“When you visit…” is a blog series about things you’ll want to know before you visit a city. Advice comes from my experience in the city, and is more about “prepare yourself for…” than about “OMG SUCH PRETTY SO WOW.”
This one’s about Sevilla, Spain.
Sevilla is crowds. Sevilla is chaos. Sevilla is beauty.
We’ve been here for three days, and tomorrow we leave for Córdoba. More on Córdoba, later. For now, here’s what you may want to know before you visit Sevilla, Spain.
#1: Walking is the Best Way to Get Around
We’re staying in the sort-of center of Sevilla at a hostel called Nomads. There are about a million other hotels and hostels in the area, so chances are, you’ll be staying somewhere close by. From here, getting all over the city is a breeze by foot, a waste of money by cab, and unthinkable by car.
Sevilla is a nest of small alleys and back roads that only exist for 1-3 blocks. What this means is that walking treats you to a tremendous amount of visual variety. One minute, you’re in a park, the next you’re walking down a spatious roadway dedicated to high-end shopping, and the third you’re squeezing down a side-street full of hipster-esque tapas bars. By cab, you’re missing out on all of that. In your own car, good luck trying to find parking while reading your map.
#2: It is Easy to Get Lost in Sevilla
“What’s a grid?” asked Sevilla’s city planner, probably.
The first day, here, we decided to wing it through a walk around the city. It’s been easy to do that everywhere else we’ve been. However, as I mentioned in this post’s first point, Sevilla is a nest of side-streets and alleys. When someone tells you to “go North,” what they really mean is “go East for a block, then go South for a block, then go back East for a block, then go North for no longer than 2 blocks, then go West for a block…” You get the picture. There’s no straight shot to anywhere in Sevilla. And when you look at a map, there’s just a big pair of shrugging shoulders looking back at you.
So, we got lost on the first day. Probably 3 times. The good thing though, is that Sevilla is an amazing city in which to get lost. One of those times, for example, we went looking for a trendy street full of tapas bars called Mateos Gago (just South of the center). We ended up at Puente de la Barqueta (far North of the center) and stumbled upon a really good bar that serves Spanish-Japanese fusion tapas. Losing was truly winning, that evening.
#3: Eating Many Small Meals is the Way to Go
Typically, everyone’s out for breakfast at 10-11am. Breakfast philosophy is “put some stuff on that bread.” Two to three hours later, everyone’s eating lunch. Then, dinner starts after 8:30pm. So, the day starts with a tiny breakfast to get you going. Seemingly right afterward, you’re eating lunch (if you’re as obsessed as we were, then you’re looking for more tapas places). At dinner, you’ll probably eat more tapas, but that’s 8-10 hours away. In between, you’re noticing that food is always happening in Sevilla.
Notably, every street is restaurant street. Churros, tapas, sushi, tacos (yes, there’s some Japanese and some Mexican, here), gelato, milk shakes, on and on. If you ever feel a pang of hunger, finding something to quell it is only a matter of keeping your eyes open and walking one or two steps in any direction.
Also noteworthy is that tapas are easily the most common style of service, here. This means that you order multiple small plates of food and share them with your travel buddies. Some friends of mine would call them Spanish dim sum. I would call them Spanish bar food. This makes every meal pretty modular. Only a little hungry? Order one tapa’s worth per person. Really hungry? Order three or four per person.
At the end of a day, you’ll have stopped maybe 5 times for relatively small portions each time, and the variety you’ve experienced in the process will thrill you.
*: Flamenco is Here
You’ll notice one million Flamenco theaters (+/- 10%) during your stay in Sevilla. Trip Advisor might help. Or, you could just pick one and buy tickets. We went to a place called La Casa de la Guitarra.
I knew precious little about Flamenco going into the show (and I still know precious little). But, I do know now that over 40 styles comprise Flamenco, and what we heard is what our host called the “pure” style (although I’ll bet all the Flamenco show hosts say that). And, the exposure definitely highlights some cool patterns in the music. For one, vocals carry an absolute hell-ton of melisma. They also play with a particular set of intervals that are unfamiliar to ears accustomed to western music, but familiar to those that have ever been around a mosque. For those reasons, it sounds very Arabic, to me.
Another pattern is that all three parts–guitar, vocals/percussion, and dancing–are mostly fluid, but regularly shift into really aggressive bursts of volume, speed and syncopation. To me, that communicated sadness, frustration, and underdog-style defiance. I’ll be doing more research into the style, because now I’m really curious about its origin.
Anyway, you should see a Flamenco show, while you’re in Sevilla.
Tomorrow, we move on to Córdoba. There’s a famous mosque, there, but that’s about all I know at this point. Will it be entirely unique? Or, will it offer a hint that the crowds, chaos and beauty of Sevilla comprise a more universal Spanish experience?
Check back soon for the report.