More Moors
Trip Start
Aug 23, 1996
1
315
452
Trip End
Ongoing
Seville,
Spain
Sunday, February 4, 2007
The plan was to fly out on the 9th of February and return on the 11th, celebrating my birthday on the flight, (could it be any worse than last year when I was on a train to Mumbai), but when I looked at the prices, they were way high as it is the start of half-term break for the kids, so I bit the bullet and booked for the previous weekend. Once done, we knew the 12 days of waiting from our return from Izzyville would fly by, and in no time at all, we would be winging it down to the South of Spain and into Sevilla.
The trip from Sevenoaks to Stanstead is generally a hit and miss affair. Actually, it is always miss as there is always a jam at the Dartford tunnel. This time I was lucky, and in under an hour, I had the car parked and I was on my way to the airport in the bus. Checked in, cleared customs, and then onto the plane. Being a Ryanair flight, there was the mass scrum to get on, we as usual went my favourite door, the back one, and got seats quite easily. The plane filled up quickly, but the doors were not being shut. Every now and then, a person would come aboard. This went on for around fifteen minutes. They were only from the one race, and I have said it before and I will say it again, the Spanish are FUCKED !!! Once all aboard, we sped merrily on our way to Sevilla.
Memories from 1998. We stayed out near the airport, but between the campground and the airport, all the whores hung out. I was feeling kind of toey, but Lucy locked me in the van with her and Melanie. She said I should be satisfied with two women !!! I just didn't like being the ham in the sandwich !!!
We landed and it was raining. As it was late, we grabbed a cab and went into the city. Found our hostal, and the as I have not drunk any alcohol in a month, we went and had a bottle of red. It went down well, with a beer chaser.
In the morning, nothing had changed. It was still pissing down. Actually, the temp was quite mild, so we hauled ass over to the Alcazar. We paid and entered. It wasn't like the Alhambra at all. There was an old painting showing Colombus which was ok. There was also one section which was very Islamic, but overall, it was no way as good as the Alhambra. Outside, there were loads of Orange trees, and then it hit me, maybe I had taken to many drugs when I was younger because I couldn't remember any of this. I might as well been on a different planet !!! We walked out, and the rain stopped. Fucking typical, so we decided to do a huge walk around the town. There are some other Moorish sites to see, but they were all long closed due to restoration, or so the sign said. We did however find the Golden Tower. There was no gold, maybe it was because it use to be used as a tower for the guards, and maybe they use to shower the locals with the old golden !!!!! Down the road was the Plaza de Espana. Lucy was keen to get there. She reckoned that we went there in 98. Upon arrival, she started telling me that we had been there then. Personally, I don't think she had taken enough drugs when she was younger, because there was no way either of us have been there before. Lucy believes that we have photos. If we do, I am going to burn them, just to show that I am right. We walked through some muddy gardens and back along the river. We passed by the tower of piss again and then arrived at the bullring. They say that it is pretty special this one, but fuck me, in comparison to others we have seen, it is tiny. Maybe this is why it is special. Maybe they have little dwarf bulls, with dwarf matadors and the people in the crowd are just dwarves !!! Actually, I work with a dwarf called Stephen, but I didn't see him there !!! With that, the day had finished, and there was only one thing to do. Rioja time !!!
It was our last morning and check out was at 12. I was feeling pretty lazy, so I just lay there. After Lucy put the boot in a few times, I had a shower and breakfast and then we hit the streets. Along the way, we found a bunch of locals in protest mode. It seemed like a good thing to do at the time, so we joined in. They were yelling out stuff in Spanish, mainly to do with the fact that they have to wear bad clothes and have dodgy haircuts, so I did the same. No fumar, no fumar, no fumar. They were chaining and laughing at me, well at least I wasn't being bashed by the police. That was the real reason I had come along. I wanted to see some of these Spanish have the fuck hit out of them with batons. What other reason do the police carry them for ? Eventually, we all got tired of each other, so we doubled back and made our way towards the Cathedral and the Giraldo. Apparently, it is the third largest one in the world, and I wanted to test out my brain to see if I could remember any of it. Acoording to the hostal and our notes, it is free on Sunday, and being the Jewboy, it was my day. When the doors opened, I nearly went back into protest mode. They fucking charged us like there was no tomorrow. So we paid and went in. The museum was ok, then into the main body. It is huge, and we kind of lost each other quite quickly. There are various things to see here, but one of the main attractions is that they use to think that Colombus was buried here, but like Jesus, he had a second coming and is now meant to live in the Dominican Republic ??? There wasn't much more to see, so off we went to the Giraldo. He isn't some purse carrying Nancy boy from Spain, but it is the name for the old minaret which is still attached to the Cathedral. As you climb, there are no steps, but just one big slope. I did read once that the old Mullah use to ride up on a horse in the old Izzy days, just so he could do his five calls a day. Lazy fucker !!! The views from the top are good, we even manage to see the dwarfish bullring, and from up there, it was even smaller !!! We hung out, taking photos, and just being tourists, then we came down. At the bottom is the old orangery. The Izzy lovers use to perform their ablutions here and the huge old wash pit is still there. And just in case you have read Dan Brown's book, Digital Fortress, this is where it was set. And then it was done. We went back and grabbed our bags, and jumped on the bus and went to the airport. It had been a fun weekend, but it was over and we had to go home.
And Finally
A couple things I don't get. Everywhere you go, there are pig legs where the ham is carved from the bone. I have never seen a live pig in Spain !!! We also did see three Izzy lovers, were they the leftovers from the old Moorish days??? And lastly, I can't believe how fucked up I am that I couldn't remember it though, maybe, I will have to do another campervan trip to see how bad my memory is !!!
Comments
Cool stuff
You've been traveling since 1996?
How did you manage that?
Cool stuff (reply)
I work, I go away on weekends, I have holidays, I travel