Archive for April, 2010

February in Sevilla, Part Dos

Saturday, April 3rd, 2010

What other amazing things happened in my first month?
I started my Sevillanas dance classes! Sevillanas is a style of flamenco (flamenco comes in something like 18 different flavors, usually from different pueblos or for different occasions) that developed in the pueblos outside of Sevilla, and is a partner-dance. There’s a lot of hand-twirling, foot-stomping, and looking-haughtily-back-at-your-partner, so obviously it’s a good time. Getting hand-movements to match footwork, however, is ridiculously difficult for me to figure out. It’s definitely going to take more practice. I love the class, though!

I visited the Alcázar, a palace here in Sevilla that was first a Moorish palace and then a palace for the monarchs of Spain. It has beautiful Moorish architecture and its gardens are absolutely gorgeous, filled with orange trees and fountains. It is actually still used as a residence for Spanish royalty, one of the few ancient buildings in the world still used for its original purpose. In fact, when we visited, Prince Felipe of Spain was in residence! Knowing that, I couldn’t resist being a rebel and swiping an orange from the gardens… yeah, I took a royal orange from the Alcazar. What now?

dscf6248.JPG

Christy’s and my friend Tiffany from TU came to Sevilla from Granada (where she’s been studying for the academic year), so we took her out for tapas one weekend. It was so refreshing to see a familiar TU face, and was nice to catch up! We went to a restaurant/bar called Taberna Colonial, a place quite close to the CC-CS center. We all ordered some tinto de verano and then tackled some traditional tapas: patatas bravas (or con salsa brava; it’s actually Catalonian but is served everywhere) and solomillo con whiskey. Patatas bravas are fried potatoes covered in two sauces—a red tomato-bell-peper-based sauce that’s a little spicy, and an aioli that is pretty darn close to Ranch dressing. SO good. Solomillo con whiskey is a dish with filets of pork loin sautéed with whiskey, olive oil, and with roasted garlic, and is served over a bed of fried potatoes. Yes, it is as good as it sounds.
We were still hungry, so we decided to ask the waitress what she recommended. She came back with a gigantic place of MEAT. As she put it on the table, I could only think of Dr. Perry’s rendition of Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire: “UGH. MEAT.” (as Stanley tosses a steak AT Stella). A picture:

dscf6279.JPG

Yeah, just a plate of beef and pork. And we LOVED it. Plus, it made our waitress seem extra cool; instead of seeing 5 girls and thinking of bringing salads or something “light,” she breaks out the meat-plate. That’s what I’m talkin’ about! I don’t want a wimpy salad!

Sunday of that weekend, it was our TU friend Laura’s birthday, so we went out to a small restaurant/bar called Café Tomate (or something like that) where we had our first taste of vino de naranja (orange wine). We originally intended to go to this little bar next door called La Goletera, (or el Peregil, can’t remember which), which is a local favorite and is renowned for its orange wine and strawberry wine. It was so small and crowded, though, that we just hopped next door to Café Tomate, which was also serving orange wine. Café Tomate was okay, but I feel like we could have gotten more for our money. The orange wine was so unique, and quite tasty. I’m pretty sure it’s a dessert wine, because it’s quite viscous, dark, sweet, and strong. More than one glass could lay you out. At first, it had a slight cough-syrupy aftertaste, but I didn’t detect it after a while. I’d like to try the vino de naranja at La Goletera, though, just to see if it’s different (and since the place is a local Sevilla fave).

Later in the month, I took a tour of the Catedral with CC-CS. I go to Mass there every Sunday (thus rendering Mass extra epic), but this time I actually got to see all the parts of the cathedral, rather than just the main altar. It is an enormous space, with small chapels all around. The bell tower, called La Giralda, is a conglomeration of cultures and historical periods: the bottom 2/3 is a former minaret, then the top part is Renaissance and Gothic architecture. After the Reconquista, instead of tearing town mosques and minarets, the Spanish-Christians decided to make their message extra-clear and build cathedrals on-top-of/around/within Moorish buildings. We climbed up the Giralda, which is made a little easier in that it is constructed with ramps instead of stairs, so that a man on horseback could ride up and call out prayer (when it was a minaret).

One weekend this month, we also took a CC-CS trip to Córdoba, which is another small Andalucian city that was at one point the capital of Arab Spain. It is known particularly for it’s Mesquita-Catedral—a cathedral built inside of and somewhat around a mosque after the Christian re-conquest of Spain (again, the whole Spaniards-rubbing-the-conquest-in-the-Arabs’-faces thing). The city is also known for it’s old Jewish barrio and synagogue, as well as the Alcázar there (though the one in Sevilla is bigger and better!). We saw all of these things on our tour, and the Mesquita-Catedral was especially amazing, with the mix of Muslim and Christian architectural design. Incredibly impressive and beautiful. Besides that, my other favorite part of the day was the walk through the old Jewish neighborhood. We walked through all these narrow streets, lined with bars, tiendas, and little balconies overhead. Córdoba is known for all the flower pots that line the walls of all the streets, and you could see all the flowers begin to bloom along the way. In May, they have a festival in which each person opens up their patio to the public and shows off all their flowers and greenery. You can tour through each patio, linger for some music, food, drinks, and socializing, and move on to the next. I’m hoping to go and see that come May! The city overall was delightful and quaint, and I enjoyed the sunny day there (after there had been so many days of rain).

Beyond that, I have a few individual entries form February days (which shall come shortly), and an entry on my amazing trip to Morocco at the end of the month! More to come.