Among my roommates were Cassia from Australia and Josh from the US. Together we spent the afternoon exploring parts of the city. We found out that we all work in the movie industry. While I work behind the camera in post production they are in front of the camera as actors.

We visited a palace which like many buildings in Spain had Moorish origins and later other styles were added.

The large and empty rooms were decorated with amazing detail. It would have been interesting to see how people lived in these huge open spaces. Unfortunately like most of the old castles and palaces I had visited so far on this trip there was no furniture inside. The rooms, even the ones to the outside walls had very few windows if any at all. This was to not allow the warm air or sun to get in. While it was unpleasantly hot on the outside the temperature seemed perfectly tuned inside.

The thin pillars which are typical for Moorish architecture always seemed a little bit too thing for the weight they were carrying which considering how long they have already lasted is a great compliment to the architects.

Like at most palaces in the hot areas of Spain the display of water and lushes gardens used to be one of the most impressive ways to show wealth.

It was afternoon and because of the siesta the streets were empty. I must admit that before I came to Spain I thought siesta is something from old books that maybe a few old people still do out of tradition but in fact everything closes in the afternoon and the busy lively streets of the morning seem deserted until the evening. People retreat to their homes escaping the exhausting heat that also made me sleepy after lunch every day much more than I expected.

The tower of the Christian cathedral which is one of the largest churches in the world is Moorish and used to be part of a Mosque. The Christian church was added later.

We decided not to go inside though because it was 10 Euros and we were told that inside you don’t notice the huge scale because it’s not just on huge room but many smaller ones.

This building reminded me a lot of the Austrian sate opera house. (Where Mission Impossible: Rouge Nation was shot)

One of the oldest buildings in the city which now houses a (very) little ship museum.

Sadly Pakorn Eyve and Jessie had left Sevillia in the morning. Pakorn kindly left me his bus tour ticket with one remaining day allowing me to take free bus tour through the city. – Thank you, Pakorn!

Like in most Spanish cities there is a bull fighting arena. This one is particularly big.

This building is one of the tallest in Spain. Close to 200m if I recall correctly. It was one of the first buildings to utilize ceramic as a building material to deflect the heat similar to the tiles on the NASA space shuttle.

Apropos space shuttle, at a technology park there is a real Ariane 4 (equivalent of the American Saturn V) rocket.

Modern architecture in the city centre.

This municipal building was built to resemble either an amphitheater or a bull fighting arena.