UN PASEO POR EL BRONX

it was actually on a morning run that i found all of the places that i later revisited in order to spend more to spend more time investigating them (and photojournalizing for the backhanded appeasement of some relations back in the old country) early this afternoon. and early this afternoon it was already too hot and too sunny (yes, portland, those are things) to really enjoy the walk. but i did get inside that cavernous shell of an abandoned edifice that stands -- not entirely bricked up, but almost -- just north of the macarena on the opposite side of the road that follows the western bank of the river through the city. it's full of trash. and lizards. but there was at least one man in there today who seemed to be living in the "room" with the tree in it at the northern end of the smaller of the two connected buildings. aside from rubble (i'll admit to having been a bit scared because i couldn't tell if what was left of the ceiling had done all of the falling it was going to do), most of the trash -- mattresses and plush toys and gutted home electronics -- looked like leftovers from previous squatters. on the old map i checked later in the day, the lines running away from the spot of what were now those ruins seemed to imply that they had once been a train station. on that map, there were also still train lines running away from the plaza de armas, which was replaced as sevilla's main train station after the completion of santa justa station, which was built, along with the the expansion to the airport, for the expected increase in visitors to the city for the celebration of the quincentennial of spain's opening of the americas to european exploration. i'd decided to run further in that direction that i ever had before because i'd spied the steeple of what i assumed to be an older church in the distance (and historic, monumental architecture isn't what you expect to see in el bronx). later, when i took more time to try to find access onto the grounds, i thought i'd seen a sun faded sign describing the rehabilitation of the monastery of some or another saint del buenavista; but the map said it was a cemetery, which i suppose wouldn't keep the building with the steeple from being a church or a monastery, but there was a security patrol along the outer wall with the only apparent access points to the building when i was back on my walk in the early afternoon, and i thought it better to do any more poking around at an odder hour. plus, it was still almost half of my walk to get back to that giant egg. i'd nearly laughed out loud when i'd first seen it earlier in the morning, and seeing it appear over the horizon was even more unexpected than the steeple. the probably hundred foot and hollowed out spheroid protects a huge statue of christopher columbus, who five-hundred and nineteen years ago came to sevilla to secure funds and three ships for his journey around the world to india from the monarchs of a recently united proto-spain (but only the name of the santa maria -- and the strange date of 12/X/1492 -- appear on the egg). and in the end, for the increasing intensity of the sun and the waning of my interest with the depletion of my water, i didn't end up walking all of the way back to it. of that, i didn't really need pictures. but the sevillian celebrations of 1492 were much more successful than the ones held in sevilla's sister city of columbus, ohio, u.s.a., and the continuing presence of the giant egg is testament to that, even if the central expedition site for the celebrations (located on the opposite side of the river and closer to the center of town) are now more scarcely frequented than even those ruins with their one remianing squatter. strangely, spain didn't get the day off today. there are certainly more publicly recognized religious holidays, but columbus day is not celebrated here. wednesday, however, is armed services day, and i've been told that absolutely nothing will be open. nothing other than ikea, that is, which in perfect american form is where (i've been told) the entire city of sevilla will be that day.

that's why we're going early. greetings from the new world.