seville pictures

A few pictures from the long weekend in Spain:

¡TeamSevilla! members Stella and Matt in front of the Giralda, one of Seville's most famous landmarks. The lower two-thirds of this tower was once a minaret. When Seville came under Christian control, the attached mosque was torn down and Seville's Cathedral built over it, but the minaret was incorporated-- over Muslim protests-- into the new structure. The omnipresence of the Giralda in the skyline became sort of a running gag during the trip; we even spotted it from the Roman ruins in Santiponce (see below) and from the window of the plane as we took off on our flight back to England.


The Alcázar.


Me in the Alcázar. I'm facing into the room where Pedro El Cruel/Pedro El Justiciero threw that dinner party for the rival of his ally Sultan Mohammed V, which ended in the dinner guest's beheading.


More Alcázar awesomeness. I warned you, I took lots of pictures of this place.


Yet more Alcázar awesomeness.


¡TeamSevilla! at the Plaza España.


Seville's bullfighting ring. We were out of season for el toreo, so we had to settle for a tour of the ring. This lady had a very endearing Spanish lisp and equally endearing bad English. I came away understanding a little better why bullfighting is a target of the animal rights crowd--whatever you can say about its cultural value, it's a pretty cruel practice. At some point I should probably also mention that we enjoyed some lovely flamenco dancing, though the venue was a little too dark so my pictures didn't come out.


Tile work at the Roman ruins in Santiponce, 8 km northwest of Seville. It's amazing to contemplate all of the layers of history that can exist in one place. It reminded me a little bit of what it felt like to be in Jerusalem, though unlike Jerusalem the major currents of history no longer pass through Seville in the 21st century.


Another running gag: my alleged obsession with Cruzcampo beer. I will admit, it's not bad and very drinkable, but somehow my love for Cruzcampo became a recurring theme that took on a life of its own.

¡TeamSevilla! takes the alcázar

Seville, Spain -- It may not be the most opportune time academically, but I´m spending a long weekend in the south of Spain with four wonderful Gates people. ¡TeamSevilla!, as I affectionately call our posse, consists of the group that went to Paris in November minus one. (By the way, I love the fact that the characters ¡ and ñ have their own buttons on keyboards here.) In the less than 24 hours since landing, we´ve largely adjusted our lifestyle to the rhythms of Andalucia, which basically means doing everything late: 10 am is wakeup time and 10 pm is dinnertime, and so far we have had every meal alfresco. Midday temperatures top out in the high 60s, so it´s not exactly sweltering, but compared to Cambridge it feels glorious.

The timing of this weekend is also a little bit strange because next week I have final exams for the French class that I have been taking all year. So after adjusting my brain to Spanish, I will be hurriedly switching back to French. The oral part of the exam will consist of me making a 5 minute presentation to my class au sujet du Cameroun on Wednesday, and I´m a little bit afraid I might inadvertently throw some español in there. The Spanish has been coming back with relative ease, and I´m feeling like the stereotype that Spanish is an easier language has some truth to it.

By coincidence, three of my courses at Cambridge have been turning to the subject of Islam in the last week or so, so it´s quite interesting to be here in what was the northern outpost of high Islamic civilization. Today we visited the Alcázar, a glorious hodgepodge of palaces and gardens whose showpiece building was constructed by Muslim artisans in the employ of Mohammed V, the 14th-century sultan of nearby Granada, for his buddy the Christian King Pedro I. Pedro was known as Pedro el Cruel or Pedro el Justiciero (the dispenser of justice), depending on whom you asked, and he had a colorful life to say the least. His father was quite the philanderer, leaving Pedro to compete with a slew of half-siblings, some of whom he unfortunately had to dispatch to keep his grip on power. Later, when Mohammed V was briefly deposed, Pedro lured his friend´s successor over for a dinner party at the Alcázar, where he captured the illegitimate Sultan and his retinue. Mohammed V was restored to his throne and received his rival´s head as a gift from Pedro I. Hey, at least the Christians and the Muslims were getting along back then. But the gory history aside, the Alcázar is a magnificent place, and it provided me with what must have been the most shutter-happy hour of my life.

Stay tuned for more on Andalucia, and hopefully some good pictures when I get back to the UK.