Solo trip to Seville

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When I travelled to Seville for the first time I did it quite a lot younger than what I am now. Yes, of course it's true that I am now 21 years old and thus the fact that I was 18 could seem like the age difference isn't that big. But, to be honest, until this trip to Seville my other big trip had been planned on my own to go to Rome, at 16 years old, so in terms of organising trips I was pretty much a novice.

Nowadays, I am surprised to see how I have changed, and at the same time how I have realised that I had quite good ideas when organising solo trips; seeing as this trip to Seville was the first time in my life that I have travelled completely alone to a new city.

I had just finished studying at school and one of the things that I fancied doing, after all of the stress that I had suffered during the course, was to do a trip on my own. And in the end I decided to go to Seville since it was a place that I really fancied discovering seeing as it had been so much time since my last visit.

How to get there from Madrid

Seville is a city which is perfectly connected with lots of parts of Spain.

When I went on this trip, I didn't really know the websites like BlaBlaCar or Amovens very well. Also, it hadn't all kicked in, even when getting into the car of some strangers, something that with time I learnt that it was one of the best ways to travel, whether solo or with a group.

Therefore, I decided to go for the most quick and comfortable way to get to Seville from Madrid, which is a direct connection using the AVE Train. Like a real gentleman. But even though it might seem like this option would be really expensive, the truth is if that if you get the tickets for kind of weird times, it won't work out very expensive. In my case, for example, I bought the outgoing ticket at 7 am, and two days after I bought the return ticket at 9 am as well.

In total, it worked out approximately 70 euros, which isn't that bad when you bear in mind that the return trip by car or bus isn't that much cheaper. Also, the fact that you get there in an hour and a half is a plus which obviously pays off.

Now I understand that the price of AVE train tickets go down depending on what season that I travel in. Also, there are quite a few more discounts for frequent travellers. It is all a question of research.

First steps through Seville

It arrived at the city really quickly, the train journey flew by. It was very comfortable and there were hardly any people in the carriage that I was in, so it was basically like I was travelling alone.

I had to get off at the very last stop, so there was no chance of missing it. The Seville train station is called Sevilla-Santa Justa, and at the end of the day, in terms of its set-up, it isn't that much different than the Atocha station. Smaller, I'll say that.

Leaving the station, as it was really early and I couldn't go into the hostel I reserved until 11 am, I decided to go from the Santa Justa station to the centre of Seville by foot. It was a distance that I really underestimated, since from the maps it looked like I could get there walking in 20 minutes, but in reality it is quite far away.

Getting to the centre of Seville took me about 40 minutes and then to get to my hostel's address it took an extra 20 minutes. This left me with a few dead hours with nothing to do, so I just went to a random bar and had a coffee and toast for breakfast.

A little bit later I left to check-in at the hostel. It was an extremely cheap hostel, called Trotamundos Hostel and it is located right in the city centre. The room cost me 9 euros a night in a shared room with 6 extra beds. They took me to my room, where the people who were staying there were still sleeping. I could see that there were three beds already occupied. Two of them by German girls who I would end up getting to know after and the other by a Japanese girl.

As I wasn't really tired nor sleepy at that moment, I went to have a look round the city. I knew that I wasn't going to do the usual things that tourists do when travelling to a city, which is paying to see monuments and queue up to go into places which I'm not really interested in seeing. I just wanted to walk around and relax on my own rules whilst discovering the city.

It was now midday. I travelled at the end of June, so it was starting to get quite hot. I have to say that I discovered quite quickly that Seville is not a city to visit in the summer months. The perfect season would definitely be Spring.

I have to say that the set-up of the city is very simple for any tourist, because most of the important places are dotted throughout the main road of the city, which is the Avenida de la Constitucion, a really big pedestrianised walkway which goes through the whole city centre. Although it is not all pedestrianised because it shares the route with the city tram.

The first thing I did was go down this pedestrianised path to get to the Giralda, the first monument that I saw from a distance whilst I was walking from the station to the centre; and thus the first that I went to see close-up.

The first one that caught my attention is that it is a monument that I expected would be a bit taller, but that didn't stop it from being quite spectacular. I saw that you can go up to the top to see the city, but you had to pay quite a lot (at least in my opinion) and I didn't at all fancy queuing up under the Sevillian summer sun. At least I saw that you can enter a certain part of the Seville cathedral for free and without having to queue, but this is something that I saved to do for another day, since I still had another whole day ahead.

Also at this time I saw the Casa de Indias from outside, a place which particularly interested me and that I wanted to visit; but at that time I was very hungry so I went directly in search for a McDonald's or some kind of similar fast food restaurant.

After eating, I went back to my room in the hostel to relax a bit, since when you get up early and if you don't want to, sooner or later you will end up paying. So not just for this, you also have to bear in mind that the hottest hours in Seville are the ones after lunch time. Then came the very Spanish tradition of having a siesta after eating, since it is practically impossible to do anything in the city at this time. You only have to have a quick look around to see that there is practically nobody about during these times.

In the hostel I met the German girls who I was sharing a room with; they were two girls who were doing their Erasmus in Barcelona and they were doing a trip around the south of Spain. There was also a South-Korean girl in the room who we were talking to for a bit. After establishing a kind of friendship with them, they offered me to go around the market which was located right next to the hostel where we were staying. It was the typical market with artisan products, we were there looking at it for a while. After, they bought some things from the shops (they were amazed by the price of stuff here) and I kept on discovering a bit more of the city.

The rest of the day I took it quite chilled. I was in the shade for quite a while reading a book and after I went to see two of the must-see visits for anyone that comes to Seville: the Plaza de Espana and the Seville Alcazar.

From these, I especially liked the Plaza de Espana I was surprised to see that it was a very nice and big place where you could escape from all of the tourists who usually occupy the centre. Being an open square it was really hot, so the sun was on your back constantly. Saying that, it is definitely worth going round and taking in the details on each part (there is a small map dedicated to each one of the Spanish provinces).

After, I kept going through this area which was full of gardens and discovering little places, like the statue dedicated to Becquer which was built in the area near to the Plaza de Espana. It is a really nice place, the only negative that I could give it is that due to the horses and carriages that go round the city for the tourists, it all smelt a bit like horse poo. It is nothing unbearable. but you can notice it sometimes and it isn't very nice.

On the way back, I went by the front of the University of Seville, a very similar front to the one of the university in the ctiy that I live in, the Alcala de Henares, since they are from a similar time and have similar styles. Here, since it is a public building, you can go in for free to visit some of the facilities inside of a historic educational building.

Final and chilled day

The next day, the two German friends who were in the hostel left that morning. In their place came a couple of a nationality I didn't manage to find out, and I didn't make friends with them.

I dedicated this day to visiting the things that I had been left wanting to see the inside of the day before, which were the inside of the Seville Cathedral and the Casa de Indias. As I said, I didn't want to spend too much time or money, because what I wanted above everything was a pleasant and relaxed trip.

After, another of the visits that I did was to go and see the famous wooden structure which was located a bit further away from my hostel. The structure is presumed to be the biggest wooden structure in the world, and even though it contrasts quite a lot with the aesthetic of the city in general, it is quite impressive and cool.

The rest of the day, with a stop to eat of course, I dedicated to going along the riverbank of the Guadalquivir river whilst looking at each one of the bridges which cross the city; amongst them the Triana bridge. I spent practically the whole afternoon along the river, where I also sat down to read for a fair bit until the sun had basically gone down.

After, I went to a tapas bar, since being in Seville I wanted to see how the city's tapas were. Also, this same night was the final of the Confederations Cup, which was against Spain and Brazil, which unfortunately we lost.

After, before going back to the hostel to sleep and then wake up early to get the AVE to Madrid, I did a last little trip around the city to see how the Giralda shone in the night. And honestly, Seville is a city which is a lot prettier in the evening than during the day.

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