Duende

I am in love with a flamenco guitarist!

To be fair, I'm also in love with several flamenco dancers too. But I draw the line at the singers - what is it about girth and singing voices? Then again, maybe if I just close my eyes I could be in love with them too!

As you'll probably guess, I'm just back from my flamenco show. Wow, it was amazing - probably incredibly touristy but I'm sold on it. I wish I could dance like that. We had the works, flirtatious, soulful, dramatic, fiery, athletic - but all passionate, every single note and step. I was exhausted just watching.

And it wasn't only the dancers either - the singers and the guitarists were amazing too. Particularly the soulful one with long dark hair and sparkling eyes!! The way he made a guitar sing was truly beautiful.

While I was in Cordoba I happened across a Flamenco exhibition, so I knew a little bit about its traditions - its roots (and continuing culture) as a gypsy art form, and I also knew that it was very passionate, but nothing prepared me for what I saw (and felt). For most of the performance I was hypnotised by the rhythm, movement and sound - the way the dancers and the singers could turn their bodies and voices into musical instruments was amazing. The fire of the dancers was awe inspiring. The women danced as if there was no-one else in the room and with complete pride in the way their bodies moved. And the male dancer - well now I know where the Spanish snake hips you see on some men here come from!

I was also taken with the connections with Middle Eastern music and dance - from the sounds of the voice to the hand movements. All very reminiscent of other cultures, but in an art form that is quintessentially European to us now.

As I said, I am in love!

Best bar nun

Well, it was a day for nuns today. You know what it's like, never one for ages and then you see 5 in a row! I kid you not, in the space of about 2 hours I saw 5 different nuns. It just goes to remind you what a religious country Spain is. I'm a bit worried they might have been reading my blog from yesterday - you should have seen the disapproving looks they gave me. Or alternatively it could just have been my strappy top!

And as the picture above shows, I had great need of light clothes today. The temperature actually hit 42 degrees at the next display but I didn't feel like stopping to take another photo. This was hot enough for me. Admittedly it was in the full sun, but it was at least 37 degrees in the shade. So I tried to make it a less energetic day than yesterday, and so far it seems to have worked - my ankles are only slightly puffy and the heat rash seems to be staying away. It could be something to do with spending the morning on an air conditioned bus, lunchtime in the shade at a bar and the afternoon back at the hotel for a rest.

The bus tour was amusing - Seville doesn't really lend itself to bus tours since the sights are all either in a pedestrianised zone or in streets too narrow for buses of the double decker (or any for that matter!) variety. So I spent an hour or so listening to some interesting snippets about Seville whilst watching the traffic jam that seems to be the normal state of play for the centre of the city.

Actually I think it's probably worse at the moment since La Vuelta, Spain's version of the Tour de France, hits town tomorrow night and large parts of the road network are already being closed off in preparation. La Vuelta, what a fabulous name, much better than the old UK version, the Milk Race - hmm, inspirational eh?!

My other highlight of the day was a visit to Plaza de Espana, possibly one of the most vulgar places outside Las Vegas. Apparently it was used as for a scene in one of the Star Wars films. Words fail me, so you'll just have to look at my pics instead. As you can see, I managed a full tour of Spain without leaving Seville - and all in the midday sun!

After a lovely, if hot, lunch I headed back to the hotel for a pre-flamenco, post-tapas siesta and now I'm about to head back out again for my cultural experience tonight. Hope it's good. Watch out for a review on tomorrow's blog post.