Saturdays in Sevilla

Sevilla from the tower of a cathedral

I am spending my first full Saturday in Sevilla and trying to enjoy it just as the Sevillans do. I woke up later than usual, bought a local paper from a newsstand, and walked to my favorite plaza to grab a tostada con queso y jamón y un café con leche (toast with cheese and ham and a coffee with milk). It’s a great way to start the day.

Before I go further I must layout “Alcentro” in Sevilla. Alcentro is a large area in this city where the buildings are maybe 50’ tall and contain four levels. Each of the buildings have retail on the bottom and than three floors of residential (a very small percentage have offices on the second level). All the roofs have terraces and some even have pools. In between these buildings are small streets mostly for pedestrians, some allow cars going one way, but none have two way traffic. In fact, I would say that half the cars in America would not fit down these streets. Also in Alcentro are dozens of plazas that are small “square-like” areas where restaurants have outdoor seating and families meet to hang out and let their kids run around.

That being said, I had breakfast at Bar Alfalfa this morning. It is a very small bar at the intersection of three streets. At night the place is packed. In the morning it is a great location to sit and watch the city wake up. In every city I travel to I think the best part is squatting some place in the morning, grabbing a coffee, and observing the habits of the people in the morning as they start their day. Bar Alfalfa is a great place to do this because it is just on the edge of the Plaza de Alfalfa so everyone passes by to start their day.

As I sit in Plaza de Alfalfa I am able to look out at three restaurants with approximately 20 outside tables apiece. You have people by themselves reading the newspaper or a book, friends meeting up and having coffee discussing the night before, kids with their parents enjoying churros con chocolate (you dip the churros in hot chocolate), and people typing nonsense on their computers. [As I was typing that the waiter brought out churros for the table next to me and the 5 year-old’s face lit up like fireworks on the 4th of July upon seeing them. He is dunking them in the hot chocolate like I used to do with Oreos in milk] There is not a cloud in the sky and I would guess it is about 75 degrees. This is about the time where the temperature rises about 10 degrees in a couple hours and by then it will be time for everything to close most will head home to rest. When the temperature starts to fall around 5:00 the stores and restaurants open back up and the people are back at their social life walking around.

What am I going to do today? Disfrutaré este día y la vida. I will enjoy this day and life. Whatever I do it will entail lots of listening to Spaniards and paying attention to their relaxed way of life.