A callejón of Seville.

by Joselyn Franco (Russia)

I didn't expect to find Spain

I’d never thought to find him in a callejón of Seville. "Click", the sound of my DSLR camera was lost when I said to myself, “there he is”. Just in time, I captured a blurry video of a stranger tripping in the distance. His hair was shining blond and even though he was wearing sunglasses, I knew his eyes were ocean blue. The complete opposite of me, a brunette with olive skin. I remember he was wearing a white t-shirt which complemented his blue shorts with white dots. I couldn't help but laugh, while he danced for me and my canadian friend after almost falling down. For a few minutes, I could not vocalize any words. Thank God I had my camera in my hands to hide the nervousness. My canadian friend introduced us and he asked me where I was from. I told him to guess. It had become a tradition to ask people to guess what my country is. It took him no seconds to say, “You are from Ecuador”. The night before, when I arrived in Seville, my canadian friend came to the conclusion that no one in my 23 years of life has been able to guess my country. But this stranger did, in a narrow callejón of Seville. He invited us to have a drink but my trip itinerary was to see the Jewish Quarter and the Flamenco Museum. My friend persuaded me to go, because we walked a lot already and got lost, in an attempt to find the Jewish quarter. The receptionist was right when he told us, "Here in the streets of Seville it is better to walk without a GPS, you will find your way by getting lost". He invited us to the rooftop of a 17th century house located at Alfa District, where we could see the tops of all the andalucian buildings squished together. A church was right across and the streets were quiet due to the 42 degrees Celsius of that morning of July. It felt like I was part of a James Bond’s movie. A little pigeon jumped over my foot while my friend started to play latin music. She knew I love dancing. I didn't talk much and let my friend do most of the talking. I found out that he was based in London and used to be a professional skier until he had an accident. At that exact moment I noticed the scar on his leg. I remember how he took off his t-shirt when I asked him to dance with me. He said that he can't dance but at moments it felt like he was Cuban, especially when doing the salsa twirls. I told him,“You have a latin soul”. Shortly after, we hired electric scooters to reach the Jewish Quarter. We ended up in the famous Plaza de España. The uniqueness of this place is still fresh in my memory. After a few minutes we took a selfie in the most romantic spot, then he tried to kiss me but I resisted. He then whispered in my ear, “this is the perfect place for our first kiss”. I remember how he delicately carved our names with a key on the wall. We took the scooters to a new local bar near the river and had patatas bravas, tapas and fresh sangria. My friend enjoyed her cupid role. After having spent all day together, I ended up changing my plans about going to Cordova when he told me that he cancelled his flight to escape with me to Huelva. The nearest beach city from Seville, where Cristobal Colon’s first ship took off to discover America. We felt so comfortable with each other that discovering the world together was not a challenge. For the following 3 days, we drove around the spanish coast, while making little stops for pictures and siestas on the sand. Once and then I was teleported to the rooftop where we first felt this uncertainty be so certain. At the airport in Malaga, we said goodbye and I could only think of two things, either my life had finished or my life had just begun.