Although, I have to admit, it's a bit depressing in January because you can just feeeeel that it's such a summery city- so I'll be back, when it's warm. Claire and I get in to our cooool hostel in Sevilla at Place Encarnacíon, where our coo, hip Oasis hostel is. They are cooking homemade paella that night (!) We make friends with some girls from Quebec and give them good advice for Morocco ( and the rest of our dirhams...) We also talk with David from NYC (such a new yorker, reminds me so much of Steve!) who worked in Sevilla for a year and is now going to Madrid to study abroad. He gives us some good directions and advice for Madrid and Sevilla.
We eat dinner just the two of us, having unsuccessfully made friends at the hostel, tear. Get a little frustrated with C cuz sometimes she loses that outgoing, fun side of her. But we did have some good laughs on this trip, like when I said "GOOD YOB!" without even noticing I omitted the J as Spaniards do. The paella was home-cooked and utterly delicious. We hurry out the door and hop in a taxi to get to a hole-in-the-wall bar called La Carbonería for flamenco!! It's all smokey in there but it is alll locals Sevillans, drinking and smoking like there's no tomorrow. Show starts at 11h30 pm, naturally. No one ever seems to sleep around here, no matter what age. On stage is an old Spanish man, a woman dressed with big hoop earrings, hair pulled back tight in a low ponytail.
Well, the man starts singing flamenco, and it immediately draws me back to Uncle Will's opera "Ainadamar" with the flamenco singer that nearly brought me to tears. The other dude was strumming on his Spanish guitar with the biggest smile on his face! They start clapping and keep the beat with their hands throughout the show. The incredible rhythm comes just from clapping hands, stomping feet and a guitar. Endless clapping. And the music is sad; it sounds like he's singing about something painful as the clapping gets louder and faster and louder and faster the beat is picking up, faster faster faster she's stomping her feet now and getting into the beat and BAM! She's up and dancing with her arms out and fingers snapping, first one arm overhead and then the other, as her fingers keep snapping and her feet keep stomping stomping stomping bam-ity-bam-ity-bam...She's a big girl but is moving with the grace of a ballerina, and has so so much rhythm rhythm rhythm...she's doing some quick-quick tap dancing and alternates her hands up in the air, one finger pointing out, down, up, out, switch. She snapping her ponytail back and forth, in beat with her stomping feet thud thud thud on the floor. They build up up up up towards a climax, the combination of the flamenco singing, the dancing, tapping feet and the beat of the clapping, until you feel the music pulsing through you, feel the heat OW! as if everything is going to explode as it alll builds to a climax, and BAM! THEY ALL SHOUT! Olé!!!They bring up two volunteers to dance, who are both just naturally good dancers, of course cuz they're Spanish. They draw you into the rhythm and just mesmerize you. Claire explains that the flamenco dance is full of meaning- which direction the fingers are pointing.
So Claire and I, on our way home, think we know where we're going but of course, we have no idea and just get ridiculously lost- I mean, a 15 min walk probably took us more than an hour to get home. Yeah. First off, neither of us are very good with maps. Second, the map sucks and is incomprehensible. third, every person we ask for directions in the street says "It's complicated" or "Just go straight". That's become the running joke with me and Claire bc in Morocco, whenever we would ask for directions, they would say "Just go straight." Thanks for clearing that up buddy.Well, for the first time in my life, Claire and I actually make a loop trying to get home. We were walking walking walking, lefts, rights, lefts, until Claire says "Wait, haven't we already passed this place?" Indeed, it was true. We were right back where we started and even farther away from our hostel that the first place. Everytime we think we're going in the right direction, we weren't. But it was also a good way to see the city at night and stumble across the giant cathedral in the center with a huuuge Moorish minaret, modeled after the one we saw in Marrakech.
The next morning, we had little time to explore in Sevilla cuz we had to catch the bus to Madrid; but, we did have a chance to see inside the gorgeous cathedral in the city centre, designed by the Moors and once again taken over by the Christians in the late 1100s (greedy bastards!!!!!)
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