Too much for my camera to handle

Yesterday I returned from my four day sojourn to the south of Spain. On Thursday, we were in Córdoba; on Friday, Sevilla; on Saturday, Granada; and yesterday we left Granada at 3 p.m. to get back to Madrid in the evening. It felt like an incredibly long trip because we were moving so quickly from place to place and taking in so much at once...but it also means that we saw TONS of amazing stuff. I cannot say enough how happy I am that I used the long weekend to take this trip.

Córdoba was just the coolest place to start. It felt more much like a small town--a little pueblito with tiny cobbled streets, especially beautiful in the Judería (the old Jewish quarter). All the houses in the Judería were white-washed, with little iron balconies decorated with dangling flowers. We came upon the main street in the Judería right when the belltower of the mesquita (the mosque) were ringing, and it was the perfect place to be to see the bells swinging around. The best part about Córdoba, though, was the mesquita itself. The interior was stunning. I couldn't get over it. It was dimly lit and quiet and seemed like a perfect space for contemplation and peace. I LOVE the arches. I know they're the most famous thing about this mosque, so it's a bit of a cliché to say that, but they are just really cool. In general, I decided that I'm such a fan of the Islamic architecture because it is so creative, since Islam does not allow the use of images for religious decoration--all the arabesques, the flowery patterns, the geometric shapes are so intricate and yet not excessive or exuberant. It's especially beautiful when it's intertwined with Christian architecture, like it is in this mesquita. After the Reconquest, the Catholic monarchs tried to turn the mosque into a cathedral. So there's a big choir and altar in the middle of all of these Moorish arches. There are shrines off to the sides for the saints. There's images of Christ and the Virgin scattered throughout, and the Islamic architecture coexists with it. There's still the gorgeous mihrab (which faces Mecca, to orient people when they are praying). The dome above it is also really cool, it prolongs the interior of the dome more and more as it approaches the center because of all the crevices and concavities. I was just obsessed with it all, to say the least, and really didn't want to leave. I don't often feel an attachment, to that degree, to a place that I've just visited. I need to go back at some point.

After the mesquita, we went to the Alcázar, which was also pretty cool. I loved all the gardens there. It was already really hot, even though Córdoba was the furthest north we were during the trip, so the gardens with shady spots and pretty fountains (so inviting to my feet...) were a welcome place to take a break every time we felt we'd been on our feet for too long.

On Friday, bright and early (7:15, to be precise), our train for Sevilla left Córdoba. By the time we'd gotten to and checked into our [really nice!] hostel in Sevilla, it was around 10 a.m. We left our bags with the very nice woman at the reception desk because our rooms weren't quite ready, and then went off to explore the city. We intended to return for a short break in the afternoon but we actually didn't get back until 7 p.m. There was just a lot to do. We went to the Catedral de Sevilla first, because it's one of Sevilla's most well-known sights. It's a HUGE cathedral, probably the biggest I've ever been in. Everything was elaborate and ornate, especially with all the Corpus Christi embellishments. Apparently, they are very devout in Andalucía, so Corpus is a BIG deal. There was a monstrance (usually used in processions or parades to show the Eucharist, in the center glass portion) in the cathedral, and it was ginormous. Austin Bell would be proud.

I also climbed the cathedral's tower, La Giralda, to get a view of the city from a great vantage point. La Giralda is the cathedral's belltower, and you can basically see the whole city from it.

After lunch, we headed to Sevilla's Alcázar, which was way cooler than Córdoba's simply because it was much larger and more beautifully laid out. The gardens went on forever; we even found peacocks roaming around at one point (just as my camera's battery died, of course). My favorite part of this castle was the big fountain/pond thing at the top of a little flight of stairs. There was a jet of water coming out of the side of the building into the pond, and there were palm trees nearby, and it was soo nice and cool in the shade with the spray from the water jet, and I basically wanted to live there. They had to tell me several times to get up before I finally reluctantly moved on.

Our evening in Sevilla was pleasant, after a point. We did have a bit of a rest at the hostel until 8:30, and we were going to visit the Plaza de España before dinner and a flamenco show at 11 p.m., but I realized, when we were still walking at 9, that we wouldn't make it to all of that. I suggested people could pick one of two options: go to the Plaza and miss the flamenco show, or spend a few minutes by the riverside in the sunset, have a quick dinner, and see the flamenco show (i.e. miss the Plaza). Unfortunately, this somehow caused some tensions between people to come out in the form of a bit of drama. But eventually, everyone except the one guy in the group who didn't seem keen on hanging out with us in general hung out by the river for a few minutes, watching the sunset, and then we all had dinner (at, I will admit, an Irish pub restaurant. We basically had American-style food, haha, but it involved a strawberry daquiri for me, which was a really good idea). The flamenco show turned out to be really cool; I can't believe how quickly this one woman was moving her feet...After the show, we sat outdoors right near the cathedral, eating ice cream/drinking tinto de verano, talking, and listening to the spontaneous flamenco happening next to us. The end of the night, to say the least, was a lot better (and went a lot more smoothly...) than the beginning of it.

Then we came to our final stop: Granada. I spent the last 20 minutes on the bus ride there trying to be as selective as possible with the pictures I'd taken in the previous two days, because my memory card was full already. So I had to open up some space for Granada. I managed to give myself about 75 pictures (for the ENTIRETY of the Alhambra!) and 10 on a small extra memory card, for the view of the Alhambra at sunset.

When we got to Granada, we basically dropped off our stuff at the hostel and right away, half the group went off to the Alhambra (we had bought tickets in advance for 2:30). After QUITE the trek (man...for all the exercise I haven't been doing, I've been doing so much walking and lifting and clambering, especially with this past weekend under my belt), we got to the top, retrieved our tickets, and went inside at 2:30. When we finally left the Alhambra, it was 6:30. Yes. It's just such a huge complex, and because you can't go in and out of each separate section, you really have to make sure you take your time getting through it, because it would be terrible to exit and wish you'd had more time looking at something in particular.

First, we walked through the Palacio de los Nazaríes, which has the most spectacular tilework and plaster arabesque designs on the walls of basically every room. All the rounded arches are beautifully decorated...and the best part of the rooms are the ceilings, which are without fail magnificent. Everything is so intricately, expertly done. I feel like I want rooms like these somewhere in my house, in the very distant future.

I wouldn't mind the gardens, either. Absolutely gorgeous. The Generalife (last syllables "lee-fey;" the name is not "general life") is the adjoining summer getaway for the Spanish king back in the day. So it's basically a summer resort in the hills, ripe with these great gardens and fountains and more cool architecture. There's one called the garden of cypresses or something of the sort, even though all that remains is the petrified stump of the last cypress. Everything was so pretty! I wanted to spend the entire rest of the day in the gardens, basically. Eating kumquats, which Dashell found and picked for us--we fully sat in the middle of the Generalife eating kumquats and tossing the seeds. It was awesome.

The last bit of the Alhambra consisted of seeing the Alcazaba, which is the fortress of the Alhambra. This was all military edifices, basically--watchposts and places from which to attack the enemy. How the Catholics ever took the Alhambra is beyond me. It's so high up on that hill, and those walls are pretty imposing. Being no war buff myself, I was less interested in this part of the Alhambra, and it also happened that at this point, we were already past the three hour mark of our visit, so I was tired and very, very warm (it was probably like 98 degrees F), and was starting to get a headache. Nevertheless, the views of the city were stunning! All the houses in Granada look so similar. And seeing the whole city like that makes you realize just how far up the Alhambra is. It quite literally crowns Granada.


After a brief encounter with Queen Isabella (the one and only), and a less brief encounter with two servings of unbelievable ice cream at Los Italianos
(as recommended by Rmax, Neil, Kirstie, and Jessica four years ago when they were in Granada for the summer. I had heard so much about this place for so long, and I happened to see it as soon as I got off the bus on our way to the hostel...I was a bit beside myself, especially after tasting the ice cream), we climbed a hill to the Plaza de San Nicolas to see the Alhambra in the sunset.



It must be the closest I've ever come to seeing the northern lights. There are no words.