rather low so that the horizon still manages to look like it stretches far into the distance.

I slept for about 3 hours during the 6 hour bus ride, and arrived feeling energetic but extremely hungry. I really enjoyed the paella yesterday, so I had paella again. It´s odd that I would like it so much, since I don´t particularly like rice. My friends got this tapa surprise, which was five random tapas. I was kind of jealous, so I made a mental note to order tapas later. As we walked to the hostel, we got lost among the tiny, winding streets. Manhattan is a grid, and Amsterdam is built so that you can basically walk along a canal and eventually run into a main street, but Seville is like a maze. It is however, a very charming maze, with bright buildings and streets lined with fragrant orange trees. Well, to be honest, the trees are only fragrant occasionally--a few times that I tried to breath deeply, I ended up inhaling car exhaust. I wouldn´t consider Seville polluted at all, it´s just that the cars that go by seem to run pretty poorly. We walking by the Cathedral, but didn´t go inside.

Our hostel was clean and had free sangria, which I thought was pretty decent quality. We booked a flamenco show. Flamenco reminds me of tango, since the people´s faces are so serious and the movements are very structured and intense. I really liked it, although 90 minutes was too long for me. While I love watching any type of dance, I think the optimal show time for me is 30 minutes. Maybe 45.

After the show, we went to a tapas bar called el rinconcillo (I think that was the name...) It claims to be the oldest tapas bar in Seville, and was established in the 1620s. The tapas were all very good. I had spinach with garbanzo beans, pork cheek, ham croquettes, and flan with candied pumpkin. I also got gelato crema sevilla, which is essentially cinnamon gelato.