August 29, 2006 by zankbennett.

Sevilla!
3 days and 2 nights.
Arrived late in the afternoon, Tuesday. Outside the bus station where I arrived, it was 44 C! So I loaded on the pack and, with the help of the very good Let’s Go map, eventually found my way to the Hotel Athena. It was fairly centrally located…meaning that nearly everything was a long walk away! I left right away to find a good place to watch a Flamenco performance. Found a good one for €10 for the next night. Circled the cathedral at dark. The 3rd biggest in the world. I figured that since I’d seen the other two (in Rome and London) I’d settle for the outside view. It was nearly impossible to navigate the narrow streets at night, even with my newly acquired map. I’ve never seen such a labyrinth of streets since playing video games as a kid. Each turn offered up at least 5 options. Someone will say, go 1 block and turn left. Ok, so which of the 3 lefts did he mean? That’s what it’s like here. It felt pretty good to walk without the map in front of my face by the end, though, scoffing at the patent tourists who hadn’t figured it out yet.

Wed. was consumed with finding someone to give me a Flamenco guitat lesson in this, the Flamenco capital. So, in 115+ degree weather I lit out looking for a music store. One thing, no one here speaks English out of desire. They’d rather you struggle than demonstrate to you how much better their English is than your Spanish. That’s great, it makes learning the language that much easier. So, armed with fists full of sign language, I approached a music store…the guy there was very nice as he told me that two days of Flamenco lessons would be about as useful as wet socks and that no one would even waste the time to sit down in front of me. Then when he was done, he sent me another couple blocks away to the Flamenco Keller. Perfect. Went there. Scheduled a lesson for that night at 5:30 and again this morning at 9 am.

Both lessons went very well, even if the were taught 100% in Spanish. Lito was the instructor’s name and he couldn’t have been nicer. The first day - 1.5 hrs each - was spent focused on the Flamenco technique and the second morning on the progressions and various forms. Great overview, but at the and I can’t say I could play much of anything. The technique is so difficult and fast and there are new forms and permutations of chords that will take some practice to get used to. Time. Such a beautiful art. I fully recommend this to anyone with guitar aspirations or abilities.

  Me with Lito and our cutout dancer.

By wed night I had come down with a full-blown cold from all the A/C and no doubt all the cigarette smoke. Sneezes all night and no going out…
I wandered back to the hotel and stopped into a place for tapas. It was a packed spot that looked like a locals hang-out. I’ll post a picture of their address from their napkin, but this was the best food I’ve eaten in 10 years. Unbelievably good tapas. 13€ for a selection of 3 with an olive plate and a bread basket and 3 beers (sm). This is a have-to visit spot..right off the river, and just south of the cathedral.

Here’s the address.   …the BEST!!!

The Flamence show that night was in a small 10 m square room with pillars and ivy surrounding the room. It was a guitarist, a singer and a dancer. The guitar playing was amazing and the rhythm tapped out by the girl’s dancing feet was dizzying in it’s speed and complexity. She could get really quiet with the tapping but still maintain the furious tempo…must be extremely difficult.

Left Sevilla Thurs midday for Granada. Another bus ride…Lenny will be proud!

 Here’s what I look like, all loaded up and ready to go…

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August 29, 2006 by zankbennett.

Camera mem card is full with no internet station in site…

The trip to Spain from Albufeira has been a hot one. It’s 37 C here and humid today. Only the ghetto-train went to the border…you know, the one with no A/C that stops at every single station along the way while the sun roasts the big rusty metal toaster of a train like it’s an oven.

There is no information anywhere about how to get to Spain from the final train station in Portugal. Trick is to hike in the baking sun about 1 km to the ferry station, take the ferry 15 minutes across the river, then walk another mile to the bus station in Spain. No signs describe any of this, yet it seems like people must do it all the time. I was part of a 5-person group that managed to make the trek without getting too lost.
The Let’s Go book was useless for tips on doing this.

2.5 hrs to Seville!
……….

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August 29, 2006 by zankbennett.

Leaving Albufeira. Had a great time there. The pictures probably will speak more than words. For everyone I’ve met over the last few days, the pictures will be up as soon as I get to a place with a proper computer: this post is being written on a Blackberry so I can’t do anything with the pics.

Sun night…the show went well at Al’Face. Great acoustics in the room made it even easier. Played about 15 songs, split over 2 sets. Very nice people there. The pictures and video shot by James came out well. Will be posted soon.
After the show, we went with some friends to the Kareoke bar downtown. Good times…of course, true to form, pulled out a little George Michael. Hilarious! Pics are classic. Later, walking around and running into familiar faces kept is out until about 5 am, and of course sleeping wasn’t an option until about 8 am! Up at 4:30 pm. That’s about the time I’d been used to at home in CA, with the time change, so it’s not as extreme as it sounds.

Yesterday - Monday - entertained the idea of continuing the journey to Sevilla, but it was not to be, and we booked another night at our ocean-view place. By then we’d discovered how to get up to the 5th-floor terrace with full sweeping views of the town and ocean. Sunset up there was amazing…pics coming.

Last night, played another, shorter set at Al’Face. Good, but not quite as good as the night before. Met a few more people and went to the amazing Caipirinha bar for the best I’ve ever had. It takes so long to make each one that the wait could be > 30 minutes.
Called it an early night and went to bed by 2:30.

More soon…and pictures!

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