Tag Archives: España

spain, pt 6. seville: the poetry and passion of flamenco

the next day i spent the first part of the day recovering from the night before.  the beauty of having few expectations in a travel destination is that you never truly feel like you are missing out on anything, and you are free to enjoy a place however you wish to enjoy it in the moment.  i was beginning to learn how to truly enjoy traveling like this, staying in the moment, not having too great of an itinerary, just enjoying the opportunities that made themselves available to me, and seville was the perfect place to learn this.  just big enough that you could find all the normal conveniences that one wants when living or staying in a large city, but not as big as the other major metropolitan centers like barcelona or madrid.  it is a city of perfect balance.

that afternoon i put on the nicest clothes i had (which admittedly were not very nice.  a pair of jeans and a collared shirt with my worn hiking boots) and went to meet a woman named lucía whom i would be hanging out with for the evening.

road to the catedral
road to the catedral

one of the things i had prioritized early on in my trip was to meet locals, but i had not been an expert in doing that at first.  one of the ways i had tried to combat that was by using an online dating service called ok cupid, which i had previously used back home in denver.  it seems a little disingenuous, using a dating app “to meet locals,” but it honestly was easier to meet locals this way sometimes than trying to meet people in bars, and there was always the potential upside of that person being attracted to you.  if you give me a choice between hanging out with a dude or an attractive female, i’m going to not choose the dude every time.

lucía was one of those kind souls who agreed to meet a wandering american, knowing i would be here and gone forever within a matter of days, but she wanted to share some of her city with me and show me an authentic experience.  she speaks near-impeccable english with just enough of a hint of an accent that gives her the perfect balance of “easily understood” and “exotic foreign appeal”

lucía stands out in the crowd
lucía stands out in the crowd

(remember what i said in earlier posts about listening to spanish women speak?  it’s intoxicating.  lucía if you are reading this, never attempt eliminate your accent further from where it is right now.  it is perfect).  at the time we met, lucía was doing contract work for amazon, the american online retailer, doing translation work for their web and product pages.  lucía is tall, about 5’10” and has beautiful long black hair and dark eyes to match.  when she smiles, her eyes actually smile too, unintentionally letting you know that her pleasure is real, and putting you at ease.  when she speaks, she speaks with purpose and intelligence, likely drawing from her education, but also from something deeper, most likely a good family and wise parents.

we met and walked through the middle of town as the city began to grow dark.  the lights began to flicker to life and a subtle romanticism settled about the city of seville, shadows playing and dancing in all the right places to create a mystery about the place.  lucía led me to a place called ‘the metropol parasol,” or as it is more colloquially known, “the mushrooms.” Continue reading spain, pt 6. seville: the poetry and passion of flamenco


spain, pt 5. seville: the four horsemen






Continue reading spain, pt 5. seville: the four horsemen

spain pt 2: barcelona; love, and its tempered disguise

arc de triomf



after a few days in the city, i received an email from an old denver friend named amy.   Continue reading spain pt 2: barcelona; love, and its tempered disguise