Real Tapas

In search of this elusive local experience you often have to venture beyond the tourist centre of a city, however in Seville it is literally around the corner from the tourist centre of the city. Go around a corner passed the overpriced tourist restaurants snaking away from the Cathedral and follow the street around the bend and you might find a small tapas bar. On my visit the place was occupied almost exclusively by locals, and had no English menu a mere couple hundred of meters from the Cathedral. A bold move.

Myself and a Spanish speaking German traveller I befriended, Jonas took up residence at the elbow high tables across the narrow street from the Taberna and were quickly approached by a sturdy and smiling waiter. I watched clueless as Jonas engaged in animated discussion about the menu before ordering four dishes.

As we munched away the sun began to ignite the previously shaded street. And as its rays reached the row of tables the staff and customers in a perfectly casual manner began lifting the tables across the road beneath the awning outside the bar. Having resumed eating in the new location the sun continued it’s creep beneath the awning, causing everyone to abandon the tables and drift inside the small taberna, standing room only.

There we took stock of the decorations covering the entire walls. Nearly all dark religious art and ornaments. The death throes of Jesus and figures in pointed hoods were a common element.

For the uninitiated westerner the hood can be something of a shock as it is the same garb of the KKK except usually with a black or purple hood. I imagine the Catholic use of the garment preceded that of the KKK yet it is hard to disconnect to two. Which we now realised was the bar’s logo and was displayed on the napkins.

My German comrade considered buying a statue of one to give to his sister as gift with no background explanation, at her protests maybe accusing her of being closed minded, culturally insensitive or racist herself. Who says the German’s don’t have a sense of humour?!

The memorabilia itself all seemed far older than the 1993 on the awning of the bar. I can only assume how they came by such a large collection, despite some more obvious conclusions raiding a church seems like a high

The most fascinating thing about this little bar and it’s melancholy art in a church evokes a mournful mood yet in this much smaller and more intense display of it the locals were all cheerfully enjoying good food and cheap beer