Sevilla

Well, here I am in Sevilla, on the first of what I hope to be many weekend trips around Spain and Europe! As my new roommate's parents have a house here, I'm even staying here for free, so that makes this trip even better.

The shopping is great here, especially since there is an El Corte Inglés just down the street. El Corte Inglés is a huge department store chain popular throughout Spain. The store, at least from what I've seen, is generally anywhere from four to eight stories high, and you can buy pretty much anything: they sell electronics, movies, music, toys, textbooks, clothes, perfume, luggage, and there's usually even a supermarket in the basement of the building! The only misconception I had about this store before coming here is that I thought it was a store similar to Walmart. In reality, they have some of the most expensive prices and tend to sell high quality, brand name items. I imagine it's more similar to somewhere like Macy's in the States.

There's also a great big shopping mall type complex near El Corte Inglés, which has all the typically European stores like Zara, Mango, Bershka and the United Colors of Benetton. Not to mention the McDonald's and Starbucks in the food court!

The other part about shopping in Sevilla, that I personally enjoy the most, are the *illegal* street vendors. They sell knockoffs of brand name sunglasses, purses, belts, etc. and they also have piles and piles of burned DVDs for sale. I've seen these guys in Italy a lot, so they are very familiar to me. Obviously the prices are pretty cheap, although I imagine you have to haggle with the vendors to get them down to a realistic price. And I would recommend doing the haggling in Spanish to try to avoid the "I'm a rich tourist, please take me for all I'm worth" look.