More about Cordoba

Hi all

Just wanted to let you know about my bath experience, my morning at the Mosquita and my hellish bus ride in Seville.

Bath experience:

BLOODY BRILLIANT!!! Ok, so everyone is in their bathers (thank goodness as there were a lot of overweight men in there) and there are 3 rooms. The first room is rather small and contains the cold (I mean icy) baths. The next room is a lot bigger and has a dome shaped roof with stars and circles cut out of the ceiling, five massage tables and a big medium bath which is kind of more like a pool. There are candles everyone, Arabian music playing, and beautiful shapes and patterns painted on the walls. Then we have the final room that contains the hot baths. There are taps with hot water pouring from them and more candles surrounding the baths. Everyone has a number and you take in turns having massages with oils and while you wait you go from the medium bath, to the hot to the cold bath which is a shock to the system but makes you feel so good. It was one of the best things I have done all trip, not to mention gorging myself on deep fried aubergine with honey dipping sauce afterwards!

The Mesquita:

The most beautiful place I have seen all trip. As part of the Islamic reign in Spain centuries ago, one of the most breathtaking things to come out of this was the Mesquita. Beautiful, magical, intoxicating are all honestly words to describe this place. I know I sound wanky, but seriously, I was blown away by it. The Vatican doesn´t even come close in my opinion. It was the best way to end my time in Cordoba and I can´t begin to tell you how glad I am that I went there.

Hellish bus ride in Seville:

Imagine this, I am feeling really really proud of myself as I have found the bus I need to catch to get to the hostel. I get on this bus number 32 feeling good. I start to notice that the bus stops have no names and as I have no map I have no idea where to get off other than I know it´s the end stop. So I am on this bus for a good hour thinking bad thoughts. Then I decide to ask someone. Of course no one speaks English so when I ask this gentleman beside me he starts yelling (as the Spanish do to communicate) at me. I keep on saying I don´t understand (only sentence I know) so he yells louder. The whole bus is looking at me now, so I started nodding my head pretending to understand so he will shut up. He knows I am lying so he yells louder. Then the bus suddenly stops and I fall on this woman who then starts yelling at me too. Then the guy who was yelling at me starts yelling at her. Then this other woman who has been there the whole time suddenly speaks to me in English telling me I am on the wrong bus and I have to swap to the number 32 and then gets off. So then I am on the bus for another 30mins when this other guy tells me to get off and catch the 32. When I get on the 32 it takes me back to the train station where I started. Then this new 32 bus finally takes me to the place I needed to go which ended up only being 4 stops away. Grrr. So now I am making use of the free internet time to vent my frustration!! It´s all part of the adventure!!

Ok, now it´s time to explore Seville!!