First of all, the south of Spain can only be described by one word: BEAUTIFUL!!! Everything from the colourful apartment buildings, to the orange trees, to the stunning cathedrals, it's beauuuuuuutiful. That's one word I could not stop saying all weekend long lol. The south of Spain has a whole different vibe about it, it's very relaxed and small town feel. Where as Barcelona is a huge city, with a busy cosmopolitan feel about it. So it was so relaxing to head to Sevilla/Cádiz for the weekend to hang out, sight see and relax. Another great thing about the south of Spain is that it is reaaaallly cheap! Anything from alcohol to clothing, it's MUCH cheaper than in BCN.
Friday we arrived in Sevilla in the afternoon, and it was beautiful, warm and sunny! Once we got downtown (which took only 10 minutes from the airport!) we had a walking tour of the cathedral and Real Alcazar. The cathedral of Sevilla is third largest in all of Europe. It was originally a main mosque in the south of Spain from the Moorish rulings, but because of an earthquake or some disaster like that, it collasped. Then after the moorish rule was over a cathedral was built over it. However a large tower still remains from the 12th century which is called the Giralda tower.
My friends and I were able to climb to the top of the tower to see some spectacular views of the city. :) Some other fun facts about the cathedral of Sevilla is that it houses the tombs of Christopher Columbus and his son, we got to see both of these during our tour of the cathedral. The cathedral also has a beautiful courtyard patio area filled with orange trees! There are orange trees EVERWHERE in Sevilla, over 40,000 of them to be exact! I loved them, they're so colourful and make me happy, so I took a lot of pictures of them :P 
After walking around the cathedral for a bit, we headed to Real Alcazar which is a palace for the royal family. The detail in this palace was INCREDIBLE, because it's been around since the 12th or 15th century from the Moorish rule, it's filled with beautiful ceramic tiles, carved wood designs, and arches along all entrance ways. Real Alcazar is unreal, with it's many rooms, fountains, and not to mention HUGE endless gardens which are filled with all kinds of trees (including many orange trees of course!). After our tour we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. 
I went out for dinner with several of my API friends including: Holly, Darcey, Keara, Hawley, Lauren, Katrina, Taylor and Rachel. We went to a tapas bar that is known for their tapas and inexpensive drinks. Olé! Now... before I continue I just want to mention that in Barcelona, tapas are relatively small, and since Ive eaten tapas here i ASSUMED that they would be the same size in all of Spain.... boy was I wrong. So we decide to order a bunch of tapas (keep in mind, we are thinking they are quite small)... and then the waiter starts bringing out plates... and plates of tapas, with HUGE pieces of food on them... all of our faces go immediately white, and then we realize that tapas arent the same in Sevilla... lol. For example, one of our favourite tapas is similar to a hamburger slider (aka a miniature hamburger)... but the ones we ordered we the size of regular hamburgers... ahhhh. But omg, were they delicious. So once we got over our shock of ordering WAAAY too much food, we began to demolish what we ordered. I order a hamburger slider and some chorizo...
i have come to LOVE chorizo it's kind of like sausage/salami, and is typical in Spain. It's delicious, so I had a huge plate of that to myself (once again thinking it would only be a couple pieces like in Barcelona when you order a tapas size...). During dinner I also tried something called "Fino" which is like a white wine and sherry mixed together... it's also VERY strong... it's 15.5% alcohol.
So after drinking a small glass of it I was pretty buzzed. I didnt like it at first because it was so strong, but the more I drank it, the more I got use to the taste and actually enjoyed it a lot. It was only 1.50euros for a glass! Love that Sevilla is so cheap! After I tried Fino (i was the only one to try it), my friends and I all ordered "Tinto de Verano" which is just like Sangria but a little different, and realllllllly good!! It was also really cheap, 2.20euros for a large pint glass. It's like a red wine, with a bit of fanta or sprite in it to give it a fizz and a more limey/lemony taste. On Saturday we headed to Cádiz for the day. It took about 90 minutes to drive there by coach bus from Sevilla. Cádiz is located on a peninsula of Spain, and it's very tiny, but a beautiful town. It's almost completely surrounded by water, and the water is sooooo BLUE! I couldnt get over how light/clear blue it was.
The weather was fantastic yet again, beautiful sunny day about 22C ! So for the majority of the day I was walking around in my tank top, wishing I had worn my flip flops!! In Cádiz we had a bus tour, and then a walking tour to key areas in the town like the Constitution Monument, and the Cathedral of Cádiz. The Constitution Monument is really important because Cádiz is where the Constitution was signed. This at first appears strange because you would think that a major document like that would be signed in a major city such as Madrid or Barcelona. But when the document was created/signed it was at the time when Napoleon was occupying Spain, and the only place he couldnt take over in Spain was Cádiz because it has a really good fortress. So Cádiz was the last place that really was Spain back in the 19th century. Heading to the cathedral we were able to see a huge artifact used for Semana Santa, 
it's made from 1 tonne of Mexican Silver and is carried by 10 men (with the help of tiny wheels on the bottom) during the parades of Semana Santa at the end of March/beginning of April. We also went into a Crypt and saw a mummified dead body along with her blood in a jar... forget who it was, but she was important. When we were in the crypt the air was different, and I tried not to breath a lot because I felt like I was breathing in dead bodies haha. gross.I went for lunch with Holly, Darcey and Aliki, and we had the best lunch ever! First of all we sat outside in the sun, in a plaza by the city hall of Cádiz. We each had the menu del día which is a great thing to get because you get like 3 courses + wine + bread all for 10euros. To start we had a seafood paella, which was really fresh and sooo good.
After paella, I had this amazing chicken with potatoes dish, and the other 3 girls had calamari. 
Then for dessert we had a caramel flan, also delicious. We had a great waiter who recommended we get the paella, and he kept calling us guapas or bonitas lol... flattering is always fun :) After lunch we walked along the pier checking out the ocean, and just soaking up the sun then around 5 we drove back to Sevilla. Once I got back to Sevilla I was on a mission to buy ceramic tiles (As all stores are closed on sundays), because I didnt want to leave Sevilla without ceramic tiles as my souvenir, as they are beautiful, and I love how they are literally EVERYWHERE in the city. Luckily I found an authentic ceramic tile store, so I bought 3 smaller square tiles, and a ceramic piece that looks like a plate, with beautiful intricate designs on it. :) I would post a picture but they're currently all wrapped up in bubble wrap. For dinner that night I went to a small pizza place that had authentic italian pizza with Holly and Taylor. The owner was hilarious and spoke Italian to us, he was a really happy guy and was just loving life. The pizza was incredible and really cheap, only 2euro for a decent size slice. Then after wards Taylor, Holly and I found a bar with really cheap Tinto de Verano (only 1 euro!!) and sat down outside and had a couple glasses to relax and enjoy the warm night.
Sunday was filled with exercise! We had a 3 hour bike tour. Our tour guide was named Jorge, and he was really cute :). He took us all around Sevilla, so we saw the river, the 92 Expo grounds, Plaza de España (which was my favourite!! - it had beautiful ceramic tile moasics of each major city in Spain)
, the Triana district, and other places. The sun was shining, and the weather was warm. We all had a ridiculous time riding around on our dorky looking bikes loving life. After our bike tour, I went out for lunch with Holly, Darcey and Aliki to this amazing pizza restaurant, and once again we sat our in the sun. I think over the weekend I got a little bit of a tan, and fortunately I didnt get burned!! yayyy. This will help me prep for my week vacation to the Canary Islands (where it's my goal to NOT get burnt... lets see how long that lasts... just to refresh your memory my family's background is British and therefore I am pastey white haha).After lunch we walked around the streets, just wandering. We just had a casual laid back day before we had to head back to the hotel to go to the airport. After visiting Sevilla I either want to:
1) Visit the south of Spain again
2) Live there after university
3) Retire there
(or all of the above lol)
If anyone reading this has not been to Spain, and is thinking about one day going... YOU MUST VISIT THE SOUTH OF SPAIN. IT'S BEAUTIFUL!!!! :)
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