Jardines de Puerta Oscura

Despite an early night to ensure I had time to complete the Alcazar and the Gibralfaro Castle in the morning, I still slept in more than I wanted. Hostels tend to have completely black out blinds and windows covers. This is good when you want to sleep in but makes waking up any time before 10 almost impossible as it always feels like midnight. I much rather wake up to natural light, but that is apparently not an option. As such, I was a bit pressed for time when going through the final attractions of Malaga. Nonetheless, I headed straight to the Alcazar, jumped on the audioguide, and began to wander. This was really cool. The alcazar had layers of history like an onion, and you would peal away the different phases that the site went through during its long lifespan. It was really well maintained, green, and had some incredible views of the city. It's definitely worth the money and time to go and visit. Next was the Gibralfaro Castle much further up the hill utop Malaga. Realising this would be a gruelling walk, and I would once again not be able to shower before the bus trip, I had no choice but to begin the long journey. Given that I was also pressed for time, I hustled up the hill to finish it as soon as possible and rest once up the top if I had time. In the end, I definitely had time to rest as there was very little in the castle itself. It explains why it was so cheap. Everything inside the walls was destroyed by the French during the Spanish wars of independence (peninsular wars) during the Napoleonic era. This meant there was only a tiny building, formally arms storage that they turned into a museum. Other than this, you could walk around the walls, but that was about it. They had installed some gardens inside the walls but these were very average and nothing exciting. As such, I headed back down the hill to the hostel to chill in the aircon briefly before having to head to the bus station and begin the journey to Seville. Although still quite sweaty, this stop did help quite a bit.

After arriving in Seville, I once again didn't want to waste any time and so I headed straight into town to wander. I tried to avoid the major tourist attractions as I figured I could do all that tomorrow. But without any plan and basically just following my nose, I ended up at the Cathedral of Seville, which is the largest by area of all cathedrals in the world. It was very impressive on the outside with a Gothic style and many unique attributes that make it stand out, like the arches along the sides. This was cool to walk around, but when I walked inside, I think the greatest attraction, its size, is also its biggest disadvantage. It was very dark, and not much light could get to all sections of the cathedral, and many parts just appeared empty. I didn't end up buying a ticket through the Cathedral because I figured I would leave it for tomorrow if I really wanted to do it. Luckily, you could still pop your head in and see without having to pay so I could gauge whether it would be worth it. After this, I walked toward the river and wandered past the state government office (Palacio de San Telmo). After this, i figured it was time to head back to the hostel and attend the free flamenco dance. But when I arrived, it was quite full, and so I figured i would view from inside, but there was no dancing, and it was, in fact, just the music side of the dance. This was still cool, but I couldn't hear the guys explain the music very well as I was inside. I'm not too fussed as without the dancing, flamenco doesn't appear to be that exciting. After this, I got chatting to a German girl, and we organised to go to the Alcazar of Seville tomorrow together. This was good as it beat going on my own. After this, I had a shower after a very sweaty day and went to bed.Read more