Andalucia: Granada, Cordoba, y Sevilla

To the south we go. So, our second puente was the cause of All Saints' Day, I believe a national holiday here in Spain. It was a wednesday, and becuase we don't have Friday classes to begin with, our Program decided to give us off the Thursday in between as well.

Thus, a group of 5 of us left Tuesday afternoon for our first city of the trip, Granada. Thankfully, this trip featured two flights and a high-speed train, with only one bus. So, we got to Granada in the evening, and found our way to the city. We soon discovered, though, that no one had written down the address of the hostel. When we got there, we assumed we'd have no problem finding it, as it was a very popular hostel. However, to our utter amazement, the hostel was not in the phone book, the city book of hotels, or of hostels. How weird, but the ironic thing was that it was named the Oasis Hotel. A man in the tourist booth at the airport had told us a couple locations--he said there were two (obviously he had no idea what he was talking about)--so after a while of searching we stopped at an internet cafe and looked it up again. When we get there, the woman at the door looks at us strangely, even after we informed her we had a reservation. We come to find out our friend had only reserved himself a place in the room, and our other friend thought that he had done the same like he did in Cordoba. Evidently not...Another fun turn of events. So, the very nice hostel woman told us a good area to find hostels, cheap too, and before we even reached that area after leaving, we ran into a hostel. We went up to the office (had to call up from outside, because by that time it was late), and when we went up she offered us a room of four (we were 5 total, so we needed 4 beds) for only 52 euros per night. That's ridiculously cheap, and the room was clean and beds were nice. So it worked out.

We met back up with our other friend and went to look for long-overdue food. In our area, after a quick look, we discovered that the only places that were open were Middle-Eastern kebab places. Wow, was I thankful for those. Amazing goodness, and cheap, too. Let me just say I enjoyed a few more of those before leaving Granada.

Next morning, we had an early reservation for La Alhambra, had to be there before 8:30. What a struggle to find ANYTHING to eat in the morning at that hour, and finally we got a cup of coffee and a pastry while a group of people waited for this one cafe to open.

La Alhambra (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhambra) is the old fortress, palace, and mosque area of during Al-Andalus, during the Muslim rule of most of Spain. I'll pause here to comment about the south of Spain. It's radically different from the north of Spain--weather, customs, appearance of people, food. Al-Andalus was a period of about 700 years (the last Muslim stronghold in Spain was Granada, which was taken in 1492, as is commonly known, by Isabel and Ferdinand). The Muslims occupied most of the peninsula, except for this area and one other, so most of Spain has remnants and buildings from Al-Andalus, but because Andalucia is on the Mediterannean, it has much more old Muslim culture, making it a major attraction. Anyway, back to La Alhambra. It's situated up high on a hill, overlooking the city. It's a huge, sprawling complex, which includes great architecture, awesome carvings, and a large garden complex as well. We spent all of morning there, and part of the afternoon, before coming down the hill to find some food.

That night, after dinner at the Oasis Hostel (cheap and good, surprisingly), we made our way around, and stopped at an Arabic restaurant-type deal with belly-dancing. The belly-dancing was actually quite good, just not that long of a show.

The next day, we stayed in town to catch some of its sights, before having to leave in the afternoon for Cordoba. The first stop: the Royal Chapel. It was a nice church in which Isabella and Ferdinand are intombed, with an amazing piece behind the altar. The place is dripping in gold (I know, a shocker for this period in Spain). Basically, after that, we just walked around the city, looking in some shops, and poking around stores that are particular to the region. The sad thing is that so many stores are devoted to tourism, and thus sell the same ol' crap. We were going to head to the the Cathedral, but like so much in Spain, it was closed during the siesta, and we had to head out shortly after four pm. So, it wasn't worth the entrance price for 15 minutes.

Bus ride to Granada was okay. One thing I have to comment tho: shortly into the trip, I looked out the window and saw fields of olive trees. What a wonderful sight to see, olive trees everywhere, right up to the highway. Then around the next turn, in all directions I looked, all I could see was olive trees to the horizon. No joke. That was particularly amazing. Such a different place from home, and such a beautiful sight. One more incidences like that on this ride, too: we were approaching a small down when the bus took a quick halt. I looked up, to the right, and saw a flock of sheep crossing the road. I don't know why it struck me, but it was just a cool thing to think about at the time.

We arrived in Cordoba that night, and this time found our way to the hostel with enough beds for everyone. The hostel manager told us a place to get some dinner "casera" style, home-cooked, esentially. Good gazpacho, quite an Andalucian treat. The hostel guy also recommended an area to find some young people and some bars, so we wandered in that direction. Ran into their central plaza, very nice, and then into something which shocked the hell out of me. We turn the corner and out shoot up a huge Ancient Roman column structure. WOW. That's not something you get every day. It absolutely awed me, a structure from the 1st century AD, rising out of a modern city. We took some time gazing at it, and a great thing I remarked upon was how it's completely bound of by a modern fence. No one can get it, and initially it's frustrating, but then you realize how great it will be preserved this way. More places should follow this example. Had a bad Amstel and a bad Guinness at a bad jazz club, and then we went back and went to sleep.

Next day, to the Mezquita (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mezquita). So, basically, Cordoba was the headquarters and capital of Al-Andalus for a couple-hundred years at its peak, and the Mezquita was the largest and most prestigious mosque of its reign. However, when the Christians took over at the end of the 15th century, they converted the mosque into a cathedral. yes, i said converted. they didn't knock it down or even tear it apart but inserted all the forms of a cathedral right into the mosque, even covering the minaret with a bell tower. in fact, the Muslims did the same thing when they took over at the beginning of Al-Andalus, incorporating parts of the Visigothic cathedral into their mosque. Let me say, it was one of the highlights of this semester. I can't even express what an amazing place it is, not just for the clash of cultures but for the combination of cultures. The south of Spain features so much of this, as it was inhabited by many different cultures, but the Mezquita of Cordoba is such a powerful statement of this fact. The entire outside and most of the interior architecture is Moorish, but around all sides on the inside are small chapels, common to old cathedrals. Then, in the middle out of nowhere comes the dome and high altar and all kinds of Christian sculpture and imagery.

That was the highlight of Cordoba besides the rest of the city itself. It was just such a picaresque small city/town that in my opinion so personified the south of Spain. We visited an old Arab bath that day, as well, along with just wandering through the city.

We took a 5 o'clock train to Sevilla, a wonderful high-speed train that took 45 mins instead of a long, nauseating bus ride. Get to Sevilla, find our hotel--which, I must say, was QUITE different than the pictures they showed on the internet--and then went out exploring. We were waiting for this tapas bar, which the hotel people had said was very good and very cheap, but we could only wait so long, as we were gonna go to a "flamenco-esque" show quite a walk away. So, we ended up leaving and grabbing some bocadillos on the way. The show was good, but the problem was that there was nowhere to sit and there were way too many people there to begin with, and my back was not holding out from the day nor was my stamina to stay awake. Let's just say, we left and slept very well that night.

Next day, we started out with the Cathedral. Now, coming from the "Cathedral" of Cordoba (aka la Mezquita, which is now entitled the Cathedral), other churches were gonna have a lot to live up to. But the cathedral of Sevilla was ready for me. It’s technically the largest cathedral in square-footage in the world, and it’s up there with St. Paul’s in London and St. Peter’s in Rome as the three largest churches in Europe. An amazing place, I must say, it was. You can walk up its bell-tower, which looks over the city. Many can view this church as overly gaudy and unnecessary, but it's, at the least, interesting to consider why it was built like this: basically to show Christian power over the Moors. The Catholic monarchs wanted to demonstrate their newly-united power and build the lardest church in the world (well, almost).

After that, we went to the old Moorish Royal Palace and gardens. More great architecture and carvings, with a tremendous garden. we ran into two peacocks just strolling around. Just a weird thing, I guess, in my opinion. That peacocks were just hangin out free. I've never seen anything like it before. After that, we headed toward Plaza Espana, which is a popular spot to just walk and chill out. It features, around its arc, little bench/alcove areas, with one dedicated to each province of Spain. We found Vizcaya, our home province, and took some pictures. It had tiles describing pictorially Pais Vasco's most famous attributes.

That evening, we went to a real flamenco show, which was well-worth the money (didn't hit the wallet THAT much). It was comprised of four performers: a guitarrist, a singer, and two dancers of each sex. They were all very good, and although it catered to tourists, it was well-worth it. An interesting thing from the point of view of a non-native speaker living in Spain is that they had people like us working for them. They appeared to be in their early to middle twenties in age and definitely not native speakers, I mean for the ushers and people who explain things to the audience. They didn't even have a native-Spaniard speak the Spanish directions; just an interesting cultural notice of mine.

We went to a strange bar that night to take in some strange drinks, as suggested by the hostel workers. They said you'd never find another place like this again, and they were right. It was a hole-in-the-wall, tiny little establishment, that was decorated in gaudy religious figures and satin curtains and other trinkets. Layered in this stuff; very tough to describe. Another thing: we were the only young people in there, and the place was packed even as we left at 2 am. Full of middle-aged Spaniards. Also, we had to try their specialty, which was the Sangre de Cristo (Christ's blood), composed of cava (sparkling Spanish wine), grenadina, and whiskey. The grenadine obviously gave it its red color, but much to our chagrin the drink was NOT very tasty.

Next day, we had a flight in the early afternoon, so we decided to make the Plaza de Toros our one morning stop. I really enjoyed it a lot; something VERY special to the south of Spain. Another cultural note, though: our tour guide, a native Spanish woman, gave the tour in three languages: Spanish, English, and French. She was very good at all of them, and I couldn't understand why she was a tour guide with that ability. But, extra languages here in Europe isn't as special as it is in the States. We've stumbled upon so many workers in the tourist industry--for example, a crappy hotel by the airport in Paris had numerous workers who were fluent in more than 2 languages--but it still boggles my mind.

I really couldn't understand why so many people make a fuss about Sevilla being such a remarkable city. Out of the three we saw on the trip, it was the one I liked the least. Granted, it's a great place with a lot of wonderful neighborhoods, monuments, and life, but it seemed like it was trying to be too many different things: like a modern, almost-ugly city amongst its beautiful past. Granada, from what I saw, has been able to avoid this modern ugliness. But, in the end, I still enjoyed Sevilla, regardless of my opinion that it's selling out on its Andalusian roots.

Awesome puente to the South of Spain, and we saw sooo many things. So different than Pais Vasco, yet still somewhat the same. That's part of the beauty of Spain; you can see so many different types of people, cuisine, land, tourism industries, and you're still in one country.

Ireland and Julia's Study Abroad Life

So, the next weekend, I set off for Dublin on Thursday afternoon, to visit Julia. Got in Thursday around 5 o’clock their time, and soon realized, wow I was not prepared for the cold in Ireland. When I reached the bottom of the terminal building towards the exit, it suddenly got quite cold. As I stepped outside, I felt that wonderful Irish wind, slicing through my skin. Thankfully I had brought my windproof jacket, so it only attacked my ears and hands. Took the bus successfully into the “City Centre” to meet Julia at the Millennium Tower, which we discovered was quite the popular meeting point. We went to dinner at an Irish place, where I had a thoroughly-Irish boxty with lamb and a thoroughly-Irish stout, Beamish, to accompany. Both were divine, I must add. From there, we went back to her apartment to meet her friends and get ready to go out.

Her suitemates were very nice to me, a fun group of girls, two of whom went out with us. After a snag with a group of her friends, the four of us finally got to a bar in the Temple Bar district of Dublin, a hot spot for nightlife. We spent a little while there and then got home around 2, when I promptly passed out from being very tired. One interesting thing, tho: we took a cab, all four of us, as it was worth it in the group and we would get back quicker. But, as we were getting out the cab, he informed us of the price, 15 euros. Okay, we’re fishing for money. No one really has any bills left, so we’re going through change. As I’m in the front seat, I helped deal with the money. And as we were fumbling around and I was handing him progressively more change, he just said nicely that he had enough. Here’s the weird part—he didn’t. I knew what I had given him, perhaps 12 euros or 13 at the most. What a nice gesture it was; I was struck by it.

Friday. I got up late, after Julia and her friend went to the gym in the morning. Woke up, made myself a good AMERICAN breakfast (geeze, I really can’t stand this Spanish excuse for a breakfast in the morning), and we headed out to begin the Dublin touring. Julia advised I get in the airport a three-day bus pass for the double-decker tour bus they have, which evidently is very popular and useful. Dublin has no subway system, so the whole city is based on these double-deckers monsters. The tour was actually quite handy, and my card allowed me to ride any city bus as well. So, we picked out some spots we wanted to go on the tour, and divided them up among days. The firs stop was the Dublin castle, which was rather disappointing, as far as castles go. But it DID have a cool church attached to it, this little guy with all kinds of ornate woodwork. It was a shame because I think we could’ve normally gone into the castle, but I believe they were filming a movie that day or something important was happening. After that, we hit up Christ Church Cathedral followed by Saint Patrick’s, both of which are cool churches. It’s almost funny, lately, how some of us have been talking about churches. Spain has some of the most amazing ones in the word, Christian churches at least from what I’ve seen and heard, so we’re all a little jaded now when entering an old church. BUT, I still liked the stain glass a lot, and the UK spin on churches with the woodwork and crests everywhere was also something to be seen. Under Christ Church there exists a system of catacombs, which were quite creepy. It was built over the top of a few churches before it, one of which was Charlemagne’s (I believe; someone correct me if I’m wrong). After those, we made our way to the Guinness Storehouse, which I must say was amazing. It takes you through the whole process of making Guinness, the whole history of the company and the beer, a tasting test, and then finally the best pint I’ve ever enjoyed in a huge tower with 360-degree windows overlooking the city. We returned to the center of the city, got some good fish and chips, and decided to head back to the apartment before going back out. Needless to say, I lay down on the bed to rest my eyes and woke up in the middle of the night with all my clothes on. Julia had gone to sleep too, and I guess I didn’t realize how tired I was. But damn was I happy to get some more good sleep.

Saturday. We got up rather early, as the night before had been an early one, so we headed into the city and made our first stop at the Jameson factory. It was the like the Guinness in that it went through the whole process of making Jameson, which was in fact very interesting, but the Guinness factory was newer and nicer. It’s a known fact that in the orientation period before the Jameson tour, the guides call for “volunteers,” which they openly told us were whiskey tasters at the end of the tour. My sister shot her hand up so fast for that, and they actually called on her. She tasted three Irish whiskeys, one Scotch Whiskey, and one American whiskey. Did a good job at it, too. From there, we hit up a bunch of museums, especially Irish culture ones. I really wanted to learn about the Irish people while I was there, foremost their fight for independence that succeeded earlier this century. I also viewed the natural history museum with some awesome artifacts from the Vikings and earliest inhabitants of the island, and then to the National Gallery with Irish artists. Julia and I also got to wander around, looking for good gifts for people.

That Saturday night, we ate at an Italian restaurant, at the request of Julia, and then hit up some traditional Irish pubs. We went to the oldest pub in Dublin, and later, to a great pub across the street that had live Irish music, as we were informed by a bus driver. Did it indeed. There were some Irish people really getting down, and the music was awesome. We went home, actually split a cab with two people were going the same direction, back to campus. It was funny, we had a nice little conversation with them. The guy was studying in Scotland and the girl in Italy (they were both visiting a friend in Dublin), and we just ran into them at the bus stop and decided to split a cab. I marveled at the fact that we could unite four Americans, all studying in different European countries, in one cab in Ireland perchance.

Next morning, got up, went to the airport, and got outta dodge. LONG ride home, as I had a long layover in London Stansted. That place was still ridiculous on security; no liquids of any kind, everyone got padded down thoroughly after passing through metal detectors. All that jazz. Finally got home late, as I also didn’t realize how the daylight savings’ time change affected the time. Oh well, a good trip to Dublin in the end.

Gernika and San Sebastian, again

Let me begin this post with an apology and a foreword. I am sorry I haven't posted anything recently on here, as I've had one of the busiest times of my life recently. As you've probably seen in the posts above, I've done a lot of traveling in the past 3 weeks, and my work piled up on me as well. Here you get the beginning of this period.

So there went our last CIDE excursion, as a group, to Gernika and the surrounding area. We set out later Friday morning than we were used to, at 9:30, for a short bus ride to Gernika (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gernika). For those of you who don’t know, I’m currently living in Basque Country, not only Spain. There’s really no way to describe it if you don’t know much about the Basques or their culture, but they’re essentially a different population with a completely different language (that stems from, the closest, Aquitainian, a currently dead ancient French language) that has no ties to Romance languages at all. Anyway, during the Spanish Civil War in the 30s, a town called Gernika was bombed by German fighters, allies of soon-to-be dictator General Franco. This town has a special significance to the Basque people, as it is the historical capital of the whole region, and the attack was a brutal air-raid bombing at mid-day in 1937 to demoralize the population and kill as many people as possible. Picasso’s famous work, Gernika, is his interpretation of that day’s events. The link is helpful for description of the town.

So, we went to see the government buildings in the city along with the Peace Museum, dedicated to international peace, not only education about that horrible day in 1937. It was a very interesting museum, as I’ve never seen anything like it, but I was a little too tired to really soak in everything I could’ve.

We went to lunch, this time having a good meal for once on the Program. However, dessert was an interesting story. I didn’t really want pastries, I just wanted to try someone’s flan, so I got the fruit option, which was supposed to be mixed fruit. What arrived in front of me was straight out of the Spanish version of a Sysco can of canned fruit, with a dollop of whipped cream. I was shocked that a nice restaurant would serve a dessert like this among good cakes and pastries. However, my friend had said before that he didn’t want a dessert, but when the waitress was leaving I informed her that he had indeed changed his mind and wanted flan. So, I got my flan after all.

The rest of the trip was supposed to consist of an amazing church on this rock cliff extending into the sea. We got there, and our leaders then informed us that we could not walk down to the church. What!? Oh, evidently it was going to rain, even tho the skies to the west were all sun. They told us that not everyone was prepared for the rain—like that mattered to me, just let half the group go and then the other half go to the beach down the road that they said was our next stop. And, as soon as we got there, the sun came out and it got really hot outside. I was enraged, to say the least. I’m still trying to get to this church, because earlier in the semester I discovered it in a magazine and was delighted to find out that I could go with the Program. Anyway, we headed home after that, and soon after arriving home, I passed out from exhaustion.

Saturday. For our Basque Civilization class, we formed groups and were assigned cities locally in Basque Country on which to make a presentation. Sadly, as all of us had already visited it, we were assigned San Sebastian. So, we chose that Saturday to visit it. I have to admit, it was a good trip with an opportunity to have a more focused visit of the city than I had before, as we had missed things the first time. My friend, Kara’s roommate, who’s from the area, gave her ideas of places to eat and where to go. We had some AMAZING pintxos (tapas) and bocadillos (sub-like creations). For that I was very glad, indeed. The beach was nice to stroll on again, and it was a rather relaxing trip.