One more day before I take off for Rome. I'm looking forward to the trip, if only because it will be another change and keep me from getting too bored here, which is certainly a possibility.
It's nice being back in my apartment and being able to cook again. But there are also downsides. I've been here about a month now and I am really tired of some things - the heat, which does not seem to be abating, the prostitutes, who seem to be multiplying (I've started seeing some who look like my aunts - i.e., really old, lately), and the gritty, grimy neighborhood I live in. Funny though but those downsides are also things I kind of like about where I am living when I consider the options - i.e., being in the nicer, cleaner old part of town with all of the other tourists.
And then there are the neighbors, who are kind of loud - lots of crying kids, and this morning I woke up, opened the window to see a city worker pouring some white stuff alongside our building. I've noticed this funky smell especially when it rains and what he was pouring had that smell. I think it is some kind of pesticide. I had to close my windows again it was so strong.
So, yes, I am ready for a break.
I took my bike to the rental place today to get more air in the tires. It made a huge difference. After lunch, I went to Aire de Seville - the Arab Baths. I didn't sign up for a massage - only to use the baths, which was 20 Euros. It was crowded today and like last time, there were a few couples who thought it was okay to make out in the baths. Why do they have to shove their sex lives down my throat??!!
I went primarily for the steam room which has lots of eucalyptus and menthol and I thought would be good for pushing out the final remnants of my cold. After that, I sat in the jacuzzi a while and then moved to the big bath in my favorite room - it has reddish walls and a beautiful wooden ceiling, all lit by candles and a few spot lights with a big Arab style lantern hanging over the bath with candles in it. There is also a cold bath and a hotter bath. I did the hotter one but couldn't bear the cold one.
Then I went downstairs to sit in the salt bath for a while. That was where the make-out session was happening (it was also happening there last time - is there something about salt water that makes people want to make out?)
Then I repeated my steps, back to the steam, the jacuzzi, the big bath and finally I decided I'd had enough. I thought it would be nice to go to the locker room and have it to myself, since there were so many people there, and when they ring the bell to tell us our time is up, everyone goes to the locker room at the same time. I had spent an hour and paid for an hour and a half, but I was satisfied.
After that I went to my favorite tapas place. After trying several places, I have decided that this is definitely my favorite. I even got the name - it is called Casa Placido Bar - it's on a little alley set back from the main street that runs up from the Giralda. It is my favorite because it has tapas, where other places have raciones or media-raciones, and the spinach with garbanzos there are the best I've had anywhere. I also like the location and the service is great.
I really liked the carrillada - I have no idea what it is. I have a hunch it might be venison, but I could be wrong. It might just be beef, but it does taste a little gamey. But today I decided to try two new things. I ordered lomo con campinones (pork with mushrooms) and pinchito de pollo. I wasn't sure what that was, which is why I ordered the pork, which I knew would be good. I was right. The pork was good. The pinchito de pollo was a kebab sort of thing with chicken. It was good, a little chewy, but nice. I had two glasses of sangria. The waiter was really nice. He was even nice to a table of Americans who didn't speak any Spanish and made him translate the whole menu. I will go back!
From there I decided to try a new bike path I found that took me through Nervion, a kind of suburban area where the mall I discovered last week is. It was a nice ride - a different view of Seville.
Then it looked like it was going to rain, so I rode towards home. As I approached the Alameda de Hercules, it started to sprinkle. People popped open umbrellas. I brought my bike inside and went back out again to pick up some things from the store. It had stopped raining but people were still walking with umbrellas. It had been like a two second sprinkle. Not enough unfortunately to wash away the white chemical that was poured alongside my building this morning.
And that was it. I ended up having a very interesting chat with an Argentine friend on Facebook. I've known him for a while, not from Argentina, I met him elsewhere. I didn't know that his family had to leave Argentina in the 70's because his father was a journalist and they lived in exile in Spain for 6 or 7 years. He really opened up to me and told me what it was like being in Argentina when the military took over and also having to live in exile. Ironically his family arrived here in Spain just after Franco died and Spain was making the transition to democracy, albeit a rocky transition with a coup attempt that almost derailed the process. And our chat started after I posted something on Facebook about some nut putting up a poll asking if Obama should be killed.
As Americans we are lucky that we have not suffered the kind of destability that most other countries have endured. What has kept us fairly comfortable has been the strength of our democratic institution, no matter how corrupted it is by big business and lobbyists. Unfortunately, with the economic meltdown and the epidemic of right-wing nutjobs who seem to be awared their own cable "news" platforms based on how insane they are, things are getting pretty scary. I know enough about the paths that other countries have taken from stability to instability and what I see happening in the United States really scares me. That people think an appropriate response to a president you disagree with (because some idiot on Fox News tells you lies about him) is to ask if he should be killed reminds me of the kind of thinking I know of from Argentina as it spiraled into a period of insanity that left 30,000 mostly innocent Argentines dead after being disappeared and tortured, and left countless others to flee in order to survive.
It is ironic that I am here in Spain where a civil war tore the country apart and left thousands dead, where a dictator who ruled for over 40 years (and to my knowledge was not condemned by the US in the same way Castro has been) appointed a king as his successor and that king actually made democracy possible. And now Spain has legalized same-sex marriage, has universal health care, an excellent public transportation system and has been a leader in human rights and seeking justice for crimes against humanity committed by government "leaders". Does America need to go through the darkness that Spain went through, or that Argentina or South Africa have gone through in order to regain the ideals the country was founded on? I hope not. But as I said to my friend when we were chatting tonight, if I see my country going in the wrong direction, I won't hesitate to leave it. I do not want to be there when people are rounded up, accused and prosecuted for simply having different political beliefs, because I would definitely be one of them.
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