January 11, 2004

Cordoba – Seville



After a long trip to Seville, we were all pretty tired. Dawn, my roommate, and I managed to rouse ourselves mid-afternoon and wandered the city for a couple of hours. After winding our way through several narrow streets, we stumbled upon the cathedral at the center of the city. The huge bell tower was incorporated into the architecture from the original







 

mosque that stood there. It’s called the Giralda. Everything was closed (it was Sunday, after all) much to our dismay.

As we were walking back from the cathedral entrance, two Gypsy women accosted us. I’m usually pretty good at brushing people off and saying ‘no,’ but the women grabbed our hands and wouldn’t let go. They read our palms, telling us only good things, of course. They refused to let us go until we gave them each 5 Euros! It was quite a price to pay to get my own hand back, but it’s something to laugh about later.

That night we had an interesting discussion of flamenco, musical styles, and duende (the spiritual trance of flamenco). It was followed by a flamenco demonstration by a local instructor. She was amazing. I like the Sevillan style of dance much better than what we saw in Granada. The movements are much more fluid, and the arms move like snakes. She explained to us a bit of the different types of dances done in flamenco. There is one that is very informal, performed in the streets during Holy Week amongst all the pilgrims headed towards shrines. Dinner and a much-needed early bedtime followed the demonstration.