Sevilla is absolutely charming, with rows of orange trees lining the cobblestone walkways and horse drawn carriages on every corner.
When my family and I traveled to Spain back in 2009, we spent the majority of our two-week vacation in Barcelona. One weekend, I remember we rented a car and drove up Costa Brava, making brief stops in Roses and Costa del Mar. But for the most part my experience of Spanish culture was limited to Catalonia. Albeit a beautiful Mediterranean culture, I had no idea the rest of Spain was so vastly differently until my second trip to the country in 2012. My first stop outside of Barcelona was in Andalucía, to the bright city of Sevilla.
The city is absolutely charming, with rows of orange trees lining the cobblestone walkways and horse drawn carriages on every corner. The seventy-degree sun was a welcome relief from the somewhat dreary February I had left behind in Barcelona and I indulged in the city’s unique tapas and open spaces. The Real Alcazar, a Moorish palace built in the 13th century, was unlike anything I had every seen before, decorated with rich blue tiles and intricate wall carvings. The multicolored tiles and pleasant bridges in the Plaza de España was a beautiful example of Spanish Renaissance architecture and provided a stark contrast to Barcelona’s modernist paradise.
I think it is a common misconception to associate Barcelona with everything Spanish or to generalize “Spanish” customs to the whole of Spain. Yes, flamenco dancing and paella are Spanish customs, but flamenco dancing originated in Sevilla, while paella is a native dish of Valencia. The Basque part of Spain in the North has its own set of traditions, along with an almost foreign language to the Castilian form of Spanish. It would be unfair to assume everyone in the United States has a Southern drawl just because the only person you know is from Texas. Of course every country has unifying aspects, but just like the United States has varying cultures in its Northern, Eastern, Southern, and Western parts, so does the rest of the world.
