Cordoba & Granada

This past weekend was one of the best trips I've ever done. I'll never forget it. Pics from this trip and Valencia are finally up!

Cordoba
Last Thursday Pam, Alan and I caught the 4pm bus to Cordoba, a small town in the province of Andalucia, the heart of the south of Spain. I was in charge of getting bus tickets, and like a champ, I got 14:00h tickets (2pm) instead of 16:00h, and didn't realize it until we were en route to the bus station. Luckily, there were still available seats on the 4pm 10 minutes before it left...but I was immediately out 40 bucks from the beginning for a stupid mistake...damn military time!

Anyway, so the trip was rather painless, there was no one on the bus so we each got 2 seats to ourselves. We got to Cordoba around 8, checked into our hotel (very well-situated, clean, and comfortable). We went to dinner and had rabo de toro (bull's tail), flamenquin (breaded ham) and salmonejo (some kind of cheese, garlic, and tomato dip), very typical Andaluz dishes. The rabo de toro was by far the best dish...

Afterwards we went to see a flamenco exhibition, which was quite impressive. We had come to the realization that flamenco is a very feminine dance, with its sensual, suave hand gestures and whatnot. So it was amusing to watch a male flamenco dancer for the first time. Can we say Michael Flatly from "Riverdance"?

After flamenco, we we were trying to find bars to go to, but a lot of stuff was closed in the central area. Cordoba's nothing like Madrid when it comes to nightlife, since it's a much smaller town. We came across a nice-looking couple, and asked them where we could find bars. They kindly offered to drive us in their car! They took us to Jardin Universitaria, which mostly consists of cervecerias catering to university students. It was perfect, all on one block so we could explore the different clubs and bars, and it was a good time.

Friday we were blessed with BEAUTIFUL weather, so we went to la Mezquita Catedral. Really beautiful. It has both Muslim and Christian elements, so it is an interesting fusion of religious motifs, and architecturally amazing. It looks much smaller on the outside, but there are something like 1300 pillars on the interior. I had wanted to visit the Roman bridge and the fortress on the other side of the river, but it was under heavy construction. So we wandered, ate in a cute italian restaurant, and putzed around in a beautiful little park across from the bus station until we caught the 5pm bus to Granada. Overall, Cordoba is cute for the mosque-cathedral, but I don't think I would have had the patience to study there for 4 whole months.
Random liquor at the rest stop
Plaza de Tendillas, where we stayed
Outside the mosque-cathedral
Cathedral portion
Mosque structure

Granada
We arrived in Granada Friday night around 10, checked into our hostel, and had dinner at a kebab place. Turkish kebab places are huuuuge in Spain, and even more so in the south because of the heavy Moorish influence. Granada has 10 kebab places on every block, and it's really good food for cheap. So we're eating and I have my back to the window, and Pam mentions that some lady is staring at us through the window. So I turn my back and there is this haggard gypsy lady looking intently at us...I got really spooked so I turned around. Suddenly Alan goes, "OMG she's reaching her hand through the window!" And I FREAKED OUT...until I realized that that was physically impossible because of the 3 layers of glass between us! So yeah that was a moment I won't live down. I was tired dammit!

IES was also in Granada this same weekend, so we ran into a bunch of IES kids during dinner, and we followed them to an Irish pub afterwards. I did my first Irish car bomb, and it is officially one of my favorite drinks! The rest of the night consisted of low-key bar hopping.

Saturday Pam and I got up at 8:30am to go see the Alhambra, the last and only standing Moorish castle in Spain. It. is. incredible. We spent 3 hours in there. it is expansive, probably has the surface area of a quarter of Granada or so. It's great, the Muslim-influenced part of the castle is gorgeous, and the Christian additions and renovations waaaay pale in comparison. The Alhambra is one of Spain's greatest sites, and I highly recommend anyone going to Spain to go visit Granada just to see it. The rest of our day consisted of walking around the city, doing a bit of shopping, eating and drinking mint tea, and hiking up to el Albaycin, the ancient Arab barrio, and Sacremonte, the gypsy barrio. We once again were blessed with perfect weather, so I couldn't have asked for a better day.

Suffice it to say that good times were had by all. Pam and Alan are great people to travel with - so laidback and full of life and stories. Plus we got to meet up with a bunch of our friends from IES without the burden of following their rigid itinerary. It was worth every penny (except the 40 euro I wasted on not knowing how to read military time).
Granada - view from the Alhambra
Alhambra - Palace of Naveries
Inside Generalife
Alhambra - view from Generalife, the king's private garden
Along the river, towards the Albaycin

Next up: Nuria's in town!!! Perhaps we will trek up north this time, to Vasque Country, home to some of the prettiest natural landscapes in Spain. And after that: CANARY ISLANDS! Cannot wait.