As you can see the heat and walking has gotten to Lee a bit and he's gone "loco en la cabeza." Luckily he has since returned to normal...
Thinking back to our time in Sevilla, we had a great time and stayed with a local family (the father was flamenco legend Mario Maya) in a really cool and artsy, traditional Seville house. It was designed with high ceilings and two three-story inner open air courtyards, which cool it at night and allow for a nice breeze to waft into the rooms during the hot days, and each room actually has a door and window facing these open spaces. During our stay we decided to be "true" tourists and walked, walked and walked some more through the Alcazar Real, the Cathedral of Saint Marry the See and Plaza de Toros - bull fighting ring (we were out and about 12 hours without a siesta, which is what ended up driving Lee and his feet mad J). The Alcazar Real was quite impressive and similar again to both the Alhambra and Rajasthan palaces, with lots of Moorish architecture. It also housed an exhibit of tiles (for which the region is known), lady's fans (women still use them today to block the sun and create a breeze) and a series of tapestries depicting ocean navigation / sailing.
The cathedral was one of the most impressive we've ever seen (including the Notre Dam and Strasbourg cathedrals), with huge ceilings and lots of glittery gloom and doom, etc. etc. Guess if you want to impress / terrify your subjects and/or enemies, that's the way to do it; make them all feel as small and insignificant as an ant. Also, we're not sure why the church found it necessary to own such an extensive treasury, including a gold-platted crown with cherubs and precious stones inlaid on it, but hey to each his own. One neat part of the church however was the tower, which provided great panoramic views of the city while ringing your chimes (on the hour, every hour).
Next up was the Plaza de Toros - bull fighting ring. We had the chance to see a bull fight but decided against it, since we would have had to stay longer in the city. Probably interesting to see, but we wouldn't have enjoyed the ending that much anyway (since Jazz cries in zoos, she probably would have been bawling with this one). We did learn a bunch on the tour though. They kill the bull regardless of the outcome and it's spared only if chosen for breeding by a matador who finds it quite energetic, fast, and furious (happens about once a season). As our guide put it - "it isn't a competition," hence it doesn't matter if the bull sends the matador to the hospital, he is still killed; too bad for the bull. Also there are trophies that matadors collect, depending on how well they fought. The rankings go from one ear, to two ears, and best is two ears and the tail (this also happens rarely). In the end, we're still a bit confused on the cultural value, especially if there's no true sense of bull vs. matador. It all just seems a bit unfair (though we guess the bull would meet his end in a butcher house either way). Still, it's a very unique tradition that we wanted to check out.
A few hours later around midnight, we were thoroughly lost in a residential part of town. Even late at night (by American standards), people are out walking and socializing (including older folks, strolling around hand in hand) and it felt completely safe. We eventually found our way back with the help of an elderly couple who butted in when they figured we were two lost tourists staring at our map (and of course they were right! Oh and Jazz points out we didn't actually have a map either...).
The next day we visited the local market, bought some food, got yelled at for touching a shop owner's tomatoes (There's a joke to be had here somewhere, and to be fair we did drop three but were planning to buy them anyway.) and made a delicious chicken lunch back at the house. That evening we walked the neighborhood Triana (not sure about the hype of this area, it didn't seem all that interesting since there is only one main street, while Barrio Santa Cruz has way more to explore). So after wandering a bit (walking the city without a map or plan has sort of become our norm) we made it to a restaurant in Barrio Santa Cruz, Vineria San Telmo, which was recommended by our co-inhabitants at the house. If you're in Seville and want amazing, modern and gourmet tapas, go here! We had mushrooms with truffle oil, duck breast with orange chutney, grilled tuna with caramelized onion, king prawns (shrimp sliced thin length-wise) with sesame seed oil and soy sauce and lastly quiche Lorraine (drooling as we write this). See below for a few pics (by the way, we'll be starting a page dedicated to our glutinous adventures, so keep a look out if you're curious about the food). Next up: A drive through Andalusia - Jerez, Cadiz and Zahara!
