Andalucia

Alright, this is the new stuff from just this last week. It's been quite a week of traveling, so I don't know how detailed this will be. I'll try to make it interesting with fun details but not too long...

We took a bus down to the Andalucia area(southern parts of Spain) to see Merida, Seville, Cordoba, and Granada. Our first stop in Merida was only for one afternoon, and we saw some Roman ruins dating back some two thousand years...it was awesome! There was an amphitheater where they would do gladiator fighting, or fill it with water and do battles on smaller boats. There was also a theater that they used for plays and other social gatherings. There was a roman museum there with other artifacts, but we only got to spend about 40 minutes inside before they kicked us out to close for the siesta. We were all practically running and just snapping pictures of whatever we saw so we could look later...it was kind of funny, but too bad we couldn't stay longer.

We spent a little time just walking around the city, and it was so cool to me because they had orange trees everywhere! They smelled so good and looked so pretty! I couldn't pass it up, so a few of us picked an orange to eat. We quickly found out why nobody else was eating them...it was the most sour orange I have ever eaten! Haha, all the locals were laughing at us.

In Seville, we saw the cathedral which has a 350 foot tower. We climbed it, all 35 levels of stairs and ramps... and the view was amazing. The cathedral was really pretty too, but a lot of it was under rennovations. They supposedly have Christopher Columbus's bones there, and the biggest pearl. They also had a random alligator hanging outside in one of the corners of the courtyard...couldn't figure that one out? After the cathedral we went to the Alcazar. This may have been one of my favorite places the whole trip. It was filled with the mudejar style, and it had really bright colors everywhere, and beautiful tyle work. There was also really beautiful gardens there, that just go on and on...I just kept thinking how amazing it would have been had it been in full bloom. It was really great though, if any of you get a chance to visit Seville, this is one place you can't miss.

After the Alcazer, two girls and I were sent out to find a Flamenco show for that night. We had a lot of fun searching the town, and talking to the locals trying to find something. The only one we actually found was way too expensive for the group budget, so our professor ended up just finding something with the hotel's help. We spent the rest of the afternoon seeing Seville on bikes. It was so much fun to ride a bike again! They had these bike stations everwhere in the city, and you could rent it for about 2 hours for only 1 euro...it was so fun! We rode along the river there, across the bridges, into gardens and parks, and then over to the Plaza de Espana. We also took a ride the next morning before we had to leave, but it was so fun to ride a bike through Seville! Everyone was jealous of us :)

That night, the flamenco show was so fun! It was very cool to think that there I was in Spain, watching Flamenco...just one of those many moments that it hits me...that I'm in Spain! They had two guys playing guitar in the background, and then two guys singing. The dancers were amazing, I can't believe how fast their feet move! The girls who dance love to make dramatic faces that to me look like crusties, and almost all the guys have really long hair that they wet down before they come out to dance, haha and then of course they make some great faces too. It was great experience though.

The next day we spent in Cordoba, where the Mezquita is. It was originally the Muslim synagogue, but when the Christians took over they changed it into a cathedral. Everyone thinks that what the Christians did to change it into a cathedral ruined it because they styles dont' fit, and it just doesn't look good together. The synagogue had hundreds of these marble columns, and then arches striped red and gold. The christians put a chapel and choir in the very middle of all of it. It really doesn't fit at all. Seperately, they would both be beautiful, but they just dont' fit together at all. It was very peaceful inside though. The sun shines throught the small windows and lights up just enough so you can see the beautiful architecture, and the columns go on forever it seems. You can still se where they kept the Koran and some of the original stone where they prayed...they said to try to imagine thousands of men all knelt down praying...that would be so awesome.

That night, we took some really fun pictures just after the sun had set at the Roman bridge they had there. The mezquite was in the background all lit up, and the sky looked really pretty. Then we went and ate kabobs for the first time. It's so delicious...pita bread with kabob meat, lettuce, onions, tomato, and really good sauce. yum!

The next morning, we went into the alcazar and the gardens there. This was the alcazar of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Christian Kings. The gardens were so beautiful again, but would be amazing in full bloom. If any of you have read Nora's Castle, it reminded me of that, as we climbed into the towers of the castle and explored as much of it as we were allowed to. It also reminded me of Monty Python, when King Arthur asks if they want to join his quest for the Holy Grail, and they tell him they've already got one...haha.

Our last day in Granada was a fun one. We stayed in a hotel right next to the Alhambra, which is the cool thing to see there. It was also at the top of the city in the mountains, so anytime we went down into the other part of the city, it was an intense hike back up. The Alahambra was very neat. It's where the Moors did a lot of government/political stuff, and also had a lot of palaces for the rulers the stay in. Each ruler added another palace during his reign. It also had amazing gardens, maybe the coolest of the whole trip. It was so fun to walk through it! This is also a place you shouldn't pass up if you get the chance to visit southern Spain.

On our way home(a 6 hour bus ride) we stopped to see the windmills that inspired Cervantes when he wrote Don Quijote. We had fun taking pictures there, and then climbed back on the bus and rode for another few hours. It was a great trip though, and it was so much fun to see more of Spain! The sad part is my camera was dead all week, so I have to get pictures from about 5 different people, so until then I have no pictures to put up. I'll try to get them soon though! Love you guys!