Over the past few years Seville has developed a reputation as a Spanish outpost for alternative and hipster types. Attracted by the rock-bottom prices and flourishing cultural scene, it’s no longer just Malasana in Madrid and Gracia in Barca that creaks under the weight of a thousand single speed bikes.
With its guaranteed sun, banging food options and reliably fulsome red wine, we’re gonna go all out and say it’s the best city break available in Europe (though probably best to avoid it in July and August when the heat is regularly in the 40s)….
Alameda De Hercules
Putting Hercules into the name of an area might give it a sense of curly-sandled gravitas, but it’s a bit of a mouthfu,l so let’s just make like the locals and call it Alameda, shall we?
Alameda is essentially a huge square (oblong), half a kilometre long, that serves as a kind of ground zero for the creative and hipster community. On warm evenings (aka March through November), you’ll find bike gangs sitting around in the shade, sharing 40s of Cruzcampo and fiddling with packets of Golden Virginia.
The sun in Seville seems to reach its peak between 4 and 6, but after that they all swarm to the hard yellow benches in the middle of the square, mixing with bands of musicians, students and other defiantly hairy types that your parents might refer to as ‘hippy-ish’.
Alameda is also the most gay-friendly area of the city, which of course, means it’s the most fun. Outside La Bohemia it’s not unknown to see transvestites knocking around, and from there you’re only a boa throw from...
Bicicleteria
If Alameda is their daytime ground zero, Bicleteria is the late-night playroom. Set over two floors, you wouldn’t even know it was there as it’s normally hidden by shutters covered in graffiti.
After ringing a doorbell you have to be okayed to come in – hipster nirvana right there – though we’ve never actually seen anyone turned away. If you’re nice and not with a group of lads singing songs about curry, you should be alright.
Inside it’s two floors with lived in (read: grubby-ish) couches lining walls on each side. People huddle round little wobbling tables flecked with candlelight, knocking back one-euro canas. When it’s busy upstairs people sprawl across the floor, sharing laughs, drinks and ashtrays. Did we mention you can smoke inside? It’s that sort of place. You’ll make friends.
It doesn’t appear to have a closing time, and its Kreuzberg-aping credentials are sealed in the stories of locals’ inhuman leaving hours. Music is the barman’s Spotify, but is reliably retro.
Red House
Miss E2 dreadfully, do you? Wish to seek solace in unmatched, 60s furniture, local artwork and the company of like-minded individuals on their Macbook Airs? Red House is the place. Oh yes.
They actually have a Trabajo Zona (working area) based around a massive table at the back. This is opposed to letting the Apple Army just spread their wires all over every table, and actually has the effect of making that little area more work-focused. Your work-to-Reddit ratio will definitely be better, though you might have to fight American students for space.
If there isn’t any, you can give up the game and just kick back on one of the sofas or armchairs. The Andalusians know their way around a coffee, though if you want some wine they’ve got a great house Rioja. Food is OK not great, but there are restaurants lining the streets all around, so don’t let that put you off.
Delimbo
What better way to balance out the vague guilt (?) you have over spending your hard-earned on the latest Lazy Oaf and Obey threads, than by also getting your culture fix by going to the art gallery that’s part of the building?
Over the road is a shop called Isadora, which imports class clothes by Scandinavian brands you probably won’t have heard of, but are bang on trend. Don’t worry if your size isn’t on show – they keep most of their stock out back, so if you like something ask one of the super-friendly owners. Decent prices, too.
Museo De Arte Andaluz Contemporaneo (CAAC)
As a long-term resident of the city in which Tate Modern is a thing, it’s difficult to imagine a more arresting room than the Turbine Hall. However, the first room in the Museo De Contempareo Arte will take your breath away. Vast and brilliant white, with – at least when we went – The Doubt by Paneque on the far wall. Walking towards it is a hallucinatory experience that will have you entering the space again looking for another hit.
The rest of the museum’s collection wends into different rooms and chapels, and old scrubbed mosaic is still stuck to the walls, vintage-like. However, the amount of religious iconography is far lower than what you’d see in the rather bombastic Andalusian churches, which it’s fair to say are a bit partial to the gold and garb.
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Hero image: Travel To Fashion
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.