Livability for Expats: The Pros & Cons of Seville Spain

Ola unconventionals I'm Amilia and I'm JP and today we're going to talk about a famous city in southern Spain that is popular with both tourists and foreign residents but before we do that hit that subscribe button if you're planning a move or a trip abroad and let us help you choose where to go and how to prepare now let's talk about sevil Spain it's actually pronounced Cilla in espanol but since we're an English speaking Channel we're going to stick with Seville there were several things that we didn't like too much about Seville but there were a bunch that we loved and we're going to talk about those first starting with it's very safe it ranks number 32 on the Global Peace Index which is not as high as Portugal at seven but quite a bit higher than Ecuador is right now we felt super safe walking all over the place day and night and we saw a lot of young people single people walking by themselves lot of older people and a lot of kids outplaying by themselves yeah even at night and riding their bikes after dark in the city we feel so safe walking around here at night even late at night unconventionals we went out at 11:00 p.m. which is really out of character for us but it felt so normal because there are a lot of other people around it is a late night culture here Sevilla is a very clean City especially in the tourist areas we did see more trash and graffiti outside the main areas in San vente and along the river though you can drink the tap water and it does not have that strong mineral taste that we tasted in Porto and that also trashed my hair yeah actually tastes pretty good weather is another Pro for Seville it's has pretty nice weather year round the winters are a lot more mild it was sunny and beautiful blue skies warm temperatures the entire time we were there except for one morning we woke up to rain but it had cleared out by the afternoon it does have four seasons but because it's so far south the winters are much more mild so if you want snow this is not the place for you Seville is very walkable it's a big city but the it feels pretty compact in the center are area it's extremely to walk all over the place in the tourist part of town lots of the streets are pedestrian only which is very nice because you don't have to worry about cars zooming past you or those quiet buses but you still do need to watch out for cars even on those narrow streets yeah some of those are actually for cars even though they don't look white enough and sometimes the mirrors are almost touching on each sides and we see people walking down the street in front of a car that's right behind them and they don't even hear it because it's electric and their small Alleyways that felt like we were walking through a maze in the historic Center which I found very fascinating it really made me feel like we had gone into back in time or something it's very flat so you're not going to be pulling a lot of Hills however it's the streets are Cobblestone or brick they're very uneven the sidewalks in the historic Center are uneven so it it's not as easy to walk you have to really watch where you're walking so you don't trip it is handicap accessible especially outside the main tourist area we saw ramps and the sidewalks were much smoother but we did see people in wheelchairs in the historic Center but I'm pretty sure that'd be a bumpy ride ceville is very bike friendly we saw a lot of people on bicycles and those standup electric scooters those are super popular in the area outside the city center there's big bike Lanes with that you can go two ways on some of them have their own stop lights and stop signs and we saw those were always a lot of bikes on them in the downtown area they're not as clearly marked there's little silver discs on the street or the sidewalks for the bike Lanes it's not obvious a lot of tourists including us walked right down the middle of the bike lane without realizing it and the bikes would come along and ring their bells or have to weave in and out of the tourist so make sure you look down and and pay attention so that you're not walking in the bike lane the history and culture is fascinating people have been living in this area for more than 2800 years it was first ruled by the Romans and then the Moors from Morocco ruled there for almost 800 years and there's still signs of both Empires this is part of the famous wall of Seville it goes all the way around the city or at least it used to it was ordered to be constructed by Julius Caesar during the Roman Empire it was raised and enhanced by the Moors when they ruled here for over 800 years and it used to be about 7 km long about 4 miles but part of the wall was destroyed in 1868 after the Spanish Revolution the walls are so cool we you're walking around just looking at them all of the time and you would think that they'd be pretty secure and keep the city safe but they weren't strong enough to keep out the Vikings which sacked the city of sevil in the year 844 and ruled there for 40 days the cathedral and Palace are stunning and the detail was just mindblowing to me especially on the cathedral there's so many statues and you could really see their facial expressions and there's so many intricate carvings it was amazing I as a photographer I love the art the architecture of the city the buildings were so colorful and there's such a blend of different styles everything from ancient to Art Deco and pretty much everything in between so if you're a photographer you're going to love taking pictures of those buildings we stayed in the macarina neighborhood which is close to the historic center it's about an 8 minute walk to the satas de Sevilla and 15 minutes walk to the cathedral it's a local neighborhood we saw lots of kids and elderly people out tons of small shops restaurants and there is a nice Marcado in that neighborhood as well as a few small grocery stores we went across the river to explore a couple other areas and the first neighborhood was Tada which is a local neighborhood there's a lot of younger people over there because there is a university in that area and there's a lot of high-rise condo buildings and there is a pedestrian mall for that particular neighborhood on Caye aunion and that is definitely a locals Mall because we were there on Sunday and the local shops were all closed however just north of there is Triana when we walked up there you can see night and day it's a tourist area was completely full of restaurants along the river and they all of the tables were full of mostly tourists the servers were running food from the restaurant across the street to the outdoor proceeding by the river at the end of that on the Northern end is Caye San hinto which is also another Pedestrian Mall and it was open and packed with people and there is a really nice big marado which actually had a bar in it that was a interesting feature to us since we usually go looking for our produce and we love the bridges which are also bike and pedestrian friendly Seville is full of big beautiful Parks so if you like to go out and be in nature while still living in a city this is a great spot to be yes I loved visiting all the parks the first one we went to was hard de Maro which is behind the Royal alcasar Palace and there is a lot of really pretty fountains and just a lot of people out enjoying the day then we went to Hardin de PR de San Sebastian which was a lot quieter it was nice and comfortable and shady and not nearly as touristy and there were a couple of coffee shops in there if you want to go sit enjoy the quiet Tranquility of the park and then and have a cup of coffee however the biggest park we went to was Park de Maria Louisa it is huge we walked all from end to end that at one end there were some really cool museums with really interesting architecture and statues and it's also where they were setting up for the Latin Grammys which took place uh the week that we were there par de Alo is another big beautiful Park located on the other side of the river yeah we saw a bird there called an abua which is a UR Eurasian hoop it was so cool with its little plume it was just hanging out there and letting me take pictures we had a lot of fun exploring that park it was crazy we were there during the week and it had rained that morning so we had the whole park to ourselves and we just kind of played around we're out exploring the historical parts of seevilla or Seville and we are in par de la Maria Louisa and this park is stunning Seville is such a beautiful city and so romantic k montico yesterday we walked over 12 miles it's really easy to walk around here because everything is flat especially compared to our last trip which was Porto but if you don't like to walk as much as we do Seville has great public transportation they have a lot of local buses they have taxis and Uber and there's the cevil train station which will take you to other cities in Spain there are a variety of restaurants you will find plenty of places to eat and drink all over the city you will pay more to eat in the tourist areas we found it was almost double the cost anywhere around the cathedral area in the historic Center Marina was a lot more affordable and outside of there is even more affordable there are a lot of coffee shops and places where you could sit and have a glass of beer or a glass of wine with your friends we enjoyed empanadas at casamadre and where you actually stand to eat the standup little tables were common as well and there's a lot of pizza places which we find interesting I guess because in Ecuador they aren't as popular yeah it was really shocking to see all of the pizza play sometimes there' be one on one corner and another on the other corner it's almost as bad as Starbucks and we found an Indian restaurant you know we love our Indian food and the place was delicious yeah we went there three times but we only ate there twice because one of the times we went there was the line just to get into the place with so lawn that we just decided to go someplace different there is a lot of shopping you will find a lot of small specialty stores like clothing stores and shoe stores and surprisingly a large number of vintage shops which I consider to be secondhand stores yeah there's a lot of vintage shops that we talked to one of the owners and he said that that neighborhood in macarina has become the Hub of vintage stores in the Civil metro area we saw a lot of what we would call Dollar Stores they're kind of a hodge podge of everything and one in particular was called the super regalo Chino they had a lot of stuff in that store yeah we saw those all over the place we also saw feras which we really like to see so you can buy all of your fresh produce right in your neighborhood there is a massive Pedestrian Mall it's not just one street it is blocks of shopping and it includes chain stores from all over the world there's a shopping mall at the end of that called el Corte in glaz it felt more like a big department store to us we went in there looking for a mall and we walked around and it kind of felt like a big Nordstrom we never really saw anything that looked like a mall to us it's seemed like people were truly enjoying life the people who live there in Seville and it's understandable there is a strong sense of community there yeah we saw people at bars like arm in- arm singing waving their Flags watching football or whatever sport was on we heard a lot of singing in the street and people just walking around having a really good time and we saw a lot of people getting together on the weekends and after work and having a drink and a snack and it is really nice the city feels super romantic it felt like we were in a movie we kept saying that everywhere we walked it it did it felt like we were in one of those especially old movies roasted chestnuts in Seville ask you how to eat them oh they look good oh my God we're so good all right now let's talk about some of the drawbacks and the major one is the summers are really really hot it can get over 95° which is like 35 cels and you're going to need air conditioning and we heard a lot of people complaining about their AC's breaking because it was so hot and they ran so much it is crowded there there are a lot of tourists and we were there during Scher season so I can only imagine what it is like at full High season yeah we've been really spoiled in Ecuador with the lack of people as there's not a lot of people who live there and the tourism is not nearly as big in Ecuador it's been really shocking to us so far in Europe with the number of people however if you just get outside the main tourist area and toada and San viente and it's not nearly as crowded it felt a lot more like Ecuador a lot more normal to us the grocery stores are a bit smaller and they don't have as much variety we popped into the k for Express which was all over macarina and they have you know you can get what you need but not a lot there's also Dia and Mera Dona which was a big store but the layout was very strange and surprisingly it still didn't seem like they had a lot of variety if you want a specialty item such as a iian or bulk or organic produce you're definitely going to need to take a bit of a scavenger hunt this could be a pro or a con I kind of think it's a pro because I enjoy doing that in quka as well are you going to buy the whole store of chocolate Amilia I'm going to try to control myself they have Ecuador chocolate I know but I want to get some uh Spanish chocolate there are bigger stores outside of the main area but you're probably going to need to drive to those we found the restaurant cost to be a bit higher compared to Porto and in Ecuador dinner for two of us ranged $30 to $50 in Porto and that included wine but we were paying more $50 to $60 in Seville however that's still half of what we paid just eating lunch out in the US which easily came in at $100 and the locals are not as friendly as the people we met in Portugal and other parts of the world like Mexico and of course Ecuador yeah we were a little bit surprised at that we were in the marado and I was checking to see if the avocados were ripe and ready to eat and the the lady who worked there yelled at me and said don't touch but pretty much just like that and we also went to a cafe we were sitting inside drinking coffee and had ordered cake and there were flies all over the place and so we were getting up to walk outside and the guy that worked there said no those are just for brunch and we're like uh we ordered cake and there's nobody there and there are flies everywhere and he's like oh well I guess it's okay it's on brunch is almost over and we didn't go back to either of those places we did find though that the locals even the ones that were a bit sand offish did warm up to us once they got to know us a little bit and especially because we tried to speak some Spanish was also a bit noisy and I think the noise can really drive the locals crazy we did see some signs protesting the noise and the tourism and again that is understandable but the noise was not what we're used to in Ecuador we didn't hear all the blasting music or fireworks you cannot flush the toilet paper in several parts of ceville Amilia saw signs in several of the public restrooms not to flush the toilet paper including the train station we have some interesting observations that don't really fit into a pro or a con and the first is that there are orange trees everywhere they're actually bitter orange trees and I read that there's over 40,000 of these trees scattered around the city and the reason there's so many is because way back in the day in like the 12th century people thought owning one would bring them happiness another observation is there's no tipping just like in Portugal there's no option when you pay with a credit card there's no tip jars nobody expects to be tipped so it saves us 20% on our restaurant bills that's a nice savings and it adds up there are a lot of kids out playing late later than what our bed times used to be when we were kids so we were a little envious yeah 10 11:00 at night the kids are out playing riding their bikes walking around like little kids too 8 10 12 years old that my bedtime at that age was like 7:30 or 8:00 at night and these kids are out until 10 or 11:00 at night that was definitely an interesting observation for us all right guys let us know in the comments what you think about living in Seville is it a good idea and if you're planning a move or a visit to the Iberian Peninsula then check out these videos next we took the train from Seville to another famous city in Spain that is not as popular of foreign residents yeah so hit that subscribe button if you want to learn about it and see what that video is so YouTube will tell you about it when we publish it and if you like this video then leave us a like please and we will see you all next time adios a go

Channel: Amelia And JP Abroad

Views: 37,136

Keywords: spain, andulsia, andalusia, seville spain, sevilla spain, sevila spain

Id: T5rz4bskL4w

Length: 16min 29sec (989 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 06 2023