How to get to Ikea from Seville

DEAR READER: I AM MIGRATING like a cute little Canadian goose, to www.blollings.wordpress.com - please visit there for new posts A-THANK-YOU, Saz xxx

You've just arrived in Seville in the deep mid-winter and all you've been given is a flanelette sheet and an extremely long pillow? Do you love bargains? Go to Ikea!

IKEA IN SEVILLE!!!!!

How to get to Ikea from Seville

Its not difficult to get to Ikea on public transport from Seville. You need to get the bus from Plaza de Armas. The M160 Sevilla-Gines goes every 20 minutes or so and

Week three in Seville

Hello dear readers,

I have now spent three weeks in Seville and after bragging and lolling about how sunny it was here the temperatures have PLUMMETED and no clothes that I've brought here are warm enough!!

I didn't write a blog post last week. The truth is, I was suffering terribly and I didn't want to worry you. I wanted to be brave, and pretend that I was okay and write a happy blog post, but I wasn't strong enough. At times we didn't know if I'd be able to last until the end of the work programme, and there were at least three days when I woke up in  the morning and I thought to myself, "Oh dear I do NOT feel well!". It begun with a sore throat and rumbled along into a runny nose and some real GROGGINESS, you know what I mean? But you'll be relieved to hear that somehow I have managed to struggle through. I still have a lot of phlegm in my nostrils though, and so I've spent the last few days really surprising people at how loudly I blow my nose. Nobody in the office has mentioned it which is very awkward as sometimes I blow my nose so loudly that the pen pot rattles, so I'm sure they've noticed it.

This weekend I went on an exciting adventure to Madrid to visit a Dear Friend. Madrid is in Spain, and so is Seville, but let me tell you Spain is much bigger than you think it is! I've just looked it up and as a point of comparison Edinburgh is closer to Birmingham than Madrid is to Seville - its over 500km. They have one of those super fast space age trains that only takes 2.5 hours but it costs more than I could sell my kidney for. The next quickest option is car! So I decided to take a Blablacar, which in the words of my Oldest Sister is "like hitch hiking, but worse." Its a website where people who are driving places offer up any spare seats in their car for a fee - you pay them to get in their car. Its sounds super creepy to me because I'm English and I'm scared of strangers, confined spaces with strangers and strangers on the internet. But in Spain its really normal. They seem to really like confined spaces with strangers. In the tiny lift in my office building, for example, everybody says hello when they get in AND "see you later" when they get out. Which is surprising when you think the normal thing to do in a lift is stare at the ground so you avoid eye contact and really sneakily check yourself out in the mirror. (BTW Spain is arguably less weird than Austria where in train cabins they used to say "greetings to God!" and "you're welcome").

So anyway Blablacar is normal here and it was also really fun. It was also great to practice Spanish and it was fun to meet some, like, real life Spanish people who are just going about their business and are surprised to see a little English girl waddling along being all confused and cute (that's me btw. Nobody's described me as cute yet but its how I'm trying to project myself).

Last time I went to Madrid with another Dear Friend we were basically hijaked by the Dear Pope who had decided to pop over from the Vatican along with millions of Young Catholics. (I really do mean millions). We both agreed that it was literally the worst thing ever. But this time it was so fun, and Madrid was very pretty and fancy.

There are so many other things I can write about!! But we're all getting tired so I will leave you with an interesting question. 'Blah blah' in English obviously refers to chatting, which is where I assumed the name BlaBlaCar came from. But in Spanish, to talk is 'hablar', and 'he talks' is 'habla', which sounds a bit like 'bla bla' and looks a bit like 'blah', and I'm like, is that related? Is that why we say Blah Blah? Please send your answers on a blank postcard with a self addressed envelope to PO Box CUTE.GIRL.IN.SEVILLE., best answer wins a Kinder Egg and a gold Blue Peter Badge.

xxxxxxxxxx

AN EVALUATION OF MEXICAN PUBLIC TRANSPORT

Mexico is blessed with a fleet of reasonably-high quality coaches that travel around the major tourist spots filled with Europeans and backpacks (I am one of those) (...Europeans. IM NOT A BACKPACK. hahaha just a little joke to break the ice). They have strong air conditioning and are named ADO.

As any TRUE BACKPACKER (like myself!!!) knows, however, the best way to get involved with the locals is intrude on their own public transport system. I had already given this a go when I went to visit Chichen Itza (which is one of the six or seven or eight MODERN wonders of the world. Not very modern though REALLY when you think about it!!!!!!!!!) and I hopped onto a ´COLECTIVO´ taxi. A colectivo taxi is a private minibus that goes around a specific route, picking people up and dropping them off. It is VERY similar to the maquina system in Cuba, except Mexican Colectivos mostle seem to have been made post-1959 and a considerable number of them have suspension and power steering. On this first delve into the colectivo system, nobody sat next to me, but everybody nodded and smiled at me a lot. I am relatively certain I was overcharged for these luxuries.

I was forced to used a colectivo once again three days ago as I was trying to escape PALENQUE. I went to the ruins in Palenque with Fran and Bro. and they are very cool because they are inside the jungle! That evening I stayed in the city itself, which reminded me vaguely of Bilston (not a good thing) so I was eager to leave. However, due to levels of confused disorganisation which were impressive even by my standards (NOTE: both I and the bus service ADO were disorganised in this instance), there were no seats available on the bus to San Cristobal (my destination of choice!). Thankfully, at the point I was heartlessly turned away from the bus terminal, I managed to befriend not one, not two, but an entire family of Mexicans! They were trying to get to San Cristobal too, and told me I could go with them on one of the colectivos.

As I arrived at the colectivo station, I took the advice University of Manchester gave me over one year ago, and did a quick risk assessment. The van looked in fine shape, though after 5 months in Cuba I HAVE TO ADMIT my standards in vehicle quality have taken a nose dive. The driver looked cheerful and he wasn´t drunk (always a plus). It did cross my mind that Chiapas has a vaguely revolutionary reputation, but finally I decided it must be safe based on the fact the mother of the Mexican family was impeccably dressed, and she deemed the situation secure. So in a got, with my backpack on my lap and a smile on my face.

The journey was nice and bumpy, and nice and cheap too. The other passengers mainly ignored me, except for an elderly indigenous woman sitting in front of me, who kept turning round to eyeball me and swear at me with her fingers.

Yesterday I entered another minivan full of Mexicans, but this wasn`t a colectivo: it was an ORGANISED TOUR to a big waterfall and the Logos de Mirabella. The waterfull was really beautiful, and as a treat ended on an exciting dramatic interlude. Once of the mexican families on the tour was almost an hour late in returning to the bus. At first I thought nobody would mind because we were running on ´latin american time`, but I realised everyone was getting quite testy when the other passengers began to demand that the driver leave without the family. He was most indecisive and a bit lame. One member of the family arrived, and rang the others. When they answered the phone she screamed at them: "TE FALTAS MUCHO, VERONICA!!! YOURE PISSING EVERYONE OFF! GET HERE RIGHT NOW!". Veronica arrived about thirty minutes later, cool as a cucumber, and as we left the carpark all hell broke loose in the bus as everyone began ganging up on her. It was great to watch, just like a telenovela. "YOU HAVE TO THINK OF USSS!! THINK OF THE PEOPLE WAITING!!!" one woman kept screaming from the back seat, as everyone else nodded in justified agreement.

Tonight, after four days in San Cristobal, I`m back on the road, but this time (unfortunately) on the ADO tourist buses again.

til nex t timeeee kisses from central america xoxoxoxo

HOW TO USE TAXIS IN CUBA/HAVANA! Cubataxi, Maquinas and American Cars

With no underground or metro system and buses that make you weak at the knees, taxis are probably the best way to get around in Havana. We have a volatile relationship with the taxi drivers. We love taxis. We hate taxi drivers.We hate taxis. We love taxi drivers. It's a fickle thing!

I would say there are three types of taxis,. each with their own special quirks.

1. Huge, beautiful American Cars

These big cars park outside hotels and are very shiny. A friendly Cuban will drive you open-top around the city, and he will charge you through the teeth for the privilege! This can be fun for the novelty but its not worth it unless you get lucky, and a fancy taxi driver gives you a good deal! No Cubans use these, unless they're getting married (to a foreigner) and are - in the words of our Cuban neighbour - 'ostentatious'.

2. Cubataxi

Cuba taxis are yellow and usually Ladas. They charge in tourist dollars but they're not too expensive, though you should still haggle with them. They're probably the safest, cheap option at night but nevertheless I used them rarely. 

When my parents were visiting, there was no other option for me to get from their accommodation to my house than to use Cuba taxi. On one particularly typical night, I had to talk to three taxi drivers before somebody agreed to my limit of $4 for a taxi. Climbing in, the driver began revving the engine but nothing happened. The car was old and decrepit, and needed a push-off. In a characteristic wave of Cuban comradery, all nearby taxi drivers (including those who had grossly overcharged me and I'd just rejected) surrounded the car and push it halfway down the road, running behind and beside it, so it could get enough speed to start the engine. Taxi drivers mince tourists as much as humanly possible, but they're nice to each other.

3. Maquinas/Collectivos

I love Maquinas because they are one element of Cuban life I feel I really understood and could manage as well as a Cuban. They're basically cars that are owned by the driver (unlike Cubataxis) that do a set route, for example from Vedado to Havana Vieja and back again. They are collective taxis, so like a bus, they stop for people who stick their hand out until they're full. It was difficult to explain to my sisters and parents how you could tell which cars were maquinas. They were usually old, rusty American cars that weren't fancy enough to be tourist taxis, they'd have a 'taxi' sticker in the window and.... they just looked like maquinas!
To catch a maquina you wait on the pavement on one of the routes- make sure you stand where its legal for them to stop! We would wait on Calle B y 23 for maquinas to go to Capitolio, which was basically the centre of Old Town. Passing maquina drivers will stick their fingers out their window showing how many spaces they had, and then you'd wave them down and tell them where you wanted to go. All journeys cost $10 or $20 Cuban pesos. Its so much cheaper than other taxis and really convenient.
You can get maquinas home from town from Calle Neptuno (walk to Hotel Telegrapho then go left).

Remember that things always change in Cuba so if you need help ask a friendly Cuban. Casa Paticular owners will always be helpful but they may well try and get you to use one of their mate's cars. Our Casa Paticular owner in Vinyales arranged our trip home with The Cat:

We fit 10 people in this (not-so) roomy taxi

Getting to and from the airport

There is a bus that goes to and from the airport but I'll be honest, it doesn't actually stop anywhere near the airport and its a big hassle, even if it does only cost about 3p. The best option is to suck it up and pay the $20/25 to get home in an official taxi. If somebody approaches you and offers cheaper then its probably illegal, but if you want the cheap price make sure you agree and don't let them wander off with another customer! If you're living in Havana and picking someone up, you might be able to agree a good price with a taxi driver to take you there and wait for you. Alternatively take the bus.

As with everything in Cuba, make sure you agree the price of a taxi with the driver before you get in. In my experience Cubans won't try and cheat you if you agree a price with them, but if you don't then they'll obviously seize the opportunity to make an extra few dollars!

And you've got to get the bus at least once while you're there.

More info on Cuba:
Food in Cuba
Toilets in Cubs
Cuba highlights