Seville

We departed O Monte on Thursday morning and arrived in Seville. We were warned by multiple people about pick-pockets in this city, but so far, it feels rather safe. Obviously we are still guarding our bags with our lives, but the streets are more maintained than in Lisbon, giving it a more modern feel.

Coincidentally, the weekend we are in Seville is also Feria de Abril (April fair). Obviously carnivals are going to haunt me for the rest of my life...but the fair in Seville is a whole different ballgame than tractor pulls and funnel cakes.

For six days, the women dress in traditional Flamenco garb and the men in crisp suits. So Tammy and I, feeling slightly left out, went to a department store to try on Flamenco dresses. It was fantastic but the dress didn't quite fit into our budgets or our suitcases.

After our dressing room extraveganza, we ventured down to the fairgrounds. There was a gigantic entrance way lit up and tents lining the streets called casettas. Families or groups of friends rent out their casettas and party in them all day and night. Some have dancing where the men and women Flamenco, stomping their heels and twisting their wrists. Very sexy, let me tell you.

We were walking around, trying to feel out the scene, when I felt a tap on my shoulder. Our two Italian hostel-mates miraculously found us (and recognized us from only a 30-second introduction) and invited us to hang out with the people they know in Seville. Many of the young people were really enthusiastic about speaking English to us. One of the girls said it sounds like music...imagine that.


We drank the local drink (wine and sprite) and used the excuse of being stupid Americans to get into a few casettas. A singer in one of the casettas asked Tammy and I if we were Italian, bought us drinks, and then danced with the sexiest woman we've ever seen. Turns out she was from Puerto Rico.

But of course we got hungry and began our search for any scrap of vegeterian food we could find. Everyone that we asked pretty much laughed in our faces when we told them we don't eat meat. One man even told us that we would have to climb a tree and eat the leaves before finding any veggie food at the fair. It was brutal. We stopped at a churro and chocolate place on the way out instead.