Construction

Seville seems to be having a building boom. I don't know why that is, but frankly, I'm getting tired of it.

When I got here on September 1, there was a construction site behind the building across the street. One house seems to be being reconstructed. The sound of jackhammers and drills woke me up on my first morning here, and since then I've been sleeping with ear plugs and the windows closed. I learned to deal. Then a few weeks ago the building down the street right next to mine was knocked down and since then there have been a collections of heavy machines digging out the rubble, flattening the dirt and today pouring concrete. And then last week the building right out my window hosted some guys poking around who today returned with saws and were sawing metal. The smell and the noise made me close my windows and turn on the a/c even though it was a nice day. I'm glad I will be gone for 6 days. When I get back, hopefully the noisiest part of all of the construction will be done. Either that, or I'll find that Ralph finally got his permit to re-do the outside of my building and I'll be seeing workmen hanging on the side of my building.

I only have a little time left, and the noise today made me get on my bike and search out an internet cafe to print my boarding pass for tomorrow, something I needed to do.

First I went to Corte Ingles to try one last time to find a money belt. I actually got a pouch that hangs around my neck at Santa Justa Train Station when I went to Cordoba. They didn't have money belts though. The hanging thing is fine, I actually have one that I brought that is leather - this one is nylon and I thought it would be more comfortable if I decide to wear it beyond the day of travel, but I really wanted something that won't make an obvious bulge in my shirt and would be inside my pants where no one will be putting their hands (if things continue they way they have been....)

Well, I found the same hanging pouch thing at Corte Ingles. I then tried on a pair of shorts that I thought were my size, but they were too tight, everywhere. I didn't bother to try a bigger size because they were really so much like the shorts that everyone seemed to be wearing in Granada - all the tourists I mean - it was like a mass memo went out across the European Union telling everyone to wear three-quarter length shorts and a certain type of sandals with a big camera around their neck and a backpack all to scream "I'M A TOURIST" in case anyone wasn't sure. I'm going to try to blend in as much as I possibly can in Rome.

So from there, I took a ride through the city on the streets and came across an internet cafe that is not too far from here. There was an Asian guy talking loudly on his cell phone. I think he was Chinese, but I didn't recognize the language he was speaking. It was not like Mandarin or Cantonese, so who knows where he was from. But he continued speaking on the phone when I entered. When I told him I wanted to print, he pointed to a computer. But when I actually tried to print, the computer was not connected to the printer. His wife came out and she didn't speak much Spanish so she couldn't help me. She called him back out to the front (he had moved to a room in the back to continue his conversation) - out he came, on the cell phone, talking loudly still and inserted a USB drive and copied my boarding pass to it and took it to the printer.

But woops, I had mistakenly printed the boarding pass from Rome to Seville, so I had to do it all over again. Still on his phone, he gave me the USB drive and I copied the boarding pass on to it. When he went to print he told me (phone still on his ear) that it was the same. I explained the difference and he printed it, I paid him, while he continued talking and I left.

I have to add this to my list of pet peeves - when you go into a store and the person who is "working" there is talking on their cell phone or having a conversation with someone else in the store. If I didn't want to have a hassle free trip tomorrow and get through all of the procedures as quickly as possible, I would have just left. Hopefully having my boarding pass will speed things up, because I don't plan on getting there too early.

Now, I have to go back because I made a reservation for the Vatican (skip the lines, reserve online) for Friday. I'm not meeting the Pope or anything, just going to check out the incredible wealth the Catholic Church possesses that enables it to have its very own country with Swiss guards. I want to see the Sistine Chapel, maybe the Pieta, St. Peter's and use the bathroom. If it isn't too disgustingly crowded, I might linger, but I'm already resenting the 32 Euros I had to lay out to get in (which is why I am going to use the bathroom and maybe steal a roll of toilet paper).

And now, for the 2nd night there is something pitifully resembling rain. It is like droplets, nothing, even though the sky is dark, dark, and I heard thunder. I really wish we would get a monsoon type downpour and wash some of the dust away, but I'm leaving anyway, so what do I care?