The Alcázar

So I finally got around to doing touristy things in Seville. This is my first time going to the Alcázar which is right next to the Catedral in the centro. It's basically a nice palace with beautiful gardens.







It took me about 10 minutes of staring at this picture to realize that those are baby heads on the edges - weird.












Old baths.


I'll be posting pictures from Italy this week and hopefully I'll get to see some more of Seville before I leave - only 2 weeks!

Semana Santa

Semana Santa is a big deal in Sevilla. It is probably the biggest week of the year. There are dozens of "Paseos" which are big processions with these elaborate floats. Underneath these huge heavy floats are people (costaleros) who have been training all year. This year it rained - a lot. Most of the processions were cancelled. I managed to take some photos earlier in the week.



This is the first procession we saw.



This is how the bridge looked where the procession was taking place. No bueno.



These gents are Nazarenos. They often carry black crosses and candles. They are not to be confused with other infamous cloth-wearing white supremest groups. It was a bit different though.



The next day or so, I saw this procession.



Later, I saw this procession. This area is brand new in Sevilla. It supposedly looks like a mushroom. I disagree. There is some drama about the new building being too modern for the city. I think it is a really neat contrast.



With ever procession there one Jesus float and one Virgin. Also, there are often full bands.





Some more Nazarenos






The Nazarenos started off more as a way of showing submission (walking barefoot and not speaking), now it is more of a cultural staple of Semana Santa.



The rest of the time - it rained.

Semana Santa was pretty great. There were a lot of tourists.

I just went to the Alcázar of Seville and took some pictures. I'll post them soon. Also I'm going to Italy in two days!

Bridges

Bridges! There are some really cool bridges in Seville. I've taken pictures of some of the bridges that are closer to where I live, but my friends and I took a walk to go see the big famous harp bridge north of the city (not positive whether it is actually called the harp bridge or not). It was pretty awesome. So here are some pictures.

I'm not sure why they designed it to have a slide in the middle. Maybe the just wanted people to potentially hurt themselves while trying to deface the bridge 25 feet in the air.















This is the back side.



This is the bridge before the harp bridge.


And this is some random bridge on the walk.

It's been raining most of the week and that has interrupted the processions of Semana Santa, but I'll make a post soon.

Graffiti

I like graffiti. While strolling through the centro in Seville, my friends and I walked past over a mile of pretty impressive graffiti. I took almost a hundred photos, but I'll give the viewer some of my favorites.









Now that I look at this one again, it is kind of confusing at first glance what layer of art I'm looking at / are those vines real?












This was actually outside of my window. I thought people were staring at me from across the train tracks, turns out it's some installation artwork.



I was impressed with some of this art. I also took a lot of pictures of the famous bridges here in Seville. Those will be up soon.