About time for the next installment.... We've been living in Cordoba for about a month, and we're starting to find our way around our bit of the city at least, there's lots more to be explored yet. We've bought some bicycles and are enjoying finding ourselves in places that sensible foreigners don't get to. Our neighbourhood is called Barrio Bialet Masse. We aren't sure why it's called Bialet Masse, but we're told he was a French architect. Whatever, this bit of town is where we know our way around the best, and our flat in particular, which is probably the smallest in the neighbourhood if not the universe.
If you stand in the doorway and look right, then this is what you see:
The kitchen is the little bit behind the fridge, which only fits one person in it at a time, and you have to choose between whether to use the little worktop as a chopping area or a draining board:
If you stand in the doorway and look left then this is what you see:
And that's all there is to see.
On the plus side, it is cheap, and easy to clean, and has a good supply of hot water, and nice neighbours. We would like to be able to have a few other amenities, like a table; and the bed has a tendency to attack us with stray springs in the middle of the night. So we are hoping to move in the next couple of months. We would also like to have a washing machine, although we are getting pretty adept at washing our stuff under the shower, as modelled by our willing volunteer:
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I think most of our neighbours would think that this is pretty uncivilised, but it works for us.
The flat is built on the roof of a bigger house underneath it, like a bit of an afterthought. This makes us one of the highest buildings in the area. Looking out towards the town centre, we can see:
On the horizon you can just see the start of the high rises in the centre of town. Like lots of cities in South America, there are not as many high rises as there would be in Europe. Land is not as expensive here so the city sprawls out rather than up. On a clear day we can sometimes see the line of hills in the background. They are about 30 km away, and the tallest of these is around 2,600metres. This is not a clear day.
Looking the other way, there is a stunning view over Carrefour carpark:
Carrefour is a big supermarket. Best avoided. We like the neighbourhood shops better. They are not much more expensive, and a lot more fun. The disadvantage of the neighbourhood shops is that everything is behind a counter, so you have to know the Spanish for everything you need. Or have good miming skills. They are getting used to us.
Looking up the road, these are the roofs of the other houses in the street, each complete with its own water tank. We have running water here, so our tank fills automatically. In lots of areas the water comes from individual wells and people have to have a pump or 'bombeador' to pump the water up to the roof from 80metres down:
It is perfectly possible to walk between the houses on the roof, but the police take a dim view of it. So I'm told....