Day 55, Pigeon Punting and a Missing Phoneme

If you aren't careful, you might miss something vital.  For example, thanks to some advice from that American guy who sat across from me on the train ride, we looked into visiting the Royal Alcázar.  We were considering going to Cordoba to see the Mezquita, but then we realized it'd cost us upwards of 35 euros plus the traveling costs, so we opted to take the American's advice. Besides, I love old, historic things and Ashlee loves mosaics, so why not?  It turns out that, thanks to a discount for being a student, I only had to pay 2 euros for the Alcázar , and that was some of the best money I've spent on this trip!  I mean, as awesome and awe-inspiring as the Alhambra is, the Alcázar has much more color and has been more up-kept.  In fact, it is the oldest palace still in use in Europe! It is interesting to see the oldest parts with strong Arabic influences (left) juxtaposed with the newer, Gothic wings (right).

And the gardens!  There were peacocks and peahens and peachicks!  Once again, if you didn't pay good enough attention, you just might think that the peacock call was a dinosaur back from the dead.  What's more, if you didn't pay close enough attention as you wandered through the palace, you just might convince yourself that you are looking at a second-story garden, when really you come out at the beginning where you started--on the ground floor.  Weird.

Next, we toured the inside of the Sevilla Cathedral, which has been added to five-ish times, resulting in an edifice the size of an entire city block!  Ashlee and I, tired as we were, nevertheless decided to take on the giralda enorme and we climbed all 34 of those ramps!  Sadly, I misunderstood a key piece of information before our ascent, fooling myself into believing that there were "only" 17 ramps.  No, no.  34.  See how much missing a detail affects things?  The important part, though, is that we made it and were able to take in a grand view of Sevilla once at the top. And we got an earful of bell as it marked the half hour.  Totally worth it, though.

Perhaps one of the coolest parts of the palace and the cathedral is that they are almost literally up the street from us.  Seriously, we turned a corner and then, BAM!  They were both RIGHT THERE!  This is what we saw:

(We climbed that tower.)

Later in the day, we eventually made it over to the Plaza de España.  ...After we found out that the map's popular sites indications were hiding its name, preventing us from locating it and after I led us onto the wrong road because I misunderstood the map and road setup.  I tell you, it's in the small details!  The hunt paid off, though, leading us to a plaza, replete with painted tiling and complete with a small canal and a fountain.  

We crossed the ornate bridges over the canal to stand downwind of the fountain.  On a hot day in Sevilla such as today, if felt as refreshing as much as it is pleasing to look at.  My favorite part was simply being there with other adults and children, all enjoying its cooling effect together.  Here we were, strangers, but a simple pleasure brought us together.  Adding to the ambiance was the man who walked by with his friends, playing guitar.  Oh, Spain!

But what about the small details for the plaza?  What about the title of this post?  Well, I won't leave you hanging.  For once, I did notice a small detail: I recognized an Indian family at the plaza, the same family Ashlee and I saw at the Alhambra in Granada!  Another detail that we noticed forced its presence on us: the pigeons.   Their potentially soothing cooing was driving us nuts, even to the point of considering how invigorating it'd feel to punt one of them!  Imagining that mental image combined with the coo it'd make was too much, and I had to laugh.  Yes, terrible me, laughing at an image of abusing pigeons.  But if you've ever been driven mad by them, you'd understand.  And they run away too quickly-and I say run because they are often too fat to fly.

Unfortunately, there was one detail Ashlee missed, and it made all the difference in the world.  Goes to show that [m] is a phoneme in the English alphabet.  

What I said: "Man, I'm simply pooped."

What Ashlee heard: "Man, I simply pooped."

Having realized the discrepancy, we commenced to laugh.  HARD.  As we did so, a man drove by with his horse and buggy and, seeing our laugh-induced pain, greeted us with an odd look and a friendly , "Hola."  By the end of our laughing fit, my cheeks and stomach hurt.  And I really did need a bathroom.  Thanks, Ashlee.