Andalucía

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Hello hello!  Just got back from my second Andalucía trip last night (this time with the language school) at around 4 in the morning, and just like last time… loooooved it!

On Wednesday we left first for Córdoba during the afternoon, which is a pretty far bus ride from León, and so we had to stay in a small little town a little bit outside of Córdoba.  Woke up early and then finally drove into it.  On the bus ride a girl from the language school who is in my class but I didn’t really know too well sat next to me; she’s from Budapest and speaks Spanish really well, so it was nice getting to know about her.  Thank god she did because without having someone to talk to the bus rides would have lasted foreverrrrr–she’s on the left and another fun girl from Connecticut who goes to the language school is on the right.

Córdoba was a new city for me which I had left out of the trip with my mom on purpose so that I’d actually have a reason to go on this one, or rather so that I’d have somewhere new to see.

After walking around for really only a few minutes, Javi (my history teacher from the language school, and also the permanent guide for the excursions) ran into his father-in-law, who is friends with the winner of the Patio Contest that takes place every May in Córdoba.  Their patio has won several years and won this year, just about a week or two ago.  So we got a wonderful view of pretty much the most beautiful patio (shared between a handful of neighbors) in Córdoba.

After that we headed over to a Palace called Palacio Viana and walked around there for a while, then headed out for some lunch.

Then we headed over to the Mezquita (Mosque), which is the main attraction in Córdoba.

Construction on it started around the year 600 as a church and was later bought by Emir Adb err-Rahman and reworked by him and later descendants starting in 784 until 1236 when Ferdinad III retook Córdoba from the muslims.

Anyways, later on Charles V gave permission to alter the building even without having seen it.  And what the Christian church did was pretty much slab a massive cathedral smack in the middle of it, which is super unfortunate, because if there is one thing that Spain has enough of…

It was great to go inside of it because I’ve seen much more Roman and Christian architecture than I can even remember, and this was something completely different.

After seeing the Mezquita, we headed west to Sevilla where we arrived that evening.  The night before Sevilla’s football team had just won La Copa del Rey which is the tournament of all the soccer teams in Spain.  While I was waiting to take a shower I turned on the TV and found where the huge celebration was.  Then I turned it off I could hear the party going on, which was only a few blocks away.  Unfortunately we all got out of the hotel about 10 minutes too late, and just missed the gathering of everyone, but there were a ton of people dressed up in the Sevilla jersey.  It was nice to know my way around Sevilla because we were able to find everything.

The next day we saw all the same stuff I had seen before except a nice little museum.  Went to the Cathedral (ate lunch by it with a group of people which was great), Alcázar, and neighborhood tour.  Sevilla is a beautiful city and everyone really loved it.

That night we went out and got some tapas and drinks right around where I stayed the first time because it’s a nice little place to hang out.  Everyone wanted to drink more and we found a terrible little dance club, which neither the Hungarian girl nor I wanted to hang out at, so we went out bar hopping ’til everything was closed around 4.  Surprisingly enough she can drink way more than me.

On Saturday we arrived in Nerja, a beach I really wanted to go to but didn’t know it existed until my mom and I arrived back in Barcelona.  It’s a normal sized, amazing town just like you’d expect a little outside of the larger city Málaga.

We hung out pretty much the whole day there and I got a ton of sun.  Ice cream, swimming, football, tanning, everything you could hope for in a beach day.

Plus it’s awesome to be able to say that now I have swam in the the Mediterranean Sea.  The water wasn’t even too cold, and towards the top was actually pretty warm.

Anyways, it was a great day at the beach!  Afterwards we went to Granada which I think was everyone’s favorite city.  We got there at nighttime and went up to El Mirador to look out at the Alhambra again.

Then we dropped our stuff of and headed out to a get a few tapas, which I explained to everyone are huuuge there compared to León (the only two cities in Spain where the tapas are free).  After the tapas we went to a tetería (a hookah bar), which was very nice and relaxing.  Half the group then wanted to go dance but I stayed with the hookah people and spent the rest of the night there until around 3.

The last day was all about the Alhambra, which I’ve talked about already two posts ago.  Unfortunately for my mom, I missed a spot the first time I went.

But this time I saw everything, and I can’t stress how amazing it is to have Javi as our guide.  He was one of the best teachers I’ve ever had and an incredible guide who really knows how to explain things.

So basically, lesson re-learned: the south is awesome, and I had a great time with the other students from the Centro (most of them speak Spanish pretty well now, which is a change from the trimester where speechless Japanese kids ruled the school).

I have 5 weeks of school left, then I really need to either knock over a bank or hit the lottery so I can travel around some more.  I hope everyone is doing well!!

~ by x3xleggedxninja on May 24, 2010.