There's an amusement park about 2km north of our flat along the river called Isla Mágica. We couldn't live here for a year and not go right? Also, there's a serious dearth of public swimming pools here in Sevilla. Given the typically long, hot summers, this doesn't make sense to us. With the hot weather, we've really been longing to go to a pool--any pool. There are several water rides at the park, but there's also an attached water park with a pool, water slides, lazy river and a wave pool. With the weather hot and sunny, we decided to spend the day at the park and attached water park.
We rode over there on a couple of the bike share bikes. I didn't get too many pictures, but we had a good time. We did a circuit of the amusement park and rode what seemed interesting. They only have one major rollercoaster, Jaguar. It was pretty good, but it beat you up a bit. There were also the usual amusement park shows. They were all in Spanish, so not as engaging for us on the entertainment side, but engaging in the "what-the-heck-are-they-saying?" side.
Aside from the ubiquitous Spanish, the scenes were indistinguishable from what you would see in a US park. For Walla Walla people, the park is on the same scale as Silverwood up there in northern Idaho.
It was a long day and I'm pretty worn out. I'm supposed to run tomorrow morning... we'll see.
Here are a few random pictures. The whole park is kind of lagoon-y and pirate-y:
The water park:
Our rented spot at the water park (11 euros for the two chairs and a locker, meh):
Waiting for dinner:
Misters misting (these are everywhere in Sevilla, not just amusement parks):
Pirate/acrobatic show:
Dancing, fancy horses:
No sunburn, copious use of sunscreen, umbrellas and strategic indoor shows.
Spent a lot of time outside today in spite of the heat. This morning I went for a run along the river. Went 4 miles out and rode a bike from the bike share station back.
Tomorrow we plan to go to the amusement park about 2km north of us. We bought tickets on-line, but we don't have a printer to print them out, so we went on a search for a place to print a pdf file. Just to be clear, a Saturday in August is not the day in Sevilla to find a such a shop open. Google claimed that there was a print/copy shop near our usual market that would be open, but when we got there, it wasn't. We used Google (why?) to find another place and it claimed there was one open down by the university. Since it was about 2.5km away, we grabbed bikes out of the bike share and rode down there:
Neither of us had much hope that it would be open, but it was a bit of an excuse to explore a part of town we hadn't seen before. After a long, sweaty ride, we found the place (yes it was closed). We rode back up to the grocery store and did our weekend shopping. We didn't manage to get the tickets printed, but apparently the amusement park will print them for you at the gate for a mere 2 euros.
This evening we decided to continue our exploratory mode and take the metro to the large indoor mall at the Nervión station:
On the way to the mall, we passed a guy trying to give away some kittens. Based on the engagement we were seeing with passersby, my guess is he'll have no trouble:
However you feel about Cristóbal Colón (a.k.a. Christopher Columbus) whose journey to the "new world" started in Sevilla, there are a lot of references to him and his expedition. We saw this statue today that I thought was kind of interesting:
This depicts a sailor up in the crow's nest of a ship calling out "Tierra!" (or land ho!).
Turns out the Sevilla football club stadium is right next to the mall and there was a match this evening. Here's a shot of the front of the stadium:
Finally, as there was in Budapest, there is a Fridays restaurant here in Sevilla:
I guess they're kind of low-key like Hard Rock, some kind of presence in every touristy city in the world. We'll have to hit this when Rachel comes to visit. She's a fan.
We're back home now. Laura and I have been using our Amazon and Netflix video accounts a lot since we moved here. The past couple of days we've been watching The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Amazon. Really good, highly recommend.
First, Cheetos kinda suck here (I know, most of your are like, "Duh, they suck everywhere.") On a whim, I bought this bag of Cheetos yesterday. They're like air with a bit of salt added. When you eat them, they kind of evaporate like cotton candy, but also kind of glue themselves to your teeth. Won't be going there again:
Took a walk into Sevilla this morning before the heat really built up. Ran into the "mushroom" sculpture again:
I also came across a nice little park with a statue commemorating a flamenco guitarist named Niño Ricardo:
Later, I walked with Laura to her class and then went to the post office to mail a couple more postcards. The heat was really on, 43 degrees Celsius! I had a lot of sympathy for the horses outside the cathedral in the tourist area. I hope they get a lot of water and rest:
I passed by this store:
for those hard to find American products, like Cheerios!
This evening, we went to a tapas bar called Blanca Paloma recommended by Palma. It was a bit off the beaten path, so not many tourists, but a friendly waiter detected our American-ness and brought us an English language menu, haha:
Laura and I have discovered that 3 tapas seems to be just right for the two of us. Well, 3 tapas and some beer:
I have to say, eating dinner at 9pm was not a thing for me in Walla Walla, but here it just seems normal now. Walking home this evening after dinner, it was still 39 degrees out there, whew! I think that's what really gets to people this time of year--it doesn't really cool off at night, there's no relief.
The tapas bar across the street from our flat was happening tonight too. Here's a patron and his dog:
Thinking of doing another photo series on city dogs. There are a lot of dogs here.
Laura and I finally got some postcards and stamps. We've been writing a couple a day and mailing them. We've been mailing them at the big post office down in the city center. Yesterday, the first time, I wandered around the lobby looking for the mailbox until a kind security guard showed me where it was (right in front of me basically). Today I went there to mail a couple more and on the way in I noticed these on the outside of the building:
Postcards to the US go into the "extranjero" slot on the right. These are really hard to miss. Oh well.
I'm thinking of starting a series of photos of the different vehicles used by the Sevilla public works. There are sooo many. Here's one:
Laura and I went out after dinner to ditch the trash and get some dessert. It was still pretty hot out there, even at 9pm. The street was definitely less busy, but the buskers were still roaming. These two guys wander around and play guitar and sing for euros:
We hit the usual gelato place. You'd think with all the untried options, we wouldn't go back to the same place (and have the same flavor), but it's so good, I don't want to risk disappointment. This is "brownie" and it is smooottthhhhh:
Sorry this is such a crappy photo. This poor gelato deserved better.
It's August 1st, meaning we've been out of the US for 1 month. In some ways it seems longer, some ways it seems shorter. Like all years when you're my age, I know that this one will go by in the blink of an eye.
Here's my life most afternoons now:
I think I'm watching a DataCamp course here. I managed to negotiate instructor access to the site. I've done 3 courses and 1 project on the site so far. I've been really happy with it and would recommend it to anyone with an interest in learning about data science.
It's getting warm. I went out for a walk this morning at around 9am and it was already warm. I ran across this statue that looks a bit like George Washington (but isn't):
This afternoon, just to get some exercise, I walked with Laura over to her language school. It was really hot, about 40 degrees Celsius (or 104 F). On the way back, I tried to take a picture of this deli counter, but got a lot of reflection instead:
I also ran into a crew putting up sun shades across a street. These are ubiquitous around Sevilla and they really do help to keep the temperatures low at the street level:
I also stopped by the CLIC language school and got some information about a Spanish language class. I think I'm going to sign up for a 12 week course that starts in mid-September. I took a written placement exam to measure my current proficiency. I still have to take an oral exam. Once that's done, they'll group me with a half-dozen other students and that will be my class for the 12 weeks.
I hope it cools off enough over night that my run tomorrow morning isn't too sweaty.
