It’s astounding how quickly time has flown by. A few days from now will mark our one year anniversary living in Seville. To me, it seems like we have only been here for a few weeks. Our lease is coming up for renewal and we had to decide whether to hang around for another year […]The post Why we are staying in Seville 1 more year & Podcast appeared first on Nextbiteoflife .
It’s astounding how quickly time has flown by. A few days from now will mark our one year anniversary living in Seville. To me, it seems like we have only been here for a few weeks. Our lease is coming up for renewal and we had to decide whether to hang around for another year or search for our next destination. After going back and forth on the matter, we have finally made a decision. Here are some reasons why we are staying in Seville, our adopted and much-loved city.
Why we are staying in Seville:
Seville is Awesome:
How can you not love Seville? The city is so chock full of history. It is the capital of Andalusia. It has a rich cultural heritage, dating back to Moorish rule and the Almohad dynasty. All one has to do is look at places like the Alcazar and the awe-inspiring Sevilla Cathedral and the Giralda. Seville is also home to Flamenco. We have barely scratched the surface of the city. We still have to attend a proper flamenco show for instance (street performers aside :-) ), not to mention the various museums that are plentiful. It would suck to leave before we have fully discovered neighborhoods like Triana, Macarena, and Barrio Santa Cruz (love this area) with the tiny, narrow streets.
Day trips from Seville:
There are lots of wonderful cities that are close by to Seville still to be explored. So far, we have only been to Santiponce and Carmona. Other places we would like to visit include Cordoba, Granada, Jerez, Cadiz. The list goes on and on. All these places are beautiful and unique and will add to our Spanish experience. We want to stop taking them for granted :-) . We have traveled to so many countries outside of Spain in our one year here, and have been neglecting our own backyard so to speak. We want to rectify that ;-) .
The bigger backyard:
In addition to the above day trips, we would also like to visit other Spanish cities like Valencia, Bilbao, Barcelona (again! :-) ), Madrid (again!), Palma de Mallorca and etc..etc. Thanks to a pretty good train system (Renfe), it is possible to do these trips as an alternative to flying. We didn’t want to leave, then have to fly back down to visit if that makes sense. Spain is such a huge country, l am beginning to doubt if one more year will be enough :-) .
The biggest backyard:
I am referring to Portugal specifically. At one point, we had considered making that our next country to settle in for a bit and had planned on an exploration trip. Seville is about a two-hour drive from Faro, in the Algarve region of Portugal. Our plan was to drive down and do an epic road trip down the coast and up to Lisbon to get a feel. It was supposed to happen this past summer, but then we ended up having guests and it got pushed back. We hope to finally do it this year.
We like our little town:
This l think was the most important reason why we have decided to stay one more year. We have settled into a comfortable routine. Our suburb is about fifteen miles from the center of Seville. There are some days admittedly that l wish it was closer to the city center or more convenient to the Metro. As it is, we have to drive about 10 minutes to the Metro stop where the city provides free parking, then we take the one and only metro line available in Seville to the center. The trains run every 6 minutes like clockwork. The center is structured to discourage driving and so many of the metro stops have parking lots to leave your car, which works out great. Sometimes, l think it would be exciting to live right in the middle of the action, but that is usually a fleeting feeling as l only have to think of the noise pollution (constant tourists.. haha! ironic ;-) ), the tightness, small apartments, the not so pleasant smell of dog pee, and poop! You still see it here, but definitely not as much. People just do not pick up after their dogs! Urgh!!! We are basically home bodies too. Federico loves to cook.