Córdoba: Rainy with a chance of sun

Well, we have finally made it to Córdoba! Actually, we got here a week ago. This blog is more work than I had anticipated! So, Córdoba. It is wonderful so far! I have to admit I was a little bit disappointed when we first arrived, because we had just returned from seeing all the coolest locations in Spain, and it seemed like Córdoba just wasn't as cool. As it turns out, Córdoba is very cool, just in a different way. It is significantly smaller than Madrid and Barcelona, which I really like. In the week that I have been here, I have found my way around all the important parts of the city with the help of my trusty map. Normally, I have a horrible sense of direction and my map-reading ability is slim to none, so the fact that I can actually follow a map and not get lost too much really says something about Córdoba!

On our first full day in Córdoba, we went to Madinat al-Zahra, which is a city of ruins from way back in the day when the Moors controlled Córdoba. Córdoba actually used to be the capital of al-Andalus, as Spain used to be called, so it was a very important city. It was pretty cool.

This past week we started classes-sort of. The classes for just the students in my program start on Monday, but the classes at the University of Córdoba started this week. Since we only technically have to take 1 class directly in UCO, we got to do a week of shopping-going to the classes that interested us. The class I found most interesting was actually a history class about Spain in the 20th century. It occurred to me that I really don't know anything about Spain's recent history, particularly the Civil War and Franco periods, so I think this will be a really interesting class.

Also this week we had a guided tour of the Mezquita, Córdoba's most famous attraction. It is a huge mosque that was started in the 8th century (The Moors arrived in Spain in 711 so it must have been sometime after that) and construction continued for centuries and centuries. When the Christians reconquered Spain several centuries later, they destroyed part of the Mezquita to build a cathedral. Luckily, they didn't destroy the entire Mezquita as they have been known to do-they just built their cathedral right inside it! So some of the oldest parts are still very well preserved! The cathedral part is still in use today, but the mosque part is not, which is just as well because the mosque doesn't even face towards Mecca like it's supposed to (I forget why this is). In addition to the Mezquita, we got to see the Alcázar for a few short minutes. I think it was an old palace. It had some absolutely gorgeous gardens and pools that we sort of got to walk through. I will certainly be returning soon to see the whole thing.

Another highlight of this week was the Flamenco show we went to. I had heard of flamenco dancing and flamenco guitar, but I didn't really know that flamenco was a style of singing as well. It's really quite unique...it sounds a lot like chanting and it's impossible to understand what they are saying. I liked that dance better-shock and surprise! I tried to upload a video, but it was taking too long so I decided against it. Plus I wasn't supposed to be filming anyway. Whoops.

Barcelona!

The bus ride from Madrid to Barcelona was not nearly as bad as it could have been. Our bus driver, Antonio, drives like a pro. Not only did he successfully navigate us through morning rush hour traffic in Madrid, he got us to Barcelona in 8 hours, when it could have easily been a 9 or 10 hour drive. We were cruising! On our way to Barcelona, we stopped in Zaragoza in order to see an important church-La Basilica de Nuestra Señora de El Pilar. I didn't really understand what a "Pilar" is - it translates to "pillar" but that doesn't really make sense. The legend is that Mary appeared to Saint James there and it was a miracle, so now there is a gold dish that people kiss. Right.

We arrived in Barcelona at around 8:00 pm, checked into our hotel, and then went to find a place to eat dinner. We ended up at this tapas place where we accidentally ordered sangria...not that there was anything wrong with that. It was very good sangria. The waiter was very proud of it. The next day, we had a guided tour of Parque Guëll, a "park" that was designed by Barcelona's world renown architect, Antoni Gaudi. Gaudi was commissioned by a guy named Guëll to construct a separate, elite city for Barcelona's wealthiest families. He started the construction in 1900, and by 1914, only a couple houses had been constructed, and at this point, people had lost interest, so the city was never finished.

Later that day, we visited La Sagrada Familia-the Eiffel Tower of Barcelona. It's a huge cathedral that is associated with Gaudi, even though he only actually was responsible for 10% of its construction. The cathedral is still under construction-maybe that is why I thought it was so ugly. Architects today are trying to complete the cathedral à la Gaudi, but it is very difficult because there is no one as creative or innovative as Gaudi. Nevertheless, architects are trying to complete the cathedral, but it is projected to take at least another 30 years. We did not get to go inside the cathedral, which was disappointing.

The next day, we had a lot of free time, so we got to make our own plans. We had a few things in mind that we wanted to see, so we set off on a very ambitious mission: taking the metro. This mission was mostly unsuccessful. When we got to the station nearest to our hotel, it didn't have the line that we were planning on taking to the Zoo. We got on a different train that we hoped would get us close to the zoo, but when we went 1 stop and had absolutely no idea where we were, we decided to get off the train. We ended up the exact opposite direction of where we wanted to be, but we realized that we were very close to La Pedrera, another one of Gaudi's masterpieces that we were planning on visiting that day. We left the metro station and started walking towards what we thought was La Pedrera. As it turns out, we were walking the wrong way, and if we hadn't realized it, we would have ended up back at the hotel. Luckily, we corrected our mistake and turned around to find La Pedrera. We first went to Casa Batlló, a building that Gaudi created for José Batlló. Gaudi's unique style is apparent in every aspect of this building. He was inspired by nature and used a lot of very bright colors. I would post pictures but it takes too long, so I will try to post them on facebook. After visiting Casa Batlló, we went to a really nice restaurant for lunch. I had a 3 chocolate mousse for dessert-it was delicious! After lunch, we finally made it to La Pedrera. The inside did not look like Gaudi's style as much as Casa Batlló, but then we went up on the roof. It's literally impossible to describe so I will post 1 picture. It just makes you wonder...what on earth was he thinking?



Anyway, after visiting La Pedrera we went back to the hotel, had a quick dinner, and then went to the train station for our overnight hotel train to Córdoba! This train was SO nice. Now I understand why they made us drive 8 hours from Madrid to Barcelona when we could have easily taken a train and gotten there in half the time. They spent all the money on first class tickets on the hotel train-for which I am very thankful. We got to wait in the VIP lounge before we got on board the train, which was a fun experience-free food and drinks! On the train, the cabins were REALLY nice. They had 2 beds (bunk beds) in each room, a T.V., and a bathroom complete with a full shower! I did not take a shower on the train because the trip was only about 8 hours, but I would have taken one if we had been on board longer. Well, that just about brings us to Córdoba. I will hopefully write another entry soon about my experience here-it has been great so far! Hasta pronto :)

Warning! This entry is a NOVEL. Do not proceed if you are short on time!

February 6^th

I am writing this on Microsoft Word with the hopes that the wireless internet at the hotel in Barcelona is faster than what they have here in Madrid. So let’s see…we left Salamanca fairly early and went east to Segovia. We spent such a short time there that I don’t really remember what it was like, but it seemed like a really cool place. We saw the Aqueduct of Segovia, which was built in the first or second century by the Romans (as I just learned from Wikipedia). That was a long time ago! It’s shockingly well preserved. We walked through the town and passed by a beautiful cathedral. I was annoyed that we didn’t stop to look at it or go inside, but my displeasure vanished when I saw our actual destination. It was el Alcázar de Segovia – a huge castle built in the 12^th century I think. Fun Fact – the inspiration for the Walt Disney Castle came from this Alcázar! You can sort of see the resemblance in this photo.

After touring the castle, there was a tower that we could climb that involved over 150 tiny, narrow, winding stairs. Terrifying, but totally worth it for the view.

We left the castle and got back on the bus to go to San Lorenzo de El Escorial, a town just outside of Madrid that contains the monastery and palace called El Escorial, which was the major palace for the Spanish monarchy. It was built mostly by/for King Philip II (Felipe II) in the 16^th century and it is ginormous! Unfortunately I was not allowed to take photos inside the palace, so I will try to describe some of what we saw. We got to see a ton of different rooms, including the church, which is impressive in and of itself, the library, and the royal bedrooms. The king and queen’s bedrooms were conveniently located on either side of the main altar in the church so that they didn’t even have to leave their beds to hear mass. Underneath El Escorial is the royal crypt-all of the kings and queens since Felipe II are buried there. On one side are all the kings (plus Isabel II (Elizabeth II) because she was actually the reigning monarch) and on the other side are the queens. There are 3 empty tombs/caskets remaining. One is for the wife of the previous king of Spain (Alfonso XIII). She has been dead for a while now-16 years I think-but her remains are still in the rotting room (the room where they put the rotten corpses to decompose). They wait at least 20 years after someone has died before they place their ashes in the tombs in the special crypt. The other two empty tombs are for the current king and queen of Spain, King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia. After their death, a new room will probably be built for future dead monarchs. All of the tombs in this crypt are exactly the same, because they were made at the same time-all in the 16^th century. Very cool room, but slightly creepy. Even creepier were the next 7 rooms full of dead children and dead relatives of the royal family. We also saw the library, which had some really really really old books.

Just before dinner time, we arrived at our next destination: Madrid! Madrid is huge and very modern-it is definitely the New York City of Spain, but with much better architecture. We are staying at the Hotel Moderno, which is a fairly nice hotel just next to Puerta del Sol. Puerta del Sol is like the Times Square of Madrid-it is always filled with people, particularly in the evenings and on the weekends. We ate dinner at a restaurant next to the hotel-it was okay, but they served us fried chicken and French fries, which I was not expecting to see in Spain, so it was a little bit disappointing.

Does this seem like the longest day ever? It probably was.

February 7^th

Today we had a guided tour of the Palacio Real – the Royal Palace. When Madrid became the official capital of Spain, the king (forget which one) decided that he needed a palace in Madrid, thus the Palacio Real was built. Madrid was chosen as the capital of Spain because it is the geographical center of the Iberian Peninsula, so it is a relatively modern city compared with some of the others. Since its construction, this palace has been the official residence of the king and queen of Spain. It was used as a primary residence up until the last king (Alfonso XIII) so the only king who hasn’t lived there is the current one-what a snob! Juan Carlos (JC for short, haha) and Sofia live in a smaller palace somewhere else. The Palacio Real is still used for official state functions, however. There is a HUGE dining room with a table that probably fits about 75 people. When Obama comes to Spain sometime this year, he will get to sit at that huge table next to the queen, and Michelle will get to sit next to the king, because it has to alternate man-woman-man-woman. No idea why. Speaking of Americans, it just so happened that the American ambassador to Spain, recently appointed by President Obama, was touring the Palacio Real at the exact same time we were! He and his wife and another couple were getting a private tour. Some people on my program actually got to meet him but sadly I did not.

After touring the palacio we had lunch and then took a siesta and then went to the Prado museum, the largest and most famous museum in Spain. It is overwhelmingly huge, though not nearly as big as the Louvre. There was one very famous painting – Las Meninas, by Velázquez, that I was very familiar with, but as I was going through the museum, I realized that I really don’t know anything about Spanish art. That’s why one of the classes I plan on taking this semester is Spanish Art: From Velázquez to Picasso. It’s unfortunate that I had to see all the paintings without knowing anything about them. An audio guide would have been helpful.

February 8^th

TOLEDO! My favorite part of the trip so far, and possibly my new favorite place in the world! First of all, let’s just clarify one thing. Unlike the city in Ohio, the Toledo in Spain is pronounced Toe-lay-dough, not Toe-lee-dough. Toledo is not just any old hill down as some of you may think, and if you don’t check it out if you are in Spain, you are really missing out. Toledo is historically a very important city even though it is small compared to Spain’s other major cities. It has always been the religious and cultural center of Spain, and it is known as the city of the 3 religions, because Christians, Jews, and Muslims all lived there at the same time – not always peacefully as I learned in my Spanish class this past semester! Nonetheless, Toledo is filled with tons of cool architecture from the 3 different cultures. There are Moorish bridges and gates that are over 1000 years old, because the Moors were in Spain between 711 and 1492 A.D., which was a long time ago! Then there is a huge cathedral that was built by the Christians-possibly the most beautiful church I have ever seen. The architecture was amazing-it was built over a longish period of time, so there is a mix of gothic, renaissance, and baroque styles. There is a really beautiful rosetón (big stained glass rose window) and 2 huge organs. Behind the main altar, there are 2 tiny little windows that were decorated so elaborately in the baroque style. The sacristy is also really cool-it is decorated with many paintings from some of Spain’s most important artists. Of course we were not allowed to take pictures inside the cathedral, and it actually was pouring when we left, so I did not get many good photos. But photos really can’t do this place justice. You’ll have to see it for yourselves!

Another cool thing that we saw in Toledo was this painting by El Greco, one of the 3 major Spanish artists. The painting was called El Entierro del Señor de Orgaz (The Burial of the Lord(?) of Orgaz) and it is this huge painting that covers an entire wall of a dinky little church known as the La Iglesia de Santo Tomé (Saint Thomas). The painting describes the miracle of how the Señor de Orgaz’s soul went to heaven when he died because he was such a good and pious man. This event happened over 200 years earlier than when El Greco painted it in the 16^th century, so for models for the painting, El Greco used people from Toledo that he knew to make up the crowd attending the burial. He even included himself and his son in the picture. It’s actually kind of scary because while everyone else in the painting is watching what is going on in the scene, El Greco and his son are looking straight at you.

The last cool thing that we saw in Toledo was this old Jewish synagogue. It’s very old (I’m not sure how old exactly) and it is currently just a museum, but it is surprisingly well preserved given what happened to it. The Christians came in and turned it into a church by building on top of the synagogue. Centuries later, some of the church part has been removed, and you can see the original synagogue underneath! Whoaaaa…

Sadly, that was the last thing we did in Toledo. I could have spent a week there at least, but we only had a few hours. So if anyone wants to go to Toledo, call me up!

When we got back to Madrid, we went to the modern art museum known as Reina Sofia. It contains Picasso’s most famous painting, Guernica, as well as many other paintings of his, and many works by Salvador Dali. My patience for modern art is fairly limited, but I still enjoyed this museum. It has 2 big glass elevators that are on the outside of the building so when you are going up you can see what is going on outside. It’s absolutely terrifying if you are afraid of heights.

February 9^th

That’s today! This is the first time that I’ve had enough down time to write a legitimate blog entry that covers everything I’ve done recently. Hopefully I will never have to write anything this long again on this trip! So today was a fairly relaxing day. This is our 4^th (I think) and last day in Madrid, because tomorrow we are taking the bus to Barcelona! We didn’t have to be anywhere until 7 pm for an orientation meeting with the whole group. I went with some people to the Thyssen museum, which turned out to be a lot better than I expected. The Thyssen is one of the 3 major museums in Spain, and it contains “minor works by major artists and major works by minor artists.” I wasn’t really in the mood for another art museum, and we were mostly going just to say we had been there. Fortunately, this museum turned out to be very interesting, and a lot less overwhelming than either the Prado or Reina Sofia. The paintings were really cool, and the museum was organized in a way that made sense transitioning from one room to the next. There are a lot of impressionist and generally French paintings there, which the other 2 museums lacked. My favorite of course was one of Degas’ dancer paintings. No surprise there! After the museum we went to a vegetarian restaurant for lunch. Surprisingly this was probably the best food we had in Madrid. I had some really delicious pumpkin soup, a main course with lots of vegetables, and a DELICIOUS tiramisu for dessert. Then we walked across town in search of the statues of Don Quijote and Sancho Panza. We found them after a brief walk that took us past the Senate building, and we took a bunch of photos. On our way back we stopped for churros y chocolate, an excellent Spanish snack, at the chocolatería San Ginés, the oldest and most famous chocolatería in Madrid. The churros y chocolate were good, but not as good as the last time we had churros y chocolate at the place next door to San Ginés, where they only charged us 1 euro!

I think I’m FINALLY done recapping everything that I have done recently. This entry is much too long! I hope you enjoyed reading it anyway. Until next time!

La llegada y Salamanca!

Hola a todos! Well I made it to Spain and so much has happened in the past few days that I think I have forgotten most of it, but I will try to give a brief summary of the things I do remember. We arrived at Barajas Airport in Madrid at 9:45 am on Thursday, February 4th after a fairly turbulent flight. Barajas is definitely the ugliest airport I have ever seen. The program coordinators met us at the airport-Esteban, el "jefe supremo" (who reminds me SO much of Rogelio, for those of you who know him), Eva, Encarní, y Maribel. We left the airport by bus and went straight to Ávila, a little town with some sort of old fortress and a famous saint (possibly Theresa). We were all very jetlagged and we only really stopped there for lunch, so we did not see much in this town. We got back on the bus and went to Salamanca, where we checked in at our hotel. I then experienced my first siesta. It was wonderful! I didn't want to wake up. Dinner that night was delicious, and we were serenaded by La Tuna, a traditional musical group from Spain. I took a video and once I figure out how to get it off my camera I will try to post it here. After dinner a bunch of us went out for a walk around Salamanca (by the way this is around midnight on a Thursday and the streets are still packed). We found our way to the Plaza Mayor (town center) and then proceeded to get hopelessly lost for about an hour and a half. Good thing one of us (not me) had some sense of direction and was able to steer us back to our hotel.

Friday, February 5
After a morning orientation session, we had a guided tour of Salamanca. We saw the cathedral, which was really neat because there were actually two cathedrals-the old one and the new one, built right next to each other. The old one was built first (duh), but after an earthquake destroyed a lot of it, the new one was rebuilt on top of/next to the old one. The style of this cathedral is fairly eclectic--it was a mix of many different styles of architecture, including gothic, baroque, renaissance, and a couple others that I was not familiar with. It was really hard to get a good picture of the outside of the cathedral, because it is legitimately right in the middle of the city. To see the contrast between the old and new cathedrals, look at the 2 pictures at the top of the entry (I tried to insert them here but for some reason they went to the top and I cannot move them). The one with the columns is the new one and the one with the paintings is the old one (that painting is from the 12th century or something and look at how well preserved it is!) After seeing the cathedral, we toured the Universidad de Salamanca-the oldest University in Spain. It was really cool to see. The first interesting thing that I remember is the way exams were conducted. If you passed your exams, you got to write your name on the building (on the outside!) and a symbol that said "VICTOR" to show that you were victorious in your studies. I really wish I had taken a picture of the names and the victor symbol because they were really neat. Another interesting thing about the Uni de Salamanca is that on the façade there is a sculpture of a toad (una rana) in between two skulls. Traditionally, if you see la rana and you are a student, it means that you will get good grades and be successful. Additionally, if you see la rana it means you will come back to Salamanca one day, and it may also mean that you will get married. I did not see la rana...so basically I'm going to fail and never come back to Salamanca and never get married. Que triste!

Well, I think that's all the interesting stuff I can remember for now. I was planning on updating this blog through today (the 6th) but there was just too much stuff to say and I am tired even though it is still early by Spanish standards. I will add more later. Goodnight.