Córdoba

The intricacies of the ceiling of the mesquita catedral

You know you're a study abroad student when you have 35,395,295 pictures of ceilings and continue to take more because they're all really cool

Interior of the mesquita catedral.... the red is brick and the white is stone

Yup, more pictures of ceilings!

Columbus getting permission to discover us

Gorgeous. In the gardens of the Alcazar

I love this one

Orange and lemon trees

Gardens of the Alcazar

Alcazar from the garden

So yesterday we had our school sponsored day trip to Córdoba. It was a really cool excursion but very exhausting!

I met Breezy at the juice bar (our normal meeting place) at 7:15am to get to the Palacio de Congresos on time to catch the bus. The ride was about two and a half hours long and the craziest bus ride EVER. We were going through curves in the road so fast and I think I legitimately felt the bus go on two wheels at some points. We were all bracing ourselves and trying not to freak out! The twisty ride also led to the most intense game of "luggage" the world has ever seen. (For those who have never played, luggage is when everyone in a car-- best if it's the backseat of a station wagon on the way home from some sort of extracurricular activity-- leans to one side when making a turn and screams "LUGGAGE!!" at the top of their lungs). At one point, I was trying to sleep and had my iPod on my lap and it went flying across the bus so far that I had to stand up and take a few steps to get it. We made it there and back safely though, thank God!

When we got to Córdoba, we started out by touring the Alcazar de los reyes católicas, or the Castle of the Catholic Kings. It was pretty intense and had the most beautiful gardens I've ever seen. It was such a gorgeous day and it felt great just to walk around and enjoy it. This castle is also where Christopher Columbus met with the Spanish king and queen to get permission for the voyage that would lead to the discover of America (fun fact!). 

After touring the Alcazar, we walked around the Jewish quarter of Córdoba. It was really interesting to see because the city has been either EXTREMELY Muslim or EXTREMELY Catholic for its entire history, so this little section is completely different than the rest of the city. We visited an old synagogue and walked around some of the patios of the homes.

Then, it was everyone's favorite time... boc time. Boc is our abbrev for bocadillo, which means sandwich. (I abbrev(iate) all the time in English, so it just makes sense to do it here, too. But instead of obvi meaning obviously or def meaning definitely, bocadillo becomes boc and bufanda (scarf) becomes buf). So we ate our bocs on the patio of the mesquita catedral (mosque cathedral) and then had two hours to walk around and explore. Breezy and I did some good exploration and saw a lot of the city in that time. We also got what was, no joke, the best ice cream of our lives. It was phenomenal and exactly what we needed on that 80 degree and sunny day (I know, it's tough! :-) )

After our break, we took a tour of the mesquita catedral. It was absolutely ENORMOUS. The architecture was incredible and the intricacies of everything were amazing. It was really cool, too, because it started out as a mosque years and years ago and then was converted into a cathedral when the Catholic reconquista began. 

After that tour, we just got on the bus and headed back to Granada. Everyone was exhausted by the time we got back! It was a nice little excursion but it was definitely nice to crash when I got back!