Cordoba y Granada

So Friday morning my study abroad group boarded the buses to go to Cordoba. Cordoba is a small city north of Sevilla, but still in Andalucia, with a rich cultural history. It took about 2 hours to get there. When we arrived, we crossed over the Guadalquivir river (same river that runs through Sevilla) to get to the city center. The first place we went to was the Cathedral-Mosque or Mezquita-Catedral. The interesting thing about it was that it was originally built as a Christian church, whereas most of the mosques-turned-cathedrals were originally mosques.

Minaret-turned-Belltower

Inside of the Mezquita-Catedral

Pulpit made from Central American mahogany

So far, the "old" things I've seen date back to after the 11th century. But this building was REALLY old. The building began in 600 as the Christian Visigothic church of St. Vincent. After the Islamic conquest of the Visigothic kingdom, the church was divided between the Muslims and Christians. The exiled Umayyad prince, Abd ar-Rahman, conquered the Andalusian governor but allowed the Christians to rebuild their ruined churches. He purchased the Christian half of the church of St. Vincent and for the next few centuries he and his descendants fashioned it into a mosque. After many alterations and additions, the mosque reached its current dimensions in 987.

If you remember from my Catedral de Sevilla history, you remember that King Ferdinand III reconquered southern Spain in the 13th century. He did exactly what he did in Sevilla...turned it into a cathedral. Artisans and architects continued to add to the existing structure until the late 18th century. The minaret was turned into a belltower, and mini chapels were built surrounding the Capilla Mayor in the center of the church. The choir area, like the one in Catedral de Sevilla, is located in the very center of the church just behind the Capilla Mayor. The cathedral itself really reminded me of the one in Sevilla in almost every way. It's so interesting that the designs are nearly identical, just because that was the way they built cathedrals back in the 13th century.

After we toured the Mezquita-Catedral, we took a mini tour around Cordoba and saw Calle Panuelo (panuelo means handkerchief) and it's named that because the street is as wide as a handkerchief! We also saw the Jewish Ghetto and an old Jewish synagogue. A few friends and I window shopped and ate some tapas, then we all headed to Granada.

GIGANTIC tortilla de patatas!

Calle Flores with a view of the belltower

Calle Panuelo

Granada was about an hour and a half southeast of Cordoba. It is a little north of the Sierra Nevada mountains, where there are snow ski resorts! Even though it wasn't cold in Granada, the mountains all had snow on them. It was a pretty cool sight driving in. When we got there we checked into our hotel and then went for tapas! Now, Granada is known for FREE TAPAS with the purchase of a drink. We had to all meet as a group around 8:30 to go to the flamenco show, but that gave us 2 hours to get tapas! We went to 3 different places on Plaza Nueva during those 2 hours and everytime you ordered another drink, you got another different tapa! It was amazing to us. We unfortunately don't get FREE tapas in Sevilla.

At 8:30 we began to walk to the flamenco show. What we didn't know was that we were going to have to climb a mountain to get there! It took a good 20 minutes to walk up the mountain and we weren't even at the show. They had taken us to a viewpoint first where we saw the Alhambra at night. The Alhambra is truly an amazing sight, day or night. From there we went to the flamenco show. The show was very similar to the ones I've seen in Sevilla, except they actually wore the pretty dresses at this one. The music and dancing were very typical flamenco though. After a couple hours of that, we finally left and decided to go for more tapas... :)

La Alhambra

Flamenco show in a cave!

3 friends and I found a small bar close to the center Plaza Nueva and indulged ourselves with gourmet tapas. We each ordered 3 drinks, and each got 3 different tapas every time we ordered one. The first round was a potato wedge-like thing with cheese and ham and a raspberry sauce on top. It was so delicious and we ate it so fast we didn't even get a picture! The second tapa was a skewer of a sausage and cheese mixture and potato strings, and the last tapa was a mushroom risotto. The entire time we were eating our tapas and drinking our wine we noticed 3 guys standing at the bar. We figured they were from Granada from the get-go, so we would talk a little about them amongst ourselves in English. Right before the guys left, one came up to our table and asked if we would take a picture of their group (in Spanish of course). So we did, then we asked them where the best clubs were in town. They said it was their first trip to Granada, and that they were actually studying in Sevilla! How weird is that?! So we told them we were too and it turns out they were from Brazil. So after speaking Spanish to them for a good 10 minutes we find out they all studied in the US as foreign exchange students and knew perfect English. I thought the Spanish was good practice but it was annoying sometimes when I couldn't say what I wanted to say. The one guy I was talking to said I shouldn't be worried at all because I was fluent! I laughed and disagreed, but it made me feel good to hear that from someone who spoke Spanish better than I did. We all exchanged numbers and said we would meet up later on if either of us found a good place.

#1 drinks and tapas...gone in under 60 seconds

Tapa #2

The girls at the tapas bar!

The first place we ran into was a small bar with decent music. The only reason we went was because a guy outside was offering free shots if you bought a drink for a euro...so of course we had to go in! We were in there just long enough to take our shot and drink our drink then we were on to the next bar. We went to another one with a similar deal and ran into about 6 other ISA students. We all hung out there for an hour or so then decided to hit up a club. The club everyone wanted to go to OF COURSE had to be at the top of the damn mountain though. We asked for directions and the guy said it was 10 minutes "that way". After 25 minutes I was just straightup pissed that we were wasting time and I didn't even believe there was a club called "Camboria". Everyone kept urging me to go on even though I was so close to getting a taxi back (it was 1:30am at this point). FINALLY 45 minutes after we scaled HALF the mountain, we got to this club. And all I really have to say about it was that it was completely worth it! It was on the side of the mountain and had glass windows all around it. There were 2 bars and a lounge area, even a coat check! The club overlooked the entire city of Granada and, most spectacularly, the Alhambra! No one got back to the hotel before 5am.

Which was a big mistake, because we toured the Alhambra for 2 1/2 hours the next morning. A tour up and down steps and in and out of rooms was not good for people who only had 2 hours of sleep! The Alhambra is similar to the Alcazares in Sevilla, but much older and a little prettier. I'm not going to go into detail about it, but I will show some pictures of this old Moorish fortress-cathedral palace thing.

View of Granada from the Alhambra

Courtyard in the Alhambra

Summer palace set back from the Alhambra

View of the Alhambra from the summer palace

Fountain at the summer palace

After the Alhambra we went to eat lunch. Never, I mean NEVER EVER order fried fish anywhere in Europe. In America, when you see fried fish on a menu you think a fried fish filet of some sort...well, in Spain you get a fish (that was probably just caught out back) that they battered and threw in the fryer. Notice I didn't say they de-boned it or fileted it in any way shape or form? So that's what I got. Fried...fishes. They kind of creeped me out! The big ones looked like they were eating their own tails, and the little anchovies were just disgusting. I mean really, how do they expect people to eat that stuff?!

My fishy friends...

I poked the eyeball out of the guy on the right.

After lunch we walked around some shops for a bit, then finally boarded the bus back to Sevilla. Needless to say, I was ready to sleep on that 3 hour bus ride. A good time was had by all.

PS: Sorry if it got less and less detailed towards the end I just had to post it so I can start working on my Rome post!!

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Marruecos!

Ok, you all know it was an amazing trip if you've seen my Facebook. I can't wait to tell you all about it!

We went with the student travel group, DiscoverSevilla. It takes students to Morocco, Portugal, Cadiz, Gibraltar and many more places throughout the year. It's run by Sevillanos aged 20-30ish, all very attractive of course ;)

We left Sevilla around 5:00pm Friday in 2 charter buses. There were so many people! We watched Superbad on the way, with Spanish subtitles. Needless to say, I learned a lot of words in Spanish that I would never learn in a classroom thanks to that! We finally arrived at Tarifa around 8pm. Tarifa is at the southern tip of Spain, and it's a 35 minute ferry ride across the Strait of Gibraltar to Tangier, Morocco, AFRICA. We arrived at our hotel around 10pm and they had a dinner buffet ready for us.



Hotel Room



In America, hotels have Bibles.
 In Morocco, they have arrows to Mecca.



View of the Atlantic from our balcony.


We all agreed that the cous-cous was the best! But they also had so many other different types of food out: chicken with a cream sauce, meatballs, soups, and an assortment of cold veggie platters to name a few. After dinner we went to our room to freshen up. It was originally supposed to be me and 2 friends in a triple room, but one of the girls we met lost her group and it was going to be a 40 Euro taxi ride to get to where they were so she ended up staying with us and sleeping in the crack of the beds. It was only 2 nights so it wasn't bad.

After dinner, Zandy and I decided to go down to the lobby bar and have a few drinks before we went to sleep. At one point when we were sitting on the couches and talking, one of the Moroccan servers came up to us. He was speaking in Spanish but said he spoke very little. He would not talk to the us, but only to our guy friend, and he asked where we were from. Our friend told him we were Spaniards so he would leave us alone, but he then turned to me and pretended to stab his heart while saying something along the lines of "quiero suicidarme porque eres tan bonita!" Then he walked away. Our guy friend turned to me and I just shook my head to tell him I didn't need a translation, it was pretty obvious! Fortunately that's not how Spaniard guys communicate on a regulary basis. I definitely don't think my "beauty" is enough for anyone to want to kill themself!



View of the ocean taken from the bus.



The next morning we woke up pretty early and went down for breakfast. There was a woman making crepe-type things on a griddle and lots of cheeses, eggs, and pastries. After that, we got on the bus for a short tour of Tangier, then went outside the city limits to ride camels and to visit the Caves of Hercules. The Atlantic Ocean was magnificent. Crystal blue water, beautiful untouched golden sand, lush green vegetation...interestingly enough you didn't see anyone on the beaches. If you didn't know, Morocco is an Muslim country and a very religious one at that. Women covered their entire bodies (except their faces), there was no way they were going to their beautiful beaches in bikinis!

Me, Maria, and Emiley having a little fun in the sun!



They were hard to balance on when they stood up!



The camels were at the top of a cliff overlooking the Atlantic. Everyone got to ride one, but we had to take turns. It was a short ride, but plenty of time for me. They smelled AWFUL and it was a workout to stay on the damn things with the way they walked! Not to mention mounting and dismounting. The camels will lay down so you can mount them, but when they stand up it's a pretty rocky ride! After we rode camels we walked down to the ocean and took some pictures. After about 30 minutes, we headed to the Caves.



Ahh finally...nope still not quite comfortable.





We're best friends...but I wasn't getting any closer!



Opening to the sea...of course someone's in the way.

The Caves of Hercules were amazing. We went down a couple flights of stone steps and immediately felt the cool, damp cave air. It was neat to see the merchants selling Moroccan souvenir trinkets IN the cave, they were all set out on the rocks in the cave formation! When we rounded the corner we saw what makes the Caves of Hercules so impressive...the opening to the sea. It has a very distinct shape, and I tried to get a good picture of it but there were so many people in my way :( The blue waves of the Atlantic crashing into the rocks of the cave were indescribable. For a brief moment it was totally quiet, and everyone was just listening to the ocean beating against the rocks of the cave. It's little moments like these that I'll miss the most about my semester in Spain...

After the caves we got back on the bus for a ride that we thought would be short. We were wrong. 2 hours later we stopped for a bathroom break (and I now know why they said to carry a roll of toilet paper with you at all times), but we still weren't there! Finally another hour later we arrived in Chefchaouen. Chefchaouen is situated at the base of the Rif Mountains in Northern Morocco. It was founded in 1471 by Moorish exiles from Spain, but Spain seized Chefchaouen in 1920 to form Spanish Morocco. They finally returned the city in 1956 after Morocco gained independence. History aside, Chefchaouen is one of the most intriguing places I've ever visited. There are no cars in the medina, and all of the buildings are painted either white or light blue (the reasoning being that they both reflect heat instead of absorb it and that the mosquitoes stay away from the color white).

The restaurante where we ate was called Lampe Magique Casa Aladin, and had the best view. We went all the way to the top terrace and could see the entire city! There were loaves of bread on our table when we sat down and they were delicious, especially when dipped in the olive oil and vinegar (my mom goes nuts for that stuff). The first course was a salad with EVERYTHING: lettuce, carrots, onions, green peppers, olives, cucumbers, tomatoes, and tuna. The interesting thing about it was that all of these things were separated on the plate. We mixed it all together and it was absolutely amazing. The next course was chicken with grilled lemons and olives. It was so good! The grilled green olives were a little different, and definitely not Andalucian olives, but good nonetheless. If you know me you know I've never had a problem with eating chicken off the bone, but here it's just getting a little annoying. I mean, is it really too much to ask for boneless chicken every now and then?! Totally irrelevant to Morocco, my hostmom fried chicken wings the other day and they had FEATHERS on them...like not a few small thin ones, like LOTS of feathers, like so many that I couldn't even ignore them because I could feel them in my mouth! After that experience I've been examining my bone-in chicken pretty closely, probably not a good habit to start. MEANWHILE back in Morocco...for dessert we were given some fresh fruit, and then we headed out to take the tour and to SHOP...so we thought.

Loom

The tour was very interesting. We walked around countless shops with people hand-sewing leather shoes and bags, hand-carving wooden utensils and furniture, and hand-painting dishes , glasses, and jewelry. Everyone was so kind and welcoming. They would ask if we were American, and when we said yes they would be smile and become overjoyed with enthusiasm and warm welcomes. The economy of Chefchaouen is based solely on tourism, so they needed us. We went to a rug shop where we got to see the looms and learn about the business. Only men can use the looms in Chefchaouen, but the women can dye the rugs.

We learned a little about the "people on the mountain". They live away from the city, but the people in the city almost take care of them in some ways. It's a weird relationship that I don't quite understand, but I got that the people on the mountain would come to the city to work and/or trade cannibis for whatever they needed, so they could take it back up there to their families. The Spanish-speaking guide also told us that the people on the mountain make their living by growing marijuana. If you didn't already know, Morocco is know for it's marijuana and more specifically for hash. Even though it's illegal to grow authorities turned a blind eye because thousands of families depend on its cultivation, and farmers say the harsh climate in the mountains make it impossible to grow anything else. Though I wasn't personally offered any while there (people tend to stay away from my blonde hair), many of my friends were. 

When we got back to the square to meet up as a big group, Manu told us that the police just informed him there was going to be a "peaceful riot" with a few hundred people in that very square in about 20 minutes. Again if you didn't know, Morocco has had a slight political uprise in the past month though nothing compared to Tunisia, Egypt, or Lybia. Since DiscoverSevilla didn't want to lose anyone we had to return to the buses immediately without buying anything. Everyone was so disappointed because Chefchaouen is the only place in Morocco, or in the world for that matter, where you can buy such a variety of hand-crafted items. Manu said we would get extra time in Tetouan the next day, but it just wouldn't be the same.



"Magic" room



When we got back to the hotel we all agreed that showers were necessary before dinner. I just felt so sandy and dirty after a day spent walking outside and riding camels! We watched some Moroccan TV but the only thing on was news about Lybia. We were the first ones down for dinner and indulged ourselves a bit to say the least! We even had some vino :) After dinner, the entire group met in a room for a game and some magic. They split us up into teams and gave us 10 questions for the game. Whoever got the most right won the prize. Some questions I remember include "Where is Stevie Ray Vaughn from?", "What year did Sevilla hold the World's Fair?" and "Which of our guides was a stripper before he worked at DiscoverSevilla?" Of course the last question was the only one our group got wrong, so we won! Unfortunately the "prize" was hugs...lame! Then we got to watch a magic show...

One of our guides was a 20-year old cutie from Sweden named Rufus. He decided to up and move to Sevilla last September, after he traveled the world doing magic. Okay, I'm not talking cheesey, fake magic...I'm talking good shit. He makes his living doing magic tricks and ended up coming on our trip as an extra chaperone because he was friends with the directors. He mostly did card tricks, and they would blow your mind. I have NO idea how he did anything! The last trick he did apparently won the world's magic competition a few years back, and he just taught himself. He picked one of the girls to choose a suit and then he had her blindfold him. He asked many other people to shuffle and cut the normal deck multiple times. Then he started pulling out her suit, diamonds, one by one Ace going first. Be he wouldn't just pull them out consecutively, he would pull the ace out, then have someone else shuffle it, then he would pull the 2 of diamonds out! He did that until the king of diamonds, without a single slip-up. He was a pretty amazing magician!

After that, 6 of us went out to the beach to dip our toes in the Atlantic. There wasn't anyone out at night really, and the water was so cold! When we got back in the 6 of us went to the lobby bar with 3 of the guides. One of the guys with us asked a prostitute (unknowingly) to take a picture of our group. She went on a rant and demanded money if he was going to take her picture and he had no idea what was going on! Finally a different guy came up and helped us translate and took our picture instead. It was pretty entertaining to say the least. We chilled there for a couple more hours and Rufus (the Swedish magician) did some coin tricks for us. One of our guides was trying to get me to speak only Spanish to him, because that's the only way I'm ever going to learn. If you didn't know, I'm kind of a perfectionist and I like to be the best at what I do. I never do something I don't do WELL...so because of my intensive Spanish grammar training, I don't like to speak because I don't like to mess up! I want to always be grammatically correct, even though most Spaniards aren't! I'm working on it though...



Moroccan beer...they actually
sell this in Sevilla





We went to bed fairly early that night, but we had to wake up early too for our tour of Tetouan. It was only about an hour away, but it was a pretty big city so our tour was going to be longer. When we go there we arrived in the city area, the modern area. We weren't going to tour that part, but instead, the medina. Lucky for us it was Sunday and you know what that means? Market day! The berbers and the mountain people come to town every Sunday to sell their fresh fruits, meats, fish, and crafts. In the Berber area, one of the ladies actually dressed one of the girls in our group in traditional Berber-wear. I can't believe they wear all that in the heat! We got to see the royal palace in Tetouan, and we learned that there is a palace in every big city in Morocco...you know, just in case the king wants to visit he always has a place to stay. The medina of Tetouan was a bustling centre of people and animals, and many different sights and smells...it was a good thing we had a guide in front of us and behind us to keep us from getting lost in the crowds!



Medina of Tetouan



Lots of "fresh" meat...goat head for dinner anyone?



Royal Palace



Berber dress...I actually bought
the handmade cloth she was holding
to use as a tablecloth or something!
Razorback Red :)

Berber Market




Crazy Moroccan dancer man



We ate lunch at Palace Boulhal. First course was an egg-drop soup that smelled delicious, but tasted kind of bland. Next came shish-kabobs with beef tips (at least I think it was beef), and then we had a platter of cous-cous with veggies on top. I still can't get over how amazing the cous-cous was! I should probably thank Tyson and TU's right now for exposing me to cultural foods or else I wouldn't have even known what cous-cous was upon entering Morocco. They gave us small tarts and cookies for dessert with a hot tea. During dessert, there was a Moroccan man balancing a tray on his head and dancing to the live Moroccan music. On the tray were lit candles and a tea pitcher! He had some pretty impressive balancing skills, but he still had nothing on Rufus.



Inside the restaurant

After lunch was probably one of my favorite experiences of the trip. We went to a Moroccan Pharmacia...and this isn't a normal pharmacy folks! This place sold Moroccan spices and oils, and old and passed-down recipes for home remedies. A man gave a description and passed around samples of everything, and then we decided what we wanted to buy at the end. I ended up buying Moroccan Oil for your hair for only 8 Euros...do you know how expensive Moroccan Oil is in the US?! I also bought Moroccan cinnamon (everybody can use cinnamon, right?) and Moroccan curry which smelled DELICIOUS and goes well with chicken, rice, and vegetables. They also sold hand creams, teas, and an assortment of other spices. After I checked out, they had a woman come in and do henna tattoos for 2 Euros. She did them on our forearms and would write our name in Arabic at the wrist, then do a design up our arm. Even though they use pure henna to dye their rugs, I don't think she used that for our tats because mine was very faded the next morning and now it kinda looks like a spray tan gone bad! BUT at least it was cool at first!



Before



After the crust fell off



"Mezquita"..."mosque" in English

 

After that, we went to another rug shop but these were a little fancier. They had hand-beaded rugs which started at 200 Euros a pop! I thought that was a little pricey, but if you're a girl then you know that hand-beaded dresses are also outrageous, so it made total sense. Lots of girls ended up buying smaller ones for about 50 Euros. When we left there, we got to walk around the market area but it was nothing like Chefchaouen's market. Lots of people bought hookahs and jewelry, but I bought magnets. Yup, magnets. I figured it would be a nice collection to start. I bought some in Paris and plan on buying some from everywhere I travel...my fridge is going to look snazzy!



I know mom was looking for some rugs for her
new wood floor but I couldn't afford these!

Zandy, Me, Emiley, and Maria...we L.O.V.E.d Africa!

We finally had to head back to Tangier around 3 in order to get on the ferry at 4. When we got to the ferry we could actually see Spain from Morocco! When we go to the ferry in Tarifa on Friday night it was dark, so we could see the lights in Morocco but nothing else. Once we boarded, we went outside to take some farewell Africa pics, then went back down because it was so windy! We made it home to Sevilla around midnight, and said all of our goodbyes to our new friends. My host parents wanted to hear all about it when I got home so I told them as much as I could in Spanish, and they couldn't believe that I liked Morocco more than Paris! I think it almost gave my host mom a heart attack haha. Soo this concludes my Moroccan adventure. Sorry it took so long, it's been a crazy week. If any of you ever get the opportunity to visit Morocco, please jump at the chance.

Adio-

Sunset off the coast of Africa...

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