si seville

Arriving in Seville was like stepping back in time. Tiny little winding streets were filled with tiny bars, shops, plazas and churches marked by beautifully painted tiles. The heat was passing the 30 degree mark, the sky was blue and we felt all our wonderful Spanish cliche dreams were coming true!

A quick run to our hotel to dump our bags and we were on the street. Time to investigate what this city is really famous for... TAPAS!

And wow we were not let down. The Seville restaurant seems to be based around tapas almost exclusively. Walk into any bar and you'll find the little typed menu card. "Dos cervesa", that's asking for two beers, close your eyes and point to something on the menu.

Generally this method worked out ok. Every meal we improved our skills and acquired a few new words in Spanish. We had a couple of interesting experiences with potatoes (after accidentally choosing 3 potato based tapas the guy at the bar must have thought we were Irish ;p) and loads of anchovies (NOT a mistake, sorry James!).

By the end of the stay we were pro and not really keen on eating a single-dish meal ever again!

As well as eating, we shopped and explored the city.

Sadly October is not Bull-Fighting season, but James was happy to demonstrate outside the arena.

We decided that we were keen to catch some flamenco guitar, and maybe some dancing if we could. The tourist trap places scared us a little so we decided to do some research into the local clubs. James discovered a place that was recommended for excellent amateur guitar, so excitedly we wandered through the door at 10:30pm into a packed bar. The crowd was all locals, and all under 30... strange for flamenco... but what do we know. So we grabbed a beer and sat on the ground (too late for a seat) front centre. The lights went down...

No guitar here, folks... AMATEUR THEATRE!!!

Now those of you who know us will be laughing without any further explanation. However I'll elaborate insofar as to say that student productions featuring fake orgasms, one sided phone conversations, and woeful tears are not anymore appealing in Spanish than they are in English. Sorry.

Our attempts to take signals from other members of the audience on when to laugh, when to clap etc were convincing I hope. And we did get some solid entertainment on the way home comparing what we thought the storyline of the play was... our interpretations weren't even close!

So, the next night, after a few cerveza and still thinking on the rave reviews of this little venue's flamenco... we decided to try again (don't even ask!).

10:30pm. Packed. At the back this time.

POETRY NIGHT!!! Oh wow... not really sure what we did in a past life to deserve this punishment. And for our beautiful poet friends, please don't take offence, instead note that THIS IS IN SPAIN AND SPOKEN IN NATIVE TONGUE. So once again, we laughed with a slight yet subtle delay to the rest of the crowd and pretended we understood by staring intensely at the stage. We bolted at intermission after about an hour. Sigh. Still a cultural experience I suppose.

Seville was friendly and a lot of fun. Sadly though this is the end of our time in Espana, we are off the visit her nemesis Portugal! Adios amigos. James and Beth. x.