Seville - a few days break

Before I say goodbye to Seville tomorrow, here are some impressions from this special city, where I mainly and almost exclusively followed a friend's advice on the terrace of the hostel 'La Flamenka': 'Keep your feet up, keep your spirits high!' and practiced staying calm. (I arrived here on Thursday, March 12, with a swollen, still painful right leg and feeling quite down; many hours of lying down, yogurt wraps - I couldn't find curd here anywhere - relaxing, arnica ointment... later, thankfully the right leg is starting to feel better as well.)

Despite everything, I took short walks into the city, but I skip pictures of the cathedral, the Plaza de España, the Torre del Oro, or similar structures - you can find much better ones online or in books than I could take. In any case, I didn't visit the cathedral or the famous royal palace Alcazar from the inside, as it was expensive and had endless queues at the entrances... ...from the rooftop terrace of the hostel, I see (through a small forest of rooftop antennas) the cathedral, which towers far above the white houses: the largest gothic church in Spain and one of the largest churches in the world (according to Wikipedia), with a tower (Giralda), which was once the minaret of a mosque and rises freely next to the church nave (illuminated at night, this towering structure is especially impressive).

Narrow alleys filled with (souvenir) shops, a flamenco dancer on the street, the ubiquitous (white) doves that so nicely settle on imposing monuments or sometimes wander into a shop..., the now white-blooming and sweet-smelling orange trees (though the pretty bright orange balls were certainly more attractive!), a flock of colorful little parrots settling in the delicately budding trees next to the old building that houses the hostel among others, all the figures and decorations on old houses (often now also in the form of grasses and other plants sprouting from wall cracks and cornices), all the people filling the city (their clothing, their behavior... I could endlessly just 'watch people'; a man sleeping, deeply wrapped in some kind of red-patterned carpet right at the venerable entrance of the Universidad de Sevilla, in the middle of the day; a gray-haired man sitting under a purple-flowering little tree having a snack on a park bench, wearing a purple McDonald's paper crown... an 'ancient' couple sitting next to each other like 20-year-olds: both staring at their screens... ...), the ceramics district on the other side of the Guadalquivir, the river that flows through Seville (yes, the one that had such horrible flooding in February): Triana, the oldest district in Seville; I walked there yesterday, on Sunday over the beautiful wrought-iron Triana bridge. This was mainly where the beautiful ceramics were produced, which adorn so many buildings, entrances... in characteristic patterns, shapes, and images, but of course also dishes and other useful items.

Then I strolled (on the way to Seville's oldest church) through alleys where people dressed for Sunday were 'standing guard'! As far as I could understand, they were waiting for a procession that was supposed to 'pass by' in half an hour. I sat down on the curb with everyone else and waited. It was obvious this was not a tourist event: all around, only Spanish could be heard, all the people, young and old, were out in their best clothes (boys in suits with shorts and knee socks, girls in dresses and bows, men in suits, and women, well, in whatever they consider elegant and beautiful, the range is very wide today...), many wore a large silver emblem of the Virgin Mary as a necklace, even men and children; and the stream of such well-dressed people just didn't stop... At noon, the tension rose until with incense, with solemn singing, a densely packed mass of people in front, then some men dressed like admirals or similar (but no priests), then bearers of high silver candles, who first swayed around the corner into 'our' street and finally a life-size figure of the Virgin Mary with flowers and a wide red velvet cloak, which those standing on the way tried to touch, behind them brass music in 'endless' rows of five (at least 50 musicians), skillfully playing beautiful-sad atmospheric music, once only a high flute, yearning, before everyone else joins in again. And while standing so closely wedged between so many people that I almost get claustrophobic...

At the Plaza de España, the famous and beautiful overall artwork of gardens, parks, architecture, and water (created almost exactly 100 years ago), a bride is being staged and professionally photographed - only as I approach do I see that this 'bride' is at most 10 years old, so it is probably more about the first communion...

It is getting dark, the cathedral shines, and it gets noticeably chilly - even though the midday sun can already reach over 20°C when there’s no wind, it gets quite cool at night with temperatures well below 10°C.

Now I am hopefully curious whether I can finally set off on a 'real' hike or pilgrimage, or if this (early) year is simply meant to be different for me?! I long for peace and nature! While this city may be beautiful: there is no quiet, nowhere; even here on the terrace there are always many air conditioners/'heat pumps'/ventilations to be heard (and smelled), in the dorm, motor noise and many people can be heard (and sometimes snoring from roommates...); in the city, even in parks, under trees, and by the river it is never quiet - I'm not made for this constant noise...