sevilla

yesterday afternoon, we took the night train to sevilla, in the south of Spain. i kept hearing about how great it is, and i was deciding whether to do sevilla or barcelona. sevilla definitely did not disappoint. it's the perfect city. add a little bit of Paris - for it's picturesque, Seine-like riverbank and a cathedral rivaling Notre Dame; a touch of Bruge - for the old world feel, with its stone walls and walks; a lot of Marrakech - it's a mini Morocco, and walking it's shop-lined alleyways between colorful, Moorish styled buildings brought me right back to the scene we were in just days ago; lastly, there's an atmosphere there that's much like Miami - huge palm trees, lush foliage, music and movement, a melting pot of skin colors, mingled with the laziness of a steamy beach town, even though there is no beach or ocean nearby. i love it, and would go back in a second.

it's the birthplace of flamenco dancing. so we got tickets for this flamenco show in the Plaza de Santa Cruz. we were slightly rushed from a late dinner at a really nice place that had an ornery waiter. i asked for a glass of house white, and he bluntly said, "No." several silent seconds passed before he grudgingly explained that i had to get the half bottle. i said fine. i really drank a whole bottle of wine by myself - there were 3 full glasses in that half bottle. i downed 2 glasses within a minute and we got to the theater just in time.

the dancing, and singing, seemed authentic and highly skilled. the dancers' movements, especially the ones who came on stage later in the show, were precise, powerful, and fast as all heck. but after all that wine and a sangria required by the theater, it was all looking kinda funny to me, and ching concurred. ching described them as, "fat, ugly guys and angry women tap dancing". this one guy who was the primary vocal talent had some bizarre facial expressions as he was singing. i kept thinking he looked like a south park version of a flamenco singer. imagine jack black crossed with jay (whom some of you know) in a translucent white button down shirt with no undershirt, wrapping around his overhanging belly. we could not stop laughing! 2 hours of flamenco is all i need for a long while.

this morning, after a miserable breakfast at our youth hostel that felt like a senior home (there were strangely a lot of seniors staying there), we heading into town. we revisited the spots we started to explore yesterday before the show - the garden (whose name i'm too lazy to look up right now) full of flowering, palm, and orange trees. the end of the garden led into the labyrinth of alleyways that was Marrakech. i lost ching for about an hour and ended up on the other side of the city center when we met up again. i kinda like being lost in a new city. while ching was waiting for me, he spotted Brie, the Canadian woman we met on the camel trek! she had said she'd be in sevilla at some point on her trip, but still! what were the chances of bumping into her again on a different continent?!? we already ran into her in Marrakech a day after the camel trek group disbanded. this was just weird. so we met up late afternoon by the Alcazar and had some sangria by the river bank, and then took a lazy nap on the grass after watching some boys jumping into the river for a while. we got up 40 minutes later and went in search of the Plaza del Toro - the bullfighting ring - that was nearby. tomorrow is Corpus Christi, a national holiday, and tickets were on sale for tomorrow's bullfight. we'll be missing it (or not), since we're picking up a rental car and road tripping with bub and javi to valencia - beaches! with a real live ocean... god, it's been a looong time!