We arrived in the afternoon in Seville, our most anticipated stop on the trip. Today Mapquest was omnipotent. We followed every turn in the directions to get precisely to our hotel, which is a minor miracle in a country with one way cobblestone streets and a complete lack of street signs. We waled to the main square of Seville and instantly knew we liked the place. The cathedral is enormous, the larget in Spain, and the nearby Alcazar towers over the square. We attended a free flamenco performance at an underground beer hall called La Carbonera. We arrived at 10 to find the place nearly empty, when the performance was supposed to start at 10. Well, the beer was cheap at $2, so we gave it a go. By 11 it had filled to standing room only. By 1130 the performance began, and wow, were we in for a show! We thought it would be like seeing a band perform, but flamenco is more a work of art. The performers demanded complete silence from the audience. Then the male guitarist commenced strumming and wailing in a strange islamic/spanish/gypsy style. After a few minutes of this, the rythmic clapping joined in, and then the female dancer began a mezmerizing dance of foot stomping, clapping, arm waving, all the while with an unsmiling glare of dead seriousness. When they finished the audience exploded in cheers.
The great flamenco, the cheap beer, and meeting several other americans on vacation or in school in Seville, conspired for a late night which ended with Lindso banging on the glass door of our hotel which resulted in a torrent of admonition from the septuganarian innkeeper. Good times!
