Back to the Wild West!

Hello world!

First of sorry for the incredibly long wait! My laptop broke then I was Ill and then I was on holidays. I probably won't upload for the next month or so as I have my finals very soon but I just wanted to have a quick update for you guys.

Today’s post is another travel post. This time I’m writing about the day I spent at a place called “mini Hollywood”. Mini Hollywood is a place in the Tabernas desert in Almeria in the south of Spain, now it is an attraction park but it used to be a big film set where most western movies were filmed. It has been the set for most Clint eastwood movies such as The good, the bad and the ugly; once upon a time in the west and my name is nobody among many others.

 There are three different sets all within 5 km from each other, the biggest one where I went is no longer active as a film set but the other two that I didn’t visit are still used regularly. Episodes of doctor who have been filmed there, together with parts of an Indiana jones movie and Exodus. We didn’t visit the other two sets because we spent the entire day in the biggest one. The place we went to is a permanent attraction park that has the old film sets used in lots of western together with a cinema museum a carriage museum and a big zoo full of endangered species. The cinema museum was very interesting as it had the film poster for every single film made there as well as old camera equipment and projectors used in the 19^th century. The floor is covered in sand and it’s very dusty just like in the films. The set pieces are actual buildings you can go inside, or climb up and twice a day there is a can can dance show and a Wild West show.  I especially enjoyed the Wild West show; there were horses and gun fights and people flying everywhere. 

The zoo was also beautiful, the places the animals were staying were big and well kept, nearly all, if not all animals were endangered species in the zoo for a special breeding program. It’s hard to explain everything as it is so surreal. I honestly didn’t think it would be this nice, I thought the set was just that, a bunch of cardboard cut outs but no they were real buildings. The surroundings are also amazing, you really feel as if you have gone back in time, walking through a town thinking any minute a bandit on a horse comes galloping in. The saloon had the typical doors you see in all the movies. For most people it might seem a boring trip especially as it was a 3 hour drive from my house but for a cinema fanatic like me, it was amazing! When I got home later that night, we watched an old western filmed there and it was really fun to see all the sets we had seen that day in the movie. 

I’m going to add some picture and see if that can do more justice although I doubt it as you should really just see it with your own eyes. Soon hopefully I’m going to visit the other two sets that are still in use and a lot smaller than the one I visited.

I hope you enjoyed and I will see you all soon!

Have a great day/night wherever you are.

XxSimone