Sevilla

Today I had thought I might go to Mérida for the day, but turned out the walk from hostel to bust station was a lot longer than I thought and I missed the bus, so I stayed in Sevilla - and it was probably the smarter option lol!!!

Sevilla is so very different from all the other places in Spain [and Portugal!] that I´ve seen so far. Obvious, I know, given it´s in a different pat of the country, different geography/climate, and most importantly - different city. All throughout the south of Spain theres strong Muslim influence on the architecture and such, which I´ve definately been noticing and loving. And it´s a really pretty city to walk around. Orange trees everywhere and pretty plazas etc etc. Yesterday (once I finally got myself un-lost and into the central city) I visited the Cathedral, which Lonely Planet says is one of the biggest in the world - its huuuuge!!! and climbed up La Giralda - the cathedral tower which i think existed first and was built by arabs? Oh yeah I also had a look at the Plaza de Toros (Bullfighting ring).
This morning I went to the Alcazar - definately a highlight of Sevilla. I took about a million photos but none of them come close to capturing the decorations, arches, patios etc etc etc. It´s an old palace/king´s residence or something like that, and parts of it havwe been destroyey/rebuilt/added various times through history. So its got all sorts of constructions and decorations from different arabic/christian/`mudejar´(=arab/christian mixture) styles and yeah, can´t really explain it so well but its pretty impressive. and goes on forever!!! I spent 2hrs, maybe more going through the rooms and patios with my audioguide. The only problem was that is was reallly super busy!!!! people everywhere and around every corner - a couple of school groups and another group with fancy cameras taking about 50 thousand photos of every wall hahaha. So I´d often find myself standing around in a corner waiting for a few people to clear out so I could appreciate the place a bit better =)

I´m just in an internet cafe on on of the main roads and out the window to my left is the cathedral amd oh now a tram going past. This morning it was lovely and sunny, but it has since clouded over and about 5/10 minutes ago started to rain. Which could be a pain because after this i was gonna go walk through the `Parque de Maria Luisa´ - a big park with a couple other things to look at on the way back to the hostel. oh well.

Tomorrow on to Cádiz - probably relatively early in the morning since I´ve now pretty much seen enough of Sevilla - well theres always more but yeah.

Sure there was something else I was gonna say, but right now I can´t remember.

love to all

xoxoxox