Cordoba, Granada, Ubeda
Cordoba
Next stop on our Andalucia adventure was Cordoba! What a
city, what a city! And we stayed at a really cool hotel right across the street
from the Mezquita! The mezquita really is as grand as people make it sound. The
red and white striped arches, the cathedral, the pillars still standing since
the 9th century, everything in there was just beautiful! It was
interesting to see the Muslim and Christian influence all in one place. The
Muslim people of the area built this great Mosque with the striped arched roof
and amazing side rooms for burials, with intricately designed walls, floors,
and ceilings and Arabic scriptures scrolled on the walls. Then to see the
cathedral part, built right in the middle of the mosque when the Catholics took
over this area of Spain. (More info and pictures from the Mezquita http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosque–Cathedral_of_Córdoba ) All through the city you could see the Arabic
influence as well as the Christian influence, in some places they meshed well.
In others it seemed more like they were competing themes. After our tour of the
Mezquita, we visited the Alcazar of Cordoba, which is basically like a
fortress/castle kind of thing. The building was cool, they had some amazing
mosaics, but the gardens were definitely my favorite part. We spent about an
hour walking through the gardens, looking at fish and statues and all kinds of
stuff! (More info and pictures http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcázar_de_los_Reyes_Cristianos ) It was beautiful, and we left just in time because on our walk home it
started raining really hard. We got back to the hotel soaked, but that didn’t
matter because our next stop was the bathhouse!
In Cordoba, Austin
found an awesome early birthday present for me. He took me to an Arab
bathhouse! At first I wasn’t so sure how to feel about the idea, I had heard
stories of friends that went to bathhouses in places like Turkey and Vietnam.
Their stories weren’t so pleasant. However, this bathhouse was amazing! And
bathing suits were required (much to the displeasure of the German visitors
that were leaving just as we came in), so crisis averted! They had four large pools, one that was icy
cold, one that was warm, one that was really hot and a sauna room. After you
soak for a while in whichever baths you want (you are free to go from bath to
bath as much as you would like), you get a 15 minute massage, then you can get
back in the bath. We went at 10 at night, so there weren’t too many people
there. It was so fun and so relaxing! The room with all the baths were was
large and open with a few sky lights. Austin got us an upgraded package for my
early birthday present, so we also got to do an exfoliating body scrub, which
was really interesting! They had us lay on this big flat heated rock, which
looked a lot like an alter. Luckily for us, we didn’t get sacrificed. They got
these huge bags, they looked like pillowcases, then filled them with bubbles
and squeezed the bubbles out all over us. It felt so weird, at first the
feeling of the bubbles popping on my legs and stomach kind of tickled. Then
they kept putting more and more bubbles and for a little while it felt like suffocating
in bubbles. Then they got buckets of really hot water and washed all the
bubbles off. It was awesome, definitely a once in a lifetime birthday present! (Here is the website of the place we went to, it has pictures! http://www.hammamalandalus.com/en/ )
That night we wandered into the newer section of town to
find dinner. Finding dinner is sometimes really easy, the first place we see is
good food for a good price. Other times, it is nearly impossible, meaning we
are a group of hungry college students walking the streets, which is dangerous
for everyone. This was one of those “other times”. We wandered for almost 45
minutes before we found anything to eat! But once we looked at the menu we
realized it was worth the effort, they had a famous Spanish dish that we had
been hoping to try! Squid in it’s own ink! We ordered a plate and passed it
around the table each trying a little bite. And a little bite was enough for
most of us. It wasn’t too bad a flavor, but the squid in it’s own ink dish
requires that the squid not be breaded, so it was really slimy and rubbery. But,
it was totally worth a try! We also found some fountains in the main plaza that
the boys decided it would be a good idea to jump over. Bad idea. Ryan cleared
it just fine. Austin landed crotch first on the water. And so did Brandon. So 2
of our 3 guys walked the city looking like they didn’t find the bathroom in
time. It was hilarious, then it was just embarrassing.
The next morning some of us got up in time to make the
8:30am mass at the Cathedral in the Mezquita, which was basically amazing. There
were at least 15-20 priests, which is an unusually large number. But it made
the singing/chanting of the scriptures sound incredible as it echoed through
the huge building. It was so beautiful! It was a really quick mass, only about
30 minutes long but the chapel was packed. After mass we went straight to the
bus and made our way to Granada.
Granada
Granada was a shorter trip. We got there in the early
afternoon, dropped our bags at the hotel and rushed up the mountain to the
Alhambra to meet our tour guide. The Alhambra was beautiful. Every detail of
the huge complex of buildings was so incredible. Everything you saw was
beautiful, even the bathrooms. We spent most of the day here with our tour
guide leading us around to all the important stuff. We learned a lot about
Spanish traditions that were really interesting. For example, I never
understood why most of the old Spanish buildings have little plazas/patios in
the middle of the building. The reason I learned is this: To protect the women
and fortify the building while still having access to light. If they built
their windows on the outside of the building then strange men could peer in and
the outer wall wouldn’t be as strong. But they still needed windows in order to
light the rooms, so they came up with the center patio system! (More info and pictures here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhambra )
After our tour at the Alhambra was over, we went to a little
plaza area on the hill directly across from the Alhambra to get pictures of the
building at sunset, because apparently that is the thing to do when you have finished the tour of the Alhambra. We walked up one of the steepest hills I
have walked in my life. And I secretly cursed every time the little trolley
drove past us full of tourists. But I was saving money and getting exercise, so
I guess it was worth walking. When we got to the top, the view was worth every single step, even the one really bad step that led to me falling on my face. We not
only saw the Alhambra but the entire city of Granada as the sun set behind the Sierra Nevadas (The mountain range that Spain named after the mountains in California... or maybe it was the other way around...). In the little plaza there
were several vendors set up selling jewelry, snacks, and other little
knick-knacks. Austin found a guy that
would let you hold his parrot for a euro, so he went for it! After Austin got
his picture with the parrot it bit him, hard on his hand. We could not help but laugh at Austin, a lot. The look of shock and horror on his face was absolutely priceless. It made a cute little perfectly round bruise on his palm. But the picture turned out really great, so it was worth it. That
night we went to bed good and tired, the days of nonstop exploring were finally
catching up to us. The next morning we started our long bus ride home, with a
quick stop in Ubeda.
Ubeda
Ubeda is a little town high on a hill that overlooks some of
the largest olive farms in the world. The view from the town is referred to as
the “sea of olives”. We got lunch I an empty bar then wandered around the quiet
town. We found a shop selling - you guessed it – Olive Oil! We got some for our
host mom that was lemon flavored, and we sampled all kinds of different types
of olive oil. Lauren and I took off to find some ice cream, and while we were
gone Austin made a new friend. I’ll let him tell this story:
I took the Maddens
(our professor and his family) to a store I previously went to, to buy olive oil.
When we entered, there was a man there that wasn’t there the last time I went
it. He was short and kind of chubby. He was dressed fancy and had on a beret.
While the Maddens were choosing a bottle of olive oil to buy this man came up
to me and insisted that I smell the different types of olive oils. While he
kept putting different types of oils in my face he was telling me how wonderful
the oils are and their smells are priceless. He grew up in the orchards and told me olives/olive oil is his life. I enjoyed listening to his stories, but it started to get weird.
I never thought someone could love olive oil so much. Then he poured me a glass
of wine and told me to taste it. I asked him if it had alcohol in it and he
said, “No, no no… pruebalo.” I then tried it and there was definitely alcohol
in it. I told him he was wrong and he
said, “Well, there is a little… but isn’t it such a wonderful taste!” That’s
when I started losing my patience with the guy and told him this stuff isn’t
that big of a deal to me. I wanted to tell him he needs new hobbies but the experience
was pretty funny, and he was just so passionate!
When we were finished in Ubeda it was back to the bus. The
entire group slept most of the way back to Alcala!
