The Woman in Black

**Note: Post Date is Thursday, June 25, 2009**

A voluptuous woman dressed in black comes to the small stage, silences the audience with a hissing sound, commands their attention and begins with 2 males by her side, a soloist and a guitar player. The singer with a unique style of vocalizing starts to “sing” or chant a melody, which resembles something of a religious or sacred tone. His singing is joined by the ever so dominant percussion of their hands and feet. This rhythm is complicated and ever-changing. Their foot work is a style of tap but intensified. As their performance continued you could see that they were enjoying themselves, they enjoyed each other’s company and respected one another’s amazing talent. I know for sure that we did! Their bodies, their minds and their hearts all had to be synchronized, not only within their selves but with each other. It was breathtaking. The amount of concentration and effort that is put into these performances, especially when the heat rises, the rhythm speeds up and the relationship between all three components reach a pivotal ending the energy in the room is something I never felt before. I watched the woman’s face closely. Here slick black hair is tied in a pony tail, her face is beyond serious (except when she smiles: she is beyond beautiful) Her face shows passion, discipline and business. She would not allow for any talking and it was reflected in her performance. This performance is called Flamenco. It was something to always remember.

Sevilla, Spain! Ok so I called Cadiz a city. I was wrong. It is more like a town. Sevilla is the place to be! Of course exhausted from our 22 hour day before we boarded the 11:00 am train to Sevilla. What a beautiful ride it was. I’m amazed by the train ride from New York to Albany so anything different was of course going to catch my eye, such as huge wind mills and fields and fields of gorgeous full grown sun flowers. When traveling for extended period of time and just sitting there with each other is definitely the time when you begin to know someone. We were having a great time already. Even though after a rushed morning Erika couldn’t find her Id and had to purchase another one at the grand fee of $25.00. It was bummer because while on the train she found her id in her Camera Case. Good going Erika! We love you still! Seven of us, Erika, Bo, Kevin, Kate, Rachel, Becca and myself were on an adventure with no plans but to explore Sevilla.

We were no longer near the beach so the air was dry and the temperature almost 100 degrees! With packs on back we were ready to walk and find our hostels, only to find that they were across town but we weren’t deterred. We even took it upon ourselves to make some detours! Our first detour was the magnificent (again how many adjectives can I use?) Plaza de Espana which was some sort of period palace and modern military base combined. This place was so expansive and so grand that we couldn’t fathom its creation let alone its purpose. However we took pictures, documented this gigantic sight and continued along with our journey. Along the way we past a Cran festival, otherwise known as a shrimp festival, and we passed a lady selling jewelry on the street. A few of us purchased some and she was so kind enough to suggest a place for lunch. Us being chumps, we went directly their for a bite to eat. Some of us were enthusiastically in love with their salad and others such as myself who ordered an orange juice by mistake with a side of ice cream was not so pleased with this choice of restaurant, but who’s complaining? We are in Spain! Some strange things happened at lunch. A woman came directly to our table with a picture in her hand of a girl carrying a baby and basically demanded money. It was uncomfortable and awkward, even for me and I live in New York City, I’m constantly confronted with people asking for money. But this woman was abrasive and after Kevin denied her money, we think she placed a curse on him. Scary! Well, after our eventful lunch we continued our navigation, led by Cameron a.k.a. Kate, to the hostel.

There it is: Starbucks! She had to have it and so she did. Erika was so content with her viente caramel drink from Starbucks, and that won’t be her last. She was in her glory!

And so were we! We absolutely love Sevilla. We have all agreed that our time in Cadiz was definitely special. It was our first night in Spain, we had a wonderful day of sightseeing and a wonderful night at dinner, but this place was just so alive, so bright and just a more comfortable atmosphere. Maybe because it is more tourist friendly but it still has so much culture hence the flamenco dance!

After a long strip of shops and restaurants, a small chance meeting with Niko, sweaty backs, and almost four hours later we made it to our hostel. Now they call it a hostel, we call it a pretty damn amazing hostel, if not a hotel. We were floored by the service and quality of this place. It is called Oasis Backpacker’s Hostel. It is a chain located all throughout Spain, Erika and I booked it about a month and a half ago just by searching online and boy did we score big time. Erika, Kate, Rachel and I were all placed into a room coincidentally, we didn’t even have to ask, and our room was the equivalent to an apartment! We had a kitchen with a frig, stove, plates, cups and a table. We had a beautiful and clean bathroom, and a quaint view into the city from our 3 large windows. If that doesn’t sound good enough, we had a roof top terrace, a pool, a bar (where we were complimented with a free welcome drink), free internet (which we didn’t use very much unfortunately) and a kind staff to assist us with any questions. All of this for the almost non-existent price of 20.00 Euros. I’ve been in worst hotels than this hostel. And since this place is so amazing, it is fully booked. Becca, Kevin and Bo had to stay at another hostel near by, but we barely noticed seeing as we were always together.

I wanted to take a nap, but shopping seems to be at the frontal lobe for everyone else. So we casually walked around the streets of Sevilla: it was beautiful so I couldn’t complain. Ughh I’m running out of clothes so I bought a 4.00 Euro shirt from H&M. I’m so cultured! Kevin and Bo were excited by H&M because I guess they don’t have them in Minnesota or Colorado, but I have one right in my mall in Albany, NY, let alone 10 in New York City. Ehh. Later on, Kevin and I were almost tempted to hit some slot machines at the local casino, we held strong though. We continued to a grocery store to buy some drinks for the night and then met the girls at Oasis for our Tapas tour facilitated by the hostel.

Tapas are various plates of food such as chicken, steak, potatoes etc. I think it would translate to Americans as an appetizer, but it is a large part of Spanish culture. I didn’t like mine that much: Tenderloin in a Port Wine Sauce, but everyone who ordered the Chicken with Almond Sauce seemed to be very content. I tried some: it was delish!


After our walk back from the Flamenco show, we came across other street performers, a lively nightlife, the largest Gothic Cathedral in the world, and a family from Chicago. They were very nice. Kate is from Chicago so we struck up some conversation. I was distracted and looked up at the sky to see bats! “We got to go,” I exclaim! Eww. Bats!

The clock strikes 12 and it is Erika’s 21st Birthday! So exciting to celebrate your birthday in Spain and with such a cool, laid back group of people. We went back to the hostel to play some games and have a few drinks before we went out to the clubs. Remember: which doesn’t start till 3:00am. At some point in the night the Minnesota accent came up. Both Kevin and Becca are from Minnesota and they are constantly mispronouncing words to my standards such as Boat, Flag, Bag, and Windmill. So we all sat around and tried to do our best Minnesota accent. It was a funny sight but Erika won! Boo! The people in our conjoining rooms were from Canada and were so nice so we invited them to hang with us as well. We come to find out that the woman (I forget her name) went to Troy for High school! What a small world! It was time to the club and Erika says, “I’m going to need a donut before we go”. We never got that donut.

On the way to the club we met a guy, by chance, who is from California and teaches English here in Spain. This intrigued me so much! He said it was really easy to get a teaching job and that he has been loving it! He was hanging with some college exchange students also from the states. I am in love with chance meetings! It makes things so interesting and so fun.

Speaking of fun! The club called Cathedral was so much fun! It was big, loud, active and it was Erika’s birthday! Yay! But brace yourselves. Some guy tried to kiss me! Thank god Rachael was there to protect me. It was the funniest thing this guy comes up to me and just tries to kiss me, Rachel immediately puts her hand on my mouth and drags me away. It looked and felt funnier than it sounds but it was quite hysterical. We don’t understand. It wasn’t a gay club or anything but this guy just seemed like kissing me was the way to go. At 4:30 am it was TIME to go.

Today’s Expenses:

Lunch: 4.00 Euros 5.80 Dollars
Shirt from H&M 4.00 Euros 5.80 Dollars
Oasis Hostel 20.00 Euros 29.00 Dollars
Tapas 6.50 Euros 9.43 Dollars
Drinks 15.00 Euros 21.75 Dollars
Club 10.00 Euros 14.50 Dollars

Total: 59.50 Euros 86.26 Dollars

After a day of walking and a night of drinking it is time to pass out. Beunos Tardes.

Explore. Dream. Discover.

~ Michael-Anthony

P.S. R.I.P. Michael Jackson.