SERRADO

June 15, 2006 by j.

Ah…. how we have misplanned our time in Seville! Today was our last full day in Seville and we had marked all of the places we’d go back to, to finish up shopping and what have you. But it’s some kind of holy day here (Corpus Christi… yes, like Tejas) and everybody and their mother is off of work. Everything is CLOSED. SERRADO. The only places that are open are cervecerias. BOO.

On the flip side though, there are shrines placed all over the town, draped in red velvet with elaborate carvings and candelabras and fresh flowers placed all about - some very large in scale and welcoming passerbys to take a moment to reflect. Balconies are wreathed in fresh flowers and green, and draped in maroon and gold velvet. Many stores have replaced their window displays with similar shrines as well. All of the streets and walkways have been laid with branches of evergreen, which makes the air smell fresh and new like christmas day. And it appears that the thing to do today is to go around town in your sunday finest, with your family, and appreciate these displays. I traipsed around in my flip flops and jeans looking as touristily interested as possible (to avoid the appearance of disrespect), cursing my bad luck that I had not bought that Spanish steel three-foot sword the day before. BOO.

Also, we visited the very impressive cathedral here (closed, of course), where a group of overweight women tried to chase us down to hand us ugly branches of some kind of plant. Un regalo! Un regalo! they cried, A gift! A gift! Having been warned by guidebooks that this is a common gypsy tactic (although I don’t see how someone so fat can fit her fingers in my pockets), I said no! forcefully and moved away, but then she started to chase me! I ran for my life and was close to hitting her when she gave up. No means no, señora! Back off!!

Last night we saw a flamenco show. Interesting how the younger and more technical dancers might give better or more challenging performances, but it is the older dancers who dance with a passion for the the art and a zest for life that is clearly visible and a joy to watch, no matter the imperfections. It reminds me that I need to do the things I want to do, the rest be damned.. a fantastic reality check which has in itself made this entire trip worth it.

The night before, I forgot to mention, was watching German MTV with Veronica when a parody of Bob Marley’s Jammin’ came on titled “Germans”…. as in

We’re Germans!
We’re German in the name of the Lord…
We’re Germans!
German right straight from yore…

and so on about driving on the autobahn and eating sauerkraut. JA!

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