Córdoba

Alright, you would think that I'd be done by now with last weekend, but nope.  Unfortunately for you, you're reading someone's blog who is waaay too detailed with my information.  But in all honesty I prefer to be detailed.  This is after all, more or less, a recount for myself as well.

I guess the last place I left off was being in Sevilla.  So Sunday morning we woke up, left the hotel and headed over to Córdoba.  This lovely little town was one of the first towns that had a strong Arabic and Roman influence.  There is tons of Roman history and Arabic history there, but most of the Roman stuff is gone because the Arabs built over it all, or used their pieces, or the Christians then built over that stuff. So what we get is a big mash up of cultures and different architecture.

So we arrived in Córdoba and were greeted with a lovely view of the city.  Córdoba is actually quite a small city, in relation to pretty much every other place I've visited.  But it's quite a cute little town.  This is the lovely site I saw when out bus pulled up and we were dropped off at the bus stop.  If you think this view is pretty, wait till you see what I saw when we were leaving.  This whole little town is amazing, I wish I could have spent more time in it.

We got there at around 12 and had about an 1 or more to just wander around until it was time for our guided tour around the city.  In all honesty, I was tired of walking around new places, it was warm out, there was a perfectly nice sun spot right where I was sitting.  So there I sat.  Yup, there were about 15 of us that just hung out right outside the Mosque.  There was also a convenient Ice Cream shop right across the street, so most of us went over there and grabbed some ice-cream.  So I ate ice cream and sat in the nice warm sun while we waiting for our tour guide.  We couldn't go into the Mosque because it's also now a Church, and they hold mass in there, and when there's mass you're not allowed in.  Not gonna lie, I like that policy, I feel so weird when I enter a Cathedral and a mass is being held.  It's awkward.

Most of us eating our ice cream
and enjoying the sun :)

So I hung around and our guide showed up at around 1:30 or so.  And she started to take us around the city.  One of the first things we went to was the older part of Córdoba.  There was still some part of the wall left from when the Roman's built this wall many many years ago and this is pretty much the only part that's left that the roman's built.  As I said earlier, they tore down a lot of stuff. So this section of the wall and a few others are really all that's left.  Originally though, this surrounded most of Córdoba to protect it.

After we visited the wall and saw some statues of prominent people we entered into the oldest part of the city, what is now called the "Jewish Section" of Córdoba.  This section was home to many of the Jews that lived in the city.  Córdoba used to have a lot of people of all three religions, Jewish, Christians, and Muslims.  This section of the city was where all the Synagogues used to be, and where the wealthy people lived.  It´s a very pretty section and we saw a very small old private Synagogue. It's very small and was even converted into a small church at one point, when the Jews were all expelled from Spain a long time ago.  Now it's just a monument that people go visit.

Me in the courtyard 

After that we headed over to only the second most famous part of Córdoba.  La Calle de Flores, The street of flowers.   Now, be forewarned, the pictures I have of this street is not at all good.  Luckily I bought a postcard to show the real beauty of this place.  The street is very, very, very narrow, and it's literally just filled with tourists going in and out of the street to look at all the flowers that are in the courtyard, and all the little flowers hanging on the wall.  While we were waiting in line to enter the little courtyard area we were waiting in the tiny little street.  We all looked up and jokingly said "haha, hope none of these are loose", as we were all standing under potted plants mantled to the wall.  Of course, nothing did break, but it was an amusing thought.

We were also in Córdoba as the same time as a bunch of other programs with students.  It's amazing how many programs take their students to the same places, at the same time! So naturally we ran into another huuuuge ground.  Then this guy heard my friend Gracie talk about Boston, or at least I'm assuming that's how it happened, because when we passed them the second time the guy shouted "Hey Boston girl!"  Then proceeded to ask us if we were all from Boston.  It was quite an entertaining thing to see.  I do believe that he was overly excited that she was from Boston.

We continued to walk around the city with our guide and learn about some famous people that are important to Córdoba.  For example, there's some scientist doctor guy that was known for I think being an eye doctor.  So he has a statue in one of their plazas and it´s a fairly new statue.  Rumor has it that if you rub his foot you'll have good luck.  We all rubbed it, although I'm not too sure he was very good luck for me....all things considered that conspired that week.

After some more aimless wandering, and honestly not paying much attention, we finally arrived at the Mosque turned Cathedral.  I was really too busy enjoying the sun and the views.  This Mosque! This Mosque was about a million different things.  It started off as a Mosque when the Arabes had power in Córdoba and ruled there for a long time.  There are multiple parts of the Mosque and additions were made to it multiple times.  The first part, which is very cool was made of lots of different parts from the Romans.  Yup, that´s what it looks like.  All the columns are a bit different, and they were polished.  This was the original part of the Mosque.  This part was built by, ready yourself...Abd Ar-Raham I, he was a calife, or the head guy of the Muslims in those ages.  I'm learning about all this in my Islamic Culture in Spain right now.  :)  This was the first part of the Mosque, ironically built on the remains of a destroyed Basilica (weren't they so nice back then? :P).  The arches were hispano-romanic and they alternated brick and stone to give it that cool criss-cross look.

Then Abd Ar-Rahman II added onto the Mosque and just added more space for the courtyard and isles of the prayer hall.  He kept the same design as above.  After that A Hakam II built the 3rd addition to the building.  This area is a bit more decorative and looks very pretty.  There are about 3 different doors that look like that, and it's all fenced off so you can't get any closer than that, but it's still very pretty.

Finally, this guy Al-Mansur added the last portion of the Mosque.  He added lots more naves, basically more rows of the columns and arches.  This time though they had less money so they didn't use real brick and stone to do the red and beige coloring that's up there.  Instead they painted it so it looks like it has a pattern, and they didn't polish the columns.  So they look a little bit different, but they didn't reuse the columns this time.  It's a huge space but looks very much the same as the first picture of the Mosque shown above.

Finally, the last addition, but not by a Calife, by King Ferdinand III.  The Christians conquered Córdoba in the 1200's and King Ferdinand III decided he'd be nice, and instead of destroying the building he'll just add onto it too.  It was too beautiful for him to destroy, so this changed this mosque into a church...Or at least added a church part to it.  So it's quite strange to be walking around a Mosque and then poof, all of a sudden you are surrounded by the glamour of the Christian decorations.  So we went from seeing all of that to...this... it was pretty magnificant.  I love the cathedrals and things that they built then.  It's nothing like what we have now, these are just...breathtaking.  Every cathedral I see just keeps topping the other, they are all amazing in my eyes.

The Sacristy was also amazing.  There was a huge box that held the Eucharist when they travel with it.  But the word escapes me, either way it was amazing.  I loved it, and was very happy that they simply put this amazing thing inside the Mosque and didn't destroy the beautiful building.  It was sooo strange when we walked out of it though and went back to the old arabic designed stuff.  Such a weird feeling, haha  But I loved the church part of the mosque.

Me in the courtyard

That pretty much rounded out that the mosque.  From there we left the Mosque and went outside to the courtyard.  We were given free time, about another hour to walk around and grab some food, touristy gifts and use the rest rooms before we left for Granada again.  But not before taking some more stunning pictures.  Once again, I got ice cream, grabbed my touristy gifts and soaked up the sun with most of our AIFS group.  It was just too nice out.  And Córdoba is pretty small, there wasn't much other there that we hadn't seen. 

Just another view

After our free time we simply headed back to Granada, getting back at around 6.  That was nice too, because it was a Sunday afternoon and we needed to get back so we could organize ourselves and get ready for class the next day.

Overall, my weekend was amazing.  I saw some awesome things, and they're things that I now get to learn about in my classes.  That's my favorite part about traveling.  I'm learning about all these things that I'm seeing.  For me, I love seeing history.  I love seeing some obscure things too, but the history to me is amazing.  Where I'm living is so central to Spainish history.  So much started here and there's such a rich history.  I love it.  Just one more reason for me to be so grateful.  Sometimes all it takes is reflecting to understand how lucky you are.  And for me, reflecting on here and recounting my memories and travels helps me realize how lucky I am.  Not everyone gets to experience these things.  This is an experience of a life time and sometimes I still can't believe that I'm here, and that this is my norm...so strange.

Well, next weekend is Morrocco.  But who knows what this weekend will bring.  I have midterms next week so probably not too much, although this weekend is fiesta de primavera (festival of spring). AKA: Lots of young students botelloning (drinking outside) at the one legal botellon area.  So who knows.  I guess I should do some school work too huh?

Well hopefully I'll write about this week and my intercambio experience, but I think for the night I'm done with my blogging.

Enjoy, love you all. <3