This past weekend was extremely relaxing, and since it was the first beautiful and warm weekend in Sevilla, I did quite a bit exploring of the city (still have so much more to see though). I went running with my friend Jessica along the Río Guadalquivir, which runs through Sevilla. The path runs directly next to it and it was so beautiful and impressive… I can’t believe I live here and see this place every day… I love it! Also on the other side of the path, opposite the river, there was the most amazing graffiti. Next time I have to bring my camera…there were definitely some masterpieces that I just had to stop and stare at. I hope I can fit that same run into my schedule at least a few times week.
I spent Friday afternoon walking around the center of the city with some friends… we were trying to find a good costume store for Carnaval de Cádiz next weekend, but were unsuccessful. We ended up just exploring the pedestrian zones of the city center to see more of the little shops and to become better oriented. Weaving through the people on the sidewalks is harder than I thought it would be in Spain. People love to take their sweet time walking down the street, which is fine, but no matter how small or wide the sidewalk is... they always manage to take up the entire thing. Even if its just one little old woman… she will find a way to swing her umbrella around or walk in zig-zags so that you have to risk your life in the street to try to get around her. I’m getting pretty good at it.
Saturday I went to the opposite side of Sevilla from where I live with Franny. The area is called
Nervión and it is more of the business and commercial area of the city. It actually didn’t take that long to walk, and it was nice to see a different side of the city. We went to this huge shopping mall that was 3 levels with, obviously, tons of stores, a huge movie theater, tons of restaurants, and an ice skating rink in the middle. The rink was actually almost melted when we went, but I know that last week it was still in existence and in use. (I’m sure something else goes there when the weather is warmer). Nervión is also where the Sevilla soccer stadium is located, so there were logos of the team everywhere and a gigantic one on one of the walls of the mall. By the time we were finished shopping and walking around some of the other streets nearby, we realized it was too late to walk all the way back home in time for dinner. We decided to take advantage of the complex bus system in Sevilla and got on a bus to take us back to the main street we both live off of. It’s pretty cheap… only 1.20 Euro for a ticket. However we happened to get on the bus that does the biggest possible loop of the city. I guess it was a good way to see the whole city by night :)
Sunday I had to wake up early for a hiking trip to Sierra de Aracena, a city over an hour away from Sevilla, toward the Portugal border. There were about 45 of us and we went on a 10 kilometer walk/hike through the mountains of Aracena, stopping in a couple small villages on the way. We got lucky and had perfect weather. Our tour guide explained how the bark of the cork trees gets stripped in sections every 5 years. I had to take a picture because it looks pretty interesting with the contrast between strippage and non-strippage. 
Some of the paths were literally straight up or down and there were tons of rocks so I had to be so careful where I was stepping. At times it was really annoying because all I wanted to do was look at the landscape and the view and I would have to look down at the ground so I wouldn’t twist an ankle. We ended up at this mountain top with a little church, some shops, and this archway with bells. I guess they say that if you walk through the arch with someone at the same time, you will marry them. Needless to say, I walked through alone. Ha. The pictures don’t do the hiking trip justice, but I tried.
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