Cordoba y Sevilla segundo parte

So last Friday, we left from Madrid at 8:30 AM and took the Ave train to Cordoba. The AVE was really cool and there was barely anyone in our car so we got to all spread out. It only took a little over an hour, and we had a bus waiting for us to take us to Al-Zahara, a really old Arab city that used to be the capitol of Andalucia, which back then was basically all of Spain. It was a bit rainy and foggy, but it added a nice effect to the creepy-ish ruins. Antonio, our guide was really good and made sure to speak clearly b/c the average Andalucian tends to leave out random syllables.

After walking around and trying to imagine how huge the city used to be, we saw a movie in the adjacent museum which reconstructed the city digitally. It was actually pretty interesting. We took a bus back into the main city of Cordoba and had some free time where we ate our bagged lunches and got some delicious gellati ice cream. Then we went with Antonio to the La Mequita, which is a giant church Spaniards made from an old Mosque. It had a lot of empty space where the people used to pray on floor, but then they converted the middle section into a regular Catholic Cathedral.

We got back on the train to Sevilla, which was late, and took the 2.5 hour ride. When we got there, we checked into the hotel and walked to dinner. This dinner was the best dinner I have had in recent memory. It was friday, so I only ate fish, but it didn't matter. We had fried fish, veggies, shrimp, bottomless bread, and some other delicious things. After the huge meal and long day I went right to sleep.

We got up early, had breakfast and took the bus into the historic center of Sevilla. We had a new guide, Francisco who Merce left us with. It was raining, but it wasn't too cold to walk around. We went to Alcazar which is a funcitoning royal palace with moorish architecture and beautiful gardens. Fran talked our ears off, but it was a beautiful place to see and get to explore.

We then headed off to the Cathedral, which is by volume the largest in Europe. There are over a hundred little chapels off to the side, Columbus's tumb, and a huge steeple bell tower. This also used to be a mosque, and then they added onto it when all the Arabs were forced to leave Spain. We climbed up the huge tower to see the view and take some photos, and left for lunch. We went with Merce to get some free paella at this little bar we barely fit into, and then to another tapa place where I had some local tomato soup I didn't care for.

After that, we were left to our own devices, so we split up into a few groups and explored the city and bought some souvenirs. We made our way back to the hotel, got some classy alcohol with the hopes of "botelloning" with later and took a nap. I woke up at around 9 and got ready for dinner. We ended up going to this restaurant where I got some more really good fried fish, and we watched the Real Madrid-Sevilla game on the TV there. Also, they had whole, intact, feathered DEAD birds in the freezer along side the wines. We expressed our interest/concern to our waiter who gladly let me hold/pet one. We headed back to the nearby hotel and kind of relaxed and made drinks before we went out. Some people decided to not even attempt to go out, so four of us had the front desk guy get us a taxi to where we heard was good to go. Calle Beatriz is where all the college kids go out, and we were not disappointing. We saw a bunch of Americans, even people other girls knew from UMD. We basically just went between a few places and met a lot of friendly Spaniards.

Sunday, we were scheduled to go with Merce to the museum of bellas artes. We took the weirdest route to get there, and took this cool tram that cruises down the middle of the street. We also stopped in a random chapel for reasons no one understood. At least I can say I went into a church on Sunday. The museum was pretty cool, and it used to be an old convent.

We were all starving around 2 and we went to another fabulous restaurant with WHAT? more fried food! It was so wrong it was right. The sangria could have tastes less like children's cough medicine but what do I know? We got a bunch of plates to share so we all tried a lot of new things. YUM.

After that we got our bags and headed back to the train station. This time we went straight from Sevilla to Madrid. It went pretty fast, and I was home around 10:30.

That was my weekend! A lot of moving around but so neat and beautiful! I want to go back to Sevilla, it is muy bonita and everyone is friendly. We had a good time trying to perfect the Andalucia accent...no pa'na??

Now its Wednesday, and I still need to load my fotos! On Tuesday in dance class we learned "reggatone" dance which basically was just learning new ways to shake your booty. But still fun. In a little bit I am going to a flamenco show, even though I have a ton of homework and two tests on Friday. Hence, me taking the time to write a lengthy blog entry. OH and Megan is coming on Friday! WOO.

Select fotos will be arriving soon. 'sta luego