Barrio Santa Cruz

I took some time today to explore on my own.  Armed with Seville's bike share, and a couple of maps, I set out to locate the Citibank and the Flamenco show ticket office.

I'm loving the Servici bike share system.  In two minutes, I got a bike, and headed towards the center of town.  However, Citibank is another matter.  Before departing, we specifically ey up a Citibank account, since we were told that we could get money all over Europe without paying extra fees.  I located the nearest Citibank on the map, but when I got there it was nowhere to be found.  So I would up using a local bank, and getting charged who-knows-how-much to access my money.  Arrgh.

Next stop: the ticket office for the Flamenco show Sue chose for tonight, in Barrio Santa Cruz. Despite having a couple of different maps, it took me forever to find the square where the ticket office is located.  Seville has quite a system of narrow streets interspersed with an occasional boulevard.  And the streets never go straight, so it's easy to get lost.  The maps don't show all the streets either, and there are pretty pictures of the main attractions that obscure some basic navigation.  I did eventually reach my destination, and got tickets for the show.

A narrow street in Barrio Santa Cruz

This street has a house covering it, and a guitar player inside.

The upside of getting lost is that you never know what you're going to discover.  As I was meandering through Barrio Santa Cruz, I was really enjoying the narrow streets with cafes everywhere. I walked past one place that had tremendous energy called Bodega de Santa Cruz, and I had to stop in for a tapa snack and a beer. This was about as old-school as it gets. The bartenders serve all the food, they go a mile a minute, and people are packed around small tables or at the bar.  I got a paella tapa, and it was so good I had the bartender recommend me another dish - tuna with potatoes- that was also really good.  The servers have this cool trick of throwing forks into the tortillas (a popular potato and egg fritatta dish) as they serve.

 

Bodega Santa Cruz

 

My yummy paella dish and beer. Note the writing on the bar to track your tab.