For those who wondered why we haven’t been checking our emails second half of last week, it was because we were in Spain. Ian had to go to Seville for work and he had a brilliant idea of staying there til Saturday night. I hesitated at first thinking that I really should be job searching rather than spending my savings but fond memories of Seville came straight into my mind – flamenco dancing, eating tapas, chocolate con churros and oh did I mention shopping? The idea of going to Seville suddenly became more appealing and I decided on Tuesday that I would go with Ian Wednesday night. I reckoned I’ve had enough of eating fish balls and egg noodles from the past 3 weeks and cannot bear the thought of eating more by myself.
The city of Seville has really been modernised since my last visit, which was 5 years ago, there are now numerous contemporary buildings and new apartments throughout the city. While roaming around the city, subconsciously I found myself walking along the green bike lanes. I must admit I can be one of those annoying pedestrians whom cyclists have to maneuver around. However, you will be pleased to know that Seville has now put in place these new public bike rental services called Sevici system. It is a fantastic concept and a great way to see the city. We saw many of these bike parking stations all around town.
It costs 10€ for an annual membership or 5€ per week and when you pick up a bike the first half hour is free, the next hour is 50 cents and 1€ per hour thereafter. This also means as long as you can ride to the next station within 30 minutes you could potentially ride for free.
Within Seville, a well-preserved historical centre remains. As I wandered through the narrow cobbled streets, there were many traditional shops selling flamenco dresses, embroidered silk scarves and hand-made jewellery, others were selling ceramic tiles and plates with hand painted designs. This city is fringed with orange trees, much to Ian’s delight 
After weaving through the cobbled streets for some time, I managed to find myself at the beautiful Cathedral of Seville. It is one of the largest medieval and Gothic cathedrals in the world and it used to be an Almohad Mosque. The tomb of Christopher Columbus is also found inside this cathedral. To add to the medieval impression, there are horse-drawn carriages outside the cathedral which take tourists around town for a fee. It was a rather strange contrast to see many of these drivers simultaneously talking on their mobile phones. From across from the Cathedral is the Alcázar which was originally built as a Moorish Palace.
After a quick coffee stop, I decided to walk along the Guadalquivir river. With heavy traffic in the background, I saw the Torre del Oro which was built as a watchtower in the Almohad dynasty then further along the road (Paseo de Christobal Colon) was Teatro de la Maestranza and Seville bullring.
I managed to accidentally wander into La Campana and then it was shopping all the way through to a famous street called Calle Sierpes (Tracy, if you’re reading this, Catunambu Cafe where we had chocolate con churros is still there!). As it was a weekday, the streets were quite bare except for a few keen tourists. I was also keeping an eye on the time, it was getting close to 2pm which mean siesta time. For those who may not know, siesta is traditionally a nap time which usually occurs between 2-3pm in Spain. From my last visit to Seville, my friend Tracy and I were literally shooed out of a shop because they had to close shop at 2pm on the dot and it was impossible to find anything that was opened. On this trip it was different, most shops stayed opened. And it makes sense. There are now many more international brands (e.g. H&M and at least four to five Zara & Mango shops can be found within Seville) so I guess these stores cannot afford to lose an hour of business everyday. Apparently, siesta is now considered more of a lunch hour commercially.
Generally Sevillanos eat pretty late. Breakfast is around 10am, lunch is around 2pm and dinner is commonly around 9pm-10pm. Restaurants are opened til 2am. We arrived late on Wednesday night so conveniently we ate tapas at the restaurant downstairs and very soon it became clear that some waiters can be quite brusque in Seville. Ian’s colleagues recommended 2 good restaurants. On Thursday night, we tried a modern Spanish restaurant called Komo and had 5-course degustation for 32€, the menu was a fusion mixture of Spanish, Mediterranean, Japanese and perhaps Chinese. Produce was really fresh, food tasted great, it was fantastic value. On Friday night we tried a different restaurant on the same street called Novo where food was cooked more traditionally. I really liked their prawn, avocado and green salad in honey vinaigrette dressing with pinenuts.
On Saturday, we put on our walking shoes and prepared ourselves for our own grand walking tour which covered everything I mentioned above plus more 
As we went downstairs to look for breakfast, we made a discovery and found a little shop called Calenteria (on Calle Cano y Cueto) opposite from our hotel that sells the most amazing chocolate con churros! Normally you get only 3-4 churros from a local cafe and usually they are made in advance but at Calenteria for 5€ you get the bagful and the churros are made fresh. Hot chocolate has the consistency that coats the churros just right. We bought some to share and ate them at the tables outside Restaurante el 3 de Oro next door.
Feeling content, we made our way towards Cathedral of Seville, then visited Alcázar, Torre del Oro and the bullring. From Av de la Constitucion, just off Plaza de San Francisco, there was a weekend market with many stalls selling different Christmas decorations. I bought this tiny souvenir to remind me of ‘jamon’ from Spain
We had lunch at a local cafe on Av de la Constitucion, Ian had what the locals were having and ordered the grilled pork with fried egg and chips and I ordered a paella. After lunch we did a quick detour into the University of Seville (Universidad de Sevilla) and took these photos.
Next we visited the famous Plaza de España which used to be the site of the Spanish pavilion from the 1929 exhibition. Currently this plaza is used as Government buildings and the courtyard is used for exhibitions. Right across the road is the huge garden of Parque María Luisa.
By the end of our grand walking tour, we were so exhausted we could barely walk back to the hotel. It was especially painful walking on those cobble-stoned paths! Luckily for us, Calenteria was still opened. This time we bought two servings but we chomped it down in no time!
