Fain In Spain, Stay Mainly In...Waterfront and Flamenco Show

By the time my train arrived Barcelona it was almost six o'clock in the afternoon already. It took another half an hour to reach my hotel, which located in the Waterfront area.



Compared to the hotel in Madrid, this one looks like the kind of hotels you will find in Miami Beach and caters more to the 'hip' crowd, people like Paris Hilton or Britney Spear. Not necessary a good sell for me somehow



The room itself is in the open Studio style where the bedroom, bathroom and a mini office (desk) all combined together into one single unit.



Facing the bed is a full window view of the beach and the indispensable flat screen TV.





But the thing I appreciate the most is the IPod adapter that allows you to recharge your IPod as well as plug it to the stereo in the room so that I can sleep to the music I want



My plan for the night was to have dinner in one of the local restaurants that provide the celebrated Flamenco Show. However, I was delayed due to a 'bathroom malfunction'. The draining system obviously was not working when I tried to freshen up in the shower. All the yuppie design of the room has come to haunt you since the water actually leaked to the living room as well





It took a good half hour before the maintenance guy arrived. He was friendly and helpful but by the time I managed to get to the restaurant dinner was already over and the show was only five minutes away from starting. So the only thing I have was a drink. The restaurant has a dining section and separate stage room for the show. The stage room is cozier than I expected but the atmosphere was intimate. I was seated close enough to tape the first ensemble number.


It seems a full figure is a prerequisite for (female) Flamenco dancers. Women right activists could consider popularizing the art of Flamenco to counter eating disorder and unhealthy weight loss.

Flamenco is generally considered to be a style unique to Spanish culture. The show I watched comprised of five dancers, three guitarists and three singers. Not being able to speak Spanish I of course had no idea what the singers were singing about but I got the feeling that all the singing are ad-lib. In fact it felt more like conversing (between the singers themselves and between the singers and the dancers). The dancers are typical Latino spitfire passionate and the singers often seemed to echo the emotion of the dancers. Here is the a solo section of one of the dancers who appears to be an Asian, probably Filipino. Spain has a sizable Filipino population for historical reason



More so than the hip, Flamenco is a strenuous exercise to your feet. Here is a perfect example


I wonder if all Flamenco dancers are Footsie enthusiasts

The show lasted slightly less than an hour. Upon returning to the hotel I discovered, half expectedly, that they had switched my room due to the drainage issue. The new room is just right across the hall of the old one but that also means I got a different (less desirable?) beach view



My hotel is actually a good twenty minutes walk to the closest metro station, Barceloneta. However with the temperature in the upper teen degree (Celsius) even in the evening and the breeze from the sea, it was a very pleasant twenty minutes and no compliant from me.