Last year I lived in a 'suburb' of Sevilla and on a pedestrian street no less and there was noise at all hours of the day. There were the sounds of voices, the keyboard player, the man selling lottery tickets at 'siesta' time, delivery trucks, confused cars, not-so-confused cars, and the people in the bar near our house singing happy birthday, cheering about a soccer game and listening to live music (I will never forget the first weekend and the U2 tribute band concert. I wasn't sure how I was going to make it if that happened every weekend). Then there was the neighbor's high heels on the marble floor at 6 AM, the neighbor across the way snoring, the sound of the school kids screaming on the playground and the sound of a mother and daughter exchanging 'hola' for a minute every morning. And then there were the church bells that seemed to ring constantly on Sundays. (The video is of the lottery man at siesta time.)
This year I live in the city of Sevilla and although it's no St. Paul I think it's still quieter than Alcalá, despite the difference in population between the two. My room last year (in Alcalá) faced other pisos and a nearby bar. This year my room faces the street. In the morning, I'll hear the bread truck pull up to the panadería across the street at around 6 AM (only because I'm actually up at that time, it doesn't wake me up) and slide its door open to deliver the bread. You'll also hear the neighbor downstairs slide open what I assume is a closet several times around 7 AM.
Whereas last year we had to call to request a new bombona (gas cylinder used for hot water), this year, in the big city, the gas companies come to our street at least once a day. This is how they announce themselves:
On the weekend mornings you'll hear vans with loudspeakers driving slowly down the street (and the surrounding ones) trying to convince the 'Señora' to buy the sack of potatoes or have her 'sillas, sillones, butacas, sofas, descalzadoras' reupholstered. More recently there was the knife sharpening truck:
Parking is scarce in Sevilla. This town was just not built with cars in mind so it is common to see cars double parked in our neighborhood. There will be leagally parked cars, perpendicular to the curb, and a row of illegally, double-parked cars parallel to the curb. It often happens that a legally parked car needs to leave, but cannot due to the other cars in its way. The double-parked cars are supposed to be left in neutral so that if someone legally parked needs to leave, they just push the car or cars aside. Sometimes, though, the legally parked driver can't move all the cars in the way or is not physically capable of moving any cars at all (manually). In this situation, as you might guess, the most effective means to gain passage is for the driver of the legally parked car to lay on their horn until the driver or drivers of the double-parked car(s) come and move it (them).
A more relaxing neighborhood noise is the horse and buggy, whose trip home comes around 7 PM. You can hear the sound of the horse as it trots down the street.
And then there's the garbage people who come almost every night around 12:30 or 1 AM.
Throughout the night you'll also hear the quiet rush of cars and motorcycles as they cruise down the road at intervals. It's more background noise rather than disruptive noise. And on occasion you'll hear the hustle and bustle of the people on the street (or the drunken shouts of people going home after a night out). This is more annoying, but not that frequent.
More intermittent sounds include a nearby neighbor who plays his stereo at full blast for only a song or two and the neighbor on third floor hacking so badly that it wakes me and/or my gag reflex up (you're welcome for not recording that one).
I got several going at once and it's really noisy.
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