Sevilla: Transport, Accommodation And The First Evening

“Sevilla tiene un color especial” – says a famous Spanish song dedicated to the city which I agree 100%. The last couple of days I spent there with my Brazilian friend, had some inexplicable charm that was really difficult to say goodbye to at the end of the trip.

This was the first time that we travelled together with Kellen and it was very much of a last minute decision. This might actually be the reason why it resulted in such an amazing experience. The spontaneous, little-planned trips have always so much to discover.

Transport

As a means of transport, we decided to use BlaBlaCar, for the first time in our lives. Although with a little fear and doubt but we reserved two places for both of the trips, which required us to pay in advance with credit card. In total, with the commission we paid around 55€ go and return. Necessary information regarding pick up location and luggage size was all talked over through private messages and phone after the confirmation from the driver’s side.

The most important details you need to know before using BlaBlaCar is that you can only pay by credit card, and as soon as you make your reservation, the amount will be pulled from your account. This system was created in order to decrease the number of cancellations, which still can easily happen. (I know that because we were cancelled first, then not confirmed and could only find a driver for the third try. ) However, as soon as you receive the official message from the website, the process of transferring back the money to your bank account will start immediately, and you are supposed to get it within 3-5 working days. Mine has arrived within 2-3 days, so at least I can approve the system. Furthermore, I advise you to read and trust the recommendations that helped us a lot in finding the perfect driver. And finally, in case someone tries to do business outside of the website and after you have already paid, better not agree to it.

Our driver, Ana arrived a little bit later to the meeting point but she seemed very nice and that helped us relax during the trip. Our estimated arrival was 6 pm, but with only one stop and in good company time flew by quickly, and at 17:30 we were already saying goodbye to our temporary chauffeur. We were left at the Plaza de Armas, where you can find a big bus station. As we were told later on, this is actually a popular pick up point for many BlaBlaCar travellers and therefore you can be witness of numerous funny and timid first-time conversations there.

Accommodation

After our driver drove away, we walked about half an hour looking for our hostel called Triana Backpackers. Although I haven’t been to many hostels, but I still have some kind of a benchmark that allows me to say that this was the best and cleanest hostel I have so far, and with the friendliest staff you can ever have – though the worst experience when it comes to the sleeping conditions, thanks to the loud and for me also unbearable snoring of our roommates. Of course, the latter was just bad luck.

Triana Backpackers is located in the Triana area of Sevilla, which is often referred to as the historical centre of the city. It is only a five-minute walk from the Puente Isabel II. From the outside, there was nothing else but a small label showing that we had arrived at our destination, but when we entered, we stopped caring about whether it really was our hostel or another one, because what we saw from the inside was quite impressive. Here are some pictures:

As you can see, the interior design is based on the typical white and colourful tiles, which is one of the trademarks of Sevilla. This is something that I immediately fell in love with. But apart from this, the rooms and bathrooms were kept clean the whole time – point for the staff and for the residents as well, - there was a small but cozy kitchen and common room that we could use anytime, with two computers and a television, free breakfast, free wifi, rooftop terrace with jacuzzi and 1 litre sangria for 3€ - just to mention some of the many positive things Triana Backpackers has to offer.

And for all this, taking into account the fact that it was the end of Semana Santa, we paid more or less 40€ for three nights. I can tell for sure that anytime I’ll return to Sevilla in the future and will need a cheap place to say, I know exactly where to go.

The First Evening

After we settled down in the room and got all the information we needed, we went for a walk in Triana and ended up next to the Guadalquivir river. In reality, what you can see from Triana and from the city centre is not the real river anymore but serves as a canal, while the actual river is diverted through another part of Sevilla. Walking along the Guadalquivir, my friend found a place where they had Caipirinha, a Brazilian cocktail, so we ordered one and sat down to a table with a direct view over the other side of the city.

Although we were both very tired because of the long trip, we didn’t want to return to the hostel after our cocktail, so we crossed the bridge and tried to discover a little bit the closest area. By this time, it must have been around 7-8 o’clock, so all the bars started to get full of people and the weather was still very nice, which altogether created a perfect atmosphere; I really felt like the summer has begun and I’m on a vacation.

Among many things we have seen on our first night, we found a market close to Triana, where so delicious things were being sold for such economic prices that we decided to have lunch there the next day. Furthermore, we found a churrería outside of the market, where we tasted a huge churros filled with Nutella. It was really yummy.

Only after that we returned to our hostel, and used the rest of the time for getting to know our roommates a little bit more and familiarizing ourselves with the hostel. The first night, we had an Argentinian girl, a Peruvian boy, a Dutch man in our room and the rest we didn’t talk to.

It was around midnight when we went to bed and although we were really tired, we were looking for the next morning.

Photo gallery