I like Gardens and Flamenco

Part 4: Sevilla day 2

Any grudges held towards Sevilla were completely erased when we were holding gigantic cups of free coffee in the Spanish sunlight on top of the hostel roof. The responsible ones had woken up early and toured the area, plotting out our day for us. They picked the absolute perfect day to visit the Royal Alcazar. Palaces and churches can still be incredible on dreary days, but sunlight does amazing things to a garden. We dipped our fingers in the fountains, sat underneath orange trees and strolled through the lush Spanish palace gardens. The flowers were a dream to photograph and I used up about half my memory card alone on Birds of Paradise. We ran past the hedge maze, found a lizard through the thickets and enjoyed the view of it all from above on the palace ledge. The buildings were so colorful, with cerulean metal, lilac walls and orange stones.

Once we finished there, food and gelato were of course our next missions. We got our hot eats and cool treats in a big square in the center of town and sat down to enjoy them before heading to the palace that influenced the architecture of Naboo in Star Wars. I wasn’t exactly sure how that would translate in my mind, but once I got there, I could completely visualize it from the movie, it was amazing. We jumped in front of the fountain and probably held up several groups of tourists attempting to take legitimate pictures. After that we doubled back to the hostel to rest up before a traditional Flamenco show in the very town where the dance originated. By ‘doubled back’ I mean stopped at a different H&M and of course made more purchases. The flamenco show had the bonus of live guitar and singing and a whole lot of flawless well-timed clapping rhythms. We all fell in love with the male dancer and fought over who would win his heart after the show. Not sure where to eat, we stumbled on a cute little Italian restaurant that looked far more expensive than it was. We shared stories and immensely enjoyed our dishes, feeling oh so European due to the amount of time we sat and mingled after our food. The ambiance was as perfect as the pricing and we couldn’t refuse desert and I feel like my life would be significantly worse if we hadn’t. It was so, SO good. The perfect way to end a great vacation in Sevilla.