Semana Santa, Mr Charades & Mystery Food

We instantly loved Seville. The streets were beautiful and the lilac trees were in fragrant bloom. Finding our hotel turned in to a challenge...what else is new!?! We reserved a place in Seville a few months ago because we were visiting during “Semana Santa” (Holy Week) and during this time thousands of visitors flood to the city. We had a map and found the street we needed on the map- we have discovered that in Spain streets change names often- for instance at one intersection you are on “Joe Ave” and two intersections later it has turned into “Mary Boulevard”. This can be a problem- you have to pay attention at every corner, turn, intersection. The challenge finding our hotel in Seville was the fact that a procession was taking place on a street leading to the street we needed to be on. The processions are amazing! There are 59 processions in Seville during Holy Week where each church makes its way to the Cathedral. Some processions last 12-14 hours! Nazarenes carry crosses and candles while wearing hooded robes (strikingly similar to the attire of the hell-bound KKK) Often the Nazarene's are bare footed and do not remove their masks for the entire trip. The nazarenes are marching with ‘floats’- I don’t know what else to call them- but they are massive works of art- they are like sculptures. In each procession there are at least two floats- the first depicting a scene from the Passion and then one with the Virgin Mary in mourning. Accompanying the floats are bands playing passionate/sombre/dramatic music. Under each float are 40-60 men to carry the structure which can reach 2 tonnes!! Its all very interesting- so are the people in streets! There were people crying and reaching for the floats, people throwing confetti, all ages present. So, we run into a procession, and let me tell you also, these processions last for hours. We weren’t sure if we could cut through the Nazarenes...or if that is super bad. We did it anyway. But soon realized the street we needed was completely plugged with people! Ai-eeeee! We decided to drop our packs and watch the parade. We watched many processions during Holy Week- and they were so neat! But at the same time, they made navigating the streets a little tedious! While watching one procession, Steve asked a kid what he was eating, suddenly we were eating, laughing, sharing and learning with a lovely Spanish family. They were so kind and somewhat intoxicated, the kids tried out their english skills with us while Steve used his wide variety of body language and mediocre amount of Spanish skills to converse with them. 

Speaking of body language, Steve is the Master. He would be killer in Charades...he can make up body language for anything! Sometimes I get so embarassed that I just wander away like I don’t know this lunatic. For example, the post office- we KNOW the Spanish word for stamp, we approach the counter, and Mr. Charades says “Say-ohs por favor!!” whilst slamming his fist on the counter as if he is stamping the post card! I walk away- but the worker gets it and the deed is done. I have to admit, his charades do work. We went to an electronics store to get a headphone splitting device. Steve made the purchase with his fluency in Charades! The only words exchanged were si, non, por favor and gracias! As I watched this exchange of body language I was impressed- Steve came out of the store giggling and very proud of the purchase (only 1euro20!) I have suggested he take up sign language when we get home. 

I eventually acquired the head cold that occupied Steve in Fes...it was horrible... thankfully I didn’t have to eat tagine while feeling that bad! Poor Steve! 

We visited the Cathedral in Seville- it is the largest gothic Cathedral in the world and the third largest Cathedral (following St.Peters and St.Pauls) worldwide. Inside are numerous chapels and also the remains of Christopher Columbus. 

One night we ventured out to catch some Flamenco. As suggested by our spanish friends we went to a local pub for an impromptu performance. It was a great experience! We entered a cave-like pub and as Steve headed to the bar for drinks he told me to get seats and make some friends. I was more worried about the seat selection than friends, so I found a little table with some benches and chairs. Then a dude suggested I sit with him, I thought “oh- great- both missions accomplished- steve will be impressed!” So I sat and Steve came over with our jug of sangria. I introduced him to Hassan the non-english speaking plumber- our new friend. We quickly grew tired of Hassan. Our Spanish sucked and his english was worse. I excused myself to go converse with an American couple. By the time I returned to our table, Hassan was gone! Steve said he just wanted to pick me up but realized we were married so he moved on to greener pastures. Which was good because then a Canadian and a Brit sat with us and we had a great evening together. The Flamenco was not what I expected. On stage was a Man (the singer), a husky woman (the Dancer), and a guitar player. The man sang flamenco while the woman would clap to it- we didn’t get the beat though, it was always changing and never steady...then the women would get up and give ‘er. She had a stern almost angry look- I couldn’t tell if she was dancing to the music or if the music was playing to her moves! There was stomping and snapping and head flicking and arms swinging- I thought she might spit on the floor in between moves! At the end of the song (which was generally long) she would finally smile. It was great!

We had an interesting eating experience on our first night in Seville. We were starving and so began the hunt for food. We have a rule that we should never let ourselves get to this stage of hunger. Not being familiar with Seville, it took some time to find and settle on an outdoor restaurant...it was busy which we take as a sign of good food. We saw someone eating a bocadillo (baguette sandwich) and thought that would be great! We sat down and ordered two glasses of sangria and bocadillo’s- the waiter said “no bocadillo’s” and gave us a menu. We started browsing the menu (no english) and the waiter returned with a huge jug of sangria. Now I was getting a little unpleasant. We couldn’t interpret much on the menu except for random words like “eggs”, “old cheese”, “fish” and “ham.” None of which sounded filling or appealing. I tried to order some bread out of desperation for more than just sangria in my system. The waiter said “No- bread only at breakfast”- what the hell???!! They eat bread all the time here!!! Agh! I’m so upset. Steve suggests “lets just have a liquid dinner!!” (apparently he has done this in Seattle with Mike G. when the restaurants were closed.) I give him the glare. He is laughing. I loose control and yell “Go buy us a damn bottle of water, dump it out, and fill it with this Sangria so we can get the hell out of here!!!!” The sangria boosted Steve’s courage and blurred his better judgment than to dual with the beast. He replied with laughter “just order old cheese!” I was soooo mad and hungry, I was ready to rip Steve's head off. We finally decided on some dish that had “eggs and peppers” in it. When we ordered it, the waiter (who I should mention spoke very little english) asked if we wanted it with calamari. No thanks...he left and we looked at each other- why would eggs have calamari? I was thinking this was going to be an omelette or something but now I’m not so sure...We are waiting...5 mins...10 mins... Our mystery food finally arrives WITH BREAD and it appears to be a mountain of deep fried batter with two fried eggs on the peak and a bit of red peppers at the base. I thought the mountain was just batter deep fried in fish flavored oil, but after googling the dish that night we learned it was some kind of tiny white fish...it wasn’t the best, but we just ate it. A french couple sitting near us had the same menu problems and the man came over to ask what we had ordered and what it was...we never went back to that restaurant. And then the accordion player who refused to leave our table until we paid up....ugh!