Córdoba!!

So after a long but beautiful morning in Sevilla we took another 1.5 hour bus ride to the city of Córdoba.  It is a much smaller city than Sevilla, but still just as beautiful.  I would say that there were more houses with the Spanish-style rooftops so it looked a little more typically Spanish.  The bus took us directly to check into the Tryp Gallos hotel.  We had all of our roommates assigned alphabetically already so we were able to go straight up to the rooms and relax.  We were free to do anything we wanted for about 2 hours while we waited for dinner at 8:30pm, so I just relaxed, napped, and watched TV with Janae.  We found it hilarious to watch some American shows in Spanish.  They had such a ransom assortment of channels like MTV in German with English subtitles, but also CNN in English.  We were able to get all of the news about Michael Jackson – it was definitely a very huge deal here and all over the newspapers.

Dinner was served at the hotel at 8:30pm (that was even an early dinner in Spain) and it was not as impressive as the lunch earlier that day.  It was just a buffet with American food like fries, chicken, fish, salad, pasta, and meatballs.  It was pretty good food it was just disappointing because I wanted to have more Spanish food while in Spain.  After dinner I went out at night with 3 other girls and we walked around the main streets of the city and found the area that was just 2 blocks of ‘discotecas.’  We went to a bar called Sojo and had a few drinks but didn’t get too drunk since we had to be up and ready to go at 8:30am the next day.  It was still really fun to be at the bar and attempting to talk to people in Spanish.  Janae was really good with her Spanish since she just finished taking it last semester so she did most of the talking but I could definitely understand most of the conversations which was cool.

In the morning we left at 8:30am with a new tour guide for a brief bus tour around the city for an overview.  Then we got off and walked around the Jewish area of the city and saw a really old synagogue which is important because I think our guide said it was one of only three synagogues left in Andalucía.  Then we went to the center of the city to the building that is now technically called the Catedral de Córdoba.  People generally just refer to it as the Mezquita though because that is the Spanish word for mosque and it was originally a mosque then converted into a cathedral when Christians conquered Spain.  It was huge on the inside and really pretty of course.  Our guide showed us all the different parts and where they used to pray in the mosque.  The Catholic Church seized it and built a cathedral in the middle of the building in order to show their power.  It was very interesting to see the different styles of architecture.

After the Mezquita we walked over to the Alcazar which was not much of a building but had the most gorgeous gardens that I have ever seen!  We spent a long time wandering the gardens and admiring the trees, fountains, and statues.  Inside the Alcazar was just a fortress-type thing so it was pretty plain and just stone walls and kind of smaller rooms.  They do have a really pretty room with some mosaic artwork on the walls that is used for celebrations and weddings.  Our whole group was sitting in the chairs and our guide was telling us about how if you were born in Córdoba you can have a free wedding at the Alcazar if you just book it 6 months in advance.  The city will pay for everything – music, flowers, etc.  We all thought that was pretty cool then all these people started coming in because there was a wedding there starting in like 10 minutes!  Our group of like 30 people was awkwardly there and trying to leave while floods of people came in for the wedding and it was pretty funny.  We even saw the bride in her room on our way out.

That was it for the sightseeing that day then everyone had free time for about 3 hours until we were leaving for Granada.  We had the option to return to the hotel for lunch, but I think most people wanted to enjoy the Spanish food so we ended up in a group of 9 people wandering around town and looking in shops.  We all ate at a restaurant called Bodega Mezquita because they were advertising that they were known for having over 40 different tapas.  We got lots of sangria for the group and tons of tapas that were all delicious.  They had amazing chorizo and croquetas – I’m getting so hungry just thinking about it!  It was definitely another one of my best meals in Spain!

We started walking back toward the hotel after lunch, stopping in and out of shops.  We were getting close to the hotel and were going to be kind of early so we stopped at a local cervezaria to grab a beer.  We went into the bar and the only other person there was our tour guide from the morning with her kids.  We thought it was so funny and she said that it was one of her favorite bars so we knew we picked a good place.  I just had a local beer that was on tap and I have no idea what it was called but it was pretty good.  Then we all got back to the hotel to meet the buses and headed off to our last city, and the one I was most excited for: Granada!