Since we only did one day in Cordoba we took an early bus out of Sevilla. After a long bus ride full of on and off napping and gazing off at the Spanish country side (there are these short trees, almost overgrown bushes, that stripe the country side and it bothered me so much not to know what type it was!) we arrived in Cordoba. The tourist offices at each bus station (minus Madrid) were so helpful in giving us maps and figuring out how to get to our hostel. This hostel in Cordoba, Senses and Colours Añil was so lovely it made up for the crappy one in Sevilla. The computer has placed Anna and I in separate rooms and the lady working the desk noticed and worked it so that we were together. In fact, we found up getting our own room, with our own bathroom! That's right, Anna and I each got our own bed, not bunk bed, with a shower and bathroom to ourselves. It was lovely!
The hostel was also very close to a bakery, dangerous to my waistline, tsks on you Spain, and not a far walk at all from the Mezquita.
Oh the Mezquita, I think I rose out of my body with excitement when we went there! Brief explanation: huge Mosque, after Catholic reconquest, the oh so loving Christians with a "take that!" mentality plopped a church right in the middle of the mosque. Me and my desires to go to the Middle East, fascination with other cultures, goal to learn Arabic and so on simply basked in the beauty of being in that inmense Mosque. The collision of religions was insane though. There were altars to different saints all around the perimeter of the mosque and the huge church in the center, yet Arabic style architecture, designs and writing all over the place as well. I thank Anna sincerely for letting me linger there as long as we did.
From there we roamed around the Judería, the old Jewish district, right next to the mosque. (Ok, so although I much prefer to learn about Latin America, as compared to Spain, I absolutely love the mix of cultures found in Southern Spain due to huge Jewish, Moorish and, of course, Catholic people). The Juderia just had that "quintessential" Andalusian feel to it. Best part was when we came upon the Sinagoga, although we couldn't get in that day, about three doors up and on the other side of the narrow street we ventured into this bar. Anna's mom told her that we had to try fino, a wine specialized in Southern Spain. We went into this bar, asked if they had any fino. The bartender looked at us a little confusedly and said yes. After informing us that the only difference between a small and large glass was 5 cents, we each ordered a large copa de fino (only 95 cents!). To our complete bemusement, he turned around to the huge barrel behind the bar and poured our drinks from the tap; fino must be their specialty, everyone in the bar had it! We found a seat and enjoyed our delicious 95 cent finos at 3 or 4 pm in the afternoon.
After hostel time, siesta and dinner, we made our way to a flamenco show. A family owned operation: brothers on the guitar and 'drum' (more of a box-like thing used for percussion purposes... that drummer was oh so beautiful), father singing, others accompanying with vocals and palmas (clapping). The female dancer was out sick and so they had a male dancer perform; he was phenomenal. Although we missed a potential fan dance, we by no means felt deprived. It was an amazing show, I still don't know how they all coordinate so well, still can't quite hear the beats they each play at. with a pitcher of sangria and a Cheshire-cat-like grin on my face as I watched a most beautiful performance, we finished Cordoba in the best way
(by the way, all photos are from either right outside or within the Mezquita)
That drummer was gay, darling.
ReplyDeleteAnd did we ever figure out what those friggin trees were?
His sexuality doesn't take away from how pretty he was to look at. And I'm thinking, after a quick search, that they were almond trees. Go figure, Spain is the second largest exporter of almonds, after the US.
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