Sevilla: Dia Dos

I have to admit that I ate Tex Mex for dinner one of my nights in Sevilla. And it was awesome.

Day two of Sevilla was more sightseeing, looking at some of the English schools and walking around the city. I started out at the famous Plaza de Toros (bull fighting ring) for a tour of the stadium and museum. It was really interesting and absolutely mind-blowing what some of these mothers will allow their children to do. (Most Torreros begin training around age 9! Until this century most didn’t live past 26ish). I met a San Diegoan Navy guy on this tour and we decided to head out to the Cathedral afterwards. It was very similar to a lot of the other cathedrals I’ve seen- with the exception of being even more enormous than most. Also, it holds the remains of Christopher Columbus (which have been moved all over the world since his death). We climbed up to the Giralda bell tower as well and I was very disappointed to see that the bells are now all rigged up so that they can be rung from a button or trigger or something on the main floor. That’s just lazy.The rest of the afternoon was spent walking around, through the town, along the river, past the Teatro Lope de Vega (my favorite Spanish playwright) and then I had myself a little siesta. That night I got all dolled up for an unblelievably good flamenco show. It was in a little courtyard garden with a small wooden platform stage, some lanterns and a very small audience. The performers consisted of a tall blonde man on the guitar, a Spanish woman singing and a male and female dancer. Every single one of them was incredible- the guitarist was unbelievable- music flowed from his guitar like a stream of water, I would have sworn there were at least 3 or 4 guitars playing at once had I not seen the speed of his fingers. Both dancers were superb, but the guy in particular blew me away, there was so much soul in his dancing- I have never seen anyone perform so passionately. This put all of the other flamenco I have seen and been enthralled with absolutely to shame. I have never seen a performance more raw or vulnerable than their singing, playing and dancing. There is no way I can even begin to explain this performance or do it justice so I will leave it at that.

SABES QUE…
The Plaza de Toros in Sevilla was supposed to be perfectly round, but due to some lazy direction-following on the builders part, is kind of a wonky oval.