Wow. It has been a jam packed, very long weekend. As a group we travelled to Seville and Cordoba. On Friday we got up very early and flew down to Seville. It’s a very easy flight of a little over an hour. I am going to be pro at flying by the end of this trip! (Maybe I’ll be a stewardess…hmmm.) In Seville we toured a grand gothic cathedral. I believe it is the 3rd largest cathedral in all of Europe! It is gorgeous!!! I love gothic arches even more in person!!! We climbed up in the tower too and got some wonderful views of this city. We also toured a Muslim mosque before that, which was also very beautiful. Then we ate lunch in a remodeled Moorish bathhouse. The renovation was fascinating! I actually will be writing a ten page paper (IN SPANISH!!) on renovation of old buildings for my City and Visual Culture class. During free time I wandered and found some great graffiti. I also tried to get lost…unintentionally. That night we went to a world of nation fair. It was hilarious! It was cool that there were different booths from various countries. The U.S. was combined with Canada and basically featured barbeque. The best part—and this completely made my day—was the cheesy, line-dancing, Spanish cowboys! Picture the song, “My achy breaky heart” in Spanish with very cheesy cowboy costumes and line-dancing. I guess you could call it line-dancing. But in fact it was a VERY butchered version of it. But whatever, it reminded me of home and that was exactly what I needed.
A beautiful view of Seville from the top of the Cathedral..notice Calatrava's bridge.
The view from the top of the cathedral...this little dome is my favorite part!
The next day we took a bus to Cordoba. There is a Basilica there that was built within a mosque. It is very strange for many reasons. First, I actually studied this building and so it was rather strange to actually see it in person. Second, I think the Christian church within a Muslim mosque is just a weird concept. Personally, I believe it ruined the mosque. But without it becoming a Christian church, it is possible that the mosque wouldn’t have been preserved as well—if at all. We also saw a Jewish Synagogue. I have to say that the Muslim mosque wins. It was just beautiful and amazing to be able to see as far as you could. I especially like the use of odd roman columns that they could find here and there.
The Muslim mosque combined with Christian basilica...note the columns...
During our free time we ate lunch in the beautiful gardens on the grounds of a palace. One part in particular reminded me of Pride and Prejudice. I spent the rest of the free time with Lane, another architecture student in the group. We shopped some and got ice cream. I found a funky ring. Charms, however, have been fairly hard to find. Opposite of the U.S., I guess. Then we headed back to Seville and hung out a little. Cristina (my Guardian Angel and roommate for this trip) and I watched the Top 40 Countdown of Spanish music. I don’t think there is truly Spanish music. You hear English music all the time!!! In stores, bars, etc. And the majority of this Top 40 was American pop. After that I met up with other kids in the program, ate French fries, drank a daiquiri and went to bed.
This morning we got to sleep in, which was wonderful. I ate a leisurely breakfast with Cristina and then the group headed over to a recent architecture project. This can really only be described with pictures, but I enjoyed it a lot! It reminds me a lot of rhino that I used last year and have created a similar project, albeit much, much simpler! It was a very cool experience, however. Then I wandered with Josh for awhile (another architecture student). I think he broke his big toe yesterday playing soccer so we took a rather leisurely pace. Confession: I bought a chai tea at Starbucks. Surprisingly, chai is very hard to find! They have tons of lipton tea, however. (I hate lipton). Now I need to find chai in a local coffee shop…but good luck on that! After that we flew back to BCN. I did find a section of English books and bought one. I already finished it on the flight. I miss having tons of leisure reading! It is difficult for me to read in Spanish for pleasure, especially since my vocabulary is still so low.
A waffled building...made of wood, with a polyeurothane coating.
Un Resumen: The trip was wonderful and felt like a vacation within a vacation. Excellent!
Sounds like a wonderful trip, favorite niece. Gracie and I did the Canyon Shuffle. I came in last. We missed you but had fun hanging with your family.
ReplyDeleteMiss you guys too! (I doubt you were last, last...but who knows!)
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