sevilla.

i could live in sevilla. and i would love to live in triana specifically. it's such an amazing little neighborhood. it's so quiet and unassuming and tiny. the food is delicious and inexpensive (unless you eat along the river) and the people are really nice. it's just a lot of families and no one harasses you or is loud. all of sevilla seems to be like that, really. i mean, i've had some guys yell "guapa!" or wink at me and say "holaaa" but it's not at all the same feeling i had in madrid walking alone. the air smells different here. it's the fish and salt and dampness of the river and the flowers that are everywhere and the orange trees and the food always cooking somewhere. in the alleys it smells like homecooked spanish food and laundry detergent and the combination makes me miss flor, my señora in madrid. there are sevilla fc and real betis flags everywhere, everywhere. yesterday morning i was walking toward the river to get to sevilla proper and i was in a tiny alley and all of a sudden, i hear camarón from an open window, the sound so pure and loud that if i hadn't recognized his voice immediately, i would have thought it was live. and today when i was meandering around el barrio santa cruz, i rounded una esquina and i hear josé mercé singing "aire" and oh my heart. i followed the sound to the shop that owned it and bought things from there simply because they were playing grandes éxitos. and then walking across the bridge to get back to triana just now, i watched a few boys jump from the bridge down into the river in just. astonishment, really. at their brazenness and their lack of fear of... well, anything. and then as i walked away, i hear one of the boys start singing flamenco from the water! palmas y todo. and his voice was really amazing. i stood and watched him and he knew he had an audience so he was showing off. and he ended it with an "olé!" i couldn't help but laugh. it was so bloody endearing. sevillanos.


okay, so wednesday, my first day here, i didn't do a whole lot. i ventured around the river on the sevilla side and the triana side, but that's about it. i'm in love with el río guadalquivir. it's just so comforting at all hours of the day and night. and it's a real river, not like the manzanares in madrid. and the seafood here is so amazing. if you know me at all, you'll know what a huge statement that is because i don't like seafood at all. i'm obsessed with the way they fry fish here! ohmygod. how am i going to not be in sevilla. :(

on thursday, i woke up to the news that it was corpus christi and so therefore the entire city was basically closed except for restaurants. and the reason that sucked the most is because i missed the procession! so i got ready and ventured out and ended up at the cathedral which of course was closed. :( i am going tomorrow (sunday) though because it's free on sundays. and long story short, i randomly got to go in for five seconds and ohmygod. i seriously nearly cried just from the tiny bit i saw. holy %(*&#. this cathedral... if anything could make me believe in jesus, it's la catedral de sevilla.

so instead i went to the real alcázar which is a royal palace here that the royal family still use when they come to sevilla. it was a moorish fort first and then royal families have added to it since then. the gardens were so so lovely and you could smell the myrtle and jasmine and lemons and oranges and the architecture is reminiscent of the alhambra in some sections. my favorite part was el estanque de mercurío (mercury's fountain). it was burning hot that day and the water from the fountain felt so, so good and it was just this really tranquil place. you could tell that everyone found it. it was like in the alhambra when you could look out over all of granada. it was the way everyone paused in that particular place that you knew they just... felt it. and that's what el estanque was like. and i had the audio guided tour so i didn't feel quite so lonely and i'm glad i got it. they had a guy who was doing the voice of the king who had the fountain built and he said something alone the lines of "bless you, weary traveler, and may you return to this beautiful place someday. i know that you will." and i started crying. in the middle of a bunch of people, in front of this amazing fountain. sevilla. :(

oh and hahaha. so the streets here are all cobblestone and really old and beautiful. and slippery. and they were cleaning the streets because of the procession, so they were also wet. and i most definitely fell. and i definitely have a golfball-sized gash on my knee to prove it. and it hurts like hell and is really really nasty looking and ew. and it's kind of hurt to go anywhere or like. do anything, but. i'm in sevilla so EFF THAT. i'm just kinda dealing with it.

and my search for flamenco here has been insanely difficult for some reason, but maybe i'm just not looking hard enough. i've done exhaustive homework to find places that have real flamenco as opposed to things just for tourists because it just hurts me to see flamenco artists whoring themselves out for half-drunk tourists. it physically hurts. they don't understand flamenco, they just know it's something they need to do while they're in spain. like seeing a bullfight or drinking sangria. it just bothers me i don't know laksdjfla.

SO i found this place called lo nuestro on c/betis that supposedly was one of THE places to see flamenco. and it's super close to my hostel, so i went. i got there around 11p and i knew i'd be early but that's okay. i got una clara for FIVE EUROS and sat by myself for like. AN HOUR. and finally these three guys get onstage and they're standing which should have been my first sign. and one of them has like. a tambourine or something? and then they start singing. and i was like ahahhaahha this is not flamenco. it was sevillianas which is fine, but i wanted to see flamenco. because i love flamenco and i have been trying so hard to see it for weeks.  and after their first song the bartender was like "um, can you do flamenco?" and they were like "flamenco?" and she was like "yeah. this is a flamenco bar?" hahaahha. so they pull out SONGBOOKS and start doing like. half-hearted flamenco. and there was no tear in their voices or any real feeling in the songs and ugh. so i finished my drink made of gold and left. and i wandered down the street to t de triana where there was a HUGE crowd gathered inside so i ducked in. there was a flamenco show going on! and the guy's voice was actually lovely and the girl dancing looked like she was trying to save her soul. they were amazing. the only problem was that the bar was FULL OF TOURISTS. full. half of them were like. taking pictures of themselves in front of the performers during songs or like. yelling across the bar at their friends who just came in and ugh. the performances were amazing though, from the tiny bit i could see. but from what i HEARD, it was lovely. after that, i left and went home. :/

then yesterday, i took a tour of la maestranza so that i could get pictures for jess and so i did a guided tour. when i'd gone to las ventas, you couldn't take pictures but it was free. but at the maestranza it costed €6 and you COULD take pictures, so. i don't know which was better. but if you ever go to the maestranza, i do not recommend doing a guided tour because they just rush you through everything! i was out of there in half an hour, viewing the bullring and the museum and the stables and everything. i was at las ventas for at least 45 minutes, and i was only looking at the museum then. anyway. the bullring was so, so tiny and so intimate and it looked amazing. when i come back here with jess (which i am), we'll definitely go to a fight. BUT I AM SITTING IN THE SHADE. ohmygod. i cannot imagine sitting in the sun for that long there.

then i sought out el museo del baile flamenco which was just wonderful. it was this 3-floor experience with videos and songs and costumes you could touch and shoes and photographs and drawings and stories and it was just. really beautiful. it was focused more on the dance (hence the name) than the song, and i am much more about the song than the dance, but it was still incredible. i was going to go see a show there but it was quite expensive, so i decided not to. i went to eat at casa oliva in triana where i'd eaten the night before and got amazing tapas for really cheap. the night before i'd gotten huevos de la flamenca and solomillo con champiñones and last night i got pavías del bacalao (which i think is fried cod?) and solomillo con bacon. the bacalao. was. so. so. delicious. it was buttery and melt in your mouth and super salty and mmm. i loved it so much that i got it again today for lunch at a place near el archivo de indias with tortilla con patatas. i think tonight i'm going to get some cruzcampo instead of a clara because i really do love cruzcampo shandy so i might like the beer more than i do mahou. i do not like mahou. hahahaha.

anyway, so last night. there's this place called casa anselma in triana that i read about a couple of weeks ago and i fell in love. it's a flamenco bar where there are performances every night, and in it there is a statue of the virgin mary lit with candles around it, and at the end of the night, they turn off all the lights and sing to the statue. i had to see this, so i found the building. it wasn't open the first three times i went by there, and i went to calle betis and wandered around looking for flamenco there and found nothing. i was in TRIANA on a friday night and no flamenco! i sat down on the bridge at one point just to look at the river and pass some time and there was this beautiful boy there. long boy with long hair and he looked just. mmm. and he kept glancing over at me and i of course was looking over at him and i was like MICHELLE NO. NO. YOU ARE GOING TO SEE FLAMENCO TONIGHT. after all of my attempts over the past few weeks with no flamenco, i was not going to ruin it. at one point he got up and started to walk toward me and i looked away. ahhh. HE WAS SO LOVELY BUT. flamenco! :( so i get up and leave and decide to trek back to anselma's one last time in case and this time there's a crowd around and they're opening up the doors! and guess who's there? my lovely boy from the bridge! :( he left super early though so. it was just so crazy. i go in and it's just. amazing. it's exactly how you'd picture a flamenco bar in triana to be. i took a few pictures and anselma was a force. you could feel it. she was feared and loved and respected and it suited her perfectly. there were chairs in a circle and the crowd was a mixture of tourists and spaniards and there were a few men who did some flamenco songs and some sevillanas and some classic popular spanish songs which the spanish part of the crowd went INSANE for. there were enough people in the crowd doing palmas  but it got SO CROWDED and everyone was talking loudly and it was annoying. and there were some other people that sang and danced and anselma finally sang and her voice was so wonderful. after a couple of hours, all the lights went out and all the men turned to the virgin who was lit by candles and started singing and everything got very quiet and reverent and just. it was beautiful. it was a perfect sevillan experience. we got out of there around 2am and i thanked anselma on the way out and walked home. triana is so wonderful at night and not scary at all. it was so quiet and just. calm. i just love it here so much.

today i ventured to el barrio santa cruz which is the old jewish neighborhood in sevilla where the streets are tiny tiny tiny and the buildings are really old and the plants are lush and there are tons of plazas and little shops and oh. it was so beautiful. if i could live in sevilla proper, i would want to live there. i took a picture of the balcony that apparently inspired the balcony scene in romeo and juliet and right next to it was this incredible garden with the most amazing trees i've ever seen in real life. i took so many pictures of them. i got a few people souvenirs in the barrio and also in the ceramic shops in triana where the tiles are actually handmade and are so beautiful. tonight i'm gonna head to el parque maría luísa and then i'm going to find la carbonería which is a flamenco bar in santa cruz and is apparently handsdown the best in the city. and tomorrow i'm going to tour the cathedral and go to one of the markets open on sundays. and then i'm going to go to the plaza espana and ah. sevilla sevilla.

okay, so here are quite a few pictures, all of sevilla. you'll notice that i'm obsessed with the NO8DO motto that is all over the city. NO8DO is sevilla's motto and the 8 actually represents a skein of yarn, and the spanish word for "skein" is madeja, so when you say it, "no madeja do" it sounds like "no me ha dejado" which means "it (as in sevilla) has not abandoned me." i am just so in love with it. i want it tattooed on me but i don't have the money to do it. bah! :(

oh and i almost forgot to mention one of the best things! so the day of the spanish national team game against south korea, i was frantically searching for a bar in triana that would be playing the game. and i go in place after place with no luck, and then i go into this one place and i see a tv and there's an older lady and a guy standing there and he's like "yes?" and i'm like "are you going to be playing the game here?" and he was like "game?" and i was like "of la selección?" and he was like "which one?" and i was like "..." and finally in english he goes "which country?" and i was like "ESPAÑA, por supuesto!" hahahahaha. he was like "yes okay yes!" and so around six i come back and they're still showing some show that i swear eva was hosting and i had a whole conversation with the two of them about the spanish national team and the world cup and they found it so hilarious that i only support spain and not the US or anywhere else. so i got a beer and some olives and just. watched sergio be captain. ohmygod. i almost cried so many times and it was so hard to be good and quiet. and random men kept walking up to me and talking to me about the team and the game and this one guy was like "who's your favorite player?" and i was like "sergio ramos." and he was like "haha! sergio! because he's handsome. no, who's your real favorite player?" and i glared at him and was like "i don't love sergio because he's handsome. i love him because to me he's the best and he's my favorite." and he was like "okay, okay. ...captain, huh?" ahaha. and this other guy was like "valdes is keeper, thank god! he's the best in the world" and i glared at him so hard and wanted to slap him but i don't know enough spanish to defend iker properly. and the whole game people kept talking about me in whispers ("she's from the united states. and she only supports spain!") and after the game they were like "are you happy?" and i was like "YES." they were so amused by me. and every day i walk by since then i see them and they're like "hola!" hehehehe. so cute. :)
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these are pictures from real alcázar, from triana, from la maestranza, from el barrio santa cruz and just around sevilla. enjoy. :)




























































































































































































































































































































































































































originally posted at 20.36 on June 5 2010