Being a Tourist: Plaza de España

I'm not a good blogger anymore. Was I ever? Don't answer that. I have many uninteresting excuses that I won't go into now.

I took this with my phone, why does it look so fake?

One of the first places I heard about during my pre-Erasmus research of Seville (this is after I had been accepted here, I didn't know anything about the place when I applied, except for "oranges". I'm a thoughtful person like that.) was the Plaza de España. I knew it was beautiful, and popular with Sevillanos and giris*, such as myself, alike. It was also one of the first touristy places I saw, when we stumbled upon it accidentally while waiting for the All Ireland hurling final to come on in the pub. Sadly, like most beautiful places in Seville, it is about 3 minutes too far away for my lazy self to justify visiting on a regular basis, but really every time I am there I'm struck again by just how beautiful it is. 

It was built in 1929 (so a lot newer than you'd think, judging by the style of the place) for the Ibero-American exposition. Expositions seem to be a big thing for Seville, it's when they build half the things in the city. I'm pretty sure they're still riding the wave from the one in 1992. It's right beside the biggest green area I've found here, the Parque Maria Luisa, and is best enjoyed in the sunshine, like most things in Seville. As you can see in the photo there's a small river/moat thing involved in proceedings where you can rent row boats. Surprisingly I haven't managed to get anyone to rent one with me yet but never say never. The most popular activity seems to be lolling around in the sun on one of the many benches.

The building is in a semi circle shape and all along the inside are small alcoves representing each province in Spain, which seem popular for people taking photos. Above we can see a pretty tiled map of Vizcaya (or to give it its Basque name, 'Bizkaya') in the Basque country. Each alcove is also decorated with tiling artwork which I assume bear some relation to the province involved.

Apparently government buildings are housed within the Plaza de España but I can't say I've checked. Another fun fact is that the Plaza features in two Star Wars films. Sadly, I believe they are two of the bad ones. 

I'll be addressing the lack of bloggage in the next week, I do have lots of ideas but what can I say, me falta el empuje. Our next tourist post will most likely concern the neighbour of the Plaza de España, the aforementioned Parque de Maria Luisa. Hasta entonces. x

*Spanish equivalent of "bleerin' foreigners"