Sevilla

The heart of Andalucia and the most 'Spanishy' of the Spanish cities. Flamenco, bullfighting and tapas all reign supreme. We thought it would be more of a melting pot being so close to Africa, but there was nary a kebab house in sight. We saw the Cathedral which is the largest Gothic church and the third largest church in the world. We have seen St. Peters and we just need to see St. Pauls in London to complete the biggest church tirfecta. The church was quite massive and impressive especially because we had not seen too many Gothic buildings yet. It contained the remains of Christopher Columbus,

but someplace in the Dominican Republic claims they have the remains as well. Who knows.

We ate some great tapas at a little place near our house, a pork roast sandwich with garlic olive oil and another with jamon and blue cheese. At another time we got a tapa of fried Camanbert with rasberry sauce and another of fired eggplant with honey, shizam they were delicious. Our hostel had a big rooftop with hammocks and chairs and the weather was quite beautiful, sunny but just cool enough to be pleasant. We spent some good qualitz time loafing about on the roof, which is a top notch 'activity'.

We went to another palace which was about 5 times larger and grander than the one in Cordoba. The top Islamic artists of the time were brought from around the world to design things here and it is spectacular. The geometric designs mixed with the Arabic writing is just spectacular. The gardens were equally impressive with orange and lemon trees and numerous fountains and waterworks.

So the real highlight here was Flamenco. Oh snap was this good. Flamenco is more than just the dance, it is music and singing and a whole way of life. The show we saw started with a guitar player who was just awesome accompanied by an older guy singing his heart out. The songs are like the Blues with the people singing deep, soulful, sad songs that are really moving. Then the female dancer came on. Wow, if you asked me to find the most Spanish looking woman I could, this would be her. She had two layers of long black dress and here hair in a bun with a net around it. The dancing is like very flamboyant tap dancing with a lot of hand motions. When she really got into it and was stomping and dancing around it was hypnotic. Her partner accompanied her towards the end and they just tore the floor up. Our hands were sore from clapping too much. At the end a young girl of about 8 came on and danced and sung a bit, it was a bit cutesy and seemed really geared for the tourists, but she was adorable and it just shows you how serious people take this and how young they start.

So, on this Flamenco high we decided we needed more so we visited the Flamenco museum the next day. It was a bit expensive, but full of information presented in an interactive format of videos and music which was really well done. We watched some older videos and learned about the styles across the different regions which helped make sense of what we saw.

That night was LSU v Georgia so we found a place to watch it. Yes, yes, we went to a place called 'Texas Lone Star Bar', but it was the only bar we could find showing the game and we drank Spanish beer so we didn't feel too much like sellouts. Well LSU got pounded but we had fun and drank beer in pitchers which is possibly the only place in Spain that this is possible. It was also entertaining watching Spaniards eat hamburgers and nachos with a fork and knife.