Magic mushrooms, but not what you're thinking..

25.05.2015

Seville is a town that I have taken a while to get the feel of. It is big and the tourist attractions or sights are scattered all over the place, It doesn't help that I chose to stay away from the centre so I have to be aware of the many buses and the routes they take around town, and how I can get back to where I am staying from where I am going. It doesn't help that I don't speak Spanish and few people speak English, and it doesn't help that daily temperatures are hitting 35 degrees. Having said all that I feel like I am getting the feel of it. Today I took a trip to see the Metropol Parasol or as the people call it the five mushrooms, which was completed in 2011 at a cost of $160 million nz, and claims to be the biggest wooden structure in the world. It looks amazing , but like the Valencian structures I saw last year, it has turned into a white elephant. There is a fish and produce market on the first floor, and you can get a lift to take you for $5 to a walkway on the top, but today once again was too hot for people to be up there. Walking in the backstreets in the area I found a cafe that was advertising a 3 course lunch menu with drink and coffee for 8 euro, and as it was 2pm I thought I'd give it a go. My choices were what you'd expect since my grandmother was Irish. It was just luck that I ended up with two plates of meat and potatoes and gravy, followed by a big pudding. It was all delicious and after filling myself up with enough carbs and protein for two days I had to head home for a long siesta to sleep it off. I took one trip into the city to meet up with Linda and Carlos last Friday at the Cathedral. This involved a bus followed by a 20 minute walk. It is a truly awesome sight ( much bigger than anything I saw in Paris). Next to it is the Giralda tower, which was built in 1150 as a mineret for the mosque which was later built over by the Cathedral. The tower has 34 ramps that you climb up to the top for a view over the city, the ramps were put in so that the muezzin could ride his horse to the top when it was time to make the call to prayer. It takes an effort to climb 35 ramps in 35 degree temps so I might pass this trip. The tower was converted to the belltower for the Cathedral when the Christians regained power. A couple of other photos were taken on short foraging trips, and a bus trip I took to find out where to catch the shuttle to the airport at 6.30 on Saturday morning. I managed with Carlos's help to buy a plastic loadable ten trip bus card and so my bus trips now only cost about $1. Of course I couldn't find out where to buy them, and it turned out that only tobacconists sold them.

Magic mushrooms