A taste of the Orient in Southern Europe

I went back to Spain for a wedding this weekend and spent a day in Seville. Unfortunately, my time there was too short for me to really describe for you in detail what the city is like. But I have tried to really give you an honest recount of my day in this beautiful city.

As I walked through the streets of Seville, I was reminded of Iran a lot, especially the south of Iran. The architecture everywhere is Moroccan and completely has Middle Eastern and Oriental flare to it. You immediately feel as though you have been transported out of Europe. The shops even close like they do in southern Iran between the hours of 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. for afternoon siesta.

Walking through the city is a true delight. Everything is clean and pristine, the entire town is filled with beautiful flowers and you smell flowers everywhere you go. Every corner of the city there is a beautiful building, I literally would turn a corner and see a structure that would take my breath away!  You feel true Spanish hospitality everywhere you go, everyone is so friendly and lovely with you and it really makes the experience in Seville quite different from the other famous Spanish cities such as Barcelona and Madrid.

The bazaar was quite the interesting experience also, as I was again reminded of many aspects of Iran. It was open air but enclosed with a covering as you can see in the picture below. The women’s shopping section of the bazaar was particularly beautiful with clothing and fabric in a an array of colors. 

I wish that I could have spent more time in Seville, but I was only there for a day before I went to a friends wedding so I could not really play tourist and explore in the limited time that I have. But, I was truly impressed by the city and cannot wait for the opportunity to go back and truly explore this convergence of East and West mixing. It was a great introduction and very different from other parts of Europe. I would encourage you all to explore it!