Tag Archives: sevilla

orange days 2024

09 Wednesday Oct 2024

Posted by in gastronomy, restaurants, sevilla

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orange days-001

When it comes to choosing an emblematic image for Sevilla it has to be the orange. The more than 40,000 orange trees lining the streets and squares throughout the city provide both shade and beauty, and for those few glorious weeks in early spring the air is filled with the delicate scent of azahar when the trees are in blossom.

The Sevilla Hotel Association’s 23rd Jornadas Gastronómicas will take place October 10th to November 10th with 29 establishments participating with a special dish or menu paying homage to the Sevilla Orange. 

we are doomed…

07 Monday Oct 2024

Posted by in coronavirus, covid, health, health & happiness

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no vaxx

This is such bad news. Downplaying that an airborne vascular virus that affects multiple organs and the immune system is only dangerous to so-called at-risk “vulnerable” people is a total bullshit response to the ongoing pandemic.

It also feeds into the THEM vs US mentality, with people erroneously believing that because they think they are fit and have a healthy immune system that Covid poses no risk to them, and then treating so-called “vulnerable” people with either pity or disdain while totally denying that Long Covid exists (until it happens to them) and behaving, well, selfishly.

I’m still not sure how much this year in Spain actually differs from the previous Covid booster shots (winter 2022/2023), as those were also available with a roll-out programme that started out with the elderly but eventually covered everyone. So it’s not clear if this year the usual Flu shot campaign will include getting an updated Covid booster, or if you will have to belong to one of the “target groups” to be eligible. In any case, the Covid boosters have never been mandatory and I don’t even think the initial vaccines were either, other than being required by certain industries.

The danger is if Covid vaccines and boosters are denied to people who want them simply because they don’t fit into this random and ever-changing criteria of who are perceived to need them. They don’t do this with the Flu jab. Anyone can get one. So why would it different with Covid? Why do you have to somehow prove you are eligible?? It’s not like most countries don’t have enough of the booster shots to go around.

I think that THIS particular sort of “official” disinformation/misinformation (see quote below, from the article) irks the most because it downplays the actual reality of SARS-CoV-2 and is still trying to convince people that it’s “just a cold”. It’s pretty clear by now that Covid is much more than a respiratory illness, let alone “just a cold” and it’s also clear that nobody develops immunity to Covid (just like with Flu, hence annual boosters!) and that the “let ‘er rip” global approach to Covid continues to enable new strains of this novel coronavirus to basically get better and better at making us sick and rendering previous vaccinations and boosters useless.

What if I haven’t been vaccinated against Covid for two years?

If they do not meet any condition of vulnerability and do not belong to the target groups, vaccination is not recommended for those under 60 years of age this year. “At this time, considering the epidemiological situation and the acquired immunity of the population, vaccination against Covid-19 in people not included in the target groups is not justified,” the ministry of health said. In other words, the vaccination two years ago and the infections of the disease during the last four and a half years have generated sufficient immunity not to make mass vaccination necessary.

We are ALL vulnerable. Denying or downplaying the need for an updated Covid vaccine booster to the general public in the midst of an ongoing pandemic is unconscionable. Honestly, all of this makes me sick. I only hope it doesn’t end up actually making me (or you!) sick too.

connectivity

03 Thursday Oct 2024

Posted by in culture, sevilla, tourism

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bus routes plaza duque (1)

bus routes plaza duque (2)

So this is happening. And I’m furious about it. Yet another move to make Sevilla more “tourist friendly” at the expense of its residents. The plan is to pedestrianise a main downtown strip that runs from the Plaza del Duque to The Setas (aka Metropol Parasol). No doubt the idea is to install more hotels, chain bars and restaurants and have their terraza tables spilling out into the street. BUT… this also means  5 major bus routes that now finish in Plaza del Duque are going to be rerouted to “turn around” either in the Alameda or in Plaza Ponce de León.

On the maps (above) Plaza del Duque is the white square on the left. From there you can see how far reaching these two bus routes are – the 27 and 32. They go WAY OUT THERE to the suburbs and those buses are always packed, every day, all day long. The 32 also connects the centre to the FUCKING TRAIN STATION. What are they thinking? Oh wait, tourists can take taxis.

For this rant I am gong to focus on the two routes being shifted to Plaza Ponce de León because those are the ones I use the most (but in spirit I am with the 13 & 14 heading north). And when I say they are packed all day a large number of the people on these buses are elderly, mobility challenged, etc… people coming into the centre to shop, have lunch, enjoy a day in town, you know, BE in their city. Not to mention workers coming in to the various shops, restaurants, hotels, etc. who have to be here.

Now if you look at the map below it maybe doesn’t seem like a big deal, moving the “turn around” point from the square on the left (Plaza del Duque) to the arrow on the right (Plaza Ponce de León). But that is in fact at least a fifteen minute walk. For a young fit healthy person, maybe it’s 11 or 12. For me right now with knee issues it would be half an hour. So right now I am identifying with and really feeling what this would mean for all the elderly people that I always see on this bus. For them it could mean that they would no longer be able to access the centre OF THEIR OWN CITY. In order to give more access to tourists.

bus routes duque

A couple of years ago a similar thing happened with three main bus routes from the centre to Triana, and this has resulted in many people no longer being able to get into the centre of their own city. Why? Because a five star hotel was installed in the Plaza de Magdalena and it has been turned into their playground, no more nasty buses turning around in the square… now the buses stop further down towards the river, again too far for people with mobility issues to manage. We are losing our city and our culture day by day. Soon all that will be left are gormless tourists walking around thinking they are having an AUTHENTIC EXPERIENCE because they are staying in our homes, going to our bars (where locals no longer go) and basically just enjoying the architecture. People just don’t get it… if there are no neighbours then it’s not a neighbourhood.