Cordoba, Sevilla, Granada, and Úbeda

I’ve been realizing that taking the time to sit down and blog about what’s been happening is basically impossible. We are always ALWAYS moving and if we’re not moving, we’re sleeping or eating. So! I am currently sitting in class (the “study” part of this Study Abroad) and semi-paying attention to the reconquista of Asturias en the ninth century. This final may not go so well.

This past week we had a PHENOMENAL excursion to Andalucía, a region in southern Spain. As c-c-cold and frigid as Segovia and Ávila were, Andalucía was the complete opposite. En serio, it was gloriously warm and sunny the whole four days we were there. It’s been sunny since here in Alcalá as well, but Andalucía is a few degrees warmer, there’s sand and palm trees everywhere…it’s just beautiful! I wouldn’t want to be there ANY later in the year tho because dang. It really was warm. We were in heaven:)

Man. The teacher keeps walking to the back of the room.; This may be more difficult than I thought. Don’t worry, Mom and Dad. I’m still paying attention:) I even answered a question!

So Wednesday we drove first to Córdoba to see the Mezquita de Córdoba, the most important mosque in Muslim Spain. Córdoba is unlike any of the other cities we’ve seen so far. It looked like something out of Aladdin or ancient Arabia. Yellow sand everywhere and palm trees and old buildings that matched the landscape. Oh and ice cream shops everywhere. Really authentic. We started out with some free time for food and exploring before we met up again with our guide, Antonio. We brought him with us from Madrid. The houses in Córdoba are white to reflect the sun, but the doors and even windows sometimes are outlined with a thick border of vibrant yellow. That yellow comes from a paint mixed with jojoba, a natural pesticide that keeps mosquitoes (didn’t know that was pluralized with an e) out. Isn’t that sweet? Old school insect repellent. They didn’t need no citronella tiki-torches. Also in Córdoba and Andalucía in general are beautiful patios. The streets are lined with the white walls of the houses (more like condominiums) and each door opens up to a patio filled with flowers or fountains and sunshine and cute benches… Some of them literally just have pots and pots of flowers. Everywhere. Others are more classic with a fountain, some nice shade, benches…I love fountains. Any garden is made ten times better with a fountain. And we’ve seen a lot of sweet gardens.

Oh. You know what? The white houses with the yellow door borders may have been Sevilla…yeah pretty sure that was Sevilla. Hee:) It was a VERY busy four days with not a lot of sleeping and a lot of walking, so it all blurs together. I can’t even remember what I wore very well and it was only four days. Did I mention I didn’t sleep much?

One thing I KNOW was in Córdoba was the Mezquita. Would that I were a poet, or even a good writer, to be able to capture the beauty and true awesomeness (the literal definition, not the surfer-dude definition) of that building. I’d learned about it in art history and seen pictures and such, but being there was such an incredible experience. Despite the innumerable columns and double arches, the space felt surprisingly expansive and uplifting. One element of Islamic art is “horror vacui” (trill your r’s as you say that one), which is a fear of empty space, so every inch was covered with immaculate carvings. Religious Islamic art is without figures of people or animals, so there are intricate patterns of shapes and flowers and calligraphy from the Quran. The walls are so thickly decorated that while we were touring the building, there was a woman vacuuming the wall. Literally. Vacuum. On the wall. In jest I said, “When do they bring out the toothbrush?” but sure enough, on our way out we saw here detailing with a tiny tiny brush. Was it a toothbrush? Probably not, But it was definitely a small bristled utensil. Sound like a toothbrush? I think so.

The double arches have alternating polychromatic stone with red accents. Everywhere you look there are just columns and arches everywhere. Catholic architecture is about wide open space and bringing people together to worship. Islamic architecture facilitates solitude and the individual’s worship, hence the sea of columns. Even just walking through alone as we explored after the tour was an experience.

So…you know the Catholics? After their Reconquista of Muslim Spain, they destroyed a lot of beautiful art and culture. I’m not even Muslim and it’s a sore subject. In the Mezquita, the Catholics demolished a good portion to construct a cathedral, so there in a corner of the mosque is a huge cathedral…it’s a lovely cathedral, but it’s really odd to be there where the two worlds collide. I didn’t spend much time in that corner. It just felt wrong.

Man this blog entry is forever long. Props if you’ve made it this far.

After departing from beautiful Córdoba, we drove to Sevilla to eat and sleep. Boooy did we eat. It was our only meal as a group so we went all out. It was a real Sevillian feast! Andalucía is the olive-producing capital of the world so there were plates of olives waiting for us when we got there. Such. Phenomenal. Olives. I’m not a huge black olive fan, but these green olives I could not get enough of. Pits and everything, they were so delicious. We had a typical Spanish salad of lettuce, tomato, etc. Very simple, all covered in olive oil and vinegar. Then! Some other delicious salad with tomato and tuna…oh and then some fried zucchini. Wow. SO good. Then they brough our entries. For me, pez espada:) That’s right. Sword ish. It was kinda like a fish/chicken texture and it was soooo delicious. An Andalucian specialty is huevos revualtas, or really fancy scrambled eggs. Those were good too, but I loooved my swordfish. The bacalao was also amazing, maybe even a little better than the swordfish. But I’ll get that next time. To drink I had pineapple juice. Things like that aren’t as sweet here so it was so refreshing. Oh, did I mention we didn’t eat until about 10:30? Yeah. Spain. Late meals. Luckily we stayed up waaaay too late that night (and the subsequent nights) playing Scum. I spent a lot of time as Scum that first night. But then I won BS! So…that’s cool. I had three nines. Oh also with dinner: flan. FINALLY I got my genuine Spanish flan! The dessert plate was a combination of flan-like treats, and all of it was absolutely phenomenal. Flan is my favorite dessert. Ever. Even more than chocolate. I know right? But it’s been like that since high school. And now I’m in flan heaven. Flan. HEAVEN.

The next day we spent entirely in Sevilla. We started with a walking tour of the ancient city. That’s where I learned about those white walls and yellow pesticide paints:) Sevilla is GORGEOUS, have I mentioned that? There’s a river that extends through the city that cruise ships can use and pull right up to the middle of the city. Okay, maybe not the exact middle, but they are right in there. Again: palm trees. Gorgeous! By way of crazy old buildings we toured, there was a cathedral and a palace? I honestly cannot remember…lunch was good tho! It took like an HOUR to get my food but it took me probably six minutes to down that plate of delicious spaghetti. Yeah they have good Italian food in Spain:) Also another garden…man I wish I could remember. So much beautiful Muslim architecture. Christian too, but this trip was our first real immersion in Islamic art. Looooved it. Clearly loved it enough to remember the names of the places we went:)

There was this one place with a sweet tower that had a phenomenal view of the city…man I gotta figure out where we went!!!! This is killin me.

Thursday night we had the good fortune of attending the flamenco museum there in Sevilla. First we got to go through a little exhibit of the history, the costumes, etc, then we had a rhythm class with the resident singer. It was sooo fun! We got to sit on these box/seat drums and drum away. The teacher, the singer in residence, was one of those individuals that I will remember for the rest of my life. While we would drum or clap our assigned rhythm, he would sing along and give us a taste of the flamenco flavor. We had no idea just what he could do. Mabel, the program directors wife, asked him to sing something more for us, he had a beautiful voice. When he asked what he should sing we told him to sing his favorite. His favorite song is one that he himself wrote after his mother passed away five years ago. She died of a tumor so her death was not sudden, but he is a very sensitive spirit so his family never let on just how sick she was. For him, it really was a jolt to the system. It changed how he sings. Now, he always sings with all of his soul, all of his passion, all of who he is releases when he sings. We were just in a small room so his powerful voice penetrated me to the core. His anguish was tangible. After our museum visit we went to the main floor for the espectáculo de flamenco. There was a guitarist, the singer, a rhythm guy who clapped, and a male and female dancer (both beautiful). This was one of those experiences that leaves a mark on the soul and slightly changes who you are and how you think. Each and every person on that stage had such fire and energy. I can’t imagine living with that much passion and having the talent to harness and express it so brilliantly. At the end of the show my mind was literally blown. Everyone was chattering on about how amazing it was and how incredible the dancing and the music was…for me talking about it all so soon would have cheapened it. I kind of joined in but I was still try to process what I felt, let alone why I felt that way. It was like an electric charge had coursed through my veins. Their presence was tangible and intoxicating. I wish I could better illustrate with words just how incredible it was. I kept thinking of a painting by John Singer Sargent, El Jaleo (see above). The ferocity of the dance, the shouts of olé, the cantante with his head thrown back, the energy of the spectacle. I wish I had a video recording of it to preserve the memory forever, but one thing I do know: I am SO coming back to Spain if only to eat Pepita’s tortilla española and see a flamenco show.

Friday we drove to Granada. Again: Palm trees. Here I KNOW we saw the Alhambra:) The drive to the Alhambra was sooo lovely. Brilliant white houses, green trees, terracotta roof tiles. The Alhambra was the Muslim palace, later taken over by the Christians, surprise surprise. It is an enormous complex where the king and his subjects lived. More gardens, more beautiful architecture. The Cuartos de los Leones was under some serious construction, which was a bummer, but that place is basically the 8^th Wonder of the world. We only had a couple of hours to enjoy it all in all. Reservations have to be made five or six months in advance, it’s nuts! They only let 1000 people through a day. Oh!!! Also all over Andalucia? Orange trees! They are sooo wonderful. You’re lookin around, seein some sweet trees, then all of a sudden in all that green you see a vibrant point of orange glow. It’s fantastic:) I tried one of the oranges at the Alhambra and it was soooo sour. These kinds of oranges are used more for jam. Spain is really good at jam. I’ve never eaten so much peach jam in my life. Also peach juice. Yum. Where was I? Oh. Oranges. The leaves of the orange tree smell amazing.

Before the Alhambra, we had free time for lunch and exploration. After some tortilla española, we went off to find the Frederico Garcia Lorca park. He’s a famous Spanish author with a truly great park. After lunch we went to the cathedral where Ferdinand and Isabel are buried. Yeah. I was in the same building as their skeletons. And some phenomenal Flemish art.

After the Alhambra we went back to the hotel to find dinner. A group of us ate at this phenomenal Chinese restaurant with ridiculously cheap and amazing food. I had shark fin soup, fried rice, orange duck, and flan. Yeah:) Flan in a Chinese restaurant! Brilliant. This was one of the funniest nights of my life. It loses some of its charm in the retelling, but I’ma try it anyway. The whole night we’d had a hard time understanding our waitress and the waiter and there was a lot lost in translation…it was hilarious. Luckily we were the only people in the restaurant for the most part because we were pretty loud…anyway, it comes time for dessert. The options were flan, ice cream, coffee, pineapple, and some sort of tea infusion. When we asked what kind of ice cream there was, she repeated “coffee, pineapple, and infusion”. Remember: this is a group of Americans speaking Spanish to a Chinese lady with an accent. The three that wanted ice cream ordered “piña,” or pineapple. As a joke I said “watch, they’ll all get slices of pineapple on a plate.” Surely enough, the waiter came out with three plates of pineapple. You had to be there to understand just how hilarious it was, but it was the perfect capstone to the night:) We laughed til we cried, it was brilliant.

Saturday we left Granada for home, with a stop in Úbeda along the way. Úbeda is a cute little city with a cathedral, probably a palace. We were only there for an hour to get lunch, but we parked near a lookout point from which we could see “el mar de olivos”, the Olive Sea. It’s an area of Andalucía with olive groves that extend far beyond the horizon in every direction. It was beautiful! So many olive trees. Lunch for me consisted of tortilla española, claro. Honestly, Saturday I was just excited to get home. Four days is a lot of fun at once. I’m still catching up from all those nights in a row with so few hours of sleep:)

This week we’re going to Madrid (as always), hopefully Toledo again, Salamanca, and Valladolid. Also, I’m gonna stop promising pictures. Be ready in a month tho. When I get home? Photo. City.

Oh! One last thing. I went to the Thyssen and the Palacio Real earlier this week. Also! There was this phenomenal used book fair in Madrid near the Plaza de Cibeles. Kiosk after kiosk of old Spanish books. I was in heaven. The Thyssen is a museum, one I’d never heard of until the day before we went. Tuesday was national free museum day so we definitely took advantage and visited one the most expensive ones. The Thyssen blew me away! I had no idea what to expect, but right when we walked in there were four Rodin captives with a Tintoretto painting serving as the back drop. Seeing the Rodin sculptures literally took my breath away. I had no idea! The Thyssen certainly doesn’t host many masterpieces, but the woman has a phenomenal collection of a very wide variety of art. A lot of modern American artists like Rothko, Pollock, etc. It was just a good taste of EVERYTHING and it took us three solid hours to get through it! There was a special Monet exhibit as well that was neat to see. The Palacio Real was ridiculous. So much luxury! I can’t even imagine Versailles. Same idea. Muuuuch bigger scale. Some day.

Every Sunday night there's a program we watch during dinner entitled "España en la memoria". It's a great PBS type show where they interview famous Spaniards or recount historical events all about Spain now and then. It's so great! I want the DVDs, it's such a great way to learn about the country. Check it out! Last night's was about a TV producer who had a sweet show called "Aplauso". He had guests like Abba, Kiss, the Bee Gees, big Spanish artists, everyone. It aired in the 70s. Speaking of old school music, after dinner Pepita showed us her record collection. So much New Kids! Her kids had great taste in American pop music. NKOTB (even the Christmas album), Marky Mark, Mariah Carey, Kylie Minogue, Vanilla Ice. Man. I am so excited to crank up their record player and give 'em a listen!

Class is over, hallelujah! A comer=D (that means to eat)