Flamenco, bullfights, and very large fiesta
Trip Start
Dec 06, 2005
1
52
80
Trip End
Jun 17, 2006
Sevilla,
Spain
Thursday, April 27, 2006
The week that we entered Sevilla was the week of their annual fiesta, called the Feria de Abril (April Fair), so it was full of people dressed up in traditional flamenco outfits, plenty of tourists, closed shops, and dodgy Frenchmen.
After we checked into a great hostel called Oasis, Cam went straight to a Tony Soprano lookalike barber to try and rectify the "accident" of the previous night. Tony did a great job after a look of complete and utter disbelief at the hairstyle, and Cam actually looked quite decent after the job, which Tony likened to a Picasso
01 Cam with Tony Soprano (barber)
.During the Feria, there is a big area full of tent marquees. 99% of them are private, where locals hobknob, eat and drink, and dance the Seville version of flamenco - the sevillana. We actually saw the official opening of the Feria - the symbolic turning on of about 400,000 lights around the marquee area at midnight, which kinda felt a little like New Years. In the public tents we were allowed into, we sampled the local beverage of choice - a sweet wine they drink with lemonade called manzanilla. Cam and Brooksy got involved in a bit of flamenco themselves, however I was content to watch from the sidelines.
Next day I dyed Brooksyīs hair from a packet. It looked like Britney Spears blonde on the packet, but turned his hair a pretty inoffensive carrot-brown.
The final thing we did in Seville was to see a bullfight. I donīt think you can go to Spain without seeing one, No matter how cruel they are, it is a significant part of Spanish culture and an interesting spectacle to say the least. The Sevilla bullring is one of the biggest and nicest in all of Spain, and the deal is that there were 3 matadors and 6 bulls (2 each) over the course of the 2.5 hour show. You can read up on how bullfights work elsewhere, I basically found that the most disturbing parts were (a) when a mounted īpicadorī stabs the bull with a big knife on a stick, while the bull rams the horse he is mounted on with serious force, and (b) when the bull hasnīt been killed cleanly by the matador, and is in serious pain, the matador grabs a small knife and stabs it a few times near itīs neck to put an end to the poor animalīs life. The most interesting parts of the bullfight were when the bull is full of energy and hasnīt been harmed, and is charging at guys with pink capes at full speed, and they get out of the way just in time. I wonīt go to another bullfight, but am definitely glad I went.
