Traveling Part One: Sevilla

Almost a month later, gaping hole in the finances, many brain cells down and the dietary needs of a compost heap, the blitz of Europe finally found its way back to what is popularly known as the capital of all things cultural; Scotland... During 3 weeks of June/July, I traveled over 1500 miles traveled through 6 countries and visited 8 major cities. So here is a rendition of my experiences, mainly just to regurgitate what happened, because honestly, a lot of it was a blur. 

Initially me and the misses headed to the south of Spain, first stop Seville. Now, I have been to Seville before, my sister used to au-pair there in the late 90's. However when we went it was Easter, which don’t get me wrong is beautiful. The famed oranges are falling off the trees and there are a number of religious festivals going on around the south of Spain during those few weeks, but compared to the summer months it is comparatively like the Antarctic. During our stay, the temperature every day was hitting at least 40 – 45 degrees, which is not the best thing when your lady friend is allergic to the sun and you burn up like a slug, however, she took it like an absolute trooper and battled through the heat. The best words I can use to describe Seville are laid back, exuberant and roasting . The lifestyle is so lazy I'm surprised Spain doesn’t just grind to a halt. A typical working day in Spain seems to go something like this: 8 – 12 work, 12 – 5 Siestas and Lunch, 5 – 8 back to work for a few hours, 8 - 12 dinner and drunkenness and repeat. It never seemed like any of the hundreds of bars and cafe's were empty. There are always people relaxing and taking a break from the heat, from businessmen to tramps, from grannies to new born babies, every facet of society just shifts down a couple of gears and takes life in the slow lane. Despite this relaxed attitude their décor could not have been busier. The architecture is heavily influenced by Moorish ceramics and mosaics, which are the most exuberant and colourful decoration you will ever witness. Strict patterns and shapes form to make a little geometric party for your eyes, the aesthetics are a clear inspiration to the work of Gaudi. The Giralda (Cathedral) and the Alcazar (Palace) both had examples of this type of design, the Giralda less so as the former mosque was converted into the Gothic style by the Catholic church after the reformation in 1248. The Alcazar, however, holds more traditional examples of the Moorish style, strong vibrant colours are used within the tiles in ordered and strict patterns that when combined make wonderfully intricate designs. You could spend years in the Alcazar and never appreciate its full beauty. I can only describe it as the stereotypical image of paradise, palm lined pathways, carp swimming in lagoons deep turquoise water with complex fountains and sculptures rising out of the idyllic pools, flowers and perfect topiaries as far as the eye can see. Come to think of it, most of the gardens and public spaces in Seville followed suit, The Plaza de Espanya for example was used in the film Star Wars the Phantom Menace as the courtyard in the city of Naboo, which despite that little piece of trivia is beautiful in its own right. Small booths line the walls of the semi circular building, each booth is dedicated to its own province/city in Spain. Decorative tile work is used to show scenes from the history of the cities along with its geographical position in Spain. All of the tiles were produced in Seville and it turns out that the old ceramics factory on the east side of the river had now been converted into the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, or en anglais The Centre for Contemporary Art, Andalucia. Visiting this place was quite a strange experience, for a start we set off walking to get to the gallery at about one in the afternoon, which looking back on it was a bad idea from the start.We only had one lukewarm bottle of water between us and it was rapidly getting hotter. The walk there was also eerily quiet, all the Spaniards had gone for a wee kip, which in hindsight we should have done, as the blazing heat was making us delirious and temperature induced rages were imminent. Luckily we found our way there before blood was spilt, and to our surprise the place was deserted, and on top of that it was massive. The work inside seemed quite strange, whether this was enhanced because of our high temperature or it actually was weird I dont know, but a lot of the work was overtly political. There were also a large amount of religiously motivated works, which we started to notice was a common theme in Spain because of the obvious Catholicism. A couple of pieces that caught my eye were Ignasi Aballi, Listados, 2010 and Rirkrit Tiravanija, Angst essen Seele auf, 2010, both because they simply used the medium of newspaper which I think is a great way of quickly highlighting social and political issues with maximum impact. The building itself was a great space, clean, sterile and vast, the old kiln chimneys were a feature that were particularly impressive. We also visited the Museo de Bellas de Artes which covered the more antiquated art forms, religious paintings, religious sculpture so on and so forth. Which although was older and more traditional the themes were quite similar to those in the contemporary art centre, this included works by Goya, Valdes Leal and Zurburan to name just a few.

Real Alcazar

Gardens of the Real Alcazar

Walkway at Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo

Kiln Chimneys, Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo

I literally do.

The Plaza de Espanya

The Tile work at Plaza de Espanya

Cathedral Giralda

Art aside, Seville's general culture of eating drinking and casual parties was one of the main attractions to Seville in the first place. The home of tapas and great brandy, Andalusia is where you can experience the more rural and traditional style of Spanish living. We ate at some of the best (and the worst) places in Seville. Vinera San Telmo, was an understated little tapas bar just round the corner from the hostel. It had got amazing reviews of which it definitely lives up to and more importantly for a Yorkshire man it was relatively cheap. Here we tried bull meat in a filo parcel which had a stronger taste than beef I am used to, it was closer to the flavour of oxtail soup, the textures were equally as incredible as the taste. In all we 8 dishes in total, with beers, coffees etc and the bill only came to about 30 euros for the two of us, bang tidy. The seafood was also a particular highlight, both Puerta de la Carne and Cerveceria la Grande in Triana both sell some of the freshest and delicious seafood I have had in years. Cerveceria la Grande even does free prawns when you buy a beer, not bad for a trainee alcoholic. Easily the worst place we went to was Cafe Altamira which I wont say too much about but you can read my scathing review on Trip Advisor here. Yeah that's right fuck you! 

 Night time in Seville is when the city really comes alive, pissed up locals mixed with huge groups of tourists, mainly Americans, as per I suppose. If you go to the right places you can get beer relatively cheap and most bars do a drink called Vino de Naranja which is a sweet orange fortified wine. Great for those with a sweet tooth. Seville is also the home of Flamenco, the steamy, passionate and highly emotional dance style, which is renowned the world over. We went to go see a free showing of in a small non air conditioned bar, probably not the best we could have seen but you did get the sense you were watching the real grimy shit that it was originally intended to be, plus did I mention it was free. It would seem also, as a side note, that the whole beer industry in Spain is more localised than over here, each region having its own local brew. In Seville it was a beer called Cruzcampo, which was sold literally everywhere. The beer didn’t change but the prices varied from bar to bar, it would seem in Spain it wasn’t the quality or type of beer that mattered it was the surroundings the atmosphere of the place you were in that affected the price, an interesting statement on the alternative social hierarchy and globalisation vs. localisation.

Prawn husks and Cruzcampo at Cerveceria la Grande

Yes.